Gargoyles and Turtles: Unsung Defenders
is a Gargoyles/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles crossover fic by TvFan2244.
Two groups of warriors stalk the streets of New York. One group is a clan of mythological creatures brought into the modern day, while another group consists of animals mutated by science into sapience. Together, the two will hit back against those who dare to threaten the peace in the Big Apple.
While the fic’s storyline starts off as essentially a direct adaptation of the original Gargoyles series, it is basically a Patchwork Fic of various adaptations of the TMNT franchise rather than drawing from just one version of the Turtles’ history.
Gargoyles and Turtles:Unsung Defenders contains the following examples:
- Big Bad Duumvirate: David Xanatos and Demona have a more active partnership, while Oroku Saki/Shredder and Chrell have their own alliance.
- Big Bad Ensemble: While David Xanatos and Demona are working together for now, Shredder and Chrell also have their own partnership where both alliances are working against each other as well as the Gargoyles and Turtles, even as the heroes have joined forces.
- Big Damn Heroes: The Turtles and Gargoyles first meet when they both basically try to be this for April when she and her friends are attacked by the Kraang, although the moment is ‘undermined’ when they end up crashing into each other before they reach their future enemies.
- Bizarre Taste in Food: Michelangelo enjoys his pizza with sauerkraut, tuna fish, pretzels, and jelly beans.
- Canon Welding: When Splinter first meets the Gargoyles, he observes that he heard of gargoyles from tales told by his father of how feudal gargoyles would defend their territory alongside feudal samurai.
- Chronic Hero Syndrome: Despite Goliath’s issues with humans after the betrayal at Wyvern, when he and the Trio see the Kraang attacking April they go to help her even though she is a stranger to them.
- Commonality Connection: Discounting Bronx as the Team Pet, each member of the Turtles’ family soon forms a bond with their gargoyle equivalent; Leonardo and Goliath recognise their shared responsibilities as leaders, Donatello encourages Lexington’s interest in technology, Michaelangelo and Broadway share a fondness for food, Raphael and Brooklyn hit it off for their more violent tendencies, and Splinter and Hudson bond as the Old Master treating the others as their children. Later on, Splinter offers Goliath advice about the importance of moving on from Demona’s betrayal based on his own experience of losing his wife and daughter.
- Contrived Coincidence: The turtles and gargoyles meet when they both dive in to try and save April from the Kraang at the same time, resulting in them initially crashing into each other before they reach their future shared enemies.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: As usual, David Xanatos finds nothing wrong with breaking the rules for a quick buck.
- Decomposite Character:
- Potentially applies; April’s friends make reference to watching the greatest hits of Lou Jitsu at the cinema, but in Rise Lou Jitsu was the screen name of Hamato Yoshi, and to date there is nothing to indicate that this version of Splinter/Yoshi ever worked in the film industry.
- As part of this fic’s nature as a mix of TMNT canons, Ch’rell and the Shredder are in an active alliance much like Shredder and Krang in the 1987 series, when the two characters were the same entity in the 2003 series.
- Determinator: Elisa Maza is a determined detective who will crack the case no matter what.
- Fantastic Racism: Although Goliath has some trust issues in dealing with humans, his decision to defend a group of teenagers from attackers proves that he hasn’t given up on the gargoyles’ instinct to protect, and he soon recognises that some humans still deserve his clan’s help. By contrast, Demona immediately attacks April when she sees the human during her first meeting with the turtles, even though April is clearly known to the rest of the gargoyles.
- Fire-Forged Friends: While the two groups are very different, when the Turtles meet Goliath and the Trio on their mutual first night out in New York, the eight end up bonding with their relevant counterpart on the other team during and after the fight.
- Foil: Part of what helps Goliath recognise that the Turtles genuinely want to be friends with the gargoyles is seeing how Donatello, Michaelangelo and Raphael help the Trio find names. Where Goliath’s own name was just a convenient label to the humans at Wyvern and he didn’t like the darker implications of it, he sees that the Turtles are helping the Trio find names because they genuinely want the Trio to feel welcome, to the extent that the turtles offer suggestions but let the gargoyles each choose their final name (although Michaelangelo is the one to name Bronx).
- Foreshadowing;
- In Hudson’s first meeting with the turtles, he thanks Leonardo for something and says that Leonardo will understand in time, suggesting that Leonardo will take part in a ‘future’ (from Leo’s perspective) time-travel event.
- When the Gargoyle Trio are out with the other three Turtles (Leo being off with Goliath), Brooklyn takes charge of the group at a key moment, reflecting his canon future as second-in-command of the clan.
- When Demona joins Goliath and Leonardo in attacking the flying fortress, a Kraang droid refers to Demona as ‘Subject G’, suggesting that Demona has a past history with the Kraang. The next chapter sees Ch’rell confirm that he has encountered Demona himself, but their last such encounter was before Shredder was even born.
- Good Cannot Comprehend Evil: Michaelangelo is particular immediately expresses a more optimistic view of what life was like back in Wyvern when the humans and gargoyles were more active allies, with Goliath appreciating Michaelangelo’s innocent optimism even if he has to immediately explain that it wasn’t like that.
- Gosh Dang It to Heck!: Raphael claims he doesn’t see why the “shell” he should care about old architecture.
