Vaevictis Asmadi writes...

Hello Greg,

I have a question about language and translations.
Concerning the language "issue" in the Avalon World Tour, and the fact that everybody encountered by the travellers seems to speak English, you once wrote,
<<"Avalon compensates when it sends people to where they need to be...">>

From your response to my "Reunion" review, long ago, it appears this is still the case in canon-in-training. But is this also why Angela can apparently speak English? She seems to speak English in Manhattan. At least, she and Elisa understand one another. It also seems that something was happening when Tom came to New York, and spoke to Morgan and Elisa. Likewise, King Arthur is able to speak to Griff and the Manhattan Clan. And the Avalon clan and their human parents had no trouble talking to Elisa. King Arthur, Tom, the Magus, and Katherine all went to Avalon before the Norman Invasion of England, so they cannot possibly have learned anything resembling modern English before they went there.

1. What is the reason that Angela, Tom, and King Arthur can communicate with modern English speakers?

2a. Do they notice they (or the people they are talking to) are speaking a different language?
b. Did Elisa, Goliath, and Angela notice the language changes during the World Tour?

3. Yes or no: Is this effect(s) on Angela and/or King Arthur permanent?

OTHELLO writes...

In the "City of Stone" Part 1. How does Demona restrain Owen into a chair when shes speaking the "Stone By Night" spell?

dph writes...

Is the way that a member of 3rd race uses magic versus the way that a normal human uses magic akin to the way a chess prodigy plays chess versus the way a learned man plays chess?

Katie writes...

I just watched a rerun of "Mark of the Panther" and it made me wonder about the exact interactions between lycanthropes and gargoyles in the gargoyles universe. I'll just limit it to a few questions, though.

1. Is Demona techinically a were-goyle/were-human? And is it possible for her to pass this condition on either through natural heredity or exchange of blood?

2. Can gargoyles become lycanthropes? If so, what gargoyle features would they retain, if any, when in wereform?

3. Is it possible to clone a lycanthrope and have the copy retain the original's 'abilities'?

Thanks a ton for taking the time to read this! I really appreciate it!

DarkFae writes...

Since Demona turns into a human by day, courtesy of Puck in "The Mirror" (awesome episode), would she still lay eggs like a normal gargoyle or have liveborn offspring? Would it depend on her form at the time? What she mated with?

Kristin writes...

Gargoyles when always turn to stone to 'sleep' but Why? and what sort of effect does the removal of such sleep (such as Puck's 'human form spell on Demona) do to their bodies? Demona turned into a Gargoyle when the sun went down, but does it mean she has a human or a Gargoyle sleep cycle, or does the change 'restore' her body as if she slept?

Jack-Pumpkinhead writes...

Dear Greg, I am curious, what are Thailog's opinions on magic?

Vaevictis Asmadi writes...

Here's more scattered, random reactions to the comics, in lieu of actual reviews. So because I already posted a lot about it in the comment room, and I'm lazy, I'm skipping a review of 3-5 for now and going on to review the latest issues that I bought. Starting with #6, others coming later. How many times can I post in a row without being rude?

SPOILERS (if you haven't got #6 yet)
The art in this issue mostly looks really good, once I got used to the pencils, but Lexington and Brooklyn and some of the early frames of Angela looked wrong.

I noticed that the pictures of Gabriel and Iago were copied directly from specific shots in the animated series. That's interesting, they were immediately recognizable and I thought it was cool, it indicates that the artists are getting a hold of the episodes and paying attention to the art in them. I do wonder if they are supplied with the character model sheets, though.

I'm surprised that you changed the Avalon situation so that the magic does not translate. It is definitely cool to see the language issue addressed, but I thought that the magic translateion was more probable than that every single person they met on the other Tour stops spoke English, and well. Now I wonder how Angela, Tom, and King Arthur are able to communicate with English-speakers.

