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Joseph Joestar is an orphan.
Well, he's not, but that's what he believed. That's what he grew up with, with the few photos they had and with memories shared before going to bed. He grew up with his grandmother's voice, full of grace and gentle, with Uncle Speedwagon's tricks, the ones he learned on the streets and that Erina frowned at. He grew up loved.
When he was thirteen he felt the sun under his skin and saved his uncle's life. He was scared, you know, because he was thirteen and his uncle was in danger but he didn't let it show, because he was proud, wanted to be as brave and good as Jonathan Joestar once was.
He crashed a plane, would laugh about it later, but it scared him too, and did you know that he felt sick the next time he had to go back on one?
Maybe he was arrogant -he definitely was- but he was good, had his heart in the right place. He saw a black kid steal from him and helped because he understood that sometimes you had to do things to survive, because he remembered Speedwagon's stories about cold and hunger in London's streets.
Joseph wasn't noble, wasn't brave and wasn't even kind, but he was good.
When he heard of his uncle's death, he choked back tears and hugged his grandmother like she used to hug him, and promised to find out what happened. He gritted his teeth until his uncle's murderer found him and tried to kill him. Only then did he let his tears fall.
He went to rescue his uncle, who wasn't dead but hurt and in danger, and infiltrated his enemies's base.
He fought against a monster like the one who killed his grandfather, and he was afraid for them, for himself, but continued to fight. He won not because he was strong but because he was smart.
He watched a man he despised, a nazi, die and admired him. He hated him for his beliefs but admired his courage, because bravery was something to respect no matter who it came from.
He met another boy, because fate was a funny thing and history had a strange way to repeat itself, and they didn't get along. He didn't understand his fascination for the past, for his ancestors. These people were amazing, but they were dead and wouldn't help in the fight that was coming.
He met monsters again, and he tried to flee because he was human and nineteen and he wanted to live. Joseph was smart, and he knew he wouldn't win with strength so he used his brain and made it work, because that's what he always did.
He felt the rings enter his body and wanted to scream, to rage, but he refused to because that was what a child would do and Joseph couldn't afford to be a child anymore.
They went to Italy and met their teacher, a woman with cold eyes and harsh words and a broken heart, but Joseph didn't know that yet.
When he was nineteen he spent days training, his breath and his hands shaking because his life was on the line, the world was on his shoulders and he was nineteen.
At night he would woke up sweating and breathing heavily, because the mask may have been annoying but the rings were painful and together they were atrocious. He didn't say anything though, stayed quiet in his bed until Caesar found out and dragged him outside for some fresh air.
His trainer was killed and he fought against one of the monsters, and he won because he was smart and human and he adapted. And even when his opponent tried to trick him beyond death, he still won not only because of his plan but because of his friend.
He really thought everything was going to be alright, it seemed to be going well after all. But tragedy happens, and you know that. It wouldn't be interesting otherwise.
An argument, yells and insults thrown carelessly, and Joseph Joestar watched his best friend walk to his death.
He arrived too late, and he dared to hope for a while (maybe, just maybe he is-) but then blood, so much, too much, and his heart broke with Lisa-Lisa's.
(CAESAAAAAAAAR!!)
They made a deal and he defeated Caesar's murderer, fair and square. It didn't make the hurt lessen.
Lisa-Lisa lost, and Kars mocked him and his humanity, his arrogance and his determination. And Joseph gritted his teeth and made plans and won, or he thought that he did.
When Kars got up and walked under the sun he thought and thought until finding a way to defeat him for good. It didn't work out the way he thought it would but it worked out anyways.
He thought he was going to die, you know? When he started to fall and watched Kars disappear into space, he was resigned and ready to see Caesar again. He didn't wish for death, but he didn't mind it either.
When he woke up and saw Suzie Q's worried face, he wasn't disappointed but he wasn't relieved either. He just sighed and lived.
When Lisa-Lisa told him who she was, he felt angry and betrayed, because this woman, this stranger, couldn't be his mother. A mother didn't abandon his son. But he already lost Caesar and didn't want to lose his trainer (trainer, not mother) so he swallowed back his anger and stayed quiet.
The day Holly Joestar was born, Joseph cried and wished that Caesar was there to see her, see who he became. Holly grew up with parents full of love, and Joseph couldn't bring himself to teach her about Hamon and vampires.
Years later, in 1983, when his daughter left to another continent, Joseph, who still mourned and cried for a boy who will never grow up beyond twenty, met a japanese student who had the same teasing smile as Caesar and fell in love. He ended up cheating on Suzie Q with Higashikata Tomoko, and left without looking back or checking on the girl. It's a choice he will regret for a long time, especially later, when facing a boy with a strange haircut.
But we're not here yet.
When he was 65, he woke up with purple vines wrapped around his arms and learned about Stands and the monster who came back. Two years later his daughter called about her son and an evil spirit and he felt his heart stop.
His daughter fell ill and they went to Egypt, looking for a monster and walking to their death to defeat him, like Caesar all those years ago, and Joseph felt old and tired and wondered if dying against Kars would have been better.
Dio was defeated, and their friends died (just like Caesar, why can't I do anything right-) and Joseph tried to be happy because it was their victory. It didn't feel like one, but neither did it back then.
Years passed again (they were faster and faster, and Joseph couldn't remember when he became old) and he became a great-grandfather. He sat in front of Caesar's grave and wondered how he managed to live this long. He was older than anyone he knew, older than his father and grandfather had ever been. It shoudn't feel this bittersweet.
He learned about the boy in Morioh and tried not to feel sick. He failed.
When his wife came to yell and he acted like his mind wasn't all there, he wondered how long it would take for it to be true. When he looked into his son's kind eyes, he leaned on his cane and felt the urge to cry. He couldn't remember if he was ever that young.
He brought back little Shizuka and endured Suzie Q's screams before explaining everything. She was still angry, but she accepted and hugged the child and that was more that Jospeh had dared to hope for.
He was still there, you know, when his great-granddaughter was sent to prison. He was old and his joints hurt, his eyes were blurry and he was in a wheelchair, but he was there.
He sat calmly in front of a picture, before everything reset, and, as far away his grandson and great-granddaughter fought and died, wondered how death felt like. He wondered how it felt like, for Caesar, for Avdol, for Kakyoin, for Erina, for Jonathan. Death was something Joseph seemed to always escape, even when he was looking for it.
Joseph wasn't like Jonathan, didn't have that grace or that nobleness his grandmother spoke so fondly of. What he had was his brain, his breath and his made-up plans, and he made it work. That's just who he was.
That's what kept him alive all these years.