Characters / JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Joseph Joestar

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Main Character Index
Phantom Blood: DIO
Battle Tendency: Joseph Joestar
Stardust Crusaders: The Joestar Group (Jotaro Kujo | Jean-Pierre Polnareff) | Egypt 9 Glory Gods | DIO's Household
Diamond is Unbreakable: Heroes | Yoshikage Kira
Golden Wind: Team Bucciarati (Giorno Giovanna) | La Squadra di Esecuzioni | The Boss
Stone Ocean: Heroes | Enrico Pucci
Steel Ball Run
JoJolion: The Higashikata Family
The JOJOLands
One-Shot Characters | Spinoff Characters

Character subpage for Joseph Joestar, the protagonist of Battle Tendency, the deuteragonist of Stardust Crusaders and a minor character in Diamond is Unbreakable.

Beware of spoilers.

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Joseph Joestar (Stand: Hermit Purple)

Voiced by: Tomokazu Sugita (TV anime, All-Star Battle (R), J-Stars Victory Vs, and Eyes of Heaven), Hōchū Ōtsuka (Heritage for the Future video game) (Japanese), Ben Diskin (TV anime) (English)
Old Joseph voiced by: Unshō Ishizuka (TV anime (Part 3-4), Eyes of Heaven, and All-Star Battle R), Tomokazu Sugita (TV anime (Part 2) and All-Star Battle), Kenji Utsumi (CD drama parts 1 and 3), Gorō Naya (CD drama part 2), Chikao Ohtsuka (OVA), Tōru Ōkawa (Heritage for the Future video game) (Japanese), Michael Bennett (OVA), Richard Epcar (TV anime) (English)

"A true magician... NEVER REVEALS HIS SECRET! EAT THIS!"

^{Click here to see Joseph as he appears from "New York's JoJo" to "The Game Master", and at the end of "The Ascendant One".}

"I gave into my temper again! Crap! I'm in for it... Oh! Granny Erina's gonna be furious!"
^{Click here to see Joseph as he appears in Stardust Crusaders.}

"Like a fine wine, I guess I just get better with age!"
^{Click here to see Joseph as he appears in Diamond is Unbreakable, holding Shizuka Joestar.}

"I just wanted to look cool in front of my boy... Tell me, did it work?"

"Let me guess! You're gonna say 'Did you plan this too, JoJo?! Tell me!'."

The grandson of Jonathan, grandfather of Jotaro, father of Josuke, and the second person to have the nickname JoJo. An unscrupulous fighter who uses any means necessary to defeat his opponent. During the course of Battle Tendency, he travels the world to keep the vicious Pillar Men from obtaining the Red Stone of Aja and attaining a level of immortality that would render them absolutely invincible.

Following that, he joined up with his grandson, Jotaro, in order to put a stop to the revived DIO. He develops the Stand called Hermit Purple, which takes the form of thorny vines, and allows him to view precognitive images in photographs or televisions. His role during these events was more or less a supporting part, though he did get a few moments to himself.

His final appearance was during the events of Diamond is Unbreakable, where he met his biological son Josuke and adopted the child known as Achtung Baby (later christened Shizuka Joestar).

