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skeeJay writes...

THE GREEN-EYED GARGOYLE
Demona has an interesting moment at the end of "The Mirror" when she marvels at the warmth of the sun. If you don't mind me reading into it a little, it's a loaded statement. It implies a jealousy of humans that I have a hard time equating with what I consider her standard jealousies, e.g. "they outnumber us," "they force us out of our homes," "history has given them more lucky breaks," etc. She's usually able to exhibit these other jealousies while retaining her sense of moral and physical superiority ("the gift of being a gargoyle," as she calls it in front of Puck).

But this new jealousy shows a desire of something that is *inherently* human. The capacity to see or feel the sun is something that is (or should be, sans sorcery) completely incompatible with being a gargoyle. It would be like a human lamenting the fact that he wasn't born with wings; it's kind of a futile gesture (which is why I also find Hudson's wistful comment at the end of the episode so odd). It implies for the first time that not only has Demona desired what the humans have accomplished or acquired, but that she may, on a very subconscious level, have wished that she had been born human....been born onto the winning team, the side with the upper hand, the strategically superior side. If this desire did exist before this moment at the window, it's certainly not something she would ever admit to, even to herself.

DELUSIONS OF GRANDEUR
This kind of racial jealousy notwithstanding, I suppose there's another interpretation of her "reverence" of the sun. Knowing that no other gargoyle had ever experienced what she was now experiencing, I'm sure Demona felt a new kind of superiority over all of her own kind now, as well. To know the sun as she now did, unlike every other gargoyle since the beginning of time, must have been very empowering--adding a physical element to the moral superiority she already feels over Goliath and his clan (who are, as far as she knows, the rest of her entire race at this point). I'm sure that the 15 seconds before she looked in the mirror were a very religious experience for her.

And this new kind of Messiah-esque superiority gives new meaning to the password she chooses in "City of Stone." It certainly *is* usually lonely at the top.

Now I wish that some of this stuff had occurred to me before the Demona "alone" contest way back when.

Anyway, these are just my musings. Any thoughts? Which side, if either, do you fall on?

Greg responds...

Wow. That's a great post. Seriously. I love it. And I like both interpretations. I find them both very convincing, and I hardly think they're mutually exclusive either.

I'm trying to remember if any of that was in my head eleven/twelve years ago. I do think there's always a bit of worship wrapped up in our fear and loathing of the other. Anything we attribute that much power to has got to hold some awe. And Demona's superiority-complex is well-documented in the show, I think. But the specific light you shined on that moment above... I'm not sure I ever looked at it quite that way before or quite that second way before either.

Keep up the musings, skeeJay. That was enlightening.

Response recorded on March 30, 2007