Misconceptions and urban legends about Gargoyles

As with any product of pop culture, "Gargoyles" had more than its fair share of urban legends, as well as misconceptions. This page will address and correct them.

Gargoyles was originally an anime

This claim comes up a lot when "Gargoyles" is brought up outside the fandom. People will claim that the series was "too good" to be produced in America, and will tell others that it was a dubbed anime. This claim is, of course, pure fiction. "Gargoyles" was produced in America. Greg Weisman, Frank Paur and their team did all the pre-production in the United States.

A number of the episodes of the series were animated in Japan. Frank Paur even went over there once to show them how to animate the gargoyles awakening from their stone sleep.

Disney hates Gargoyles and conspired to kill it

While it is true that "Gargoyles" broke the traditional Disney mold, keep in mind that they made the series at all. If Disney was as set against the concept as some people claim, it would have never been green lighted. As it stands, the first season of thirteen performed so well that Disney ordered a second season of fifty-two episodes. It reached sixty-five episodes. Most animated series stop after producing that many, as they then go into syndicated re-runs.

ABC ordered an additional thirteen episodes, which underperformed in the ratings. There was no conspiracy.

Space-Spawn look like gargoyles

In the episode, "Sentinel," upon arriving on Easter Island, Nokkar takes the gargoyles prisoner. He angrily curses the Space-Spawn. Many fans have taken this to mean that the Space-Spawn look like gargoyles. But, in the episode itself, they missed the dialogue where Nokkar says he is unable to identify their planet of origin, but there is little doubt who sent them. He then later tells Goliath to send a message to his "Space-Spawn masters."

On that note...

Gargoyles are obviously aliens

While not a popular misconception, there are some casual watchers who have theorized that the gargoyles come from outer space. Brooklyn's line in "Temptation" about the Cloisters being "like the world we came from," confused a few people. Brooklyn was, of course, talking about medieval Scotland.

The Gathering of the Gargoyles is always in Montreal

When the first season of "Gargoyles" was released on DVD, it featured a small documentary on the annual Gathering of the Gargoyles convention, which took place in Montreal that year. Unfortunately, several reviews of the DVD set on major websites were obviously confused and stated that the convention is always in Montreal.

The Gathering has been to New York three times, Los Angeles twice, Dallas, Orlando, Williamsburg, Las Vegas, Pigeon Forge, and will be in Chicago in 2008 and Los Angeles again in 2009.

Goliath embraced the human way in "Mark of the Panther"

A lot of fans, even hardcore fans, were confused by what exactly was going on between Goliath and Angela in the early half of the World Tour, and why exactly it took him so long to embrace her as a father. Most have believed that Goliath was clinging to old school thinking concerning the Gargoyle Way, and finally embraced a more human way of thinking at the end.

In truth, Goliath viewed Angela as a daughter from the moment they first met. He also viewed Gabriel as a son, and continues to do so. Angela's interest in her biological parentage scared Goliath, not because of any conservative stance, but because he was afraid of what would happen if Angela ever met Demona.

Not only that, but he didn't feel it would be fair to give one of his children preferential treatment over the others. But, as Diana Maza explained, all children want special treatment at times, and Angela is also the only hatchling traveling with him. So, Goliath opened up to Angela. But that doesn't mean his way of thinking has changed. Gabriel is his son too. Ophelia is his daughter.

Goliath has thirty-six children. Thirty-five of them just happen to be long distance.

Angela smiled at Brooklyn in "The Reckoning" she clearly liked him.

Angela was helping and smiling at a fallen comrade. She does like Brooklyn, as a friend. A lot of fans read more into that than was intended. Ironically, so did Brooklyn.