Syd's Hyperfixation Corner: 2025

Hello all, Sydney here. I hope all has been well since I made my last blog post... Yeesh, several months ago already?? Well, as per usual, life gets in the way and can affect creativity. I'm sure a good number of you can relate.

I've returned from the shadows to once again discuss my favorite subject—Wolf from Gargoyles. Though this time, rather than focusing on his role in the story of Greg Weisman's Gargoyles, I want to focus more on the dissection of Wolf's personality, and how it has affected my view on characters in a variety of other media who remind me of Wolf to some degree.

In other words—Syd, what the hell do you mean when you say things such as: "Oh, this character is definitely Wolf-coded!"

First off, how the hell do you "code" a character?

To summarize what the terminology of "coded" means when it comes to fiction, "Character Coding" is when a character plainly displays physical or personality traits that complies closely with a real life faction.

I'd imagine you may be somewhat familiar with this terminology if you're the type of internet user who enjoys partaking in forum discussions about your favorite characters, in which case you may have seen someone insist that a character they adore exhibits traits that may remind them of themselves and their own real-life traits, such as Race, Sexuality, Gender, Mental Illness, etc.

This terminology is most found within Fantasy and Science Fiction. These genres will often attempt to craft fleshed out characters with personality traits mirroring closely what we experience in the real world, making the character seem 'identifiable' to a degree. You can spend time watching and examining the characters that seem to reach towards your own reality the most and think to yourself, "Wow, maybe these writers really understand how it feels to be [insert familiar traits here]?"

What may be troubling about claiming that a character has some sort of "Disability" Coding or "Queer" Coding is that all you likely have to go off of is your own claim, considering the writer or author of said character will have yet to, or may never at all, confirm that the character has said Disability or Queerness accompanied to them. Often times these claims are built with mountains of canonical examples by the devoted fan or fans.

A prime example would be my litany of claims over the past decade that Wolf from Gargoyles is gay and displays an obsessive interest in members of the same gender. Or, my more recent claims that Wolf from Gargoyles also has some degree of neurodivergency and/or autism because of his general inability to register social cues and disassociate them from his own goals and thoughts. Despite neither of these being confirmed as canonical traits he has, my own experiences with being queer and neurodivergent makes me see the character of Wolf as something of a significant example of what fleshing out a "Coded" character is.

For a good reference for what character coding is, I'd recommend checking out this article written by Natasja Rose exploring on how the terminology of Coding in fiction is used pretty frequently in social circles: https://medium.com/@natasjarose/coding-in-fiction-1973df9d496f

So just what is Wolf's "role" in the story of Gargoyles, and describe what "Wolf-Coding" even is??

"WE did what YOU were afraid to!" —Wolf's response to Dingo's disapproval of the Pack's "Upgraded" modifications in Gargoyles S2E18: "Upgrade." If Wolf truly didn't care what Dingo thought of him, he wouldn't have responded so strongly.

Children are not naturally hateful. Hate is something that is taught to them, and children will always emulate what they see.

I know this because I grew up registering that I had traits of a queer person whilst in the South being surrounded by a mostly conservative environment. That could be why I have such a huge kinship with characters like Wolf who are constantly adjusting to their environments through pushing your true feelings and emotions about things in the back of your mind, because you're simply doing what you have to do in order to survive or get by in life. When you are raised like this, you find as you get older that the more you cast aside your own feelings, the more you are associating your feelings as a false sense of "control", or a mock display of strength. The world has a bad habit of teaching us that men who are overtly emotional are not perceived by societal standards as masculine as other men, and women who are more refrained with showing emotion are perceived by societal standards as too masculine compared to other women. This comes from the notion that in order to obtain more strength and masculinity with your presence, you need to refrain completely from displaying any emotions whatsoever. Boys are taught to never cry or play with dolls, and girls are taught to lean on the dependence of men and always think dresses are pretty.

Long story short—for someone like Wolf, repression was at one point a useful survival tool in his life and that has affected his day-to-day behavior greatly. He would rather respond with aggression above all else than allow anyone to see him cry. He would rather punch Goliath in the face than profess his true feelings. Still, the happiest we've seen Wolf throughout the entirety of Gargoyles is whenever he sees Goliath or whenever he gets a chance to display his strength. Even then, he's wearing it as a twisted form of happiness rather than something that is genuinely making him smile. Wolf has more than likely never been truly happy in his life and outright refuses to let anyone see or know it.

