Dante is a hero. Coming back to this video five years later, I find myself wondering why I wrote that section the way I did. Dante is a hero—he just doesn't embody the superficial qualities we usually associate with one. Hence the All Might comparison. He’s all about actions over appearances. Substance over image. The only image that matters is that drip though 👀

There’s a line in the anime, when he’s hired to kill the devil Bradley, that says it really well for Dante’s character; “sorry sir I can’t complete your request. I can’t fight anything that’s not demon. I don’t see a demon here”. He says this after seeing Bradley concerned about his lovers father and is healing him. He doesn’t see a devil when a devil shows compassion. He sees it as a solely human trait.

“Dante’s Humanity”
“Vergil’s Obsession”
“Nero’s Insecurities”

Dante is balanced, he loves hunting demons and being powerful, but he also values and loves humanity, he embraces both sides demonic and human.

Dante: Beats Vergil
Vergil: Nope, that's not cannon

Holy shit YouTube was smart enough to recommend a smaller channel that turned out to be real damn quality. Looking forward to more

The moment Dante absorbed his fathers sword, the moment he became Sparda's successor. He went from orphan, to street thug, to mercinary, to shop owner, to devil hunter, legendary devil hunter, to legendary dark knight.  He really came a long way, vergil was just dead for a while lol

Dante is killing demons not because he's a hero, its cause killing demons is good for business.
"Cause the rent aint free"

He's simultaneously the coolest and the biggest nerd.

I think the reason Dante doesn’t have children is because the thought of  them experiencing a life like his is too painful. He has shown that he cares deeply for Nero even if it seems distant. One of his main goals was to keep Nero away from Vergil and from getting hurt.

I love that Dante falls back to his demonic nature due to sheer ignorance of what a "real human" is. What I mean by that, is that you should compare how he acts with how Nero acts.


Dante knows (maybe actively, maybe subconsciously) that he's a demon and basically unkillable. Nero on the other hand, while also being demon blooded, grew up as a human. So Nero naturally tries to avoid getting impaled by a giant sword, Dante just goes "here we go again".

Ironically enough, Dante's humanity (and even Vergil's, to some extent) is also responsible for their flaws. Whereas Vergil's fear and jealously led to him wanting more power, Dante's obsession with Vergil blinded him. He was convinced killing Vergil was the ONLY solution, only for Nero to prove him wrong. There's no doubt in my mind Dante intentionally overplayed his injury after Nero bitch-slapped him. At this point, he realized his error and realized Nero was the only one who could end this battle and REACH Vergil.

I got very emotional when Dante chose to stay by Vergil's side at the end of DMC5, BTW. It's the ultimate resolution for BOTH characters. Because of Nero, Dante no longer has to leave Vergil behind (which was the source of Vergil's fear/anger). Vergil also changes - he no longer pushes Dante away. Hell, the man smiles when he tells Dante they got all the time in the world together now. Personally, I'm excited by this change of events. I want to see how their relationship unfolds from that point on. If Dante's motivation to fight comes from family-related ties, then him having his brother back (and a nephew he can officially confirm now) must surely have an impact on his way of thinking and career as a devil hunter. Conversely, if Vergil's desire for power came from a place of wanting to be protected and loved, then imagine how much his views will change now that he has someone he could protect and love.

As Dante said "What you lack... Is this! <3"

Notice at 8:20 that Agnus doesn't ask "What is it that humans have?" but, rather, "What is it that demons lack?".

I think that angered Dante. That all he (Agnus) had been writing wasn't to grow into a better human but a stronger and less human demon.

Just my speculation though

Wacky woohoo pizza man is also my favourite dude

I'm confident that after dmc3, Dante would still try to save the world if he knew it was in serious danger. He shows clear compassion towards struggling humans. Especially in the animated series.

One detail to reforce the point of Dante being so concerne about his family: In DMC4, other reason for what he does is because of Nero. He literally says he had the feeling of Nero being Vergil's son, and he confirmed it after seen how Yamato reacted to Nero.

Urizen: "How? How are you so powerful? You've never lost anything."
Dante: "It's not about loss, strength is a choice, fighting like hell to protect what's important. You threw away everything you've ever had, no wonder you have no true power!"
Urizen: "DANTE!"
Dante is one of the best characters in gaming

Great analysis. I've always believed that the Devil May Cry games have better stories than they are usually given credit. Another thing to about Dante is that initially he didn't care about his demonic heritage but with each game he grows to respect his fathers legacy and heritage. Not a full embrace like Vergil did but a growing respect. (Spoilers for DMC5) 5 also brings this full circle by having Vergil finally learn to respect his human heritage through his experience as V.