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Jan Rott writes...

How many seasons would you have planned for Gargoyles and its Spin-offs to realize your own vision?
1. Gargoyles
2. Bad Guys
3. Time Dancer
4. Dark Ages
5. Gargoyles 2198
6. Heroes of Ulster
7. New Olympians
8. Pendragon

Greg responds...

1. As many as possible until the series caught up to Gargoyles 2198.

2. As many as possible until the premise resolved or the series caught up to Gargoyles 2198, whichever came first.

3. As many as possible until Brooklyn's journey catches up to his return with his family to Gargoyles.

4. As many as possible until we catch up to the Wyvern Massacre in Gargoyles.

5. As many as possible.

6. As many as possible until the premise is resolved or until the series caught up to Gargoyles 2198.

7. As many as possible until the series caught up to Gargoyles 2198.

8. As many as possible until the series caught up to Gargoyles 2198.

Response recorded on November 16, 2021

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Todd Jensen writes...

Rewatched "The New Olympians" on DVD today.

Continuing the "hunting" theme in "Gargoyles" that I've paid closer attention to this time around, I noticed that Ekidne described the New Olympians' ancestors as "hunted". (I also spotted a New Olympian extra who looked a lot like traditional depictions of Artemis/Diana, the goddess of the hunt - though I think I'm reading too much into that.)

Goliath's words to Angela about how they cannot wage war on an entire city remind me of his words to Demona in "Awakening Part Five" of how he cannot wage war upon an entire world.

Greg responds...

Also intentional. I love those kinds of callbacks.

Response recorded on August 16, 2021

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Karney writes...

Hey, Greg.
I just wanted to know what kind of stuff you read as a kid that got you interested in the whole mythological genre. Are there any good books you recommend, and are there any you read as a kid that you just couldn't put down?

Greg responds...

D'aulaire's Norse Gods and Giants and D'aulaire's Greek Myths started me on the path to loving mythology. Mary Renault's The King Must Die and The Bull from the Sea were also influential, as was Mary Stewart's tetralogy about Merlin, King Arthur and Mordred. Also Roger Lancelyn Green's King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table. There were many others, too. But those got me started.

Response recorded on July 14, 2021

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New Olympians writes...

1) New Olympians hate and fear humans and they respect gargoyles. So how do they feel about the Third Race?
2) Are the New Olympians aware of their origins? By that I mean, do they know that they are a hybrid race of the Children of Mab and mortal humans/animals?
3) So Boreas decided that Elisa would have to remain on New Olympus in order to keep their secret. This seems a little short sighted on Boreas' part. I mean, no sooner had this happened did Elisa almost get lynched on the street. Did he really feel that Elisa's presence could be tolerated by the other N.O?
4) When was the last time any of the New Olympians had any contact with the N.O gargoyles clan? From I've heard, that clan might be the most isolated clan of the series. I mean do they ever in fact have any contact with anyone beyond themselves? Do they have or ever had, even one "Elisa" of their own?
5) So New Olympians can develop their own powers. Is Boreas the "most" powerful, as the "Oberon" of the new Olympians?

Greg responds...

1. Probably suspicious.

2. Up to a point.

3. Her presence in prison? Yes, he did.

4. No Spoilers.

5. He's powerful. Whether he's MOST powerful is debatable.

Response recorded on June 24, 2016

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Anonymous writes...

Greg: Wanted to say thank you for shaping my childhood! I read Shakespeare and Malory directly because of Gargoyles! I'm grown now and I teach children. Thanks for your influence and your wonderful series! Please keep producing more Gargoyles stories!

1) Why didn't we see any New Olympians at The Gathering? (Oberon seemed intent to include Alex, another mixed-human fey.)

Greg responds...

I think the New Olympians and the Children of Mab had a falling out long ago.

Response recorded on May 27, 2016

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Anonymous writes...

I have some New Olympian-related questions.

If the New Olympian character Boreas bears some resemblance to Zeus in terms of appearance and role...

a. ....then which actual Olympian in Greek mythology would Boreas' sons (Kalais and Xetes) bear resemblance to?

b. ....are there other New Olympians (other than the ones seen on the Gargoyles cartoon) that bear any resemblance to the actual Olympians of Greek Mythology, and if so, what are their names (if they don't have any)?

Greg responds...

a. Boreas.

b. No Spoilers.

Response recorded on February 03, 2016

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Al writes...

I'm just filled with Gargoyles questions today, so heres another one.

You've said before that the New Olympians, being decendants of Children of Oberon/Human hybrids, don't use Children of Oberon (henceforth I'm going to refer to them as "Fae," although I know thats not technically accurate) magic in the traditional sense, but rather have internalized it into individual "powers."

1) My question is regarding Fox. The only time we've seen her use Fae magic was in the form of an energy blast. Was/is that her "power," or, given the proper training, would she have had powers (less than or equal to) a pure-bred Fae?

2) Also, Alexander seems to be able to access (full?) Fae abilities, including an extreamly long life-span. Is that because he is only a couple generations away from a pure-bred Fae, or because he is decended from such a powerfull Fae as Queen Titanya? (I want to ask if his decendants would be as powerfull as he is, or turn out like the New Olympians, but that would be a "spoiler request," so I won't. Unless you're feeling generous, then I am).

Greg responds...

Okay, I didn't say the New Olympians were Children of Oberon/Human hybrids (though there were some of these). I said the New Olympians were Children of Oberon/Mortal hybrids.

And, of course, we NEVER use the term Fae in the series.

1. If we're talking theoretically, it's hard to say. If you're asking me specifically: No Spoilers.

2. Ditto.

But generally, the magic of the Children is more art than science, so it's difficult to quantify.

Response recorded on July 15, 2014

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B writes...

You said once that Sphinx, of the New Olympians, comes from a big family.

1. Are Sphinx's family sphinxes? Or are they a wide range of different phenotypes instead? I tend to think the latter, since she's the one named Sphinx.

2. If you can share any more details about members of Sphinx's family (names, personalities, appearances, roles), would you please?

Greg responds...

1. SPOILER REQUEST.

2. I can, but I won't. Sorry.

Response recorded on January 06, 2014

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Dan Stenrud writes...

Thanks for taking the time for our questions! I was just watching "The New Olympians" episode of Gargoyles and as the camera pans the city there is a satellite dish on one of the buildings. I understand if you don't have an answer, but are they receiving signals from our (human's) satellites or do they have one of their own?

Greg responds...

I don't recall. Sorry.

Response recorded on July 26, 2012

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Vaevictis Asmadi writes...

I finally got my Bad Guys paperback! With all my homework I don't have time to write a review yet, but I do want to ask you a question or two about the New Olympians, if you don't mind.

1. After the (New) Olympians founded New Olympus to escape human persecution, how long did gargoyles still survive in Greece?
a. Were gargoyles still alive in Greece in the time of Augustus Caesar and the Humility Spell? b. During Byzantine times? c. During Ottoman times?
2. How long did the halfling "monsters" of Classical myth (centaurs, minotaurs, snake-people, etc.) survive in Europe after New Olympus was founded?
a. Were any half-breed "monsters" still alive in Europe in the time of Augustus Caesar? b. During Byzantine times? c. During Ottoman times?

Thanks again.

Greg responds...

I don't have exact dates on this stuff, and I'm not ruling out possibilities at this stage.

Response recorded on May 14, 2010

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Vaevictis Asmadi writes...

Greetings Greg,

I have another question about the New Olympians, halflings, and the Law of Oberon (related to what Random Fan asked about the Law). In the Gathering, Oberon showed that his law is applied and interpreted differently for different halflings. Fox is too human because she has grown up with a mortal life, so the Law applies to her as to a mortal. But Titania has permission to interfere in Alex's life, perhaps because he is newborn and has not yet grown up to be human, but has the potential to be or become something else.

How does Oberon interpret and enforce his law in relation to the New Olympians? Are (or were, before the Gathering) the Third Race permitted to interfere in the lives of New Olympian halflings, or does Oberon view them as mortal and therefore not open to (unsolicited) interference?

Thanks.

Greg responds...

The New Olympians ARE mortal.

Response recorded on April 22, 2010

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Vaevictis Asmadi writes...

Greetings Greg,

On the subject of halflings, I have been wondering for a long while how halflings that are part human and part animal (like the New Olympians) are born. My understanding from the archives is that a member of the Third Race can only breed with a mortal by assuming a truly mortal, flesh-and-blood body of the same species as the mortal they want to breed with. If this is correct, how does a mortal, with a Child of Oberon in a truly mortal body of the same species, end up with a child which does not look like the parents? For example, if a human and a Child of Oberon in a completely human body, like Anastasia, had children, how would the children look like anything except normal human beings? Or if a Child of Oberon took on a mortal horse form and mated with a mortal horse, wouldn't the offspring all look like normal horses? For example, how were the first centaurs, or the first minotaurs, born?

Thank you!

Greg responds...

Fair questions... maybe they're second generation... since Fox clearly has magical power...

Or maybe you're putting to DEFINING a limit on the Children, given that their powers and abilities are all about loopholes half the time.

Response recorded on April 16, 2010

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Random Fan writes...

It seems the more I read the archives (now that I've discoverd them)the more questions I have. The one that plagues me now is about an answer you gave in response to whether Halflings have to adhere to the no medeling rule.
Greg responds...
The rule is magically enforced. Oberon doesn't need to know about you to enforce it. You don't need to know about Oberon to have it enforced. But -- as we've seen -- loopholes abound. The trickier you are the easier it is to find loopholes. Bloodline -- or blood purity, so to speak -- has nothing to do with it.
My qustion then is how doesthe rule affect Halfling human relations? Because I havent heard anything about New Olimpus breaking the rules by becomeing part of the U.N, or An older Alex being a big wig in the 2198 spin off. What are a Halflings limits?

Greg responds...

What is the question exactly?

How does joining the U.N. magically interfere with anything?

Response recorded on April 01, 2010

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Allen writes...

Hey, I've been following Ask Greg on and off since 2001. This is only my second post. Just wanted to say I appreciate you sustaining the fanbase.

1) Were halflings like Merlin or The New Olympians invited to go to Oberon's Gathering? I would think that Oberon's determination in attempting to bring Alex meant that The Gathering would not be limited to "full" fae. But I could be wrong. What's the truth, Greg?

Greg responds...

1. Case-by-case. (But in general the New Olympians were not included.) Merlin wasn't there either.

Response recorded on March 01, 2010

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captjack writes...

hey greg was just curious about something.ive read a few times that in the Gargoyles universe the Olympian gods(Zeus,Apollo,Hades etc)are all half mortal,seriously?

Greg responds...

You've misinterpreted what you've read, confusing the Olympians with the New Olympians.

Response recorded on July 03, 2009

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Vaevictis Asmadi writes...