- In Spite of a Nail:
- Michaelangelo rather than Brooklyn names the watchbeast, but the creature is still named Bronx.
- While Michaelangelo initially calls Xanatos’s robot gargoyles ‘Mecha-Goliaths’, Xanatos makes it clear that the robots are the Steel Clan.
- It Only Works Once: In their first meeting with the gargoyles at Wyvern, Donatello is able to hack the security systems so that he and his brothers won’t be seen. Unfortunately for the turtles, Donnie underestimates Xanatos’s abilities and the next time they visit the castle the security team were prepared for his hack, with Xanatos letting the then-unknown hacker think their efforts had worked so he could see the parties responsible without them knowing he was watching.
- Jerkass Has a Point: While Raphael could have been more tactful about it, he’s the only one of the group willing to confront Goliath about how he should get over Demona’s betrayal because clearly Goliath doesn’t mean anything to his former mate after she tried to kill him.
- Literal-Minded: When Demona rants about finding the descendants of the Vikings who destroyed Wyvern and punishing them, Donatello starts talking about the logistical reasons that isn’t practical before he realises just how intently Demona’s glaring at him and withdraws into his shell.
- Love Hurts: Full attention is given to Goliath’s emotional state when he witnesses the extent of Demona’s insanity and learns of her role in the Wyvern massacre. The following chapter sees him struggling with the whole situation, torn between his recent memory of Demona as his beloved and the monster that she’s become since they last saw each other.
- The Masquerade: Both the Turtles and the Gargoyles work hard to make sure the public never spots them.
- Mundane Object Amazement: The Gargoyles find modern conveniences like donuts and laptops to be marvels beyond comprehension.
- Motive Rant: As in canon, Demona delivers one of these to reveal her role in the Wyvern massacre.
- My Life Flashed Before My Eyes: Parodied in the first fight with the Kraang; after Broadway saves Michaelangelo from a Kraang droid, Mikey claims he saw his life flash before his eyes, observing that Raphael hit him in the head a lot.
- Never My Fault: As always, Demona refuses to admit that she’s her own worst enemy, denying the idea that she’s responsible for the clan at Wyvern being smashed when she could have told others of her plan with the Captain and persuaded them to hide with her rather than going off on her own.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Invoked when Donatello observes that the sheer scale of the project necessary to relocate Castle Wyvern to the top of the Eyrie Building is only justifiable if Xanatos genuinely believed it would work, as Xanatos didn’t become a multi-billionaire by basically throwing money away and so wouldn’t have tried to break the curse unless he knew he could succeed.
- Patchwork Fic: While the Gargoyles and their general background appear to be essentially accurate to the original show (barring some hints that Demona has had encounters with the Kraang in the past), elements from various TMNT adaptations have been brought together to create a new background;
- The opening scene for the Turtles is taken from the 2003 series, but the Turtles’ history and personalities as a whole are more strongly based on the 2012 series, such as Splinter being the mutated Hamato Yoshi rather than Yoshi’s former pet. Donatello in particular is described as using the more elaborate weapons and equipment of his 2014 movie counterpart.
- The alliance between Shredder and Ch’rell (the Shredder of the 2003 series) is intended to reflect Shredder’s alliance with Krang in the 1987 series.
- The teenage April is friends with Irma, Danny and Keno; Irma is from the 1987 series and Danny and Keno were allies to the Turtles in the first two live-action films.
- Power of Trust: The turtles, Elisa and April soon prove themselves as new allies to the gargoyles when April and Elisa keep their secrets and Leonardo in particular spends a day helping to guard Goliath’s statue.
- Properly Paranoid: The Turtles specifically Donatello and Raphael who are untrusting of Xanatos and Demona and picking up signs of their eventual betrayal. With how Xanatos was so confident that the legend of the Gargoyles was true and Demona nearly attacking April, attempting to kill a security guard, crashing the airship, and ranting about getting revenge on humans.
- Ragnarök Proofing: Donatello lampshades how the Gargoyles remained in pristine shape for centuries.
- Riddle for the Ages: When Elisa asks how Splinter got his weapons through customs when he first came to America as a human, Splinter merely responds that everyone has their secrets.
- Shout-Out:
- One of Elisa’s colleagues, Derek Morgan, mentions his eccentric colleagues at the 99th precinct before he transferred to his current role.
- April mentions a friend in Queens who’s also intelligent enough to have qualified for her current internship under Baxter Stockman; no names are given, but the immediate implication is that she’s referring to Peter Parker.
- Thou Shalt Not Kill: To be more exact, the gargoyles and turtles are willing to kill if they have to, but generally both sides prefer not to take that final solution unless certain it’s absolutely necessary. This marks their second major conflict with Demona’s methods after her hostile reaction to April, as Demona declares Leonardo weak for not being willing to kill during the assault on the air fortress while Splinter is proud of his son’s decision to show mercy.
- Unwitting Pawn: The turtles and gargoyles each become pawns in Xanatos’s plan to steal the discs to complete the Steel Clan.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: Raphael and Brooklyn in particular seem to be developing this dynamic, as the two argue even after they confirm they’re on the same side but soon come to respect each other as warriors.
