Erin Peretti writes...

I am absolutely fascinated with your comment that Gargoyle's MacBeth was more historically accurate than Shakespeare's (obviously ommitting Demona and immortality).

What parts were more accurate?

I know this is a pain, but would you happen to know where I could find some historically accurate accounts of Macbeth? His home, his full name, whether Duncan was the perfect king potrayed in the play, etc....

What research materials did you use when writing Mac for Gargoyles?

Is Glamis castle in Scotland really Mac's castle, as I have been told?

Thanks so much!!!

Todd Jensen writes...

A question about Xanatos as portrayed in "Future Tense". This was the last episode in the series where Xanatos was the antagonist (even though it may not count as such, given that it turned out that it wasn't really Xanatos). And what recently struck me about it was that here Xanatos, for once, was acting in a manner more like a conventional cliched cartoon villain than he did anywhere else in the series. He took over Manhattan by force, enslaved the population and plunged them into poverty and misery, had the city patrolled by Mutate soldiers on the ground and Steel Clan robots in the air, murdered his own son without even an ounce of pity or remorse, and was plotting to seize control over the entire planet. All very evocative of the stereotypical super-villain that one would expect to find in a more conventional animated series.

Also, in this episode, Goliath did (momentarily) "destroy" Xanatos (or the Xanatos Program masquerading as him) in the cyberspace battle (just before it turned out that it was really Lexington operating the Xanatos Program behind the scenes), in what could count as their final battle.

So, was "Future Tense" designed, in part, to trick the audience into thinking that "Gargoyles" was going to end with a more conventional showdown between Goliath and Xanatos, a more stereotypical "final battle", before going on to reveal, almost immediately afterwards (given that "The Gathering" was the story that came immediately after "Future Tense"), the real manner in which the Goliath/Xanatos conflict came to an end (through the two making peace after the gargs helped Xanatos against Oberon)? A kind of "tricking the audience raised on more conventional adventure cartoon series" method similar to that used in "Leader of the Pack" (where it initially seems as if Xanatos is out for revenge, but it turns out that it wasn't the real Xanatos and that the real one had very different and much more practical goals)?

Todd Jensen writes...

In "Monsters", was Sevarius working for Xanatos or himself when he was at Loch Ness? He had the Xanatos Goon Squad along with him to help him out, but nothing that he said really confirmed that he was working for Xanatos; he appeared to be after the Loch Ness Monsters more to satisfy his own personal interest in genetic tinkering than from any interests that Xanatos had.

Yadira writes...

"Outfoxed"

In this episode, one of the key things we learned is that Fox is pregnant and she breaks the news to her father, Renard. What we don't see is how she breaks the news to her husband. If you had time to explore this, how did Fox tell Xanatos about her delicate condition and what did she feel might be Xanatos' reaction. How did Xanatos truly react at first upon hearing her news.

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.

Oberon writes...

Where did you get the name Grimourum Arcanorum

Vic writes...

Hellos,
I'm just wondering if you know anything about the fabled Gargoyles movie project. Last i heard it was mired in development hell. Has it moved up to purgatory or down to something more hopeless, like ohio?

matt writes...

what are some of the other names of gargoyles on Avalon? i'd imagine most biblical angel names were used, but Opheila, Angela, and Boibekka all have other types of names, what were some of these?, if you know any

Mary Mack writes...

Hello there.

I have a simple, small question regarding garg culture.

What goes into the average gargoyle commitment ceremony?

That's it. You don't have to include any fun geographic-cultural variations of the thing, just outline the basics-- if there are basics. If there are no basics, that'd be good to know too.

And you know what? Even in California it's cold in February. I wish the computer with Net access weren't in the garage-- I'm reezing my fass off out here!

Sapphire writes...

Elisa Maza for a human is extremely beautiful and attractive. Do you think that the New Olympians when they first saw her saw her as a very beautiful organism since some of the New Olympians looked extremly ugly.

Vashkoda writes...

1a) How are the majority of New Olympians educated? Are they forced to have an education? Up to what level (relative to our own system) have most of them been to? (highschool? college? post-grad?) Do they all understand advanced calculus, for example? b) Are any (if not all) NO gargoyles similarly educated?

