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RESPONSES 2001-7 (July)

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ANNOUNCEMENT

Tomorrow (or today I guess -- July 31st, 2001), I'm going on vacation for a week. Don't know whether or not I'll have internet access, so I don't know whether or not I'll be able to answer any more Ask Greg questions while I'm away. This is the trip that I was supposed to take in June, but didn't because I got pneumonia.

Later this month, I'm taking another week off (it helps to have no job). And that's another week when I don't know if I'll be able to answer questions.

In between, I'm job-hunting and novel-writing and still trying to have a life and answer ASK GREG questions all at the same time.

And everytime I start to get close to catching up, you guys FLOOD this place with more questions.

So here's what's going on. FLOOD AWAY. Today. Because the question posting function at ASK GREG is going on vacation for the entire month of August. I'll still answer questions when I can. And on September 1st, Gorebash will promptly turn the question posting function back on. Todd will review the questions and send them to my queue.

But for August, we're on question posting hiatus. Vacation. So relax. There's plenty of questions already posted to keep me busy. Plus you have just under 24 hours to post those last minute questions that you just can't wait on.

And we will be back one short month from now. Enjoy your summer. See you soon.

And thanks, as always, for your continued support of the show.


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Anonymous writes...

1a.Are there any other parts to the Weird Sister's personality besides their Fate and Fury aspects?
1b.If so care to give a few?
1c.Do these personalities represent the three forces battling within them for control?

Greg responds...

1a. Yes.
b. No.
c. Generally.

Response recorded on July 27, 2001

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Lord Sloth writes...

In 2198, what is Guardian's real job?

And where is the resistance's base of operations? Queen Florince Island?

Greg responds...

He's a Guardian.

The resistance is made up of cells. Samson's cell is in Manhattan. Other's are scattered across the globe.

Response recorded on July 27, 2001

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Anonymous writes...

What is the name of the Secretary General that replaces Alex?
Is he a member of the Illuminati?

Greg responds...

Haven't named him yet.

Not saying.

Response recorded on July 27, 2001

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Anonymous writes...

Where did the United Nations get the power to give gargoyles "human rights"?
Does Alex have anything to do with the passing of the Gargoyles Minority Protection Act?

Greg responds...

From their member nations.

Which Alex?

Response recorded on July 27, 2001

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Anonymous writes...

1.In 2198 have humans developed faster than light space ships?

Greg responds...

No.

Response recorded on July 27, 2001

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Anonymous writes...

1.Are there any wars in 2198?
2.Did WW3 happen yet?

Greg responds...

1. Think about it.

2. Not saying.

Response recorded on July 27, 2001

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Anonymous writes...

Where were Zafiro and Delilah when the Space-Spawn made their raid on Queen Florence Island?
How did the Space-Spawn know where to hit?

Greg responds...

1. Like Samson they were on the Island, but not in the Caldera. All three were on guard duty below the volcano.

2. Observation and scanning.

Response recorded on July 27, 2001

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Shan writes...

More of a comment than a question, actually. I saw the thread about you having considered a GARGOYLES Shangri-La story, but unsure about the legalities since it originates from Hilton's LOST HORIZON. I can tell you one other cartoon series that did go to Shangri-La: JEM in 1986. Richard (Rick) Merwin wrote an episode called "Journey to Shangri-La" where Jem and co. go to Tibet after joining a quest to discover the mythic city; it's a serious episode, not a parody or satire. I'm not going to say much about the episode (both because it's neither the right forum nor my place to rant) but I thought you might find it interesting. Don't know what clearance, if any, they had though. I have heard when a sequel book was developed to LOST HORIZON they had to deal with Hilton's estate. Just stuff to contemplate and share with the group at large, I guess, but if you have any thoughts or commentary...

Greg responds...

Thanks. That's very interesting. And vaguely-ironic, since writing for Jem was my first work in animation.

Response recorded on July 27, 2001

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Kelly L. Creighton/Kya White Sapphire writes...

directed towards WereFox- AH HAH! if you had come to the gathering, you would KNOW why demona made the disk! bwahaha! Ill let greg decide if he is going to bless you with the answer! (im feeling rather sadistic at the moment ;P)

GREG- when you showed that cool garg promo video (which you do every year) i yelled out "where can we get a copy of that?" and you said "you cant!" is that for legal reasons, as in Disney owns it, or is it just because you only have one copy? or is it something else?

Greg responds...

Are we talking about Bad Guys?

Response recorded on July 27, 2001

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Lord Sloth writes...

I was wondering what you ment when you said that dolphins have a 8 day week and whales have something like a 37 day week. So what did you mean?

Greg responds...

I was being a smart ass. Yeesh.

Response recorded on July 27, 2001

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Anonymous writes...

Is the supreme God of the gargoyles universe something like the Source of the DCU?

Greg responds...

I don't know what the Source is. But I will say (again) that I'm not going to define GOD in the Gargoyles Universe. I don't want to name Him, define Him or give Him limits. I'm not even fully comfortable with using the pronoun "Him".

Response recorded on July 27, 2001

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Anonymous writes...

Did you draw any inspiration for the Illuminati from Vandal Savage and his Illuminati?

Greg responds...

I'm sure all Illuminati fiction draws from similar sources.

But I don't remember Vandal Savage being connected with the Illuminati. Of course, I haven't read DC Comic Books since 1996.

Response recorded on July 27, 2001

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Anonymous writes...

Is the Illuminati still the dominant force in the future?

Greg responds...

Still? Are they now?

Response recorded on July 27, 2001

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Lord Sloth writes...

What did Elisa do with her day when the Gargs went to sleep in one of the countries they viseted? Shadows of the past for instance?

What did Elisa tell the Police when she got back from the World tour, to explane her absence?

How does Elisa explane how she keeps loosing her guns? Does she jut tell the police that she melted it down to make a bell? Does she get in much trouble for it?

Greg responds...

She often slept too. Sometimes maintained a vigil. Sometimes explored a bit, as she did in Paris.

Personal leave. She'd have been in bigger trouble had Chavez not been in immediate need for an undercover operative to enter Brod's organization. Elisa's absense from New York during the period of Brod's arrival and establishment made her the perfect candidate. The good results from that operation tended to brush Elisa's shortcomings under the rug -- for now.

Elisa's usually on the verge of being in trouble. Fortunately, she had a strong arrest and conviction record even before meeting the gargs. They've improved her record a bit too. Plus her boss genuinely likes her. Even if she doesn't always show it. (And Maria also has a lot of respect for Peter Maza. He used to be her boss, long time back.)

Response recorded on July 27, 2001

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LSZ writes...

Prior to the 'arrival' of the fae as a species on the planet, did any of the earlier races use magic?

Greg responds...

Ever?

Response recorded on July 27, 2001

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Lord Sloth writes...

Did Xanatos tell his present day Illuminati friends about his his plans for time traval? If he did, wouldn't they want he to retreve the Phenix gate?

Greg responds...

No, he did not.

Response recorded on July 27, 2001

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matt writes...

if all the female gargoyles on Avalon only are able or ready to reproduce when the Earth 20-year cycle comes around wouldn't that mean that they would be laying their eggs within a very short time on Avalon? i mean, on Avalon that cycle would come around every 10 months! would the females on Avalon be ready to concieve after just laying an egg?

and lets say that its too soon to be laying another egg and they skip a cycle, that means that they will only lay two eggs in their lifetimes, and if that happened it would be bad for the Avalon clan. first of all, their population would never grow, in fact over time it would probably shrink due to the unequal distribution of males and females, a couple has to have more than two children for any population growth to occur. another problem is that over time (and may i remind you that time is way faster on Avalon) there would be a huge amount of inbreeding, esspecially as the population dropped.

so, the problem is, either Avalon females are birthing their eggs twenty four times faster than gargoyles typically do, or the Avalon clan is doomed to die out.

i'm a bit worried about the fate of the Avalon clan, whats going to happen with them and this problem?

Greg responds...

1st paragraph... No.

2nd paragraph... I don't follow your reasoning here. They have the potential at least to have many MORE children on Avalon.

3rd paragraph... you can't see something between those extremes?

It's an issue. Fodder for stories. I'm not going to reveal the answer here. But don't worry too much about this. After all, they may not survive the return of Mab.

Response recorded on July 27, 2001

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Lord Sloth writes...

What is the year, and month, that Brooklen starts, and finishes, his time dancing? What happens in the 5 minutes he is gone?

Greg responds...

My current thinking is that Brooklyn vanishes in 1997. (I haven't pinned down the month.) And he's probably gone less than five minutes actually. Broadway and Angela (and maybe Lex) just have time to say something like, "Oh no, will we ever see our dear friend again?" (only better dialogue) before he reappears.

Response recorded on July 27, 2001

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Entity writes...

Some GARGOYLES 2198 questions:

1. Is "Alexander Fox Xanatos IV" to be the great grandson of the Alex we know, or is he to actually be the Alex we know?

2. Those two Lex robots that are as common as coffee makers in the future: Are they designed after Lexington? If so, how does the world feel about embracing a household appliance resembling a gargoyle? Wouldn't a gargoyle be a controversial choice?

3. Would Merlin be involved in any of the planned events?

4. By moving the year from 2158 to 2198, you effectively snipped the cord connecting the main series from the future series. Is this because you see GARGOYLES 2198 as our best bet at getting back on TV and you don't want to scramble/reveal what happens in the original series, in case you get to do it second?

Greg responds...

1. Our Alex.

2. They are modeled after him, yes. Ironically, it's less of a problem than you might think. Perhaps because the gargoyle-robot tends to be in a subservient position. Also, cuz the things are so damn useful and they don't come in another shape.

3. Not saying.

4. Partially, yes. I definitely wanted to get far enough out that I wasn't tying my hands on the original. I also, frankly, think that 2198 sounds cooler than 2158. But the main reason was the rethinking of the character of Samson.

Response recorded on July 27, 2001

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Anonymous writes...

Is Fox still alive?

Greg responds...

Why? What have you heard?

Response recorded on July 27, 2001

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Anonymous writes...

How did Alex get elected to the position of Secretary General? Why would the Illuminati which controls almost everything on Earth before the Space-Spawn invasion allow the election/installation of someone who they don't approve of considering they didn't vouch for his release?

Greg responds...

Your premise is faulty.

Response recorded on July 27, 2001

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Gabriel writes...

Hi Greg,
I was just watching "High Noon" and noticed that when Lex is plugged in to Coldstone (in Act 1),in the midst of all the computer language, the word "Othello" appears followed by other words I couldn't catch. Just out of curiosity, was this supposed to be some sort of inside joke or a referance to anything in particular? I know that's supposed to be his name, but I was just wanted to know the motivation behind it. Thanks.

Greg responds...

Yes, inside joke by the animators.

Response recorded on July 27, 2001

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Gipdac writes...

Did Hippolyta survive the wyvern massacre?

Greg responds...

Who said she survived to the Wyvern Massacre?

Response recorded on July 27, 2001

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Lord Sloth writes...

Why do none of the New Olimpians bother to tell Goliath that there are other Gargoyles on New Olimpis? Where do the other gargoyles live on the island? How big is the Island? it looked like it was just one floating city.

Greg responds...

It's fairly big. They may have thought Goliath knew. The Gargoyles of New Olympus are isolationists, even from their fellow citizens.

Response recorded on July 27, 2001

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Anonymous writes...

Were you trying to imitate Kirby's Gods among us theme when you were developing New Olympians?

Greg responds...

As I've mentioned before, Kirby's Eternals (and to a lesser extent his Inhumans and New Gods) were definite inspirations. We hope what we created was unique and original, but I don't deny the influence. We were going for something Kirbyesque.

Response recorded on July 27, 2001

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Sexy Queer writes...

Did Demona and Iago get along in the Dark Ages?

Greg responds...

Sometimes. It was a long age.

Response recorded on July 27, 2001

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Sexy Queer writes...

I'm not sure if this was ever asked but did Angela tell her Rookery siblings that Demona was her mother, If so where they in shock about it?

Greg responds...

Well, they didn't really know Demona, except as that garg who attacked them while under a spell. So it held less significance from an "oh my god, Demona!" standpoint.

Also, I'm sure they all have mixed feelings about the whole biological parenting thing. I'm not sure that Angela did tell them that Goliath was her biological father. That would seem too much like unseemly bragging. (So maybe for that reason alone, she didn't mention Demona either.) At any rate, they all would have thought of Goliath and Demona as Clan Parents.

Response recorded on July 27, 2001

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Gabriel writes...

Back again,
Do think Goliath likes James Joyce or William Faulkner? Just wanting to know 'cause I am trying out DUBLINERS, and I always have difficulty reading ABSALOM,ABSALOM! and, after three attempts, can never get past the third chapter! ARGH! I had an easier time with SOUND AND THE FURY. OK, thanks.

Greg responds...

Goliath loves Shakespeare and Dostoyevski. I also love Shakespeare, but have trouble with Dostoyevski. I also LOVE Faulkner and have some trouble with Joyce. It suggests that Goliath's tastes are a bit more mature than mine.

Which is a long way of saying, Yes, he likes both.

Response recorded on July 27, 2001

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Lord Sloth writes...

2198 questions:
1a) how many heads do the space spawn have? Does it varry? b) Do the Space spawn's general appearance varry from one another? By alot?

2a) Is New Camelot still around in 2198? b) Are Arther's decendands running it or anything(I'll be really surprised if you answer THAT) c) Is it connected to Master Matrix?

3) Do the Illuminati still fund the Quarry men in 2198?

Greg responds...

1a. One.

1b. To them, yes.

2a. Before or after March?

2b. ---

2c. Before or after March?

3. Not saying.

Response recorded on July 27, 2001

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Jacob writes...

Hi Greg

Once again I'm gonna ask you about the problem of a garg living at a pole:

You've just said it wouldn't be that easy that he's awake 6 months and sleeps 6 months in stone. But you still haven't given us the faintest idea, what it COULD be like.
Is that because you still don't know or is this just a secret you want to reveal later? If nothing of the former, please tell us what would happen to a gargoyle then.

P.S. *turning to Matt* You started one of your questions: "in your most recent (and long awaited) batch of questions you said that a garg living at the poles in a 6-month day, 6-month night cycle would eventually adapt."
I just want to thank you (if I understood you right), cuz it makes me a bit proud that my very first question was such a hit for someone.

Greg responds...

Sometimes, I'm just not in the mood.

Response recorded on July 20, 2001

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Greg "Xanatos" Bishansky writes...

Does "Gargoyles: 2198" have a pre-planned story-arc? For example, did you already plan a beginning, middle and end for the series, or was it designed to go on forever?

PS> It was great to see you again at the Gathering. Looking forward to it again next summer.

Greg responds...

I have a beginning, middle and end to the space-spawn arc (though I don't pretend to have EVERY detail etched in stone), but we'd have other interesting things happen, so I think it could also go on forever.

Great to see you too, man!

Response recorded on July 20, 2001

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matt writes...

do the LXM robots look like Lex?

can they fly/glide?

did you ever see the Techno Lex action figure Kenner made? i have one and i instantly thought of it the first time i heard about the LXM robots. are the robots similar in looks to that action figure?

Greg responds...

Yes.

Yes.

I must have seen it at some point. But I can't recall it now. I don't think they looked alike. LXM's are chromium in appearance.

Response recorded on July 20, 2001

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Mike M writes...

Q=how would you have developed "puck's" character

Q=would he have had further appearances on the show

Greg responds...

Carefully.

Yes.

Response recorded on July 20, 2001

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Denis writes...

hi, Greg!
Not really a question, just a reply to your call about the script of Rosswell Conspiracies.

As you've read from the technic question about script terminology, I'm the one who bough the script.
I had it for 30 dollars, but could have gone up to 80, which was all the money I had left for the weekend.

I loved your version soooo much more than the one that was aired! Darker, more realistic, and the character much deeper than in the actual animated version. I never really cared for Nick Logan, but Tony Markus, ah! that's another story! He has that Anti-Lee Majors quality around him, that humor. I was LOL with his line, responding to his cousin. "In fact, things got downright charred and rare." Oh gosh I just LOVE that line!
It's really too bad that 1. they didn't use your script as it was and 2. that you didn't got to write more. R.C. could have been the sci-fi pendant of Gargoyles.
ten stars out of five! *back to re-read it again*

Greg responds...

Wow, Denis, thanks. I'm glad someone bought it who appreciates it. It's very gratifying. I liked Tony a lot too. That script wrote very fast. Much easier than most everything I've ever written before or since. It kinda surprised me. And I was blown away when they didn't use it. But that's life...

Response recorded on July 20, 2001

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Vashkoda writes...

I know that for certain characters, you already have a voice actor in mind before you cast them (like Ed Asner for Hudson). Now that you've met Crispin Freeman, I was wondering if you've considered him for the voice of any particular character in the spinoffs you've planned (in the hopes that they will one day get made).

I actually asked him which character he'd like to voice, and he said Griff (but basically he's a big fan of the "Pendragon" episode itself).

Greg responds...

Well, I love Crispin, now. But I also love Neil Dickson, so Crispin's not getting Griff.

To be honest, I haven't thought that far out. Or at least that way. But now you've got me thinking...

Hmmmm....

Response recorded on July 20, 2001

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Lord Sloth writes...

Is Cagney a male or a female kitty?
BTW, I think Cagney is quite cool, and love it whenever <s>he gets an appearence. Would you have ever made an episode all about Cagney?

Greg responds...

Initially, I assumed that Cagney was named after Christine Cagney of Cagney & Lacey, and thus assumed the cat was a she. Later, I was informed by Michael Reaves that Cagney was named after James Cagney -- and thus a he.

An all Cagney episode? I don't know about that. But he'd have gotten more play certainly. Maybe a Bronx and Cagney team-up?

Response recorded on July 20, 2001

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Lord Sloth writes...

Hello Greg.
I just read your responce to my question of how Goliath and Hudson view their homes. I mostly understand now, the Goliath part anywhey. But I still think Hudson would of been the most stubbern about leaving the castle with his "protecting the castle and breathing the air" attitude. What made him so practical at first and then stubbern by reawakening? Sorry if I'm just not getting it.

Greg responds...

I just don't see him as stubborn in Reawakening at all. He simply hadn't made the mental leap from "castle" (i.e. the clock tower) to community (i.e. the island) that Goliath had made. He had had no reason to make that leap until Goliath pointed it out. At which point he saw the light and adjusted instantly.

As for his attitude in Enter Macbeth, I think he had already awakened to find the castle moved from Wyvern weeks earlier. I think he already felt like they had lost their home.

Response recorded on July 20, 2001

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NightAngel writes...

I have read the whole Smart-Ass Responses. And many people have asked what Titania whispered to Fox. And you came up with a SA Responses and didn't tell them. But my question is, do you know what Titania whispered to Fox? Or is it just something that is making us all wonder?

Greg responds...

Can't it be both?

Response recorded on July 20, 2001

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Jacob writes...

What was first in the Gargoyle-Universe, the egg or the gargoyle?

Greg responds...

The tiresome question.

Response recorded on July 20, 2001

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Jacob writes...

Let's say someone would put a spell on Fox so that she can only say the FULL truth and leave nothung out, what would she answer if she's asked what Titania had whispered to her in the night Oberon wanted to Alex away to Avalon?

Greg responds...

"None of your business."

Response recorded on July 20, 2001

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Lord Sloth writes...

Hi Greg, is it July 4th now? You seem to be making quite the effort to catch up to us. Just know that I have a big list of questons that I havn't even asked yet. Anyway, to the question.

When Goliath and co. returned to N.Y., what did they do with the skiff? Did it sink like Arther's? And when they got back, was it from the lake near Belveder Castle, or in from the Atlantic or what?
Tank u.

Greg responds...

It sank. And I like to think they took the same approach as Goliath took in "Future Tense", but without the devastation.

And it's currently July 20th.

Response recorded on July 20, 2001

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Aspen Taylor writes...

This may seem silly, but I was watching the episode Deadly Force on the Avalon web page and something stuck me. The doctor said that the bullet hit high in the chest, but the paramedics applied pressure to her stomach. Later when the dotor was discussing Elisa's condition to her parents, he described in incredibly detailed list of the bullet's path through her chest, from her heart to lungs and collarbone. I'm not a doctor by any means, but in order to make that kind of list as well as try and find the bullet-even if it ultamatly ended up in the base of her spine- would he not have had to crack her chest open for that kind of exploratory surgery? *Shutters at the the though of rib spreaders* Anyway I was just curious. Thanks!

Greg responds...

I'm not a doctor either. We tried to be both devastating and accurate. But I think yours would have to be a question for Michael Reaves who wrote the episode.

Response recorded on July 20, 2001

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Lord Sloth writes...

I take it thet Bronx's sudden appearance in "the Mirror" was an accedent, but did\could you come up with some sort of explanation for how he got there. A non Smart Ass answer would be nice, but I'll try to understand if you can't resist.

Greg responds...

I never said it was an accident. They went and got him.

Response recorded on July 20, 2001

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Kelly L Creighton/Kya White Sapphire writes...

Okay, we've asked you this question before, and you've never really given a strait answer. Nothing says you will now, but here goes:

1) What happens to the stone sleep cycle of gargs in space?

I know the sleep is a biological process that's triggered by the sun. So, would they keep their normal cycle of 12 hours, or would the cycle change.

If you dont want to answer that question:

2) Have you yet figured out what happens to gargoyles in space, and you just dont want to tell us, or are you waiting for divine inspiration? :)

Greg responds...

1. Don't know. Haven't tried it.

2. I'm not sure about divine. But there's a reason why Zafiro and Demona are the one's who join Nokkar, Guardian and LXM on 'the away mission' in space.

Response recorded on July 20, 2001

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Gabriel writes...

Hi Greg,
I was going through the old archives and found that you had a hard time reading MERCHANT OF VENICE because of the anti-semitism you find in it. Well, I just thought you might like to check this out: one of my soon-to-be professors wrote a book called SHYLOCK AND THE JEWISH QUESTION, where he argues that MERCHANT... is not, in fact, an anti-semetical work at all. I didn't read that book, but I just thought to shed some new light or somehting like that. Oh, and if you do want to check this book out, the author's name is Martin Yaffe.

Greg responds...

Thanks, I've heard of that book. Haven't gotten around to reading it yet.

In the long run, however, I personally don't think MERCHANT OF VENICE succeeds as an anti-semitic work. In fact, quite the reverse it winds up on the whole playing as, uh, pro-semitic?

But there are clear anti-semitic assumptions built into the work. Built into how Shakespeare was raised. Things that he doesn't know how to escape, may not even want to escape... but largely overcomes -- in spite of his intentions, to my mind. Because his power in drawing characters is so tremendous that he doesn't know how to create the stock Jewish villain without giving that character real life.

Response recorded on July 20, 2001

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Jacob writes...

Sorry, two mistakes in my first letter. Here's the correct(?) one:

Let's say someone would put a spell on Fox so that she can only say the FULL truth and leave nothing out, what would she answer if she's asked what Titania had whispered to her in the night Oberon wanted to take Alex away to Avalon?

Greg responds...

"ARRGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!!!!!"

Response recorded on July 20, 2001

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Vashkoda writes...

*lol* After reading your latest batch of answers, you've reminded me why I had you write that message on the back of my Thailog card.

I'd asked you who was a changeling other than Morgana, and you answered, "Nimue". I thought only the elf child that took the baby's place was called a changeling, but I guess you're using the name both ways (which makes sense). So let me rephrase my questions and ask, "Have any changelings other than Morgana and Nimue appeared in the series? Will any appear in the spinoffs you've planned?"

It was nice seeing you again, Greg!

Greg responds...

Ever?

Response recorded on July 20, 2001

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Lord Sloth writes...

What part did Roddy McDowell play in Gargoyles?

Greg responds...

Proteus.

