Dio Brando

"I am throwing away my humanity, JoJo! I am moving beyond humanity!"

- Dio about to become a vampire. "The World!"

- Dio activating his Stand, The World. Also his famous catchphrase. "It's Useless! Useless! Useless! USELESSS!!"

- DIO's another famous catchphrase, better known as "Muda muda muda muda!". "WRYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!"

- Dio screaming in ecstasy after drinking Joseph Joestar's blood "Invincible! Immortal! Stand Power! This proves that no one can surpass me, DIO! Puny humans! I shall rule you all! Bow before my knowledge and might!"

- DIO after "defeating" Jotaro. "What?! I-Impossible... I am DIO... I AM DIO!!!"

- DIO's last words before his death.

Dio Brando (in Japanese: ディオ・ブランドー, Dio Burandō), known simply as DIO from Part 3-onwards, 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, making him the main antagonist of the whole series. He is also the father of Part 5's protagonist Giorno Giovanna. He has an alternative version of him called Diego Brando in Part 7. He also has three other sons in Part 6 under the rule of his friend Enrico Pucci.

In Eyes of Heaven, he has an ultimate form called Heaven Ascension DIO, which serves as the main antagonist of that game.

Early life
"Devil that you were, you drove mother to an early grave. I'm glad you're dead; may you burn for your sins. The riches that eluded your grasp -- I will claim them in excess. You lacked the cunning to take what you wanted, but I'll prevail! Now burn!"

- Dio figuratively/literally spitting Dario's grave.

Dio was born in slums of London around 1868 as the son of Dario Brando, an abusive drunk deeply hated for causing his mother's death at an early age. Dio would later acquire poison from Wang Chan to kill his unsuspecting father, who told him of his encounter with a wealthy and extravagant man named George Joestar who felt indebted to him. Dario tells Dio to take what he can from the Joestar estate with his last breath, Dio paying his final disrespects towards his father before leaving to be adopted into the Joestar family. Once at the estate, Dio kicks the family dog Danny then lies that he was startled by the hound. Dio wasted no time in making the life of George's only son Jonathan a living hell as part of his plan to subvert him. When Dio enters the mansion, Jonathan tries to help him carry his suitcase up the stairs. However, Dio grabs Jonathan's hand and pushes Jonathan back with his elbow when Jonathan touches Dio's case. Dio tells Jonathan not to touch his stuff and that he will have a servant carry his stuff up instead. He also warns Jonathan to keep Danny away from him. Dio starts to outperform Jonathan in everything he does, leading Jonathan's father to praise him and Jonathan himself getting jealous. Dio joined Jonathan's boxing club so that he could beat Jonathan up in a boxing match and he nearly gouged Jonathan's eye out. After the fight, Jonathan's friends begin to praise Dio for his skill as a fighter to which Dio replied by spreading fake rumors of Jonathan to them, leading them to bully Jonathan. Dio then started to notice that Jonathan was getting happier by spending time with Erina Pendleton, denying the Joestar love by forcefully taking Erina's first kiss. But once Jonathan heard about this, Dio found himself being overpowered by the enraged youth to the point of bleeding with droplets hitting a Mesoamerican stone mask. While Dio got revenge on Jonathan by putting Danny in a furnace and have a man unknowingly burn him alive, he realized that he needed to rethink his method and ceased antagonizing Jonathan.

Phantom Blood (1888-89)
"I am a god in all but name! With the powers at my command, I will rule the world! Thank you, brother, for this boon!"

- Dio to Jonathan.

Seven years later, both boys attend Hugh Hudson Academy, where Dio intends to graduate as a top law student. Having spent the last seven years feigning being brotherly and friendly toward Jonathan, Dio decided to enact his plan to poison George. But Jonathan learned of Dio's scheme from the letter that Dario sent to George before his death, confirming it when Dio refused to deny it on his father's word. This forced Dio to think up a means to kill off Jonathan in the freak accident involving the stone mask, only to learn Jonathan entered Ogre Street and expects the Joestar to be killed. While in a druken stupor, Dio decided to test the mask on some older drunkards who crossed him, killing one to subject the other to the mask. But Dio is shocked to find the masked drunkard turned into vampire, saved from certain death by morning's light. Later returning to the Joestar Estate after nightfall, Dio finds Jonathan waiting for him and learns the youth found Wang Chan and the antidote to the poison. About to be arrested, Dio then changed his plan to use the stone mask on himself using Jonathan's blood. As he attempted to stab Jonathan with a knife, George jumped at him and took the blow. Though shot dead by the constables, Dio became a vampire and slaughtered them with Jonathan setting the Joestar estate on fire in an attempt to destroy the monster Dio has become.

