Board 8 > Rewatching Gargoyles...This Cartoon is Timeless

(+) Yeah! (+)

I had some time to kill before bed, and I thought, "I hadn't watch this in years." It was probably my favorite cartoon growing up (Spider-Man, X-Men, and Aladdin were the other 2-3 I loved). I just can't shake the nostalgia. So much great acting...and these goddamn lines.

"I've been denied everything...EVEN MY REVENGE!"
"Pay a man enough, and he'll walk barefoot into Hell."
"Don't disappoint me..."

Just two episodes in, and I'm just lost in how good this shit always is. Was anyone else a fan of this growing up?
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Jalapeños
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"THEY'RE ATTACKING THE CASTLE, THAT'S ALL WE NEED TO KNOW!"

*Throws jalapenos at robbers*

Edit: Jesus christ, those are some skinny jeans.
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A friend of mine rewatched it not too long ago and said it didn't hold up well
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World Tour gets a little rough but the show is really good otherwise.

Best damn cartoon.
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I dunno about not holding up well. The acting and "real world" nature is really carrying this. Guns, gravity, aerodynamics in a cartoon? WHAT IS THIS MADNESS!?

The same madness that has ninjas, Odin, and Shakespeare I guess. It helps to have a main villain who is basically an evil Tony Stark. Xanatos is amazing.
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Xanatos alone carries the show. But most of the other characters are great too.

Obligatory Xanatos steeple:

http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20120608212460/villains/images/f/f7/President_David_Xanatos.jpg
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I will say one thing that sucks: this middle-aged couple that seem to pop up everywhere. Even their names are sad. Margo and Brendan? Ick. He deserves a beating if he can't work a damn coffee maker.

Edit: aww...they ran away...lame.
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That was my favorite motorcycle...
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I barely remember the show, but I used to like the game!
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There was a game?

EDIT: By god there was. Anyway, more tomorrow (hooray people). I have a stupid test in the morning.
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Leafeon13N posted...

World Tour gets a little rough but the show is really good otherwise.

World Tour only gets rough or lags IMO for people that want constant fighting in New York. The World Tour was excellent world building, as well as character building for Goliath, Angela, Halcyon Renard, Coldstone, Dingo, Brooklyn, and others.
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World Tour's a bit of a bummer for people that like the rest of the Manhattan Clan. Other than Goliath and Bronx, the others are largely absent for most of WT. And that whole saga is what, 1/3 of the series?

It's good world-building, but it also feels like every episode is a backdoor pilot for another show. I don't hate it, but it's got its problems.
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I've watched it here and there back in the day. It was a solid show. Offered a name to tropes like the Xanatos Gambit, which is one I've always been fond of.
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"These are great...you should try some."

"We would have, if you hadn't eaten the whole cart full."
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I finished the Awakening Arc. It's amazing how everything sets the tone. Everything is a half-truth, gray scenario, built on interplay between learning from mistakes, while having to handle being in a new world. It's amazing how the villains are not typical idiots, but driven by such powerful motives. It'd be one thing if they were just "super rich" or "really angry." But the writers flesh them out so well in just 5 (in some cases 3-4 episodes).

I'd be hard pressed to find people as devoted to their villainy as well as Xanatos and Demona. Xanatos does it just for the lolz (with a deeper motivation later that I can certainly understand), and Demona is one of the more sociopathic characters I've seen. It's not like she isn't right either.

Don't follow my plan. Let's kill them all.
Don't follow my plan? We're all dead because of you!
Don't follow my plan? I'll blow up an airship.
Don't follow my plan? I'll just blow you to death with a fucking RPG!

The good guys are not bumbling idiots (well, most aren't anyway). It's all centered about this idea of surviving and keeping as many people alive in this new situation, despite all the evil that surrounds them.

I'm not saying Awakening is the best episode, but it's hard to find a better example of setting a tone for an entire show.
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This show was my childhood.

Strife2 posted...

I finished the Awakening Arc. It's amazing how everything sets the tone. Everything is a half-truth, gray scenario, built on interplay between learning from mistakes, while having to handle being in a new world. It's amazing how the villains are not typical idiots, but driven by such powerful motives. It'd be one thing if they were just "super rich" or "really angry." But the writers flesh them out so well in just 5 (in some cases 3-4 episodes).

I'd be hard pressed to find people as devoted to their villainy as well as Xanatos and Demona. Xanatos does it just for the lolz (with a deeper motivation later that I can certainly understand), and Demona is one of the more sociopathic characters I've seen. It's not like she isn't right either.

Don't follow my plan. Let's kill them all.
Don't follow my plan? We're all dead because of you!
Don't follow my plan? I'll blow up an airship.
Don't follow my plan? I'll just blow you to death with a fucking RPG!

The good guys are not bumbling idiots (well, most aren't anyway). It's all centered about this idea of surviving and keeping as many people alive in this new situation, despite all the evil that surrounds them.

I'm not saying Awakening is the best episode, but it's hard to find a better example of setting a tone for an entire show.

it's a kids show
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"You rode a horse once. Could you build one from spare parts?

*Brooklyn rides off on a crazy custom motorcycle*

Hey, don't we get our turns?