Response recorded on July 20, 2001

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Anonymous writes...

Which came first the Master Matrix or New Camelot? Who created the Master Matrix?

Greg responds...

No one created the Master Matrix exactly. It more evolved. So there's no chicken & egg thing here. It's too complex to break down into a one-sentence answer.

Things just evolve.

Response recorded on July 20, 2001

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Gipdac writes...

I had a question/comment. This is the history of Excalibur I got from one of the most brilliant people on the face of the Earth, my English teacher, Dr. Randy Lee Eickhoff, about a year ago:
Excalibur was forged by Hephaestus in Greece around 1000 BC. Then it was taken by a band of nomads (they have a name, and I honestly can't remember it), who traveled through Europe, and ended up in England. From then on the sword was handed down from great warrior to king, etc. Then Fergus Mac Roth, a King of Ulster, gained control of the sword Excalibur, at this time it was called Caliburn. Fergus was a key player in the story of Medb (Maeve), the warrior-queen of Connacht, and Cuchullain. Later Fergus and Medb had a love affair and one day while they were making love on a raft in the middle of a lake Medb's husband found them, he picked up Fergus' sword, Excalibur, and throw it at him. The sword stabbed him through the heart, and his body, still on the raft, floated down stream. And that is how the Lady of the Lake obtained the sword.
I was just wonder if that is close to the history of Excalibur in the Gargoyles Universe.
*Just a couple of quick notes:
Most people believe that Mab and Medb could have been the same person, and anyone who enjoys Irish myths should read "The Raid" by Randy Lee Eickhoff

Greg responds...

I'd have to do my own research, and -- with all do respect to you and Dr. Eickhoff -- not just take your words for it. Some of it is new to me, some isn't.

But, hey, Todd? Does this stuff sound familiar to you?

Response recorded on July 20, 2001

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Gipdac writes...

Okay, you'll need your timeline out, so please have it handy or don't answer these questions until you have it. Thank you.
In the Gargoyles Universe, what years were the following people born:
(all the original one's from the Arthur legends)
1) Merlin?
2) Morgana le Fay?
3) Nimue?
4) Gwenyvere?
5) Lancelot?
6) Blanchefleur?
7) Gawain?
8) Percival?
9) Galahad?

Greg responds...

Haven't pinned a single one of these down at this time. Given that I have pinned down Arthur's dates, it wouldn't be too hard to extrapolate the rest -- if by too hard you meant weeks (if not months) of research and development.

Response recorded on July 20, 2001

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Greg "Xanatos" Bishansky writes...

I already know that this isn't true, but a friend and I have a bet, and I'd like to settle this.

Morgana is not one of the Weird Sisters, is she?

Greg responds...

No.

Response recorded on July 20, 2001

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matt writes...

suddenly all these people started coming out of the closet in the Comment Room, and i thought of a question:

you've said there are gay gargoyles, and there are certaintly gay humans, so if S & P had not been around or had approved it do you think you would have ever made on episode based on homosexuality?

are any known characters gay in "Gargoyles"?

Greg responds...

I'm not going to answer the last question at this time.

I try not to do episodes ON things. I know, I know, you'll point to THE GREEN or LIGHTHOUSE or DEADLY FORCE, but these are stories first and foremost. OUTFOXED was in many ways more about "Integrity" than Deadly Force was about gun safety.

Having logged that whole caveat, I think we would have eventually introduced the existence of homosexuality in the context of a need to tolerate differences and diversity in humans and gargoyles alike (at a minimum -- as I've mentioned before, I find tolerance by itself insufficient).

Is that clear as mud or does that make sense?

Response recorded on July 18, 2001

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Lord Sloth writes...

I can tell from what you put on my post(and other posts), that Entity's expasion on the vocabulary thing will make you pretty happy. I wanted to say a lot of that to, but I'm not as good with words. It's hard to believe though, that Power Rangers did better better then Gargs, when it's vocab pretty much limited to "Lets get em you guys" and the like. Here are some other good words from Gargoyles: Mechiabelliant<sp???>, enchilon, odyssey, avatar(did I mention that one already?), popirus, humility and some good latin words as well. A few times it seemed a little unrealistic (his reverse phicoligy was pretty blaitent), but otherwise, it has great sentance structure & dialouge(which is more than I can say for myself). That's all I've gota say, except sorry about my bad spelling.

Greg responds...

Yeah, I think you REALLY need to work on that. (I guess Gargoyles didn't help much with spelling.) But thanks. And here's a bit of help...

I'm guessing on some of these corrections:

expansion
Machiavellian
[enchilon -- I have no clue on this one. Enchilada?]
odyssey
avatar
papyrus
humility
reverse psychology
blatent
sentence
dialogue
got to

Response recorded on July 18, 2001

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Entity writes...

Hi again,

This is on Xanatos. Someone asked about the logic of Xanatos going through all of the trouble of bringing the gargs to life, only to have them steal some disks, then to just wastefully try to eradicate them with the Steel Clan. I have been conflicted with this contradiction in Xanatos' character as well, and I think it is a result of so much having to be inferred from the episodes. As viewers we are accustomed to being handed everything on a silver platter. Mainstream America is lazy like that. But in a 22-minute cartoon, you didn't have that kind of time. You couldn't explain everything. So characterization, especially, needed to be shown not told.

In Xanatos' case, he really is more of the trickster than the megalomaniac. In the show we got more of an impression of control and dominance. This is the air that X likes to put off. Cool and collected. With a master plan for everything. This was mostly a FRONT. The REAL Xanatos is, as you've accentuated through your episode reviews, a trickster. He lives by the moment. He's a thrill seeker. He makes up his plans as he goes along. That's why his plan in "Metamorphosis" seemed so flimsy, as so many Ask Gregers have brought up. That's why he seemed to change priorities so much in the first season. He re-evaluated. And if you think about it, this more dynamic approach to his character makes his 'reformation' all the more plausible. X, whether we've realized it or not, was in a constant state of change throughout the entire series.

Greg responds...

Sure.

Although, I don't think I agree with the flimsy making-it-all-up as you go along FRONT interpretation.

He is a Trickster, but a well-prepared one. (No magic to rely on.) He does adapt, but he also plans. And he enjoys the game, so results don't always matter as much to him.

Response recorded on July 18, 2001

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Entity writes...

Hi Greg,

Wow, you can definitely tell the difference between your pre-LA and post-LA responses. ;)

I just had to join Sloth in complimenting you and the other writers who worked on Gargoyles on the unbridled freedom of vocabulary you embraced. In too many cartoon shows, the dialogue is dumbed down to the point where you get angry that someone's actually getting paid for writing it. Adults tend to not realize that kids appreciate good entertainment. They aren't just mesmorized by pretty flashies. And dialogue is a pivotal part of good entertainment. Now that I think about it, I believe Gargoyles has had an even bigger impact on me than I've previously imagined. Words like "cliche" and "naivete" are ones I got directly from Gargoyles. Sure I've seen them elsewhere, but I GOT them from Gargoyles. I'm about to start my first year at college and I am majoring in Creative/Professional Writing (haven't decided between the two yet). Gargoyles is probably the influence that drove me most toward the decision to take my life in that direction. I realize that Gargoyles really was an educational program, and I'm not speaking of the few token episodes that dealt with gun control or literacy or deforestation. Watching Gargoyles made me smart. It is like the anti-cartoon, because it did precisely the opposite of what most typical children's entertainment does, at least when you or Michael Reeves isn't on deck: vegetabilize.

Greg responds...

What is the difference between my "pre-LA and post-LA responses"? Since I'm ALWAYS in L.A., I'm not sure what you mean.

But otherwise, thanks. As a writer and teacher you couldn't have paid me (or Michael, if I might briefly speak for him) a higher compliment.

Response recorded on July 18, 2001

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Blaise writes...

Hi again!

This question actually deals with the credits listing of the series (yeah, I know it seems I have too much time on my hands, but that's beside the point).
Two things about GARGOYLES' credits stood out. The first you already talked about--the writers recieving credit at the beginning of episodes during the first season. The second however I also found to be quite interesting--GARGOYLES actually gave a true cast list. Usually in these Disney shows, when the credits say, "With the Voice Talents of..." they just lump the actors' names together without telling who they played. GARGOYLES was the first Disney animated series I know of (BUZZ LIGHTYEAR did it later) that actually listed both the actors and the characters they played. This enabled me to (when I started taping the episodes and could hit pause) more fully discover just how diverse and talented this cast was. I could recognize names and see if a person played multiple roles, and I was quite pleased.

So...
1) Is there any story behind this, like there was for giving the writers' credit up front?
2) Whatever the case, I'm glad I could know who played who.

Thanks!

Greg responds...

I don't know if this would qualify as a story, but I liked how Batman the animated series listed who played who. It seemed to show more respect for the actors (and as I was a fan of Batman) more respect for the fans who might be VCRing the thing and want to know.

So we followed their lead. And I'm glad we did. I tried to talk SONY into doing that for Starship and/or Max Steel, but they weren't interested.

Response recorded on July 18, 2001

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Lady Leto writes...

First of all, I just wanted to say that I love Gargoyles and would like to thank you for sharing your idea with us.

I was watching the episode; 'Vendetta' and I couldn't believe Vinnie. I am very curious to find know, how did you think of this character?

Thanks for your time.

Greg responds...

A combination of factors went into the creation of Vinnie.

In no particular order:

1) We asked Jeff Bennett to play the role of a dumb Gen-U-Tech security guard. He put on this great Vinnie Barbarino voice (from Welcome Back, Kotter). It was hilarious.

2) I had this idea to do an episode about the nameless schlub that the gargoyles had effected without ever knowing it.

3) Brynne Chandler had this idea about Goliath getting a pie in the face.

4) I had a separate idea about Wolf and Hakon teaming up to get vengeance on Goliath.

It all just came together. Strangely. The episode was supposed to be a comedic change of pace from the rest of the series. I don't think the animation supported the comedy very well. But it was the first episode I ever voice directed, so I'm fond of it.

Response recorded on July 18, 2001

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Jimmy writes...

If gargoyles evolved before humans and the fay, what did they to protect?

Greg responds...

Each other, as usual, and whatever else was around. Also that long ago, I'm not guaranteeing that GARGOYLES PROTECT was the big slogan.

Response recorded on July 18, 2001

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Steven L. writes...

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.

Greg responds...

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.

Response recorded on July 18, 2001

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Shan writes...

I'm not intending to be smartass with this one, just genuinely curious. About the clock tower: do you think the cops in the station below ever noticed that all of a sudden they had gargoyle statues up there and wondered where they came from? (there were scenes that clearly depict our heroes turning to stone outside) Or do you think the cops too busy doing their jobs to notice/care? Thank you, especially because I realize how trivial it is. But the thought keeps recurring...

Greg responds...

Occasionally, someone would look up and see the statues and try to remember if they were there before. AFter a while everyone just got used to them.

Response recorded on July 17, 2001

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JEB writes...

Is there a direct connection between the Director and the terrorist from "City of Stone"? (Yes or no is fine.)

Thanks!

Greg responds...

Define "direct".

Response recorded on July 17, 2001

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Lord Sloth writes...

Would you say the Wierd Sister's Loyalty lies mostly in:
a)Oberon
b)Titanya
c)Archmage
d)Themselves
you have 30 seconds(probably more like 2 months) to decide.

Greg responds...

Their tri-part mission.

Response recorded on July 17, 2001

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Alex Wittenberg writes...

In "Hunter's Moon," Xanatos and Owen seem rather unsurprised that the Gargoyles were based at the clocktower above Maza's stationhouse. Is this because Xanatos realized how obvious that should have been when he heard the news, or because at some point before this he figured it out and chose not to pursue it?

Greg responds...

Does it matter?

Response recorded on July 17, 2001

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Eddie Brock writes...

Hellow Greg, I'm from spain, I've discovered this page recently and i'm astonished because of the tons of information about gargs, I've seen the archive about gargs 2198 but i have a question, What is or what will be gargs 2198, a fanfiction or what? Thanks for all sorry if this is a silly question.

Greg responds...

It's merely a proposal for a sequel series that I hope to someday produce in one medium or another.

Response recorded on July 17, 2001

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Sapphire writes...

Dear Mr. Weisman

In reference to earlier questions on the god of the Torah, Bible, and the Koran you said that there is a sepreme god in the gargoyles universe but he/she/it is not the god defined by the narrow views of the Abrahamic faiths who is in reality a god of one nation. my questions are

1) What is the personality of the sepreme god of the universe in the the gargoyles universe is he/she/it mean, kind,or neutral.

2) If the god described in the Torah, Bible, and Koran is not the god of the universe then is he a make believe deity or was he a fay in disguise playing tricks on the ancient Israelites before Oberon ordered his children not to directly interfere in the lives of mortals at large?

Greg responds...

1. I'm not going to define GOD for you. Not even in the Gargoyles Universe.

2. An interpretation of the whole.

Response recorded on July 17, 2001

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chirco1999@aol.com writes...

Greg,
My 4 year old son abosolutely loves Gargoyles. We can no longer get him to go to bed early. He has to stay up and watch Gargoyles at 10pm. He even acts out the opening as Goliath breaks out of his stone and growls. A pretty awesome sight when you get to see it. Anyhow, my question is: were there ever any action figures made and if so, would you know how my husband and I coulf get ahold of them? Thank you Susanne Chirco

Greg responds...

Thanks for writing Susanne,

Yes, Kenner did make action figures. Finding them these days might be tough. Have you tried e-bay? Or one of the comment rooms?

Response recorded on July 17, 2001

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matt writes...

you said that Yama is blackmailed into joining The Redemption Squad cuz the Director knows the secret of Ishimura. now obviously Yama at least partially still wants to "come out" to the human world about gargs, you've even said that in a way Yama is right about that, but is the Director as un-trustworthy as Taro was? would the Director really reveal the secret? or does Yama want to be revealed to the world, but wants to get back in the good with Sora and his clan?

Greg responds...

Yama is done making decisions FOR his clan. At least in his own mind. He's more interested in protecting them, in restoring his honor, etc.

Response recorded on July 17, 2001

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matt writes...

1. did Sora know about the theme park thing and Yama's involvement in it?

2. was she esspecially mad at Yama for his betrayal of the clan?

3. their relationship is going to be a rough one isn't it? what with him betraying the clan and getting outcasted and all...

Greg responds...

1. No.
2. Yes.
3. Uh, duh.

Response recorded on July 17, 2001

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Denis writes...

Hello, Greg!

Sorry that I didn't got to attend the Closing Ceremonies, last monday, at the Gathering. Anyway, to the question.

During the Auction, I bought the script of the ROSWELL CONSPIRACIES' pilot, and frankly I loved it! WAAYYY better than the one that was aired!. My question is purely 'technical' and concern one of the terms used in the script:

when you write "OTS on <Character's Name>", what does mean the OTS? And how does it translate on screen?

Thank you for your time

sincerly,
Denis

Greg responds...

OTS stands for Over The Shoulder. It means the Camera is placed at an angle looking over the characters shoulder onto the subject of the shot. (It foregrounds said character and puts him or her in relation to the action or background).

And I'm glad you liked the Roswell script!

Great to see you at the Gathering again, by the way.

Response recorded on July 17, 2001

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Lord Sloth writes...

Future Tense:
1 Why didn't Goliath just let Puck have the Phenix gate?
2 Why didn't Puck just ask for the Phenix gate?
3 What would be so bad about Oberon having time traval acsess?
4 How was Goliath able to create the phenix flame above him instead of around him?

Greg responds...

1. Would you after what you had been through?
2. Not in his nature, and it wouldn't have worked.
3. What would be so good about it?
4. He used the Gate.

Response recorded on July 17, 2001

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matt writes...

i'm going to try to guess the date you're reading this and i think it'll be a bit less then the current two month wait cuz i bet you'll try to catch up before the next contest so: is it August 8? lol, do i get another prize if i'm right?

by the way, your most recent batch of questions was extremely interesting and hilarious, as usual. esspecially Arthur's other Avalon adventure, and (LOL) masturbating gargoyles. its been a while since i've laughed that much!

ok, question time:

1. you recently said that if a gargoyle slept in caves for day after day after day they would begin to have ill effects from lack of sunlight, but you've said that the Korean and Loch Ness clans live in caves. so, did you mean that they sleep outside the caves, i guess?

2. do gargoyle eggs need sunlight ever or are they fine spending their ten year incubation in caves and rookeries?

maybe i'm just really tired or something and kinda giddy, but i'm still laughing about masturbating gargoyles. interesting you won't tell us about gargs going to the bathroom, but you'll tell us about them masturbating! LOL

Greg responds...

Not even close. July 17.

1. I love it when people are DETERMINED to trip me up.

2. I'm not committing.

Shows where my heads at, I guess.

Response recorded on July 17, 2001

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Mary Mack writes...

I was just skimming through the Garg Science archive, and I ran across a post by Faieq asking about colored irises, and whether or not gargoyles had them. She came to the conclusion that gargs had no irises, since the dim moonlight would be enough for them. I don't think that works, biologically, because sophisticated animals (humans included) have irises-- involuntary sphincters which control how much light enters the eye, constricting to prevent damage from too much light and expanding to let in more light in darkness. Gargoyles, like cats, probably have excellent night vision, being all noctournal and stuff, so they HAVE to have irises.

Maybe their eyes are just predominantly dark, like horses and dogs, with light blue eyes cropping up occaisionally.

Dunno why I went on so long. I was actually just checking for your next Gathering ramble (It's still June at this writing), and for some reason I just had to mention the horse/dog/iris thing.

Thanks for your time.

Greg responds...

Thank you. Sounds reasonable.

Response recorded on July 17, 2001

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matt writes...

you said gargoyle fetuses turn to stone inside their eggs to store energy. what do you mean? i doubt they would store energy collected from the sun seeing as how they are inside eggs deep inside a cave and probably don't see much sunlight. what energy are they storing?

Greg responds...

thermal. And the shell is also made of that same organic stone.

(Like I know, geez.)

Response recorded on July 17, 2001

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Lord Sloth writes...

When Brooklen became leader for a short time, did he choose a 2nd in command from Lex or Broodway?

Does Katana have a beak like Brooklen?

Greg responds...

Not saying.

Not saying.

Response recorded on July 17, 2001

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Lord Sloth writes...

Gathering questions:
1a) Why does Oberon need a tracker to find Puck(a fellow fey), when both Titanya and the Wierd Sisters were able to locate the Gargoyles in the clock tower? b)Why could Oberon sence Titanya and not Puck? c)How was Budicca able to track Owen from the Park to the castle? Had Owen been frolicking in the park earlier?

2a)Did Titanya want things to end up as they did from the begining? b) If she did, how was she sure Puck would of shown up? c) If she didn't, then should I assume she wanted Gargoyles to help take the baby, and it wasn't reverse pyicoligy?

3)Why were nither Rinard, Vogel, nor the Gargoyle's put to sleep? Am I right in thinking Titanya protected them?

4)How did Rinard know about the danger? Did Xanatos or Titanya ask him for help?

5a) Why would the people of manhaten, think this was all a midsummer night's dream, with all the car crashes, injuries and, probably, deaths that occured? b) Would not all that damage break the non-interferance law?

Good luck with these, for all our sakes.

Greg responds...

1a. He was in the mood. Besides, Puck is better at hiding.
1b. Puck is not his wife/soulmate.
1c. It's a magic flute, man. Just flow with it!

2a. So she says.
2b. Intuition?
2c. I'm not going to interpret it for you.

3. Renard and Vogel were not in Manhattan when the spell was first cast. Also they had an energy field around the bridge.

4. Yes. Xanatos informed him.

5a. That's Oberon's interpretation.
5b. From his point of view, he didn't cause the damage. He was merely taking the mortals out of a conflict that would have interfered with their lives. The damage was a minor repercussion.

Response recorded on July 17, 2001

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Todd Jensen writes...

You recently (as of June 29) mentioned that New Olympus is a representative democracy. However, in the television episode, the New Olympians (during the scene where Elisa is on trial in the Senate-house; I believe that it's Ekidna who says it) describe their homeland as a kingdom. How do we reconcile these statements? Was there some sort of change in government system since New Olympus was originally founded?

Greg responds...

Yes.

Response recorded on July 17, 2001

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Lord Sloth writes...

In the Gathering, part 1, how did Goliath feel, upon returning, when Elisa called Broodway "Big Guy"? Why did Elisa use Goliath's nick name on Broodway? I'm not to conserned, just curious.

Greg responds...

"Big Guy" is Goliath's nick name?

Response recorded on July 17, 2001

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DISAPPOINTING NEWS...

On Friday the 13th, July 2001, the staff and etc. of Disney's Team Atlantis was informed that the series was being scrapped. Being a freelance Voice Director, I wasn't at the meeting, but I've been told that the company is disappointed with the box office of the Atlantis film and have decided not to spend additional monies on a series.

(There may still be a direct to video sequel. That had not been decided as of Friday.)

So basically we're all unemployed and all the work that we did up to this point just gets tossed into a file cabinet. WHOOPIE!

On the plus side, as long as I continue to be involved with killed projects we will never lack for Radio Play materials at future Gatherings.


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Nieuws writes...

What clan did demona link up with after Goliath and the others were frozen? When she lead them to stealing food. In "City of Stone".

Greg responds...

It was a remnant of multiple decimated Scotish clans.

Response recorded on July 11, 2001

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Shan (formerly SEM) writes...

Pardon the parenthetical, I'm transitioning myself to the moniker I'd prefer on the boards and the comment room. (Greg, I wanted to be able to ask you questions in near anonymity while I was in your class and I thought since "Shan" matched the email I had on file for class you might figure it out...)

Anyway, to the question: did you have any plans to feature Jeffrey Robbins (Hudson's visually impaired friend) in the future?

Greg responds...

Yep. (And you worry too much. I'm not paying that close attention.)

Response recorded on July 11, 2001

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Scott Iskow writes...

Since you liked using actual locations in "Gargoyles," I was wondering if you mapped out the clan's patrol routes. If you did so, would you care to reveal it?

Greg responds...

No, I didn't. I'm not even sure they were consistent. I'm not sure that would be productive.

Response recorded on July 11, 2001

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The Souldier writes...

What's Broadway's Favorite food?

Greg responds...

What isn't?

Response recorded on July 11, 2001

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Demoness writes...

~Oberon~

Did you ever have a name for Oberon's mortal form that we see in "The Gathering"? If so, what is it?

Is that his latest form he used while living in the 20th Century, like Anastasia Renard is for Titania?

Greg responds...

Not at this time.

Response recorded on July 11, 2001

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matt writes...

ok, i'm finally clear on the amount and sexes of the beast on Avalon! two females, including Boudicca, and one male, so:

1. are the other female and male beast mates?

2. are either of them related to Bronx?

3. if there are three beast, and Angela said she had fifteen rookery sisters, that means there are seventeen male gargs in the Avalon rookery (3 beasts + 16 females + 17 males = 36 gargoyles) am i wrong?

Greg responds...

1. They will be eventually, if not already.

2. Haven't thought about it.

3. Doesn't appear wrong.

Response recorded on July 11, 2001

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Gipdac writes...

1) How many children will Gabriel and Ophelia have?
2) What are their names?
3) Will any of their children become involved with any of the children of Manhattan clan?
4) Will the Avalon clan raise their eggs collectively or individually by the biological parents?
5) Will any of Gabriel & Ophelia's children appear in GARGOYLES 2198?

Greg responds...

1. Not telling.
2. Won't, Tell and You.
3. Can't say.
4. Collectively.
5. This was JUST asked!

Response recorded on July 11, 2001

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Gipdac writes...

