Demonix, also known as Sulfurix in French, Pyritix in Finnish, Malefix in Spanish and Rancorix in Italian, is the main antagonist of the 2018 animated fantasy film Asterix: The Secret of the Magic Potion, the eleventh installment of the Asterix film series.
He is a former druid and the arch-nemesis to Getafix. He is also one of the most dangerous enemies that Asterix and Obelix have ever faced.
He was voiced by Daniel Mesguich in French and Michael Shepherd in English.
Biography[]
Past[]
In his early days, Demonix was once a successful druid who, together with Getafix, are greatly admired by their masters, When they were just young druids, they were the center of admiration from their masters. They would relentlessly work together to create new techniques for potion making. At that time, the two prove to be geniuses. During a grand tournament, Demonix showed off his impressive Pyrokinesis, but Getafix, while taking a risk, astounded all the druids present by presenting a simple but beautiful spell he had chosen; Using a magical blue powder, he creates, using only telekinesis, a tall and magnificent cairn that includes a huge rock at the very top, which did not even fall. Impressed by this, the judges saw Getafix's spell as pure magnificence. However, they also saw that it had no purpose, and they thus criticized it as useless, though they noted that it is beautiful. As a result, Demonix won the tournament in first place.
However, despite his triumph, the latter ended up not enjoying the career he had long for as his fire magic was merely used for basic needs such as lighting the Olympic Flame at the Olympic Games, performing in stage shows, and roasting and cooking barbecue in restaurants. Meanwhile, Getafix, on the other hand, concocts a magic potion that gives superhuman strength, which would become famously known and used to this day, This made him famous and respected amongst the druids of Gaul. Secretly watching this, Sulfurix, consumed with bitterness and jealousy, turns his back on mankind and began indulging himself in the practice of the dark arts. He eventually disappeared, causing him to not be seen for a very long time.
Return[]
Demonix learns of Getafix's quest to find a successor. As the latter and the other druids are holding a council meeting regarding Getafix's successor, Demonix unexpectedly returns, to the anger of some druids. Most of the druids greatly oppose the former's offer to be Getafix's successor. In response, Demonix tries to attack Getafix, but was stopped by Asterix. Realizing he couldn't use his petrifying spell on him as it's only working on people with a weak will, he is forced to flee, causing the ballots with names of possible successors to get out of order while Demonix himself took the name of the best, a young druid named Teleferix. During his escape, he was chased by Obelix, who was immediately petrified by Demonix, who noticed how his spell could still affect Obelix.
Forming an alliance with Rome[]
Demonix then went right to Julius Caesar and offered him the recipe in return for ownership of the druids' forest.
He later met with Teleferix and taught him a recipe for a potion to create butterflies made of light. This effect impressed Getafix and this makes him take Teleferix as his successor. However, at a Roman camp, his discussion with Tomcrus was overheard by Asterix, who was angry with Getafix with his obsession with finding a successor (and left his helmet, sword, and gourd of magic potion with Geriatrix to prove a point). Asterix and Demonix argued over Getafix's motives for keeping the magic potion a secret, with Asterix believing Getafix was right to (as it could lead to disaster in the wrong hands), while Demonix believed Getafix was selfish to horde it instead of sharing it to fight back against the oppressors. Knowing Asterix is a threat and that he could ruin his plans, Demonix had the romans gag and chain Asterix to a tree (only for him to escape later thanks to a shepherd).
Meanwhile, Demonix accidentally set the forest of the druids on fire when his anger caused his cloak to catch fire and Roman senator Tomcrus accidentally threw it into the forest. Demonix dismissed the senator's concern about doing something against the forest fire and started laughing at the sight of the forest of his former colleagues burning.
Later, Getafix, although being horrified by the burnt forest, told Teleferix the secret recipe, however when he realized that the young druid was lacking respect for traditions, as he refused to rebuild a stone pramid after accidentally making it fall apart, Getafix lies to Teleferix about having him told everything. Hearing that the Gauls in the village have no more potion to fight against the Romans, Teleferix and the others raced back to the village, with Getafix gathering the ingredients for his potion. The bag with the ingredients was then taken by Demonix, who also used his spell to petrify Obelix. When Getafix rushed into the village to make a new potion with the ingredients in his cottage, Demonix convinced Teleferix to make the potion to save the village. Teleferix began brewing the potion as Demonix watched, but Demonix realized that Getafix didn't trust him completely and didn't tell him the secret ingredient. When the young Gaul Pectine pushed him away, Demonix' flame powder fell into the potion. Drinking it, Demonix gained the ability to throw fireballs and eventually became a magma-like monster.
With his new powers, Demonix fired at the village and the Romans, causing them all to flee. He then confronted Getafix, taunting him about being no real druid anymore as he always made one potion and couldn't do anything else anymore. Demonix then demanded the recipe for the magic potion, but Getafix refused, telling him he would rather die than telling it Demonix. Just as Demonix was about to kill Getafix, he was hit by Obelix, who had been freed of his paralysis by Asterix. Meanwhile, Pectine used the rest of the ingredients from the bag to mix a new potion, having been told the final ingredient to be a powder in Getafix' golden sickle. The potion was then given to the Gauls, who increased their speed to extinguish the fires in their village. However, Demonix then drank the spilled potion of another druid and grew into a giant monster.
In order to get their help, the other druids gave the potion to the Romans as well. Together, both Gauls and Romans attacked Demonix, but they were unable to hurt him in his condition. Getafix then used his powder he had presented back then to the council to put the Roman soldiers together into one giant being that was strong enough to be a match for Demonix. When Obelix piloted the creature, it was strong enough to punch Demonix into the sky, where he ended up flying in space until bumping into an asteroid, falling back to Earth, right onto the pirate ship.
Gallery[]
Images[]
Powers and Abilities[]
- Pyrokinesis: Demonix is very skilled in this power, being able to control and conjure fire. Upon consuming the fire potion, he was granted greater power over it and became a magma-like being.
- Petrifying spell: - This ability is used by using a flame to spin around to petrify weak-minded people, it was ineffective on Asterix.
- Potion creation: He is like many other druids able to create potions as shown being able to teach Teleferix how it's done.
- Manipulation: Demonix is a master manipulator, being able to convince the Romans to work with him and trick Teleferix into brewing the Magic Potion for him.
Trivia[]
- Demonix is left-handed.
- He is so far the only evil druid to appear in the Asterix franchise, as well as the closest villain overall to have ever destroyed the village.
- Demonix is the first main antagonist in the movies to threaten both Gauls and Romans.
- After turning into a giant with fiery skin and powers, Demonix became the second enemy in the Asterix franchise Obelix couldn't defeat on his own, the first being Cilindric the German.
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