David Xanatos

David Xanatos is the initial villain of the animated series Gargoyles. He is the founder and CEO of Xanatos enterprises, and a member of the Illuminati. Xanatos was voiced by Johnathan Frakes, whom he bears a resemblance to.

Related Topics:
Gargoyles - CEO - Illuminati - Johnathan Frakes

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David Xanatos started his life as the son of Petros Xanatos, a Maine fisherman, when an anonymous letter was delivered to him, containing a 10th century coin worth thousands of dollars. Xanatos would sell that coin, and invest the money earned in a series of successful ventures, eventually building his own corporation.

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He learned of the curse of Castle Wyvern from Demona, former love interest of gargoyle leader, Goliath. He posed as their friend in the pilot episodes "The Heroes Awaken," but in the last part, he was revealed to have set the gargoyles up to stealing secret corporation information from his competitors. However, it became evident to him that the clan would not cooperate in his schemes and decided to eliminate them with the support of his accomplice, the renegade gargoyle Demona. To that end Xanatos uses the stolen information to bring his Steel Clan robots, modeled on the clan's leader Goliath, online to kill the gargoyles. The plan failed with the clan defeating the robots, and driving off Demona and Xanatos was thrown in jail. While in jail, he continued plotting against the Gargoyles, setting them up for battles against MacBeth and the Pack, until his release from prison.

Related Topics:
Demona

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David Xanatos is a bit of trickster, coming up with elaborate plans with a final goal that is often achieved in the very attempt, or is set into motion long before the Gargoyles "foil" it. For example, he used Coyote, a robot duplicate of himself, to break the Pack, with the exception of Fox, out of prison, and set them against the Gargoyles, so that Fox's refusal to escape with the others would help her get paroled early. He would later marry Fox, inviting both Goliath and Demona to the ceremonies, knowing that they each carried half of a magic artifact known as the Phoenix Gate. Xanatos would use Demona and the Phoenix Gate to travel back in time to the Dark Ages, where he arranged to have the very coin that started his fortune be delivered to him hundreds of years later, causing a Predestination paradox, and making him a self-made man with his usual flair.

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Xanatos is also one of the most complex of all the Disney villians. While he can be immoral at times(and quite often, at that), he always has a plan in mind, and works to achieve that above anything else. He repects the Gargoyles, especially Goliath, as rivals and foes, and refuses to hold a grudge against them for foiling parts of his plans, but is not above using them or even trying to kill them to get what he wants. Eventually, he begins to mellow out after his marriage to Fox, and the birth of their son Alexander, and finally dissolved his feud with the Gargoyles, even going as far as to rescue them from an angry mob, and allowing them to live in the castle once more with his family as the clan's patrons for their protection activities.

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