History WesternAnimation / Gargoyles

* OrIsADream: "Future Tense." "Was it a dream? Or a prophecy?"

-->'''Xanatos:''' [[spoiler: Fox and I are getting tomorrow night. I would like you to be the best man.]]

SORry u has bean axe-adentally redirected to gargles

[[quoteright:232:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/gargy_3931.jpg]]

->''"One thousand years ago, superstition and the sword ruled.''
->''It was a time of darkness. It was a world of fear.''
->''It was the age of gargoyles.''
->''Stone by day, warriors by night,''
->''We were betrayed by the humans we had sworn to protect,''
->''frozen in stone by a magic spell for a thousand years.''
->''Now, here in Manhattan, the spell is broken, AND WE LIVE AGAIN!''
->''We are defenders of the night!''
->''We are GARGOYLES!"''

''WesternAnimation/{{Gargoyles}}'' was a rare breed: it was a Western cartoon with a story that followed deliberate {{arc}}s and did things very rarely seen in the average Western 'toon. Did we mention that it came from ''{{Disney}}''?

The main characters of the series are gargoyles, large {{winged humanoid}}s (their appearance was vaguely demonic, though saying so is insulting to them) that are extremely (almost literally) nocturnal -- they turn to stone, no matter what, when the sun rises. Once, there were many gargoyles, but interactions with humanity have led to their species becoming endangered. The main characters survived purging thanks to a magical spell that made them permanently statues -- at least, unless the castle which they were protecting were to ever "[[CurseEscapeClause rise above the clouds]]".

One thousand years later, it did. Billionaire David Xanatos (yes, [[XanatosPlannedThisIndex that Xanatos]]) took the castle from Scotland and transported it brick by brick to the top of his skyscraper in NewYorkCity; this broke the curse for good, reviving the dormant gargoyles in a land and time far from their home. He didn't do it for altruistic motives, though; eventually, Xanatos and the clan of gargoyles became enemies. The clan manages to make an ally in New York detective Elisa Maza, however -- and with her help, they work to protect their new home while simultaneously adapting to it.

''WesternAnimation/{{Gargoyles}}'' spans fantasy and science-fiction genres, and its plot would eventually involve magic, robots, TheIlluminati, god-like fairies, numerous characters straight out of Shakespearean plays, and much more. In general, AllMythsAreTrue in this show.

The show is also famous for the intricacy of its villains and plots. Very few are {{Card Carrying Villain}}s; in particular, the charismatic and manipulative nature of Xanatos is why the XanatosGambit was named after him. Even the heroes are individuals with their own wants and desires that don't always lead to peaceful relationships.

The initial incarnation of the show lasted [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Gargoyles_episodes two seasons and sixty-five episodes]]. It was followed by a retooled third season -- ''Gargoyles: The Goliath Chronicles'' -- but since GregWeisman was only around to write the first episode of this season, a new team of writers who barely had time to familiarize themselves with the show ended up writing the other twelve episodes; as a result, while it was arguably still above average compared to most of its peers in animation, it represented a major drop in quality in both writing ''and'' animation. Most fans don't count it as canon (save for the opening episode written by Weisman), and Weisman himself [[CanonDisContinuity has confirmed]] that it's not part of the overall continuity.

The series was later resurrected in [[ComicBookTropes comic book]] form in 2006, picking up with an alternate timeline after a comic-book retelling of the opening episode of ''The Goliath Chronicles'' before going on to weave an entirely new story; when the company publishing the book were hit with higher licensing fees imposed by Disney, the book was unfortunately cancelled. GregWeisman has vowed to find a way to continue it.

The show and the universe it created still has an active online fanbase -- including [[http://www.s8.org/gargoyles/askgreg/ the creator]].

As a side note: in what became somewhat of an inside joke, many ''StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' actors had ''at least'' cameo roles in the series. Jonathan Frakes and Marina Sirtis played the primary villains Xanatos and Demona; Brent Spiner, Michael Dorn, and Kate Mulgrew all played recurring roles; and the guest stars included Avery Brooks and Colm Meaney.

[[TheWikiRule In the grand tradition of the internet]], the show [[http://gargwiki.net/Main_Page has its own Wiki]] -- and it has [[Characters/{{Gargoyles}} a character sheet]] here on this Wiki.
----
!! This series has named the following tropes:
* XanatosGambit
* XanatosRoulette
* XanatosSpeedChess
!!This trope-heavy animated series had examples of:

