Having completed my romp through the Devil May Cry series (Completely and utterly, there's not a single one I missed out and I'm sticking to that story thank-you-very-much!) I am finally privy to many of the memes that polluted the Internet world around me up until now- frustrating and bewildering me to no end. The Vergil plastic lawn chair? Classic, perfect, so ingrained into my psyche it literally looks natural nowdays. Vergil's lack of child support? I mean that one was pretty self explanatory but I have somewhat withdrawn my inherent disregard for the series' resident deadbeat dad after learning how he conceived Nero- by passing a woman in the street. And the 'Motivated' meme? Actually that one still doesn't land with me. Vergil seems so much more likely to quote his desire for 'power' rather than 'motivation', no clue where that came from.
But there's one aspect of the game that bounced around my little skull, not for how catchy and cool it was as most everything else in the franchise was, but rather because it sounded odd and I couldn't understand why. I'm of course talking about what Capcom would want us to believe is the 'pithy and relatable' franchise catchphrase: "Jackpot!"- often cited before something cool and exciting happens. And I mean there's nothing inherently weird about that, right? Plenty of iconic fictional characters have their weird quirks and phrases we attribute them, which typically are more common in the mind than in reality. (Although not with the amount of times Niskiyama says 'Kiryu' in a funny voice in Yakuza 0. It is exactly three times more often than you remember.) So why do I find this one phrase, Dante's favourite, so befuddling?
My first alarm bell actually starting ringing at the end of my adventure wherein, (major spoilers for the very end of Devil May Cry 5 here!) Dante and Vergil are fighting off waves of demons at the base of the demon tree (who's name I can't be bothered to look up) and Vergil, unprompted, utters the words "Don't you dare say it!" To which our cocky hero of course disregards and casually quips "Jackpot!" Of course, those who then go on to complete the Vergil ending are rewarded with a bit of extra context as Dante and Vergil talk a bit further. "You used to love saying that when we were kids." Dante whines- contextualising the phrase as a childhood favourite betwixt the warring brothers, which caused me to re-examine all the times it is used throughout the series through a new light.
Because when you think about it- what exactly would encourage a young jackanape to shout out 'Jackpot!' whilst tearing up cain with his brother in their childhood manor house? (Their home was stupid big back in the day!) Was it some confused battle cry they would roar when trouncing imaginary badguys in their play sessions? Did each brother quip it at the other when serving up some trouncing during a spar? Did baby Dante giggle it out whilst splodging hand-paintings on the hallways getting chased by daddy Sparda? It doesn't really fit any of those scenario's, does it? 'Jackpot' isn't some definition-free exclamation or a filler phrase you toss out when at a loss. It's a celebration, a declaration of odds beaten. A song for great and oftentimes unexpected success. But then, does a catchphrase even need to have meaning?
A character's Catchphrase kind of serves as a dissemination of their unique character into a catchy (get it?) and memorable utilitarian line capable of being dropped often. But the real great Catchphrases are the one's that don't get dropped too often, but rather stand out as an iconic spike in otherwise set-piece event scenes to bring the attention back around to them and remind everyone who the story is about. Like when Jotaro shakes his head and mutters "Yare Yare Daze" or Joseph claps either side of his face and exclaims "Oh, my god!", when Giorno summons Golden Wind and screams "Muda Muda Muda Muda MUDA!" or James McGill stands up in the middle of court proceedings and proclaims "Your honor you weren't even there so shut the f-", you get what I saying, right? All of these moments can feel like natural off the cuff quips that flow into the scene, but are empowered by their 'catchphrase' status as applaud worthy standouts.
"Jackpot" was somewhat unique as a Catchphrase shared between the brothers, binding together two otherwise tonally distinct entities. Look from the outside and you might see Dante as this brash never-serious punk who doesn't care about anything, whilst Vergil is the ever composed and forthright idealogue possessed by his desire for more power! But when you see the pair of them square up together, twin pistols Ivory and Ebony in hand, sharing that unifying victory cry in the penultimate mission of DMC 3, you are encouraged to look back. See the moments when the serious Dante peaks through as he makes a promise to Lady, or the frivolous heart of Vergil sparkles as he demands his brother's amulet. "Well, I want yours too." They couldn't be further apart, but by blood and small quirks of who they are the demon brothers are forever bound.
Which is partially what makes it so galling and bizarre that Vergil apparently abandoned the phrase since Devil May Cry 3. I mean in his defence a lot had occurred in their lives since then to change who they were- Vergil was thrown into the Demon world wherein he was possessed by the Demon King Mundus and sent to slay Dante as 'Nelo Angelo'. Dante slew Angelo, freeing Vergil from the control of their parent's slayer whilst granting the silver haired badass his seemingly final rest. Then Vergil somehow reconstructed himself and returned to the waking world, before deploying Vergil to meet Dante to try and stop Vergil from merging with Vergil to become Vergil. So yeah, a lot of stuff. But is that enough to justify his changing so much that Vergil has nothing in common with his brother anymore? No... they still joke around with each other, they share childhood memories- in fact, by the ending of DMC 5 we see the two are strangely closer than they've ever been before, aren't they? So what's the problem here?
The problem is that 'Jackpot' makes no goddamn sense as a reoccurring catchphrase in the first place! Do you know where Dante first said it? Not canonically, but actually? At the end of DMC 1 when Dante blasts Mundus in the face with his magic pistol shot thing he's never been able to replicate again. (Seriously, what was that?) Do you know why he said Jackpot? Because as DMC 1 established at the beginning in the painfully ham-fisted way of having Trish literally say it to his face like he doesn't know, Dante has spent the years (presumably since the events of 3 played out) cutting through demons in search of the one that cost him his Brother and Mother: Mundus. His entire business, 'Devil May Cry', was set up in order to attract Demon-killing jobs in the hopes of whittling down his search for his sought after prize. His jackpot if you will. Do you get it now? 'Jackpot' only ever made sense in context to his search for Mundus. That's why it sounds weird, that's why it never fits, because it had a definitive and meaningful purpose that has been removed not only by Dante's bizarre insistence at repeating the phrase at non-sensical junctures, but by the prequel game's (DMC 3) insistence he first said it whilst beside Vergil shooting the main demon boss. With no justification for the term. Now DMC 5 claims it was a childhood favourite catchphrase? I can't even with these games, they drive me insane just trying to categorise! So what's the moral of this little blog? There is no moral, leave me alone.
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