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Obligatory Johnny Joestar thread since he’s been getting flak on my tl a lot lately
I just wanna look at what makes his character so special to me and what makes him such a captivating protagonist in general!
I just wanna look at what makes his character so special to me and what makes him such a captivating protagonist in general!
So main issue I see is mainly from people saying that Gyro is more of the protagonist than Johnny and it’s not hard to see why considering how the manga frames him. His first appearance vs. Johnny’s, and the way the manga explicitly calls him the main character lol
Also in how they frame these two in the fights in the first half of the manga. With Gyro taking more of a lead (even telling Johnny to straight up run away sometimes), and Johnny asking Gyro for guidance and help pretty often.
In Gyro’s backstory even he’s shown to be this (mostly) righteous person who’s willing to give up hundreds of years of familial expectations and his presumed true path in order to do what’s right.
Compared to the little bit of Johnny’s backstory in chapter 3 which kind of just paints him as this arrogant dude who got what was coming to him.
It’s clear why on a service level Johnny deadass just looks like some protagonist who really isn’t worthy of that title even because he’s just letting Gyro do most of the work. Which is,,, a genuine criticism I’ve seen from people.
My favorite thing about Johnny is that he’s determined to the point of his own detriment at times. He’s so insanely hard headed and he feels this need to prove everyone wrong. He puts himself directly in harms way just so he can chase this little bit of hope he found in Gyro.
And this insane determination is what made Gyro take a liking to Johnny in the first place. This is the first glimpse too of someone really believing in Johnny.
He becomes a mentor for Johnny, pushing him to his limits and helping him grow.
Johnny is literally just the type of person to inspire the shit out of people because he’s so bull-headed and driven, even if he doesn’t know it himself. And you can tell Gyro is really motivated by this.
Gyro grows and pulls away from expectations placed on him by his father because of Johnny. And as the character that’s heavily hero-coded, that’s a huge deal. And says a shit ton about Johnny.
Despite his ability to bring about change in the person he’s the closest to, Johnny is still really unsure of himself. He thinks his abilities are useless and chastises himself all the time. We see him at his lowest point ready to give up completely. In the Silent Way arc.
Gyro teaches him how to put some respect on the Zeppeli name, and on himself 
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Self explanatory I just love these panels. Gyro literally puts his life in Johnny’s hands because he believes in him and TRUSTS him. And he’s the first person to really do so.
I think by finally understanding that he’s worthy of the trust of someone like Gyro, he learns to trust in himself, his abilities, and his own intuition.
I think being able to find the Golden Rectangle in Danny also helps him let go of his past just a little bit. It lets him let go of the blame he’s placed on himself (and his father placed on him) all these years for his brother’s death. Because he has a mission to fulfill now.
He doesn’t have to prove shit to anybody anymore because he has the ability to do amazing things on his own. And like,, man Gyro taught him that it’s just cool as shit
Right after this he goes back to not trusting in himself just a bit, and thinking he still had to repent for his brother’s death, but just being able to pull enough will together to beat Sandman was a huge step for him. I think at this point he knew his life was worth living.
Getting the corpse parts becomes his new mission in life, and it’s something that’s at the risk of becoming another crutch. Once he loses that, where will he go after? I think that really gets looked at in Sugar Mountains.
Johnny is really someone who bases his purpose in life to fleeting things and his will to live is fleeting because of that. And I think Sugar Mountain was a big test of how much willpower he actually gained over the course of SBR.
His purpose is at risk because Gyro is at risk. He has the option to be selfish, as he has been most of this entire manga, or he can save Gyro’s life at the risk of losing the one thing that ever gave him any hope.
Johnny learns to get over his trust issues and learns to value true companionship over material gain 2k20
Idk just look at them man. Johnny risked everything but he didn’t lose everything. He still had Gyro by his side.
And man,, I don’t know this isn’t even his whole character arc, but how can you say a character who changes so much, and learns so much throughout the manga, is a bad character?
Sorry this is like,,, a half Gyjo thread as well but that comes with the territory lmao
