Jonathan Joestar (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
fistofthejoestar) wrote2014-09-30 02:49 am
fistofthejoestar) wrote2014-09-30 02:49 am
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〈 PLAYER INFO 〉
NAME: Len
JOURNAL:hamiltonian
〈 CHARACTER INFO 〉
CHARACTER NAME: Jonathan Joestar
CHARACTER AGE: 20
SERIES: Jojo's Bizarre Adventure
CHRONOLOGY: Just after defeating Dio and destroying the mask.
CLASS: The most painfully sincere hero you have ever met.
HOUSING: Random's fine.
BACKGROUND:
"This is a tale of two youths and a stone mask that alters their fates."
...more or less. Phantom Blood, the part of JJBA which Jonathan is the main character, takes place on a Victorian earth which is very much like ours until it suddenly explodes with supernatural elements.
Jonathan Joestar was the only son of a wealthy English family; as an infant, he and his parents were involved in a carriage accident which killed his mother. His father was heavily injured but survived, though not before mistaking a lowlife ransacking his body for valuables for a Good Samaritan attempting to help him. Touched by the man's supposed compassion, George Joestar declares himself indebted to him. We're going to blame the massive head trauma on this decision.
Years later, the man dies. In order to finally repay the kindness shown to him, George adopts his orphaned son, Dio Brando, with the intention of raising him alongside Jonathan. This would have been the start of a really touching period piece if it weren't for the fact that even at the age of twelve Dio was a power-hungry psychopath.
Intent on taking the Joestar fortune for himself and robbing his newfound brother of literally every positive thing in his life, the two boys immediately clash in a series of escalating conflicts in which Jonathan seems to perpetually come out the worse for. Over a short course of time, he sees his father grow dissatisfied with practically everything he does, his friends turn against him, and his budding love interest humiliated and chased out of his life.
This final act is too much for Jonathan to bear and prompts him to beat the everloving shit out of Dio for what is probably the first time in their lives. Dio quite reasonably evens the score by subsequently burning Jonathan's dog alive.
At this point Dio realizes that a) Jonathan is a lot more resilient than he'd originally thought, somehow managing not only to withstand his emotional assault but grow stronger because of it and b) maybe it would be easier to get what he wants if he attempted to be more subtle about things than a cartoon anvil. This epiphany leads to seven years of relative peace, as Dio feigns camaraderie with Jonathan and the pair live and grow together.
Jonathan's interests turn to archaeology, and to a certain artifact in particular: a stone mask which had belonged to his mother and long been displayed in the family manor. During the aforementioned fight with Dio he had noticed it react to blood, but even after exhaustive research he was no closer to conclusively determining its original purpose.
During one round of research, however, he discovers a letter revealing that Dio had poisoned his biological father and was attempting to use the same poison on George, because apparently if it isn't broke Dio doesn't feel like fixing it. The ensuing confrontation shatters the superficial truce between the two as Jonathan refuses to turn a blind eye to the machinations and allow his father to die. Shocking.
Unable to identify the poison at his university, Jonathan turns to the scummiest underbelly of a London neighborhood that Dio had once called home in order to track down the man who had produced the poison instead. By himself. This ends as anyone would imagine - with Jonathan being jumped by a large band of thugs eager for an easy mark. To their complete surprise, however, Jonathan easily overcomes the unfavorable odds; one of the thugs, Speedwagon, notes that he deliberately held himself back in order to avoid seriously injuring any of his assailants. When pressed on the decision, he explains that he hadn't wanted to bring any of the pain haunting his own family onto theirs by handing out brutal beatdowns.
Touched by this display of inhuman compassion, Speedwagon has a change of heart and agrees to show him to the maker of the poison. And then decides to insert himself into Joestar family politics by accompanying Jonathan and the police back to the manor to confront Dio because he sensed the boy's aggressive naivete, I guess.
At the manor, things take a really tragic turn for the bizarre. Dio, whose intense desire to murder Jonathan in the most poetically ironic manner possible had led to his tinkering around with the mask, chooses this moment to reveal to all present the horrible truth of its purpose: when splashed with blood, it transforms the wearer into an immortal vampire. He immediately attempts to demonstrate with Jonathan as his blood donor, but at the last minute George takes the blow himself and dies in his son's arms.
As if this wasn't bad enough, the newly-minted vampire Dio slaughters the policemen and sets about finishing what his adopted father had interrupted. The house is set afire in the process, which Jonathan uses to his advantage in an attempt to outpace Dio's regeneration abilities. The two fight to a standstill despite Dio being a vampire and Jonathan having a spear stuck in his shoulder; eventually Dio is impaled on a family statue and engulfed in the flames as an explosion blows Jonathan out of the house and effectively saves him from the sacrifice he was prepared to make.
