Pyrrha Nikos, the pride of Mistral.
Noriaki Kakyoin, the Emerald Crusader.
The best part of an adventure are the friends you make along the way. For these two who didn't get to have many, the paths they paved for the people they cared about made it all worth it in the end. In this strife, only one of these two redheads can survive another battle for their lives… in a DEATH BATTLE!
Before We Start…
This blog will contain spoilers for RWBY and JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders.
…Who am I kidding? This whole idea almost hinges on these two being as dead as a doorknob. Still, I would at least implore you to check out both series for these characters.
I’ll try to minimize the amount of corny 2018 JoJokes… try.
Research for this blog was completed on February 18, 2025.
Background
Pyrrha Nikos
“When I think of destiny, I don't think of a predetermined fate you can't escape. But rather... some sort of final goal, something you work towards your entire life.”
The world of Remnant is plagued by creatures known as Grimm; beings powered by the negative emotions of humanity. In its defense stands four kingdoms, all with special academies founded by the enigmatic Ozpin to train Huntsmen and Huntresses who were willing to go toe to toe with the Grimm.
Beacon Academy scored one hell of a Huntress-in-training; Pyrrha Nikos, top of her class at Sanctum Academy and four-time winner of the Mistral Regional Tournament. At initiation, Pyrrha was paired up with Jaune Arc, Nora Valkyrie, and Lie Ren, and the four formed Team JNPR.
Growing up, Pyrrha didn’t have many friends. As someone who was always put on a pedestal by others, the feeling of loneliness caught up to her, because everybody thought that she was too good for them. So when she joined Team JNPR, it was refreshing to have people who saw her as one of their own, and especially her team leader Jaune; the first person to have never seen her as someone special and instead just as a person.
During the Vytal Festival, Pyrrha was called up to Beacon Headmaster Ozpin’s office. As it turned out, Ozpin was hiding some very deep secrets about the world from the public; specifically the power of the Maidens, powerful individuals with special abilities independent from resources like Aura and Dust, and Pyrrha was given the choice by Ozpin’s inner circle to become the next Fall Maiden; the current one, Amber, had been attacked and left in a comatose state where her power was vulnerable to falling into the wrong hands were she to die.
Following a particularly disastrous fight during the festival, Grimm suddenly attacked the area and forces were mobilized to neutralize the threats. Realizing the gravity of the situation, Pyrrha and Jaune followed Ozpin to the Fall Maiden’s location so that they could transfer her power immediately, but their plans were foiled by Cinder Fall, Amber’s assailant. The two were forced to retreat as Ozpin attempted to fight Cinder, now imbued with the Fall Maiden’s power, to no avail. After realizing that Ozpin was defeated and that Cinder would use Beacon’s tower as a signal for Grimm, Pyrrha kissed her leader goodbye and sent him off to safety, determined to stop Cinder, even if it cost her life.
And cost her life it did; despite Pyrrha’s skill, the warrior was no match for the sheer power of the Maiden and was incinerated to death. Her loss was felt across not just her teammates, but also Team RWBY, and her legacy continues to be the driving force for their adventures, never letting her influence be forgotten.
Noriaki Kakyoin
“No regrets. About anything that has happened on this journey or will happen from this point on. I will regret nothing.”
Imaginary friends. They’re basically a rite-of-way for any child, and eventually one must grow up and leave them behind. For one particular boy though, this imaginary friend really was real, but no one could believe him. Even to his parents, Noriaki Kakyoin was by all means unapproachable and had no interest in connecting with others, and it was none of them were able to see his friend, the Stand Hierophant Green.
On a trip to Egypt with his family, Noriaki’s cousin Ryoko became lost and he went to search for her. This led to his fateful encounter with the century old vampire DIO, who brainwashed Kakyoin into doing his bidding; that being to kill Jotaro Kujo, a high school student in Japan and a descendant of DIO’s mortal enemy Jonathan Joestar.
When Kakyoin returned to Japan, he engaged in battle with Jotaro upon his release from prison and subsequent return to school. The battle ended poorly for Kakyoin, as his endangering of surrounding non-combatants angered the delinquent to the point of a serious beatdown. While captured and unconscious, Jotaro and his company discovered Kakyoin’s condition, and promptly freed him from DIO’s control. Now himself once more and having found people who were just like him, Kakyoin immediately asked to join the group on their quest to kill the vampire once and for all, as the life of Jotaro’s mother was being threatened by DIO’s existence.
