The Spectacular Gargoyles

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

The Spectacular Gargoyles is a bunch of fans of Greg Weisman's series who got together anonymously on twitter and formspring and pretend to be the characters. Taking off from the Non-Canon Gargoyles/The Spectacular Spider-Man Radio Play they have taken the idea of a merged Universe and run with it.

The group started out on twitter, but little by little characters crept over to formpsring, and new characters (both canon, non-canon, and a handful of original characters from both shows, with a few more characters thrown in just for fun.) A masterlist of all characters can be found here: https://web.archive.org/web/20200810104458/http://gregxb.blogspot.com/2011/04/so-geeky-but-loving-geekiness.html

And a list of all the characters and the tropes associated with them can be found here: The Spectacular Gargoyles/Characters

The Roleplay was officially cemented with their first arc;

--The Gang War: Demona and Dr. Octopus engaged in a Gang War with New York caught in the middle. The gargoyles and Spidey attempt to restore order. This arc ended with Demona escaping to Paris, and Doc Ock getting arrested and sent to Ravencroft

After the gang war, the series could be broken down into other major plot arcs, with mini-arcs running through them.

--The Search for Merlin: Actually occurred before the Gang War, but it was the Gang war that activated and cemented the RP. Griff, King Arthur, and Fleur seek out Merlin's Crystal Cave.

--The Search for the Holy Grail: Nimue leaves Avalon against Oberon's wishes, to explain her motives to Merlin for locking him up in the Crystal Cave She is then poisoned by an unknown assailant. In order to save her life, King Arthur, Griff, and Fleur begin questing for the Holy Grail. Competing against Xanatos and Macbeth for the right to claim the cup.

--London Clan Exposed: During the Grail arc, the Quarrymen expose the existence of the London Clan, and Demona attempts to wrest power from Una. At around this time the first of the crossover characters begin to appear with Marvel Loki; a multi-versal traveler accidentally creating a path that some of the Flashback Clan can cross over on. Introduces the Formspring Multiverse.

--The Return of the Green Goblin: Norman Osborn returns, hires the best lawyers he can, and manages to clear himself of all charges of being the Green Goblin, although anyone with a brain can see through him. He quickly schemes to unmask Spidey and discovers he is actually Peter Parker. The two have been playing an unending metaphorical chess game ever since. Goblin has also acquired a sample of Peter's DNA and used it to turn an ex-HYDRA agent named Jessica Drew into his own Spider-Woman.

--PIT: A radical PETA-like organization called "The People for Interspecies Triumph," led by a zealous gargoyle-worshipping leader appears in Manhattan, performing terrorist attacks on Quarrymen. The leader, Lacunea Rahdan becomes mutated with gargoyle DNA by Sevarius and changes her name to Raksha. She then attempts to do the same thing to a large crowd, only for her PIT to be defeated and for her to be killed by Demona.

--The Interview: A minor mini-arc around the beginning of the Mab arc. Travis Marshall interviews Goliath, Zafiro, Una, and Kai.

--The Rising of Queen Mab: Was being built towards even as far back the Grail and Gang War arcs. Morgana le Fey, seeking revenge upon Merlin teams up with Demona to unleash Queen Mab -- the most powerful and dangerous entity that ever existed. Mab unleashed her minions, the most dangerous Eldritch Abominations From mythology, Apophis, Typhon, Balor, Surt, Tiamat, Etc...

The Mab arc lasted the longest (over several months) with a number of major events occurring. A number of characters died or almost bit the bucket. A large number of main characters went to Avalon, and more characters were introduced in this arc than any other.

A number of minor things occurred around the end of the arc including Thomeheb revealing that he had Tinkerer build a gate capable of reaching other universes and began stealing from them.

Three arcs began shortly after the Mab arc ended, at around the same time.

--The Hobgoblin: The Hobgoblin, a new super-villian has arisen in New York, and had begun stealing from the Green Goblin and threatening the wealthiest--and some of the most corrupt--"People" in the Big Apple. The Hobgoblin also allied himself with Silver Sable in an attempt to rule the underworld, and after many twists, turns, red-herrings and murders, he was finally unmasked as Roderick Kingsley and brought to justice by Spider-Man.

--Matrix/New Camelot Arc: After Matrix does some amazing things on Avalon while fighting Mab's forces, he's deemed to dangerous to live, so the Redemption Squad is ordered to take him down and destroy him. Dingo and Matrix run away before this can happen, and fall in with Falstaff's gang. This arc is was finished with the HYDRA attack on Paris.

