Devil May Cry/Characters/Main

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Dante

"Heh, a sword? Time to go to work, guys!"

"Ever since I was a child, I knew I had powers. There's demonic blood in me."

The halfbreed son of the legendary dark knight Sparda (a powerful demon soldier), and Eva, his human mother. After losing his mother to demons when he was a child, Dante took it upon himself to search for the ones responsible for her death and make them pay. He becomes a "demon slayer" and runs his own devil-hunting business called Devil May Cry. He is never without his custom handguns Ebony and Ivory, and the swords Rebellion and Force Edge, mementos received from his father. Being one-half demon, Dante is able to utilize his demonic blood in the form of incredible strength and dexterity, along with the ability to morph into a demon form that grants him increased power and healing factor. He often displays a cocky attitude, but deep down, he is quite compassionate and devoted to fight for the good of humanity. He is the younger twin brother of Vergil.

Dante: "Well bring it on! I love this! This is what I live for! I'm absolutely crazy about it!" (cue Cheshire Cat Grin)

Dante: "A false coin, for a false god."

Dante: "You can hide that body. But that smell, woo!"

Trismagia: "The Son of Sparda. You must repent your sins!"
Dante: "Don't speak, just die!"

  • Sibling Yin-Yang: Yang to Vergil's Yin.
  • Sins of Our Fathers: This happens to him often enough that he lampshades the trope in Devil May Cry 3.
  • Smug Super: In Devil May Cry 3 and Devil May Cry 4 (in Devil May Cry 1 and Devil May Cry 2, not so much). Especially in the latter, where he will lesson Nero, play the three big demons of the game while clearly holding back, and never seem the least bit shaken by the chaos occurring.
  • The Stoic: Dante is eerily Vergil-like in Devil May Cry 2. One of many possible reasons behind the Fan Nickname of Duntee.
  • Teased with Awesome: Sparda Devil Trigger in Devil May Cry 1, Majin Devil Trigger in Devil May Cry 2 since the conditions to trigger it are Awesome but Impractical and this DT depletes very quickly, to top it off there's no Infinite DT unlockable for this game; also his obtaining of Lucifer and Pandora (right before switching back to Nero) in Devil May Cry 4. At least you have New Game+ and Bloody Palace in the case of the latter...
  • Tell Me About My Father: Averted. Dante couldn't care less about the fables revolving around his father (Lady apparently knows more about the legend of Sparda in Devil May Cry 3 than Dante does). In Devil May Cry 2, when Matier bribes him with a tale about Sparda as payment for his help, Dante passes up on the offer, coming to the conclusion that it parallels his own quest in the game.
  • Theme Naming: Long story short, Dante, Trish, Vergil, Lucia and Lady are named after characters from Dante Aligheri's The Divine Comedy. And that's just the tip of the iceburg.
  • Theme Twin Naming: With Vergil, of course.
  • Throwing Your Sword Always Works: Sword Pierce and Round Trip.
  • Time to Unlock More True Potential: Majin Devil Trigger. Nothing in the series so far dared to claim someone or something stronger than Sparda (and Mundus); when Dante attained his father's form, it seemed that he reached the top of his game, then Dante apparently impersonated Goku and got a more powerful form offscreen.
  • Too Many Belts: In the first game and The Animated Series.
  • Toshiyuki Morikawa: Seiyuu for the anime. This is notable for being the first time that Dante is voiced in Japanese.
    • Morikawa reprises his tenure as Dante's Japanese voice in Marvel vs. Capcom 3.
  • Touched by Vorlons: The bio for Dante's Majin Devil Trigger states that he attained this form by the Sparda's sword influence on his natural born demon energy, both powers fused in Dante's body triggering his ascension into a being far more powerful than the sword's original wielder; coincidentally, it cemented a better reason for Dante never needing the sword again and leaving it permanently in Trish's hands.
  • Trademark Favorite Food: Pizza! As well as strawberry sundaes in the anime (a Discontinuity Nod to a prequel novel meant to be the groundwork for the series, until Devil May Cry 3 kicked it out of canon).
  • Trash Talk
  • Trickster Mentor: To a small degree, he's like this towards Nero. It starts developing into a Big Brother Mentor complex near endgame.
  • "Wake-Up Call" Boss: After beating Son of Sparda mode in Devil May Cry 4, some may step into Dante Must Die mode full of confidence since the first fight isn't that hard. If they are lucky, they will be woken up by Pandora's laser beam two seconds into the fight and die before knowing what's happening. Ouch.
  • White-Haired Pretty Boy
  • Who You Gonna Call?: Ghostbusters? All jokes aside, this is the reasoning behind Devil May Cry: he's the only one who can protect humans from demonic infestation.
  • Willfully Weak: It's perfectly clear that Dante never goes all out in any of his adventures, barring the fight against Mundus and arguably Vergil/Nero Angelo, mostly due his laid-back personality and that he likes to have fun hunting each demons personally (or because he's Passing the Torch in Nero's case). This is most evident in his incarnations from Devil May Cry 4 and Devil May Cry 2, the former where it's stated he has surpassed his father in strength and the latter in which Dante has gone beyond that, rendering Sparda's powers useless to him by attaining the Majin Devil Trigger, basically becoming the top Physical God in the series. Needless to say, he doesn't need to spend his time hunting demons in areas populated only by them when he could just blast the land away by flicking his finger.
  • World of Cardboard Speech:

