Dio Brando

Dio Brando (ディオ・ブランドー Dio Burandō), known simply as DIO (ＤＩＯ) from Part 3 onwards, is the main antagonist of both Phantom Blood and Stardust Crusaders. "Useless, useless!!! (無駄 無駄!!!)"

- Dio Brando's battle cry

Dio Brando (ディオ・ブランドー), later known simply as DIO, is the main antagonist of both the 1st and 3rd parts of the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure series, Phantom Blood and Stardust Crusaders, and a minor but influential antagonist in the 6th part, Stone Ocean. However, his influence is felt through all of the first six parts of the series, with major characters such as Giorno Giovanna and Enrico Pucci being directly connected to him.

Originally a man of low birth but peerless ambition, Dio is a villain of little conscience, vast cunning, and an insatiable hunger for power. After becoming a vampire and later a Stand user, Dio has gathered around him many minions and is responsible for many major events of the series, from the death of Jonathan Joestar to the Joestar Family's sudden acquisition of Stand power, and his legacy persists throughout the series.

Dio is the first main antagonist of the series. He is also the father of Giorno, the protagonist of Vento Aureo, as well as a handful of other illegitimate offspring.

Childhood
When he first arrives at the Joestar Estate, Dio is seen wearing typical formal boy's attire from that era; a blue coat, white dress shirt, a tie, suspenders, breeches, and a pair of striped socks. He has blond hair and a handsome face. He also has 3 moles on the lobule of his left ear.

Adulthood
Aside from replacing his coat with a vest, Dio's attire hasn't had much change. However, his overall physique and height have increased significantly. During the events where Jonathan sets out to find the antidote for his father's illness, Dio dons a top hat and a new, flamboyant-looking cloak that has feathers jutting out of the shoulders.

Vampire
Dio undergoes drastic physical changes upon using the Stone Mask to transform himself into a vampire. His formerly-clean hair becomes messy and unkempt, his eyes become sharper and adopt a darker outline, and he develops fangs. His clothing has changed quite a bit as well after his first battle with Jonathan; most noticeable is the scarf around his neck. He wears an ornate dual-colored shirt and matching breeches, a large pair of boots, vambraces, and two suspenders attached to a band around his waist.

Shadow / Hidden
DIO does not have a visible face as an effect of the shadowy darkness of his mansion. He has shoulder-length blond hair and is topless, exposing Jonathan's muscular body (on which his head is sewn in place) He wears pants with suspenders, clogs, shiny cuffs on both wrists, and heart-shaped knee guards. In the game JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Heritage for the Future, his voice is also distorted (an effect created by the developers to add a sense of mystery). This form of DIO is also called "The Evil Incarnation DIO".

Revealed
Incorporating his previous outfit, DIO's dons a jacket with a tight tank-top underneath, as well as chaps with an exposed crotch. His face is now in full-view, and on his head is a heart-shaped circlet to match his knee guards. This is his form during the beginning of the DIO's World story arc. In most depictions of him, DIO's outfit is tinted orange or yellow.

He also wears a necklace covering his neck scar and heart motifs above his feet and on his pant legs, but he quickly stopped sporting them after his first stairway confrontation with Polnareff.

When pursuing the Joestar group, DIO donned a cloak that he had discarded during his confrontation with Kakyoin.

Empowered
DIO nears his physical peak after draining Joseph Joestar's blood. His appearance now is similar to his revealed form, minus the jacket and the heart-shaped headband that was destroyed by Star Platinum's attacks. He now sports a deranged and homicidal look and mannerisms, having lost his suave touch. His hair is now disheveled and mostly oriented upwards, while his lips are darker and seem adorned with lipstick. This is his main form during the latter half of the DIO's World story arc, often called his 'High' or 'Awakened' form.

Personality
Dio is consistently manipulative and violently domineering, and has repeatedly shown a lack of conscience and empathy. Dio's most recognizable characteristics are his boundless ambition and his love of power. Abused by his father and having lived in the most miserable living conditions, Dio set for himself the goal of becoming the richest, then the most powerful being on Earth. To do so, Dio used anything or anyone that he could in order to further his goals, disregarding any kind of morality that would restrain the range of actions available to him. Using either manipulation, seduction, or plain violence, Dio constantly sought to become more and more powerful. Dio enjoys being in a position of power and has repeatedly stated how great he felt being in a dominating position. On the contrary, Dio never tolerated that someone could stand up to him or equal him in power, and was enraged and deeply disturbed at the thought several times.

Throughout his life, Dio has tended to surround himself with witless cronies and later minions, who were attracted by his natural charisma. Not thinking much of them at first, he then selected those he deemed as particularly evil, claiming that an evil person wasn't bound by rules such as honor and thus were stronger mentally. This belief culminated in including the absorption of 36 souls of sinners, or, as he claims, particularly strong souls, to unlock a power greater than that of his Stand, The World. Naturally, Dio is an incredibly-selfish person, only looking over his own interest and overlooking those of others at best, trampling them on the ground at worst. Due to his composed nature, Dio can and will manipulate and take from any gender, using any method, as long as the person suits his present desires. Since he is selfishly interested in their capabilities, however, Dio is the type who is incapable of loving another person wholeheartedly. The only people he can be said to have held some type of affection for were his mother, Jonathan Joestar, and Enrico Pucci; Dio recognizing Jonathan's worth as equal to his own, and having been friends with Pucci. Still, Dio stole the former's body and his friendship with the latter was proven nonetheless beneficial of a grander plan to further himself. When interacting with someone, Dio will constantly try to manipulate them and sway them into his side, using a veneer of gentleness and his natural charm to make people admire and like him. For instance, he acted the model son and popular charismatic friend to Jonathan's father and entourage to better isolate him, and as a Vampire, his charisma only increased as he appeared as a charming mysterious individual. However, his natural arrogance would lead him to openly insult and belittle his enemies, notably disparaging their insignificant strength before his vampiric or Stand powers.