* AbortedArc:
** At the end of the episode ''Legion'', Xanatos salvages the computer virus that nearly destroyed Coldstone, calling it the deadliest weapon he could ask for... and then never uses it or mentions it again.
** In the episode ''Kingdom'', while Goliath and Elisa are on the Avalon World Tour, Xanatos tells the remaining Manhattan Clan that he'll utilize all his resources to track them down, whether or not they want his help. He never does this, though he does encounter them once during their tour.
* ActingForTwo: ClancyBrown voices both Hakon and Wolf. Eventually, it's explained that Hakon is actually Wolf's distant ancestor, and Wolf ends up encountering his ghost after he steals his battle-axe.
* ActionGirl: Elisa, Angela, Fox... and possibly Titania, [[spoiler:or at least her human form.]]
* ActorAllusion: Elisa's alias in "Turf" was "Salli", which is her voice actor's name.
** Also, an Irish teenager says (about Bronx) that there's [[{{Transformers}} more than meets the eye]]. Bronx is voiced by FrankWelker, who also voiced Megatron in ''TransformersGeneration1'' (among ''many'' other roles).
* {{Aesop}}: ExecutiveMeddling inserted one in every episode of the third season, but earlier episodes featured them as well. [[{{Anvilicious}} Prominent]] in "Deadly Force", an episode about the dangers of guns, which handled the subject in a mature manner (i.e., making the Aesop not "guns are super evil that will kill you for looking at them," but "guns are dangerous, and need to be treated with respect.") This particular Aesop was actually learned within the show itself, for Elisa [[ContinuityNod was shown to lock away her gun in future episodes]], rather than leaving it loaded and lying around.
** The episode also lead to some CharacterDevelopment for Broadway, who hated guns from that point forward.
** Also of special note, the other equally anvilicious episode about reading being important was so well done as to have won an award, almost unheard of for an animated Aesop episode (an anti-gun episode of ''StaticShock'' won one too), and was mentioned in ''The New York Times'' amongst other papers as one of the greatest reasons to watch the show.
** Similarly, the episode "The Green" had, as you can probably guess, a GreenAesop. However, this one was actually well-rounded, showing that deforestation is more complicated than something the average CorruptCorporateExecutive does ForTheEvulz
* AffablyEvil: Xanatos, Macbeth, and the Canmores.
* AgentMulder: Detective Matt Bluestone
* AirborneAircraftCarrier: Cyberbiotics' air fortress.
* AllAnimalsAreDogs: Gargoyle beasts.
* AllMythsAreTrue: Explicitly stated in the series: "Most Legends contain a seed of truth", and "All things are true." However this is not always in the literal sense. A few of the mythical beings met during the Avalon World Tour are ''very'' different from the stories. (For example, some {{Tricksters}} tend to be [[SadlyMythtaken outright evil rather than]] [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin mischievous]].) In another episode, it is revealed that most of the creatures from Greek legends are real, however the stories are notably different. The minotaur, for example, was trapped in the catacombs and used as a source of entertainment by his captors.
** In the comic book, King Arthur points out that "All things are true... ''few'' things are ''accurate''."
*** To which Macbeth, whose depiction in ''Gargoyles'' is far more historically accurate than his villainous portrayal in Shakespeare's play (even allowing for the immortality and such), replies, "Aye. No bloody kidding."
* AllOfTheOtherReindeer
* AllThereInTheScript: Out-of-universe names for the souls inhabiting Coldstone: Othello, Iago, and Desdemona. The latter two eventually got their own in-universe names, Coldsteel and Coldfire, while "Othello" stayed as Coldstone.
** Also Banquo, Fleance, and script names for some other gargoyles who [[NoNameGiven actually had no in-universe names]].
* ALoadOfBull: Taurus, of course.
* TheAloner: Demona has suffered this for nearly a millennium, though admittedly it was her own fault. The end of "City of Stone" reveals how much she hates being alone, and how deeply in denial she is about her own culpability in her own fate.
* AmbiguouslyGay: Lexington, done intentionally by WordOfGod, who has stated that Lexington would eventually have realized that he was homosexual, but likewise acknowledged it would probably never get mentioned in the series because of its content.
* AmbiguouslyJewish: In "Golem", which features an accurate retelling of the story of [[{{Golem}} The Golem of Prague]] and both written ''and'' spoken Hebrew, nobody mentions the words "Jew," "Judaism," or "Jewish" even once. Instead, they refer to "our people" and "our community," never actually identifying their people by name.
** Also, no one wears a yarmulke or any sort of head covering at any point in the story, even when conducting Jewish rituals
* AmplifierArtifact: The Eye of Odin.
* {{Ancient Astronaut|s}}: Nokkar, whose appearance inspired the Easter Island moai.
* AmusementParkOfDoom: Figures in the episode "The Reckoning".
* AncientConspiracy: The Illuminati show up and, of course, Xanatos is a member. A ''lower echelon'' member, which should tell you something about the clout wielded by his ''superiors''.
* AndTheAdventureContinues: The end of the SLG comic book series where [[spoiler:the Clan just doubled in population]], suggesting a bright future, and the whole gang takes off to do some villain butt kicking.
* AnimationBump: Periodically. Standouts include "Awakening", "The Mirror", "M.I.A.", "Future Tense" and "The Price", which is so completely gorgeous it looks off model (but not OffModel) at times.
* ArtisticLicense: Most of the myths are altered for the plot.
* AntiVillain: Almost the whole RoguesGallery, with [[MadScientist a]] [[PsychoForHire handful]] [[EvilTwin of]] [[EvilSorcerer exceptions]].
* TheApprentice: In the comics, Gillecomgain (the first Hunter) was this to Constantine.
* ArmCannon: The Steel Clan, Xanatos' PowerArmor, and Coldstone all have retractable particle-beam emitters built into their arms.
* ArmorPiercingQuestion: Done in [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-i9O88LSw-4&feature=related Part 4 of City of Stone]], which leads to Demona's defining TearJerker moment of the series.
* ArtisticLicenseHistory: Castle Wyvern, a 14th century style concentric castle, and other such fortifications, in 10th century Scotland, where the motte and bailey was start of the art.
* AscendedExtra: Lots, which was a hallmark of the series. The series had a reliable stable of background characters who originally appeared as one-off extras, but kept coming back - the jogger, Brendon and Margot, Vinnie, etc. The Archmage was originally a one-shot villain, but David Warner's performance motivated Weisman into bringing him back as a greater threat. One of the more long-running examples is Officer Morgan. Keith David's performance gave depth to an otherwise generic character, leading to him being used often as the series progressed.
* TheAtoner: The Magus, Princess Katharine, the Captain's ghost, Yama, and Robyn Canmore.
** Also Dingo (and Matrix, kinda). [[JerkAss Fang, however...]]
** WordOfGod is that in the planned spinoff ''Gargoyles 2198'', Demona would have taken a role somewhere between this and TokenEvilTeammate.
** Although Macbeth refuses to bow to King Arthur, they part on surprisingly amicable terms after [[DefeatMeansFriendship King Arthur gets Excalibur before Macbeth does.]] By the time of the comics, Macbeth isn't a villain at all.
*** It's arguable Macbeth was more of an AntiVillain than anything else. [[spoiler: While somewhat ruthless in his fights, every time he opposes the clan it's incidental in his fight against Demona, and it's implied that the gargoyles were rarely in real danger due to Macbeth. Once he realizes that she's not affiliated with the Manhattan Clan, he largely leaves them be, and they interfere with him, such as with the theft of the Merlin scrolls. Even when mindcontrolled, Macbeth's better nature struggles against harming the gargoyles.]]
* AudibleSharpness
* AuthorAppeal: Weisman is a self-described Shakespeare nut (emphasis on "nut"). Hence Puck, Macbeth, the Weird Sisters, Titania, Oberon...
** At no time, however, does he simply play these characters straight. Puck's nature is balanced by [[spoiler: Owen]], Macbeth has more in common with his historical than literary namesake, the Weird Sisters are utterly inscrutable rather than necessarily evil [[spoiler: though WordOfGod implies they may be the series' true BigBad]], and Titania and Oberon have reversed their traditional roles, with Oberon being vastly more powerful between the two. Even the implied Othello/Coldstone connection is subverted.
* AxCrazy: Jackal and Hyena at the very least. Demona gets her own killing spree in "City of Stone".
* BadassCape: As seen in the picture, Goliath's wings become one of these when furled.
* BadassCrew: Most prominently the Manhattan Clan, though other gargoyle clans qualify as well.
* BadassNormal: Elisa, Bluestone, Xanatos, and the hunters
** Subverted with [[TheMafia Tony Dracon]], who talks tough but whimpers quickly whenever the Gargoyles show.
* BadFuture: "Future Tense" which includes the obligatory FutureBadass depictions.
** Implied with Timedancer and Gargoyles 2198, both of which imply a future so dark that [[spoiler: Demona's one of the good guys, with relatively little change in character.]]
* BalefulPolymorph: Initially, the first batch of mutates, including [[spoiler: Derek Maza/Talon]] but excluding [[spoiler: Fang]].
** [[spoiler: Puck]], after Oberon traps him in the form of [[spoiler: Owen Burnett]], except [[spoiler: when he is training or protecting Alexander Xanatos]].
* BarbarianTribe: The Vikings.
* BarehandedBladeBlock: An EstablishingCharacterMoment for Goliath and gargoyles in general in very first episode: no, he's not truly invincible, he can bleed... but he's still ''really freaking tough''.
* BareYourMidriff: Lady Titania, Demona, Angela in the comic, and Hyena when she [[spoiler: becomes an android.]] Elisa also sports the look in "The Mirror" and "Protection".
* BastardUnderstudy: Thailog ''was'' one to Xanatos, but by the time of his first onscreen appearance, he's ready to [[TheStarscream go his own way]].
* BatmanColdOpen: In "City of Stone."
* BatmanGambit: Demona tries this twice against Elisa and the Manhattan Clan, first in "Long Way to Morning" and then in "High Noon." They both fail. Xanatos himself uses these on a regular basis, often as part of his ''[[XanatosGambit own]]'' Gambits.
** Duncan used one to play Macbeth and Gillecomgain against each other in "City of Stone," hoping that Gillecomgain would end up killing Macbeth. [[spoiler: It didn't work.]]
* BattleButler: Owen Burnett and Preston Vogel.
* BeastAndBeauty: Goliath and Elisa, which is lampshaded in "Eye of the Beholder" where Elisa is dressed up as Belle.
* BeautifulAllAlong: Goliath realizes this about Elisa after seeing her transformed into a gargoyle in "The Mirror":
--> '''Goliath:''' "I never realized just how ''beautiful'' you are."
--> '''Elisa:''' "''*chuckle*'' Are you saying you thought I was ''ugly?''"
--> '''Goliath:''' "[[CannotSpitItOut Uh, well, that--Careful, updraft!]]"
* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: The [[AnAesop Aesop]] of "The Mirror".
** "Did you say ''that'' human, or that ''human?'' Oh, never mind, I'll figure it out..."
* BecauseDestinySaysSo: "Avalon doesn't take you where you want to go! Avalon ''sends'' you where you ''need to be!''"
* BecomingTheMask: The reason Dingo does a full HeelFaceTurn after parting company with the rest of the Pack -- he found he missed being regarded as a hero back when he'd only play-acted one, and wanted to try doing it for real.
* BelligerentSexualTension: When describing Brooklyn and Katana's relationship in [[SpinOff Timedancer]], Greg Weisman mentioned [[{{Cheers}} Sam and Diane]]. [[PopCulturalOsmosisFailure No one got it.]] Then he mentioned [[MuchAdoAboutNothing Beatrice and Benedick]]. ''That one'' people got, which should tell you a lot about the kind of fans this show has.
* BerserkButton: They all have one, and you do ''not'' want to push it.
** Unlike most series, however, we see the origins of each.
*** After losing so many of his clan members, Goliath becomes [[PapaWolf fiercely protective]] of all those whom he considers as part of his clan. And judging by the way he treated the guy who [[spoiler: turned Elisa's brother into a mutant]], you better not mess with his clan's clan, either, because he certainly minds.
*** After Broadway [[spoiler: shoots Elisa]], he's angrily hateful of guns being used by criminals, noticeably destroying any he gets his hands on.
*** Lexington was a fan of the Pack, and took their betrayal and subsequent FaceHeelTurn extremely personally.
**** Never Touch Alex Xanatos if Lex is present, it's not good for your health.
*** After Brooklyn [[spoiler: falls for one of Demona's manipulations]], he spends much of the remaining series holding back rage whenever she shows up. [[spoiler: After he becomes Goliath's second]], he learns to curb the hate, but Brooklyn's clearly almost homicidal in some scenes. [[spoiler: Ironically this may be partially his own fault, as he later finds, having gotten one of Demona's clans massacred in his future and her past. If anything, it's surprising there's not more animosity between the two.]]
*** Demona, for her part, arguably exists solely in this state, as she's genocidal and bitterly given over to her own exile from the other Gargoyles. Elisa does tend to drive her to blind fury, however. [[spoiler: Thailog uses this to twist the knife in his betrayal of Demona late in the series, when he reveals that Delilah's a clone of both Demona and Elisa.]]
*** Macbeth's hatred for Demona leads him to his only dark acts in the series, and is so great that not even [[spoiler: the Weird Sisters' combined magic]] can hold it back for long. Ironically, Macbeth is also the sole exception to Demona's genocidal hate, as [[spoiler: his death at her hands would kill her, too.]]
*** Angela's button may have been Demona, too, but the series was canceled before she had much interaction with anyone other than the core Manhattan Clan.
*** Notably, Hudson does not have a BerserkButton, though many people try to find one over the series.
*** Not to say any of the Clan are super-loving of Xanatos, but Elisa in particular has trouble warming up to him after what he did to her brother. She seems to be quite protective and close with her family, which may be justified since it's implied she's the eldest sibling.
* BewareTheNiceOnes: Broadway is potentially one of the most intimidating of the Manhattan clan.
** Lexington also fits, the little guy gets pretty pissed when his trust is betrayed. [[spoiler: There's also the TwistEnding of 'Future Tense']]
** Jon Canmore was originally the nicest of the Canmore siblings, before he became Castaway.
** Bluestone's former partner in the FBI, who supports Bluestone unconditionally as a friend, while simultaneously trying to help him get over his obsession? [[spoiler: He's an Illumnati.]]
* BigAppleSauce: Played with a bit during the [[FanNickname Avalon World Tour]], but even so, all the ''really'' weird stuff happens in Manhattan.
* BigBad: [[spoiler: Xanatos toward the start, but his partner Demona eventually overtook him in this role. She even planned to kill the entire human race with a magically amplified virus in the Hunter's Moon story arc.]]
** [[FantasticRacism Castaway]] was one in [[{{CanonDiscontinuity}} the Goliath Chronicles]]. WordOfGod is that Thailog would have evolved into this had the series continued.
*** Thailog certainly evolved into it in the comic books.
* BigBadDuumvirate: Xanatos and Demona for about the first third of the series -- they wind up going their separate ways when it becomes painfully obvious that their goals, methods, and personalities are simply not compatible.
* BigDamnHeroes: At least once every episode.
* BigEater: Broadway
* BigGuyRodeo: Attempted on the mecha gargoyles. Doesn't work too well.
* BigNo: Demona [[spoiler: upon being cursed to turn into a human during the day.]]
* BiologicalMashUp: The Mutates. Delilah.
* BilingualBonus: The various spells are in Latin, and actually say what they accomplish, and one episode actually includes correct ''Hebrew'', both written and spoken. The "spell" in Hebrew, allowing a human to possess a {{golem}}, translates as something like "My soul should enter the body of earth".
** Some of the Latin spells are grammatically incorrect. "Omnes conspecti, omnes auditi" is translated in the show itself as "all who see this, all who hear this," but in reality it means "all who have been seen, all who have been heard." In other words, the passive voice was used when the active voice should've been.
** The Japanese gargoyle town is called Ishimura. . .which means "Stone Village." Very appropriate!
** Anyone who knows the French word for [[spoiler: fox]] guessed pretty quickly that a couple minor characters from season one were vastly more significant than they appeared, and were likely related.
* BlindAndTheBeast: Hudson's friendship with Jeffrey Robbins is the non-romantic version of this.
* BlindBlackGuy: Jeffrey Robbins.
* BloodlessCarnage: Played straight and averted, in the first episode Goliath bleeds after a BarehandedBladeBlock just to establish the fact that the Gargoyles are flesh and blood and not invulnerable. The Gargoyles and other characters are shown bleeding other times throughout the series, however wounds that ''should'' be fairly messy (such as when Demona first attacks and scars Gillecomgain) are neat and clean without a drop of blood in sight.
* BoomerangBigot: Played with a twist by Demona. She wants to KillAllHumans for nearly wiping out her species, but when she asks LiteralGenie [[TricksterArchetype Puck]] to make her not turn to stone during the day (as gargoyles do), he grants her request by [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor making her turn into a]] ''[[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor human]]'' from dawn to dusk every day. Notably, this doesn't stop her -- instead, it just lets her find ''more'' ways of reaching her goals, since she can now blend in with her "enemies" undetected.
** Throughout the series she easily takes to human society and tools, such as human sorcery and technology, even ''before'' she gained her human transformation curse. She even started her own freaking company (named Nightstone)! For all of her hatred towards humans, Demona fits in far more with human civilization than she does with her fellow gargoyles.
*** ....that last inspires [[HumansAreBastards some]] [[NotSoDifferent thoughts]]...
* BoxedCrook: The Redemption Squad from the intended SpinOff "Bad Guys". Eventually made it into comic form.
* BreakingTheFourthWall: In the comic continuation, a time-travelling Brooklyn directly addresses the audience in regards to his ignorance about Scottish history:
-->'''Mary''': "Don't you know what is going to happen?"\\
'''Brooklyn''': "Too much TV, too few history books. You never know when [[SpaceWhaleAesop a giant flaming magical time-traveling bird is gonna swallow you whole and spit you out in the tenth century. So hit those books, kids!]]"
* BroadStrokes: The backstory of the Stone of Destiny works because of a combination of this and UnreliableNarrator. ("The story is told, though who can say if it be true?")
* BrotherSisterIncest: Averted, despite whatever people on the internet keep whispering. Gargoyles [[LikeBrotherAndSister regard all their rookery-mates as siblings]], and they tend to mate among their rookery-mates, but rookery-siblings are exactly that: Gargoyles from the same rookery (Locale where eggs are stored and hatched). They were, essentially, just birthed in the same hospital at the same time, not actually blood relations. Any ''literal'' applications of this trope have been {{Jossed}}, since Gargoyle couples usually have only one egg in each generation. Scent markers prevent KissingCousins.
** However, for the human characters, Jackal and Hyena are a little too close for some fans. [[FetishFuel Others don't mind too much, and it's established that Hyena's specifically into roboticization kinks -- as Coyote gets less and less human over the series, she gets more attracted to him -- which would imply her brother may qualify, too.]]
* BullyingADragon: When common thugs are not running away at the sight of gargoyles or other gifted beings, they try to fight them instead. This usually doesn't turn out too well for them.
* ButNotTooForeign: The protagonists in the Castle Wyvern clan all hail from [[BonnieScotland Scotland]], but only one of them (Hudson) actually speaks with a Scottish accent. The rest of them speak with American accents, even before they make the move to [[BigApplesauce Manhattan]].
* ButForMeItWasTuesday: Demona truly has no idea why that guy(s) with the striped mask want(s) her dead. Not that she would care much if she ''did'' know. In a deleted scene of the finale, it's revealed that even the modern day Hunters do not know how the feud began. They just know that it's their destiny to hunt and kill Gargoyles.
** Subverted with Macbeth when Canmore waylays him. At first Macbeth doesn't recognize the full-grown prince (since he was only a boy when Macbeth banished him to England), but after he introduces himself as Canmore, Macbeth does remember him.
*** Played straight with the identity of the Hunter in City of Stone, as Demona'd not seen one in decades, and had thought she ended the line. [[spoiler: It was a trick by Macbeth, as he knew Demona'd never suspect it was him under the mask. While he's perfectly willing to kill Demona to end their curse, she normally wouldn't reciprocate.]]
* ByTheBookCop: Captain Chavez.
* CainAndAbel: Iago/Coldsteel and Othello/Coldstone.
* CallBack: "Hunter's Moon" is full of Call Backs, mostly to the first season.
-->"Would you prefer I lost on purpose?"
-->"I'd fire you if you did." [[spoiler: Shari and Thailog, in the comic continuation.]]
* CanonDisContinuity: The entire third season except for the very first episode, "The Journey," never happened according to WordOfGod (Weisman). To enforce this, "The Journey" was included as the beginning of the recent ''Gargoyles'' comic books, solidifying its canon status, followed by the rest of the comic books contradicting the third season.