Hello again,

I have a questions about the original Olympians in the Gargoyles universe. I hope you aren't sick of my curiosity about the Third Race, but the links to mythology are my favorite parts of Gargoyles, since I've always loved mythology.

I was looking in the Archives about the New Olympians, and I found two entries that interested me. In 2000, concerning the New Olympians and their ancestors, when asked about those ancestors who were worshipped as gods, you wrote:
"They weren't actually immortal."

Later in 2001, you wrote:
"The ancestors were the "gods and monsters" of legend. Many of whom were known as the Olympian Gods of Ancient Greek and Roman mythology.
Most of them were of the Children."

I'm sure I am misinterpreting your responses, but I find these two seem contradictory. The 2001 response indicates most of them were "of the Children" but the 2000 response seems to me to mean that most of them were not Children of Mab.

1. With regards to the original 12 Olympians, were most of the 12 Olympians Children of Mab, or just some of them? Or were most of the original 12 Olympians hybrids?

Thank you.

Greg responds...

Just some of them.

Response recorded on April 27, 2009

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Litwolf writes...

A few questions about Sphinx (all I know about her is her GargWiki profile and Im dying to know more):
1) Despite her appearance looking very much like an English gargoyle (wings, tail, humanoid body with cat features), she's not actaully a gargoyle, right? She's just pure New Olympian?
2) Can she fly, unlike a gargoyle's glide?
3) Do you think she has the physical strength to carry Terry in the air? (I ask this question because, given how the romance reminds me a lot of Goliath and Elisa, I wonder if we'll ever see Sphinx carrying Terry like Goliath carries Elisa)
4) How fast does she age as compared to a human? And how old is she when she meets Terry?

And, since Im sure Sphinx would be upset if I ignored her Terry, a quick question about him: any idea what kind of boat takes him to New Olympus? I think you've said he's going to sail around the world, so Im gonna guess a sailboat, is that right?

I hope Sphinx and Terry get a chance to have their story told in comic form!

Greg responds...

1. Correct.

2. Yes.

3. Yes.

4. I'm not saying.

5. Yes, it's a sailboat.

Response recorded on September 25, 2008

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Vaevictis Asmadi writes...

Yay the queue is open! I'm happy you're taking questions again. (and I'm of course excited to get #6, which I'll be ordering asap). I hope you don't mind questions unrelated to reviewing the comic... those Children of Oberon always make me so curious.

1. a. So Ragnarok already occured in the Gargoyles Universe. When did it happen? (If you don't want to give a year or decade, can you please say what century it happened in?)
b. Did any of the gods survive Ragnarok, other than Odin? If some did, who?

2. You've also told us that the war between the Titans and Olympians was a real event in the Gargoyles Universe. What happened to the defeated Titans afterwards? (I don't want to assume it is the same as the myths, or to ask more specifically for fear it would be an idea)

3. When was Oberon born? (If you don't want to give the year or decade, please say what century?)

Greg responds...

1a. Yes, it occured, but no I'm not going to hint at a date (even a century) at this time.

1b. Yes, a few others did. But I'm not revealing who at this time. (Though the myths themselves are a good hint.)

2. I'm not answering this at this time.

3. Ditto.

Response recorded on October 11, 2007

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Vaevictis Asmadi writes...

When (about what year or decade) did the New Olympians install the "cloaking device" (as Talos calls it) around their island?

Greg responds...

Haven't pinpointed that.

Response recorded on September 05, 2007

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Mostly Harmless writes...

How old are Taurus, Boreas and Talos?
Does Sphinx exist currently in Gargoyles or is she yet to be born? If it's the former, how old is she currentlY?

Greg responds...

The very first version of Talos was constructed in 1290 B.C.

The rest I'm not answering at this time.

Response recorded on June 12, 2007

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Mostly Harmless writes...

If Terry Chung currently is just a kid in Gargoyes judging by his appearance in issue number four, are we to assume that New Olympians is suppose to take place in the near future in relations to Gargoyles? Was that always planned or is that a recent idea?

Greg responds...

If someone BACK THEN had said, yes, let's do New Olympians NOW, I would have jumped at the chance, and Terry would be older than he is. But years past, and giving it some thought, I placed the inciting events of New Olympians later. So it's a RELATIVELY recent idea, but frankly we're talking about a decision I made eight or nine years ago, or something...

Response recorded on June 08, 2007

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MAY 23

This day in Gargoyles' Universe History....

May 23rd...

1996
Helios, Kiron, Ekidna and other New Olympians riot over Elisa's presence on their island. Taurus responds by throwing Elisa in jail with the shape-shifting killer Proteus. Goliath attempts to break Elisa out but is instead tricked into releasing Proteus. The shape-shifter imprisons Goliath in his place, then takes on Goliath's form to fool Elisa. They escape together. But when "Goliath" fails to turn to stone at sunrise and reveals his plan to blow up the island, Elisa lures Taurus to Proteus and works with the Security Chief to recapture the shape-shifter. In gratitude for her actions, Boreas releases Elisa. At sundown, the travelers immediately depart for Avalon.


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MAY 22

This day in Gargoyles' Universe History....

May 22nd...

1996
The travelers depart Avalon and land on the hidden island of New Olympus. Taurus, the New Olympian Chief of Security, arrests Elisa - simply for being human. Boreas, the leader of New Olympus, releases Elisa but refuses to allow her to leave the island.


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Blaise writes...

THE NEW OLYMPIANS
(I had written a rather lengthy ramble on this last night, but due to some glitch or other, lost it. So, here I try to recreate that which was lost.)

This episode is always a little difficult for me to watch, mostly because of the unreasoning hatred and bigotry displayed by many of the New Olympians. It "angers the blood" in me, if you will. Things like Helios' "What a foul stench, it must be coming from the human!" just rankle me. I mean, I know that they have legitimate grievances (or, at least, their ancestors had them), and if they had only avoided Elisa, I might be a bit more tolerant. Despite the wrongness of his decision, I can like Boreas because he at least seems to try. Even Taurus, who has the seed of hatred inside him, does not always make decisions based on it, and even breaks up the riot. But the behavior of the rioters and their ringleaders--Ekidna, Kiron, and especially Helios (I don't know why I single him out, but if feels right)...it's just completely inexcusable (and loathsome).
Oddly enough, I don't feel the same way about Proteus, who is arguably more evil than any of the rioters. I mean, this is the guy who performs evil acts BECAUSE they're evil, right? And yet, I enjoy watching him. Why is that? Is it because Proteus does not make any excuses for his evil (at least, not here)? It's like...okay, you watch ANGEL, right Greg? You've seen that episode with that one guy, Billy (I think that was his name), the Hell-freed misogynist who could incite instant and violent hatred for women in any man he touched? (If you haven't, please skip to the next paragraph) It turned out that Angel was immune because he had worked past hate a long time ago, but he admitted that even as Angelus (his evil side) he was never motivated by hatred so much as a perverse sense of glee from inflicting suffering. And while I can actually kind of enjoy watching Angelus work (no matter what he does), I could feel only raw disgust and hatred at Billy, who tries to justify his bigotry. It's the same way with Proteus and the rioters, here.

Anyway, on with the episode.
I loved the music that played when the skiff passed through the "shimmering" area and New Olympus was first revealed.
Also, the designs for this episode were great--I love the many and varied character designs of the New Olympians themselves, especially Boreas and Helios.
And I echo Erin's assessment of the city: "Wow."

As soon as Elisa shoved the gargs off to the side and said, "No telling how they'll react to gargoyles," I immidiately put two and two together and figured out where this episode was going. I mean, whenever anyone says something so obvious like that it's almost like asking for the reverse to happen.

Interesting restraint system the N.O.s have. There's not much more I can say about it, but I did find it rather peculiar.

I agree with you about the Senate House walla, Greg. I must have heard that one guy say, "Humans can't live with us! They're dangerous! They're animals," or something like it, about two, maybe three times.
Also, theres a moment here that I always find a bit odd. When Taurus removes his helmet/mask, the way it's staged--the camera angles, and Goliath's spreading his wings--seems to indicate that this is some sizeable revelation. And yet, it was rather anticlimactic. Taurus, if anything, looked exactly as I expected him to look.
I like it that the "Leader" of the New Olympians holds a "lightning staff"--sort of harkens back to Zeus. Or is that thing particular to the Boreas of New Olympus?
And there's a moment towards the end of the Senate House scene that I missed until the third or fourth viewing: Goliath and Elisa embrace.

I do have to wonder about Boreas' decision here. What did he expect to happen? Did he have too high an opinion about the behavior of his people or did he suspect what would happen (which would make his decision somewhat malevolent)? I'd like to believe the former, but if that's the case, then he may be just a bit too optimistic.

And then we have the riot, which I've already touched on. Helios gets things rolling with his "stench" comment (kind of a racial slur), but Kiron throws the first punch. Like Todd, I find these two particularly reprehensible because they're supposed to be peace-keepers. Ekidna I actually find myself being more tolerant towards (maybe she reminds me of Demona). It's odd, but the way she talks about how the human's treated the N.O.s in the past sounds almost as if she experienced it personally. Then again, maybe I'm reading too much into that.

While Taurus' arresting Elisa is unjust, it did probably save her life in the immediate moment.

Actually, I find Taurus very interesting here as he's walking Elisa towards her cell. Whatever hatred he may have for humans, it doesn't stop him from telling Elisa about his father's murder by Proteus. He even manages to sound a little nice when he says "Make yourself comfortable, you could be here awhile." He also breaks up the riot, threatening to arrest everyone, and fire Helios (I love Helios' meek, "Y-yes, sir!"). Of course, I think a little of Taurus' own bias still shows through when he says "If you've got a problem, take it up with Boreas." It almost sounds as if he has a few things he'd like to say to the winged-one. Of course, I may again be reading too much into this.
Like I said, Taurus strikes me as someone who, while subject to prejudice, TRIES to act in spite of it. He's not always successful (he arrests Elisa instead of just moving her out of harm's way), but I'd like to think his effort counts for something.

And now we come to Proteus. I have to admit, my interest in him increased when you mentioned in a previous response that he was probably the closest thing to "pure evil," "evil incarnate," what-have-you that we have yet encountered in the GARGOYLES universe. There are many reasons I would have wanted to see the New Olympians spin-off, and a further exploration of Proteus' character was one of them. I would have loved seeing him in action beyond the scope of this one episode. And the late Roddy McDowell...what a great voice and performance.
I love how Proteus immediately begins quizzing Elisa about her mode of transportation. You can tell he's already thinking of escape.
Admittidly, Proteus may not be the best actor--"Who's that guy?" is probably the worst Goliath impression I've ever heard--but then again, he didn't have a heck-of-a-lot of time to study his subjects. I mean, if any of us had shape-shifting powers we could probably pull off a decent impression of the characters because we've watched and studied them so much. For what little time he had, Proteus' acting got the job done (up to a point--I'm not sure how convincingly he can turn to stone).
I find it interesting that Proteus' voice doesn't change when he becomes the Cyclops (is that a sort of secondary, "preferred form" for him?). I also find it interesting just how easily he seems to be hurt in that form. His fist connects with a collumn and he's in pain, and immediately after this he is felled by one punch from Taurus (granted it's to his EYE, but...).

