Dante (Devil May Cry)

"Jackpot!"

- Dante in Devil May Cry.

"Though a fight every now and then does make life a little more interesting, don't ya think?"

- Dante in Devil May Cry 4.

Dante is one of the sons of the Dark Knight Sparda and the main protagonist of the Devil May Cry series.

Personality
As seen in the beginning of the series, Dante is incredibly flippant, casually mouthing off to even the most powerful of demons, and he generally enjoys showing off and taunting his adversaries as often as he can. Dante also displays a fearless, almost disinterested attitude towards incredibly dangerous situations, such as assuming Trish simply had to use the bathroom after crashing through his office's front door on a motorcycle, being attacked by the Seven Hells in his office, being swallowed by Echidna, and effortlessly shrugging off wounds such as a head shot or impalement numerous times, the latter of which happens quite frequently for the Devil Hunter.

While maturing as time goes by, Dante never loses his care-free, devil-may-care attitude, except in Devil May Cry 2. He can be serious when the situation calls for it, but still maintains an overall laid-back demeanor during tense situations, and is never without a witty taunt or comeback. Although seemingly shown at times to be uncaring or callous, Dante maintains a very strong sense of justice like his father, and prefers to fight fairly, never fighting humans or opponents weaker than him. He can be counted on to do the right thing, even if he makes humorously cynical quips about it the entire time.

Unusually, while he has displayed discomfort with his own demonic side, only coming to accept it following the events of Devil May Cry 3, Dante has little qualms about accepting demons that choose the side of good and admires their desire to be human, such as Trish and Bradley. Though Dante is quoted as believing that "Humans are often worse than demons" in the anime, he refuses to kill full-blooded humans for any reason, believing it would make him no better than any Devil, be it human or demon.

In addition, Dante values family and friends very highly. He cared deeply for his mother and, despite their differences and conflicting ideals, for his brother, Vergil. Even after their intense duels and conflicts in Devil May Cry 3, Dante still tries to prevent Vergil from willingly falling off the edge of the Human World into the Demon World, and goes so far as to cry over losing him. While he says little about his father, Sparda, over the course of the series, Dante has been shown to clearly maintain a level of respect for him. While bitterly claiming that "[he doesn't] have a father" in his first fight with Vergil in 3, he grows to respect him as the game goes on, proudly claiming in his final duel with his brother that not only do they carry Sparda's blood, but his soul as well. He also makes a humorous comment towards Arkham, smugly claiming that his father wasn't as hideous as his twisted form, citing his own physical appearance as proof.

Dante also enjoys fighting, shown when he restrains himself from using his full potential. In Devil May Cry 4, he was clearly going easy on his nephew Nero in their first confrontation, soundly defeating him in their second clash. In the anime, Dante gets bored with fighting weak opponents and only finds entertainment in fighting strong opponents who will give him a challenge. Dante's enjoyment of fighting was further emphasized in his pre-battle banter with Echidna, asking her if she agreed with him that "a fight every now and then makes life more interesting".

Despite Dante's handsome appearance, he often has terrible luck with women, a condition he ironically reflects upon in Devil May Cry 3 when Lady shoots him through the head after he attempts to keep her from falling.

In the animated series, Dante was shown to be one of the few characters in the Devil May Cry series to swear. Dante was frequently shown to be foul-mouthed, repeatedly swearing in almost every episode.

Despite verbally complaining about being in debt, Dante seems quite willing to perform missions solely for the good of them, and rarely, if ever, enforces payment from poor clients. In fact, Dante will typically refuse any job he dislikes, regardless of how much it pays, but will immediately take on any paranormal cases, especially those involving demon hunting, with or without pay. Many of his clients take advantage of his hospitable nature, and leave bills for property damage caused during the mission instead of paying for his services. Interestingly, despite his claims of having low funds, Dante still manages to pool up enough money to buy pricey luxuries for his office, such as a pool table, a jukebox, and several expensive pieces of musical equipment such as electric guitars.

He often borrows from Lady, attempting to gamble to repay his debts to her and others. However, he has extremely bad luck with all forms of gambling, even something as simple as a coin toss, and loses any game not involved with demon hunting. As a result, he is deep in debt to Lady, and is often left with no money at all after she takes her cut. However, in Devil May Cry 4, Lady actually pays him a small, single role of bills for his "assistance", implying that he no longer owes her money.

Dante has a fondness for pizza, usually with "everything" on it, and while he complains about olives, he always ends up with them on his pizza. In the animated series, he is also shown to favor strawberry sundaes as well, with it being pointed out on several occasions that those two foods are seemingly all he eats. He also has a fondness for alcohol, specifically beer.