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A-D

• Abandoned Catchphrase: He uses "Your next line will be X" much less frequently in the second half of Battle Tendency, and only once in Stardust Crusaders.
• The Ace: Joseph was devastatingly handsome in his younger days, has many skills of a magician, and is the only JoJo to have both Hamon and Stand abilities (although his Hamon got weaker due to a lack of practice). Later, he became a wealthy real estate tycoon, maintained a Heroic Build into his late sixties, successfully led the party that destroyed DIO although he temporarily got killed, and ended up being one of the only two members born in the Joestar family to live long lives (the other being his daughter Holly).
• Action Dad: Along with being a Cool Old Guy. Joseph loves his daughter Holly and one of his reasons to stop DIO is to save her. This is downplayed with his son Josuke and his adopted daughter Shizuka due to him growing older and being unable to move as quickly as he used to. Not that it prevents him from nearly bleeding to death in order to save the latter.
• Actually Pretty Funny: In the anime's version of Diamond is Unbreakable's epilogue despite getting annoyed at first with Josuke for swindling his wallet from him, Joesph can't help but chuckle and grin afterwards, seeing his son has inherited his own guile nature.
• Adaptation Dye-Job:
  • While JoJo was never known for its consistent color schemes, the anime has him as a brunette (a color yet to be used in the original manga or any other spinoff media until then). And then gives him purple hair in the OP like in official colored edition manga.
  • The OVA's seemed to turn white/grey hair blond, meaning that his Part 3 incarnation was blond like Enya and Polnareff. Araki's updated artwork for Joseph's Part 3 incarnation gives him blond hair whilst the updated art for Part 2 kept his hair brown.
• Adaptational Seriousness: The Stardust Crusaders OVAs turn him into a soft-spoken, serious-minded, Fist of the North Star-esque Cool Old Guy who remains focused, calm and collected; which is a near-total reversal of his anime and manga version, who's very prone to being hammy, trolling, and cracking jokes.
• Adventurer Outfit: Associated with stereotypical pilot gear in Battle Tendency, which Araki seems to consider his Iconic Outfit over his actual one as of late, though he never wears it in the series proper. Wears Indiana Jones-esque clothes in Part 3, which fits nicely with his Hermit Purple.
• Affectionate Nickname:
  • While Joseph inherited Jonathan's nickname JoJo, Speedwagon never addressed Jonathan by that nickname, but he always calls Joseph "JoJo". Similarly, Erina who switched from calling her husband "JoJo" to his real name upon marriage, refers to her grandson as "JoJo".
  • His own grandson Jotaro calls him jiji (old man).
• Alliterative Name: Joseph Joestar.
• Ain't Too Proud to Beg:
  • Battle Tendency: Joseph chucks his pride and dignity out the window towards the end of his fight with Wamuu, hurling pebbles at him and begging to be spared. It turns out he's just stalling for time — he banked his crossbow shot the same way Wamuu did and he's waiting for it to loop around the arena. And when it does...
  • Stardust Crusaders: He has no problem begging Mariah to spare him when she seemingly has him at her mercy. Mariah isn't having it, but it turns out that she was the one at Joseph and Avdol's mercy, who crush her bones with her own Stand's abilities as soon as she refuses.
• Ambiguously Bi: He's definitely attracted to women but is also the subject of repeated Queer People Are Funny gags, such as being surprisingly upset at the Nazi soldiers' lack of attraction for him in his blatantly obvious crossdressing disguise, and the non-canon JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Eyes of Heaven game has him hit on many of the other male characters (including saying Phantom Blood Speedwagon has 'handsome eyes'). A deleted line from Eyes of Heaven also has him outright ask Caesar to be in a relationship with him while in drag.
• Anime Hair: Extremely spiky brown hair parted on the left in Part 2. The anime version just makes it look more ridiculous. Averted with Part 3 and 4, where his hair is much less ridiculous.
• Anti-Hero: Just because he respects his enemies and keeps his promises doesn't mean he won't use every dirty trick in the book (and a few more not in the book) to get the job done.
• Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy: During Part 2, he's a rare good guy example. He mellowed with age, so by Part 3 he's more of a goofy father figure.
• Artificial Limbs: Stroheim's associates gave him a robotic hand to replace the one that he lost during his final fight against Kars.
• The Atoner: For what it's worth, he genuinely regrets not being a part of Josuke's life (and let's be fair, nobody told him about the boy) and tries his best with what little time he has left to be a loving father to him. And thankfully, Josuke does eventually love him back as a son.
• Attention Whore: As a youth, he was insanely obnoxious and often resented those who took attention away from himself. Case in point, he was all too willing to give Santana the benefit of the doubt, but when the Pillar Man dared to ignore him, Joseph decided to pettily trip him as punishment.
• Awesomeness by Analysis: Established early on in a standoff with a mafioso, wherein Joseph quickly determines that his opponent uses brass knuckles, that he used them recently, and that he had no choice but to put them in his back pocket since his coat was off. In general, Joseph has an uncanny ability to read his opponents, to the point where predicting their next sentences word-for-word is a Character Catchphrase of his.
• Awesome, yet Impractical: His Clackers in Part 2. While their design is aerodynamic enough for Joseph to make some pretty cool weapon tricks, he also tends to hurt himself whenever he gets too cocky.
• Back from the Dead: DIO completely drained him of blood, leaving him a husk of a body for a short time before a transfusion from DIO's dead body's remains revived him, with some help from Star Platinum.
• Badass Family: As a Joestar, it's to be expected; having inherited his grandfather's talent for Hamon and being the grandfather of an equally badass Stand user.
• Bait-and-Switch Suicide: After Shizuka goes missing in the middle of a lake, Joseph says that he's lived a long life and proceeds to slit his wrist. This leaves Josuke completely shocked, until it's revealed that it's a ploy to find Shizuka, as Joseph's blood proceeds to disappear around the epicenter of her invisibility.
• Batman Gambit:
  • A master of this trope due to the same mind-reading abilities that produce his catchphrase.
  • In Part 3, he manages to help Jotaro defeat Telence T. D'Arby using this trope. Throughout the entire game, Joseph acts like a backseat gamer ordering Jotaro to do specific commands because he's losing. However, he's acting this way intentionally to divert Telence's attention from the fact that he's actually rigging the game using Hermit Purple, so even though Telence knows Jotaro is cheating, he can't figure out how he's cheating.
• Battle Strip: Part 2's Joseph would often rip off his shirt when riled up, leaving only his skin-tight undershirt.
• Berserk Button: During Part 2, Joseph had a strong disliking of arrogant people. He'd always go out of his way to wound the offender's pride in some manner, and calls back to it in a particularly satisfying fashion when he's dealing with Empress in Part 3.
  Joseph: "When your opponent starts boasting, he's already lost!" That, shrew, is a line from my wilder days. (winks) Like a fine wine, I guess I just get better with age!
  • If the scene with Tequila Joseph is anything to go by, he also really doesn't like being called a "sissy". Just ask the pair of Nazis he drops coconuts on the heads of and roundhouse-kicks afterward:
    Nazi: You should've spent more time in front of the mirror, you big sissy!
    Joseph: (incensed) What was THAT?!
• Berserker Tears: After finding Caesar's final resting place, drenched in blood, Joseph screams in anguish and pounds against it in vain as he weeps.
• Beyond the Impossible: Joseph only had basic control over Hamon before confronting the Pillar Men, and when he's moments away from death, he begs for a month's worth of time to defeat Wamuu and claims he could also beat Esidisi and Kars as well. This was a bold faced lie, as he laments he didn't ask for MORE time when Wamuu agrees to his proposition and believes he'd never defeat them or master Hamon in the allotted time. As it turns out, he did just that.
• Big Good: In Part 3, he leads the Joestar Group to travel to Egypt and save his daughter Holly from DIO's curse.
• Birthmark of Destiny: Has the same star-shaped birthmark on his upper back that all JoJos have.
• Blatant Lies: After Smokey gets caught stealing Joseph's wallet, Joseph claims that he gave it to Smokey as gift to save him from the Dirty Cops who are threatening him.
• Boisterous Bruiser: To a freakin' tee. He's absolutely gigantic, very hammy and will take every waking opportunity to taunt his opponents just as much as he will plan to outsmart them.
• Book Ends: In his introductory chapter, his wallet is stolen by Smokey. During his last appearance in Part 4, his wallet is again stolen, this time by Josuke.
• Born Lucky: He (along with his daughter Holly) are the only Joestars to escape the family curse of dying young. By the time Pucci reset the world, he was still kicking in his 90s, while the other Joestars only lived to their 40s at best.
  • Best exemplified in his battle against Kars, where he managed to move the Red Stone of Aja in the way of Kars' hamon-infused strike, which caused a beam of energy that caused the dormant volcano they were inside of to erupt, launching both into the air on a piece of magma. Then Joseph's severed hand flew in and impaled Kars' throat with the fingers, distracting him long enough for lava rocks shot along with them to strike him in the chest and push him out of Earth's gravity into space. Then Joseph managed to survive falling from the edge of Earth's atmosphere to the ocean, where he was rescued by fishermen and nursed back to health by his soon-to-be wife Suzi Q.
  • He even refers to himself as "life's favorite son" in his image song from Part 3.
• Brilliant, but Lazy: The man is a freaking genius, but when it comes down to training to save his own life, he's not exactly that thrilled, and he has to be forcibly coerced into doing it. This extends to his Hamon training, where he neglected it to the point where by the time he's in his late 70s, he's aging like a regular old man. This is perhaps best shown in his reaction to Training from Hell with Lisa Lisa.
  Joseph: Oh no! "Grind" and "work" are probably my two least favorite words in the English language!
