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FanForLife writes...

I was wondering, when exactly did Goliath actually admit to himself consciously that he was in love with Elisa? Actually said to himself, "I love her?" Was it at a specific moment in the series, and if so what scene/episode? Thanks!

Greg responds...

That's a darn good question. I'm sure he hadn't figured it out by "Sentinel". It might, in fact, have been in "Hunter's Moon, Part III" after she returned from the dead. Maybe right after the Praying Gargoyle was smashed. Or maybe after he returned to the castle. It wouldn't surprise me if it was as late as that.

I'd be eager to hear what all of you think on this question.

In any case, he certainly knew by "The Journey".

Response recorded on August 22, 2003

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wizebeaz writes...

Hey Greg I just want to say you did a great job on the Gargoyles. Ok now for a couple of questions.
You know on 'hunter's moon 2' after Jason kissed Elisa, then Elisa went to the clock tower. Well, was she going to go visit the gargoyles, namely Goliath? And if she was would she tell him who she felt about him if she was?

Greg responds...

I do think she would have come to see them, to talk about the crisis in general. I don't know that they would have discussed the kiss. I don't know what she would have revealed about her own feelings. But I tend to think -- very little. It's just not her -- guarded, pretend to be invulnerable -- way.

Anyhow, it's moot.

Response recorded on May 21, 2003

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matt writes...

in 2001 (or probably 2002 when you answer this :) ) is Elisa still a NY Cop? has she been promoted or still doing her detective work?

Greg responds...

How about in 2003?

Yes, I'd imagine she's still a cop. Hopefully, by now she's been promoted a grade or two. But I don't have a context to say how high.

Response recorded on May 15, 2003

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Aaron writes...

I forget who asked this: "10. Does Dracon dream about Elisa and him being together?"

Greg replies: "10. Probably." By dream, would that be in the context of fantasizing about Elisa, (Poor Tony's never met Demona, has he?) or does Tony genuinely have some really strange dreams?

http://www.inktank.com

Greg responds...

Maybe both.

Response recorded on May 06, 2003

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A. Goodman writes...

Before I get to the questions, I'd just like to say how much I enjoyed the show and how amazed I am to find that I'm not alone in wishing to see a return to that universe. Having said this...on with the questions!
First, is it possible to obtain recordings of some of the episodes, particularly "The Mirror"? On the subject of "The Mirror" I must say that I was somewhat disapointed that subplot (the sparks of romance) between Goliath and Elisa never reached the level of developement I was expecting (or did it?). I honestly thought Elisa made a very good gargoyle, and I always wondered if that might also have been addressed in some way. Thank you once again for everything!

Greg responds...

1. The first season was released on video, though you'd probably have to haunt e-bay to find copies of those tapes. Otherwise, the only thing I can recommend at this point is to record the eps off Toon Disney.

2. Well, I think the subplot was advanced in episodes like "Sentinel" and "Hunter's Moon", among others. As for Elisa being a gargoyle, that was always temporary in my mind.

Response recorded on April 08, 2003

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Vashkoda writes...

The grant of immunity to Oberon's magic is a great gift to Goliath and his clan (even if it *is* subject to Oberon's interpretation).

1) You've explained that Elisa still fell prey to Oberon's sleep spell because he didn't consider her part of the clan. a) Why is this? Did Oberon not recognize how close Goliath and Elisa were back on Avalon? Did he automatically dismiss the idea that a human could be adopted into a gargoyle "clan"? b) Just a comment here, but I think it would have been a nice touch if Elisa *had* been granted immunity from the sleep spell, kind of as a way to symbolize her relationship to the clan. c) At some future point, do you see Oberon extending this immunity to Elisa as well?

2a) Do you have any specific ideas for future moments when the clan will once again get to take advantage of their immunity from Oberon's magic? b) When you introduced Oberon's gift to Goliath in "Ill Met by Moonlight", were you already thinking ahead to "The Gathering", realizing that that the clan would need this immunity? Or was it simply something you figured you might make use of eventually in a future story?

Greg responds...

1a. Largely, I don't think he's that observant. Gargoyle clans. He's thinking gargoyles. No doubt, Elisa was regarded as an ally, but I don't think it occured to him to actually consider her to be part of the clan.

b. Well, it's nice and symbolic, but I just think the spell has to come from Oberon's PoV, and it seems out of character to me for him to include her. This isn't something I missed. This is something I considered and made a conscious decision about.

c. I doubt it.

