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Anonymous writes...

(1) I was wondering--what happened to the Guatamalan gargoyles? I don't want to guess, 'cause that'd be breaking the rules. What did Broadway end up doing with that amulet? (2)Also, I wanted to say that I'm really glad that you and Reaves'll be involved in the movie. (3) Also, were you planning on introducing lots of new characters? (4) When did you decide that Owen and Puck should be the same person? (5) What's your favorite episode of Gargoyles? (6) What were the plans for what was going to happen between Matt and theIlluminati? (7) Are there any gargoyles that are members of the Illuminati? (8) If all the stone statues are supposed to look alike (like I've heard as an explanation for the Brandon-Margot thing before, among other things) whydoes Elisa look like Elisa, and Owen look like Owen? (9) When Xanatos talked about it not being a good idea "mixing magics," was he referring to Puck in some way? (10) What kinds of magic are there in the Gargoyles universe? (11) How
long are Fox and Alex going to live (that is, if Mr. X DOESN'T reach his goal of being immortal), since they're part Third Race? (12) What does "Third Race" mean, anyway? I've heard it referred to numerous times. (13) Why won't Disney sell the rights to Gargoyles? (14) I've heard rumors that Mr. Xanatos'name was decided on by picking a name out of a phone book--is that true? (15) Last, but not least, was it even remotely planned that so many Star Trekactors would voice-act on Gargoyles? As a fan of both ST and Gargoyles, Ithink it's really great. ::whew:: That's a lot of questions.
Sorry ifsome've been asked before; don't worry 'bout answering if they had.
Thanks, and this place is great!

Greg responds...

As usual, I've added numbers to your questions to make them easier to answer. No other editing was done.
1. Thanks for not breaking the rules. Jade & Turquesa eventually returned to Guatemala after dropping the plants off in Avalon and making a couple of other quest-type stops. I had plans for Zafiro to come in search of the Sun Amulet, which is still in Broadway's possession.
2. I'm glad your glad, but let's take everything one step at a time.
Nothing much has been done on the movie yet. We'll see how truly involved we are when the thing gets rolling.
3. Where? In the movie? If we had done more episodes? I guess the answers probably yes, either way.
4. I didn't exactly decide. I realized Owen was Puck about 12 hours after I decided to put Puck into the series. At almost the exact same time, Lydia Marano and Brynne Reaves realized the same thing independently. That confirmed we were on the right track.
5. I've answered this fully elsewhere. My favorite single episode is "The Mirror", but I like all 66 that I worked on, particularly the multi-parters.
6. I'm not going into this now.
7. Maybe.
8. That was a joke.
9. Yes.
10. Mortal Sorcery. Fae magic. Talisman magic. Location magic. Ghostly illusions and telikinetics. Just to name a few.
11. Until they die.
12. Gargoyle hatchlings are taught in the rookery that there are three races. Gargoyles. Humans. And Oberon's Children. The fae are the third race from the Gargoyle point of view. (To themselves, I'm sure the fair folk feel that they're number one.)
13. Why would they? Why give up something with long-term income potential?
And by the way, who exactly is lining up to buy the rights? No one with nearly enough money, I'll tell you that.
14. Sort of. Xanatos' orignal name was Xavier, which we dropped because of Professor X from the X-Men. But I still wanted a name that had that same kind of sound to it. It's a subjective thing, but I liked it. I thought of Thanatos, which is the name of the Greek God of death, which seemed cool. X and TH sounds are often exchanged. So I tried Xanatos.
Everyone liked the sound of it. Later, I checked the phone book, and the name was there, (different first name though). It all seemed to fit. The name David was chosen because Goliath's name was Goliath. The hero/villain role reversal of David & Goliath was too perfect to resist. I have on occasion abbreviated the above story by simply saying I found it in the phone book. But usually I only do that when someone says the name sounds phony or cartoony.
15. It wasn't planned. I think I've answered this, but who remembers?
Marina nailed her audition right out of the gate. Jonathan had a more competitive field, but after a few false starts he got the job. After that, it was natural when we were casting new characters to think about the gang from the various Trek shows. Michael, Brent, Nichelle, Colm, Kate, Le Var, etc. They did great work for us.

Anonymous writes...

Why did you decide to change Dekota to Demona?( Name and personality?) I hope I spelled Dekota right. If I didn't, sorry.

Greg responds...

You didn't. But that's o.k. Dakota was a bland comedy heroine who was transformed into a much more interesting comedic traitor and villainess named Demona. The reason for the name change is probably obvious: Demona sounds more villainesque than Dakota, which is kinda generic, and certainly has no particular gargoylean feel to it. 6-10-97)

Anonymous writes...

Demona is definetly my favorite character on Gargoyles. She's intellegent, beautiful, has a great voice[excellant job Marina], and I can understand why she's insane. Imagine coming home one day and finding pieces of your loved ones all over the place. I guess we'd all snap. How did you come up with her character? The tragic villain, not the comedy character. Did you ever plan a spinoff show about her and what she did through the centuries?
I'd watch it.Well thanks for taking the time to read my question. Ciao.

