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I have a question. Do gargoyles have their own concept of beauty among them? I mean, even Goliath unintentionally told Elisa he thought humans are ugly, which was very fun to watch.
But we have seen among people we are attracted to our own perspective of what's beautiful. So I was wondering if gargoyles are the same, or they have a concept that all among their kind are beautiful in their unique way?
I'm sure they have a conception of beauty, but as with most things, the evaluation of beauty is hardly monolithic among the Gargoyles' species.
Hi,
Sorry, I asked a question but forgot to put a link to the ramble it refers to and thought you might have trouble finding it. My question refers to this ramble where you discuss the idea that Gargoyles might have originally not used language and communicated psychically instead, an extension of how they didn't used to have names.
https://www.s8.org/gargoyles/askgreg/search.php?rid=387
I thought it was fascinating and I was wondering whether you've given it any more thought since then. Thanks.
Thanks for the link. Yeah, the ideas still interest me. Something to explore someday, maybe.
Dear Greg,
I'm a big fan of yours. I have a question, but first I just wanted to express my gratitude. I recently lost my grandfather. It was the first time someone close to me passed away, so it was especially difficult. It prompted me to reread Rain of the Ghosts and I found it very comforting during a difficult time. I thought your portrayal of the grieving process was very vivid and true to life, and I appreciate that you didn't just rush through it the way other works of fiction often do. I'd give anything for my grandfather to be in a bracelet so I could talk to him every night like Papa Bastian. I hope I get to read the rest of the books in the series and hear the audioplay version of the second book someday, but until then I'll happily support the other projects you're working on, especially Young Justice: Outsiders.
As for my question, a while ago I saw this ramble all the way from 2004 about whether Gargoyles might have communicated psychically rather than through words. I was really fascinated by it at the time and it spurred me to think about the nature and limitations of language. I even did some study of the philosophy of language when I got to college partly because of seeing that ramble. I was wondering, have you given that idea any more thought? For example, is it any closer or farther away from something you'd consider bringing into the text if you ever get a chance to make more Gargoyles stories? Thanks!
Thank you for your kind words. I'm glad Rain and Bastian could help you through a difficult time.
As for your question, I haven't really pursued that idea. I'm leaning more toward instinct than telepathy. But I also haven't had a need to explore it further. So we'll see.
When the eggs hatch, do expecting mother gargoyles know instinctively which hatchling is theirs to nurse? Or do they just nurse any hatchling?
The latter, in essence. They are all rookery mothers to all the hatchlings.
Hello again,
1) How do the clans determine the names of newly-born members?
a) Ishimura
b) London
c) Manhattan
d) Labyrinth
2) Did Nashville itself determined his name or were his parents?
1 a-d. No spoilers.
2. No spoilers.
How does the commitment ceremony worked? Is it a gargoyle tradition of mating or similar to a wedding? Has there been a humans and gargoyles that can have sex?
1. I hope to depict it someday, so I'm not going into detail here.
2. Closer to a wedding, I suppose.
3. No spoilers.
Hey again, Greg...
A question I've often wondered but never really got around to asking. Given that Clan Leaders tend to have pretty broad and unilateral powers, does the Gargoyle Way allow any recourse for a Clan dealing with an abusive Leader?
Yes.
Topic: Gargoyle Biology
Question 1: Given the Gargoyles' wings are like bat or bird wings, nor noticeably have a smaller pair of hands, could there possibly have been a Gargate species that existed with two sets of arms, instead of a pair of arms and a pair of wings?
Question 2: Given the immense diversity between Gargoyle appearances, including the Loch Ness clan being semi-amphibious, do Gargoyles have a high genetic mutation rate or a special genetic adaptivity depending on the environment?
1. Well, I suppose. Interestingly, an older design for Lexington gave him two sets of true arms, including two sets of hands, with his wings largely unchanged, i.e. that middle set of arms that you can see in the center of his wings were still there, but they were more firmly developed and had actual hands at the end.
2. Maybe? I'd have to consult with some of our fan-biologists on the possibility. But keep in mind, Gargates are a VERY old species. They've had tons of time to evolve. Way longer than humans have had. The miracle is that they have maintained as much cultural, um, "integrity," as they have.
What's the smartest observation that you've ever seen a fan make about one of your shows?
Geez, there have been so many... and yet of course nothing comes to mind at the moment. That's not a comment on the fans, who are fantastic, but on my crap memory.
My guess is it was something at one of the GARGOYLES BIOLOGY & CUSTOMS panels at the old GATHERING OF THE GARGOYLES conventions. Those rocked! Check out some of the Gathering diaries in the archives and you might find some cool stuff recorded.
How do gargoyles mate ritualistically? I am writing a story and I want to use it in my fanfiction on how they mate. Is it like humans or is there a whole ceremony?
I wouldn't call it a formal ceremony. But flight is involved.
In Enter MacBeth, MacBeth refers to Demona as the Gargoyles' queen. But wouldn't she or even someone of her clan from the past have told him a bit about Gargoyles and their clans and that they didn't have kings or queens? Or did she leave him to believe she was their queen?
I think you're taking his statement too literally. He saw her as the leader of the gargoyles, which she was during the key moment of his natural life. He views leaders in terms of kings and queens, so used that language. (Also as a chess metaphor, I seem to recall.) But he wasn't speaking or thinking about her this way literally.
Hi Greg, I have a question about traditional gargoyle culture and lifestyle--that is, their culture/lifestyle as it existed before being exposed to a ton of human interaction and influence. I realize these details likely vary from clan to clan and from century to century, but for instance, the Wyvern clan.
How might the Wyvern clan have lived prior to forming its alliance with the humans who then built the castle? We get some sense of this in the series: communal, leader and second, etc. But:
1. Aside from the rookery, would the area where the clan lived have contained some structures or shelter of any kind that the gargoyles built?
2. Would there be areas designated for certain functions (like, a place where food is prepared and cooked -- assuming they'd cook food), or would the area they occupied be more fluid in how they used it?
3. Did the clan always stay in a certain area, or would they move around at all to different areas, depending on time or year or something?
4. Aside from the leader and second, were there any other specific jobs within the clan, for instance people whose responsibility was the hunt, or would everyone sort of participate in all clan activities?
5. Related to this, in what ways did the clan's lifestyle/behaviors change after they formed the alliance and the castle was built? I imagine, even if the humans were at first very enthusiastic about their new gargoyles allies, there must have been some culture shock (on both of their parts) with having to share the same space and live together.
Thank you for your time!
1. No.
2. Tend toward the fluid, I'd think. But I'm sure habits become traditions over time.
3. Clan life centered around Wyvern Hill, but they hunted, etc., all around the vicinity.
4. Warriors were also hunters. And every gargoyle was a warrior first, though some had other interests. Desdemona, for example, was spiritual, the closest thing they had to a Warrior-Priestess.
5. I think you can see most of this in our pilot.
Since Goliath and Demona are the same age roughly in 994 what would happen when Goliath became to old to lead the clan and stepped down? Wouldn't Demona also be too old?
Yes, it would have been a concern eventually. But they were both young at that stage, and the bigger concern at that time was death by violence, not by old age.
Hey Greg, I'm a huge fan of Gargoyles, but there's something that's been bothering me for quite some time... the fact that Goliath's clan, with the exception of Goliath, didn't name themselves until they awoke from their cursed slumber.
It strikes me that, at a bare minimum, they would have had extreme difficulty formulating plans for defending the castle and assigning roles. If they didn't have names, how did a typical strategy briefing go? How did Goliath make clear which gargoyles were in charge of which task? How did people get the attention of single gargoyles in the middle of a crowd?
Could you write a hypothetical dialogue of what they would say when setting up plans to defend the castle when addressing the entire, pre-slaughter clan?
I could. But I won't.
Gargoyles didn't have defined specific names, but they referred to each other by relationships, signifiers, etc. (For example, "My Angel of the Night" or the "Gargoyle of the Sword".) I'm sure they made it work.
You have said there were homosexual Gargoyles, are there also transgender Gargoyles that could transition? Also, how does surgery for Gargoyles work? Is that even a possibility for them, like something as easy as adding stone or shaping stone while they were in stone sleep, or operating on them while they were flesh or would it be impossible?
There has been no such thing as gender reassignment surgery for gargoyles. Frankly, there's been no such thing - for the most part - as SURGERY for gargoyles, period.
You definitely cannot operate on a sleeping gargoyle. But you could, in theory, operate on a gargoyle at night. I suppose you'd use an epidural or something. (I'm not a doctor.)
But, yes, I imagine there have been transgender gargoyles over the centuries.
We know that separations and affairs are quite rare among Gargoyles; what about rape? How rare it is among Gargoyles, and how much heinous it's considered as a crime?
It's rare and extremely heinous.
We know that, when Elisa dies, she's going to receive a Wind Ceremony, despite being human, because she's a full-fledged member of the clan. With that in mind...
1)Is she going to be the first human to receive a Wind Ceremony?
2)If, back in the middle ages, the Captain of the Guard had died without betraying the clan, would he have been given a Wind Ceremony?
3)If the Magus hadn't asked specifically to stay in the Hollow Hill, would he have been given a Wind Ceremony?
4)What about Katharine and Tom? When they die, are they going to receive Wind Ceremonies?
1. That seems unlikely.
2. Odds are he would have received human burial.
3. Potentially.
4. No spoilers.
This might seem like a weird question, but how do gargoyles greet each other. Like from different clans. Same or opposite sex greetings different? If then, how so? Like for Hudson, if he met a younger gargoyle (male or female) from another clan, how would they greet each other? Just very curious. I just can't find an answer to this question, I've looked nearly everywhere. Can you help me?
Did you look at the show itself? Or the comics? We've seen Hudson and other gargoyles meet and greet gargoyles from other clans multiple times.
Did Demona remember, when she saw the Magus, Katharine, and Tom taking the eggs out of the rookery, that she had laid one of those eggs?
Of course. But she also regarded ALL of those eggs as her rookery children. She could not have singled out the one egg she personally laid from all the others if she tried.
Hi, Greg, hope the tour's going well. Hope you have fun!
I've got a question about gargoyle eggs and customs. Does rookery parentage apply to every gargoyle in a generation of the right age to reproduce? For example, would Iago/Coldsteel be considered one of Angela's rookery fathers despite the fact that he never mated or had any involvement with producing eggs?
To some extent, it's up to the individual. One doesn't have to be a biological parent within an appropriate generation to participate in the raising of hatchlings. (It takes a clan, afterall.) But if one in essence opts out of the responsibility, that's considered a bit odd, but allowed.
When I visited Puerto Rico last fall (October of 2013) we went on a tour of the cave system in Camuy- which is awesome. On the tour, our guide commented that normally, human settlements only exist in caves that have a clear entrance and exit that face east and west- so that there is light in the cave during the day. For that reason, caves with north/south facings would be avoided.
Anyway, my question is- did pre-bronze age gargoyles tend to have settlements in cave systems over other areas- since their eggs need thermal energy access anyway?
Rookeries tended to be in underground caves.
Do gargoyles, as a race, have an common origin myth?
Generally, yes. But the clans over time became so spread out and isolated, variations abound.
Was there ever a Wind Ceremony for the gargoyles at Castle Wyvern?
If you mean the gargoyles massacred there by Hakon, then, no. Sad, right?
Dose Brooklyn have a younger sibling I read gargoyles couples each normally have three eggs/ three children so I know he has a brother dose he have a younger sibling.
For all we know, Brooklyn is the youngest of the three biological siblings. If he did have a younger sibling, he or she would be the same age as True.
But, of course, I'm not going to confirm or deny anything. No Spoilers.
Keep in mind that Brooklyn considers his siblings all to be the same age, give or take a day or two. The biology matters less than the Rookery.
Do gargoyles (specifically the Manhattan clan) recognize / notice misogyny and sexism in human societies? If so, what do they think about it? Does a similar gender hierarchy exist among gargoyles?
Thank you for your time!
1. It may sneak up on them. They'd probably think it was nuts. Especially since, from their point of view, ALL humans are so physically weak that the differences between male and female would seem negligible. Plus they certainly know that both male and female humans can be deadly and dangerous.
2. Largely no.
I read the gargoyles wiki on how they only have one mate for life but I couldn't find anything about how they actually chose their mates. Is it like a human and they just chose their mate by courting and falling in love with that gargoyle or does it have to do with certain things, like the horns, wing size, color, etc.?
Attraction plays into things, of course. But you saw how Angela and Broadway got together, and there are no RULES, per se.
I've checked the archives for this question to have been asked, but found nothing on the subject, so if this has been asked and answered already, I appologize in advance.
How long is a typical "reign" (for lack of a better term) for a clan leader - barring that leader being killed in battle, relenquishing the role early, being forcibly removed, etc.?
If you feel like pinning down a specific (which I verry much doubt, but hey, fingers crossed), how long did Hudson lead the Scotish clan before turning leadership over to Goliath?
I'm going to hazard a guess of arround 50 years...basing that assumption (and that's all it really is) on him/her being between at least old enough to mate (40) and hatching their last egg (90) - but probably older than both of those "landmarks"...am I even close?
I don't think there's a typical length, certainly not a set term. Death or retirement come when they come.
As to Hudson specifically, I don't have that information here at this office. Sorry.
So the #Gargoyles20 U.S. Tour continues. Stop #3 is CONvergence in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Well, actually in Bloomington, Minnesota, but close enough.) http://www.convergence-con.org
This is a big one for us. It includes a number of events that we used to do at the old Gathering of the Gargoyles Conventions, which ran from 1997-2009. And I know a bunch of Gargoyles fans will be attending, so it'll also be a reunion of sorts.
My schedule for the long weekend is quite packed - which is just how I like it!
THURSDAY, JULY 3, 2014
2:00pm - 3:00pm GARGOYLES RADIO PLAY AUDITIONS
Ever wanted to be in a radio play? Now is your chance! We are holding auditions for a live performance at CONvergence! You don't even have to be a fan of Gargoyles to enter. You just have to know how to read! Casting: Myself and Jennifer Anderson (Talent Coordinator on The Spectacular Spider-Man and Young Justice). Casting decisions will be posted by 7:00pm on Friday, July 4th. ATRIUM 7.
3:30pm - 4:30pm BUFFYVERSE TEN YEAR ANNIVERSARY
Okay, so Gargoyles ISN'T the only show celebrating an anniversary. The Buffy/Angel universe has been off the air for ten years. Let's reminisce and talk about the impact these shows have had on TV fantasy since their cancellation. Panelists: Myself, Tim Lieder, Cetius d'Raven, Madeleine Rowe, Mark Goldberg. EDINA.
7:00pm - 8:00pm OPENING CEREMONY
If it's not exactly a magical invocation, it is nonetheless our official kick-off for the convention! Join CONvergence mascot Connie as we welcome our Guests of Honor, give out some awards (including the Mark Time and Ogle winners), and get this party started. Panelists: Myself, Amy Berg, Emma Bull, C. Robert Cargill, Sarah Clemens, Scott Lynch, Marina Sirtis, Frank Paur, Matthew Ebel, Dawn Krosnowski, Greg Guler, Rob Callahan, Windy Bowlsby, Michael Lee. MAIN STAGE.
9:00pm - 10:00pm GREG WEISMAN'S FANCY BASTARD PIE COMPETITION
Geek Partnership Society is excited to host the Greg Weisman Fancy Bastard Pie Competition at CONvergence 2014! It is open to all CONvergence members who wish to participate. The goal is to make a pie that Greg Weisman, herein to be known as "Fancy Bastard", likes best. The winner will be told super-secret Young Justice spoilers. Find out [some of] what would have happened in Season 3! (But winner must swear to secrecy to claim prize.) See below for some helpful hints.* CABANA 110.
FRIDAY, JULY 4th, 2014
11:00am - 12:00pm GARGOYLES RADIO PLAY AUDITIONS
Ever wanted to be in a radio play? Now is your chance! We are holding auditions for a live performance at CONvergence! You don't even have to be a fan of Gargoyles to enter. You just have to know how to read! Last chance to audition! Casting: Myself and Jennifer Anderson (Talent Coordinator on The Spectacular Spider-Man and Young Justice). Casting decisions will be posted by 7:00pm on Friday, July 4th. ATRIUM 7.
12:30pm - 1:30pm FROM TV TO COMICS
We'll discuss the TV shows that expanded into the comicverse, such as Buffy, Smallville, Young Justice and Gargoyles. Did they succeed? Were any of the comics improvements on the shows? How did canon change during the transition? Panelists: Myself (Gargoyles, Young Justice), Shawn van Briesen, Jonathan Palmer, Greg Guler (Gargoyles), Karine Charlebois (Gargoyles, Bad Guys), Christopher Jones (Batman Strikes, Young Justice, Bad Guys). PLAZA 2.
2:00pm - 3:00pm SIGNING
Myself, Christopher Jones (Young Justice, The Batman Strikes, Parallel Man) and Greg Guler (Gargoyles, Phineas and Ferb) will be holding a signing session. Both Chris and Greg always have an array of stuff (books, prints, etc.) to sell and sign. But this time I'm pretty darn prepared as well. First off, I'll be selling and signing copies of my first novel RAIN OF THE GHOSTS for $10 cash, which includes the book, a personalized signature and signed copies of the original development character designs by Kuni Tomita for the television version of Rain that never was. In addition - and by popular demand - I am selling and signing an array of my animation teleplays for $20 cash from such series as Gargoyles, Team Atlantis, DC Showcase (Green Arrow), Men in Black: The Series, The Spectacular Spider-Man, The Batman, Batman: The Brave and the Bold, Roughnecks: Starship Troopers Chronicles, W.I.T.C.H., Young Justice and even the 2009 Radio Play "The Spectacular Spider-Man Meets Gargoyles". I'll also sign anything else you bring and put in front of me for FREE - especially if you buy my book. ;) CONVERGENCE CENTRAL.
3:30pm - 4:30pm CREATING GARGOYLES
This is what we used to call (at the Gathering) the Rocky Horror Gargoyles Show. The creators of Gargoyles show clips and tell stories of how the show came to be. Lots of visual aids. Panelists: Myself (Creator, Supervising Producer/Story Editor, Writer), Frank Paur ( (Supervising Producer/Director), Greg Guler (Lead Character Designer). ATRIUM 6.
7:00pm - 8:00pm TIME TRAVEL THEORY
Let's assume for a moment that Time Travel is possible. This panel will explore the theories behind such technology. We'll explore quantum realities, temporal anomalies and all other challenges our theoretical time travelers will be face! [Now, I suggested this panel, but then they went and put some actual scientists on the damn thing. So I may quickly be embarrassed into silence.] ;) Panelists: Myself, Nicole Gugliucci, Jim Kakalios, G. David Nordley, Amy Berg. ATRIUM 4.
8:30pm - 9:30pm GARGOYLES Q&A
Join the cast and creators of the "Gargoyles" series and SLG companion comic books to ask and talk about the property. And, as always, Cosplayers are welcome! Panelists: Myself (Creator, Supervising Producer/Story Editor, Writer), Christopher Jones (Bad Guys guest artist), Marina Sirtis (voice of Demona and Margot Yale), Frank Paur (Supervising Producer/Director), Karine Charlebois (Gargoyles Guest Artist, Bad Guys Artist), Greg Guler (Lead Character Designer, Gargoyles Guest Artist). MAIN STAGE.
SATURDAY, JULY 5th, 2014
9:30am - 10:30am GARGOYLES SIGNING
Myself, Marina Sirtis (voice of Demona and Margot Yale) and Frank Paur (Supervising Producer/Director) will be holding a signing session. Again, I'll be selling and signing copies of my first novel RAIN OF THE GHOSTS for $10 cash, which includes the book, a personalized signature and signed copies of the original development character designs by Kuni Tomita for the television version of Rain that never was. In addition - and by popular demand - I am selling and signing an array of my animation teleplays for $20 cash from such series as Gargoyles, Team Atlantis, DC Showcase (Green Arrow), Men in Black: The Series, The Spectacular Spider-Man, Roughnecks: Starship Troopers Chronicles, W.I.T.C.H., The Batman, Batman: The Brave and the Bold, Young Justice and even the 2009 Radio Play "The Spectacular Spider-Man Meets Gargoyles". I'll also sign anything else you bring and put in front of me for FREE. CONVERGENCE CENTRAL.
11:00am - 12:25pm GARGOYLES RADIO PLAY REHEARSAL
This is a closed session - for those who were cast in the Radio Play - led by Myself, Jennifer Anderson (Talent Coordinator on The Spectacular Spider-Man and Young Justice) & Marina Sirtis (voice of Demona, Margot Yale and Queen Bee). ATRIUM 6.
12:30pm - 1:30pm GARGOYLES RADIO PLAY PERFORMANCE
Fans and professionals - including Myself (voice of Donald Menken and Lucas "Snapper" Carr), Jennifer Anderson (Talent Coordinator on The Spectacular Spider-Man and Young Justice), and of course, Marina Sirtis (Deanna Troi from Star Trek TNG and the voice of Demona, Margot Yale and Queen Bee) - perform a LIVE, ORIGINAL Gargoyles radio play! ATRIUM 6.
2:00pm - 3:00pm GARGOYLES BIOLOGY AND CULTURE
A "what if" panel about the biology and culture of the Gargoyles universe. Creators and performers speculate about anything and everything going on outside the frames of the TV series. Panelists: Craig A. Finseth moderates Myself (Creator, Producer) and Greg Guler (Lead Character Designer). ATRIUM 7.
3:30pm - 4:30pm RAIN OF THE GHOSTS
I'll be reading from and talking about the world and characters of my novel "Rain of the Ghosts" and its sequel, "Spirits of Ash and Foam," which comes out July 8th, 2014, one week after the convention! ATRIUM 3.
7:00pm - 8:00pm ONE ON ONE WITH GREG WEISMAN
Hal Bichel will moderate a one-on-one panel with Myself. PLAZA 2.
8:30pm - 9:30pm SIGNING
Once again, I'll be selling and signing copies of my first novel RAIN OF THE GHOSTS for $10 cash, which includes the book, a personalized signature and signed copies of the original development character designs by Kuni Tomita for the television version of Rain that never was. In addition - and by popular demand - I am selling and signing an array of my animation teleplays for $20 cash from such series as Gargoyles, Team Atlantis, DC Showcase (Green Arrow), Men in Black: The Series, The Batman, Batman: The Brave and the Bold, The Spectacular Spider-Man, Roughnecks: Starship Troopers Chronicles, W.I.T.C.H., Young Justice and even the 2009 Radio Play "The Spectacular Spider-Man Meets Gargoyles". I'll also sign anything else you bring and put in front of me for FREE. CONVERGENCE CENTRAL.
10:00pm - 11:00pm BLUE MUG
Ever wonder about the sexual habits of Gargoyles? Ever wonder who was sleeping with whom among the Young Justice Team or the cast of Spectacular Spider-Man? Join us for for a late night peek at your favorite animated series. This panel will get blue! (So attendees will be carded!) Panelists: Myself, Christopher Jones, Mara Cordova (Last Tengu in Paris Artist). It is also rumored that Edmund Tsabard (an unfancy bastard and Last Tengu in Paris Writer) may make an appearance. EDINA.
SUNDAY, JULY 6th, 2014
11:00am - 12:00pm PROTOFEMINISTS IN SHAKESPEARE
Shakespeare portrayed several intelligent, independent, and self-aware women--Juliet, Lady Macbeth, Katharine, Beatrice, Viola, Rosalind. We'll discuss the problematic and the remarkably (for the era) fleshed-out aspects of their representation. Panelists: Myself, Elizabeth Bear, Ashley F. Miller, Joseph Erickson, Alexandra Howes. EDINA.
12:30pm - 1:30pm GARGOYLES FAN PANEL
It's the 20th Anniversary of Gargoyles. Come share your favorite moments from the show. As always, Cosplayers are welcome! Panelists: Daniel Mohr moderates Myself, Ryan Alexander, Robert Wagner, Maggie Schultz, Jennifer Anderson, Karine Charlebois. ATRIUM 6.
2:00pm - 3:00pm SIGNING
Myself and Greg Guler (Gargoyles, Phineas and Ferb) will be holding one last signing session. Greg G. always has an array of stuff (books, prints, etc.) to sell and sign. And I'll be selling and signing copies of my first novel RAIN OF THE GHOSTS for $10 cash, which includes the book, a personalized signature and signed copies of the original development character designs by Kuni Tomita for the television version of Rain that never was. In addition - and by popular demand - I am selling and signing an array of my animation teleplays for $20 cash from such series as Gargoyles, Team Atlantis, DC Showcase (Green Arrow), Men in Black: The Series, The Spectacular Spider-Man, Roughnecks: Starship Troopers Chronicles, The Batman, Batman: The Brave and the Bold, W.I.T.C.H., Young Justice and even the 2009 Radio Play "The Spectacular Spider-Man Meets Gargoyles". I'll also sign anything else you bring and put in front of me for FREE - especially if you buy my book. CONVERGENCE CENTRAL.
3:30pm - 4:30pm YOUNG JUSTICE
Creative minds behind the Young Justice TV and comic book series will talk about this fan favorite. We're planning some special surprises as well. And, as always, Cosplayers are welcome! Panelists: Myself, Marina Sirtis (voice of Queen Bee), Christopher Jones (Artist YJ Comic). MAIN STAGE.
5:00pm - 6:00pm CLOSING CEREMONY
It's not over 'til the gynoid sings - or something like that. Join CONvergence mascot Connie and our Guests of Honor as we say farewell to another convention. Shenanigans may ensue. Panelists: Myself, Amy Berg, Emma Bull, C. Robert Cargill, Sarah Clemens, Scott Lynch, Marina Sirtis, Matthew Ebel, Frank Paur, Dawn Krosnowski, Greg Guler, Windy Bowlsby, Rob Callahan, Michael Lee. MAIN STAGE
SEE?!! I told you there was a lot. And that's only the stuff that I'm doing. CONvergence is jam-packed with all sorts of pop culture nutritional goodness. So stop by and say hello!!
*In the interest of Full Disclosure, Fancy Bastard would like all to know that he especially likes the following pies:
APPLE
BERRY (pretty much any kind of berry or a mix of same)
PEACH
APRICOT
PUMPKIN
BANANA CREAM (herein to be known as the funniest pie)
Combinations of some of the fruit pies can be great. Contestants are welcome to try other pies at their own risk.
Fancy Bastard does NOT especially like the following pies:
PECAN
Anything with Chocolate or Lemon or Meringue
Raisins in Apple Pie
Almost never Cherry, though he has tasted the rare exception...
Hello Mr. Wiesman,
I have been reading the archives and I have a couple of questions regarding the more obscure Gaegoyle clans:
1) Youve mentioned that the Xanadu clan exists to protect the Beast lineage. My question is, are their Beasts all from Chinese stock, or have they incorporated other "breeds" (so to speak) into that gene-pool? Basically, Im asking if they all have the same basic appearance, or reflect all types of Beasts.
2) You also once said that the Lach Ness clan were aquatic in nature. Does that mean that they are truly amphibious (like frogs), or can they just hold their breath for long lengths of time (like dolphins)?
Thanks.
1. Leaning toward the latter, but haven't made a final decision yet.
2. Likewise, I haven't decided, though again I lean toward the latter.
These might both be good questions to bring up at the Gargoyles Biology and Culture panel this July at CONvergence. There are always some actual biologists in the room to advise me.
If, for whatever reason, the body of a Gargoyle can't be recovered for the Wind Ceremony, is there some kind of alternative ritual?
It's the same basic ritual, just without the ashes or dust. Though, like humans, Gargoyles may be reluctant to declare someone dead without a body as evidence.
Gargoyle Culture & Biology
So, in most social species there is an evolved strategy that encourages gene diversification and limits inbreeding. In lions, for instance, the males leave the pride at maturity to take over a different pride and mate with the females of that group rather than stay and have only their sisters and aunts and female cousins to mate with. In bonobos, it is the females that often leave to join new groups and find unrelated males to mate with.
Now, obviously, in the Gargoyles Universe, up until very recently there was very little genetic exchange between the surviving far flung and isolated clans. But back in their heyday, when the nearest clan to your own was well known and could be reached, was there any sort of social strategy to encourage genetic diversity or has finding a mate among your own rookery siblings always been the norm?
And now that the clans are becoming more known to each other and able to move from clan to clan more easily, will this issue cause more inter-clan mating? Does the mixing of the 2198 rookery eggs have anything to do with this or is that just a symbolic gesture of the Gargoyle Nation?
Well, keep in mind that rookery siblings are almost by definition NOT biological siblings. But there's probably a lot of cousins in there.
There will definitely be more inter-clan mating in the modern age. And ganging the 2198 rookery eggs may have had a dual purpose.
But this is definitely a topic I'm open to discussing... say at the Gargoyles Biology and Culture panel at CONvergence this summer!
Hey again Greg, I have another question for you
How do gargoyles view homosexuality? More specifically the Manhattan clan sense Lexington is confirmed to be homosexual, but knowing about the other gargoyles would be nice too.
Thanks Greg, I wish Peter David the best and I'll see if I can help.
As for Peter, I'll thank you on his behalf.
As for your question, I'm afraid it's been ASKED AND ANSWERED over and over again. Please check the ASK GREG Archives under either "Lexington" or "Gargoyle Customs" or both.
Hey Greg! Hope that you're doing well, and that the holiday season is treating/did treat (depending on when you read this) your family happily.
What follows is a paper I recently submitted to my Contemporary Political Theory class at Pomona College, interrelating several of the concepts from the book we discussed that week ("You Are Not a Gadget" by Jaron Lanier) with the notion of namelessness in traditional gargoyle culture.
My professor (unfamiliar with the show, but very intrigued when I explained it to her) really got a kick out of the piece, and I earned a more-or-less "A-" equivalent for it. But as long as I've got it sitting around, I figured you might enjoy giving it a read as well.
[NOTE: You may want to review this post you made on Ask Greg in 2004 beforehand, as it is cited frequently: http://www.s8.org/gargoyles/askgreg/search.php?rid=387].
Now, without further ado, the essay. It has been edited from the submitted version only by rearranging paragraph breaks...
The 1994 animated television series Gargoyles posits a highly intelligent species which dominated the Earth prior to human genesis and ascendance.
These gargoyles possess a unique culture which predates humanity's by a significant period, but the first on-screen depiction of the gargoyle species takes place in the 10th century, after millions of years of convergent evolution between the two cultures.
Indeed, the pilot episodes depict the essential death of one lingering component of gargoyle culture, at least for the series protagonists: that gargoyles lack personal names. This idea is first discussed in a conversation between two gargoyles and a human boy:
TOM: I'm Tom. What's your name?
GARGOYLE #1: Except for Goliath, we don't have names.
TOM: How do you tell each other apart?
GARGOYLE #1: We look different.
TOM: But what do you call each other?
GARGOYLE #2: (shrugs) Friend.
For context, "Goliath" is the leader of the clan of gargoyles to which the protagonists belong, and their liaison to the humans with whom they share an uneasy alliance; those humans felt incapable of dealing with a nameless entity, and Goliath did not bother to reject the name they selected for him.
Still, he does not use the name in communicating with his own clan until a betrayal by their human allies and a magical curse cause the protagonists to sleep as statues and then reawaken in 20th century Manhattan.
Here they meet and befriend Elisa Maza, a police detective who is both confused by and - for reasons she has trouble articulating - uncomfortable with this traditional lack of names. The following exchange takes place between Elisa and the clan's elderly mentor:
ELISA: Are you coming on the tour…uh, what do I call you, anyway?
GARGOYLE: Must you humans name everything? Nothing's real to you till you've named it, given it limits!
ELISA: It's not like that! It's just that…well, uh…things need names.
GARGOYLE: Does the sky need a name? Does the river?
ELISA: The river's called the Hudson.
GARGOYLE: (sighs) Fine, lass…then I will be 'the Hudson' as well.
ELISA: Great! Hudson it is.
From that point onward, that particular gargoyle is known as Hudson, and only Hudson.
The younger gargoyles who survived the centuries follow suit; the two who conversed with Tom become Lexington and Brooklyn, for example. And Goliath more-or-less fully accepts the moniker afforded him by the Dark Age humans.
As Gargoyles creator Greg Weisman points out, "naming is clearly addictive," and once they are established the convenience they offer makes doing away with them virtually impossible. Thus, for the Manhattan Clan of gargoyles, namelessness largely remains a thing of the past for the remainder of the series.
In "You Are Not a Gadget," Jaron Lanier describes the phenomenon experienced by these gargoyles using the term "lock-in."
As Lanier puts it, "lock-in…removes design options based on what is easiest to program, what is politically feasible, what is fashionable, or what is created by chance." Furthermore, the process "also reduces or narrows the ideas it immortalizes, by cutting away the unfathomable penumbra of meaning."
Despite originally referring to programming language, this is a perfect description of the process that "Hudson" has been subjected to in the previous scene.
Names are a method of defining identity, which necessarily must involve "giving it limits." But in traditional gargoyle culture, identity has greater meaning than that; it is amorphous, and changes with the circumstances.
The gargoyle who first made a compact with the humans at Castle Wyvern is the same gargoyle who mated three times and produced three progeny; he is the same gargoyle who fought the evil Archmage and received a wound that blinded him in one eye; he is the same gargoyle who slept for centuries and once awakened, found himself fascinated with the television show "Celebrity Hockey."
Does one name - Hudson - really encapsulate all of these aspects of his identity?
In-and-of-itself, all it signifies is that the place Hudson awoke in was modern-day New York (a cut line from the episode's script even has Elisa commenting, "Good thing we weren't facing Queens," emphasizing with humor how off-hand and esoteric the choice was).
That name was "locked-in" as the full and entire representation of the character from that point onward, solely because it was politically feasible (it makes dealing with Elisa and later human allies far more expedient), it was fashionable (every other intelligent being in 1994 New York has a name, so why not the gargoyles?), and it was created by chance (quite literally in this case, as the "Queens" quote illustrates).
And the result is that the very meaning of his identity is narrowed. He is no longer capable of being someone at a particular moment, and someone else in the next.
He is always Hudson.
There is an even greater story here, however, which Weisman's later musings have helped to illuminate. As he once observed, "Gargoyles don't seem to have a native language. They acquire human language, perhaps much the same way that they acquire names…And language, in many ways, is just sophisticated naming."
This is a compelling point. As he later notes, a different and arguably much more persuasive response that Elisa could have offered is that the river is called "the river."
Languages are systems for describing objects, concepts, actions, etc. using strict and uniform definitions, confining them to names that society calls words.
But does a name like "the sky" really fully encapsulate the meaning inherent within the depths that humans observe from below? Does it even begin to provoke a holistic understanding of its astronomical, religious, chemical, or poetic contexts?
And even more to the point, what of metaphysical concepts like "justice"? Can a single clear definition even exist for such a weighty and nebulous notion - and if not, does sticking the name "justice" to it not necessarily limit it?
Lanier certainly appears to believe so. As he conceives it, the system of symbology under which all current human languages operate is itself a lock-in; at best, a "middleman" between intent and "directly creating shared experience" that he wants to work to cut out.
His method for doing so is improvements on virtual reality, until researchers develop "the ability to morph at will, as fast as we can think."
Lanier envisions a world where the rather simplistic words "I'm hungry" will not be the only way to communicate the sensation which has brought them on - instead, he sees potential in the power of virtual reality technology to place us in the bodies of others, as a way to intimate the sensation itself.
Humanity would no longer have to be limited to extracting some piece of the concept it calls "hunger," giving it that name, and using it as code so that others who know the symbology of the English language will understand some approximation of that concept.
The concept would simply be understood, and communication would be a straightforward matter of imparting that understanding.
But perhaps there is an even better solution than this - although one that is, unfortunately, largely forgotten.
Presented with the puzzle that gargoyles are highly gregarious and intelligent by nature and yet appear to lack any notion of their own language, Weisman has mused that perhaps, long before human language evolved and became the locked-in method for communication, the gargoyle species possessed "mild psychic abilities that left them with no need to create language."
While emphasizing that he was only asserting a possibility, the communication he imagines - where it was not "words that they intuited (or transmitted or read or whatever) but emotions, maybe images or sensations" - sounds exceedingly similar to what Lanier hopes to achieve through virtual reality.
Such communication would be consistent with what audience knows about pre-human gargoyle culture, where definition and identity are situational as opposed to consistently codified.
But if that is the case, it leads to a rather lamentable conclusion. As Weisman puts it, "perhaps the very language skills that gargoyles learned from the human race dampened their psychic intuitiveness;" in other words, lock-in of a very particular method of communication (symbology) "locked-out" another method that presented communicative possibilities human technology can currently only dream of.
