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The Phoenix Gate

Comment Room Archive

Comments for the week ending October 9, 2022

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So I know there was a whole conversation about moderation on this site, but can the Garfield/Perdita questions be deleted at the very least? Because there’s clearly just one crazy shipper spamming the queue every few hours. It’s pretty ridiculous at this point.
Anonymous

ED - Thanks for your post. Today certainly seems an appropriate day to be watching "Gargoyles" for obvious reasons (though "The Gathering" was clearly set earlier in the year).

I don't know if anyone here watches the "Chibiverse" series, but last night's episode included a brief kind-of-cameo from Demona (a bizarre one, too).

Todd Jensen

Shame about Ask Greg although I'm glad for Greg for taking a break if it's becoming a trial. Ask Greg still seems like a sort of magical place to me, especially thinking back to the early days where I really think those nuggets of information about the Gargoyles universe kept the franchise feeling alive for that huge stretch between 97 and 06. It was so ahead of its time.

Big thanks to Greg, Masterdramon plus Todd, Gore and any others for keeping it alive and hopefully Greg will feel like bouncing back soon.

Todd: Good question to start the week. I do think the Nakayama cover looks awesome. But I also agree the Bronx one is great fun. I'll try to get as many as I can.

Had a spare moment and I watched "The Gathering" again today. Man, I love that 2-parter. I actually think it's one that is, if anything, underrated. The tension and emotion you feel for the VILLAINS is on another level, especially remembering this is a 90s Disney cartoon. Comic hype building.

Ed

Our moon, my children.
Matt
"Well, I'm back..." -Samwise Gamgee, Lord of the Rings

Tonight is the Hunter's Moon.
Todd Jensen

I do like the individual look and feel of Atlantean magic and how that plays into their sigils; some of it was obvious like Mera and Kaldur's and how they favored octopi and eel/sea serpent constructs. It isn't easy to tell but Tula had sigils resembling whirlpools and that was something she excelled at in "Downtime." Then Garth's resembled the funnel cloud of a hurricane and gave him some mastery over the weather.

It makes me wonder if their sigils somehow influence their use of magic or whether they're giving to the them after they show a certain affinity.

Matthew
Ain't nothing crazy 'bout me but my brain!

From what I understand Arion is the first of the homo magi and so I think they wanted him to be like the Lords of Order and have his style be like them, although to be fair we only really saw him before Atlantis fell, and his residual magic in the clone body so perhaps overtime he would have adapted to suit that style.

And I got Blackbriar Thorn being a Druid from here as well as the comic, come to think of it I wonder if Martians used magic in their original appearance? Alien sorcery never appears because I think writers assume they are more tech based which I think is a missed opportunity.

Kevin - [kevin dot nuckols at yahoo dot com]
Kevin Nuckols

I feel each individuals magic is different, so Martian Magic is as broad as Human Magic. Like, water constructs may make it seem Atlantean magic is limited, but theres a lot of different flavours, Coral's healing water, Wyynde's currents, Blubbers technosorcery.

From what little we've seen, I'd say that C'eridyall; life, love, light goddess is key to the controlled martian magic we've seen. Blessing of love and life to Conner coincidentally before he nearly died, images of martian wildlife in the coronation. S'yraa though, with her uncontrolled magic id say more evokes lightning. Which does happen to be another L word, though one potentially a little darker that C'eridyall's other affects.

I imagine that those with a focus on other gods would have different flavours.

Ash

I guess style or even flair might be more apropos. I also sort of use gaming terminology to give some of the characters a more distinct label. Like Blackbriar Thorn being a druid (which he actually is in the comics) so his magic is connected to the earth and natural elements.

Now that you mention it, I kind of wish Arion's own magic resembled a more...impressive? Majestic? In any case, bigger form of Atlantean sorcery given that he's the predecessor of the Atlanteans and human magic in general.

Matthew
Ain't nothing crazy 'bout me but my brain!

Matthew> Perhaps style, flavor, or speciality would be the better word? Kind of like if you magic was a sport and weight lifting and fencing were styles. As in Wizard and Wotan would be generalists Blackbriar Thorn Nature/Earth Magic and Felix Faust uses alchemy to produce magical effects.

