The Tragedy of the Stardust Crusaders

What are we? Some kind of Crusaders of Stardust?
Drivers of Dreams? Fighters of Fantasy?
No, it's a Jojo's Bizarre Adventure.
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#jjba #anime #kalebia

[SpammytheHedgehog]

The sad thing about Polnareff is that he watched most of his friends die, his sister was raped and murdered, he lost his body, his Stand and he never got to build Polnareff Land. He is one of the most tragic characters in JoJo history.

[fchef]

It is so sad that Polnareff never got to build Polnareff land. Truly a tragic character

[ashbarion]

It's wild that Joseph outlived all the Stardust Crusaders

[justsomeguywholovesberserk]

Polnareff literally has the worst life of the Crusaders in my opinion He literally had his sister killed by Hanged Man and it might have implied that Hanged man had violated her, he was also used as a pawn/slave of DIO and after he saw Avdol and Iggy get killed in front of him, he later lost his ability to walk, being paralyzed for years only to be killed by the same monster and be stuck in the body of turtle while also losing his stand and ever since Egypt has never met any of the crusaders so his only friends were far away and unaware while he was paralyzed and lost his body

[ilfortunato]

We lost Iggy, Kakyoin and Abdul in part 3
We lost Polnareff in part 5
We lost *him* in part 6
But we never lost Joseph... the one who fought 3 Aztec gods, lost his best friend, lost his mother, saw his daughter suffer, fought dio's minions and Dio himself, he betrayed his wife, had a son with another woman, adopted an invisible child and lost all his companions of the crusade.

[sinnamonski]

It's nice that Araki did make note in the part 4 manga that after adopting Shizuka (the invisible baby) he became his old self and gotten stronger mentally and physically again for her.

[peanut]

I think one of the saddest parts of Jotaro's character is this concept of 'without reward'.

No matter how hard it seems, Jotaro gives it his one hundred percent focus, commitment and time. He never slacks off and jokes around like his grandfather, Joseph, did back when he was young. But he wasn't just some holy force of nature sent by God like his ancestor, Jonathan, was. He was both smart and strong. A deadly pair.

But for all that, he was a man. And while he was a man gifted with the most powerful stand known to mankind and both the brains and the determined to go with it. He still had weaknesses. He still had his lack of ease, never really showing his emotions until he reaches his boiling points and it spills out. He had his PTSD from the deaths of the crusaders and his constant fear and anxiety regarding his family and friends.

After losing the crusaders, I believe that Jotaro became very obsessed with this idea that danger is constantly following him due to his heritage and this was further compounded by the fact that when he went to Morioh, another whole set of shenanigans ensued because of the presence of Joseph, Jotaro and Josuke. Now combine that with the fact that he had a daughter. Jotaro now believes that the things he loves: his mother, his friends, his wife, his grandparents and his daughter. They are better off without him in his eyes, and so he goes off to protect them without them ever realising why.

He goes around the world, fighting God knows what and defeating countless stand users who he deemed as a threat to not only the world at large, but to his family. All the while he brings more attention to himself and more people know who Jotaro Kujo is and what he is capable of. This further increases his fears because he knows people know who he is and now they will target what he loves most to defeat him. So, what does our tragic hero do? He continues. He entrenched himself further in this madness. He carries on.

All this loneliness, this silent suffering. All for the sake of protecting those he holds most dear to him. Whether it be his mother or his daughter Jolyne. He goes on and keeps protecting them without them ever knowing he does.

Which is why it is all the more tragic for him when it comes crumbling down.

Jotaro's biggest tragedy is that, for everything he does. He gets no reward. His daughter never gets to enjoy the promising life she had in front of her and he never gets to finally rest and lift the weight of expectations and duties from his shoulders.

Instead, he has everything he loves ripped away from him in the blink of an eye by his greatest enemy's friend. The shadow of DIO still haunting Jotaro till the very last moment.

Even when offered the chance to save the entire planet and himself, Jotaro chooses to save his daughter Jolyne. Not once but twice. Because to him, she is the greatest reward. Because to him, she is what all his hard work is for.

