Difference between revisions of "Avalon Part Two"
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==Archmage's time loop== | ==Archmage's time loop== | ||
[[File:Archmage's time loop.png|thumb|300px|The Archmage's travels through time.]] | [[File:Archmage's time loop.png|thumb|300px|The Archmage's travels through time.]] | ||
| − | [[Greg Weisman]] describes this time loop as a "quirk of the timestream", a "working paradox" without independent origin, as opposed to the "[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grandfather_paradox Grandfather chestnut]". When trying to illustrate the mechanics of the loop, Weisman compared it to the "Gettysburgh chestnut": ''"I am a historian. My specialty is Abraham Lincoln. I travel back in time and meet him just before he's scheduled to give the Gettysburgh Address. To my horror, I discover that he's got writer's block. The most famous speech a president ever gave, and Abe can't think of what to write. I panic. And "write" the speech for him. Of course I didn't compose it. I simply write down the Gettysburgh Address from memory. Abe loves it. Gives the speech. Reporters transcribe it. Historians put it in history books. I study it and go back in time. Time flows unbroken. It is a "working" paradox. A paradox that doesn't short circuit the time stream. Now it raises a HUGE question? Who composed the Address? Not Abe, he got it from me. Not me, I got if from a history book. Not the historians or the reporters, they got it from Abe. The answer is it was born with the timestream, created by God or the Big Bang or whatever. It is mysterious. But it works."''[http://www.s8.org/gargoyles/askgreg/faq/faq20.htm] Both the Gettysburgh and the Archmage's loop fall in line with the [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Causal_loop bootstrap paradox theory], which essentially represents a causal loop that was not created by third party tempering of the timestream—it simply exists. | + | [[Greg Weisman]] describes this time loop as a "quirk of the timestream", a "working paradox" without independent origin, as opposed to the "[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grandfather_paradox Grandfather chestnut]". When trying to illustrate the mechanics of the loop, Weisman compared it to the "Gettysburgh chestnut": ''"I am a historian. My specialty is Abraham Lincoln. I travel back in time and meet him just before he's scheduled to give the Gettysburgh Address. To my horror, I discover that he's got writer's block. The most famous speech a president ever gave, and Abe can't think of what to write. I panic. And "write" the speech for him. Of course I didn't compose it. I simply write down the Gettysburgh Address from memory. Abe loves it. Gives the speech. Reporters transcribe it. Historians put it in history books. I study it and go back in time. Time flows unbroken. It is a "working" paradox. A paradox that doesn't short circuit the time stream. Now it raises a HUGE question? Who composed the Address? Not Abe, he got it from me. Not me, I got if from a history book. Not the historians or the reporters, they got it from Abe. The answer is it was born with the timestream, created by God or the Big Bang or whatever. It is mysterious. But it works."''[http://www.s8.org/gargoyles/askgreg/faq/faq20.htm] Both the Gettysburgh and the Archmage's loop fall in line with the [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Causal_loop bootstrap paradox theory], which essentially represents a causal loop that was not created by third party tempering of the timestream—it simply exists. This paradigm complies with the time travel rules innate to the [[Gargoyles Universe]], which establish that time cannot be changed. |
==DVD Release== | ==DVD Release== | ||
Revision as of 10:43, 19 September 2015
"Avalon" Part Two is the thirty-fifth televised episode of the series Gargoyles, and the twenty-second episode of Season 2. It originally aired on November 21, 1995.
- Supervising Producers: Frank Paur, Greg Weisman
- Written by: Lydia Marano
- Story Edited by: Brynne Chandler Reaves
- Produced & Directed by: Dennis Woodyard
- Animation by: Koko Entertainment Co., LTD
- Backgrounds by: Koko Entertainment Co., LTD
- Additional Production Facilities: Anima Sam Won Co., LTD
Contents
Summary
Continuity
Angela, Gabriel and the other gargoyle members of the Avalon Clan are introduced in this episode. Angela becomes a regular cast member beginning in this episode.
Elisa Maza comments to Goliath that Angela "looks like Demona, but her coloring's different" and asks about her parentage. This foreshadows the revelation in "Monsters" that Angela is the biological daughter of Goliath and Demona. Goliath's response (that gargoyle children are raised by the entire clan) foreshadows his reluctance to accept her as his daughter until the episode "Mark of the Panther".
