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Finally...

The queue is again empty.

But this time, I don't think Todd has fallen behind. I think finally, after, what, three years, I have caught up. Completely, totally, caught up.

I know it won't last. Won't even last a day, probably. But let me revel in the moment.

I'm caught up. I'm caught up. YES!


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Clarification...

Someone asked me whether or not gargoyles would accept a homosexual gargoyle into the clan with open arms.

My response:

"The world isn't perfect. I think generally they would be tolerant. (Tolerant, in my book, is unsatisfactory.) But generalities do not
define individual reactions to individual revelations. Open arms would exist in many cases. "

My brother read that and wrote:

"I think writing "Tolerant is unsatisfactory"could be interpreted as you saying that they should not be tolerant, that you are against
tolerance rather than tolerance being insufficient."

So, just to be clear, I was saying that I find tolerance insufficient. Certainly, tolerance is better than hostility or neutrality, but I'd prefer acceptance.


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Siren writes...

I was wondering, since is is now available to rent on VHS/DVD, have you seen Princess Mononoke? It was a wonderful movie! Keith David did the voice of the leader of the Boar Clan...damned if I can remember the name. Did an excellent job too...But I can't help imagining that was Goliath, even sounded like some things Goliath might say at one point or another. He is also the narrator as well, at the beginning. If ya haven't seen it and do see it later, could you please post what ya think about it? I like your opinons on the other movies you saw (ex: Titan A.E., Jurassic Park, etc) Thanks so much!

Greg responds...

I saw it in the theater. And I liked it a lot. It was stunning. I'd like to say more, but it was so long ago, and maybe this in itself is significant, but I can't remember the story too clearly. I do have a vague recollection that everyone's motivations were a bit confused. But I also liked how complex it was and how it was difficult to fully sympathize or dislike anyone.

Response recorded on September 16, 2000

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Tana writes...

You Asked:
"Does anyone know if "Maza" means "iron" in any Native American language or dialect?"

According to my book of names (it's got like 20,000 names and their meanings, which is totally cool, especially the Athurian names) Maza blaska, which is a Dakota name means "flat iron." So if it's one of those languages where the adjective comes after the subject, then Maza does infact mean Iron in Dakota. Which interestingly enough adds more irony since Dakota was an early choice for Demona's name. ^_^

And you know that J.R.R. Tolkien claimed that all of his novels were fact...you seen to have the same symptom with the Gargoyles.

Greg responds...

I'm not claiming they're fact so much as acknowledging that sometimes storytelling on this show just seems to click with history, existing legend and with dramatic necessity. It's a rare feeling, and I'm humbled by it. All I'm saying is it sometimes feels like the stories are true somehow somewhere, and all I'm doing is (imperfectly) tapping into them.

But I'm not actually delusional.

Response recorded on September 14, 2000

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MUSINGS

Had a good time at the Gargoyles Adult Chatroom the other day, and it got me thinking. Someone named VP (or VJ?) made the point that everything I've done after, well, "The Journey" I guess, is fanfiction. At first, I misunderstood him. For example, I thought he was confusing Katana with Sata. But he made it clear, that he meant the quote-unquote Master Plan. My initial reaction was to balk.

But I think he's got a point.

Some of this stuff was completed while I was still on the Disney Payroll in late '95, early '96, but none of it's canon in my mind. Canon, as far as I'm concerned only includes the 66 episodes running from "Awakening, Part One" through "The Journey". The other 12 Goliath Chronicles are debatable. Because the show ISN'T on the air, I think I personally am free NOT to regard them as canon. If and/or when the show does get going again in some shape or form, then a more definitive decision will have to be made at that point about those additional 12 stories.

But putting Goliath Chronicles (and Marvel Comics and Disney Adventures, etc.) aside for the moment, that still leaves us with what to do about things like:

--"Once Upon a Time There Were Three Brothers..."
--Various ASK GREG and other revelations.
--The Spin-Offs: DARK AGES, GARGOYLES 2158, TIMEDANCER, PENDRAGON, THE NEW OLYMPIANS, BAD GUYS
--My further plans for the GARGOYLES main series itself.

Calling the work I've done on any of the above "fanfic" rankles at first, but that's largely a problem of semantics. It certainly isn't canon. At this point, legally, I have no more connection to the GARGOYLES property than any of you do. Plus, as I've said many times before, I won't be held to any of it. Hell, for all you know everything I've revealed is just one big snow-job to keep you from guessing my real plans. (It's not, but it might have been smarter of me if it was.)

