Diavolo

"I must crush my fear! Now is the time... I must overcome it right now! That is what it means to live!"

- Diavolo

"In order to grow, we must defeat the mistakes of our past. The past... even when you break it to pieces and entomb it in stone, it crawls out like a worm."

- Diavolo expressing his desire to eliminate the past.

Diavolo is the main antagonist in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Vento Aureo (or Golden Wind).

As the discoverer of the Arrows, Diavolo is responsible for the proliferation of Stand Users in the world. Living an extremely secretive life as a nonperson, he is the "Boss" of the gang Passione, which corrupts Naples by dealing drugs in the streets, making him Giorno Giovanna and Bruno Bucciarati's superior and greatest enemy. Diavolo is also the father of Trish Una, and commands Bucciarati's Gang to bring her to him whilst keeping her safe from the traitorous Squadra Esecuzioni.

Diavolo is secretly the alternate personality of Vinegar Doppio, and is a Stand User who wields the incredibly powerful King Crimson.

He is voiced by Katsuyuki Konishi in the anime adaptation and was voiced by Toshiyuki Morikawa in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: All-Star Battle and JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Eyes of Heaven.

History
Most of Diavolo's past is completely unknown, mostly because he got rid of everything that could lead to his identity. He was born in prison, and his mother gave him to a priest to raise him. When he was around his 15, the village where he lived burned completely, and he was supposedly dead in the incident (it is implied he caused the fire). It is also know that, before becoming a gangster, he discovered The Arrows, and sold five of them to Enya Geil in Egypt for a large sum of money and kept one arrow with himself, using the money later to raise in the ranks. He soon became the boss of the Passione gang, and started to organize the group into a large mafia with a huge influence. He also hid his identity and cleaned his past, so it would be easier for him to command the group. The arrow gave him his Stand, King Crimson, which helped him with his obsession to erase his past. He later gave his arrow to his underling Polpo, in order to make everyone in the gang into Stand users.

A Frenchman called Jean Pierre Polnareff was tracking the origins of the arrows, which led him to Italy and Diavolo. However, the mafia had a formidable control over everything, thus leaving Polnareff completely alone, all by himself in enemy territory. He confronted Diavolo, who beat him up severely, leaving him almost dead. He miraculously survived, and decided to hide until he could find someone trying to discover the boss's identity.

Much time later, Diavolo discovered that he had a daughter. He then sent the group led by the recently promoted operative Bruno Buccellati to escort her to him, never revealing his true intentions, and always contacting then through a trusted agent, who also never knew his identity. Diavolo knew that there were members in the gang unsatisfied with being ruled by an unknown boss, and thus were trying to uncover his identity, so he decided he would kill his daughter by himself, so nobody would get anything from her. However, he never knew that Bruno was also trying to uncover his identity, and the two confronted each other, with Diavolo always hiding. He almost killed Bruno, who was saved by the new member Giorno Giovanna, who entered the gang already with the goal of overthrowing the boss in mind. Without much options, Diavolo sent his assassins after Bruno's group, but they were all defeated.

Diavolo then decided to take action, and sent his alter-ego Vinegar Doppio after them. Both Diavolo and Doppio were the same person in the same body, but Diavolo used his alter-ego to hide. Each personality had different physical appearances, and Diavolo could talk in Doppio's mind, as he always thought that the boss was talking to him by phone calls from strange things like bananas and frogs. With this, he managed to kill one of Bruno's partners, as well as another member who was after him. But he wasn't expecting that Polnareff was still alive, and also trying to contact Bruno's group. Diavolo ambushed them by using Doppio's disguise. He managed to kill Polnareff, but he was holding another arrow, which pierced through Polnareff's Stand, turning it into a Requiem Stand, which immediately switched everyone's spirits. Diavolo's spirit manged to enter in a body along with his daughter, and while Bruno's group was trying to figure a way to retrieve the arrow from Requiem, Diavolo hid himself among them, trying to approach Requiem and get the arrow by himself, but Giorno noticed, forcing him to run after Requiem. He managed to defeat Requiem, but it was Giorno's Stand who was pierced by the arrow. Giorno's new Stand nullified Diavolo's power and punched him severely. Due to Giorno's new power, Diavolo is now infinitely re-experiencing his own death, over and over.

