#ERUBABBLES

[mariyekos]

Okay to reblog to help sample size!

[mariyekos]

OKAY BACK A FEW HOURS LATER WITH A DRAFT OF THIS CONCEPT BECAUSE IT'S GREAT! Doesn't cover the full thing bc I'm very wordy and ran out of time for tonight (apologies for typos, this is very much a not-proofread first draft), but I thought I'd share at least the first bit!

“The gates of Hell opened up and spat some- some thing into my pasture!” the caller had screamed into the receiver, the loudness of his voice and the poor volume control on Dante’s phone spilling the words out to where Vergil had sat on the couch nearby. “It’s huge and it’s killing all my cattle, and if it ain’t the son of Lucifer I don’t know what it is because I’ve never seen anything like it! Not even in those videos of Red Grave!”

Dante had given Vergil a look at that, one eyebrow raised and lips cocked to the side in a lopsided smile as if to say ‘get a load of this guy.’ 

“Ooh, sounds scary,” Dante’d replied, voice light and body loose as he twirled the phone cord around his finger, not a care in the world. 

For one, he’d already beaten Lucifer. For another, Vergil had long since learned that most people who thought they had a world-ending demon on their hands were in fact dealing with rabble that only seemed terrifying to the meager human mind. He and Dante had yet to have gone on a job that actually needed two people. Usually they only both went because they couldn’t decide who’s turn it was that day.

Dante continued on, sending Vergil a wink as he pulled out a pen with his free hand, dragging a notepad from the edge of his desk. He kept it next to the picture of their mother, always sparkling and dust free no matter the state of the rest of Dante’s abode. “Tell me the address and we’ll be out the door in a jiffy.”

The farmer did. Dante noted it and promised they’d be there before the end of the hour. Then he rose, lifted his hands over his head to crack both back and knuckles, and gave Vergil the bright smile he always put on when he wanted to call upon the Yamato taxi. 

“I can probably solo this one, but it’s over by the Highlands and I’m not sure I’m gonna make that even if I break a few speeding laws,” he said, eyes gleaming and expression playful.

Vergil snorted, in the mood to play back. “Oh? Is Cavaliere that slow? Or has your control over it faltered? Don’t tell me you’re growing soft in your laziness.” 

Dante scoffed at that, bringing a hand to his chest and puffing out his cheeks in offense. “Why Vergil, how could you ever imply I would ever let myself go like that! I’ll have you know that Cavaliere’s as fast as she’s ever been; faster even. I’d bet you a week of grocery duty on that.” He sticks up his chin, beginning to pace. “It’s just that while Cavaliere’s fast, there are these things called traffic jams, and I don’t want some poor man to learn what it’s like for his livestock to get eaten because I got stuck behind two semi’s that think it’s funny to stay side by side going ten under the speed limit for fifteen minutes.”

“You could always go around them.” 

It wasn’t as if Dante hadn’t taken Cavaliere offroading before. Vergil had decided to never, ever ride with Dante again after that. If they were going somewhere together, then it would either be by walking, by flight, by the Yamato, or by the old car Dante had taken for repairs three times since their return from Hell the year before.

Dante gasped, drama personified. “And risk hitting the old lady that decided to go for a stroll?”

Vergil raised a brow, not taking the bait. “On the side of the highway?”

Dante nodded. “Walking the city has begun to bore her.”

“At nine p.m.?”

“Old people don’t sleep.”

“You nap at least once a day.”

“Then clearly I’m not old! Mr. ‘I have a child and am older than you anyway’!”

“Hmph.”

Vergil rose to his feet, setting his book on the side table and walking over to the coat rack he’d bought shortly after moving in, pulling down his jacket and donning it in one swift motion. Yamato was in his hand a moment later. She always answered his call instantly; she was hardly ever parted from him, a security measure and reassurance that Vergil still struggled to part with, but he’d gotten comfortable enough to set her down elsewhere in the room from time to time and no longer felt the need to brush his fingers against her scabbard every minute or so as long as she remained in sight. 

“Where would you like me to take us?” he asked, watching as Dante pulled out a map of the area around their destination and began to cross reference it and the note he’d written.

“Let’s see here,” Dante hummed, eyes darting between the two. “Okay, so-”

And so the call had come.

And so they had left.

And so Vergil had been left terrified, lost, and alone, watching as Dante choked out reassurances that he would be fine, that the gaping wound in his stomach that was not healing would close any minute now, that okay maybe it wouldn’t but he had a gold orb somewhere on him, clearly that would kick in, okay maybe it wasn’t kicking in yet but if Vergil pulled it out of his pocket and set it on (in?) his stomach surely it would work, okay maybe it wasn’t working but he wasn’t quite unconscious yet and he was pretty sure they only ever kicked in when he blacked out, and okay it wasn’t working and he wasn’t healing and maybe-

Maybe this would be it.

Maybe this would be how he died.

And it wasn’t Vergil’s fault, it was not Vergil’s fault, if Vergil blamed himself for this Dante would come back from the grave and beat Vergil up in a way that wasn’t fun at all and make him regret ever feeling sorry for himself or Dante over it because their job was dangerous and it was Dante who’d been reckless enough to take a hit he could’ve avoided because he didn’t think that bad and they didn’t realize the giant goat-headed demon Vergil would behead a second later could apparently deal unhealing wounds, and he was so, sorry for leaving Vergil alone because at this point he had a bad feeling this might be it and Vergil might be left alone again, and he knew how much it hurt to be left behind, but Vergil would be okay because Vergil wouldn’t be alone because he had a son and he had Trish and Lady and Morrison even if they weren’t best friends, and Dante was so, so sorry, and he had to admit he was kind of scared but honestly it didn’t even hurt that much anymore, and he really was sorry, and-

Nothing.

Dante ceased speaking.

And so Vergil was left alone.

…

In the darkness of the night, Vergil let out a heartbroken scream.

Then, triggering, feeling the inheritance of their father washing over them, the form which they’d gotten from the first man to abandon him, he let out a piercing wail as he mourned the latest who’d joined that list, his heart and soul aching as the one who’d been born his other half died and Vergil felt certain a part of him had surely died with it. 

LINEBREAK

Vergil remains there for hours, clinging to Dante’s body, feeling the last of the warmth flee from his flesh. Blood coats Vergil’s hands and clothing. He trembles in the morning dew, body exhausted not by the exertion of holding his brother’s corpse up for so long but instead from the weight of it all threatening to drown him. 

When at last the first rays of sunlight break over the horizon, Vergil finally sets Dante down.

In death, he looks peaceful. Well rested. Calm.