2a. Not specifically at this moment.

b. Yes and yes.

Response recorded on April 03, 2003

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FanForLife writes...

Hi Greg. Just wondering--was the part in the Journey where Goliath went to see Elisa the first time the two talked or saw each other since the kiss at the end of Hunter's Moon 3? If not, when did they first see or talk to each other after the kiss? Thanks!

Greg responds...

Elisa and Goliath kiss on the morning of October 27, 1996.

Goliath goes to see Elisa just after Midnight on October 29, 1996.

I find it hard to believe that they didn't see each other at all on the 27th or 28th. But it's very possible that they had no time alone to discuss what had happened.

Response recorded on February 14, 2003

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Corrie "Cormak" McDermott writes...

Hi Greg,
I have some questions about Goliath and Elisa.

1. You've said that Goliath started falling in love with Elisa pretty early on. And that he fell in love with her before he even understood how attractive she was physically. By Elisa's reactions in various episodes it seemed that she knew he was falling for her and she tried to deny the truth for a while. Not only his feelings but hers as well. Obviously by what happened in Hunter's Moon I , II and III she realized that she was in love with him and she let him know. Did she fall in love him because of the way he has protected her and his personality?

1a. Did she find him attractive physically?

1b. or both?

2. I've read your comments that Elisa and Goliath would realize that their relationship before it really started was impossible and they would date members of their own species, possibly at a Halloween party. Would this party have been the first time they dated since the breakup?

2a. Also would it be at this party that they would both realize that they still loved each other?

2b. or would that have been later on down the road?

3. Does Elisa know that Goliath was watching her and Jason in her apartment? (Hunter's Moon Part II)

3a. If not, would Goliath ever tell her?

Greg responds...

1. Well, I think Elisa probably thinks he's good looking too, but yes, it's who he is inside that really attracts her. In my opinion, anyway.

1a. I think so.

1b. Both, yeah. I gotta start reading ahead.

2. I think so. But it's not a party so much as a night out. At least in my mind.

2a. Yes.

2b. I don't think they ever stopped loving each other, but they tried to let logic and reason dictate their feelings. By the end of this Halloween adventure, they'd realize that it was pointless to supress their feelings. Certainly unfair to their dates.

3. Not sure. Don't think so.

3a. It seems unnecessary now.

Response recorded on January 30, 2003

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Chapter XLII: "Sanctuary"

Time to ramble...

This episode was directed by Dennis Woodyard, written and story edited by Cary Bates.

The one word title, as usual, was one of mine. I thought initially that we'd be even more focused on the Cathedral. That we might play a Quasimodo character. Heck, if Disney's "Hunchback" movie was going to have living gargoyles bouncing around, then I could have a Quasimodo swinging from the bell-ropes.

But the story, thank goodness, rightly evolved into a family drama with Goliath, Elisa, Angela, Demona, Macbeth and Thailog (and Bronx) providing us with one very ODD family. Quasimodo went away in favor of Thailog.

And we had to work a bit to make sure the thematic idea of the heart as a Sanctuary worked its way into the picture. Thank God for that French minister, eh?

During the "Previously..." recap the following exchange was heard between my eight year old daughter Erin and my five year old son Ben, after Angela learns (in that scene from "Monsters") that Goliath is her biological father:

Benny: He IS her father. He laid the egg.
Erin: Girls lay eggs.
Benny: His wife laid the egg.

ROMANCE

Enter, for the third time or the first (or, depending on your point of view, maybe this one doesn't count either), Ms. Dominique Destine. She tells Mac, "We have all the time in the world..."

This for me (and I know for Bond expert Cary) was a very memorable line from "On Her Majesty's Secret Service." And always a good sign that a relationship is going to come to a bad end.

Elisa tips her hand, which she can do cuz no one is awake, about how she really feels about Goliath here. "The most romantic city in the world and Goliath isn't awake to share it with me." (Or something like that, all quotations are approximate.) That's what she'd like to do, I'd wager. Soar over Paris with G. the way they soared over Manhattan in "Awakenings". Now had he been awake, do you think she would have made that request? Or would she in fact be distancing herself from him simply BECAUSE she had that impulse?

