#DON'T LOOK AT THIS UNTIL THE FRICKIN' CHAPTER GOES UP I gotta post it so I can link; you know how it is

[liesonthefloordramatically]

Annotations for “What the hell is a bodhisattva?”

Wow, can’t believe I’ve written more about Buddhism for this frickin’ JJBA fic than I have in seven years of graduate school in Japanese religion. Sometimes you want to make a joke that’s simultaneously so funny and so obscure that you have to write like 20k in order for people to understand it.

I’ve tried to write annotations only for things that aren’t explained sufficiently within the fic, otherwise we’d all be here for the rest of our lives.  Feel free to ask about anything that isn’t annotated or if you have further questions about things that are!  

(Link to the fic if you’ve somehow managed to accidentally stumble on this post.)

OVERALL:

The Buddha, the dharma, and the sangha - the Three Jewels, in which Buddhist practitioners are supposed to take refuge.  They refer to the Buddha (probably self-explanatory), the teachings of the Buddha, and the community of Buddhist practitioners respectively.  You may notice some parallels in chapter content.

CHAPTER ONE:

Jizō - a bodhisattva who is commonly depicted as the guardian of travelers and also the dead, especially dead children.  There are a lot of statues of him on roadsides in Japan, as well as on temple grounds.  Recurring motif in my SDC-related fics for hopefully obvious reasons.

Sōka Gakkai - a Buddhist new religious movement, (in)famous in the postwar period for their aggressive proselytization and conversion tactics.

Daikokuten - one of the seven gods of good fortune.  Frequently enshrined as a household deity.

Inari - a Shinto deity commonly associated with foxes.  It’s not uncommon for businesses (including family businesses) to have their own small Inari shrines.

sects of Buddhism - Buddhism in Japan is divided into sects (denominations of Christianity aren’t a bad comparison point)--the basic tenets are the same from sect to sect, but specific teachings, practices, or emphases may vary.  Most families in Japan are affiliated (due to complex historical factors that aren’t worth getting into here) with a particular temple (which in turn belongs to a sect), so they rely on the temple priests for any rites they may need and may have a plot for the family grave in the temple graveyard.  It is not uncommon for people to not know which sect they are affiliated with until a family member dies and they suddenly have to interact with the temple (see “funeral Buddhism”).  Kakyoin’s family is Shingon, which is an esoteric sect known for their complicated cosmology and rituals.  Jotaro’s family is Sōtō (he guessed wrong! Sorry, Jotaro!), a Zen sect that’s much more focused on gaining enlightenment through physical practices like meditation.  (“Zen” isn’t a sect in Japan--it actually refers to a group of sects that have some major teachings in common.  Buddhism: it’s complicated!)  Sōtō is a much later import to Japan than Shingon, and was also scoffed at a bit by established sects for being more populist and accessible.  Hopefully you see the joke here.

Senkōji - this sounds like a real temple name (there are temples called Senkōji), but is also a play on the fact that senkō is the Japanese word for incense and -ji is one of the endings for temples.  Kakyoin: Oh, so your family belongs to Incense Temple?  Jotaro: That sounds like it could be correct.

kōan - a story, dialogue, or question used to provoke doubt in Zen practitioners and test their progress toward enlightenment.  You could think of them as Buddhist riddles if you want to be really reductive.  (Yes, Kakyoin tests Jotaro’s knowledge of Buddhism by bringing up a thing used to test practitioners.  I warned you that these jokes were niche.)  Kōan are most commonly associated with the Rinzai sect in Japan, although other sects use them as well.  One of the most famous kōan, which Kakyoin references here, involves a student asking a master if the dog has a buddha-nature (more commonly referred to as the mu kōan).

“funeral Buddhism” - in Japan, the main thing people go to Buddhist temples for these days is funeral services or other rites of remembrance (grave visits, rites marking the anniversaries of the deaths of family members, etc.), which has led to Buddhism being identified pretty closely with death and mourning.  Thus, Buddhism in Japan is sometimes referred to as “funeral Buddhism,” although there’s a lot of debate among scholars about how helpful that term actually is.  Jotaro only associating Buddhism with funerals and death and knowing nothing about doctrine or cosmology is not unusual.

