JoJo is a nickname shared by each of the main protagonists of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, derived from the recurrence of "Jo" in their names. Each of the protagonists is also descended from the Joestar Family, and as such all bear the Joestar Birthmark.
Jonathan Joestar is the protagonist of the 1st part of the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure series, Phantom Blood, and the 1st JoJo of the series. His legacy extends throughout almost the entirety of the first six parts of the series, with major characters such as Joseph Joestar and Jotaro Kujo being his descendants.
"There are times when a gentleman has to be courageous and fight, even when his opponent is bigger than he is and he knows he's going to lose!"
During his childhood, Jonathan was proud and mischievous, yet gentle. Despite already aspiring to be a "true gentleman", Jonathan lacked manners and mostly behaved like a normal child. His mother having died before he could remember her, and his fellow boys ostracizing him because of his status left Jonathan somewhat lonely. While at first, Jonathan didn't have his future strength of will, Dio unwittingly became the catalyst of his growth by pushing him to the edge and humiliating his girlfriend Erina Pendleton. However, he did have the kindness and courage to immediately jump to Erina's rescue against two bullies bigger than him despite not knowing her.
Jonathan also possesses a fierce inner strength and the drive to face and overcome conflict, which Dio calls an "explosive power". That drive, fueled by his affection to his friends and loved ones, enabled him to overcome the direst situations. Jonathan fights for what he believes in, and once he is committed to something, he won't back down until the deed is done. As a gentleman, Jonathan is also kind and positive. Jonathan has a mindset where he tries to imagine the consequences his actions would have on other people, even if they appear to be enemies. Despite his skill in fighting, he will never seriously harm a person without a valid reason. Even after everything Dio has done, Jonathan still considers him his brother, and sheds tears for him.
Yet Jonathan can feel righteous fury at the evilness of his foes, and will conduct justice by vanquishing them. He admitted that his reason for fighting Dio wasn't out of duty for saving the world, but to avenge his loved ones that Dio had killed.
Jonathan had lived a rough past as the son of an aristocrat, and was known in his childhood to have been at least a competent boxer. In his college life, he played Rugby alongside Dio Brando, and was revered as one of the two stars of Hugh Hudson Academy. He had also performed incredible feats of strength, such as jumping from the hilt of a sword and hoisting himself up to the second floor while doing a flip over the guardrails, despite his arm being inhibited by a spear pierced into his pectorals. Perhaps his greatest display of strength was after being revitalized and empowered by Zeppeli's Ultimate Deep Pass Overdrive, where he ripped through 3 steel bars clutching his neck, a feat that even the mighty zombie Tarkus outright admitted he was incapable of.
Jonathan is shown to be an intelligent person and a very competent thinker during battles, constantly coming up with new strategies mid-combat to defeat foes such as Bruford and Dio. In a fight, Jonathan is adept at thinking of moves on the spot and using the environment to his advantage. On several occasions, Jonathan was quick to formulate plans even in a moment of crisis. Still agonizing over the death of his father, Jonathan had to fight a vampirized Dio, and quickly thought about burning down the Joestar Mansion in order to cancel out Dio's regenerative abilities.
Academically, Jonathan graduated from university after having written a celebrated thesis in archaeology. He has meticulously studied the Stone Mask, going as far as identifying the spots in the brain it would pierce, but didn't discover its true purpose himself.
Jonathan has an arsenal of ancient martial art techniques, most inherited from Will A. Zeppeli and involving Ripple, at his disposal. Some are his original creation, each ending with "Overdrive". One of the main conveniences of the Ripple is the ability to heal the body to an extent.
With his courage and spirit, Jonathan sets a legacy as the first JoJo of the series.
Joseph Joestar is the protagonist of the 2nd part of the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure series, Battle Tendency, and the 2nd JoJo of the series. He also appears as a core ally in Stardust Crusaders. He is the second most recurring JoJo in the series after his grandson Jotaro Kujo and is one of its most well known characters.
"Your next line is..."
