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Zarok writes...
Something I've been thinking of regarding the proposed Timedancer spin-off. If Brooklyn spends 40 years bouncing back and forth through time then after the first few years, he probably realises that the phoenix gate keeps appearing in front of him. Now the problem starts when he meets Katana and they have Tachi because they would have to keep in close proximity to Brooklyn at all times just in case. This would mean effectively zero privacy, I mean what happens when Brooklyn and Katana want to "do it", do they just toss Tachi a blindfold and tell her to stick his talons in her ears?
Greg responds...
Tachi doesn't hatch until after the ride is over, but there's Nash and Fu Dog to consider.
After a few years of this, Brook's attitude toward the Gate changes. Pretty much a 180 from the way you see it changing.
Zarok writes...
Hey Greg I hear your writing a novel, if so…
1) what's it called?
2) What's it about?
3) And most importantly where can I get it?
Greg responds...
1. Anyone who was at G1998 could probably guess.*
2. Ditto.
3. No where right now. I'm about halfway through the second draft. And it's not like I've got a publisher lined up. But believe me, when I'm ready I'll let all of you know.
*Note: that's a not-too-subtle hint that great and wonderful things happen every year at the Gathering. I reveal and show things there that I don't and won't at any other time. So check out...
http://www.gatheringofthegargoyles.com/
and find a way to get to Montreal this August. You won't regret it!
Orin writes...
are all future gargolye projects dead at this point
Greg responds...
Let's just say "sleeping".
Todd Jensen writes...
A couple of "King Arthur-in-the-comics" related questions:
1. You mentioned that you've read "Camelot 3000" (and were even working at DC Comics at the time that it came out). In your opinion, did it have any influence on your vision of Arthur's return in the Gargoyles Universe. (Well, there were obviously some strong differences, such as Arthur returning in the present day in "Gargoyles" rather than the year 3000, and finding Excalibur before he finds Merlin where in "Camelot 3000", it was the other way around).
2. Have you ever read "Prince Valiant" (the most famous Arthurian comic)? If so, what did you think of it?
Greg responds...
1. My ideas on Arthur were fairly well-formed by the time I read Camelot 3000, a limited series by Mike W. Barr and Brian Bolland. For example, in my mind Arthur was in Avalon, not on British soil. And frankly, the notion of Arthur coming back is part of the legend, not something that Mike came up with. I also have no plans to use reincarnation to bring back dead knights, etc. So I don't think it was a major influence.
Having said that, I thoroughly enjoyed Camelot 3000. Thoroughly.
2. Prince Valiant was never in the L.A. Times, at least not in my memory. When I was in High School, it appeared in the now-defunct L.A. Herald Examiner, a paper we didn't get at home, on Sundays only. So on Monday mornings, I would occasionally take a look at it. Basically, I'm passingly familiar with it, but I don't know much about it.
matt writes...
do you have any story ideas where Gabriel and/or Ophelia are the focus?
Greg responds...
Yes.
matt writes...
have the other two garg beast of the Avalon Clan besides Boidikka had a hatchling already as of "Avalon"?
Greg responds...
I don't know. I'd have to work the numbers.
person writes...
Hi Greg. Here's my question.
In Awakening part one, a man covered in white made a bargain with Hakon. Was that The Magus? And what did it have to do with the whole spell thing? Because I know it was Demona and Captain of the Guard's idea to let the Vikings have the castle. I just don't know what the Magus(or whoever it was)had to do with it.
Thanks!
Greg responds...
It was the Captain. We simply tried to fool you into thinking it was the Magus.
tribe writes...
i have only one real important question...and that is, when will the entire gargoyles series (season 1,2&3) finally be available to purchase on DVD. and i'm hoping it's packed with extra goodies like possible drawing outtakes, behind the scenes, animation reels and much, much more?!?
Greg responds...
Season One is supposed to be released sometime in the fourth quarter of 2004. My guess is that other seasons will ONLY get a release if the sales on Season One merit that release.
Zarok writes...