Their trip took them to Egypt, and in the middle of their travels across the world came many brawls with DIO’s minions who were sent to kill them. Not long after their arrival, those who remained had no one left to fight but the vampire himself. After dividing the group to further their goal, Kakyoin and Jotaro’s grandfather Joseph went on a scouting mission to harass DIO and figure out his Stand’s ability, which at this point was indecipherable. Met with strong resistance and determined to force DIO to reveal his power, Kakyoin set up a flawless trap for the vampire on the rooftops of Cairo, which would have worked… had DIO not been that ridiculously overpowered.
With a hole punched straight through his abdomen and dying from blood loss, Kakyoin analyzed what went wrong and realized the disturbing truth of DIO’s Stand power. Unable to speak, Kakyoin fired off his ability at a clock tower to signal that DIO was able to stop time, expiring only with the hope that his comrades could understand his final message. Thankfully, it was understood and became key to defeating DIO for good by the Stardust Crusaders. In the end, Kakyoin’s sacrifice wasn’t in vain, and he ultimately did it for the first people that he could finally call his friends.
Equipment
Pyrrha Nikos
Miló
Pyrrha’s main offensive weapon is Miló, which has 3 different forms that Pyrrha can transform it into.
Xiphos
Miló’s first form takes after a Xiphos, a Greek double edged sword that she uses for close quarters combat.
Rifle
In RWBY, it’s also a gun. Always.
The second form that Miló takes is a semi-automatic rifle for long distance engagements, which apparently has a not visible sniper scope on it. If one were to view this with real world ballistics, Pyrrha’s gun is inspired by World War II era rifles such as the M1 Garand, with a muzzle velocity of at least 850 m/s.
Javelin
Miló’s third form is a javelin that can utilize its gun proponent to propel itself forward, boosting its speed and power.
Akoúo̱
No Greek inspired warrior is complete without their shield.
This shield might seem ordinary, but don’t let its appearance fool you; it’s sharp enough to be able to be thrown as a projectile like Captain America and tough enough to be used as a launch platform for the explosive force of Nora Valkyrie’s hammer/grenade launcher combo.
Noriaki Kakyoin
Cherry
Maybe you want to go past this part, actually.
Abilities
Pyrrha Nikos
Aura
In RWBY, Aura is the manifestation of the soul. Everyone in Remnant has this, even non-living things like androids, though its strength differs from person to person.
Aura serves many different purposes in RWBY, including but not limited to:
Defensive purposes to block damage, which is its primary usage in most cases; the user will not be hurt but they’ll still feel sensations like pain or heat
Offensive purposes such as a basic physical strength increase
Minor healing
A “sixth sense” that allows its user to feel a sensation of danger/being watched
Trigger the Dust used in weaponry
Unlock other peoples’ Auras
Polarity
Some people develop special abilities from their Aura, called Semblance. Pyrrha’s Semblance is Polarity; in other words, magnetism. This Semblance is undoubtedly powerful, allowing Pyrrha to take control of multitudes of metallic objects and use them to her advantage, from armies of soda cans to gigantic clock gears to crush her foes with. She even uses it with her own weapons, which includes methods like throwing her weapons and bringing them back to her as if she were Captain America.
Since it’s not a very well known Semblance, Pyrrha doesn’t opt to use it directly, but rather for subtle shifts in movement such as adjusting the placement of her weapons or her opponent’s by making it seem like they missed their attack.
Noriaki Kakyoin
Hierophant Green
Stands are powerful intangible beings that co-exist with their stand-users. The most important thing to note is that Stands can only be seen by other people with their own Stands. And when Stands are damaged sufficiently, the damage is reflected onto the Stand user.
Kakyoin’s Hierophant Green is unique in that it can be used at long distances (up to 100 meters) and was the first to do so in the series.
It’s official stats are:
Anatomy
Hierophant Green is not actually a humanoid stand as it normally appears, but a clump of membrane-like coils that have been shown to expand across entire city blocks. They are durable and Kakyoin uses them to travel across environments. They can also disconnect in response to attacks, as what he did against the stand Death 13. These membranes can also act as an alert system, as people that touch those membranes allow Kakyoin to detect their movements.
Emerald Splash
Emerald Splash is a long-range attack that shoots hundreds of emeralds at an opponent. Emeralds naturally are durable minerals, but the emeralds of Hierophant have been shown to dent other stands like Star Platinum, ricochet, and even detonate. It DOES show that there is a slight firing delay before the blast is unleashed, however.
