| “ | This is the last note in a song that I started a century ago, when I brought your dad to town. And for that I am sorry. | „ |
| ~ Marcel to Klaus |
Marcellus "Marcel" Gerard is one of the lead protagonist villains of The Originals, serving as the main antagonist turned anti-heroic tetartagonist. He is Klaus' former protege and was the king of New Orleans.
He was introduced as the main antagonist of The Originals due to his diabolical tactics to keep his position of power and has shown to be a major enemy of Klaus as Klaus gave the impression that he would exploit Rebekah. However, he is actually the true anti-hero of the show because he did all those evil things just to protect the teenage witch, Davina Claire from the New Orleans Witch Coven who wanted to kill her (making them the true main antagonists).
Marcel has shown to have an interesting relationship with the Mikaelsons, being a frenemy of Elijah, a former lover to Rebekah and an enemy-turned-friend of Klaus.
Personality
Human
As a human, Marcel is shown to be very brave as he fought back against the slave owner who whipped him, a gesture that earned him Klaus' respect and ultimately saved his life. Marcel was very moral, as he tried to stop another slave getting beaten which then resulted in Marcel getting shot by his own father. Back in his youth, Marcel was shown to be innocent; he was greatly disturbed when Kol decided to "educate" him about vampirism at the cost of several innocent lives. Marcel's innocence and bravery are what made Klaus very fond of the boy. These traits, coupled with the fact that they were both bastards presumably led Klaus into seeing Marcel as someone that Klaus himself was and could still be, given the right circumstances. And when Marcel expressed a desire to be sired, Klaus was very reluctant, as he feared that Marcel becoming something similar to himself would deprive him of all that Klaus prized in Marcel.
Vampire
Marcel can be described as being the life of the party. When he was introduced, Marcel was shown to apparently be diabolical and dangerous as well as wicked but has since proven himself to be even more moral than Klaus. Marcel is very charismatic and uses said charisma as much as his vampire powers to get what he wants from others. Marcel’s enjoys his vampiric life and likes living in the French Quarter, considering it to be a home to keep and fight for. He is also very brave, being one of the very few who can speak defiantly in Klaus' presence without worrying that he risks losing his own life in the process.
He takes his role as leader seriously and enforces the rules he made without fail, though he is not above getting carried away since he supposedly killed a witch in front of many viewers for this reason, though its revealed that said witch used magic and took part in the harvest ritual where she had her own daughter sent to her death. He also seems to genuinely care for his subordinates, having stayed at the side of one dying from Klaus' werewolf bite until the latter provided him with the cure. Marcel also seems to be understanding as shown in his quickness to forgive Klaus for biting his friend when Klaus gave him the cure and asked for forgiveness. He is also shown to be, unlike many people in positions of power and privilege, reasonable and approachable, willing to do favors for people. While not arrogant, he has displayed over-confidence when confronted by beings more powerful than him, such as when he spoke down to Klaus, disregarding that he would be nothing if it wasn't for Klaus, the Original Hybrid, who is much more powerful than any non-original vampire in his "army", though while Klaus did make him who he was, he also wasn't always benevolent, as he daggered Rebekah for getting too close to Marcel, this affected Marcel deeply and it caused him to resent Klaus as well as eventually turn against him.
Marcel is ruthless but not completely without mercy; best demonstrated by the fact that he prefers to kill his victims by snapping necks, as opposed to other Vampires, who use more inhumane methods like heart extraction, decapitation, and staking. In fact, Marcel has so far been seen to actually permanently kill someone only five times; One was with Jane-Anne, and the other was with Bastianna. The latter via decapitation, as he needed her death to resurrect Davina. The last witch he killed was Monique, as Marcel had to kill her in order to save Klaus' newborn child. The other two were Tina Josh's former friend and a werewolf who bit Gia.
He likes to have fun and enjoys being a vampire. He takes pride in who he is. Also, he's intelligent, being able to run a city and maintain it, being much better at it than Klaus, as the latter's leadership was not popular or respected by any faction. He’s very competitive too. Like Klaus, Marcel likes to think up contingencies; he requested Davina to figure out the fatal weakness of the Original Vampires, not aware that the death of an Original Vampire would also mean the deaths of all other vampires sired from their bloodline, including himself. Indeed, one of his weaknesses is that being a recently-introduced character, Marcel knows little about the nature of the Original Vampires, such as Klaus' blood acting as a cure for a werewolf bite and that if one Original Vampire dies, all of their bloodline die too in matter of hours, however, not even the Originals themselves knew of the bloodline problem as it was only revealed with the death of Finn. As with Klaus, Marcel also has very little tolerance for disloyalty, having killed a transitioning vampire purely because she opted to save herself over her companion.