First Greg let me say how honoured I am to by the first poster in the new Space-Spawn category. One of the reasons I'm so fixated with the Space-Spawn is that the more I learn about them the more questions I have. A perfect example of this is the revelation that the Space-Spawn have two gods. As soon as I heard this dozens of questions started popping in my head. The key one being would the Space-Spawn gods be subject to your 'all things are true' policy? If so then the implications are mind boggling, I mean you said alien magic would be a sophisticated concept but alien gods that's really something. Now on with the questions…
1) Do the Space-Spawn gods actually exist?
2) If so did they come into existence before or after the Space-Spawn themselves?
3) What's their opinion of the war?
4) What's their opinion of each other?
5) If you decide to use them, do you predict any S&P problems? I mean Anubis and Odin are okay cause they are real mythological figures (hey I made an oxymoron!) and you can claim educational value but I doubt the folks who accuse Gargoyles of promoting devil-worship will take too kindly to the Space-Spawn gods.
Greg responds...
1. I'm not saying at this time.
2. The legends say before. That's all I will say now.
3. I'm not granting the premise of the question, though I'm not disputing it either.
4. In the legends, they are adversaries.
5. I don't understand why I would have any S&P problems creating two fictional gods for a fictional alien race. (You do know that the Space-Spawn are fictional, right?)
WereFox writes...
Greg
In your mind, when Demona fell from the castle at the end of Awakenings 5 what happened to her? Did she manage to recover from her tumbling fall beneath the falling masonry and glide away? Or did she pancake into the pavement, shattering every bone in her body, and then recover a la her link with MacBeth?
Greg responds...
The former.
AZRAEL writes...
HELLO GREG!!!!! I WRITE TO YOU FROM PERU, IN SOUTHAMERICA!!!!!! AND I REQUEST TO YOU THAT EXCUSE MY WRONGS,SINCE MY NATIVE LANGUAGE IS NOT THE ENGLISH. MY QUESTION IS: COULD YOU TELL ME MORE ABOUT THE FINAL EPISODES OF "ROUGHNECKS"?
SERIE WAS AIRED HERE WHIT VERY HIGH AUDIENCE RATINGS, BUT THERE WAS NOT THE FINAL EPISODES. ABOUT THE END OF THE WAR AGAINST THE BUGS. I WANT TO KNOW MORE ABOUT IT!!!!!!!
PLEASE, GREG, ANSWER ME,SINCE I WRITE YOU FROM PERU (VEEEEEEEEEERY FAR).
THANS AND GOOD LUCK, GREG!!!!!!!!!!!!
Greg responds...
Sony had an order for 40 original episodes. And we wrote all 40. And we voice recorded all 40.
But at some point -- I think because one of the CGI studios declared bankruptcy, taking with it a chunk of Sony's budget -- Sony decided that to save money on the order of 40, they'd have to cut four episodes and replace them with four clip shows.
By that time, pre-production was pretty far along. Since this was a money-saving solution (not a creative one) in the first place, it made budgetary sense to shelf the episodes that had the least work done on them. So the last four episodes were shelved. Then someone realized that the episode depicting the destruction of Buenos Aires would be extremely expensive to produce. So that one got shelved and they put the fourth to last episode back into the pipeline.
The_Souldier writes...
I didn't come across this anywhere in the archives so, how did you decide to name your cat Iggy? I'm really just curious, I can't really say it's a stupid name or anythig, because here we have a cat we call Mr. Cat, a cat named Monkey, and a lizard we simply call Stinky.
Greg responds...
Iggy is short for Igthorn, as in Duke Igthorn from the Gummy Bears tv series. The Dukey was always a favorite of mine.
Another favorite was Bigtime Beagle from DuckTales, and our other cat is named Bigtime.
Our dog is Norman, named after Norman from Marsupilami. Not sure he was one of our favorites, but we wanted to use a Disney villain name, and no other name fit our dog.
Lacy writes...
Hi, actually this is more of a general ramblin fan letter than a question.
I love gargoyals, and even after all this time I still do.
