Deep Dive Disney: Wes Builds the Roster for Gargoyles: Arena of the Night Part 1

Ladies, gentlemen and everyone in between, welcome to a very special article. Once again I get to talk about my favorite thing in the world, the 90’s animated series created by Greg Weisman, Gargoyles. You may recall a few months ago, I decided to blatantly rip off the style of YouTuber Thorgi’s Arcade and built the roster for a hypothetical Disney Channel Fighting game. It was an idea born out of boredom that snowballed out of control. It was also one of the most fun articles I’ve written for this blog and allowed me to show off my love of the fighting game genre. Well, I want to do it again. And since last time around, I threw some Gargoyles characters into the mix, and Gargoyles is my favorite TV show of all time, why not build the roster for a Gargoyles fighting game. Hell, with the hype around the recent toy line and comic book revival and with the 30th anniversary of the series coming up next year, now would be the perfect time to release a game like this as a celebration of the franchise. Welcome to Gargoyles: Arena of the Night. Not the best title I know, but it’s the best I could come up with, even if it does sound like something out of Castlevania. Actually, it sounds like a better title for the actual Castlevania Fighting game floating around out there, but I digress. I’m going to assume, since you’re reading an article on my blog, you have at least some working knowledge of Gargoyles, but just in case any of you are new here, here’s the rundown of the premise. In 994 A.D., a clan of Gargoyle warriors cohabitated a castle in Scotland with the humans who made it their home. Protectors by nature, the Gargoyles protected the castle from invading forces by night. In exchange, the humans protected them during the day when they turned to stone and were vulnerable. Betrayed by some of their closest allies, the castle was ransacked and most of the clan was massacred by a horde of Vikings. The castle wizard, blaming the Gargoyles for what happened, cursed the remaining Gargoyles to remain stone “until the castle rises above the clouds.” One thousand years later, a shady billionaire named David Xanatos, who had heard about the story of the Gargoyles, had the ancient castle moved stone by stone to the top of a skyscraper in order to see if the legend was true in order to use the Gargoyles for his own nefarious purposes and give himself the most baller penthouse of all time. And, as you’d expect, the Gargoyles awaken in modern day Manhattan, eventually befriend a police detective named Elisa Maza and eventually swear to protect the innocent in their new environment. There’s a lot more to it than that, but those are he basic need-to-knows. Oh, and by the way, if you have not watched Gargoyles but plan to someday, warning, this article will contain spoilers. Read at your own risk. In any case, before we get to building the roster, let’s establish…

The Story:

Now this is a fighting game so we don’t need too much of a story. Actually, that’s a lie, some of the biggest fighting game franchises out there have literal mountains of lore behind them. Seriously, go watch a lore video on Tekken or King of Fighters sometime, it will sound like the cocaine fueled manifesto of an insane anime fanfic writer and I love it! However, for this game, we’re going to keep things simple. Let’s say Puck, Fey trickster and recurring character in the show, uses his magic to gather together a bunch of characters from the series to fight in a big tournament. Why? For the lols. It’s Puck, that’s pretty much his reason for doing anything. Over the course of arcade mode, we could see how some characters react to the tournament, with some being annoyed by having to take part in Puck’s ridiculous game and others liking the idea of testing their skills in this way. Now, as for the roster itself, I’m going to start with a base roster of 20 characters. A good reasonable number to start off with that allows us to include all the characters who are necessary for this game with a couple roster spots left over for a few fan favorites. We’ll also be including an unlockable sub-boss as well as an unplayable final boss, bringing us to a grand total of 22 characters in the game at launch, which is a decent number to start with. Now, as we build this roster, in order to keep things at least somewhat grounded, I’m putting one restriction on who I can and cannot pick. See, Puck would be using his magic to gather everyone together. And Puck’s magic, as we see throughout the show, can do a lot of things, which we could use to explain away any continuity hiccups we throw in for added flavor. However, even Puck admits to having limits, so one thing that he would not be able to do is resurrect the dead. Which is why all characters I choose, from the base roster to the final season of DLC, must still be alive. Sadly, this means I had to cut a few characters I really wanted to put on the roster, but it’s important to have at least some restrictions. With that in mind, let’s build this roster, starting, of course, with…

The Manhattan Clan:

