Deuce Gorgon

"You won't know 'til you know, you know?"

- Deuce Gorgon in "Varsity Boos"

Deuce Gorgon is the 16-year-old son of Medusa. He has a pet rat with two tails named Perseus, and can turn people to stone with his gaze, albeit temporarily.

Portrayers
In the English version of the cartoon series, Deuce's voice is provided by Yuri Lowenthal. Cam Clarke filled in for part of season 3 until Evan Smith was cast to be the new voice for Deuce.

Personality
Deuce Gorgon is friendly and outgoing, and very confident, making him one of the most popular monsters around Monster High. He loves sports and is one of the captains of the casketball team. He also loves cooking, but he tries to keep it a secret. He is very loyal to his girlfriend Cleo de Nile and tolerates a lot of her bad behavior with patience and grace.

Appearance
Deuce is tall, handsome and muscular, with green eyes that can turn people to stone (at least for a few hours) which is why he wears glasses. His scalp hair is actually scaly and green, and on top of his head are a bunch of snakes, forming a mohawk (or a "snake-hawk", as Deuce calls it). He also has green scales on his bicep, though it's unclear if it is part of his natural skin or an added tattoo.

Classic Monster
Deuce is the son of the Gorgon Medusa, a figure from classic Greek mythology, and most likely influenced by her portrayal in the 1981 film Clash of the Titans and its 2010 remake of the same name.

In the mythological tale, Medusa was transformed into a terrible monster by an angered Athena due to the fact that she and Poseidon, the god of the seas and Athena's constant rival, snuck into her temple for some alone time. Her beautiful hair was turned into snakes, and her face became so terrible to behold that the mere sight of it would turn onlookers to stone. In later versions of the story, Medusa has two sisters Stheno and Euryale, who were also changed into monsters. In some versions this was because they tried defending their sister and were caught in the spell, in others because they begged Athena to "make Medusa as beautiful as they once more" while Athena was still very angry.

In Clash of the Titans, the warrior Perseus needs to kill the Kraken, so he wants to use Medusa's gaze to turn it to stone. However, that requires killing her. Perseus travels to the Isle of the Dead and kills her guardian, a two-headed dog (the possible inspiration of Deuce's pet rat). Perseus then decapitates Medusa.

The 1981 film is famous because it features the stop-motion animation of master Ray Harryhausen.

Family
Deuce lives with his mother in "a building from one of those pictures at a Greek restaurant. The kind with the big columns and everything."

In the Monster High book series, his mother's name is shortened to Maddy, so as not to attract unwanted attention. Nothing is known about Deuce's father Valentine,dad with gun deuce,mum baby deuce and deuce,mum run with baby

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Every summer vacation, Deuce and his mother travel to Greece to visit his Aunts Stheno and Euryale, the former of which Deuce often has a cook-off against, which may be where his love of cooking came from.

On January 18, 2013, Mattel requested the trademark for Viperine Gorgon. The last name suggests this character to be family of Deuce.

Friends
Deuce appears to be friends with Heath Burns in "New Ghoul @ School", and states in his diary that he has an amicable relationship with Clawdeen Wolf's brother Clawd, since they're both on "the team". He makes friends with Jackson Jekyll during a game of pick-up casketball. He appears to be friends with Operetta in "Phantom of the Opry" and in the School's Out diaries.

Even though Deuce seems to be friends with Heath Burns, he didn't hesitate in turning him into a stone in "New Ghoul @ School".

Pet
Deuce's pet is a two-tailed rat named Perseus, much to his mother's distaste.

In "Hiss-teria", we learn that when Deuce was young, he had a pet dragon named Smokey. Deuce was not in control of his powers, and accidentally turned Smokey to stone. Smokey is supposed to change back on the anniversary of the incident, although Deuce isn't sure which one.

Romance
Deuce is a popular boy, whose cool demeanor, sense of humor, good looks, and social skills easily earn him the attention of the female portion of the student body. Deuce is somewhat oblivious to this though, and himself humble in his romantic endeavors. He fell for Cleo de Nile when she was dating Clawd Wolf, and wouldn't ask her out while she was still attached to another. Word of his interest reached Cleo, whose relationship with Clawd was based on peer pressure, respect, and friendship, but not love. Cleo returned Deuce's interest, which was an additional motivation to Cleo and Clawd's imminent break-up.