20-Meter Emerald Splash
Hierophant Green turns into a web of strings spanning a radius of 20 meters (it’s in the name) around its opponent, becoming a trap that immediately fires an Emerald Splash upon contact.
Marionette Control
More terrifyingly, Hierophant’s body can unravel to such a degree that it can enter the bodies of other people and control them from within. Such control is dangerous internally as Kakyoin points out that removing Hierophant from the body of a possessed person will damage their internal organs. It’s proven in the first episode. And to a lesser degree, Kakyoin can essentially minimize his own stand to sneak around enemies.
Feats
Pyrrha Nikos
Overall
Strength
Speed
Durability
Scaling
Pyrrha is undoubtedly one of the strongest fighters in Beacon, so she should more than scale to her fellow Huntsmen and Huntresses. Some discretion should be advised when scaling Pyrrha to feats following her death.
Noriaki Kakyoin
Overall
Strength
Speed
Durability
Scaling
Kakyoin should reasonably downscale from the other Stardust Crusaders; downscale since Hierophant Green is hardly as physical as his other teammates.
Weaknesses
Pyrrha Nikos
Aura is limited and can be overtaxed if its user sustains too much damage. On top of that, her Semblance apparently requires physical interaction with the object she wants to control first before being able to use it on it, though this description is inconsistent and could likely be .
If she wasn’t based on fucking Achilles of all fairy tales she’d probably be alive right now. Rest in peace.
Noriaki Kakyoin
Kakyoin is only human behind his stand. He’s susceptible to fatal attacks that would kill anyone else, and he’s hardly a hand-to-hand fighter, so without his Stand he’s no combatant.
Speaking of his Stand, it follows the same general rule as any other, being that any damage it takes reflects back onto him in a similar area of the user’s body; and if the Stand is killed, then so will its user.
Contrary to his belief, the Emerald Splash can, in fact, be deflected. Rest in peace.
Verdicts
Violet
(be humble)
I remember when this matchup used to be a thing in 2018. It’s kind of an amusing one considering how similar these two are as characters and I don’t think I quite understand the hate for it outside of the most absolute surface level connections from a glance, but looking at the actual fight itself it’s not too hard to see why someone wouldn’t enjoy it as much.
Starting off with physical stats, Pyrrha pretty handily outmatches Kakyoin in strength and durability. Fighting gigantic Grimm, taking on several trained huntsmen at once with incredibly destructive properties in their weapons, it’s pretty clear who has the edge here. Kakyoin, while not a slouch, certainly doesn’t hold a candle on his own; Joseph directly states that Kakyoin attempting to hold the weight of an SUV with his Stand would tear him apart, and the amount of Stands who’ve beaten out Hierophant Green in strength, let alone its destructive power being officially ranked at a “C” makes this comparison pretty clear cut, though you may argue that you shouldn’t take JoJo’s stat circle too literally.
Getting to the biggest part of this verdict is comparing both fighters’ abilities. Pyrrha’s main power set consists of her Aura and Semblance. Aura provides a very strong defense for her and, provided that there’s enough metal around the battlefield conveniently at her disposal, Polarity can cause widespread destruction that could totally one-shot Kakyoin. But being honest, they’re both beaten out by Hierophant Green’s mere existence.
Getting this out of the way, Stand rules exist, which means that Pyrrha first and foremost cannot see Hierophant Green. Considering Kakyoin’s means of combat entirely hinge on his Stand, Pyrrha not being able to see her opponent is a huge disadvantage for her and makes it much more difficult to get in close and go in for a finisher on her otherwise defenseless opponent.
There’s one argument that should definitely be brought up here though: can Aura interact with Stands?
In RWBY, Aura is described as the manifestation of one’s soul. In JoJo, Stands are the physical manifestation of one’s “life energy”. In other words, a soul. Simple as that, right?
“Aura is the manifestation of our soul. It bears our burdens and shields our hearts. Have you ever felt like you were being watched without knowing someone was there?”
