Gargoyles/YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Awesome Music: Most of the music in the show qualifies for this, but the opening theme is a fan favorite.
  • Complete Monster: While chock full of villains in the Anti-Villain category, there are those who fit this bill. Possible candidates include: Hakon, the Archmage, Jackal and Hyena, Sevarius, and Thailog. And definitely Proteus the shape-shifter. Tony Dracon's no prince either, but he's more smarmy than sadistic, really.
    • Digital Xanatos in "Future Tense" definitely qualifies. He kills Brooklyn, Angela, Demona, and HIS OWN SON, without batting an eye. Goliath calling him an unfeeling machine makes sense even without knowing he's a sentient copy of the original Xanatos' consciousness created by Lexington. For that matter, throw that inhuman S.O.B. in there for selling out his clan, setting them and all allies up to be killed, and gloating about it to his enraged former leader.
      • Of course, in the end, none of it was ever real to begin with. Goliath realizes early on that it isn't real because he knows that the real Xanatos would never go that far.
  • Crazy Awesome: Matt. The seemingly all-powerful Illuminati repeatedly tried to foil his investigation, even damaging his career in the process, but he overcame every roadblock sent his way. He even turns a seeming dead end into a lead that cracks his case wide open.

Matt: I'm funny that way.
Mace: You are impressive that way.

  • Draco in Leather Pants: What's done to Demona in fanfiction... oh, poor Demona.
    • It's done a lot to Xanatos as well.
    • Macbeth is a fairly minor example- he's an Anti-Villain who's heavy on the "anti"- but a lot of his fans see him as a Hero Antagonist, which Word of God says he's definitely not, at least when first introduced (later in the series, this changes).
  • Ensemble Darkhorse: Although most of his scenes are with Lexington and Broadway, many fans love Brooklyn, especially the ladies.
  • Evil Is Sexy: Demona, Hyena, The Banshee, The Weird Sisters (at least while Seline/Fury is in control), Robyn Canmore, Shari, and Fox at least until her Heel Face Turn, all qualify in spades for this. Xanatos easily counts as well, as does Thailog.
  • Fair for His Day: The reason Oberon exiled everyone (even Titania!) from Avalon was to "teach them humility." Not beliveing that he had any such lesson to learn, however, he remained relatively the same over the 1,001 years, leaving at least some of his followers to out-pace him personality-wise.
  • Fan-Disliked Explanation: Although the show is usually good at tying up loose ends, a few plot threads have been left hanging: The computer virus that Xanatos acquires in "Legion," for example, is never seen or heard of again. (Given how Technology Marches On, it is unlikely that it ever will be now.) What Titania whispered to Fox in "The Gathering" has also been left hanging; Word of God says that it wasn't very important anyway.
  • Faux Symbolism: Two enemies named David and Goliath?
  • Genius Bonus: It is not essential to understanding the show, but familiarity with the myths, legends and Real Life history of some of the characters adds a whole new depth to some of the stories (On the other hand, there are some points where their inaccuracies can cause headaches amongst that same crowd).
    • The 3 gargoyles who make up Coldstone are nicknamed Othello, Desdemona (Othello's mate), and Iago (Othello's enemy, who desires Desdemona). Othello was convinced Goliath tried to take Desdemona away from him. This is pretty much Othello in a robotic, Frankenstein's Monster-like nutshell.
  • Harsher in Hindsight: In one episode, Broadway is impressed by Macbeth's storytelling, and asks him if he was there. Macbeth remarks that "he's not that old". Turns out, he's a lot older.
  • Hell Is That Noise: The werewolf from "Eye of the Beholder". Words utterly fail to describe how unearthly horrifying that thing sounded.
  • Hilarious in Hindsight: Demona, a gargoyle, flitting about Notre Dame...
    • In a dark and serious feature by Disney, no less
  • Magnificent Bastard: Xanatos, of course. Brilliant and utterly devious? Check. Smooth operator? Double-check. Goal-oriented? Absolutely. Charismatic? AND HOW!
    • Thailog solidifies himself as another one when he gets the better of Xanatos in his first appearance. Of course, he learned it from the best...
    • Xanatos' wife Fox, his assistant Owen who is actually Puck, and John Castaway qualify for this as well.
