User blog:Nabukun/What is strength?

Decided to drop an old analysis of JJBA I've done quite some time ago. It's still relevant so I take the opportunity to put it here.

Araki began Jojo's Bizarre Adventure with a simple question: "Who is the world's strongest person?" "Who" as in how he would be like, not a name though. With this simple question Araki can explore aspects of humanity that few did. However he began with a fairly simple study of the question but we'll see that it will become a lot deeper.

Phantom Blood
''Who is the world's strongest person? Would he be evil or good?''

As I said, Araki began fairly simple. Phantom Blood isn't much the feud between two men but the clash between two extremes, evil and good.

Araki said it himself Jonathan and Dio are concept and as characters are very plain. Jonathan Joestar is the good guy, no that's too weak he's the greatest guy in the world. Even as a kid, he was saving ladies from bullies, no matter if he was being pounded. Jojo is a pillar of moral fortitude, and he inspires others to do good and be brave themselves. Hence Londonian cutthroat Speedwagon follows him and becomes a respected businessman and Poco risks death in the chamber where Zeppeli dies. Kind, compassionate, all-loving, he won't even bear a grudge against Dio and in his last breaths, implores Erina to say a random baby. Dio Brando is the bad guy, no that's too weak, he's the biggest cunt in the world. Already in childhood, he assassinated his father. Being the epitome of evil, Dio is selfish, greedy, petty, violent. And surround himself with the next biggest cunts, bullies and Jack the Ripper. Even worse he corrupts: Bruford and Tarkus were noble knight he transformed into zombies. Never had he a positive relationship with anyone, hence he wants to kill the one man he respects to hijack his body.

These characters can be considered to be strong:
 * physically first, Araki wishing to illustrate the strength of these men, he draws inspiration from various sources, 80s actions movies, Fist of the North Star, monster tales, martial arts.
 * mentally secondly. Jonathan comes from the upper class, having been raised with the idea of being a gentlemen while Dio is the social climber, hanging to every opportunity to have more status. Both models can be considered to be very strong mentally.

Yet their strenghts are very opposite, another way for Araki to draw a parallel between Jonathan and Dio. Physically Jonathan performs numerous feats of strength, like dragging several men while playing rubgy or pummeling a vampire; on the other hand, Dio is very agile, he catches a rubgy ball while jumping and hangs on the ceiling. Jonathan's mental strength is righteousness, he always think good of everyone and his tenacity comes from his love for others. Dio's mental strength is his ambition, it drives him to do anything for his goals and his tenacity comes from his selfish desires. Both become stronger but while Dio was looking for it, Jonathan was thrust into the Ripple, again Dio is the ambitious one and Jonathan retaliates.

Araki makes Jonathan and Dio clash four times uring Phantom Blood:
 * First as kids.
 * Then Dio becomes a vampire.
 * Their battle at Windknights
 * Their final clash in the boat

And every time Jonathan prevails even if he dies the fourth time. That is Araki's response: The good guy's the strongest. But why?

As kids Dio had the upper hand, their first boxing match showed Jonathan was weaker physically, and moreover, Dio made everything to isolate Jonathan, to crush his spirit as he says. Dio's underlings make the mistake to talk about Erina to Jonathan just to see Jonathan's face. Jonathan battles Dio, but this time he fights for Erina and wins, making Dio back down and change his plans. Here's a good example of why evil loses. The little thugs first informed Jojo for a petty laugh, but did they need to do it? Dio's plan was foiled by his underlings. Moreover Jonathan has a huge morale boost because this time he must restore Erina's honor. We will find this again in the Atlantic, Dio is in a dominating position once again, but Wang Chan's eagerness allows Jonathan to manipulate him, the latter finding himself fighting for Erina's sake. Evil is petty, evil is mental weakness while good is strength and you are never more powerful than when you are fighting for others. Moreover in Dio's castle, Araki illustrates why good is stronger. Good relies on others.

If you look at why Jonathan wins against Dio or even manages to go to him, you see that a great part of why is teamwork between Jonathan's companions. Speedwagon de-ices Zeppeli's arms, Poco crawls into the chamber and open the way for Zeppeli, Will.A passes his Ripple, all to get to Dio, and ironically, one of the instruments of Dio's defeat is Bruford's sword, a gift to Jonathan because he purified him. Even the monks take care of the vampires for Jonathan. All of these people were united by a will to do good. Even Poco, who wants to save his sister. For the greater good, Jonathan's companion cooperate and risks their lives, giving him the edge he needs to overcome the brute strength Dio acquired. Good goes both ways, you fight for others and others fight for you.

Even if we fans put the emphasis on smarts, and guts, was there any moment when Dio lacked those? His and the villains mistakes were all fueled by evil while the heroes' contributions were all due to good.

Other parts to come.

Battle Tendency
What does is mean to be the strongest?

