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| “ | I'm the type whose power only shows when I'm paired with someone else. Being #2 is better than #1! That's Hol Horse's philosophy of life! | „ |
| ~ Hol Horse |
Hol Horse is a major antagonist in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Part III: Stardust Crusaders and one of the two main protagonists (alongside Josuke Higashikata) of the spin-off manga JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Crazy Diamond's Demonic Heartbreak.
A cowardly but somewhat noble assassin, he once worked for DIO to assassinate the Stardust Crusaders and has been one of the few notable villains to survive against them. He wields the Stand known as Emperor, a gun with powerful abilities.
Portrayals
In Japanese, he was voiced by Norio Wakamoto in the OVA, Kei'ichi Nanba in the Drama CD, Yasuhara Yoshito in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Heritage for the Future, Hōchū Ōtsuka in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: All Star Battle, and Hidenobu Kiuchi in the anime and all subsquient appearances.
In the English dubs, he was voiced by Roger L. Jackson (best known for voicing Ghostface in Scream and Mojo Jojo in The Powerpuff Girls) in the OVA and Imari Williams (who also voiced Augus in Asura's Wrath, Nosferatu Zodd in Berserk (2016), the Rhino Boss in Zootopia+, Tremor in Mortal Kombat Legends: Snow Blind and Valter in Fire Emblem Heroes) in the anime.
Personality
For the most part, Hol Horse maintains a calm, composed, and affectionate attitude, though that is just a facade, as Hol Horse is a dirty coward who only fights when he's sure he will win. If he doesn't have a partner to back him up or is outnumbered, he will run away at the first opportunity and avoid confrontation.
Hol Horse is also perfectly content being the right-hand man and dislikes hurting women. He is also shown to be quite affable as well, as best seen where he apologizes to Boingo for kidnapping him and doesn't even get mad when the boy vomits on him. He even gave Boingo a wallet full of money to return home should they fail in defeating the Stardust Crusaders.
As of his appearance in Jojo's Bizzare Adventure: Crazy Diamond's Demonic Heartbreak, Hol Horse has developed a superstitious obsession with making sure his watch is always accurate, as a result of his being shot in the face because his watch was fast. Though he shows signs of severe post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of both his injuries and being dominated by DIO, he also shows a much more courageous side of himself as well, drawing strength from having witnessed Noriaki Kakyoin's heroic sacrifice to defeat DIO.
Biography
The Emperor and Hanged Man
Hol Horse is first seen riding an elephant through the desert into some ruins, where he meets his girlfriend, Nena. He speaks affectionately to the woman, telling her that she's the only woman he loves but that they can't be together because she's an heiress while he's just a wandering scoundrel. After she leaves, he meets up with his partner, J. Geil. Sensing that Geil disapproves, he explains that lying to women is just what he does. The two then go after the Stardust Crusaders.
In Kolkata, J. Geil lures Jean Pierre Polnareff away from the other heroes with the promise of revenge against his sister's murderer and Geil and Hol Horse confront Polnareff. Hol Horse tells Polnareff that "the gun is mightier than the sword" and the two get into a standoff. Hol Horse fires and Polnareff prepares to deflect the bullet with Silver Chariot, but the bullet suddenly swerves around Chariot's sword. Polnareff would have been killed, had Avdol not shown up and pushed Polnareff out of the way. However, as Avdol begins scolding Polnareff, J. Geil's stand, Hanged Man, appears and stabs Avdol in the back, right before Hol Horse's bullet curves around and hits Avdol in the forehead, seemingly killing him.
At that moment, Noriaki Kakyoin arrives and flees with Polnareff in a stolen truck. Though Hol Horse is willing to wait until later, J. Geil gives chase and after a tough battle is killed by Polnareff.
Later, Polnareff and Kakyoin arrive back in the city and Hol Horse confronts them again. Hol Horse calls for J. Geil to finish the two off, but no one answers. Polnareff tells Hol Horse if he's looking for Geil, he'll find his corpse a few kilometers away. Hol Horse says he's going to check on that and runs away, but runs into Jotaro Kujo and Joseph Joestar. Polnareff announces his intention to execute Hol Horse for killing Avdol, but Nena appears and distracts the heroes so that Hol Horse can escape on horseback.
Justice
Hol Horse appears again when the Stardust Crusaders are traveling through Pakistan, arriving at the nameless town which is controlled by J. Geil's mother, Enya Geil. Hol Horse lies, saying that he and Enya's son were best friends instead of just allies. Enya tells him that this is exactly what she wanted to hear, and she attacks him with a pair of scissors saying that she holds him responsible for failing to save her son's life. Hol Horse summons Emperor to defend himself, but Enya shows her stand's power to control other people by flowing into their body through their injuries, and forces him to shoot himself in the mouth. Fortunately for Hol Horse, he manages to release his stand just before the bullet can hit, saving his life.
Later, Polnareff arrives and Enya attacks him too, for killing her son who she thinks was a sweet and innocent boy. Hol Horse warns Polnareff and asks for Polnareff to work together against Enya, but Polnareff reminds Hol Horse that he killed Avdol and refuses. Hol Horse is left alone for the rest of the story arc.
After Enya is defeated, Hol Horse appears again, just long enough to steal the Crusaders' vehicle and flee with it.
Hol Horse and Boingo
After losing twice, Hol Horse decides he's done dealing with DIO and goes to assassinate him., however DIO stops time to appear behind him. DIO applauds Hol Horse's audacity and tells him to go one more time to kill the Stardust Crusaders. Realizing he stands no chance, Hol Horse surrenders and does as the vampire demands.
