Characters / Devil May Cry - Vergil

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Character subpage for Vergil, the most recurring villain from Devil May Cry.

Be aware that some spoilers will be unmarked. Read ahead at your own risk of being spoiled.

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Vergil

The Alpha and the Omega

^{Click here to see his Devil Trigger form}

^{Click here to see his Sin Devil Trigger form}

^{Click here to see Nelo Angelo}

^{Click here to see him in DMC 3}

^{Click here to see him in DMC 4}

^{Click here to see him as a child}

"Foolishness, Dante, foolishness. Might controls everything. And without strength, you cannot protect anything. Let alone yourself."

Voiced by: Dan Southworth

David Keeley (Nelo Angelo, DMC), Jonathan Mallen (young, DMC), Gregg Lowe (DMC: Peak of Combat),

Hiroaki Hirata (Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, DMC4: Special Edition, Project × Zone 2, DMC5; Japanese)

Face Model: Maxim Nazarov (DMC5)

Image Song: Ultra Violet (DMC1, as Nelo Angelo), Vergil's Battle Theme 1 - 2 - 3 (DMC3), Bury The Light (DMC5)

The Anti-Villain-slash-Anti-Hero son of an Ascended Demon named Sparda and a human named Eva, and twin brother of Dante. While Dante became a hotheaded but selfless Anti-Hero after demons killed their mother, Vergil grew to be a cool and collected Anti-Villain out for his own gain.

In the prequel game Devil May Cry 3, Vergil came into conflict with his brother Dante when Vergil attempted to open a giant Hell Gate to obtain the power of their father. After multiple battles between the two, Dante emerged the ultimate victor. Vergil meanwhile chose to stay on the other side of the Hell Gate he had opened, only to come face-to-face with the demonic god his father had sealed away there: Mundus.

In Devil May Cry, we learn Vergil lost to Mundus, and was enslaved by the Big Bad to operate as his top enforcer under the name "Nelo Angelo." After several more clashes with his brother Dante, Vergil is seemingly killed and vanishes in a flash of light.

Returns in a fashion in 4 and 5 as a playable character added in the Special Edition Updated Re-release, and was involved in the backstories of each game's plots.

Being half-demon, Vergil has Super-Strength, Nigh-Invulnerability and a Healing Factor, along with the ability to transform into a demonic Super Mode called Devil Trigger. His weapon of choice is a Japanese sword of his father's named Yamato, but he also used a nameless giant demonic sword during his time as Nelo Angelo.

As a playable character, Vergil's gameplay revolves around his Dark Slayer style (which is a simplified form of Dante's Trickster style) and his three swappable weapons; Yamato, Beowulf, and Force Edge. He later returns in 4:SE with the new Concentration mechanic. Standing still, landing attacks, and walking while locked onto foes increases Concentration, which Vergil can use to dramatically increase the effectiveness of his attacks. His Dark Slayer style is also modified to fire out an energy sword before warping to a foe, allowing him to move around the battlefield much more effectively.

He returns in 5 with his previous weapon moveset mostly unchanged, but with some new mechanics and skills. His Devil Trigger has now been replaced with Doppelganger, a summonable A.I controlled clone that attacks in unison with him, while he gains a form of Sin Devil Trigger that behaves more closely to its regular variation, including its Healing Factor and the extension of certain combo strings. He also has four Limit Breaks this time around; one for each weapon, and a World of V skill, all of which are fueled by his SDT and Concentration meters.

These changes have made Vergil even more Difficult, but Awesome; his damage output is obscenely high, Doppelganger helps him crowd control and boosts his damage, he has several moves that cover a huge amount of space, and both his Sin Devil Trigger and World of V allow him to recover Vitality, but these just mean having to understand or juggle more mechanics, and he is punished heavily for taking even a single hit or throwing out whiffed attacks.

