Mr. Damocles

"Excuse me, young man. Hasn't anyone ever taught you to knock?"

- Mr. Damocles

 is the principal of Collège Françoise Dupont. In "The Dark Owl", after trying and failing to become a superhero, and being humiliated by the media for it, he is akumatized by Hawk Moth into Dark Owl, an Owl-themed supervillain.

Physical appearance
Mr. Damocles is a stout man with amber eyes. He has large, bushy black eyebrows, gray sideburns and beard, and a light gray mustache. He is bald on the top of his head.

Civilian attire
He wears a brown dress jacket with a white button-up undershirt, and he has a tie that is a lighter brown than his suit. His pants are a darker shade of brown than the jacket, and his shoes are brown loafers.

As Dark Owl
His eyes are round and yellow. His face is covered with a black mask, while there are brown circles with white edges around his eyes. The mask also includes two tuft-like points with brown tops that come out above his eyes and point backwards. His beard is brown, his mustache notably having tips sticking out, and two black vertical stripes go up it. He wears a black suit that includes brown covering and padding over his upper body, arms, and legs. The covering includes black or darker lines, and a brown symbol of an owl's face appears on the chest. Above his hips, he has a brown belt with two pockets towards his right side holding objects based on his symbol. He wears brown gloves that have two ridges each, brown boots with black soles, and a long cape that is black on the back and brown on the other side. The cape can also transform into a pair of wings that has a gray mantle along with several black feathers on either side of the wings.

Personality
Mr. Damocles is serious, courteous, and authoritative, but he struggles under pressure, especially when Mayor Bourgeois dictates that the school must find his daughter's missing bracelet in "Rogercop", and when Chloé demands that he suspend Alya for spying on her locker in "Lady Wifi". As seen in "Reflekta", he can be quite forgetful and stingy as well, not remembering who Juleka is when Marinette states that she missed the class photo, and deciding to ignore her claims entirely when Chloé brings up the fact that he is paying Vincent, the photographer, by the hour. Despite his flaws, Mr. Damocles can feel concerned over the well being of others, such as in "Pixelator", when he questions Jagged Stone's decision to face the titular villain.

As seen in "Dark Owl", Mr. Damocles holds admiration and respect for Ladybug and Cat Noir, so much so that he attempts to become a superhero himself, desiring to help others under a secret identity and showing that he has a good heart and intentions. However, he can be ignorant at times, not listening to Cat Noir and Ladybug when they suggest that he should stop his superhero antics so he won't endanger himself. Even so, after he is de-akumatized, he learns his lesson and decides to help out others by performing small deeds, without endangering himself.

As Dark Owl, he is vengeful towards Ladybug and Cat Noir for accidentally humiliating him, and desires to do the same thing to them. He strives to be the only hero in Paris, aiming to get rid of Ladybug and Cat Noir to achieve his goal. Intelligent and calculating, he fakes a scenario in order to trap the heroes. Despite his plans and hostility towards the heroes, he isn't needlessly evil, asking Ladybug and Cat Noir if they thought he was really going to harm a kitten when his scenario is revealed to be a fake, and is still a man of his word, releasing the heroes after they surrender their Miraculouses.

As a civilian
Calling it a hobby, Mr. Damocles has IT skills, helping Ms. Mendeleiev with her computer troubles and claiming that he created a program for his computer in "Robostus". However, while having some ability, he still ends up letting a virus into the school's hard drive in the same episode. His program Albert also has glitches and problems, but is designed well enough to recognize and respond to commands, albeit poorly and often unsuccessfully. Damocles also modified his grappling hook when it fails to shoot correctly in "The Dark Owl".

When being The Owl, Mr. Damocles shows off his agility and skill at climbing a tree. However, his older age makes him less smooth in his maneuvers, being prone to falling over, and he is unskilled at throwing a boomerang or aiming and shooting a grappling hook gun.

As Dark Owl
While Dark Owl doesn't have real superpowers, he has a wide arsenal of gadgets and tools, such as a fully functioning grappling hook, numerous owl-themed boomerangs, and wings that he can use to glide through the air. He also has enhanced combat capabilities, enabling him to efficiently battle with Ladybug and Cat Noir individually, and a strong jump.

Trivia

 * Mr. Damocles' design is very reminiscent of an owl. He also has many pictures of different owls in his office.
 * The name Damocles refers to a character from an ancient Greek story who, after praising the king's good fortune at his position of wealth and power, was invited to sit in the king's place on the throne, unaware (at first) that a sword hung over his head suspended by a single horse hair. The literal meaning of "Damocles" is "fame of the people".
 * His akumatized form was first revealed as a silhouette in a promotional poster on Jeremy Zag's Instagram.
 * In "Dark Owl", it is revealed that he is a fan of comic book superhero Knightowl, owning various related comics and merchandise.
 * While his homemade costume and his akumatized appearance are strongly based off of Knightowl's appearance from the in-universe comic books and merchandise, his akumatized form resembles the character Knightowl from the Miraculous Adventures comics.
 * His akumatized villain costume is a modified version of his original costume, a trait similar to Chloé's akumatized villain costume in "Antibug".
 * He successfully forces one of Ladybug's Miraculous earrings off of her.

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