After-Thoughts: Stands as a Power System

Recently JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders started airing on Toonami and though I've been familiar with JoJo's for quite some time, even learning about Stands and their mechanics before I even learned of Hamon, JoJo's has been receiving massive amounts of popularity since Studio David has been animating the manga.

This post is about Stands as a power system. Before I get into this, however, I want to make some things clear. First, this should not be seen specifically as an attack on JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. I would hardly say I'm crazy about the series but I do enjoy it and Stands are quite unique and a breath of fresh air compared to things that are a lot more common. I'm singling it out simply because of a comment I saw stating that Stands are a Power System that is on par with Alchemy in Fullmetal Alchemist and Nen in Hunter X Hunter and I want to go into detail about why I don't think that's true.

Secondly, I'm not approaching this from the perspective of variety or creativity. I'm approaching this from a perspective of Mechanical Viability. Because I'm studying game design and focus a lot on how power systems can be used to expand a game's movelist and customization options immensely, I'm tackling this with a question of "If Stands were turned into a gameplay system, how would they function?" While it is true that variety of powers is definitely a plus, it's ultimately meaningless if that variety isn't well balanced enough to make every option just as viable as all the others in at least some situations. Likewise, creativity is definitely a good trait but just because a power system is creative doesn't mean it's well balanced, well executed, or even well thought out.

Thirdly, I'm not saying that you're not allowed to enjoy Stands. I enjoy Stands just as much as the next guy and it would be inappropriate to condemn the system entirely. I simply want to point out that just because you enjoy something doesn't necessarily mean it's good. Although the two are usually linked, it's entirely possible for you to find pleasure from something stiff and hard to deal with, the way Clemps does with Drakengard, and it's entirely possible for you to dislike a game that's clearly well put together, like me with Dark Souls.

Now that that's out of the way, one thing I want to point out about a well designed power system that many don't seem to understand is a well defined list of rules that cannot be contradicted unless an exception is specifically stated but are still possible to derive unique powers from.

Going into Alchemy, for example, it has two primary rules, the Law of Equivalent Exchange and the Process of Deconstruction to Reconstruction. The first rule is that you cannot make something without first giving something in return. It's the use of conservation of mass, if you want to make something, you have to have all the materials available to you, it just so happens that the materials are atoms and molecules and not something larger like a block of wood or steel plate. Then, once you have all of your materials, you use the process of Deconstruction to Reconstruction to first break down all the substances into their base components then put them together into something new. This is something that both Fullmetal Alchemist 2003 and Brotherhood abide by well in different ways.

For instance, in the manga and Brotherhood, some powers are easy to explain right away with this knowledge, some of which are damn near overpowered. Roy Mustang's ability to generate fire comes from his gloves, the Transmutation Circles on the backs manipulate the oxygen and hydrogen in the air to create a trail and radius for the fire to travel through and affect respectively then the glove creates a spark by snapping his fingers. The most obvious example of Roy doing this is in his and his subordinate Jean Havoc's fight against the Homunculus Lust. Roy's gloves were covered in water which negates their ability to create sparks but leaves the transmutation circles in-tact. Havoc is also a smoker which means he had a lighter on him for the fight. Finally, the room Lust was in was filled with water, which is comprised of Hydrogen and Oxygen, two substances that are highly flammable individually.

With this in mind, Roy uses his alchemy to separate the hydrogen and oxygen in the room Lust is in then use Havoc's lighter to ignite the gases, causing an impromptu explosion that deals significant damage to the woman.

The second use of Alchemy that is difficult to understand at first until Ed explains it really nice and replicates the effect is Scar's. Scar uses alchemy to kill people, specifically State Alchemists as revenge for the death of his family in Ishval at the hands of the Crimson Lotus Alchemist Solf J. Kimblee. He does so by grabbing what he wants to destroy and then it disintegrates. The way Ed describes it, he's using the second rule but only half way. He's using the process of Deconstruction and Reconstruction but is stopping at the Deconstruction part to destroy whatever it is he's touching. Ed replicates the effect against a living suit of armor, confirming what he suspected.

Next are the Homunculi and, more generally, the functions of Philosopher's Stones. The Philosopher's Stone is described in the early parts of the series as an item that can generate anything by bypassing the Law of Equivalent Exchange. In reality, this isn't the case. Philosopher's Stones are created by compressing the biomass and life energy, if you desire, into the stone so that an alchemist can then take the energy in the stone and convert it into mass. In this way, the Law of Equivalent Exchange isn't being bypassed, it's just being used in a different way, instead of converting objects into other objects, it's converting energy into matter.

This explains not only why the Philosopher's Stone is seen as an omnipotent item to anyone who doesn't know what it's made of but it also explains why the Homunculi are able to regenerate and why Wrath, the only Homunculus with one soul, is not able to regenerate and it also explains why Greed and the other Homunculi can have unique identities despite being just a collection of souls.

