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DMC4 Credo We must set aside this battle until I find out the truth of this.
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If I don't return, you must run. By yourself, alone. You must change your name. Forget your past and start a new life as someone else. A new beginning.

Eva is a posthumous character in the Devil May Cry franchise. She was the human wife of Sparda, mother to the hybrid twins Dante and Vergil, and paternal grandmother of Nero. She most often appears as a photo on Dante's desk, but has a voice in the first Devil May Cry game. Later in the series, Eva makes her physical debut in a flashback in Devil May Cry 3 (manga) and in-game debut in Devil May Cry 5, again in a flashback.

Despite her importance as a factor to the paths her children take in life, little is known about Eva.

Etymology[]

Eva's name is an alternate spelling of the name Eve, who in the Bible is said to have been the first woman created by God. Eve is infamous for having been tempted by the serpent to eat the Forbidden Fruit, which led to Adam and Eve being exiled from the Garden of Eden as punishment for succumbing to temptation. In some versions, she is a replacement for Adam after God's previous creation, Lilith, abandoned Adam and became a demon.

Appearance[]

In her portrait found on Dante's desk in Devil May Cry, Eva has fairly long, straight flaxen hair, dark-colored eyes, and a very fair complexion. She wore her bangs short and swooping off to the right side of her face. Despite having lightly colored hair, her eyebrows were noticeably darker than the rest of her hair. She was complimented as being, "very pretty" by Patty Lowell in Devil May Cry: The Animated Series.

Eva's attire was fairly simple. She wore a black turtle neck dress and draped a red shawl over her arms. She also wore black opera gloves.

In Devil May Cry 5, Eva's appearance had been modernized with the more realistic style of the game. Her hair is still fairly long, however, it now has a more noticeable waving texture to it. The front of her hair is now cut shorter and rests just at collar bone length. Her bangs are also no longer swooping over her forehead but are now the same length as the front of her hair. Her eyes are now hazel, blue with green around the center of her iris. She also now has a cleft in her chin.

Her attire also received some changes. What was a simple black turtle neck dress now has intricate gold patterns decorating the front torso half of the dress and also the ends of the dress. There are also now slits in her dress, revealing some of her décolletage, midriff, and her left leg. She also wears a pair of simple black stilettos and a black leather belt. Despite the changes made to her clothing, her red shawl remained intact.

Eva's makeup was kept fairly simple in all of her incarnations - she wears rouge lipstick, trace amounts of eyeliner, and her nails are painted red.

Personality[]

You may look like my mother, but you are nowhere close to her. You have no soul. You have the face, but you'll never have her fire!
—Dante to Trish, Devil May Cry

Throughout Devil May Cry, Dante talks about his mother and what kind of person she was when she was still alive, especially in comparison to Trish. Dante expressed that she had a fire within her that Trish could never replicate despite looking like her. And, in another line of dialogue, Dante in his despair over Trish sacrificing herself to protect him from Mundus exclaims that Eva too sacrificed her life in order to protect him.

Eva often told Dante that his father was a man who had courage and a righteous heart. Despite Sparda shortly disappearing prior to the twins' birthday, Eva remained ever loyal and faithful to him, speaking only about Sparda positively when talking to her children about him.

During Devil May Cry 5, V expressed some sorrow in response to seeing the Sparda manor and the rocking horse he often found himself alone. He believed his mother favored Dante over Vergil, which is why Dante was saved by her during the demon attack and not himself, when in fact, after securing Dante's safety Eva ran back through the house calling out Vergil's name and died looking for him. Eva loved both of her children equally, regardless.

Background[]

Before Devil May Cry[]

For Dante and Vergil's 8th birthday,[citation needed] she gave each of the boys one half of Sparda's Perfect Amulet. Afterward, she was killed in a demon attack ordered by Mundus. She hid Dante inside of a closet and told him to run if she never returned. She ultimately gave up her life in order to protect her sons.[1] However, it is unclear where Vergil was at this time. Eva's death is most likely the event that shaped the paths Dante and Vergil took, causing Dante to fight demons and Vergil to search for more power.

Devil May Cry novel[]

Eva is featured in a flashback in which she hides Dante and attempts to locate and protect Vergil during the attack in which she was killed and Vergil was kidnapped by demons. While subsequent works, particularly the Devil May Cry 3 manga, have left this mostly intact, they have also omitted Vergil's presence at the sight of Eva's murder thus leaving the details of Vergil's whereabouts at that time a mystery.

Devil May Cry[]

After Dante grew into adulthood, Trish was made by Mundus to look like Eva in order to manipulate Dante. This façade works on Dante and he unhesitatingly follows her to Mallet Island. Due to his lingering feelings for Eva, Dante saves Trish from falling debris despite her having already betrayed him.

After Dante has defeated Nelo Angelo, he remembers Eva wishing him and Vergil a happy birthday.

During his final confrontation with Mundus, Dante hears Eva's voice encouraging him.

