Deep Dive Disney: Wes Builds the Roster for Gargoyles: Arena of the Night Part 2 (DLC)

Welcome back to Part Two of my epic Two-Part Build the Roster of Gargoyles: Arena of the Night, a Fighting game based on my favorite TV show, Gargoyles. I’ve been very pleased by the positive reactions to part one so I hope I can keep that going this time around. If you haven’t read part one, I’ll leave the link right here. But in any case, it’s now time for part two. These days, no modern fighting game feels complete without DLC and this hypothetical Gargoyles game would be no exception. This may seem a bit excessive, but I think we can get away with three seasons of DLC. Each season will introduce five new characters, but I’m also adding a the twist of each season coming with an unlockable final boss. You want to keep arcade mode fresh so players don’t get bored fighting Oberon over and over again. I also like the idea that each season of DLC would follow a theme, and the theme I’ve chosen for our first season is, The World Tour. Long story short, about mid-way through the show’s second season, the show decided to shake up its format and kinda goes all Quantum Leap on us. Goliath, Elisa and Angela all board a magic canoe which takes them on adventures all over the world. Over the course of this story arc, referred to as The World Tour, our heroes encountered many cool and colorful characters as well as several backdoor pilots for spinoffs that never materialized for one reason or another, so I think the first season of DLC would be the perfect place to introduce them. So let’s get started with…

DLC Season 1 (World Tour):

We’re kicking off the first season of DLC with a big fan favorite character in Griff. In one of my favorite episodes from the world tour arc, Goliath goes back in time to the night of the London blitz, teams up with a bird-faced English Gargoyle in a biker jacket named Griff and fights Nazis. Not cool enough for you? In Griff’s second appearance, he becomes besties with King Arthur and together they fight a dragon. If it weren’t for Xanatos, Griff would have a pretty strong claim to the title of coolest character in the show and he was only in two episodes. No way in hell was I leaving Griff off the roster. As for how he’d fight, I think, like Angela, we’d have him focus heavily on arial combat with a lot of dive bomb attacks. He’d also be able to call in his clan mates, Leo, Una and Stagheart, for assist attacks. Next up, it’s Taurus. Taurus is a minotaur cop from the hidden island of New Olympus and also apparently a direct descendant of the minotaur from the Greek myth of Theseus. Like most New Olympians, Taurus has a pretty sizable hate boner for humans but unlike his fellow New Olympians, he at least has the good sense to not let his personal prejudice interfere with his job. Frankly, I wish real cops could be more like this guy. For his play style, I see him being tanky grappler with a few projectiles thrown in for good measure. Also, since he’s a big bull, he’d definitely have a few Juggernaut style head charge attacks. Moving on, we have The Golem. Based on the legend from Jewish folklore, The Golem was called upon to defend the city of Prague in times of need. Since it’s essentially a literal stone wall, The Golem would basically be the tankiest tank that ever tanked. It would take a ton of damage before it goes down, it would hit like a semi-truck, but it would be very slow as a trade-off. Also, we’d have Max, the kid who controls The Golem, standing in the background like The Pokemon Trainer from Smash Bros. Next up we have Cu Chullain. Remember how I said a lot of the episodes in the World Tour arc were backdoor pilots for potential spinoffs. Well, this guy’s episode was the most blatant example. Seriously, you could cut the Gargoyles out of this episode entirely and you’d barely notice. Anywho, Cu Chullain here was a great hero of Irish legend who, I guess, is also an Irish teenager named Rory. I’m not sure if Rory is supposed to be Cu Chullain with amnesia or if Rory was a descendant of Cu Chullain who can call upon his spirit like he’s Amidamaru from Shaman King, it's never really explained. In any case, Cu Chullain’s move set would emphasize his signature weapon, the spear of light, which could be used both for up close melee attacks and for heavy projectiles. He’d also be pretty defensive, since he carries that big shield. And we round out the first season of DLC with Nokkar. In one of the more controversial episodes of the world tour, the show kinda went full Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, by which I mean this predominantly fantasy based setting decided to go an introduce an honest to goodness extraterrestrial. Nokkar was an alien solider who was using Earth as an outpost in a millennia old galactic war. He set up shop on what would one day be known as Easter Island and befriended the locals, who built statues in his honor, hence why he looks the way he does. Nokkar was one tough customer, easily able to go toe to toe with Goliath, but his real strength came from his spaceship which had all kinds of firepower behind it. So for Nokkar’s playstyle, he'd have a lot of heavy melee attacks and grapple moves, but he’d also be able to call upon his ship for some ranged attacks and capture moves, making him one part tank and one part zoner. That wraps it up for the characters, but before we move on to our first unlockable boss character, let’s run down the rivalry matches for these five characters.