Lots of new mysteries. How do the Illuminati know about that World Tour stop? And what "seeds" were "sown" at that time? No doubt Xanatos is up to something...

Landing in a giant cooking/laundry pot is definitely a new way to travel.

Shari feeding Thailog grapes while he's dressed like a Roman emperor is... intereting. She should be careful about taunting him, though.

I'm a bit disappointed that we didn't see real yetis, but since All Things Are True, they are probably out there somewhere.

I enjoyed all the issues I've read so far and although this wasn't quite as fun as some of the others, it was still good.
SPOILERS (if you haven't got #6 yet)

Chelle writes...

I scoured the appropriate archives and couldn't find the answer, so here goes nothing: feel free to snark me if you already answered it, and I'll go a-hunting some more.

So Oberon's Law works both as an actual restriction on ability (as in it can't be broken) but also as a rule (as in it can be bent), but I'm curious as to how halflings like Alex and Fox might be affected by Oberon's Laws. How tightly are halflings expected to adhere to Oberon's edicts and does it change depending on whether Oberon knows they exist?

Oberon seems to make some distinction depending on situation, as in the line: "As I see it, Fox has turned out to be regrettably human, and so we cannot interfere in her life. But the boy is of our blood..." He stands as the interpreter of his own laws, but now that Fox has proven that she is less "regrettably human" than he originally thought, does this change what laws Fox might have to obey? The non-interference rule is tricky for full blood children, and I can only imagine the loopholes are even easier to find when you're half mortal, but would there still be some applicable scenarios for Fox and Alex where this rule that can't be broken might apply? Like perhaps with the Phoenix gate-- would Alex be able to take the gate, or would someone have to give it to him? I'm especially curious about Alex, seeing as Oberon considers him "of our blood" and that Alex will be trained to use his powers.

I am likewise curious about Merlin. In order to guide the boy Arthur to become King Arthur, did Merlin have to "bend" the rules at all? Or did the No Interference rule not apply to him? What about the halfling New Olympians?

I wonder perhaps if there is some natural loophole in not knowing the law exists or not knowing the law applies to you. Or in Oberon not knowing you exist or that the law applies to you. With neither Fox nor Oberon knowing Fox was a halfling, that in itself might have been enough of a loophole for her. Now that they both know, I suppose it's all up for interpretation: whether or not Fox thinks the rule applies to her and (probably more importantly) whether or not Oberon think the rule applies to her. Ditto for Alex, and I can see how the "rules" that might not apply to Fox might still apply to him.

I imagine this is a matter of degrees and semantics. But maybe not, so I thought I'd ask.

dph writes...

In "Possession", Puck said soul transference required voluntary cooperation to work. I have questions about what constitutes 'voluntary' cooperation for enabling soul transferance to work:

1)In the case of a man having a gun to his head and told if he doesn't cooperate with soul transference, he would die, would the soul transference work?

2)In the case of a man seeing his family/people that he care about on a tv with a gun pointed to head(s) and told if he doesn't cooperate with soul transference, one person/people will die, would the soul transference work?

3)In the case of man who believes that either he or somebody who cares about will die without actual proof if he doesn't cooperate, would the soul transference work?

Thank you for taking the time to respond to this question.

Matthew writes...

We know that there is faerie magic and mortal magic. Mortal magic seems mostly to be used by humans. Is it less common for gargoyles to study magic than humans? If so why?

Chip writes...

Not so much a question, but an answer. Some time ago someone wondered why the Emir bothered to translate the Ancient Egyptian Papyrus of Thoth into English (or Arabic, since Avalon seemed to be translating everything for them) instead of reading it in Egyptian.

The Egyptian language has not been spoken aloud in 1,500 years. The Egyptians did not have Heiroglyphs for vowels so no one knows how the words were really pronounced. Cat and Cut, Ham and Home. They'd all be spelled the same in Egyptian and context was the only way to tell them apart.