** They also imported one additional scene from TGC: [[spoiler: Where Robbins reveals that he'd figured out Hudson was a gargoyle before he could tell him]].
*** In a sense; WordOfGod has [[http://www.s8.org/gargoyles/askgreg/search.php?qid=9873 specified]] multiple times that this was ''always'' the direction they were intending to bring [[spoiler: Robbins' and Hudson's relationship]]. GregWeisman did, however, borrow a (slightly altered) version of one fan-favorite line of dialogue from that scene, as "a nice tribute to all the hard work that the TGC crew put in, with little thanks or reward." Weisman may be a hard-liner on declaring CanonDiscontinuity, but he's also a notoriously NiceGuy.
** Much of the events of [[spoiler: Future Tense]] are implied to be just a story told by an UnreliableNarrator. Said UnreliableNarrator, however, is DangerouslyGenreSavvy and easily has the ability to see the future, so it's difficult to say for certain.
* CardCarryingVillain: Rare, but there are a few. Thailog is more or less aware of the fact he's a monster and a scary bastard, but he just relishes in the fact. Proteus is also intent on wreaking havoc on the New Olympus Island simply for the amusement of doing so, and the Quarrymen in the third season pull traps on the Manhattan Clan, where either street thugs or themselves pretend to attack innocent women, acknowledging the Manhattan Clan's heroic and upstanding tendencies. Xanatos himself notably lampshades the trope, when he asks Goliath and Angela how well he's pulling off his first attempt at "Clichéd Villainy", in the episode "Cloud Fathers".
** In their one appearance in season 3, Jackal & Hyena explicitly refer to the side they're on as evil.
* CastFromHitPoints: Any spellcaster on the island of Avalon can draw upon its magical power, at the cost of their own health if they're not [[TheFairFolk Children of Oberon]]. [[spoiler: The Magus [[RedemptionEqualsDeath exhausts himself to death by attempting this]].]]
** Given that it's Avalon, the above example may be a subversion. [[spoiler: When last we see the Magus, he's taken the exact repose that King Arthur had when he was asleep, and in the same location. While still an HeroicSacrifice, the fact that this is a Disney cartoon couples with the above to imply he may not be dead.]]
**** {{Word of God}} states that the Magus is dead, and his sacrifice would never be cheapened by bringing him back.
* CastHerd
* CastingGag: The ''StarTrek'' actors voicing most of the villains or {{trickster}} characters.
* CatGirl: Maggie, one of the mutates. Though in this case, she is outnumbered by catBOYs 3:1.
* CharacterDevelopment: Characters repeatedly realize the consequences of their actions and grow from experiences:
** Broadway grows from being a gluttonous illiterate goof to a studious amateur detective. And don't forget the aforementioned episodes about firearms. Brooklyn grows from a simple hotshot kid to a capable, if romantically frustrated, leader with a flair for tactics. There is a lot of subtle character development with Goliath and Elisa as they slowly become closer. Hudson learns to age gracefully and appreciate his golden years. Xanatos and Fox learn to love and not be ''quite'' so evil, and that you probably shouldn't betray valuable allies for short-term gain. And Lexington becomes less naive (and more paranoid, unfortunately).
** Hey, not all development is for the good guys! At any rate, a lot of the development was also tied into various episodes and arcs rather than the usual route of being standalone episodes designed solely for development. Hudson and Xanatos have quite the conversation about getting old during one of his (relatively) smaller plots... which changes -both- of them. Several minor supporting characters also get notable changes, like Derek Maza and Tom and Mary.
** Goliath goes through some interesting character development from the Avalon World Tour as well. For example, back in "City of Stone" he said "Death is never the answer; life is!" But when the Emir took this statement to its logical conclusion in "Grief," and his imprisonment of Anubis meant that nobody could die (and if death really never is the answer, is that a bad thing?) Goliath realized that preventing anyone from dying is just as bad as killing them, and he fought to break the binding spell and free Anubis.
* ChekhovsBoomerang: The Grimorum Arcanorum, the Eye of Odin, and the Phoenix Gate. All three are important for an episode or two, all three are (separately) taken from Xanatos by Goliath, all three taken by the Weird Sisters and given to the Archmage, and two of them ([[spoiler: the Grimorum is destroyed]]) prove significant in later episodes before Goliath gets rid of them for one reason or another. [[spoiler: Then the Phoenix Gate returns ''again'' in the comics.]]
* ChekhovsGunman: Preston Vogel sure looks familiar, doesn't he? [[spoiler: It's actually a subversion. Owen is based on Vogel, rather than any direct tie from Vogel to Owen.]]
** The Weird Sisters embody this better than anyone in the series, as their motives are never remotely clear. [[spoiler: WordOfGod implies that the sisters manipulated Archmage, Demona, and Macbeth all far more extensively than any of them realize, and they may have been the series' ultimate BigBad.]]
* TheChessmaster: Xanatos usually claims this role.
** Thailog would disagree.
* ChessMotifs: In "Upgrade," the battle between the Manhattan Clan and the Pack is represented as a chess game between Fox and Xanatos. Granted, that battle does break the rules of chess...
* TheClan
* ClockTower: Located atop the NYPD's 23rd District headquarters, and site of the Gargoyles' second home.
* ColdSleepColdFuture: Not only do Goliath and the Manhattan Clan remain in stone sleep for a thousand years (i.e. Cold Sleep), but when they wake up, Goliath quickly comes to the conclusion that 1994 Manhattan is just as savage as 994 Scotland was (i.e. Cold Future).
* ColorMeBlack: FantasticRacism variant- in one episode [[BigBad Demona]] summons and binds [[GreatGazoo Puck]] and forces him to grant her various wishes, [[JackassGenie which he delights in twisting because he doesn't like her]]. One of her wishes is to be able to move about freely during the day, when gargoyles normally turn to stone- which Puck grants by causing her to turn ''human'' during the day instead. For those uninitiated with the series, Demona hates humans.
* ContinuityNod: Frequent, and well done. When particular villains return (The Pack, Demona, and Dracon) Gargoyles who have been specifically slighted by them (Lexington, Brooklyn, and Broadway, respectively) are more incensed and determined than the others. When King Arthur (Yes, ''that'' KingArthur) is attacked by Macbeth (Yes, ''that'' {{Macbeth}}) he recognizes him and calls out his name, but Macbeth expresses confusion and asks if they me have met; when they ''had'' met, Macbeth was being [[BrainwashedAndCrazy manipulated]] and later had his memory erased. The show remembers who did what and when, and keeps it all straight.
* ConvectionSchmonvection: In the episode "Ill Met By Moonlight".
* ConvenientlyCellmates: When the pack are in prison, Fox and Hyena are sharing a cell, as are Wolf and Jackal.
* CoolBigSis: Elisa Maza, is the older sister of Derek Maza, Beth Maza, and acts like an older sister to the young trio of the Manhattan Clan.
* CoolOldGuy: Hudson
* CorruptCorporateExecutive: Xanatos, though not anywhere nearly as large as expected given his primarily antagonistic role in the series; his biggest venture into this arena (Which he actually lampshades as his first attempt at "Clichéd Villainy") was when he planned to destroy a Native American carving that was on the land he had leased for corporate practices. A more classic example would be Preston Vogel, who was operating a clear-cutting logging site in the Guatemalan rain forest in the episode "The Green" without any consent from Halcyon Renard, who also had hired ex-members of [[PsychoForHire the Pack]] as security to kill off the local Gargoyles that were opposing the logging. Similarly, [[spoiler:Demona/Dominique Destine uses her company, Nightstone Unlimited mostly to support and fund her genocidal efforts.]]
* {{Crossover}}: A crossover with ''AtlantisTheLostEmpire'' was fully recorded in audio but never actually animated or aired (It's still considered canonical in BroadStrokes).
** It seems to be referenced in the comic book with a scene featuring Demona returning St. Daminan's Cathedral and removing what looks a lot like [[AppliedPhlebotinum an Atlantean energy crystal]] from the broken fragments of the Praying Gargoyle.
** Likewise, a Radioplay written by the head honcho himself for the final Gathering was a crossover with TheSpectacularSpiderMan. While not canonical, the events fit in fine with both continuities. At the moment.
*** Well...it fits fine in Gargoyles continuity if you pretend Clan Building took place in 2008.
* CurseEscapeClause: The gargoyle protagonists had been cursed to sleep as stone until their castle rose above the clouds. Xanatos broke the curse by relocating their castle on top of his skyscraper. In fact, several spells have similar riddle-like ways of breaking them, such as a spell that would turn people to stone "until the sky burns."
** WordOfGod said that it is an actual rule of magic in this universe; adding an escape clause is not required, but it makes the magic much easier to cast. Fair folk like Oberon and Puck are powerful enough they do not really need to worry about it, as is an incredibly powerful human sorcerer like the Archmage, but for someone like the Magus or Demona, being able to save on your energy is very important.
** The Curse Escape Clauses are also interpreted rather loosely; Xanatos raised Castle Wyvern above the cumulus layer of clouds, but not the cirrus layer; nevertheless, this was enough to break the spell. He also burned only the atmosphere above Manhattan, not the entire world; but even those hypothetical victims outside of Manhattan were still freed from the "stone at night" curse.
** This leads to a bit of FridgeLogic when you consider the idea that Goliath and company could have been freed from their stone sleep the next time that a fog rolled in.
*** Even more when you realize how foggy Scotland gets normally, and that this was a pretty common occurrence in the one thousand years the Gargoyles were asleep.
*** Justified. The spells in Gargoyles go by literal wording, as Brooklyn once proved to Demona. It's not enough that the castle has to be amid or even above cloud level -- it has to be raised there. Similarly, Xanatos' plan to set the sky on fire was the most literal way Xanatos could think of doing it, and he wasn't certain it'd work.
* CuteGhostGirl: The Banshee.
* CuteMonsterGirl: All female gargoyles shown in the TV series were sexy winged humanoids, except for Una, who resembled an anthropomorphic unicorn and so didn't exactly break the stereotype. Male gargoyles, however, included a much wider variety of body types; the comic continuation eventually introduced Constance (Coco), a heavyset female who resembles a wild sow, and Brooklyn's mate Katana (whom most of the fandom * thought* would be a CMG) was shown to have a beak.
* CyberneticsEatYourSoul: Hyena and Jackal get more AxCrazy than they already were after they become cyborgs. Contrast Dingo, who refused to alter his body via implants [[spoiler:and who eventually did a HeelFaceTurn.]]
** Though Hyena was willing to kill her long-time, er, friend equivalent and leader just because the latter stopped Hyena from killing a prison guard ''before'' the cybernetic upgrades, so at least in her case, the rising insanity may be entirely unrelated to the bodywork. It may simply have made it easier to inflict pain (probably the whole reason they got the upgrade) so they have even less restraint.
*** Jackal seems to think they're unrelated. When Hyena shows an interest in mecha-Coyote, Jackal's comment is of mild disgust, but absolutely no surprise.
** Halcyon Renard had a similar experience with the Golem, though he wasn't really in a cybernetic body, and if anything, he was simply playing around and causing amusing destruction in the body of the Golem.
** Also, the more Coyote gets upgraded, the less humanlike his frame gets. [[spoiler: [[WhatMeasureIsANonHuman Then again, he/it was never a human to begin with, and probably never had a soul to eat]].]]
*** Then again, Anubis had dominion over Coyote, too, implying Coyote was alive in some sense.
**** "Grief" implies that Anubis' powers hold over the passage of time on subjects organic or otherwise; note how his energy reduced a city in the distance to ruin, complete with dilapidated buildings.
** And partially averted with Coldstone, as the insanity was due to an evil Third Wheel battling for control inside. Then the series turns right back around and plays it straight again with [[spoiler:Future Lex.]]
* CycleOfRevenge: One of the major themes of the "City of Stone" arc, and to a lesser extent, of the entire series. Also, the main theme of the "Hunter's Moon" finale.
** Notably averted by Xanatos, who considers revenge "a sucker's game." Then again, [[XanatosGambit he never really loses,]] so he never has to make things personal... or was it the other way around?
* DamnItFeelsGoodToBeAGangster: Tony Dracon and his mob of men, [[TheDragon his partner]] Glasses, and rival Tomas Brod.
* DarkActionGirl: Demona, Hyena, and (prior to their turn to good) Fox and Robyn Canmore.
* DarkerAndEdgier: Though the show itself generally didn't shy away from some dark elements, the comic continuation (and especially ''Bad Guys'') gets away with quite a lot of graphic violence that would never have made it into the show, including Goliath getting stabbed in the stomach, a person committing suicide by hanging herself, Yama being impaled and Dingo's mother being strangled to death on-panel. (Also the occasional profanity.)
* DatingCatwoman: Goliath and Demona pretty much in the beginning of the first season.
* DavidVersusGoliath: In a literal sense (and inverted), with hero Goliath fighting ''David'' Xanatos.
* DeadpanSnarker: Xanatos, Owen Burnett, and Preston Vogel have their moments of this.
** The Weird Sisters have a few moments of this too, such as at Gillecomgain's and Gruoch's wedding: "[[SarcasmMode A happy beginning.]]" "Not all would agree." "Certainly not our hero."
* DeathSeeker: This is why Macbeth is after Demona in his early appearances (well, this ''plus'' {{revenge}}) -- [[ICannotSelfTerminate only by killing]] [[SuicideByCop or being killed]] by Demona can he lose his [[WhoWantsToLiveForever immortality]].
* DeathTakesAHoliday: Albeit a forced one, in "Grief".
** An interesting case, because Greg Weisman later went on to say that he regretted not actually ''doing'' anything with the concept; the Pack never tried to kill the characters during Anubis' imprisonment, so audiences only had the Emir's word that death was null during that space of time.
*** ExecutiveMeddling would've almost certainly prevented it. How do you show this in Disney cartoon?
* DeathWail[=/=]TheScream: Goliath at the end of the first episode.
* DidNotDoTheResearch: Unfortunately, this has happened multiple times. Some myths were [[ShownTheirWork dead-on accurate]], but others were less correct in their portrayal. Probably partly a result of the [[BellisariosMaxim time limits imposed on the writers]] for each episode and issue, and some changes were obviously made [[ArtisticLicense for the sake of the story]], but some referenced mythology bears little to no resemblance to true mythology. ([[NorseMythology Odin]], for example, bears absolutely '''''no''''' connection to [[EgyptianMythology Anubis]] or [[TheFairFolk Oberon]]). Then again, the Gargoyles universe is a shameless CrossoverCosmology.
** More jarring is Odin's comment about not being experienced with mortals, when he was one of those most in contact with us.
*** If memory serves, Odin never said he was inexperienced dealing with mortals, but rather he was out of practice dealing with mortals. There is a difference.
** It happens too often with [[YouFailBiologyForever the biology, too]].
** They did indeed do the research, but, as Weisman himself admitted: "Well, a short answer is that we wanted to diminish the gods a bit... or put another way, we wanted to create a unifying system for them all. A feudal system. Oberon and Titania got priority, because in general SHAKESPEARE got priority. Titania, as far as I know, is not a traditional figure but an invention of ol' Will's. I've always freely admitted to being a Shakespeare fanatic, so his characters, including Macbeth, Oberon, Titania, Puck, the Weird Sisters, etc. were always going to have featured roles in this series. Ultimately, it comes down to personal preference, and I was the guy in charge. That doesn't make me RIGHT in some transcendent sense, just means that I had the right to create the universe I wanted to play in. So I did."
** Cuchullain in the Hound of Ulster episode is painfully inaccurate... [[http://www.gargoyles-fans.org/reviews/ep45.htm this page]] goes over it pretty well, actually.
** In the ''Bad Guys'' comics, it looks as if the Notre-Dame cathedrale in Paris is just next to the official entrance of the Catacombs. In real life, there are about 2,6 km between these two places.
** ''The'' Catacombs of Paris, opened in the late 18th century to use burial space more efficiently than the city's full graveyards, is 2,6 km from Notre Dame, true. On the other hand, the Parvis archaeological crypt, a site exhibiting history going back over 2,000 years, actually is directly in front of Notre Dame just across the square from it. Even if the comic unambiguously meant the Catacombs, confusing them for another historical burial ground seems like a relatively minor mistake.
* DidYouJustFlipOffCthulhu: More like "Did Xanatos Just Shoot The King of the Gods and Faeries?"
* DisneyVillainDeath
** Played straight the first time with the Archmage, but later averted by the same character, whose future self [[spoiler:very visibly melted on-camera when he could no longer control the power of the Grimorum inside himself.]]
** Somewhat subverted with Duncan. When Macbeth tosses Selene's Orb at Duncan, ''it blows out his eyes and mouth, and sets him on fire''...and then he falls off a cliff.
*** Was absolutely hilariously lampshaded by the crew during the commentary...with very nearly the same words!
** Also played straight in the pilot with Hakon and the traitorous captain, though the typical intention of keeping the hero from being responsible for the villain's death is subverted: Goliath immediately expresses his outrage that he did not get to kill them himself, bellowing, "I've been denied everything... EVEN MY '''REVENGE!'''"
** Sevarius just laughs at this trope.
* DoesntLikeGuns: Broadway [[BerserkButton is not a fan of firearms]]. This actually [[CharacterDevelopment grew out of an episode of the show]], where his enthusiasm for TV Westerns went too far and he [[spoiler:played with and accidentally shot Elisa with her service pistol]].
** It's not so much that he hates guns per se, but that he doesn't like them to be mishandled and/or used to hurt people. He seems to recognize their usefulness but prefers them in the hands of responsible people (don't we all). It's guns in the hands of human scumbags like Tony Dracon's thugs that really ticks him off.
* DownerEnding: "Metamorphosis", "Vows".
** City Of Stone nudges close to this with Demona, and Grief can at best be said to end just narrowly shy of breaking even.
* DubInducedPlotHole: (Spanish) Latin American dubbers didn't take into account that the gargoyles didn't have names in the past. It is mentioned in the first episodes, but afterwards you seem them using those names during the flashbacks of Scotland. Also, the first time the gang saw Demona in Manhattan, she is called by that name (Demona), evan when five minutes later she receives the dialogue ''"Humans have given me a new name. It's Demona!"''. In defense of the dubbers, besides this, the whole [[{{SugarWiki/SuperlativeDubbing}} LAm dub is pretty awesome]].
* DramaticIrony: Several examples...
** The Canmore family's vendetta against Demona is particularly ironic considering that only Macbeth can kill her. Apparently they've never worked out the immortality angle.
** Pretty much the entire backstory of "City of Stone" is full of Dramatic Irony; Findlaech's pledge of loyalty to Duncan, Duncan's order to kill Findlaech to keep Macbeth from becoming king, Macbeth's willingness to save Duncan's life on the assumption that Duncan would have saved his, Demona eavesdropping on just enough of Macbeth's conversation to conclude that Macbeth will probably betray her (when he had no intention of betraying her)...
* EditedForSyndication: Toon Disney initially banned the episode "Deadly Force" because of the episode revolved around Elisa's near-fatal shooting by Broadway (who was playing around with her gun). In 2002, Toon Disney finally showed the episode, but the part where Elisa gets shot uses a fake zoom-in on Elisa's face to cover up the blood around Elisa's torso. A later scene in this episode has Broadyway sobbing, but the sound effect lasts noticeably longer than the clip used.
** On Toon Disney and the VHS video release of "Awakenings, Part Two," Xanatos's line "Pay a man enough, and he'll walk barefoot in Hell," was cut. The DVD version has the line uncensored.
** In Toon Disney airings of "The Reckoning," Fang saying "Kinky" after witnessing Demona's transformation into a human is cut.
* EenieMeenieMinyMoai: In "Sentinel". Did you know they were [[AncientAstronauts modeled on an alien soldier who is protecting our world from the ravages of an evil empire from beyond our solar system?]]
* EggMcGuffin: Goliath's rookery children.
* EnigmaticMinion: Owen, big time. Also Brother Valmont, to Constantine, in the comic book's final arc, and Preston Vogel.
* EqualOpportunityEvil: Anybody can join the Quarrymen, despite the fact the organization resembles the Ku Klux Klan in both its costume motif and its purpose.
** Well, anybody ''human'' can join.
* EstablishingCharacterMoment: In addition to the BarehandedBladeBlock above mentioned, Lexington, Brooklyn, and Broadway each get an Establishing Character Episode immediately after "Awakening."
* EternalEnglish: The gargoyles have no trouble with the language after they are revived. Nor do Katherine, Tom, the Magus, or any of their gargoyle charges, although that one might be slightly justified as Tom had been taking trips to the real world every 100 real-world years and could have picked up the gradual changes from Old to Middle to Modern English.