• Bully Hunter: Joseph first met Smokey when he rescued Smokey from a pair of corrupt and racist cops. Extra points for doing so even though Smokey had just stolen his wallet.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Joseph is really goofy, but a total genius when outwitting his enemies. He also contributed a great deal to the family wealth by himself.
• Butt-Monkey: In Part 3, if the slapstick isn't happening to Polnareff, it's happening to him.
• Captain Crash: To the point that Jotaro refuses get into any aircraft with him. He states in the flight to Hong Kong in Part 3 that this is the third plane he's had to make an emergency landing with. He practically lampshades the trope and states that surviving a 3rd plane crash was already well beyond pushing his luck. His luck will still take him a long way beyond that, and to his credit, he does end up surviving the fourth plane crash. Amusingly enough, his dream as a youth was to become a pilot like his father.
• Casanova Wannabe: Joseph's desperation and inability to get a girlfriend even with his lax standards is a running gag throughout Battle Tendency, with his lack of one being noted in his character profile, a Damsel in Distress beating him up after he rescued her because he insulted her earlier, and Caesar later teasing him by claiming he'd sooner find Nessie than a woman willing to put up with his abrasiveness. Suzi Q is the first one to react positively, dishing back a little teasing of her own at him instead of rejecting him on the spot.
• Character Catch Phrase:
  • "Your next line will be X!" ("Tsugi ni omae wa [X] to iu!") And it nearly always is. The dub averts this, turning it into a Running Gag where he says variations of the line instead (e.g. "I know what you'll say next!" or "What you're going to say next is...")
  • "What did you say? Depending on your answer, I may have to kick your ass!" was fully only said twice in a single chapter, but is a memorable boast and great material for "reaction" images.
  • He's well-known for his Gratuitous English and Large Ham reactions to things going slightly wrong. "OH MY GOOOOOD!" "OH NO!" "SON OF A BIIIITCH!" "HOLY SHIT!"
    Joseph: Yes, yes, yes! Oh my god. (facepalm)
• Character Development: He starts off as a cocky, aggressive douchebag with no care or respect for anyone other than his grandmother and Speedwagon, and while he undeniably inherited his grandfather's good heart and sense of justice, he's so rude and arrogant that it's often difficult to see the good man underneath. However, over the course of Battle Tendency, he learns to respect others to the point he's a better man by the finale and a Cool Old Guy by Stardust Crusaders.
• Characterization Marches On: The 69-year-old Joseph Joestar in Stardust Crusaders is almost unrecognizable as the delinquent hero from Battle Tendency. Justified due to the time skip — fifty years of a happy marriage and a successful career will change a person.
• Chekhov's Gun: Caesar's bandana proved vital to Joseph's victory over Wamuu.
• Chekhov's Skill: Parodied. After Kars becomes the Ultimate Being Joseph claims he has a plan. Turns out it was to run away.
• Cheshire Cat Grin: Fond of pulling these in Battle Tendency as befitting of his Troll nature, to the point that it's become a trademark of his among the fandom.
• Chick Magnet: A different variant when compared to Jotaro, Josuke and Giorno who all have gained their share of female admirers at a relatively young age. Aside from Suzi Q, who was the only girl to fall for him in his late-teens, Joseph's attractiveness seems to have only grown at an older age. This is especially notable when Mariah comments how attractive he is during his trip to Egypt, and Tomoko still pines for Joseph despite him being old enough to be her grandfather.
• Chronic Hero Syndrome: He differs from his grandfather in many ways, but he does share one important trait: he cannot tolerate an innocent person being victimized if he has any way to prevent it. His Establishing Character Moment involves him saving Smokey from racist cops, and he goes from jokey and playful against Straizo to serious and focused the minute he grabs a nearby bystander to use as a human shield. That said, it only applies to innocent people. He doesn't feel the need to rush in to save evil people from their fates without a specific reason to intervene.
• Combat Pragmatist: Joseph's willingness to do anything to win is legendary. The first sign of it is when he beats two corrupt cops by punching one's finger through his own nose, then using a soda bottle top as a projectile to break the other cop's trigger finger when he tries to shoot him. He shows a more serious example in his fight with Straizo when he pulls out a Thompson submachine gun and at least a dozen hand grenades, then later turns the vampire's Eye Beams against him with a hamon-charged tumbler glass.
• Combat Tentacles: Old Joseph's video game appearances show that he can use Hermit Purple as a Hamon-infused whip.
• Comically Missing the Point: Lisa Lisa reveals that she's the baby Erina saved all those years ago. Given that an earlier chapter revealed that said baby went on to marry Joseph's father... Joseph fixates on how that makes her 50 years old. Though it's possible Erina withheld the part about the baby from him.
• Confusion Fu: His primary "fighting" style in Part 2 involves using Hamon in varied ways, bringing all kinds of strange weapons with him (ranging from a Tommy gun to clacker balls), exploiting the environment, and psychologically manipulating his opponent. It proves to be his greatest asset as only Joseph is wily and unpredictable enough to regularly dupe the Pillar Men. He gets less ridiculous in his old age, which, if anything, makes him less effective.
• Contrasting Sequel Main Character: He's an explicit contrast to Jonathan. Whereas his grandfather is an honorable, sensitive, gentlemanly hero who fights with sheer determination, Joseph is a short-tempered, arrogant, reckless Guile Hero who will use every cheap shot and magic trick he knows to outwit his foes.
• Cool Old Guy: In Stardust Crusaders he becomes one when he travels and fights alongside his grandson (Jotaro Kujo) to save his daughter (Holly) and embarks on a quest to stop DIO once and for all. Largely averted by Part 4 however due to his very old age.
• Closet Geek: It's one thing that he collects comics and is taught camel training tricks from Lawrence of Arabia, but Joseph is also secretly into niche, sometimes cheesy media, such as Tarzan The Ape Man and "Weird Al" Yankovic. Jotaro uses his secret hobbies as a form of Something Only They Would Say.
• Crazy Enough to Work: Joseph is easily the most random and unorthodox fighter out of all the JoJos, with how many odd weapons and plans he uses to win a fight. He'll use coke bottles, spinning clackers, submachine guns, mirrors, pigeons, and volcanoes to beat his opponents. He stops being ridiculous with his plans once he's older, but he's still incredibly creative.
• Crazy-Prepared: With a healthy dose of Indy Ploy as he always has a dozen plans, usually disguising a trap with a more obvious to see plan, but is able to come up with a new scheme on the fly. However, he got really lucky in his fight with Kars. He said he planned everything in the beginning just to piss Kars off.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Especially in his youth. He's the probably the goofiest JoJo, but beneath his many comic relief moments, he's still a Joestar. While he may not have the same amount of raw power as some of his relatives, he more than makes up for it by being a Combat Pragmatist and Guile Hero extraordinaire.
• Curb Stomp Cushion: His fight against DIO in Part 3. Despite taking out the Pillar Men almost single-handedly in Part 2, Joseph barely lands a hit on DIO, and has to be saved by Jotaro. However, Kars didn't have the ability to stop time, which is what made DIO so terrifying, and Joseph came within inches of landing a strong, Hamon-infused blow to DIO — or rather, the blow DIO almost landed on Joseph would have damaged DIO, but he guessed that Joseph had wrapped Hermit Purple around his own body and ran Hamon through it in case of an attack, even taking a moment to praise Joseph for still living up to his hype as a genius warrior. If it weren't that DIO's Stand had any ability besides stopping time, he wouldn't have been much more difficult than Mariah or the Empress.
• Deadpan Snarker: To an absolutely hilarious extent, especially since he usually resorts to it when angry and so pulls out some truly sick burns. He's occasionally a little too animated to be completely "deadpan", though.
  Joseph (to Esidisi) Your power to utterly destroy a body is astounding!
• Delinquent: Possibly the worst of the family after Jotaro and Jolyne. He has been incarcerated 7 times.
• Despair Event Horizon: When he runs out of tricks and it sinks in that Kars has him dead to rights, Joseph just lies there with a blank look on his face, waiting for the end. It's every bit as jarring as it sounds. Of course, he's quick to recover when a bonafide miracle in the form of a volcanic eruption turns the tables.
• Did You Actually Believe...?: After Straizo uses his scarf to No-Sell Joseph's Hamon, Joseph asks, "Did you think I'd rely on a gimmick like Hamon all of the time?" before revealing his grenade trick.
• Dirty Coward: Subverted. Joseph is famous for utilizing The Joestar Family's secret technique, but at the same time he never actually runs from a fight. When Joseph opts to run away, he's actually looking for a more strategic position to give himself the advantage. More often than not, it works.
• Dirty Old Man: He conceived Josuke as a result of an affair with a much younger woman he had in his 60s, so he obviously never lost his eye for the ladies.
• Disguised in Drag: A particularly funny moment in Part 2 has him attempt this so he can get into a German camp, but the guards aren't fooled for a second since he's way too muscular to pass as a woman. Hilariously enough, he seems to actually be upset when the guards tell him how poor a woman he made.
• Dramatically Missing the Point: He briefly falls into this during the Hell Climb Pillar training, when he sees Caesar hanging off by his fingertips, and assumes that he's about to fall off. In reality, Joseph had forgotten something Caesar had told him- that concentrating Hamon in a single point increases its effectiveness- and that Caesar was using the proper technique to climb out. Joseph soon gets the point and is able to catch up to Caesar.
• Dressing as the Enemy: Disguises himself as a German soldier in order to rescue Speedwagon.
• Due to the Dead: JoJo may kill his opponents, but he always makes an effort to pay respects, if not outright admire their valiance and bravery.

