Xavier: Renegade Angel

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Television series
Original title Xavier: Renegade Angel
Country of production United States
original language English
Year (s) 2007-2009
Production
company		 PFFR
length 10 mins
Episodes 20 in 2 seasons
genre Satire, comedy
idea Vernon Chatman, John Lee
First broadcast November 4th, 2007 on Adult Swim

Xavier: Renegade Angel is an American computer-animated television series . It was written and produced by Vernon Chatman and John Lee. Adult Swim aired a total of 20 episodes from November 2007 to November 2009. The surreal satire revolves around the humanoid Xavier, a spiritual traveling preacher who goes in search of higher truths.

action

The plot is non-linear and only partially conclusive. The events of one episode rarely have consequences for the next. Xavier wanders through fictional places in the southern states and goes through various, but consistently bizarre adventures.

Xavier recites the wisdom of different belief systems, especially the ethnic religions of North America, and tries in vain to apply them for the common good. Numerous episodes begin or end with scenes in which Xavier meditates in the desert and ponders pseudo-intellectual, basically irrelevant questions .

He meets random Americans, such as rednecks , drug dealers or punks, who have essentially realistic, but completely exaggerated traits and beliefs. Often these people experience Xavier and his teachings as irritating and intrusive, which is why he is periodically beaten up. Other people accept Xavier as a helper and leading figure, which has tragic-comic consequences for everyone involved.

Xavier's unworldly and contradicting esotericism and philosophy are hardly equal to the chaotic and hostile reality. His striving for wisdom, enlightenment and harmony ultimately leads to supernatural events. There are religious addressed, sociological and political issues. However, these only serve as a means to promote an increasingly absurd and surreal plot, which is characterized by fantasy beings , hallucinations and apocalyptic catastrophes.

Flashbacks show Xavier's career as a spiritual seeker and would-be guru . He completed an apprenticeship with an Indian who, however, exploited and abused him. In addition, Xavier's childhood is shown, which shows his parents' deeply traumatic dealings with him. Nevertheless, Xavier's search for the murderer of his father and his missing mother are the decisive motivation for his journey, which is always the focus.

characters

Xavier

The eponymous protagonist of all episodes. A chimerical creature, with the figure of an athletic adult male, brown fur, long blond hair, a bird's beak, one brown and one light blue eye. His right forearm is replaced by a green snake that seems to be pursuing its own thoughts and motivations. Xavier's only item of clothing, a loincloth, does not cover genitals , but an oversized eye.

Xavier is guided by his noble striving for spirituality and truth as well as by the profane need for approval, parental affection and sex . In his constant self-portrayal, Xavier tries to present himself as a wise, altruistic and above all else spiritual guru. In reality, Xavier is more of an inexperienced, naive and obedient gossip who, above all, needs the help he pushes on people. Nonetheless, he also seems to have truly supernatural abilities that vary from episode to episode.

guru

Xavier's teacher is a wise guru of Indian descent. From him, Xavier learned spiritual virtues such as peacefulness, closeness to nature and altruism. His religious and mystical knowledge was also passed on to Xavier by his teacher. It is obvious that the mischievous and sadistic guru was simply using his disciple for his own amusement, rather than teaching him actual wisdom and skills. Finally, he faked his own death to get rid of Xavier.

father

Xavier's father died under mysterious conditions before the start of the plot and therefore only appears in brief flashbacks. These flashbacks are partly contradictory: once he dies in a car accident, but there is talk of an arson attack several times . All versions have in common that the father died a violent death, for which he still blames Xavier from the afterlife. Xavier's confrontation with his father's killer (himself) is the finale of the first season.

mother

Xavier's mother fulfills all the clichés of a cold, selfish and indifferent raven mother . She is addicted to psychotropic drugs , addicted to alcohol and other drugs . In the presence of the young Xavier, she often had sex with a multitude of men at the same time and apparently even with animals . Her disdain for Xavier even went so far that she had her unborn child tortured by her doctor after the doctor ruled out a desired abortion .

Xavier still longs in vain for maternal affection in the present and is in search of it. Xavier's persistent and intense longing for his mother is increasingly incestuous . In the finale of the second season and thus of the series, mother and son finally meet as patients in a closed psychiatric facility.

computer

A recurring digital assistant to Xavier, played by They Might Be Giants member John Flansburgh . He answers Xavier's requests for information, but mostly in a confusing way, incomplete or belatedly.

subjects

The series cynically laughs at worldviews and beliefs that Xavier and episodic protagonists adhere to. World religions such as Christianity , Islam and Buddhism are caricatured and corrupted. But also political currents such as the anarchists , hippies , pacifists and environmental activists are depicted with surreal satire.

Exemplary for Ton in the series is the nonsensical question "what doth life" : one of many great questions of meaning that protagonist Xavier asks. It is grammatically incorrect and semantically incomprehensible, but feigns profundity and philosophical significance. The esoteric mantras and philosophical reflections that Xavier repeats are presented as banal and useless truisms outside of the narrow context to which they refer .

In addition, the series contains many controversial and taboo issues, such as institutional abuse of power, psychopathology , police violence , migration , racism , the Indian wars , homosexuality , pedophilia , incest, suicide , without going into depth.

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