** Say nothing of King Arthur, who was put to sleep sometime around 547AD according to the comic book, and yet speaks perfectly when woken up.
** No explanation is given on why New Olympians speak English instead of ancient Greek. Does [[{{Pocahontas}} Grandmother Willow]] live on that island?
** Trips made via Avalon, at least, included a nifty language module with free installation. That was how the 'World Tour' guys managed in Japan and Guatemala etc. As for why the gargoyles speak English? A wizard did it.
** For that matter, if Goliath's clan comes from Scotland, how come Hudson's the only one with a Scottish accent?
*** Because Hudson had the most contact with humans
* EvenTheDogIsAshamed: Bronx in "Upgrade".
* EveryCarIsAPinto: In the third episode, a motorcycle crashes into a wall and promptly explodes.
** In "Temptation", Brooklyn's bike violently explodes from a single bullet.
* EveryoneLovesBlondes: Talon to Maggie and later in the comics [[spoiler: Dingo to Robyn Canmore.]]
* [[HeroesWantRedheads Everyone Wants Redheads]]: Goliath to Demona, Xanatos to Fox, Macbeth to Gruoch, and even Macbeth's blond henchman Banquo was romantically involved with Macbeth's redheaded henchwoman Fleance.
** Macbeth to [[spoiler: Demona's human form, too, though he gets over it when he realizes who she is.]]
* EverythingsBetterWithPrincesses: Princess Katharine saved and raised the next generation of Gargoyles safely on Avalon, so she definitely deserves a mention here.
* EvilCannotComprehendGood: Or to be more precise, "the corrupt are the first to believe that others can be corrupted." Thus, despite Macbeth's loyalty and honesty, the corrupt King Duncan, and later Demona, were convinced that he was going to betray them.
** Subverted, of course, with Xanatos. He comprehends perfectly, it's just not for him.
*** "I think we love each other, as much as two people such as ourselves are capable of that emotion." (Xanatos to Fox, at the beginning of "Eye of the Beholder")
*** "So now you know my weakness." / "Only ''you'' would regard love as a weakness." (Xanatos and Goliath after they [[EnemyMine work together]] to save Fox's life at the end of "Eye of the Beholder")
* EvilKnockoff: Thailog [[spoiler:and Brentwood]]. To a lesser extent, the Steel Clan and Fang.
* EvilLaugh: Thailog has a memorable one. In the SLG comic he even seems a bit disappointed that he doesn't get to use it more often.
* EvilRedhead: Take your pick. There's Demona, Fox [[spoiler: before her HeelFaceTurn]], Macbeth's henchwoman [[ActionGirl Fleance]], and even [[TheHighQueen Queen Titania]] during "The Gathering" parts one and two.
* EvilSorcerer: The Archmage. Demona as well, though to her magical power and the acquisition thereof is not a primary motivation, as it is with the Archmage, but more the means to an end.
* EvilTwin: Thailog, who managed to outsmart all the other {{Big Bad}}s of the show.
* EvilutionaryBiologist: Sevarius.
* EvilVersusEvil: Xanatos, Demona, Macbeth, and the rest of the villains each have their own agenda, which results in this trope more often than not. Macbeth's goal, for example, is to [[spoiler: kill Demona so that he can die.]]
** TheGoodTheBadAndTheEvil: Usually one of the villains is clearly more evil than the other. ([[AntiVillain Macbeth]], [[FriendlyEnemy Xanatos]], [[KnightTemplar Demona]], [[CompleteMonster Thailog.]])
** Noteworthy in that it's not unknown for the Gargoyles to get involved of their own accord, rather than be manipulated or attacked by another faction.
* ExactWords: Watch'em. Especially around [[TheFairFolk members of the third race]]. QUADRUPALLY around Puck. Watch out for Puck.
** How magic spells work.
* ExecutiveMeddling: The ReTool of the third season was caused by Disney replacing the entire production team. There's also the matter of the higher fees that caused the comic's cancellation.
** WordOfGod says that the trio's motorcycle and helicopter were mandated by higher-ups who wanted to be able to sell them as toys. Of course, the motorcycle blew up within five minutes of its debut, and the helicopter showed up in one episode and was then never mentioned again...
** Positive Example: this trope is the only reason Macbeth was introduced into the show, as the higher-ups wanted a human villain who could go toe-to-toe with the gargoyles without any sort of robotic suit or something.
** Another positive example: The Eye of Odin was introduced as a tie-in to the Sega Genesis game, yet it led to a whole raft of plots.
* {{Expy}}: Preston Vogel to Owen Burnett. However, [[spoiler:it turns out the [[InvertedTrope opposite is true]], with Puck basing "Owen" on Vogel]].
** You also wouldn't be entirely mistaken if you confused Xanatos for an evil [[IronMan Tony Stark]].
* ExtraStrengthMasquerade: Ninety-nine percent of Manhattan population spends two consecutive nights turned to stone, and the masquerade remains intact? Sure. The show tries to [[JustifiedTrope justify]] it by having a character [[YouHaveToBelieveMe explain the truth and be visibly dismissed]], except the show does not address the video cameras (security cameras, TV studio cameras, personal recorders, etc.) that would have been running around the city which would have captured evidence of the event, or the effect of multiple people all sharing the same story, etc.
** Not to mention the lady missing two arms, or the random piles of rubble... Or, as the commentary pointed out, [[ButtMonkey Brendan and Margot Yale]].
*** Word of God: This did cause lasting damage in the form of crashing vehicles, and deaths. The "random piles of rubble?" Not waking up in the morning.
* ExtremeOmnivore: The Archmage literally ''eats'' the Grimorum Arcanorum to bypass the restriction that human magic cannot enter Avalon while retaining its powers.
* FaceHeelTurn: The episode "Protection" makes it seem that Elisa has undergone one of these, as she is under suspicion of starting a protection racket. [[spoiler: It's all a ploy to bust and actual protection racket led by mobster Drakon]]
* FailingATaxi: Some of the Manhattan Clan try to hail a cab, but they face a few obstacles (what with being gargoyles and all).
* TheFairFolk: The Third Race ''breathes'' this trope; though very few of them are outright evil, Goliath and company get into a fight with almost every named member of the group at one point or another.
* FairForItsDay: In-universe: Oberon was very benevolent, for one of TheFairFolk, back in the 10th century. Due to the arrogance and cruelty of the others, Oberon had them banished from Avalon to teach them humility and benevolence. While most of the Children of Oberon ''did'' learn their lesson in their 1,001 years of exile, Oberon himself didn't.
** To be fair to Oberon, he WAS being manipulated by someone else every single time he was acting like an asshole. If someone wasn't purposely trying to get him riled up and to wreck havoc, he might be less of a jerk.
* FakeDefector: Matt in "Revelations."
* FamilyFriendlyFirearms: Subverted; the origin of the family friendly lasers are actually explained, and only the bad guys get them; the cops have to make do with plain old firearms. They're also explained as pretty expensive and limited in number.
** Broadway and Goliath blowing up around fifty of them is probably a main reason for this.
** The police's guns are also generally stowed and used only when lethal force is justified. While Elisa does whip hers out fairly often in comparison to a real world cop, it's still vastly less often than most police dramas.
* FanConvention: [[http://www.gatheringofthegargoyles.com/ The Gathering of the Gargoyles]], an annual event from 1997 to 2009. Common panels include read-throughs of unused scripts and discussions with Greg Weisman.
* FantasticFragility: How {{curse}}s work.
* FantasticRacism: Oh, so very much, and in so many ways. Racism is one of the plot points of the entire series.
** Especially bad with the Quarrymen in the [[CanonDisContinuity third season]]. At one point they faked an attack on a woman so that the gargoyles would come to her rescue and be drawn into a trap.
* FantasyKitchenSink
* FateWorseThanDeath: Mace Malone being trapped in the Hotel Cabal [[spoiler:until he eventually died of dehydration]].
** Also, Demona has had a thousand years to watch as everyone she loved died or turned against her. On some level, she realizes all the suffering she's seen is primarily her own fault, and she's bitterly aware of how alone she is. Her hatred's really all that's left of her, but the Disney background to the show prevents any logical explanation as to why she's not killed herself.
** Ditto for Macbeth, who is just as alone as Demona is. His virtual immortality forced him to outlive his beloved family. (See HeroicSacrifce for details.) For a good part of his appearances, he actually wants to die. "I'm just so tired."
*** But then, Macbeth hasn't killed himself either. If they can only die at each other's hands, maybe they can't die at their own.
** The three Gargoyle souls trapped within Coldstone. No sense of touch, smell or taste, and the two good souls are trapped with an evil, jealous one. Worse yet, each soul has to fight to control the robotic body they're in. The fear of the evil one gaining control forced the two good ones to separate from the only family they know. [[spoiler:This, of course, is finally resolved in "Possession" via extensive magic.]]
* Hakon might have gotten this worst of all. First he's trapped in a cave as a ghost with a man who hates his ass, then [[spoiler: he's trapped in a rock in that cave alone presumably for all eternity]]
* {{Fiction 500}}: Xanatos awakened the gargoyles by moving an entire castle to the top of a skyscraper.
* FieryRedhead: Demona so very much. Fox also.
* FieldPowerEffect: Avalon is ''teeming'' with magic, boosting the Magus' abilities.
* [[FinishingEachOthersSentences Finishing Each Other's Sentences]]: The Weird Sisters do this
* FirstNameBasis: Goliath calls Elisa "Detective" at first, but changes to her name as they get closer.
* FishOutOfTemporalWater: They get fairly accustomed to the 20th century pretty quickly though, especially Broadway and Lexington
* FiveEpisodePilot
* FiveBadBand: The Pack.
** [[BigBad The Big Bad]]: Fox (replaced by Coyote in Season 2)
** TheDragon: Wolf
** TheDarkChick: Hyena
** TheBrute: Jackal
** TheAtoner: Dingo
* FiveManBand: The main gargoyles.
** TheHero: Goliath
** TheLancer: Brooklyn (originally Hudson)
** TheMentor: Hudson (who was originally the leader of the clan before he passed it onto Goliath and "Mentor" was even his actual title back in the day)
** TheSmartGuy: Lexington
** TheBigGuy: Broadway
** TheChick: Elisa and later Angela
** TeamPet: Bronx
** SixthRanger: Angela during the series, and as of Clan-Building Volume 2, [[spoiler:Coldstone and Coldfire, as well as Brooklyn's family, consisting of his mate Katana, his son Nashville, his beast Fu-Dog and his unhatched egg, Egwardo.]]
*** The main cast of the ''Bad Guys'' spin-off also fits this trope:
** TheHero: Hunter
** TheLancer: Dingo
** TheSmartGuy: Matrix
** TheBigGuy: Yama
** SixthRanger: Fang
* {{Flashback}}: The show constantly jumps around in time, going back to 10th Century Scotland, 15th Century Italy, [[TheSixties 1960]] Arizona, WorldWarII, and others. These skips fill in part of the backstory, but also serve as driving moments for the characters and plot points.
* ForHalloweenIAmGoingAsMyself: Almost a standard for a supernatural show.
** Though the trio actually ''did'' dress up, leading to New Yorkers commenting on how awesome "costumes under [their] costumes" was.
* FreudianExcuse: De-constructed with Demona, averted with Xanatos.
* FridayNightDeathSlot: Metaphorically. The series was moved to Saturday mornings and then lobotomized to have it fit kid-vid expectations (see also ExecutiveMeddling).
* FridgeBrilliance: In the episode "Deadly Force", Brooklyn almost kills Elisa by playing with her gun. Later, in the episode "The Price", Broadway accidentally turns to stone in mid-flight, and Elisa saves his life by [[ShootTheRope shooting a rope]] which held a crate containing some carpets that were able to break his fall. This shows how guns can be used to kill and how they can protect someone depending on how they are used.
** Why does Demona hate Macbeth, despite the fact that she knows perfectly well he never betrayed her, and he's worked harder than she has at preserving the gargoyles? [[spoiler: Because he never betrayed her, and he's worked harder than she has at preserving the gargoyles. They've known each other for centuries, and every time Demona lays eyes on Macbeth, she realizes that he's everything she claims the humans are not, and that everything she says about humans, is true of herself.]]
*** Why does Demona hate Elisa so much? It's not just that she is now "dating" Demona's ex; her relationship with him also bears a striking resemblance to Demona's relationship with Macbeth back in the mid-11th century.
* FriendlyEnemy: Xanatos has shades of this, although Goliath usually doesn't agree
* FourEyesZeroSoul: Owen and Vogel, although not exactly cruel.
* FurryConfusion: Bronx.
* FutureBadass: "Future Tense" gives you the {{badass}} Lexington who will [[spoiler:''destroy the world!'']]
* FutureMeScaresMe: One episode dealt with Demona going back in time and appealing to her younger self to basically be a huge prick and kill everyone. Demona of the past, who's still young and reasonably idealistic, refuses to believe that she could ever turn into the bitter and emotionally scarred monster in front of her.
** Brilliantly Subverted/Deconstructed when taken into account the nature of TimeTravel (StableTimeLoop) in this show. Present Day Demona had to scare past Demona in order for the entire series to take place. Past Demona's entire actions up to the betrayal of the clan [[SelfFulfillingProphecy would have never happened if she didn't try to avoid becoming the future Demona.]]
* ThirtyGambitPileup: Thailog causes these sometimes.
* GeniusBookClub: See "Genius Bruiser" below. Fox also has a rather infamous moment of this. Goliath does this as well in one early episode; rather progressively for a medieval creature, he was reading something several centuries past his time. Elisa feigns ignorance to which Goliath acts rather shocked.
** To elaborate, Goliath was reading ''Dostoevsky'', who is incredibly difficult to comprehend by modern standards. ''And he comprehends it.''
* GeniusBreedingAct: Xanatos and Fox.
* GeniusBruiser: Thailog
* GenreBusting: It's an epic UrbanFantasy, a sci-fi thriller set TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture, and a gritty crime-drama. And a tribute to {{Shakespeare}}, where [[AMidsummerNightsDream Puck, Oberon, Titania]], and [[{{Macbeth}} the Weird Sisters]] have prominent roles, and {{Macbeth}} kicks ass in a [[BadassLongcoat trenchcoat]] with a laser gun.
* GenreSavvy: How Broadway was able to figure out that [[spoiler: Elisa's FaceHeelTurn in "Protection" wasn't genuine.]]
* GiantSpider: Anansi, a trickster and one of the Children of Oberon. He got that way from being able to eat every hunted animal his servant brought to him.
* GlowingEyesOfDoom: The gargoyles' eyes glow when they are undergoing intense emotion, mostly anger. Generally males' eyes glow white; females' eyes glow red. The clones get red eyes, too, but theirs are red even when not glowing.
** It's actually inverted with the clones. While male gargoyles' eyes glow white and female gargoyles' glow red, the males clones' eyes glow red and the female clones' glow white.
** There's also [[spoiler: Fox, right before she blasted Oberon with her limited magical abilities to save her baby Alex from being taken away.]]
** They can also force the state at will, and use it mostly to scare humans for fun.
* {{Golem}}: The subject of the episode "Golem". Features an accurate retelling of the story of the Golem of Prague, as well as some of the actual Hebrew prayers used to animate and control the golem.
* GoneHorriblyRight: When Xanatos made Thailog, he wanted someone with Goliath's strength and his own worldview and intelligence. He got exactly that, and now probably wishes he did not.
** Lampshaded in a ShoutOut/IronicEcho. For much of the series, it's heavily implied that Xanatos' behavior is as much for his own amusement as anything else, with him gleefully quoting {{Frankenstein}} while resurrecting Coldstone. After realizing how badly he miscalculated Thailog's creation, he does so again, more straight:
--> Xanatos: "I've created a monster."
* GoodIsNotDumb: Macbeth in the backstory of "City of Stone" was a genuinely honest, loyal, and all-around good guy, but his honesty and loyalty were lost on his corrupt and cynical cousin Duncan. Subverted in that Macbeth still [[HorribleJudgeOfCharacter misjudged Duncan's character as horribly as vice versa.]]
* GoodThingYouCanHeal: Goliath [[AsYouKnow frequently reminds the other Gargoyles]] that they can recover from any injury after a day's worth of stone-sleep.
** Also The ''entire'' Manhatten Clan, in fact they tend to win quite often because their adversaries severely underestimate their intelligence.
* GoshDangItToHeck: Averted from the start, and it clues the audience to just how badass Xanatos is.
* GracefulLoser: Xanatos is one of the few villains who is not personally insulted when the "good guys" choose not to sit back and let their world be re-arranged to his satisfaction. He respects the gargoyles even when he wants to kill them (which isn't very often, as he generally considers it wasteful) and has enough of a sense of humor to laugh at himself. He also has such a willingness to see the upside of his defeats that you really have to pound him with multiple losses before he gets irritated with you.
** Of course, since he is the TropeNamer for the XanatosGambit, actual ''losses'' are relatively rare. It does happen now and then, but more often it just looks like a loss to other characters and in the {{denouement}} we find out that it was [[CrazyPrepared all according to plan]].
** This is only really averted in "Double Jeopardy," where his Thailog project [[GoneHorriblyRight Went Horribly Right]], and "Cloud Fathers," where Xanatos not only loses, but (however calmly all things considered) expresses displeasure with "these minor upsets."
* GrandmaWhatMassiveHotnessYouHave: Macbeth's wife Gruoch at the end of his flashback during "City Of Stone" has aged pretty gracefully throughout the years.
* GravityIsAHarshMistress: The gargoyles can not actually fly, they glide. Nevertheless, they do things that hurt the laws of physics.
** There are also examples of SoftWater in "Mark of the Panther" and "Hunter's Moon," and at least one example of NotTheFallThatKillsYou in "Awakening."
* GreeneyedRedhead: [[EvilIsSexy Demona]] [[spoiler: in her human form]] is one of these, and so is [[HotMom Fox.]] Also Macbeth's wife Gruoch.
* GreyGoo: Named and almost occurs as a result of Xanatos' "Matrix" project.
* HalfHumanHybrid: Human/[[TheFairFolk Children of Oberon]], because the Children's shapeshifting enables them to [[HotSkittyOnWailordAction mate with anything]]. Averted in other respects; only genetic engineering could produce a human/gargoyle hybrid like Delilah. Humans give birth, gargoyles lay eggs, and it's an issue for Goliath and Elisa.
* HaveWeMetYet: In "M.I.A.".
* HeartbrokenBadass: Brooklyn, twice. Goliath too, when Demona turns against him. Also Macbeth, although his relationship with Demona hadn't been going on as long Goliath's. Demona herself almost immediately after, causing her to rage to the heavens as she pounded on the betrayer.
* HeelFaceTurn: Way too many examples to cite.
* HellBentForLeather: WordOfGod states that gargoyle skin, when not in its stone sleep, feels like suede.
* HellHotel: The Hotel Cabal. Made to either horribly mutilate or render it's visitors insane.
* HellIsThatNoise: The werewolf from "Eye of the Beholder". Words utterly fail to describe how unearthly horrifying that thing sounded.
* HeroesUnlimited: The "World Tour" arc introduced a plethora of new gargoyles and other heroes, some of whom appeared in only their introductory episodes, but others who reappeared later on.
* HeroicAlbino: The Magus
* HeroicBuild: Goliath, full stop... and Thailog, too, by extension. Averted with Broadway and Hudson, who both sport some paunch. [[spoiler:Must run in the family.]]
** Brooklyn also counts, though he's not nearly as bulky as Goliath, sporting a more lean and wiry frame.
** And Dingo and Wolf from The Pack. Wolf is probably one of the strongest humans alive even before [[spoiler: his mutation into an actual wolf-human hybrid.]]
* HeroicSacrifice: In the comics, there was a nameless female gargoyle who was listed as "Sacrifice" in the script because she took a barrage of arrows to save her mate's life.
** The Magus [[CastFromHitPoints exhausts himself to death]] in order to protect the Avalon Clan from the Weird Sisters.
** In the flashback during the episode "City Of Stone" Macbeth is [[DisneyDeath "killed"]] by Canmore, and after he [[IGotBetter comes back to life]] due to his magical link with Demona, his wife Gruoch tells him that his son Luach has been crowned king in his place and that his supporters in the current war would be shocked to see their supposed dead king back among the living. Gruoch then tells Macbeth that he must disappear and leave Scotland forever in order for his son to win the war. [[TearJerker Macbeth sadly agrees, and right before he does he says to her "I will always love you."]] If leaving your family and country for the greater good doesn't count for this trope, I don't know what does.
*** The TearJerker is even worse if you know what happens to [[TheWoobie Gruoch]] after Macbeth leaves. According to [[WordOfGod Greg Weisman]], [[spoiler: after Canmore had defeated Luach, Gruoch returns home to see that her son and father had both died in battle. Out of grief for losing her entire family, like many Shakespearian characters, she tragically commits suicide and dies a broken woman.]]
* HesBack: [[spoiler: Coldstone officially rejoined the Manhattan Clan]] at the conclusion of "Clan-Building", [[spoiler: with Coldfire in tow.]]
** Though it's doubtful that he was ever really gone, Xanatos proved that prison hadn't dulled his skills in "The Edge". [[spoiler: Donating the Eye of Odin to the museum, framing Goliath for its theft, then goading him into unknowingly fighting him in his new PowerArmor.]] Just to prove to himself that he hadn't lost his [[TitleDrop edge.]]
* HiddenElfVillage: Most gargoyle clans try to do this for their own survival; the Manhattan Clan is the main exception.
** Don't forget Avalon and New Olympus...particularly the latter...
** The London Clan?
** And Ishimura, where the local humans are actually aware of the Gargoyles.
* TheHighQueen: Lady Titania.
* HiredGuns: Macbeth first appears as one of these, but he's OnlyInItForTheMoney because if he captured the gargoyles for free then Xanatos would become suspicious.
