#dmc is my most favorite game i ever played and i cannot and will not stop thinking about him

[kushexi]

I still think about Vergil a LOT

[thephantomporg84]

This might be a strange question, but do you have any thoughts on the way the idea of found family versus biological family is handled in the Devil May Cry series? Personally, I've always thought it interesting that Dante and, to some degree, Nero, experienced both: Dante gained comrades and people who cared for him in Patty, Lady, and Trish, while Nero had Credo and Kyrie. Then the two of them find each other, though Dante says nothing, and their biological family is the core of the drama.

Not strange at all! This is actually something I talk about a lot, just not on here.

The way I see it for the the Spardas is that ultimately, their found family is their biological family, and they have to deal with the fallout from that. Like, yeah, Nero has Credo and Kyrie and Dante has his friends/co-workers/Patty, but they both very clearly want their family so they can feel like they finally belong.

And on a personal level: I love it — I adore the way their dynamic is set up and could be spoon-fed it daily and never get tired. I’m a sucker for the found family trope (most of the time) anyway, and hate that it seems fairly underutilized in comparison to like x oc/x reader ships (not that there’s anything wrong with those)/the Nero’s Mom tropes (or those)/certain other deeply off-putting/concerning ships (Kermit face), because that’s kind of why I got so attached to the series and, to an extent, the found family trope as a whole — DMC3 and, in particular, DMC4 were my very first. I don’t always fall for the trope, but it opened up a soft spot that occasionally one really strikes a chord and sticks with me — the notable being A.) Crisis Core time-travel fix-its with a found family twist and B.) JoJo’s Mudad/Jonadad + JoJo Part 5’s anti-hero/anti-villain squads, CaeJose + a few select others, but mainly those three and C.) Irondad & Spiderson.

But here’s the kicker: None of those things happen canonically, like at all, in the series listed above, and/or the actual story events play out in a much more depressing, upsetting way. So it’s up to fans to provide that content. And it’s there, it really is — there’s some incredible work out there (and I mean like, works exist that have knocked the wind out of me, they’re so good. Like that one post put it, NYT best sellers could fucking never).

Yet the Spardas are actually getting a canon shot at being a both a found and biological family and it’s incredible. And for me and a lot of people that have been around DMC forever, that’s what we’ve been waiting for. And I loved the game, but like. Those van menu screens? Those damn near meant more than the actual game, to me.

Like the drama of the reveal(s) were great, but I cannot explain how completely fucking surreal it was to see Dante and Vergil together for the first time in nearly 15 years, and more that, how absolutely chill-inducing just to see them being domestic. Not fighting each other, not fighting something else, just peacefully existing in a shared space together. But more than that, Vergil just... really, truly looking at his son for the first time and not knowing what to say was probably my favorite moment in a 2019 game. Possibly for the decade. Because with that series and its messy history, I didn’t think ever see a true DMC5 — I certainly never thought I’d ever get to see that father-son pay off in the ~10-11 years Nero has existed as a character.

That stuff’s not the only a part what makes Dante & Vergil / Dante & Nero / Vergil & Nero / Vergil & Dante & Nero all really fucking great dynamics to explore, IMO. When you pull back and look at the canon of their relationships: They’re not perfect people and suddenly having a family again isn’t going to make them perfect. None of these dynamics are sugar sweet (either as a biological or found family), nor should they be — they each have a whole host of personal traumas and angst that aren’t going to make it easy. They’ve fucked up and they’ve hurt each other — if not physically, the emotionaly, and if not emotionally, then by withholding information altogether. They’re going to fight and butt heads and argue because it’s not only what they know, but it’s just what families do, sometimes. It doesn’t matter what kind it is at that point.

And that’s my favorite thing: Their found & biological family dynamics are so very normal, so very human, that that’s why it’s difficult for them. They really just have standard family dysfunction that’s wildly, hilariously exacerbated simply because of who and what they are.

[klimp42]

Devil May Cry V Review: A Pizza Style Boys End

Well after 11 long years here we are, a sequel to probably one of my favorite franchise in history, Devil May Cry V and what a fantastic sequel it is. Now unlike my last review, the iron for this one is still warm. I know it's been a month but hear me out here, I want to be able to spoil some stuff and not feel to bad since, hey its been a month since the game came out, but if you still haven’t played DMCV then watch out we got some spoilers up ahead.

