Before the room wipes, I just wanted to tell everyone about the ever-so-slight Gargoyles moments at this weekend's Cincy Expo.

Friday began with the nice discovery of copies of S1 and S2V1 for sale at the CD/Game Exchange vendor. Course, that means somebody sold them back, which is a touch disheartening, but at least the copies can now go to someone else to appreciate.

Saturday I spoke briefly with Eva "Young Elsa" Bella. She's also the voice of Shimmer in Shimmer and Shine. I mentioned to her that the guy behind Gargoyles was going to be writing for her next season and she was pleased to hear it. She insisted I tell her mother (who actually had a somewhat better idea of what Gargoyles was - obviously before Bella's time given that she's 12) and she was also fascinated, mentioned how they'd also met another person involved with S&S at the expo they had no contact with prior, and insisted on getting Greg's twitter. So in the end, I got Greg a new follower.

Sunday I ran into someone wearing the Gargoyles T-shirt we all know, the "Stone By Day, Warriors By Night" in the appropriate font on the back. Discussed a few tidbit with her as well.

So yeah, even without the Wise Man putting in an appearance himself (I tried, I swear!), there was at least a little bit of the show to keep me company. No major cosplayers, however. Closest one was a mash-up of the Alien and Darkness from Legend. Couldn't talk like Sevarius, though.
Brainiac - [OSUBrainiac at gmail dot com]
There is balance in all things. Live in symmetry with the world around you. If you must blow things up and steal from those around you, THAT'S WHAT RPGS ARE FOR!
posted @ Sun, Sep 20, 2015 11:59:21 pm EDT from 72.49.128.77

Though if the spell gets brought back, they'd have to find another way to undo it - all the trickier, since the Grimorum Arcanorum no longer exists, and with it, no counter-spell. (Not that it even had one to begin with, unless Brooklyn hadn't been able to identify it, or unless it was on one of the pages that Demona tore out.) And by "they", I mean the production team, since you can't leave Goliath in a zombified state for the rest of the series without it becoming all but unrecognizable.
Todd Jensen
Hufflepuffs are really good finders
posted @ Sun, Sep 20, 2015 7:43:36 pm EDT from 68.231.85.113

Of course, from a gargoyle's POV, their first glimpse of a city may be from up among the clouds...

And I'd love to see the spell on Goliath from Temptation come back into play somehow someday. The show never swept away repercussions and Elisa's using the spell to defeat the spell is just too tidy to go away forever. I wonder if Greg has more thoughts on this.
Matt - [Saint Louis, Missouri, USA]
posted @ Sun, Sep 20, 2015 1:28:50 pm EDT from 99.153.193.91

It's funny that you should mention the city being a strange, alien place from the gargoyles' point of view; that point of view was from the top of the tallest building in Manhattan, through (or between) the clouds below them.

I guess it is pretty common nowadays for somebody's first glimpse of a city to be from above the clouds, but there is something... marvelous, for lack of a better term... about it nonetheless, and I think it was for the gargoyles too.
Paul - [nampahcfluap at yahoo dot com]
posted @ Fri, Sep 18, 2015 10:18:38 pm EDT from 73.176.251.27

ALGERNON - Thanks for the link. One of my favorite parts was its praise of the scene in "Awakening Part Two" when Goliath and his clan are freed from their sleep; I've long thought that that was a really great moment. (And I also liked the gargoyles' first glimpse of New York that followed - when watching it, the city seemed like a strange, alien place - which, of course, it was from the gargoyles' point of view - even if it's really an everyday setting.)
Todd Jensen
Hufflepuffs are really good finders
posted @ Fri, Sep 18, 2015 8:47:50 pm EDT from 68.231.85.113

In other news...

http://blogs.disney.com/insider/2015/09/17/what-made-gargoyles-so-groundbreaking/
Algernon - [padraig dot j dot griffin at hotmail dot com]
"Good things of day begin to droop and drowse, While night's black agents to their prey do rouse." - Macbeth, Act III, Scene ii ©
posted @ Fri, Sep 18, 2015 2:22:58 pm EDT from 93.107.154.59

Yeah vampires have always done poorly against Standards and Practices. I remember Spider-Man the Animated Series' take on Morbius the Living Vampire and his thirst for 'plasma.' Because Fox executives think that children shouldn't hear the word blood for some reason.
Matthew
From far, from eve and morning, And yon twelve-winded sky, The stuff of life to knit me, Blew hither: here am I. -A.E. Housman
posted @ Thu, Sep 17, 2015 11:59:14 pm EDT from 64.85.229.140

The stories vary. The medieval account (from Robert de Boron) *does* portray Merlin's father as just one of several demons, but more modern versions (when they use the concept) make it Satan himself. Of course, the earliest version (in Geoffrey of Monmouth) made Merlin's father a mere incubus rather than a full-out demon.
Todd Jensen
Hufflepuffs are really good finders
posted @ Thu, Sep 17, 2015 9:38:55 pm EDT from 68.231.85.113

Who said that the biblical Satan was Merlin's father? I've heard about a demon being his father, but not Satan himself.
Paul - [nampahcfluap at yahoo dot com]
posted @ Thu, Sep 17, 2015 7:44:00 pm EDT from 73.176.251.27

TODD> Just getting Drac past Standards & Practices without "defanging" him would be a challenge in itself, but a hypothetical comic would likely be more lax.