I do think I'm something of an authority on the subject of Gargoyles. And I also think that if the show is ever brought back, the PTB at Disney would be likely (at least given current management) to come to me first to try and revive it. Plus I'm actively working on getting the show revived, again "in some shape or form".

But that doesn't change anything regarding the question of canon.

As many of you know, I've been working on a major revision of 2158. This is taking me longer than I thought, because -- and I shouldn't have been surprised by this, but -- it's effecting the ENTIRE chronology of the series. In addition to changing the year (and thus the title) of GARGOYLES 2158, I've already been forced to go back and make adjustments to both DARK AGES and "Once Upon A Time...Three Brothers". I now know that the last posted chapter of three brothers wound up being the last chapter of that little story period. Because "3Bros" really wound up being just a prologue to DARK AGES. And where "3Bros" leaves off is in fact right at the beginning of where DARK AGES begins.

The 2158 revamp has also necessitated minor changes in TimeDancer. And has clarified my thinking on Pendragon and Bad Guys as well.

[Thankfully, none of it has effected the Clan Contest. We should still be able to put that monster to bed soon.]

All this flux has made it difficult for me to keep certain details clear in my head. For example, at that Friday 9/1/00 chat, I revealed that Hudson had two biological children, Hyppolyta and Broadway. That was an error. Hudson had THREE biological children. (I got my dates mixed up.)

I'm hoping that the work I'm doing now will clean a lot of stuff up. I'm hoping that clarity (and my personal certainty) will return. But this flux isn't necessarily a bad thing. I know I screwed up at least a few times (Garg Universe-wise) within the 66 episodes. I tried to keep those mistakes to a minimum, but they happened. I'd like to avoid making more mistakes, even here at ASK GREG. I definitely feel like I'm getting closer to the "true" Gargoyles Universe, if that's possible and/or makes any sense.

Updates on all this should come over the next ten months. But I'm targeting Gathering 2001 for completion. I'm hoping to be able to make some big announcements there. So bear with me.

But to be fair to VP, he was right. I wouldn't call what I do "fanfiction". For starters, none of it is in the form of fiction. And so calling it that may be giving it TOO MUCH credit. But at the moment, I have no more claim to canon than anyone.

Rather, I'd say that if you like the stories I did come up with on the original 66, and think you might enjoy what I'd do next -- the way you might enjoy what Christine Morgan or Christi Smith Hayden or TGS does next -- than stay tuned. I've got more to tell you and more to reveal by and by.


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See you soon...

Leaving on vacation today. Don't know if I'll have internet access while I'm gone, so we this may be my last ASK GREG post for a week or so.

Have fun!


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I made it...

I really was beginning to think I'd never get to the end of July...

But I made it.

I'm less than one month behind.

Unfortunately, I'm about to leave town for a week and I don't know if I'll have net access where I'm going, so I'm bound to fall behind again. But at least we got this far...


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Ambrosia writes...

Greg,
I was wondering if you would go into some detail on why you hated Jurassic Park, ID4, Return of the Jedi, Titan A.E., E.T., and the last 10 minutes of Gladiator. You went through a list of movies you'd seen and rattled off sentence fragments (shame on you, ex-English teacher) like, "Hated it." "Made me angry." I just wondered why?
I was also surprised that you haven't seen The Phantom Menace (not Phantom Empire, BTW). I one time watched it four times in a week. I love movies where the special effects aren't just for making explosions in the most dramatic way possible, but are for the sake of... art.
Sigh.
People tell me I'm too passive about movies. I liked Battlefield Earth, for crying out loud. There are few movies I *don't* like, but you seemed to list off every good movie that exists.
Okay, I was just curious.

Greg responds...

Those are good movies?

No. Not in my opinion.

Here's a list of good movies (in no particular order):

Shakespeare in Love. Casablanca. Terminator. (The first one ONLY.) Risky Business. Betty Blue. Robin & Marion. Star Wars. The Empire Strikes Back. Prelude to a Kiss. Jungle Book. One Hundred and One Dalmations (the animated version). Some Like it Hot. Henry V. Much Ado About Nothing. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Ran. The Third Man. Citizen Kane. Unforgiven. Ferris Bueller's Day Off. The Great Mouse Detective. Wrath of Khan. From Russia With Love. Rear Window. Singing in the Rain. Stripes. Ghostbusters (the first one only). Vertigo. And many, many more...

But those you listed above...

Well, where do I start.

