Diego Brando (THE WORLD)

"Johnny Joestar. In this world, for me, you are the greatest challenge!!"

- Diego Brando

Diego "Dio" Brando is a racer in the Steel Ball Run and serves as an antagonist of the series. This article is about the Second Diego Brando who confront Johnny in the final chapters of Steel Ball Run.

The Second Diego Brando
During the 8th round, the original Diego turned against Funny Valentine. But he was quickly defeated by his stand, Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap. Later, after the final battle between Johnny and Valentine, the president tried to make a deal with Johnny, making the promise he can bring Gyro back (Switching a Gyro from another universe, with the deceased Gyro). However, Valentine was planning a latest trick and uses the time talking with Johnny to search for an ally in another universe. With this objetive in mind, Funny Valentine negotiated with this alternative version of Diego to take the Corpse Parts and to kill Johnny.

After Johnny finally beat Valentine, he was surprised to see the Corpse Parts were gone again. He pursued the thief only to discover he was not other than Diego Brando. Johnny was at first suprised by the new Stand, The World, but still managed to discover the nature of its power after a few attacks. This time, Diego had the advantage of knowing Tusk powers and Johnny super spin technique predicting his attacks and using her fans as human shields when johnny attacked. In his final attack, Diego used his 5 seconds to make a double attack: He fired a gun while The World attacks Johnny's back. Johnny was badly hurt again falling from his horse and could not use his new attack. However, he had accumulated enough spin to make their final attack, doing Tusk lvl 4 starts climbing Diego's leg. At that time, Diego remembers what Valentine told him about the Super Spin technique and how to overcome it. Cutting his leg and throwing it to Johnny, Diego manages to beat the Spin User with his own technique and mount again his horse leaving him to die.

Moments later, Diego wins the race and fulfill the last will of Funny Valentine by keeping the body in the secret chamber of Holy Trinity. When all hope seemed lost, Lucy Steel appears ready to stop Diego. Using the head of the first Diego, Lucy attacks the villain killing him when their heads of both dimensions merged.

Supposed Past
The Story of the new version of Diego Brando, is not revealed, but it could be assumed similar to the original.

Diego's parents were financially weak and disposed of him as a baby – however, his mother felt guilt and risked her own life to save him from drowning, upon which his alcoholic father left them both. His mother changed her surname to "Brando" and got employed by a farm, but she and Diego lived in poverty in the stables. Five years later the man that had arranged her employment demanded sexual favors from her, and upon her refusal, sabotaged their means to get food. Another year later his young mother died of the tetanus infection, which Diego (at the time 6 years old) believes to be a result from the humiliation they had to suffer. The boy grew up resenting everyone who abandoned them and swore to himself to get revenge against the man who had harassed his mother.

No matter how hard the times he and his mother fell on, she refused to discard of what little dignity they had left – she taught him that eating out of shoes due to lack of proper dishes was unacceptable. Partly from her example, Diego developed a strong sense of pride.

(Reference: Volume 6, Chapter 30, "Scary Monsters 3")

Stand
See The World.

This version of The World has the same power as the original with a small difference in his appearance. This time the Stand has a letter 'D' instead of the Hearts of the original Stand.



Personality
The "new" Diego appeared to be more sadistic than the original Diego, trying to kill Johnny with very violent ways as throwing knives or trying to burn Johnny alive with matches. He didn't care about others, and had no scruples in his actions, even sacrificing others for his sake.

Trivia
Some resemblances to the Dio of previous JJBA parts include:
 * He has a liking to coffee.
 * He is the second final villain to die at hands of a secondary character. The first was Enrico Pucci killed by Emporio in Stone Ocean.
 * He is also the first not main-antagonist to fight a JoJo at the end of a series.
 * He has been good with horses since he was a child, even untamable ones let themselves be handled him.
 * His 5-year old self much resembles Giorno.
 * A fondness towards his mother (likely the only person he truly respects) and an alcoholic father.
 * A rise to fame with a cold-hearted attitude, in both stories he had no scruples in his actions to reach the top.
 * He married a woman of considerable age who fell in love with him – most likely a reference to Enya Geil (OVA) who died like the unnamed woman by his hand.
 * The same Stand as the original Dio and the same sadistic technique as well.
 * He finally beat his Joestar Rival. However, this time he only left him to die while the original Dio successfully killed Jonathan.