With Martians it looked like they were creating hologram like images and going with your fire comment perhaps they are using "fire" energy to create lifelike images as a combination of their natural powers? At least that is what I came up with.

Kevin

Kevin> Maybe motif wasn't the right word, but I do get the gist of your question. Actually of those listed I think only the Atlanteans follow a motif, that being the sea and ocean life.

The Zataras use a wide range of magic through speaking backwards because that's a part of the character's history. Of course, one thing I noticed is that Zatanna often phrases her spells with a bit of showmanship wording, so I guess that counts as something of a motif.

Khalid use of healing magic and that time he separated Child into different anatomy structures makes me think he approaches magic from a biology lens and is keeping with him being a medical student.

I don't think we saw enough of Martian magic to make a motif decision, but one thing I noticed was how their spells had kind of a fiery look to them. Ironic considering their aversion to fire.

Matthew
Ain't nothing crazy 'bout me but my brain!

Greg has always made a point to be open and accessible to his fan-base. You'll notice most TV showrunners don't have "Ask" sites like this. There's a difference between criticizing a work and badgering the creator. Especially when Greg's already responded to a dozen different questions asking why he and Brandon handled Halo's arc the way they did or why the cast is so large.

You're not obligated to like or agree with those explanations, but if you just want to tear into the show, you'd probably be better served posting your brilliant take-down on a blog or YouTube or something.

Algae
'Nuff said

Uh... I am sorry if I kickstarted an avalanche with that comment about deleting entitled questions I don't run a website and don't know the behind the scenes stuff so again sorry if I misconstrued the situation.

But perhaps this might change the vibe of this week's comments with a quick question, I asked what Martian Sorcery consisted of and perhaps I didn't phrase it well enough because Mr Weisman said it showed a variety on screen which I didn't catch. If this is obvious again I am sorry but what I meant to say is that is seems sorcery follows a motif as it were for magical effects Atlanteans use water/storm magic Zatanna/Zatara use backwards speaking magic for a range of effects, Khalid uses healing magic etc...

So what does Martian Sorcery use a motif for as in what is their speciality I am fascinated about how aliens would use magic compared to humans it seems like an untouched element in fiction.

Kevin - [kevin dot nuckols at yahoo dot com]
Kevin Nuckols

Jurgan> If nothing else, asking for people not to assume bigotry of one's self while making accusations of the other focusing only on the Tumblr crowd is not the best approach to take.

Heck, even barring political matters it's like one person losing their cool and flying off the handle, while expecting the other to keep calm and collected in the same breath.

Need to work on one's self before telling other people to follow related advice/critique.

Antiyonder

Greg, I remember something similar happened with the podcast Welcome to Night Vale. It started out as a vaguely creepy horror series with some lovable characters, many of them LGBTQ. The show started getting a lot of attention on Tumblr and it started shifting to more of a romantic sitcom. People accused them of "pandering to Tumblr fans" even though the creators repeatedly said "we're telling the stories we want to tell." No one is immune to being influenced by feedback, unless you want to go J.D. Salinger and retreat from all human contact. If you're interacting with fans, I think their response will have some unconscious impact whether you want it to or not. But that's very different than saying a creator is dishonestly presenting stories they don't believe in just to get attention.
Jurgan - [jurgan6 at yahoo dot com]

Anonymous, while I agree with the sentiment, please lay off the ableism. I've worked with students with special needs, so the r-word really bothers me.
Jurgan - [jurgan6 at yahoo dot com]

Not to mention, I doubt people critiquing YJ Outsiders and Phantoms have a strict no crap policy.

Bet if the source of the quality issue was cheesecake or more focus on the action over character, some of the current critics would sing a different tune.

Heck some people even conceding the quality issues of One More Day or Chuck Austin's X-Men? Claims they're better than modern crap.

Antiyonder

Honest Fan... go fuck a bag of dicks lmao

"But on Young Justice we just have to deal with whatever Brandon and Greg feel like doing that year"

Yeah, that's cuz it's their show, dumb mothafucka. Holy retardation lmao

Anonymous

Man.