In Battle Tendency, Joseph is a hotheaded, impetuous, and confrontational young man. Quick to violently respond to the slightest provocation, Joseph would often get into brawls growing up; prior to events of the story, he had been imprisoned seven times and expelled once from school for fighting. Having no respect for authority save of his grandmother's, Joseph has antagonized policemen and mafiosi alike. Furthermore, Joseph is a foul-mouthed individual and regularly taunts his enemies, enjoying aggravating them. He notably taunted Kars when he launched him into space, claiming to have again planned everything from the beginning just to antagonize him one last time.
Joseph is a playful person and prefers fooling around over having any responsibility. By his own admission, his most hated sentences are "hard work" and "work hard", and still had to be pushed to train his Ripple talent in spite of facing certain death if he didn't meet and fight Wamuu again. Joseph has a fairly goofy side and spends half of his fights enjoying having outsmarted his current enemy with incredibly zany schemes, which take his opponents by surprise by how silly said plans are at first sight.
Over the course of Part 2, although he never really lost his overall attitude, he did develop into a strong, focused hero. In accord with his dismissal of any kind of discipline, Joseph believes that trickery and cheating are fair game in a fight as long as it isn't needlessly cruel. This results in him being a rulebreaker and once earned him a scolding when he tried to climb the Hell Climb Pillar using a rope instead of with the Ripple as intended.
In Stardust Crusaders, Joseph has considerably mellowed out, having lost much of his aggression and laziness. Still irascible toward Japanese in general, due to a Japanese man marrying with his beloved daughter Holy, Joseph is otherwise nice to his grandson and Noriaki Kakyoin. Joseph is much more responsible than in Battle Tendency, being more proactive in his quest to Egypt, and also sometimes reminding his younger companions of their goals when they are distracted. Years of peace and the appearance of the much stranger Stands means that Joseph lost some of his talents at outsmarting enemies, and is often the victim of the Stands he encounters. However, Joseph still has a few tricks left up his aged sleeve, and is capable of outsmarting enemies.
Joseph inherited the Ripple and its capabilities from his grandfather, Jonathan Joestar, as well as his mother, Lisa Lisa. In addition, he uses techniques commonly present in stage magic to confuse his foes. After his Ripple training, Joseph frequently combines his Ripple with other objects to perform complex and creative attacks. Later in Part 3, he shows that he is able use the Ripple in conjunction with his Stand, Hermit Purple.
Joseph's Stand, Hermit Purple, manifests itself as a tangle of thorny vines, which Joseph can wield as both a weapon and a hazardous defense. Furthermore, it has been shown to conduct the Ripple, which makes Hermit Purple one of the more effective Stands against those weak to it such as Vampires. Joseph develops the Stand after DIO pierces Jonathan's body with the Arrow, upon which it responded to DIO and Enya awakening The World.
The Hermit card of the Tarot primarily gives a meaning of solitude, introspective, or soul-searching, which could symbolize Joseph's lifelong journey. It also carries a more direct meaning of teaching or advising, which is Joseph's main role in Part 3 on the subject of Stands.
Joseph Joestar's mind is his deadliest and most valuable asset. Joseph's favorite strategy is to psych out his opponents. To do so, he notably predicts what his enemies will say next or more commonly provokes them to unnerve them and make them predictable in their move. Joseph is incredibly proficient in analyzing the personalities of those he faces and guessing information about them by observing small details about them, then shamelessly exploits any character flaw they have in order to return whatever they will be doing next against them, most commonly their overconfidence.
Having great prestidigitation skills, his goofy demeanor serving as the greatest distraction and facade he can rely on, Joseph is able to attack from unexpected angles or make critical moves under the guise of simple stupidity or ignorance; Joseph will often use one obvious strategy hiding another, more advanced one to fool and trap his opponents. Joseph is maybe the most proficient man in the series at using his environment to his advantage, the Ripple increasing the danger and combative capability of any item he gets his hands on. Among others, Joseph has used mirrors, glass shots, hair, a well, pasta, pigeons, wool hats, icicles, pebbles, and an entire plane as tools and weapons to grasp the upper hand, each use having had applied efficiency and imagination.
