Vergil (Devil May Cry)

Vergil is one of the main characters from the Devil May Cry franchise.

Vergil is the eldest of twin sons born of the demon Sparda and human Eva. Following the death of their mother as children, Vergil and Dante go their separate ways, with Vergil rejecting his humanity and embracing his demonic heritage, contrasting his younger brother's embrace of humanity and initial rejection of the demonic. Stoic and reserved, Vergil displays a willingness to do anything in his quest to obtain the power of his father, Sparda.

In an unknown conclusion to a confrontation with Mundus in the secret ending to Devil May Cry 3, he is corrupted and becomes the Dark Angel encountered in Devil May Cry known as Nelo Angelo(also alternatively spelled Nero Angelo). After numerous conflicts throughout the game, he is finally defeated by Dante.

He later makes a playable appearance in Devil May Cry 4: Special Edition, where he is featured in his own personal campaign detailing his actions in the city of Fortuna decades before the events of 4, and shortly before 3.

It is revealed in Devil May Cry 5, years after his last encounter with Dante as Nelo Angelo, Vergil had survived and is now free from Mundus's control, but is very weakened as a result. As the hooded figure who took the Yamato, ripping the Devil Bringer from his son Nero in the process, Vergil is the true main antagonist of the game after both the newcomer V and Urizen merge back together as himself, both revealed to be his human and demon halves.

Appearance
In terms of physical appearance, Vergil has fair, yet pale skin, and white, swept back hair, which puts emphasis on the fierce, yet stoic expression on his face; however, when his hair is brushed down or becomes wet, his appearance is physically indistinguishable from his younger twin brother, Dante. Just like his brother, he also possess the same, blue-colored eyes.

In terms of apparel, Vergil commonly wears a long, silver buttoned blue coat with three separated coattails. A white, serpentine pattern runs around the collar, with a snakes head hanging over the coat's left shoulder, and its tail slinking down the right, all the way to the bottom of the coat. A gold lining runs across the edges of the coat, and a silky, golden flower blossom pattern decorates the inner lining. Each cuff of the coat also possesses five, gold buttoned straps with gold lining; in Devil May Cry 4: Special Edition, the coat also features identical straps on each shoulder, decorated with silver buttons instead of gold. Before facing the demons, Vergil wore a long brown hooded cloak where he conceals his main outfit.

Underneath the coat, Vergil wears a navy blue ascot wrapped around his neck, which hangs over a black, sleeveless vest that reveals his well-toned arms and shoulders. He wears tan, finger-less gloves, a brown, snakeskin belt with a silver buckle, dark green pants with a scale pattern running across its surface, and tall, brown boots with two golden buckled straps at the top.

During certain in-game cutscenes in Devil May Cry 3, Vergil's golden half of the Perfect Amulet can be seen around his neck, yet it is not a permanent part of his character model.

As Corrupt Vergil, Vergil's appearance becomes much more sinister; his skin takes on a sickly, almost grey pallor with blue, pulsating veins running across his face. His eyes become a deep red, with black pupils. In addition, he now wears his father's clothing instead of his own, with his half of the Perfect Amulet replacing Dante's half as its brooch. In Devil May Cry 4, his outfit is slightly modified to his coat split into three coattails similar to his old outfit.

As Nelo Angelo, he wears a heavy, olive green/jade green colored armor with blue, pulsating lines running across it, and a purple, bat like cape. The armor features a helmet which fully encloses his head; a still, humanoid face with glowing, orange eyes detailing the front of the helmet, red and blue horns protrude from the sides, and he takes on skull-like knee guards, with one horn bigger than the other, but is designed evenly. Also instead of carrying weapons he usually has, Nelo Angelo carries just a massive, unnamed broadsword which is serrated and erupts a fiery blue aura when attacking. His size is much taller than Dante's, showing off his intimidating stature.

In his final confrontation with Dante, Nelo Angelo removes his helmet to reveal his true face: the face of Vergil, now sporting a completely white skin tone, with blue veins and red, pupil-less eyes.

