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The Manhattan Clan are the fictional protagonists of the animated Disney series '' Gargoyles ''. They are six gargoyles (mythical winged humanoid creatures that turn to stone by day), the last survivors of a Scottish Gargoyle Clan who are frozen in stone in the year 994 only to be reawakened in 1994 in Manhattan . Originally from the fictional Castle Wyvern in , also survived, though this was not known at the time. The Vikings had also captured many of the castle's human inhabitants, and the remaining gargoyles followed to exact vengeance. They successfully rescued most of the castle's inhabitants, however, Castle Wyvern's Magus cast a spell on five of the Gargoyles that turned them permanently to stone (Evidence suggests that it merely turned them into stone at night, leaving them with the natural ability to become stone in the daylight), believing that the gargoyles had caused the death of the Princess during the counter-attack. However, when the Princess returned after being rescued by Goliath, the Magus realized that he had made a terrible mistake. Unfortunately, the necessary counterspell was destroyed earlier when the Viking leader burned a page from the Magus' spellbook to taunt him, thus precluding restoring the clan, except for the fact that the curse would end when the castle "rose above the clouds" which seemed obviously impossible. Goliath, the only survivor, could not continue and asked that the clan's eggs be cared for while he joined his brethen in inert oblivion. One thousand years later, billionaire industrialist David Xanatos purchased Castle Wyvern and had it moved, brick by brick, to the top of his skyscraper on Manhattan Island in New York City . As Xanatos anticipated, the building was high enough to be often above cloud cover, thus satisfying the requirement for the spell to be broken. This liberated the gargoyles from their stone sleep, only to be stunned to find themselves in an alien city with inconceivably colossal dimensions. After the initial shock passed, the clan would eventually attempt to fit in to their new environment with the five unnamed gargoyles (apart from Goliath), taking names from New York boroughs and landmarks to allow the people of this world to better relate to them. Despite being grateful for their release from their slumber, the new Manhattan Clan was reluctant to put their trust in another human. This was fortunate, as their benefactor David Xanatos intended to use them for his own Machiavellian schemes. Instead, they befriended NYPD detective Elisa Maza , and eventually moved out of their ancestral home of Castle Wyvern and into a clock tower above her precinct house. From their new clock tower home, they charged themselves with defending the island of Manhattan as their new protectorate. As they acclimated to the new home, the clan worked to restablish their command structure, with Brooklyn appointed as Goliath's second after he was able to come up with a plan to rescue the captured Goliath, Hudson, Eliza and Bronx. Later on, Goliath, Elisa and Bronx were called away to help the Grown Children Of The Wyvern Clan on the mystic island of Avalon where they met Goliath's daughter, Angela. After defeating the threat and an extended world tour with Angela accompanying them, the group returned to Manhattan to tell the good news of not only the new addition to the clan but also that the gargoyle species is doing far better than they ever hoped with numerous clans in existence. In addition, during Goliath's absence, Brooklyn ably lead the clan in adventures of their own once he regained his self confidence in his responsbilities. At the end of the syndicated portion of the series, the clock tower was destroyed and the clan returned to the castle after being rescued by the reformed Xanatos who, together with his family, become the clan's patrons. GOLIATH The leader of the clan, Goliath was voiced by Keith David . The only character named before their stone sleep, Goliath had been named after the Biblical giant Goliath , and was often compared to him by members of Castle Wyvern's court, especially the mistress of the castle herself, Princess Katharine. In this time, he had mated with a female gargoyle that he called his "angel of the night". During the Viking attack he was away from the castle with his mentor (later called Hudson ), tracking the Vikings. When he returned, he believed that his love had been killed with the rest of his clan, and desired vengeance. He led the five surviving clan members in a raid on the Vikings, and personally chased the Viking leader Hakon when he fled with Princess Katharine as hostage. He rescued Katharine, but Hakon himself was tackled by Wyvern's Captain of the Guard (who had opened the doors to the Vikings in a misguided attempt to protect the gargoyles from their human protectees). Goliath was distraught that he had "been denied everything, even {Link without Title} revenge". Things were only compounded when he returned to the main group of Wyvern's refugees to discover that the five remaining members of his clan had already been turned to stone by the Magus, who believed that they had been responsible for the attack and for killing Princess Katharine. Only Katharine's sudden