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fabdante · 2 months

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the one about vergil being jealous of dante

i would like to share my girlfriends theory about vergils thoughts during that bridge scene for mission 7 which i full heartedly agree with

so im talking about the one at the bridge. kat just told dante her whole deal and dante and her are cool now. they meet vergil at the bridge and tell dante about how he needs to break into bob barbas jail. vergil says kat can't go, dante says shes done enough, she warns him about this situation, dante says it'll be lovely and winks at her before going

and vergil just...stares at kat

he just stares at kat

the camera specifically pans to him and holds on him staring at kat. so its important to ninja theory that we see this moment, that we see vergil looking at kat here. we are meant to get something out of this.

according to my very lovely and very smart and very talented girlfriend who is also very enlightened and got me to ship vergil and kat, a possibility here is this is when vergil's mindset shifts.

let me explain.

(i also talk about this in my really long post, the really long list of kat and vergil things )

prior to this mission, kat kind of really does not like dante. this is very clear to me with like...most of their interactions and her body language. she doesn't like it when he waves a gun in her face. she doesn't like it when he makes her job difficult and tries not to go with her. she doesn't like how he talks about humanity (she goes to argue with him about this until vergil stops her, which she also does not like). she doesn't like that he doesn't take her seriously when he asks her about her spells (then proceeds to wipe his fingers off on her). she doesn't like that when she tries to tell him things will be rough in limbo at paradise that he looks at her, says he 'likes it rough', then winks. she really does not like that one, we see her collect herself after this moment before she proceeds to talk to vergil because she does not like it. she does not seem to like how he's not taking a lot of things seriously. she does not like the confused tone he takes when he questions her going to limbo to escape her 'nightmares' (code word for kat's abusive household) because he doesn't understand how things could be worse for her then limbo.

and it's fair to note that there are moments between these moments where they get along! they have a bonding moment in mission 4 about her learning how to do spells and how the cans remind dante of spray cheese (also notable she's talking about vergil in this scene also, but i digress). they have another bonding moment in virility where they talk about their similar backstories.

but its also important to note she is often frustrated with him at this point in the game. and even more important that vergil knows that she's frustrated with dante. the singular conversation we see between kat and vergil in the game is about how kat doesn't trust dante and she finds him frustrating. this was so important for us to know it is the singular scene kat and vergil have alone in the entire game and we get it in the second mission of the game. she asks vergil if he thinks this will work because she thinks it won't, because she distrusts dante so much after just having met him she's doubting this whole plan they put together.

i've rambled enough though my point is this. kat does not like dante for a good chunk of the early game and she does not trust him.

but by the point of the bridge, she does.

it's fair to say the game is, in part, about dante and kat's relationship. it's about dante learning how to trust kat. but he does that pretty quick, the bigger part is dante getting kat to trust and like him. which he seems to figure out very quickly she does not. you can see it in the fact that he stops making comments like he does after mission 2. he instead focuses on trying to get to know her.

now, this i think ties into my meta on mission 19 where i talked about how dante is smarter then we give him credit for. certainly some of this is him trying to figure out the situation he's found himself in and kat is an in to learn about that situation. he's correctly deduced that kat and vergil are close, so kat is very close to this organization and the plan and probably knows a lot about this whole thing so he can learn about it through her.

but he also seems to genuinely want kat to trust and like him, given he is from very early on, pretty vulnerable with her. he tells her about his childhood before she gives him the details on hers and everything. he realizes to get her to trust him, he needs to trust her.

which gets us to the car scene.

i've talked about the car scene in my really long 'every single kat and vergil moment' list post. but i'm going to do that again here from a slightly different angle, that being the dante and kat relationship growth angle.

this scene is key because its where kat finally decides to trust dante.

she finally lets her walls down (kats theme playing, her hood coming down, all those fun little cues) and she tells him about her past, about vergils role in it, and about her goals. it's an interesting scene. i mean dante flat out tells her he trusts her and he wants her to trust him. he flat out tells her that he wants to know about her, and also vergil. he flat out tells her she can trust him to finish this with her. he's very upfront, he's very vulnerable, and he's very honest, something kat seems to resonate with.

i think up to this point we're seeing a slow progression of kat getting to know dante, getting to know how they're similar (in both conflicting and complimenting ways), and relating to the fact they had similarly traumatic experiences in their lives.