1) Is Zaphiro from GARGOYLES 2198 the same age as Samson and Delilah? I think he is, but you never said for sure.
2) Will the ORIGINAL Alexander Fox still be alive in 2198?
3) Besides Coyote X, will any members of the Pack (or Super Pack) appear in Gargoyles 2198?
4) What is the environmental state of Earth by 2158? Now that the revamping is over.
5) Would any descendants of the London clan be major characters in 2158? For that matter, would any descendants of any of the clans we've seen so far be major characters? Besides Zafiro. Now that the revamping is over.
6) Will any of Gabriel & Ophelia's children appear in GARGOYLES 2198?
7) Before who is the leader of the Manhattan clan in 2197 (a year before 2198).

Greg responds...

1. Yes.
2. Yes.
3. Not saying.
4. By 2158? Why that year? By 2198, it's not a disaster, but there are still dangers.
5. Are these 2158s typos, or are you making some distinction I'm not getting? I've already mentioned the MAJOR characters in the contest results. Those ARE the MAJOR characters. Minor characters will come from all over.
6. Not saying.
7. The same guy who was leader in 2198 until he was captured in March.

Response recorded on July 11, 2001

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Gipdac writes...

Is Puck one of Oberon and Titania's children? Keep in mind; if you say something like I can't tell or won't say, I'll take that as an affirmative answer.

Greg responds...

Well, Gipdac if you take every "not telling" as an affirmative you're just going to be wrong a lot.

But I will answer this. CUZ I'VE ANSWERED IT BEFORE!!!

No, Puck is not one of Oberon and Titania's children. What even gave you that impression?

Response recorded on July 11, 2001

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Blaise writes...

Hi Greg!
This is about two days after the Convention, and I just wanted to say how great it was seeing/meeting you and the rest of the cast and crew of GARGOYLES (or at least a sizable portion of them) in person. I also enjoyed seeing the various pitches you had (I LOVE Sphinx's design--though I doubt that was at all final), and hearing the stories surrounding the various aspects of the show.

Kudos to you, Jennifer, Patrick, Kathy, and the rest of the Con staff, volunteers, and guest for making this an extremely memorable Con.
(Of course, by the time you read this it will have been MONTHS in the past, but the good feelings are still that strong.)

Greg responds...

Well, not months. Just weeks. And it's hard to believe even that much time has passed. I had a great time too. It was nice to finally meet you, and thanks for being Matt for an evening.

Response recorded on July 11, 2001

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Regina writes...

I have been a gragoyles since the beginning just like the x-files. I just wanted to say that the gragoyles was the best and is stille the best show around. It hasthe x-files appeal to it plus it is just cool liek ed the sock chao

Greg responds...

I lost you at the end there, but thanks.

Response recorded on July 11, 2001

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Lord Sloth writes...

Was there a reason that so many of the world tour eps were about locals learning to accept thier responcibility and or heritage seriously (ie. heritage, hound of ulster, cloud fathers, golem)?

Greg responds...

Yes. Absolutely.

Response recorded on July 11, 2001

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Anonymous writes...

What exactly is the dreamtime? Is it like the astral plane?

Greg responds...

Uh... sure.

Response recorded on July 11, 2001

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Demoness writes...

Where is the Eerie Building located exactly in New York? I would like a general idea of where its located. And if you could give the street name its on, thats fine too. If not, how close to the Empire State Building, Crysler Buidling, Center Park, World Trade Center, or Hudson River is it?

So...to help you on this. Your standing on the promenades of the Observatory of the Empire State Building.

North of you is Center Park and the Crysler Building
East of you is the Hudson River (i think)
West- dont know whats west of the ESB
South of you are the twin towers of the World Trade Center.

Greg responds...

East would be the East River. West would be the Hudson River.

And it's CenTRAL Park and the Chrysler Building.

Anyway, it's on Central Park South, I believe. Directly across the street from the park. If you look at a map of the city it should be pretty clear.

And it's Eyrie Building. Not Eerie.

Response recorded on July 11, 2001

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Lord Sloth writes...

What presinct does Peter Maza work at if not the 23rd? He is still a cop right? What was the name of Peter's dad?

Greg responds...

Yes, as of 1996 at least, Peter was still a cop. A desk Sergeant at another precinct, which I have not, to date, numbered.

Peter's father was Carlos Maza.

Response recorded on July 11, 2001

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matt writes...

ok, a beast generally lays more than three eggs in a lifetime. and you are being difficult (as always) and not being very specific... ok, we know that beast mature and can mate a generation before other gargs, and we know that beast live about the same length of time that other gargs do, but can beast continue having children after other gargs stop? if not then garg beast can have about 4 eggs, if so, they could have alot of eggs, i think.

so, how many eggs can a female garg beast generally lay?

Greg responds...

The world may never know.

(That smart-ass response was a reference to an old tootsie-pop commercial. Anyone old enough to remember it has my sympathy.)

Response recorded on July 11, 2001

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Gipdac writes...

1) You've said that Bronx will have children. How many children will he and his mate (Boudicca, right?) have?
2) Will they have names?
3) If the answer to two is yes, then what are their names?
4) Will they be raised on Avalon or in Manhattan?

Greg responds...

1. Not saying.
2. Yes.
3. Not and Saying.
4. Not saying.

Response recorded on July 11, 2001

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Gipdac writes...

How does Jon Castaway (Canmore) die?

Greg responds...

Mortally.

Response recorded on July 11, 2001

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The Souldier writes...

When a gargoyle walks across a hard wood floor do they leave claw marks in it?

Greg responds...

I have no more funny answers to this question.

Response recorded on July 11, 2001

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matt writes...

so you've confirmed that Atlantis definitly existed or exists in the Gargoyles Universe. are the Gargoyles Universe and the "Atlantis"/Team:Atlantis Universe compatible or the same universe?

Greg responds...

I'm not gonna go into detail, but Atlantis did exist in the Gargoyles Universe. The Garg Universe and the Team Atlantis Universe overlap in Paris in 1920. (Didn't I answer this already?)

Response recorded on July 11, 2001

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Tynne writes...

I remember a while back you wrote about enjoying Scott McCloud's recent Zot! Online revivial.

Do you currently enjoy any other comics (whether online, newspaper, or print books).

Thank you.

Greg responds...

I read the entire L.A. Times Comic section everyday -- even the ones I hate -- out of habit and compulsion. I still love Doonesbury. Dilbert's amusing. I like Get Fuzzy a lot. The rest range from pretty good to just awful.

Response recorded on July 11, 2001

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John writes...

Hi Greg,
This one is a personal question:
In this year, we had and we will have some great movies, and we have a new trend: Movies about computer games. My question is, wich of these ones will/have you seen, and what do you think about them?

Almost Famous
Traffic
Tomb Raider (game)
Resident Evil (game)
Final Fantasy (game)
Lord of the Rings
Harry Potter
A.I.
Shrek

Ok, Thank you for awnsering. have a nice day:-)

CU, John

Greg responds...

I enjoyed Almost Famous a great deal. I also enjoyed Shrek.

Haven't seen the rest, and some of them aren't even out yet. I'm not sure what you expect me to say about a Lord of the Rings movie that I couldn't possibly have seen yet? If you're looking for me to pre-judge something, that ain't gonna happen.

Response recorded on July 11, 2001

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DougJoe writes...

You once said that Duval formed the Illuminati to "make things right". As of "The Journey", does Duval feel he's achieved any degree of success? Or does he feel things have gotten worse? Or maybe a little of each?

Greg responds...

He feels he's generally on track.

Response recorded on July 11, 2001

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Gipdac writes...

1) How long do female gargoyles carry their eggs?
2) Could a female gargoyle ever have a miscarriage while they were pregnant for their egg? Or if their egg dose not hatch is that considered a miscarriage?

Greg responds...

1. About six months.
2a. Yes.
2b. I'm not sure that's the appropriate term, but the emotional result is the same.

Response recorded on July 11, 2001

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Lord Sloth writes...

"I'll meet by moonlight" questions:
1 How does that name apply to the episode?
2 Why did Titanya and Oberon bother to make such a grand entrance? Or was that Avalon welcoming them back?
3 When Goliath, Gabreal and Angie fall into that water being filled filled by very hot lava, should not the water be too hot to swim in?
4 When Oberon made Goliath & his clan immune to his arts, was this some sota spell to make Oberon and his childern's magic not affect him, or was he saying he wouln't use his magic agenst them, or what?
5 By the end of the Gathering, did Oberon renew his promise about Goliath and clan being immune to his arts?

Greg responds...

Not "I'll meet". "Ill Met". Very different.

1. It was an ill meeting under the moon when Oberon meets our gang. It's also a Shakespearean reference from "A Midsummer Night's Dream" the scene where Shakespeare introduces Oberon and Titania.

2. They do everything grand.

3. Stop calling her Angie.

4. Both.

5. He didn't have to. His word is law.

Response recorded on July 11, 2001

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LSZ writes...

Where was the island of the Tempest in the Gargoyle universe? Does it still exist?

Greg responds...

See my previous response.

Response recorded on July 11, 2001

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LSZ writes...

1) In the Gargoyles universe, what happened to Caliban at the end of the Tempest?
2) Chronologically, where are the events of the Tempest placed in the Garg universe?

Greg responds...

1. Not telling how the Tempest will be integrated.
2. See 1.

Response recorded on July 11, 2001

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Lord Sloth writes...

How did Xanatos know what Iago and Desdemona looked like when he desined their robots?

Greg responds...

I could have sworn I've answered this. He accessed Coldstone's memory banks.

Response recorded on July 11, 2001

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Gipdac writes...

Okay, originally someone asked you what made Anubis connected to death. Your answer was "Fay are tied to the pure magic of Earth. Individual fae have different 'connections', just as individual humans have different talents, etc. Anubis and other "death gods" come by it naturally". My question is this:
1) Does Alex have any special connection? Any particular magical talent that comes naturally to him?
2) If so, what are they?

Greg responds...

1. Too soon to tell, isn't it?
2. See 1.

Response recorded on July 11, 2001

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Jim R. writes...

1. In "Journey" you introduced John Castaway. Would he be involved in any way, in any of your spinoffs? The reason I ask is, I know he won't be alive in 2198. (Maybe his great grandson or some relative) But other than 2198 are you planning anything more with him?

2. Since I know you only worked on one episode of TGC, would you personally (should your spinoffs come back to TV) ignore what has taken place in the remaining episodes of the TGC seeing how you were not involved in their creation? Or were some of the TGC episodes ideas yours which you were planning before your contract ran out? I don't think some episodes can be completely ignored. However I hated that in TGC, they killed off the clones. What is your take on this?

3. By the way, since the Gathering 2001 is over, may I ask if there was any petitioning done to jumpstart Gargoyles and make it TV-borne again? If so, how'd it go?

Greg responds...

1. Yes.

2. I've answered this before too. My current thinking, which is not etched in stone, is to ignore what I don't consider canon. Enough time has passed and any new episodes would need to stand on their own two feet anyway. If anyone's confused about contradictions between TGC and the new stuff, they can check out the internet site that we will have to clarify all this stuff.

3. I didn't see any petitions. Feel like starting one? I'd focus on DVD's for now.

Incidentally, your post here should theoretically have been broken up into three posts, since your questions were on three separate topics. I haven't reminded people of that in a while. I ignored the rule breaking this time, but don't make a habit of it.

Response recorded on July 11, 2001

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Lord Sloth writes...

Have you noticed, in "Metamorphesis", when Brooklen is in the ally trying to save Maggie, and a tranquilizer hits him, he shouts "Argk" or something, but it sounds quite a lot like "Fuck". I think there is an other instant in Gargoyles where this happens. So I was wondering if you or anyone else had noticed it and if there were any problems or conflects in releasing it.

Greg responds...

I have not noticed that. Neither did anyone else at Disney or it would have been corrected. Is it at all possible, my Lord, that you have a dirty mind?

Response recorded on July 11, 2001

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Lord Sloth writes...

I was wondering, in making Gargoyles, was there some rule that you were not aloud to show someone getting getting fataly stabed? Though there is much use of swords, when someone dies, it is almost always from falling from high, or (in Broodway's case) being shot. I guess it would probably be too graphic, but could you give comfrimation?

Greg responds...

We could not show a stabbing on screen, no. Macbeth got stabbed, but not on camera. We did have a rule about not demonstrating imitatible behavior to children.

Response recorded on July 11, 2001

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Lord Sloth writes...

Why does almost every episode of Gargoyles take place under a full moon? Does every big event just happen to happen every 28 days?

Greg responds...

No. That was artistic license. No other possible explanation.

Response recorded on July 11, 2001

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Steven L. writes...

In general, did you enjoy telling stories that all ages could relate to, or were there times when you felt frustrated that you had a great idea for a more adult story or issue to explore, but couldn't due to the restraints of being a "children's show"? A bit of both?

Greg responds...

I loved what I was doing. I do occasionally have a dirty mind. But I'm happy to fill it with details left off screen. All the themes I wanted to address I could. I did. At least through the first 66. Down the road? Who knows?

Response recorded on July 11, 2001

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Yttrium writes...

Why is the second season so long in comparison to the first and TGC seasons? What I mean is, could you not have you divide up the fifty-two episodes in the second and said they were several seasons, each the size of the first? It makes it sound like a short series when you say it only had two (or three) seasons to it.

---Ytt

Greg responds...

These were business decisions -- not emotional or "how it sounds" decisions.

Initially, Buena Vista only ordered thirteen because Gargoyles and "Action Friday" was an experiment.

Keep in mind that the first season's thirteen episodes represents thirteen weeks of airing the show once a week. That's enough to fill "one quarter" of the year. (52 weeks in a year divided by 4.)

For the second season, they decided that they wanted the series to air FIVE days a week. So multiply 13 weeks by five episodes/week and you get a total of 65 episodes. We had 13 made already. So subtract 13 from that 65 total and you get the second season order of 52.

The third season wasn't produced for syndication. It was aired on ABC's Saturday Morning. And for ABC, it was going to be a bit distinct. (Thus the Goliath Chronicles title and the little sermons Goliath gave at the head of each episode. Neither of which I cared for.) So they started over. Saturday is once a week, so they ordered 13 episodes to cover the 13 week quarter.

Now the obvious question is why 13 weeks? What's so magical about one quarter of the year? Why not 1/8 of the year or 1/2? I don't have a good answer for this, but at that time the conventional wisdom was that kids needed new material in the fall through Christmas. After that, stations could get away with airing reruns.

It's actually gotten worse since. Five-day-a-week series used to be 65 episode orders. Now they've dropped to like 39. It's not so much that conventional wisdom has changed -- rather the economics have gotten so bad, that 39 is the lowest number that networks and studios think they can get away with. Until recently it was forty. Eight weeks of five new episodes a week instead of the old 13 weeks. We did 40 Starship Troopers, for example. (More or less.) But Team Atlantis only ordered 39. There's NO rhyme or reason to that number that I can see other than the fact that it is one less than forty. Thus having mentally adjusted the audience to 40 down from 52 down from 65, they've now chipped one more episode off the total order.

It sucks.

What was your question?

Response recorded on July 11, 2001

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John writes...

And again, hi Greg,
I've read the news about Devlins script at corona, (for annyone who is interrested in it: http://www.corona.bc.ca/films/details/gargoyles.html) and DAMN, THIS ONE REALLY GIVES YOU A SCARE. Try to imagine, what would have happenned, if they would have taken the script. Brrrrrrrrr!
My question: Are you still co Producer of the movie, or whatever it will be?
CU, John

Greg responds...

If the movie is made, Michael Reaves and I are forever attached as Co-Producers. This means nothing really. We'll get a modest check and no involvement.

Response recorded on July 11, 2001

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zakhur writes...

Hi Greg, If Dark Ages ever goes through, would there be any type of relationship between different clans, for example would the Wyvern Clan know the existence or be in contact with the Loch Ness clan?

Greg responds...

Yes, eventually. And other clans too. Clans that didn't survive into our century.

Response recorded on July 11, 2001

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Gipdac writes...

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.

Greg responds...

They all hatched together over a two or three day period. It's a community celebration.

Response recorded on July 11, 2001

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Lord Sloth writes...

How does Cyotie 1.0 have enough rocket fuel in his head to take him back to Xanatos? It seems like quite a feat, isn't his brain supost ta be in there somewhere to? It still looks very cool though.

Greg responds...

I think you've answered your own question.

Response recorded on July 11, 2001

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Gipdac writes...

1) Besides Coyote X, will any members of the Pack (or Super Pack) appear in Gargoyles 2198?
2) Who is the eighth member of the Pack, that will be added after the Pack gets up-graded to the Super Pack? Just a name would be nice. Please.

Greg responds...

All right, first off, it's the Ultra-Pack, not the Super Pack.

Eighth member? How are you counting?

I just answered question 1 about five minutes ago.

Response recorded on July 11, 2001

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Nieuws writes...

What is the thing on Fox's Eye and where did it come from?

Greg responds...

It's a tatoo.

Response recorded on July 11, 2001

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shadowwarrior writes...

1) what year was demona hatched?
2) was demona biologicaly younger in 994 ad or 1040 ad after the deal with macbeth and the weird sisters?

Greg responds...

1. 938.

2. 994. In 994, she was biologically 28. In 1040, after the bargain, she was 35 (Macbeth's chronological age). She still looks great though, doesn't she?

Response recorded on July 11, 2001

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John writes...

Hi Greg,
I've read your awnsers on my last two questions today, but unfortunately, you havn't understood them both. So, now I will explain them again:
Let's take the question with the actors first. Well, if there will ever be a movie, and if you will be able to work on it, I know, that you will do almost everything to get the voice actors in it. But, what if the pruducers or directors will tell you, that the movie needs some stars, who will get people in it, who are new to the show. I know, that all this will probably never happen, but use your imagination...
And for my second question, I meant an ep, in wich you will show, what would have happened, if the gargs would have allied with demona, or what would have happened, if ..., well, think about it
hope you'll understand
CU, John

Greg responds...

John,

1. I get it. I'm just not interested. It's a hypothetical based on a hypothetical based on a hypothetical. That stuff doesn't grab me.

2. Another "What if..." story. I get it. I understand. I just don't care.

Response recorded on July 11, 2001

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Christy Williams writes...

HI,
I was just wondering, had the show continued, what was to become of (my personal favorite gargoyle)Demona? In "Future Tense" she had obviously reformed, but that could have just been Puck's trickery.
The last time she is seen (Generations) a tear falls as she watches the clan fly off. I assumed she is remorsefull about the way she hurt her relationship with Angela, or perhaps it was the first real time she had realized what she lost by betraying her clan. I would like to know if Demona would have remainded vengeful, or if she would have eventually come around.
Thanks for reading.

Greg responds...

Generations isn't canon in my book.

Check out the G2198 contest results in the archive at this site to see where she stands as of the year 2198. If you want to know what happens to her beyond that, you'll just have to wait until I'm in a more revelatory mood.

Response recorded on July 11, 2001

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Gipdac writes...

) Will there be any romantic feelings between Brooklyn and Demona in GARGOYLES 2198, like the Puck's "Future Tense".
3) Will Macbeth play apart in GARGOYLES 2198? If so, in what way? Now that the revamping is over.
4) How do Demona and Macbeth feel about each other by 2198? Now that the revamping is over.
5) Does Samson know that he is a descend of Demona? If so, does he consider Demona as his great-great (or how ever many greats they are) grand mother?
6) Does Demona know that Samson is a descend of her?

Greg responds...

). There'll be feelings. Not saying what kind.
3). You keep repeating "now that the revamping is over". What does that mean to you? Does it have significance? Do you mean now that the contest is over? Anyway, I've answered this. Macbeth will show up eventually but not right away.
4). Now that the revamping is over, I'm not telling.
5) He knows. And to some degree, yes.
6) Yes.

Response recorded on July 11, 2001

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Todd Jensen writes...

A little query that recently occurred to me about the "feeling each other's pain" part of Demona and Macbeth's link. Where does Macbeth feel the pain when Demona receives an injury to her wings or her tail?

Greg responds...

Back or butt.

Response recorded on July 11, 2001

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Gipdac writes...

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?

Greg responds...

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.

Response recorded on July 11, 2001

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Stacey writes...

Hello Mr Weisman!
First of all, congeratulations on such a great show, it's the best cartoon I've ever seen, I've loved it since I was a kid!
Just a quick question. I asume that Demona eventualy finds out about Goliath and Elisa's relationship. How does she feel? I always thought that she retained feelings for him - despite her best efforts - and there's the fact that she probably hates Elisa more than anyone else alive.
When you outlined the space spawn/Samson/2198 or something storyline, there was no mention of Goliath and Elisa ever having children, grandchildren etc. I know that biologicaly speaking, there was very little chance that it would ever happen (unfortunantly), but I always thought that they would find someway of adopting. You don't have to say if you don't want to, but Goliath and Elisa without kids is heartbreaking. They would make such wonderful parents! I know that they would help raise the clans children, but its not quite the same is it? I mean Goliath has taken up the role as sole parent to angela, and Elisa is human anyway. Please give me hope!
Anyway, sorry. I didn't mean to rant on for so long. I need my gargoyles fix.
Good luck for the future.
XXX

Greg responds...

Thanks, Stacey.

You'll worry less if you stop thinking like a human. There will be plenty of children. And Goliath and Elisa will be parents to them. I've discussed them having their own children before. Hinted at it. Check the archives if you want.

As for Demona, I don't think this will come as news to her. And she already doesn't like it.

Response recorded on July 11, 2001

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matt writes...

if you havn't launched the next contest by the time you get this, when are you going to? what is it going to be?

can winners of other contest still try to win upcoming contest? i don't want to win if i should let it go to others... hmmm

Greg responds...

I'm taking a much needed contest break for awhile. But don't worry, we will have another one.

Past winners can enter.

Response recorded on July 11, 2001

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Mary Mack writes...

At some point at the Gathering, I overheard you telling some lucky fan or fans when Brooklyn learned to read. I was dashing off somewhere, probably trying to chase down Kanthara again (whom I finally caught on Monday-- Hi Kanth!), and I didn't get to eavesdrop on the whole thing. It sounded fascinating, and like part of a larger question about which gargs learned to read when. I sure wish I knew the answer, and I'd bet money that your other faithful readers want to know too. So...

We know when Hudson and Braodway learned to read-- they started right after "Lighthouse on the Sea of Time." When did the other members of the Manhattan clan learn to read?

Thatnk you for your time and I hope everybody pre-registers for the Gathering 2002-- I did!

Greg responds...

Thank you, Mary. I believe Brooklyn learned to read shortly after awakening in the twentieth century. I believe Goliath learned from Demona in the tenth century. I believe Demona learned from the Archmage. I believe Lex learned in the tenth century too. Angela was taught by the Magus.

(Lots of fun tidbits always get revealed at the Gathering.)

Response recorded on July 11, 2001

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Todd Jensen writes...

In "Deadly Force", the trio describe "Showdown" as a "new movie", but it's a black-and-white film. Were the trio using the word "new" in a comparative sense (the same way that Lexington described Shakespeare as a "new writer" in "Enter Macbeth"), or was it genuinely a recent film that happened to be shot in black-and-white rather than color?

Greg responds...

It was either the latter or a restored rerelease of an old film. Either way, it was new to them.

Hey, Todd, I hope you'll post a Gathering Diary here. I'd like to read it.

Response recorded on July 11, 2001

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zakhur writes...

Hi Greg, do you think this year's Gathering will help get Gargoyles one way or another?

Greg responds...

Help "get" Gargoyles? I'm not sure what you mean. I do think it helps a lot. Plus it's fun.

Response recorded on July 11, 2001

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Lord Sloth writes...

Would you say that, through Gatherings, fanfic and reruns, gargoyle's popularity has increesed since the time it was canceled? By how much would you say?

Greg responds...

I'm in no position to evaluate that. But I'm gratified that you guys are all still around and that new people do still seem to show periodically.

