Dio Brando

Appearance

Dio is a tall man with long golden hair and an extremely muscular build, likely due to his extensive training during his youth. After his vampiric transformation, some characters, such as Straizo and, much later, Enrico Pucci, have described him as a perfect and attractive man in his prime. After DIO takes over Jonathan's body, he wears a jacket with a tight black shirt underneath, as well as pants with an exposed crotch. His face is visible, and he wears a heart-shaped circle on his head to match his kneepads. He also wears pointed shoes known as crackows. This is his appearance at the beginning of the DIO's World story arc. In most depictions of DIO, his attire is orange or yellow. After drinking Joseph's blood, he removes his jacket, his hair becomes spikier, and his lips and nails are painted dark green. He also wears a necklace covering the scar on his neck and heart motifs on his feet and the legs of his pants, but he quickly stopped wearing them after his first encounter on the stairs with Polnareff.

Personality

DIO has consistently been shown to be manipulative and violently dominant, regularly displaying a lack of conscience and empathy: a classic case of a psychopath and sociopath. DIO's most recognizable characteristics are his boundless ambition and megalomania. Abused by his father, disadvantaged, and living in the most miserable conditions, DIO set out to become the richest man in the world. Failing that, he settled for being the most powerful being on Earth. To achieve this, DIO used everything he could to reach his goals, ignoring any kind of morality that limited his reach. Whether through manipulation, seduction, or direct violence, DIO constantly sought to increase his power and reach for the heavens. DIO enjoys a position of power above all else and has repeatedly stated how good it felt to be in a dominant position regardless of the cost, whether it was selling his humanity for profane and forbidden power as a member of the undead, or acquiring powers that could eventually allow him to reshape the world in his image and have everyone worship him as a god. Conversely, DIO never tolerated anyone challenging or equaling him in power, and the idea enraged and deeply disturbed him on several occasions.

Personality

DIO can be extremely charming when he wants to be, with many characters highlighting him as terrifyingly charismatic and fascinating. He has used his innate charisma to gather many servants, primarily Stand users. This charisma extends to when he was first introduced; in the presence of Jonathan's father, DIO appeared far more charismatic and gentlemanly than his son. He is also a talented actor, shown when he tricked Jonathan Joestar into letting him go. However, his disguise isn't perfect, as there are those capable of seeing through his charismatic and attractive facade to his own dark ambitions and power, such as Joseph Joestar, who have compared him to a cult leader or even compared him to historical tyrants and dictators like Hitler. Possibly due to his twisted nature, DIO's family values primarily led him to subject his own offspring to the same crucible of hatred and abuse he suffered in his childhood. One of his main criteria for the women he sought were those with atrocious personalities, selfish interests, and the worst hearts to bear his children. His logic was that his children would be raised with such a miserable upbringing that it would breed "strong warrior souls" like himself, because that's what happened with his father, Dario. This proved partly true, as, with only one notable exception (Giorno Giovanna), his relatives exemplified the same kind of evil nature and lust for power as him. The Stand exemplifies the psyche of its user. His Stand, The World, represents his immoral desire for power and his excessive ambition for control, but also the personification of his determination to do whatever it takes to achieve his goals. This is perhaps what makes The World one of the strongest Stands in the entire series.

History

The awakened Dio Brando, now known simply as "DIO," begins his next moves in the final months of 1988. For much of this time, DIO remains in the shadows, and the question of what exactly his Stand, "The World," does is a mystery to the Joestars and their companions. DIO's ambition is to create a perfect world for himself and his servants. Meanwhile, he seeks to drain the blood of the Joestar lineage, which will help him fully merge with Jonathan's body and gain better control of The World. Despite knowing that Joseph Joestar and his allies are searching for him, he makes no effort to confront them himself and instead chooses to remain in his mansion reading or feeding on the blood of women, while the protagonists struggle to reach him. When Hol Horse reports on the defeat of Alessi and Mariah, DIO questions him about his inability to fight, causing the cowboy to turn against DIO. DIO surprises him with his power, leaving a frightened Hol Horse to return to his side. Not long after, when Vanilla Ice comes to inform him of the defeat of Telence T. D'Arby, Vanilla volunteers his life to complete DIO's assimilation of Jonathan's body and subsequently cuts off his own head. DIO then uses his own blood to revive Vanilla as a vampire. After Vanilla's defeat, DIO's face is revealed to the Joestar group for the first time when he confronts Polnareff on a flight of stairs. He toys with Polnareff for a while, but when it becomes clear that Polnareff will not join his ranks, DIO prepares to kill him, only to be interrupted by Joseph, Jotaro, and Kakyoin breaking down a wall and flooding the stairs with sunlight. He then flees to higher ground. As the sun sets, the remaining Joestar companions split into two groups, and DIO follows Joseph and Kakyoin, who have commandeered a truck.

