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RETORTS 2004-12 (December)

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Spacebabie writes...

Friday
Woke up at 6:Am. The phone that woke us sounded like an alarm. Revel answered the phone while I went back to sleep. We snoozed for a couple more hours/
We had breakfast the Lindy's in the lobby. Talk about over priced. Even the juice was expensive. After breakfast we went back to our room to grab our gathering gear. Revel went up to set up his art and I went to the lobby for registration.
After mingling with a few off the con goers for a few minutes reg was set up. I got my packet and placed on my badge. Like last year they were on lanyards. This year they were braided. On the back there was the banquet and on the front the other con smiley.
The first thing I participated in was the Care Bears call of Cthul RPG. After the game I went out for my pursuit of a NY pretzel and a soda. After scarfing it down I checked out the con suite, cuddled my man and went to the audition for the radio play. I got a kick out of the fact that Thom liked the way I spelled my first name.
After the audition I caught the tail end of the myths and legend panel. The discussion was on the topic of werewolves. Once it ended I introduced myself to Dylan Blaquire. I didn't expect him to be so adorable.
At opening ceremonies I took plenty of pics of Greg W and the gathering staff of 2003 and 2004 and took a random shot of the crowd. Answered Greg when asked for the third timers and still amazed at those who had made it too every single gathering. Sat back and watched the visual goodies that Greg brings every year.
Opening over I went to the Paris room to co run the Othercon Round Robin with Mooncat. My Revy came through with pizza and a soda. The RR was a hoot despite the fact we were creating our parts on the fly and were doing them orally.
The RR ended with enough time to take a quick break and meet in London for the Blue Mug-a-guest. I had an interesting question and my heart was pounding. Finally I asked it. Some people laughed. Greg W blinked and Thom dropped his jaw. The best part was the revelation that Lexington is gay and when Greg W topped his famous quote from G99. We stayed until 2 am and were kicked out. Revel and I stumbled back to our rooms to crash.
Saturday
Decided to go cheap with breakfast and had McDonalds. I tried my first Mcgriddle. Wolfed down our food in time to attend the panels. I went to the fanfic panel run by Ellen, Patrick, Dylan and Allaine. It went well and I managed to snap another picture.
Spent some time in the con suite sketching until it was Greg W's and Vic Cook's writing for animation panel. Greg told how he pitched Gargoyles and his spin offs before showing what he had been working on.
Goofed off some more in the art room, bought a calendar and registered for next year. I will make it. I MUST make it. Looked at Dreamie's fun sketches until it was time for the radio play.
I took a lot of pics, mostly of Revel. I might draw him as a winged catman later. The play was awesome, great reading by everyone. Loved Gabe's Lex and I will never get Thom's maniacal laugh out of my head and who could forget Claw?
When the play was over we filed out so we could prep for the banquet. I changed places with Leo so I could sit at the same table with Revel. I think my Tiger-eye necklace likes Greg W since Revel and I ended up at his table and I was wearing it when I won a spot to be at Greg W's table at the 2000 banquet. Food was good even if the rolls were a little chewy and the desserts were deeeeeelish.
I love dressing up for the masquerade and my Revy makes a cute Vinnie. It was hard to walk with the kneepads and the goggles kept fogging up (but it did look more like the white eye guards) Loved everyone's costumes. We usually have an Owen and a Fox. This year we had two Owens, one came with an interesting sign. Kanthara was a lovely Fox with Patrick (Who did it again) as Anastasia. We also had a lovely Gruoch, a recent college graduate, The Matrix with Agent Smith and a couple of gargoyles, one was on a leash.
M&Ms were given out a an award and Revel and I won the cutest couple prize. Gore gave Patrick the Gorelisa award and Siryn was given the guest of honor prize. Greg W gave the art ribbons out and I loved his expression when he gave ribbons to the BiZZ
After receiving my free shirt, a glow in the dark 2000, I returned to my room to get comfy and then returned to the ballroom to dance and mingle. By the time they set up for Rocky I was about to pass out…and that ended Saturday.

Greg responds...

Good times....