So Honest Fan hit on one of the things that absolutely grinds on me. They are assigning motivation to me. "Greg's doing it for Twitter." Couldn't possibly be that I'm doing it for ME. (Or, you know, Brandon and I are doing it for US.) Because, perhaps, we think it's the right thing to do AND because we think it'll make the show better. Again, got absolutely no problem with Honest Fan not liking our choices. Have a really big problem with Honest Fan deciding they absolutely know what motivated those choices.

And, the biggest problem, as I've stated over and over again, is not the negativity. (That's not fun, but it comes with the job.) It's the attempts by questioners on ASK GREG to convince me that I don't like my own stuff: "See, Greg, if I explain in detail why this sucks, then surely you'll admit that it sucks and that you suck. And if only you'll admit that, I'm sure you'll feel better. I know I will. It'll help me feel so superior. Trust me on that."

It's crap like that which makes me crazy and hostile. And it's the reason I'm taking a break.


And for the record, Masterdramon is doing a fantastic job as moderator. He is absolutely following my instructions. I have no complaints there.

Greg Weisman

"YJ's 2nd Season having a good amount of Godfrey for example ranting about aliens who don't publicly reveal themselves while clearly not doing so out of genuine concern (working for an alien)."

Godfrey was created by Jack Kirby as an expy for Billy Graham, to make a point about Graham's (in Kirby's opinion) darkly apocalyptic vision and his chumminess with the amoral Richard Nixon. Godfrey has been both political and religious commentary since day one.

On another note, I only watched the first two season of YJ and it didn't really click. A few months ago I read Jack Kirby's Fourth World omnibus and Darkseid quickly became one of my favorite villains. I'm curious how Greg deals with him. If I started watching S3 onward and posting by thoughts, would anyone be interested? I assume so, given that other people have posted reviews in here, but I've largely avoided reading them so I don't know what to expect.

Jurgan - [jurgan6 at yahoo dot com]

Thanks for your hard work, Masterdramon

Also, I will note... no one 'has to deal with' Young Justice not being what they want. If you don't like the show? You can not watch it. That's your choice! And it's great that we have that choice, because nothing in this world appeals to everyone, and when people try to make content that does, it's usually toothless and boring.

...basically, there's critique that goes 'I think so-and-so story choice doesn't work well for x and y' or 'such-and-such was hurtful', and those are generally well and good, but 'this story choice wasn't good because it wasn't what I wanted to see' seems rather entitled. If I go to my friend's house for weekly dinners, I might point out that they oversalted or undercooked something, or that they put in an allergen, but I wouldn't go 'you made a salad the first time, why did you make a curry this week.' And, importantly, Greg isn't a personal friend someone could reasonably make requests of, he's a complete stranger who almost none of us will ever meet, who has no obligation to make anything specific.

And frankly? The show's been an ensemble for ten years. It's not a surprise to anyone that it continues to be an ensemble, any more than it should be a surprise that the days are now getting shorter and soon we'll get snow.

Karrin Blue

"Nobody is complaining about diversity. By all means keep being against bigotry and racism.The complains is that you are hijacking a medium to preach your personal politics, and virtue signal to twitter users."

1. I mean you could argue such against Lex's Trump quotes in Outsiders, but other than that, how is the more political heavy stuff aside from being older more acceptable that it being done now?

YJ's 2nd Season having a good amount of Godfrey for example ranting about aliens who don't publicly reveal themselves while clearly not doing so out of genuine concern (working for an alien).

Or heck, the Drug trilogy from ASM has Peter disregarding his secret identity to give Harry's drug dealer a good shake down. You know from the guy who heavily kept it to himself even when doing so could cause problems.

And just every bit of it like Randy telling Norman Osborn to use his wealth/influence to do something about drug problems or Jameson needing Robbie's idea for how to present the issue.

Heck, the GL/GA story I previously cite was in a book that beforehand was just Sci-Fi stories, and the first story even had Hal accused of lacking empathy for black people. Which to be brief is why I don't "always" feel bad when someone feels targeted with accusations of racism.

You might not be guilty of such, but some seem to think lack of hostility is enough to make them better than bigots, but think it's not worth their attention.

