Our Gargoyles Rock

Clockwise from top right: Gargoyles from Gargoyles, Dungeons & Dragons, Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft, and Magic: The Gathering

GARGOYLE, n.
A rain-spout projecting from the eaves of mediaeval buildings, commonly fashioned into a grotesque caricature of some personal enemy of the architect or owner of the building. This was especially the case in churches and ecclesiastical structures generally, in which the gargoyles presented a perfect rogues' gallery of local heretics and controversialists. Sometimes when a new dean and chapter were installed the old gargoyles were removed and others substituted having a closer relation to the private animosities of the new incumbents.

— The Devil's Dictionary

In Real Life, gargoyles are sculptures of grotesque humans and animals designed to ward off evil spirits and channel rainwater from rooftops and spit it out, (hence gargling) away from the building to prevent damage from erosion. Most commonly found on large buildings from The Middle Ages and early modern era such as cathedrals.

Fiction, however, has decided that they'd make a great fictional species, so they often appear in fantasy settings (Urban or otherwise) as a race of Winged Humanoids that have a penchant for perching on high terrain. Given their origins, they also tend to have an ability to turn to stone, voluntarily or not.

Another common feature is that any damage done to them while animated can be repaired while statuefied, but destroying the statue kills them permanently.

Some, however, may actually be made of stone rather than flesh and blood. If that's the case, they (or at least the first of their kind) may have actually been statues before being brought to life.

Traditionally, in folklore, they were benevolent, despite their appearance, which was framed as being frightful to scare demons away from churches, but meeting their gaze was dangerous. This is less common in modern fiction.

Fun fact: the technical term for a gargoyle that doesn't include a rainspout is a grotesque — this means something different on this wiki, although the two can coexist.

Compare Animate Inanimate Object and Our Alebrijes Are Different. See also Asian Lion Dogs and Shedu and Lammasu for other kinds of fantastic creatures derived from statuary.

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Examples:

Anime and Manga

• Buster Keel!: One of the secondary villains and agent of the monster guild Ayakashi is Kataiston, a Gargoyle. He appears as a sharp-dressed humanoid with stone-like hide, bat-like wings, small horns and the ability to shoot high-pressure water jets from his mouth. He's always seen alongside the much more emotive and violent Garuda Firebird. Gargoyles are considered Class B Monsters, thus are quite dangerous but not to expert adventurers.
• Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai: Gargoyles are among the basic troops of the Legions of Evil serving under the Demon King Hadler and appear like their videogame counterpart: bird-like humanoids with purple skin, robes, sword and bat-like wings.
• To the Abandoned Sacred Beasts: Christopher "Topher" Keynes is an Incarnate whose monster form is a gargoyle. He looks like a rocky-skinned demon with batlike wings, and he's fond of perching atop his hometown church's bell tower like a statue. He's also a deeply religious Serial Killer obsessed with meeting out justice to "sinners".

Card Games

• Magic: The Gathering has a Gargoyle creature type, which has appeared in several sets. They are depicted as creatures made of animated stone, and often flavored as guardians of some sort. One example is Innistrad's Manor Gargoyle.
• Yu-Gi-Oh! has a few gargoyle-themed cards, such as the Ryu-Kishin, which even has a Monster Clown variant.