To help him, Hol Horse kidnaps Boingo, whose stand Thoth can predict the future, and takes him to Aswan, Egypt. Hol Horse is originally put off by Thoth's predictions and doubts its abilities, but is convinced when he kicks a woman at Thoth's insistence, realizing afterward that doing so saved her from a scorpion and she rewards him with a gemstone.
Hol Horse and Boingo receive Thoth's first prediction: that if Hol Horse shoves his fingers into Polnareff's nose, this will somehow lead to victory. Hol Horse shows hesitation, calling this gross and not seeing how it will help. Polnareff hears him talking and surprises him, but before Polnareff can attack, Hol Horse shoves his fingers up Polnareff's nose, distracting him long enough for Hol Horse to summon Emperor. Hol Horse holds Polnareff at gunpoint and forces him to lie and tell the other Stardust Crusaders that nothing is wrong and they should leave. Polnareff tips the Crusaders off, so Hol Horse shoots, but his irritated nose causes Polnareff to sneeze at just the right moment to dodge the bullet and send Hol Horse stumbling into view. He would have been beaten and captured, except that just then a duo of thugs that Hol Horse had antagonized earlier show up and try to run him over, causing a distraction that allows him to escape.
Boingo and Hol Horse regroup, and Thoth gives another prediction: that if Hol Horse shoots his bullets into a specific pipe at exactly noon, the bullets will travel through the pipe, hit Jotaro in the head, and kill him. Hol Horse pays off a group of construction workers to get them away from the pipe, then checks his watch and seeing that it's noon he fires into the pipe. However, rather than being shot, Jotaro gets sneezed on by Polnareff and moves out of the way.
Confused, Hol Horse goes to the front of the pipe to see what's happening. He takes Thoth's comic book away from Boingo and reads it again. As he does, he hears a nearby radio announce the 12 o'clock news and realizes his watch was a few minutes fast. Just then, the bullets he had fired come out of the pipe, shoot through Thoth, and hit Hol Horse in the face.
Hol Horse is taken to the hospital in critical condition. The paramedics comment that Hol Horse was shot in the forehead but the bullet only grazed along his skull before exiting out the top of his head, giving him a concussion but not actually hitting his brain. Incidentally, this was the exact same injury that he had given to Avdol back in Kolkata.
Crazy Diamond's Demonic Heartbreak
Hol Horse acts as a hero in the non-canon novel, teaming up with Josuke Higashikata and Boingo to rescue the parrot Petsounds, a former minion of DIO who was taken and used to cause chaos in Morioh.
Powers and Abilities
| “ | The gun is mightier than the sword! Such a brilliant quote! | „ |
| ~ Hol Horse |
Hol Horse's Stand, Emperor, takes the form of a gun. Since the gun's bullets are also part of the stand, it can fire an infinite number of times without needing to reload and can control the trajectory of its bullets in mid-air to swerve around obstacles or curve around to hit an enemy from behind.
For all its power, however, Emperor also has many drawbacks. It has less range than a real pistol, and it can't do anything except shoot so it lacks versatility and defensive potential. Because of this, Hol Horse prefers to team up with others. He originally teamed up with J. Geil until the latter's death, and later teamed up with Boingo.
Quotes
| “ | Listen, I'm a nomad. I live life day by day, and eventually I'm destined to die alone. An heiress to nobility like you shouldn't even think about marrying a guy like me. No matter how much we love each other. | „ |
| ~ Hol Horse to Nena. |
| “ | "The gun's mightier than the sword!" Mmm, mmm, mmm. I love that line.
|
„ |
| ~ Hol Horse taunting Polnareff. |
| “ | No one talks to me that way! I don't have to follow orders from someone who's probably not even as tough as me! I may have said yes, but I never vowed loyalty from the bottom of my heart! I won't sell my soul to you! | „ |
| ~ Hol Horse trying to assassinate Dio. |
| “ | Listen, Boingo. I'm a gentleman. I got ladies all over the world. I may tell 'em a little white lie now and then, but I'd never hit 'em! That's because I respect all ladies... The good-looking ones, the uglies, all of 'em!! | „ |
| ~ Hol Horse's refusal to beat a woman even if it's beneficial to him. |
| “ | Quiet! All I wanna know is what's gonna happen next! | „ |
| ~ Hol Horse's last known words before being hit by his own bullets. |
Trivia
- Hol Horse's name is a tribute to the pop-rock duo Hall & Oates.
- Meanwhile, his Stand was named after 4th tarot card of the major arcana, The Emperor, which symbolizes order and control.
- Fittingly, his girlfriend, Nena, has a Stand called "Empress", named after the eponymous tarot card.
- Hol Horse was originally intended to redeem himself and join the Stardust Crusaders, but it was scrapped due to Hol Horse being too similar to Polnareff and Araki not wanting to remove his "outlaw gunman" archetype-based character so soon. A good opportunity to work Hol Horse over to the heroes' side never arrived, and so he ended the series as a villain.
- Araki designed Emperor to look like a mix between an automatic pistol and a revolver.
- Hol Horse is based off of Cobra, the main protagonist of the manga and anime of the same name. Cobra is a gunslinger who both smokes and can fire at objects without needing a line-of-sight, traits Hol Horse shares.
- Hol Horse's quote "The gun is mightier than the sword!", is a parody of "The pen is mightier than the sword." a well-known saying originally said by Edward Bulwer-Lytton.
- Hol Horse's personality of going unnoticed and using the environment and people to his advantage inspired Araki to give these traits to Yoshikage Kira.
