Jonah Lucedo writes...

Hi Greg, I am a big fan of Gargoyles and I have a question. Do Yōkai, mythological creatures from Japan, exist in the Gargoyles universe as part of the Third Race?

Iluvendure writes...

We know that Children of Oberon and humans can have children among them (Fox is the greatest example), while gargoyles and humans can not reproduce:
1. My question is this: Could a Gargoyle and a Children of Oberon together conceive a child in a supposed relationship?... after all the living nature of the "fairies" is strange

Thank you very much and forgive the inconvenience

B writes...

http://www.s8.org/gargoyles/askgreg/search.php?qid=21805 was in reference to http://www.s8.org/gargoyles/askgreg/search.php?qid=21568

B writes...

You've indicated that Nimue was the third daughter of Igraine and Gorlois, exchanged with the changeling Morgana. Does that make her magic (or that of stolen children in general, if you prefer) mortal sorcery by definition? Except mortal sorcery isn't allowed on Avalon, where stolen human children would logically be raised. Did she not know any magic before Merlin taught her (as in the legend) despite her upbringing by the Third Race, or is she (or stolen children in general, if you prefer) able to manipulate the energies of Avalon like the Magus learned to, thus technically staying within the prohibition?

B writes...

If, as Goliath says, the Vikings called the Oberati "Dark Elves", then what about the Light Elves that are also present in Viking mythology? Were they more myth than fact, were they angels (like the ones in Jacob's vision in the issue "The Rock"), or are they also members of the Third Race but Goliath only chose to mention the Dark Elves for some reason? In Norse myth, Light Elves were like what we would think of as Tolkien Elves and Dark Elves were like Tolkien Dwarves.

Няшный Кэк writes...

Hi again. As long as rules require to group questions by different topics, I've written that as separate questions.
So.
1. If Puck is Oberon's servant, why can he be summoned by Titania's mirror? Not some Oberon's possessions, but Titania's.
2. Does the spell, that Demona used to summon Puck, have any translation? Was it in Latin? I failed to find it on Wiki.
3. Why didn't Oberon just use the mirror as Demona did in order to summon Puck? Was he just in a mood for stroll?
4. In the way I see it, there's kind of tension between Puck and the Weird Sisters, as they say they can hunt him down for Oberon. I mean -Hunt-. Not to bring him, not to call him, not to remind to him. Hunt him down. Why? If this IS a spoiler, please, just forget you've read 2d question. If I just dramatize, feel free to tell it in any form you like.
5. Would - if heard - the ringing of the iron bell be at least painful to ANY one of Oberon's children in their true form? If not to all, then to who will it be?

Wonderfulakari writes...

Are fairy-human shape shifts like Owen still bound by things like "Iron hurts you" and "No stealing magical items like the phoenix gate"?

Also just to say your shows inspired me to pursue a major/career in illustration and comics. I saw your shows and others like it and decided I wanted to find a way to contribute to them somehow. Hopefully one day I'll story-board something half as good as what you produce.

Joanne writes...

Hey, long time Gargoyles fans and I got a bit of an odd question, and I don't think it's been asked before (at least from my searches).

Since in the gargoyles world fairies, god/goddess, and other mythical creatures exist a thought strikes me...do Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, and Tooth Fairy actually exist in the Gargoyles world or at least some kind of version of them?

I know it's a bit of a silly question, but they do come from old stories just like all other mythological beings do. So, I couldn't help, but wonder.

KaJoSitz writes...

Hello Greg! I've read your statement that all members of the Third Race choose their own appearances and do not have "true forms." So in that case, I'm curious as to what they look like when they are born/come into being for the first time? Do they manifest as clouds of magic energy until they get an idea for their personal looks or what? Thanks in advance!

Mara writes...

We know that Oberon sent the Fae out from Avalon in order to teach them some humility... Was there a singular inciting incidentthat caused this ruling, or was it just from the sheer number of small incidents of individual Fae?

JC writes...

You've said that "sides were taken" during the war between Mab and Oberon.
I have a few questions regarding this conflict:

1) Were the "sides" you refered to composed of, lets say "morally ambiguous," Children like the Wierd Sisters, Banshee, Anansi, and Raven versus the relatively benign Children like Puck, Odin, Coyote, and Grandmother?

2) Does Oberon hold any animosity for those who sided against him, ranging from general distrust to outright distain? Does he forgive any of them completely?

3) Do any who took Mab's side still prefer to be refered to as "Mab's Children?"

4) Were any Children who fought against Oberon imprisioned along with Mab?

Al writes...

I'm just filled with Gargoyles questions today, so heres another one.

You've said before that the New Olympians, being decendants of Children of Oberon/Human hybrids, don't use Children of Oberon (henceforth I'm going to refer to them as "Fae," although I know thats not technically accurate) magic in the traditional sense, but rather have internalized it into individual "powers."

1) My question is regarding Fox. The only time we've seen her use Fae magic was in the form of an energy blast. Was/is that her "power," or, given the proper training, would she have had powers (less than or equal to) a pure-bred Fae?

2) Also, Alexander seems to be able to access (full?) Fae abilities, including an extreamly long life-span. Is that because he is only a couple generations away from a pure-bred Fae, or because he is decended from such a powerfull Fae as Queen Titanya? (I want to ask if his decendants would be as powerfull as he is, or turn out like the New Olympians, but that would be a "spoiler request," so I won't. Unless you're feeling generous, then I am).

Jessy writes...

I have a rather...odd question.
I've read that fairies seem to have a problem with the words "thank you". 1. Do you think that's true in the Gargoyle's universe, in the case of say, Puck? If the Gargoyle's world considers him a fairy and not, like, a hobgoblin, maybe he's considered both, I don't know. 2. Would this be something they've grown out of, dismissing it as a human eccentricity or would it still irk them enough to go berserk on the poor well-meaning human? I've always made the half-joke that that's why Puck likes to mess with people. He gives them what they ask for but in a way that makes sure they never make the mistake of thanking him for it.

Jessy writes...

A few questions about the Third Race.
1. Did they take anything with them to Avalon, or did they mostly just drop whatever it was that they were doing?
2. Did they take technology with them? Electronics. I mean, I'm sure magic compensates for most actual work they would have to do, but that doesn't mean that a few wouldn't like to take their Game Boy or something with them when they go home. No batteries on Avalon, I'm sure, but they might be able to make it work.
3. Would Oberon ALLOW them to bring technology onto Avalon, or does he consider it foreign magic?
4. I'm guessing that those who were married to humans at the time weren't allowed to bring their spouses along, were there a lot of broken homes made that year? You would think Oberon would make concessions about those things but then Avalon might see a spike in mortal inhabitants.
5. That brings me to another question; Would Oberon see a marriage between one of his race and a mortal as anything of significance? Anyways, I am glad you're still doing this, thank you! ^_^

Erebus1994 writes...

1. Are members of the third race physically stronger than humans or gargoyles?
2. Can members of the third race increase their physical strength by casting spells?

no name writes...

Can halflings with a Gargoyle and a Third Race parent have children with humans - or human/Third Race halflings with Gargoyles?

Otho Fernandes Damasceno writes...

Did the Hunters ever interacted with any of the Children of Oberon? If so, what's their opnion about them?

Otho Fernandes Damasceno writes...

I would like to make a few questions about The Children of Oberon's weakness: Iron.
1) Why they are vunerable to it to begin with?
2) Is iron COMPLETLY inmune to their magic, or only highly resistent to it?
3) If so, how much iron composition other substances (like Steel) would need to be at least resistent to their magic?
4) If a Children of Oberon turn itself into a creature stronger than an average Gargoyle, would he/she be able to break a iron chain with it's bare hands?
5) If the Children of Oberon can't affect iron with magic, how did Oberon managed to do things like levitating Xanatos' laser-gun, shockwave several robotic gargoyles and melt a lamppost with his bare hands?

Tymiko writes...

I noticed in another series of children's books called The Sisters Grimm that the author, Michael Buckley, also had Puck as a main character, only he has the form of a 12 year old and seems to have the mindset of one. He also has a pair of pink insect wings (despite still being a shape-shifter) that he isn't ashamed of at all.

He's written in a way that makes me believe he could have been your version of Puck at a younger age, though he is considered in that series to be the literal child of Oberon and Titania (Oberon's children, haha).

What's more is that King Oberon and Queen Titania live in Manhatten, New York City. I can't help but wonder if there's some of the Gargoyle show's influence at work here.

1. Were you aware of this series and its similarities?

2. Did you ever exchange words with Michael Buckley?

3. Do you think it's possible he watched your show, Gargoyles, or more likely that it was a coincidence?

Tymiko writes...

Your rendition of Puck really rekindled an interest of fairy lore in me, especially since I love tricksters and their amoral personalities that make them so complex. I love how you never know if they'll do something 'good' or 'bad' to someone else simply on a whim, and you portrayed that so well.

I read a previous answer of yours to someone else that said you didn't want to label Puck, Oberon, and Titania as 'faeries' because of the pejorative connotations that the word has. I realize and empathize with you about how fairies are often thought of as nothing more than pretty little girls with butterfly wings or something to that effect, who wave magic wands to grant wishes and always do good. Makes me sick.

1. Is that why you didn't have Puck, Oberon and Titania portrayed with fairy wings despite their status in their original play?

2. If so, why bother to have Puck fly around at all, let alone with fairy dust trailing behind him?

There's a show I recently learned of called Durarara!! in which a Dullahan (technically a sort of fairy) comes to Tokyo to find her missing head, taking the form of a black-wearing motorcyclist and transferring her headless horse's spirit into a pitch black motobike. To hide the fact she has no head, she wears a full helmet and tries to blend in with the city, acting as a transporter and courier for gangs and info brokers, forcing fans to reconsider their initial mental image of a typical fairy.

I think if you had recognized that Puck and the others were Fae, it just might have saved the Fae's tainted, modern day reputation, considering how well-known and admired the Gargoyles show is. However, I understand respect the choices you made, and it was pretty much obvious who they were in the long run.

Tymiko writes...

1. If a Child of Oberon were to be imprisoned in a cell, box, room, or cage of iron, what effect might it have on them (if they can even be contained in one)?

2. Would that depend on the length of time they were imprisoned in such a cell?

3. Could they die from it, or only be weakened by it?

4.Does it physically pain them?

Sean Mc Bride writes...

Hi first time questioner, long time fan so here we gp
1)Does Titania still have feelings for Renard?
2)When Oberon sent all of the third race into the human world to learn humailty, what he was he doing for that time. Was he in the human world aswell?
3)Oberon said that they golaith could have killed him with the iron bell. If he had died what would have become of his children?(so to speak)

Anonymous writes...

Can Oberon's children eat food containing iron, such as meat or spinach?

Stephanie writes...

What I don't get is that if Oberan commanded them (his children) to not interfere in human affairs why are so many of them interested in carving out their own little dominion across Earth? That just never really clicked in my head...

Algernon writes...

Hey Greg,
I've got a Third Race question I've been mulling over. Now obviously a lot of the Children are drawn from the gods and supernatural beings of various world mythologies. But since you established that many of them have adapted mortal identities over the centuries, particularly during the 1001 year exile from Avalon, did any of them take mortal identities we might recognise from conventional history books?

Josh writes...

I don't quite understand the Gathering; was it a family reunion meant to last a few centuries before letting all the Children go back to the real world, a chance for everyone to worship their Lord, or did everyone have to go back to Avalon and stay forever?

Vaevictis Asmadi writes...

Hello Greg,

I have a question for you about the half-mortal, half-Third Race hybrids. I know that the Children of Oberon cannot use their magic directly on iron. But can half-mortal hybrids use Third Race magic to directly affect iron?

Thank you!

Laura 'ad astra' Sack writes...

You say that Titania as Anastasia, like Puck as Owen, is completely human. Does that mean Fox being half Fae was planned choice? Does conceiving a half Fae child requiring choosing to only appear human rather than be human for a change?

Vaevictis Asmadi writes...

I just re-read The Moorchild by Eloise McGraw. It's a book I mentioned in a much earlier question to you, one about a changeling girl who is half human and half fae, and the weirdness and difficulty she has fitting in with either because she is different from both species. (It's even set in medieval Scotland.) It prompted me to ask you how different or similar, emotionally and psychologically, the Third Race are to humans, because the depiction in this book is of quite inhuman fae who really can't relate to humans. You have consistently answered that the Third Race are quite similar to humans, emotionally and psychologically -- that the main difference is that of great power without great responsibility, of never growing old or having to work, and of being able to look however they want on a whim. You've even said that a human could imagine what it is like to be such a being by imagining what life for one of us would be like with those benefits.

Reading The Moorchild again got me to wondering about what it is like growing up as a hybrid (in a family of non-hybrids), or as a non-hybrid changeling raised by another species, in the Gargoyles universe. The personality differences don't seem nearly as pronounced between humans and Third Race as they are between humans and fae in The Moorchild, so it seems like fewer problems should arise, although physically there seems to be quite a lot of difference between mortals and the Children even when they look human. Clearly a half-mortal child like Fox can grow up without ever figuring it out, or learning magic. But did she ever feel different from the mortal children around her? Did other humans notice anything different about her? Or was there nothing really out of the ordinary, no noticeable outward signs of her magical heritage?

And what about Morgan le Fay, who according to what you have revealed is a purely Third Race changeling. Was it strange for her to grow up among humans? I assume she looked human, but did she feel human, or did she feel different from those around her? Did she seem unusual to her human parents and siblings, or did they never really notice anything out of the ordinary, personality-wise or physically? Did she just seem like a regular human being to them?

As for Nimue, well, she can't have helped but notice she was different, not having the same nearly-effortless magical abilities and shapechanging that the Third Race have. That and not being made of pure magic, along with whatever that entails.

I imagine a slightly different dynamic for the Avalon Clan, since there was no human society around them and they actually outnumbered their foster parents 11-to-1, but I'm sure that was at least somewhat weird, especially for the humans.

Anonymous writes...

alright greg! we know oberon had two halfling sons, but he also had a son and a daughter with titania. who are they?

and...

are they at the gathering?

can they leave like there parents can?

and what magic are they capable of together and/or separate?

please accept this fans should really know.

Vaevictis Asmadi writes...

Hello Greg,

Thanks for clarifying the feudal society of the Third Race.

Given this feudal arrangement, where does that put the Weird sisters? They are the Norns of the Norse, but also the Greek and Roman Fates, Furies, and Graces. Does that mean they're part of the Aesir? Or part of the Greek gods?

Thank you.

Vaevictis Asmadi writes...

Hello Greg,

I have a question about Anubis.

Anubis is a death god, is strongly connected to death, and apparently has power over death (whether or not he chooses to use that power). But is he able to use magic that is not connected to death? Is he limited to only using and reversing the effects of "death magic," or can he mostly do anything he wants, magically speaking?

Thank you.

Vaevictis Asmadi writes...

Hello Greg,

From watching The Gathering and other episodes with the Children of Oberon in it, and from your reveals on s8, it appears to me that the Third Race have a feudal-like system, with Oberon as the high king (more or less), and others as his subjects or vassals. I think you have said that there are various "subsets," such as the Aesir and the Egyptian gods.

Do these "subsets" or "pantheons" have any political or social reality in Third Race society? What I mean is, are they just convenient catagories for mortals to refer to this or that Child of Oberon as belonging to a mythological category, or are they actual groups who associate(d) with one another as such, who have something political, social, or cultural in common with one another?

Thank you.

MasterGhandalf writes...

Regarding Oberon:

1. Do the Third Race as a whole view Oberon as their most powerful member, or do they follow him for other reasons (royal bloodline, his overthrowing of Mab, etc.) Are there any who might stand a chance of overthrowing him, or would even want to?

2. Is Oberon regarded as a tyrant by his subjects? Obviously neither Puck nor Banshee wanted to go to the Gathering, but what is more general opinion of Oberon's rule?

3. Several of the Third Race are venerated as gods by mortals (such as Anubis and Odin), while Oberon himself, so far as I'm aware, has never been the object of a major religion. Is he at all irritaded by this, or would he even care?

Vaevictis Asmadi writes...

Hello Greg,

I've looked all over the archives and I did not find an answer to this. Once, somebody asked you why Anansi chose to be so big and ungainly, presumably since this form gave him trouble when fighting the gargoyles in "Mark of the Panther." You answered: << He ate a lot and gloried in it, I guess. And changing may not be as easy as you make it sound.>> Reading that, I realized that it has never been established explicitly whether shapeshifting is something that all of the Third Race can do. Anansi himself does shapeshift later, but only after getting stabbed. If it was very easy for him to change into a tiny form and run away, I would expect him to do that once pleading and offering bribes didn't work, instead of sitting there and getting stabbed.
Here's the original question: http://www.s8.org/gargoyles/askgreg/search.php?qid=3095

So are all of the Third Race able to shapeshift, or just some or most of them?
Are all of them able to assume mortal forms (like Owen), or can just some or most of them do this?
And are they all equally good/skilled/versatile at shapeshifting?

Thank you.

Vaevictis Asmadi writes...

The question in the last queue about whether Fox and David can vote after getting out of prison, and my own thoughts about the Third Race and Oberon's Law against interfering with mortals, has led me to this question: What does the Law of Oberon prevent and what does it allow, in terms of Oberon's Children participating in human politics? Do Anastasia Renard and Owen Burnett have U.S. citizenship, or if not could they get it if they wanted it? Can they vote? Can they get any more politically active than voting? (Leaving aside whether they actually want to do any of these things.)

Thanks.

Vaevictis Asmadi writes...

Greetings Greg,

I still don't have time to write out my thoughts about Bad Guys, let alone watch and read the Gargoyles medieval flashbacks marathon like I planned. They'll probably have to wait until graduation and winter break. But I still have so many other questions I want to ask you about Gargoyles!

I wonder often about the Third Race in the Gargoyles universe. You have revealed a lot of information about the gargoyles, since obviously they are the focus of the whole series, and less about the Third Race. I wonder how similar to or different from mortals they are, psychologically. The Third Race include the gods of various polytheistic religions, and at least in Greek, Norse, and Egyptian myths, gods are depicted as having pretty human psychology, and the same emotions as human beings. They are also depicted as having cultures very similar to their worshippers. Of course, myths were created by mortals and "few things are accurate." The Third Race also includes beings like the Fair Folk and/or the Fae. In fiction that I have read about Faerie folk, they aren't often depicted as psychologically similar to human beings. For example, in the book "The Moorchild", the Faeries (called Moorfolk) seem quite different from human beings. They raise their children communally, and also seem to entirely lack the emotions of love and hate. They don't even seem to form any emotional ties to one another, perhaps not even what humans would necessarily call friendship. The book convincingly and successfully depicts beings that are, in some ways, very alien from human beings. Other depictions (like in the table-top role-playing game Exalted) make the Fair Folk even more alien.
In the Gargoyles show and comics, gargoyles clearly have a similar psychology to humans: although they have some differences which make them more than just humans with wings, they're pretty similar to us in most ways. They obviously feel love and hate, for example, and although their family relations are structured differently, it seems pretty clear that they love and care about their children, parents, and siblings. I think in a past response you said that none of the races in the Gargoyles Universe are designed to be all that alien, not even the actual aliens, and that it should be possible to relate to all of them with some effort. So far, as individuals, the depictions of the Third Race make them seem more like the gods of myth, not necessarily following human moral ideas and sometimes being whimsical, but having a mostly human-like psychology. But except for the glimpses of the relationship between Titania and Oberon, and Titania's relationship to her human family (when however she was mostly in a human body, presumably full of human hormones and neurotransmitters) there wasn't a lot of interaction between the Third Race in the show, and obviously their society wasn't the focus.