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#-E

• '90s Hair: Vergil has distinctly "gelled back" '90s frosted tips hair that's noticeable in the HD Collection version of the third game.
• Absurdly Sharp Blade: His signature katana Yamato, when sufficiently imbued with power, is so sharp it can literally cut through dimensions; Vergil can cut through any object regardless of its size or distance, hence the name of its signature technique, "Judgment Cut". There are very little things he can't cleanly cut with it; usually objects imbued with demonic powers comparable to his (such as the Rebellion). Although if the user is weakened, this trope is subverted (it cannot even cut through Lady's very mundane Kalina Ann cannon). 5 reveals it's even sharper than originally thought. Its power to literally split anything in two kickstarts the plot when Vergil uses it on himself, splitting his own being in two: his demon half Urizen, and his human half V.
• Abusive Parents: Played with. He rips one of his own son's arms off to get Yamato back in 5, but he wasn't particularly in his right mind at the time. Similarly, his demonic side, Urizen, tries to kill Nero at every turn, while his human side, V, is genuinely caring and paternal towards Nero. When V merges with Urizen and turns back into Vergil, he's ashamed by Urizen's actions in general and shows a more caring side to Nero, though he still is a pretty aloof and distant individual. That he doesn't even learn Nero is his son until well after he reforms from V and Urizen muddies this further.
• Affably Evil: Despite his selfish, violent actions in the pursuit of power, he's still quite charming and jokey like his brother Dante, and he has a code of honor that he will uphold regardless of if it gets in the way of his plans. When he's "revived" in 5, one of the first things he does is sincerely thank Nero for helping him get to his demon half as V.
• Aloof Big Brother: Fits this trope very well. He always treats Dante coldly through most of the game and is the older twin.
• Always Identical Twins: Him and Dante. Their hair is actually the same length, which means they look completely identical, but Vergil slicks his hair back so it distinguishes them normally. In DMC5, after spending enough time in completely separate worlds, they look significantly different — not even sharing the same face models.
• Always Someone Better: Throughout the series, one of his goals, if not the biggest one is to prove himself stronger than his brother. Across their several battles, he has managed to win some, but Dante always proves to be the more powerful twin. In 5, Dante mocks Vergil for this in their fight, pointing out how he cut off Nero's arm for more power and still lost. The final moments of the game even have a more relaxed Vergil disregarding Dante's "score" and claiming they are even.
• Ambiguously Evil: He's definitely a selfish villain out for his own gain, but just how evil he really is is left up to interpretation.
  • Tellingly in the games, he doesn't have any moments where he completely Jumps Off The Slippery Slope, and his motivation is solely for power to protect what matters to him, so he'll Never Be Hurt Again like when he was too weak to protect his own mother.
  • Even if Vergil is a recurring antagonist, he still teams up with Dante in order to deal with a bigger problem at hand, like when they had to defeat Arkham in 3, or when they had to sever the Qliphoth's roots in 5.
  • He may not be considered a Hunter of His Own Kind, but Vergil doesn't hesitate to kill other demons if they stand in the way of his plans.
• Ambiguous Syntax: During his fight with Dante in 5, after Dante yells at Vergil for ripping off his own son's arm, Vergil retorts with the seemingly Abusive Parents line "My son means nothing to me!" only for the next scene to reveal he didn't know he even had a son, and was actually telling Dante he had no idea what his brother was talking about. This was apparently a localization hiccup.
• Ambition Is Evil: His entire arc in 3 is about his desire for more power. It ultimately led to his downfall into literal hell. Shortly after, he marches straight off to fight Mundus.
  Vergil: If my father did it, I should be able to do it too!
• Ancestral Weapon: Much like Dante, he uses a sword once wielded by Sparda, the Yamato. As the series goes on the sword is shown to have several magical properties of its own and becomes a meaningful part of the plot in 4 and 5. Vergil also briefly fought with the Force Edge at the end of 3, though Dante ultimately reclaimed the blade. The weapon, however, is also part of his moveset in his playable appearances.
• Anime Hair: Downplayed. His hair is unusually spiked backwards and seems immune to gravity. However, it does react to water and rain, making it look exactly like Dante's, and it takes a mere Hair Flip for Vergil to style it in his standard, spiky form.
• Anti-Villain: He's honorable enough to seek out a fair duel with his opponents and know when to draw the line (i.e. Arkham), but not enough to prompt a true Heel–Face Turn. As of Devil May Cry 5, he has more or less pulled a downplayed Heel–Face Turn.
• Arch-Enemy: He's easily the most prominent, persistent, and personal of Dante's many foes.
• Archnemesis Dad: Vergil starts the conflict in 5 by ripping off Nero's Devil Bringer so that he can regain the Yamato stored within. Then again, Vergil was effectively on the edge of death and not in a sane state of mind, neither Nero nor Vergil realized who exactly the other was, and to Vergil's credit as V, he does feel guilty about this, and when recombined, he eventually holds a respect for Nero as a capable fighter and especially as his son.
• Armed Legs: Vergil was the original wielder of Beowulf, having killed the demon and taken his soul, and uses its gauntlets and greaves to fight Dante in mission 13 of 3. Although canonically he lost it shortly afterwards with Dante claiming it, the weapon has since become a staple of Vergil's moveset, being available to him from the start in 3:SE, 4:SE, and 5:SE as well as appearing in his move list in Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3.
• Art Evolution: The idea of Vergil being Dante’s pure identical twin has been slowly getting phased out of the narrative, at least visually, as his facial features since 4SE have been modeled more closely to resemble Nero’s face than his brother’s. Some Truth in Television, as Vergil would have a different lifestyle in a different environment compared to Dante. Further emphasized with his facial-scan model being someone entirely different from Dante's in 5.
• Ascended Extra: Nelo Angelo was a Mauve Shirt in 1, used to turn Dante's feud with Mundus into a personal grudge. 3 would significantly flesh out Vergil's character, 4:SE makes him a Posthumous Character whose legacy kickstarts the plot. And in 5, he comes Back from the Dead to be a major player in the story.
• The Atoner: At the end of 5, having recognized his desperation and reckless disregard of his own humanity created Urizen and made a colossal, avoidable mess of things, he makes peace with Nero and becomes more of The Rival to Dante, and then jumps into the Demon World with his brother to seal the portal Urizen made via the Qliphoth.
• Asshole Victim: Subverted. While Vergil gets karmic punishment for his actions in 3, it's not portrayed in a cathartic light at all.
• Audible Sharpness:
  • Just like Dante's Rebellion, the Yamato makes a distinctive sound whenever Vergil swings it around. This is better displayed with the Judgement Cut and Slash Dimension moves, attacks that come with their own, unique sound effect.
  • Before Dante and Vergil clash using their Sin Devil Trigger forms in a cutscene of 5, there's a ringing sound when the camera pans close to the Yamato.
• Back from the Dead: Returns in 5, after seemingly exploding near the end of the very first game.
• Back-to-Back Badasses: In 3 with Dante in their Enemy Mine moment, as well as the final scene of 5 in which Vergil and Dante are preparing to face the Legions of Hell together.
• Badass Boast: Vergil's flair for awesomely demeaning lines might just outdo his (almost) peerless swordsmanship. Hearing his Boss Banter is literally half the fun in all three of his 3 boss battles, Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, and 4:SE, including: "This may be fun." "Rest in peace." "Try and keep up." "You're going down." "You are not worthy as my opponent." "My power shall be absolute!" "You shall die!" "Now I'm a little motivated!" And of course, this one:
  Dante: Hey, Vergil! Your portal opening days are over. Give me the Yamato.
  Vergil: If you want it, then you'll have to take it. ...But you already knew that.
• Badass Cape: He wears a dark cape as Nelo Angelo.
• Badass Creed: "Might controls everything." reflecting his general Anti-Villain belief that the only way to Never Be Hurt Again is to become strong enough to protect yourself and what matters to you.
• Badass in a Nice Suit: As Gilver in the now Loose Canon light novel prequel to 1. Interestingly enough, concept art for 3 depicts Vergil in a black suit with a Scarf of Asskicking, not unlike that of Gilver.
• Badass Longcoat: A blue longcoat to contrast Dante's red one.
• Bandaged Face: As Gilver, his face is covered with bandages in the novelization of the first game.
• Batman Gambit: In the first prequel novel, he sets Nell up to willingly perform a Heroic Sacrifice on Dante's behalf, in order to awaken Dante. It worked.
• Batman Grabs a Gun: He detests guns, seeing them as dishonorable weapons. That said, to finish off Arkham alongside Dante in 3, he fires one of Dante's own guns (although this is more for style points than any necessity).
  Vergil: I'll try it your way for once.
• Berserk Button: Dante's quip about Vergil never being like Sparda touched a nerve.
  • Also, he's rather touchy about his human half, both out of disdain for human weakness and love for his human mother, shown when Arkham calls him an "incomplete being"; he is so pissed that the only response he can come up with is to tell Arkham to shut up.
• BFS: The Yamato has a quite long blade that puts it on par with Dante's Rebellion and it becomes even longer when wielded by Nero in 4. As Nelo Angelo, he fought with a greatsword that was easily larger than his brother's weapons as well as taller than his already-enormous build. Owing to his demonic strength, Vergil can wield those swords with one hand if he wants to.
• Big Bad:
  • He's the main antagonist of 3, as he's trying to open a portal into the Demon World to get his hands on the power of Sparda that Dante has to stop. Actually part of a Big Bad Ensemble with Arkham, who's trying to do the same thing by manipulating Vergil and everyone else in the cast to open the portal and kill each other for him. In the end, he helps defeat Arkham and ends up as the Final Boss of 3.
  • He’s also this in 5. It has been revealed that Vergil used Yamato to separate his human half from his demon half to become the demon Urizen. When V and Urizen became whole again, Vergil takes over the Big Bad role for the rest of the story.
• Big Bad Ensemble: He and Arkham both attempt to Out Gambit each other through the second half of 3, with Vergil trying to kill Arkham, and Arkham manipulating the protagonists to weaken or kill Vergil for him.
• Big Brother Bully: Spends most of 3 as this, but shows shades of Big Brother Instinct in the ending when he urges Dante to leave the entrance to Hell as soon as possible, and takes a suicidal fall into Hell in order to prevent Dante from being stuck in the Demon World.
• Black Knight: As Nelo Angelo. Fittingly so, his name (if Nelo was spelled as Nero) is Italian for "Black Angel."
• Blessed with Suck: Like his younger twin, being Sparda's son has granted Vergil numerous abilities that allow him to not only fight off The Legions of Hell, and is the only one who can equally match Dante in a fight. Also like his younger twin, his supernatural bloodline has caused him to be treated with a "kill-on-sight" order for every demon.
• Blocking Stops All Damage: Depending on the game, Vergil can put up a defensive stance to block and negate damage from your attacks, although repeatedly hitting him or using heavier attacks breaks him out of his defense. As Nelo Angelo in 1, he does it using his zweihander. In 5, he does it with the Yamato when he's low on health, and his playable version in the Special Edition makes it an actual gameplay mechanic via a purchasable skill.
• Blood Knight: While he's not as open about it as Dante, Vergil does seem to enjoy a good fight, though it's mostly reserved for his brother. The post-credit scene for 5 shows that they just spend their time fighting when they're not handling hordes of demons.
• Blue-and-Orange Morality: Has this dynamic with his brother as a result of choosing to embrace his Demonic heritage over his Human heritage, in contrast to Dante, who bases his personal code on Human morality. Vergil honestly seems to have no interest in actually killing Dante, despite the numerous times they've cut each other to pieces. He just wants to prove himself the strongest.
  Lady: Although the same blood of their father flowed through their veins, the two battled each other fiercely like arch-enemies. It seemed as if they derived some sort of twisted pleasure from this brotherly fighting.
• Blue Is Heroic: Inverted. Vergil wears a blue trenchcoat in his most villainous appearances, particularly in 3, to contrast his brother's red color scheme. It is when Vergil becomes The Atoner that he wears a black trenchcoat.
• Body Horror: In Nero's flashback early on in DMC5 show that the events of DMC3 and DMC1 have decimated Vergil's body to the point that his healing factor has either stopped working or it's only just barely able to keep him going. His skin is the same pallid bluish grey it was when he was still Nelo Angelo, his face is physically cracked in places, he's struggling to so much as walk, he's barely able to speak, and he sometimes coughs when he does so. Even with the burst of energy he exhibits when he tears off Nero's arm, he's blatantly at death's door.
• Born Winner: Being the offspring of a powerful demon hero, both he and Dante have inherited said demon's powers.
• Boss Banter: Chock full of it when he becomes your opponent in 3 and 5. Apart from having lines that cue some of his attacks, a few of his banters are also situationally played depending on the game and the circumstances.
  • Vergil in 3 repeatedly insults Dante, calling him "scum" who is "not worthy of being (his) opponent". The other lines you hear depend on how you're faring, ranging from "Now, I'm a little motivated!" or "Don't get cocky." if you're doing well in the fight, or "Where's your motivation?" if you're performing poorly otherwise.
  • In 5, he can comment on your attack at one point when he blocks you for the first time ("Foolishness... is rushing in blindly all you can do?"), he has specific lines when he successfully impales you with his katana, while some of his other lines directly addressing Dante or Nero are triggered when his health drops at certain thresholds.
• Boss Subtitles:
  The Alpha and the Omega: Vergil
• Brainwashed and Crazy: As Nelo Angelo, Vergil is turned into a minion against his own will by Mundus, causing him to fight his own brother in the first game.
• Breakout Villain: Goes from being The Heavy in the first game, then acting as the Big Bad of 3 as part of a Big Bad Ensemble. Unlike all the other villains, he also became a Playable Character in the Updated Rereleases of 3, 4, and 5. Finally, Vergil is the undisputed Big Bad of 5 in his Urizen form.
• Broken Ace: Vergil is Dante's equal in demon-slaying, able to mow down entire squads as if they're nothing more than a mere inconvenience and being the only one that can match him blow for blow. Also like his twin brother, the loss of his house and the death of his mother by Mundus affected him greatly, which he hides underneath a stoic demeanor.
• Brought to You by the Letter "S": His Devil Trigger form in 5 has a great big glowing V-shaped Heart Light on it, in opposition to Dante's more star-shaped one.
• Byronic Hero: He's an Anti-Villain, but nonetheless has many traits of this archetype. He is a Jade-Colored Glasses cynic with a Dark and Troubled Past who considers his own values and passions as being above everyone else's and thus is doggedly determined to follow his values and passions, even if it means trampling over others (more specifically, seeking to acquire the power of his father in order to re-establish the Kingdom of Sparda). As for the romantic element common to many Byronic Heroes, there is the tryst that produced his son Nero.
• Cain and Abel: Starting from 3, the sibling rivalry theme is primarily focused on Dante and Vergil's differences in regards to which side of their nature they embraced. Dante chose to go with his human heritage, Vergil with his demonic side, and the two never met peacefully again.
• Came Back Strong: Dante ended up stronger than Vergil by the end of 3, and by the end of 1 had defeated him as Nelo Angelo, and continued getting stronger after that. After reforming from V and Urizen in 5, he's now gained a Sin Devil Trigger which makes him the equal of Dante as well as the superior to Urizen's powered up form.
• Cannot Spit It Out: A non-romantic example. Supplemental materials state that Vergil still has a great deal of respect for his younger brother, even if his pride would never allow him to actually say it. This is perhaps best seen at the end of 3, where Vergil tells Dante to not follow him and advises him to escape from the Demon World before the portal closes, without directly addressing the fact he now acknowledges Dante and further cares about his well-being.
• Captain Ersatz: To Sesshomaru from Inuyasha. Both are power-hungry anti-heroes/villains that descend from incredibly powerful demons that are initially antagonistic towards their diametrically opposite, yet similar younger brother. Not content with the incredible powers they already had, both sought out an Ancestral Weapon that belonged to their father for more power, only for the former to lose possession to the latter after a violent struggle. Post-Character Development, they become an Aloof Older Brother that cares for their sibling in their own way, albeit hiding it behind their usual cool facade.