He looks the opposite of what Vergil feels. That being utterly destroyed and inches from falling to pieces, from triggering and flying into the sun, from bursting as his roiling energy comes to the surface all at once and bursts forth from his body until the mind that is Vergil is burned to a crisp and only a raging monster- a demon in every sense of the word- remains. 

His brother is dead. His twin is dead. 

He is alone.

It does not matter who else may be in his life. 

He is alone, in a way he never has been and a way that, once he and Dante were finally reunited, once Nero stopped their fight, once they descended into Hell together, he thought he would never be again.

He removes his coat and sets it upon Dante’s body. He can’t bear to look at Dante’s face a moment longer. He doesn’t want to leave Dante alone, but he can’t leave a job undone. Dante would not forgive him for that. Nothing will touch Dante before Vergil returns; the two of them had spread their presence throughout the area as they’d chased down the demon who had eventually gored a man gone too soon, and as Vergil stumbles down the path that will lead him to the farmer’s house, he exudes as much of his own energy as he can to ensure nothing else so much as approaches.

When he reaches the farmhouse, Vergil takes a long breath. He rubs his hands against his face, then through his hair, massaging the top of his head and his temples as he attempts to calm the throbbing threatening to make him snap. His bangs fall into his face as he does so. They poke at his eyes, but he can hardly find it in himself to care. He needs to tell the farmer the job is done. Then he can return to Dante. Then he can take the two of them home. 

He knocks twice. The sound of boots thumping against wood worsens the pain in his temples, multiplying it in tune to each step. 

The door opens. When the farmer takes in the sight of Vergil, surely coated in blood (Dante’s blood) and making no attempt to hide his (emotional) exhaustion, he has a visceral reaction, practically leaping a foot backward and swallowing hard but ultimately not fleeing.

“The job’s done, then?” he gulps, cowering under the strength of Vergil’s gaze. The man has to be at least seventy-five, and even if it weren’t for the stoop in his back he’d barely reach Vergil’s chest.

“Yes.”

The farmer flinches. “So me and my girls are safe now?”

“Yes.”

The farmer swallows again. Vergil does not care that he’s being harsh. Stern. Done.

“Thank you. It, uh, means a lot. To me. For uh-” 

The farmer blinks a few times, nervous, head bobbing side to side as he tries to look around Vergil. Whatever the reason for it goes completely over Vergil’s head. He’s having trouble interacting right now. Why he’s even bothering, he doesn’t know. Dante is dead. Dante’s corpse is lying alone, unprotected, in a field. Why should Vergil care for his wish to speak to a man whose problem they’d already solved when his body could be getting desecrated while they speak? (Nevermind the fact that nothing would approach the body of such a powerful thing, still exuding power even though none of that power was enough to close the gaping hole in his body, to seal the wound that should have healed, that should’ve been gone in minutes, that wasn’t and that stole his life-)

“Say, where’d your brother go?” The farmer asks oh-so-cruelly, the weight of his ignorance making Vergil seethe.

“He’s dead.”

The farmer’s eyes go wide.

“Oh,” he breathes. He takes a step back. “Oh.” Another. “I’m so sorry. Here, let me get the money, I know it ain’t much and it’s not worth a life but-”

“I don’t need it. Your problem is solved. I’ll be leaving now. Never speak to me again.”

Vergil turns to leave. 

As he begins down the path, the farmer calls out to him. “I’m sorry, Dante.” 

Vergil freezes. 

The farmer continues on. 

“I didn’t…I’m sorry. I really am. I know how it feels to lose a brother, and it ain’t easy. I’m the youngest of six, and I’m the last one left. Couple of my siblings died from Old Man Time, but I lost one to an accident when we were in our twenties, and that sort of thing never stops hurtin’.”

Vergil takes a deep breath. He turns to the man, wanting to say that he’s wrong, that he isn’t Dante, that he doesn’t need to be told that losing someone will never stop causing you pain because he’s lost people before and even if he hadn’t he felt half of his soul die, and that pain will never, ever go away, no matter what, he’s sure of it- but he doesn’t. He doesn’t say a word. He does not tell the farmer he is not Dante. He doesn’t mention anything of pain.

Instead he turns around and breaks into a sprint. If the farmer tells anyone of the inhuman act he witnessed, Vergil will not care. He doesn’t have the patience to stay there any longer. He doesn’t have the strength.

Dante is exactly where he left him. Exactly as he left him. Lying beneath Vergil’s coat, face left in a faith smile, smile lines around his eyes and mouth relaxed and somehow bearing an aura of calm that Vergil thinks he will never again achieve. Next to him is his sword- the Devil Sword Dante he’d named it in a move Vergil hadn’t been able to definitively call either narcissistic or fitting- pulsing in a way its dead owner is not. While energy bleeds out from Dante’s body like a broken dam, the sword retains some measure of life that Vergil can’t help but feel is mocking him. Why is it that the sword remains when Dante does not? Why is it that his father and brother both have abandoned him, only a sword bearing their name left to remind Vergil of what he has lost and what was never truly meant to be his? 

Vergil removes the Yamato from her sheathe and opens a portal to the shop. He will not leave Dante to rot in the sun. 

Then, thinking on it a moment, he slashes it closed before opening a portal to a new destination. He puts the Yamato back on his hip. Dante is in his arms a moment later, the sword bearing his name resting across his shoulder and knees so Vergil can carry them both. Though he could mount the sword on his back as Dante does, it does not feel appropriate.

When he steps through the portal, he’s greeted by open air and a wealth of memories both good and bad. 

Before them stands the ruins of the house where their lives first ended.

Not far down the path is the grave in which Dante had buried their mother. The spot where she’d lain before ignorant humans had dug up her body and placed her remains somewhere Vergil had never been able to find, Dante warning him against investigating it for fear of revealing their identities and opening up a mystery he said was best to leave buried.

The headstone is still there. The one Dante had made. 

Vergil sets Dante’s body beside it.

In the light of the morning, he begins to dig.

In the dying light of the evening, he sits motionless before a grave meant for the mother and used for the son. Dante’s sword lies against it, the jewel in its hilt gleaming as it’s hit by the sunset.

“Why?” Vergil breathes. “Why…?”

Why apologize? Why reassure Vergil with his dying breath? Why insist it wasn’t Vergil’s fault? Why claim it was his own stupidity that got him killed and not Vergil’s insistence upon one-upping his brother that had lead Dante to throw himself in the demon’s path in the first place? Why leave him alone again? Why act as if Vergil would be okay? Why? Why?

Vergil’s hands find their way into his hair once more, fingers curling and running over strands over and over until the tips which had at some point turned to claws drenched his forehead with his own blood, causing soaked strands to fall down and into his eyes as if to shield Vergil from the world and the gravestone in front of him.

He screams again, this time lower pitched and more an expression of frustration than utter agony. 