dante is not like vergil. he lacked the privilege's vergil clearly grew up in with his wealth, both adopted into and self made, and just the general stability of his up bringing. dante and kat have a lot in common in this way, it's a lot to relate to that vergil just...can't understand, not on that level. and like i said there's a lot of similarities with kat and dante, vergil flat out compares them in the aforementioned mission 2 scene ('he's raw. like you were when i first found you' or whatever the direct quote is).

so, this is where we are at with the bridge scene.

this is all that's happened.

from vergil's point of view he, notably, knows directly that kat does not trust or exactly like dante. he knows this has been hard for her. he knows that kat and dante are similar people. he knows that kat and dante just spent a lot of time together.

he knows there are just some things about both kat and dante that he is just never going to understand.

and then we get to the bridge. we get to the bridge and kat and dante are getting along swimmingly. dante is protecting her, saying she's done enough, that he doesn't need her to come with him. dante winks at her and kat doesn't do anything in response (unlike the last time dante did something like that). they're, fairly suddenly, fine. especially if we assume, as ninja theory implies, this is right after the drive and this is the first time vergil's talked to either of them since the phone call in the car.

for vergil, this is probably...very jarring, say the least. you go from kat having to calm herself down before she talks to you when dante tries to flirt with her, to her just being largely indifferent when he winks at her.

i've said before that, to me, vergil's downfall recontextualizes the entire kat/vergil relationship we see in game. because vergils downfall very loudly asserts that in some way he cared for her. he cared for her more then he cared about anyone else. we know this because when he's asked what he'd change, what would he do differently, the only thing vergil thinks of is his relationship with kat. that is it. that's the only thing that comes to his mind. we know this because the first third of vergil's downfall is him trying to save kat, again, with no hesitation. we know this because kat is the only figure in vergil's downfall he tries to explain himself to and she is the only person he has to turn into a monster before he can kill them. we know this because hollow vergil tells vergil that everyone he cared for, everyone he loves, hates him now and that includes kat.

it doesn't matter what way he cares about her, selfishly, platonically, romantically, whatever. he cared about her. in some way he loves her.

which brings me back to this moment were vergil stares at kat after dante leaves. this long hold of the camera while he does nothing but look at her, suspect.

and we get to my girlfriends theory that this is the moment where everything changed for vergil.

vergil's motives are...mysterious to us, say the least. we know he wants to save mankind, according to him. we know he makes some points that make sense (someone has to be in charge of the demons but who said it needed to be him). we know that, the biggest issue, is him lying to the others and his general regard of humans as weak despite everything kat does.

my girlfriend posits in this moment, vergil convinces himself that something is happening with kat and dante and he gets jealous. that he thinks he can't compete with his brother for kat (in whatever way, romantic or platonic) and that he no longer trusts either of them in the way he did before. he wants to, but he doesn't. this is the moment his focus shifts to the plan above all else, and this is the mentality we see him remain in for the rest of the game. and that it's here that he decides not to tell them about the ruling mankind plan (me and my girlfriend argue this plan develops during the game for him, but its fair to argue that he may have come up with it before the events of the game. it's also fair not to agree with me about any of this, it's a game from 2013 about killing demons like...it's fine)

we have evidence of this, also in downfall. it's the way hollow kat and hollow dante talk to him.

kat emphasizes that dante is a real man, and vergil is not. she emphasizes that she prefers dante, stoking fears vergil seems to have because its these escalating talking points about dante that lead to her turning into a demon. dante, similarly, stokes at vergil feeling inferior to him. he emphasizes vergil being the 'little' brother (if he means younger or if he means something else, up to you to decide). he points out how he'll always be the better one, the stronger one, the more powerful one. all culminating to him also being killed off.

i think the game is making a very clear point in this, all starting with that stare.

vergil wants to love his brother, he probably does, he's his brother after all. he even says in the game and hollow vergil's point still stands.

but he is also jealous of dante. there's a lot of jealousy about dante. and i think that jealousy fuels a lot of his actions and this moment, that stare on the bridge, is the moment that it really starts. when vergil sees dante as a threat to this relationship he has with kat and he just no longer trusts the two the same as he had before mission 7.

my girlfriend has always argued this and i think she's very right and very smart.

#i wrote this very fast on a whim so im going to post it very fast and on a whim #dmc reboot #devil may cry reboot #reboot vergil #dmc kat #reboot dante #dmc devil may cry #vergil/kat #kat/vergil #fab talks meta

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