~*Dante*~
Character info here
Name:: Dante
Nicknames:: WIP
Gender:: Male
Type:: Devil May Cry Cosplay
Sexuality:: Homosexual
Mate/Love Interest::
Children:: WIP
Friends:: WIP
Enemies:: WIP
Personality/History:: WIP
TvTropes Info::
"Ever since I was a child, I knew I had powers. There's demonic blood in me."
Voiced by: Drew Coombs (DMC, Viewtiful Joe, Viewtiful Joe: Red Hot Rumble), Jonathan Mallen (young, DMC), Matthew Kaminsky (DMC2, Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne), Reuben Langdon (DMC3, DMC4, The Animated Series, Marvel vs. Capcom 3), Toshiyuki Morikawa (The Animated Series, Marvel vs. Capcom 3, Project X Zone, DMC4: Special Edition, Project X Zone 2; Japanese)
The Anti-Hero Half-Human Hybrid demon slayer son of an Ascended Demon named Sparda and a human named Eva. After losing his mother to demons as a child, Dante grows up to become a demon-hunting mercenary who runs his own devil-hunting business named Devil May Cry.
Being half-demon, Dante has Super Strength, Nigh-Invulnerability and a Healing Factor, along with the ability to transform into a demonic Super Mode called Devil Trigger. His weapons of choice are two custom handguns known as Ebony & Ivory, and a memento broadsword of his father's named Rebellion.
While often cocky, deep down he is a compassionate man devoted to fighting for the good of humanity and helping his friends.
The Ace: In DMC4, where he upstages Nero at every turn.
Alas, Poor Villain: See Angsty Surviving Twin. He is shown to mourn Vergil after both of his deaths.
Always Identical Twins: Him and Vergil.
Ancestral Weapon: His sword is suggested to be another memento from Sparda.
Angels Pose: Pulls this alongside Trish and Lady at the end of 4.
Angsty Surviving Twin: Dante is this after both of Vergil's deaths. The first time he simply denies it, and the second time it is not dwelled on, but the sorrow on his face as he picks up Vergil's amulet, and his reminiscing of one of their birthdays makes this apparent.
Annoying Younger Sibling: A rare protagonist example. He's snarky to everyone, but his taunting of Vergil in Devil May Cry 3 reeks of this trope. Especially when contrasted with Vergil's perpetual stoicism and seriousness. However, Vergil is also a Big Brother Bully at the same time, so they're somewhat even.
Anti-Hero: Pragmatic Hero in most of his appearances, Disney Anti-Hero in DMC1 and DMC2.
Arm Cannon: One of the more unusual traits of Dante's Devil Trigger in 2 was that the palms of his hands had six-barreled, rapid-fire mini-cannons protruding out of them.◊
Armor Is Useless: DMC2 is the only time Dante is shown wearing any kind of protective gear (a breastplate). It offers no additional defensive benefits for Dante and his durability is no better than that of Lucia, who runs around with her midriff exposed. He does manage to avoid his usual habit of being made into a human shish kebab in 2, so there's that.
Badass: He's one without a doubt, easily taking out highly trained humans, demons, and monstrosities without even breaking a sweat, and always with style.
Badass Biker: As seen in 2 and 3. In the latter, Dante even goes as far as to unleash some Bike Fu, though at the cost of Lady's motorcycle.
Badass Crew: With Trish and Lady.
Badass Fingersnap: The full gesture for switching to Gunslinger Style in 4 (i.e. if Dante is stationary) is this.
Badass Longcoat: He's rarely seen without his red coat.
Back-to-Back Badasses: With both Lady and Vergil in 3.
Bag of Spilling: Most of the firearms and Devil Arms he acquires in the games don't get carried over between them. Chronologically speaking, the only ones that do are Force Edge note , Rebellion note and the Shotgun note .
Battle in the Rain: His first battle with Vergil in Devil May Cry 3.
Big Good: Of DMC4, being the major force of good opposing the Order of the Sword
Blinding Bangs: Depending on the game.
Blood Knight: Heroic example; Dante really enjoys his job as a Demon Slayer.
Dante: "Well bring it on! I love this! This is what I live for! I'm absolutely crazy about it!" (cue Cheshire Cat Grin)
In the context of this particular example, however, Dante's quote might be something of a subversion, as it can be interpreted as Dante trying to force himself into enjoying yet another demon attack after a very emotionally-trying day.
Boring but Practical: One of his weapons in 4, Pandora, has (among other things) a giant laser, a mobile turret that shoots missiles, and the ability to weaponize all the evil within to nuke everything on screen. What're the most used forms in combo videos? The chaingun (the aerial version specifically) and boomerang-glaive.
Bottomless Magazines: According to the manual for the first game, Dante's demonic powers actually create them.
Bring My Red Jacket: Red longcoat in every game, check. Constantly impaled, check.
Butt Monkey: Surprisingly, he's shown to be this in the anime thanks to his financial troubles. Patty even quips that Dante has to be the unluckiest guy she's ever met.
Cain and Abel: His often violent relationship with his twin brother Vergil.
The Cameo:
The DMC2 version of Dante makes an appearance in the Updated Re-release of Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne.
The DMC1 version is playable as a Secret Character in the PS2 port of Viewtiful Joe.
The DMC3 version is a playable fighter in Marvel vs. Capcom 3.
The anime version is a playable character in Project X Zone and its sequel.
Catch Phrase: "Jackpot!" It sees its fair share of usage by Vergil and Nero as well.
"Devils never cry" seems to be one as well, seeing as he's said those words to Trish, Lucia, and Lady near or at the climax of the first three games (in the first two instances, he was trying to comfort Trish and Lucia, while the latter was Dante trying to deny the pain he felt when he believed Vergil to be dead).
Character Development/Hidden Depths: Though his main persona is the same in each game, chronologically he matures quite a bit. Witness his change from thrill-seeking (DMC3) to guilt-ridden (DMC1) to cool-headed (DMC4).
In terms of straight-up Hidden Depths, Dante also happens to be a music aficionado. His office contains a drum set (complete with a guitar in 3) and an antique jukebox, and Dante is shown to be a very accomplished musician when he obtains Nevan in 3. Dante himself lampshades this in the preview to the episode "Rock Queen" from the anime, where he notes that you wouldn't expect a guy like him to understand the deeper messages conveyed through music.
Character Exaggeration: Suffers from it in the anime. The Rule of Cool that he adheres by in the games seems to have become the equivalent of air for him in The Animated Series, to the point of Destructive Savior tendencies.
Characterization Marches On: How Dante, Trish, and Lady were portrayed in TAS stuck for 4.
Charged Attack: The hand-to-hand weapons of 1, 3, and 4 (Ifrit, Beowulf, and Gilgamesh, respectively) can add increased attack power (or even new attacks) by holding down the input on each strike. However, this makes an already slower weapon even slower so use this feature wisely.
Chekhov's Gun: He comes across a few, but the best examples would most likely be his half of the Perfect Amulet (in both 1 and 3) and his lucky coin (actually a trick coin) in 2, which is later used to thwart the Big Bad's plan.
Chick Magnet: While he does play the role of Handsome Lech towards Lady at first, every single female lead of the first three games became a viable love interest for him towards endgame, Unresolved Sexual Tension and everything. It doesn't hurt that he has the air of The Charmer about him.
In the case of Trish and Lady, the romantic tension was dialed back for their joint reappearance in 4. Here, it's obvious that Dante sees his ladyfriends at least as True Companions; any non-platonic feelings are negated by Dante's lack of (or suppression of) perverted qualities. As for Lucia, canonically speaking, she's the last girl Dante meets (Trish's appearance in 2 is non-canon and Lady hadn't been conceptualized at that point), so the matter of Dante's love life could take one of several different directions.
The Collector of the Strange: Has several demon skulls in his office as well as various weapons mounted on his wall.
