One Thing I've Always Enjoyed About Vergil Is That The Games Make You Like Him And Root For Him As A

One thing I've always enjoyed about Vergil is that the games make you like him and root for him as a character... but not because he's right. It's not because he's noble. It's not even because he's traumatized. It's because he's Dante's brother.

Vergil is kind of terrible. He's done a lot of terrible things. The game doesn't even try to dispute that. You are not supposed to see Vergil as a heroic figure. Yet we still root for him because Dante, our PoV character, roots for him. Dante loves his brother. He wants his brother to succeed. We see how Vergil's absence crushes Dante. He never truly gets over it.

To Dante, Vergil is the person you love even though sometimes you just can't stand them, and maybe despite the fact that they've hurt you, because they're so important to you that you can't imagine life without them. He is the person you watch destroy themselves over and over, knowing there's nothing you can do to stop it, and you feel a piece of yourself break every single time the cycle repeats. Even if we, as players, may not see that or feel that for Vergil (at least, not right away), it's clear that Dante does.

And I can't emphasize enough how relatable and human that experience is. I think we've all been there in one way or another with someone in our lives. If we haven't, then I'm sure we've all watched a friend or family member go through that with someone they've loved.

He really doesn't need to be anything grander than that. He's not secretly right or noble. In fact, he's dead wrong about a lot. Yet we're still on Vergil's side because when he overcomes, when he finds his peace, when he becomes the person Dante hoped he could be, then Dante finds peace as well.

And we all want a world where the people we love can find their peace, and we can find our peace with them.