An Ask Greg Helper responds...

Greg Weisman says:

"I had many specific ideas, some of which would undoubtedly have changed over the course of production. But I'm just not too inclined to reveal them. It's not that I'm trying to torture you, it's just that there's no way I can do them justice in this format. I write 'X' would have happened, and that one statement will get dissected across the internet. And any idea is only as good as its execution - which you'll now never get to see. It may sound stupid here, but I might have been able (with the help of Vic Cook and all my other many collaborators) to pull it off on the series and have everyone think I'm a genius. Or not. But at least it would have had a shot. I just don't feel like opening myself up to potential second-guessing based on raw notions as opposed to executed episodes."

[Response recorded on August 5, 2010.]

An Ask Greg Helper responds...

Greg Weisman says:

"Good question. Keep in mind that magic isn't an exact science. The Weird Sisters told Macbeth and Demona that 'When one lives both live.' Demona used the magic Praying Gargoyle statue to insure she would survive the fullfillment spell. So would Macbeth have survived? Probably. She knows about the mortality link. She would not want his death at her hands if that resulted in her own. Towards Macbeth, her impulse should not be murderous by necessity. And mindset has a real effect on magic results. However, Demona isn't the most stable and rational of characters. She certainly has murderous feelings toward Macbeth. And if their linking spell 'perceived' the death of all humanity as a successful attempt to kill Macbeth, then it might very well have killed her as well. Did she consider this? Maybe.

Maybe it was a risk she was willing, even eager to take. Maybe somewhere underneath it all, she's a bit suicidal. Could she die with the idea of leaving behind a human-free 'paradise' where her daughter could live in safety? Remember, Moses led the Israelites to the Promised Land, but he was not allowed to enter it himself. Maybe that's how Demona felt about it.

Then again, maybe not. Very provocative question."

[Response recorded in the Station 8 "Gargoyles" FAQ, Section VI.]

An Ask Greg Helper responds...

Greg Weisman says:

"I've dealt with this exact thing before here.

As for the translations, all I can say is we did the best we could. We consulted people fluent in Spanish and had Spanish speakers in the cast. If we got it wrong, I'm truly sorry, but it's not like we didn't try very, very hard to get it right.

As for the occasional 'hermano', etc. that we slip in, you say NO ONE would do that. Except that I personally know people who do. PERSONALLY KNOW PEOPLE WHO DO.

Now, perhaps one difference, vis-a-vis, Jaime - as opposed to Bane - is that he was brought up bilingual. English isn't his second language. Both English and Spanish were spoken in his home - and often, as with some friends of mine, they were mixed and mingled into what I've heard termed Spanglish.

This explanation may not satisfy you, but that's the best I've got. And in any case, it's too late now for us to change even if we wanted to. It was all recorded long ago."

[Response recorded on September 20, 2012.]

An Ask Greg Helper responds...

Greg Weisman says:

"We did hold auditions for Jaime/Blue Beetle/Scarab, Tim/Robin, Bart/Impulse and one other. But not for Cassie/Wonder Girl. From our previous Miss Martian auditions, we knew we wanted Mae Whitman."

[Response recorded on September 20, 2012.]

An Ask Greg Helper responds...

Greg Weisman says:

"...Ditto for Dick Grayson - and I'll even stretch that to include Raquel Ervin..."

[Response recorded on September 7, 2012.]

An Ask Greg Helper responds...

"Guidelines for Asking a Question

1. DO NOT REQUEST SPOILERS!

All requests for spoilers will be met with "SPOILER REQUEST. NO COMMENT." or DELETION. Prefacing your spoiler request question by saying, "I hope this doesn't trigger a spoiler alert" or the like doesn't help. Think before you post. If you're asking for information about what is to come on a show, it's a spoiler. And Greg flat out will not answer. So all you're doing is clogging the queue.

2. Search the archives to make sure your question hasn't already been answered. Any question already answered will receive an "ASKED AND ANSWERED" response or be DELETED. Again, this only serves to clog the queue.