Unfortunately for Jonathan both he and Dio manage to survive the destruction of their family home, albeit severely injured. Dio starts amassing an undead army while tending to his wounds, and Jonathan finds himself reunited with Erina, the girl who had been chased off by Dio years ago. Now a nurse, he and Erina rekindle their romance as she oversees his recovery - until one day they're approached by an extremely suave Italian man who speeds along Jonathan's healing process by punching him.
No, really.
The man explains that his name is William Zeppeli, and he's searching for the stone mask in order to destroy it and fulfill a personal vendetta. He offers to teach Jonathan how to use the ripple, the really bizarre form of sunlight breathing karate which he had used to heal him previously, in order to defeat the undead threat. Jonathan subsequently gets a crash course in ripple technique, then sets out with Zeppeli and Speedwagon to the tiny English town where Dio had holed up in order to confront him.
Upon their first encounter with Dio, he reveals to them that the power of the ripple is basically useless against him before the first battle even starts because being a vampire apparently means that you can also freeze people. Zeppeli nearly loses an arm before Dio decides fighting them himself is stupid and calls in two zombified Elizabethan knights to finish things up. With Zeppeli out of commission and Speedwagon basically filling the role of distressed girlfriend, Jonathan takes them on by himself.
Two really dramatic back-to-back fight sequences ensue, during which Jonathan is gifted one of the knight's swords as his humanity briefly returns upon defeat and Zeppeli is ripped in half defending him from the other. Before he dies, Zeppeli transfers all of his life/ripple energy to Jonathan, essentially upgrading him to unstoppable death machine level. Filled with a righteous need for vengeance, Jonathan meets up with Zeppeli's ripple master and some of his disciples and the whole group storms the castle.
Because this is essentially a story about two brothers who just cannot get along with each other above all else, Jonathan faces Dio alone as the others keep his undead horde at bay. Although it seems as if he is once again at a marked disadvantage, Jonathan somehow manages to achieve victory through a combination of strategic thinking and superhuman willpower. Seriously, how does somebody just muscle through having their carotid artery fondled, it's a mystery.
Dio's body, burning from the inside out with ripple energy, is sent flying off the castle balcony and the stone mask which had caused all of this trouble is destroyed in a really satisfying manner. Everything seems like it's worked out - except it hasn't, but that's past the canon point I'm taking him from so we can all pretend.
PERSONALITY:
The simplest way to describe Jonathan is that he's a really good guy. Early in his life he speaks of wanting to be "a real gentleman" and this desire guides nearly all of his actions from then on out. He is unfailingly polite to everyone he meets, including people (who are also on occasion undead abominations) whom he is currently engaged in battle against. He's compassionate and considerate to a fault, purposely holding back when fighting street thugs who had him outnumbered for the simple fact that he didn't want to bring any sadness on their families by seriously crippling them.
This amazingly genuine goodness has been commented on by other characters repeatedly throughout the canon, and it's the reason that people are inspired by and drawn to him - for example, Speedwagon is one of those street thugs who were spared serious injury. Compelled by that act of kindness and the unreserved friendship Jonathan shows him, he renounces his criminal ways and later becomes a lifelong ally not only of Jonathan, but the entirety of his descendants through the Speedwagon Foundation.
Even Jonathan's gentle nature isn't without its limits, however. While he is perfectly willing to take a great deal of abuse when it's heaped upon him, the moment someone else (particularly a loved one) is threatened he becomes completely enraged and proves that his compassion does not extend to a fight when the situation is truly dire. Dio learned this the hard way when he ruined Erina's reputation and subsequently found the boy he had consistently beaten and humiliated smashing his face in with the avowal that he wouldn't let up until he'd made Dio cry.
However, this isn't without its drawbacks; while Jonathan is completely sincere, he is also painfully naive. Besides making the assumption that hardened criminals in one of London's roughest neighborhoods had anyone who would be truly sorrowful at seeing them hurt, he decides to bring Speedwagon back to the Joestar manor to confront Dio after having known him for only a few hours, and most of that time having been occupied by trying to fend off an assault by him. Despite the absolutely brutal torture Dio put him through during his childhood, he stills finds himself unable to shoot his adopted brother when his poison plot is brought to light and things start to go off the rails.
