Jim R. writes...

This is something I've been wanting to ask for a while.

A lot of information on the net in relation to Gargoyles is the criticism reports I read. Critics who evaluated Gargoyles say that as for children, it's a good show to teach morals, right-and-wrong differences, and social problems. They especially mention the episode "Deadly Force" in particular as a lesson learning experience about the dangers of weapons.

But, as for those of us adults, we believe Gargoyles was Disney's way of appealing to a more mature audience. Most of us would say its attractive because of the story, characters, episodes, Shakespearian underlyings, or the overall fictional universe idea makes it interesting. These things, I think, are what make adults come to Gatherings or purchuse merchandise, etc.

So, my question is: Who would you agree with more? The people like us fans, who ask you questions, still watch the series on our VCRs, and adore the story. Or, the critics who would say that Gargoyles is a good children's cartoon, suitable for teaching them lessons of behavior, ethics, etc.

Todd Jensen writes...

You mentioned once that you somewhat regretted calling the fay in "Gargoyles" "Oberon's Children", because that led some of the audience to get the wrong impression, and believe that the fay were Oberon's biological offspring. Actually, I was recently watching my tape of "Heritage", and noted a strong piece of evidence for Oberon not being the biological father of them (or at least not all of them). In the episode, Raven describes Grandmother as his cousin. That would certainly indicate that they are not biological siblings and therefore do not share a common father in that sense. So the series does have something to make it clear (for the observant) that the faeries aren't Oberon's children in that sense. I just thought that you'd like to know.

Sloth writes...

Ok, I think i'm outa worthwhile questions for the moment so i'll just make a comment about the show. One thing I really like about gargoyles (besides the great music, animation, story and characters) is it's hudge vocabulary. I remember when I was younger, the show taught me to use some cool words such as: subterfuge, cataclisim, clishe, abomination and many others that I can't think of right now. Just thought I'd mention someting that i thinks gone unmentioned.
Great work yall!

Ricky writes...

Greg,
Thanks for responding to my questions. I've written about four novels, but none of them have been accepted. Maybe it's my style of writting I don't know...but perhaps we can help each other in this matter. Would it be all right if I sent you a story on this web page despite it being against your guidelines...I'd like someone to read it, and since it's about Max Steel I thought you would be the more appropiate person to send it to. Just take a look and if you like it then perhaps we can colabrate on something.
Thanx

Todd Jensen writes...

This is something that I should be posting later, ideally, since you haven't yet gotten to the Avalon World Tour episodes in your ramblings, but I finally decided that I needed to let this out of me soon, so I'm doing so now.

I've noticed, over the years since I discovered "Gargoyles" fandom on the Internet, that many people didn't like the Avalon World Tour for various reasons (the length of time, the absence of Hudson and the trio, the focus on myth and fantasy aspects rather than more "mundane" elements like crime-fighting, etc.). On the other hand (while I may have had my moments of wondering when Goliath, Elisa, Angela and Bronx were going to get back to New York), I quite liked the World Tour. To a certain extent, I'll admit that I'm biased - my tastes naturally run towards fantasy/myth elements. But after doing a little thinking on this one, it increasngly struck me that, aside from all that, something of the nature of the Avalon World Tour was a must for "Gargoyles" at some point.

The reason for this is that the World Tour served a very crucial purpose (besides the general one that you mentioned of expanding the "Gargoyles Universe"). It made it clear that Goliath, his clan, and Demona weren't the only gargoyles left. And that was a crucial step. Because if they really had been, the gargoyle species would have been almost irrevocably doomed to extinction, with only seven members left, only one of those seven a female, and that one estranged from all the rest and very unlikely to reconcile with them. Goliath and the others would have been the "last gargoyles", not only in the sense of being the only ones left, but also in the sense that no new gargoyles would come along after them.

If that had been the case, it would have obviously made a rather depressing series. Admittedly, having the main character be the "very last of his kind" wouldn't necessarily be utterly melancholy - Superman is the very last Kryptonian, and his story's an upbeat one, on the whole. But the situation there's different; Superman's alien origin is treated more as a plot device to explain his abilities, so his being "the last of his kind" doesn't appear quite so melancholy. Goliath and his clan's "gargoyleness", however, was treated in the series from the start as a crucial part of them and their very nature, rather than a similar handy plot device to allow them to serve as effective protectors of New York. And also, it was clear enough from the start that an important part of the series would be the gargoyles seeking to make peace with humanity, to overcome the fear that so many humans view them with. Such a quest would have been futile (in a sense) if they were the last of their kind - the understanding on humanity's part of the true nature of gargoyles would come too late to avert the race's extinction - the best that the gargs would be able to hope for in such a situation was that they might be able to live out their last years without the general human population hunting them down, but still aware that there would be no new gargoyles after them. Not very happy.

So there'd obviously have to be gargoyles living in other parts of the world to ensure a future for the species. And Goliath and his clan would have to come into contact with those other gargoyles for the audience to see that they weren't the last. But the clan's situation would make that tricky. For one thing, there'd be the obvious transportation problems - they can't simply hop aboard the next plane bound for London or Japan. And given how secretive gargoyle clans would obviously have to be in modern times, even if Goliath and Co. had a mundane means of transportation to wherever it was that one of these clans was living, they would certainly not be likely to find out about these other clans easily. The only solution to both questions that wouldn't feel contrived was magic - as in the magic of Avalon that sends you where you need to be. That way, Goliath could be brought to the locations of the clans in London, Guatemala, and Ishimura in a convincing fashion.