Throughout Gargoyles, Wolf's hatred for Goliath clearly isn't something that should come so naturally to the average person, but to him it does—for what seems to be a multitude of underlying psychological reasons on Wolf's end. The big reason why characters like Wolf are so important to me is because I remember vividly what it was like to hate myself for who I was and try to act for other people’s volition to try and compensate. Trying to be who others wanted me to be rather than who I was on the inside. Not to mention, whenever Wolf has gotten solo focus in the story of Gargoyles outside of his role in The Pack, we see the common theme of a broken family following him. Said family is depicted with similarly emotion-addled men, such as Hakon or Grisha. Both are horrible role models and paternal figures in Wolf's life, and they are quite clearly manipulating Wolf for their own benefit. They perceive him as a tool for their own goals rather than an actual person with feelings.

I think there are people all over the world who are just like Wolf—also experiencing difficulty adjusting to their own queerness, identity and/or neurodivergency.

Am I inferring that Wolf is also neurodivergent? Absolutely. I believe that his constant growling in between words and sentences are his impulse response to the frustration of social encounters—in other words, a tic he's developed to try and make himself sound bigger to others. Someone who growls in response to what they're hearing are displaying they'd rather not be listening to the person talk altogether, almost like being a part of the conversation and attempting to fully understand the words they're hearing is straining on them.

I feel like fans of Gargoyles who don't really read into Wolf's behavior as neurodivergent will see Wolf as nothing more than an inconvenient asshole that the gargoyles constantly have to deal with? And that's unfortunately a common case when it comes to a lot of autistic coded characters. Because they have difficulty showing a great deal of empathy towards others and the events around them, it gives the neurotypical audience a reason to dislike the character without necessarily looking deeper into why said character is like this to begin with.

"I don't have autism, I succeed at autism! I'm the BEST at it!" —Wolf, probably.

I've also noticed that Wolf has never once been complimented throughout the entire series, outside of when Lexington met the pack as a group under the premise that they were TV stars and not actual criminals. I feel like Wolf hasn't really been given much positive feedback in his life and as a result this causes him to constantly see himself as something of a hamster eternally running in a wheel to try and get some sort of reward at the end of it all. If Wolf were to be complimented at some point he would take it as either someone mocking him and complimenting him sarcastically, or some sort of joke. He can never be given a reward without expecting some sort of punchline coming his way and I'd wager that it's got something to do with his own relationship with his father.

If undergo the theory that Wolf has autism to some degree, his distaste towards the celebrity lifestyle he had at the start of Gargoyles would make a lot more sense. All the constant exposure to the camera, stage and lights combined with his potential PTSD from his criminal lifestyle and upbringing probably overstimulated him. I see Wolf as the kind of person who gets headaches constantly and frequently as he is never fully satisfied with his endeavors and displays a large sense of frustration at the simplest exchanges.

Wolf displays these Autistic traits constantly, but most particularly in one scene within the Gargoyles episode "Grief." This is when The Pack captures Goliath, Elisa and Angela in Egypt and Wolf is questioning to Coyote why they aren't just killing them right then and there. Coyote responds with stating he won't do so unless he's given direct orders. Wolf puffs his chest, points at himself and triumphantly states, "I'm giving the order!"

Coyote monotonously responds by telling Wolf he's not qualified. Right then and there, it's Wolf's response to this retort that really made me want to stop and consider just what was going on in his head after he was dejected like that. As if he was a child getting his hand slapped at the dinner table for reaching towards the sweets too soon, he grits his teeth, squeezes his eyes shut and lets out an audibly annoyed growl.

His visual response to being told he's "not qualified [to give orders.]" If you pay close attention to his expressions, it almost appears as if his feelings are hurt for a split second, but he quickly brushes that back under the surface with his typical "frustrated growl" and rage-fueled expression.

