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Hello all. I want to bring attention to something that has been catching my eye for a while now: Alternate Universe Diego Brando's (whom I will refer to as DIEGO to shorten it) THE WORLD and its original scaling to Part 3 DIO's The World. I know this has been discussed many times, and I even have a screenshot here from a moderator who has said something I originally once believed. However, my own research is now pointing to the idea that perhaps this hasn't been the case, and we have been looking at it the opposite way. I now fully believe that, despite similar namesakes and appearances, they are in essence different enough Stands to not warrant scaling, and that this was intended by the author. I want to address this from a few points both in and out of the series; with words from Hirohiko Araki himself.
Also, I will be using Viz scans for SDC because they're cleaner, much higher quality, and actually official. I apologize if this overlaps with any JoJo's Colored Adventure scanlation that is in a majority of the external links currently on the website. I am hoping to revise those and update them as well in the future. SBR scans will most likely be Ignition-One, of which JJCA based their translation off of when converting it (and other Parts except for 5) to the digital colored Shueisha releases. I simply just prefer the original black-and-white look.
To begin, let us discuss that the original The World's power comes from its initial superior strength over Star Platinum. There is no Star Platinum in the Steel Ball Run universe to match and compare with THE WORLD to verify that its scaling is consistent. THE WORLD had never used its physical prowess in the short time DIEGO was in the story. The only time we had seen it do any damage was to itself. So if we cannot find a direct correlation, how do we determine a difference? It is simple. The main difference between both of the Stands is that its Time Stop, despite being the same amount of time, is universally a different take on one another. Yes, they both stop time for five seconds; but remember DIO's was never that from the start. He had to train it from less than a second to the five seconds he had in his final battle, a process that took six months prior to the battle against Jotaro. DIEGO's THE WORLD could have only been obtained in a parallel universe (in the new, alternate universe might I add) in which he awakened this Stand using the Devil's Palm in a universe where he never inherited Scary Monsters. This is consistent with the in-universe laws of Stands (#9). By the time the Scary Monsters arc begins, the Steel Ball Run race was 18 days, 8 hours into its 116 days, 6-hour run. This data was taken from the wiki, but there are actual manga pages explaining runtimes at the beginning and end of the Stages. This means that DIEGO would only have had up to 98 days to inherit THE WORLD, which gives him half of the time DIO did to actually train his Stand.
I would like to add that the possibility of him getting this Stand prior to Scary Monsters in a parallel universe is impossible. He would have had to awaken this Stand in the Devil's Palm in the Rocky Mountains, the same in which he obtained the Scary Monsters virus from Dr. Ferdinand (and stole the ability by using a corpse part), or else it would violate Rule #9 linked in the previous paragraph. It is also impossible to argue that since DIEGO did not come from the 'Root Universe' in which the Corpse Parts resided, in which the Devil's Palm was created to guard said pieces, he could not have awakened his Stand in one. I originally hypothesized that since there are no Corpse Parts, but riches, in the parallel worlds D4C travels to, then there would be no Devil's Palm to obtain said Corpse Parts. However, we see that in Valentine's chase from the Infinite Rotation, twice we see Johnny has Tusk (Once here, and another here. Although you do not see Tusk itself on the second page, you know it's active when Johnny's hands are lined with stars.), which he only obtained once he was in the Devil's Palm of Arizona Desert during the Devil's Palm arc. We could theorycraft more but there is no other earlier possible place where this parallel universe DIEGO could have obtained his Stand. It must have been, at the earliest, in the Rocky Mountains.
Furthermore, both DIEGO and the description at the end of SBR 92 implies that this variant is capped at five seconds. This means that once awakened, THE WORLD must have already had the ability to stop time for five seconds and did not need any training. If this is the case, they cannot be the same Stand, and they cannot be scaled just by being labeled as the exact same, nor would it be true to scale it because it "should be comparable", when there is already a steep difference in the way they are written.
JoJoveller is the most current, up-to-date guide on the series and Stands. However, it lacks a page on Part 7's THE WORLD. Furthermore, it has no mention on the page where the original The World is. To this guide, it is like it never existed. However, with my previous paragraph, using that as a way to establish a connection cannot be true if you are attempting to interpret it as the exact same Stand, and as such, the exact same physical feats and prowess cannot be linked over just because it doesn't have a page or that it looks similar enough alone.
It is also established by Araki that the original six Parts and what had been written from Part 7 onward is not meant to be affiliated. This is taken straight from his notes in the first volume, and he has another in his second asking to not take any overlapping characters as the same as from previous arcs. The only thing that could truly argue against it would be to say that Araki only mentioned protagonists, not antagonists, or that he did not mention Stands. If you wish to argue semantics, it is plausible, but this was written before Diego was ever granted a Stand three volumes later. I believe that Araki is asking that we not take anything from Parts 7 & 8 and directly compare it to his previous works, but to accept them as new ideas and new entities altogether, which would in itself dissolve scaling.
