Diego Brando

Diego Brando, most commonly known as Dio, is the secondary antagonist of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Steel Ball Run.
He is the alternate universe counterpart of the Dio Brando, and a genius racer from England. After his mother died due to terrible treatment while working in a hellish Victorian England, he bitterly vowed to achieve the top place in society and take vengeance on the father who abandoned him; the Steel Ball Run race is the next stepping stone towards that goal.
After grabbing a hold of one of the Corpse's eyes, he eventually gains Scary Monsters as a Stand, which allows him to turn himself and the living beings he touches into dinosaurs and fossils. It's named after Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps) by David Bowie. His horse is named "Silver Bullet" after the band.
He was voiced by Takehito Koyasu in the video games Jojo's Bizarre Adventures: Eyes of Heaven and Jojo's Bizarre Adventures: All Star Battle R, who also voiced both his Original Universe and Alternate Counterparts in the same games and anime.
==History ==
Diego was born in England sometime in 1870 to parents that were very poor and not prepared to support their newborn child. Diego's father convinced his wife to quietly dispose of the baby with him by burying it alive near a riverbank, but due to the heavy rainfall at the time, the earth gave way and Diego was washed into the nearby river. Diego's mother was overcome with guilt after hearing her son's cries for help and jumped into the fast flowing currents to save him, whilst Diego's father, Dario, stood by. After escaping from the river much further down, Diego's mother, having been abandoned by her husband for her second thoughts, was forced to fend for herself and her son. She changed the pair's last name to "Brando" and was luckily able to secure a job as a hand on a nearby farm. While growing up on the farm, Diego discovered a rare talent for understanding and handling horses. Even though he was a very young child, large horses that were believed to be untamable would allow themselves to be led by him.
One day, around five years into their stay on the farm, the man that had originally arranged his mother's employment demanded sexual favors from her, but she refused. The man appeared to give up and left her alone, only for it to be revealed later that he had sabotaged the Brandos' ability to eat by smashing holes in the bottom of their food bowls as punishment. When it came to meal time, in the hall where the farm hands would receive their stew ration from a pot, the man happened to be the one serving and coyly refused to serve the pair without intact bowls. Diego suggested that they could use their shoes instead, but his mother refused to discard what little dignity they had left, telling Diego that eating out of shoes due to lack of proper dishes was unacceptable. Diego understood and said that he would go hungry instead, but his mother eventually relented and told the man to pour the boiling hot stew into her hands so that she could feed her son. Diego's mother stood there while Diego ate as quickly as he could, but she suffered severe burns to her hands regardless. Over the course of about a year, his mother's wounds became infected with tetanus, which resulted in her death soon after. Just before she died, she told a then 6-year-old Diego to use his talent with horses to rise from the pit of poverty they had been trapped in.
Diego took his mother's final words to heart, and as a result, he developed a strong sense of pride. He grew up resenting everyone who abandoned him and his mother, swearing to get revenge against all those who turned a blind eye to their plight. Over the following years, Diego worked as a handler at horse races until he was old enough to become an actual jockey himself, after which his natural talents allowed him to quickly rise to the top of the British equestrian world and active the notoriety he had been longing for.
Diego had met Johnny Joestar indirectly during these horse races, prior to their formal meeting during the Steel Ball Run race, even as far back as in their early teens when he was just still just a handler. Diego was present during the day of Johnny's brother's accident, being the one to lead out the very horse that Nicholas rode and later died on. It is mentioned that after Johnny and Diego became jockeys, any race the two happened to be in together would always result in Johnny being second best, a point Johnny's father would often berate his son for. However, despite their history together, it is implied in their conversations during the Steel Ball Run that they had not spoken much face-to-face before, if at all.
==Personality==
Although once a kind and demure child, Diego grew up to be cold natured and distrusting due to his poor upbringing. At age five, witnessing his mother sacrificing her hands so that he could be fed, Diego developed a resentment of everyone around him for allowing that terrible incident to happen, along with an insatiable ambition.
Yet unlike the original Dio, Diego is portrayed as a sinister yet still tragic figure wanting to have his existence acknowledged. He doesn't go out of his way to wreck evil and harm others unless he's antagonized first. During his fights with Gyro and Johnny, he has a tendency to warn the two of them to back off before he gets serious rather than just outright attack them, and it's made clear that his bitter attitude is a manifestation of his dark and troubled past rather than being genuinely evil like the original Dio was. He is even shown to express remorse and guilt at his more unsavory actions (such as sacrificing Wekapipo) and is capable of looking out for other people's well being, as shown when he protects and advises Hot Pants in their fight against Funny Valentine.
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