Response recorded on July 11, 2001

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Sloth writes...

I seem to remember hearing that the Wiverin clan is about 40 or something members(although I could be wrong). If there were 36 eggs, that means there would have to be at least 36 females, who were old enough to lay an egg, and each of them would need a mate (unless they share them). So I guess my question is, how big was the clan?

Greg responds...

Approximately half the clan left to colonize a new location some time before the massacre. There were about 40 or so gargoyles at Wyvern at the time of the massacre.

Response recorded on July 10, 2001

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Sloth writes...

Were Leo and Una sorta treated as outcasts by the other english Gargoyles when they abandened their duties of protection?

Greg responds...

No. The whole clan had lost "the way".

Response recorded on July 10, 2001

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Sloth writes...

What was the 1000 years of sleep like for the Gargoyles? How consious were they of the passing of time? Did it seem like a 1000 years or was it over in a snap?

Greg responds...

Dreams went on and in and out, etc. Thus on one subconscious level there was an awareness of time.

But on the conscious level, they woke up and the massacre seemed like yesterday.

Response recorded on July 10, 2001

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Anonymous writes...

How the heck did Odin survive the Twilight of the Gods? He got swallowed by the Fenrir wolf who got pulled asunder by Vidar.

Greg responds...

Yes, I know the story. I'm just not going to give you the Garg Universe version of Ragnarok in this format.

Response recorded on July 10, 2001

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zakhur writes...

Hi Greg, my question is, by 2198, would the Avalon Clan be still in Avalon, Or would they have gone into diferent clans by that time, to help build up the gargoyle population?

Greg responds...

The Avalon Clan is still in Avalon helping to build the population from there.

Response recorded on July 10, 2001

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Carl Gouveia writes...

I would like to know if Gargoyles has been released on DVD; I loved the show when it first aired and I would love to be able to own the entire series. I'm a begin fan of Shakespeare and I enjoyed how you intergrated many of his characters into to the Gargoyles plot lines. I also enjoyed all the other cultural storys you used in your stories (ie. bushido, lockness, griffins). I hope one day you will be able to create new episodes. Good luck.

Greg responds...

Thanks. At the moment the series is NOT available on DVD. But Jay Fukuto, Disney TV Animation's VP of Creative Affairs is checking into the possibility for us. (I'm glad someone asked him at the Gathering. Sounds a bit self-serving, coming from me.)

Response recorded on July 10, 2001

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Anonymous writes...

Have you ever seen Babylon 5? It's quite good and could give Gargoyles a run for the money.

Greg responds...

I saw the pilot and didn't care for it. Later, people I respected told me the series was great. So I tried a couple more times to watch. But I just couldn't make heads or tails of what was going on.

It's a concern I have for Gargoyles as well. Tried to make each (non-multi-part) episode stand alone. But maybe people had trouble coming into the middle of our stuff too.

All I know is that I had no luck finding an entry point on Babylon Five. And no way to go back and start over. That doesn't mean the series wasn't great. Just that I missed the boat at the beginning and couldn't find my way aboard later.

Response recorded on July 10, 2001

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Sloth writes...

Did you have Characters for Gargoyles planed to use the the voices of: Patrick Stewert, Lenerad Nemoi, William Shatner or any other characters from star trek?
BTW, Gates McFadden isn't the voice of Fox is she? I don't think so, but I can't find her name on any credits, and that would be a good part for her.
Also, why were so many Star Treak actors used as voices, besides that most of them did great jobs(puck)?

Greg responds...

It doesn't work that way. We create characters first. Then we cast. We did try to get Patrick Stewart for a couple of parts, but he was too expensive for us.

Fox was voiced by Laura San Giacomo, who currently is part of the cast of "Just Shoot Me" on NBC.

And the reason we had so many Trek actors was because:

a) Marina auditioned for us and nailed the part of Demona.

b) Jonathan Frakes auditioned for us, and after us ****ing around for awhile, was cast as Xanatos.

c) After that when we were casting guest rolls, it was only natural to think of Trek actors since we already had two of them sitting in the booth.

d) I was not unaware of the publicity value, but we never cast a Trek actor just for the sake of casting a Trek actor. If they didn't seem right for the roll, we didn't consider them.

Response recorded on July 10, 2001

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Anonymous writes...

You said that Mab the mother of Oberon was connected to Chaos like many of the other first gods in mythology such as Tiamat, Ymir and Gaea who were created from chaos or were chaos incarnate and like many of these gods Mab is overthrown by a younger god who is descended from her and in our case it's Oberon. So did you have Mab be Oberon's mother not his sister or cousin just to fit the myth of older/chaotic god being overthrown by a younger god?

Greg responds...

I'm sure that held influence. (Although I'd argue against Gaea being a chaos figure. I might also argue against Ymir too.)

Also, it just seemed right.

Response recorded on July 10, 2001

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Sloth writes...

When the Goliath & co. finished the egypt ep, they just calmly turned to stone in front of the spinx. Since they weren't sure what happend to they pack, weren't they being a bit careless about where they slept, or were they confident that Elisa could protect them from Wolf, Jackel AND Hyena?

Greg responds...

Choose your own interpretation. Just keep in mind... nothing happened.

Response recorded on July 10, 2001

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zakhur writes...

Apart from world domination, what do the Space spawn aquire from invading earth, by their standerds we would be a pretty primitive world even by 2198, what was so special in earth, or was it more, like just because they could do it?

Greg responds...

It was just more territory, as their empire expanded. We weren't considered special particularly. Leastways not at first.

Response recorded on July 10, 2001

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Sloth writes...

Do you consider the Gargoyles show to have come to enough of a close to be carried on by Spin offs, or would you want to tie off more lose ends? Basicly I asking if the show came back, would you rap up Gargoyles, or go straight to Timedancer or Pendragon?

Greg responds...

Well, for starters I'd take what I could get. I'd love to do more Gargoyles AND TimeDancer AND Pendragon AND etc.

Response recorded on July 10, 2001

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Sloth writes...

Why is it that the Magus, whose trained all of his life for using magic, could not cast spells without the grimorim (except for tapping it from Avolon), while Tom (and I assume Goliath to) can easily use the incantation to get to Avolon?

Greg responds...

Memorizing one simple incantation is hard enough. The Magus was certainly capable of that.

But without the Grimorum to harness, focus and inform his efforts, managing much else was impossible.

Response recorded on July 10, 2001

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Sloth writes...

Just saw and recorded Sentinal, an episiode I origanally didn't like very much, when I thought aliens and Olimpians were too fantastic. But now that I've read the layout for the new spin off, and I can see where all this space spawn stuff is heading, I found it much more intreging!
Some questions though:
1)When Nokar first appeared and toke Elisa away, why did he just knock out Bronx and wait till latter to catch him all over again?
2)Nokar had a bunch of small rat like droids running about his ship, what were their purpose?
3)Why did Elisa chose the name tiny for Goliath?
4)A)When Goliath destroyed the control panal, which in turn destroyed that big central thing, how much did that hurt the space ship? It was still able to rise outa the ground and fire that cannon. B)Will Nokar be able to repair it?
5)A)How is Nokar getting on with his new friends? B)Has he made any more?
Thats all for this fun Ep. Nice work!

Greg responds...

1. His priority was getting Elisa to safety.

2. Multi-fold.

3. She was being sarcastic. (Sloth, why did you think?)

4a. Some.
4b. Yes.

5a. Not saying.
5b. Not saying.

Response recorded on July 10, 2001

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Sloth writes...

How did Elisa explaine her jump of the building in "The Silver Falcon" to Matt?

Greg responds...

He didn't see it.

Response recorded on July 10, 2001

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Anonymous writes...

Any plans on retconning parts of Hound of Ulster?

Greg responds...

No. My only regret there is that I didn't put Cu Chullain's armor and skeleton in the Cairn with Goliath, Angela and Elisa.

Response recorded on July 10, 2001

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Jacob writes...

Hi I'm back.

One time I asked you "Are gargoyles at day really heavier than at night? If they are, where does the wheight come from?", and you answered "I never said they were."

Actually, I got this information from a collection-card I found in the internet, and it says, at night he weighs about 130 and at day something about 900 kg.

1. Does it mean that this information is wrong or

2. Don't you want to say it this time?

Greg responds...

1. Doesn't sound right.

Response recorded on July 10, 2001

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zakhur writes...

How did you come up the idea for Queen Mab, was it before or after Oberon first appered on the show?

Greg responds...

After. But not long after. Mab's in Shakespeare, sort of. In a speech by Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet. So she was a natural addition to our ensemble.

Response recorded on July 10, 2001

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Sloth writes...

I was reading your rambles on "OutFoxed", and you mentioned that there was a clue that hinted Fox was Halcyen's daughter by the fact that his last name is Rynard. Could you explane how there is a connection between the words rynard and fox, cause I can't see it. I don't even know what rynard means.

Greg responds...

In French, "renard" means "fox". See, learn something new every day.

Response recorded on July 10, 2001

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Pyro X writes...

Greg;
The Native Peoples of NA came to NA VIA the Bering Strait some thousands of years ago.

1) When Oberon dispatched his "family" to live among mortals, did Raven make his way imediatly to Q.F.I off Canada?
2)Did Raven "take on" the persona of "The Raven" based on Native legend, or was he always "Raven"?
3) As you have said, you never know if that is Pucks true form (As the in the elvish form). Does this, as well, apply to the Other children? Was that Raven's true form?
4) Does Raven have a true form?
5) Did the "Raven" legend spring from "Raven" himself?
6) What WAS that thing Grandmother turned into??? (the thing with the weird mouth).

Thanks!

Greg responds...

Pyro,

Your initial premise is scientifically accepted. But I think many Native American Tribes disagree. It doesn't fit their legends and holy stories. For the purposes of Gargoyles, I'm not taking sides. All things are true.

1. Keep in mind that what Oberon mainly did was to banish the Children from Avalon and insist that they not interfere with mortal lives. It's not like Raven had never been among mortals up to that point.

2. He's Raven.

3. It applies to ALL the other children. Including Raven.

4. Do any of them?

5. See question 2.

6. I assume you mean Thunderbird. (She says that in the episode.)

Response recorded on July 10, 2001

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Oberon writes...

In your Gargoyles 2198 (i think that's the date) summary, you said that aliens would attack the earth.
1) If earth was destroyed, wht would happen to Avalon?
2) Doesn't Puck's protection duty allow him to use magic to save Alexander from the Space Spawn?
3) I know Oberon's pompus and all, but would he reall just sit back and watch the entire human race (as well as Puck) be destroyed (Even with Oberon's law, many fay could indirectly help)?

Greg responds...

1. Earth's not destroyed. Leastways not in 2198.
2. It would have. But it happened too fast.
3. I'm not confirming or denying that Oberon's even still alive.

Response recorded on July 10, 2001

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Anonymous writes...

Are you going to explore the stories of Ymir, Tiamat and Gaea?

Greg responds...

Eventually everything.

Response recorded on July 10, 2001

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Sloth writes...

If Dark Ages got made, how much would you compressthe time of 23 years? Would it be something like 23 episodes, more or less, or have may events happen each year (with some multi parters to)? Or what?

Greg responds...

I don't have it planned out by episodes at this time. But if it took 23 years, so be it.

Response recorded on July 10, 2001

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Anonymous writes...

Were you ever influenced by the Inhumans of Marvel comics while you were making New Olympians?

Greg responds...

More the Eternals and the New Gods. But I suppose you could throw the Inhumans in there too. It was a very Kirby-inspired concept, and we made no bones about it. Bob Kline, Gargoyles' original Development Art Director and later a Producer/Director on the series' second season, came up with the original idea that developed into New Olympians. This was some time before Gargoyles. We later folded it in.

Response recorded on July 10, 2001

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Laura 'ad astra' Ackerman writes...

I was looking over the [finally] completed description of the future series and after happily ooing and aahing, I had a few questions.

-1- I noticed that Broadway and Angela's biological children had similar sounding names, (arthurian in my mind). Since they were not named specifically by the parents but rather as clan children, (I assume), I was wondering if this was intentional. Are rookeries intentionally named with similar names, like the angel theme with the Avalon eggs? Do near rookeries share somewhat similar names and distant ones more different ones? Am I reading way too much into a statistical sample of three?

[Side question- Broadway, raised by Gargoyles would not care who was his biological child, but Angela was raised by humans, even if they did try to follow the gargoyle mode. Does she care a little, or at least think about it?]

-2- Nicolas Natzilani Maza, (please excuse my spelling, I am composing this offline): From which of the current Maza siblings does he descend?

-3- Alexander Fox Xanatos IV: I have a feeling I am being a bit dense here, but is he the same Alex as Alexander Fox Xanatos I but covering for extreme longevity?

-4- I don't remember any mention of the New Olympians. Do they play a notable role? If not, where are they?

-5- Logistically I am confused about something- In a perfect world all the Gargoyle spin offs would be running at the same time for an indefinate amount of time. More specifically Time Dancer and Gargoyles 2198 would be running at once. [Which leads to another side question: What you call the series after the first year?] As I see it the first year or two wouldn't be a problem- Timedancer Brooklyn would be a couple of years younger than future Brooklyn and we just wont see him describing in detail events that haven't happened yet in Time Dancer to people in 2198.

The problems start when it comes time for Time Dancer Brooklyn to go to 2198. The easiest way I can see it is, we see him leave, we see him return ten years older all in one ep, "wow! I just spent ten years fighting aliens in the future! But I wont say anything more as not to let you know too much about what will be." Then we have a Time Dancer Brooklyn ten or so years older than the Future one and a massive, sustained chuck of time that he can't give away to the audience. It seems like it would be a very awkward.

Thanks... And enjoy the con!! I hope you give a passing thought to those of us stuck on the other side of the continent. (This whole being an adult with a job kinda sucks sometimes.)

Greg responds...

1. You probably are reading a bit too much into a statistical sample of three. Plus, keep in mind that the Manhattan Clan doesn't exactly have deeply held traditions in naming. The whole concept is fairly new to them.

1a. I think Angela does think about it. But keep in mind, she was group raised. This way, as a parent, she has more children to love. That suits her fine.

2. I'm SO not telling.

3. Yes.

4. They will eventually play a roll. Technology-wise, the rest of the world has caught up to them. I wouldn't fully re-intro them right away, although their leader will be kidnapped along with Alex.

5. You worry too much. I should have such worries.

Response recorded on July 10, 2001

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Sloth writes...

Another one for "Pendragon".... Why does MacBeth show so much contempt for Arther after speaking so grandly of him and Merlin in "lighthouse"? By the end of the episode he sounds more like himself, but durning the race for the sword, I thought he should of treated him as more of a worthey opponent.

Greg responds...

I don't hear contempt there. Just competition for a prize that he felt he had as much a right to as Arthur did. I guess it's a matter of interpretation.

Response recorded on July 10, 2001

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Sloth writes...

In Pendragon, Arther gives the order to fire the lightning weapon at the base of the water elemental. Once this is done, the elemental is destroyed. Since I was never good at science, explane how electrisity would destroy the elemental and leave Arther unharmed.

Greg responds...

We never said Arthur'd be unharmed. He wasn't unharmed.

But have you ever heard of the electrolysis of water?

Response recorded on July 10, 2001

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RANDOM STUFF

Another thing I REALLY wish I had seen at the Gathering is Keith David wielding a sword and quoting from Othello.

I heard that Michael Reaves has a brilliant (because it's simple) solution for how Goliath, Hudson and the Trio could speak modern English upon waking at the castle. Demona used a spell from the Grimorum on them the night before they woke up. Perfect. They'd never even have to know that there was a change in the language. I love it. (Wish I had thought of it.)


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GATHERING 2001 DIARY: Part Five

Monday, June 25, 2001

Once more, Kathy knocked on my door to wake me for the staff breakfast.
Once more, I ignored the first knock.
Once more, she didn't give up.
Once more, I got up and answered the door, telling Kathy I wouldn't make it to the breakfast.
Once more, I did get down there in time to catch the tail end of the breakfast and get some juice.

I checked out of the hotel and put my stuff in my car.

The first panel of the day was for Roughnecks: The Starship Trooper Chronicles. This was actually the panel I had been most nervous about. The reason? Well, we had gathered an impressive list of guests: David DeLuise, Jamie Haines, Alex Polinsky, Rino Romano, Steve Staley, James Horan, Jason Marsden, Sue Blu, Wayne Boon, Vince Edwards, Russ Isler, Joe Lawson, Dave Hartman, Lydia Marano, Jay Oliva and Tom Pugsley. But the panel was scheduled for 10am on Monday the night after the Masquerade. I was afraid that our panelists would outnumber the attendees. Fortunately, that wasn't the case. I played an episode from the series: "Funeral for a Friend". Mostly because it's my personal favorite. Yes, I wrote it. But I just love how it turned out, particularly the epilogue funeral itself. Then we gathered for the Q&A, which was fun. A lot of these guys hadn't seen each other for awhile. Then a short signing. Finally, I had to clear the room for the next panel.

3x3 Eyes. Guests included Thom, Jonathan Klein, Taliesin Jaffe, Mia Korf and Susan Chesler. This was a nice little panel too.

Then a short break and closing ceremonies. Lots of people getting thanked....

I hung out downstairs for awhile, then Brynne and Russ and I meandered up to the con suite. The Dead Dog Party took a while to get started. But we shared a pizza with the constaff. And then I had to take off. (My family missed me.)

And that, was the con.

But once again, I'd just like to thank everyone involved. Jen and the whole constaff, in particular. But also the guests and supporting members. And especially the fans who shelled out and showed up. It was great meeting you/seeing you again, etc. It makes my year. I'm already psyched about Virinia Beach in August, 2002. And, although, I wouldn't wish the workload on any of my friends on the G2001 staff again, I do hope that sometime we have the chance to do the con in L.A. once more. In terms of Gathering the cast and crew that worked on the show, you just can't beat proximity to where they all live. You guys always treat me wonderfully, but it was also very gratifying to see everyone else on the show get a chance to share in your respect and appreciation. GARGOYLES was never a one man operation, and I'm glad you all got the chance to meet each other.

I'd also like to point out, what I'm sure you're all very aware of -- how feeble my Gathering diary is. I have no defense. Except that I'm a fiction writer not a journalist. I've been lurking around though, and diaries by Christine, Lexy, Aaron, BrooklynX, Greg Bishansky, Shan, etc. have really put mine to shame.

And I'm also sorry that I missed a few things at the con. I was so busy, I didn't ever get to see Crispin's mythology seminar. I spent almost no time in the video room and it would have been fun to watch some of the shows with you guys. And although, I did get to the art room, I never had time to just hang there and really absorb everything (I never had time to vote, for example), and I somehow completely missed seeing the MAP that won the big prize. If it's scanned online and there's a link, I'd sure appreciate someone sending the link my way.

Thanks, gang. You rock. (Pun intended.)

Greg


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Todd Jensen writes...

In "Eye of the Storm", Odin is portrayed as a storm-god. This puzzles me a little since, traditionally, in Norse mythology, that was Thor's role. How is it that Odin is now the one among the Aesir who can control the weather? (Of course, you did indicate in past comments that you're leaning towards the possibility of Thor being dead in the Gargoyles Universe).

Greg responds...

Yeah. But I always thought of Odin as a storm god too. All-Father. Cloud-Father, etc. Thor was always the lightning/thunder guy to me.

Response recorded on July 09, 2001

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matt writes...

ok, obviously Goliath and company don't yet know about the Loch Ness clan (or do they?) but, does the Loch Ness clan know about Goliath and co. and their visit to Loch Ness?

Greg responds...

I don't think so. They weren't there very long.

Response recorded on July 09, 2001

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Sloth writes...

Anansi>"he came to me storyteller" how did Anansi know Diane Maza was a storyteller?

Greg responds...

He has many ears in the jungle.

Response recorded on July 09, 2001

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Demoness writes...

Oberon and Titania

Yep, more O&T questions. :) I love the characters: ones a schemer and the other one is arrogant and powerful.

1a. Does Oberon realize that Titania manipulates him?

1b. If so, how does he feel knowing his wife does that too him?

2. What color is Titania's (not Anatasia) hair? Pink, Orange, Red? I ask this cause in some scenes/episodes her hair seems to be changing colors.

Greg responds...

1a. To some degree, of course.

1b. She is endlessly fascinatin to him.

2. I'm color blind. You tell me.

Response recorded on July 09, 2001

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zakhur writes...

Hi, I was wondering, when the mayan clan was destroyed, Did the polchers know that those were gargoyles, or did the just destroy everything that wasn't what they considered a treasure? Thanks

Greg responds...

Not telling.

Response recorded on July 09, 2001

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angry Epantiras writes...

What is this "Gargoyles 2198" !? Can someone explain me what is!? I'm going mad!

Greg responds...

Chill. One thing you might do is check out the Gargoyles 2198 Archive here at ASK GREG. You'll get most of your answers there.

In brief, G2198 is a proposed spin-off of the original GARGOYLES series set in the year 2198. Pretty straight forward, huh?

Response recorded on July 09, 2001

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Scott Iskow writes...

Is Hakon gone for good?

Greg responds...

Except in flashback, yes.

Response recorded on July 09, 2001

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matt writes...

i was looking at sites on Angels and angel names to try and discover possible Avalon clan names and i found hundreds of angel names, pretty crazy, anyway, i found a quote from St. Thomas Aquinas about angels that i found interesting if put into gargoyles context. afterall, are gargoyles the angels and demons of legend? anyway, heres the quote:

"Angels transcend every religion, every philosophy, every creed.
In fact angels have no religion as we know it...
their existence precedes every religious system that has ever existed on earth."

St. Thomas Aquinas

Greg responds...

Great quote. Do you have a date attached to it?

Response recorded on July 09, 2001

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Demoness writes...

What ever happened to the Gargoyle's Helicopter from "Her Brother's Keeper"?

Greg responds...

They turned it into a planter.

Response recorded on July 09, 2001

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Basilisk writes...

Did you know that in Disney's newest Animated Classic ATLANTIS: THE LOST EMPIRE, the Atlantean princess Kida is voiced by Cree Summer? She did a great job, but I found this a little disconcerting because I'm used to that voice yelling death threats, laughing psychotically, and hitting on any available machinary. :-)

Greg responds...

Yes, I very much knew that because I'm voice directing Cree as Queen Kida in the spin-off series Team Atlantis. It wasn't quite the shock to me, as Cree has done many, many voices since she was a little kid, including Penny, I believe in Inspector Gadget and Max in Batman Beyond as well as Hyena in Gargoyles.

Anyone who came to the Gathering learned all this first hand from Cree herself, who showed up on the 24th of June, despite feeling under the weather. She's just terrific. She's also a GREAT SINGER. She gave me a copy of her C.D. And she's recording a new one now.

Response recorded on July 09, 2001

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Todd Jensen writes...

In "Eye of the Storm", Erik and Gunther's surname was "Sturluson". Was this an allusion to Snorri Sturluson, the author of the Prose Edda (one of the leading primary sources on Norse mythology)?

Greg responds...

Absolutely, my friend.

Response recorded on July 09, 2001

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Ricky writes...

I wonder if you noticed this, in episode 2 of Max Steel, when Rachal and Max were in the dark alley and they encounter 3 dread minnions and Psycho, one scene Max is wearing a dark shirt and blue jeans, he's having fainting spells in this episode remembering how he got his powers, after he regains consciousness he suddenly is wearing his fighting uniform, he didn't power up or anything, then after defeating dread's minnions and Psycho escaping, he's back to wearing the dark shirt and blue jeans again...Can you explain this? Do you know what I'm talking about?

Greg responds...

Well, first off, it's episode THREE: Shadows. Not episode TWO: Sacrifices.

Second off, however, I don't recall there being a mistake here. Are you sure he didn't power up off screen.