Regardless I don't think approving Politic heavy stories from yesteryear while disapproving of modern ones is a guaranteed sign of bigotry.

It's just that it does feel like the modern equivalent of "Every single thing today sucks".

2. I mean assuming that Greg and Brandon are disingenuous about opposing bigotry, while asking for good faith on one's own behalf.

3. While again not a sign of bigotry, I don't think it is all that honest to suggest that keeping politics to a medium will guarantee top or regular quality.

Especially when something like the Star Wars Prequels aren't just tolerated, but now praised as misunderstood masterpieces.

Something I learn in the 2000s is that even if something crappy is better than crap that's worse, it doesn't equal good.

Pretty iffy to say quality first and then give a pass to something lacking quality just cause of light politics.

Or suggesting that crap is forgivable if it has high adrenaline action or sex appeal, but diversity pandering is a no-no.

Not bigoted necessarily, but there is that apathy thing.

Antiyonder

Not a big fan of the "backseat modding" to be honest, folks. I understand and appreciate that everyone's trying to be helpful. But it's not quite as simple as I think some of you are making it out to be.

Generally speaking, Guidelines #12 and #13 are the ones I try to take the lightest touch on. Some of the other Guidelines are more black-and-white (it's easy to tell at a glance when a post has more than 5 questions or is making a blatant spoiler request), but those are often more of a subjective judgment call. There can be a fine line between somewhat obnoxious, but valid, negative criticism and outright rudeness/abuse. If anything I'm inclined to be MORE deferential to negative posts than positive, because I never want to seem like I'm trying to censor or shield Greg from critics.

Rest assured there absolutely are questions I kick for those reasons. Mostly those using slurs or blatantly abusive language. But it has to be pretty egregious for me to get to that point. And when I'm uncertain, Greg's express instructions are to err on the side of caution and pass it through.

On that note, please be aware that Greg and I have discussed these matters at length privately. Nothing you're saying is news to us, or stuff we haven't considered. If there needs to be a tightening of my moderation style and/or adjustment of the Guidelines to keep the queue manageable, that is something we'll work out together.

I'll also point out that there's no rule against submitting a huge flood of questions (and no actual way to enforce one even if there was, given there's no account system). Only against having more than 5 in a single post. Nor is it forbidden to ask about incredibly trivial matters ad nauseam. Restraint is a nice guideline but you can't actually MAKE any given fan show it, and my hands are tied if all those questions are, individually, within guidelines.

Is her name Katherine Rebecca "Kate" Kane or Katherine "Kate" Rebecca Kane? is, to me, an unbelievably silly question that makes me shake my head, but it breaks none of the rules we've set forth. It would not be appropriate to delete it.

And frankly, I don't think this (https://www.s8.org/gargoyles/askgreg/search.php?qid=26493) or (https://www.s8.org/gargoyles/askgreg/search.php?qid=26490) rise to the level where they need to be kicked either. They are definitely obnoxiously phrased. I do not personally agree with them at all. I did not like passing them through. But I did, because my role is not to be a gatekeeper. It's to enforce the rules Greg has set forth, no more and no less.

Now, with all that being said...

Honest Fan: Literally no one is saying that such criticisms aren't valid, or can't be expressed. I can consider a criticism valid without personally agreeing with it.

The objection is to the specific phrasing of some of the criticism, which yes...absolutely comes off to me as rude and obnoxious. I know I just finished soapboxing about how critiques like what you just laid out are not necessarily outside the Guidelines of Ask Greg and that I tend to pass them on unless they very, VERY clearly cross the line into verbal abuse. But we're not talking about what is and isn't "against the rules" here.

We're talking about taking a second before hitting that "Submit Your Question" button to really think about what you're typing. That you're sending this to a living, breathing human being whose only goal is to, as you note, provide entertainment to his audience. I mean, I look at some of the upcoming questions on Dickbabs or Nightwing's arc or whatever and part of me just wants to reach out to those questioners and say, "Dude. He didn't kill your cat. He made some creative decisions with his cartoon you didn't like."

