Excuse my delayed response. The college workload beckoned.
I'd argue that's not really a gameplay-meets-narrative thing so much as it completely divorces the two.
I suppose. But I know plenty of games whose narratives thrive through readables and in-game text, rather than any emoting of characters or cinematic establishing…
Dark Souls for one. And you won’t hear a single person peep about the ineffective storytelling of THAT series.
Besides, most of the scrolls in
LoS outlined things like Gabriel’s origins, his history as a child, how him and Marie met, and how they were able to bond and get married, etc. Usually, games in this genre don’t even give us THAT much to work with, so I’ll take what I can get.
Sure, but then the question becomes how Zobek knows all of that and why he's iterating it to the audience. Does Gabriel just really like him? Is Zobek peering into his mind? Why is he even telling us this under a pretense of not being evil?
I would presume Zobek’s status as a Lord of Shadow would grant him insight to Gabriel’s mind while he’s still a human. Carmilla was able to read his mind with a glance, if you remember, and Zobek’s supposed to be the most powerful of the three.
Or I dunno. Maybe MercurySteam needed Patrick Stewart to provide something to the game in addition to just voicing a main character. The guy can’t be cheap to get ahold of.
Personally, I did find it too immersion breaking to tolerate. Since Nero and Kyrie sort of have this "are they aren't they" thing going on it at least excuses how they refer to each other, because their relationship is very weird.
Weird, no. Cliché? Painfully. Most of their exchanges are literally just the two of them making googly-eyes and calling out each other’s names. I’m long desenstitized by anime romances literally playing out and functioning exactly like this. I’m just surprised Kyrie and Nero’s interactions didn’t have the shimmering artificial effects or the sweeping cherry-blossom trees in the background.
That’s literally all those scenes were missing.
I suppose, but I'm not sure that was intentional. The concept art indicates that if they had the production capability the tone would have been different.
Shamefully as it is to admit, I’m actually not privy to much of
DMC4’s concept art. I’ve been meaning to snag a copy of the
3142 Art Book, but I’ve been putting it off for years. I’d love to see what a game like this looked like in development.
But again, that's not so much a justification than an issue he needs to get over.
I’m not sure how one can “get over” a mental deficiency like a subconscious block or traumatic memory fragmentation. Unlike Dante’s seemingly-willful dismissal of his own core-establishing motives in
DMC3, the mental status of the Dante in the novel is probably something he can’t help.
But again….that isn’t canon anyway, so it’s not like it affects Dante’s characterization in any way.
I'm not really sure I remember seeing what you're describing.
It’s simple, really. Just look into the dialogue in the opening sequence for
DMC1, and you’ll see what I mean. Dante’s reliance on campy lines and corny jokes wanes the longer he talks to Trish, as he becomes more aware of what’s going on.
That very human ability to shift tones according to the situation…it’s called being a character. Something that, quite gratingly,
DMC3 Dante almost never does.
His characterization is set to “hyperactive man-child one-liner machine” 99% of his time on screen, regardless of the tension or mood of the accompanying scene…which in literary terms, is called being one-note.
No, it's defiantly ten years. Dante is 17-19 years old in DMC3, it takes place ten years after Eva's death. Then in 1 Dante is 27-29 years old, and it's been twenty years since Eva's death. There is a big gap of time between 3 and 1.
Ah, it would appear you’re correct. I just skimmed some older threads concerning Dante’s age, and I was mixed up. My humblest apologies…it would seem that it’s not just my
fingers that these long posts are starting to fatigue.
Yes. Call me crazy, but I don’t find most of their interactions “familial” in any sense, especially given how the bulk of their role in the story is to aid him in each of his hunts, to provide support as allies...support that, by the novel’s own construction, Dante doesn’t appreciate until it’s too late.
It’d be like assigning Lady and Trish to familial roles based on how they interact with Dante. Comrades, sure…but
family? To me, that’s a bit of a stretch.
But... That is exactly what happened in 3.