Red Grave has begun to rebuild, but this area has been left untouched. There are none around to hear him. His pain is a secret kept between only himself and a dead man. 

He continues at it until night falls. The gemstone- the remnant of their mother’s amulet and their father’s legacy- continues to gleam in the moonlight. Once again, Vergil feels like it’s mocking him. Like it’s reminding him who their parents chose. Who the better of the two was. After all, who was it that sacrificed himself for the other? Who was it that spent his life cleaning up after his brother’s messes and upholding his father’s legacy? Who was it that had people who cared for him, who loved him, who wanted him to be in their lives and who helped him when he had struggles of his own?

Vergil’s well aware of their comrade’s feelings about him. Nero hates Vergil for abandoning his mother, nevermind the fact that Vergil hadn’t realized she was pregnant in the first place (nevermind the fact that it likely would have changed none of his actions at the Temen-ni-gru even had he known he had a son). Lady hates Vergil for the crimes he’s committed, nevermind the fact that she’s acknowledged her father was corrupt even before meeting Vergil (nevermind the fact that it’s only thanks to Vergil he was able to kill as many as he did and hurt her so badly). Trish hates Vergil for how he hurt Dante, nevermind the fact that Vergil neither intentionally hurt Dante nor that he did not intentionally convince Dante he’d killed him at Mallet Island (nevermind the fact that Vergil was the one who decided to fall when they’d fought in Hell almost a decade prior). Morrison is a mystery whose feelings Vergil won’t attempt to decipher, but he’s certain Morrison doesn’t like him, and he would say both Kyrie and Nico only tolerate him at best.

There are none who would mourn Vergil’s disappearance. There are plenty who will mourn Dante’s. Though he claims- claimed, it’s past tense now, Dante is dead and gone and there are no more feelings to be had- he kept few acquaintances and fewer friends, Vergil knows there are more beyond that list who care for Dante. He’s well aware there would be a healthy presence at his funeral were Vergil to send out invitations.

Vergil would not be missed. 

Dante will.

He does not know how he will break this news. Even if he didn’t expect Dante’s closest friends to blame him for it and attempt to kill him, he hasn’t the slightest idea how he’ll be able to so much as get the words out.

The Devil Sword bearing his brother’s name continues to gleam in the moonlight. Vergil rises to his feet, yanks it from the grave, cuts open another portal, and marches into the shop without a second look.

He takes the sword to the basement at first, meaning to leave it there with the numerous other Devil Arms Dante has accumulated over the years. But two steps up the stairs after having left it there, he promptly turns to reclaim it before bringing it to the second floor with him, where their bedrooms are. As with the Yamato, he cannot bear to have it leave his sight. When he goes to take a shower- to wash Dante’s blood off him, so heavy and pungent and still there in a way that seems so human and perhaps indicative of why he died given demon blood typically disappears in minutes and their blood, while typically remaining longer, should’ve long since disappeared too- he rests the two swords against bathroom wall to stay with him. 

After undressing, Vergil takes a deep breath. He looks into the mirror once before moving to the shower, perhaps intending to confirm his despair by reminding himself what it looks like, perhaps to pity itself, perhaps to do something he cannot name. Whatever it is is lost in what he does see.

Namely, Dante.

Vergil’s breath catches in his throat. The sink cracks beneath his grip. A fragment buries itself into his hands but he finds he cannot care. 

For there, staring back at him in the mirror, is Dante.

Or as close as any living thing will ever get to it again.

It’s Vergil’s reflection. It isn’t as if his despair-addled mind is conjuring the reflection of a different man to torment him. 

But it looks like Dante, and Vergil can’t help but choke at the sight.

In his hours of mourning at the grave, he knew he’d pulled at his hair, knew his bangs had fallen into his eyes, but seeing something is different than knowing it had happened, and Vergil is torn in a way he hadn’t been before. During their trip through Hell and in the year since, Vergil had let his hair grow out somewhat. He still kept it brushed back as he always had, but it had gotten longer, and on their return, Dante had cut his back by an inch or two. As a result, their hair was the same length. Dante had teased Vergil a few times by pushing his own hair back, and Vergil had mocked Dante by pushing his own hair forward. Same length, different styles. Their hair was still their own.

During their trip through Hell, they’d also both been…rejuvenated, in a sense. Hell had an ambient energy to it that wasn’t present in the human world that had certain restorative properties. Dante had commented at one point that the bags under Vergil’s eyes no longer looked so severe- a comment accompanied by something about how even the Qliphoth couldn’t do that, so how good was it, really- and Vergil remembered noting that Dante looked to be doing better too. Dante had shaved upon their return, and Vergil distinctly remembers a loud ‘What the fuck?! Are you younger!?” from Nero upon seeing them for the first time the next morning. Following that was an incident in which Dante’s former client-slash-ward Patty entered the shop and confused Vergil for Dante, as well as a comment from Lady about how she thought Nero had said they weren’t actually identical, but she remembered they’d been identical back when they were teenagers and they were clearly identical now so he must’ve been wrong.

Trish had also complained about them ‘feeling the same’ once. Said they even had the same smell. Apparently it frustrated her, because she couldn’t tell who she was going to walk in on until she opened the door.

Vergil’s mind drifts back to what the farmer said.

“I’m sorry, Dante.”

“I’m sorry, Dante.”

He’d thought Vergil was Dante.

The farmer didn’t know them well. The light hadn’t been great. Vergil’s hair was down, and he hadn’t been wearing his own coat. 

But the farmer had thought he was Dante, and even when seeing them next to each other, when not dressed in their typical outfits or when both had their hair down, Dante’s friends had confused them as well. Even Trish- a demon who should’ve been able to tell the difference better than anyone- had expressed she had difficulty identifying who was who.

Dante’s friends would be heartbroken to learn he’d died.

Dante’s friends would not care if Vergil died instead. They might even be happy.

Vergil’s eyes drift to the swords on the wall. To the Yamato, and, more importantly, the Devil Sword Dante. His brother’s sword.

He steps into the shower. His hand moves past the unscented shampoo he normally favors, instead reaching for the artificially scented one that Dante insists smells like strawberry but Vergil insists just smells like chemicals. Shampoo in hand, Vergil washes his hair clean of his and Dante’s blood both. A bar washes the rest of Dante’s blood off his body. Vergil steps out of the shower with an idea forming in his head.

Vergil quickly dries off and stands in front of the mirror once more. His hair is dripping wet and hangs limply in his face. He towels it as dry as he can get before reaching for the hair dryer and styling his bangs in a way he’d never cared for, watching his idea come to life. He practices a smile, cringing at how fake it feels, how wrong it feels, before putting it up again and again and again, trying to remember what it should look like, how it should tilt to one side, how his eyes should crinkle just so, how he would tilt his head for each emotion. 