Alright so before we go into talking about all the things this game did right and wrong, I should probably give some backstory to this almost 20 year old franchise whose last canon game came out 11 years ago, I know another “DMC” came out since then but we don’t talk about DMC Devil May Cry. So Devil May Cry for those who don’t know is the story of one of the sons of the legendary Dark Knight Sparda, whose Sparda? The biggest baddest demon who decided that demons being dicks on Earth isn’t cool, betrayed his kind and fight them back to hell and sealed them in it using his amazing power. For the next 2000 years, he acted as Earth’s guardian and then eventually he met either the most smoking hot or most powerful or both, girl ever named Eva. He married her and had twin sons named Dante and Vergil. Now demons aren't a big fan of Sparda because of the whole betrayal and locking them into hell thing, and no one hates him more then his old boss, the demon king Mundus. So one day Sparda dies, don’t ask how its never been fully explained he just died, and Mundus sees this as the perfect opportunity for some revenge and sends a bunch of demons to kill Sparda’s family, but those demons suck and only succeeded in killing Eva.

So after all that and to speed this up to talking about the actual game, Dante and Vergil leave their destroyed home and go about following two paths, Vergil stylishly lusting for power and Dante being a stylish gun for hire, and eventually a demon hunter. Backstory aside all you really need to remember is style means everything, Sparda was the coolest, Dante and Vergil have two different ideas on how to live life.

Alright so moving on to DMCV, let's finally talk about what I feel is a perfect end to the story of Dante and Vergil. DMCV takes place about ten years after the events of DMC4 and involves Dante getting a job by mysterious new guy going by “V”, V wants Dante to go kick the ass of this new demon named Urizen who is causing all sorts of havoc in Red Grave City, where he has raised this giant demonic plant called a Qliphoth which if it isn’t stopped will lead to the end of the world. So Dante, his friends Lady and Trish, go to Red Grave City, into the Qliphoth to stop Urizen, but he starts taking a long time so V gets nervous and decides to go pick up Nero, one of the main characters of DMC4, who just a few days ago had gotten his arm ripped off, it was a demonic one that had Vergil’s sword in it. I know that sounds insane, but if I explained everything in this game series we would be here for a forty more pages, so let's just move on, things are crazy and V tells Nero that the demon who took his arm is Urizen and the Dante needs his help. Fast forward a few hours, Dante is losing his fight to Urizen, Trish and lady are knocked out, V can’t do shit since all he can do is hobble on his cane and let his demon buddies do his work for him, so Nero tries to help and also doesn’t question why this demon looks nothing like the human shaped figure that took his arm, he loses, Dante loses and things go south really fast. In the end, Nero leaves to train for a month to try and actually beat Urizen, V stays behind to try and slow down the Qliphoth’s spread and Dante is assumed to be dead.

Well now that all that back story has been dealt with, let's move on to gameplay, setting and the fantastic soundtrack. So while not being the first DMC game that you can play more than one character, it is the first base release game that you play as multiply characters, Nero, V and Dante, who spoilers is still totally fine and alive. Each character plays completely differently, making it so that depending on who you are playing in the level offers a completely different experience. Nero controls similar to his DMC 4 counterpart, he has the Red Queen that can be revved up to do longer and fire infused attacks, he also has his Blue Rose which can be charged to do explosive shot. The difference of DMC V Nero and DMC4 Nero, is that he no longer has his Devil Bringer, his arm that was taken, instead he has a bunch of different prosthetics he can call upon called Devil Breakers, offering different abilities like a big electric hand, a rocket fist, the ability to stop time, one that lets you go wild with big crazy attacks and a few others. Other than that, he has the same combos and movement and if you liked playing as Nero in DMC4 you’ll love it here, especially after you beat the game which is the only thing I won’t fully spoil, just know you can do some cool stuff.

Now if I was to do this right, I would start talking about V, but I want to keep the speed of similar characters going so let's talking about the pizza loving devil hunter Dante. Like Nero, Dante is very similar to his DMC4 counterpart, honestly his is the exact same if it wasn’t for the fact his sword changes three times and he gets Sin Devil Trigger. I know you might he saying why spoil this and not Nero, well this was in the trailers and Nero’s thing wasn’t. Seriously it's the same bread and butter Dante had in DMC4, you can switch between his four styles of Trickster, a dashing and teleporting style, Swordmaster, a style that increase the moveset of your devil arms, Gunslinger, a style that lets you do crazy gun tricks, and Royal Guard, a hard style to master but it lets you guard attacks and turn them back on your enemies. He has his main sword Rebellion, which becomes his main sword Devil Sword Dante, he has his guns Ebony and Ivory and Coyote-A and gains more throughout the course of the story as he beats bosses. You have your devil trigger that lets you regain health and do more damage, and through the story you get Sin Devil Trigger that lets you do insane damage but you cannot heal. Listen, if you like Dante and like playing as him, you will love him in this, he controls well and its stylish as hell.