One of my favorite sequences is in this episode. Proteus-as-Taurus, heads up to the Collinadium (however that's spelled) and begins to overload it. As he's doing this, Talos is explaining why this is a bad idea, and asking him to stop (while displaying missles) in such a frustratingly calm voice! I find it hilarious! Maybe that's why I feel sad when I see Talos' inert body hanging from Proteus' fist--I like the robot.

Angela does real well at dodging the restraints. If the sun hadn't rose, she probably could have kept it up for a while.
I always wince when Kiron tips over Bronx. It looks like something might have broken off.

Back to Proteus really quick--I love his transformations in this episode. The way he just sort of liquifies. The change from Goliath to Cyclops (with the two eyes becoming one) was especially well-done.

Taurus has his "I don't understand" moment, which is kind of required for episodes tackling subject matter like this. When the character actually says those words, I usually find it a bit too on the head, but Michael Dorn's acting helps make it work. And I love the wink Taurus gives Elisa.

One thing that I think many viewers may miss the first time is that Elisa DID NOT change the whole island--which is what would happen in another, more standard series (kind of like what TGC did with ANGELS IN THE NIGHT). Only Taurus and Boreas have really come to trust Elisa (Taurus even waves to her).

"The time may soon come when the world will have to face the New Olympians." When I first watched this, way back when it first aired, my mother watched it with me. As soon as Boreas said this, she turned to me with a smile and said, "I smell a spin-off." If we only knew how right we almost were.
(Then there's my brother, who thought that line sounded more like a threat...).

A little note on voices here. Having been an admirer of Rob Paulsen's work, I was glad to see him finally show up on GARGOYLES. I only wished I'd gotten to see more of him as Helios.
Overall, the voices were all well done (especially when the actors played Proteus-as-their character).
Yes, Taurus and Coldstone do sound a little too much alike, but Taurus has a slightly different speaking style than Coldstone, so that helps somewhat.
Of course, now that you've mentioned that Taurus, Talos and Proteus each had different voices originally, I'm going to be going crazy trying to figure out who they were!

This is a nice episode, with some rather difficult subject matter for me, but I like it. And I know I would have loved to see the NEW OLYMPIANS series.

Greg responds...

Someday... someday...

Response recorded on September 14, 2006

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Todd Jensen writes...

Thanks for the ramble on "The New Olympians".

I've always had a soft spot for this episode, largely because I really like the notion of a whole society of "Greek mythology creatures/beings" out somewhere. I still hope that you can get to explore it some more later on; that spin-off sounded like a lot of fun.

Despite your mention of avoiding the actual gods for character models for the New Olympians (since the Greek gods were famous for looking too human to provide dramatic designs in the same way that a minotaur or centaur would), I did notice in the crowd scene (at the point when Helios is exaggeratedly coughing and retching in Elisa's presence) a woman carrying a bow who did bear a strong resemblance to Artemis (at least, as she's customarily depicted in myth-based art).

Ekidne at times struck me as almost channelling Demona in her cries of "Treacherous human!" and her eyes glowing red when angry. (Of course, Demona strikes me as another good case of "bigotry bringing about more bigotry", so it fits.)

Helios and Kiron's participation in the riot struck me as even worse than that of the other New Olympians; these guys are police, and should be discouraging such displays rather than encouraging them. (Whatever else you can say about Taurus, he had the decency to break up the demonstration outside Elisa's cell.)

Proteus struck me as a fun villain, with such lines as "They really don't like you, do they?" or his habit of tormenting Taurus by shape-shifting into his father. (I agree with you that Proteus doesn't seem to bother to do his homework; I'd caught all three of the flaws in his performance as Goliath that you'd mentioned - saying "Who's that guy?", providing a weak excuse for why he doesn't turn to stone in the daytime, and wanting to blow up New Olympus, which last - again - sounds more the sort of thing that Demona would do.) I also caught a moment when he's waving at Taurus with what appears to be an extra-large hand (which I assume is part of his shape-shifting again and not an odd-looking piece of animation).

One of my favorite bits is Elisa empathizing more with Taurus after discovering what they have in common - both police, and both have fathers who are police. Especially the bit where she wonders aloud how she'd respond if Peter Maza were to be killed in the line of duty.

Knowing your interest in Theseus, I certainly can't say that I'm surprised that one of the main New Olympian characters in the story would have a link to him, in the form of being descended from his most famous adversary. (Or that you'd do another take on Theseus and the Minotaur when you wrote an episode for Disney's animated Hercules series.)

The "humans of legend" bit reminds me slightly of a short story by J.R.R. Tolkien, "Farmer Giles of Ham"; in one scene, a giant is telling many other giants and dragons about his excursion into human territory, giving an exaggerated account of the food to be found there and of how little resistance one can expect from the local humans. The dragons promptly say eagerly "So knights are mythical, after all!"

Re your remarks about Talos - I wonder whether Talos could be described as truly prejudiced, being a robot rather than a flesh-and-blood being. (He certainly seemed the most pragmatic of the lot, as you put it.) Though, then again, maybe I'm displaying a bit of prejudice against robots and machines in not believing that they can develop feelings as humans and other flesh-and-blood beings can.

I'd caught the similarity of Goliath's "I cannot wage war upon an entire island" line to the earlier line "I cannot wage war upon an entire world" in "Awakening" - what made it most stand out to me is that the original line was spoken to Demona, and here he's saying something similar to Demona's daughter.

A neat little detail: the flying cars on New Olympus have little eyes painted in the front, just like those on an ancient Greek trireme.

Another of my favorite bits is Elisa's run-in with Helios, where she tells him about how Proteus is planning to blow up the island, leading to:

HELIOS: And you had to attack me to tell me that?

ELISA: Would you have listened to me if I'd just called you over?

HELIOS: Frankly, no!

Somehow I never spotted the hint of a spin-off at the end of this episode as I did for "Pendragon" - at least, not until I found out about the Master Plan. Now I find it an appealing idea, as I said above.

50 episodes down and only 16 to do. You're really making good progress on this one, Greg. Thanks.

Greg responds...

I think I've only got three left now. Try to get to those soon.

Response recorded on September 06, 2006

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Richard von Heinz writes...

1) Is Nokkar the Sentinel aware of the cloaked island of New Olympus or has New Olympian technology being able to fool the technology developed by his kind?

2) How did the New Olympians manage to create such advanced technology years ahead of human technology when they had a much smaller population and less resources for research and development when in regard human civilizations have been inventing continuously. For example even through humanity was in the Dark Age in Western Europe, people were still developing stuff in the MidEast and the Far East.

So in short order how did the New Olympians get so ahead? Did they just bypass or skip some of the technologies that humanity has or were they just really brillant at inventing stuff.

Greg responds...

1. Well, without confirming whether or not Nokkar COULD have seen through their cloak, I think the short answer is that he DIDN'T see through it. Had no reason to look. He's looking outward for an external attack. That's where his sensors are aimed.

2. Continuity helps. A few brilliant individuals who are able to build upon the work of their predecessors without interference and are given the resources can do amazing things in very few generations. Scattered advancement (two steps forward, one step back) across continents with little or no communication doesn't encourage speed of development. I also think an open mind helps too. Who believed that a man could fly in the so-called real world? A few people certainly, but until the Wright Brothers proved it, not the masses. On New Olympus, lots of their citizens can already fly. So making the leap to creating a chariot to accomidate those without wings or other flight capabilities isn't quite as difficult.

Response recorded on August 24, 2006

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Arthur Jr. writes...

I have some questions about the New Olympians?

1. In "The New Olympians," Is Kiron a decendant of Chiron the Centaur from Greek Mythology?
2. Who are Terry Chung and Jove?
3. What other Mythological characters besides Boreas, Ekidna, Helios, Kiron, Proteus, Talos, and Taurus the Minotaur were in the Gargoyles episode, "The New Olympians."

Greg responds...

1. In theory.

2. Terry's a human. Jove is a New Olympian. For more information... attend a gathering... ;)

3. I think you've named them all... or all that were named. I'm not sure about all the bg characters that Bob Kline put in there.

Response recorded on July 27, 2006

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proteus . writes...

How did proteus escape from new olympus - in seeing isn't believing .
How did proteus kill taurus's father , where , and when .

Greg responds...

I've only seen that episode of Goliath Chronicles once. And I have very little memory of it. I don't personally consider it canon.

As for how, where and when he killed Taurus' father, that's an entire story... for another day.

Response recorded on September 20, 2005

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Gohtic Cowboy writes...

Salutations, Mr. Weisman. I have a few questions concerning the New Olympians.
1. I've seen several questions about AI's in the Gargoyles universe, but I can't remember any mention of Talos in these questions. Without recycling the question about sentience (I know better than to beat that dead horse), how does Talos compare to the Matrix, probably the most self-aware AI created by man in the Gargoyles cosmology, in terms of self-awareness?
2. As an artificial construct, it stands to reason that Talos doesn't age (at least in the biological sense). As such, he should have memories stretching back for several thousand years. If this is the case, why hasn't he risen to a postition of greater authority (greater than what he seemed to possess, in any case)? He seems to have a position akin to advisor, and in the New Olympians spin-off, would have acted as advisor to Taurus. Does he prefer to act as a mentor rather than be in the spotlight, or are some New Olympians uncomfortable with the concept of an AI, no matter how advanced, in a command position?
3. You've said that Talos was created by Daedalus, possibly with aid from Hephaestios (whom I assumed to be one of the Children of Oberon). Although I'm aware that much of our "modern" technology is, in fact, older than many people think, that's still an extremely impressive accomplishment. How did Daedalus manage to pull it off? Was Daedalus a New Olympian whose Fae bloodline manifests itself as heightened intelligence and inventive ability rather than control of fire or great strength and inhuman features? Was magic involved somehow, or was the Lost Race (or an artifact connected with them) involved?
4. Building on my last question, why does New Olympus possess technology more advanced than the rest of the world? Is there a subdivision of their population whose internalized "powers" include an enhanced intellect? Or is it that they simply did not go through a "Dark Age," like humans did, where a good deal of lore and knowledge were deliberately suppressed?
5. There are several identifiable "subtypes" of New Olympians. I remember reading your response to another question in which you said that they constituted a hybrid race which had stabilized and could interbreed, despite their numerous differences. Do children mixed-subtype couples take after one parent or do they form new subtypes unto themselves? Either way, the New Olympians probably would attach no stigma to it.
6. What are Talos's capabilities, generally speaking? He probably has faster reasoning capabilities than a human or a gargoyle (and probably the Children, too), and likely has perfect recall. In the New Olympians episode, he threatened Proteus (disguised as Taurus) with missiles from his wrist. What else is he capable of?
7. What kind of person (if I could use the term) is Talos? He voiced the opinion that they might need human allies in the New Olympians episode, and he eventually joins the "Peaceful Co-existance" faction and goes to New York to advise the New Olympian ambassador, Taurus, but could (and probably is) based on simple logic. He realizes that they cannot hide forever, and that they should reveal themselves at a time of their chosing instead of waiting to be found by humanity, and the need for human allies is fairly obvious. That said, why does he support the Taurus's faction? Is he a fundamentally good person (I use the term loosely), or is he simply doing what he feels is logically what's best for New Olympus (and, by extension, himself)?
8. Do the other New Olympians generally use male pronouns in regard to Talos and think of him as male? Does Talos himself consider himself to have a gender, or is that just something that he/it doesn't even think about?