Dio approaches obstacles and problems in a number of ways depending on the situation and his mood. When he was human, Dio was careful and methodical in trying to break Jonathan's spirit and slowly poisoned George for a sizeable period of time, only being thwarted due to unlucky twists of fate. As a Vampire, DIO at first let his arrogance get the better of him and took a laissez-faire approach, only sending subordinates to kill the Joestar Group while he rested and recovered. However, his defeat by Jonathan taught him to be wary of the Joestar Family in its entirety, thus he would later ambush Jonathan and, during the events of Stardust Crusaders, send his minions to delay the Joestars as much as possible to recover strength. During his final battle, his wariness, tactical acumen and arrogance would clash to make Dio alternate between meticulous approach and overconfident attacks.

Part 1 - Phantom Blood
"I reject my humanity! JoJo! I will transcend humanity!"

- Dio to Jonathan, before wearing the Stone Mask,

In Phantom Blood, Dio is ambitious, selfish, arrogant, callous and megalomaniacal, seemingly able to do anything to achieve his aims. His natural ruthlessness is exposed very early when plans to exploit the Joestar family despite them being kind enough to adopt him. In order to place himself in a better position to replace Jonathan Joestar and obtain the Joestar family fortune, Dio used the most underhanded means to break him mentally. These methods included: humiliating Jonathan in public sport fighting, ostracizing him from his friends, and finally stealing Erina Pendleton's first kiss to drive a wedge in their budding relationship. When he is eventually foiled, Dio opted to slowly poison George Joestar I and kill Jonathan with the Stone Mask to make both deaths seem natural and accidental. Dio has shown a remarkable determination to reach his goal, never losing his drive despite the numerous defeats he suffers throughout Phantom Blood and always tried to find a way to get back at Jonathan for them.

Dio's lack of empathy is also apparent, since despite having lived for years with the kind Joestars, he never thought of them as anything more than obstacles, and is hinted to utterly resent the upper class he frequents. Dio had been maintaining a facade of a charming and agreeable person to everyone save Jonathan, yet never came close to anyone. At the end of the part, the only person Dio appreciated was Jonathan Joestar himself, begrudgingly acknowledging his valor as his archenemy and "granting" him a painless death, and was even shocked to see him die. Overjoyed to have changed into a powerful vampire, Dio spent his battles taunting various humans about their weaknesses and belittling them in favor of the apex predator vampires. Dio also sadistically changed a mother into a zombie just to watch her devour her own baby. When in a position of strength, he also tends to torment them further, such as sneakily sticking his thumb into Jonathan's eye during a punch. Dio shows a lack of restraint in his violence, and is prone to murderous outbursts even as far as his childhood, notably trying to stab Jonathan when he beat him up, and violently slapping Erina. He was also incredibly cruel to Jonathan's dog, Danny, going so far as kicking him on their first meeting. When Dio was defeated by Jonathan, Dio secretly had Danny incinerated. He is shown to be utterly enraged when someone stands up to him, which is the cause for his outbursts. He himself acknowledged that his anger was a weakness, but would be all his life unable to truly control himself.

Dio's personality could be explained by his poor childhood and the abusive relationship he shared with his father, Dario Brando. Speedwagon, however, rejected this as the cause of Dio's personality, claiming that Dio was simply born this way, and that his poverty had nothing to do with it. True to that, Dio was already an immoral person but then openly relinquishes his in favor of becoming a vampire upon being cornered by the police. He trades his underhanded scheming persona for a more arrogant and hedonistic personality that is dismissive of humanity and revels in evil. Nonetheless, Dio respects determination and said much to Jonathan that his determination was equal to his own, earning him the dubious honor of serving as Dio's new host, after Dio was reduced by Jonathan to a head.

Dio's potential for empathy is implied in both the manga and the anime, when Dio is shown to have killed his own father out of revenge for the abuse against his mother, rather than as a step in his scheme to rise in society.

Dio has expressed hatred for dogs, considering them vermin.

Part 3 - Stardust Crusaders
"Everyone survives in pursuit of peace of mind. ... Aren't you uneasy, preparing to fight me, knowing you may die? ... If you join me, I will give you peace of mind that will last forever."

