Dio Brando

"WRRRRYYYYYYYY!!"

- Dio Brando's battle cry.

Dio Brando (ディオ・ブランドー, Dio Burandō) is the main antagonist of Parts 1 and 3 of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, though his legacy causes repercussions throughout the rest of the series as well. He is also the father of Part 5's protagonist Giorno Giovanna.

Early life
"Your upbringing made you a villain, you say? It didn't! You've been evil since your birth!"

- Speedwagon, to Dio

Dio was born the son of Dario Brando, an alcoholic and abusive father whom he deeply hated. Years before, his father had saved George Joestar, a nobleman, from a car accident, which George held a great debt with him. Dio poisoned his father, and was then adopted by the Joestars. Dio had already set up a plan to get all of the Joestar fortune to him: he would make George's son, Jonathan Joestar, go crazy and then poison George in the same way he did with his father, them claim all of the fortune for himself. But Jonathan was a very strong-willed boy, which made Dio recalculate his plan. The two had a fight, in which Dio's blood splattered on a stone mask that was hanging on a wall, making the mask react, making some long spikes appear on it. Jonathan noticed it, as well as Dio, who stayed quiet about this.

Phantom Blood (1888-89)
"I'm going to extinguish your life!!"

- Dio, to Jonathan

Seven years later, both boys attend Hugh Hudson Academy, where Dio intends to graduate as a top law student. During that seven-year span, he had acted brotherly and friendly toward Jonathan to lull the latter into a false sense of security. He had thought the mask was a torture instrument, then decided to kill Jonathan with the mask. Jonathan discovered that Dio was poisoning his father, then went to find the person who sold him the poison. Dio decided to test the mask on some street thugs, and was shocked to discover the thug transformed into a vampire with incredible strength and who could regenerate himself and look younger. Dio was almost killed, but was saved as the sun rises, disintegrating the thug. Dio then changed his plan, deciding to become a vampire, but using Jonathan's blood. As he attempted to stab Jonathan with a knife, George jumped at him and took the blow. Dio thus became a vampire and killed all the policemen that Jonathan brought to arrest Dio. As the two fought, the mansion started to burn, and Jonathan somehow managed to defeat Dio, leaving him in the crumbling mansion, but sustaining serious wounds.

However, a few days later when Wang Chan visits the charred remains of the house to find items to sell for profit, Dio resurfaces and drains his blood while vowing vengeance against Jonathan. Wang Chan turned into a zombie servant of Dio, who started creating an army of vampire zombies, including Jack the Ripper, to conquer the world. Meanwhile, Jonathan recovered and started practicing a technique known as the Ripple, or Hamon, which sends a blast of energy similar as the sun. Jonathan defeated all the zombies and fought with Dio again. After a fierce battle, Dio was defeated, but as he started disintegrating, he decapitated himself, so his head never disintegrated. His head was picked up by Wang Chan and guarded on a coffin. The coffin was hidden in a boat that Jonathan took with his wife. Dio managed to kill Jonathan and took his body, but the two sank to the bottom of the sea, where Dio slept for long 100 years.

Pre-Stardust Crusaders (1983-87)
Dio's casket is recovered off the coast of Africa by fishermen, who are implied to have been killed by him shortly after. Dio starts traveling around the world, meeting with various people who would later become his henchmen, such as Enya Geil, who uses the arrow on him, which makes him gain his stand The World. Around this time, he learned about a prophecy to create the ultimate stand, who would have the power to recreate the world. Dio himself was part of this prophecy. He met with a priest called Enrico Pucci, who later became his most trusted friend. Dio gave him a bone from his own body, so Pucci would be able to fulfill the prophecy.

Stardust Crusaders (1987-88)
"Don't you Joestars ever give up!"

- Dio to Jotaro after showing The World's superiority

The anime series and vast majority of video games are based on this third arc, which occurs about 100 years after part 1 and begins in the later months of 1987. Dio's ambition shift from conquering the world to creating a perfect world for him and his servants. However, because of the fact that he was using Jonathan's body, Jonathan's descendants also developed stand powers. Despite the long time span in which Dio's been using Jonathan's body, he still hadn't fully synched with it and thus he needed the blood of Jonathan's descendants.

Both Joseph Joestar and his grandson Jotaro Kujo developed stands, as well as Jotaro's mother Holly, who due to her peaceful nature was unable to control her stand, getting sick and slowly dying as a result. Because of this the Joestars embark on a journey to find Dio and kill before Holly perishes. Despite knowing the Joestars were after him, Dio makes no effort to go after them, deciding to avoid them and sending various stand users hired by him to go after them instead. He only appears occasionally as a shadowy figure, either taking with his servants or reading books on his mansion.

