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Demona
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Hardwing writes...
Why is Demona is always doing so poorly when she fights against Elisa?
I mean through her 1000 years of experiences in battle she should be a damned good warrior (considering that the Weird Sisters and the Archmage wanted her), so why has she lost against Elisa even in her gargoyle form(Avalon)?
Was it because she was ever such outraged that she became incautious? Or is Elisa truly the better fighter?
Greg responds...
I think that a few factors come into play.
I think that Demona is unaccustomed to fighting in human form, which is why she has difficulty in "High Noon".
I think on Avalon, she was under the Archmage's thrall, which dampened her own skills... as it dampened her free will.
And I think that Demona has an obvious rage problem, and since much of that rage is laser-focused on Elisa specifically, she often lets her anger get the better of her skills.
Also the battles have always been brief, with many distractions and third party interventions.
I think Elisa's pretty tough and savvy, but in any sustained conflict between the two, I'd absolutely put my money on Demona.
J writes...
How did Demona feel about having to kiss Macbeth in "Sanctuary"?
Greg responds...
I'm sure she told herself it was a necessary evil.
John writes...
Hi Greg,
Uh... I just tripped about this question/awnser... and it really got me thinking...
DTorline@aol.com writes...
Not a question, or a suggestion (really!), just a quick comment. For your example of What Not To Ask (point #2), you use "Asking if Demona tried to assassinate Hitler during World War II". I'd just like to say that based on my knowledge of Demona, she'd've been more likely to have been fighting on his side, assuming she was involved at all.
Greg responds...
No comment.
Uf...
A REALLY strange thing... Demona, a person who hates humans with all her heart... but can she see behind this and see the maniacs behind it? Hm...
This would also considerate Demona to work with Terrorists just to kill humans randomly...
Frightening thing indeed...
However, I would be interrested in one particular thing: From your knowledge of her character, do you think Demona would be able to work together with such doomed forces??? After all this would help her in her, ergh, "quest", but then again, she HATES humans, so I (with a verry big I) think that she couldn't stand, ergh,... "working" with them...
THX for awnsering and taking the time.
CU, John
Greg responds...
I think Demona's behaviour has proven rife with inconsistencies.
Without getting specific, I could see her sitting out a conflict on the basis that if the humans are killing each other... GREAT!
I could also see her getting involved if she feared that one side was gaining too much power and might pose a threat to her at some point.
I could also see her getting involved "irrationally" because she has "poor impulse control".
And so on...
Chimaraz writes...
I don't know if this question has been dealt with, but I looked through the archives and didn't see it so I thought I'd give it a whirl.
If one of the other Avalon gargoyles had gone with Goliath and Elisa instead of Angela, would Demona have felt the same way towards that gargoyle as she does towards Angela? I mean, Demona was raised traditionally, so she sould see all of the Eggs as her children, but does the biological aspect factor into why Demona's so fixated on Angela? Would she have reacted in just the same way to Ophelia, Gabriel or any of the others?
Greg responds...
It's a fair question. And I think she would have reacted similarly with any of the "eggs"... but I do think that three factors gave Angela a little extra oomph for Demona.
1) Angela treated Demona as her mother. "I'm told there's a resemblance." The others might not have, without the bio-connection, given Demona's history.
2) Demona has spent a 1000 years around humans. Despite herself, some of it may have rubbed off.
3) Demona was not around to comunally raise the eggs. So she has less emotional connection to the other gargs then she normally would have had.
Ultimately, however, I think it still comes down to the same kind of thing that Diane Maza pointed out to Goliath in "Mark of the Panther": "[Angela] is the only one of your children with you."
Normally, I don't like hypotheticals, but this was a pretty good question.
Hardwing writes...
1.Who is better trained in magic, the Archmage of 984 or Demona anno 1994?
2.Did the clan learn of Demona learning magic by the Archmage in the Dark Ages? If yes what was their reaction? I'm just asking since neither Goliath nor Brookly seemed very surprised by seeing Demona using magic.
3.Why has the Archmage taught Demona magic? I mean as selfish as he was he wouldn't do it for nothing and having a gargoyle around who is trained in magic (or anybody else for that) is dangerous. Was it sort of quid pro qou, Demona helped him by his rituals and he trained her?
4.Did the Archmage have a large effect on Demona's personality? I mean from 971 to 975 she was still young and easy to influnce.
Just in general. simple delete questions which don't make sense or completly off topic and if a question is asked too often ignore it. So you have more time for the serious fans.
Greg responds...
1. It's an interesting question. Demona's certainly had years to study... but she's also not the most focused or patient of students, whereas I believe the Archmage would have been mono-maniacal in his pursuit of the Dark Arts.
2. I don't think they did.
3. It's a pretty standard master/apprentice set up.
4. I'm sure he had an influence -- taught her an appreciation of power. But I doubt she'd acknowledge that influence.
Audra writes...