So the main questions in my mind about this subject are these:

1. Do the Children of Oberon have the same emotional range as human beings, including emotions such as love, hate, shame, compassion, gratitude, jealousy, indignation, etc.?

2. How much detail of their long lives do they remember? Do they generally have better memory than humans, or is their memory only about as good as a human's? Does someone as old as Oberon have only a fuzzy recollection of things that happened 3000 or so years ago, or does he remember 3000 years ago (such as the events of Midsummer Night's Dream) as clearly as he remembers 30 years ago? Humans (and presumably gargoyles) have limited neurons in the brain for forming memories and synapses, and synapses that are not used regularly are trimmed away to make "room" for more useful connections, leading to loss of memories and skills that are less frequently used. But since Children of Oberon are made of pure magic, I don't think they even have neurons.

3. In their long lives, do the Third Race tend to get bored any more or less often than mortals do, or about as often?

Thanks!

Vaevictis Asmadi writes...

Greetings Greg,

I have another question about the New Olympians, halflings, and the Law of Oberon (related to what Random Fan asked about the Law). In the Gathering, Oberon showed that his law is applied and interpreted differently for different halflings. Fox is too human because she has grown up with a mortal life, so the Law applies to her as to a mortal. But Titania has permission to interfere in Alex's life, perhaps because he is newborn and has not yet grown up to be human, but has the potential to be or become something else.

How does Oberon interpret and enforce his law in relation to the New Olympians? Are (or were, before the Gathering) the Third Race permitted to interfere in the lives of New Olympian halflings, or does Oberon view them as mortal and therefore not open to (unsolicited) interference?

Thanks.

Vaevictis Asmadi writes...

Greetings Greg,

On the subject of halflings, I have been wondering for a long while how halflings that are part human and part animal (like the New Olympians) are born. My understanding from the archives is that a member of the Third Race can only breed with a mortal by assuming a truly mortal, flesh-and-blood body of the same species as the mortal they want to breed with. If this is correct, how does a mortal, with a Child of Oberon in a truly mortal body of the same species, end up with a child which does not look like the parents? For example, if a human and a Child of Oberon in a completely human body, like Anastasia, had children, how would the children look like anything except normal human beings? Or if a Child of Oberon took on a mortal horse form and mated with a mortal horse, wouldn't the offspring all look like normal horses? For example, how were the first centaurs, or the first minotaurs, born?

Thank you!

Random Fan writes...

It seems the more I read the archives (now that I've discoverd them)the more questions I have. The one that plagues me now is about an answer you gave in response to whether Halflings have to adhere to the no medeling rule.
Greg responds...
The rule is magically enforced. Oberon doesn't need to know about you to enforce it. You don't need to know about Oberon to have it enforced. But -- as we've seen -- loopholes abound. The trickier you are the easier it is to find loopholes. Bloodline -- or blood purity, so to speak -- has nothing to do with it.
My qustion then is how doesthe rule affect Halfling human relations? Because I havent heard anything about New Olimpus breaking the rules by becomeing part of the U.N, or An older Alex being a big wig in the 2198 spin off. What are a Halflings limits?

Vaevictis Asmadi writes...

Greetings Greg,

I have a few questions for you about the Third Race and language. Since the TV show never depicted non-English languages for technical reasons, and Avalon apparently translates in some way when it sends visitors to the mortal world, I do not assume that what sounds like English is necessarily English.

1. What language(s) do the Children of Oberon speak amongst themselves on Avalon? Do they speak a language (or languages) of their own there, or do they speak only human languages?
2. Do the Third Race have any languages of their own?
3. Did the Third Race ever have any languages of their own?

Thank you once again for answering fan questions!

Allen writes...

Hey, I've been following Ask Greg on and off since 2001. This is only my second post. Just wanted to say I appreciate you sustaining the fanbase.

1) Were halflings like Merlin or The New Olympians invited to go to Oberon's Gathering? I would think that Oberon's determination in attempting to bring Alex meant that The Gathering would not be limited to "full" fae. But I could be wrong. What's the truth, Greg?

Allen writes...

What was Oberon's purpose for The Gathering?

Clark Cradic writes...

Has Macbeth had any contact with or even know if the Third Race exist?

The MythMaker writes...

The Egyptian term "netjer", which a previous commentor says can be translated as "god" actually means "watcher". There is more to this story...

Vaevictis Asmadi writes...

Hello Greg,

In the past, some posters here have implied that only iron can kill a member of the Third Race. This has never really been confirmed. Yet, when once asked if there were casualties in the war between Mab and Oberon, you said "yes, any war has casualties." If some of the Children of Mab did kill each other in that war, I find it hard to believe they used iron weapons!

So, is iron the only thing that can kill a member of the Third Race?

DarkFae writes...

Hello Mr. Weisman,

I have read through the FAQ and archives and could not find an answer to why the Third Race is called the Children of Oberon or the Children of Mab. Why are they called these things? Is it to show they follow that leader or is it something more? And what would happen to a member of the Third Race who called themselves a Child of Mab while Oberon ruled? Thank you for any consideration you give this question.

Clark Cradic writes...

Can Oberon's Children breed with Gargoyles?

Vaevictis Asmadi writes...

Hello Greg,

About the Third Race: You've said that a Child of Oberon can recover from anything, as long as they aren't killed. When Oberon was very nearly killed with the iron harpoon, he recovered in just a matter of minutes, which was quite remarkable. But he's Oberon, he's much more powerful than most of his vassals.

When Anansi was stabbed with the spear and "bled" of some of his magical energy, he appeared to die but escaped by becoming much smaller. How long did it take Anansi to heal or recover? Minutes? Hours? Days? Weeks? I'm not asking for an exact number, of course.

Thanks!

Clark Cradic writes...

In your opinion who do you think is more powerful: the Weird Sisters or Puck? I ask because I've noticed that they're the only ones of Oberon's Children who consistantly fight or aid the Gargoyles and I was curious what would happen if they ever came into conflict.
Also Oberon forbid his Children from harming or interfering with humans, did he forbid his Children from fighting amongst themselves? Again I ask cause I wonder why Grandmother didn't fight Raven herself.
Finally, why does Oberon even care what he or his race do to mankind? It's a little suprising that a being so powerful could have compasion for such 'mere mortals'.

Wesley Nichols writes...

I have a question regarding child rearing among the fae or Oberon's Children as they call themselves. Human children are generally raised by their biological parents while Gargoyle children are raised by the whole clan. How do the fae raise their young?

Vaevictis Asmadi writes...

Hello Greg,

While I was looking in the GargWiki for information about the Olympians, I saw that you wanted to know the Ancient Egyptian name for the Egyptian pantheon.

The word which can be translated as "god" is _netcher_ or _netjer_, feminine _netcheret_ or _netjeret_, plural _netcheru_ or _netjeru_. TCH and TJ are just ways to spell the CH sound at the beginning and end of English "church," without confusing it with the German or Greek CH. As with every Ancient Egyptian word, the vowels were never written down, so the vowels in netjer and netjeru are speculatively added to make N-TJ-R and N-TJ-R-W pronounceable.

Netjeru refers to all the deities, including large numbers of minor deities who are servants to the greater deities, and who are often referred to in English as "demons" or "spirits." Netjeru sometimes also include other beings: deified mortals, the _akhu_ or souls of the dead, and divine beings like Ammut and Apophis that were not worshipped. Netjeru can also include the _bau_, which are "manifestations or emanations" send forth from a deity.

I do not know if netjer was also used to refer to gods of other religions, but I'm guessing it was.

What I have told you comes from Richard Wilkinson's "The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt." In my non-expert opinion this is one of the best books on Egyptian Mythology that I have seen for the non-specialist.

Vaevictis Asmadi writes...

Hello again,

I have a questions about the original Olympians in the Gargoyles universe. I hope you aren't sick of my curiosity about the Third Race, but the links to mythology are my favorite parts of Gargoyles, since I've always loved mythology.

I was looking in the Archives about the New Olympians, and I found two entries that interested me. In 2000, concerning the New Olympians and their ancestors, when asked about those ancestors who were worshipped as gods, you wrote:
"They weren't actually immortal."

Later in 2001, you wrote:
"The ancestors were the "gods and monsters" of legend. Many of whom were known as the Olympian Gods of Ancient Greek and Roman mythology.
Most of them were of the Children."

I'm sure I am misinterpreting your responses, but I find these two seem contradictory. The 2001 response indicates most of them were "of the Children" but the 2000 response seems to me to mean that most of them were not Children of Mab.

1. With regards to the original 12 Olympians, were most of the 12 Olympians Children of Mab, or just some of them? Or were most of the original 12 Olympians hybrids?

Thank you.

Vaevictis Asmadi writes...

Hello Greg,

Thank you for taking questions again!
I have been waiting a while to continue this conversation about the Third Race. Honestly I have so many questions that I've been waiting to ask for the longest time, but I have generally held back so I wouldn't flood the queue.

A while ago, I asked you <<"Are Children of Oberon vulnerable to steel, since it contains iron?">>
You responded:
<<"I think pure iron is what they're MOST vulnerable, but who wants to take chances?">>

I think it makes sense that they're _most_ vulnerable to pure iron (wrought iron). However, it doesn't make sense to me that steel has no effect _at all_, yet this appears to be the case, judging from the ineffective-ness of Hudson's sword in The Gathering, and that spear in Mark of the Panther. Steel is stronger than wrought iron and holds a sharper edge, but chemically there is very little difference between steel and pure iron.

I did some research, and steel (including ancient steel and most modern steel) is 98%-99.5% elemental iron -- almost as pure as wrought iron. Cast iron is actually less pure than steel, it contains less elemental iron. Modern stainless steel is even less pure than cast iron.
It also turns out that all of what is marketed as "wrought iron" today is actually steel.

1. I have a question. Children of Oberon can be seriously harmed by being cut or stabbed with pure iron, but does it harm them just to touch it? Was Puck harmed (even just getting a rash or a minor burn) by having those chains on all night (in the Mirror)? They were touching his skin, but he didn't seem physically uncomfortable, just annoyed at Demona.

Wesley Nichols writes...

I reread one of your old postings where you state that fans sometimes call Oberon's Children fey, yet you do not really use this term because you need to do more research on what it means. Fey is one of the ways of saying fairy in french (fairy is a french word) with different ways of it being spelled such as fey, fae, or fairy. You have also stated that Oberon's children were sometimes called Dark Elves yet according to Elves, Wights, and Trolls by Kveldulf Gundarsson, Dark Elves were actually the dead in old Scandinavian religion. We know less about the light elves who were a type of god. However modern mythologists often confuse them with Dwarves (Swart Alfs). Alfs is what the scandinavians called elves before the word was anglecized by the english.

Vaevictis Asmadi writes...

I've been thinking about the Gathering of the Third Race, and its effect on the various pantheons of the Gargoyles Universe. Once when asked about the afterlife and the Underworlds run by the gods, you wrote:

"My gut reaction, based on Dante as much as anything, is that people go where their souls truly want to go. Since it's voluntary, though not necessarily consciously so, there's no conflict with Oberon's edict."

I find this response interesting, since it allows those religious beliefs to all be true and (fairly) accurate, at the same time.
You've also told us that during the Gathering, the Children of Oberon (with a few exceptions like Puck and Titania) will be mostly confined to Avalon and will have to stay there until the Gathering ends. This raises two questions in my mind.
In various mythologies, the afterlife/underworld is populated by gods who judge and watch over the dead. The Greek myths mention Elysion, Tartaros, and the Kingdom of Hades, and Egyptian mythology mentions the Duat. The Aztec gods have several different afterlife options, such as Mictlan. In your previous response you said that dead mortals can still go to afterlives/underworlds controlled by the Third Race if they give some unconscious assent. But what happened to these afterlife places (or whatever you want to call them) after the Gathering started?

1. Are the Children of Oberon completely forbidden to visit in these underworlds/afterlife places during the Gathering?

2. During the Gathering, are the Children of Oberon completely forbidden to visit Earth or interact with the mortals there?

Thanks!

Vaevictis Asmadi writes...

1. I've been wondering about the subject of families for a while.
Humans usually form nuclear families, or extended families, around biological kinship -- biological parents and children, and maybe grandparents, aunts, or uncles. Children generally grow up with their biological siblings, raised by their biological parents, or maybe a grandparent. If adopted, they generally form nuclear families as though they were biological. Many human societies have legal polygamy, while others value monogamy.
Gargoyles usually raise their offspring communally, one entire generation of parents raising a whole rookery generation as a set of siblings. Biological relationships are not important, and each individual has many parents and siblings. Siblings are only those who are the same age. For both species, it appears (except in dysfunctional families) that parents and children tend to bond closely, and individuals bond more or less closely with their siblings. Among gargoyles, mates are usually rookery siblings, they mate for life, and are almost always monogamous.
So far we have not learned anything about Third Race families, and I don't know whether you've thought much yet about how they raise their offspring. But I'm curious to see what you're willing to share about how Third Race parents, offspring, and siblings usually define their relationships to each other, how or whether they emotionally bond, what their (typical) concept of a family is. Does a member of the Third Race only have their two biological parents, or more than two parents, or less than two? Who usually raises them? Do they value monogamy, or is it acceptable/legal for them to have multiple marriages at once (not all partners are marriages)? I'm not looking for individual answers, but just an idea of what is typical or common or average for the Third Race.

2. Short question: Humans kiss and gargoyles stroke each other's head/hair/horns. What is the Third Race equivalent to these behaviors? (I'm guessing that since the Third Race can be humanoid or giant spiders or else have the heads of jackals, etc., that kissing isn't practical.)

Zabrian writes...

Now i noticed and a may be wrong but Titania seemed less effected by iron as did puck then Oberon himself. I was wondering if maybe this was because they are less Allergic to it being his children, and is Titania just less effected in general?

Queen of Night writes...

Wow, I had no idea Bad Guys was already out. It's been a busy month. But I got a lot of thinking time since I've been on medical leave and I came up with these little gems.

1. OK, in the case of Owen/Puck you've said that Owen is fully human and can't do magic unless he's Puck (as far as I know anyway) and that rule applies to all Faeries. However, Fox is the offspring of Titania as a human and Reynard but she and her son are able to cast spells. I've read a few things about the differences between human and faerie magic but the only times we've seen magic in humans is through an object of some sort i.e. the Grimoire, the Eye of Odin, the Pheonix Gate ect. So what kind of magic do Fox and Alex (and presumely Merlin) use? If human why don't they need an object; if Fairy how?

2. I'm a HUGE fan of Midsummer's Night Dream but there is one thing that has irritaed me even when I was 10 years old. You switched the roles of Titania and Oberon. In the play Oberon was the consort though he was King of the Elves, Titania was the Queen of Fairies. What made you switch their roles?

3. I know you'll hate this question but is Mab plotting the destruction of Titania and Oberon or is she just gonna destroy us all outright?

Thanks for the answers!

Vaevictis Asmadi writes...

I have a few more questions I'm wondering about the Children of Oberon. I'm trying not to ask too many at one time.

1. a. The Children of Oberon are shapeshifters, able to appear any way they want, right? So I'm wondering, why did Odin always have one eye in "Eye of the Storm" (before he got it back) in all forms? The obvious/immediate answer is that in the myths he's one-eyed, so he had to be one-eyed in the show, but what is the reason for that in the Gargoyles Universe? After giving an eye to Mimir, was Odin unable to change shape into a form with two (or more) eyes, or did he just chose not to (that we saw)?
b. In the myths of some cultures (like the Norse) gods can lose body parts, but in some other cultures the myths say gods can't be permanently injured. Is it possible for Children of Oberon to permanently lose body parts (um, until they find them again and reattach them like Odin did), or be injured seriously enough to leave permanent scars? I've gotten the impression they are not flesh and blood -- even when Oberon was stabbed with the iron harpoon, he didn't bleed.

2. a. In the past when asked if the Third Race need food you answered "Yes, depending on their chosen form."
When a Child of Oberon is not in a truly mortal form, does he or she need food? (By "truly mortal form" I mean a mortal flesh-and-blood body like Owen, not just a shape that looks like a human or gargoyle.)
b. When a Child of Oberon is not in a truly mortal form, does he or she need to breathe?

3. When a Child of Oberon takes on a completely mortal body and mates with a mortal of the appropriate species, the offspring is a "halfling." But what happens if two Children of Oberon both take mortal forms of the same species, and then have kids together? What would their offspring be?

And thank you again for answering our questions! It's really great to have this website.

Vaevictis Asmadi writes...

Yay the queue is open! I'm happy you're taking questions again. (and I'm of course excited to get #6, which I'll be ordering asap). I hope you don't mind questions unrelated to reviewing the comic... those Children of Oberon always make me so curious.

1. a. So Ragnarok already occured in the Gargoyles Universe. When did it happen? (If you don't want to give a year or decade, can you please say what century it happened in?)
b. Did any of the gods survive Ragnarok, other than Odin? If some did, who?

2. You've also told us that the war between the Titans and Olympians was a real event in the Gargoyles Universe. What happened to the defeated Titans afterwards? (I don't want to assume it is the same as the myths, or to ask more specifically for fear it would be an idea)

3. When was Oberon born? (If you don't want to give the year or decade, please say what century?)

Vaevictis Asmadi writes...

I hope nothing in my previous questions about the fae bothered you.

These are the other questions I have about the Children of Oberon ... as you can see I'm very curious about them. I hope five questions are not too many. (At least I got the number right this time!)

1. In some cultures, shamans believe that they have a personal connection to an animal totem who acts as a helper or spirit guide. In the "Gargoyles" universe, is this true? (OK, all things are true, but is it correct? :) ) Do any of the Third Race such as Raven and Coyote form personal connections to shamans or other individual humans (besides the one formed in the Coyote Dance)? I understand this isn't necessarily something you want to reveal, I'm just hoping you're in the mood. :)

2. How many people can be avatars of a single Child of Oberon at any one time? Is there a limit?

3. a. Are halflings vulnerable to iron the way that the Third Race are? Fox doesn't seem to be bothered, she never suspected she was a halfling. But if for example, Alex shapeshifted into a non-mortal form, would he be vulnerable to iron?
b. Can a halfling be bound with iron, the way Puck was in The Mirror, or how the Coyote robot captured Coyote?

4. The Children of Oberon cannot use their magic on iron. But the Magus (a human) used Avalon's magic on iron. Can halflings use fae magic to affect iron? (but I don't mean to imply that Avalon's magic is the same as fae magic)

5. a. Does each Child of Oberon have an inherent sex or gender, or is their sex/gender only a shape they take? Personally I think of sex as a biological or physical trait, but gender seems to be more psychological, or even spiritual.
b. Not necessarily the same question ... can Children of Oberon take on shapes of either gender (or no gender, or hermaphroditic, or make up an imaginary gender)? Can they take mortal forms of either sex?

OK, anyway thank you again for answering our questions! It is really great to be able to find out more about the Gargoyles Universe.

Vaevictis Asmadi writes...