honji suijaku - a complicated medieval Buddhist theory identifying native/non-Buddhist Japanese deities with Buddhist deities by arguing that the non-Buddhist deities were actually Buddhist deities that had taken alternate forms as expedient means (see explanation of that below).  All of the combinations Kakyoin names are real combinations from the medieval period.  Enma is the king of hell and the judge of the dead, so Kakyoin thinks it’s a little strange for Jizō to be identified with him, since Jizō is supposed to save the dead from hell.  Jotaro was right--Amaterasu is a Shinto deity (the sun goddess, to be specific).  Dainichi is a celestial buddha who plays an important role in Shingon.  Honji suijaku is absolutely not common knowledge for most contemporary practitioners of Japanese Buddhism, so this is the point where Kakyoin starts really trolling Jotaro with his questions and showing off his weirdly specialized knowledge (not that Jotaro can tell).

Amida - a buddha known for his vow to save anyone who sincerely calls out to him for help (usually through the phrase “namu Amida butsu” which means “hail Amida buddha”).  The True Pure Land sect, which Jotaro’s neighbor, Mrs. Watanabe, belongs to, emphasizes the concept of “other power,” i.e. relying on something outside of yourself (Amida, in this case) for salvation.  Kakyoin’s scorn for Amida worship is hilarious and pretentious, since his opinions parallel those of established Buddhist groups (including Shingon) in the medieval period, who trash talked Pure Land Buddhism (focused on Amida worship) for being too populist and accessible.  Are you sensing a theme here?  Kakyoin is a Buddhist elitist with a lot of knowledge of medieval esoteric Buddhism specifically.

buddhas are(n’t) ghosts - Jotaro’s confusion comes from the fact that one way to refer to the spirits of the dead in Japanese is “buddhas” (仏; hotoke).  Additionally, although the historical Buddha (Shakyamuni) is the most famous, different sects of Buddhism imagine different numbers of buddhas--ranging from one (the historical buddha and no one else) to incalculable numbers of buddhas who have existed, do exist, and are yet to come.

Kannon - all Kannon facts offered by Kakyoin and Avdol are true!  Kannon really is the bodhisattva of compassion.  Avalokitesvara (Kannon’s name in Sanskrit) is male (as all bodhisattvas are), but bodhisattvas are frequently depicted as androgynous.  In China, Guanyin (Avalokitesvara’s name in Chinese) started being depicted not as androgynously feminine but as female, which has led to Guanyin being primarily depicted as female and Kannon as almost always depicted as female.  Kakyoin’s interpretation of Kannon makes sense/is supportable, but is definitely uncommon (people tend to focus on the compassion bit rather than the historical/social circumstances), thus Avdol’s reaction.  This is a common theme in Kakyoin’s Buddhism Opinions--he tends to latch on to historical/intellectual details rather than emotive/experiential ones.

expedient means - another complicated one, but basically the idea of using methods or techniques that fit the situation (rather than ones that are 100% “true” or “correct”) to gain enlightenment or guide others to enlightenment.  You could think of it as interim measures to get people farther along the path, or maybe an “ends justify the means” mentality.  Kakyoin is interpreting it as a sort of social flexibility, which is not an unheard of interpretation but definitely not the most common one.  Kakyoin’s interpretation comes from a number of stories in which bodhisattvas transform into/disguise themselves as different people in order to guide humans farther along the path--by becoming an old woman in need of assistance, for example, who teaches someone Buddhist values, or by manifesting as a known, geographically-specific deity who can better spread the teachings of the Buddha to suspicious locals (see honji suijaku).  In this fic, expedient means is leveraged in three ways: A. Kakyoin thinks of the way he engages with people as expedient means (becoming whatever he needs to be for the situation), B. you could technically count Kakyoin’s infodumping about Buddhism at Jotaro as expedient means (in the traditional sense of getting someone farther along the path) as he does manage to get him interested in learning more about Buddhism by doing it, and C. both Jotaro and Kakyoin are using Buddhism as expedient means (an interim measure) to get closer to each other.  Wow, Queenie, glad to see that you’re using your graduate education for good and not evil.

CHAPTER TWO:

Wisdom Kings - a type of guardian of the dharma (see explanation below).  Please imagine a post-credits scene in which Jotaro decides that Fudō Myōō is the best Wisdom King and Kakyoin is once more disappointed by how stereotypical his boyfriend is.

combinatory worship - practices that mix together what we now call “Shinto” practices and “Buddhist” practices.  The two religious strains were less distinct pre-1871.  See honji suijaku.  Again, this is not common knowledge for contemporary practitioners of Japanese Buddhism; Kakyoin has very clearly done a lot of reading on pre-modern Buddhism.

