 |
Main series universe information This article is about Denis Damocles from the TV series and any information in it exclusively follows the main series' continuity. For information from the Movie continuity, please visit this page. |
| “ | What are you all still doing here? Don't you have new school forms to fill out? If I'm to lose my job, then I might as well send you to the schools you actually want. | ” |
—Denis Damocles, "Confrontation" | ||
Denis Damoclés is a recurring character of Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir. He is the former principal of Collège Françoise Dupont.[1]
In "The Dark Owl", after trying and failing to become a superhero and being humiliated by the media for it, he was akumatized by Hawk Moth into Dark Owl, an Owl-themed supervillain.[2]
In "Jubilation", after feeling discouraged by his further attempts at becoming a superhero, Mr. Damocles was akumatized into Darker Owl, a new version of his previous akumatized form Dark Owl, by Monarch and received the Pig Miraculous superpower through his Alliance ring. He also received a Magical Charm from Ladybug to prevent him from being reakumatized.
In "Confrontation", after Sabrina and Marinette exposed Chloé and Lila's manipulation along with Lila's true nature, Mr. Damocles tried to expel them. But unfortunately Mayor Bourgeois forbade him, along with refusing to allow the students to retake their course forms. Mr. Damocles was about to be akumatized by Monarch, but with the help of his students, Miss Bustier, and Cat Noir, he was able to purify the megakuma with his Magical Charm. He finally stood up against Mayor Bourgeois, despite being fired from his job as principal.
In "Re-creation", Mr. Damocles fell victim to Perfect Alliance, becoming a Miraculized until Alya and Nino freed him by destroying his Alliance ring. After Monarch's defeat, he later became the principal of a new school, where he unknowingly enrolled Cerise so she can start her devious plan.
Appearance
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 chest pocket and pockets on either side of the waist over a yellow dress shirt with a white hue, a light chestnut brown necktie worn on his collar, dark vermilion, almost dark grayish-brown/dark grayish-tangelo dress pants, and grayish tangelo loafers with white strips above the tips of his toes.
As Dark Owl
His eyes were round and yellow with half white, and half orange scleras. His face was covered with a black mask, while there were brown circles with white edges around his eyes. The mask also included two tuft-like points with brown tops that came out above his eyes and pointed backward. His beard was brown, his mustache notably having tips sticking out, and two black vertical stripes went up it. He wore a black suit that included a brown covering and padding over his upper body, arms, and legs. The covering included black or darker lines, and a brown symbol of an owl's face appeared on the chest. Above his hips, he had a brown belt with two pockets towards his right side holding objects based on his symbol. He wore brown gloves that had two ridges each, brown boots with black soles, and a long cape that was black on the back and brown on the other side. The cape could also transform into a pair of wings that had a gray mantle along with several black feathers on either side of the wings.
As the Darker Owl
Darker Owl had a similar appearance to Dark Owl, but having a different scheme of color, with them becoming darker and more vibrant. His beard and mustache also became more metallic, with the former becoming lighter and grayer in color and the mustache adopting a bright pinkish color. But the biggest difference was the mask, with its color being not just dark, but having also shorter and sharper tuft-like points above the eyes that had pink circles around them, which were now fully yellow.
- For more of Denis Damocles' outfits and designs, see Denis Damocles/Designs.
Personality
.png){kind=link}
Mr. Damocles is pressured by Chloé to unfairly suspend Alya.
Denis Damocles is courteous and authoritative to an extent, but he tends to struggle a lot under pressure, especially when Mayor Bourgeois has a preference for his daughter Chloé and the latter uses that to manipulate him to do what she wants, even if that goes to his disciplinary beliefs. 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.
.png){kind=link}
Mr. Damocles in his self-proclaimed superhero identity, "The Owl".
Despite his flaws, Mr. Damocles can feel concerned over the well-being of others, such as when he questions Jagged Stone's decision to face the titular villain. He 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 the secret identity "The Owl" and showing that he has a good heart and intentions. However, Mr. Damocles can be obtuse at times, not listening to Cat Noir and Ladybug when they urge him to stop his superhero antics so he won't endanger himself. After he is de-akumatized, he learns his lesson and decides to help out others by performing small deeds, without putting himself at risk.