My favorite part of "Gargoyles" has always been the incorporation of myths and legends -- both the presence of actual gods and characters like King Arthur and Cuchullain, and the hints that gargoyles inspired some mythical creatures, such as griffins, black dogs, and feathered serpents. Greek Mythology was one of my first great loves as a child, and remains one of my favorite things to read about and study, though I've branched out somewhat into the myths of other cultures. And I agree with Chip, I'm very glad you didn't make Anubis evil. Lots of fantasy settings that use mythological characters just assume that all death gods are evil, without really reading any of the stories about them, and that irritates me a great deal.

So naturally, I am very curious about the Children of Oberon, and their connection to mythology around the world. I have a lot of questions about them, and I don't want to bother you by posting a ton all at once, so I'm only posting some of them for now. I hope 6 in one post is not too many.

1. a. Are Children of Oberon vulnerable to steel, since it contains iron? Oberon reacted badly to Elisa's gun which she said was "steel alloy" but I have no idea what bullets themselves are made of, or if Oberon knows what bullets are. And the spear that Anansi was stabbed with looked to me like steel.
b. Can Children of Oberon be harmed at all by non-iron weapons, such as a bronze sword, or fire, or a laser?

2. a. In the past when asked if the Third Race need food you answered "Yes, depending on their chosen form." To clarify, do you mean that they only need food when they take a truly mortal form like Owen, but not when they are in a Third Race form (like Puck)? Or that it depends on what shape they take even when not in a mortal form?
b. Do the Third Race need to breathe? I mean, when they are not in a truly mortal form like Owen. c. If they do breathe, what gas do they use? Oxygen, or carbon dioxide, or something else? I'm guessing I know what the answer is, somebody once asked about blood and oxygen and you said they have no blood. I'm just trying to be sure.

3. You've said that some of the Greek gods were Children of Mab but some may have been halflings similar to the New Olympians. Since Zeus and the other Greek gods were worshiped at least as early as 2000 BC, if any of the Olympians were halflings, could any of them still be alive in 1996? Can halflings actually live thousands of years? (without being enchanted by somebody else like Macbeth and Demona were)

4. Were/are the Titans members of the Third Race?

5. I think you've stated that the Aesir were of the Third Race. What about the Vanir?

Thanks again for answering questions from the fans.

Chip writes...

As I mentioned at the '06 Gathering (but you prolly forgot, no big) I am an Egyptology Major and my favorite episode was "Greif". Because A; it portrayed Anubis (Which is his Greek Name BTW, the Egyptians called him Yinepu or Inpu) in a positive light (and as one of the Third Race, cool to tie everything together) B; because it was a well written and powerful episode C; because it explained (Though not in so many words) the blending together of Egyptian Gods (They merge and change roles frequently) and D; because as powerful as Anubis was he could not undo death, even death he caused. Very powerful to me.

Which brings me around to my question, which other gods of Egypt (also called Neter or Netjer just like the Norse gods were called the Aesir) exist in the Gargoyles Universe? Because of the Shapeshifting Nature of the Third Race any number of gods could have fullfilled many roles (as they did in Eygptian Mythology)

Is Thoth in the Gargverse? Osiris? Isis? Set? Horus? Ra? Hathor/Sahkmet? Bes? Sobek? These are just some of my favorites, there are over 10,000 Egyptian gods.

In honesty, I don't expect you to have thought about this as much as I have, but you never know, I might just be surprised (you do that alot)

Rock On!

(OH! PS: if you need an Egyptology Consult for any upcoming issues I'm your guy!)

Shadow Wing writes...

When they speak of Oberon's Law and/or The Law that Cannot Be Broken, does this refer only to the law of non-interference, or in a more general, "his word is law" sense?

Anonymous writes...

Are changelings called to the Gathering?

Apostolos writes...

At Gathering, Part II, when Petros Xanatos shoot and wounded Oberon(deadly, in my opinion) with an iron arrow, why Oberon didn't died? Is he "just" valnerable to iron, or can die by it?
For example, if you cut Oberon's head with an iron sword, would Oberon died?

Raci writes...

How does Oberon maintain his rule over his Children? So far we've seen that many of them have abilities that could probably kill Oberon like Anubis's ability to manipulate life and death and Puck's ability to rewrite reality or is Oberon just much more powerful than the combined might of his children?

dph writes...

Could you please list the following events in chronological order:

1)Oberon overthrew Queen Maeve
2)in reference to City of Stone part 4 in the scene where Bodhe says the English rid their land of gargoyles years ago, the point in time in which the English thought they rid themselves of gargoyles
3)Merlin was born
4)Oberon married Titania
5)Atlantis fell
6)Last Member of the Lost Race died
7)Goliath, Angela, Bronx, and Elisa meet Nokkar

Thank you for answering this question.

Brett writes...

How did Anubis die?

Richard von Heinz writes...

1) Why did the producers of the show go with iron as the general weakness for Oberon's Children when many of them like Raven, Odin or Anubis were figures from mythologies that didn't see iron as a sort of "god kryptonite". In fact the Fenris wolf from norse mythology was able to snap his iron chains and had to be finally chained with a magical one and many of the gods and demons of the Far East didn't seem to have a problem with iron.

2)In relation to the first question why was Oberon the king and lord of the third race that included such beings as Odin and possibly Zeus and other godhead when in the traditional stories he was just a minor king of the fairies or elves?

In general I'm just rather curious why you put so many of the qualities found in fairies and elves such as Oberon and the iron weakness onto mythological figures such as Odin, Coyote or Anasi which in the end from my point of view kind of diminishes the gods.

Tyler Durden writes...

In the "Gathering", what are the names of that winged horse and the name of that half man/horse next to Coyote??

Anonymous writes...

Hey Greg on the portrayal of the children of oberon were you trying to making them as non-human and alien as possible in character or were you just trying to make them more like people who had incredible amounts of power?

curouosity writes...

That you for taking the time to look at this.
I was wondering the following considereing Oberon and the 3rd race:

1. Before the space-spawn invasion, does Oberon know of alien races and go to other worlds or does he not know or not care?

2. Are all of the third race weakened by iron or are some like Anubis and Odin who seem so different from the likes of Puck immune to it?

3. Why is Oberon far more powerful then other memebers of the third race? Is that the only reason he is king?

4. If I understand the weakness to iron correcly, it means any magic shield a fay attmpts to use pure iron would pass through and magic blasts like Oberon demonstrated would be stopped, right? Would these also apply to Odin's lightning bolts or Anubis's ageing attacks?

5. Do you know where it is written(story or other place) that Oberon is king of the faries and the magic's vulnerability to iron? Besides Shakespeare

6. Is Avalon an actual island on Earth Oberon hides with magic or is it in a different reality?

7. What do the third race do on Avalon? Puck seemed to think it would be boring and there does not seem to be alot to do for beings that are so powerful.

Thanks

Francois Ferland writes...

Hello yet another time Greg! Sorry to flood you with questions as of late but keep fate, as I'm running out of things to ask you.

1. This one's simple and concerns the Children of Oberon.

Almost everyone uses Children of Oberon and Fae interchangeably. But after going through the archive for said beings, you once mentionned that Fae (or is it Fey? No one seems to agree on the spelling) are only one particular group of Oberon's Children akin to the Norse or African pantheon.

I'm not really knowledgeable in myths and legends, so could you tell me who the Fey are, with example from the show? I assume (perhaps or should I say probably wrongly) that it simply represents another pantheon, maybe the Anglo-Saxon one (is it Anglo-Saxon if I'm refering to England, Scotland, Ireland and other countries nearby) in which case, Puck, Oberon and Titania might be a part of it, being quite ingrained in English litterature.

But then again, what do I know?

2. This one's not a question but a personal comment, so I can get away with it not being on the same subject :) . It just dawned on me that by creating such a complex and (in itself) realistic universe with Gargoyles, you ran the risk of the viewers not "getting" many of the subtleties of the show, its universe and characters.

With your average TV show, things are often very clear. Heroes, while hardly perfect, are almost always morally right, while bad guys, which are not always purely evil persons, are almost always despisable no matter how they try to justify themselves. You rarely see a character that can't basically be classified as "good" or "evil", or to use more appropriate terms, morally "right" or "wrong".

Also, most of the time, what you see of a character on screen is a pretty accurate representation of who that person is and what they do all the time. So if someone is always seen giving money to the poor and never seen doing anything reprehensible, you assume that person is caring and generous. It never dawns on you that the man in question might actually beat up his wife everyday, because it wouldn't "fit" with the image shown to you. Yet it would not be impossible, as people are known to have very selective values sometimes. He might feel bad for those less fortunate while thinking that "disciplining" his wife is the right thing to do for a husband. Like I said, such is rarely the case, and what is shown is often intended to be representative of the whole truth.

And finally, things are often easily explained in most TV shows. The villain did this because of that, the aliens invaded for such reason, etc.

What am I getting at? That a lot of the questions you get at Ask Greg are due to the above. Although the fans recognize and live the show for its maturity and above-average (and that's putting it lightly) complexity, they fail to realize that things in the Gargoyles universe, just like in real life, don't have easy answers.

The seemingly benign Weird Sisters lost a large part of the popular vote when it seemed all their interventions were geared for the sole purpose of revenge. Yet, you said yourself that the Sisters have many aspects, with vengeance and fate being a part of them. We at first ASSUMED they were completely (or close to) benign, and then we changed our perception to one where they are only after revenge. And yet, like you said, things aren't that simple, and we STILL don't know much about who the Sisters really are. The fate part might play a larger role later on, or they could yet reveal another part of their identity. In the end, they are complex characters who cannot be summed up in a few sentence, which is what most people seem to want.

Oberon is another victim of this. I admit that I too, thought he was a big arrogant jerk, whom Titania manipulated all the time to get what she felt was best for everyone. But like you made me realize, he has a lot of quality, the first being that he cared enough about mortals and how his Children dealt with them to force them out in the real world for a millenium in the hope of them gaining some maturity. And in every story we saw with him, he always ended up being generally fair to most. He isn't perfect (and who is?); is not above pettiness and anger for example. But his behaviour, from his POV, is perfectly acceptable, if not admirable. And there is so much about him we don't know and haven't seen to be able to judge his being accurately. For all we know and despite appearances, Titania might not be THAT more mature than him.

The list goes on and on. People (and I'm guilty of that as well) want easy answers where there are only complex explainations. I hated the concept of Anubis on my first viewing of "Grief" because it seemed at first that all death on Earth were and had always been caused by the guy. It just seemed so cheap, yet I accepted it at face value because it was what was shown at the time (and like I said, we tend to not question things seemingly presented as fact). Now, thanks to you, I know better, with what little you let on about death-gods and their connection to death and such. And just like there's no solid rule as to wether the Children can go against Oberon's law. It depends on all sorts of things, like intent, bending the law itself and people's words and so long and so forth.

In short, thanks for Ask Greg, I've gotten a better perspective on the complexity of the Gargoyles universe. It doesn't mean I'm no longer looking for easy answers, but I understand why you might reply that "there are no easy answers" or "it isn't that simple", because in your mind, that's really the case. Thanks again for your patience and dedication!

Francois Ferland writes...

Hello again Greg.

I just have a few observations about Oberon and his children.

1. I'll admit to being one of the many people who was very disappointed by the way the Sisters acted in the "Avalon" trilogy. I've read all your explainations in the archive, but although it makes sense and I can accept it on an intellectual level... it still doesn't feel right. I've been asking myself why, and I think I've found an answer or sorts...

I think what was really intriguing about the sisters was the whole mystic surrounding them throughout the series up until the "Avalon" three-parters. They always seemed to have some higher goal in mind, like they were an integral part of destiny (you'll probably say they are, but I meant in a more intentional way). Their words of wisdom when talking to Goliath and friends in "City of stone" were especially touching. They appeared almost like moral guardians of some sort.

When we see them again in "Avalon", we find out their primary motive has been revenge all along. Maybe it wasn't the whole reason for their actions, but it certainly felt like that. And thus, their whole involvement in "City of stone" felt like cruel mindgames and very subtle manipulation.

Hum, you know, maybe the thing that makes it hard to accept is the fact the we, the audience, uncounsciously feel like WE were cheated and manipulated. Like Goliath and the gang, we were fooled from the beginning and we have a hard time accepting the truth, thus we prefer to think that the Sisters' characters were simply cheapened.

The human mind works in mysterious ways...

2. Oberon's children were forbidden by his law from interfering in the affairs of mortals. Those who took on a human form were obviously not a problem, since they were limited by their bodies just like every other mortal. I suppose assuming any other mortal form, like Gargoyle or simply animal, would also be okay.

Of course, a great many actually took on more fantastic forms, like Banshee and Anansi.

I've noticed that most of those we saw never really showed the full extent of magical powers that feys posess, although they often exhibited at least SOME kind of magical abilities.

a) Are they limiting (or customizing) their power in relation to their "character" of the moment, like Banshee having a powerful voice, or Odin having control over the elements? Because since they'd be limiting themselves, they wouldn't really be using "fey magic" against mortals and as such, wouldn't go against Oberon's law.

b) This one's technical, so if you don't feel like answering it, no problem.

You often said that the Third race don't have a true, definite form, being shape-shifters. Of course, some DO have a form they obviously prefer and we tend to associate it with their true form but "that assumption is faulty" as you would say.

I've been thinking about their vulnerability to iron, and how assuming a mortal bodies removes that limitation (as well as any magical power except reverting back). So Anastasia can touch iron but can't do any magic. That's simple. Any other mortal form would do the same.

Now, is it possible for a fey to assume a non-existing form, like Anansi as a giant spider, which would have some innate powers unique to this body (so it would have no other powers except the one of that form and the possibility to change back to "pure fey") while being immune to iron, pretty much like a mortal body?

And if you don't know and don't want to think about it, just say so. I'll understand :)

Puck Robyne Lover!! writes...

Can you give me a family tree of oberon and titiania's children across the centuries? I can't figure out if Puck is Alexnder Xanatos is pucks nephew or not. I would really like to know about Puck's/owen's secret love that you mentioned earlier too.

juan castano writes...

please can you tell me a list of all of oberon's children

Anonymous writes...

How long was the Lady of the Lake living in that lake in Manhattan?

Anonymous writes...

Could Anubis really have resurrected the Emir's son if he wanted to? Would it have taken a lot of effort?

Anonymous writes...

Are the Weird Sisters older than Oberon? How about Titania, Odin or the Banshee?

Gir writes...

1) Can any of the fae magically perceive the future (not predict and use magic to change the future) as it will be? e.g. predict the order of lotto numbers 200 consecutive times, not predict and magically set the numbers as such

2) If so do they often exercise such an ability? Why or why not? also, did Mab also perceive her fall?

Gesamtschule/Felix writes...

Who is puck? What kind of craeture is he?

Anonymous writes...

1.Are Thor's sons alive? I mean they were said to survive ragnorak.
2.How about Vidar and Vali?
3.What about Odin's wife? Is she alive?

Anonymous writes...

Do Titania and Oberon's two children in any of the traditional stories about the fay?

Zarok writes...

Does Oberon's law of non-interference in mortal affairs extend to animals? In a previous response you said Anansi's turning the Panther Queen into a human didn't count because she provoked him or words to that effect, which implies that it does but the children are often depicted with animal servants. Odin had Hugin and Munin, Anansi had that army of spiders, or are these some kind of special cases that are the result of some loop hole?

Zarok writes...

Here is a question that's being rolling around in my head for a while now. Considering your 'all things are true' policy have you given any thought to how you would approach the 'life after death' aspects of the mythologies you've introduced? I mean did slain Viking warriors really join Odin in Valhalla or mummified Pharaohs join Anubis beyond the western horizon? How would this work in relation to Oberons non-interference edict? I'm not asking you to give me the Gargoyles version of every afterlife myth in existence or even to set out anything in stone, I just want your perspective on the subject that I've been pondering.

Sam writes...

I noticed in the Gathering Part One, a Pegasus was among those that were coming to attend, was there ever a plan to place Pegasus or Unicorns into the series?

Anonymous writes...

1.Are the preferred forms of Puck and the other children of oberon illusions? The reasoning is that you said that when the children of oberon transform they lose their powers so are their preferred forms where they utlize their power illusions?

2.Was the deathworm an illusion/glamour?

Anonymous writes...

Does alex or merlin have enough fay blood in them to mate with non-compatible species?

seeker writes...

Where do Oberon and his kind come from? Did the just materlize out of nothing, or did they just develop differently then humans or gargolyes, from magick instead of animals if you follow that line of thinking?

Is oberon in charge because he is the most powerful, linage , the oldest, or respect?

Which is the oldest of the three races?

When refered to as a child of Oberon, does that mean that they are just a memeber of the third race and use it in a metaphor sense? Or are they all related to Oberon in some way or another?

In the animated series, both aliens and magick were introduced. Does Oberon and his kind know of aliens and possilbe vist other worlds, could there possible be other beings similar to Oberon on other planets?

Aaron writes...

If Oberon were to be killed, or even removed from rulership of Avalon, would the third race be freed from his Law, or not? (I know this seems like a "duh" question, but I thought I'd ask and be sure)

Aris Katsaris writes...

Possibly starting a debate...

Galvatron> Umm... "western"-centric because Greg made western deities such as those of the Greeks or the Norse be children of Oberon? Do you think that Athens is somehow located to the *east* of Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Mecca?

I assure you, it's not. :-)

Anyway, the Greeks, Norse, whatever had their deities be finite creatures which began their lives within the universe. There's a difference between that and a supposedly infinite God which *created* the universe. I can imagine the monotheists being upset if they discovered their god was a fay - if The Infinite proved finite, only one of many. But the Norse and the ancient Greeks already believed that there existed many gods. Why be too upset at discovering a couple more they hadn't heard about?

Galvatron writes...

Don't you feel it's alittle bit western centric making the god of the Greeks, Norse and all the other "pagan cultures" Children of Oberon who are no better than the non-corporeal beings of scifi while the God of Judaism, Islam, Christianity is actually the creator of the universe? I mean it's like saying that they're stupid for getting suckered in by the Children while we're smart for actually worshipping the true God.

Wingedbeast writes...

Questions regarding three of the Fair Folk

1. After the Wierd Sisters were banished by a simple parlor trick, they rather easily accepted the ARchmage's suggestion for help. Why that as opposed to just using Avalon's magic to destroy the clan?

Why put that much trust in a single human?

Did they even hedge their bets with attempts of their own to remove the clan?

2. When Odin went through his entire deal of getting his eye back, why didn't he, at one point, attempt identifying himself as Odin before threatening a Gargoyle's protectorate? It seems he'd tried everything but the truth before threatening Elisa... and then the truth at the same time, so what really could it have cost him to identify himself before going to threats?

3. While Oberon may have seen himself as being well in the right for wanting to rid Avalon of the mortals, why didn't he think to identify himself as Oberon: Rightful Lord of Avalon? Seems to be pretty much an obvious thing that he may have missed.

Basing this next question on the idea that Avalon wants the humans and Gargoyle clan to remain (or else why bring the world tour group back to Avalon just in time?). Why did Avalon obey Oberon's commands to attack Goliath, Angela, and Gabrial?

Zelandonii writes...

In the Gargoyle universe, did Ragnarok already happen? Or is Fenrir still waiting for dinner...

Anonymous writes...

What is the true form of the Children of Oberon? Anything close to a Will O Wasps?