If you’re referring to that thirty-second lapse between Dante getting struck down in his first confrontation with Vergil, and his explosive surge of power which he demonstrates by breaking the sound barrier literally moments later…if
that is the writers’ best attempt at fleshing out Dante’s character by bringing him to his knees to develop him or establish some kind of narrative growth, it might be the
WORST attempt I’ve ever encountered in fiction.
THAT is a chasmic leap over hardship and struggle in the same way a jog across the street is the triathlon. The mere
suggestion is too ludicrous to utter without exploding into coma-inducing fits of laughter.
NOTHING about that scene is a substantial or character-crucial ascension through hardship.
Nothing. He literally develops plot powers in two seconds, without any consequence or meaningful relevance. He didn’t have to work for it, it didn’t challenge or build his character in any way, it never comes back as some kind of impactful moment of Dante’s history, and it changes NOTHING about his character to the point where you could remove that scene from the game, and it would change absolutely nothing.
He was an insufferable try-hard before he gained his new power, and he was an insufferable try-hard right afterwards. Nothing of significance came from that, outside of the in-game introduction of the Devil Trigger mechanic.
Nothing else.
That’s a struggle? That’s an emotional fluctuation? That’s a significant and series-altering character arc? In the shallow and amateurish caliber of bad anime, maybe…but in every other literary sense? Absolute
NOT.
When a scene like that has already such inconsequential impact on the character it was trying to develop to the point where its removal changes nothing about the character or story, it has already failed beyond comprehension.
All it signifies is that SOMEONE at Capcom was paid far too much for doing a job he never did:
write competently.
But that makes no sense, what exactly is supposed to distinguish such people from someone "worthy"?
That is an excellent question, one that the series goes out of its way to answer on multiple occasions.
To put it simply, Alucard’s judge of character and motivation are confounding even to his own allies, to the point where he’s often questioned for “why he killed this person” or “why he decided to spare this one.” We never really understand the exact workings of the Count’s deranged inner workings, only mere glimpses of what makes him tick, and what thin strands of sense or rationality make up the interior of his psychotic head.
When it comes to deciding the worthiness of the people he encounters, the pattern we see Alucard typically follow is whether or not that person is strong enough to cling to the entity that they are, or the reasons for which they do things.
A part of this stems from the long-brewing regret surrounding his decision to embrace vampirism while about to beheaded on a Turkish executioner’s block. He didn’t rush to be reborn as the undead because of any honorable or higher purpose….he did it in frantic desperation, in a cowardly and feverish way of ducking out of his own death in the wake of his failure to fight for his kingdom, and the subjects he so selfishly sacrificed…a mentality that he would come to reflect on and regret for six centuries. So it’s not
that he abandoned his own humanity that disgusted him, it’s
why. He even berates Anderson for using Helena’s Nail as a quick way out, precisely because he’s doing it for the same reasons: because of being unable to face his own inadequacy, as someone/something weaker.
Traces of this mentality can be seen quite clearly with the way he regards Walter. As a human, he won Alucard’s respect, for having the endearing and fearless qualities as a human; he didn’t worry about petty human dilemmas like getting old, or becoming obsolete, at least on a surface level. He embraced old age as an Englishman, and stuck to his principles and attitude regardless of how old he was getting, which is exactly what Alucard admired…or at least, what he’d been
led to believe.
Fast forward to Walter’s abandonment of the Hellsing Order, and all of that respect from Alucard drops. In the Count’s eyes, Walter took the same cheap way out…and is not disgusted not because of the fact he did it, but
why. It’s revealed that Walter was more self-conscious and paranoid than he had initially revealed, and was terrified of being rendered obsolete by age. Alucard would live forever, carrying out his role as a monster hunter and being the formidable force that Walter coveted, and would end up losing as soon as his body withered and died. Alucard even starts berating him for being so weak that he couldn’t cling to his older body and principles, and tells him he gave up something extremely valuable for such a measly grab at immortality….which, in his opinion, doesn’t even exist.
Now, you’re probably wondering at this point how any of this can be valid when he turned Seras into a vampire on her last breath. Isn’t that a cheap way out as well? Isn’t saving her against the very principles I just established?
Well, I’ll address all that and more below.
