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Gargoyles FAQ

XIII. The Third Race

1. What makes some members of the Third Race death gods and such?

Greg's answer:

Fay are tied to the pure magic of Earth. Individual fay have different "connections", just as individual humans have different talents, etc. Anubis and other "death gods" come by it naturally.
 

2. Why did Oberon banish his Children from Avalon?

Some incident between Titania and Oberon occurred that was "the last straw that broke the camel's back," so to speak, in 995. So, to teach all of the Third Race a lesson in arrogance and humility, Oberon banished them from Avalon for 1001 years. Titania matured greatly during that time (she was rather immature back in 995), but Oberon more or less stayed the same (he didn't think he needed to change).
 

3. Why does Titania wear so little? As a queen, shouldn't she have a little more dignity?

Greg's answer: She's got it. She flaunts it.
 

4. How could Titania's Mirror be in Oberon's Palace if Demona smashed it?

That wasn't Titania's Mirror- it was Oberon's Mirror. Titania's Mirror was indeed smashed. Both of them each received a similar magic mirror, made at the same time long ago, as wedding gifts.
 

5. Have Oberon and Titania had any children? Have we seen them in the show?

Yes, they had children, two to be exact. But we haven't seen them.
 

6. What are the names of the Weird Sisters, and which one is which?

Luna is the "silver-haired mystic," Phoebe is the "blonde pleasant one," and Selene is the "raven-haired hardcase."
 

7. Are the Weird Sisters connected to other female trinities in myth?

Yes, several others, including the Fates, Norns, Furies, and Moon Goddesses. But probably not the Graeae.
 

8. If the Third Race is bound by Oberon's Law of non-interference, how did the Weird Sisters get away with using Demona and Macbeth as they did?

Demona and Macbeth were emotionally exhausted, and had relinquished their "personal sovereignty." This enabled the Sisters to use them.
 

9. What exactly are/were the Weird Sisters' goals?

Greg's answer:

I've heard a lot of complaints about the Weird Sisters. At first they struck me as odd, but now I think I know where the confusion came from.

A. People took the way they presented themselves in "City of Stone" and in "High Noon" at face value.

B. When they saw the Sisters again in "Avalon" and "Ill Met by Moonlight", people didn't like the way they were behaving as much. The Sisters weren't as mysterious or powerful or something. So they rejected the "face value" version that was presented in those episodes.

C. People were less enamored of the Archmage than I was. When we first used the Archmage in "Long Way to Morning" I was phenominally impressed with David Warner, the actor who voiced the part. The character was just a cliched sorcerer, but I felt David added a level of menace that was irresistable. So even though we had killed off the character, I was determined to bring the Archmage back in a way that would let David go to town, and make the cliched Archmage into the near Satanic villain I envisioned he could be. That was what "Avalon, Part II" was supposed to accomplish. David didn't let me down. His dual performances as both versions of the Archmage was a true tour-de-force. But perhaps I failed David. The "Archmage-plus" was supposed to be all-but-omnipotent and all-but-omniscient. Once he had the Grimorum, the Eye and the Gate, he was supposed to be much more threatening than any villain we had encountered up to that point, including the Sisters. His fatal flaw (demonstrated in parts two and three) was his unwavering arrogance. He could have finished all his enemies off instantly. But at heart, he was still this cliched guy who had to toy with his enemies and make them suffer before he wiped them out. That gave the good guys time to rally and defeat him. I'm sure most of you basically got this, but you didn't FEEL it enough, so the Archmage didn't seem tough enough to boss the Sisters around. So everyone assumes that the Sisters are using HIM in some way.

D. Part of the reason for this is probably due to the fact that the final script for "Avalon, Part II" was WAY, WAY too long. We had to cut a lot of stuff before we shipped in order to get the show down to the correct length. You didn't miss any important info, but I do think we lost a bit of the scope of the Archmage's plans, as well as some nice character moments and a bit of helpful expository stuff.

E. People didn't get the Sister's constraints vis-a-vis Oberon. Their hands were much more tied than people seemed to realize. They couldn't enter Avalon of their own volition. They were banished to the barge to guard it. The Archmage's commands gave them their excuse. And they wanted that excuse. So let me make something clear here: THEY ARE A VENGEFUL TRIO OF WITCHES. They wanted vengeance. But as immortals, they could afford to be patient. It didn't matter whether vengeance came in nine days or nine centuries. So, they were using the Archmage. Using him to extract their vengeance. That doesn't mean they wouldn't have eventually turned on the Archmage to get him off Avalon, but that would have been some fight, let me tell you.

F. Having said all that, don't imagine that helping the Archmage is the only thing they did for a millenium. They didn't follow Demona and Macbeth around every minute. They do have other things going on. Other plans. And I'm not saying that what they did for the Archmage doesn't dovetail with these other plans, but that doesn't mean they didn't sincerely want revenge on the Magus and his friends.

G. And they still do. The Magus may be largely beyond their reach, but Goliath and the others aren't. They still need to tread carefully because they can't risk Oberon or Titania's wrath, but believe me, they've got something up their sleeves.
 

10. How did Odin lose his eye?

He relinquished it to Mimir in exchange for a drink from his pool of wisdom.
 