Kasuga Shrine - a famous shrine complex in Nara known for combinatory worship in the ancient and medieval periods.  It’s now a “pure” Shinto site, but did not used to be.  Here’s one of the famous Kasuga mandala, in which Buddhist deities are depicted floating in the sky over the shrine grounds (see honji suijaku).  Now mainly famous as a tourist destination in a park that is populated by wild deer (who are messengers of the god of Kasuga and thus are not allowed to be harmed).  The deer are a giant pain, since they’re not scared of people and will eat anything.

Four Noble Truths - extremely simplified: 1. Existence is suffering. 2. Suffering is caused by attachment. 3. However, you can escape by severing attachment.  4. You do that via Buddhist practice.  On one hand, it absolutely does not make sense to have a favorite of the Four Noble Truths (Kakyoin is trolling Jotaro real hard)--on the other hand, Kakyoin would absolutely have a favorite of the Four Noble Truths. ��His favorite is the third, if you need a refresher.  (If you haven’t already figured it out, isolation and hope are the two big themes for Kakyoin’s Buddhism Opinions.)

a biography of the Buddha cannot save you - Buddhism has transformed so much in its spread throughout Asia that different traditions may look completely different--one of the most important sacred texts in East Asian Buddhism (The Lotus Sutra) is an apocryphal text that was probably written in China, for example, so it straight up doesn’t exist in Southeast Asian Buddhism.  Trying to understand Japanese Buddhism by reading a biography of the Buddha would be like trying to understand American megachurches by reading a biography of Jesus.

the six realms of existence - all facts offered by both Jotaro and Kakyoin are true!  The six realms are pretty self-explanatory, I think, other than the difference between the asuras (sometimes translated “demigods”) and the gods.  Jotaro isn’t wrong that the main difference between them is often summarized as the asura fighting all the time and being really mad while the gods just chill out and have a great time.  Being reborn as a human is often considered the best, because it’s the easiest realm to achieve enlightenment from, since you’re not being distracted by extreme suffering or what an orgiastically pleasant time you’re having.  All of the realms are still ultimately part of samsara (the cycle of death and rebirth), though, so you want to get out of them altogether, since even if you wind up being born as a god, eventually you’ll die and be reborn in another realm.  And, yes, knowing things about both Buddhism and the JJBA canon should make you feel fear in your heart.  (JJBA feels intensely cyclical to me in general, and samsara is a cycle by definition.)

CHAPTER THREE:

Kakyoin - Kakyoin really was the name of a Shugendō temple (located in Sendai) that was destroyed during the religious reforms in the 1870s.  Kakyoin the character is named after the neighborhood of Sendai, which is in turn named after the temple.  I assume that, due to geographical proximity, Kakyoin’s family is affiliated with (and Kakyoin’s great-grandfather went to work at) Jōzenji, which in real life was also destroyed in the 1870s but still exists as of 1999 in the JJBA canon.  Jōzenji, by the way, was a Shingon temple.  Please imagine me writing this fic with a massive conspiracy board, because that’s absolutely what happened.

Shugendō - a syncretic ascetic tradition that grew out of a combination of Buddhism, Shinto, and beliefs surrounding mountains as sacred sites.  It was suppressed by the Japanese government in the 1870s, as it “inappropriately” mixed Buddhism and Shinto and was seen as superstitious and backward.  Many of its temples were either destroyed (as in the case of Kakyoin) or repurposed into “pure” Shinto or Buddhist sites.  Kakyoin is correct that many Shugendō priests were given the option to become either Shinto or Buddhist priests or become lay people.  Shugendō has been revived in the post-war period as a religion separate from both Buddhism and Shinto (although it shares beliefs and practices with both of them).

How could Kakyoin’s great-grandfather be a Buddhist priest but also have a family? - starting in the 1870s, Buddhist clergy were officially allowed to eat meat and consume alcohol, grow their hair out, and get married.  (Some secretly--or not so secretly--had families before then, but it was technically illegal in all but one sect, although inconsistently persecuted.)  As a result, the majority of Buddhist clergy in contemporary Japan are not celibate (although some are), and many temples are operated by priests from the same familial lineage.  Shugendō has never had a celibacy requirement for its clergy.

guardian of the dharma (dharmapala) - a type of wrathful god that defends Buddhism from dangers.  They’re highly venerated in both Shingon and Shugendō, thus Kakyoin’s familiarity with them growing up.  Honestly?  This wasn’t a great guess on Kakyoin’s part, since the most famous of the dharmapala in Japan looks like this.  He was six at the time, though, so let’s not be too mean about it.