2a) Is the majority of the NO population educated well enough to understand their island's technology? b) Roughly how many people are in charge of research and development and maintaining this technology? (tens? hundreds? thousands?). c) Would this group include any gargoyles?

3a) While I'm at it, roughly how many people live on NO? (hundreds? thousands? millions?) b) Roughly how many full-blooded NO gargates are there? c) Roughly how many NO are of gargoyle descent?

4) How will the NO clan be discovered by the outside world?

Vanity writes...

I have been reading Macbeth and Demona responses and the above mentioned for "High Noon" where questions were asked why Macbeth didn't feel the pain when Elisa and Demona where in combat. And I think people are putting too much emphasis on the fact that Macbeth could prepare for the blows. Couldn't it be that, and if you watch the fight scene; Elisa didn't really "hurt" Demona enough to evoke the spell? Granted Demona ran head-first into a statue but that might not of hurt too much.

Aaron writes...

High Noon

<<Anyway, Demona's in atypical dress and species. Who knew it was her?>>

(raises hand) Aw c'mon Greg, not even human form and frumpy clothing can hide the radiant beauty that is Demona. ;) But seriously, who else has hair like that?

Random observation: When human-form Demona leaves her hair alone, instead of putting it up in that dreadful restrained thing she wears as Domonique Destine, she looks like a red-haired Puma sister. (Dominion Tank Police, in case you didn't get the ref)

Anonymous writes...

Just a quick comment. Actually, Demona's"sexpot posing at the clock tower when she confronts Elisa did seem in character to me. I always imagined her smugly suggesting, See, even as a human I'm better looking than you. Her subconscious jealousy of Elisa and Goliath's "connection"
and her "I'm better than you are attitude, contirbute to her flagrantly exhibiting herself." Or in the words of the immortal and unknown, "When you've got it flaunt it." Got to love the Japanese animators on this one.

matt writes...

does Demona have to sleep? i figure that when she is human her garg side sleeps and when she is gargoyle her human side sleeps. if this is true where does she get the solar energy from to support her gargoyle form?

Todd Jensen writes...

My "High Noon" ramble.

It's hard to be certain what my original thoughts were when seeing this one for the first time (given that that was back in 1995), but I feel pretty certain that I didn't recognize Demona in her human form until the dialogue actually named her. (And given that, as you'd pointed out, up till then, I'd only seen her as a human briefly at the end of "The Mirror", it was easy enough not to recognize her).

I don't recall now what I'd thought of the Demona/Macbeth team-up or where the Weird Sisters were all this time when I first saw the episode, though. Maybe I was just accepting the story as it went along without asking that many questions.

I very much liked Hudson's question about the "hit the sack" idiom, and the bit where Hudson and Broadway were reading the newspaper as the link back to "Lighthouse in the Sea of Time". Both struck me as very enjoyable touches.

I sometimes wonder if Officer Morgan will ever realize just how helpful he was to Elisa in helping her gain the strength to face Demona at Belvedere Castle. This may very well count as his biggest moment in the series to date.

The revelation at the end that the Sisters were behind it all, and - more importantly - that the real targets were the Grimorum, the Eye of Odin, and the Phoenix Gate definitely surprised me. One thing that I do remember from my first time seeing the episode was this: for some odd reason, I was under the impression that "the coming battle" that the Sisters mentioned was something slated for the end of the season (Episode 65 or close to it), a grand finale conflict of some sort. Well, it was a big battle, but it took place in "Gargoyles" a lot sooner than I was expecting.

(One little thing that I must admit: a good thing for Demona that she was using the Grimorum to shield herself from prying eyes during the day. I don't think that she would have been too appreciative of the way that male humans might have been looking at her in that outfit as a human if they could have seen her :)

Sapphire writes...

In the episode high noon Elisa was waiting for her gargoyles to return because it is nearly dawn and she was worried for their safety but instead the only gargoyle that came around was Demona, Demona transformed into a human when the sun came up but when downstairs and hailed a cab. My question is was Demona carrying any money with her when she got into the cab or did she just got out when the ride was over and not pay at all?

