Diego Brando

Background

His mother changed her surname to "Brando" and became employed by a farm, but she and Diego lived in poverty in the stables. Diego was still nonetheless a cheerful child.↗

Since he was a child, Diego had a talent for relating to horses - even seemingly untamable ones would allow themselves to be handled by him. When Diego was five, the man that had found them and arranged the mother's employment demanded sexual favors from her. When she refused, the worker took revenge by putting holes in their cups. When stew was distributed to the farmhands, Diego and his mother were naturally unable to get their portion without a cup and they couldn't buy another set.↗

The 1st Stage

Within the 1st Stage, Gyro takes the lead during the first moments of the race. Diego decides to challenge Gyro after observing his horse and noting Valkyrie's habit of swaying left every eighth breath. He uses the horse's habit to his advantage, matching his speed with Gyro and only briefly accelerating with Gyro's horse sways to eventually take the lead. As the two arrive at a wooden bridge, Diego is a horse's length ahead.↗

Scary Monsters

The 3rd Stage begins with a run across the Rocky Mountains. Diego is assailed by an unknown person and is incapacitated. Gyro tries to check up on him, but both Johnny and even Diego himself advocate to leave him alone. Soon enough, Diego catches up to them, strangely lively for someone who was wounded moments ago. Diego jokes around and performs acrobatics on Silver Bullet. The three of them decide to spend the night in a village to avoid the cougars.↗

End of the 3rd Stage

Diego reaches the end of the 3rd Stage. As every competitor races to finish first, Gyro and Diego try to take a shortcut through the lake instead of going around it. However, Diego's dinosaur senses allow him to better analyze the situation and he notably sees that Gyro's horse will not be able to gallop to the end in the current conditions. Out of the water, Valkyrie shows it is exhausted but is still running behind.↗

Race in the Storm

Diego doesn't meet Johnny Joestar or Gyro Zeppeli until the near end of the 4th Stage. Thanks to his newfound eye, Diego is able to guess the location of the next Corpse Part and races there as a storm rages over Kansas City and its surroundings.↗

Teaming with Valentine

In Kansas City, Diego calls for a meeting with Funny Valentine in an alley, and Valentine sends one of his men to meet the jockey, observing from a nearby roof. Diego reveals that he knows about the Saint's Corpse but is ready to sell the left eye for mayorship of Manhattan Island; he then reveals that he also knows about the existence of the traitor that has hindered Valentine's plan.↗

D4C

From one of his dinosaurs, Diego manages to listen to Wekapipo during the Neapolitan's battle with Magent Magent. From it, Diego learns about Lucy Steel 's involvement in the search for the Corpse Parts.↗

Pursuing Valentine

Diego follows Valentine's scent to the port but then loses his trace. Instead, he smells and encounters Hot Pants. A short fight ensues during which Hot Pants tries to ambush Diego, only for Diego to sniff her out and leap to attack. Cream Starter covers Diego's mouth and nose and disables the small dinosaurs he sends. Hot Pants pins Diego and intends on incapacitating him with another flesh spray but Diego grabs her and merges her face with the flesh she's just sprayed.↗

Lucy Steel later severs his head and uses it to annihilate Parallel World Diego.↗

Appearance

After obtaining the Corpse's left eye and fusing it with his own, his left eye's iris has the word "TURBO" engraved on it, and he temporarily gains a mark under said eye reading "DIO", contrasting to the cross Gyro gains from the right eye.↗

Personality

Upon hearing about the Corpse, he first sought them for himself and as soon as he found himself in a disadvantageous position with a crippled horse, didn't waste time in proposing his services to Funny Valentine, demanding mayorship of Manhattan in exchange for his participation.↗↗↗

Diego possesses a strong misanthropy, describing humanity as a "flock of pigeons", and resents humans as a whole for the death of his mother. For instance, he allowed Wekapipo to be killed by D4C 's ability in order to escape.↗↗↗

Abilities / Stand

Ferdinand in order to steal the left eye of the Saint's Corpse from Johnny and Gyro.↗

After Ferdinand was defeated, Diego stole the corpse part and fused it with his left eye, allowing him to retain the ability to turn himself into a dinosaur.↗↗↗

Appearances

Steel Ball Run Chapter 76: D4C, Part 9 (Death)↗

Profile details

Status Status based on their final appearance in the part(s) they are featured in: Deceased (Part 7)↗

Date of Death: January 19, 1891↗↗

Cause of Death: Shredded in half by a moving train↗

Final Appearance: SBR Chapter 76 Spoiler (Death) | SBR Chapter 95 Spoiler (Corpse only)↗

Diego Brando is a genius British jockey hailed as one of the best contenders in the Steel Ball Run race, but he soon shifts his attention to the Saint's Corpse.↗