Anton Sevarius

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Anton Sevarius
Anton Sevarius
Publisher Disney First appearance Gargoyles 2x02 Metamorphosis Created by Greg Weisman
Characteristics Species Human Affiliations Nightstone Unlimited, Gen-U-Tech, Thailog Abilities Devious, twisted genius specialising in genetics.

Dr. Anton Bartholomew Sevarius is a fictional character from the Disney animated television series Gargoyles. He is a highly skilled geneticist (referred to at least once as "the best geneticist on the planet"), although he is also completely without morals (much like his probable inspiration, Josef Mengele), has a penchant for hammy acting, and will work for the highest bidder for just about anything. He was voiced by Tim Curry.

In Sevarius's first appearances he worked in the employ of David Xanatos, specifically for the Gen-U-Tech Corporation (although the episode Outfoxed revealed that he had worked for Cyberbiotics under Halcyon Renard before being headhunted by Xanatos). In his early appearances he was primarily concerned with creating a loyal gargoyle clan for Xanatos, after his abandonment by the Manhattan Clan. To this end he created first the clan of mutates, and then the clone gargoyle Thailog, before his mind was redirected to other things.

He continued to work for Xanatos through much of the show's second season, at least until the episode Monsters in which he was shown to be experimenting on the Loch Ness Monster species. In this episode, most notably, it was Sevarius that proved that Angela was in fact the daughter of Goliath.

Why Sevarius left Xanatos's employment following this is unknown, but his next appearance (in the episode Reckoning) has him working for Nightstone Unlimited, a corporation founded jointly by Thailog and Demona. He continued to work for Nightstone until the end of the canonical second season and presumably he still does, although the non-canonical third season has him as a free agent.

Contents 1 Mutate project 2 Project Thailog 3 Working for Nightstone Unlimited 4 The Goliath Chronicles 5 Trivia

[edit] Mutate project

Sevarius first appeared in the episode Metamorphosis, in which he appeared as an aging man with a Germanic accent who required a walking stick to move about. This was merely a disguise, however, a part of his act in recruiting hapless individuals and transforming them into mutates, by altering their DNA, giving them the appearance and strength of big cats, the wings of bats and the ability to generate electricity like electric eels. He recruited the first three individuals personally (of the three, only Maggie Reed's name is known), and was also instrumental in using his mutagen on Derek Maza, brother of heroine Elisa Maza. His acting, particularly a death scene in which he supposedly died by electrocution after being thrown into an eel tank, also helped convince the mutates to trust David Xanatos.

Ironically, in the episode The Cage, Sevarius's presence actually alienated the mutates from Xanatos. Having discovered that he was alive, Derek Maza (now called Talon) sought to get revenge on Sevarius. Xanatos, unwilling to lose such an asset as Sevarius, stepped in to save him, thus revealing his true colours. In this episode, Goliath attempted to force Sevarius to create a cure for the mutates, although he proved too untrustworthy to do so.

After this, Sevarius's connection with the mutates was largely cut. However, being the only doctor on Earth with experience in their unique condition, he may yet have a role to play in their future.

[edit] Project Thailog

Sevarius's second appearance was in the episode Double Jeopardy, which revealed the existence of a project to clone Goliath, called Project Thailog. Much of the history of the project, from Thailog's birth, through his programming and maturation, was revealed by one of Sevarius's documentary-style video journals, delivered in his usual over-the-top manner.

In the episode, Sevarius apparently betrayed Xanatos and attempted to blackmail him for a large sum of money. Sevarius himself believed that this was another of Xanatos's own twisted schemes, and so put his acting talents to full use ("Yes! You robbed me of my creation!"), but in fact it was a plot by Thailog to get back at all three of his "father figures" - Goliath his biological template, Xanatos who commissioned the project, and Sevarius who actually created him. Thailog successfully deceived all three of his "fathers" and escaped with the blackmail money, later creating his own business empire to rival Xanatos.

[edit] Working for Nightstone Unlimited

Some time before the episode Reckoning, Sevarius was taken on by Nightstone Unlimited, the company founded and run by Thailog and Demona. It can be assumed that Thailog's interest in Sevarius was not merely for his genetic expertise, but that this was yet another attempt to "one-up" his fathers (by assuming a role of authority over Sevarius, and stealing one of Xanatos's employees). While working for Nightstone, Sevarius was instructed to create a new clan of gargoyles clones (one clone each of members of the Manhattan Clan) with stunted intellects, who would be servile to Thailog. Thus he created Malibu (from Brooklyn), Brentwood (from Lexington), Hollywood (from Broadway) and Burbank (from Hudson).

At Thailog's request, he also created one further clone without Demona's knowledge. This final clone, Delilah, was created from the combined DNA of Demona and Elisa Maza (two of the great loves of Thailog's "father", Goliath). Demona saw this as a betrayal, and battled Thailog on a condemned roller-coaster. Thailog apparently fell to his death, and did not reappear in the season, and Sevarius thus began work solely for Demona.

Demona, who was of a rather more genocidal bent than Thailog, commissioned Sevarius to create a special virus in the episode Hunter's Moon. Though he was unaware of it, the virus was intended to be used to wipe out all humans on the planet. Fortunately, Demona's plan was halted by the Manhattan Clan.

[edit] The Goliath Chronicles

In the non-canonical season 3, Sevarius had apparently broke away from Demona and was working alone. His full name was revealed to be Anton Bartholomew Sevarius. He was sought after by Thailog and his clones after a defect in their genetic makeup caused them to deteriorate. Sevarius, acting as usual, promised to synthesise a cure if they could provide the key ingredients: DNA from each of the members of the Manhattan Clan that had been used as the clone templates. This was a ploy, however, as the gargoyle DNA was actually used to activate his own clone creation, a giant gargoyle that he called "Little Anton" and treated as his own son. The "cure" he provided was actually an advanced stage of the clone disease, which Thailog used to defeat Little Anton. Nevertheless, the clones were permanently turned to stone by the disease, and consequently were perched on top of a New York skyscraper where they could be kept until a cure was found for their condition.

[edit] Trivia

Though Sevarius's name closely resembles that of geneticist Severino Antinori, Sevarius's appearances on Gargoyles predate Antinori's public forays into human cloning. This makes the name similarity of two such similar characters a truly bizarre coincidence.[1] [2]