Greg responds...

No spin-offs were planned for Demona, though I had hopes to tell more flashback stories about her life. She would have remained a recurring character in GARGOYLES and she would have been a regular in both DARK AGES and FUTURE TENSE. And she would have appeared at least once in TIMEDANCER.
All of that is moot for now, but maybe someday...
I basically enjoy villains a lot. I think the villains in our show were very unique, particlarly Demona and Xanatos. Much of Demona's character came so easily and fit together so well, I hesitate to take credit for it. Demona was out there in the mist ready to be revealed to the world. At any rate, I certainly must share credit with everyone else who worked with the character, in particular Michael Reaves, who wrote "Awakening". Still, from the beginning of our second phase (read non-comedy) development, we already knew Demona was a traitor who had meant well initially but could not face up to her own guilt. Though I hadn't worked out all the details of "City of Stone" from that early point of pre-Awakening development, I also knew that she had not slept through the centuries as Goliath and the others had. She would have had to live through 1000 years of persecution and prejudice. I knew that she was Goliath's lost love. How he viewed her defined both who she was
and who she wasn't. I knew she was a tragic figure. I didn't want the audience to forgive her actions, but I did want them to understand.

Anonymous writes...

There has been one question bothering me for a long time. Are gargoyle talons like curved fangs that have been put at the end of their fingers(not the small ones I am talking Sabre Tooth Tiger fangs) or are they smaller like eagle talons/ thick curved fingernails? I saw one picture on the net and right after the second joint in their fingers they had this white curved-fang like talon that looked to about the same size as the barrel of a gun. On the show you can't really see how big the talons are, you can only guess. Please clear this up for me.

Greg responds...

It depends. Outside of the series, different artists have interpreted their talons/claws differently. I'd have to say, all of those interpretations aren't cannon. On the series, Frank Paur had the designers make the claw an integral part of each finger or toe. It made for cleaner animation, but you'd have to ask Frank for a definitive anatomical description.
A FEW ADDITIONAL WORDS FROM GREG
Today is Monday, June 9th. On Friday, June 6th, I logged onto Gore's chatroom. It was fun, but I must admit that I felt rushed. Part of the problem was that just as I was scheduled to log on, I got an important phone call that I had to take. That meant I was late getting to the room, and I never had time to get settled. Another problem was technological.
Everything was moving very slow for me at this end. Maybe, it's my computer. Maybe it was heavy traffic to the site. I'm not sure. But today JEB sent me a transcript of the questions and answers, and I realize that I missed a ton of questions which had scrolled off the bottom of the room by the time the page reloaded to my screen. Sorry about that. If I missed your question, ask it again here. But the result of all that rushing and missed postings was that I didn't really get to "chat" with you. I just answered questions at a faster speed than I do here at ASK GREG.
I'll try the chat thing again sometime, I promise. But all this led me to realize something else. Answering questions is only part of what I want to do here. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the question/answer thing. All the details, all the plans for the future. But I'd also like to discuss the show with you guys. Discuss the episodes we already made. The characters, the themes, etc. Occasionally, I lurk in the comment room, but I almost always have to vacate fast, because someone invariably posts an original notion, like a "What If" or something. That's appropriate to the comment room and I WOULD NOT want to see that change, but unfortunately, it keeps me out.
So let's turn ASK GREG into a bit of a comment room also. Feel free to post your reactions to a given episode. Sometimes I'll respond. Sometimes, I may not. But I'd like to hear what you have to say. And you never know, it might inspire me to relate some behind-the-scene story and/or some tidbit of the Master Plan and/or what was going through my head at a given time and/ or what I think of the episode in hindsight. I'm not suggesting we quit with the questions, but I think adding this aspect to the page would be more fun for me, and I hope, ultimately, more interesting for you.
A few brief groundrules:
1. Don't forget the old groundrules. They still apply.
2. Let's limit discussions to the first two seasons of Gargoyles and also "The Journey" from the Goliath Chronicles. I'm not saying that the other 12 Goliath Chronicle episodes aren't cannon, but since I had almost nothing to do with them, I'm not going to be able to respond effectively to them.
Anyway 66 episodes worth of material should keep us busy enough.
3. This is not supposed to take the place of the existing Comment Room, obviously. For starters, this page doesn't "move" fast enough for ongoing (or even cogent) discussions. But a comment here or there, and my response to it, might spice up this page a bit.
Anyway, let's give it a shot.

Anonymous writes...

Which buildings that were used more than once in the series really exist?

Greg responds...

I don't know. I'd have to go through every episode to answer that question.
Any specific buildings you're curious about?

Anonymous writes...

1. Was Matt Bluestone inspired by Fox Mulder of "The X-Files"? 2. Whatever happened to those two cities that Jackal-as-Anubis wiped out in "Grief"? 3.
When you first did "Enter Macbeth", did you know that he was *the* Macbeth?
And what led to the decision to include Macbeth as a major supporting character in the series? Was his weariness of life inspired by the "Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow" lines in Shakespeare's play?

Greg responds...