At any rate, I can't confirm or deny anything. It's just been too long since I've seen the eps.

Response recorded on July 09, 2001

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Anonymous writes...

Has the Space-Spawn or the third race involved in the war ever visited Earth before 2001? If so when?

Greg responds...

The Space-Spawn have not. They first arrive in 2198.

I'm not confirming or denying the rest.

Response recorded on July 09, 2001

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Anonymous writes...

Are all three races involved in the galactic war bipeds?

Greg responds...

Not telling.

Response recorded on July 09, 2001

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Anonymous writes...

What attributes does the third race in the war possess?
What do they look like?

Greg responds...

SO not telling.

Response recorded on July 09, 2001

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Anonymous writes...

1.What do the Space-Spawn look like?
2.What special attributes do the Space-Spawn possess? For example gargoyles turn to stone, the fay can use magic without outside help and Nokkar's race has a very long lifespan.

Greg responds...

1. Not telling at this time.

2. They don't eat cheese.

Response recorded on July 09, 2001

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Anonymous writes...

Which star system(s) did Nokkar's people originate? How many sentient races emerged there?

Greg responds...

Sentient races are few and far between in the Gargoyles Universe. Not commonplace. I have a good idea about this. But I'm not going to break it down in specific numbers for you.

As to which star system, I don't pretend that I've bothered to figure that one out yet.

Response recorded on July 09, 2001

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Anonymous writes...

What did you mean when you said "hit the Space-Spawn where they live" in Gargoyles 2198 contest? Are you referring to the Space-Spawn homeworld? If so shouldn't Nokkar's people be doing that already?

Greg responds...

I'm not going to get as specific as to say "homeworld".

As for Nokkar's people, what makes you think they aren't doing just that. Or for that matter, what makes you think any of them are still alive?

My point is that you don't know enough to judge.

Response recorded on July 09, 2001

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Sloth writes...

Would "Dark Ages" be restricted to the Wiverin area or would it go to places like Kennith's castle, loch ness and edinbrough? How bout England and Irland? Parris? Austrilla? neptune?

Greg responds...

Yeah. Neptune. Planned on spending a lot of time on Neptune.

Response recorded on July 09, 2001

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matt writes...

before "Awakening" had Elisa had any or many boyfriends or serious relationships? if so, would any of these guys make an appearence later in the series or spin-offs?

Greg responds...

Potentially. I'm sure Elisa had a few serious relationships. But not like MARRIAGE serious. She's not that easy to reach.

Response recorded on July 09, 2001

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Sloth writes...

The Gargoyles were asleep for exactly 1000 years, was this 1000 years to the month? week? day?

Greg responds...

The Magus cast his spell putting the gargoyles to sleep on October 1st, 994.

The clan awakens again on Tuesday, October 4th, 1994.

So it was just over a thousand years.

Response recorded on July 09, 2001

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LSZ writes...

Since you said you had plans for something as religious as Faust in the Gargoyles universe, did you have any actual solid plans for the Spear of Longinus/Destiny?

Greg responds...

Yes.

Response recorded on July 09, 2001

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matt writes...

1. maybe it was hard to see on the show, but in "The Green" are the magic pendants themselves made out of the different stones (Sapphire, Obsidian, etc.) or are they all made out of something else? if they are made of something else, what is it?

2. you've said that the pendants will be passed down along with the name of the garg who wears it, but does the actual color of the garg matter? for instance, can only a red gargoyle wear and use Zafiro's pendant? i know it sounds stupid that the magic would only work with skin color, but i don't see any evidence why it wouldn't... afterall, Bronx is blue like Obsidiana and he was ok using the her pendant, but if he had picked up a pendant of a different color than he, would it have still worked?

3. when Jackal knocked that tree on Obsidiana and her wing was all twisted and wounded looking until she turned to stone, had he actually broken the bone in her wing? i'm aking this cuz i think its one of the only times that stone sleep cures a major physical injury in the series...

Greg responds...

1. The former. One is Sapphire. One is Jade. One is Obsidian. And one is Turquoise.

2. No, the color of the garg doesn't matter. Zafiro in the twentieth century is red. The Zafiro of the twenty-second century is blue. (At least in my head.)

3. I'd have to see it again.

Response recorded on July 09, 2001

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matt writes...

in "The Mirror" when Puck transformed the New York citizens into gargoyles why did he make them Scottish gargoyles?

Greg responds...

He didn't. He made them Manhattan gargoyles.

Response recorded on July 09, 2001

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matt writes...

any ideas yet why the English gargs have evolved to look like they do and so different from other garg clans?

btw, if you don't have an idea yet, i do! i really have a plausible and good idea why they look like that, but if you don't want to hear it...

Greg responds...

I don't want to hear it. Sorry. Breaks the rules.

My idea hasn't changed much. I think that gargates have what I've dubbed a "chameleon mutation gene".

Response recorded on July 09, 2001

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Anonymous writes...

Greg;

I have seen many episodes of TV shows that use language and action from various literary sources. They use the TV shows characters to act out the literary source (Like Romeo and Juliet with Leo DiCaprio [same words, different setting]).

1) Did you ever want to try this style with Gargoyles using Shakespear or some other author, like Kipling? I mean, not useing your own written dialogue?

2) Would this infringe on copy writes or something, if you wanted to do it?

Greg responds...

1. Yes, I did.

2. Not if it was someone in the public domain like Shakespeare.

Response recorded on July 09, 2001

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Anonymous writes...

In the original 2158/Future Tense Spinoff which characters in 2198 were present? Which characters in Future Tense/2158 weren't present in 2198?

Greg responds...

Samson, Delilah, Demona, Owen, LXM, Brooklyn.

I can't remember if Zafiro was in there or not. I'm not sure I had all the characters firmly nailed down back in '96. I'm confident that the Guardian was NOT there. At least not in this form.

I can't remember if Fu-Dog was there either.

Have you checked the 2158 archive?

Response recorded on July 09, 2001

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Sloth writes...

Was the first hound of Ulster a gar-beast?

Has the Banshee/Molly seen the Wizard of Oz and did she like it?

Greg responds...

1. Yes. Unless you mean Cu Chullain himself.

2. Who wouldn't?

Response recorded on July 09, 2001

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Scott Iskow writes...

How did Thailog get that armor? Was it tailor made?

Greg responds...

He spent money. The logistics don't interest me too much. I'm sure it was made to his precise specifications, however.

Response recorded on July 09, 2001

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Pyro X writes...

Greg;

1) Approximatly how many drafts of a script were made for each episode?

2) Who wrote most of the episodes?

3) who approved the episodes? Was it you, or you and Michael?

Greg responds...

1. Usually, two real drafts. Exceptions abounded I believe.

2. Lots o' folk. I don't have the list with me. But take a look at the credits.

3. Well, Michael was our only story editor the first season. And one of four the second. He approved all his episodes from his writers. I approved his work. Frank and Dennis and Bob looked on too. And one or more Disney execs had to give the final go ahead. But if you're asking who was ultimately responsible for the writing side of things, that would be me. Blame me for what you don't like, cuz nothing went through without my approval.

Response recorded on July 09, 2001

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matt writes...

Demoness> Greg said that they turned it into a planter. LOL one of my favirote smart-ass responses!

a better question would be:

where did Jackal and Hyena get a laser-proof, missile equipped helicopter in the first place?

Greg responds...

From Xanatos. Although they didn't know that he provided it.

Response recorded on July 09, 2001

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Sloth writes...

The New Olipians said Elisa was the first human to visit in 2000 years, does that mean another human has visited, or is that when the built the city?

Greg responds...

Others have been there. Just not recently. Also the island wasn't quite as isolated at first.

Response recorded on July 09, 2001

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Sloth writes...

Do the New Olimpians worship the old greek gods (Zues, Hera, Aires)?

Greg responds...

Worship, no. Honor, some.

Response recorded on July 09, 2001

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Todd Jensen writes...

In Greek mythology, the original Boreas had a pair of sons, named Calais and Zetes, who were portrayed as having wings. Was this what inspired the notion of the New Olympian Boreas having wings?

Greg responds...

Yes. Also, we'd be meeting his sons eventually.

Response recorded on July 09, 2001

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Todd Jensen writes...

At the end of "The New Olympians", Taurus, after discovering how Elisa had risked herself to stop Proteus from destroying New Olympus, comments that she is not like the "humans of legend". Was this particular phrase intended as a sort of "double-meaning one"? While the obvious and immediate meaning is the humans of the New Olympians' legends, the evidence presented in the episode is that the same humans who mistreated them and drove them into hiding in their tales were, or included, the heroes of Greek legend such as Theseus, so that "humans of legend" could mean as much the humans of our legends as the New Olympians'. Was this intended as being the case?

Greg responds...

Yeah. Plus the on-going reversal in this episode. Like Gargoyles of legend or Olympians of legend. Here we were taking the point of view of these mythical creatures, to whom humans were the legendary "Other" that we've been talking about recently. Just part of the on-going exploration of the shows core themes, seen from the other side.

Response recorded on July 09, 2001

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LSZ writes...

Do any of the New Olympians look as human in their natural forms as Alex?

Greg responds...

No.

Response recorded on July 09, 2001

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Demoness writes...

~Macbeth~

Oh my god, I'm not asking a Oberon and Titania question! Its a miracle! :)

I know this has been answered before and I have read your response to the question, but I am a little bit confused still.

You said that any fatal injury Macbeth & Demona sustain, the magical spell that keeps them alive would immediately heal them, and rapidly depending on how serious the fatal injury is.

So, if either were beheaded, would their head fall off and reattach itself or would the spell immediately begin to heal the severed area before it had a chance to fall off?

The same with a severed limb?

Greg responds...

Look at what you wrote: "...if either were beheaded, would their head fall off and reattach itself or would the spell immediately begin to heal the severed area before it had a chance to fall off?"

It's a hypothetical. What's the point? Neither one has had their head chopped off. Despite nearly 1000 years of adventuring times the two of them, I will personally guarantee that neither has been beheaded. This isn't Highlander. There's no rule about this. What there is is the statement of the Weird Sisters, who said that neither would die until one kills the other -- when both would die. Whether you choose to believe them or not is up to you.

Response recorded on July 09, 2001

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Sloth writes...

Wierd sisters>"the cause is worth every sacrifice untill her own life is threatend, still, its good that you saved her" "we were not talking about this terrerist" I take it they were talking about Demona, but I don't see how their first statement applys to her. When did Goliath save her life, and when did she put her life above the "cause"?

Greg responds...

Goliath has saved her life many times. And her his, but that doesn't seem particularly relevant.

As to the second question, in that very episode, she flees Wyvern and hides on the beach below instead of warning Desdemona and Othello. Demona is many things -- but not suicidal.

Response recorded on July 09, 2001

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Anonymous writes...

Who has more magic? Merlin or Morgana?

Greg responds...

I know I've answered this before, but here goes.

I think the Thing is on an average day, stronger than the Hulk. But the madder Hulk gets the stronger he gets. So ultimately the Hulk is stronger. But that doesn't mean the Thing can't take him. Ben Grimm knows his stuff.

There. I hope we've finally put that question to rest.

Response recorded on July 09, 2001

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Demoness writes...

Garg 2198

1. Will the Fae ever get involved in the resistance? (Other then Puck)

2a. What would the Fae's opinions be on Earth being conquered?

2b. Oberon's and Titania's opinions?

3. Would Titania be extremly upset, angry, 'beyond the no return type angry', or unconcerned that Alex has been...'kidnapped' by the Space-Spawn?

As you probably noticed with my previous questions, I like Oberon and Titania. :)

Greg responds...

1. Not initially, for a good reason. Everyone gets involved one way or another eventually.

2. Whaddaya think?

3. I'm not confirming or denying Titania's continued existence in 2198.

I like 'em too.

Response recorded on July 08, 2001

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GATHERING 2001 DIARY: CHAPTER FOUR

Well, again, I've completely mixed things up. I'm too lazy to start over so I'll just keep correcting myself after the fact.

Saturday night, after the dinner at CityWalk and a little con suite fun, we all headed up to check out the Rooftop Garden Ballroom. This is the room where the "Better than Barney" story actually took place all those years ago. But I'd never been up there at night before. It was gorgeous. I pointed out all sorts of random stuff. Where 3x3 Eyes was recorded. Where Disney TV Animation used to be housed. Where we used to sneak into the Texaco Commissary. Where Gargoyles was On-Lined. Etc. Then we just hung out for awhile. Talking quietly. It was calm and nice. This kind of stuff is actually my favorite part of the con.

SUNDAY, JUNE 24, 2001
Kathy knocked on my door to see if I was coming to breakfast. I said no, though I managed to get down there for the tail end and grab a glass of juice.

Then it was time for my mug-a-guest. Got some interesting questions. Hope I gave interesting answers.

It ended in time for me to participate in the tail end of the Design and Direction panel with Bob Kline, Doug Murphy, Frank Paur, Dennis Woodyard and Bob Schaefer. Frank (or someone) had brought a ton of development and pre-production and production art and spread it out on the long table. My sister Robyn arrived. And then my folks. And then my wife and kids. It was kinda cool.

That panel segued right into the massive Series Production panel. All of the above were there, plus Bob Birchard, Denise Byrne, Craig Kemplin, Brynne Chandler, Ray Leonard, Marc Perlman, Laurel Whitcomb, Paca Thomas, Jamie Thomason, Mark Von der Heide and Thom Adcox (and again I apologize if here or anywhere I've left someone out). It was great to see such a big turn out both on the panel and in the audience. Jay Fukuto, one of my old bosses on Gargoyles and currently Vice President of Creative Affairs at Disney TV Animation, came in just a bit late. I think Jay was really impressed with the con. He's currently talking to people around the company about exploiting the property a bit. Specifically, he's asking about DVD production, so the Convention's Job One was a success.

My family took off. And the actors began to arrive. Thom Adcox and Crispin Freeman, of course. But we also had Jeff Bennett, Neil Dickson, Elisa Gabrielli, Gregg Rainwater, Cree Summer and Keith David. Cree came despite the fact that she had a sinus infection. Keith brought his son Owen, who was also feeling under the weather. It was really gratifying that they all came.

The Q&A was terrific. I tried to moderate and otherwise keep my mouth shut as much as possible so that you guys could here them talk. Then there was the cast autograph session... the line was literally out the door. Way out the door. Cree was feeling awful and had to take off. And Keith too eventually. I'm sorry if anyone missed them, but it was great that they came at all.

The auction started, while the crew guests signed stuff. I think I signed fewer autographs this year than at any previous con. Finally, you guys are getting your fill of me.

My shrinky-dink Brooklyn necklace sold to Aaron for $65. Beth and I were arguing what it would go for. I guessed twenty. She guessed forty. Greg Bishansky bought the signed copy of "The Journey." Though I'm not sure what he paid. I don't know what the Roswell script went for or who it went to. But I gather the auction was a success. Major kudos to Kathy, Patrick, Myhrr and Draconis.

We had some time off before the Banquet up in the Rooftop Garden. Beth came back to join me for dinner. We wound up sitting with Todd Jensen, Tigris, Kelly and her fiance, and a couple more people that I'm blanking on, unfortunately (sorry). Beth did most of the talking. It may come as a surprise, since I seem to be such a big mouth, but in our house, Beth is the talker.

After dinner came the Masquerade. We had about a million judges, which was unwieldy but fun. There were, as usual, some great costumes and some fun Cosplay. Slash came out and played his guitar. It was fun, but at the end of the night it started to go on a touch too long. People wanted to get to the awards and Dreamie and Demona May came out to hook him. We gave a joke award to the ladies for that, and I'm afraid that Slash might have misinterpreted that. Slash, it was great of you to get up there. Sorry if there were any hurt feelings.

As usual, we gave out the Gorebash Memorial Award. Of course, Gorebash isn't actually dead. He's just been seemingly M.I.A. for a bit. He's firmly back now. Just check out his comment room. Anyway, that award went to Mara and Aaron for their cross-dressing Xanatoses. Thom got to drop his pants. Thom and Crisping made out repeatedly. Myhr was his usual amazing self. It was a blast.

The hotel shut down the DJ a touch early. But frankly that worked for me fine. Again, I got to spend time in the dark and quiet rooftop garden with a bunch of you guys. Including people who have become good friends. Jennifer, Steph, Seth, Patrick, Kathy, etc. I'd have probably stayed there all night, but I started on a coughing jag -- left over from my pneumonia, and I just couldn't stop it. So I called it a night, went downstairs and took some cough medicine.

One day left...

Stay tuned.


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Epantiras writes...

How can Lexington wear clothes? He must pierce his wings?
(exuse my english, I'm Italian...)

Greg responds...

Yes. I've mentioned that before.

Response recorded on July 06, 2001

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Sapphire writes...

Dear Mr. Weisman

1)By 2198 in the gargoyles universe would there ever be any gargoyles going into the professions like medicine, engineering and so forth?

2)Would it ever be possible for example for a gargoyle docter treating human patients?

Greg responds...

1. & 2. Anything's possible.

Response recorded on July 06, 2001

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Sloth writes...

Did Goliath, elisa, Angela & Bronx return to Avolon in between every world tour episode? If so was it just to go there and quickly leave, or did they have more adventures there? And when they leave do they just sail into the mist and land where ever Avolon wants?

Greg responds...

Yes.

Sometimes it was quick and leave. Sometimes they stayed longer. Sometimes they arrived at sunrise and HAD to stay.

Yes.

Please, do me a favor and number your questions in the future.

Response recorded on July 06, 2001

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Sloth writes...

Sorry Greg, I know this isn't a chat room but... Matt, I think Demona said: why do the little people always frustate me. Just sounds a bit better.

K, guess I better add a question. After creaming Goliath, why did Vinni just throw away Mr. Cartter after develiping such a close bond with it?
Also do you have any more plans for Mr. Cartter?

Greg responds...

Vinnie's a funny guy. Very single-minded, one thing at a time kinda guy. Mr. Carter was created for a very specific purpose. Once that purpose was served, he was free to discard it. After all, it was out of pie.

I don't have any more plans for the pie gun.

But I have very specific plans for the guy the pie gun was named after.

Response recorded on July 06, 2001

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matt writes...

grrr, because anonymous had to bring it up again i thought i should once more say that i seriously doubt gargoyles evolved from dinosaurs, maybe they had a common ancestors or something, but it seems really unlikely that gargs are saurian descendants. i mean, look at the English gargs! they don't look anything like dinosaurs or even reptiles. i think its more likely that the English gargs evolved from lions, horses, and birds then other gargs evolving from dinosaurs, and Greg has said that they didn't. i think Gargs are so different from most higher life forms of life that the gargate family seperated from the rest of the animal kingdom far back in history, before dinosaurs, maybe even before reptiles!

sorry, i had to rant about that again...
"Why do the little things always frustrate me!" -Demona
geeeez, Greg, do YOU think gargs evolved from dinosaurs? i know you're not a biologist, but what do you think?

Greg responds...

I know what gargs evolved from; I'm just not telling at this point. If you go back far enough, then all biological life evolved from the same basic source on this planet. Where and when gargates diverged is the issue. In a general sense, one could argue that it took place at a time of dinosaurs. But it depends on how you define the word dinosaur. As it is commonly used, as a catch-all term? Or scientifically?

Response recorded on July 06, 2001

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Angie I. writes...

Hi, Greg

I have a few questions about the gargoyles' healing abilities.

1a.) What are the limits of their healing abilities by stone sleep? What types of injuries or abnormalities are beyond its power to heal?

1b.) Can they heal the physical abnormalities that occur over the course of old age? Loss of vision, hearing, possible internal problems such as with the heart. Things like that.

2.) How does the severity of the injury determine how long it takes to heal? For example, a severe bruising and maybe a few small cuts caused by a beating by either fists or blunt objects compared to more lethal and grievous wounds and lacerations caused by either blades, guns or even another gargoyle's claws.

3.) I think you may have been asked this before, but what happens if an appendage is somehow broken off while in stone sleep such as a hand or a part of their tail or horns (if he/she has them)? Would it eventually regenerate the lost part or would it be gone for good?

4.) How severely do you have to injure a gargoyle until it causes a permanent scar? Example, Hudson's scar.

5.) Would partaking in stimulants like alcohol, smoking, drugs and caffeine cause permanent damage as it does in humans? Could they heal it to any degree?

Greg responds...

1a. You want a list?

1b. Old age takes its toll eventually.

2. Most injuries heal over night, but depending on the severity, it may still leave the victim weak. Some injuries never heal. Like Hudson's eye.

3. No it's gone for good.

4. Severely.

5. To some degree. But smoking is very insidious in my book, so in my universe it'd tend to be damaging.

Response recorded on July 06, 2001

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Epantiras writes...

Why Gargoyles have horns if they don't use them?

Greg responds...

Who says they don't use them.

Response recorded on July 06, 2001

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Gabe writes...

Question about Othello. I just read your comments on "Legion" and your particluar comment ("Poor slob never stood a chance") made think about him, and, basically, I agree with you; he just always seemed so helpless throughout the series, except in his last appearnace though, when he seemed assured of himself that he and Desdemona had to stop Iago.
Before the massacre, was he always this vulnerable mentally? I figure if he was, then that's why Iago chose to play on his trust and mind. If not, then Iago wa a damn-good manipulator.

Greg responds...

Both.

Iago was good. Othello was vulnerable. But he's not a bad guy or even a stupid one. He's just flawed.

Response recorded on July 06, 2001

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Jim R. writes...

I haven't said much in a while, but now I have a question:

Since the 2198 contest is over, will you reveal anything pretaining to what happens to MacBeth? I noticed you mentioned Demona to still be around in 2198 so I suppose that MacBeth must be also. Will he be a part of the 2198 spin-off or play a major role? The Pendragon spin-off? Any others?

Greg responds...

Macbeth is still alive in 2198. And he will eventually make his presence known. But not right away. I do have big plans for him. But probably not until 2199 at the earliest.

Response recorded on July 06, 2001

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John writes...

Hi Greg,
Today no talk, just the question:
In "Sanctuary", Macbeth got a picture of Elisa hanging in his livingroom. Was that a joke by the writers, or have you too not noticed it untill yet?
By the way: do you know, that John Rhys-Davies will play Gimli in the Lord of the Rings movie?
OK, that's all
CU, John

Greg responds...

I knew John was in the movie, not what he was playing.

I have noticed that there is a picture that looks like Elisa. At present I have no explanation for it. It certainly wasn't in the script.

Response recorded on July 06, 2001

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matt writes...

1. before "The Gathering", did anyone besides Xanatos and demona know that Owen was Puck? you've said before that Fox didn't know, correct?

2. from what i know of Oberon and his relationship with Puck, i doubt that bringing him the Phoinex Gate would've convinced Oberon to let Puck stay in the mortal world any longer. what do you think?

Greg responds...

1. Correct.

2. Might have worked. Depended how Puck approached him. He's known Oberon a lot longer than you have.

Response recorded on July 06, 2001

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Anonymous writes...

Our ancestors are apes and our distant ones are a bunch of rodents that resemble lemurs or rats. The ancestors of the gargoyles are lizards and dinosaurs. Who exactly are the ancestors of the fay? Blobs of energy or something else entirely?

Greg responds...

All primates have common ancestors. It's not quite the same thing as saying OUR ancestors are apes.

All gargates have common ancestors. Calling those common ancestors dinosaurs is only accurate in a very general sense.

As to Oberon's Children, you've seen one of their ancestors on the series.

Response recorded on July 06, 2001

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zakhur writes...

