berto
I Saw the Devil
I'm going to caption this on a second layer because it's rather ranty and it's better off as a separate but related thought. Plus, it's just ranting. No point in it taking space if not needed.
Anyway, rant over. I'll be nagging for hours if I don't nip this now. Consider this my opinion on all political commentary on the show so that I don't bring it up again when it happens.
As for the actual opening, the party is silly, I don't care about this Bush stand in since this whole subplot led nowhere. Could've, but they didn't give it the time or attention it needed to actually be of any significance. This political imagery in a nonpolitical series is just annoying. You could've cut all that and used the time to include Lucia and Matier in the story instead.
Quick note: Arius called this 'secretary' Chi but that's not the greek letter chi, that's psi. I'm hoping I'm wrong but if I'm not then this is a really amateurish mistake. I already said what I had to say about Lucia not being here. It's a missed opportunity and there was room if they wanted. Without Arius her narrative would just not be the same so we missed that window. I just beat DMC2 for the first time in years and years and Lucia was one of the highlights of that game so... Well, then again, do I really want to see the Netflix interpretation of Lucia? Hell, maybe that was their interpretation of her.
This next part might be the single most eye rolling part of this show when I first saw it (might still be). This is also where we establish why the coupling of Mary and Dante doesn't work and why the character depictions get people.
I know I'm repeating myself but you can't have it both ways. You can't depict Dante having these horrible nightmares of guilt, shame and powerlessness personifying themselves as the image of him as a child that chastises him in a field of dead bodies while sinking under the skulls ala Man of Steel as he screams for forgiveness to his brother's dead body over and over again, since he keeps begging 'please, not again,' only to then turn around and not even needing forgive the person who put him in that all but literal hell because he wasn't mad about it at all. There was so little repercussion to what Mary did it might as well not happened, and we know that there is none because it doesn't come up again in real any way. I know that in her recollection of the meet he's more demanding but that lasts, what, 20 seconds? And it's debatable whether or not that even happen since it was her interpretation of events, just like how it didn't all turn into a chibi world.
Betrayal is not nothing and the way he describes it is so nonchalant that it's unreal. Comical, even. Trish had to die to earn her forgiveness. For all the melodramatic writing these people do they don't seem to want to give the human drama any lasting effect. This could've been the foundation to a story that would've made their bond stronger if they had put in the work. Instead Mary earns nothing. She is just given to and it makes her irredeemable in my eyes because the show treats her sins as nothing. All she has to say is I'm a piece of s**t and the show moves on. I know I'm oversimplifying but not by much. By the time the scene she actually says you can trust me... this time, And he does! Fool me once. And twice and then a third time since learning from one's mistakes is for smart people. They try to add reasoning with the therapist but, again, we know nothing ever came of it.
I'm also just going to say it: This version of Dante's a bitch. The way he treats this whole thing, his reasoning why it's no big deal that she's tried to murder him repeatedly, makes him sound like either a bitch or a total f'ng idiot. However you look at it, it's not a flattering look for him. I don't say this out of anger, I say it out of frustration. This is too passive and completely disproportionate. She can punch him for saving her life (You threw me through a f'ing window) but he's all smiles at everything she does to him? This is why the romance doesn't work, because this is not romantic and it's not even all on Mary. The basis for this relationship is her saying and doing some awful evil s**t to him and him acting like it didn't happen.
At this point I was ok with the licensed music. I joked about how Bodies was gonna pop up any second so when it did I was more amused then anything. There you go. I was right and sometimes it's not a good thing. By the end of the show I was less than static about the music. It's not that the music is bad; The problem is that the show doesn't relent. This is going to be an ongoing element and it gets old way faster than if, I don't know, if I'd simply been told there were a lot of licenced songs.
Right off the bat, f'k this. His name is Dante, that's all. His name is Vergil, her name is Eva, her name is Trish, his name is Nero. This is intentional. Single name, just like Athena or Zeus (or Kratos). It makes them grandiose, larger than life. It's the reason why Nero said 'Your Dante, right? Not a bad name' and not 'your name is Dante Sparda.' See how differently that hits?
