Dante About This Shrine Vergil
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...The Power of Dante
Hierarchies of character rankings are very important to me, but very hard to commit to. For years and years I have avoided naming a definitive #1 by scattering them across lists of incompatible genres, arranging merged lists by every criteria besides likeability, and even distorting numeric rankings into neutral ambiguity (#0 vs #1), all in a desperate effort to keep them from confronting each other directly. Still, I can no longer deny that a clear victor has emerged from the chaos, and wow does it feel great to finally admit that!

Dante is very special. He is the only character besides my own that I have wanted to create. He is the only character besides my own to whom I feel I could entrust a vital part of my soul's journey. He is the only character I have tactile sensations about. Does all that sound too abstract or dramatic? Well, that is what makes him special. Unlike other external focuses who go in decreasing waves of highs and lows, whose intensity rarely exceeds the initial obsessive burst that put them on the map, my obsession with Dante resembles a steadily increasing slope that actually grows stronger over time. I can't explain it, I can only surrender to it and
see where it leads me. Bear in mind that I take reactions like "you are utterly insane" and "get a life, freak!" as a compliment.

..."Blood Fetish"
I do love blood. It is very sacred to me because no other medium carries the essence of lifeforce better. I am also drawn to vulnerability. I find that it is easier for me to relate to a character who is in a vulnerable state because all their defenses are down and the true self comes out. Put together, these two factors become a kind of twisted maternal instinct, where my feelings about a character are amplified to an intense high if I sense they are in danger. It's not that I like to see them get hurt, it's that I like to worry about them when they do. With Dante this goes one step further, because I see his invincibility as symbolic of transcending the physical body and achieving immortality of the soul by surviving death. I played around with several names for the shrine, including "Immortal Blood," before settling for "Blood Fetish." Somehow, I find that name describes my obsession very well, for nobody's blood is sweeter.

...If You Build It, They Will Come?
To celebrate Dante being crowned King, I decided to make a shrine to him stemming from my core website, Twilight Visions. I wanted to set it aside as special place. I researched web transitions to find ways of making the browser dissolve into red before revealing the shrine, and even dyed the layout red in his honor. I wanted this to be a repository for everything I knew about Dante.

I planned it to be a single-page shrine, but I wanted to go into more detail about the styles, weapons, and bosses of Devil May Cry 3. Soon I saw it was taking up too much room and moved it to its own page with links leading to it from the main shrine. But I kept adding more sections and more details, and the scrollbar grew longer and longer nonetheless. I realized something would have to change and I wasn't willing to sacrifice Dante's content.

In came the remodel, allowing each section its own page and reworking the entrance into something both compact and comprehensive. This gave me more freedom to add even more sections, expand existing ones, and before I knew it, the shrine exploded beyond all proportion, becoming its own webpage instead of a remote auxiliary to the main site. Such is the power of Dante, it seems, and he deserves every pixel of it! You might be wondering where Vergil fits into all this. Well, he doesn't, really. ^_^;; I see him more as an aspect of Dante than his own person, so I honor Dante through him.

..."You know he's not real, right??"
Oh ye of little faith! How frustrating it must be that those who so many consider "fictional characters" are more famous, more loved, more admired, and indeed create more change in our lives than countless so-called "real" people. Dante might not be a tangible person you can meet on this planet (except maybe at conventions), but he is an idea - a grand idea that inspires a huge following of those that relate to him. There are throngs of fans out there who invest huge amounts of time, thought, effort, and practice into fueling that idea with their collective energy. And let me tell you, when an idea accumulates enough energy, it can reach critical mass and take on a life of its own.

For what is reality, anyway? Everything that is real now started out as an idea and ends as a memory. A brilliant piece of music or a magnificent architectural marvel began with the seed of intangible thought as much as you were a product of the intentions of your parents, and them of those who came before. Ideas are the blueprint of reality, larger than reality, and ultimately create reality. You may think that I take this concept farther than necessary, but it is ultimately irrelevant. Whether objective reality exists or not, the only reality we ever get to see is very much the subjective product of our own experiences. So long as Dante can make me think more, feel more, challenge my soul in meaningful ways, and motivate me to create and explore... he is real enough for me.

...Acknowledgements
All credit obviously goes to Capcom, as I had nothing to do with the creation of Devil May Cry, I only admire it. Indirect credit goes to the community, information, galleries, and multimedia of the many sites that came before, for they inspired me to create mine, especially Devil's Lair and 99th Floor. Site is hosted by iPowerWeb. Fonts used are Comic Sans MS, Monotype Cosiva, and Lucida Blackletter. Graphics created using Adobe Photoshop and Jasc Paint Shop Pro. Layout created using Microsoft FrontPage. Blood drippy graphics are from Feebleminds.

 

DISCLAIMER: All artwork, characters, stories, music, video, and books are Copyright CAPCOM and ATLUS. They are NOT of my making. No copyright infringement is intended.

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