Phantom Blood: DIO
Battle Tendency: Joseph Joestar
Stardust Crusaders: The Joestar Group (Jotaro Kujo | Jean-Pierre Polnareff) | Egypt 9 Glory Gods | DIO's Household
Diamond is Unbreakable: Heroes | Yoshikage Kira
Golden Wind: Team Bucciarati (Giorno Giovanna) | La Squadra di Esecuzioni | The Boss
Stone Ocean: Heroes | Enrico Pucci
Steel Ball Run
JoJolion: The Higashikata Family
The JOJOLands
One-Shot Characters | Spinoff Characters
Character subpage for Diavolo, the main antagonist of Golden Wind.
Diavolo (Stand: King Crimson Sub-stand: Epitaph)
Voiced by: Katsuyuki Konishi (TV anime, JP, Last Survivor, and All-Star Battle R), Kellen Goff (TV anime, EN), Toshiyuki Morikawa (All-Star Battle and Eyes of Heaven), Mitsuru Miyamoto (Vento Aureo video game)
"Fascinating how the past can wriggle its way back, no matter how many pieces I might cut it up into."
"Anyone who possesses any knowledge of my true self must not be allowed to live."
The Boss of Passione, the target of Giorno's efforts, and a first-class paranoiac with two huge obsessions: keeping himself a secret and becoming far stronger than those around him. Because of his secretive nature, Diavolo has eliminated many people (barring an old girlfriend) for this sake, and tries to do the same to his own daughter, who has never met him. For most of the series, his only goal is to keep his identity secret by killing anyone who tries to figure it out, but when he learns about the Stand Arrow's ability to awaken the power of Requiem, he changes priorities to recapturing it and making King Crimson even more powerful. He also dabbled in a drug trafficking project, which is the crux of Purple Haze Feedback.
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#-C
- 0% Approval Rating: With the exception of Pericolo, who commits suicide to hide the location of a clue to the Boss's location, and Doppio, who is Diavolo's Split Personality, almost every single Passione member shown ends up trying to betray or overthrow Diavolo for various reasons.
- Abusive Parents:
- After seemingly wanting Trish to be brought to him to ensure her safety, it turned out that he wanted to kill her himself to ensure his identity remained a secret. From then on, he would attempt to kill her at any opportunity.
- Polneraff suggests a possibility that due to his upbringing Diavolo himself experienced a trauma in his childhood so immense that it split his soul into two halves — Diavolo and Doppio.
- Action Dad: He technically qualifies as the powerful leader of Passione and a Stand user, though it's too bad he doesn't have the heart of one.
- Adaptational Badass: The PS2 game's version of the final battle has Diavolo actually put up a decent fight against Giorno and Gold Experience Requiem. He still ultimately meets his fate, but it's not an utter stomp like the manga version is. A very subtle example that is unique to the PS2 game is that Diavolo is willing to hit opponents using his own fists when he fights. In the anime and games such as JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: All Star Battle and JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Eyes of Heaven, all of Diavolo's attacks involve King Crimson hitting the opponent.
- Adaptation Dye-Job: Quite literally — in the anime, his hair eventually fades from pink to magenta near the endings of the strands.
- Agent Peacock: Diavolo is a powerful stand user and mafia boss who looks more like the lead singer of a glam metal rock band given that he has pink long hair, wears lipstick, and has studded purple pants and fishnets.
- Ain't Too Proud to Beg: When Bucciarati is about to destroy Chariot Requiem, thus putting the Arrow out of Diavolo's reach, the latter begs him not to do it, asking him to consider who is truly worthy of the Arrow.Diavolo: Wait, Bucciarati! Think for a moment. Is anyone worthier? Can you name even one person? You know that I alone am worthy of becoming king! Damn you! I will never allow your feeble hands to touch the Arrow!
- Ambiguously Human: Diavolo himself is such an oddity that he would be suited as a horror movie monster, as he exhibits a number of bizarre traits that don't point to his Stand as an explanation. He can change his physique, pupils, and eye color at will whenever he switches from Doppio to himself. His father died two years before he was born with the anime adding that his mother showed absolutely no signs of pregnancy during that stretch of time until the very moment of his birth; she was in an all-women's prison with female guards, and she went from normal to fully pregnant within one evening, abruptly giving birth to Diavolo in the same night. Making things odder is his symbiosis with Doppio, which may possibly go beyond a mere Split Personality when it's revealed that they're two separate souls that have inhabited the same body from birth. The story never gives an explanation to what he is or how human he actually is. Despite these factors, he was still physically able to father a child that does not exhibit any of the aforementioned traits. Curiously enough, when Bucciarati momentarily puppeteers his body during the Chariot Requiem portion, Diavolo has normal eyes, same color and shape as Trish's, which only shrouds his origins in more mystery.
- And I Must Scream: His fate after being killed by Giorno's Gold Experience Requiem is being trapped to experience death forever, being killed by circumstances that he has no power to prevent. Eventually, it drives him completely insane from fear and paranoia.Diavolo: How... How many deaths must I die?! What'll happen to me next? How much longer will I have to wait for the end?! (as a little girl approaches him) Stay back! Leave me be! D-Don't come closer! STAY AWAY! LEAVE ME ALOOOOOOOOONE!
- Arch-Enemy: Due to his direct involvement in establishing the drug trade of distributing illegal drugs to youths and doing extremely heinous actions with no consideration of what his followers would think of these actions; Diavolo has earned many enemies, both from outside and from inside his own organization- with several notable examples.
- To Bucciarati, the man had already destroyed a great deal of his trust by selling drugs to youths, which already made it very hard to remain on his side out of professional obligation; but it was burnt irreparably when it was discovered he wanted Trish brought to him so he could kill her out of irrational paranoia; Bucciarati goes from wanting him dethroned to wanting his demise due to all the evils he represents.
- Giorno to a lesser extent, having joined his organization specifically to take Diavolo down due to the drug trade he was running, despite not meeting him personally until the finale. It increased further when the Boss killed Bucciarati, Abbacchio and Narancia, solidifying Giorno's personal hatred towards the man.
- To Polnareff, who also targeted him due to the evils he was committing as well as the drug trade. Diavolo personally crippled him and left him for dead, only to stop him years later from acquiring the Stand Arrow to get the Requiem power. Diavolo himself saw him as an obstacle that needed to be eliminated.
- To Risotto and La Squadra as a whole. The group were upset with their lack of high pay and lack of freedom in contrast with their effectiveness and being the Boss' personal hitman squad, the Boss would send back two of their executed teammates in needlessly cruel displays just for trying to look into his background. They went quiet for a while until Trish came to be known to the Mafia underground network, reigniting their passion to go after the Boss in both an attempt to get control of the drug trade and more importantly, avenge their two fallen comrades.
- To Trish, who took his extreme pursuit of having Bucciarati's Team bringing her to him so he could murder her himself personally. From that point onwards, she would dedicate herself to taking down her evil father.
- Archnemesis Dad: To Trish, starting when he attempts to kill her even though she had no idea of who he was until he found about her existence through second-hand informants.
- Attack! Attack! Attack!: When he realizes Risotto is spying on Doppio, he orders his subordinate to fight back and get within two meters of him so that King Crimson can take care of him. Even after seeing Risotto's abilities in action, he keeps pressing Doppio to fight back. Then Risotto summons scissors in Doppio's throat and Diavolo begins to reconsider his plan.
- Ax-Crazy: A subdued variant compared to Cioccolata's more obvious insanity, and arguably worse. He suffers from extreme irrational paranoia — enough to kill anyone who even starts trying to track down his identity, going all the way to his daughter, Trish (who's completely unrelated to the Mafia affair), purely because of the possibility that someone could use her against him. Even his goals are very unconventional; see Evil Plan below.
- Badass in a Nice Suit: Early glimpses of him have him wearing a suit. The anime even changes his first encounter with Bucciarati from being completely in silhouette to wearing a red suit with his face in shadow. He doesn't wear it in the final battle, presumably because he doesn't have time to change out of Doppio's clothes other than removing his sweater, but it's become common-place in most fan art.
- Bad Boss: Deconstructed. Due to Diavolo's paranoid and controlling nature, he utilizes very brutal methods to keep his subordinates in line. However, these same draconian methods end up alienating his subordinates, causing many in his organization to turn against him. After denying the very effective La Squadra a pay raise and some territory (when other teams had been given those rewards), he (or Cioccolata in the anime) gruesomely killed two of their comrades when they started searching for his identity as a warning. When La Squadra learns about Trish, they turn against Diavolo in an attempt to overthrow him. Similarly, learning that Diavolo wanted Trish brought to him so he could kill her himself to protect his identity is the final straw that causes Bucciarati, whose loyalty to Diavolo was already strained due to the latter's drug trade, to turn against him completely. Even Cioccolata, one of his Elite Guard, only served him as a license for his sadistic hobbies and planned to betray him. By the time the series ends, the only one to remain loyal to Diavolo to the end is Doppio, Diavolo's alter ego, meaning that Diavolo is loyal only to himself.
- Bait the Dog: The extent of Diavolo's morality is left up in the air for the first third of the series. He ordered Luca's dismemberment, but Pericolo speaks highly of him, being thankful that Diavolo let him live such an exciting life. He gives the team a mission to protect his daughter and communicates to them with strange yet also grateful messages. Then we learn that he wanted Trish to be brought to him so he could kill her himself rather than protect her, since anyone else chasing him could use her to find him. He's that paranoid!
- Barbarian Long Hair: Depending on the situation, Diavolo has either short, slicked-back hair (while wearing a suit), or a very long one which reaches all the way down to his hips (when fully revealed). The latter makes more sense during the climax due to him living years in almost complete isolation. His hair is also rather well kept during the final fight, despite it having been in a braid just pages before.
- Baritone of Strength: Easily one of the most powerful antagonists and has a very deep voice. This deep voice contrasts Doppio's lighter pitched and younger voice.
- Bastard Bastard: It's unknown who his father is, he never married Donatella, and he's... yeah.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: His primary motivation throughout the story is to leave no trace of his identity, which mostly works out for him thanks to his Stand powers and concealment in Doppio's body. By the end, he is annihilated with no one to remember him aside from the remnants of Team Bucciarati, who have zero desire to continue his legacy. And since Giorno has usurped him, all of his hard work that went into conquering Italy with Passione might as well have been for nothing since the kid took credit for everything as revealed in Purple Haze Feedback.
- Berserk Button: Attempting to uncover his identity will be met with brutal retaliation. Just ask Sorbet and Gelato how well that worked out for them.
- Big Bad: Of Golden Wind. His habit of encouraging the sale of drugs to children is what kicks off the main plot, and Giorno seeks to defeat him in order to put a stop to this.
- Big Bad Ensemble: With Risotto for the first half of Part 5. While Risotto was the main threat for Giorno's group, Diavolo remained in the shadows before he eventually became active in the second half.
- Born Lucky: A Fortune Teller he meets at Sardegna states that he has never seen anyone brimming with as good a fortune as Diavolo. Given his tendency to exploit just the right amount of convenient circumstances to his advantage, there may be some truth to this, although his luck eventually runs out.
- Broken Pedestal: To Bucciarati after he tries to kill Trish, notably he was teetering on this loyalty beforehand due to the organization selling drugs and reluctantly accepting it as Necessarily Evil until Giorno said he'd take down the Boss- deciding at least, to dethrone him from the organization. The Boss wanting Trish brought to him to be killed by his hands out of extreme paranoia just burnt what loyalty Bucciarati still had left and became Bucciarati's Arch-Enemy from that point onwards, wanting the man dead for his crimes.Bucciarati: Now the boss is... Our damn boss...! His wretchedness makes me want to puke! Abusing the weak and innocent is just a means to an end! Profiting off the pain and suffering of countless citizens! Coward! You'd do it to your daughter?! You're a fiendish monster! You're a disgrace, and you've let me down again! BUT YOU'VE DONE IT FOR THE LAST TIME!
- Call-Back:
- Bucciarati's initial confrontation with Diavolo has them standing on a flight of stairs towards the end, like Polnareff and DIO in Part 3. The difference is that Bucciarati doesn't know who his Boss is but is able to deduce King Crimson's abilities and weaknesses. Bucciarati escapes on his own but "reality is cruel" and he dies from his injuries, with Giorno arriving too late and only being able to half-revive him.
- Diavolo's reveal to Polnareff also brings to mind the latter's encounter with DIO at the climax of Part 3. Only this time, it's Polnareff who's at the top of the stairs.
