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Comments for the week ending November 12, 2017

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It's "Prester John", actually - a second e, not an o - but, yes, I wonder if/how that would get in.

I haven't given much thought to Geoffrey of Monmouth's pre-Arthurian kings (while studies of the book generally focus on the Arthurian era, Geoffrey's story covers over a thousand years, beginning with Britain being settled by descendants of Trojans who'd survived the sack of Troy), but some might get in somewhere. King Lear was one of them (if better-known through Shakespeare's version).

Todd Jensen
Hufflepuffs are really good finders

I've also wondered if perhaps Prestor John's kingdom existed in the Gargoyles Universe in some form.

Also, knowing that Arthur Pendragon exists, I wonder if any of Geoffrey of Monmouth's other legendary kings, such as Lud, have any historicity in Gargoyles.

Spen

ALGERNON - I once embarked on a story idea (laid aside for now) which imagined the UFO phenomenon as the work of the "faerie-folk", with the notion that they got the idea from the response to the 1938 "War of the Worlds" broadcast. It included a government cover-up; a group of people high up in the U.S. and UK governments are aware that the faerie-folk exist but don't want the public to know about them, so they've been engaging in misdirection tactics to make it look as if UFO_type-incidents are thanks to extra-terrestrials (they sum up the policy as "Keep them watching the skies rather than the hollow hills"), with the Roswell incident itself being part of the misdirection. I imagined one possible opening scene being a couple of people seemingly being abducted by aliens - following the conventions so closely that you can almost hear the theme music for "The X-Files" playing - and then, when they're lying on the experiment table unconscious, one of the aliens gestures and the "faerie glamour" disperses, so that the "high-tech laboratory on board their spaceship" is revealed to be a hall in a faerie castle, and the "Grays" shift back into faerie-folk.

I don't know if I'll ever write that story (it had just the background concept, not a plot and characters), but I enjoyed dreaming it up.

Todd Jensen
Hufflepuffs are really good finders

Todd> Is probably worth noting that many of the tropes associated with modern alien folklore (abduction by semi-human beings, time displacements, mysterious lights in the sky) do tend to overlap a lot with older fairy folklore.

What are the "Greys" of modern UFOlogy if not Fair Folk with a sci-fi gloss?

Algernon
I guard your death

Of course, the rumors of crashed spaceships (like the Roswell one) and their being stored at Area 51 will require a different explanation in the Gargoyles Universe.
Todd Jensen
Hufflepuffs are really good finders

And will o'the wisps exist in Gargoyles. At least, Macbeth conjures one in "Pendragon."
Paul - [nampahcfluap at yahoo dot com]

TODD> A lot of UFO descriptions (shiny blobby lights in the sky) do sound an awful lot like will-o-the wisps.
Algernon
I guard your death

I'd speculated that in the Gargoyles Universe, UFOs might be pranks by Oberon's Children as well.
Todd Jensen
Hufflepuffs are really good finders

I wonder if, in the Gargoyles Universe...some paranormal events, like UFO sightings or the Roswell incident, might be the result of Oberon's Children playing pranks on humans in ways that don't violate his law?

I could certainly see a Trickster-type reasoning that making something weird show up in the sky and letting mortals jump to conclusions on their own is in no way "direct interference."

Masterdramon - [kmc12009 at mymail dot pomona dot edu]
"Only I can live forever." - Lord Voldemort

I hadn't thought of Area 51 when I wrote my last post, but, yes, that would be a candidate at some point. ("Gargoyles" has made other uses of modern mythology, after all - the Illuminati, an ancient astronaut linked to Easter Island, maybe the Loch Ness Monster; the stories about it didn't start until the 30's - so that would fit in.) For reasons I gave in my last post, the Area 51 of "Gargoyles" most likely wouldn't extra-terrestrials (living or dead) or their spacecraft, but might contain other unusual objects or beings....

One legend that I suspect "Gargoyles" would have included at some point was the tale of Archbishop Romanus, who in the 7th century, defeated and slew a French dragon named Gargouille. The dragon's name alone makes that story a definite must in the Gargoyles Universe.

Todd Jensen
Hufflepuffs are really good finders

I'll be honest, if Gargoyles didn't do anything with Area 51 I'd be surprised. Especially if it didn't involve the Illuminati in some way.
Matthew
Muscles fade and the mind dulls.But as long as the heart is willing, strength remains.

SPEN - I doubt that "Gargoyles" would do much with UFOs; if there are aliens already buzzing about Earth's skies, well before 2198, it's really going to make Nokkar seem hopelessly unobservant. I suspect that the rest of the extra-terrestrial world is going to be well away from Earth until the Space-Spawn arrive in a little under two hundred years.

Legends closely associated with living religions would probably have to be handled cautiously (though we did get a lot of Old Testament elements in the Stone of Destiny's backstory - appearances from Jacob, Moses, and Jeremiah). I certainly think it unlikely that we'd be encountering the Wandering Jew, for example. (The crossover with "The Spectacular Spider-Man" did bring in the Spear of Destiny and Crown of Thorns, but that was a convention event, that wouldn't face the same potential restrictions as an official story from Disney, whether on television or on the comics page.)

Todd Jensen
Hufflepuffs are really good finders

Random thought for possible discussion. While it has been said that "all things are true" in the Gargoyles Universe, some things are obviously more likely than others. So what myths/legends/conspiracy theories do you guys think are most and least likely to show up in a Gargoyles context?
Spen

All Lucky Sevens!

(also, I got it, Paul)

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!

I suppose I should clarify, in case we're not all math nerds. In English, my previous post would be pronounced:

"Three factorial
...
equals six."

Paul - [nampahcfluap at yahoo dot com]

3!
...
=6

Paul - [nampahcfluap at yahoo dot com]

Fifth!
Spen

Heather, Heather, Heather & Veronica
Algernon
I guard your death

Third.

MATTHEW - I hope the same, but we do seem to be short of topics to discuss. (And I suspect that most of us no longer have much time to post here.)

Todd Jensen
Hufflepuffs are really good finders

(2nd)Two is twice as nice!!
Vinnie - [tpeano29 at hotmail dot com]

Primus inter pares!
Here's hoping this week's chat is a little bit bigger.

Matthew
Muscles fade and the mind dulls.But as long as the heart is willing, strength remains.