Dante (DmC)

**Dante** is the main protagonist of the *DmC: Devil May Cry* game.

Dante is the son of a demon named Sparda and an angel named Eva. Dante grew up in various institutions, orphanages, youth correction facilities, and foster homes, but these were mostly operated by demons, and often resulted in torture and violence. Now he fights to rid the city of tyranny.

In the AWA fics, Dante is a student at the AWA Academy.

## **Appearance**

Dante stands at around six feet and with a more rounded face, a small scar going across his right eyebrow and cheek, and wider jaw than he was in the TGS 2010 trailer, as the character model was updated to resemble the actor portraying him, Tim Phillipps, and his eye color seems to be grey-blue. His hair is black, with the sides of his head shaved, forming a mohawk out of the hair at the top of his head, tapering off into a point at the nape of his neck. As the game progresses, the hair at the back of his head can be seen changing permanently white. He also sports a strange glowing tattoo on his back between his shoulder blades. In one trailer, this tattoo glows briefly and heals scars he has on his back, and during gameplay, it can be seen through his coat as he switches to an angelic or demonic weapon, which is also accompanied by blue or red color.

His attire consists of a faded black, 3/4-length, hooded leather jacket with red interior linings and the British Union flag sewn on the left arm, a gray tank top, black fingerless gloves, black faded jeans, black military boots, and a necklace reminiscent of half of the Perfect Amulet that features prominently throughout the series. His sword is slung over his back favoring his left hand, and his pistols are placed in holsters which are located at the back of his waist, under his coat. Dante also seems to be ambidextrous, favoring either hand for melee attacks with his weapons.

When Dante uses the Devil Trigger, his hair is flushed completely white, his coat becomes bright red, his eyes become red with white irises and small vein-like cracks run across his skin. These effects fade when Devil Trigger deactivates, but after his final battle his hair remained white permanently.

## **Personality**

The new Dante's personality is sort of similar to the original Dante's, but because of the change in setting and his past, there are quite a few pronounced differences in some of the ways Dante interacts with others, especially demons.  The young man carries himself in a different slick, confident manner as his counterpart, with a more vulgar and spiteful tone.

Dante is very rebellious towards authority figures but laid-back to anyone else. Living on the periphery of society and caught between two worlds, he feels like an outcast. Young and angry, but with a quick wit and black humor, he is disaffected and disassociated with society, and seemingly quite apathetic. He has no fear, and no respect for authority, especially not the demonic authority that runs the world in which he lives. He has no qualms with engaging in debauchery and other hedonistic acts, mostly because he believes he won't be around for too much longer, because of all the demons constantly breathing down his neck.

However, Dante has a huge heart beneath all of this rough exterior. He purposely chose to live out his life his own way because his eyes were opened to evil as a child, especially when the people who were supposed to take care of him turned out to be demons. He decided to take a stand and fight back, no matter what happens. But even after all of the hatred, violence, and murder, Dante would often look at himself and see if he could call himself human, going so far as to rip his chest open to see his own heart. He just knew that he had to convince himself he wasn't insane. Dante displays a more caring side to his female associate, Kat, telling her to leave him and find safety when they come under attack, and even risking The Order's plans to save her life.

## **The Adventures in Gamesphere**

### **Gamesphere Accounts**

In Chapter 10, Dante, alongside Yui Hirasawa, are seen having a jamming session in an amusement park in the PC Kingdom.

## **Abilities**

Dante once again wields Rebellion, but this time the sword can morph into different types of other weapons. Its forms include a demonic battle-axe named Arbiter, an angelic scythe named Osiris, demonic gauntlets named Eryx, an angelic pair of shurikens named Aquila, and a claw-like grappling hook named Ophion.

He also has his trusty Ebony & Ivory, a pair of semi-automatic pistols; one silver, Ivory, and one black, Ebony, with curved grips, and engraved actions resembling the Desert Eagle's, the possible basis for the weapons. Dante also once again wields the franchise staple shotgun called the Revenant and a dart-shooting gun called Kablooey. The design philosophy behind both Rebellion and Ebony & Ivory is to create the impression that they were crafted a long, long time ago, and since their creation, they have sent innumerable demons to their doom.

### **Powers and Skills**

As a Nephilim, Dante possesses a wide variety of supernatural abilities enjoyed by demons and angels alike. He is also capable of destroying the demon king due to his lineage.