Naturally, we’re kicking things off with the Manhattan Clan, the main characters of the series. Well, technically one of them won’t be making it into the game but I’ll explain when we get to that point. We begin, of course, with Goliath, leader of the clan, main character of the show, brave and noble defender of the night and all around stoic bad ass. In most fighting games the main character is the all-rounder. The character who would be the easiest to learn who beginners could pick up and use easily. We’re going to sort of be doing that with Goliath, but if you look at the guy, he’s seven and a half feet tall and has more muscle than two Arnold Schwarzeneggers glued together. We need to at least make him something of a tank. So I say Goliath would be about sixty percent tanky grappler and forty percent rushdown. Goliath never really relied on projectiles so I don’t know if we can fit zoner in there. Next up is Brooklyn, Goliath’s second in command, a role he takes a while to grow into. Brooklyn, being smaller and more agile than Goliath, would be a full blown rushdown character with a heavy emphasis on speed. Also, for added flavor, I’d have him enter the stage riding on his motorcycle. Moving on we have Lexington, the smallest member of the Manhattan clan. Being fascinated by modern technology, Lexington quickly becomes the most tech-savvy member of the team, to the point where he, a Gargoyle from medieval Scotland, is able to build a motorcycle from scratch in a matter of weeks. In simple terms, he’s the Donatello of the team. With his technological skill, Lexington would be the zoner of the Manhattan Clan, setting up gadgets and traps all over the arena. Also, fun fact, Lexington is canonically gay, and also possibly canonically a furry. Rounding out the trio, we have my favorite member of the Manhattan Clan and their resident lovable dork, Broadway. While it can be easy to dismiss Broadway as the big fat stupid one (not helped by the fact that he shares a voice actor with a certain pink starfish) he’s actually just as strong and smart a warrior as any other member of his clan. Broadway would definitely be a full blown tank with a heavy emphasis on grapple moves. Also, since there would likely be unlockable costumes in this game, Broadway would absolutely have his trench coat and fedora from the episode The Silver Falcon, in which he, after binge watching a bunch of old detective movies, decides to cosplay as Sam Spade and follow Elisa on a case. Speaking of, next up is Elisa Maza, New York City Police Detective, closest human ally of the Clan and Goliath’s love interest. Since she is a police officer, I’d imagine she’d fight in a similar vein to Stryker from Mortal Kombat, shooting opponents with her service pistol and having some solid melee moves for up close. I also like the idea of her being able to set up decoys that she can combo into stealth attacks, kind of like how she fought off a bunch of Xanatos’s goons while protecting Goliath when they first met. Now, this roster is going to contain a lot of supernatural monsters, technological monstrosities and other bad asses. Elisa, is a normal human woman with a pistol. Seems a bit uneven if you ask me. So, to even the playing field a bit, I’d give her a super move where she’d temporarily take her Gargoyle form from the episode called The Mirror, which is incidentally the episode that introduced Puck. In that form, she’d lose the pistol, but would now move a lot faster and hit a lot harder at close range. Next up is Hudson, the oldest of the Gargoyles, Goliath’s mentor and the former leader of the clan before passing the mantle of leadership onto his protégé. Hudson may be up there in years, but he’s still got plenty of fight left in him. As for how he’d play, he’d have a lot of melee range with his sword, but since age has taught him the value of patience, we’d also load him up with a few counter moves. Also, remember how I said that one member of the Manhattan clan didn’t make the cut, well that would be Bronx. Bronx is a Gargoyle Beast (a dog for all intents and purposes). I love Bronx, he is a very good boy, but I don’t know if I can justify giving him a full spot on the roster. So, as a compromise, I’m pairing him up with Hudson for some assist attacks and maybe even a double team attack for an ultimate. And finally, rounding out the Manhattan Clan, we have Angela. Angela is Goliath’s daughter who, unlike the others, was hatched and raised on the mystical island of Avalon where time passes differently than it does in our world. Finding a way to distinguish Angela proved tricky since, let’s face it, she wasn’t exactly big in the personality department. However, I did have an idea for all Gargoyle characters having a mechanic that would allow them to use their wings (FYI, Gargoyles can’t actually fly, they only use their wings to glide on currents of wind) so I was thinking we would have Angela be the one to take the most advantage of this mechanic, with an emphasis on arial combat. But in any case, that brings us to the end of The Manhattan clan, so since we just covered a bunch of heroes, let’s throw in a few villains, starting, of course, with the man himself.