- DIO to Polnareff,

Reappearing in Stardust Crusaders, DIO did not change much since his burial at the bottom of the ocean for one hundred years, as he remained a remorseless and murderous megalomaniac, but nonetheless he had matured a little by recognizing valor in others and being generally more calm and level-headed. DIO does not appear frequently in Stardust Crusaders except towards the end, but is seen discussing various philosophies with Stand users he wishes to recruit, and with his already-loyal followers, particularly Enya the Hag who serves as his main adviser. It seems equally likely that DIO does this to manipulate and persuade as that he believes what he says, but nonetheless acknowledges the power and valor simple humans can have, notably respecting one's willingness to die for his goal. Wishing to quickly dispose of the Joestars, he listened to Enya and was told that she'd already sent agents to deal with them, and quietly rested in his mansion to gain more strength. Furthermore, DIO learned his lesson and stops underestimating his opponents, being particularly careful around the Joestar bloodline. He nonetheless sneered at other Stand Users' efforts to fight him, most notably Kakyoin's, whose discovery ended up being crucial in his defeat.

This time, DIO is far more calm and collected. Maybe due to knowing that his Stand The World is far above anyone's reach, DIO is more tolerant of people resisting him, and didn't react to Polnareff's taunts and insults. He even seems to appreciate Hol Horse's insubordination, which confirms the mercenary's strength, and let him go try to assassinate Jotaro. However, DIO is still callous about human life and killed anyone who would fail him, even Enya—who was, again, his closest adviser. The usually confident and cunning gambler Daniel D'Arby was driven to madness when he couldn't handle the pressure of possibly revealing DIO's Stand ability to Jotaro. True to himself, DIO is enjoying the fact that he is wielding the most powerful Stand in his organization, being unconcerned by the heroes' effort to discover his power as he thinks they are meaningless. When Jotaro reveals himself to be able to move within the stopped time, DIO is initially very distraught but recomposes himself quickly, devising other plans to get rid of Jotaro by exploiting his advantage. The full scale of his insanity is visible when, overjoyed to have completely fused with Jonathan's body and being at full power, DIO declares that he was experiencing "the greatest high" and delightfully drills his index finger into his skull. His final speech exposes that he is still willing to use any way to win and despises any concept of honor or revenge, ultimately using a cheap trick to blind Jotaro momentarily.

Part 6 - Stone Ocean
"...Beyond the powers of my Stand is where you need to go in order to find Heaven. What you need is a trustworthy friend ... Will I, DIO, be able to meet someone like this one day?"

- DIO's Diary

In flashbacks placed before the events of Part 3, DIO demonstrates a burgeoning ability to be genuinely nice to another person in numerous conversations with Enrico Pucci. Intrigued by Pucci, who let him be despite suspiciously hiding in a church, DIO healed his crooked foot, a kind gesture, and gave him the head of an Arrow, which would grant him his own Stand, Whitesnake. During these flashbacks, DIO is able to open up with him on multiple subjects, and confiding to Pucci that the priest could make him be at peace. Once daring Pucci to steal his Stand, to Pucci's refusal, DIO thanked him for his fidelity, and even admitted that he feared the thought of Pucci betraying him.

It is debatable how good a friend DIO truly was, considering Pucci's good-willed nature during his youth directly opposing his later evilness and zealotry. DIO also seems to have built that friendship to further his ambitions, which calls into question how sincere it was. It is implied that he wanted to use his Stand to create a perfect world for himself and a handful of subordinates. He enlisted Pucci as his living "conscience", in case he would go crazy and veer "off track".

Over Heaven
(The information below derives from a Light Novel not written by Araki. As such, it may or may not be considered .) JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Over Heaven offers an interpretation of Dio Brando's character by mixing elements present in the original material and plot points introduced by the light novel. Most notably, Dio's fixation on heaven is explained as the result of the influence his dead mother had on him. In the novel, Dio is presented as having developed past his megalomaniac self and began an introspection about his life and his growth.

Stand
DIO's Stand is The World; a humanoid Stand that specializes in melee attack roughly equal, if not superior, in its immense force and speed to Jotaro Kujo's Star Platinum.

About a year after gaining his Stand, DIO discovered that it is capable of stopping time. At first, he could only do this for a very short amount of time, but by the end of Part 3, he is able to stop time for a maximum of 9 seconds. This duration would have continued to develop had DIO not been defeated. When stopping time, DIO gives the impression that he is teleporting or otherwise moving at impossible speeds.

The ability is best known for DIO's activation and cancellation phrases THE WORLD, Time, stop! (! 時よ止まれ!) and Time resumes. (時は動き出す).

Mastery
Having had ample time to rest and train with The World, DIO is shown to have been thorough in exploring his Stand's abilities. Case in point, it was during an experiment session during which DIO sought to test the limit of The World's speed that he discovered his time stop ability.

To give himself an advantage, DIO has tried to keep the ability of The World a secret, only using it at key moments to psych out an opponent and perform incomprehensible sneak attacks, as well as only trusting its secret to a few confidants such as Enya the Hag and not hesitating to eliminate her as soon as she remotely risked to inform the Joestars of his timestop power. However, as soon as they understood its ability, DIO dropped the secret and showed a great degree of confidence about the supremacy of his power, ultimately not caring about his secret as he was convinced that no one could do anything about it. Thus, he began to liberally stop time against Jotaro. Thanks to the free time-frame of action granted by The World, DIO has made it possible to instantly reposition himself to avoid attacks or set himself up to attack, kill enemies instantly, or even displace his opponents to toy with them.

DIO has shown a high degree of control over The World, using it to battle Jotaro's Star Platinum to a standstill, but showing superior technique in hand to hand combat by using low kicks to unbalance Star Platinum or feints to out-punch Star Platinum. However, his Vampire constitution means that DIO never showed the same care at using The World defensively at he preferred to avoid being hit at all and regenerate by sucking blood.