After her adventure on the Loch, it's nice to see Margot on a pleasant little stroll through Paris.

THE GARGOYLE WAY

Why is Goliath so resistant to parenting Angela? After all, though they're really more like younger brothers, he does his fair share of parenting the Trio.

He falls back on "The Gargoyle Way", but that's certainly inadequate, as Diane Maza will later point out. Yes, he's only one of her rookery fathers, but he's (a) the only one there and (b) the only one left alive except for the two souls trapped inside the AWOL Coldstone.

Ultimately, I think the answer is that Angela's sudden obssession with her "BIOLOGICAL" parentage makes him nervous because of the obvious extrapolation to what comes next. If she's obssessed with me as Daddy, then what happens when she learns who Mommy is?

And that's the key. He's divorced Demona. His wife who laid the egg. It took centuries and months, but after "Vows" he moved on. Now he sees Demona as a nemesis. A painful one to be sure, but a nemesis none the less. He's afraid of what the knowledge will do to Angela. He's afraid of what Demona will do with Angela, should Angela share that knowledge. And is he perhaps afraid of what -- under Demona's influence -- Angela might become?

THE CATHEDRAL

There's some nice animation in this episode -- but none of it is at Notre Dame. That sequence put us through fits in retakes and editing. Ugghh. It's still painful to look at.

But there's some nice stuff going on...

Demona says: "In here my love." to Goliath before she realizes its not Thailog. What did you all think of that line? At this point we had only seen one silhouetted monster from a distance. And since you knew Demona was in town, we intentionally tried to lead you to belive that she was the Monster at Notre Dame. Were you expecting Thailog? Or did you think that Demona was addressing G as 'my love'?

Goliath's arrival is a shock to her, so what did you think then?

Then Thailog's arrival is supposed to be a bigger shock to you guys. Was it?

I love hearing Thailog say: "My angel of the night."

Demona has a good line too: "Jealous and paranoid."

Later, we set up Nightstone Unlimited and their two "human" identities, Alexander Thailog and Dominique Destine.

At this point in production, we knew that Fox was going to have a baby but we had not named it yet. I couldn't think of a better first name for Thailog and later I couldn't think of a better first name for Alexander Xanatos. At first this bugged me. But I began to realize it made perfect sense. Xanatos had programmed his "first" son well. If X would pick Alexander, why wouldn't T have picked it as well. And there's something so symmetrical about both his kids being named Alexander.

TOURISTS

Elisa sits at a french cafe talking out loud to herself. Ugh. Very awkward. Obviously, we couldn't come up with a solution we liked better. I'm sure it occured to me to do it in voice over, but just chucking a V.O. sequence in the middle of an ep is very awkward too. Suddenly, the movie is POV Elisa, and we weren't doing that here. (Cf. "Revelations" and Matt's VO narration.)

I do like her last line though, coming as it did from a long time Superman scripter, Cary Bates: "This is a job... for the Gargoyles!"

THE WEDDING NIGHT

We had Macbeth use the Lennox Macbeth name instead of Lennox Macduff because we thought it would be too confusing to give him an entirely different name to any new viewers. And it makes sense that he has multiple aliases. But it still bugs me and I think in hindsight, I wish we had just been consistent.

Demona kicks Macbeth into unconsciousness, and Erin asks: "Why didn't she get hurt?"

And that's a very fair question. As usual with D&M's Corsican Brother connection, we tried very hard to be faithful to it, but it was very hard. And we wound up being a bit inconsistent. The best I can suggest is that when Demona knows she's going to hurt M and it isn't just on impulse, she can more or less steel herself against the magical feedback. It's still painful. But she doesn't show it as much.

The Gargoyles wake up and Elisa says: "Look alive, guys!" Well, they do now, don't they?

I love how Thailog slips Mac the gun and then later yells at Demona, "Didn't you search him?!" He's an evil genius that one. And passive-aggressive too.

Thailog's plan is brilliant, I think. So elegant. So simple. And if not for Elisa, so effective.

Mac's suicidal tendencies resurface. Demona's legendary temper gets the better of her common sense.

Thailog really comes into his own in this ep. Sure, Xanatos said he may have created a monster, but now Thailog has outsmarted X, D and M. Who the hell is left to outsmart?

And he has some great lines too:

"You and what clan?"

"Teamwork is so overrated."