Because it's totally fine to not like the last two seasons of YJ, or specific story decisions or characters therein. It's totally fine to express it. But there's a way to do that politely and respectfully.

That's something I can't dictate from on-high as moderator (again, outside of those REALLY egregious cases like when someone submits a screed of F-bombs). Ultimately, it's the responsibility of each questioner. To really be conscientious of what they're writing, not ascribe malice or secret agenda where there is none, and try to keep things in perspective.

Because ultimately, Ask Greg is a privilege, not a right. If it isn't worth it to him, he's fully within his right to walk away for good. I don't want that, and I expect no one else in this CR wants that either. I know Greg doesn't.

So I implore everyone to be respectful and gracious to one another. However you feel about YJ, or even if you don't care about it at all. You'll notice I haven't mentioned any of my own feelings toward the show here (full disclosure: absolutely love all four seasons, with some minor quibbles here and there), because I try to keep that entirely separate from my moderation style.

Because above all of the Ask Greg Guidelines, I feel the Golden Rule still reigns supreme. Treat each other how you'd want to be treated.

Even that showrunner who totally ruined your favorite cartoon forever. ;)

Masterdramon - [kmc12009 at mymail dot pomona dot edu]
"Inside of every demon is a rainbow." - Charlie Morningstar

Unpopular opinion here.

I know a lot of you will disagree, but some complaints are very valid. I know Greg may not like it, but Young Justice has become a political show that it wasn’t when it started. When it started it was an action show for teenagers.

Most people here defend this because it just happen to be politics they agree with, current twitter leftist politics .( You don’t have to be trump supporter to dislike a show becoming preachy or taking a political turn). Let me guess you are all from tv tropes…

I mean I am all for LGBT rights, and I dislike Trump. I still find the soapbox and virtue signaling from Greg and Brandon to appeal to twitter users as a turn for the worse.

Inb4 someone quotes Stan Lee.

Nobody is complaining about diversity. By all means keep being against bigotry and racism.The complains is that you are hijacking a medium to preach your personal politics, and virtue signal to twitter users.

And if this was appealing to conservatives, you would be complaining too. But you aren’t because they just happen to be politics you agree with.


Second I do think the complaint of it becoming a Dc universe show instead of a show with core characters is valid. Greg may rationalize it as him and Brandon liking it, but they still spreading too thin. And it’s not unreasonable for fans to feel frustrated about it.

They clearly want to do a Dc Universe show. But this show was sold to us as “young Justice”. Not “earth 16” and it started with a small core team.

He is acting as if fans were “greedy”. Dude. We are not beggars. Your job is to entertain us.

Nobody has to beg for Rick and Marty to be….about Rick and Marty. But on Young Justice we just have to deal with whatever Brandon and Greg feel like doing that year.

You will disagree, but to assume fans concerns are not valid and just “trolling” is ridiculously short sighted.

Honest fan

A lot more of these comments should be deleted before they get to him just for the tone alone (I can’t believe there used to be worse comments before they’re removed by the mods…). It’s a huge privilege to have a creator of a show answer literally any question, and it must be super harmful to his mental health to have to read AND respond to the bad ones. If stricter “censorship” is necessary then so be it.
Anonymous

Rudeness in tone would be another valid rule to remove things for, especially combined with the "challenge to admit the show is bad actually". Ultimately they all agree to those rules every time they post a "question", so can only blame themselves.

Much as I enjoy Greg giving insight on those kind of rants and rebuking the challenges with own broader perspectives, the repetitive abuse is far from deserved.

Ash

Jurgan> ""how dare you talk about religion in the show, religion is bad!""

To be fair no piece of entertainment Pre-2000s-2010s did that. It would be like if Captain America's debut had him punching Hitler. Ok, bad example.

More like a radio show with Superman taking on the KKK. Never mind on that.

Well imagine if Green Lantern and Green Arrow were going on a trip with a Guardian. Oh yeah, that happened too.

I got it. You wouldn't see X-Men TAS having an episode hammering in how accepting God can be of comfort with Wolverine reading a Bible at the end.


Hmm. I forgot which iffy point I was going for:-D.