Greg responds...

1. I don't want to give away all of Talos' secrets at this time. But I see Talos as having been upgraded many, many times over the centuries. Ages ago, his programming would have been very, very simple, limited by mechanical and chemical reactions. But that was two millenia ago. Is he artificially intelligent now? I believe he has memory banks and a learning program. I guess the greater question is with memory and learning are any of us intelligent -- artificially or otherwise?

2. I'd lean toward both being true.

3. Nothing to do with the so-called Lost Race. And Daedalus was human. Just smart and with some helpful friends. I don't see Talos as being magical.

4. No separate populations. More the latter, but there were also break-through individuals... resource issues, etc.

5. No particular stigma, and all of the above.

6. You covered the big things. He's strong too. Oh, and tall. I'm not going into the rest at this time.

7. He was programmed to protect New Olympus. That programming still holds. Much of your reasoning is on target.

8. He was built to mimic the male form, and I think he and everyone else just takes that for granted. He is in fact asexual, but would identify himself as male.

Good questions, by the way.

Response recorded on May 13, 2005

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Francois Ferland writes...

Hi Greg! I'm posting for the first time and it feels wierd, since I tried to send questions 4 or 5 years ago and they got deleted. Anyway...

First of all, I'd like to thank you for having been (and still being) such an important part of the Gargoyles franchise. You (and others of course) provided me with easily THE single best animated show ever. A well written series great voice acting, continuous plots, characters that are believable, and a complex universe that manages both to include lots of existing legends and myths while still retaining a distinct identity. I truly think that in terms of all-around quality for a dramatic show, Gargoyles was easily Disney's best effort by far. Reboot is the only other animated show that I've seen that seems to exhibit the same qualities, meaning well-written, clever and quite enjoyable for both kids and adults.

Also, I'm happy to learn that Gathering 2004 will take place in Montreal, meaning I might actually be able to attend! I don't know if you're the one who chose the location, but if you are, thanks on behalf of us Canadians!

Finally, I'd just like to thank you for actually answering the flood of questions we fans send your way. And especially your god-like patience towards people who obviously never took the time to read the FAQ OR archive. I can understand asking about a minor detail that could have been missed, but among the questions being submitted, I know there are some LAZY people I wouldn't mind slapping once or twice in the face...

Anyway, I have a number of questions on different subject, so expect a few one-question posts from me.

This one would fit in a "Writing" category if there is such a thing.

1. Regarding your current master plan (i.e. your ideas for the various spin-offs), it's obvious you've given lots of thoughts to the initial setting of each. The main characters and their immediate goals for example, as well as ideas for early stories as well as a few ideas for on-going plots. A lot of course would be dictated by the characters (and your muse I'm sure) as the shows would go along.

a) Now here's my question: Do you have an idea about the possible endings of some of your spin-offs? I don't want you to tell me anything, just if you have some "Ultimate goals" in mind for all your spin-offs.

Gargoyles itself has always been very open-ended. There never was a single overlying theme to the series, it just kept going on on its own, the plots and characters growing in complexity in a very organic and sometimes unpredictable way. It could potentially keep going on for years and years.

But some of your spin-offs have very specific premises. There ARE stories that are better told if planned from beginning to end as a whole. Others however are better if left to evolve on their own. An aimless story could potentially "find its voice" after a while, leading to an ultimate ending of sorts. Or, the initial premise could be transformed over time, leading the story in a quite different direction.

For example, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Initially, the show is about our heroes trying to restore a people (Bajorans) to a stable society following years of occupation by an enemy race (Cardassians). Yet, after two years, the show introduced a much bigger menace, a race who sought to conquer and control all others (the Dominion). From then on, the show eventually lead to a huge war with the ending signaling the end of the hostility.

a) How do you feel about long stories? About those that are open-ended and those that have some finality set for them? (I hope I'm not being to vague here. I'm really interested in how you feel about this)

And about some specifics spin-offs:

b) Bad Guys: The basic idea is about our main characters seeking redemption. Do you know if they ever find it? And would that be the goal of the show?

c) TimeDancer: Ultimately, the very final ending is, in a way, already known. Brooklyn makes it home a lot older with a family. But do you already have some sketchy idea about how he finally makes it there, like some final adventure dealing with the Phoenix Gate itself, or were you planing on dealing with it once you were forced to, like a series' finale?

c) Gargoyles 2198: This one seems to be mostly about the war against the Space-Spawn but as you often say, "Things aren't that simple". Would the liberation of Earth signal the end of the series, or would you keep the series going with the existing setting once the war is over? After all, there might still be other threats like Coyote-X, the Illuminati, etc.

d) Dark Ages: Since this one could theoretically run up to the beginning of "Awakening", I won't ask if you have an ending in mind.

e) Pendragon: It's obvious now that Merlin, Mr. Duval and Holy Grail would be important part of the story. Do you have an ending in mind for this one, or where you again planing on seeing where the story ultimately took you?

f) New Olympians: This one feels pretty generic, and feels like it could run forever like Gargoyles. The ultimate goal I suppose would be the acceptance of New Olympus by humanity, but judging by the response toward gargoyles, wouldn't likely fit within an entire series, no matter how long it might be. Still, got an ending in mind, even if it's pretty open-ended, like "Hunter's Moon pt.3"?

Thanks a lot for answering.

Greg responds...

Francois,

Well, time delay means that I believe we met in Montreal (and, no, I didn't choose the location -- I don't make those decisions). You played Lex in the radio play, right?

1a. Some yes, some no. I know where Dark Ages ends -- with "Awakening, Part One". I know where "TimeDancer" ends... right where it began. I have a VERY good idea of how the Space-Spawn thing is resolved, but I don't think that necessarily marks the end of 2198. And likewise, I don't have a firm ending for Pendragon, Bad Guys or the New Olympians... but I have a good idea where I want to go with the first major arcs. As for Gargoyles itself -- that would end in 2198.

1a) [You had two (a)s.] Some stories -- whether long or short -- need closure. They're one-shots... no matter how long they last. Others can be open-ended. I lean toward the latter personally... because life is ongoing -- even after individuals die. But I respect the other form as well.

b) I'm not going to reveal whether or not they find redemption, but yes that's the goal. The thing is... even if I were to redeem all the original cast, the concept can survive them. And new characters may be introduced that give us a reason to continue. I will say, that I wouldn't be shy to bring a series to an end if I had no more stories to tell. That just has never happened to me within the Garg Universe. Not yet anyway.

c) See above for confirmation of your basic thesis. But I have a fairly clear general idea of how the whole dance, including the finale choreographs. But I won't pretend I have all forty years worth of adventures planned out to the last detail. I don't.

c) [You had two (c)s, as well.] See above. The war doesn't end the series.

d) See above.

e) I have endings in mind for some of the arcs that I plan to set in motion. But even the ultimate death of Arthur himself (which I was not planning anytime soon) might not end this series. I have at least one significant idea to go beyond Arthur...

f) Same deal. I have specific arcs in mind, and I have a solid idea of how they end. But I doubt that they wouldn't lead to more stories. If in fact they didn't and I was out of juice there, I'd shut it down.

Response recorded on April 14, 2005

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Mike writes...

What are the New Olympians?

Greg responds...

They are a hybrid race, the children of "unions" between mortals of various species and the Children of Oberon. The current New Olympians are the descendants of the gods and monsters of Greek and Roman Mythology. These ancestors moved to the island of New Olympus to escape human persecution.

Response recorded on November 29, 2004

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Chapter L: "The New Olympians"

Time to ramble...

Chapter L: "The New Olympians"
Story Editor: Gary Sperling
Writer: Adam Gilad
Director: Bob Kline

ORIGINS
Well, the Greek Myths of course. But that's not really what I'm talking about. As many of you know, The New Olympians was a concept -- originally created by Bob Kline -- that we began developing at Disney TV Animation even BEFORE Gargoyles. It was definitely a concept that evolved, but it was also a concept that we felt fit nicely into the Gargoyles Universe. So this episode was created as a backdoor pilot. At the time we had big plans for the Gargoyles Universe. Hopes that it would eventually evolve into Disney's equivalent of the Marvel or DC Universe. The World Tour expanded our Universe in many ways -- mostly for the sake of the Gargoyles series itself. But also to demonstrate that our universe had the "chops" to go the distance.

So the New Olympians were imported whole, like Athena from Zeus' head -- into the gargverse. The development for "The New Olympians" series focused on four major characters: Terry, Sphinx, Talos and Taurus. Terry and Sphinx were kept out of this episode on purpose -- so that we'd have fresh faces for the series if it went. Talos has a very minor role. But Taurus took a lead here. Other characters, such as Kiron, Ekidna, Helios, Boreas and, of course, Proteus were also part of the N.O. development. Though again, we left out a bunch of other characters: Xetes, Kalais, Medusa, Jove and Xanatos (yes, Xanatos) so that the whole series didn't become old news, should it get going.

The basic concept of the series, familiar to anyone who's attended a Gathering and seen the original pitch, was Romeo & Juliet. Terry is a human. Sphinx is a New Olympian. They are in love. But their "families" aren't making that love easy. This episode, would in essence be a PREQUEL to that series. Terry hasn't arrived yet. Elisa will help pave the way for Boreas' decision to finally reveal the New Olympians to the human world.

But another important inspiration was the work of Jack Kirby. In my recent ramble on "Eye of the Storm", I commented on how we strove to avoid a Kirbyesque Odin -- and didn't entirely succeed. Here, Kirby was a clear influence. I hope The New Olympians weren't a rip-off, but I can't deny that his Inhumans, his Eternals and his New Gods influenced us -- or me, at least -- when we were creating both New Olympus and our cast of characters.

