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Joseph Joestar, Muhammed Avdol, and Noriaki Kakyoin. The first people Jotaro feels comfortable getting close to. On a journey to save his mother, he meets 5 unlikely allies who also come to be his closest friends. The first three were with him since the very beginning, and the fourth, Jean-Pierre Polnareff, came into his life soon after the others. The fifth, a dog, may have only been there for the latter half of their journey, but he cared for him. Everyone cared for each other. That may have been why it seemed so easy to take their hands and stay by their side.
On their way to Hong Kong, Jotaro stays behind the three members of the group.
“You coming, JoJo?” Kakyoin asks Jotaro. He puts his hand out for him to come up.
“No, thanks. I’m fine.” Jotaro stays behind them but moves a little bit. Joseph sees this and smiles.
Polnareff comes into the picture and starts walking along with the group. He easily makes his way next to them, Jotaro still lagging. He's starting to warm up to them more, and slightly moves closer.
“Come on, Jotaro! You don’t want to stay behind forever!” Joseph calls out. He puts his hand out for Jotaro to take. He doesn’t grab on, but he walks forward. Not quite to the rest of the group, but just barely behind.
Things start to get dangerous. As they would, the crusaders are fighting stand users sent by DIO to kill them. There’s no need to fall behind, though. No one does, they all stick together. By this point, Jotaro is with the group. They walk side by side together. However, one day would change that. Hanged Man in India manages to get Avdol. The group was almost broken, if it weren’t for the fact that Avdol could recover, though if that were to get out, he would surely be targeted so that the job could be finished. Therefore, they don’t tell Polnareff, and he falls behind. As the journey continues, Polnareff starts to move on, but doesn’t fully re-join them, not until later that is.
“Hey.” Jotaro turned to Polnareff, seeing him behind. He remembered what it was like lagging behind the group. He puts his hand out. “Come on.”
Polnareff looks at Jotaro in shock but smiles and joins the rest. “Thanks, JoJo.”
“Hmph.”
When Polnareff learns that Avdol is alive, he stops dead in his tracks. He doesn’t move. The crusaders stop soon after he does. Avdol just sighs and puts his hand out.
“Come on, Polnareff. We don’t have all day.” He says with a smile and calming tone of voice. Polnareff knows he doesn’t say it to hurt him, and he almost steps forward. Before he can do that, however, Avdol decides Polnareff is taking too long and just goes back and grabs his hands and brings him back to the group. “Better?”
“Yeah, I needed that.” Polnareff sheepishly rubs the back of the neck.
“Come on now, let’s go!” Joseph tells the crusaders. For the first time in a while, all of them walk side by side, however, it doesn’t last long.
Iggy joins the group, and he wants nothing to do with them. He stays behind, and the others have to get him at least a little closer to the group. He reluctantly joins them, but only for the photo. After that, he goes back to doing his own thing. It’s here when the group gets a little chaotic. Polnareff is a little behind the others due to Iggy’s shenanigans, and getting to Egypt has put them all on edge, making them no longer line up side to side. N’doul though, he’s the one that starts to change things. His (probably) best friend gets his eyes clawed, and he has to throw the new member of the group, who doesn’t even want to be there, at the enemy. In the end, N’Doul kills himself for the sake of DIO. When Jotaro returns, he starts to stray behind.
It’s only because everyone’s on edge, right? Kakyoin may be blinded, and we’re getting close to DIO. It makes sense to stay behind, right?
He knew that wasn’t why. Maybe staying away would be better for the group. No one died or got permanent damage when he wasn’t with them, so lagging behind would probably be best.
They wouldn’t have it that way. They continuously gave him their hands, and sometimes dragged him upfront, but it wouldn’t last. Every time something major happened, possessed by an evil sword, becoming children, having their souls taken, getting run over by a car (no way that was coincidence, right? Hol Horse was too damn lucky for that to happen), he couldn’t help but feel that staying behind was best, even if it was just a little.
However, when they got to DIO’s mansion, they all were side by side. They wouldn’t leave each other now, not when they needed each other the most.