- Diavolo putting blood in Polnareff's eye is a clear one to DIO putting blood in Jotaro's eyes (both Jotaro and Polnareff are also Part 3 characters), with the main difference being that it actually works out for Diavolo.
- Related to the above, Diavolo tries to do the same with Giorno, but like DIO did with Jotaro, it doesn't work.
- The Chessmaster: Manipulates everyone into ultimately serving him or disposing of those who oppose him by pitting them against other groups.
- Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Is on the receiving end of this by almost everyone in Passione. Giorno, La Squadra, and Cioccolata all plan on usurping him as leader of Passione.
- Combat Pragmatist: Fitting his paranoid nature, Diavolo does not mess around in combat. He uses Epitaph to predict his opponent's next move, then King Crimson's time erasure to position himself in a more advantageous spot such as behind his unsuspecting victim, after which he ends the fight with a single swift punch through the opponent's chest, not giving them any chance to fight back.
- Contrasting Sequel Antagonist:
- Yoshikage Kira had a rather mundane history (aside from the whole hand fetish and Serial Killer thing), was dangerous mainly because he kept slipping away before he could be punished for his heinous actions, and wanted to live a "normal" life. He was also mentally ill, though with OCD and egocentric traits, but all the while acknowledged them and saw them as nothing more than bad habits. Meanwhile, Diavolo had a past that was saturated in eventful weirdness, was dangerous because he used his intellect and enormously powerful Stand to actively hunt down his enemies instead of running away from them, and wanted absolutely nobody to know he existed — his own definition of a "normal life". He also has paranoia and Dissociative Identity Disorder, and he doesn't seem to care. Even their Stands are opposites; Killer Queen is a scary Stand since its instantly lethal bombs can be made out of anything, making it a perfect Stand for non-direct combat, while King Crimson's incredible strength and disorienting time skip mean that trying to fight it directly is an invitation to be gravely wounded at best. Kira's Bites the Dust can turn back time while King Crimson's skips it ahead, Bites the Dust is about the idea that You Can't Fight Fate whereas King Crimson's time-skip allows him to decide fate.
- Additionally, while Yoshikage is defined by his incredulous fortune, Diavolo suffers from extreme misfortune- with every decision he makes ultimately coming back to haunt him due to lack of foresight.
- While Yoshikage Kira took on a new identity to hide his true nature from the heroes while retaining his own personality, Diavolo due to being paranoid from the beginning, developed the persona of Doppio, split off from Doppio, or was always in a symbiotic relationship with Doppio- to serve as a means to keep hidden from sight, with Doppio himself having an established personality that differs both physically/mentally from Diavolo- being unaware of the latter's existence whenever he's forcibly shifted to the other persona.
- He's also one to DIO. Both seem similar on paper: rising to power from humble beginnings, have Stands that can manipulate time, created powerful organizations made up of mostly Stand users, and are fathers of two of the main heroes of this part. However, DIO's goal is to have all worship him as a god, basically wanting them to know his identity. Diavolo, on the other hand, prefers his identity to be kept a secret from everyone. While DIO prefers to toy with his opponents for his own amusement before ending them, Diavolo would rather end the fight as quickly as possible. During Stardust Crusaders, DIO was a villain whose presence was already established prior to the story and most of the Crusaders' efforts are to figure out his Stand's power before confronting him; Diavolo never makes a true appearance until the final chapter, but he himself gives an explanation on King Crimson's ability when he's first encountered. DIO became a father very late in his life, with all of his sons being conceived after he returned from his 100-year slumber in the seas, while Diavolo was a teenager when he conceived Trish. DIO had numerous lovers and sons through his life while Diavolo's sole Love Interest was Donatella and his only child was Trish. Even their relationships with their children (or lack thereof) is shown to be polar opposites, as a tumblr post analyzing DIO and Diavolo points out
:"DIO only sees sex as a fun thing to do in his spare time, and seduced several men and women for this purpose. He has a total of four known illegitimate children, none of whom he ever knew about, because he simply did not care as it didn't effect him in any way. Meanwhile, as far as we know, Diavolo has only had sex once or twice when he was around 17 years old. He always saw his past as something to be erased, or it would be a detriment to everything he had worked for, and Trish represented that for him in the worst possible way. Giorno is an accident because his entire existence is kind of just one small inconsequential mistake for DIO, while Trish is a detrimental, huge fuckup for Diavolo."- DIO's servants are kept in line through a combination of mind control, irresistible charisma, fear, and wealth, all the way up to the devotedly loyal Enya, Vanilla Ice, and Pucci. Diavolo, on the other hand, has practically every Stand user of Passione planning to turn against him in spite of their wealth and power, except for Pericolo and Doppio (who's Diavolo's split personality anyway). DIO attained what he wanted to evolve his Stand's ability (Joseph's blood) but is defeated when his opponent attained the same power and used it against him while his power's evolving, while Diavolo didn't get the Stand Arrow and it was used against him. In Stardust Crusaders, Polnareff meets DIO while the latter is upstairs; here, Polnareff meets Diavolo while the latter is downstairs. To drive the point home even further, DIO is Italian for "God", whereas Diavolo is Italian for "Devil".
- Even their voice actors, both Japanese and English portray them in opposition to each other.
- Japanese: Takehito Koyasu voices DIO in a way which makes him a Large Ham, putting emphasis on his willingness to show off. In contrast, Katsuyuki Konishi is Tranquil Fury incarnate, rarely raising his voice but his anger is brimming underneath the surface.
- English: Patrick Seitz, while not afraid to go into moments of Large Ham himself, puts more emphasis in how charismatic and manipulative DIO can be while Kellen Goff makes Diavolo sound like he’s one second away from shoving King Crimson’s fist into someone’s chest cavity.
- To go a bit further, Diavolo's the only villain thus far to receive no significant upgrade during his part. Kars, Dio, and Kira all had upgrades to bring them to their apex. But Diavolo? Zilch. He was at maximum power from start to finish.
- Yoshikage Kira had a rather mundane history (aside from the whole hand fetish and Serial Killer thing), was dangerous mainly because he kept slipping away before he could be punished for his heinous actions, and wanted to live a "normal" life. He was also mentally ill, though with OCD and egocentric traits, but all the while acknowledged them and saw them as nothing more than bad habits. Meanwhile, Diavolo had a past that was saturated in eventful weirdness, was dangerous because he used his intellect and enormously powerful Stand to actively hunt down his enemies instead of running away from them, and wanted absolutely nobody to know he existed — his own definition of a "normal life". He also has paranoia and Dissociative Identity Disorder, and he doesn't seem to care. Even their Stands are opposites; Killer Queen is a scary Stand since its instantly lethal bombs can be made out of anything, making it a perfect Stand for non-direct combat, while King Crimson's incredible strength and disorienting time skip mean that trying to fight it directly is an invitation to be gravely wounded at best. Kira's Bites the Dust can turn back time while King Crimson's skips it ahead, Bites the Dust is about the idea that You Can't Fight Fate whereas King Crimson's time-skip allows him to decide fate.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Most of the "fights" Diavolo are very one-sided in his favor, as his preferred strategy consists of immediately inflicting a One-Hit Kill without giving his opponent the chance to fight back. However, he also ends up on the receiving end of the worst example in his part by far; erasing time means diddly squat against a No-Sell ability that negates everything you do, as he found out.
- Create Your Own Hero: In both the long and short run, Diavolo's heroic enemies went so far in part because of Diavolo's actions.
- Selling the Stand Arrows to Enya led to the Joestar family (Jonathan post-mortem, DIO, Joseph, Holly, Jotaro, Josuke, Giorno and later on Jolyne – to a lesser extent – Donatello, Rikiel and Ungalo) gaining Stands. A member of the Joestar family, Giorno, ends up becoming one of Diavolo's greatest enemies.
- Attempting to kill his daughter Trish led to her and Team Bucciarati (aside from Giorno, who always planned to take him down) as a whole (with the sole exception of Fugo) rebelling against him.
D-H
- Death by Irony:
- It's actually an ironic Fate Worse than Death, but Diavolo, whose name means "Devil" in Italian, was basically sent to an effective Hell by Giorno, doomed to suffer for eternity by dying over and over.
- More ironic is that he's spent his life paranoid that everything and everyone is out to kill him, and now, because of Giorno, that is actually the case and he can now do nothing to stop it. Also, he believed that his ability to see the future made him invincible, but after being trapped in the death loop, he could no longer even predict where his next death would come from.
- The deaths shown echo that of his and his associates' dirty dealings. In order, the first death is that the person who stabbed him was clearly high on an injected drug, the same thing that started Bucciarati's rebellion. The second death, for the autopsy and how he was essentially conscious while the coroner was cutting him up brings to mind the brutal dismemberment of Sorbet, which he was implied to have ordered Cioccolata (a former doctor) to do prior to the anime's start. The third death is a reflection on his life as Doppio, who is introduced falling into the path of a moving vehicle both during his introduction and a part of their shared backstory. The final death shown is the cause of his downfall; his paranoia getting the better of him.
- He was obsessed with doing anything in his power to avoid risks and preserving his own life at any cost. Now he gets to live out the immortality he craved as no matter what happens to him, he can never truly die.
- Finally, King Crimson allowed Diavolo to skip 10 seconds into the future, ignoring anything happening in that timelapse and ending up right into the results and consequences of that skipped time, so it's very fitting that Gold Experience Requiem condemns him to relive the painful process of dying over and over again without ever reaching a true death.
- De-power: Not only he is stuck in a death loop for all eternity, but his stand has seemingly disappeared as well, making it impossible to even attempt to defend himself.
- Diabolus ex Machina: Averted and no pun intended. Diavolo is one of the only main villains in the series to progress as far as he has without the need for the sudden last-minute Power-Up. King Crimson was just as powerful and had all the same abilities at the climax of the final battle as when it was first introduced. He does attempt this after discovering the secret power of the "Requiem" Stand Arrow, and the final act of Golden Wind is a race to get the Requiem Arrow first so he doesn't get his Araki-Signature Villainous 11th-Hour Superpower.
- Didn't Think This Through: His Fatal Flaw is that a lot of Diavolo's downfall comes from acting impulsively to get results immediately short-term without realizing how the long-term consequences would come to haunt him.
- His decision to try and kill Trish with Bruno aware of it. Bruno is a highly-skilled and altruistic mafioso that was already teetering on his loyalties due to the drug trade, with nothing to stop him from retaliating and from his allies from aiding him. This impulse led not only to Bruno turning on Diavolo in disgust, but also to setting up a chain of events that would lead to both Bruno and Trish bringing about Diavolo's downfall.
- His decision to have Sorbet and Gelato executed in a brutal manner in order to settle a dispute on monetary grudges and to punish them for looking into his identity. It would lead to him being nearly killed by their leader and would lead to one of Bruno's team becoming an effective healer due to fighting one of those members, which causes a chain of events that would lead to a still-remaining Bruno healed partially by Giorno to finally put the nail on the coffin to Diavolo's reign.
- His decision to not confirm his kill of Polnareff led to a chain of events where the man managed to stay alive and undetected for years. This allowed Polnareff to undermine Diavolo through the use of Chariot Requiem years later, and Diavolo didn't realize any of this until it was too late.
- His decision to attack Gold Experience Requiem to maintain his pride instead of listening to an impulse that he should Know When to Fold 'Em. This is in spite of experiencing first hand the supernatural effects of Requiem Stands and being cautious around another one. This leads to his final and terrifying fate of dying over and over.
- His decision to give away the arrows in order to make money while keeping one for himself, without thinking on testing them beyond getting a Stand and recruits- would lead to the creation of the Stand that would defeat him and his attempts to go back on that decision in the last part of the fight would lead to his final defeat.
- Him picking off Narancia while hiding in Mista's body to avoid being detected by Aerosmith's radar. The proximity of the execution is what allows Giorno to deduce that he's hiding among the rest of the team.
- Dirty Coward: Diavolo is a man driven by fear and paranoia. He believes that the past, no matter how insignificant it may seem, can be used against someone. As such, he does everything he can to protect his identity and preserve his anonymity, including trying to kill his own child.
- The Don: Of the Passione Mafia. Though an unusually low-profile one, as no one in his Mafia knows what he looks like.
- The Dreaded: His brutality, paranoia, and unknown Stand ability all invoke great fear in his underlings and for a good reason. La Squadra gets to see firsthand what happens to those who try to unmask him and Bucciarati's initial encounter with King Crimson shows how those who betray Diavolo are swiftly and effectively erased. Fugo was so terrified of him that he ultimately abandoned Bucciarati's group as he considered the prospect of fighting Diavolo to be virtually suicide.