appearance could make the Magus see his own error. Thoroughly suicidal at this point, Goliath quickly asked Katherine to care for the clan's egg then requested that he be frozen in stone along with the others, believing that he would never be freed. When Goliath and the others were freed, he was initially distrustful of David Xanatos ' intentions. However, after an attack on the castle by Xanatos' business enemies, he agreed to work for Xanatos for a time. It was through the intervention of an NYPD detective, Elisa Maza , that he came to see Xanatos for the ruthless individual that he was, and finally agreed to lead the clan away from their ancestral home. In the present, he also encountered his former love, his "angel of the night". Now called Demona , she had also survived through to the modern nights, and had been partially responsible for the Viking attack that wiped out the clan. Cruel and twisted, and spiteful of humans, Goliath nevertheless held out hope that she could be redeemed for a long while. Eventually, he came to realise that this could not happen, and his affections turned instead to the human, Elisa Maza , though for longer still neither of them would acknowledge the fact. Partway through the second season, Goliath discovered that the rookery eggs from Castle Wyvern had survived on the mythical island of Avalon (cared for by Princess Katherine and the Magus). They had formed a new Avalon Clan , and among them was his own daughter, Angela . He was reluctant to accept parenting responsibilities, partly because he knew that Angela's mother was Demona , but was eventually convinced to treat her as a daughter. She became a part of the Manhattan Clan when they finally returned from Avalon. HUDSON The gargoyle that would later be known as Hudson was a former leader of the Wyvern Clan and friend to both Prince Malcolm (Wyvern's original human governor) and the Captain of the Guard (before his betrayal of Wyvern and subsequent death). He was voiced by Ed Asner . Having retired after being blinded in the left eye battling the Archmage , the elder gargoyle (that were around 100 years old at the time) gave the leadership of the clan to his current second-in-command, Goliath . He nevertheless remained a fierce warrior and a cunning strategist. Goliath often relied on his counsel and his experience. They were the only two gargoyles that attempted to track the Vikings, and were thus absent during the raid that destroyed much of the rest of the clan. Having been awoken in the present day, Hudson was the first of the then-nameless clan members to pick a name for himself, after the Hudson River . He befriended the blind author Jeffrey Robbins, who could accept him as a person without being sidetracked by his being non-human, and who taught him how to read. Hudson often feels his age, and many times is relegated to watching television and guarding the clan's homestead while others are on patrols. Nevertheless he remains a proud warrior, ready to answer any challenge. Hudson is also the only gargoyle of the clan who regularly uses a weapon(a short sword), which he began using sometime after losing an eye. In an episode of ''The Goliath Chronicles'', the series' third season, Hudson developed Glaucoma in his remaining eye and reluctantly underwent surgery to regain his vision. In future stories, it would have been said he was the biological father of Broadway , though during the show's run neither of them was explicitly aware of this fact. BROOKLYN Brooklyn, Goliath 's second-in-command, is one of the younger gargoyles of the clan. He survived the Wyvern Massacre along with his two Rookery-Brothers by being locked in the castle's rookery as a punishment for misbehaving. He is voiced by Jeff Bennett . In the modern day, he displays an occasionally reckless attitude, but is also a skilled tactician and leader, as evidenced by his promotion to Goliath's second in the second season episode "Upgrade". He took his name from the New York City borough, Brooklyn . Brooklyn harbours deep resentment for Demona , who tricked him in an early episode into betraying Goliath and allowing Demona to gain control of the lead Gargoyle via a spell. During an extended absence by Goliath, Elisa Maza and Bronx, Brooklyn took control of the clan. Brooklyn is known for having bad luck with romances. His first apparent crush, on a human-turned- Mutate named Maggie Reed, ended badly, with her blaming him for her condition. Though they later became friends, she enterred into a relationship with Talon, another Mutate. Brooklyn also pursued Goliath's daughter Angela as a mate, and was heartbroken when she chose Broadway instead. A future, unrealised plan by ''Gargoyles'' creator Greg Weisman would have had Brooklyn whisked away through time by the Phoenix Gate, where he would have met a female named Katana that was right for him. They would have had two children together, and been joined by a companion gargoyle beast called Fu-Dog. They would arrive back in the Manhattan Clan home after forty years of adventures, but only five minutes would have passed. LEXINGTON Lexington is the smallest gargoyle in the Manhattan Clan, voiced by Thom Adcox-Hernandez . Interested in science, Lexington adapts quickly to the technology of the modern age, as he