Underneath it all, he truly does care about his students especially when he's wrong about them and willing to put things right in "Confrontation", upon seeing that Marinette was right about Lila's lies and what Lila and Chloe did to their class' career forms he rightfully wanted to expel them. But hearing that the expulsion couldn't go through he at least wanted to make things right for the rest of the class. And yet, when the mayor refused and if Damocles did so he'd be fired, believing that there was nothing he could do and ruined his student's future felt that he didn't deserve his title as principal.
Until his students thought otherwise hearing that they still believed in him and Juleka speak with confidence inspired him to do the same. Speaking to the mayor with confidence he puts his foot down no longer refusing to sacrifice his morals to satisfy someone. With his final act as principal, Damocles lets his students redo their course forms and the school repays him with a proper heroes leaving.
As Dark Owl, he was vengeful towards Ladybug and Cat Noir for accidentally humiliating him, and desired to do the same thing to them. He strived to be the only hero in Paris, aiming to get rid of Ladybug and Cat Noir to achieve his goal. Despite his plans and hostility towards the heroes, the Dark Owl wasn't needlessly evil, even chiding Ladybug and Cat Noir for believing he would really harm a kitten when his scenario was revealed to be a fake, and was still a man of his word, releasing the heroes from danger after they made the gesture of surrendering their Miraculouses.
As Darker Owl, he continued to be vengeful towards Ladybug, as Monarch made him believe that the superhero, along with Cat Noir, didn't want anyone else to be a superhero but them, using the misinformation that Socqueline Wang was Ladybug to further impulse his desire for revenge, as she unintentionally increased the principal's dismay about trying to be a superhero. Even after realizing that Socqueline was not Ladybug, the Darker Owl continued with his desire to defeat Ladybug and Cat Noir, using the same type of trap he had used previously to lure them and direct them to the perfect moment to use Gift on them.
Abilities
As a civilian
Intelligent and calculating when having a goal, Mr. Damocles fakes a scenario in order to trap the heroes when he was akumatized.
.png){kind=link}
Mr. Damocles speaks to Albert, his computer program.
Calling it a hobby, Mr. Damocles has certain IT skills, helping Olga Mendeleiev with her computer troubles and claiming that he created a program for his computer. However, he still ends up getting a virus into the school's hard drive and his program Albert has glitches and problems but is designed well enough to recognize and respond to commands, albeit poorly and often unsuccessfully. He also modifies his grappling hook when it fails to shoot correctly in "The Dark Owl".
.png){kind=link}
The Owl modifies his gadgets.
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
.png){kind=link}
Dark Owl's signal.
While Dark Owl didn't have real superpowers, he had a wide arsenal of gadgets and tools, such as a fully functioning grappling hook, numerous owl-themed boomerangs, wings that he could use to glide through the air, and in "Gamer 2.0", owl-themed smoke bombs. He was able to communicate with his akumatized computer Albert, who could carry out many different functions to aid the Dark Owl when he commanded them. He also had a strong jump and enhanced combat capabilities, enabling him to efficiently battle with Ladybug and Cat Noir individually.
As Darker Owl
Darker Owl using Gift to show Ladybug her deepest desires.
In "Jubilation", besides his original abilities as Dark Owl (with the exception of his akumatized computer), Darker Owl receives from Monarch the power of Gift, the superpower of the Pig Miraculous, through his Alliance ring. With it, he could force people to live their deepest dreams/wishes, rending them completely vulnerable. He could shoot it through his grapple gun.
Relationships
Olga Mendeleiev
When Olga Mendeleiev has computer trouble in "Robostus", Mr. Damocles happily tries to help her.
Ladybug and Cat Noir
.png){kind=link}
Mr. Damocles talks about Ladybug and Cat Noir's heroism.
Mr. Damocles is very appreciative of the work Ladybug and Cat Noir do in order to protect Paris. He is inspired by them to create his superhero persona, though he doesn't listen to the duo when they try to warn him that what he's doing may be dangerous. During Heroes Day, he talks to Miss Bustier's class about the heroic deeds Ladybug and Cat Noir have done throughout the year.
As Dark Owl, he is vengeful towards Ladybug and Cat Noir for unintentionally humiliating him and seeks to get rid of them in order to become Paris' only superhero.