I don't think there's ever been a scene that more accurately displays Wolf's present dilemma in his life. He wants to be someone bigger than himself somehow and he is constantly surrounding himself with peers who do not consider him as a person, but rather a tool for their own means, therefore he's stuck in the vicious cycle of always trying to feel bigger than he actually is without being given the proper means to actually help himself.

Regardless, this is still a very important scene to understand what it means to be "Wolf Coded." If the character is someone who would rather grit their teeth and tough it out rather than express how they truly feel, the character is probably "Wolf Coded." If the character cares a little to much about being the best at everything and not wanting to acknowledge their own flaws, the character is probably "Wolf Coded." If the character pursues their aspirations in a manner that's comparable to a dog chasing cars, in which they want to desperately pursue a goal without considering what hardships the end results may entail, the character is probably "Wolf Coded." If your character is a little rough around the edges due to their problematic upbringing, that character's probably "Wolf Coded."

And of course—if the character feels safer keeping their feelings for another person locked away in the back of their mind and would rather display anger towards that person? In other words, are they a bit of a bratty tsundere with their relationships? Well, to some degree, that character may be Wolf Coded.

And lastly—is the character notoriously hated and / or generally disregarded by the fandom because of their general animosity towards the main character(s)? Wolf coded with a capital "W."

I think I get it now... So, what other characters in fiction could be considered "Wolf Coded"?

Well, there's a litany of characters from fiction who I would say are absolutely Wolf coded! Before we begin though, I'd just like to say that while Wolf was the character to shape the terminology of "Wolf Coding", I don't think he was the first ever Wolf coded character to exist in fiction. Gargoyles of course came out in 1994 and while it set a precedent for liberal animation, that doesn't necessarily mean that its without influences. Wolf's personality and mannerisms could be heavily inspired by other big, grumpy loose cannons in fictional media. Even if not a direct inspiration, we can go back to cartoons as early as "Popeye" or "Looney Tunes" and even there, we can find Wolf Coded characters.

Bluto from "Popeye"

Popeye and Bluto. | Classic cartoon characters, Vintage cartoon, Popeye ...

Now KISS—I mean, FIGHT...

What even WAS Popeye as a cartoon if not a big, rambunctious cuckholding cycle between Popeye, Bluto and Olive Oyl? I'd argue Bluto is one of the earliest depictions of a Wolf Coded character in animated fiction. He is your big, brutish bully depicted as an antagonist, as he was written out to be the original "Mr. Steal Your Girl"—but there are times where I often wonder if Bluto would have had any interest in Olive Oyl at all if not for Popeye's involvement with her? Is his end goal really to steal Olive Oyl for himself, or is he doing it because he actually just loves getting a rise out of Popeye and going toe to to with him? After all, what's the thrill of invading a couple's livelihood if not to challenge and antagonize the tough, jealous boyfriend? A big part of me believes that Bluto absolutely loves the kind of challenge Popeye brings to the table, and despite getting his ass handed to him every time—always comes back for more!

Let's not forget how Bluto depicts himself in the world of Popeye—a headstrong, masculine and brutish force who often always growls in between words and sentences to try and show off his toughness with every ounce of energy in his body. If he's convinced himself that he's the biggest and toughest guy in the room, what should he have to be afraid of?? Certainly not an equally tough sailor who knows how to humiliate a big brat such as himself... That would just break apart all his composure and masculine aura, and surely he'd NEVER want to put himself in such a compromising situation over and over again. That would be simply humiliating! Sarcasm aside, this of course comparatively brings us back to our base template of Wolf's role within the world of Gargoyles, and his frustration/obsession with being the bigger man towards Goliath—though in Wolf's world, there's not even an Olive Oyl for him to fight over—its just Goliath he wants which he displays loud and proud! (Albeit unintentionally.)

Helga from "Hey Arnold!"

Okay, I feel this one truly does speak for itself...

I think Helga is one of the greatest examples on how a female character can also be Wolf coded, because her entire relationship with Arnold is comparable with Wolf and his relationship with Goliath. Arnold is at least casually aware of helga's existence—but to Helga, Arnold is the center of her world because of his good-natured attitude. Helga has an entire shrine dedicated to her feelings for Arnold that she keeps hidden away in her closet of all places. However, she is so concerned with protecting these feelings she has for Arnold, she can't help but mask them constantly with her abrasive attitude and instead of confessing her feelings to Arnold or flirting with him in any natural way, she would rather shove him in a locker. Ain't this just what Wolf wants to do with Goliath? Goliath after all is a good-natured man who could exist without knowing Wolf very easily, but to Wolf—Goliath is the center of his world and his beacon of light he's always trying to reach for.