In short, being from alternate universes and not parallel worlds (such as the two Diegos), not having enough substantial evidence of being physically comparable, and having been written with different time stops intentionally, I believe there is a strong argument where these two variants of The World cannot scale to each other. This is important, as this would have the scaling of Steel Ball Run entirely redone.
Also, I will be using Viz scans for SDC because they're cleaner, much higher quality, and actually official. I apologize if this overlaps with any JoJo's Colored Adventure scanlation that is in a majority of the external links currently on the website. I am hoping to revise those and update them as well in the future. SBR scans will most likely be Ignition-One, of which JJCA based their translation off of when converting it (and other Parts except for 5) to the digital colored Shueisha releases. I simply just prefer the original black-and-white look.
To begin, let us discuss that the original The World's power comes from its initial superior strength over Star Platinum. There is no Star Platinum in the Steel Ball Run universe to match and compare with THE WORLD to verify that its scaling is consistent. THE WORLD had never used its physical prowess in the short time DIEGO was in the story. The only time we had seen it do any damage was to itself. So if we cannot find a direct correlation, how do we determine a difference? It is simple. The main difference between both of the Stands is that its Time Stop, despite being the same amount of time, is universally a different take on one another. Yes, they both stop time for five seconds; but remember DIO's was never that from the start. He had to train it from less than a second to the five seconds he had in his final battle, a process that took six months prior to the battle against Jotaro. DIEGO's THE WORLD could have only been obtained in a parallel universe (in the new, alternate universe might I add) in which he awakened this Stand using the Devil's Palm in a universe where he never inherited Scary Monsters. This is consistent with the in-universe laws of Stands (#9). By the time the Scary Monsters arc begins, the Steel Ball Run race was 18 days, 8 hours into its 116 days, 6-hour run. This data was taken from the wiki, but there are actual manga pages explaining runtimes at the beginning and end of the Stages. This means that DIEGO would only have had up to 98 days to inherit THE WORLD, which gives him half of the time DIO did to actually train his Stand.
I would like to add that the possibility of him getting this Stand prior to Scary Monsters in a parallel universe is impossible. He would have had to awaken this Stand in the Devil's Palm in the Rocky Mountains, the same in which he obtained the Scary Monsters virus from Dr. Ferdinand (and stole the ability by using a corpse part), or else it would violate Rule #9 linked in the previous paragraph. It is also impossible to argue that since DIEGO did not come from the 'Root Universe' in which the Corpse Parts resided, in which the Devil's Palm was created to guard said pieces, he could not have awakened his Stand in one. I originally hypothesized that since there are no Corpse Parts, but riches, in the parallel worlds D4C travels to, then there would be no Devil's Palm to obtain said Corpse Parts. However, we see that in Valentine's chase from the Infinite Rotation, twice we see Johnny has Tusk (Once here, and another here. Although you do not see Tusk itself on the second page, you know it's active when Johnny's hands are lined with stars.), which he only obtained once he was in the Devil's Palm of Arizona Desert during the Devil's Palm arc. We could theorycraft more but there is no other earlier possible place where this parallel universe DIEGO could have obtained his Stand. It must have been, at the earliest, in the Rocky Mountains.
Furthermore, both DIEGO and the description at the end of SBR 92 implies that this variant is capped at five seconds. This means that once awakened, THE WORLD must have already had the ability to stop time for five seconds and did not need any training. If this is the case, they cannot be the same Stand, and they cannot be scaled just by being labeled as the exact same, nor would it be true to scale it because it "should be comparable", when there is already a steep difference in the way they are written.
JoJoveller is the most current, up-to-date guide on the series and Stands. However, it lacks a page on Part 7's THE WORLD. Furthermore, it has no mention on the page where the original The World is. To this guide, it is like it never existed. However, with my previous paragraph, using that as a way to establish a connection cannot be true if you are attempting to interpret it as the exact same Stand, and as such, the exact same physical feats and prowess cannot be linked over just because it doesn't have a page or that it looks similar enough alone.
It is also established by Araki that the original six Parts and what had been written from Part 7 onward is not meant to be affiliated. This is taken straight from his notes in the first volume, and he has another in his second asking to not take any overlapping characters as the same as from previous arcs. The only thing that could truly argue against it would be to say that Araki only mentioned protagonists, not antagonists, or that he did not mention Stands. If you wish to argue semantics, it is plausible, but this was written before Diego was ever granted a Stand three volumes later. I believe that Araki is asking that we not take anything from Parts 7 & 8 and directly compare it to his previous works, but to accept them as new ideas and new entities altogether, which would in itself dissolve scaling.
In short, being from alternate universes and not parallel worlds (such as the two Diegos), not having enough substantial evidence of being physically comparable, and having been written with different time stops intentionally, I believe there is a strong argument where these two variants of The World cannot scale to each other. This is important, as this would have the scaling of Steel Ball Run entirely redone.
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