Runs in the family: the mystery behind the heterochromia
One of my favorite tropes in DanteLady fanfics is Dante adoring Lady's mismatched eyes. But who did she inherit such a unique trait from? DMC3 and Netflix give us different answers, and I dare say it's not a coincidence.
Let's start from the origins. While reading about character designs in the "Devil May Cry 3142 Graphic Arts" book, I came across the following info:
Lady, Arkham and Jester's heterochromia was an angle Itsuno really pushed for.
As you can see, Lady's heterochromia in the game is clearly something she got from her father. It's safe to assume that the heavy emphasis on her eyes when she first meets Dante was meant to give the player a hint that yeah, this badass girl and the creepy bald guy from before are somehow connected.
Let's pay attention to the colors too. Lady and Arkham's eyes look almost identical when the lighting doesn't affect our perception. The lighter eye ranges from blue to gray and gray-green, the darker one from brown to red. But then there's Arkham's demonic alter ego, Jester, with his glowing orbs: blue and red.
This may be why the DMC 2007 anime design for Lady favors blue over green.
Sadly, dmc3 never showed Lady's mother, Kalina Ann, so it's hard to say if Lady inherited anything from her visually. Before Netflix, the only source of speculation was the DMC3 manga, which unfortunately never reached the volume dedicated to Lady. However, it did bless us and Dante with this sweet family portrait.
Sure, manga isn't the best format for guessing eye color. However, it did confirm that Kalina's genes are in fact strong. So strong that they completely took over in the Netflix show.
Meet John Arkham, a man denied of his heterochromia. At least he wasn't always bald. But there's no doubt that little Mary is a mini-copy of her mom.
And here's where things get interesting. As you know, Lady's backstory is different in the show. John Arkham wasn't a power-mad black arts mastermind, in fact he used to be a respected professor at NYU who genuinely loved his family. The number of family photos in their house is also telling, and unlike in the manga, he's present in them.
In this universe, he never thought about sacrificing his loving wife to gain demonic power. And he certainly never tracked down the ancient bloodlines of priestesses. This Arkham had no cultist mindset, he was a man of science. But, what a pity, science also drives you crazy.
Having confirmed one of his old theories in the worst possible way and unable to admit his own weakness, John isolated himself from his family and threw himself into experiments. It is a good question who supplied him with demonic arms though. In any case, a line was crossed. Kalina Ann tried to stop her husband - and again, even though Arkham's black board got some summoning circles on it - in this story his wife isn't a necessary ritual component, but an obstacle on John's path to self-destruction.
A mysterious bloody injection summoned Jester. Or at least a proto-version of him, without his irritating sense of humor but with a raging thirst for blood. Note that both of Vampjester's eyes were red - until he bit Kalina's neck.
And then suddenly dmc3 accurate heterochromia appeared. The blue and red orbs. Finally the whole Arkham family was (mis)matching...
Now it raises the question: would any blood "complete" the transformation or was his wife's blood really special? Because now not only Jester, but John himself is stuck with heterochromia, albeit different from his wife and daughter.
Honestly, the whole Arkham family drama in the show keeps an intrigue. I don't believe it's over and Dr. Arkham just died in a fire. His demonic form continues to prey on Mary's mind, and it would be a shame not to show Jester in all his glory after all that teasing.
But was the priestess lineage plot completely abandoned? Since the whole point of activating the amulet was already explored without it. Sure, we have no Temen-ni-gru yet, so there's no need to sacrafice the priestesses. But who knows? Maybe, just like Dante and Vergil inherited their father's appearance and power, Lady being a copy of Kalina has a deeper meaning. Maybe the ancient priestess if she ever existed in this universe also had a heterochromia. And maybe Adi wasn't trolling by asking about Lady's priestess powers on Twitter now that's the least realistic part
I'd love to hear your thoughts! What do you think of the changes to the Arkham design? The adaptation of the family backstory in general? Do you believe in the Lady Priestess? Also, since I'm far from being a DMC veteran, I may be missing something or misinterpreting some little things, so please feel free to correct me and guide my soul to the light!