#### **Powers**

**Superhuman Strength**: Dante is strong enough to punch Mundus' giant form with his bare hands and knock him back. As a youth, his raw physical strength was sufficient to fight off demons and even human authorities; it took a whole battalion of armored police officers to restrain him.

**Superhuman Speed**: Dante possessing reflexes necessary to dodge most attacks that come his way.

**Superhuman Agility**: Dante is capable of jumping many times its own height, as well as performing a variety of acrobatics including mid-air flips to avoid attacks.

**Superhuman Stamina**: Dante's very high stamina allows him to run and fight continuously without the need for rest.

**Superhuman Durability**: Dante is able to withstand immense amounts of physical trauma without showing injury. He was tackled out of a skyscraper by Mundus, through a brick wall, and onto a building had no visible harm on his body.

**Accelerated healing**: Dante can heal from minor wounds in seconds and healed from Mundus digging his fingers into his chest seconds after they were removed. When he was younger has torn open his own chest to see if he had a heart with seemingly no long-lasting damage. However, this ability is not passive as it only activated once he has awoken and he has a few notable scars on his face.

**Demonic power manipulation**: Dante can channel demonic energy into his weapons to empower them with different effects. He can also use this energy to enhance himself, temporarily giving himself a boost in strength.

**Angelic power manipulation**: Much like his demonic energy, Dante can tap into his angelic power to empower his weapons. He can also use this energy to push himself through the air and to perform short teleports.

#### **Devil Trigger**

Dante can unleash his inner demon to increase his powers. While using it his hair turns white and red glowing veins spread across his face. His irises glow red while his sclera turned black and red energy envelopes his coat, being an obvious referece to the original Dante.

While in Devil Trigger, Dante gains an increase in strength, speed, endurance, and regenerates health. For the duration of his Devil Trigger, the sky in Limbo turns white and Dante's scream echos in the air. Dante's Devil Trigger ability throws lesser enemies in the air and holds them there.

##### **Skills**

* **Weapons proficiency**: Dante has the ability to use whatever weapon he picks up with great efficiency and little to no practice. He uses a variety of unorthodox weapons like a scythe and an exploding dart gun with immense skill. Despite his skill, Dante's movements are sometimes unrefined and unpolished.
* **Swordsmanship**: Dante is capable of using a variety of bladed melee weapons including scythes, swords, axes, and cyclone blades.

* **Marksmanship**: Dante is able to shoot pistols with great accuracy without needing to aim and is well-versed in other firearms such as shotguns and an exploding dart gun.

##### **Arsenal**

**Rebellion**: A keepsake sword left to Dante by his father Sparda, it has the ability to transform into other weapons after absorbing energy from opponents.

**Ebony & Ivory**: Dante's twin pistols that he uses for rapid-fire.

**Amulet**: Dante's amulet left to him by his mother. It allows him to enter Devil Trigger.

## **Trivia**

* When Dante performs his Richoshot, his pose closely resembles one that both the classic Dante and Viewtiful Joe use in the Devil May Cry artwork and the Viewtiful Joe series, albeit less exaggerated.
* In different shots and instances of his Devil Trigger, his hair turns white and his coat wholly red, making him resemble his original version.
* In addition during the first mission, a white wig gets blown on Dante, giving him a striking resemblance to the Dante from games past. After looking at his reflection for a few seconds says "Not in a million years". Ironically, he later gains white hair for his Devil Trigger, which becomes permanent when Limbo merges with the real world.
* The Union Jack patch on the arm of Dante's coat is a small nod to the fact Ninja Theory are based in UK.
* In Dante's trailer, there is a Combichrist tour poster. Combichrist wrote original music for DmC, and their song "Never Surrender" has been featured in demo footage and in the Captivate trailer.

* In response to claims that he based Dante's design on himself, creative director Tameem Antoniades responded, that Dante is "a decade and a half younger than me, way better looking...The only thing he's got is black hair. And he's male. I didn't design the character. I didn't go to our designers and say, 'I think it's a really good idea if we make the new Dante look like me because I want to be in the game.' They'd laugh at me. They'd throw me out the window." Part of this comparison can be drawn from the fact that Tameem has changed his hairstyle in keeping with the character of the new Dante when showing the game, which has further increased their parallels.