Greg responds...

I'm categorically not claiming that the destinies of these characters are completely out of my hands. But...

1. We can't make changes to already made episodes in response to recently aired episodes. It's just not possible for me to, for example, change episodes 319-326 as a result of what fans say about 318. So even if I agreed with the response, it's too late to make that kind of change, which many people seemed - at the time - to be demanding. And I readily admit that in hindsight I got defensive about that. We HAVE listened, however, and it did affect how we handled things in Season Four.

2. Whether you like it or not, I simply do NOT have complete control over these characters. I do not own these characters. It is ABSOLUTELY TRUE that even in 2021, TPTB have not given Brandon and myself a completely free hand with every single LGBTQ+ character on these issues. Things are a lot better than they were in 2010. A lot better. But we still do not have 100% autonomy. We just flat-out don't. Certain things we had planned for Season Three were rejected by TPTB at a relatively late date, and I do believe those choices hurt the overall balance of the series on these issues.

3. I don't know where you heard that we'd explicitly have a nonbinary character on the show in advance of Halo's reveal. Not from me. I can't - or won't - be held responsible for rumors. Now, of course, Halo stated she's nonbinary in one of our episodes, but we viewed that statement as the first step in her journey, and we'd appreciate some patience. You are, of course, not obligated to be patient with us. Maybe we've already lost your trust. And that's understandable. And I am sorry for that. But trust would sure be appreciated if you can manage to suspend your opinion for a while longer.

4. We've been working with MPAC (the Muslim Public Affairs Council), GLAAD and OUT on these plotlines. They are aware of our long term plans for Halo and have been extremely supportive. This suggests to me that the response you speak of isn't monolithic. So I'll admit it has been hard for me to apologize for things, which I believe, in the long term, will be appreciated by the Muslim and LGBTQ+ communities. Now, I may be wrong about that, but I'm trying to be honest here. I believe in what we're doing, and our advisors do, as well. In the end, we may indeed get it wrong, but we are trying really hard to get it right. And contrary to what seems to be everyone's assumption, we are not and have never been operating in a vacuum, assuming that we knew best and that we didn't need to listen to the LGBTQ+ community. We are listening, we have been listening, and we will continue to listen. What we've found is that opinions clearly vary within that community. It's admittedly hard to please everyone, but believe it or not, we are actually trying.

5. It sincerely makes me feel awful that I've "hurt my fans in the LGBT+ community". I AM truly sorry about that. But I know for a fact that I didn't hurt ALL my fans in that community. Because I've talked to a bunch of them. Not on Twitter or on ASK GREG but in real life. Some of them weren't thrilled with what we've aired up to this point. Some of them were just fine with what we did. And most (in both categories) have - once told where we were going - been actually pretty happy with it all. Now, you don't have the advantage of that inside information and most of our fans don't either. But please don't think I don't care, that we don't care. The YJ crew and I care very, very much. And I definitely apologize for being condescending and defensive in the past. That's not me at my best. I can only ask for forgiveness.

6. I've always tried to be an ally. I have very good reasons to try to be an ally, (a) because it's the right thing to do, and (b) because many, many, many people I love and hold close to my heart are a part of the LGBTQ+ community.

So I AM sorry for past mistakes. But if you give us a little more rope, I don't think we'll hang ourselves. I believe our good intentions will not only amount to good intentions. I think they'll prove out. And if I'm wrong about that, I will truly endeavor to apologize again.

Greg responds...

I went down to my lowest register and roughed it up. Then we used technology to deepen it further and to futz it, so that it sounded like it was coming out of an electronic voice box.

Greg responds...

1. As of the end of Team Year Nine, Trajectory is 15 (assuming she survives that long).

Greg responds...

Pulling the strings on what?

And are you sure they haven't referred to Darkseid by name? I feel like they have.

Greg responds...

1. I don't think there were any legit hints in Seasons One or Two. There was behavior that originally suggested the idea of him being non-hetero-normative to me, specifically his fixation on someone out of reach. That's not definitive, by any means. But it's nevertheless what put the idea into my head. Otherwise, we did what we wanted to do on this front.

2. In my mind, Wyynde considers himself to be gay. But I haven't discussed labeling with Brandon recently. So I reserve the right for the two of us to collectively de-label him at a later date.

Greg responds...

Yeah, fair enough...

G-01 Pierce-Comma-Jefferson

G-02 Markov-Comma-Brion

G-03 Halo

G-04 Jace-Comma-Helga

G-05 Harper-Comma-James

G-06 Forager

G-07 Markov-Comma-Tara

G-08 Stone-Comma-Victor

Greg responds...

1. Individual heroes get individual responses from different individuals. Some people, for example, love Batman. Others are afraid of him, etc. There's no monolithic response.

2. Some might.

3. Uh, yeah!

Greg responds...

1. We had to come up with a name - and even a gender for their baby. All our research and inquiry revealed that neither Rhea's name or gender had been revealed.

2. I assume you mean as heroes, right? If so, more or less.

3. You have NO IDEA which choice she made. This has surprised me. Everyone seems to feel like they KNOW whether or not she manipulated her daughter's genes. But we left it intentionally ambiguous. I think people are confused by the flashback where Karen was manipulating her own gene sample (outside her body). To our surprise, they seem to be assuming that was her manipulating Rhea. But it's a memory that's part of her decision-making process. Then we leave her, trying to decide, before she later tells Mal that she did the right thing. I'm not saying whether she did or didn't manipulate the gene... but I KNOW we didn't show it on screen.

Greg responds...

We haven't laid eyes on him yet, so NO SPOILERS.