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| “ | No matter the method utilized, in the end, victory is the only thing that matters! | „ |
| ~ Kars |
| “ | Look at you fools! Don't you want to have dominion over the sun? To stand in ascendance over all life? To purge your fears and reign forever as gods?! If not, then die. | „ |
| ~ Kars to the other Pillar Men before slaughtering them. |
Kars is one of the two overarching antagonists (alongside Diavolo) of the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure manga/anime series, being the main antagonist of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Battle Tendency. The leader of his band of Pillar Men, he is also the creator of Stone Mask and the cause of Dio Brando's rise as the main villain of the series, making him the catalyst of the whole series.
He was voiced by Kazuhiko Inoue in Japanese and John DeMita in English.
Biography
Past
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 can 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 lose even the ability of thought itself.
Jorge Joestar
| “ | What more do you want? You've conquered the sun, will not die or age. What else is there? You know full well your body can never become the true Ultimate Thing, as I have. What's the appeal of being this "pinnacle" you speak of? I merely wanted to conquer the sun. I personally slaughtered most of my kind in the war, then lost all of my kind that remained, and at last achieved my goal only to find myself alone. You waited a hundred years? I've waited a quadrillion. In all this universe, as far as my abilities reach, only Earth has any life worth mentioning. This is the only place in all the universe where life is worth living. Vampire, you are immortal. There is no need for you to rush into death here. | „ |
| ~ Kars to Dio Brando. |
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.
Personality
| “ | I don't have any romantic spirit, nor do I want to become a warrior like Wamuu... because the method isn't important. All that matters... is to get the final victory! | „ |
| ~ Kars |
Kars' maniacal laughter.
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)
Powers and Abilities
Kars, the Ultimate Being.
| “ | The ultimate being embodies the powers of each and every living thing. | „ |
| ~ Kars on his ultimate state. |
Aside from all the natural powers of his fellow Pillar Men, like every cell in his body able to produce stomach acid to absorb his non-Hamon imbued victims on physical contact, Kars possesses Light Mode. In that state, Kars creates chainsaw-like blades on his limbs that have very small barbs that run extremely fast. It gives off the illusion of the blades having a glow while making them sharp enough to cut through solid stone.
As the ultimate life form, Kars can access the DNA of all of Earth's lifeforms within his genes to manifest certain traits or spawn animal-like extensions from his body. He also become immune to sunlight and produced Hamon, his only previous weaknesses, and is also able to survive magma by creating a unending shell of air bubbles. He doesn't need to eat or reproduce as well.
Quotes
| “ | Alpha and omega both. I am the pinnacle of all life that trailed the Earth. All of their forms are mine to take! And you... my old nemesis, I see how entrancing you are. Yours is a beauty the likes of which I never seen. I once feared you... but now, I feared you no more! | „ |
| ~ Kars after becoming the Ultimate Lifeform. |
| “ | No! It's not working! I'm... freezing! The air is freezing around me! The moment it comes out of the jets, it turns to ice! I can't change my path! I can't move! | „ |
| ~ Kars as he begins to freeze within the depths of space, and his last lines. |
Related Quotes
| “ | So ended Kars, last and greatest of the Pillar Men. His body turned hard as rock, and he floated through space for the rest of time, never to return. He wished for death, but there was nothing out there to kill him. The spark of thought within him went dim... and then silent. | „ |
| ~ The narrator on Kars' demise, with the last part being better known as "Eventually, Kars stopped thinking.". |
Trivia
- Kars' name is a reference to the American new wave band The Cars and the 1979 Gary Newman song Cars.
- Kars' 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.
- 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.
External Links
 Villains
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Phantom Blood Battle Tendency Stardust Crusaders Diamond is Unbreakable Vento Aureo/Golden Wind Stone Ocean Steel Ball Run JoJolion Thus Spoke Kishibe Rohan Cool Shock B.T. Jorge Joestar Miscellaneous Spin-Offs & Novels | ||