David Xanatos:

If you know anything about me, then you know that this guy, David Xanatos, the man Elon Musk wishes he was, is my favorite character in all of fiction. He is at all times the smartest, richest and coolest man in the room. He is always ten steps ahead of everyone, has schemes within schemes within schemes and even when you think you’ve bested him, it will later be revealed that that was part of his plan all along. Essentially, this is the guy that the DJ Khaled song, All I Do Is Win was written about. While Xanatos is an antagonist to the Gargoyles, he’s not exactly evil. Manipulative, opportunistic and self-interested certainly, but not evil. He’s just a man who knows what he wants and knows how to get it. As for how he’d fight, well, naturally he’d be in his Iron Gargoyle Power Armor and would have a little bit of everything in his arsenal. Actually, come to think of it, Xanatos could be the all-rounder we wanted Goliath to be. He would attack with grapple moves up close, rush the opponent with his suit’s rocket thrusters and he’s fire laser blasts and missiles to zone out the opponent. For an ultimate, I can see him calling out a bunch of steel clan robots for a massive assault. I also had an idea for a secret special ultimate for Xanatos, a unique take on an instant kill move. It would be a counter move that would be extremely difficult to pull off and if you mess it up, you end up leaving yourself wide open for an attack so it comes with plenty of risk. But, if you manage to pull it off a cutscene would play where the opponent would lunge at Xanatos, only to have a flaming portal appear between them. Fans of the show will recognize this as the power of the Phoenix Gate, a magical talisman with the power of time travel. Out of the portal steps whoever your opponent happens to be to stand in the way of their past self attacking Xanatos and then the fight would just end. So, not only has Xanatos used time travel shenanigans, which is the same method he used to become a billionaire, I’m not kidding, to win the fight long before it even started, but also somehow manipulated his opponent into winning it for him. That, to me, sounds like the most Xanatos thing humanly possible. And what would we call this move? The Xanatos Gambit, which is also the name of a trope that Xanatos inspired. And as one las piece of Xanatos flavor, I’d have it revealed in his arcade mode ending that the tournament was actually his idea the whole time as a way to test the upgrades on his battle suit. Well, as much as I’d love to continue to gush about how cool Xanatos is, we still got plenty more roster to go, so let’s move on with another villain.

Demona:

While Xanatos is more of a morally grey character, Demona here is far less ambiguous. Back medieval Scotland, she was Goliath’s second in command as well as his lover. However, unlike Goliath, she was resentful of the humans they shared the castle with and helped broker the arrangement that allowed the castle to be ransacked by Vikings, an act that directly lead to the massacre of Castle Wyvern. Even though Demona was responsible, she was unable to confront her guilt and instead turned her hatred towards the entire human race, and over the course of a thousand years, that hatred has continued to fester to the point where it’s completely consumed her. So how would Demona fight. Well, throughout the series, Demona was shown to be a powerful sorceress as well as skilled with high tech firearms. That would suggest a zoner, but she’s also no slouch at close range either so maybe one part zoner and one part rushdown. Also, for an ultimate, I can see Demona also getting an instant kill. Using the spell from the City of Stone four-parter, Demona would turn her opponent to stone and smash them to bits with a mace. Since it’s an instant kill move, it would be insanely hard to pull off, but it would be worth it. Anyway, that about covers it for Demona so next up let’s talk about her ally turned bitter nemesis.

MacBeth:

