25 Days of Jojo’s - #14: Lucy Steel

(Fair warning: there will be spoilers abound in this series of posts, as I find there are major moments that define some of these characters late in their respective story arcs. So in the event that you have not yet read/watched a particular part of the Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure storyline, you may wish to skip over certain entries.)

#14 - Lucy Steel: Introduced at a relatively early juncture in Steel Ball Run, Lucy Steel’s story is one that requires quite a great deal of buildup to come to fruition. The teenage wife of Stephen Steel, the man responsible for organizing the horse race across the United States, Lucy Steel rarely leaves her husband’s side. And while it might seem at first that she is being portrayed as something of a helpless damsel, she has good reason for being so attached to her husband – he is, in a way, her savior, though he certainly does not display such an ego for his actions.

Prior to her marriage to Stephen, Lucy’s fate was all but sealed as becoming a prostitute for mafia members that her father owed money to. After receiving motivation from Lucy to capitalize on his dream of running a horse race that would ultimately become the Steel Ball Run, Stephen decided to intervene, convincing the mafia members that he had previously had physical relations with Lucy – something that, though untrue, resulted in her not being used as payment to them. Lucy grew fond of Stephen, and though he insisted that she would be better off finding someone her own age, eventually gave in and agreed to marry her.

Lucy stands behind her husband as a source of support and positivity throughout the early legs of the Steel Ball Run. But when she learns of the search for the corpse parts and the fact that the individual most desperately seeking them has little care for Stephen’s safety or well-being, she begins an investigation. Working in secret with Johnny Joestar and Gyro Zeppeli, Lucy manages to divert attention from President Funny Valentine’s assassins away from her husband, and eventually winds up in the presence of Funny Valentine, disguising herself as his wife Scarlet, with the help of race contestant Hot Pants. However, her disguise only works so well, as President Valentine discovers her true identity, but decides to keep her in his company, as she bears the final piece of the corpse he has been seeking – the head.

After President Valentine’s defeat, Lucy catches wind of his final, post-mortem play to have the corpse parts sealed in a vault in New York City. She follows the version of Diego Brando that Funny Valentine had pulled from another reality with the help of his Stand, D4C, and confronts him about his agreement to carry out President Valentine’s work. She then reveals that, wrapped within cloth, she holds the severed head of the original Dio Brando, and uses its close proximity to this alternate Dio Brando to destroy him. Lucy Steel proves a compelling and human character, which seems to be a prominent theme across the wider cast of characters in Steel Ball Run. She takes bold actions out of necessity as well as the belief in her own perceptions of right and wrong, all of which results in her undergoing a journey of self-discovery and reaffirmation in what she stands for.