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Anonymous writes...

Just two questions, as everyone else seems to be asking the questions I want to be answered :-). Anyway, one thing that has bothered me from episode to episode is languages. In 10th century Scotland the clan would have been speaking 10th century Scots Gaelic, yet when they awaken in New York in 1994 they understand and speak perfect Modern English (North American dialect, noless!). Then, when they travel around the word via Avalon, they encounter Japanese gargoyles, Guatemalan gargoyles, and so on.
They communicate with them flawlessly. Now, while I can understand off-screen reasons for this (having to have them learn a new language or something every episode would get unwieldy and ridiculous), my disbelief's bridge of suspension starts to quiver and tremble when a North American who apparently speaks English and probably Hopi communicates effortlessly with the inhabitants of a small Japanese fishing village, maybe one of whom would speak English well, and with an accent you could cut with a spoon.
Second question: You said in a previous post that Demona knew that Puck == Owen. Ummm...How? Is this something that might have been revealed in, say, TimeDancer? Anyway, thanks for your time. Sean simpson_s@scsu.ctstateu.edu

Greg responds...

1) Yeah. The language thing. Well, you got me. We knew we had a problem with the Gaelic to Modern English thing in "Awakening", but we obviously didn't want to deal with it. It is one of the reasons Scotland was chosen in the first place. I wanted a country where English was presently spoken, so that the "error" wouldn't be smacking the audience in the face. England was obvious, but I wanted something that felt rougher around the edges. Scotland summonded the right feeling for me. So we went with Scotland, crossed our fingers and ignored the Gaelic problem, which worked all right with most people. Sorry, it didn't work for you.
As to the World Tour, that is less problematic, so it surprises me that you had more of a problem with it. We toyed with the idea of using sub-titles and dealing with the language barrier in four episodes: "Golem", "Bushido", "Eye of the Storm" and "The Green". Some of us felt the episodes would be enriched by the inclusion, but others disagreed. Particularly my bosses, who pointed out that the youngest members of our audience didn't know how to read and would be missing out on any subtitled dialogue. I felt we could make things clear enough for that percentage of the audience, but there were other arguments that did weigh in very strong for me. 1) It would bog down the stories, wasting precious screen time on problems of objective communication.
2) It would involve substantially more work for my writers, story editors, board artists, film editors, post supervisors etc. Not that we hid from hard work, but we were on a very tight schedule, and this issue didn't seem to merit the extra effort.
3) English, in the modern world, is such a universal language, it doesn't at all bother me that the citizens of Ishimura, Prague, Guatemala and Norway spoke it.
I didn't much like that they spoke it among themselves, however. So even after we had decided against dealing with this (our Gaelic decision, perhaps setting a precedent), we revisited the problem after we did the voice recording of "Bushido". Frank Paur, who had initially felt that we shouldn't deal with the language barrier, changed his mind. He didn't mind that Kai spoke English, but he didn't want Kai (or anyone else) to start speaking English until he heard Goliath and/or Elisa and/or Angela speaking English. At which point, Kai (and the others) would start speaking English out of courtesy. I agreed that that would make the episode better. Problem was, we had already held the voice recording. Rerecording would have doubled that episode's voice expenses. I was prepared to do this and make up the money somewhere else, but my bosses still weren't to thrilled with the idea and said no.

Anonymous writes...

About the Gargoyles Encyclopeida you mentioned. For months I have been getting anything about Gargoyles off the Internet. My Gargoyles folder is huge, I mean it's about to burst here. When do you plan on publishing this encyclopedia? It would sure beat lugging around a huge folder.

Greg responds...

As soon as I find a publisher willing to publish it. Know anyone?

Anonymous writes...

Hi. Thanks once again. 1) In the series "Awakenings," how is it that Elisa is so easy to accept Goliath? After all in "Sentinel" she freaked.
2) Whatever happened to Mace Malone? 3) What does Matt do now that he is an Illuminati member? 4) In certain episodes from season 1 and season 2, the gargoyles are sometimes spotted by several people. How is it that action wasn't taken? Truly all those people couldn't have disregarded them.
5) In "Avalon" part III, I think, King Arthur says that he was awaken too early and that he neither had his knights or Merlin. Later on we learn that he is to search for his friend Merlin. What has happened to Merlin and his knights? 6) Why was it in the TGC episode "Genesis Undone," that the giant gargoyles looked like Coldstone? thanx alot, late

Greg responds...

1) In "Awakening", the first time Elisa met Goliath was after he saved her life. So she was more inclined to listen to what he had to say.
But remember, a few minutes earlier she was about to shoot Bronx. In "Sentinel" Goliath appeared to be attacking her and/or kidnapping her.
That's a very different dynamic.
2) In my mind, he starved to death in the Hotel Cabal.
3) What doesn't he do?
4) Some did. Some didn't. Some reported what they saw, but they had no proof. Gargoyle sightings in Manhattan became something of an urban myth between "Awakening, Part One" and "Hunter's Moon, Part Three". Everyone had a cousin who had a dentist who had a patient who had seen one.
5) Well, most of the old knights are long dead.
Merlin's in his Crystal Cave, of course. But where and what is the Crystal Cave, and if they find it, how will Arthur and Griff get Merlin out, and if they manage that, what kinda mood will Merlin be in?
6) I didn't work on that episode. Ask Scott Thomas.

Anonymous writes...