• Casting Gag: Dan Southworth plays Vergil, the Anti-Hero brother of the red-clad protagonist who, while wanting to one-up his brother, would ultimately team up if the need arose. Southworth previously portrayed Eric Myers, the Anti-Hero Childhood Friend of the red-clad protagonist who, while wanting to one-up his acquaintance, would ultimately team up if the need arose.
• Character Development: His return in 5 marks a small, but noteworthy evolution of Vergil's character. By splitting himself into two fragments, Vergil's human half (V) witnesses firsthand where his lust for power could potentially take him, and is not pleased with the result (Urizen) to say the least. Upon becoming whole once again, learning that Nero is his son, and finally getting one hell of an asskicking from said son, his relationship with Dante mellows to a degree, and he also comes to acknowledge how strong his son Nero is. He then ventures with Dante into the Demon World in order to fix the problems he caused as Urizen.
• Characterization Marches On: Vergil is surprisingly a lot more expressive and cocky in 3 than he is in any other game in the series, being able to speak to Dante in a much more laid-back and casual tone and can even be jokingly mockful. This was likely done to make him look more like Dante's Evil Counterpart. Later games in the series would remove this part of his character while putting certain parts of his personality (his honor, stoicism, and lust for power) more in the forefront, although his cockiness returns after he pulls a downplayed Heel–Face Turn.
• Character Tics: Vergil flips his hair back often, which gives his hair its characteristic spikiness and reveals his forehead. It's also used in his default taunt. As shown in 3 when he has his hair down due to the rain, he looks strikingly similar to his twin Dante, but one hair flip later and it's back to shape, making the tic a way to separate and further differentiate himself from his brother. In 4, Dante slicks his hair in the full animation of Dark Slayer Style as a reference to his brother doing it in the past, and in Vergil's opening cutscene from 4:SE, he still somehow flips his hair back even if it's already slicked. In 5, Vergil's human half V also has a habit of flipping his bangs during his Idle Animation, and Dante slicks his hair again as another homage when he defeats Vergil in the Bloody Palace mode.
• Child Supplants Parent: Played straight: Vergil's entire goal in the third game is to gain power and be like/surpass his father, and he's stated in the manga to dislike Dante (as a substitute for Sparda) simply because he thought Eva favored him more.
• Classic Villain: He represents pride and lust. 5 adds envy, as well.
• The Comically Serious: Ever since his return in 5, Vergil has been slowly revealing a more laidback and humorous side to him, even though he still tries to hide it beneath his stoic demeanor. Pictures have him displaying a noticeable social awkwardness and his EX taunt in the Special Edition has him being very embarassed at his doppelganger dancing around him — and then cutting him down.
• Composite Character: At least in terms of gameplay. Since Devil May Cry 4 Special Edition, a lot of Vergil's combat concepts that were introduced in the reboot DmC Devil May Cry have slowly made their way into the mainline games. Starting with 4, Vergil has gained the ability to embed a summon sword in an enemy and instantly teleport to their location — regardless of distance, and in 5 summoning a doppelganger (with adjustable input lag) has replaced his default Devil Trigger, while his Sin Devil Trigger becomes the all-purpose power-up. Likely a bit of a shout-out that his new outfit also takes small cues from his DmC version as well.
• Cool Mask: Nelo Angelo wears one to conceal his true identity in the first game. During the third and final battle, when he finally takes it off, he's even more of a challenge than before.
• Cool Sword: Yamato, a sword given to him by his father.
• Cold-Blooded Torture: As revealed in Visions of V, Vergil was physically and mentally flayed apart by Mundus after their duel, to the point where he was turned into a submissive henchman.
• Cold Ham: In terms of demeanor, Vergil is the complete opposite of Dante, but the way he fights is just as over-the-top and his dialogue is full of Purple Prose.
• The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard:
  • In 3, Boss Vergil stays in Devil Trigger mode far longer than playable Vergil ever can, especially on harder difficulty modes. And once you knock him below half health, it lasts even longer.
  • In 5, Vergil's Sin Devil Trigger lasts much longer than Dante's and his even restores health like the standard Devil Trigger state when fighting him as Dante. When fighting him as Nero, he will remain in that form indefinitely after transforming, although it no longer replenishes health.
• Create Your Own Hero: Vergil begets a child named Nero who would go on to be the protagonist of 4 and 5. Nero would also defeat Vergil in the latter game.
• Cryptic Conversation: The above quote, which led to a metric ton of Alternative Character Interpretation.
• Cultured Badass: Through the Badass Bookworm version of him, V, we learn the deadly half-demon Vergil has also been a fan of William Blake poetry since childhood, loves Classical Music enough to be able to know how to convincingly conduct and mime a violin solo, and even knows how to tap dance.
• Daddy's Boy: His preference for his demonic heritage over humanity and his conversation with Dante at the end of DMC5:SE indicate that Vergil was always better with his pops Sparda than his mother Eva.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Dante and Vergil grew up separately after their mother Eva died when Mundus led a demon attack on their household, while their father Sparda disappeared and died from unrevealed circumstances. In 5 and its supplementary material, this incident is discussed and revisited in a flashback; Eva died before she could find Vergil, which caused the latter to believe that he was abandoned.
• Dark Is Evil: Yamato is a blade said to have been forged in darkness, and allows its wielder to use the "Dark Slayer" style, which gives them the power of darkness. He also wears black clothing in 5, but this is Subverted in a sense, as at this point Vergil is at the highest he's been in his morality.
• The Dark Side Will Make You Forget:
  • After separating his human and demon sides, the demonic side (Urizen) says that he can no longer remember various things from his past when Dante tries to jog his memory. The human side, V, remembers everything — including the things he'd rather not.
  • However, there's the case with his distaste for Dante's "Jackpot" quote —which both of them used to say as kids and said it again right before finishing Arkham in 3. This is even touched upon in the ending of Vergil's campaign in the Special Edition: Dante lampshades how Vergil and him loved the catchphrase, though he claims to have no recollection of it. Urizen may have left some influence on the reborn Vergil — or he is just in denial of his past. He does say it when he does the final string of his Judgment Cuts during gameplay and banters back when Dante decides to try and 'jolt' his memory about it, so it's more likely he's just fed up with his brother's antics.
• A Day in the Limelight: He's the protagonist of his own story in 4:SE, which takes place before 3. He also gets a ton of focus in 5, as both the Big Bad Urizen and Big Good V, each of whom touch on different parts of his Heel–Face Revolving Door personality.
• Defeat Means Respect: After losing in battle to Nero in 5, Vergil heeds his son's demands to stop the Qliphoth instead of continuing his feud with Dante, and even gives Nero his poetry book to hang onto until the next time they fight. That said, this is Vergil, so strength is the only thing that can make him listen, and it's clear that he won't take this defeat lying down.
• Defiant to the End: Visions of V shows that, despite being bloodied, exhausted, weaponless, and suspended in the air by spikes driven through his body, he still doesn't submit to Mundus.
  Mundus: Sparda. Sparda. That traitor! Had he not sullied demon blood with a human womb, perhaps he could had a son with at least some grit.
  Vergil: Done with the drivel yet? I can still keep going.
• Deflector Shields: In 3, he'll put one up to signify one of his deadlier moves — Devil Trigger in the second and third battle, Judgement Cut Storm in the third, and, in Dante Must Die mode, Summoned Swords and its derived moves in all three fights.
• Demoted to Dragon: Timeline-wise, he goes from being the Big Bad of the prequel game, 3, to being corrupted into The Heavy to Mundus in the very first game. Inverted when he reascends the ladder to become the Big Bad of 5.
• Difficult, but Awesome: How his playstyle is best described in the Special Editions for Devil May Cry 4 and 5. Starting from 4, Vergil has a special meter that increases his damage output and fills and decreases based on how calm the player controls Vergil. The gauge increases when you land a hit, dodge oncoming attacks, and walk slowly around the battlefield. On the other hand, the gauge will decrease if Vergil takes damage, runs around, or misses. Once the gauge is at max power and Vergil engages Devil Trigger (Sin Devil Trigger in DMC5:SE), he can execute Judgment Cut End, which deals obscene amounts of damage to all enemies. While maintaining this gauge isn't much of a problem on lower difficulties like Human or Devil Hunter, you will find yourself tested on Legendary Dark Knight mode where you'll be fighting entire hordes of demons at a time.
• Dimensional Cutter: His sword Yamato can literally cut holes between the Human and Demon World and momentarily cut space itself into pieces.
  Nico's Reports – Yamato: As a weapon, it's basically your standard katana, only this one's magic and has an edge sharp enough to cut through space itself.
• Disappeared Dad: Has one (Sparda) and is one (for Nero). A rare twofer.
• Disney Death: Falls into an abyss at the end of 3 after having his Healing Factor exhausted by Dante, and still survives. He then gets horribly tortured and corrupted by the Big Bad of 1, and then gets the crap beaten out of him multiple times by Dante again, and then seemingly explodes into nothing. Only to return yet again in 5, though he has to take some pretty extreme measures to recover from the years of abuse his body had taken.
• Divergent Character Evolution: When Vergil was made playable in 3: Special Edition, he shared the same basic gameplay as Dante, except with two unique Devil Arms, a gun equivalent in the form of his Summoned Swords, and a single unique Style. In 4: Special Edition, he was given the Concentration gauge, allowing him to become more powerful the better the player does and access to Limit Breaks. 5: Special Edition replaces his Devil Trigger with Doppelganger, and his Sin Devil Trigger differs from Dante's in that it functions similarly to his old DT, i.e. as a Super Mode, rather than giving him a completely new moveset like Dante's SDT does.
• Doesn't Like Guns: Is stated to think that firearms are dishonorable weapons, shown in the quote below from Marvel vs. Capcom 3. His boss profile in 3 also says he doesn't view guns as weapons of a true warrior. However, he gives them a shot near the end of 3; he picks up one of his brother's pistols, stating that he'll "try things your way for once" as he and Dante pull off a Combination Attack. This also does not stop Vergil from using his Summoned Swords. The Summoned Swords' description from the official website for Devil May Cry 5: Special Edition also says Vergil is "Never a fan of firearms".
  Vergil: Guns are so... distasteful. A crude instrument for an unrefined weakling.
• Doppelgänger Attack: In DMC5, he can summon a spectral doppelganger of his devil trigger to attack alongside him as a result of being split into two different beings in that game.
• Double Jump: Notable in that he is the only playable character in the series to lack the traditional double jump mechanic (pressing the jump button twice), which is odd because even Lady, a normal human, can double jump via Blaster. Although Vergil can perform something that mimics a double jump, the only way to do this is by using Trick Up after a regular jump.
• Downloadable Content: He's paid DLC for the original PC, Xbox One, and PS4 versions of Devil May Cry 5.
• Dragon-in-Chief: In 3, Vergil is this to Arkham. While Arkham manipulates Vergil and does out-gambit him, it's blatantly obvious in the storyline that he was nothing without Vergil backing him. As soon as Arkham makes his move and gains Sparda's power... he degenerates from a copy of Sparda into a near-mindless demonic blob. His powers are easily destroyed by both of Sparda's twins and he's summarily shot by Lady.
• Dragons Are Demonic: His Devil Trigger forms evoke the appearance of dragons, with scales and a reptilian face.
• Dramatic Irony: As someone who wishes to fully embrace his demonic side and cast out his humanity in order to gain more power, Vergil's inheritance, Yamato, is able to do just that, but while it grants him the tremendous power he craves, it still pales in comparison to Dante, the twin who embraced his humanity but was gifted Rebellion, which he used to unite both his human and demonic sides and emerged even stronger than Vergil. Then there's Vergil's own son Nero, who is arguably the single, greatest, and most human of Vergil's legacies, and who has demonstrated far greater potential than both Dante and Vergil.
• Driven by Envy: 5 reveals that his enmity with Dante was driven by the belief that their mother saved Dante but left him to fend for himself, not knowing that Eva in fact died looking for him. He both wanted to be cared for and loved, and wanted his believed abandonment and loss to be somehow justified, and thus wanted to prove himself to be Dante's better.
• Dual Wielding: He neatly wields both Yamato and Force Edge towards the end of 3 as well as in all of his playable appearances. With Force Edge gone, Mirage Edge takes its place for this in 5.
• Easily Forgiven: While Vergil was dying and traumatized, and it's arguable how much Urizen is Vergil without his humanity, and V actively tried to save everyone, Vergil is still the cause of Urizen's birth and at least indirectly responsible for the untold amount of deaths in Red Grave City. And yet, Dante seems content to simply take Yamato from Vergil so he won't be able to do anything like this again if Vergil would actually give it up, while Nero prioritizes stopping his father and uncle from killing each other. However, Nero also makes it clear he hasn't forgiven his father for the Parental Abandonment, taking off his arm, and so on.
• Energy Weapon: Not only would having Force Edge make no chronological sense for Vergil in Devil May Cry 5, the sword technically doesn't even exist anymore after the Devil Sword Sparda has been used to form Devil Sword Dante. Instead, for his playable version in DMC5, he has Mirage Edge, a sword made entirely of Vergil's own infernal energy in the shape of Force Edge with the same moveset. Presumably a larger, more melee appropriate version of his Summoned Swords. Nico's report has her a bit incredulous about it.
  "So I guess Vergil can just straight up make a magic sword from thin air now? Just swinging his soul around like a blade… If your pops can manage this, maybe you can too? Would you mind... y'know, giving it a shot? For me?"
• Establishing Character Moment: His very first appearance in 3 has him silence Arkham who hams up about the Temen-ni-gru, showing his serious nature and how much he just gets straight to the point. Right after, when the Hell Vanguard that Dante previously likely had trouble with shows up on the top of the tower, Vergil easily kills it with just one strike without even looking at it coming from behind him, showing how big the initial gap in power is between Dante and Vergil.
• Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: Despite his dislike of humanity, Vergil never once speaks ill of his mother. Notice that when he's finally defeated by Dante in 3, the first thing he reaches for is his half of the Perfect Amulet. It can also be inferred that Nelo Angelo's pain when seeing Dante's half in 1 is due to the memories of childhood with Eva and Dante.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Ultimately, deep down, Vergil does still care quite a bit for his younger brother, despite his resentment. After the events of 5, and his time as V changing him for the better, he's a lot less antagonistic towards Dante, and behaves very cordially towards Nero even before learning that Nero is his son, and not, as he believed, his nephew.
• Even Evil Has Standards: He follows a strict code of honor, and shows disgust towards anyone who uses cheap tactics or betrayal for their own agenda such as Arkham.
• Evil Counterpart:
  • To Dante. Both went through the same trauma of losing their mother, yet reacted very differently to it. Vergil chose to embrace his demonic side so he could become more powerful, while Dante chose to protect humans.
  • Also one to Nero. Both are primarily blue colored part-demons who inherited power from their fathers, and both seek to grow stronger throughout the course of their respective games. Nero, however, fights to protect others, and his strength comes from his love for Kyrie. Vergil, on the other hand, fights only for himself.
• Evil Former Friend: It comes with being twins. Hard to believe considering how their relationship ended up, but he and Dante were close growing up, until their separation.
• Evil Laugh: As Nelo Angelo, this was one of his only instances of an actual voice. Vergil also has one before his final battle with Dante in 3.
• Evil Twin: A textbook example at first glance. When they fight in the rain, Vergil's hair falls down, so he looks even more exactly like Dante.
• Eviler than Thou: A very weird example in 3 to Arkham. Vergil considers Arkham unworthy of Sparda's power, unlike himself, and helps Dante defeat him. However, while both of them share the same goal in attaining said power, Vergil is a Noble Demon who wants it out of a desire to Never Be Hurt Again, while Arkham is a truly selfish being who wants it to achieve godhood. In short, Arkham's more evil, but Vergil proves to be the superior villain.
• Evil Wears Black: Dante's Evil Counterpart twin brother, whose default costume in 5 is a predominantly black outfit. However, 5 is also Vergil at his least villainous in the entire series.