The initial insistence on not using personal names, then, can be considered a lingering hold-out of a bygone era where every concept was considered unlimited, and every sensation intimated in their full depth.
In dealing with nascent human cultures, gargoyles must have gradually accepted the limiting of concepts like "sky" or "river" because this made interspecies congress significantly more efficient, but they resisted the longest on the limiting of the very depths of the self.
But with the permanent instatement of "Hudson" and the rest, there does not appear to be room to return to the possibilities an unlimited identity presents. Human language has killed them.
Of course, both the gargoyle race and their culture are fantastical constructions, but that does not necessarily mean that humans cannot learn from their fictional example.
While humans do not seem to share these "mild psychic abilities" (although there are some who would vehemently disagree with that statement) that Weisman hypothesizes, that there are methods of sensation and communication which precede language skills is clearly documented.
As with gargoyles, members of the species Homo sapiens did exist well before the development of the earliest known language, and while current understanding of those early cultures is limited at best, there is also a much more immediate example to turn to.
Newborns spend a few years before they learn to define the world around them in the code of words - the sun is an experience to them long before the strictly defined, limiting name of "the sun" is ever applied to it.
The depths of what could be learned from observing children raised without learning language skills, interpreting sensations and intimating them to others via methods of their own device, are boundless; of course, the enormous ethical travesty presented by such experiments means they are not a viable avenue for inquiry.
So instead, humans turn to fiction - attempting to realize through others what that they have long since lost, and yearn to find again.
Greg Weisman has often described gargoyle culture, and pre-human gargoyle culture specifically, as something of a wish fulfillment for him. "I'm such a human," he laments with a written-out sigh, "But I aspire to gargoylosity."
Well, if the virtual reality morphing that so excites Jaron Lanier can indeed allow humans to experience sensation as a pre-human gargoyle (or a pre-language human, or a baby, or even a cephalopod) did/does - if it has the potential to turn the clock back as well as forward, and show what it is like for things simply to be, without the cumbersome and restrictive middleman of naming them - then perhaps that is an aspiration that more humans should share.
At first, when you mentioned 'You Are Not a Gadget', I couldn't help thinking the follow-up statement would be 'You Are a Chip, a Dale or a Monterey Jack'. Talk about lock-in.
Anyway, is it immodest to say that your essay warmed my heart? I enjoyed reading it. And I found it quite insightful. I do believe my own thinking has evolved since I wrote that ramble on gargoyles' latent psychic abilities. My thinking now is less psychic and more intuitive based on sensory clues.
But it doesn't change my positive response to your thesis. And it also speaks to one of my goals - perhaps even needs (NEEDS) - as a writer. Using words, multiple, multiple words, in an attempt to reach beyond the lock-in that comes with words like river or sun or Hudson or, most especially, Greg. The original version of Hudson's line was something like: 'Nothing is real to you until you've named it, defined it, given it limits.' More words to more fully illustrate the concept. And often in my writing I find myself trying to paint pictures with more and more words in an almost poetic sense. That verbosity is often counterproductive when writing dialogue. But I LIKE to think it lends - even when cut back and cut down - a certain depth to the dialogue. But it's a constant push and pull in my writing between trying to find just the one right word and using many, many to paint that fuller picture.
I live with roommates directly across the street from a church and directly above a funeral home. We have a gargoyle in the window facing the church. Is this bad? We've been experiencing weird happenings in the house and get uneasy in a particular area of the house and I'd like to know if removing the gargoyle might help. I know that they're meant to keep evil out of a church and that's why they face away from them, but I wonder if having a gargoyle facing the church is bringing bad vibes to my apartment.
I doubt it. Probably the reverse. It's protecting you from something even worse.
(We're kidding around here, correct?)
When you were writing the "Gargoyles" comics for Slave Labor Graphics, did you ever mentally associate any of the scenes you wrote with the different musical themes from the television series? (I thought of this question after I realized that I was mentally linking Brooklyn's words when he returns from his Timedancing, "Forever... forty years... forty seconds... however you keep time, the dance is finally done" to the music that played in "The Gathering Part One" when Goliath was talking about how Avalon had finally released them from its quest and now they were home.
Honestly, I'm not sure I did.
I have a question about gargoyle justice. Goliath considered dropping Tony Dracon to his death in "Protection," but decided that "gargoyle justice isn't human justice." So, I have to wonder... in what circumstances does a gargoyle arrive at taking the life of another to extract justice? I guess I'm just curious to know where does banishment end, and death begin?
An enemy in the heat of battle - particularly one who has attacked a member of the clan - was considered fair game for killing.
I did my best scouring the AskGreg archives trying to look for this answer and I'm PRETTY sure it hasn't been asked. If it has, I totally apologize. :(
I was re-watching 'Deadly Force' and really got to thinking about Goliath coming so close to doling out 'justice' for Elisa when he thought she had died. My question is this:
1. If a clan member does commit a crime what do his/her clan mates do? I know the trios infraction in the first episode got them a night in the rookery, but what do modern day gargoyles do in order to 'punish' the gargoyle whose committed the crime?
2. If a gargoyle kills a person (justified or not), is their punishment strictly dispensed by their clan, or are they given up to the human authorities?
1. It's unclear. The old BIG punishment of banishment is no longer too practical. We saw them imprison Demona in 'The Reckoning' - but that obviously didn't work out well.
2. This is too hypothetical to be answered without context.
You've mentioned before that name designations don't mean much to Gargoyles. Does that extend to things like dates, months and seasons? For example if a Gargoyle clan lived totally isolated from humanity would they bother with any kind of classifications of time as they already seemed to be very attuned this by their biology.
I don't know. You'd have to have retroactively isolated them to know. They definitely seem more 'at one' - and thus less dependent on language.
Hey Greg.
In July 2008, Chip asked you "Do Leo and Una have any biological children, and have we seen them so far in the comics?" and you responded "Lunette is theirs. That wasn't meant to be a secret. Leo + Una = Lunette."
Did you mean that this wasn't meant to be a secret from us or did you mean that Leo and Una and the London Clan themselves are aware of Lunette's biological parentage? You've said in the past that the London Clan continues to raise their young in the Gargoyle Way, but they are not blind. Despite the communal parenting, do they generally have a good idea about which hatchling came from which couple? And was Lunette's name, and it's Leo+Una-like pronunciation more than a coincidence. Was the name given to her because the Clan knew her parentage?
Thanks!
I meant it wasn't meant to be a secret from the fans.
Beyond that, Lunette was a longstanding name within the clan, with Arthurian associations.
You've said in the past that gargoyles follow a vague religion that is both monotheistic and pantheistic, and that at present Coldfire would be the most interested in it. What are Demona's spiritual viewpoints? Was she ever a "believer." Is she still one, or is she lapsed? The closest we've ever gotten was her not considering a Wind Ceremony for her smashed clan a priority in "Tyrants."
For that matter, what are Angela's spiritual beliefs? She was raised by humans after all.
I think Demona is probably lapsed - or at least inattentive.
I don't think Angela knows too much about the Gargoyle Way. I do think she was raised with medieval Christian values, without necessarily being baptized a Christian.
And now, here's a question about gargoyles, clones, attraction, and gender traits. I really miss the Blue Mug A Guests, this would have been a perfect question for them.
Male gargoyle clones' eyes glow red, and the female clones' glow white. The complete opposite of natural hatched gargoyles. I was just wondering, how would gargoyles who might attempt to mate with clones deal with this?
The only way I can extrapolate is by picturing human women with gender specific traits that only a man would have, or vice-versa. Most heterosexuals would consider such things to be massive turn-offs, unless they're a bit kinky. I know it's not as extreme as a female with a penis, or a male with a vagina. But I'm trying to extrapolate. Maybe like a beard on a woman, or breasts on a man. Okay, that feels a bit off too.
Now, we didn't see Brooklyn get anywhere with Delilah, he probably never even saw her eyes glow. And considering he was just seeing her as a body, an available female, I wonder just how much of a turn-off that would have been for him if he did make even a little progress.
On the other hand, we have Demona who was with Thailog for at least half a year, and assuming she is 100% heterosexual, I am wondering if that would have unnerved her at all. But, she definitely seemed very physically into him, so maybe she has bisexual tendencies, or she's just really kinky, or maybe she just didn't care one iota. I don't know.
What are your thoughts on this?
I don't get monolithic about this stuff. Different gargoyles would respond differently. To some, maybe to most, it might just seem exotic.
I realize this may have been answered before, but would the manhattan clan be tolerant of homosexuality? What about other clans?
Dude... if you REALIZE this... why don't you check out the ASK GREG archives and get your answer there - instead of bogging down the queue with already answered questions!
In the time long ago when there were gargoyle clans all over the world, how common was mating between members of different clans? Did gargoyles nearly always choose a mate from their own clan or was inter-clan mating fairly common when multiple clans existed in a general area?
Thanks Greg!
I don't know about "fairly common", but it was not rare. Though of course, geography plays a role here. You aren't going to see Mayan gargoyles mating with Loch Ness gargoyles in the first century.
Do gargoyles have the same nudity taboos that humans have? I know that Demona cannot go around bare breasted like Goliath does for obvious reasons of cultural modesty in the real world. But what about within the universe of the show?
Some clothes help with comfort and feelings of safety that have nothing to do with nudity taboos. So although the answer is no, I don't think they do exactly, that doesn't mean that I think they'd choose to wing around nekkid.
What's Demona's insight towards other forms of life in earth? For example, does she share human's outlook in life that everything in this world is there to be exploit by "superior intelligent" creatures like her kind?
Does she consider human ways of exploiting animals and the enviroment acceptable (she hates us and all we do, but I mean...taking aside its us who are doing it)?
Would you say she is more of a cat or a dog "person"¡
Thanks!!
She has nothing against bears.
I think she'd take a more organic/naturalistic/holistic approach to the environment, as do most gargoyles culturally. But she's also big into expediency and certainly not immune to hypocrisy.
As for Dog or Cat, I could really see her with either... but really with neither.
Hey, Greg! If you don't remember, we met at the Gathering last year in L.A. (I was the one in the black hat and the striped scarf)
Okay, this may sound strange...
Besides Halloween, can gargoyles celebrate any other holiday?
They can celebrate every holiday.
You've said gargoyles find human rascism nonsensical. Do gargoyles have their own sorts of rascisms we'd find nonsensical? If so, have we ever seen its effects? can you give examples?
I'd rather explore this in stories than out of context.
Greetings Greg,
I've read that Angela and Broadway will/would eventually have three hatchlings of their own at some point in their future. Now, while I am VERY happy for the two lovebirds, I can't help but wonder if their different upbringings and views on parentage & child raising would prove an issue for them. I mean, Broadway was raised in the traditional Gargoyle way and never knew who his actual biological parents were, nor showed any interest in learning who they were, & I've even read that if he ever did find out Hudson is his dad it wouldn't really change anything between them (which is the norm for most garg clans). However, Angela was raised by humans and cares very much about her blood ties with Goliath & Demona, wanting her father to acknowledge their bond & rejoicing once he does & over time their bond deepens, & wishing to bring Demona back into the light because of her connection to her despite being aware of her dark & troubled nature. I guess what I'm saying is, Angela strikes me as someone who'd want to raise her children personally & form a strong mother/child bond with them whereas Broadway would likely treat them the same way any gargoyle of an older generation would treat those of a younger generation. So I guess my question is, would Angela's & Broadway's different upbringings cause some problems for them in their relationship & in raising their hatchlings? Or would Angela convince Broadway to form a real parental bond with the kids as Goliath has formed with her? I can't really see Angela NOT making her blood ties known to her kids while Broadway just keeps quiet about it. Hope my questions make sense, this is my first time doing this, & thankyou for your time.
Probably fewer problems than you think. They'd BOTH still behave as parents to all eggs hatched. How is that going to differ between them?
In any case, these are issues that will hopefully be explored in the years to come.
A recent question about the relationship between Hudson and Demona got me thinking...
There was one off note in the question (the rest of the analysis was pretty cool)- Hudson would not have any discomfort at the idea that his rookery children were mated to each other. Given that the chance of multiple births is statistically zero and the strong predilection to marry within ones own rookery there is nearly no chance of biological incest ever happening so there would be no sibling taboo.
I recalled a factotum that caught my attention a few months back- Even the most gung-ho kibutzes in Israel got rid of true communal child raising in the 70's because their children were forming sibling bonds and not marrying. Of the thousands of children raised in the system, about 30 married within their own community and not even one married within his or her age group. (err... I suppose, by definition, two would be the minimum for that....) These children were raised with the intention of being future potential spouses but humans are hardwired not to look at siblings that way, even none biological siblings. A similar problem arises in some endangered animal sanctuaries - I remember a documentary mentioning that if male and female rhinos are housed together they eventually stop mating completely - it may have been anthropomorphizing, but they called it developing a sibling relationship. Obviously there are degenerates and incest does happen, Egyptian royalty was designed with sibling marriage, but we are biologically wired against it even when it is not based on blood and therefore dangerous on a Darwinian level.
It makes sense that Gargates, having evolved as very different species with different circumstances would be fundamentally different at times, but they are so very similar in some ways is it surprising when the differences pop up.
1) Do gargoyles have an incest taboo or does it just not come up?
2) If they do not have it, or, at least no strong one, what do they think of it when it occurs with humans? (I don't mean abuse, rather, for example, if they read about Egyptian kings marrying siblings does it give them pause or it just passes as an oddity.)
3) Are there any other instances that come to mind of there being a basic difference between humans and gargoyles? Not a culturally based one - or if it is culturally, it as outgrowth of their biological reality.
Sorry this last one is so vague. It is hard to think of examples. You once answered that racism puzzles Goliath. It makes sense that a species that seems to have nearly uinlimited skin color possibiilities even within a small and relatively isolated population would think the human skin tone based racism is plain odd. (Granted, gargoyles might have their own version of nonsensicle racism that makes no sense to humans.) I can think of where similar differences would be rooted- they are completely nocturnal, they have wings, the do not share the sleeping experience in any way etcâ¦- but it still seems more the sort of thing that occasionally pops up and surprises you. Maybe...a creature with usable wings would be hardwired against agoraphobia or fear of heights. err. Maybe, not so much, they can still fall if their wings get bound up, so at minimum the concept of falling might lurk somewhere even in their minds.
thanks
1. For the biological reasons you stated above, it's a non-issue. Obviously, some rookery siblings develop sibling relationships. Others do not.
2. It depends on their understanding level.
3. Not at the moment.
As humans, we can express ourselves culturally, emotionally and even spiritually through the arts (music, dance, drama, literature, etc). Do gargoyles practice the arts? Do gargoyles even have the capacity to create art? I have always wanted to know since having seen the episode "Kingdom" in which Broadway, Lexington, and Brooklyn return home to the Clock Tower after having attended a rock concert in which Brooklyn proclaims "did you hear that guitarist wail?"
They have the capacity. And I'm sure some are artists.
Did Hudson influence Goliathâs decision at all as to who shouldâve been Goliathâs second in command?
If something had happened to Goliath before he had chosen a second in command, I would assume that Hudson wouldâve become leader at first, but then would choose someone else to lead since heâs older and believes that a younger leader would be best (which is indicated in the episode Upgrade). If this was the case, who would Hudson have considered becoming the new leader of the clan? Would he have based his decision along the same lines as Goliath, or would he have looked for other qualifications?
Thank you for your time and all that you do,
-Charisma82
Hudson and Goliath are two different guys... but I still think Hudson would have ended up choosing Brooklyn.
And now I have a question on Goliath and religion.
In the VHS version of "Awakening" as the trio glide off to steal the disc, Goliath says "godspeed lads. They'd better not be harmed." In the TV version he just says "They'd better not be harmed."
Since you edited the VHS release, I have to ask. Would Goliath say "godspeed?" Considering what you have since revealed about gargoyle religious beliefs, I was wondering. In your mind, did he say it?
And while I'm here, what's the canon status of the VHS version of "Awakening?" There is some material in it that wasn't in the TV and later DVD version?
1. Yes. But as a colloquialism.
2. It's mooshy, since in my brain elements of both versions are mooshed together.
Hi Greg,
I just realized something very sad. Because gargoyles only age at half the rate of humans, by the time the Trio/Angela and Goliath are in their 40s and 50s respectively, Elisa, Fox, Matt, Xanatos and all their other 'original' human friends will have either died or be quite elderly.
1.How do the gargoyles cope with knowing they will outlive these friends (pending unnatural deaths)? It has to be depressing, especially watching your friends grow old before your eyes.
2. Was this something Elisa and Goliath considered before admitting their feelings for one another?
Thanks!
These are issues we would absolutley be exploring over time. Keep in mind, that prior to the current era, most of our Gargoyles had few close human friends. So this is new for them.
The whole 'Gargoyles don't have names' thing has been bothering me for a while.
1. If Demona had been given a chance to choose her own name (not an alias), what would she have chosen?
2.Would she have chosen one at all?
2. The Wyvern clan originally didn't have names. But the Gargoyles in other countries we meet later on all have names. Did they choose the names themselves? Or were they named by their biological parents? Or perhaps the clan as a whole named them?
1. I don't know how to respond to this hypothetical question. She was in essence given the choice of accepting or rejecting Demona, and chose to accept it.
2. Probably not.
3. Traditions differ in each clan. The Mayan gargoyles didn't have names so much as "offices" based on the pendants they were custodians of. The Ishimuran and London Clans had actual names. But biological parentage doesn't play a role in most gargoyle societies. The Avalon gargoyles were named by Princess Katharine, Tom and the Magus. But mostly by Katharine.
Anouther question that should reach you by the holiday season. Happy Holidays!
You've gone over the importance of the equanoxis in the garg verse as they are important to garg breeding, but what about the soltices? seeing as how they are the longest and shortest nights of the year do they have any significance to gargs beyond a diffrent time frame?
Yes.
Hey there again. I have'nt found this so I'm asking. Is Demona so emotionaly attached to Angeala because shes HER daughter or because shes one of her rookery children. It seems like she values the biologic conection, and if thats true then it seems like a hipocrocy to be so bent on the "true" gargoyle and then do something so human, but thats just my misguided oppinion. If you could do something to guide it that would be most helpfull, thanks.
I'm going to stick with "All of the Above" at this point.
Why do the Gargoyles never upgrade their equipment with the changing times?
I understand from the archives that Hudson uses his to make up for his age, but, despite the number of times their stony rears were handed to them by technologically/magically superior foes, they never seem to try to even the playing field. Tradition is one thing, but I'm reminded of the famous Churchill quote on the subject of a major overhaul of British naval technology: "The traditions of the Navy are rum, the lash, and sodomy."
I think it's less about tradition than comfort. But you've seen some of the cast 'upgrade'. Brooklyn, for example, is now heavily armed.
One last question before bed....
From what little we've seen, it seems that Brooklyn and Katana are parents, not just rookery parents. (All those years with just each other would make it seem inevitable. There are no rookery siblings or other parents.) You wrote that Broadway and Angela ~choose~ to raise their children in the gargoyle style. So...
1. Are there currently any clans who have adopted human parenting, like they adopted human naming? Will there be by the future series?
2. Even those choosing to raise children collectively, are their strong human influences to that thought? (For instance, noting a rookery child looks like you.)
3. Am I correct in my assumption that Brooklyn and Katana are more like human parents in that respect?
4. It has been strongly implied that Elisa and Goliath will in some way adopt. Should they raise a child, would it be as individual or collective parents?
More later, (when I can hopefully decipher my handwriting).
1. We'll have to wait and see.
2. See above.
3. See above.
4. See above.
Did the Gargoyles have a diffrent title for thier race and just adopted the name Gargoyles from man, or were they always known as Gargoyles
It seems that the word "Gargoyles" descended from the Atlantean word "Gorlois". Whether that word is truly Atlantean, or itself came out of something the gargoyles themselves articulated is as yet unknown.
Here's a question about Lexington, and how Gargoyle culture pertains to him.
According to you, Gargoyles show affection to each other by stroking each others' hair.
Lexington is (As far as I know), the only bald Gargoyle. He is also (As far as the fans know) the only homosexual gargoyle. Did him not having hair factor into him leaning toward homosexuality? Or did that just happen to fall into place?
Uh... remember Broadway? Kinda puts the lie to your theory.
How do gargoyles feel about skin color prejudice among humans? Obviously, it would vary from one gargoyle to the next, but I wondered about that since each gargoyle clan that we've seen shows a wide variety of colors. We know that clans are family units for gargoyles (since the entire clan raises the eggs and the young gargoyles look upon all the older gargoyles as their parents), so it would seem normal for them to have such a broad spectrum of coloring in the family. And I wondered whether, under those circumstances, gargoyles might find the human attitude of looking upon humans with a different color as outsiders and "not-us" as, not just wrong, but almost alien and incomprehensible.
I do think it would be fairly incomprehensible to them
GATHERING 2009 - Monday, August 24th
Midnight - The goodbyes begin for folks who are leaving first thing Monday morning or right now. Said goodbye to Marina, Zehra, Sarah, Michael McAdam and probably quite a few others...
1:30am - The party downstairs finally breaks up and I head up to my room.
4am - Went to bed. But I just couldn't sleep at all.
8am - Finally gave up and got up.
9am - Brought my luggage to my car and then went to the staff breakfast: crepe, ham, potatoes, OJ.
10am - Comic book panel with Karine Charlebois and Greg Guler. I'll just repeat the main message I gave. I have no info on the future of Gargoyles comics beyond this: SLG's Dan Vado is sincerely interested in doing more. His ability to make an offer for the license to Disney will depend on the sales of the three trade paperbacks. Beyond that, we had some really interesting discussions about the books.
11:30am - Gargoyles Biology and Culture panel with Jade Griffin and Matt Parker. I love this panel. Always full of interesting discussions, that influence how I handle things in the Gargoyles Universe.
1pm - Closing Ceremonies. Okay, I admit it. I pretty much lost it more than once. It was VERY emotional. A number of us told stories of past Gatherings and how they changed our lives. It was warm and all too fuzzy, but wonderful. I love all you guys. Thank you.
2:30pm - We finally closed the Closing Ceremonies. I helped Patrick and a bunch of other volunteers carry things down to Patrick's rented van. Then we headed up to the Constaff Suite for a dead dog party. Christopher bought pizza for everyone, which was very generous. I had a coke and a virgin jello shot. And we just hung out.
5:45pm - Time to go, to return to real life. I hugged EVERYONE. Jennifer Anderson walked me to the elevator. I was pretty wrecked. It felt a bit like it felt to end a long job. You walk away. What else can you do? You take your memories with you, but you also know you're leaving a piece behind.
But it's been a FANTASTIC THIRTEEN YEARS. Thanks to everyone who ever attended a Gathering. You really changed my life!
Do gargoyles posess a written/spoken language all there own or do they just adopt ones similar to the local humans?
Check the ASK GREG archives under "Gargoyle Customs" or come to the 2009 Gathering's "Gargoyles Biology & Culture" panel.
I've loved this show ever since I was a kid. In fact you could say this show helped me get through elementary school cause I'd rush to get my homework completed so I could go right the tv when I got home to watch the newest episode. Now that I'm older I still get this wonderful since of nostalgia when I watch this and start asking questions about the Gargoyles I never thought of as a kid, specifically their biology and culture since I loved those electives in high school.
1. Are gargoyles more likely to get certain traits and characteristics if they're from a specific clan? If so, is it just genetics or do they aide them in their territory? If not, does that mean that all gargoyles are generally the same with just different looks that are just for show?
2. How do gargoyles see the sun? Do they see it with a sort of reverence like Demona and Hudson did in The Mirror, or do they see it more of a curse due to their vulnerability?
3. Are there any diseases only gargoyles can get?
1. All of the above, if I understand your question.
2. All of the above, depending on the individual gargoyle.
3. None that I know of.
Hi Greg,
Good to see this place open again!
My question is basically, how do Gargoyle populations sustain themselves? With females having (almost always I've believe you've said) a maximum of three eggs, and as you said in reference to why gargoyles practice communal parenting: "Perhaps this is the result of the high Gargoyle mortality rate. " would it not be an intense struggle to just maintain a clan's population?
And with this in mind, even considering that in modern day mortality rates for gargoyles has probably dropped significantly, wouldn't the practice of the London clan of limiting each pair to two eggs total be very risky for the continuation of their clan?
Thanks for you time
1. Yes, it has been a struggle since at least the Iron Age of Man.
2. Obviously, if the population starts dropping dangerously low, they'll allow the third eggs to get it back. The point is to maintain a consistent quantity, not blindly follow rules for the sake of rules.
Hudson has or had a biological child in Goliath's generation, the Trio's generation, and Bronx's generation. That means that Goliath and the Trio would have considered him one of their rookery fathers and Hudson regards them as his rookery children. (I'm guessing he regards Bronx somewhat differently, though correct me if I'm wrong.) So why do we never hear Goliath or any of the Trio calling Hudson "father" or him referring to any of them as "son"?
Their relationships are MORE specific than that. When you have a LOT of fathers (back in the day), many different varieties of relationships develop in addition to the paternal-filial. That doesn't mean they don't consider Hudson a rookery father, but it's not how they define him.
I have two questions about gargoyle homosexuality:
We know there are homosexual male gargoyles, but are there any lesbians?
How do homosexual gargoyles fit into the gargoyle social structure? Do they face any difficulties socially because of their sexual orientation, either similarly or unexpectedly different from humans?
1. Yes.
2. I've answered this many times before. Check the archives under either Gargoyle Biology or Gargoyle Customs.
This is more of a Wyvern Clan culture question than a hypothetical one.
After Goliath sends the Trio and Bronx to the rookery and Demona questions his decision to punish them (out of their earshot like a good second, as you noted in the commentary), Goliath tells her that he will make it up to them somehow. If the Wyvern Massacre hadn't intervened, what are some things Goliath might have done to make it up to the Trio and Bronx?
I'm not sure he even knew. Probably a heart-to-heart and a little winging.
Hello Greg,
First of all, thank you for such an intelligent, brilliantly-written series.
Secondly, I have a question regarding Broadway and Angela's kiss in The Journey. I'm sorry if this has been answered before, but I don't recall finding anything related to it in the archives.
Anyway.
You've stated (I believe in the DVD commentary) that gargoyles don't kiss to show affection, but rather wrap their wings around each other and stroke each other's hair. So why do Broadway and Angela kiss? I've had a number of theories, myself:
1. being younger, Broadway and Angela (especially Angela) have been heavily influenced by the tendencies of humans, ie. ways of displaying affection. I mean, Angela must have seen Tom macking on Katherine a few times back on Avalon, right? Not to mention the fact that the eggs were raised in an unconventional (human) way.
2. To show the pair actally kissing would have truly established them as a solid couple in the minds of viewers. It's also a lot more heart-wrenching to see them kiss with Brooklyn watching them.
3. It WAS The Goliath Chronicles, and the writers weren't aware of all the nuances in the world of the gargoyles.
Well, I've probably gone and answered my question, in there. But thanks for taking the time to read through this, anyway!
You and Gargoyles truly are the bees' knees.
We're stuck with 1 & 2, since I was the writer of "The Journey".
Not so much a question as an add-on. One question on the Gargoyle FAQ asks why Gargoyles do not kiss as humans do. While it is true that kissing is a human custom, it is not universal; some cultures view kissing as gross or bizarre. In ancient Inuit tribes, couples would share affection by leaning close to each other so they can feel the warmth of each other's breath. That is where the original term "Eskimo kissing" comes from. In Bali, couples will lean close to each other and gaze into each other's eyes as a show of intimacy. (This has changed as Westernization moved in.) Kissing was not a custom in many Asian countries until relatively recently, when American culture became very popular. The Sirinio in Bolivia and the Thonga in Africa do not kiss as they see it as a sharing of dirt and saliva.
So it goes...
Hello Greg, long time fan of gargoyles, and most of my questions about the Gargoyles universe have been answered by browsing the archives but these questions.
I see from the archives that Angela and Broadway will raise their children in the traditional gargoyles fashion, and I am assuming that Brooklyn and Katana will try to do the same. But this has led me to some interesting questions about the relationships between generations of gargoyles in the same clan.
I have seen that from the first episode that gargoyles from the same rookery generation call one another rookery brother or rookery sister, or if there are close bonds just brother and sister. So my first question is do gargoyles have the same endearing names for an older or younger generation with in the clan, for example rookery mother, rookery father, rookery son, rookery daughter, or some other term like those? Yes I do know that Goliath's generation calls Hudson My Mentor, I am assuming that is so only because he was the leader and teacher of the clan before Goliath.
Another is I have noticed that Hudson has a stronger relationship with Goliath then any other of Goliath's rookery siblings, or at least just the ones we have met so far. I am assuming this is do to, that Hudson saw Goliath's potential as a successor and paid special attention to him to prepare him for the role. I have also noticed that gargoyles in one generation develop strong ties with a few siblings like Coldstone's and Goliath's relationship. My next question is do stronger relationships develop between certain hatchlings and certain members of the parenting generation or members of another older generation of gargoyles?
But in Mark of the Panther Goliath, who is having trouble dealing and even understanding Angela's unusual need for parents and her attachment to him after she finds that she is his biological daughter, says to Elisa's mother Diane "gargoyle hatchlings belong to the whole clan, I cannot hold one hatchling over the others." So are these kinds of relationships, I have asked about in the previous paragraph, taboo, shunned, frowned upon, or generally accepted as a part of the growing up process of young gargoyles, or are they just Goliath's personal words do to the fact that he is the clan leader?
Thanks for even putting up a general questions website, not many writers do that or post the site on there publications. I apologize for my long winded questions but it just the way I write. Just to let you know Gargoyles has been a huge influence in my own stories and don't worry I have absolutely no fan fictions of Gargoyles and I have never understood why people have to do them, they don't make sense to me any ways.
I can't wait for Brooklyn's little trip, especially the clan's reactions when he gets back five minutes later, they will be priceless. I might have to scan the images in and use them as a desktop. I just can't see Time Dancer done in six issues like I heard the spin offs will be done in, too much happening from what I have found on Ask Greg. Well I guess that is why it is third in line and thanks again.
Some gargoyles will develop stronger relationships with some. With that many parents, siblings, children, etc. running around, it's natural. But neither "shunned, frowned upon, or generally accepted" fits the bill to my mind. Amd citing Hudson/Goliath hardly proves anything. Hudson's pre-massacre relationship with anyone else in Goliath's generation has not been explored. Nor has Goliath's relationship with anyone else from Hudson's generation even been touched on.
In Panther, Goliath is NOT having trouble with Angela's "unusal need for parents". He's concerned about what her specific need to acknowledge their BIOLOGICAL relationship might mean... both in terms of his relationship to the rest of the Avalon Clan and especially HER relationship to her biological mother.
Not all of Brooklyn's TimeDancer adventures are designed to fit into one six episode mini. Just one six-part story. I could tell TimeDancer adventures for forty years. And I hope I get that chance.
Is the practice of raising eggs communally based on tradition for Gargoyles, or is it more of an instictual biological imperative? The answer we usually get is that it's the Gargoyle way, but is it the Gargoyle way because they're told they've always done it that way, or is it the Gargoyle way because instinct tells them that if they lay an egg in the rookery, all eggs in the rookery are theirs? It is the most sensible course of action, based on their reproduction, but did the practice arise because of how they reproduce universally as a species, or do they reproduce universally as a species because of how they practice parenting?
... Chicken or egg?
Egg or gargoyle?
hi mr weisman again.
I was wondering what kind of beliefs do gargoyles incorparate from peoples religions into theirs
I'd advise browsing the Gargoyles Customs archive here at Ask Greg. Then if you still have questions, post again.
Dear Greg -- I would first like to just say what a wonderful series you created and that I'm happy new stories are being made after all these years!
My question relates to the concept of monogamy in Gargoyle culture --
You had stated that Gargoyles are both biologically and culturally inclined towards monogamy, including, for the most part, remaining alone after a mate dies, etc. You also said at one point that affairs, cheating, divorce, etc. are quite rare, though wires do on occasion get crossed and such things do happen, so...
1. Obviously every clan and every individual within a clan is different, but if two gargoyles were cheating on their mates with one another, how would the other clan members, in general, react? Would they consider it clan business or personal business? Would the two 'cheaters' be treated any differently either socially or 'officially' by the clan leader? Would cheating on one's mate be considered a banish-able offense? I'm speaking of an affair where both cheaters consent to the relationship and not an Othello-Desdemona-Iago situation.
2. Similarly, how would a clan typically react to two mates 'divorcing' one another? Would one have to leave the clan -- would both? Likewise, would it be considered the entire clan's business or personal business?
I apologize that I'm asking for generalizations (I know after years of reading Ask Greg that you don't much care for those!) but hopefully you can answer anyway because I'm very curious about this.
Thank you and all the best!
1. I think officially it would NOT be considered "clan-business"... but that's not to say the clan or clan leader might not still attempt to deal with the situation.
2. Same answer.
As answered in a previous question, Gargoyle females (can) bare eggs at 'biological ages 25, 35, and 45'. What about the males; what's the age limit for their potency? Also, does age difference play a great role in choosing a mate or is it mostly love and good genes? Finally, how common is it to take a new mate after a previous mate has passed away?
Re: the males. Don't know.
Age difference between mates is relatively rare. They usually are the exact same age, give or take a few hours.
Gargoyles RARELY take a new mate after a previous mate passes away.
This day in Gargoyles' Universe History....
November 15th...
1994
While Elisa again tries to convince Goliath to abandon the castle, they are attacked by a Steel Clan Robot. Goliath destroys it, but Owen uses the opportunity to acquire some of Goliath's genetic material.
1995
The Pack attempts to rob a bank. The gargoyles try to stop them. Goliath is badly injured - allowing the Pack to escape. Hudson informs Goliath that he needs to choose one of the Trio to be his Second-in-Command.
1996
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*I hope this doesn't sound like story suggesting*
Was Nashville concived before or after Katana and Brooklyn's mating ceremony?
Well, since they don't mate until after the ceremony (such as it is)...
We know that there is faerie magic and mortal magic. Mortal magic seems mostly to be used by humans. Is it less common for gargoyles to study magic than humans? If so why?
Seems less common, but that may simply be because there are fewer gargoyles period.
You said in your FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) archives that Broadway and Angela would probably raise their children the gargoyle way, "children of the clan, not individuals," by not favoring biological children over the rest of the clan's children, but does that mean they won't identify their own biological children. I believe that if they didn't recognize their biological children, they wouldn't have been so particular about the naming of their own children (Artus, Gwenyvere, and Lancelot) after Arthurian characters in reference to Broadway and Angela's connections to Arthur, Broadway being inspired to read from hearing about the Scrolls of Merlin and Angela living on Avalon where Arthur slept. So, do Angela and Broadway recognize their biological children but attempt to parent all clan children instead of favoring their biological children, or is the naming of all their children after Arthurian characters coincidence?
You're assuming that Broadway and Angela named them. Facts not in evidence.
Hi Again Greg!
In Gargoyle Society, You have stated that Clans would use Banishment as a form of Punishment. You have stated that Iago was Banished before the Massacre, but then came back to the clan, and I believe you have mentioned that it was because he set Othello against Goliath over Desdemona. Did Gargoyles who were banished, and without a clan have a lower chance of survival than those in a clan? Would clans let other nearby clans know about those who were banished so that they would not assist them during their Banishment. (Of course this would only apply if there were nearby clans.) Would Temporarily Banished Gargoyles always return to the Clan at the end of their sentence? Or would the majority stay away and find a new Clan, Home, or Protectorate? What sort of things would constitute a Banishable Offense?
Thanks for Reading, Writing, and Answering!
Gargoyles aren't generally solitary. So any clan who saw someone stumble in, would pretty much know the score... unless that person weaved a tale... a tale that would be pretty easy to prove or disprove. Generally, gargoyles don't like being banished, so they'd tend to come back when their sentence ended. But I'm sure there have been exceptions, and not all sentences were temporary. Lot's of potentially banishable offenses. Use your imagination.
how do gargoyles decide the clan leader? and y is the leaders mate usally second in command? ( by this i mean clans like avalon or ones without current leaders to chose)
I'm confident I've answered this before. Check the archives -- and/or ask in the comment room. I'm sure the friendly folk there (http://www.s8.org/gargoyles/comment/index.php) can direct you to the correct answer.
This is more a ramble reply to Alex Garg's post, but I definitely think this is a fascinating subject, and could make a great Ask Greg discussion.
