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Gargoyles

The Phoenix Gate

Comment Room Archive

Comments for the week ending October 18, 2015

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Well, they are sacred afterall...
Matt - [Saint Louis, Missouri, USA]

Michael Reeves sure likes his Tana leaves. That's all I'm gonna say.
Algernon84 - [padraig dot j dot griffin at hotmail dot com]
Strange is the night where black stars rise, And strange moons circle through the skies, But stranger still is Lost Carcosa.

And, to match the pronunciation discussion, I spelled the guy's name wrong in the post that prompted the discussion. (Sorry about that. I don't often encounter it in print, so the precise spelling isn't too clear in my memory.)
Todd Jensen
Hufflepuffs are really good finders

Well Masterdramon you weren't kidding about the fans getting all high and mighty about the pronunciation just one forum insisted in five different ways being the correct way. I like that they went with the older name for demon based on the binary star Algol rather than the word Shaytan (doesn't roll of the tongue as well.) Personally I like Raysh better than Raas (makes me think of that character from Monsters Inc.)
Matthew
From far, from eve and morning, And yon twelve-winded sky, The stuff of life to knit me, Blew hither: here am I. -A.E. Housman

The Raas pronunciation is Arabic. The Raysh pronunciation is Hebrew. Al Ghul is Arabic. Denny O'Neil went with the mix because he didn't want to tie Ra's down to one ethnicity. He wanted Ra's to be bigger than that, more mysterious, more international. Which is why he asked Neil Adams to reflect that desire in Ra's al Ghul's design.

And in "Birth of the Demon", which is Ra's al Ghul's origin story written by Denny O'Neil (which makes it definitive as far as I'm concerned), Ra's is from a tribe of nomads and he was born in northern Africa... but they make it a point to also mention that members of this tribe is from, well, all over the place. Asia, Europe, Africa, the Middle East, etc... making Ra's al Ghul himself, potentially very mixed as far as his ethnic roots go.

Greg Bishansky

General Eiling is Eeling, not Eyeling. No one will ever convince me otherwise.
Greg Weisman

The "canonical" pronunciation is generally considered to be the one Talia uses here, as it was the one used by Dennis O'Neil and he's the creator of the character:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TULYXGYz02c

However, the dirty truth of it is that there is no "correct" pronunciation, as it varies by dialect and it's never been explicitly stated what region of the Arab world Ra's hails from.

Comic book fans LOVE to get all high and mighty on this issue, but there are at least five or six potential pronunciations that could all be considered equally accurate, depending on what specific dialect Ra's named himself in.

Masterdramon - [kmc12009 at mymail dot pomona dot edu]
"Onward and upward." - Bryan Konietzko

The pronunciation of has varied quite a bit. The most common and least accurate form is RAZ (looking at you Arrow for perpetuating this!) According to the wiki it's pronounced RAYSH. I believe RAEESH is closer to the original Arabic pronunciation but I could be wrong.
Matthew
From far, from eve and morning, And yon twelve-winded sky, The stuff of life to knit me, Blew hither: here am I. -A.E. Housman

Greg, did you guys discuss the controversy about the pronunciation for Ra's al Ghul? I was just reading about that.
Samuel - [AnglOfHellO at AOL dot com]
Now, now... Language.

Heh, I was just having a conversation on Facebook about how Ra's al Ghul has the most complicated name in all of comics.
Greg Bishansky

I've never seen that episode of "Star Trek", but in light of where "Gargoyles" got so many of its voice actors from, the parallels between the two episodes certainly sound appropriate.

It reminds me of an episode of "Batman:TAS" I once saw called "Avatar", where Reis el-Ghul was attempting to harness the power over life and death linked to ancient Egypt; many parts of that episode (the title, the ancient Egyptian content, and the "power over life and death") reminded me of "Grief". Greg Weisman confirmed that the parallels were deliberate (in this case, Michael Reaves incorporating into that episode ideas he'd had for "Avatar" but which hadn't made it to the screen).

Todd Jensen
Hufflepuffs are really good finders

Matsya, Kurma, Varaha, Narasimha, Vamana, Parashurama, Rama, Krishna, Gautama Buddha and Kalki.
Algernon - [padraig dot j dot griffin at hotmail dot com]
Along the shore the cloud waves break, The twin suns sink behind the lake, The shadows lengthen In Carcosa.

In honor of Magnus Chase: Asgard, Vanaheim, Alfheim, Midgard, Jotunheim, Nidavellir, Muspelheim, Niflheim, Helheim.
Ross

(8th)Eighth!!!!!!!!
Vinnie - [tpeano29 at hotmail dot com]

Seventh!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!!!

Recently, I watched the episode of Star Trek: TOS "Return to Tomorrow" and I noticed, almost immediatly, that the Episode "POSESSION" was extremely similar to this Trek Episode. So I asked Greg if Posession was based on the trek ep, and he replied "Homage."

The smimilarites:

1) In the Trek Ep, three "souls" are trapped in limbo. A Man, his wife, and another, an "evil" soul.

2) These "souls" wish to be transferred into robotic bodies.

3) In order for the transfer to commence, the souls must be transferred into "host" bodies.

4) The souls must be WILLING to transfer.

5) The Evil soul wishes the good male soul dead, and wants his wife for himself.

6) at one point, like Coldstone and Coldfire, the two good souls talk about being able to feel and smell again.

Although the episode ends differently than does Posession, there are a few more similarites than what I have mentioned; those are the main ones.

The first watch through of this episode hit me like a ton of bricks. I couldn't belive how close the two episodes were, and I'm glad Greg has confirmed that there was indeed an homage.

Has anyone else noticed this?

Battle Beast - [Canada]
I did it! I watched all 494 Best Picture nominees in 365 days!

October 12th divided by 2
Matthew
From far, from eve and morning, And yon twelve-winded sky, The stuff of life to knit me, Blew hither: here am I. -A.E. Housman

I'll take the Fifth.
Brainiac - [OSUBrainiac at gmail dot com]
There is balance in all things. Live in symmetry with the world around you. If you must blow things up and steal from those around you, THAT'S WHAT RPGS ARE FOR!

2+2
2*2
2^2

Paul - [nampahcfluap at yahoo dot com]

Third.
Anthony Tini

Second!
Matt - [Saint Louis, Missouri, USA]

FIRST.
Phoenician
"The suspense is terrible, I hope it lasts" -- Willy Wonka