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HUGE thread with lots of spoilers: Dio’s parallel to god
While Dio is obviously a reference to Ronnie James Dio, the name literally translates to “god” in Latin. In Jojo, the godlike relationship Dio has to others is a beautiful duality, delivering them to and from evil
In Part 1, Dio has the ability to grant life to the dead. He takes his own vampiric life energy and implants it into deceased beings, reincarnating them. This power over life itself and his own immortality makes him a god amongst men as it is.
In Part 3, Dio amassed a cult following of devoted subordinates. Some were manipulated, however most came willingly. They placed their faith in him for either money or power. Although, one of Dio’s most loyal followers put his faith in him for another reason: redemption.
Enrico Pucci had encountered Dio as a boy, and Dio healed his foot and spoke to him about fate and chance meetings. When Pucci lost everything because of his mistakes and his cursed past, he turned to Dio. Dio’s arrow let him keep Perla’s memory.
Dio saved Pucci, and they continued to meet after that incident. Dio told Father Pucci about attaining heaven, the kingdom of god. Pucci wanted nothing more than to achieve happiness and even committed his life to avenging Dio after his death. He fully committed himself to
attaining heaven as Dio had told him was possible. A world where fate was able to be accepted without fear, everything predistined as if by god. That was the happiness Pucci sought in Dio, and he almost achieved it.
To get there, Pucci sinned and even killed in the name of Dio. In all aspects, Dio was god to him. He healed the sick and to the poor in spirit he promised the kingdom of heaven. To Pucci, doomed by fate, he offered the redemption of overcoming fate.
In another sense, Dio himself wished to attain heaven, most likely to use The World to its fullest ability (essentially having the new universe’s precogniscience and the ability to stop time), and he needed a loyal disciple to help him achieve this. Pucci was that disciple.
The idea of Dio as a deity doesn’t end there. In Part 7, Dio is brought back, only much different. He is a simpler man, perhaps less ambitious. His goal is more revenge than world domination. Fate had it that he would fall from grace and have to work his way up since birth.
Diego also possesses the ability to give life, the ability to resurrect a dynasty of beasts. However, he cannot heal, only giving life to the dead.
Unlike the previous Dio, he did enjoy quite a bit of worldly success before gaining his ability.
Unlike the previous Dio, he did enjoy quite a bit of worldly success before gaining his ability.
Diego was abandoned to die as a baby, cast out of his parents’ protection. He survived, but lost his mother who had saved him. He hates the world more than anything, and he wanted justice and revenge. Ruling over the world may have been a means to that end, however,
and when Dio discovers the corpse of Jesus Christ, he is willing to sell it away for silver, so to speak. He is willing to trade such a holy artifact for material gain, or any sort of power to exact his justice.
Hot Pants, like Pucci, lost a sibling because of her own mistake. She wanted nothing but forgiveness, and attaining the corpse was her only priority. Like Pucci, she knew she needed Dio to achieve redemption, in a way.
Diego was the only one she could come to in order to take the corpse from Valentine. This was because she knew she had bargaining power with him, and her deal with the devil was made. She would help him avenge his mother in exchange for his help in securing the corpse for her,
which he may or may not have gone through with as the corpse was still a very powerful item. Hot Pants would hand over another to be judged at the hands of Dio in order to attain her redemption.
In this narrative, Diego becomes almost an equivalent of Satan, seeking revenge on those who have sinned against him and enacting justice. His Machiavellian pursuit of vengeance through power speaks to his seething hate for the world rather than a desire to be its curator.
In any instance, Dio is portrayed as an otherworldly being that possesses a drive to bring about a change in the world for his own benefit. He has the power to sway others to his cause, and his relationship with them is one of interdependence, calculating everything as a means
toward his end. In every opponent Dio faces is an equally opposite goal. Rather than self-oriented, Jonathan and Jotaro’s goals are for the benefit of the people they love. Funny Valentine’s goals are centered around his citizens.
Dio is the perfect balance of man and god in every part in which he is written, and he possesses the capability of doing both good and evil.