E-L

• Eagleland: Although he spent most of his childhood and adolescence in England, he becomes a Type 1 after moving to New York. By Part 3, he's fully embraced his American identity, losing his English accent and preferring American culture over any other, especially against the Japanese. Though this doesn't get in the way of being a true ally and friend to his multi-ethnic companions.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: One of the few JoJos to have an unambiguously Happy Ending, but went through a lot of crap just to live into his old age and as of JoJolion, is still the only main JoJo to even make it past the second generation.
• Endearingly Dorky: Even when he's in his 60's and 70's, he's still a total dork.
• Enemy Mine: Works with the Nazis, mostly Stroheim, against the Pillar Men. They even give him a spiffy new hand after the climax of Part 2.
• Establishing Character Moment: Two in quick succession. He's introduced covering for a pickpocket (Smokey) that was being hassled by two Corrupt Cops, then punching one in the face when he puts a booger on his face and breaking the other's finger by a clever use of Hamon. However, we first get an idea of just how crazy he actually is when he's accosted by Straizo in the middle of a crowded street... and immediately pulls a tommy gun out of Hammerspace and starts blasting away.
  • His senility is established almost immediately starting with his appearance in Part 4. He has serious trouble hearing what Okuyasu has to say to him, before asking him if he saw where he left his cane; the cane that he's already holding in his hands as he asks. The rest of Part 4 hints Joseph is perhaps overdoing his senility, as he's still very poor in his Japanese, and to get an obviously furious Suzi Q off his back by being an harmless old guy.
• Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas:
  • Downplayed because he's not a bad guy in any way, just a Jerk with a Heart of Gold, but he really loves his grandmother Erina and his Berserk Button is seeing others upsetting her. When he confronts DIO in Stardust Crusaders, Joseph declares he'll defeat DIO for the same of Erina, showing even years after she's passed away, Joseph loves her dearly, and wants to put to rest the source of much of her pain.
  • Played with in regards to his actual mother Lisa Lisa. He has been separated from her ever since he was so little, and the first time he met her again was when she taught him Hamon in a very strict way. Therefore, while he still has respect for her and risked his life to save hers from Kars, it seems he finds it hard to actually treat her in any motherly way, especially considering that he never got to know that she was his mom throughout the series. She tells him at the very end of the series.
• Expy: Of Indiana Jones in Stardust Crusaders, right down to the iconic fedora; even more so ever since the release of the fourth film, wherein Indy has aged enough to match Joseph in appearance; he even has Joseph's delightful tendency to sire illegitimate children.
  • According to Araki, Joseph is basically B.T. (a character from a previous manga by Araki) in Sylvester Stallone's body.
• Fake Arm Disarm: He undergoes at least two cases of Fingore in Stardust Crusaders — but, luckily, only on his cybernetic left hand, which can have the lost fingers reattached with relative ease.
• Failed a Spot Check: He carried Esidisi's gigantic, throbbing brain and flailing blood vessels off the battlefield, on his back, without noticing it.
• Feeling Their Age: By Diamond Is Unbreakable, he's pushing eighty, needs a cane and eyeglasses, can barely even walk with his cane, and his fighting days are extremely far past. He also may or may not be in some stage of dementia; he appears to be extremely addled with significant memory problems when he first appears, but he grows noticeably sharper once he is out of the public eye and he figures out what kind of enemy they are up against, and it is heavily implied that it's all a front to get Suzi Q to back off about his infidelity.
• The Fighting Narcissist: At the start of the series, he's a loudmouthed, showy, obnoxious asshole who loves to talk shit and boast at every opportunity. Character development smooths him out and makes him far less rude and arrogant.
• First-Name Basis: He's actually rarely called by his given name "Joseph" in-universe. DIO is notably one of the few characters who does that. Some of the other JoJos call him "Joseph" in the video games. In Part 2, he's almost always called JoJo, whereas in Part 3 onwards, he's mostly referred to as "Mr. Joestar" or just "Joestar" by non-relatives.
• Forgot About His Powers: A few situations the Joestar Group get into would be easily resolved by Joseph using his Hamon abilities from Battle Tendency. The show does say that Joseph is out of practice at using those abilities, but considering Joseph has been preparing to face DIO (an enemy he knows is vulnerable to Hamon) for three years and the first time it took him a month to learn those skills, it seems odd that Joseph had no occasion to get reacquainted with his abilities during his fifty day journey. The more egregious moment where Hamon might've solved everything is in Joseph's bet against Daniel J. D'Arby, as Joseph had learn to manipulate liquids with Hamon, including making them keep their shape even in the absence of a glass. There's no way Joseph should've lost that bet if he thought of using his Hamon. However, this can be justified with the fact that people can see Hamon being used, and thus D'Arby would be able to see that he was cheating and take his soul as he only penalized cheating if they were caught.
• Friend to All Children: Joseph is a FAMILY MAN. When his daughter in Stardust Crusaders, who by that time is 45 years old, has developed a Stand that she can't control and will kill her, he breaks down emotionally as if he was about to lose a 9-year-old daughter and goes off on a dangerous journey to personally remedy it. He seems to function as a surrogate father to his grandson Jotaro, despite apparently not visiting him much, while Jotaro's own father is out on the road. Later, when he finds out he has another child that he fathered illegitimately, his first action (unlike so many other rich patriarchs with bastard children) was to recognize that child, Josuke, as his son and cut him in on his inheritance. This even extends to children he doesn't know — such as the baby stand user in Stardust Crusaders whom he personally took care of until they reached the destination he was supposed to go to and Shizuka in Diamond is Unbreakable, for whom he nearly sacrificed his life without a second thought to protect and pretty much adopted as his own third child right there on the spot.
• Freudian Excuse: Both his parents were absent during his formative years, leaving him in the care of his grandmother Erina (who was too old and tired to properly discipline him outside of whacking or shouting distance) and family friend Speedwagon (who was even older and was often away on business). It can be inferred that many of his worst behaviors, and his overly Doting Parent behavior towards Holly Kujo, were a direct result of growing up with so little familial supervision.
• Fun Personified: Joseph is more easygoing and goofy compared to his grandfather Jonathan.
  • Rather worryingly, Joseph still finds time to enjoy the exotic cuisines and sightsee on his race against time to save his daughter's life journey in Stardust Crusaders. He also thinks coming Back from the Dead after his grandson had just barely survived a fight against their megalomaniac vampire nemesis was a perfect time to be a troll.
• The Gadfly: He likes to tease people and will sometimes do it just because he can. Like during his fight against Kars.
  • Case in point, the first thing he does after he's brought back to life by a blood transfusion from DIO's corpse is to pretend that DIO has possessed him just to screw with Jotaro.
  • When he accidentally causes Kars to get blown to space, he decides to lie to Kars and tell him that it was all part of his plan just because he figures it'll piss him off.
• Geek: Joseph's hobbies are watching movies, reading comics, and listening to popular music well after his "time" like Weird Al Yankovic and The Beatles. He was particularly proud that he sat through Lawrence of Arabia three times (even if he slept through two of the viewings).
• Genius Bruiser: He's over 190cm tall and pure muscle in Part 2, but every victory he gains comes from his intelligence and cunning rather than with straight-on clashes, mostly due to all of his opponents being superhuman monsters.
• Gentle Giant: Most prevalent in Part 3, where he Took a Level in Kindness thanks to Character Development. While he retained his Heroic Build and was still a Genius Bruiser, Joseph became a mostly Nice Guy.
• Glasses of Aging: He starts wearing glasses in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond Is Unbreakable as shorthand that he has become old and senile.
• Good Parents: To Holly, for sure, and most likely Shizuka as well. Although he didn't know about Josuke until it was too late to be this for him, he makes it clear that he would have if he did and tries his best to atone for it.
• Gratuitous English: "OH NO!", "OH MY GOD!", "HOLY SHIT!", "HELP ME!", and "SON OF A BITCH!" are said in English, in a comical font. Not to mention things like "DOUBLE SHOCK!" and "NICE!" at various other times.
  • Even funnier: They kept all the cussing in the English dub. Especially in Stardust Crusaders.
• Grumpy Old Man: Has his moments in Stardust Crusaders.
• Guile Hero: Joseph never physically defeats his opponents. He outsmarts them. Exaggerated in Part 2, where, despite being the weakest Hamon fighter of the cast, he's able to defeat the Pillar Men using misdirection, quick-thinking, and an accurate enough reading of them that he could predict their next line, to the point that he unconsciously managed to think of a plan to defeat Kars. It's telling that he believed Joseph when the latter said their fight had gone just as he planned to piss him off.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: In Part 2. He mellows out significantly for 3 and 4.
• Hammerspace: In his fight with Straizo, he pulls out a fully-assembled Thompson submachine gun from under his coat that he was never hinted to be carrying prior to doing so, especially considering he was out for dinner just momets before.