Kūkai (also known as Kōbō Daishi) - the founder of the Shingon sect of Buddhism in Japan.  Naming in Buddhism is too complicated to get into here, but the second name is a posthumous honorific name.  He’s associated with a variety of sacred sites, including one of the most popular pilgrimage routes in Japan--the eighty-eight temple pilgrimage in Shikoku.  May or may not be pretty strong.

Buddhist robes - for your reference, here’s a portrait of Kūkai and here’s what a contemporary Shingon monk looks like.  Jotaro is picturing a Sōtō monk, who looks more like this.  Also here is a recent series of memes about Buddhist robes; this has nothing to do with the fic but they did make me laugh a lot.

Tenmei - this fic brought to you by me seeing Kakyoin Tenmei and shouting, “THAT SOUNDS LIKE THE NAME OF A BUDDHIST MONK; ARAKI, WHAT THE FRICK.”  Most names in Japanese are read with the kun’yomi (the “Japanese” reading) whereas Buddhist names are read with the on’yomi (the “Chinese” reading, used for compound words)--“Noriaki” is the kun’yomi of 典明 whereas “Tenmei” is the on’yomi.

shichi-go-san - a coming-of-age ritual (performed at Shinto shrines) for children age three, boys age five, and girls age seven.  The name is literally “seven-five-three.”

Maitreya - all facts offered by Kakyoin are true!  Maitreya (called Miroku in Japanese, but Kakyoin is being pretentious and using the Sanskrit) is the buddha to come.  We are currently in the last of the three ages, with each age being worse and more degenerate than the one before as the teachings of the Buddha become harder and harder to access, achieving enlightenment becomes increasingly impossible, and the world is visited by natural disasters.  By the Japanese count, the last age started in 1052 CE!  But the last age is supposed to go on for 10,000 years, so we’ve still got a while to go.  Maitreya is thus a figure of both great fear (his coming will be heralded by the end of the world) and great hope (he’ll bring an end to the last age and usher in a new age of prosperity), so he felt like a fitting choice for Kakyoin (and a fitting way to close out the fic).

Agyō and Ungyō - guardians of Buddhism who appear in sets of two (together they’re called the Niō), usually protecting temple gates.  Their names (literally “a-form” and “un-form”) come from the shapes of their mouths, one open (a) and one closed (un).  Image here.  Hopefully you see the joke here.

[chattegeorgiana]

Get your garbage out of the Sasuke tag.

"Like, for as much as I like also Sasuke as a character" stop lying bitch we know you don't. It's blatantly obvious.

"it’s like... the guy took everything that Naruto had - his motivations, the love of his life, the show... everything. Everything was taken and was given to Sasuke."

?????!!!! How did Sasuke took Naruto's motivations? Their motivations were always different. At no point did Sasuke wanted acknowledgement or whatever the fuck Naruto wanted. And you really out here saying Sasuke took "the love of his life" with your whole ass chest? Lmfao. Sakura was the one pursuing Sasuke, not the other way around. Stop acting like Naruto was entitled to get what he wanted just because he was the MC or that he was entitled to get with someone just because he happened to have some feelings for that person. It does not work like that. But then again, this level of entitlement is something you can only see in Naruto and Sakura/Narusaku wankers.

"Sasuke keeps taking, taking, taking and Naruto keeps giving, giving, giving. And the balance in this case isn’t right. It never is." Girl... are you normal? What does naruto keep giving? Last time I checked, Sasuke was the one who risked his life for Naruto, not the other way around. Deadass Sasuke literally sacrificed his goals, motivations, life for naruto against Haku and he was willing to do it again against Gaara.

