#(someday I'll write that Kakyoin & Hierophant Green fic and then we'll all be DOUBLE SORRY)

[liesonthefloordramatically]

@nomettesbizzareadventure told me she’d like to see my characterization points for Jotaro and Kakyoin so...here they are...  (You can see her much more eloquent characterization points for Rohan over here.)  I think this is less...canon meta (writing straight up meta is very intimidating to me) and more the cluster of things that I tend to focus on when writing the two of them.  It’s probably obvious, but the big things I focus on for characterization are 1. narration/dialogue quirks, 2. self-perception, and 3. interaction with others.  I also tend to find it useful to figure out narrative constraints imposed by characterization, but maybe that’s just because...I like...making writing more challenging???  Don’t worry about it.

Below a cut because this got absurdly long.

Jotaro (this is mainly SDC!Jotaro):

Perceives a lot, (correctly) interprets little: I really enjoy Jotaro as an unreliable narrator because he sees a lot of details (hypervigilance will do that to you, but so will having a hyperperceptive Stand) but compartmentalizes like wild and ignores details that he doesn’t understand, can’t figure out how to interpret, or just doesn’t want to think about.

Laconic: We all know that Jotaro is not very talkative, and there are a lot of different ways to interpret why that is, but I think it’s a question of A. his verbal skills not being great (and him knowing it) plus B. his brain-to-mouth filter being...way too strong.  You can tell it’s Queenie writing Jotaro if only about ⅓ of what he thinks actually comes out of his mouth (and when he does talk, he frequently overthinks it and it comes out sounding different than he wants it to).

Self-perception: Related to the last point, Jotaro’s aware of how other people perceive him (he’s a mixed race kid growing up in Japan in the 1970s and 1980s, so, uh) and has intentionally curated a public-facing persona.  Having people think that he’s this intense, edgy, scary loner is easier for him to deal with than them thinking he’s stupid or a huge dork or any number of other negative stereotypes.  There’s an extent to which his juvenile delinquent persona is because he thinks that’s how to be cool but there’s also an extent to which it’s about making himself less of an easy target.

Physical/visceral: I tend to think of and write Jotaro as a very physical  character (“you can only trust your fists,” I whisper into the void)--he occupies a lot of space; he has a Stand that attacks by punching (he’s the only member of the SDC crew who regularly attacks with his Stand’s body rather than a weapon, elemental attack, etc.); a lot of his strategy is based on just getting really close to his opponents and then beating the crap out of them; etc.  One of the rules I set for myself in writing Jotaro is that his narration has to be visceral--so, for example, almost all emotions he experiences are accompanied by or framed with a physical sensation.  Speaking of which…

Low emotional fluency: He’s not good at identifying/dealing with his own emotions or identifying/dealing with others’ emotions.  A lot of his strategy for dealing with his own emotions is either ignoring them or smothering them with anger (see: Joseph is dead --> time to get as mad as possible).  I think this is actually something that Jotaro gets worse at with time (because trauma can do that to some folks).

Smart/analytical: We know Jotaro’s a bit of a nerd, he’s a good enough scholar to make a name for himself in DIU and beyond, and consistently showcases his analytical skills in SDC.  I think Kakyoin is frequently written as “the smart one” in fanfic, but I think they’re both smart in different ways--Kakyoin has a good memory while Jotaro is good at gathering data and analyzing it (when he feels like doing so).

Stand: Jotaro sees Star Platinum as something separate from himself and maybe not entirely friendly.  (“Stands are spirit possession, or at least Jotaro understands them as such!” I scream futilely off the rooftops.)  This is another narrative constraint I decided on early on--Jotaro consistently refers to Star Platinum as though it’s a separate entity from himself.

Kakyoin:

Self-awareness: Kakyoin knows who he is and what he wants.  I imagine him as a foil to Jotaro--while Jotaro thinks that if he ignores an emotion hard enough he won’t be feeling it, Kakyoin is hyperaware of what he’s feeling.  This is sort of a double-edged sword for him, because I think he’s also aware of ways in which he’s different--he knows that a lot of bits of his personality are weird and unpalatable.  (Death 13 is fascinating if you think about it as...all of Kakyoin’s worst fears about being too weird/mentally ill for the group manifesting.)

Social flexibility/social skills: Like Jotaro, Kakyoin’s also aware of how others perceive him, but is much more socially flexible--Jotaro has the “juvenile delinquent” persona, but Kakyoin adapts himself to his conversational partner.  He’s a very different person depending on who he’s interacting with--the way he interacts with Jotaro is wildly different than how he interacts with Polnareff or Avdol or random passersby.  He’s relatively good at reading people--he certainly has an easier time reading Jotaro than most people around him.  I don’t think he’s actually that great at engaging with people beyond a superficial level (see: Kakyoin “Wikipedia moment” Noriaki), but he is good at superficial interactions.  I also think that he uses some of his social aptitude to try to disguise the bits of his personality that might be off-putting to other people (but stops putting in as much effort when he gets close enough to someone to feel like he can drop the facade).

Sharp: Kakyoin is mean, sadistic, and angry.  He can hold himself back (related to the first point, I think he is self-aware and has pretty decent self-control, which is why we never quite see him reach the levels of viciousness of fleshbud!Kakyoin), but at the end of the day, he is a kid who carries a knife on his person and kills every opponent he beats with the exception of the baby.  He has a very long fuse, but he does have a bad temper.  You won’t cut yourself with a knife if you know how to handle it, but that doesn’t mean that it isn’t still sharp; Kakyoin is the same way.

Reserved: I think this point is frequently depicted as being shy or quiet in fanfic, but I think it’s more that he’s hesitant to share personal information or make himself intelligible (again, see earlier points).  The fact that more or less all of our knowledge of Kakyoin’s backstory is from narration rather than Kakyoin himself is telling.  He holds himself apart from other people--we know that he has pretty severe self-imposed isolation pre-canon.  Again, I think this is a double-edged sword!

Stand: Kakyoin sees Hierophant Green as an extension of himself, and uses his Stand as such.  A lot of the qualities that Hierophant Green embodies (flexibility, versatility, not outstandingly destructive but devastating if you know how to use it, etc.) are also qualities Kakyoin has.  I could write a lot more about this here, but I’ll leave it at that for now...

(eta: apparently folks who don’t follow me are seeing this so, hey, uh, here’s a link to my fic if you’re interested)