This isn't to say that Jonathan is stupid! Far from it. Despite his ridiculous physical proportions, he's actually quite intellectual. During his time at university he majored in archaeology and had already published several papers on the subject before graduation, in addition to his meticulous research into the purpose of the stone mask. He's adaptable and able to think on his feet, enabling him to keep pace with (and overcome) the frequently changing aspects of the battles he finds himself embroiled in.
One of Jonathan's greatest traits is his resiliency, both mental and emotional (and, to some extent, physical, because wow the hits he takes). Ever since Dio's arrival at the Joestar manor, he had worked tirelessly to isolate Jonathan and ensure that he had absolutely nothing to look forward to in his life; most wealthy children unaccustomed to real hardship the way Jonathan had been at the start of all this would have completely folded under the pressure, but instead he suffered through it and emerged with all of his compassion and optimism intact.
Dio once remarked that one of the things that made Jonathan so dangerous was that "the more you beat him, the tougher he gets" and this is completely true. Rather than submit, immense suffering seems to only cause Jonathan to become even more stubborn and implacable than he usually is. He frequently surprises those he fights by using tactics no sane man would which incur more pain on himself in order to find and exploit weaknesses, such as rushing towards a headbutt or swimming deeper into a river while drowning.
Although Jonathan does have the cool head required to successfully utilize such strategies, at heart he is driven by his emotions. While he does his best to behave in a gentlemanly fashion, he's hotblooded at his core and prone to making impassioned speeches and perhaps imprudent decisions if he feels they're the morally right ones. He is completely comfortable with his own feelings, and nowhere is this more evident than in sadness - Jonathan freely and openly cries repeatedly throughout the series despite having been something of a crybaby as a child.
On the flip side, he isn't very good at disguising his emotions, even from himself; before engaging Dio in (what he thinks is) their final confrontation, he claims that he won't feel anything when he kills his adopted brother, only to immediately begin crying upon actually achieving victory.
One of the greatest things about Jonathan is his capacity for forgiveness. While he is completely unwavering in his sense of honor and his dedication to doing what is right, whatever that may be, he does not hold grudges. Ironically, the greatest example of this is also his last living act. When Jonathan defeats Dio at Windknights Lot, to the surprise of no one in the audience, he doesn't actually die. He does, however, come to admire Jonathan for having the strength to not only survive but overcome everything he's thrown at him throughout their lives. Dio outright states that Jonathan is the only person he's ever respected, which is high praise coming from a sociopathic bastard.
Unfortunately this admiration translates into a desire to hijack Jonathan's body because...because. Soon after Jonathan's pull point he's ambushed by the floating head of Dio en route to his honeymoon and fatally wounded. As he's dying he chooses to embrace Dio. His final thoughts? Reflecting on the fact that he and Dio (the man who literally caused every bad thing in his life) are truly friends and brothers and agreeing with Dio that, yes, it's quite possible they were even two halves of a single person.
No, I have no idea how this guy is real either.
POWER:
- ripple (canon)
The wiki page will probably explain this much more coherently, but I'm going to give this a go anyway because this canon's powers are so stupid double explanations can't hurt anyone.
As mentioned in the history section, the ripple is essentially sunlight karate. By utilizing a certain style of breathing, the ripple user is able to channel the power of the sun through their body as well as charge objects (and people) with it. This encourages a very Jackie Chan style of improvisation in its users, as the ripple can be literally imbued in almost anything - Jonathan himself briefly uses a sword, and later characters fight with suped up bubbles and clacker balls.
Because the ripple is basically sunshine, it is particularly lethal to vampires/undead/similarly spooky beings. Aside from its offensive capabilities, it can increase the surface tension of liquids to the point where a user can walk on them. Additionally, the ripple allows users to reject substances from their bloodstream, as well as heal both themselves and others.
That said, the ripple has...pretty bad weaknesses, I guess because the protagonists weren't having a hard enough time getting through things as it was. Because the ripple is created and regulated completely through breathing, anything which restricts airflow can weaken a user's attacks or outright prevent them from using it at all. Additionally, removing heat from a user (such as through freezing them with vampire magic) causes their bloodflow to slow considerably and also prevents them from attacking as effectively.
- Stand (canon...ish? this series I swear)
So. In the first two parts of JJBA (including Phantom Blood), the main ability utilized by the protagonists is the ripple; from Part 3 onward a new power takes center stage - Stands. The wiki has a more detailed explanation about Stands in general, but the gist of it is that they're a physical manifestation of a person's willpower and psyche that each possess unique abilities and are only visible to (and able to be defeated by) other Stand users.
Stands can either develop naturally or be induced by piercing oneself with an arrow which had been forged from an ancient meteorite. During part three, DIO, wanting to harness such a power for himself, does just that. However, because his body from the neck down is now Jonathan's, this has the unintended side effect of awakening stands in the Joestar line along with DIO'S - and also one in Jonathan's body.