Rivalry Matches (Season 1): Griff: Talon Griff and Talon never met, but I like the idea of Griff mistaking Talon for an English Gargoyle since they both have animal heads.

Taurus: Cold Stone

These two never met over the course of the series, they have no real connection to one another and have virtually nothing in common whatsoever, save for the fact that they’re both voiced by the great Michael Dorn, also known as Commander Worf from Star Trek. Actually, this show is kind of well-known for having a lot of Star Trek actors in its voice cast. Whether the writers intended it or not, the Star Trek connection is a big part of the overall Gargoyles experience for many fans, myself included. Hell, I made a whole drinking game out of it. This would be a great moment to pay tribute to that. They could say stuff like “Fight with Honor” or “Today is a Good Day to Die.”

The Golem: Jackal

No real reason, other than Jackal is a criminal and The Golem protects Prague from criminals.

Cu Chullain: Hudson Fans of the show know that Cu Chullain does have a major rival, but they haven’t been introduced into the game (yet) so I’m going with Hudson. Two old warriors having a fun sparring match. Also, remember, we paired Hudson with Bronx, and Bronx was the only Gargoyle who actually did anything of any substance in that episode, so it fits.

Nokkar: Lexington

I can see Lexington really getting excited about all of Nokkar’s gadgets and asking him all kinds of annoying questions. Nokkar’s trying to be polite, but it’s clear he’s slowly losing his patience.

Alright, those out of the way, let’s unveil our first unlockable final boss

Cyber Xanatos:

That’s right, I’m bringing the secret final boss from my Disney Channel fighting game over into this game. For those not in the know, one of the most beloved episodes of the series was called Future Tense, in which our heroes were sent to a dystopian future in which an insane computer program who believed itself to be Xanatos had taken over the world and turned it into a nightmarish totalitarian hellscape. Now, I’m aware that it was revealed that Cyber Xanatos was revealed to be a puppet for a now evil Lexington, who was himself just an illusion created by Puck to screw with Goliath’s head, but that’s a moot point since the character you’d be fighting wouldn’t be the same Cyber Xanatos. Allow me to explain. To unlock Cyber Xanatos, you’d have to get a certain high score in arcade mode using Goliath. Instead of the cutscene with Oberon, Puck would congratulate you on your victory, then flash a sinister grin and say “Now it’s Time for the Bonus Round.” Xanatos would then appear in the background and Puck would snap his fingers, imbuing him with the power of Cyber Xanatos. Even though it was just an illusion, Cyber Xanatos was shown to be able to kill pretty much every major character in the show, so he’d be pretty tough. He’d have a grab move that would electrocute the opponent, he’d be able to summon the sun and turn the opponent to stone and he’d be able to transform into a spiked drill. For an ultimate, I can see Cyber Xanatos having an instant kill move where, if successful, the entire screen flashes and it temporarily looks like your game has crashed, then the words “Upload Complete” would appear on the screen, symbolizing that Cyber Xanatos has uploaded himself into every computer on earth. The final image you’d see would be Xanatos holding the Earth in his fist. Game Over.

Moving right along, our next season of DLC will be focused on The Children of Oberon. In Gargoyles, Children of Oberon is the catch-all term for the Fair Folk or The Third Race. The Children of Oberon come in all shapes and sizes Over the millennia, the children of Oberon have become a part of the folklore of the cultures who have witnessed them with some even being worshipped as gods. What that means is, any mystical creature or deity the Gargoyles encounter, regardless of cultural origin, is a child of Oberon unless explicitly stated otherwise. All Gods are part of the same race and are sorta kinda related. It’s a whole thing. We met plenty of Oberon’s children over the course of the series, so I have to include a few of them in this game. So, let’s go!