Response recorded on December 14, 2004

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Gargoyles DVD

Still, don't have my copy. I ordered it from Amazon with Return of the King, so I guess I'm on Hobbit time waiting to get both DVDs.

I went to Target near my house. They didn't have it. No indication that they ever had it.

So I'm still waiting.

In the meantime, for those of you who do have it, I'd love to see DVD reviews posted here at ASK GREG.

Again, it helps to have one centrally located spot where I can direct the Powers That Be at Disney. So all of you... review!


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Buffyverse Stats

BUFFYVERSE STATS

TOP 40 CHARACTER LIST:

Once again, I'm wasting my semi-valuable time (and hopefully yours) to bring you the latest update in my attempt to catalogue the most significant characters in the BUFFYVERSE. The three previous CUMULATIVE updates covered the first, second and third seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The idea behind a cumulative tally is to mimic the original experience of following the Buffyverse. It's a horse race. Some of the winners and losers are a bit surprising. Others are decidedly predictable.

The task has gotten more complicated with Buffy's fourth season, which airs simultaneously (day for day, literally) with the first season of Angel. Since a normal season of Buffy (the first excepted) consists of 22 episodes, the fourth of Buffy added to the first of Angel will total 44 episodes, and that seemed too long to wait for an update. So I'm taking the pulse at the halfway point, after 11 episodes of each series.

As you may recall, I've tried to inform this subjective task with an objective formula. I tried, as much as possible, not to allow my knowledge of future events to influence the current standings. Still, I won't deny that subjectives have played a role. It's hard not to take extra notice of a character you know is going to be important later. And ties were broken based entirely on subjective criteria - i.e. my personal preference.

I have a list of ALL the characters that have appeared in both series up to this point. It's so long (including everything from leads to ridiculously minor characters) that I haven't even bothered to count how many there are. But my list of MOST significant currently tops out at 86 characters.

But I think listing the top 40 is plenty. Or largely. I just want to note a few characters introduced (or revisited) in these two half-seasons, who haven't yet or never will make the top 40, but whom I believe are memorable enough to merit honorable mention.

Starting with…

#84 - Lee Mercer. Lee was a cold-blooded Wolfram & Heart attorney that I remember being sure would become a recurring danger. During this first half, W&H didn't focus on any one recurring villain. And I kept thinking any minute now… Any minute now… And I was right. But I picked the wrong horse.

#82 - Dennis. The Ghost haunting Cordelia's rent-controlled apartment. He was a good roommate, who obviously had a crush on her. He was sweet, and I worried about him after Cordelia was gone.

#81 - The Gentlemen. The lead Gentleman in particular. The best single episode menaces - EVER. Terrifying in look. Terrifying in M.O. Stylish. In one of the most impressive hours of television I've ever watched.

#75 - Aura. Aura appeared as an incredibly minor character in the Buffy pilot. And never again. But her name stuck with me and obviously with the Whedon team as well. Because in an early Angel, when they needed a high school pal from Cordelia's past to give her a call, they used Aura.

#74 - Tom. Tom was a vampire, part of a clique who preyed on Freshman at UC Sunnydale. The rest of his crowd was staked, but Tom was the first "Hostile" we saw captured by the Initiative. He later helped Spike escape, and we never saw poor Tom again.

#70 - Trevor Lockley. Police Detective Kate Lockley's jerk of a dad.

#67 - Lyndsey. The first W&H lawyer we met wound up being the most important. But halfway through the season, we still hadn't seen him after the pilot.

#65 - D'Hoffryn. Anya's former boss as a Vengeance Demon. He offers Willow a job after Oz leaves. (We should have seen her sixth season rampage coming.)

#64 - Tara. Willow's fellow witch makes her first appearance, and although she has very little screentime, and doesn't immediately appear again, she does seem interesting from moment one.

#61 - Sunday. Buffy's first college Vampire. #74's boss. Some nice attitude.

#57 - Olivia. Giles' incredibly hot girlfriend from London. She appears twice, including memorably in "Hush". At the end of that episode, she says she isn't sure she can take Giles' "lifestyle". And then she never appears again…

#53 & #54 - Oracles. Male and female representatives of the Powers That Be. They're not particularly interesting, so they'll die soon.

