So, I want to address the elephant of the room.. "Vergil doesn't care about Nero". Man... this is the same for me regards to "Vergil wants to kill Dante". Some people believe in this shit. 🙄
I want to point out that Dadgil is canon, and Vergil really cares for his son, Nero.
Let's start with the Cry of the Soul.. Have we heard of this? Yes, Yes we are.. Where exactly? My dear reader we will pinpoint this mission title screen in DMC3
Dante: We are the sons of Sparda. Within each of us flows his blood. But more importantly, his soul! And now, my soul is saying it wants to stop you!
Vergil: *laughs* Unfortunately, our souls are at odds brother.
It was reference also in Deadly Fortune novel
Time to discuss Nero's dream
I want to point out that Nero's dream is not the first time, but rather it happened twice already. As Nero said, he forgotten it and now he remembered.
The first time it happened was after the Mitis Forest Incident, a month before DMC4 or The Fortuna Incident happened. The whole story is pretty long tbh.
Kyrie and the orphanage children are in the forest for a field trip, 30+ Scarecrows shows up, 3 Holy Knights (Josh, Sagan, Tonio) were ordered, Nero run to the forest to save Kyrie and the kids as ordered by Sister Sesta, since she is worried, Nero saw Kyrie and the kids made it out of the forest and into the city still far away tho, saw the knights shielding them, help the knights to deal with it, Josh is wounded, Kyrie treat his wounds, Assault demon shows up via a portal, Josh was brutally injured, Nero saves Kyrie, can't control his sword to block the incoming attack use his arm to protect his head, Kyrie concerned, but Nero told her to run and protect the kids, Red Queen's charging system is broken due to overused, Nero, Tonio, and Sagan tried to lure but instead the demon run to where Josh is herding Kyrie and the children to safety, Nero and Sagan chased after it, Tonio ran to Josh's side, Kyrie jump in between the demon and the kids injuring in her shoulders via a graze to protect the kids by using her body as a shield, demon stabbed Josh, Tonio was paralyzed due to shock, Nero and Sagan took the opportunity to finish it, and Nero finished it by firing using his newly crafted Blue Rose
But the Order covered up the whole incident, in their Official reports
Several demons appeared from the depths of the Mitis Forest. Several houses in the city collapsed, and several residents were slightly injured. However, all the demons were exterminated by Holy Knight Nero who happened to be at the scene.
In this case, Nero's companion, a woman was injured. Nero also suffered a minor wound on his right arm, but it does not appear to be serious, Nero's sword, the Red Queen, was reportedly in need of maintenance by the Technical Bureau, and is currently being arranged. The reason for the appearance of the demon and its detailed location were investigated, but nothing was found. A re-investigation team will be dispatched on the next day. (DeepL Translation from the Japanese DMC4 Manual)
As Nero said, "They had sent knights to deal with the attack, but they didn’t get there in time to do anything, and no dead man named Josh had ever existed.”
The second time it was right after him meeting Agnus in his labs, and oh boy. Compared to what we see in game vs the novel. I still think that the novel is worse as Nero will explain via 1st person what is happening
See the difference? It's fucked up..
Nero's PoV dream, even though Nero never saw his parents since he was orphan child. This is the second time he saw his father.
"Right at the edge between life and death, I remembered it. There was a man standing in front of me. I couldn’t recall his face, but that was fine, because I knew I’d never seen him before. His eyes were cold, but I felt that behind that, there was a gentleness too - and loneliness. He looked at me with those eyes, and I couldn’t think of anything to say to him, even though I desperately wanted to say something - but no words felt right. He spoke first.
Man: —can you hear it— can you hear it, your soul’s crying out—
Perhaps the man hadn’t really spoken, but I could still hear his words inside my head. What a peculiar voice… cold, dry… yet strangely soft.
Man: —your soul, what is it—
I interrupted his questions, to ask one of my own.
Nero: …and you? What is it that you’re crying out for?”
My reply was simple. “Well, that works for me.”
Then, I woke up. Why did I remember that dream, then? I had no idea; my most pressing issues were obviously unrelated. After all, I had already failed to protect myself. But for some reason, I think it was necessary for me to remember"
This is the hint that Nero is Vergil's son, even though both of them do not know this until DMC5
For the deep analysis... Visions of V and DMC5
I'm not a poetry nerd or has a major in English in to begin with. So I will not analyze the poem itself. What I want to point out is V's or in this case Vergil's question of wishing for an eternity. We will come back to this.
Then another... it doesn't make sense for now, but it will. Don't worry about it. Unless you figured it out already by this point.
Nero was concerned regarding V's health situation in Chapter 33.2
No worries, V is just having You vs Self interaction to himself.
This, this right here after Nero saved V is why Vergil said "Thank You, Nero" after his resurrection/revival. He saw in Nero that he is like his father, Sparda who protect the weak and needed help. He is not angry or being cold. He is just thankful for Nero, and Nero is just confuse.
Onto Mission 20, I would like to point out that Nero vs Dante that was shown in Deadly Fortune, its pretty different to how Nero vs Vergil was shown in DMC5. Dante is shown aggressive that Nero had to go all out, but wants Nero to calm down. Since we also known that Nero is hot headed once he is angry.