- Dual Age Modes: How he and Doppio work. Though, they're considered separate characters.
- Dub Personality Change: In the Japanese dub, he acts openly shocked to outcomes he did not anticipate. The English dub has him react more angrily to the situation. His English VA, Kellen Goff, also added a higher pitch to his voice whenever Diavolo loses his temper in order to bring out some of Doppio's personality.
- Dude Looks Like a Lady: His waist-length pink hair combined with purple lipstick, a very slim frame and mesh shirt can make Diavolo's gender seem ambiguous at first. The anime didn't help this distinction, making him look more feminine and sharing similar facial features with Trish. With these traits, it's easy to misinterpret Diavolo as Trish's older sister.
- Dumb Muscle: Has the worst planning skills among the JoJo villains, as detailed under Villain Ball and Didn't Think This Through. But his overpowered Stand makes him difficult to deal with for Giorno's team regardless.
- Driven to Madness: This is his final fate. Upon receiving a thorough Curb-Stomp Battle by Giorno's Gold Experience Requiem, the decisive finishing blow causes Diavolo to be subjected to a never-ending Resurrection/Death Loop, doomed to die repeatedly for eternity. After multiple deaths, he's gone fully insane as he screams at a young girl to stay away from him.
- Early Personality Signs: Even as a newborn baby, the prison guard holding him briefly noticed his eyes switching from brown to red, implying he and Doppio have been sharing the same body from the moment of birth or even conception.
- Equal-Opportunity Evil: He has at least two gay male couples on Passione's payroll.
- Edible Theme Naming: More subtly than most other Passione members, but his name most likely comes from a style of Italian cooking centered on Fra Diavolo sauce, a spicy sauce made with hot peppers. Its name means "Brother Devil" in Italian, fitting his Satanic Archetype. Alternatively, he may be named after Pizza alla Diavola, a type of pizza topped with spicy salami.
- Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: Unknown whether it's played straight or subverted, as while his mother was Buried Alive under the house he lived in with the priest that raised him, it's never clearly stated whether Diavolo did it, the priest did it, or someone entirely unrelated did it.note However, it can be agreed that this was when he started becoming more like what he is today.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones:
- While Diavolo treats most of the Passione members as disposable pawns, he does seem to care greatly for his alter ego Doppio as he's the only one who Diavolo treats with any sort of affability despite his usual mistrust of people. He often acts as a mentor figure for Doppio, giving him advice, stepping in to protect him when he's in trouble, and even letting him use King Crimson's sub Stand Epitaph. This trait is more prominent in the English dub where he refers to Doppio in oddly affectionate terms such as "My sweet, charming Doppio" or Mi caro (Italian for "my dear"). Risotto even notes that Diavolo places quite a lot of trust in him and the feeling is mutual as Doppio is one of the few to remain loyal to Diavolo. Though whether his care for Doppio is genuine or is out of self-preservation (as killing Doppio means killing Diavolo as well) is up in the air.
- Diavolo also seemed to genuinely love Donatella, Trish's mother. As shown in flashbacks, Diavolo fell head over heels for her when they first met, awkwardly asking her out, letting her keep the photo he took of her, and even fathering a child with her. And though he ultimately abandoned her to become a mafia don, he never went back to kill her despite his obsession with keeping his identity a secret, implying he still had some feelings for her. Killing their daughter isn't off the table for him, though.
- Even Evil Has Standards: He has nothing but contempt for Cioccolata and actually seemed disgusted with himself for having to order him and Secco to fight, outright saying that he wouldn't have enlisted their aid if the situation hadn't become that desperate. He even sends Doppio to Rome to rein in Cioccolata and make sure they don't go overboard with their rampage as well as keep them from finding out about Trish.Diavolo: Rarely do I give in to revulsion, but for the utter scum that is Cioccolata, I make an exception.
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good:
- Due to his isolated and paranoid lifestyle, Diavolo is genuinely incapable of empathizing with others and will always assume the worst of someone. When Bucciarati tries to rescue Trish, Diavolo openly questions why he would do this and immediately comes to the conclusion that Bucciarati is attempting to overthrow him as head of Passione. Bucciarati flat out tells him that someone like him would never be able to understand his feelings.Diavolo: Your rationale intrigues me. Just what were you thinking? I had a great deal of respect for your excellence and devotion to the mission until now. Was your judgment clouded by your promotion to Capo? Or, did your hubris seduce you into thinking you had the power and ability to overtake me?
Bucciarati: Once Trish regains consciousness, I'll be sure to let her know you never existed!
Diavolo: Trish, you say? Why bring her into this dispute? My daughter is of no concern to you and your ilk.
Bucciarati: Demon! You could never understand what's in my heart! - Likewise, due to his paranoia, Diavolo has difficulty understanding concepts like trust and camaraderie. After killing Sorbet and Gelato as a warning to La Squadra, it never occurred to him that it would only give them more reason to rebel against him, especially when they find out about Trish. Similarly, after killing Abbacchio, he believed that Bucciarati's group would lose their will to go on and is genuinely confused when they continue on with their mission in spite of it.Diavolo: It's strange, Doppio. Bucciarati's crew... One would imagine the loss of a dear comrade would rattle their composure. Yet oddly, not a trace of hesitation haunts them. They have now boarded a boat with a clear goal in their minds. Investigate. Return to Abbacchio's last location and look around. Something is off.
- Due to his isolated and paranoid lifestyle, Diavolo is genuinely incapable of empathizing with others and will always assume the worst of someone. When Bucciarati tries to rescue Trish, Diavolo openly questions why he would do this and immediately comes to the conclusion that Bucciarati is attempting to overthrow him as head of Passione. Bucciarati flat out tells him that someone like him would never be able to understand his feelings.
- Evil Counterpart:
- To Giorno. Both Giorno and Diavolo have grown up under a similar background, being born by single mothers and have parents who are absent throughout their childhood and are instead brought up/inspired by men whom they saw as a father figure. Both are strongly driven by ambition and are more than willing to resort to underhanded methods in order to accomplish their goals. But the difference is that Giorno has moral boundaries, and only projects his ruthlessness on enemies who truly deserved it. Diavolo, on the other hand, has little regard for the innocents he has to drag into the conflict. Gold Experience's life-giving abilities portray it as some sort of Messianic Archetype, while Diavolo and his King Crimson lean more towards the Satanic Archetype for their sheer killing potential.
- To Bucciarati as well. Both grew up with the sea, with Bucciarati being the son of a fisherman, while Diavolo dreamt of becoming a sailor. But while Bucciarati fell into crime due to tragic circumstances, Diavolo willingly turned to crime out of a desire for power and ambition. Bucciarati is A Father to His Men who genuinely cares for his fellow gang members, fights alongside them, and wins their loyalty through trust and kindness. Diavolo prefers to sit on the sidelines and leave the dirty work to his men. Diavolo also keeps a tight leash on his organization through power and fear, and as a result, everyone backstabs him at any given opportunity.
- Evil Laugh: He does this when it seems like Giorno has been rejected by the Arrow.
- Evil Plan: Surprisingly averted for the most part as for the majority of the Part, his ambitions don't extend further than killing Trish and any traitors that get in his way out of sheer paranoia. However, once he learns about the power of Requiem Stands, he decides to gain said power for himself in order to Take Over the World.
- Evil Redhead: Most media depicts him with red or pink hair, and he is undoubtedly Part 5's Big Bad.
- Evil Sounds Deep: Courtesy of Toshiyuki Morikawa, and later on Katsuyuki Konishi and Kellen Goff in the anime.
- The Faceless: For a good chunk of Part 5. His first fight with Bucciarati has his face constantly obscured by shadows or blocked by King Crimson. His first appearances are also incredibly different to how he was revealed, as he had short, combed hair and actually seemed a lot taller than he turned out to be.
- Face of an Angel, Mind of a Demon: When revealed, Diavolo is noted to be quite handsome and tall, but he's as evil as they come, as he masterminded selling drugs to teenagers, tried to murder his own daughter who knew nothing incriminating about him, as well as willing to hurt children just to regenerate from a brutal fight.
- Fatal Flaw:
- Paranoia. Diavolo's own irrational obsession with keeping his identity a secret was essentially what shot him in the foot. It is what led to a lot of poor choices on his part, such as alienating his followers, causing Bucciarati to turn against him and it nearly got him killed by Risotto by trying to leave the fighting to his less experienced self Doppio. It's not because Diavolo is stupid, but rather he's too paranoid to make decisions that would otherwise benefit him on the chance his identity is compromised. This is probably best demonstrated after his initial fight with Bucciarati when he could have used King Crimson to get the drop on the rest of the group and kill everyone there, but his paranoia that he might not kill them fast enough before someone saw his face and (somehow) flee, alongside his paranoia over Giorno's abilities led him to let the group go, allowing them to dismantle his elite forces and learn of his identity.
- Also, Pride. Diavolo has the delusional belief that he is the only one worthy to rule, and that everyone else is beneath him. Diavolo's pride is what does him in, as he refuses to flee even after Giorno achieves Requiem, because his pride won't let him accept that he's outmatched.
- Fate Worse than Death: He gets this punishment after being killed by Giorno's Gold Experience Requiem: He is trapped in an infinite loop of being killed in an infinite number of ways, each time not knowing how he's going to die and having no way to prevent any of it. It doesn't take long for him to go insane from fear and paranoia. The last time the audience sees him, he's screaming at a little girl to get away from him. It also counts as a Karmic Death in reference to his rampant paranoia and pride turning him into a massive Control Freak who believed he had the right of way to manipulate others however he wanted.
- Faux Affably Evil: Diavolo is capable of acting polite and refined, often showing genuine respect to those who manage to impress him. But it doesn't take long for the demon underneath to rise to the surface. In Sardegna, when a fortuneteller manages to deduce his identity and motives, he compliments the man's powers of deduction and calmly tells him that he's going to kill him in the most painless way possible as a twisted sign of respect.
- Final Boss Preview: The fight with Bucciarati about two-thirds in the series, which showcases the power of his Stand King Crimson.
- Flower Motifs: Roses, at least in the anime. His hooded silhouette in the first opening is surrounded by rose petals. Also, his post-credit scene midway through is about him using King Crimson to escape his hotel room unnoticed, leaving behind only a towel and a bunch of roses.
- Forgot About His Powers: He uses his ability to let objects pass through him once against Nero and never again, despite the fact this could have helped him greatly against Bucciarati's group.
- From Nobody to Nightmare: Hard to believe that the most feared mafia don in Italy was once an odd boy from a simple village, who went into archeoligical digging in Egypt and came back with four Stand Arrowheads, one of which he kept for himself.
- Freudian Excuse: Much like Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas, it could be played straight, defied, or subverted. Depending on how the scene is read by the audience, he either snapped and became paranoid after inexplicably finding his mother under the floorboards, did the deed himself and was always like this despite his good nature beforehand, or snapped because the evidence was found and as such razed his hometown to prevent word from being leaked, causing the paranoid obsession due to the spur of the moment.
- Godzilla Threshold: While he detests Cioccolata and Secco, he still feels it's necessary to deploy them as a last-ditch effort to kill off Bucciarati's group before they reach the Coliseum in Rome.
- Go Mad from the Revelation: Another unknown, see the above two unknowns Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas and Freudian Excuse for cross-references. However, it should be said that dissociative identity disorder stems from similar roots to that of paranoia — abuse, fear, trauma, or stress. Polnareff outright discusses the roots by stating that Diavolo could've been abused as a child, and since only certain points of his history were touched upon, he could very well be right.
- Good Eyes, Evil Eyes: Doppio's irises are pink (brown in the anime) by default. When Diavolo speaks through him or otherwise takes control, they become black (green in the anime) and fragmented. During the Chariot Requiem arc, Bucciarati inhabits Diavolo's body; this causes the fragments to "repair" and form back into a normal iris shape (they become pink in the manga and green in the anime).
- Greater-Scope Villain: In Part 5, it's revealed that Diavolo was the one who discovered the Stand Arrows and distributed them. He sold them to people such as Enya, and by extension, DIO. He's the main reason that most people have Stands, making him this position from Part 3 and onwards.