Unlike practically every other Stand User, DIO has sought to improve his Stand's capabilities. He notably wanted the Joestar to come to him so that he could suck the blood of a Joestar and sync himself up with Jonathan's body to further improve his time stop ability. Araki indeed stated that DIO had the potential to stop time indefinitely. Moreover, DIO had searched a way to unlock a power even more powerful than The World, using esoteric knowledge to divine a plan to create another mightier Stand.

Joestar Stand
Due to an awakening power within Jonathan Joestar's body, DIO is capable of using a Hermit Purple-like Stand which allows him to create psychic images, be it on photographs or crystal balls. Due to the connection he has between Jonathan's body and his descendants, DIO is also able to sense the presence of other Joestars and can use this to track their position. He is even able to tell when Joseph uses Hermit Purple to take a psychic photograph of him, and instinctively knew that his acquisition of a Stand also awoke Stand abilities in Jonathan's descendants.

Vampiric
Becoming a Vampire as a young adult, Dio displays a broad range of fantastic, supernatural abilities; explained as expressions of the full, unbound potential of the human body.


 * Superhuman Strength: Dio attains massive strength as a Vampire, allowing him feats such as forcibly walking on walls and single-handedly deflecting attacks such as Hierophant Green's Emerald Splash (volleys of substantially-sized emeralds flying at almost bullet speed). After absorbing Joseph's blood he is powerful enough to pick up and drop a steamroller on Jotaro.


 * Superhuman Speed: Dio also possesses superhuman speed and agility. At one point he was described by Speedwagon being faster than a cheetah.


 * Superhuman Senses: Demonstrated when placing his head on the ground to hear Jotaro's heartbeat, despite being a few meters away, Dio appears to have senses beyond human level.


 * Regeneration: Dio can regenerate his body faster than fire can consume it. His incredible vitality is maintained by consuming human beings (or their blood), which he commonly does by piercing them with his fingers. Like all JoJo Vampires, Dio sucks blood through tentacles in his fingers and has been seen at least once drinking blood from an unnamed girl. His body is able to live even after having vital body parts amputated and he can also control his detached body parts. The extent of Dio's own survivability is demonstrated when he could continue as just a head.




 * Space Ripper Stingy Eyes: Dio is able to pressurize bodily liquid in his eyeballs and then create small openings in his pupils, eventually unleashing two fluid jets (referred to by Straizo as "Space Ripper Stingy Eyes" ) powerful enough to slice through stone.


 * DioFreezing.png Vaporization Freezing Technique (気化冷凍法): An ability Dio utilized after learning of the Ripple energy and the danger it presents to him. By vaporizing the moisture in his body, he can absorb heat from any living being he is in physical contact with and freeze them. This ability can be circumvented by Ripple being channeled through items and fire. Dio loses this ability after his original body was destroyed.


 * Fusion: Dio possesses the ability to graft the body parts of different beings together, using this to create half-man half-beast pets. Dio later used this ability to graft his head onto Jonathan's body.


 * Flesh Buds (肉の芽): Introduced in Stardust Crusaders, Dio is able manipulate his hair to create parasites that he can insert into a human's head. The Flesh Bud will pierce through the skull into the part of the brain, making the afflicted compliant to Dio's charisma. As explained by Joseph, the parasite will gradually eat the inflicted's brain. If someone tries to take out the spore, which can prove fatal if it's not carefully removed, the Flesh Bud will sprout tentacles in an attempt to invade the intruder's brain. If the vampire wants, he can give permission to someone to activate the spore's tentacles anytime he wants if close to it. The spores possess another effect in case DIO himself ever dies. According to Keicho Nijimura, his father who was implanted by the spore underwent a mutation into a greenish animalistic form by having DIO's cells inside his body. Presumably, this is a side effect that the rest of the surviving Stand Users that DIO had implanted his spores inside of would suffer from.


 * Hypnosis: This ability was used twice on Jack the Ripper (anime only) and Poco, respectively. In the case of the former, Dio hypnotized Jack to convince him to join as a servant, allowing Dio to drain his blood and turn him into a zombie. Poco was manipulated to lure Jonathan into a trap, though his consciousness returned after being subjected to Jonathan's Ripple.


 * Healing: Dio also seems to possess the ability to heal other people's wounds as he was able to completely cure Pucci's wounded foot by simply touching it. However, the origins of this power remain unknown.

Personal
Intelligence: Dio is naturally intelligent, displaying cunning and perceptiveness as well as imagination repeatedly.

As a child and teenager, Dio Brando managed to achieve academic excellence with ease, having planned to graduate from university as a top law student.

Otherwise Dio is a cunning villain and proficient tactician in combat. Dio almost managed to get away with two murders, bidding his time in order to have a perfect alibi and was only discovered by accident. Upon his return from the bottom of the ocean, DIO built in six years a powerful criminal empire spanning over several continents and which brought him many riches. In a fight, Dio is particularly cunning and perceptive, his ruthlessness making him able to exploit dishonorable and downright inhuman tactics to get ahead, such as leading his enemies into a trap, using hapless civilians as projectiles and sources of energy, or plain sneak attacks. Dio has the habit of analyzing his opponents and determine quickly a counter to their strengths, such as freezing blood in order to stop the flow of the Ripple, or forcing Jotaro's bluff by throwing multiple knives from all direction so that he's forced to act during the stopped time.

