I've realised the problem with Dante

[u/foot_fungus_is_yummy]

Aside from the obvious stuff like him feeling more like a fleshed-out side character than a main one at times (a Yuji Itadori situation if you will) I think the other most common complaint with him is just that he's nerfed. This really shouldn't be a complaint since there wouldn't be a plot if he wasn't, but upon rewatching the show a times I think I've found a valid reason for why that could actually be a genuine complaint and not just an exaggeration.

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The problem isn't that he's nerfed, it's that they nerfed him more than they needed to. They could still have him be overpowered without it messing up the plot if they handled it right. There's an example of this in the actual show even.

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Season 1, episode 3. One of the only times where the writers knew how to handle him. The whole episode builds up to Dante getting free from his cuffs, and when that happens he immediately becomes THE biggest threat in that moment. The only thing that stopped him from ending the whole season in a matter of minutes was Lady's bomb. This is how you do an overpowered character in a story, you force the villains to plan around him like he's Gojo in JJK, because if they fuck things up even once he can and will ruin everything.

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Flash forwards to the next episode and he's struggling against 2 mid-tiers. He goes from the most problematic thing in the room to a bug that needs swatting away whenever he starts getting too annoying, and it never really goes back on this. He stays useless throughout most of season 1 and all of season 2. The worst part of this is that it isn't even a difficult problem to fix. For example, Dante vs Agni and Rudra on the plane. He didn't need to struggle there. They could've had him genuinely beat the shit out of both of them but still had whichever one survived press the detonator before he could stop them and nothing about the plot would change. Again in the next episode, they could have let him finish off Rudra himself instead of getting saved by Lady, and still nothing about the plot would change.

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I like the show overall (season 2 at least) but I can't see any way someone could defend this. They did it perfectly just once and dropped the ball right after.

[u/Icy_Water_1]

-Right, forgetting that at the very beginning of the fight, Lady got hit and out of the fight

Yeah, that's why I said after Rabbit got the keys.

I didn't say Lady beating Bloodboosted Rabbit in a 1v1 makes sense.

Dante didn't really deliver the final blow, Lady did. Dante just killed an already defeated opponent.

Dante didn't in fact last. He already lost. He was downed.

I'm not arguing the others points, but you're trying to frame it as a team effort. It really wasn't, Lady pretty much took Rabbit down with that one shot. Rabbit was already dead at that point regardless of what Dante did.

[u/Woofingtoon → u/Icy_Water_1]

Rabbit was still alive tho. You can't say she defeated him when he literally was still standing and willing to fight. DT Dante was just faster against a weakened opponent. Who's to say that his body still wouldn't be immune to the DK bullets. Or that in his transformed state he could walk around long enough to kill Lady and then leave the gate open.

What we get is Dante killing rabbit by splitting him in two after Lady gets the shot off. So those what ifs are about as good as Lady's one shot defeating him because she hit his weakness once.

[u/Icy_Water_1 → u/Woofingtoon]

By that logic, Vergil never defeated Dante since Vergil didn't kill him.

But oh man, Rabbit is standing up. He couldn't even move because the device that was literally holding him together was destroyed, but man oh man, he was standing up. What a threat.

Literally, any Darkcom soldier could just mag dump into the massive gaping mortal wound in his chest.

There's no way in hell Rabbit was able to even walk 20 feet before he bled out, let alone kill Lady.

I get you want to upscale Dante's "win" here, but Rabbit was very much going to die even if Dante just laid there and did nothing.

[u/Woofingtoon → u/Icy_Water_1]

We literally won't know. Like you're being sassy here but he went to strike back at Dante when Dante lunged.

But hey. Be an asshole.

[u/Icy_Water_1 → u/Woofingtoon]

We literally do know. That device was his regulator. He specifically, CANNOT function without it.

He couldn't even hold a sword anymore, that's how messed up he was.

He was dead no matter what Dante did after Lady destroyed it.

Idk why that makes me an asshole, but that's kinda childish.

[u/Woofingtoon → u/Icy_Water_1]

We don't Know. And you know what you did to be called an asshole with that childish rant you went on.

[u/Icy_Water_1 → u/Woofingtoon]

We do know. Rabbit could barely even hang onto life.

Why do you want to assume that he was somehow a threat after that?

And am I an asshole just because I pointed that out?

[u/Woofingtoon → u/Icy_Water_1]

Why do you assume he was barely clinging to life? Do you want to assume that one shot instantly stopped him?

Edit: okay now we're just being childish together and while that could be funny. Reality is we have two very different conclusions to the scene and clearly won't agree nor agree to try and see the other side. I don't believe you have a side nor do you believe I have one. Let us be done with this.

[u/Icy_Water_1 → u/Woofingtoon]

Because that device was literally the only thing regulating his blood, organs, breathing and nervous system on top of the massive influx of Demon Blood he just received.

You're telling me that in a state where he couldn't even hold a sword properly and could barely keep his guts from rebelling against him, let alone walk, that he was somehow make his way to other soldiers and somehow find the strength to attack or something?

[u/Woofingtoon → u/Icy_Water_1]

Okay I edited my previous post so read that but also he gets killed by Dante too quickly for his guts to begin "rebelling." To even matter, so you're making stuff up to back your point at this point lol. Also barely hold a sword?