Comic Books

• In Astro City, the Silver Adept's brownstone home is protected by Grev and his team of magic gargoyles, who guard the place and ward off incursions (magical and otherwise) as needed.
• Batman: Gotham's Gothic/Art Deco architecture is teeming with gargoyles and grotesques of the inanimate kind. "Gargoyles of Gotham" in the anthology series Batman: Black and White actually explains their history, makes note of the difference between the two (Batman prefers gargoyles because grotesques are often added to cornices superficially and make terrible purchases for grappling hooks) and explains that most Grotesques on Bruce Wayne's buildings are secret emergency Bat-Gear caches. Batman likes to blend in with the gargoyles during his nightly vigils. There are actually comparisons to be drawn between Batman and a gargoyle, as both are scary but benevolent guardians.
• The new marquis in "Stone Cold Death!" in The Creeps #4 wants nothing to do with the sculptor Montes and his gargoyles and wants them out of his newly-acquired castle. Montes sees no other option than to send one of his gargoyles, which are actually alive, out to kill the marquis. This is witnessed by Francois, a high-ranked member of the marquis' court, who figures that with a few more deaths he could be marquis himself. He discovers that Montes regularly applies a potion to the gargoyles and upon learning the recipe kills Montes. However, the potion does nothing. Later, Francois learns that the potion doesn't bring the gargoyles to life but rather keeps them as statues. As the gargoyles close in to attack him, he also learns they only obey their sculptor.
• An unnamed Parisian sculptor in "The House of Gargoyles!", published in House of Mystery #175, is being hunted down by two gargoyles he made. They may be his handiwork, but he stole the designs from a colleague he murdered out of jealousy and who cursed the designs with his dying breath. Nonetheless, the gargoyles appear unable to either use violence or enter buildings, so as long as the sculptor stays locked indoors, he's safe. He's captured anyway when a boy, fascinated by the gargoyles, wants to show his friends they're alive. So he calls out to the sculptor that the gargoyles are gone and when the man cheerfully opens the window, they grab him and fly off with him. As a sidenote, during his time in hiding, he created a miniature gargoyle all his own that ended up left in the care of Cain.
• The Mighty Thor villain Grey Gargoyle is a human alchemist who can turn himself into a Rock Monster and his victims into statues for one hour.
• In Paperinik New Adventures, the two Gargoyles ^note  technically grotesques, since they're only statues on top of Ducklair Tower are revealed to be more than mere decorations, and essentially keep a gateway to a dark world filled with demons closed. One volume revolves around a warlock who tries to destroy them to open up said portal. In The Black Beam, it's revealed that those two Gargoyles assume a humanoid form (as armor-covered winged humanoids) in the Pentadimension to fight back Moldrock's attempts to escape.
• Wonder Woman:
  • Wonder Woman (1942): Tezcatlipoca has Diana and the other Amazons fight a bunch of animated Aztec statues.
  • Sensation Comics Featuring Wonder Woman: In "Defender of Truth" Circe animates a bunch of grotesques that Diana has to fight.

Fan Works

• The Bolt Chronicles: Having recently seen the Disney film The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Rhino mistakenly thinks the Chartres Cathedral gargoyles can talk, in “The Paris Trip.” He’s actually hearing an unseen theater troupe of pigeons further up in rehearsal.
• The Discworld fics of A.A. Pessimal introduce cherubs. Known on Earth as decorative bas-reliefs to be found in Restoration/Georgian architecture and often seen propping up ornate indoor sculpture, on the Discworld they have sentience and can move around. They are described as a better-looking gargoyle bred to live indoors by a previous Patrician, and used by the current Patrician (Vetinari) as part of a surveillance and security network in the Palace and other fine old buildings.
• In the Gravity Falls fandom, grunkle Stan is in the Monster Falls AU made a gargoyle.
• The Institute Saga: The Gargoyles become allies to the X-Men.
• Sunset Shimmer Hunts the Undead: A scene starts with Sunset and Adagio getting attacked by a gargoyle. No, they don't understand either.
  Adagio: Whose bright idea was it to head out after dark for Chow Mein?
  Sunset: Well I didn't think we'd get attacked by an animate piece of an ancient cathedral in a city with no ancient cathedrals!

Films — Animation

• Despite not particularly looking like one, Toto, the crow from The Cat Returns, is a gargoyle. Just like the living toy Baron, his state of being alive comes from being a work of love. He's a member of the Baron's Cat Bureau alongside the cat Muta, whom he likes to antagonize. They save the human Haru from a forced marriage into cat royalty.
• Chernabog in Fantasia is arguably a titanic gargoyle: he looks quite demonic and turns into stone during the day. Not just any regular stone statue: he turns into the top of friggin' Bald Mountain, the eponymous mountain of the segment.
• The gargoyles in the Disney version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame come in two varieties: the Plucky Comic Relief trio of legless Winged Humanoids who can summon swarms of pigeons and talk, and the animalistic heads that adorn the roofs (one of which apparently turns alive as Frollo clings to it). Turning into stone is only done when they sleep or show Quasimodo he's disappointed them. Although it's questionable whether they're actually alive, or Quasimodo just has an active imagination (he's strong enough to move them around after all), the fact that one of them comes alive to confuse Esmeralda's pet goat seems to indicate they're real.