#47 - Kathy. Buffy's original Freshman roommate. A Celine fan. Brrrrrr.

#44 - Veruca. The werewolf that broke up Oz and Willow, and sent Oz running from Sunnydale.

AND NOW THE TOP 40

#40 - Graham. No previous rank. Riley Finn's second best friend. Laconic.

#39 - Scott Hope. 3rd Season Rank: 33. Buffy's one real normal boyfriend. He's still holding on to the top 40, but down 6 places, and not likely to still be around by the end of the year.

#38 - Deputy Mayor Finch. 3rd Season Rank: 32. Also down six places. Faith's murder victim.

#37 - Whistler. 3Season: 31. 2Season: 18. The Demon who set Angel on the right path. Kind of the guy I figured to take the Doyle role on Angel. But he's lost 6 rankings (19 since Season 2) and is falling fast.

#36 - Kendra. 3S: 30. 2S: 17. This whole crowd is dropping six rankings. Kendra the original auxilary Vampire Slayer deserves a bit better, I think.

#35 - Ethan Rayne. 3S: 29. 2S: 22. Giles former friend still looms larger in my memory than his ranking suggests. I keep thinking he's going to appear again, because I find it hard to believe he registered so well in so few appearances.

#34 - Devon. 3S: 28. 2S: 37. Oz's bandmate, has peeked.

#33 - Forrest. NPR. Riley's best buddie at the Initiative and the Fraternity.

#32 - Principal Flutie. 3S: 24. 2S: 16. 1S: 9. The original Principal of Sunnydale High is still hanging on.

#31 - Willy the Snitch. 3S: 21. 2S: 24. Looks like Willy has peeked also.

#30 - Larry. 3S: 25. 2S: 35. Hard not to peek when your dead. But I always liked Larry. A former bully, he became one of the White Hats and was killed by the Mayor. And he's still in the top 30.

#29 - Darla. 3S:23. 2S: 23. 1S:11. Hard not to slip when you're a vampire who's been staked. But Darla's poised for a comeback.

#28 - Percy. 3S: 26. I'm stunned Percy's holding on. He's not even vaguely interesting. But he keeps showing up.

#27 - Parker Abrams. NPR. The second guy that Buffy ever slept with. A real jerk. Makes me miss Scott Hope.

#26 - The Annointed One. 3S: 19. 2S: 14. 1S: 10. The Master's mini-me.

#25 - Mr. Trick. 3S: 18. Staked and falling. But his attitude is missed.

#24 - Amy. 3S: 27. 2S: 23. 1S: 17. Her continuing appearances as a Rat, are keeping her in the top 25.

#23 - Kate Lockley. NPR. Angel's cop friend seemed like a potential love interest, but has at the first season's halfway point, become something closer to an enemy.

#22 - Jonathan. 3S: 17. 2S: 19. Jonathan's falling, but his presence is missed, and he'll be staging a comeback.

#21 - The Master. 3S: 16. 2S: 13. 1S: 8. Buffy's first big bad appeared in a shortened first season, so has fallen out of the top twenty.

#20 - Harmony. 3S: 20. 2S: 26. 1S: 18. Harmony's emergence as a vampire was a stroke of comic genius, and has allowed her to hold onto her #20 ranking.

#19 - Maggie Walsh. NPR. The Ice Queen enters the rankings as a real comer.

#18 - Anya. 3S: 22. Halfway through the season, and Anya's admirably filling the Cordelia role, but she's still not a regular. Still she's moved up four rankings already.

#17 - Riley Finn. NPR. But the big news is Riley. Entering the rankings at 17. A new regular (hopscotching over Anya) before the Season's half over. He's Buffy's new boy. A soldier and a nice guy. Cornfed Iowa boy.

#16 - The Mayor. 3s: 14. 1S: 40. The Mayor's only lost a couple slots. Probably the best of the big bads - unless you count Angelus.

#15 - Wesley. 3S: 15. Wesley's midseason reappearance on Angel, allows him to hold onto his #15 ranking.