Deuce and Cleo started dating only a day after the break-up and have been a steady couple ever since. This is mostly thanks to Deuce, who is patient towards Cleo's diva-like attitude and paranoia that Deuce would dump her for another. When asked by Operetta what he sees in her, he answered "she just brings out the best in me, you know. Makes me want to be a better Deuce." It states in C.A. Cupid's diary that Cleo and Deuce started dating on November 1st.

In "New Ghoul @ School", Deuce became Frankie Stein's first crush because he was nice to her and helped her when Heath Burns wouldn't stop his persistent and awkward flirting on his own. However, Frankie stopped viewing Deuce as a potential boyfriend the moment she found out that he was already dating Cleo, and even helped them get back together after she had accidentally made Cleo believe Deuce was cheating on her.

In "Hiss-teria", Deuce's suspicious behavior and Draculaura's misinterpretation of the things she saw led Cleo to erroneously believe he was cheating on her with Operetta. After a rather violent confrontation between the two, Operetta decided to steal Deuce from Cleo anyway to get back at her. However, Operetta discovered that Cleo's assessment on her and Deuce's compatibility was correct and she genuinely started to like him. When she made her move though, Deuce politely told her he already had a girlfriend and loved her very much. Touched by this, and aware of Cleo's paranoia, Operetta let go of her pursuit and offered to compose a song on Deuce's behalf in which he could express his feelings for Cleo.

In her diary, Rochelle Goyle wrote about her meeting Deuce when the two bumped into each other in the hallways of Monster High. Deuce was surprised to learn he couldn't turn gargoyles into stone and Rochelle fell in love with his beautiful green eyes. Though she knew he had a girlfriend and that she didn't stand a chance, she made sure to get to meet him in the days afterwards. One time even, she had Roux steal Deuce's casketball to lure him to her.

Deuce himself has expressed mild interest in Abbey Bominable, lowering his sunglasses to get a better look at her when she started her first day at Monster High in "Back-to-Ghoul". In "Terrifying Telephone", Frankie and Draculaura, and to a lesser extent Clawdeen and Cleo, thought Deuce was cheating on Cleo with Abbey. It turned out that Deuce was meeting with Abbey because she helped him create an ice rink in his backyard for a romantic surprise date with Cleo.

In the Monster High books, Melody Carver kissed Deuce to get back at Cleo for kissing Jackson Jekyll out of spite towards Melody.

Deuce is also often consulted by his male friends when they have trouble with getting or keeping their relationships on track. Gil Webber talked with Deuce about his lies to Lagoona in "HooDoo You Like?", and Clawd Wolf has asked Deuce for help with Draculaura in "Hyde and Shriek" and his Sweet 1600 diary.

Books
In Monster High, Melody kisses Deuce to get back at Cleo for kissing Jackson. This causes a rift in Cleo and Deuce's relationship, but they work through it. When Cleo decides to not go to The Monster Mash, Deuce and Melody go as just friends. When Melody removes Deuce's glasses, he gets angry and leaves the dance.

As well as wearing his sunglasses at all times, in the Monster High books Deuce must also always wear a hat in order to hide his snakes.

In The Ghoul Next Door, he redeems himself to Cleo by giving her a snake (which was his mother's first grey hair), that she names Hissette. Near the end of the second book, he turns Brett to stone thinking he also sabotaged the documentry in which he mentioned that his gaze is temporary.

In the third book, after The Ghoul Next Door was sabotaged, he and his mother go back to Greece.

In the fourth book he returns to Salem where he and Cleo were nominated for the contest. Near the end of the book he transforms the backdrop of the gym for the graduation ceremony into stone.

Timeline

 * July 11, 2008: Mattel requests the trademark for Deuce Gorgon.
 * May 5, 2010: The Monster High website goes live, featuring Deuce Gorgon's profile.
 * May 5, 2010: Deuce Gorgon's profile art is revealed.
 * May 5, 2010: Deuce Gorgon makes his animated debut in the Higher Deaducation commercial.
 * May 5, 2010: Deuce Gorgon makes his 2D cartoon debut in "Jaundice Brothers".
 * Early July, 2010: Deuce Gorgon's first doll is released as part of the Basic series.
 * Early July, 2010: Deuce Gorgon makes his diary debut in his Basic diary.
 * September 1, 2010: Deuce Gorgon makes his Monster High book debut in Monster High.
 * Early December, 2010: Deuce Gorgon's Friends plushie is released.
 * February 12, 2012: Deuce Gorgon makes his 3D cartoon debut in "Why Do Ghouls Fall in Love?".
 * September 5, 2012: Deuce Gorgon makes his Ghoulfriends book debut in Ghoulfriends Forever.