Films — Live-Action

• Cast a Deadly Spell features a Gargoyle which perches on the evil warlock's mansion like an ordinary statue. However, he can bring it to life and send it out on missions to spy on people or kill his enemies.
• Curse of the Talisman has one (rather small — three feet tall) stone gargoyle revived thanks to a magic talisman which tries to re-awaken the rest of its kin with said talisman.
• Gargoyle (2004) featured a larger than average (10ft tall) demonic entity which was trapped in stone centuries ago. It (and its asexually produced offspring) can only be slain by holy weaponry (specifically a crossbow).
• Gargoyles (1972) has only one of these green, devilishly featured creatures with wings (the other gargoyles we see look more like Lizard Folk). As Spawn of the Devil, they work to destroy humanity by kidnapping human women, killing anyone who knows about them, or plotting world conquest for Satan. The Gargoyles makeup effects was done by Stan Winston.
• Gremlins 2: The New Batch includes a gremlin that drinks an experimental serum giving it bat wings. It gets tossed into wet cement, then flies up and perches onto the side of a church, where it hardens into a passable gargoyle.
• I, Frankenstein has gargoyles who are angels in nearly all but name; they were created by Archangel Michael to fight demons.
• Rise Of The Gargoyles (2009) has the monsters as Sealed Evil in a Can in their stone forms.
• Tales from the Darkside: The Movie has a female gargoyle which can turn into a human.

Literature

• In The Alchemy of Stone gargoyles are a dying race, born of the living rock and once able to shape it by their will, a power they have now lost. In the end an alchemist, at their request, finds a way to make them flesh, mortal and, it's implied, capable of reproduction
• In the Allie Beckstrom universe, gargoyles are merely statues animated by elaborate and expensive spells — until Allie accidentally puts her magic into one. "Stone" then becomes a self-powered individual with the intelligence and personality of a dog.
• Bone Song by John Meaney is set in Tristopolis, a City Noir inhabited by all sorts of fantastic creatures, including talking gargoyles.
• In the Codex Alera series, all normal humans have Elemental Powers. Those with earth-controlling powers can sometimes summon and control animate elementals, or sometimes bind them on (or in) walls and buildings to serve as guardians. The physical shape of earth elemental guardians, like all elementals, varies depending on the individual elemental and/or the human controlling them.
• A Deal with a Demon: Gargoyles are, in the series, one of the five races of demons. They have stone skin and the ability to fly. They can also, like all demons, interbreed with humans.
• Discworld: Gargoyles are believed to be a subspecies of trolls adapted to urban environments. They're wingless and retain their waterspoutish nature, channeling rain through the ears and out their mouths to filter out anything potentially tasty (especially pigeons). This means that their mouths are always open, giving them a speech impediment, though by The World of Poo the younger generation seems to have evolved past that problem. They're named after where they're located ("Cornice overlooking Broadway", for example) and are frequently used as Watchmen or to man the clacks system—jobs where a tendency to stare at a single location for days on end is a very useful capability.
• In Shanna Swendson's Enchanted, Inc. gargoyles appear to be statues to the muggles but magical people see them as moving, talking creatures. They are still made of stone, can fly and can gain power from resting on the roof of a church.
• A gargoyle shows up in A Fantasy Attraction, where he...sells insurance. Door-to-door at that.
• God Bless The Gargoyles, a children's book by Dav Pilkey of all people, is a melancholy story about how people eventually forgot that gargoyles are supposed to be protectors and became afraid of them. When they come to life at night, however, angels show up to keep them company.
• In Harry Potter, both the Staffroom and Headmaster's Office are guarded by gargoyles, which in this setting are just statues brought to life by magic. Their job is just to move aside for anyone who gives the correct password and snarkily deny access to those who don't. The final book shows that they can still speak (again, sarcastically) after being smashed to pieces.
• H. P. Lovecraft gives us Night Gaunts, denizens of the Dreamlands and straight out of his childhood nightmares. Humanoid, horned, bat-winged, with slick whale-like skin and no faces at all they often show up in flocks to capture hapless humans and take them to terrible places, tickling them mercilessly the entire way.
• Clark Ashton Smith's "The Maker of Gargoyles" has one of the first known examples of gargoyles as living monsters in media. Here, the gargoyles are two architectural gargoyles created by a 12th-century pariah stonemason for a cathedral, only for them to come to life and begin attacking people when their creator's anger against the townspeople for shunning him is unwittingly transferred into his sculptures. The first is the classic horned, bat-winged humanoid gargoyle, but the second instead has a cat's head and bird wings.
• Max & the Midknights: Gastley has had a couple of stone gargoyles magically brought to life to act as guards at the castle gate. They serve as the first obstacle the protagonists need to deal with to get inside.
• In Monster Hunter International, gargoyles are constructs: stone brought to life by magic. They carry out the orders of whoever created them. The only ones we see are created by the power of an Eldritch Abomination, but it's weakly implied that other powers could create them, too.
• The Monster Hunters Survival Guide cribs its Gargoyles mostly from the Disney series, with the Author expressly saying that they're not evil, and can even be allies.
• In the Oz books, gargoyles are creatures from the Land of Naught. They are made entirely of wood and stand less than three feet tall. They communicate entirely by hand signals and are nocturnal, removing their wings while they sleep. Different indeed.
• The Spiderwick Chronicles Field Guide details gargoyles as dwarf nocturnal dragons that dwell on city roofs, blending in among their inanimate counterparts. Although wingless, they are agile and can leap great distances, while also being able to grip onto walls with immense strength. However, if they are struck by lightning, they turn to stone and fall to the ground where they shatter.
• In The Stoneheart Trilogy gargoyles are a subset of taints, Always Chaotic Evil living non-human statues. They have a weakness that, being rainspouts, whenever it rains they must return to their original location.
• The Stormlight Archive has a variant in the thunderclasts, enormous quadrupedal stone monsters shaped something like a dog the size of a small house.
• In Laura Ann Gilman's Vineart War series the Guardian combines this with Our Dragons Are Different as it looks like a stone dragon. It also has considerable magic mojo as lon as it is on the territory it was created to protect.
• In Void City, Gargoyles are a type of demon which possess stone statues to use as their bodies. Destroying their statue only renders them incorporeal for a time before they move into a new body; it takes an attack on their true spiritual body to actually harm them.