• Handy Feet: He gives Wamuu the perfect opportunity to counterattack with a Divine Sandstorm... then uses his toes to charge the reins with Hamon and flick them upward into Wamuu's arms, almost severing them at the elbows and sending him into full-on This Cannot Be!. Yes, Joseph can turn losing a boot into a tactical advantage.
• Handsome Lech: Multiple characters comment on his good looks as an old man, but in Battle Tendency, it's the subject of a running gag that compared to Caesar, Joseph is perpetually single because no girl is willing to put up with his awful personality long enough to be in a relationship with him, and prior to Suzi Q he ends up scaring off most of the women he interacts with because of his pervertedness and abrasiveness.
• Happily Married: Double Subverted. Joseph loves his wife, Suzi Q but that didn’t stop him from cheating on her with Tomoko. Understandably Suzi Q was angry to learn about this, though she eventually forgives him.
• Harmless Lady Disguise: Attempts one to infiltrate Stroheim's base. It doesn't work, because he's way too buff to pass as a woman.
• The Hero: Arguably the hero of the entire series, alongside Jotaro. Joseph is The Protagonist in Part 2, the Supporting Leader in Part 3, and a Retired Badass in Part 4.
• Heroic Build: Built like a truck, just like his grandfather, though to be honest, he doesn't really need it.
• Hey, That's My Line!: One of Joseph's favorite tricks in Part 2 is telling his opponent what they're going to say next, throwing them off guard in the process. Esidisi also pulls this on him.
• Honor Before Reason: Only once in his entire life. He swore to not take Wamuu's antidote until he avenged Caesar's death.
• Hot-Blooded: One of the more emotional Joestars. Particularly in the Capcom fighting game.
  • "CAEEEEEESAAAAAAAAAR!!"
  • In one of Joseph's super attacks, he uppercuts the opponent into the air, then has flashbacks to his youth in Part 2, with the opponent taking damage during this. Yes, Joseph's flashbacks convey enough strength to physically harm people.
• How the Mighty Have Fallen: In a physical sense at least. By the time of Diamond is Unbreakable, Joseph is completely unrecognizable from the tall, proud, handsome, and muscular warrior he was in Battle Tendency (and for that matter, Stardust Crusaders). Mortality has caught up with him, finally turning him into a wrinkled, rheumatic, shriveled, and senile old man (who is, by his own admission to Josuke, on the verge of death)^note though it is heavily implied that the senility was all an act, as he is noticeably much sharper when he is out of the public eye and steps up his game very fast once he figures out what they are dealing with. Although his health at least improves in the end, he isn't seen again. Despite this, he lives on for another 12 years, is still wealthy, happy, and has most of his family with him.
• Hunk: Muscular, attractive and manly, for all his loudmothed and mischievous attitude. Then, he's a JoJo hero after all.
• Hypocrite
  • Hates the Japanese. Also has an affair with a Japanese woman, which produces a half-Japanese son.
  • He happily cheats and decieves his way through his fight with Wamuu, stating that given it's a death match, there's no such thing as "fair". He proceeds to berate Kars when he steps on Wamuu's honor for doing the same thing for the same reasons.
• Hypocritical Humor: Rags on Jotaro for talking to Holly with such disrespect despite how flippant he was towards both Erina and Lisa Lisa when he was around his age.
• Iconic Outfit: His most well-known outfit consists of a small, torn, tight-fitting shirt, equally tight pants with boots, fingerless gloves and Caesar's headband.
  • In Part 3, he keeps the tight fitting part with his beige clothing, but now wears white gloves to conceal his mechanical arm and a fedora.
• Iconic Sequel Character: Joseph's Combat Pragmatist and Large Ham tendencies are legendary, and he rivals Jotaro as the most significant and recurring Jojo.
• Identical Grandson: He's one of Jonathan, and he has his own in Jotaro. Araki pointedly made him not too dissimilar from Jonathan in terms of appearance because he didn't want to confuse readers into thinking the manga had completely changed in concept. This is downplayed in the anime, where Jonathan's default hair color is changed to blue, and both are given more distinct silhouettes.
• Idiot Ball: He sees Straizo take a hostage and assumes he's bluffing. This is despite the fact that for all he knew, Straizo murdered Speedwagon in cold blood, and he outright said he planned to kill Erina. He found out the hard way he wasn't bluffing. Luckily, Straizo wasn't the type to kill or seriously wound his hostage.
• I Do Not Like Green Eggs and Ham: Joseph has this reaction in Battle Tendency to being served squid ink pasta at the restaurant where he first encounters Caesar Zeppeli. He's initially mortified at the thought of eating what he assumes is writing ink, but after some coaxing from the waiter, he tries and really enjoys it.
  Joseph: (grabs the waiter by the collar, who is nonplussed) You expect me to eat spaghetti with ink in it?!
  Waiter: Well, sir, this is spaghetti al nero di seppia. It's made with fresh squid ink, so it is black.
  (Joseph releases the waiter and sits back down to reluctantly try the pasta. Once he does, his pupils dilate in pleasure)
  Joseph: Yum! Isn't this a treat? (enthusiastically chows down as the waiter sighs in relief) I like it, it's good!
• Improbable Aiming Skills: With a crossbow thanks to the power of Hamon.
• Improbable Weapon User: His Hamon can weaponize practically everything from bottle caps to cacti. His most famous weapons also just happen to be a pair of Hamon-enhanced clackers.
• In the Blood: The fact that he is so naturally gifted at using Hamon makes a ton of sense once you realize his mom is the last member of the Hamon tribe.
• In Series Nick Name: JoJo, and the last to be called this regularly for obvious reasons. The nickname is rarely brought up from Part 3 onwards, where he is mostly called by his last name.
• Incest Subtext:
  • With regards to a certain moment, completely unaware that he was perpetrating it. You know how he peeped on Lisa Lisa? That's his mother. He also went through her briefcase to look for her panties. Imagine how he felt when he was told the truth.
  • And it happens again in Eyes of Heaven where he unknowingly flirts with Jolyne, his great-granddaughter... which she actually reciprocates.
    Joseph: I've always had a soft spot for American gals.
    Jolyne: ...Well, I don't mind hearing that.
• Indy Ploy: He's very good at formulating plans on short notice. When Kars asks him if using his severed arm to distract him was planned from the very beginning, Joseph replies in the affirmative. He immediately thinks to himself that of course he didn't, he just wanted to piss Kars off.
• Intergenerational Friendship: Plenty. He was the younger one in Part 2, with his Honorary Uncle Speedwagon. In Part 3 he was this to the team of young men in their late teens and early 20's. In Part 4, he is on good terms with Rohan, and likewise he is one of the few people Rohan openly likes and respects.
• Irony: He dreams of being a pilot like his father, yet every plane he's seen in ends up in a disaster.
  • Despite being the only Hamon user in the entirety of Part 3, and despite the cast encountering a total of three vampires near the end, he doesn't get to kill any of them.
• I Shall Taunt You: Absolutely. It's also lampshaded by Esidisi.
• I Was Quite a Looker: Gets this by Diamond is Unbreakable. In Part 2, he was a very handsome, muscular young man, and even in Part 3 he gained quite rugged looks even as an old man. But by Part 4, old age has caught up to him, and he looks like a feeble and decrepit old man.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: During his Character Development phase, which contrasts greatly with his Nice Guy grandfather. That said, he might have been an obnoxious loudmouth Jerkass during most of the time as a teenager, but held deep respect for others nonetheless and is actually a pretty decent guy deep down.
  • He mellows out greatly by the time Stardust Crusaders starts, but he can be pretty crotchety at times.
• Know-Nothing Know-It-All: A Downplayed version of this in Part 3. He basically acts as the Joestar Group's tour guide to the various foreign locales they visit, doing things like haggling for doner kebab or showing the others some of the lesser details of riding a camel. While he is more knowledgeable about these topics than the rest of the group, his interactions make him look incompetent; the kebab vendor still manages to sell his food to him at a raised price, and Joseph ends up falling off his camel a couple of times while trying to demonstrate how to ride it.
• Knows the Ropes: His weapon of choice in Part 2. Joseph has all the brains and Hamon he needs to make an ordinary rope or thread lethal. His Stand can be weaponized in a similar manner.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: His final super special plan consists of basically making the best use of his legs. In other words, to run the hell away while coming up with a better plan. His funny walk is referenced in the Capcom fighter and All-Star Battle, which has his retreat movement happen to be the fastest out of everyone else's.
• Lamarck Was Right: While Jonathan was an Instant Expert when he learned how to use Hamon, Joseph is able to use Hamon techniques long before receiving any training. Oddly enough, this skipped a generation, as his father, Jonathan's son, had no Hamon ability whatsoever (although it was said he would have had the talent for it).
• Large Ham: Mainly in Part 2, though he still has quite a few moments in Part 3.
• Last-Name Basis: Particularly from Part 3 onwards, Joseph is most often referred to by his last name. All of his allies from Part 3 onwards call him "Joestar-san" ("Mr. Joestar") with the exception of Jotaro and other family members who aren't Josuke. His enemies from Part 3 onwards rarely call him Joseph.
• Last of His Kind: Joseph is the last known user of Hamon come Part 3, of which he only occasionally uses.
• The Leader: Of the Joestar Group. While Jotaro is The Hero of Part 3, Joseph is still touted as being the leader of the group, not only having his last name provide the group's namesake, but also being the one in charge of instructing the group on what they're doing, where they're going, and how to prepare for enemy Stand users.
• Leitmotif: I'm In Control is pretty much the "Joseph is cooler than you" song. And then there's the aptly-named Appearance for whenever he busts onto the scene.
• Lonely Rich Kid: When he was younger.

