![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.surrealresolution.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Emperor-Crimson-vs.-Metallic-Scissors-In-Doppios-Throat.png?resize=747%2C419&ssl=1\")
<\/p>\nNo Lars Ulrichs were harmed in the making of this episode.<\/p>\n
Picking up from last time, the boss explains to Doppio that he has a portion of King Crimson\u2019s immense power. The ability, named Epitaph, allows Doppio to predict events and movements several seconds into the future. Using Epitaph, he can see Risotto camouflaging himself amidst the rocky terrain along with an incoming attack where a pair of scissors will emerge from his throat. Unfortunately, the boss informs him that the futures seen by Epitaph are unchangeable, so Doppio is forced into attacking Risotto. However, he dodges out of the way and summons the scissors as predicted, forcing Doppio to pull them out by hand before things get worse.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Doppio\u2019s being pushed further and further, trying to go in for another attack against Risotto before he foresees something unclear to us. The boss orders him to run, but he insists on getting near Risotto no matter what, revealing that he had a vision of his foot being severed by scissors. As a change of tactics, Doppio decides to stand completely still and make Risotto come to him, realizing that he\u2019s trying to wear down his stamina to prevent the boss from emerging. He confirms to himself that Risotto\u2019s Stand ability, Metallica, allows him to generate metallic objects from the iron in one\u2019s blood, and Doppio is able to use his precognition to sever the enemy\u2019s foot with the scissors. He receives another \u201ccall\u201d from the boss through a cigarette this time as Risotto\u2019s Stand manifests more fully: his severed foot is brought to him and restored by miniature ghost-like beings made of metal.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.surrealresolution.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Emperor-Crimson-vs.-Metallic-Metallica.png?resize=747%2C421&ssl=1\")
<\/p>\n
Doppio is able to piece together that Metallica\u2019s abilities are not only reliant on magnetism, but that he uses iron powder to camouflage himself. Epitaph\u2019s power helps him foresee an incoming barrage of medical scalpels, and as King Crimson comes out to try and defend himself, he\u2019s not fast enough as some of them pierce his leg. Risotto\u2019s taunting doesn\u2019t help the situation, especially since drawing all this iron out of Doppio is slowly suffocating him over the course of the fight. To complicate matters further, Doppio catches sight of Bucciarati, Narancia, and Abbacchio stalking out the general area, and he receives another vision of a giant hole exploding in his head. He uses one of the scalpels left behind to trace Risotto\u2019s path and throw it in that direction, but the enemy sneaks up behind him and causes a razor blade to burst from his head. Risotto pieces together that Doppio is just an alternate personality for the boss himself, and as he goes in for the kill, he is suddenly attacked by\u2026 Aerosmith! As it turns out, his strategy to exhaust Doppio had the negative effect of removing him from its radar, and the flung scalpel from earlier naturally drew attention to their location. Risotto then collapses on the ground, bleeding out from the bullet wounds.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.surrealresolution.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Emperor-Crimson-vs.-Metallic-Doppios-Head-Explodes.png?resize=747%2C421&ssl=1\")
<\/p>\n
What\u2019s immediately striking about this battle is the character dynamic at play. Something that\u2019s been emphasized greatly throughout the story is the complex hierarchy of Passione as an organization, up to and including the defectors within the Hitman Team betraying their leader for their own ends. Every Stand battle we\u2019ve seen up to this point has exclusively involved our heroes fighting against various other members of the organization, so the dynamics within the fight in terms of hierarchy has remained rather consistent. This is the first battle we\u2019ve gotten that removes the primary focus from our heroes in an effort to broaden the perspectives and sense of conflict within the organization. It\u2019s a hugely important moment given how the Hitman Team\u2019s pursuit of the boss\u2019s identity runs parallel to our heroes\u2019 own traitorous pursuits, and now the assassins have been reduced to just Risotto. When witnessing the flashback scenes of the formerly living members hunting around for any trace of the boss\u2019s presence, we really get a sense of just how personal this has now become for him, and that fuels his tenacity during the battle.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.surrealresolution.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Emperor-Crimson-vs.-Metallic-Doppio-Coughing-Blood.png?resize=747%2C419&ssl=1\")
<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a constant fluctuation to the back-and-forth rhythm of the battle, seeing as it basically boils down to a 2-on-1 battle of Doppio and the boss vs. Risotto, with the boss\u2019s capabilities inhibited by the Doppio persona. There\u2019s an extremely strong sense of tension the battle because of the running question at the center of it all: how can the boss take out Risotto without revealing his true face? He needs to get within two meters of him for King Crimson to deliver the killing blow, but the Doppio disguise must be maintained at all costs, and while Epitaph does grant the advantage of precognition, said visions are inevitable in their consequences. Conversely Risotto\u2019s Stand, Metallica, has an immediately useful set of offensive capabilities which are particularly lethal. Perhaps the best illustration of this is in my favorite shot of the episode after Doppio is attacked by the flurry of scalpels, and he is left coughing up blood in a particularly nasty display. Blood stains pool up on his body and even on the screen as well, with the vision blurring as if he\u2019s coughing blood directly onto a camera filming the scene.<\/p>\n
The addition of our heroes in the background makes for a nice added wrinkle to the situation as they technically have the same general target as Risotto but motivated by wildly different reasoning. The amount of elements being juggled in the battle is staggering, from Aerosmith to Metallica to King Crimson, and the remarkable tightness of how these elements intersect with each other demonstrates how tight of a grasp the writing has on the franchise\u2019s signature bizarre mechanics. Next time, we\u2019ll see the fallout of this fight and what exactly our heroes will come across now that they\u2019re so close to the boss\u2019s vicinity.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.surrealresolution.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Emperor-Crimson-vs.-Metallic-To-Be-Continued.png?resize=747%2C421&ssl=1\")
<\/p>\n