Creating the cast was also interesting. We basically compiled a list of Greek & Roman myth-figures. Gods. Monsters. Titans. Etc. Then we tried to think about their descendants... Tried to think about which would be the most visually interesting. (A lot of the gods, for example, just look like glorified humans, so we tended to ignore them.) Originally, Kiron had the Taurus role and Medusa had the Sphinx role. But after talking with the artists, we made the double switch, because it was felt that having to animate a centaur and a woman with snaky hair on a regular basis was just inviting difficulties. As with many of these pragmatic decisions, I eventually fell in love with the new version -- and wouldn't want to go back, even if I could be assured of the highest possible animation quality.

In order to import this diverse group into the Gargverse, I posited that these were the descendents of mortals who mated with the Children of Oberon (or Mab). They therefore have incredible abilities and amazing appearances, but they are mortal. Some may have extremely long lives, but they do age. Still, before they left the human world behind, many of the original Olympians were treated as Gods. But some were treated as Monsters. As in Gargoyles, PREJUDICE would be a major theme of the series. In fact, if you look at the PREVIOUSLY of this episode, you'll see that it's fully thematic. All stuff about humans being prejudiced about Gargoyles. That's because we had nothing content-wise that we needed to set up. But if we set-up human prejudice, than it helped forge the twist of prejudice against humans, which Elisa would face in the episode. (I do wish we had thought to include Goliath's line: "Humans fear what they do not understand...")

So the New Olympians fled the Human World. They established a secret island and developed astounding technology... including a cloaking device. (I was always a touch disappointed with all the fog and mist in the opening scene. I wanted the skiff to suddenly be on the open sea, with nothing around for miles. The fog allowed for the notion that something might be hiding BEHIND it. I didn't want that. Still, I think the idea gets across. And the shimmer effect is nice. Plus, I like how Goliath abruptly spreads his wings when he enters it. When my daughter Erin saw the city finally materialize, she said: "Wow!")

OLD LINES IN NEW CONTEXT
Were we just out of dialogue ideas, or were we trying to make a point or an inside joke or something. I'll let you decide...
Goliath: "We cannot wage war against an entire city."
Elisa: "You'll have to do better than that."

VOICE WORK
Michael Dorn wound up playing Taurus and the late Roddy McDowell as Proteus. Dorian Harewood, who was originally cast as Boreas, also wound up playing Talos. But none of these three were our original choices for those rolls. Instead we cast three people who I thought would be perfect for their parts. But none hit it. It was one of our rare recordings that DIDN'T work. So we fell back on Michael to play the very Worf-like Taurus. (This sometimes bothers me as the voice is exactly the same as Coldstone's. But ultimately you go with the best hand you have at the time.) Dorian ended up doing double duty as Talos and was terrific. And of course, Roddy was just brilliant as Proteus.

What's interesting is that Proteus himself is not the greatest actor. Erin noticed... "There's something different in his voice." Of course, it's Keith David PLAYING Proteus playing Goliath. (Which is always fun.) And Keith hits the mark with precision. As does Salli & Michael when they're playing Proteus playing Elisa & Taurus. Sure Proteus always LOOKS the part -- thanks to his shape-shifting abilities. And I suppose he's less of a ham than Sevarius. But he never quite takes the time to truly "inhabit" his roles. Certainly, while playing Elisa and then Goliath, there are a number of small tip-offs in his choice of words that are just wrong. Like can you really imagine Goliath saying: "Who's that guy?" One assumes that his performance as Taurus' dad is equally off the mark.

The walla in the Senate House when Elisa is on trial isn't my favorite. We just didn't get enough coverage, so it repeats and repeats.

PREJUDICE
All of the New Olympians we see are prejudiced. Every one. Some are worse than others. Boreas is well-meaning, but wrong. Taurus is narrow-minded. Talos is, at best, only pragmatic -- not morally outraged by Elisa's treatment. Most of the others are just flat out racists. "New Olympians fear what they don't understand." I'm sure somewhere on the island there were some more enlightened individuals, but we made a point of NOT showing them.

I wanted to do a few things with that theme. (1) Show that prejudice breeds prejudice. The New Olympians have some legitimate grievances against the human race, but they've learned the wrong lessons from their ancient persecution. (2) Of course, we wanted to play the irony of the monsters being afraid of the "Humans of Legend". Elisa tells the Gargoyles to hide when they first land on the island. And she's the one that the New Olympians fear. They have "no quarrel" with the Gargoyles. And the best solution that even Boreas and Taurus can come up with is to "Quarantine" our girl. (3) There was a three. I had it in my head a minute ago. Now, for the life of me, I can't remember what it was.

Maybe it had something to do with Prejudice only truly being able to be attacked one person at a time. I went to an all boys high school. We were all so deathly afraid of being called homosexuals that a culture of homophobia was ingrained into all of us. It wasn't like I was going around gay-bashing. I like to think that even then, I had the sense and the control to stifle my prejudices. But I can't deny I had them -- probably still have them to some extent, unfortunately. Anyway, then I went to college. Acted in a couple plays with a guy I really admired -- both as an actor and as a human being. Became good friends with this guy (who had the amazing name Steve Wraith). THEN I discovered he was gay. By that time, I didn't care. He had personally won me over -- in a slightly less dramatic fashion then how Homer Simpson learned to accept gays after John Waters saved his life. Steve never saved my life, but I'm afraid the metaphor is VERY apt. I haven't seen Steve in twenty years, but I owe him a lot. A few years later my cousin came out. After that, many if not most of my friends came out. My sister. Etc. Steve paved the way to make me a better person. Conceptually, we can all talk about dismissing prejudice, but I have this sneaking suspicion that the only way we really learn is one human being at a time. That's why Goliath vouching for Elisa was ineffective. People are doomed to HAVE to figure things out for themselves. And unfortunately, some never do.

WHO KNEW THESEUS WAS SUCH A BASTARD?
And so we put Taurus through that process. He meets a human. His distaste is palpable. He knows the story of the Minotaur, his ancestor. [Now Theseus is one of my all time favorite characters from Myth. But I couldn't resist flipping the tale of the Labyrinth and telling it, if just for a few seconds, from the Minotaur's point of view.] But Taurus will learn to respect humans - one human at at time. Elisa and Taurus actually have a lot in common. Both are cops. Both have/had fathers who are/were cops. But as Elisa says, he's "got some funny ideas about justice."

Elisa is clearly more enlightened. In part, that may come from her own history. She grew up as a person of color in a largely white society. She's no stranger to prejudice. Being both African-American and Native American, it's possible that she has even faced some rejection from African-Americans and Native Americans as well. Clearly, based on her openness with regards to Goliath and the Gargoyles, she learned her lessons long before we met her. Pretty much from the moment she realized that Goliath could talk -- and was therefore sentient by human standards, she treated him as an equal. I always admired her for that. Unlike the New Olympians, she didn't let the prejudice she faced turn her into a bigot.

Taurus will eventually get the message. His prejudices don't just vanish. But he's learned something.

SOME NEAT MOVES
I like the sequence where Goliath comes to break Elisa out, and Proteus takes advantage of the situation by first turning into Elisa and then Goliath. (When Erin first saw him as Elisa, she said, "Uh oh." which is pretty much exactly what he was going for.

I like how Taurus threatens to fire Helios.

I like how Goliath turns to stone in Proteus' cell.

I like how Elisa takes charge -- and basically FORCES Taurus to partner up with her. She has two tip offs that Proteus is posing as Goliath. First the fact that he didn't turn to stone and blames it on the cloaking device affecting the sun's rays. Of course, Elisa knows that it's not literally the sun that turns a gargoyle to stone. It's his or her biological clock, which is often triggered by sunrise. But the real clincher is Proteus' plan to blow up the Collonadium. Elisa knows Goliath would NEVER do that.

I like when Taurus tries to express his admiration -- and still can't do it without insulting her species. Elisa takes it in stride: "I'll choose to take that as a compliment." Progress is slow.

THE NEW OLYMPIANS
We end the episode with a pretty blatant pitch for giving the New Olympians their own show. It's certainly shameless. But I make no apologies. I still contend that THE NEW OLYMPIANS would make a GREAT t.v. series.

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


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Anonymous writes...

Is New Olympian society based on the Roman one with the plebs and the patricians and the Senate?

Greg responds...

It's a mixture of Greek & Roman.

Response recorded on October 05, 2004

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Anonymous writes...

Is Taurus's role as security chief passed from father to son? If not then how are they selected?

Was Boreas elected to his role as leader of New Olympus or was it inherited?

Greg responds...

Taurus' job isn't officially passed down from father to son. But Taurus did follow in his father's hoofsteps.

Boreas' was elected.

Response recorded on October 05, 2004

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Dave writes...

Hey Gregg, I'm new to this site, and I was just wondering... is there something I missed about Gargoyles? I mean, I know of Gargoyles, and The Goliath Chronicles, but was there some other Gargoyle show that aired after?

What lies ahead for Gargoyles? Do you plan on bringing them back to the air at some point? I'd really like to see some new Gargoyles cartoons....

Thank you.

Greg responds...

There were proposed spin-offs, sequels and prequels, including

Gargoyles: The Dark Ages
TimeDancer
The New Olympians
Pendragon
Bad Guys
Gargoyles 2198

plus plenty ideas just to continue the "Gargoyles" series itself.

I haven't been able to convince Disney to do any of these things.

But who knows?

"Firefly" was dead. It sold a TON of DVDs and now they're making a movie, "Serenity". "Family Guy" was dead. It sold a TON of DVDs and now they're making new episodes.

Up until this year, the best single way you could help relaunch the show in some way, shape or form was by attending the Gathering, our annual convention. That's still true. So if you haven't heard, check out this year's con at their website:

http://www.gatheringofthegargoyles.com/

The good folks at Walt Disney Home Entertainment took notice of the fandom, largely thanks to these conventions. They'll be attending this year with a video crew to tape footage of the con to put on the Gargoyles DVD, to be released later THIS year (2004!).

The DVD will contain all 13 episodes of the series' first season, complete and uncut. It will also have a commentary track and other extras (in addition to the con footage) that are still being discussed.

If you want to see the 2nd Season on DVD, and if you want to see Disney make more Garg Universe materials, there's no better way to get them to take notice than by buying the DVD. If the fans demonstrate an audience with disposable income, Disney will respond. It's not far-fetched. It's happened before.

Response recorded on July 02, 2004

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Marcus Palmer writes...

OKay, First of all, Vulcan is the Roman God of what?

Please Answer ASAP..

Greg responds...

The Forge.

And that's ASAP. Less than two years. Worth the wait?

