The problem lies with the execution. Dante doesn't actually express emotionally or by way of his acting that this lifestyle is harmful or tragic in any way, he just seems extremely neutral about it. His wounds are shown to heal instantly without consequence, the women leave without incident and he doesn't even have the bloodshot eyes and groggy motions of a person who is actually hung over. Due to this failure to emphasize these kinds of elements, it just seems like an empowerment kick for him where he gets to use women as dispensable objects, and by extension a juvenile way of seducing young male gamers into thinking that this New Dante is cool because of it. Regardless of intention, the failure of the execution renders it offensive and as a human being you shouldn't have to accept it.
Of course he wouldn't express it. He lives a life where expressing something like that outwardly would mean being seen as weak. He's come to terms with his ****ty life, lives each day as it comes, knowing that demons are after him, and he doesn't care...probably wants to die. The women leave without trouble because they unwitting were spies used to track Dante. They left because their jobs was done...sex and tracking. >_<
I'm sure he did use women as a coping tool because he never had any affection that he can remember, so he bought it with women like that. It can't be that much of an execution failure if I can work out what's going on with Dante and make an interpretation on why he is how he is. Or maybe I'm an uneducated peon as I do not see anything about this as being offensive. That is your opinion.
It kind of reminds me of Raiden in MGS2. There are those who say nowadays that his lack of genitals was an intentional symbolism on Kojima's part, showing that he is dis-empowered and impotent as a character, just as the player is.
At least when Hideo makes an effort to cheat and betray an established fanbase he's clever about it.
I thought he had no penis because of Japanese genital censoring laws? :/
I swear to Pazuzu I need to stop using Tvtropes to illustrate my points, but here we go:
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RapeAsBackstory
Of course tropes aren't inherently bad, but it's about the execution again. Kat's background has almost no impact on the story or her actions within it, and we learn about it in an incredibly neutral, emotionless scene of shot-reverse-shot exposition. It's nice that Kat is apparently emotionally stable enough to talk about these painful events as if they were her shopping list, but it's still uninteresting story telling. Abuse is not a characterization trait to be thrown around lightly or forcibly pushed into a character's background in the name of shallow pathos.
I get what they were going for, and it's not like DmC is the only media to do this with a character. I hear Lara Croft gets sexually assaulted in the reboot and that is what triggers her to make her first kill. That's worse than what they do with Kat. Or is that alright because it is not DmC? Don't think so....
So just like DmC Dante, who is such an apathetic scum bag that he only cares about other people because of Kat. Lady impressed Dante by example, by the fact that she had similar problems to those he has with family and that she is mighty enough as a warrior to compete with him. Kat makes Dante stand up to Vergil because Vergil was quite literally declaring his intention to enslave her, thereby effectively making Dante not fight for her freedom as an individual, but to keep his possession under his control.
They're both apathetic, but by the end they suck it up and actually grow up a little. Lady does it by fighting and Kat does it by guiding. They do have some common ground....torment at the hands of demons, knowing that the world was wrong and being victimised because they knew the truth...plus in a life or death situation like theirs where they are constantly under attack would create a quick and strong bond. And I don't think he did it because he saw Kat as her possession. But if you do, that is your opinion. I see it more like, Kat helped them, put herself in danger and then Vergil thanks her by wanting to leave her with Mundus to die and then denying that she helped. Of course Dante was going to want to confront Vergil about that.
It wouldn't have been out of the question to have Kat physically impose herself into the fight, or to have some kind of combat presence in the game as a whole.
But that would have got in the way of the gameplay. If Kat was taking kills for you it wouldn't be right. Unless you mean cutscenes? She threw that molotov at the hunter to weaken it, and got that SWAT in the open for Dante to take him out. I don't expect her to be all guns out, especially when demons like the hunter were immune to them. Her strength and character lies in her ability to be a guide to Dante in Limbo and a guide for him to change his outlook on life. Her power lies in her words, not in her combat. Besides, if Kat was in every scene with him, it would not be Dante's story. He would not meet Phineas in the same way if Kat was with him, or confront Lilith or Mundus in the same way.
Yet in this kind of setting, just as the previous DMC universe has shown, completely mundane human women can be righteous warriors and heroes in their own right. Lady demonstrated the same concepts of human limitations when she was not strong enough to defeat Dante, but at the same time her potency as a warrior demonstrated the raw grit that humans have and how it can rival that of the most powerful Demon. It's uplifting and empowering to consider the idea of a human, any human, being able to stand toe-to-toe with superhuman beings and god-like monsters, and especially when that person is a young woman of petite frame.
Kat stood up to demons even though she couldn't fight like Lady. She helped to weaken the hunter demon, she protected Vergil from SWAT and used spells to slow down the infiltration of Order HQ, she was tortured by Mundus and talked Dante down from killing Vergil. She has power, but it's not like Lady. She shouldn't be compared to her because Kat is her own character.
Kat by comparison is an object, to be owned and squabbled over by the major players of the plot, all male.