Even so there's ways around that. Much like Merlin's dad, the true Master of the Scholomancew maybe a member of the Third Race mistaken for or masquerading as the Biblical Satan for their own reasons. The Spectacular Gargoyles RP on Spring did something like that as I recall.
Algernon
"Good things of day begin to droop and drowse, While night's black agents to their prey do rouse." - Macbeth, Act III, Scene ii
posted @ Thu, Sep 17, 2015 10:00:40 am EDT from 78.143.161.46

I doubt that a school run by the Devil would be able to directly make it into "Gargoyles" (at least, not by regular Standards & Practices) - though maybe if it substituted some other superhuman being for the Devil....
Todd Jensen
Hufflepuffs are really good finders
posted @ Thu, Sep 17, 2015 8:46:44 am EDT from 68.231.85.113

I know in the novel Dracula was also said to have studied at Scholomance; a school supposedly run by the Devil that teaches the arts of black magic. Which is presumably where he got all of his powers. Actually I think that would be really cool to see in the Gargoyles verse.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scholomance
Matthew
From far, from eve and morning, And yon twelve-winded sky, The stuff of life to knit me, Blew hither: here am I. -A.E. Housman
posted @ Thu, Sep 17, 2015 2:15:40 am EDT from 64.85.229.140

BISHANSKY - Good point, but gargoyles aren't animals in the sense of Van Helsing's "meaner creatures".
Todd Jensen
Hufflepuffs are really good finders
posted @ Wed, Sep 16, 2015 8:22:50 pm EDT from 68.231.85.113

It's worth noting that Novel!Drac does demonstrate the ability to mentally influence certain "sensitive" humans, E.G. Lucy Westerna, Renfield and maybe that one crazy guy on the Demeter.
Algernon - [padraig dot j dot griffin at hotmail dot com]
"Good things of day begin to droop and drowse, While night's black agents to their prey do rouse." - Macbeth, Act III, Scene ii ©
posted @ Wed, Sep 16, 2015 6:18:36 pm EDT from 109.78.234.90

Didn't the mind control spell eventually wear off on its own? The last command Goliath was given while under the spell was to "act for the rest of his life exactly as he would if he were not under a spell," yet he did sometimes act as if he were under a spell some time after that (such as with Una's sleeping spell in MIA, for example).

That's saying nothing of Avalonians such as Puck using magic on him too; I always assumed that their magic was stronger than human magic, and thus it could override the mind-control spell anyway.
Paul - [nampahcfluap at yahoo dot com]
posted @ Wed, Sep 16, 2015 5:57:43 pm EDT from 73.176.251.27

Todd: Gonna quote the series bible on you.

"They are a kind of animal, as dinosaurs were, elephants are and human beings pretend not to be."
Greg Bishansky
posted @ Wed, Sep 16, 2015 12:50:50 pm EDT from 98.101.163.132

Van Helsing himself gives a pretty good run down on Drac's abilities in the novel...

"The nosferatu do not die like the bee when he sting once. He is only stronger; and being stronger, have yet more power to work evil. This vampire which is amongst us is of himself so strong in person as twenty men; he is of cunning more than mortal, for his cunning be the growth of ages; he have still the aids of necromancy, which is, as his etymology imply, the divination by the dead, and all the dead that he can come nigh to are for him at command; he is brute, and more than brute; he is devil in callous, and the heart of him is not; he can, within limitations, appear at will when, and where, and in any of the forms that are to him; he can, within his range, direct the elements; the storm, the fog, the thunder; he can command all the meaner things: the rat, and the owl, and the bat-the moth, and the fox, and the wolf; he can grow and become small; and he can at times vanish and come unknown."
Algernon - [padraig dot j dot griffin at hotmail dot com]
"Good things of day begin to droop and drowse, While night's black agents to their prey do rouse." - Macbeth, Act III, Scene ii ©
posted @ Wed, Sep 16, 2015 10:10:12 am EDT from 78.143.162.193

Algernon> Might make for an interesting way for Goliath's "release" from the mind control spell to come back into play, though.