SPOILERS

Return of the Jedi was awful, in my opinion. The promise of the first picture, the depth of the second... All dropped for cutesy revelations, cutesy unbelievable action... and worst of all, an Emperor who was too stupid to win. As if the Ewoks weren't bad enough, the Emperor was embarrassing. HE LITERALLY lost the thing single-handedly. Every time Luke started to get angry and vengeful. Every time he started to turn to the dark side of the force, the big-mouth Emperor would LITERALLY rub his hands together like Snidely Whiplash and say: "That's it, Luke. Turn to the dark side of the force!" At which point, Luke would do a mental double take and remind himself -- visually, on camera -- that turning to the dark side was a bad idea. And it continued like that ad nauseum. Man, I was going NUTS. It was so disappointing. A great series with an awful ending. It broke my heart. The hope was that this was only the middle three of nine episodes. So if the other eight were great (and two were already great) then I could forgive one clunker.

But then as Phantom was being prepared, Lucas announced that he wasn't going to do the last three. That meant that no matter how good the first three were, the entire series still would end with a clinker. That depressed me. Then I read some reviews and heard some feedback about Phantom. And it sounded like it had more in common with Jedi than Empire. I can't say, since I didn't see it. But I reasoned that if that were true, I'd be massively depressed. Because then it really WOULDN'T matter how good episodes two through five were, because the thing began and ended with clinkers. So I just stayed away. And you know what. I didn't miss it one bit.

E.T. I thought this was also manipulative crap. Now, I'm older than you. I first saw it when I was in college, but I was stunned by how cold a movie it seemed to me, underneath all the sentimentality. Eliot and E.T. are linked until E.T. "dies" at which point the threat to Eliot goes away, because of course the alien E.T. can be shamelessly ressurected later, but Eliot can't. So we have to remove the threat to this boy which has been of primary dramatic importance for the last hour. I just thought there was no there there.

Jurassic Park was just a mess. The story didn't cohere. The characters all acted like idiots. Guys don't even fire their guns when they have a chance. I actually thought the editing was lousy. The lawyer is scapegoated because he's a "LAWYER" and we all know emblematically how evil being a lawyer is. We're supposed to cheer when he buys it in the toilet. But earlier, we were hissing him when he exerted common sense and suggested (quite rightly) that Jurassic Park might not be ready for business yet. I was appalled. Angered. The second one was arguably worse, but (a) I was prepared for that and (b) I didn't pay for it, DreamWorks did, so I had a better time enjoying it as a truly BAD movie.

Titan A.E. was gorgeous but also infuriating. All these great sequences that added up to a story that fundamentally makes no sense. Scientist builds a ship that can create a new earth. Aliens are so upset they destroy the old earth necessitating the creation of the new earth. We run around for a bit. We put our characters in various "dangerous" situations (all of which are solved in the very next scene) and wind up creating a new earth to replace the old. Of course in the process the Titan ship is destroyed (or utilized, whatever) so now all the aliens have to do is destroy this new Earth and, hey, we're all doomed. Great. Character motivation is awful. But, hey, it looked great, and there were great sequences. Why should I care if there are story holes you can drive a truck through? Well, maybe I care because TPTB will think that animated action movies just don't work. They won't want to make any more. They won't say, hey, bad script. A good script will make a good movie. They'll just say bad combo: no one likes action and animation. And suddenly, my career has been limited by actions not of my making.

Gladiator, I was enjoying. But I thought the ending was preposterous. I'm supposed to believe that this Emperor who never ventured into any battle. Who never went onto the Coliseum floor without a massive armed escort, would risk his life with Maximus after only stabbing him once with a short knife. Maximus, who we've seen survive everything under the sun. I couldn't believe he'd do that. And it made the outcome, obvious and without suspense. Not to mention the fact that it DESTROYED my suspension of belief. And once that is done, there's no going back. Suddenly, I'm wondering why Derek Jacobi is still alive when everyone else has been assassinated. Oh, yes, because we need him to bring back the republic at the end. (SOMETHING THAT DOESN'T COME CLOSE TO HAPPENING HISTORICALLY.) Movies are a house of cards. And this one all came tumbling down.

ID4 - Please. Don't make me go there.

And by the way, I know fragment sentences when I write them. They're done for effect and perfectly acceptable in prose. (Now my spelling mistakes on the other hand...)

Response recorded on August 22, 2000

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GREG WEISMAN: THE RETURN!

He's baaaacckkkkk!!!!

To quote Greg Weisman: "Gathering 2000 kicked ass."

I really want to thank everyone who attended and helped to make it such a success.