#14 - Jenny Calendar. 3S: 13. 2S: 11. 1S: 15. Still maintaining a good number.

#13 - Drusilla. 3s: 11. 2s: 8. Dru has fallen a couple ranks, but she's still up there.

#12 - Doyle. NPR. Okay, bigger news than Riley is Doyle. Although with his midseason death, he's got nowhere to go but down. But I loved this character. He was a blast. And his death really did catch me off guard. His ranking was really helped by Angel having such a small regular cast initially. It gave him a lot of screen time and story points.

#11 - Faith. 3s: 10. Faith only loses one rank (thanks to Spike).

#10 - Principal Snyder. 3S: 9. 2s: 10. 1s: 12. Snyder falls one rank, to equal his 2season score. But he's still in the top ten, which is pretty good for a dead guy.

#9 - Spike. 3s: 12. 2s: 9. Spike jumps (finally) past Dru, past Snyder, past Faith, as he becomes a regular. The start of something truly beautiful. (I'm choking up here.)

#8 - Joyce. 3s: 8. 2s: 7. 1s:7. Joyce has barely appeared this season, but she's got points to spare to keep her up in the high numbers.

#7 - Oz. 3s: 7. 2s: 12. Well, Oz'll be back, briefly, but he's clearly peeked. So it's all downhill from here. Still, I'm sure he'll remain in the top 40 forever.

#6 - Angel. 3s: 6 2s:6. 1s:6. This surprised me. Though Angel is climbing fast, even his own series hasn't been enough for him to catch up - yet - with Buffy's main Scoobies.

#5 - Willow. 3s: 4. 2S: 4. 1s: 4. But THIS just stunned me - and frankly makes me question my system entirely. Yes, Cordelia's position as Angel's Gal Friday on Angel gives her a ton of screen and story time. And she was close enough to Willow, to allow her to pass our young Wicca. But perception of course, suggests that Willow should be #3 or even #2 behind only Buffy. This may still end up to be the case. Figure by the end of the horse race, to see Buffy & Angel in the one/two slots, but I'd assume that Willow would pass Cordelia (once Angel gains more cast members) and maybe even Xander. (And certainly Giles).

#4 - Cordelia. 3s:5, 2S: 5. 1S: 5. See above. She's #2 in a tiny regular cast.

#3 - Xander. 3s: 3. 2s:3. 1s: 3. Xander hasn't quite found his place in Buffy's college life. But then neither has Giles. So both of them are cruising on old points.

#2 - Giles. 3s: 2. 2s:2. 1s: 2. Giles still hanging on to the #2 slot.

#1 - Buffy. 3s: 1; 2s: 1; 1s: 1. Duh.


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FireFoxFay writes...

I did read the faq and I would still like to know. What is the latest on the episode comming out on DVD? Thank you for your time.

Greg responds...

The DVD was released this week on December 7th, 2004. It is out; it is available and I BEG you all to spread the word!!

Response recorded on December 10, 2004

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Kassey writes...

Hi!
I really like you're style of writing for the show of Max Steel did you ever meet Christian Campbell? Does the letter 'S' stand for something? Because I think that it's cool the way you put those titles together so "those are my two questions"
you're biggest Max Steel fan Kassey Demers Chapleau Ont,Can
THANK YOU!!!

Greg responds...

Hey Kassey,

Don't know if you're still reading ASK GREG, but yes, I knew Christian quite well, though I haven't seen him in a couple years.

S stands for Steel.

Response recorded on December 10, 2004

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Todd Jensen writes...

When you recently answered one of my questions about "Pendragon", you said in the course of it:

<So elements, like the Illuminati, the Gargoyles and Macbeth would have definitely entered into stories of the Questing Beast and the Holy Grail, and vice versa, etc.>

I was interested in the "Questing Beast" part, because I hadn't seriously thought that the Questing Beast was going to show up in "Pendragon" - for one thing, it hadn't made the "Arthurian survivors" list - but now it appears that the Beast would still be around. Did I read what you said correctly? That the Questing Beast would feature in "Pendragon"? I'm glad to learn that, since I'd always had a certain fondness for the Questing Beast dating back from when I first read about it in T. H. White's "The Sword in the Stone".