In Devil May Cry 5, Vergil looks nearly identical to his younger self from the third game but is older in appearance due to the passage of time, however his clothing appears to be predominately darker shades of blue. His coat is now black and the serpentine patterns and designs are neon blue and the three separated coattails now has tattered at the edge. Vergil is no longer wearing an ascot tie as he was seen wearing a black sleeveless zippered-turtleneck beneath his midnight blue formal vest. He now wears charcoal gray fingerless gloves, black pants and dark teal boots with several straps. Vergil's black coat appeared to be navy blue during the daylight when he faced Dante and his son Nero in the final battle.

When he initially appears in his weakened state and severs Nero's Devil Bringer to regain Yamato in order to separate his human and demon halves, creating V and Urizen in the process, Vergil wore a tattered long black hooded cloak to cover his outfit and half of his face was shown to be pale white with blue veins, retaining these features even after his defeat from Dante as Nelo Angelo and being freed from Mundus's corruption, however when V and Urizen reunite to bring Vergil back his skin returns to normal.

Personality
In contrast to his twin brother Dante's boisterous, outgoing, and extroverted personality, Vergil is calm, cool, collected, and introverted, constantly maintaining an aura of fearlessness. Vergil cares little for the well-being of those around him, and is unflinching in his pursuit of power; however, in spite of his cold and ruthlessness demeanor, he is an honorable warrior, who maintains his own set of morals and disciplines, he despises fighting dirty and cheap tactics, and refuses using firearms, deeming them unworthy of a "true warrior", staying true to only his blade as well other melee weapons he managed to obtain from defeated enemies. His code of honor still surfaces while he is corrupted as Nelo Angelo: he refuses to attack Dante from behind and waits until both are outside to begin their first fight. In Devil May Cry 5, after being restored and was attacked by his brother, Vergil refused to fight Dante when the latter was injured and tired from his last fight against Urizen, saying that defeating him in such a state has no meaning and gave his brother time to heal his wounds and get strong.

In dire situations, he is not above actions that would seem desperate or those that would contradict his views. As seen in Devil May Cry 5, he took Nero's Devil Bringer and the Yamato by force, still bearing influences of his time as Nelo Angelo. If Dante's fighting something he's also opposing, he'll team up, even though he has reservations. He won't hesitate to take drastic measures such as punishing traitors too.

Unlike Dante, Vergil is willing to embrace his demonic heritage, and seeks to emulate his father's power and cold persona. While Dante seeks to protect humanity from the demons, Vergil wants more demonic power, regardless of the consequences for those around him. Despite his normal personality of cold dismissal, he does cherish certain things - the Devil-blade Yamato, a dark katana left to him as a keepsake by his father, his own half of the Perfect Amulet, a keepsake from his mother, and after his own realization, his own son Nero. In Devil May Cry 3, Vergil seems to reveal some of his feelings by claiming to Dante: "Might controls everything, and without strength you cannot protect anything, let alone yourself.". This may be a reference to their mother's death. It may also imply that Vergil seeks power as compensation for failing to protect her. His failure may also have made him forsake close human relationships, due to his perceived fragility of humanity.

V is the human side of Vergil, and he is able to see his past without the coldness and uncaring eyes of Vergil himself. This is his human manifestation that he has kept suppressed all his life to attain his goals of power. V describes Vergil as "One who lost everything", and that all the defeat he suffered only caused him to sink lower. V recognizes the gravity of crimes he committed and how important the things he threw away in the endless pursuit of power really were, such as his humanity, younger brother, and his own son. V originally went to Dante in the hope that he could right the wrong that Vergil created with the birth of Urizen. V explained to Nero that "he", meaning Vergil, only wanted to be protected and loved, but since he was alone his only option was to survive. It is obvious some mannerisms of V manifest in Vergil after reemerging, prominently his humanity.

As Nelo Angelo, Vergil only depends on fighting battles to finish the work. While also becoming fully demonic, he will only make dark chuckles instead of commenting on his foes' own efforts to beat him. As addition to his boosted demonic abilities, his mind is slim and any form of memories (which also includes the half of the Perfect Amulet that Dante had) will cause his mental state to be stimulated with scarred ones.

Abilities
Like his brother Dante, Vergil possesses the blood of Sparda in his veins. This makes him extremely powerful and due to how he had fully awakened his powers, Vergil was able to easily defeat Dante in their first confrontation in Devil May Cry 3 and then go toe-to-toe with Dante in their second confrontation after Dante had grown considerably stronger in his own right. However, although not going down without a challenge, Vergil was ultimately defeated by his brother in their final altercation.

