Wes's Guide to Gargoyles Bonus Article: The Ballad of Owen & Puck

So, Owen is Puck. That’s certainly a thing. Something that, in hindsight, changes just about everything about the show. I of course, having seen the show multiple times, knew all along, but, when I started this project, I promised to keep spoilers to a minimum. However, because the big revelation so changes the nature of one of the show’s principal characters as well as those around him, I wanted to make a point to go over some theories and such that I couldn’t take about before.

What We Already Know:

At some point prior to the events of Awakening, Puck invented the persona of Owen Burnett as a parody of Preston Vogel and entered the employ of Anastasia Renard (secretly Titania) and her husband Halcyon. Puck loved being Owen but found working for the Renards to be sadly unfulfilling. He was more intrigued by their daughter Fox and even more so, her then boyfriend, the ambitious David Xanatos. So captivated was Puck by Xanatos, as anyone would be, he couldn’t resist revealing himself and offering the man a choice: one wish from Puck or a lifetime of service from Owen. Xanatos chose Owen. So impressed by David’s choice that Puck being bound to Xanatos developed into true loyalty and, while neither man would ever openly admit it, a true friendship.

Awakening:

Not much to say here, but it is worth noting that, at this point, the writers didn’t actually know that Owen was going to be Puck at the character’s conception but they did write him with the idea that there was more to Owen than meets the eye.

Deadly Force: This is our first glimpse of the fact that Owen is far more than a simple personal assistant as he’s able to easily outfight a team of armed thieves with only his bare hands. Impressive to be sure, but not yet anything beyond the scope of a mortal man.

Enter MacBeth: In this episode, we see Owen knock Hudson on his ass. Now, Hudson may be old, but he’s no pushover, and yet Owen, a seemingly ordinary human, manages to take him down. Now that’s our first indicator that Owen may be more than human.

The Edge:

Now we get into the real juicy stuff. It is my opinion that the karate scene that opened up this episode is one of the best in the show’s history. And, with the revelation of Owen’s true nature, it takes on yet another layer. Remember when Xanatos threatens to fire Owen when he volunteers to let him win, indicating that Xanatos is not a man who likes shortcuts. I think that’s part of the reason he chose Owen’s service over a wish from Puck, something which no doubt could have granted him his dream of immortality, but Xanatos, again, doesn’t like handouts, but also feels that Owen would have been more useful him long term, a choice which ultimately paid off for him.

The Mirror:

Ah, our first actual appearance of Puck as his true self. I think by this point, they’d officially made the decision that Owen and Puck were one and the same. How do I know? Remember how I called attention to Demona’s line “serve the human”? Well, we obviously now know that the human in question was Xanatos and that Demona knew Owen’s true nature all along. Either Xanatos told her at some point or Demona, being a skilled sorceress, likely knew of a way to sense his true nature. Me and others have speculated as to how Xanatos felt about Demona abducting Puck through the mirror. For me, I was actually put in mind of an episode of one of my other favorite shows, Grimm. Without giving the whole plot of the show, suffice to say, in the later seasons, one of the main characters has a daughter with overwhelmingly powerful magical abilities. In one episode, a vengeful enemy kidnaps the daughter to get back at the character in question. In response, the character (ironically named Renard) simply goes about his day drinking coffee, running errands, going jogging, confident in the fact that once his daughter is done with the bad guy, he’ll be begging for mercy. I’d like to think that Xanatos went through something similar when he realized Puck was gone and the two shared a good laugh about it afterwards.

Eye of The Beholder: No real revelations here, but I can’t help but wonder if Puck knew that the Eye of Odin would effect Fox in the way it did, or the fact that it was actually the severed eye of one of his relatives. Puck probably got a perverse joy out of the whole affair and was proud of his best buddy for actually looking heroic for a change.

City of Stone:

This episode drops another hint that Owen is more than what he seems when he is able to identify not only the words of Demona’s spell, but its intent. Demona identifies Owen as “The Tricky One” and makes a point to incapacitate him. Something I really like is that during his fight with Demona, the ordinarily calculating Xanatos ends up leaving himself vulnerable to prevent Owen from being destroyed. It shows that there is far more to their relationship than that of the simple Employer/Employee dynamic. Xanatos may be too proud to admit it, he does care about Owen/Puck.