Yeah, it's. Yeah.
While Jonathan never had access to his Stand in canon, in MoM this travesty will be repaired! His Stand is nearly identical to his grandson Joseph's, both in appearance and ability.
The Stand has several powers:
- Psychic Visions. The Stand user is able to psychically home in on a target (be a it a person, place, or thing) and use an image-producing medium to create a picture of it as it is in that exact moment. The most common medium used in canon is a camera, but it's been shown to work on something as basic as a dusty road as well. While Joseph's version of the Stand destroys the camera after using it, Jonathan's seems to lack this quirk and leaves the appliance intact.
The Stand can also be used in tandem with a television set to produce live footage of the target, or to receive psychic audio - the channels will flip continuously to sound out the answer to whatever question the user asks.
- Heart...Reading? Ok I have no idea what to call this, but Jonathan's Stand has been shown to also have the ability to project images from a person's heart in a similar manner to its psychic visions. These images seem to be more of a representation of something in a person's life/a strong emotion they feel rather than mind reading - when it was used on Polnareff, for example, it displayed an image of his sister's killer who he had never personally seen before in his life; he was told that this image represented the pain which he felt in his heart.
- Ripple Transmission. Joseph's Stand has shown the ability to transmit Ripple through it, acting as an extension of his own body. This can be used to attack or to cover an object or person up in defense against undead beings. Jonathan's Stand has never done this in canon because DIO is a vampire who can't use the Ripple, but it's such a carbon copy of Hermit Purple in every other way that I assume it's also capable of this when utilized by a Ripple user.
The Stand can also be used as a whip or grappling hook for the fulfillment of everyone's childhood Spider-Man fantasies.
- Enhanced Durability/Endurance (noncanon)
Throughout canon Jonathan has basically managed to weaponize Taking It, so here it's going to be his third superpower.
It will be much more difficult to hurt him than a regular person, and he will be able to withstand injuries that would be fatal to anyone who wasn't similarly powered up. Unfortunately this power does nothing to mitigate the pain caused by any of this, nor does it offer him any healing abilities beyond what his ripple is capable of. Also it obviously can't regrow limbs or allow him to do something ridiculous like function only as a floating head like some people who won't be mentionedDio.
〈 CHARACTER SAMPLES 〉
COMMUNITY POST (VOICE) SAMPLE:
[hey, look, another video post. the camera clicks on to reveal Jonathan staring very intently at it, as if he's checking to make sure there weren't any mistakes made. apparently finding none, he smiles with a boyish excitement that's a little unexpected for someone whose chest takes up two thirds of the screen despite very careful angling of the communicator.
when he speaks his voice is gentle and even, yet another surprise from somebody of his size.]
I've been here for a little while, but this is my first time connecting on my own. [he laughs a little bit] I wanted to be sure I could do it without breaking anything.
My name is Jonathan Joestar! It's a pleasure to meet...well, anyone viewing this, I suppose.
[he pauses for a moment as his good manners tangle with the vast unknown that is modern technology, but he continues onwards in good order.]
Halloween is coming up soon, isn't it? We didn't really celebrate at home, so I'm looking forward to experiencing it here.
I can't say that I know what to expect, though - I've only ever been to an All Hallow's Eve gathering once, when I was very young. My father brought me up to Scotland with him, but to be perfectly honest I spent more time sitting around the bonfire eating than paying attention to much of anything.
[he chuckles again, and seems like he's going to keep going before he preemptively cuts himself off with an apologetic duck of his head.]
Ah, but that's not really something anyone cares about. I'm sorry, I tend to talk a bit selfishly when I'm excited.
What I'd meant to ask was if anyone would be so kind as to recommend me things to carve into pumpkins! It's an awful lot of fun, but as you can see-
[the camera lurches and jerks as Jonathan picks it up and shifts so that it now shows a (very messy) table full of freshly carved pumpkins. it's pretty obvious from the sheer number of them that that boyish excitement from earlier isn't exclusive to new technology.
the carved figures are all impressively grotesque from what can be made out around the mountains of pumpkin guts and will probably look very nice once they're lit up. a few on the far end even look suspiciously like a certain vampire.]
I've run out of demons and ancient gods of destruction before pumpkins. I'd like to do a few that are more traditional for this world, too, so anything you can suggest would be greatly appreciated.
LOGS POST (PROSE) SAMPLE:
Test Drive thread!
As a note, there are several other threads in the parent comment, should this one not meet standard for whatever reason.