Honestly, at this point, I don't think anyone in the Manhattan Clan cares much about any of the clones. Any of them. What was the first thing said when Thailog appeared to perish and the clones had no where to go? "We can't just bring them back to the Clock Tower can we? I mean, they kind of give me the creeps."
Right there, the Manhattan Clan wanted nothing to do with them. Wanted to pretend they didn't exist. Let Talon take them to live in a sewer. Out of sight, out of mind. Not that the reaction is not understandable, it is. I think we'd all be uncomfortable around clones of ourselves made against our will and knowledge. It's a fundamental violation of our individuality.
Did any of the Manhattan Clan go down to see them between "The Reckoning" and "Invitation Only"? I'd be very surprised if the answer is yes. The one time they do go down, they want something. Goliath is following Elisa's request to attempt to date Delilah. Brooklyn... just wants to make a play for the only available female he's aware of. They were down there both for selfish reasons.
So, yeah, all of their talk about free will probably was less for the clones' sake, and more towards the Manhattan Clan's hatred for Thailog. They hate Thailog, so naturally they don't want the clones to be helping him. At this point, do they have any other reason to care?
Lexington's only real concern when Brentwood chooses Thailog is how it makes him [Lexington] look. Not concern for Brentwood's safety, or eventually having to face him as an enemy. Lex thinks it makes *him* look bad.
I know this is a pretty serious indictment of the Manhattan Clan. I love them, they are heroes, there's a lot to admire in each and every one of them. But, they're not saints. Which is fine, they're more interesting this way... if I wanted a group of pure goodie goods, I'd read a Silver Age Justice League of America comic book.
I don't disagree with any of the above, but I would temper it.
Again, I think Angela has an INTEREST in individuality and wouldn't want Delilah blindly following ANYONE. Delilah may have reacted to Angela as if Angela was giving her another order, but I don't think it's hard to see that that was clearly NOT Angela's intent. And if your looking for proof, just check out Angela's relationship with Goliath. She respects him as a leader. As a hero. A legend. She loves him as a father. But check out the World Tour, particularly Sanctuary. She's hardly following G. blindly.
And Goliath... in his slow, deliberate, bleeding-to-death way... had clearly given all this some thought too. He told Thailog that Delilah would not CHOOSE him (i.e. Thailog). He may seem confident of this (perhaps even over-confident), but there's nothing to indicate that Goliath plans to decide FOR her. And he doesn't decide for Brentwood either. There's preference and action. Two different things.
This is something that had I wanted to bring up in the Culture/Biology panel at the Gathering, but we ran out of time. Besides, it feels a little better to be able to ask this question now that "Bash" has broad exposure (although it's still new enough to constitute a SPOILER warning).
Gargoyles and Free Will.
A theme of Gargoyles since the introduction of the clones has been just how much control they have over making their own decisions, particularly given that they were programmed to obey Thailog. This comes to a head in "Masque" and "Bash," where the clones are bombarded with the "Free Will" message to the point where they can finally make their choices, but what's most curious to me is the pressure that they receive from the Manhattan Clan.
It doesn't surprise me that Maggie would bring it up in "Masque" - she was born and raised in a democratic society, so the idea that people have free will and the right to self-determination is ingrained in her psyche - but for Goliath and Lexington, and Angela to a lesser extent, to make the case for it in "Bash" was more surprising.
Goliath and Lexington both come from an era where there was no broadly applied concept of a person's right to self-determination. On the human side was the reign of the Catholic Church (and I'm writing very generally now) which in terms of ethics framed the argument for free will in such a way that while humans have the *capacity* to choose between different courses of action, our *obligation* is to obey God's commands; the fact that they did not was why we were expelled from the Garden of Eden. Therefore, under those circumstances, we don't really have a choice - God's infinite wisdom overrides our mortal judgments. That dogma then went on to inform the monarchies of the day, Scotland not excepting, where kings ruled by Divine Mandate. The idea that a king could be overthrown for unjust rule wasn't introduced until St. Thomas Aquinas, an act which prior to him (and even well after) would have been viewed as taking up arms against the will of God; and even then it was the laws of the Church which would be the standard by which a king would be considered ruling in an unjust manner, not the opinions of his subjects.
The gargoyles' "government" also has no apparent nod to free will or self-determination. Goliath became the leader because Hudson said so, Brooklyn became second-in-command because Goliath said so, and in each case the other gargoyles appear to acquiesce unconditionally to these decisions. Even in mating, you mentioned in the panel that gargoyles aren't necessarily choosing mates as much as they are naturally drawn to one another - even in human rituals it's a subject of debate over just how much "choice" we have in when and with whom we fall in love.
While you've said that gargoyles are free to pursue their own hobbies and curiosities, it doesn't strike me that alone is enough to constitute an understanding of free will in the sense of making determinations about leadership in the way that the clones were being pressured to choose between the Labyrinth and Thailog.
So from what we saw in "Bash," where Lexington demands to know why the clones are choosing to help Thailog, and where Goliath says that "choice must extend to those who choose unwisely" - which is a very different concept than a basic, arbitrary choice between right and wrong - I have to ask: Where have Goliath and Lexington gotten the understanding to ask those questions?
Angela also presents an interesting case, because while she was raised by humans, she was raised by humans for whom it can't be assumed would have had the same understanding of free will as you and I do having grown up in a democratic society as it applies to personal choice, much less in making decisions of leadership. So is her command to Delilah founded more on her hatred of Thailog, or is she also making a case for free will; and if the latter, what informs that for her?
Touching on the same vein: Since 1996 would be the first U.S. election year that the gargoyles have really been exposed to - it seems to me that in 1994 the Manhattan clan was more curious about their new physical surroundings than cultural; and it was a midterm election anyway with much less media hype than a presidential cycle - what do the gargoyles of the Manhattan clan make of democracy, given their less than democratic heritage?
Free will seems essential to any discussion of Abrahamic religions... starting with the Garden of Eden. What God wants does not mean He FORCES you to do it, and I think even 10th century Catholics and Scotsmen got this idea whether or not they could articulate it.
And free will doesn't absolve us of personal debts, religious responsibilities, community obligations and the like. (Not to mention the laws of physics. Just because I have the free will to say I want to fly, doesn't mean I can.) Certainly Gargoyles would understand that. One ignores community contracts (even -- again -- if one cannot articulate these ideas) at the risk of banishment. (Cf. Iago, Demona or Yama.)
As for the articulation itself, well... I think we have demonstrated that Goliath is very well read. And that Lex is a very fast study. As for Angela... well, like her mother, she's not one to deny the right of the individual. I'll leave the rest to your interpretation.
Democracy probably seems to them to be the lesser of evils vis-a-vis humans. But I don't think of Gargoyle society as undemocratic per se. Leadership questions don't seem to vibe with democracy gargoyles-wise, but a good leader is sensitive to the needs of those he leads. Hudson chose Goliath, and as far as we know there was only one real objection to the choice (a clear minority). Goliath chose Demona as his second, with no objections that we know of. Goliath chose Brooklyn as his second with, again, NO objections... even from the two other gargoyles competing for the gig. So... draw your own conclusions. Gargoyles may just be better attuned to each other based on NON-verbal cues... They don't need to name things or spend a fortune on television advertisements to know what there community is looking for in a leader.
Or maybe not. Interesting questions. We should definitely raise these issues again next summer.
"Gargoyles protect." It's fairly straight-forward, but how did this cultural tradition begin? As the credo exists throughout the world, it was obviously some instance that happened very early in the evolutionary history of the Gargate species. Was it a pact made by the original gargoyle clan with a single human or community? Is it a biological urge (doubtful though, i.e. Demona, Thailog)? Or is it a tradition orally passed from generation to generation from the earliest of times by a single, extremely noble gargoyle/clan?
I think it originates with the need to protect the gargoyles' own rookery. Which would, I imagine, be a biological imperative.
I've noticed since first watching the show that most gargoyles do not use weapons. Demona does (which is understandable since she has witnessed- and perhaps taken part in- the development modern technology), as does Thailog (also understandable since he is the polar opposite to Goliath and uber-evil). However, Hudson is the only "old school," shall we say, gargoyle who consistently carries a weapon. What is the history between Hudson and this blade? Is it unusal that he carries it, or have we just not seen enough gargoyles to see others who choose to utilize weapons?
Other gargoyles utilize weapons. Check the Hudson archives for a more detailed explanation of why Hudson uses one.
Will we ever see the biological parents of Demona, Goliath, Lexington or Brooklyn in the comics in Flashbacks?
Sure. But you might not know it, as it's of no moment to these characters. If I hadn't let it slip that Hudson was Broadway's bio-dad, would you have guessed, known or cared?
Do Gargoyles have there own unique appreciation for artistic asthetics? I have noticed that the Manhatten clan has developed a true appreciation for human literature (like SHakespeare), but do they have there own asthetic disposition for other art forms such as music or painting?
I'm sure that, just like with literature, they've learned to enjoy the human endeavors in art. Also, I'm sure that each individual has his or her own opinions when it comes to what they enjoy, just like everyone else, but have the Gargoyles ever (or will they ever) developed an artistic culture of their own? Or do they, in general, have a unique opinion as to what constitutes art? For example, I could imagine that battle styles could be a sort of art form within clans.
I deal in individuals more than species-wide generalities, but probably.
1.Before humans made contact with gargoyles, did gargoyles have a unique (non-written)language unto themselves?
2.Before gargoyles made contact with humans, did gargoyles have a unique written language unto themselves?
1. We've discussed this before... it might not have been necessary for them... isn't language a process of naming?
2. No.
What do gargoyles eat?And would they kill or hurt humans?
Gargoyles eat more or less the same stuff as we do. And kill for more or less the same reasons.
Do gargoyles generally hold mating ceremonies, or do they more or less elope? In "Vows," Goliath and Demona facilitated their own union-would there have been a more official ceremony later attended by the clan?
I'm not responding to this at this time.
Hi Greg. It's great to see Gargoyles back. Anyway, I have a question about when the Wyvern Clan split between 988 and 994. What I would like to know is why didn't the departing Gargoyles take any of the eggs with them? The new clan would have missed out on an entire generation of the clan. Or did they do something like take more of Bronx's generation(978) with them? I guess that would make sense. Thanks.
The why had to do with the difficulty of establishing a new rookery. Otherwise, I think you answered your own question.
This is less serious than my last post.
It had occured to me the other day while watching the Green that the Guatamalan clan and all the other clans take names. Some of them such as the Griff's clan have had contact for some time with humans, but what's Zafiro excuse. Is it only a Wyvern Clan tradition, not a gargoyle tradition across cultures, to remain nameless?
Only the four pendant wearers had names. Unfortunately, only the four pendant wearers were still alive.
Is there any significance to loincloth color for the gargs? Goliath and Hudson, both leaders, have brown, whereas the Trio has blue.
None that I know of.
Have you thought of how you would handle traditional gargoyle namelessness should you make "Dark Ages"?
I've thought about it a LOT. Probably won't make a final decision until I'm forced to. (The same was true about what to do about the Goliath Chronicles.)
How often do gargoyle clan leaders name their mates their seconds? Wouldn't it make more sense to have a younger second, not a contemporary?
It often depends on just how young the leader is, I would think.
Do you really think Brooklyn was ready to be a second back in 994?
But as you've seen, Goliath was Hudson's second. Yama was Kai's. So a younger second is sometimes chosen.
You've said that gargoyles predate humans. Were there ever any gargoyle cities, civilizations, or unique cultures?
Cultures... sure. But I'm not seeing them defining civilization by human standards. And cities... depends how big a rookery has to get before you qualify it as a city. Competition for resources kept rookeries smallish. With new rookeries spinning off of existing ones when necessary.
How do gargoyles view their beaked brethren like Brooklyn in terms of physical beauty?
I don't believe in monolithic appraisals. But I'm sure MOST would find Brooklyn as attractive as many of our fans do.
You've said that gargoyles show affection by stroking hair. What do they do if their mate is bald like Lexington and Broadway?
Stroking scalp.
Sunday, June 25, 2006: 3RD DAY OF THE GATHERING OF THE GARGOYLES
So how is everything going? Good I hope. Only one more day of Gathering of the Gargoyles. I'm sure everyone is having a great time out there at the gathering. Everyone must be really busy trying to get to everything there. Just curious, but how many sessions are going on out there? Do people have time inbetween sessions to do anything else? Did you do any sight seeing in L.A.? I hear that next year the gathering will be in Tenessee near the Smokey Mountains. That would be so cool to go to. There must be a lot of sight seeing to do for the next gathering, that is if you have time to get away from the convention. I've been to Tennessee once up in the Smokey Mountians. I barely remember it, but the few pictures I have in my mind are of very beautiful scenery. I can picture the mountains with dark clouds around the top of them. Maybe I can get a plane ticket and head out there next year not only for the gathering, but to recharge my memory of the scenery. I think that if there was another gargoyle clan out there in the U.S. (besides the Manhattan clan), they should be located in a place like that. The mountains would be great cover, and there are little towns all around in there that they could protect if they felt the need to. I'm really hoping that I can convince someone to go with me now that I'm getting myself psyched for the Smokey Mountains.
Since the gathering is almost over for 2006, I might as well get your opinion on it. Did you think that the turn out was better or worse this year than other gatherings? Did a lot of voice talents from the Gargoyles show come to the convention? By the way, how many of these gatherings have you attended? I know that this one in 2006 is the 10th annual one, but did you go to the first few, like the 1st or 2nd gathering? Who exactly started these gatherings (don't just say fans, please)? Do you think that more talents from the show will come to next years (2007) gathering?
Well, now that I've questioned you out, I might as well mention a few things that happened today since this is sort of a journal of what's going on during the gathering. Today is Sunday, so of course church. After that, we (my family) had tacos and I slept for a couple of hours. I woke up to find nothing great on TV or on TIVO. Later, my parents and I watched some murder mystery movie where some woman was being tricked into thinking she was crazy by her husband and best friend so they could get rid of her and get all her money that she'd made. It was interesting. Not as good as it would have been to be at the gathering (I had to throw that in there).
When I mentioned church, it got me thinking. I know religion is a touchy subject for a lot of people, but I was wondering if any gargoyles were religious in some way. If they are, do they practice human religions or do they have one of their own? I could see a clan living in a big church building with the stain glass windows and such, with them posing on top on the steeple or roof during the day and then protecting the town at night. I can just imagine the picture in my head. It would look rather gothiky though.
Now that's my ramble/journal for today. Just one more for tomorrow. I'm sure you'll miss my long talks about nothing (probably not). I hope all is well, and thank you for your time.
Charisma82
Turn out for 2006 was high for a Gathering. Having the con in L.A. always helps, because we can get a TON of special guests (because they're all local) that we couldn't afford to bring to a more distant location. Someone from the Gathering would have to give you exact figures, but I believe the attendance was probably our second highest ever - second only to G2001, which was also in L.A.
We did have quite a few voice actors, including Keith "Goliath" David, Thom "Lexington" Adcox, Brigitte "Angela" Bako, Elisa "Obisiana" Gabriellie, Morgan "Petros" Sheppard, Jim "Dingo" Cummings and others. Plus quite a few voice actors from WITCH and other shows as well.
I've attended all TEN Gatherings. It might seem like quite an achievement, but really it's all thanks to the fans, who pay my way for every non-L.A. convention and put me up (and put up with me) at the L.A. cons. There are a handful of fans whom have also been to all ten conventions. They are my heroes.
"Who exactly started these gatherings (don't just say fans, please)?" - Okay, I won't say fans. I'll say FAN. May "Elisa Maza" Li (I hope I'm spelling that correctly) was THE fan that got the ball rolling by almost single-handedly organizing the first Gathering in NYC. Burned her out so much that she didn't attend again until this past year, when she was given the Fan Guest of Honor award. Of course since then there's been a long list of people who have contributed. I'd list 'em, but I'm sure I'd forget some people, and I don't want to offend.
For info on Gargoyles religion -- which is both Animistic and Monotheistic -- check the archives under GARGOYLE CUSTOMS.
How will the others in the clan react to Lex being gay? Angela and the other boys may be more accepting, but Hudson and Goliath struck me as "old school" in terms of acceptance. (well, not Goliath as much. He is dating a human for christs sake!) Just curous.
You're assuming that for Gargoyles, "Old School" means homophobic. I don't accept that.
In fact "Old School" for humans wasn't homophobic either. Homophobia is a relatively RECENT phenomena, as far as my (very limited) research has revealed.
Gargoyles don't 'marry' (at least not as humans do)from what I've gathered. Most people demand that marriage comes before children, or at least what their idea of what marriage is. I have friends who liked the show and bought the dvd (although they aren't the hardcore fans that would attend a Gathering..I tried LOL) and if hatchlings started appearing without any 'wedding' taking place beforehand I know for a fact that they would stop watching out of moral beliefs. Many conservative viewers would likely follow suit. So onto the question..(if new eps are ever made) do you see gargoyles observing a ritual of some sort that could replace a wedding in the mind of a more conservative viewer?
Gargoyles have a "Commitment Ceremony" which is the equivalent of a human wedding. This isn't something I've added for conservative viewers by the way, it just is part of my conception of their culture.
Hey greg, love the show and see you in Vegas! Now for my question...
Gorlois is the Atlantean name for Gargoyle. So how is it used? What is the singular and plural? Are Gargoyles Gorloien? Was the Captain of the Guard Gorloisian or Gorloien since you said he was (WAS.. traitor) Gargoylean (if thats a word)? This has been gliding about my brain since I found out about "Gorlois." I realize I'm asking you to mix english and atlantean, so do what you can. Thanks for answering this and all our questions!
PS: If you could mention to Goliath and the others that we in the SF Bay Area would be happy to host a fledgling Gargoyle clan. We've got tall buildings, lots of room to glide, great weather, and lots of wind. Oh, and tell them not to worry about earthquakes, all our buildings are retrofitted and earthquake safe. I guess by Samson's time there isn't one here, but I'm still hoping nothing is set in stone.. at least till sunrise. Thanks!
If you hold a Gathering, they will come.
As for Gorlois (pronounced gor-LOY), it is the Atlantean word for Gargoyle. It's used for both singular and plural. Like "sheep".
Hi Greg! I couldn't make it to Montreal this year, but I've made up my mind to go to Vegas. Thank you so much for the DVD; I'll buy several copies when it comes out! Now, on to my questions... This is something that's been puzzling me for a while, and I couldn't find it anywhere on the archives. I'd be so happy if you had the answers.
1. In the episode Reawakening, after Coldstone and Goliath fell into the river and Goliath was losing consciousness, he holds on to Coldstone's forearm. Is there a deeper meaning behind that? Was it:
a) a warrior wrist-shake
b) a cry for help
c) asking forgiveness
d) an unconscious reaction
If the answer is a, b, c, or d, why? If none of the above, what? I'm just so curious about that scene. It's so deep and moving; definitely one of the best scenes in the entire series.
2. When Goliath and Coldstone are in the river, Hudson is heard in the background saying "A gargoyle can no more stop protecting the castle than breathing the air," it slowly trails off. Was Goliath thinking that and it trailed off as he lost consciousness? Was Othello? Or does it have a deeper meaning?
I would be so grateful if you had the answers! Thank you so much, and I look forward to meeting you in Vegas!
1. All of the above.
2. It's somewhat symbolic, but yes, Goliath wa thinking of it. And it trailed off as Goliath began to lose consciousness. I like to think that Coldstone was thinking something similar.
Do gargoyles believe in corporal punishment?
I'm sure the point of view on the subject isn't monolithic, but I tend to think not.
I've got a number of questions about Gargbeasts and their relation to the Clan. It always seemed to me that the Gargoyles had a deeper connection to their Gargbeasts than we humans tend to have with our "lesser" beasts. (Though, where dogs are concerned, I don't get how a creature that is naturally caring and loyal can be considered lesser to anything.)
1. Are Garg-Beasts considered siblings, parents, and sons/daughters by the rest of the Gargoyles in a clan? Would Goliath consider Bronx a Rookery Son and the Trio consider him a Rookery Brother?
2. Do GargBeasts and Gargoyles nurse each others offspring? (Evolutionarily, I can see the advantage in this, as it provides a greater variety of anti-bodies to the hatchlings.)
3. While I have serious doubts that a Gargbeast can ever become a Clan leader, are they ever in positions of authority or rank over the sentient Gargoyles?
1. No. There is an awareness that Beasts are a separate species. But I do believe that the bond between Gargoyles and Beasts is stronger, and more akin to blood relation than the bond between humans and their pets. Beasts are not considered pets. They do not have "masters". The relationship is closer to one of equals than of master/pet. Grok?
2. I don't think so. But I'll admit I haven't given this much thought.
3. I won't say 'never'. But it doesn't seem likely. Though you should keep in mind that typical gargoyle "government" isn't exactly ripe with bureaucracy. There is the Leader and the Second. And that is all. Beasts ARE warriors. And on that score, Bronx, for example, is considered an equal to Lex or Broadway or Hudson or Angela. Only Goliath as Leader and Brooklyn as Second have actual authority over Bronx and the others. Now, keep in mind, one of the other Gargoyles might tell Bronx to do something in the heat of the moment. Or ask him to come somewhere or refuse to let him go along. But that's not authority. That's just life. Hudson might likewise tell Lexington to do something in the heat of the moment. Or ask him to come somewhere or refuse to let him go along, etc.
Good questions.
In "Future Tense" when Broadway is "killed" Goliath says "Goodbye, my friend". This surprised me. Wouldn't Goliath think of Broadway more as his son? The word "friend" just seemed awkward to me in context of the relationship between Goliath/Broadway. What are your thoughts?
Broadway is too old for Goliath to regard him as a Rookery-Son. And too young for Goliath to regard him as a Rookery-Brother. Now, without a doubt, Goliath regards Broadway as family, as part of his clan, as a cousin, as someone so close to being a "little brother" that it might not be unexpected for him (if he were human) to use the term.
But Gargoyles aren't humans. They don't use the term "little brother" to describe that relationship. Or any relationship, really.
And the word "friend" to a gargoyle carries real weight. It's not insignificant or casual.
1)Well based on the fact that Goliath rested on the highest tower of the castle and Demona, Hudson and a gargoyle I couldn't identify below him, I assume it was tradition that the gargoyles took their sleeping places after their status in the clan, correct?
2)Had the other gargoyle resting beside Demona(not Hudson) any special status in the clan? Or for Goliath?
1. Generally. We tried not to be too anal about it though.
2. I'd have to look again.
Okay, I looked in the Gargs Custom archive and in FAQ. I cannot find a direct question and answer for what I am wondering recently. Perhaps you did answer it and I missed it somewhere. If I did, I apologize. Let me know and I will do a better search. But here's my questions.
1.)Do gargoyles have a ceremony similar in anyway to a wedding ceremony as humans do?
2.) I remember Goliath and Demona watching a wedding and Demona broke the Phoenix Gate and gave Goliath half as a token of her love, similar to the wedding rings, but was this normal of gargoyle customs?
3.)Or did they simply announce their mate-for-life and go on with their lives?
4.)Or could that even be different from clan to clan?
I doubt very much the ceremony would be as lavish and pomp as human weddings are, but it would probably have been a lot less stressful and a lot more romantic
1. They have a "first mating ritual".
2. No.
3. See 1.
4. Well, yes, certainly. I thought we were talking about Wyvern.
When gargoyles scale a battlement, they like to just throw their talons into the rock like there is no tomorrow, chipping away at the solidity every time. They do this night after night, and my question is, how were Wyvern's walls, battlements and towers still standing after years of this abuse? This may seem like a question meant to stump you on an aspect of the show we were invited to turn our cheeks to, but I have got to say, almost 10 years later I'm eating perogies and I start jabbing my plastic fork into the Styrofoam container and wonder... this just isn't going to go away! I need to know!
Sigh. If you need to know that badly, suggest an answer that works for you, and I'll see if it makes sense to me too.
Cuz the honest truth is... not something I dedicated any mental time to.
Sorry.
Hi Greg, this is my first time posting a question am almost reluctant to do it because of the amazing volume of questions that all the other Gargoyles fan post. I guess it's just an amazing testament to the show.
First off I wanted to express my love and admiration of the show. I have been a fan since the show first came out and I was about 10 or 11. The best part of watching the show now is that all the subtle nuansces and social commentary that was slightly lost on me as a child is fully realized and appreciated in me as a college student.
Second, I wanted to say that I spent the last 3 days LITERALLY reading all the archives I could to find an answer to my questions....Some I found answers to and some I thought up as I was reading some of the other questions posted by other fans. Which is why I wanted to say what a wonderful resource this website is...so having said that it prompts this announcement "THANK YOU GORE FOR HOSTING THIS SITE!!"
Now, on to the questions. Okay you are probably going to flip when you read this one....yes it is yet another "Gay Gargoyle" question...so sue me I'm gay and it's a topic that staunchly interests me. I wanted to ask if a Gay Gargoyle would imprint upon his or her mate just as a Straight Gargoyle would? I only ask this question because I figured the answer would be "yes" since in all your other responses about Gay Gargoyles you indicated that there would be no difference between Gargoyles, Straight or Gay. But I figured that since this is your universe and that since you are the author of said universe that it would be highly unethical of me to assume something without asking the creator.
Now that I got my first question out of the way, I wanted to ramble alittle of how much my appreciation of Gargoyles has grown from reading the questions in this forum. I never knew any of the subtlies that existed in the show such as the stroking of hair and horn, the tradition of not naming things, the practice of the whole clan being the Fathers and Mothers to all the rookery children, and the wonderful Wind Ceremony that you went into detail here in the forums. This all highlights the amazing differences between Humans and Gargoyles. This intensely intrests me now that I'm in college and am a Anthropology student,(yes I do realize the oddness of the situation, a Anthropology student getting a kick out of studying culture that isn't that of man). I particularly love the not naming tradtion in Gargoyle society. Both of my parents are deaf so growing up my first language was Sign Language, not English. This put me in a unique position of knowing 2 names for everything, and knowing 2 different ways of expressing my own name. One being that of my spoken English name "Lovel" and the other being the expressed gesture of my Sign Language name (which I can't even express in writing becasue it is something you have to see instead of read). So when I read your response to a ramble of one of the fans that Hudson would have been put off by the odd tradition of giving the sky a name when it already has a name, and that he would think it odd of giving himself a name since he is already known as "Friend,Father, Mentor, Old Friend etc." This delighted me when I read it since it made me reflect on how my name is not really who I am and I never identify it as "ME". When I try and think of who I am I think in adjectives, kind, friendly, smart, jolly, the last thing that comes to mind is my name. I also enjoy knowing that I can also think of myself as a gesture instead of a spoken word or a sound. Having said all of that,(thanks for putting up with it for this long), my second question would be, How would a Gargoyle refer to the great Hudson in a story? To clarify you once repied that a Gargoyle would refer to another one in a story as "The one of Broadshoulders". This made me wonder how would the clan refer to Hudson in a story. For that matter how would Golaith be refered to in 2198? Would he be refered to by his human name of Golaith or would he have a Gargoyle "name" to which they would refer?
Thank you for your time and I appreciate everything you have done for all us fans. I also want to thank you for coming up with such an amazing universe and introducing it to everyone here. Thanks
--Lovel
I'm not entirely certain what you mean by "imprinting". But most gargoyles, gay or straight, mate for life.
Hudson wouldn't have just one name in the Middle Ages. "Broadshoulders" or the like, if used by everyone, would just amount to another name.
Different individuals would refer to Hudson by different callouts when necessary, including many of the ones you named above "Old Soldier" "Mentor" etc. "Friend". Mostly relationship driven things.
But naming once initiated is contagious and addictive. Goliath is Goliath is Goliath.
we know that gargoyles were once widespread around the world and much more common than today. we also know that gargoyles are extremely territorial and protective, so my questions are:
1. was there ever a time, in early gargoyle history, that wars between Gargoyle Clans were fought?
2. if so, were wars fought over territory? differing beliefs? something else?
3. if there were not any wars were there any minor battles between Clans or have Gargoyle Clans always had peace between them?
4. was there ever a time when two or more Clans shared strict borders between their protectorates or were the Clans pretty well spaced out even thousands of years ago?
5. how many Clans existed at the peak of the Gargoyle Species? closer to 1000? 10,000? 1,000,000?
1. I think it would be ridiculous to issue a blanket "no". I think this would be a rare and isolated phenomena in a world which at the time would have had almost unlimited territory to expand into and no predators truly able to hurt the species. But to say it NEVER happened... no. It must have.
2. I don't currently have anything specific in mind.
3. See above.
4. Largely the latter, but again, I don't want to issue an absolute.
5. I'm not good with numbers.
Is Gabriel Coldstones son? If so then does that make his love his mother?
Yes, Gabriel is the biological son of Coldstone and Coldfire. But from a gargoyle's point of view, Goliath is as much Gabriel's father as Coldstone is.
Prior to the rise of humanity, did gargoyles ever develop agriculture or animal husbandry on their own?
Gargoyle Beasts were domesticated.
Since I can't get any sleep and was watching re-runs of Gargoyles. I remember someone asking how do Gargoyles show love do they kiss ?, and I believe the answer was that they pet eachother, (please correct me if I'm wrong) but I do recall Goliath kissing Demonas hand, and Angela and Broadway giving a kiss to eachother. Can you explain the differences for me, or just tell me if they do kiss ?
Danke for answering
Culturally, the gargoyle equivalent of the kiss is to stroke hair or ridges, etc.
But Gargoyles have been living around humans for a long time. So the fact that they've acquired the habit (pleasant habit as it is) doesn't surprise or trouble me, continuity-wise or otherwise.
Okay, this is not GREG SPEAKING FROM THE MOUNT...
This is just me thinking aloud. (Well, not really aloud. I'm sitting here typing.) I don't even know if I like these ideas. They're definitely not canon.
But the following notions occured to me today...
Gargoyles don't seem to have a native language. They acquire human language ... perhaps much the same way that they acquire names. Naming is clearly addictive. And language, in many ways, is just sophisticated naming.
Clearly gargoyles are just as intelligent as humans. Before humans developed tools, Gargoyles were at the top of the food chain. They may not have created/invented as much "stuff" as humans have, but they also had way fewer needs. Necessity being the mother of invention, they had less motivation for inventing sophisticated shelter, clothes, tools, etc. But that in and of itself isn't a comment on their brain-power.
So why no need for language and names?
When it comes to naming, gargoyles clearly felt that names were superfluous if not somewhat limiting, if not downright harmful to the spirit. Humans must define things. Gargoyles know that things just are.
We are friends. What other name do we require, etc.
It fits in with their animistic/monotheistic view of a higher power. A higher power that requires no name.
Does beg a question, though if you go back far enough.
Does the sky need a name? Does the river?
Elisa responds: "The river's called the Hudson."
But she could have responded: "The river's called a river."
Did the gargoyles have a language that they ABANDONED in favor of human words -- even if those human words were Atlantean (like the term "Gorlois", the true Atlantean etimology for "GARGOYLE")?
Or perhaps...
Gargoyles are so attuned to the earth. They have biological clocks that match the seasons. They have relationships that require no names, until those names have been imposed.
Is it possible, that gargoyles once... long ago... had mild psychic abilities that left them with no need to create language? It wasn't words that they intuited (or transmitted or read or whatever) but emotions, maybe images or sensations.
Maybe it was tied to magic. Not that Gargoyles are magical creatures, but if magic was free-flowing before the Will-O-The-Whisps evolved into the Children of Mab (or whomever) and somewhat confiscated that power for their own, perhaps that magic was just part of the Earth that gargoyles were so attuned to, and allowed for some psychic congress.
Or perhaps, it is a biological ability -- based on biio-elecricity and brainwaves -- that has faded with disuse. Perhaps the very language skills that Gargoyles learned from the human race dampened their psychic intuitiveness, much as Fox's natural magical abilities were stunted by her human upbringing.
Either way, it suggests that this ability could be latent.
I'm NOT saying that the gargs we know are psychic. They've all been fooled enough, even by the INTENSELY emotional Demona (who would theoretically be broadcasting as well as receiving) to bely that notion.
But I wonder if this isn't an interesting area of speculation.
If you see me at the Gathering THIS WEEKEND, it's a topic I'd be interested in discussing.
OK, this page is a great idea, and I'm glad I finally found it.
I've been trying to work out how GOliath's loincloth is tied. All the others (except Hudson,who has trousers) have their loincloths just over front & back, nothing going underneath to keep things secure. ANd I just can't make a single piece of cloth fold around the way Goliath's seems to be. I'm sure it has be only one piece, because that's the way Scots did most of their clothes.
I'm going to have to spend a lot more time on this place and see if anyone else has come up with my theory on gargoyle sex etc, based largely on what they wear, or rather how. ANd figure out who all those characters are in the age list, I've seen all the episodes now but half of them I can't recall hearing of. What Othello & whatshername in Legion? COldstone's mate doesn't have a name, they're characters in something of Shakespeare.
There is, of course, a part of the loincloth that goes "underneath". Trust me, Goliath et al are not just out there blowing in the wind. It is still one piece, it just folds over the belt with space cut out for the tail in back.
Othello is the name we use to refer to Coldstone before he became Coldstone. The actual character doesn't have a name. It's just a reference.
Desdemona is the name we use to refer to Coldfire before she became Coldfire. The actual character doesn't have a name. It's just a reference, though we did use the Desdemona name in the credits for actress C.C.H. Pounder.
Iago is the name we use to refer to Coldsteel before he became Coldsteel. The actual character doesn't have a name. It's just a reference, though we did use the Iago name in the credits for actor Xander Berkeley.
Hello Mr. Weisman,
I am writing in relation to a thought I had about Gargoyle culture and society after taking a Anthropolgy class this summer. The earliest human civilzations such as the Maya and the Egyptians built large buildings and monuments out of stone.
1. Did gargoyles ever built any kind of stone buildings or sheltors besides their rookeries by excavating caves?
2.If gargoyles did in some form hue stone to make a monument. Would it have possibly have been for there unique god which you have alluded to before?
2. Early weapon making among humans began with one of man's earlies ancestors Australopithecus. Like chimpanzes today they used tools to get food. They used stones to break open roots. The techinques of more advanced tools like arrow heads and flint knives did not begin until the next human ancestor arrived called Homo erectus. Did gargoyles ever develope any kind of weapon making or use of objects such as rocks to better inable themselves with technology in order to survive in harsh enviornmental conditions?
1. Rarely. They required less protection from the elements, which is one of the major motivators to inventing "shelter".
2. No. There animistic/monotheistic faith required no monuments, as the gods/God was everywhere in everything.
Second 2. Again, generally not necessary. Gargoyles were, until humans invented tools, at the top of the food chain.
we were wondering if a gargoyles urge to protect is a natural urge or something they are taught by older generations to do, or a combination of both?
I'd guess both.
Hi Greg,
did Gargoyles ever play music or are they uninterested in it?
Sure.
I was wondering with Gargoyles' names. Now, according to the show to date, in 994 A.D., it was still the habit, at least of the Wyvern Clan, not to name gargoyles. Save Goliath. And even after then, to my knowledge, Demona's small clan of gargoyles did not have names.
Come present day, the Manhattan Clan all adopt names, even more traditionalists like Hudson. When the Avalon Tour came around, we come to find all the clans give names to the gaargoyles. (Of course, the Avalon Clan has names because they were raised by humans.) So through the centuries, has all the gargoyles changed their minds about naming eachother? Did the gargoyles name themselves or do the humans normally name them?
Naming is, as I believe I've said before, addictive.
Once the custom is introduced it takes hold rather firmly. I honestly haven't decided for sure whether all of the existing clans use names, but most do.
Sometimes these names come from humans. Sometimes they evolve within gargoyle communitities over time.
I feel that in Guatemala, only four gargoyles traditionally had names, i.e. the four gargs who wore the pendants: Zafiro, Turquesa, Jade and Obsidiana (though at other points in history they might have been Zafira, Turqueso, Jada and Obsidiano). But now that all but those four are dead, now that all the surviving Mayan gargs have names, it will be interesting to see whether or not the hatchlings that hatched there in 1998 were given names or not.
in "The Price" after Hudson's statue was destroyed was the Clan in effect beginning to perform the Wind Ceremony on Hudson when they were standing around talking about him?
also, in the credits of that episode there was a mention of parts of the episode being inspired by material in the comic books (presumably the Gargoyles comic books) any idea what thats about? i have a few of the comic books and i have no idea what the credits are referring to...
No. They were just trying to get their heads around his death. The Wind Ceremony would have come later.