Response recorded on March 09, 2004

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Anonymous writes...

You know how in most comic books that super-villains end up in mental hospitals for the criminally insane instead of prison? Two examples are Arkham Asylum in the DC comics and Ravencroft in Marvel Comics. Out of all of the Gargoyles' enemies, who would most likely end up in an insane asylum? Fans have to admit that villains like Demona, Dr. Sevarious, Castaway, Thailog, Hyena, Jackal, Proteus and Coldsteel are all nuts! Plus, Wolf and Fang seem to have some issues.

Greg responds...

I don't think that either Wolf, Fang, Sevarius, Thailog or Coldsteel are "criminally insane" by its legal definition. I think it's a stretch for Demona, Jackal, Castaway and Proteus as well. That is, all these characters know right from wrong.

Of the characters you named, Hyena and Proteus are the most psychopathic. But I think Proteus knows what he's doing. He just revels in his evil. Hyena, frankly, isn't that bright. She has no control at all, beyond some semi-affection for her brother, i.e. her anchor.

Clearly, many of these characters COULD wind up in someplace Arkhamesque. But that would depend on lawyers and judges and juries. Obviously, the one trial we know that Hyena faced landed her in a regular prison cell right beside Fox. So even for her, a legal argument could obviously be made that she was criminally sane.

Response recorded on January 22, 2004

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Anonymous writes...

Would the New Olympian spin-off be centered more on politics and romance?

Greg responds...

Neither, really. It would be centered on action. But as with most of my stuff there'd certainly be aspects of intrigue, politics, romance, etc.

Response recorded on August 29, 2003

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seeker writes...

Where can I find the stories refered to in different questions? Such as the story of Oberon and Mab, or the stories that take place in the future? I've searced for them but haven't found them.

Greg responds...

Well, some of those stories just don't exist anywhere outside my head.

If you look at the Gargoyles 2198 ASK GREG archive, you can see the development I did for that imaginary spin-off. And if you come to a Gathering, you can see the original pitches for GARGOYLES, GARGOYLES: DARK AGES and NEW OLYMPIANS and the reel for BAD GUYS.

But mostly, I've only revealed tidbits here and there that at best might suggest a story or two. The only stories I've actually told are:

1. The first two seasons of the GARGOYLES Series. 65 Episodes.
2. "The Journey". The first episode of THE GOLIATH CHRONICLES.
3. An unpublished comic book script, featuring an untold episode from the World Tour. So far, I haven't shown this to anyone beyond my former Marvel Comics Editor.
4. "The Last". An episode of TEAM ATLANTIS that was never made, but which was written, recorded and partially storyboarded. I play the voice tape (featuring Marina Sirtis as Demona) at the Gathering.
5. "Once Upon A Time There Were Three Brothers..." My one and only stab at fanfiction. It's a prequel to DARK AGES... which you can find here:

http://www.s8.org/gargoyles/askgreg/faq/threebrothers.htm

At the end, it says TO BE CONTINUED, but DARK AGES is the continuation.

Response recorded on July 22, 2003

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Anonymous writes...

1a. When she learns of the New Olympians what does Demona think of them?1b. Does she regard them as another sub species of human? 1c.Does she want to wipe them out?

2.What inspirations did you guys take from the New Gods for New Olympians? I mean the New Olympians are more like the Inhumans and Eternals than the New Gods.

3.In the very original pre-gargoyle pitch of New Olympians what were the four main characters? 3b.Was Sphinx one of them? If so was she Terry's love interest in it?

3c. Somebody said that Medusa was one of the four characters is this true? 3d. If so was she to be Terry's love interest? 3e. If not what role was she to play?

4a.What are the names of Boreas's sons?
4b.Does Boreas have any other kids?

Greg responds...

1. I think she'd be suspicious of them, while simultaneously looking for a way to exploit them and/or coopt them to her anti-human cause. But I don't think she'd trust them.

2. The New Olympians were inspired by the various works of Jack Kirby, including the New Gods, the Inhumans and the Eternals. I'd tend to agree that they're more Eternal than New Godian, but my point in sighting all three is that we weren't trying to rip off one specific group. We simply were inspired by the style of that sort of mythic stuff.

3. It was the same four characters. Sphinx, Talos, Taurus and Terry. It was the same show. Same relationships. We just threw in a gargoyles prequel episode.

3a. Every show goes through a development process. And at one point VERY EARLY ON, Medusa was in Sphinx's place (in every way). But I was told her hair would be hard to have to animate if she was going to be a regular and in almost every scene. So we switched in Sphinx. But all this was long before New Olympians got co-opted into Gargoyles, by which time Sphinx had long been in the Medusa slot. FYI, Back then Kiron the Centaur was in Taurus' slot. Again, we made a one-for-one switch for animation purposes.

4a. Kaleas and Zeteas

4b. No. (At least none that I know of.)

Response recorded on June 17, 2003

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Denis writes...

Hello, Greg!

here's the first of two post, about two separated topics.

Anonymous' question about Proteus' lifespan made me wonder; though not about his future, but about his past.
Have you set the year of his birth, or his age?

Greg responds...

Nope.

Response recorded on May 23, 2003

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Lynati writes...

Why can't I sleep?
I've been up since 7 am yesterday. This just isn't fair.

Getting to the *actual* question...(I've looked through the archives, and haven't seen this one. I apologize if I missed it. And even more so If I've previously asked this question but forgot your response because it was a smart-ass one.)

"All things are true" you say, but I would appreciate it if you would clarify this for me:
In your conception of the gargoyles universe, are all "non-mortal" beings of the Fae race, or do you allow for the existence of anthropomorphic personifications?
(My, you do get a lot of Neil Gaimen inspired questions, don't you?)

[And as Aaron seems to have become lax in his posting of webcomic (and related) links...]
http://pixelscapes.com/sailornothing/

Greg responds...

Well, I hope you've been able to get some sleep since November 9, 2001...

I guess, and I'm not trying to be a smart-ass here, I'm not sure how you're defining "anthropomorphic personifications"? How is that different from, say, Anansi or The Stone of Destiny?

Anansi is definitely a "Child of Oberon." Not literally his kid, but one of his race. (Note: he's not Fae, which is not a term from the series. I view the Fae as a subset of the Children. Same with the Norse Pantheon and the Egyptian Pantheon, etc.)

Whereas, the Stone of Destiny is either an enchanted object or a Child of Oberon. I've intentionally left that vague for now.

As you've seen, the New Olympians are, strictly speaking, not Children of Oberon, though they are descended from them. Do they count as anthromorphic personifications?

So, I'm not trying to dodge the answer. I just honestly don't know how to define your terms.

Response recorded on May 14, 2003

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Anonymous writes...

Besides anti-gravity,force shields and robotics what other interesting tech do the NOs have?

Greg responds...

Holographics? (Whatever keeps you from seeing the island until you get within a certain perimeter.)

Response recorded on February 04, 2003

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Cha-Cha writes...

As of 1996, how much does Demona know of the N.O.?

Greg responds...

Nothing.

Response recorded on February 14, 2002

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Anonymous writes...

Proteus
What is Proteus¡¯s lifespan? Is he around in 2198? If so what has he been doing? By 2198 how many sentient beings has he killed?

Greg responds...

Not saying.

Response recorded on November 13, 2001

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Anonymous writes...

Will Sphinx and Terry have descendents in 2198?

Greg responds...

Not saying one way or another.

(Do you see how if I admitted anything along these lines, it would ruin a great deal of supsense for these characters in the present?)

Response recorded on October 17, 2001

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Anonymous writes...

How advanced were the New Olympians when they fled to New Olympus? Did they have any tech the Mediterranean world didn¡¯t have? If so what kind of tech?
You said the New Olympians had something better than nuclear tech so what is it? Fusion?

Greg responds...

Well, Talos, at least, was fairly advanced and not common to the 'known world'.

Not saying.

Response recorded on October 17, 2001

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Anonymous writes...

How advanced is the Illuminati¡¯s tech? Beyond Xanatos¡¯s tech? Anywhere close to New Olympian tech?

Greg responds...

There's no across the board answer to this. Different groups will be more advanced in different areas.

Response recorded on October 17, 2001

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Cha-Cha writes...

1. Who was the centaur at the Gathering?
2. Is Medusa a N.O. or one of Oberon's children?
Because she was at the Gathering and in an older post someone mentioned she was also on New Olympus.

Greg responds...

1. Good question.
2. The Medusa I've given any thought too is a New Olympian. If there was a medusa-like character at the Gathering, I don't recall. But keep in mind that the Children are shape-shifters and can look pretty much like whatever they want.

Response recorded on October 10, 2001

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Anonymous writes...

What was the difference between the original NO show and the latter one that became part of the gargoyles universe besides Sphinx being Terry's girlfriend and Xanatos appearing? Were all the characters there including Helios, Jove, Borea and his son, Chiron, Ekidna, Taurus, Talos, Sphinx, Medusa and Terry and his mother?

Greg responds...

There were no differences except Xanatos.

Sphinx and Terry were always slated to be Romeo and Juliet.

The problem you're having is that I talk occasionally about brainstorming sessions and ideas from them. But that doesn't mean we have entire separate versions of these shows developed. In the first (and really only) version of New Olympians, the leads were Terry, Sphinx, Talos and Taurus, with all the supporting characters you mentioned, plus Proteus of course. (Oh, and Boreas has two sons.) And it's Kiron not Chiron.

Response recorded on September 11, 2001

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Anonymous writes...

Have you seen Batman Beyond?
What do you think of it?
I've been told that the design of Terry McGinnis from BB is similar to that of Terry Chung of the NO any truth to that?

Greg responds...

Yes.

I think it's very well made. And I like certain things about it. But it just feels more Spider-Manish to me than Batman.

Well, there's no final model for Terry Chung, but from what I've seen, no. For starters, Terry Chung is Chinese-American. Terry McGinnis isn't. And Terry Chung wears contemporary clothes. Terry McGinnis wears... well... clothes from beyond.

Response recorded on September 11, 2001

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Anonymous writes...

I the original version of New Olympians that you made was Ekidna Medusa's mother?
Was Sphinx in the original? If so what role did she serve?

Greg responds...

Yes.

Yes.

The exact same role.

Response recorded on September 11, 2001

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Anonymous writes...

Are there any other sentient races native to our solar system besides Lost race,Gargoyles,Humans,Fae and New olympians? If so care to list a few?

Greg responds...

If there were, I wouldn't list them. But there aren't. But if there were, I wouldn't list them.

(All this of course ignores our recent discussions about the misuse of the term 'sentient'.)

Response recorded on September 11, 2001

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Lord Sloth writes...