Why bring this up at all? Especially with this tone of 'yeah, it's silly, right?' This is that whole chair thing again. The forums and the image boards brought it up so they have to add it in because they are in on the joke, too. Leave the internet on the internet and to the internet. Don't denigrate the narrative like this. It'd be like poking fun of Leon for having the most American name ever christen on to a child. Imagine doing this to Wolverine: 'what's your name?' 'I'm the Wolverine.' 'Ok, Wolverine. And what's your last name?' How would that go without it being a joke on his expense. Movie is called Logan and only Logan for a reason. While on this topic, I'm sure a lot of people know his name is James from the movies but just how many people would know his last name without a google search? Hell, before the movies, how many people knew his name was Logan. Most just knew him as Wolverine.
I also wanted to go on a tirade about you wouldn't do that to Guts, Casca and Griffith (especially since he wants the Berserk rights) or to Vegeta and Kenshiro, but this has gone on too long already. Bottom line, poking fun of your character not having a last name is like showing Superman taking a crap, you just don't do it. It's an artistic choice and not even a weird one. Stop winking at the online audience.
And before we cauterize that let's add some salt on to that wound, why don't we?
The whole staring at the camera, reacting to the psychiatrist while telling the story was already way too silly but then they... well, that.
Is this how they see Dante? Is this how people in general see him, now, as a joke? That he actually thinks in anime? I just beat DMC1-3 and even if DMC has always been cheesy it's also always been sincere. This why I hate the wacky woohoo pizza man persona. Dante's lost all sense of gravitas and sincerity. This is the effect of making him more and more goofy, so nonchalant. I know most people prefer the DMC4 and 5 portrayal of Dante but not me. I am strictly DMC1 Dante, and 3 as a close second (yes, there is a difference). The more we see of Dante the less I like and with every iteration he becomes less and less interesting to me. Also, he looks ridiculous in that cryogenic onesie and coat. Glad it's not the final look.
I don't know what it is about this particular scene but it really cemented how this is not in the spirit of the character. As it is she wasn't exactly selling it; Change the hair do and eye color and no one would recognize her as Lady. Maybe it's the beret, maybe it's the general attitude, maybe it's the uniform and the implication that this characters is a military woman, which is the most unLady like thing she could be (did not mean to make that pun). Whatever the case this specific scene has really detached the original version of this character from the one we call Mary (More on that later). It wasn't anything dramatic, either. I was just watching and I didn't see anything of Lady in this character.
I like that line: 'He murdered a dozen of ours, single handedly.' Yeah. They were just minding their own business, chilling out in the desert, and one of them even said hello to him when he suddenly went crazy and brought down two fighter planes and sliced our people for no reason. I think she's being manipulative but I still find it funny that she describes it as murdered.
Sometimes I forget how on the nose this writing is. This whole scene is so obvious and blatant it's actually ridiculous. It's show, don't tell not show and tell (definitely a pun and I'm kind of proud of this one). I know that Netflix has a policy to make dialogue where they characters explain the plot repeatedly because their research shows that people aren't really watching so if they ever turn from their phones they can know what's going on but this whole scene is very low effort.
What is that accent? Lucia was supposed to be of some ambiguous South American but the way pronounces Via de Marli and Matier implies a French ancestry or root. This woman, though, sounds Germanic or Slavic. Sometimes one but mostly the other. I can't tell but she's definitely not a French simile. The Spanish dub is just as ambiguous. No help there.
I have no thoughts on Nell. She's there, she's functional, moving on. This scene, thought. It's not the fact that they copied this from another video, they got permission for that, it's that they rotoscoped most of it. They didn't even bother to change the angle or add moves of their own. This isn't inspired by, this is copied from.
Did I mention how much I hate this whole "Makai" thing?
I've already mentioned this but this just shows, again, a lack to attention to detail. If you're getting payed for this and you got the licenses for it you have access to the materials and designs. Use them.
Yeah, I also hate this.
Vergil on Jerry Springer. Again, the whole 'merica thing just robs me the wrong way. Let's leave that aside, though, because, really, the only thing I have to comment on is this whole thing that Vergil is preaching about the awful humans and the poor demons when we just saw one episode ago, and so did he, how these poor demons were eating humans, and the smaller demons. It was very much a scene of savagery and very intentionally so. I don't know if it's Vergil who is so glaringly oblivious to the contradiction being presented or if it's the writers.