Ross> I look forward to you getting your chance.
Brainiac - [OSUBrainiac at gmail dot com]
There is balance in all things. Live in symmetry with the world around you. If you must blow things up and steal from those around you, THAT'S WHAT RPGS ARE FOR!
posted @ Wed, Sep 16, 2015 8:54:47 am EDT from 104.129.196.75

Gargoyles aren't animals (despite what Margot Yale thinks), so I don't think that would be a problem. Whether it applies to gargoyle beasts is another matter. (Of course, in legend and fiction, vampires don't seem to command *all* nocturnal animals - I can't recall any examples of their doing it to owls, for instance - just rats, bats, and wolves.)
Todd Jensen
Hufflepuffs are really good finders
posted @ Wed, Sep 16, 2015 8:51:34 am EDT from 68.231.85.113

MATTHEW> "Command nocturnal animals" has some pretty disturbing implications in the Gargoyles universe.
Algernon - [padraig dot j dot griffin at hotmail dot com]
"Good things of day begin to droop and drowse, While night's black agents to their prey do rouse." - Macbeth, Act III, Scene ii ©
posted @ Wed, Sep 16, 2015 6:07:42 am EDT from 78.143.162.193

I wonder what kind of power set Dracula would have. Presumably the classics like super strength, flight, shape-shifting, telepathic abilities and the power to command nocturnal animals. But would he also have his more obscure abilities like commanding the weather, being able to walk through unhallowed ground, and size-shifting. Plus whether the sun would kill him or merely limit his powers.
Matthew
From far, from eve and morning, And yon twelve-winded sky, The stuff of life to knit me, Blew hither: here am I. -A.E. Housman
posted @ Wed, Sep 16, 2015 2:31:58 am EDT from 64.85.229.140

TODD> Indeedy, or perhaps Vlad encountered them in life at somepoint and, consciously or not, molded his "Brides" after them?

Either way, Luna, Selene and Phoebe need to sport a set of fangs at somepoint.
Algernon - [padraig dot j dot griffin at hotmail dot com]
"Good things of day begin to droop and drowse, While night's black agents to their prey do rouse." - Macbeth, Act III, Scene ii ©
posted @ Tue, Sep 15, 2015 1:24:28 pm EDT from 109.77.233.13

ALGERNON - I remember that passage as well, and have sometimes speculated on Dracula, when he enters the Gargoyles Universe, entering into some sort of pact with the Weird Sisters, though no doubt a different kind than the pact they made with the Archmage. (It would probably be more subtle; the Sisters can't move openly against Goliath and his clan after Oberon made peace with them.)
Todd Jensen
Hufflepuffs are really good finders
posted @ Mon, Sep 14, 2015 8:30:35 pm EDT from 68.231.85.113

Would love to read Kanan, but have not had a chance yet.

Glad to finally read Vrai Kaiser's take on Reawakening (my favorite episode). Thanks for posting it!
Matt - [Saint Louis, Missouri, USA]
posted @ Mon, Sep 14, 2015 6:07:03 pm EDT from 99.153.193.91

Brainiac> Yay, validation! (Though if I had made it in time for the #5 spot I was planning to go really obscure with the children of Gaia and Pontus...)

Anthony Tini> I've been reading it, and was glad to see that it'll be continuing. While I would rank Hera, Sabine, and Zeb above Kanan in terms of characters I'd like to read the backstories of (I'm not hugely fond of Kanan's character concept, though in execution he's grown on me quite a bit over the course of the show), I've found this series to be pretty enjoyable so far. Especially loved in the most recent issue [SPOILER] the conflict between Grey and Styles and their differing reflections on their actions. [/SPOILER] Great stuff.

Also really liked this portrayal of Depa Billaba. It's too bad she's, by necessity, a posthumous character; I hope we'll get some more flashbacks of her. And loved her advice to Caleb: "You must not grow too attached, too fond, too in love with life as it is now. Those emotions are valuable and should not be suppressed. But you must learn to rule them, Padawan. Lest they rule you." Or as I like to call it, "Greg Weisman demonstrating a far better understanding of that particular aspect of Jedi philosophy than the prequels ever once managed." :)
Ross
posted @ Mon, Sep 14, 2015 5:58:50 pm EDT from 68.38.27.228

Has anyone read Kanan - The Last Padawan? I thought I read online that it was only going to be a 5 issue arc, but it appears to be going to a 6th issue which makes me happy because I'm really enjoying it. After further research, I was then happy to see that on Marvel's site it lists a 12 subscription. Thoughts so far?
Anthony Tini
posted @ Mon, Sep 14, 2015 4:16:11 pm EDT from 148.159.160.51

So, was randomly browsing and stumbled on something interesting given the discussion we had a couple weeks back about incorporating Drac into the Gargoyles universe...

https://kellykendrick122.wordpress.com/the-analysis-of-shakespeare-in-dracula/

Though the fact that someone can compare Dracula to Macbeth and NOT mention the most obvious parallel...