Is the reason you created the clone's differn't skin, eyes and hair pigmintation, because you didn't want another cartoon where your trying to figure out which one is the real Goliath or Lexington? Or at least not overdue it since this happend latter with Proteus?

Greg responds...

I liked Thailog's look. It was partially inspired by the changes that John Byrne made to the Fantastic Four's costumes in the eighties.

But yes. Though we played the beat for a couple of acts, I didn't want to do EVIL TWIN takes the place of the good guy and confuses everyone. Once Thailog was revealed, there wasn't any question as to who was who. Just seemed a more original take on the old clone idea. What do the rest of you think?

(And Proteus had nothing to do with it. At the time we were creating Thailog, I didn't yet know that I was going to insert The New Olympians into the Garg Universe.)

Response recorded on September 08, 2001

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Lord Sloth writes...

Top of the milk to ya greg.
Greg Bishansky just posted a bunch of info about the New Olimpian spin off, that I had never heard before, and said that you had reveled all of it at Gatherings. So have you, or will you ever post profiles about each of the spin offs on the internet in as much detail as you have with Gargoyles 2198?
tanks.

Greg responds...

Maybe.

Response recorded on September 06, 2001

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Lord Sloth writes...

1. Are the New Olimpian Gargoyels under the same Government as all of New Olimpis, or do they have an independant system?

2. Did the N.O. Gargoyels come to New Olimpis for the same reasons as the "halflings"? b. Did they come at the same time?

Greg responds...

1. They are citizens of New Olympus. But they have a 'local' clan government and largely keep to themselves.

2. Largely, yes.

b. New Olympus wasn't colonized at one specific time in history. Though it was founded at a specific time and closed off at a specific time. But there was a LONG span in between these two events.

Response recorded on September 03, 2001

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Kelly L Creighton/Kya White Sapphire writes...

ooh wait found another one. (please, if you dislike the fact that im posting dozens of questions, let me know and i will stop at once.)

Anonymous writes...
You said that the New Olympians had something better than nuclear tech could you tell us what it is?

Greg responds...

Zeracoy Enex Power.

(I just made that up.)

recorded on 06-29-01

thats great!

Greg responds...

I feel like now, I could come up with something that sounded better but made no more sense.

Response recorded on August 24, 2001

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Anonymous writes...

What exactly is Mount Thanatos? City?
Why did they name it after death incarnate?

Greg responds...

It's a mountain. And that's a LONG story.

Response recorded on August 15, 2001

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Sapphire writes...

What is the New olympians role in the liberation of earth against Space Spawn rule?

Greg responds...

Eventually, significant.

Response recorded on August 15, 2001

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JEB writes...

How genetically compatible are New Olympians with gargoyles and humans? Can the NOs successfully have children with those races?

Greg responds...

It is unlikely, but not impossible.

Response recorded on August 08, 2001

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Lord Sloth writes...

Why do none of the New Olimpians bother to tell Goliath that there are other Gargoyles on New Olimpis? Where do the other gargoyles live on the island? How big is the Island? it looked like it was just one floating city.

Greg responds...

It's fairly big. They may have thought Goliath knew. The Gargoyles of New Olympus are isolationists, even from their fellow citizens.

Response recorded on July 27, 2001

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Anonymous writes...

Were you trying to imitate Kirby's Gods among us theme when you were developing New Olympians?

Greg responds...

As I've mentioned before, Kirby's Eternals (and to a lesser extent his Inhumans and New Gods) were definite inspirations. We hope what we created was unique and original, but I don't deny the influence. We were going for something Kirbyesque.

Response recorded on July 27, 2001

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Lord Sloth writes...

What part did Roddy McDowell play in Gargoyles?

Greg responds...

Proteus.

Response recorded on July 20, 2001

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Todd Jensen writes...

You recently (as of June 29) mentioned that New Olympus is a representative democracy. However, in the television episode, the New Olympians (during the scene where Elisa is on trial in the Senate-house; I believe that it's Ekidna who says it) describe their homeland as a kingdom. How do we reconcile these statements? Was there some sort of change in government system since New Olympus was originally founded?

Greg responds...

Yes.

Response recorded on July 17, 2001

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Anonymous writes...

Were you ever influenced by the Inhumans of Marvel comics while you were making New Olympians?

Greg responds...

More the Eternals and the New Gods. But I suppose you could throw the Inhumans in there too. It was a very Kirby-inspired concept, and we made no bones about it. Bob Kline, Gargoyles' original Development Art Director and later a Producer/Director on the series' second season, came up with the original idea that developed into New Olympians. This was some time before Gargoyles. We later folded it in.

Response recorded on July 10, 2001

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Laura 'ad astra' Ackerman writes...

I was looking over the [finally] completed description of the future series and after happily ooing and aahing, I had a few questions.

-1- I noticed that Broadway and Angela's biological children had similar sounding names, (arthurian in my mind). Since they were not named specifically by the parents but rather as clan children, (I assume), I was wondering if this was intentional. Are rookeries intentionally named with similar names, like the angel theme with the Avalon eggs? Do near rookeries share somewhat similar names and distant ones more different ones? Am I reading way too much into a statistical sample of three?

[Side question- Broadway, raised by Gargoyles would not care who was his biological child, but Angela was raised by humans, even if they did try to follow the gargoyle mode. Does she care a little, or at least think about it?]

-2- Nicolas Natzilani Maza, (please excuse my spelling, I am composing this offline): From which of the current Maza siblings does he descend?

-3- Alexander Fox Xanatos IV: I have a feeling I am being a bit dense here, but is he the same Alex as Alexander Fox Xanatos I but covering for extreme longevity?

-4- I don't remember any mention of the New Olympians. Do they play a notable role? If not, where are they?

-5- Logistically I am confused about something- In a perfect world all the Gargoyle spin offs would be running at the same time for an indefinate amount of time. More specifically Time Dancer and Gargoyles 2198 would be running at once. [Which leads to another side question: What you call the series after the first year?] As I see it the first year or two wouldn't be a problem- Timedancer Brooklyn would be a couple of years younger than future Brooklyn and we just wont see him describing in detail events that haven't happened yet in Time Dancer to people in 2198.

The problems start when it comes time for Time Dancer Brooklyn to go to 2198. The easiest way I can see it is, we see him leave, we see him return ten years older all in one ep, "wow! I just spent ten years fighting aliens in the future! But I wont say anything more as not to let you know too much about what will be." Then we have a Time Dancer Brooklyn ten or so years older than the Future one and a massive, sustained chuck of time that he can't give away to the audience. It seems like it would be a very awkward.

Thanks... And enjoy the con!! I hope you give a passing thought to those of us stuck on the other side of the continent. (This whole being an adult with a job kinda sucks sometimes.)

Greg responds...

1. You probably are reading a bit too much into a statistical sample of three. Plus, keep in mind that the Manhattan Clan doesn't exactly have deeply held traditions in naming. The whole concept is fairly new to them.

1a. I think Angela does think about it. But keep in mind, she was group raised. This way, as a parent, she has more children to love. That suits her fine.

2. I'm SO not telling.

3. Yes.

4. They will eventually play a roll. Technology-wise, the rest of the world has caught up to them. I wouldn't fully re-intro them right away, although their leader will be kidnapped along with Alex.

5. You worry too much. I should have such worries.

Response recorded on July 10, 2001

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Sloth writes...

The New Olipians said Elisa was the first human to visit in 2000 years, does that mean another human has visited, or is that when the built the city?

Greg responds...

Others have been there. Just not recently. Also the island wasn't quite as isolated at first.

Response recorded on July 09, 2001

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Sloth writes...

Do the New Olimpians worship the old greek gods (Zues, Hera, Aires)?

Greg responds...

Worship, no. Honor, some.

Response recorded on July 09, 2001

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Todd Jensen writes...

In Greek mythology, the original Boreas had a pair of sons, named Calais and Zetes, who were portrayed as having wings. Was this what inspired the notion of the New Olympian Boreas having wings?

Greg responds...

Yes. Also, we'd be meeting his sons eventually.

Response recorded on July 09, 2001

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Todd Jensen writes...

At the end of "The New Olympians", Taurus, after discovering how Elisa had risked herself to stop Proteus from destroying New Olympus, comments that she is not like the "humans of legend". Was this particular phrase intended as a sort of "double-meaning one"? While the obvious and immediate meaning is the humans of the New Olympians' legends, the evidence presented in the episode is that the same humans who mistreated them and drove them into hiding in their tales were, or included, the heroes of Greek legend such as Theseus, so that "humans of legend" could mean as much the humans of our legends as the New Olympians'. Was this intended as being the case?

Greg responds...

Yeah. Plus the on-going reversal in this episode. Like Gargoyles of legend or Olympians of legend. Here we were taking the point of view of these mythical creatures, to whom humans were the legendary "Other" that we've been talking about recently. Just part of the on-going exploration of the shows core themes, seen from the other side.

Response recorded on July 09, 2001

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LSZ writes...

Do any of the New Olympians look as human in their natural forms as Alex?

Greg responds...

No.

Response recorded on July 09, 2001

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Sapphire writes...

After the arrival of the New Olympians in New york city would the new Olympians be keen on sharing their technology and scientific discoveries with humanity?

Greg responds...

Cautions, not keen.

Response recorded on July 06, 2001

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Anonymous writes...

What kind of government does New Olympus have?

Greg responds...

Representative democracy.

Response recorded on June 29, 2001

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Anonymous writes...

How does the New Olympus cloaking field work? Does it make it invisible from sensors and our eye?

Greg responds...

From outside, yes.

Response recorded on June 29, 2001

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Anonymous writes...

You said that the New Olympians had something better than nuclear tech could you tell us what it is?

Greg responds...

Zeracoy Enex Power.

(I just made that up.)

Response recorded on June 29, 2001

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Anonymous writes...

What faction does Sphinx's family belong to?

Greg responds...

It's a big family. But most are in Ekidna's Isolationist faction.

Response recorded on June 29, 2001

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Anonymous writes...

Why is Proteus an insane mass murderer?

Greg responds...

Not enough iron in his diet.

Response recorded on June 29, 2001

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Anonymous writes...

Who was the father of the original minotaur? Was it fay?
Who was the person that bore the Minotaur's children? What happened to her?
Was the minotaur locked in the Labyrinth on Crete really slayen by Thesus?

Greg responds...

1. I guess if you say ORIGINAL minotaur than at least one of his parents was fay.

2. I'm not revealing these details at this point.

3. Yes. Though exactly what happened there is subject to many interpretations.

Response recorded on June 29, 2001

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Anonymous writes...

Happy Fourth of July

What does Sphinx's family's think of her relationship with Terry?

What does Terry's family think of his relationship with Sphinx?

Greg responds...

Neither family is thrilled.

(And it's still June. But you're not far off.)

