Jotaro Kujo (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
jojoceanman) wrote2017-03-11 11:39 pm
jojoceanman) wrote2017-03-11 11:39 pm
application [mask or menace]
〈 PLAYER INFO 〉
NAME: Marion
AGE: 21+
JOURNAL:unification
IM / EMAIL: n/a
PLURK:![[plurk.com profile]](https://plurk.com/favicon.ico)
canarycry
RETURNING: None
〈 CHARACTER INFO 〉
CHARACTER NAME: Jotaro Kujo
CHARACTER AGE: 28
SERIES: JoJo's Bizarre Adventure
CHRONOLOGY: End of Part 4 - Diamond is Unbreakable - leaving Morioh Town with his grandfather beside him.
CLASS: Hero
HOUSING: Private Housing, Heropa.
BACKGROUND: For the sake of my sanity this wiki link contains a very detailed history of Jotaro's life. Note it's only relevant up to the end of Part 4. With that said, I will summarize the general story of Jotaro's adventures.
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure is well known for its separation of story arcs into "Parts." Every Part follows a new protagonist, a new setting, a new story, but with the promise that there is always some interconnection to the previous Parts before it. Jotaro's story is Part 3, which is in a way considered the second half of Part 1. Part 1 ends with the major antagonist, the vampire DIO, being sunk to the bottom of the sea alongside Jotaro's ancestor Johnathan Joestar. Part 3 begins with DIO's return, over a hundred years later, and the main story once again revolves around defeating him. It even ties into Part 2, whose main protagonist is Jotaro's grandfather, Joseph Joestar.
Part 3 is, in a tagline, a road trip adventure taken to Egypt to kill a vampire. From the beginning this is the one main goal of all the heroes. Yet before Jotaro even takes this journey, he begins his adventure in a prison cell. Now he's not there because he has to be - the police actually call his mother to force him to leave, because he's well overstayed his penalty for beating up a few punks. Yet even when she comes to claim him, he refuses to leave. Why? A demonic spirit has possessed him, and he must keep himself imprisoned for the safety of the public.
It is established soon that what Jotaro is seeing is not a demon, but a representation of his life energy and it's called Stand. This spirit emerged due to DIO, who developed a similar spirit and cursed everyone with the Joestar bloodline to gain one as well. For you see, through bizarre events, DIO now has the body of Johnathan Joestar. And when I say "came to have" I literally mean DIO tore off Johnathan's head and replaced his own head onto Johnathan's body.
...Anyways, everyone in the Joestar line as a result gains a Stand. However Stands are not meant for everyone who comes to possess one. Jotaro's mother, Holy Joestar, also came to develop one as well. However, her Stand went rogue because she did not have the strength or desire to battle required to support it. For that reason, her Stand began to slowly kill her. After deliberation, Joseph concluded the only way to save Holy would be to kill DIO. However they only had 50 days to do so, or Holy would surely die.
So began the Egypt roadtrip, and Jotaro and Joseph were not alone. The first man to join was Mohammad Avdol, a fortune teller Stand user who actually named Jotaro's Stand Star Platinum. Next was Noriyaki Kakyoin, another Stand user and a classmate of Jotaro who tried to kill him. It turned out Kakyoin was under the influence of DIO, via a "fleshbud" that the vampire inserted into his brain to control his loyalties. After Jotaro excises the bud, Kakyoin agrees to help as repayment for his life being saved.
The four men attempt to go by plane, but the pilots die due to one of DIO's minions and the gang instead lands in Hong Kong. While devising their next strategy, they encounter Jean Pierre Polnareff. Polnareff, like Kakyoin, was also a Stand user being controlled by a fleshbud that influenced him to try to and kill the men. However, after being defeated by Avdol and having the fleshbud removed by Jotaro, Polnareff asks to travel with the four men.
So four becomes five, and together they travel from to Singapore, India, Pakistan, the Arabian Desert and the depths of the Red Sea before finally making it to Egypt! A lot of stuff happens in between, but all you need to know is DIO has been sending villains of the week after the gang in the hopes of stopping them. They pretty much don't go more than a few days without getting attacked by a new enemy Stand user.
Once they arrive, five becomes six! Recognizing the challenges ahead, Avdol and Joseph bring in another Stand user. This very much hyped member of the team is... a dog! A very temperamental dog named Iggy, who spends most of his time either being marginally helpful or just plain ol' not giving a fuck. However it is Iggy who finds DIO's mansion all on his own.
So the final showdown against DIO and his remaining minions begins. Yet before they even face DIO, Iggy and Avdol both die in battle against his minion Vanilla Ice (don't question this.) Kakyoin faces the same fate - in an all or nothing attack against DIO, he is defeated and killed with a single blow to the stomach. However, in his dying breath, he realizes the secret to DIO's power and the message is relayed: DIO's Stand, The World, can stop time.
With three of his friends dead, and both Joseph and Polnareff critically injured, it's up to Jotaro to finish DIO alone. Yet as their fight begins and DIO believes he can score an easy win, he learns a shocking discovery: Jotaro is capable of moving in the stopped time. Not nearly enough to make a major difference, but enough to unnerve DIO into fighting more cautiously than ever before.
Yet what DIO doesn't account for is the insane lengths Jotaro will go to in order to defeat him. Right down to using Star Platinum to stop his heart, so that DIO would buy into his attempt to play dead (as DIO's enhanced senses means he could hear the beating.) Yet DIO never plays fair - just before he is defeated, Jotaro makes a critical mistake and allows DIO to be led back to Joseph's injured body. DIO takes advantage of the opportunity, and drinks Joseph's blood. Jotaro, now thinking his grandfather is yet another casualty, is thoroughly pissed. And for a moment, that anger almost gets him killed by rushing into a confrontation head-on.