Cool Guns: His twin pistols, Ebony and Ivory.
Cool Sword: Rebellion, a sword that was passed down from his father.
Cool Uncle: According to the canon novel, Dante is this to Nero. It actually puts a new spin on his Trickster Mentor attitude towards Nero, and his letting him keep the Yamato despite saying "it should be kept in the family."
Dark Is Not Evil: Wears "dark" colors like red and black, but is a fairly decent guy.
Desperation Attack: His Devil Trigger Majin Form (Desperation/Desperate Devil Trigger or DDT for short) in 2. When Dante's health is critical, he can transform into a towering, invincible behemoth (complete with two blades that protrude out of his arms, fireballs, and a chargeable light-dark laser beam/Sphere of Destruction) and mow down his enemies with the greatest of ease. This includes the Final Boss. The only drawbacks are the increased meter consumption and once-per-life use, but when you're capable of delivering one-shot kills to most enemies, it's not that big of an issue.
Deuteragonist: DMC4 is Nero's story. Dante's path just so happens to intersect with the young knight's for his latest assignment, whereupon he acts as an occasional adversary, big brother figure, and ace in the hole when Nero is incapacitated. He can also be argued as this in DMC2, mixed in with Decoy Protagonist, due to his lack of emotional developments and less of a personal connection to the main conflict compared to Lucia.
Difficult but Awesome: He's this in DMC4SE compared to all the other characters and (possibly) every other version of himself, thanks in part to no less than four Styles available at any given moment. Advanced play as Dante in that game involves the use of tons of really difficult techniques, as detailed in the video series that this video starts (spoiler warning, though). That said, he's leagues more fun and stylish than Nero if you master him.
Discontinuity Nod: The Animated Series uses Dante's alias of "Tony Redgrave" (the same name inscribed on his guns) from the (now) non-canon novelization.
Those same engravings on Ebony and Ivory contain an inscription that reads "By .45 Art Warks". In another nod to the novel, .45 Art Works is a gun shop owned by a female proprietor named Nell Goldstein (who has a tendency to misspell the name of her shop as ".45 Art Warks"). Goldstein apparently helped "Tony" construct E&I, as well as Sparda's Luce and Ombra (which bear the same engraving).
In the PS2 port of Viewtiful Joe, Dante makes a guest appearance as a Secret Character. In his story, Alastor is revealed to be the spirit of the eponymous sword Dante picked up in 1. Among other things, Alastor is seething that Dante that didn't bring him along to "Somewhere Island" (Dumary Island). Dante protests, "I don't remember that!" Seeing as the series was also originally helmed by Hideki Kamiya, the man responsible for the original game, this could also be a Take That.
His change in characterization for 2 was handwaved when Dante (who is only clad in a speedo when not transformed) asks if Enzo stole his clothes again, suggesting that it wasn't even Dante you were playing as. Again, most likely another Take That from Kamiya.
See Trademark Favorite Food below.
Diving Save: Pulls one to save Trish from falling debris in the aftermath of Nightmare's defeat.
Double Entendre: His interaction with Nevan and his acquisition of Lucifer. Both are cases of Does This Remind You of Anything? and the latter is something of a Badass Creed.
Et Tu, Brute?: How he felt when he learns that she was created by Mundus to kill him.
Experienced Protagonist: Even with DMC3 being Dante's origin story does he already appear to have a decent amount of experience under his belt, as seen with his casual butchery of a group of Hell Prides.
Expy: Of InuYasha. White haired half demon in a red coat fights demons wielding a sword passed down from his legendary demon father. Frequently clashes with his brother, who is also white haired and also wields a sword passed down from their father.
Word of God states that Dante's attitude was based off of Cobra's, just without any allusions to smoking.
Ironically, Dante himself has gotten several expies over the years:
Brandon "Beyond the Grave" Heat is more a silent variation minus the BFS and more emphasis on shooting.
Gene. He also doubles as an expy to Kenshiro. Capcom would later take notes and base Nero partially off the former.
Bayonetta and Jeanne are both Gender Flip examples. The two ladies are snarkers that both fight with swords and guns, taunt their enemies, and the latter even has white hair and dresses in red. The only differences is that they are witches that fight angels. note
Kagura is another gender flip example that is very Stripperific and arguably an expy of the DMC3 incarnation. A Half-Human Hybrid (Dhampyr in this case) that's young, snarky, taunts, and likes to show off. It fits the bill.
Wonder Blue, Dante in Super Sentai form.
Fakin' MacGuffin: How he plays Arius for a chump in 2. All according to plan.
Dante: "A false coin, for a false god."
Fingerless Gloves: Traditional fingerless gloves in 3, sans-thumb-and-index-finger type in 4.
Finger Twitching Revival: The end result of "acquiring" Alastor.
Subverted in 3. You see his fingers twitch, and Vergil stabs him again without missing a beat.
Firing One-Handed: Dude can fire shotguns and more supernaturally-empowered weapons with one hand. Must be that demon blood in him.
Gangsta Style: How Dante uses Ebony & Ivory.
Genre Savvy: Dante showed some really strong hints of this in 4 (and considering all the crap he's been through up to then, this is understandable). Said hints include outright breaking an extremely irritating puzzle, finishing off bosses to avoid rematches, and perhaps the best known example is crashing into the Order of the Sword's church and immediately shooting the Big Bad.
Also in 2, where he's much less playful towards his opponents (including a Shut Up, Hannibal! towards Trismagia) and plays that game's Big Bad with a Batman Gambit before shooting him out of a building.
Good Is Not Nice: Most prevalent in 3, where Dante originally accepts Arkham's "job" for selfish reasons, leading to some rather dickish behavior for the first half of the game. It's not until later he fully realizes the gravity of the situation, reassesses his priorities, and adopts a far more altruistic demeanor.
Gosh Dang It to Heck!: The infamous "Flock off, featherface!" line from the first game. Doubles as an intentional pun, considering that Griffon was a bird. Later games and the anime avert this, and Nero is probably the most foul-mouthed character in the series. Prior to DmC, that is.
Gratuitous Japanese: Majin Form, a Japanese name for a very western-looking demon/fallen angel design, it's also one of the very few Japanese terms in the entire franchise.
Half-Human Hybrid: Dante is 1/2 demon, 1/2 human.
Handsome Devil: A half-literal example, though he has a kind side under the rude exterior. Nevan even calls him and Sparda this by name.
Heads or Tails: Picks up this quirk in the second installment for unexplained reasons, using his coin to determine whether or not he'll help Lucia and Matier, most notably when deciding who between him and Lucia will go into Demon World and slay the recently-revived devil king Argosax and most likely be trapped there for eternity. Lucia notices in the epilogue that it's a trick coin and the coin itself later comes in handy when Dante switches his own lucky coin with the Arcana Medaglia to fool Arius near the end of the game. Dante retains this trait during his guest appearance in Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne. Savvy players can actually recruit Dante for only one Macca if they know about the trick coin.
Healing Factor: He's gotten shot in the head, impaled in 5 places, and impaled in the chest...alot. Yet no wounds ever stay. Vergil has it as well.
Hero Antagonist: For the first half of DMC4 he's an enemy of Nero.
Hidden Depths: Don't be too surprised if the wisecracking, pizza-loving badass demon hunter quotes Shakespeare from time to time.
Dante: "And the rest is silence."
Hired Guns: Although people like him, Trish, and Lady happen to be a different sort of mercenary breed.
Horrible Judge of Character: Concerning Trish in the first game. Again, it seems like he's solely drawn to her because she looks like his mother, even after Trish tries to kill him. Twice. She spares no time in mocking him when the ruse is dropped... and Dante still saves her after, but not before angrily giving a "The Reason You Suck" Speech about how she lacks his mother's soul (or a soul at all).
Trish: (laughs) "You Fool! You're so easy!"
Dante: "Trish?! You?!"