Because to him, she is The World.

[animefan]

Joseph is defined by tragedy and flaws. He lost his rival due to an argument that could've been resolved if they had given time to look at it from a calmer lens, but due to the argument provoking said rival- it contributed to his death, which weighs heavily on Joseph who feels immensely guilty over trying to figure out what he could've said to be more tactful. That's not even mentioning he's lived long enough to see all of his close allies, even the ones that were Nazis, die either naturally or through combat- with only Smokey and Lisa-Lisa still being around- the case of the latter, it's ambiguous if he's still around by Part 6 and in the latter, she once again leaves him to live her own life after briefly interacting with him, after years of believing she died along with his father- due to being on the run avenging said father. That's just Part 2.

In Part 3, he loses three of his colleagues, dies temporarily to be brought back, and is under pressure to save his daughter while stopping a homicidal vampire from taking over everything. And what's worse, a lot of it was out of his control this time around due to the enemies being too strong.

And in Part 4, his flaws come back to haunt him as his infidelity is exposed and he tries to make amemds to his son, which are frankly resolved with a new family member, but even he's not as senile as he pretends to be, he's still far past his prime and would be a burden in the fight against Kira.

He suffered a lot, but for better or worse, he's a retired old man who at least lived long enough in his old body and identity by Part 6 and if he managed to live past the part, he'd die a natural, peaceful death this time around. He's earned it more or less.

[berrypretty]

this, in the manga, is manifest of the Joestar curse. Bringing suffering to themselves and those around them in the name of justice. It's why Part 6's ending is a happy one. Jotaro and Jolyne are finally free.

[IQbelowaverage]

I think what makes part 3 even more impactful is that when you finish this long adventure, full of action and comedy, when you've grown to love these characters, you're thrown into part 4, with new characters and places. And you get adventures and comedy as well, but this time you get the sense of something much calmer. You go back to everyday life. The crusaders reached their goal and they go back home, and everything is back to "normal".
Personally, while watching part 4 I was always wondering where the main storyline was. The first episodes lack a main focus, and I think that makes it even more important. It's real. It lets you go through the eyes of a crusader, and wonder if it's all really over, if the most relevant part of life already happened in that trip to Egypt. It makes you wonder what'll happen next, which is how real life goes. I think this is one of the reasons why even the viewer longs the times in part 3, even if they were not there physically.

[lunalien]

It drives me crazy. The Stardust Crusaders is my favorite protagonist party in all of JJBA, and they all ended up horribly. Literally nobody gets a “happily ever after” despite the fact that each and every one of them deserve such an ending. I used to appreciate the fact that at least Jotaro, Joseph and Polnareff survived Part 3, but after watching through the following parts, I really start to think that it’s probably better if they died earlier. It hurts me to see them getting hurt and I feel like dying early for a Stardust Crusader probably isn’t so bad.
Joseph had lived a long life, but thanks to that he was accompanied by countless goodbyes.
While the peaceful and happy Part 4 was progressing in Morioh, Polnareff was SUFFERING in Italy. When he finally was able to meet Giorno, he lost his stand and body.
And finally, my favorite JoJo, Jotaro. He spent the rest of his life getting rid of the remnants of DIO’s forces along PolPol and never truly had his own life. His marriage life was not happy either because he couldn’t even get to stay by the side of his wife and daughter for a while. He gave his life to protect Jolyne, but he probably greeted his daughter in heaven way sooner than he would’ve thought.
I call the Crusaders a real tragedy. It’s like a puzzle with simply no solution. It’s like whether or not they survived did not matter after all because they would never be happy. It really makes my heart ache whenever I think about the unfair lives that each and every Crusader had to live through.