Could someone explain how it takes taking off a helmet to prove Brooklyn isn't human? He's red as fuck, with horns, and has giant claw hands and feet. That biker gang had a good 10-15 seconds to figure that out.
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Oh, sorry. I was playing with the gun. That was stupid of me...

o.O
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HEY! The garage trick is only supposed to lower your wanted level when you paint your car or change plates...cheapskates.
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Strife2 posted...

Could someone explain how it takes taking off a helmet to prove Brooklyn isn't human? He's red as fuck, with horns, and has giant claw hands and feet. That biker gang had a good 10-15 seconds to figure that out.

In the dark he probably just looked like some punk with a love for gloves and boots that have red spikes on them and a modded helmet.
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Maybe...at least his cool wing trick make most of his legs look like he was wearing pants.
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No better way to end a night than a Macbeth episode...so good.
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Macbeth the greatest. City of Stone best arc ever.
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Is there anything as frightening as a rampaging gargoyle dog in the heart of a traffic jam?

Edit: wild cat-and-mouse game in a crazy house. Fucking love this sequence.
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Out of curiosity, what method are you using to rewatch the show? DVD?
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Youtube. Quality is shit, but that's expected. Funny how videogames get clear views, but cartoons and anime? Big white splotches and off-time voices. I remember they had a normal version once a while ago. That obviously got shut down.
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Bleh.

You know, I know Disney loves their old movies, but maybe they could give their old animated series some more love.

I, personally, would love to see Greg Weisman return to work on a Gargoyles continuation that maybe covers the plot of the comic books only doesn't get cancelled halfway through.

Speaking of continuations, what did you think of the Goliath Chronicles, from what you remember?
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The first is probably the best of that season. A couple decent episodes otherwise (like one with Fox/Jackal/Hyena, plus a Hudson one). There was a really dumb hypnosis one somewhere in there. If I recall, there was one episode with some REALLY shitty animation with Proteus/Prometheus-whoever the guy from the Olympian episode is named. It was like the worst animated episode they had.

Not the worst episode though. Heritage, Sentinel, and Vendetta are unwatchable. Protection almost reaches those, but it has Elisa in a black outfit that saves it.
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Strife2 posted...

The first is probably the best of that season.

It's also the only one of the Chronicles that's canon to the Gargoylesverse at large, lol.

I think the comics start from right after that episode.

Strife2 posted...

If I recall, there was one episode with some REALLY shitty animation with Proteus/Prometheus-whoever the guy from the Olympian episode is named. It was like the worst animated episode they had.

Oh yeah. The weird thing about it is that even though the animation was shit, it was also unnaturally smooth. Like, seriously, off model but god damn they put a lot of frames into that.

...

I may have enjoyed the fact that Goliath was tied up in that episode a bit too much though.
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As far as best episodes, there's a bunch.

Future Tense (has to be the consensus favorite: bar none)
The Price (explains Xanatos' motivations for the remainder of the series)
Any Macbeth/Demona/Puck episodes
Multi-parters (save for Hunter's Moon for some reason, which never grabbed me)
Fox/Xanatos engagement/wedding
Some World Tours (Any Avalon arc/first episode post-Avalon)
Matt episodes
Anything First Season

I'm sure I'll remember others as I go, but those tend to be what I gravitated to.
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I'm just a big dumb gargoyle with his brains in his stomach.

Couldn't have said it better...
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"Well, I like a man who brings me weapons."

And thus begins the ickiest subplot in the show...
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Show is pretty cool
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Coyote/Xanatos was "A robot?...even better." Just wrong on so many levels. At least we got another Xanatos Gambit out of this entire thing. He always wins out in the end, especially this time. Off to other things in my day.
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I WILL MAKE YOU BE SILENT!

Coming from the guy who played Worf, that is an easy threat to make come true...
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I rewatched some of this awhile ago - it really is extremely high quality.
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I got to the first Puck episode. This guy is such a dick. Serves Demona right that she turns into human during the day.
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Strife2 posted...

I got to the first Puck episode. This guy is such a dick.

Puck is pretty much who I think of whenever I think of a trickster in any mythology ever.

Pretty impressive for a character from a kid's cartoon based off of a character from a play.
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I imagine it was a way for Brent Spiner to ham it up.
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New York Drivers!
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Smooth Xanatos. The first thing you say in that situation is, "we're genetically compatible?" Did Sevarius run blood tests on both of you on his days off or something? Between that and "capable of that emotion," he's not exactly a romantic.

*Has a castle built on top of world's tallest building just for the hell of it*

Oh right...the money thing.
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Strife2 posted...

Smooth Xanatos. The first thing you say in that situation is, "we're genetically compatible?" Did Sevarius run blood tests on both of you on his days off or something?

It works!
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Well, he knows how to pick them though. Fox is one of the hottest characters in the series. The only other 2-3 I can think of aren't exactly human beings, or Elisa, so he sure won that part of it.
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Hey I know that store! He got robbed earlier in the show. Love the callback.
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*Shocked Xanatos face*

*Shocked Xanatos face WITH THEATRICS!*

*Cue scary scene for kids show ho!*

Goddamn this episode.

Next episode edit: Xanatos uses Tuxedo Spin Kick. It is super effective.
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I wish at some point Goliath had taken HIS REEEEVEEEEEEEENGE!!!!!!!!!!! on Xanatos by snipping off that stupid ponytail.
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