Live-Action TV

• Gargoyles in Charmed are creatures in statue form who come alive to ward off evil, and are so powerful that not even the Source can get by them.
• Doctor Who:
  • "The Dæmons" has Bok, a gargoyle animated by Daemonic powers.
  • The Weeping Angels also share most characteristics with gargoyles. They don't usually perch on ledges, though.
• Reign of the Gargoyles: These are stone statues brought to life by a mad god to kill in his name. They have no will but their master's, but can be destroyed by conventional weaponry.
• In Special Unit 2 gargoyles are creatures that evolved from dinosaurs. They appeared in the first episode.
• In What We Do in the Shadows (2019), a pair of gargoyles act as informants for the Vampire Council's Guide. When she comes to them for information, they gossip like sitcom housewives and call out to other rooftops' gargoyles with cries that sound like a large truck's brakes engaging.

Professional Wrestling

• As Goldberg and future Flock member Scotty Riggs made their way to the ring for their match on the October 13, 1997 WCW Monday Nitro (4-0), the camera noticed Raven and Perry Saturn and the as-yet-unnamed Sick Boy sitting together in the crowd. Announcer Tony Schiavone said that Saturn was "sitting there like a gargoyle." He later introduced a top-rope head-and-arm suplex called the "Gargoyleplex". On the February 21, 1998 WCW Saturday Night, Lodi held up a sign that read "Saturn the Gargoyle." On the March 12th WCW Thunder, Lodi held up a sign that read "Saturn: Ultimate Gargoyle."
• Groon XXX, an independent circuit luchador who made his way onto the B shows of CMLL and, later, AAA, has a gargoyle gimmick. There is also a Mini Groon XXX.

Puppet Shows

• Li'l Horrors included a pair of grotesques named Garg and Goyle among the cast, mostly as observers of the others actions.
• On The Muppet Show episode featuring the cast of Star Wars, the original guest star was the inexplicably Scottish Angus McGonagle the Argyle Gargoyle. His act consists of gargling George Gershwin songs "gorrrgeously". Small wonder that Kermit fires him in favor of the Star Wars cast.