Eventually, it begins to look right. 

It’s not perfect. It’s not lopsided in quite the right way. His eyes don’t sparkle in quite the right way. He’s got the tilt down, but even though Dante’s laugh lines had faded with Hell’s restoration of his skin, Vergil hasn’t quite mastered getting the right parts of his face to fold.

No matter. It’s fine if it isn’t perfect. It’s only logical that Dante’s smile would feel faked in the wake of his brother’s death.

It’s only natural Dante would seem off after Vergil died.

For that’s what Vergil is going to tell them.

When, inevitably, his friends come to question why he hasn’t contacted them in so long, or when they choose to drop by randomly as they are wont to do, and only find one twin standing there, they will learn that Vergil died on a mission, and Dante has been left to mourn him.

For no one would care if Vergil died.

But they’d miss Dante. They’d be hurt. They would never forgive Vergil. They’d miss Dante, and would cry for the man who’d been on the verge of death but had never died for so long.

Vergil has the looks and he has the sword. He knows his brother’s habits. Though Dante played a part far more often than Vergil, that doesn’t mean Vergil is incapable of acting, nor that he can’t play Dante in turn. 

Dante did not die.

Vergil did.

This Vergil will say. This Vergil will live.

He takes both the Devil Sword Dante and Yamato with him as he steps through the door. When he steps into the hallway, he heads down the path that will lead him to Dante’s room. 

Dante lived, and Dante wouldn’t sleep in Vergil’s room. Dante lived, and Dante wouldn’t put on Vergil’s pajamas. Dante lived, and though Dante has used the Yamato before, he wouldn’t abandon his own sword either.

Dante lived. Vergil died. Dante lived. Vergil died.

Dante lived. Vergil will make sure of it.

My brain was going a million miles a minute I am so sorry 😔

Au where post-dmc5, Dante is the only reason anyone lets Vergil come around and he gives him stability and a place to sleep in Dante's office, catching him up on human stuff. Vergil is aware of the fact it's all because of him, and isn't sure how he feels about it, but his human side certainly finds it nice to have somewhere to call home again.

One day they go out on a job together. It's another infamous 'big one' to the client, but for them it's just Tuesday.

Except.

Dante dies.

And Vergil has a decision to make.

(funeral and other things that to me are sad as fuck, read more at your own risk)

Does he tell everyone Dante died, and then have to find out what to do with no papers of his own, no job experience outside of demon hunting, and no way to take on the business in his own name?

Or, does he let his own hair down, swap clothes with his ever-coldening little brother, and proclaim Dante's body to be that of his own?

Does he take over the life of his own annoying little brother? He can do it well enough. He'd learned the dynamics to a degree.

Given everyone thought he was the one to die, not many attend the funeral. There's a harsh pang of guilt, knowing the many people Dante had likely helped throughout his life weren't there to see him off. It was small, quiet, and filled with regrets. When they would see his own corpse should he die, they would be facing an imposter.

He tries to shake it off. Its hard when he is unsure of how his brother grieved in front of others, so he did his best. Everyone just shrugged it off because of 'Vergil's' death.

But he can still see the looks of confusion from Lady when he starts taking money in jobs, actually saving it because he doesn't know about the kids of Dante's ex-hunter-partner man and he merely thought his brother to be too reckless.

How long will it take for them to figure it out?

[mariyekos]

THE OFFICIAL DEVIL MAY CRY TWITTER!?!!?!

[mariyekos]

It's been almost 3 years but I'm STILL not over how the stars aligned in Endwalker and the weather changed to Umbral Wind right after Estinien sacrificed himself.

Like, Estinien and the dragons went on about how the young had no winds to guide them and how this was tied to the dragons' doom (the eggs just broke me, man), so when he sacrificed himself to help us by creating a vortex/wind plume to guide us forward, it hit really hard because man! Though the dragons' future had been stolen from them, Estinien didn't give in to the defeat or resignation that had captured them and helped us forward in a way that resonated with the dragons he'd come to hold so dear. Where they saw what they had lost and gave up, Estinien paved the way to the future himself, using their dreams and his dream both.

But then I looked up at the weather for the first time and just crumbled to dust. Because there in the corner was the bright green circle of Umbral Winds and I just. Broke.

From what I understand the weather changing at that point was actually complete chance, but I didn't realize that and to me it seemed like Estinien sacrificed himself not only to guide us forward, but to bring back that most precious thing that the dragons lost and remind them of what happiness and hope felt like. The dragons had lost the wind to guide them but Estinien wouldn't let them stew in their sadness. He didn't just reprimand the dragon who'd given in to despair by telling them of the survival of their kin through Midgardsormr; he brought back the wind that was so essential to their lives, the thing they loved the most (save the children whose lives could never be recovered). He changed the weather of the entirety of Ultima Thule so the dragons could feel the touch of the wind that they'd treasured but lost and had mourned for an age. Think how much power that would take? How much emotional strength? How much devotion? How much love and care?

It also hit me hard because it was like Estinien wasn't really gone. Thancred had sacrificed himself to create the air we breathed, meaning he was constantly around us, and Estinien had sacrificed himself to be the winds that guided us, the weather following us throughout the region.

In the end, yeah, that second one was actually just the result of really convenient timing for a weather change afaik, but I didn't know it at the time and man did it crush me in such a good way. Endwalker, man. Estinien, man. The dragons, man. Ahhh!

[mariyekos]

One of the things that makes me feel crazy on DMC5 replays is the way V phrases his request to Dante.

He doesn't say "we need your help to stop the demon." He says "A powerful demon is about to resurrect, and we need your help, Dante." The implication seems to be that V needs Dante's help to stop it...but if you've played it before, that's not what he's really asking. V needs Dante's help in order for the resurrection to take place. Because until Urizen is weakened V has no chance of rejoining him, so he needs Dante's help to weaken Urizen so he's primed for merging and bringing about Vergil's resurrection. The "we" V refers to could also absolutely be both V and Urizen in that case, instead of just some general "we" of humanity. So he's not really asking for help to stop the resurrection, but instead to bring it about, hiding the truth in plain sight and careful wording.

The DMC 5 localization can be wonky in some places, but in other places it just shines. "We need your help, Dante." Not to stop it. He never says that. It's to bring about the resurrection itself.

[mariyekos]

You know how the Devil Sword Dante is in part made up of the Devil Sword Sparda, which is itself made from the Force Edge and the Perfect Amulet? As in, the things which helped maintain and open the barrier between the Human and Demon Worlds?