Nero vs Vergil, the upload is from Koudai.T in Youtube
"This is nothing to do with you, Stand down" Vergil pinpoint that this fight is only between him and Dante. Him saying "Stand down" is him just saying "I don't want to fight you, now I know you are my son". In a fight, is just to stop whatever you do.
"Nothing to do with me?! It has everything to do with me!" As we know, Nero is an orphaned child. He was fostered by Kyrie and Credo's parents. In here, Nero wants to point out that he was abandoned by his parents
"Nero..." is sad to hear this from Vergil's voice. That this is the reality is so soft-spoken, a tug on his heart as a father to know that you have abandoned a child that you never knew to begin with.
The whole fight is just an emotional fight between father and son. Since Nero wanted to continue the fight. Vergil accepted the challenge that he doesn't want to do it. He is a parent that doesn't want to harm his child. He is not like Dante that is more aggressive. He is calm, calculated, precise. To make Nero calm, Vergil also lets Nero to release all of his anger by using his sword by hitting him. This fight became like a training/practical test/sparring fight to see how Nero can beat him. Using all the abilities that Nero know. So now, its both emotional and sparring fight. And Nero know this
Nero: You feeling accepting yet?
Vergil: Of your existence? Or your strength?
Nero: Both, you fuckin' asshole!
Vergil accepted Nero already as his son. The strength part well... still continues, Vergil is being a teacher here. He is testing Nero's strength. As a parent, he is thinking how he will teach his child. What are his mistakes? How Nero will improve? How he will learn from his mistakes? Stuff like that. And is a reason why it was pointed in Vergil's character profile in DMC5
"It ain't no secret that Vergil's quick with a blade and when you see him in action, he's one slick mofo. That's gotta count for something, right? Just think if Nero'd learned to fight from his old man, yeah, I'd like to see that!"
You can argue that Vergil is already teaching Nero.. "Stay back, child" Vergil wants Nero to maintain in a certain distance while fighting. That is like the number one rule. Him saying "You disappoint me, Nero" means Nero didn't follow his instruction already. It's basically his instruction to Nero and the player was to avoid getting hit and maintain the distance. If you let Vergil hit Nero, you will notice his emotion of regretting. It's subtle, but it's there
A future that is already hinted that Vergil will teach Nero, if Nero wanted to learn and Vergil giving the Yamato to Nero as an inheritance. Once Nero mastered it. Since in Deadly Fortune, Nero admits that he can't. He is still an amateur.
At the end of the fight, when Vergil said this "I can still fight" Really? He is now exhausted with his wounds at this point, and you want to continue fighting Nero. Thinking about it more.. He just wants to teach Nero at this point.
If Vergil didn't care for Nero as some people said, he will follow Dante already to leave the Human World, but he didn't. He wants to let Nero know, and assure/promise him that he will come back to be with him. So, what does he do before he leave Nero? By giving and throwing the book. So what does the book mean?
The book is a collection of William Blake's poems. That was given to him by an old man who Vergil frequently visits, just to escape from Dante when he was a kid before the First Red Grave Incident happened.
Like father, like son.. There are parallels, and one of those is this. Vergil named himself as V as an alias to hide the truth who he is, but also to let Dante know that anything that has a letter V in it, belongs to Vergil. Since Vergil doesn't want to share it with him, while Nero was given as an alias named N by Jeffrey, a journalist from the Occult Times magazine in Before the Nightmare. It was also to show that Vergil prefers to give it to Nero as a personal inheritance from parent to child. Why I said that? There is this mentality of Vergil of not wanting to share with Dante
Is also a symbolism for Vergil's heart to let Nero take care of him. It is expected since parents are hoping when they got older. Their children are the one who will help them for support, until they passed away. Another is Vergil already showing his love for his son, and wanting to know if Nero will also do it in return.
Before Vergil left, this picture shout out to Dru (@drusoona). You need to see this using a camera mod. (Why does Capcom don't have legit camera for cutscenes, just to take pictures? Why are they hiding this? Same thing with Dante vs Vergil) Remember what Nero said in his dream, "His eyes were cold, but I felt that behind that, there was a gentleness too - and loneliness." It's right there.. just look at Vergil.
What I want to point out is Vergil's hesitation to leave Nero. He realizes that he wanted to be with his son for all eternity. He now answers his question before as V, "Has there ever been a moment that would make worth wishing for an eternity?". This is his wish, but sadly he can't be in the Human World as he needs to close the portal, and Dante is waiting to cut the tree.
This shots alone... He came back, since he promised to Nero after the events of DMC5 and cutting the roots of the Qliphoth in Hell.
Now, the van event... The father and son van event is awkward, but if you notice. Vergil is trying to start a conversation, but never continues it. Remember in Visions of V manga? He is doing what Griffon tells him when he was V... To try and get along, to have a connection with his son, to bond.
The man is smiling, you know what does mean? This is his wish that was granted to him, what he wanted all along. To be with his son, Nero who he cherish. That he wanted to protect, since he can't protect Eva before.
