#gs2e10

[thoughtfulfangirling]

Ugh! Love this! Demona saying goodbye to everything she's ever known, everything she can never have back again. She'll carry the sorrow and pain for both of them, for much longer than even she can imagine now.

[thoughtfulfangirling]

You know, it does get a bit tiresome how consistently we have our gargoyles so obviously rescue people and they stick to this assumption that they're monsters out to hurt them, but at the same time, the very situation of needing to be rescued lends itself to being in a state of shock and deregulation where the brain is literally not working quite right. By the time anyone can sort themselves out and go over what happened, the gargoyles aren't around to see it, so their frustration is pretty valid. And I love that we distinctly get Brooklyn here reacting to it with sarcasm, because I do still think he has the closest parallel personality-wise to Demona. Which I adore! Especially knowing that later this doesn't make him unfit to be a leader because it's not the disposition that's the problem, but what one does with it!

[thoughtfulfangirling]

Aw man I adore this moment! It's such a small scene that I'd forgotten about it. It is so telling! Demona wants to save the gargoyles, but events have progress past the point of return. Daylight is almost upon them; she cannot save them all. But she could save these two. She almost does! Or almost makes an actual effort. But she sees the vikings coming, and she realizes, I think, that if the worst comes to pass and she and Coldstone and Coldfire return to their brethren dead, then not only will they question Demona about knowing to flee, they will blame her!

But if Robert keeps his word and she returns to find the gargoyles having inherited an empty castle, well then no one would have to know she left. No one would have to have any idea she had anything to do with it. For at least a second time, she puts the fate of all her happiness in the hands of Robert.

God how it must haunt her that she had gone to them, that she had this chance, and she walked away. Left them to die when they were the last of her people she could have saved. She hadn't needed to be alone for sure. The three of them would have been all they had left, and as mad as they might be at her, as much as they might loath her, they would have lived. And perhaps they could have even learned to forgive her and make what they could of the reality of the lives left ahead of them.

But she walked away.

[thoughtfulfangirling]

We get to flashback to the events we opened the series with, but now from Demona's POV. We've already learned that she was part of Robert's plan to align with Hakon to get rid of the humans from this castle, but now we get to see more of the specifics and the ways in which Demona was involved.

It's also fascinating to me that the animation of Demona when she's with Goliath is so starkly different after Goliath leaves. There are suddenly more lines on her face. She's suddenly more gaunt, even more aged. Not in every panel, but in enough of them that it really is striking the way we're meant to see the Demona Goliath sees as innocent and angelic, his 'angel of the night.'

I can't decide if the switch is meant to clue kids in that these actions of hers are bad or if we're supposed to see this as how Demona views herself in this moment. Of course, the most, digging for meaning even where it might not be course would be to see this as how Demona sees herself. When she's scheming with Robert, a human, she sees a wickedness in her actions. Perhaps it's even a sign that there is some part of her that knows she was in the wrong here, even if she cannot address that to herself.

[thoughtfulfangirling]

This coming immediately on the heels of the sequence of Demona turning tragically to stone as the vikings attack, a tear slipping down her cheek, is so telling. As the sun rose on her, she knew it was all a mistake, that nothing good could come from what had been set in motion. She knew it.

But as the sun fell and she awoke, she woke needing to believe that she had always suspected the plan could work. She sees the signs of the castle attacked from the shore and assumes Robert was able to keep her people safe, even while her very presence on the beach, away from the castle, proves how little faith she had in him to keep her alive during the day.

She is a master in the art of convincing herself of what she needs to to keep moving forward. She is a masterclass in how those who hide from bad feelings and emotions can hurtle themselves down a path that isn't actually productive even though they are still acting. Demona never quits, a trait we generally praise. But she doesn't quit so she never has to sit with her culpability. She instead will convince herself that she never believed she herself had done the wrong thing. Instead, when reality hits, she's going to be able to place on the blame on Robert, on humans.

[thoughtfulfangirling]

What cause is that nameless lady? Hmm? Also omg Matt, who let you be the negotiator here. Granted, I know nothing about negotiating, but forgive me if I don't think this children's show nailed it. Which like, it's a children's show! And yet, I do enjoy thinking of Matt as competent. XD It does sort of track for me though that this guy who is working to uncover grand conspiracies from inside such an elaborate system might have no patience for someone he sees as just bludgeoning their way toward what they want.

I have a feeling this is entirely besides the point! XD

[thoughtfulfangirling]

I'm not quite halfway but not for lacking spending well over an hour on it. XD THIS IS SOME JUICY STUFF!

It might just be another three session episode this month. XD Which is fine by me but maybe less fun for anyone following along. Welp DX

[thoughtfulfangirling]

This moment will always be FASCINATING to me! Not that it doesn't make sense or I can't understand it. But Demona has literally reached what I think of as the deciding moment in what will become her war against humanity, but she turns her back on raising the last of her clan, leaving their eggs in the hands of humans. And the first human she sees is the Magus. She knows enough of magic that I think she now is starting to understand how the remnants of her clan are now stone.

I can see this as a moment of rare penance. The price she'll pay for her mistakes so that she never has to look at those mistakes again because they've been paid for? To accept banishment from what remains of her clan. Denying herself the chance to lead their progeny?

I can also see this moment as one of believing that it's too close to dawn. That to go down there and kill the humans might not happen quick enough for them to get away anyhow. Or leave the eggs in risk being out, unprotected, while she is stone during the day.

It could also be a moment of her not feeling capable of handling the task of raising a clan alone.

It could be a little bit of all of these or something else, but it's nothing if not absolutely fascinating af to me.