DLC Season 2 (Children of Oberon):

We’re starting this season off strong with Odin. Still not convinced of how powerful Oberon is? Even Odin, the All-Father of the Norse Pantheon, bends the knee to the Fairy King. Even though he’s not quite on Oberon’s level, Odin is still one of the most powerful characters our heroes encounter in the show, so gameplay wise, he’d be pretty strong. In fact, I’d argue that he’d be too strong, so I say we’d have to nerf him a bit. Think something similar to Sunsanoo from Blazblue but not exactly. Here’s how it would work. Odin would start the match in his old cloaked wizard form, but as the match goes on and certain conditions are met, he’d be able to use more of his powers until eventually he goes full Odin. He’d be pretty broken, but he’d make you work for it. For his attacks I’d say Odin would be able to summon storms, turn into a bear and call in his horse Sleipnir, for a charge attack. Next up, it’s The Banshee. The Banshee is a spirit of Irish folklore who some view as an omen of death. For the purposes of Gargoyles, The Banshee was the arch-nemesis of Cu Chullain. Since she is a Banshee, a lot of her attacks would revolve around her terrifying ghostly scream, making her the Sindel or Black Canary of this game. For an ultimate, she’d take her Deathwurm form for a big attack. Next are The Weird Sisters. Unlike most of the characters in this season of DLC who only got one major appearance apiece and, if they were lucky, a brief cameo in a later episode, The Weird Sisters, Luna, Phoebe and Selene, have actually had a major impact on the history of the series. Remember that curse that made Demona and MacBeth immortal unless one of them killed the other? That was them. Now, you’re probably wondering how this would even work. I mean, there’s three of them. The way I see it, instead of them having one life bar, they’d have three smaller life bars and you switch in and out between them like in a Marvel vs. Capcom game. One would be super aggressive, one would be more defensive and one would be more balanced and each would have unique attacks that would suit different play styles. Next is Raven, the Native American Trickster God. Raven actually comes from one of my least favorite episodes of the series, but I dig his cool Crow-Gargoyle design so, screw it, he’s in. Raven would fight using his spear, induce status effects with magic attacks and call out his false totem gargoyles for an assist. And rounding out this DLC season is probably the strangest character we’ve included yet, Anansi. Remember that time Gargoyles cast Levar Burton of all people to play a giant spider and then put his voice through a filter so you couldn’t tell it was him so what was even the point? That was weird. Anyway, Anansi, who was inspired by another trickster God, this time originating from African folklore, was, as you can imagine, a giant spider who lived deep in the African Rainforest and spent most of his time cursing humans to become were-panthers so they can bring him food because he’s too fat and lazy to get it himself. I have kind of a wild idea for how Anansi would play. See, I wasn’t kidding about the whole Fat and Lazy thing. Anansi is literally too heavy to move on the ground, so at ground level, he’d be completely immobile. However, he’d have the ability to spin webs in the background that he could use to move around freely. You know how in Street Fighter, Vega is able to climb the walls of the cage in his stage and leap off them for a dive bomb attack? Well, imagine if Vega was able to take the cage with him into other stages and you have an idea of what I’m getting at with this. We’d also give him an attack where his panther minions run across the screen so he wouldn’t be completely defenseless on the ground. Also, the main reason I’m including Anansi is because I’d like to see his interactions with a certain character coming in Season Three, you'll understand when we get there. And that wraps it up for Season Two, but before we move on, it’s time for the rivalry matches.

Rivalry Matches (Season 2):

Odin: The Banshee

These two actually did have a pretty cool fight in the show, but it ended in a no contest because Oberon got bored.

The Banshee: Cu Chullain

As I said, The Banshee was the sworn enemy of Cu Chullain, so this just makes sense.

The Weird Sisters: Angela

These three joined forces with an evil wizard to launch an attack on Angela’s home and were responsible for the death of one of the humans who raised her. She’d definitely have a score to settle with the triplets.

Raven: Griff

Same idea as Griff’s fight with Talon. Plus, I just like the idea of the two bird-headed Gargoyles going at it. Anansi: Broadway

I love the idea of a character who everyone assumes is fat and stupid going up against a character who is actually fat and stupid.

Alright, that’s out of the way, so let’s unveil our second unlockable boss.