Naturally ambitious, Dio constantly seeks to improve himself and meticulously studies his abilities to make the most of them. As such, he developed a freezing power akin to the Pillar Men's Modes in just a month, and in six years, discovered enough about Stands to be able to fuse several together with souls in order to create the ultimate Stand. Arguably his most successful move, Dio experimented on how his vampiric powers allowed him to fuse two organisms together, and used that knowledge to steal Jonathan's body.

Though he doesn't show it often, Dio has become a natural philosopher, arguing about the human condition with multiple people.

Toughness: All prior to becoming a Vampire, Dio was already an able bare-handed fighter; A skill he says he developed in the slums of London. A good amateur sportsman, during a rugby game as a young adult, he is shown to have developed high athletic ability (as well as fantastic muscle mass).

Charisma: Dio is a cunning and charming individual. In addition to Stand Users, whom Avdol and Joseph suggest he recruits through sheer charm or charisma, he has seduced many women through his life.

Knowledge: Throughout both his humble youth and tempestuous maturity, Dio is often seen reading. During his pre-teens, he is seen playing chess with adults. In Part 6, in conversation with Enrico Pucci, he is shown to have accumulated some wisdom within the world of Stands. Importantly, Dio is able to concoct a plan, contained in his diary, incorporating vast, unknown information as to the deliberate creation of Stands of perfectly specific abilities.

Spiritual Connection: After stealing Jonathan's body, DIO began to share a spiritual connection with Jonathan's living descendants. He notably was instinctively aware of their presence and their well-being, allowing him to track them across Cairo. Joseph mentions that DIO probably cannot distinguish between him and Jotaro, and only feel their presence.

Weaknesses

 * Vampiric Body: All of this, however, is at the expense of having a body sustained by sheer willpower alone, rather than vital energy. A sufficiently powerful force of vitality - specifically sunlight or the Ripple - will negate the sustaining force's presence and disintegrate the long-unliving body.


 * Jonathan's Body (former): When he first acquired Jonathan Joestar's body and resurfaced from the ocean, he was unable to use the full power of his Stand, and had to acquire blood from a live Joestar to compensate and fully synchronize. Once this weakness was negated, he managed to grow significantly stronger, as did his Stand.

Family

 * Dario Brando: Dio hated his father and saw Dario only as a stepping stone in his path to ascend in society. Dio's hatred stems from the abuse Dario dealt Dio's mother with his alcoholism, as well as Dio himself, to the point where he secretly poisoned to death and tricked Dario into thinking he was sick. He emphasizes this by spitting on his father's grave before leaving for the Joestar mansion.
 * 🇺🇳: Though she isn't seen interacting with him, it's very clear that Dio loved his mother deeply, and the abuse she was dealt by his father was one of the reasons Dio slowly and painfully killed Dario.
 * Giorno Giovanna: DIO is not shown to have interacted with his son, Giorno, although Giorno keeps a photo of him in his wallet. It is unknown where Giorno got it from or if he knows of the kind of person his father was. Also of note is that DIO would drain Giorno's mother of her blood, had he not been killed himself by Jotaro.
 * Ungalo, Donatello Versus, and Rikiel: Similar to Giorno's case, the mothers of all three men were left alive. However, none of them inherited Jonathan's spirit. All three only learned of their true father's identity after their fated encounter with Pucci.

Allies

 * Enrico Pucci: DIO's encounter with Pucci is presumably the most prominent example of humanity displayed by him, having healed Pucci's foot when they first meet. Through the time he spends with Pucci, DIO comes to trust him enough to allow Pucci to inherit control of his plan. At one point, DIO forced Pucci's hand into his head and nearly had his Stand DISC removed to test Pucci's loyalty to him.
 * Vanilla Ice: While the former is fanatically loyal to his cause, even willing to chop off his head to prove his worth, DIO annoyingly notes that Vanilla Ice often forgets about the doors after he uses his Stand, Cream, to travel via making a hole in the wall. Still DIO highly respected Ice's abilities, refusing to use the blood of someone of his caliber to heal himself.
 * Wang Chan: While at first a provider of his secret oriental poison that was crucial in killing Dario and attempting to kill George, after becoming a vampire, Dio used him as a scout and aide once his head is chopped off. Despite his dependence on Wang Chan, Dio doesn't take his insults to Jonathan lightly and threatens him for it.
 * Pet Shop: While not much is known about their relationship, DIO personally selected Pet Shop as the guardian of his temple while he was in Egypt.
 * Enya the Hag: Enya was one of DIO's most loyal followers and supporters. Despite her loyalty, DIO secretly implanted her with a flesh bud to insure her secrecy.
 * N'Doul: DIO was the first person to see N'Doul's worth which caused N'Doul to admire DIO. N'Doul was so loyal to DIO, that he killed himself in order to prevent himself from leaking valuable information.
 * Johngalli A: While there is no on-screen interaction between them, Johngalli was highly loyal to DIO, as shown when he framed Jolyne for murder and attempted to kill her and Jotaro to avenge him.