The Joestar family's "secret technique". Usually utilized as a last resort, Joseph invented this move to use when battling the enemy seemed hopeless. In reality, it was actually used to stall time in order for Joseph to formulate a plan. The secret technique consists of carefully and quickly retreating from the opponent, while keeping a close eye on surroundings for things to use to defeat or assist in defeating them. To the untrained eye, it looks like Joseph is simply running away like a coward, augmented by his panicked shouting when doing so.
Joseph is responsible for ending the stone mask menance and later becoming a mentor for the Stardust Crusaders.
Jotaro Kujo is the protagonist of the 3rd part of the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure series, Stardust Crusaders, and the 3rd JoJo of the series. He also appears as a major ally in Diamond is Unbreakable and Stone Ocean, and makes a brief appearance in Vento Aureo. As a result of all his appearances, Jotaro is the most recurring JoJo protagonist of the series.
"There's only one reason you lost... just one simple reason. You pissed me off."
Jotaro is introduced as a rough, violent delinquent, but he has a gentle heart, and is loyal to those he likes. He is highly perceptive, intelligent and quick-witted while keeping a perpetually cool, slightly neutral or disinterested attitude. Jotaro's most noticeable trait is his seemingly aloof nature. He is a quiet individual, often satisfied with expressing himself in short phrases. His bio explains that he thinks anyone can tell his emotions just by looking at him, and probably thinks further effort in portraying how he feels to be a waste of time, making others tend to perceive Jotaro as callous. Related to this, Jotaro is an extremely cool individual, able to keep his composure in even the direst situations.
Despite refusing to show it explicitly, Jotaro loves his mother and respects his grandfather Joseph. Jotaro's impetus for going to Egypt is Holy's life being put in danger by DIO's Stand, and he flew into an uncharacteristic rage when the vampire desecrated the corpse of his grandfather. During his journey to Egypt, Jotaro attached himself to his companions, and through several small gestures expressed his friendship towards them, culminating with a hug with a departing Polnareff. Moreover, Jotaro is blunt and foul-mouthed, having no problem being insolent towards his mother or any other authority figure. The teenager favors witty one-liners, often ridiculing whoever is the target of his quips and offering absurd reasons for his feats.
Jotaro has a habit of muttering "Gimme a break..." to himself to express annoyance toward the ordeals and other events that happen close to him, to the point it has become his signature catchphrase.
One of the strongest Stands in the series, Star Platinum possesses superhuman senses, strength, stamina, accuracy and speed. Like other physically-powerful (or Close-Range) Stands, Star Platinum suffers from a narrow range of activity; active only within a 2-3 meter radius from Jotaro. It is the same type of Stand as to DIO's The World, and, as it turns out, can likewise be used to stop time, an ability revealed at the very end of his fight with DIO. Jotaro is extremely proficient at using his Stand, which is facilitated by how powerful it is in the first place. The student is capable of exploiting the basic abilities of a Stand to channel Star Platinum inside his body for better protection or only conjure a part of it for stealth.
Jotaro is an adept tactician, using a mix of straightforward brute force and unexpected tricks to prevail. Thanks to Star Platinum tremendous strength in all regards, Jotaro can either force his way out of any tough situation or use unexpected feats of strength such as tunneling his way toward an enemy or using his lung capacity to neutralize a fog Stand. Jotaro has occasionally used the environment to his advantage, filling his clothes with thick books when expecting DIO to use projectiles against him.
Jotaro is a good trickster although not on the level of Joseph. He is an accomplished bluffer, and use the enemy's own vigilance against the formidable Star Platinum to psych them out.
It is implied that Jotaro has accumulated a considerable amount of varied knowledge. At the beginning of Part 3, in his cell, in order to understand his Stand, he had collected a number of books on the theme of the paranormal. In Part 4, it is revealed that he specialized in marine biology.
Jotaro becomes the mentor of later JoJos after Stardust Crusader and is responsible for ending the terror of DIO.