Antiyonder

I do think, from what I've seen of the questions in the queue, that much of the problem is the tone. We've had some comments on "Young Justice" here (such as Aldrius's reviews of Season Four) that didn't agree with some of the things that happened in the series, but did so in a thoughtful and courteous style. If only the questions in the queue would take the same tone....
Todd Jensen

Know Greg doesn't want to silence criticism, but feel like a lot like that could reasonably be purged under the rule 13 about Challenging, or rule 3 since so many of them are nothing new (and often clearly from the same person just arguing back). Stuff like the middle names and specific family relations, Greg's been pretty clear about not answering, or the Garfield stuff, which I feel could reasonably be removed under the idea of "Show Restraint" in Rule 6. Or 5, in the case of many of the Gar questions.

Might help to lighten the load and the queue to be a bit tighter on that?

Ash

There have been a couple questions like "how dare you talk about religion in the show, religion is bad!" that were really annoying. I think also someone got mad about Barbara Gordon shipping? Whenever a question says something like "do you regret this" or "will you apologize for that," I roll my eyes so hard. Why on earth would you expect Greg to put this much work into a product that he didn't stand behind?
Jurgan - [jurgan6 at yahoo dot com]

Masterdramon has already gotten rid of a ton of those kinds of questions. If this is the after I hate to see what the before was.

And yes, WB has had management problems for decades now (you don't even want to know what they originally wanted for The Sandman) and things have only gotten worse with the spread of social media.

Matthew
Ain't nothing crazy 'bout me but my brain!

Can the moderators just delete those types of questions from now on? I believe no one is happy about all this we have enough time and evidence to know how these questions will be answered, I don't think any moral values are really being broken here regarding free speech, and I suspect the people asking the questions don't even stick around long enough to here it answered so what is even the point?

And regarding the DC projects I think dealing with WB/management is far more toxic than the fans I mean they seem to be the worst place to work for, canning the Batgirl movie while keeping that delightful Ezra Miller guy around, getting rid of shows that you have to pirate to see, and of course the legendary Bat-Embargo along with threatening to fire Mr. Weisman for Kid Flash's sexuality. They almost make me miss 20th Century Fox.

Kevin - [kevin dot nuckols at yahoo dot com]
Kevin Nuckols

I suppose besides/in addition to the entitlement there is also the novelty of one like Greg to answer questions and taking advantage of a good thing (i.e. How a guest or customer should be given consideration, but they shouldn't abuse such privileges).

And possibly some noting how he was more willing to once divulge Gargoyles spoilers, not realizing that it was prior to getting the first continuation.

Antiyonder

I mean, like several others on this forum I'm autistic and therefore inclined towards organizing, but even I look at questions that say "Please give me the exact date" and go "Who cares? A rough idea of when it happened is enough. You don't honestly expect him to have already assigned the exact date before it would actually come up in an episode, do you?"
B
B

I get irritated reading the entitled, combatitive and overly precise questions, so I can only imagine how it is for Greg himself.
B
B

A lot of the "Young Justice" questions have been enough to discourage me from ever doing a DC Comics-based project (though I doubt I'd ever have done it anyway) - particularly the questions that tried analyzing every minute difference between Earth-16 and the comics world (as in characters' middle names).
Todd Jensen

Yikes I hope my mary marvel errr sargeant questions werent part of the problem.

I didn't know those would end up as " no comment"

FallenLegend

I was worried that the ongoing repetitive and obnoxious questions on Ask Greg and now it looks like it got to him.

I wish some folks at least looked through the answered questions first. Of course, there's no set answer for fan entitlement.

Matthew
Ain't nothing crazy 'bout me but my brain!

I'm only planning on getting one issue each (and later getting the trade). So I'm letting the chips fall where they may and getting whichever one I may get.

Also, Fourth.

Matthew
Ain't nothing crazy 'bout me but my brain!

Third.

Yes, I would have to pick that one too.

B
B

Second.

We've probably all seen now the various front covers for the first issue of the "Gargoyles" comic from Dynamite. If you could only pick one copy, which cover would you choose? For me, it'd be the one of Bronx chasing the pigeons.

Todd Jensen

Happy... German Reunification Day, I suppose? And first.
Karrin Blue