Really what this boils down to is that DIO would have won this battle on sheer strength alone. Jotaro and his Stand are strong, but DIO's vampire physiology gives him a significant edge. Yet Jotaro wins thanks to an impossible breakthrough: just seconds away from death, Star Platinum initiates its own time freeze. With this sudden ability, Jotaro is able to come up to Dio from behind and strike a massive blow to his leg. That blow doesn't kill him, but it's the punch to The World's leg that Star Platnium makes after that breaks his stand into pieces and thoroughly kills Dio.
In another insane twist, to save Joseph's life Jotaro demands doctors transfuse the blood in DIO's corpse into his grandfather. Jotaro claims that so many impossible things have happened, that the word has simply no meaning to what can and can't be done anymore. Turns out he was right: Joseph is revived from near death, as Star Platinum helps restart the old man's heart and the blood of DIO begins to flow through him.
So the great battle ends. Holy returns to health, Polnareff goes back home to France, and Jotaro and Joseph take DIO's corpse out into the sun so that it may disintegrate into ashes - ensuring the vampire will never again revive. Roll credits.
For ten to eleven years after, life resumed. Jotaro finished high school and went on to get a Ph.D. in Marine Biology, becoming highly recognized as a professor and researcher in his field. He married at the age of 20 to an unnamed woman, had a daughter named Jolyne Cujoh, and left Japan to live in Florida with them.
However due to his workaholic lifestyle, as well as tackling supernatural investigations on the side when he was needed, he kept a heavy distance. In his mind he was doing so in order to protect them, knowing from his experiences that trouble always follows him and people die because of it. Yet he of course never actually says any of this to them, as it seems neither of them even know about his powers, so they only view him as an absent husband/father.
Eventually his wife divorces him over this distance, and he agrees to leave them both alone. This seemingly blasé attitude creates a deep rift between him and Jolyne. It's never really confirmed when the divorce happens, only that it happened a while ago in Part 6 (when Jolyne is 19), but I'll assume it hasn't yet for Part 4 Jotaro.
In Part 4, Jotaro's reason for going to Morioh Town isn't as epic as his reasons for traveling to Egypt. As Joseph Joestar nears the end of his life, he prepares to divide up the massive fortune he has obtained over the years from his real estate company. However, a major issue crops up. As Jotaro looks into Joseph's affairs, he learns that Joseph has an illegitimate son named Josuke Higashitaka. This son is the result of an affair he had with a woman named Tomoko, who he met on one of his trips to Japan. What's more, Joseph himself had no idea of his son's existence until Jotaro uncovered it.
This revelation throws the family into chaos. Despite how furious his wife is, Joseph decides that Josuke must receive at least 1/3rd of his wealth. Yet the only issue is that no one has ever had contact with the boy. As Joseph is too old to travel far distances, it falls on Jotaro to track down Josuke. He also prepares to take the punch to the face that his grandfather deserves.
Joseph uses his Stand, Hermit Purple, to create a spirit photograph of Josuke that would show them what he looks like. However that photograph instead developed a disturbing image, which Jotaro decides to investigate while also tracking Josuke. Upon meeting Josuke and explaining the situation, he's surprised when the boy apologizes for causing so much trouble over the inheritance. In fact the punch he was expecting only comes because he accidentally pisses Josuke off, when he mistakenly insults the teenager's hair without intending to.
After Jotaro and Josuke duke it out for a few seconds, Jotaro leaves some of the photographs with him and tells him to watch out for a potential enemy Stand user. It turns out the two men encounter the user, a serial killer named Angelo, and after defeating him learn that there are more Stand users in Morioh. These Stand users are appearing after being shot by a mystical arrow, which Jotaro later learns was used to originally give DIO his Stand.
From there Part 4 proceeds much like the linked wiki page shows for Jotaro. Much like Jotaro's grandfather Joseph played a supporting mentor role in Part 3, Jotaro now plays that same role for Josuke. This means he's relegated to a side character, only appearing when he is needed by Josuke and his friends. While he only initially intended to have a brief visit in Morioh, he stayed in order to retrieve the arrow that was being used to create new enemies. Most of the time when he is not on screen, he's either in his hotel or investigating the whereabouts of other Stand users. Eventually he requests Joseph's presence in Morioh, seeing it as a last ditch option for locating a difficult to track Stand user. Although he arrives after the user is defeated, Jotaro still gets to watch with a small smile as Josuke helps escort Joseph off the boat.
In the second half of the story, new information surfaces about the infamous Morioh serial killer, who has killed over 40 women over the last decade. At one point Jotaro gets into a battle with the man, Kira Yoshikage, who turns out to be a Stand user created by the arrow. While he is bloodied and nearly beaten dead, Jotaro takes advantage of Kira's ego and gets a solid strike at him before passing out from blood loss. Unfortunately Kira manages to escape and assumes a new identity, one which Jotaro and the rest of the main cast spend time investigating.
At the end, it all turns out well and good. Kira is defeated after Jotaro freezes time to stop him from escaping, and beatshim down. Though Kira's death comes from the back end of an ambulance running him over, but hey Jotaro still helped! After this matter is resolved, Jotaro and Joseph both leave Morioh together.
PERSONALITY:
If you best want to understand Jotaro, all you need to do is hear how many times he says "good grief" throughout the series. It's practically a catchphrase for Jotaro, and his constant exasperation at the situations he's faced with. Whether he's attacking someone, getting beaten up, or just having to do something troublesome, he's always ready to grumble about it.
Jotaro is the kind of guy who wants to live his life without complications, but always gets pulled into complicated situations that are often out of his control. He never asked to have a "demon" spirit possess him, but he got it. He never wanted to go to Egypt, but his mother is dying and he can't let that happen. For Jotaro, a life of average existence ended at age 17 and its been nothing but bizarre ever since. However, for all his constant grumblings, he never laments this fact or really seems to mind it as much as one might think. His exasperated grumblings are more an attempt to conceal the fact that Jotaro is the kind of guy who cares a lot.