-Pyrrha
The definition of the “soul” varies widely across all kinds of media so it's pretty easy to see why someone wouldn't buy this at first. But considering how similar the two definitions are for their respective abilities, I’ll argue from this point forward that Pyrrha at least sense or outright see Hierophant Green, as if it were Kakyoin’s “Aura”. Being able to see it certainly helps, but it is ultimately useless in the grand scheme of things; Pyrrha doesn’t have a Stand, so she still cannot hurt Hierophant Green, and therefore no strength or power advantage can harm Kakyoin indirectly through his shared durability with his Stand. (See Jotaro VS Kenshiro, for example) Pyrrha’s main target, Hierophant Green, is effectively invincible, and only serves to tire her out if she doesn’t start to focus on hitting Kakyoin himself.
The way I see it, Kakyoin's going to be forced to play defensively for most of the fight. Despite his lack of combat skill, this doesn’t mean he’s unintelligent; he’s frequently shown in verse to be incredibly cunning and come up with game winning strategies against his foes. He’ll already have recognized that Pyrrha is inhumanely strong despite not being a Stand user and would use Hierophant Green as a defensive measure since she wouldn’t be able to harm it. He's eventually going to have to let his guard down soon enough to attack, and that would leave him wide open for Pyrrha to take advantage; a simple javelin throw or even getting smacked once would be the end of Kakyoin. But Hierophant Green is just too fast to let that happen.
One of Pyrrha’s more well known battles is of her making complete fools out of Team CRDL, whose leader managed to deflect the bullets firing from her weapon. Pyrrha pretty easily scales to this since she’s one of Beacon’s strongest and best students, and even after her death it shouldn’t be too unreasonable to assume that she scales to a limited amount of post-timeskip feats like dodging lightning by huntsmen/huntresses who were inferior to her in Beacon. But none of that holds a candle to Kakyoin, who should reasonably be on par with his friends like Polnareff intercepting enemies that are explicitly faster than light. His speed advantage is about as clear cut as Pyrrha’s superior strength.
This is even assuming that Kakyoin even allows her to get in close too. Hierophant Green can stretch out to around 100 meters, or about 328 feet. Miló’s spear and gun form are the only ways to counteract this range; the projectiles of which could easily be dodged due to the Stand’s superior speed or just guarded against due to its invulnerability. On top of that, Pyrrha simply doesn’t have the answers to Hierophant Green’s abilities.
Just the Emerald Splash alone is effective enough to keep Pyrrha at bay. Akoúo̱ is durable enough handle to something like being used as a launch platform for an explosive hammer, but those Emerald Splashes being able to harm a Stand as tough as Star Platinum means it’d deal serious damage to Pyrrha’s defenses; not just to her shield, but also her Aura, which is limited and can only defend Pyrrha for so long before it breaks from overuse. She’d have it even worse if Kakyoin even had time to set up a 20 meter Emerald Splash, which would keep Pyrrha in place were she to step in the wrong direction.
And even despite its power, Pyrrha’s Semblance actually has very little use here. It’s already been stated that she mostly uses it for subtle changes in her movements during combat, but if she tried using it on a scale reminiscent of her fight with Cinder, there’s hardly anything metallic on Kakyoin for her to take advantage of, and it’d require the battlefield to be in her favor, which Kakyoin’s range won’t permit.
Controlling Pyrrha like a marionette is also in the cards for Kakyoin, although it’s an unlikely scenario; even if she can’t hurt Hierophant Green, she also would not allow it out of her sight to do something as sketchy as that. Furthermore, Kakyoin doesn’t employ this method much; he used it once while bloodlusted from DIO’s brainwashing and the other as pretty much a last resort against a god in his own domain. If Kakyoin did manage to control Pyrrha through his Stand, then it’s already game over for her.
Putting it simply, this is hardly a stomp by any means but there’s a very clear cut winner. Pyrrha’s strength and combat prowess by itself are more than enough to instantly defeat Kakyoin, but unfortunately for (one of) my favorite RWBY character(s), the chances of getting in close to maximize her advantages are far too minimal to make that happen. Kakyoin is too fast, too versatile, and cannot have his defense broken by Pyrrha, who will be worn down by Hierophant Green in a hard fought battle.
It’s ashes to ashes, dust to dust for Pyrrha again. I’m still salty about that.
Sushi
(subscribe to his YouTube, seriously -Violet)
Lol they both ded
Jk.
Not to split any hairs here, but by examining their abilities alone, it's very certain who takes the cake here. And it’s not the red-haired character that died.
Kakyoin, the cherry-licker, should handily clean up business here.