OH! Though one good question just came to mind (and likely has been asked a million times) Do you plan on ever re-releasing gargoyals as they were in the first two seasons? (not that stupid farce that ABC mangled.) Do you have to wait for any wavers of contracts or has Disney totally bought out all rights to the show so that we never have hopes of seeing it anywere unless they deside to grace us with it (like that would ever happen)
I also noticed that Aladdin the series was in your list of series you did, that was surprising to me, but then again not really, now that I think about it the series had alot of the same feel as gargoyals. (GO MOZENRATH! chee, I'm such a sap for the bad boys)
Gargoyals still holds a strong place in my heart and was definately the first series I ever did fan art, as well as stories about. (Hey I can read,just said I did it, not giving nothing here, nor do I want to. They just fun stuff for me personally anyway.)
Puck is definately my favorite charactor, and it was a huge disapointment to me, my little sister and our circle of friends who are all fans when he wasnt even given an apearence in that chronicals series. (well other than as Owen) So much got crammed and cliche'd in that series, BLEH gotta get off it >.<
Anyway, love the details and developement of the charactors, they all were so believeable and real. The series touched imagination and feeling as no show has, it wsn't just animation as america treats it, but a true series, like Babyalon 5 and StarTrek series. It is the exsample I use most often in arguements for animation used as another form of filming rather than just entertainment for children.
I really hope to see more someday.
OH!!!! End question!!! Did you ever write out how you planned the series to go? If so, did you ever put them to the web? If so... CAN I SEE?!!!!!
Greg responds...
I'm glad you liked the show.
I worked on developing Aladdin for television -- though that wasn't exactly rocket science -- but had nothing to with its production. I'm sorry if that was unclear.
Disney ALWAYS owned Gargoyles outright. Bringing it back is not up to me, though I'd like to and I continue to hold out some hope.
I have a master plan and tons of ideas in my head, going forward and backward. A fraction of that plan is on the web, and can be accessed by checking the ASK GREG FAQ.
Zarok writes...
Here is a question that's being rolling around in my head for a while now. Considering your 'all things are true' policy have you given any thought to how you would approach the 'life after death' aspects of the mythologies you've introduced? I mean did slain Viking warriors really join Odin in Valhalla or mummified Pharaohs join Anubis beyond the western horizon? How would this work in relation to Oberons non-interference edict? I'm not asking you to give me the Gargoyles version of every afterlife myth in existence or even to set out anything in stone, I just want your perspective on the subject that I've been pondering.
Greg responds...
My gut reaction, based on Dante as much as anything, is that people go where their souls truly want to go. Since it's voluntary, though not necessarily consciously so, there's no conflict with Oberon's edict.
Anonymous writes...
Is the culture of the N'kai monolithic like that of most alien races in scifi?
Greg responds...
As you've probably noticed, I try as much as possible to avoid monolithic cultures. I don't believe they exist in real life, so I try to keep the Gargoyles Universe as multi-lithic as possible.
Same would hold true for the Nokkar's people.
"Multi-lithic". I like that.
Liz writes...
what is the name of the episode when broadway shoots elisa?and why?
Greg responds...
It's called "Deadly Force". And the reason it's called "Deadly Force" is because that's the title that Michael Reaves picked out, based on the technical/legal term.
Aaron writes...
Hi Greg. Long-winded question, so bear with me.
One of the recurring themes of Western story-telling is that those who "tamper in God's domain", to borrow a phrase, will be struck down for their hubris. After the enterance of Frankenstein into our collective consciousness, one of the "rules" for Western literature is that Frankenstein must always be destroyed by his monster, for his arrogance in playing god.
The reason I bring this up, is that Xanatos is a man who seems to like playing god. And he has left a trail of monsters in his wake.
I'll ignore Jackal, Hyena, and Wolf for the purposes of this question, since it could be argued that they were already monsters who merely allowed their exteriors to be altered to match their true natures. (Although, it could also be argued that those three were tempted by David and his offers of power and vengeance, but at the end of the day, I still think they all damned themselves willingly)
I'd go so far as to even ignore the mutates, because even though they become monsterous looking, they really don't fit the bill as "monsters". They're just ordinary people who, by virtue of making some bad character judgements, find themselves with fur and wings. (Although it probably doesn't help Xanatos' karma any)
But even ignoring those two examples, you still have...