The story was inspired by an idea by Lee Nordling in a Gargoyles story he did in an issue of Disney Adventures Magazine. It was his idea (though he used Goliath, not Hudson) to have Xanatos replace a sleeping gargoyle with a stone statue to fool the rest of the clan.
That was the only thing from his story that we used, and I've never even met Lee, but it was a great idea.
Gargoyle customs-
It has been well established and I would think we all are well aquainted with the notion that Gargoyles didn't use names. Not for themselves as humans did and that the eventual use of names was influence and need of conformity from/by humans.
However you have said that gargoyles kept their myth, history and traditions alive by oral revelation from one generation to the next.
How where they able to tell sagas of things great leaders had done if they had no name of which to tell? (Try to tell your children about Napolean and all the things he did and all the people in his life without using his name)
It would be all too generic and vague for any real value. Did gargoyles never realy have great leaders? Did they consider the clan as a whole more important than the decision making of the leader?
Thanks
and further note-my post on the guitar tab--well the on the outro the difference in the type size from the field box to the post page made it look wrong. so here is the outro again.
E-6--6--6--6---6--6---6-------1---6---6---6]
B------------4------1---1---1-------]----CONTINUE
G
D
A
E
E--6h5h6h8---9h11h13h12---13h14---14h17---18
B
G
D
A
E
History to the gargoyles is more about the clan, about movements, than about individuals. But descriptive terms can be used to identify individuals. (Cf. Homer's Illiad.) I'm forgetting the technical term just at this moment -- where's Aris when you really need him -- but if you've got a guy named Ajax of the Broad Shoulders, for example, then do you really need the "Ajax" part of the name.
The point of NOT naming, as Hudson would say is to NOT set limits on who or what an individual is. So he might be "Of the Broad Shoulders" one minute and also be "Of the Massive Temper" the next. Both would be true, but reflect an aspect of the individual, as opposed to making an attempt to wrap the entire individual up into one word: Ajax. Over time these epithets would become as familiar as a name for an historical figure -- particularly in the context of a tale told over and over again.
Questions regarding gargoyle sex and sexuality.
1) Do gargoyles reckognize their own sexiness, do they reckongnize that they may or maynot be sexier than another gargoyle?
2) Do gargoyles just instinctively know (or practice) sex or are they taught in some manner?
3) What is/are the function(s) of the female gargoyles' breasts? (Milk, motor oil, chiefly sexual)
4) Do tails play a role in sexual activity? If so how?
5) Do gargoyles practive pre mate-bonded sex, or generally stay virgin up to chosing a mate?
6) Oral sex?
7) Is rape a problem for gargoyles? Either by eachother or by humans whilst they are young.
8) Which would you consider more sexually active male gargoyles or female?
9) Goliath told Elisa that when she was human he hadn't realized how pretty she was. What physical traits in humans can potentially attract the eye of :
A- A male gargoyle to a human female?**
B- A female gargoyle to a human male?**
**no need for great specificity here, merely general qualities that may be attractive to a gargoyle
10) Do they suffer STD's?
note: I am not trying to be cute, I consider these serious questions, I however realise that question (4) is somewhat well...wrong, but I believe in its legitimacy.
1. Huh? I think self-esteem/ego/etc. issues aren't much different for gargs than humans.
2. I'd lean more toward instinct, but I'm sure there is some discussion.
3. Milk. Garg females breastfeed the hatchlings.
4. Use your imagination.
5. Generally they mate for life.
6. Are you offering?
7. Without getting into rape specifically, I think the series has made an effort to show that no species corners the market on either good or evil.
8. Equal.
9. Likely the qualities they have in common, I suppose. Elisa's hair for example, I think, is very attractive to Goliath. Her lack of wings, tail and horns of any kind is probably not so attractive until (a) his eyes are opened during "The Mirror" and (b) he comes to terms with the strong attraction he has for her soul. I would think that for a gargoyle female, there wouldn't be that much in human males to find attractive. But that might just be my bias showing.
10. Not likely, as they heal every day, no illness really has the opportunity to take hold.
I get that you're serious. I tried to answer as seriously as I could and stay in the ASK GREG realm of PG. If you're attending the Gathering this year, Thom Adcox and I will be hosting a late night "Blue" Mug-A-Guest, i.e. an opportunity to ask us adult questions about the series. Over 18 only please.
When early man first met a Gargoyle was he just compelled to kill it? Did early man's superstitious and early proto-religous notions convince him that gargoyles must be evil? I would think that early man would be scared of the much more physically dominant gargoyles, however; mammoths proved no match for early humans. Of course I'm also curious as to gargoyles' reaction/response when early man first starting walking about.
Which specie of man first encountered gargoyle (Homo neanderthalis, Homo erectus, Homo sapien..ect..)?
Archeologists have definately found early man developing weapons crafted of wood and stone and bone. This would help offset the physical inequality between man and goyle. When did gargoyles borrow or invent tool making for themselves. Being 'rational' beings I would think it wouldn't take long for them to realize that the spears humans threw at them really hurt!!
I hate to ask a billion questions like this but....
You have said that gargoyle evolution predates mammalian evolution so Gargoyle evolved before man. So given the seemingly headstart in evolution how could they just let man rule the world.
Why does it seem that given the rough lives of gargoyles, which they had no better that early man; did they not invest themselves in art, music, and architecture. When even some of the earliest men developed tools, made art, evidence of instruments presumed by archeologists as perhaps made for music. They began religous elements as burying the dead and trying to preserve the elderly. (Evidence of this espicially advanced in Homo neanderthalis, of which old men have been found with multiple injuries{perhaps gargoyle induced} indicating his being taken care of by the neanderthal family even at the high risk way of life that the neanderthal lead). What accounts for early man's eagerness to "learn-adapt-evolve" where gargoyles seemed content just to use or mimik man's achievements?
1. Not necessarily. I don't think early man could kill a gargoyle. That took practice.
2. I think fear -- not necessarily superstition, but old-fashioned, this thing is bigger and stronger than I am fear -- would have been there.
3. And Mammoths were something of a match for man, certainly they were dangerous prey. And they weren't nearly as intelligent as a gargoyle.
4. Since, my theory is that Gargoyles pre-date modern man, the answer is, all of them, I believe.
5. I don't have dates for this, but I'm not sure that gargoyles ever truly adopted the spear. Yes, it hurt. But they had better defenses (and offensive strategies) given their physical natures than to adopt spears.
6. Note - I don' mind a billion questions. Just wish you'd NUMBER them, for easier reference. (EVERYONE PAY ATTENTION!)
7. Well, they didn't just let men rule the world. They were largely asleep when man began to take over. Gargs tended to trump everything that came before, including man. But a man with tools, ultimately trumped the Gargs.
8. Who said they didn't? Who's to say that some of those artifacts you speak of weren't gargoylean. And were just attributed to man by human archaeologists who know no better.
9. No, not burying the dead, because gargs have their own tradition, the Wind Ceremony, ashes to ashes or dust to dust.
10. Again, you're assuming facts not in evidence. The fact that they didn't use clothes or weapons or have sophisticated shelters, none of which they physically required, is hardly proof that all they did was use or mimic man's achievements. The first time you meet the gargoyles, in 994, the species is, sadly, already in decline. What you know doesn't speak to what there was or might have been once upon a time.
Greg,
I have questions about "full" clans.
1) Now a full clan in definition is a group with common family ties in some form. So would clans ever reach a setup where not every gargoyle knows the gargoyle? I.E a clan with say 500,000 members?
2) Will the Manhattan clan ever exceed a population of a 1 million? or more?
3) If three is yes than will some eventually move into the city and leave the castle?
thanks
1. Not likely. Clans tend to split after their membership gets up into the range of about eighty.
2. Again, not likely.
3. You know I've only planned as far as the early 23rd Century. The numbers of living gargoyles worldwide don't approach what you're asking about. So I can't answer what would happen if or even whether we'd ever get up to numbers that high.
Hello. I am a big Gargoyles fan and I was wondering something, what would/does happen if a Gargoyle is no good at fighting enemies or protecting a castle or home? Or if a Gargoyle didn't want to fight. Thanks for your time.
He or she would do other things. As all our characters do other things in addition to protecting and fighting. There might be some stigma attached. Hopefully, not too much.
Of course the gargoyles have many enemies, who might not care whether or not a gargoyle was inclined to fight. So it behooves all gargs to learn some basics in self-defense. Humans too, probably.
I finally got to see Bushido. I must compliment you on the effect caused by facing opposite the sun. I never realized just how used to their position relative to the sun I was. The backdrop when they turn to stone threw me. Sweet!
Thanks, although I'm not sure you're right on target. They were facing into the building as opposed to facing out toward potential danger. Since they were still all around the building, at least a quarter of them were still facing the sun.
"A gargoyle can no more stop protecting the castle than breathing the air."
You've said (or implied) that Castle Wyvern was built while Hudson was the clan leader. So protecting the castle can't have been a deep-seated, traditional, imperative practice for the Wyvern clan. Sure, there was the normal gargoyle territorial instinct, but there wasn't a _castle_ to protect.
1. Did Hudson (or another clan elder?) invent that saying out of whole cloth? If so, why? Why did he feel the need to word this saying _so strongly_ for a practice less than a generation old, and repeat it to the hatchlings until they were sick of it? (Certainly the Trio seem to have heard it enough.)
2. If not, where did the saying come from, and why did Hudson latch onto it as strongly as he seems to have?
1. I think that it was a slight adjustment of the original phrase, which may have been something like "A gargoyle can no more stop protecting the rookery than breathing the air." (I believe, by the way, that the "Rookery" used to refer to the gargs' entire home, not just the cave with the eggs.) Or maybe "A gargoyle can no more stop protecting the clan than breathing the air." Or something like that. Did Hudson make the necessary change? Probably.
do gargoyles have any special terms or names for the years or the parts of the year that they mate, lay eggs, or eggs hatch?
Gargoyles aren't too big on naming things. But, yeah, probably.
1.Where there any other clans in Scotland around 994?
2.Was(and is it)uncommon for a gargoyle to mate outside the clan?
2a. If not, would that gargoyle belong to both clans or have to choose just one?
1. Where were they or were there any? The answer to the latter is yes. Though even by 994, the Garg population in Scotland had already been decimated.
2. Well, I wouldn't say it was common back then, but no, I wouldn't say uncommon either. That's not meant to be evasive, just nuancy. It happens often enough so that no one would think it truly odd. But it's not like it was happening all the time.
2a. Ultimately, the gargoyle can't physically live in two places at once, so he or she or rather they (the couple) would have to chose, but that doesn't mean both or either wouldn't be welcomed at the other location.
you said that eventually the Gargoyles would attend night classes at colleges. would high schools or younger hold night courses for young gargoyles, or would they be generally homeschooled? and how would the schools adapt for the difference in aging rate?
I won't pretend I've thought out all these details. Any change would be gradual at best. Homeschooling would predominate at first, certainly. Age would fundamentally have little to do with aptitude, I would think. But that might be controversial. It would be fun to explore, given the opportunity.
Dear Mr. Weisman I find your posts on gargoyle physiology and culture very fascinating. Having recently read some of your earlier answers to the newly identified Loch Ness Clan a question came to my mind as to how this clan raised and cared for its offspring. It is widely known that gargoyles in the other clans in the gargoyles universe lay eggs is this also true of the Lochness Clan and if so do they put their eggs into caves until hatching as the Wyvern Clan did in generations past?
Yep.
I've never bother to question any of the following, and I still pretty much accept it as "just the way things are", but I figured I'd still ask about it just in case it led to any interesting revelations:
1) Why *do* gargoyles assume threatening poses while they sleep? You've mentioned that gargoyles have a similarity to scarecrows. Also, one explanation for building gargoyles on medieval churches was to scare away demons. But what's the "Gargoyles-Universe" explanation? Is it really that effective in scaring away predators (and what kind of animal would attack something made of stone, anyways?). Even scarecrows lose their effectiveness over time, once birds get used to them.
2) In Japan, where the clan said that they face inward as a sign of trust to the humans, they still strike frightening poses. Is this "pose-behavior" therefore something instinctual?
3) Similarly, why did the trio, Hudson and Bronx assume threatening poses as the Magus's sleep spell took place? I'm not sure the gargoyles even understood what was happening, or identified the Magus as a threat (Lex says, "What's he talking about?" and Hudson asks, "What's all this?" just before the spell). As they see the magic swirling around them, I think they get suspicious, but it still seems odd for them to assume attack poses at that moment (I would have expected them to be confused or afraid, but not violent, especially if they haven't had time to understand what's going on). I was wondering whether the fact that they were becoming stone had triggered their instinctual pose-behavior, or were they indeed getting ready to attack the Magus?
1. Partially, it's just tradition. Keep potential enemies away. A reminder to any potential attacker of what they might face.
2. Possibly. You're in a state of relative vulnerability. The pose might lend some sense-of peace-of-mind.
3. That's possible too, although I always assumed that they were on the verge of leaping into action at the attack when they got caught in it.
Time to Ramble...
"PART TWO"
Director: Dennis Woodyard
Writer: Lydia Marano
Story Editor: Brynne Chandler Reaves
I guess you guys were used to longer multi-parters from us, so you probably didn't think this was the last part when you saw Part Two come up after the title. I tried something different at the end though. Instead of writing "To be continued" I had them put down "To be concluded". It seemed (at least in my head) to increase tension to know that the next part would be the last.
I've been told by people that out of context, this episode is incomprehensible. I hope it's not quite that bad, but I will say that unlike the rest of our eps, I felt that multi-parter eps don't quite need to stand alone in the same way.
Still with all the time travel stuff, it's very complex. I remember Lydia having to come into my office after her first draft and needing me to diagram the time travel for her. The loop that the Archmage takes. I love it. But I guess it's not that easy to follow.
Anyway, this ep was designed to be the second part of a tryptich. This is the one where we focus on our villains and bring them all up to date, just as in part one, we focused on our heroes. All gearing to a MAJOR BATTLE coming in Part Three.
THE EGGS
Picking up where Part One left off, Elisa looks at Angela, Gabriel and Boudicca and says: "These are the eggs?" I love her tone there.
Guardian: "Sorry, I always call them that." It was a cheat to buy us, at least with some percentage of our audience, the shock value of expecting eggs and finding fully grown gargs and beasts instead. Still, I believe that a guy like Tom, dubbed "Guardian of the Eggs" would continue to use that term to refer to his kids, even after they are grown.
Goliath is initially shocked that the gargs have names. Angela says the standard human response: "How else would we tell each other apart?" This was done intentionally to both cover the issue of non-garg naming (which I still think is neat, but which is often a massive pain) and to indicate that these are gargs raised by humans.
BEACH FIGHT
So I'm in my office one day, after the script to "Avalon, Part Two" has gone final. And Supervising Producer Frank Paur and Producer/Director Dennis Woodyard come in. Frank hates the script. Dennis is calmer, but he seems to clearly agree with Frank, more or less.
I'm annoyed because it's VERY late in the game for them to be giving me these kind of notes. Things get heated between me and Frank.
I yell something like: "Well, what do you want me to do?!!!"
And he yells something like: "We need some action! Like a fight on the Beach with the Archmage!!"
And I start to object for about a second. Then I go, "Oh, yeah. A fight on the beach with the Archmage. That'd be cool. Would that fix it?"
"Uh. Yeah."
And that was it. Our fights were always like that. We always only wanted to make it better. He'd get worked up, but the solution wound up being simple and when push came to shove (we never actually pushed and shoved by the way) we agreed on nearly everything.
It was also good to have Dennis' calming influence. Frank and I would go momentarily nutty and Dennis would always maintain.
So anyway, after the fact we added the memorable fight on the beach. Now I can't imagine the episode without it. It forced us to trim down some the Archmages travels (cause we were already long) but it definitely improved the episode.
I think, not sure, but I think I wrote that fight because it came so late in the game. It's also possible, I might have taken it back to Brynne and/or Lydia to write. I really don't remember anymore.
Either way, there are some great lines:
Goliath: "Don't be too insulted!" I love how he goes nuts here. We really get a reminder of his warrior-ness.
Archmage: "Don't crow too loudly, after all, what have you accomplished: you beat up a beach." You beat up a beach. That's one of my favorite lines in the whole series.
Archmage: "At dawn you all will die. Get used to it!"
Tom: "Let's get out of here before the very air attacks us!"
The fight itself is pretty cool too. I like how Bronx and Boudicca immediately team up. I like the symbolic nature of the Archmage growing wings, turning to stone and then shattering. I think that was a board-artist's addition. I don't remember seeing that in the script. (And I'm too lazy to stand up and check right now.)
At the end of the fight, my five year old son Benny asked: "Why can't they glide to the castle?" I had to explain the flight rules.
ANGELA & GABRIEL
Elisa slides up to Goliath: "Angela sort of looks like Demona, except her coloring is different. Exactly whose daughter is she?" Again, I love Salli's reading here. That need to know. The jealousy. The feeling for Goliath -- who dodges the question by saying that all children belong to the clan.
But of course Elisa knows. Knows something that I believe never occured to her before. Sure, she knew that Goliath and Demona had been mates, lovers. But she didn't let her mind traverse to the next logical step. Parents. Together. Goliath and Demona.
And of course, the audience knows it too, I hope. It was never meant to be a secret to anyone but Angela who her biological parents are. These lines also served to point that out.
On the other hand, we didn't make a big deal of Gabe's bio-parentage. But I wanted it to be semi-clear that his folks were Othello and Desdemona (Coldstone and Coldfire). Anyone get that at first viewing?
REUNIONS
Everyone returns to Oberon's Palace. There are many injured and Gabe is apologetic. As Leader, he feels responsible. But there was 'never any need to hone our combat skills' before this.
Tom & Katharine are reunited. Elisa, the cop, picks up on the human dynamics, the relationships, immediately. She sees the Magus' reaction to their reunion.
I also really like the exchange between the Princess and Goliath.
K: "This is more than I could have hoped for."
G: "What you've done for the eggs is more than I could have dreamed of"
SLEEPING KING
We kept dropping hints. He's mentioned by the Magus, but the conversation moves quickly on.
Later, the Weird Sisters mentioned him. The Archmage is surprised to hear he's not a myth, causing Seline to say her famous: "All things are true." line. The Archmages promise to kill the king later.
And Elisa brings the guy up at the end. This policy was me trying to play fair and make his awakening in Part Three not seem artificial. But also not to allow the guy to distract from the matter at hand.
Of course, most of THIS crowd must have known the s-king was a ref to KING ARTHUR. Particularly when the Hollow Hill ref was thrown in too. But did anyone not know on first viewing?
LOOSE ENDS
This was an episode for tying up Loose Ends in a big way. Solving some mysteries.
Why did the Weird Sisters do what they did? (At least objectively.)
Why were Demona and Macbeth working together in "High Noon"? (Elisa: "They hate each other." Guardian: "I saw no sign of that.")
And how did the Archmage survive?
Tom unwittingly hints at the truth when he says that the Archmage seemed to be able to be in two places at once.
Now let's reveal...
WEIRD SISTERS
Wow! Did we get negative feedback from fans when we played the Sisters as villains here. Of course, I always had it in my head that the Sisters had three aspects. Grace, Vengeance and Fate. Sometimes one aspect is ascendent, but there is always a touch of all three in anything they do. But after the Sisters' Fateful appearances in "City of Stone", many fans rebelled at the notion that the objective reason they did all those things was for simple petty vengeance here in "Avalon". Oh, well.
[When Benny saw the Sisters for the first time, he said "Weird Sisters" with an interesting tone of awe. They're his favorites. But he didn't comment on them being bad guys here.]
The sisters have some nice lines...
L: "What is time to an immortal."
Phoebe: "This is true." (in ref to what cannot be broken can be bent).
ARCHMAGESES
Okay, this was just fun for me. In many ways the origin of much of this was the flat out talent of David Warner. He brought such life to the underwritten (and clichéd) part of the Archmage in "Long Way to Morning" that I just knew I'd have to bring him back. Many of the events of "Vows", "City of Stone", "High Noon" etc. were all geared toward bringing him back as a real THREAT!!
Yet with all this, I didn't want to forget the character's roots. We tried to set a balance between his clichés and his new power.
Think about it. The Archmage+ (as we called him in the script), had only been plussed for about a day. Still he's full of arrogance. His power hasn't raised him above that hybris nor above the thirst for vengeance nor above gloating or above impatience. That's his flaw, but also the fun, I think.
And of course, David. Wow.
Praise for Salli Richardson as Elisa. For Kath Soucie as Princess Katharine and all three Weird Sisters. For Frank Welker as Bronx and Boudicca.
But this Archmage stuff here is a tour de force, I think. David just went through, playing both characters. Both versions of himself. Keep in mind, he hadn't been privy to all that the writers had planned. He had come in for his small parts in both "Long Way" and "Vows". Now suddenly, he's this guy(s). Amazing.
"Do you know what to do?"
"I should. I watched you do it."
"Show some dignity."
"I could put you back where I found you."
"No, no." (I love that no, no. So tiny and fearful.)
"Not where. When."
"If you don't know, don't guess."
"The book must remain in play."
"Try to keep up."
"We're not doing her any favors."
"The rules that cannot be broken can surely be bent."
"Nine hundred and seventy-five YEARS??!!"
"I hadn't thought that far in advance."
"What am I supposed to do, eat it?!"
"Now I understand."
"As it did. As it must. As it always will!"
All great fun.
FLAWS
All these episodes were being produced simultaneously. All in various stages of production. So inconsistencies were bound to happen.
The Egg boats are messed up here. Demona's model in her flashback. Etc.
And storywise, what's the deal with Macbeth? I can see why the Archmage wants to include his former apprentice Demona in his plans. He felt betrayed by her, and is glad not to be doing her any favors by enslaving her.
But Macbeth?
Okay, it's not a true flaw. Macbeth is included because the 'plan of the Archmage' -- birthed whole from the timestream without the Archmage ever actually coming up with it independently (though he takes credit) -- included Macbeth.
It is the provence of Luna, not Seline, at work.
But still, I'd have liked to have been able to figure out some connection between the Archmage and Macbeth so that he wouldn't question the boy's inclusion. Thankfully, the Archmage+ is so arrogant, he takes credit and thus never questions. It occurs to me now, that I could have made a connection between Mac and his ancestors, all related to Katharine and Malcolm. Oh, well.
CAPTIONS
These became fun for me. Adding Captions indicating place and time is one of the very last steps in production. So I'm in there for the "On-Line" with Jeff Arthur, our post-production supervisor, and I'm just indulging...
Sure we start with...
"Scotland, 984 A.D."
But pretty soon we're at "YESTERDAY" and "SIX HOURS AGO" and "ONE MINUTE AGO" and finally "NOW".
It still makes me smile.
POWERING UP
So the Archmage gets the eye. Power. But he's still an idiot. He needs wisdom. He eats the book, which I always thought was really creepy and cool. Now he understands. Now we truly have two Archmage+es. But they can't coexist forever. Aside from how complicated that would be to choreograph, and aside from the fact that the timestream needs the younger of the two to fulfill his role....
They also couldn't coexist because both are too arrogant.
So we repeat the scene of departure to close the circle and tack on: "Finally. I thought he'd never leave."
BATTLE FLASHBACK
We get to see a new clan awake from stone. I hoped that was fun.
Ophelia appears (pre-injury). She looked way cool. For all those people who thought that Gabe and Angie were a couple, take a look at the way Gabe is holding Ophelia and looking at her after she's injured.
LAYING PIPE
In addition to the Sleeping King, we were also laying pipe for our whole fourth tier WORLD TOUR. Tom says: "Avalon dropped me in your laps." He credits Avalon with sending him to Goliath.
The Magus declares that he is without magic and useless. Katharine rebels at that: "Don't say it, and don't think it!" She loves him. Just not the way he wanted her to love him.
Bronx and Boudicca want to go with Goliath.
Elisa asks about the Sleeping King...
And Goliath, Angela and Gabriel take off on a stealth attack.
And we immediately see that the Archmage knows they're coming.
Uh oh.
As the Archmage says... "[We've layed all the damn pipe we could possibly need and more], Now the fun really begins!"
To be concluded...
And that's my ramble. Where's yours?
Yeah I knowm, stupid questions but...
1)When Gargoyles hatch are they infant or toodlers?
2)When first hatched can they crawl right off?
3)At about what time(month)of the year do they hatch?
4)You said that gargoyles nurse. So do the females take turns nursing all the hatchlings or just one?
5)For how long?
6)What age do gargyles usually learn to glide?
7)What did gargoyles do with hatchlings that were deformed or were found to have a mental retardation later on in life?
1. Right when they hatch? Closer to infants.
2. No.
3. Generally, around Spring Solstice.
4. It's communal.
5. I'm not sure.
6. I'm not sure of this either. Something I wanted to explore in the future.
7. The clan takes care of its own.
How old do you think a hatchling would need to be before the Manhattan clan allowed him/her to take part in the patrols around the city? Would 13-year old Nashville (of the older conception) take part in patrols? The 9-year old one of the current conception?
I don't know. Honestly. I think that gargoyles (traditionally) as in most quote-unquote primitive societies expected children to take on adult responsibilites at an earlier age than we generally do these days. But I haven't thought that out.
Of course, the interesting thing about Nashville is the notion of permission. You have a kid who's spent literally his entire life as a virtual temporal fugitive, it's going to be a little difficult to get him to just sit at the castle once he's in the relative safety of a static environment surrounded by an extended family of protectors.
That tension interests me. But I won't pretend to have worked out the details yet.
Hi Greg,
Last one from me, for awhile anyway.
Ok, these are about disabilities. I'm disabled and I was wondering about this because it seemed to me that the only gargoyles that had anything wrong with them (such as blindness or missing a limb) aquired it in battle.
1. Are any gargoyls born with problems that cause a disability?(Like, I have heart problems and they caused me to have a stroke when I was 4 years old which caused the right side of my body not to work properly.)
2. Are any gargoyles born blind, mute, deaf or missing any limbs?
3. If yes, what does the rest of the clan do with them?
4. If no, why not?
Ok, I'm being chased off the computer. I better run. Bye.
1. I don't know. I won't rule it out, but I have their healing factor to figure in. It's also possible that some eggs just don't hatch. But I'd have to think and do more research.
2. Same answer. I'm not sure at this point.
3. The clan takes care of its own in any case.
4. The answer, if the answer is no, would have something to do with the healing factor which begins to work even in the egg. But again, I haven't considered this yet, honestly.
Hi Greg,
The Cat, again.
Ok, these questions are about language.
1. Do gargoyles have their own language?
2. If no, then how come the Guatamala and Japanese Clans could understand Goliath, Angela and Elisa when they were on the "World Tour"?
3. If yes, what would it be called? Don't you dare say English, that is a Human language!
4. How come the Guatamala Clan and the Japanese Clan could speak perfect English? It takes a bit of time to translate Spanish into English and vica versa. Same with Japanese.
5. Languages under go many changes. In just a generation the words that one used to mean "Nice!" Have gone from "Groovy!" to "Cool!" So, how could Elisa understand Goliath since the English language had gone through many changes in 1,000 years and most likely Goliath and his clan spoke Celtic, Gaelic or Anglo-Saxxon, not English?
Ok, Bye.
1. No.
2. On some level we were cheating. But basically, we were assuming that English is fairly global at this point.
3. See above.
4. I wanted to make more use of foreign languages in these and at least a couple other episodes. Do a bit of stuff with subtitles. But my bosses rejected the idea.
5. This was another cheat, largely. I'm told, Michael Reaves has a theory to explain this using a magic spell. But I've not heard it first hand.
Hi Greg,
Ya said post every question separately for each topic, so that is what I'm doing.
Ok, these questions are on another topic of much controversy. Race. I'm curious about this topic because during my freshman and sophmore years in highschool my classmates were in a racial, I'll say, argument. While, I think, no one was hurt it left me wondering about what gargoyles might do in the same predicament.
So, here are the questions:
1. Are gargoyles prejudice of another gargoyle just because the other has something different than the others, like wings, a beak, ears, etc?
2. Do gargoyles ever think that they are better or worse off because of how they look?
3. If either of these two are incorrect, then why?
Well that's it, Bye.
1. Because there is so much racial prejudice between gargoyles and humans, the cosmetic differences between various gargoyles seem relatively insignificant. Everything is relative, of course and depends on scale.
2. Sure.
3. See above.
Hey Greg,
Figured I'd nag ya just a little.
Ok, these questions are about religion. I'm curious about this one because I remember (this is still probably going on) when the northern half of Ireland was in turmoil with the southern half just because of religion.
So, here are the questions:
1. Are gargoyles concerned about religion as much as humans are?
2. Do they have their own?
3. Do they ever get into fights with other clans just because their version of the truth doesn't quite corruspond to the others version of the truth or because one clan may believe in one god or goddess while the other clan may believe in more than one god or goddess?
Or:
4. Are gargoyles so much "higher" than humans that they're not that petty and really don't care about whether or not the religion of one clan corrusponds to their's as long as it has something in it about protecting humans and being "good"?
Hope ya got all that. Hope I spelled right. Oh well, you should get the idea of what I mean if I didn't spell any big words right, like corruspond, I don't think I spelled that one right.
1. Referring to any group of individuals as monolithic in their beliefs is a mistake. But generally speaking the Gargoyles' Faith, so to speak, is both animistic and monotheistic and essentially more laissez faire than most human religions. Codes of conduct and respect and tradition mean quite a bit. But God generally takes care of himself/herself.
2. Sure, to some extent. Check the archives under Gargoyle customs for more information.
3. Interclan warfare would be EXTREMELY rare in that the clans are so spread out even in medieval times.
4. Individual gargoyles may be more 'evolved' than individual humans, but one of the points of the series was that no one species is superior to any other species.
If Gargoyles are biologically inclined to take a monogamous mate (as well as traditionally) why is it so easy for Thailog to discard Demona?
Can a gargoyle have physical relations with more than one other gargoyle before the "imprint" sets in? Or does the "imprint" set in during the first full physical relationship?
Opportunistic programming allows Thailog to override certain impulses.
Generally, the latter.
a couple weeks ago someone asked what gargoyles protected before the other races showed up and you said each other. but since we have the Mayan clan protecting a forest, the Loch Ness clan protecting prehistoric monsters, the London Clan protecting a shop in SOHO, and i'm sure there were other examples, what gargoyles protect has always been extremely varied and never limited to sentient beings.
1. it seems from clan to clan there is a wide range of what to protect. why is that?
2. every species, like the gargoyles, protect their own kind and eggs, etc., but why did gargoyles begin to extend that protection to more than themselves?
1. Reread your own preamble. Good. Now. Why do you think?
2. Because they care.
Hi Greg,
now, I have something REALLY nice for you:
http://www.imdb.com/Title?0108783#comment
Oh, yes. I've allmost forgotten my question: the Gargoyles in 995 took a new children as a children of the whole clan. Will it be the same in 2198, or will the Gargoyles here raise their kids like we do??
CU, John
Nice link. Very kind words. Thanks.
Largely, gargs in 2198 return (assuming any ever left) to communal rearing of their children.
Hi Greg,
1a) I would like to know whose responsibility is it to train the younger warriors in a clan? 1b)Is it the leader? 1c)The second? 1d)Or some other garg entirely?
2) If the answer is the second then did Hudson's mate train while she was alive? Did Goliath take the job once he was chosen? Did Demona take it after him?
Ultimately, the leader is responsible. But the whole clan is also responsible. It's possible that some clans at some times might appoint an individual to head up training. But again, that doesn't remove responsibility from either the leader or the clan as a whole.
1. would two gay or lesbian gargoyles still be considered rookery parents to certain generations of hatchlings?
2. if a gargoyle had no mate, would he/she still be able to be a rookery parent to certain generations if he/she wanted too?
3. if a gargoyle is the biological parent to a hatchling in a rookery, can he/she choose not to be a rookery parent and be accepted by the clan for that choice?
1. Traditionally, and I'm not saying I approve, the only gargoyles who were considered rookery parents were the ones who actually contributed to the breeding. But there are also uncles and aunts, grandparents, cousins etc. who helped with child-rearing.
2. Again, traditionally, they were still not counted as 'parents' but as members of the clan, they would share responsibility for raising the children. How much of that responsibility was assumed by any individual, depended on that individual's desire and abilities.
3. Uh.... This again would be beyond unusual and not well accepted or understood by the clan. Also it would take a sort of conscious statement on the part of the individual. He or she would have to be making a big point of not wanting to participate. Because given that there's a whole clan there raising each new generation, it would be easy enough to just not do all THAT much with the kids, if you weren't inclined.
Good questions, by the way.
1. Why does Hudson where a full set of clothes when most of the other Wyverin Gargoyals seem content with loin cloths and bra cloths (or whatever they are called).
2. Do you know what thoes "bra cloths" the female Gargoyles wear are really called? I'm not sure why this question interests me. Really.
1. Sloth, I'm guessing that you're either young or in good shape or both.
2. Is this a quiz?
Referring to that Tootsie Roll quote, did you mean "my sympathies" to those who know of it because it would mean that we're old, or were you apologizing to us for using that quote as your answer? Anyways, like Sapphire said, it's not *that* old--in fact, it played when Gargoyles was still part of The Disney Afternoon (I know because it's on one of my tapes, though it's a version with a robot and a dinosaur monster instead of "Mr Owl" and "Mr Turtle").
I know I had a question to insert in here somewhere.... Ah yes:
You also just said, "Tachi will also get some individual rearing, because B&K will be the only parents in range." Maybe I misheard you, but I thought that at the Gathering you said that from your timeline calculations, it turns out that Tachi will still be an egg when Brooklyn returns from his timedancing. So did I misunderstand, or did you do some re-calculating?
Tachi will be born after they return. But she'll be the only egg to hatch in 1998 and thus the only set of rookery parents will be Brooklyn and Katana. She'll have a lot of rookery aunts and uncles though.
But basically, I was splitting hairs a bit.
1. in 1996, does the Loch Ness clan use names?
2. does the New Olympus clan?
3. does the Pukhan clan?
4. does the Xanadu clan?
I have intentionally not made decisions about this at this time.
Do they main 7 Gargoyles only protect Manhattan and not the rest of new york? I know protecting Manhattan alone must be a lot of work, but still, why are they being so selective?
Times have changed, and they are now more far-ranging. But initially they limited themselves to the island of Manhattan, because that was something that their medieval minds could grasp. An island fortress was just an extension of the community and castle that they were accustomed to protecting.
just another FYI
I was watching discovery, learning about human relationships. a theory says that way back when humans were hunter/gatherers, a pair would mate, and stay together long enough for the offspring to no longer "burden" its parents. then the pair would split, and find new mates, therefore keeping a large range of genetic possibilities.
the theory further stats that modern humans seem to have kept this behavior somewhat, which explains the trouble so many humans have staying with a life mate.
another part of the theory says that humans generally have three marriages: the first for sex, the second for children, the third for comanionship.
so gargoyles combine all three into one. cool. but again, that hurts their genetic diversity :)
I suppose, but only when you put it that way. If humans are only mating once for kids, then they are no better off.
Do Garagoyle Clans view or declare a Homosexual mating or as some humans do they think thats to werid?
I swear, I'm not clear what you are asking here.
If gargoyles evolved before humans and the fay, what did they to protect?
Each other, as usual, and whatever else was around. Also that long ago, I'm not guaranteeing that GARGOYLES PROTECT was the big slogan.
Gargoyles mate for life. Does that mean that once two gargoyles show interest in each other, and become intimate, that they've mated, and are officially forevermore monogamous?
If so, what happens if, over the years, the two gargoyles come to drift apart, or realize they have nothing in common? Do they stay together simply because of tradition? I take it there's no gargoyle equivalent of divorce. (Or at least there wasn't until Goliath and Demona kinda set precident).
And in that vein; should a gargoyle have an affair, then what happens if that affair is discovered? Does the unfaithful gargoyle and the one he/she had the affair with get banished from the clan?
Hope this hasn't been asked before.
Gargoyles mate in both sexual and ritualistic fashion. After that they GENERALLY (and that's the key word) remain monogamous.
They imprint upon each other biologically, and there are strong ties of custom to discourage a split. Affairs, I believe, are quite rare.
But as you noted, sometimes things don't work according to plan. Iago has clearly imprinted on Desdemona, though she is imprinted on Othello and he has imprinted on her.
Goliath and Demona imprinted upon each other, but maybe as a result of a thousand years, that imprinting didn't last. Goliath has clearly imprinted anew on Elisa. (BTW, I'm not sure I'm using the word imprinting correctly. I know it's generally used for babies to imprint on their mothers. But it's the closest thing I can think of.)