3. Check the unanswered questions queue before posting your question. It may not yet be answered, but if you can see that someone's already asked the question, then there's no point in asking it again. All you'll receive is another "ASKED AND ANSWERED" response or the post will be DELETED.

4. Consider asking your question from knowledgeable fans before posting it. For example, the folks at http://www.s8.org/gargoyles/comment/ are very knowledgeable and can usually answer questions much faster than Ask Greg. The Gargoyles Wiki, the Young Justice Wiki, and the Station Eight FAQ are excellent sources of information as well and may contain the answers to your questions.

5. Please refrain from asking questions - even non-spoiler questions - that it seems obvious will be answered by the end of the season. One of the reasons the queue is so long is because it's filled with questions that have already been answered by subsequent episodes, even questions that one would reasonably assume would be answered by subsequent episodes. If at the end of the season, your questions still aren't answered, THAT is the time to ask them. Until then, your post risks DELETION.

6. If you are asking multiple questions in one post, please number your questions. And if you're asking more than five questions then create a separate post. But please, do NOT flood the queue. Show restraint or risk DELETION.

7. Please do not submit any original ideas, notions, concepts, or drawings of original characters. No stories, no fanfic, no teleplays, nothing. Anything like this will automatically be DELETED.

8. No original ideas masquerading as questions. Asking what Demona did during World War II is fine. Asking if Demona tried to assassinate Hitler during World War II is an idea masquerading as a question and is not all right. Again: automatic DELETION.

9. No requests for employment. If you want to ask generally about how one might break into the business, Greg will try to give his perspective, but this is not an appropriate forum for personal pleas for work and as such will be DELETED.

10. Please make separate posts for each topic you want to address or ask questions about. If you have 3 or so questions about one topic (for example, Oberon) you may post them together. But if you wish to ask about multiple topics (for example, Oberon AND Goliath and Elisa's relationship) please make separate posts for each topic or risk DELETION.

11. Please keep the language clean. This is more or less a PG website. Anything beyond the occasional 'damn' will result in your entire post being DELETED.

12. Rudeness is not appreciated. You don't have to like Greg's stuff. And negative comments are perfectly legitimate and will not be deleted simply for being negative. But that can be done without being rude or abusive. Keep it civil or risk DELETION.

13. Please do not bother making comments worded in such a way that they, in essence, CHALLENGE Greg to acknowledge how right those comments are about their criticisms of the program. Here's the thing...you do NOT have to agree with Greg's creative choices, but aside from a few objective mistakes that he has ALWAYS been willing to acknowledge, you have to understand that if Greg and his creative partners put something in the series, the odds are THEY LIKE IT. YOU are NOT going to convince GREG that, for example, "Hello, Megan!" or Robin's laugh or Superman's response to Superboy or Wally's flirting is bad for the show. Feel free to tell him you don't care for these (or other) things, but stop phrasing these COMMENTS as questions or challenges. It grates. Any question that falls into this category will at best be answered with a: "WE LIKE OUR SHOW." and in fact risks DELETION.

14. Just as Greg won't answer spoiler questions here, please do NOT post spoilers from episodes (or issues) that have not yet aired (or gone on sale) in the United States. The queue needs to be a safe place where folks can go without being blindsided by spoilers they may not want to see. (In fact, it's bad enough that our moderators are subjected to them.) Any spoilers posted will result in automatic DELETION - so please just don't do it.

PLEASE READ AND FOLLOW ALL GUIDELINES CAREFULLY

Breaking any of these guidelines may result in DELETION. This means, for example, that if you ask four legitimate questions, but your fifth question does not follow even one of the guidelines, your ENTIRE POST may be DELETED.