... Oorona? That's not very clever.
Arius von Erenburg. John Arkham. I really do wonder if that's their actual game names or if they made them up for the show.
Eva reference?
Anyway, I am having a hard time believing she didn't know about this. There was an explosion that killed just about everyone in that building, including refugees and soldiers. Her not knowing, not seeing footage or catching talk of what happened or investigating in any way shape or form to the slightest degree, which would've immediately told her this happened is pretty unbelievable, especially since Baines seemed so nonchalant about it.
Wait? Is that a pre recorded alert that Vergil is approaching? And it's a red alert.
A congressional hearing? I cannot express how dethatched this is from the games I just played.
I'm sorry, this looks silly.
Get it? The storm is approaching!
The issue here isn't he imagery or the presentation of Vergil as 'the storm.' This is very common in fiction as symbolism of conflict or rage or the power of nature, etc. The problem is that the use of that song, the constant reference to it, actually saying it outloud. It's becomes another overly obvious and blatant reference that's more there for the 'I get it' than any actual narrative device.
Forgive me for being blunt but I have to speak, regarding this particular topic, as an immigrant (to the US) looking at this from an outsider's point of view in. Sounds dramatic but I only phrase it like that because it comes from my personal experience with this topic, which is as a Mexican in the US. It might also seem like an over reaction to the opening scene but, really, it's more about the whole enterprise and it's odd need to make political commentary when we don't need any.
Well, ok. I started writing and it made no sense so let's start with this: Why are so many games or stories popular outside of their country of origin? What is the variable that allows one culture to tell a story that resonates with the rest of the world? It's the fact that we can all connect with the fundamentals of those narratives. Even if you have a something cheesy like 5 teenagers in colorful costumes riding giant robots and fighting an army of devils equipped with gear far superior to mankind's and even if it looks fake as f'k we understand the heroic spirit. The story of a Mexican cowboy coming back to avenge his father from the men who took his lands doesn't limit itself to a Mexican audience. It's universally understood that someone would want to avenge an injustice like that. Space bounty hunters, rich married women being tempted by men who are not their husbands, the pressures of society, or even something as simple as knights, samurai, cowboys or martial heroes can be experienced by anyone because there is a basic foundation for all these stories that are shared across the world. There is a shared experience that allows us to translate these narratives without having to fully understand the culture.
This isn't that.
This constant imagery is so fundamentally modern American that it really only be for modern Americans. So, not in a broad or traditional way, I mean modern. It's Internet American made for internet Americans (very possibly by internet Americans). Yeah, sure, we can all understand the ideas, not like there are only detention centers in the US, but the implications, uber texan president and his mockery of a representation (corruption and all), US army detainment centers for what is basically a metaphor for brown people, violent border patrol officers. These are very internet 'merican concepts.
Usually I'd just stay away from shows that are so up their own asses with these topics they've gone and slap it on DMC, which in no way had any relation to these things. The problem is that there is a trend to make everything political and super relevant to the current ideology of whatever college kids are currently on about. These are not universal themes, these are the fleeting indignations of the internet that more often than not get exaggerated by people in search of a cause. They're only broadly understood because these self righteous writers are so eager to push them onto the rest of us.
For one, there is an arrogance in believing that these are universal themes because people raised in America who, from what I theorize, were raised by the internet can't wrap their heads around the idea that the rest of the world isn't America nor do we want to be. A few years ago I saw a response to a video of a woman who was complaining about England's republicans supporting Trump. The response was basically 'hey, morron, England doesn't have republicans.' While lumping all of Americans with the dumbest part of the population is cruel it also happens that these are the people who insist on adding things like this to all shows, video games and literature and (so, second) seem to think that the world has to get on board with American messaging and values, as though we didn't have our own problems, ideals and culture. You really think some kid who has to climb a mountain in the Himalayas to get to school or his goat farmer father give two s**ts about something going on in Texas or on a California campus?