Battle Tendency is one of the most battle oriented parts of Jojo, there is a grand total of 16 battles in 7 volumes! But these are not simply battles, there is Araki's own thought about the concept of "battle" and "will to become strong". The serie's title is "battle tendency" but the more correct translation could be "the flow of battle". Here Jojo's signature battle of wits is further developed, and Araki begins to complexify the way his battle are going to be portrayed. Moreover Araki tackles the tropes of the enemies going stronger and stronger as the serie continues and criticizes, or at least notice the limits of that line of thinking.

Battle Tendency features a war, a war between the Ripple users with their associates the Nazis and the Speedwagon Foundation against the Pillar Men and their vampire minions. This war's goal is to keep/obtain the Red Stone of Aja, keep that in mind please. That is very important. The most important new feature in battle is the mental battle between two fighters. Joseph outsmarts his enemies regularly, take advantage of the environment and the abilities that the Ripple grants him. That is also true with the Pillar Men, they use the bodies to the fullest, and also fight smarter. This stems from a big change in the characterization: the fighters have weaknesses, not a mental weakness like cowardice and evil, not a physical weakness like the Ripple, but real intellectual weaknesses: as a whole the Pillar Men underestimate their opponent, but Joseph doesn't always think his moves through, Ceasar is too hot-blooded, Stroheim is too arrogant. The fights' spice is to witness flawed warriors trying to outsmart their opponent before their fatal flaws get them killed.

Additionally, Araki doesn't only think about the battle, he thinks about the true weight of these battle. During the whole part, the Pillar Men have been WINNING the war. Look closely at the "flow of the war", Joseph defeats Esidisi, yet the Aja is transported into the Pillar Men territory in Swiss. Then Ceasar makes a HUGE mistake, not only he dies, but the Ripple users went hurrily to the rescue, being trapped into the mansion and Joseph brings the stone even closer to them. Joseph kills Wamuu but Kars had a backup plan anyway and has his hands on the stone, culminating in using Stroheim's intervention to become the Ultimate Being. Him being thrown into space nowithstanding, the winning moves in the war were made outside of battle, Kars actually won the war. What Araki says here is that battle for the sake of battle doesn't cut it when you make a fighting manga, defeat and victories have repercussions but a victory can be transformed into defeat, a defeat can be transformed into a catastrophe. Joseph has been making a serie of victory against the Pillar Men but his victories were MEANINGLESS.

''Even in Jojo there is the reality of battle, good sentiments and heroism won't help you when you make mistakes and die. Araki doesn't renounces part 1 though, having allies and determination are still of great use. See Joseph cooperating with Ceasar to get the Stone of Aja.''

Moreover Araki tackles the whole idea of "strong" that is depicted in shonen. Battle Tendency is a war, thus it features a lot of strong characters, in fact I'm sure the density of "strong" people compared to other parts is higher. But Araki also subverts the usual qualities of "strength". First the battle doesn't concern physical strength or righteousness like in Part 1 or other shonen that existed (FotNs, Saint Seyia, Sagigake!! Otokojuku, or Dragon Ball, Araki puts the emphasis on "wits" not "strength". The heroes aren't safe from death, their valor won't help them in a life or death situation. Ceasar dooms himself while going for the killing blow "like a great warrior", and Wamuu dooms himself because letting Joseph lives will result in his death too. Araki honors this way of thinking but also notes that it leads to death, specifically wasteful deaths, which is something because the death of characters is a big deal in Jojo. Another subversion is that of the "special technique", you have a lot of special techniques in this part, both from the heroes and the villains. What happens to these special techniques? They work once, sometimes they don't work, as the enemy finds a weakness and counters them. The aforementined shonen glorified the techniques, the special abilities that made a sure win, here once again the reality of battle beat the flashy moves everyone has to offer. See the Divine Sandstorm, it works once against Joseph, then Ceasar carefully countered that, his mistakes allows Wamuu to use it once again but then during the race, JOseph counters it and Wamuu takes a huge blow instead. The idea of characters growing in power is also analyzed. First look at Straight, his one fear is to grow old and weak, thus he wears the mask to become the ultimate being, even if it means sacrificing others and going to hell for that. He gains power at a cost, his humanity. But above else, his growth in power is rendered moot because he, Straizo, didn't grow and was thus outsmarted by Joseph. Kars is like a repetition of Straizo, he too seeks to become more powerful to befriend the sun, and he becomes the strongest man in the world. And what does that bring him? Nothing but power, he lost his fellow Pillar Men, he is alone and even thugh he is the ultiate being, there are things that he cannot do anything against, like space. Even the Pillar Men as stronger enemies is subverted: they are stronger than vampires but they still have weaknesses that become their undoing. Power with only power is useless.

Being simply the strongest is a dead end, being the "strongest" in power doesn't mean anything and is also uninteresting to write about.

Stardust Crusaders
What happens when humans get power?

Stardust represents a big change in Araki's writing policy. Stands make their debut, surnatural creatures are dropped altogether with the remnants being wiped out in this part, from now on, Jojo will exclusively concern humans. The reason for that is that Araki must've constated that: 1) he already did enough with non humans with Kars, 2) that Jojo's is all about the potential of humanity, and humans themselves are such an interesting subject.