Once a post is deleted, there is no cache where it is saved. There is no appeal. You can go to the S8 Comment Room and ask a moderator WHY the post was deleted FOR FUTURE REFERENCE, i.e. so that future posts will better observe the guidelines and hopefully not be deleted. But the moderator cannot reinstate your post. Also, keep in mind that sometimes the moderators delete posts. Sometimes Greg does, in which case the moderator may not be able to explain the decision. The moderators are merely following Greg's guidelines. Greg can delete a post on a whim."

[Response recorded on the Station 8 "Ask A Question" page.]

An Ask Greg Helper responds...

Greg Weisman says:

"I'm very ambivalent toward fanfiction. On the one hand, it's very gratifying. I've created something that has taken on a life of it's own. That people like enough to invest their time into and create anew. On the other hand, I have a territorial instinct that exhibits a kind of knee-jerk negative reaction to seeing other people controlling the destiny of my characters. (That's the main reason why Goliath Chronicles was so painful for me to watch.)

For example, I know that TGS is doing their own TimeDancer spin off. That's very cool, but somebody mentioned (though I don't know if this was the final word) that they're not naming Brooklyn's son Nashville, because they think the name is silly or because they hate country music or whatever. I can't help resenting that. (I know it's not rational, but I'm trying to be honest about my emotions here.) I haven't explained the Nashville name. I don't intend to explain it yet. Obviously, I have no intention of making Brooklyn into the next Garth Brooks, but I'm not in the mood to go into my reasons yet. But when someone else decides that GREG THE GARGOYLE MASTER made a misstep regarding the name of a character, I bristle.

But going back to the first hand, I have to acknowledge that once a thing is created and sent out into the world, it no longer belongs to the creator, but to the interpretations of those who received it. If a fan believes that Gargoyles were created by fey sorcery, then to that fan they were, no matter what I might say to the contrary in a comment room. Fanfiction is the ultimate example of fans interpretating (and extrapolating upon) what they've seen."

[Response recorded in the Station 8 "Gargoyles" FAQ, Section XXXIV.]

An Ask Greg Helper responds...

Greg Weisman says:

"*Issue #20 hits the stands this week. It's the start of a six-part story that is BIG. REALLY BIG. It updates the book, bringing in our Season Two cast, and is set one month prior to the start of Season Two with flashbacks to a couple untold - or only hinted at - tales from the Season One era, plus, by the end of the six-parter, a little story from immediately after Season One. Christopher Jones is just doing some stellar work on the book. And I'm pretty proud of the story and script, if I do say so myself."

[Response recorded on September 18, 2012.]

An Ask Greg Helper responds...

Greg Weisman says:

"Why WOULD they know?! <sigh> I think many folks have been brought up to think of their heroes as all-knowing and infallible. It makes me, I'll admit, a little crazy.

Okay, let's start here: the galaxy is HUGE.

The Green Lantern Corps attempts to cover it all, but their membership numbers in the thousands for a galaxy that is HUGE.

Rimbor is a planet largely inhabited by criminals, smugglers, etc. And the government of Rimbor isn't simply corrupt, it's INSTITUTIONALLY CORRUPT. In fact, it's CONSTITUTIONALLY CORRUPT. The Green Lantern Corps is NOT welcome on Rimbor. It's treaty with the GLC states that the Corps can only show up on diplomatic missions or when requested. No one on Rimbor would request the GLC to come - even with a rogue Lantern (plus five other Earthlings) wreaking havoc, because they don't want to give the Corps an excuse to look into Rimborian activities.

So, yes, over a five year period, word of the attack leaked out to the larger sector - and the six Leaguers were labeled as bad guys - but the significance of that may not have registered to the local Lantern, who (a) would be used to the Rimborians vilifying other Lanterns and (b) not understand the significance of Superman, Batman, Hawkwoman, Martian Manhunter and Wonder Woman being labelled as criminals.

Do you really think that every time a criminal is put on a watch list somewhere in the galaxy that every Lantern tells EVERY OTHER Lantern about it? That just makes no sense to me.

And that's assuming there's a Lantern in that sector AT ALL. Again, big galaxy, relatively small GLC."

[Response recorded on September 19, 2012.]