Tabletop Games

• Changeling: The Lost: One possible character type is the lurkglider, explicitly stated to be gargoyle-like.
• Dungeons & Dragons:
  • Gargoyles are wicked ambush predators that lie perfectly still, passing for stone statues. Their origins have varied from edition to edition, being either earth elementals, animated statues, or simply natural monsters.
  • The Ravenloft setting also has Gargoyle Golems, a variant of Stone Golems shaped to look like grotesques. Unlike living gargoyles they're too heavy to fly, but like to drop from a high place to crush unwary victims under their considerable weight.
• Fighting Fantasy: In Citadel Of Chaos, you can encounter a Gargoyle in a sculptor's studio in the upper floors of the castle. Luckily, if you made your way there through the kitchens, you may have come across a potion in one of the cabinets that's specifically brewed for combating creatures of stone.
• HeroQuest has a gargoyle — a large winged humanoid resembling a Balrog — that is a Giant Mook and the toughest normal opponent in the game. Kellar's Keep completes its Moria analogy by having an end boss in the form of an especially powerful gargoyle.
• Rifts: Gargoyles come in five types: the standard Gargoyle, the wingless Gurgoyles, the tiny Gargoylites, and the Gargoyle Lords and Mages, who have the ability to turn to living stone for short periods of time. The largest concentrations are found as Mooks for the Demons of Hades and serving the Splugorth, but a large Empire of them is found in Europe, and is fighting the Human NGR with high-tech weapons and Humongous Mecha of their own.
• RuneQuest: Gargoyles are creatures seemingly made of stone. When resting they are like statues, but when active they are very deadly. All gargoyles have hideous faces, rock-hard flesh, and crudely humanoid bodies. All are stupid, and most are winged. Beyond that there is tremendous variety in the shape and form of gargoyles.
• Shadowrun:
  • Paranormal Animals of North America describes gargoyles as humanoid creatures with a single short horn and pointed ears; they normally live on cliffs, but some have adapted to cities. The main kind has males with wings and female with arms, but one subspecies possesses both sets of limbs. Another, also six-limbed variety is described in Paranormal Animals of Europe, with twisting horns and skin marked by numerous complex ridges. Unlike most other paranormal animals, which Awakened from clear mundane ancestors, no one really knows where gargoyles come from.
  • Neogargoyles, originally mistaken for a variant of gargoyles, are once-normal bats turned blind and flightless by chemical runoff, and whose skin is heavily calcified as a result of the same. They crawl along buildings, tapping, prodding and digging at them to find food, and over a period of five to seven months completely calcify into immobile statues.
• Talislanta: Gargoyles are a type of lesser devil that serve as mercenaries, guards, and heavy infantry.
• Vampire: The Masquerade has a vampiric bloodline of Gargoyles, created by Clan Tremere as bodyguards. They are allegedly created through a ritual that combines the blood of the Gangrel, the Tzimisce, and the Nosferatu, with different concentrations creating different sorts of Gargoyles. They can turn to stone at will, which is particularly useful when avoiding sunlight, as they are invulnerable while in stone form. The Gargoyles can turn other people into Gargoyles, but have little autonomy, and are even said to get confused when left to their own devices.
• Vampire: The Requiem has gargoyles as constructs created by blood sorcery, possibly as a Mythology Gag to Masquerade.
• Warhammer 40,000 has an example verging on In Name Only. Gargoyles, aka Hellbats, are Tyranid air-attack creatures created by equipping the swarms' basic Mooks with batlike wings. They can't turn into stone, but may have got their name from their tendency to perch atop a larger Tyranid flier called a Harridan.

Theater

• The Golden Ticket, the opera version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, has the titular factory ringed by a high wall topped with gargoyles. They move and sing when others aren't looking/noticing, and serve as a Greek Chorus throughout the first act.

Toys

• Monster High has Rochelle Goyle and Garrott DuRoque, an Official Couple of French gargoyles. They're both human-like in appearance, except with stone-hard grey skin, wings, and odd winglike ears, and Rochelle is shown to be immune to Deuce's petrifying gaze since she's already made of stone. Friday Night Frights also introduced the gargoyles Gary and Rocco, who look more muscular and monstrous than Rochelle and Garrott.

