...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.
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