Alright so it's time for the boy I skipped, V, and the reason for that is because he is the newest character and controls completely different from every other DMC character you have been able to play as. V doesn’t actually fight, he kills demons, but he does not fight, his boys Griffin, Shadow and Nightmare fight for him, demon summons who share appearances and names with enemies from the first Devil May Cry. As V you just stand back and let your demons fight for you and when they drop the enemies health you rush in and kill them with you cane. It is this exact gameplay that has people split, unlike Dante and Nero, you are not in the action, you are off in the distance hitting buttons for combos that you don’t have full control for. Personally, I feel that once you get more used to it that it's not so bad, you have certain moves that allow you to keep control of where Griffin and Shadow are and if things get to hectic or those bastards just won’t listen to you you can spend devil trigger to make them to increase damage and fight by themselves. You also can use devil trigger to summon Nightmare and have him just fall onto the battlefield and fuck things up for you and you can also get an ability that lets you jump up and control him. So while V is the most hands off character and some people are not fans of that, I love and will always protect my hands off emo son.

The last few things to talk about in DMCV, like always style is a factor in fights and the more varied and different your attacks are leads to higher style points and taunting the enemies gives you a ton of style points, which while before was just so you felt cool, with the games new multiplayer elements in which in certain missions you play alongside other players, now other people can know if you are super cool. However unlike previous DMC games, there are no items to be used, no holy waters or stars to heal you or refill your devil trigger meter, however to balance this enemies drop more orbs that fulfil this function and you can find orb packs to break that heal you or refill your devil trigger.

The setting of this game is much less varied compared to previous canon title DMC4, which I feel is better for it, since you have a coherent theme to the whole story. Your setting is the streets, buildings and sewers of Red Grave City, the destroyed areas around the Qliphoth,and the inside of the Qliphoth itself. Personally, I feel like this gives the game a more end of the world feel, as you see drained corpses of the people of Red Grave City and places that looked lived in just a month ago, I know that other DMC games have let you go through cities, but in those the cities where always just abandoned since they couldn’t really have a bunch of corpses on screen while you were styling on demons.

Alright so one of the things I couldn’t wait to talk about, the soundtrack, which is just great. Listen, if you like any of the other DMC soundtracks you will love this game and if you like rock and roll you will love this games soundtrack. Hell, even if you don’t like rock after a while of playing this game you will grow to love it. The soundtrack is also tied to you style meter so as you do better the song gets better while you are fighting by adding more bass, chorus, and increasing the volume, all building up to a full song to match how cool you look as you dodge, taunt and style on these demons. To get a taste of what it will be like when you go full style god,  lookup Devil Trigger, Crimson Cloud and Subhuman, those three songs play while you kick ass as Nero, Dante and V and makes you feel so bad ass when you are taunting and beating down demons. Also the songs during the boss fights are also amazing, seriously the way that DMC incorporates music as you fight is masterful and makes you seem cool as hell.

Now I know I have been singing this games praises, but it is not perfect, its close though damn close. One big detractor that might affect you is the voice acting, it’s great sometimes and others it is just a little of sync to what the character is saying and the story, while great, does have a few moments that are weird like how because Nero says quit it, Dante and a newly refreshed Vergil go alright and stop their fight to the death and instead decide to jump into hell and stop and kill the Qliphoth.

So yeah those are my only complaints, I said it was close to perfect and I mean it. This game is the Devil May Cry that we have deserved since DMC4, it controls well, looks beautiful and gives a final send-off to Dante and Vergil, leaving the stage for future games to focus on Nero and Nico and even new casts of characters. Honestly if you enjoyed old DMC games, even DMC Devil May Cry, pick this game up as you need to play it. If you have never played a DMC game before, play the free demo and see if its your speed and if it is, then dive on it and be the stylish demon hunter you were meant to be.

[anagraves]

Fandom Meme: Hit Me Up

Originally posted by @fanficmemes , I was tagged by @frombothofmyhearts . Thank you! It’s more difficult than the last one, so this time I’m not tagging anyone, but if you want to play just feel yourself tagged!