1. Coldstone. Such an obvious Frankenstein archtype that you joked about it. (The "It's alive! ALLLLLLLIVE!" sequence remains one of my favorites from the whole show) Of course, you could lay Coldstone at least partially at Demona's feet as well, so we'll move on.
2. Thailog. Grown in a lab, created with a mixture of different people, (Goliath's body and temper, Xanatos' mind and ethics, Sevarius'... libedo? Whatever accounts for Delilah) he turns almost immediately on his "fathers" You could call Thailog Sevarius' creature rather then Xanatos' except that David is the force behind his creation, and that Anton, for all his mad scientist posturing, could be seen as no more then a lab assistant, an Igor to David's Dr. Frankenstein.
3. The Coyote robot series. Xanatos' most personal "creature", the one to whom he gave his face (well, half of it) and voice. Loyal (?) to David for now, but unless forming the Ultrapack is David's idea, he presumably goes indepentant eventually. That, and we know he sets his sights on galactic domination in 2198, presumably not with his creator's blessing. (Then again, I could be wrong)
4. The Matrix. Created so that David and Fox could reshape the entire planet at their whim. If that's not arrogance, I don't know what is. Admittedly, I don't think it's becoming sentient along the way was part of the plan, and it's inclusion here might be a bit of a stretch, but I thought it was an example of Xanatos' hubris, if nothing else.
So, I guess, after all that lead up, my question is this: Would the pattern hold true? Would one (or all) of Xanatos' "creatures" come back to bite him in the ass later? As Elisa said "I wouldn't want Xanatos' karma."
There is a second part to this question, but I'll submit it separately, in case it's viewed as an idea.
Greg responds...
Well, for starters, I'd argue your premise. Victor Frankenstein's life was certainly decimated by the monster he created and abandoned -- but he survived the experience, sadder and hopefully wiser.
Moreover, it was the abandonment that was his true sin in Mary Shelley's original work. The creation was certainly hybris. But Shelley is pretty darn clear that she viewed the abandonment as worse. And I tend to agree. It's nature vs. nurture. The creature wasn't created evil. He was driven to it.
As to X's karma and whether it will all come back to bite him in the ass, I think the answer is clearly yes. But I really see it as a separate question. That is, it is a karma question more than simply a playing god question. That's one element. But only one. After all, one might argue that David and Fox were playing god by bringing Alexander into the world. But I wouldn't argue that. And I'm sure that's not what you had in mind.
So let's go through the numbers.
I tend to agree that Wolf, Hyena and Jackal built their own cages. And for the record, seem quite happy to live in them.
The Mutates seem to be following the same path as the gargoyles themselves. That is to say, that Xanatos woke the gargoyles, and has often suffered for it since. He then turned these four humans into mutates, and has had to suffer a bit (though admittedly not much) for that. It will be interesting to see Talon's post-Hunter's Moon reaction to Goliath and Co. moving back into the Castle. But the larger truth is that Talon, Maggie and Claw are making lives for themselves.
1. Coldstone. Well, yeah, duh. This is our Frankenstein's monster. But as with most things, Xanatos is too smart to truly follow in Victor's footsteps. He helps create the creature -- and certainly uses it -- but he never simply abandons it. And he also tries to balance (or bury) the Karmic scales, by helping out with Coldstone's Multiple Personality Disorder and by building Coldsteel and Coldfire.
2. Thailog. Here's the big threat, frankly. A guy with something to prove and three fathers to prove it all to. I think Xanatos hasn't seen the last of Thailog. One could argue that Thailog is the only guy to ever beat Xanatos at his own game (in Double Jeopardy). So the hybris of creating him has already bitten X's ass. But I doubt Thailog is through.
