#xanatos trying to explain to owen that he consciously Cares About Other People and has the rudimentary inklings of a sense of honor now

[makiruz]

#the Peggy Sue time travel is one of my favorite tropes to play with in my head#(even though i basically never want to write a full fic with it)#so this is my thought experiment#xanatos trying to explain to owen that he consciously Cares About Other People and has the rudimentary inklings of a sense of honor now#would be really funny i think#'so...are the gargoyles worth awakening sir?'#'oh i think so. they're not very malleable but they make life interesting! and handy to have around for any problems i DIDN'T make myself'#'--we're not cloning goliath though. that's off the table'#'... I hadn't even put it ON the table yet sir. but I'll make a note of it'#gargoyles

I think Xanatos would refrain from turning Derek into a mutate this time, no need to antagonize Elisa more than necessary

Evaluating how a handful of Gargoyles characters would respond to a Peggy Sue-type time travel plot that sends them back from the end of the show to the beginning of their storylines (assuming that, as they're in their actual younger bodies, the "you can't change the past" rule is automatically broken)

Macbeth: Say he goes back to the night his dad is killed? Making the MOST of this. Maybe kills the Hunter with his future experience, if not probably assassinates the guy a little later, definitely marries Gruoch earlier and ABSOLUTELY tries to stay away from the Three Sisters and any immortality pacts. Maybe just ditches Scotland entirely to avoid the politics. His goal is to live a quiet life and then die.

Demona: ...Her whole thing is the tragedy of making the same bad choices over and over, so I think nothing would actually change?? She'd wake up in Castle Wyvern before planning the betrayal and just be like "...THIS time I can do it BETTER," and then it would go wrong in new and exciting ways that still make her lose everything. She's real dumb.

Goliath: Would have a BREAKDOWN over being in 994, poor guy. I think he'd take the stance that "I have to save the people in front of me first," regardless, but the joy of seeing his clan again would be countered by the sudden loss of Manhattan and Elisa. Priorities would be preventing the betrayal and mending garg-human relations... But it would be REALLY HARD being around Demona specifically, because she technically isn't a traitor yet but he KNOWS she WOULD, and also they're still gargoyle-married but he's not in love with her?? And he REALLY MISSES ELISA. (But I think watching him tackle 994 with his added wisdom and maturity would be neat. And if all went well he'd get to raise baby Angela!)

The Magus: "This time I should probably not antagonize or curse the gargoyles. And maybe I should also just TELL the Princess I'm in love with her at some point."

Xanatos: Sending him back to 1994 is... Terrifying. Fascinating. PROBABLY half the problems of canon would be avoided because they're problems he creates for himself, but also he miiiight still do things like upgrade the Pack and mutate people just for fun? He'd go through everything knowing that his biggest priorities are Fox and the unborn Alexander--self-knowledge he did NOT have the first time around--so he'd be focused on prepping for the whole Oberon thing throughout... But he'd also be running side-schemes with his future knowledge, because he's Xanatos. I think he'd tell Owen everything, both because he needs Owen in his confidence and because he trusts him even more after the Gathering, so there'd be a LOT of strategy discussions for sure. Fun but terrifying.

[incomingalbatross]

Evaluating how a handful of Gargoyles characters would respond to a Peggy Sue-type time travel plot that sends them back from the end of the show to the beginning of their storylines (assuming that, as they're in their actual younger bodies, the "you can't change the past" rule is automatically broken)

Macbeth: Say he goes back to the night his dad is killed? Making the MOST of this. Maybe kills the Hunter with his future experience, if not probably assassinates the guy a little later, definitely marries Gruoch earlier and ABSOLUTELY tries to stay away from the Three Sisters and any immortality pacts. Maybe just ditches Scotland entirely to avoid the politics. His goal is to live a quiet life and then die.

Demona: ...Her whole thing is the tragedy of making the same bad choices over and over, so I think nothing would actually change?? She'd wake up in Castle Wyvern before planning the betrayal and just be like "...THIS time I can do it BETTER," and then it would go wrong in new and exciting ways that still make her lose everything. She's real dumb.

Goliath: Would have a BREAKDOWN over being in 994, poor guy. I think he'd take the stance that "I have to save the people in front of me first," regardless, but the joy of seeing his clan again would be countered by the sudden loss of Manhattan and Elisa. Priorities would be preventing the betrayal and mending garg-human relations... But it would be REALLY HARD being around Demona specifically, because she technically isn't a traitor yet but he KNOWS she WOULD, and also they're still gargoyle-married but he's not in love with her?? And he REALLY MISSES ELISA. (But I think watching him tackle 994 with his added wisdom and maturity would be neat. And if all went well he'd get to raise baby Angela!)

The Magus: "This time I should probably not antagonize or curse the gargoyles. And maybe I should also just TELL the Princess I'm in love with her at some point."

Xanatos: Sending him back to 1994 is... Terrifying. Fascinating. PROBABLY half the problems of canon would be avoided because they're problems he creates for himself, but also he miiiight still do things like upgrade the Pack and mutate people just for fun? He'd go through everything knowing that his biggest priorities are Fox and the unborn Alexander--self-knowledge he did NOT have the first time around--so he'd be focused on prepping for the whole Oberon thing throughout... But he'd also be running side-schemes with his future knowledge, because he's Xanatos. I think he'd tell Owen everything, both because he needs Owen in his confidence and because he trusts him even more after the Gathering, so there'd be a LOT of strategy discussions for sure. Fun but terrifying.