Jotaro Kujo is Autistic: an Informal Analysis
So. When I first started sdc, I INSTANTLY noticed a lot of core (and lesser known!) autistic traits when it came to Jotaro. I’d see him do something and I’d be like “oh! I do that!” Or “oh! I understand that!” Because you know. I Am Big Autistic Doofus.
So first thing I wanna start with is sensory. One of the first things we see of Jotaro is him yelling at some female students, correct? I noticed a trend here, and some behaviors I have too. Now, these girls are touching him, and they’re all speaking at once, voices overlapping, and he finally yells at them to shut up, right? Sure, you could play it off as him being edgy or whatnot, but that’s not necessarily accurate. Watching that scene personally, I noticed a few really striking things. he only yells after the onslaught of stimuli begins, and you can see him become more and more agitated as the stimuli continues. He reaches his breaking point when these girls start yelling at each other, and he screams.
And chalking it up to him being an Angsty teen doesn’t make sense, either, because the same thing happens in part four. Autism doesn’t go away with age, so it makes sense.
From experience, this is exactly how I experience sensory overload. Distressing stimuli, stimuli continues, your nervous system becomes agitated, and the stress can make you explode if it persists. this can also be why he gets snippy when people touch him unexpectedly. Unwarranted (ESPECIALLY LIGHT) touch can be really scary and even painful. His sensory issues also would tie into why he always wears his gakuran, even in the hot ass desert. It’s familiar, it’s comfortable and it provides deep pressure input. It’s a comforting weight he needs to keep cool, just like his hat is also a comfort item.
now,,, to break out the big guns,,, communication
Throughout each part we see Jotaro in, it becomes very apparent that he’s not the best with words, and not the best at reading people. He communicates, but it’s mostly actions instead of speech, so his intentions are often misunderstood and he’s seen as rude or brash. Again, another core autistic trait. an example I really love to use is the way he knew holly was sick. Despite his bitchiness about her being annoying (yes, that’s probably because’s he’s a fucking edgelord and can’t handle his emotions mostly) he genuinely loves her despite never saying so with speech. he knew something was wrong becuase she didn’t give him a kiss goodbye before he left for school. For a lot of us autistic people, routine is important, especially routines around people we love and cherish. Him getting a hug and a kiss goodbye is an ingrained part in his routine because he loves his mom. not receiving that affection threw him off, and perhaps caused some anxiety because “I’m leaving, why hasn’t she given me a kiss? She ALWAYS gives me a kiss goodbye, something must be wrong”
Along with that, rather than outwardly saying “I’m worried about my mommy” he travels across an entire continent to save her life. this also ties into how we read and understand people a lot of the time, and also a little thing called cognitive empathy and theory of mind. Cognitive empathy is the ability to understand why a person may be feeling a way, “putting yourself in somebody else’s shoes”. Theory of mind is the ability to understand what a person may be thinking or feeling, and understand that people don’t know what you’re thinking or feeling without you explicitly saying so. In jotaro’s character bio, he is said to not be verbally expressive becuase he truly believes people know his motives and feelings with out him explaining, which is A HUGE AUTISTIC TRAIT.
personally, I do struggle with theory of mind and I also kind of assume people know what I’m talking about because that’s just how my brain works! Jotaro IS empathetic, and emotional, and kind hearted, but he just shows it differently.
Let’s talk emotions and emotional processing. it is common knowledge that Jotaro is an emotionally constipated dumbass. But again, watching him as an autistic person IT LOOKS LIKE SO MUCH MOREEEEEE
We usually don’t see Jotaro express much emotion outwardly, which we previously discussed has to do with theory of mind. But it ALSO seems to do with a little something called alexithymia. That is the ability to identify an emotion or feeling, which I personally believe is something he lacks. Not only that, but because of it anger seems to be the only emotion he can process and react to accordingly. anger is easy. It’s intense, it’s heated, and it is easy to express. Jotaro has a lot of trouble processing his emotions and identifying them. Grief, anxiety, sadness, overwhelm, they all come out as anger. Let me explain a little bit more about alexithymia, becuase again that’s something I deal with. So, if you have alexithymia, you may feel a certain way, but are unable to describe it in the moment. If I’m anxious, it’s squiggly or ragged or ziggzagged and blah, or “it feels like a lily is blooming in my stomach”. If I’m sad and don’t really know I’m sad, “I feel blah, and kind of heavy, and my hands feel funny.” If I’m overwhelmed, an example i used yesterday in voice chat on discord is ”I feel wiggly, my body feels like jelly” it can go on. Emotions can be tangible, physical sensations that can make them hard to describe. As a kid, when I’d dissociate I would say “today was a gray day.” Colors and shapes and sensations came easy, words not so much.
one more thing I’d like to touch on with emotions are meltdowns and shutdowns. Meltdowns are essentially outward expressions of extreme distress. This can range from crying and stimming to destructive things like throwing stuff, (TW) self injury like biting or punching or othering things like getting into fights and snapping at people. Meltdowns are triggered by fight or flight, your nerves are completely haywire, you can’t think everything’s too much and it’s all ??? and you just need to be alone to get though it. Shutdowns are exactly what they sound like: you are so overwhelmed that your brain and body completely shut off. You can’t move, speak, or think properly. Jotaro a big guy, and for a lot of autistic people our traits are seen as threatening or like we’re instigating, Espeically for somebody of his build.
so stimming is something everybody does, it can range from bouncing your leg or tapping your fingers on something, or rocking and flapping and humming. Despite stimming being a natural human behavior, neurodivergent people are notorious for it because we need to do it more regularly. It helps us regulate our senses and express our emotions. Something I noticed he does quite a lot is fist clenching. Fist clenching offers deep pressure input, and seems to be his body’s expression of anger or fear along with him biting his lip and clenching his jaw. Another very obvious thing he does is tipping his hat, a comforting motion, and also an expression of embarrassment, anxiousness, and I think it’s also to avoid looking at people’s eyes. last ones I wanna talk about are the notorious phrases...
“yare yare daze”. Feels nice to say, first off, and from what I’ve gathered it almost always seems to be used when he doesn’t know what to say or he uses it as an expression of exasperation or confusion.
ora! Something I belive has a lot of credibility is that stands will have the autistic traits their autistic user does, and, since star is jotaro’s authentic self it would make sense that the only thing he says is a vocal stim.
Last thing! So. Perception. How you view the world and interact with it. Autistic people are super well known for our attention to the small details, and what is one of the first things we learn about star platinum?
stands are a complete manifestation of their user’s authentic self, and, if that user is autistic their stand would be also. Wouldn’t it make sense for their strongest traits to show?