1.  Your current OTP(s)/OT3(s)/OTX(s)

Well... I’m currently watching “Victoria” and it’s hard to choose from Vicbourne and Ernest & Harriet. But when it comes to OTP that I’m currently obssesing over, that would be undoubtedly Jaime & Brienne (GoT).

2.  A pairing you initially didn’t consider but someone changed your mind (bonus points: who was that person).

Sansa & Littlefinger. I was completely repulsed by this idea at first, but later came to love them and they became one of my most important GoT ships.

3. A pairing you used to love, but it all fell apart for you.

I can agree here with @frombothofmyhearts - at the beginning of HP books I shipped Harry and Hermione, later I had no idea why on Earth I ever saw them together. From the more recent fandoms, I would say Jorah and Daenerys - I mean I still do ship them, but they used to be my OTP and now I don’t really care.

4.  Have you added anything cracky/hilarious to your fandom, if so, what.

Don’t think so, sadly I’m not a funny person.

5.  What’s the longest you’ve ever been in a fandom

Harry Potter, definitely, if you can say I’m in a fandom since the moment I fell in love with the books. That would be seventeen years.

6.  Do you remember your first OTP, if so who was in it.

That is a difficult question... My first OTPs came from Polish soap operas, but since no one would know what I’m talking about I’ll focus on something well known and that would be either HP (Lupin & Tonks), LOTR (Aragorn & Arwen or Eowyn & Faramir) or “House M.D.” (Foreteen). When it comes to level of devotion that shoul go with real OTP, I would choose Foreteen.

7.  Name a fandom you didn’t care/think about until you saw it all over tumblr.

"Once Upon a Time” - I had no idea about the show until I saw it here. And it was everywhere, really.

8.  Say something genuinely nice about a character who isn’t one of your faves (chars you’re neutral on are fair game, as are chars you dislike)

That’s difficult. I wanted to say something GoT-related, but I found myself either liking someone at least a little bit or hating them so much I cannot say anything nice about them. Ooh, I have it, from another fandom! Elizabeth Swann and William Turner - I don’t like both of them, but they know how to love each other and they would do a lot for this love. Although sometimes they forget about it, especially in AWE...

9.  Name three things you wish you saw more or in your main fandom (or a fandom of choice)

I’ll stick to PoTC - more James Norrington love, more Davy Jones appreciation, more respect for my favorite parts of the movies (DMC & AWE). 

10.  Choose a song at random, which ship or character does it remind you of

I just saw Dream Theater and “Sacrifised Sons”. The title brought a lot of GoT connections - the Second Sons, the Starks, Jaime & Tyrion.

11.  A pairing you ship that you don’t think anyone else ships

I think my only ship that could fall into this category would be Cam & Sweets from “Bones”.

12.  Your most scandalous headcanon for your current OTP(s)/OT3(s)/OTX(s)

Scandalous? I can see that in “Victoria” - both of my ships eloping and living happily ever after away from all this ruling and this life they’re living... Would definitely be scandalous in XIX century, given their position.

13.  Do you have any hard and fast headcanons that you will die defending, about anything at all (gender identity, sexual or romantic orientation, extended family, sexual preferences like top/bottom/switch, relationship with poetry, seriously anything)

Maybe only that Klaroline (TVD) is and always will be the endgame, no matter how long it takes.

14.  5 favorite characters from 5 different fandoms

Wesley Wyndam-Pryce (Angel the Series), James Norrington (PotC), Jaime Lannister (GoT), Mark Sloan (Grey’s Anatomy), Lance Sweets (Bones).

15. 3 OTPs from 3 different fandoms

Weslah (AtS), Brienne & Jaime (GoT), Mark & Lexie (Grey’s Anatomy).

16. 5 favorite ships

Every single one has a special place in my heart, but if I had to choose they would be the ships from above, Klaroline (TVD) and Foreteen because of the nostalgy mostly.

17.  Just ramble about something fan-related, go go go (prompts optional but encouraged)

I’m just fed up with most of the regular shows nowadays. They all go the same roads of misery and despair, constant plotting and destroying of the relationships (I do understand that happiness might not be the most popular thing in the world, but come on, sometimes someone is happy, the world is not all dark and gloom). Some of them start great, but then get extended beyond the point of logic and the writers screw everything up. Everything should have its end and it would be best if the end came in the highest and not lowest point of the series. The best example - “Grey’s Anatomy”. I loved the show, but now it’s a caricature of itself. The characters are the bunch of selfish people who don’t care about anything else but themselves, and mostly they even forgot they are doctors, behaving like five-year-olds. Just finish this show already!