Trish: (laughs again) "You humans. What sweets. You should know better than to trust a stranger!"
Hunter of His Own Kind: Dante just so happens to be the God of Demon Slaying.
Hyperspace Arsenal: Dante acquires a variety of BFGs and BFSes in every game, but you never see him carry other than what is currently equipped.
Implacable Man: Cutscenes only, but Dante himself is a rare heroic example. The opening mission of Devil May Cry 3 has Dante impaled by no less than four different scythes, only to calmly walk it off, pulling the blades out of his body and tossing them around the room, destroying his attackers.
Immune to Flinching: Majin Form is a walking fortress, it is the only Devil Trigger in series so far to grant Dante true invulnerability, as in he can’t possibly be hurt or knocked down in this form, be it a Mook or the True Final Boss, he is untouchable.
Ink-Suit Actor: Reuben Langdon in 3 and 4, providing voice and Motion Capture in both games, voice in the anime and Marvel vs. Capcom 3.
It Was a Gift: Rebellion was a memento from Sparda. There's also his half of the Perfect Amulet, given to him by Eva on his birthday.
Jerkass Has a Point: "The Reason You Suck" Speech he gives to Trish when she betrays him to Mundus includes calling her a devil and saying she lacks a soul. Harsh, but she realized he's right about this.
Jerk with a Heart of Gold: For all his rudeness, Dante shows a deeply compassionate side such as with Lucia during her Heroic BSOD, or even Trish after her return from the dead. He's also surprisingly amiable with Nero at the end of the fourth game.
Just Toying with Them: With his penchant for this in nearly every game, the series might as well be called "Dante Might Care" for what it's worth. As said below in Let's Get Dangerous, the times he's not doing this are an indication that you're merely going to get your a** kicked much harder and much faster.
Kamehame Hadoken: While in his Physical God form, Majin Devil Trigger, Dante has a massive laser beam as one of his special attacks, taking this trope to heart the attack can One-Hit Kill everything, bosses that can actually be hit by it included.
Kiai: While using Cerberus' Satellite.
Laser-Guided Amnesia: In the first novel, though he's actually just in denial.
Le Parkour: Air Trick aside, this is Trickster Style in a nutshell. Dashing in and out of tight spots, running up walls, using enemies as springboards, you name it.
Let's Get Dangerous: His default face is usually a Cheshire Cat Grin, or at least some kind of cocky smirk. The moment he loses it, that is your cue to run (and pray that he's merely been overcome by boredom) because Dante is now deadly serious.
In the fourth game, you fight him as Nero in a tutorial fight. After being impaled by his own sword again, he admits to underestimating Nero. The next time they fight, he doesn't hold anything back, and many players consider him to be That One Boss.
In 3, once Dante realizes what he should really be fighting for, just about everyone, from Lady to Vergil, learns the hard way that Dante is not one to be trifled with. And who could forget that Curb-Stomp Battle against Mundus in the first game?
Lightning Bruiser: Extremely fast and agile, and very hard hitting, especially in the hands of a particularly skilled player, wherein he can clean house against a room full of mooks without ever taking a hit with breathtaking alacrity. Can be taken Up to Eleven in 4 since he can switch styles at will and use Trickster, Swordmaster, Royal Guard, and Gunslinger simultaneously. See Difficult but Awesome above.
Living Legend: Post-DMC1, he's revered as "the Legendary Devil Hunter" (compare this to his father, "the Legendary Dark Knight"), and with good reason.
Lured into a Trap: Trish leads Dante to Mallet Island in the first game under the orders of Mundus so that the Demon Emperor can have his revenge for Sparda's betrayal ages ago.
Major Injury Underreaction: And how! To elaborate, see Implacable Man above.
Manly Tears: At the end of 3. Of course, "It's just the rain" because "Devils never cry."
He also sheds a few tears when he believes Trish to be dead.
Meaningful Echo: Thanks to some comforting words from Lady ("Maybe somewhere out there even a devil may cry when he loses a loved one"), "Devils never cry" morphs from an utterance of sorrowful denial in the face of Vergil's death to Dante's words of choice for providing similar emotional support for Trish and Lucia in their times of need. It was Lady's change in perspective on demons that indirectly allowed Dante's other two female companions to cope with who and what they were.
Meaningful Rename: In accordance with the above, the title of his shop goes from "Devil May Cry" to "Devil Never Cry" at the end of the first game. TAS and 4 show that the shop is once again named "Devil May Cry," implying the retitling was either short-lived or never happened at all, likely because 3's origin story for Dante deciding upon a name would've made the subsequent name change rather silly.
Menacing Stroll: Compare this to Vergil, who favors the more traditional Slow Walk.
Mirror Boss: Plays this role to Nero. He's a Warm-Up Boss in the tutorial. The second time around, many see him as That One Boss.
The Musketeer: A Gunslinger and Swordmaster.
Never Be Hurt Again: The prequel manga for DMC3 suggests that this might be what drove him to become powerful.
The Nose Knows: He can smell Dagon from a mile away, but intentionally screws around with him and pretends to fall for his tricks to humor himself.
Dante: "You can hide that body. But that smell, woo!"
No Sell: Played with. When Nero duels Dante at the beginning of 4, Nero thinks he's beating Dante within an inch of his life, but Dante knows better, as does the player. His only reaction while tanking Nero's savage pummeling is a partial DT (his hand, presumably resonating with Nero's Devil Bringer) and after being impaled by his own sword courtesy of Nero, Dante slides back down and pulls out the blade like it's a harmless splinter.
Oedipus Complex: Subverted in a weird way only befitting of the series. In 3, Dante outright denies that he has a father due to his hatred of his demonic lineage (one of the many factors leading to his mother's death). However, unlike Vergil, he never tried to match or outdo his father. By the end of the game, he has a newfound respect for Sparda which can be seen in brief flashes in each of the (chronologically) later games. On the mother angle of things, Dante appears to be drawn to Trish solely on the basis of her resemblance to his departed mother, but nothing comes to pass. Later games scaled down the romantic context, and Dante seems to be slightly disturbed by Trish's appearance in The Animated Series.
Older and Wiser: In 4 Dante is basically a mentor to Nero.
Orphan's Plot Trinket: His half of the Perfect Amulet.
Painful Transformation: His (chronologically) first Devil Trigger, judging by his howling.
Papa Wolf: As a babysitter for Patty.
Parental Abandonment: Although it's more so implied than outright stated, his childhood took a turn for the worse after his eighth birthday. The disappearance of his father and death of his mother also doubles as the beginning of the major schism between Dante and Vergil.
Patrick Stewart Speech: Gives one to Agnus in 4, and again to Sid in The Animated Series.
Patronymic: Son of Sparda, which could also work as a Badass Nickname.
Peek-a-Bangs: Something that most persons forget, his hair is usually combed like this. Most noticeable in 2.
Perfect-Play A.I.: Yep, and it hurts.
Perma Stubble: Has it in 4.
Physical God: It's implied that Dante has the potential to surpass his father (who also qualifies for this trope). By 4, he can take a blow from The Savior and still be relatively unscratched. By 2, he slaughters Argosax the Chaos, King of the Demon World, and the Despair Embodied (its Bishonen Line of a One-Winged Angel) with little visible effort. And that's when he's in his normal form. Devil Trigger (Majin Form), anyone?
Polar Opposite Twins: With Vergil.
Poor Communication Kills: He gets a lot of heat (literally!) from Lady in 3 for implicating himself as her father's killer.
Power Gives You Wings: Some of Dante’s DTs gives him wings, his own, Nevan, Alastor and Sparda; however the absolute example is the Majin Form DT, it is packing two pairs of wings; being in line with some angelic mythos that the more wings one has, the more powerful one is, the Majin Form DT is by far Dante’s most powerful form.