Greg responds...

As I've said, given enough time and episodes, we'd eventually cover everything in one way or another -- so how could I leave out the Questing Beast?

Response recorded on December 10, 2004

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Spacebabie writes...

I guess Ask Greg is open again for our Gathering Journals. If that is the case then here is the first part of mine.

Thursday

Woke up at seven, ate showered and dressed in my naughty school girl outfit. I went online briefly to print out two more copies of my itinerary, one to keep, and another to leave with my family. Made sure the animals were secure with enough provisions.

My mother returned home from a REAL EARLY morning shift. She helped me with my luggage. (I packed the night before) and off we went to the airport. She dropped me off and helped me unload my bags before she gave me money to get my brother something nice.

Nothing really interesting happened at the airport nor during the flight. (I'm getting used to using E-tickets) Landed and followed the signs to luggage pick up. I was a bit surprised that La Gaurdia didn't have a tram, but it made it easier to find the luggage area.
Standing near the conveyer belts was my Revy aka William "Revel" Anson. Being the sweetie that he is he offered to carry my heavy carry on. We went to wait for the bus to grand Central Station where it dawned on me I was in New York, not just NY but in Queens where my father was born and raised.
At Grand Central I did the average tourist thing and took a picture the large clock. We switched to another bus that took us to the corner next to the hotel. We checked in, found our room and dropped off our luggage.
Our room was tiny. It had a long hallway with a small room. It had a bathroom with a phone booth sized shower. So small that if you bent down to pick up your shampoo you would bump your head. There was a tiny closet, a big bed, a dresser with a TV, two lamps, a night stand and small fridge where I stowed my snack pack that I took on the plane with me.
After I changed shirts decided to search around for other attendees. After stepping into the lobby I noticed three guys in trench coats and knew that they had to be with us. Turns out they where Hudson, Goliath 116 and Zaius. They did not know where everything was.
After scoping out Chris Roger's LARGE room Revel and I went to get sandwiches. We ate them along with a couple of sodas while watching TV. (Can't get away from Disney World Commercials).
After we ate we went to check out the lobby to find out if others had checked in to the hotel. I got little cuddly with Revel when we entered the elevators. There was man standing there wearing a tie dyed T-shirt.
"Not in front of the Norms," Revel said, but the norm turned out to be The Man himself Greg Weisman. He knew where the Con suite was. We rode with him down one floor and found the gang…aka the con staff. They were busting their butts over the last minute details but Lynati took a brief brake to show Greg W her beautiful bronze craft of the Phoenix Gate.
We decided on dinner of sushi. I just had a sandwich but that did nothing to quell my burning hunger, and who could resist sushi?
We were joined with Thom before we made our walk to the restaurant. The place is called Monster Sushi and they ha tables for us…we just had to separate. I sat in front of my Revy and stared into his beautiful blue eyes before we ordered. While waiting for the food we talked about our plane trips. Our food came and I received my Tigers eyes (Cooked salmon wrapped in seaweed and squid, served with radish noodles and sprouts) a rare treat for me and I eat a lot of sushi.
After dinner we returned to the suite and munched on cookies while watching Rocky Horror until we were about to drop. We crawled back to our room and crashed.

Greg responds...

Ah, yes, fond memories of sushi dinners in NYC...

So, the Gathering 2003 has officially begun here at ASK GREG. And before we hit 2005 in real time. That's progress of a sort.

Response recorded on December 10, 2004

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Zarok writes...

