Rubber Soul

"This is my true form... How handsome am I?"

- Rubber Soul

Rubber Soul (ラバーソール) is a tertiary antagonist featured in the third part of the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure series, Stardust Crusaders, specifically the "Yellow Temperance" story arc.

Impersonating Kakyoin, Rubber Soul isolates and attacks Jotaro and Anne in Singapore. Rubber Soul is a Stand User who wields Yellow Temperance.

Appearance
Rubber Soul is an adult man with dark, curly hair styled into a mullet and a muscular build. He is bare-chested and wears pants and shoes. His Stand grants him the ability to change appearance at will. His disguise can grow when he absorbs organic matter.

Personality
"DO - YOU - UNDERSTANDDDD!?"

- Rubber Soul to Jotaro,

Rubber Soul is a vulgar and overconfident Stand User hired to assassinate the Joestar Group.

Rubber Soul has a crass personality, expressing himself in a vulgar manner. Whenever he interacts with someone, it is usually in a disrespectful manner and he is prone to use vulgar insults. This tendency is exacerbated by his great confidence in Yellow Temperance's invincibility which protects him from harm and can digest all organic matter. This leads Rubber Soul to claim that Yellow Temperance has no weakness, which Jotaro acknowledged to a degree before focusing his effort on disabling Rubber himself. Rubber Soul is also very violent; he attempts to kill a pickpocket by breaking his back and remorselessly eats a dog under the eyes of its master with his Stand. As Yellow Temperance needs to be fed organic matter, Rubber Soul has no qualm eating anything available, from beetles to a single cherry in order to grow his Stand. Rubber Soul is also quite narcissistic and considers himself to be handsome.

Furthermore, Rubber Soul shows his cowardly personality when he isn't protected by Yellow Temperance anymore. With a single punch from Jotaro, Rubber Soul was intimidated into surrendering, gave away the names of his allies, and tried to suck up to Jotaro in order to escape his wrath. As a last pathetic display of cowardice, Rubber Soul also tried to write off his assassination attempt and insults as jokes and tried to convince Jotaro that a broken nose and jaw were enough of a punishment, which particularly irked the student.

Unlike most of DIO's Agents, Rubber Soul has no particular loyalty towards the Vampire and was lured with the promise of earning 100 million dollars as a reward for killing Jotaro.

Rubber Soul does not seem to be particularly intelligent. He wanted to ambush Jotaro with Kakyoin's appearance, but his unusual behavior blew his cover.

Stand
Rubber Soul's Stand is Yellow Temperance; a sticky, rubbery mass bound to and encasing his body which consumes any other organic substance it comes in contact with. The Stand defends him from all forms of brute force and allows him to effectively impersonate others.

Stardust Crusaders (1988)
Rubber Soul is one of the seven Stand Users that Enya the Hag sends to assassinate the Joestar Group.

While the Joestar Group is in Singapore looking for tickets to travel to India, Rubber Soul uses his Stand Yellow Temperance to assume the appearance of Kakyoin under Jotaro Kujo and Anne's noses. At the same time, Joseph uses Hermit Purple on a television set so he and Avdol can anticipate DIO's next move. Through joining voice segments from different TV programs, Hermit Purple cryptically hints "Kakyoin" as a traitor just before DIO destroys the TV.

Jotaro, Anne and Rubber Soul in disguise enter a park, where a pickpocket tries to steal Rubber Soul's wallet. Rubber Soul acts suspicious from the start by acting vulgar and trying to backbreak the thief. Moreover, Rubber Soul starts to consume all organic matter he can get his hands on, at one point eating beetles which freaks Anne out.