Outfoxed:

Our first look at our pal Vogel. Something that jumped out at me this time around was Vogel’s voice. Remember, Owen was intended as a parody of Vogel. Vogel has a more natural sounding tone to his voice whereas Owen’s voice sounds like an exaggerated impression of someone one may view as stuffy. It’s subtle, but it is a huge hint in hindsight as to what’s really going on. I actually want to take this opportunity to give a shout out to the podcast, Nostalgia+ who are also reviewing Gargoyles much like myself but also occasionally tackle classic films like Willow and Pete’s Dragon. Anywho, they speculated that there was a third stuffy looking chap with glasses out there with white hair and that Owen, Vogel and the hypothetical third man were some sort of male equivalent of the Weird Sisters. It obviously turned out not to be the case, but I appreciated the outside the box thinking.

The Price: I’d like to draw attention to the part where Hudson asks what Owen gets out of all this to which Owen simply replies “Service is its own reward.” Though one part had me scratching my head. See, Owen volunteers to test out the cauldron of life for Xanatos. But since Owen is Puck and Puck is presumably already immortal, how would they have known if the cauldron actually worked? Also, this episode also gives up Owen’s stone hand, something that Xanatos likely demanded Owen keep. Again showing his dislike of shortcuts.

Double Jeopardy: A short one, but I really appreciate that Xanatos immediately dismisses the idea that Owen would have been the one who stole Thailog. Avalon: Neither Owen nor Puck appear in this three parter, but I do have an interesting theory. As you may recall, the Archmage’s whole plot didn’t make a whole lot of sense and Archie himself only went along with it because he remembered his future-self telling him about it. Now, this is a rather far-fetched theory I’ll admit, but what if Puck had the ability to whisper ideas into the time stream, essentially creating Bootstrap Paradoxes. Perhaps Puck’s plan to get the Phoenix Gate started much earlier than we thought. However, stealing it wasn’t an option, and he likely knew Goliath never intended to take it out of storage. So, he manipulated the Arch-Mage to force Goliath onto Avalon and put him in a position where he was carrying the Phoenix Gate around on his person… err… Gargoyle. More on that when we get to Future Tense.

Cloud Fathers: Skipping way ahead to another short one. Some have wondered why Xanatos would go after Coyote when he refused a wish from Puck. My theory, Puck put Xanatos on Coyote’s trail because Coyote owed him money.

Future Tense:

Here we go, one of the strongest episodes in the series and a masterful illusion on the part of Puck, all to get out of sitting next to Anansi at Avalonian Thanksgiving. I can’t say I blame him one bit. We discussed Puck’s involvement in these events quite a bit in the article itself, such as Puck dropping a hint as to what’s actually going on with the whole Demona thing, but there’s something else I’d like to discuss. So, before Puck peaced out, he made a comment that what Goliath saw may not have been a dream, but a premonition. So, what do I think? Actually, I think it’s both. Let me elaborate. I believe that as a Child of Oberon, Puck has a degree of clairvoyant abilities and is able to see possible futures. Puck chose one that was suitably dystopian and used it as a template. So essentially, what Puck did was the equivalent of playing Skyrim with mods on. For example, things like the world falling to ruin, The Gargoyles forming an underground resistance, Alexander Xanatos growing up to be awesome, that was all probably true, especially the part about young Xanatos. That kid is definitely going to grow up to be awesome given who his parents are. However, things like Brooklyn and Demona being an item and Lexington being the villain, those were likely fabrications, added layers of despair designed to break Goliath’s spirit. Take Lexington Luthor. You may recall that Lexington didn’t have a clearly defined motivation for world domination. Well, given that this was all an illusion by Puck, it doesn’t really matter. Maybe the villain in the future that Puck saw really was just a rogue AI that thought it was Xanatos and got a bit too big for his britches or perhaps another evil altogether. However, Puck knew that seeing one of his own as the big bad would twist the knife further, all the better to reach the goal of breaking Goliath’s spirit.

And finally...

The Gathering:

This is where it all comes to a head. The most powerful being in the show goes after Puck only to be put on a collision course with Xanatos. Naturally, Puck fears Oberon, hence his initial retreat, but he has grown to care for Xanatos and by extension, Fox and Alex and therefore confronted fought Oberon himself. The scene where Puck beats the crap out of Oberon with his “visual aids” is hilarious and one of my favorite scenes in the show. I’ll close things out with one of my favorite little pet theories. Remember how Puck was horribly resistant to being exiled from Avalon but when he reverted back to Owen, he accepted his fate with dignity and stoicism. I’d like to think that that was more than just Puck accepting his new appointment. I’ve always had this theory that, over time, “Owen” developed a consciousness of his own. While Puck was always the one in the driver’s seat, Owen was more than just a simple disguise but over time emerged as an entity unto himself, hence why Owen’s reaction to Puck’s exile was so drastically different from Puck’s

And that will about do it for some of my theories, clues and speculations about Owen and Puck. Next time, Goliath and Hudson go toe to toe with some old enemies, some more competent than others. Join me for our next episode, Vendettas.