Vergil as a good guy?

[V's patron]

Once upon a time there was a fanfic called The Dark Slayer which I liked. It explored an AU were Vergil turned out the good guy instead of a bad guy which has interests me a lot.

Sadly I can no longer find it and the fic could have done more with the premise (it had a good start tho).

So I wanted to ask if there was interest in a take like this or how people would think a take like this would work

 

[Veloran]

But he is a good guy.

Well... I guess it's more like he's anti-bad guy.

 

[RadiantWolf]

Vergil never struck me as evil exactly, more like was an extremist. Since he could not protect Eva he sort of became obsessed with power and eventually lost a fight against Mundus.

Now people suffer in his quest for power but his ultimate goal is not destruction for destruction's sake.

 

[Foxtrot94]

Well, DmC kind of attempted it, LOL. The reason why nobody bought it (talking about us fans, of course not about people who don't know anything about Devil May Cry), and everybody pretty much knew he would turn out to be a baddy himself eventually though, having little impact is because, in my opinion, Vergil has to be built around being Dante's opposite and archnemesis, that's his point, and Dante was the hero there. So any story where Dante is the good guy wouldn't work with Vergil also being an actual good guy.

So how do I imagine Vergil being a goodie? I'm not that supportive of the idea to begin with but if I was to make him a good guy, naturally it would be in a universe where Dante is the bad guy. Where he is still flamboyant, but on the baddy/antagonist side, and Vergil is still stoic and extremely determined, but on the hero side.

...Yo, that's Banderas and Stallone in Assassins.

 

[RadiantWolf]

A story where Vergil is the protagonist could work, though, maybe? It needn't be the same as him being good. But a story where we see things through his perspective could be pretty cool.

 

[Viper]

If they ever try to tackle Nero's origins directly and not from a second-hand source, that could very well be a game with Vergil as protagonist.
Overall, he was never really evil, if I had to label him it would be chaotic neutral, that only appears evil in contrast to Dante. Like it was said already, to make Vergil good, Dante would have to become bad, so we would more or less end up with the same thing, just the hero would come with a different flavor.

 

[Lain]

I won't get into the whole "was Vergil evil?" debate, that's a whole 'nother can of worms.

But I don't think Vergil (as is) would work as a good guy, not unless you make alterations to his character.

 

[Zoey]

My favourite cutscene in DMC3 is the one in which Vergil fights alongside his brother against Arkham and, besides the "Jackpot" quote, which I love, what I really appreciate in that scene are the small gestures showing how much these two are able to cooperate perfectly, if they only want. So I don't think Dante necessarily has be bad if we want Vergil to be good, they can even fight side by side, given the right circumstances. I'd LOVE a new game in which this happens. I'd die happily afterwards XD
Vergil is not inherently bad, I think we all agree on this. He's the kind of character I always tend to prefer in a work of fiction. I'm not much of the hero fan (even though I genuinely like Dante), because anti-heroes are more appealing to me, often more layered, and their backstory is generally more interesting and troubled, although in this case the twins obviously share the same original trauma: Eva's death to which they react very differently and that's the reason of Vergil being Vergil.

 

[WolfOD64]

Vergil would only still be Vergil if all of his cold, calculating and tenacious nature remained intact. And really, the only way I could see that going towards a good cause is if his efforts and ability were forced towards a cause he wouldn't normally support, either due to some manner of mutual benefit or by captivity.

A good comparison would be the vampire Alucard from the Hellsing series. He retains every bit of his controversial and murderous tendencies he had as both a Victorian count and a late-medieval voivode warlord of Wallachian Romania. But the way this is channeled towards the more easily-justifiable plot is that he's both enslaved to the good guys, being the Hellsing Order of Protestant Knights, and the fact that he fights with them primarily to fulfill his respect and admiration for the Van Helsing family lineage (an admiration that plays a role in his ultimate goal, which I won't spoil here as it's a pretty vital plot-point later on).

Simply put, don't change Vergil's more---shall we say, merciless and cold-blooded tendencies. That's what makes him Vergil, what makes him interesting and fun to watch. Instead, force his hand to aid the "good guys" of a conflict, or make him "motivated" enough to help them to satisfy his own personal interests.

That's the only way to make Vergil a "good guy" and still keep him within the boundaries of his character, in my opinion.

 

[Foxtrot94]

make him "motivated" enough

I see what you did there.

 

[LordOfDarkness]

Yeah, I mean, like Wolf said - give him a motive to actually want to help the good guys, but still essentially keep him as Vergil - he's in it for something in return sort of thing.

I wouldn't want to see him as 'skipping around and holding hands with Dante' good.

 

[AgentRedgrave]

I agree, depends on the situation. While I've never viewed Vergil as being particularly evil (More so power hungry and ambitious, with no care of consequences).
It would require some sort of motivation. Maybe something to gain more power. Maybe against a powerful demon he wishes to test himself against.

 

[Reign]

Vergil was a good guy in DMC3. It's a matter of perspective. What he did was evil towards humanity, but he also knew that Dante would try to stop the demons that spawned from the tower. It's an anti-hero way of approaching his goal, but after analyzing, it's not like he said F humanity, if he did then Mary would've died while unconscious after fighting Dante. Vergil raising the tower was only meant for him to gain Sparda's power to become the strongest most powerful and it's obvious (to me) that he wanted to rule the demonworld and do what his father had.

Being the cause of the tower's rising is something Vergil had to suck up if he wanted power. Ridding the world of Mundus may mean the end of demonic rule over Earth. What reason would Vergil have to deal with humans? Maybe to mate with one, but aside of that, he really has no qualms with the weak.

 

[DarkSlayerZero]

He was a good guy in the second novel until he died and too bad we never got to see any of it