So there are issues of both biology and custom that discourage anything like divorce or cheating. But that doesn't mean it NEVER happens.
Do the members of the Avalon clan celebrate their hatch-days the same way we celebrate our birthdays? I know hatch-days aren't important to Gargoyles, but humans raised them, so.
They all hatched together over a two or three day period. It's a community celebration.
1) Will Angela and Broadway raise their kids like humans, by only two parents, or will they be raise like gargoyles, in a collective rookery?
2) If so, will that trend continue into the future?
3) What about Brooklyn and Katana's children will they raise their children collectively or individually?
1. Like gargs.
2. Generally.
3. Nash will be raised individually, initially, or communally if you consider that his TimeDancing parents represent the complete community of adults. Tachi will also get some individual rearing, because B&K will be the only parents in range. But both kids will get a lot of community parenting from the Manhattan Clan.
You've said that gargoyles *could* live up to an old age, but that few survive that long because of the violence of the times.
1a) Were the Wyvern gargoyles constantly under attack in the days before castle Wyvern? b) ...after Castle Wyvern? c) I think you'd mentioned an event we'd never seen where many in the Wyvern clan were murdered, hence explaining their numbers in 994. Can you confirm this, and give us any details on the event?
2a) Are these warriors dying young, or are they dying as they start reaching their 120's or so, and start slowing down? b) Are older gargoyle warriors expected to keep fighting, or at some point are they able to retire? c) Is this expectation what's causing gargoyles not to live up to their 200's?
1a. I don't know about constantly. But there were problems.
b. Ditto.
c. I don't recall that. I did mention that the clan colonized a new location before 994.
2a. Both, I suppose. I don't like talking in generalities. (I like being mysterious, of course. That's different.) I tell stories about individuals. Just not here.
2b. The concept of retirement is largely human. Though Hudson did step aside for Goliath.
2c. Possibly.
Okay, so we know gargoyles mate for life, but do they ever date.
1) Like, for example, Gabriel and Angela (I know they aren't a couple, it just an example it could be replace with anyone (Demona/Coldstone, Zafiro/Turquesa, etc.) but what if they had dated for a little and decided they just didn't like each other that way, and then they both go off to find other mates (Ophelia and Broadway). Again, not literally Angela and Gabriel but just for example. Could or would that ever happen? And I realize I thinking really human on this one.
2) And what if your mate dies. Could you remate (that's not a word, but you get the idea). Like Hudson, could (not will, so you wanted be revealing anything) find another mate?
Thank you, I LOVE the show ;-)
1. You're thinking pretty human. The clan spends a LOT of QUALITY TIME together. There's time to get to know prospective mates without "dating".
2. In theory, it's possible. Goliath lost his mate and is now extremely attached to Elisa. But that's the exception. Not the rule.
Hello Mr. Weisman.
I don't come here often, but occasionally I'm struck by the urge to quiz you on something. I was browsing the questions you're fielding, and I was struck again by something I notice every time I visit this page. There seems to be some preoccupation here with "the mind of the other." I noticed another poster make reference to your interest in it (although I cannot find any record of your having initiated the discussion).
While the series was still active I saw you invoke this theme frequently whenever you emphasized the cultural shock that the gargoyles experienced in modern America, and I appreciated the fact that you treated our linguistic tendencies to "name everything" as a curious human social construction. It helped to push the idea that these creatures were _not_ human and that we could not understand their natures or their motivations from within the context of human sensibilities. I see there is some similar talk here of the fay, and the notion that their essential nature might be something that is sufficiently far removed from humans so as to be outside our understanding. All of this puts me in mind of the anthropomorphic problem that the SETI administration outlined for dealing with the idea of extraterrestrial intelligence's. Human beings have a tendency to ascribe human values to non human species, and beyond that have considerable difficulty in contextualizing "the mind of the other" without unconsciously resorting to the context of human sensibilities.
Which brings me to the reason for this post; because being a student of the sciences (and probably less attached to my humanity than most people), I have found reason to be extremely critical of some of the aspects of the way the anthropomorphic problem is treated within the natural sciences as it applies to non-human animals. Generally speaking, my problem is that some of the more archaic ethical distinctions that are made between humans and other animals have their foundation in the premise that the ascription of certain mental capacities ( reflection, emotion, etc.) are the ascription of _uniquely human_ qualities. The fact that this premise, itself, is socially constructed rather than informed by data, seems to be lost on at least most _social_ scientists. What is troubling me is that I have begun to observe this kind of thinking migrate into the popular domain through science fiction. I don't really follow sci fi, but I've seen star trek, and I have had occasion to see the half-dozen or so other popular sci fi programs that one can find on television. I see a trend wherein the heroes casual disintegration of a planet is commonly justified with the hazily defined and indistinct ethics of "It did not harbor any sentient life."
This trend is scaring the hell out of me; because the expression "sentient" is not really used within the scientific community, so it does not have any agreed upon definition attached to it and there is no objective data informing the idea of it. The word seems to have infiltrated popular culture, however, where it finds frequent expression. That's what's bothering me. I see a lot of the same hazy ethical reasoning on this board. A number of messages expressing the confusion that humans in your story were subject to when they "mistook the gargoyles for animals rather than sentient beings" and in doing so, justified a campaign to exterminate them.
I would hope that a reasonable group of people would be given pause by the almost casual disregard for life that is being demonstrated with the prioritization of one life over another based upon the presence or non-presence of this seemingly magical endowment. Because if I am reading the intentions of the contributors to this board accurately, then it would appear their position is that if the occupants of that clock tower had been a group of stray dogs or a family of polar bears, then annihilating them with a wire guided missile would have been perfectly reasonable. "It's all right. It didn't harbor any sentient life." I would encourage the fans that come to this site to give some thought to what it is they mean by "sentience." What is the content of this sentience? If it entails that a creature can react to it's environment, anticipate, reflect and emote, then it should be pointed out that what available data exists indicates that this capacity is only about as exclusive a domain as most land based vertebrates.
I guess they shouldn't have disintegrated that planet after all. I hope to encourage others to give this issue the thought that it requires. I am also hoping to elicit some commentary from you, on the matter of how you perceive "the mind of the other." What mental distinctions do you draw between humans and gargates or faeries. I would be interested in hearing you address the notion.
Punchinello
Thank you for writing. It certainly gets me thinking.
I'm probably as guilty as anyone of overusing, or rather overbilling the issue of "sentience". I think the concept has its uses. But it's probably used as a crutch too often.
Certainly, I don't want to see a family of polar bears, anthropomorphic or otherwise, blown up by a guided missile.
I don't much like the idea of destroying planets. In science fiction or otherwise.
As to this "mind of the other" concept...
Well for starters, I don't believe I did initiate the discussion of it -- unless you're including my constant admonishments to posters here that they are thinking like a human.
The previous post by Demoness and my response are a perfect example. She thinks Oberon is out of line. But she's thinking like a human, and a biased one at that. (I don't mean to pick on you, Demoness.) Oberon has a valid point of view. We may not like it, but it seems justifiable to me.
But the question of the mind of the other, was posted here initially by someone else. ( I can't remember who it was at this moment. ) I only just answered it in the last few days. Since you posted YOUR question, hopefully you've seen my response to that one.
And to reiterate, my response was that I'm still (in our universe) interested in the mind of US. Not the OTHER. But one way to explore that is to put ourselves in the shoes of the OTHER. Finding and describing and bringing the OTHER to life, whether as a Gargoyle or as a Child of Oberon, is for me an exercise in EXTRAPOLATION.
For example: If I was me, BUT I turned to stone every day AND I aged at half the rate I currently do PLUS most of my species had been exterminated 1000 years ago, ETC. -- then WHAT WOULD I BE LIKE?
For me, it's less about investing in species then in individual characters. Each with his or her own UNIQUE LIST of "extrapalatory parameters" (I just made that phrase up.)
It's really no different with a character like Elisa. After all, I'm a white Jewish male from California who has spent his entire adult life working in fiction. Elisa is an African-American/Native-American female from New York who's spent her adult life fighting crime. To understand her, I need to extrapolate.
However, in order to understand individuals of another species, I need to know more about that species. I need to envision the parameters that I will use to fully create their characters. So I've done that. In many ways, to me, gargoyle culture represent a kind of ideal. Not perfection, which doesn't personally interest me. But an ideal. Purpose. Loyalty. Oneness with the world they live in. Etc. I've borrowed things that I admired from multiple cultures and from my imagination, and I've tried to weave it into a coherent whole that fits the biology that I assigned them. These biological limits also create parameters for extrapolating character. Yes, the turning to stone thing. But also the group egg laying on a twenty year cycle. This naturally leads into the group child rearing thing. One is biological. One is cultural. But they are linked by extrapolation.
[Or... and I know this sounds silly but... perhaps they are linked by truth. By the fact that they exist in the Gargoyle Universe. As I've said many times before, sometimes this show flowed so well and easily, that it just seemed like I was tapping into something that existed. (But that's got nothing to do with this discussion, so let's ignore it.)]
And yet, from my point of view, all this is used to further illustrate the human condition. I don't think Oberon does or should think like us. But don't we all know a couple people with a little Oberon in them.
Keith David has said, as recently as seven days ago, that when he grows up he hopes to be like Goliath. And I personally think, that flawed as he is, Goliath is a wonderful role model. So we, as humans, can learn from Gargoyles. And we, as humans, can learn from Margot Yale as well. Maybe as a negative example. Maybe as something more down the road.
Ending Hunter's Moon with Jon Canmore becoming the human equivalent of Demona, was not an accident. They arrived at that point in two very different ways -- each, I hope, well informed by his or her species. (Or well extrapolated.) Nevertheless, the similarities between them are obvious and represent a "lesson" for us all.
All that stuff interests me MUCH, MUCH more than the exercise of creating something fully OTHER, just for the sake of achieving that.
Someday that may not be true. Aliens could land in Washington D.C. tomorrow and then comprehending the OTHER for the sake of understanding the OTHER will become a BIG priority fast. But for the time being, the human race is effectively alone in the universe. And before the aliens land, I'd like us all to get to know ourselves MUCH, MUCH better. In that sense, an Oberon, a Goliath, a Nokkar, are all just tools to that end.
The concept of sentience, comes in again, as I said, as a crutch. A convenient distinction between Bronx and Goliath, for example. Let's say you're from Russia. You don't speak English, and Goliath doesn't speak Russian. Still you have a hope that one or both of you may learn to speak the other's language. Dialogue is possible.
Bronx isn't ever going to speak Russian or English. That's the distinction. For what it's worth. In a moral sense, I'd say it's not worth MUCH at all. In a PRAGMATIC sense, we're not being honest if we don't admit it MEANS a lot.
Now. I don't think sentience is a WALL. Koko the gorilla can communicate in sign language. And I've got to say, I'm not sure that whales and dolphins aren't squealing complex philosophical discussions every day of the week. (Which is confusing because Dolphins have an eight day week, and whales have a thirty-seven day week. But what are you going to do?)
But even including a Bronx or a Cagney has value in the show. How do we respond to them. How do they respond to us? It's fun to do "The Hound of Ulster" and try to understand how an "animal" responds to various stimuli. It's still extrapolation. Now, with Bronx, I can cheat. I can keep him a beast and anthropomorphize him to my heart's content, because that species doesn't truly exist. I can make him as intelligent as I want. My goal there is to simply be consistent. Bronx can't start responding like Scooby Doo one day. You get the idea.
It's still about us understanding us and our place in the world. If in my own small way, I'm helping to open minds, helping to pave a bit of a way for when the aliens DO LAND, then great. But first and foremost, I'm asking us to KNOW OURSELVES.
Anyway, I feel like I'm starting to get repetitive. But this whole thread intrigues me. Feel free to post again with a follow-up. And everyone's welcome to join in.
are there any other titles and positions in gargoyle clans besides leader and second in command? perhaps like rookery-guard, gargbeast-keeper, shaman, etc.?
Not universally.
Been a while since I asked anything. So here are a few questions related to gargoyle mating and the related customs. (Don't worry. It's pretty G rated.)
1. If a gargoyle does not mate for some reason, is he or she still considered a clan father or mother to the children of his or her rookery siblings?
2. Is there any kind of social pressure on young gargoyles to choose mates?
Thanks for answering.
1. Depends. Generally not. But there are always "uncles" or "aunts" who act more like parents than the parents.
2. Probably. (I'm not defending this, but I'm sure it exists.)
you said that Tom, Katherine, and the Magus tried to raise the eggs in the gargoyle way as best they knew from experience and any information the Magus had, etc.
so, Tom knew that gargoyles don't use names, he had that whole conversation with who would become Brook and Lex (btw, i love this scene) so why did they give the eggs names? were they just too human to resist the temptation? did the three humans all agree to give them names or did one or two of them not want to name the gargs?
Tom may have objected at first, but with us poor humans, I think it's just too hard. I can't see Katharine having that kind of patience. Even the new improved Katharine. And once she and the Magus starting using them, then Tom and the gargoyles themselves aren't far behind.
Why is it that in "Enter Macbeth" Goliath dosen't want to lose his castle and Hudson is pointing out that it's just a place of stone and wood. Then later in "Reawakining", Hudson is the one who is worried about the clocktower too much but Goliath is saying it's just where they sleep. I know it seems like a small thing, but I'd still like it clarified.
Thanks
Hudson was being practical in "Enter". Goliath wasn't being realistic.
In "Reawakening" the issue is different. The Clock Tower is now their home. Hudson is using a tenth century definition of home. Goliath, by this time, has adapted somewhat to the notion that what they must protect isn't simply their new castle (i.e. the clock tower) but rather their new CASTLE, i.e. Manhattan.
Two totally different points were being made in those two episodes. Unfortunately, I don't know if I've made that clear. If not, let me know and I'll try again.
you said that the cross-generational love between Yama and Sora isn't the norm, but isn't unheard of, so:
1. are there gargoyles (esspecially among the Ishimura clan) that are against relationships between non-rookery siblings?
2. have Yama or Sora ever wondered if perhaps they are biologically closely related, like brother/sister, uncle/niece? are they ever insecure about having a non-traditional relationship?
3. will they still be able to have 3 children if they want to? obviously, Sora being younger should be able to concieve 3 times, but are male gargoyles able to fertilize an egg at any time in their life? if they have 3 eggs, Yama will be a generation older than most the other fathers in the clan...
1. It's not that much of a taboo. Certainly not when the individuals are only one generation apart.
2. This isn't really an issue. As I've stated before, gargoyles have scent markers that unconsciously discourage them from an unhealthy incestuous relationship.
3. It should work out, depending on how long Yama's away from the clan.
ok, from what you've told us, Angela and Broadway will raise their children in human fashion, being their children's only parents, but you've also said that Lex and other gargs of certain ages will be the parents of their children? how will their children be raised, from a biological standpoint or a rookery standpoint or in a combination of these ways?
Yes.
Greg,
Hey here are some questions
1) Will Broadway and Angela's kids know that those two are there biological parents?
2) Will Broadway be more of a traditionalist in the sense that he would want the clan to raise the children, or will he want to raise his children as his own? I would think Angela want want to do the a latter.
3)Will Broadway and Angela see eye to eye on the parenting proccess?
Thanx
1. Not necessarily. Artus is more likely to know than Gwen or Lance. Only because there are fewer garg parents in the castle early on.
2. Both Broadway and Angela will lean toward the Gargoyle Way. I understand why you think Angela would favor the human approach, but I think you're misinterpreting things. Keep in mind how she was raised. Three parents. Many siblings. There's a certain fascination with biology which I think is "human" and natural. But ultimately, I think love for the "eggs" would win out with her. How can she possibly love one "egg" more than another, just because she laid one.
3. On everything? Doubt it. Generally? Yes.
do baby gargs need to have diaper changes?
this question is a feeble attempt to find out if/how gargs go to the bathroom, sorry, couldn't resist!
I'm going to remain consistent and leave bathroom functions as a private matter.
ok, Sapphire, now you are starting to freak me out a little... the second i read that last post of yours i felt like someone WAS watching me... *shiver* why can't you just leave me alone! i'm not sure what i did to you, but was it really so hurtful and destructive?
anyway... i was wondering about the word "gargoyle" in the gargoyle universe. in our universe the word comes from the noise water makes when flowing off stone gargoyles, which served as rain spouts, but i was wondering if that is the explanation in the garg universe. i don't think humans in the garg universe chiseled gargs into our buildings until after we discovered living gargoyles, right? what i'm asking really is did gargoyles come up with the term "gargoyle" or did humans (as always) give them the name? and when was this term given to the gargoyles?
The etimology of the word gargoyle goes back a long way. It evolved at least in part from an Atlantean word. That's all I want to say at this time. But hold tight. More will be revealed at the Gathering 2002 in Virginia Beach.
will the Manhatten clan keep wearing their loincloths and old scottish-wear forever or will they adapt more modern-like clothing? i realize that most modern clothes arn't designed for wings and tails, but you know what i mean, i hope... like shorts or jeans with a hole for the tail or something like that...
Generally, the answer is no.
Every now and then in the series, we hear a gargoyle use the oath "By the Dragon!" For some reason, I'd always assumed that this referred to the dragon constellation, Draco. I don't know why; it was just my first thought. Is it at all correct? If not, what is this "Dragon" they refer to?
not saying at this time...
But mostly, at this point, it's just an expression.
Did the Castle Wyvern clan keep track of their history?
If so, how? It seems as though the lack of personal names would make that more difficult.
They kept track of clan history, orally. Individual achievement meant less to them, socially.
you said that Iago decieved Othello and Desdemona in 993 and that he was banished after that, but he came out of his banishment in 994, in time for the massacre. is all that right?
why was it such a short banishment?
how do gargoyles decide on how long to banish a clan member?
does the whole clan decide the banishment time/punishment or just the leader?
was Goliath in effect banishing the trio but only lightly when he sent them to the rookery or was that a common punishment for young gargs?
That's basically right.
The banishment was for a year, which isn't that short considering he didn't kill anyone. He was just causing trouble. (Whispering in Othello's ear, causing Othello to act like a jerk isn't that big a crime, I guess.) Also, Iago may have done something to get back in everyone's good graces. At least begrudgingly.
The leader makes the final decision.
He wasn't literally banishing them. Sort of telling them to sit in the corner. It was not an uncommon punishment. But it was mostly done just to temporarily difuse things while he was gone for what he assumed would be a short errand.
ok, i know you don't ever plan to reveal on-screen the biological relationship between Hudson and Broadway, but i was wondering, does Sevarius know? afterall, he discovered the link between Goliath and Angela looking at their DNA, so when he was creating the clones in "The Reckoning" did he see the father-son relationship between Hudson and Broadway? if he did, did he tell anyone about it? Thailog? Demona? Xanatos?
I suppose he knows. I'm just not sure to whom that information would be interesting. Still, someday...
i was wondering, how particular are gargoyles about their roosting spots? Goliath always has the same spot at the top tower of Wyvern, which i assume Hudson (Mentor) had before him, Demona (Goliath's second) had the roost directly in front of and beneath Goliath's, and when Goliath put the frozen clan on their roost he left Demona's empty. so do gargoyles have certain roosting spots? if so, why was some other gargoyle roosting in Demona's spot the night of the massacre? do only the ranking and prominent gargoyles have the same daily roost? are these roosts determined by elevation or what?
Semi-particular.
They tend to take the same spot and often strike the same pose.
But they aren't anal about it.
would gargoyles from different clans still have the rookery children custom? what i mean is when lets say the Guatemalan eggs hatch, would they be considered rookery children to some gargs in other clans, like the Ishimura or London clans?
Practically, I'm not sure what the heck your question means.
It's not like they have exchange programs in the works.
But generally, no. A clan's children are a clan's children. The parents are the parents that love and raise you. That's how I feel about humans too by the way.
oh, and also in the age of characters list you said that Yama is 29 and Sora is 19. their mates, and i thought there were never mates from different generations, Broadway and Angela being the exception. i figured that gargs mated among their rookery siblings because that way they wouldn't find a mate in a close (i.e. brother and sister) biological relative. so is it common for gargs to mate between generations? or are Broadway/Angela and Yama/Sora very different from the norm?
Broadway and Angela are a very unusual case for OBVIOUS reasons. (He was asleep for 1000 years. She grew up on Avalon. As a result they are nearly the exact same age biologically.)
Yama and Sora are atypical. But their love is not unheard of.
I don't ever recall saying that gargs from separate generations couldn't or wouldn't mate. It's just not particularly common.
Hey guess who? Yeah I honestly couldn't remember if i asked this yet or not, so if it sounds rather familiar, then just void it!
Alright, here I go! When me and Angela get married, if she were to lay an egg would she build a nest? I know that the clan lays eggs in a rookery, but since she'd be the only gargoyle around, would she just build a nest for her egg outta palm tree leaves or something? Or maybe she'd convert my basement into a rookery...I don't know. Please do tell!
She's not the only garg around.
And, dex, you're starting to creep me out a bit.
i just want to make sure i'm correct on this:
among the Guatemalan clan, only the pendant wearing gargoyles have names, correct? if so, those names are always the ones that the four gargs have now, right? so when Jade passes his pendant down that garg will become Jade and Jade will become unnamed again, right?
Yeah, pretty much.
Greg,
I am sorry that you misunderstood me. Here was my first question...
Justin writes...
Quick question,
You have mentioned that not all of the currently existing clans have names. So by the time of The Journey, how many of the clans have names? ( Not including London, Manhattan, Labyrinth, Ishimura, Avalon and Guatemala.) And which ones?
To which you replied,
Greg responds...
Huh? I'm not sure what you mean by names?
1. The London Clan. London, England.
2. The Ishimura Clan. Ishimura, Japan.
3. The Mayan Clan. ChacIxChel, Guatemala.
4. The Korea Clan. Pukhan, Korea.
5. The Xanadu Clan. Xanadu, China.
6. The Loch Ness Clan. Loch Ness, Scotland.
7. The New Olympian Clan. Mount Thanatos, New Olympus.
8. The Avalon Clan. Oberon's Palace, Avalon.
9. The Manhattan Clan. New York, U.S.A.
10. The Labyrinth Clan. New York, U.S.A.
recorded on 03-02-01
When I asked about the names what I meant to ask was how many of use names other than the clans I have mentioned above.
Off the record I really enjoyed the information you gave though :)
Thanks again man!
Uh, you mean how many of the Gargoyles in those clans use names? I'm not answering that now.
Greg;
I am a little confused on Gargoyle Generations... let's see if this is correct.
Ex)
Hudson - Gen 1
Goliath/Demona Gen 2
Trio/Bronx Gen 3--|
| |- from same gen, but different hatching
Angela Gen 3------|
Samson (Is that his name?) Gen 4
1) Is this basically a correct assumption?
2) Does a Gargoyle ALWAYS find a mate in his hatching? IE) did all the Avalon Gargoyles pair off?
3) If the above is not true, then, would a Garoyle look to the next hatching, or would they be too young?
1. No, not at all.
2. Not necessarily.
3. It depends when he or she is looking. Yama and Sora are from different generations. But they didn't get together when she was a kid.
Hello there.
I have a simple, small question regarding garg culture.
What goes into the average gargoyle commitment ceremony?
That's it. You don't have to include any fun geographic-cultural variations of the thing, just outline the basics-- if there are basics. If there are no basics, that'd be good to know too.
And you know what? Even in California it's cold in February. I wish the computer with Net access weren't in the garage-- I'm reezing my fass off out here!
Sorry, Mary, I hate to make you reeze your fass for nothing, but I'm saving those details for now.
Cassandra writes...
Since stroking hair is gargoyle equilvant to a kiss, all the times Goliath touched Elisa's hair was a kiss? And how long would it take him to get used to kissing with lips?
Just feeling a trifle silly with that thought. But I seem to remember Goliath touching her hair fondly before they noticed or decided to act on the feelings they have for each other.
Greg responds...
Kissing is special, particularly romantic kissing. I'm not sure one wants to "get used to it" ever. It will always be special to Goliath.
And yes, everytime he touched her hair in any intimate way (as opposed to by accident or incidentally) it was the basic equivalent of a kiss. But by the way, it wasn't often.
recorded on 02-15-01
Okay, to clarify what I was talking about I think I was remembering the end of "Deadly Force". Goliath brushes Elisa's hair back when he tells her to sleep.
I didn't mean "getting used to it" to equal "become blaise about it". More like kissing is a feels-great-still-weird-but-I-like-it situation and Goliath would feel more comfortable with gargoyle display's of affection.
I know they're both mature adults and both of them realize there is going to be a lot of compromising and explaining in their relationship. It's just a quirky idea that popped in my head.
And an interesting one. But yes, that Deadly Force moment was to Goliath, a kiss equivalent. Not necessarily a romantic kiss. But a caring one.
Dear Greg
can you answer this,cause their is no scientific way about it(maybe magic,anyway)
a gargoyles flesh and bone turns to stone in the day,but how is it their clothing does as well?
The clothes thing is magic. Part of a modesty spell cast in the year 10 A.D.
Okay, maybe you won't reveal Lex's mate, but will you tell us if he has any childrens>?
Sure, all the eggs of certain generations would be children to every member of the Clan including Lex.
QUIT THINKING LIKE A HUMAN!
Ok, I've got a question on gargoyle suicide, and I can't find the answer in the archives, but feel free to give me a smart-ass response if I have missed it. Let's say a gargoyle slshes their wrists, and does not bleed to death before sunrise. Would the fact that they do not want to be healed have any effect on the sun healing them? And how would a clan regard suicide anyways? As a crime? A cry for help? Something else?
I don't feel right about being a smart-ass when the topic is suicide.
A simple cut on the wrist would heel over the course of a day. Mindset might effect a more devastating injury. Of course the scary thing is how easy it is for a less-than-devastating injury to have devastating results.
I think garg suicide is fairly rare. Gargoyles are a primal race in many ways, and the will to live is VERY PRIMAL. But I suppose it's not unheard of. Most gargs would regard it as a MASSIVE cry for help. And they would certainly attempt to prevent their clanmate from taking his or her own life.
Out of Gargoyles and humans, which is the first race, and which is the second.
To my thinking, Gargoyles.
when garg clans were all over the world did the clans ever have "clan protectorate" boundry lines the way we have national borders? i'm mainly refering to the clans of the British isles since there seemed to be more clans there and they are closer to each other, like the Wyvern, break-off Wyvern, Loch Ness, and London clans, and i'm sure there were once many more, so did they ever have boundries between their protectorates?
More like vague territories.
Here we go again...
1) Will Goliath and Elisa ever have kids?
2) Will Brooklyn and Katana have kids in the 2008 rookery?
3) Will Lexington?
Thanks
1, 2, and 3. They will be parents to all the children of the clan.
In gargoyle society we see how males and females are considered equal like in Goliath's clan but is there
a gargoyle clan in which males are dominant?
No.
In the gargoyles universe with the exception of Elisa's and Goliath's relationship has there ever been another love relationship between a human and a gargoyle
Ever's a long time. But it is FAR from common.
by "Ill met by Midnight" are Gabriel and Opheila allready chosen mates or do they decide that later? seeing as how Tom and Katherine are human and raised the gargs as brothers and sisters in a human fashion what is T and K's reaction to the coupling of the eggs? if i am wrong in how they were raised than correct me, please, but neither Tom nor Katherine was very knowledgable in garg customs, were they? did they raise the gargs in a garg way as best they could or just as they would human children and garg instincts took over for the rest?
Moonlight, not midnight.
You're mostly wrong. I think Tom and Katharine and the Magus realized that these eggs represented an entire generation, not just a bunch of siblings. Relationships developed. Some fraternal, others romantic. The humans attempted to mimic gargoyle customs, which the Magus had some information on.
And Gabe and Ophelia were certainly romantically involved by Ill Met.
What is Demona's view on homosexuality?
Why do I sense I'm about to get a whole set of questions in this mode, one per character?
I don't think it's a big issue for her.
Hello, Greg...
Anyway this one questioning has been tugging me at sometime. and I just needed to know the answer to it. So, here it goes:
"Do gargoyles believe in Religon?"
I know it sounds strange.But, I have heard them at times....I think it was Hudson who said."By, the Dragon". Does that mean that the gargoyles DO believe in a higher power. Or if not..would they believe in
human religons' or something like that?
Thanks for your time.
A.O.T.N
Try checking out the "Gargoyles Customs" archive for a more complete answer.
The gargoyles have a religion of sorts. It's also slimly possible that some individuals might have in the past or the future believe in a human religion here or there.
ANd I think it was Iago who said, "By the Dragon."
Since stroking hair is gargoyle equilvant to a kiss, all the times Goliath touched Elisa's hair was a kiss? And how long would it take him to get used to kissing with lips?
Just feeling a trifle silly with that thought. But I seem to remember Goliath touching her hair fondly before they noticed or decided to act on the feelings they have for each other.
Later.
Kissing is special, particularly romantic kissing. I'm not sure one wants to "get used to it" ever. It will always be special to Goliath.
And yes, everytime he touched her hair in any intimate way (as opposed to by accident or incidentally) it was the basic equivalent of a kiss. But by the way, it wasn't often.
A question about rookery generations...
1. If the Wyvern massacre had not happened, would the Trio normally have been considered rookery parents to the eggs that would have hatched in 998? Or was the generation of the first rookery parents the one immediately older than them? (Goliath, Demona, ColdTrio, etc)
In short are rookery parents 40 or 60 years older than their first rookery children?
2. What if one of the gargoyles had mated really young (teen pregnancy) and contributed an egg by the time she was biologically 15? Ten years later would she *not* be considered a rookery mother even though she had biologically contributed an egg? Or would she be treated as an exception among her generation?
3. For that matter would Iago be considered a rookery father to the eggs simply because of his generation, even though he was mateless and hadn't contributed an egg himself? Or not?
1. 60.
2. Gargoyle females aren't generally fertile by age 30 (biological age 15). This decision, frankly, was probably S&P driven originally, but I'll stick with it now. Garg females generally lay three eggs in a lifetime at age 50, 70 and 90 (biological age 25, 35 and 45). This further separates them from human biology, which I kinda like. And keep in mind, sex drive isn't limited to fertile cycles.
3. First off, did I ever say Iago was mateless? But to answer your question, Iago would likely have been viewed as a Rookery Father (or at least Rookery Uncle -- though there would be no such terminology) UNLESS he made a personal point of not accepting that responsibility.
How advanced were gargoyles living during the pre-historical age? For example, when cavemen started controlling fire and figuring out that round wheels were better than square ones; what was the evolutionary stage of typical gargoyles living anywhere on the planet at that time?
Did cavemen ever really use square wheels?
Gargoyles may not have used fire and tools as much because they had less use for those things.
i'd just like to make a comment about gargoyles kissing. i think that stroking the brow ridges or hair is an extremely intelligent and important things in the garg series. first of all, it gives them some culture very different from humans and second, given that many gargs have beaks kissing becomes kinda hard to do. i'm surprised that Broadway and Angela kiss but i understand Greg's explanation that this is because of human influences on these two. good job, Greg, these subtle differences between humans and gargs really gives depth to the show!
Thanks.
i have a question about gargoyle customs. you've said that Opheila is Gabriel's second in command and for a time, Demona was Goliath's second, is it common among gargs to choose their mate as second? if so, isn't that unfair to the other gargs hoping to become second, or am i thinking too much like a human?
You're generally thinking too much like a human.
The bigger issue over time is age. A second should be in a position to be groomed to take over for his leader, either in case of an emergency (as when Brooklyn took over for Goliath during the World Tour) or in the case of succession, as when the older Hudson stepped down in favor of the younger Goliath.
Had things gone differently at Wyvern, eventually either Demona would have stepped down to allow a new second to be chosen from the younger generation (most likely Brooklyn) OR Goliath would have stepped aside to allow Demona to lead and chose a new younger Second (again, most likely Brooklyn).
It's largely a meritocracy otherwise. Hudson chose Goliath as his second based on a myriad of positive qualities but primarily integrity, intelligence, natural leadership abilities and a genuine ferocity in battle.
Goliath in turn selected Demona for the same qualities. *He was just mistaken about the integrity.*
As for Avalon, the situation is a bit different, as all the gargs there are of the same generation. Originally Gabriel was chosen as leader and one of his many rookery-siblings Angela was chosen as his second. When Angela left, Gabriel did select his mate as his second, at least for the time being. But you can bet Ophelia was qualified -- look how she performed even when wounded in Avalon Part Three -- or he would not have chosen her. Does nepotism play a part. Possibly. But I'd think that the qualities necessary would have to be even more obvious to avoid charges of nepotism.
In London, Una is the leader of the clan. Her second, whom we have not yet met, is of a younger generation and generally runs things at their more rural (or at least suburban) estate.
In Japan, Kai was the leader. Yama, of a younger generation, was his second. After Yama's banishment, Yama's mate Sora was probably chosen as Second (though don't hold me to that). Again Sora's chosen for her attributes and (relative) youth. Someday -- short of a catastrophe taking place -- she will lead the clan in Kai's place.
In Guatemala, Zafiro is the leader. His second is not his mate Obsidiana, but Turquesa, Jade's mate. They are all of the same generation, but they are also the only gargs alive down there at the moment. (Not counting the eggs.)
Comment:
Shutting off the broadcast, did not make me think that would work in breaking the spell and I thought it foolish of Xanatos to be so sure that it would work. I thought I was going to see a bit of hesitation and uncertainty in Xanatos right before he shuts off the broadcast. It seemed too simple a solution. In many experiences, it's easier to start something, but a bit more complicated to end it.
I did pick up on the fact that Demona recognized and knew the true identity of the person behind the mask when they felt each other's pain, an incident which I found rather interesting and wanted to learn more about it.
I do like Xanatos' line "You want vengeance or a solution." Something a true businessman would say. Put all your personal feelings aside and let's get right down to business , this needs to be fixed right away. That line is totally Xanatos.
Then at the end when Xanatos and Goliath shook hands...I didn't like it. I thought Goliath too forgiving....I mean shaking the hands of a man who's attacked you, paid people to attack you, manipulated you, and evicted you from the only home you've ever known....to shake hands with that man after only one situation where they had to work together and call a truce....for me...it was too soon. I think they should have just nodded to each other
when they parted...letting the other know that they appreciated the other's help, but I still don't trust you. Sometimes I don't blame Demona for being so upset at Goliath and calling him a fool....because sometimes he's too trusting and forgiving....but then again that's why I love him.
Thanks again, Greg, for helping to create a fascinating
series which I will continue to watch on tape and adore.
You're welcome.
But shaking hands is literally a symbol of truce in medieval times. Goliath's time. It shows that you're not carrying weapons. Notice they didn't grasp forearms, which is how Goliath greets his friends. They shook hands. A symbol of their deal. A display of non-aggression.
Whether or not you think Goliath's too trusting and forgiving, I don't see this as an example of that.
Greg,
[ Gargoyle Science Question: ]
This probably looks a little silly, but I was just rereading my last posting and decided to reverse my thoughts on the matter.
Because gargoyles mate for life, it is probably very important to them to have someone fill that role in their lives. In an isolated clan with an unequal number of each sex for one generation, there would be very little hope of finding a mate for some of the clan members. With no possibility of mating with the equivalent of a widow, this would doom the "left-over" clan members to a lonely life, with a great gap to fill. Would this feeling cause them to bond to one-another?
This explaination is probably much less romantic then the one you would give, but I feel that there must be something in the biology and culture of a species that will at least allow for any given behavior to exist (just as you said that you did not think gargoyles would be found with a particular pashion or talent for architecture, as this was not an area where their talents were likely to be useful).
I guess this was much more of a ramble then a question. But again I would be very interested in hearing your response.
Thanks,
Gedoena
Did I say that about architecture? Is that an exact quote?
See my previous response for my explanation.
Greg,
[ Gargoyle Science Question: ]
I have been reading through the archives lately, and was surprised to see that you believe that there would be homosexual relationships between gargoyles. This is not because of any personal moral problems; I was just wondering about the background of it within this species.
According to your other posts, gargoyles mate for life, and are driven by biological urges tied to certain scents peculiar to their mates. I would assume that even though each gargoyle has a particular scent, females' scents would be much more similar to eachother then to the scent of any male (and vice-versa). Therefore, I don't understand how two members of the same gender would become attracted to one another.
Furthermore, gargoyles only mate once every 20 years, and only lay one egg at a time. Being a warrior race, there is a probably a fair likelihood that at least one of the parents has died before more then one or two eggs have been laid, making it hard to keep up a sustainable population. It would seem that it would be of great import to the clan to have as many mated pairs as possible.