I would LOVE if in DMC6 something actually came from this, especially since they're essentially a part or Dante himself now that he's absorbed the sword(s) and everything. Vergil and the Yamato can open portals, sure, but what if Dante's now able to immediately close them? What if in their sealing of the Demon World after DMC5 they realize Dante himself is their best bet for a seal, and if so, how would this materialize? Would he have to stay in the Demon World like the Force Edge did? Could he take up Sparda's role of maintaining the seal on the Human side? Would he have to frequently if not constantly travel to maintain the different seals across the Human World? Could he create more? Has he, in creating and absorbing the Devil Sword Dante and its components, inadvertently given himself a duty that no one else can take up but is essential to maintaining the separation of the two worlds?

(One AU/ concept I'm imagining is one in which, upon his return from the Demon World post DMC5, Dante finds himself weirdly, constantly exhausted for reasons he can't figure out until someone realizes that it's because the barrier between worlds has only been patched up, not completely repaired, and it's draining energy from the only "seal" left after Vergil destroyed them pre-DMC3-- That seal being being Dante (the Force Edge, the amulet, both) himself. And so Dante ends up out of commission for a while while Nero, Vergil, Trish, Lady, and maybe even Lucia try to re-establish some of Sparda's seals to keep Dante from withering away. Vergil's not sure if Dante will actually die if they let things continue as they are, but he worries Dante might eventually be unable to be woken after falling asleep and he doesn't want that to happen.

(He also wonders if that's what killed Sparda in the end; if Sparda spent so long maintaining all the seals that eventually his power was so spent he was drained to non-existence. Sure, Sparda had sealed the vast majority of his power in the Demon World (and perhaps into the seals themselves) and Dante is more powerful than he was after that (and perhaps even before...?), but the seals were still in place when Sparda was around while they aren't now, so Dante's power might be getting drained at a much faster rate than Sparda's, leading to a faster decline. It's basically a race against time to see if they can re-establish the seals by directing the Human World's latent energies to create new Seals before Dante fades completely. Even if they can't release Dante from his role as a seal, they might be able to supplement the power being drained from him so he can get back to his normal self, so they'll try their best to make that happen before it's too late.))

[mariyekos]

So in the Visions of V Manga, when kid Vergil's attacked he specifically shouts "Demons?!" and is confused why they're there, wanting to warn Dante and Eva about it. Since he seems immediately certain about what his attackers are, this to me says that Vergil was already aware of the existence of demons even before the attack occurred. But in DMC3, when Cerberus asks Dante if he's human, Dante responds "Who knows? I'm not even sure myself" which implies to the point of pretty much outright stating he's not sure of his heritage and thus that he's part demon.

Do people think Eva/Sparda told Vergil and only Vergil about the existence of demons because of some sort of "older brother" responsibility? Or do you think Eva/Sparda told both Dante and Vergil that demons existed, but just didn't tell them (or only didn't tell Dante, which seems messed up and less likely) that they were half demon themselves? Why does kid Vergil not seem shocked that demons exist while teen Dante isn't even sure he's part demon himself? Retcon/inconsistency, or some combination of the above?

EDIT: Thank you to @/astronomiaa for mentioning the bit in Before the Nightmare! I'd forgotten about it. In BTN Dante mentions getting sword lessons from his father, but knowing very little about him otherwise, and not knowing (or even suspecting) that Sparda was a demon. These are the four main scenarios I see coming from that:

Neither kid knew demons existed because Sparda taught them to fight and that was it,

Dante didn't know demons existed while Vergil did, but neither suspected their dad was a demon,

Both kids knew demons existed but (at least Dante) didn't suspect their dad was a demon

Theoretical fourth where Dante knows nothing and Vergil knows everything (or at least that Sparda was a demon) which could've helped guide Vergil's research where Dante just kind of lived and ran, which would make sense but is also reeeeally questionable parenting because guys your kids can't be more than a few hours apart at absolute most stop shoving so much responsibility on the older one! He might only be older by a few minutes!!!! He's 8 (eight) (or younger depending on when they told him!!!)!!!!!! That's yoo young for you to decide he can shoulder that entire burden oh my god!!!!!

Again, since Vergil's doesn't have some sort of "what the hell are these things" moment I do want to say that at least he knew demons existed, but that's not a guarantee. It could just be a situation where a kis goes "of course monsters are real!" because it makes sense and they've read scary stories rather than one where said kid's parents actually sat him down to tell him monsters/demons were Real (And potentially Out To Get Them). But it would be really interesting if Sparda and Eva gave him more information than they did Dante, especially when you consider that means Dante might've watched his life be torn apart by creatures he didn't know existed until they destroyed everything he knew and loved.

Sources/Pics of what I'm referencing under the cut.

Visions of V:

DMC3:

EDIT: Before the Nightmare

The sepia/top picture is the newer version floating around the internet, while the bottom is the old translation.

[mariyekos]

Can't remember if I've talked about it here or just in fic wips, but I like to HC that Dante is Actually Cursed levels of unlucky. Like, it isn't just that he *seems* kind of unlucky based on his circumstances, he's "loses 85% of the time on a 50% chance" kind of unlucky. He *will* consistently get tails 8 or 9 times out of 10 when flipping a coin and trying to get heads, or rolll a 1 or 2 five times in a row when playing a game where you want to high roll (reasons to destroy the DMC4 Dice, anyone?)

Lady and Trish actually discretely kept track a few times and did the math to come up with this number before telling him. They noticed it mostly applied to things that depend on pure luck/random chance like games with draws and rolls and so on, but he's had enough weird cases of being dealt a bad hand by fate that they're pretty sure it impacts everything to some extent. Dante mostly takes it in stride though, deciding that there's nothing he can do about it so he'll just do as he pleases. So what if he has crummy luck; he'll make up for it with skill. Or just take advantage of it. Maybe at some point he and the ladies go to a bar where they egg him into joining a game where they bet against him because it's pretty much guaranteed he'll lose and they'll profit big time. (Unless of course the "bad luck" comes in the form of him doing uncharacteristically well to the point that Lady and Trish lose their money because Dante suddenly couldn't stop rolling 6s. Bad luck comes in many forms, and some of them can seem good on the surface!)

Nero, on the other hand, is a "wins 70% of the time on a 50% chance" kind of guy because a ton of his skills are named after gambling stuff. Yes Dante has the Jackpot phrase, but otherwise he doesn't have the same sort of skill list so I think it would be hilarious if both Dante and Vergil have terrible luck while Nero's somehow wraps around to being pretty lucky. I think Dante would find it funny while Vergil would (not-so-) secretly be jealous.

[mariyekos]

Thinking again about Yuna's story in FFX and how powerful it is to see a character who, after having spent so long not only anticipating but accepting her coming death, decides she wants to live.

