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RIPOSTES 2006-11 (Nov)

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Todd Jensen writes...

Your use of the Batman analogy to explain Canmore's actions in "City of Stone Part Four" reminded me that I still hadn't commented on your Mr. Freeze episode ("The Big Chill") for "The Batman", even though I'd seen it a few months ago. Very remiss of me, so I thought that I'd give my thoughts on it here.

I'll start off by confessing that, since my previous knowledge of Mr. Freeze came entirely from his portrayal in "Batman: TAS", I had a little trouble accepting the new version of him in "The Batman". In "Batman: TAS", Mr. Freeze was a very poignant figure on account of his wife Nora; the Mr. Freeze of "The Batman", on the other hand, was a simple super-powered jewel thief with almost no complexity or depth to him. For an analogy, it'd be as if somebody else were to do a remake of "Gargoyles" and portray Demona as a simple Hyena-style psychopath without any mention of the thousand years of human persecution that she'd undergone or her suppressed guilt over the Wyvern Massacre. Of course, I suspect that it was the higher-ups who'd decided how the series would portray Mr. Freeze, and you weren't given much say in the matter.

The bit that I liked, on the other hand (and which does counter the characterization of Mr. Freeze) was the impact that the discovery of Freeze's origins had on Batman, making him wonder if he was making things worse for Gotham if his actions had led to the upgrading of a regular jewel-thief into a super-powered jewel thief. The especial highlight of it was his nightmare about the murder of his parents where Mr. Freeze became their murderer.

(I still feel a little spooked by how much Detective Yin physically resembles Elisa. I'd certainly like to ask the people in charge of character design on "The Batman" about it, and whether it was a deliberate hommage to "Gargoyles" or just a strange coincidence.)

Greg responds...

I'm guessing the Elisa resemblence is a coincidence. I've met most of the designers on that show (none of whom worked on Gargoyles) and none of them gave me the wink, wink, nudge, nudge about Yin. (I suppose it's possible that they were subconsciously influenced, but even that may be unlikely.)

As to Freeze, I'll grant that the BTAS version has more depth, but our marching orders was to keep the depth charge on Bruce/Batman himself. When you've only got 22 minutes, it's tough to go deep, deep, deep on the villains without turning the hero into a cypher. By making Freeze more of a monster, it gave us room to do the bit you liked, which was to show how Freeze influenced and effected Bruce/Bats.

Response recorded on November 07, 2006

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Egon Pax writes...

What college did Xanatos go to and/or what kind of work did he do immediately after college?
Did he use up the entire twenty grand he recieved from that coin all on college expenses or did save some of that money to set himself up in the business world?

Greg responds...

I'm not answering these questions at this time.

Response recorded on November 07, 2006

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Angie writes...

How does it feel working on both "Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go! and Teen Titans? Anything you can relate to on both shows?

Greg responds...

Never worked on the t.v. series "Teen Titans". Ages and ages ago, I was an assistant editor on some of the Teen Titans titles (under Marv Wolfman and Mike Gold) at DC Comics.

As for SRMTHfG!, I wrote two episodes as a freelancer. But I wasn't really on the inside there. Don't have much to relate, other than praise for my bosses on that project, Kevin Hopps and Henry Gilroy, both of whom were booted between Season One and Season Two. (Might explain why I wrote no episodes for Season Two, huh?)

Response recorded on November 07, 2006

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renee writes...

what is the whole concept behind racism in the drama of orthelo

Greg responds...

Read OTHELLO and find out.

Response recorded on November 07, 2006

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Justin Cole writes...

How soon can we expect seasons 2 and 3 to come out on DVD?

Greg responds...

Season Two Volume One is out and available now. Volume Two is not scheduled. Season Three (i.e. the Goliath Chronicles) isn't even a glimmer in anyone's eyes at the moment.

Of course, this question has been answered MANY times before.

Response recorded on November 07, 2006

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Todd Jensen writes...