[animefan]

Polneraff suffers a lot, most of it not even being his fault. He loses his sister to the monstrous son of a sadistic aide to a homicidal vampire with universal aspirations, via the cruelest fate a woman would suffer. He understandably wants payback, and in his overzealous nature, he gets goaded into a situation that gets Avdol killed, leading Polneraff to have added guilt, which is temporarily alleviated with J.Geil's death due to the possibility of no more victims from this monster. Polneraff is then taken advantage of by the enemy for his weakness to consider dying to what he thought were his sister and mentor figure killing him for not helping him the right way- which is partially alleviated through Avdol coming back- still being alive and recovering behind Polnerafff's back due to the others considering him loose-lipped, which is another issue on its own. He then sees Avdol die for real this time and it's something completely out of his control due to the enemy's nature, . Soon after, Iggy dies after finally building a friendship due to the enemy being cruel. And then he learns of Kakyoin's death, so he's lost three friends and has to continue the fight against evil, but at least DIO himself is gone.

Then his crusade against evil leads to him getting crippled and left for dead. He can't even call for help due to Diavolo's hold over Italy, leading to him carrying the means to defeat the seemingly invincible Stand alone. He then loses his body, his Stand has to be put down to defeat Diavolo, and he's now in the body of an animal who's only good for transport and hiding. And ironically, he's back in the service of DIO- the vampire who took advantage of his guilt to make him a minion- technically through his son, but thankfully the son is on the side of good. Given how long turtles live, he's not getting any peace anytime soon due to being involved with the dangerous world of the mafia.

[animefan]

yeah, Kakyoin knew he would never be fully understood for having a Stand with normal outsiders who might hang out with him that would be targetted by Stand users- due to the ironclad rule that Stands attract other Stands- would see Kakyoin's actions with awkward distance at best or alienation of strong discrimination at worse. It's a lose-lose for Kakyoin, so he was isolated due to this inevitable reality. And in spite of his efforts, he was very depressed due to his loneliness, leading to DIO to take complete advantage of it to brainwash him to fight the Crusaders. He joined the group, had mishaps along the way, temporarily lost his eyes, lost two comrades, and then died himself wth his family only really learning about it a little while after his death. It's tragic, but at least with his death, it wouldn't be a pileup of tragedies like the remaining three.

[Shellshock]

Kakyoin: Dead
Avdol: Dead
Iggy: Dead
Polnareff: Crippled, died and became a turtle
Jotaro: Has to live with DIO ptsd and knowing three of his friends are dead.
Joseph: Cheated on his wife, thus breaking the Joestar family

[lucasaugusto]

Regarding Polnareff I really find touching what F.F. Voice actress, Mariya Ise said when talking about why he is one of her favorite characters.

"Polnareff seems less scared of dying than most people, which makes it really sad that those around him keep dying while he survives"

[VatistaAutista]

"A typical seventeen year old kid that just doesn't understand social cues"
My man it took me like 17 years to figure out that, if people talk to me, it's because they are probably interested in talking to me.

[LucemonFallenAngel]

One of the worst parts of it all is that we saw Polnareff's smile fade away

[teaganpatel]

It is sad that after all of their travels, only two of the six crusaders got a truly happy ending. And those are the JoJos. Joseph was able to reconcile as much as he could with Josuke, and probably the rest of his family, we just don't see it. And Jotaro does get a happy ending, even if it only came to be through the meddling of Emporio. Which also brings up another thing. Technically, Pucci gave Jolene and Jotaro happier lives. If it weren't for Stone Ocean, and eventually Made in Heaven, Jolene would still resent Jotaro, and their relationship may have never healed. This was never Pucci's plan, but it still happened.

[susie]

I almost forgot how tragic these guys are. The somewhat repetitive stand battles and overall mission to stop DIO distracted me the first time, but now that I’ve seen most of the other parts (currently on Jojolion), I realize they’re all been through a lot. Regarding Jotaro, I came to the understanding that he wanted to try and settle down after the whole Egypt incident. But being a stand user, he would risk endangering his family. Granted I don’t like the decision he made in distancing himself from his wife and Jolyne without telling them the truth, it was something that had to be done in order to prevent them from being dragged into the world he’s forever bound to

[grap_]

I love your analysis of Jotaro so much. He is my favorite Jojo character and one of my favorite characters of all time, and I feel like you hit the nail on the head perfectly with the burden perpetually on his shoulders. He really does care deeply, he just doesn't feel like he has the time or ability to express it because of how many people are depending on him