One major trait that sticks with Jotaro, through his teenage years and adulthood, is his cool and calm persona. It should be mentioned that the creator of the series once said Clint Eastwood was a big inspiration for Jotaro, as far as badass attitudes go. One staple of the rugged badass is being aloof, emotionally distant, but caring more than you ever let on. Rarely does Jotaro ever break a sweat or freak out, preferring to keep silent unless he feels the need to speak. When it comes to emotions, it might be easy to think he has none given his stoic nature. Truth is he just doesn't display them outright.
In his mind, the best way to get things done is to make people think he has everything under control. Even when he feels nervous, or knows he's at a disadvantage, he has a masterful poker face that he keeps on throughout all situations. One segment of Part 3 had him playing poker against a world class gambler, and winning despite never once looking at the cards dealt to him. For him, battles are fought not through fist alone, but through mind as well. The moment someone loses their cool is the moment they lose control of their situation. So he always keeps cool and patient, knowing things will turn out alright if he calculates correctly when to act.
In this sense, Jotaro is both a combination of brawn and brain in combat. Many of his battles weren't won just by his sheer power, but because he outsmarted the enemy by leading them into a trap. He's good as predicting people's actions, and uses what he knows about them as a means of counter-acting. It's even stated that one of his favorite televisions shows is Columbo, an American drama set up like a detective series the viewer can solve alongside the protagonist. This reveals a hidden inquisitive nature that one might not believe he has, at least not at age 17.
However this leads to Jotaro being easily misunderstood in terms of his personality - always acting aloof and displaying little emotion can have downsides. People can easily misunderstand him, and Jotaro never makes much effort to be understood. He tends to judge a person's character rather quickly, through his own perceptive attitude, and expects others to do the same for him. He thinks those who are perceptive enough will be able to decipher the kind of person he is, and sees no reason to put more effort into being likable in general. Jotaro doesn't favor over-complicating things that are in plain view, sometimes to his own detriment, and so he sees no reason to express more emotion than he feels in the moment. This doesn't often work out in his favor, because if you were to meet Jotaro you'd probably think he was a bit of a jerk.
That's fair though, and he'd probably agree if someone called him a jerk. What it comes down to is that he's excessively blunt. Unless there's a good reason to not do so, he'll always say what's on his mind and be unafraid to express his opinions. He doesn't have a deceptive personality, and is normally forward with his intentions. Even if people may not like what he has to say. This is a guy who, in his teenage years, would walk out of restaurants without paying the bill if he didn't like the food. He'd curse people out who were annoying him, even his own mother, and act like a general delinquent. Some of that has soften due to age and maturity, but it's definitely still part of his core to always be true to who he is. That might not always mean telling the whole truth, but he rarely ever lies.
Yet Jotaro is still very much human. As said earlier, his natural aloof disposition covers up the fact that he really cares. Attack him and he'll react, but rarely get angry about it. It's when you start involving other people that he gets mad. If you attack someone he cares for, he will snap out of his coolness and act upon real anger. When fighting, he tries to make sure there are limited civilians who could get injured and will protect those who are defenseless.
He doesn't even kill his enemies when he has the power to do so, unless they are truly evil without redemption. And if he sees no other way to save someone from danger, he'll risk his life protecting them. Jotaro may never show much outright signs of affection or respect to those he cares for, but once you have him as a friend or ally? He will fight for you without question, and would give up his life to defend yours.
In growing up from a teenage delinquent to a respected scientist in his field, Jotaro has lost a lot of the edge he used to have. While he still has a collect cool about him, he's not as quickly dismissive or harsh to others like he was back at age 17. He also learned the ability to be softer emotionally, when the time calls for it. One such example is when he had to comfort Josuke, after the boy's grandfather was killed by an enemy Stand user. He additionally gave praise to another boy he met, Koichi, about how reliable he was (though Koichi wasn't able to hear him when he did so, maybe on purpose.)
When he goes to Morioh Town to meet Josuke for the first time, he laments that he has to play the rotten role of a man telling a stranger about his estranged father. He doesn't go there to pressure Josuke into doing anything with this information, nor does he act like they need to be family due to blood alone. The bond the two have is earned through their adventures, not blood alone. The same can be said for all the young people he meets, who he acts as mentor to and has deep respect for.
Though that's not to say he has entirely improved since his youth. He still expects people to be able to understand his intentions with actions alone, and doesn't see the pitfalls of that type of attitude. Don't expect him to be really all that good at casual conversation either - he's very much about business, and doesn't talk about himself to others. He stays in Morioh for months and doesn't even talk to Josuke about his own life back home, and that's a family member we're talking about.
The man is still a natural loner, and keeps a distance between himself and others because he thinks they'd be better off that way. Trouble tends to follow him wherever he goes, and he doesn't want other people getting pulled into it. Three people died in Egypt because he decided to follow him and his grandfather into going up against DIO, and their sacrifices never leave his mind. This attitude later on in his life causes him to divorce his wife, and create a rift between him and his daughter. All done under the premise of "keeping them safe" which is a pretty bone-headed thing to do. Look I said he was a bit more emotionally mature, but he's not exactly where he needs to be.
To conclude, much of the man Jotaro is can be tied back to the tarot card designation that his Stand was given - The Star. The most typical interpretation of Star is that it's a card that signifies hope in a brighter tomorrow. It can also signify unexpected help appearing to guide the way to that future. Jotaro is a man who always looks forward, pushing ahead no matter the obstacles in front of him. Even if he may die, he will do so knowing he fights for justice, and for those he wants to protect. He fights not for himself, but more for others in general - even his journey to Egypt was spurned on by a desire to save his mother. Though he rarely expresses himself openly, Jotaro is at core a person who will always do good when he can. The Star is about the possibilities of a great future ahead, and Jotaro will fight for that future no matter what.