F-N

• Failure Knight: Hinted at more than once throughout 3. It seems his initial motivation for wanting more power was due to a feeling of complete helplessness when Eva was killed, and wanting to protect Dante afterward. But, like any obsessive and dangerous thirst for more power, it corrupted him and he soon forgot even why he wanted that power. Arkham promptly attempted to capitalize on this.
• Fair-Play Villain: One of Vergil's most defining and sympathetic qualities is his sense of honor. He always fights fair and does not enjoy fighting anyone that doesn't give their all in battle. As himself or Nelo Angelo, his fights never involve any gimmicks or cheap tricks. It's telling that, upon coming back to his true self in 5, the first thing he tells Dante is to heal his wounds and fight him at full strength. Likewise, he's extremely reluctant to see Nero as a threat until Nero reveals his Devil Trigger and fights him in earnest.
• Fanboy: The "Old Man's Diary" document in 5 reveals that Vergil likes William Blake poetry most of all among some collection of poems. It's why the old man gave him a Blake anthology as a gift, something that he would retain or quote even up to adulthood. This side of Vergil is embodied by his human half V quoting a lot of William Blake poetry.
• Fatal Flaw: Pride. Vergil's other defining trait is his overwhelming ego. Unlike Dante, who surrounds himself with people that don't take his shit, Vergil simply cannot bring himself to trust or ask for help from anyone. He charges off alone to fight Mundus after being beaten to a pulp by Dante, arrogantly claiming that since Sparda could do it, he could do it too. He does the exact same thing against Nero despite Nero demonstrating his new Devil Trigger form. The entire plot of 5 gets kicked off as much from Vergil's battered pride as anything else, and Urizen inherits this arrogance as well.
• Fearful Symmetry: A viable tactic in any fight with Vergil is to parry his attacks with well-timed strikes of your own, putting a kibosh on his offensive while giving you a window of opportunity to counter. It's practically a necessity with Nelo Angelo, who tends to come back raring for another go with that blade of his even after being successfully warded off.
• The Fettered: He may pursue power relentlessly, but Vergil still follows a strict moral code and has lines he will not cross. Urizen in 5 shows just how heinous and monstrous Vergil would be without his humanity and honor code holding him back. However, his code only seems to apply to actions directly taken by Vergil. For example, he wouldn't start randomly cutting down bystanders, but he also doesn't care if said bystanders die due to, say, summoning Temen-Ni-Gru and loosing an army of demons on them.
• Final Boss:
  • Of 3. Uniquely, his final encounter is the game's sole Boss-Only Level.
  • Also serves as the final battle for both Dante and Nero in 5 in the final two missions, respectively.
• Final Boss Preview: Vergil uses many of the same attacks in the three battles you fight against him, but will add new ones each time he gains new weapons. In the first fight, he only carries his Yamato. In the second battle, he adds the Beowulf gauntlets and greaves into his arsenal, and will use his Devil Trigger. In the end, he lost his Beowulf in exchange for the Force Edge, will use a stronger Devil Trigger that lasts much longer that also enables him to perform his Limit Breaks. In Dante Must Die mode, he will use Summoned Swords in all three of his fights.
• Finishing Move: Judgement Cut End. It requires a maxed out Concentration Gauge, as well as for Vergil to be in Devil Trigger, but it can one-shot virtually anything that isn't a Boss. The attack returns in 5, and has slightly different requirements. Vergil still needs a maxed-out Concentration Gauge, but no longer needs to be in Devil Trigger to use the move. Instead, he requires a full Sin Devil Trigger Gauge, which will be completely used up upon execution of the move.
• Flash Step: He does this a lot. Usually labeled in-game as the "Trick" technique, it's a part of his general fighting style, called the Dark Slayer Style which focuses on teleportation and swordsmanship. Vergil is more adept at teleportation than Dante because of his greater experience and knowledge with his demonic powers. As Nelo Angelo though, it becomes less effective as Vergil is sealed inside an oversized suit of demonic armor, and is undermined both by the blue flames that signify his flight path as well as the fact that he rarely uses it to his advantage. When Vergil is playable, his teleportation range is limited, but he is capable of doing this up, down, and towards a targeted enemy.
• Flechette Storm: From 3 onwards, Vergil can shoot a stream of magical swords. He can also make them fire even faster than usual, as a move called "Blistering Swords" or "Blistering Edge" in 4 and 5 respectively. As Nelo Angelo from 1, he was also quite fond of summoning those swords around Dante as well before cutting loose.
• Flying Weapon: Vergil/Nelo Angelo has his Summoned Swords/Mirage Blades, which he throws magically as his ranged attack as both a boss and a playable character. He has a wide variety of uses and attacks with his floating swords (e.g. Storm of Blades, Flechette Storm, Reverse Shrapnel), but he never has to move his hands nor physically hold those Summoned Swords/Mirage Blades while performing these attacks.
• Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: It's gradually revealed that he's the more foolish of the two brothers. While Dante can be rather irreverent and slovenly, he's far more emotionally mature and sociable compared to how much of a petulant, damaged loner Vergil can be.
• Friendly Rivalry: After Nero forces him to make peace with Dante, he settles into this sort of relationship with his brother. Their final scene is of the two bickering over who has the better score in their sparring matches and working together to keep the demons sealed in the underworld.
• Gameplay and Story Integration: In 5, when he fights Nero, he's already weakened due to his fight against Dante. Fitting this, unless playing on higher difficulties during another playthrough, his health will be far easier to deplete in the second fight than the first fight.
• Gangsta Style: The one time he wields Ebony, he holds it in this manner.
• "Get Back Here!" Boss: During the first fight against Nelo Angelo, he will teleport away from you to the upper floors of the arena and goad you into following him.
• Glass Cannon: In 5. Vergil can do devastating amounts of damage thanks to his Limit Breaks, but since his Devil Trigger is replaced with Doppelganger, his only reliable ways of healing is via Sin Devil Trigger, which isn't as easy to activate as regular Devil Trigger, requiring a full bar to activate, and World Of V, in where he stabs himself with the Yamato to let his familiars attack for him.
• Good Hair, Evil Hair: His slicked back 'do, as opposed to Dante's unkept and down. In 3, after it gets wet, he looks exactly like Dante.
• Good Scars, Evil Scars: Vergil has an unlockable costume that shows him with nasty-looking scars all over his face, which are the results of his corruption as Nelo Angelo. In 5, this trait becomes a hint that Vergil is the mysterious figure who takes Nero's Devil Bringer.
• Greater-Scope Villain: Of 4 and 5. The Yamato was originally his, the Bianco and Alto Angelo demons were essentially weaker clones of his Nelo Angelo form, and the villains' major plan would fall apart without his influence. In 5, he created Urizen and V, albeit by accident, and as a result the plot revolves around him despite him technically not being present. This ends in the final act, when Urizen is destroyed by V and they recombine back into Vergil.
• Ground Punch:
  • As a boss fight in 3, Vergil switches to his Yamato katana after punching the ground with the Beowulf gauntlets.
  • Vergil in 5:SE can use Hell on Earth, a Limit Break where he punches the ground with the Beowulf to deal massive damage, which can even knock down bosses. Just like his other two weapon-specific super moves, it requires a full Concentration Gauge while either being in Sin Devil Trigger form, or having a full Sin Devil Trigger Gauge.
• Hair Reboot: During the first fight with Vergil in 3, it's raining and Vergil's normally spiked-back hairdo looks more like Dante's. After you "win", he makes a motion with his hand to slick back his hair with his hand, returning it to his normal state.
• Half-Breed Angst: Vergil resents being a half-human, half-demon. But unlike his brother, he views his human side as a form of weakness and got pissed off in 3 when Arkham mocks him as an "incomplete being" because of it.
• Ham and Deadpan Duo: Sparda's twin sons form this dynamic; Dante is prone to bouts of hamminess (although he clearly plays it for amusement, shits and giggles) while Vergil is completely straight-laced.
• Heads I Win, Tails You Lose: The first fight against him in 3 will result in a game over if you lose, and Vergil taking your amulet and then impaling you with your own sword if you win. In 5, this is zigzagged; if Dante beats Vergil in Mission 19, the game transitions into the next cutscene by having Vergil get in another attack, but the cutscene in question just shows the two brothers continue fighting rather than Vergil beating Dante.
• Healing Factor: In 3, he can Trigger and regain health in his second and third fights. However, it does have some limits as extreme exhaustion seems to reduce its effectiveness, as seen when Arkham makes his big play after his second fight with Dante. In general, this trait allows him to survive injuries that would have killed an ordinary human being, such as getting pierced by his own sword, Yamato.
• Heal Thyself: Vergil's "World of V" skill in 5 allows him to instantly recover some vitality by stabbing himself with the Yamato. This empties his Concentration Gauge, but the amount of health restored is proportional to the Concentration consumed.
• Heel–Face Turn: A Downplayed example in 5. He's still very stoic and ruthless, antagonistic, and at the end of 5, he still picks a fight with both Nero and Dante, but his horrible experiences as Mundus's slave and as Urizen have changed him for the better; he's a lot more pleasant and polite, sincerely thanking Nero for helping him restore his form, agrees to help save the Human World when push comes to shove, and has finally mended his relationship with his estranged brother, settling for a Friendly Rivalry with him.
• Hero of Another Story: Though it's a borderline excuse plot, Vergil traveling to Fortuna City to investigate the Order of the Sword and its connection to his father in DMC4 is canon and chronologically taking place not long before DMC3. The importance of the only real fact to be taken away from it cannot be argued: that Vergil, intentionally or not, laid the groundwork for DMC4 by impregnating Nero's mother while he was there, and even that is still only heavily implied before being confirmed in DMC5.
• Hidden Depths: While Vergil initially seems pretty clear cut in his behaviour and motives, digging into his character reveals a lot of suppressed emotional depth.
  • While Vergil positions himself as an eloquent and focused swordsman who favors careful precision over his brother's playful performance, Vergil has a notable temper. His Desperation Attack during his final fight in 3 has him rapidly spam Helm Breakers in an attempt to overwhelm Dante with sheer force, and he notably loses his temper when the Temen-ni-Gru gate to the underworld fails to open despite having supposedly met the qualifications for doing so. This carries over into his Sin Devil Trigger form. SDT is described as being the "true power" of the Sons of Sparda, reflecting who they are at the deepest level. Fittingly, Dante's SDT form is very humanoid and graceful, where Vergil's is bestial and violent. This is most apparent when comparing their methods of flight — Dante's SDT has his wings unfurl to give him the ability to glide and perform aerial attacks with Devil Sword Dante, while Vergil shoots fire out of his arms ala a jet engine and prefers slamming into things with supersonic force.
  • It is heavily implied that Vergil took Eva's death worse than Dante, hence his constant search for power. But where Dante has mostly gotten over his mother's demise, Vergil has not, and several people have pointed out how Vergil's obsessions with power seem to stem from this childhood trauma. 5 reveals the circumstances behind why — during the attack on their home, Eva found Dante first and hid him before searching for Vergil. She died before he could be found, causing Vergil to believe he was abandoned.
  • We learn a lot about Vergil through V. He likes the works of William Blake, for one, and his most prized possession is the book of Blake's poetry that V carries around with him.
  • Hilariously, the "Old Man's Diary" document in 5 reveals Vergil having a tendency to write his name on things to make them "truly his" because he and Dante fought over things so often.
  • On a more humorous note, the playable DLC of him in 5 reveals that Vergil actually does say "Jackpot" a lot. If the player can successfully pull off three Perfect Judgement Cuts in a row, Vergil will say "Jackpot!" in a confident tone. It's implied he just hates saying it around Dante for understandable reasons.
• Hidden Disdain Reveal: 5 reveals that he always resented Dante for supposedly being favored more by Eva. While this seems to put him more in line with his treacherous alternate counterpart, it's far more understandable given he never got to see her looking for him during the attack on their home, and looking back he was far healthier about it, retaining a sense of genuine care for his brother even while they were enemies.
• Hijacked by Ganon: After Dante beats Urizen in 5, V merges with him back into Vergil, leading to a final Duel to the Death between Vergil and Dante, and then Nero and Vergil (with a tired Dante deciding to just sit things out) to make the two focus on closing the Hell Gate.
• Hot Wings: His new Devil Trigger in 5 has blue flames in the shape of small wings erupting from his forearms.
• Human-Demon Hybrid: Eva's his human mother and Sparda's his demon father.
• I Am the Noun: In 5:SE, Vergil's leitmotif, "Bury the Light", invokes this with the line "I am the storm that is approaching!"
• I Can Still Fight!:
  • Pulls this in 3, refusing to stop fighting his brother despite his own exhaustion. This all plays into Arkham's hands, as both Vergil and Dante are left so worn out, they can barely struggle against Jester, who is well aware of how much stronger they are at full strength than him.
  • In 5, he battles Dante to a near standstill, and both are worn down by the time Nero intervenes with his full Devil Trigger. Vergil then jumps straight into a fight with his son, ultimately being pushed back but adamantly claiming he's still able to battle. However, he acknowledges that destroying the Qliphoth is more important at the moment, as it'll destroy the human world if left unchecked, which would get in the way of his quest for more power and his rivalry with Dante.
  • The Visions of V manga reveals this is his response to Mundus defeating him at the end of DMC3. He says this after Yamato is shattered and he's held up only by the various sharp spikes stabbing into his arms, legs, and chest.
• I Hate Past Me: Like V, he isn't particularly happy about the lows Urizen stooped to in his quest for power, and soon after goes to destroy the Qliphoth and portal to the Demon World his demon half spent the entirety of 5 setting up.
• Iaijutsu Practitioner: His main fighting style consists of drawing Yamato against his enemies for quick and precise slashes. His signature Judgement Cut has him do this while filling up an area in front of him with blue slashes from his sword while it's only perceptible that his arms moved a bit forward and then back. In fact, using this style is the key to unleashing the sword's most powerful moves, as shown when Dante wields it in 4 and has access to the Slash Dimension attack. Deconstructed in that his distinctive sword-sheathing after performing Judgement Cut End can leave him vulnerable for Dante or Nero to beat him up as he does that.
• Identical Twin ID Tag: Dante has a relatively simple red longcoat in all his appearances and wears his hair loose. Vergil wears a far more elaborate blue coat and keeps his hair slicked back, though occasionally (such as toward the end of their first fight in 3), it falls out of place, making it look identical to Dante's.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: In 5, he gets to join in on the Sparda family tradition of getting impaled by their own swords. He separated his human and demon halves by impaling himself with the Yamato. During the final boss fight in Mission 20, he can impale Nero first if the player times right, which immediately prompts Nero to yank out Yamato and impale Vergil in return. It turns out in Visions of V, he was impaled by a demon who attacked his home when he was a child, which in turn summoned Yamato in front of him.
• Implausible Fencing Powers: Although his demonic nature justifies these, Vergil can catch and parry bullets with his katana, Yamato. His weapon can also create portals and distortions out of thin air. And as mentioned by his character profile in 3, the speed of his swordplay with the Yamato can also be very fast, it "appears invisible to the human eye".
• Inconsistent Spelling: His Charged Attack and Limit Break abilities with the Yamato are respectively named "Judgement Cut" and "Judgement Cut End" in 3:SE and 4:SE. However, these are named "Judgment Cut" and "Judgment Cut End" in 5:SE.
• Ineffectual Loner: His belief in living by one's own strength is always instrumental to his defeats as Dante is willing to accept the help of others, whether it be direct assistance or vis-a-vis a loaned weapon. To illustrate, Vergil blindly attacked Mundus on his lonesome, and was utterly crushed. Whereas Dante managed to banish that same demon, but only with the devil sword Sparda and Trish's aid.
• "Instant Death" Radius: Summoned Swords - Spiral Swords, used by Nelo Angelo during his final fight and by Vergil during 3's Dante Must Die mode. Hope that you wrote your will.
• Instant Expert: Just like Dante, Vergil displays an immediate knowledge of how to master certain weapons. Upon killing Beowulf in 3 and absorbing his soul, he instantly creates a set of gauntlets and greaves and proceeds to unleash some powerful moves in the demon's corpse, as well as use them to fight Dante for the second time at mission 13.
• Irony:
  • Vergil wanted to follow in his father's footsteps by becoming a powerful demon who was respected and feared by all. He ends up enslaved by Mundus who transforms him into Nelo Angelo, a demon that resembles Sparda's demon form in some ways but is nothing like him in terms of personality.
  • Gets hit with it again in 5. Vergil always viewed his humanity as a weakness, and the plot of 5 is kickstarted when he uses the Yamato to literally cut his humanity out of his body. However as he would soon come to learn, many of the qualities that he prides himself on, such as his moral code and a strong sense of honor, came from his human half, and his pure demon self, Urizen, was a monster who merely wished to amass power for its own sake, and took measures that Vergil would have never even entertained.
• It's All About Me: Shown through his half demonic side Urizen that he thinks Dante lost nothing, nevermind he also became an orphan. Vergil's taste for power and desire to beat Dante takes priority over everyone else.
• It Was a Gift: Much like Rebellion for Dante, his Yamato sword was originally a keepsake of his father. There's also his half of the Perfect Amulet, given to him by his mother Eva.
• Jerkass: Though Vergil hides it behind a veneer of sophistication and (sometimes genuine) affability, he lets his true colors slip every now and then. When Arkham gushes about the Temen-ni-gru and its function, Vergil is quick to cut him off, saying that's none of his concern.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: By the end of 5, Vergil has mostly changed his attitude from being a pure stone cold jerk with extremely callous behavior as he was in earlier games. Although he's still very stubborn and a bit stoic, he now has started to become more affable, showing gratitude to Nero for helping restore both of his split personas back to himself and accepting Nero as his son once he's defeated. He is also on much better terms with Dante, as the both of them are seen helping each other out, fighting off multiple demons together, and engaging in brotherly contests against each other for fun rather than fighting to kill each other.
