I thought I knew who the villain was in Devil May Cry

Devil May Cry is an animated fantasy TV series that premiered on Netflix on April 3, 2025. It is based on Capcom's eponymous video game franchise. Indian film producer Adi Shankar has created the series from a story he developed with Alex Larsen. Studio Mir, a South Korea-based studio, has animated the series.

Devil May Cry follows the story of Dante, a demon hunter who finds himself caught between two deadly forces: Lieutenant Mary, a relentless agent from the government organization Dark Realm Command (DARKCOM), and White Rabbit, a fanatical terrorist obsessed with demons.

The villain of this story is seemingly the White Rabbit, who is determined to seek revenge against the human species. However, the sixth episode of the eight-part series, along with several other moments, casts doubt on that notion, prompting viewers to question if he is truly the villain, or even the only one.

Disclaimer: The following article is based on the thoughts and opinions of the author.

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White Rabbit’s backstory in Devil May Cry justified his villain arc

White Rabbit in Devil May Cry (Image via Netflix)

Devil May Cry episode 1 opens with White Rabbit stealing the Force Edge from the Vatican City Museum, which is the sword owned by the demon knight Sparda. He then uses the sword to kill the men he had hired to commit the crime. When he had first arrived at the place, these men noted that he looked odd and hence, should be killed. Hearing this, Rabbit had said:

“Anything that doesn’t fit your narrow understanding, you shoot, bomb, or burn without hesitation.”

In episode 6, we find out that this statement came from a place of personal experience. The episode sheds light on the backstories of two characters, Lady/Mary and White Rabbit. The Rabbit grew up in Makai with the demons and witnessed the air of the place getting more toxic.

Naturally, his loyalties laid with those demons, leading him to come up with a machine that allowed him to keep the portal open for longer periods of time so that the demons can cross over to Earth and survive there. He was helping them; he was doing something good.

During one of these travels, the Rabbit, along with the refugee demons, came face to face with DARKCOM, led by Mary. He tried to convince Mary to let him explain. Unfortunately, before he could do that, a bigger demon tried to get through the portal, prompting Mary and his colleagues to open fire.

In the resulting conflict, the unarmed innocent demons were killed, and the Rabbit got injured. To survive his injuries, he attached a valve to his body and adapted the identity of a demon by sewing a rabbit’s head to his own. He embarked on a revenge arc to avenge the death of those innocent demons who only wanted a better life.

Rabbit was a villain for the humans, but a hero to the demons. Well, almost. Somewhere along the way, he seemed to have lost the true purpose of his mission and began experimenting on those same innocent demons that he once wanted to save. These experiments rendered the demons as good as dead.

So, while we cannot say that the Rabbit was not a villain, the humans themselves had played a huge role in how he ended up. From the childhood trauma to the guilt of not being able to save the demons in that attack against DARKCOM, he had not had the best experiences with humans. Hence, his hatred towards this species was understandable.

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White Rabbit is not the only villain in Devil May Cry

Vice President William Baines (Image via Netflix)

A family of demons let Mary take refuge in their apartment while another, much bigger one was hunting for her. After they steered clear of the bigger demon, Mary briefly had the urge to kill the family due to her past experiences. Luckily, she managed to shake out of it.

Her interaction with these demons and a later meeting with another demon, who begged her to kill him because he was a victim of Rabbit’s experiments, made her understand that not all demons are bad. Consequently, she ordered the DARKCOM forces not to kill those innocent demons and to take them to the DARKCOM headquarters.

The demons were safe until Vice President William Baines ordered that they be killed. Why did he issue that order when the demons had shown no signs of being a threat? White Rabbit’s words from episode 1 rang true here.

“You (humans) can curb the worst of your savageries only through collective fear and hatred of another world," he said.

This was not the last time we got to see a sign of his shrewdness. In episode 8 of Devil May Cry, when Baines arrives at the scene of the battle between monsters, and Dante and Mary, he addresses the latter as a trained attack dog to one of his soldiers.

It turns out that what White Rabbit had said to Mary about Baines was right. Baines was using her anger and violent nature to his advantage. He said to the soldier that she should be brought to heel.

We must remember that this is a human Baines was talking about, not to mention that she was carrying out his orders. As if to further prove that he is not the good person everyone might think he is, he pushes Anders out of the helicopter after he hands Baines the machine Rabbit had built for the portal.

Anders was the only survivor of the attack at the Vatican City Museum. After the Rabbit is killed, he admits to Baines that he had been working for Rabbit after he threatened to hurt his daughters. Despite this, Baines showed no mercy to Anders and killed him.

Baines might have the right purpose: protecting his own species, but he was not above killing a few of his own if he had to. This cruelty begs the question: Was he really the hero he claimed to be? In my opinion, the line between heroism and villainy is thin and often blurred. So, it is hard to categorize one as a hero and the other as a villain.

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All episodes of Devil May Cry season 1 are available to stream on Netflix.