Dario Brando

"You're smart enough! Never lose to anyone and become the richest! (お前は頭がいいッ！誰にも負けねえ一番の金持ちになれよッ)"

- Dario Brando to his son,

Dario Brando (ダリオ・ブランドー) is a tertiary character featured in the first part of the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure series, Phantom Blood.

Dario is the father of Dio Brando. An alcoholic and abusive man, he is primarily responsible for Dio's descent into evil. After a tragic misunderstanding, George Joestar I decides to owe him a favor, eventually adopting his son Dio into the Joestar family.

Appearance
Dario is an elderly man with a stocky build. He is balding, save some hair on the back of his head and a white beard. He bears a scar crossing his forehead, and is missing several teeth.

Dario has a tattoo on his chest of a cross with the words 'In memory of mother' visible.

Personality
Dario Brando is portrayed as a corrupt, alcoholic, and abusive father.

Dario is repeatedly portrayed as extremely immoral. Being a petty thief, Dario has no qualm stealing from the dead, notably stealing a then unconscious George Joestar's ring, believing him to be dead. He also told his companion to let George's baby die. When George woke up, Dario tricked him into believing he was saving him, hoping to exploit the gentleman's naïveté; when George later covered for him out of kindness, Dario couldn't understand the gesture.

Dario was an abusive husband and father, having presumably forced his wife to work to death. He was hated by his own son, whom he would yell at and beat for the flimsiest reasons. At some point, he asked his son to sell his dead mother's clothes in order to buy more booze. His alcoholic nature was shared with Dio, who hated himself for resembling his father after getting drunk.

Nevertheless, he cared about Dio enough to let him be adopted into the Joestar Family.

Phantom Blood
Dario was a poor man in Victorian England who witnessed George Joestar I's carriage crash one day in 1868. He immediately started looting the wreckage on the assumption that there were no survivors, even as a woman from a bar that he brought with him noted that the infant was still alive. George wakes up and assumes that Dario saved his life, feeling indebted to him. Although George later learned the truth about Dario's personality when he was arrested for trying to pawn Mary Joestar's wedding ring, George pressed no charges and asked Dario to become a good man for his family. Even after receiving money from George to start a hotel, Dario soon found himself back in poverty, eventually working his wife to death.

For the next twelve years, Dario took out his frustration on his son Dio, who he grew to hate his father enough to poison him with Wang Chan's assistance. Unaware that his own son was killing him, he tells Dio of the debt George still owes him on his deathbed. Dario gives Dio a letter to mail to the Joestar Mansion, in which he details his condition and asks the Joestars to adopt Dio. Though Dio is adopted into the family, Dario's letter plays a vital role in exposing his attempted murder of George seven years afterward.

Phantom Blood (PS2)
Dario appears on his deathbed in the first cutscenes of the game. Like in the original story, he gives his son a letter that will allow him to live with the Joestars.

Trivia

 * George mistaking Dario as his savior bears resemblance a similar scene in Victor Hugo's novel, in which Marius's father mistakes the corrupt innkeeper Thénardiers as his savior and sends Marius to seek aid from him on his deathbed. George also claims that he gave his ring to Dario Brando, who was imprisoned for stealing said ring, resembling the bishop Myriel claiming the same for Jean Valjean, who attempted to steal his silverware.
 * Dario's English voice actor would ironically later to go on to voice Yoshihiro Kira, the father of another main antagonist.
 * Dario's design and alcoholism is a reference to the Old Man from Poker Under Arms, Hirohiko Araki's debut work.