ofthedemiurgescomposition

NAME: Phi
AGE: 18+
CONTACT: Delightified
CHARACTERS IN GAME: N/A



CHARACTER NAME: Yoshiya Kiryu, aka Joshua
CANON & HISTORY: The World Ends With You. Wiki link.
AGE: Unknown, appears physically 15
CANON POINT: The Secret Ending of the game, right when he flies off after Hanekoma teases him.
PERSONALITY: Joshua is a difficult individual to describe. He has many layers of calculated facades, and throughout the game, Neku really sees the “true” Joshua, only the Joshua that the Composer presented, and his interpretations of that individual. Joshua’s true personality comes in the details, in subtleties. That is what I am going to be trying to capture here.

But let’s start off with that image, shall we? Throughout the game, he comes off as a cocky, condescending, selfish asshole, to put it simply. Every word out of his mouth is dripping with snark. He cares not for the affairs of others, only his own mission. In fact, he seems to treat them with outright disdain. He flirts with Neku, much to his annoyance, and seems to have some sort of fascination with him. This is revealed to be because he murdered Neku in cold blood for the sole purpose of his game. He comes off as a smug, sociopathic, selfish bastard.

Now then, let us get into what is the crux of his character.

As the composer, Joshua had divorced himself from humanity. He fashioned himself a morally superior entity, and thus created a form of internal justification for any actions via using this status. After all, he was above humans and far more wise than they were - so clearly he was correct. He could disregard the morality of his actions with ease. And as the Composer, possessing himself a limited foresight, he was partially right. Some of his actions made in reference to a foreseen future would come off as cruel to humans, but to Joshua, they were necessary.

He is incredibly clever and manipulative, and can easily play people into his hands if he so wishes. He doesn’t lie for the sake of lying, but either to gain something, or to keep people out. This can be seen throughout pretty much all of Week 2 with his interactions with Neku, where he plays his proxy like a fiddle to hopefully play him into helping him destroy Shibuya. He is also a very secretive person. He doesn’t tell anything about himself besides what is needed for a situation, or to keep a person on his side. This is due to his general lack of trust for others. He’s skeptical and suspicious of everyone, whether in retrospect or in the moment. The only people he will reveal more than he needs to to are the people he thinks he can gain something from doing so from.

Of course, you then must question why. Why does Joshua want to destroy Shibuya? That reason is a bit complex. Mostly, it has to do with humanity themselves. He is doing it out of a twisted sense of justice(his own justification) and a desire to just be rid of what has come to grow distant from and simply cannot understand(perhaps the deeper reason he is less aware of). For Joshua holds similar views to those Neku did at the beginning of the game. He views humanity in general as an annoyance, one he just wants to avoid entirely. In the same way, he also has some level of resentment towards human society as well. Where everyone is forced to change to fit into the little boxes society has outlined for them, and where everyone is so caught up in their day to day struggles that they cannot see the bigger picture. In fact, these cynical viewpoints did not simply stem from when he was a composer, but originated as his human self.

As a human, he was capable of seeing the game. The Noise, the Reapers, the Players, all of it was visible to him. And this led him to be considered an outcast amongst society. In fact, this is what causes much of Joshua’s closed off behavior, because there is no denying Joshua closes himself off, judging by his complete lack of friends. His ascension to Composer only heightened this, by stripping him of whatever humanity he might have had and giving a perspective that other people could simply not comprehend, the place of a god. And thus, as a god, he began to simply disregard humans as a whole, and that is why, after seeing them fall to “corruption”(whether in truth or merely through the further darkening of his own perceptions), he wished to destroy Shibuya.

Due to his pathological distrust for people around him, instead of trying to relate to them on an interpersonal level, he instead views his dynamics people through the lens of power. He makes sure everyone knows their place in relation to him and sticks to it, as a method of maintaining his distance. You keep to your box, he’ll keep to his, and in the end neither of you have to reveal anything about yourself. This is in line with his views on humanity, merely applied to social situations rather than simply philosophical ones.

But of course, it is through his own proxy that Joshua changes. He may not openly change, and Neku might not see him change, but he changes, with his decision to no longer destroy Shibuya. A decision that came after his time with Neku, after seeing the proxy of which he was sure would remain static change and reconsider his viewpoint. The very viewpoint that mirrored Joshua’s own. And so as Neku reconsidered his views, so did Joshua, like a mirror.

POWERS: Known powers.
Composer abilities.

Also of note, as for the abilities he's keeping.
-The things related to his physiology. Specifically, that's he a dead kiddo and thus, generally has the physical needs of a ghost. Which is to say, he has none.
-Possibly his ability to see spirits/other planes? Like, that was something he had as a human and he was born with but idk if that would be something he would be allowed to keep or not.
OTHER: Upon his arrival, Joshua was forcefully brought down to a lower plane than his usual self and made visible, which is why he looks like he does in the game rather than how he does as Composer. This is probably what would happen to him in low-frequency worlds (if he is going to be able to do anything), but if he wasn't, he would be invisible and intangible, due to being on another level of reality, separate from the normal, physical world.


CRAU INFO:N/A
MAGIC ABILITY: Perception Manipulation. Though, note that this is not. He alters the way an individual perceives the world based on one simple command. For instance, if he uses his ability on someone to say that “All directions are up”, then that becomes their reality until Joshua either stops or is unable to continue maintaining the spell.
PRICE: The gun he used in his games with Neku. He oddly enough formed an attachment to it, though it's for somewhat more complicated reasons. It marks the beginning and ending of his friendship with Neku, something he did come to value not in and of itself, but for what it represented. It is a symbolic item, essentially.

ACCLIMATION: : 7/10. Joshua, in his home world, was already familiar with the concept of other worlds and dimensions and had in fact traveled to them himself. H e can cope with things fairly well and go along with whatever they end up forced into, but that doesn't mean he likes it. He has a general investment in his own power, and lacking it leaves him desperate for any semblance of control he has and undermines a lot of his ego. He's very much used to being the one who makes the rules, who controls everything, and lacking that is absolutely putting him in a state of even more distrust, and in fact, some level of anxiety. So he will be able to hold his own and go along with the group, but he's going to be on edge and suspicious of pretty much everyone the entire time.


LINKED SAMPLE: TDM