Video Games

• Arena.Xlsm: One of the types of enemies that can be fought.
• Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance: Gargoyles are encountered in both games as mooks inside the Onyx Tower, an otherwordly magical construct tower tied to the Plane of Shadow. Gargoyles in game are actually pretty small, bat-winged creatures that lob fireballs at you.
• In Blood, there were the flesh gargoyles (stone statues that turned into fleshy demonoid-things) and the mercifully rare stone gargoyles, who stayed stone even after they animated (and were frigging hard to kill).
• In Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, gargoyles are flying demons with a large central eye that fires a petrification beam.
• Book Of Demons is an affectionate homage to the original Diablo and features similar gargoyles. They are a little tougher, however, since they are invulnerable when in stone form and rapidly heal to full health, meaning they must be killed quickly before they fly off.
• Castlevania. Though most of these are Palette Swap Underground Monkey varieties of other monsters, and merely fly and look grey, such as in Castlevania: Circle of the Moon, Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia has the actual turn from stone variety. One prominent example is Gaibon, who was fortunate enough to receive a recurring role, occasional boss status, a loyal teammate, and a position directly serving Death and occasionally Soma.
• The Crystal of Kings have gargoyles as the toughest, strongest Airborne Mook variant in the game, capable of launching fireballs from above you while swooping below to jab at you with their spears. They can be hit with some jumping and slashing.
• Gargoyles start showing up in higher difficulty Ruins missions in Darkest Dungeon, capable of stunning your party members with tail whacks as well as tearing apart the front two rows with their claws. While they have incredible armor ratings, being made of stone and all, they have low hp pools, meaning Blight can kill them very quickly.
• In Darklands, Gargoyles show up as a rare enemy you can encounter in the wilderness. They fly very fast and have a very good armor rating thanks to their stony skin.
• Dark Adventure have gargoyles as Airborne Mooks in stages where you attempt crossing a lava river in a volcano. They're stronger than the bat enemies in previous encounters.
• Gargoyles are a Recurring Element in the Dark Souls series:
  • The Bell Gargoyles are an early boss fight in Dark Souls. They're made of patinated bronze instead of stone — appropriate since they're fought in a Gothic church. They come back later in the game as a Degraded Boss.
  • In Dark Souls II, the Belfry Gargoyles come back as boss fight. This time each gargoyle is easier to beat, but there are also six of them.
  • They come back again as an Elite Mook in Dark Souls III, this time wielding massive flaming spears and maces.
• Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening: The Blood-goyles are flying demons made out of blood, but can turn into stone. In "blood" form, they significantly resist melee damage and would split into more Blood-goyles if you strike them anyway. It's possible to kill them by brute-forcing your melee attacks, but it takes a long time. The game recommends you to forcibly turn Blood-goyles into stone using ranged attacks before you can properly smash them with your melee attacks.
• Diablo: The first has gargoyles, which are statues until you get too close and turn back to stone if they take enough damage, making them a lot easier to hit (and surprisingly not much harder to kill).
• In Disciples 2, Gargoyles are the Legion's archer unit. While most archer units are single slot Fragile Speedsters, Gargoyles take up two slots meaning they have to be on the front line. They make up for this by being about twice as powerful as the average ranged unit and far more durable thanks to higher hitpoints and armor while being just as fast. In battle they are in "statue" form most of the time (explaining their high armor rating) and become animate when attacking. The final stage of the Gargoyle tree, the Onyx Gargoyle, has an armor rating of 65, the highest natural armor rating in the game.
• In Dragon's Dogma, the Gargoyles are flying creatures and a variant of Harpy type enemy. Their tails can petrify anything being impaled by it.
• Drakensang The River of Time: Gargoyles (represented as small, eroded humanoid statues with beastly heads) infest the Bosparanian Ruins and in several rooms they'll wait for your arrival before descending from their pedestals to attack.
• The Elder Scrolls:
  • In Daggerfall includes gargoyles as generic enemies. They are creatures "made of living stone" and possess an innate resistance to magic.
  • Skyrim's Dawnguard DLC includes gargoyles as powerful guardians and summons of the Volkihar vampire clan. Most of the time, the gargoyle stands perfectly still as a statue, but when enemies are nearby, it bursts from the statue and attacks. In other words, Skyrim gargoyles behave mostly the same as ones from Blood. And like in that game, there are also some statues that are just statues, stand there, do nothing and invoke paranoia.
• There have been gargoyles in every Heroes of Might and Magic game to date. They were controlled by the Warlock (Dungeon) faction in Heroes I and II, briefly by the Necropolis in IV, and adopted by the Academy (Tower/Wizard) in III onwards.
• In Eternal Lands, Gargoyles are one of the weaker monsters.
• Final Fantasy: Gargoyles are a recurring enemy in the series, resembling demonic Winged Humanoids. In at least one game, using a Soft (which cures petrification) on them will kill them instantly — because they're made of stone!
• Gargoyles and Deathgoyles are enemy monsters fought in Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones.
