spoiler1001:

Theory? feel free to reblog with counterarguments.

I’m not saying that it was Just Grue’s death that sent Dante into a spiral, but Imagine if the dmc1 novel takes place after dmc3, which I think it does, considering the last page is just the opening to dmc1.

Keep reading

(Reblogging, because this reply is long, but the TLDR is: we have canon confirmation that the novel is set pre DMC3 and her name is Nicoletta Goldstein.)

Also, for context (from the replies):

Sonder:

Regarding the placement on the timeline: since the DMC1 novel was written many years before DMC3 was even an idea, I think we have to be a little more lenient about some details that suggest it is placed immediately before DMC1. Nell Goldstein was the one who made Ebony & Ivory “for Tony Redgrave” and yet Dante already used his signature guns in DMC3. Additionally I feel like he might have been a lot more suspicious of Gilver, had he known that Vergil was alive - which he didn’t in the novel. But it is an interesting AU concept you are proposing in this post.

Spoiler:

Since gilver is not vergil in canon and in my theory- Dante may not have picked up on the clone bit.

He may not have picked up on the fact that Gilver is a clone, you are correct, but then again your theory takes every interaction with Gilver out of the context of “I am the sole survivor of the attack that killed my mother and brother” with which Tony met Gilver and puts it into the context of “two years ago, my brother threw himself into Hell and I don’t know where he is and if he is still alive”.

I feel like Dante would have been a lot more cautious of a man who waltzed into his life out of nowhere, especially if he refused to show his face, wielded a Yamato replica and there was a significant rise in demonic activity - even if he could not figure out that Gilver was an anagram for Vergil (even though in your proposed canon order his mind would have been primed to expect that Vergil could still be alive instead of dead), those were huge red flags that were eerily reminiscent of what happened once Vergil showed back up in Dante’s life during the manga’s events. I feel like Dante would have been desperate to know if Gilver truly was his brother and would have confronted Gilver a lot earlier.

Regardless, let us assume that my previous points about the guns and Gilver were inconclusive - there is still canon confirmation that the DMC1 novel is set before the DMC3 manga: Nicoletta.

For context, I will be referring to this timeline (please ignore the years, I am just focusing on the character’s ages for this following paragraph).

We know for a fact that Nicoletta is one year younger than Nero and that Nero was conceived prior to the events of DMC3, which suggests that Nicoletta was conceived around/during the events of DMC3. But before the Nightmare confirms that Nell Goldstein had been dead for approximately three to four years before Alyssa became pregnant.

Rock worked [at Ouroboros] as a research engineer at one of the weapons enterprises. The orders were strict, it was almost impossible to rest, therefore, even after finding out where his mother was, Rock for a whole year could not get together and go to her. And when he nevertheless escaped from hell of work and visited Nell, he learned that she had been dead for half a year.

Rock then quit his job and opened a gun workshop in memory of his mother.

Shortly after Rock opened his shop, his father and stepmother died. There was talk: the accident was to blame, but Rock thought that they could have committed suicide. Rumor had it that just on the eve of his death, Roy had failed a major project and was mired in debt.

From one day to the next, Roy’s step sister Alyssa had nothing and no one and he decided to take her in - but money is tight, so she decides ro take up a job as well, at Ouroboros, where Rock once used to work. And that is where she met Agnus.

Already a year had passed, when Alyssa settled in Rock’s shop, and he was slightly worried that his sister was all alone and alone. So he was glad to hear about that guy.

And then later:

Over time, Agnus warmed up to Rock, Alyssa became pregnant, quit her job… By that time, Rock’s Guns & Ammo was already earning a decent income, Agnus was also helping out with money, so it was possible to live. And then Nicoletta was born.

So, if the novel was set after DMC3, that would mean that Nell died around the time that Dante was 21 (because the DMC1 novel confirms that Dante had been living as Tony Redgrave for two years prior to Gilver’s involvement), and then it would still take another four years until Nicoletta was born, making Dante roughly 25. That would imply that during the events of DMC5 Nicoletta was 16 - which she wasn’t. She was one year younger than Nero.

I agree with what you said about how Dante has lived multiple lifetimes in his forty-odd years alive, he was probably very done with everything when Vergil showed up in DMC5 and simply wanted some peace. But the DMC1 novel is definitely set before the DMC3 manga.