In Devil May Cry 5, Vergil is significantly more powerful than he was before, likely due to having consumed the Devil Fruit as Urizen as well as embracing both his demonic and human sides completely. In the fifth installment, he was able to easily overpower Dante when the latter tried to attack him after he was restored, though Dante was exhausted from his last fight against Urizen. Later on, when Dante recovered and the two once again fought, Vergil is shown to be equal in power to Dante, who had also grown more powerful than ever after absorbing the Sparda sword into himself alongside his broken Rebellion blade to unlock his true hidden power, which is a testament to how much stronger Vergil became but regardless he was still defeated by his son Nero, after being pushed to his limit by Dante.

Powers

 * Superhuman strength: Due to his demonic heritage, Vergil has inhuman amounts of physical strength. So much so that he incorporates strikes with Yamato's sheath in combat and can throw it with enough force to pierce a scarecrow. Vergil is also stong enough to palm strike Rebellion though Arkham. He can effortlessly overpower much larger demons. Indeed, Vergil was even able to overpower Dante in a sword lock when Dante was not at his full awakened state easily and could match him after he had gotten considerably more powerful in his own right. Vergil was also shown to hold Dante back with one arm in a sword lock even when Dante had unlocked his full hidden demonic power, although Dante was tired from his last fight against Urizen.
 * Superhuman speed: Vergil can wield Yamato at speeds faster than the eye can see and is fast enough to stop rain drops from hitting the ground in a heavy downpour. He swings Yamato fast enough that he can catch bullets just by spinning the blade. Vergil is easily capable of outpacing Dante in his suppressed state and keeping up with him in their second fight.
 * Superhuman agility: Vergil can perform jumps much higher than a normal human and perform a variety of flips and spins while doing so.
 * Superhuman durability: Vergil is capable of taking brute force attacks without showing signs of damage.
 * Superhuman endurance: Despite taking a large amount of damage and large amounts of physical strain, Vergil is shown to be able to continue fighting and only needs a few moments of rest to move about again without strain. Vergil endurance is great enough to the point he was able to fight Dante continously for weeks while they were trapped in the Demon World.
 * Accelerated healing: Due to his demonic heritage, Vergil can heal instantly as soon as whatever is injuring him has been removed from his body. It is strong enough that he came out unscathed from a strike from Rebellion that would have otherwise bisected him. This healing factor cannot be weakened. Even when Vergil is physically exhausted, his healing powers work at full strength.
 * Demon power manipulation: Vergil is able to imbue his demonic power into objects to augment them. He is also able to use his demonic power to create weapons that can be used for various purposes. Vergil is also able to create a doppelganger of himself to aid him in battle against an opponent.
 * Teleportation: Vergil has advanced teleportation abilities that he uses to strategically reposition himself around the battlefield.
 * Devil Trigger: Vergil can unleash his demonic side to significantly enhance all of his powers and abilities. When he jumps during this state, wings sprout out, however he cannot glide or fly with them. However, in his enhanced Devil Trigger state, he is able to fly.

Skills

 * Weapons proficency: Much like Dante, Vergil can quickly grasp the fundamentals of whatever weapon he picks up. He showed immense skill with Beowulf and Force Edge shortly after obtaining them.


 * Swordsmanship: Vergil is a dangerous master swordsman wielding the Yamato with unrivaled precision and versatility, his technique is based on Iaijutsu,a style of samurai swordsmanship which involves quick, precise draws from the sheathe, striking the opponent, and removing blood from the sword before resheathing. His Iaijutsu is made more powerful by incorporating his own demonic powers, developing a personalized style called the Dark Slayer. When Yamato is still unsheathed, Vergil also often uses the scabbard itself as a weapon, using it for blunt strikes, or to block an enemy's attack. Due to this style, Vergil commonly wields Yamato with one hand, holding the scabbard with the other. However, when necessary he sometimes puts the scabbard away and uses both hands with Yamato. In Devil Trigger, the scabbard becomes a part of his left hand and can adjust position at will, allowing him to freely wield the blade with both hands while still performing his iaijutsu techniques. After obtaining Force Edge, Vergil was immediately able to fight in a style almost identical to Dante's. During his short time using Rebellion, he shows competent use of it. His overall skill in swordsmanship is shown to be great enough to easily rival his brother, and even at times overpower him.