But, again, Anderson isn't human. Why is him using the cross any different from how he's normally super-human anyway? And if Anderson hadn't done it, wouldn't Alucard have simply killed him anyway? Maybe with a nod to his tenacity, but nothing more.
It’s not Anderson’s status as human or inhuman that wins Alucard’s respect…it’s his determination, his unbridled and frothing will, one so characteristically-human despite his inhuman body, that wins Alucard’s admiration. Alucard knew fully well that Anderson wouldn’t have been able to triumph over him successfully at Level 0, but his intrigue grows as, despite all odds, the maddened Judas Priest endangers life and limb, plunging into a Forest of Familiars and miraculously managing to emerge face-to-face with the Vampire King.
Even if Alucard killed him right there on the spot after clearing all those obstacles, his respect for Anderson would’ve remained intact. To die spectacularly, in such an endearing and human fashion after making it that far, is the only kind of opponent Alucard was ever hoping to face.
You even see trickles of hope in Alucard, that maybe this humanoid creature striving with all the endearing qualities of the men that triumphed over him 100 years prior….maybe he
can be the death he’s been long hoping for.
And it’s that mentality that produces the bitter, enraged disappointmet that not only does Anderson not prove to be the glorious end he long-sought, but that the Priest ended up throwing away everything he admired about him.
But how did Helsing defeat him? With Alucard's vast array of abilities, how did Helsing ever actually bring him down, and why does Alucard ever think it would happen again?
Ah, the long-dwelled question that so many
Hellsing fans seem to miss.
Many people seem to misconstrue that Alucard was ALWAYS the God-tier Vampire Entity that he’s seen to be during the events that constitute the Hellsing Organization’s dealings with Milennium…but this is not the case.
The Cromwell Restrictions, Level 0, the Ability to summon a population-sized monsoon of undead familiars…Dracula didn’t have these abilities when he fought Abraham Van Helsing during their legendary confrontation in the Carpathian Mountains. He was a powerful vampire, but not nearly as powerful as he’d become later…granting Van Helsing and his underdog Vampire Hunters the chance to outfox and triumph over the Transylvanian Count with human methods, which in the novel-based confrontation that Hellsing draws from, involved them sabotaging the weakened Count’s coffin while he was being transported back to Castle Dracula, where the soil of his birthplace could’ve revived him and granted him the power to seize Mina Harker for good.
It’s only
AFTER the Hellsing Family enslaves him that they conduct occult experiments and alchemic restrictions to turn him into a Vampiric Superweapon, which is why every vampire he confronts is so aghast and terrified of his powers:
they aren’t the traditional powers of a standard vampire. Practically all of the abilities that make him Satan Incarnate were implemented by the Hellsing Order’s experimentation, which Integra herself states to Anderson in the very first volume:
“You maybe the fruit of the finest anti-vampire technology…but a hundred years of the Hellsing Family’s occult knowledge produced THIS achievement—our crown glory: the Vampire Alucard!”
And in the confines of Alucard’s mind, even
with his new set of powers, he still believes that someone out there, someone with the endearing, human and inconceivable qualities that disarmed even someone as powerful as him so many years ago, may yet exist to bring him the poetic end he so desires.
I mean at a base level, if he respects humans with a strong will but detests those that use the supernatural, why did he respond to Seras' will to live by turning her into a vampire?
As mentioned previously above, it’s not the use of the supernatural he detests, but the
reasons his unworthy opponents use them. And on that note, we should finally get to the topic of Seras, who embodies this notion quite vividly.
Upon bleeding out and sinking deeper into death’s jaws, Alucard offers her a choice he doesn’t expect her to make in a way he deems satisfactory; the chance to become a vampire and survive. Why does he offer her this? Because he senses her determination to live, but not out of cowardice: she starts calling out for her parents…and he begins to suspect she has other reasons to cling to life outside of just saving herself.
It’s upon biting her that Alucard receives all of her memories, including the grisly deaths of her parents, and her joining the Police Force to exact the justice she felt they deserved. He discovers that it’s this reason that she’d climb back up after being shot to keep on living, a fierce drive that he thinks juxtaposes with her innocent and girlish exterior.