Possession Implies Mastery: If he picks up a weapon (no matter how cool), he will instantly know how to use it (complete with a flashy demonstration), ranging from being Musical Assassin with Nevan to becoming an expert martial artist with Ifrit, Beowulf, and Gilgamesh to deftly using his own brother's Yamato. This could be justified since his Devil Arms are actually demons subjugated to his will.
Power Makes Your Voice Deep: While using his Devil Trigger Majin Form his voice becomes very deep.
Purple Is Powerful: The fire blasts, body energy and overall color theme for the Majin Form DT is a mix of Black and Purple, its power of course is ridiculously strong, making the Sparda DT look normal in comparison.
Razor-Sharp Hand: He cuts a slab of stone, and then many slabs, when he acquires Gilgamesh (a set of supposedly non-sharp gauntlets and boots). Unfortunately, that only worked in a cutscene.
"The Reason You Suck" Speech: Dante gives out one to Trish upon learning she was created by Mundus to kill him.
Dante: "Don't come any closer, you devil! You may look like my mother but you're nowhere close to her. You have no soul! You have the face but you'll never have her fire!"
Red Eyes, Take Warning: In the first game, having witnessed the death of Trish at the hands of Mundus, Dante's eyes glow red as he gains a Battle Aura. In a rare break from his wisecracking personality, he delivers both a Death Glare and Shut Up, Hannibal!. His Sparda Devil Trigger then activates. Mundus gets trounced.
They're also present on the cover to 2, but that's about it.
Red Is Heroic: Red is his primary color due to his coat, and he's a good guy.
Refuge in Audacity: Standard operating procedure. For instance: need to kill the leader of an order of holy knights with demonic powers? Show up during one of the guy's sermons and cap him in the face.
Rejected Apology: In 1, Trish, who now regrets betraying him, attempted to approach and talk to him, and how does Dante react? Point a gun at her and tell her off, leaving her behind with her guilt.
Rocket Ride: In one of the third game's many memorably zany moments, a disinterested and mildly irked Lady fires her Kalina Ann upon an annoying flirty Dante, who proceeds to ride the missile like a surfboard through the air, whooping and laughing all the while.
Running Gag: In almost every game (save for 2), Dante has been impaled through the chest in one way or another and yet despite that, he manages to get back up like it was nothing. Sometimes this has been Played for Drama when Vergil stabs Dante with his own sword in their first battle in 3.
Sarcastic Clapping: Does this after seeing Sanctus unleash The Savior after Agnus opens the Hellgate to Demon World.
Save the Villain: Negated with his attempted Take My Hand moment at the end of 3. He gets a cut across his hand for his troubles, mainly because Vergil wanted to stay in Demon World and had just told Dante to leave before he too was stranded there with no hope of escape.
Screw the Money, I Have Rules!: Constantly complains about living in debt, but seems to take jobs for the sake of good, and will not take a job he doesn't like, even if it pays high.
Shirtless Scene: The beginning of 3. You can unlock that outfit (or lack thereof) upon beating the game.
Shout-Out: His personality is based off of the titular character of Space Adventure Cobra.
Show, Don't Tell: In contrast with the Oedipus Complex example above, the manga of 3 states that he "longs to step out of his father's shadow," and 4 pretty much says that he's surpassed Sparda in terms of power. Again, he isn't shown actually trying to match or outdo his father, so there's a problem with Capcom's writing.
Showy Invincible Hero: Though we do see foes in 1 and 3 who are much closer to (or even above) Dante's level giving him a hard time (Vergil outright curbstomps Dante in their first battle, Nelo Angelo does the same after getting a second wind following their first duel, and even with his father's sword does Dante struggle a bit against Mundus in the beginning). Those rare occurrences aside, Dante cleans out the trash with ease, and a skilled enough player can be just as unstoppable and untouchable in-game.
Shut Up, Hannibal!: At least two; one to Mundus at the end of the first game, and another to Arius in 2 after your second fight with him. The second case is more flashy, as it was a Shut Up, Hannibal! performed with bullets.
Actually, three, with another case from 2.
Trismagia: "The Son of Sparda. You must repent your sins!"
Dante: "Don't speak, just die!"
Sins of Our Fathers: This happens to him often enough that he lampshades the trope in 3.
Smug Super: In 3 and 4 (in 1 and 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.
Stance System: Starting in 3, Dante is given access to specialized movesets which determine how the Son of Sparda fights in addition to his basic combat skills with each individual weapon. He starts with Trickster, Swordmaster, Gunslinger, and Royal Guard, later obtaining Quicksilver and Doppelganger as spoils for defeating Geryon and Doppelganger. 4 drops Quicksilver and Doppelganger, only keeping the default four from 3, but allows Dante (while name calling the respective Style) to switch between them on the fly as the player sees fit (instead of being restricted to one and only unless at a Mission Start screen or Divinity Statue). Midway through his segment of the game, Dante unlocks Dark Slayer, a homage to Vergil's single style of battle in 3; unlike Vergil, Dante doesn't focus on Vergil's various teleportation "Trick" techniques, instead using Yamato to emulate a few of his brother's trademark moves.
The Stoic: Dante is eerily Vergil-like in 2. One of many possible reasons behind the Fan Nickname of Duntee.
Super Mode: Devil Trigger, which unleashes the full extent of Dante's demonic power. It's implied that Devil Trigger causes Dante to assume his true form.
Teased with Awesome: Sparda Devil Trigger in 1, Majin Devil Trigger in 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 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 3 than Dante does). In 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 iceberg.
Theme Twin Naming: With Vergil, of course given the Theme Naming.
Throwing Your Sword Always Works: His Round Trip technique is especially notable because it turns Dante's sword into a Precision-Guided Boomerang.
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 off-screen.
Too Many Belts: In the first game and TAS.
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 3 kicked it out of canon).
The DMC3 manga also gives Dante a fondness for tomato juice, though this was changed to beer in the English translation by Tokyopop, where Dante notes he was so wasted, he ended up proposing to a mop. He's additionally seen with what appears to be a bottle of Jack Daniel's on his office desk, though no other references to Dante having a taste for alcohol exist in-series (barring the aforementioned liberty taken in the first volume of the manga).
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.
Undying Loyalty: Towards Trish. Even after alienating himself from her after she's revealed to be working for Mundus, he ended up being concerned for her capture by his hands, and is also enraged at him for her death.
Wake-Up Call Boss: After beating Son of Sparda Mode in 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.
What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Despite his chosen profession, Dante appears to only fight evil demons, and has little qualms with accepting good ones. In the ending of the first game, he reassures a crying Trish that the fact that she possesses human emotions makes her the equivalent of a human, and only those who cannot shed tears are true devils.
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 demon personally (or because he's Passing the Torch in Nero's case). This is most evident in his incarnations from DMC4 and DMC2, 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:
He gives one to Vergil right before their final battle in 3, coupled with a "The Reason You Suck" 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!"
He has another one in the first game, right after Griffon is vanquished for good (by Mundus).
Dante: "A three-eyed—"
Trish (appearing in a flash of lightning): "You beat him. Maybe it was too easy for you."
Dante: "Mundus... His heinous ways make me sick; killing even his own, like they were nothing. He's the one that took the life of my mother, my brother, for sure. My mother used to always tell me that my father was a man who fought for the weak. He had courage and a righteous heart. In the name of my father, I will kill Mundus."
Would Hit a Girl: In 3, his boss fight with Lady is this. Next, in 1, his attempt to shoot down Trish when she reveals her true colors of working for Mundus.
As you could probably guess, Dante has no qualms plowing through the series' handful of demonesses you encounter as bosses either. At any rate, Dante retains his usual flippant affability when interacting with Nevan and Echidna.
You Remind Me of X: In 1, Phantom, Griffon, and Mundus all remark on how similar Dante is to Sparda. Nevan also compares him to Sparda in 3, although she's commenting more on appearance and sex appeal than personality and demeanor.
You Are Better Than You Think You Are: "Devils never cry."