Enemies

 * Jonathan Joestar: One of the most impactful relationships Dio ever had was with his adoptive brother, Jonathan Joestar. He initially viewed his adoptive brother as a stepping stone and pest to be driven to despair and abused in order to gain the Joestar family fortune. After being beaten once, he viewed him as more of a threat, feigning brotherly bonds in public, while secretly poisoning George Joestar in order to get his fortune quicker. He intended to kill Jonathan with the Stone Mask, but upon discovering the hidden power to unlock the vampire powers of man, he decided to use it on himself in order to become one. After another failed attempt to kill his adopted brother, due to his ego, Dio decides to have others face him rather than turn Jonathan into a zombie himself. After being bested by Jonathan, he quickly changes his mind, only to be thwarted once again. In their final confrontation, Dio admits he respects Jonathan (to the point of scolding Wang Chan for taunting him) and is genuinely shocked when Jonathan dies. Dio would use Jonathan's body as a host, defining the destiny between him and the Joestar Family for centuries to come.
 * Will Anthonio Zeppeli: Due to Dio having used the Stone Mask and becoming a Vampire, Zeppeli immediately viewed Dio as an enemy once he learned about the incident at the Joestar Mansion and due to his own father using the same mask to become a Vampire himself. Dio himself is dismissive of Zeppeli's hatred towards his vampiric ways and connection to the Stone Mask, only viewing Zeppeli's mastery of the unfamiliar Ripple as nothing more than magic tricks.
 * Robert E. O. Speedwagon: After hearing from Jonathan what Dio was doing to George Joestar I, Speedwagon decided to help with finding the man that sold Dio the poison. Dio openly declares that after killing Jonathan, he would dispose of Speedwagon as well for being involved. After everything that had happened at the Joestar Mansion, Speedwagon went along with Jonathan and Zeppeli to defeat Dio, knowing that he was too dangerous now as a vampire to be left running around.
 * George Joestar: While George has always treated Dio with kindness and respect, Dio only saw George as a stepping stone in his quest for wealth. Thus, Dio feigned being the perfect ward to George, and even called him father despite having no such views.
 * Dire, Straizo, and Tonpetty: Being Ripple Warriors, the three knew the dangers of the Stone Mask and viewed Dio as an enemy because of his use of it. Out of the three of them, Dire was the one who really wanted to defeat Dio on his own, due to having been a friend of Zeppeli's for many years and Dio having a role in his death. At the time, Straizo knew that defeating Dio was important; however, many years later, he would admit to the older Speedwagon that he was envious of Dio due to the fact he would never age while Straizo would. This envy became so much that he would later use the Stone Mask on himself just so he could become young again.
 * Joseph Joestar: DIO needed Joseph in order to complete the merger of his head with Jonathan's body, secretly manipulating his minions to bring him closer and closer in order to drain his blood. Joseph had heard stories of Dio from Erina when he was small and knew of the danger he would bring. His hatred for DIO intensified, however, when he learnt that he had stolen the body of his grandfather, Jonathan Joestar, to use as his own. This hatred got to the breaking point when DIO's very existence threatened the life of Joseph's daughter Holy. Figuring out that since DIO was the cause of all the Stands in the Joestar family activating, it was more than likely that killing him would save Holy. That plan in mind, Joseph, along with his grandson Jotaro, his old friend Muhammad Avdol, and new ally Noriaki Kakyoin, decide to go to Egypt where DIO had gone to hide, and kill him.
 * Noriaki Kakyoin: Having met DIO on a holiday in Egypt with his family and then put under his control with a Flesh Bud, Kakyoin was loyal to him and would do anything he wanted. However, upon having the bud removed by Jotaro and seeing the harm DIO was causing towards the innocent Holy Kujo, who had shown him kindness as he was recovering at the Kujo residence, Kakyoin decided to go with Joseph, Jotaro, and Avdol to Egypt to defeat DIO.
 * Jean Pierre Polnareff: Like Kakyoin, he too met DIO and was placed under his control. After having the Flesh Bud removed by Jotaro, Polnareff decided to join the team, though at first for his own goals, as Polnareff theorized that DIO would know where his killer would be. Even after he avenged her sister's death, Polnareff chose to stay with the group to defeat DIO. After the deaths of both Avdol and Iggy, Polnareff vowed to defeat DIO no matter what.
 * Muhammad Avdol: Unlike Kakyoin and Polnareff, Avdol recognized who DIO was upon meeting him, due to having heard about DIO from Joseph. As such, Avdol knew the man was an enemy immediately and managed to escape from him before he could be put under his control. With DIO threatening Holy's life due to him activating all the Stands in the Joestar bloodline, Avdol, along with Jotaro, Joseph, and Kakyoin decided to journey to Egypt to defeat Dio.
 * Iggy: Iggy was dragged against his will into joining the Joestar Group in Egypt, and as such didn't care about DIO or what was happening, being more concerned about himself. After his fight with Pet Shop though, he decided to help the group defeat DIO, as it was because of him that Iggy was brought to Egypt and put through so much trouble in the first place. In the end, DIO and Iggy never personally encounter one another, as Iggy dies protecting Polnareff during his fight with Vanilla Ice.
 * Jotaro Kujo: DIO viewed Jotaro as much of a threat as Jonathan was, if not more, going to extremes to outwit and ensure his death. While Jonathan was an opponent DIO respected, Jotaro was an opponent DIO feared. Jotaro on the other hand, despite being able to hide his emotions from other people, was secretly worried about his mother's failing health caused by her Stand and wanted to defeat DIO as quickly as possible, as her Stand was caused by DIO activating all the Stands in the Joestar bloodline at the same time. After DIO had apparently killed his grandfather Joseph right in front of him, Jotaro's hatred for DIO intensified to where, for the first time, Jotaro was visibly enraged and acted on anger. After a long and grueling fight with the vampire, Jotaro finally managed to outwit and kill DIO.

