Josuke and Giorno both had chance encounters with kind strangers who helped them out at a very low point in their childhood. A young man with a pompadour haircut pushed Josuke’s mother’s car through a blizzard when Josuke was on the verge of death from stand sickness and an anonymous mobster watched over Giorno to make sure no one would hurt him ever again.

Who were these men? What happened to them later on? Even though they likely had no association with stands or anything in the main storyline, it would’ve been nice to get some sort of information and closure on them.

Mikitaka, the self-proclaimed “alien” from part 4, never confirms whether he’s actually an alien or is just a stand user. His “stand” is named Earth, Wind, and Fire, but it never gets mentioned after his introduction. 7 years later, the part 6 chapter “Fight Club” introduces Viviano Westwood, whose stand is also named... Earth, Wind, and Fire. Oops.

The tankoban release renamed Westwood’s stand to Planet Waves (after a Bob Dylan album), but the incident was still pretty embarrassing. We can understand, though, since Mikitaka’s “stand” was only named once and may not even be a stand in the first place.

Giorno Giovanna knows that his father is Dio Brando but never got to meet him and barely knows anything about him. His half-brothers Ungalo, Rikiel, and Versace (who appear as villains in part 6) are even more in the dark and have suffered for their entire lives due to absent parents and uncontrollable stands without ever knowing why.

So why don’t any of them do some digging on Dio? Even though he’s long dead by the time of parts 5 and 6, they could still learn about him from Jotaro, Polnareff, or any of Dio’s former minions who are still alive. It’s a flood of character development and angst waiting to happen, but it just never did.

Besides Joseph and Jotaro, most characters only appear inside their own parts. This makes sense for Phantom Blood through Stardust Crusaders, since each new story jumps forward 50 years, but the lack of crossover characters starts to stand out later on.

The time gap between Diamond is Unbreakable and Stone Ocean is only 12 years. Josuke absolutely could’ve been called in to help Jolyne, and Giorno probably could’ve bailed her out with his mafia connections. Looking even further back, Joseph could’ve taught everyone on the Stardust Crusaders team Hamon to give them an edge against Dio. It would’ve been harder to write, but if Star Platinum: The World (canonically the most powerful stand in the series) could be in parts 4 and 6, Araki could’ve made it work.

Forgetting stand powers is probably the most common lapse that Araki makes, but with the sheer number and complexity of stands in the JoJo universe, it’s hard to blame him. Still, abilities like Hierophant Green’s possession, Gold Experience’s damage reflection and life-giving punches, and Diver Down’s kinetic energy storage would’ve been super useful in later fights if they hadn’t been forgotten immediately after they were introduced. The best advice we have for fans is to just not think about it too hard.