So I think that the Avalon World Tour was indeed a practical must for the series, to allow the crucial moment when the clan can learn, as Hudson put it in "The Gathering", "We're not alone. We're not the last."

Jonny writes...

Greg, I was reading you're welcome letter and I noticed a mistake in it...you said you were the creator and producer Gargoyles, but you misspelled producer, you have "produser". Just thought you should know.

Anonymous writes...

Are the fiction serieses on the http://tgs.gargoyles-fans.org/ website cannon to Gargoyles? If so, I have some more questions.

BLT writes...

Greg, I must commend you for sticking by your guns and continuing to answer these questions from devoted fans long after the demise of the series. It's very encouraging.

And with that, I'll give (what I think is) an easy question: if you could be asked any question about the Gargoyles series at all, what would that question be, and how would you answer it?

Dracolich writes...

One more thing, I visited the Coming Attractions website, which mentions the Gargoyles movie. It had a plot synopsis that was written when Devlin was in charge. In my opinion, I'm SOOO glad it was rejected. For all fans who are curious, check it out <http://www.corona.bc.ca/films/> , but be warned. It is BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAD!!!

Blaise writes...

REVELATIONS

"Better late than never" as Elisa would say.

I liked this ep alot for several reasons. The first and foremost of course being Bluestone. He becomes the focus of an entire episode and finally meets the gargoyles. I kind of agreed with the "About time" sentiment the gargs had.

I'm not sure if, in my initial viewing, I believed Matt actually helped trap Goliath. Probably because I was so pleasantly surprised at hearing Efrem (sp?) Zimbalast Jr. as Mace. I think I may actually have decided to reserve judgement on Matt until the end of the ep (or at least I decided to do so when he went "narrating gumshoe" on us).

That's another thing I kind of like about this ep--the majority of it is told via Matt's voice-over and flashback. It just adds something to the story. And yeah, with his trenchcoat and character quirks, doing "gumshoe narration" seems to be natural for Matt.

On the subject of voice-overs, I didn't notice that Chavez had a different voice until I started looking at the credits at the end of the episodes. After that, I did notice the lighter sound, but still Ms. Gabrielli did a great job filling in for Ms. Ticotin.
And Mr. Asner's Jack Dane (with his wonderful use of the word "bum") proves a memorable character. I was quite happy when he showed up again later.

Anyway, back in the story, I also liked the attention to continuity. Matt's refernce to Elisa bringing in the TV in THE EDGE, the reappearance of Hacker, etc.
And like you, I loved the "enough food for a family of gorillas" and "dental plan" lines. I'm not sure why I like the former of the two so much, maybe because that just seems an interesting way of putting the gargoyles' eating habits in some perspective.

I was suitably impressed upon learning that Xanatos was only a "lower echalon" member of the Society. In fact, I was almost aghast. "How could this rich, powerful guy, whose been pretty much the main adversary and most successful bad guy in the series, be only in the LOWER ranks of the Illuminati?" So the Society got my attention pretty quickly here.

Can't say much about the car sequence, except that I can't help smiling every time the "three words" bit is played--it's just so perfect. Other than that, I like Elisa's quiet admission at the end.

The gargoyles' awakening in this ep does seem a bit more..."unique" than usual. For me it still feels like something in the animation, but Matt being new to it does add something.

The whole sequence at the hotel itself is real fun (hey I knew Goliath was going to get out well enough--I just wondered where Matt's fate would fall). Looking at your memo on this ep, I'm more than a little sorry that we didn't get to see the "false roof" room. That sounded great.

I don't know when, but somewhere in his talks with Mace, I kind of figured Matt was shaming him somehow. So I was prepared for a happy ending.
One of my favorite lines comes from Mace here when he talks about "wasting" Goliath: "It'll be a black mark. I'll be severely reprimanded. But if I allow Goliath to become the first prisoner to ever escape the Hotel Cabal...the flushing sound you hear will be me and my 75-year pension going down the drain."
I think the thing that really intrigues me about this line is the mention of Malone being punished for killing Goliath. I'm still dying to know the Illuminati's plans for the gargoyles.

Yeah, everytime I see Mace grab onto the elevator cables I have to wince.
And I suppose in some sadistic way, I like seeing Mace trapped in the Hotel--especially with that tic going in his eye as he completely loses his mind.

I thought Elisa's confession here was well done. I could understand her feelings about this and sympathize (though, of course, I can't say I'm special because I know the existance of sentient, non-human creatures).

And then the Hacker tag. I saw quite a few things coming in this episode, and this was NOT one of them. I didn't think Hacker would appear again after his spot at the beginning. But here he was, and as a member of the Illuminati. A very fun and intriguing revelation, IMHO.
Kind of a pity that we don't hear from the Illuminati again until THE JOURNEY.

THERE! I do believe I am finally caught up with your episode rambles (as of this writing).