I guess this was more of a comment then a question, but I would very much like to hear your response to these thoughts.
Thanks,
Gedoena.
I think your logic is flawed. Not that I'm a biologist. But taking humans as an example, it seems to me that there are plenty of people who are biologically geared to being homosexual (scents and all). In the nature/nurture argument, I think nurture has very little to do with it, save adding a sense of repression, generally.
I mean if it ain't biology, it's reincarnation or something.
So if that's the case with humans, why wouldn't it be the case with gargoyles. I've even read about homosexual ducks.
As to your "Furthermore", keep in mind that gargoyle mates have sexual relations as often as they are in the mood. Females are only fertile every twenty years. That doesn't define their sex drives. Or the males'. And yes, I do think there would be a cultural imperative toward mating pairs. But maybe the cultural imperative to find a soulmate for life would be even stronger.
A recent comment on the final scene in Hunter's Moon III brought a question to mind. Being typically human I had not realized Goliath putting Elisa's hair behind her hair was an equivilent to kissing- I just saw it as an intimate gesture. Is Elisa conscious of the meaning of stroking hair to to gargoyles?
Not fully, but she did read it as an intimate gesture, as you did.
When Elisa dies, would Goliath and his clan be likely to give her a Wind Ceremony for her funeral? Although she's human, she is a member of the clan.
(This is something that I've been wondering for some time, actually, but I hesitated for a long while for submitting it in case it appeared as an idea. I certainly didn't intend it to be one, at any rate - more just wondering about the bearing that a gargoyle custom you'd recently described might have on Elisa's membership in the clan).
Yes. The clan would definitely give Elisa a wind ceremony. I'm not saying who would still be around by the time she dies, but whoever is, they would.
Given gargoyle customs of demonstrating affection, what are their attitudes about baldness?
Stroking horns, bumps and ridges work the same as hair for demonstrating intimacy and affection.
Baldness is not socially stigmatized. Though I suppose individual gargs might have personal preferences for or against.
Hi Greg! Happy Christmas! My question this time's on Christmas presents.
What does Goliath want for Chirtmas this year?
(Does he celebrate Christmas? If not, what does he and other gargs celebrate? Winter Solistce?)
How about Demona? (Santa knows she's been naughty, though.)
What'd Elisa like this year?
Thank you, .... Wait! Today's winter solistce! Have a good one. (and a good holiday.)
P.S. What're you wishing for this year?
I'd lean more toward Solstice than Christmas. And I don't think Goliath is very interested in material possessions.
Demona wants the same old thing. A human-free earth, and all the power, with no guilt.
Elisa -- I think she'd like a quiet night at home with Goliath.
And me? Well, I wanted the video to Ferris Bueller's Day Off. And I got it. YEAH!
Why did you make it so that gargoyles do not traditionally name?
A. We thought it was kinda cool. It made them more culturally unique.
B. It gave us an excuse to have the fun NYC names for most of the characters, which set Goliath and Demona apart more.
When gargoyles have a rookery, do they have always someone protecting them, or are they just left in a hiden place and left alone?
Generally, they try not to be laissez-faire about that anymore.
Dear Greg:
If the gargoyles' equivalent of kissing is stroking each other's hair, then was Goliath "kissing" Elisa when he tucked her hair behind her ear in "Hunter's Moon III"?
It appears to be so, judging by the look on his face and the soft tone of his voice. He seemed to be expressing his love to her, I suppose, by caressing her hair and lightly touching her cheek. Then Elisa, being a human, jumped and kissed him instead, being the humans' way to express love for someone else.
Well, is this true, or am I totally off? :P
Thank you for your time. :)
You are right on the money.
Hey greg I was the one awhile back that asked if clans would accept homosxual garoyles with open arms. Anyway sense I posted that a few months ago I saw a few other people posted quistions about homosexual gargoyes as well and you said said that there are Gay/Lesbian gargoyles, but I have not seen it labled in the already answerd archives. Why is that?
"labeled"?
I'm not sure what you mean.
Since the naming custom was taken up, are gargoyles given names, or do they choose their own?
case by case
This question (or one similar to it) was also asked in that adult Gargoyles chat of a couple months ago but I notice it was overlooked...
Do you feel that clothes is yet another custom (like names) that the Gargoyles species adopted from humans? (and probably for the sake of humans) With both their tougher skins and their better resistance against temperature extremes, gargoyles would seem to have less actual need for clothes. And the tidbit you've given us about Caesar Augustus seems to imply that it's again the humans who have a greater sense of "decency" related to clothes and nudity.
So... did gargoyles wear clothing before they started interacting with humanity?
If no, at what period of time do you feel the Wyvern clan started wearing clothes? 971? Decades before 971? Centuries before? Prehistorical times? etc...
They might have. For example, modesty aside, I'm generally more comfortable wearing underwear (briefs) unless I'm asleep. I know my wife prefers to wear a bra if she's doing anything active.
If the above seems cryptic, I'm trying to be discreet, but it's an issue of, shall we say, "swingage".
Having said that, I'm sure modesty and humanity played a roll. Codified things, etc.
I certainly think humans have more uptight rules about this kind of stuff than gargs generally do.
i was a bit surprised that every clan that goliath and co met had started using names. have these clans abandoned other garg customs to such as the rookery children thing?
No. Names are addictive, however.
Can Gargoyles be vegetarians? In the Dark Ages did the Gargs hunt their own food or depend on humans to supply it?
Mostly hunted their own.
As for vegetarianism, anything's possible.
At what age do you feel that gargoyles learn to glide?
Will Tachi (aged six) know how to glide when she timedances into the present, or will it be something she'll learn during the course of the series?
She'll have started learning. I don't know that she'd have mastered it under all conditions. But she'd be doing a bit of it.
in "turf" elisa tells angela that the boys haven't been around an attractive female garg in a thousand years. how does elisa know that angela is attractive by gargoyle standards? is demona also considered an attractive garg? is opheila?
How do I know? How do you?
But yes, I'd say everyone you named is attractive by garg standards.
Do the gargoyles have any kind of religion in their own culture?
If so, can you tell anything about their religion without giving anything about future plans away?
Check the Gargoyle Customs Archive here at ASK GREG. And if you've got further questions after reading that, come back and ask.
Would any Gargoyles and New Olympians take up human vices in the future like smoking and drinking?
It's possible.
Have gargoyles ever converted to human religions in the past?
Maybe, once or twice.
I had asked whether gargoyles voted before...To be more specific.
Say a gargoyle leader chooses a second-in-command, the leader dies and the new leader is corrupt and so on. And the clan despises him. Could they knock him down a few blocks so to say? Could they be like a pride of lions where as someone comes forward to fight for leadership? Or would it be more like impeachment or banishment when the whole clan votes to kick him/her out and/or vote for a new leader?
I suppose they'd boot him if it was necessary. But this doesn't sound likely.
If Gargoyles traditionally do not give themselves names, (as Goliath's Clan made clear in The first five episodes) how is it that all of the other isolated clans around the world have names, when Goliath stumbles upon them in the world tour?
A lot of time has passed.
1) Please tell us how to practice a Wind Ceremony (didn´t find a detailed description what it is about in the archives)
If your first answer doesn´t contain it:
1a) What does a Gargoyle do the moment or the first minutes after a fellow died? Is there a special rite?
1b) What do they do with the dead body? Burying? Burning?
1c) At wich point of time starts the so called "Wind Ceremony"?
2) Are there any other special gargoyle rites or ceremonys you would tell us about?
1. Then you weren't looking very hard. Did you check "Gargoyle Customs". That's as detailed a description as I can give right now.
1a. Nothing immediate. Nothing Klingon.
1b. Depends. Check out the archives.
1c. Huh?
2. Sure.
Do Gargoyles like being called animals?
Do you?
Gargoyle questions:
1. About what point in time did the London clan start using names?
2. About what point in time did the Ishimura clan start using names?
3. Do all the clans still in existance use names now?
1. Don't know yet.
2. Don't know yet, but they had them by the time Brooklyn LEFT.
3. No.
The 2198 contest, plus some posts I've read recently, leads me to try and ask the following question about names: since gargoyles were not initially named, and seem to have let humans name them or be involved in the naming process, will this be the case with future hatchlings?
Any more detail on this question and I fear it'll look like an idea, so I hope it is clear. Since it is a future-looking question, I also respect if you choose to pass on it.
Gargoyles will be more involved in their names and naming from this point on. But each case is case specific, so it's hard to generalize.
Do gargoyles celebrate birthdays? Christmas? And I know they did in Eye of the Beholder, but before then, Halloween?
Hatchdays are big and communal. Christmas isn't. Halloween is now fun for them.
Can gargoyles vote? If so, who do you think they'd choose?
You mean for Gargoyle Leader?
Hi Greg!
Again it´s September the 28th, and I´m glad to see that you really answered all the questions that had waited, so that you can read it at the right time now *g* :
CONGRATULATIONS! Happy Birthday :))
- Cause there´s now a short waiting time, I´ll ask the Questionblock I have still waiting from the ones I ever wanted to send: The one about names.
I have allways been interested in the naming of Gargoyles during the Show.
In Scottland in the Dark Ages the Gargoyles didn´t have any names at all except of Goliath, who was named by a human after an historical figur and Demona, who was later named Demona by another human (McBeth).
When the Gargoyles who had survived came into the 20th Century, they gave names to each other like Citys and things like this.
In the 20th Century all Gargoyles seem to have names: The "Eggs" from the bible (given by humans), the Guatemala-Gargoyles by their precious stones, the Japan-Gargoyles seem to have normal japan names and the English Gargoyles.. - well, later to them..
So here my questions:
1a) Is it a kind of tradition that Gargoyles don´t have (or had) names, so that some older Gargoyles could be annoyed to hear that a gargoyle wants to give himself a name and break the tradition?
1b) Or was giving names in the Gargoyle culture just not known or not usual, but they all have no problems at all with taking a name that a human gives to them?
2) In the 20th Century all (or most) Gargoyles seem to have names, so is this "tradition" (although it might be not a traditon in this sense) something that got lost during the centurys, or has it allways just existed in Scotland?
2b)Do really all gargoyles have names in the 20th Century or not all of them?
2c)Why?
2d)In with way do they get their names? By humans? By the clan? By a kind of rite? By themself? Just by coincidence? Or is there no strikt rule? (Or maybe regional differences??)
3) We are shown three english Gargoyles - Una (unicorn), Griff (griffon) and so on. So have all english Gargoyles a name that sounds similar to their looking? (I guess the variation possibilities of names that sound like "lion", "unicorn" or "griffon" are very rare), or is it an exeption and the other english gargoyles have other kind of names?
3a)If so, what kind of names do they have? Quite normal names like "Jim" or "Bob" or something like that? Or do they prefer very odd and unusal names you would rare find at a human? Or perhaps never find at a human? Or names in a completely different way?
- Maybe the questions may sound a bit strange.. - Of course there are no strikt rules in giving names (and of course not one for all over the world and time), but maybe you can give me a few hints of what´s going on.
1a. It's a fairly dated and old-fashioned tradition. Goliath is surprised (briefly) that Angela, et al. have been named, but he's really a tenth century gargoyle. Few modern gargoyles maintain that tradition.
b. Names are addictive.
2. Yes.
2b. I don't know about ALL.
2c. Why what?
2d. There's no strict rule.
3. We'll just half to see. But at this point some of these names may be a tradition in and of themselves.
3a. I tried to avoid giving them "normal" names.
Hi Greg!
Here's my questions: how do gargs behave during the female's season? You did suggest in the archives that the female gives off a scent, so does this scent affect a male, and if so, how? (needn't get too detailed, heh.)Is there aggression on the part of either gender? I somehow doubt clan males would fight, but maybe some generic shoulder shoving and bullying type behavior? Is there a ritual of sorts? Fanfic authors have some often alarming ideas of season behavior, and I wanted to know the real deal:)
No shoving. Keep in mind, gargoyles mate for life. By the time a female is fertile, she's generally already chosen a mate. And the scents are VERY specific.
How do the gargoyles take care of the clans children.
Carefully?
What do you mean?
As long as I'm up and asking questions...
Do the Gargoyles have an architecture that is particular to their culture?
I realize that question may appear to be a bit odd. I'm also sure that no one else would possibly care, but I am preoccupied with architectural ideas.
I know that we never observed any of them manufacturing barrel vaults or drawing plans, but we do knowt hat their culture contained it's own artifacts. They wore clothing. Occasionally we would see a strange shoulder gaurd or some piece of jewlery. Who made them?
I am entertaining images gargoyles who were the blacksmiths of their clan, forging swords and mace. Might the wyvern clan have contained a master builder who constructed catapults? Maybe who aided in designing the castle, lending a gargoyles more sophisticated sensibility for defense to the design of it's walls?
Did the clan have it's own artists? Musicians? Mathematicians? astronomers?
I'd be perfectly satisfied with an answer to the architect part.
Punchinello
Lex demonstrates that Gargoyles can have special talents. But I don't see architecture as a major function of anyone in the Wyvern Clan. However, that doesn't mean Hudson might not have made some common sense suggestions, when the castle was being designed.
Greg, I'm the one who asked if a Clan would treat a Homosexual Gargoyle good and with open arm's. Anyway thanks for answering my qusiton!
But just one more thing about it and the last one I promise, Sense by 2158 or what ever the new year my be you said that Gargoyles would be consider a Minority, but a Homosexual Garrolye would be a minoriy with in a minority group, That would be hard on that gargoyle seeing people see their spices like trash and some people looking down at them cause of there sexuailty.
The reason I ask this is cause I'm Gay myself.
Thanks
I think it's very difficult. ("species" not "spices", right?)
I'm not Gay, so I don't know what it's like exactly, and I won't say the cliched, "Some of my best friends are gay." thing.
Rather, let me say that almost ALL of my closest friends (and a few relatives) are gay or lesbian. Don't know why. Just worked out that way.
Anytime someone is a minority within a minority it is incredibly difficult for that person. That much is obvious with clear-sighted observation. It's a damn shame, but it's true.
Someone asked me whether or not gargoyles would accept a homosexual gargoyle into the clan with open arms.
My response:
"The world isn't perfect. I think generally they would be tolerant. (Tolerant, in my book, is unsatisfactory.) But generalities do not
define individual reactions to individual revelations. Open arms would exist in many cases. "
My brother read that and wrote:
"I think writing "Tolerant is unsatisfactory"could be interpreted as you saying that they should not be tolerant, that you are against
tolerance rather than tolerance being insufficient."
So, just to be clear, I was saying that I find tolerance insufficient. Certainly, tolerance is better than hostility or neutrality, but I'd prefer acceptance.
How would a Clan treat a Gay/Lesbain Garoyle? Hopefully with open arms
The world isn't perfect. I think generally they would be tolerant. (Tolerant, in my book, is unsatisfactory.) But generalities do not define individual reactions to individual revelations. Open arms would exist in many cases.
Dear Greg,
When a gargoyle died in the dark ages, what sort of funeral ceremony was contucted, if any? I doubt they kept the dead statues, but I could be wrong. Anyways, I need to know for a fanfic that I am writing; I would not like to get it wrong.
Thanks.
Gabriel,
Did you try looking under "Gargoyle Customs" in the ASK GREG Archive?
(I'm guessing no.)
If you check there, you'll find a couple posts on "The Wind Ceremony". If you still have questions after reading those posts, come on back and I'll try to answer them.
And finally...
1) Are those females you listed laying their eggs in Man. and then leaving them there for 10 years? Or will they 'join' the clan for that amount of time?
2) Why did _any_ of the females (for that matter) decide to go THERE to lay their eggs? I suppose I can understand the Guatemalan..(sp?) Gargs doing so..and maybe Sora..but why would anyone need to leave Avalon?
1. You misread it. I never said they were all laying eggs in Manhattan. I said they were all laying eggs in 2008.
2. See above.
In the original wyvern clan didd you knoww who lex's mother would be
Lex had a lot of mothers. Quit thinking like a human.
You had mentioned that gargoyles don't generally kiss. They use a caress which in some ways for them mimics the kiss. But, considering the fact that Elisa surprised him by kissing him, what would be his reaction later? Would he ask questions about it and she would explain that she kissed him because she loved him? And, would he become curious enough to try kissing her? Would he enjoy it?
I can almost envision a silly face showing that he liked it, kind of like in the scene in Tarzan where Jane kisses an unsuspecting Tarzan. But then, that might not even happen. But it might be cute and inoccent if it did.
Anyway, thanks before hand for replying, and my apologies for some of my earlier more stupid posts. Just curious about that stuff mostly, I guess.
By the time Elisa kissed him, Goliath had witnessed plenty of kisses. He knows what it means. And after trying it, I'd guess he liked it. If the right person kisses him. Which she did.
I recently watched my tape of "Upgrade", and that prompted a fresh question on my part. In this episode, Goliath finally fills the SIC position, left vacant ever since Demona parted ways from the clan in "Awakening". What interested me was that Goliath took so long to finally think about appointing a second-in-command. "Upgrade" is 25 episodes after "Awakening Part Five", and in terms of the series' internal chronology, probably over a year later, but only now does Goliath finally get around to start looking for somebody to fill the second-in-command slot, after Hudson tells him that he needs a designated successor in case some enemy of the clan does kill or permanently incapacitate him.
So why did Goliath take so long to start looking for a new SIC? Was it anything to do with the fact that Demona had been the last one?
Not really. Mostly, I don't think that anyone was qualified at first. Brooklyn emerged as a leader. He didn't start out as one.
I think Goliath was de facto counting on Hudson to be his second.
Hi Greg.
1. Any idea where gargoyle civilizations started? Like, human civilizations started in Mesopotamia, Indus River Valley.?
2. Were there always gargoyle clans all over the world or did they migrate from wherever they started?
1. Clans and civilizations don't have that kind of parallelism.
2. There must have been some migration.
Did humans ever worship gargoyles?
Not much.
Did gargoyles ever worship fae as gods?
Not really.
Were any of the Ishimuran Gargoyles converted to Buddhism or incorporate any parts of it into their religion(since Japanese Zen Buddhism seems particularly compatible..)?
Maybe. Or maybe it was the other way around.
Do all gargoyles have the same mono-pantheistic religion?
ALL of them? Probably not.
Here's a question that got lost in the crash. I posted it a LONG time ago, and I just realized that it got lost. o_O I think I posted it in May. [looks at the date] Yep. It's been a long time. :P
Okay, as I said in my previous post, my native language is Spanish, English is my second, and stuff like that. Well, first, I became a fan with the Spanish episodes first. I mean, sure, I loved the English episodes, but didn't have cable long enough to actually start taping them. [grumbles] At least the translations came along. Well, everything is different in Spanish. Goliath's voice is much less like Keith David's. I think it's done by Felipe Preciado, but I wouldn't bet on that. [laughs] Much less dramatic, let me tell you. It simply can't compare with Keith David's. His is SO dramatic, so powerful, and yet, so beautiful. [giggles]
I fell in LOVE with a cartoon character.. I mean, Goliath is SO perfect! Except for that temper, but I love him anyway! You probably found out about my love for him when you read my ramble on Goliath.. [giggles] And every word I said is true... ;)
Oops, I forgot about the question. o_O Anyway, here it goes before I forget and start talking about something else. :P
Okay, I taped the episodes in both Spanish and English, but I taped them in Spanish first. City of Stone 1 was the first I'm sure, because Demona started crying, and I totally got hooked with that scene.. it was so powerful.
Okay, so, I have the episode "Vows" in Spanish. In Spanish, it has Goliath and Demona in the Clock Tower, and they HUG. Awww... well, then my grandma got Cable again. The English episodes. USA Network. I was disappointed when I noticed that they cut out the best scenes, but at least the voices were new. I mean, they totally cut out the Keith David's narration!! I've never been able to actually see that narration in English.. [grumbles]
ANYWAY.. they aired the episodes Vows in English. Okay. so, everything seemed normal, except for the cuts, until they aired the ending. o_O It was different!! Instead of the couple being at the Clock Tower, they were in a castle! With a very bright light behind them! Well, I was beaming with joy because there was something new.
And then, Demona is left with her mouth open. I go O.O. Goliath SMILES, capes his wings around her, and brings her close. I'm like "DO IT! DO IT!" And they're about to kiss, but then they disappear into a star. [whimpers] WHY!? They were THIS close! WHY? WHY? WHY!? That was so cruel. [laughs] I wanted to see them kiss at least once. :P
Now let me put all that in a sentence. [laughs] Why are there two endings of the episode Vows? No other episode has two endings, to my knowledge anyway. [blinks, then pokes you] Are there anymore alternate endings?
You guys have done a GREAT job with the show. And you're a great guy, too. [grins] And you're cute. [snickers] Couldn't RESIST. [laughing]
That's all for now. :P
Kissing is a human custom. Gargoyles stroke hair and or brow ridges.
There are two endings because one was a mistake that we couldn't get corrected in time for its first airing. That scene was supposed to be a flashback to them embracing at the castle. Instead it mistakenly has them embracing at the clock tower, which they've never done.
Do the gargoyles, as a race, have any sort of myths/legends dealing with their own kind? We know that they have no language of their own (at least I *think* we know that) and learned writing and reading from humans, but human traditions with no written language still have oral stories/traditions passed down from generation to generation, stories told around the campfire to children of heroes. Do the gargs have any stories like this? Any legendary heroes, ie King Arthur calibre, of their own?
Yes.
Just watched "the edge" .In the scene when the gargs are fighting the steel clan, goliath says to brooklyn "No doubt for us to lead them back to our new sanctuary" meaning xanatos wants to find out where the Gargoyles live.
But at the end of the episode, when the gargs turn to stone they are outside on top of the clock tower. Don't u think that would be a easy place for xanatos to find the gargs? seeing as they would be visible from say a chopper?
I think it would be a lot safer if the gargs turned to stone indoors.
thanks in advance.Keep up the episode reviews, i enjoy reading your opinions on them.
We felt the Gargs being on the ledge was a classic example of them hiding in plain sight. (Compare Poe's "The Purloined Letter".) I don't think Xanatos was checking every building in town. I don't think, frankly, it occured to him that they'd be quite that easy to find.
Still, largely the gargs were still operating out of a custom that wasn't designed to safeguard them even back in the tenth century. It might not have been wise, but it was their WAY.
How come in the show you never showed Goliath and Demona kissing? You showed Coldstone and Desdemona kissing, and other characters, but never Demona and Goliath. I mean, you never even showed it in any flashbacks. Thanks, Greg!!
Kissing is a human trait. Goliath and Demona didn't kiss in flashbacks because it was a custom they did not share. The gargoyle equivalent is to stroke the hair and/or horns/ridges of one's mate.
Angela & Broadway kissed because each had "endured" a lot of human influence. Broadway through pop culture (movies, tv, etc.) and Angela because she had been raised by the human couple Katharine and Tom (who did kiss).
Goliath stroked Elisa's hair more than once. But he never kissed her. She kissed him.
I don't recall Coldstone and Desdemona kissing. If that really happened then the truth is it's a mistake. Or one could say that they were experimenting, copying some humans that they saw kissing in the castle.
Okay, I have a question regarding being rookery siblings and lifemates. Gargoyles consider all the other gargoyles that hatch with them to be siblings. From what I understand, from among this group a gargoyle will also be expected to take a lifemate. Now, you can proably see where i'm heading. This kind of relationship sometimes strikes me as almost incestual, b/c a gargoyle will, for all intents and purposes, develop romantic and sexual feelings for what used to be his/her sister/brother. The problem is obviouslly avoided in cases such as Broadway and Angela, who didn't have much contact with each other, or between different geneartions of rookery litters, which I guess also applies to Broadway and Angela. What got me to thinking about this is when you denied Angela and Gabriel having feelings for each other b/c they were bros. and sisters and in the same sentence said Gabriel was mated wtih Ophelia, who I understood as also being a Rookery sibling. I guess you could say that i'm thinking too much like a human, which, I confess, is a big problem of mine.
8-)
Anyway, if you would give your interpretation and response to these thoughts of mine, I'd greatly appreciate it. Thanks so much to you and your fellow workers for creating such a wonderful show.
Mostly, as you said, you're thinking too much like a human. None of a generations rookery siblings are biologically sister and brother. So the kind of incest taboo that you refer to wouldn't exist between them.
Look, think of it this way. Say you grew up in an orphanage with thirty plus other kids. All the same age. Both sexes. None related to each other. You were all raised together. When you're young and basically immature enough for sex to be a non-factor, all these kids would be like siblings to you. You'd get along better with some than others, but they'd be your de facto brothers and sisters. But as the years pass in this orphanage, as you all start to hit puberty, some of you would start to look at others in a different light. Not everyone. Some of you would maintain a close fraternal relationship. Others you were close to might grow distant. Some you didn't like might evolve into friends. Not brothers and sisters, but friends. And still others would become objects of attraction. But no matter what, you'd still be the thirty plus kids who grew up together in that orphanage. Whatever else happens, you'd always have that with all of them.
Gabriel and Angela don't still treat each other as brother and sister because it was some kind of mandatory result of them being rookery siblings. It's simply how their relationship developed, whereas Gabriel and Ophelia obviously had the hots for each other. Even though at a young age, they were raised in that "orphanage" on Avalon together.
Does that help, human?
Do GArgoyles date or something or are they just draw to someone and then fall in love. Thanks
I wouldn't call it dating. But there is a courting process. Mating rituals if you will.
Hello Mr. Weisman.
Punchinello, here again, with a new sort of ramble. I intend to pose this to you in the hopes that it will elicit comment from you, even though it is not a proper question.
I was thinking, recently, about darwinian evolution and the phenomenon of infanticide. A few popular authors like Richard Dawkins and Steven Pinker have made the idea that infanticide functions towards a selective advantage in the evolution of many species somewhat popular in the last couple of years. It can be observed among lions, killing the offspring of male rivals. In this way, nature can ensure that the lion is not investing his energy in protection of young that will not advance his genetic lineage. At the same time, I had been thinking of some of the more unusual features of your gargoyles. In particular, the extrordinarily robust array of physical forms. Polymorphisms within their species are more exaggerated than any species possesses in real life, to the point where we can observe within the same species, the variety of forms represented by the trio, as well as Zafiro, Una, etc. I had been considering the idea that their diversity may be due to the possibility that they are not subject to the rules imposed by natural selection through predation. (At least among their own species. I imagine that they can still be preyed upon by other animals. I think you even demonstrated this, although the animals capable of doing them harm are almost certainly few.)
It would seem that this idea finds conjunction with other aspects of the nature of the gargoyles. They raise their young collectively, and do not even distinguish between their own offspring and the offspring of other gargoyles. This would seem to run in direct contradiction to the way natural selection, selects lineages for propagation. The strong gargoyles invest as much energy in raising the young of the weaker gargoyles as they do in raising their own young. This is interesting on several levels. First, it implicates the gargoyles as a species that are subject to their own branch of nature; something which exists, at least in part, outside of natural selection as we know it. It could also account for that remarkable polymorphism of theirs. It occurs to me that all other species look essentially like one another because certain genes have been selected to be passed down to succeeding generations. The parents that successfully raise their offspring. Among the gargoyles, you observe a different side of nature, wherein, the strong and the weak intermix, and have been passing down all of their selective adaptations and physical attributes since the origin of the species. There is not any competitive pressure within the species to selectively eliminate those features and regulate their form. As a result, you get this wild assortment of horns, tails, beaks, muzzles, etc.
It finds even further relevence, in the "protective" nature of the gargoyles. It would make sense that a species with an inclination to protect the weak would be subject to the alternate "rules of evolution" I am considering here. Contrary to conventional evolution, they are completely non-discriminatory. The gargoyles and gargate beasts seem to be integrated into a single community, and they both integrate themselves into the various communites of humans, forming a cooperative (hopefully) relationship. I wonder if other clans, such as the Guatemalan's, do not form cooperative relationships with other species due to their integration into the wilderness and proximity to wildlife.
Wow, very cool ideas there. I agree whole-heartedly with your assessments.
And even the Guatemalan Gargs once lived in peace with their human Mayan "brothers". So they fit too if you look at the LONG haul.
Evolution has always fascinated me a bit. Look at the whale. The whale didn't evolve directly from a fish. Fish became amphibians which eventually became reptiles which eventually became mammals which eventually looked like lemurs or something, which eventually evolved into something that returned to the water and eventually evolved into a big old WHALE that resembles a fish more than it resembles us, though of course we're much closer genetically to a whale than either the whale or we are to a fish. Their are a lot of routes to any end.
I just read your ramble on the Wind Ceremony. I think it sounds beautiful, how they glide over the ashes so that the dead stays with them. Any way I have a question about the ceremony. Does the place where the the cremation or pulverising takes place have to be a natural place such as a hill or could it take place on a skyscraper such as the Eyrie building?
It could theoretically be anywhere.
I like your ramble on the Wind Ceremony. It sounds quite beautiful. It also feels extremely relevant to me because as of this writing it's been nearly 3 weeks since the death of my aunt. Her own ashes were scattered from a tackle-box into a river--she always loved fishing.
Probably a silly question, but would you have shown the Wind Ceremony in the series?
Yes. Eventually. But I wasn't in a hurry to kill anyone off.
Condolences on your loss. A cousin of mine died last Friday. He was 43 years old and had a massive heart attack while swimming in a pool with his seven year old son. His own mother dived into the pool to pull him out, but he was already gone. I'm going to the funeral tomorrow. I'm not expecting a Wind Ceremony though.
(I'm not sure why I wrote that.)
Thanks for the Wind Ceremony ramble, Greg. It struck me as another fine example of one of the best qualities of "Gargoyles" (in my opinion): the care that went into creating the gargoyles as an actual race with their own customs and way of life.
Thanks. I've had the Wind Ceremony in my head for awhile. Finally it yelled at me that it was time to come out. Glad you liked it.
It seems that naming is not a gargoyle custom. Yet the other clans in the World Tour (London, Ishimura, Guatemala) have names. My question is how did Griff and Una and Leo get their name?
The more gargs live with and interact with humans, the more likely they are to have names. Thanks to their Soho store, the London clan has been interacting with humans for centuries.
Are Goliath and Coldstone biological brothers or just rookery brothers?
Rookery brothers.
There are never any biological brothers of the same generation. Cousins, sure. Brothers and sisters, never.
One final "Re-Awakening"-related post. One thing that bothered me a bit about the episode is Coldstone's "Dawn came, and then oblivion" line. The reason why I find it troubling is that the "oblivion" part almost suggests that gargoyles don't have an afterlife, which I find disquieting. Admittedly, Coldstone's situation is a near-unique one, but still, the implications.... What are your thoughts on this one?
What happened, and what he remembers may be two different things. But I also had the Wind Ceremony in mind. See my notes on that.
i really like the trio and i was just wondering are they brothers or just rookery brothers. and do they know who their parents were?
Rookery brothers. And the whole clan (of generations OLDER than Goliath's) were their Rookery parents.
In Gargoyles Goliath and co live in the highest buildings like angels while the clones and mutates live in the deepest parts of the city like demons and devils.Did you do this on purpose? If so why?
Not in the way you're suggesting.
Though I suppose one could say that the mutates bought into their outcast status. The gargoyles ignored it. (Or largely.)
In your opinion, did Elisa's close friendship with the gargoyles have anything to do with her strong belief in her police duty of protecting her city? As in, sharing the clan's belief of the importance of protection, a sort of "kindred spirits" matter?
Absolutely. It's all mixed in there. Protect & Serve, right? There's a chicken and the egg element to what brought the Gargoyles (and Goliath specifically) together with Detective Maza. Kindred Spirits. Physical attraction. Emotional connections. And I'm literally willing to throw in the concepts of FATE and DESTINY as well.
The thing that most intrigues me about "Gargoyles 2158" is the element of what gargoyle/human relations would be like in that period. In the present day, of course, the big problem for gargoyle/human relations will be that the bulk of humanity believe gargoyles to be simply wild beasts or demons rather than sentient beings, and so hunt them down. But you've indicated that by 2158, gargoyles are now realized to be sentient, have become tolerated (though not altogether accepted), and now have a "Protected Minority" status. With that in mind, I'd like to ask a few questions about life for gargoyles in 2158 (if the answers vary for individual clans, please pick the one that matches life for the Manhattan clan in 2158):
1. In 2158, are gargoyle clans subject to human laws, or are they still self-governing?
2. Do they hold human citizenship, with the rights and duties that come with it (i.e., voting rights, paying taxes, jury duty, etc.)?
3. What sort of relationship in general do the gargoyles have with the police in terms of their patrolling their protectorate? As in, how do the authorities look upon the gargoyles' protection work against criminals, on the whole?
4. Are gargoyle hatchlings still taught by the adult members of the clan, or do they have to go to human schools?
1. Both.
2. Some of the above, not all.
3. It is sometimes a source of conflict. Though not everywhere.
4. Human schools aren't practical, as most human children go to school during the day.
Hey Greg, I have some religious questions for you.
1. Since you are seemingly very well versed in religious doctrine, I'm curious as to how you feel about the Judeo/Christian scriptures that prohibit wizardry. Deuteronomy 18:9-18:12 (Let no one be found among you who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead. Anyone who does these things is detestable to the Lord) makes it quite clear that God brooks no wizards in his fold. Is there a conflict for you since so much of the myth Gargoyles is based on revolves around magic?
2. What about the uncanny resemblance between gargoyles and demons? Why do the two look so much alike? Did dybbuks manifest themselves in the form of gargoyles in order to sow discord with humanity, hence the current demonic stereotype and poor human/garg relations?
3. How do the Fae feel about the whole God business? They seem a rather worldly lot, though some might be old enough to remember biblical events.
4. Why is Percy still using the grail? The Holy Grail is a sacred artifact, not your run-of-the-mill magical maguffin. Why would it continue to grant its power to Duval, who has since proved unworthy? I know you said it was costing him a high physical price but I find it odd that it should be giving him any kind of benefits at all (Anybody see what happened to the bad guy in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade?).
5. Last one. Is the Judeo/Christian God the supreme ruler of the Gargoyle universe? Given the plethora of Gods and Goddess on the show, I'm just wondering what your views on this are (I prefer to think that He's the one in charge, but I had to ask).
Thanks for your time, as always. Now I must return to the Vole Wars…
1. I'm clearly less "versed" than you seem to think. I won't comment on your citation in a vacuum. And I don't have a bible here in the office to check the context.
When you ask if I'm conflicted, I'm not clear on your question. Are you looking for my opinion on the bible? Personally, I think the bible is an astounding piece of literature with much to teach us. But I see the hands of man all over that book. And although it might lose me some fans, I cannot believe that God authored it. Inspired it maybe, but authored it, no. At any rate, I think many things in the bible are subject to interpretation. Often multiple interpretations.
2. Where do you get the idea that there is ANY resemblance between gargoyles and demons? From Medieval painters? Look, we haven't seen any demons in the series. We haven't seen any demons in the gargoyles universe. No angels either. I'm not saying whether they exist or not. But you're question assumes facts not in evidence.
3. The whole God with a capital G business? Like humans, every Child of Oberon is different. I try not to make monolithic generalizations.
4. Assumes facts not in evidence. A. Who says he's still using the grail? I said he still had it. B. And in any case, your question asked "Why". Why wouldn't he if he could? C. Who said the grail can "grant" power? D. If it can, who said it is? E. Who said Duval has proven unworthy?
And I certainly refuse to use "Last Crusade" as an authority.
I will say that the Grail is part of the reason that Percival and Blanchefleur are still alive. And that a price for that has been paid. But don't oversimplify.
5. As you may know, I'm Jewish. Most of my fellow Jews would not consider me to be religious, though that's something I might argue with. Personally, I believe in God with a captial G. Whether that means he's the Judeo/Christian God seems like a parochial question to me. Almost an elitist question. I also believe that God is REAL BIG on free will. His miracles are many but subtle, and all come with a free scientific explanation -- because if he simply manifested like George Burns on trial, then where's the free will? So why should things be any easier in the Gargoyles Universe. The Gargs believe in a God that is the sum total of all things. They are monotheists and animists all at once. I don't think that's inconsistent with Judeo/Christian beliefs, but I also don't think you're going to see any purely objective evidence on the show, ever. Take to the Gargoyles Universe what you will. And it should, if I'm doing this right, give you something back -- whatever you do, or don't, believe in.