"Because Naruto worked his ass of for everything while Sasuke went to Orochimaru to cut things short and what? He’s the one who gets it all, while Naruto’s hard work is repaid how? " And you think Sasuke did not work hard when he was with Orochimaru? Do you think he improved his genjutsu/taijutsu/ninjutsu that much and learned swordsmanship, as well as creating numerous tehniques by snapping his fingers and doing nothing???? Sasuke was shown to be an incredibly hardworking person ever since he was a child, his databook hobby is literally TRAINING and let me remind you that one of Orochimaru's training sessions literally involved Sasuke fighting against countless people, and you think Sasuke had it easy compared to Naruto??? You think him going to Orochimaru "cut things short"???? Bitch sit your ass down. Naruto is the one who does literally the bare minimum yet he gets 353423 power ups at once. He unlocks Kurama mode? Oh would you look at that, he's now one of the fastest ninja, despite his speed being otherwise mediocre, he's now good at taijutsu, and he also gets additional strenght and his jutsus are significantly boosted. And all he had to do for that was tnj Kurama with Kushina and Bee's help. Basically gaining access to KCM was one hell of a frickin shortcut for Naruto to make up for all of his previous weaknesses. Without Kurama, he would've had to train years to get that speed, he would've had to train years to get that level of taijutsu and strenght yet Kurama makes up for all of it. In Shippuden Naruto's just handed ridiculous power up after power up and his garbage fanboys and fangirls be out here talking shit about Sasuke when this Naruti fucker was even given the ability to fly and restore people's eye and heal them without doing jackshit at one point in the manga? Girl sit you ass down and stop spewing shit.

"What message is this in the end? That in this world the only way you will make it is by cutting roads, taking shortcuts and ‘cheating’?" If Sasuke is "cutting roads, taking shortcuts and "cheating" then so is your precious naruto, even more so than Sasuke.

Don't you ever put your crap in the sasuke tags. We don't wanna see garbage in these tags. Narusaku wankers like you better keep his name out of your mouths and sit in your fucking lane. Even better. Deactivate and find other purpose in life than bitching about your trash ship not becoming canon. Cringey, corney ass cunt. This is literally the first ask of this type that I'm ever sending cuz god bless it's hard as hell to get me this heated, but your corny, stupid ass somehow pulled it off. Congrats.

I pondered over whether I should reply to you or not. And decided to do it, because unlike you, I recognize the fact that you are entitled to have an opinion.

Ya know, like I do, too. But unlike you, I won't start calling you names, you see. Because dear God, although yes I am a Sakura and NaruSaku fan, doesn't mean I leave my brain at the entrance. One that unlike you, also knows that my favorite character(s)/pairings also have flaws. So whenever people have an opinion I disagree with, I just leave them be.

Instead of ya know, going into people's inboxes and acting like you did.

Like wow, doe... Take it easy. You think that if you came into my inbox and spewed all this wall of text filled with insults you're a better person or what?

You gotta learn in life that yes, people have different opinion than yours dude or dudette, whatever you are. And you know what? You're gonna have to learn to live with them, like it or not, cuz you don't live in a vacuum space.

Excuse me but since when someone dictates me what I am and what I am not? I didn't know I require your permission to be a fan of Sasuke in a certain way otherwise I shouldn't be called a fan.

You just saw a post here, read some few questions here and there and placed your judgement that oh, all I am is a stupid Sakura/NaruSaku fans who thinks like this just because of my ship. Well, news flash: I can separate my liking of a certain thing and analyze things outside of that. You know why?

Because I don't take things personally like you seemed to have done here. Yes, I have my opinions and I stand by them. But that doesn't mean that I can't judge things outside of those opinions.

I don't know with what kind of thinking and people you are accustomed to, but you've got me wrong here.

Everyone who is here along me for the years I've been on Tumblr (and elsewhere) knows that I've always said I have a love-hate relationship with Sasuke.

I hate some of the things he does (more like HOW he goes about them), while I LOVE how he's the one who truly challenges the status quo present in Naruto world.

But aah, here you are, coming into my inbox, telling me what I am and what I'm not. Chill yer self, will ya? I know very well who I am, I don't need your incapable of having a decent discussion self to tell me who I am.

Now to address your points

How did Sasuke take Naruto's motivations? Oooh, then you might've missed him wanting to become Hokage, which was Naruto's dream since this god forsaken story began.

THAT IS HOW.

Naruto journey was about 3 major things: acknoweldgement, Hokage and getting Sakura.

Minus the acknowledgement thing (which gets weaved with the bringing Sasuke plot along with the Hokage one), the other two are transferred to Sasuke.

Irrespective of Sasuke wanting those things or not. Because ya know, as I said, everything was taken and was given to Sasuke.

Which, I'm sorry but it's true. Sasuke's major plot and defining moment ended-up when he killed Itachi, so from there on Kishimoto needed to think about something for him.