POWER: Jotaro has one power that comes from his canon, and will be given a new power via the porter.
Stand: Star Platinum
As mentioned in the Background, a small population of humans are capable of projecting an astral being made of their spirit/life energy. This being is called a Stand, since it "stands" by the person as a guardian entity. Here is what canon defines as definite for all Stands:
-They must have a host of some kind to bond to. It can be a living being or a physical object.
-If a Stand is injured, the injuries it takes will be inflicted on its host. So whenever Star Platinum takes a hit, Jotaro will get hit in that same location. However, aside from the former sentence, any injuries Jotaro takes are not reflected onto Star Platinum.
-The host will die if the Stand is killed. It's literally their soul.
In most cases Stands are not independent beings, but extensions of their host's life. Even those not bound to humans need to bond with something in order to be functional. To make life easier, think of Stands like Pokemon. You only get one and if it faints then it's game over for you. Continuing the analogy, Stands can only fight against other Stands/Stand users. The fancy astral projection of the soul can only directly hit a physical person if they're somehow connected to a Stand. Keyword here is "direct."
While they are technically astral beings, they have been shown capable of carrying physical objects and even using them in battle. Stands can't directly hurt someone who isn't a Stand user, but they can definitely use something to cause that injury. All Stands also have a special ability unique to them, and that can also be used to harm non-Stand users. This means if you're a Stand User without good intentions, you could easily become dangerous.
Jotaro's Stand is Star Platinum, named for the tarot card The Star. Within Part 3, Jotaro's Stand is considered to be among the most powerful in brute strength and speed. That doesn't only have to do with just general fighting ability. Star Platinum is fast and strong enough to catch bullets in mid-air, has unrivaled precision in eyesight and movement, and can even lend its power to Jotaro (giving him enhanced eyesight, leg strength to jump incredibly high while fighting DIO, etc.)
While Star Platinum doesn't speak, it definitely has a personality. In fact, it's easy to see from observation how Jotaro's Stand is a reflection of himself. It represents Jotaro's muted or repressed emotions, sometimes smirking wildly before battle and clearly letting out the raging anger that the man never outwardly shows. When first introduced, we see how it steels beer cans and manga for Jotaro because it senses that Jotaro would like these things. Star Platinum is not normally autonomous, only coming out when Jotaro wants, but there are cases where it'll take initiative to ensure its user's well-being. If Jotaro's life is in real danger, Star Platinum will act without command in order to protect its user. Jotaro literally shot himself to demonstrate to the police and his mother the power of his evil spirit, who caught the bullet before it hit his skull. It is well noted for its self-preservation.
However SP does have some weaknesses. Its range is only defined as 2 meters and while it can move far away from Jotaro to steal shit for him, it cannot fight when too far apart. This means it can only attack people who are virtually right in front of its user. It's also not the most durable Stand, with little defenses if it gets injured. Yet SP has a special power that can make it troublesome. At the end of Part 3, during Jotaro's battle against DIO, it developed a new power simply from sheer observance of DIO's Stand, The World. The World had the power to freeze time for a few seconds, giving DIO an incredible advantage in virtually every battle.
During the confrontation, Star Platinum developed the ability to freeze time as well. It's never clear how exactly this happened, but it may have to do with self-preservation given how Jotaro was seconds from death before this emerged. Both of these Stands are vaguely remarked as being the same type as well. Jotaro began the battle being able to make minimal movements in Dio's time freeze, and by the end he can freeze time on his own.
Jotaro nicknamed this ability "The World", as a sort of mocking tribute to DIO. However calling it a pure time freeze is deceptive in a way. One can view it as Jotaro perceiving the world as slower/stopped, while he moves so fast that proper eyesight cannot keep up. This explains how even though Jotaro can freeze time for two seconds, it rarely ever lasts an actual two seconds from his perspective. Shit DIO can monologue for a few minutes, and counts that as five seconds. So while time is frozen for that long, and the people affected lose that much time, the actual time freeze from Jotaro's perspective is never quite a couple seconds.
And there is a cap on this. First, Jotaro cannot just freeze everything in his surrounding area. He can freeze time within 5 meters/16 feet from himself, in all directions. Second is the limit. DIO was able to extend the limit he could stop time the more frequently he used it. Jotaro is very similar in that regard - in fact when he first used it, he was able to stop time for five seconds proper. Yet having not used Star Platinum frequently in over a decade, his limit has decreased down to two seconds. That said, Jotaro does have the potential to extend his time limit by training the ability. Yet that as well is very difficult for him to do.
That's where the last flaw is: The World is a very strenuous ability. DIO was able to use it with little time in between because he's a vampire, and doesn't tire or injure as easily as humans. Jotaro, for all his strength, is still human. Using The World is physically taxing, and repeat use in a short period of time quickly wears him out. He can manage to use it repeatedly in short increments, but the longer the freeze the more recuperation time he needs before initiating the next one. For that reason, he never uses The World unless the situation is truly desperate. Normally this involves saving someone from immediate danger, dodging an attack he wouldn't be able to otherwise, or making sure an enemy cannot escape him.
Marine life communication: The new power the Porter gives him. He can communicate with intelligent sea life creatures. Specifically, he can understand the intent of any type of sound or communication they make toward him. He can similarly communicate his own intentions to them telepathically, and they will be able to understand him. This power only extends to communication - he cannot control them.
〈 CHARACTER SAMPLES 〉
Omitted.
FINAL NOTES: As far as possessions go, I'd like for him to bring two photographs with him. One is a picture of Jolyne and her mother (this isn't a canon item, but I headcanon that he'd definitely carry this around with him wherever he travels) and another is a photo of the Stardust Crusaders after arriving to Egypt (he stills owns this photo, as seen in Part 5.)