Character info here
Name:: Dante
Nicknames:: WIP
Gender:: Male
Type:: Devil May Cry Cosplay
Sexuality:: Homosexual
Mate/Love Interest::
Children:: WIP
Friends:: WIP
Enemies:: WIP
Personality/History:: WIP
TvTropes Info::
"Ever since I was a child, I knew I had powers. There's demonic blood in me."
Voiced by: Drew Coombs (DMC, Viewtiful Joe, Viewtiful Joe: Red Hot Rumble), Jonathan Mallen (young, DMC), Matthew Kaminsky (DMC2, Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne), Reuben Langdon (DMC3, DMC4, The Animated Series, Marvel vs. Capcom 3), Toshiyuki Morikawa (The Animated Series, Marvel vs. Capcom 3, Project X Zone, DMC4: Special Edition, Project X Zone 2; Japanese)
The Anti-Hero Half-Human Hybrid demon slayer son of an Ascended Demon named Sparda and a human named Eva. After losing his mother to demons as a child, Dante grows up to become a demon-hunting mercenary who runs his own devil-hunting business named Devil May Cry.
Being half-demon, Dante has Super Strength, Nigh-Invulnerability and a Healing Factor, along with the ability to transform into a demonic Super Mode called Devil Trigger. His weapons of choice are two custom handguns known as Ebony & Ivory, and a memento broadsword of his father's named Rebellion.
While often cocky, deep down he is a compassionate man devoted to fighting for the good of humanity and helping his friends.
The Ace: In DMC4, where he upstages Nero at every turn.
Alas, Poor Villain: See Angsty Surviving Twin. He is shown to mourn Vergil after both of his deaths.
Always Identical Twins: Him and Vergil.
Ancestral Weapon: His sword is suggested to be another memento from Sparda.
Angels Pose: Pulls this alongside Trish and Lady at the end of 4.
Angsty Surviving Twin: Dante is this after both of Vergil's deaths. The first time he simply denies it, and the second time it is not dwelled on, but the sorrow on his face as he picks up Vergil's amulet, and his reminiscing of one of their birthdays makes this apparent.
Annoying Younger Sibling: A rare protagonist example. He's snarky to everyone, but his taunting of Vergil in Devil May Cry 3 reeks of this trope. Especially when contrasted with Vergil's perpetual stoicism and seriousness. However, Vergil is also a Big Brother Bully at the same time, so they're somewhat even.
Anti-Hero: Pragmatic Hero in most of his appearances, Disney Anti-Hero in DMC1 and DMC2.
Arm Cannon: One of the more unusual traits of Dante's Devil Trigger in 2 was that the palms of his hands had six-barreled, rapid-fire mini-cannons protruding out of them.◊
Armor Is Useless: DMC2 is the only time Dante is shown wearing any kind of protective gear (a breastplate). It offers no additional defensive benefits for Dante and his durability is no better than that of Lucia, who runs around with her midriff exposed. He does manage to avoid his usual habit of being made into a human shish kebab in 2, so there's that.
Badass: He's one without a doubt, easily taking out highly trained humans, demons, and monstrosities without even breaking a sweat, and always with style.
Badass Biker: As seen in 2 and 3. In the latter, Dante even goes as far as to unleash some Bike Fu, though at the cost of Lady's motorcycle.
Badass Crew: With Trish and Lady.
Badass Fingersnap: The full gesture for switching to Gunslinger Style in 4 (i.e. if Dante is stationary) is this.
Badass Longcoat: He's rarely seen without his red coat.
Back-to-Back Badasses: With both Lady and Vergil in 3.
Bag of Spilling: Most of the firearms and Devil Arms he acquires in the games don't get carried over between them. Chronologically speaking, the only ones that do are Force Edge note , Rebellion note and the Shotgun note .
Battle in the Rain: His first battle with Vergil in Devil May Cry 3.
Big Good: Of DMC4, being the major force of good opposing the Order of the Sword
Blinding Bangs: Depending on the game.
Blood Knight: Heroic example; Dante really enjoys his job as a Demon Slayer.
Dante: "Well bring it on! I love this! This is what I live for! I'm absolutely crazy about it!" (cue Cheshire Cat Grin)
In the context of this particular example, however, Dante's quote might be something of a subversion, as it can be interpreted as Dante trying to force himself into enjoying yet another demon attack after a very emotionally-trying day.
Boring but Practical: One of his weapons in 4, Pandora, has (among other things) a giant laser, a mobile turret that shoots missiles, and the ability to weaponize all the evil within to nuke everything on screen. What're the most used forms in combo videos? The chaingun (the aerial version specifically) and boomerang-glaive.
Bottomless Magazines: According to the manual for the first game, Dante's demonic powers actually create them.
Bring My Red Jacket: Red longcoat in every game, check. Constantly impaled, check.
Butt Monkey: Surprisingly, he's shown to be this in the anime thanks to his financial troubles. Patty even quips that Dante has to be the unluckiest guy she's ever met.
Cain and Abel: His often violent relationship with his twin brother Vergil.
The Cameo:
The DMC2 version of Dante makes an appearance in the Updated Re-release of Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne.
The DMC1 version is playable as a Secret Character in the PS2 port of Viewtiful Joe.
The DMC3 version is a playable fighter in Marvel vs. Capcom 3.
The anime version is a playable character in Project X Zone and its sequel.
Catch Phrase: "Jackpot!" It sees its fair share of usage by Vergil and Nero as well.
"Devils never cry" seems to be one as well, seeing as he's said those words to Trish, Lucia, and Lady near or at the climax of the first three games (in the first two instances, he was trying to comfort Trish and Lucia, while the latter was Dante trying to deny the pain he felt when he believed Vergil to be dead).
Character Development/Hidden Depths: Though his main persona is the same in each game, chronologically he matures quite a bit. Witness his change from thrill-seeking (DMC3) to guilt-ridden (DMC1) to cool-headed (DMC4).
In terms of straight-up Hidden Depths, Dante also happens to be a music aficionado. His office contains a drum set (complete with a guitar in 3) and an antique jukebox, and Dante is shown to be a very accomplished musician when he obtains Nevan in 3. Dante himself lampshades this in the preview to the episode "Rock Queen" from the anime, where he notes that you wouldn't expect a guy like him to understand the deeper messages conveyed through music.
Character Exaggeration: Suffers from it in the anime. The Rule of Cool that he adheres by in the games seems to have become the equivalent of air for him in The Animated Series, to the point of Destructive Savior tendencies.
Characterization Marches On: How Dante, Trish, and Lady were portrayed in TAS stuck for 4.
Charged Attack: The hand-to-hand weapons of 1, 3, and 4 (Ifrit, Beowulf, and Gilgamesh, respectively) can add increased attack power (or even new attacks) by holding down the input on each strike. However, this makes an already slower weapon even slower so use this feature wisely.
Chekhov's Gun: He comes across a few, but the best examples would most likely be his half of the Perfect Amulet (in both 1 and 3) and his lucky coin (actually a trick coin) in 2, which is later used to thwart the Big Bad's plan.
Chick Magnet: While he does play the role of Handsome Lech towards Lady at first, every single female lead of the first three games became a viable love interest for him towards endgame, Unresolved Sexual Tension and everything. It doesn't hurt that he has the air of The Charmer about him.
In the case of Trish and Lady, the romantic tension was dialed back for their joint reappearance in 4. Here, it's obvious that Dante sees his ladyfriends at least as True Companions; any non-platonic feelings are negated by Dante's lack of (or suppression of) perverted qualities. As for Lucia, canonically speaking, she's the last girl Dante meets (Trish's appearance in 2 is non-canon and Lady hadn't been conceptualized at that point), so the matter of Dante's love life could take one of several different directions.
The Collector of the Strange: Has several demon skulls in his office as well as various weapons mounted on his wall.