Awakened Goliath:

Since our first DLC boss was a powered up version of Xanatos, it makes sense that our second would be a powered up version of Goliath. This is Goliath when he’s using the power of an ancient mystical artifact called The Eye of Odin, which, as it turns out, is Odin’s actual eye… gross. The Eye imbues Goliath with unbelievable godlike power, but also amplifies his worst qualities. He’s still Goliath, still a protector at heart, but he’s much more of an aggressive dick about it. Same deal as last time, you beat Puck, this time using Xanatos instead of Goliath, Puck says it’s time for the bonus round, snaps his fingers yadda yadda yadda, only this time, instead of Xanatos, it’s Goliath who appears in the background. In this form, he’d fight a lot like regular Goliath, but every attack would be powered up significantly. He’d also have the ability to fire off Hadouken blasts and summon blizzards. For an Ultimate, The eye allowed Goliath to Absorb Odin’s power, so maybe we could translate that into move that allows him to sap the health of his opponent and heal himself.

Before we get to our third and final season of DLC, let’s briefly run down a few of the characters who were considered for the roster, but just barely missed the final cut.

Matt Bluestone: Detective Matt Bluestone, Elisa’s partner on the force and a Fox Mulder-esque conspiracy nut who was laughed out of the FBI for his obsession with proving the existence of the Illuminati, is one of my favorite minor characters in the show. However, Bluestone is just a regular cop who would be insanely out of place amongst all the other characters and doesn’t have a Gargoyle form to fall back on like Elisa.

Cold Fire and Cold Steel: I explained why these two didn't make the cut in Part 1, but I represented them as part of the move set for Cold Stone.

Maggie and Claw: The other members of Talon’s clan are cool but Maggie isn’t really a fighter and Claw isn’t interesting enough for a full roster spot.

Gillecomgain: The original Gargoyle Hunter was pretty cool, kind of like a medieval version of Deathstroke, but he’s been dead for centuries and I’m sticking to that “Must Be Alive” rule.

Fang and Yama: One was a member of Talon’s Clan who betrayed the others, the other was a Gargoyle from Japan who also betrayed his clan. The only reason either of them were considered was because they were both featured in the Gargoyles: Bad Guys comic and I would have loved to get the whole team together. Unfortunately, I just couldn't find a spot for them.

Zaphiro: Zaphiro was the leader of a small Gargoyle clan living in an Aztec Pyramid in the Guatemalan Jungle. Zaphiro was a tough one to cut. He’s a cool character and I love his snake like design, but ultimately, when given the choice between him and Griff, it was a no brainer who had to go.

The Arch-Mage: Archie was a major villain in the series, but there’s that pesky “Must Be Alive” rule to consider and since Archie ate a magical book like a sandwich and the raw magical energy overwhelmed him and caused him to explode, he’s about as dead as you can get in a children’s cartoon. Also, if this were a real game, I’d like to get as much of the original voice cast back as humanly possible. And sadly, not only is The Arch-Mage dead, his voice actor, the legendary David Warner is dead as well. A character like Hudson, whose own voice actor, Ed Asner, also recently passed, is integral enough to the series that we could get away with casting a sound-alike. But in this case, I’d rather just leave it alone.

Tony Dracon: At no point in time was Tony Dracon ever considered for this roster and it is very important to me that you all know that.

All right that’s out of the way, let’s move on to the final season of DLC. Now, I’m sure if this were a real game, this season would have a cool name like “End Game” or “Final Reckoning” or something cheesy like that. But in my head, while I was putting this last season together, in my head I kept calling it “Let’s Go Crazy.” For this final season, we’re pulling out all the stops, even some of the stops you didn’t know were there to pull out. You wanna get nuts? Come On! Let’s Get Nuts!