Hey Greg, thanks for a terrific show and still having hope for a return, Since first watching Gargoyles when it began, I really loved the show, but I was kind of "worried" that the show wasn't very uplifting, because the main characters (the manhattan clan) were the last of their kind, and with only one female gargoyle, that didn't really look like she wanted to start being the Eve of her kind, It almost looked kind of bleak, and after I learned how slowly it takes for a gargoyle to have children,, well it didn't look very good for the species.
So when you started introducing new gargoyles to the picture in the World Tour (wich were great by the way, it expanded so much the horizons for the show) It started to make more sense, as to why the gargoyles work so hard to protect, ant to make a better world, because even though they're trying to have a better and more tolerent world, now it made more sense, because all that hard work was to leave a better world for the next generation.
and even more hopeful was the fact that we know now that in the future, there would not only be thriving colonies, but there would be new clans of gargoyles.
Well all this talk does bring me to a question.
We know that some clans needed the help of other individuals of other clans so there would be a diverse enough genetic pool for a viable clan, as you stated in the 2198 contest so:
1) Wich clans will need that other clans member join them? (my guess would be guatemalen and Goliath's)
2) How would this process come about, will the individuals choose to go to other clans, or there will be a election process?
3) If for example the guatemalan clan wich oly consists of 4 adult gargoyles and from 20 to 40 eggs, is that enough to make a viable clan?
Thanks for your time and pacience
PS. Sorry if I made to many errors, but I haven't writen in English in a long time

Greg responds...

1. I'm not going into these specific details now. None of you have the background for it.

2. Ditto.

3. It's enough to start one if those youngsters have time to grow.

You're English seemed pretty good to me.

Response recorded on July 06, 2001

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Vashkoda writes...

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?

Greg responds...

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.

Response recorded on July 06, 2001

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Justin writes...

Greg few questions regarding the Pack.

I believe that in "Thrill of the Hunt" When Goliath can't belive that Lexington let the Pack see him Lex says
"I am not stupid, they don't know we turn to stone during the day" Am I am correct on this?

If so then why is it in "Upgrade" Hyena cackles and states. "We'll follow'em home and smash the rest where they roost" ?

Did the Coyote robot have knowledge of gargoyle sleep cycles? Obviously Xanatos is aware of them, so he could have given that knowledge to Coyote.

Or by that time had the Pack just figured it out?

Thanks

Greg responds...

1. So far.

2. They had more info by that time. From Coyote.

3. Yes.

4. See above.

Response recorded on July 06, 2001

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Sloth writes...

Does the cyotie dimond have anything to do with cyotie robot? How bout the immortal cyotie? What does it have ti do with either/both if it has something to do with them at all? Hope you get my language!

Greg responds...

Connections will be made someday.

Response recorded on July 06, 2001

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Sapphire writes...

After the arrival of the New Olympians in New york city would the new Olympians be keen on sharing their technology and scientific discoveries with humanity?

Greg responds...

Cautions, not keen.

Response recorded on July 06, 2001

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Greg Bishansky writes...

Hi Greg,

1. Nightstone Unlimited still around in 2198?

2. If it is, does Demona still run it?

Greg responds...

1. Not saying.

2. See above.

Response recorded on July 06, 2001

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Sloth writes...

Who is your favorite character in the garg universe? assuming u have one.

Greg responds...

I don't. Goliath is the prism through which the universe was recreated. But I love 'em all. Even the bad guys and the nobodies.

Response recorded on July 06, 2001

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GATHERING 2001 DIARY: PART THREE

First, standard disclaimer. I apologize in advance if I leave people out. Sorry.

Second, an invitation. I'd love to hear others' responses to the Gathering. Feel free to post them here.

Third, a correction. I got confused writing Part Two of my Gathering Diary. That dinner I described at the Japanese Restaurant at CityWalk actually took place on Saturday, June 23rd. Here's what we did Friday night...

After opening ceremonies, we had a staff meeting over dinner at the restaurant in the Hotel. Jordan, Carol, Patrick, Jennifer, Kathy, Cindy, Kenna, Meredith and Thom Adcox and myself. (Am I leaving anyone out?)

When that dinner was over, I strolled over to the next table where Frank Paur, Dennis Woodyard, Bob Birchard and Loren McLaughlin were eating. Joined them and we talked and bitched and told stories for a while longer.

Then I wandered back to our main rooms, where the MST session was in progress. I stayed for all of "The Gathering, Part One". It was fun, but so many people were talking, it was a little hard to hear each individual joke. I left after that. Later, I was told that people were afraid I was offended. I absolutely WAS NOT. Just tired.

Anyway...

SATURDAY, JUNE 23, 2001
I got up in time for the Staff Breakfast in Performers. A nice calm before the storm. After, I took a quick peak into the art room again. Then my brother showed up. He and I went upstairs to get the stuff I needed for my various panels.

Then I had my first Q&A. Series Develoment. I was on a panel with:
Greg Guler - Development Artist and Character Designer
Bob Kline - Development Art Director and Producer/Director
Dave Schwartz - Development Art Director
Tad Stones - Producer of multiple other animated tv series.

Tad was the star of this panel. He told the story of how he basically gave me the idea of Goliath, but his story took him off on a bunch of fascinating tangents. He also talked quite a bit about Team Atlantis. This sort of surprised me. I had been under the impression that he wanted to keep mum on that subject. But it was nice of him to reveal what he did.

After that, I had a Voice Acting Technique Seminar. Originally, I had been scheduled to be in the "Writing for TV Animation Seminar" that was going on at the same time. But I switched over for a couple reasons.

1. I did that seminar last year in Florida. Don't have much new to say.

2. I've been doing much more voice directing these days then writing. It seemed more honest in a way.

So the voice seminar was a blast. Morgan Sheppard was on the panel. And Crispin Freeman and Jonathan Klein and Taliesin Jaffe. They had all just finished a Voice Acting Technique Q&A minutes before, so we made ours into more of a workshop.

I had brought some sides. Morgan read Petros Xanatos with a couple of different attendees trying their mouths as David Xanatos. Then Crispin took on the roll of Griff with two casts of Leos, Unas and Goliaths.

We auditioned people for various rolls from Gargoyles, just to give them an understanding of the audition process.

Then Crispin set up his computer and monitor so that people could try their hands at dubbing some anime. By this time, my wife Beth and our kids Erin and Ben had arrived. (Their first day at the con.) Erin wanted to try her hand at ADRing. She did pretty good, but I think she realized that it's harder than it looks.

Taliesin then set up his own little anime dubbing exercise. It was all fun and I gave away the sides at the end.

From there, I headed over to the "Writing for Gargoyles" Q&A. This panel consisted of myself and...
Brynne Chandler - Writer/Story Editor
Gary Sperling - Writer/Story Editor
Lydia Marano - Writer
Tuppence Macintyre - Researcher (and a Los Angeles Deputy District Attorney)
Monique Beatty - Currently a producer in her own right, but on Gargoyles she was my assistant.

This was another fun panel with a lot of good questions asked and some fun stories. Todd Jensen, I believe, was in the audience, though I didn't yet know who he was. He and I had a little bit of time to talk later, though less than I would have liked. (I was too crazed, and I think he was too respectful to be pushy.)

My various family members took off, as I headed into the Radio Play rehearsal. (I listed the cast in the last part. I won't repeat it here.) The rehearsal went fast and easy, and because this year's radio play was shorter than previous, we had time to run things twice. And we still finished with time to spare.

Again, I ran around a bit. Checking out the dealer's room and art show. Then I joined Jordan Mann and Morgan Sheppard for an extremely late lunch. Morgan told us some great stories. It was fun. (Everything was fun.)

We gathered in the main room to set up for the Radio Play. Minor crisis involved the little stage the hotel had put up for us. Not big enough for everyone. But too big to move. I had to quickly rethink where everyone sat. (This is only a problem because I'm so anal.) Anyway, there were a few nervous moments as neither Nicole or Rebecca had gotten the message to show up early. I thought for a second we'd be subbing in two more of our understudies. But they both showed just before the show.

We put the cast in our "Green Room". Actually out a door that led outside. Brought in the fans. I intro'd the cast one by one, ending with our ringers, ending with Thom who was playing Lexington of course.

We then performed the thing. It has some sequences you never saw on tv, including a nice little chase through the Paris catacombs and a sweet scene between Jason and Elisa at the ruined clock tower. But I think the single line that got the best response was Charles Canmore saying, "We can no more stop hunting the Demons than breathing the air." Or something like this.

This year, I had/took the time to cut the narration way down before hand. WAY DOWN. But during the performance, I kept noticing other things I should have cut. Hopefully next year I'll do better.

Still, people seemed to enjoy it. And I had a blast. Jen was a very fun Demona. Zehra's Elisa was terrific. The audience went nuts for Brooklyn and Bronx and all the minor rolls. And especially for Thom as Lex and Crispin as a very Faggerbakke-esque Broadway.

When that was over, we went to dinner up at CityWalk. But I accidentally wrote about that in the last entry, so that's it for now.

Stay tuned for PART FOUR: Sunday.


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matt writes...

how will the Gargoyle Minority Protection Act affect the Mayan clan and the protection of the rainforest? they've been conflicting with humans over ownership (or rather lack of ownership) of the land for years, will the clan continue this conflict or will the Guatemalan government be forced to adapt to the Gargoyle Minority Protection Act (GMPA) and pull out all operations in the Mayan clans territory?

Greg responds...

It's at issue.

Response recorded on July 03, 2001

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matt writes...

at the time of "The Reckoning" i can see why the Manhatten clan and the Labyrinth clan remained seperated, but why are they still seperated in 2198? i would have thought that two small clans in close proximity to each other would've merged after a while... any reason they remained seperate?

Greg responds...

Different priorities. And by 2198, neither is that small anymore.

Response recorded on July 03, 2001

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matt writes...

you said that Samson's egg was one of many in the Manhatten rookery. about how many eggs were in this rookery? i assume that most of these eggs came from other clans, am i correct?

Greg responds...

Not necessarily, no. You can do the math for yourself if you really feel like it. I don't have my timeline with me, and I'm feeling lazy at the moment anyway.

Response recorded on July 03, 2001

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Ambrosia writes...

Ding, dong, the contest is dead! I have MANY 2198 questions, but in a genuine effort not to annoy you, I'm going to post them one at a time and very spread out.

Does the Order of the Guardian in Ishimura have anything to do with the Guardian Tom?

Greg responds...

Yes.

Response recorded on July 03, 2001

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Demoness writes...

Suggestion:

I noticed that Greg has been receiving the same questions over and over again and I'm certain he's getting tired of answering them all the time. So, to save him as well as us time & trouble, why don't who ever manages the archive to create a "FAQ Archive" and put the FAQ with best answers in it.

just a suggestion

Greg responds...

A nice suggestion. But easier said than done. And time consuming. Todd's been talking about that though. Todd, any further thoughts? Gore?

Response recorded on July 03, 2001

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Sloth writes...

How is Matt Bluestone's relationship with the illuminati now that he joined? Did he lose of his all desire to expose them to the puplic now that he is one of them, or is he just bidding his time?

Greg responds...

Biding. The bidding will come later.

Response recorded on July 03, 2001

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Sloth writes...

Questions about MIA:
1) does the clerc who told the man that Leo and Una were wearing masks know that they are really gargoyles?

2) where does the man, who was being attacked by thugs, come from? He didn't sound british and the thugs were saying get out and keep england pure.

3)How did Leo and Una explane their gliding and cool manuvers to the crowd watching them at the end? I think it would take more then very real masks.

BTW, this is one of my favorite eps. My only complaint was that some of the germans looked a bit too evil.

Greg responds...

1. It was a customer, not a clerk. And she didn't know then.

2. He was Pakistani by birth. Why?

3. That ending changed everything.

Response recorded on July 03, 2001

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Cabal writes...

mmm, sorry, i'new here.. i have one question about Timedancer... Were can i read the orginal about that?

Greg responds...

The original what?

Response recorded on July 03, 2001

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Corrine Blaquen writes...

Hee, hee. I just noticed something that I found amusing. Macbeth must have some sort of 'Red-Headed Curse' upon him or something! All the women that affect his life somehow have had red hair. His dear wife Gruoch was the first. And then Demona, whose red hair has virtually become a trademark! His hired mercenary Fleance is a carrot top. And by extension of Demona, his French ex-wife was a redhed too! None of the females in the series with any connection to him don't have red hair. I like it. It's neat. Was it intention, or is it just an amusing fluke? If a fluke, did you ever notice?

Greg responds...

I'm color blind.

Response recorded on July 03, 2001

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Sloth writes...

How is life for Katherne, Tom and their "eggs" now that they live in the smae castle with the world's supply of fey? I would think it might be very hectic, dangerus and "sub-ter-fuge-ic" with all the tricksters, evil banshees and gods. Do you?

Greg responds...

A famous curse goes something like: "May you live in interesting times."

Such is life in Oberon's palace.

Response recorded on July 03, 2001

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WereFox writes...

I know we've spent a lot time talking about Demona's motivations, but what of Thailog's. I'm guessing a desire to prove his own legitamacy in light of his unique origins and the long shadow cast by his fathers, especially Goliath.
One thing that never made complete since to me though was why he turned on Demona. There can't be that many Gargoyles who would ally themselves with his "unique slant on things." Clones are fine but Thailog initially relegated them to the status of servile drones. Was it that Demona was a loose canon. Was he simply bored with her? Finally it occured to me that if he is trying to prove himself to be a better Gargoyle,by his own defintion, tthen Demona might very well seem like a "hand me down." Or perhaps, he realized that Demona saw him not as "Thailog", but as a Goliath substitute. Talk about a blow to your self worth!

Greg responds...

All very interesting observations. Lot of truth there.

I think you may be right about Demona, but you're also leaving his attraction (for whatever reason) to Elisa out of the equation.

And you may be giving the long shadow of Goliath too much credit. I tend to think Xanatos was the bigger influence and the longer shadow.

But it all sounds smart to me. (Except the "bored with her" part. Demona is many things, but never boring.)

Response recorded on July 03, 2001

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matt writes...

if you don't mind i'm going to shorten the Gargoyle Minority Protection Act to GMPA for simplicity.

1. did any countries that contained gargoyle clans object or refuse to comply with the GMPA? i'd imagine that America, Britain, and Japan would pretty much whole-heartedly agree, but i'm not sure about China, South Korea, and particulary Guatemala.

2. did France agree to have a gargoyle clan instated at Notre Dame before or after the GMPA? did they agree at all or did the gargoyles just move in? i guess Canada was in ok with the QFI clan, huh?

3. did the United Kingdom have a lot of weight in the decision to instate the GMPA since they have two native clans, another being created (Wyvern), and at least four other clans in the world have United Kingdom origens?

oh, please feel free to correct me if any of my info is wrong, i'm sure you will though :)

Greg responds...

1. Nothing is simple.

2. You're talking about years past 2198. France bid for the clan.

The Haida people own Queen Florence Island. They made the offer.

3. Nothing is simple.

Response recorded on July 03, 2001

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matt writes...

by 2198 are all the 12 clans "full" clans, as you've called them? what i mean is, are all the clans roughly the size of 1996 London or Ishimura clans?

Greg responds...

Roughly. Or larger.

Response recorded on July 03, 2001

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Todd Jensen writes...

A few questions, now, about "Gargoyles 2198":

1. I've noticed a few parallel elements in it with "Future Tense", as follows:

Demona joining forces with the resistance movement.

The LXMs serving as a parallel to "Cyber-Lex".

Coyote-X as a parallel to the Xanatos Program (artificial intelligences out to conquer the world, both derived ultimately from Xanatos - although I doubt that Coyote-X has any direct connection to Xanatos, he did originate the Coyote line of robots).

Were these three elements intended as parallels to "Future Tense", a la the destruction of the clock tower in the original series?

2. What sort of occupation do you imagine the Space-Spawn making on Earth? A really tyrannical regime of the sort where Earth's population is reduced to slave labor, or a more remote occupation where they pretty much let the Earthlings go on with their lives, though now as subjects of the Space-Spawn Empire?

3. How is it that Coyote-X is out to conquer, first the planet, then the galaxy? I will confess that I have something of a problem with the notion of a robot or artificial intelligence out to conquer the world; such a goal strikes me as more fitted to an "organic being" with such emotions as greed, ambition, arrogance, etc., than to an artificial intelligence, which I simply can't imagine developing emotions (truth to tell, my own thoughts on machines are pretty much the same as those of Goliath in "Outfoxed" - machines know only what they are programmed to know; it's living beings, such as humans and gargoyles, who are capable of making decisions, and choosing between the right thing to do and the wrong thing to do). I didn't have any problems with the Matrix undertaking this route in "Walkabout" since it was portrayed here as merely a logical extension of its programming (to bring about order to the terrain of the world; it was merely misinterpreting its mission) rather than being motivated by power-lust. However, I'm not certain as to how Coyote-X developed its goal. (Of course, artificial intelligences could have come a long way by 2198, and maybe by that time they have developed emotions and the weaknesses and failings of living beings like humans and gargoyles). Of course, I doubt that you want to fill us in on the details yet, but I just thought that I'd mention it.

Greg responds...

1. Yes and no. I love playing with the Future Tense expectaions. But on another level, it's just the characters telling me what they want. I know what Lex does in the late nineties early "oughts". I know what that leads to in turn. I know Demona well enough to know that she's sure not gonna like the Space-Spawn after they steal all the Gargoyle Eggs. And I know what happens to Coyote and how he's going to evolve and upgrade. So maybe Puck was being a bit prophetic. After all, the characters are deciding things for themselves. And he wasn't half wrong.

2. In the immortal words of Abe Simpson, "A little from column A and a little from column B."

3. Well, artificial intelligence has come a long way by 2198. Thanks in no small part to Coyote, Coldsteel, Lexington, Matrix, Fox and Anastasia. (An odd group. But there you go.)

Response recorded on July 03, 2001

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matt writes...

what would happen at dawn if Demona put on a Mayan sun amulet? would she turn to a human or remain a gargoyle?

Greg responds...

I think she'd turn human. But I don't think she'd be able to nap.

Response recorded on July 03, 2001

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WereFox writes...

Does the spell of immortality completely heal Demona and MacBeths injuries. Do bullet or stab wounds heal without a trace or do the leave battle scars. It had occured to me that the spell might not have to heal them to be good as new, just enough to keep them alive. If being "alive" is the minmal requirement. Then the two of the could theoretically go into comas for the rest of eternity and still be considered "alive" for the purposes of the spell. I know, now way you were actually going to do this. Just exorcising a "creativity demon."

Greg responds...

Hey, exorcise away.

Response recorded on July 03, 2001

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WereFox writes...

I'd have to say that my favorite "off camera" moment for the series would have been Demona 1st encounter with Thailog. I know it wasn't necessary to show it, but such moments exist shearly for the look of shock and surprise you see on peoples faces. Had you actually imagined how it transpired? For, example, die Demona mistake Thailog for Goliath? Did Thailog get the drop on Demona first? Would have been a classic moment. Possibly the perfect counter point to "The Kiss".

Greg responds...

It'll make a good flashback some day.

Response recorded on July 03, 2001

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Corrine Blaquen writes...

Another interesting thing to think about: For brief periods of time, Angela has had both Macbeth and Thailog as stepfathers. *Grin* Angela's family is somewhat dysfunctional, is it not?

Greg responds...

Whose isn't?

Response recorded on July 03, 2001

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GATHERING 2001 DIARY: PART TWO

Friday, June 22nd, 2001

[Assume the usual caveats. I'm bound to forget someone or many. I apologize in advance. Also, I'd love to see other peoples Gathering diaries. Feel free to post them here.]

Well, I got up Friday morning at home. Packed a small duffle and my box of Gathering crap and headed to Universal City.

I checked in, but my room wasn't ready. An obvious question is why was I staying at the hotel when I live about twenty minutes away.

The answer begins with the Gathering Staff's generosity. But I hope they got their money's worth. By staying at the hotel, it allowed me to be at the con both earlier in the morning and later (much, much later) at night. My kids missed me. But my family's very understanding, thankfully.

Anyway, after checking in, I dropped my Gathering box off at the con suite and then went back downstairs to look around and see if I could help in any way. All day Friday and Saturday I wore the Shrinky-Dink Brooklyn necklace that I made with my kids. It seemed like wearing it around the con might just up its price at the auction. You'll have to ask Aaron if that ploy worked.

I gave Cindy and Jules the two pieces of artwork that my daughter Erin drew. One was "Gargoyle Babe", which she did herself. The other was "Daddy and Daughter's Night Out". A picture of Goliath and Angela disco dancing which she and I drew together. Erin eventually decided to put both pictures up for sale for charity. I think Dreamie bought "Babe". And Jules bought "Night Out". In turn, Erin wound up buying a piece from Dreamie and a bunch of stuff from David Wong. My son Ben bought a piece from Kelly and a Goliath yoyo. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

I gave Kenna some Roughneck video tapes that Sony had donated. Over the last couple months, I had already loaned Jen all my Gargoyles episode tapes for her to copy. (She still has all of season two and "The Journey".) So we had plenty to keep the video room busy.

I put some things in for the auction. Some more Sony donations. A signed copy of my original script for "The Journey". And a signed copy of my original pilot script for "Roswell Conspiracies". (You know, the one we did as a Radio Play in Dallas.)

And speaking of Radio Plays, it was time for auditions. I met up with Thom Adcox and Jordan Mann and we began the process. As usual it was a lot of fun. Because I knew we were going to be doing "Hunter's Moon, Part Three", but the auditioners didn't, I got to here a lot of Scottish accents, and I got to ask everyone to bark like a dog (for Bronx).

We got a fairly good turnout. Better than last year in Orlando, when we had to beg people to participate. Still not as good as in Dallas or New York, when we were so overwhelmed by the numbers of those auditioning that the whole rest of the day ran late. It helped, I think to hold auditions Friday when the show was Saturday.

We powered through the auditions, taking a few breaks. Seth, who's easily distracted, was in line to audition. Took off while we were on break, and came back too late to audition. He tried to wheedle his way into the show later. And it was tempting, since he's been a member in good standing of the Gathering Players (he was our male lead in New York and Orlando). But the show was cast. Too late, Seth. Sorry. ;P

Most everyone who auditioned was pretty good. Casting was difficult, because we hated to leave anyone out. But I think we came up with a good mix of the old guard, new blood and RINGERS.

We had Lanny back. As usual, in the auditions, I offer people a choice of reading whichever original Gargoyle "side" they feel like reading. Lanny chose Goliath, and I told him I was hoping he'd pick that. He didn't know what I meant until that night when he found out he'd actually be playing Goliath. And we had Jen and Jordan and Alex and Sara and Heather back in the show again. It's great to have some continuity.

Plus we had Thom playing Lex of course. With Morgan Sheppard (the voice of Petros Xanatos) playing Hudson and Crispin Freeman doing his dead-on Broadway imitation. (It SO cracked us up in our auditions, Jordan, Thom and I KNEW we had to cast him as Broadway.) Elisa Gabrielli was supposed to play Maria Chavez (as she had in "Revelations"). But there was a miscommunication and she didn't make it Saturday. (Fortunately, she came Sunday, which is when we really needed her.) The good news is we had three understudies this year. Last year, we lost a cast member at the last minute. Jesse was forced to play two rolls. This year we were ready, and Jennifer Mallon jumped in to take Elisa's place.

And we had some great new finds. Zehra just blew us away with her Elisa audition. She was great. And Nicole was a fine Scottish Canmore. Actually, everyone did great.