Chloé Bourgeois
.png){kind=link}
Chloé demands that Mr. Damocles should suspend Alya from school.
Because of his fear of whatever the mayor (Chloé's father) may do to either him or the school (like firing/replacing him or cutting funds to the school), whenever Chloé threatens to phone her father for whatever reason, Mr. Damocles always complies with whatever demands she makes, such when her bracelet was missing, when Chloé demands that he suspend Alya for taking a photo of her locker and unfairly suspending Alya from school, as well as not punishing her like the rest of the school in "Despair Bear". In "Malediktator", like most of the school, Mr. Damocles takes pleasure in Chloé leaving Paris.
His fear is so great that he is even willing to punish students when their transgressions were not commited inside the school, therefore not having any real power to punish them, just because Chloé demands it as seen in "Derision", during Marinette's flashback, where Principal Damocles suspended Socqueline for the remaining of the school year for breaking Sabrina's phone outside the school because Chloé wanted to.
Markov
Mr. Damocles doesn't believe that Markov has human emotions and dismisses him as a mere toy, even confiscating him from Max when he proves to cause trouble. Markov attempts to change his mind by talking to him about his IT skills, and though Mr. Damocles is momentarily intrigued, he soon believes himself to be crazy for talking to a toy and puts Markov in his drawer.
Socqueline Wang
Mr. Damocles and Socqueline seem to have a rather good relationship as seen in "Jubilation", even after the latter no longer studies on the former's school. This is showed when Socqueline helps him while pretending to be Ladybug whenever he ends up in trouble while performing his good deeds as The Owl. Inclusive, Mr. Damocles is showed to buy supplies (like materials to do his owl mask) on Socqueline's family's shop. Socqueline also seems to be encouraging towards Mr. Damocles' superhero work, even if sometimes her encouragement may cause the opposite effect at the wrong time (like when Mr. Damocles was feeling down about being The Owl). While being akumatized by Monarch, Mr. Damocles became shocked to know that Socqueline could be Ladybug.
During one of Marinette's flashbacks in "Derision", it was showed that, despite having a good relationship with his former student, Mr. Damocles was able to suspend Socqueline for the rest of the remaining school year (causing her to miss the end-of-the-year party and graduation) for something that happened outside the school out of fear of what Chloé's father, the mayor, could do. Despite that, Socqueline didn't hold a grudge on him and they continued to be on good terms with one another.
While being Darker Owl, he went after Socqueline for believing she was Ladybug, wanting to punish her for thinking that she believed that only her and Cat Noir could be superheroes. After being revealed that Socqueline was not Ladybug, Darker Owl used her as bait to lure the real Ladybug and Cat Noir, being even willing to let her fall to her death.
Caline Bustier
Caline was once one of Mr Damocles' students before he became the principal, she played a harmless prank on him in the past, which never affected their relationship in the present and they still maintained a good relationship as faculty members.
Lila Rossi
Unfortunately, Mr Damocles was one of the people who fell for Lila's lies. In Catalyst (Heroes' Day - Part 1), he thought she was in the kingdom of Achu helping Prince Ali and in Ladybug (episode), he believed Lila's false accusations of Marinette which temporarily got the latter expelled until Lila was forced by Adrien and (secretly) Nathalie to get her back into school. However, he finally made it up to Marinette by attempting to expel Lila and Chloe until he was prevented to do so by André Bourgeois.
Sightings
Episodes
Others
Trivia
- 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".
- Mr. Damocles' design is very reminiscent of an owl. He also has many pictures of different owls in his office.
- In "The Dark Owl", it is revealed that he is a fan of comic book superhero Knightowl, owning various related comics and merchandise.
Mr. Damocles' Magical Charm.
- His akumatized form was first revealed as a silhouette in a promotional poster on Jeremy Zag's Instagram.[2]
- 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".
- As Dark Owl, he is one of a few villains to almost murder Ladybug and Cat Noir by almost drowning them.
- Dark Owl briefly reappears in "Ladybug", but he is quickly de-akumatized.
- Dark Owl appears another time in "Gamer 2.0" for Gamer's powers.
- His first name was finally revealed in "Jubilation".
- Mr. Damocles is the first civilian to purify a megakuma with his magical charm.
Gallery
Click here to view the gallery.
References