He only appears to confront the heroes by the end, after all of his henchmen have been already defeated. After the defeat of his right hands, Terence T. D'Arby and Vanilla Ice, Dio finally shows his face and his stand, confronting Polnareff on the stairs and toying with him. He quickly flees when the rest of the heroes join Polnareff, hiding on the top of the mansion. The heroes force Dio's minion Nukesaku to open his casket, but suddenly Nukesaku appears on the inside with his body sliced to pieces. The heroes escape the room, but as the sun sets, Dio finally decides to give pursuit.

The group splits in two, so Dio chases Joseph and Kakyoin, who take on a truck to flee. Dio takes a limousine and forces his owner, a senator, to drive for him. After Dio knocks the truck by tossing the senator after it, Joseph and Kakyoin flee to the rooftops of Cairo, where Kakyoin prepares a trap for Dio, making him unable to move. However, Dio for the first time demonstrates his power to stop time, easily cutting over Kakyoin's trap and killing him with a punch. Before dying, Kakyoin uses his last strength to shoot a clock tower, so Joseph would understand that Dio could stop time. Joseph protects himself with his stand and his Hamon powers and tells Jotaro of Dio's powers, but Dio stops time and toss a knife on him, knocking him unconscious.

Jotaro confronts Dio and attempts to trick him into believing Jotaro couldn't move during his time stop, in an attempt to hit his head when he lowers his guard. Dio notices the trick, however, stopping time and tossing a salvo of knifes towards Jotaro, who is unable to dodge the attack and is then stabbed by them. Jotaro, who had put various books around his body to relieve his pain, survives the attack but starts pretending to be dead to once again try to get a hit on Dio's head, going so far as to use his stand to stop his heartbeat. Despite thinking Jotaro is really dead, Dio picks up a street sign to slice his head from a distance, but Polnareff appears just before Dio delivers the attack, giving Jotaro enough time to punch Dio's head. Because of the head trauma, Dio is unable to control his own body and attempts to flee by grabbing a passing car, but Jotaro stops him and pummels him.

As Dio is flung by Jotaro's attack, he realizes Dio was not actually trying to escape. He falls near Joseph's body and drains his blood, recovering and getting more powerful than before. Dio goes all out on Jotaro, who plans on stopping time just before Dio's time stop expires, but Dio drops a steamroller on him, pummeling it until it explodes. However, Jotaro escapes the attack and freezes time, breaking Dio's leg. Despite the wound, Dio squirts blood out of his leg wound and into Jotaro's eyes and attacks him with a kick, but Jotaro retaliates with a punch. The attacks connect with each other, with Jotaro's Star Platinum hand breaking, but since The World's leg is hit on the same spot where Dio's was broken, the stand shatters and Dio explodes, with only his lower half remaining. Jotaro takes it and does a blood transfusion, reviving Joseph, the leaves the body on the desert to disintegrate on the sun.

Personality
"Can a monkey reach a human? You are but a monkey, Jojo!"

- Dio, to Jonathan

Dio Brando's treacherous, sadistic nature may be partially explained by his abusive upbringing at the hands of an alcoholic father, whom he later killed. He is also ambitious, narcissistic, arrogant and megalomaniac. He will do anything to get what he wants, even if it means trampling people, like he did to Jonathan Joestar when they were young, and relinquishing his humanity in favor of becoming a vampire. However, Dio is not entirely evil, although he tends to approach it. He shows a good side to those who are good to him. In particular, he has shown favorable attitudes towards Enrico Pucci, who also showed loyalty in return. Dio also has a passion for reading, as he is found in the library of his Egypt mansion at times.

Unless provoked or deemed an obstacle, Dio will normally not attack anything or anybody (although probably more out of regarding them as inconsequential, and so not worthy of attention, than anything akin to kindness). He will first try persuading people to work for him, then fight them, if they oppose.

Powers
His vampiric powers include a superhuman strength, self-regeneration, immortality, ability to recover lost parts from his body, and to shoot high-pressure liquid from his eyes. He also learned to use a freezing punch to counter the Ripple force. When he gained his stand The World, he got the ability to stop time for a couple of seconds (5 seconds initially; extends to 9 seconds by the end of Stardust Crusaders).