Anonymous writes...

Did Oberon and his children invent the gods they were worshipped as or did humans invent them?

Lynati writes...

Why can't I sleep?
I've been up since 7 am yesterday. This just isn't fair.

Getting to the *actual* question...(I've looked through the archives, and haven't seen this one. I apologize if I missed it. And even more so If I've previously asked this question but forgot your response because it was a smart-ass one.)

"All things are true" you say, but I would appreciate it if you would clarify this for me:
In your conception of the gargoyles universe, are all "non-mortal" beings of the Fae race, or do you allow for the existence of anthropomorphic personifications?
(My, you do get a lot of Neil Gaimen inspired questions, don't you?)

[And as Aaron seems to have become lax in his posting of webcomic (and related) links...]
http://pixelscapes.com/sailornothing/

Aaron writes...

Greg writes: Re: The Oberati. "But they can't die of old age, unless they stubbornly insist on maintaining a mortal form until it kills them."

So, if one of Oberon's Children dies in mortal form, that's it? Poof, all gone? No reversion to their normal form, no last-second save? Nada? One second they're walking along, happily playing mortal, somebody drops a lunchbox off the 90th floor, and splat!, no more Child of Oberon?

If so, geez, they really take their lives in their hands every time they take mortal form, don't they?

http://rpgworld.keenspace.com

Oberon writes...

In one of the Avalon episodes the Weird Sisters sais something like "We make no bargains with sorserers" so my questions are
1: Is this because they dislike magic using mortals?
2: If so, why?
3: Do the Children of Oberon feel that way in general?

Galvatron writes...

Is Mab the most powerful being of the third race? If so who is number two? Oberon?

The Endless writes...

1) You've mentioned that the fae evolved somehow - if so, are they related to the same evolutionary tree that animals belong to? What are their cloest evolutionary but non-third-race relatives and what are they like besides magical?

2) Why precisely did Mab go insane - or was she always that way?

3) If you had to be one of the Third Race, which one of them would you be and why?

Matt Maybray writes...

Since all of Oberon's children have a portfolio of sorts (i.e. Puck's a trickster, Anubis is a Death God, etc.), what would Nought have been the "god" of?

Laura 'ad astra' Ackerman writes...

Second question, well topic of question, is on Oberon's Children: You described them as descendant from Will O' Wisps, (or at least I think I read that).-

-1- Do you mean descendent from WO'W like we say humans descend from apes- ie. common ancestor closer (in our eyes) to that branch then our own- or do you mean literally?

-2- When did the fae (assumably pre-Oberon's rule) begin having children? Was it a gradual change, or was it an all of the sudden happenstance that was duplicated by others? Basically- did Oberon's children evolve, or come into being via sudden change?

[I am making assumption that WO'W aren't born in a biologically equivalent way to humans. Is that correct?]

-3- Assuming they did not evolve, are there still Oberati around who were not born, who made the jump from WO'W to sentience, instead of being born to it, or are all the current Oberati the product of two (?) parents?

-4- Continuing on the same assumption- when they discovered parentage and birth, was there an explosion in the birthrate, or did they slowly get used to it? [It would be an interesting source of all the half magical bastards of legend.]
-4i- If they did go a little crazy about the possibility and did not confine themselves to their own kind, would there be a very high percentage of humans with trace elements of their magic in their history?
Not the sort of thing to make them wizards or sorcerers, just enough to cause a resonance or immunity that is not recognized as such because it is so common.

-5- While I can imagine an extremely long life span might potentially weaken the parental bond, the newness and 'ownness' of it might strengthen it, (or give it a 'new toy' aspect). Which scenario is closer to fact?

-6- Where the do the WO'W come from? All I now of them is something vague about bright lights darting about luring people from the path, possibly taking on aspects of humans to do so. Did they get so used to appearing as mortals that the jump to taking on a more permanent solid form was a natural thing to slid into?

-7- As just plain ordinanry WO'Ws, do they have mass, or are they only energy?
-7i- ibid for Oberati in 'natural form'?
-7ii- and what of halflings raised fae?

Todd Jensen writes...

You mentioned that you could only recommend Isaac Asimov's book on Shakespeare (I assume that you mean his Guide to Shakespeare, which I have a copy of) with reservations. I was wondering if you could tell us a little more about those reservations of yours about it.

Todd Jensen writes...

You've mentioned earlier that Merlin isn't considered one of "Oberon's Children" (by which I mean the Third Race, rather than Oberon's biological offspring). I recently began wondering over the reason for that, i.e., what reasons Oberon has for not classifying him as such.

The only other "halflings" we know of in the Gargoyles Universe at present are Fox and Alex, and we know what criteria Oberon had for deciding whether they could be considered "Children of Oberon" or not. He viewed Fox as human rather than Third Race because she had shown no sign of manifesting any magic (at least, at the time of "The Gathering Part One") and Alex as Third Race because he still had the potential of developing magic.

Now, moving back to Merlin; he clearly did learn how to use magic, so obviously Oberon used a different criterion for classifying him as human rather than "Oberon's Children" than he did with Fox. So my question is, what is this different criterion?

(And don't worry; this isn't one of those "trying to trip you up questions" that you mentioned being unhappy with recently. I'm just genuinely curious about this).

Kelly L Creighton/Kya White Sapphire writes...

I cant find this in the archive, tho I find it hard to believe it hasnt been asked.

1. Do Oberon's Children reproduce in the biological sense? I mean do they actually pick a mate and have offspring?

2. Demoness asked why Mab disliked Titania, and you said its because Mab thought Titiania was a spoiled brat, and beneath Oberon. So was Titania *raised* as a spoiled brat, meaning she had actualy parents, or did she just have a high opinion of herself (in Mab's eyes).

3. Were the Children of Oberon we have seen (banshee, anansi, etc) mostly offspring of Oberon? Or were most of them there before him?

4. What did Mab call them all? Obviously not 'Oberon's Children'. Or am I wrong?

Gipdac writes...

1) Did you ever have plans for the trickster Loki?
2) If so, what are they?

Anonymous writes...

Why doesn't Anubis look like the Emir when he appeared in the Gathering? What happened?

Anonymous writes...

Do the Children of Oberon know of the Space-Spawn prior to 2198?

Anonymous writes...

Where did Banshee go after Cuchullain beat her?

Anonymous writes...

Were there any Fay casualties of the Oberon and Mab War? If so care to give a ballpark figure?

Anonymous writes...

Is Osiris dead in 1996? What about Set?

Anonymous writes...

If the Oberon's Children are called the Oberite what exactly were Mab's children called?

Anonymous writes...

What is Banshee doing in 2198?

Anonymous writes...

Who were Mab¡¯s parents?

Anonymous writes...

Was Grandmother the original Thunderbird that inspired the Thunderbird legends?
What was the sea monster that Grandmother turned into in Heritage? Was it a legendary monster?

Anonymous writes...

Why didn¡¯t Banshee kill Bronx and Rory when they climbed out of the pit? Why did she take him back to his home after she kissed him? Why didn¡¯t she do anything to Bronx?
Was Banshee the original Deathworm that inspired the legends or was the original another child of Oberon? If not what was it?

Cha-Cha writes...

1. Who was the centaur at the Gathering?
2. Is Medusa a N.O. or one of Oberon's children?
Because she was at the Gathering and in an older post someone mentioned she was also on New Olympus.

Anonymous writes...

Is it true that the fay don't have a true form?
If so why can't Puck in his Owen form perform magic while he is able to do it in his Puck form?

Anonymous writes...

By 2198 how many fae are off Avalon?
Care to give a few names?

Anonymous writes...

Are there any other sentient races native to our solar system besides Lost race,Gargoyles,Humans,Fae and New olympians? If so care to list a few?

Anonymous writes...

Is Morgana at the Gathering on Avalon? What about Nimue?

Gipdac writes...

1) Did Titania ever really have any of the fairy attendants like she did in A Midsummer Night's Dream?
2) If so, what happened to them
3) Are any/all of them still alive?
4) Were any/all of them fae?
(My favorite is Mustard Seed)

Punchinello writes...

I just reviewed what I have written here. It's so formal it's almost offensive. I'm sorry. I don't think one can talk about issues like this without sounding (obtuse? Stuffy? Something like that.) And not a word about Gargoyles.

Let me leave the realm of animal intelligence's for a minute and consider the intelligence of some of the more fantastical characters in your story. The fae. When I think about this kind of (ethereal?) character, these are the kinds of associations that I make.

-The thought of angels moves faster than human thought. (I don't recall where that comes from)

-A four dimensional object or being will cast a three dimensional shadow. (That's an observation Buckminster Fuller made.)

-A being that cannot die will have no concept of death, and certainly will not attach values, positive or negative, to the ending of a life. (This is a condensed and bastardized summary of some of the speculation of extraterrestrial intelligence's that participants of the SETI program publicized.)

I hope some of the above makes sense. My thinking is this. That the content of fae thought/mentality may be fundamentally different from homo sapiens thinking. Not just an accelerated or enhanced analogue of human thought, but structurally different. Our mental world is the emergent condition of innumerable biological systems interacting with one another. I have no reason to conclude that the fae's intelligence emerges from anything reductionist in nature. It is a condition that exists without origin in biology (potentially). Everything that we think of as intelligence rests on an evolutionary foundation of connections to allow us to successfully distinguish between things we can eat and things that will eat us. It would be absurd to think that the fae (who I don't think were subject to natural selection through predation) would have an intelligence structured upon the same principles. Simple alternative concepts like "either or" may not have the same meaning to them. This could go far towards explaining why they are so damned irritating.

My second thought on the matter, in reference to the three dimensional shadow concept, is that the visual representation we get of the fae in the story may be a poor representation of the reality. I use the concept of a hypothetical four dimensional being to illustrate. A two dimensional being could be aware of my presence if I allowed it to, although it would be a simple matter to remove myself from it's perception with a minor movement. However it's awareness could not give it a complete representation of what I am. It could only understand me as a fragment that can be translated into something comprehensible within the context of it's world. I can easily attribute an extra dimensional quality to beings like Oberon and Puck who seem o appear and disappear at will. We might not be able to understand completely, what they are. Only that the portion of them that is represented in three dimensions resembles a group of tall, angular, oddly complexioned people in period costume.

My third observation of the fae, and in particular of Oberon who has demonstrated a dispassionate distance to killing his rivals in certain instances, is that he may have no concept of murder because he may have no concept of death. (Yes I know that he reacted to the iron bell in such a way that would indicate it was harmful to him. Even lethal.) However, even if he were to express a concept of death we would not be able to be certain that his concept was anything like our concept. Does death mean an end for him? If it does not, then the gravity we attach to it may be lost on him and the other fae.

I think my point is that while it would certainly not be appropriate to think of a creature like this in human terms, i'm not even certain you can extrapolate "human" from him. There could be creatures, so far removed from human experience that it would be impossible. Of course, the associations that I make with the fae are not going to be the same ones that you make. Your concept of them may fall within human experience. You have other creatures though. Your space spawn. They would certainly have been subject to mental dispositions grounded in a different biology. We're conditioned with the genetic remainders of our hunter gatherer ancestors. They would be conditioned with something else. I dont know what. Something spawny probably.

Demoness writes...

Can the Third Race bleed in their mortal forms, or forms that are not their "normal" form?

Why i ask this is because in "Heritage" when the Gargs are attacking Grandmother in her Thunderbird and Sea Monster form I could have sworn that the claw marks they inflicted on her were red with blood.

I just want to make sure that this theory is correct.

Anonymous writes...

Are there any fay as powerful as Oberon and Mab? Care to list a few?

Anonymous writes...

Who exactly were Coyote's parents?

Anonymous writes...

Who exactly were Raven's parents?

Anonymous writes...

What are the names of the centaur, winged horse and giants that we saw in the Gathering?

Lord Sloth writes...

Who was in charge of death before Anubis? He's of the younger generation of fae, isn't he, so he wasn't around from the begining.

Anonymous writes...

Does the Lady of the Lake have any biological children? Have you mentioned the name of any of her children on Askgreg?

Demoness writes...

1. Are there any other Oberon's Laws besides the "non-interfernce", "forking over talismens willingly", "Avalon Clan can stay" and "Goliath's Clan's immunity"?

2. If yes to above, what are a couple of those other laws?

3. Were there any placed before Oberon became King?

4. What are a couple of those?

Demoness writes...

In "Future Tense" at the end of the illusion Elisa yells "No, not now!" and the illusion disappears and she becomes Puck. So my question is:

1. What was Puck referring to when he said that?

b. Was it Oberon's Law because Goliath realized that what he was experiancing was an illusion and the law dictates that Oberon's Children can not interfer in mortal lives and thus so forced the illusion to end?

c. Or was it another law that has to do with mortals willingly handing over talismens to Oberon's Children, kinda saying that if your intentions are discovered the game ends?

Demoness writes...

I just watched "Heritage" and I just noticed something. I know you've said before that your colored blind and sorry to bringing up colors again...but I'm curious.

1. How come in "Heritage" Raven and Grandmother glow a blue aura when using their magic while others glow a green aura? Such as Oberon, Titania, the Wierd Sisters, and Puck.

I think Odin glowed white, Anasi-blue, Banshee-white, Anubis-black, and Lady of the Lake-blue.

2. Does this coloration have anything to do with their connections (meaning Anubis=death)?

3. Does it have to do with positions in their culture? Like warriors in the warrior caste, tricksters in the tricksters caste, royalty, servents, etc etc?

Demoness writes...

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

Who is this person you speak of that is a ancestor of Oberon's Children?

Alex "Cyclonus" Bishansky writes...

I'm not sure if this was asked before or not.

In "Cloud Fathers" the Kachina Dance must have been performed many times before, how come when Peter Maza danced in it, Coyote developed this bond with him?

Sapphire writes...

Dear Greg

Earlier you said that some of the fay have converted to human religions. Can you tell me the religion of the following fay

Oberon

Titiana

Puck

Coyote

Anansi

Banshee

Odin

Lady of the Lake

Nought

Pegasus

Grandmother

Raven

Anubis

Lord Sloth writes...

Heya Greg
I'm just 17, and I got the tootsie rool thing right away.

Anyway, I read some more unsatisfactory responces so I'll just restate some of them.

1)For the ill met by moonlight questons you didn't answer one cause I called Angela "Angie", But why should that keep you from answering? Anyway the question again is:

2)When Goliath, Gabreil and ANGELA fall into the water being filled with lava, why isn't it too hot to survive? If you don't know, just say so.

3)And I didn't understand your answer about Oberon giving Goliath immunity to his magic. Didn't he take that away in the Gathering, or does he just temporarily set it aside when it suits him? b) Is Goliath and clan immune to his arts by the end of the Gathering?

thank you.
P.S.and, you right. I have a very dirty mind, so I'll just imagine Brooklen says what I want him to.

Kelly L Creighton/Kya White Sapphire writes...

Qs on Fae:

1. Is it Fay or Fae?

2. The symbol on the periodic table for iron is Fe. any connection?

3. Ive noticed (any i know youre colorblind) that whenever the fae change forms they tend to stick to their own hair color. Titania/Anastasia red. Weird Sisters. Puck/Owen blonde/white. Oberon white. Now do you attribute this to:
a. they like their own appearance, and so make their alternate form look as much like their normal self as possible OR
b. (less likely) they have restrictions on their shape shifting abilities

Oberon writes...

If a mortal askes a Child of Oberon for assistance does Oberon's law still apply?

Kelly L Creighton/Kya White Sapphire writes...

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

AHH~ THE TORTURE! come on, a hint! oh please oh please?!

Todd Jensen writes...

So we've seen one of the ancestors of the fay in the series? Do you mean the Will-o-the-Wisp in "Pendragon"? (To be perfectly fair, it was Aris Katsaris who suggested the idea first, but it made sense to me).

Vashkoda writes...

Puck said that he couldn't take the Phoenix Gate from Goliath--Goliath had to "fork it over". Is the same true for other Avalonian magical objects? I may be remembering this incorrectly, but didn't Odin physically attack Goliath and try to take back the Eye? And does this rule only apply to Children of Avalon? If so, it would explain why the Weird Sisters had to use Demona and MacBeth to steal the talismans for them (were you consciously doing this so as not to break the rule you would establish later about the Gate in "Future Tense"?)

Todd Jensen writes...

How did Raven get around Oberon's non-intervention edict when he laid Queen Florence Island waste in "Heritage"?

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!

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!

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)?

Anonymous writes...

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

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?

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. :)

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?

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?

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?

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?

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?

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

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.

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"?

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?

Todd Jensen writes...

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

Anonymous writes...

Who were the giants, centaur and winged horse that we saw in Gathering? Would they be featured in future stories?

Oberon writes...

Are any of the races stronger than any others?
It seems the Children of Oberon are much more powerful than humans or gargoyles. But, for some reason, i always thought that with all strengths and weaknesses added up, the races were pretty much equal.
Is this at all true?

Oberon writes...

*I meant traits not trip in my last question

Oberon writes...

1) Do any of the three races hace any personality trip that they lean towards?
2) If so, what are they?

Anonymous writes...

Is the god of Judaism, Christianity and Islam a fay in the gargoyles universe?

Anonymous writes...

Were there any matings between Gargoyles and fay? If there was did they inspire any monster legends?

Rob Irwin writes...

Man, they just keep coming!
The new Olimpiens, I get the felling that they are not a group of Oberon's children, yet they all seem to differn't to be of one race. Are they a group of many differn't races living together to help ech other, there seemed to be only one of each kind (ie. centaur, winged guy, fire dude).

OK, that will be the last one for awhile I think, at least till my others get answered

Laura 'ad astra' Ackerman writes...

Another try at sending this out-

I just typed up a particularly long question that didn't post and got lost, and I was foolish not to copy it somewhere before hitting submit. I apologize if it turns up later and this becomes a double post, and also if I can't get rid of the autoformating in Word and it looks a little screwy. After losing that long a question I am not taking a chance working directly into the web page.

It has been a long time since I posted a question... of course it has been a long time since I have been caught up with your answers. After reading all of the new responses, particularly those dealing with Oberon and Titania, a question has come to mind. [Actually two, but how many new ways can you ask, "What did Titania whisper to Fox?"? That question should almost have its own section.] The short form of the question is this: Just how different are Oberon's hildren from humans? I am not referring to physical or magical characteristics, but rather do they think in a quantifiably different way than do humans?

The long version of the questions comes after the long digression:

A while back a friend practically shoved an anthology into my hands and insisted I read a particular article. I believe it was called, "Hamlet in the Bush". The gist of it was that a young anthropologist found herself with an indigenous culture for a long boring stretch. [She had thought the off season would be a wonderful time to get to observe their culture. Had she asked them they would have told her the off season is the off season because the weather is so miserable that they cannot even visit the next village. They spend the time drink the local equivalent to bear waiting for it to pass.]

Before leaving she had had an argument with a friend. She argued that at base all humans are the same and once you do some explaining to take care of cultural differences, a great work of literature would be recognized as such by all people. The example that was bandied about was Hamlet, so he gave her a copy as a going away present.

With nothing else to do she sat in her tent and read it over and over until the locals asked her what on Earth she was doing. They were a non-literate culture and to them reading papers meant reading boring legal documents. Even a white person could not be so daft as to spend weeks doing so. She seized upon it an opportunity to test her theory and they, being a story telling culture, were happy to oblige.

