DinoPants

## Ship Name Variation

The ship consists of **Diego Brando**, a British multi-champion jockey contestant in the Steel Ball Run, and **Hot Pants**, a nun under the orders from the Vatican that joined the same race in disguise to investigate matters related to a possible saint's corpse in the itinerary.
Both characters are from **Steel Ball Run**, the 7th part of Jojos Bizarre Adventure. Variations of the ship name in Eastern fandom includes ディエパン [*diepan*] and ディエパンツ [*diepantsu*]. Variations of the ship name in Western fandom include DinoPants, DinoPantsu, DHP, DiePants, and other variations resulting from Portmanteau Couple Naming. For the sake of the unusuality of the name, **DinoPants** became the most popular ship variation name between the Western shippers.
## Popularity

This ship has a loyal fanbase, with over 200 fanfics featured in AO3, notably gaining more attention in the last years since new colored scans of Part 7 were available to the Western audience. Often, this ship works as Combo Ship with GyJo. On Instagram, the tags count over 5 thousand entries between fan arts, edits, animatics, and cosplay pictures, and on Pixiv the Eastern and Western tags accumulate almost 500 works between fan arts and fanfics. It's the second most searched by Western fandom and the third most searched by the Eastern fandom, from the fanon ships from Steel Ball Run setting.

## Analyzing the DinoPants Team Dynamics

*Warning: major spoilers for Steel Ball Run are uncensored ahead.*

**Diego Brando** and **Hot Pants** met as contestants on Steel Ball Run racing, with motives to participate that, deep down, are **echoes from unsolved sins** from their families on the past. They team up knowing both parties had different goals on their minds, in order to get the Corpse Parts.

#### Diego Brando

Diego Brando was considered a real jockey genius in Great Britain and, since the first chapter of the manga, hailed as one of the promises of the Steel Ball Run's podium. Right in the first leg of the competition, Diego becomes an intermittent rival of Gyro Zeppeli and of Johnny Joestar, whom we came to know later that they had already met in childhood. **His position in the story could be considered neutral** (not to be confused with his alternative version, Diego Brando THE WORLD, who has the position of an enemy) since he does not actively operate to help the protagonists, nor does he offer loyalty to the main villain in the story.

At first, Diego seems to be just an ambitious young man very confident in his skills, focused on being the best in the competition at all costs, similar to the narcissism and self-centeredness of his counterpart Dio Brando, and seems amused in provoking Gyro and Johnny in their encounters throughout the race. When faced with his backstory at **Scary Monsters Arc**, however, we understand that **his attitude stems from a deep resentment originated in a childhood witnessing the suffering his mother went through to ensure that he survived**. In his perception, since no one had been able to feel compassion for his mother, Diego developed a **predisposition to distrust and scorn for society**, deciding to bet on his powerful ambition, charm, and jockey skills to ascend socially. In this sense, the search for Corpse Parts is just one more of his strategies to acquire more power over society and not a search for happiness.

In general, besides being opportunistic, Diego can be very vindictive and **doesn’t hesitate to hurt or murder, but not unnecessarily** - Diego doesn’t appear to hurt rivals in the race without feeling that he is being threatened, like when he warns Gyro about staying away from him after Gyro had attacked him first. Diego sometimes sounds misanthropic when he is more introverted, **always seeking to act independently and distantly**.

#### Hot Pants

As an undercover Vatican agent, Hot Pants stopped using the nun habit to compete more discreetly, while investigating clues of a saint's body on American soil. At first, her gender is given as masculine from the point of view of the protagonists' narrative, but soon we have the revelation that Hot Pants is a woman. It seems that Hot Pants wanted to hide her gender from everyone to collaborate with her discretion in the search for Corpse Parts throughout the race since she eventually drops the masculine form of speaking in the middle of the story. While Diego can be considered a neutral element in the dispute for supernatural artifacts, **Hot Pants is a slightly more collaborative rival in relation to the protagonists, even though she does only what she deems to be the best plan**.
She appears to be objective and resolute in everything she does, **always willing to articulate strategies that guarantee the ultimate goal** - to collect Corpse Parts - above meanness like a rivalry between racers and misunderstandings. Hot Pants does not waste time with etiquette and does not seem to take offense easily, preferring to move the pieces of the Steel Ball Run board in favor of staying in search of her goal, offering partnerships and cooperation.
When she comes in contact with some of the Corpse Parts, however, there is a transformation in Hot Pant's attitude, and possibly a change in her main objective - no longer only reporting discoveries to the Vatican, but **collecting all parts of the Holy Saint in order to redeem herself from her immense past guilt**. In Civil War Arc, it is revealed that this guilt stems from a childhood incident, in which Hot Pants and her younger brother were attacked by a bear. In an urge to survive, Hot Pants pushed her brother into the bear for a chance to escape. Unable to live an ordinary life keeping such a secret, she entered a convent to redeem herself from her sin. Hot Pants refers to the idea of sacrifice when she feels resolved to face Funny Valentine to obtain the Holy Corpse, indicating that her only motivation is to be able to atone her guilt, to finally die in peace.