NAME: Marion
AGE: 21+
JOURNAL:
unificationIM / EMAIL: n/a
PLURK:
RETURNING: None
〈 CHARACTER INFO 〉
CHARACTER NAME: Jotaro Kujo
CHARACTER AGE: 28
SERIES: JoJo's Bizarre Adventure
CHRONOLOGY: End of Part 4 - Diamond is Unbreakable - leaving Morioh Town with his grandfather beside him.
CLASS: Hero
HOUSING: Private Housing, Heropa.
BACKGROUND: For the sake of my sanity this wiki link contains a very detailed history of Jotaro's life. Note it's only relevant up to the end of Part 4. With that said, I will summarize the general story of Jotaro's adventures.
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure is well known for its separation of story arcs into "Parts." Every Part follows a new protagonist, a new setting, a new story, but with the promise that there is always some interconnection to the previous Parts before it. Jotaro's story is Part 3, which is in a way considered the second half of Part 1. Part 1 ends with the major antagonist, the vampire DIO, being sunk to the bottom of the sea alongside Jotaro's ancestor Johnathan Joestar. Part 3 begins with DIO's return, over a hundred years later, and the main story once again revolves around defeating him. It even ties into Part 2, whose main protagonist is Jotaro's grandfather, Joseph Joestar.
Part 3 is, in a tagline, a road trip adventure taken to Egypt to kill a vampire. From the beginning this is the one main goal of all the heroes. Yet before Jotaro even takes this journey, he begins his adventure in a prison cell. Now he's not there because he has to be - the police actually call his mother to force him to leave, because he's well overstayed his penalty for beating up a few punks. Yet even when she comes to claim him, he refuses to leave. Why? A demonic spirit has possessed him, and he must keep himself imprisoned for the safety of the public.
It is established soon that what Jotaro is seeing is not a demon, but a representation of his life energy and it's called Stand. This spirit emerged due to DIO, who developed a similar spirit and cursed everyone with the Joestar bloodline to gain one as well. For you see, through bizarre events, DIO now has the body of Johnathan Joestar. And when I say "came to have" I literally mean DIO tore off Johnathan's head and replaced his own head onto Johnathan's body.
...Anyways, everyone in the Joestar line as a result gains a Stand. However Stands are not meant for everyone who comes to possess one. Jotaro's mother, Holy Joestar, also came to develop one as well. However, her Stand went rogue because she did not have the strength or desire to battle required to support it. For that reason, her Stand began to slowly kill her. After deliberation, Joseph concluded the only way to save Holy would be to kill DIO. However they only had 50 days to do so, or Holy would surely die.
So began the Egypt roadtrip, and Jotaro and Joseph were not alone. The first man to join was Mohammad Avdol, a fortune teller Stand user who actually named Jotaro's Stand Star Platinum. Next was Noriyaki Kakyoin, another Stand user and a classmate of Jotaro who tried to kill him. It turned out Kakyoin was under the influence of DIO, via a "fleshbud" that the vampire inserted into his brain to control his loyalties. After Jotaro excises the bud, Kakyoin agrees to help as repayment for his life being saved.
The four men attempt to go by plane, but the pilots die due to one of DIO's minions and the gang instead lands in Hong Kong. While devising their next strategy, they encounter Jean Pierre Polnareff. Polnareff, like Kakyoin, was also a Stand user being controlled by a fleshbud that influenced him to try to and kill the men. However, after being defeated by Avdol and having the fleshbud removed by Jotaro, Polnareff asks to travel with the four men.
So four becomes five, and together they travel from to Singapore, India, Pakistan, the Arabian Desert and the depths of the Red Sea before finally making it to Egypt! A lot of stuff happens in between, but all you need to know is DIO has been sending villains of the week after the gang in the hopes of stopping them. They pretty much don't go more than a few days without getting attacked by a new enemy Stand user.
Once they arrive, five becomes six! Recognizing the challenges ahead, Avdol and Joseph bring in another Stand user. This very much hyped member of the team is... a dog! A very temperamental dog named Iggy, who spends most of his time either being marginally helpful or just plain ol' not giving a fuck. However it is Iggy who finds DIO's mansion all on his own.
So the final showdown against DIO and his remaining minions begins. Yet before they even face DIO, Iggy and Avdol both die in battle against his minion Vanilla Ice (don't question this.) Kakyoin faces the same fate - in an all or nothing attack against DIO, he is defeated and killed with a single blow to the stomach. However, in his dying breath, he realizes the secret to DIO's power and the message is relayed: DIO's Stand, The World, can stop time.
With three of his friends dead, and both Joseph and Polnareff critically injured, it's up to Jotaro to finish DIO alone. Yet as their fight begins and DIO believes he can score an easy win, he learns a shocking discovery: Jotaro is capable of moving in the stopped time. Not nearly enough to make a major difference, but enough to unnerve DIO into fighting more cautiously than ever before.
Yet what DIO doesn't account for is the insane lengths Jotaro will go to in order to defeat him. Right down to using Star Platinum to stop his heart, so that DIO would buy into his attempt to play dead (as DIO's enhanced senses means he could hear the beating.) Yet DIO never plays fair - just before he is defeated, Jotaro makes a critical mistake and allows DIO to be led back to Joseph's injured body. DIO takes advantage of the opportunity, and drinks Joseph's blood. Jotaro, now thinking his grandfather is yet another casualty, is thoroughly pissed. And for a moment, that anger almost gets him killed by rushing into a confrontation head-on.