This is more a comment than a question, but I found myself remembering something. You mentioned having worked on the development of the original version of "Bonkers", the one where he was teamed up with Miranda Wright. One of the episodes from that version of "Bonkers", I recall (my memories are a little over ten years old, and a bit rusty), had Bonkers and Miranda after a band of gangsters who were after a long-gone gangster's treasure, the clue to which was on "page 23" (I think that it was 23, though I could be wrong) of a book, but they didn't know which book. So they were stealing Page 23 from every book that they could find - and when they found the correct page, it led to what was at first sight a poetry book - and in the same episode, Bonkers had taken up poetry (even composing a poem that was a take-off on Lord Byron's "She walks in beauty like the night") and viewed the poetry book as real treasure.

It struck me that, although it might have been only a coincidence, the episode feels almost like a foreshadowing of both "A Lighthouse in the Sea of Time" (both episodes had a strong pro-literacy message and the beauties of the written word proving to be the "real treasure") and "The Silver Falcon" (the antagonists searching for the treasure of a long-gone gangster). I just thought that I'd bring it up here.

Greg responds...

I'd forgotten about that Bonkers episode. I should say that after the (Miranda version of the) series was developed, I wasn't all that involved with the day-to-day of the script writing, with a few notable exceptions (the Gloomy the Clown Banana Cream Pie bit, of course). And of course, once the new (Piquel) version of the series was developed, I had nothing to do with the show.

As I've stated before, the Miranda version of Bonkers was a definite influence on Gargoyles. Though I can't say that this particular episode was. But maybe...

Response recorded on November 07, 2006

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Jonny D writes...

Greg,

If you are ever able to bring Gargoyles back to television, do you think you would still pitch it as a show appropriate for children as young as seven? Or would you try to get it on the air as an animated program geared toward a more mature audience? Having read your ramble on Future Tense, I was amazed to learn that today's S&P wouldn't even allow you to discuss things like the explicit deaths in that episode, let alone show them. Given all that, do you think it would even be feasible to keep Gargoyles targetted at the younger demographic while preserving the show's depth?

-Jon

Greg responds...

Your question is loaded with so many hypotheticals, that it's unanswerable. And, yet, ironically, I've answered it before. Check the archives for a more complete non-answer.

Response recorded on November 07, 2006

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Hannah writes...

Hi. I read that you are going to send these to Disney Executives and that they may or may not release a Season 2 of the Gargoyles. So, I just have to say that you absolutely must release a second season of Gargoyles on DVD. Not just for the little kids who like to stay up and watch it just because they saw it on TV and decided they liked it; but for those of us who grew up on it, that were introduced to it by older siblings or cousins or whatever, those who may or may not still be with us today. We grew up on it. I was about six I think when it first came came out, and watched it with my older sister who read the comics. My friend and I have lived withit most of our lives, before we can remember. We were once the little kids that stayed up passed their bedtime, just to watch it. As Highschoolers, we don't get the time to stay up and watch it. So when we heard it was coming up on DVD, we were ecstatic. It was a part of our childhood and with the dvd's we get a glimpse back to it. It would do you more harm than good to not put the others out. Do you remeber in the first season when the dude who kept on getting robbed and never closed down? And when Goliath asked why, Alisa told him it was because that store was the only food store in the community, that the people needed him to survive and Goliath decided then that he would protect the people of Manhattan. That's kind of how it is here. Not only would you make a profit off of the DVD's (instead of being robbed), but the people would be happy and grateful, whether the gratitude would be silent or not you would still be appreciated. So I am asking you people who work at Disney- Please don't discontinue any of the production. It would only break our hearts.

Greg responds...

See, Disney, see!

Response recorded on November 07, 2006

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Megan writes...

Just wanted to express my love of gargoyles and my new favouite christmas gift, The first Season of Gargoyles on DVD. I have already watched the season numerous times and shown many of my close friends this wonderful show. I really cant wait for the second season to come out, with many of my favourite episodes in it, so i can show all my friends that as well

Greg responds...

Thanks.

Response recorded on November 06, 2006

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matt writes...