Hell, Kishimoto himself admitted that he didn't know what to do with Sasuke in the Kobayashi interview, dude. Like chill your goddamn self.

Not to mention along the years he spoke about how Sasuke and Kakashi's popularities grew more than he envisioned. Hell, at some point the man purposely cut out Kakashi from the story because he was getting more popular than Naruto, so really, what are you getting pressed about?

For speaking about a valid critique of how things happened? Kishimoto ended-up giving to Sasuke what we all followed Naruto for.

And you say that he didn't give him Naruto's motivations? LOL MAY I REMIND YOU that Sasuke's POV in the last chapter is really similar to Naruto's? Him wanting to reach Naruto the same way Naruto wanted to reach him, him being envious of Naruto the same way Naruto was envious of him, though Naruto's envy and Sasuke's are so different in nuance.

As for Sasuke's skills... dude, I'm sorry but Sasuke's WHOLE arc was about searching power from Orochimaru. Which I am sorry BUT IT WAS CUTTING SHORT because ya know, the cursed seal??

Like I'm sorry but Naruto's Kurama power was a handicap to him until he had to train with Bee, so give me a break here.

I'm not taking away from the fact that Sasuke trained as well, far away from that. But as it's true that he trained, it's ALSO true that he cut things hort.

Him going to Orochimaru is the point to that whole thing. That's the whole plot point of him going to Orochimaru.

Ya know, cuz that's how darkness as a motif works in a story my dear.

It gives you power easily (AND SASUKE HIMSELF ADMITS IT TO SAKURA when he leaves the village that he is NOT like them aka Naruto and Sakura). Granted, there's always a reason behind darkness offering you that power and Orochimaru's was that he wanted Sasuke's body. That's THE WHOLE REASON Naruto and Sakura wanted to bring him back to the village??? Because in his quest for power he's losing himself.

But it doesn't retract from the fact that Sasuke DID do that. Hello, remember how he had to eat that pill to "die" once and then BOOM MAGICALLY level 2 curse?

Like don't give me that crap that Sasuke is a hard worker cuz it's not true. He's a talented one, I give you that. But NOT a hard worker.

There's a slight difference in nuance here. The motif of natural talent vs hard work has always been prevalent in this story. Guess on which side of the spectrum Sasuke was?

The one who always had to train more was Naruto because I don't know if your angry self absorbed self remembers, but having Kurama functioned as an impediment to Naruto rather than something helpful.

The fact that he FINALLY got to utilize Kurama's power-ups (which should be looked as a reward system after functioning as an impediment in the story), I'm sorry but it's not like he snapped a finger and went there and magically got it? No, my dear. He had to undergo training!

Not to mention, that wasn't the only power-up that Naruto got. Mind I remind you of Sage arts? The one he learned once again, by training hard?

Meanwhile Sasuke got his power-up because Itachi left behind his eyes. Then again we see Hashirama in the war arc giving him his chakra, and then again we have Hagoromo who gives him the seal. But that one is out of the equation because Naruto got it handed to him the same way Sasuke did.

So, like it or not, by the virtue of how the story was developed and the motifs it uses, Sasuke is the one who uses shortcuts, abandons his comrades and gets things handed to him.

While Naruto is the one who works hard because unlike Sasuke, he's not the talented Uchiha genius. His only talent is the fact that he is able to relate to people in more ways than one, unlike Sasuke.

Like dude, that's the story's premise ffs.

The fact that you don't like it, well, that's another issue. You're free not to, of course.

But you coming here in my inbox and insulting me isn't going to change the reality of those facts.

As for blaming it all on me for YOUR OWN actions, well, isn't that juicy?

I didn't make you come to my inbox and write these insults, did I?

You had so many other choices: come to my inbox and NICELY ask me to take it out because you see it as offensive to the Sasuke tag, IGNORE IT and move past it like I so do with so many things I see in the tags of the characters I like, or simply come and tell me that dude, I consider that you're wrong because this, this and that.

But no, instead you came here, wrote all this long ass ask, used foul language and you wanna make me the bad guy in this whole story because I dare to have an opinion?

Sure Jan, whatever rocks your boat and helps you sleep at night.

As for the last part, I'm sorry to burst your bubble but I won't do any of the things you said I should.

You're not the first, nor the last person who comes into my inbox spewing hate. I've been doing this for 10 years now.

