sparklyjojos

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Art is a reflection of the self

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Cars in a pose loosely based on the cover of The Cars' album "The Cars"

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screencap redraw

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Ponytail

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kars but he adopted a little white dog and he's reformed he's literally nice now look how friendly he's being

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Screenshot redraw of the scene where Joseph throws bird seed on the ground as a distraction

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Actually yknow what these can all go in one post

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copy/pasting and elaborating on something from a discord rant because I’ve been thinking about a specific line from Jorge Joestar…

“They seem like they are constantly striving to become something else, but resist actual change.”

This line in particular. The even numbered chapters (and I’m going to talk about it in a moment: the odd numbered chapters too) are about identity and being secure in yourself and how someone’s identity also changes over time. Sometimes you can’t be yourself. Sometimes who you are changes. Sometimes you want to be something or someone so badly.

They want to change, striving to become something else, but resist actual change. Change is so scary. It’s so scary. Especially in terms of identity.

(Detective) Jorge our protagonist is very stable in his identity while other characters may be a bit more wavering. Kars in particular is a great contrast with how he admired humanity’s abilities and made an effort to change himself and his identity and abilities to more resemble that which he admired! I’m sure he’d like to be like ants too. But that’s besides the point. Kars also had thirty-six of him. He saw the light dancer and had to grapple with that. He, too, may be figuring out what to do now that he’s conquered the sun. He has nothing else to do. Who is he anymore? That’s not really explored, but it is an avenue that could be looked at at some point.

We see other characters with different types of relationships with their identities too—Kira and Giorno/Diavolo stand out to me most. Funny and co. could also have a case made for them with how many of them there are.

Anyway. I’d argue the odd chapters are also about identity as we see Pilot Jorge going through it and how he as a person changes as he gets older and gains more experiences. He never grows out of his fear, but his fearfulness itself grows and changes. You’ve probably read the book if you’re reading this post, you get it. Point being, we see his identity change as he grows up, becoming a different person, and yet staying the same. Which brings it back to the line I highlighted—Pilot Jorge is trying to become something else throughout his part. Less reliant on Lisa Lisa, more independent, more brave, what have you, and he does it. But, ultimately, he is still Jorge. Pilot Jorge may not resist change, but I don’t think he embraces it either. It’s been a week since I’ve reread the book so I’d need to go back again, correct me if I’m wrong. He seems like, while change is scary, it’s also welcome, maybe if not with wide open arms.

Basically I just find that line interesting thematically. That’s it that’s the tl;dr.

EDIT: okay for clarity’s sake when I say Jorge is confident and secure in his identity I meant as a detective, not as a Joestar, I realize I didn’t actually clarify that. There’s another contrast in identity—Jorge knows he is Jorge, spelled JORGE in English, and he knows well that he is a detective, even thinking Tsukumojuku’s question about two detectives a little stupid. What he’s not initially confident in is him being a Real Joestar, because he’s adopted.

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Reminded me too much of how I draw Kars and Jorge

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The stated thesis of early Jorge Joestar is: hurt people hurt other people, intentionally or not. The examples given are plentiful and often tragic: Antonio, Javier, Kenton, Penelope.

One person hurt another, that person hurt someone else in turn, and that person developed a strange power that let them harm a number of strangers, and those strangers created locked rooms and murdered people in them.

The complementing antithesis of Jorge Joestar, on the other hand, is: hurt people will help other hurt people.

Erina, who herself went through a horrible patch with Dio, will take in the messed up young Penelope who was also abused by a man, and will provide gentle assurance to Lucy even though she has never met her before. Penelope in turn will then do anything to protect Erina from zombies.

Steven's wings are his hidden trauma embodied, and what he in the end brandishes openly and uses to save people.

Tsukumojuku will, as is implied, want to save a proven serial killer from police violence because he understands the abuse the killer went through, and he will help the equally traumatized victims including Penelope. Years later, he himself will be unknowingly aided by Penelope in the form of the Arrow Cross House, allowing him to in turn help Jorge overcome his own trauma and stand up to the monster haunting him--truly nothing more than an empty shell of his childhood bully spouting childish insults.

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I'm sorry if it's not who you want to be I never had a say in making everybody me

every face in the world is mine. every story in history is about me.

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I finally read the Umineko VN last year and had the funniest possible experience:

Finished Episode 1. Sat down with a pen and paper and meticulously solved the epitaph in a way that incorporated tons of Japanese wordplay to arrive at another thematically appropriate kanji wordplay riddle, the answer to which pointed to a specific location. Was completely incorrect.

(under read more because massive spoilers for Episode 1 and one technically Ep3 spoiler re: the "village" and someone's name)

My base assumption was: the names of the victims, in particularly kanji wordplays, are needed to solve the epitaph--a classic trope of shinhonkaku where the longer the case goes on, the more punny 'clues' are given, with the solution being either an admission of guilt or a clever misdirection.

I also figured out that the "village" refers to the 'ri' in Maria's name and that the river is the family tree (you can imagine my satisfaction when they actually brought it up two episodes later), so even more hints that you should be looking at the family's weird names.

My thinking process:

First Twilight - four people with their faces smashed in + two people with only half their faces destroyed. Human face = their identity = their name. You pick the six "chosen as sacrifices", therefore the four full names and halves of the two remaining names. Anagram time! Unfortunately I lost my notes and don't remember the entire thing I figured out, but the only truly important syllables were "on" (音) from Shannon and the "goh"/"gou" (郷) from Gohda.

Second Twilight - tear apart the two who are close. Well, how can you signify that two people are close in the first place? You can use a possessive: Eva's Hideyoshi, or Hideyoshi's Eva. In Japanese, you use the particle 'no': X の Y. The thing separating the two names who are close is therefore... the particle の itself, "no"!

Third Twilight - praise my noble name. The self-explanatory answer here is just "Beatrice".

Fourth to Eighth Twilights - gouge the head, chest, stomach, knee, leg. Similarly to the First Twilight, this means choosing parts of the victim's names. If 'head' signifies the beginning of the name and "leg" is the end, we get in order:

[K]inzou K[a]non Ge[n]ji Nan[ji]o (the hiragana is 'ji') Kumasa[wa]

Ninth Twilight - the witch shall revive (or, as is the trend in this solution, her name will be revived). How? By simply reading everything we just came up with until now--and answering the resulting riddle:

'OUGON NO BEATRICE' KANJI WA?

"What are the kanji of Beatrice the Golden?"

There are a thousands possible solutions, but the important thing is to notice that the name ベアトリーチェ, Be-a-to-ri-(i)-chi(e), contains a certain word.

For example, something like this:

TORII CHI (E) = 鳥居地���

"[go] to the torii grounds".

You know, like the suspiciously missing torii gate that was foreshadowed near the beginning of the game? Woah, I can't believe I actually found the location of the treasure! (wait what do you mean it's wrong)

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Mystery updates:

Still no news about Maijo's Special Kid Factory. The official site finally caught up this year and changed the increasingly funny 'coming soon 2023' to just 'coming soon'

After a successful release of The Adventures of God Detective Jesus Christ, Seiryoin is planning its sequel, The Reflections of God Detective Jesus Christ: Judas Strikes Back

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Jorge Joestar translation came out 8 years ago...

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remember when 6 years ago I wrote a Maijo fic that was like 'ha ha silly bug-obsessed Kimura'

anyway I have now contributed to multiple entomological papers

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Desolation Row

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a more silly Penelope theory I have is that Maijo named her "de la Rosa" because he wanted to do some wordplay with one of the 14 phrases (Via Dolorosa) but changed his mind