It's pretty funny that people still think whole motivation of DmC's Vergil makes any sense. People keep complaining about whole "POWER" thing, while completely ignore that whole motivation of Vergil form DmC isn't better than "I WILL RULE THE WORLD". That's without mentioning the fact of how stupid it was to even start talking to dante and kat about it in the first place.
The main point is that at least DmC Vergil
has reasons for his motivations, good or bad is a different debate entirely, but the fact of the matter is that we actually
know why he's doing it. DmC Vergil's motivations make total sense within the confines of the narrative he is in, and doesn't require a grand amount of guesswork and theorycrafting to piece together.
And as for how he was going to achieve it, at least in DMC3 Vergil had means to achieve his goals. In DmC Vergil lacked them. He couldn't even rule the world, because he has nothing left in the end. He lost all of his men, his whole base of operation, he kept database on Mundus network (but in the end it was useless since network ceased to exist when hell-gate opened). Well unless people actually think somebody can take the world with one laptop, his motivation and goals are barely hold together and serve only as poor excuse to fight him as the final boss.
There is way more to The Order than their headquarters that got raided - they're a global network, all the information he has wasn't simply for Mundus, it was for all of demonkind and where their influence wass. Obviously the information on Mundus ceases to be useful once he's gone, but they still have both a global network, all the information they've accrued on the demons, and the fact that Vergil was an incredibly powerful nephilim like Dante.
You're foolish, and a little ignorant, if you think that everything left of The Order is on a single laptop.
Vergil didn't just turn on his heel at the end of the game, either. Once he divulged how he truly feels about humans, and his ultimate goal in the wake of Mundus' defeat, it's incredibly easy to see a common thread in all of his actions throughout the game that help him achieve his goals with subterfuge and misdirection.
1 I know, I'm just saying that I think a lot can be said for characters that don't announce their reasons to the player. I'm sure there have been plenty of bad guys in video games who never explained their reasons for doing something, we just accept that they must have some reason. TBH, I'm fine with Vergil not explaining everything. He has some issues, and his motivation seems basically the same as new Vergil's... so... I'm saying there's no reason to bash old Vergil just because he doesn't make his motivations clear. Even if his only motivation were to obtain power, that's fine with me. It's no worse a motivation than wanting to rule over humanity. Pretty sure new Vergil doesn't explain why he wants to either. Only that 'humans are weak and need protection'. Cool story, bruh.
Yeah, there's lots of characters who never blurt out their motivations, which is fine, playing close to the chest is something that a lot of characters can and will do. However, from a writing standpoint, the fact that they never did anything to help us understand Vergil's reasons for seeking power is where it all falls apart...or rather, where it just hits a wall. It's just so weird that Vergil says so much about how great power is, but never gives a hint to his own reasoning, and even his own brother doesn't get it out of him, when he probably totally could have. If there's one character who could get Vergil to explain himself more, it was Dante, but...well...he was too busy being a ninja turtle in the story >.<
2 Seems logical Vergil wants to rule over the demon world. Doesn't it seem logical to you that since he reads up on Sparda's legacy and says he wants Sparda's power.. he probably wants to emulate Sparda? ''Why do you refuse the power of our father'' he says, while Dante feels that Sparda being his father is irrelevant.
The game never said that his only motivation for getting power or closing the hell gate is 'because he's a demon', so you're making assumptions too.
Well no, I didn't say that he wanted to close a hellgate (I said open actually, didn't I?). Him opening the hellgate is just a byproduct of him wanting to seek out the power Sparda left behind. And I don't mean to imply that "because he's a demon" is an assumption, I just mean that, if what you suggested was true, that it
was all because he was a demon, then that'd be horrible.
Him wanting to emulate Sparda is surely a possibility, but it's slightly contradicted by Vergil's own careless actions that put humanity at risk, which is the exact opposite of what Sparda did, like literally; Sparda sacrificed his own power to close a hellgate and protect humanity, while Vergil sacrifices humanity's safety by opening a hellgate to receive Sparda's power.
3 Well that's conjecture too. Just because a few demons got out into the human world does not mean the entire human world is in jeopardy. In DMC3, there's some areas of the city that were damaged and abandoned, yes... but there is no indication that the entire human world (or even the city) is flooded with demons.
Also, as far as I know, Sparda's power was locked away because he can't be a fullblood demon and human at the same time in the human world. He sacrificed (much of) his demon side to live with Eva. Now that he's dead, Vergil finds there is no reason to keep it sealed. In the end the gate is sealed again. Vergil doesn't care though because he just wants to stay in the demon world at that point.
Well, he used that power to close a hellgate and seal a door to the underworld, effectively cutting off any great demonic migration that allowed the demons to hassle humanity in the first place. I don't quite remember it ever being said that he left that power behind simply because he wanted to be more human, though. I remember it being that he left it there as an integral piece to keeping the seal in place.
However, you can't try to mitigate the severity of opening a gate to Hell's impact on humanity simply because we don't see a lot of humanity. The severity is in the fact that a gate to Hell was reopened! Why would Sparda seal it shut if it wasn't an incredible risk to humanity to be left open? You don't lock away a petty offender in a maximum security prison - that's where the true dangers to society go.
