#he just seems like a cool english guy to me idk asdfghjk

[fabdante]

Wanted to know what you thought about it, but:

I kinda headcanon that reboot Dante was actually pretty smart in school. Or at least, he would've been. He did good when he could get one of those rare teachers that actually treated you like a person and would sit down and explain the subject to you, and was patient with you through whatever fits you threw because you didn't understand the subject (or were just having a bad day). The kind that would tutor you after class or during recess or whenever they had the time, and treated you with patience and gave you encouragement (maybe more than his current guardians did). You know the kind?

I'd like to think he had at least one or two of those growing up, tho they got fewer and fewer the older he got and the more criminal things he had to do to survive- if he was even going to school at that point to begin with. The older he got, the more the shitty guardians and authority figures piled up, the worse the demon attacks got, the more he ended up in prison or places like a prison, the more time he had to spend homeless, the less and less "doing good in school" mattered to him. Because of everything previously mentioned, and because as he got older, he probably saw 1) the toll that took on the students going to school, any kind of school, especially the most vulnerable kids, and 2) just how little anything being taught in schools actually helped you in the real world. At least, unless you were rich. And white, and cis, and straight, and not neurodivergent or disabled.

Anyway, I think he had subjects that he liked and was good at, and probably still likes to read about on his own, if he has the time and space to store the books. Its just that being a mercenary (or whatever other illegal things he had to do before legally becoming an adult) usually paid better. Same with demon hunting, post-Limbo collapsing into the real world. He'd probably do well with a teacher or tutor, if he could find someone that could sit down and explain things to him. Not to get a degree or anything, because college is too expensive for too little gain (I can't see him ever willingly setting foot in the academic world again), but just. If the subject was interesting to him.

Like, he's probably gotta play catch up with some "basic" education stuff, stuff that he's missed out on one way or another, but he's smart, y'know? He's got potential- you just have to find a teacher that fits him, and also give him a reason to actually give a shit and try to learn.

I am a very big proponent of the Dante's being much smarter then given credit for by the fandom (I wrote a meta post about it one time, focusing on reboot Dante and mission 19)!

I feel like fandom likes tropes that are easier to digest which I think makes both Dante's characterization suffer in fanon from time to time. Which is not to say the Sparda family brain cell jokes and what not are not funny like I love them but...idk there's a lot more going on here is all.

I've always characterized reboot Dante as someone who is intelligent albeit not in the way reboot Vergil is. His is a sort of practical, analytical, observation. Like the best way I can describe it is I always put his best, most natural subject in school as English.

English class is about training you to analyze texts, any text. Like that's the whole point. The point is to get you to essentially 'solve' the problem of what a text means. And I feel like it's a skill that can be learned, but also can be a natural sort of curiosity that can be nourished. and I feel like from what we see with reboot Dante we sort of see him lean into this. Where as Vergil's all logic and study and rigid intellectualism, we sort of see Dante wonder. He analyzes situations. He's always prying for more information, more bits of information to study to put together what's happening around him. Like you can see it in how he approaches Kat for instance, he keeps trying different things to see what will get her to open up more and once he figures it out that's when he starts asking questions about Vergil, the thing he really wants to know about because (as I posit in the mission 19 post) he does not trust Vergil and wants more information about that.

So like in my own fanon I have him excelling a lot at stuff like English. I always have him reading the assigned books to, even if he might skim at times and has not picked up a book since he dropped out asdfghjk i do think though he'll still do literature analysis without really thinking when watching tv and stuff (as proposed a bit in my fic crossroads of catharsis and contemplation)

For like sciences and math and stuff I just feel like he'd largely be disinterested because he has other things going on and just does not care to apply himself because he just...largely does not care. As long as he skirts by he's fine with those.

But yeah long story short I do think both Dantes are a lot smarter then given credit for and that reboot Dante could probably have been a good student if he cared more and was in healthier environments.