Powers

 * Supernatural Powers: Due to his paternal heritage from the legendary Sparda himself, Dante has similar powers to his biological father Sparda. Despite his heritage, it has been seen and even believed that Dante’s immense supernatural powers does not just come from his paternal heritage, but also because he possess all of his father's virtues, such as love and mercy, as well as his will to protect other people. When he is speaking with Agnus, Dante himself even implies that the reason Agnus was powerless when compared to beings like Sparda or his sons, was because Agnus gave up his human virtues. This may mean demons can reach their full potential by having the ability to protect and care for another, but this may only be for Dante, Vergil, and Nero due to their being part human as well as part demon.
 * Supernatural Strength: Dante has virtually incalculable strength, due to his demonic heritage. He possesses supernatural strength to the point where he can punch through stone with little effort and overpower demons much larger than him.
 * Supernatural Mobility: His super speed is so great that he can move faster than the eye can see and his agility is at a superhuman level, allowing him to perform feats such as jumping great heights and balancing on a moving rocket. His reflexes are also similarly enhanced as well, as he instantly dodged many attacks from his opponents in the blink of an eye, before his opponents even realized he had evaded their attacks.
 * Supernatural Stamina: Even after temporarily dying and taking a lot of punishment, he only showed slight signs of tardiness.
 * Supernatural Durability: While not bulletproof, his physical constitution can withstand high levels of physical trauma. When Beowulf punched him with his immense physical strength, Dante showed no signs of pain, fatigue or damage. He even withstood being shot on the head and being stabbed in the chest multiple times with his sword Rebellion without it effecting him too much.
 * Regenerative Healing Factor: His supernatural healing abilities are so developed that they are able to instantly heal the damage done to his physiology. He can instantly heal from almost any wound, surviving being stabbed throughout most of his body by the scythes of a group of Hell Prides. Other examples include when he is impaled by his sword and when Lady shot him in the head, which only irritated him.
 * Immortality: Due to his paternal demonic heritage, he himself is also immune to age and illness. His advanced healing factor is even capable of resurrecting him from death, as long as more than half of his body remains intact, even after Abigail seemingly killed him, he managed to regenerate and resurrect after a certain amount of time.
 * Supernatural Senses: He is able to sense oncoming attacks from miles away. He was even able to sense the presence of Dagon hiding in the storms. His enemies always have an extremely hard time evading him or even sneaking up on him.
 * Demonic Infusion: Dante can channel his demon energies into objects, such as his guns or even the air itself.
 * Telekinesis: He has displayed some level of telekinetic abilities as the bike Trish threw instantly stopped in front of him and was levitating in front of him.
 * Devil Trigger: Dante’s half-demon nature allows him to release his demonic powers fully through his Devil Trigger, which transforms him into a more demonic form, increases his speed and mobility. It even further enhances the potency of his already amazing healing factor and bestows him with other new abilities, such as limited flying.
 * Supreme Combatant: The half-demon has also used a number of demon fighting styles. These include the Swordmaster Style, emphasizing mastery of Devil-Arms and their elemental powers, Trickster, which focuses on quick dodging and maneuvers, Gunslinger, which emphasizes mastery of firearms and their techniques, Royalguard, which focuses on blocking and countering enemy attacks, Doppelganger, which creates a dark clone of Dante that aids him in battle, and Quicksilver, which slows down time around Dante while allowing him to move at ultra fast speeds. Dante has proven capable with a large variety of weapons, which he has gathered throughout the games.
 * Devil Arms: His primary weapon are his broadsword Devil-Arm, Rebellion, and two handguns, Ebony & Ivory. In the first game, Rebellion was replaced by the Force Edge and he has used numerous other fire-arms, including shotguns, Artemis, a gun that can fire energy based arrows, and a missile launcher.

Dante’s Devil Arms
This is a list of all the Devil Arms Dante has in his possession. Devil Arms are powerful, demonic weapons that are a manifestation of a demon’s soul or power and can take the form of anything from swords to gauntlets to (in one rare occurrence) a briefcase.


 * Atlus.giflion - A claymore sword that is Dante's signature sword and serves as a physical manifestation of both his power and spirit. It was given to him by his father, Sparda, and it awakened after Vergil impaled him with the sword, causing his Devil Trigger to awaken as well. This caused the sword's crossguard to open and the end of the handle to split into a number of spikes. it is unknown if Rebellion serves any special function like Yamato and Sparda, which can open and power large portals to the Demon World.


 * DA_Alastor.jpgor – A sword that can only be wielded by a chosen one who can subdue it, granting the wielder great speed, aerial combat skills, and lightning powers. In the Devil Trigger form, it gives Dante the ability to fire lightning blasts from his hands and fly.


 * 300px-Ifriftgauntlets_2.jpg – A pair of gauntlets that can charge the possessor’s strikes with fire and even send out fire blasts. They could only be used by one who conquers them, which was Dante after he got them under control when they shackled themselves to his arms.


 * 175px-DT_Cerberus.gifrus – A triple nunchaku that grants the wielder a technique icy cool to the core and can stretch to great lengths. It allows the user to use ice powers, such as sending out a path of icicles and surrounding themselves in a sphere of icy energy.


 * Agni-rudra-dt.jpg & Rudra – A pair of scimitars that grant the technique of gales and flames, possessing fire and wind based powers. They can be combined to send out a combination of fire and tornado like gusts and can also talk, though Dante took them on the condition they wouldn’t.


