The World

The World (世界 (ザ・ワールド) Za Wārudo) is the stand of Dio that is featured primarily in Part III: Stardust Crusaders. It along with Joestar Family Stand awakened post-assimilation with Jonathan Joestar's body.

Appearance/Personality
The World resembles Dio in several ways; it has a tall muscular body and the same green heart motifs. Its feet also look exactly like Dio's shoes. It also bears watch motifs on the back of each hand, symbolizing its power to stop time. Its head is shaped like a mask with a triangular top that somewhat resembles the crowns of ancient pharaohs. Another detail is the two lookalike oxygen tanks on its back (which could be a reference to the song Holy Diver by Ronnie James Dio, one of Dio's namesake).

The World has never shown any personality, but in Part VI: Stone Ocean, it was hinted that if not for Dio's own personality, it would go out of control. It represents the Tarot Card The World, which symbolizes triumph, perfection and absolute fulfillment.

Dio mentions that unlocking the stand enabled the Joestar descendants to obtain similar abilities, due to it originating from Jonathan's body. In Over Heaven, Dio elaborates on this, stating that The World does not belong to him.

Ability
The World is similar to Jotaro's Star Platinum with its phenomenal strength, senses and stamina, but has a bigger range of use and is less durable to compensate. Its main form of attacking is to perform a sequence of punches while yelling Dio's battle cry "Muda Muda Muda!"

Time Stop: The World's defining power is its ability to stop time, allowing only itself and Dio to act within the duration of stopped time. Given Dio's weakened state during Part III, this ability only works for a few seconds in Dio's frame of reference before time flows again. However, also due to Dio's immortality, the duration of stopped time also increases as Dio becomes more accustomed to The World, reaching a maximum of nine seconds. The only way to counter this skill is with other time-manipulating skills.

Steel Ball Run
In the final chapters of Part VII: Steel Ball Run, another Diego Brando appeared, summoning a version of The World as his own Stand. This version has D-shaped emblems instead of hearts. The alternate Diego uses The World in much the same way as the original Dio did, but due to being human rather than a vampire, is only able to stop time for five seconds at most. It is unknown if this version of The World has the same statistics as the original.

Of note is the fact that the main Diego Brando of the Steel Ball Run universe does not possess or use The World, but rather Scary Monster.

Trivia

 * The World has evolved into an internet meme "Za Warudo". This comes from when Dio would stop time in the games and anime. He shouts "The World!", but because of the lack of a "th" sounThe_World_Diego.PNG with The World]]d in Japanese and "n" being the only sound without a following vowel, the pronunciation became "za warudo".


 * Also of note is that "warudo" (ワールド) can be pronounced as Waldo. In Chapter 251: Dio's World (5), Waldo can be seen flying through the air after Dio forces Senator Phillips to drive through the crowd.


 * Josuke's stand Crazy Diamond greatly resembles The World; both stands also share an ability relating to time manipulation.


 * In the manga, The World does not speak or make any noises besides its battle cry of "Muda muda muda", but in the OVA it makes quiet roaring noises whenever its attacking (and lets out a loud one when defeated by Jotaro) but strangely enough only Dio uses the battle cry of "Muda" during the OVA, while The World largely remained silent besides its aforementioned noises.


 * The World as seen in Steel Ball Run is actually not the same design as the one featured in Part 3, but the redesign of it seen in the JoJo A-Go!Go! artbook. The only notable difference are the knee pads that are shaped like the letter "D" instead of hearts.


 * The World along with the Alternate version of Killer Queen are the only stand to exist in both universes.


 * After its defeat, the World is referenced through the names of other stands, such as Underworld and Mandom (Lovers of the World), the former being the stand of one of Dio's sons and the latter being a chronokinetic stand itself.


 * The World's range of A either refers to the universal range of its time stopping ability or is an error in describing the stand's actual range, which is no more than about 10 m from its user, and should reflect in its Precision Attribute.