Hoya! Comments and questions, questions first. In reviewing the response section, I notice you have said that you are working on a Gargoyles Encyclopedia. Do you have a projected release date? Also, do you intend to, or know of anyone who intends to publish novels based on Gargoyles?(presumibly under Disney's imprint)Finally, do you go checking out various Garg' web sites(the more oddball ones that is)? Comments:I notice that Disney is putting a lot of work into the Mighty Ducks series.
It seems to have incorperated elements that made Gargoyles interesting( as well as giving Garg' voice actors something to do:) Something else I notice, what goes around, comes around. The Disney idea people seem to get strapped every once in a while so I'm sure that there will come a time when they will need something new but will be unsure where to turn. (this is speculation. For all any of us know they could have a big file cabnet labeled 'Show prospects') There's a good chance they'll notice a show that already has a built in fan base might be the way to go. Gargoyles 2000?
Maybe. Or we could get stuck with something like 'Galactica '80' Thanx

Greg responds...

I don't have a publisher. I don't know of any publishers interested in releasing any Gargoyles-related material right now. I wish I did. I'd love to publish the Encyclopedia (complete with Timeline). Or a Making of Gargoyles Book or a Gargoyles Companion book or whatever. I'd love to write novels based on the series or its (never seen) spin-offs. I've said this before, so I'm guessing we don't have any interested publishers lurking out there.
I do occasionally check out Web Sites, or at least I used too. It began to get too dangerous, since I do not want to be exposed to original material relating to GARGOYLES such as pictures of original characters or fan fiction.

Anonymous writes...

When you had MacBeth and the weird sisters, was that supposed to be off of Shakespere's MacBeth? After that I ahd to read it and it was almost identicle. A great way to get kids like me reading the good stuff.

Greg responds...

We put a lot of Shakespeare into the series. Some of the Macbeth stuff came from Shakespeare. (The Weird Sisters certainly.) But much of the Macbeth history was taken from actual history as opposed to Shakespeare's version of the legend. In quite a few ways, our Macbeth is historically more accurate than Will's. I'm kinda proud of that.

Anonymous writes...

Was Gargoyles supposed to be a kids show or for an older group like teenagers?

Greg responds...

Gargoyles was intentionally written for the widest possible audience. We felt it worked on many levels. We hoped that kids would like it as well as teens and adults.
(Basically, we all just put together the kind of show we'd like to watch.)

Anonymous writes...

Was Jeffrey Robbins connected with anyone else? besides Hudson, I mean.

Greg responds...

Connected? I'm not sure what you mean.

Anonymous writes...

Wow, that was some great writing in response to the question about why no one seemed to react to the whole City of Stone incident. Your story made it very believable why they wouldn't. But here are my questions: What if someone happened to be taping a TV show off the air when Demona's broadcast cut in, and they ended up with a recording of her casting the spell? Would it have any effect on those that watched it (other than really weirding them out for a few minutes, maybe annoying them because it ruined their recording of Gilligan's Island or whatever, but not turning them to stone)?

Greg responds...

The recording would work as well as viewing the broadcast for anyone who saw it before Xanatos set the sky aflame. The question is whether the recording could start the trouble over again after the sky was done burning. I really hadn't thought of that, but I have to assume the answer is no. Because a lot of people own VCR's, and if that would have worked, we'd certainly know about it by now.

Anonymous writes...

Dear Mr Weisman, I would just like to ask you if Oberons mortal identity is Dr Serviaus after all 'hes got more lives than an alley cat' which was quoted in Monsters, and Oberon is immortal, and He quoted in I'll Met By Moonlight that all the children even him had lived among mortals, if his mortal idenity is not Dr Servauis who is it? Thanks in advance

Greg responds...

No. Oberon is not Sevarius. Sevarius is not Oberon.
And while I'm here: Bronx is not a dog. A dog is not Bronx. Bronx is a Gargoyle Beast. So's Boudicca. Gargoyle beasts and dogs have a few superficial traits in common, but truly a better comparison would be:
A gargoyle is to a beast as a human is to a chimpanzee.
And even that comparison isn't totally accurate. The lifespan of a gargoyle beast is the same as that of a gargoyle.

Anonymous writes...

Hello again Greg. First off, let me thank you for answering my first question. I truly appreciate it. This question is a bit involved, so please bear with me. Is Demona's (and of course, MacBeth's) immortality spell blatant or covert? In the entire series run, one or the other was only blatantly killed twice. MacBeth was run through in "City of Stone", and Demona was hit with a (presumably) lethal electrical charge in "Sanctuary". Although Demona may have died in "Awakenings" and "The Reckoning", nothing was shown, so for the sake of the question, I will assume she simply escaped. To put it best, if Demona were asleep as stone (pre-"Vows"), and someone tried to shatter her, could they succeed? If so, would Demona simply reform later, seemingly unharmed? Or, would events prevent the man from smashing her (ie unforseen delays, sunset comes too quickly, he is distracted, etc.)?
Technically, both prevent her from being "killed", but one is far more subtle than the other. Now, if Demona's immortality is blatant (incredible recovery time), then why hasn't she used it more? Granted, she would still feel pain like anyone else, but why not wade right into the middle of a battle? After all, nothing short of a death-blow will even slow her down, and killing her only delays her and antagonizes her. Whether you can answer or not, thanks for your time!

Greg responds...

I love this question. I don't know if you'll love the answer. Demona isn't sure. Neither is Macbeth. They haven't been hit by something as catastrophic as a beheading (or whatever). Neither, at this stage, are that eager to test it. Now you might ask, why haven't they been hit by something that blatant. Good luck, or is the spell itself somehow preventing anyone from succeeding in that fashion (in a similar way that Goliath was prevented from returning Griff to Una in 1940)? Puts a wicked grin on my face just thinking about it.

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