Here's the full cast:

ELISA MAZA... Zehra Q. Fazal
GOLIATH... Lanny Fields
LEXINGTON... Thom Adcox
BROADWAY... Crispin Freeman
BROOKLYN... Sara Hutchinson
ANGELA... Batya Wittenberg
HUDSON... W. Morgan Sheppard
BRONX... Rebecca Gold
JASON CANMORE... Jordan Mann
JON CANMORE... T.J. Ferraro
ROBYN CANMORE... Nicole Dubuc
CHARLES CANMORE... Chris Rogers
DEMONA... Jennifer Anderson
DAVID XANATOS... Johnney Muije
FOX... Kelly Creighton
OWEN BURNETT... Kevin de Caccia
MATT BLUESTONE... Joshua Poole
MARIA CHAVEZ... Jennifer Mallon
MORGAN... Loren G. McLaughlin
PILOT... Alisa Christopher
MARGOT YALE... Heather E. Rice
BRENDAN... Rahsaan Footman
VINNIE... Alex Wittenberg
TRAVIS MARSHALL... Kristen de Caccia

UNDERSTUDIES... Sean Camanyag and Gabriel Guerrero

I'd like to give a special thank you to both Thom and Jordan for being my partners in crime on the auditions.

Anyway, casting done, we got back downstairs just as various guests began to arrive. I saw Michael Reaves for about a second before he took off. But I got to spend a bit of time with Dennis Woodyard, Bob Birchard, Frank Paur, Tuppence Macintyre, Brynne Chandler, etc.

I'd like to extend another special thank you, this time to Carol Wagner, who did such an amazing job at guest wrangling both in the weeks before the con and during. Also to Patrick for making registration for the guests such a smooth and generally painless process.

I checked into my room. Just down the hall from the Con Suite and the staff room. I saw a bunch of familiar faces. Leva. Greg Bishansky. Aaron and Mara. Hudson. Kythera (who also helped out at Auditions with Johnney). Saw Vash in here somewhere. Demona May. Noel. Ah, I know I'm forgetting people. Sorry. Or mentioning them on the wrong day. I ran into Ashley at one point. It was great to see her again.

Bill Faggerbakke arrived, and folks almost literally lined up around the block for his autograph. It delayed opening ceremonies a bit. But not too badly -- not relative to the Gathering's track record, anyway. Jamie Murray got things rolling, introducing the staff, etc. I won't repeat the con virgin joke. Other people have mentioned it, and the truth is I didn't hear it at the time. I was antsy. Getting up and sitting down and getting up again.

As you all may have gathered, I rather like speaking in public. (I'm lousy at small talk and shy in social situations with people I don't know VERY well, but I'm a decent public speaker. Go figure.) But I generally get pretty wired just before I'm about to go "on".

Anyway, Jamie intro'd me. I intro'd our guests. Ending with Thom. (I just want to say that Thom and I always got along well during production of the show. But it's during the last few years since he came to the Dallas Gathering that he and I have really become close friends. He's such a great guy. I'm not sure how we made it through the first two NYC Gatherings without him.) Thom intro'd Lexy and gave her her FAN GUEST OF HONOR AWARD. This was a complete surprise to her. Something the staff agreed on secretly to thank Lexy for her amazing recruitment work. She seemed genuinely touched. It was pretty cool.

Then I began my schpiel. Considering you have heard and I have told ALL these stories about a THOUSAND times, I thought that this time I was amazingly scatter-brained. You'd think I'd have them down to memory. But I kept forgetting things. Remembering them later. Telling things out of order, etc. I belatedly remembered that I had a letter from Ed Asner to read to all attending, and then couldn't find the letter. It must have taken me forever to realize I was holding the letter in my hand. I had folded it up and had written a note to myself on it. D'Oh.

Anyway, it was fun to tell the "Better than Barney" story in the Hotel where it originally took place, with Bill F. there. I'm not sure whether he remembers saying that. Perhaps I made the whole thing up. (And my garage band will be playing at the Whiskey this week-end.)

I showed the pitch, the promo. The New Olympian and Dark Ages development. The Bad Guys reel. It was terrific to have that video projector. Finally people could get a decent look at what I was showing them.

I rambled forever. Then finally relinquished the floor.

Afterwards, a bunch of us went up to CityWalk for Sushi and a staff dinner. Crzy's husband Alan Anderson was there (with Kathy Pogge as his date). My date was Jen. *Yes we're a strange bunch, and I'm happy to include myself in that assessment.*

Meredith was there. Patrick. Crispin and Izobel. Cindy? Kenna? The Morgans? Carol? I can't remember, I'm sorry. Dinner was the typical "Hey, it's CityWalk, expect to wait forever!" marathon. But the food was good. And so was the company.

We headed back to the con suite, where Aimee and Steph (Hi, Pickles!) began decorating me with post-it notes depicting various characters from the show. I've kept them all. Except for that nasty one of me. [Wait, did this happen Friday night or Saturday? My memory is just a blur.]

I called it a night relatively early (for me). I was still a bit nervous about a pneumonia relapse. Walked down the hall to my hotel room. Watched some TV and then crashed.

Stay tuned for Part Three...


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Camcuru writes...

In "...For It May Come True," did Goliath's and Elisa's children have names? If so, what were they?

Greg responds...

Not one of my episodes. I have no idea.

Response recorded on July 02, 2001

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Todd Jensen writes...

In "Grief", the Emir describes Anubis as ruler over "the Dark Domain"? Is the "dark domain" an actual location-of-a-sort in the Gargoyles Universe, or just a bit of poetic metaphor on his part?

Greg responds...

Mostly poetic...

Wait, what's that black portal opening up before me?! HELP!!!

>Erp<

Response recorded on July 02, 2001

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Anonymous writes...

You said somewhere that you had a gargs story for the sinking of Atlantis so would that make this gargs atlantis crossover episode not canon?

Greg responds...

The episode is canon. But that doesn't mean that every other Team Atlantis episode, including the feature film is canon.

Response recorded on July 02, 2001

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matt writes...

you've said in the past and we've seen in the show that the Clocktower has a kitchen, a bathroom, internet access, and electrical outlets... what kind of attic/clocktower is this? did the gargs install these things somehow or were they always there? maybe i can see the gargs wiring up the electrical outlets and phone line, but how did they get the plumbing done to install a bathroom and kitchen? and how did they get their fridge up there too? i realize i'm being incredibally anal about this, and you don't have to answer, but i'm just really curious if you have an answer! i'm even debating whether to submit this or not cuz i think you'll think i'm obsessed with these darn details and maybe i am... oh well, here goes!

Greg responds...

There's no kitchen. There's a hotplate.

Basically there's electricity and a small utility-style bathroom up there. Everything else was jury-rigged.

The fridge was a junker. They flew it in. Lex repaired it.

Response recorded on July 02, 2001

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Blaine writes...

Okay, this might sound dumb, but here we go. Is Lexington gay? I'm asking because out of the trio he seemed the least interested in Angela, he's always spending time with Alex, and he is thin, neat and single. And like the entire show (I feel, to some extend) is about tolerance. And are have a large showcase of ethnically diverse characters, so why not sexually diverse? Anyways it's just a thought. P.S. You have made like the GREATEST TV show EVER!!!!!

Greg responds...

I'm not answering this at this time.

But thanks.

Response recorded on July 02, 2001

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Anonymous writes...

Did Oberon have any siblings?

Greg responds...

Maybe. Maybe not.

Response recorded on July 02, 2001

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matt writes...

the G-2198 contest ended about 5 minutes ago and i thought of something kinda funny:
when you launched this contest you said that hopefully the contest would end before the Gathering 2001. i thought it funny that we made it with less than two weeks to spare!!
i'll admit that i was only around for the last half of the contest, but it sure got me using the good 'ole Thesaurus and Dictionary! LOL! as fun as it was, i'm glad its over as i'm sure you and everyone else is...
thanx, Greg!

Greg responds...

You're welcome. And believe me. NO ONE is gladder than moi.

Response recorded on July 02, 2001

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Anonymous writes...

What happened to Nick Maza's parents?
How many generations away is he from Elisa?
Can we assume that he is descended from Beth and Natsilane?

Greg responds...

Not telling.
Not telling.
You can assume whatever you're in the mood to assume. Doesn't mean you're right or wrong.

Response recorded on July 02, 2001

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Vashkoda writes...

1) You've said that, "no one knows how many biological generations removed from Goliath [Samson] is....Frankly, it doesn't really matter." I guess technically doesn't matter, but for us fans who really care, could you tell us whose son he is?

2a) Is the 2198 Deliah the original Delilah's daughter, granddaughter, great-granddaughter, or great-great-granddaughter? (my question is--which is she?) b) "Being genetically part of both races has left Delilah feeling like she's not truly a part of either." Assuming she's not Deliah's daughter, at most she could be 1/8 human. How is this significant enough to make Deliah feel uncomfortable? c) Do Delilah and her descendants age at the same rate as gargoyles, or does their human heritage alter this?

Greg responds...

1. No. I don't know anymore. It doesn't matter.

2. a. I'm not telling.

b. I'm not telling.

c. I'm not telling.

Response recorded on July 02, 2001

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Anonymous writes...

Is there any thing going on between Samson and Delilah considering their names and all?

Greg responds...

Yep.

Response recorded on July 02, 2001

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Anonymous writes...

Care to list some of Coyote's cyborg and robot operatives

Greg responds...

No.

Response recorded on July 02, 2001

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Anonymous writes...

Who leads the Illuminati in 2198? Duval?
Is the grail still in the hands of the Illuminati?

Greg responds...

Not answering this now.

Response recorded on July 02, 2001

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Anonymous writes...

Who leads the Quarrymen in 2198? Castaway's descendents?
What are Dingo and Robyn's descendents doing?

Greg responds...

Stuff.

Response recorded on July 02, 2001

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Anonymous writes...

What is the Order of the Guardian? Who started it?

Greg responds...

Clan Ishimura, with some help from various individuals including Tom.

Response recorded on July 02, 2001

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Sloth writes...

in Heritage, grandmother states that Nick's dad and grand dad and so on, had to fight Raven on the volcano. I don't think Ravin is keeping that low of a profile by trying to take the Island every generation. Were their fights more of a meditative thing?

Also, why does raven wan't the island so bad?

Greg responds...

I just answered your last question.

And I'm not going to go into specific detail on your first questions. Battles were battled.

Response recorded on July 02, 2001

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Anonymous writes...

How much has Owen/Puck matured by 2198? A lot?

Greg responds...

Owen is. And Puck's not around.

Response recorded on July 02, 2001

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evagilbert@home.com writes...

I need 2 gargoyles for my daughters production number at dance. Either to buy or rent. I need them by Monday the latest, 3-4 feet high each. Could you help me???

Greg responds...

No.

I'm not even reading this until July 2nd.

And we don't sell or rent gargoyles at this site. Goliath might take offense.

(I'm guessing this person will never read this response.)

Response recorded on July 02, 2001

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Jonny writes...

I noticed in your disclaimer that there's a spelling mistake in the word Television, where it's supposed to say: "...copyrighted by Buena Visa Television" you accidentally wrote television as "televiion". Just thought I'd make you aware of this.

Greg responds...

Thank you. I'm again going to lay that one on Gore. (Though it's possible it was me.) Again, I've been aware of the typos for awhile. But I don't have any means of fixing them.

Response recorded on July 02, 2001

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Todd Jensen writes...

Well, it's certainly a relief to have the Gargoyles 2198 contest finally over with; I'm amazed that it took us so long to get the last two answers right. Well, now for a few comments on "Gargoyles 2198"'s overall description.

A number of elements in it certainly surprised me. For example, while I had suspected for a long while that the Space-Spawn would be playing a major role in the spin-off, I hadn't expected that it would open with them actually conquering the planet. Likewise, I was certainly surprised at the reason for Owen being unable to become Puck in the series (Alex being in Space-Spawn captivity), though it did make sense (I'd had my own speculations for the reason for the "block on Puck" before the contest began, though I won't mention them here because of the rules - suffice it to say that none of them involved Alex being held prisoner by anybody).

Another element in the spin-off was one which I'd perhaps "half-anticipated", and which did strike me as logical, but which I hadn't been seriously expecting in "Gargoyles 2198"; the notion of Samson and Delilah working together. Now, before the contest had come out, I'd been speculating for some time over whether Samson would have some connection with Delilah - given their names, it would be almost impossible not to have something like that happening - but never gave it any serious thought since I obviously didn't seriously believe that the original Delilah whom we met in "The Reckoning" would still be around at the time of the spin-off (even when it was "Gargoyles 2158" rather than "Gargoyles 2198"). Of course, I hadn't counted on the possibility of a namesake descendant, but it certainly struck me as a good solution.

And I've got to admit, you found a way to have the Illuminati stoop to a new low in the spin-off; they certainly were shady even in the original series (deals with organized crime, the Hotel Cabal, supporting the Quarrymen), but now they've become out-and-out quislings.

All in all, the spin-off certainly looks promising. I don't know if you'll ever get it made, but it should be interesting.

Questions follow in a separate post.

Greg responds...

Thanks. I'm glad it intrigued you. I know you're more of a fantasy/myth guy then a Science Fiction Guy. Hopefully the show would still have a balance of both. But by definition that balance would lead more toward tech in this one.

Response recorded on July 02, 2001

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Jimmy_Q writes...

Now there's a HUGE difference between 994 Scotland and 1994 U.S. Wouldn't the differences in vocabulary, word usage, etc. between these times and places reflect that? If Goliath learned to read and write in 994 Scotland then how was it that he awoke in Manhattan seemingly capable of reading and comprehending modern day American literature? Did he somehow work on his literacy skills outside the series or what? I figured that, as the ultimate all-knowing diety of the gargoyle universe, you would know this.

Greg responds...

I do know this. You would too if you checked the archives.

Response recorded on July 02, 2001

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John writes...

Hi Greg,

YEESSS!!! The contest is over! Strike! Ok, so let me think for a question...
How will the future in 2198 look like? Dark (like in Blade Runner) or the shiny-super-hero-future with no wars, no deseases etc.?
Ok, thank you for awnsering. Hope you will read this before the Gathering ( Sorry, can't come :-(. The 23 June is my birthday, and to fly from Berlin to LA is a toooo big birthday present :-((((() Anyway, hope you have, or had, some fun there. Greet Jonathan Frakes from me ;-)
CU, John

Greg responds...

Jonathan was in Israel during the Gathering, so I didn't see him.

The future looked bright in March of 2198. Not perfect, but pretty shiny. With a lot preserved intentionally from nature and older periods.

Things took a dark turn with the arrival of the Space-Spawn.

Response recorded on July 02, 2001

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Yttrium writes...

What is the story behind the "Better than Barney" thing?

---Ytt

Greg responds...

It's a long story. A Gathering Story. I just told it, like five times, last weekend. Bit burned out on it now.

Ask me some other time. Or come to G2002.

(But the short answer is that it's something that Bill Faggerbakke once said in defense of the series.)

Response recorded on July 02, 2001

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Sloth writes...

The show states that gargoyles can withstand very cold tempretures, but how about hot? I'm asking cause Goliath and co fly close to the Magma in two volcanos and seems fine. BTW, can volcanos be like that and not be active?

Greg responds...

On Avalon they can. I'm not an expert otherwise. But I also never said they were NOT active.

Gargoyles raised in Scotland don't do quite as well in the heat. But they are generally pretty tough cookies. They can take most anything for brief periods of time.

Response recorded on July 02, 2001

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Vashkoda writes...

Hi Greg. CrzyDemona revealed what she'd discovered when you invited her to the recording of one of the "Team Atlantis" episodes. So Fiona is a Canmore, and she'll have some kind of encounter/involvement with Demona in Paris? I'm wondering....

1a) Since Jon, Jason and Robyn's father died hunting Demona at Notre Dame, and Fiona was born in 1888, is Fiona a part of their branch of the Canmore family? b) What is her relation to the Canmore trio we know (I'm assuming the obvious, but I'd like confirmation).

2) Does this mean that the "Gargoyles" and "Atlantis" universes are one and the same?

Greg responds...

Let's start with the fact that Crzy got in a bit of trouble for revealing what she did. She's lucky I love her so dearly.

The reason she got in a bit of trouble, is because I GOT IN A BIT OF TROUBLE. Team Atlantis is coming out in the fall of 2002. We are way jumping the gun by talking about it now.

Having said that, both Tad Stones (the Executive Producer of Team Atlantis) and Greg Guler (the character designer of Team Atlantis) kind of went on about the show at the Gathering. So now I'm in less trouble. But I'm reluctant to reveal very much more before G2002, when Tad has agreed to throw all of us a rather large bone.

But for now, I'm not going to reveal anything else that's in the episode.

Fortunately for you Vash, you've asked questions that aren't answered in the episode.

1. Fiona is the twin sister of Jason, Robyn and Jon's grandfather. That is, she's their great aunt. Is that the obvious answer you were assuming?

2. No. But they overlap in Paris in 1920.

By the way, Vash, it was fun seeing you at the Gathering. :)

Response recorded on July 02, 2001

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Anonymous writes...

1.How could the Space-Spawn be "born amidst the fury of an exploding star" I'd think thats impossible considering the heat and radiation?
2.Where and when was the exploding star?

Greg responds...

1. It's wonderful that you're so confident given the incredibly small amount of information that you have about them.

2. In space. Some time ago.

Response recorded on July 02, 2001

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Anonymous writes...

How close is Nokkar's people to First One status?

Greg responds...

I don't know what that means.

Response recorded on July 02, 2001

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Anonymous writes...

Compared to the territory held by Nokkar's people is the territory held by the Space-Spawn larger or smaller?

Greg responds...

When?

Response recorded on July 02, 2001

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Anonymous writes...

1.How old is the Space-Spawn race?
2.What is their name for themselves?
3.Did you plan to introduce specific members of the Space-Spawn?
4.Are they as long lived as Nokkar?

Greg responds...

1. Old enough.
2. Space-Spawn.
3. Yes.
4. Individually? No.

Response recorded on July 02, 2001

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matt writes...

just watched "The Hound of Ulster", and (arn't you surprised?) i had some questions:

1. when the Banche saved Goliath, Elisa, and Angela from drowning in the bog, how did she do it? did she transport them to that chamber, or was that chamber directly below the bog or what?

2. How old is Rory? and how old is Molly? Rory said he was out of school and i'm asuming he means high school... so is he, 19? 20?

3. after the episode, what and how much did Rory tell his father? everything?

and as Gargoyles is known for its foreshadowing:

4. when Goliath said, "A whole clan of gargoyles could not batter down these walls!" were you thinking of the Irish garg clan you've said existed being in that same chamber ever?

5. Rory said, "The Hound of Ulster? Sure, and dwarves made me shoes..." well, the hound turned out to exist, so DID dwarves make Rory's shoes? :)

Greg responds...

1. She transported them.

2. I don't have that information with me at this time. But he's under 20 in that episode.

3. I'm not committing to that right now.

4. Ditto.

5. Not the ones he was wearing at that moment. But the Nike's he had back in his closet.

Response recorded on July 02, 2001

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Brittany writes...

how on earth did you can you draw gargoles that good the only good thing i can draw is anime charaters.

Greg responds...

I can't draw worth a damn. Hopefully, you all think I can write though.

Response recorded on July 02, 2001

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Pyro X writes...

Greg;
I was reading your MEMO about "The Silver Falcon." fro the archives...

I got to thinking... This type of epidode wouldn't have worked with Brooklyn or even Lexington... these type of characters almost need to have other gargoyles around. You couldn't ahve a hole epidose of only Brooklyn or only Lexington. Lexington and brooklyn don't have human connections like Broadway. He shot Elisa. This brought them a bit closer than the others.
Do you agree or dissagree?

Greg responds...

I agree that Broadway shooting Elisa brought the two of them closer together. (Though they were already close.)

But otherwise, I disagree. Either Brooklyn or Lex could carry an episode on their own. I think we more or less proved that with Temptation and Thrill of the Hunt.

I know other characters were involved. But Lex and Brooklyn each carried those shows.

Response recorded on July 02, 2001

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Dracolich writes...

Hey again! Here's a Gargoyle health q.

1. Back in April, someone asked about the chance of Gargoyles getting viral diseases. So, what about mental disorders, birth defects and genetic diseases?

2. This probably falls under genetic diseases, but what about cancer? How would it affect them?

3. Now, here's probably a silly one. It sounds like one that might have been asked, but it's been awhile since I had the free time to check the archives. So, what would happen if a gargoyle lost a limb?

OK, enough with the morbid thaughts.

Greg responds...

1. Possible, I suppose. But not common.

2. They have a strong healing factor that tends to preclude cancer.

3. Gone.

Response recorded on July 02, 2001

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Justin writes...

Greg,

I have a few questions about Brooklyn and Katana's relationship.

1) How long are they mated before Nashville and Tachi come along?

2) How long did they know each other before they fell in love?

3)Given the traditionalistic upbringing that Bushido would offer would she at first find Brooklyn to be a fool?

Greg responds...

1. I don't have that info with me at the moment.

2. Depends on how you define "fell in love".

3. There's conflict. I once described their relationship as Sam & Diane-esque. No one got that, but the intellectual crowd here did understand a Beatrice & Benedick reference. Made me feel old and young, simultaneously.

Response recorded on July 02, 2001

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Jessica Cotten writes...

Hey Greg,

Well, either I can't find my answered questions(there are a lot)or I just asked them in a way that wasn't appropriate. Oh well. Anyway, if you ever get to do gargoyles again would you use Timedancer or would you maybe use a different idea if a better one surfaced? Timedancer is good, but I wouldn't put Brooklyn with someone so different. Maybe, but then again; you are the one writing the shows not me.

Since I can't find my questions. Could you e-mail me at Alexlyons3@hotmail.com

Greg responds...

I'm sorry, I don't respond with personal e-mails. Defeats the purpose of this forum.

I'm always open to using the best possible idea at my disposal at a given time. But I'm pretty sure that would include TimeDancer. I'm not sure what you mean by 'putting Brooklyn with someone so different'. You don't know enough about Katana to know how different or not she is.

Response recorded on July 02, 2001

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Michelle S. writes...

Hi Greg, I just started watching gargoyles a few mo. ago so i'm not fully awear of ever thing that has happened so i was just wondering if you could ever see brooklyn getting a girl friend?

Greg responds...

Yes. (Check out the TimeDancer Archive here at ASK GREG for more info on KATANA.)

Response recorded on July 02, 2001

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Gabe writes...

Hi,
I just wanted to make a comment:
I think it was very creative and cool to make the cold trio's drama be closley paralleled to Shakespear's OTHELLO. Except for the few inconsistantsies (i.e. Othello-Colstone not being a commander like Othello, Goliath taking on Cassio's role, and the absence of a Rodrigo, and the whole bit with Othello's tissue) I thought evrything was played-out well and done correctly; Iago-coldsteele wasn't as "Machiavellian" as was Iago in the play, but he still had that same pure-evil aura, and Desdemona-Coldfire isn't as naive as Desdemona in the play. It would be neat just see the play done by the characters of the show.
Anyways just thought I'd say that since OTHELLO is one of my favorite plays and plot-lines (almost ranked next to HAMLET and MADAEM BOVARY in my book).
Oops, I lied, I do have a quesiton, nothing too difficult, though: What kind of music would you say the Manhatten clan would listen to? That just popped in my head; I don't know why :).

Greg responds...

I don't know. Carl Johnson stuff mostly.

I'd love to use the Gargoyles characters to perform a whole variety of Shakespeare Plays. Othello's obvious. (Can you see Vinnie as Rodrigo?)

Response recorded on July 02, 2001

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Corrine Blaquen writes...

How would Macbeth react to the Canmore siblings? They are, after all, descendants of his arch-nemeses, and overall the family hasn't proven to be very honorable.

Greg responds...

He'd not be fond of them.

Response recorded on July 02, 2001

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Demoness writes...

In the "Gathering pt 1" Oberon reminds Titania "It is my law not to interfer in human affairs. Let the woman keep her child."

Then a minute later he says: "If it pleases you, you have my permission to take the child."

Xanatos: "It's alright, no one is going anywhere. It is the epiphany [sp?] in interfering in human affairs by taking a child from its parents. By your own law, you can't do this."

Oberon: "I've made up my mind."

