Will:
Poco:


These aren’t the most interesting characters but oh well I think they might do just enough to be here. I forsee that this won’t get very many votes and I can maybe see Poco not being admirable enough.
What's the Work?
We all already know at this point. JoJo's Bizarre Adventure doesn’t need much introduction. It’s a popular anime/manga series where different JoJo’s level up in fighting and take on various enemies, be it Vampires or Stand Users. Part 1 revolves in Victorian England as Jonathan Joestar tries to stop his power-hungry adoptive brother DIO on his vampiric quest to take over the world.
Who are they?
Will Anthonio Zeppeli and Poco are major characters in Part 1: Phantom Blood who become allies of Jonathan and Speedwagon. Zeppeli is an Italian man and a trained Hamon master who worked under the monk Tonpetty. He has a tragic origin as when he was part of a mission to track down a Stone Vampire Mask, his entire crew was murdered and realized the killer was a vampiric version of his father. From then on he would dedicate his life to destroying the Stone Mask to stop more vampires from rising. He would meet Tonpetty who taught him his Ripple ability and train as his disciple. Zeppeli was an extremely dedicated student and Tonpetty warned Zeppeli he would die if he continued training he would die eventually but Zeppeli didn’t care and persisted to train anyways. Around this same time he had a family and a son named Mario but left them behind, thigg if j they would later continue his legacy as learned in Part 2.
When hearing about Jonathan Joestar defeating Dio, he meets Jonathan and heals his arm. He punches a frog on a rock but somehow only makes the rock break. He then tells Jonathan that Dio isn’t actually dead, so volunteers to teach Ripple to Jonathan, spending the next two weeks helping him, reaching to the point Jonathan is easily able to overpower Dio’s right-hand, Wang Chan. Zeppeli then joins Speedwagon and Jonathan on their quest to defeat Dio and destroy the Mask. Along the way they fight a vampiric Jack the Ripper and Zelle’s briefly fights the serial killer but then teaches Jonathan to do it himself to teach him to perfect his Ripple as practice.
Along their journey, they are met by a brainwashed Poco who tries to attack them. The group then saves Poco but are shortly attacked by two of Dio’s zombies. We learn Poco is an innocent boy from a small town who was brainwashed by Dio and wants to rescue his sister at all costs. From there he joins the group of Jonathan. Zeppeli then immediately tries to take out Dio, but Dio counters and escapes after freezing his arm, then summons two dark knights to deal with the group named Bruford and Tarkus. Jonathan deals with Bruford himself but then Tarkus is still a problem for the group. Later as Jonathan is struggling to beat Tarkus and has him chained up, planning to brutally murder him, Poco uses his small size to sneak into the room and let the others in. Poco and Speedwagon are too weak to stop the brute but Zeppeli bravely fights him and when Tarkus proves too strong, Zeppeli voluntarily sacrifices himself to give Jonathan the power needed to defeat Tarkus. Before dying he stays alive a few minutes to give his dying words to make Jonathan destroy the Stone Mask and save the world.
Poco continues to accompany the group to Dio's lair but they are attacked by multiple vampires along the way. Poco is determined to save his sister no matter what though, and when they reach his castle, the group successfully retrieves Poco's sister and he lives with her again happily ever after.
In Part 2, William sets a legacy as his grandson Caesar seeks to eradicate the original vampires known as The Pillar Men in his name.
Corrupting Factors
Not really. This is Part 1 where the characters are all Black and White in morality and not the complex/sometimes anti-heroic protagonists we get later. They have zero corrupting factors since they are nice people willing to endanger themselves to save the world.
Zeppeli did attack a frog, but not only did the frog not get hurt due to his ability but also it was to demonstrate how to use ripple to Jonathan. Zeppeli did abandon his family and never mentions them in Part 1 (probably since his family is a retcon that was added in Part II to further the plot) but this isn’t corrupting since he had to do it to save the world and he had no bad intentions in doing so. He did shout at Speedwagon very brefily but he immediately apologized when Speedwagon unfroze his arm and acknowledged his bravery. He’s a lil weird for sure but never outright rude and is a super nice guy.
Yeah Poco is cowardly at first and relies on his sister to protect him from bullies but it’s never played in a negative way on his part. And he proves to be more than brave enough after allying with Jonathan so more than subverted. He seems mischievous at first when he tries to steal from Jonathan but this only happened when he was brainwashed by Dio and he never acts like this again.
Admirable Standards
The Admirable Standards are high as balls with stopping dangerous villains being extremely common and saving the world isn’t really a totally unique feat. Luckily though I feel even if these guys don’t do the most scale-wise, I can make justifications for them standing out.
Zeppeli spent and sacrificed decades of his life training in Hamon (whereas most heroes just got random stands they didn’t train for much of their lives) and preparing to save the world from the Stone Mask, despite it causing him great pain, leaving his family and knowing he would eventually die. He teaches Jonathan Hamon and warns him Dio is still alive and then accompanies him to defeat Dio, making him 50% of the entire reason Dio was defeated. Also he willingly sacrifices his life to give Jonathan more power to stop Tarkus and later Dio. Zeppeli is entirely necessary to the operation to save the world from Dio and even giving up his life for it. Bonus points for setting up the legacy with his son and grandson later saving the world from the Pillar Men, even if indirectly. He also evidently had lower resources than many other heroes since Hamon is rather basic and some like Jotaro, Josuke and Weather Report have far higher resources due to their powerful stand abilities that can stop time, heal anyrkme/anything or manipulate the weather, while Zeppeli just has basic breathing abilities, strength and complex punches that work against vampires.
Poco is just a little kid by himself who has absolutely zero resources yet plays an important role in defeating the vampire Tarkus. He also stands out for his bravery and extreme willingness to save his sister from vampires and play a part in saving the world. If not for Poco, Zeppeli wouldn’t have been able to sacrifice himself to save Jonathan’s life and help him defeat Tarnus than have the full power needed to stop Dio. The fact he is a little kid and putting himself in extreme danger when he can just run away is more than enough imo. The only competition is Hayato who is also a kid with no resources who plays a big role in stopping a dangerous serial killer. While Hayato stands out on his own for sure, he lacks what Poco has in being a necessary part in ending Dio’s reign of taking over the world and horrific vampiric transformations on hundreds of people and planning to do more.
I think both could stand out just enough. If we assume Jonathan stands out (which he does and I don’t think anyone doubts he does) both play large enough roles in helping his mission.
Verdict
Not my most interesting proposal at all but I think they are average yesses. Might try Lisa Lisa and Ceasar next but not sure if Lisa’s admirable enough or if Caesar subverted his corrupting qualities, but happy to discuss if anyone wants.