* HolierThanThou: The closest thing gargoyles have to a religion is "the Gargoyle Way," which involves protecting the castle (and everyone in it) and sharing everything with the clan. Demona, despite having abandoned these precepts, considers herself purer than Goliath because she does not befriend humans as he does. Her mad, genocidal schemes to rid the world of evil, her failure to see any evil in herself, and the name that she chose for her human alias (Dominique Destine, being French for "divine destiny") reinforce the idea that Demona is "holier than thou."
** In a demented way, Demona still follows the ideas. Castles are a -human- invention; it would make sense that she would ignore the ideas of human homes and broaden her beliefs to encompass the world as 'her' castle. Add in that she believes she really is helping gargoyle-kind out (share with everyone) and she's still pretty much the following those ideas.
** Except that she tries to kill the Manhattan Clan several times even when she still believes that they are the only gargoyles in existence, essentially pursuing the extinction of the species she claims to protect.
* HollywoodCyborg: Jackal and Hyena.
* HonorBeforeReason: In his introductory episode, Macbeth chooses to patiently for the gargoyles to wake up rather than just stealing their statues while they're asleep, despite knowing this will lead to a difficult fight. He similarly refuses to smash them in "High Noon."
** The title is even a CallBack; in his intro in "Enter Macbeth" Elisa warns of just that: "What if the next freak-job Xanatos hires comes here with a sledge-hammer at High Noon?"
* HotDad: Something Goliath and Xanatos share
* HotMom: Demona, Fox.
** There's also Macbeth's wife Gruoch.
** And Queen Titania.
*** In the comics [[spoiler: Angela]] becomes one too.
**** Not quite. The comics never showed this, though WordOfGod says it will happen. The end of the comic series did show her asking [[spoiler: Katana]] if she could hold her egg. So, Hot Aunt?
* HotWitch: The Weird Sisters [[EveryoneLovesBlondes Phoebe]], [[ShinyMidnightBlack Selene]], and [[WhiteHairedPrettyGirl Luna]] fall under this trope so very much. [[HeroesWantRedheads Demona]] also falls under this category considering her magical abilities.
** The Weird Sisters aren't such Hot Witches to Duncan and Macbeth (who see them as old hags) or to the Manhattan Clan (who see them as {{Creepy Child}}ren).
* HumansAreFlawed: This is how the show portrays the human race. Yeah, there are a lot of humans who are bastards to each other and other races, and some of them are actually prominent villains, but [[HeelFaceTurn a lot of them turn to the good side]], and there are plenty of human characters like Tom, Elisa Maza, and Jeffrey Robbins, who are heroic characters that make quick friends to the Gargoyles. Demona believes all HumansAreBastards, and she is determined to convince the Manhattan Clan to join her in her goals to wipe out the race, but the fact she's an insane megalomaniac [[spoiler:who basically started the humans versus gargoyles conflict in the first place]] only proves to once again discredit the belief that humanity is evil. To put it shortly, humans aren't inherently any better or any worse than the world's other sentient species, they're just the most common.
* TheHunter: Gillecomgain, Duncan, Canmore, and most of Duncan's and Canmore's descendants, against gargoyles (or "demons").
* IAlwaysWantedToSayThat: Xanatos. "It's alive! Aliiiive!"
* ICallHerVera: Vinnie names his bazooka "Mr. Carter" and tries to get revenge against the Gargoyles for the bad things that happened to him in his life. [[spoiler: He actually shoots a banana cream pie from Mr. Carter at Goliath's face and says they're even.]]
* IdiotBall: In a Season 2 VerySpecialEpisode, Hudson manages to track down Macbeth and the Scrolls of Merlin after Macbeth introduces himself to Hudson's blind author friend Robbins as Lennox [=MacDuff=]. This alias is uncovered when Robbins realizes that Lennox and [=MacDuff=] are two characters from the Shakespeare play "Macbeth". He then tracks down Macbeth by looking up his alias (his ''alias!!'') in the ''Phone Book.'' And ''finding it!'' Along with an ''ADDRESS!!''
** To be fair, the alias' use in other episodes seems to indicate it's Macbeth's current legal name. ...which makes giving it out even stupider. Never mind.
*** "[=MacDuff=]" is apparently a Professor well known enough to be invited to a televised debate on Gargoyles during the only canon episode of the third season.
* IfYouKillHimYouWillBeJustLikeHim: Not quite; Elisa warns Goliath that he will be just like ''Demona'' if he kills Xanatos. Which, to be fair, is not much of an aversion at all.
** Nobody said that the Canmores who tried so hard to kill Demona had become [[NotSoDifferent just like Demona herself]], but it wasn't necessary; Jon Canmore's CallBack at the end of "Hunter's Moon" made it pretty obvious. ("What have I... What have THEY done to you?" Demona first said those exact same words in "City of Stone.")
* IgnoredEpiphany: Demona lives and breathes this trope. Ignoring the truth behind all the death and destruction she has caused is probably the only way she can continue to function. Although she does it several times, the most notable is in the City of Stone arc.
-->'''Demona:''' You tricked me! You had me under a spell! None of this was my fault, it was the humans! Always the humans!\\
'''Goliath:''' [sighs] You have learned nothing.
** Unfortunately, Goliath isn't immune to this trope either. Back in "City of Stone" he tried to convince Macbeth that "Killing her won't solve anything" and "Death never does." He had forgotten that epiphany by the time of "Hunter's Moon," when he went on a RoaringRampageOfRevenge against the Canmores.
* [[IHaveNoSon I Have No Daughter]]: Said by Demona when Angela tries to explain their relationship, though in this case, it's because Demona honestly believes her and Goliath's child should be dead by now.
** Not really the case since Thailog revealed that Demona knew Angela was her daughter before staging her capture. Angela in turn pulls an inverted on Demona after realizing that she tried to manipulate her into turning on Goliath and her Clan.
* IHaveYouNowMyPretty: Sevarius acts this way towards Angela when she's his captive in "Monsters", playing with her hair when the Xanatos goons first wheel her out on a gurney, and strokes her chin right before he drags her behind his sub as bait.
* ImNotAHeroIm: ...just doing her job as a police detective, according to Elisa in "High Noon."
* ImpossibleTask: Many spells in the Grimorum Arcanorum have these as conditions. Mortal/Human magic has to be cast with a certain condition that makes it possible to nullify/reverse, so generally, most spellcasters simply create their spells under escape conditions that would generally ''seem'' to be impossible.
* IngestingKnowledge: The Archmage gains the power of the TomeOfEldritchLore, not by reading it, but by EATING it. Of course, he was absorbing its power as a magical artifact as well as knowledge of the spells it contained.
* InstantExpert: Within a surprisingly short amount of time after awakening, Lexington becomes skilled enough with computers to qualify as the show's [[HollywoodHacking Hollywood Hacker]]. Not as "instant" as most [=IE's=], but in real-life terms he's a ''very'' fast learner.
** To be fair, he's consistently shown to be exceptionally smart and intelligent. As well, he was always shown to be the most curious and fascinated by their new world so that he was motivated enough to learn such things with a passion made sense. Once you learn the basics of how to operate a computer, get on the internet and Google something, it usually steamrolls from there.
** The more dramatic version (apparently forced upon by ExecutiveMeddling motivated by merchandise) is when Lexington repaired and modified a helicopter in the first season. That's right: Only ''one'' night for repairing an almost completely wracked helicopter and even improving and "gargoyleing" its design!
** Also alluded to when Lex builds a motorcycle. Brooklyn asks him what took so long, since he rode one before, and Lexington snaps back, "You've ridden a horse before, does that mean you could build one from spare parts?"
* InterspeciesRomance: Goliath and Elisa.
** Demona's and Macbeth's relationship was also implied to contain some romantic tension, before paranoia and treachery turned them against each other. In fact, WordOfGod says that Demona is the equivalent of Lady Macbeth, [[LoveTriangle notwithstanding Macbeth's marriage to Gruoch.]]
** In the comics continuity, this seems to be implied for [[spoiler: Thailog and Shari, as a sort of EvilCounterpart couple to Goliath and Elisa.]]
** Also planned for the New Olympians spin-off. And don't forget [[HotSkittyOnWailordAction the fair folk]].
* InTheBlood: Goliath is terrified that Angela is going to turn out like her mother Demona.
* ItsALongStory: Brooklyn returning to Manhattan after his forty-year ordeal with the Phoenix Gate, now with wife Katana, son Nashville, kid-on-the-way "Egwardo," and gargoyle beast Fu-Dog. Only time will tell if ''[=TimeDancer=]'' actually becomes a successful spinoff.
* ItsAlwaysSpring: Averted. Episode "The Price" has it snow in New York, and it's not a Christmas episode. However, this is the only snow day we see in the Big Apple.
* ItsPersonal: The original Hunter's vendetta against Demona.
* ItsAllAboutMe: Xanatos and Demona have this mindset to attempt to justify their actions.
* {{Irony}}: The Captain's loyalty lay with the gargoyles in Castle Wyvern rather than with the Scots, but [[spoiler:his betrayal of the Scots led to the destruction of the gargoyle clan.]]
** Practically everything Duncan did in the backstory of "City of Stone" was an example of Situational (or Expectational) Irony. Findlaech's death was supposed to prevent Macbeth from becoming king, but instead it indirectly led to Macbeth becoming king. Gillecomgain's marriage to Gruoch was supposed to provoke Macbeth into committing treason, but instead he suffered in silence. The attack on Demona's cave was supposed to prevent Macbeth and the gargoyles from making an alliance; they wouldn't have made that alliance, if Duncan ''hadn't'' attacked that cave...
* JackassGenie: "The Mirror" has Puck subverting this trope when he deliberately misconstrues Demona's wishes, not only to screw with her, but to avoid having to kill every human in the city.
* TheJailer: One episode turns Goliath into this when he uses The Eye of Odin to become a PhysicalGod. The best way to [[LiteralGenie "protect his friends"]] is to seal them in a cave for the rest of time. Nothing can get to them there.
** Apparently Goliath either forgot about basic ecology during his perusal of Xanatos' library, or he simply just does not consider [[NightmareFuel deep dark squiggly things]] in caves as worrisome as wars that may never happen anyway (as he could have always simply prevented them in other ways...)
* JoeSentMe: The password to get through the gate to Demona's mansion is "[[TheFairFolk Oberon]] sent me."
* {{Jossed}}: Due to having so much WordOfGod around, this has happened ''many times'', on issues such as gargoyle customs and breeding habits, Elisa and Goliath's ability to reproduce, Lexington's sexuality, Katana's physical appearance, etc. Looking at older fanfics can sometimes be a very strange experience...
* KarmaHoudini: Most of the Children of Oberon (like the Weird Sisters, Raven, Anansi and Oberon) that antagonize the Manhattan Clan are never given any comeuppance. The only ones who are punished in any way are Banshee and Puck, and they're both punished for completely different reasons.
** Xanatos, arguably. Though WordOfGod is that Karma did in fact catch up to Xanatos: All that arrogance, had to receive some comeuppance. (Can anyone say [[TheFairFolk Oberon?]])
* KarmicDeath
* KarmicTransformation (Demona becoming human during the day)
* KeyUnderTheDoormat: Sort of; Matt keeps a spare key above the door-frame.
* KickTheDog: It was not enough for Oberon to go after everyone because he is a megalomaniac. No, he is going after everyone because he wants to kidnap a newborn infant. And he put all the humans in New York asleep, likely killing hundreds of innocent people.
** [[spoiler:Xanatos, in "Metamorphosis", after intentionally irreversibly changing Elisa's little brother Derek into a mutate, and cleverly framing Goliath and his clan for doing so.]] Then in "The Cage", when Derek learns the truth, Xanatos also goes the extra mile to twist that knife just a little bit harder by adding, "he's [Sevarius] the doctor. You're just the experiment."
** From Weisman's ramble on "City of Stone" there's a rather amusing side-note on the use of this trope for Gillecomgain:
--->Gruoch seems cold to her new husband Gillecomgain. We wonder if we should feel some sympathy for a man who has married a woman who loves another. We wonder if he has feelings for her as he gently takes up the rose she was sniffing. But then he crushes it underfoot, so basically we feel okay about hating him again.\\
Erin asked: "Why'd he step on it?"\\
And I didn't want to answer, because the writers are trying to manipulate you.
** In the same episode, Demona had cast a spell all over Manhattan that resulted in all humans who've heard it to turn to stone at night, which she then proceeds to shatter as many as she could with extreme prejudice. Killing people is bad enough, but killing people who couldn't even see, move, or even realize they're being killed is just crossing the line.
* KidnappedScientist: Sevarius in "The Cage". Unusual in that it's the ''good guys'' resorting to abduction and coercion. [[spoiler:Not that it works, anyway...]]
* KilledOffForReal: [[spoiler: Poor Magus.]]
* KingArthur: '''[[FantasyKitchenSink Everyone]]''' shows up in ''WesternAnimation/{{Gargoyles}}''.
** "[[LampshadeHanging Yes, well, we haven't encountered the Holy Grail... yet]]."
*** Chapter #9 of the new comic series features a brief cameo of the Holy Grail [[spoiler: saying "Hey" to the Stone of Destiny.]]
* KingInTheMountain: King Arthur, natch.
* KnightTemplar: The Hunters and Quarrymen. It's understandable if they want to kill the genocidal Demona, but they are just as hate-filled and genocidal as she is.
* KryptoniteFactor: Even the most powerful gargoyle is helpless during the day.
** Not [[spoiler: Demona]]. On the other hand, [[spoiler: she has her own Kryptonite Factor: any deadly wound inflicted on her by Macbeth... or inflicted on Macbeth by her.]]
** All of the fair folk and gods are vulnerable to (wrought?) iron.
* LadyMacbeth: Ironically, it's not the actual Lady Macbeth. It's Demona, and for Goliath not Macbeth.
* LargeHam: Sevarius, who despite being quite sane (as far as mad scientists go, which admittedly is not saying a lot) still affects the mannerisms of a cliché psychopath because he finds them so much ''fun''. (Well, he is voiced by TimCurry.) Thailog has his hammy moments, a trait straight from Sevarius.
** "[[PhysicalGod Oberon]] does not ''act''- Oberon ''HAMS''!"
** Don't forget Fang - voiced by James ''freakin''' Belushi:
--->"Take a look at me, Al. Do I look like the kinda guy who can waltz into a store and PLUNK DOWN CHANGE FOR A PACK OF BUBBLEGUM?!?! '''WELL, DO I, AL?!?!''' '''''[[ChewingTheScenery DO IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII?!?!]]'''''"
** Goliath has his moments as well:
--->"I've been denied everything... EVEN MY ''REVEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEENGE!!''"
* LeeroyJenkins: Lexington, Brooklyn, and Broadway usually lose their tempers and charge in without a plan when facing the Pack, Demona, and Tony Dracon, respectively.
* LegacyCharacter: The Hunter.
* {{Leitmotif}}: Macbeth has a distinct bagpipe theme reflecting his Scottish ancestry. Puck has one with flutes. [[spoiler: A brief scene with Puck's theme playing over Owen is the first real hint to his true identity.]]
* LicensedGame: For the SegaGenesis. It has Goliath, the Vikings, the 1000-year sleep to New York, The Steel Clan, and the Eye of Odin [[spoiler:and Demona]], but those are really the only things solidly tying it to the ''Gargoyles'' universe. The game itself was rather good, yet somewhat bland and empty.
* LimitedWardrobe
** Quite strange considering the amount of money the big antagonist players throw around...
* LiteralGenie: Puck pulls this in "The Mirror" when he feels like jerking Demona around.
* LiterallyShatteredLives: A very popular way to kill gargoyles. Demona did this to a number of humans in "City of Stone".
* LoinCloth: Typical Gargoyle wear, at least in Scotland.
* LoopholeAbuse: "Did you say, ''that'' human or that ''human''? Oh, never mind, I'll figure it out." Puck, for the ENTIRETY of his introductory episode.
* LoveDodecahedron: Goliath was initially mated to Demona. After the Massacre and the curse on Goliath, Demona left Castle Wyvern, hooked up with Macbeth and became [[{{Synchronization}} Synchronized]] with him. (Macbeth, by the way, had married his childhood sweetheart Gruoch, who was once married to Gillecomgain and may have had his baby.) Then, some 975 years later, Goliath was de-cursed and made friends with Elisa.
** [[spoiler:It gets even more complicated in the comics.]]
* LoveMakesYouDumb: Xanatos is on plan D when he tries to help Fox in "Eye of the Beholder". That normally does not happen to him. (Also note that plan D is, er, "ask my enemies nicely if they would be willing to help me out.")
** Arguably, Xanatos' Plan D wasn't entirely successful either, since Goliath initially refused his request. (So his Plan E was even more desperate than Plan D: "Plant another tracker on Goliath, stay within earshot of him, and wait for him to change his mind.")
*** Maybe not dumb, so much as, for the first time, destroying the problem and starting over was REALLY not an option.
* LoveTriangle: The Magus, Katharine, and Tom. Also a minor one between Finella, King Kenneth II, and Constantine III.
** Goliath, Demona, and Elisa, according to WordOfGod.
*** Plus Coldstone, Coldfire, and Coldsteel.
*** There was also a Love Square between Angela, Broadway, Brooklyn, and Lexington for a short period of time. [[spoiler: Broadway eventually wins in the end.]]
* LukeIAmYourFather: A rare case of this trope by WordOfGod only: Greg Weisman confirmed fan suspicions that [[spoiler:Coldstone]] is Gabriel's father and that [[spoiler:Hudson]] is Broadway's father. However, given Gargoyle society's collective parenting nature, neither would treat that revelation with much interest anyway.
** Gabriel, having been "Raised by Wolves," in this case humans, probably would, actually. After all, his rookery sister Angela was.
** Because of the Avalon Clan's human upbringing, Angela requests more parental nurture than Goliath is prepared to give.
*** It's not so much that Goliath is unwilling to be a parent, but that he's unwilling to play favorites, and afraid Angela might [[InTheBlood start taking after her mother]].
* LukeYouAreMyFather: The reveal of Angela's lineage.
** Also Fox realizing her relation to Titania.
* MagicalLand: Avalon and the New Olympian Island.
* MagicMirror: Titania's Mirror (used in "The Mirror") and its twin, Oberon's Mirror (used in "The Gathering").
* MagicPants: Gargoyle possessions held or touching the gargoyle turn to stone and back with the gargoyle. Lexington's wings would not normally allow for a loincloth and belt, but according to WordOfGod his wings are pierced.
** Any item that the gargoyle considers theirs turns to stone with them. Items they are holding but do not own remain intact (which happens occasionally and seems odd if you do not know there is a rule). The official explanation? AWizardDidIt.
*** Specifically, a wizard offended by nudity. (Same guy who made that MacGuffin.)
* MagnificentBastard: I'll give you three hints. You love him, you hate him, his last name is Xanatos.
* MamaBear: Fox in "The Gathering" and Demona in "The Reckoning".
** Not to mention Princess Katherine in later episodes.
*** Then in the comics, [[spoiler: Brooklyn's mate Katana becomes one of these.]]
* ManipulativeBastard: Xanatos and Thailog are the obvious examples. Demona has a manipulative streak as well, but tends to shoot herself in the foot (metaphorically speaking) at inconvenient moments.
** [[spoiler:Lexington]] in "Future Tense." Basically engineering the destruction of [[spoiler: nearly his entire clan and all major allies]] and enslaving New York [[spoiler: using a digital doppleganger of Xanatos]] eliminated all sympathy he'd have naturally engendered in his current state. BTW, [[spoiler: "Was it a dream or a prophecy?"]] How big a mindjob is that!?
* TheMasochismTango
* {{Masquerade}}: The Manhattan Clan manages to keep from being recognized as real for most of the series -- until it is abruptly broken in the penultimate canon episode when the Hunters expose their existence to the world. And there is no going back while the human population goes into a panic.
* MassiveMultiplayerScam
* MechaMooks: The Steel Clan and the various incarnations of the robot Coyote.
* MegaCorp: David Xanatos and Halcyon Renard both run them, which gives them access to plenty of cool technology. In keeping with the show's TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture setting, their companies wouldn't seem out of place in a WilliamGibson novel.
* MerlinAndNimue: Certain flashbacks establish the Archmage and Demona as having this relationship in the backstory.
* MetaOrigin: Most gods and figures from mythology and legends either originated or descended from Avalon.
* MightAsWellNotBeInPrisonAtAll: Xanatos for a good chunk of Season 1.
** And Tony Dracon in "Turf".
* MixAndMatchMan: Delilah. And also 'Little Anton', in a later episode. Not to mention the [[spoiler: people turned into mutates, including Elisa's brother]].
** Kiron, Ekidna and Sphinx, also.
* MobWar: The basis for the episode "Turf".
* TheMole; [[spoiler: Matt's old partner Martin Hacker]] for the Illuminati.
* MonsterModesty: The Gargoyles don't feel the need to wear much more than small strips of fabric.
* MotherNatureFatherScience: Fox's parents. Oh, boy, are they.
* MsFanservice: Many female characters, but Demona, The Weird Sisters, Hyena [[spoiler: as an android]], and [[spoiler: Angela in the comics]] are the most prominent examples.
** Let's not forget Delilah, a sexy BiologicalMashUp of Demona and Elisa that calls Thailog "Master." It's implied she was created entirely for Thailog's gratification, and [[AllMenArePerverts we all know]] what that means.
* NamesTheSame: Some viewers may snicker at the terrifying deep voiced cyborg gargoyle when they learn he shares his name with a popular ice cream franchise.
* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: David Xanatos, Demona, and especially Fox Renard.
