Dio Brando

**Dio Brando** is a male villain that features in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure.

## Biography

### Phantom Blood

Dio Brando was the blonde haired male offspring of Dario Brando and an unnamed mother who faced constant abuse from her alcoholic husband. Similarly, Dio suffered from his abusive father and secretly despised him in part for causing such pain to his mother. By his teenage years, he was secretly poisoning his father in order to hasten his demise. On Dario's deathbed, his father told Dio that twelve years prior he had saved the life of a rich man named George Joestar. Joestar told Dario that his son was welcome to the Joestar estate in the future in gratitude for his actions. However, Dario told his son Dio that he could use his wits and wiles in order to usurp the estate for himself in order to become wealthy. After Dario's death, he was buried in a cemetery with Dio making his way to the home of the Joestars in order to conduct his secret plan. He arrived at the Joestar estate where he was welcomed by George Joestar who introduced him to his own son Jonathan Joestar. Dio Brando was adopted as a member of the Joestar family but he secretly began to undermine Jonathan Joestar at every opportunity in order to establish dominance in the household. This was because he intended to shatter his adoptive brother's spirit and place himself as the favored son of the family. The height of this conflict came to a pass when Brando learnt that Jonathan had feelings for Lady Erina Pendleworth with Dio attempting to drive a wedge between them by forcibly kissing her. Upon learning of his actions, Jonathan confronted his adoptive brother with Dio intending to break his will but Joestar managed to wound Brando with a punch causing him to bleed. Dio was prepared to use a knife against Jonathan when George Joestar broke the fight and had the two sent to their respective rooms. However, the angry Brando desired revenge and he arranged for events that saw Jonathan's beloved dog being put in a furnace leading to the family pet being killed. Years later, the two grew to adulthood with no apparent strife between the adoptive brothers though Dio still secretly despised the Joestars. By this point, he had intended to snatch the family fortune by slowly and secretly poisoning George Joestar. However, his plan was discovered by Jonathan when he accidently found a letter to Dio from his father Dario Brando that showed he had suffered from a condition similar to his own father George Joestar. Jonathan confronted Dio who attempted to knock his adoptive brother out but failed and was warned by Joestar that he intended to investigate the truth of George Joestars ailment. Whilst Jonathan was away, Dio sought to find a means of eliminating the threat of discovery by sending hired thugs to kill him and Brando decided to turn to the Stone Mask. After taking it from Jonathan's room, he decided to test it after finding out that it reacted to blood. He used it on a person who was transformed into a vampire as a result with the undead being nearly killing Dio until the creature was killed by exposure to the rising sun. An intrigued Dio returned home only to discover that Jonathan Joestar had survived and found a cure for the poison that he had been using against George Joestar. The police was present and ready to apprehend Dio Brando who seemed to want to repent to Jonathan for his actions but had used the opportunity to get close in order to murder his adoptive brother. He brandishing a blade to stab him but George Joestar went into its path and was fatally wounded. With the blood, Dio placed it onto the Stone Mask and was transformed into a vampire when he was shot by the police.

As a result of the transformation, Dio was not killed but simply rose up once more where he brutally killed the police officers. He then turned his attention to his adoptive brother Jonathan with him easily managing to overpower him. Jonathan led Dio deeper into the house where he had a fire started and intended to throw Brando into the flames. Initially, Dio managed to escape but Jonathan forced a metal spear to pin Brando into the flames seemingly killing him with his body being burnt away to a skeleton. Joestar survived though was badly wounded with the fires on the household dying down leaving it in a ruin with everyone believing Brando had died. However, he had survived in the wreckage when Wang Chan arrived at the scene a few days later in order to pilfer any attempts to sell for profit. Dio resurfaced and attacked Chan to drain him of blood to restore his own life with Brando vowing revenge against Jonathan. Afterwards, his body had burns across it but Dio had begun to secure a powerbase for himself with him turning Wang Chan into a vampire with the two looking to transform others into minions. During this time, they turned the likes of Jack the Ripper Bruford, Tarkus, Page, Jones, Plant and Bonham along with a number of others into underlings. By this point, William Anthonio Zeppeli had learnt that Dio was still alive and sought out Jonathan Joestar where he trained him in the use of Ripple (Harmon) where along with Robert E. O. Speedwagon they sought to stop Brando. They encountered Dio with Zeppelli attempting to use the Ripple to destroy the vampire but such was his power by this point that he easily defeated his foe by using his freezing powers to stop the Ripple energy from hurting him. It was only the intervention of Jonathan that Zeppelli was spared from death but Brando departed to leave his underlings Tarkus and Page to fight them. Dio had then moved to his base which was a castle where he had a young woman kidnapped and intended her to submit to him. When she refused, he turned her into a vampire and forced her to kill her own child as punishment for denying him. Jonathan along with his allies later arrived at the castle with them intending to destroy Dio but had to contend with his army of followers. Brando managed to easily defeat the skilled Ripple users through the user of his abilities leading to a battle with Jonathan himself. Joestar despite being wounded managed to ultimately use the Ripple in conjunction with other weapons to penetrate the icy barrier Dio had used to shield himself from its effects. This led to a damaging strike that hit Dio's body causing it to slowly destroy his lower body. With his body over the castle ledge, Dio's form began to slowly disintegrate from the Ripple energy but he defied this death as he used his power to sever his head from the rest of his body. As such, his body was destroyed but his head managed to survive as it landed on the ground where it was recovered by his servant Wang Chan who took his master to safety. The pair remained in hiding whilst their enemies came to believe that Dio Brando had been slain. Dio's head was placed in a glass container to protect it whilst he plotted his return with him deciding to usurp Jonathan's body for himself. Thus, Wang Chan arranged for the two of them to be hidden onboard a ship on 2nd February 1889 that was taking people to America which also had Jonathan with his bride Erina Joestar. Wang Chan was ordered to only transform one of the ships occupants into a zombie whereupon his creature turned the rest of the crew. It was then that Wang Chan allowed himself to be seen by Joestar who pursued him which led to a confrontation with Dio.