It seemed like terrible luck, really. As soon as he re-joined them upfront, Kakyoin’s soul gets taken. Then he learns of Iggy’s and Avdol’s (real) death. Then, he sees Joseph die right in front of his eyes. He learns of Kakyoin’s death through DIO, the man who killed the student. Polnareff almost died trying to save Jotaro when he stopped his heart.
Maybe... That was the last time he would be close with others again. What was the point of taking their hands if they were just going to disappear? Sure, Polnareff and Joseph lived, but not everyone. He couldn’t help but blame himself.
11 years later, he travels to Morioh. Joseph, the piece of shit , had an affair and didn’t even know of the child that came from it. At least he took action right away, so that makes up for a little bit very little. When he first arrived, he met Koichi Hirose. He couldn’t help but like him, he was kind and trustworthy, anyone could tell that about him when meeting him for the first time. However, there was something different about him, something that sparked a nostalgic feeling. He didn’t know what it was though, so he pushed the thought to the side. Soon after, he met Josuke. He grew quite fond of Josuke quickly, and vice versa.
There were multiple times after the main gang was established that they tried to invite Jotaro. Sure, he may have liked to join them, but he wasn’t going to make the same mistake again. He stayed behind the group, making sure he could protect them when the need arose.
Over the course of the summer, he got closer with the group unknowingly. Nothing was happening as he approached, but he didn’t see that. He only knew it as ‘staying away = safe’. Finally, towards the end, Josuke offered his hand to Jotaro.
“You’ve been staying behind for so long, come, join us!’
“I'm fine, really. I don’t mind staying back here-”
Jotaro was within Josuke’s reach and grabbed his hand.
“Wha-”
“Stop acting like you're not part of the group. We want you up here.”
“I-” Jotaro tried to rebut it but couldn’t find it in himself to do it. He reluctantly stepped forward with them. Soon after, he found that he quite enjoyed being with them. It made him feel comfortable again, something he hadn’t experienced since the trip to Egypt.
The next day, it was July 16 th . He was supposed to meet up with everyone, but Josuke and Okuyasu were late. But then, he saw it.
Josuke had wood stuck in his side and bleeding everywhere. There was a child with him and Yoshikage Kira was in front of all of them.
This had to be some kind of joke -
Kira can rewind time. There was no time to hesitate and he needed to get to Kira before he activated Bites the Dust. He made it in time, and Kira got run over. But, Josuke... He had to get back, he needed to leave, he had to stay behind-
“What’s the hold up?”
“Josuke?”
“Come on, get a move on.”
“Wait-”
It was too late when Josuke grabbed Jotaro’s arm and pulled him back. Even after all that happened, they still wanted him to be up front. Maybe... it was okay to get close to people.
However, there were two people he refused to get close to.
Throughout their entire lives, Jotaro kept falling behind and behind. Multiple times they would reach their hand out for him, but he would never accept it. It soon came to a point where they wouldn’t even look back. Even if they did, they wouldn’t see him.
Jolyne was in prison for a crime she didn’t commit. She would possibly be attacked by one of DIO’s former minions. Although he knew she would no longer accept him, Jotaro knew he had to join her upfront- whether she wanted him to or not.
First, he came into view of her. She didn’t bother looking back again. She heard him call to her, she didn’t bother responding to him. It wasn’t until he was in arm's length, when he reached out to her.
The audacity of this man, really. Thinking he can come back and walk side by side with her and her mother, but... she did look back.
They were attacked by the enemy. Jolyne was about to die... unless.
All of a sudden, Jotaro appears next to Jolyne.
“I’ve always cherished you.”
And he was gone like that.
Jolyne looked around.
He was nowhere in sight
She called out for him.
“Dad?!?’
She reached her hand out for him.
Nothing grabbed on.
Maybe... as long as he told her that, and he was able to stay away for good, she’d be able to stay safe.
Kujos are stubborn, though.
She set out to find her father, and she did at the end. She made sure he stayed next to her, and he wasn’t planning to fall back anytime soon.
Unfortunately for him, it seemed that it didn’t matter if he stayed behind or took the outstretched hand.