Cool Guns: His twin pistols, Ebony and Ivory.
Cool Sword: Rebellion, a sword that was passed down from his father.
Cool Uncle: According to the canon novel, Dante is this to Nero. It actually puts a new spin on his Trickster Mentor attitude towards Nero, and his letting him keep the Yamato despite saying "it should be kept in the family."
Dark Is Not Evil: Wears "dark" colors like red and black, but is a fairly decent guy.
Desperation Attack: His Devil Trigger Majin Form (Desperation/Desperate Devil Trigger or DDT for short) in 2. When Dante's health is critical, he can transform into a towering, invincible behemoth (complete with two blades that protrude out of his arms, fireballs, and a chargeable light-dark laser beam/Sphere of Destruction) and mow down his enemies with the greatest of ease. This includes the Final Boss. The only drawbacks are the increased meter consumption and once-per-life use, but when you're capable of delivering one-shot kills to most enemies, it's not that big of an issue.
Deuteragonist: DMC4 is Nero's story. Dante's path just so happens to intersect with the young knight's for his latest assignment, whereupon he acts as an occasional adversary, big brother figure, and ace in the hole when Nero is incapacitated. He can also be argued as this in DMC2, mixed in with Decoy Protagonist, due to his lack of emotional developments and less of a personal connection to the main conflict compared to Lucia.
Difficult but Awesome: He's this in DMC4SE compared to all the other characters and (possibly) every other version of himself, thanks in part to no less than four Styles available at any given moment. Advanced play as Dante in that game involves the use of tons of really difficult techniques, as detailed in the video series that this video starts (spoiler warning, though). That said, he's leagues more fun and stylish than Nero if you master him.
Discontinuity Nod: The Animated Series uses Dante's alias of "Tony Redgrave" (the same name inscribed on his guns) from the (now) non-canon novelization.
Those same engravings on Ebony and Ivory contain an inscription that reads "By .45 Art Warks". In another nod to the novel, .45 Art Works is a gun shop owned by a female proprietor named Nell Goldstein (who has a tendency to misspell the name of her shop as ".45 Art Warks"). Goldstein apparently helped "Tony" construct E&I, as well as Sparda's Luce and Ombra (which bear the same engraving).
In the PS2 port of Viewtiful Joe, Dante makes a guest appearance as a Secret Character. In his story, Alastor is revealed to be the spirit of the eponymous sword Dante picked up in 1. Among other things, Alastor is seething that Dante that didn't bring him along to "Somewhere Island" (Dumary Island). Dante protests, "I don't remember that!" Seeing as the series was also originally helmed by Hideki Kamiya, the man responsible for the original game, this could also be a Take That.
His change in characterization for 2 was handwaved when Dante (who is only clad in a speedo when not transformed) asks if Enzo stole his clothes again, suggesting that it wasn't even Dante you were playing as. Again, most likely another Take That from Kamiya.
See Trademark Favorite Food below.
Diving Save: Pulls one to save Trish from falling debris in the aftermath of Nightmare's defeat.
Double Entendre: His interaction with Nevan and his acquisition of Lucifer. Both are cases of Does This Remind You of Anything? and the latter is something of a Badass Creed.
Et Tu, Brute?: How he felt when he learns that she was created by Mundus to kill him.
Experienced Protagonist: Even with DMC3 being Dante's origin story does he already appear to have a decent amount of experience under his belt, as seen with his casual butchery of a group of Hell Prides.
Expy: Of InuYasha. White haired half demon in a red coat fights demons wielding a sword passed down from his legendary demon father. Frequently clashes with his brother, who is also white haired and also wields a sword passed down from their father.
Word of God states that Dante's attitude was based off of Cobra's, just without any allusions to smoking.
Ironically, Dante himself has gotten several expies over the years:
Brandon "Beyond the Grave" Heat is more a silent variation minus the BFS and more emphasis on shooting.
Gene. He also doubles as an expy to Kenshiro. Capcom would later take notes and base Nero partially off the former.
Bayonetta and Jeanne are both Gender Flip examples. The two ladies are snarkers that both fight with swords and guns, taunt their enemies, and the latter even has white hair and dresses in red. The only differences is that they are witches that fight angels. note
Kagura is another gender flip example that is very Stripperific and arguably an expy of the DMC3 incarnation. A Half-Human Hybrid (Dhampyr in this case) that's young, snarky, taunts, and likes to show off. It fits the bill.
Wonder Blue, Dante in Super Sentai form.
Fakin' MacGuffin: How he plays Arius for a chump in 2. All according to plan.
Dante: "A false coin, for a false god."
Fingerless Gloves: Traditional fingerless gloves in 3, sans-thumb-and-index-finger type in 4.
Finger Twitching Revival: The end result of "acquiring" Alastor.
Subverted in 3. You see his fingers twitch, and Vergil stabs him again without missing a beat.
Firing One-Handed: Dude can fire shotguns and more supernaturally-empowered weapons with one hand. Must be that demon blood in him.
Gangsta Style: How Dante uses Ebony & Ivory.
Genre Savvy: Dante showed some really strong hints of this in 4 (and considering all the crap he's been through up to then, this is understandable). Said hints include outright breaking an extremely irritating puzzle, finishing off bosses to avoid rematches, and perhaps the best known example is crashing into the Order of the Sword's church and immediately shooting the Big Bad.
Also in 2, where he's much less playful towards his opponents (including a Shut Up, Hannibal! towards Trismagia) and plays that game's Big Bad with a Batman Gambit before shooting him out of a building.
Good Is Not Nice: Most prevalent in 3, where Dante originally accepts Arkham's "job" for selfish reasons, leading to some rather dickish behavior for the first half of the game. It's not until later he fully realizes the gravity of the situation, reassesses his priorities, and adopts a far more altruistic demeanor.
Gosh Dang It to Heck!: The infamous "Flock off, featherface!" line from the first game. Doubles as an intentional pun, considering that Griffon was a bird. Later games and the anime avert this, and Nero is probably the most foul-mouthed character in the series. Prior to DmC, that is.
Gratuitous Japanese: Majin Form, a Japanese name for a very western-looking demon/fallen angel design, it's also one of the very few Japanese terms in the entire franchise.
Half-Human Hybrid: Dante is 1/2 demon, 1/2 human.
Handsome Devil: A half-literal example, though he has a kind side under the rude exterior. Nevan even calls him and Sparda this by name.
Heads or Tails: Picks up this quirk in the second installment for unexplained reasons, using his coin to determine whether or not he'll help Lucia and Matier, most notably when deciding who between him and Lucia will go into Demon World and slay the recently-revived devil king Argosax and most likely be trapped there for eternity. Lucia notices in the epilogue that it's a trick coin and the coin itself later comes in handy when Dante switches his own lucky coin with the Arcana Medaglia to fool Arius near the end of the game. Dante retains this trait during his guest appearance in Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne. Savvy players can actually recruit Dante for only one Macca if they know about the trick coin.
Healing Factor: He's gotten shot in the head, impaled in 5 places, and impaled in the chest...alot. Yet no wounds ever stay. Vergil has it as well.
Hero Antagonist: For the first half of DMC4 he's an enemy of Nero.
Hidden Depths: Don't be too surprised if the wisecracking, pizza-loving badass demon hunter quotes Shakespeare from time to time.
Dante: "And the rest is silence."
Hired Guns: Although people like him, Trish, and Lady happen to be a different sort of mercenary breed.
Horrible Judge of Character: Concerning Trish in the first game. Again, it seems like he's solely drawn to her because she looks like his mother, even after Trish tries to kill him. Twice. She spares no time in mocking him when the ruse is dropped... and Dante still saves her after, but not before angrily giving a "The Reason You Suck" Speech about how she lacks his mother's soul (or a soul at all).
Trish: (laughs) "You Fool! You're so easy!"
Dante: "Trish?! You?!"
