JoJo's Bizarre Adventure is one of the most famous anime series in the world. It is based on the manga written by Hirohiko Araki. The manga started serializing in 1987, and since then it has gone through many changes. One of the things that has remained consistent is the division of the manga into various parts. Araki's decision to split the manga into different parts greatly benefited him, and it gave him more room to experiment.
With eight different parts, there is a JoJo's part for every person out there. While all the parts are special in their own way, not all of them have the same level of quality. Certain parts are objectively better than others in terms of storytelling, characters, and pacing. Stone Ocean checks all the boxes, and it is unquestionably an amazing part. However, many fans tend to overlook Stone Ocean because of its ending. They consider it bad in comparison to the others, but is that really true?
The Final Fight
The final battle between Jolyne's group and Pucci was absolutely scintillating. The main villain had awakened a new power, which made him almost unbeatable. Pucci's Made in Heaven allowed him to increase the flow of time by manipulating the gravitational force of the entire universe. Even Jotaro's Star Platinum proved to be useless against Pucci's new power. It didn't take long for Jolyne to realize that she couldn't defeat Pucci by herself, and that she needed all the help that she could get.
Jolyne's group coordinated nicely and at one point, Pucci was forced to rethink his strategy. He arrived at the conclusion that he needed to eliminate Jolyne's allies one by one. Jolyne and co. were pushed on the back foot, but the tide began to turn when Anasui decided to put himself in harm's way. His actions created a brief window for Jotaro to attack and kill the priest. As Jotaro moved toward the priest, something caught his eye. He saw that Pucci had thrown multiple knives at Jolyne and once time resumed, they would impale and kill her. This was an Easter egg from the time DIO did the same against Jotaro in Stardust Crusaders. With only a few seconds left, Jotaro had to make a decision.
The Ultimate Sacrifice
Most fans expected Jotaro to sacrifice his daughter to defeat Pucci after all, that was their goal. However, Jotaro's parental instincts kicked in, and he decided to save his daughter first. He was successful in his attempt to save Jolyne, but he lost valuable time, which allowed Pucci to dodge the attack.
Pucci stated that Jotaro was too late, and he would have succeeded if he didn't opt to protect Jolyne. Pucci called it a "weakness" and then he proceeded to kill most of his enemies, save for Jolyne and Emporio. With no other option left, Jolyne sacrificed her life to send Emporio away.
​​​​​​Should Jotaro Have Made A Different Choice?
The biggest question about the ending is related to Jotaro's decision. Jotaro's decision to sacrifice himself was important to his character development. At the beginning of the series, he had the reputation of being a stoic, who did not care about his family. However, he proved everyone wrong when he sacrificed himself to save Jolyne from John A. Galli. Even Jolyne was surprised to see Jotaro act like this. This incident was pivotal for both Jotaro and Jolyne. For Jotaro, this signified that he had always cared about his daughter, and he only stayed away in order to protect her from harm.
Jolyne was able to understand her father's reasoning, which helped her to let go of the grudge that had been bothering her for many years. Furthermore, if Jotaro had made a different choice, chances are that Jolyne probably would have left Jotaro inside the prison. Jotaro's sacrifice prompted Jolyne to go on an arduous journey to recover both of his discs. When she retrieved both of them, Jotaro was finally able to move again.
After learning that Jolyne had gone to such extremes for him, he couldn't help but feel proud of her. Another important thing to remember is that regardless of Jolyne's efforts to rescue Jotaro, the latter would still have given up the opportunity to kill Pucci to rescue his daughter. Considering the fact that Jotaro forced himself to stay away from Jolyne for almost her entire life, he was absolutely right in choosing his daughter over killing Pucci.
Did It Ruin The Ending?
​​​​​​The short answer is no. If anything, Jotaro's sacrifice made the ending more emotional. It was monumental in making Jotaro much more likable than any of the previous Joestars. Most importantly, he died protecting the thing that meant the most to him.
Fans who consider it a bad ending mainly have a problem with it because it was the first time that a JoJo part had the protagonist losing and dying. However, they can take solace in the fact that Jolyne's sacrifice wasn't in vain. Due to her quick thinking, she was able to send Emporio away, who defeated Pucci. With Pucci gone, Emporio saw all of his friends, but they had different names and no recollection of the events that transpired. Araki's decision to end the original timeline in this manner deserves much more credit.