NetflixIn less than two months, fans of Netflix’s Devil May Cry animated series will be reunited with Dante and Lady as they attempt to intercede in the coming conflict between Earth and Hell. Despite some controversial deviations from the source material, Adi Shankar and Studio Mir’s adaptation of the popular Capcom franchise was enough of a success to warrant a continuation, and from the glimpses we’ve been given so far, it looks like it’s listening to criticisms and trying to align more closely with the games.The first season saw Dante (a half-human/half-demon bounty hunter unaware that he and his brother Vergil descend from the honorable demon warrior Sparda) on the run from Dark Realm Command, an anti-demon organization controlled by theocratic fascist William Baines, while a demon-sympathizing terrorist named the White Rabbit raged against humankind. By the end of Season 1, the White Rabbit had been killed, prompting Baines to proceed with a full-scale invasion of Hell, while Dante prepares to search for his long-thought dead twin, who now serves Mundus, the King of Hell. Dante and Vergil’s complicated relationship is the centerpiece of the Devil May Cry games, and based on the new teaser for the show’s second season, it’s finally time to dig into that sweet, sweet family trauma.In the games, Vergil and Dante were separated at birth after an attack on their home by demons that killed their mother. Dante and Vergil would reconnect in the original Devil May Cry (not counting their brief conflict in Devil May Cry 3, a prequel) under bitter circumstances, with Vergil controlled by Mundus as the masked demon knight Nelo Angelo. Dante manages to free his brother from Mundus’ grip, but their conflict continues throughout the franchise, as Dante commits to protecting humanity from demonkind like their father Sparda did, while Vergil hungers only to amass his father’s power, a fixation that perhaps developed as a result of his inability to protect their mother.Even though Vergil is seen mostly through flashbacks in Season 1, there have already been a few changes to his character. In the games, Vergil is tortured and forcibly turned into Nelo Angelo by Mundus, but his final appearance in the show suggests that he’s working with Mundus willingly. There is the possibility that Vergil is being compelled to work for Mundus through some form of mind control or emotional manipulation, but even that’s a major shift from the unimaginable trauma Vergil went through at the hands of the King of Hell during his conversion into Nelo Angelo.Vergil in his corrupted Nelo Angelo form. | NetflixHowever, the new teaser shows that the heart of Vergil and Dante’s conflict is still the same. In the game, Vergil resents his brother due to an incorrect assumption that his mother only tried to save Dante in the attack that separated them, even though she died trying to save Vergil – a moment briefly seen in the teaser. Based on what’s been shown, it seems that when Devil May Cry Season 2 finally arrives, it will fully align the show with the central focus of the entire saga: the bitter rivalry between two brothers turned rivals by forces outside of their control.