Trish: (laughs again) "You humans. What sweets. You should know better than to trust a stranger!"
Hunter of His Own Kind: Dante just so happens to be the God of Demon Slaying.
Hyperspace Arsenal: Dante acquires a variety of BFGs and BFSes in every game, but you never see him carry other than what is currently equipped.
Implacable Man: Cutscenes only, but Dante himself is a rare heroic example. The opening mission of Devil May Cry 3 has Dante impaled by no less than four different scythes, only to calmly walk it off, pulling the blades out of his body and tossing them around the room, destroying his attackers.
Immune to Flinching: Majin Form is a walking fortress, it is the only Devil Trigger in series so far to grant Dante true invulnerability, as in he can’t possibly be hurt or knocked down in this form, be it a Mook or the True Final Boss, he is untouchable.
Ink-Suit Actor: Reuben Langdon in 3 and 4, providing voice and Motion Capture in both games, voice in the anime and Marvel vs. Capcom 3.
It Was a Gift: Rebellion was a memento from Sparda. There's also his half of the Perfect Amulet, given to him by Eva on his birthday.
Jerkass Has a Point: "The Reason You Suck" Speech he gives to Trish when she betrays him to Mundus includes calling her a devil and saying she lacks a soul. Harsh, but she realized he's right about this.
Jerk with a Heart of Gold: For all his rudeness, Dante shows a deeply compassionate side such as with Lucia during her Heroic BSOD, or even Trish after her return from the dead. He's also surprisingly amiable with Nero at the end of the fourth game.
Just Toying with Them: With his penchant for this in nearly every game, the series might as well be called "Dante Might Care" for what it's worth. As said below in Let's Get Dangerous, the times he's not doing this are an indication that you're merely going to get your a** kicked much harder and much faster.
Kamehame Hadoken: While in his Physical God form, Majin Devil Trigger, Dante has a massive laser beam as one of his special attacks, taking this trope to heart the attack can One-Hit Kill everything, bosses that can actually be hit by it included.
Kiai: While using Cerberus' Satellite.
Laser-Guided Amnesia: In the first novel, though he's actually just in denial.
Le Parkour: Air Trick aside, this is Trickster Style in a nutshell. Dashing in and out of tight spots, running up walls, using enemies as springboards, you name it.
Let's Get Dangerous: His default face is usually a Cheshire Cat Grin, or at least some kind of cocky smirk. The moment he loses it, that is your cue to run (and pray that he's merely been overcome by boredom) because Dante is now deadly serious.
In the fourth game, you fight him as Nero in a tutorial fight. After being impaled by his own sword again, he admits to underestimating Nero. The next time they fight, he doesn't hold anything back, and many players consider him to be That One Boss.
In 3, once Dante realizes what he should really be fighting for, just about everyone, from Lady to Vergil, learns the hard way that Dante is not one to be trifled with. And who could forget that Curb-Stomp Battle against Mundus in the first game?
Lightning Bruiser: Extremely fast and agile, and very hard hitting, especially in the hands of a particularly skilled player, wherein he can clean house against a room full of mooks without ever taking a hit with breathtaking alacrity. Can be taken Up to Eleven in 4 since he can switch styles at will and use Trickster, Swordmaster, Royal Guard, and Gunslinger simultaneously. See Difficult but Awesome above.
Living Legend: Post-DMC1, he's revered as "the Legendary Devil Hunter" (compare this to his father, "the Legendary Dark Knight"), and with good reason.
Lured into a Trap: Trish leads Dante to Mallet Island in the first game under the orders of Mundus so that the Demon Emperor can have his revenge for Sparda's betrayal ages ago.
Major Injury Underreaction: And how! To elaborate, see Implacable Man above.
Manly Tears: At the end of 3. Of course, "It's just the rain" because "Devils never cry."
He also sheds a few tears when he believes Trish to be dead.
Meaningful Echo: Thanks to some comforting words from Lady ("Maybe somewhere out there even a devil may cry when he loses a loved one"), "Devils never cry" morphs from an utterance of sorrowful denial in the face of Vergil's death to Dante's words of choice for providing similar emotional support for Trish and Lucia in their times of need. It was Lady's change in perspective on demons that indirectly allowed Dante's other two female companions to cope with who and what they were.
Meaningful Rename: In accordance with the above, the title of his shop goes from "Devil May Cry" to "Devil Never Cry" at the end of the first game. TAS and 4 show that the shop is once again named "Devil May Cry," implying the retitling was either short-lived or never happened at all, likely because 3's origin story for Dante deciding upon a name would've made the subsequent name change rather silly.
Menacing Stroll: Compare this to Vergil, who favors the more traditional Slow Walk.
Mirror Boss: Plays this role to Nero. He's a Warm-Up Boss in the tutorial. The second time around, many see him as That One Boss.
The Musketeer: A Gunslinger and Swordmaster.
Never Be Hurt Again: The prequel manga for DMC3 suggests that this might be what drove him to become powerful.
The Nose Knows: He can smell Dagon from a mile away, but intentionally screws around with him and pretends to fall for his tricks to humor himself.
Dante: "You can hide that body. But that smell, woo!"
No Sell: Played with. When Nero duels Dante at the beginning of 4, Nero thinks he's beating Dante within an inch of his life, but Dante knows better, as does the player. His only reaction while tanking Nero's savage pummeling is a partial DT (his hand, presumably resonating with Nero's Devil Bringer) and after being impaled by his own sword courtesy of Nero, Dante slides back down and pulls out the blade like it's a harmless splinter.
Oedipus Complex: Subverted in a weird way only befitting of the series. In 3, Dante outright denies that he has a father due to his hatred of his demonic lineage (one of the many factors leading to his mother's death). However, unlike Vergil, he never tried to match or outdo his father. By the end of the game, he has a newfound respect for Sparda which can be seen in brief flashes in each of the (chronologically) later games. On the mother angle of things, Dante appears to be drawn to Trish solely on the basis of her resemblance to his departed mother, but nothing comes to pass. Later games scaled down the romantic context, and Dante seems to be slightly disturbed by Trish's appearance in The Animated Series.
Older and Wiser: In 4 Dante is basically a mentor to Nero.
Orphan's Plot Trinket: His half of the Perfect Amulet.
Painful Transformation: His (chronologically) first Devil Trigger, judging by his howling.
Papa Wolf: As a babysitter for Patty.
Parental Abandonment: Although it's more so implied than outright stated, his childhood took a turn for the worse after his eighth birthday. The disappearance of his father and death of his mother also doubles as the beginning of the major schism between Dante and Vergil.
Patrick Stewart Speech: Gives one to Agnus in 4, and again to Sid in The Animated Series.
Patronymic: Son of Sparda, which could also work as a Badass Nickname.
Peek-a-Bangs: Something that most persons forget, his hair is usually combed like this. Most noticeable in 2.
Perfect-Play A.I.: Yep, and it hurts.
Perma Stubble: Has it in 4.
Physical God: It's implied that Dante has the potential to surpass his father (who also qualifies for this trope). By 4, he can take a blow from The Savior and still be relatively unscratched. By 2, he slaughters Argosax the Chaos, King of the Demon World, and the Despair Embodied (its Bishonen Line of a One-Winged Angel) with little visible effort. And that's when he's in his normal form. Devil Trigger (Majin Form), anyone?
Polar Opposite Twins: With Vergil.
Poor Communication Kills: He gets a lot of heat (literally!) from Lady in 3 for implicating himself as her father's killer.
Power Gives You Wings: Some of Dante’s DTs gives him wings, his own, Nevan, Alastor and Sparda; however the absolute example is the Majin Form DT, it is packing two pairs of wings; being in line with some angelic mythos that the more wings one has, the more powerful one is, the Majin Form DT is by far Dante’s most powerful form.