• "Just Frame" Bonus: With precise timing, Vergil's Judgment Cut can come off faster and deal more damage than usual. 5:SE introduced the ability to cancel just about anything in Yamato's moveset with a Just Frame Judgement Cut (including Judgement Cut itself, up to three times) by charging one up and letting go of the melee button right when Vergil sheaths the Yamato at the end of an attack.
• Katanas Are Just Better: His weapon of choice is his father's katana Yamato. Even when equipping the Force Edge broadsword, he also intersperses it with strikes from the katana as well. He is also an Iaijutsu Practitioner when using the katana alone, as all his attacks are done from the draw. Dante and Nero both get to use the sword as well (with Nero using it as the key to unlocking his demonic side and Dante using Vergil's iai techniques).
• Lack of Empathy: While Vergil is never shown to actively try to hurt innocent people in his role for 3, he is not shown to care for the number of people who died in the surge of Temen-ni-gru, the demon portal tower he participated in its summoning to further his goals. His time as V in 5 seems to have lessened this.
• Leitmotif: "Bury the Light" in DMC 5: SE, whose lyrics go through Vergil's life up until he split himself in two. Composer Casey Edwards noted that the song is largely a reflection of Devil Trigger (Nero's Theme) and Vergil's own psyche.
• Let's Fight Like Gentlemen: Vergil always fights fair. He never gangs up on you with other demons, refuses to use guns since he thinks they conflict with what a swordsman should be like, and won't strike at an opponent's back. This persists even during his time as Nelo Angelo, where he always engages Dante on a level playing field and doesn't have any associated gimmicks; it's just a straightforward one-on-one swordfight each time. Part of the need to fight fair is of course his pride, but there's no doubt that Vergil considers fighting like this to be the only real way to prove he's better than his brother.
• Lightning Bruiser:
  • In 3, Vergil was not only stronger, faster, and more durable than his brother, but also his Implausible Fencing Powers are even more nuanced. What's more, Vergil actually developed his DT even earlier than Dante, which is why the latter was the on the receiving end of a Curb-Stomp Battle in their initial bout.
  • Even when Vergil is a zombie-like puppet (Nelo Angelo) of Mundus, or his demonic Soul Jar (Urizen) from 5 acted on his own, Vergil is still ridiculously strong, fast, and near-unkillable. Fully reborn Vergil could just about break even with Dante who had become much stronger since 3.
• Like Father, Like Son: As much as he would like to proclaim that he wants to embrace his demonic side in defiance of his father's quest to protect humanity, one simple act reveals just how similar he is to Sparda: He bedded a human woman, who went on to conceive a son of his own.
• Limit Break:
  • Judgement Cut Storm in his final battle in 3, where Vergil turns into Devil Trigger and disappears before spamming dimensional Razor Winds that follow you around. He also has another, unnamed one in the same battle in which he enters DT and repeatedly teleports above Dante and cuts downward with Force Edge, with each teleport he will drop at a lower height and faster rate. In his playable appearance during 4:SE, Vergil has Judgement Cut End, which is fundamentally Judgment Cut Storm: he charges up for a second, then cuts up every enemy on-screen with Judgment Cuts. End can only be used if Vergil is in Devil Trigger and his Concentration Gauge is topped off, but does enough damage to one-shot every non-boss enemy in the game except for Blitz.
  • He has another boss-exclusive Limit Break in his Sin Devil Trigger form, where he takes to the skies, flies around the Qliphoth tree to build up speed, and comes crashing down in an attempt to ram into the player. He does this a total of three times^note depending where the player is, he might briefly disappear before the final attack to psyche them out, creating Summoned Swords around the player in order to distract them; each attack takes away nearly half a full health bar on higher difficulties.
  • In 5:SE, one of his new moves, World of V is to stab himself with the Yamato, briefly turning himself into V, who unleashes an attack that utilizes all of his familiars, and grants him a great deal of health depending on his Concentration Gauge. Another, Hell on Earth, has him charge Beowulf's left fist, and punch the ground with it, unleashing a massive explosion of white light. A third one, Deep Stinger, has him perform a drilling lunge attack with Yamato and Mirage Edge in each hand.
• Living on Borrowed Time: Despite returning from death, Vergil was noticeably deteriorated in the beginning of 5, walking with a limp and breathing heavily in a sign of tiredness. His dialogue makes it clear he wasn't going to last very long, despite managing to rip off Nero's Devil Bringer, fight some demons who stood in his way, and finally reach his old home to split himself into V and Urizen.
• Lost in Translation: Nelo Angelo is the single greatest cause of fan argument for the entire series starting from 1. Among the reasons that aren't spoilerriffic, his name is mistranslated: it is supposed to mean "Black Angel" in Italian, but thanks to the problem the Japanese have with R's and L's when translating to English, the letter got switched up, thus his name would accurately be Nero Angelo (for once the R is actually supposed to be there). The kicker of it all regarding Nelo Angelo? In the game's Japanese manual, it's spelled — IN ENGLISH — "Nero Angelo". The whole deal with the "Nelo Angelo vs. Nero Angelo" translation also seeped in when 4 was still in development and announced to have a protagonist named Nero.
• Luke, I Am Your Father: Thought it's only hinted at in-game and the Deadly Fortune novelization, the Devil May Cry: 3-1-4-2 Graphic Arts finally confirms◊ that Vergil is Nero's father in 4. This becomes a major plot point in the finale of 5, where it turns out even he didn't know that he was Nero's father until Dante spelled it out for him.
• Malevolent Masked Men: In 1, Nelo Angelo is a masked swordsman who antagonizes Dante starting from the fourth mission. He ditches the mask during the final showdown. In the first novel, he's also one as Gilver. However, these examples are not entirely his fault.
• Manchild: Mentally, he's been running in place for decades while Dante, for as irreverent as he can be, has gradually matured over the years and has grown into a rather complete person with a healthy social life.
• Man of Wealth and Taste: As Gilver in 1's prequel novel, he wears a nice suit. His 3 outfit is far classier than Dante's trench coat and cargo pants.
• Marathon Boss: He becomes this at the end of 3. If you don't deal him enough damage when his guard is open (which is not often), they will be nullified quickly since he heals when in Devil Trigger. Of course, he is even less open when his health is low.
• Meaningful Name: His katana, Yamato, has its name written as 閻魔刀 in Japanese. 閻魔 ("Enma") is the Japanese name of the Buddhist god of the dead. This etymology is acknowledged In-Universe in Devil May Cry 5 under "The Legend of Sparda" library file. It narrates how Sparda split his power into three devil swords; "one blade bore his own name" (Devil Sword Sparda), "the second blade was named to embody retaliation" (Dante's Rebellion), "the final blade was named to embody a god of death" (Yamato).
• Mechanically Unusual Fighter: In 5, he is the only character without a traditional Devil Trigger. His DT gauge is instead used to create a duplicate of himself that mimics his actions. Nice for extra damage, but lacks the rather useful health regeneration that Devil Trigger normally provides. The only devil trigger that Vergil has access to is his Sin Devil Trigger which requires sacrificing regular Devil Trigger gauge to charge just as Dante's does.
• Memento MacGuffin:
  • His half of the Perfect Amulet, gifted to him by Eva. He uses it to partially unseal Temen-ni-gru in 3, and when he drops it as Nelo Angelo in 1, Dante combines it with his half to unseal Force Edge into Demon Sword Sparda.
  • Yamato is often said to be a memento from Sparda. It's used as a key to open the true Hell Gate in 4, and is used to separate his demon and human sides in 5.
  • He gives Nero his childhood book of William Blake poems after Nero beats him in 5, telling him to hold onto it until they meet again.
• Meteor Move: Just like Dante, Vergil has moves that send an airborne enemy crashing down, and they vary depending on the weapon. He even shares his brother's "Helm Breaker" move when using the Force Edge (or Mirage Edge in DMC5).
• Might Makes Right: Lives by this sentiment. He thoroughly explains it to Dante as he's impaling him.
  Vergil: Foolishness, Dante, foolishness. Might controls everything, and without strength, you cannot protect anything. Let alone yourself.
• Mighty Glacier: Nelo Angelo is a secret playable character in the Special Edition of 3, serving as the Devil Trigger of Vergil's Legendary Dark Knight (Corrupted Vergil) costume. Most of his moves are slower yet more powerful than Vergil's regular Devil Trigger.
• Mirror Boss: Especially as Nelo Angelo in 1, where his entire moveset consists of stronger versions of Dante's moves with longer range. This similarity is a foreshadowing that he's Dante's long-lost brother.
• Mirror Match:
  • In 3:SE, when playing Vergil's boss missions as Vergil, he fights a red Palette Swapped clone of himself.
  • In 5, Vergil faces the version of him fought as a boss by Dante as his Final Boss of Bloody Palace.
• Mirror Monster: When you first meet him in 1, he comes out of a mirror showing your reflection.
• Momma's Boy: It's strongly implied that Vergil was a Momma's Boy towards Eva (but to a different or lesser extent than his brother Dante), at least in the context of loving her deeply; given he recklessly attacked Mundus in revenge, and in MVC3, he is disgusted by Trish, seeing her as a sick copy of his mother. Then again, DMC5 reveals that Vergil's Start of Darkness stemmed from Eva dying to protect Dante, while he seemingly was neglected, causing Vergil to resent his brother and mother. However, Dante carefully explains that Eva went looking for Vergil, shouting his name before she was killed. One unlockable image after beating the main story campaign of DMC5 also shows that Dante and Vergil were close to Eva since they were toddlers.
• Monster Knight: As Nelo Angelo. Dante is surprised to find "a man with guts and honor" at a place like Mallet Island, and all of their battles are, unsurprisingly, fair, honorable duels with no tricks involved.
• Motive Decay: Vergil's primary goal in 3 was to gain strength so he could protect the things that were close to him after losing so much in his past. His goals were noble, even though his methods were definitely not. But defeat after defeat at Dante's hands (plus his stint as the warped Nelo Angelo at Mundus's hands) twisted him to the point that in 5 he expelled his human nature from his body, (creating V and Urizen) with the latter destroying an entire city to gain power so he could finally kill Dante. He also ripped his own son's arm off to get his sword back (though he didn't actually realize Nero was his son at this point).
• Mr. Fanservice: For the third game, the character artist specifically states in the Note of Naught artbook that coatless Vergil "was designed to give our women users huge nosebleeds."
• Mum Looks Like a Sister: A gender-inverted example: Vergil is a dad who looks like a brother. Upon returning from the dead in 5, he looks impeccably groomed and clean-shaven, not only showing little signs of aging, but also looking younger than Dante, who already could pass for an older brother to Nero. Since the characters' ages are never disclosed, it remains unknown if Vergil fathered Nero at a young age or just doesn't look old.
• Mysterious Parent: Nero finally gets to find out his father is Vergil/V/Urizen at the end of 5, leading to the climax of the story. Even Vergil only finds this out during said climax.
  Dante: He's your father!
  —
  Vergil: Nero is my son?
• Mystical White Hair: Like his younger brother Dante, his silver-white hair is indicative of his half-demon nature.
• Mythical Motifs: 5 gives him a very noticeable phoenix motif. The plot of the game is essentially about him "dying" by splitting himself into two halves (V and Urizen) and being resurrected when they combine. His new outfit is colored black, in contrast to his original blue, symbolizing that he has literally just been reborn from the ashes of his old self. As if to drive the point home, his new battle theme in 5: Special Edition outright describes him as "a phoenix, ashen, dark, divine" in the lyrics.
• Named After Somebody Famous: He's named after the Roman poet Virgil (a.k.a. Publis Vergilius Maro), who was also Dante's guide through Hell and Purgatory in The Divine Comedy.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Nelo Angelo, derived from "Nero Angelo", means "Black Angel" in Italian. Why mess with someone with that name?
• Nerd in Evil's Helmet: Vergil in 3 is unmistakably threatening, powerful, and obsessed in seeking the power of his father Sparda, but he's a bookworm underneath, even if it's just rarely shown. His opening cutscene in the Special Edition shows him reading a book in the library, and when Arkham tries to interrupt his reading, Vergil responds by pointing his katana. 5 expands on this a bit; even if he's nearly dying by that point, Vergil still takes a bit of time to quote William Blake's "Earth's Answer" before splitting himself as a last resort to regain his strength. Later on, the story and the "Old Man's Diary" document reveals Vergil is a fanboy of Blake poetry ever since his childhood. He is also possessive of what he owns, so he had to write his name on the poetry book given to him just because he and Dante fought over things so often.
• Never Be Hurt Again: His desire to never again be powerless, like he was when his mother was killed, is what turned him into the power-obsessed individual he became by the time of Devil May Cry 3. See Failure Knight above for details. 5 reveals, as projected through Urizen, he believes that the loss of his mother granted him power, and the reason he hates Dante so much is because Dante is still stronger than him without suffering as he suffered.
• Never Found the Body: At the end of 1, after his final defeat he explodes into a flash of light, leaving nothing behind but his amulet. Unsurprisingly, he shows back up in 5 still very much alive.
• Next Tier Power-Up: In 5, Vergil gains his own Sin Devil Trigger after V and Urizen are re-merged to bring him back, though a written lore implies he obtained this form thanks to Urizen. As a gameplay mechanic, Vergil can access this form by sacrificing bars of the DT Gauge to fill the SDT Gauge.
• Noble Demon: At his best. He wants power, but there are lines he just won't cross. He's happy to Pay Evil unto Evil, but otherwise he never goes full out against anyone but Dante, at least in part because he knows his brother can keep up with him.
• No Doubt the Years Have Changed Me: When Nelo Angelo reveals himself to be Vergil, Dante doesn't seem to recognize him. Most likely, this can be chalked up to either the series' Anachronic Order or the retcon brought about by Dante having met Vergil in 3. Had they never seen each other since they were children (resulting in Vergil being Mundus' slave for twenty years as opposed to just nearly a decade), there would have been enough time for Dante to not recognize/forget about him/consider him dead and gone.
• No Plot? No Problem!: He tends to get the short end of the stick in terms of cutscene time for all of his playable appearances, since his campaigns are recycled from the main game.
  • In 3, his campaign only gets three cutscenes — Arkham trying to get Vergil to tell Sparda's story, Arkham and Vergil's arrival at the Temen-ni-Gru tower, and the beginning of Vergil's fight against Mundus, taking place after the main campaign.
  • In 4, the two cutscenes he gets barely add up to seven minutes in length and have almost no relevance to the plot save for a long camera shot of an unnamed, hooded woman in the intro, implied to be the woman that Vergil had a one-night stand with, giving way to Nero.
  • In 5, his intro is simply a Clip Show of his major appearances in the main campaign, save for a brief scene where he slices up a pair of Mooks with the Yamato. His ending is barely any different from Dante's, save for some extra trash-talking between each other during the Creative Closing Credits.
• Nonchalant Dodge: Does the Type 1 variety in the cutscene where he fights a pack of Abyss.
• Not So Above It All:
  • He shows slight shades of it in 3, such as a willingness to (albeit very reluctantly) use a gun — even aiming it Gangsta Style like Dante usually does — to finish off Arkham. There is also the occasional snark he throws at Dante.
  • He really starts to fall into this trope in 5. At the very end of the game, once he mellows out a bit, he shows himself to be every bit as petulant and stubborn as Dante when their rivalry becomes a lot more brotherly. And then there's his human half V, who demonstrates a surprising capacity for being silly and a bit of a dork. Where and how exactly did Vergil learn to tap dance? There's also his appearance in the new main menu screen after the game's beaten, where more often than not he's lazily lounging around in awkward silence with his brother and son, either watching Dante read an adult magazine or shoot mildly annoyed looks at Nero and his Devil Breaker. Vergil will occasionally meet Dante's eye when he looks up and smiles, and it looks as if he's attempting to start a conversation with Nero, only to shake his head to himself and look down because he just can't find the words.
  • He remembers the one night stand that lead to Nero's conception with a certain fondness. "That was a long time ago."
  • Prior to the two mending their relationship, he even cracks several legitimate smiles towards Dante's comments and barbs. After that mending, the post-credit scene has the two engaged in a competition of who can win the most rounds of a duel between the two and Vergil protests that they have an even score when Dante says he's ahead. He then makes a legitimate joke about having plenty of time to settle that matter whilst they're trapped in the Demon World.
  • His EX Provocation taunt in 5 is completely ridiculous: A techno remix of Mozart's Dies Irae begins to play as he summons a Doppelganger that proceeds to start dancing in circles around him. Vergil spends the next few seconds embarrassed as he tries to get it under control before finally cutting it down. And now we know the real reason why Vergil removed his own humanity: Even he cannot hide his inner dork no matter how hard he tries.
• Not So Stoic:
  • Vergil is pretty cold for most of the time in 3, but has a brief Villainous Breakdown when his attempt to fully open Temen-ni-gru doesn't work (Arkham deliberately left out a few steps). Then he gets pissy: "Why isn't this working?!", indeed. He cracks a few more times later on, especially as Dante starts beating him in the final boss fight. Vergil's fighting style starts off as calm and collected as ever. By the halfway point, as he uses his souped-up Devil Trigger, he starts spamming Helm Breakers, roaring with rage as he struggles to kill Dante.
  • Despite being serious at fighting/antagonizing Dante for most of 3, the aftermath of the Final Boss battle has Vergil conceding, then calmly warning his brother not to follow him down the Demon World, knowing full well that he lost the fight, and because the portal back to the human world is about to close. This single line of dialogue reveals he still has some concern for Dante's safety after all.
    Vergil: Leave me and go, if you don't want to be trapped in the Demon World. I'm staying, this place was our father's home.
  • 5 has quite a few moments where Vergil lets down his stoic facade.
    • After Vergil returns following V and Urizen's Split-Personality Merge, he turns to Nero and gives him a "thank you" in a tone that's almost appreciative.
    • The ending to Mission 19 has him briefly reminiscing about the one-night stand he had in Fortuna during the events of 4:SE.
    • He lets a genuine smile cross his face◊ when facing his Worthy Opponent brother again.
    • His appearances in Nico's van post-game paint him as something of a socially awkward person, especially around Nero. His EX Provocation taunt in 5:SE cements this further, which features his doppelganger dancing a jig in circles around him to the tune of "Dies Irae", much to his embarrassment.