history

Main article: Vampire Having become a vampire from a Stone Mask in his youth, Dio exhibits a wide range of fantastic supernatural abilities, explained as expressions of the full and limitless potential of the human body. This includes superhuman strength, rapid healing, and eternal life.

skills

Vampiric Body: At the expense of having a body sustained only by willpower, instead of vital energy, a sufficiently powerful vital force (specifically sunlight or the Undulation) will negate the presence of the sustaining force and disintegrate the long-dead body.

skills

Jonathan's Body (formerly): When he acquired Jonathan Joestar's body and resurfaced from the ocean, he couldn't use the full power of his Stand and had to obtain blood from a living Joestar to compensate and fully synchronize. Once this weakness was overcome, he became significantly stronger, as did his Stand. His stolen body, being half-mortal, also had slower regeneration than the original. This weakness was located on the left side of his body. In the climax of DIO's fight with Jotaro, when DIO kicked with his injured left leg, his entire left side was shattered against Star Platinum's fist.

The World

A humanoid Stand, The World, is tall and very muscular. Its appearance is strikingly similar to DIO's. It wears a headpiece that covers its face down to the tip of its nose, with a pronounced incline from the base of the forehead to a peak located above the back of the head, approximately halfway down its height, leaving the face visible in the front as an inverted triangle. The World is an exceptionally powerful short-range Stand, similar to Star Platinum, as noted by Noriaki Kakyoin and Jotaro Kujo, but with an effective manifestation range of approximately 10 meters. Despite requiring a short distance to inflict damage, its overwhelming physical power and almost unstoppable control over time undoubtedly make it one of the most dangerous Stands in the entire series. The World is powerful enough to allow its user to perform short flights. The World possesses incredible strength, senses, precision, and speed, being able to easily strike Kakyoin directly in the abdomen and match Star Platinum in combat. DIO claims that The World is even stronger and faster than Star Platinum, as it surpassed it in a clash of rapid blows. However, it is unclear whether this is due to DIO's vampiric nature or simply his greater experience with his Stand. Its main attack is generally characterized by a flurry of rapid blows and an occasional kick.

The World (stop time)

The World's power is its ability to stop time, allowing only it, DIO, and anyone with the same power to act within the duration of stopped time. DIO can use this ability consistently, as shown by his ability to stop time with little to no fatigue, though this could be due to his vampiric nature or greater experience with his Stand. While time is stopped, DIO can move his own body, as well as his Stand freely, along with any object he touches, allowing him to strike his defenseless enemies, move to a superior position, and toy with his victims. All force applied by DIO during the time stop continues to exist after time resumes. This is observed when objects DIO throws can momentarily move during the time stop before coming to a complete halt and then regaining their initial momentum once time resumes. A flurry of thrown knives might fly several meters before stopping near Jotaro. Another unique feature of the time stop is that DIO appears to float in stopped time. Since during the time stop no forces other than those of the stopped exist, there is no gravity, allowing DIO to move freely in space with the aid of his Stand. It's noteworthy that DIO needs to consciously activate Time Stop, meaning surprise attacks can prevent him from stopping time. According to DIO, the World's ability to stop time was considered crucial to his plans to mold the world in his image, where reaching an infinite duration would allow him to do whatever he wanted to his complete satisfaction.