I know what you’re thinking, and yes, this is indeed THAT MacBeth. Between this and Puck, you may be thinking that Greg Weisman is a bit of a Shakespeare buff, and to be fair, you’d be right on the money, but surprisingly, the MacBeth featured in Gargoyles is actually more historically accurate than the one we see in Shakespeare’s play, minus the Gargoyles and stuff of course. MacBeth was a member of Scottish nobility whose cousin, Prince Duncan, was, to put it mildly, a backstabbing asswipe. When Duncan moved against MacBeth, MacBeth sought out the aid of Demona and the small clan of Gargoyles she formed following the massacre at Wyvern. The two formed an alliance that lasted for a number of years, but due to a misunderstanding, Demona betrayed MacBeth and he swore vengeance on her. While often an antagonist, MacBeth is actually a noble warrior with a strong sense of honor and fair play. He has no quarrel with The Manhattan Clan, but won’t hesitate to mix it up with them if they’re in his way. As for how he’d fight. He’s a master swordsman, having spent centuries honing his combat skills but has also adapted with the times and makes use of plenty of high tech weapons and gadgets, so I’d have his play style reflect that. One more thing before we move on. You may be wondering how MacBeth and Demona are still alive after several centuries. Gargoyles do indeed live longer than humans, but not that long. Well, long story short, MacBeth and Demona made a deal with some powerful witches that had the side effect of making both of them effectively immortal. They can only die if one kills the other, in which case they’d both die. They also share in one another’s pain when they’re in close proximity. So, I have a really cool idea. How about any time Demona and MacBeth fight each other, any time one deals damage to the other, they’d also take damage. I just thought that would be fun for those like me who are obsessed with lore. We’ve just covered three villains in a row so, now, let’s cover a whole team of them.

The Pack:

The Pack were a group of mercenaries secretly assembled by Xanatos who frequently fought with he Gargoyles throughout the series. They started out as TV stars but eventually became wanted criminals. After a few defeats at the hands of The Manhattan Clan, they upgraded themselves in order to level the playing field, but at the cost of their humanity. Eventually the individual members of The Pack went their separate ways, but still stuck around to be a thorn in the Gargoyles’ sides. I had to include The Pack. Not only were they major recurring villains throughout the series, but some of the best fight scenes in the show came from Pack episodes. First up is arguably the most important member of The Pack despite only being a ful-fledged member in their initial appearance. I speak of course of the original leader of The Pack, Fox. Fox was the only member of The Pack who was aware that Xanatos was pulling their strings. She was also later revealed to be his girlfriend and later became his wife and the mother of his child. As for how she’d fight, she is a mercenary and a master martial artist, so I see her as a Chun-Li style wrecka-fighter. Also, we eventually learn that Fox is actually half fey on her mother’s side and has latent magical abilities that she can call upon in desperate situation, though she doesn’t have complete control over it. I think we can translate this in the form of a counter move. For a super, I’d have her take her werewolf form from the episode Eye of the Beholder. In this form, she’s be less like Chun-Li and a lot more like Blanka, a super aggressive beast. Speaking of werewolves, next up is Wolf, a personal favorite one of my most supportive Twitter followers. After Fox left the group, Wolf tried to make a couple plays for the position of leader, but ultimately never amounted to much more than an animalistic muscle-brained thug. One could argue that gene-splicing himself with wolf DNA didn’t actually change that much. Wolf, if you can believe it, would be a stance fighter. In one stance, he’d be a regular savage animal with a few strong grapple moves thrown in for good measure, but for his second stance, he’d pull out a battle axe, showing that he’s now possessed by his Viking ancestor, Hakon, who, as it happens, was the leader of the Viking horde that massacred Goliath’s clan a thousand years ago. Moving on, we have my favorite member of The Pack, Dingo. Dingo was the only member of the team who chose to keep his humanity after the big upgrade, instead opting for an Iron Man suit similar to the one Xanatos uses. Over time, Dingo became disillusioned with The Pack and how far they’d fallen, bailed on his former comrades and returned to his native Australia to go on a journey of self-discovery that ultimately resulted in him bonding with a powerful AI called matrix and becoming a true hero. As for how he’d fight, he’d start off in his power suit and fire missiles from afar but also hit hard up close. Also, since Dingo is Australian, he would have a projectile where he throws a boomerang. As well written as this show was, sadly, it was not immune to the occasional 90’s stereotype. As an ultimate, Dingo would merge with Matrix and now he’d be able to blast the opponent with liquid metal like the T-1000 and stuff. Up next, we have the twins, Jackal and Hyena, a pair of cyborg siblings who are as deadly as they are insane. We’ll start with Hyena, who I imagine as one of the most unga bunga characters in the entire game. I can see her fighting a lot like Wolverine or X-23 from the Marvel vs. Capcom games, constantly attacking up close with razor sharp claws and applying pressure, never giving the opponent a second to breath. But if you think Hyena is bad, well… she is, but her brother Jackal is an even bigger piece of work. In fact, he might very well be the most unapologetically evil character in the entire show. He’d fight a lot like his sister, but I’d give him a few inspector gadget style stretch moves. For his ultimate, he’d take his Anubis form. Yeah, in one episode, Jackal was granted the power of the Egyptian God of Death and the first thing he tried to do with this power was kill everyone on Earth because he thought it might be fun. In this form he’d have a lot more power and would have a grab move that drains health from the opponent. He would also have an instant kill move in this form because, well, if any character SHOULD have an instant kill move, it’s a sociopathic mercenary who’s usurped the power of a death god. And finally we round out The Pack with Coyote. Coyote was an android created by Xanatos to spring The Pack out of prison and quickly inserted himself as their new leader. Also, Hyena, despite being well-aware that Coyote is a robot, is constantly hitting on him in increasingly less subtle ways. It’s weird, it’s creepy, it’s hilarious. Coyote goes through several different bodies throughout the series and I thought about giving him a mechanic that would incorporate that but that ultimately proved far too complicated, so I just gave him his Coyote 4.0 body, the most advanced version of Coyote we see in the show. He’d be pretty big so he'd be tanky as hell with plenty of projectiles he can use to blast the opponent. Also, Coyote 4.0 was built using melted down metal from a magical artifact called the cauldron of life, which gives him some immunity to magic. I think we can translate this into a counter move that neutralizes certain projectiles. So, we’ve pretty much covered all the characters who are essential for the game. That leaves us with four roster spots remaining to include a few fan favorites and maybe even a few unexpected picks. Let’s start with…

