#it would've been fine for him to have stayed as nelo angelo for a bit longer

[dragongirlspacewizard]

NETFLIX DEVIL MAY CRY SPOILERS I GUESS

Watched the netflix DMC. Very mixed feelings. When Lady wasn't on screen, there was really something going for it. I didn't hate the weird "War on Terror" thing they were doing in concept, though the depiction of certain acts was... a bit gratuitous, to put it nicely. I thought Dante had a good mix of irreverence and sincerity (when Lady wasn't in the same scene), I enjoyed the Rabbit much more than I thought I would. The human villain was a delight to watch, felt very Castlevania.

The references to the games, and they were just references, were a mixed bag. Agni and Rudra were the bodies rather than the swords, which rather feels like it's missing the point. Like, the show was perfectly fine inventing things, just invent something if you're not gonna actually use the thing you're taking (Lady). Echidna and Cavaliere were a lot of fun though, as was the shapeshifter. Weird that they never followed up that stolen baby though. I guess it showed up near the end?

And speaking of the end, I rather get the impression that a second season would be better than the first. The setting's been left in a better position to tell the story the writers seem to want to tell. They're pulling fucking Oroboros of all things. Here's hoping the glimpse we got of Lucia in the first (second? I forget) episode wasn't just teasing us.

The elephant in the room of course is Lady. My fucking girl, what did they do to you? This ain't her! It looks like her, if you only look at her face, but this ain't her! It ain't any version of her! Her origins are only similar on a surface level (the vaguely Jester-like look in Arkham's transformation felt more like teasing than anything else), the way she moves is completely different, and she doesn't fucking talk like that! I know this is not a direct adaptation of the games, obviously, but if you're not gonna actually use Lady, why use her at all?

The answer is for recognisability of course. But fuck, every scene she's in suffers for it. Her quips are trying too hard, they can't seem to decide if she's in DMC or fucking Resident Evil (though I did like the little stim she uses in the tower), if I have to hear "anti-demon bullet" one more time I'm gonna fucking hurl, THAT AIN'T MY GIRL! The way she just cuts through the sincerity on every fucking scene, it's infuriating!

They give her the Kalina-Ann as a fucking prototype weapon from the PMC. What's the point! She fires it like twice and then Enzo picks it up and dies. In the games, she named it after her mother and used it to go after her father! It had meaning! It was a symbol! It was, at first, too heavy for her to handle! But here it's just another weapon given to her by the military to be disposed of after like a minute of screen time.

DESPITE all this, I think I did actually have a good time with the show. This Dante is a delight (when not having to bounce off of Lady), the mix of old and new designs is fun, the action's pretty great, the soundtrack is fun, it's a good time! I'm gonna watch the second season (assuming there is one). I just hope that they either introduce Lucia properly or leave her as an episode-one easter egg. And god forbid they do this to Trish.