Some can be incredibly powerful due to their User's outstanding grit, others can be highly situational because of a defining quirk of character, or even detrimental to their User if they do not have the necessary fighting spirit. As an embodiment of someone's psyche, Stands are therefore as varied as human minds can be.ĭue to their diversity, Stands are not made equal. They follow a loose set of rules, with no definite standard by which one can fully classify them. Beyond that definition, Stands present themselves in a large variety of forms and with different behaviors, if they are sentient at all. However, Stands may also derive through the exploration of possibilities and expression of the mind, in which case, only a large amount of mental strength is required. Stands can come in many different shapes and sizes, they also have many different abilities (Such as, Stop Time, Erase Time, Control the Weather, etc).Ī Stand can also represent the manifestation of an individual's innate "fighting spirit" and embodies, to an extent, the individual's psyche.
According to Joseph Joestar, the name "Stand" comes from the fact they usually manifest standing next to the User: ready to act. When first presented, the term is written as "Stand" ( 幽波紋 ( スタンド ), Sutando), with furigana W to change the pronunciation of what literally means "Ghostly Ripple" ( 幽波紋, Yūhamon) in kanji W. Stands are defined as personifications of "life energy" (although it's later changed to "spiritual energy") whose abilities are given visual form.