Talon:

You like body horror? Talon here was once Derek Maza, Elisa’s younger brother, who was mutated into a flying cat monster by an evil geneticist named Dr. Anton Sevarius who blended his DNA with that of a tiger and a bat as part of a plot by Xanatos to create his own clan of Gargoyles. Eventually, Talon saw through Xanatos’s deceptions and left with the other mutated humans to form his own clan in the New York City sewer system. Talon isn’t a Gargoyle, but gameplay wise, he’d function very similar to one. Also, Sevarius threw some electric eel DNA into that mutant cocktail he injected Derek with, which gave him the ability to manipulate electricity, so he’d also have a lot of electric based attacks in the form of projectiles and stun moves. Up next we have…

Cold Stone:

Talon not enough of a twisted abomination of science for you, well, get a load of this. Cold Stone is a Zombie Gargoyle Cyborg Frankensteined together from the remains of three different Gargoyles. Cold Stone is pretty damn powerful, but the fact that he has the souls of three Gargoyles living in his head has given him a nasty case of split personality. Now, I’m well aware that two of those personalities were eventually removed from the Cold Stone body and given robotic bodies of their own, but, spoilers, Cold Fire and Cold Steel didn’t make the final cut for this roster. However, I’d still like to incorporate them in some manner, so to do that, I say we make Cold Stone another stance fighter. In his regular stance, he’d be a tank with a lot of heavy laser blasts. In Cold Fire mode, he’d be much faster and have a lot of flamethrower attacks. Thinks something not unlike Dhalsim from Street Fighter. And in Cold Steel mode, he’d attack with metallic tendrils. Alright, that does it for Cold Stone, let’s move on to a character you probably weren’t expecting…

Robyn Canmore:

The mantle of the Gargoyle Hunter is a major part of the lore of the series and there have been many to have worn the Hunter’s signature mask throughout the generations, so I had to include at least one of them in this game. Ideally, I would have liked to have included Gillecomgain, the original Hunter, but he’s been dead for centuries and I put in that pesky “must be alive” rule, which narrows it down to the three Canmore siblings from Hunter’s Moon, the three part season 2 finale, and possibly the series finale depending on how you view season three. Jason Canmore was the most prominently featured of the three siblings, but he saw the error of his ways and also became a paraplegic by the end of the episode, so he’s out. John Canmore is still kicking around and may or may not have gone on to grow a mustache, put on a British accent and found the anti-Gargoyle KKK. However, since the jury is still out on whether or not John Canmore and John Castaway are the same person, I’m just going to not touch that for the time being. And that just leaves Robyn, who does end up getting to do some interesting things after Hunter’s Moon. Apparently, in the comics, she teams up with Dingo and a few other characters to form the Gargoyles version of the Suicide Squad. As for how she’d fight, she and her brothers were all about high tech gadgets and weaponry, including guns, blades, battle armor and even a nifty robot falcon, so I can see Robyn being one part zoner and one part rush down. Alright, we have one spot left in the base roster, and I’m giving it to one of my personal favorites.