4 I understand completely, and yes I wish Vergil and Dante had an actual deep backstory, but I can't rate new Vergil above old Vergil only because his backstory is more defined. I can't say that new Vergil is a better character just because of his explained backstory. That's just not enough for me. I simply like old Vergil better because the rest of his character is enjoyable. I like that he's a cold, brooding character who doesn't talk much and goes for his goals head-on. I like his way of talking, his (almost nonexistent) body language, his combos... everything besides his backstory.
Or lackthereof
I don't mean to imply that one should be rated higher than the other, but objectively, looking at the character development side of things, classic Vergil fell incredibly short by lacking basic things, which is why I always call him one-dimensional. He's certainly so cool he's Absolute Zero, but when I look at how he fits into the actual narrative, I'm disappointed in the lack of even basic development to help us understand him more. Hell the games even use Files to relay information, they could have at least done that so we knew :C
5 He never said he was surprised Dante survived. He said ''I see a demon has awoken in you as well''. That does indicate he did not know Dante didn't have a DT yet, but it says nothing about him wanting Dante dead. He impaled him, yes... but Vergil knows you can't kill a son of Sparda by impaling him. They regenerate like crazy, remember? Dante gets impaled again in DMC1. And again in DMC4. If he wanted to kill Dante, he would've cut his head off. Plain and simple.
It's not like he's gonna say "I'm shocked!" or something, it's the fact that he left him to die and wasn't expecting Dante to get back up. It's slight conjecture, really, because this is when they were no where near as powerful as they are in the later games, and if gameplay is to be believed, incurring enough wounds is enough to kill them. He may be a Son of Sparda, but they are half-human, and we've seen incredibly strong demons killed by less.
All we see is Vergil constantly coming at Dante with an intent to kill; in their first fight, he impaled Dante and left him for dead, but Dante got back up, and Arkham suggested they just leave; in their second fight, they were interrupted by Lady and later Arkham; and in their third fight, they damn near killed each other, but were again interrupted and Dante was forced to leave.
6 As he and Arkham talked, he was holding a book detailing Sparda's legacy. It's quite possible that that whole library (or large parts of it) was dedicated to Sparda. In any case, he was reading up on Sparda, and it's clear he wants to emulate him. He basically says it himself.
He talks about wanting Sparda's power, or to be powerful like Sparda, but never actually talks about emulating him via Sparda's good deeds. All Vergil seemed to care about was the power itself.
7 Pretty sure he doesn't kill anyone in DMC3 without a good reason. Could've killed Lady. Did he? No. He tries to kill Arkham because he knows his demonic side has taken over. That much became clear when Arkham grasped Vergil's Katana by the blade. The part about him not caring about anyone but himself is again you jumping to conclusions.
Sure, that's how selfish people work; if he had any semblance of honor, he wouldn't go around murdering people because they are in his way or no longer useful to him, or putting others in danger simply for his own sake; honor is about an unyielding respect for others, Vergil exudes next to none. He kills an unarmed and unaware Arkham for outliving his usefulness, and remember Vergil had no inclination that Arkham would survive. He straight up tries to slice Lady in two when she interrupts their second fight, but Dante intervenes. Him not caring about anyone else isn't a conclusion I simply jumped to, it's a conclusion based solely on the fact that
everything he did in the game was for himself, and he cared little for what happened to others - he was willing to murder his own brother for his goals, and endangers all of humanity by swinging open a door to the underworld.
Now, based on the theory people have, if he really was about motivated by his mother's death to protect humanity from the demons, he'd be an incredibly stupid to try and gain power which involves unlocking a portal to Hell
and letting out the very the demons out he supposedly wants to protect humanity from. Everything was fine and dandy, and humanity was much safer with that gate locked. There's a certain point when the "crack a few eggs to make an omelet"
8 So he has the same reasons. Revenge, sure, old Vergil no doubt wants that too. Mundus is also the ruler of the demon world in DMC3 really... so I don't doubt that Vergil's plan was to open the hell gate to find Mundus and kill him. He even tried to kill him at the end of DMC3, so yeah. He could've joined Mundus, but he wanted revenge... just like new Vergil. Considering it's probable that old Vergil wants to rule the demon world in Mundus's place, that's the same as in DmC. The only difference is, like you said, new Vergil clearly states his reasons while old Vergil keeps it a slight mystery. But considering old Vergil wants 'power', he will kill Mundus. Ruling over the demon world is 'power' too.
And all the "probably" you mentioned with classic Vergil is where it all falls apart, unfortunately. We explicitly
know what DmC Vergil wants, and
why. Classic Vergil's whats and whys are all a big blank space, and it's easily filled in with theory, which unfortunately does not make him any less one-dimensional when it comes to story.
However, I feel that once again I must plainly state that I don't like,
hate DMC3 or classic Vergil; DMC3 is my favorite of the classic series, and I find Vergil to be a fun power trip of a character. I just...don't have any qualms with saying he has sh!t for development.