FINAL NOTES: I'm so sorry you had to read all of this. I've truly abused your captive status as mods here.
NAME: Len
JOURNAL:
hamiltonian〈 CHARACTER INFO 〉
CHARACTER NAME: Jonathan Joestar
CHARACTER AGE: 20
SERIES: Jojo's Bizarre Adventure
CHRONOLOGY: Just after defeating Dio and destroying the mask.
CLASS: The most painfully sincere hero you have ever met.
HOUSING: Random's fine.
BACKGROUND:
"This is a tale of two youths and a stone mask that alters their fates."
...more or less. Phantom Blood, the part of JJBA which Jonathan is the main character, takes place on a Victorian earth which is very much like ours until it suddenly explodes with supernatural elements.
Jonathan Joestar was the only son of a wealthy English family; as an infant, he and his parents were involved in a carriage accident which killed his mother. His father was heavily injured but survived, though not before mistaking a lowlife ransacking his body for valuables for a Good Samaritan attempting to help him. Touched by the man's supposed compassion, George Joestar declares himself indebted to him. We're going to blame the massive head trauma on this decision.
Years later, the man dies. In order to finally repay the kindness shown to him, George adopts his orphaned son, Dio Brando, with the intention of raising him alongside Jonathan. This would have been the start of a really touching period piece if it weren't for the fact that even at the age of twelve Dio was a power-hungry psychopath.
Intent on taking the Joestar fortune for himself and robbing his newfound brother of literally every positive thing in his life, the two boys immediately clash in a series of escalating conflicts in which Jonathan seems to perpetually come out the worse for. Over a short course of time, he sees his father grow dissatisfied with practically everything he does, his friends turn against him, and his budding love interest humiliated and chased out of his life.
This final act is too much for Jonathan to bear and prompts him to beat the everloving shit out of Dio for what is probably the first time in their lives. Dio quite reasonably evens the score by subsequently burning Jonathan's dog alive.
At this point Dio realizes that a) Jonathan is a lot more resilient than he'd originally thought, somehow managing not only to withstand his emotional assault but grow stronger because of it and b) maybe it would be easier to get what he wants if he attempted to be more subtle about things than a cartoon anvil. This epiphany leads to seven years of relative peace, as Dio feigns camaraderie with Jonathan and the pair live and grow together.
Jonathan's interests turn to archaeology, and to a certain artifact in particular: a stone mask which had belonged to his mother and long been displayed in the family manor. During the aforementioned fight with Dio he had noticed it react to blood, but even after exhaustive research he was no closer to conclusively determining its original purpose.
During one round of research, however, he discovers a letter revealing that Dio had poisoned his biological father and was attempting to use the same poison on George, because apparently if it isn't broke Dio doesn't feel like fixing it. The ensuing confrontation shatters the superficial truce between the two as Jonathan refuses to turn a blind eye to the machinations and allow his father to die. Shocking.
Unable to identify the poison at his university, Jonathan turns to the scummiest underbelly of a London neighborhood that Dio had once called home in order to track down the man who had produced the poison instead. By himself. This ends as anyone would imagine - with Jonathan being jumped by a large band of thugs eager for an easy mark. To their complete surprise, however, Jonathan easily overcomes the unfavorable odds; one of the thugs, Speedwagon, notes that he deliberately held himself back in order to avoid seriously injuring any of his assailants. When pressed on the decision, he explains that he hadn't wanted to bring any of the pain haunting his own family onto theirs by handing out brutal beatdowns.
Touched by this display of inhuman compassion, Speedwagon has a change of heart and agrees to show him to the maker of the poison. And then decides to insert himself into Joestar family politics by accompanying Jonathan and the police back to the manor to confront Dio because he sensed the boy's aggressive naivete, I guess.
At the manor, things take a really tragic turn for the bizarre. Dio, whose intense desire to murder Jonathan in the most poetically ironic manner possible had led to his tinkering around with the mask, chooses this moment to reveal to all present the horrible truth of its purpose: when splashed with blood, it transforms the wearer into an immortal vampire. He immediately attempts to demonstrate with Jonathan as his blood donor, but at the last minute George takes the blow himself and dies in his son's arms.
As if this wasn't bad enough, the newly-minted vampire Dio slaughters the policemen and sets about finishing what his adopted father had interrupted. The house is set afire in the process, which Jonathan uses to his advantage in an attempt to outpace Dio's regeneration abilities. The two fight to a standstill despite Dio being a vampire and Jonathan having a spear stuck in his shoulder; eventually Dio is impaled on a family statue and engulfed in the flames as an explosion blows Jonathan out of the house and effectively saves him from the sacrifice he was prepared to make.