The scene in the Macalania Woods is good for several reasons, but it's that part that gets me the most. She is meant to be a martyr, and for so long she was content to be a martyr- or really just a sacrifice, she wasn't doing it for her own glory but the salvation of her people- but after actually going out and experiencing all the world she wished to save had to offer, she decided that she didn't want to die after all. But! Even though she wants to live! She's so devoted to her people and the cause that she can't turn away no matter how much she may want to live now, even though her eyes have been opened to how good life really is.

And that to me is the tragedy. Which, to be fair, doesn't end up turning out how she expected, because in the end the one who pushed for her to live is the one who not only had to die, but came to accept his own death. But in the moment? When you don't know how things will go? God it killed me. Even now, every time I get to that scene in a playthrough I have to stop and take a deep breath because my knowledge is not Yuna's knowledge, and knowing how scared she is and how uncertain her life has become just before its supposed end is a punch in the gut.

I don't know. I'm just rambling here. But that moment was so, so important to me as a person. Still is. There are so many things to live for. People love you, and they want you to live them. If you sacrifice yourself, it will not fix everything, because there will be those left behind who will mourn you.

For so much of her life, Yuna had been okay with the idea of dying. Not because she had a death wish; Yuna didn't seem actively suicidal. But her attachment to life was less than her devotion to her cause. Death was a worthy sacrifice she was fully expecting to make.

...Until finally, after seeing the world she wanted to save and meeting Tidus, who had not grown up in a world which normalized such sacrifice and questioned why things had to be this way, she had that eureka moment of realizing how good life was and that she wanting to live. And as she sobbed in Tidus' arms, it made me cry too.

Because man. Man. The power of wanting to live. The switch that was flipped. The beauty of life and all it has to offer in the short time in which you have it!

There's a point to living. Yuna learned to want to live. But she still had to die (or so you think), and man is it a punch to the gut when the sacrificial lamb, who for so long accepted the inevitability of its sacrifice, realizes it does not want to die as it is in the final stretch of the march to the altar.

FFX is an amazing game and Yuna is one of my top FF characters. I love her so much. I love FFX so much. What a character! What a game!

[mariyekos]

Reading through Deadly Fortune, I think it's sweet how Dante inspired so much confidence in Nero during their first meeting, even if it was only in the way of "well I fought against a stronger guy, so these other guys are chumps!" Didn't even have to try and he was already helping his nephew out just by fighting him.

(From the Nero vs. Berial fight. Alt text under the cut.)

[id: a screenshot of the English Translation of the Deadly Fortune novel. The text reads as follows:

The demon’s voice rumbled in his chest, and he waved his sword high over his head:

“Silence!” He shouted as his sword descended on me. If I hadn’t met the man in red, I might’ve been a little scared. Could I really win against an enemy so massive? Against a sword that big?

But I’d already faced off against that man. After only a few rounds fighting him, I knew a demon like this one wouldn’t pose a real threat. His sword work wasn’t even half as fast or deadly as that man’s.]

[mariyekos]

Hmm okay it's time I'm going for the actual horror DMC fic this time. Found really good music and got some good ideas and am about 2500 words into the setup, so here's hoping I execute this well enough to share because it would be fun to finish a horror thing for the first time in a few years! It's Lady Investigates A Cult But Doesn't Find Much So She Invites Dante to Help Out Except Once He Gets There She Realizes Something Is Clearly Wrong With Him and Oh God She's Made a Mistake Inviting Him Here time!

[mariyekos]

I like to think that Dante and Vergil are basically made up of four halves of the same two souls, mixed and matched to make two people.

The idea is that in the womb, both a human and demon soul tried to develop, but since one being couldn't contain two souls, it split into two, resulting in twins. Yet since the genetic material was also made of both sides, rather than one twin getting the human soul and the other getting the demon soul, instead the souls themselves split in two, with each twin getting half of one. One half demon, one half human. By the time Dante and Vergil were born, the two half-souls each twin had had merged into single souls, so essentially they each have one whole soul, but those souls are blends of two half souls and match each other at that.

It ends up creating some interesting effects. Blood magic is something that sometimes works for both members of a set of identical twins- being most effective closest to birth and often lessening in effectiveness with age- but there are also magicks which resonate with the soul instead, and thus don't work for identical twins, who normally have independent souls despite shared blood.

Except they do for Dante and Vergil. Because even though they're separate people and should have different souls, they register as being the same.

Because they are, in a way. Two base souls, four identical halves, two once-identical people. With pure humans, the soul doesn't develop until much later in gestation, long after the zygote has split in two. This means that human twins have separate souls despite shared blood. But add a demon into the mix and things get funky, the soul beginning to develop almost instantly after conception. And while Dante and Vergil may have diverged appearance-wise with age and differences in life experience, their souls stay the same. So soul magic which should only work on an individual level works on both, which can be both a boon and bane. It all depends on the context.

[This is perfect for both fluff (Vergil can get into Dante's locked rooms because the seals think he's Dante) and angst (a spell meant to trap one either successfully traps the other, or manages to get both, pleasantly surprising the one who set it and proving bad for our protagonists who mean to fight them). Context!]

[mariyekos]

Oh god. I just realized tomorrow's November. As in, that month in which you write 50,000 words. I...did not prepare.

The NaNo people have embraced AI so I'm not going to do anything official (I never have), but I DID kind of want to participate. What to do, what to do! I do have two or three longfic ideas that I haven't touched so I could theoretically go for one of those if I wanted to focus on one fic. I hit 52k in January and 72k in May so it's not like I haven't had other NaNo level months this year to sort of...look back on with pride, or whatever.

But oh boy. NaNo season. What to dooooooo!

[mariyekos]

One thing I find fascinating is the question if whether Vergil would have done anything different re:DMC3 if he'd known about Nero.

If he knew he had a son, would he have abandoned his plans for the Temen-ni-gru because they were too risky and he'd rather care for what he had? Maybe, maybe not. He knew he had a relative in Dante and that didn't stop him, but Dante was able to survive without him (even if Vergil did help him out by unlocking his Trigger! Which is another thing I find fascinating- the question of whether or not Vergil did it on purpose). Nero would be a baby though, so would having a family member who couldn't survive on his own make Vergil drop everything to care for him? Would he decide to put off raising the Temen-ni-gru until Nero could protect himself?

Or would having a baby who couldn't protect himself make Vergil even more determined to raise the Temen-ni-gru, get the Force Edge, and get Sparda's power? Would Vergil decide that Nero would be safe in the hands of others for a short while, while Vergil worked to get the power to protect him? Would Vergil think the risk was worth the reward? This is my favorite interpretation, but I like both. (Plus, it then leads to the great post-DMC5 conversation of Nero asking Vergil if knowing about him would've changed everything, and Vergil slowly answering no, it probably wouldn't have. It should, but it wouldn't have. And Nero can't tell whether Vergil really regrets that or not).