  • Memetic Sex God: The series has a lot of attractive characters, but Demona takes the cake here.
  • Moral Event Horizon: Xanatos went over it for Elisa in "Metamorphosis". It's unlikely she'll ever forgive him. Similarly, Lexington was never really able to get over being duped by the Pack, though he eventually forgives Fox, if only for the sake of baby Alexander.
    • Demona goes over it truly in "City of Stone", where she ends up breaking, and thus murdering, an untold number of humans turned to stone., and the Pack all get one, when they irreversibly change their bodies into stronger but more monstrous forms, with the exception of Anti-Villain Dingo, who goes for a suit of powered armor that of course does nothing to change his actual body.
  • My Real Daddy: Given the fandom's reaction to season 3, Greg Weisman's possessiveness is seen as a good thing.
  • Never Live It Down: Every time there's a news story relating to Xanatos or Fox, reporter Travis Marshall always notes how they've been in jail.
  • Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: Princess Katherine and the Magus once they Took a Level in Badass.
  • Some Anvils Need to Be Dropped: "Deadly Force." They wanted to push An Aesop in there, and they pulled it off perfectly.
    • City of Stone was anything but subtle in conveying the Aesop that killing never solves anything, but the scene in which the Weird Sisters and Goliath stop Macbeth from killing Demona wouldn't have been nearly as powerful otherwise.
  • Tear Jerker: Quite a few in the series actually, but the attack of Castle Wyvern, and the end of the episodes "Metamorphosis", "Vows", "City Of Stone", and "Avalon" really stand out.
    • The Tear Jerker of "City Of Stone" is even worse if you know what happens to Gruoch after Macbeth leaves. According to Greg Weisman, after Canmore had defeated Luach, Gruoch returns home to see that her son and father had both died in battle. Out of grief for losing her entire family, like many Shakespearean characters, she tragically commits suicide and dies a broken woman.
    • Call me weird, but the biggest Tear Jerker moment for me was in "Deadly Force," when Broadway finds a thug threatening someone with a particle-beam emitter: "What's this?! A new kind of gun?!?! A new way to kill people?!?!" Bill Fagerbakke's voice acting did a great job conveying Broadway's grief for Elisa in that scene in particular.
      • You're not weird. The single, maybe two-second shot of Broadway crying his eyes out after accidentally shooting Elisa still makes this 22-year-old Troper sick to her stomach, and...blink very fast, and hard. It's such a small thing, but so effective. The Gargoyles crew were wonderful at this.
  • Too Good to Last: Ayup. It did get another TV series, but it was of such poor quality it doesn't count.
    • This happened to the comic book revival, too, though there's still hope for a new contract.
  • Ugly Cute: A majority of the gargoyles, quite a few of whom actually aren't ugly at all.
  • Villain Sue: At times, Xanatos stops just a hair's breadth of being one; he's Lex Luthor (amoral corporate genius inventor) crossed with Doctor Doom (power armor and enjoys mixing magic and science), handsomer than both, rich as hell, all of his plans regardless of if you beat him go the way he wanted them to in some way, and most importantly, he is completely free of any weaknesses mastermind villains usually have, namely overwhelming ego (he has it, but he never lets it get in the way of anything), petty revenge fetishes ("Revenge is a sucker's game."), insanity (while he's amoral, he is not a sociopath or insane), and idleness (he always makes sure he can take care of himself if his plans fall apart). However ultimately he's not one, because he CAN loose at times, he's just very positive about it and doesn't take it personally.
  • What an Idiot!: Oh, so many that it could have its own page. Let's start at the beginning. Yes, People of Castle Wyvern treat the gargoyles, half of your fighting force, like crap and act like Ungrateful Bastard after they save you from the vikings surely this won't cause problem later on when you need them the most.
  • What Do You Mean It's for Kids?: An all-adult cast, serious explorations on issues like prejudice and genocide from the first episode, a Very Special Episode about the consequences of gun usage, loads of Shakespeare references, and to top it off a villain who will have you divided on whether you should hate her or not. Not something you'd really see in Disney animation, much less Disney television.
  • The Woobie: Many characters take turns with this, but Goliath, Elisa, and Macbeth stand out the most. Just watch Macbeth's back story in "City Of Stone" and try not to feel pity towards him at the end.
  • World of Woobie