SANCTUARY

Ding Dong the queue is dead, well wounded anyway. I Know this is late but the asking function was closed down before I could post it and I've been awful busy lately. A well here it is.
I was interested to learn you had planned to use a Quasimodo character originally since Quasi is kind of a Gargoyle himself. I wonder if Quasi existed in the Gargoyle Universe, hey if you can have J.V.
I also was kind of disappointed you didn't give Demona's alter ego an angel themed name like Angelique like you planned in your memo. Would've made a great parallel with Angela and created another of those cool name parallels like Peter Maza and Petros Xanatos or Alexander Xanatos and Alexander
Speaking of thailog I have something to tell you that I think you'll like. When these episodes were first being aired on Disney Channel UK they seriously aired them out of order, skipping over most of the episodes between "City of Stone" and "Avolon" as well as a few pre-CoS episodes. They actually aired half the world tour before "Avolon" and even that before "Eye of The Beholder"! Luckily they sorted it out for the reruns but the point is that when I first saw "Sanctuary" I had not yet seen "Double Jeopardy" and it didn't hurt my enjoyment of this episode one bit. Sure there was some initial confusion over this Goliath look-alike (I thought at first that Thailog's "no way to treat a lady" line was Goliath's) but once the word clone popped up I immediately went "now I get it". More reason to believe that new viewers can get into "Gargoyles". In fact I think the World Tour was good at bring new viewers in, the episodes were much more stand alone

Greg responds...

That is good news. Thanks for telling me that.

We made a conscious decision not to use Angelique. Dominique just seemed more like the kind of name Demona would choose for herself.

Response recorded on December 09, 2004

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Zarok writes...

Gargoyles 2198

Greg I have a question regarding "Gargoyles 2198", actually it's more of a comment, to be brutally honest it's a criticism.
Every time I read through the G2198 outline I am fascinated by the little glimpse I get of the new characters, Delilah's insecurities, Zafiro's spirituality and Guardian's embracing the Gargoyle way of life.
They all show great potential as characters, with one dubious exception
Samson has a 150 word long profile all to him self but do we get any of the same Character insight? No, instead we are merely told that he looks like Goliath and then are treated to a lot of speculation as to who his parents were. Even Brooklyn's dog gets more characterisation than Samson! What is even more distressing the fact that this is supposed to be the show's lead.
I'm sorry if this sounds like a rant because it really isn't. I'm sure you have lots of interesting character stuff in mind for Samson but none of that came across in the outline. I really think a great character should defined by their choices, personality and beliefs rather than their lineage, even if their lineage is as illustrious as Samson's. Don't you agree?

Greg responds...

Totally. And it's very possible I got distracted by less important stuff in that document. Rest assured, Samson would be a strong lead character -- as strong and interesting and fascinating, etc. as I know how to make a character -- if I ever get the chance to do that series.

Response recorded on December 09, 2004

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Zarok writes...

Bringing Gargoyles Back

You know Greg, recently I've become far more optimistic about the prospect of bringing "Gargoyles" or one of the spin-offs back to the small screen. Don't know why, maybe it's because of the DVD release or maybe I'm just in an optimistic mood but I am willing to bet that we will have a new "Gargoyles" series on the air by the end of the decade. So I thought I'd follow this train of thought with some questions…

1) From your point of view does the promotion of David Stainton to the head of Disney's Animation Department increase or decrease our chances of getting "Gargoyles" or one of the spin-offs back on the air?
2) On 07-18-00 you said "I'm still in there trying to come up with ways to bring the show back in some, well, way, shape or form. In fact, I've got a new nefarious plan in the works now with Doug Murphy, a former GARGOYLES (and BAD GUYS) storyboard artist. Too soon to talk about now, but give me time". Did you have any success with this?
3) If you do bring the show back what do you think the chances are of getting back most of the old writing staff? (with the obvious exception of the late Gary Sperling)

Greg responds...

1. David's no longer running WDTVA, but in hindsight he had no effect.

2. No. The various artists and tech people we had involved, including Gorebash, just couldn't put enough unpaid time in (though they put a LOT of unpaid time in), to get the project off the ground. I've tried other things since with other groups of people, with no more success, I'm afraid. It's a lot of work to do on spec and juggle with paying assignments.

3. I don't know. I'd hope that Michael, Brynne, Lydia and Cary would be able to contribute. But in any case, I'm confident that we'd be able to assemble a stellar writing staff. I currently have a stellar staff on W.I.T.C.H. (that includes Cary).

Response recorded on December 08, 2004


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