[mariyekos]

For those of you (like me!) who missed it, there was a Behind the Scenes video released for the first Devil May Cry Netflix Anime back in November 2023, which includes a few scenes that aren't in either the old or new trailer!

This is where we got the shots of the female character who might(?) be Lady but didn't appear in the trailers. It's also where we got shots of a fight that doesn't appear in the latest trailer...unless it's an old version that's since been changed. Putting some screenshots and thoughts below the cut!

"Lady", or the Woman in the Behind the Scenes Video

Above: 1) Dante and the woman running on a rooftop, 2) The woman falls off rooftop, Dante sprints to the ground past her, 3) The woman continues falling and Dante gets prepped to catch her (note: there's something on the right that at first I thought might be Kalina-Ann, but on re-watches looks like a broken pipe).

My thought is that this could be Lady because it mirrors their encounters in DMC3 to an extent. The first shot makes me think of running through the library during her fight. The second and third shot of her falling and Dante catching her is reminiscent of when she fell off the Temen-ni-gru and Dante caught her (by the leg).

However...I hope it's not Lady, because other than the hairstyle, she doesn't look like Lady to me. This DMC is clearly going for a more modern aesthetic than DMC3 (and most of the DMCs, with 5 having the most "modern" look in terms of the city), but this woman's outfit reads very techo-futuristic to me and I would rather not have Lady dress like that. It just doesn't feel very Lady-like to me, y'know? That and I just think it was cool when Lady decided to shoot Dante and save herself when falling in DMC3. Please don't damsel in distress her like this :(

(Related: While I know the real reason Lady dresses like she does is that it's cute/hot, I like to HC that she typically doesn't wear armor because she needs to be able to move, and she figures any demon who'll be able to hurt her will be strong enough to make it through armor anyway so she might as well something mobile and comfortable.)

Now I will say, this woman doesn’t have the Kalina-Ann on her, just two pistols(?), so one possible story-line I’m thinking of is that this is Lady, but in a point early in the story where she’s working for some mercenaries or some sort of group to establish herself while she’s hunting Arkham. Then, later on she might split from them and don something more akin to her usual outfits while she runs around with the Kalina-Ann we all know and love. Another option is that this plain isn’t Lady. That’s my ideal.

Another reason why I’d like if this isn’t Lady is that I really do enjoy the young/schoolgirl aesthetic Lady has going in the original DMC3 and DMC3 Manga, because it sells just how messed up Arkham and his actions are. The scene of a teenager being the one to end her father's life and crying over him feels so much more chilling than it would if she was, say, 25. Lady’s a teenager who’s had her mother and her life stolen from her, and that’s tragic. This woman doesn’t read like a teen to me. And while Dante also reads as a little older and anime is notorious for making 17 year olds look 30 and 30 year olds look 17, that doesn’t eliminate the fact that I think an older looking Lady would lower the impact of certain scenes, even if the show says she’s 16. I like when Lady is younger than Dante, because Dante’s this teenager who’s so irresponsible, but then in comes Lady who’s even younger but seems to have it together…until eventualy you come face to face with the idea that oh, oh boy, this is all terrible and no one should be having to deal with this, Arkham what have you done (both with essentially orphaning Lady and partnering with the teenage Vergil (and screwing over the teenage Dante) as part of his evil plan. Which Vergil agrees to and helps with, so he's far from innocent, but still).

Comparison between Behind the Scenes and the New Trailer

It's also possible that the show might've changed aesthetics a bit between the previous trailer and this one.

See these shots from the new trailer (which I will refer to as NT)? I wonder if they're updated variants of this scene from the Behind the Scenes (BtS) video below.

Now I'll admit this is kind of a stretch. Buuuuut I'm going to stretch to make it anyway. In both scenes, Dante is being attacked by a group of humans. Yes, he fights humans across different media, but if the DMC anime is mostly Dante vs a bunch of humans with human weapons, I'm going to be very bored, so that's why I'm hoping this is just storyboard vs Final version of a scene. And yes, I know that's a lot of work to redo...but maybe reception was bad and they pivoted, and that's part of why we went a year without any news.

Other big things: the arcade cabinets.

I'm pretty sure this is supposed to be Dante's shop in both shots, and again, if Dante gets jumped by a bunch of humans in his shop multiple times, I'm going to be upset/bored because really? That's such a basic thing to reuse. Please don't do that. Thus I'm banking on the BtS version being the original idea, with the NT version being what the animators/director pivoted to.

And the thing I caught onto before I noticed the arcade cabinets: the guy(s) on the floor.

Again, it's entirely possible these are different scenes. A guy getting knocked out is one of the most basic things in any show that includes any kind of fighting. But...if they were redoing a scene, why not keep a few of the elements like the guy(s) Dante has knocked out? Are we going to have multiple scenes of people jumping Dante in his shop, Dante knocking them out, and the shop being partially destroyed? Seems excessive.

Lastly, these two shots:

Now the Rebellion thing is deeeeefinitely a stretch. The other stuff I mentioned in regards to this two scenes is stuff I'm pretty sure of Rebellion nah, especially since it doesn't come right after the other scenes in the BtS video (which are all together), whereas all the shots I included of the NT are in sequence. But the reason I included it is because it feels like a very good establishing shot of Dante, where they might have initially wanted to have him fight some people and pull up Rebellion on its own, but later changed their mind to having the zoom happen mid-fight. The way the walls are messed up in the BtS video makes me think that shot's in Dante's shop, and as I've said a million times before, I think it would be boring/lazy to repeat the same events in the same place.

Closing Thoughts

If the fight scenes above ARE the older and newer versions of the same scene, this does give me some hopes that if the woman in the top shots is meant to be Lady, they might've gone back and fixed up her design to make her more Lady-like. I don't want techno-futuristic outfits. I want someone who's in more traditional combat gear or otherwise at least in more cloth. The thing I love about Lady is how she looks like a teenager whose life veered off the road into the realm of demon hunting, and I think the whole "high school uniform paired with guns and belts and so on" does a great job of visually expressing that.

I will say that the military does seem to get involved at some point due to some shots of a gatling gun, armored truck, and missile, and the guys in the BtS video look more military than the mercenary types of the NT, so they still could be two different fights... but I hope not. The modern tech stuff doesn't feel very DMC to me. I want to keep the spirit of the games, even if we go for new things. (And yes, I know the military shows up in DMC5, but they're there for all of two minutes so if they do show up in the Netflix DMC, I hope they're only there for a short while.)