* NeverMyFault: Demona and John Canmore may be on opposite sides, but they both have a real problem taking responsibility. Xanatos and Thailog avert this, willing to admit their mistakes in the [[CrazyPrepared unlikely]] [[XanatosGambit event]] that they actually make one.
* NeverRecycleABuilding: Averted, the 23rd Precinct is in the same building as a public library. They are apparently connected at the base of the clocktower the Gargoyles live in for most of the series.
* NeverSayDie: Averted to hell (Hey, Xanatos said it) and back. "Die," "Kill," "Murder" and all appropriate permutations are used as required, and the characters do not shy away from ''doing'' what they are talking about, either.
* NeverTheSelvesShallMeet: Averted; both Demona and the Archmage interact with their past selves with no ill effects (hell, the Archmage ''rescued'' himself from death). But then, all time travel is a StableTimeLoop in this series.
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Y'know, Jon Canmore's turn to evil ''might'' have been avoided if Goliath had kept his vengeful, murderous rage in check and not acted in a way that basically confirmed what Jon was thinking of his kind.
* NoirEpisode: "The Silver Falcon"
* NoManOfWomanBorn: The only one who can kill Macbeth permanently is Demona, a female gargoyle. Gargoyles are hatched, not born.
* NonindicativeName: The Children of Oberon aren't actually Oberon's children, they're his royal subjects and fellow species-members. Oberon just calls them that 'cause he's paternalistic.
* NonMammalMammaries: Addressed; gargoyles are an egg-laying species, but have also been specifically defined as nursing their young. ({{Word of God}} calls them "Gargates", which conceivably could be a Sub-Order or a Family of monotremes, the larger Order of egg-producing mammals.) Children of Oberon can look like whatever they want.
* NoOneCouldSurviveThat: Played straight in "The Price" when the gargoyles see Macbeth explode. Subverted in "Shadows of the Past" when the reincarnated ghosts of Hakon and the Captain are trapped in a collapsing magical structure, Elisa says "No one could survive that," and in fact, they didn't. (They became ghosts again, and the Captain "passed on.")
* NoSwastikas: Averted in "M.I.A." Swastikas can be seen on the Nazi bomber planes, however, the Iron Cross and the Skull and Crossbones are easier to spot.
* NotEvenBotheringWithTheAccent: [[EdAsner Hudson]] at least says "lass" and "laddie," but [[KeithDavid Goliath]] sounds about as Scottish as [[{{joisey}} I do]].
** Of course, Keith David has one of the sexiest voices on the planet, so [[RuleOfCool this is perfectly acceptable]].
* NothingIsTheSameAnymore: As much as "Hunter's Moon" is intended to serve as a GrandFinale if necessary, the producers were hoping the series could continue, but with the proviso that the Clan can never hide their existence in New York again.
* NotMeThisTime: David Xanatos was behind so much of the WesternAnimation/{{Gargoyles}}' troubles, that Brooklyn and especially Talon assumed he was responsible for Golath and Elisa's disappearance.
** And Elisa assumed that he was responsible for Demona's theft of DI-7 from his own warehouses in "Hunter's Moon."
** And when the Scrolls of Merlin are stolen, the Gargoyles immediately assume Xanatos was behind it, when MacBeth was really responsible.
* NotQuiteFlight: Gargoyles don't fly, they glide. Still, they do a lot of aerobic stunts that would make you think otherwise.
* NotSoDifferent: Demona and Jon [[strike:Canmore]] Castaway after the latter's FaceHeelTurn. Arguably Jason and Robyn Canmore were not so different from Demona either, until their HeelFaceTurn.
* NotSoHarmless: Xanatos' assistant Owen Burnett seems like an uptight dweeb -- but [[spoiler:he's an immortal magical creature who lives to Punk humans]]. However, he is bound by his word and must remain [[spoiler:in his present form and job]] for the duration. Eventually he becomes ''nearly'' as harmless as he appears due to [[spoiler:Oberon's decree, which prevents him from using his magic offensively]]. It's also shown that he's a master martial artist in his own right, quite capable of asskicking and even holding his own against gargoyles on occasion.
* OfficialCouple: [[spoiler: Elisa and Goliath]], [[spoiler: Broadway and Angela]] and, [[spoiler: if you follow the comics, Katana and Brooklyn]].
* OffModel: Several episodes, with "Enter Macbeth" being by far the worst offender.
** The non-canonical episode "Seeing Isn't Believing" from the Goliath Chronicles was pretty bad about this also.
** "Monsters" was probably much worse in terms of graphics. For one, it had Angela awaken, but instead of the stone breaking off her, it simply fades, with stone shards appearing around her out of nowhere.
** This is in play largely because of outsourcing to various animation houses (like with fellow Disney shows DarkwingDuck and PhineasAndFerb), including some they hadn't worked with before (HongYing) and some they haven't worked with since ({{AKOM}}).
* OlderHeroVsYoungerVillain: Hudson vs David. And, if you want to get technical, all the gargoyles are over 1000 years old, while Xanatos is in his late 30s-early 40s.
* OlderThanTheyLook: All gargoyles age half as quickly as humans, by virtue of the fact that they do not age when they are in stone sleep, and that is 12 hours a day on average. The Manhattan Clan and Demona are [[ReallySevenHundredYearsOld much, much Older Than They Look]], the former because they were cursed to sleep for a thousand years, the latter because of {{Synchronization}} with Macbeth. Oh, and Macbeth is also older than he looks.
** Their slower aging also has less of an effect on their physiology compared to humans. In one episode, both Angela and Goliath are magically aged extremely rapidly but surprise the episode's bad guys by demonstrating that even decrepit Gargoyles are capable of impressive physical feats relative to what a human in the same condition would be capable of (a Gargoyle seems to FEEL maybe half their already slowed age, so it's almost like 1/4 aging really).
* OneSteveLimit: Duncan's son, first introduced in "City of Stone," was supposed to be called Malcolm (just like in the play by {{Shakespeare}}), but because there was a different Prince Malcolm in the previous episode ("Vows"), they instead used his nickname, Canmore, to avoid confusion.
** And again, with Maol Chalvim. There's a lot of Malcolms in the Scottish royal family.
* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: The Pack, although some of their real names have been revealed. Fox's real name is [[spoiler: Janine Reynard]] and Dingo's real name is [[spoiler: Harry Monmouth.]]
** Fang's real name is also revealed, that being [[spoiler: Fred Sykes]]. Claw's real name, though, continues to remain a mystery.
** Canmore, largely because of the [[OneSteveLimit One Malcolm Limit]].
* OpeningNarration: In season 2.
* OppositesAttractRevenge: Demona's fling with Thailog is one of these.
* OrIsADream: "Future Tense." "Was it a dream? Or a prophecy?"
* OurGargoylesRock
* OutGambitted: Ironically applied to David Xanatos with Thailog's betrayal in his first appearance.
* OutOfCharacterMoment: Macbeth's first introduction and his origin story make his goals clear: He seeks Demona's death, both for vengeance and also to give himself peace after [[WhoWantsToLiveForever millennia of wandering the Earth]]. However, in two episodes, for no given reason, he is instead seeking ultimate power through connections to [[KingArthur Arthurian legend]]. First he tries to steal scrolls rumored to contained Merlin's spells, which instead contain Merlin's personal diary ([[AnAesop Whose story have a magic all their own...]]), and then he tries to steal Excalibur itself from an awakened Arthur. In both episodes he has two [[{{Mooks}} henchmen]] who are not seen in any other episodes, and in no other episodes does he make reference to questing for ultimate power, nor in these episodes does he make any reference to his vendetta against Demona. No explanation is ever given.
** WordOfGod says that Macbeth wanted to use Merlin's spells against Demona (which also explains why he wanted to test them against another gargoyle). Given that Demona had magic of her own, this is understandable. It doesn't explain his desire to claim Excalibur, though; Macbeth had given up his vendetta against Demona by then.
*** Becoming the new "One True King" could have given his life, and immortality, some meaning again.
** Demona has a few Out of Character Moments in the backstory of "City of Stone," such as when she chose to save Macbeth and Gruoch rather than pursue vengeance against Gillecomgain in 1020, and when she honored Macbeth's wish to spare Canmore's life in 1040. On the other hand, this is only out of character for after she crossed the MoralEventHorizon, which she may not have done until 1057.
* OutOfGenreExperience: "Sentry". Though the show does have [[TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture sci-fi elements]], this episode crossed into full-on SpaceOpera territory, complete with alien warriors and references to a massive intergalactic war...which was never mentioned again.
* PapaWolf: Goliath, plain and simple. In the episode "Hunter's Moon" [[spoiler: Angela is nearly killed by the hunters who confuse her for Demona, and Goliath says that he vows to find and KILL the ones who hurt her.]]
** David Xanatos deserves mention also. He's willing to fight Oberon himself just to keep Oberon from taking his kid. That feat alone even caused Goliath to respect him.
* PaperThinDisguise: Gillecomgain's mask was arguably a case of this, according to the DVD commentary: The red stripes on the mask perfectly matched the scars on Gillecomgain's face. On the other hand, Constantine had already worn the Hunter's [[strike: Mask]] Facepaint by that point. Macbeth's mask inverted the trope: Demona recognized him as soon as the first shot was fired, though the audience might not have known enough about Macbeth and Demona to make the connection as quickly as Demona did.
** The shadowy gargoyle with glowing red eyes in "Temptation." Is there anyone who didn't immediately realize that it was [[spoiler: Demona]]?
* ParentalBonus: There are a few jokes that most kids wouldn't get. For instance, in the opening to "Leader of the Pack", Fox and Hyena are sitting in a prison cell, with Hyena flicking rubber bands at cockroaches and Fox reading a book by Sartre. Hyena asks her why she bothers with that, and Fox says, "Because Nietzsche's too butch, and Kafka reminds me of your little friends over there." Kafka's best-known work, of course, involves a man who one day [[TheMetamorphosis wakes up as a giant cockroach.]]
* PetTheDog: Xanatos pets entire kennels in the last half of Season 2.
* PhotoOpWithTheDog
* ThePlague: Demona creates one using a combination of Science and Sorcery during the Hunter's Moon arc
* PlayingWithFire: Helios.
* PocketProtector: Elisa's badge in "Long Way to Morning," and it actually makes sense. A badge can in no way stop a modern bullet, but since this was actually a poison dart, ''not'' a lethal projectile, it might have even been stopped by just her thick leather jacket.
* PoorCommunicationKills: The main reason for the Wyvern Massacre, Macbeth's falling out with Demona, and the "City of Stone" debacle.
* PoorlyDisguisedPilot: [[WordOfGod according to series co-creator Greg Weisman]], King Arthur, the New Olympians, and several other characters introduced in the "World Tour" arc were meant to be used in spinoff series.
* PoweredArmour: Various kinds worn by Xanatos, Dingo, and the modern Hunters.
* PrecisionFStrike: Xanatos' infamous "Pay a man enough, and he'll walk barefoot into Hell."
* PreviouslyOn: Every season 2 episode has one of these.
* TheProblemWithFightingDeath: Discussed in "Grief."
* PromotionToParent: The Magus, Katharine, and Tom get this, when they agree to take care of the eggs in Castle Wyvern's rookery as if they were their own children.
* PsychoElectricEel: Sevarius uses these to augment his mutates' energy regenerating properties as well as afford them electrical attacks... or so he claimed in front of Derek Maza. Given that he faked his own death with them and Xanatos was in on the whole operation, he had to be at least GenreSavvy enough to know that their actual electrical output is fairly minimal and was just counting on Derek and Goliath to be holding the IdiotBall at the time.
* PsychoForHire: Hyena is a good fit for the female version, especially given her FemmeFatalons, and her brother Jackal and teammate Wolf are not exactly sane either.
* ThePsychoRangers: Even thought they are more misguided than evil, the gargoyle clones tend to fill this trope during their appearances.
* PureMagicBeing: TheFairFolk.
* PutOnABus: Vinnie. (Although he does briefly appear later in the comics, suggesting that he could be seen again if they continue.)
* RagtagBunchOfMisfits: Brooklyn, Broadway, Lexington and Bronx survived the genocide of their clan because they were sent to their rooms for misbehaving.
* RainOfArrows: In Brooklyn's time travel arc, in the comics.
* TheRealRemingtonSteele: The identity of the Hunter, which is taken by Macbeth before we find out that the Canmores--who had borne the identity for almost a millennium--still existed.
* RecklessGunUsage: Elisa is at one point seriously injured when Broadway accidentally shoots her while playing with her gun. To be fair, Broadway is a 1,000-year-old gargoyle who had never handled a gun before... but Elisa, a New York police detective, had left her sidearm, holster ''and'' gun belt unattended ''in another room'' from where she was (she admits later that [[YouFailGunSafetyForever she should have known better]]). Notably, she's much more careful for the rest of the series.
* RecurringCharacter: Pretty much all of them; if somebody has a speaking part, you can bet they will appear someplace else down the line.
** Vinnie is this trope personified. If anyone remembers him.
* RedEyesTakeWarning: Originally played straight with Demona and Thailog, then the crew realized what they were doing and gave them to Angela as well to make it merely a feminine (and cloned male) trait.
* RememberTheNewGuy: The show (and comics) have plenty of long-running and well thought-out plots, but at times they introduce new plotlines with the explanation that they have been there all along. When [[TheRealRemingtonSteele the Hunters reappear]] in "Hunter's Moon" they explain that they are part of a continuous line of Hunters stretching back for a millennium, and they have been hunting Demona all this time (Complete with {{flashback}}s showing their various attempts), but this supposedly ancient line has never been seen (or even referenced) until this episode.
** Demona makes a vague reference to "The Hunter" in "City of Stone" when she fights the disguised Macbeth, and her remark ("How many times do I have to destroy you?") implies that she has faced far more Hunters than just Gillecomgain, Duncan, and Canmore (the three Hunters we saw her confront in the flashbacks of "City of Stone"). On the other hand, this is the only hint to that effect until "Hunter's Moon."
* RepetitiveName: Police officer Morgan Morgan.
* TheResolutionWillNotBeTelevised
* RestoredMyFaithInHumanity: Elisa for Goliath.
* ReTool: ''The Goliath Chronicles''.
* Revenge: Notably averted. Those who wronged the Gargoyles die a KarmicDeath before Goliath gets a shot at them.
* RewardedAsATraitorDeserves: "She betrayed Macbeth; it was only a matter of time before she would have betrayed us. Good thing we had the rest of her clan destroyed. Her kind was an abomination!"
* RippedFromTheHeadlines: The comic's Stone of Destiny arc is based on the real-life Stone's return to Scotland.
* RightHandHottie: Owen, right hand of David Xanatos.
** Notable that Owen actually sacrificed his hand for Xanatos to test a spell/magic-potion that might have granted immortality. The exact wording of the spell had something to due with the "live as long as the mountain stone" and actually just turned flesh stone (and it was his right hand [from our perspective when he is facing us.])
** Lady Titania to Oberon also counts, [[spoiler: until she remarries him, and they become equals.]]
* {{Robosexual}}: Hyena is completely attracted to Coyote, even though she knows he's a robot.
** ''Especially'' after she finds out he's a robot. "A robot, eh? [[GettingCrapPastTheRadar Even better...]]"
* RobotBuddy: Talos and Matrix.
* RoguesGallery
* ScaledUp: The Cromm-Cruach, the Banshee's OneWingedAngel form when fighting Cu Chullain. She also uses it later on Odin.
* ScaryBlackMan: Arguably Thailog.
** Tony Dracon's right hand man Glasses also fits this trope.
* ScheduleSlip: The comic books. It's almost - ''almost'' - enough to make you ''glad'' SLG had to drop the series; it deserves better.
* [[ScrewedByTheNetwork Screwed By The Mouse]]: Apparently Disney's release date for the second half of Season 2 on DVD has been pushed back to "when Hell freezes over". And there's the ExecutiveMeddling that affected season 3 and the comic book...
** Hell, Disney never had any idea what to do with this series. They scheduled it ''once a week'' ([[FridayNightDeathSlot on Fridays]]) as opposed to every day like the other programs on the Disney Afternoon block. They came up with [[MisaimedMarketing downright surreal ideas for the toy line]]; there's no Pack action figures, but you can have Bronx dressed like a winged metal lion for some reason. And they released the multi-part premier episode packaged with a ''board game'' for some reason -- with [[http://www.imdb.com/media/rm1217303808/tt0109871 this]] for [[ContemptibleCover the cover art]].
*** Would you like to actually see the rest of Season Two? Too bad. It was last seen at 4:30 in the morning on Toon Disney.
*** The reason why the series was scheduled once a week in Season 1 was because there were only ''thirteen episodes''. They would've burned through the whole season in two-and-a-half weeks (assuming every episode was ready to air before the premiere, which they weren't). However, production was jerked around for Season 2 episodes - with the order for 52 not being firmly settled until some weeks into starting, hamstringing them a bit. This is why there are so many gaps in premiere airdates. (There would've been gaps anyway due to the volume of work, but Weisman has noted they lost extra time they could've used regardless.)
* ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney: Xanatos is so rich, [[PrecisionFStrike he can say "hell" on a Disney kids' show and get away with it]].
** But he still goes to jail for receiving stolen property...
*** [[XanatosGambit Just as planned...]]
* SealedWithAKiss: Elisa finally worked up the nerve to kiss Goliath at the conclusion of the original show's run; it left him with a smile on his face in his stone sleep.
* SecretIdentity: Several characters.
* SecretKeeper: Elisa, her brother, her parents (and siblings. And the mutates), then Matt Bluestone. This was all before [[TheUnmasquedWorld the public learned of the existence of gargoyles]].
** Despite his desire to bust the Illuminati's organization wide open, Matt Bluestone ends up becoming a Secret Keeper for the Illuminati as well.
* SecretTestOfCharacter: In "Revelations," the Illuminati administer a "loyalty test" on Matt Bluestone: an assignment to bring a gargoyle to the [[HellHotel Hotel Cabal]]. Matt brought a gargoyle there and subsequently helped him escape, condemning a senior Illuminatus to a FateWorseThanDeath in the process. Needless to say, Matt demonstrated that he was not loyal to the Illuminati. [[spoiler: In fact, the Illuminati weren't testing Matt's loyalty at all; they were testing his cunning and treachery. Needless to say, Matt passed the test and was inducted into the Illuminati.]]
* SelfFulfillingProphecy: Macbeth might never have achieved his destiny of becoming "King of Scotland and father of the king hereafter" if Duncan hadn't done everything he could to prevent Macbeth from becoming king.
** In 975, Demona had an encounter with her future self, who told her about the Wyvern Massacre and the sleeping spell on Goliath, and also told her "I am what you will become!" Past Demona did everything she could to prevent the Wyvern Massacre and the sleeping spell, and to avoid becoming a bitter, vengeful terrorist, with [[StableTimeLoop predictable results.]]
* SendInTheClones: Thailog, and the Manhattan Clan clones.
* SenselessSacrifice: After Macbeth was "mortally" wounded by Malcolm Canmore in 1057, Macbeth and Gruoch decided that since he was officially dead and his son Luach wore his crown, the only hope for Luach to defeat Canmore was for Macbeth to remain dead or to disappear. [[spoiler: [[DoomedByCanon Canmore defeated Luach in 1058.]]]]
* ShinyMidnightBlack: Angela and Selene's hair colors match this description.
* ShootTheRope: In "The Price", Broadway turns to stone in mid-glide, and Elisa has to break a crate full of carpets to cushion his fall. She does so by using her gun to shoot the cable from which the crate is hanging.
* ShoutOut: During the Halloween episode, Elisa dressed up as [[Film/BeautyAndTheBeast Belle]]. And when the holiday came around again in the comics, she went as [[{{Disney/Aladdin}} Jasmine]].
** And she and Goliath start ''dancing!'' The eact same waltz in BeautyAndTheBeast
** In "Awakening" during one scene where Hudson is watching TV, a scene from ''QuackPack'' appears on screen for a second.
*** Which is interesting considering the fact that Quack Pack came out ''after'' Gargoyles did.
** And another scene from ''TheLionKing.''
** Brooklyn, Broadway and Lexington go to the movies and watch ''{{Bambi}}''.
** One of the workers in the second episode is seen using a [[{{Alien}} power loader]].
** On one episode, Dingo mentions (sarcastically?) that he always wanted to go to Disneyland.
*** Elisa in "Shadows of the Past": "Now ''that'' was an E-ticket ride."
** This one's absolutely obscure: In "The Hound of Ulster", one of the few episodes where Bronx gets the limelight, he is joined by a young Irishmen, who turns out to be the reincarnation of an ancient hero. At one point, the young man says to Bronx that [[{{Transformers}} there's more than meets the eye]] to him. Bronx is voiced by FrankWelker, aka G1 Megatron. The reincarnated hero is cause for a moment of [[AndTheFandomRejoiced Fandom Rejoicing.]]
** The comic gives a short nod to ''StarTrek'', probably as a thanks for the voice actor thing, when Brooklyn tries to describe his time-travelling dilemma to the medieval Scots.
** ''WesternAnimation/Gargoyles'' actually got a ShoutOut in one of the StarWarsExpandedUniverse ''JediApprentice'' books. In one book, we're introduced to Qui-Gon's psychotic former apprentice-turned Sith...named "Darth Xanatos".
* ShoutOutToShakespeare: More than just a ShoutOut. The cast sheet alone includes Macbeth, Puck, Oberon, Titania, and the Weird Sisters; and the Coldtrio is known unofficially, off-screen as Othello, Iago, and Desdemona. The ''Bad Guys'' comic adds another when a guy named John Oldcastle adopts the name Falstaff, and hooks up with a gang of people named after Falstaff's gang.