1. I wanted Elisa to have a partner, but it was Michael Reaves who basically originated Matt. I wasn't watching X- Files much in its first couple of seasons, so Mulder definitely wasn't in my mind. You'd have to ask Michael if he had Mulder on the brain when he came up with Matt's conspiracy- hunting mentality.
2. One town, as I recall. It was wiped.
3. Yes, Macbeth was always Macbeth. And he was included because he fit. He filled a short-term role, AND he was perfect for our long-term plans. I've read and seen Shakespeare's MACBETH so many times, I can't say if any one line influenced me so much as my entire reading of the character did. His weariness, however, was again, logical and right to the character we had "created". Nothing else made sense.

Anonymous writes...

What were you planning to do with Owen's stone hand, anyway? He only hit Oberon with it once I believe (I may be wrong) and that's about it. I doubt you would have made such a drastic change to a character without a plan on what was going to happen.

Greg responds...

Owen never hit Oberon with it, though he did use it on Talon once.
Originally it was put in to deepened the mystery of who Owen was. What kind of man would react so casually to such a drastic change? I also felt it was a kind of clue to Owen's true identity. Now, it's largely a reminder of what Puck has lost to stay in the mortal world; a disability he lives with and a weapon he occasionally makes use of.

Anonymous writes...

(1)He isn't my favorite but by far one of the coolest, for lack of a better word. (2)How active of a part are you taking in the Gathering? (3)Since Gargs seems to be "Dead and dust" what was the future supposed to have in store
for Coldstone Desdemona/Coldfire and that annoying rustbucket, cliche-ing Coldsteel. (4) Why live action for the movie? Why not a animated feature, with the quality of work from eps such as 'Shadows of the Past' 'M.I.A.' and 'High Noon' (Three of my favorite episodes, for exceptional animation and storyline)? (5) Which leads me to my next question: Why was the animation quality of some eps better than others, ie 'High Noon': with it's superbly drawn and well rendered graphics, compared to Metamorphosis: with it's awkward movements and seemingly lowscale animation, and slightly less interesting storyline? (6) This is my personal biased opinion but almost always cartoons or animated shows/features etc. that turn to live action are inadequate by comparison. That is unless you pull some CGI graphic, Jurassic Park quality effects for the gargs. It just seems that the animation end of Gargoyles is so much more enticing than Live action. And it also seems that it [Animation] has much more to offer. Please surprise me with how incredible this movie will be just so you can tell me..."I told you so."

Greg responds...

(Numbers have been added to your comments/questions to make my life easier.) 1. Who?
2. I've been asked to attend, and if we can work out the details, I'll be there.
3. Lots of interesting stories that you just wouldn't be able to get enough of.
4. No one offered to make an animated feature. But the guys at Touchstone were interested in making a live-action movie. Who am I to say no?
Actually, no one. I have no control over what Disney does with the property.
5. You've raised two different points. Animation was done at a number of different studios. Our best work was done by Walt Disney Japan's in-house teams. Second best work was done by other Japanese units. Third best by KoKo in Korea. That was all great stuff. The rest ranged from O.K. down to poor. Your second point was about storylines, but I think it's interesting that you credit better animated episodes with having more interesting storylines. You're not alone, I've noticed in general that fans of the show seem to like the stories of better animated episodes and dislike the stories of poorly animated episodes. My guess is that at least to some extent, the animation is creating a bias negative or positive. The reason I feel that way is because, with the exception of the multi-parters, I never knew which studio an episode was going to go to when creating our stories. I never knew whether it was going to get great animation like "The Mirror",
"Future Tense" or "M.I.A." or whether it was going to get lousy or mediocre animation like "Monsters" or "Vendettas". We wrote the best 66 episodes we could. I find it hard to believe that the best stories just coincidentally happened to go to the best studios. Some stories certainly turned out better than others, but evidence suggests that animation quality had a larger subliminal effect on which stories people liked than anyone realizes.
6. First off, I don't have a lot (read any) control over this situation. I hope the live action movie is great. They are planning to use some CGI, although I don't think even they know how much yet. But mostly, I'm not worried about the look. Hollywood movies invariably look great. I'm hoping for a good story that is faithful to the spirit of the GARGOYLES property, if not the details.

Anonymous writes...

Can we trust close-captioning to interpret hard to hear dialogue?

Greg responds...

Good question, Greg. NO, YOU CAN'T. It's probably right most of the time, but as far as I know no one involved with the show approved the close captioning, and I know of at least a couple of examples where it was dead wrong. Particularly on the spelling of names. That suggests to me that whoever wrote the captions didn't even have access to the scripts. I'm guessing he or she simply listened to the episodes and wrote down what they heard (or thought they heard). That means the "guesswork" known as close captioning has no more authority than what your own ears reveal. If you have any specific questions about dialogue or name spelling, don't check the captioning. Ask Greg.

Anonymous writes...

Hi there! Please, once and for all: How the heck do you spell the name of that building? You know, the one that Xanatos owns, with the castle on the top?

Greg responds...

I think I've answered this but it's faster to type it in again then it is to check: EYRIE BUILDING. (I think Michael Reaves came up with that name.)

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