Dante: "What are you gonna do with all of that power, huh? No matter how hard you try, you're never gonna be like father."
Vergil: "You're wasting time!"
Dante: "We are the sons of Sparda! Within each of us flows his blood, but more importantly, his soul! And now my soul is saying it wants to stop you!

  • Youngest Child Wins
  • You Remind Me of X: In Devil May Cry 1, Phantom, Griffon, and Mundus all remark on how similar Dante is to Sparda. Nevan also compares him to Sparda in Devil May Cry 3.


Trish

"It looks like we have a winner."

"...Five minutes."

Trish is a mysterious dame that visited Dante in his office, and seemed to know about his "secret" history. She told him that Mundus is trying to break out of the Underworld again, and that Dante should head for Mallet Island to put a stop to it. For some reason or other, she has lightning powers and bears a striking resemblance to Dante's deceased mother... so who is she really?

The truth about Trish is that she's a servant of Mundus, who was ordered to lure Dante to the island. She was created in the likeness of Dante's mother, perhaps in order to persuade him better. When Trish and Nightmare fail to kill Dante, Mundus uses her as bait to lure Dante to his lair, upon which Trish throws herself in front of Dante to take the blow of Mundus' Eye Beams attack, and presumably dies doing so. This drives Dante in such a rage that he can now Devil Trigger with the Sword of Sparda, which had been dormant before. Dante mourns for Trish and leaves the Sparda with her and sheds a few "devil's tears". Desperately trying to escape from the collapsing island, Dante engages in yet another battle with a deformed Mundus. Exhausted, Dante somehow hears the voice of his mother, and Trish appears, miraculously returned to life. She gives him a power boost strong enough for Dante to blow Mundus back to Hell and sealing him away again.

A very relieved Dante decides to take Trish with him and they make a final escape via the old biplane. He allows her to keep the Sparda and Trish is now an employee of Dante's demon-slaying business.


Lucia

"Till next time, son of Sparda."

"Dante told me... devils never cry!"

A red-haired woman that is part of a clan that protects Dumary Island from demons. She uses an array of throwing knives and daggers in combat, along with being able to transform into a white birdlike demon. She sees Matier as her mentor and mother-figure.

Turns out that Lucia isn't human at all: she is one of Arius' "creations" and was left to die as Arius deemed her to be defective. Matier took Lucia in and raised her as her own, although upon learning this truth Lucia began to overwhelmed by panic and doubt as she feared she would go berserk and turn against the humans she only wanted to protect. She pleaded with Dante to kill her because "it's his job to hunt devils" (which he refuses to do and gives her his coin to hold on to). Matier reassures her that their bond runs deeper than her circumstances of creation/birth. As Dante goes through the Demon Gate to fight Argosax, Lucia fights and kills a deformed, possessed Arius. She's last seen in Dante's office, waiting for him to return.