I've only ever meet people like this a few times in my life (can count them all in one hand) but they seem to dominate online conversation and television productions so I am impacted and therefore opinionated. The arrogance of actually thinking the world revolves around you or your BS, and that if doesn't it should, never ceases to buggle me. This is why I'm so against this kind of political commentary in properties it has absolutely no place for them. It's a self important mentality that devalues the property itself.
Yes, I am only talking about the political undertones rather than the overall narrative but it is way to central in season 1 and while not as prominent in 2 it's there enough still be a major element of the show. Plus I've already had to put up with it in my Star Trek so I am especially aggravated about it here and short on patience for it in general. With DMC being a Japanese property it also never occur to me that this would ever be the case for the franchise, that with DmC being one and done we were done with it. Lo and behold, it all came back with a vengeance.
I will leave this one link to this video since this guy goes into it with more eloquence than me.
Well, ok. I started writing and it made no sense so let's start with this: Why are so many games or stories popular outside of their country of origin? What is the variable that allows one culture to tell a story that resonates with the rest of the world? It's the fact that we can all connect with the fundamentals of those narratives. Even if you have a something cheesy like 5 teenagers in colorful costumes riding giant robots and fighting an army of devils equipped with gear far superior to mankind's and even if it looks fake as f'k we understand the heroic spirit. The story of a Mexican cowboy coming back to avenge his father from the men who took his lands doesn't limit itself to a Mexican audience. It's universally understood that someone would want to avenge an injustice like that. Space bounty hunters, rich married women being tempted by men who are not their husbands, the pressures of society, or even something as simple as knights, samurai, cowboys or martial heroes can be experienced by anyone because there is a basic foundation for all these stories that are shared across the world. There is a shared experience that allows us to translate these narratives without having to fully understand the culture.
This isn't that.
This constant imagery is so fundamentally modern American that it really only be for modern Americans. So, not in a broad or traditional way, I mean modern. It's Internet American made for internet Americans (very possibly by internet Americans). Yeah, sure, we can all understand the ideas, not like there are only detention centers in the US, but the implications, uber texan president and his mockery of a representation (corruption and all), US army detainment centers for what is basically a metaphor for brown people, violent border patrol officers. These are very internet 'merican concepts.
Usually I'd just stay away from shows that are so up their own asses with these topics they've gone and slap it on DMC, which in no way had any relation to these things. The problem is that there is a trend to make everything political and super relevant to the current ideology of whatever college kids are currently on about. These are not universal themes, these are the fleeting indignations of the internet that more often than not get exaggerated by people in search of a cause. They're only broadly understood because these self righteous writers are so eager to push them onto the rest of us.
For one, there is an arrogance in believing that these are universal themes because people raised in America who, from what I theorize, were raised by the internet can't wrap their heads around the idea that the rest of the world isn't America nor do we want to be. A few years ago I saw a response to a video of a woman who was complaining about England's republicans supporting Trump. The response was basically 'hey, morron, England doesn't have republicans.' While lumping all of Americans with the dumbest part of the population is cruel it also happens that these are the people who insist on adding things like this to all shows, video games and literature and (so, second) seem to think that the world has to get on board with American messaging and values, as though we didn't have our own problems, ideals and culture. You really think some kid who has to climb a mountain in the Himalayas to get to school or his goat farmer father give two s**ts about something going on in Texas or on a California campus?
I've only ever meet people like this a few times in my life (can count them all in one hand) but they seem to dominate online conversation and television productions so I am impacted and therefore opinionated. The arrogance of actually thinking the world revolves around you or your BS, and that if doesn't it should, never ceases to buggle me. This is why I'm so against this kind of political commentary in properties it has absolutely no place for them. It's a self important mentality that devalues the property itself.
Yes, I am only talking about the political undertones rather than the overall narrative but it is way to central in season 1 and while not as prominent in 2 it's there enough still be a major element of the show. Plus I've already had to put up with it in my Star Trek so I am especially aggravated about it here and short on patience for it in general. With DMC being a Japanese property it also never occur to me that this would ever be the case for the franchise, that with DmC being one and done we were done with it. Lo and behold, it all came back with a vengeance.
I will leave this one link to this video since this guy goes into it with more eloquence than me.