Anyone who’s known JJBA can look at this matchup and probably conclude X Y Z. But, in all fairness, Pyrrha does have some things going for her. For example, she’s far better in physical combat and has actual weapons. She also has better defences (on-hand) as well as passive healing from her aura. Given the chance, like the Tower of Grey, Kakyoin would probably get slept in one go.
The significant problem here is how she will do that. And in a fight against a Stand-User, you would want to take advantage of their shared durability. And Hierophant Green is actually not that durable. He’s been battered by Star Platinum easily, but also hurt badly fairly quickly by someone as miniscule as Tower of Grey, who is only strong enough to punch holes in people’s heads. BUT. The great advantage that Kakyoin has is his sheer range and area of effect.
Yes, Hierophant Green can’t take a hit. BUT, he CAN split himself into several strands of shared energy that can filter out damage that he receives. And that’s without counting the fact that the strands act as alert systems and can also spew out Emerald Splashes. Pyrrha is a fantastic fighter, but like any martial character, she goes for precision and technique, which is not simply not possible due to the amount of… well everything that Hierophant Green and Kakyoin can throw at her.
She is durable on her own, but taking the equivalent of a machine gun that shoots impact grenades at 100 miles per hour (for exaggerated effect) will wear her down very quickly. And because Kakyoin knows where she can be at all times due to his stand, she’s not gonna have the chance to breathe.
That’s assuming that Kakyoin doesn’t also use his weird puppeteering powers. I’m gonna discount it, on account of him never using it after he got his mind-control removed, but just having a stand that can shapeshift his body into a widespread self-defence system is problematic for a precision fighter like Pyrrha.
What about her Semblance? Magnetism should be helpful right?
Not for her. She’s demonstrated very limited powers in the sense of tactical aggression. Most often she’s used her Semblance to disorient the metallic equipment of other fighters, usually in close quarters. So someone like Kakyoin, who DOES NOT use metal equipment nor fights up close, is not going to be affected by her semblance in any meaningful way. Even under the assumption that Pyrrha can, say, throw a car at Kakyoin, an Emerald Splash, which HAS damaged the likes of Star Platinum before, will likely destroy it in response.
And the biggest factor in all of this: is that Pyrrha can’t see Hierophant Green. And, as of now, neither Aura nor Semblance are proven to have an effect that could cause her to make contact with Stands. Even if we take away the rule of “Only Stands and their users can see other Stands”, Kakyoin essentially has an invisible ghost with an M60 by his side. Kakyoin may not be a fighter, but he is intelligent and observant. Pyrrha may have combat prowess and that can certainly match Kakyoin’s wit, but Kakyoin opts for the easiest solution to a problem, and that usually results in a well-timed Emerald Splash or using Hierophant’s body to paralyze enemy body parts.
That’s another thing: Pyrrha has versatility, with her Semblance and weapons, but Kakyoin has simplicity with his Stand alone. Comparing the two weapons-wise, Pyrrha takes the edge only in variety, not in effectiveness or power. Whatever projectiles or metal things she tosses at Kakyoin will be destroyed or evaded easily by Emerald Splashes or strand manipulation. And getting in close to Kakyoin is virtually impossible because of Hierophant Green’s sheer battlefield control.
So while Kakyoin can’t take a hit, Pyrrha can’t afford to prolong a battle, which Kakyoin is more than capable of doing without breaking a sweat. Accounting for his intangible and invisible Stand as well as the sheer power of his simple, but effective abilities, we may end up repeating volume 3 all over again.
It’s not personal: it’s just how JoJo works.
(And you wonder why it’s only Persona characters that they go up against, eh)
Summary
Pyrrha Nikos (0): DAMN.
Noriaki Kakyoin (2): Violet, Sushi
| 
|
Pyrrha Nikos | Noriaki Kakyoin |
| |
Slower Cannot harm Hierophant Green Semblance is mostly ineffective Aura can be worn out or bypassed
| |
Sources
Ending Notes
I wanna give a huge thank you to Sushi, who helped me out a lot with JoJo’s research while I worked on RWBY’s side. Definitely check out his commentaries on his YouTube channel, which is linked in his verdict.
I certainly took my sweet time with this for two comparatively simple characters. I’ve got a lot of stuff going on behind the scenes and starting college again definitely doesn’t help, but besides that, I hope you enjoyed the blog and I hope to see you on my next one:
Yuji Itadori VS Denji (Jujutsu Kaisen VS Chainsaw Man)