- Guardian Entity: Played with towards Doppio. Since, logically speaking, killing Doppio would also kill Diavolo and vice versa, it's hard to tell how much Diavolo cares for Doppio and how much he cares for Doppio. He does, however, step in whenever Doppio is getting mugged and does offer advice that best fits the situation, whether it's running away or using luck and intelligence.
- Guyliner: It's revealed that his eyelashes are much more defined than other villains and he, like DIO, wears lipstick.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: Coincides with his paranoia most of the time, but he did go overboard with punishing La Squadra given what he did to Sorbet and Gelato. This also extends to King Crimson and Epitaph, both of whom have an angry grimace as their default expressions.
- Hellish Pupils: Has extremely small pupils like his Stand, except when possessed by Bucciarati, when he temporarily gains normal-looking eyes. However, his eyes look as if the irises are simply fragments circling his pupils.
- Honor Before Reason: He explicitly realizes this when Giorno finally has his hand on the Arrow, claiming that it's only his honor as the king of this world that caused him to stay after his dignity of failure had been "flaunted" in front of him. This is after he was about to run away to recuperate and plan for another day — which probably would've been the better option compared to what follows afterwards.Diavolo: Damn it. It seems defeat was never an option, after all. I must face him now. My dignity demands it! You won't overthrow me! Try as you might, you will never tear me from my throne! I won't run from you. That would be unbecoming as a king. Let's end this now!
- How the Mighty Have Fallen: The last we see of Diavolo, he's been so mentally broken by his endless deaths that the formerly invincible mob boss is reduced to a nervous wreck screaming at a little girl to get away from him as he cowers in terror of everything around him.
- Hunk: Diavolo is tall and completely ripped, as well as being the first villain besides Kars to be shirtless, not helped by the fact that his mesh shirt looks more like a tattoo.
- Hypocrite:
- When found out by Polnareff, he gloats about being discovered; this is paradoxical to his usual paranoia about being seen by others. It is possible that he was only bragging about it for fun due to being confident about killing Polnareff.
- He is openly repulsed by Cioccolata and Secco's excessive sadism. But unleashing them upon the heroes as a last resort in order to stop them from reaching Rome's Coliseum, despite the inevitable mass civilian casualties is something he considers justified, and he previously sicced them on Sorbet and Gelato for betraying him. He does at least admit that it's not often someone or something manages to disgust even him of all people.
I-P
- I Control My Minions Through...:
- Authority: He's the boss of Passione and thus every member of the organization is subvervient to him.
- Fear: Every member of Passione is terrified of him. When two members of La Squadra tried to uncover his identity, he had one of them sliced up in pieces and had said pieces delievered to the rest of the group pretty much as a warning. The rest stayed quiet for years, until they found out that he had a daughter. Fugo, the smartest and most levelheaded of Team Bucciarati, refused to join his group in betraying the Boss because he knew that chances of success were pretty much zero. And keep it mind that pretty much the entirety of Passione have no idea about King Crimson.
- Loyalty: Doppio, Polpo and Pericolo are truly loyal to the Boss. No one believes that Polpo would ever consider betraying the Boss; Pericolo went as far as killing himself to prevent others from finding the Boss' whereabouts, and Doppio both trusts and follows the Boss' orders.
- Money: Diavolo uses money to make others perform missions for him. This includes most of his Special Unit.
- Sadism: He allows some of his subordinates to indulge on their sadistic tendencies. The most notorious cases are, of course, Cioccolata and Secco.
- I'll Kill You!: The English dub has him screaming this word for word... right before Giorno and his fully evolved Stand resume their beatdown.
- Immortality Hurts: As a result of being affected by Gold Experience Requiem's Return to Zero ability, Diavolo ends up trapped in a Resurrection/Death Loop where he ends up finding himself on the verge of death, feeling the excruciating pain that comes with dying, before being instantly resurrected and being placed in a new scenario for death. As Giorno points out, he'll never end up reaching the final moment of his death, but he'll always feel the pain of it for all eternity.
- Invincible Villain: He has a Rank A Strength Stand with the ability to erase time and see into the future. The only way that the heroes even beat it is to activate an even more ridiculous ability — that of the No-Sell.
- In the Back: Prefers to have King Crimson get behind his opponents during the erased time and send a Megaton Punch through the chest, rather than hitting them face-on. It fits with both his paranoid nature and his general lack of redeeming features.
- In the Hood: His first (shadowed) appearance has him with this, covered in a blanket in a dark room while musing about finding his daughter.
- It's All About Me: Everything Diavolo does is in his own self-interest, whether it be to kill to keep his identity a secret or to rule the world with an iron fist. In fact, the only one he seems to be capable of interacting with affably is Doppio, his alter-ego.
- Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: The narrative makes no effort to hide that he's a ruthless crime lord, but he seems to go to great lengths to ensure his daughter is delivered to him. Once she's delivered, he's established as a completely heartless villain by immediately trying to kill her in order to hide all traces of his identity.
- Just Between You and Me: Believing that he had Bucciarati dead to rights, he goes on to explain his Stand's powers (albeit not completely) at length. This gives the capo a chance to discover King Crimson's only significant weakness and the opportunity to plan around it to escape.
- Karmic Death: The first of the endless deaths he experiences after being affected by Gold Experience Requiem's ability comes from being stabbed by a homeless man under a bridge. In the anime, this is extended by having Diavolo spot a drug needle within a campfire of other homeless people, indicating that he was fatally stabbed by one of the many people whose lives were destroyed by his drug-trafficking operation.
- Kinslaying Is a Special Kind of Evil: He wanted Trish brought safely to him, so he could personally kill her himself so there wouldn't be any doubt of her existence leading back to him in spite of Trish being unaware of the Boss' existence prior to the retrieval, let alone any intent to do harm to him. An action that Bucciarati even as a brutal gangster who was not above torturing for information or brutally killing his foes, immediately found as a final straw to openly turn against him.
- Knight of Cerebus: While Golden Wind already plays itself more seriously than the previous parts and was never lighthearted to begin with, it is the introduction of Diavolo, his true personality, motives and the depths of his depravity halfway through that marks as a significant turning point for the much darker second half of the storyline. Also, unlike DIO, Kars and Kira before him, Diavolo has no darkly comedic traits or hamminess going on for him and he is played completely serious.
- Lack of Empathy: Diavolo is unable to empathize or understand others' emotions and morality, plus an inability to interact with anyone barring Doppio and maybe Donatella before he left her. This is due to his pride and obsession with keeping his identity a secret.
- Large and in Charge: While Diavolo's exact height is unknown, his key art and especially his in-game character models in the fighting games suggest that he is one of the tallest antagonists in the series, only behind DIO himself.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Diavolo has spent his entire criminal career fearing that everyone is out to get him. Thanks to Giorno — someone he initially dismissed as so far below him that he wasn't even a threat — using the arrow to give his Stand a Story-Breaker Power that completely negates his, this fear ends up coming true when Diavolo is trapped in a "Groundhog Day" Loop where he dies over and over again and has no idea when or how it'll happen. Thanks to his already overblown paranoia, it doesn't take very long before he loses his mind, and he's last seen screaming at a little girl with a doll to not come near him. It's a fitting and ironic end for someone who thought his Stand made him an untouchable master of fate; never knowing what his will be.
- Last Villain Stand: His last stance against Giorno. Having left Doppio for dead, his Elite Guards all wiped out, and obtaining the Stand Arrow thwarted, Diavolo almost considered making a tactical retreat until seeing the arrow in Giorno's hand causes his pride to get the best of him and attempts one last strike.
- Longest Pregnancy Ever: His mother claimed to be pregnant with him for two years in an all-female prison, meaning that the possibility that she was impregnated within the prison is extremely unlikely. It also oddly dovetails with Express Delivery, as his mother didn't even show until the day he was born.
- Love at First Sight: Flashbacks in the anime implies that he fell in love with Donatella Una when they met each other for the first time, with him awkwardly asking her out.
- Manipulative Bastard: Prefers to control others from the shadows, like he does with La Squadra and Bucciarati's group. He uses the former to kill his enemies in spite of La Squadra's lower wages and keeping them under the threat of execution to hold them back from rebelling, and the latter being his unsuspecting delivery service for the daughter he intended to kill.
- The Many Deaths of You: Diavolo ends up in an infinite death loop thanks to Gold Experience Requiem's power. He is stuck in a situation where he winds up dying in a wide variety of different scenarios only to be brought back to life, and he doesn't know when and how he will die or what will kill him next. And by the end of it, he goes insane from fear and paranoia.
- Meaningful Name:
- Diavolo means "devil" in Italian to counter Dio's "God". Many take this as his mother or someone dubbing him this due to his bizarre and unnatural birth.
- King Crimson's name and its abilities are believed to come from three different songs by the titular band, and all songs from the same album (a hidden prod towards his Dissociative Identity Disorder):
- "In the Court of the Crimson King": Which ends with the stanza The yellow jester does not play / but gentle pulls the strings / And smiles as the puppets dance / in the court of the Crimson King. The song may inspire Diavolo's dubbing of being emperor, as well as his ploys usually revolving around controlling others, and then his eventual downfall to Giorno, who had been planning Diavolo's fall since the start of the arc and has a gold/yellow Stand.
- "Epitaph": The name for his sub-Stand, the lyrics speak of someone who has "confusion as my epitaph", and believes the world is "in the hands of fools".
- "21st Century Schizoid Man": Diavolo is quite literally a schizoid man living in the 21st century.
- Even without the specific song references, just the name King Crimson points to how Diavolo regards his Stand, considering it the emperor, or "king" of the world owing to its Story-Breaker Power, and as for the Crimson part, well...
- Mysterious Past: Given the eventful weirdness throughout Diavolo's early life and his own obsession of erasing his past, a lot of details are left extremely vague and are never resolved.
- The circumstances of his birth is a first, from the identity of his father to how he was even born in the first place. His mother was in an all-female prison (which includes the guards) for two years before she gave birth to him and she claims that the father died of illness before she was sentenced. The anime makes it even more bizarre: she showed no signs of pregnancy beforehand according to the guards, while Diavolo had his eyes open the whole time post-birth, he wasn't crying at all like normal newborns, and the guard washing him sees his eyes change color from brown to red and back.
- His mother was later found Buried Alive under his house with her mouth stitched shut. Whether it was Diavolo himself or someone else, the identity of the perpetrator was left unsolved. The anime implies that Diavolo was the one who did it.
- The fact that his name is actually Diavolo, which in Italian means Devil. If Doppio is indeed the original soul, then why is he even named "Devil"?
- Finally, the relationship between Diavolo and his Split Personality Doppio. Polnareff theorizes that he manifested Doppio from being abused as a child, but his theory was never confirmed nor discredited. There is also ambiguity to whether Doppio was Diavolo's split personality, and instead may be the other way around. Doppio was never aware that he and Diavolo were the same person, similar to how Dissociative Amnesia affects victims of Dissociative Identity Disorder. Flashbacks of Diavolo's childhood show him strongly resembling Doppio, and he even has similar personality traits such as timid awkwardness and love for animals, and young Diavolo has the same voice as Doppio. Additionally, when Diavolo was born in the prison, the anime showed a scene where his eyes change pupils when he blinked, even as a baby — similar to how Doppio and Diavolo changed their pupils.
- It's debatable whether or not Diavolo and Doppio are even split personalities to begin with. It's implied that they could instead be two separate souls sharing the same body, making them some kind of twisted chimera as a result of the unusual circumstances of their birth.
- Mystical Pregnancy: The circumstances of Diavolo's birth were very strange, to say the least. His mother had no visible signs of pregnancy right up until she went into labor, and the father had been dead for more than two years beforehand. Diavolo's eyes were open the whole time, and he didn't cry at all. Strangest of all, his eyes flickered from brown to red and back again.
- Mr. Fanservice: Wears a transparent mesh shirt that shows off his well-toned body. His long flowing hair does not hurt either. Even when in his hooded appearances, they take the time to showcase his bare legs as well. Also, his first full on-screen appearance is him removing his sweater like a male stripper just to showcase his ripped abs.
- Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Diavolo literally means devil. If that doesn't make you run away, then nothing will.
- Nice to the Waiter: Played with. One of his few softer spots is that despite his paranoia about hiding his existence or anything that could hint at it, this doesn't extend to people who merely see something unwittingly, such as a maid entering his hotel room or a cab driver who might have seen a picture, though this kindness is only exhibited by not killing them on the spot. Probably because he can tell that there's no point in doing so when it's unlikely that anyone would believe them about what they saw.