One can even replicate the effect of a Philosopher's Stone using their own life energy, as Ed later attempts to but shows that he can't do what he set out to do, which was to regenerate from a fatal piercing injury. Of course, his lack of understanding of medical and biological alchemy had something to do with it but the major factor was that a single person's life energy is not enough to pull off tasks a Philosopher's stone can do, since even a weak philosopher's stone will still have at least 100 souls.

With this in mind, what are the rules of Stands and how well are they abided by? Well, a quick look at the Stands page on the JoJo Wikia tells us that the latter half of that question is they're not. Stands are defined by a loose set of rules that are regularly broken, the wikia says that with similar wording. As for what the rules of Stands are, here we go:

1. A Stand will follow its User's orders no matter what, even if it is sentient and warns its user of the dangers of that order. The exception is when a Stand is not under the control of its user, sometimes it will defy its users orders or, if it's bound to an object, it will not have any orders to follow to begin with.
2. Stands always protect their User like a guardian. Even if the harm is self-inflicted, a Stand will always protect its user. This is because of the next rule.
3. When a Stand User dies, their Stand dies as well and, if a Stand is destroyed, the user will die.
4. A Stand's Power is inversely proportional to its Range. The greater its power the lower its range, the higher its range the lower its power. The exceptions are Autopilot Stands, which are stands that this rule does not apply to.
5. Stands have 6 total stats, Destructive Power, Speed, Range, Durability, Precision, and Learning. As you've probably guessed, Destructive Power and Range will affect each other due to the previous rule unless the Stand is Autopilot, and the Learning Rank is actually inverse of what it represents.
1. Learning is actually how much the User of the Stand still doesn't know about their Stand's abilities, if this Ranking is A it means the user is either new or has a lot of unique skills. If the ranking is E, it means that the Stand is completely mastered or the stand just had very little to learn in the first place. This is why Jotaro's Learning Rank goes from A to C as the series goes on. The other stats seem to be unrelated to each other beyond this.
6. A Stand can evolve over time but one entity or object can only possess one Stand at a time, likely so no one can steal other Stands or at least so stealing other Stands is disincentivised.
7. Stands reflect the damage of the User. However, this can vary widely and is not always followed; while an example of this is a Stand having a lost leg when your leg is chopped off, many Stands will still possess that leg and are just unable to use it. Also, if a Stand suffers enough force to destroy it completely, the user will die even if they regenerate like a Vampire as we see with DIO against Jotaro.
8. Stands can touch anything they want but cannot be touched by anything. The exception is that Stands can touch other Stands as the touching what they want overrides the intangibility rule. Because of this rule, Stands can only be damaged by other Stands and are invulnerable to everything else.
1.  Similarly Stands can only be seen by Stand Users unless that Stand is bound to an inanimate object, then it's visible to everybody.
9. Finally, every Stand has 1 unique power and generally cannot be shared except by bloodline. For example, Jotaro and DIO both have Stands that stop time due to the Joestar blood but even this is distinct, since DIO can stop time for 9 seconds and increase it with training while Jotaro's is stuck at a flat 5 second rating, later 3 seconds as he reduces the time to increase the range and power of his Stand.

Okay, so that's a lot of rules but what does it ultimately mean? Well, not a whole lot actually. Notice that, among all those rules, there's no limit on the types of powers someone can have. While every Stand only has 1 unique power there's no indication of what that power is and there's no limitation on what power it can be.

This is a critical point of contention for me. While I do generally like powers that allow more versatility, I would like to understand why it's that way so I can craft my own abilities. In Fullmetal Alchemist, you can have any power you want as long as you have the energy or mass to convert into it. Mustang creates flames and explosions out of the atmosphere, Kimblee creates explosions seemingly by combining particles that react to each other to create that effect or just by ripping atoms apart, it's not entirely clear. And, in the 2003 version, Hoenheim can manipulate Light, which is something that the ruleset allows even if no canon character in the manga and Brotherhood actually do it. And, because of the reliance on existing matter and energy, an Alchemist cannot perform any actions that are outside the realm of physics unless they possess or are a Philosopher's stone. This makes mapping out your powers easy to figure out if you have the right tools but it also means your powers can be exploited by manipulating your fuel source or by disrupting your process.

In Hunter X Hunter, Nen categories are limited to 6 and even the catchall category of Specialist is balanced so that they only have one power no matter how broken it is. If you want to have a power that does not fall into any of the existing categories without being a specialist, your next option is to combine multiple categories, which is generally harder to do since it requires focus on multiple applications but it is feasible. Kastro showed that Doppelgangers are useful until you lose focus but Kurapika shows that as long as you know what you're doing multiple categories in one power is doable. Gon sidesteps this a little bit by having three total techniques that are combined into one system, building up his mix-up game and unpredictability, since even if he is an Enhancer, you don't know what he's going to do until he does it.