She immediately ran into two problems:
-1-They didn't have a concept of "ghost". Zombie, yes. Evil spirit in false guise, yes. But the idea of a dead person's spirit hanging around this world was simply ludicrous to them.
-2-They thought Claudius was a great guy. He acted as an exemplary uncle and brother-in-law, although he waited a bit long in taking care of his brother's household. [Three whole months! And with only one wife to tend the fields!]

In the end they loved the story (with their corrections) and thought she was on her way being a great storyteller, (being female aside). They also told her to be sure to tell her elders that they had been good hosts and had corrected her misremembering lest she continue in error.

I think her premise held, but she hadn't realized how far cultural difference went. The more complex the story, the more it was tied to its own cultural assumptions and the harder it is to explain to another culture.

Back to Gargoyles-

In Gargoyles the basic emotions seem pretty much universal. Gargoyles, humans, New Olympians, and even Nokar and Matrix as far as we have seen them, display them. Love, hate, curiosity and fear, as well as slightly more complex emotions of protection and loneliness are clearly expressed and are more easily understood than some lost cultures of our own ancestors. Are Oberon's Children fundamentally different, or if we can imagine long enough the effects of great power and incredibly long lives we can empathize without too much brain-sprain?

There are great works of speculative fiction that try to understand the mind of The Other. Zelazny had a whole series of stories of robots worshiping and trying to understand the long last human race. I recently read a great book called "Exogesis" (a post-modern Prometheius) by Astro Teller dealing with how a newly emerged AI might think and how humanity might respond. If I would list every book I could think of on the topic I will never stop typing and will eventually have feel the urge to start listing plays and movies as well, (and probably have to deal with Frankenstein, and I am not fond of the book. It is hard to like a book when you hate the main character. Perhaps the movies were right to make the monster the lead character. :).

It all boils down to this: Are the Children of Oberon "the Other", or something very much like ourselves?

Boy this is long! sorry.

puck<40> writes...

A question I asked earlier dealing with Oberon's Law of non interferance...
"3. If they are magically restricted, how much of a strain does that put on Oberon himself?

3. None, anymore. It's a done deal. "

so.......
1. Does this mean something is in place that could be taken down to remove the law?
2. Is Oberon bound to it just as strictly as his "children"?
3. Trying to understand this in full. I *think* I have it now. hee hee. So..... A fae cannot physically or magically *break* the law in any circumstances. Even Oberon himself. If they tried, nothing would happen since its a restriction on themselves. But if they can justify it in there minds, it provides a back door, hence the possibility. Meaning it might come easier to *some* fae than others... hence like ones who can twist meanings of ones words like no tomorrow. But the restriction is a more of a physically mental one (oxymoron 9.9;) to if they can't justify it, they can't do it. That about right?
4) Do some things take priorty over others? A for instance, Puck changes *all* the humans into gargoyles and vice versa. I can only come up with two reasons, being bound by iron and commanded to do it takes priority. Or since the humans and gargoyles never noticed the changes themselves, it didn't interefere with there lives. o.O Kinda curious. ^.^
5. a)Mab. would she be considering among the "first generation" of fae? b)Would Oberon be of second generation? c) Would Puck be Third?
6. And just a comment. ^.^ I like how you don't quantify power, because it comes in so many different forms. For instance, Oberon was magically weaker than Mab, but in terms of "power", he defeated her. anyways, just a comment.

Anonymous writes...

What is the birthrate for Oberon's children?
What is the birthrate for Nokkar's race?
What is the birthrate for the Space-spawn?
What is the birthrate for the third race involved in the galactic war?
What was the birthrate for the lost race?

LSZ writes...

since you weren't sure the last time I asked this question, was there any ruler of the Third Race before Mab?

Vashkoda writes...

Fey magic and metals: I've noticed that most of the magical items forged by fey magic (the Eye, the Gate, and Puck's flute) are made of gold. Iron, of course, seems to have a disruptive effect on fey magic. Is there a particular reason why the fey chose to forge their talismans out of gold and not some other metal (except iron, obviously).

Duncan Devlin writes...

WQhen Oberon's children spent the millenium among the humans, how did those who took human form avoid the "...cannot directly interfere in human affairs" ruling.
By marrying Halcyon Renard, Titania severely altered his life, and anyone who gets married will need records, which will cause some form of interference.
In fact, what constitutes inteterferance, since Banshee had been screwing around with the locals for years (if I remember correctly).

Anonymous writes...

Why are the fay the youngest race? In almost all mythologies the gods/fay are the first to appear?

Anonymous writes...

How big of a story arc would Queen Mab get?
Would it be bigger than that of the archmage story?
How many episodes did you plan for it?
What others characters were to appear besides our regulars
and Oberon and Titania?

Jim R. writes...

(Laughing at Sapphire's comment to matt.) Well, buddy, it looks like you and I both get ourselves in deep water sometimes...Let the Almighty and Honorable Greg Weisman be the judge, for this is his courtroom. (Laughs)

Anyways...(turning to Greg)

Do members of the Third Race exist outside of Earth? Because, we all know that from what Broadway said, there are three Earth races: Humans, Gargoyles, and Oberon's children. But....
Should your Space Spawn series go through...there would undoubtedly be a fourth race, maybe not Earth-originated, but yet another race. So eventually that leads me to believe that could there be be other races in the universe that exist like Oberon's children?

I've always sort thought of Oberon's children like the "Q" on Star Trek...And the Space Spawn spinoff sort of clashes two worlds together, as if Babylon 5 and Hercules got together, if you know what I mean...

Anonymous writes...

You said that the ancestors of the New Olympians were the Olympians. Are these Olympians the gods who sat on Mount Olympus or are these Olympians something else entirely?

Anonymous writes...

Why did you go for the more villainous portrayal of Raven and the more heroic portrayal of Coyote? In most legends Raven is seen as benevolent and brings humans food while Coyote is seen as more an Anasi type trickster.

Anonymous writes...

Who are Morgana"s biological parents?
Who are the Green Knight's biological parents?

matt writes...

its funny that Oberon says the children must live among mortals, but not interfere with them because that really isn't possible, you can't observe or live among any people without changing them, its a scientific law. there are many examples of this in the real world, and many other examples in the Gargoyles Universe... obviously Oberon has to expect some Fae/Mortal interaction, and hence interference... Xanatos/Puck, Renaud/Titania, Wierd Sisters/D and M, etc. etc.

Anonymous writes...

Was the resemblance between Nought and Ghede of voodoo mythology intentional? I mean both of these guys have virtually the same costume top hat and all.

Anonymous writes...

Who were Raven's parents?
Who were Coyote's parents?
Who were Anasi's parents?

Anonymous writes...

Have we seem Queen Mab's prison?

Oberon writes...

1)You saud that Queen Mab was insane but was she when she ruled over the third race?
2)Did Mab have a husband?
3) If so, was he king, or beneith Mab
4) Was Oberon's fathre Mab's husband?

Dark Nyusu writes...

Is it possible for a child of Oberon like Puck to have a relationship with a gargoyle?

Durax writes...

It has been said:Anonymous writes...
1) What has Mab been doing all those eons in confinement? Even prisoners must do something with their time. I assume the solitary confinement has worked wonders on her sanity.

Greg responds...
Not saying.

This question caused me to wonder is Mab imprisoned alone? I had thought that her supporters were imprisoned with her, or were they all killed?

Super-man writes...

Note:
You said that you didn't like Morgan le Fay and Ceasar being Oberon's parents and that it was chronilogically impossible. But the myth probably meant Morgan in her fay, queen of Avalon form and the queen of Avalon is Oberon's mother so the myth isn't entirely impossible in the gargoyles universe

Anonymous writes...

The Children of Oberon who are the gods of legends thus they must be the first race and they are made of pure magic. The gargoyles who are the second race have some magic in them since they can turn themselves and their equipment into stone. While humans who are the third race can't perform any feats of magic unless they have a spell book. So my question is the magic energy on the Earth diminishing?

Anonymous writes...

Since Titania was derived from Queen Mab and eventually replacing her as Queen of the Fairies in the folktales then can we assume that Oberon's father was the figure in folktales that Oberon was derived from ?

Alex "Cyclonus" Bishansky writes...

When Goliath put on the Eye of odin, how come his armor looked like Odin's? Neither Fox not the Archmage took on any of elements of Odin's appearance.

The ONe writes...

1) Why didn't Anansi use his magical arts against Angela, Goliath, and the others? Why did he choose to only use melee attacks instead of such powerful and simple attacks such as the weird sister's magickal bolts or Oberon's sleep spell to ensure victory?

2) Why did Anansi even need hunters? And especially mortal hunters for that matter. Couldn't he have magically created a source of his own food and why make his form a giant spider that couldn't support itself?

durax writes...

Who gave Oberon and Titania their twin mirrors? They were a wedding gift correct?

Duncan Devlin writes...

Who is Nought?

DrFaust writes...

Hi, Greg. In the latest batch of answers, Matt asked how Titania will feel when Renard dies, and you answered, "very sad." What I'd like to know is would it be considered unusual among the fay for one of them to feel so at the death of a mortal?

Thanks a bunch, Greg. I think we've all a great thing going with this open forum.

Anonymous writes...

Did the Weird Sisters give immortality to any other mortals?

The One writes...

1) Does Titania truly love Oberon or is he more of a pawn that she uses while she rules through him? What initially attracted the two together?

2) What are Titania's feelings toward's Halcyon Renard's illness? Obviously, it would have been in her power to cure the disease or indirectly use it to create some scientific cure. Why hasn't she tried to heal Renard?

3) What are Halcyon Renard's feelings towards Titania/Anastasia? Is he bitter, angry? How does he feel about the fact that Titania shall stay young, beautiful, and alive forever while he is condemned to rot before his death?

Anonymous writes...

1) Can the any of the fae or the fae collectively create a world as in a planet? In the myths and legends the fae were often the creators of all life and the earth.

The One writes...

1) Why did Odin's eye contain his magick and power? How did he come to lose the eye? Other fae have lost great parts of their perceived bodily mass seemingly without any loss of their magickal abilities (Anansi and Bean Sidhe).

2) Why didn't Odin call upon the Aesir or his magical servants to help him retrieve the eye? You said that since Goliath possessed the eye that Odin did not feel that he was breaking Oberon's law; so then, why not call upon Thor or the Valkryies (spelling)?

3) Are there any other fae body parts out there that function as potent magickal talismans? If so, what are they?

The One writes...

1) When the Magus died, why didn't Goliath try and use the Weird Sisters to resurrect him? Obviously, they had the power to keep MacBeth and Demona's lifeforce going on forever, it seems likely that they could also restore life.

2) Was the Katherine the Magus' only love? By that I mean did he ever have any other serious romantic relations or "crushes" on, and if so, with whom?

3) What was the Magus' real name? I assume he had another name and that his mother did not name him a word that's synomous with sorceror at birth.

Vashkoda writes...

Iron is obviously harmful to the fey--even deadly. However I don't understand why it is that once Puck and the Sisters were wrapped in iron chains, they followed the orders of whoever captured them. It's not like they weren't able to use magic to free themselves, as Puck was obviously able to cast spells for Demona. I don't see why they couldn't do something simple like turning themselves into mortals or teleporting away and leaving the chains behind. Similarly, I don't see why Oberon couldn't use his powers to escape from the bell (unless the bell shorted out his magic completely, but then I don't understand why this is more harmful than being in direct contact with iron chains).

Any clarification would be appreciated!

Josh Wurzel writes...

Dear Greg,

Puck seems like a pretty powerful little fae, what with the whole soul transferrence thing and turing all the humans in Manhattan into gargoyles (with help from Titania's Mirror) If Puck really wanted to, could he break the Weird Sister's spell over Demona and Macbeth? And why did he serve Oberon? Was he created/bred/conceived for that purpose? Or did he just sign up for the job? And if he did sign up for the job of Oberon's lackey, in god's name WHY did he do it?

One writes...

1) The Weird Sisters are capable of mental manipulation and coercion, e.g. MacBeth and Demona stealing the Eye of Odin, Phoenix Gate, and GA. So why didn't the Bean Sidhe simply extract the information that she believed Goliath, Angela, and Elisa through mental manipulation. Is she really fond of torture?

2) Why do Puck, the Weird Sisters, Oberon, and Titania use rhymes and iambic pentameter in conjunction with their magicks while other Oberati such as Anubis, Odin, Bean Sidhe, and the Lady of the Lake do not use such verse to tap into their magick? Is it preference or does the verse somehow enchance the effect of their magick given a certain amount of energy?

3) Since the fae can change their physical form on a whim, why does Odin prefer to stay in the physical form of such an old man?

Vashkoda writes...

1) Have you given any thought to how MacBeth and Demona will die--if they ever do?

2a) Can you think of any specific way in which the magical bond between them can be dispelled (other than through death)? b) Can the bond be altered in any way, or are the conditions fixed?

3) Demona and MacBeth asked for the Sisters' help, and thus they were justified in magically linking the two together and "interfering in mortal lives". But once that act is ended, how can they put the two under a geis and force them to steal the magical artifacts and fight for the Archmage (I doubt they were given permission)? Does Oberon's law permit them to continue interfering with any mortal whose life they've already once affected?

LSZ writes...

Did Mab have parents?

Anonymous writes...

1) What has Mab been doing all those eons in confinement? Even prisoners must do something with their time. I assume the solitary confinement has worked wonders on her sanity.

One writes...

1) Most of the fae in their "natural" (so we believe) forms have pointy ears, is there any particular reason for this? Bean Sidhe, Titania, Puck (especially Puck), the Weird Sisters, Oberon, Raven, Grandmother.

2) If a fae created a wall of stone (or any other dense material) to block a cold iron spear being thrown at them, what would happen to the wall? It's said the fae magick cannot resist cold iron but what of things created from fae magick? Say Puck created a golem would that golem be very vulnerable to cold iron?

3) How do you think Oberon would react if Titania was to be killed, hypothetically?

One writes...

1) Is there any particular reason why Grandmother chooses to look like an aged native american woman and possess the mannerisms thereof? Most fae we've seen in the series perfer a youthful or mature adult form, usually not children or the elderly. Puck, Oberon, Titania, the Wyrd Sisters, Bean Sidhe, etc.

2) Who are among the eldest of the Fae race? Oberon? Titania? Mab?

3) Is Cold Iron the only way to kill a fae, if not, what other ways are there?

Corrine Blaquen writes...

What nationality is Titania's human form supposed to be?

I find it very cool that you have so much ethinic/racial diversity in the human cast, from Elisa's Native American/African background to Xanatos's half Greek. It's such a fresh change from other cartoon characters with no heritage at all.

I myself am French-American, and I LOVE it that Fox, one of my favorite characters, is half French-American. Thanks, Greg!

Basilisk writes...

A note to Greg:

'Horae' is the plural of the Greek word 'hora' or fairy/goddess of a season. To the Greeks, there were only three seasons, spring, summer, and winter. So I can see why that person might have thought that the Weird Sisters could be the horae.

Oberon writes...

The horae were the three female guardians of olympus in greek mythology, I thought they might be the weird sisters because the weird sisters guarded Avalon. So were the Weird Sisters the Horae

matt writes...

when Grandmother told Goliath, "I'm glad to see that you (gargoyles) thrive." was she just saying that cuz she's a nice old fay? or did she like gargs more than humans? or does she have some past connection with the gargs? or what?

matt writes...

what did Oberon do during the 1001 year exile from Avalon? were the fae required to spend time among mortals or could they have totally isolated themselves until the Gathering?

Anonymous writes...

1) What is Puck's sexual orientation? (assuming his true form is male) Does he have even any interest in sex?

2) Has Puck ever had any loves? If so, who and of what race?

3) Under optimal conditions for both parties, who has the most magical strength, Puck or one of the Weird Sisters (assuming the Weird Sisters are of equal strength; if not, Puck vs. the Strongest Weird Sister and Puck vs. the Weakest Weird Sister)?

One writes...

Is there any particular reason Desdemona divided herself into three versions of herself (one with black hair, blond, and white) in "High Noon"... I just thought there might be relation between this and the fact the weird sisters were in the episode manipulatining MacBeth and Demona.

LSZ writes...

What species were Zeus, Hades and Poseidon in the Gargoyles universe?

Oberon writes...

Are the wyrd sisters the mythological
fates ?
norns ?
furies ?
horae ?
sirens?
are they classical moon goddesses selene, luna and pheobe or just named after them?
if they are these figures, do they have different forms? (personality traits?) for different names?

Jim R. writes...

Do you think our technology will progress further than the magic of Oberon's children? When will Oberon's children reach the limitations of their magic? Would any of them possibly decide to live amongst us mortals and begin thinking scientifically, like an outcast fae, that would prefer sceince over sorcery?

Oberon writes...

If a child of oberon transforms into a human, you said that they were truey human, so does that mean that they can handle iron and go against oberon's law?

Yttrium writes...

Greg,

I was recently reading a book on the last Grand Duchess of Russia, Anastasia Romanov. She had a older sister named Tatiana. But every time I looked at the word, I read it as Titania. Titania's human alter ego is named Anastasia. Did you get the idea for Titania's human form from these two sisters?

---Ytt

Entity writes...

Hi Greg,

We've all been awaiting this ramble for a long time, and no doubt, the coming weeks will be VERY enjoyable. :)

CITY OF STONE, PT 1.

I'll admit to you that the opening terrorist sequence wasn't all that effective to me. It came off rushed. But it provided an excellent transition to Demona. And then... THE FLASHBACK. The first of many. My God, this was glorious. I always imagine that if I were to ever show off Gargoyles to someone new in under 5 minutes I'd show them this flashback. Even though deductive reasoning filled the holes that this flashback does in, it was still such an experience actually seeing it take place, like witnessing history. The Wyvern Massacre was the defining moment of the series. And now, to see the behind-the-scenes was breathtaking beyond description. Demona's tearful turn to stone, then horrific discovery at sundown were amazing. That 'blood-curdle' music is just great, too.

Let's see, I can't go on like this with every scene, so I'll try to sum up from here.

You mentioned it was originally going to be a three-parter. Allow me to accidentally spit my drink all over my keyboard at reading that. Even now, I think about how much better it could've told its story with five or even six parts. Just three? Impossible. There is so much jammed in there. Too much, really. I'm glad you're here for insight, because I'll be honest: I got scarcely any of what you had in mind for various characters' motivations and inter-relating. Everything was crunched to 'sound bites' and didn't get enough flesh for me to interpret what you were aiming for. Of course, I got all the necessary things needed to understand the flow of the story, but I regret not getting the rest...

This is completely random, but I just thought I'd say that when Macbeth removes his Hunter's Mask later, in Part 4 I think, I like how his hair was ruffled. A nice touch. Very appreciated.

Anyway, to do with Part 1, I have really one more comment. I think the "mistake" you made with the Weird Sisters in their portrayel in this multi-parter has to do with just one key scene... aww, crap, here I go referring all the way to Part 4 again. Oh well, the scene in question is the very end, the "they are our responsibility... our children... that is a story for another day" scene. Up until then, I believe our impression of the Sisters was of benevolent helpers, like you wanted us to believe, according to your memos. However, in this scene, they suddenly "reveal" that they actually had a reason for helping them. That there is a greater design. That Demona and Macbeth have destinies to fulfill. I, and I'm sure most other people, suddenly got insanely excited thinking that D&M were going to be instrumental in saving the world from some great prophecy or something. But as it turns out, it's just a petty strike on an island...

