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| “ | Unfortunately, I'll let you die. | „ |
| ~ Midler |
| “ | Jotaro, you're my kind of guy... I regret that I have to destroy you... | „ |
| ~ Midler |
Midler, also known as Rose in English dubs, is a minor antagonist in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders. She wields the Stand known as High Priestess.
In Japanese, she was voiced by Miki Nagasawa in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Heritage for the Future and Aya Hisakawa in the anime. In English, she was voiced by Karen Strassman (who also voiced Cyan Sung-Sun in Bleach, Sola-Ui Nuada-Re Sophia-Ri in Fate/Zero, ARIA in Killer Instinct, Mileena and Revenant Kitana in Mortal Kombat (2011) and Mortal Kombat X, Rouge the Bat in the Sonic the Hedgehog series, Heinkel Wolfe in Hellsing Ultimate, Poison in Street Fighter IV and Alexia Ashford in Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles) in the anime.
Biography
Midler was hired by DIO to assassinate the Stardust Crusaders before they could reach Egypt. She used her Stand, High Priestess, to attack the group while they were crossing the Red Sea in a private submarine. As the submarine reaches closer to the coast, High Priestess invades by opening a hole in the hull and takes the form of a coffee cup. Once Joseph picked up the cup, High Priestess transformed and attacked, slicing his prosthetic hand into pieces and throwing the fingers into his neck to knock him unconscious. High Priestess then fused with the control panel to hide, as the small hole it cut before widened and sea water began pouring in.
Jotaro attempted to smash the hiding Stand with Star Platinum, only for the group to realize it had already moved as the warning light transformed and attacked from behind, slashing Kakyoin. The group went for the emergency escape next, only to find that High Priestess had transformed into the handle of the door and it attack Avdol. Jotaro caught it with Star Platinum, but before he could crush the Stand it transformed into a razor blade, slicing his hands and then disappeared again.
The group got to the airlock to escape, getting into SCUBA gear to swim the rest of the way to shore, however before they could escape, Polnareff was attacked by High Priestess, which had already entered the room and transformed into the regulator valve of his air tank. Joseph and Kakyoin managed to grab it with their Stands before it could go down Polnareff's throat, but before they could attack it transformed again, this time into a harpoon gun, and attacked. The group fought it off and fled the submarine, with Polnareff using a second regulator from Avdol's tank.
As the group swam toward shore, careful to avoid any rocks or coral, they came across a strange looking rock formation on the sea floor. The rocks opened up, revealing that they were a mouth. High Priestess had fused with the sea floor itself, becoming a giant and drawing them into its mouth.
Midler spoke to the Crusaders through her Stand, revealing that she actually had a crush on Jotaro and regretted that she would have to kill him. At Polnareff's insistence, Jotaro tried to use this as a bargaining chip to convince Midler to let them all go. High Priestess began blushing and it seemed the ploy might have worked, but when the rest of the group joined in Midler realized they were lying and attacked immediately, using the Stand's tongue to throw Jotaro in between its teeth. The rest of the group tried to save him, but the tongue kept them away as it closed its jaw, seemingly crushing Jotaro.
Just as the others were beginning to lose hope, however, Jotaro's "ora ora" echoed through the Stand's mouth. Jotaro had survived by having Star Platinum burrow into the teeth and he punched them apart from inside, smashing a way out for the group. As High Priestess disappeared, leaving a crater in the sea floor where it had been, they went the rest of the way to the surface.
On the surface they found a woman passed out on the beach, who they realized must be Midler. Polnareff went to "see if she's hot" but quickly reacted with disgust, saying that her teeth were all busted out and she wasn't worth looking at. The group left her unconscious on the beach.
Powers and Abilities
| “ | High Priestess will chew you to bits! | „ |
| ~ Midler |
Midler's Stand, the High Priestess, appears as a small head with clawed hands coming off from it. As a long range stand, High Priestess lacks in strength, speed, and defense, but these hardly hinder it. Though its blows lack much raw force, its claws and teeth are as sharp as razors and as hard as diamonds, and can cut through nearly any material with little effort. As well, while High Priestess is not as fast as Stands like Star Platinum, it is still fast and agile enough to dodge most attacks. Above all, High Priestess is incredibly adept at stealth, especially when using its special ability.
High Priestess's ability is to transform into any mineral matter - plastics, metal, glass, or vinyl - including complex mechanisms like harpoon guns or the mouthpiece of an air tank. It can also fuse with existing matter, replacing the handle of a door for instance. High Priestess's usual strategy is to take the form of some unassuming object and wait for a victim to come within striking range before attacking.
High Priestess also possesses potential for growth, depending on the quantity of mineral matter that it fuses with. When High Priestess fused with the sea floor, it became a giant large enough to draw all of the Stardust Crusaders into its mouth at once and still have room for them to move around inside, and its bite strength was enough to even overpower Star Platinum. However, this was only possible because Midler herself was close by, being just seven meters away on the shore. The larger and stronger Midler wants her Stand to become, the less range it has as a result.
Gallery
Trivia
- Midler is named after the American actress and singer, Bette Midler.
- Her localized name, Rose, is a tribute to the Amanda McBroom song, The Rose, which was popularized by Bette Midler's cover.
- Her stand is named after the 2nd Tarot card of the major arcana, The High Priestess, which symbolizes intuition and arcane knowledge.
- In her original appearance, Midler only appears in two panels of the manga as a regular woman, and her face is never shown. When Capcom was working on JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Heritage for the Future, they commissioned the author Hirohiko Araki to create a design for Midler to be used in the game. Araki then recreated the character, tracing it over the design of Yukako Yamagishi and giving her a belly dancer attire.
- Midler's likeness to Yukako in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Heritage for the Future was likely due to the fact that Araki had recently been working on JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable at the time and was accustomed to that art style when asked to redesign Midler.
- However, while her JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Heritage for the Future design is now her canon appearance, Midler reverts back to her original manga appearance in the anime adaptation JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders, assumingly due to copyright-related issues.
- It is stated that High Priestess can turn into anything that comes from a mineral, including glass, metal, plastic, and vinyl. In real life, only the first two of these things are minerals. Plastic and vinyl both come from oil, which is organic matter and not a mineral.