Anyway, rant over. I'll be nagging for hours if I don't nip this now. Consider this my opinion on all political commentary on the show so that I don't bring it up again when it happens.
This next part might be the single most eye rolling part of this show when I first saw it (might still be). This is also where we establish why the coupling of Mary and Dante doesn't work and why the character depictions get people.
Betrayal is not nothing and the way he describes it is so nonchalant that it's unreal. Comical, even. Trish had to die to earn her forgiveness. For all the melodramatic writing these people do they don't seem to want to give the human drama any lasting effect. This could've been the foundation to a story that would've made their bond stronger if they had put in the work. Instead Mary earns nothing. She is just given to and it makes her irredeemable in my eyes because the show treats her sins as nothing. All she has to say is I'm a piece of s**t and the show moves on. I know I'm oversimplifying but not by much. By the time the scene she actually says you can trust me... this time, And he does! Fool me once. And twice and then a third time since learning from one's mistakes is for smart people. They try to add reasoning with the therapist but, again, we know nothing ever came of it.
At this point I was ok with the licensed music. I joked about how Bodies was gonna pop up any second so when it did I was more amused then anything. There you go. I was right and sometimes it's not a good thing. By the end of the show I was less than static about the music. It's not that the music is bad; The problem is that the show doesn't relent. This is going to be an ongoing element and it gets old way faster than if, I don't know, if I'd simply been told there were a lot of licenced songs.
Why bring this up at all? Especially with this tone of 'yeah, it's silly, right?' This is that whole chair thing again. The forums and the image boards brought it up so they have to add it in because they are in on the joke, too. Leave the internet on the internet and to the internet. Don't denigrate the narrative like this. It'd be like poking fun of Leon for having the most American name ever christen on to a child. Imagine doing this to Wolverine: 'what's your name?' 'I'm the Wolverine.' 'Ok, Wolverine. And what's your last name?' How would that go without it being a joke on his expense. Movie is called Logan and only Logan for a reason. While on this topic, I'm sure a lot of people know his name is James from the movies but just how many people would know his last name without a google search? Hell, before the movies, how many people knew his name was Logan. Most just knew him as Wolverine.
I also wanted to go on a tirade about you wouldn't do that to Guts, Casca and Griffith (especially since he wants the Berserk rights) or to Vegeta and Kenshiro, but this has gone on too long already. Bottom line, poking fun of your character not having a last name is like showing Superman taking a crap, you just don't do it. It's an artistic choice and not even a weird one. Stop winking at the online audience.
And before we cauterize that let's add some salt on to that wound, why don't we?
Is this how they see Dante? Is this how people in general see him, now, as a joke? That he actually thinks in anime? I just beat DMC1-3 and even if DMC has always been cheesy it's also always been sincere. This why I hate the wacky woohoo pizza man persona. Dante's lost all sense of gravitas and sincerity. This is the effect of making him more and more goofy, so nonchalant. I know most people prefer the DMC4 and 5 portrayal of Dante but not me. I am strictly DMC1 Dante, and 3 as a close second (yes, there is a difference). The more we see of Dante the less I like and with every iteration he becomes less and less interesting to me. Also, he looks ridiculous in that cryogenic onesie and coat. Glad it's not the final look.
Vergil on Jerry Springer. Again, the whole 'merica thing just robs me the wrong way. Let's leave that aside, though, because, really, the only thing I have to comment on is this whole thing that Vergil is preaching about the awful humans and the poor demons when we just saw one episode ago, and so did he, how these poor demons were eating humans, and the smaller demons. It was very much a scene of savagery and very intentionally so. I don't know if it's Vergil who is so glaringly oblivious to the contradiction being presented or if it's the writers.
The issue here isn't he imagery or the presentation of Vergil as 'the storm.' This is very common in fiction as symbolism of conflict or rage or the power of nature, etc. The problem is that the use of that song, the constant reference to it, actually saying it outloud. It's becomes another overly obvious and blatant reference that's more there for the 'I get it' than any actual narrative device.
Yeah. I am going to try to cut back on all the images and writing from now. I've said too much and it's not worth the effort. I'm going to be more concise about all this from now on.
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