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"Mature Content Warning!" |
| “ | There aren't any good men! They're all bad! They're all the same. Animals are good creatures. But men are EVIL animals! | „ |
| ~ Claudandus expressing his hatred of humanity.. |
Claudandus is the main antagonist of the 1989 German novel Felidae by Akif Pirinçci, and its 1994 animated film adaptation of the same name. He is an elderly, yet exceptionally intelligent Hevana Brown tomcat who, under the name of Pascal, helps the protagonist, Francis, solve the mystery of many horrific cat murders that plague the cat society. However, it later turns out that Claudandus is the one responsible for the murders. His name means "he who must be concealed" in Latin.
He was voiced by Klaus Maria Brandauer in German and the late John Hurt in English.
His Evil Ranking[]
Debatable Validations[]
- It is never revealed why Claudandus killed Felicity more brutally than his other victims.
What Makes Him Heinous?[]
- Claudandus seeks to overthrow humanity by creating a "superior race" of cats through selective breeding by getting the strongest and fittest cats he finds to mate and breed a type of wilder, smarter, stronger cat he calls "Felidae." He plans to make them the dominant cat species so they can eventually overthrow humanity.
- He is confirmed to have murdered more than 450 innocent cats, including adolescents and pregnant females, just to stop them from producing offspring with the "Felidae" cats in order keep the bloodlines of the "Felidae" breed pure.
- Claudandus manipulates Jesaja into guarding the crypt where he hides his victims' corpses, posing as an apparition and making him believe that he is a chosen one, which leaves Jesaja in an isolated, depressed state for a long time.
- He puts the young cat, Francis, whom he sees as an equal and like-minded individual, on the track of the murders, hoping that he will agree to become his successor and carry on his work once he has passed on from his terminal stomach cancer.
- He rather brutally murders Felicity, an innocent and blind female house cat and one of his fellow former test subjects, to prevent her from revealing clues that would expose his plans prematurely to Francis. He then lies about it to Francis, saying a cat named Agatha found out about Felicity's murder and informed him.
- He tries to kill Bluebeard and Francis, even though they were his friends, just because they threatened to foil his plans.
- While Claudandus does have a genuinely tragic past and relatively good intentions, they don't necessarily justify his actions because as Francis points out, Claudandus has become no better than the worst of the humans he hates, as his plan is very human-like, is causing and will still cause a huge amount of suffering, he has murdered innocent members of his own kind to achieve his goals, and he basically wants the "Felidae" breed to replace humans as the dominant species of the world.
What Makes Him Inconsistent?[]
- Claudandus is too tragic and sympathetic to be Pure Evil or even Near Pure Evil, for several reasons:
- He has a tragic backstory which explains his mindset, gives him sympathy and makes his actions, while not excusable, understandable to an extent. He was originally a normal, good-hearted stray cat before he was taken in a group of human scientists led by Professor Julius Preterius, who subjected him to torturous experiments in order to test a medicine designed to instantly heal flesh wounds. It's specifically mentioned that Claudandus's suffering was worse than that of any other character in the story; because he was the only individual Preterius' medicine worked on due to him being a mutant, Claudandus was subjected by the scientists to a much larger number of experiments than any of the other test subjects in ultimately futile attempts to crack his genetic code. Preterius eventually went mad due to his repeated failure and began taunting Claudandus, rambling about an idea of a "super race of cats." Eventually, Claudandus escaped, killed Preterius and freed the other test subjects. He was taken in and healed by Preterius's former assistant, Ziebold, but Claudandus was never able to move on from his tragic past, which had left him traumatized and consumed with anger and hatred towards humans. Thus, he eventually devised his plan to overthrow humanity, inspired by Preterius' idea of a "super race" of cats. His tragic past makes it very understandable why Claudandus hates humans and wants to see them overthrown. Even Francis, despite being horrified and disgusted by Claudandus's plans and actions, feels sympathy for him and privately admits that he might've become like Claudandus if he went through what he did.
- While Claudandus's plan is at least partly selfish, driven by a desire for revenge against humanity, it is also motivated by a genuine desire to free the world from humanity's destructive reign, as he wants to make sure no cat will ever suffer again like he did.
- Claudandus tried to warn most of his victims not to interfere with his plans by telling them not to mate with the "Felidae" cats. He only killed them when they refused to listen to him. While this still doesn't justify the murders, it does show that Claudandus isn't a psychopath and that he has a certain sense of honor, as he is willing to give his enemies the chance to back down.
- Claudandus is genuinely affable towards his friends, especially Francis, whom he grows to like and never tries to hurt until Francis tries to stop his plans. Even then, Claudandus sincerely apologizes to Francis before trying to kill him, showing that he genuinely liked Francis and really didn't want to kill him.
- His death is played for sympathy, as Francis looks at him sadly and Claudandus sadly reflects on how he used to be good like Francis before his suffering turned him evil.
External Links[]
- Claudandus on the Villains Wiki
- Claudandus on the Felidae Wiki