** There's also [[spoiler: Gruoch's suicide after losing the one she loves most.]] This is very reminiscent of another [[RomeoAndJuliet famous story.]]
* ShownTheirWork: Some of their myths are [[DidNotDoTheResearch somewhat inaccurate]], and others [[ArtisticLicense were altered for the sake of the story]], but every episode featuring an actual mythology showed that the writers knew ''something''. The episode "{{Golem}}" features an accurate retelling of the story of the Golem of Prague, complete with correct written and spoken Hebrew; [[TheFairFolk Fairies]] are shown to have an explicit [[KryptoniteFactor weakness to iron]], which is in an integral pat of many European folk-tales; and the story of {{Macbeth}} is actually much closer to the real-life history of King Macbeth of Scotland than to the play written by Shakespeare.
* SignedUpForTheDental: Mace Malone.
* SingleTear
* SixtyFiveEpisodeCartoon: arguably, as the third season is not considered as a "real" season by most fans.
* SlapSlapKiss: Hunter and Dingo have this going on big time in ''Bad Guys''.
* SlashFic: Oh Lordy, this existed even BEFORE the [[WordOfGay announcement that Lexington might be gay]].
* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism: Count the number of {{Heel Face Turn}}s and take a guess.
* SmartPeoplePlayChess: Xanatos and Fox certainly do.
* SniffSniffNom: Broadway does this to a piece of slime in the rookery in the pilot episode.
* SoYouWantToLiveForever: Xanatos plans to become immortal, though he is not feeling particularly urgent about it yet.
* SomethingOnlyTheyWouldSay: How Elisa figures out who Talon is.
* TheSpeechless: Claw of the Mutates.
* SpellBook: The Grimorum Arcanorum.
** Subverted with the Scrolls of Merlin. Macbeth believes them to be Merlin's personal scrolls of magic, but they turn out to be [[spoiler: his diaries.]]
* SpellMyNameWithAnS: A lot of fan fiction writers write Elisa's name as "Eliza".
** Even turns up on this very wiki. Even on this very page.
* {{Spinoff}}: A number were set up in the World Tour, and at least elements of them are being incorporated into new material if/when it gets made:
** ''Bad Guys'': A group of ex-villain [[TheAtoner Atoners]] (and one unrepentant JerkAss) are recruited into a BoxedCrook team. This one got its own miniseries while the comic was still running.
** ''Pendragon'': KingArthur [[WalkingTheEarth Walks The Earth]], searching first for Merlin and then the Holy Grail, and fighting the forces of the Illuminati along the way. The Stone of Destiny arc in the comic was essentially one of these.
** ''[=TimeDancer=]'': Brooklyn gets UnstuckInTime for forty years, picking up a NuclearFamily before returning moments after he left. The first part of his adventures, as well as his return, just barely made its way into the last of the comic material.
** ''The New Olympians'': The titular group decides to break their {{Masquerade}} before they're discovered accidentally, though the decision is hardly unanimous (some want nothing to do with the humans, some want peace, and some want to ''rule'' the humans). In addition to the political drama, a human and an Olympian become StarCrossedLovers.
** ''Dark Ages'': Basically SpinoffBabies, set at Castle Wyvern in Scotland. Features Hudson in his prime and teen Goliath and Demona.
** ''Gargoyles 2198'': ''Gargoyles'' [[RecycledINSPACE IN SPACE]]! Has descendants of the original series cast (as well as some of the immortals) defending Earth from an alien invasion. Would also have an extended crossover with ''[=TimeDancer=]'' where Brooklyn joins for a time.
* SquishyWizard: Played straight with the Magus and the Archmage. Averted ''hard'' with Demona and Macbeth.
** And the Archmage wasn't so squishy when he had the Eye of Odin, either. [[PowerIncontinence (Once Goliath seized it from him, though...)]]
* StableTimeLoop: The explanation for Xanatos' fortune.
** Everything regarding the Phoenix Gate implies a stable time loop, as Goliath learns if someone time travels it is the natural way history was supposed to unfold. He even says several times YouCantFightFate. WordOfGod has it that all time-travel works this way.
* StoryArc
* StraightGay: Lexington
* {{Stripperific}}: Demona's outfit falls under this. Angela in the comics also.
* StrongFamilyResemblance: Elisa lampshades it when she first sees Angela: "I couldn't help noticing that Angela looks a lot like Demona, except her coloring is different (read: exactly the same as Goliath's). Whose daughter is she, anyway?"
** It becomes a serious issue when the Canmore siblings mistake her for Demona and almost fatally wound her in "Hunter's Moon."
* SunglassesAtNight: Brooklyn.
* {{Superdickery}}: In ''Revalations'', Matt Bluestone apparently betrays Goliath to Mace Malone. [[spoiler: However, it turns out to be a plot to expose the Illuminati]]
* SuperHero
* SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute: In the episode "Bushido," Goliath meets a clan of gargoyles living in Japan. They're led by a tall, deep-voiced gargoyle named Kai, and as it turns out later, they're actually being manipulated by a shifty Japanese businessman named Taro who's set himself up as the Gargoyles' benefactor. Sounds familiar...
** Hell, Taro even turns out to have a kick-ass robot suit just like Xanatos, though his is built to look like samurai armor.
* TalkingToHimself: Goliath and Thailog; the Archmage and his future self, as well as several minor characters voiced by the main cast.
* TakeAThirdOption: In the SLG comic, the clone Delilah opts [[spoiler: to return to the Labyrinth with her fellow clones rather than side with Goliath or Thailog.]]
* TakeCareOfTheKids: Right before allowing the Magus to put him under the same indefinite sleep spell as the rest of his clan, Goliath asks the Magus and the Princess to protect his clan's eggs. [[MamaBear They]] [[PapaWolf do]].
* [[TalkingToHimself TalkingToThemselves]]: Considering that Jeff Bennett and Kath Soucie did 100+ character voices each, this is pretty much a given. A quick example would be that Jeff Bennett was Brooklyn and most of the thugs he fought, and Kath Soucie was Princess Katharine and Ophelia.
* TaughtByExperience / PowersViaPossession: Puck's prime method of training young Alexander Xanatos in the use of magic. Only it's ''he and Alex'' that do the possessing.
* TearsFromAStone: Happens twice in one of Demona's flashbacks, and again with Goliath when Elisa is thought to be dead in "Hunter's Moon".
** In "City of Stone" when Demona reveals the password [[spoiler: ... Alone.]]
* TechnologyMarchesOn: Most notably those enormous 90s cell phones.
* TheRenaissanceAgeOfAnimation
* ThemeNaming: Some of the gargoyle clans employ it: the Manhattan Clan uses local place names, several Avalon Clan names have to do with angels, the four pendant wearers of the Guatemalan Clan the stones of their pendants, and [[spoiler:Brooklyn's wife and daughter will both be named after Japanese swords]].
** Demona [[LampshadeHanging hung a lampshade]] on the theme by having a [[CloningBlues set of clones]] based on the Manhattan Clan and naming them after place names in Los Angeles.
*** Also, Goliath's main rival is named ''David''.
*** Evil '''Demon'''a's daughter is the much kinder '''Angel'''a. Purely a coincidence in-story, as (a) Macbeth named Demona for her fighting prowess, not because she was evil, and (b) the Magus, Katharine, and Tom (who named the gargoyles of the Avalon Clan) didn't know anything about Macbeth and Demona, nor vice versa.
*** And Shari, who tells stories to Thailog, sounds pretty similar to Scheherazade. According to the Gargoyles Wiki, she is also of Arab descent.
*** Elisa's alias of "Salli" in the episode "Turf" is named for her voice actress Salli Richardson.
** The Pack, a group of AmericanGladiators knockoffs who moonlight as bounty hunters, are all named after wild dogs. Wolf, Hyena, Fox, Dingo, Jackal and Coyote. [[DidNotDoTheResearch Except that Hyenas are not actually dogs, they're closer related to weasels.]]
* ThemeTuneCameo: The unfortunate [[TheGump Gump]] Vinnie who trails Goliath and Hudson throughout the "Vendettas" episode wanders off afterwards, humming the ''Gargoyles'' theme.
* TheScream: Goliath at the end of the first episode, finding his people mutilated.
* TheyHaveTheScent: Bronx is frequently required to sniff out the bad guys. Boudicca does the same for Oberon in "The Gathering."
* ThisIsSparta: "Let. Me. Drive."
* ThoseWackyNazis: In "M.I.A.," the main antagonists are the Nazi bomber planes who attack London during WorldWarII. The pilots even grin evilly!
* TimeForPlanB
* TimmStyle: An early example.
* TheThreeFacesOfEve: Angela is the child, a WideEyedIdealist. Elisa is the Mother, as per her TeamMom role. Demona is the Seductress... in a way. She has given over to passion...ate [[FantasticRacism hatred of humans]].
* TranquillizerDart: When Brooklyn is hit with one, he goes down almost instantly, but is still blinking groggily when he's dragged away -- so it may not have put him out completely at all.
* TrueCompanions: All of the gargoyle clans, to the extent that most gargoyles from different countries and sometimes even different times instantly treat each other as such.
* TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture: It's primarily UrbanFantasy, but it uses this to add some sci-fi elements to the plot. Though the world mostly resembles America in the late 1990s, there are a few {{William Gibson}}-esque {{MegaCorp}}s with everything from PoweredArmor to {{Cool Airship}}s to nanobots at their disposal.
* TwoFaced: Coyote the robot after Bronx bites off half his face
* TVNeverLies
* UniverseBible: [[http://www.angelfire.com/rings/katsaris/garbible.htm Season 1 here]].
* UnholyMatrimony: Xanatos and Fox.
* UnknownRival: Gillcomgain, Vinnie.
* TheUnmasquedWorld: Occurs after the existence of gargoyles is revealed to the world at large in season 2's finale.
* UntrustingCommunity: New Olympus, and humans towards Gargoyles. Probably Oberon and his court to humans, although they get on with Katherine and the rest fairly well/neutrally.
* UnusualEuphemism: The gargoyles and Elisa tend to use "jalapeña" as a general euphemism for more modern curse words and exclamations.
* UnwittingPawn: While Goliath [[spoiler:and Derek]] are the most obvious examples, and Mr. Renard [[LampshadeHanging lampshades a few more]] in "Outfoxed," Xanatos himself gets special mention for making a clone of Goliath, teaching that clone his trademark trickery, and then getting duped by that same clone in "Double Jeopardy."
--> '''Owen:''' You mean that creature is [[StayingAlive still out there]], it has the money, it's as powerful as Goliath, and it's [[OutGambitted smarter than you?]]\\
'''Xanatos:''' Owen, I think [[GoneHorriblyRight I created a monster]].
* UrbanFantasy
* TheVamp: Demona, Hyena, the Weird Sisters, and Queen Titania.
* VariableTerminalVelocity: Twice in "Awakening," Elisa fell off of the Eyrie Building, and Goliath dove down and caught her. Possibly justified in that the Eyrie Building was a skyscraper (which reaches above the clouds, which is what, a mile?), so Goliath may have had enough time to dive down and catch her. Not to mention that skyscrapers can have powerful updrafts, which may have slowed Elisa's fall but not reached high enough to slow Goliath, maybe, perhaps, I guess.
* TheVerse: Weisman originally intended (and still hopes) to include a number of distinct storylines in the same setting, including:
** ''Dark Ages'': a prequel about the Wyvern Clan in Scotland, with teenage Goliath and Demona as main characters.
** ''Timedancer'': A Brooklyn-centric spinoff, sending him [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin on adventures through time]]. Touched on in the comics.
** ''Pendragon'': Focusing on the revived Arthur in the present day.
** ''Bad Guys'': A spinoff regarding a team of minor villains, lead by the Robyn Canmore incarnation of [[LegacyCharacter the Hunter]], working to redeem themselves while squaring off against the Illuminati. The only one to really get off the ground, as a short-lived comic series.
** ''New Olympians'': Focusing on the New Olympians revealing their existence to the world, and involving a romance between a human named Terry Chung and a New Olympian named Sphinx. Originally intended as a sperate property, apparently- Weisman came up with it independently, then tied the series together with the "New Olympians" episode of ''Gargoyles''.
** ''Gargoyles 2199'': A SequelSeries starring descendents of the main cast fighting off an AlienInvasion.
** Unfortunately, as of right now, none of these look likely to be made in any form (though GregWeisman would still like to do them someday).
* VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory: The flashback sequences are based on RealLife history (mostly Scottish), and [[ShownTheirWork they get the years and the gist of the events right]], especially in "City of Stone." The "loosely", of course, comes in along with the gargoyles and the magic. ArtisticLicense trumps historical fact.
* VerySpecialEpisode: "Deadly Force", a gun safety episode in which Broadway accidentally shoots Elisa while playing with her gun, and then has to deal with the consequences.
** Also "A Lighthouse In The Sea Of Time", which teaches the importance of reading and literacy, and "The Green", which teaches the importance of the rainforest and the limited resources that are on the planet.
* ViewersAreGeniuses: Not in the sense that you have to be one to appreciate the plots, but that the plots tend to attract the smarter crowd.
* VillainBall: Played with in different ways with different villains. Xanatos averts it completely -- one gets the sense that he goes over his plans with a fine-toothed comb to make certain he does not fall into it, and then has Owen double-check just to be sure. Demona has several moments where she shoots herself in the foot (metaphorically speaking), but this is somewhat implied to be unconscious self-sabotage on her part. The Archmage plays this completely straight, but it is justified because his massive ego and need to make his enemies squirm before killing them are pretty much his only weaknesses (especially after getting his hands on the Eye of Odin).
* VoluntaryShapeshifting: Oberon, Titania, most if not all of their subjects, and Proteus.
* WalkingShirtlessScene: All of the male gargoyles except Hudson. YourMileageMayVary [[FanDisservice about]] Broadway.
** [[MsFanservice Demona]] is a close to a female counterpart to this as you could get in a kids' show.
* WalkingTheEarth: Goliath, Elisa, Angela and Bronx during the Avalon world tour.
* WatchingTheSunset: To know that they are about to wake up.
* WeaksauceWeakness: No matter how powerful Oberon and his children are, they are all completely vulnerable to iron.
* WeaponOfMassDestruction: Demona gets her hands on one more than once, albeit sorcery-based ones.
** However, these magical [=WMD=]s are often combined with science.
* WeirdMoon: The Moon is rarely anything other than full.
** And really really huge.
* WellDoneSonGuy: Xanatos's relationship with his father Petros seems to be like this.
* WellIntentionedExtremist: Some of the Quarrymen's rank and file.
** Also the Captain, whose loyalty lay with the gargoyles in Castle Wyvern rather than with the Scots, but [[spoiler:his betrayal of the Scots led to the destruction of the gargoyle clan,]] changing him from this into TheAtoner [[spoiler: as a ghost]]
** Demona started out this way, before descending to KnightTemplar and finally to [[WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds revenge-obsessed whacko]] who only thinks she is in the right because it is what she has been telling herself every night for the last millennium.
** Yama, in the episode "Bushido."
* WhatDoYouMeanItsForKids: An all-adult cast, serious explorations on issues like prejudice and genocide from the first episode, a VerySpecialEpisode about the consequences of gun usage, ''loads'' of Shakespeare references, and to top it off a villain who will [[WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds have you divided on whether you should hate her or not]]. Not something you'd really see in Disney animation, much less Disney television.
* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotSymbolic: Two enemies named ''David'' and ''Goliath''?
* [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone What Have I Done]]: Oddly Xanatos has one after his first failure that ''wasn't'' a XanatosGambit or even a XanatosRoulette in Thailog:
-->'''Xanatos:''' Owen I think I created a ''monster''.
* WhatMeasureIsANonCute: Pretty much underlined in red crayon right from the start.
* WhatMeasureIsANonHuman: The whole idea behind the fear of Gargoyles by humans.
* WhiteHairedPrettyBoy: The Magus and Puck. There is also Staghart, a white furred stag-shaped gargoyle. Thailog also gets the white hair treatment, but he pretty obviously falls into the villain role.
** Brooklyn could qualify from a gargoyle perspective. Also as a human in "The Mirror".
* WhiteHairedPrettyGirl: Delilah, Luna, and the Lady of the Lake.
* WhoWantsToLiveForever: Done straight for Macbeth; but immortal villains, including the one [[{{Synchronization}} synchronized]] with Macbeth, have no problem with it. Also [[DiscussedTrope discussed]] by Hudson and Xanatos when the latter is attempting to create an immortality elixir.
* WigDressAccent: Elisa's alias in "Turf".
* WingedHumanoid: Obviously, though some gargoyles have wings attached to their arms instead of the usual on-the-back variety.
* WordOfGod: Creator GregWeisman, who contributes to a fairly elaborate [[http://www.s8.org/gargoyles/askgreg/ lexicon website]] outlining 1000 years worth of history for the series, including ones not yet produced. And with answers to questions ranging from politics to gargoyle sex to in-jokes.
* WordOfGay: According to many posts at the website above, Lexington was this, but it was never implied or explicitly stated in the show. This was mentioned before the comic came out.
* WronskiFeint: Used many many many times throughout the course of the series.
-->'''Brooklyn''': ''(immediately after he and Angela cause two pursuing Steel Clan to crash into each other)'' "You'd be surprised just how often that works."
* XanatosGambit: [[TropeNamer Obviously]].
** Note that Xanatos Gambits are not exclusive to Xanatos; the Weird Sisters, for example, pull one off in "High Noon."
*** Fang, of all people, manages to pull off a rather light but no less ingenius one in the final chapter of the Bad Guys comic, with how he discovers Falstaff's group is not to be trusted and how he lets his teammates know without arousing any suspicion.
** Xanatos' tendency to use these backfires on him at one point. Thailog tricks Dr. Sevarius (one of Xanatos' accomplices) to kidnap him from Castle Wyvern. Sevarius doesn't question it for a second, even when Xanatos (thinking he's been betrayed) confronts him, because he "assumed it was another one of [his] Machiavellian schemes against one of [his] enemies."
* XanatosRoulette: Occasionally and unfortunately. Again, TropeNamer.
* XanatosSpeedChess: Most obvious in "Eye of the Beholder." Yet again, TropeNamer.
* YearOutsideHourInside: In "Future Tense", and in the case of Avalon in general, where time runs slower inside of it, at a rate of one Avalon Hour = one Real World Day. 1,000 years in the real world equal just over 41 years in Avalon, which is [[ShownTheirWork accurately reflected]] by how old the humans were portrayed to be.
** Additionally, it is stated in another episode that Gargoyles age at half the rate of humans; every single gargoyle on Avalon appears to be in their late teens or early twenties. Well played, writers!
* YouAlreadyChangedThePast: The Phoenix Gate lets you go back in time, but every use turns out to be part of a StableTimeLoop - it is utterly impossible to actually ''change'' anything. It sends you back in time to do things you were meant to do all along, and since it has already happened, you are not changing anything.
* YouAreNumberSix: Illuminati must identify themselves to each other by rank, which each tier having an amount of members of the same number (one One, two Twos, etc.); the lowest rank is Thirty-Six. [[spoiler:Xanatos, Thailog, Matt Bluestone, and John Castaway are all Thirty-Sixes. Peredur fab Ragnal, the Fisher King, is One.]]
** That gives them 666 members altogether. Just saying...
* YouCanTalk: Elisa's first words to Goliath after falling off Castle Wyvern & the Eyrie Building.
* YouCantGoHomeAgain: In "Enter Macbeth," the gargoyles are forced to flee Castle Wyvern because Xanatos' jail time is up (which, to be fair, does not stop them from occasionally visiting Xanatos at Castle Wyvern afterward). So they find a new home in the Clock Tower in the N.Y.P.D.'s 23rd District headquarters.
** [[spoiler:Subverted in that they ARE allowed to return after the destruction of the clock tower.]]
* YouCantThwartStageOne: The first few episodes of the second season were unqualified successes for Xanatos: He succeeded in getting Fox an early parole in "Leader of the Pack," he mutated Derek and turned him against the Manhattan Clan in "Metamorphosis," and he acquired the code for the deadliest computer virus in the world in "Legion." Only "Metamorphosis" counts as a DownerEnding, though, because the Manhattan Clan did score a few points against the Pack and the ghost of Iago, [[XanatosGambit though none against Xanatos himself.]]
* YouGottaHaveBlueHair: Elisa appears to have dark blue hair, but it's really black.
* YouHaveGotToBeKiddingMe:
-->'''Xanatos:''' [[spoiler: Fox and I are getting tomorrow night. I would like you to be the best man.]]
-->'''Goliath:''' You '''can't''' be serious.
* YouMonster: City of Stone, part 3, contains this.
* YuppieCouple: Several: Brendan and Margot, who are the trope-naming Yuppie Couple; the jogger who appears in most Central Park scenes; the trio of petty crooks. Vinnie Grigori is retconned into this in "Vendettas". Eventually, Vinnie and Margot are given bigger roles, Vinnie as a proper recurring character; and Margot, who is revealed to be an Assistant District Attorney, becoming a member of the N.Y.P.D.'s Gargoyle Task Force and the face of the general population's anti-gargoyle sentiment.
* ZettaiRyouiki: Elisa, disguised as "Salli" for an undercover operation, briefly sports this look.