But Dio survived, turning Wang Chan into his zombie minion along with Jack the Ripper. Dio then set up his plans for world dominion in the village of Wind Knight's Lot, absorbing blood to restore his body while turning most of the townfolk into his zombie army. At one point he kidnapped a mother and her baby child. When the mother begs Dio not to hurt her baby, Dio promises that he won't. However, Dio turns the mother into a vampire and she eats her own baby. When Jonathan learned of Dio's survival, have underwent Hamon training until Baron Zepelli, he and his group reach Wind Night's Lot to confront him. But Dio overpowered the Hamon users by using his abilities to block their attacks before allowing the zombie knights Bruford and Tarkus to finish them off. However, Jonathan manages to defeat them. Dio then kidnaps Poco's sister and tries to get her to join his army. When she refuses, Dio prepares to kill her but is stopped by the arrival of Jonathan and his gang. Jonathan's gang attacks Dio, with Dire wounding Dio and Dio retaliating by killing Dire. Dire managed to injure Dio enough to the point that the vampire summoned his minions to kill the intruders while he deals with Jonathan himself. The battle ultimately ended with Jonathan using his flame covered hands to deliver Hamon into Dio's body as the vampire fell to his death. But Dio decapitated himself for his head disintegrated, retrieved by Wang Chan. Wang Chan delivered Dio to the ship where Jonathan and Erica were having their honeymoon at and he proceeds to turn the guests on the ship into zombies and vampires. In was then that Dio had an apathy that he and Jonathan's destinies have been intertwined from the very beginning, deciding to take the Joestar's body as his own. Dio fatally wounds Jonathan and then tries to take Jonathan's body. Jonathan uses the last of his ripple to make the sabotage the ship to explode. Dio tries to have his minions undo the Jonathan's ripple on the ship, but to no avail. As the ship begins exploding, Dio lunges after Jonathan, preparing to kill him and take his body. Jonathan managed to stab Dio and then hold on to Dio's head while he died. Dio tries to manipulate Jonathan into letting him go, only to realize that Jonathan has already died. Despite a dying Jonathan's last attempt to stop him, Dio took Jonathan's body and entered a casket as the ship sank into the Atlantic.

Pre-Stardust Crusaders (1983-87)
Dio's casket was recovered off the coast of Africa by fishermen a century later, who are implied to have been killed by him shortly after. Now known simply as "DIO", the vampire starts traveling around the world, meeting with various people who would later become his henchmen, such as Enya Geil, who uses an 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 as a sign of friendship and an apology for trying to force Pucci to betray him and steal his stand.

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 synced 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 him 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. However, at one point he sent a message to Joseph and Avdol through a television warning them about Kakyoin before making the television explode.

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, and leaves the body in the desert to disintegrate in the sun.

Legacy
Despite DIO's death his legacy still influences the later arcs.

In Part 4 some of the stand arrows were shipped to Kira's father and in Part 5 to Diavolo.

in Part 6 DIO appears in flashbacks and what remains of him is used by Pucci to carry out his last request with his three other sons aiding him.

in Part 7 even though it takes place in a different universe, an alternative version of him called Diego Brando still antagonizes the Joestars and their allies with another version of Diego (nicknamed "Dio") having THE WORLD.

Eyes of Heaven
In Eyes of Heaven, an alternative version of DIO becomes the main villain of its story mode and achieves Heaven with his stand evolving into the World over Heaven.

Heaven Ascension DIO originally existed in an alternate reality whereupon the events of Stardust Crusaders ended in tragedy for the Joestar Group. DIO succeeded in killing all members of the group along with Jotaro Kujo. Now free to pursue his original goals of "obtaining heaven", DIO collected the 36 sinners required alongside Enrico Pucci as he evolved his Stand and became the perfect being with godlike power, Heaven Ascension DIO. Now unrivaled and unstoppable, DIO proceeded to conquer the world and presumably carried out his desire to reveal the destiny of every human on Earth so they could live peacefully.

Around this time, during the ending of Steel Ball Run, President Funny Valentine tried desperately to escape from the "infinite spin" set on him by Johnny Joestar. In the process, Valentine skipped through dimensions until he eventually came to the reality belonging to Heaven Ascension DIO. DIO used the power of his Stand, The World Over Heaven to remove the infinite spin from Valentine and in return, Valentine told DIO of the Saint Corpse Parts and that his reality was merely an alternate branch of the main dimensional universe. Having already conquered his world and desiring the satisfaction of doing so to the original universe as well, DIO used his power to travel through dimensions; resurrecting his fallen acolytes and brainwashing new ones from other timelines to serve as his army.

DIO, armed with the Spine of the Holy Corpse, set his followers out to battle the Joestars and their allies. He patiently waited as his brainwashed minions were defeated one by one until the Joestars collected all of the remaining Corpse Parts. DIO then summoned the Joestar Group to his realm, where he easily defeated Gold Experience Requiem and Tusk ACT4. DIO stole the Corpse Parts from the group and planned on sacrificing them to perform the ritual of "obtaining heaven" all over again to increase his powers even further. However, Jotaro managed to hang on to his Corpse Part and escaped along with the others.