Really what this boils down to is that DIO would have won this battle on sheer strength alone. Jotaro and his Stand are strong, but DIO's vampire physiology gives him a significant edge. Yet Jotaro wins thanks to an impossible breakthrough: just seconds away from death, Star Platinum initiates its own time freeze. With this sudden ability, Jotaro is able to come up to Dio from behind and strike a massive blow to his leg. That blow doesn't kill him, but it's the punch to The World's leg that Star Platnium makes after that breaks his stand into pieces and thoroughly kills Dio.
In another insane twist, to save Joseph's life Jotaro demands doctors transfuse the blood in DIO's corpse into his grandfather. Jotaro claims that so many impossible things have happened, that the word has simply no meaning to what can and can't be done anymore. Turns out he was right: Joseph is revived from near death, as Star Platinum helps restart the old man's heart and the blood of DIO begins to flow through him.
So the great battle ends. Holy returns to health, Polnareff goes back home to France, and Jotaro and Joseph take DIO's corpse out into the sun so that it may disintegrate into ashes - ensuring the vampire will never again revive. Roll credits.
For ten to eleven years after, life resumed. Jotaro finished high school and went on to get a Ph.D. in Marine Biology, becoming highly recognized as a professor and researcher in his field. He married at the age of 20 to an unnamed woman, had a daughter named Jolyne Cujoh, and left Japan to live in Florida with them.
However due to his workaholic lifestyle, as well as tackling supernatural investigations on the side when he was needed, he kept a heavy distance. In his mind he was doing so in order to protect them, knowing from his experiences that trouble always follows him and people die because of it. Yet he of course never actually says any of this to them, as it seems neither of them even know about his powers, so they only view him as an absent husband/father.
Eventually his wife divorces him over this distance, and he agrees to leave them both alone. This seemingly blasé attitude creates a deep rift between him and Jolyne. It's never really confirmed when the divorce happens, only that it happened a while ago in Part 6 (when Jolyne is 19), but I'll assume it hasn't yet for Part 4 Jotaro.
In Part 4, Jotaro's reason for going to Morioh Town isn't as epic as his reasons for traveling to Egypt. As Joseph Joestar nears the end of his life, he prepares to divide up the massive fortune he has obtained over the years from his real estate company. However, a major issue crops up. As Jotaro looks into Joseph's affairs, he learns that Joseph has an illegitimate son named Josuke Higashitaka. This son is the result of an affair he had with a woman named Tomoko, who he met on one of his trips to Japan. What's more, Joseph himself had no idea of his son's existence until Jotaro uncovered it.
This revelation throws the family into chaos. Despite how furious his wife is, Joseph decides that Josuke must receive at least 1/3rd of his wealth. Yet the only issue is that no one has ever had contact with the boy. As Joseph is too old to travel far distances, it falls on Jotaro to track down Josuke. He also prepares to take the punch to the face that his grandfather deserves.
Joseph uses his Stand, Hermit Purple, to create a spirit photograph of Josuke that would show them what he looks like. However that photograph instead developed a disturbing image, which Jotaro decides to investigate while also tracking Josuke. Upon meeting Josuke and explaining the situation, he's surprised when the boy apologizes for causing so much trouble over the inheritance. In fact the punch he was expecting only comes because he accidentally pisses Josuke off, when he mistakenly insults the teenager's hair without intending to.
After Jotaro and Josuke duke it out for a few seconds, Jotaro leaves some of the photographs with him and tells him to watch out for a potential enemy Stand user. It turns out the two men encounter the user, a serial killer named Angelo, and after defeating him learn that there are more Stand users in Morioh. These Stand users are appearing after being shot by a mystical arrow, which Jotaro later learns was used to originally give DIO his Stand.
From there Part 4 proceeds much like the linked wiki page shows for Jotaro. Much like Jotaro's grandfather Joseph played a supporting mentor role in Part 3, Jotaro now plays that same role for Josuke. This means he's relegated to a side character, only appearing when he is needed by Josuke and his friends. While he only initially intended to have a brief visit in Morioh, he stayed in order to retrieve the arrow that was being used to create new enemies. Most of the time when he is not on screen, he's either in his hotel or investigating the whereabouts of other Stand users. Eventually he requests Joseph's presence in Morioh, seeing it as a last ditch option for locating a difficult to track Stand user. Although he arrives after the user is defeated, Jotaro still gets to watch with a small smile as Josuke helps escort Joseph off the boat.
In the second half of the story, new information surfaces about the infamous Morioh serial killer, who has killed over 40 women over the last decade. At one point Jotaro gets into a battle with the man, Kira Yoshikage, who turns out to be a Stand user created by the arrow. While he is bloodied and nearly beaten dead, Jotaro takes advantage of Kira's ego and gets a solid strike at him before passing out from blood loss. Unfortunately Kira manages to escape and assumes a new identity, one which Jotaro and the rest of the main cast spend time investigating.
At the end, it all turns out well and good. Kira is defeated after Jotaro freezes time to stop him from escaping, and beatshim down. Though Kira's death comes from the back end of an ambulance running him over, but hey Jotaro still helped! After this matter is resolved, Jotaro and Joseph both leave Morioh together.
PERSONALITY:
If you best want to understand Jotaro, all you need to do is hear how many times he says "good grief" throughout the series. It's practically a catchphrase for Jotaro, and his constant exasperation at the situations he's faced with. Whether he's attacking someone, getting beaten up, or just having to do something troublesome, he's always ready to grumble about it.
Jotaro is the kind of guy who wants to live his life without complications, but always gets pulled into complicated situations that are often out of his control. He never asked to have a "demon" spirit possess him, but he got it. He never wanted to go to Egypt, but his mother is dying and he can't let that happen. For Jotaro, a life of average existence ended at age 17 and its been nothing but bizarre ever since. However, for all his constant grumblings, he never laments this fact or really seems to mind it as much as one might think. His exasperated grumblings are more an attempt to conceal the fact that Jotaro is the kind of guy who cares a lot.
