Gargoyle Avalon arc

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takenoko
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Gargoyle Avalon arc

Post by takenoko »

Been rewatching the Gargoyles cartoon from the 90s on Disney+. It's still really good!

The Avalon arc is particularly amazing since it combines a lot of the show's subplots and introduces new ones. We see what happened to the characters from the prologue story at the beginning, as well as characters from myth and legend

It's just funny since we just saw the Avalon "arc" on Saber which basically consisted of a weird desert and a nondescript cave. There, it basically boiled down the myth to Arthur, and just turned him into a toy. Very boring and unimaginative

In Gargoyles, waking up Arthur is a big deal! At that point in the story, it looks hopeless for the heroes. Goliath is alone with a handful of gargoyles and a few humans. They're fighting against the Weird Sisters (the three fates, witches), Macbeth, Desdemona, and an Arch Mage wielding three powerful magical artifacts.

Waking up Arthur is the heroes' way of turning the tide against a hopeless situation. But despite protesting that he had woken early, thus had no Excalibur or Merlin by his side, he agrees their cause is worthy. And they pump the guy up, saying he's the best warrior of all time.

It's just a real contrast to Saber's use of the mythology. At best, they just grab the most shallow interpretation of it. Heck, the main bad guy is named Calibur, but it's not like it means anything. No sword in the stone, what's a magical sword when everyone has a magical sword? Ironically, Saber claims to love stories, but really all they do is take the beauty of other stories and digests it down to one weird elemental power that they can use in battle
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Re: Gargoyle Avalon arc

Post by Mxylv »

I've been watching the same show with family and boy, that's really good. Just the right mix of episodic and story arc.

I gave up on Saber after the first couple episodes, but I'm getting the impression I'm not missing much. Could one blame it on a low expectation for a younger audience combined with a standard first arc toy rush? It's not like having a young audience and merchandise to sell means the story's got to go down; Ultraman R/B had plenty to tell while leaning fairly young and merchy as far as Ultra goes. Maybe Saber's too in love with the concept of story and myth to do anything substantial with specific ones? That's the most optimistic thing I can think of.
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Re: Gargoyle Avalon arc

Post by takenoko »

One thing I didn't remember in the 90s was Goliath and Elisa's adventures on a boat that goes on for forever after Avalon. Was Jonathan Frakes not available to voice Xanatos or something?

Working on the Swordsman Biographies, you get the sense that a lot of the characterization that would have gone into the earlier episodes was basically left on the cutting room floor (probably to make room for more action?). It's a weird choice that leaves most of the characters very flat. Not sure if this is the writer's fault or the director/editor's or somewhere inbetween
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Re: Gargoyle Avalon arc

Post by Mxylv »

Cool; I'm actually in the same arc! I've heard Gargoyles' second season was originally planned to be way shorter, so maybe post-Avalon was part of an effort to pad it out.

I'm getting the impression that toku creators are looking for ways to tell stories outside the show; while I loved Ultraman Taiga, a lot of the best stuff about it (including some origin stories) is delegated to voice dramas, books and even stage shows. Do the biographies have the same writers as the main eps? I'm wondering if the merchandise is getting restrictive enough that even the showrunners are trying to escape it, unless there's some obligation for making side stories (not that you can't have both those and an interesting show, of course).
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Re: Gargoyle Avalon arc

Post by takenoko »

With the Blades one, you can tell they had footage from the original episode that they didn't use. The writer for biographies is all different though, so right after you see the original footage, there's new footage that's tacked on

I just finished Season 2 last night! Probably won't watch season 3 since the showrunner left after the first episode, but I downloaded the comic books a while ago, so I plan to read those, since I hear those are canon

It's funny revisiting a show that I only saw as a teenager. I'm not sure if I saw all the Goliath, Elisa, and Angela adventures, but I clearly completely forgot about them. But I clearly remember the Oberon stuff and thinking it was a bigger deal, but it's mostly just a short arc near the end of season 2. Funny how memory distorts things

Overall, what a fantastic cartoon series. It's just as good as I remember and even weirder than that!
Season 2 stuff
I totally forgot about the Thailog clone stuff, and the episode where he opens the wall and there's a Demona/Elisa clone to be his new girl. That's super weird, especially for a children's cartoon!
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