--The New Olympian Arrive: Terry Chung winds up on New Olympus, and the inhabitants decide that it is time for the world to learn of their existence. This arc is also current.

--Natsilane's Quest: Raven informs Natsilane that Coyote and Grandmother have gone missing. He and Rory head out on a Quest to find them and find out who's responsible. Ended when Nick, Rory, and Beth Maza confronted Prospero.

--The Quest of the Magi: King Arthur, Macbeth, and Peredur seek out the Gold, Frankincense, and Myrrh of the Magi. This arc ended with Falstaff invading and temporarily taking over New Camelot.

--The Mystery of Morgana le Fay: On the Winter Solstice, Morgana le Fay, who Mab supposedly killed in front of Oberon and Titania returned mysteriously. This arc ended when Morgana discovered a message left to her by Mab, claiming her as her heir.

--The Attrition of the New Olympian Clan: Began when Demona arrived on New Olympus, and began sowing seeds of dissent within the ranks of the New Olympian Clan. This arc is not yet finished, but appears to have peaked at the moment, with the New Olympian Second Turning on his leader, and getting banished from the clan for his troubles. The banished second joined up with Jove, who had allied with Demona in a devil's agreement before making his way to Manhattan and formally joining her.

--The Skull of Ah Pukuh. A unique find from Guatemala, was stolen from it's display at the museum by Black Cat, Nashville and Spider-Man attempted to stop her, but failed for reasons they didn't quite understand. Black Cat delivered it to Demona.

--The Death of George Stacy: Dr. Octopus has escaped from Ravencroft and assembles the Sinister Six, this time including the New Olympian, Proteus. After several attempts to run Spidey through a gauntlet, they lure Spidey to Times Square, and in the battle between Ock and Spidey, Captain Stacy is killed by falling debris. As he dies in Spidey's arms, he he reveals that he knew who Peter Parker was all along. Just as Ock is about to finish off Spidey, Officer Jean De Wolff takes him down, and the press labels her a hero cop. As both a reward for her service, and a political move, Mayor Waters has De Wolff promoted straight to lieutenant and placed in charge of a new Supervillain Taskforce.

--Journey To Atlantis: Something of a continuation the crossover with Team Atlantis known as The Last. A race between HYDRA and King Arthur's knights to find Atlantis. Arthur does indeed get there first, and comes away with a new knight; Namor.

--Montmarte & Jessica Drew: To fulfill her obligation to the Green Goblin, Spider-Woman captures Montmarte after he timedances into Central Park, but the Goblin betrays her, intending to have Dr. Miles Warren dissect them both to create new weapons and supervillains. Stripped of her costume and Spider-Woman title, Jessica and Montmarte escaped, but are chased down by Green Goblin and his Gob Squad, and while some of the gargoyles as well as Blanchefleur try to protect them, the phoenix appears and takes both of them to the future. The Goblin flies into the phoenix but is burned and sees fragments of the near future, a future he believes will be his triumph. This arc led into...

--The Demon & The Goblin: The Green Goblin and Miles Warren mutated a mercenary named Paul Pierre into the Grey Gargoyle thanks to their studies of Montmarte. They set him loose on a Quarryman rally where he is defeated by Spider-Man and the gargoyles, before turning a few civilians to stone... permanently. The Grey Gargoyle is sent to the Vault, but Demona witnesses this investigates and kidnaps Warren who lures her as well as Coldsteel, Erichthonius and her Fu-Dog into the Green Goblin's trap. In the ensuing battle, Demona is impaled on the end of Green Goblin's glider, while Spidey and the gargoyles attempt to restore order.

--Inside HYDRA: Griff and Arthur arrange for Arthur to be captured in order to sneak inside HYDRA's base of operations.

--Prospero in Opar: Coming back from his proposal to Beth on Valentines Day Nick encounters Prospero again, and finds out he's headed for Africa. Without a leader, the Knights bicker about how to proceed with this information before eventually voting Fara the leader and attempting to beat Prospero to Africa using Thomeheb's unfinished Nigerian Zeta Tube entrance. But there is a glitch, and the group is spread out throughout the jungle.

--The Call of the Wendigo: Mardis Gras, Morgana le Fay breaks Setebos, Faust, and Elizabeth Bathory out of the Raft--A S.H.I.E.L.D. prison in New Orleans. She busts the Wendigo out as well to cover her escape. The knights, investigating the mysterious message that sent Arthur to HYDRA island, show up in New Orleans and fight the Wendigo. Eventually, Natsilane takes it down. Hawkeye joins the Knights, and we see that Morgana and her new minions were watching the entire time.

