Of All the Places for a Stray “Gargoyles” Reference…

From Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance (2012), by Lois McMaster Bujold:

The stone face of the building was severely plain, except for a stylized bas-relief frieze of pained-looking creatures that Miles had once dubbed pressed gargoyles which entirely circled the edifice.

At the time of the reign of Mad Yuri, the gargoyles had possessed some political/artistic/propagandistic metaphorical meaning, which had once been explained to Ivan, but that he had promptly forgotten[…]. The people of Vorbarr Sultana, over time, had named them all, and endowed them with varied personalities; there were running jokes about the conversations they had up there, frozen in their frieze, and some of them regularly appeared as editorial cartoon characters. And in a short-lived children’s animated show, Ivan dimly remembered from his youth.

These Ten Episodes Will Tell You Everything You Need to Know About “Gargoyles”

So I was talking to Jed Blue in an attempt to convince him to work with me on little something-something for the blog, having to do with “Golem”. Whilst talking, he mentioned that he hadn’t had the opportunity to watch Gargoyles, and that he’d been thinking of asking me for a list of episodes to watch, so that he could have an idea of what the series was about and what it was trying to do, and work the series in as part of The Near- Apocalypse of ’09, his ongoing deconstruction of the DC Animated Universe (which y’all should seriously read, because it’s great).  Because he is cleverer than me, he immediately saw through my ploy of giving him a sixty-five episode list and told me that he’d prefer it if it were around ten episodes long.  Well, since I love a challenge, so I said “yes”, and after some thinking, here are the episodes, presented in airing order.  They’re not necessarily the best episodes, or the most significant, or even ones that necessarily make a whole lot of sense outside of their contexts as parts of a larger ongoing story, but together, they are enough to give the newcomer  comprehensive idea of what the series is about.

Today, TMNT (2003) became 11

Soon enough, it’ll enter its rebellious teenager phase, and it’ll become intolerable.  As always, I’d like to thank Lloyd Goldfine, 4Kids Entertainment, Peter Laird, and Playmates for making the show happen.

F.Y.I.:

I finally got a copy of Gargoyles Season 2 Volume 2.  Yay!

Also, “Monsters” is a much better episode than I remembered it being.

Guys! Guys! Look look look look!

After two months, it’s finally here!

Note:  Tumblr link , for anyone who wants to share.

Design: Ian Pérez (that’d be me) and MadSeason, with additional guidance from Kahaeli.

Art: Madseason

Dilemma

On one hand, I am morbidly curious about what the Gargoyles fandom has done with “What Does The Fox Say?”(*) in connection to its own character of the same name.  On the other hand, I’m scared about what I’d find if I went searching for it.

—-

(*) Obligatory footnote explaining how I know that’s not the actual name of the song.

My perpetually in progress list of Queer, Undecided, Intersex, Lesbian, Trans*, Bisexual, Asexual, Gay and / or Genderqueer characters in the Monsters of New York-verse

Let’s face it: no matter how progressive Gargoyles or TMNT‘s TV incarnations may be in some respects, they are both guilty of establishing universes in which no sexualities besides “straight” exist.  Yes, there are very good reasons why this is the case, and “the creators didn’t want to” is probably not among them; nevertheless, the fact remains that only straight cisgendered people are able to see those aspect of themselves represented on either series, and that remains a problem, regardless of creator intent.

So, since the shows won’t give me QUILTBAG characters, I’ll just have to establish my own.  This is my in-progress list of characters whom I consider Queer, Undecided, Intersex, Lesbian, Trans*, Bisexual, Asexual, Genderqueer and / or Gay .  Some are based on word of god.  Others are based on conclusions drawn from the text.  Others are what they are because felt like it.  It’s still incomplete and far from representative, and it probably displays problematic patterns that I’m unaware of at the moment (for example, there are no asexual non-mutants in the list yet) but this is it so far.

(Note: Yes, I know that Gargoyles, at least, has characters whom we have been told by Word Of God are gay.  However, no confirmation of that assertion exists in the actual text.)

Signal Boost: On April TMNT (2012)

So remember when I talked about my problems with the way April was utilized–or rather, wasn’t–in the pilot for the current cartoon?  Well, while some things have gotten better since then, other, equally problematic patterns have emerged and Acara of Random Rambling Tidbids  has something to say about them.

[…]I thought about the one time April is featured in an episode after an event affects her.  In The Gauntlet, April comes close to achieving the goal that made up the cornerstone of her character motivation: getting her father back.  Instead she has to watch her father get captured again and by the way she is at the end of the episode, it is apparent that she is broken up over it. So how is this addressed when she shows up in the next episode Panic in the Sewers? The answer is that it isn’t.  And what makes it worse is that reactions of Splinter and the turtles about their confrontation with the Shredder are showcased.  We know more about how they feel after a defeat than we know about how April felt about her own father being captured in front of her own eyes.  It just reeks of unfortunate implications that the emotions and reactions of the main male characters are fully explored while the only main female character’s emotions and reactions are constantly sidelined.

If you like the show and want it to be better, it’s totally worth a read.  The whole thing can be found by clicking here .

Plug: My review for “TMNT Adventures” Volume 2

If it sometimes seems like new posts are slow in coming, it’s because I currently have a bunch of stuff on my plate.  Not only am I working and might get a second job, I am also now writing reviews of comic book trade paperbacks  for the Trade Paperback Reading Order, which, given me, is a rather time consuming endeavor.

Sometimes, though, that bit of business happens to be relevant to the interests of this blog.  For example, my latest review, of the second volume of IDW’s Archie comics collections.

With the Ninja Turtles currently undergoing yet another renaissance, it’s nice to revisit its past to see what one can learn from it.  Recently, I’ve realized that a huge part of what makes the TMNT work for me is the weirdness, a love for Concepts That Make You Go “!” and makes the works interesting even when the stories aren’t  terribly good.  On those terms, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures: Volume 2 succeeds admirably: not only does it feature solid stories, it stands as a testament of the wide variety of stories that can be told with these characters.

Go give it a look-see!

(ETA: I forgot to actually include the link, didn’t I?  Here you go.)

Tumblr Get!

It’s called Chasing Smaller Sheep and can be found here.  While it’ll be more general than this blog is, the plan is to include TMNT and Gargoyles stuff in it, so give it a look see if you’d like.