One major trait that sticks with Jotaro, through his teenage years and adulthood, is his cool and calm persona. It should be mentioned that the creator of the series once said Clint Eastwood was a big inspiration for Jotaro, as far as badass attitudes go. One staple of the rugged badass is being aloof, emotionally distant, but caring more than you ever let on. Rarely does Jotaro ever break a sweat or freak out, preferring to keep silent unless he feels the need to speak. When it comes to emotions, it might be easy to think he has none given his stoic nature. Truth is he just doesn't display them outright.
In his mind, the best way to get things done is to make people think he has everything under control. Even when he feels nervous, or knows he's at a disadvantage, he has a masterful poker face that he keeps on throughout all situations. One segment of Part 3 had him playing poker against a world class gambler, and winning despite never once looking at the cards dealt to him. For him, battles are fought not through fist alone, but through mind as well. The moment someone loses their cool is the moment they lose control of their situation. So he always keeps cool and patient, knowing things will turn out alright if he calculates correctly when to act.
In this sense, Jotaro is both a combination of brawn and brain in combat. Many of his battles weren't won just by his sheer power, but because he outsmarted the enemy by leading them into a trap. He's good as predicting people's actions, and uses what he knows about them as a means of counter-acting. It's even stated that one of his favorite televisions shows is Columbo, an American drama set up like a detective series the viewer can solve alongside the protagonist. This reveals a hidden inquisitive nature that one might not believe he has, at least not at age 17.
However this leads to Jotaro being easily misunderstood in terms of his personality - always acting aloof and displaying little emotion can have downsides. People can easily misunderstand him, and Jotaro never makes much effort to be understood. He tends to judge a person's character rather quickly, through his own perceptive attitude, and expects others to do the same for him. He thinks those who are perceptive enough will be able to decipher the kind of person he is, and sees no reason to put more effort into being likable in general. Jotaro doesn't favor over-complicating things that are in plain view, sometimes to his own detriment, and so he sees no reason to express more emotion than he feels in the moment. This doesn't often work out in his favor, because if you were to meet Jotaro you'd probably think he was a bit of a jerk.
That's fair though, and he'd probably agree if someone called him a jerk. What it comes down to is that he's excessively blunt. Unless there's a good reason to not do so, he'll always say what's on his mind and be unafraid to express his opinions. He doesn't have a deceptive personality, and is normally forward with his intentions. Even if people may not like what he has to say. This is a guy who, in his teenage years, would walk out of restaurants without paying the bill if he didn't like the food. He'd curse people out who were annoying him, even his own mother, and act like a general delinquent. Some of that has soften due to age and maturity, but it's definitely still part of his core to always be true to who he is. That might not always mean telling the whole truth, but he rarely ever lies.
Yet Jotaro is still very much human. As said earlier, his natural aloof disposition covers up the fact that he really cares. Attack him and he'll react, but rarely get angry about it. It's when you start involving other people that he gets mad. If you attack someone he cares for, he will snap out of his coolness and act upon real anger. When fighting, he tries to make sure there are limited civilians who could get injured and will protect those who are defenseless.
He doesn't even kill his enemies when he has the power to do so, unless they are truly evil without redemption. And if he sees no other way to save someone from danger, he'll risk his life protecting them. Jotaro may never show much outright signs of affection or respect to those he cares for, but once you have him as a friend or ally? He will fight for you without question, and would give up his life to defend yours.
In growing up from a teenage delinquent to a respected scientist in his field, Jotaro has lost a lot of the edge he used to have. While he still has a collect cool about him, he's not as quickly dismissive or harsh to others like he was back at age 17. He also learned the ability to be softer emotionally, when the time calls for it. One such example is when he had to comfort Josuke, after the boy's grandfather was killed by an enemy Stand user. He additionally gave praise to another boy he met, Koichi, about how reliable he was (though Koichi wasn't able to hear him when he did so, maybe on purpose.)
When he goes to Morioh Town to meet Josuke for the first time, he laments that he has to play the rotten role of a man telling a stranger about his estranged father. He doesn't go there to pressure Josuke into doing anything with this information, nor does he act like they need to be family due to blood alone. The bond the two have is earned through their adventures, not blood alone. The same can be said for all the young people he meets, who he acts as mentor to and has deep respect for.
Though that's not to say he has entirely improved since his youth. He still expects people to be able to understand his intentions with actions alone, and doesn't see the pitfalls of that type of attitude. Don't expect him to be really all that good at casual conversation either - he's very much about business, and doesn't talk about himself to others. He stays in Morioh for months and doesn't even talk to Josuke about his own life back home, and that's a family member we're talking about.
The man is still a natural loner, and keeps a distance between himself and others because he thinks they'd be better off that way. Trouble tends to follow him wherever he goes, and he doesn't want other people getting pulled into it. Three people died in Egypt because he decided to follow him and his grandfather into going up against DIO, and their sacrifices never leave his mind. This attitude later on in his life causes him to divorce his wife, and create a rift between him and his daughter. All done under the premise of "keeping them safe" which is a pretty bone-headed thing to do. Look I said he was a bit more emotionally mature, but he's not exactly where he needs to be.
To conclude, much of the man Jotaro is can be tied back to the tarot card designation that his Stand was given - The Star. The most typical interpretation of Star is that it's a card that signifies hope in a brighter tomorrow. It can also signify unexpected help appearing to guide the way to that future. Jotaro is a man who always looks forward, pushing ahead no matter the obstacles in front of him. Even if he may die, he will do so knowing he fights for justice, and for those he wants to protect. He fights not for himself, but more for others in general - even his journey to Egypt was spurned on by a desire to save his mother. Though he rarely expresses himself openly, Jotaro is at core a person who will always do good when he can. The Star is about the possibilities of a great future ahead, and Jotaro will fight for that future no matter what.