"Future Tense" Ramble

first things first, i gotta comment on the animation in this one. this is definitly one of those episodes where everything from the characters to the backdrops were just gorgeously drawn. truely a work of art.

now the "Previously..." segment really added to what i felt was Goliath and Co getting home. when the Gathering was first mentioned by Banshee and then later by Oberon himself, i had a strong feeling they would be getting home when this Gathering happened. with "Ill Met by Moonlight" finished i was convinced that they would get home in the next episode. so when the "Previously..." segment was airing i remember thinking, this is it... and even during the first scene Goliath's comments made assured me that this was it, they are coming home... it wasn't til i saw Puck's Statue of Liberty that i knew something was up. and by the time i saw the Eyrie Pyramid covering New York and Matt and Claw show up i was pretty sure this wasn't real. i could not believe that the writers would make this kind of massive change in the series and make it permenant. so naturally i thought this must be an alternate future or that sorta thing. looking back i should have known that the "time is like a river" speech forebid this kind of history. but i do remember thinking, "that bolt of lightening wasn't normal, something is going on. this isn't real, but i'm not sure what it is..." so i let the story play out, was quite a mystery in my mind.

BAM! the first big shock for me... Hudson is dead. its one thing to make the world in shambles, but to lose a main character. part of me was saying "NOOO!" and part of me was saying "theres no way this is true, no way they'd kill off a main character..." but the mystery lingered, what the hell is going on?
and, for the record, i remember thinking, is that Hudson's actual body? did they encase him in bronze? it wasn't til i found "Ask Greg" that i knew it was supposed to be a memorial only. call me silly, but i simply didn't know that much about gargoyle death at that point. *shrugs*

when Brooklyn appeared, now clad in armor, i thought he finally was acting very much in his leadership role, but something about his speech to Goliath (post-punch) was very familiar. it didn't hit me til recently that its very reminiscient of Una's speech to Goliath in "MIA". where have you been all these years? why did you vanish? both so angry that they had been left on their own with no answers. thats a tough feeling.
and Puck nailed Brook's sarcasm wonderfully "oh, that makes everything much better"...

i love Goliath's line to Demona, "hiding is never a solution". its interesting because you gotta think of how much he lives in hiding, and how much his life will be shaken when he is exposed to the world in "Hunters Moon".

boy does Broadway pull the heartstrings in this one... his death still gives me chills. and its not just Goliath's grief that is so hard to watch. Puck certaintly puts some anguish in Brook's face.

and Lex, that bastard. i mean, his treachery goes way past Demona's. i think that outside the grief of losing nearly all his loved ones, Lex's backstabbing has to be the worst thing for Goliath to take. another Clan member destroying us all, and once again blaming it on me, is it me? do i bring nothing but death and suffering to my Clan? doubt is a powerful weapon that Puck uses.

doubt, grief, pain, helplessness... i think Puck was going a little too far trying to get the Gate. wasn't there any other way to get Goliath to hand it over?
well, regardless, Goliath once again withholds a talisman for one of Oberon's Children, but this time he probably does the right thing. and we see the final one of the "big three" talismans thrown (literally in this case) outside of the reach of our characters (or so we think).

and one of the most interesting things to discuss with other garg fans is Puck's "dream or a prophecy" line. nothing like a good prophecy to shake things up. obviously, we know know its not a dead on prophecy, but only a few episodes later we start scratching our heads. the Clocktower is destroyed. what else in Puck's illusion will come true we wonder... will there one day be an Ultra-Pack? sounds like it. will Demona rejoin our heroes? looks that way. will Lexington turn out to be evil? well, maybe in the minds of the religious fundamentalists and ultra-conservatives... ; )

one thing i remember clearly saying to a friend of mine at school the day after i first saw this episode was, "i'll bet you anything that they get home in the next episode!"
turns out, i won that bet.

Greg responds...

What made you think we were EVER bringing them home?

Just kidding.

The basic plan for "Future Tense" was of course to just keep Goliath and the audience so off-balance and over-wrought that there wouldn't be time to consider what was behind it. To make a story powerful even though at the back of everyone's minds they had to know that it couldn't be true.

And yet, I take some pride in thinking that if we didn't -- in the first place -- have a series where CHANGE happens (where Fox leaves the Pack and marries Xanatos and gets pregnant... where the clan is banished from their own home atop the castle.... where Derek becomes Talon and doesn't get changed back...), then I don't think you would have been able to buy into this episode as much as you did. Somewhere in the back of your mind, didn't you have this little fear, this little "They wouldn't dare..." insecurity?

"Would they?"

Response recorded on November 06, 2006


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