Look, I know it seems like I'm blowing off your questions. I'm not. But try reading them with a fresh eye. They're almost impossible TO answer in a straightforward manner, because they are extremely complex, and yet they take for granted so many things as fact that have not been established either in the cannon or here at ASK GREG. These are all interesting topics and I encourage you to pursue them. But break your questions down. It'll help you avoid making assumptions.
By the way, what's a Vole?
1)Do Goliath and Demona have any other children besides Angela? And if so, do you mind if I ask who?
2)Since there's no chance of Goliath and Demona ever getting back together, will they ever be friends again, or at least not at each other's throats?
Thanks for your time.
1. Biological children? No. Rookery children? Yes. The entire Avalon clan, including Gabriel and Ophelia.
2. They will, on occasion, be allies again.
This question has been eating away at me for two years. I can't find an answer to it. So I decided to come and ask the man who helped produce the gargoyles themselves.
What happens to the pieces of stone skin that the gargoyles shed at sunset?. Something has to happen to it or else it would pile up on the battlements of the castle or fall on the streets below. In one episode , I can't remember it's name, the stone skin falls on top of a man who was walking under the clocktower. In 'The Price', Hudson escapes with the aid of his stone skin. So what does happen to the stone casing of a gargoyle, do they store it in the basement for some strange use? Do they eat it? Does it get absorbed by the ground? What's the answer, I need to know!!!
They sweep it up and toss it in the dust bin.
You said in Dark Ages Demona and Desdemona would be sisters. Do you mean rookery or biological?(It's probably the first but it's worth a try to ask.
Rookery, of course.
Even in peaceful times, Gargoyles -- even very old gargoyles -- all but never died in their sleep. Sleep for gargoyles is borderline suspended animation. If an old, weary Gargoyle actually made it to daylight and stone, that bit of sleep would tend to freeze the aging process, the deterioration if you will. Rejuvenate the gargoyle even just a little bit. They'd be much more likely to die after the sun went down, after transforming back into flesh. Even before the iron age, when Gargoyles had little to fear from most any species, when turning to stone was an excellent daytime defense and not a liability, most ancient Gargoyles died just before sunrise, after an exhausting night, rather than after the sun had risen.
So again, the disturbing notion of surviving gargoyle mourners having to pulverize a perfectly preserved stone corpse is a veritable non-issue. The practice of reducing stone remains to dust was a result of gargoyles having to come to terms with stone-sleep having become a vulnerability. If you're loved one is already rubble, there isn't much reason to keep the rubble intact. That doesn't mean the process isn't emotionally painful. But not much more painful, I would think, then cremating a corpse of flesh. (Though of course it's more immediate. You are doing the damage, not the Fire.) At any rate, that was the custom that evolved.
When a gargoyle dies, the disposition of his or her body depends only slightly on whether the gargoyle died during the day or at night.
If at night, the corpse is cremated.
If during the day, the rubble is pulverized.
(The notion of pulverizing the undamaged stone corpse of a gargoyle who has died peacefully in his sleep is disturbing. But in fact, gargoyles so rarely die peacefully in their sleep as to make this a non-issue.)
In either case, the cremated or pulverized remains are taken by the gargoyle mourners to the highest point on the local map. A memorial is held. Everyone who wishes to speak of the departed, may. No one, not even the departed's enemies, may be denied a voice. In the end, the mourners spread the remains upon the wind, saying, "Ashes to ashes OR dust to dust. All is one with the wind." (Over time, humans began to use a variation of the same at their funerals.)
The gargoyles then spread their wings, soaring amid the ashes or dust in the hope that part of the departed will stay with them forever.
[Note: There was no one to perform the wind ceremony for Coldstone, Coldfire or Coldsteel. That, and the location's ambient magicks coupled with the trio's own passions, may explain their accessability to Demona's ressurection spell.]
As promised, I'll now attempt to recreate the lost ramble on this episode, which I recently watched again with my family.
For those of you who haven't seen it, I refer you to my recently posted "Memo" on this episode dated back in April of 1994. One thing you might have noticed was that the title of the episode was "The Awakening". In the memo, I suggested what I thought was the more appropriate title "Reawakening". Michael liked that idea but had a suggestion that did it one better. He suggested renaming our pilot five-parter "Awakening". I jumped at the idea. At the time, the five-parter was simply titled "Gargoyles, Part One", "Gargoyles, Part Two", etc. I've never liked that sort of cop out where the pilot's title is simply the series' title. Among other things, it lacks imagination. And it's dishonest. By that standard, "The Journey"'s real title should have been "Gargoyles, Part Sixty-Six". So giving our pilot its own title seemed like a very good idea to me.
But there was another reason why I liked Michael's plan. We were working on our last episode of the first season. It was April of 1994, nearly a year before that episode would air. And a good six months before our premiere. There was no way of knowing whether or not there would ever be a SECOND season. And so to protect myself (emotionally) I had to operate on the assumption that their might not be. Obviously, I wasn't going to do anything apocalyptic. I wanted there to be a second season, so I wanted to leave the doorway open for it. So Michael, Frank, Brynne and I discussed the idea of open-ended closure. If there never was a second season, we'd go out with a bang. We'd give some small amount of closure to our characters. Let them reach a turning point. If this was to be it, we'd have created a little 13 episode novel that brought the Gargoyles from the past to the present and renewed (reawakened) their sense of purpose.
Nice. We'd done the open-ended closure thing (to a lesser degree) at the end of what would eventually be called "Awakening, Part Five" and we'd eventually do it again at the end of "Hunter's Moon, Part Three". And I'd do it for myself in my script for "The Journey".
But there are tricks to achieving a sense of closure. And one of the tricks is to create parallels with the episodes that launched your story.
So by retro-titling our pilot "Awakening" and naming our last ep "RE-Awakening" you can see how we gave ourselves a headstart.
But there were other parallels. The flashback to the past, (which we intentionally built so that it could theoretically be edited into the pilot if necessary) included the Magus at his most pre-Avalon obnoxious. Obviously, that flashback also intro'd pre-Coldstone, but it served the purpose of calling those first couple of flashback episodes clearly into the viewers' minds. (The only problem with that scene, is that Hudson has his sword in a couple of the shots. This is a mistake, as any good Garg fan knows that Hudson first acquired his sword in the battle with the Vikings that took place the following night.)
We also did the big event VILLAIN TEAM-UP thing, bringing Xanatos and Demona back together for the first time since "Awakening, Part Five". (I love the exquisite tension that plays between them. They are both SO using each other. When Demona tells Coldstone that X is her servant, you know that she's partly doing that to circumvent Coldstone's questions, but that she also partly believes that it's true.)
We also used Morgan in Times Square in a very similar way to how he was used in "Awakening, Part One" (reiterated in "Awakening, Part Two").
And then there's that moment near the end where Elisa asks Goliath if there's anything he needs. He answers "A Detective" verbally echoing a key moment from their first meeting in "Awakening, Part Three". That still tickles me.
HOMAGE
Obviously, Frank and I both worked overtime to pay homage to the classic Universal "FRANKENSTEIN" movie. I can say "pay homage" with a straight face (as opposed to rip off) because we so clearly acknowledged the source. Frank's art direction of the lab. X's line: "It's alive! Alive!" (Wonderfully undercut by Jonathan Frakes' reading of the follow-up "I've always wanted to say that.") And the whole idea behind Coldstone. (More on this when I eventually ramble on "Legion".)
Coldstone would be our Frankenstein's monster. Pieced together. Gargoyle & Machine. Reanimated (reawakened). I even love the Coldstone name. And wasn't Michael Dorn's sepulchral tones just perfect for the role?
And Goliath's reaction is so multi-faceted, so Dr. Frankenstein... [You know Goliath's response to his brother here, would be echoed later in his response to his "son" Thailog in "Double Jeopardy". Initially, Goliath's simply repulsed by what he sees, calling Coldstone "an abomination". But given a bit of time, Goliath quickly sees past appearances and attempts whole-heartedly to save his brother. He'll go through the same changes with Thailog. Well... at least we (and Goliath) were consistent.]
CONTINUITY
Snow. It started snowing in "Her Brother's Keeper" and now the city is blanketed in the stuff. (And doesn't Elisa look cute in her scarf and gloves.)
Brooklyn's still pissed off at Demona, specifically and sarcastically asking if she has anymore "spells to save you now". In fact, we wanted to make clear that the spell used to resurrect (reawaken) Coldstone was one of the spells she tore out of the Grimorum in "Temptation". Instead, we cheated a bit. By having her tell Xanatos that the "Cantrips have already been spoken" it saved us the trouble of getting another spell translated into Latin. We were either lazy or short on time or -- most likely -- both.
Following out of "The Edge", and until the helmet comes off at the bridge, the gargs assume that Xanatos in his armor is simply another Steel Clan Robot. The next upgrade. The red model. They have no idea it's actually Xanatos himself in armor.
Small observation: Mirrors don't fare too well in the Gargoyles Universe.
Emotionally, I think the story is very successful at taking the audience through Goliath's spiritual reawakening. I love how he starts out pensive and brooding, listening to that great exchange between the trio and Hudson, realizing that all of them have lost track of their true purpose. Hudson recites the Gargoyle credo merely as an excuse not to go out in the cold. (And I love Thom's reading on Lex's "We don't even live in a castle anymore" response.) The trio are clearly missing the point, but methodical thinker Goliath isn't sure he remembers what the point is either.
And that dovetails SO nicely with Elisa revealing the Police motto "Protect and Serve". The police motto/gargoyle credo connection is so perfect, it struck me even at the time as further proof that we were tapping into something very true in our little fictions. (And don't cops -- for better and sometimes for worse -- act just like a clan?)
From there, Goliath moves past the notion of simply being a reactive character, struggling only to SURVIVE one crisis after another. Now he will strive to be proactive. To rededicate (reawaken) the clan toward their original life purpose. Extending the term "castle" to Manhattan island was always our plan. Even that was intentionally primitive in our view. Goliath doesn't protect New York City. Not all five burroughs anyway. That's beyond his medieval scope at this still-early stage. He can get his head around protecting an island surrounded by water. Not the whole world. But eventually, the plan would include expanding the clan's definition until Castle Earth was the only thing that made sense. Of course, that might not have been fully realized until 2158. But we'd have gotten there. And the World Tour was part of that process too.
PROBLEMS
(Besides Hudson's sword...)
--One line in the ep. that for some reason still makes me cringe is Elisa's "My car's big." It just seems awkward to me. Not sure why.
X & D watch Coldstone's progress from the castle. Almost instantaneously they're at Times Square. We always knew we were just skating by on that.
Goliath & Coldstone go into the water at the bridge TWICE within the span of a couple of minutes or so. The first time, Goliath nearly drowns. The second time he's completely uneffected (physically) by the experience. We get away with it because the second time he's diving in on purpose. But just the fact that we had to dunk them both twice is an awkward construction (and my fault). At least, Goliath looks good with wet hair.
Some really graceful animation here. Goliath has some great moves, and I love that moment when Matt and especially Elisa are diving into the snow, out of the way of the car that Coldstone has just thrown... And speaking of that scene...
TIMES SQUARE SEQUENCE
There's some very interesting, fun stuff here besides what I've already mentioned about it above. A sampling:
Explosions in Bambi. :)
Demona's Clan: Herself, Coldstone, a Steel Clan Robot and Xanatos in Gargoyle Battle Armor. It's so twisted. I love it.
Goliath's very smart here. He doesn't want the fight to take place in public and basically convinces Xanatos to take his side on the issue by flattering him. Goliath refers to Manhattan as "your city" (i.e. Xanatos' city), this despite the obvious fact that Goliath does NOT regard Manhattan as Xanatos' personal property. And Xanatos, usually immune to such stuff, falls for it -- maybe BECAUSE it comes from the ultra-sincere Goliath.
I also am very fond of the Mr. Jaffe book-ends. I think they're a lot of fun. And I love how Matt talks about Mr. Jaffe. It gives us insight into Matt's character, his background, his youth. His empathy for Jaffe really helps humanize him. Matt was always eminently human.
Signing off now...
"Because six monsters just told me to..."
I'm trying something different with this ramble. And because of recent difficulties, I'm going to break the Ramble into two parts. My thoughts on reviewing the episode last Friday night will need to be recreated from scratch. And I'll get to that as soon as I can.
But first I thought you guys might appreciate a little background. What follows is a long memo that I wrote to Story Editor Michael Reaves after receiving the first draft of writer Brynne Chandler Reaves' outline on our thirteenth and final episode of the first season. Pay careful attention to the date of the memo and the title of the episode. I'll comment on both sometime in the next few days...
THE MEMO (unedited):
To: Michael Reaves Date: 4-10-94
From: Greg Weisman Ext: 7436
Re: Notes on "The Awakening" / Outline for 4319-013 of GARGOYLES
GENERAL NOTES
This is a tough one, because in this episode, we have a very specific mission, which is to remind Goliath of his. In order to accomplish this, I'd like to focus both our efforts and Goliath's soul-searching. These aren't simple concepts but I'm gonna try and go through them in baby steps. This is less for our benefit than for the benefit of our audience & Goliath. (Remember, Goliath is a determined thinker if not a quick one.)
Goliath spends the episode searching for the true meaning behind the gargoyle motto, "A gargoyle can no more stop protecting the castle than breathing the air."
We begin by defining our terms. Goliath first needs to understand the following equation: "Castle = Home = Family = Community". He more or less learned the Castle through Family section in "ENTER MACBETH", but we'll need to reiterate the lesson in some way for our audience. Then we need to take him the final step from Family to Community.
After that (or perhaps simultaneously), he needs to decide on what is meant by "protect". Protect what? The physical structure he lives in? No. Again, Home leads into Family which leads into Community.
Protect why? To survive in a hostile environment? Ultimately and by the end of the episode Goliath decides/remembers that to survive is not enough. Coldstone and Demona provide cautionary proof; both of them are abominations of a sort, created in the name of "Survival". Survival ("breathing the air") is important, but clearly survival isn't enough. Goliath and his clan need purpose. They need to return to the mission: Protect the castle (i.e. protect the community).
This dovetails nicely w/Elisa's mission as a cop: "To protect and serve." And leaves us, at the end of our first season, with a more pro-active group of heroes.
SPECIFIC NOTES
Just a few specifics that aren't covered in the beat outline that follows.
Page 1.
--The trio saw snow last episode. Let's make the winter weather the backdrop to the action. Not part of the story.
--I don't think we want to light any fires in the clock tower.
Page 2.
--We no longer need Madame Serena in this story. Plus she adds another new element to a pretty full plate.
--Remember this is one of the spells that Demona ripped from the Grimorum back in "Temptation".
Page 3.
--Coldstone wouldn't name himself. It's not gargoylean thing to do. And he hasn't been awake long enough to know he needs a name. Let Demona do it.
Page 7
--I think we can fit the action of this story into one night, so this is kind of a moot point, but I don't think Demona would risk sleeping as stone in Xanatos' castle. She doesn't trust anyone that much.
--Let's not overplay Matt's conspiracy fettish. It's o.k., but we don't want him to come off as a "babbling".
Page 11
--Remember, unless we're getting biblical here, Gargoyles weren't "created". They have very strong territorial and protective instincts. These instincts are as strong as their survival instinct. But I want to make sure we don't imply that they were magically created by someone or something who gave them a mission.
Finally, if I could recommend a title change... how about "Re-Awakening" instead of "The Awakening". I think it's a bit more appropriate all the way around.
ACT ONE
1. Prologue #1 - Present Day Manhattan - All-Nite Grocery - Winter Night
--It's snowing in Manhattan and will continue to snow until the last scene.
--A lone thief holds up the owner of a small and otherwise empty All-Nite grocery store.
--Thief tells the owner: "I guess we just live in dangerous times.
2. Prologue#2 - Flashback to 994 A.D. Scotland - Castle Wyvern - Night
(Note this scene happened off-camera during part one of the five-parter, somewhere around page 24 of script #4319-001.)
--Goliath informs Hudson that they must leave to harry the vikings far away.
--He'll need Hudson's tracking skills.
--Demona and "pre-Coldstone" gargoyle (Goliath's rookery brother) are also present.
--Magus comes thru and says or does something obnoxious.
--Demona, secretly desperate for Goliath to bring them all along, asks why they bother protecting the human's castle at all?
--Pre-Coldstone agrees: "Let them keep the castle, we can survive anywhere."
--(We see he is of a semi-simlar mind-set to Demona, which explains why she uses him 1000 years later for Coldstone.)
--Hudson firmly states the gargoyle mission statement: "A gargoyle can no more stop protecting the castle than breathing the air..."
--Goliath instructs his rookery brother to stay w/Demona and protect.
3. Present Day - Winter - Clock Tower - Night
--Goliath's been daydreaming (at night) about old memories.
--Trio are going to a movie; they invite Hudson along.
--Hudson's a couch potato. He'll wait to see it on cable. Besides he's got to guard their home.
--Trio: We live over a police station. What could happen? We don't have to guard the place every night.
--Hudson tosses off gargoyle truism: "A gargoyle can no more stop protecting the castle than breathing the air..." (But that's just an excuse to be left alone.)
--Goliath reacts silently, realizing their mission has lost meaning for the gargoyles, even Hudson. Maybe even himself.
--Trio leaves ("We don't even live in a castle anymore...")
--As Elisa enters.
--She wants to know how gargoyles are "surviving" the cold weather.
--G says they're fairly immune... to the elements.
--Elisa starts to leave for her shift w/offhand remark: "Time to do a little of the old 'Protect and Serve'."
--G stops her to find out what she means.
--Police motto.
--But what does it mean? Protect who?
--(Maybe Elisa can get us from Castle to Family here.)
--Goliath decides to accompany Elisa on the night shift.
--Which is a bit problematic now that she has a partner.
4. Castle
--Demona has talked a reluctant Xanatos into another attempt to destroy Goliath.
--Xanatos & Demona use science & sorcery to revive creature made from cybernetics and mismatched gargoyle parts. (The head is that of Goliath's rookery brother, our pre-Coldstone, augmented by cybernetic-eye & etc.)
--Demona names him Coldstone.
(--Perhaps she represents Xanatos as her servant. Perhaps he allows it.)
(--Note: in this episode, I think we want to sense a tension between X & D, but I don't think we want to bust them up here. It's distracting and we have enough to deal with.)
--Coldstone's confused. Last thing he remembers is Goliath & Hudson leaving the castle. Then came sunrise and oblivion.
--Demona: "Goliath abandoned us to the mercy of humans."
--He has been seduced by their beliefs.
--It is because of him that you look like this....
--It's mirror time.
--Does audience see him or do we save that revelation?
5. Manhattan Streets / All-Nite Grocery / Rooftop across the street.
--Elisa & Matt are driving in her car.
--Goliath is following them from above. (She's given him a walkie-talkie or headset or something. She's basically wearing a wire so that he can be on her shift with her.)
--They investigate All-Nite grocery store robbery from scene 1. (Not a crime in progress. Remember, they are detectives, not beat cops.)
--While Matt questions the owner...
--Goliath, watching from above, is able to talk quietly w/Elisa.
--We get from Family to Community.
--Elisa: No one wants to live a prisoner of their own castle anymore. We live in a community. The whole community needs to work together...
--G: "To survive." (He still hasn't gotten it yet.)
--Radio call: "All available units."
6. Times Square.
--That tortured soul, Coldstone, is going bonkers.
--(He hated "Cats". No, wait... he hates humans.)
--(Physical strength only. No robotic weaponry yet.)
--Morgan and other cops are just securing the perimeter, keeping people clear.
--From a distance, Goliath surmises another Xanatos robot ploy. (He sees the occasional metallic glint. The rest is in shadow.) He won't be dragged into another of Xanatos' schemes.
--Elisa & Matt don't have that luxury. They approach the thing. Tell it to cease and desist, etc.
--Coldstone prepares to throw a small car at them or something.
--As Goliath reacts, we fade out.
ACT TWO
7. Times Square.
--With Elisa endangered, Goliath doesn't hesitate to intervene and save her and a flabergasted Matt.
--Now Coldstone really goes ballistic. Literally. Barrel rises from robotic arm and fires.
--Goliath dodges or maybe he is hit, but Coldstone is too shocked to notice. --He didn't know he could do that.
--(Xanatos had a pre-programmed battle mode built-into his circuitry.)
--While C is figuring this out, Goliath comes in and smashes him.
--It's only in close that Goliath realizes he's not fighting a robot.
--(Is this the audience's first full look at Coldstone too??)
--And it's only now that Coldstone recognizes G.
--But all this convinces Coldstone that Demona was telling the truth.
--Goliath is attacking his own rookery brother to defend a human.
--But Goliath is out-matched, and soon losing.
8. Inside Orpheum Theatre (Times Square).
--Trio are watching movie from balcony.
--(As Broadway did in "Deadly Force").
-- "There sure are an awful lot of explosions in this movie."
--But are those explosions coming from outside?
--Suddenly movie stops. House lights come up.
--On ground level, Morgan is ushering people out the back entrance, calmly and for their own safety.
--Trio exit to see what's going on.
9. Times Square.
--Trio arrive in time to save Goliath from Coldstone.
--Coldstone surrounded by all four gargoyles.
--Looks like the tide of battle might have shifted.
--We see gargoyles thru Coldstone's robot POV.
10. Castle.
--Matchcut to Xanatos office monitor.
--Seems he gets a direct feed on whatever Coldstone sees or hears.
--X to D: Looks like sonny-boy's having trouble making friends.
--(No indication that they're going to help yet.)
11. Times Square.
--Goliath does not attack; he's still trying to put everything together.
--Could this abomination really be his rookery brother?
--At first, Goliath doesn't talk to Coldstone, rather he speaks about "it".
--Which of course doesn't endear him to Coldy one bit.
--G tries a kinder, gentler approach.
--Might even be starting to reach him.
--G: What happened to you, pal?
--From off-screen Demona says: "We did."
--Goliath, trio and Coldstone turn to see Demona, Xanatos in Gargoyle armor and a Steel Clan Robot. Fade to black.
ACT THREE
12. Times Square.
--Stand-off.
--Demona: If you're going to bring your whole clan, you can't expect me not to bring mine.
--G: You call that a clan?
--Coldstone is torn, confused. What should he do?
--Demona: "Destroy Goliath. Destroy him, and we survive."
--Coldstone looks down at his cobbled-together form: "Is this survival?"
--Demona tells him not to be fooled by appearance.
--Goliath and the others have been corrupted by humans.
--"We are the only real gargoyles left."
--Travis Marshall pulls up in newsvan.
--While cameraman is setting up, Elisa uses "wire" to warn Goliath.
--Goliath appeals to Xanatos
--(Probably doesn't yet know that Xanatos IS one of the robots.)
--(G thinks he's talking by radio-link via the robots.)
--G: It's your city, X, shouldn't we reconvene someplace less fragile.
--Demona doesn't like the idea, but Xanatos insists.
--(She's not ready to sever their partnership yet).
--Xanatos quietly names a spot that only Goliath (and Elisa via their wire) can hear.
--The eight combatants fly off, severally.
--Marshall only gets the tail end on camera.
13. Clock Tower.
--Hudson sees Marshall's report on t.v.
--Discusses dilemma (theoretically w/Bronx, but he's really talking to himself).
--Goliath told them to stay and guard the tower.
--What should he do?
14. George Washington Bridge.
(Or whatever bridge is closest to Times Square.)
--Your basic battle royale...on the bridge, in the air. Among other things...
--Brooklyn goes after Demona.
--He's still mad at her from "Temptation."
--Which allows Goliath and Coldstone to continue their face-off.
--The Steel Clan robot is destroyed.
--Xanatos is forced to unmask.
--But generally, the bad guys are winning, if barely.
--Coldstone & Goliath plunge into the icy river.
15. The River.
--Coldstone's got a built-in breathing apparatus that extends over his mouth and nose automatically.
--As they struggle underwater, Goliath's losing air and consciousness.
--G. hears Hudson's voice: "A gargoyle can no more stop protecting the castle than breathing the air."
--Suddenly, Goliath is pulled out of the water... by Coldstone.
16. An Ice flow.
--As G. gasps for breath he sees that a battered Demona and Xan have the drop on an even more battered Trio. The fight is over; the good guys lost.
--Demona's glad Coldstone saved G. for her to finish off.
--But Coldstone wants some answers first.
--Coldstone: "You said if Goliath dies. We would survive."
--Again, he indicates himself: "Is that all there is... surviving?"
--Demona's almost tender with him, but what she says is something like: "That's all that counts."
--But Goliath has finally figured it out. Surviving is not enough. To merely survive at all costs is not the gargoyle way. Gargoyles protect the way gargoyles breathe. To forget that leads to true corruption. Not the corruption of humans, or even Coldstone's metallic corruption. But the bitter fanaticism of Demona's corrupt soul. Or something like that.
--Of course, Demona's not just gonna sit there and let Goliath speechify forever.
--She takes aim.
--Coldstone leaps between them, takes the blast and is blown off the ice into the water. He does not resurface.
--Goliath immediately dives in after his brother.
--Demona fires into the water at both of them.
--She is furious at Coldstone's betrayal.
--Trio try to take some advantage of situation, but Xanatos won't allow it.
--Suddenly, the ice seems to be hit from above by a cannonball that sends everyone reeling.
--That was no cannonball that was Bronx. Hudson dropped him from on high.
--Again, the tide has turned. And it's all Xanatos can do to grab Demona and rocket her out of there.
--Goliath comes up for air. There's no sign of Coldstone.
--Goliath has lost his only surviving brother.
17. Epilogue #1 - Bridge.
--The six gargoyles are climbing back up the bridge. (They'll need some height to glide home.)
--Hudson apologizes for abandoning their home, the clock tower.
--Goliath points toward Manhattan and says something like: "The clock tower is where we sleep. But our home is that island. Our castle is Manhattan. And gargoyles always protect their castle... and anyone, human or gargoyle who resides within."
--Elisa pulls up in her car. It took her awhile to get clear of Matt.
--Are they o.k.? Do they need anything?
--Goliath: "I need a detective."
18. Epilogue #2 - All-Nite Grocery - Dawn.
--The thief from scene 1 comes in again.
--The owner is scared at first but the thief is very contrite.
--He gives back all the money and asks the owner to call the police so that he can turn himself in.
--When the flabbergasted owner asks why, the frightened thief replies: "Six monsters and a cop told me to."
19. Rooftop across the street from the All-Nite Grocery - Morning.
--In the cold early morning wind amid hazy sunlight, Elisa stands on the roof across the street from the grocery store amid six horrific stone gargoyles.
--Elisa watches, as Morgan (at the end of his shift) takes the thief away in his squad car.
--Elisa: "Well, it's a start. Xanatos, Demona, you two are next."
--The sun breaks through the clouds, shining brightly on a beautiful winter's day in Manhattan.
--E: "You know, guys, the city feels safer already."
--She leaves them there to sleep and heads home after a long night.
--FADE.
End of memo. My real Ramble should come soon.
In your vision, how does Goliath feel about Broadway and Angela's relationship? Does he approve of Broadway as a future "son-in-law"?
Of course.
But again, try not to think too much like a human. Angela is just one of many clan-daughters. Since you know he likes Broadway, why wouldn't he want the big guy to mate with one of them?
Greg, as always, you are so delightful. I enjoyed reading your rambling about Awakening part 3 and all the little behind-the-scenes stuff you told us about. Ambrosia chuckles. Poor Brooklyn. I did wonder why he was always the one falling in and out of love. Curse you, Maggie.
No, I liked that we saw Demona ahead of time. I remember freaking out when I saw her alive, and yet it took nothing away from the scene where she is reunited with Goliath. And I think everyone knew that Xanatos was a "bad guy" although Demona was something of a shocker for me. I think it was a great dramatic moment.
I loved Goliath's line, "and please, don't fall off the building this time!" Unfortunately- and understand that it's hard for me to give criticism even though I know you invite it- but I liked Goliath much better in these 5 eps than anywhere else. He was thoughtful, calm and level-headed and I liked that in him. Later, though, he seemed to roar much more often and break things down before he thought about it carefully. I hafta say, Greg, this upset me a little. Consider Enter MacBeth. Goliath rampages throughout the whole ep tearing down MacBeth's home. Yeah, MacBeth kept hiding from him and he was frustrated, but the Goliath from Awakening might have found a better way to handle it. Which brings me to something else. Why was MacBeth running and not facing him in an honorable fight? MacBeth is reversed from my opinion of Goliath. I didn't like him at first (he seemed to be too much the stereotype of a villain) but as his depth grew, I liked him more.
Something that always bugged me about the scene when Hudson is named: He asks if the sky needs a name... the sky's name is sky! I'm going to have to be a human too and agree with Elisa: things do need names. I did love the scene with Brooklyn, Lexington and Tom. It warmed my heart to hear Lexington casually answer "We look different" to Tom's question, "How do you tell each other apart?" So cute! And even better to the question, "But what do you call each other?" was Brooklyn's, "friend."
I never gave a thought to part three not having any action. I loved it and, you're right: the characters themselves held my attention. Correction: my rapt attention.
Erin (age 5 & 1/2) responds:
My favorite character is Tom. I liked the part when he said how do you tell each other apart. And I liked how he looked when he was little. And when he was a little boy.
Greg (age 36 & 1/2) responds:
Good point about Goliath. I always felt we had plenty of justification when Goliath was behaving badly. It came out of his lack of understanding of the twentieth century, his warrior up-bringing and occasional flares of temper and extreme frustration. The same thing happened in Act One of Awakening, Part Two. In "Enter Macbeth", Macbeth was intentionally goading him, which helped explain his increasing frustration and the resulting destruction. I don't think there was a better answer for Goliath on Macbeth's home turf. And once, Macbeth revealed his flawed plan to catch Demona, Goliath laughs, and the tables turn. And again, we have a Goliath who is responding with more thought -- and more success.
Macbeth's change takes place over time intentionally. He starts out bitter and borderline suicidal. And over the course of his multiple appearances, finds new reasons to carry on. Plus, of course, it never hurts to learn a characters background (as in "City of Stone") in order to generate more sympathy for him.
As for the name thing, I think YOU are the one splitting hairs. The sky is called the sky, the way Hudson is called a gargoyle. But to Hudson, you don't need to give the sky an additional name like, say, Fred. Hudson is used to being referred by his relationship to whomever he's talking to. Brother, Father, mentor, Leader, Friend, Old Friend, etc. The need to pinpoint him with an identity that isn't relative is human, not gargoyle. But even with all that, I'm human too, and I also feel the need to name -- it's addictive. I just like to point out the conceptual difference between traditional gargoyle customs and human changes.
Hey Greg, it's me. The Vinnie fanatic and the guy who voiced the psycho truck driver at G99. This is my first post to ya, and I'm not even asking a question! (Well, I am curious about where you got the name "Nashville", but thats a different matter, I'll ask about that in a bit.) This is in response to your rambles about the series, and you asking about our first impressions of it. Since you're covering Awakenings, I'll cover the first season, since you'll be well past that by the time you read this.
My first impression of the show came during the trailer in "Nightmare before Christmas" actually, and I was totally psyched by that. I could tell it was going to have that sort of feel "Beauty and the Beast" had. The live version, with Linda Hamilton. Mixed in with Batman and nifty looking creatures. Looked good.
My second experiance unfortunatley, was a Disney Adventures mini-comic, so I knew the characters names and that Xanatos and Demona were villains before I ever saw it, which is a real pity. Ah well.
Then came the airing of the first episode. I watched the firs... 5 minutes, mezmerized. Then, my dad told me I had a doctor's appointment, and I had to leave, without a chance to set my VCR. I argued and fought to stay, but had no choice but to leave.
The next day, a couple of kids in my art class were talking about it. I tried to join the conversation based on what I knew from the Disney Adventures comic, only to be told, "But they don't have names. You're making that up." Heh.
Then came the second episode, which I watched, enthralled. I think perhaps having Demona's shadowed hint was a bad move, but I recal watching it with a friend and going "wow" the first time I saw the gargs cape their wings. Strangely enough, that's the part I remember most clearly, them caping their wings and thinking it was cool. Wierd.
The next three episodes flew by in a blur, day after day, that was grand. I was hooked and amazed by this series, and since it came on after I came home, I didn't even need to set the VCR! Yay! All of Awakenings just sort of blurs together as one great experiance with romance, action, and lots of good things. I rather enjoyed the trio's experiances in modern day, including the kitchen and bike riding scenes. (Incidentally, circumstances CONTINUOUSLY made me miss the first episode, so I never saw it until Awakenings was released on video, so I had no idea there was cut footage at first!)
The next episode I saw was the first encounter with the Pack. I liked Lexington at that point and thought perhaps he could be my favorite character. I also enjoyed the concept of a really cheezy TV-show being liked by the gargs, but at the time, didn't like the Pack at all. This I suppose, is just because you brought in the five of them all at once, and it was a lot of new personalities to keep up with.
After that, my schedual made it so that I saw episodes out of order, and both "Temptation" and "Reawakenings" I inintially saw only the last few minutes of.
Temptation however, I loved. It locked Brooklyn into place as my favorite character, and was the first episode I taped on the second run through. The way Brooklyn reacted to Demona was great, and she was also an interesting character as well, particularly in the little hints she dropped. The first time around I totally missed the fact that the bikers had failed to notice Brook was a monster until after he took his helmet off, I just knew it was a cool bike, and a cool attitude.
Long way till Morning- It was just cool to see Hudson kick butt and Demona be totally evil and sadistic. "Fine, I'll just shoot everything in this room." Man, I miss Demona being that nasty.
I suddenly forget the name of the episode where Broadway shoots Elisa, it'll come to me as soon as I post this... The first Dracon, didn't really care for him in that episode, he was much more interesting later. All I remember clearly is, Broadway firing, seeing Elisa on the ground, and then the cut to a commercial break. I stood up, stared at the screen, and went "NO! You can't do this!" Particularly effective since Gargs was so different from every other show on the air, it was actually possible a main character could die right then and there. I was scared for Elisa's life.
Enter Macbeth- All I remember about that one the first time is "Ouch." Vrooo. "Ouch." Vrooo. "Ouch." Hee hee... That's still probably the best bits of the series. In retrospect, I was really impressed with MacBeth at the time. Cool voice, cool outfit, cool sense of honor. I *LIKED* him.
Her Brother's Keeper- Wasn't too thrilled with this one the first time. It was another Pack episode, and I still didn't really care about them. (Later viewings made it out to be a much better episode than the original impression gave.)
ReAwakenings- ANother one I originally saw the last few minutes of first. However, another of the best lines in the series, "It's alive! Aliiiive! I've always wanted to say that." still cracks me up to this day.
Hmm. I've missed an episode, but for the life of me, I can't recall which one it was. It'll come to me... And I've probably rambled on enough already considering I think I'm one of the first to ramble back at you...
You forgot "The Edge". But that's o.k. Nice to hear from you. You were a great Psycho Truck Driver. Hope to see you again in Orlando.
Regarding the "caping of the wings"... That was Gary Krisel's idea, and initially I was against it because it felt too Batman to me. But at some point, I became a true convert. We sent a bunch of faxes to Japan to make sure they'd cape the wings whenever it was emotionally appropriate. That would give us opportunities to cape and uncape for various dramatic effects. Plus, hell, it looks cool.
A response to your "Awakening Part Three" ramble.
Hudson's bewildered comments on why humans seem so insistent on naming everything are among my favorite lines in "Gargoyles" (and express in particular one of the things that I most liked about the series; the way that it actually gave the gargoyles that feeling of having their own culture and outlook upon the world - I once commented on one of the Internet Gargoyles sites that the show did for gargoyles what "Watership Down" did for rabbits).
I don't think that I was all that bothered by Demona's outline (although I'm not sure that I even caught it first time around). Actually, I was probably sub-consciously expecting her to return, as I said in my "Awakening Part One" comments, given how much they explored her in the first episode. I didn't think that you'd build up a figure like that in Part One and then drop her for the rest of the series; that would be wasteful.
One thing that I definitely still enjoy about Part Three: the continuing coverage of Goliath's learning more about modern-day New York. I particularly liked his awed (and poetic) description of Xanatos's monitor screen as "like a living tapestry", comparing the streets of New York to the old Roman roads (I wonder if Goliath ever saw any Roman roads, of course, since Rome never did conquer Scotland), and asking Elisa the natural question that a 10th century person would ask about the city: why no walls to keep the invaders out?
One thing that I also noticed on later watchings of the episode in reruns and on tape: the bit where when Goliath prepares to go gliding off with Elisa and takes her in his arms, they exchange a little happy smile, then break off upon remembering that Hudson's there. I like to think of it as one of the first little hints that we get as to what's to come between them.