You're not the first and probably not the last either, like I said. But let me tell you one thing: I don't care.

You hold no power over me and what I do on the internet.

So you can either accept that and move on with your life or keep continue acting all hateful like your fave used to do in his teen years.

Ain't gonna stop me from being me.

Like I said... This is the internet, my friend. You have no power over me.

Sayonara!

[liesonthefloordramatically]

Okay, since AO3 apparently doesn’t want my full essay of context notes dropped in the endnotes, here they are in all their unabridged glory.  

(Link to the fanfic if you somehow managed to stumble on this accidentally.)

Holy cow, kids!  We did it!  We made it to the end!

The genesis of this fic was seeing someone complaining about Jotaro not using Star Platinum: The World that much and going, “Oh, but that’s obviously trauma though.”  I tried to explain this to anyone who would listen, and then wound up accidentally writing 17k of fic because I have a surfeit of emotions about JJBA and trauma.

This is, by the way, the longest piece of fiction I’ve written since 2011.  Holy frick.  (Also my first time posting a multi-chapter fanfic.)  I had a ton of fun writing this (maybe….too much fun), and hopefully you had fun reading it too.

Here are the long-promised notes since I’m an incorrigible nerd who put way too much thought (and research???) into this ridiculous thing. I don't think you need to read these in order to understand the fic (at least, you shouldn't if I've done it correctly), but in case you're interested...

PTSD - surprise, this is a fic about PTSD.  PTSD manifests in different ways for different people (and for different types of trauma), but in terms of this fic, the main symptoms I decided to run with are: hypervigilance, perception of time becoming weird/sense of foreshortened future, dissociation, and sleep-related issues (although there are also a bunch of other symptoms that make an appearance). I picked this particular cluster for obvious thematic reasons (Star Platinum’s abilities look a lot like/interface particularly poorly with PTSD), but also because I wanted to write something different than standard depictions of PTSD, which tend to be focused on nightmares and flashbacks. I also wanted to write PTSD-related hypercompetence, because it's not something I usually see depicted--PTSD is often represented as declining functioning (I suspect in fanfic this has something to do with the tendency toward hurt/comfort) rather than being outwardly very functional but not necessarily in a healthy or constructive way.

Japanese religion, in general - I leveraged six years of graduate study for this fic, so all Japanese religion facts given are Real and Accurate.  My personal headcanon (as is probably clear from this fic) is that Holly would be pretty gung-ho about a lot of Japanese religious practices whereas Jotaro is probably...lukewarm at best, and approaches them much like many Japanese youth would have during that time period, i.e. as customs that they don’t necessarily attach deeper spiritual meaning to.

If you have deeper knowledge of Japanese religion, there are a bunch of little Easter eggs hidden throughout this fic, but I’ll leave it up to you to find them.  Have fun.

Spirit possession - When I first saw Stardust Crusaders, I thought it was fascinating that Jotaro immediately took Star Platinum to be an evil spirit--after all, given the religious trends in Japan at the time, that wasn’t an unreasonable assumption!  

Spirit possession has a long history in Japanese religion, but it’s been most prominent in the modern period as part of various New Religious Movements (NRMs), many of which have been founded by people who claimed to be possessed by spirits or gods.  In the 1970s and 1980s, there was an “occult boom” along with the emergence of second-wave Japanese NRMs, sometimes referred to as the New New Religious Movements.  These groups tended to be based on the idea that the universe is fundamentally chaotic and you have to train in order to ward yourself from that chaos (which often takes the form of malevolent spirits) and/or develop superhuman abilities.  (The most famous of the Japanese New New Religious Movements is Aum Shinrikyo, which was founded in the mid-1980s but achieved international notoriety with its 1995 sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway.)  The official kanji for Stand (幽波紋) 100% looks like something that would be used by one of these groups.

In general, Japanese understandings of spirit possession don’t necessarily align with Christian understandings of spirit possession.  Namely, Christian views of spirit possession seem to be mainly negative (as people are understood to be possessed by demons), whereas, historically, spirit possession in Japan was seen as dangerous but not necessarily evil.  “Being possessed” does not necessarily look like the sort of “speaking in tongues, head spinning around” type of demon possession either--the verb for being possessed (憑く), a variation of which appears in the first episode title for SDC, can refer to a variety of conditions, from having a supernatural entity inhabiting your body (pretty “classic” possession) to having a supernatural entity attached to you or following you around to help or hinder you (maybe a little closer to what we’d call “being haunted” in English).  While people could be possessed by harmful entities (or by well-meaning ones who are nevertheless disruptive), they could also be possessed by positive ones.  In fact, before the Meiji period (1868) there were classes of ritualists who would get spirit possessed professionally--like shamans or spirit mediums.  Spirit possession was excised from Shinto in the modern period, so some of these ritualists no longer exist (miko, for example, no longer get spirit possessed), but others--like the itako (blind spirit mediums mainly located in Northeastern Japan)--do.