"I dared not wait to see him return, for I feared to see those weird sisters." ~Johnathan Harker's journal
Algernon - [padraig dot j dot griffin at hotmail dot com]
"Good things of day begin to droop and drowse, While night's black agents to their prey do rouse." - Macbeth, Act III, Scene ii ©
posted @ Mon, Sep 14, 2015 4:03:30 pm EDT from 109.79.46.137

Ross> Since you're still in that mood, I name thee this week's favorite after your narrow miss last week.

Also, since it wasn't posted last week, Vrai Kaiser has ended the first season and started the second.

http://vraikaiser.com/2015/09/12/reawakeningleader-of-the-pack/
Brainiac - [OSUBrainiac at gmail dot com]
There is balance in all things. Live in symmetry with the world around you. If you must blow things up and steal from those around you, THAT'S WHAT RPGS ARE FOR!
posted @ Mon, Sep 14, 2015 3:58:56 pm EDT from 104.129.196.71

(10th)Tenth. And away we go on with the show!!!!!!!!!!
Vinnie - [tpeano29 at hotmail dot com]
Mark Twain: "Don't argue with stupid people. They'll take you down to their level and beat you with experience."
posted @ Mon, Sep 14, 2015 12:50:04 pm EDT from 108.238.82.117

Calliope, Clio, Erato, Euterpe, Melpomene, Polyhymnia, Terpsichore, Thalia, and Urania. (still in a Greek mythology mood)
Ross
posted @ Mon, Sep 14, 2015 10:06:14 am EDT from 68.38.27.228

8.
Anthony Tini
posted @ Mon, Sep 14, 2015 9:17:14 am EDT from 148.159.160.51

7.
Matt - [Saint Louis, Missouri, USA]
posted @ Mon, Sep 14, 2015 9:06:42 am EDT from 99.153.193.91

Catherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Anne of Cleves, Catherine Howard, Catherine Parr.

PHOENICIAN - I'll be sorry to see the "life at Hogwarts" format of Pottermore go (though it didn't fit the latter books as well as it did "Philosopher's Stone"), but am curious to see what will replace it.
Todd Jensen
Hufflepuffs are really good finders
posted @ Mon, Sep 14, 2015 8:50:11 am EDT from 68.231.85.113

QUINTESSENCE! But not Nerissa's form.

https://goo.gl/Aj50mA (shrunken Wikipedia link since ones with parentheses don't parse properly in the Comment Room)

Science ever marches on.
Brainiac - [OSUBrainiac at gmail dot com]
There is balance in all things. Live in symmetry with the world around you. If you must blow things up and steal from those around you, THAT'S WHAT RPGS ARE FOR!
posted @ Mon, Sep 14, 2015 8:46:12 am EDT from 104.129.196.71

Earth, Fire, Air, Water.
Algernon - [padraig dot j dot griffin at hotmail dot com]
"Good things of day begin to droop and drowse, While night's black agents to their prey do rouse." - Macbeth, Act III, Scene ii ©
posted @ Mon, Sep 14, 2015 7:40:35 am EDT from 78.143.162.193

Takato Matsuda, Jenrya Li, and Ruki Makino!

And I appreciate the head's up, Phoenician. :)
Masterdramon - [kmc12009 at mymail dot pomona dot edu]
"Come on, Ryuko! Get naked! I know for a fact that you - yes, you - are NOT inferior to Lady Satsuki! Your boobs are WAAAY bigger than hers! WAAAAAY BIGGER!!! I know, 'cuz I saw 'em! That Ryuko, my family said, she's got a great rack! We were all talking about what a slamming body you have! So perk up, and stop getting embarassed! Rip your clothes off, and get NAAAAKEEEEEEEEEEED!!!!!" - Mako Mankanshoku
posted @ Mon, Sep 14, 2015 3:32:46 am EDT from 66.27.220.40

Huginn and Muninn!
Matthew
From far, from eve and morning, And yon twelve-winded sky, The stuff of life to knit me, Blew hither: here am I. -A.E. Housman
posted @ Mon, Sep 14, 2015 2:41:02 am EDT from 71.202.80.122

FIRST.

A heads up to all Pottermore fans that frequent the CR -- they're changing things and you got until Wednesday to take note of your house, wand, etc (even a certificate if you're the sentimental type) d:
Phoenician
"The suspense is terrible, I hope it lasts" -- Willy Wonka
posted @ Mon, Sep 14, 2015 1:15:30 am EDT from 68.231.102.71