| “ | He doesn't have to hide his plans from you! There's not a thing you can do to stop him. He's the most brilliant man on the face of the earth. | „ |
| ~ Fox mocking Elisa Maza, revealing her feelings for David Xanatos. |
Janine "Fox" Renard Xanatos is a major antagonist of Disney's Gargoyles. She is a former member of The Pack and the girlfriend-turned-wife and assistant of David Xanatos.
She was voiced by Laura San Giacomo, though her name goes uncredited on the show.
Biography[]
Born as Janine Renard (though she later had her name legally changed), Fox is the daughter of businessman Halcyon Renard and his wife, Anastasia. Where her father valued personal integrity and honor above all else, Janine preferred "thrills" and fell in love with David Xanatos. Fox's birth surname, "Renard," is actually the French word for "fox".
Fox led the Pack up until its breakout from prison, when she chose to quit the team and remain behind bars while tricking her teammates into thinking she'd reformed. Gaining early parole for saving a guard, she and Xanatos became engaged, and married in the episode "Vow." However, she nearly died before their wedding in "Eye of the Beholder," when the necklace Xanatos gave her as an engagement gift was revealed to have latent magic powers and transformed her into a giant vulpine monster, the strain of the transformation and maintaining it nearly destroying her body from within. But thanks to the reluctant assistance of Goliath and Elisa Maza, the necklace was removed, and she survived.
In the episode "Outfoxed", she attempts a hostile takeover of Cyberbiotics, her father's company. The attempt fails, but her father takes no satisfaction in her defeat, lamenting that his only child has never shared his values. However, it is then that Fox shocks him with the news that he might have better luck with "the next generation" of Renards, as she is pregnant with her first child (and thus, his first grandchild).
In "The Gathering," she gives birth to her son, Alexander Fox Xanatos. Her mother, Anastasia, is revealed to actually be Titania, Queen of the Children of Oberon, in disguise. Because of this, both Fox and her son have latent magical powers.
With the reinstatement of the Manhattan Clan to the castle, Fox made a point of reconciling with Lexington over their past conflict. For his part, Lexington agreed to the truce for the sake of her son while making it clear that it would take him a long time to fully trust her again after everything she's done to him and the other gargoyles.
In the "Goliath Chronicles", Fox is now firmly on the side of the Manhattan Clan, after saving Alexander. She is the one pushing to turn the Gargoyles from modern boogiemen and outcasts to celebrities - using some of her own tricks from her life as a gladiator style television-action star, to improve public perception of the Gargoyles; She however is still the same amoral schemer she always was, and resorts to tactics like faking disasters for the Gargoyles to avert, or buying out media companies to pelt the public with pro-Gargoyle propaganda to counter the fear starting to grip the city. Though she is resorting to less than ethical P.R. tactics, she is genuine in her desire to see those that saved her son hailed as heroes.
Personality[]
Fox is highly independent and a daredevil. Growing up under an extremely ethical but perpetually busy business mogul father, and a constantly intellectually famished mother who divorced her father, she has distanced herself from her parents. Fox doesn't dislike either of her parents, but she does occasionally see them as adversarial - a sort of friendly rivalry. In addition to her emotional issues with her parents, she dislikes the notion of inherited wealth and was worried about becoming a spoiled debutant. She started a romantic relationship with David Xanatos shortly after meeting him through her father and the two carried on a low-key-interest in each-other for years. David helped sponsor Fox's rise as a celebrity, but by all accounts let her manage it herself; And this is one of the most sustaining traits about Fox - while she will accept help, she only ever wants enough help to help herself. She prefers to have the leeway to manage her own success once she has figurative breathing room. Her time with The Pack shows her to be a daredevil and sportswoman, but also a savvy P.R. specialist and planner. Her release from prison by David is the first time either party outright admit to each-other how they feel about the other, though both had picked up on the sexual tension years ago.
Fox could have heirship over Cyberbiotics at any time if she but asked her father, but refuses, partly out of pride, and partly out of a social sportsmanship she has in trying to beat her father professionally. As shown when she has the Eye-Of-Odin, her inner self is a creature of ruthlessness but also self-hatred. The Creature she becomes under The-Eye-Of-Odin, is essentially, her id unleashed; Yet even at her most wild uncontrollable state she cannot bring herself to harm David. Fox's unleashing of her magic happens once and only once, whatever magic in her blood is so deeply buried she cannot access it, even when in life-peril, she was only able to access it when she felt helpless - something she has otherwise never felt until the moment she saw her son about to be taken from her forever with no back-up plans or clever plays to keep her in control. Fox is one of the only people who can keep up with David Xanatos's plans, and while she only ever rarely can plan ahead of him, even being able to see his plays in more than most others can ever do. According to The Puck, David and Fox were "fun" even at young ages, by the standards of Puck this is code for being both amoral and creative. Fox is a fan of Jean-Pierre Sartre - indicating she finds appeal in morally blind problem social problem solving.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- When Fox transformed into a werefox by the curse from the artifact called the Eye of Odin, the transformed state was revelation of Fox's inner-self, predatory, self-hating, and conflicted.
- Though she was born 'Janine Renard' she has legally changed her name to just "Fox", Even after her marriage, since she has no last name, her last name does not legally become Xanatos.
- Writer, Greg Wiseman, says that while Fox refuses to be labeled as "Renard" due to not wanting to fallback onto family wealth, she does frequently respond to being labeled as "Fox Xanatos", even though it is not her legal name, due to her profound love for her husband.
- Fox's birth name - "Janine" means "God's Gift", with the last name "Renard" being a common name for fox characters in French literature. Thus Fox's birth name is more or less - 'Angelic Fox'.
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 Villains
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Labyrinth Clan Xanatos Enterprises Children of Oberon Scotland The Hunters Other | ||