M-Z

• Manipulative Bastard: He talks Wamuu into sparing his life and leaving him alone by talking about what a shame it would be to deny a potential Worthy Opponent a chance to train for a rematch. Wamuu is fully aware of how badly Joseph's messing with him during this. He agrees anyway.
• Manly Tears:
  • A couple of times in Part 2. On one occasion (Caesar's death), an entire page was devoted to his Manly Tears.
  • In Part 3, he barely stops himself from crying when he witnesses Kakyoin's brutal and heart-wrenching death at the hands of DIO.
• Mary Tzu: In-universe: Kars eventually starts to believe everything is a Joseph trap, and Joseph decides to play along to piss him off. His thoughts, however, reveal he doesn't plan nearly as much as he claims to do, but is willing to say that he did just to piss Kars off.
• Milking the Giant Cow: In Part 2 once more. He will never turn down the chance to make an overly dramatic pose even when he isn't hamming it up.
• Mistaken for Gay: During his fight against Mariah, both him and Avdol are magnetized such that they're stuck together. They attempt to use a fence to help separate themselves, but that just results in Avdol unintentionally bending himself over Joseph; an old lady Joseph had encountered earlier and mistook him for flirting with her humorously scolds him for playing with her feelings.
• Mr. Fanservice: Probably the most overtly fanservicey male JoJo. Hell, Part 2 might be more aptly described as "JoJo's Beefcake Adventure", given that he's subjected to so many exploitative-looking antics throughout it that you'd be forgiven for thinking he was a Gender Flipped modern-day superheroine. The anime◊ throws in an Animation Bump during a The Coats Are Off scene seemingly for no real reason than this trope.
  • In Part 3, he's still the most fanservicey member of the main team, trading in the Pretty Boy appeal for a more straightforwardly masculine kind but holding on to the penchant for skintight shirts and ambiguously gay moments. It doesn't last into Part 4, though maybe that's for the better.
• Moment of Weakness: Cheating on his wife wasn't exactly the proudest moment of his life. He later shows regret for this affair, and for not knowing Josuke was even alive until he was 16 and tries to compensate for not helping to raise his illegitimate son, though he's understandably cold towards him at first.
• Nerf: By the time of Part 3, age and a lack of training have taken their toll, severely weakening Joseph. Despite gaining a Stand that should theoretically make his Hamon more dangerous than ever, Joseph is so out of practice that he is only rarely able to do a basic Overdrive, nevermind any of the more advanced uses of Hamon he practiced in his youth. Between this and an otherwise non-combat Stand, Joseph went from a warrior on par with the Pillar Men to the least capable fighter of the Part 3 crew.
• Nice Guy: As he grew older, he became more wholesome and affable, losing the arrogant streak he had in his youth.
• Obfuscating Disability: Given his crafty nature and suspiciously swift recovery after his personal adventure with Josuke, it's heavily implied that he was nowhere near as senile as he acted during Part 4 and might just have been playing the fool to get his wife to stop hitting him for having an affair — in particular, once Reimi confirms that they're dealing with a Stand-using serial killer, he immediately starts scheming with Jotaro. He also shows it when Josuke steals his wallet in the end of Part 4, being a lot more emotional and aware of his surroundings when he's successfully caught off-guard.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: Often clowns around in order to catch his enemies off-guard or make them underestimate him.
• Occidental Otaku: He's collected comics and manga since his youth.
• Odd Name Out: Tarot Motif of Hermit Purple aside, Joseph is the one of the only major characters in the entire series who doesn't have a name or Stand name that references anything. (Jotaro's last name is based on Cujo).
• Of Corsets Sexy: Shows up in one for one of the post-chapter doodles on one of the tankobons. Unsurprisingly, this makes for a popular subject in fanart.
• Oh, Crap!: Even when he can plan things, he still shows signs of surprise when things go unexpected, like during his fight with Santana, his Hell-Climb, Kars becoming the Ultimate Life Form, and when his hand gets chopped off by said Ultimate Life Form.
• Older and Wiser: In Part 3, he's mellowed down and is the voice of wisdom in the group. But that doesn't stop him from being involved in many goofy antics and hijinks, whether on purpose or by accident.
• Old Master: In Part 3, he is the leader of the Joestar Group because of his age and wisdom. He may not get as many action scenes as he did in his youth so as to make place for the new protagonist, but he still displays his characteristic cunning (perhaps more than any other JoJo, he won his fights by outsmarting his opponents) by completely turning the tables on both Empress and Mariah. Even in Part 4, where Joseph is in his elderly years and going senile, he doesn't lack courage at all, as proven in the Achtung Baby episode, and it's heavily implied that his senility is all an act to begin with.
• Older Than They Look: Doesn't seem to have aged a wink between 19 and 30, and is as fit as an athlete despite being almost 70 in Part 3 as a result of his inborn Hamon powers. Doesn't carry over to his appearance in Part 4, unfortunately.
• Outliving One's Offspring: In Stone Ocean, his grandson Jotaro and great-granddaughter Jolyne are both killed by Enrico Pucci before the universe reset.
• Out-of-Character Moment: By all indications, he seemed to be Happily Married to Suzi Q, so there was no indication or explanation of any reason why he would cheat on her and father Josuke four years prior to Stardust Crusaders.
• Papa Wolf: Will go as far as to give up his own life if it means protecting his children, adopted or not.
• Pass Fail: Played for Laughs with his "Tequila" outfit. The Nazi guards realize right away that he's not a woman.
• Pet the Dog:
  • His friendship with Smokey is built on this, as he's the only companion of Joseph's that he doesn't sass or prank in any way despite the fact that their first meeting involved him stealing his wallet.
  • Despite holding Enya as a hostage to interrogate her, Joseph still buys her a kebab. A shame it was from Steely Dan, who kills her right after.
• The Power of the Sun: Just like all Hamon users, Joseph can fight with energy that has the qualities of sunlight, and can do all kinds of crazy things with it.
• The Prankster: Downplayed. Most of Joseph's tricks are employed in battle, but it's pretty telling that after Jotaro literally brings Joseph back from the dead with an impromptu blood transfusion from DIO's corpse, his first thought upon waking up is that he's got a great chance to screw with his grandson.
• Premature Eulogy: Or the spirit of it, at least, as all his companions throughout Battle Tendency hold a funeral for him after he explodes the cap off a volcano to shoot the then immortal-by-conventional-means Kars into space. Hilarity Ensues when he shows up to the funeral perplexed as to why everyone's there in black and mourning his death; it turns out that Suzi Q forgot to send the telegram explaining that he survived, and he chases her all over the cemetery berating her for her absent-mindedness.
• Pre-Mortem One-Liner: In the Capcom fighting game, his older self gets one of these in as he finishes off Vanilla Ice after their boss battle in his Story Mode. True to form for him, it's both cheesy and awesome.
  Vanilla Ice: I could never lose to an old man like you...!
  Joseph: What? You're still alive?! You must be a vampire. In that case... (hurls Vanilla Ice into a beam of sunlight with a huge Hamon-infused punch, burning him to a crisp) ...let me brighten up your day!
• Put on a Bus: Never appears again after Part 4, though it's stated that he's still alive as of Stone Ocean, albeit too aged to be involved in the plot.
• Racist Grandpa:
  • Played for laughs and generally downplayed. He kicks a young man in the shin at JFK Airport for bumping into him after finding out that he's Japanese, but it's explained as just a grudge stemming from his overprotective nature. His heart doesn't seem to be in it normally, though, as he easily tolerates his half-Japanese grandson Jotaro as well as the fully Japanese Kakyoin, and most likely got over his prejudice altogether by Part 4 with another Japanese descendant, Josuke. At the least, he states that while he's not fond of the Japanese, he does like his Sony Walkman.
  • Also shows up in the occasional Part 3 gag where he makes some rather closed-minded assumptions about the local populace, only for them to be true anyway.
  • He grew up during WWII, AND wanted to be a pilot for the Air Force, so he unsurprisingly gained some anti-Japanese sentiment. But the fact that he has a Japanese grandson probably helped him ease up. So it would explain how grudgingly it is, but he almost completely mellows out after Part 3, where he had two Japanese teens in his party to search for DIO.
    • Despite all of this, it may be that his anti-Japanese sentiments don't apply to the ladies, as it's revealed that he had an affair with a Japanese woman who would eventually become Josuke's mother. It should also be noted that this affair happened before the events of Part 3.
• Raised by Grandparents: After his father's death and his mother disappearing after avenging that death, leading to her being wanted, Joseph was left to be raised by his grandma Erina and Honorary Uncle Speedwagon.
• Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs: Notable for being the only JoJo in the whole series to completely avert this.
• Razor Floss: Some of his stunts in Part 2 involved strings which he could use as conductors for Hamon.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: In Part 2, he's the red to Caesar's blue, though it's eventually averted as Caesar is shown to be much more intense about just about everything and leaves reason behind more often than Joseph.
• Reports of My Death Were Greatly Exaggerated: See Premature Eulogy.
• Retired Badass: Subverted in Part 4, even after his age finally catches up to him. Anyone who is willing to open a vein when an invisible baby falls into a lake so the blood can make her show up can't completely relinquish the title.
• Save the Villain: Does this for Hol Horse in the Stardust Crusaders OVA; stopping Polnareff from finishing off the comatose gunslinger and letting him go in return for helping them against Enya and her zombies.
  Polnareff: Hey, isn't that Hol Horse lying in the dirt? (goes over and checks his vital signs) He's still breathing!
  Joseph: (stops him) Leave him alone. He needs to be hospitalized, he's no longer a threat.
• Say My Name: Screams Caesar's name when forced to accept that the latter has died.
• Scarf of Asskicking: He wears a pretty snazzy neon green and red scarf in Part 2. He puts it to good use during his second fight with Kars by lighting it on fire as part of a distraction.
• Semantic Superpower: He can produce an image by breaking anything, which he realizes in the fight against Empress, where he smashes a pot of sand to make a map.
• Shipper on Deck:
  • In Part 2, for Speedwagon and Erina; when the latter hears this, she's understandably angry, since she loved Jonathan too much to remarry and how Speedwagon was happy to have his best friend get married after the ordeal. Justified as both kept the whole thing lip-tight, especially with the whole DIO ordeal.
  • In Part 4, for Koichi and Yukako. In the Cinderella arc, he comes across a brooding Yukako and gives her advice on how to get Koichi to be interested in her, for example by checking out Aya's Salon. When he sees her later on in the Kameyu department store, he tells her he's happy her relationship with Koichi has improved.
• Silver Fox: It's brought up multiple times in-universe that he is attractive in his old age. Hey, Jotaro was already in his teens when Josuke was born! Even Mariah, who was hired to kill Joseph, didn't resist flirting with him.
• Skyward Scream: In the OP for Battle Tendency, just after he ties a bandana about his forehead. Surprisingly enough, the scream is unheard in the version of the OP with sound effects.