Relationships in Over Heaven
(The information below derives from a Video Game not written by Araki. As such, it may not be considered canon.)


 * Daniel J. and Telence T. D'Arby: DIO saw the D'Arby brothers as important tools to enter into heaven. While he believed their souls were too impure to enter themselves, he acknowledged their ability to manipulate souls as useful for his own ascension.
 * Enya the Hag: While the novel doesn't add too much to their relationship, DIO states that he would've considered letting her bear his child if she was younger.
 * Dario Brando: While their relationship is about as negative as it is in the manga, it is revealed that he hated his father for allowing him to enter the Joestar Mansion because he thought that one act of kindness allowed Dario to get into heaven and one of the reasons he wanted to get into heaven was to kill his father again.
 * Dio's Mother: In the novel it is revealed that his mother taught him everything he knew about the world. While Dio is unsure if heaven really exists, he believes that her death saved her from her living hell of a life. It is revealed that the words in his diary are from a nursery song she sung him.
 * Unborn Sibling: It is revealed that Dio's mother was pregnant with an unborn sibling but ended up miscarrying him/her.
 * Erina Pendleton: DIO respects Erina's strength and in someways saw her as a bigger threat than Jonathan. DIO theorizes that Erina Joestar placed both him, herself, and the infant Lisa-Lisa in the casket on the boat where Jonathan died in order to escape the boat's explosion. DIO at first believes that Erina did this in hope DIO may return some day as a better man with Jonathan's body. He quickly dismisses the idea, stating that if it was the case that Erina reminded him of his mother.

Quotes
Part 1=

Part 3=

Part 6=

Trivia

 * Dio's name is derived from the Italian word for "God", befitting his megalomaniac personality and his project to create a new world for him and his subordinates as implied in Stone Ocean. His Heaven Acension DIO form also fits as well due to warping reality to his liking.
 * The style of Dio's name in Part 1 is written normally, whereas DIO's name in Part 3 onward is written in English and completely capitalized.
 * Despite this, Giorno's picture of him has "Dio Brando" imprinted on it, even though his original name would have been long forgotten by then.
 * The trick DIO used on Hol Horse by instantly going through spider webs without damaging them is likely a reference to Bela Lugosi's first scenes in Dracula (1931).
 * The bridge Jotaro defeats DIO on is the, which connects downtown to  and the  district. Its coordinates are 30.043747°N 31.229464°E.
 * In Araki's top Ten Favourite Characters in 2000, DIO ranked as 10th, being the third main villain in the countdown.
 * Dio and Diego's themes in Eyes Of Heaven are remixes of each other. This is true for both Dio Brando and Scary Monsters Diego, as well as DIO and Alternate Diego.This makes sense as Diego is the reboot of sorts counterpart of Dio.
 * Araki considers Dio to be 'the true protagonist' of Phantom Blood. Araki developed Dio's character design before Jonathan. Dio also 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 was developed with this in mind. After him, Jonathan Joestar of 'light' was designed to counter Dio's 'darkness'.
 * In a spring 2018 interview with Shueisha's Kotoba magazine, Araki describes how had influenced his work back when it premiered. He mentions Dio's blond hair and muscular build in particular as being influenced by the Blade Runner character, Roy Batty.
 * Dio is stated to be by Araki in a 2007 interview.

In Popular Culture

 * Zephyr, one of the bosses in the video game Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow as well as Portrait of Ruin, pays homage to Dio Brando. Besides a habit of bending over backwards, he has the ability to throw knives, as well as freeze time with a shout of Toki yo Tomare!!! ("Stop, O time!", translated to "Time, be still!" in the English dub of Portrait of Ruin, where Zephyr appears as a bonus boss.). He also faces the protagonist in a clock tower, a reference to Dio Brando's fight with Joseph Joestar and Kakyoin in the first half of the Dio's World story arc.
 * Sakuya Izayoi from the Touhou Project series is likely an homage to Dio. She is not a vampire, but the servant of Remilia Scarlet, who is a vampire. Her main power is manipulation of time - usually demonstrated by stopping it completely. She attacks by throwing knives as well. Some of her spell cards involve stopping time and making many knives appear around the player, and one of these cards is even named Illusion World "The World". In the fighting game spin-offs, she has many time-stopping special moves, one of which is called "Sakuya's World", which acts in the same way as Dio's time stop move in the JoJo fighting game.
 * Ironically, Miyuki Sawashiro, who voiced Sakuya in the Koumajou Densetsu II fangame, voices Jolyne Cujoh along with seiyuu Ryou Hirohashi as Reimi Sugimoto and Eri Kitamura as Yasuho Hirose (who voiced in the same fangame Touhou characters Youmu Konpaku and Remilia Scarlet respectively) all in All Star Battle, with Youmu herself being a possible reference to Jean Pierre Polnareff. Meanwhile, in the anime of Part 4, Reimu Hakurei's voice actress in the same fangame, Rina Satou, also voices Hayato Kawajiri.