3. Coyote... I just don't want to reveal too much on this right now. Sorry.
4. I really think you have to chalk Matrix up to Fox's hybris (and competitive spirit) rather than to David's. She was certainly having the Matrix engineered for her and her man, but that doesn't mean that Xanatos was behind it. That would assume that she cannot operate independently. And I sure as heck wouldn't assume that about her.
So the short answer: yes. But it's all very nuanced.
Liz writes...
Why does Demona hate humans?
Greg responds...
If the series hasn't answered that question, than I truly have nothing to add.
Stuff...
ASK GREG isn't exactly a BLOG. I'm not always sure what's appropriate to put here...
For example, I had a weird thought last night. It occured to me that I'm old enough (based on my sexual history) to have a 22-year-old child. (My actual kids are 9 and 6.) That freaked me out. But I'm not sure it's appropriate for this forum. Still -- I guess it doesn't hurt to be advocating protected sex over unprotected sex, right?
(I know that's gonna come back and bite me on the ass. I just know it.)
Saw RETURN OF THE KING. And I really, really liked it, although I didn't really, really like the first hour. Overall, I enjoyed the first two movies more, but don't get me wrong. I'm not comparing this to the awful Return of the Jedi, at all. I still loved it, and I can't wait to see the extended version.
I do wish there had been some mention of what the dwarves were up to. And some indication of where the elves went who fought at Helm's Deep. How come they didn't lend a hand in Gondor? Even a line of dialogue would have been helpful to me.
The movie that actually caught me by surprise was PETER PAN. I really liked it a lot. It's so melancholy and bittersweet. Peter looked terrific (and was about 50/50 on the acting). Some things may have been a bit on the head, but it's Neverland, not Subtletyland. Just to be clear, I'm not saying it's a better movie than LOTR, but I thought the reviews of Pan were way harsh.
HATED CHEAPER BY THE DOZEN. But there was one VERY FUNNY scene in it when the twins confessed. Otherwise, as a dad, I thought the message it sent was EXTREMELY dubious -- and extremely unrealistic.
Had a great vacation. Hope you all are having a happy new year.
Zarok writes...
I meant "religion" not "religio". (I am such an idiot).
Greg responds...
I got that. But thanks for attempting to correct. It is appreciated.
Zarok writes...
What kind of religio do the Space-Spawn have?
Greg responds...
I have not explored this yet.
SHEENA LOUISE COLLYAR writes...
GREG WERE CAN I FIND PICTURES AT OF GAGOYLES??????!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Greg responds...
Try the Station 8 comment room.
The Soulider writes...
In "The Mirror," why did Elisa get her shoes back and none of the other humans-turned-gargoyles get theirs back when the were changed back into humans? And where *did* Elisa'a Jacket go?
Greg responds...
I don't recall everyone else using/losing shoes. I'd have to watch it again. Maybe the other people you saw all transformed before they had their shoes on in the first place? Never put them on, so never got them back.
As for Elisa's jacket... I don't know. I've never known the answer to that one. Magic and Puck's personal aesthetic, perhaps.
Zarok writes...
Is the Egyptian desert god Seth still alive in the Gargoyles Universe? According to Egyptian mythology, he died at some point before recorded history but that didn't stop some Egyptians from worshipping him. Then again worshipping dead guys wasn't unusual back then. I'm just curious about Seth's status in gargoyles. I would like to thank you for your time.
Greg responds...
I have some notions about Set, but he's pretty far down my list of priorities. He's basically a Trickster figure (though a nastier one), and I already have four of those to play with.
Siren writes...
When Titania whispered to Fox, is visibly irked Fox. I don't even think it was anything as big as you say it is. Titania probably just told her "That shirt makes you look fat", it probably has nothing to do with the future of Gargoyles and that's why you feel we all might be disappointed. This was all just part of your Master Plan to keep us guessing and coming back, wasn't it?!
(So concludes Siren feeble attempt at irking Greg to come out with it already) ;)
Greg responds...
No. Not originally, anyway. It's you guys who have built it up and intimidated me into silence, frankly.
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