 * Nevan-dt.jpg – A guitar capable of changing into a scythe that uses a technique charged from the heavens. It generates hordes of bats and blasts of lighting when Dante plays on it. The Devil Trigger form allows Dante to fly and fire lightning blasts, similar to Alastor.


 * Beowulf-dt-dante.jpglf – A set of claw-like gauntlets and greaves with a technique blessed with the sacred light. It boosts the wielders abilities for close combat strikes and can use chargeable light energy based attacks.


 * DA_Gilgamesh.jpgmesh – A set of gauntlets, greaves, masks, and back armor that are made of a demon metal that absorbs organic material and transform it into steel. Its attacks can be empowered by thrusters on the gauntlets and greaves. Gilgamesh is an armor-like weapon made of a devilish metal which absorbs organic material and transforms it to steel, and its techniques can be powered up by engaging the thrusters on the gauntlets and greaves. The gauntlets have small drills on each arm capable of extending during some attacks, while the greaves have small saws allowing Dante to cut through enemies with kicks. Whenever Dante is charging an attack, the mask covers his face, but its real function is never specified (though it seems to be implied that it prevents the user from breathing the gas which comes out of the thrusters during the charging process). Similar to the mask, the back armor, which resembles a pair of small metallic wings, doesn't seem to serve a real purpose during gameplay.


 * Pandora-psd-jpgcopy.jpgra – A demonic briefcase that can transform into 666 calamitous devices. These forms include a bazooka, a gatling gun, and a mobile missile battery. It can also be opened to unleash a wave of dark energy. The Pandora is acquired from the Hell Gate after defeating Dagon in Mission 15: Fortuna Castle. Although it is considered a Devil Arm per the plot, it is treated as a Fire Arm for gameplay purposes.

Pandora is potentially one of the most powerful weapons Dante collects throughout the Devil May Cry series. In terms of raw damage, it is only surpassed by the Gilgamesh, but its quality as a ranged weapon gives it a tactical advantage over the gauntlets. For example: "PF398: Revenge" can knock out The Savior with one direct hit, even with a low Disaster Gauge; "PF666: Omen" can instantly break enemy defenses such as shields, a Frost's ice cocoon, a Blitz's initial electric charge, and even Mephisto & Faust cloaks when fired at close range; and techniques powered by a full Disaster Gauge will kill any lesser demons in front of Dante. To compensate for this extreme power, Pandora's forms take a few seconds to activate.


 * Lucifer is a sword-summoning apparatus which appears in Devil May Cry 4, and is obtained from Berial's Hell Gate, which it was used to power. It is a hellish weapon worn like a backpack, and is able to spawn a countless number of spectral swords to hover around it. These swords can be rearranged, thrown, or wielded, and will explode either after a short duration, at a command from Dante such as a clap or throwing the rose held in his mouth, or once fifteen more blades have been spawned. It is wielded by Dante during the game. Lucifer takes the appearance of a hellish backpack, shaped like a streamlined skull with large glowing red eyes that stare in fury, with metallic projections protruding from its forehead, giving Dante a semblance of folded wings.

Project X Zone
Dante makes an appearance in Project X Zone. He is a playable character with his partner Demitri Maximoff.

Crosspedia Entry
Owner of the establishment called "Devil May Cry," Dante makes his living as a Devil Hunter. He has an easygoing, somewhat mocking attitude, but is always on his game.

As a half human and half demon from the bloodline of the Legendary Dark Knight Sparda, he has combat and physical abilities that far outstrip those of a normal human.

These can further be increased through his transformation into his Devil Trigger, which also grants him the power of flight.

In his human form, he skillfully fights with the Rebellion, a sword once used by his father, and two guns called Ebony & Ivory.

Near the start of his career, he took on the massive tower called "Temen-ni-gru," a nest for devils and demons. He eventually halted their dark aspirations to invade the human world.

Trivia

 * One recurring event in the games (except for Devil May Cry 2) is that Dante is stabbed through the chest by his own sword.


 * His voice actor, Reuben Langdon, also voiced Ken from the popular Street Fighter series, and did the motion capture work for Chris Redfield from the Resident Evil games, both also made by Capcom.


 * Dante appears to have skill with rock instruments, since he demonstrated the ability to play an intense solo from “Taste the Blood” on Nevan and has a set of drums and a guitar in his office.


 * Recently in an interview, Dante’s creator, Hideki Kamiya, was asked who would win in a battle between Dante and Bayonetta, another character he created due to the similarities between them. He said that “No man can overwhelm Bayonetta.” However, in the online series, Death Battle, Dante was matched up against Bayonetta in a fight to the finish with all of their abilities analysed and he emerged the winner.


 * In an episode of the animated series, Dante racks the slide on his gun the same way Alucard cocks his gun in the first episode of the anime, Hellsing, using his teeth. It is also noted that both possess similar guns (one black, the other silver) and outfits, are hunters who pursue their own kind, have similar attitudes of irreverence and amusement towards dangerous situations and their adversaries, and are infamous for withstanding and regenerating from grievous injuries.