 * Hand-to-Hand combantant: Though Vergil has never been shown in unarmed combat, he has shown excellent hand-to-hand combat with Beowulf. He uses a variety of punches and roundhouse kicks.
 * Summoned Swords: Spectral swords created by Vergil's demonic power. He usually fires one at a time, but by expending Devil Trigger, he can summon multiple sword that he can arrange in various formations such as a shield that rotates around him, or to float behind him until he decides to launch them all rapid-fire.

Arsenal

 * Yamato: A keepsake katana given to him by his father. It is forged by darkness and capable of cutting through dimensions.
 * Beowulf: A set of gauntlets and grieves with the power of light. This has become a staple weapon of Vergil's gameplay.
 * Force Edge: For a short time, Vergil wielded the dormant form of the sword of Sparda. This has become a staple weapon of Vergil's gameplay.

Trivia

 * Nelo Angelo's name is a mistranslation of "Nero Angelo" (i.e. "Black Angel" in Italian). This alternate spelling has been maintained throughout the series, and later repeated with Berial (Belial) in Devil May Cry 4. This is because the interchangeability of L & R vowels during translation of the Japanese language to English causes difficulties in localization; since the Japanese language lacks a set of vowels for L sounds, it's not always clear which is implied. Translations often have similar issues with confusing "B" and "V" and the sounds "is" and "ith."
 * Nelo Angelo's battle theme, Ultra Violet, bears similarities to Sparda's second battle theme, S. The composer stated this was done to foreshadow the connection between Nelo Angelo and Sparda.
 * Although Corrupt Vergil appears as a DLC outfit in Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, his Nelo Angelo Devil Trigger was excluded due to technical difficulties implementing the model with Vergil's character frame. Instead, he is given Sparda's Devil Trigger, and paired with Yamato, unintentionally references the original Devil May Cry 's unlockable Sparda costume, where the Yamato was first introduced. Later, In Vergil's campaign in Devil May Cry 4: Special Edition, Corrupt Vergil once again eschews the Nelo Angelo Devil Trigger in favor of Sparda's true form; interestingly, the Yamato's sheathe grafted to Vergil's left arm in Devil Trigger is also grafted to Sparda's left arm.
 * Vergil's Level 3 Hyper Combo in Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3, Dark Angel, is a direct reference to Nelo Angelo.
 * In the novel, Gilver, is a phonetic anagram of Vergil's name.
 * In Devil May Cry 3: Special Edition, while using his Nelo Angelo Devil Trigger seen with his "Corrupt Vergil" costume, he is able to verbalize words while taunting (e.g. "Come on!"), despite the fact that Nelo Angelo was incapable of speech in the original Devil May Cry.
 * In the Japanese versions of Devil May Cry 3, Devil May Cry 4: Special Edition and Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, as a further contrast from Dante for more Eastern Asian-touches to his fighting style, nearly all of Vergil's techniques are all written completely different from their English names as Japanese hanzi/kanji-based names with different meanings.
 * Vergil tends to talk to himself/think aloud. Examples include:
 * Devil May Cry 3: When he is trying to break the seal in the Lair of Judgment, frustrated that his blood alone can't undo it.
 * Devil May Cry 4: When he is arriving/leaving Fortuna, regarding the Order of the Sword and his own power.
 * Devil May Cry 5: When he is atop the Qliphoth, contemplating the opposing paths he and Dante have chosen, due to their past traumas.
 * His current fighting style throughout the series is based on Iaido when he wields the sword Yamato as his primary weapon and during the duel between him and Dante in Devil May Cry 5, he assumes his fighting stance which is similar to the Iaido stance.
 * His intro title in Devil May Cry 5 "The Alpha and the Omega" are the first and last letters in the Greek alphabet, and a phrase used in The Book of Revelation to denote God being "The Beginning and the End", signifying how Vergil is a recurring antagonist.
 * "I am Omega" can be heard multiple times on Dante's theme, Subhuman. The connection between this lyric and Vergil's title is unknown.
 * Though not seen in Devil May Cry 5, going to the art section in the gallery after beating the game on any difficulty shows Vergil's regular Devil Trigger form, showing it to be a more mature version of his Devil May Cry 3 Devil Trigger form with some cosmetic changes due to Vergil's new clothing, but still retaining some of the blue coloring.