Dio Brando

Dio Brando (later known as just DIO,) is the main antagonist of both Phantom Blood and Stardust Crusaders. His influence is felt through all of the first six parts. He is the first antagonist of the series. He acts as the final boss in both of the parts that he antagonizes in.

He was born into poverty in the late 1800s England to Dario Brando and an unnamed woman. Dio and his mother were abused by his father, and Dario's intense drinking lead to Dio's mother's untimely death. Dio blamed his father for her dying, and when he turned 13 years old, slowly poisoned his father to death. Not before discovering that his father had a due to be payed from a man who he apparently saved his life 12 years ago, and getting that debt repaid by being adopted by them. Dio was taken in by the Joestar family with open and loving arms, but Dio himself had no intent to become family with them, as his primary objective was to obtain the large Joestar fortune when he became of age. Dio became friendly with the Joestars for 7 years, becoming like a brother to Jonathan Joestar, before he began his plot to steal the Joestar fortune by slowly poisoning his adopted father, as he did to Dario before him. Eventually Jonathan catches onto this and attempts to stop him, and Dio makes a make-shift plan to dispose of Jonathan quickly by destroying him with an ancient Stone Mask. He accidentally uses this Stone Mask on himself, turning him into a bloodthirsty immortal vampire. Dio and Jonathan become opposed to each other, as Dio makes it his true mission to take over the world with an army of undead zombies. Eventually he is stopped by Jonathan, and the two of them seemingly perish in a ship explosion.

Dio actually survives this explosion, and steals the dead body of Jonathan Joestar from the neck down that they may become one, he and his arch rival. In his escape from the ship he hides inside an indestructible coffin, but is trapped in it at the bottom of the sea for 100 years. 100 years later he is discovered by a fishing ship and is released onto the surface world again. He is soon discovered by Enya the Hag, who recognizes his ultimate potential, and stabs him with a Stand Arrow, giving him the power to stop time with The World. Because of his awakening a Stand, Jonathan Joestar's descendants, whom DIO now shares a psychic bond with, awakened a Stand, and they make it their mission to find and defeat DIO before one of these new Stands kills Holly Kujo. DIO is eventually tracked down by Jonathan's descendants and he is defeated by Jotaro Kujo and his Stand Star Platinum.

Dio is the father of Giorno Giovanna, the protagonist of Vento Aureo, as well as several other illegitimate children. Three of them that are known are Ungalo, Rykiel, and Donatello Versus.

Dio wields the ability to stop time with his Stand The World.

Appearance
Dio is a tall bulging man with long blond hair. On his right ear he has three tiny black birthmarks.

His outfit in Part 1 is a maroon coat over a white shirt. He wears a leather chest piece with a purple scarf and knee-high leather boots.

In Part 3, now in possession of Jonathan Joestar's body from the neck down, he wears a green headband under his hair, and has a yellow jacket over a black tight-fitting tank top. He has yellow pants and gold pointed shoes, and over the rest of his outfit are many different green heart designs. He has a star shaped birthmark on his left shoulder.

Occasional Appearances
In Dio the Invader, he appears as a 12 year old boy. His hair is much shorter than his usual appearance and he wears a suit and tie.

In Dio the Invader, also as a young boy while boxing, he wears pants with a black t-shirt and blue boxing gloves.

In Dio the Invader, aged up 7 years, he is much more bulky, and wears a white and green striped collared shirt.

In A Letter From the Past he wears a large coat with feathers on it, and the Stone Mask when he first transforms into a vampire.

In The Final Ripple! Dio is nothing more than a head in a glass case.

In A Man Possessed by an Evil Spirit DIO is seen in the shadows without a shirt on, showing his star birth mark.

In The Faraway Journey, Farewell Friends DIO is now empowered with the blood of Joseph Joestar and loses his jacket. His hair spikes up and he now wears black lipstick.

In The Nijimura Brothers, Part 3 DIO is seen in a flashback. His appearance is the same as that in Part 3.

In Time For Heaven DIO is shown in a flashback meeting Enrico Pucci for the first time. He wears a black tank top with a tattered collar.

History
TBA

schtealing

The Stone Mask
After being pierced by the Stone Mask, Dio becomes a vampire. With these powers he becomes immortal and is able to do a fair sum of other abilities such as:


 * Sting Ripper Laser Eyes: Shooting lasers out of his eyes that span for miles and miles and can rip through just about anything.
 * Chimera creation: The ability to fuse two creatures together to become chimeras
 * Vampire/Zombie creation: The ability to turn humans or animals into zombies or fellow vampires.
 * Cryokinesis: The ability to freeze the air of his surroundings, essentially being able to make ice.

The World
With his Stand, The World, he is able to stop time for several seconds. His longest time stop is 13 seconds long.

Age
Dio is 21 in part 1, and before that he was 13. As of part 3 he was 123 years old.

Part 1: Phantom Blood

 * Episode 1: Dio the Invader
 * Episode 2: A Letter from the Past
 * Episode 3: Youth with Dio
 * Episode 4: Overdrive
 * Episode 5: The Dark Knights
 * Episode 7: The Successor
 * Episode 8: Bloody Battle! JoJo & Dio
 * Episode 9: The Final Ripple!

Part 2: Battle Tendency

 * Episode 10: JoJo of New York (flashback)
 * Episode 11: Master of the Game (mentioned)
 * Episode 21: A Hundred Against Two (flashback)
 * Episode 24: The Bond That Binds JoJo (flashback)
 * Episode 26: The Man Who Became a God (mentioned)

Part 4: Diamond is Unbreakable

 * Episode 3: The Nijimura Brothers, Part 1 (mentioned)
 * Episode 5: The Nijimura Brothers, Part 3 (flashback)
 * Episode 25: Atom Heart Father (flashback)

Part 5: Golden Wind

 * Episode 1: Gold Experience (flashback)
 * Episode 2: Bucciarati Is Coming (flashback)
 * Episode 33: His Name Is Diavolo (mentioned)

Trivia

 * The word "Dio" in Italian means "God."
 * This is ironic that his son Giorno battles with a character named Diavolo, who's name in Italian means "devil."
 * Dio has two alternate universe counterparts in the Steel Ball Run universe, both representing the two parts that he is physically featured in, Parts 1 and 3.
 * Diego Brando represents Dio pre-Stand, as both were born Standless and have a rivalry with Jonathan/Johnny Joestar.
 * Alternate Diego Brando represents DIO because they both share the same Stand, The World.
 * Dio's plan of achieving "Heaven" (which is outlined in his diary that Jotaro is retconned to have discovered after his defeat,) has been foreshadowed since at least Part 4, as it is stated then that DIO was apparently "searching for a specific type of Stand," we later find out that this Stand was Made in Heaven.