#### Facing D4C Together

In summary, it was possible to establish a cooperation between Hot Pants and Diego Brando, aiming at a common enemy and advantages for both parties, assuming that the two racers could work together. **It is, however, a team compatible with the unfortunate dynamics between a skilled woman who seeks the ultimate redemption with tendencies of self-sacrifice and an ambitious man who seeks revenge and power and who would see no problems in sacrificing the lives of others.**

In this sense, only the sequence of canonical events that show their partnership could make this dynamic better because cooperation causes character development. We then proceed to analyze the three moments of this partnership.

*a) The Deal*

For over 70 chapters, the audience got to know Diego and Hot Pants separately, interacting with the protagonists and other main characters for their own interests. Little individual story development was seen until then, and both characters had enough participation on their own to make it known their personalities, flaws, and goals. It's rather a surprise to see them team up at this point. Previously, also, in terms of racing and Stand powers, Diego and Hot Pants were closer in the race ranking, having the second planned the deal steps by gathering info from Diego and, with such bargain, being able to make him listen to her. **At first, Diego doesn't trust on Hot Pants' intentions** (given that we saw how many times other competitors will try to lure rivals in a similar fashion to then betray them). **Hot Pants not only tried to make Diego listen to her by ambushing him, but also using the knowledge to make the offer**. Using rationality, she made her point through it, showing how cooperation could lead them to keep their shared goal - prevent Valentine from having full control over the Holy Corpse. Last time Diego had worked with another racer, Sandman/Soundman, it was a vertical relationship: Diego asked for a subordinate. Here, **Hot Pants provokes a horizontal relationship** in each they have to combine abilities to achieve their goal. **Also, the sexual tension is obvious.**

*b) The Trust Bits*

Diego had a piece of very important information about Valentine's power. He knew it was the sort of battle that he, alone, would highly be defeated on. Up to this point, the reader could figure Diego would use Hot Pants to get away surviving as it happened before when he used Wekapipo. ***This doesn't happen this time.*** As soon as Diego understands the other versions of them as effects of Valentine's powers, he alerts Hot Pants about the dangers of it. **This Diego decides to share this info instead of taking advantage of it, seeing Hot Pants and him working together**. Not looking to discuss all the implications of Funny Valentine's Stand powers regarding the neighbor worlds, there's yet a glimpse of what alternate Diego and alternate Hot Pants were doing in the neighbor world, confirming that **as long as they met in the neighbor universes, they will share a sort of bond** - something very unlikely to people so closed as Hot Pants or so solitary as Diego. Hot Pants is also not the type to trust easily. She had been not an enemy to Johnny, Gyro, and Lucy, but also did things as she thought unilaterally as functional. Here, even doubting a little, Hot Pants trusts Diego's first strategy on the battle, warning about the doubles as a fatal risk. Bits of trust from usually suspicious people. Have you ever seen Diego giving a hand to someone for real? With the doubles as part of the battle, Hot Pants could suspect of such behavior; instead, she spots the other Diego and alerts base world's partner. Bits of trust in the heat of the battle - and the endearing factor is that it's about the surprising bond between Diego and Hot Pants, when the audience already knew about their backstories and personalities. And it works!

*c) Combo Attack*

Like many ships forged in battle, **DinoPants also rely on their chemistry in fighting together**. With the alert from Hot Pants, Diego was able to send their doubles back to another universe, avoiding their annihilation and showing why his plan to get into the train was needed. Diego also gives more info about D4C to Hot Pants, explaining in detail all he understood about D4C. Before the duo faces Funny Valentine, there are two panels displaying each others' motives to get the Corpse Parts, reaffirming once again what sort of resolve they were building to confront such a powerful enemy. **If the chemistry of their action says anything about Diego and Hot Pants as partners is that they are cunning, quick, and sharp.** Here also they put into practice their second strategy as a team, preventing Valentine to use his ability and attacking. This sort of duo working this way in the manga was only seen with Gyro and Johnny.

Finally, Valentine uses his ability once again, and so Diego calls Hot Pants to enter their third strategy to fight the President. At this point, seeing how in sync and trustful Diego appears to be in relation to Hot Pants, it makes it clear **his character development intended in Steel Ball Run: trust someone else**. In turn, Hot Pants already believes Diego's plan and responds to their sync. Diego acknowledges Hot Pants' importance to their plan and he relies on her. **They aren't just a team, they bring the best out of each other.**

***As we know, despite the great teamwork and surprising chemistry of the couple, the battle does not end in victory - but the appeal for the romantic tones of DinoPants... survive.***

## Appealing

It's possible to see that the **team dynamics**, very improbable to imagine before both character developments and the chapters that revealed both backstories, **is the major appeal of DinoPants**, giving how Diego and Hot Pants had to **develop a sense of balance and trust in the process** of looking for Lucy Steel, as well opposing to Funny Valentine. Secondary to this, **the panels that introduced their deal were weighted with huge belligerent sexual tension** and it helps to define the sort of chemistry that would coordinate their interactions onwards.

## Links

DinoPants Fanfic Works on AO3

DinoPants on Tumblr

DinoPants on Instagram

DinoPants on Pixiv