Lady

"What happened next? Nothing, really. We took care of all the remaining devils and that was it. I still have a job to do that's far from done, which is to eliminate every last demon."

―Lady

Lady
DMC3
Personal data
Species	Human
Status	Alive

Lady is a human Devil Hunter who first appeared in Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening as both a supporting character and boss. She is the daughter of Arkham and sought to hunt him down, encountering Dante in the process. After the events, she joins Devil May Cry. She also appears as a playable character in Devil May Cry 4: Special Edition. While her nickname "Lady" was given to her by Dante, her real name is Mary.

Background

Lady shares her original name, Mary, with the Virgin Mary, who called on St. Lucia and Beatrice to aid the poet Dante Alighieri in his sojourn through Hell. As such, her chosen name of "Lady" is likely then a reference to one of the Virgin's other names, "Madonna" (Italian for "Lady").

Appearance

Lady has dark, chin-length hair on both sides of her face and she has a fringe that reaches her eyebrows. She has many scars across her body, the most prominent being the one across her nose. She also always has a necklace with a red gem on it. Like her father, she has the genetic condition heterochromia, which render each of her eyes a different color: her left eye is red while her right eye is bluish-green.

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Lady's eyes

Lady seems to be younger than Dante. When she is first seen in Devil May Cry 3, she wears a schoolgirl outfit with a short white blouse that bares her midriff and sleeves that reach just past her elbows. The skirt appears to be made of protective plating and she has a utility belt to hold gun magazines, with dark shorts underneath. Connected to the belt is a harness for Kalina Ann. She carries a pistol on the front of her skirt and a sub-machine gun on the back, with a lever action bow gun of sorts strapped to her left thigh, and finally a pistol strapped to her right boot. She wears dark brown gloves and orange-brown knee high boots, with black socks under.

For her short appearance in the manga, she wore a standard schoolgirl outfit. She had a white blouse with a tie and a skirt with black thigh high socks and shoes. This is the only time where she doesn't have her necklace

During the anime, Lady wears her Devil May Cry 3 outfit, but occasionally changes it. She also wore a red, full-body biker suit. She wore a green jacket and jean short shorts at one point. Very shortly she wore a purple jacket with white frills and purple pants. Her final outfit was a disguise as a blackjack dealer, wearing a vest, white button-up shirt and a miniskirt.

By Devil May Cry 4, Lady has noticeably matured, growing a larger chest. Her hair is longer, but keeps the same general style, with the hair framing her face reaching her collar bone. Her outfit consists of a white jacket with what appears to be a harness underneath with no shirt revealing ample clevelage. She also has white short shorts and red gloves. She has magazine pouches on either side of her hips and knee high boots. She also wears sunglasses.

Personality

Lady is very fierce, rough, and tough enough to keep up with Dante. She is described as a "psychotic devil-hunting female". Although, when she kills her father, Lady breaks down and cries, showing a more sentimental side. She also appears to have a bit of a crush on Dante, as she appears to show a softer side when around him and she gets a little jealous when she learns that Dante is good friends with Trish.

She originally hated all demons, even half-demons, and wanted to exterminate all of them. Her greatest weapon at the time was her belief that what she was doing was right. This caused her to develop a moral bigotry against demons, believing them to be remorseless monsters unable to understand things like love or family. This may have been the reason why she did not initially believe in the legend of Sparda, she may not have been able to accept the fact that a demon is responsible for both the world's and humanity's continued existence.

However, over time and through her experiences with Dante, she learns that Sparda did exist and that humans and demons are equals in their capacity for both righteousness and depravity.

Gameplay

In Devil May Cry 3, Lady will wear her alternate "Ridersuit" costume if Dante or Vergil are wearing their "Legendary Dark Knight" or "Corrupt Vergil" costumes.

In Devil May Cry 4: Special Edition, Lady is a playable character as the "Nero" half of the Lady/Trish playthrough. Her combat style relies heavily on using her firearms. She has access to her dual handguns, shotgun and Kalina Ann. Kalina Ann also doubles as her sole melee weapon, attacking with slow, wide swings, smashing enemies with the weight and bayonet of her weapon. Though her attack speed is the slowest of the playable characters and lacking any real combos, her melee power is impressive and the missiles from her bazooka deal impressive damage, even on bosses. Instead of a Devil Trigger, Lady's "magic" is represented by grenade icons. When she has three or more in stock, she can perform a screen-filling explosion from a multitude of grenades. She can also perform a double jump by firing Kalina Ann at the ground, the force of the shot and explosion propelling her upward. As she plays through Nero's stages, her Wire Shot replaces Nero's Devil Bringer functionality, allowing her to latch onto glowing skulls.

Biography

Past

As a baby, Lady was named "Mary" by her father, Arkham, who inherited the blood of the legendary priestess whom Sparda had slain to seal the Temen-ni-gru. However, at some point her father became obsessed with the legend and the possibility of obtaining Sparda's power, and slew Kalina Ann, his wife and Lady's mother. At this time, Lady disowned him and renounced her name before committing to the path of a Devil Hunter.