Thailog:

Rounding out the base roster we have one of the baddest villains in the show, Thailog. Thailog is an evil clone of Goliath created by Anton Sevarius at the behest of Xanatos. However, Thailog proved too difficult for even Xanatos to control and he struck out on his own. What we have here with Thailog is someone with the raw power and strength of Goliath and the cunning and intellect of Xanatos, a combination that makes him one of the most dangerous characters in the show. However, Thailog lacks one thing that Goliath and Xanatos both share. See, Goliath is honorable to a fault and while Xanatos may have, shall we say, a loose definition of morality, there are still plenty of lines he will not cross. Thailog on the other hand is just a Bastard. There is no morally reprehensible act that Thailog will not do in order to get what he wants and he shows zero regret or remorse for those he has to hurt along the way. Since Thailog is a clone of Goliath, they’d have a few moves in common, but he wouldn’t be a full blown echo fighter. He’d also have a few projectiles with a high-tech rifle. Also, I can see Thailog having a super where he goes into a mode where his regular attacks are replaced by assist attacks from the other clones of The Manhattan Clan and for an ultimate, they’d all come together for a huge team attack. And that does it for the base roster, so now we move on to the bosses, starting with the sub-boss.

Puck:

Well, Puck is the one putting on this tournament, so I doubt he’d spend the whole tournament sitting on the sidelines. Once you clear arcade mode, you’d have to get past Puck before moving on to the big final boss, and once you clear arcade mode, you’d unlock Puck as a playable character. Since he a boss character, he’d be pretty tough. Since Puck is a trickster, the MO of his play style would be, in a word, CHAOS! He’d be teleporting all over the screen, pelting you with magical attacks, setting up stone replicas of the opponent to attack the opponent on his behalf and all other manner of crazy bullshit he can throw at you. Okay, before we move on to the final boss, I’d like to introduce one more new mechanic to the game, rivalry matches. Right before the opponent faces Puck, they’d face their designated rival and have a special interaction with one another. So, before unveiling our final child, let’s run down each character’s rival match one by one.

Goliath: Xanatos

This one is self-explanatory. Goliath and Xanatos are one of my favorite hero/villain dynamics in all of media and I imagine that they’d both be the pseudo main characters of this game.

Brooklyn: Demona

In one of the early episodes, Demona tried to tempt Brooklyn to her side and nearly succeeded until he learned she was using him to get to Goliath. Since then, Brooklyn has held a grudge against Demona

Lexington: Fox

Lex was a big fan of The Pack TV Show, not fully comprehending that the actors on it weren’t who they said they were. Fox took advantage of this, and Lexington was enraged at being deceived. Nowadays, the two are actually on good terms for the most part, but the rivalry still fits

Broadway: Angela

Not all rivalry matches have to be antagonistic. Broadway and Angela eventually become a couple, so I thought a friendly match between lovers might be fun

Elisa: Robyn Canmore

Well, Elisa did have a fling with Robyn’s brother so… yeah.

Hudson: Wolf

In most episodes in which The Manhattan Clan faced off against The Pack, Hudson was usually paired off against Wolf, so let’s keep that goin

Angela: Demona

Remember when I said Angela was Goliath’s daughter? And remember when I said Goliath and Demona used to be lovers? Yeah, do the math. These two have a complicated relationship to say the least. Angela wants to get to know her mother, but also realizes that she’s dangerous and not to be trusted.

Xanatos: Goliath

Same reason as before

Demona: Macbeth

Macbeth: Demona

Do I really need to explain this one?

Fox: Xanatos

We see in the show that these two spar with one another all the time and get pretty competitive with one another. I think having them have a full-blown death match would just be foreplay for the Xanatos family.

Wolf: Coyote

This would probably just be Wolf making another play for the position of Leader of The Pack.

Dingo: Jackal

The most redeemable member of The Pack squaring off against the most evil. I’d like to think this would be Dingo encountering The Pack again after leaving to go legit, and Jackal being disgusted by him.

