The World

The World is the Stand of DIO, featured in Stardust Crusaders

Appearance
A humanoid Stand, The World is tall and has a very muscular build. It wears a headpiece covering its face to below the place of its nose, slanting at a steep angle from the base of its forehead to a peak situated above the rear of its head by about half its height, leaving the face of an inverted triangle visible to the front; somewhat similar to the Red Crown of Lower Egypt.

It wears small, simple twin diving cylinders on its back, connecting via short, twin ridged cables to the rear of its mask; perhaps secured by thick, ridged or puffered straps running from the rear of its waist over both its shoulders to its front. The back of both its hands bear the shape of a simple clock face. Its chin, the base of its abdomen, its crotch and its knees are topped by heart shapes. Plates on its shins, its footwear bears curved, sharply pointed toes, similar to those of DIO's outfit in Part III.

It's revealed in DIO's notebook that he intended to engrave 14 words on his Stand to remember them although it's unknown if he actually does before his death, and if he managed to engrave them, it is unknown where on The World the words are engraved.

Personality
The World shows no particular personality. Its Stand cry, seemingly communicated by DIO, is Muda Muda Muda! (無駄 無駄 無駄!)

Its name is derived from the Tarot Card The World; symbolizing triumph, perfection and fulfillment.

In Part VI: Stone Ocean, it is suggested that if not for DIO's dominant personality, it would somehow go out of control.

Abilities
The World is an exceptionally powerful Close-range Stand, boasting a maximum manifestation range of 10m. Despite requiring a close distance to attack, it's incredibly difficult to stop once within the aforementioned range.

Super Strength/Senses/Speed: Almost identical to Jotaro's Star Platinum, The World possesses phenomenal strength, senses, and faster-than-light speed, being able to easily punch Kakyoin right through his abdomen. The World may possibly be even stronger and faster, seeing as how it bested Star Platinum in a clash of rapid punches between the two. Thus in turn, its main offense is generally characterized by a flurry of speedy punches, and the occasional kick.

Time Stop: The World's key 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 and the scar around his neck heals, reaching a maximum of nine seconds towards the end of Part III. Had he not died, the length would have continued to grow. The only true way to counter this power is with other time-stopping skills.

Steel Ball Run


In the final chapters of Part VII: Steel Ball Run, a second Diego Brando appears, possessing a version of The World simply referred to as THE WORLD, replacing hearts in its design with "D" emblems (e.g. on its knees), sporting clocks on its shoulders and hips, and lacking the gloves/knuckle plates on its arm braces as well as a belt, while its "crown" is notably larger and sharper. It possesses a much slimmer physique while removing its pseudo-robotic arm pivots and knee hinges with joints under solid "skin" to appear more humanlike.

Diego is only able to stop time for ~5 seconds (as with Jotaro, likely due to Diego being human rather than a Vampire like DIO). It is unknown whether THE WORLD possesses similar statistics to its original counterpart, though Diego utilizes it in many of the same ways the original DIO does.

Eyes of Heaven
An alternate evolved form of the Stand named The World Over Heaven appears in Eyes of Heaven, wielded by Heaven Ascension DIO.

Trivia

 * The World has become quite possibly the most well-known JoJo-related meme on the Internet, in which it is referred to as 'Za Warudo' (the Japanese translation)
 * Its musculature and overwhelming melee capabilities may emphasize that compared to every other enemy Stand shown in Part III, The World bears the closest resemblance, build and ability-wise, to Star Platinum, making it and DIO the true character foil to Jotaro.
 * The diving cylinders on its back may be a subtle reference to the song "Holy Diver" by Ronnie James Dio, one of DIO's namesakes.
 * Warudo (ワールド), of "The World"/"Za Warudo", may be pronounced in Japanese as Waldo. In Chapter 251, Waldo can be seen flying through the air after DIO forces Senator Phillips to drive through a crowd.
 * Josuke Higashikata's Stand Crazy Diamond greatly resembles The World, and both Stands vaguely share chronokinetic abilities (Crazy Diamond's being to restore objects to a previous state).
 * THE WORLD in Steel Ball Run has a design closer to that seen in the JOJO A-GO!GO! artbook; replacing heart-shaped knee caps or pads with the letter "D".
 * The World and a version of Killer Queen are the only Stands to exist in both universes.
 * The World is referenced in the names of other Stands, including Under World and Mandom (Lovers of the World), the former the Stand of one of DIO's sons and the latter also a chronokinetic Stand.
 * In the Eyes of Heaven video game, The World has an evolved form wielded by DIO after ascending to Heaven. This version of the Stand is called The World Over Heaven.
 * This marks The World as the Stand with the most incarnations: the original form (The World), its Steel Ball Run counterpart (THE WORLD), and its Eyes of Heaven variation (The World Over Heaven).
 * Also in Eyes of Heaven, it is worth noting that in the game, THE WORLD demonstrates either a lack of ability or decision not to unleash a Stand rush, performing varying combos consisting of punches, chops, and kicks at a normal rate where the original The World would unleash its lightning-fast barrage of punches. This may be due to the nature of Part VII where Stands only assist their users in battle, and as a result, THE WORLD has never been shown directly fighting; It only serves to grant the alternate Diego its ability.

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