--The Scorpion Strikes: J. Jonah Jameson hires a Private Investigator, Mac Gargan, to trail Peter Parker. After he's spotted, they visit Miles Warren and hire him to transform Gargan into a superhero to take down and replace Spider-Man. The Scorpion strikes and nearly defeats the web-head, but he keeps on mutating into a human/scorpion hybrid. The Green Goblin manipulates him into attacking Ravencroft while Jameson is visting his son to exact vengeance only for the Scorpion to be defeated by Spider-Man.

--Something W.I.T.C.H.y This Way Comes: Thomeheb is at it again, this time, having stolen the magical jewel containing Nerissa from W.I.T.C.H. Also, around this time, his motives and reasons for acting in the Spec Gargverse have become clearer, and a deal of an unknown nature was struck with Demona.

--Operation: Götterdämmerung: The New Olympian Senators arrive in New York to meet and greet the elite of the city...But Jove and Demona have something sinister planned. World War III, and HYDRA is the catalyst. HYDRA attacks New Olympus, causing massive damage and death. Sphinx's mother is MIA and Boreas's son Xetes is killed.

--The Ultra-Pack Goes Wild: From the 10th to the 23rd, the Ultra-Pack was loose in the Big Apple, and no one could stop them. They were finally taken down by the Redemption Squad on the 23rd...Unfortunately, Goliath was caught in the crossfire and is now locked in the Vault like an animal.

It's not perfect, but it has been consistent, and every character has been played completely in character with no deviations or breaking character from any player. The players themselves are anonymous, and even the Gargoyles Fandom is uncertain who they are.

