Kars is one of the overarching antagonists of the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure franchise and the main antagonist of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Battle Tendency.
The leader of his band of Pillar Men, he is also the creator of the Stone Masks and the cause of Dio Brando's rise as the main villain of the series, making him the catalyst of the whole series.
History[]
Kars is part of a race of humanoid beings who lived underground to hide from the sun yet were worshipped by humans as deities or demons. While the rest of his people were content, Kars wanted his people to achieve their full potential and created the Stone Mask. But though the mask maximized humans' potential at the cost of making them vampiric beings, it could not do the same with Kars. The mask only increased his hunger as a side effect. As the result, Kars began indiscriminate feeding on any organisms, causing devastation of nearby ecosystems.
Eventually, Kars' people deemed him a threat, and he was forced to kill all of them. Only having time to save his comrade Esidisi and the last two infants of their kind, being Wamuu and Santana. Years later, Kars realized that mask could achieve its purpose with the empowering properties of the Red Stone of Aja and needs a Super Aja that can fit his mask. Thus, Kars left Santana behind while he leaves the other in Europe and learned of a Super Aja in the possession of a Roman Emperor. But they were faced by the Hamon Clan, who knew a breathing technique capable of generating energy similar to the sunlight. Kars and the others wiped most of them out before they are forced to enter hibernation under the Roman coliseum.
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Battle Tendency[]
Centuries later, their kind was called "Pillar Men" by the Nazis, Kars and his two comrades awaken to find opposition in the Hamon warriors of that time. One of them, Joseph Joestar, would be one whom Kars bears the most animosity towards for killing Esidisi. Following his attempt of taking the Super Aja from Strohiem, revealed to have created a vampire army, Kars decides to accept a challenge from Lisa Lisa in a match to determine who can possess the stone once Joseph's match against Wamuu ends. But Kars uses a vampire lookalike as a decoy to catch Lisa Lisa off guard in their match and mortally wounds her to get the stone.
Despite being defeated by a furious Joseph, Kars managed to get the Aja-embedded Stone Mask on his face before the Nazis hit him with ultraviolet rays. This allows him to fulfill his ambition to become the ultimate life form, able to thrive in sunlight and have no weaknesses. Kars then decides to kill Joseph, who leads him to a volcano in hopes that the Pillar Man can be melted by the magma. But Kars survived, chopping off Joseph's arm while developing his own most potent Hamon to kill the human with. But Joseph, acting on a subconscious level, instinctively used the Red Stone to redirect the attack into the ground to cause a massive eruption that sends them into the air. Joseph then distracted Kars long enough to be knocked by the debris into space, where Kars ends up freezing while drifting away from the planet as a creature caught halfway between organic and mineral, forever condemned to wander in a vast, infinite and dark space, where he would cast off even the ability to think, itself.
Jorge Joestar[]
In the light novel JORGE JOESTAR, Kars, having escaped to Mars and multiplied over the universal resets, takes the role of a protagonist.
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Eyes of Heaven[]
Kars first appears in the fifth chapter of the game, he, along with Wamuu and Esidisi trailed the Red Stone of Aja to an island and had made a stopgap. There, they fought Joseph, Caesar and Lisa Lisa, until old Joseph convinces the Pillar Men to give Joseph and Caesar six days to prepare for their final battle.
Ultimate Lifeform
Personality[]
Kars is cold, rarely showing emotions, but is very persistent and relentless while bearing deep grudges: he massacred his entire race (saving Esidisi, Santana and Wamuu) just because they refused to obey his will. He despises humans, but feels compassion for other animals and plants. He even sliced a driver's arms, making it crash just to save a little dog, and bounced around while falling into a large pit so he wouldn't smash some flowers that were at the bottom. He is also very treacherous, resorting to everything to get what he wants. (This does not mean he does not care about his companions Esidisi and Wamuu, as Kars still attempted to avenge the two fallen Pillar Men after achieving Ultimate Form)
Trivia[]
- Kars's name is a reference to the American new wave band The Cars.
- There's a reccurring joke among the JoJo fandom stating that Joseph Joestar lost his hand in a "Kars Accident" (referencing the scene where Kars slices Joseph's left hand off, and the fact that Kars' name is prounounced in the same way as the word "cars")
- Kars's Light Mode was inspired by Ikuro Hashizawa, the protagonist of the manga Baoh: The Visitor, one of Araki's first works.
- Kars is the oldest character to ever appear in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure.
- Considering Araki's canon works, Kars is the only main antagonist that doesn't have a Stand. He's also the only one to not kill an important ally of the Main Joestar of a part, or to punch a hole through someone's chest.
- Whereas his companions Esidisi and Wamuu died in accordance to their battle modes (Esidisi perished in the heat of sunlight and Wamuu died and returned to wind), Kars was ironically lost in endless darkness of outer space instead of dying in light.