Devil May Cry 2 novel[]

In a parallel universe that Dante and Beryl visit in which Mundus has virtually conquered the Human world, Eva supported her late husband's armies in resistance to Mundus's rule. It is also strongly implied that her emotional support after Sparda's fall was the only reason Mundus hadn't completed his conquest of the Human world. After hearing the story about this universe's Eva, Dante comments something along the lines of, "she's the same in every universe."

Devil May Cry 5[]

DMC5 Eva

Eva shown in Dante's memories.

For a brief moment, Dante sees his mother again, however only in memory. The memory is viewed in first-person in Dante's perspective as the Sparda Manor is under attack by Mundus' forces. In Eva's final act to save her child, she hides Dante away in a closet. She tells him that if she doesn't return he needs to run away and start a new life. After she tells him this, she disappears into the house to look for Vergil and screams in agony before the memory fades away and Dante, having been in a coma after suffering grievous wounds from his battle with Urizen, finally wakes.

Dante later mentions her to Urizen after finding him in an illusion of their old family's house, where he rebukes Vergil for believing their mother had abandoned him, telling Vergil's demonic self that Eva had actually tried to search for him and died for it after she had secured Dante.

In the Special Edition or Vergil Mode, Dante mentions Eva once more when he and Vergil are fighting demons near the root of the tree, he says that Vergil would cry when Eva got angry, and wondered what their parents would think if they saw them then.

Character File[]

Devil May Cry 5[]

Nico's Character Report - Eva
Dante's mom—the woman the Dark Knight Sparda fell for, in other words.
Must've been a heck of a gal to snag the legendary dark knight himself.
I guess her feminine instincts were so strong even giving a demon a hug was no problem for her.

Quotes[]

"Vergil, Dante, happy birthday."
―Eva to Dante and Vergil[src]
"Dante, you'll be ok, you can do it."
―Eva to Dante[src]
"Come here!... You need to hide, Dante. No matter what happens, you mustn't leave! I need to find Vergil. I promise I'll be back. I know this is hard. You must listen to me. Be a big boy... A man, huh? If I don't return, you must run. By yourself, alone. You must change your name. Forget your past and start a new life as someone else... A new beginning."
―Eva to Dante[src]

Appearances in Other Media[]

Viewtiful Joe[]

Mundus makes a cameo appearance in Viewtiful Joe, in which he delivers a rant and proclaims that, "the real enemy was you, Eva!", implying that she had planned out his defeat in Devil May Cry, years in advance prior to her death.

Bayonetta[]

Bayonetta - Bracelet of Time

The Bracelet of Time

Eva and her husband Sparda are both referenced within the description of the Bracelet of Time accessory in Bayonetta and its sequel.

Eva, a truly extraordinary witch, entered into a contract with the legendary dark knight, and then faced the amassed armies of Inferno. These bracelets were made by her hand, and those wearing them are said to become true masters of Witch Time at their very will.
—Bracelet of Time Description, Bayonetta

TEPPEN[]

Eva was added to TEPPEN with its "The Devils Awaken" expansion. She is featured in one unit card and her appearance is based on her Devil May Cry 5 iteration.

In "The Force Seekers" expansion, a Bangle of Time card was added which mentions Eva in its flavor text, it states that the bangle is a memento of Eva.

Another card of hers was added with the "A Dark Agenda" expansion, this one is a recreation of the flashback scene in Devil May Cry 5 where she saves Dante.

Trivia[]

  • Eva's death was different from the Devil May Cry 3 manga's depiction. In the novel, she was torn to pieces by vengeful demons right in front of Dante's eyes and Vergil was kidnapped then, yet in Devil May Cry 5 her death was altered slightly in that she told Dante to hide before dying in the demon's attack (it's unknown how she died). However, in both versions, Vergil's exact whereabouts at a time are not explained, though V comments, upon seeing the remains of Sparda Manor, that he has a memory of playing outside when the demons attacked.
  • As shown in Sparda's family portrait, it is implied Sparda's family might have been wealthy aristocrats, though this is not confirmed.
  • Both Dante and Vergil were affected by their mother's death differently as shown in the games. Dante, from the start, didn't care for his demonic heritage from his father nor did he want power and grew to maintain his moral sense. Vergil loathed his human part and felt that he was weakened by it, he thrived to achieve the power of Sparda. It's been hinted that Vergil has some bitterness over his mother finding Dante but not him, suggesting that he felt abandoned.
TEPPEN - Bangle of Time flavor text

The Bangle of Time in TEPPEN.

  • In TEPPEN, the Bangle of Time's flavor text specifically mentions that it is a memento of Eva, which seems to correlate with the Bayonetta description. When asked whether this means that DMC Eva was a witch or just a normal human, Hideki Kamiya answered that it will become clear when he makes "DMC ZERO".[2]

See also[]

References[]

  1. Devil May Cry, Dialogue: Dante: "My mother risked her life for me, and now you too."
  2. https://twitter.com/PG_kamiya/status/1215712374646165504 https://twitter.com/cloudi_skye/status/1216378015602683904
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