Yep.
Yep.
Yep.
I agree with everything you wrote. Which makes this response pretty boring, but I don't mind if you don't.
I liked your rambling on "Awakening Part One", and look forward to the rambles on the other episodes following.
Both I and a number of other Gargoyles fans had indeed picked up on Princess Katharine's hypocrisy that you mentioned, disapproving of "beasts" (i.e. gargoyles) in the great hall, but permitting the dogs to roam about in there during the feast. I was amused to learn about how you'd planned to make that bit more pointed with the dog making off with somebody's food.
The bit where Lexington and Brooklyn were talking to Tom about not having names, and calling each other "Friend" instead, was a part that I liked as well. It was at that point that I definitely decided that I liked gargoyles.
I don't remember for certain what I thought about whether Demona was alive or dead. I suspect, however, that I may have believed her to ultimately turn up again, simply because it struck me as improbable that a character with such a big role in Episode One would be killed at the end of it and never heard from again.
I very much enjoyed the medieval scenes, which reminded me a bit of David Macaulay's animated specials for PBS about building in the ancient and medieval world (particularly the first one, "Castle"). Not to mention (as I said before) that I was delighted with the Vikings looking much more historically accurate, with not a single horned helmet in sight, being already familiar with the way that they actually did dress (I know that I should be thanking the animators on this, actually, but there isn't an "Ask Frank Paur" page up anywhere as far as I know, so this'll have to do :)
Before the episode first premiered, I'd been aware of "Gargoyles" soon to be coming out, but wasn't certain as to whether I'd like it that much or not, fearing that it would just be another mainstream super-hero series. But when it quickly began the "Scotland - 994 A.D." sequence, I decided that I was definitely going to like it. (And indeed, felt slightly disappointed when I reflected that the bulk of the series wouldn't be set in medieval Scotland, considering how much I was enjoying that part of the story - I'm something of a Middle Ages buff - and began to fantasize about "Wouldn't it be great if they did a prequel series set in 10th century Scotland before the massacre?" - which, of course, I now know that you did indeed plan on doing later on.
At any rate, thanks for the ramble again.
You're welcome. And thanks for responding in such detail.
In an ideal world I'd have definitely used the massacre to "kill off" characters that you got to know well, to make the tragedy more personal. But there was no room to include even Othello.
When you say that the "friend" conversation was the point where you decided you liked gargoyles, do you mean the series or the species?
I'm really glad I found your website! I'm more or less a newcomer--I watched the series when it first aired and loved it. Now I watch it on Toon Disney every night. However, tonight they air the final two episodes of TGC (which, I agree with you, should be ignored). But I'm hoping that they start the series again from the beginning. I don't think they aired each and every one of the eps...I discovered them late while channel surfing (glad I did)!
Anyway, I wanted to let you know that I feel your ideas in your "Ramblings" post on Jan. 24, 2000 regarding "re-awakening" the show are great! I guarantee if you pull it off, I'm there! How long do I have to wait? :*) Wanna see it before I get TOO old to get lost in fantasy anymore (that will never happen, especially since I'm an incurable romantic [fanatic??]). *sigh* I guess I can always read my Tolkien and Piers Anthony until you can get around to it... ;)
BTW, I love your dry sense of humor, too! A Gargoyle (Gargess in my case?) after my own heart.
Thanks for everything...
One little correction first. This isn't my web-site. The site is owned by Gorebash, who graciously puts up with all the extra work involved in maintaining ASK GREG. Let's hear it for Gore.
And, you're welcome. Thanks for the kind words, Lynne.
By the way, in my opinion, the word "Gargoyle" conotes no sex. There's no need to feminize it to Gargess or whatever in order to talk about a female of the species.
Hey, Greg! I just wanted to say, thanks for putting up with all of our rantings, ravings and questions! I think it is so cool that you take a bit of your personal time to actually respond to all of these (sometimes really DUMB) questions. I also wanted to say how much I enjoy reading your answers. Your wit and humor really have no bounds. :-) You know, I am actually quite shocked that you answer some of the questions from the "Raging Hormone" group of teens and pre-teens about Gargoyle nudity, virginity, sex, and reproduction! Sheesh! It cracks me up! I have read some of the fan fic stories, and I have to say, their fantasies of seducing Goliath and baring their children...well, we won't go into that! Anyway, like I said before, THANKS, for everything. :-)
You're welcome.
Actually, I don't feel like I get that many sex et al questions. Probably, just as well. Though people who attended the 98 Gathering got an earful from me.
1.I was wondering about the Scottish Gargoyle's religion if there was one.
2. And in Scotland the Gargoyles are a very communal species focused on the good of the clan and do not individualize anyone (i.e. by not having names or parents). Yet almost immediately when the gargoyles arrive in NY they accept names, and then continue to break with their communal tradition by acknowledging Angela as Goliath's daughter and so on. Is this a practical adaptation that would occur when the Gargoyles encounter the US where individualism is treasured, or was it part of the philosophy of the show?(or maybe just necessary for the audience to identify them)
All right, first off as Diane Maza pointed out, Angela is Goliath's daughter, by any definition.
So some of your assumptions are semi-faulty. But yes, some human customs are addictive and the gargoyles adapted. It wasn't a philosophy of the show, so much as it seemed real to us. As for the name thing, well, yes, we wanted the audience to be able to identify them, but we could have given them all biblical names back in 994 Scotland. We chose not to. And I like how we handled it. It doesn't have much to do with U.S. individualism. But I think we did want to contrast modern Manhattan with ancient community and clan.
As for Garg religion. Well check the Gargoyles Customs archive for more information. They didn't have a religion per se, but they had a set of traditions and belief in an pantheistic yet monotheistic guiding force.
Watched this with the family half an hour ago...
More random observations...
RE: Our supporting cast...
Who knew that Brendan & Margot would wind up being so important? Credit Marina Sirtis, for making Margot so gloriously bitchy.
And then there's Vinnie's first appearance on that motorcycle. Of course, no one knew Vinnie existed back then, which is thoroughly appropriate to his character.
And credit Keith David with breathing real life into Morgan the cop. Morgan didn't even have a name then. He was just a place holder, someone for Elisa to respond to. But Keith made me interested in him.
Little things still bug me. Xanatos' floating ponytail in the scene where he and Elisa first meet.
In the Kitchen, the Freezer door was supposed to have one of those easy to open latches on the inside. The irony being that Broadway could easily extricate himself, if he just knew how to operate the latch (or even what it was). Something a kid could do, assuming the kid was born in the 20th century. But BW has to bust down the door.
In the original script and the recording of that script, it's Brooklyn who says "So many wonders..." and it's Broadway who says "Goliath said not to let anybody see us." But in those early days, lots of people in L.A. and in Tokyo kept confusing their names (and Bronx's) so the animation came back as you see it. And it was easier to re-record the voices then to reanimate. (Or am I getting all this totally backwards? I just saw the show again half an hour ago, and already, I'm confused.)
(CAVEAT: In all these little things, I'll probably be pointing out animation errors here and there. But please understand, I think most of the animation we got, particularly from Walt Disney TV Animation - Japan, was brilliant. I think those guys did a great job and don't get enough credit. But anecdotes generally come out of when things go wrong, not when they go right, so it may seem like I'm talking about mistakes more often than not. Sorry, in advance to Roy Sato or anyone else who might take offense.)
When Elisa is first being checked out by the Trio, there was a scene in the original animation where Brooklyn seems inordinantly interested in her behind. We had to call a retake, cuz the guy was practically drooling. I wonder if that's where I got the idea that Brooklyn would fall for anyone in a skirt (or with a tail).
Also, after Goliath saves Elisa from falling off the building we have a point of view shot from her. It begins at Goliath's feet and pans up to his face, as she takes him in. In the original animation, the pan started at his head and panned down. That seemed less effective, so we had our editors reverse the pan, without calling for a retake.
At the end of Act Two, the door slides open revealing Demona in silhouette, clearly plotting something with Xanatos. That always really bugged me. I didn't want to give away that she was alive in this episode. I didn't want to know who Xanatos was talking to. How did you guys react to this? Did that spill everything? Did any of you not know that Demona was alive? Did any of you, by this point, not know that she and Xanatos were the bad guys?
Elisa says something like "This is where Dracula shows up." when she's walking through the corridors of the castle. If you take that literally (and you might as well), then you gotta figure that someday, Dracula will be roaming that very hallway.
Elisa loses the first in her series of guns, when Goliath crushes it near the end of Act One.
Goliath tells a joke: "And please, don't fall off the building this time." Goliath tells a joke. Can you believe it? It wasn't bad either. We should have let him tell jokes more often.
Elisa's surprise that Goliath can talk is indicative of what I thought a 20th (or 21st) century initial response to the gargs would be. That's why Goliath Chronicles' trial episode bugged me so much. I don't think humans would take for granted sentience. And I think most humans, those less open than Elisa, wouldn't even buy talking as enough evidence that the gargs weren't just beasts. (Cf. Margot Yale.)
Goliath is a pretty begruding hero. That's somewhat unique for cartoons. Elisa asks if there are more gargs, and Goliath responds: "Barely." He cuts her very little slack. But already you can see their relationship developing. I still think Hudson's expression after Goliath sweeps Elisa up into his arms is just priceless.
In that same scene, Hudson gets named for the river. I love that scene, as I loved the scene where Tom, Brook and Lex are talking about names. Of course, the desire not to name most of the gargoyles until we got to NYC '94, was mostly pragmatic. It allowed us to use those fun, cool NY names for most of the characters. But once we came up with the rationale for it, and once I managed to explain it to everyone, I really fell in love with the concept. Hudson's lament, here, that humans don't think something is real until they've put there stamp on it, is, to me at least, so damn true. And Elisa's response is so feeble and circular. "Things need names." Pathetic. But I'm no different. <SIGH> I'm such a human. But I aspire to gargoylosity. Anyway, after Hudson points to the river, and Elisa basically tricks him into taking that name, she used to have a line, as I may have mentioned before, where she said (under her breath) "Good thing we weren't facing Queens" -- implication being that Hudson nearly ended up being called Queen, I guess. It was always funny, but S&P didn't care for it, and I couldn't really defend it. So out it went. We tried another version, where she just says, "Good thing we weren't facing East." But it didn't play. So out it went too.
The thing that struck me most, however, was the almost thorough lack of action in this episode. After all that Viking stuff in Part One, and Vikings and a full act of commandos in Part Two, Part Three is a mood and character piece. Sure Elisa falls off a building, but that was a problem easily solved. Until the commandos' Central Park attack in the last seconds of Act Three, nothing else happens that could genuinely qualify as action. That was mostly a result of what was once a four-parter being turned into a five-parter. The reason we made that change is because Michael Reaves wrote a brillaint four-part script. It was amazing. But it was WAY too long. I was faced with either having to make drastic cuts (as I would later have to do in Avalon and Hunter's Moon) or expand it. Fortunately, Gary Krisel and Bruce Cranston saw the wisdom of expansion. For one thing, it would save us money. But also, it made sense because we could run the five parts across a whole week of the Disney Afternoon like a mini-series special event. It wouldn't require us to re-program one day of that first week. So we were all agreed, the four parter would become a five parter.
But that meant adding act breaks, and redividing everything. The episode that most benefited was Part One. In the orignal version, Part One covered all of what is currently part one, plus the first act of what's currently part two, i.e. ALL the Scotland stuff. The episode ended with Goliath's "suicide". A great ending, but we would have obviously had to cut a TON out of the flashback. This way we were able to expand into part two and preserve almost all of the story.
So Part Three winds up being nearly action-free. And by the way, I love that. I still think the episode works great, and it proved to me that the charcters themselves could really hold the audience's attention. (I'm such a proud papa. Unashamedly so. It must be pretty obnoxious.) I wish we had always had the luxury to be so... well, luxurious. To expand and play character. But generally a half-hour format makes it tough. I'm very sick of writing half hours, actually. But the powers that be in Animation believe that kids can't or won't sit through an hour long show.
As usual, I welcome posts here responding to this episode. Both your original reaction to seeing it for the first time, and your current reaction if you've seen it again recently.
Dear Greg,
1. How long ago did Gargoyles started helping humans? Did
it started before 900 A.D? If so why aren't there pictures/paintings of Gargoyles on anicent human artifacts or whatever(ex. cave paintings, egyptian art)?
thanks
Who says there aren't?
Another question about the gargoyles. Technically, their protecting New York might be considered vigilantism; after all, they're not recognized agents of the law, even if they serve as secret and unofficial partners of a sort to a police detective. Had you ever intended to do anything with the vigilante issue where the gargoyles' patrols were concerned?
Eventually.
In the gargoyles bible for the first season you had made mention of the existence of a 'very wise man' who first made an alliance with gargoyles building his castle of a gargoyle rookery and who ushered in the golden age of gargoyle-human relations...
Is this still how you picture it happening? The existence of a specific 'very wise man' was intriguing to me - is he just a generic figure, or someone whose name we would recognize? (I have my own idea on the subject ofcourse but I refrain from suggesting it in case it's considered a story-idea)
I was being generic in the bible on purpose to simplify things. Honestly, I don't think I ever really thought there was just one person who did that. The world was too big a place and there wasn't any internet back then to facilitate communication. So that "wise man" was a place holder in my mind for a number of intelligent humans and gargoyles who made multiple alliances over multiple centuries in multiple places.
One such alliance of "wise men" was the alliance formed between Hudson and Malcolm, which was brokered by Robbie.
Another alliance was that formed between Xanatos and Demona, brokered by Owen, with a little help from Brooklyn, Mary and Finella behind the scenes.
I'll mention here that I've reintroduced myself to Gargoyles only this summer via fan webpages and I've managed to get Toon Disney for only a month. Therefore, while not completly updated on every detail of each episode, I do remember quite a bit from the original airdates of them. And if this question has been asked before, forgive me, but I've only frequented Ask Greg for three months. If it's in the archives somewhere, just point the way. SOOO, without further ado...
I remember in a past question where you mentioned recycling characters. (Morgan, Margot and Brendan, Vinnie, etc.) While watching the AVALON episodes, I noticed that many of Angela's rookery sibs were identical to those gargoyles seen in Demona's renagade clan from 2nd century, right down to the clothing. As I understood it, she collected THEM from other clans that were destroyed throughout Scotland. No way for their eggs to end up in Wyvern's rookery, or even on Avalon for that matter.
So, here's the question: were these gargs mearly another batch of recycled characters? And if so, why use them on Avalon? Did you see any kind of conflict coming from this? Or is there another reason altogether that I'm missing entirley?
By the way, I REALLY envy you for having created such a great story, with all these fictional and factual elements mixed in to create the best animated series ever. Wish I'd thought of it :)
If you're looking for the "Behind the Scenes" answer it's pretty obvious. We couldn't afford to design multiple clans of background gargoyles everytime we did a flashback story or went to Avalon. So we reused the models, figuring most people wouldn't notice.
But there's also a within the Universe explanation that works for me. When a Gargoyle clan gets too large for it's location, it splits and colonizes. The Wyvern Clan had been living in relative peace under Prince Malcolm. In my mind it got up to about 100 or so Gargoyles and Beasts. That was too large a number for Wyvern to sustain, so approximately half of the gargoyle population moved on to found a new colony, start a new clan. But all the eggs were left behind in the established Wyvern rookery. The new colony obviously didn't fair any better than Wyvern ultimately, but Demona collected up a few of its survivors, during the Maol Chalvim/Duncan era.
But some of those survivors left eggs behind at the Wyvern rookery, which explains why there are some look-alikes on Avalon.
As for the clothes.... Give me a break.
About garg clothing turning to stone you've given the explanation about the Magus of Rome casting a spell causing that to the whole gargoyle race...
1) Would that mean that he was a wizard of tremendous power (since he was able to cast a spell on a whole species) or did he simply have access to a spell or trinket of tremendous power? (the same way Demona had access to the praying gargoyle for example - the power that protected all the gargoyle race not being hers)
2) I know that the reason for this explanation was so as to explain the real-life standards & practices need of not having the gargoyles fly around naked, but still: did you ever plan to make an ep concerning the casting of this spell? Or would it be rather difficult to even approach the subject of gargoyle nudity? :)
1. I don't pretend to have worked out the details of it.
2. If I had gotten to do TimeDancer, I would have made a sincere attempt to try and do a light-hearted episode that covered this. Don't know whether it would have made it past Standards & Practices, but I would have given it a shot.
This is more of a comment/correction rather than a question. I think that you've miscalculated a date. In a previous Ask Greg question you had said that you had once calculated that the gargs both in Avalon and in the real world will lay eggs at 2008. I think that must have been a mistake on your part: I believe that gargoyles lay egg in their 50th or 49th year (biological 25). That would mean that in Avalon-time 50*24=1200 years. The gargs at avalon should lay their eggs only 1200 real-world years after they were hatched. That in turn means that if they were hatched around somewhere around year 1040, they shouldn't lay eggs until 2240 or something like that...
Anyway thought I should mention this...
No, that's not right.
God knows it's been years since I did this math, however I think you are operating on faulty assumptions.
Yes, the Avalon eggs hatched in 1044.
Thus by 1995, Angela, Gabriel, Ophelia, et al. would all be biologically twenty years old. That's way past Gargoyle puberty in my book. So what remains is for their internal clocks to be in sync, so to speak, with the natural rhythms of the Earth that would put the females "in heat" (for lack of a better term). That would next occur sometime in late 2007 or early 2008.
That easily puts, say, Ophelia in synch with Angela and Obsidiana out in the real world. The difference comes twenty years later in 2028, when the latter two might again lay eggs. But to Ophelia she would have only just laid her first egg a mere 20 months ago. I don't know whether that's enough recovery time for her, enough time for her own internal cycle -- but in any case her first egg certainly wouldn't have hatched yet.
It's also worth considering whether Ophelia and Angela might have been "in heat" in Avalon in 1988? Maybe they were, and maybe Katharine was preaching abstinence in a major way.
Suddenly, I feel like this is Christine's show. :) [No, I haven't read her fan-fiction, but boy have I heard rumors.]
In any case, for those of you with dirty minds, I think Angela was a virgin even at the time of "The Journey". (Broadway too for that matter.) Not so sure about Ophelia.
How many children can Gargoyles have?
A clansworth.
Hi Greg,
Would a gargoyle's childhood & adolescence include any sort of combat training, or do gargoyles pretty much fight instinctively?
Thanks!
Both.
Dear Greg,
will Broadway ever find out that Hudson is his father? Will Hudson ever find out that Broadway is his son?
They know this already.
Oh. You mean bioligically... Why would they care about that? It's a non-issue. (You people are such humans.)
Mr. Weisman,
Thanks for taking the time to answer our questions.
1)How do the Trio and Hudson feel about the relationship between Goliath and Elisa? I'm guessing the Trio probably don't have a problem with it(based on their reactions to seeing the two dancing in "Eye of the Beholder"), but I can't help wondering if Hudson would feel that, as clan leader, Goliath is setting a poor example for the Trio by abandoning gargoyle tradition to take a second mate(and a human at that).
2)In "Grief," Anubis states that that which is dead and gone cannot be brought back. Why, then, was Demona able to bring the spirit of Coldstone (and those of Coldfire and Coldsteel) back from the dead? Was Anubis trying to say that he is under some sort of magical restriction similar to Oberon's law of non-interferece that prevents him from bringing back the dead, or something else entirely?
1. I think Hudson saw something going on between Goliath and Elisa as far back as the night he took the name Hudson in "Awakening, Part Three". Look at his face, after Goliath picks up Elisa.
I don't know if he had reservations at first. But they can't still exist. Especially after "Vows". (A) Hudson is a realist. (B) I think he's more open-minded then you give him credit for. And (C) I think he loves Elisa like a daughter at this point.
2. Per our rules, I invite and hope you will resubmit your second (quite interesting, but unrelated question) on a separate post.
The Goliath and Elisa romance: was marriage ever considered a possibiliy?
As I've mentioned before -- way down the line there would have been a commitment ceremony of sorts. WAY DOWN THE LINE.
I've been wondering a little bit about the environment in which gargoyles are raised, (at least, in 10th century Scotland).
1) Is their "protection" philosophy nature or nurture?
2) How do you explain gargoyles that stray from the ideology?
3) What happens to them if their "deviance" is discovered by the rest of the clan?
1. Both.
2. How do you explain any one who strays from accepted ideology?
3. Depends how pronounced that "deviance" is.
Hi once again doll... ok, here's my question:
1) Did Goliath kind of already know that Angela was his biological daughter before the events in 'Monsters' happened but just didn't say he already knew? The reason i ask this is that in "Avalon: Part 1" Elisa points out that Angela looks like Demona, but with different coloring, Goliath knows what he looks like and what Demona looks like, so maybe he figured in his own head Angela was his biologic child. Also, in "Shadows of the past" as Goliath shows Angela the rookery he looks at her, at that same time he hear Demona saying "Come to me".
Yeah, I think Goliath figured it out instantly. And I think he instantly felt a kinship with her. But also with Gabriel, who isn't his biological son. Goliath doesn't have the same "social programming" we do with regard to biological offspring.
*squeels like a school girl* really??? Someday your really gonna answer the "Whos Lex's mate" Question??? *jumps up and down* YES!!! *grins* one day hey? I'll wait for that!
Ok here are my Q's *smiles*
1.) You said that Gargoyles have a weak sense of smell so that there may be a possibility that Hudson knows that Broadway is his biological son. My question is then, did Goliath ever have the same feeling when he encountered Angela for the first Time?
2.) When Goliath and co. were touring the world we met a lot of differnt cultures. Since we never heard any other langauges spoken or subtitled (VERY understandable) does that mean that we happened to meet up with ppl who all spoke english?
(part 2 of 2)
Or does this have to do with the Phoenix Gate ie. some ability to make all ppl's appear to be speaking Goliath's and Co's langauge?
(part 3 of 2)
If you could have made the call, would you have prefered to have subtitles?
(part 4 of 2)
If you had been able to do the Time Dancer Spin off, which I know wasn't considered, this is just an if..
Then how would you have explained the langauge barriors? Would it have been Brooklyn having to physically learn Japanese or other langauges? Or again does this have to do with the Phoenix Gate and its abilities?
3.) (another TD Q) When Brooklyn returns post TD does he remember fairly clearly the events of the past 40 years? Or is it hazy?
4.)Lots of ppl have asked about the Gargoyles Original origins. Some have guessed things such as dragons or dinosaures. You said in response to this, "mabey". There have also been thoughts that they were created by an independant being. But that is another deal. My question is for the first theory. How Do you explain the fact that some gargs possess facial and other bodily hairs? (Isn't hair only found on mammals)
5.) Some time ago someone asked you about the praying Gargoyle statue. They asked that if Demona would have succeeded would the Olympians Or Oberon's Children survive as well. I think you said something about not being sure about Orberon's children but no to the New Olympians minus the Gargoyles Living there. The Gargoyles living there are probably not full gargoyles. I say so since the island seems to be made up of meny crossbreeds. Does that mean that any creature with some amount of Gargoyle blood in them would survive?
6.) Is the name Cast-away a pun? (<---- illustrates the point) I'm sure im reading WAY to deep into this here..but i was just wondering if the name was there to show any kind of abandonment John may feel or have created. *nods* ya ya i know..
7.) Can you give us any information about David's mother?
8.) In "Highnoon" 'Coldstone' asks Demona and Macbeth, "Why does nobody see us?", to which they respond that it dosn't matter and to leave it be. How is it that Elisa walks right up to them with no problem? Is it part of a spell?
9.) Is there an age at which female Gargoyles become fertile and infertile?
10.) Gargoyle eggs are in a rookery for 10 years before hatching..is that in human years or garg?
11.) We know that on Avalon there is a time difference. Every Hour there equals a day here. Is there such a time change on Olympus?
12.) When you said a character from N. Olympian's was going too meet up with some character We know of did you mean a major character?
13.) Going along with question 12..feel like telling us about that Romeo Juliet thing? *grins*
14.) We all know that Lexington was at least going to suffer some emotional trama as it were. I don't really see him as going compleatly off his rocker...mabey minor betral or perhaps becoming introvered and crabby..but nothing as we saw in "Future Tense". How severe did you see Lexington's reacion would have been? (ie, just a teen faze thing..or something worse)
15.) I'm Very sorry in advance if you never said this. But I seem to remember you saying something about Brooklyn's Children as being twins..something rare in the Gargoyles Universe. When Brooklyn and them arrive home they are biologically 13 and 3. So where they hatched separatly? In two different seasons. Or where they birthed on the same night but due to some timedancing are separated by age?
16.) U said that post TD Brooklyn avoids the Phoenix Gate like the plauge..dose that mean we would have seen more of it?
17.) And for my last Q. just cuz..im really annoying, Do you feel like telling us about lex's girl NOW???? *grins*
*looks over her list of other q's* hmm thats enough for today..;)
Thanks! *wings out*
UGH, another marathon question. Yes, I know, it was posted before my request for fewer questions per post. But still....
1. I said they have a weak sense of smell? And I tied that into Hudson knowing about Broadway, how? I'm sorry. I don't think I understand the question.
2. Uh, largely.
2a. No. It really has more to do with the creative/production decision to wimp out and not deal with the problem.
2b. Probably, here and there. I sort of did make the call after getting input from numerous people about the difficulties involved. Then Frank and I changed our minds on Bushido, but we were told it was too late.
2c. I think I might have had some fun with the language barriers up to a point.
3. Clear as anyone's memories of a 40 year span.
4. Gargoyles clearly have some mammalian qualities, or perhaps a better way to think about it is that mammals have some Gargoylian qualities.
5. You're making assumptions not in evidence.
6. It's not a pun, per se. But yes, he (and we) chose the name for a reason.
7. Can I? Yes.
8. Yup.
9. Puberty and menopause.
10. Human.
11. No.
12. Xanatos at least.
13. Well, Lexy, you've seen the pitch now. What else do you want to know?
14. Huh?
15. I never said they were twins. NEVER.
16. Don't know. But I'm guessing we all will have had our fill of the thing by then.
17. No.
7-9-99
1. What would be Katana and Nashville's reaction to Malibu?
2. Do you have designs in mind for Katana, Nashville, Tachi, Fudog, and Hudson's mate? If so, could you describe them?
3. You said that Brooklyn ended up with Mary and Finella in the 1970's. So doesn't that mean that they would still be alive today?
4. Why did you say that Shakespeare's MACBETH would amuse Macbeth? It portrays Gruoch as a Princess of Darkness. How can he take pleasure in that?
5. In what era did Demona arrive in America (Colonial, Antebellum, Reconstruction, etc)?
6. In what era did Macbeth arrive in America (Colonial, Antebellum, Reconstruction, etc)?
7. Now that Renard knows the truth about Anastasia, has it changed anything for him in terms of his feelings for her?
8. Considering that after all is said and done, Goliath was raised and lived most of his life in the 10th century, what is his stand on capital punishment?
9. What are the feelings of the Trio about the Magus and Katharine, considering that they only knew them before they changed, and have never seen their redemption, only heard of it?
10. What are the Mutates feelings about the Gargoyles now living in the castle?
11. Any news on the movie?
12. If you had done BAD GUYS, would Macbeth and/or Demona have appeared?
13. Why didn't anyone ever figure out that Gilcomgain was the Hunter? He has slash marks on his face that match the one's on the mask.
14. Broadway's blindness in FUTURE TENSE, was it just Puck playing with Goliath's sanity AND a prophecy or was it only just Puck playing with Goliath's mind?
15. If the show ever did come back, would you ever bring up or try to make clearer that the people Demona smashed in CITY OF STONE were truly dead?
16. You said that Demona would find love again. But what about Macbeth? Would he have found love again?
17. How rich would you classify Xanatos, Demona, Macbeth, and Post-RECKONING Thailog (Mildly rich, extremely rich, stinking rich, beyond the reach of ordinary people rich)?
18. What did the Mutates do with Sevarious' potion from THE CAGE?
19. Would you have shown us some of Fang's past and also some of his family if BAD GUYS had been done?
20. Can you give us a clue, where in the world, which hemisphere, which continent, where ever, is Coldstone and Coldfire's new clan going to be?
21. What was the name of Xanatos' mother and when did she die?
22. You said you haven't come up with real names for Jackal and Hyena. But do you have anything in mind?
23. Does Macbeth know about the Illuminati?
24. Does the Illuminati know about Macbeth?
25. Would we have seen some of Lexington's descendants in GARGOYLES 2158?
1. That would depend on the circumstances of their introduction, don't you think?
2. I've dealt with this recently. I do have a fairly clear idea about Fu Dog. But I'm not going to pin myself down at this point.
3. Doesn't preclude the possibility.
4. It has a lot to do with Mac's relationship to Will.
5. In the immortal words of my Magic Eightball: "Try Again Later".
6. Which time?
7. What exactly does he know?
8. He probably has little trouble with it but feels that in an ideal world (which he knows this is not) it's a less than stellar solution. Of course, that's all very theoretical. In practice, we've seen how he responds.
9. Distanced.
10. The Mutates aren't a monolith.
11. Nothing new, since I last answered.
12. Maybe, eventually, but not in my immediate plans.
13. Dramatic license? Or.... There were a lot of people with similar scars running around Scotland back then. Yeah. That's the ticket.
14. You didn't really think I'd answer that, did you?
15. You mean go out of my way to cover that?
16. Sure. Why not? (I'm such an old softy.)
17. Xanatos is Beyond the Reach rich. Macbeth is just stinking rich. Demona's extremely rich. Thailog's just rich.
18. Maggie saved it.
19. Yes.
20. Huh?
21. Not saying now.
22. Jack and Hanna. (Just kidding.) (Unless, I decide that those names really amuse me.)
23. Not saying.
24. Not saying.
25. Not saying.
Glad to see AskGreg is back up.
1. Does Demona know about the Illuminati Society?
2. Does the Illuminati Society know about Demona?
3. Why exactly did you decide that Jackal and Hyena would become Cyborgs and that Wolf would become a Mutate? Why specifically that combination instead visa versa?
4. How long has Nokkar's intergalactic war been going on?
5. What happened to the helicopter Lexington fixed in HER BROTHERS KEEPER?
6. You said that New Olympians generally live for 13-250 years. So would any of the New Olympians we know be alive and around in 2158?
7. How does the Avalon Clan feel about Demona and Macbeth? (They must know those two weren't acting under their own will during the fight with the Archmage but to someone who they injured that little bit of information might not exactly displace anger at being injured.)
8. After all these years, does Macbeth know that Demona was listioning outside his window when Bodhe suggested betraying her clan to the English?
9. What are the Mutates feelings towards Alex Xanatos?
10. Why didn't Xanatos try to make Coldfire and Clodsteel look more "alive"; meaning why not slap some fake flesh on them like he did for Cyoti 1.0?
11. In POSSESSION, why wasn't Angela shocked at seeing Coldstone? After all when Goliath first saw him, he called him an abomination.
12. What was Goliath thinking in SANCTUARY and MARK OF THE PANTHER when he kept tellin Angela that she has many mothers and fathers? Who was he thinking of? There's only him, Hudson, Coldstone, Demona, and the Trio at that point. Did he seriously expect the Trio to think of Anglea as their daughter?
13. In 2158, how do you picture the world political status? Are there still seperate countries for example?
14. What is the legal status of Gargoyles in 2158?
15. What is Renard's opinion of Petros Xanatos?
1. Yes.
2. Quite a bit.
3. A lot had to do with what felt right for the characters I guess. Wolf was very animalistic and hostile. Seemed perfect to make him a genetic werewolf. Jackal & Hyena were just nuts. A sociopath and a psychopath. It felt right that they would take things to the ultimate extreme.
4. Quite some time, young feller.
5. Kenner decided not to make a toy out of it.
6. That wasn't my plan.
7. Indiviuals all react differently. I'm not going to give you thirty-six individual responses.
8. I think he figured it out that night on Lunfanan Hill.
9. Which Mutate?
10. Fake gargoyle flesh? What would be the point?
11. Well, the truth here is that Angela had seen him already in the Himalayas. At least that had been my plan if the comic book hadn't been cancelled.
12. He was trying to instill in her the idea that her preoccupation with her biological parentage was an unhealthy human notion. (And since he knew Demona was her biological mother, you can see where his fear was coming from.) Of course, he lost the forest for the trees as Diane Maza pointed out in "Mark". He tried to make up for it later.
13. Yes and no.
14. Protected minority.
15. They barely know each other. And on some level, I think they'd get along, except for one thing... Renard hates David. And though Petros doesn't approve of much of his son's actions, I can't see him standing calmly by while someone else berates his son. Blood. Whatchagonnado?
Phew! Nice to have this thing back! Now for some questions that I've been waiting a long time to ask.
1. In "The Journey", during his recruitment speech, Castaway, while playing upon the fears of the citizens in his audience, lists two specific ones: that the gargoyles might attack them while they sleep and that they might kidnap their children. Recently, I found myself realizing something about these fears. Gargoyles obviously fear humans attacking them while they are in their stone sleep, and Demona believed in "The Reckoning" that Princess Katharine and the Magus had kidnapped the eggs. So, were you deliberately going for a notion of "humans and gargoyles fear each other for parallel reasons" when you wrote this scene, or am I just reading too much into it?
2. My new guesses for the 7 Arthurian survivors:
a. King Arthur
b. Merlin
c. The Lady of the Lake (so far, the obvious ones :)
d. Sir Percival
e. The Grail Damsel (since she's got a different name in practically every version of the Arthurian/Grail legends, I figured I'd better just put down her position to make it clearer whom I meant)
f. Morgan le Fay
g. Nimue
3. One of the most intriguing aspects of the gargoyles in the series, to me, was their initial lack of personal names, something that worked particularly well with me since it made them seem even more "their own unique culture" (I particularly liked the scene where Hudson was asking why humans have to name everything in "Awakening Part Three"). What inspired you and the other members of the production team to come up with this idea?
Hey Todd,
1. I don't think you're reading too much in, but you need to keep in mind that I was breathing gargoyles at the time. It filled my thoughts. Whether I was conscious of those specifics parallels, doesn't answer whether they were intentional or not. Does that help?
2. We're up to eight now. Plus guesses need to be on their own post. Note: it's best to be as specific as possible. Bet hedging is no way to win a silly contest.
3. Originally, desperation. We had a hell of a time getting names approved. Coming up with a rationale for waiting until the twentieth century to name most of our characters was an inspiration I was grateful my boss went for. Fortunately, he saw that it solved all our problems. Gave us young characters with names that had a more contemporary, yet fun feel. Allowed Goliath to stand out from the crowd more. Made Demona's name less silly and more chilling. Etc. Making Gargoyles a unique culture was the solution to a difficult problem. One of the many things, that just made the show feel "right".
Hiya! First of all i'd like to say that you have made an excellent series, congrats on the great work. Ok...I'm a first-timer but I have read the archives so I'll be careful not to ask anything that I can remember already being asked.
1) Why is it that it took Goliath so long to finally except Angela as his daughter but it didn't take Demona very long at all? infact, it seemed as though she had completely excepted Angela as hers, not even asking about the other members of the rookery. Any reason for this?
2) If you had to pick one, which would you say is the most truly Evil villain on the show? (The one who is bad merely to see people suffer or something)
3) Since what biologic ages would you say that Goliath and Demona were a couple?
Well.. although I've been itchin' to do this for so long but wasn't able to because it had been down, I can't remember any of the questions I had lined up... oh well.. I'll save them for another day i suppose.
Now to answer my first question of ASK GREG - The Next Generation.
Hi Karen,
1. Goliath was very concerned about playing favorites. Angela, to his mind, was way too concerned about him as her BIOLOGICAL father. To his upbringing, that showed bad taste. Of course, she was raised differently. Once Diane Maza pointed out to Goliath that Angela was the only daughter in the vicinity, Goliath lept at the chance to be her dad. It's not that he didn't love her, but he was a novice father and he didn't want to screw up.
Demona's motivations, as usual, were more complicated. Assuming Sevarius filled her in about Angela sometime between "Sanctuary" and "The Reckoning", Demona had time to plan an "attack" on her daughter, or at least on her daughter's loyalties. As usual, Demona is her own worst enemy. She initially saw Angela as an opportunity, not a child. By the time she realized how important Angela truly was to her, it was all but too late.
2. Gee... Did we have any of those? I guess Hyena, Jackal and Wolf sorta qualify. Proteus was pretty nasty. Yeah. Maybe Proteus.
3. Don't have my timeline here with me, so I can't pin it down exactly. But by 971 they were already falling for each other, so that should give you an idea...