Tropes used in The Spectacular Gargoyles include:
  • Aborted Arc: What ever happened to Artemis's oath of revenge on Aphrodite for her betrayal, or of the Oberati's hunt for Typhon, the one remaining Mab supporter?
  • Action Girl: Oh so many, Angela, Elisa, Fox, and Demona of course, as well as Katana, Coco, Angelique, Hunter, and even bits of Una and Lunette.
  • Actor Allusion: The characters never resist a chance to take a shot at their original voice actors, or Lampshade certain qualities that they share.
  • Acting for Two: Considering the sheer number of characters that have shown up, (Around 250 from both Spec Spidey, Gargoyles, and beyond) several roles are clearly being played by the same people.
  • Adaptive Armor: The New Olympian Armor that that Demona sold (And Fleur and LTC Stacy stole from) HYDRA. It can adapt to any species and any environment.
  • Affably Evil: Peredur, who, when the world was threatened by Mab, handed the Spear of Destiny over to Arthur hoping that it could be used to destroy her. It did
  • All Guys Want Cheerleaders: Subverted. Rand breaks up with Sally Avril because she wants him to join the Quarrymen and he thinks they're "full of crap".
  • All Myths Are True: Duh...It's a crossover between Gargoyles and Spider-Man.
  • All Your Base Are Belong to Us On New Years Eve, 2011/2012 Falstaff's gang took control of New Camelot.
  • The Aloner: Demona, as in the show.
  • Alpha Bitch: Sally Avril.
  • Ambiguously Gay: Lexington and Staghart. However they have been much less subtle about Staghart.
  • Anyone Can Die: Just ask George Stacy, Ned Lee, Poseidon, Mandy, Behemoth, and Monparnasse.
  • The Atoner: Dingo, Robyn Canmore, Yama, Fang, Sandman
  • Attractive Bent Gender: Loki spent much of his time in the form of an attractive female.
  • Badass Boast: "I am Baron Wolfgang von Strucker, one of the Führer's hand chosen and Leader of HYDRA!" Countered with "I am Arthur Pendragon, the Once and Future King."
  • Baleful Polymorph: Mab's preferred method of dealing with someone who fails her. She turned Aphrodite into a vulture and Balor into a skin full of wine.
  • Because Destiny Says So: Literally, the Stone of Destiny is a talking rock.
  • Big Bad: Demona, Queen Mab, and the Green Goblin.
  • Bigger Bad: The Illuminati Society as a whole.
  • Bilingual Bonus: Mysterio's latin spells. Merlin even comments on them when he fights him, but does not actually translate them.
  • Bold Inflation: J. Jonah Jameson. Just J. Jonah Jameson.
  • Call Back: Often, to the shows that they were based on, and to events that have occurred since, in-story
  • Card-Carrying Villain: Proteus, Green Goblin, and Mab. She comes up a lot.
  • Cast as a Mask: Spider-Man and Peter Parker have separate accounts, ditto Green Goblin and Norman Osborn, and Owen and Puck. Hobgoblin and Roderick Kingsley seemed to be separate accounts, with the Kingsley account being his true identity, but "Kingsley" turned out to be Daniel (most of the time) and Hobgoblin was always Roderick Kingsley.
  • Character Development: All the characters appear to grow and change, as their canon counterparts do.
  • Chekhov's Gun: Too many to count. They do this a lot. The Crown of Thorns and the Spear of Destiny from the Radio Play become this in Grail Arc, then the Spear becomes this in the Mab arc. Then there is the throwaway scene when Lacunae first meets Thomeheb, and we see Tinkerer is working on something large underneath a tarp...a MONTH later we find out it's Thomeheb's Gateway to other Universes.
  • The Chessmaster: Osborn, Thailog, Xanatos, Thomeheb, Coldsteel, Dracula, and Doctor Octopus all have this.
  • Complete Monster: Mab, definitely Mab. Green Goblin/Norman Osborn too.
  • Continuity Nod: Frequently.
  • Corrupt Corporate Executive: Xanatos, of course. But also Thailog, Norman Osborn, Thomeheb, Roderick Kingsley, L. Thompson Lincoln, Dominique Destine, for some reason they love this.
  • Crossover: Thanks to Thomeheb's little gate, we've seen glimpses at Babylon 5, Animorphs, Stargate Atlantis, Kim Possible, The Heroes of Olympus, Discworld, The Dresden Files, and Inuyasha, just to name a few. And of course, the RP is itself a crossover. Not just with The Spectacular Spider-Man but it's also implied that Atlantis: The Lost Empire, Labyrinth, and the "real world" portions of The Chronicles of Narnia take place in this Universe as well.
  • Crossover Cosmology: Especially prevalent during the Mab arc, most of the Children of Oberon have quieted down lately, but we saw tons and tons of mythological figures fighting side by side...Many of whom weren't yet covered in the original Gargoyles.
  • Cute Monster Girl: Played straight and averted with Constance.
  • Dead Baby Comedy: Green Goblin.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Spidey, of course. But also Brooklyn, Nashville, and Staghart.
  • Dirty Old Man: The Vulture.
  • Disproportionate Retribution: Lacunae Rahdan gets mutated into a gargoyle-mutate named Raksha and attempts to do the same to lots and lots of other humans. She also desperately wants to meet and please Demona. When she and Demona do finally meet, Demona smacks Raksha in the face with the steel butt of her bazooka, kicks her onto her stomach and rips her wings right off, tears out her tail, rips her horns right off her skull, and is briefly tempted to rip her glowing eyes out too, but tosses her off a building instead to slowly bleed out and watch the world fade as she dies. Demona does this not because Raksha ate a human being, not because she was making gargoyles look bad, no Demona did this because Raksha did nothing other than offend Demona's gargoyle supremacist ideology by merely existing.
  • Downer Ending: Occasionally, due to the fact that the RP largely takes place in real time. The Halloween Mini-arc was a definite downer, as Dracula turned the London Clan's only human friend (besides King Arthur) into a vampire, forcing Griff and Arthur to kill her, which was Dracula's plan all along, as he wants them all dead and she was the only one passionate enough to get a pro-gargoyle movement going. Worse yet, there are gargoyle claw marks on her mutilated vampire corpse