He even mentions this when Walter confronts him about it, where he merely says:
“Have you met her family yet?”
“No. She’s….orphaned.”
“Of course she is. Beneath that girlish exterior lies a fascinating and complicated creature.”
This directly implies to what he’s seen in the memories swarming Seras’ blood after biting her, which as
Hellsing establishes plenty of times over the series, is how the vampiric consumption or birthing through blood is supposed to work. He then describes Seras’ mental framework right as she was dying, not giving away any part of her childhood that he’s seen to Walter (as it’s a pivotal plot point of Seras’ that the mangaka was saving for the emotionally-heavy Sieging of Hellsing Manor), but merely tells Walter this:
“It was close to hell as any mortal could imagine. And what did she do? What fate did she choose? Giving up is what kills people. Those who refuse to give up are entitled their time to trample on the weak!”
Seras’ reasons for wanting to keep living, her undying and unhindered drive to avenge her parents and
not herself, is a strength that Alucard deemed worthy….a strength and selflessness he failed to demonstrate when he was in her exact same situation as the Wallachian Voivode about to be executed, and fleeing to vampirism for far less honorable reasons.
It’s one of the main reasons that Alucard even regards her as a potential equal, instead of just another faceless innocent caught in the underground war between Hellsing and the supernatural.
I meant comparable in the sense that Hellsing was written by a single author with the freedom to do whatever he wanted on the basis of an already expansive mythology, while Devil May Cry has been nothing of the sort, it has many more issues to deal with, and are forced to work within much tighter confines.
Devil May Cry has had the luxury of having one Lead Scenario Writer, Bingo Morihashi for every game since the second one, as well as the anime, regardless of the apparent shift in staff positions on the
DMC Writing Team. They’ve had most of the same ****-poor talent and creative input for the better portion of five years od material.
If something like maintaining character consistency and granting Dante something outside of his one-note portrayal in the mountainous runtime they dedicate to each game’s cutscenes is something beyond their capabilitues, you can bet I’ll make the comparisons between him and Kouta Hirano, especially because the two of them were tasked with building a narrative around a character they didn’t write from scratch themselves.
And when a solitary mangaka under the pressure of a weekly magazine is turning out a better characterization than a team of writers working for a conglomerate with the prestige and budget as Capcom, I’m not going to be generating a whole lot of sympathy for the latter…especially when they’re in a far better position, have three times the budget and resources, and are five times less competent at doing the same job.
That seems to be pure bias on your part.
Arguably, yes. But I’d argue also that many of the story elements I and many other fans formulate are grounded enough to be believable. I never once count them as canon or sufficient for the lack of coherent writing in the actual games….because it isn’t my job to do so.
It’s Capcom’s job to generate the writing, not the speculative efforts of fans.
As for intention, it's not far-fetched at all. In fact, between our last conversation about this and now I've read Trinity of Fate, and it effectively confirms everything about Dante, and particularly Vergil's, characters that I had previously suggested to you. I had occasionally questioned whether those views of the characters were deliberate by the writers before, but at this point I'm very certain.
I wasn’t aware any English versions of
Trinity of Fates even existed, as the only official version is Japanese. If you can read Japanese, or have scans, would you mind posting them somewhere, or directing me to where I can access them somewhere online?
Regardless, even if the narrative elements you claim to exist really do have a basis in the writers’ intentions, all that does is showcase that they can’t execute even a fraction of what they intend for the characters or story in the actual game.
Crucial and character-defining attributes something that has to be offered to fans through spin-off or bonus material, instead of the confines of the game they’re expected to inject them into.
If that’s not a colossal literary failing of the worst kind, I seriously don’t know what is.
As I've said before, it is probably both. A final, high adrenaline fight to cap off the game, but also a tragic moment touching on Dante's character, simultaneously.
“Probably” isn’t really substantial enough to warrant or confirm such an integral part of Dante’s character. With the way that scene was handled and with how paper-thin the likelihood of any “tragic undertones” the writers were trying to implement through a gun-kata pose, Dante whooping about his love for fighting, and finishing off with hot-blooded metal music…it’s not hard evidence to support anything of the kind.