11. How could Odin have tried to steal the Eye of Odin when Puck could only take something that was given to him?

Since it was his eye, Odin was freely able to retrieve what was rightfully his.
 

12. Why didn't Sleipnir (Odin's horse) have eight legs like he does in Norse myth?

Greg's answer:

Sigh. I wanted Slep to have eight legs. But Frank Paur and Bob Kline convinced me that it would just be too hard for our overseas animators to draw. We agreed that a well-animated four-legged horse was preferable to a poorly animated but accurate eight-legged horse. In my head, Slep still has eight legs, but as a changeling himself, he can choose to appear with four legs if he wants.
 

13. Why did Raven want Queen Florence Island all to himself?

Greg's answer:

He was looking to gain power. Queen Florence Island was a place of power. He didn't want to share.
 

14. Did Molly/Banshee have any actual feelings for Rory/Cu Chulainn?

Greg's answer:

[...] As for Rory's current feelings, I think he largely felt betrayed by Molly. Felt she had been using him, felt she never had any real feelings for him. I think she thinks that he's right about that. But "going undercover" as Banshee did gets complicated. Nothing's as cut and dry as either of them think.
 

15. Who's Nought?

That guy in the trenchcoat who walks offscreen just before Odin greets Oberon in "The Gathering" Part I.
 

16. Who is Queen Mab?

Oberon's mother, and the former ruler of Avalon. The Third Race was known as the Children of Mab during her reign. Oberon overthrew her, and she was imprisoned. She would later return after escaping to get revenge. Oberon overthrew her because, not only was she insane, she was also against his marriage to Titania. Mab's form was human-like, but possibly having four arms. She might also have been three inches in height. She was mentioned in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, in this monologue spoken by the character Mercutio (Act I, Scene IV, line 59-101):
 

O, then, I see Queen Mab hath been with you.
She is the fairies' midwife, and she comes
In shape no bigger than an agate-stone
On the fore-finger of an alderman,
Drawn with a team of little atomies
Athwart men's noses as they lie asleep;
Her wagon-spokes made of long spiders' legs,
The cover of the wings of grasshoppers,
The traces of the smallest spider's web,
The collars of the moonshine's watery beams,
Her whip of cricket's bone, the lash of film,
Her wagoner a small grey-coated gnat,
Not so big as a round little worm
Prick'd from the lazy finger of a maid;
Her chariot is an empty hazel-nut
Made by the joiner squirrel or old grub,
Time out o' mind the fairies' coachmakers.
And in this state she gallops night by night
Through lovers' brains, and then they dream of love;
O'er courtiers' knees, that dream on court'sies straight,
O'er lawyers' fingers, who straight dream on fees,
O'er ladies ' lips, who straight on kisses dream,
Which oft the angry Mab with blisters plagues,
Because their breaths with sweetmeats tainted are:
Sometime she gallops o'er a courtier's nose,
And then dreams he of smelling out a suit;
And sometime comes she with a tithe-pig's tail
Tickling a parson's nose as a' lies asleep,
Then dreams, he of another benefice:
Sometime she driveth o'er a soldier's neck,
And then dreams he of cutting foreign throats,
Of breaches, ambuscadoes, Spanish blades,
Of healths five-fathom deep; and then anon
Drums in his ear, at which he starts and wakes,
And being thus frighted swears a prayer or two
And sleeps again. This is that very Mab
That plats the manes of horses in the night,
And bakes the elflocks in foul sluttish hairs,
Which once untangled, much misfortune bodes:
This is the hag, when maids lie on their backs,
That presses them and learns them first to bear,
Making them women of good carriage:
This is she--


17. What are the true forms of the Children of Oberon?

How can a being that can change its shape on whim have any "true form?" In short, no one knows, not even the Third Race themselves. One could consider their "true forms" the ones they most often wear.
 

18. Is the Judeo-Christian-Muslim God a member of the Third Race?

No.
 

19. Did Ragnarok (the end of the Norse gods) occur in the Gargoyles universe?

Greg's answer: A Ragnarok occurred. But not necessarily THE Ragnarok.

[Regarding Thor, Greg adds...] I'm leaning toward Thor being dead.

I'd have to come up with a damn good Thor story-idea before I'd want to compete in any way with Marvel's Thor. (A favorite of mine from my youth.) Hell, even Stargate SG-1 uses Thor. He's just been so done.

[Regarding Loki...] Haven't decided. Probably dead though. I've already got four tricksters, how many do I need?
 

20. What were the ancestors of the Third Race like?

The Will o' the Wisp from "Pendragon."
 

21. Are the Third Race truly immortal?

Greg's answer:

I believe that they can die, as completely or not as any human. But they can't die of old age, unless they stubbornly insist on maintaining a mortal form until it kills them. They are therefore, acutally, technically mortal themselves, but don't truly comprehend mortality (if that makes sense). So they like to pretend they are fully immortal, fully untouchable. (Well, that's a generalization, really. Individuals may vary.)
 

22. When a member of the Third Race takes mortal shape, how much of their powers can they tap into?

Greg's answer:

When they transform into a mortal of whatever species -- as opposed to just taking on the glamour of a mortal -- they are bound by all the rules of that species, save ONE. They can transform back.
 


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