In Sinners and Saints, it was revealed that Marcel's cruelty was only to protect Davina, who was supposed to be used in a blood sacrifice so the witches in the French Quarter could keep their powers. It was also shown that Marcel planned to raid the ritual with the full intent of saving the four witches that were to be sacrificed, including Davina, but arrived too late and only managed to save Davina. Marcel's reasons for killing witches who practice magic was to keep them from killing Davina, as he himself had known what it felt like to be treated as a tool and not a human being. It was because of this that Marcel created a rule against people abusing children in the Quarters. Marcel's reason for hiding Davina was also revealed; to stall the witches until The Harvest was passed and the witches would lose their powers, enabling Davina to live a normal life as she always wanted ever since the Harvest. When Tyler told him of the existence of Klaus' unborn child, along with the potential danger it may pose to the vampire race, Marcel was visibly conflicted on what he should do next but chose not to harm the baby, possibly due to the fact that he doesn't hurt children, or possibly he did not want to risk Klaus' wrath on him, as he knows that Klaus cares about his family, and he will kill anyone who tries to hurt or kill a member of his family.
Marcel is also a hypocrite for claiming that he dislikes people who have betrayed their friends, when he himself has betrayed Klaus.
Because of his protectiveness towards Davina, Marcel doesn't hesitate to kill any witch that practices magic in the French Quarter to keep them from finding her. However, he is more merciful towards anyone who breaks his other laws, as shown by the countless vampires he kept locked in The Garden instead of killing them, which would take much less effort to do. He went out of his way to save the nightwalkers on his territory when the Faction incited an attack on them, and has yet to be seen dealing with other vampires in ways other than snapping their necks, implying that he really does care for his own kind.
In From a Cradle to a Grave, Marcel was forced to break one of his rules; against killing children, by killing Monique Deveraux, in order to save Hope Mikaelson. Previously, Marcel fought and managed to disarm Klaus to protect the newly resurrected Monique, though at this time Monique was a seemingly innocent witch who had not yet attempted to kill an innocent infant.
Upgraded Original Vampire
After transitioning into an Upgraded Original Vampire, Marcel's attitude become quiet and subdued, whilst being angry and upset, having been betrayed by those he considered his family. No longer being a normal vampire, thus unkillable to the Mikaelsons, Marcel quickly adopts a more arrogant and confrontational nature, over his more pragmatic tendencies, doing what he feels is necessary regardless of the consequences, such as fatally wounding Kol and Elijah. He also became more reckless, killing the rest of the Strix, haphazardly leaving their bodies in St. Anne's Church for anyone to find. As a result of this, Vincent turns his back on Marcel after a Strix member who survived seriously harmed Will Kinney. Vincent compares Marcel to how Klaus use to act; prior to the latter fathering Hope.
Marcel remained grief stricken from Davina's death which only fueled his anger at the Mikaelsons, no longer caring about ruling or partying like he used to, only caring about justice however, this so-called justice is nothing more than revenge. His desire to see the Mikaelson pay for the crimes grew so great that he able to be goaded by Rebekah into stabbing Klaus with Papa Tunde's blade instead of killing him, Rebekah claiming that she wanted to see him suffer rather than die. His overconfidence increased to the point of arrogance, as he underestimated Freya's resourcefulness to keep her family alive, due to this; he was ultimately tricked by Klaus, yet again, this time into letting the latter live.
Marcel stated that he took the potion that turned him into an Upgraded Original Vampire (without the Mikaelson Family's knowledge), as he wanted to know how the Mikaelson Family truly felt about him and what would happen if they found him with the "serum", predicting that if he didn't take the potion, he would've been dead due to Elijah's obsession and fear with the prophecy, while Klaus initially did try to reason with him, after discovering that the serum in Marcel's possession, he immediately made demands towards Marcel and attempted to coerce him into handing it over, telling Marcel that he won't tolerate any threats to "his" family, thereby apparently confirming what Marcel believed and further angering him, however, the only reason why Klaus threatened Marcel, but because the latter was acting more like an enemy, then family, as Klaus will not won't tolerate any threats made towards his daughter Hope.