There are some NRMs (Omoto is the first that comes to mind) that believe/believed that each person has a “protective spirit” (or something similar) that watches over them and can influence their lives in positive or negative ways.  Through training and personal growth your protective spirit could also level up; sometimes this meant gaining supernatural abilities but it could also mean your protective spirit literally moving to a different level of the spirit world (from the “bad spirit world” to the “good spirit world,” for example).  This protective spirit could be an ancestor or it could be a completely unrelated entity.

When we first see Jotaro in jail, he has a bunch of books on various spiritualist/occult topics, so it’s not unreasonable to assume that he would be aware of the ways that spirits/spirit possession were being formulated in Japan at the time.  So I picked up that idea and ran with it as far as physically possible.

(Plus, I haven't stopped screaming since seeing the kanji for Stand so now I'm trying to pull all of you down into “maybe Stands are modeled on spirit possession” hell with me.)

Spirit medium or victim of possession - One of the big ways to divide up spirit possession is whether it’s voluntary or involuntary.  Voluntary possession means you choose to be possessed; involuntary means it just sort of happens to you (and you can’t make it stop happening).  There’s also the category of induced possession, which is where someone else makes you possessed (and then usually communicates with or controls the spirit that’s possessing you).  If you think of Stands as a form of spirit possession, it’s probably involuntary (users, for the most part, don’t choose to be), and, in the case of folks who aren’t born Stand users (especially folks who get their Stands from one of the arrows), induced.  But, on the other hand, how you’d classify it depends on whether you see users as constantly possessed (in which case it’s involuntary) or only possessed when they summon their Stands (in which case it’s voluntary).  

Kamigakari, which is mentioned specifically in the last chapter, is a form of involuntary possession in which a person is possessed by a single entity (usually a deity).  In the modern period, this pattern is most frequently seen among the founders of NRMs--often they undergo a period of extended suffering or trauma before becoming possessed by a deity that uses them as a vessel to spread correct teachings (through uncontrollable preaching, automatic writing, etc.) and right the wrongs of the world. They often go through a period of fighting with or trying to exorcise the deity before finally making peace with it and accepting their role as its vessel/mouthpiece.  Again, took this idea, ran with it as far as physically possible.

Evil spirits - Jotaro specifically refers to Star Platinum as an “evil spirit” (悪霊) in the first episode of SDC.  This is a pretty broad category in Japanese religion that just refers to spirits (not necessarily ghosts) that are evil.  The term is sometimes (especially from the 1970s onward) used specifically to indicate the spirits of dead people who have come back for revenge (specifically tatari, which is too complicated a concept to go into here).  (The more specific term for people who were wronged in life, died, and then came back to wreak havoc is goryou (御霊), but that’s mainly used to refer to beliefs and practices that were in vogue over a 1000 years ago.)  Long story short, “evil spirit” could arguably mean that Star Platinum is the ghost of Jonathan Joestar back for revenge or it could mean that it’s just a spirit (not necessarily the ghost of anyone or anything) that is evil.

Are Stands actually a form of spirit possession? - I leave this as an exercise for the reader.

(Okay, slightly less cop out answer: for the purposes of this fic, it does not actually matter, because at the end of the day this is a fic about Jotaro coming to terms (or not) with himself/his trauma/his Stand rather than the exact mechanics behind it. One of the things I find really interesting about spirit possession is the way it's used to make sense of and come to terms with nonsensical and unbearable situations, so that's the way I've chosen to employ it here.  If you want to read Stands as a type of spirit possession, I’m certainly not going to stop you, but if you don’t buy it, that’s legit too.)

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I think that’s all the notes I have for now, but if you want further information/clarification/bibliography/context notes for something mentioned in the fic, let me know in the comments or drop me a line on tumblr and I’m happy to infodump at you until the cows come home.

And, hey, thanks for coming on this bizarre adventure (*audible wink*) with me.