Oh, and can someone briefly explain to me something about Jungian theories and the connections it has with the representations of Dante and Vergil as each other's shadows? I do not know much, so I can't follow you, sorry...
Moses would be the person to ask about that, but I don't know if he's here still or if he left. . .
I did discuss that in depth with him (the symbolism of the moon in front of Vergil prompted it), but I've lost those PMs as they were on Devil's Lair :/
Not sure about he book, but as I see it, they both dealt with the death differently and diverged in behaviour as a result: one saw the responsibility for the death as belonging to "demons" and coped with it by directing his negative feelings towards them (Dante). The other saw the responsibility for the death in the inherent weakness of being human, and dealt with it by systematically eliminating the weaknesses that caused it, or the state of being human and therefore weak (Vergil). They're both reasonable reactions to a traumatic event with a known perpetrator, though I'd say Dante's is more 'emotional' and Vergil's 'logical' in nature.
To this you have to add the fact that neither of them are 'just' human, and I'm going to assume that emotions like rage, greed and pride and so on are exacerbated in them both thanks to their demonic nature.
Vergil's motivations would apparently be:
Pride (he actively appears to want to be Sparda's successor - he doesn't deny it when Dante calls him on it); you can also sense from things put in there that he has a certain breed of morals in which he only bothers fighting people who are either an obstacle/traitor or are otherwise worthy of his ability (did not kill Lady, who attacked him, fights fair against Dante, and later Nelo's reputation);
Fear (though he controls all outward signs of general 'fear', the quest for strength would ultimately come from the fear of death and/or fear of emotional pain from losing someone dear to you, which he feels he can eliminate by becoming more powerful. Alluding to 'protecting' anything and 'protecting yourself' shows how happy he is to demonstrate this fact to Dante's face and how important a lesson it was to him... and his personality in general suggests he's in the habit of regularly suppressing a whole bunch of emotions);
Greed (moar power plz);
Boredom - I think this is a big one, as big as any other of his motivations. "Where's your motivation?" "How boring", etc. Remember, he's half-demon and far more powerful than any regular demon, with or without Sparda's power. Imagine that demonic blood coursing in your bits and yet living a normal, tame human life? Would be difficult if you had even an ounce of bloodlust, desire for revenge, or just the desire to stretch those abilities you have - humans are no match for Sparda's kids, and Vergil wants a challenge. Victory or death! Just look how he reacts to Mundus.
Revenge: Probably to some extent, though not as vehemently as Dante, I suspect, since Vergil doesn't habour the same automatic disgust for demons that Dante does, it's not likely he's in it for revenge - he considers himself 'one of them' clearly, though superior to them, no doubt.