DIO, now irritated but still collected, spread out the Corpse Parts to his generals and sent them to eliminate the Joestar group. In the meantime, DIO managed to discover that Valentine was secretly a turncoat and was trying to discover which of the Joestars possessed the power to defeat DIO. Confronting Valentine about his treachery, Valentine fought DIO throughout many dimensions but in the end, lost. DIO, not wanting to waste such a powerful Stand user, offered Valentine forgiveness in exchange for his eternal loyalty. Valentine, however, retained his integrity and refused only to be swiftly killed by DIO. DIO then confided in his friend, Pucci about how he was troubled over the Joestars in this timeline being more problematic than he anticipated. Pucci reassured him that everything would go according to his plans and went off to confront the Joestars himself. Pucci ultimately lost to Jotaro and his daughter, Jolyne Cujoh. As Jotaro questioned Pucci about the secret to DIO's Stand, Pucci instead committed suicide while pledging his love and service to DIO even in death.

With Jotaro and the others having re-obtained the other Corpse Parts, they traveled to Cairo where DIO planned to face against them all in battle. DIO fought against Jotaro and Johnny and subsequently lost. However, he negated the damage done to him using The World Over Heaven. Jotaro, now witnessing DIO's power up close, discovered his Stand's ability to overwrite reality itself through the use of its fists. DIO claimed that Jotaro knowing his secret was futile and banished the other Joestars, excluding Jotaro and Jolyne, to other dimensions to stall for time to charge his Stand's power. As the others proceeded to battle their brainwashed allies, Giorno Giovanna realized too late that it was a trap. DIO unleashed the full power of The World Over Heaven and killed all of the Joestars and their allies before absorbing their souls into himself.

Now gloating over his victory to Jotaro and Jolyne, DIO combined the Saint Corpse Parts with the 36 souls to ascend to an even greater form of existence, causing the fabric of space itself to start crumbling away. Jotaro and Jolyne teamed up to take down DIO. While they managed to defeat him, it was a temporary victory as DIO healed himself once again and killed Jolyne before absorbing her soul as well. DIO proceeded to deliver a fatal punch to Jotaro as he gleefully relished in his victory. However, Jotaro mysteriously negated the damage done to himself which caused DIO to recoil in shock. DIO remembered that Star Platinum and The World Over Heaven are still the same type of Stand and by DIO evolving his Stand, he inadvertently caused Star Platinum to evolve as well.

Now armed with Star Platinum Over Heaven, Jotaro regained his composure as DIO began to break down. DIO, trying now to quickly kill Jotaro, let out an attack only to punch the armlets of the original timeline's DIO. Jotaro had secretly acquired these armlets after Valentine informed him that if two identical objects from different dimensions collide, they will violently cancel each other out. The armlets fused and exploded with DIO's current ones, resulting in both of his arms being destroyed and leaving him powerless. DIO desperately tried to use his blood to blind Jotaro, however the attempt proved futile; just as it did in the original timeline. Mirroring his original downfall, Jotaro delivered a single final punch to DIO, which caused his body to crumble and explode as hundreds of souls poured out of him.

With Heaven Ascension DIO dead, the timeline reversed itself into a new timeline where the events of Eyes of Heaven never took place, yet caused every heroic fatality throughout the original universe's Parts to be negated. This ultimately resulted in a universe where none of the Joestars and their allies died, bringing about an era of peace.

Personality
"A MERE MONKEY COULD NEVER DEFEAT A LION!!! And compared to my power JoJo, you are a monkey!"

- Dio to Jonathan.

While Speedwagon claimed that he was born evil, Dio's treacherous and sadistic nature may be partially explained by his abusive upbringing at the hands of an alcoholic father, whom he later killed. He is shown to be extremely arrogant, pompous, outright ambitious, unsympathetic, narcissistic, and megalomaniacal. 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 also shows a good side to those who are good to him. In particular, he has shown extremely 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 unworthy of attention, than anything akin to kindness). He will first try persuading people to work for him, then fight them, if they oppose.

Powers and Abilities
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 Hamon-empowered blows. 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. The duration of his timestop would have continued to increase had he not been killed).

Trivia

 * His first name is the Italian word for "God", but is also a reference to the heavy metal band DIO.
 * His last name is a reference to an American actor called Marlon Brando.
 * The creator of the JoJo series, Hirohiko Araki, considers Dio Brando 'the true protagonist' of Phantom Blood Arc. Araki developed Dio in his character design before Jonathan Joestar. And Dio makes his debut first before Jonathan. Araki pondered in deciding what would be the scariest factor, and decided that "evil from the past" coming to get the present descendant would be the most frightening thing. Dio Brando was developed with this in mind. After Dio, Jonathan Joestar of 'light' was designed to counter Dio's 'darkness'. (from Hirohiko Araki's interview in JoJo-Menon).
 * Dio's Japanese voice actor, Takehito Koyasu, said in his interview he 'had a feeling' that Dio would be given to him to play. He also voiced Redda, Zeke Yeager, Zechs Merquise, Seifer Almasy, Takuma Saiou, Aokiji, and Nobuyuki Sugou.
 * His English voice actor is Patrick Seitz, who voiced various villains like Kunzite, Scorpion and Uvogin. His anime character often overlaps with Takehito Koyasu.