Angela is not the only member of the Avalon Clan to be the biological offspring of two gargoyles whom we had already met in the series. Gabriel is in fact the biological son of Othello and Desdemona (as his appearance strongly hints) - though this would not be confirmed until "Reunion". (On a related note, Greg Weisman has also mentioned that Broadway is Hudson's biological son, although neither of them are at all interested in this piece of information, thanks to the gargoyle custom of "Daughters and sons belong to the whole clan.")
The Archmage travels back to 984, and witnesses the events depicted in flashback in "Long Way To Morning". We learn that the Archmage was able to survive his plunge into the chasm by rescuing his past self.
During the Archmage's visit to 1020, Demona's granary robbery from "City of Stone" Part One reappears, this time from his perspective, and Findlaech makes a cameo, teaching Macbeth swordplay.
The "Sleeping King" is referenced for the first time, foreshadowing Arthur Pendragon's introduction in the following episode.
Tidbits
In the original draft for "Avalon" Part Two, the Archmages' time loop included two more stops that had to be cut for time: a visit to Scotland in 1040 (where the "enhanced Archmage" instructs the Weird Sisters to make Demona and Macbeth immortal) and to New York in the present day, during the events in "City of Stone" (where the "enhanced Archmage" would deliver further instructions to the Weird Sisters that would lead to their actions in that episode).
The latter scene, incidentally, could explain a remark by the "enhanced Archmage" to his former self about how the modern world is now powered by science and technology rather than by magic. From the point of view of the episode as aired, this is astonishing, since his time in the 20th century is spent entirely on Avalon, rather than the outside world, and so he could not have seen this first-hand. He also calls Demona "cannon-fodder." (Admittedly, he does witness Demona and Macbeth making use of their high-tech firearms in their initial assault upon the palace, which could be how he learned of it. An even more entertaining possibility is that the Archmage doesn't actually know this fact, but only says it because it's all part of the time loop!) These lines might have been left over from the longer version of the episode, where he would have had the opportunity to learn of this during his brief stopover in Manhattan during the 1990s.
When Goliath is surprised that the Avalon Clan has names, Angela responds "Of course, how else could we tell each other apart?" This mirrors Tom's question in "Awakening", "How do you tell each other apart?" to which Lexington replied "We look different."
Early in this episode, the Archmage mocks the gargoyles by saying "What have you accomplished? You beat up a beach!" This is referenced in the animated series W.I.T.C.H., in the episode "I is for Illusion", when one of the protagonists asks "How are we supposed to beat up a beach?" while fighting the monster Sandpit. Season 2 of W.I.T.C.H. was story edited and produced by Greg Weisman, and the episode was written by Cary Bates.
When the Archmage proclaims how everything is going according to his plan to his younger self (more specifically when he says "as it always will"), the background switches to their base on the island, which they had not yet reached, but appears earlier and later in the episode as the only other place both of them had the "enhanced Archmage" look.
Toon Disney/Disney XD Edits
The scene where Elisa fires her gun three times at the sand-Archmage's head was removed. The three bullets passing through and the holes closing afterwards is missing. Also, it cuts out the scene where Bronx and Boudicca pounce on two other Sand-Archmage heads (the one's imprisoning Angela and Gabriel) and slash at them.
Archmage's time loop
Greg Weisman describes this time loop as a "quirk of the timestream", a "working paradox" without independent origin, as opposed to the "Grandfather chestnut". When trying to illustrate the mechanics of the loop, Weisman compared it to the "Gettysburgh chestnut": "I am a historian. My specialty is Abraham Lincoln. I travel back in time and meet him just before he's scheduled to give the Gettysburgh Address. To my horror, I discover that he's got writer's block. The most famous speech a president ever gave, and Abe can't think of what to write. I panic. And "write" the speech for him. Of course I didn't compose it. I simply write down the Gettysburgh Address from memory. Abe loves it. Gives the speech. Reporters transcribe it. Historians put it in history books. I study it and go back in time. Time flows unbroken. It is a "working" paradox. A paradox that doesn't short circuit the time stream. Now it raises a HUGE question? Who composed the Address? Not Abe, he got it from me. Not me, I got if from a history book. Not the historians or the reporters, they got it from Abe. The answer is it was born with the timestream, created by God or the Big Bang or whatever. It is mysterious. But it works."[1] Both the Gettysburgh and the Archmage's loop fall in line with the bootstrap paradox theory, which essentially represents a causal loop that was not created by third party tempering of the timestream—it simply exists. This paradigm complies with the time travel rules innate to the Gargoyles Universe, which establish that time cannot be changed.
DVD Release
Links
| << Previous Episode: "Avalon" Part One | Next Episode: "Avalon" Part Three >> |