  • Draco in Leather Pants: Averted for Demona. Averted hard.
  • The Dragon: The Erlking was this to Mab. And a damn scary one too. Also Coldsteel had become this for Demona.
  • Everyone Join the Party: This happens twice. The first time during the Grail Arc when Duval uses the Spear of Destiny and Crown of Thorns to literally subjugate every human being on the planet. Just about every active player had a cameo when this happened when every human dropped to their knees (some to hilarious results) results and chanted "Amen" and we all saw them again when Duval's control was broken. This happened again during the climax of the Mab arc. Every single character put in an appearance whether they were aiding in the fight against Mab, or narrowly avoiding collateral damage.
  • Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Oberon, in response to Mab: It's why you lost the first time, Mother. What you continuously fail to understand.My power does not come from my magic. Nor Avalon. But from my true friends and allies. Something you'll never understand.*An army of Oberon's Children suddenly materialize on the buildings surrounding the Empire State Building.**A moment later, Brooklyn and Goliath Come charging in, leading two waves of gargoyles from the Manhattan, Avalon, and London Clans, and Spider-Man too* Triples as a Call Back to the episode "The Mirror" and as a Big Damn Heroes moment.
  • Evil Sorcerer: Prospero
  • Evilutionary Biologist: Sevarius
  • Evil Scientist: Tinkerer
  • The Fair Folk
  • Fantasy Kitchen Sink
  • Fantastic Racism: Quarrymen to Gargoyles. Gargoyles to Humans. New Olympians to Humans. Jove to the Gargoyles of New Olympus.
  • Fate Worse Than Death: What happened to Loki after the Mab Arc.
  • Five-Bad Band
  • Five-Man Band
  • Genre Savvy: A lot of characters, both good and bad are this...This is both, good and bad.
  • Green Eyed Red Head: Dominique Destine, Mary Jane Watson, and Black Widow.
  • The Illuminati
  • Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Demona on the Green Goblin's glider. She got better.
  • It's Always Mardi Gras in New Orleans Justified, because the arc and battle for the "Call of the Wendigo" arc DID take place on Mardis Gras.
  • Ms. Fanservice: Demona. While very much in character, she has had more gratuitous nude scenes than any other character except for Raksha who went naked all the time after her mutation.
  • Moral Event Horizon: Lacunae Rahdan, now a gargoyle-mutate calling herself Raksha, asserts her dillusions of superiority by eating a human being.
  • My Girl Is a Slut: It has been very heavily implied that Xanatos and Fox are swingers. It has also been implied that Roderick Kingsley and his arm candy of the week are regular partners. It has also been implied that the Osborns are no longer welcome at such parties the Xanatoses host.
  • Mythology Gag All the Oberon's Children love to do this. Like with Set and lettuce. Or with or Ares's "Little-miss-turns-rape-victims-into-horrifying-monsters" epithet for Athena.
  • Nightmare Fuel: Mab is this In-Universe. Casting a spell that causes every character to have nonstop nightmares for weeks on end
  • Secret Identity: Spider-Man is Peter Parker; Dominique Destine is Demona; the Green Goblin is Norman Osborn; John Castaway is Jon Canmore; Hunter is Robyn Canmore; Cu Chullain is Rory Dugan; Owen is Puck, the Hobgoblin is Roderick Kingsley.
  • Shout-Out: Often. To Greg Weisman's other works, and anything else that is appropriate for the situation. For example, Griff was wounded by HYDRA, but he brushes it off as "Merely a flesh wound."
  • Shown Their Work: The players for the Leader of the New Olympian Clan and Jove have very clearly done their research on Egyptian and Greco-Roman civilization.
  • Show Within a Show: As in "Gargoyles," The Pack were once a popular TV show, and both WITCH and Young Justice currently are popular TV shows.
  • Squick: Mr. and Mrs. Osborn have a very active sex life... which he wears his mask during!
  • The Storyteller: Shari.
  • Suspiciously Specific Denial: Thailog does NOT watch My Little Pony
  • Take That: The supremacist, violent, PETA-like PIT was an obvious shot at the cardboard cutout hippie PIT Crew from "The Goliath Chronicles" which has also imbibed its way into many "Gargoyles" fanfics, even those written by TGC haters.
  • This Just In: The RP just stopped in place when, in Real Life, it was announced that Osama Bin Laden had been killed. The characters then celebrated, in character, in their own way. Even some of the villains were at Ground Zero in civilian identities celebrating. Demona, of course, was probably the only one who didn't care either way.
  • Those Wacky Nazis: Baron Strucker and HYDRA.
  • Token Evil Teammate: Despite being a sociopathic, self professed Lord of Chaos reviled by most members of the Third Race, Set sided with Oberon in both wars against Mab, soley because his archenemy Apophis was supporting Mab.
  • The Unfair Sex: Betty Brant gets upset when Ned is nice to a waitress he's tipping. She cheats on him with Flash Thompson.
  • Valentine's Day Episodes: Just about every couple got in on Valentine's Day. Some had quiet dates, some went out, some hooked up, some had epic sex, some struck out, and some relationships are teetering on the edge of collapse. Throw in a marriage proposal too.
  • Van Helsing Hate Crime: The Quarrymen's murder of Montparnasse during the London Clan Exposed arc being a prominant example.
  • The Voiceless: Averted with Emily Osborn. She speaks and she's a cast-iron bitch. Played straight with Nought, Pistol, and Claw. Hammerhead's chauffeur and Debra Whitman also have yet to speak.
  • The Wild Hunt
  • Xanatos Gambit: Well DUH! Way, way, WAY Too many to count.
  • Year Outside, Hour Inside: Interestingly done...Since everything takes place more or less in real time, when the characters go to Avalon, they spend a lot of time there. The sun rises there, and the gargoyles spend two weeks (from a real world perspective) in stone sleep. Spidey is there too, and when he get's back he ends up in trouble with Aunt May and Gwen due to it being almost a month later.
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