Personality: Diego's most notable character trait is his ambition, which basically boils down to wanting to prove he's better than everyone else. The rumors surrounding Diego are all about his ambitions and his cruelty-- namely, that he'll do whatever it takes to get ahead in life. These rumors are completely true. While his goals at their core remain the same throughout the series (control, achieved through fame, fortune, and everything that goes with it), he's freely comfortable changing the methods through which he achieves them as soon as circumstances allow. He begins by seeking the prize money and prestige that comes from winning the race, shifts his focus to collecting the corpse parts to obtain their power, takes a brief detour into revenge and political status by allying with the president to kill Johnny and Gyro in exchange for Manhattan, and ends by trying to assassinate the president. It's not that any one goal is what he's after, but rather that all of them are possible paths to his ultimate desire to be above everyone else. He is completely willing to ruin as many people as he has to to get what he desires; in contrast to his original incarnation, though, he at least doesn’t go out of his way to screw people over-- it simply keeps turning up as the best course of action.
His mother's death had a profound impact on his entire world view, as up until that point he was actually a pretty well-adjusted kid, considering the fact that he had been buried alive as an infant. What he took away from the incident was the sense that the entire world would look down upon him, would never offer him any help if he were in trouble, and would be perfectly content to stand by and watch him and his mother die, or watch them be humiliated-- and that he had to hold onto his pride despite that. His sense of pride does not, however, equate to a sense of honor-- he has no problem with cheating by attacking other competitors, and rather infamously married an elderly, wealthy woman who mysteriously died six months later. As Johnny says, he has stolen everything he has, his social class and newfound wealth, his training, his powers, his backstory, even his end goals of collecting the corpse. He'll play underhanded, and he'll play along with other people, even if they look down on him; it just drives him to prove them wrong that much quicker as soon as they stop being useful. For instance, when he makes a deal with the president to work with him, he offers to exchange the left eye for the entire island of Manhattan. The president calls him peasant scum under his breath, which Diego can hear thanks to his enhanced hearing-- and he just shrugs, because he needs to work with the president in order to get back at Johnny and Gyro for humiliating him, and he can put up with the president insulting him until turning against him becomes more profitable. And that time comes quickly; once he realizes the president has nearly the entire corpse part, he knows he's no longer useful, and sets out to assassinate him before the president can kill him first.
Diego is highly analytical and observant, which manifests itself not just in the way he modifies his plans as the situation changes but also in how he races. He calculates his opponents' horses' breathing rates and habits to identify the optimal time to surge ahead, he finds the ideal course for his horse to run on by analyzing the environment, and he utilizes other racers as windshields to cut down on the wind resistance he has to fight against. He's cunning, able to scan the situation at hand and know when it's better to lay low or to act, and he's willing to work with (and for) people before switching sides once they're no longer useful to him. He's particularly ruthless in his willingness to sacrifice things in exchange for power; he's willing to burn bridges, throw allies under the bus, or even injure himself if it will get him what he needs. He's both self-serving and self-centered, willing to do what he has to to advance his lot in life and assuming that other people are beneath him. He's from a classist society where he's stuck in the lower class, so he's constantly struggling against people looking down on him, but he looks down on people in the same position. It's not so much that people shouldn't treat the lower class badly, it's that people shouldn't treat him badly because he's better than the rest of the lower class.
Because of his relentless need to prove himself better than everyone else, he's a showoff. It's not enough to simply get improved reflexes from his powers, he has to start doing headstands on the back of his horse; it's not enough to figure out the president's powers, he has to explain to the president, in detail, how he will kill him, how he's figured out exactly what he can and can't do when attacking him. It's about rubbing it in that he figured it out and demonstrating that it was a mistake to show his power around him, because he's just that clever and he never should have been written off in the first place.
He is, like every incarnation of Dio Brando, incredibly petty. He's stubborn when challenged; when Gyro rides ahead of the other racers at the beginning of the first stage, and sabotages Diego’s path when crossing the bridge, Diego takes it as a personal slight and decides that Gyro is the one to beat, even though Diego ended up taking second only to Sandman at the end of the stage. For the rest of the race, he takes Gyro’s continued existence around him as a personal challenge, which eventually shifts to Johnny once Johnny begins placing higher, despite the fact that there are other competitors placing higher than the three of them; Gyro and Johnny made it personal, so he has to teach them a lesson. When humiliated, when beaten, when insulted, he's driven not just to work harder but to rub it in; as Johnny says, he hungers for success, and moreso when it's denied him once. Lying underneath this is a tendency to drag other people down kicking and screaming while he's trying to best them, and even if someone else gets the prize, it's enough that his chosen opponent didn't. He’s often too stubborn to admit his weakness or quirks, far past the point of simply ignoring them, in truly ridiculous ways, because he's really a ridiculous human being. When Johnny catches him eating rocks, he backs it up with health benefits as if it’s the latest trend, as if Johnny is simply too uncool to join the rock-eating bandwagon; when Johnny realizes that Diego can’t see the coffee cup sitting right in front of him, Diego counters his claim by grabbing a fly out of the air— and then blindly feeling around on the countertop until he touches the mug.
While he doesn't care much for people, he does show a softer side around animals. He loves his horse, and legitimately cares for her, not just because she's his vehicle in winning the race/getting to the corpse parts quickly. When Silver Bullet gives out due to exhaustion, he's next seen walking her through the finish line, carrying her saddle and supplies in his free hand so as to avoid putting any excess weight on her. He's proud of his raptors, and gets angry when people treat them poorly because they're an extension of himself, in a way; people who treat his raptors like trash are essentially saying he's trash. It's not just limited to animals that are his, either; he's always had a way with horses, ever since he was a child, that his mother identified as a way for him to achieve a better lot in life.
