Well, even with Beast Machines, at least The Beast version didn't degrade into that Unicron trilogy series or whatever it was called

He's (clumsily) trying to make peace! GET HIM!

NO! that will only martyr him and form a religion around him!

What's funny is I hadn't actually thought about it until now but I only own Beast Wars season 1 and 2.

Huh.

Guess who else Keith David voices? Let's see, without looking at IMDB...

Spawn and Okkoto ("It will be a battle the humans will never forget.") If anyone has a clip of Billy Crudup and him talking, or Claire Danes trying to prevent him from demonizing, it'd be much appreciated.

He's also got a short bit in Transporter 2 - as the head police person talking to the parents.

Screw it, I'm IMDBing him.

Ah yes, that's why I like Gargoyles more.

Yeah, "It was all according to plan!" is just a great way to characterize a villain.

So joking.

yea now that I think about it Xanatos over did it, argueably pushing it into mary sue territory. He never actually fails and that isn't all that interesting. Megatron sometimes failed, and instead just set up back-up plans. Xanatos arranged everything into a win/win for himself, which I found less interesting to watch. One of the drawbacks to Gargoyles was you knew they'd never come out ahead, which made watching it abit less engaging

Just to note, Xanatos loses outright loads of times and his Machiavellian triple-crossing twelve-dimensional chessmaster shtick even fucks him over a couple of times. He just takes those in stride.

The real genius of David Xanatos is realizing that no matter how badly he loses a given encounter, he's still David Xanatos, which is the greatest victory of all.

Or Xanatos figures out a way to turn the failure into a success or at the very least a learning experience.

Also I think he might be the only villain in history to successfully pull off a time loop that benefits himself, and not end up having it shattered by the heroes.

This is what I'm saying. Doom will leave an encounter with his incredible technology, nigh-unmatchable genius, and iron-fisted rule over his pet nation all fully intact, and still basically lose because RICHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARDS!!!

Whereas David Xanatos, knowing that at the end of the day he's still David Xanatos, realizes that any particular loss is no big deal and thus is able to find the advantages in any such situation.

Well, he was pretty reasonable about what he used it for, though. The guy only gave himself an extra $40 grand (remember, there were two coins, but he kept the one and sent the other to himself), which in terms of what he already had was worth maybe a nice lunch, if he wanted to go slumming.

The guy admits he's got more money than several small countries, so it really wasn't necessary for anything but his own self-satisfaction.



I always did like Xanatos, though, because while he does have everything a man could want, is able to set up insane plans and usually win them, and everything else, he's also very much a man of action and is not afraid of, and even delights in, getting his own hands dirty. That's really a part of what makes a good villain for me, because I find the type to sit on top of Castle Doom and throw grunts at the heroes incredibly boring. It's a lot more effective, but personally toying with your enemies shows a much greater degree of confidence, I think, and Xanatos has confidence in spades.

Much the same can be said about Megatron as well. And both really have the same motivation, megalomania. Just Xanatos' whole reason for doing something, like raising an entire castle top a skyscraper, basically amounts to "because its cool".

Suprised we are focusing on the good points, not that we shouldn't, but in both shows the good points are so excellent that one cannot beat the other