Not to mention, Helga has this constant need to display abrasiveness and toughness wherever she goes despite being a girl. She has issues conforming with the traditional gender roles that would fall in line with being a girl but sees herself as a girl nonetheless. She has a grumpy father with serious anger issues and a mother who is constantly trying to deal with the emotional blowback of being married to her father. Just like Wolf, it's completely apparent that Helga gets a lot of her neurodivergence from her father's side and has to try and deal with it on her own volition.

Mr. Snake from "The Bad Guys"

Doesn't know how to express he cares in a way that doesn't involve him being frustrated and angry, but genuinely feels hurt and betrayed by Mr. Wolf's redemption.

Yes, everyone, the one who is the MOST Wolf Coded in Dreamwork's "The Bad Guys" isn't the actual Wolf himself—it just so happens to be Mr. Snake.

Mr. Snake developed an aura of comfort knowing that his cohorts, and more particularly his best friend, were all better off continuing their chaotic antics on the opposite side of the law. Mr. Snake was so afraid of change that rather than just express why he feels this way, he would rather conform twice as hard to the criminal lifestyle as an act of lashing out.

While Wolf and Goliath don't have remotely the same history these two have, Wolf also doesn't have much of an intense personal relationship with many other characters in Gargoyles. He could see Goliath's voluntary role of heroism as a reflection of something he sees himself as unable to fit into. Mr. Snake from "The Bad Guys" seems preoccupied with the fact that he may no longer be as valued in Mr. Wolf's eyes because of his change of factions. He rebels against this by later assisting Professor Marmalade in their downfall, further retreating to his criminal behavior as a defense mechanism. Long story short, Mr. Snake is a bit of a bratty tsundere—which is very Wolf.

Aeryn Sun from "Farscape"

Aeryn Sun remains to be one of the most incredibly written characters in science fiction. Initially introduced as an alien soldier who was born, raised and indoctrinated by a hierarchy of corrupt killers, torturers and slave drivers, Aeryn undergoes a fascinating character arc in which she learns what it means to be perceived as an actual person with thoughts, feelings and emotions. For once in her life, the people she surrounded herself with aren't using her abilities as a means to their own end. Then by the end of the first season, she completely transitions from a thuggish space soldier into a badass space heroine.

However, that's not to say the peacekeeper's conditioning on her doesn't continue to be a constant pressing factor in her life. The fascinating thing about Aeryn is not just how that arc compares so much for what I want to see out of a potential redemption arc for Wolf, but as Farscape presses forwards, the show outright refuses to fully forget the tight hold her upbringing and past still has on her. She is forced to deal with the harm she'd done in the past as it comes back to haunt her in a variety of ways—whether its the realization that she'd participated previously in harming a present-day friend of hers, or that her old friends and family are still caught in the vicious cycle she herself once was in, and to her horror, has to witness them continue to make mistakes and destroy themselves.

Not to mention, her consistent blockage of emotions pertaining to her intense relationship with John Crichton. She is constantly battling her own feelings for him as she interprets her own hormones as an unnatural distraction, similar to how Wolf processes his feelings for Goliath perhaps?

Clayton from Disney's "Tarzan"

This movie would have went a whole different direction if Clayton just embraced how badly he wanted to smooch Tarzan...

If Wolf were an 1800s colonialist or had one in his family at some point, he may have been something like Clayton from Disney's "Tarzan!" The setup between hero and villain in this story can accurately mirror Goliath and Wolf's relationship in Gargoyles.

Big "Alpha Male" Clayton is perplexed by Tarzan's existence. Clayton's role is to guide the others through the jungle and protect them of any threats, but what happens when another male shows up and not only fascinates Clayton's peers but displays a deeper emotional knowledge of the jungle that Clayton can't seem to comprehend for the life of him? Tarzan is a worthier "Alpha" in Clayton's eyes and that proceeds to push him towards insanity. All of his actions and behavior you could read as a large emotional influx of jealousy, and not necessarily because of Tarzan's kindling relationship with Jane—because Clayton cannot see the world in the same way Tarzan does. Clayton tries to convince himself he is so much more civilized than the deadly and dangerous jungle, and rather than admit he's afraid and wants Tarzan's guidance—he does what every man with a gun does, and uses it as a crutch for power.