- Nonconformist Dyed Hair: Pink with spots, either dark green or violet in color. The hair is naturally colored pink too, considering Trish inherited it and the anime shows he had it as a newborn. According to JOJOVELLER, the spots aren't natural. Apparently, he paints them in because "he's a punk".
- No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: On the receiving end of one at the hands of Gold Experience Requiem which lasts for 15 seconds in the anime, making it the third-longest beatdown in the series behind Cioccolata and Steely Dan.
- "No More Holding Back" Speech: He has a rare villainous variant after failing to retrieve the Arrow.Diavolo: Who was it that once said, "We all stand as soldiers chosen by destiny"? How quaint. This world has taught me other truths. Fate has bestowed upon me an extraordinary power: To obliterate time and see the future. As such, only one spot suits me in the natural order. There is no question... I, King Crimson, am destiny's chosen to reign at the top! A mere soldier I am not! So why?! Why couldn't I seize the arrow?! It should have been so simple! How on Earth could I fail such a small task?! This is inconceivable! But it's not defeat! It may not be now, but victory will be mine! For now, I must rest. I will bide my time and strike when the moment is right. I haven't been beaten, only delayed! My powers will thrust me back to the top in no time!
- No-Nonsense Nemesis: Diavolo is serious in dealing with his targets to ensure they are killed and prefers to end his fights as soon as possible. Unlike his enemies with their Stands, he is not interested in repeatedly beating up his foes with his Stand, King Crimson with a Stand cry. When Diavolo deals with them, he ensures each punch by his Stand is fatal. Abbachio, Bucciarati and Narancia learned this the hard way.
- Non-Indicative Name: Played With. Diavolo refers to his ability as "time erasure" due to it seeming like time suddenly disappeared and from an outside perspective, this is what it seems like. However, it's much more accurate to say time is skipping forward. This very terminology is what causes a lot of confusion for Jojo fans attempting to explain his abilities.
- Non-Standard Character Design: Compared to the more conventional looking eyes of the cast, Diavolo's irises are "fragmented", forming as spots and shards of whole irides with a triangular shaped highlight to them, which emphasize his madness, paranoia, and vaguely inhuman traits. This trait is emphasized when Bruno is temporally forced to swap bodies with Diavolo due to Chariot Requiem's effects, the latter's eyes are for a short time are joined together to give his body normal looking eyes.
- Obviously Evil: The narrative makes it very clear that he is rotten to the core. First, his organization is confirmed to be selling drugs to children before brutally showcasing in the case of La Squadra for what happens to those who try to breach his privacy. He also spends time in his dimly lit hotel room while covering his face with a long cloak to make himself even more ominous. And finally, he manipulates his most loyal capo into committing suicide in order to cover his tracks and then tries to kill Trish in order to erase his bloodline after Bucciarati's team manages to escort her safely to Venice which, at this point, is no longer surprising. Diavolo's appearance is also suggesting this: before his full reveal, he was shown as an ominous shadowy silhouette looming over his goons and when fully revealed, he has a somewhat demonic appearance with Hellish Pupils and an equally terrifying Stand with a Nightmare Face.
- Offing the Offspring: Spends all of Part 5 trying to kill Trish. He briefly succeeds when he forces her soul out of Mista's body, but Bucciarati saves her by reversing the soul-swapping process.
- Older Alter Ego: Possibly inverted with Doppio, who is Diavolo's younger alter ego.
- The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: Instead of hiring a hitman, he had Trish sent to him so that he could kill her himself. This leads to Team Bucciarati betraying him and leading to this downfall, so all this action accomplished for him was showing how evil he was.
- Orcus on His Throne: Throughout most of the part, he always remains in the shadows and leaves the heavy-lifting to his underlings and split personality Doppio. It's only after Cioccolata and Secco are taken out that he does do the job himself.
- Parental Abandonment: Apart from just averting the hell out of the usual guilt part, from not knowing she existed to desiring to kill her right off the bat, Diavolo suffered from this himself because his mother was in jail for eight years of his life and his father was already dead.
- The Paranoiac: And how. The guy's absolutely obsessed in remaining anonymous to the point he's willing to kill his daughter to tie up any loose ends, and is a Control Freak over his organization to the highest degree. When given his Fate Worse than Death, he is driven insane by his paranoia, unable to tell where, when or how he's going to die. Essentially, he died the way he lived.
- Perpetual Frowner: Aside from an occasional smirk, Diavolo's default expression is a constant scowl.
- Personality Powers: Diavolo is obsessed with keeping his identity a secret; King Crimson's ability to remove everyone's perception of time plays into that. Additionally, Diavolo often makes impulsive decisions to get immediate short-term results; his power allows him to skip time and go straight to the result he wants (which usually means avoiding an enemy's attack).
- Pet the Dog: He spared his girlfriend Donatella, whom he told many lies to about his life and had a child with, and let her keep the photo he took of her. He comes to regret this decision when he discovers that the photo could be traced back to him.
- Pragmatic Villainy: For the most part, Diavolo's grasp of the Villain Ball leads him away from this trope where a number of situations with simple solutions are ignored for more involved violent ones. That said there's a number of times where he tries his hand at this. He offers Bruno a chance to walk away from confronting him before the fight starts, if only because he feels Bruno has proven himself useful enough for potential assignments in the future. Doesn't stop him from killing the man, however. Though he thinks Cioccolata is trash, it's easy to understand why sending him out is only a last-minute resort, as the sheer amount of casualties Cioccolata can rack up would attract far too much attention (that and he's well aware of Cioccolata's treacherous streak). There's also the fact that he cut a fair deal with the Narcotics Team, a powerful group of Stand users in their own right, rather than fighting them and taking the operation for himself. When it comes to his own conduct, he does try to avoid killing innocents unless he feels it's unavoidable, if at the least to not draw attention to himself. For example, a maid suddenly came into his hotel room to clean, not knowing he was there. Rather than kill her, he just erased time, gathered his things, and left. Likewise, when he killed a fortune teller, that was mostly due to said teller not backing off when he had the chance. A kid witnessed the murder but Diavolo didn't bother going after him.
- Properly Paranoid:
- While it doesn't excuse his attempted murder of Trish, Giorno did plan to use her to discover his identity.
- Due to his paranoia, if he's concerned that something or someone could expose his identity he would make sure it's wiped out. After killing Abbacchio, he expected Bucciarati and his team to give up, seeing them on the move towards Rome has him convinced that they've learned something he does not know about.
- Psycho Pink: Has pink hair and is a dangerous crime boss with a lethal Stand.
- Psychic Link: With his daughter Trish, via their Stands. After the plane crash following the fight with Notorious B.I.G, he can tell that she survived, that her Stand has awakened, and that the gang is heading to Sardinia.
Q-Z
- Rank Scales with Asskicking: The Don of Passione, and master of the most broken Stand in Italy, making him one of the most powerful characters around. Most people who encounter him end up dead in seconds.
- Real Men Wear Pink: A quite literal case in that he has pink hair and is a Mr. Fanservice courtesy of JoJo fashion style yet he is among the most terrifying villains of the series, being the one who has given the Stand Arrows to various people, such as Enya Geil. In the anime, his first on-screen appearance has him wear a dark pink suit.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: In the anime, just when he's born, one of the prison guards noticed that his eyes briefly turn red.
- Resurrection/Death Loop: His ultimate fate, courtesy of Gold Experience Requiem, is to eternally experience the process of dying in a series of life-like nightmares, without ever reaching the actual respite of death itself.
- Riddle for the Ages: Practically everything about his past is left unanswered, even after his defeat.
- Satanic Archetype: Firstly his name in Italian translates to devil. He's also primarily associated with being in lower areas like the basement of the location that he wanted Trish delivered and at revealing himself to Polnareff at the bottom of the stairs instead of the top, like DIO did — subtly implying themes of the Devil lording in Hell, which is normally situated below the earth. His defeat by Giorno, has him being tossed down into an unescapable nightmare mirroring the Devil being cast out of heaven into hell. Joining his gang for fame and other goals is presented like a Deal with the Devil with lethal consequences if you try to later back out of said deal. The way he takes over Doppio's body is reminiscent of a case of Demonic Possession.
- Self-Fulfilling Prophecy:
- His goal is to remain completely anonymous because of his insane paranoia, which would have the biggest benefits of insulating him from his enemies and potential traitors, but the gruesome lengths he's willing to go to to secure that anonymity ends up turning almost everyone we see from his organization against him and is what spurs them into trying to find out his identity in the first place.
- Diavolo believes that his daughter Trish will end up having him killed... he turns out to be right, but only because he tries to kill her. If he'd left her alone, she wouldn't have been around to develop her Stand, which proved crucial in helping Bucciarati's gang defeat him.
- Self-Made Orphan: Might have had his mother Buried Alive and burned down the village he was raised in, including the priest who raised him as a father. The anime implies that he murdered the priest with a pickaxe.
- Shadow Archetype: Diavolo has all of Giorno's unscrupulous traits but without the redeeming qualities such as righteousness and especially trusting in others. He is essentially what Giorno could have become had Giorno not met the mobster who saved him from an abusive childhood.
- Shout-Out: The circumstances of his birth and demonic undertones bring to mind The Scarlet Letter.
- Sinister Silhouettes: Spends the entirety of his fight with Bucciarati as one and appears a few times before then as a mobster covered in shadows.
- Sissy Villain: Downplayed, while Diavolo’s dirty pink woman like hairstyle and use of lipstick makes him look like a sissy, he is one of the most intimidating villains in the series.
- Slouch of Villainy: He has a terrible posture throughout the entire story, as if he's trying to cover himself as much as possible.
- Smug Snake: Diavolo sees himself as a lot smarter than he really is. It's only thanks to circumstances, luck and the power of his Stand that things were able to go his way for so long.
- Smug Super: Believes himself to be invincible thanks to the powers of King Crimson, and for most of the story he's right to be smug.
- The Sociopath: Possibly the straightest example in the series. He's extremely prone to fits of anger and extremely paranoid and cares for absolutely no one, except maybe Donatella and Doppio. And unlike most other primary villains in the series, he is lacking in charisma.
- Split Personality: An integral part of Diavolo's masquerade is that he has a second personality, Vinegar Doppio, which he allows to stay in the forefront of the body's control while still observing. Doppio, while a member of Passione, is still pretty innocent compared to the likes of Cioccolata and Risotto, and is also a cardinal Cloudcuckoolander thanks to the way Diavolo communicates with him. Oddly enough, when Chariot Requiem goes haywire, it turns out that Doppio and Diavolo are actually separate souls. Arguably, they're actually a chimera resulting from one fetus absorbing the other in utero.
- The Spook: His goal in the series is to remain a feared, shadowy leader through any means necessary.
- Story-Breaker Power: His Stand, King Crimson (localized as Emperor Crimson), has the power to skip time and move around in the skipped time to take advantage of an unsuspecting attacker. As if that weren't enough, its sub-Stand, Epitaph (localized as Eulogy), can see 10 seconds into the future. Allowing Diavolo to take advantage of his time-skipping ability and skip to the predestined outcome, which also works if a prediction isn't in his favor. Because of the nature of this ability, along with Crimson's incredible strength, this allows him to kill Bucciarati, Abbacchio, Polnareff, and Narancia with ease. Not even breaking a sweat before or after the actions are completed. Thus, we don't really see the heroes directly fight Crimson that much in the story. The only reason he even ends up losing is because of Giorno gaining an even more powerful Story-Breaker Power in the form of a Requiem Stand.
- Super Mob Boss: The head of a criminal organization with numerous Stand Users in its ranks, and has the most powerful Stand out of them.
- Surprise Pregnancy: Was a victim of it; He didn't know Trish existed for fifteen years.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: He's basically a much more manic Dio Brando, allowing Giorno to confront someone very much like his father at the climax of Part 5. In the final opening scene of the anime, he even walks behind Giorno while his Stand ability is activated, much like DIO does with Jotaro in the final opening scene of Stardust Crusaders.
- Take Over the World: After learning the full capacity of the Stand Arrows, he does everything he can to obtain the remaining one to dominate all life with the possible power upgrade it can provide.
- Tattooed Crook: Inverted. The floral patterns in his sleeves look a lot like highly stylized tattoos.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: If he and Trish are teamed up in Eyes of Heaven, they don't even try to hide the fact that they're disgusted at having to work together. Even Dio and Giorno have better chemistry in the game.
- Three-Month-Old Newborn: When he was born in a women's prison, he already had a full head of hair and full set of teeth, his eyes were open, and he wasn't even crying. Possibly justified due to the bizarre nature of his mother's pregnancy, which lasted over two years.