• Gargoyle's Quest a Spinoff of Ghosts 'n Goblins starring everyone's favorite Boss in Mook Clothing, the Red Arremer, known in his own series as Firebrand.
• Ghostbusters: The Video Game has haunted Stone Gargoyles. Justified: these gargoyles come from Shandor buildings.
• The Golden Sun gargoyles are flying Winged Humanoids with very high physical defense.
• Stone Guardian in Guild Wars are found near Kurzick Buildings. They often start as statues that come to life when a player or enemy walks past. Unlike other examples on this page, they are human creations rather than separate species.
• Killer Instinct 2 has a final boss named Gargos and styled after a gargoyle.
• In Kingdom Hearts, the Gargoyles are vaguely bat-like flying Heartless that will either melee you or spit magic at you. The sequel introduced other types of Gargoyles that were basically the stereotypical animated statues.
• Last Armageddon: One of your party members is a Gargoyle. Although he's just a demon-like monster with no stone-based abilities, one scene involves him finding an old gargoyle statue, which leads to him reconsidering his thoughts on humans and his relation to them.
• League of Legends has playable character Galio, the Colossus. Originally created as a giant bulwark of an Anti-Magic material, he was merely made to repel mage armies from the kingdom of Demacia, but due to an (unintentional?) anomaly of his design, he ended up absorbing the magic rather than nullifying it, and now he's able to come to life and smash baddies on his own when in the presence of strong magics. In gameplay, he acts as a tanky anti-mage brawler, able to not only dispel incoming magic damage through his colossal bulk, but also protect his allies from oppressive enemy spells by forcefully slamming into the center of attention.
• Nightmare Creatures have gargoyles as an enemy in the later stages, where they'll disguise themselves as statues before leaping out to attack the players.
• Nitemare 3D features two enemy types that are gargoyles, which is the name they have in the game data. One looks like a humanoid goat and is found among the hedges. The normal statues appear as early as the first episode's second level, while the animate ones show up starting the eight levels. The other can be described as a batlike minotaur and inhabits niches within grey stone walls. Both the unliving and living variants show up starting the sixth level of the first episode.
• Pokémon Uranium has Gargryph, a Rock-type Pokémon based on a griffin-like gargoyle. It's genderless, cannot fly despite having wings, and can restore parts of its own HP through it Rebuild ability.
• Gargoyles in RuneScape are winged humanoids made of stone, that require a Slayer level to kill. If they're not smashed with a rock hammer once they get below a certain health level, then they're unkillable and regenerate health as fast as one hits them.
• In Scooby-Doo! First Frights, some of the gargoyles in Episode 4 come to life and attack the player.
• Splatter Master contains two gargoyles on a bridge in the second level, who comes to life and attacks by dropping themselves on you. You don't encounter this enemy for the rest of the game.
• Ultima:
  • Gargoyles — red-skinned, horned, winged humanoids — pop up in the series, initially as rare enemies. Ultima VI reveals more about them: they are a good race living in other world, who follow their own system of values, similar to the human system of virtues. They were enemies in the earlier games mainly due to cultural misunderstandings. The winged gargoyles are the leaders are guides of the non-intelligent wingless ones.
  • The Ultima V installment has a one-time instance of actual stone gargoyles coming to life and attacking you. They are one of the nastiest enemies in the game due to being hard as all hell to kill, and splitting in two when you strike them.
• Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines had a Gargoyle living in an abandoned theater in Hollywood. Both Isaac (the local Baron) and Maximillian Strauss (his creator) send you to kill him as a boss fight. It's possible to reason with him and get him to side with the Anarchs, but if you're a Tremere or make any mention of Strauss, you hit his Berserk Button and it can only end in violence.
• Rufus in A Vampyre Story certainly doesn't rock: he has to sit through all sorts of humiliations.
• In the Warcraft universe, gargoyles are bat-like flying undead creatures of the Scourge, who can turn into ground-based statues to regenerate health but cannot attack when they do so. They were introduced in Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos.
  • Gargoyles occasionally appear in World of Warcraft as still statues that may or my not attack. *** There is a series of statues lining a path in Halls of Lightning, some of which come to life when you pass them. Of note is a trash mob in old Naxxramas, the Stoneskin Gargoyle, has become infamous as it possessed the ability to turn into stone at low health, regenerating health fully, ad infinitum, if the group failed to burst it down within a set amount of time. A raid group with low damage dealing potential could remain stuck on one forever, unable to beat the cast time of the petrification.
    • The Shadowlands Expansion Pack introduces the stoneborn of Revendreth, gargoyle-like creatures created by the venthyr. There are three varieties: the standard build ones are tall humanoids used as frontline fighters, then there are stonefiends, small imp-like humanoids used as couriers; and gravewings, hulking beaked flyers used as mounts.
  • The Stoneskin Gargoyle features in Hearthstone as a relatively weak creature that fully heals at the start of its owner's turn.
• Wild Blood has gargoyles as members of Morgana's forces of chaos. Most of the time (including their Mook Debut Cutscene) they appear as motionless statues, before coming to life to attack when you're nearby.