It’s a nice idea…but not factually plausible or relevant based on anything we see at that moment the game. For all we’re told and shown, Dante switches from showing anguish to reverting back to his jolly, fun-loving self, without alluding or suggesting anything else.
And really, that’s the only factual evidence you, me, or anyone can take from this scene, regardless of any personal interpretation.
They did allude to it, when Sid explicitly tells Dante that his plan will be of use to him, and then once that plan culminates he immediately tries to kill Dante. Not to mention that he endlessly puts himself in deadly situations, and constantly allows himself to be attacked. Even the lyrics reference his crazy mindset.
That justifies Dante’s risk-taking and lack of acknowledging the danger involved in the fights he does. It does
NOT, however, explain even marginally the depressed or emotional undertones you claim are hidden under that nature, everything relating to Dante
wanting to meet his end where, really, that’s never once implied or established.
Moreover, isn't Dante's "insanely overconfident/dangerously suicidal" personality one of the very first things we ever heard about him from Enzo?
Again, yes, I never contested his blind overconfidence and willingness to disregard risk and harm to himself….but that doesn’t establish anything intentionally-suicidal or emotionally off-balance ABOUT Dante.
Firstly, the moment Dante shows the barest hint of interest when he questions the Order worshiping a demon as a god, Trish takes Sparda and runs off. Then, when Lady suggests there's a threat, Dante immediately switches from not caring to ready for this to "keep him occupied".
Um…that doesn’t really prove Trish was acting on Dante’s well-being or nurturing him in away. Like, at all.
I’m fairly certain Trish making off with Sparda and leaving without announcing her departure was almost explicitly used for comedic value, to showcase her headstrong and overconfident streak of diving in without her partners…not her sparing Dante any emotional pain or looking out for him by leaving first.
Unless of course, there’s some subtle Freudian emotional undertones placed in that comical ukulele twang at the scene’s transition. As much as I’m in love with the idea of
Devil May Cry 4 being eligible for a
Blade Runner-esque analysis intricate undertones woven into character interactions, gestures and mannerisms, frankly….the game isn’t that deep.
Besides, it actually took Lady snatching his pizza and prodding him out the door to even get into action, in addition to her literally spelling out the Fortuna cult’s activities and shady operations to him. Even after Sparda was brought up, he kept on looking for excuses to write it off as something not worth his time. That lazy, reluctant disbelief that the threat is as serious as Lady’s claiming….it
really seems to grind against with this whole tense, emotionally-stimulated connection between Dante and Trish you’re proposing, or the notion that he snapped from being lazy to being attentive.
I'm not suggesting that 4 directly leads to 2, nor that they had ever initially planned it that way, but there are elements of Dante's behavior that show how he could be inclined to the attitude he possessed in 2.
Could be inclined. COULD be.
See, this is my issue with a lot of the points you’re making: I make valid and yes, subjective, complaints as to Dante’s one-note status as a caricature who only deposits one-liners and wins constantly, and you’re trying to refute me through what amount to assumptions, speculation, and non-established theories on how his character works.
My argument was, and still is, that until any of that is explicitly confirmed, and yanked out of “could be” status, it isn’t a valid part of the conversation, or any of my critiques against the way Dante was handled.
If you have your own interpretation of how Dante operates mentally—be it these theories about him being “suicidal” to satisfy some “emotional emptiness”, or having these interactions with Trish that are never occur or are implied to occur off-screen, or any other one of your previous assertions—that’s fine. But until they’re confirmed, or have any factual basis in the game or reference material, they’re just assertions.
If you can refute my points with actual, in-game evidence, great. But I can’t hold my criticisms accountable to any evidence that, frankly, doesn’t exist outside your own projections or aspirations for what he may be like.
I agree that it's slightly off-topic, but at the same time these ideas could help us to better understand different places they can take the series in the future.
I think previous contributors in this thread made the very justifiable request that the series step up its barebones and inconsistent writing quality, which, in all honesty, is all I’ve ever asked for and could easily resolve half the stuff you and I are discussing at great detail.