Demona hates humans so much, but she always uses human's weapons. (Like guns, etc.) The other Gargoyles don't fight using weapons, and you'd think because Demona hates humans, she'd hate to use human weapons, and fight like a "true" Gargoyle. Why doesn't she just fight using her own strength like most Gargoyles do?
Greg responds...
Demona's just full of inconsistencies, isn't she?
matt writes...
Hi Greg.
You've mentioned before that in 994 AD no one even thought that the Wyven Clan was the last of its kind and that it was probably assumed that there were other Clans in Scotland and other locales. So my question is, why did Goliath not take the eggs and try to find one of these Clans? I know he was emotionally torn apart by losing his Clan, first by the Massacre and then by the Magus' Sleep Spell, but there was still some Clan left... the Eggs. If he believed there were other clans around why did he choose to put his children in the care of someone he just began to trust. Later in the series he speaks about how trust has to be earned, and yet he puts huge trust in several people who have insulted, betrayed, and cursed his Clan in just the last several days. I don't mean to come across like i'm trying to trick you or corner you with some inaccuracy, i'm just genuinely curious about what you think of Goliath's motivations and actions in this scene. And, of course, the same question could be asked of Demona. She actually did find another Clan to join, and could've taken the eggs with her, but she didn't. I'd love to hear what you think about all this.
Greg responds...
Demona's easier to explain, I think. She didn't find another clan to join... years later, she gathered a handful of scattered, clanless gargoyles into a makeshift clan. At the time, however, I think she was too racked with guilt. She couldn't face the inevitable questions. Couldn't "face" the eggs themselves. She sent herself into exile -- a traditional gargoyle punishment in those days.
And maybe the same basic thing was going on with Goliath. He couldn't "face" anything. Not the eggs or his responsibility to them. This act -- or lack of action -- on his part ironically resulted in the eggs being saved on Avalon. But at the time, one has to regard it as an act of tremendous irresponsibility. I forgive Goliath because I believe he was suicidally depressed. I'm sure -- as "Shadows of the Past" attempted to illustrate -- he was suffering from a massive case of survivor's guilt and the feeling that as Leader of the clan, he had failed miserably... at the cost of each and every life... including Hudson, Bronx and the Trio. One might argue that simply asking the Princess to watch over the eggs required Herculean effort on his part. All he wanted was oblivion, but he had just enough strength of mind left to obtain the Princess' vow -- to assign the responsibility that should have been his. I don't think he thought about how she would protect them. I don't think he thought, "Hey, I should tell her where the nearest clan is for a convenient drop-off." I think he just barely managed to get her to relieve that last burden, so that he could slip into what he had to believe was permanent slumber... again, an exile... from the living world. (Too much sleep being a definite symptom of depression.) Also since he believed he failed miserably with the clan, he may also have truly believed that he wasn't capable of handling the responsibility for the eggs -- that even the Princess was better qualified in light of his failure.
The Cat writes...
I'm going to ramble and rant, so I hope you can forgive me if I confuse you or loose you along the way.
Response from Greg to Vanity's question that was posted January 6th 2002:
The notion that vengeance begets nothing more than a vicious cycle of further vengeance, is not only true but is if anything UNDERSTATED. Hardly exaggerate. One only has to look at a newspaper to see that the Montagues and Capulets of this world simply refuse to recognize this obvious, obvious FACT. It drives me insane. Your casual dismissal of the notion doesn't thrill me either. (Sorry.)
Okay, I'm going to ramble on this one a bit. Chew it up spit it out type deal.
Okay, what has always confused me about Demona is that she supposably hates humans. She wants to kill them and wipe them off the planet.
If that is true then why didn't she kill the Canmore brat when he was young and not any sort of threat to her. She could have gotten away with it to, to an extent of the imagination anyway, saying that she was protecting herself from attack and that she just happened to rake the young child's jugular vein with her talons would have worked rather nicely as an excuse. The thing is Demona knew, sort of, that Canmore would become vengeful. I mean, it does not take a rocket scientist to figure that out that this little bratty prince is going to go looking for revenge. He's so spoiled he still needs some one to wipe his butt! If that doesn't say"I'm going to go seeking revenge because somebody lower than me hurt my pride I don't know what does. She could have easily nipped it in the bud and there would no longer be any Hunters. Of course, you put them into the show to keep the plot rolling, but that really didn't work out did it. Of course not.
Also, Demona is suppose to be insane. She could have easily taken out the humans with her plague. Why tell Goliath that all he had to do was destroy the praying gargoyle and then she wouldn't spread the plague. Insane people are not known for having morals! What got me to was she wouldn't spread the plague because it would kill Angela. That made no sense. Demona has always tried to kill Goliath and the clan, saying that they've been corrupted by the humans. Now, the interesting thing is Angela has been the most corrupted. She was raised by humans and taught by humans, so Demona should have wanted to kill her to. Especially her. That would have definitely reinstated the fact that Demona was a villain.