Lady

"Looks like we're gonna be busy for awhile."

"Mary died a long time ago. My name... is Lady."

First appearing in Devil May Cry 3, Lady is one of Dante's allies. While she is a full-blooded human and therefore does not have the physical power of a (half-)demon, she is still a competent gunslinger and capable fighter.

In Devil May Cry 3, Lady's goal is to kill Arkham, her father, and avenge the death of her mother (who Arkham killed). She encounters Dante multiple times, shooting or threatening to shoot him at least once each time. He is, after all, part demon (though she doesn't know this at first, believing him to be a demon who happens to look like a human), and she also plans to hunt down demons. During one of these encounters, when Dante asks her what her name is, she tells him that she doesn't have one and doesn't care what he calls her. Dante's response: "Whatever, Lady."

In Mission 13, it's revealed that Lady being there is an important part of Arkham's plan. She happens to have been descended from a priestess whose blood was part of the Temen-ni-Gru's seal, keeping a portal to the demon world closed. There, Arkham shows his true colours, stabbing his own daughter in the leg to undo the seal. This strengthens Lady's resolve to kill Arkham: she only relents when Dante defeats her in battle. Even then, she eventually gets back up. When Arkham falls out of the demon world and lays dying on top of the Temen-ni-Gru, he finds Lady waiting for him and pointing a gun at his head. Yes, Arkham dies at Lady's hand... and she cries over his death, after thinking she wouldn't.

Lady and Dante join forces and become friends at the end of the game. She plays a very minor role in Devil May Cry 4 (which quite a few fans were unhappy about): she told Dante about the Order of the Sword, as well as their recent activities. In the secret ending, she decides to come along with Dante on another job.

"Acrobatic gunslinger" would best describe how Lady fights: she uses a variety of guns as well as acrobatics in battle, most notably the rocket launcher Kalina Ann. She also carries various other ranged weapons such as throwing knives and grenades, though these are only seen in the boss battle against her.


Nero

"This baby sure can pack a punch."

"From that day forth, my arm changed... and a voice echoed. Power... Give me more power!"

Nero made his first appearance in Devil May Cry 4, where he is one of two playable characters. He lives in the castle town of Fortuna, which is home to a Sparda-worshipping religion known as the Order of the Sword, and is a member of the Holy Knights, a group charged by the Order with the duty of hunting and killing demons.

Putting it lightly, Nero is very out of place in Fortuna for a number of reasons: he wears different colours to everyone else, holds little faith to the Order's beliefs, works alone, and--most notably--has white hair and an unusual arm. This arm, the Devil Bringer, has demonic powers, but also a demonic appearance.

In the game itself, he is sent by the Order to track down Dante after the Son of Sparda killed the Order's leader, Sanctus. Nero and his love interest Kyrie soon wind up in a mess (again, putting it lightly).

It turns out that The Order is a Corrupt Church with plans to conquer the world. After finding this out Nero decides to get some answers, only for things to go wrong. Kyrie gets kidnapped, and an angry Nero goes after Agnus and Sanctus. Of course, this is what they wanted. It's revealed that Nero is a descendant of Sparda (already hinted at in a number of cutscenes, including one where he gained Yamato), and the Saviour, a giant statue, needs a descendant of Sparda to power it. So Nero gets trapped inside with no way out.

For a while. Eight missions later, Dante helps Nero escape, and the two work together to defeat Sanctus (which involves rescuing Kyrie). When the Big Bad tries one last attempt to fight, Nero unleashes the full power of the Devil Bringer and kills him in a single blow. Dante leaves Yamato to Nero, and all in all it's a happy ending... well, except for the wrecked Fortuna. And the Scarecrows.

Nero's weapons include Red Queen (a sword with a motor in it which can be revved to increase damage), Blue Rose (a double-barrelled revolver which Nero apparently built himself), the Devil Bringer (his arm, which allows him to use a variety of powerful attacks) and later Yamato.

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