Although his anger and vengeance towards Elijah and Freya is justified, due to the two latters role in Davina's death, but his attempt to get revenge for Davina's death, was unjustified, as he put Hayley and Hope's lives in danger, bit Kol, and stab Klaus with Papa Tunde's Blade; as the latters were innocent and had nothing to do with Davina's death; as Marcel has become unreasonable to the point of being unstable and immoral, as Klaus and Kol, the two latters who have a strong sense of honor and good morals in their own rights, were disgusted by his actions.
Powers and Abilities
Vampire
Marcel possesses all the standard powers and abilities of a non-original vampire but has an exceptional level of strength for a vampire his age which is best shown in his battles with Klaus. Marcel has been able to greatly stagger Klaus with a single punch, knocking him off balance (however, it should be noted that Klaus intentionally allowed Marcel to knock him off balance), in another episode he managed to disarm Klaus of Papa Tunde's dagger with only one hand and during the penultimate episode, he went toe-to-toe with Klaus and even if very briefly, dominated the fight (however, Klaus was intentionally holding back, before going full force), before inevitably being defeated by the Original Hybrid.
In Red Door, Marcel briefly faces Mikael and unleashes a combination of attacks that succesfully drive Mikael back but is very quickly brought down by Mikael who easily outmatches him.
Upgraded Original Vampire
Marcel possesses all the standard powers and abilities of an Upgraded Original Vampire but being only 200 plus years means he may have inferior strength and speed to Lucien who speed was so fast he was able to effortlessly dodge and anticipate any attacks that the Mikaelsons could physically throw. That said, Marcel still possess superior powers to the Original Vampires, having a lethal bite and his own base vampirism amplified by the original spell which coupled with his excellent fighting skills makes Marcel one of the most dangerous and deadliest beings thus far.
History
A long time ago, Marcel was a slave whose father was a slave master. When he hit the man with a rock, Klaus was impressed and he ended up adopting the boy and named him Marcel.
Later on, he became Klaus' protege and fell in love with Rebekah and the two started a relationship but Klaus made Marcel choose between him wanting to be a vampire or his love for Rebekah.
He chose to be a vampire and Klaus turned him. As Klaus and his family help build the French Quarter of New Orleans, Klaus' tyranny caused Marcel and Rebekah to conspire to bring Mikael back to New Orleans to kill Klaus but Mikael held Marcel, Rebekah and Elijah hostage for a show and compelled the audience to laugh.
As Klaus quickly saved them and battled Mikael, the vampire who hunts vampires burnt the theater. Later on, Marcel somehow became King of the French Quarter and was fighting against Klaus for power.
Davina was Marcel's weapon due to her uncontrollable power so that she can be used against the Mikaelsons. Later on, Klaus plays mind games with Davina so that she can be confused of who she gets to side with.
When Hayley is kidnapped, Elijah saves her and Klaus saves a pack of werewolves from killing Marcel, as a result, they become friends.
However, when Davina was supposed to be sacrificed during the Harvest ritual, Marcel tried to prevent it but when it failed, her powers included controlling water, wind, fire and the earth, making her powers dangerous in New Orleans but when she was sacrificed, Marcel was torn.
However, when the Original Hybrid found out about Marcel and Rebekah's betrayal, he hunted down to kill Rebekah but Elijah prevented that.
Klaus and Marcel's relationship was strained and Marcel was building a vampire army to fight against the werewolves for their power and reclaim his position in power due to Elijah exiling him for his great betrayal against the Original Hybrid.
Marcel was given a weapon that when stabbed on someone, they will have 12 scars and die.
Marcel wanted that weapon to kill Klaus but when the witches were going to sacrifice Klaus' child, Marcel (probably) fully redeemed himself by killing Monique from Hope and took the baby, so as a result, Marcel saved Klaus' child and their relationship was mended.
In the next season , Josh helps Marcel build a vampire community as they were chased out of the quarter and the werewolves and the witches have made an alliance to fight against Klaus.
Marcel teamed up with Elijah, Klaus, Cami and Hayley to kill the Guerreras that have the moonlight ring that weakens Klaus and they successfully do that.
Later on, Marcel, Elijah, Oliver, Hayler and Aiden team up to save the young boys from being taken as werewolves for Esther, Finn and Kol.
In the next episode, when Mikael holds Cami hostage, Davina tries it control Mikael with the help of Kol/Kaleb however, it did not work and as a result, Marcel, Hayley, Klaus, Cami and surprisingly Davina stood to confront him.
Gallery
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