Unfortunately for Jonathan both he and Dio manage to survive the destruction of their family home, albeit severely injured. Dio starts amassing an undead army while tending to his wounds, and Jonathan finds himself reunited with Erina, the girl who had been chased off by Dio years ago. Now a nurse, he and Erina rekindle their romance as she oversees his recovery - until one day they're approached by an extremely suave Italian man who speeds along Jonathan's healing process by punching him.
No, really.
The man explains that his name is William Zeppeli, and he's searching for the stone mask in order to destroy it and fulfill a personal vendetta. He offers to teach Jonathan how to use the ripple, the really bizarre form of sunlight breathing karate which he had used to heal him previously, in order to defeat the undead threat. Jonathan subsequently gets a crash course in ripple technique, then sets out with Zeppeli and Speedwagon to the tiny English town where Dio had holed up in order to confront him.
Upon their first encounter with Dio, he reveals to them that the power of the ripple is basically useless against him before the first battle even starts because being a vampire apparently means that you can also freeze people. Zeppeli nearly loses an arm before Dio decides fighting them himself is stupid and calls in two zombified Elizabethan knights to finish things up. With Zeppeli out of commission and Speedwagon basically filling the role of distressed girlfriend, Jonathan takes them on by himself.
Two really dramatic back-to-back fight sequences ensue, during which Jonathan is gifted one of the knight's swords as his humanity briefly returns upon defeat and Zeppeli is ripped in half defending him from the other. Before he dies, Zeppeli transfers all of his life/ripple energy to Jonathan, essentially upgrading him to unstoppable death machine level. Filled with a righteous need for vengeance, Jonathan meets up with Zeppeli's ripple master and some of his disciples and the whole group storms the castle.
Because this is essentially a story about two brothers who just cannot get along with each other above all else, Jonathan faces Dio alone as the others keep his undead horde at bay. Although it seems as if he is once again at a marked disadvantage, Jonathan somehow manages to achieve victory through a combination of strategic thinking and superhuman willpower. Seriously, how does somebody just muscle through having their carotid artery fondled, it's a mystery.
Dio's body, burning from the inside out with ripple energy, is sent flying off the castle balcony and the stone mask which had caused all of this trouble is destroyed in a really satisfying manner. Everything seems like it's worked out - except it hasn't, but that's past the canon point I'm taking him from so we can all pretend.
PERSONALITY:
The simplest way to describe Jonathan is that he's a really good guy. Early in his life he speaks of wanting to be "a real gentleman" and this desire guides nearly all of his actions from then on out. He is unfailingly polite to everyone he meets, including people (who are also on occasion undead abominations) whom he is currently engaged in battle against. He's compassionate and considerate to a fault, purposely holding back when fighting street thugs who had him outnumbered for the simple fact that he didn't want to bring any sadness on their families by seriously crippling them.
This amazingly genuine goodness has been commented on by other characters repeatedly throughout the canon, and it's the reason that people are inspired by and drawn to him - for example, Speedwagon is one of those street thugs who were spared serious injury. Compelled by that act of kindness and the unreserved friendship Jonathan shows him, he renounces his criminal ways and later becomes a lifelong ally not only of Jonathan, but the entirety of his descendants through the Speedwagon Foundation.
Even Jonathan's gentle nature isn't without its limits, however. While he is perfectly willing to take a great deal of abuse when it's heaped upon him, the moment someone else (particularly a loved one) is threatened he becomes completely enraged and proves that his compassion does not extend to a fight when the situation is truly dire. Dio learned this the hard way when he ruined Erina's reputation and subsequently found the boy he had consistently beaten and humiliated smashing his face in with the avowal that he wouldn't let up until he'd made Dio cry.
However, this isn't without its drawbacks; while Jonathan is completely sincere, he is also painfully naive. Besides making the assumption that hardened criminals in one of London's roughest neighborhoods had anyone who would be truly sorrowful at seeing them hurt, he decides to bring Speedwagon back to the Joestar manor to confront Dio after having known him for only a few hours, and most of that time having been occupied by trying to fend off an assault by him. Despite the absolutely brutal torture Dio put him through during his childhood, he stills finds himself unable to shoot his adopted brother when his poison plot is brought to light and things start to go off the rails.
This isn't to say that Jonathan is stupid! Far from it. Despite his ridiculous physical proportions, he's actually quite intellectual. During his time at university he majored in archaeology and had already published several papers on the subject before graduation, in addition to his meticulous research into the purpose of the stone mask. He's adaptable and able to think on his feet, enabling him to keep pace with (and overcome) the frequently changing aspects of the battles he finds himself embroiled in.