Just my take. (I'd be interested - if this doesn't sound like me usurping your forum, Greg - in what others' takes were.)

Lastly, I just thought I'd mention that, ironically, I was talking with a friend this morning about the play Macbeth. I mentioned Gargoyles and off-handedly about its superior historical accuracy, to which Friend reponded that Macbeth, the play, was fiction. I insisted there really was a Macbeth and Duncan, but he was convinced otherwise. Interesting, huh?

Of course, I myself thought it was all made-up by you and the makers of the show till I looked it up in my Encyclopedia, to see what kind of historical "damage" you were doing in drawing these elaborate tales set in real countries' pasts... heh.

matt writes...

in "Future Tense" Puck tells Goliath that he can't take the Gate from him, Goliath has to give it to him. Does this rule apply to other magical talismans? if so, how did Odin manage to snatch the Eye of Odin from Goliath in the form of a polar bear in "Eye of the Storm"?

Dracolich writes...

Hello again.

After checking a great website called Encyclopedia Mythica (probably the most extensive list of mythology) I discovered an interesting tidbit on a being that might make the unusual depiction of the Banshee in the Garg universe understandible. The creature there is called a Baobhan Sith, and on a different webpage, it is considered to be another name for the Banshee.
This being is supposed to be a fairy-vampire. Interesting to note that it is supposed to wear green clothes, like the Banshee of the series. Interesting.

Basilisk writes...

Idiot question:

You know that Phoebe, Luna, and Selene are all personifications of the moon? Not to mention epithets of Artemis/Diana.

Well, you MUST know, seeing as you named these three extremely ethereal-celestial sisters. A very nice touch, by the way.

(The Guppi) writes...

What kind of bed does Owen have? (silly question)

Corrine Blaquen writes...

I was reading through the archives, and I came across a memo about THE MIRROR. It said that you needed to establish a race for Puck to belong to so he isn't mistaken for a demon. You also said you needed to come up with a name for that race. My question is why did you not go simply with the term 'Fairy'? Puck is from A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, a member of Oberon's race, and he is described as the King of the Fairies. What made you not use this moniker for the third race?

(The Guppi) writes...

On the same astronomy tack, how do Oberon, Titania, and Puck feel about their namesake planetary satellites? The three are moons of Uranus (offering not a few opportunies for low humor), all of which are named after famous Shakespearean characters. Appropriately enough, 'Titania' and 'Oberon' are the largest in mass, with 'Puck' being the largest of the small inner moons. (Titania is actually ~4.6e20 kg heavier than Oberon -- not that that means anything. :P)

(The Guppi) writes...

Hello again, Greg. Did you manage to catch the partial solar eclipse on the 25th? There wasn't really much to see this far out west, but it was pretty cool to watch on television. On to my vaguely related question, then... Are the Weird Sisters' powers tied to the phases of the moon?

LSZ writes...

Have you already planned exactly how Mab escapes?

Todd Jensen writes...

How does Odin feel about the fact that he's no longer worshipped as a god (at least, not on the level that he was back in the Viking Age)?

Todd Jensen writes...

Somebody recently asked you who Anubis's parents are, and you said that you didn't know. According to my memory (which may be a little inaccurate, admittedly), in Egyptian mythology, Anubis was the child of Osiris by Nephythys (Set's wife).

Of course, that may not quite be the case in the Gargoyles Universe, since legends don't always necessarily match up to truth. (Some of the pre-Shakespearean legends about Oberon make him the son of Julius Caesar and Morgan le Fay, which obviously isn't the case in the Gargoyles Universe, given that:

a. we already know that Oberon's mother is Queen Mab rather than Morgan le Fay.
b. While we don't know who Oberon's father was, he obviously wasn't a human (I can't imagine Oberon having a drop of mortal blood in him), which Caesar was.
c. Julius Caesar was assassinated about five hundred years before Morgan le Fay's birth - assuming that she was indeed born in the 5th century A.D., as per tradition - making any union between them chronologically impossible - not to mention the further chronological muddle of both of them post-dating Theseus and Hippolyta's wedding).

LSZ writes...

Do the fae have a strong magnetic sense?

Andrew Hume writes...

1) When the Archmage used the Eye Of Odin, the Phinex Gate, and the Grimorum was he more powerful than the Weird Sisters.

2) In Avalon part 2, the future Archmage told the past Archmage to use Avalon as a base for when he took over the world. If the wierd sisters found out about this would they have become enemies of the Archmage.

Waffle writes...

I know that iron is the only thing that can kill the Children of Oberon, but is it the only thing that can harm them? For instance, if you set one of them on fire (I have no idea why you would, but this is a hypothetical question), would he be hurt or would he walk away completely undamaged?

Anonymous writes...

Who were Anubius's parents?

Anonymous writes...

Does the Scroll of Thoth have anything to do with the Book of Thoth that appeared in Egyptian legend?

Anonymous writes...

Since most gods of myth are Oberon's Children then what are angels? Are they also Children of Oberon?

Oberon writes...

Does Avalon have any connection to the third race (a magic link or something) or did they just clame it as there own.

LSZ writes...

1) Was Anubis always so commited to his policies and careful with his powers as he is now?
2) If not, did he start to be so before or after he was worshipped as a god?

LSZ writes...

Considering how arrogant Oberon can be, how does he like having to announc ehimself as ruler of the Third Race?

warrioress writes...

Someone wrote: How does Demona feel about Oberon?

You answered: I'm not sure she's aware of him.

You mean you're not sure if Demona is aware Oberon exsists? How could she not? She knows Puck exsists, and she had her thugs in "The Mirror" use the password "Oberon sent me". Or did you mean she was aware of the Shakespearian Oberon, but not the real one?

Hope I didn't sound too confusing.... :-)

LSZ writes...

Your stuff on the Earth's biorhythms sounds vaguely like Lovelock's Gaia hypothesis..especially the part about Gargoyles being more in tune with it.

1) Were the Lost Race even more in tune?
2) Is there any specific reasons that make humans less in tune than gargoyles?
3) What about fae?

Sapphire writes...

I have some questions to ask you about the fay?

1)Have any fay ever converted to human religions?

2)In the future will any fay convert to human religions?

Sapphire writes...

i recall seeing that Oberon has fangs I was wondering is sharp teeth a natural trait for the fay I mean do all the fay have fangs?

Todd Jensen writes...

Did any of the Third Race that we know directly from the series (i.e., the ones that Goliath and Co. met on the Avalon World Tour) support Queen Mab in her war with Oberon, or were they all on Oberon's side? (I personally suspect the latter, since I doubt that Oberon would be permitting any Mab-loyalists to roam about on the same level of freedom as the rest of the Third Race, but I thought that I should ask you about it anyway).

Oberon writes...

1 do the wyrd (or wierd) sisters have emotions.
2 do they have thoughts independent from one another.
3 do they still have planns for demona and macbeth.
4 if so is it a new plan or something they intended all along.
5 what did the wyrd sisters do during the Oberon-Mab war.
6 do the wyrd sisters long-term planns go over even oberon's head.

LSZ writes...

1) Can Puck also be summoned by Oberon's Mirror?
2) Was Titania's Mirror meant to be used to summon Puck only, or could it summon any fae if you knew how?
3) If so to the former, what makes Puck connected to the Mirror?

LSZ writes...

Did you ever have any plans to fit in parts of traditional faerie folklore like the Seelie and Unseelie Courts, the Wild Hunt, and the Tuatha de Danaan into the Gargoyles universe?

LSZ writes...

Do the fae require any atmospheric gases to breathe at all?

LSZ writes...

1) Do the New Olympians know about Oberon?
2) Do they know the Greek gods were really fae?
3) Did any fae visit New Olympus after Oberon banished them from Avalon?

(The Guppi) writes...

01) In one of your MIRROR memos, you mentioned that the character design for the Weird Sisters' "true" forms should include earpoints. (I don't recall seeing them portrayed with such, but that doesn't mean much.) I know you really hate making quantifications, but... what level of pointiness had you in mind? Would they be giving Puck a run for their money?
_
02) Nearly all of the humanoid CoO appear to have pointed ears. ('Nearly', because one can't be too sure about that Nought fellow...) -a- Why? -b- And is this purely cosmetic, or does it have some practical basis?

LSZ writes...

Were Baal, Astarte, and other Sumerian and Middle Eastern gods who were in conflict with Judaism fae?

LSZ writes...

Any other ideas on which gods and entities did not survive Ragnarok?

LSZ writes...

Beside Gargoyles and Timedancer, would Mab appear in any of the other series? If so, which ones?

LSZ writes...

What made Oberon decide on a thousand years for the fae to be banished from Avalon?

jack writes...

hi greg

who are oberon and titana two kids? (I mean their names)

Todd Jensen writes...

Have you ever read Katharine Briggs's "An Encyclopedia of Fairies"? It's a very good dictionary of faerie-folk and faerie elements in legend (don't worry; it all deals with the fay as portrayed in primary sources), containing entries on practically every aspect of them. In particular, it's got entries on many of the familiar fay in the series (Oberon, Titania, Puck, the Banshee, the Lady of the Lake, Odin), ones that you planned to get into the series (Queen Mab and Morgan le Fay), and related elements (Cuchulain, iron, bells, time in Fairyland, A Midsummer Night's Dream), etc.

Anonymous writes...

Are the Weird Sisters connected to fate just as Anubis is connected to death?

Marduk writes...

Is Oberon taking precautions to make sure that his children don't overthrow him?

Marduk writes...

You said at the time of the Journey, Oberon and Titinia had two children. I always assumed they were twins and were born after the gathering, but after checking the archives I didn't see anything to back that up so... 1) are the two children twins? 2) can Fey/fae/whateveryoucallthem have twins?(this may have been answered before) 3) were the children born after the gathering? 4) will you tell us their names?

Vashkoda writes...

1a) Would there be any point in the future when the practice of mortal magic becomes more common than it is at the time of "The Journey"?

b) If so, roughly how long would it take for such a revival to come to pass? (decades, years, centuries?)

2a) Why is it so dangerous to mix fae and mortal magic? Energy is energy, right? And both fae and mortal magic are presumably of earthly origin. So what makes them so incompatible? b) What are the actual consequences of mixing the two?

3) The Archmage was able to bring the Grimorum to Avalon by "bending the rules", and so bypassed Oberon's Law. But in the end, he was still using the Eye to control the Grimorum, and hence, was "mixing magics". Why didn't this have any (visible) consequences?

4a) You've mentioned "ghost magic" before. Would it fall under the "mortal magic" category, or is it a completely different form of magic? b) If it's different, is it safe to mix with mortal or fae magic?

5) Which is the Megalith Dance powered by--fae or mortal magic?

6a) Do any New Olympians possess (or are capable of practicing) "fae" magic? b) Do any New Olympians practice "mortal" magic?

jack writes...

hi greg,

I'm ask this question becaues I little confisson

is all the gods in mythology are oberon's childen?
or can you make me list of oberons's childen of that you know of?
thank you

Sapphire writes...

In the episode the Gathering part one I saw a Pegasus as one of Oberon's children lining up to greet Oberon. I was wondering can that Pegasus talk?

puck40 writes...

Oberons Laws.
Some people get confused with how you have them restricted and stuff. So in the proper yes/no type questions and such.

1. Are the Fae physically or metaphysically... magically<?> unable to perform magic that goes against Oberons edicts?
2. Do the Fae follow it purely because they y'know, fear the big guy?
3. If they are magically restricted, how much of a strain does that put on Oberon himself?

ugh, class. later! <runs off>

Adam Z. writes...

If all the Gargoyles have to do to defeat Oberon is ring a bell, then why didn't they simply do so during the Gathering. And why didn't Puck know that was his weakness.

Todd Jensen writes...

In "The Gathering Part One", when the Weird Sisters report to Oberon that Puck hasn't returned to Avalon for the Gathering, they speak his (Puck's) name in a very unfriendly and bitter way. Do the Sisters have some sort of strong grudge against Puck?

LSZ writes...

1) How do Death-gods in general feel about non-fae immortality? Do they generally view it as cheating or in a generally negative way?
2) How does Anubis personally view immortality?

LSZ writes...

Could you give the name any of the fae who were worshipped and actually believed they were gods?

LSZ writes...

A more careful rephrase of the earlier question, which got a rather good smart-ass answer:

Just what is it that makes Oberon and Mab so powerful magically? Is it acquired power? Is it luck? Does it come just from being the ruler of Avalon? Does it come from, for lack of a better word, genetics?

LSZ writes...

Is it possible for the Children of Oberon archive file to be split into smaller subcategories? For example, you go into Children of Oberon, you get all the historical, nature-of and other in general stuff about the species there, but you can also click on a little list of subgroups on individual fae, like Oberon, Mab, Titania, Anansi, etc.

LSZ writes...

Who ruled before Mab?

LSZ writes...

Does Mab have any redeeming qualities?

Todd Jensen writes...

A question about "Ill Met By Moonlight". At the end of this episode, Oberon appoints the Avalon clan his "honor guard". Is this going to turn out to be a largely ceremonial function with little real work? I can't help but suspect this, in view of the fact that anything capable of seriously threatening Oberon, a fellow capable of swelling up to giant size, animating stone figures, and ordering the earth to swallow up intruders, (and I will confess that the only thing that I can think of in the Gargoyles Universe that could really endanger him at present is Queen Mab) would be able to easily wipe out a whole clan of gargoyles without much effort. (I do have the suspicion that Oberon's appointing the gargoyles to that position was more a matter of "practical politics" - giving them a definite role in Avalonian society - than a matter of "providing for defense", myself).

Vashkoda writes...

Ok, I'm bored, and since I won't enter the contest, it leaves me with little else to do but ask questions. So....

1a) Did Mab have any followers in her battle with Oberon? b) If so, were any of them imprisoned along with her? c) Is there anyone presently guarding her prison? d) Can anyone besides Oberon free Mab from wherever she's being imprisoned?

2) Was it Oberon himself who originally decided to battle Mab, or did he need convincing?

3) You said that Ragnarok happened in the Gargoyles Universe. a) How about the battle between the "Greek gods" and their predecessors, the "Titans"? b) Were either of these battles associated with the one between Oberon and Mab?

Kelly L Creighton / Kya White Sapphire writes...

re: wyrd sisters
i saw a shirt that i SO wana get entitled "The Maiden, The Mother, The Crone" with three women (hence the title) in front of a moon.... AHHH I WANT IT! its *so* the wyrd sisters. *cries* *is broke*
image: http://www.pyramidcollection.com/catalog.cfm

Wing writes...

Can fae have anemia?

Wing writes...

Knowing you are an English type teacher (as opposed to Science and what not), is it safe to assume you are familiar with the concept of the HERO'S JOURNEY? (a journey of self-discovery?)

It can be said that Titania went on the HERO'S JOURNEY. She took a trip and came back all the better (simplified). Too, it can be said, that Oberon ordered all fae to complete a HERO'S JOURNEY of sorts. (Loving the capital thing by the way) Oberon himself I belive went briefly on a journey, but only kinda (assumed from previous answers).
My q is, will Oberon ever go on a HERO'S JOURNEY and have a coming of age? Has this already happened, more subtly? Will his character continue to develope?

DrFaust writes...

Is Peter Maza the first human with whom Coyote has had a "connection"?

Todd Jensen writes...

When did Oberon pass his non-intervention edict? And in particular, was it extant during Arthur's original time period in the 5th century? (To be even more particular, was it extant at the time that Morgana got placed in the cradle in exchange for Gorlois and Igraine's biological daughter?)

Kayless writes...

Hey there, Greg. Since my last questions seemed to have been devoured by the Internet Goblin, I'll repost them, rather than trying to ask you directly using 'The Force'. ;)
1. When asked about Mab not long ago you wrote: 'She's MAD, I tell you, MAD, MAD! BWAHHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAAHHAAAAA'. Putting all jesting aside, is she insane?
2. If the answer to #1 is yes, was she this way prior to her incarceration/banishment or as a result of it?
3. Do the Fae in general feel that Oberon was justified in overthrowing her? Or are there holdout followers of the former ruler? Old school Mabites. =)
4. How can Oberon be so petulant and conceited? Despite all the centuries he's been around he still hasn't learned how to act like an adult. It's highly ironic that he banished the Fae from Avalon to teach them humility when he has so little himself (not exactly a model of introspection is he?). Not to mention that his son Merlin is renowned for his wisdom and for mentoring the noble Arthur. Yet Oberon himself seems devoid of all leadership qualities. He forbids his people from directly interfering with mortal affairs then blatantly breaks his own edict when he tries to kidnap Alexander. How can he be the ruler of an entire species and be blissfully ignorant to the fact that no one is above the law, especially the ruler? Sorry, that was more of an opinionated comment rather than a question.
5. Merlin is Half-Fae. So does he use human magic, Fae magic, or a combination of both? I am assuming that he was the one who enchanted the iron suits of armor guarding the sleeping Arthur. Such a feet of conjuration seems very difficult for someone who uses just Fae or human magic, but if Merlin used both then I can see how it's feasible. However, wouldn't that be mixing magics? And isn't that inherently dangerous?
(Listen to me! Talking about magic being feasible! This reminds me of all the discussions I've had with other Trekkers about why/how modern Klingons possess ridged heads and Original Series Klingons don't. Obsession on minutia: the hallmark of the fan. You can quote me on that).

KW Keller writes...

Wierd Sisters Question:

1. Previously, you mentioned that there was a connection between the Wierd sisters and the Norns (which would make sense, since Wyrd is derived from Urd, the Norn of the past). Are the Wierd Sisters and the Norns the same?

2. If yes, which Wierd Sister represents Urd/Urdr/Wurd (past), which is Verdandi (present), and which is Skuld (future)?

Aris Katsaris writes...

Concerning the Weird Sisters...

1. Are they 'biologically' sisters? By which I mean - did they have the same parents? Or is it just a designation that kind of describes the relationship that they have between them?

2. Are they triplets, or is one of them older than the other?

3. Do they do *everything* together? :-)

4. And (just in case the above question wasn't already obvious Christine Morgan material :-) has any of them ever had a boyfriend/mate/spouse/etc ?

5. (Getting back to the PG stuff) Have you decided who are their parents?

Ed writes...

In the Mab/Oberon war, surely whoever was on Avalon would have something of a disadvantage in terms of preparation time. I mean, any enemy that invaded would have twenty-four times the length of the time to prepare. Would this have been important in the war?

Matthew writes...

What would have happened to Puck if he broke the rules and simply taken the Pheonix Gate?

OnyxStar writes...

This is kind of off-topic, but I learned something interesting in Chemistry class yesterday that I thought might be worth sharing, especially since there have been some questions about Children of Oberon and resistance to Oberon.
It seems that the word "iron" comes from Greek (or was it Latin?) meaning "metal from heaven," because iron is often found in great quantities in meteors. As the fae were generally seen as an abomination from a religious viewpoint, such metal from heaven was a way to hurt them.
Just a general observation I thought might be interesting. Especially if "maza" does indeed mean iron. Hmm...

Nemi writes...

*Sigh*

Don't get me wrong, I like Oberon, hell, he's one of my favorite characters, right up there with Puck, Titania, and Xanatos.