- Underestimating Badassery: In the midst of the last battle, Diavolo believes Giorno's Gold Experience Requiem merely gained a power-up in strength, completely forgetting that the power of Requiem grants Stands entirely new abilities as it did with Silver Chariot. This ended up being a completely fatal mistake.
- Undignified Death: What he's ultimately doomed to experience for eternity. He's trapped in an infinite loop of repeatedly dying in humiliating and cruel ways, such as getting stabbed by a junkie or tripping by the sidewalk and getting rammed by a car.
- The Unfettered: He admits to only caring about results and he'll do anything to keep his identity a secret, including unleashing Cioccolata upon Bucciarati's team despite the mass civilian casualties. This trait is best reflected by his Stand, King Crimson, whose signature ability to erase time enables Diavolo to effectively erase the cause from the effect.
- Unperson: Diavolo's goal is to do this to himself, ensuring that no one knows anything about what he looks like, his personal history, or anything else about him. This involves mercilessly killing anyone who tries to discover information about him, or anyone who has the slightest bit of relation to him.
- Used to Be a Sweet Kid: Described in flashbacks as a timid but well-meaning kid whose dream is to become a sailor. The anime also shows that he was also a Friend to All Living Things. As he grows older, it all goes downhill from there, with Doppio being the only remaining shred of his old self. That is assuming Diavolo was the original dominant personality, though.
- Vampiric Draining: Never said explicitly, but it's implied that he drank almost all of a kid's blood. Granted, he did it to replenish the iron he had lost in the battle against Risotto Nero, but that doesn't make it any less squicky.
- Verbal Tic: In the anime, he tend to use a sarcastic "eh?" from time to time.
- Villain Ball: Golden Wind is less of a story of Giorno overthrowing a really superior villain and more of Diavolo starting from an unassailable position and then digging a hole for himself. This is justified in that all of the below actions are a direct result of his rampant paranoia, and he often sabotages himself in an attempt to remain hidden. Examples of this include:
- In his attempts to make his drugs the only drugs on the market, he alienates some of his followers, including Bucciarati... which starts the plot.
- Brutally killing Sorbet and Gelato as a message of how he didn't want anyone finding out his identity. This led to La Squadra, a very competent and dangerous assassin team, rebelling two years before the plot. Their leader, Risotto Nero, basically has an "Instant Death" Radius, and when Nero finally tracks him down, Diavolo only makes it out of the encounter with some very fortunate thinking.
- Killing Trish in the elevator and showing Bucciarati her severed arm as an intimidation tactic. Instead of simply waiting for Trish to be delivered to him and then killing her behind Bucciarati's back, Diavolo thought it was a good idea to snatch her from him directly. Bucciarati is an honorable man would never let something like this slide, let alone the other members of the group waiting just outside the cathedral. Granted, the sheer brokenness of his Stand meant none of them would be a real threat to him, but still.
- His entire plan to bring Trish to him so he can kill her qualifies, since the entire situation was his own fault. The only enemies he was shown to have that even knew she existed were ex-Passione members who he drove out of the organization with his Bad Boss tendencies. Pretty much the only reason Trish became a liability was because of Diavolo's own carelessness. Up until he dragged her into his business, she had absolutely no connection to him that anyone could trace back to him, her physical resemblance to him would only be a problem if his aim to hide his own appearance had already failed. Spice Girl's resemblance to King Crimson only even became a potential problem because his dragging her into danger awakened it, and she knew pretty much nothing about him until the revelation that he wanted to kill her spurred her to look into his past.
- The six or seven times that the Mundane Solution of using the tank-destroying strength of King Crimson and its ability to erase time was avoided are usually because of his rampant paranoia. For example, the fight against Nero could have gone much better had he simply emerged and then immediately used King Crimson's time erasure, but the mere possibility that Nero could escape after seeing him prevents Diavolo from doing so.
- His lack of foresight in the decision to give away all but one of the Arrows to others after gaining a Stand for himself. While Polpo is capable of recruiting a good number of Stand Users with just one arrow, Polnareff manages to get his hands on one of the others that Diavolo sold off, eventually leading to his demise. Adding onto this, he also fails to double-check for Polnareff's body.
- Villainous Breakdown: The entire final battle with Giorno and the gang is basically one long villainous breakdown. It begins when Diavolo is left in utter disbelief that he couldn't obtain the arrow and it only gets worse when Gold Experience becomes Gold Experience Requiem. His desperation and panic are only further exacerbated when GER begins to avert his powers as Diavolo starts to realize his defeat is near. After supposedly escaping, he's stabbed to death by a crazed druggie, only to wake up being autopsied alive, only to wake up again to get run over by a car, and becomes horrified when he discovers he's doomed to die infinitely with no permanent end. He's last seen having gone completely insane from paranoia while screaming at a little girl to get away from him.Diavolo: How?! How many deaths must I die?! What will happen to me next?! How much longer do I have to wait for the end?! (as a little girl approaches him) Stay back! Leave me be! Don't come closer! STAY AWAY!!! LEAVE ME ALOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONE!!!!!
- Villain Song: Not exactly a song, but the second version of "Traitor’s Requiem" contains an ominous verse spoken by him in Italian from episodes 34-38.Nessuno può sfuggire dal destino scelto. (No one can escape the fate that was chosen for them.)
Rimane solo il risultato che voi sarete distrutti. (All that remains is the end, where you will all perish.)
L'eterna cima esiste solo per me. (Eternal greatness exists only within myself.)
Puoi cantare canzoni di tristezza nel mondo senza tempo. (Sing a song of sorrow in a world where time has vanished.) - Vocal Dissonance: Despite being only 33, his voice in both Japanese and English makes him sound closer to his mid-40s to early-50s.
- Voices Are Mental: Played with, since Diavolo technically can alter how any part of Doppio looks and may not just be external.
- Walking Shirtless Scene: Well, it's actually a mesh shirt, but for what it's worth it's transparent.
- Walking Spoiler: Nearly everything about him is shrouded in mystery until the last part of the story. His face and name are treated as big secrets, with the gang's attempt to uncover his identity being an important story arc.
- Where I Was Born and Razed: Very likely was the one who burnt down the church and town he grew up in.
- Who's Your Daddy?: Inverse edition. To call the circumstances regarding his conception "bizarre" would be a gross understatement. His mother was an inmate in a female prison with absolutely no male guards. Add in the timing of when she was incarcerated, and the oddly long pregnancy (2 years as opposed to around 8 months), and we are looking at one very difficult-to-decipher paternity issue, in the form of no viable candidates. At all.
- Worthy Opponent:
- Rather surprisingly for someone otherwise serious and ruthless like Diavolo, he actually does show respect towards Risotto Nero for almost succeeding in killing him and using a last-ditch move to almost kill Diavolo with Aerosmith, which ended with Nero dying instead of giving him back the iron he stole and in effect almost leading to Diavolo's capture by the heroes.
- He expresses respect for Polnareff as well, noting during their second fight that despite having lost his legs and one of his arms, he's Still Got It, years after their first fight. He notes that if he was any closer to him, Polnareff would've severely wounded him.
- Would Hurt a Child: He has no qualms about tying up a young boy, sewing his mouth shut and cutting open his wrist to drink his blood in an effort to regain the iron he lost to Risotto.
- Wrong Context Magic: No other character like him exists in the JoJo universe, with two separate soulsnote that have inhabited the same body from birth.
- You Can't Thwart Stage One: Averted; In a series where the Big Bad usually gets what he wants before a Deus ex Machina shows up to punish them, not only does Diavolo not get the Requiem Arrow to increase his power, he becomes the guinea pig for the enhanced power of Giorno's new Requiem ability.
Vinegar Doppio
Vinegar Doppio
Voiced by: Soma Saito (TV anime, JP and All-Star Battle R), Griffin Burns (TV anime, EN), Akira Ishida (All-Star Battle and Eyes of Heaven), Mitsuru Miyamoto (Vento Aureo video game)
"I miss you. It would mean the world if you'd call again... Boss."
"That's weird. If my phone's broken, how did I talk to the Boss?"
The underboss of Passione, not that he looks like it or even acts like it. Unlike the other members of Passione, Doppio is overall polite and very loyal and only ever acts like his subordinates when upset. He communicates with Diavolo over telephone... or so he thinks — anyone observing him will see that he's actually speaking into an ice cream cone, or a frog, or some other strange object. Despite that, he's actually very capable in a battle despite his lack of abilities in combat.
His Stand (named after a song by King Crimson) is on lend from his boss: Epitaph allows Doppio to see up to ten seconds into the future and then react accordingly, allowing him to change the outcomes as far as who gets hit with what. He can also summon King Crimson's arms for self-defense, but he cannot skip time to his advantage.
Doppio is in reality a split personality of Diavolo. Diavolo remains hidden away in Doppio's subconscious but still pretends to call him on the "phone", directing his actions. Diavolo only shows his true self when Doppio is in danger of revealing his own identity.
- Absurdly Youthful Father: Doppio is technically Trish's father, but barely looks any older than her due to split-personality shenanigans involving him looking 17-19 and his "true" self being 33.
- Affably Evil: A pleasant young man who's willing to help total strangers while also simultaneously working for one of the most brutal crime lords in Italy who is slowly poisoning the nation with illegal drugs, on top of being the Split Personality of that said crime boss.
- Alas, Poor Villain: Doppio is left to die alone in Bucciarati's body to bleed out, waiting for his Boss to reassure him like always and begs for Diavolo to call him.
- Amnesia Loop: Appears to be the case, and not even Diavolo's fault for once, because Doppio's memory is ridiculously faulty. For example, Diavolo warns Doppio of Risotto Nero, teaches him a strategy to fight him, tells him to investigate the house Donatella lived in, and then hangs up. Doppio then forgets in one panel that he had the phone conversation and every single order he was given except for the "get within two meters of Risotto and kill him" part. Later on, he sacrifices his current "phone" in order to get an attack in on Risotto, only to realize after his monologue he's phoneless... and again, in one panel, forgets his phone was destroyed and questions why there's a frog filled with razors right in front of him.
- Anti-Villain: He'd probably be a pretty nice guy if he wasn't part of Passione and Diavolo's split personality.
- Berserk Button: Just like his Boss, he's not especially fond of having people figuring out his identity. The danger of it being revealed is what triggers his personality switching to Diavolo's.
- Beware the Silly Ones: You may think he's not much judging by his quirky traits and overall timidness, but once Diavolo takes over he becomes violent and erratic. And even as Doppio, he has no qualms with killing people in cold blood.
- Body Horror: When he uses Epitaph, the first time it manifests, the smaller face visibly grows out of Doppio's forehead.
- Brought to You by the Letter "S": During the Green Day & Oasis arc, he wears a white baseball cap with the letter "D" on it.
- Bullying a Dragon: Diavolo does not take kindly to those pressuring Doppio, and anyone trying to is in for a nasty surprise; most notably of all, Diavolo appeared to be forcibly restraining himself from emerging when Secco attempted to take Doppio hostage, then slapped him; the only hint that he was about to turn at that time was his eyes, and his hairstyle slightly unseating itself.
- Cloudcuckoolander: At least, to those around him. Whenever he "gets a call" from Diavolo, he practically falls into a trance, stumbling away with a blank expression as he imitates the sound of a phone ringing, only to snap back periodically and question where the noise is supposed to come from.
- Combat Clairvoyance: Has a limited version of this granted to him by his boss. Epitaph's ability isn't complete; it can only see specific moments in time as opposed to King Crimson foreseeing everything that happens during the predicted time, and also lacks KC's ability to remove everyone's perception of the predicted time.
- The Comically Serious: At one point he has a serious conversation with Diavolo about the traitors...while he's using ice cream as a phone.
- The Consigliere: This is his official rank in Passione, meaning that he is second only to Diavolo himself. Even though he is fairly capable with a dangerous ability, he is an extremely unusual example of this trope as he appears relatively younger and more naive as opposed to the more hardened but lower-ranked members. What makes it even more unusual is that since Doppio is a split personality of Diavolo, this means that Diavolo in effect served as his own Consigliere.
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Despite being a bit of an idiot and an Unwitting Pawn to his own Split Personality Doppio was able to cut of Risotto's foot and was able to take him on before Diavolo had to take over showing that he is more dangerous then he initially seems.
- Curtains Match the Window: In the colored manga, Doppio has pink hair to go with pink eyes. This is only ever played straight, however, when Doppio or Bucciarati control Diavolo's body.
