Joseph Joestar

Joseph Joestar
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure character
First appearance	JoJo's Bizarre Adventure chapter 45: "New York's JoJo"
Created by	Hirohiko Araki
In-universe information
Relatives	George Joestar (great grandfather) Jonathan Joestar (grandfather) Erina Pendleton/Joestar (grandmother) George Joestar II (father) Giorno Giovanna (biological uncle) Lisa Lisa/Elisabeth Joestar (mother) Suzi Q/Joestar (wife) Holy Joestar (daughter) Josuke Higashikata (son) Shizuka Joestar (adoptive daughter) Jotaro Kujo (grandson) Jolyne Kujo (great granddaughter)

Joseph Joestar (ジョセフ・ジョースター, Josefu Jōsutā) is a fictional character created by Hirohiko Araki as the protagonist of part two, Battle Tendency, of the manga series JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, which debuted in 1987. He also plays a significant role in Parts 3 and 4. In his younger days, he had black hair and muscular build, but in his older age, he wears a hat and sports a yellow shirt and khaki pants. One of his hands is synthetic, a result of his fight with Kars. Joseph is also one of the oldest human characters to appear, along with Yoshikage's father.

Fictional character biography

Battle Tendency

Joseph lives in New York with his grandmother Erina and seems to have inherited the power of Ripple (波紋, Hamon), as he has a natural ability to use it. When old family friend Speedwagon is reported dead in Mexico, Joseph takes it on himself to go check it out. His curiosity is piqued when he is attacked in New York City by an old friend turned vampire. When he goes to Mexico he discovers a secret underground Nazi facility where the Nazis are trying to revive a man who seems to have been trapped in a stone pillar for 2,000 years. The Nazis are successful in awakening the man, who is christened "Santana" before he kills most of them. Joseph and Stroheim battle Santana and manage to defeat him, though Stroheim is fatally wounded.

Joseph then heads to Rome, where three more "sleeping pillar men" have been discovered. Joseph meets Caesar Zeppeli, a trained hamon user near his age who is supposed to show Joseph the ropes. They find themselves present when the three sleeping men awaken after their 2,000 year nap. These creatures are something like vampire gods; it turns out that they created the stone mask that turned Dio Brando into a vampire. These three are named Whammu, Esidisi, and Kars, and their goal is to find the Red Stone of Aja, which, used with a stone mask, will allow them to become ultimate life forms.

Caesar introduces Joseph to his Ripple master, Lisa Lisa, for training. Esidisi finds out that Lisa Lisa has the Red Stone of Aja and comes to take it. Joseph uses his new skills to defeat Esidisi, thus earning the wrath of Whammu and Kars. In Switzerland the group discovers the location of Wham and Kars. Joseph then defeats Whammu in a deadly chariot race and the final showdown against Kars begins.

It is here that the reader also finds out that Lisa Lisa is also the biological mother of Joseph. After using the powers of ultra violet rays of light it seems that Kars has been killed. But Kars was not only able to put on a stone mask that he had been hiding on his person, but fused with the powers of the Red Stone of Aja and becomes the ultimate life form. Joseph sends Kars inside an active volcano. But Kars was able to cover himself in an armor made of rock and protect himself from the molten lava. The volcano then erupts, sending both Joseph and Kars flying. Kars is sent into space and is frozen solid making him unable to travel back to Earth.

Weeks later the group pay their respects at a funeral for Joseph Joestar, but is interrupted when Joseph shows up. After falling back down from the sky he ends up in Italy where he is helped by some local fisherman. After finding and marrying Lisa Lisa's assistant, Suzi Q, he returned to America to find his friends.

Stardust Crusaders

Joseph comes to the aid of his daughter Holy, and his grandson Jotaro Kujo. He is a supporting role in the story, but important; teaching his grandson about Stands, and devising tactics and analysis.

Diamond is Unbreakable

This series focuses on Josuke Higashikata, Joseph's illegitimate son, with Jotaro Kujo and Joseph as supporting roles. Joseph has aged greatly and can no longer walk without his cane. The aging Joseph also became hard of hearing and not athletic as he used to be.

Characterization

As a young man, Joseph is incredibly hotheaded, impetuous, and confrontational. He is not very serious or focused, and he tends to fool around. Despite his attitude, he is also very intelligent, defeating much more powerful opponents through clever tactics, and even able to accurately predict an enemy's next line (his catchphrase being "Your next line will be..." or "You're going to say...") However, over the course of Part 2, although he never really loses his overall attitude, he does develop into a strong, focused hero. At crucial moments of battles, he likes to predict the next sentence of his opponents. In Part 3, he is much the same, only as an irascible old man with a temper and the same mischievous spirit as in his younger days. However, being older, he is certainly more mature and serious.

His catchphrase (used often in Part 3) is, "Oh! My! God!". Sometimes this will alternate with "My God!" or other such variations.

Powers and abilities

In Part 2, he becomes a master of the Ripple power. In Part 3, where Stands are introduced in place of the Ripple, Hermit Purple manifests itself as a tangle of thorny vines, which Joseph can wield as both weapon and defense. They are relatively weak; however, Hermit Purple also provides Joseph with considerable telepathic ability, enabling him to sense locations or thoughts by projecting them into a camera, or a TV, or even into an image made from the sand of a dusty street. Hermit Purple is the only Stand wielded by a Joestar, along with Holy's (whose own Stand takes after the Hermit's plant-like nature), that does not have a humanoid appearance. It awakened in response to Dio awakening The World.

In a Fist of the North Star like fashion, he'll verbally predict what will happen to his enemies and quote, often verbatim, what they will say. His enemy will then unwittingly repeat said prediction, shocked by Joseph's "mind reading". This is primarily in series 2, although he does perform this feat again in series 3 just before he destroys Empress.

He invented the Joestar's "secret technique" which also was used by Jotaro later in the series. The secret technique is running away.