"Aren't you spunky?'" (Another Lou Grant reference of course.)

To be fair, he couldn't immediately know that Angela was blood kin, but still doesn't his reaction to her give you the creeps? When X says Angela is lovely in "Cloud Fathers" I don't think anyone thought he was being salacious. But T? Yeah, baby.

Of course, Goliath finally gets the picture after this one. Up to this point, he was thinking Demona's the lost cause but maybe Thailog is salvagable. Now he knows better. At least about T anyway.

BATTLE

There's a lot of water in that water tower. It looks cool though. The animation here makes up for the Cathedral stuff.

I love Goliath's two-handed punch.

I love Demona's punch-drunken sway, as she makes her move to, as Mac says, "put us out of our misery..."

But I've always wondered why the background painters put multiple pictures of Elisa on the wall of Macbeth's chateau. Odd, that.

When I was young, I used to love MASH, particularly back in the Wayne Rogers days. (And, yes, Wayne is a friend of my dad's now. But they didn't know each other back then so I was unbiased.) But one thing that used to drive me nuts was the repetition of the following exchange:

<LOTS OF SHELLING IS ROCKING THE HOSPITAL. SUDDENLY, IT STOPS.>

Hawkeye: Do you hear that?
Someone else: Hear what?
Hawkeye: Silence! The shelling's stopped!

This was fine the first time they used it. By the twentieth time it got VERY old.

But we do a version of it here after Elisa shoots Demona ending the battle.

Why? When it used to drive me nuts? It's amazing what I'll pay tribute too.

KEITH meet MR. DAVID

I love playing Thailog against Goliath, because I love those Thailog/Goliath exchanges where Keith plays both roles. That's one of the main reasons we created Thailog. To enjoy listening to Keith go to town.

1st Epilogue:

Goliath: "She has done you a favor, Macbeth."

That line should be a bit of a shock when G first says it. But it makes a lot of sense after he explains. And I love the look that Goliath and Elisa share. They aren't even pretending they don't share those feelings. They just won't act on them.

And how about Goliath actually telling a joke: "Just make sure you get a good look at her at night." Word.

2nd Epilogue:

One of the things I like about our series is we didn't have to end each episode the same way.

This one ends rather darkly. Goliath won't acknowledge the obvious. He just broods. Angela turns to Elisa: "Elisa, I have to know." And Elisa confirms that Demona is Angela's mother, because it's ridiculous to either lie or to not confirm the obvious that Angela has already figured out. But she knows G didn't want A to know that. So everyone is left unhappy as we sail into the fog.

And Erin ends the episode saying: "I think Elisa should be her mother."

(Me, I've always seen them sharing a more sisterly relationship. But I thought Erin's idea was sweet, and certainly came out of the sexual tension between E&G.)

Anyway, that's my ramble. Where's yours?


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Stacey writes...

Dear Mr Weisman.
Hey there. Hope you had a nice holiday.
I was wondering when it was that you actualy thought up the idea for the garg universe? I mean, did it just pop in your head on day or had it been there for a while?
Also, was there any 'plan' to the story. Was there always going to be a Goliath/Elisa thing? Were the Rookery eggs always going to be on Avelon? Was there some kind of planning towards it?
I know this is probably incredibly sappy but its been killing me ever since I saw that episode...what WAS Goliath going to say to Elisa at the end of 'The Mirror'? Ok, for a start, it wouldn't have been much because he knew that the sun would be up soon. And all the clan were around. But what would he have actualy told her - sworn absolute undying love? Admited that he liked her a bit? I know its a stupid question, but its a lovley scene. Also, what were they like with each other the next night? I guess they both knew what he meant (even if I don't).
Okay, thats all for now. Thank you very much.

Greg responds...

Stacey,

It's been so long since you posted these questions (last October) I'm going to assume that you've already got the answers since all of them are available in the archives.

But just in case, and briefly.

I've been fascinated with Gargoyles since high school at least, but the series was developed by my team at Disney between 1991 and 1994.

Yes, we had a plan. G&E was planned. The eggs showing up on Avalon (or some equivalent) was planned..

I'm not sure that Goliath had the exact words on the tip of his tongue. (This isn't like Titania whispering in Fox's ear.) I think he would have tried to stammer something out about his growing feelings for her. But it would have stopped far short of "declaring his undying love".

Response recorded on August 21, 2002


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