Xanatos is right....So Oberon just broke his law by trying to take Alex whether he is of Fae blood or not. He would still be interfering in Fox and David's lives. Doesn't he realize that he made a big mistake concerning his law? Or is it just because he's the King and he can do whatever he wants?

Greg responds...

That's your point of view. Not his. Not even mine necessarily. I'm not saying he was right about taking Alexander in any kind of moral sense. But I certainly see his point from a "law-interpretation" sense. Alex was a "Child of Oberon" (not literally). He therefore was not a mortal and not subject to the non-interference rule. Quite the contrary, Oberon had declared the Gathering. Alex was REQUIRED to attend by Oberon's law. Since he couldn't get there on his own power, Oberon was simply providing a taxi service. Giving them an hour -- monstrously cruel as it sounds to us -- seemed to him like a generous concession. After all, Alex was due in Avalon yesterday -- literally.

You can see the 'fairness' of his judgment in the way he deals with Fox. He could have insisted that she come too. Costing Xanatos both wife and child. But he ruled that Fox was "regrettably human". And thus he could not touch her. From his point of view he was being very fair.

And mentioning Oberon's earlier comment is specious. He didn't know who Alex was at the time.

Xanatos certainly, and obviously, has his point of view. But who is he to interpret Oberon's law relative to Oberon himself. Who had the backing of Titania by the way in said interpretation.

Response recorded on July 02, 2001

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Anonymous writes...

Who is Anubis's father Todd says it's Osiris (making him a bastard), but Roger Lancelyn Green says it's Set? So who exactly is he in the Gargoyles Universe?

Greg responds...

Not going into that now. Mostly because I haven't done enough research recently to have made my decision.

Response recorded on July 02, 2001

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Anonymous writes...

Are the Children of Mab literally descended from Mab or is it a metaphor casting Mab as the ruler/parent and the fay as the kids?

Greg responds...

Metaphor. Though Oberon is literally Mab's son.

Response recorded on July 02, 2001

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Todd Jensen writes...

Do Anubis's "life-and-death" powers extend to the Third Race? That is, is he (or someone who is his avatar a la Jackal) able to age or destroy any of the fay, the way that he can to humans and gargoyles?

Greg responds...

Aging the Children is an oxymoron. Killing them is something else again.

Response recorded on July 02, 2001

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Epantiras writes...

What are the names of the clones clan?
thanks!

Greg responds...

You mean the names of the clones or the name of their clan?

Anyway, as of 1996, when one might argue the Labyrinth Clan was founded, the cloned gargs included Hollywood, Brentwood, Malibu, Burbank and Delilah. There were also Mutates down there: Talon, Maggie the Cat, Claw and an imprisoned Fang. And a number of homeless humans who had found a home beneath.

Thailog's also a clone, but he wasn't exactly part of this clan.

Response recorded on July 02, 2001

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Todd Jensen writes...

When you first had Xanatos and Owen mention the Emir in "The Edge", did you know that he'd feature in an episode in a prominent role at that time? Did you when you got to their mention of him in "Double Jeopardy"?

Greg responds...

Edge - No.

DJ - I was beginning to suspect that everything would eventually be used.

Response recorded on July 02, 2001

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Tony Scrima writes...

Hey Mr. Weisman,

I just have one question that I've been thinking about. I know you created Gargoyles back in 1991, but how come it was three years before the series was put on T.V.? Surely it didn't take three years to write, animate, voice record, and edit/censor the first thirteen episodes did it? So what happened? Why'd it take three years from the time you created the series to the time it was put on T.V.?

Greg responds...

We started creating the show in 1991. As a comedy-adventure. (Take a look at the "Original Development File" archive at ASK GREG.)

We failed to sell it to Michael Eisner. Then we tried again as an Action-Drama. We failed to sell it again.

We reworked the pitch and tried a third time. (The show didn't change this time, just the way we pitched it.) Third time was the charm. He bought off on it. And we went into production. But that process took about two years total. (We only got to meet with Eisner once every six months in those days.) That brings us to 1993. We then had ten months to produce the first thirteen episodes (on a sliding schedule). Which takes us to the fall of '94. Which is when we premeired.

(But what are you implying with the word "censor"?)

Response recorded on July 02, 2001

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matt writes...

i have a question about the process of gargs turning to stone, i've noticed that they turn to stone differently at different times. sometimes they convert to stone all at once, sometimes they do this fast and sometimes they do it slowly, and sometimes they turn to stone from the ground up or from one direction to another. my question is, why do they turn to stone different ways? is it because of their mindset at dawn or is it just random? i've noticed that they turn to stone slowly from the ground up when they don't want to turn to stone, like when Goliath and Hudson were returning to Wyvern the night of the massacre, or when Goliath was told Elisa was shot, or when Broadway was caught in midair at dawn. in a way are they trying to to forstall the change to stone and this causes the change to happen in a different way? am i looking at this way too hard, i don't think i am, the stone changing process just seems slower and more "forced" when the gargs are in distress or don't want it to be dawn...

i think thats all i have to say...

Greg responds...

Well, the obvious real world answer is that we're using artistic license all over the damn place.

But in the garg universe, I think you've answered your own question. If they don't want to change, they can fight it for a few seconds. Slow the process a bit. But just a bit.

Response recorded on July 02, 2001

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Demoness writes...

Were all the characters drawn to resemble, in some way, the actors/actresses that voiced them? Like Xanatos and Franks for example.

Greg responds...

No. Or at least largely no.

Xanatos was literally designed years before Jonathan Frakes was cast in the role.

Elisa's basic design didn't change much either, but we did send pictures of Salli Richardson to Mr. Takeuchi, the character designer who was working on her final model in Japan.

The human versions of Goliath, Hudson, Lex, Brooklyn and Broadway were influenced by the actors who played them. But only a bit. We had to stay faithful to the gargoyle base forms.

Response recorded on July 02, 2001

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Blaine writes...

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 ;-)

Greg responds...

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.

Response recorded on July 02, 2001

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Anonymous writes...

How does Coyote the robot end up like the Machiavellian schemer that he is in Gargoyles:2198?

Greg responds...

With help. And multiple upgrades.

Response recorded on July 02, 2001

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Anonymous writes...

Who are Demona's two greatest loves? Can we figure them out now from the 2198 contest?

Greg responds...

Two greatest? You mean out of the four or five she'll have total?

Response recorded on July 02, 2001

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Jimmy_Q writes...

Hey, Greg, at the end of "the mirror" (or whatever it's called, haven't seen the series in a few years, so i may not remember every little detail), Demona was shown reacting to the situation as if she had no idea that she had somehow transformed. In fact, she didn't figure out she turned human until later in that scene. Now, if I was her, I wouldn't be enjoying the thought of not being stone during the day so much as I would be freaking out over the pain I just felt throughout my whole body. Sorry, but if all of a sudden I felt like every bone, sinew, muscle, etc. in my body was being twisted and tied into knots, I wouldn't exactly spring up and bask in the sunshine as if nothing happened. So what happened here? Is this simply simply another one of those errors made throughout the series? BTW, just in case you're wondering, i discovered this site just a night or two ago, so it's not like it took all these years for this question to occur to me. Thanks for your time, bud.

Greg responds...

You're welcome.

There was no pain during that first transformation. Puck wanted to spring it on her as a surprise, so the pain was surpressed that once.

Response recorded on July 02, 2001

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Blaine writes...

I might be mistaken on this, but as I recall in "Reawakening" didn't Demona say she something to the effect of she had tried everything (sorcery and science) to bring him (Coldstone) back to life? So, does that mean that she was carrying around what was left of Coldstone's body (and Desdemona and Iago's bodies also) around with her all over the world for the thousand years before "The Awakening"?

Greg responds...

You're mistaken. So, no.

Response recorded on July 02, 2001

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matt writes...

1. at the end of "City of Stone" in the flashback Demona glides off to "search for her kin". did she find any gargoyles after that point?
2. at that point, were there still some clans around that are not around today? what i mean is, when was the last entire clan wiped out leaving only the clans we know survive left to today?

Greg responds...

1. Not in Scotland, at least.

2. Not revealing that now.

Response recorded on July 02, 2001

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Anonymous writes...

Will we ever meet the biblical Goliath?

Greg responds...

Sure. He'll be at Virgina Beach, next summer.

Response recorded on July 02, 2001

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Anastasia writes...

Hello Greg!
I loved the show, especialy the Goliath/Elisa story. But I have a question, I heard that gargoyles age at half the rate that humans do. Would that affect Goliath and Elisa's relationship as the years whent on?
(Oh yeah, and just a daft one...do gargoyles shave? Hudson is the only one with facial hair of any description, I just wondered...)
OK. That you very much. How are you today?

Greg responds...

Some gargs shave, some don't.

And yes, the difference in their age rate would of course effect their relationship. But I'm not saying how.

Response recorded on July 02, 2001

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Corrine Blaquen writes...

Last night I was watching 'Hunter's Moon, Part II' on Toon Disney. Since it's definately one of my favorite episodes, I tried to spot all the stuff I'd missed when on previous viewings. I was delighted by what I found!

It was in the scene right after when Elisa gives Angela CPR. In a short time afterwards dawn comes. What I noticed was that just before they turn to stone, Broadway moves beside where Angela is lying and takes her hand. It was happening in the background and no attention was called to it, but I thought that was incredibly sweet! I really loved it. Was that another hint that Broadway and Angela would end up together? If it was, it was a VERY nice way to do so. :-)

Another question about Hunter's Moon, Part II: When Goliath is just outside Elisa's window, seeing all that happens within (My original reaction to Elisa and Jason was *GASP!* "OHMYGOD, NO, OHMYGOD, NO, OHMYGOD, NO, OHMYGOD, NO, OHMYGOD, NO OHMYGOD, NO!" So on and so forth), could he hear what was being said? I couldn't tell.

And I'd like to take a brief moment to say thanks for creating a show with characters that can endear themselves with little background actions and that make me care SO MUCH that its hero gets the girl!

Greg responds...

1. Yes. As soon as Gary Sperling and I decided (while working on Turf) that Broadway and Angela would wind up together, we tried to show their relationship building -- in subtle ways.

2. Yes, he could hear. But in Soap Opera fashion, he left before he heard it all. To our credit, even the stuff he missed wasn't exactly equivocal.

You're welcome. Thanks for watching.

Response recorded on July 02, 2001

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Anonymous writes...

Is it a coincidence that both New Camelot and the Master Matrix are in Antarctica?

Greg responds...

Nope.

Response recorded on July 02, 2001

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Anonymous writes...

What does the Master Matrix and the LXM robots have to do with the Matrix that we see in Walkabout?

Greg responds...

A lot.

Response recorded on July 02, 2001

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matt writes...

why did you and the writers decide not to have Macbeth join Arthur as one of his knights?

Greg responds...

Mostly because Macbeth didn't seem to want to join.

But also because I didn't need him there as a regular in Pendragon. Frankly, he and Arthur have too much in common.

Arthur and Griff and later Blanchefleur and Merlin seemed like a good core group to start with.

Macbeth makes for a good guest star.

Response recorded on July 02, 2001

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Anonymous writes...

Have the names of Oberon and Titania's kids been mentioned in AskGreg?

Greg responds...

Two have. Merlin and Fox. Oh, you mean the kids they had together?

NO. Not that I can recall.

Response recorded on July 02, 2001

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Anonymous writes...

Did Ra's al Ghul of Batman fame influence the character of Duval/Percival?

Greg responds...

No.

Response recorded on July 02, 2001

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Todd Jensen writes...

When you came up with the notion of having King Arthur and Griff join forces, did you ever notice the parallel between their backgrounds in that both, during their original time periods, were defending Britain from Germanic invasions (King Arthur versus the Saxons and Angles at Badon, Griff versus the Nazis in the Battle of Britain)?

Greg responds...

I don't know. I mean it's all info in my head. But I can't be sure if I was conscious of it.

Mostly, Griff just seemed like Round Table material.

Response recorded on July 02, 2001

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Punchinello writes...

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

Greg responds...

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.

Response recorded on July 02, 2001

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I'm only one month behind!!

That's all I wanted to say.


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Sloth writes...

I was reading some of the old arcives, and I found one of your responces listing a bunch of movies you liked. A few hours ago, I just saw a movie called "Ladyhalk" (which was great) and I suddenly felt the need to ask you I you have seen and/or liked it.
Well, while I'm at it, and since I don't have any Garg questions right now, how bout your views on these other movies: Somewhere in time, dead again, bram stokers Dracula(the newest), frequency, Indiana Jones(all), Scarface and uummmm, One flew over the cucu's nest. Be as brief as you want to be, or go on about some or even wright full reviews for all of them, I'll leave it up to you cause I'm just curious.
Thank U

Greg responds...

LadyHawk. I LOVE this concept. I'm not as thrilled with the execution. It's been TOO long since I've seen it to go into detail, but I felt with that cast and those ideas it should have been a MUCH better movie. I actually tried to get Disney to option the rights to turn it into an animated film. But TPTB weren't interested. I do recall that the music is really dated and inappropriate to the subject matter.

Somewhere In Time. Which one is that? All those time titles melt together for me.

Dead Again. Is that the Branaugh/Thompson movie?

Dracula. The Coppola one?

Frequency. Didn't see it.

Raiders of the Lost Arc - Loved it.

Temple of Doom - Hated it.

Last Crusade - Hated it.

Scarface - Which one?

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - Amazing film.

Response recorded on July 01, 2001

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Jonathan M Perry writes...

WHo does the voice of Fox Xanatos? Its been bothering me for weeks.. please let me know. cavalier80@home.com

Greg responds...

Laura San Giacomo. Currently a regular on "Just Shoot Me".

Response recorded on July 01, 2001

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Anonymous writes...

Are there actual gargoyles that resemble Raven's clan of illusion?

Greg responds...

Not particularly.

Response recorded on July 01, 2001

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Mutai Walker writes...

You said that you once had Death of the Endless in Captain Atom so was this the infamous issue where Death is seen as an equal to the Nekron and the Black Racer?

Greg responds...

I'm not sure about "equal". That's subject to interpretation.

But Death, Nekron and the Black Racer all appeared in the same issue. And yes, I wrote it.

I love that it's called "infamous". I heard that Neil was pissed off about it. I feel NO GUILT. His own editor had the opportunity to comment on the script. Hell, she could have sent it to him for his comments. Had either she or he notified me with concerns, then of course I would have changed the script to address those concerns. But there was no comment until AFTER the thing was published. And then suddenly, I was "in trouble".

The one thing I do feel bad about is that Death was miscolored in the issue. But that was beyond my control. I never saw the color proofs.

Otherwise, I tried to be faithful, and even intentionally vague. Death never says what she is. Captain Atom guesses at her function and at her relationship to the other "death" figures (i.e. the Racer and Nekron). No one in the issue says that he guessed right. So even if what he said was completely off-base, there's still nothing in the issue that contradicts anything that was established about the Endless. At least not to my mind. One can always choose to believe that Captain Atom was simply wrong.

And if the problem is that she even appeared on the page with Nekron and the Racer, then I have no sympathy. Neil chose to set his characters in the DC Universe. He even absconded with Destiny. I have no problem with that. But it's a shared universe by definition. There were death concepts in it that pre-dated his.

Now, here's the thing. Neil and I have never met or spoken. I don't actually have any conflict with him, and I definitely don't want to generate one now. I'm a huge fan of Sandman. Heck, I don't know if he even remembers the issue at all. I don't know if he ever really had a problem with it. I just heard he did.

(So do I have a chip on my shoulder about it or what?)

Response recorded on July 01, 2001

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Demonskrye writes...

I know I'm probably setting myself up for a big fat "no" or a cryptic response, but I think this is worth a shot.

What do you know about Tom's father? Who was he? What did he do for a living? Was he dead by 995 or still alive? If he was alive, why didn't we see him at all?

Any little teasers would be appreciated. Thank you.

Greg responds...

You're welcome.

Response recorded on July 01, 2001

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Greg "Xanatos" Bishansky writes...

Ok, this has been on my mind for a while, and checked the archives and didn't find it there.

What was Raven hoping to gain by driving everyone away from Queen Florence Island in "Heritage". I don't really understand his motivations there.

Greg responds...

I used to live on Queen Florence Lane in Woodland Hills, California.

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

Response recorded on July 01, 2001

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Anonymous writes...

Why did you give up reading comics? I mean there are still some good ones such as Rising Stars(Rising Stars) and League of Extraordinary Gentlemen(Moore).

Greg responds...

Never heard of 'em.

It's kind of a long story, but in a nutshell here are a few factors as to why I gave up comics in 1996:

1) Many of the comics I was reading at the time ended their run. Love & Rockets. Sandman. Etc.

2) Other comics I was reading became UNREADABLE. Hulk springs to mind. It wasn't really Peter David's fault. But by that time Hulk was the only Marvel Universe Book I was still reading. Then the Marvel Universe split in two or something, and I couldn't make heads or tails out of Hulk anymore. DC's Universe wasn't that much better.

3) Comics I still wanted to collect, like Cerebus, were becoming hard to find. There was no longer a good comic shop near my office. I couldn't go every week like I used to. So I'd try to go once a month. I'd miss an issue and not know it for another month when the NEXT issue came out. By that time, finding that back issue became VERY difficult.

4) Because so many comics I used to love were gone or unreadable, I was down to collecting very few titles. Given that I collected so few and the logistical difficulties of getting to a decent store, I was no longer feeling the old, "Gotta get in there and by the next issue of everything" pressure. Half the time I did go, I no longer found ANYTHING that I wanted.

5) I didn't plan on quitting. I went to a store in November of 1996. Didn't get around to going again in December or January of 97. By February or so, I realized that I had gone a while without... and that I didn't MISS IT AT ALL. This was a shocking revelation to me. SHOCKING. I'd been addicted to comics for DECADES. I had a huge collection -- particularly huge since from 1985-1987, I got every issue of every comic being published (with very few exceptions) for FREE. (I was on staff at DC at the time, and the various publishers had a gentleman's agreement to provide each other with free copies). Once I found I didn't miss it, I decided to quit. Freed up a ton of time and money.

Response recorded on July 01, 2001

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Demoness writes...

Isn't Elisa a member of Goliath's clan? If so, why was she affected by Oberon's magic in "The Gathering" when he decreed that Goliath's clan was immune.

Greg responds...

Oberon clearly doesn't realize that she's a member.

Response recorded on July 01, 2001

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matt writes...

1. do either Broadway or Lexington shave their heads? do either have hairy heads if they wanted to let it grow?

2. do some beast have hair in the same way that some gargs have hair and some don't?

Greg responds...

1. I don't think so. But maybe.

2. Yes.

Response recorded on July 01, 2001

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Anonymous writes...

Wouldn't gargoyles 2198 also tie your hands on certain arcs in the gargoyles universe?

Greg responds...

That's a risk. It's also one of the reasons I moved the setting from 2158 to 2198. I wanted to get far enough into the future that most everyone from the original would be dead no matter what.

Response recorded on July 01, 2001

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Demoness writes...

1a. Do the Fae tap into Earth's Magic?

1b. If yes, lets say a Fae somehow finds himself on Mars, would he be weaker then normal or completely powerless, or not effected at all?

2. How come Oberon could throw Xanatos magically when his magic is powerless against iron? (The Gathering pt 2)

3. In your opinion, who would win in a fair battle, Q or Oberon?

4. When did the Mab/Oberon war happen? Could you please give me an estimated date like c. 1000 BC-500 BC.

Greg responds...

1a. Sometimes.

1b. I'm not big on hypotheticals.

2. He grabbed his head.

3. I have no interest in this question.

4. It is forbidden.

Response recorded on July 01, 2001

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Todd Jensen writes...

Sorry for asking another "Roswell Conspiracies"-related question, but:

You've indicated in past responses that your original plans for the series included its female lead being a banshee whom you were going to name Siobhan. When you came up with Siobhan, were you planning to use her as an at least partial "cannibalization" of the plans that you'd had for the Banshee/Molly in "Gargoyles"?

Greg responds...

No. I developed Roswell Conspiracies, but I didn't create it. The basic concept was handed to me.

The idea on that show, at least when I was working on it, was that all those magical creatures like Yeti and werewolves and vampires and Shee, etc. did exist. But that they were various alien races from other planets.

Siobhan was native to Earth, in the sense that she was born here. But she wasn't human.

By the way, I offered up a copy of my pilot script to Roswell at the G2001 charity auction. I'm curious who bought it, what they paid for it and what they think of it? Please post and let me know.

Response recorded on July 01, 2001

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(handel)Luna Wyvern writes...

Why was Gargoyles canceled off the air?
Will it ever be on ever again?
Can I do something about this situation?

Greg responds...

Start by taking a look at the archives for a good answer.

At this point, I might suggest that the most pragmatic thing people could do is to petition Disney for a DVD release. Politely.

Response recorded on July 01, 2001

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Demoness writes...

In your opinion, if Gargoyles ever became a motion picture, out of the well known actors, who do you think might best play Macbeth?

I say Sean Connery. He's got the looks (well use too, stick some hair on his head and he's fine), the accent, and he's played a King and warrior before. :)

Greg responds...

We just had this discussion here. Check out the Ask Greg Archives under Macbeth, or Live-Action Movie or Voice Talent.

Response recorded on July 01, 2001

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matt writes...

are there any other titles and positions in gargoyle clans besides leader and second in command? perhaps like rookery-guard, gargbeast-keeper, shaman, etc.?

Greg responds...

Not universally.

Response recorded on July 01, 2001

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Demonskrye writes...

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.

Greg responds...

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.)

Response recorded on July 01, 2001

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matt writes...

1. what spinoffs would be see Gabriel and Opheila in?

2. what is the relationship between Angela and Opheila?

3. when Opheila hatched do you imagine she had that head frill or do you think it grew in later?

4. how would you describe Opheila since we've seen so little of her?

Greg responds...

1. Gargoyles for sure. Maybe Pendragon. Big maybe on 2198. Maybe TimeDancer.

2. Sisterly.

3. She had a little one.

4. I'd start by spelling her name right.

Response recorded on July 01, 2001

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Sloth writes...

When Goliath found out Puck was Owen, or owen was puck, whey didn't he persue the matter of whether Future Tense was a dream or a profossy?

Greg responds...

What's a 'profossy'?

Seriously, did the timing seem right to you?

And at any rate, G's not a dope. He knows he'd never get a straight answer from the Puck.

Response recorded on July 01, 2001

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SEM writes...

I know generally TGC is avoided in this forum, but since you wrote "The Journey":

Was there any significance to why Vinny was sent to Japan? Did you envision showing him and the Japanese Gargoyles at some future point?

Greg responds...

Yes.

And "The Journey" is absolutely within the purvue of this forum. My last episode.

Response recorded on June 30, 2001

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Anonymous writes...

You said that the Olympian/Titan conflict and the Frost giants/Aesir existed, but what about the conflict between Tiamat and Marduk did it exist in some form?

Greg responds...

Yes.

Response recorded on June 30, 2001

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Sloth writes...

OK, Heres a good one!
If Fox had stayed as leader of the pack untill "upgrade" would she have upgraded her body in anyway or would she have taken Dingo's view on the matter. If she did upgrade herself what sort of thing would she do to herself and how sadistic would it be.
Mabey you wont mind this type of hypothetical question.
thanks

Greg responds...

Why is THIS type of hypothetical any different from the others?

I'm not fond of them, but I doubt Fox would have done anything to her body.

Response recorded on June 30, 2001

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Yttrium writes...

Ever notice that when Demona's in her human form, her hair seems much fluffier than it does when she's gargoyle? It retains its spiky quality, but it appears slightly softer to me. Is it because the texture of gargoyle hair is different than human hair?

---Ytt

Greg responds...

I haven't noticed the difference.

Response recorded on June 30, 2001