Web Comics

• In Bibliography, Gargoyles are Pages of the Petrified Codex. The only one seen so far is William "Sentinel" Adams, an enormous man who can turn his skin to stone, launch stone pillars and enter an enraged mode when hurt.
• In Exterminatus Now gargoyles are angels of Mort.
• In Goblin Hollow gargoyles are the natural predator of goblins. Unfortunately, this is discovered after someone not in on the Masquerade brings a few statues into a home of several goblins. To prove they are lifeless stone and not the creatures that inspired the stone angels of Doctor Who, one of the main characters plans to take a power drill to their skull. Cue the Lighning. Lights go dark, Lights come on, and... gargoyles have vanished. Cue the Oh Crap.
• Housepets!: Gargoyles are a species found within Pete's temple. They seem to enjoy pretending to be statues and preying upon the unaware, although bright flashes of light can cause them to freeze into real stone. When Pete's temple is destroyed, they're released into the surrounding forests as an invasive species.

Western Animation

• Adventures of the Gummi Bears: In one episode, Duke Igthorn sends a sinister gargoyle statue (which looks more like a gremlin) to King Gregor to destroy him. After the Gummis save Gregor from the gargoyle by turning it back to stone, they decide to send it back to Igthorn to give him A Taste Of His Own Medicine.
• A gargoyle appears as a Monster of the Week in the Fangface episode "The Goofy Gargoyle Goof-up!", emerging from a cave in the Hollywood Hills to kidnap a film star and make her its bride.
• Futurama: A flying gargoyle named Pazuzu appears in "Teenage Mutant Leela's Hurdles", being lambasted by Farnsworth for running away after the Professor put it through college. Apparently it's a biological creature, as it's seen with its offspring at the end. Presumably it was bio-genetically engineered or something. Pazuzu also appeared in the second movie as a Deus ex Machina, where it's revealed that it has the ability to grant wishes. Also it speaks French.
• Gargoyles is a series in which 6 gargoyles, originally the guardians of a castle in 10th-century Scotland, are transported to modern-day New York. They fight evil at night, and turn into statues to sleep during the day, when they are also healed of any injury. They possess great strength, and while they cannot fly, they can glide on air currents. They also lay eggs as opposed to live birth. They may absorb solar energy while they sleep, as a scientist states that to maintain their abilities, they would otherwise have to eat the equivalent of two cows a day.
  • This species of gargoyles had variations from all over the world, usually somewhat resembling the local legendary creatures, and always dedicated to protecting some location or population. As Goliath explains on several occasions, it is a gargoyle's nature to find a place to call home and defend it to the death. When the local humans APPRECIATE this protection, it can work out very well for all parties, as the gargoyles can offer superior strength and resilience to fight off invaders or other threats, while the humans can protect them during their vulnerable daylight hours. When the nearby humans DON'T appreciate their presence... gravel supplies tend to swell... Most gargoyle clans (of those few remaining by the present day) have given up on having anything to do with humans as a result — the Ishimura Clan is one of the very few gargoyle clans that have a good relationship with the local human population.
  • Word of God states that while most humans treat gargoyles with fear and distrust when they actually meet them, the Real Life use of gargoyle statues to ward off evil shows that humans subconsciously recognize the Gargoyles' true protective nature.
  • It should also be pointed out that while magic existing in this setting, gargoyles are entirely biological. Their species is explicitly stated to have naturally evolved these features and no part of what they are capable of as a species is any more magical than a human, including the whole Stone by Day thing—except for the fact that their clothes turn to stone with them, which actually is the result of a spell that was cast on the entire species.
• In Jonny Quest TOS in the episode "The House of Seven Gargoyles," one of the gargoyles is a disguised acrobat.
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: In "Daring Doubt", the temple where the Truth Talisman of Tonatiuh is kept is guarded by "guardiangoyles", magical stone statues resembling bat-winged ponies which come to life at Ahuizotl's command and attempt to take the Talisman back from the other characters and are disoriented and eventually repetrified by bright lights.
• In Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures, they are large fire breathing three-eyed winged demon-like creatures.
• In the Space Ghost episode "The Gargoyloids", the title monsters are gargoyles — IN SPACE!
• Star Wars: The Clone Wars: The Son can turn into a gargoyle, in contrast to the Daughter's radiant griffin form.
• SWAT Kats:
  • The unfinished SWAT Kats: The Radical Squadron episode "Succubus!" would've included gargoyles, of a sort. Katrina Moorkroft's male Mooks would've been capable of transforming into hideous living gargoyles at night in order to abduct victims for their employer.
  • In the episodes that were finished, the Pastmaster brought a gargoyle on a bridge to life briefly in the episode "A Bright and Shiny Future," which grabbed the Turbokat and dragged it through one of the villain's time portals. It was basically just a demonic head with a bitey mouth at the end of a long stretchy neck, though.
• Wishfart has a gargoyle named G as the security guard of Dez's apartment. Interestingly, he's completely immobile due to the fact that the pedestal base he stands on is actually a part of his body, so he's really more of an animated statue than a living creature.

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