One of Jonathan's greatest traits is his resiliency, both mental and emotional (and, to some extent, physical, because wow the hits he takes). Ever since Dio's arrival at the Joestar manor, he had worked tirelessly to isolate Jonathan and ensure that he had absolutely nothing to look forward to in his life; most wealthy children unaccustomed to real hardship the way Jonathan had been at the start of all this would have completely folded under the pressure, but instead he suffered through it and emerged with all of his compassion and optimism intact.
Dio once remarked that one of the things that made Jonathan so dangerous was that "the more you beat him, the tougher he gets" and this is completely true. Rather than submit, immense suffering seems to only cause Jonathan to become even more stubborn and implacable than he usually is. He frequently surprises those he fights by using tactics no sane man would which incur more pain on himself in order to find and exploit weaknesses, such as rushing towards a headbutt or swimming deeper into a river while drowning.
Although Jonathan does have the cool head required to successfully utilize such strategies, at heart he is driven by his emotions. While he does his best to behave in a gentlemanly fashion, he's hotblooded at his core and prone to making impassioned speeches and perhaps imprudent decisions if he feels they're the morally right ones. He is completely comfortable with his own feelings, and nowhere is this more evident than in sadness - Jonathan freely and openly cries repeatedly throughout the series despite having been something of a crybaby as a child.
On the flip side, he isn't very good at disguising his emotions, even from himself; before engaging Dio in (what he thinks is) their final confrontation, he claims that he won't feel anything when he kills his adopted brother, only to immediately begin crying upon actually achieving victory.
One of the greatest things about Jonathan is his capacity for forgiveness. While he is completely unwavering in his sense of honor and his dedication to doing what is right, whatever that may be, he does not hold grudges. Ironically, the greatest example of this is also his last living act. When Jonathan defeats Dio at Windknights Lot, to the surprise of no one in the audience, he doesn't actually die. He does, however, come to admire Jonathan for having the strength to not only survive but overcome everything he's thrown at him throughout their lives. Dio outright states that Jonathan is the only person he's ever respected, which is high praise coming from a sociopathic bastard.
Unfortunately this admiration translates into a desire to hijack Jonathan's body because...because. Soon after Jonathan's pull point he's ambushed by the floating head of Dio en route to his honeymoon and fatally wounded. As he's dying he chooses to embrace Dio. His final thoughts? Reflecting on the fact that he and Dio (the man who literally caused every bad thing in his life) are truly friends and brothers and agreeing with Dio that, yes, it's quite possible they were even two halves of a single person.
No, I have no idea how this guy is real either.
POWER:
- ripple (canon)
The wiki page will probably explain this much more coherently, but I'm going to give this a go anyway because this canon's powers are so stupid double explanations can't hurt anyone.
As mentioned in the history section, the ripple is essentially sunlight karate. By utilizing a certain style of breathing, the ripple user is able to channel the power of the sun through their body as well as charge objects (and people) with it. This encourages a very Jackie Chan style of improvisation in its users, as the ripple can be literally imbued in almost anything - Jonathan himself briefly uses a sword, and later characters fight with suped up bubbles and clacker balls.
Because the ripple is basically sunshine, it is particularly lethal to vampires/undead/similarly spooky beings. Aside from its offensive capabilities, it can increase the surface tension of liquids to the point where a user can walk on them. Additionally, the ripple allows users to reject substances from their bloodstream, as well as heal both themselves and others.
That said, the ripple has...pretty bad weaknesses, I guess because the protagonists weren't having a hard enough time getting through things as it was. Because the ripple is created and regulated completely through breathing, anything which restricts airflow can weaken a user's attacks or outright prevent them from using it at all. Additionally, removing heat from a user (such as through freezing them with vampire magic) causes their bloodflow to slow considerably and also prevents them from attacking as effectively.
- Stand (canon...ish? this series I swear)
So. In the first two parts of JJBA (including Phantom Blood), the main ability utilized by the protagonists is the ripple; from Part 3 onward a new power takes center stage - Stands. The wiki has a more detailed explanation about Stands in general, but the gist of it is that they're a physical manifestation of a person's willpower and psyche that each possess unique abilities and are only visible to (and able to be defeated by) other Stand users.
Stands can either develop naturally or be induced by piercing oneself with an arrow which had been forged from an ancient meteorite. During part three, DIO, wanting to harness such a power for himself, does just that. However, because his body from the neck down is now Jonathan's, this has the unintended side effect of awakening stands in the Joestar line along with DIO'S - and also one in Jonathan's body.