demonstrates by figuring out how to control a Motorcycle and a Helicopter . In an early episode, Lexington attempted to reach out to what he considered to be like-minded individuals: a group of television superheroes called The Pack . However, not only did he find that they were fake, but that they were mercenaries working for David Xanatos . Feeling betrayed, he often behaved irrationally where it concerned The Pack, especially their leader, Fox . The show's creator, Greg Weisman, has stated that he believed that Lexington was gay. He would have remained consistent to this belief had the show been continued, but would never have brought it to the fore. This statement has been controversial to some fans. BROADWAY The large, round and green-skinned gargoyle called Broadway is a jolly and occasionally naive clan member with a fondness for food, as well as Westerns and Detective Movies . He has the largest wings of all the group and has small bat wing-like structures as his ears. He is loyal, reliable, friendly and quite intelligent despite his appearance, and was the main focus of several of the show's more thought-provoking episodes. Like the other gargoyles, he survived the 994 slaughter emprehended by Hakon , but was cursed to sleep as a statue for a thousand years. In the modern world, Broadway developed fast likings for Western movies and cooking. He also made fast friends with the NYPD detective, Elisa Maza , possibly to a greater extent than any of the other gargoyles except Goliath . Broadway was the star of the episode "Deadly Force", a somewhat controversial episode that was not aired on television for a long period. In it, Broadway finds Elisa's gun and imitates gunslingers that he had seen in a movie. In the process, he accidentally shoots and seriously wounds Elisa. Though she survives, and bears him no ill will for his actions, they both learn a valuable lesson about gun safety. Broadway takes it upon himself to destroy any firearm he finds, and Elisa learns to keep her weapon properly secured. In fact, the episode seemed to only bring the two closer together, and later Broadway was often seen aiding Elisa in her police cases (using skills he picked up in detective stories). Broadway seems to have been the gargoyle of choice for writers who intended to ground their stories in the real world, because of his down-to-Earth nature. Several stories featuring human criminals had only Broadway (and leader Goliath) in pivotal roles. Broadway also appeared in a main role during the pro-literacy episode "Lighthouse in a Sea of Time", in which both he and Hudson (both previously Illiterate ) come to realise the value of the written word. After this, he discovers a taste for poetry and the dramatic arts, particularly Shakespeare , as he is seen reading from '' Romeo And Juliet '' in a late episode of the series. Following Goliath's return at the end of the Avalon World Tour, Broadway began courting Angela , Goliath's newly discovered daughter, as did Brooklyn and Lexington . After she expressed her frustration with them, Angela ultimately chose Broadway, as he saw her as the person she was, rather than simply an object to be won. Likely this was helped by the episode "Possession", in which they were briefly possessed by two of the personalities that made up the gargoyle Coldstone , two lovers that are called Othello and Desdemona. According to Greg Weisman , Broadway is Hudson's biological son, though neither of them are aware of this. Also according to Greg Weisman, Broadway had an elder sister, referred to as Hippolyta. Both she and their mother died prior to the Wyvern Massacre. In the future, he and Angela would have two sons and a daughter (named Artus, Gwenyvere and Lancelot), and a grandson (or great grandson) Samson, the hero of the proposed spin-off ''Gargoyles 2198''. BRONX Bronx, though a member of the Manhattan Clan, was not technically a gargoyle. Rather, he was a gargoyle beast (or, unofficially, a gargbeast) - more resembling a dog than a human. He could not talk, but was nevertheless depicted as intelligent and a fully-fledged member of the clan. He was "voiced" by Frank Welker , and named after The Bronx . ANGELA Angela, voiced by Brigitte Bako , was a late addition to the cast. Hatched from one of the clan's eggs while they were being safeguarded by Princess Katharine, the Magus, and Tom the Guardian on Avalon, she was originally a member of the Avalon Clan of gargoyles. However, after Goliath , Elisa Maza and Bronx visited Avalon for the first time, she left with them in order to see the world (commonly called the "World Tour"). On the journey, it was discovered that she was Goliath's biological daughter. Despite pressure from Angela and others, he was unwilling to treat her as such for a long while, until Diane Maza convinced him. Beyond this, Angela also learned that her mother was Demona , now an enemy of the Manhattan Clan. Upon returning to Manhattan, she was readily accepted by the other clan members. The three males her own age - Brooklyn , Lexington and Broadway - all attempted to woo her as a potential mate. She eventually chose Broadway, though the two had not consummated their relationship as of the end of the show's initial run. |
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