I, and most of the people I hang around with, have a tendancy to torture/ridicule/act like we don't like the charcters we love.

For instance, Nabiki GMYW is a close friend of mine, and I happen to know that Puck is one of, if not her favorite character. However, in her fan fics she makes his life a living hell.

Just because Oberon has bad fahion sence and is an insentsitive imature jerk doesn't mean he hasn't lived for an extreamly long time. he's wise, he learns from his own mistakes (hasn't visted the Xanatos's now, has he?) and he can most likely learn from the mistakes of others as well.

He also has to have some sort of soft spot deep under that thick blue hide of his, or at least something aproching decentcy. He simply doesn't have the air time nor the reason to show it.

*Shrugs*

But that's just the way I feel.

Anyways, on to the questions.

Does Iron occure naturaly on Avalon?

Except to the fey is it a poison to the things that live there?

And does the fact that iron is bad for the fey have anything, anything at all to do with the fact that it is the last thing a sun produces before it dies and goes nova/turns into a nutron star?

-Nemi, who salutes Gore Because she knows she would have a hard time picking out what's a legimit question and what's an Idea masqurading as a question

Aris Katsaris writes...

Does Nimue know who her mortal parents were? (Yeah, yeah, we've all guessed it was Nimue :-)

Does Morgana know that she's not the biological child of her parents?
Which Oberati did the exchange? And for what reason?

Matthew Smith writes...

At the end of "Mark Of The Panther" was that little spider scurrying away Anansi making an unnoticible escape, or was it just any other spider?

Demona Taina writes...

Oops! I spelled Antarctica wrong. My bad. :) [kicks evil typo]

And, well, while I'm at it, let me ask you this. Could Oberon ever punish somebody if he had a very good reason?

If the person he wishes to punish is mortal, can he punish him? Or does his law prevent him from messing with the lives of mortals?

Thank you for your time. :)

Todd Jensen writes...

How did the Banshee get around Oberon's non-intervention edict when she kidnapped Goliath, Elisa, and Angela, and took them to Cairn na Culainn for interrogation?

Aris Katsaris writes...

To Duncan Devlin who said: "I don't quite understand the response. From my experience, not ALL things are true."

Let me just paraphrase a sentence of Terry Pratchett: "All things are true, for a given value of 'true' "

Sixshot writes...

How does Hydras, Dragons, Harpies, Cerberus and all other mythological animals/creatures fit in the three races?

Emmlei writes...

In response to LSZ's many posts: i think what she wants to know is what some of the Faes' personify. Like how the Greek Olympians each personified (though how well is up for grabs) various attributes or crafts; Athena personified wisdom and defensive warfare, Ares war, Appollo truth and the arts. In the Garg's universe, Anubis clearly personifies death.
LSZ, you can correct me if i'm wrong, but i think that's what she means.

LSZ writes...

Ok, first of all; most of the Gargoyles villains can be counted as amorals(like Xanatos), grays(Macbeth), insane-sufferers(Demona), and genuinely evil/malicious and remorseless folks like Proteus and perhaps Jackal and Hyena.

All of them can be, to some extent, perhaps with the exception of Macbeth, considered evil or selfishly uncaring. Still, Oberon cannot be considered evil; he is horribly arrogant, but he has his own sense of nobility.

But is Mab evil? Is she Chaos in the dark trickster manner of Raven and presumably Loki? Is she just a more petty version of Oberon? Is she genuinely malicious and nasty ala Hakon and Proteus? Is she gray-but-still-dark like Duval?

So what is Mab?

1) What is her moral worth in comparison to Oberon?
2) What is she compared to the other Gargoyles villain-types?

LSZ writes...

1) Did Oberon have any help in defeating Mab?
2) Did Oberon use trickery?

LSZ writes...

Hmm. Ok, good answer to the iron question, I'll admit. Still, is there any Fae Science in a Gargoyle-Science-esque answer on why iron harms the fae?

LSZ writes...

If the humans of (time of Future Gargoyle series) know 'a lot' about the origins of the New Olympians, do they know that the fae are real?

Todd Jensen writes...

I thought that I'd give my own comments here on the Weird Sisters as portrayed in "City of Stone" and "Avalon".

My own reason for being bothered by the change in the Sisters' portrayal between these two stories wasn't based on the fact that in "Avalon" they were working for the Archmage. What bothered me rather was the apparent change in their moral character. In "City of Stone", they talk about how revenge is wrong and every life is precious. In "Avalon", they're vengeful and consider the lives of mortals meaningless, and display this attitude even before they meet the Archmage, when they try to turn the humans into owls. They underwent what looked almost like a 180 degree turn around that I found difficult to comprehend.

The best that I could come up with as an explanation was that in "City of Stone", they didn't want Macbeth and Demona to kill each other since they needed them for the assault on Avalon, and were just doing the usual "villain speaking of virtue to achieve his or her own goals" (kind of like Shakespeare's Iago telling Othello to beware of jealousy even while secretly and deliberately sowing the seeds of jealousy in him). But while I could accept that with the simple overall statements, I found it hard to apply that to the questions that they were putting to Macbeth and Demona at the end of "City of Stone Part Four". The insight that they showed in the lives of Demona and Macbeth in speaking those questions seems to me something that one just can't fake, that would be beyond the abilities of mere clever hypocrites. That's the big reason why I have a problem with reconciling the Sisters' behavior in the different episodes.

Todd Jensen writes...

A question about Odin's quest to regain his eye in "Eye of the Storm"? Wouldn't this be, technically, a reneging on his deal with Mimir? After all, Odin did voluntarily surrender the eye for a drink from Mimir's well, so that would mean that it was no longer his property, that he had signed it away. (Of course, Mimir probably is no longer in a position to protest this, given that you've indicated in the past here that his beheading by the Vanir took place in the Gargoyles Universe, but I can't help wondering about this issue anyway).

Alex "Cyclonus" Bishansky writes...

You mentioned that Oberon's power class is Power, and Anubus and the Banshee are connected to Death and Mab Power and Chaos.

Are there any other classes that Fay are connected to that you can state.

LSZ writes...

1) Do immortality spells ala Demona and Macbeth's work on other fae?
2) How do the Death-gods in general view immortality?
3) How does Anubis in particular view immortality?

LSZ writes...

Why haven't any fae ever gone to space before? Don't they have curiousity about what's out there?

LSZ writes...

1) What happens when one Death-god is destroyed?
2) You said the spell in GRIEF put Death itself into stasis; did this apply only to Earth or to the entire universe?
3) Since you said that if all the Death-gods were destroyed, something or other will arise to take their place..this seems to imply that the Death-gods are very neccessary to the running of the universe..well, at least Earth's area. So what were things like BEFORE the fae evolved? What entity or entities had a connection to the process of Death then? Was the act of dying any different pre-fae?

Vasy writes...

1.What did titania whisper into fox's ear at he end of the gathering part2
2.who rules after oberon
3. is fox the next queen of avalon
4. does titania know who the ruler of avalon will be after oberon's demise.
5. when does titania die.
6. how does titania die
7. does alexander, xanatos's child, ever become ruler of avalon.
8.odin is king of the gods in norse myth, and oberon is king in hte scottish/irish myth...so why does oberon ruler over odin?
9.how did oberon dfeat mab
10. why did oberon battle mab
11. who is merlin's mother, i know she is human, but who she
12. did merlin's mom know she had a son to oberon, or didn't oberon tell her
13. does foxes, dad...i say foxes dad because i dont know how to spell his name, well does he know that foxes mom is titania?
14. when oberon made everyone sleep in gathering part 1 and 2, why is foxes dad and vogel not asleep? was this titania's doing

Vasy writes...

1.What is the total plan of the wierd sisters for macbeth and demona?

2. Does titania know what the wierd sisters do?

Vasy writes...

The fae weren't exisiting during the dinosaurs
1. when did they start to exist
2.how did they come to exist

Vasy writes...

1. if a human killed oberon, does he become ruler of the third race
2. who kills oberon
3. how does oberon die

Haplo FD writes...

1. I know this queston has been touched upon before but I was wondering how was it that the ringing of an iron bell could bring Oberon to his knees and almost kill him (even after he had been given back his full powers) and yet the iron harpoon in the chest couldn't hack it?
2. Also, near the end of that episode, Oberon was severely drained of his power (with the old man visage), but then for no apparent reason returns to his normal self. What happened which enabled him to return to his usual self?

Thanks. I appreciate any answers given.

Aris Katsaris writes...

Why changelings? I mean: why would fay exchange their children for human ones? I am not sure it was ever that clear in the real myths but what's the reason in the Gargoyles universe?

Todd Jensen writes...

After reading LSZ's comments on the use of Norse mythology in "Gargoyles" (particularly with Odin) and your responses to them, I thought that I'd weigh in with my own thoughts on Odin as portrayed in the Gargoyles Universe.

As something of a Norse mythology buff (and, like you, I very much enjoyed the d'Aulaire book which was my big introduction to the Norse myths), I enjoyed Odin's showing up in "Gargoyles". The one detail that bothered me in "Eye of the Storm", though, I confess, was when both Odin and Goliath in his "Eye of Odin" form were wearing horned helmets. This was because I'd read that the Vikings never actually wore those kinds of helmets, and, even more significantly, Hakon and his Vikings in "Awakening" weren't portrayed as wearing horned helmets but the sort of outfits that Vikings wore in actual history. So I felt a bit disturbed by the horned helmets in "Eye of the Storm", on the grounds of "They know better, because of how they drew Hakon and his followers."

Admittedly, since Odin and the "Odinized" Goliath weren't human flesh-and-blood Norsemen like Hakon, but fantasy beings, maybe the horned helmet concept does work for them, in that their appearance would be reflecting the popular imagination view of Vikings.

Entity writes...

Hi Greg,

A belated personal reaction to THE MIRROR. In the past, you've seemed curious as to how things came off to us. Did we get the implication here, or did we correctly interpret there. Well, here's something that really threw me initially. When Goliath describes the Third Race, he uses a lot of different nouns and adjectives. At first, I thought this new "Third Race" was going to be a contrived method of stuffing all other creatures of myth and fantasy into the series, in addition to the gargoyles, without having to give each one a unique background and history. In this way, you could bring in a unicorn, a minatour, an elf or an ogre, and you wouldn't have to justify them existing as individual species like the gargs, because they're conveniently blanket-labelled as the "Third Race." In short, I thought Goliath was describing a people more akin to the New Olympians, a collective, rather than a coherent species. Elisa's response was most responsible for cementing my conclusion, when she said, "Shapeshifters, elves, fairies, you mean they're real?" It sounds a lot like Elisa's interpretation of Goliath's speech was the same as mine.

As you could imagine, I felt quite betrayed and outraged. To forge such a unique, well-shaped universe and then just lazilly toss in everything else as if you said, "Well, on second thought..."

This wasn't the case, and the Third Race wound up being a wonderful addition to the series. But it took me a while to realize that. :)

LSZ writes...

Do the smith-gods of various pantheons possess the iron-resistance?

LSZ writes...

Does Oberon's father share his iron-resistance?

LSZ writes...

Did any of the fae who got worshipped actually believe they were gods?

LSZ writes...

1) Are there any faelike beings out there in space then, if such evolution on other worlds is possible?
2) Are any evolutionary processes to start such beings beginning or halfway through or in the final stages off-Earth?
3) Are any of the three races in the Space-Spawn War on similar evolutionary lines to the fae?

Aris Katsaris writes...

As a comment to one of LSZ's posts> I'm not that certain that Ra would be the leader of the Egyptian pantheon - I think that in the myths the leadership seems to have passed from Ra to Osiris and finally to Horus the Younger when Osiris was murdered...

LSZ writes...

Who's the fae nearest in power to Titania, not counting fae more powerful than she is in raw force(Oberon, Mab)?

LSZ writes...

Are the fae leaders of the pantheons(Odin, Ra, Zeus) etc always the most powerful of that group?

LSZ writes...

Did Ragnarok occur or was even part of the Oberon-Mab war?

LSZ writes...

I think this was also lost in the queue, so

1) What would happen to Oberon when Mab returns?
2) Would Mab be around by 2158?
3) What would happen to Mab by 2158?
4) At what level of maturity would Oberon and Titania's children be by 2158?

LSZ writes...

Just what is it that makes Mab and Oberon so powerful?

LSZ writes...

Are any fae connected to bacteria or any other micro-organisms?

LSZ writes...

1) Were the heads of various pantheons(Odin, Ra, etc) also connected to the ruling class?
2) What were Thor and Loki connected to?
3) What connection is there between Titania and the Titans?

LSZ writes...

another silly question, but..are any fae connected to iron?

LSZ writes...

This is probably a silly question, but are there any single entities in the universe more powerful than Mab?

LSZ writes...

Are any fae connected to gravity?
2) To science?
3) To one race or type of human or gargoyle?

KW Keller writes...

Oberon's Children questions (maybe):

1. Are beings such as gnomes, leprechauns, brownies, etc. fay? If so, why is there such a difference in power between them and someone like Odin?

2. Are djinn/jinn/genies (or however one prefers to spell it) members of the third race?

3. We know there have been human/fay hybrids produced in the Gargoyles Universe, but have any gargoyle/fay hybrids ever been produced?

Abigail Thorne writes...

During the World Tour, Goliath and Co. ran into many members of the Third Race and screwed up their plans. Did Oberon find about about that? I was just trying to figure out if he'd find it amusing or if he'd be irritated. From his point of view, the gargoyles had already invaded his island--now these four puny mortals were besting his powerful children? I don't think he'd take that lightly, but maybe I'm wrong. What do you think?

LSZ writes...

1) Is it possible for a fae to have a connection to a single or at least a type of species?
2) If so, is Anansi connected to spiders?
3) Raven ravens?
4) Coyote coyotes?
5) Finally, is it possible and are there any fae that are connected to gargoyles or humans as a species?

LSZ writes...

What connections are the most common among the fae?

LSZ writes...

Are any of the fae 'gods' we've seen so far like Anubis or Odin older than Oberon?

LSZ writes...

1) How old is Mab?
2) How old was Mab when Oberon was born?
3) How old is Oberon?
4) Titania?

LSZ writes...

What was Puck's position during the Mab-Oberon war, if he was even around at the time?

LSZ writes...

1) If a fae's true form-appearance is determined by the true forms of its parents, is their connection also determined or influenced by the connection of its parents?
2) What is Oberon and Titania's two kids' connections?

LSZ writes...

Must all fae have a connection?

LSZ writes...

1) Does Anansi possess any connections besides trickster?
2) Raven?
3) Coyote?
4) Does Anubis have any connection besides death?
5) Is it common for Death-gods to be connected solely to Death?
6) Does Merlin have any connection?

LSZ writes...

1) What was Oberon's father's connection, if Mab's was power/chaos?
2) Does the power-ruling-class connection of the Oberon-Titania type refer solely to the fae ruling class, or ruling classes in general?
3) Does Alex have any kind of connection?
4) Do any other fae besides Oberon, Titania and Mab have the ruling class connection?
5) Can Mab be considered a trickster with the chaos connection?
6) Do any fae have a connection to off-planet things?
Further questions to stop this from becoming a marathon..

Sixshot writes...

Hi mr. Weisman

In Mark of The Panther, Goliath killed "Anansi". He used a spear, but was it in iron? If not, how could a spear make him disappear like that?

Laura aka 'ad astra' Ackerman writes...

I love this asking questions off of answers to my own questions! By the time you read this it will have been a while since you answered what I apologized being "an amorphous blob of a question" on Fox, her potential fae abilities and concrete lack thereof, as well as Titania's intentions. I now apologize for this being only a little less of a blob; I separated paragraphs- (randomly, but I did it).

I did not truly express myself well so you could not fully answer that question- (you did cover most of it). The main thing that has been bothering me, and which prompted me to assess the situation as I had, was that thought that Titania would intentionally put herself through the pain of having a child that will live, grow old and die in a fraction of her own lifespan. I realize that even Titania cannot foresee and account every happening, but I figure that she can handle birth control if she wanted to. [Given the cross species thing, I assumed she had to work at the non-compatibility problem. Different species should be nearly automatic birth control for the most part.] Basically, I assume she intended to have Fox- or at least a halfling child. [A correct assumption?]

You answered me on July 19 saying there was no exterior block on Fox practicing fae magic- only the atrophying of unused talents. The implication of The Gathering seemed to be that that bolt at Oberon was Fox's first act of magic. The thing I am curious about is whether or not Titania tried to make Fox a magical being as a child, or even as a baby, or, at any rate before issues of atrophy could come up. I assumed she would have tried, if for no other reason than giving Fox access to a lifespan of a short lived Oberati instead of a long lived human. [I really can't understand people willingly putting themselves through the pain of losing a child when there is any viable alternative.] Continuing with what were probably faulty assumptions I deduced that Titania must have tried in a direct fashion to get Fox used to magic until Fox was old enough to talk about it credibly (4 or 5?). After that point, through the events of the Gathering, I assumed she tried less direct methods- perhaps even things that would be dangerous for a child had her mother not been there to step in to save her. Fox of course would have generally found her own way out of dangerous situations using her mind and body and circumventing the whole experiment. This all seemed a rather logical set of deductions except for figuring out why a child version of Fox could not do magic. From there I hypothesized some sort of exterior block, which you said does not exist.

So…
Did Titania conceive Fox intentionally?
Did Titania desire to have a child that was human or halfling in point of view and ability?
[Oddly enough it seems to me Fox has a rather Fae POV despite her lack of magic]
Did Titania try to train Fox in fae magic as a small child?
If so, why didn't I work at the time?
Did Titania try indirect methods throughout the rest of Fox's life?
Now that Fox has touched on her fae potential- should she desire and be able to reclaim that 'muscle' and strengthen it, in effect become more a halfling than a human, could her life expectancy jump from what I would guess to be low hundreds to several hundred?

You wrote in your answer:
"Titania/Anastasia may have made some mistakes, may not have thought things out in advance. May have had one or more changes of heart."

I am beginning to getting a bit of a picture of Titania like the cat I once saw described in a birthday card- the sort of animal that can perch on your Tv, fall off with an ungraceful plop and then jump up with an "I meant to do that" look and walk proudly and disdainfully away. Perhaps all that wonderful manipulation I give her credit for is actually (in part) post facto saving face on an incredibly skill level.

LSZ writes...

Did gargoyles ever worship fae as gods?

Jeff N. writes...

Hey there Mr. Weisman,

In an answer to an earlier question about the origins of the New Olympians, you said that the first New Olympians were the result of various fae-mortal unions, and I was just wondering if, in the Gargoyles Universe, all of the original 12 Olympians from Greek mythology would be classified as full-fledged members of the Third Race (i.e. Oberon's Children)?

Thank you and good luck on resurrecting Gargoyles.

LSZ writes...

1) Do fae grow weaker magically as they grow older?
2) Is there any limit to how powerful a fae can grow unaided by any magical artefacts?
3) How seriously can fae be hurt by human magic?
4) If gargoyles could develop their own sorcery, would the magic they utilise be identical to human magic?
5) Did the Zeroth/Lost Race use magic?
6) Do the New Olympians use magic these days?

LSZ writes...

How does Demona feel about Oberon?

Laura 'ad astra' Ackerman writes...