Devil May Cry 3

In a quest for revenge, she begins to climb the Temen-ni-gru in pursuit of Arkham. She first meets Dante just after his battle with Cerberus. She fires a missile from Kalina Ann at Dante, who dodges the missile and rides it around the chamber like a flying surfboard. After the missile blows a hole in the wall, Lady uses the new entrance to continue up the tower.

She fights her way up through the tower, taking a different path than Dante. As she approaches the top, she is confronted by Arkham, who calmly asks her why she points a gun at her own kin. She then claims the only family she had was her mother and attempts to shoot him, but Arkham dodges her bullets and flips her off the side of the tower. She fires at him with her handguns as she falls, and one bullet grazes his cheek.

Below, Dante, in devilishly proper timing, catches her by the ankle. She demands that Dante let her go, but Dante jokes that it would be waste if she were to end up as "just a pretty stain". She then shoots Dante in the forehead, and he drops her. By jamming the blade of the Kalina Ann into the wall of the tower, she manages to stop her fall only a short distance away. Dante peers over the ledge to express his outrage at being shot, so she shoots at him again. This time Dante catches the bullet in his teeth, but leaves her be.

Still without a name, she presses on. She does not see Dante again until Leviathan nearly falls on her. Not sure what to make of it, she draws her gun as the eye begins to move. In a fountain of blood, Dante bursts forth from the eye. He starts to walk away, following a sign left by Jester, but she stops him. The two exchange a few words, but are attacked by demons. She and Dante stand back-to-back and fight off the demons. During the battle, Dante asks what her name is, to which Lady responds that she doesn't have one, and that he can call her whatever he likes. Dante, in a rather dismissive way, replies "Whatever, Lady" before leaping away and leaving the rest of the demons for her to deal with.

When Dante finds the seemingly dead body of Arkham, Lady arrives at the scene. Seeing the body of her despised father, she asks Dante if he is responsible. When Dante replies with an unsatisfactory, "So what if I did?" Lady flies into a rage and shoots at Dante, though he dodges or counters every shot. While venting her anger on Dante, she explains Arkham's sins and that he is her father. She laments about Arkham's death being her responsibility since they are family, but ultimately sends Dante on his way. Some time after Dante's departure, Arkham awakes, though he is still on the verge of death. He tells Lady that it was a demon who tricked him into killing his wife, and pins the blame on Vergil. After saying this, he takes his last breath. Lady then cries over him and promises to avenge his death by stopping Vergil.

Lady then catches up to Dante as he is fighting Vergil, and joins the clash. Soon after, Jester stops the battle. Jester reveals that he is in fact the alter ego of Arkham. Arkham also reveals that he lured Dante, Vergil, and Lady into that chamber, stating that all of them are the key in his plan to unlock the path to Demon World. In Lady's case, she is the descendant of a human priestess who Sparda sacrificed to seal the Temen-ni-gru. Jester mocks the brothers, saying they are weak. After slamming Lady's face into the floor, he stabs her thigh with the Kalina Ann in order to draw her blood and break the seal. Lady, Vergil, and Dante together try to put an end to Arkham, but, since they are weakened from having fought each other, he easily dispatches them and knocks them off of the rising platform on which they were standing. Lady nearly falls again as the floor beneath her and the sons of Sparda collapses, but Dante catches her. She insists that it is her job to stop Arkham since he is her father, Claiming "a Demon like you wouldn't understand" and uses the grappling hook on the Kalina Ann to ascend to the top of the tower. Dante, however, doesn't think she is a match for Arkham, and follows her by a different route.

Dante finally catches up with her at the Divine Library. When Dante goes to the top of the tower to teleport to the Demon World, Lady stops him and aims her gun at Dante, saying that it is her responsibility to stop Arkham and Dante should not interfere. Dante insists that it is his responsibility, too, and demands that Lady get out of the way. Lady refuses and they begin a fight. After her defeat, Dante remarks that this whole mess started with his father, and he should sort it out. Lady acquiesces, and entrusts Dante now understanding what Dante's really fighting for she gives him Kalina Ann in exchange for his name. Some time later, Lady is shown catching a glimpse of Vergil going to the top of the tower.

After Arkham's acquisition of Sparda's power and subsequent defeat at the hands of Dante and Vergil, Arkham falls back to the human world. As Arkham, weakened and bloodied, tries to recover, Lady finds him. With Lady training her gun at him, Arkham pleads his innocence and begs her for his life. Lady shoots him regardless, several times. Lady then cries beside his body.

Lady reappears at the end of the game beside Dante, and converses about the aftermath. This is where she coins the famous phrase 'Devil May Cry' after seeing Dante shedding tears for his brother. Afterwards, the demons still left in the human world appear and attack both of them. Lady fights beside Dante. Then, the scene shifts to Lady's commentary about the future, the demons left in the human world, and about Dante's newly opened shop. Through her interactions with Dante, Lady realizes that demons are capable of both good and evil, just as humans are.

Devil May Cry: The Animated Series

Lady goes undercover to help Dante with a mission.