- Cute and Psycho: He's really scary when he's angry or when Diavolo hijacks the conversation.
- The Dragon: Played with in a few ways: His position is largely assumed and it's only likely that he's the underboss due to Diavolo's care. Although Giorno and his allies planned to overthrow Diavolo, they never targeted Doppio and his authority is never proven because he keeps away from other members of Passione. In fact, despite being one of the few who actually communicates with Diavolo, Risotto Nero had no idea who he was until Doppio accidentally revealed he was a Stand user. For the most part, he's just Diavolo's gopher. He also is Diavolo, but doesn't realize it.
- Dual Age Modes: From 17-19-year old into 33-year old Diavolo.
- Dub Name Change: In the Italian translation his first name is Aceto, which is actually Italian and is close to the actual Italian surname of "Aceti"note .
- Dying Alone: Is shot and bleeds out waiting for the Boss to call him one last time.
- Early-Bird Cameo: Is the one who orders Squalo and Tiziano to move in on Bucciarati's group in the anime at the end of Episode 21.
- Edible Theme Naming: "Vinegar", obviously. A "Doppio", on the other hand, is an espresso that by the use of a special coffee filter is twice the size of a regular "solo" espresso.
- Evil Counterpart: He is one to Trish. Both have a deep connection with their team's boss (Doppio to Diavolo, Trish to Bucciarati), have their Stands awakened in the middle of a heated battle with a member of La Squadra, and are central to Diavolo's plans to rid himself of his past. Both resort to disguise to get as far as they do: Trish initially disguises as a janitor before being handed off to Bucciarati's gang, while Doppio is the disguise for Diavolo to directly get rid of evidence (though Doppio himself is unaware of it). Additionally, they both can be considered Diavolo's family: Trish is this by blood, being his illegitimate daughter and all, while Doppio is a metaphorical "son", being mentored to a fault by Diavolo and being "born" from his consciousness. He also resembles what little we see of Diavolo as a young man, giving him and Trish a few physical similarities.
- Eye Colour Change: Whenever Diavolo takes over, his eyes go from Doppio's brown to Diavolo's green.
- Fighting Spirit: Subverted. Not only does Doppio not really fight, nor is Epitaph that helpful in attacking, Epitaph isn't even his to begin with, but instead a powerful and necessary part of King Crimson that Diavolo lets Doppio use to defend himself against Risotto, along with King Crimson's arms.
- Fish Eyes: On-and-off with Diavolo's eyes. This is usually a sign Diavolo is gazing out of Doppio's body and may or may not relate to how much of Doppio is being controlled by Diavolo.
- Friend to All Living Things: Doppio shows protectiveness and affection for animals, including frogs and insects.
- Good Eyes, Evil Eyes: Doppio's irises are pink (brown in the anime) by default. When Diavolo speaks through him or otherwise takes control, they become black (green in the anime) and broken.
- Even in their base form, in the anime, Doppio's eyes never once reflect light. This subtly hints that there's something wrong with him.
- Hulking Out: As Diavolo's right-hand man, he can "channel" King Crimson's powers to see a little bit into the future or to briefly boost his physical parameters (size, strength, etc).
- I Will Fight Some More Forever: Done during the Risotto Nero fight when Doppio decides to stay and fight while figuring out how to counteract Metallica. Invoked when Diavolo takes back his order to fight and begins yelling at Doppio to run and Doppio begins to purposefully ignore the advice.Diavolo: Doppio, get out of there! You're going to be attacked!Doppio: But boss... you said... It's better not to move because moving will drain me even more... So, if I don't move, it'll be easier for me... To find out his ability!
- Locked Out of the Loop: Diavolo may be perfectly aware that Doppio and himself share the same body, but Doppio genuinely thinks that Diavolo and him are two different people that only communicate through phones rather than mentally.
- Made of Iron: Pun unintended, but, during the Risotto fight he had scissors burst from his neck and he remained standing and willing to fight!
- Meaningful Name: "Doppio" is Italian for double, which Doppio essentially is to Diavolo.
- Mood-Swinger: Doppio can go from submissive and cowardly to violent and vicious in a short matter of time, making him a rather unpredictable person.
- Morality Pet: Probably the only person Diavolo shows any degree of affection too, and he shows a sense of protectiveness whenever Doppio is in trouble. Though considering that they're one and the same person, it could be chalked up to Pragmatic Villainy out of self-preservation.
- Mugging the Monster: Apart from being commonplace in Doppio's life, something Diavolo does try to fix on occasion, Risotto Nero's battle came down to this and Secco randomly chose him to become his hostage as a last-ditch effort.
- My Master, Right or Wrong: He's a nice person, but the Boss' orders come before anything else. He very likely would have spared the fortune teller he met in his introductory arc had the poor guy not kept prying deeper and deeper into Doppio's true nature.
- Non-Action Guy: Doppio isn't ever fought by the heroes, apart having battled Risotto, he has a chance encounter with Bucciarati and Polnareff. He doesn't have a stand or a way to defend himself on his own unless Diavolo lends him parts of his stand.
- Obliviously Evil: Unlike his alter-ego who is Obviously Evil from the get go, Doppio comes off to both the cast and the audience as too silly and mild-mannered to be a threat, let alone a dangerous mafioso. Which is exactly what Diavolo wants.
- Older Than They Look: Despite looking to be around the protagonists' age, he's actually the Split Personality of Diavolo, who is around thirty-three. Many theorize their ages look so different because Doppio is what Diavolo looked like when he was 17–19 and, being a split personality, stopped aging at that point for one reason or another.
- Pet the Dog: Normally whenever he needs to take a "call" from Diavolo he will frantically search for the closest "phone" and react violently to anyone near it, accusing them of stealing his "phone" and chase them away. The one time this isn't the case though is when he uses a toy phone on a plane that belongs to a little girl. After he finishes with it, he gives it back to her, thanking her for letting him use it and apologizing for hogging it.
- Plot Armor: Doppio had been on the verge of death two times, once by Risotto Nero and another by Bucciarati. For Risotto, it was just by luck that he had manipulated Narancia's Stand, and for Bucciarati, it was by luck he was mistaken for a civilian and then pressumed to be Trish. It was the second instance that got Diavolo close to Polnareff in the final battle as well. It gets revoked when he gets body swapped due to Chariot Requiem, in which he is then shot and bleeds out not long after.
- Preacher's Kid: After being born in a women's prison, he/Diavolo was raised by a priest in his mother's hometown of Sardinia.
- Prophecy Twist: Doppio cannot manipulate the future like Diavolo does. If he predicts himself being seriously wounded, the best he can do is brace for impact and try to mitigate the damage. However, there are also times he has ambiguous visions that he is able to turn on his favor.
- Punny Name: Going back on the espresso meaning, to become Diavolo, Doppio doubles in size.
- Rose-Haired Sweetie: Played with. Doppio is generally a kind person and willing to help total strangers, who would probably be a straight-up Nice Guy if he wasn't the split personality of a psychotic mafia boss and prone to violence disturbingly easily.
- Saying Sound Effects Out Loud: When he gets a "phone call" from Diavolo, he'll make a ringing noise by going "Dorurururururu..."
- Seers: The power of Epitaph is that it allows the user to see 10 seconds into the future, with all events being fated to happen, but the user can still plan accordingly. Doppio is only granted Epitaph, meaning he has to physically plan out his course of action within the next 10 seconds.
- Serious Business: He can get aggressively intense if he thinks people are preventing him from answering phone calls from Diavolo. Mostly out of loyalty, but partially out of fear.
- Shoe Phone: Parodied. Doppio's main form of communication with his boss is supposedly his cell phone. But when it breaks, he starts grabbing random objects and treating them like phones, going so far as to make ring tone noises himself, while being completely unaware that he's the one making those noises. Among the objects Doppio has used as phones include car charms, toy phones, and frogs. Despite this, Doppio is able to communicate with the Boss by using these random objects as phones; presumably the only reason this seems to work is because the Boss is his split personality.
- Slipknot Ponytail: Played with. Doppio's hair is mostly pinned back in a very elaborate braid or tied back with a scrunchie and, while it doesn't come undone while fighting Risotto, somehow it becomes undone with the simple action of removing his sweater.
- Split Personality: To Diavolo, who acts as his Superpowered Evil Side.
- Technicolor Eyes: In All-Star Battle, on the other hand, Player 1 colors have Doppio with orange eyes to contrast the purple. His eyes are dulled down into brown in the anime.
- Undying Loyalty: To Diavolo. Makes sense, seeing how they're the same person, but even when they're in separate bodies does Doppio remain ever loyal to Diavolo. Even when they're not in the same body and Doppio is bleeding out, he's still rooting for Diavolo to win.
- Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Averted. People who see Doppio talking to himself in these "phones" react like any normal person would.
- Vague Age: He could pass for someone in his teenage years, but at the same time, he is also assumed to be young adult.
- Villain Protagonist: Though Doppio's fight with Risotto Nero is a villain vs. villain affair, it's structured from the perspective of Doppio. Doppio fulfills the typical hero role of being outmatched at first and trying to figure out his opponent's Stand ability alongside the audience.
- Voices Are Mental: Played with, since Diavolo technically can alter how any part of Doppio looks and may not just be external.
- Walking Spoiler: The fact that both he and Diavolo are in fact one and the same person is a major spoiler.
- Wouldn't Hurt a Child: Unlike Diavolo, Doppio is kind to children; he saves a boy from getting hit by a car and politely gives a toy phone back to a little girl after he's finished using it to communicate with his alter-ego (which is notable because he usually gets violent towards people holding his "phones").
- Wrong Context Magic: No other character like him and Diavolo exists in the JoJo universe, with two separate souls that have inhabited the same body from birth.
- Youthful Freckles: Doppio somehow manifests them whenever Diavolo shifts over to him. And neither Diavolo nor Trish have freckles.
King Crimson & Epitaph
King Crimson
"Long before your gaze can hope to reach me... You will have already left this world."
Epitaph
"It's peered through time to trace your trajectory... The trajectory of your future self! When King Crimson wields its extraordinary power, time as we know it flits away and all memories formed therein completely cease to exist. Clouds are torn asunder and know not why. The flickering flame is blotted away without any consciousness of its demise. All that remains are consequences. The omnipotence of my time-obliterating powers renders all action futile! Only I have the ability to respond to these actions! I can foretell the exact flavor of your intentions! Now feel the power of King Crimson!"
King Crimson (named after King Crimson), can erase, or "skip" time — it eliminates a section of time from anywhere between .5 to 10 seconds, during which Diavolo is completely immune to attacks. It has a sub-Stand named Epitaph (named after the song on In the Court of the Crimson King), which allows him to see 10 seconds into the future.
For the better part of Golden Wind, Diavolo hides in the shadows, with only his Stand King Crimson making the occasional appearance. However, it is not considered a sentient Stand.
- Achilles' Heel: Tunnel vision. When using King Crimson's Time Skip, Diavolo has to focus on the immediate actions around himself to prepare for his counterattack, and he tends to not consider what might happen once time flows normally. Some savvy fighters have taken advantage of this, such as one of Bucciarati's attacks being a feint to set up his escape.
- Acid-Trip Dimension: This is what the world is rendered as during skipped time: objects crack like stone and vanish into a desolate black and red cosmos, with the only thing remaining besides Diavolo and King Crimson are other people and their immediate future movements highlighted and animated like reverse after images. In the anime, the cosmic backround looks similar to the album Islands by the band King Crimson, appropriately enough.
- Adaptation Dye-Job: Although All-Star Battle and Eyes of Heaven gave it a pink-reddish body with yellow highlights and white armor, the colored manga, the PS2 game, and the anime gave it a crimson body with white highlights and silver armor. Epitaph is always a shade of pink, though, and its eyes are always emerald green.
- Call-Back: During its first use against Bucciarati, Diavolo has it subject him to an out-of-body experience reminiscent of what Gold Experience did to him near the start of the series. Unlike Giorno, Diavolo takes full advantage of his opponent's helplessness and technically murders him on the spot.
- Combat Clairvoyance: King Crimson has a secondary ability called Epitaph that lets Diavolo and Doppio see 10 seconds into the future. It functions more as a Required Secondary Power, since Diavolo wouldn't be able to predict or plan around King Crimson's time erasure otherwise.