Yeah, it's. Yeah.
While Jonathan never had access to his Stand in canon, in MoM this travesty will be repaired! His Stand is nearly identical to his grandson Joseph's, both in appearance and ability.
The Stand has several powers:
- Psychic Visions. The Stand user is able to psychically home in on a target (be a it a person, place, or thing) and use an image-producing medium to create a picture of it as it is in that exact moment. The most common medium used in canon is a camera, but it's been shown to work on something as basic as a dusty road as well. While Joseph's version of the Stand destroys the camera after using it, Jonathan's seems to lack this quirk and leaves the appliance intact.
The Stand can also be used in tandem with a television set to produce live footage of the target, or to receive psychic audio - the channels will flip continuously to sound out the answer to whatever question the user asks.
- Heart...Reading? Ok I have no idea what to call this, but Jonathan's Stand has been shown to also have the ability to project images from a person's heart in a similar manner to its psychic visions. These images seem to be more of a representation of something in a person's life/a strong emotion they feel rather than mind reading - when it was used on Polnareff, for example, it displayed an image of his sister's killer who he had never personally seen before in his life; he was told that this image represented the pain which he felt in his heart.
- Ripple Transmission. Joseph's Stand has shown the ability to transmit Ripple through it, acting as an extension of his own body. This can be used to attack or to cover an object or person up in defense against undead beings. Jonathan's Stand has never done this in canon because DIO is a vampire who can't use the Ripple, but it's such a carbon copy of Hermit Purple in every other way that I assume it's also capable of this when utilized by a Ripple user.
The Stand can also be used as a whip or grappling hook for the fulfillment of everyone's childhood Spider-Man fantasies.
- Enhanced Durability/Endurance (noncanon)
Throughout canon Jonathan has basically managed to weaponize Taking It, so here it's going to be his third superpower.
It will be much more difficult to hurt him than a regular person, and he will be able to withstand injuries that would be fatal to anyone who wasn't similarly powered up. Unfortunately this power does nothing to mitigate the pain caused by any of this, nor does it offer him any healing abilities beyond what his ripple is capable of. Also it obviously can't regrow limbs or allow him to do something ridiculous like function only as a floating head like some people who won't be mentioned
〈 CHARACTER SAMPLES 〉
COMMUNITY POST (VOICE) SAMPLE:
[hey, look, another video post. the camera clicks on to reveal Jonathan staring very intently at it, as if he's checking to make sure there weren't any mistakes made. apparently finding none, he smiles with a boyish excitement that's a little unexpected for someone whose chest takes up two thirds of the screen despite very careful angling of the communicator.
when he speaks his voice is gentle and even, yet another surprise from somebody of his size.]
I've been here for a little while, but this is my first time connecting on my own. [he laughs a little bit] I wanted to be sure I could do it without breaking anything.
My name is Jonathan Joestar! It's a pleasure to meet...well, anyone viewing this, I suppose.
[he pauses for a moment as his good manners tangle with the vast unknown that is modern technology, but he continues onwards in good order.]
Halloween is coming up soon, isn't it? We didn't really celebrate at home, so I'm looking forward to experiencing it here.
I can't say that I know what to expect, though - I've only ever been to an All Hallow's Eve gathering once, when I was very young. My father brought me up to Scotland with him, but to be perfectly honest I spent more time sitting around the bonfire eating than paying attention to much of anything.
[he chuckles again, and seems like he's going to keep going before he preemptively cuts himself off with an apologetic duck of his head.]
Ah, but that's not really something anyone cares about. I'm sorry, I tend to talk a bit selfishly when I'm excited.
What I'd meant to ask was if anyone would be so kind as to recommend me things to carve into pumpkins! It's an awful lot of fun, but as you can see-
[the camera lurches and jerks as Jonathan picks it up and shifts so that it now shows a (very messy) table full of freshly carved pumpkins. it's pretty obvious from the sheer number of them that that boyish excitement from earlier isn't exclusive to new technology.
the carved figures are all impressively grotesque from what can be made out around the mountains of pumpkin guts and will probably look very nice once they're lit up. a few on the far end even look suspiciously like a certain vampire.]
I've run out of demons and ancient gods of destruction before pumpkins. I'd like to do a few that are more traditional for this world, too, so anything you can suggest would be greatly appreciated.
LOGS POST (PROSE) SAMPLE:
Test Drive thread!
As a note, there are several other threads in the parent comment, should this one not meet standard for whatever reason.
FINAL NOTES: I'm so sorry you had to read all of this. I've truly abused your captive status as mods here.