Bruno writes...

Hi, Greg,

I was wondering, how will Demona react when she discover that the Clan - and specially Angela - are back to the castle and living with Xanatos? That they sold themselves?

One writes...

1) What are your personal feelings regarding Demona? Do you see her as a tragic victim of humanity's fear, the weird sister's machinations, etc? Just a mad gargoyle who can't let go of the past and refuses to accept responsibility for her own actions? What's your take on her?

2) In your opinion, which character of the series is most like you? Why?

3) If you had to go through everything Demona went through... how do you think that would have changed you? What would you be like?

matt writes...

was Angela nervous upon meeting the Manhatten Clan? i noticed that she stayed back in the shadows a bit at first. if she was, i can understand why. first of all, she probably felt like a hatchling among them. Avalon was not only where she lived her childhood, but it seems to be a place of eternal childhood, for mortals anyway. even Tom, Katherine, and the Magus said they all lived like children even as they all grew older. and when Goliath came to the island he was the oldest gargoyle (biologically and chronologically) that the Avalon clan had ever seen! than she gets to Manhatten and there's an even older gargoyle, Hudson. then of course, if i was Angela, i would feel very nervous about being raised by humans, even though they did a great job. the Manhatten gargs all hatched in the Wyvern rookery, grew up in the castle raised by gargs and had maintained almost entirely gargoyle-gargoyle relationships with the exception of Elisa, Matt, and some villains. Angela probably felt like, "I wonder if there is some gargoyle custom i'm not aware of.", or, "Am I doing something only humans do?" among her brothers and sisters all this was ok since they were all raised the same. actually out of all the NY gargs i think Angela was probably most intimidated by Hudson, am i right about any of this?
ok, just another ramble from matt...

Cassandra writes...

Cassandra writes...
Since stroking hair is gargoyle equilvant to a kiss, all the times Goliath touched Elisa's hair was a kiss? And how long would it take him to get used to kissing with lips?

Just feeling a trifle silly with that thought. But I seem to remember Goliath touching her hair fondly before they noticed or decided to act on the feelings they have for each other.

Greg responds...

Kissing is special, particularly romantic kissing. I'm not sure one wants to "get used to it" ever. It will always be special to Goliath.

And yes, everytime he touched her hair in any intimate way (as opposed to by accident or incidentally) it was the basic equivalent of a kiss. But by the way, it wasn't often.

recorded on 02-15-01

Okay, to clarify what I was talking about I think I was remembering the end of "Deadly Force". Goliath brushes Elisa's hair back when he tells her to sleep.

I didn't mean "getting used to it" to equal "become blaise about it". More like kissing is a feels-great-still-weird-but-I-like-it situation and Goliath would feel more comfortable with gargoyle display's of affection.

I know they're both mature adults and both of them realize there is going to be a lot of compromising and explaining in their relationship. It's just a quirky idea that popped in my head.

Cleo writes...

Do you think Gargoyles will ever come back on the air?and if so will there be more episodes on the Goliath-Elisa relationship? P.S.Gargoyles ROCK!

Aaron writes...

I'm probably thinking too human on this, but there is one thing that has always bugged me.

Goliath takes such issue to being Angela's parent, but he was ready to adopt Thailog as his son?

I presume he meant in the rookery father sense, although the language seemed a bit off. Maybe because I'd regard a clone, particularily one who was as physically mature as me, as a brother rather then a son. But again, that's just me.

Tazz writes...

Hi, Greg, I first wanna say that I think you did a wonderful job with Gargoyles. The plots were wonderful for the whole family--not just kids. It's an educational experience for sure! So thank you for bringing it to life and sharing it with all of us. And my question is this--I looked in the archives, but couldn't find where someone has asked this, so I really hope I looked hard enough, but I was wondering where I could view an the original drafts of Goliath--for example, you said that Mr. Guurr(sp?) had made the basis for Goliath's form. Is there any way to see it? I'm very curious how Goliath originally was drawn, and how he evolved into the person we see now. Thanks so much, Mr. Weismann, and I hope I haven't annoyed you. Thanks! Tazz.