O-Y

• Occult Blue Eyes: Vergil has bright blue eyes, a common trait of those who share Sparda's blood and demonic heritage.
• Oh, Crap!: Vergil is initially convinced Nero isn't going to be much of a threat in a direct fight compared to Dante, so Vergil decides to try fighting his son right after a taxing battle with Dante. This is after he watches his son enter his true Devil Trigger state, and floor Dante of all people. Not only does Nero turn this idea around, he promptly hands Vergil's ass on a silver platter.
• Older Than They Look: The fully restored Vergil at the climax of 5 is remarkably smooth-faced for a man in his forties, looking only slightly older than his youthful self, especially compared to the grizzled Dante. It is especially noticeable when comparing their vocal evolutions. Dante's voice has changed considerably throughout the years. Vergil's voice, on the other hand, is exactly the same as it was in 3. This is rather justified as Vergil has spent the majority of his life as a corrupted demonic being which likely slowed his aging and was rejuvenated by the potency of the Qliphoth fruit.
• Ominous Walk: This is a gameplay mechanic with Vergil in his playable iterations from the Special Edition of 4 onwards, where one of the ways to raise his "Concentration" Gauge is to avoid running and instead walk slowly towards enemies by locking-on to them (that or Flash Step to them).
• One-Handed Zweihänder: Mostly as Nelo Angelo, who can wield his claymore with one hand and perform an attack similar to Dante's Stinger. Though Vergil can also carry and attack with the Yamato one-handed, he is shown wielding it with both hands just as often.
• The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: Since one of his biggest goals in the series is to prove himself stronger than Dante, he occasionally will help his brother out against another foe who wants to kill him — such as Arkham in 3, who had interrupted their fight earlier in the story.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Inverted. Vergil is almost always serious, but just as Dante becomes slightly more serious when facing him, when he's around Dante, Vergil's stoic veneer starts to crack little by little. This is downplayed in 3 until the penultimate battle with Arkham, where Vergil taunts that Arkham doesn't deserve to be their ultimate nemesis, and joins Dante in yelling the "Jackpot!" catchphrase they used to say as kids. At the end of 5, Vergil is cracking actual jokes while he and Dante are dueling, and even laughs as if he's having fun when the two spar in the Underworld.
• Orbiting Particle Shield: When fought as a boss, Vergil can make his Summoned Swords/Mirage Blades spin around him to protect himself and negate some damage.
• Original Position Fallacy: Splitting his demon self from his powerless humanity seemed like a fine move to him until he realized that the better part of his personality, ethics, memories, and intellect were stuck in the half that had no power.
• Orphan's Plot Trinket: His half of the Perfect Amulet, same as Dante.
• Our Demons Are Different: Despite sharing the same blood of Sparda, Vergil's Devil Trigger form in 5 is more draconic compared to Dante's more devilish form, with a flattened nose, spiked tail, Hot Wings on the forearms, and four scaly, clawed wings on the back. Appearance-wise, it features some traits of his regular Devil Trigger form in 3 and 4:SE, but this new form is more monstrous. In 5, he can also summon a Doppelganger to fight alongside him. Gameplay-wise in the Special Edition of 5, the Doppelganger serves as his regular Devil Trigger mechanic, while his new form functions as his Sin Devil Trigger state.
• Out-of-Character Moment:
  • Vergil Doesn't Like Guns yet he picks up one of his brother's pistols near the end of 3, stating that he'll "try things your way for once" as he and Dante pull off a Combination Attack to finish off Arkham.
  • At the climax of Mission 17 in 5, Vergil genuinely thanks Nero for helping him return to his original form. No Smug Snake attitude, no snarkiness, but genuine gratitude. And this is before he learned Nero was his son. This is the first clue that V's experiences have changed him, and sure enough, he's become a lot more introspective and considerate in 5 than he was in 3.
  • Also shown when he realises Nero is his son, somewhat reminiscing about Nero's mother, implying that their relationship wasn't as cut and dry as one would expect, which is especially surprising that this was Vergil from before DMC3, where he coldly rejected everything for power.
• Out of Focus: Vergil gets this in DMC2 and DMC4, as unlike DMC1 and DMC3, he doesn't have a role in either story, due to being presumed dead after his demise as Nelo Angelo in Mallet Island. He is playable in DMC4, but his only story appearance is a short flashback in the game's Special Edition. Vergil does make a proper return in DMC5, though as the Final Boss, and is playable in that game's Special Edition.
• Parental Abandonment: He lost both his parents, and later abandoned his own son Nero. In Vergil's defense on that last point, he seems to have left Fortuna as quickly as he arrived, so it's likely that he didn't know his (presumed) one-night stand with Nero's mother (heavily implied to be a prostitute at that) led to a pregnancy. Regardless, outside of one mental encounter in the Deadly Fortune novel, it's unclear as to how Vergil would've interacted with his son if they ever met in person. When Nero and Vergil actually meet in 5, calling it a rocky reunion is an understatement — Vergil actually believes Nero to be Dante's son, and Dante has to spell it out that Vergil is his father.
• Perfect Play A.I.: Not a fully straight example. He walks to you and counters your attacks, but the strategy to defeat him is just that: let him attack first, dodge, and then retaliate. In 4:SE, his Concentration Gauge fills up the more he acts like this: slowly walking towards enemies, never missing his attacks, and never getting hit, which in return makes his moves more powerful.
• Pinned to the Wall: Taken to the extreme. The playable Vergil can pin his enemies in mid-air with his Summoned Swords.
• Polar Opposite Twins: He and Dante — Vergil focuses more on his demon side, uses his demonic powers primarily for himself, wears blue clothing, is far more stoic with an aloof and colder attitude (even though the stoic facade cracks every once in awhile), his fighting style is that of efficiency and doesn't really use firearms, and is a loner who doesn't really care for anybody else short of them being useful for his goals.
• Posthumous Character: Following his death as Nelo Angelo in 1. That is until his return in the fifth game.
• Powered by a Forsaken Child: The Bianco and Alto Angeli from Fortuna were powered by pieces of his body. Yamato's pieces were also held in Agnus' lab until Nero retrieved the blade and reforged it.
• Power Gives You Wings: Gains two pairs when obtaining his own Sin Devil Trigger in 5.
• Power Glows: Nelo Angelo's zweihander is surrounded by some sort of blue fire as he swings it, while his armor and sword pulsate several different colors to show the player how much life he has left. The latter was removed from Vergil's bonus DT costume in 3: Special Edition. Nelo also gains a bluish Battle Aura similar to his fire during the final battle with Dante.
• Power Makes Your Voice Deep: During DT and as Nelo Angelo, complete with Power Echoes.
• Practical Taunt:
  • In 4:SE, the taunt where he twirls a small Summoned Sword on his finger can be used to juggle enemies.
  • His Bloody Palace taunt in 5 is a single horizontal swipe from the Yamato with several seconds of startup. The tradeoff is that it can One-Hit Kill lesser enemies.
• Promoted to Playable: Goes from an enemy boss character in 1 and 3 to a playable character in 3: Special Edition. Repeated for 4 and 5, where the Special Edition's add him as a playable character despite him not being one in the original versions.
• Psychopathic Manchild: While he hides it behind his cold and ruthless attitude, Vergil is just as if not more immature than Dante, specifically in a more selfish and jealous manner. This is explored in several ways:
  • His entire character arc in the series is driven by his childhood trauma of believing himself to have been abandoned by his mother. This is one of the biggest differences between Dante and Vergil. While Dante is an adult who likes to act like an immature jackass to hide some of his more complex issues, he has mostly moved on from the tragedy of his past and defined himself and his place in the world. By contrast, Vergil is a child who likes to act like he grew up, but he still hasn't moved on from the past. Decades later in 5, it's revealed that Vergil still thinks about the incident that killed their mother and burned their home, wondering what he and his brother would've went through if they switched places. Vergil also has no idea what he wants to do with himself or with his life, all he wants is more power in a futile attempt to escape from the tragedy and not be victimized anymore. In 3, Dante even questions Vergil's quest for power, but he simply gets ignored by his brother.
    Dante: What are you going to do with all that power, huh? No matter how hard you try, you're never gonna be like father.
    Vergil: You're wasting time!
  • Any other dialogue he has with his brother pretty much reads like an average fight between children siblings, but with Vergil wanting to settle it through a fight if he cannot convince Dante.
    Vergil: Give that to me.
    Dante: No way, you got your own.
    Vergil: Well, I want yours too.
  • He is implied to have been a teenager when he fathered Nero, which shows a lot of irresponsibility, especially since Nero was raised in an orphanage without knowing who his parents were. For a long time, Vergil doesn't even know he had a son. When they met in a flashback from 5, he rips Nero's arm off simply because it contained the Yamato. In the finale, Dante even had to call Vergil out for him to realize what he did to his own son.
• Razor Wind: His Yamato's signature ability, Judgment Cut, looks like this. In 3 its use is signaled by the screen blurring, before summoning a distortion in space in the form of a transparent blue orb, before the Razor Wind of Vergil's slashes cut up anything in its radius. In 4, Judgment Cut's early signal is removed, and the blue orb is much darker and more distorted in color and visibility. Vergil's Limit Break Judgment Cut Storm/End is basically spamming Judgment Cuts at a rapid rate.
• Recurring Boss: You fight him three times in 3, each marking a convenient end of an "act" of that game's story. Factor in his appearances as Nelo Angelo in 1, and then considering his five boss encounters as Urizen and two as himself in 5, he's fought thirteen times across the series, the most out of all the bosses.
• Red Baron: Nelo Angelo is referred to as "The Black Angel" multiple times in DMC4 and 5.
• Redemption Promotion: Big time in 5. While he loses the boss health and some Secret A.I. Moves, namely the flying dive bomb attack, his additional movesets from Beowulf and Mirage Edge is more than enough to compensate. If anything, skilled players have noted that his playable incarnation is FAR deadlier than his boss version.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Nelo Angelo after his unmasking, along with Tainted Veins. Vergil's "Corrupted Vergil" costume in 3 retains these features while making the Tainted Veins more prominent.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni:
  • A prominent example in the series shows that Dante is the Red to Vergil's Blue, along with having their respective color-coded outfits. From their characterizations in 3, Dante is the red-clad protagonist who's arrogant, sarcastic and impetuous, while Vergil is his blue-clad antagonistic twin brother who's somber, stoic and ruthless. This is carried over to 5; Dante remains much more passionate and red than his controlling blue twin, Vergil.
  • In 5, Vergil is also a blue counterpart to Nero, although this is only seen in the final boss fight between the two.
• Reforged into a Minion: One recurring boss in the first game, Nelo Angelo, is Dante's brother Vergil after being defeated by Mundus at the end of the third game and bonded to his armor.
• Reformed, but Not Tamed: Following the events of Devil May Cry 5, he's undergone somewhat of a Heel–Face Turn. That said, he's still Vergil. He's the same stoic, ruthless, brutally efficient Noble Demon driven by a desire to surpass Dante and become ever stronger… he's just channeling that in a much more constructive and less antagonistic direction. Case in point, his desire to surpass Dante has taken on the tone of a Friendly Rivalry, as opposed to the bitter, tragic, antagonistic relationship that they used to share.
• The Resenter: As revealed in 5, he's been this towards Dante ever since the day their mother died and they were separated.
• Retcon:
  • Just his presence alone in 3 completely wipes out what was implied in the first game. Dante not recognizing him as Nelo Angelo, as well as dialogue stating he believed Mundus killed Vergil in 1 makes it clear that Vergil was originally meant to have "died" as a child in the same attack that killed Eva.
  • Nelo Angelo's name was apparently a case of "Blind Idiot" Translation (translating "Nero" [black] as "Nelo"), but is treated as the correct spelling in later works.
  • Vergil's new Devil Trigger in 5 was never stated as being a Sin Devil Trigger, which was rectified in his DLC.
• Returning Big Bad: Returns as the main villain in 5 after serving as a member of the Big Bad Ensemble in 3.
• Reverse Grip: He holds the Yamato in this manner during the third attack animation of his basic ground combo.
• Ride the Lightning: Nelo's escape after his second loss has him disappearing in a current of bluish-purple electricity.