• Small Role, Big Impact: While his role in Diamond is Unbreakable is no more than a secondary one, Joseph is indirectly responsible for major events from that Part. By cheating on Suzi Q, he fathered the Part's main protagonist Josuke. By trying to discover his illegitimate son's face with Hermit Purple, he ends up seeing Angelo's instead, kick-starting Angelo's downfall as well. He's also the one who sent Jotaro, one of the Part's main characters, to Morioh. Without Joseph, Part 4 wouldn't be the same at all.
• Spanner in the Works: When trying to discover Josuke's face with Hermit Purple prior to the events of Diamond is Unbreakable, he ends up seeing Angelo's instead, and sent Jotaro to Morioh in order to both meet Josuke and take down Angelo. In other words, Joseph is indirectly responsible for Angelo's defeat.
• Sole Survivor: By Stone Ocean, all of the Joestar Group has died, with the exception of Joseph. Vanilla Ice killed off Avdol and Iggy in no time flat, DIO evaded Kakyoin's trap and punched a hole through his chest, Polnareff died trying to keep Diavolo from using the Requiem Arrow and only barely clings onto life by inhabiting Coco Jumbo's Stand, and Jotaro is killed by a Flechette Storm to the face by Enrico Pucci, only to be replaced by a new counterpart twice over. Joseph, on the other hand, is confirmed by Word of God to still be alive, albeit in his 90s.
• So Last Season: As the last shown Hamon user by the time Stands are introduced, he gets hit with this hard. While Hamon can be used against humans to a degree, it cannot innately harm Stands, making it practically useless in most fights from this point onwards. Even DIO, the one opponent that should be most vulnerable to Hamon, can practically ignore it entirely using his Stand. This isn't helped by neither Joseph's old age, lack of Hamon training, nor his fairly weak Stand. By the time of Part 4, he pretty much drops Hamon entirely. Not that it matters much, as age had reduced him from a Hamon warrior capable of defeating the Ultimate Lifeform to a senile old man barely able to walk on his own.
• So Proud of You: Once he gets to know Josuke he comes to feel great pride in his son and fully believes that he and his friends can handle any challenges that come their way in the future. He can't help but chuckle when Josuke manages to swindle his wallet from him before he leaves Morioh, clearly impressed that his boy managed to out guile him.
• Stay in the Kitchen: Displays this attitude towards Lisa Lisa, showing concern for her when she was about to fight Kars because she was a woman, even though she as his mentor has shown herself to be a far more skilled Hamon user than him. His concern is validated when it turns out Kars had no intention of fighting fair.
• Stealth Pun: Joseph cheats everything! He cheats at cards, he cheats in formal combat with Wamuu, he cheats the Hell-Climb Pillar, he tries to cheat Daniel J. D'Arby, helped Jotaro cheat to beat Terrence D'Arby, he cheats death at the ends of Part 2 and Part 3 and, by virtue of still being alive and out of the story at the end of Part 6, cheats the family curse of dying a violent, young death... and, oh yes, he cheats on his wife.
• Stripperific: His Iconic Outfit bares the most skin out of any of the main characters' after Jolyne's (sometimes as much or even more, depending on the panel). So of course, the official artwork for the anime is going to stick him in a belly shirt and pair of pants that looks ready to either fall off or burst, then milk it even further by giving him Jolyne's pants and making his outfit even more revealing.
  • Amusingly enough, that last image seems to be a rather literal example of this trope, given that with the pose and dangerously high cutaways, it's possible to add in a stripper pole◊ without anyone even realizing it's an edit.
• Super Wrist-Gadget: Downplayed with his bracelets in Part 2, which simply dispense oil whenever Joseph needs extra Hamon conductivity.
• Support Party Member: Out of the Stardust Crusaders, he's the only member of the team whose Stand doesn't have offensive abilities. His Hamon abilities could make up for that, but his powers had badly atrophied thanks to age and a lack of practice since the end of Battle Tendency. These limitations keep him mostly out of active combat, but his ability to gather information and wealth of experience let him remain a vital part of the team.
• Supporting Leader: He unofficially leads the Joestar Group in Part 3, even though the part is more centered around Polnareff stumbling into problems and Jotaro punching said problems away.
• Sympathy for the Devil:
  • Gave an eulogy for Esidisi after seeing his Villainous Valor and shows Wamuu sincere respect by easing the pain of his death with his own blood.
  • He expresses sympathy towards a sulking Yukako, while Josuke has none. Justified, as unlike his son, Joseph didn't witness Yukako's less savory actions.
• Surprise Incest: Downplayed, but Joseph spied on Lisa Lisa taking a bath before knowing that she's his mother.
• Talks Like a Simile: Especially in Part 3, where he gives off random analogies, such as comparing the sensation of The World's power like that of an icicle being shoved up his ass.
• Tarot Motifs: The Hermit card represents wisdom and sharing knowledge with others. Throughout Part 3, Joseph has bits where he shares his great knowledge of different cultures and customs. At least what he thinks is great knowledge.
• Tears of Joy: Joseph understandably cries after learning Speedwagon survived the attempt on his life.
• Technician Versus Performer: The Performer to Caesar's Technician. While Caesar has spent years training his Hamon skill, and developed his own unique fighting style, Joseph simply grew up with it and didn't even train his abilities until he met Lisa Lisa. Instead, Joseph mixes his Hamon with creative tricks, and tends to use whatever he can get his hand on in battles as opposed to using a specific fighting style or complex Hamon techniques.
• There Is No Kill Like Overkill: When Straizo reveals that he can nullify Joseph's Hamon attacks with a special scarf, Joseph responds by removing it. With grenades!
• Took a Level in Badass: Went from having poor Hamon control and barely being able to beat a normal (albeit skilled) vampire, to being able to defeat two of the Pillar Men and a Physical God, though admittedly by sheer luck in the latter case.
• Tragic Keepsake: Caesar's bandana becomes this to him in Part 2 after his death. He ultimately lights it on fire, but this is to land the killing blow on Wamuu, the man who killed Caesar in the first place, so it's still respectful.
• A Tragedy of Impulsiveness: As Eyes Of Heaven cements, the disagreement between Joseph and Caesar with the latter rushing off to fight Wamuu was ultimately due to both Joseph and Caesar and saying things neither party meant, and ultimately leads to Ceasar to what would be his untimely death. Old Joseph comments on this, and is able to deescalate the situation both parties contributed towards.
• Troll: No matter what the situation may be, Joseph will never pass up an opportunity to fuck with someone, and antagonizing opponents so that they get pissed off and overextend themselves is a favorite tactic of his. Case in point, when being revived in an ambulance after having his blood drained by DIO, his first instinct when coming to is to pretend to be possessed by DIO just to get a reaction from Jotaro.
• True Companions: He is absolutely devoted to his grandma Erina and uncle Speedwagon. He grows to forms this with the Joestar group of Polnareff, Kakyoin, and Jotaro, and was explicitly good friends with Avdol before Part 3 started.
• Tsundere: Joseph is incredibly rude to friend and foe alike, but is a superb companion to those that win his respect and survive his bluster.
• Took a Level in Dumbass: In Part 3 he mostly doesn't have any of his combat experience from Part 2 aside from when he dealt with Empress. Noticeable cases include him being the only member of the group who didn't notice where Arabian Fatts is when dealing with his Stand, The Sun, and when Steely Dan's Stand, Lovers was inside his head, it's Kakyoin who comes up with a bunch of ideas to deal with it while Joseph only plays along. It also takes him a lot of chapters for him to start using Hermit Purple for anything besides smashing cameras and looking at T Vs, when younger Joseph would've quickly tried to make use of it in weirdly creative ways.
• Undying Loyalty: He will cross deserts and storm Nazi bases and rip your shit, all to get to his beloved great-uncle Speedwagon.
• Unstoppable Rage: During his confrontation with Kars, he gets angry at Lisa Lisa losing and starts beating a bunch of vampires, before getting overwhelmed.
• Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Absolutely no one blinks when Joseph uses Hamon in Part 3 despite it being very different and unique from Stands. While some cases are excusable, such as Jotaro and Avdol probably knowing this capability beforehand, Kakyoin and Polnareff never even blink at the sight of it.
• Vapor Wear: Possibly, in the anime and related images.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: With Caesar. Both of them didn't get along at first, but eventually warmed up to each other over time albeit with some ribbing between the two remaining. This comes to a head when Caesar dies to give Joseph the antidote, with Joseph mourning his death.
• We Need a Distraction: His "Joestar Secret Technique" is meant to lure dangerous foes away from strategic locations or innocent civilians by having them chase his "retreating" self. Notably, it fails to work on Straizo as he has the good sense to take a hostage before confronting him again, but succeeds stunningly well on Ultimate Kars.
• Weak, but Skilled:
  • Is noted to be not particularly powerful or technically proficient with Hamon. However, unlike most users, he grew up with it and thus spent his developmental years sporadically practicing the bare basics enough to be very good at applying it in critical situations. Even after proper training and a noticeable increase in strength, he is never referred to as exceptionally powerful, unlike his grandfather Jonathan or Lisa Lisa, but gets even more creative and versatile. This proves to be vital in his victories over the Pillar Men: all of them are so powerful and intelligent that neither pure strength nor more straight-forward strategies would be enough for a human to defeat them. Only out-of-the-box thinking, creative applications of Hamon, and deception stand a chance at bridging the gap. In other words, Joseph's specialties.
  • This gets more pronounced in Part 3. Age and lack of practice severely weakened Joseph's Hamon abilities, forcing him to battle Stand-wielding assassins with nothing more than what Hamon he can use in the situation, and Hermit Purple's barely-existent combat potential to defend himself. He had to get extremely creative to earn any victories in Stardust Crusaders, but he tends to come out on top through clever tactics or the help of the other characters.
• The Worf Effect:
  • His fight with DIO in Part 3 is a double-pronged version of this trope. Joseph's first proper fight in Part 2 was his curb-stomp victory over Straizo, who was at least as strong as DIO was in Part 1. This established how difficult his fight with the Pillar Men would be compared to Jonathan's fight with DIO in Part 1. Joseph's fight with DIO in Part 3 is completely one-sided in the latter's favour, showing not only how much stronger DIO had become since Part 1, but also how the World made him much more dangerous than the Pillar Men (all of whom Joseph defeated single-handedly). DIO also proved to be so crafty that none of Joseph's usual tricks could do more than slightly delay his inevitable defeat.
  • Him losing to Daniel D'Arby as well. Joseph's biggest asset was always his intellect with how he managed to outsmart and read his opponents. But then he loses to D'Arby in the surface tension game (A game Joseph himself suggested even), to make it clear D'Arby is even better than him at cheating.
• Worthy Opponent: He and Wamuu have a mutual respect of each other, despite being mortal enemies. While it's unknown if Esidisi returns the gesture, Joseph eventually grows to respect the Pillar Man's dedication to Kars.
• Wounded Gazelle Gambit: Uses one against Santana by letting Santana eat him and then letting lose Hamon from the inside out. And then does it again in the fight against Wamuu to distract him from a sneak attack.
• You're Insane!: Caesar calls him insane for using some clackers to fight Wamuu. Kinda hard to argue with him.