With the ship on fire, Dio decided to strike and launched himself at his 'brother' in order to claim his body as his own. However, Jonathan managed to grab hold of the head and held it close to him. The dying Jonathan intended to perish and take his adoptive brother with him whilst his wife Erina Joestar escaped. The desperate Dio was unable to break free and pleaded with Jonathan to free him where he offered the world to him to rule side by side. Despite his pleas, Jonathan had died with the embrace keeping Dio trapped as the ship was engulfed by flames. However, Dio Brando did not die but had managed to to take possession over the dead Jonathan Joestars body. He had managed to place his own severed head onto Jonathan's body after which he went into the reinforced coffin as the ship sank. Within a hidden compartment in the coffin, Dio managed to survive for the next century but was trapped within the container that sat at the bottom of the ocean.

### Stardust Crusaders

Many years later, a salvage ship was looking for treasure in order for the crew to get rich with them checking for anything beneath the ocean. Their activities led them to finding the a coffin from a ship that had set sunk on its journey to America. The crew looked at the ornate coffin believing that perhaps there were treasures within it and decided to open it. Unknown to them, the coffin contained the still living Dio Brando whose head had taken over his adoptive brother Jonathan Joestars body. He killed the crew and escaped for the mainland with him having lost some of his vampiric powers but still possessing a vulnerability to sunlight. At some point, he encountered he encountered the woman **Enya** the Hag who became a trusted follower of Dio. She was responsible for teaching him the power of the mystical Stands that began to appear among people around the world with Lord Dio himself gaining the power of **The World**. Due to his possession of Jonathan Joestars body, the awakening of his Stand led to a similar awakening within the descendants of his adoptive brother with Joseph Joestar, his daughter **Holly Joestar** and grandson Jotaro Kujo similarly manifesting Stands along with a mild telepathic link to Dio. From his base in Cairo, Dio established his hidden empire with him gathering a number of Stand users to follow him with some of these coerced through the use of flesh buds formed from his own body that took control of them whilst others willingly served him. The Cairo Stand user Mohammed Avdol had a brief encounter with Dio where he barely managed to escape him. After learning of the Joestars manifestation of Stands, Lord Dio desired their destruction with Enya sending a number of Stand users against them in 1989.

## Overview

### Personality and attributes

In appearance, Dio Brando was a Caucasian man who typically had blonde hair.

He would claim that he was a victim of his upbringing that made him into an evil man but Speedwagon commented that Dio had been evil since his birth. Brando was shown to be highly manipulative as he moved into the estate of George Joestar and ingratiated himself to the man whilst plotting to usurp his wealth. At the Joestar residence, he felt that in order to establish dominance he needed to complete degrade, humiliate and bully Jonathan Joestar in order to control him. Such was the extent of his control that he desired to steal Erina Pendleton and when she rejected him he violently struck her. Dio was shown to be very vengeful as after being beaten by JoJo his act of revenge was throwing Jonathan's dog into the furnace to burn to death. He was not above utilizing murder to achieve his goals such as secretly poisoning his own father to kill him and later attempting a similar act with his adoptive father George Joestar. When faced with discovery, he hired criminals and tasked them with killing his adoptive brother Jonathan Joestar. Upon his discovery, he lulled Jonathan by acting on his feelings of brotherhood with Dio whereupon Brando attempted to kill him with a knife. This act only ended up with George Joestar being killed as he moved in the path of the blade with Dio showing no remorse as he used the blood to activate the Stone Mask.

Dio believed that conquering fear was what meant for one to be alive. He felt that for one to stand at the top of the world then they had to show no fear whatsoever. He did admit that perhaps the one thing he did fear was the Joestar bloodline and how it deeply seemed to tie to his own destiny. He was noted for being very proud to the point that he refused to abandon his Cairo base when he knew his enemies were heading towards him. However, he did take precautions when he felt weak such as when he dispatched various Stand users against the Joestars whilst he gained strength over the body of Jonathan Joestar.