• The Rival: To Dante. In 1, he takes on this role as Nelo Angelo, appearing three times throughout the game to challenge Dante, using similar moves to boot. It turns out that Nelo Angelo is actually Dante's long-lost twin brother, Vergil, but Dante doesn't realize this until Nelo Angelo is slain and he drops an amulet that matches Dante's own. It also applies to him throughout 3 as Dante seeks him in the Temen-ni-gru. Although Vergil serves as the Final Boss, it is Arkham who is the true villain of the game. In 5, he becomes a bit more mellowed towards Dante, though the two are still quite competitive with each other.
• Secret A.I. Moves:
  • Mostly averted — the only things his player version in 3:SE can't do that his boss version can is firing off more than 3 Judgement Cuts at once, teleporting arbitrarily (player version can only to an enemy, above-and-forward, and below-and-backward), and using Limit Breaks. In fact, there are three moves that only player Vergil can do (Aerial Rave with Yamato, Lunar Phase with Beowulf, and High Time with Force Edge). Completely averted in Devil May Cry 4: Special Edition, where his moveset is extended and even has access to some of Boss Vergil's Limit Breaks.
  • While his appearance in 5 continues to avert this, it's played straight in that he can't fly in Sin Devil Trigger form like his boss form does nor can player Vergil perform the teleport then Stinger-like stab with the Yamato, although he can Stinger just fine with the Mirage Edge.
• Secret Character: In the Special Edition of 3, Vergil is playable after beating the game once.
• Seeking Ultimate Strength: Vergil has an unhealthy obsession with getting more power. Unlike Dante, who is more easy-going in life, Vergil is affected by the loss of their mother, going to questionable means to become unstoppable, such as following Arkham to obtain Force Edge for himself, and splitting himself in two and becoming V and demon lord Urizen. He is notably chivalrous and often lets Dante recover to fight him on equal ground.
• Semantic Superpower: According to the lore established since 3, Vergil's Yamato can cut "anything". At its base level, it's merely an Absurdly Sharp Blade; for instance, it managed to pierce Nero's durable Devil Bringer arm in 4 (a feat even Dante's Rebellion can't do). However, this extends to far more than just being able to slice through any material. Depending on the power of the user and their imagination, Yamato can do some incredible things, such as cutting through space and time to open portals, as well as cutting Vergil's human half from his demon half, creating two separate individuals and kickstarting the plot of Devil May Cry 5.
• Shadow Archetype: Vergil is a reflection of what Dante would be if he chose to embrace the demon half of his hybrid heritage instead of his human half.
• The Shadow Knows: In his ending cutscene from the Special Edition of 4, Vergil walks away from Fortuna in his hooded cloak, but the shadow he casts on the ground is shaped like the specter summoned by Nero's Devil Trigger.
• Shaping Your Attacks: As mentioned above, Vergil doesn't like guns. He gets around this with his Summoned Swords, spectral projectiles modeled after his father's Force Edge that can be fired off individually, encircle Vergil, or hang over Dante's position until Vergil signals them to drop Damocles-style.
• Sheath Strike: He likes to use Yamato's scabbard as a weapon as a setup to drawing the sword itself.
• Shock and Awe: Nelo Angelo uses electrified gauntlets and greaves in battle (not unlike how Vergil wielded Beowulf back in 3), switching to them whenever he decides regular swordplay just isn't cutting it (mainly in the cutscene after his first duel with Dante and then during their second encounter).
• Shout-Out Theme Naming: Apart from being named after the historical poet Virgil, his identity as Nelo Angelo/Black Angel is also named after a character mentioned in The Divine Comedy just like several major characters of the franchise. The Black Angel is a character that appears in Canto XXVII to assert Hell's claim over a soul.
• Sibling Rivalry: Dante and Vergil, constantly. It's natural for such a diametrical pair. As Dante says before fighting him in Mission 19 in 5, as far as he can remember, they've always fought. Even when they're trapped in the Underworld undertaking the grand task of cutting the Qliphoth at its roots and demons are liable to jump in and try to kill them at any time, they'll take the time to duel each other yet again.
• Sibling Yin-Yang: Yin to Dante's Yang. We'll just stick with saying here that he's quiet and composed compared to Dante's loud and showy existence, but the full list of their contrasts could go on.
• Signature Move:
  • Judgement Cut. Vergil draws back and unsheathes the Yamato so fast that it cannot be seen by the naked eye. Nothing happens at first but then some distance away, a dimensional hole opens up and a group of slashes appear out of nowhere to cut up the target. Dante can also do this attack in 4 once he has the Yamato/Dark Slayer style, where it is called "Slash Dimension" instead (and has a different appearance as well as somewhat less precision). A loading screen tip when playing as Vergil in 5 also calls the Judgement Cut as a "core component" of the Yamato's arsenal.
  • The Summoned Swords as well. Vergil is always able to conjure small blades that can either be shot towards a target, circle it until he signals them to drop, or surround him as a shield. This ability seems to be tied to the Yamato, as Nero can perform the move upon wielding the weapon in 4. Unlike the Judgement Cut, Vergil had this move even during his time as Nelo Angelo, making this the only attack to be used in all of Vergil's appearances.
• Significant Anagram: The now-Loose Canon light novel of 1 has a green-suited, heavily-bandaged, katana-wielding mercenary named "Gilver" who's shown up to be Tony Redgrave/Dante's rival. Switch the syllables around and you'll get "Vergil". This foreshadows the novel's plot twist wherein the bandages on Gilver's face fall off, revealing that he looks like Dante's brother.
• Significant Wardrobe Shift: In 5, his outfit is now predominantly black with navy blue instead of his traditional light blue. Black is usually associated with death and rebirth, which is exactly what Vergil undergoes in this game, and his personality also takes a notable shift in accordance with this change.
• Silver Fox: Since he's Dante's older twin and Dante is supposed to be around his forties by 5, he looks appropriately older as well, abandoning his almost pretty boy looks for a general rugged handsomeness instead. In fact, he actually looks slightly younger than Dante due to lacking his younger twin's facial stubble.
• Sizeshifter: For some odd reason, Nelo Angelo grows to be about 1.5x the size of Dante when he unmasks and powers up for his final duel with Dante.
• The Slow Walk: All part of his aforementioned Perfect Play A.I. status. If Vergil is going to kill you, you had better believe that he's not going to actually run up to you when he could instead be more efficient and in control by walking and teleporting. In 4:SE, his Concentration Gauge fills up quicker if he walks towards his enemies rather than runs.
• Smug Snake: Vergil carries himself as someone who's far more powerful and intelligent than he actually is. He gets enslaved by Mundus at the end of 3 after recklessly charging him (while still in a weakened state, at that) in the belief he could emulate one of his father's greatest feats. Later in 5, as Urizen, he gets defeated by Dante again after spending the entire game enacting another lengthy and complicated grab for ultimate power. And even after being revived, he once again immediately battles Nero right after an intense Duel to the Death with Dante without considering his chances.
• Spectral Weapon Copy: His Summoned Swords/Mirage Blades are based on Force Edge, the unawakened form of his father's personal weapon. When he becomes playable in the special edition for 5, the Force Edge is replaced with a phantom copy called "Mirage Edge" which is essentially an sized-up Mirage Blade. He also replaces his Force Edge with a phantom copy called "Mirage Edge".
• Spin to Deflect Stuff: Vergil uses this in a Bullet Time version. In 3, he catches a bunch of bullets that Dante had fired at him. He then slid his katana along the ground, depositing all of the bullets, perfectly intact, in a neat row, before sweeping them up and returning them with a single swing. Taken to extremes in his boss fights when he can negate armour-piercing rounds and rockets just by doing the same move if he's not being distracted.
• Spontaneous Weapon Creation: His ranged attack has him create spectral swords to fling at enemies and he can configure these in different ways (spinning around him like a shield, surrounding an enemy before piercing them from all sides, setting up several at once to fire off in rapid succession, or from above to pin them down) to diversify his offense. In his playable version in 5, he also substitutes the Force Edge for a spectral version of the same style called the "Mirage Edge".
• Stock Shōnen Rival: Vergil fits this trope to a t. He is cold-hearted, aloof, and more serious-minded than his twin brother Dante. While Dante prefers flamboyant, stylish attacks, Vergil's fighting style focuses on precision and efficiency. Vergil is power-hungry and determined to prove himself not just superior to Dante, but to everyone else in the world.
• The Stoic: No matter what, it's hard for him to speak in other than a calm, collected tone.
• Storm of Blades: Once Vergil gets rolling with his Summoned Swords, you'd best start dodging like mad.
• Strong and Skilled: In addition to possessing the same powers as his brother (Super-Strength, Super-Speed, Super-Reflexes, a Healing Factor, etc.), Vergil is a demonic Iaijutsu Practitioner.
• Strong Family Resemblance: He shares the same white hair and blue eyes just like his dad Sparda, his brother Dante, and his son Nero. Dante and Vergil are identical twins as well.
• Summon to Hand:
  • He can recall his BFS-type swords (Force Edge, Mirage Edge) back after tossing them during Round Trip.
  • As stated by Nico's Reports in 5, Vergil "absorbs" the Yamato and its sheathe into his skin while in Sin Devil Trigger form, but they'll re-appear to his hands whenever he attacks, akin to letting them manifest again from Hammerspace.
• Super Mode:
  • Like his brother, he also has a Devil Trigger. Vergil actually activated his before Dante did, but doesn't break it out until his second battle with his brother in 3. In 4:SE, his Concentration Gauge also counts as this when filled up, as his moves become more powerful, and when combined with DT, he can perform a screen-clearing attack similar to his Judgment Cut Storm in the third game.
  • In his Corrupt costumes, his Nelo Angelo form doubles as this.
  • In 5, after his demon half eats the Qliphoth's fruit and V merges back with it, Vergil obtains his own Sin Devil Trigger. Unlike Dante, Vergil's other proper transformation isn't in his default Devil Trigger, but in the World of V, where he splits into his human half and familiars for an all-out attack.
• Super-Toughness: Because of his part-demon nature, he can shrug off many attacks and also has a massive Healing Factor to explain how he quickly recovers from stuff that can injure him.
• Superior Successor: One of his taunts in 5 has him proclaim his desire to surpass his father, Sparda.
  I shall surpass Sparda.
• Sword Beam: One of Vergil's moves with the Force Edge is a horizontal version of Dante's "Drive", creating a black shockwave that moves forward.
• Sympathy for the Devil: Despite his villainy, Dante ends up mourning his death. Twice.
• Tall, Dark, and Handsome: Tall? His 5 in-game model has him slightly taller than Nero's 190cm height (about 6 feet, 3 inches), so check. Dark? Demonic powers and clothing in 5, check. Handsome? Definite check. Snarky? Not as much as Dante or Nero, but it occasionally shows when he slips his stoic facade.
• Technician/Performer Team-Up: In Devil May Cry 3, Dante and Vergil end up working together to take down Arkham, who is denying the brothers their ultimate match. Dante is firmly the "Performer," preferring to defeat enemies in a hailstorm of Bullets and Swordplay, contrasting Vergil's "Technician," who prefers methodical and precise strikes. Arkham by himself gives Dante a run for his money, but when working with Vergil, the two are able to overcome him. They are even able to effortlessly trade swords and use their individual fighting styles, before finishing Arkham off with a combined "Jackpot" attack from Dante's guns.
• Technician Versus Performer: Vergil's play style leans heavily on being a "technician", whereas Dante's showy and cocky fighting style is most definitely the "performer". Particularly his delicate and precise use of Yamato shows he always strikes knowing where he'll hit. This is demonstrated at its best in 4:SE where his gameplay includes a feature called "Concentration", wherein he can buff his attacks the more efficient and controlled he fights.
• Technicolor Fire: As mentioned above, one of Nelo Angelo's distinctive traits is his control over blue flames. His sword is coated in them when he swings it, his Flash Steps now have Nelo move around in a wisp of fire, and he's able to launch them from his fist as projectiles.
• Teleport Spam: Vergil is a fan of this in the second and third battles with him in 3, but he really starts pulling out these stops when low on health in the third battle. In 5, he teleports whenever he performs a new combo or to quickly recover from being knocked back.
• Theme Naming: Some of his special moves with Beowulf are all named after astrological and celestial bodies (Starfall, Rising Sun, Lunar Phase, Hell on Earth).
• Theme Twin Naming: Dante and Vergil are named after Dante Alighieri and Virgil, the Roman poet whom the former admired and wrote as his guide through Hell and Purgatory.