First and foremost my thanks go out to the G2K staff, Kellie, Heather, Syrin and most of all, Sara. You guys were just terrific. Thanks.

Also a special thanks to all those people who were so kind to my kids (who had a terrific time by the way).

I'm bound to leave someone out, but...

Kellie, Heather, Syrin, Sara, Jen, Christine, Tim, Karlyn, Lexy, etc.

and of course, Becca -- who deserved to win the juvenal division of the costume contest hands down, but graciously shared the honors with Erin & Benny.

They're still talking about all of you.

Special thanks go out to Thom, Greg and Vic, who were great guests and had a great time (or so they told me). They have already spread the word around Disney. (Brad Rader was very impressed with the $805 sale of the "Mirror" board.) Making it even easier to gather guests for G2001.

Speaking of which, I had a great time with the G2001 staff: Patrick, Kathy, Kenna and of course Jen. (I know I've left some people out, sorry.) To quote Greg Weisman: "2001 is going to kick some major ass." (I'm getting way too fond of saying that.)

Already, however, I'm seeing people apologizing for not being able to make it next year. HEY! THAT'S THE WRONG ATTITUDE!!! It's too soon to decide you can't make it. You've got ten months to figure out a way. I am personally guaranteeing 20 guests from the cast and crew. Panels on writing, acting, character design and storyboards. Separate Q&A panels on Developing the series, Writing, Recording, Art and Producing. Another radio play. More Q&A at the dinner. Etc. Etc. Etc. Our goal is to get 500 people. Yep, you heard me, FIVE HUNDRED people in attendance. If we look like we're closing in on that number, I will invite every applicaple Disney Exec. We'll show them in a concrete way, the bet they are missing by not doing more with the show. If you want to get the show back on the air, there isn't a single thing that you can do that would better our chances than attending G2001 in Los Angeles. We already have SEVENTY-FIVE people attending. Yep. Pre-paid and everything. Don't be left behind.

A website for the con, will be up soon. Keep an eye out. We have tremendous momentum coming out of Orlando. Let's not let it die.

Ahem, back to the thank yous...

Kudos to the "Greg Weisman Players":

Seth, Jen, Thom, Wanderer, Lanny, Mer, Hudson, Durid, Alan, Michelle, Brian, Sara, Pogo, Jessie, Beth, Heather, Amy, Marie Noire, Sarah, Kelley, Ryan, Slash, Bud-Clare and Ann.

You all did great.

It was also great to see and talk to many fans, some who have been to ALL FOUR CONVENTIONS. WOW. I'm bound to forget some, but Hudson, Heather, Amy, Aaron, Kythera, A Fan, Noel, Scott (sorry, I can't make your Hockfest), Lexy, Lanny, Karine, Aimee, Mitch, Duncan, Denis, etc.

And it was nice to meet some new faces: Ashlee, Kelly, Dreamie, Jessie, etc.

And Carol, it was nice to see you there too.

And the costumes... Another WOW.

Anyway, now I'm back. What's up ahead...

Well, G2001, of course. I'm getting even more involved this year than ever before. (See above.)

I'm still over two months behind on ASK GREG. It could take me awhile to catch up, as I may actually be starting a paying job soon. (I'll keep you posted.) But in the coming weeks, look for:

1. My G2K Diary. (Not that I kept one, but I can always make something up.)

2. A new Archive that will be called something like: "Historical Documents". Jordan Mann has scanned a bunch of recently recovered documents into my computer. I'll soon begin reprinting them (mixed in with stuff you've already seen and other documents I already had in my computer) in chronological order. This stuff covers the entire spectrum of the development of the series in prose.

3. The revamped version of GARGOYLES 2158. Which for starters, will be set in the 23rd century at least.

4. More Ramblings on episodes as my family and I watch them at home.

5. Some info on an exciting new project that I'm working on with Gorebash and Doug Murphy (one of our storyboard artists).

6. More G2001 updates

7. And, yes, I'll even be answering your questions. Bear with me.

But finally, thanks to all of you. You always manage to make MY YEAR with this con, and all your kind words at this site. I could never thank you enough. But I'll continue to try.

Greg Weisman


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UPDATE & HIATUS

Whew -- I finally made it through June of 2000. (I thought June 27th would never end.)

I'm still officially over a month behind, but I'm out of time.

Tomorrow I'll be leaving for Orlando for a week. And I won't be answering any more ASK GREG questions until I get back. (And probably not for a couple days after that until I catch up.)

So if you have questions that just can't wait -- come to the GATHERING!!!



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