In the anime, she works as a solo devil hunter but sometimes calls on Dante for jobs, and sometimes for the money that he owes her. She also was unaware of Dante's other partner, Trish (from the first Devil May Cry), until they intersect at one of the jobs of hers. Lady is hired by a priest who claimed the blond woman was controlling the demons terrorizing the town he was in. After realizing that she was tricked and dealing with the demonic priest, Lady and Trish grow to like each other. Unfortunately for Dante, this means buying expensive clothes and leaving him with the bill. During the Abigail incident, Lady and Trish kill a large amount of lesser demons while Dante kills Sid. Also during the episode where she first meets Trish, Trish asks if Lady likes Dante, Lady quickly says no and goes on to point out Dante's flaws. During the series, Lady would often jokingly call Dante a "dumbass" and when Dante won a card game against her, she would automatically assume Dante cheated, which he really did. During mission 09 Lady helped Dante win a card game to lure out a demon. After Dante won, he, under control of magic, offered to play a "game" with her and had a shootout with him, which Lady shot Dante with Ebony, but Dante later recovered, and mocked her aim saying she had barely missed his heart. Throughout the series, she would visit Devil May Cry to pick up money he owed her, or to hang out with Dante and Patty.

Devil May Cry 4

Lady in Dante's shop telling him about the Order of the Sword.

Lady is the one responsible for getting Dante and Trish involved in the events in Fortuna by assigning them there. She is the one who tells Dante and Trish about the Order of the Sword, a small congregation that gathers in the city of Fortuna. She also says that lately they started collecting Devil Arms and "even have butted in on some of [her] jobs". She also hints that the Order may have something more to them than what meets the eye. After Trish takes Sparda and leaves, Lady follows shortly.

Though she is present during Fortuna incident, Lady’s whereabouts remained unknown and likely helps Trish evacuating the civilians out of Fortuna. After Sanctus and the Savior are defeated, Trish, Lady, and Dante watch Nero and Kyrie have a romantic moment from afar. As Trish and Dante start leaving, Lady remarks that they are about to miss the best part when Dante questions her about his pay for the job, to which Lady reassures him he will get his money. Later on, Lady comes back to Dante's shop to pay for their services, giving them a small money roll. Trish complains about this small payment to which Lady reasons that the events that happened there escalated because of Trish's actions. Dante accepts the pay for what it is when they receive a call from a customer with a password. Lady tags along despite Dante telling her she wouldn't be getting payed, telling her how exciting it is to go on a mission together.

Weapons and Abilities

While still a normal human, she is also an exceptionally skilled firearms expert and extremely acrobatic in close quarters combat. Her signature weapon is the Kalina Ann, a customized missile launcher similar to a MANPADS. She also utilizes a VZ.61 Scorpion submachine gun with a small bayonet attached to it, as well as a CZ-75 handgun modified with match grade target sights, an extended barrel, and a compensator/barrel weight. Lady is a remarkably talented Devil Hunter, able to easily kill most demons with her weapons. In the animated series, Lady was shown to have some skill in hand-to-hand combat able to disarm Trish and go toe-to-toe with her in a physical fight for a short time despite her superior physical abilities as a demon. During episode 9 of anime series, she can outshoot Dante and avoid his heart perfectly, destroying the magical watch Dante keeps in his pocket in the process when he is under its influence that prompts user to enter "Showdown" mode -- either shoot the opponent or be shot in a poker match.

Lady is shown to be an avid billiards player. She is shown several times playing it, the first time being in the second volume of manga and the second time in the anime. She is a capable player, able to strategically make a complicated strike to win a bet.

In Devil May Cry 3 and Devil May Cry: The Animated Series she owns a motorcycle. The first one gets destroyed by Dante. The motorcycle she rides in the anime is a red 1974 Ducati 750 Supersport.

Appearances in Other Media

Playstation 2

The save icon for Devil May Cry 3 in the Playstation 2 system files is a chibi version of Lady sitting on her rocket launcher. If the user selects the "delete" option, Lady will cry.

Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3

Lady in an ability card

Lady appears in Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 as an ability card for the mode Heroes and Heralds.

Project X Zone

Lady is a playable characters in the Capcom, Sega, and Namco Bandai crossover Project X Zone. This is the first time that Lady is a playable character.

Monster Hunter Frontier G

Lady appears in a crossover trailer for Monster Hunter Frontier G, and her clothing is available to player characters as armor.

Playstation All-Stars Battle Royale

Lady appears as an unlockable icon in Playstation All-Stars Battle Royale. To unlock players must reach Rank 15 with Dante.

Trivia

• In the Polish version of DMC4, Lady erroneously does not respond to her nickname, and is referred to just as a woman.
• Lady has the name "Esmeralda" engraved in both sides of her motorcycle.This is probably a reference to Cobra's beloved companion "Lady", whose her original name was Esmeralda. Just like Dante, it was Cobra who gave his companion the name of Lady.
• According to character designer, Daigo Ikeno, Lady's school girl outfit was also inspired by 'the black-haired Julia Volkova' of the duo t.A.T.u.

Gallery

Divine Library