POWER: Jotaro has one power that comes from his canon, and will be given a new power via the porter.
Stand: Star Platinum
As mentioned in the Background, a small population of humans are capable of projecting an astral being made of their spirit/life energy. This being is called a Stand, since it "stands" by the person as a guardian entity. Here is what canon defines as definite for all Stands:
-They must have a host of some kind to bond to. It can be a living being or a physical object.
-If a Stand is injured, the injuries it takes will be inflicted on its host. So whenever Star Platinum takes a hit, Jotaro will get hit in that same location. However, aside from the former sentence, any injuries Jotaro takes are not reflected onto Star Platinum.
-The host will die if the Stand is killed. It's literally their soul.
In most cases Stands are not independent beings, but extensions of their host's life. Even those not bound to humans need to bond with something in order to be functional. To make life easier, think of Stands like Pokemon. You only get one and if it faints then it's game over for you. Continuing the analogy, Stands can only fight against other Stands/Stand users. The fancy astral projection of the soul can only directly hit a physical person if they're somehow connected to a Stand. Keyword here is "direct."
While they are technically astral beings, they have been shown capable of carrying physical objects and even using them in battle. Stands can't directly hurt someone who isn't a Stand user, but they can definitely use something to cause that injury. All Stands also have a special ability unique to them, and that can also be used to harm non-Stand users. This means if you're a Stand User without good intentions, you could easily become dangerous.
Jotaro's Stand is Star Platinum, named for the tarot card The Star. Within Part 3, Jotaro's Stand is considered to be among the most powerful in brute strength and speed. That doesn't only have to do with just general fighting ability. Star Platinum is fast and strong enough to catch bullets in mid-air, has unrivaled precision in eyesight and movement, and can even lend its power to Jotaro (giving him enhanced eyesight, leg strength to jump incredibly high while fighting DIO, etc.)
While Star Platinum doesn't speak, it definitely has a personality. In fact, it's easy to see from observation how Jotaro's Stand is a reflection of himself. It represents Jotaro's muted or repressed emotions, sometimes smirking wildly before battle and clearly letting out the raging anger that the man never outwardly shows. When first introduced, we see how it steels beer cans and manga for Jotaro because it senses that Jotaro would like these things. Star Platinum is not normally autonomous, only coming out when Jotaro wants, but there are cases where it'll take initiative to ensure its user's well-being. If Jotaro's life is in real danger, Star Platinum will act without command in order to protect its user. Jotaro literally shot himself to demonstrate to the police and his mother the power of his evil spirit, who caught the bullet before it hit his skull. It is well noted for its self-preservation.
However SP does have some weaknesses. Its range is only defined as 2 meters and while it can move far away from Jotaro to steal shit for him, it cannot fight when too far apart. This means it can only attack people who are virtually right in front of its user. It's also not the most durable Stand, with little defenses if it gets injured. Yet SP has a special power that can make it troublesome. At the end of Part 3, during Jotaro's battle against DIO, it developed a new power simply from sheer observance of DIO's Stand, The World. The World had the power to freeze time for a few seconds, giving DIO an incredible advantage in virtually every battle.
During the confrontation, Star Platinum developed the ability to freeze time as well. It's never clear how exactly this happened, but it may have to do with self-preservation given how Jotaro was seconds from death before this emerged. Both of these Stands are vaguely remarked as being the same type as well. Jotaro began the battle being able to make minimal movements in Dio's time freeze, and by the end he can freeze time on his own.
Jotaro nicknamed this ability "The World", as a sort of mocking tribute to DIO. However calling it a pure time freeze is deceptive in a way. One can view it as Jotaro perceiving the world as slower/stopped, while he moves so fast that proper eyesight cannot keep up. This explains how even though Jotaro can freeze time for two seconds, it rarely ever lasts an actual two seconds from his perspective. Shit DIO can monologue for a few minutes, and counts that as five seconds. So while time is frozen for that long, and the people affected lose that much time, the actual time freeze from Jotaro's perspective is never quite a couple seconds.
And there is a cap on this. First, Jotaro cannot just freeze everything in his surrounding area. He can freeze time within 5 meters/16 feet from himself, in all directions. Second is the limit. DIO was able to extend the limit he could stop time the more frequently he used it. Jotaro is very similar in that regard - in fact when he first used it, he was able to stop time for five seconds proper. Yet having not used Star Platinum frequently in over a decade, his limit has decreased down to two seconds. That said, Jotaro does have the potential to extend his time limit by training the ability. Yet that as well is very difficult for him to do.
That's where the last flaw is: The World is a very strenuous ability. DIO was able to use it with little time in between because he's a vampire, and doesn't tire or injure as easily as humans. Jotaro, for all his strength, is still human. Using The World is physically taxing, and repeat use in a short period of time quickly wears him out. He can manage to use it repeatedly in short increments, but the longer the freeze the more recuperation time he needs before initiating the next one. For that reason, he never uses The World unless the situation is truly desperate. Normally this involves saving someone from immediate danger, dodging an attack he wouldn't be able to otherwise, or making sure an enemy cannot escape him.
Marine life communication: The new power the Porter gives him. He can communicate with intelligent sea life creatures. Specifically, he can understand the intent of any type of sound or communication they make toward him. He can similarly communicate his own intentions to them telepathically, and they will be able to understand him. This power only extends to communication - he cannot control them.
〈 CHARACTER SAMPLES 〉
Omitted.
FINAL NOTES: As far as possessions go, I'd like for him to bring two photographs with him. One is a picture of Jolyne and her mother (this isn't a canon item, but I headcanon that he'd definitely carry this around with him wherever he travels) and another is a photo of the Stardust Crusaders after arriving to Egypt (he stills owns this photo, as seen in Part 5.)