If you've made it to the end, thank you for reading! If you want to see me break down the new trailer, I made a post about it here.

[mariyekos]

Saw this reply from @sadisticsparda on my other post and decided I wanted to go into this a little bit! Putting this below a cut because it got long.

The basic idea behind this is that Vergil doesn't actually want to kill Dante in DMC3- he just needs Dante out of the way for a little while so he can accomplish what he's set out to do.

What Vergil wants is power...to protect himself and the things that are important to him*. So putting two and two together, you could say that Vergil's actions in DMC3 are in part to help protect Dante, just in a way that Dante doesn't approve of (and he doesn't tell Dante this because Just Stubborn Vergil Things™). Based on both DMC3 and the DMC3 Manga we know Vergil met Dante a year prior to the game, but obviously didn't kill him even though he almost definitely could have, given Vergil has unlocked his demonic powers while Dante hasn't for the most part. This is part of why I'd say Vergil goes a little soft on Dante and might want to protect him too. He could've killed Dante for the amulet or our of hate) pre-DMC3 but didn't, which shows he cares about Dante at least a little bit.

Even in DMC5, when V goes on about how if Dante had never existed (implied things would be better for V/Vergil) and raises the Devil Sword Sparda to kill Dante...he doesn't actually stab him. He stabs the dirt besides him, and afterwards says he just did it to wake Dante up. He had the perfect opportunity to kill Dante, even after Dante had "killed" him once in DMC1, but he didn't do it. So I think his feelings about Dante are very complex, where he both does and doesn't really hate Dante, but could never actually bring himself to kill him.

Instead, I read Vergil as wanting to beat Dante and prove he's better, but not really wanting to kill him. There's also a conversation at the end of Visions of V where V asks Child Vergil (memory) if he hates fighting Dante, but Child Vergil responds that he likes it. V then tells Child Vergil to go fight Dante and prove he (Vergil) is stronger. Which to me, supports the theory that Vergil just wants to fight Dante, not kill, because fighting is what's fun. See below for more on this.

In Visions of V, while we don't see Vergil take on a demonic Trigger, he does unlock his demonic power/extreme healing factor after getting attacked outside the manor as a kid. Specifically, he was stabbed through the chest (and summoned up Yamato, though that didn't stab him, just came to him). Since Vergil then slaughters the demons who attacked him, you can then put this together: get mortally wounded/stabbed through chest -> unlock amazing power -> never get that hurt again.

Putting all of that together, you get this.

-> Vergil wants power to protect himself and that which is important to him

> He knows that getting mortally wounded/stabbed gave him his first power boost, and unlocked his Trigger

-> When he fights Dante he realizes Dante doesn't have his Trigger

-> Vergil wants Dante to be able to protect himself (or wants Dante to be more fun to fight), so he'll give Dante the (stabbing) boost he needs

-> Now Dante will be able to fend for himself while Vergil is gaining the rest of his power (and/or for the times they aren't together and Vergil isn't there to protect him, like during the Manor Fire/Attack)

Now, is this giving Vergil a lot of good guy credit? Yeah. Vergil also tried to kill Arkham and failed, so it could be that he was legitimately trying to kill Dante but got cocky and didn't finish the job. Maybe he didn't think Dante would be able his demon powers/Trigger like Vergil did. Maybe Dante surviving by any means just didn't cross his mind. Because sure, Vergil puts on this high and mighty front, but sometimes he doesn't really think things through all the way, or doesn't have as much figured out as he thinks he does (ex. the famous "Why isn't this working!" scene). So, Dante living could definitely have been an accident/mistake on Vergil's part.

But I like reading Vergil as someone who does care about his brother (at least as of DMC3). He just needs Dante to get out of his way while he's trying to accomplish his goals. If Vergil can't actually get Dante to leave, then unlocking Dante's Trigger will at least keep him from getting himself killed by the occupants the Temen-ni-gru, so then Vergil won't have to worry about Dante dying before Vergil has achieved his goal. Maybe Dante will see reason once Vergil has gotten the power he desires. Or maybe Vergil kniws he won't but can't bring himself to kill his brother anyway. Who knows.

The alternate take on Vergil unlocking Dante's Trigger on purpose that I sort of mentioned above is that since Vergil thinks it's fun to fight Dante, maybe he did it not so Dante could protect himself, but so Dante would put up a better fight. Fights aren't fun when they're one sided, so maybe Vergil wanted to put them on a level playing field. That would both make the fight more fun since Dante would put up more of a challenge, and mean Vergil's victory was even better/more legitimate since he would prove he was the stronger one even when they both had access to their full demonic strength. I personally like thinking Vergil stabbed Dante to unlock his Trigger for both the Protection and the Better Fight reasons.

Anyway, yeah! That's the idea: Vergil knew getting stabbed unlocked his powers, so he stabbed Dante to unlock Dante's (whether to protect Dante or to make fighting Dante more fun). That or he's just bad at murdering people. We have evidence of that in the same game. But I think the first theory is more fun.

*my idea that Vergil wanting power in order to protect that which is dear to him comes from my interpretation of this quote from DMC3- "Might controls everything, and without strength you cannot protect anything, let alone yourself." So I see it as Vergil wanting power to protect himself so he'll never be hurt again, but also extend that to the other things he cares about. Is it a bit of a stretch? Maybe. But I'll stretch it anyway! Similarly, in Visions of V, V/kid Vergil both say that they wanted to be protected, which is less of a "see Vergil wants to protect others/Dante" thing, but still goes into how protection is important to him.

EDIT: I want to add this on from a reblog of mine!

#I definitely don't think Vergil was trying to kill Dante#Though that doesn't necessarily mean he was trying to unlock his trigger?#He could've been just lashing out in anger#or maybe both#But I definitely don't think that stab had any killing intent whatsoever#Devil May Cry#DMC#Vergil DMC#Dante DMC via @dmc-questions-anon

Honestly yeah. Looking back at this I realize I glossed over that point a lot, but I also think it's very likely that Vergil wasn't trying to kill Dante or unlock his Trigger, he was just trying to get Dante out of the way and figured stabbing him was a good enough way to go about it. The whole unlocking Dante's Trigger was just a(n in)convenient side effect.

So basically, Yes! It could definitely be (and tbf, the canon explanation probably is) that Vergil stabbed Dante because he was mad and wanted Dante out of his hair, and the whole potentially unlocking a Trigger thing didn't even cross his mind. As of DMC3 he hasn't forgiven Dante for what happened when they were kids, so stabbing Dante would both get Dante out of his hair for a little while, and also be a way of getting back at him for everything he's done (for being the one Eva chose). It just so happens that his attempt ends up backfiring when Dante immediately heals and comes back stronger.

I just find the Trigger thing fun 😅😁