Hyena: Coyote

Hyena would totally just use his as another excuse to proposition the big robot for sex.

Jackal: Hyena

I just noticed I’m having The Pack do a lot of infighting. Honestly, I just want to see the twins fight each other.

Coyote: Goliath

The Leader of The Pack vs. The Leader of The Manhattan Clan. Just makes sense

Talon: Elisa

One may have been mutated into a horrible-winged monster and the other one may dating a horrible winged monster, but these two are still brother and sister and have a special bond with one another. I like the idea of them having a friendly match

Cold Stone: Goliath

They are technically brothers so there’s plenty of reason for them to have a special interaction

Robyn Canmore: MacBeth

Robyn is a Gargoyle hunter, so you’d think she’d fight one of the Gargoyles, but I’d like to see her interact with MacBeth. While they never met in the show, they are technically cousins, albeit many, many, MANY times removed. On top of that, MacBeth has a pretty long and twisted history with the various individuals who have worn the hunter’s mask. The original hunter murdered MacBeth’s father, stole his castle and married his girlfriend. The guy who took up the mantle after MacBeth killed the first guy, the aforementioned asshole cousin, was the guy who hired the first guy to do all that and also declared war on MacBeth shortly after MacBeth saved his life. And the next guy aligned with the English in order to seize the throne of Scotland in a war that forced MacBeth into exile and claimed the life of his son. So, yeah, it’s safe to say that anyone who wears the Hunter’s mask is someone MacBeth has a pretty big axe to grind with.

Thailog: Goliath Pretty obvious since Thailog is Goliath’s genetic duplicate and also thinks of him as a father.

Puck: Goliath/Xanatos

Since Puck obviously wouldn’t fight himself in arcade mode, so he’d technically have two rivalry matches one with Goliath, since he’s the main character and Xanatos since, let’s just say the two have a special connection. Yeah, that’s the one spoiler too big to give away in this article, but if you know, you know.

All right, that’s out of the way, so let’s unveil the big boss, and in the world of Gargoyles, it doesn’t come much bigger than…

Oberon:

Oberon, Lord of the Third Race, King of the Fair Folk, Ruler of Avalon and one of the most entitled, petulant assholes you’ll ever meet. He’s not evil per se, but he is a big jerk who is not above throwing a temper tantrum if he doesn’t get his way. And since Puck is one of his subjects, he’d likely be none too pleased about the trickster throwing this tournament. I imagine it going a little something like this. Once you beat Puck in Arcade Mode, a cutscene would play where Puck congratulates you on your victory and names you the official champion. Next thing you know, Oberon would show up, admonishing Puck for once again meddling in the affairs of mortals. Not wanting to face the brunt of Oberon’s wrath, Puck naturally pushes the newly crowned champion of his tournament between him and the incredibly powerful pissed off super fae. Oberon is probably the most powerful character we see in the show. We’re talking about a guy who, when reduced to a mere ten percent of his full power, was still able to wipe the floor with three seasoned Gargoyle warriors, including Goliath. When our heroes faced him at full power, it was only through sheer dumb luck that they managed to survive his onslaught, and even then, it was really only a win by forfeit. So naturally, as a boss, Big Daddy Oberon would be as tough as they come. His attacks would reflect many of the abilities he demonstrated in the show. He’d have plenty of energy blasts as regular projectiles, a super where he grows giant-sized and his massive fist comes crashing down on the arena, a counter where he makes his skin as hard as diamond and temporarily becomes invincible, and my personal favorite, a grab move where he sucks he opponent into his cape (which is apparently a portal to the distortion world from Pokemon) and send them flying back out across the screen. This is the final boss after all, we don’ want to make him easy for the player. Also, for added flavor, when Oberon gets low on health, he’d take his withered Nosferatu looking form from when he was weakened in the show. In this form he’d have a new move where he can heal himself back up to his base form, but he can only use it so many times.

Wow, I had a blast writing this article, it’s one of the longest I’ve ever written and the best part, it’s only half done! Keep an eye out for part 2 where we cover the various seasons of DLC this game would have. Until then, your teacher, Professor Eleazar Fig, dies at the end of Hogwarts Legacy no matter what choices you make and Anne was cursed by Rookwood! (That joke was both funny and relevant when this article came out) See you next time!