Dio Brando

Dio Brando grew up poor and was often beaten by his father, Dario, a man he despised. Years earlier, Dario had once saved the life of George Joestar, the head of a wealthy family, and when Dario later fell gravely ill, the Joestars took Dio in to repay that old debt. Dio made sure his father would never recover by poisoning him, clearing the way for his own comfortable new life inside the Joestar mansion. Once he had settled in, Dio set his sights on crushing the family's true heir, Jonathan Joestar, charming the adults in the house while quietly working to ruin Jonathan's happiness and reputation.

Dio is proud, clever, and shows almost no mercy, always sure that he deserves to rule over weaker people. After his cruel plot against the Joestars is exposed, he puts on a cursed stone mask that turns him into a vampire, gaining great strength and the power to stop aging. He kills Jonathan and steals his body during Jonathan and Erina Pendleton's wedding trip, then spends over a century hiding and plotting his return.

When Dio finally reawakens in modern times, he commands a fighting spirit called a Stand, named The World, which lets him freeze time itself for a few seconds. His return pulls in Joseph Joestar's grandson, Jotaro Kujo, who travels to Egypt to stop him for good. Though Dio is destroyed in that final fight, his blood lives on through a son he fathered in secret, whose own story carries the family feud with the Joestars into a new generation.