Powers and Abilities
"Once anyone witnesses King Crimson... As of that moment... They no longer exist in world."

- Diavolo

Diavolo's Stand, King Crimson, has the power to “erase” time. To simplify it, he activates his power, which lasts for ten seconds. During this time, Diavolo is able to see every movement like a sketch. After his spell ends, anything that happened during the time his power was active will be simple erased out of existence, like it never happened. This not only will leave his enemy disoriented (thinking like it was teleported), but also allow Diavolo to predict his opponent's moves and not only dodge it but also position himself to counter the attack.

Personality
"It is only the results that remain in this world! All the actions you take in a world where time is erased are meaningless!"

- Diavolo to Bruno Buccellati.

Diavolo is an extremely prideful mob boss, ruthless and brutal in his will to hide his past and maintain his position at the top of his gang Passione. Diavolo shares his body with an alternate personality dubbed Doppio.

The biggest personality trait Diavolo shows is his obsession with erasing any trace of his history and keeping his presence a secret from the world, a compulsion he tries to fulfill by any means. As he believes the mistakes of the past or simply the past itself is something to be defeated and destroyed in order for human beings to grow, he is exceptionally anxious about his past, linking it to fear, and being apprehensive of anyone learning of him. Even in the already secretive Passione hierarchy, Diavolo goes to excessive length to hide his identity and his face, issuing orders through several proxies or by computer so that nobody ever meets him personally. Diavolo lives most of his life in the shadows, hinted to perpetually travel across Italy hidden in Doppio, his alternate personality, and sleep in motel and hotel rooms exclusively. This compulsive trait of erasing his past is also an allegory to the inherent imperfection in King Crimson, specifically Epitaph's ability; While he can see into the future so as to avoid any mistakes, Diavolo's Stand ability cannot erase any low points or 'ebbs' in his life that have already occurred, forcing him to try to fix his errors through his own personal, manual efforts.

Diavolo has a violent tendency to hunt and kill those who try to uncover any kind of personal information, or are merely susceptible to lead his enemies to him, as shown by his will to kill even his own family if it means keeping his identity safe - something highly vocalized through his attempts to murder his daughter, whom has never even met Diavolo herself and only knew things her mother passed down. This is however partially justified since family members within the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure universe share a mystic spiritual link, with Diavolo and Trish being able to sense each others' souls and know where the other is as well as if they are alive. Nevertheless, Diavolo is sufficiently pragmatic not to go on a killing spree every time he's about to be discovered, notably only using his power to confuse a hotel cleaning maid just for as long as he needs to erase any trace of his presence. As soon as he learns of a Passione member trying to investigate him, they will be dubbed as traitors and made examples of his wrath and absolute power. Most notable are Sorbet and Gelato, whom Diavolo had killed and in the case of Sorbet particularly, cut into pieces and framed in formalin, then delivered to Squadra Esecuzioni as a grim warning of the fate awaiting potential traitors. Diavolo is also persistent in keeping himself a secret even from Doppio, his most trusted subordinate and alter-ego.

