A few notes on the GVS!verse version of Dracula’s youngest (in this iteration) son, Xarus:
because he’s absolutely smitten with Rose, (and wants to use her to make himself all powerful, loves when they fight, basically INCREDIBLY obsessed in SUCH an unhealthy way, and likes that they can go toe-to-toe and the fact that she could probably beat him) he..... has a general distaste for all of them. especially the powerful ones. however,,,, hurting them or targeting them is a last resort bc unlike a lot of older, more prominent villains he doesn’t constantly underestimate them OR Rose. he knows if he hurts them, then Rose will do everything in her power to kill him. he likes hating her too much for that to happen. he knows if he hurts ROSE, then he’s going to die painfully by the hands of not one person, but the whole fucking team. specifically Cas(buck).
Xarus is the kind of guy who knows just what he has to work for to succeed; fighting the Guardvengers isn’t going to get him anywhere. But tormenting their little captain is going to get her closer to breaking point, or at least close proximity. His end goal is to drain her dry (and possibly turn her into a vampire, he’s dabbled with the idea) bc the super soldier serum in her blood is 2x Steve’s, so it wouldn’t just heal him from the vampiric flaw of burning in the sun. It would make him more powerful than any other vampire on the planet, and even probably make him a threat more akin to Loki or Thanos (it’s a reach but) than to where he is now.
Ultimately, Xar is tired of living in the shadows. He’s tired of living subhumanly; not even just in accordance to the rest of human society. He wants to rise above, to prove he’s better than them(us) AS WELL as his siblings, as his father. Dracula is a name that everyone knows- and even his hated sister Lilith is technically more in line for the throne than he is. Janus, his older brother, is the most put together being in existence and has his father’s approval, his society’s approval, would PROBABLY have human society’s approval, and he even has Rose’s approval. Xarus is a being of wants.
OFC Xarus has more of a personality than ambition. He’s a history geek. He understands the logistics of ruling a society/kingdom and how to do it fairly. And ultimately, he and Rose are very similar. They’re legacy children, with BIG shoes to fill in the future. They deal with their inner demons, and sometimes lose control- which often ends in blood. Their childhoods were not normal, they had issues with loss and how to deal with their emotions.
But also ultimately, Rose chooses to try and be better. She does not kill unless it’s gone past subduing physically, she does not subdue physically until democracy has been attempted. That’s the big difference and it’s what makes she and Xarus so interesting. They’re cunning, mentally and physically powerful, epic foes of Hector-and-Achilles proportions. They have people who they’d kill for. Xarus’s little collection is more vapid and less actual friends/family than the GVS are to Rose (which sends him off the deep end eventually) but nevertheless.
Xar ended up being this manipulative, always-a-step-ahead, motivated, passionate character when initially he was just ‘evil for the sake of evil’. But he’s got power, status, responsibility, and his idea of a better world for his goals.