In a cable car station, Rubber Soul tries to push Jotaro above the security fence and almost kills him. Rubber Soul writes it off as a joke but Jotaro unmasks him and punches him. Rubber Soul and Jotaro both enter a cable car in which Rubber Soul reveals himself and explains how his Stand will digest Jotaro through his hand. Faced with the danger of being devoured by the Stand, Jotaro jumps out of the cable car, Rubber Soul gloating that he has no need to chase him. Rubber Soul gets off and enters another cable car in the guise of a woman just to see Jotaro's futile attempts to freeze the Stand fragment. Rubber Soul reveals himself and gloats of his Stand's invincibility while it consumes a dog that happened to be in the cable car. Jotaro is forced to use his grandfather's final secret technique of running away by punching a hole in the bottom of the cable car and dragging Rubber Soul with him into the water below.

As Rubber Soul is forced to lower his Stand's guard to breathe, Jotaro gives the now powerless Stand user a broken nose and jaw before interrogating him about the remaining assassins. Rubber Soul reveals their cards to be the Empress, Emperor, Death and Hanged Man, the fourth belonging to J. Geil, the man Polnareff is after.

Once out of the water, Rubber Soul spots an opportunity to disable Jotaro by having his Stand travel through a manhole into a drainage pipe. He sends Yellow Temperance through the pile to cover Jotaro while gloating the subsequent reward is more than a professional boxer earns from a fight. However, Jotaro counters the attempt by using Star Platinum to punch the drain and create a high-pressure water jet, breaking the manhole open and sending Rubber Soul flying back into the water. Rubber Soul begs for mercy as Jotaro proceeds to finish him off with a barrage of punches by Star Platinum.

Creation and Development
Rubber Soul was not given a proper name until several years after Part 3's publication, where it was revealed in the updated 1999 version of Heritage for the Future and eventually documented in JOJO A-GO!GO!.

Steely Dan's name was originally going to be localized to "Rubber Soul", despite the name already being used. It was later changed to "Dan of Steel".

JoJo RPG (SFC)
In the game, Rubber Soul instead briefly imitates Devo the Cursed and battles the player's group on a hotel rooftop.

Heritage for the Future (PS1/DC/Arcade)
Rubber Soul is one of the several characters added in the arcade update. Looks-wise, he is a palette swap of Kakyoin with a taller build and a different face, and his Stand is a yellow-colored Hierophant Green. He is not encountered in the Story Mode by any of the main characters (arcade version) but has his own storyline as a secret character.

In his own story, Rubber Soul is hired by DIO to assassinate Jotaro and his companions. His story lacks any notable cutscenes aside from the ending after the player defeats all of the heroes. He claims that he is the luckiest man in the world and that no one else could earn one hundred million dollars by fighting for only a few minutes.

He is also encountered as a normal enemy in the PSX port's Super Story Mode. The Player will receive a Secret Factor bonus if they allow him to perform his "Rero rero rero" taunt.

Strategy
Rubber Soul might essentially be a palette swap of Kakyoin, but his playstyle differs greatly. He lacks an active Stand and instead elects to call Yellow Temperance to the battlefield temporarily for his special attacks. His moves tend to be slow and clumsy, as he cannot block or perform any follow-up attacks (aside from his light punch) while Yellow Temperance is still visible on the screen.

His special attacks involve Yellow Temperance (in the form of a yellow-colored Hierophant Green) shooting yellow acid balls at the opponent in short range. Within that same range, he can grab the opponent and break their back over his shoulders. He can also throw Yellow Temperance along the ground to ensnare the opponent's legs.

His special Stand technique allows Rubber Soul to counter an oncoming attack by forming a rubbery shield around his torso and knocking the opponent airborne. This is commonly followed up by his first super technique.

Rubber Soul's intro mimics a scene from his initial appearance, during which he eats several beetles and grows in size, making the sprite different from Kakyoin's. Also, if Alessi uses his Stand power on him, Rubber Soul does not turn into a child but rather reverts to the fat woman he took the appearance of in the cable car.

Stardust Shooters (Android/iOS)
Rubber Soul appears as one of the several Part 3 characters who possess a Metal Striker. His Finish Move has Yellow Temperance envelope the target Striker, melting them.

Gallery
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