I think the scene that sticks out the most to me in Tarzan is when Jane joins Tarzan in trying to communicate with the gorillas. Clayton sees them both acting like wild animals, and cringes to himself, proceeding to look over his shoulder to make sure no one can see them before urging them to get up. Despite being thousands of miles away from civilization, Clayton is so shell-shocked by the thought of anyone back at home finding out about this "unruly" behavior that he can still society's feel watchful eyes on him.

Even during the film's climax, Tarzan never outright hates Clayton for what he does. In fact, when given the opportunity to kill Clayton and end the madness once and for all, what does Clayton do? Try and goad Tarzan into doing it! How sick must he have been, to think that his death would be enough to finally prove that he was right about the jungle being a dangerous place? Clayton has clearly never felt safe or secure about himself his entire life, and his death in his eyes was more of a fascination than it was an actual semblance of peril. Much like Wolf, Clayton was not necessarily evil... Just mentally ill and more than likely brought up a certain way that caused him to turn out like this.

Also, Clayton's sister—Lady Waltham from Disney's "The Legend of Tarzan"

Lady Waltham arrives to the jungle in an elaborate attempt to obtain revenge on Tarzan—she blames him for Clayton's death!

Since I brought him up, I'd also like to talk about Clayton's younger sister, Lady Waltham, in the TV Series as well—who, to our surprise, has the same exact mental illnesses he had! Lady Waltham only appears in the episode "Tarzan and the Gauntlet of Vengeance," and the episode pays a huge homage to Clayton's character, albeit posthumously.

Lady Waltham arrives to the jungle in search of Tarzan. Once finds him, she befriends him via ruse so that she can have all of Tarzan's friends and family kidnapped and put into elaborate perilous situations. She reveals this to Tarzan just as she poisons him, telling him he has a limited amount of time to save them. Her goal to exact revenge on Tarzan is not only super elaborate but it is actually insane. I think Clayton had a much more encapsulated descent into insanity... His sister though seems to be on a much deeper level of hatred, probably accelerated by her brother's sudden absence in her life. My guess is, whatever the two of them had to go through in order to get by in the civilized world, Clayton could have easily been her protector to some degree. Losing that could be devastating, and it doesn't help much since she exhibits traits of having a similar level of mental illness as her brother.

Squealer Chief from "BROK the InvestiGator"

Immediately becomes infatuated with the protagonist and depicts his intense emotions as "hatred" rather than emotionally obsessive. Now that sounds vaguely familiar...?

Massive from "Loonatics Unleashed"

A large and muscular criminal who somehow manages to segway puns about how "Massive" he is within every other line... Seems like he's trying to reassure himself of something there?

Muggshot from "Sly Cooper"

“You’re a Cooper!? You know that 'Thingus Raccamagoocus' had a lot of nice pictures but WAY too many big words..." ~Muggshot's opening boss battle dialogue in Sly 1. Interestingly enough, Wolf's family also has a history of reading problems...

Nadja of Antipaxos from "What We Do In The Shadows"

She's so consistently aggressive with her feelings throughout the entirety of "What We Do In The Shadows" that I can't help but see her as a manifestation of Wolf's more feminine qualities. As such, I've nicknamed her "Mrs. Wolf."

Yosemite Sam from "Looney Tunes"

Ah yes, your typical big manly-man southerner cowboy man squaring up with a gender-fluid cross-dressing rabbit, clearly no postmodernist commentary to be made here...

Sabretooth from "X-Men: The Animated Series"

In which the line, "What's wrong, Wolverine? No kiss and make up?" Truly speaks volumes into his infamous obsession with Wolverine. Its almost as if he has refused to allow himself to exist without him, memorizing his smells and always finding a way back into his life, like a jealous ex who refuses to get over their breakup. Very Wolf-coded, but with more of a sense of carnage to go with it all.