We all are interpreting the Gremlins rules wrong

[FelixSH]

So, everyone says that the most important rule is the third, not to feed a Mogwai after Midnight, right?

Well, I recently rewatched the movie with a friend (he had never seen it, liked it a lot). And honestly, every Mogwai, aside from Gizmo, is a jerk from the get-go. They get more capable and can move better, after the transformation. But, even in mogwai form, they are capable of tying up a dog that is ten times their size. And they do everything to get to the food after midnight. Sure, they are more capable after transforming, and are therefore more dangerous, but the danger already starts when Gizmo, uh, gives birth to new ones.

Like, Gizmo never even tries to eat anything after midnight. The rule warns about him begging for food, but he never does. Gizmo is a good mogwai. I firmly believe that, even after transforming, he would, at worst, be the angsty teenager who listens to Rock'n'Roll and shuts himself in his room all day. He would never try to murder anyone.

 

[Octopus Prime]

Each consequent generation of Mogwai also seems to get a little dumber as well as being more destructive; the ones spawned from Gizmo, as you said, are clever and vicious, but the ones that come from Stripe and Mohawk are all just chaotic dummies.

The exception being the Smart Gremlin, but he has the Excuse of shotgunning brain hormones from a genetics lab.

 

[Johnny Unusual]

In the novelization of the movie, the Mogwai are aliens also have prolonged conversations in Mogwai-ese. Which is a choice. Not inherently relevant to anyone's point, just a weird fact.

 

[FelixSH]

The WHAT?!

I didn't know this was a thing. I guess it is not necessarily good, but is it still worth reading?

 

[q 3]

Important question, do Mogwai follow daylight saving time?

 

[Johnny Unusual]

The WHAT?!

I didn't know this was a thing. I guess it is not necessarily good, but is it still worth reading?

Maybe. Its been a long time. It did have a two word chapter.

 

[Zef]

Important question, do Mogwai follow daylight saving time?

And does it HAVE to be natural sunlight? What happens if a Gremgwai goes into a greenhouse, or gets hit with the piledriver from Boktai? What about tanning beds?

 

[Octopus Prime]

Since a flashbulb from a camera instantly skeletonize one, it stands to reason that it’s not necessarily the sun so much as it’s any sufficiently bright light will do the job.

 

[Beta Metroid]

The Gremlins novel was written by George Gipe, who I know best for writing the bizarre Back to the Future novelization hilariously reviewed by Ryan North.

Someone started to give the Gremlins novelization a similar review treatment, but sadly seem to have abandoned it long ago.

 

[lincolnic]

The "after midnight" clause always felt shaky to me. Isn't literally any time after 12:00 AM after midnight? At what point does it become safe to feed them again? Can you only feed them at exactly 12:00 AM? This rule is way too open-ended, and not knowing the full parameters sets you up to fail.

 

[Octopus Prime]

I always interpreted that as "the middle of the night and sunrise" as being the point where you should leave them hungry.

 

[Johnny Unusual]

The movie mocks some of the after midnight by the cops Billy is trying to explain this to picking about the rules (what about time zones or food caught in your teeth) and the same arguments are brought back in the second film, but yeah, they never say "its OK to feed them by morning."

Also, 30 Days of Night should have been Gremlins, not vampires.

 

[Zef]

Also, what exactly counts as "water"? Plain tap, of course, and potable, probably coffee, but what about solutions and mixtures? Would milk do it? Or an alcoholic drink? Soda?

We saw at least a few gremlins drink, so obv the inside of their mouths won't make them go bubbly, but if they spill a little bit out the corner of their mouths, does that count as "getting wet"? What if they bite into a fruit and it sprays them with juice? Stripe dipping a finger into water made it go glowy, but is there a minimum of fluid required to spawn at least 1 grem-ling?

 

[Johnny Unusual]

Also, they hang out in the snow a LOT in the first movie but Gizmo just needs a squirt of water and Stripe needs to get to a swimming pool.

 

[Zef]

And as mentioned above, if Gizmo's first brood in both films tends to be clever and malicious, and their spawn are just silly loose cannons, does that mean that Gizmo's progenitor was wise and saintly?

 

[LBD_Nytetrayn]

The Gremlins novel was written by George Gipe, who I know best for writing the bizarre Back to the Future novelization hilariously reviewed by Ryan North.

Someone started to give the Gremlins novelization a similar review treatment, but sadly seem to have abandoned it long ago.

I still need/want to get/read the first one, but BttF Part II's novelization is what got me into movie novelizations, and between it and checking Part III's out from the school library repeatedly, likely helped contribute to making me the fan of the franchise that I am today.

Often, novelizations are based on earlier drafts of the script, and contain cut lines and content that might not have even been filmed. They can help fill in some gaps and other stuff, too.

 

[Octopus Prime]

The Gremlins 2 novelization had a lot of fun when it came time to adapt the part where the Gremlins break out of the movie and run amuck in the theatre; the Smart Gremlin escapes the book and spends a whole chapter complaining about the liberties the novel was taking with the movie.

 

[Octopus Prime]

Also, what exactly counts as "water"? Plain tap, of course, and potable, probably coffee, but what about solutions and mixtures? Would milk do it? Or an alcoholic drink? Soda?

We saw at least a few gremlins drink, so obv the inside of their mouths won't make them go bubbly, but if they spill a little bit out the corner of their mouths, does that count as "getting wet"? What if they bite into a fruit and it sprays them with juice? Stripe dipping a finger into water made it go glowy, but is there a minimum of fluid required to spawn at least 1 grem-ling?

I’ve thought about this too;

It seems that any amount of sufficiently pure water will get the process started; but the water needs to cover enough of their body to allow gestation. This is kind of shown in the sequel when the first set of Gremlins get doused and you can see proto-gremlins starting to grow on their skin like a frogs egg-sack. Gizmo is a lot smaller so he only needs a little water to spawn more Mogwai, Stripe is comparatively huge and is spawning full sized Gremlins so he needs to be submerged.

The finger thing was just him taunting Billy.

As for the snow, I’d assume it needs to be liquid water.

 

[Balrog]

What about saltwater?

 

[Octopus Prime]

I’d presume that salt water is close enough to pure water that it’d still work, but I don’t think there’s anything in the movies to either confirm or deny it.