Perhaps I'm looking into this too much, but Demona had the opportunity to kill a lot of people in the last thousand years and save herself a lot of heartache later. I highly doubt that anyone would defend the Canmore brat. I highly doubt anyone would have been capable of stopping her from killing the last hundred or so Hunters that came after her when Canmore didn't succeed.
However, I think I can answer this for myself I just want to know your thoughts on it.
Demona is not evil, per say, and she's hoping that the humans realize that they've treated her kind wrong and will repent, however, she doesn't see that time coming up anytime soon. She also saw that Macbeth's way of handling Canmore was better, not as fulfilling, but better. She, I suppose, was expecting Canmore to realize, later, that she had spared his life and that he might realize that it was out of the goodness of her heart not out of the fact that she couldn't kill him. Men are extremely short sighted in this fact: A woman can kill you! A beast can kill you! *shrugs* I've never understood how come it was so hard for some men to understand this.
Also, I think Demona's looking at the whole revenge thing a bit wrong. If I'm correct she's looking at it as though its her against The Hunter. She's not looking at it as though it is a war. That it is a campaign that she has to plan for. That she has to choose her ground. She needed to think things through!
I honestly have to wonder how many times she has planned out her schemes. Aside from the plague thingy, I don't think she's ever thought any of her things through to the very end. I'd have to say that she never thought about what torture Puck would put her through the night she stole The Mirror, if she had she probably wouldn't have stolen it. The one time she does plan for years upon years she hamstrings her own plan by telling Goliath how to defeat her. Stupid! Utterly stupid!
So, now I've ranted and I want to know am I right? Even to some degree.
Also, I'd like it if you read this. It was the main reason I began this rant. The book is titled: Oathblood and was written by Mercedes Lackey. One of my all time favorite authors. (I know you don't read fan fiction, quite understandable really, but I usually incorporate some aspect of her stuff into my fan fiction.) This book is a bunch of short stories pulled together and the last one is the one that inspired this rant, however, the whole book is good and I would suggest reading the other two that go with this one as well. Their titles are "Oathbound" and "Oathbreakers". They're good books and a must read for anybody because they go into details that most fantasy novels just don't go into. Especially, the ones published back in the 1980's when it was still "a man's world".
Greg responds...
Where do I start?
Okay, let me start with the Oath-recommendations. I have found that I don't enjoy most fantasy fiction books. Isn't that surprising? It surprises me. Among other reasons, it may have something to do with envy. (I don't like admitting that, but it's true.) But I also like to keep my head generally clear of other people's ideas. I just prefer reading detective fiction, for some reason. But if I do decide to read fantasy again, I'll keep your recommendations in mind.
As for Demona... I like to believe that she is a complex character with complex motivations. That she is "human" enough to have inconsistencies. Yes, she tells herself she wants all humans dead, but in fact she isn't always ready to act on those feelings. Also, you need to keep in mind that the Demona of the late 20th century is not the same Demona of the early 11th century. She'd gone through a lot in the interrum that changed her, hardened her.
Likewise, she tells herself that she wants corrupted Gargoyles out of the way. But when push comes to shove, she's not prepared to sacrifice her daughter. So when you say things like: "That made no sense." All I can do is disagree with you and say it made sense to me.
And there are all kinds of "insane". Demona fits a definition, certainly. But of course, it's not like she's brain-dead.
Some of what you write sounds right to me -- or at least in the ballpark. But I don't agree with your assessment of Canmore really. And I don't agree that Demona could have just killed him easily as a child without repercussions. Even Macbeth felt he couldn't kill the kid without repercussions. And I tend to agree with him.
Obviously there were repercussions for NOT killing the kid too. But you roll the dice, you know?
As for Demona often if not always sewing (sowing?) the seeds of her own defeat. Why, yes, she sort of does. I don't think she consciously thought she was giving Goliath the info he needed to stop her. But she did. She's a conflicted character. I think that's what makes her so fascinating to so many people.
Chaos9001 writes...
Hey greg
love the show(obviously) but i have a question, if Fang was cooped up with demona for at least five weeks by the day that it showed on screen demona changing form, why did he looked so shocked when she turned human?
Greg responds...
I don't think he looked shocked. It may have taken him five weeks to come up with a funny line.
Annie Onimous writes...
Was up!
At the end of the episode "the mirror", before Puck got all ticked and did the whole human by day thing, did he seem to sort of loosen up to Demona a bit to you? I thought he started to kinda like her near the end. What do you think greg?
Greg responds...
I think that he had had a good time, and so was genuinely feeling a bit more charitable toward her. And one might argue that his "gift" -- as much as she initially was horrified by it -- was still helpful.
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