Possession Implies Mastery: If he picks up a weapon (no matter how cool), he will instantly know how to use it (complete with a flashy demonstration), ranging from being Musical Assassin with Nevan to becoming an expert martial artist with Ifrit, Beowulf, and Gilgamesh to deftly using his own brother's Yamato. This could be justified since his Devil Arms are actually demons subjugated to his will.
Power Makes Your Voice Deep: While using his Devil Trigger Majin Form his voice becomes very deep.
Purple Is Powerful: The fire blasts, body energy and overall color theme for the Majin Form DT is a mix of Black and Purple, its power of course is ridiculously strong, making the Sparda DT look normal in comparison.
Razor-Sharp Hand: He cuts a slab of stone, and then many slabs, when he acquires Gilgamesh (a set of supposedly non-sharp gauntlets and boots). Unfortunately, that only worked in a cutscene.
"The Reason You Suck" Speech: Dante gives out one to Trish upon learning she was created by Mundus to kill him.
Dante: "Don't come any closer, you devil! You may look like my mother but you're nowhere close to her. You have no soul! You have the face but you'll never have her fire!"
Red Eyes, Take Warning: In the first game, having witnessed the death of Trish at the hands of Mundus, Dante's eyes glow red as he gains a Battle Aura. In a rare break from his wisecracking personality, he delivers both a Death Glare and Shut Up, Hannibal!. His Sparda Devil Trigger then activates. Mundus gets trounced.
They're also present on the cover to 2, but that's about it.
Red Is Heroic: Red is his primary color due to his coat, and he's a good guy.
Refuge in Audacity: Standard operating procedure. For instance: need to kill the leader of an order of holy knights with demonic powers? Show up during one of the guy's sermons and cap him in the face.
Rejected Apology: In 1, Trish, who now regrets betraying him, attempted to approach and talk to him, and how does Dante react? Point a gun at her and tell her off, leaving her behind with her guilt.
Rocket Ride: In one of the third game's many memorably zany moments, a disinterested and mildly irked Lady fires her Kalina Ann upon an annoying flirty Dante, who proceeds to ride the missile like a surfboard through the air, whooping and laughing all the while.
Running Gag: In almost every game (save for 2), Dante has been impaled through the chest in one way or another and yet despite that, he manages to get back up like it was nothing. Sometimes this has been Played for Drama when Vergil stabs Dante with his own sword in their first battle in 3.
Sarcastic Clapping: Does this after seeing Sanctus unleash The Savior after Agnus opens the Hellgate to Demon World.
Save the Villain: Negated with his attempted Take My Hand moment at the end of 3. He gets a cut across his hand for his troubles, mainly because Vergil wanted to stay in Demon World and had just told Dante to leave before he too was stranded there with no hope of escape.
Screw the Money, I Have Rules!: Constantly complains about living in debt, but seems to take jobs for the sake of good, and will not take a job he doesn't like, even if it pays high.
Shirtless Scene: The beginning of 3. You can unlock that outfit (or lack thereof) upon beating the game.
Shout-Out: His personality is based off of the titular character of Space Adventure Cobra.
Show, Don't Tell: In contrast with the Oedipus Complex example above, the manga of 3 states that he "longs to step out of his father's shadow," and 4 pretty much says that he's surpassed Sparda in terms of power. Again, he isn't shown actually trying to match or outdo his father, so there's a problem with Capcom's writing.
Showy Invincible Hero: Though we do see foes in 1 and 3 who are much closer to (or even above) Dante's level giving him a hard time (Vergil outright curbstomps Dante in their first battle, Nelo Angelo does the same after getting a second wind following their first duel, and even with his father's sword does Dante struggle a bit against Mundus in the beginning). Those rare occurrences aside, Dante cleans out the trash with ease, and a skilled enough player can be just as unstoppable and untouchable in-game.
Shut Up, Hannibal!: At least two; one to Mundus at the end of the first game, and another to Arius in 2 after your second fight with him. The second case is more flashy, as it was a Shut Up, Hannibal! performed with bullets.
Actually, three, with another case from 2.
Trismagia: "The Son of Sparda. You must repent your sins!"
Dante: "Don't speak, just die!"
Sins of Our Fathers: This happens to him often enough that he lampshades the trope in 3.
Smug Super: In 3 and 4 (in 1 and 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.
Stance System: Starting in 3, Dante is given access to specialized movesets which determine how the Son of Sparda fights in addition to his basic combat skills with each individual weapon. He starts with Trickster, Swordmaster, Gunslinger, and Royal Guard, later obtaining Quicksilver and Doppelganger as spoils for defeating Geryon and Doppelganger. 4 drops Quicksilver and Doppelganger, only keeping the default four from 3, but allows Dante (while name calling the respective Style) to switch between them on the fly as the player sees fit (instead of being restricted to one and only unless at a Mission Start screen or Divinity Statue). Midway through his segment of the game, Dante unlocks Dark Slayer, a homage to Vergil's single style of battle in 3; unlike Vergil, Dante doesn't focus on Vergil's various teleportation "Trick" techniques, instead using Yamato to emulate a few of his brother's trademark moves.
The Stoic: Dante is eerily Vergil-like in 2. One of many possible reasons behind the Fan Nickname of Duntee.
Super Mode: Devil Trigger, which unleashes the full extent of Dante's demonic power. It's implied that Devil Trigger causes Dante to assume his true form.
Teased with Awesome: Sparda Devil Trigger in 1, Majin Devil Trigger in 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 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 3 than Dante does). In 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 iceberg.
Theme Twin Naming: With Vergil, of course given the Theme Naming.
Throwing Your Sword Always Works: His Round Trip technique is especially notable because it turns Dante's sword into a Precision-Guided Boomerang.
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 off-screen.
Too Many Belts: In the first game and TAS.
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 3 kicked it out of canon).
The DMC3 manga also gives Dante a fondness for tomato juice, though this was changed to beer in the English translation by Tokyopop, where Dante notes he was so wasted, he ended up proposing to a mop. He's additionally seen with what appears to be a bottle of Jack Daniel's on his office desk, though no other references to Dante having a taste for alcohol exist in-series (barring the aforementioned liberty taken in the first volume of the manga).
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.
Undying Loyalty: Towards Trish. Even after alienating himself from her after she's revealed to be working for Mundus, he ended up being concerned for her capture by his hands, and is also enraged at him for her death.
Wake-Up Call Boss: After beating Son of Sparda Mode in 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.
What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Despite his chosen profession, Dante appears to only fight evil demons, and has little qualms with accepting good ones. In the ending of the first game, he reassures a crying Trish that the fact that she possesses human emotions makes her the equivalent of a human, and only those who cannot shed tears are true devils.
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 demon personally (or because he's Passing the Torch in Nero's case). This is most evident in his incarnations from DMC4 and DMC2, 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:
He gives one to Vergil right before their final battle in 3, coupled with a "The Reason You Suck" 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!"
He has another one in the first game, right after Griffon is vanquished for good (by Mundus).
Dante: "A three-eyed—"
Trish (appearing in a flash of lightning): "You beat him. Maybe it was too easy for you."
Dante: "Mundus... His heinous ways make me sick; killing even his own, like they were nothing. He's the one that took the life of my mother, my brother, for sure. My mother used to always tell me that my father was a man who fought for the weak. He had courage and a righteous heart. In the name of my father, I will kill Mundus."
Would Hit a Girl: In 3, his boss fight with Lady is this. Next, in 1, his attempt to shoot down Trish when she reveals her true colors of working for Mundus.
As you could probably guess, Dante has no qualms plowing through the series' handful of demonesses you encounter as bosses either. At any rate, Dante retains his usual flippant affability when interacting with Nevan and Echidna.
You Remind Me of X: In 1, Phantom, Griffon, and Mundus all remark on how similar Dante is to Sparda. Nevan also compares him to Sparda in 3, although she's commenting more on appearance and sex appeal than personality and demeanor.
You Are Better Than You Think You Are: "Devils never cry."