It should be Capcom’s job, not ours, to substantially provide this franchise with the narrative angles and character depth it really needs.
In effect the latter is intended to show the former, and the development of that mindset was the point of DMC3, Dante inheriting his father's spirit, understanding why he chose to protect the human race.
I’m not sure I understand. Are you saying that his constant, rebellious nature is somehow supposed to be what characterizes his appreciation and affection for the human spirit?
Because nowhere in the games is this ever implied that Dante’s behavior is supposed to represent that, or that
that’s the driving reason for the way he acts or talks down to his enemies.
Him being the more human of the two Sparda Twins? Absolutely. That point was hammered quite loudly throughout the discourse of
DMC3, and a large contributor towards Vergil’s contempt towards Dante (or at least I
assume, seeing as the script is extremely and woefully vague on the actual reason for their rivalry, as I’ve ranted over eight pages on in another thread). But Dante embodying the human spirit out of some admiration he has for the human race?
When or
where is THAT established?
That actually is referenced in the anime, when Sid comments to Dante how humans can be crueler even than demons. Hell, that's actually what Lady said at the end of DMC3 as well.
So in the anime,
Sid makes that observation. In
DMC3, Lady expresses that observation about humans being crueler than demons, as does Nero to some mild extent in
DMC4…
…but never once Dante himself.
You were trying to prove that a major, emotionally-building asset of Dante’s character is that he hides this aching anguish or disappointment in humans for making the same mistakes again and again, and yet he never once is the one to showcase the disappointment you’re describing.
That doesn’t really refute my counter, or prove a single frame of speculation that you’ve proposed.
Well it was almost the entire point of 3, the book, part of the manga, part of Nero's story in 4, Lucia's story in 2, Trish's story in 1, and the anime, so... I mean, basically every part of the series touches on those themes. It just so happens that the part where it is most central to Dante himself is the entry you hold no regard for.
I have no problem with it being the major theme, as long as it isn’t the
ONLY theme.
DMC1, 4, and
DmC played around with other narrative aspects besides just: “DER, the DUALITY of HUMAN and DEMON”, while
DMC3 literally rode it to the ground and back, then kicked up its corpse to ride it another mile. And on top of over-relying on such a painfully-basic aspect of the characters and story, they don’t offer or add ANY creative or meaningful insight on the topic at all, in my opinion. I really hate having to go back to
Hellsing as my go-to example for this, but that story not only relied on other narrative assets besides the atypical “human nature versus monster nature” that
DMC seems content to bludgeon to death, but it probed its foundations and dug deep in its varying frame of acceptance from the perspective of practically
every character in its narrative: every main character has a dig at just what that overall theme means, and instead of all regurgitating the same belief in unison like
DMC’s one-note mannequins do, these characters actually have something unique and characteristic to
each of them in how they believe the whole “human/monster duality” works.
One author managed to produce all those dozens of intricate, philosophical and morally-diverse traversals of that overarching narrative theme…ONE author, as opposed to the legion of literary chimps that make up Capcom’s embarrassingly-amateurish writing team.
(In my opinion.
)
And really, you telling me how often Capcom re-uses this as a main crux of their narrative doesn’t at all dislodge the point I’m making about them being uncreative or lacking narrative nuance. It only compounds it.
Yes, I don't think it would be possible to that degree if Dante was the solo protagonist, but the point I was making was that scene is a very exaggerated microcosm of the way the entire Devil May Cry franchise handles it's plot and character development.
Exactly. And it’s precisely why, with his persona and mannerisms, in addition to the author’s refusal to make him take anything seriously or have him dial down the corn or cheese in serious situations, that Dante works far better as a side-protagonist, and not the solo-protagonist.
This is why I’m more inclined to anticipate Nero’s return as the main character, and not Dante’s. Developing Dante on the side, as apart of someone else’s story, seems to work better for him. His role in
DMC4, and ^
THAT scene in particular, was a gleaming example of that.
While that is effectively true, I believe the spirit of the character presented by the novel is the same across the entire series. "For Tony Redgrave .45 Art Warks" was never removed from Dante's guns.