• Throwing Your Sword Always Works: In the final battle with him in ''3', one of his moves has him throwing Force Edge at Dante in a homing attack. It won't always hit, but avoiding it is quite tricky.
• Tomato in the Mirror: Vergil has an interesting version of this when he becomes V and Urizen. After spending so much time looking up to his heritage as Sparda's son, it turns out that his consciousness resides in his human side, aka the part of him he always considered weak. Vergil's Urizen side is barely a cut above a mindless husk, with no memories and only a strong desire for power, while V is where his memories and actual personality resides. V is horrified when he finds out that his own humanity was what kept his powers in check, not as a restraint but as a way of preventing him from becoming a mindless beast.
• Tragic Villain: Beneath all the cold pretension is an orphaned young man who's struggling to belong somewhere, even going so far as to try and stay in Hell under the misguided belief he'd fit in with demons more, only to be a pariah down there too.
• Travel to Projectile: Taking cues from his DmC counterpart's Angel Mode abilities, Vergil's Trick teleport in DMC4:SE onwards is reimagined as one of these, wherein the ability now shoots out a Summoned Sword which causes him to teleport to his target.
• Tron Lines: Nelo Angelo's armor and sword sports these.
• Tsundere: His dynamic with his son Nero in 5. After losing to Nero, he states "I can still fight", which is actually a bit of a stealth nod to Nero's statements eariler in the game that the strongest thing about humans is they never give up; a sentiment Urizen had completely rejected. Similarly, he leaves Nero for a potential One-Way Trip into the underworld by saying he won't lose to him next time and giving his son his treasured childhood book of poems.
• Turns Red:
  • During the final fight against Vergil in 3, bringing his HP down to a certain threshold would make his Devil Trigger form last longer than usual.
  • As the final boss in 5, Vergil enters his Devil Trigger form to fly around, and then creates a doppelganger of himself.
• Unexplained Recovery: DMC 5 never gets around to explaining how Vergil survived apparently getting blown to atoms as Nelo Angelo in the first game, nor what he was doing in the years since. This is especially notable in that they connect Griffon, Shadow, and Nightmare to his past (meaning they acknowledge his time as Nelo Angelo), yet don't delve into what brought him back from that past.
• Undeathly Pallor: As Nelo Angelo, his skin is a ghastly white. His "Corrupt" skins also have disgustingly pale skin, complete with abnormal facial markings.
• The Unfavorite: DMC 5 reveals that he believed Eva left him behind and prioritized Dante's safety over his. This was the catalyst that caused his Start of Darkness. (As an aside, he's dead wrong in believing this; Eva's last words were his name, spoken after she had secured Dante's safety and went looking for him.)
• Unstoppable Rage: Despite his cold and calm demeanour, Vergil tends to fall into this trope when he starts to lose control of the situation, shown just before his second boss battle and in the final battle of DMC3, where he begins to shout and, with the latter, attacking ruthlessly and unrelentingly after entering his Devil Trigger. This comes into contrast with Dante, who instead expresses Tranquil Fury when things are serious, showing that Vergil, for all his sense of superiority, lacks the levelheadedness and maturity of his younger brother.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: In 5, he cut out the human part of himself in hopes it would power up his demonic abilities enough to save his life. Instead, he wound up creating Urizen, an Enemy Without who is so Unfettered that Vergil destroys everything Urizen had done in disgust as soon as he's put back together.
• Unwitting Pawn: Vergil was this to Arkham in 3. They only worked together to try and OutGambit each other, but Arkham proved to be much better at it, faking his death and dressing as his alter ego, Jester, to guide and manipulate Vergil, Dante and Lady (his own daughter) for his own ends.
• Upgraded Boss: In 3, Vergil is fought three times in a single playthrough; once in Mission 7, once in Mission 13, and once as the Final Boss in Mission 20. At first, he only fights with his katana, Yamato, and uses simple tactics. The second time you fight him, he has acquired the Beowulf gauntlets/greaves and fights you with it, though he sometimes shifts to Yamato again mid-fight; he can also use Devil Trigger. In the final battle, he lost the Beowulf, but gained the Force Edge and uses several attacks similar to yours (Dante's) alongside his new attacks with Yamato, and he will also use Devil Trigger mid-battle. In the harder difficulty modes, he'll also use Spiral Swords to make the fight trickier.
• Used to Be a Sweet Kid: The implications are everywhere, from his former sibling bond with Dante as children or the happy times he spent with his family in the past.
• Utopia Justifies the Means: "Utopia" is not exactly the right word, but reclaiming Force Edge in order to re-establish Sparda's kingdom is certainly his preferred alternative to the human world's present state.
• Villain Forgot to Level Grind: Subverted in 3. Despite the fact that Vergil does expand his moveset over the course of the game both by obtaining new weapons (first Beowulf and then Sparda) and actually using his Devil Trigger after the first battle, Vergil's battles with Dante go increasingly in Dante's favor. The first battle ends conclusively as a win for Vergil, the second battle ends in a draw, and then their final battle ends definitively in Dante's favor. It seems that Dante making his way through the tower the hard way toughened him up more than Vergil's easier path did.
• Villainous Breakdown: The first one happens when the ritual fails him: "WHY ISN'T THIS WORKING!?" In the final boss fight with him in 3, it's subtle, but he gets more furious and violent by the end. He goes from calmly walking towards you to frantically teleporting around, spamming Helm Breakers, and generally being much less stoic than usual. He doesn't scream and shout, but he's visibly stunned by the end of the fight, only able to gasp out, "Am I...being defeated...?"
• Villainous Rescue: In the second-to-last mission of 3, he shows up in the nick of time to help Dante battle against the Sparda-powered Arkham.
• Villain Protagonist: DMC3:SE adds the ability to play through the story as Dante's Evil Twin, Vergil. However, this is solely a gameplay feature as aside from a new intro cutscene, Vergil doesn't have a special story mode and simply goes through Dante's missions as usual, with the only difference being that the Vergil boss battles have a Palette Swap. DMC5:SE continues the trend but with some changes; Vergil still goes through the same missions as the main story protagonists, there are new prologue and epilogue cutscenes, but Vergil gets to fight Dante as the Final Boss in the last two missions.
• Villain Respect: Though he would probably never admit it, he has respect for his brother's abilities. In 3, after Arkham takes control of Sparda's power, he fights him alongside Dante, stating that Arkham doesn't deserve to be the final antagonist of the conflict (implicitly implying that Dante is more deserving). In 5, he refuses to fight Dante while he's in an exhausted state, stating that such a battle "has no meaning". He also finally does what Nero wants after Nero beats him in a duel, even giving Nero his poetry book under the pretense that he'll come to defeat Nero and take it back someday.
• Villain's Dying Grace: After their final fight in 3, Vergil stops Dante from reaching out to him, letting himself stay behind in hell in order to give his brother a chance to escape.
  Vergil: Leave me and go, if you don't want to be trapped in the demon world.
• Vocal Dissonance: In adulthood, despite his menacing appearance, he retains his high, reedy voice from 3, albeit a bit raspier.
• Voice Grunting: This is how Nelo Angelo communicates.
• The Voiceless: Minus the grunts and the Evil Laugh, Nelo Angelo doesn't speak.
• Waistcoat of Style: He wears nothing but a waistcoat under his Badass Longcoat.
• Wake-Up Call Boss: While he's only the boss of Mission 4 in 1, Nelo Angelo is a tank and will crush players who think that they can aimlessly combo him to death. He also happens to be only a few missions after the fight with Phantom, the first Wake-Up Call Boss of 1.
• Walking Armory: Downplayed. Vergil does carry a decent amount of weapons on him in his playable appearances, but compared to his brother toting around easily about a dozen Devil Arms and guns per game with most of them being newly-introduced in the current installment, Vergil usually sticks to the same three across his playable appearances: Yamato, Beowulf, and Force Edge, with the one "major" change being in 5 where he replaced Force Edge with the functionally-identical Mirage Edge.
• Walking Spoiler: Mentioning Vergil's presence in 5 at all will spoil that the tritagonist V and the game's main Big Bad Urizen were each a Literal Split Personality of him that bring Vergil back when they manage a Fusion Dance. Some of the early cutscenes, dialogue lines, and even Capcom's pre-release marketing don't show his face nor mention his name in order to deliberately preserve The Reveal halfway through the story.
• Walking the Earth: According to his character profile in the Special Edition of 4, he wandered across the globe in a quest for information about his father. He visited Fortuna because he was intrigued by the Order of the Sword worshiping his father Sparda as a god.
• We All Die Someday: Laments this to Dante at the beginning of their battle in Mission 20 of 5.
  Vergil: All things end, Dante. Even us.
• White Hair, Black Heart: A great example outside of RPGs. He has the same white hair as his brother, but also a wicked lust for power which his brother does not share. Yet, he is an Anti-Villain. Downplayed a bit come 5, having mellowed out a bit.
• Wicked Cultured: Vergil is both the evil of the twins and more cultured one. His (chronologically) first scene in 3 has him in a library examining some books and his particular taste for William Blake's poetry was made manifest in his human half, V. Upon returning to his original self, he even hands his poetry book of the author to Nero. V's personality also implies Vergil has a taste for classical music and tap dancing, and the "Old Man's Diary" document recounts his love for books since his childhood.
• Wicked Pretentious: While Vergil passes himself off as refined, there are a few cracks that show a more immature and petty side to him.
• Wild Card: Complete with the obligatory Enemy Mine and Heel–Face Revolving Door.
  • It's best shown in the third game; he forms an allegiance with Arkham, someone who could help his main intention of becoming the most powerful individual by going through Temen-ni-gru and unsealing the spell within it. But when Vergil himself drops the aforementioned allegiance and learns that Arkham also seeks the exact same source of power he wants, Vergil decides to temporarily team up with his brother Dante to stop Arkham.
  • Near the fifth game's finale, Dante and Vergil prioritize their Sibling Rivalry by dueling each other to the death. It's only until after Nero intervened and beat Vergil that the latter finally decided to submit and do the most crucial priority at that time; destroying the Qliphoth.
• Worf Had the Flu: Another name for this trope could be "Vergil Just Fought Dante". As seen in 3 with Arkham and Mundus and 5 with Nero, battles between the Sons of Sparda tend to be quite taxing... yet they also get Vergil Hot-Blooded enough to think he can take on another enemy if they interrupt the fight or follow soon after. Naturally, he finds that his power is so depleted that Yamato can be blocked, he can't retain his health, and he's effectively tossed around like a dishrag. The Mundus case got him tragically turned into Nelo Angelo, and even worse, it's stated in Before the Nightmare that Vergil legitimately had a good chance of beating him (as Mundus wasn't at full power yet)... if he hadn't been exhausted from fighting his brother.
• World's Strongest Man: His ultimate goal is to become this. By the end of 5, he'll have to settle for sharing the title with Dante.
• Worthy Opponent: Sees Dante as one by the end of 3, as evidenced by his demeaning lines when he Devil Triggers in the second battle ("You are not worthy as my opponent!"), which he then stops using in the final battle. As Nelo Angelo, Vergil seems to be motivated by the same general mindset to have a good fight with Dante above anything else.
• You Don't Look Like You: This actually applies to Yamato in 5, as all previous appearances of the sword showed it with a rounded gold tsuba (sword guard) and yellow sageo (the cord used to tie a katana sheath), but in 5, it has a notched gold and blue tsuba and dark blue sageo.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: After Arkham opens the final gate of Temen-ni-gru in 3, Vergil offs him, saying that his services are no longer needed. Of course, Arkham wasn't actually down for the count, and Vergil knew that Arkham was planning to do this to him first, making this a subversion.
• Your Days Are Numbered: The mental and physical stress that the events of DMC3 and DMC1 placed upon Vergil have him nearly and quite literally falling apart in Nero's flashback. His healing factor is either not working or not strong enough to do any more than keep him going. The last thing he weakly utters before he leaves Nero bleeding out in his garage as he takes Yamato back is "I'm running out of time." Doing what he did to save himself caused everything to spiral wildly out of control and led to the events of the game, but if he hadn't done it, Vergil clearly wouldn't have lasted more than a day or two.

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"If you want it, then you'll have to take it. But you already knew that."