Joseph Joestar/Personality and Relationships

Personality
"We must use our legs! ... We run, Smokey!!"

- Joseph Joestar using his secret technique

As a young man, Joseph was incredibly hotheaded, impetuous, and confrontational. He was not very serious or focused and tended to fool around, but was shown to be incredibly savvy. At crucial points in battles, he will verbally predict what will happen to his enemies in a Fist of the North Star-like fashion, and quote, often verbatim, what they will say. His enemy will then unwittingly repeat said prediction, shocked by Joseph's "mind reading". This is primarily prominent in Part 2, although he does perform this feat again in Part 3 just before he destroys The Empress. Over the course of Part 2, although he never really lost his overall attitude, he did develop into a strong, focused hero. It is revealed in flashbacks that Joseph collects comics and was a fan of Superman when he was young. He becomes a fan of Rohan Kishibe's works when he is much older.

In Part 3, Joseph is much the same, only as an irascible old man with a temper and the same mischievous spirit as in his younger days. He is, however, much more easily surprised than he was in his youth. Being older, he is certainly more mature and serious. He and Jotaro, despite their hostility at first sight, manage to communicate with one another mentally. He is also able to offer advice to his hot-headed grandson and becomes a father figure to Jotaro over the course of the story.

In Part 4, his advancing age has weakened his mind and he appears to have become somewhat senile. He is not nearly as confrontational as he was in his youth, even sadly accepting Josuke's demand that he not interact with Josuke's mother. He also appears to have lost some of his prior cleverness, as he is easily taken in by a salesman when buying baby utilities and ends up spending about $1,000 (shown to be about 135,000 Yen). Despite all his failures, however, he has become a well-meaning old man who is still willing to risk his life for others.

Family

 * Jonathan Joestar: Joseph had no real knowledge of his grandfather prior to his battle with Straights, due to Speedwagon keeping it a secret. However, he holds great respect towards him due to his relationship with Erina Joestar and friendship with Speedwagon. During his first encounter with Caesar Zeppeli, Zeppeli mentions that it was Jonathan's fault for the death of his grandfather, William Antonio Zeppeli, to which Joseph replies, "Not only me, but you disrespect my dead grandfather?! You'll pay for that!"
 * Erina Joestar: Joseph looks after his grandmother and follows her instructions closely. His care for her seems almost crazy, as he would even crash a plane in order to get back for hijackers, not because they were robbing the plane, but simply for getting blood on a shirt Erina bought him. Despite being able to casually defeat policemen and even mafia members, Joseph is afraid of his grandmother's wrath and realizes when she beats him that he has gone too far, such as when he suggested the notion of Speedwagon marrying her. When Erina becomes shocked at a mafia member reporting news on Speedwagon's death, Joseph mercilessly beats him for uttering sensitive information so blatantly in front of his grandmother.


 * Lisa Lisa: Prior to meeting her, Joseph may have become distant to her and had believed her to have died like his father had. Upon meeting her, and becoming easily defeated by her, Joseph shows near-comical signs of wanting to beat her up remorselessly for being a cold woman, though appreciates her training nonetheless and sees her as a true master who offers valuable guidance, and endeavors to save her when she is defeated and almost killed by Cars. Still, he does not realize that she is his mother until later. In his later years and not long after Dio's resurrection, Joseph meets her to discuss the Joestar birthmark, showing a continued sense of trust between mother and son.


 * Suzie Q Joestar: Joseph expresses some attraction towards Suzie Q upon seeing her early on in Part II, though does show some degree of exasperation at her air-headed demeanor when he realizes that she had not sent a telegram bearing news that he was living to his family and friends. Fifty years later into the marriage, Suzie Q is shown to trust her husband completely and believes that he had never failed her once, but expresses utter rage when he reveals that he had a secret child with another woman. Her rage is mentioned again when Joseph brings home an adopted daughter named Shizuka, who Suzie Q believes to be another illegitimate child.


 * Holly Kujo: In their first shown interaction, Joseph teases his daughter for acting like a little girl in his presence, despite being a 45 year-old woman. Being her father, he naturally cares for her, becoming angry at Jotaro for disrespecting her (despite the latter's good intentions of doing so) and immediately becoming worried for his daughter's health after seeing her affected harmfully by her stand.


 * Jotaro Kujo: Initially, Joseph has a rocky relationship with his grandson, angrily demanding that he exit his cell, and is forced to have Abdul unleash his stand after his finger on his prosthetic hand is ripped off. Shortly after, he places his trust in his grandson when he removes Dio's flesh bud from Kakyoin's head. Later throughout the course of the series, he and Jotaro are able to get along more easily, to the point where they work together to defeat Terence T. D'Arby in Dio's mansion. At the end of Part IV, he confides more in Jotaro, sharing with him his observation of the spirit and will of the residents of Morioh.


 * Josuke Higashikata: While his love for his illegitimate son is unrequited, Joseph understands his son's concerns and follows through with them, without seeing Tomoko and understanding his son's frustrations in keeping him from getting lost in town. Joseph does, however, earn Josuke's respect and admiration after risking his life to save Shizuka, though Joseph is comically distressed after Josuke steals his wallet after Joseph boards the boat back to America.


 * Shizuka Joestar: Joseph initially found Shizuka as a baby abandoned by her parents and decided to adopt her. When issues with Shizuka began to manifest and when Shizuka found her own life threatened by her powers, Joseph took up ways to calm those issues with makeup and slit his wrist to use the blood to find her respectively. Later, he is seen carrying her around as his own child and by the end of Part 4, brings her back to America to raise her as his own child.

Friends

 * Robert Edward O Speedwagon: Despite his attitude, Joseph cared for Speedwagon, and viewed him as a father figure. When Joseph received news of Speedwagon's supposed death, he becomes enraged and attacks Straights without a second thought. Similarly, when he receives news that Speedwagon was still alive, he rushes to the Nazi base in order to break him out.


 * Smokey Brown: Despite having his wallet stolen by Smokey, Joseph bears him no ill will and actually helps bail him from the discriminating actions of the policemen who accost him, in the same manner that his great-grandfather George Joestar I did with Dario Brando. In a time when African Americans faced racial prejudice, Joseph backs up Smokey's rights to sit in a restaurant and beats up the man who insulted him. Smokey becomes grateful to Joseph for saving him, and accompanies him throughout New York, and later with Speedwagon at Joseph's showdown with Wham and Cars.


 * Caesar Antonio Zeppeli


 * Rudolf von Stroheim


 * Mohammed Abdul


 * Noriaki Kakyoin


 * Jean Pierre Polnareff


 * Iggy


 * Tomoko Higashikata: In particular contrast with Joseph's dislike of Japanese in his late 70's due to his daughter marrying one despite his wishes, Joseph has had a love affair with Tomoko a few years before he went to Japan to resolve Jotaro's issues with his stand. However, given that Joseph had written Josuke into his will, he had not forgotten about Tomoko and continues to remember her, and takes her possible perspective of him into regard when he listens to Josuke's initial demands.