DLC Season 3 (Let’s Go Crazy):

We’re starting off strong with none other than Arthur Pendragon. Yup, King Arthur is very real in the Gargoyles Universe and still very much alive, and after a very long nap on Avalon, he’s ready to get back into the world and be awesome. Arthur is the greatest warrior who ever lived so he’d be pretty powerful. In fact, like Odin, he might be too powerful, so I suggest giving him a similar mechanic to the one we gave the All-Father. He’d start off strong enough, but you’d have to meet certain conditions, or prove yourself worthy if you will, before you’re able to use Excalibur, at which time, your damage output would increase dramatically. For an ultimate, I’m thinking he calls forth an enormous dragon like the one that he had to fight to claim Excalibur in the first place. Next up, we have Titania, Queen of the Third Race and Oberon’s wife. Titania may not be as powerful as her on again off again husband, but she’s shown to be a hell of a lot smarter and the only one who knows how to put the big guy in his place. She’s also shown to be a master manipulator, one who almost gives Xanatos a run for his money. We never see her fight in the show, but I’d imagine she’d be the opposite of Oberon. While Oberon is angry and aggressive, Titania would be calm and patient. Let’s give her a bunch of teleports and counter moves. Titania strikes me as the sort who lets her opponent come to her before she goes in for the kill, not unlike a cat playing with its food before it eats it. Next up, I wanted to include at least one character introduced in the SLG comics so I went with Brooklyn’s Mate, Katana, though Lexington’s boyfriend Stagheart was strongly considered. Long story short, Brooklyn goes through a lot of shit in the comics. I haven’t read the SLG comics, but that’s only because they’re very hard to track down and quite expensive, but as I understand it, Brooklyn finds the Phoenix Gate, has a crazy adventure through time and comes back years older with a wife and kid. Katana, as her name might suggest, specializes in bladed weaponry. I suggest having her fight like a Gargoyle version of Taki from Soul Caliber. For an ultimate, she could call in her son, Gnash, for a double team attack. Our next one requires a bit of an explanation. See, if you know the show, you’re probably wondering how Puck is even able to put on this tournament? Not that he doesn’t have the power to do so, but… well… let me explain. The reason Oberon came into conflict with our heroes was because the big guy learned that Alex, Fox and Xanatos’s newborn son, had magical heritage and tried to abduct the baby and take him to Avalon where those skills could be better cultivated and Xanatos naturally said, “Fuck That!” The whole thing came to an end when Puck brokered a deal that would allow Baby Alex to stay in the mortal realm so long as Puck acted as his teacher. Oberon agreed to the terms, but since Big Daddy was in a really shitty mood that night, he permanently banished Puck from Avalon and decreed that he could only use his powers when teaching Baby Alex. Don’t worry, I didn’t forget, which is why our next fighter is Alexander Xanatos. Let’s say Puck uses the flimsy excuse of this tournament being a way to train young Alex in magical combat. Now how does that work? This show may have pushed the envelope in terms of what you could do in a kids show, but I doubt we could get away with our characters getting into a fist fight with an infant, which is why I say Puck temporarily replaces Alex with a future version of himself, something we got a brief glimpse of in that Future Tense episode I mentioned. Future Alex would fight a lot like a combination of his Mother and Father with a few moves borrowed from both. He’d also be able to call upon his fey heritage for a few magical attacks. And finally, for the final DLC character, we want something big. Something that will get people talking. And one way to do that is with a guest character. Someone who will attract the attention of fans of the game whose interests may have waned, but also non-Gargoyles fans who are intrigued by the inclusion of a popular character from another franchise. To illustrate my point, today, Soul Caliber III is one of my top 5 favorite games of all time, but I may never have touched it if I wasn’t drawn to Soul Caliber II when I heard Link was in the game. And I can think of no character who fits that bill better than The Spectacular Spider-Man. Greg Weisman also had a hand in the show Spectacular Spider-Man, there’s a crossover between the two shows floating around out there in audio-play form which includes several members of the original voice casts, and since both franchises are owned by Disney, legal issues won’t be that big a deal. It makes perfect sense to include Spider-Man in this game. And the best part, Spidey has been in enough fighting games to where we don’t really need to devise a move set for him. Just have him fight like he does in the Marvel vs. Capcom Games, Badda Bing, Badda Boom, we’re good to go. But before we move on, it’s time for our last round of rivalry matches.

Rivalry Matches (Season 3):

King Arthur: MacBeth

MacBeth once heard about King Arthur hunting down Excalibur in New York following clues from a prophecy that mentioned a Timeless King. Well, MacBeth was king of Scotland, and he’s immortal, he fits the prophecy as well as Arthur does, maybe he should have the mighty sword. By the end of the episode, Macbeth accepted that Arthur was the one true king and the two gained a mutual respect for one another, but I’d still like to see them go at it one on one. I’ve always wanted to see how MacBeth stacks up against the best.