 * The characters Robo-Ky and Justice from the 2D fighter series Guilty Gear both make references to Dio's 'The World'- Robo-Ky in the form of the "Muda" battlecry with a barrage of punches in one of his Overdrive attacks (though he says "Dame"; lit. "No Good" instead), and Justice in the form of a "WRYYYYYYYYY"-like battlecry and pose in both her victory poses and her most powerful Overdrive attack, Gamma Ray.
 * Furthermore, Dio's current seiyuu, Takehito Koyasu, also voices Zato-1/Eddie in this game, a necessary change after the death of Eddie/Zato-1's original voice actor, Kaneto Shiozawa.


 * In the online game, Erepublik, Dio Brando (in the form of DIO) is featured as a God Emperor of his own religion in Pakistan, referred to as "Dioism", as well as the President of a political party named the "Stardust Crusaders". Among other things within the game, Dio is also a Nobel Peace Prize recipient.
 * In the NBC drama, Heroes, a fictional Japanese salaryman named is a fan of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. As well as the references detailed in Jotaro's page, a scene in Volume 2 has Hiro freeze time to steal the swords of a group of samurai. Although subtitled along the lines of "That was a bad idea", Hiro taunts the samurai by saying "Muda, muda, muda!!", DIO's battlecry from Stardust Crusaders.
 * In the popular pixal avatar site Gaia online, there are obtainable item series known as the "RIO Star" series. These items show resemblances to Dio's outfit in Stardust Crusaders. There are also "Back/Tails" accessories that are called "K.O. Star (Za Warudo)" and "K.O. Star (Time Stop)" which is obviously a reference to Dio's stand, The World (Za Warudo).
 * Cheria Barnes from Tales of Graces has a fighting style based on Part 3 DIO's abilities. She attacks using throwing knives as well as stopping Time. However her main focus is to heal the rest of the party, in the story this is done by touching the effected area, much like how Dio healed Pucci's disfigured foot.
 * Peacock, a playable character from , is able to make a steamroller fall on her opponents like Dio in fighting games. If the hit connects, the little fellow Avery has the same behavior and pummels the steamroller until it explodes as seen in this video. Valentine, another playable character, throws scalpels like Dio throws knifes. By setting up Valentine's scalpel throw as an assist move, and with good timing and luck getting the steam roller, it's possible to recreate the Road-roller combo from HftF since time freezes during the roller drop. The character Big Band can also turn his special move Super-Sonic Jazz into a flurry of punches similar to a Stand rush while crying "TUBATUBATUBATUBA!", a reference to Dio's own warcry.

WRYYYYY
"WRYYYYY!" (ウリイイイイイ, Uriiiii. Also pronounced Ree) is a shriek/war cry given off by vampires throughout JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. It is used to represent the frozen, possibly slowed and heavy breath of vampires, and frequently cued to strike fear into their opponents and/or the reader/viewer. While all vampires in the series are prone to doing so, this noise is most commonly associated with Dio Brando himself.

A resurgence of popular interest in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure occurred when "WRYYYYY!" began making the rounds as an Internet phenomenon on Futaba Channel imageboards. Sparked by a Flash movie called "Mudah.swf" which features stick figures performing the signature attacks of five different characters from Parts 3 and 5 of the series (This was due to the fact that only series 3 and 5 had games at the time). Dio Brando's clip features his use of The World (often pronounced intentionally as "Za Wārudo", to mimic how Dio pronounces it in Japanese) to freeze time, throwing a barrage of knives, and finishing his dying opponent off by dropping a steamroller on him, atop which he leans back and exclaims "WRYYYYY!". This proved hilariously random to those unfamiliar with JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. Another phrase popularized by the animation is "Muda!" (which translates to "useless" or "futile" in Japanese) which is Dio's (not to mention The World's) battle cry.

The recent English publication of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure (which begins at the start of the third arc) uses the spelling "WREEEEE!", which reinforces the proper pronunciation (at the cost of obscuring the connection to the Internet fad, however given the rather offensive nature of 4chan, where the meme was most popular, it is possible that it was a deliberate act of distancing itself from the fad and 4chan).

In All Star Battle, and the anime, Dio does the noise with his own voice naturally as a violent scream, as opposed to the Capcom game making use of a voice synthesizer for extra shrieking effects.

As Giorno, Dio's son, uses "WRYYYYY!" during one of his fights, it is possible that the battle cry may be hereditary, since Giorno is not a vampire (but still may be a half-vampire). Another instance which supports this idea is when Dio's Steel Ball Run counterpart Diego also uses the WRYYYYY battle cry, during his battle against Valentine.

The World and Time Stop
As evidenced above, Dio's enunciation of his Stand and its power has also reached significant popularity, the full line in question being: THE WORLD, Time, stop! (! 時よ止まれ!). However it is a common misconception that the original Japanese of the line is Toki wo Tomare (時を止まれ) which is grammatically awkward as it would translate as "to stop time." The original line gives the impression that Dio is commanding time to stop.

The line is later followed by: Time resumes. (時は動き出す) But most well known version is And now, Time resumes (そして、時は動き出す) from Heritage for the Future.

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