----

* CanonDisContinuity: The entire third season except for the very first episode, "The Journey," never Happened according to WordOfGod (Weisman). To enforce this, "The Journey" was included as the beginning of the recent ''Gargoyles'' comic books, solidifying its canon status, followed by the rest of the comic books contradicting the third season.
** They also imported one additional scene from TGC: [[spoiler: Where Robbins reveals that he'd figured out Hudson was a Gargoyle before he could tell him]].

* EditedForSyndication: Toon Disney initially banned the episode "Deadly Force" because of the episode revolved around Eliza's near-fatal shooting by Broadway (who was playing around with her gun). In 2002, Toon Disney finally showed the episode, but the part where Eliza gets shot uses a fake zoom-in on Eliza's face to cover up the blood around Eliza's torso. A later scene in this episode has Broadyway sobbing, but the sound effect lasts noticeably longer than the clip used.

** The Pack, a group of AmericanGladiator knockoffs who moonlight as bounty hunters, are all named after wild dogs. Wolf, Hyena, Fox, Dingo, Jackal and Coyote. [[DidNotDoTheResearch Except that Hyenas are not actually dogs, they're closer related to weasels.]]

* TheThreeFacesOfEve: Angela is the child, a WideEyedIdealist. Eliza is the Mother, as per her TeamMom role. Demona is the Seductress... in a way. She has given over to passion...ate [[FantasticRacism hatred of humans]].

* The Pack, a group of AmericanGladiator knockoffs who moonlight as bounty hunters, are all named after wild dogs. Wolf, Hyena, Fox, Dingo, Jackal and Coyote. [[DidNotDoTheResearch Except that Hyenas are not actually dogs, they're closer related to weasels.]]

** ''WesternAnimation/Gargoyles'' actually got a ShoutOut in one of the StarWarsExpandedUniverse books. In one book following Obi-Wan's adventures as a Padawan, we're introduced to Qui-Gon's psychotic former apprentice-turned Sith...named "Darth Xanatos".

** [[FantasticRacism Castaway]] was one in [[{{Discontinuity}} the Goliath Chronicles]]. WordOfGod is that Thailog would have evolved into this had the series continued.

** Let's not forget Delilah, a sexy BiologicalMashUp of Demona and Elisa that calls Thailog "Master." It's implied she was created entirely for Thailog's gratification, and [[AllMenArePerverts we all know]] [[IfYouKnowWhatIMean what that means.]]

** They did indeed to the research, but, as Weisman himself admitted: "Well, a short answer is that we wanted to diminish the gods a bit... or put another way, we wanted to create a unifying system for them all. A feudal system. Oberon and Titania got priority, because in general SHAKESPEARE got priority. Titania, as far as I know, is not a traditional figure but an invention of ol' Will's. I've always freely admitted to being a Shakespeare fanatic, so his characters, including Macbeth, Oberon, Titania, Puck, the Weird Sisters, etc. were always going to have featured roles in this series. Ultimately, it comes down to personal preference, and I was the guy in charge. That doesn't make me RIGHT in some transcendent sense, just means that I had the right to create the universe I wanted to play in. So I did."

* OrIsIt: "Future Tense." "Was it a dream? Or a prophecy?"