Response recorded on June 29, 2001

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Rob Irwin writes...

Man, they just keep coming!
The new Olimpiens, I get the felling that they are not a group of Oberon's children, yet they all seem to differn't to be of one race. Are they a group of many differn't races living together to help ech other, there seemed to be only one of each kind (ie. centaur, winged guy, fire dude).

OK, that will be the last one for awhile I think, at least till my others get answered

Greg responds...

It's not like you saw every New Olympian on the island. Talos is a robot. He's a citizen. There are Gargoyle New Olympian citizens as well.

But most are a single hybrid race descended from the mingling of Oberon's Children with various mortals. They are almost all compatible enough to breed with each other.

Response recorded on June 29, 2001

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Anonymous writes...

Who exactly is Terry's mother? Has she been mentioned or seen in the series?

Greg responds...

No.

Response recorded on June 29, 2001

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Laura 'ad astra' Ackerman writes...

Another try at sending this out-

I just typed up a particularly long question that didn't post and got lost, and I was foolish not to copy it somewhere before hitting submit. I apologize if it turns up later and this becomes a double post, and also if I can't get rid of the autoformating in Word and it looks a little screwy. After losing that long a question I am not taking a chance working directly into the web page.

It has been a long time since I posted a question... of course it has been a long time since I have been caught up with your answers. After reading all of the new responses, particularly those dealing with Oberon and Titania, a question has come to mind. [Actually two, but how many new ways can you ask, "What did Titania whisper to Fox?"? That question should almost have its own section.] The short form of the question is this: Just how different are Oberon's hildren from humans? I am not referring to physical or magical characteristics, but rather do they think in a quantifiably different way than do humans?

The long version of the questions comes after the long digression:

A while back a friend practically shoved an anthology into my hands and insisted I read a particular article. I believe it was called, "Hamlet in the Bush". The gist of it was that a young anthropologist found herself with an indigenous culture for a long boring stretch. [She had thought the off season would be a wonderful time to get to observe their culture. Had she asked them they would have told her the off season is the off season because the weather is so miserable that they cannot even visit the next village. They spend the time drink the local equivalent to bear waiting for it to pass.]

Before leaving she had had an argument with a friend. She argued that at base all humans are the same and once you do some explaining to take care of cultural differences, a great work of literature would be recognized as such by all people. The example that was bandied about was Hamlet, so he gave her a copy as a going away present.

With nothing else to do she sat in her tent and read it over and over until the locals asked her what on Earth she was doing. They were a non-literate culture and to them reading papers meant reading boring legal documents. Even a white person could not be so daft as to spend weeks doing so. She seized upon it an opportunity to test her theory and they, being a story telling culture, were happy to oblige.

She immediately ran into two problems:
-1-They didn't have a concept of "ghost". Zombie, yes. Evil spirit in false guise, yes. But the idea of a dead person's spirit hanging around this world was simply ludicrous to them.
-2-They thought Claudius was a great guy. He acted as an exemplary uncle and brother-in-law, although he waited a bit long in taking care of his brother's household. [Three whole months! And with only one wife to tend the fields!]

In the end they loved the story (with their corrections) and thought she was on her way being a great storyteller, (being female aside). They also told her to be sure to tell her elders that they had been good hosts and had corrected her misremembering lest she continue in error.

I think her premise held, but she hadn't realized how far cultural difference went. The more complex the story, the more it was tied to its own cultural assumptions and the harder it is to explain to another culture.

Back to Gargoyles-

In Gargoyles the basic emotions seem pretty much universal. Gargoyles, humans, New Olympians, and even Nokar and Matrix as far as we have seen them, display them. Love, hate, curiosity and fear, as well as slightly more complex emotions of protection and loneliness are clearly expressed and are more easily understood than some lost cultures of our own ancestors. Are Oberon's Children fundamentally different, or if we can imagine long enough the effects of great power and incredibly long lives we can empathize without too much brain-sprain?

There are great works of speculative fiction that try to understand the mind of The Other. Zelazny had a whole series of stories of robots worshiping and trying to understand the long last human race. I recently read a great book called "Exogesis" (a post-modern Prometheius) by Astro Teller dealing with how a newly emerged AI might think and how humanity might respond. If I would list every book I could think of on the topic I will never stop typing and will eventually have feel the urge to start listing plays and movies as well, (and probably have to deal with Frankenstein, and I am not fond of the book. It is hard to like a book when you hate the main character. Perhaps the movies were right to make the monster the lead character. :).

It all boils down to this: Are the Children of Oberon "the Other", or something very much like ourselves?

Boy this is long! sorry.

Greg responds...

Don't apologize. It's fascinating.

Boiling it down...

YOU WROTE:

Are Oberon's Children fundamentally different, or if we can imagine long enough the effects of great power and incredibly long lives we can empathize without too much brain-sprain?

I'd have to say the latter. Great power. Little or no responsibility. Long lives. Being able to look however you feel at a given moment. You add these things up and they may seem other for awhile. But fundamentally, it's about extrapolation on our human emotions.

Because fundamentally, as a writer, what else can I do? Maybe someone else has the talent, ability, INTEREST in truly creating the OTHER. But not me. I'm interested in US. Gargoyles, humans, Oberon's Children. Toss in the New Olympians, Nokkar, the Space-Spawn, the Lost Race, etc. I'm fundamentally interested in figuring out what makes us real world humans tick. Or boil it down further, and I'm fundamentally interested in figuring out what the hell makes ME tick. All the characters in the Gargverse are just there as an alternative to me being in therapy, I guess.

Does that make sense?

Response recorded on June 29, 2001

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Sapphire writes...

Is New Olympian society a Patriarchal society in which males are in charge or is everyone equal regardless of gender? as a woman I get really offended when some men say that woman belong in the home, as a comedian on t.v. impersonating Artimis greek goddess of the moon and virgins once said 'all right girls down with men" I totally agree with her, right Matt (not the cartoon Matt but the Matt on this question server)

Greg responds...

Huh?

You lost me toward the end there.

Anyway, no. New Olympus isn't strictly patriarchal. HOWEVER, like our own society, there are remnants of patriarchy still extant. Ekidna holds an important position. Sphinx will too, eventually. But at the moment, the three biggest wigs are Boreas, Taurus and Talos. All guys.

Response recorded on June 27, 2001

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Anonymous writes...

Who has more power in terms of electricity a Labyrinth mutate or Jove of the NOs?

Greg responds...

Probably Jove. But I'm not big on this kind of question.

Response recorded on June 27, 2001

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Anonymous writes...

Who was Helios decended from?

Greg responds...

Lots o' folk.

Response recorded on June 27, 2001

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Anonymous writes...

1. Was the Ekidna in New Olympus a descendent of Echinda of mythology?
a.If so which one of the monster children was she descended from?
b.Why doesn't she look anything like Echinda who had the face of a human?

Greg responds...

1. Yes.
a. I'm not going into that now.
b. She has multiple ancestors.

Response recorded on June 27, 2001

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Anonymous writes...

Does Daedalus exist in the Gargoyles Universe? If so was he a scientist or was he a magic user?

Greg responds...

An inventor.

Response recorded on June 27, 2001

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Anonymous writes...

How did the first Talos work? Gears? Magic?
Who created it?

Greg responds...

Not magic.

As to the who, it was, I believe a team effort. Daedelus and Hephaistos worked on it together.

Response recorded on June 27, 2001

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Anonymous writes...

You said that the ancestors of the New Olympians were the Olympians. Are these Olympians the gods who sat on Mount Olympus or are these Olympians something else entirely?

Greg responds...

The ancestors were the "gods and monsters" of legend. Many of whom were known as the Olympian Gods of Ancient Greek and Roman mythology.

Most of them were of the Children.

Response recorded on June 27, 2001

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Sapphire writes...

Taurus said that Elisa Maza was the first human to visit New Olympus in over 2000 years meaning that around the time Christ was born, a human must of accidently stumbled on to New Olympus can you give discription of what must have happen to this human when he accidently dicovered the secret island?

Greg responds...

I can, yes.

Response recorded on June 27, 2001

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Anonymous writes...

Why does Terry's mother become the UN ambassador to New Olympus?
What exactly is his mother's profession?

Greg responds...

She's a diplomat.

Response recorded on June 27, 2001

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Sapphire writes...

Did the New Olympians made any great advances in the field of genetic engineering? Are New Olympian scientists at present capable of turning someone like Matt (not the cartoon Matt the Matt on this question server that always trys to condidict me) into a mutate like Sevarius did with Derek?

Greg responds...

I don't think that's been of interest to them. They're pretty diverse as it is.

Response recorded on June 21, 2001

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Sapphire writes...

Some monsters in Greek Mythology were once human for example Athena the Greek goddess of wisdom turned Medusa a very beautiful woman into a snake haired monster because Medusa had a love affair with Poisiden. I was wondering are any of the New olympians desended from humans who were turned into monsters by the fay?

Greg responds...

Descended? It's possible, I guess.

But I'm not currently going to commit to any specific myth.

Response recorded on June 21, 2001

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Anonymous writes...

If Proteus is a villain for NO then how does he get off New Olympus to menace our protagonists or does he stay on NO?

Greg responds...

I'm not going to get into the specifics of how he escaped at this time. But he does.

Response recorded on June 19, 2001

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Anonymous writes...

Why does Terry and Sphinx fall in love with each other? Afterall Sphinx isn't even human?

Greg responds...

And Terry isn't even Olympian. And Romeo wasn't a Capulet. And Juliet wasn't a Montague.

Why do any two people fall in love?

What an odd question.

Response recorded on June 19, 2001

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Anonymous writes...

Why would the Eternal looking NOs think that humans would worship them?

Greg responds...

Cuz once upon a time they did. And cuz they have power. And cuz they want to believe it.

Response recorded on June 19, 2001

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Anonymous writes...

What other New Olympians were you planning to introduce besides Ekidna, Medusa, Chiron, Jove, Helios, Boreas and his son?

Greg responds...

Eventually, lots. But you've covered the biggies for the time being. (If you throw in Taurus, Talos, Sphinx and Proteus.)

BTW. Kiron. Not Chiron.

What's with all the "anonymous" posts, anyway?

Response recorded on June 19, 2001

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Anonymous writes...

What are Talos and Taurus's function in the show? Are they also ambassadors to the UN?

Greg responds...

Also? Taurus is the primary ambassador from New Olympus. Talos is his advisor. Sphinx is an aide.

Response recorded on June 19, 2001

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Anonymous writes...

How does Terry become the ambassador to New Olympus?

Greg responds...

He doesn't. His mother does.

Response recorded on June 19, 2001

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Anonymous writes...

You said that Sphinx was a student so what does she study?

Greg responds...

Among other things... humans.

Response recorded on June 19, 2001


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