If he hadn't translated it, the spell could have gone terribly wrong. Ironically it did anyway. Jackal-Anubis anyone?

Anyway that's my two cents, hope it helps.

-Chip

simon jardine writes...

If a gargoyle saw and herd the spell in City of Stone whould he stay stone at all times.

simon jardine writes...

If Latin and Hebrew are magical becose of thare age and that the spells where originaly righten in them, why dosn't the Emir in "Grief" read the Egyptian spells in Coptic (the Ancient Egyptian language).

Bazell writes...

Is there any special requirement for the learning of magic (besides the obvious time, preparation and practice)? That is, is everyone capable of performing sorcery if they learn how?

Meg writes...

I know you've said that Demona cast a spell on the Manhattan Clan right before they woke up in the 20th century that allowed them to understand modern English. My question is, how does Angela understand modern English? I would assume that she grew up speaking Old English, as she was raised by Tom/the Magus/Katharine.

Tha Ghost writes...

continuity questions:

im foggy on the episode titles because ive just watched both DVD releases but ive noticed in some episodes when the Gargoyles turn to stone any object they are holding turns to stone as well eg. Demonas gun, Hudsons sword however when Hudson turns to stone holding Merlins scrolls they remain unchanged is this a simple continuity error or was there a greater plan?

also Sevarius says that the way the Gargoyles have enough energy to fly is by storing solar energy in their stone form however Demona can fly after Puck changes her so she can be human by day, continuity error or greater design?

Ryan writes...

In response to a question Todd Jensen asked in July of 2003 that you responded to December 14 of 2004, about the spell of the Magus being broken when the castle rose above the clouds... it seemed to me that the only way this would make sense is if it WAS in fact necessary for the gargoyles to be in the castle when it was above the clouds for the spell to break. Maybe the terms of the spell were something to this effect, implying that the gargoyles home had to rise above the clouds? and in order for it to be considered their home they've got to be there? I mean, otherwise, seems pretty arbitrary just to include a clause about some random castle in the Grimmorum.
If the spell would be broken when the castle rose above the clouds no matter where the gargoyles were in relation to it, this creates a number of problems. a) assuming that Xanatos did not somehow magically assemble the entire Caslte Wyvern atop the world's tallest building in a single afternoon, wouldn't they have woken up at some point during the construction? b) if you're going to say, "well no, the entire castle had to be assembled for the spell to be broken"... I say to that.. what constitutes the "entire" castle? It also seems entirely implausible that they would be able to assemble the whole thing exactly brick for brick... probably some got worn away, stolen or whatever over 1000 years or so. and the caslte isn't a perfect replica anyway unless of course Prince Malcolm installed the elevators and the secret motorized compartments for storing laser guns back in 994 AD.

At any rate, it only really makes sense if somehow there was in fact some truth to Xanatos' lie, and that the gargoyles DID in fact need to be sitting on top of Castle Wyvern for the spell to break. Maybe after being frozen for so long they're considered part of the arhitecture.

Ra writes...

I was wondering, I have been looking around for my answer, and I couldn't find but ONE part of it.
I'm simply wondering if you could post the magic spells that are spoken in Latin here. I'd love to see them. Like when Magus turns the clan into stone, or the spell to part the mists into the Isle of Avalon etc. The only one I could find in this page was the spell to make the Phoenix Gate work.

"Deflagrate muri tempi et intervalia!" Which means, "Burn down the walls of time and space!"

Thank you for your time.

matt writes...

about the Humility Spell the Roman Magus cast on the Gargoyles species...

1. were any gargoyles aware that this spell was being cast? did any gargoyles object to it?

2. would this spell been possible without The Phoenix Gate, Eye of Odin and Grimorum?

3. is this spell common knowledge to gargoyles today? for instance, if Elisa asked Goliath why his clothes, etc turn to stone with him at dawn, would he know the reason?

4. does the spell cover gargoyle beasts as well?

thanks Greg!