Titania: Fox

Remember when I said Fox had magical heritage. Well, during the thousand years she spent divorced High King Jackass, she met and fell in love with a man named Halcyon Renard and had a child. Do the math, Copernicus. Mother Daughter fight!

Katana: Brooklyn

Friendly sparring match between lovers, same logic of Broadway vs. Angela.

Alexander: Xanatos

Father vs. Son, it doesn’t get any cooler than that, but this would go deeper. See, Xanatos’s ultimate goal is to find a way to make himself immortal. Me, I imagine Xanatos getting a glimpse of that great man his son will grow up to be and swelling with pride. He’d tell his son how proud he is of him, and he’d end it by saying “You son, you are how I achieve my Immortality.”

Spider-Man: Anansi

I couldn’t help it, it’s just too perfect. Also, in one of my favorite J. Michael Straczynski runs on Amazing Spider-Man, it’s implied that Spidey’s powers may actually have originated from the African trickster God, so it’s not like there are no lore reasons for them to fight.

Alright, all that remains is to reveal the final unlockable boss. So, with the first three, you may have noticed something. Oberon is a massive douchebag, but he’s not exactly plotting world domination or anything. The Eye of Odin may make Goliath a big jerk, but he’s still Goliath at the end of the day, and while Cyber Xanatos was overtly malicious, the character you fight isn’t the original Cyber Xanatos but rather the regular, morally grey but still not evil Xanatos imbued with the power of Cyber Xanatos. All of our bosses have been powerful, but none of our bosses have been evil. So for our last boss, I might have overcompensated a bit. Let’s finish strong with…

Queen Mab:

I know what you’re thinking. Who is Queen Mab? Well, Queen Mab was the mother of Oberon and the original ruler of the Third Race. She was also apparently the nastiest creature ever to walk the earth. Supposedly, she was sealed away by Oberon eons ago, but could still potentially break loose from her prison. Mab never appeared in the show and to my knowledge has yet to appear in the comics, but Greg Weisman said that if he got to work on more seasons of the show, Queen Mab here would have been the big bad for a major story arc. Obviously, if Queen Mab ever does show up in the series we’d have to change this up, but since this hypothetical game would theoretically coincide with the 30th anniversary of Gargoyles, now would be as good a time as any to finally introduce this character to the series in a big way. Here’s how I see it going. Puck would name you champion, but then he’d suddenly sense something. All the color would drain from his face and the poor little fairy would look terrified. He’d say things like “It can’t be, it’s impossible, we need to get out of here right now. Run!” But before anyone has a chance to react, a battered and bruised Oberon would fall out of the sky like Dave Chappelle in Con Air and Queen Mab herself would descend from the heavens. Now, at this point, we don’t even know what Queen Mab looks like, let alone how she would fight. Greg Weisman offered a vague description that mentions she typically takes a humanoid form and has four arms, but that’s all we have. Best I could find was a drawing of Mab I found on DeviantArt (shout out to artist DTaina). It’s not much but it does give us a starting point on what to do about Mab’s move set. Let’s see, one hand is holding fire, another ice, another lightning and the last one is brandishing a nasty looking whip. To me, that all sounds like the ingredients for the ultimate zoner. Come at her head on, she’ll freeze you with an ice blast, Sub-Zero style. Come at her low, she’ll trip you up with her whip. Try to attack from the air, she’ll ground you with a bolt of lightning from the heavens. And if you somehow manage to survive all that, she’ll roast you with a pillar of hellfire from beneath just for fun. She’s coming at you from all sides and she is not about to give you a second to catch your breath. She wouldn’t be very defensive so if you manage to get in close on her, you might stand a chance, but she’s sure as hell not about to make it easy for you. And of course, since she is the final boss to end all final bosses, she would definitely have an instant kill move. Picture this: Mab puts all four hands on her whip and imbues it with electricity, wraps it around the opponents throat, flies up as high as she can and… SNAP! A little violent, even for this series, but hey, if Tarzan can get away with it, this game certainly can.

And that, at long last, rounds things out for Gargoyles: Arena of the Night. This was seriously the most fun I’ve ever had writing any of my articles and I am very grateful to all who read and enjoyed. Next time, we take a look at the newest Animated feature from Walt Disney Pictures, Strange World.