a single spark of passion can change a man forever. the ninety ninth floor.

antihero I've been meaning to write this for a long time, and always kind of lazily slid my way out of it. Arguments for antiheroes goes back far. Most heroes in ancient Greek and Roman myth were good people, preforming amazing feats. Dante, though bearing the name of the Italian poet who traveled the Nine Circles of Hell, really isn't that good of a person. We see a change in Dante from Devil May Cry 3 to Devil May Cry and then in Devil May Cry 2; and though he is human, everyone in the world and their mother has to remember that the boy is a demon. Whether or not he's the "Son of Sparda" and a "mortal woman," he's still half demonic with demonic instincts.
The most problematic part of this is probably the way he was raised. Though the life-long argument of nature vs. nurture is too long for me to get into, I think that we can safely say that Dante and Vergil were pretty much raised by Eva, and thus without their demonic halves in her mind. I can't really see a mortal beginning to fathom of the way a demon thinks. Now, I'm also assuming the basics of demonic nature, being: hunting, mating, and generally not caring what humans think. Sparda may have stood up for mankind, and he may have saved it from Mundus, but he is still a demon. So we have the initial conflict: raised as a human, demonic nature, I can see more then a few ways that it'd start to fuck you up.
In more ways then one. Dante? In Devil May Cry 3? Is a brat. Any way you put it. When Arkham first comes to him, claiming that he's there on his brother's word and destroys his shop, Dante's pissed; not to mention uncaring of all the people that could have been involved in whatever shit that he gets into. He scrambles after Vergil through the entire game, demanding attention and trying to kick his ass to "have a good time," and perhaps on the notion that he's pretty pissed about his shop.
A main character in a dramatic or narrative work who is characterized by a lack of traditional heroic qualities, such as idealism or courage.
This is the textbook definition of an antihero. Now, Dante isn't completely devoid of humanity. His human mother, and human-half prove to pierce his demonic instincts with a thin light of idealism. Unlike his power-hungry twin, Dante is more laid back. He's selfish, attention-whoring and somewhat suicidal by his own means, but he's very straight-forward, and he follows out missions to the end. We can start to see these seeds of a real hero in the third game, though more toward the end after Dante's talk with Lady.
"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!"
After this revelation, Dante seems a little more comfortable in his idealism. His new-found admiration for his father is suddenly apparent, and though he still focuses on getting revenge for his mother, he still retains a want and need to help people.

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