Heh heh. “.45 Art Warks.” That made me giggle.
As much as I’d love for elements of the novel to remain canon, we can’t really pick and choose what stayed canon from the novels just because of some mild, non-factual evidence. Not if we want to be intellectually-honest as fans. What you or I “believe” or “want to believe”, no matter how superior it may be to the narrative failings of the actual canon, are irrelevant.
Just because that was an idea in the novel doesn’t mean it has any canon relevance, and can’t be used as some means of explaining Dante’s character for his actions or portrayal in-game.
I’d be surprised if Bingo Morihashi or the rest of Capcom’s current writers even know those novels exist.
As I touched on previously, it runs the risk of damaging Sparda's character, and would need to be handled carefully.
Ruining
Sparda’s character? What does that have to do with anything?
Augmenting Dante’s actions only affects Dante’s portrayal, not Sparda’s. As far as we’ve been told, Dante only replicates his father’s ideals, nothing else. We’ve even been told that he avoids replicating his same behavior or being lumped in with him, if
DMC3, 4 and the anime are any indication.
As I pointed out before, in DMC something can be comedic and be actual commentary at the same time.
Again.
CAN be. Not
IS.
Fact versus interpretation. The distinction is not only useful, but necessary.
I outlined the basic idea in the post above yours.
It comes down to disillusionment on Sparda's part overturning his views on humanity, with him challenging Dante on it because he too has seen the worst humanity has to offer. Perhaps it could be driven home by the revelation that it was humans who sold Eva out to the demons, which is what led to her death.
Given how few details we’ve been given on Sparda’s character, and the exact nature of Eva’s death, that could work as a really good dynamic rift between him and Dante. I would love to see Eva’s death, the one thing that gave Dante motivation to take up arms in the first place, being used against the world he’s sworn to protect.
That kind of dramatic and ironic twisting of one of
DMC’s central themes would be an excellent way to develop Dante, and revisit an aspect of his character he’s been fairly mute about since the aftermath of the first game. In fact, revisiting such a pivotal portion of the series’ lore and facing it full-front sounds like it’d be used for the final game, or even an Anniversary game, to send off or celebrate the series properly: tackling the topic and event that started it.
In effect, Sparda turning would solve the actual longest running unaddressed problem in Devil May Cry - The series' name itself. In Devil May Cry 1, the name was to symbolize Dante striking fear into the Demons the same way that they struck fear into humanity. But at the end of the game, it's changed to Devil Never Cry, symbolizing through Trish that humans possess a level of understanding, caring, love, heart, spirit, humanity, that demons do not, which is why Sparda originally saved them to begin with.
However, since that point the series has taken the opposite stance. Humans and Demons are in fact very similar, with demonic entities sharing the same capability for emotion humans do, and humans being capable of the same acts of utter depravity as any demon. In other words, Devil May Cry, showing that despite their differences, the inhabitants of the two worlds are more alike than any would wish to admit.
However, that creates a contradiction - If Demons and humans are so similar, why did Sparda risk everything to betray his own kind and save the human race? In making Sparda the antagonist that question comes to the forefront of the narrative, and becomes the central conflict that it really deserves to be.
Answering the enigma that is Sparda’s defense of the human race, and some of his other reasons for protecting them, is pretty high on my list for future plot-revelations in the series. We know Eva has nothing to do with it, since the Demon War was almost 2000 years before he met her, or wedded her. I’d like for them to really shed light on his motivation to do that as a character, outside of these vague, noble and righteous reasons for doing it.
As for the rest, about centering around the contrast and comparison between humans and demons…thaaaaat’s where I disembark. As I’ve stated somewhere above, I’m really not a fan of retreading this narrative theme for the umpteenth time. Your spin on it is certainly a good one, but we’ve revisited the actual topic so many times, it’s left me with nauseous levels of fatigue. Your idea would’ve been nice two or three games ago, but now….I’d rather the series just rely on it less and move on, already.
That is, of course, just
my input. There’s a lot of different places I think the series could go, narratively.