- Contrasting Sequel Antagonist:
- Just as Diavolo is one to DIO, King Crimson is one to The World. On paper the two Stands are extremely similar, both being powerful close-range Stands with monstrous raw strength and an ability that distorts the flow of time for around ten seconds. but their ability functions in the exact opposite way: The World allowed DIO to freeze time for everything except himself, While King Crimson makes it impossible for the world to effect Diavolo under any circumstances. The World is a muscular being dressed in gold armor to highlight Dio's god complex while King Crimson is a slender being dressed in red to highlight Diavolo's satanic imagery. The World rarely emotes and always has a blank, emotionless stare on its face while King Crimson is very expressive and is prone to frequent and unnerving facial expressions. Likewise, The World never speaks outside of its Stand Cry while Diavolo is constantly shown speaking through King Crimson. Their fighting styles are also polar opposites, reflecting the contrasts between their owners. The World prefers to pummel its enemies with Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs, reflecting DIO's sadism and tendency to toy with his opponents while King Crimson prefers to go for the kill immediately ending fights quickly by impaling foes with his fists or slicing them apart with powerful karate chops, reflecting Diavolo's brutal yet no-nonsense approach to fighting.
- Also, as Diavolo is one to Yoshikage Kira, King Crimson is one to Killer Queen. Both are powerful, close-ranged Stands with control over time and are equipped with sub Stands to make them more dangerous. However, Killer Queen is not as effective at close combat and relies mostly on its bomb-making ability and its remote bomb Sheer Heart Attack to be a threat while King Crimson's ability to both erase time and see the future with Epitaph combined with its immense strength make any attempt at close combat virtually a suicide mission. Killer Queen never emotes and always has a blank, emotionless stare on its face while King Crimson is very expressive and emotive. Likewise, Killer Queen never speaks nor has a Stand Cry while Diavolo constantly speaks through King Crimson. Even their time powers are polar opposites. Bites the Dust turns back time, reflecting the idea that You Can't Fight Fate while King Crimson's time erasure and powers of precognition allow Diavolo to control fate.
- Dub Name Change: King Crimson is promoted to "Emperor Crimson" for All-Star Battle in the English localization, as well as the subs for the anime and its English dub. It fits with his habit of declaring himself emperor, making it a little more fitting than other name changes, as well as the fact that there were Roman emperors in Italy during the Roman empire. In addition, his "Epitaph" attack (taken from a King Crimson song) becomes "Eulogy", which also fits Diavolo as eulogies are often praise of someone.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: Likely as a result of adjusting King Crimson's powers, his abilities before the final battle are a bit inconsistent or don't match up.
- In Diavolo's first encounter with Bucciarati, he uses King Crimson in such a way that Bucciarati sees his future self. Like Gold Experience's "life overdrive" ability, King Crimson's time erase is never portrayed this way again and the ability is never explained in greater detail either.
- In King Crimson's second fight, his power causes bullets to pass harmlessly through him during his skipped time. This is the only time he ever does something like this. In his previous encounter, he had to physically move away from an attack and admitted he cut it close, and in future encounters, he is shown physically moving out of the way of bullets during his skipped time or otherwise deflecting them before they can reach him. This also happens to be the ability that leads to the most difficult to describe explanation of his powers.
- Prior to the finale, King Crimson could only move during the erased time, which Diavolo used in order to position himself better to avoid attacks or to appear near people so he could attack them when it resumed. This was one of the reasons (the other being Giorno being too much of an unknown threat) he doesn't try to kill the heroes after his first encounter with Bucciarati. Later instances such as the above mentioned bullets and his killing of Narancia don't line up with this ability.
- Facial Horror: In its last moments before its final defeat by Gold Experience Requiem, the damage King Crimson received was enough to shatter its face. Earlier in the beatdown, its smaller face was blown off, too.
- Glass Cannon: While King Crimson is able to accomplish what Star Platinum, The World, and Crazy Diamond can usually do with a barrage of attacks with a single blow, its durability is absolutely abysmal compared to them with a rating of 'E'. Though this doesn't really matter thanks to its Time Skipping abilities, as he could just see the attack coming thanks to Epitaph and then move before erasing time to avoid the blow anyway.
- Ground Punch: The PS2 game gives King Crimson one strong enough to send people flying with the shockwaves alone.
- "Instant Death" Radius: King Crimson's immense strength, combined with just how disorienting its Tricked Out Time is, make any attempt at melee a suicide mission, as it can easily inflict a One-Hit Kill without even giving its opponent a chance to react.
- Intangible Man: Diavolo is incapable of physically interacting with the world while time is "erased". The only exception being when the interaction is an action Epitaph predicted he would have performed on his own (such as when he cuts off Trish's hand or splashes blood in Polnareff's eyes). It's exemplified at the end of his "fight" with Risotto, when Aerosmith's bullets pass through him harmlessly while ripping the assassin to shreds.
- Irony: Epitaph is a Stand that sees the future while King Crimson can erase part of it, and it belongs to a man who wants to erase the past.
- Logical Weakness:
- King Crimson's ability essentially removes Diavolo from causality for eleven seconds, rendering him invicible. But because he's as incapable of affecting the world as the world is as affecting him, he has to turn it off to actually attack; so if an enemy has fast enough reflexes, they can counter whatever Diavolo plans to do.
- Additionally, time skipping still causes anything to happen that would have, meaning it's possible to use a recurring visual element to learn when time skipped by proxy. Polnareff uses drops of blood against his leg to prepare for this, managing to land a blow against Diavolo, while Giorno uses the same idea by cutting his finger open and letting the blood fall on his other hand.
- Megaton Punch: In contrast to The World's Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs, King Crimson only bothers to use one solid punch to get the job done. Just ask Bucciarati and Abbacchio. That said, King Crimson is capable of Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs, but as a last resort.
- Mouth of Sauron: Subtly implied. When first revealed, King Crimson acts as Diavolo's mouthpiece with actual moving lips, hanging in front of its user to help hide them in the shadows. This aspect is dropped when Doppio enters the picture, but returns again during the period where everyone has swapped bodies, as Diavolo can't actually directly control the body he is currently inhabiting.
- Nightmare Face: In contrast to the stoic expressions of The World and Killer Queen, King Crimson has a nightmarish plain white face with unnatural and constantly open fish-like eyes couple with a perpetual grimacing mouth. And let's not forget the second face it has on its forehead, combining Extra Eyes and Too Many Mouths in one feature. Araki mentions that this extra face was inspired by Kuato from Total Recall (1990). And that's not getting into the contorted facial expressions whenever it gets angry or excited...
- Nigh-Invulnerable: A combination of future vision and Intangibility means that at as long as Diavolo is careful, he's impossible to harm.
- Ominous Visual Glitch: The anime portrays King Crimson's time skip with streaks of reddish-pink, not unlike a VHS tape skipping.
- One-Hit Kill: Diavolo's favorite way to fight consists of using King Crimson to disorient his opponent, then kill them with a single well-placed blow, usually consisting of a punch right through the sternum. Bruno, Abbacchio, and Narancia all suffer this fate.
- Perpetual Frowner: Except for the very rare moments of feeling confident, King Crimson is either grimacing or contorted into a wrathful snarl, all with a nigh-constant frowning face.
- Personality Powers: King Crimson's user can be incredibly paranoid when regarding certain situations, so to alleviate this, it gives him the power to see into the future and never have to worry about what'll happen to him. Epitaph's relatively limited range (only 10 seconds) could also be taken to symbolise Diavolo's shortsightedness.
- Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs: In the anime at least, he's shown to be capable of rapid punches despite preferring singular lethal strikes. When the Requiem Arrow crawls up Gold Experience's arm, King Crimson delivers a flurry of punches in a vain attempt to stop the former from transforming.
- Required Secondary Powers:
- This is Epitaph's function. It gives Diavolo the ability to see ahead and allows him to perceive if the next few moments are dangerous and he should nullify it King Crimson's time-skip or if they benefit him and he should allow it to progress normally. These visions are, by necessity, treated as absolute without some other ability being used to change destiny. If they were not 100% accurate and only showed a possibility he would be much easier to catch off-guard and be at a loss if they chose to take any number of paths not detailed in Epitaph's prediction.
- King Crimson itself makes Epitaph a lot more useful. Whatever Epitaph predicts will happen so long as King Crimson's time skip isn't used. With time skip, one can excuse themself from Epitaph's prediction and act of their own accord. When Doppio is only given access to Epitaph and King Crimson's arms, he ends up taking a lot of damage, and the best he can do is try to soften the blows Epitaph predicts.
- Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory: One of the effects of King Crimson's ability is that nobody's quite aware of what happens during the portion of time that gets "erased" except for Diavolo, making it easy for him to finish off disoriented opponents right after the Time-Skip.
- Screw Destiny: Epitaph on its own predicts the future. Whatever happens in 10 seconds time is set in stone, but Doppio shows that knowing ahead of time allows the user to try and soften the blow. When used with Time Skip, however, Diavolo can avoid the prediction's outcome entirely. Diavolo claims that this is all due to fate; for the ten seconds time is skipped, everybody but him follows their fates to the letter.
- Seers: The power of Epitaph is that it allows the user to see 10 seconds into the future, with all events being fated to happen, but the user can still plan accordingly. Since Diavolo is able to use the full power of King Crimson, he can both see 10 seconds into the future and erase 10 seconds worth of time to keep himself from being harmed.
- Slasher Smile: The anime adaptation has King Crimson flash a brief, but sadistic grin as it chops a humongous gash into Bucciarati's body.
- Smash Cut: This is the simplest way to explain King Crimson's ability. He either strikes his enemies after they've been disoriented from the skip, performs actions he would have already taken without anyone else being aware of them, or uses it to save himself from events he doesn't want to happen.
- Split Mind, Split Powers: While Diavolo has full access to King Crimson and Epitaph, Doppio is only given free reign over the latter and limited use of the former (which excludes its signature time-erasing ability).
- Super-Empowering: Epitaph's prediction ability is "lent" to Doppio from Diavolo. Subverted; they're the same person.
- Superpower Lottery: Precognition, Super-Strength, and the ability to negate all possible negative consequences. Diavolo lucked out big time when he got King Crimson and Epitaph. If he had gotten the Requiem Arrow, King Crimson Requiem would very likely have been unstoppable.
- Super-Strength: King Crimson is easily one of the physically strongest Stands in the series, capable of handily punching holes through victims, nearly cutting them in half with a karate chop, or violently dismembering them with a single punch. It can throw a pair of scissors with such force that it could slice off limbs as well.
- Tricked Out Time: King Crimson's primary ability is to "erase" time up to eleven seconds. In this period, every action and event that takes place has no effect on Diavolo and no one else retains any memory of the time interval. Think of it as similar to watching a video and skipping ahead to a further time frame; all the events in between still happen, but only Diavolo perceives them, while to everyone else, it looks like time skipped forward a few seconds, and the results of all intermediate actions happen instantaneously. This means Diavolo can never be harmed under any circumstance, while from his opponents perspective, it looks like Teleport Spam since Diavolo can use this time to disappear and reappear at will — except everyone else teleports along with him. For the longest time, the full ramifications of King Crimson's powers were hard to discern in the manga, requiring the anime to properly display its abilities in a clear and consice manner.
- Walking Spoiler: Discussing King Crimson and Epitaph's powers makes it nigh impossible to discuss Diavolo without spoiling damn near everything about the guy and his motivations.
- Winds of Destiny, Change!: This is the effect King Crimson's Tricked Out Time and Epitpah's Combat Clairvoyance has when wielded together: After being made aware of an incoming threat by Epitaph, Diavolo will activate King Crimson and become momentarily removed from all cause-and-effect (i.e. bullets pass harmlessly through him instead of piercing his skin). The practical benefit is that Diavolo can ignore the negative consequences of any sequence of events he deems harmful, while letting ones that benefit him progress normally.Diavolo: No being is immune to the peaks and valleys of life as the strong struggle to survive. One succeeds while the other fails. But with my power, one can gaze upon life's pitfalls in all their glory. Sidestepping them becomes but a chore, and life becomes a succession of triumphs. A state of personal perfection. And truly, how could it not?
- You Can't Fight Fate: Epitaph's visions are only changeable through the use of King Crimson's time erasure. Even then, anything caused by Diavolo during the skipped time will happen even though the cause was erased; for example, if Epitaph's vision shows Diavolo attacking someone, that person will still get hurt despite the moment of the attack never happening, because the person was destined to take that damage. note This allows Diavolo to sever Trish's hand and impale Narancia during skipped time, and more mundanely to clean up his stuff and leave a room before the maid could see him.