Finally, if you want a specific power but don't have the ability to use it you can combine Conditions and Contracts to make your abilities stronger. Kurapika's Chain Jail requires that he only use it on the Phantom Troupe unless he wants to die but the reality is that that's really only required to make the chain near impossible to break. Its actual effect, forcing the trapped person into Zetsu so they can't use Nen, is actually a Manipulator ability and one that would be powerful and damn near invincible on its own if there weren't people like Killua who were strong enough to destroy metal chains even without Nen. And, even then, this power isn't unstoppable. An Enhancer would get caught relatively easily, like Uvogin or Phinks, but a Transmuter like Feitan or Machi, or even just someone who's too fast to catch normally, like Nobunaga would be able to overcome this with only some difficulty. Franklin, an Emitter, can attack outside of Kurapika's effective range, which pretty much just leaves the easily captured out in the cold.

Now, what about Stands? Well, it is true that the varied powers make for interesting encounters and even two Stand Users whose abilities are nearly identical can still have a unique way of overcoming one another. For example, Jotaro figured out how to overcome DIO's timestop by using his own Timestop right as DIO's was wearing off, rendering him able to get a free shot.

The problem then becomes, what are the limitations of the power system? Having no limitations is not bad in and of itself as long as the lack of limits can be contextualized within the system's rules. In Alchemy, most Homunculi seem immortal because they're using the souls in the Philosopher's stone to regenerate, which means they can be killed but, in order to kill them, you have to use up their regeneration, something Roy Mustang does twice, against Lust and Envy respectively, and Marco, who knows how to create Philospher's stones, has an alchemy ability that destroys philosopher's stones by dispersing all but one soul, rendering them useless, again, something used against Envy in Brotherhood.

If a limit is not known and, to a different extent, if there's no real way to understand why a limit is not there, powers and situations can be created infinitely with no real rhyme or reason, which is only somewhat better than the escalation problem seen in anime inspired by DBZ.

Having varied powers is not the only facet that goes into a great power system, being able to understand how to replicate, use, and negate other abilities also play major roles. And while Stands have the ability to vary powers infinitely, and negating other abilities is possible, replicating is not possible because it seems powers are based on individual personalities more than a set of power mechanics.

In this way, even Naruto's Nature Changes in the Chakra system are better. The Nature Changes are Elemental categories that your Chakra can fall under depending on how you use it. Generally, the nature change you develop first is based on your natural affinity but there are still ways to tell what it's going to be and how to train it.

In Naruto there are five basic elements and many other secondaries, known as Kekkei Genkai. The Primary five are Fire, Water, Earth, Lightning, and Wind. Kekkei Genkai are elements that are created by combining 2, Water and Wind creates Haku's Ice, and Water and Earth create Yamato's Wood as two examples. Apparently Kekkei Genkai are restricted to your heritage but this is somewhat contradicted by Kekkei Touta, which combine 3 Elements and don't seem to be lineage based.

Finally, each of the elements are strong and weak to each other. Fire is weak to water, water is weak to earth, earth is weak to lightning, lightning is weak to wind, and wind is weak to fire. That said, fire can overcome its weakness to water with pure amount and it has no other direct weaknesses making it objectively the best element.

There's more to Chakra than that, some of which may fly over some heads but, with this stuff in mind, you can form strategies about how to overcome your opponent's abilities consistently because you know what you can do and what your opponent can potentially do. With Stands, you get nothing like that.

While it is true with the sheer variety that some Stands will ultimately counter others, you won't know how to counter your opponent's stand until you know its abilities and since its abilities cannot be determined in advance, there's not much point to pre-planning. And even if you do know your opponent's abilities in advance of a fight, because limitless ratings are possible, it may not even make a difference depending on how the two abilities combine with each other.

Limitless ratings are antithetical to the design of a good power system. A good power system will allow a proper strategist or master to accommodate for a power gap. Kurapika's Chain Jail can negate massive amounts of Aura since it shuts off the flow entirely, and Marco can remove a Philosopher's stone's ability to function by dispersing all of its energy in a safe manner. Scar's ability may be able to destroy anything but it's an ability any Alchemist can perform since it's just stopping short of finishing the second rule making it easy for someone like Ed to counter once he knows how it works.

With Stands, there's no way to achieve this effect because you cannot choose your own powers and you cannot use your powers in any way that the Stand cannot perform innately. Meaning that while it is true that a weak Stand user can still be dangerous depending on their ability, this is more down to luck than any actual strategy, something that shouldn't surprise anyone given this is the same author who made Battle Tendency.

With a power system like Stands, ass-pulls can be contextualized very easily but only because of how broad the rules are. It's fair to say that if Time Manipulation exists in Hunter X Hunter it would either be an incredibly powerful and taxing Manipulation Skill or it would be a Specialist Skill, making it the only ability the user would have and would conflict with Enhancement skills, making something like Star Platinum impossible.

That said, I want to state that it's impressive what Araki has done to avoid the Escalation problem. Despite writing the series for over 20 years, he's managed to keep escalation to a minimum despite how broad the rules are and how powerful characters can get.

That's all for now. Have a wonderful day.