First we must see how Stands fit in Araki's building concept about "strength". Stands are not only the way for Araki to illustrate the power of his characters, they also serve to differentiate the "power" from its "wielder". This is important for Araki to differentiate between these two, like how he began to do in earlier part, as "physically strong characters" can still have "mental weakness". This result in stands like Yellow Temperance and its user Rubber Soul where Temperance is a really powerful stand but his user is so mentally weak that he become the "weakness". Less subtlely Stands are for Araki an occasion to make an infinite range of powers, fitting the own infinite potential humans have. And even less subtlely, Stands as "power" are very dangerous, it is only alluded but it seems that in this part people get stands but most cannot bear them and die of illness. Abdul says that he saw a lot of these stand-sick people and of course Holly is the straightest example of how Stand and a fortiori "power" shouldn't befall to the ones that cannot bear it. Most remember that when a Stand is hurt, the user is hurt as well but there is also the most unspoken rule that Stands can be destroyed, and while they regenerate, the user won't be able to do everything because his own fighting spirit has been shattered. When Abdul seemingly burns Polnareff, he references that property; it also explains why DIO couldn't regenerate from exploding. Araki introduces the spiritual side of battle in the manga: Stand battle are not only a battle of "physical strength" or "wit", they are a "spiritual battle" where the determination of both opponent clash and is put on the line of fire.

So what about the users themselves? For the Crusaders, it's very simple, each of them represents a side of humanity: -Abdul is reason he's the most reasonable of the group, he also is the most knowledgeable and often tell the others about stands, however he is also prone to lose his cool as he fled before DIO and took D'Arby's taunts very badly. -Kakyoin is the will to surpass one's failure, you may remark that Kakyoin loses the most and when he wins, his victories are difficult and he wants to atone for giving in to DIO however he always outsmarts his enemies and he solved the riddle of DIO's power. -Polnareff is bravery, he is the most dedicated to finish off DIO, especially after Abdul's death, and he is also foolish and naive, which is why he's best teamed up with someone so he doesn't commit blunders. -Joseph is the acquired wisdom one has with old age, he is the one most willing to introduce us to the local customs and Hermit Purple feeds his allies information, Joseph is ultimately the one to pass the message to Jotaro, however Joseph is the physically weakest, being old and not that fit, his Stand is near useless in battle. -Jotaro represents the potential of humanity, he's got the best of everything, he's noble, cool, smart, handsome, his Stand is the strongest of all but also doesn't reveal its true power/potential before the very end. However he still stay humans, he's got a bad temper and is aloof with those not on his level, but cares about his loved ones. Is it a coincidence that Jotaro is the only multi-ethnic man of the group? -Iggy doesn't really fit anywhere, I guess Araki wanted to say that animals have potential too. He does grow to be brave and learns to be selfless however.

This multinational team, with diverse characters with different personalities, motivation, weak points and strong points reflects the universality of the human potential. And each of the side characters will contribute somehow for humanity's potential, Jotaro, to rise to the level of power of Evil himself, DIO. See what happens, Abdul and Iggy's sacrifice allows Polnareff to live, witness a little of DIO's power and warn the rest so they survive DIO's trap in the tower, Kakoyin guesses DIO's power and Joseph passes the message to Jotaro who finishes him off.

What about DIO and his goons? That's also fairly simple, the bad guys are also very diversified, they got several men, women, old people, babies, animals, humans, vampires. As the potential for good is universal, so is the potential for evil. These stand users have different reason for working with DIO, some just like to spread evil, some do it for money, because they are dragged into it, because of their selfishness, some because they are attracted toward DIO. One thing Araki made for his bad guys is to model them or their stands after movie monster (Freddy, the Creature from the Lake, a mummy, zombie-apocalypse-inducing fog), but there's another subtlety, only the true scumbags have these kind of stand. See Hol Horse, Oingo and Boingo, Daniel D'Arby, they all have still some shreds of decency and honor. Another subtext is that when power is in the hands of scumbags, they become monsters, predators that freely use their power to torment those weaker than them, with at the top of these villains the epitome of movie monsters, a vampire.

DIO is the first stand user introduced to manipulate something as metaphysical as time, as he said, this is the "power to reign over the world", timestop allows DIO complete control over one's fate, the world around him and denotes his utter will for domination. He is still the personification of Evil in this part and for Araki, evil is powerful but weak, his arrogance proves to be his own undoing at several levels, his victory was thwarted first because he toys with Polnareff, then when he dismisses Kakyoin's last gesture, and finally when he gloats about his power without checking on Jotaro. Finally DIO utterly loses, and dies before the potential that humanity for good that it can offer, and thanks to the cooperation of good people, as well as the fact that a human was pushed to the extreme limits of his strength allowing to surpass himself and finally step on DIO's level and vanquish him.

Or does he? Dio's multiple streaks at surviving everything was a symbol of how indestructible evil could be, Dio is dead, but his evil still has repecrussions around the world.