With his transformation, Dio developed a god-complex believing him himself as a deity that was far above normal humans. He believed that his reign would be unending and last for uncounted centuries. When Zepelli challenged him and asked him to come to the ground, Brando angrily stated that a god did not fight in the dirt like lowborn mortals. He began to consider humans little more than cattle for his needs and he stated that mankind would kneel at his feet. When asked how many people he had fed on, Dio responded that he did not know and replied in kind whether his foe knew how much bread he had eaten in a day. He claimed to be a man of his word but often tricked those that attempted to bargain with him. An example of this was when he threatened to kill a woman and her child with the mother offering her life but begged that her baby be spared. Dio agreed and turned her into a vampire whereupon he did not stop her from feasting on her own baby stating that he had promised not to feed on the child but said nothing about her eating her own offspring.

Despite his hatred for Jonathan Joestar, he grew to respect him after the destruction of his body that left Dio in the form of a head. This was partly because he intended to take JoJo's body for his own. He even brooked no insult to his foe as he chastised one of his minions for degrading Jonathan.

### Powers and abilities

Originally, Dio was an ordinary human being with no abilities. He was skilled in the use of poisons and had used this knowledge to secretly murder his own father. Similarly, he made use of such a practice to poison his adoptive father George Joestar. According to Joseph Joestar, Dio also exuded charisma that allowed him to inspire his followers to obey any of his commands. He was said to hold the power to make others into fanatics that willingly served him. Such was the power of his evil charm that some of his minions stayed loyal to him even after he betrayed them. In another case, one of his minions killed themselves rather than betray Lord Dio even when they knew they were pawns that were discarded when no longer useful.

After wearing the Stone Mask, Dio was transformed into an undead vampire with superhuman abilities. He was able to pass his vampirism to others by feasting on them and transforming them into zombies that served him. Dio was even able to resurrect the long deceased by returning them as vampires whereupon they served him whims. Dio demonstrated the ability to control the blood flow of his own body and actually cause it to turn to ice. This allowed him to freeze anything that touched parts of his body which he used to amazing effect against his enemies. Such a technique proved particularly deadly against Ripple users as it prevented them from unleashing their power against him. Dio was also able to manifest a powerful beam of light from his eye at one time with it capable of cutting through objects with ease such as people or even walls of buildings. As a vampire, he had an amazing level of regenerative power where he easily survived gunshot wounds and managed to re-attach limbs that were severed from his body. In fact, he was able to continue to function even when his head was cut in half with Dio still being able to speak and simply moving the two parts of his head back together so that it could regenerate. Despite the destruction of his body, Dio was able to survive as a simple living head after he severed it from his disintegrating lower form. In this state, he could command zombies that were turned by his minions but could not engage in battle. However, he was able to project beams of energy from his eyes to kill his opponents. Furthermore, tendrils could emerge from the lower portion of his head that could be used to take over another person's body for himself.

Upon his return a century later, Dio had gained possession of Jonathan Joestar's body with him being immortal but led to him losing his ability to freeze objects. However, he gained a new ability in the form of a mystical Stand with his own unique version called **The World** that was named after the Tarot Card. Due to being in Jonathan's body, Dios form had a natural connection to the Joestar family and called out to them. It was this connection that led to other members of the Joestar family gaining Stand powers after Dio had gained them. Furthermore, the left side of his body healed slower than the right which he attributed to the fact that he had not gained full control over Jonathan's form. Brando also had the ability to create **flesh buds** that were made from his body's own cells. These small lumps of flesh were placed on another persons head where they extended a tendril into the brain of their host. Those infected then became loyal followers of Dio and followed his charisma to perform any action he demanded of them. The flesh bud reacted violently to attempts to remove it with it sending tendrils into an attacker in an effort to spread to their brain. Furthermore, the bud was so embedded in their host that removing them as difficult as forcibly taking it out can lead to brain damage to the host. Flesh buds were also noted to slowly kill their hosts and led to their demise in a matter of days. In such cases, the buds erupted as swirling tendrils from the hosts flesh where they greatly damaged the body as they ripped through it. However, a skilled Stand user was able to remove the flesh bud through precise movements. When exposed to sunlight, the tendrils disintegrated as they were unable to handle its rays thus sharing Dio's own weakness to the sun.

## Notes

* Dio Brando was created Hirohiko Araki as an antagonist in the JoJo's Bizarre Adventures universe.
* The character was voiced by actor Norio Wakamoto in drama CDs and by actor Nobuo Tanaka in the OVAs whilst Kenji Nojima along with Hikaru Midorikawa voicing Dio Brando in both the Phantom Blood animated film and video game as the younger and older incarnations, respectively.
* In the television anime, actor Takehito Koyasu voiced Dio Brando in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: All Star Battle, and JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Eyes of Heaven.