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Diego's most notable character trait is his ambition, which basically boils down to wanting to prove he's better than everyone else. The rumors surrounding Diego are all about his ambitions and his cruelty-- namely, that he'll do whatever it takes to get ahead in life. These rumors are completely true. While his goals at their core remain the same throughout the series (control, achieved through fame, fortune, and everything that goes with it), he's freely comfortable changing the methods through which he achieves them as soon as circumstances allow. He begins by seeking the prize money and prestige that comes from winning the race, shifts his focus to collecting the corpse parts to obtain their power, takes a brief detour into revenge and political status by allying with the president to kill Johnny and Gyro in exchange for Manhattan, and ends by trying to assassinate the president. It's not that any one goal is what he's after, but rather that all of them are possible paths to his ultimate desire to be above everyone else. He is completely willing to ruin as many people as he has to to get what he desires; in contrast to his original incarnation, though, he at least doesn’t go out of his way to screw people over-- it simply keeps turning up as the best course of action.
His mother's death had a profound impact on his entire world view, as up until that point he was actually a pretty well-adjusted kid, considering the fact that he had been buried alive as an infant. What he took away from the incident was the sense that the entire world would look down upon him, would never offer him any help if he were in trouble, and would be perfectly content to stand by and watch him and his mother die, or watch them be humiliated-- and that he had to hold onto his pride despite that. His sense of pride does not, however, equate to a sense of honor-- he has no problem with cheating by attacking other competitors, and rather infamously married an elderly, wealthy woman who mysteriously died six months later. As Johnny says, he has stolen everything he has, his social class and newfound wealth, his training, his powers,
his backstory, even his end goals of collecting the corpse. He'll play underhanded, and he'll play along with other people, even if they look down on him; it just drives him to prove them wrong that much quicker as soon as they stop being useful. For instance, when he makes a deal with the president to work with him, he offers to exchange the left eye for the entire island of Manhattan. The president calls him peasant scum under his breath, which Diego can hear thanks to his enhanced hearing-- and he just shrugs, because he needs to work with the president in order to get back at Johnny and Gyro for humiliating him, and he can put up with the president insulting him until turning against him becomes more profitable. And that time comes quickly; once he realizes the president has nearly the entire corpse part, he knows he's no longer useful, and sets out to assassinate him before the president can kill him first.Diego is highly analytical and observant, which manifests itself not just in the way he modifies his plans as the situation changes but also in how he races. He calculates his opponents' horses' breathing rates and habits to identify the optimal time to surge ahead, he finds the ideal course for his horse to run on by analyzing the environment, and he utilizes other racers as windshields to cut down on the wind resistance he has to fight against. He's cunning, able to scan the situation at hand and know when it's better to lay low or to act, and he's willing to work with (and for) people before switching sides once they're no longer useful to him. He's particularly ruthless in his willingness to sacrifice things in exchange for power; he's willing to burn bridges, throw allies under the bus, or even injure himself if it will get him what he needs. He's both self-serving and self-centered, willing to do what he has to to advance his lot in life and assuming that other people are beneath him. He's from a classist society where he's stuck in the lower class, so he's constantly struggling against people looking down on him, but he looks down on people in the same position. It's not so much that people shouldn't treat the lower class badly, it's that people shouldn't treat him badly because he's better than the rest of the lower class.
Because of his relentless need to prove himself better than everyone else, he's a showoff. It's not enough to simply get improved reflexes from his powers, he has to start doing headstands on the back of his horse; it's not enough to figure out the president's powers, he has to explain to the president, in detail, how he will kill him, how he's figured out exactly what he can and can't do when attacking him. It's about rubbing it in that he figured it out and demonstrating that it was a mistake to show his power around him, because he's just that clever and he never should have been written off in the first place.
He is, like every incarnation of Dio Brando, incredibly petty. He's stubborn when challenged; when Gyro rides ahead of the other racers at the beginning of the first stage, and sabotages Diego’s path when crossing the bridge, Diego takes it as a personal slight and decides that Gyro is the one to beat, even though Diego ended up taking second only to Sandman at the end of the stage. For the rest of the race, he takes Gyro’s continued existence around him as a personal challenge, which eventually shifts to Johnny once Johnny begins placing higher, despite the fact that there are other competitors placing higher than the three of them; Gyro and Johnny made it personal, so he has to teach them a lesson. When humiliated, when beaten, when insulted, he's driven not just to work harder but to rub it in; as Johnny says, he hungers for success, and moreso when it's denied him once. Lying underneath this is a tendency to drag other people down kicking and screaming while he's trying to best them, and even if someone else gets the prize, it's enough that his chosen opponent didn't. He’s often too stubborn to admit his weakness or quirks, far past the point of simply ignoring them, in truly ridiculous ways, because he's really a ridiculous human being. When Johnny catches him eating rocks, he backs it up with health benefits as if it’s the latest trend, as if Johnny is simply too uncool to join the rock-eating bandwagon; when Johnny realizes that Diego can’t see the coffee cup sitting right in front of him, Diego counters his claim by grabbing a fly out of the air— and then blindly feeling around on the countertop until he touches the mug.
While he doesn't care much for people, he does show a softer side around animals. He loves his horse, and legitimately cares for her, not just because she's his vehicle in winning the race/getting to the corpse parts quickly. When Silver Bullet gives out due to exhaustion, he's next seen walking her through the finish line, carrying her saddle and supplies in his free hand so as to avoid putting any excess weight on her. He's proud of his raptors, and gets angry when people treat them poorly because they're an extension of himself, in a way; people who treat his raptors like trash are essentially saying he's trash. It's not just limited to animals that are his, either; he's always had a way with horses, ever since he was a child, that his mother identified as a way for him to achieve a better lot in life.