His second most prominent personality trait is his pride and confidence, firstly in his nigh-invincible Stand King Crimson, then in himself. Operating under a philosophy that King Crimson makes him invincible because it allows him to see the "pitfalls" in the future and avoid them, and allows him to manipulate Fate and reality by choosing to nullify arbitrarily chosen events, he justifiably boasts about King Crimson's power regularly. Diavolo notably claims that anyone's actions before King Crimson are vain, which is true to a degree. Secondly, Diavolo is intimately convinced of his innate superiority over humanity. Using epithets such as "Emperor" or "King of Kings", or like other main antagonists in the series, and using the prefix I or Me (この, kono?) to announce his name in a sign of superiority over others. The mob boss doesn't doubt that he is fated to remain at the top, or 'apex' as he describes it, forever. This disproportionate pride is not only derived from his idea that people grow from defeating their past (and therefore, he has grown much due to his constant attempts at erasing any type of history of his), it is also backed by the firm belief that he's blessed by Fate; Diavolo's past involved extremely unusual circumstances such as an unnaturally long pregnancy in an all-female prison, making his birth nothing short of a miracle, then him finding six Arrows which would grant him his extraordinarily powerful Stand as well as his massive wealth.

Other than his own philosophy of defeating the past so as to mature, Diavolo also lives by another thematic philosophy that results are the only things that matter in the world. As a decisive and assertive crime boss, Diavolo doesn't hesitate to take shortcuts or directly involve himself with troublesome matters if those actions are the quickest and easiest paths to an end. King Crimson's ability is an echo of this, and maybe the source of it, leaving nothing but the outcomes of situations, specifically those he himself sees fit to keep. He abuses his Stand's power as a means to produce the most favorable conclusions to his problems, and at the same time boldly prove his philosophy's claim to anyone that he confronts. Diavolo shows a degree of prioritization for these results and answers as well, notably when he, upon meeting with Polnareff whom he thought he killed years ago, only questions him as to why he would have an Arrow before attacking once more, rather than how he learned the name of the boss of Passione, or even how he managed to survive being thrown off a cliff into rocky waters.

For Diavolo, keeping stability within Passione is secondary to maintaining power and his status as the boss; a mentality that eventually realizes the corruption of Naples, worsens the city's drug problem, and ultimately, leads to the rousal of Giorno Giovanna into joining the gang seeking to dethrone their boss. Diavolo only commands the obedience of his subordinates through greed or fear, causing the organization to even be corrupted within itself, members turning against each other, and multiple people to plot against him. Diavolo is also unforgiving of those he considers enemies, most especially traitors. Should anyone try to approach his alter ego Doppio and pry too much on his past, Diavolo violently rebukes them. For instance, he nearly gouged the eye out of the taxi driver that robbed Doppio and harassed him, and outright and violently murdered a fortune teller that correctly divined his history.

As an extension of the idea that he is blessed by Fate, Diavolo considers himself extremely lucky as well. He readily accepts any difficulty as a "test" he'll have to overcome to prove himself as standing above everyone, and though he can be subject to anxiousness or despair, his pride will prevail and he will constantly choose to confront directly whatever problem he has. This causes him to foolishly face Gold Experience Requiem head-on, although he did foresee Giorno Giovanna's death and had no idea of his new powers. Against Requiem Diavolo's confidence crumbled when it countered his time erasure and prediction abilities and left him powerless. When he found himself trapped in an endless death loop, unable to do anything about his situation, Diavolo panicked and his last appearance in the story has him frightened being approached by a little girl; His pride, confidence, and to varying degrees, sanity being completely crushed by his everlasting fatalities.

Quotes
"I, Diavolo, am the emperor! This fact remains unchanged!"

- Diavolo

"I decided to show you... as a parting gift. What you have witnessed and laid hands upon was your own future self! The "you" from a few seconds past saw your future self. This is the ability of my King Crimson! I eradicated time and leapt past it! No matter who they may be... I shall not allow anyone to threaten my everlasting climax. No matter what! And now, you're going to have to disappear. Bucciarati, your mission to guard Trish... has now come to an end."

- Diavolo to Bruno Bucciarati before mortally wounding him.

"You are the only one I can trust. Understand? You are my greatest."

- Diavolo to Vinegar Doppio

"STAY AWAY FROM ME! AHHHHHHHHH!"

- Diavolo's final words after he was trapped in an infinite loop between death and rebirth over and over again