In answer to a series of question I asked about Oberon and Titania's children (together and otherwise) and the events of Midsummer Night's Dream you mentioned "the pedophile theory" and said, "(platonic or otherwise) [it] still may fit the play best. Haven't worked out whether it applies to the Garg Universe." I must admit to ignorance, what theory?

Strangely enough I never really enjoyed reading Midsummer. Usually I like reading Shakespeare as much as watching, but I just couldn't get into it when last I tried. As a result I can't stand by my inability if seeing anything fitting that description in the play. In seeing the play the boy barely did anything but be handed around and look cute, but performances are already interpretations with choices. Are you saying there is a theory that Oberon wanted the kid for reasons other than being annoyed Titania was ignoring him, or that Titania was interested in the kid in ways other than adopting a dead friend's (or was it worshiper?- I don't remember well enough) child. I don't remember having that sort of theory come up outside of Hamlet. {In Hamlet I can see that there might be elements, but usually find it overplayed. Then again, I am a prude and often wear rose tinted glasses.}

I had also commented on Oberon's amusement at discovering Fox's existence. I would have expected him to be jealous, and wondered if he was exhibiting some maturity in recognition of his own track record. You said that Oberon wouldn't have been jealous because he was divorced from Titania at the time. Since when has Oberon been strictly logical or mature? Until that moment I wouldn't have put it past him to begrudge the fact that the woman he divorced had remarried and had a child with someone else despite any children he had hanging about. When we first meet Oberon, the way he responded to Titania's offer of remarriage seemed to me as if he had been quite anxious for that to happen. It almost seemed to me he had offered before and been turned down. I don't mean that he went begging her, just that he had made gestures of reconciliation and she turned him down in no uncertain terms making clear she was his subject, not love. Mostly it signaled to me that the big blue jerk had some genuine feelings for Titania, and was emotionally invested in her being his wife again. Was my reading completely off? And why was Oberon so amused?

Anonymous writes...

Who was the centaur guy we saw in the gathering part 1?

DrFaust writes...

Where is Mab imprisoned?

Did you ever mentally cast a particular actor in Mab's role? And if so, who?

LSZ writes...

Could a fae as powerful as Oberon or Mab transform a gargoyl or human into a fae weaker than them?

LSZ writes...

1) How did Oberon succeed in defeating Mab if she was stronger than he was?
2) Why didn't Mab approve of Titania?
3) Just how was Mab trouble? Trouble for whom, specifically?
4) Does Oberon feel any regret about overthrowing his mother?

April writes...

Does Fox love her mother Titani?

Siren writes...

A little question from The Gathering eps
With Boudicca (sp?) and the Oberon thing...
Is she just very obidiant or did he place a spell on her?

Scott Iskow writes...

On Fae Magic:

1) It's been a while since I've seen "Mark of the Panther," so I'm a little unclear on how Anansi "spins his wishes." Can you describe the process, please?

2) Did Oberon remove Puck's magic, or was it merely suppressed? If removed, where did all the energy go? Did Oberon absorb it into himself, or did he do the fae equivalent of throwing it into the garbage?

3) On a similar note to 2, how much energy does it take to strip another fae of magic? My guess would be some amount equal to the magic being removed, but I'm not well versed in cartoon magic. (I can't even rhyme well.)

Wing writes...

Salutations!
Here's a question guised in the form of a question for you.
If Oberati can chose their form at will, why was Anansi so massive, huge, and ungainly?

Faieq Ali writes...

1)If The Children of Oberon are creatures of pure magic, then why did Anansi need the panther Queen and the people of Karadigi to hunt for him?
2)Do the Children need to eat food?

Matthais writes...

Hello! First of all, I thought I should say that I really love Gargoyles, I write role playing games and a lot of Fae concepts comes from the show. So, without further ado:

At the end of "Ill Met By Moonlight", Oberon says something like "From now on you and your clan shall be imune to all our powers" to Goliath. You have mentioned before that Oberon uses the royal "we", or "us", or "our", but says "I" if it would be confusing otherwise. This is certainly a confusing instance. I hope by "our" powers he dosn't mean the powers of all Fae? I couldn't remember if any of the clan are affected by Fae powers after Ill Met. (Unless "Future Tense" was after it?)

Duncan Devlin writes...

Hi Greg. I posted a question in March that I guess was a little confusing. I asked about Annubis being in line at the Gathering. Since he was presented as the Grim Reaper (essentially) and the only being to represent a "taker of souls" in the Gargoyles universe, I found it a little odd that he be taken from his duties to attend The Gathering. Since the Amir returned control to Annubis, I assume he did not take his place. The Gathering seemed to have an indeterminate length of time (Puck seemed way too concerned for just a hiatus), so the world would be without death. Who takes care of the duties of death while he is at The Gathering.

I don't want to go any furthur, because there will be an idea imbedded in the question.

I apologize for calling Nought a "dube", I was a typo I didn't pick up on until mid-May. I intended to say "dude".

LSZ (repost by Aris) writes...

Why I didn't like Odin's portrayal so much and Odin in general.

First of all, Odin was supposed to be the wisest of the gods, who sacrificed his very eye for wisdom and had to hang from a tree nine days dead, really dead, gone-to-Helheim-dead to gain even more wisdom of rune-making knowledge. He also interacted with humans frequently in the myths, and not always as a god-to-lesser-beings attitude. Odin in Gargoyles seemed kinda..dumb. His comment to Goliath about not being used to dealing with mortals seemed out-of-character. The mythological Odin seemed the type of person to try more subtle methods to gain the Eye. And also:

1) Where were Odin's ravens at the time?
2) Why has Sleipnir so few legs? He should have eight.
3) Where's Odin's magic spear Gungnir?

Fenrir (repost by Aris) writes...

Norse myth again:

Hope this doesn't count as an idea but..this is just a comment I want to make because it seems that ths is commonly forgotten by most people who want to do stories about the Norse gods and just concentrate on the 'heroic Aesir/Vanir' or 'malicious Loki/Frost Giants', and seem to forget about other major figures who just don't talk much like Hel.

So my comment is:
Fenrir can talk. There's a precedent. In the story about him and Tyr, it is said he cheerfully agrees to being bound with chains, which may or may not mean he can talk. But when the gods bring him the magic ribbon Glaupnir, he is suspicious and challenges them, and states that as a test of good faith, someone must put his hand in Fenrir's mouth. So Fenrir _can_ talk.

LSZ (repost by Aris) writes...

Norse myth:
1) Jormungandr was the Midgard/World Serpent, the monstrous brother of Fenrir and Hel, and like them, another bastard child of Loki and the Frost-Giantess Angrboda(anguish boding). Odin cast him into the sea not long after he was born, but there he grew to immense proportions until he encircled the entire world(which the Norse thought shaped like a disc with a huge ocean circling the sides), and had to hold his tail in his mouth. Jormungandr was also(this is from memory, may be wrong) the arch-monster-enemy(the way Fenrir is Odin's) of Thor, due to an event that occured before Ragnarok; Thor used Mjolnir as a fishing hook while fishing in a boat and caught Jormy, bashed him on the head with the hammer once or twice, but the Serpent got away, being the earliest recorded story of the Big One..

2) Jormungandr was huge, serpentine, extremely formidable in the water, and equipped with poisonous breath/bite.

3) Until Ragnarok, Jormungandr cannot heave his immense body unto the land. At Ragnarok, when the stars start falling from the sky and the huge earthquakes start, the land heaves and manages to lift Jormungandr onto the shore. He will then slither all his way to Vigrid, the battlefield. At Vigrid, his breath will poison the air, being responsible for the death of many. Thor will engage him in a long long battle, and not too long after Odin gets eaten, finally slay Jormungand. Thor will then walk nine steps away, and fall down dead, too heavily injured in the battle to survive. So it'll appear Jormungandr would be dead..but if Odin can survive Ragnarok, why can't Jorm?

2) How many tricksters do you need? Loki's got other aspects besides tricktser-he's also a fire-god and shapeshifter of great power and skill.

And an actual question:
3) How did Odin survive Ragnarok?

Next Norse myth thing in seperate post, unsure if that counts as seperate topic.

Aris Katsaris (repost by Aris) writes...

Do the Weird Sisters feel anything like affection or responsibility towards Demona and Macbeth? In 'City of Stone' they did seem to feel these thing ("We've written their story. They are our children") but in the following episode we just saw them use Demona and Macbeth for their own purposes...

Aris Katsaris (repost by Aris) writes...

This comes with some delay but better late than never... Concerning Morrigan (to give credit where due) Todd had already guessed that in the Gargoyles Universe she may have been Banshee... I had my doubts, in part because I hadn't guessed that the 'love' part in their love/hate relationship went back to their earlier life...

Anyway... So, the Morrigan of legends is an amalgation of Banshee and the Weird sisters... interesting and ofcourse quite fitting. (I also wonder if the idea of the Weird Sisters in love with anyone could ever pass S&P - it would seem a bit like a group orgy or something... :-)

I was intrigued (and quite pleased) when I found out that you had further plans for Banshee as Molly - the episode had left me rather unsatisfied, Rory transforming into Cuchullain and attacking/killing the Banshee as if Molly had meant nothing to him... it felt kind of a letdown (especially since I quite liked Molly while the Banshee seemed two-dimensional). So I'm glad this is not the end of their relationship, even though I agree with you that it would be difficult to near-impossible to focus a whole series on the two of them.

Hmm... here are a couple of questions. Does Rory know that the Banshee is still out there or does he think that he has killed her? And that 'transformation' into Cuchullain... would you have it happen again, or even on a regular base? (I rather disliked the transformation - I didn't much like Cuchullain's form...) And how does Rory feel now about Molly/Banshee/Crom Cruach?

Thanks btw, for the compliment on my usage of English... However the specific post concerning the Morrigan was in great part a copy-and-paste job from a mythological website... :-)

LSZ writes...

Just why does the sound of iron harm fae? It isn't as if iron radiates 'iron waves' like uranium and radioactivity..

LSZ writes...

Does Mab share the resistance to iron that Oberon possesses?

LSZ writes...

Did any fae ever travel to space at any period in history? Are they even capable of doing so?

LSZ writes...

I'm pretty sure this question was lost in the queue, and I've searched it twice, so I'll ask it again:

Did any magical faelike beings evolve on other planets, or is the whole magic-incubation thing limited to Earth?

LSZ writes...

How would powdered iron dust affect a fae if you sprinkle some on one? What would it do-poison, scorch, bring on a rash, make them itch...

Todd Jensen writes...

I'm not certain as to whether this question has been asked here or not (it certainly hasn't been answered yet), but - do the fay have any sort of afterlife as humans and gargoyles do, or do they just stop existing when they die?

Nemi writes...

Apologies for misspellings!

dose to does and such.

This all has to do with Fey and history.

Howmany generations of Fey have their been?

Have the fey ever been primitive? As in the way humans were sevral millenia ago?

Nemi writes...

Stupid pointless Titania questions that got deleted this time:

Does she wear shoes? (Yes I know, Oberon wears enough for both of them and then some)

Has she always worn what she does and some variation, or pregathering did she wear something less--revealing?

Is there a point to her wearing so little?

Nemi writes...

Here's some stupid questions with no point that also got deleted, they all have to do with Oberon's looks and fashion sence, which in a sence is the same thing for a fey:

Why does Oberon wear those thigh high boots?

Why does Oberon have a broken nose? There are a few theroies going round about this one, which I can't post for fear of getting this deleted.

Is it just mean or is he, Oberon, wearing shorts?

an' I think that's it

LSZ writes...

Did Ragnarok occur before Oberon overthrew Mab, or after, or during the Oberon-Mab war?

LSZ writes...

Which of the Death-gods has the greatest connection to Death? You have implied earlier that some have less and more than other Death-gods, like Banshee compared to Anubis..

LSZ writes...

1) You said earlier that Oberon has siblings; how many?
2) Of what gender are they?
3) Do Titania or Puck have siblings?

Isaac Kelley writes...

Alright, in Hunters Moon, my personal favorite episode, Demona almost unleashed a magical disease that would have killed all sentience. Gargoyles would be immune to it's effects thanks to the Praying Gargoyle.
Now we all know Goliath smashed the statue and saved the world. But what if this was not the case...
1. All humans would have died. Macbeth is obviously human. Would this not have qualified as death at Demona's hands, thus killing Demona (oops)?
2. If not, would she fall prey to it when she turned into human form? How would this work?
3. Would this spread to Avalon and/or the isle of the New Olympians?
4. How would it affect... Oberon's Children?
5. ...New Olympians?
6. ...Gargoyle clones?
7. Any other effects?

Thanks for your time. Love your rambles, by the way, look forward to next season's rambles.

LSZ writes...

Did Morgana or Nimue attend the Gathering?

LSZ writes...

Were the fae around during the time of the dinosaurs?

Todd Jensen (repost by Aris) writes...

How did Odin get around Oberon's non-intervention law when he kidnapped Elisa?

Lexy (repost by Aris) writes...

Nope..still not done yet..

Ok, I put this in a separate post _just_ in case.

1) Could you tell us what the episode, "Ransom" would have been like if you had had more control over it?

I put this in a separate post cuz..as you may notice you have answered this one from me before. I admit that. Its just that when you did it was awful vague. I was just wondering if right now you could tell us something more besides, "It was pretty much the same plot except the kidnappers were from Avalon." Ok they were from Avalon?

2) Would we have seen these characters in any episodes after Ransom?

We never saw Puck in TGC. But im SURE Alex getting kidnapped would have warrented a Puck episode;)

3) Would Puck have been the first one to know and not his parents?

Everyone got together trying to figure out how to go about getting Alex back

4) In the ep you had planned, would it have been more of a Puck/Lex teamup?

5) Where would've the mystery characters from Avalon taken our lil prince?

U know..Q's like that?

Pulezz?;)

LSZ writes...

If each fae has a certain connection to some aspect through their magic, like Anubis to Death, do:

1) Do Halflings also have such a connection?
2) Is it possible for a fae to change their connection?
3) What is Oberon's particular connection?
4) Mab's?
5) Puck's
6) Titania's?

Laura aka 'ad astra' writes...

Sorry to leave this as an amorphous blob of a question, but it is really one complex question on Fox: You have said that she is human [life expectancy, magical ability, etc] because she was raised that way. But Titania in The Gathering said she tried to get Fox's magic to surface many times. It almost seemed as if there was some sort of block on that magic surfacing. Is there a block, be it exterior to Fox, or from within her own subconscious? (if so, is it interior or exterior?) Granted Titania's efforts were probably not that straightforward, [I would assume the events of the Gathering were such a test, perhaps Walkabout.] wouldn't the earliest attempts, the ones when Fox was a child, have been more straight forward, and only when they failed, and Fox was old enough to do that endearing thing little children do (repeat what they oughtn't at inopportune moments) that they became hidden? I can see Titania wanting to raise a child that would appear to everyone as fully human even if it meant the child itself not knowing for a while, but did Titania want to raise a truly fully mortal child? It seems hard to believe that Titania would want to put herself through having a child only to have it age and die in a blink of her life span. Since you have said much depends on her POV, should Fox change her perception of herself could she tap into substantial fey magic, life expectancy? Do you see that happening?

Laura aka 'ad astra' writes...

A while back I came up with an assessment of fey power that ran like this: Oberon has more raw power than Titania- but Titania is more powerful. To explain: If a being wanted to light a room he or she could use magic to form a ball of bright light and in doing so he (this is my Oberon model) has to expend the energy to keep it going, concentrate on its heat and brightness, distance from ceiling, from heads, and other logistical matters. Another might simply use her magic to flip the switch and let the light-bulb handle the rest- the Titania model. For simple things it doesn't tax the magical reserves of the being- but for more impressive things it adds up. For instance- should Oberon want to create a massive storm he has to do so by the sheer force of his will. Should Titania desire the same thing, she could fall back on her extensive scientific knowledge and simply play with a few wind patterns. The resulting storm is the same, but the energy expended to create it is much different. Titania has been studying science for quite some time, I tend to doubt Oberon is a model student. Am I right, even in part?

Slightly connected- You were asked who would succeed Oberon should he die and you answered Titania. Is this because she is the next most powerful, she has some lineage claim, or, would be the most likely to have bumped him off? [What are her thoughts of her once and again hubby?]

Just to add a comment- It seems to me Oberon is a big jerk, but one with potential. While he does go around trying to kill the gargoyles in Ill Met, once defeated he actually takes it quite well, and even comes up with the only graceful, even noble, solution to the mess. Likewise his punishment of the Banshee is quite poetic, and in some ways not extreme. Here and there there are hints to something worthwhile in him, (I particularly remember his insistence Titania have the right to come and go as she please). I get the impression that if he were only slightly less powerful and had to rely on his other attributes and not brute force he would be quite an amazing being and ruler. It also seems to me the only reason Titania might want to remarry him. She was clearly manipulating him, and it did not even seem much of a challenge, but if she were truly interested in how much he had matured, and how much more he might do so, it would explain a lot. Again, am I close to the truth?

Thanks

Laura aka 'ad astra' writes...

This is a litle long, but it is all on one topic-

You said Fox has Half Siblings, step siblings and Foster sibs, in fact that two of them are (where?) children of Oberon and Titania [very cool]. I see people have already jumped on the foster sibs part in reference to Midsummer. I am not sure if this has been explicitly mentioned in this way so here goes-

1.Did the events of the play (in a broad way) actually happen?

2.With or without the donkey part?

3. If so did that have anything to do with the straw that broke Oberon's back?

Reads more..
4. Are you saying that the child in Midsummer might have been Oberon's?!?!?

5.Are you implying that Titania took in many, or at least some of Oberon's illegitimate offspring as foster kids?

6 Oberon doesn't seem at all bent out of shape at the idea of Titania having had kids with someone other than himself, actually rather amused-
a. was that a rare case of Oberon being mature enough to realize he was living in a glass house?
b. was he amused because Titania had not been so happy with his other children?
c. or do Oberati have very low expectations of fidelity?

7. When asked about Titania and Oberon's son and daughter you said they were new but did not seem all too sure about it. Have we met them in some shape or form seemingly totally unconnected?

8.You also said they were mythic - were they related to their parents in legend, or is that only discovered in Gargoyle's universe?

Sorry this is so long

Adsobot writes...

Is Titania supposed to be the real power of the fae throne? Oberon's virtually a fool, and Titania's silver tongue and clever manipulations always make him do what she wants and everything ends with her succeeding. Is she really more powerful?

Todd Jensen writes...

My iron question, posted again because of the crash.

The obvious reason for why Oberon's Children are vulnerable to iron is: a) they need some sort of kryptonite to keep them from getting out of control, and b) it's an element that comes from legend. But did you ever work out an "internal rationale" for why cold iron has the effect on them that it does?

Caitlin writes...

Who are the Children of Mab (as opposed to the Children of Oberon)?

Faieq Ali writes...

What type of effects would smoking have on a fay?( I don't see Oberon or Puck as the type to smoke.)But what if another fay smoked?

Faieq Ali writes...

In the Gargoyles Universe is fate a person (a fay) or an element like time?

In M.I.A Goliath says to Griff "Fate is conspiring against us." and "Maybe fate can somehow be... aaah..."*pushes Griff away* "cheated."
"Time is a river correcting it's course." Is fate also an invisible element like time correcting peoples lives and stories? Or is it one of Oberon's children, a trickster maybe?