Hermit Purple

Hermit Purple

• Awesome, yet Impractical: The initial impression one gets from Joseph's wacky use of Hermit Purple's ability to take a picture of a distant place, namely by him crushing very expensive cameras. It's subverted, though, as he can produce an image by breaking anything, which he realizes in the fight against Nena, where he smashes a pot of sand to make a map. Furthermore, DIO is once shown taking a spirit picture just by tapping the camera, which means Joseph is misusing his power because he's so overly dramatic.
• Building Swing: Joseph can extend Hermit Purple to latch onto things and then swing around buildings, similar to Spider-Man. He puts this to good use in his fight against DIO to move long distances quickly.
• Choke Holds: Joseph attempted to use Hermit Purple this way during the fight with Mariah. He would've throttled her with it and won right there had he not become, erm, misdirected.
• Combat Tentacles: Since Joseph has complete control over them, Hermit Purple's vines essentially serve as long-range tentacles Joseph can use for a multitude of purposes. This is particularly deadly if he channels Hamon through them (which is Old Joseph's main form of offense in the games).
• Combo Platter Powers: Joseph is notably the only character in the entire series that has both Hamon and a Stand. This is particularly useful as Hermit Purple's connection to his body allows Joseph to channel Hamon through it to attack enemies from a distance. If the fight with DIO was any indication, this allowed him to attack other Stands with Hamon. The synergy between Hermit Purple and Hamon compensates for the weaknesses of both powers, potentially making Joseph a potent force on the battlefield. Sadly for him, it never lives up to its potential as Joseph's age, neglect of his Hamon training, and the fact that Hermit Purple isn't much of a combat Stand in the first place combined ensure that he's best left on the sidelines in most fights.
• Electromagnetic Ghosts: As it turns out, the information that Hermit Purple generates can also take the form of electronic signals, like the analog TV signal that Joseph used to spy on Steely Dan's Stand and the digital signal that he used to operate Jotaro's controller during the fight with Telence T. D'Arby.
• Fighting Spirit: Just like all other Stands. Unlike most others, it takes a form best suited to compliment its users' Hamon powers and need for information gathering rather than fight on its own as a humanoid.
• Improvised Armour: Joseph stuffs the inside of his shirt with Hamon-infused Hermit Purple during the fight with DIO.
• In the Blood: Joseph's grandfather Jonathan had a Stand (that we only see DIO channel using Jonathan's body) that looked and had powers very similar to Hermit Purple. Some questionably canon material states that it is also called Hermit Purple.
• It Was with You All Along: According to Araki, if the cast of Stardust Crusaders had traveled back in time to the events of Battle Tendency, they would have seen Hermit Purple wrapped around Young Joseph's body.
• Knows the Ropes: In Part 3, Joseph uses the thorny vines of Hermit Purple for his tricks.
• Personality Powers: His signature ability is predicting his enemy's next line, which is shown to be correct all the time. It fits with this divination-based stand. Also, in Battle Tendency, he relied on strategy as opposed to raw strength in order to defeat his opponents, which may explain the physical weakness, but inherent versatility of Hermit Purple. Since the last time he seriously fought involved Hamon in creative ways, often using string or whips to extend his reach when using it, his Stand itself took the form of an ideal conductor of Hamon that can extend, contract, and contort in any way he might need.
• Razor Floss: Hermit Purple is covered in thorns and has enough tensile strength to slice the Empress Stand to shreds. This almost never gets shown after this event: Hermit Purple's thorns don't seem to damage anything they touch and Joseph seems incapable of intentionally constricting it tightly enough to cut anything without the use of additional force from external sources.
• Seers: It can produce an image of (and therefore information about) anything Joseph likes when it makes contact with a suitable medium. The first time we see this, Joseph has to smash a 30,000-yen camera to produce a single photo, but by the time he fights Mariah, he can produce maps in bare dirt that update themselves in real time.
• Semantic Superpower: Hermit Purple's main power is to divine information. At first, Joseph thought it was limited to spirit photography after breaking cameras, but it is later revealed that Hermit Purple can produce information on just about anything needed as long as it has a medium to translate that information into. It can make photos, give locations of enemies, project footage of events, and warn the user of potential hostile agents around them. As long as Joseph is consciously thinking of what he wants to know and has an appropriate medium, Hermit Purple can provide the answer. If not for DIO's ability to block its attempts to scry on him, Hermit Purple would solve the plot in minutes.
• Tarot Motifs: As mentioned above, the Hermit card represents wisdom and sharing knowledge with others. It is a photograph produced by Hermit Purple that sets the group on their path to confront DIO and reveals the location of his hideout.
• Technopath: Hermit Purple's clairvoyance ability can be used on a multitude of different machinery, such as cameras or televisions.
• The Trickster: Continues this trend for Joseph: he doesn't need Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs, Playing with Fire, or an Absurdly Sharp Blade to win, he just needs the right information and the ability to reach whatever it leads him to.
• Useless Useful Spell: Hermit Purple's ability to restrain enemies and conduct Hamon at a distance would've been invaluable to Joseph in his battles against humans, vampires, and the Pillar Men during Battle Tendency. Unfortunately for him, he didn't acquire Hermit Purple until long after the threat of the Pillar Men had passed. By that time, his aging and lack of training had degraded his Hamon skills too badly for him to make full use of it.
• Vine Swing: Joseph eventually learns that Hermit Purple's vines can let him swing from buildings.
• Weak, but Skilled: In Part 3, Hermit Purple is easily one of the weakest Stands in the series, but nonetheless, Joseph's superior skill and combat experience allows him to occasionally defeat stronger Stands like the Empress. Unfortunately, it is too weak to constrain the likes of DIO, who would otherwise be helpless against Joseph's Hamon should it connect with the vampire stand user.
• Weaksauce Weakness: If there are too many Stand Users in a single area, Hermit Purple cannot properly divine a location with spirit photography

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"Did you plan this too, JoJo?! Tell me!"

— Kars

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