Greg responds...

In the future, numbering your questions would be helpful. I'll divide your questions by paragraph.

2a. I'm sure she struggles a bit.

2b. I think Elisa probably relates to being African-American a bit more than Native American as her mother studies her heritage and her father had (for most of Elisa's life) rejected his. But I don't think she'd respond well to the question, frankly.

2c. I'm not going to use this forum to right a dissertation long answer. I'm sure there was some societal ostracism here and there. Elisa's different. Her ethnic background isn't always immediately obvious from looking at her. This causes some confusion for OTHER people. And that confusion can indeed effect a child. But Elisa was raised in a good home, surrounded by love and a fairly concrete ideal of right and wrong transcending the petty. I think she did fairly well.

3a. Probably a bit of Daddy's little girl. Probably also a natural bent. Elisa is bright, but she's a doer like her father. She didn't follow her mother into acadaemia; she followed her father onto the force. Beth, though choosing to study her Native American heritage, is much more like her mom. Derek is somewhat trapped. He probably would have been better off just following his own path -- to the sky, most likely. Flying was his great passion. But he felt (mostly internal) pressure to follow dad and big sis onto the force. That led to a backlash, which brought him under Xanatos' sway. Now he lives underground.

4a. I'm not sure I agree with your premise here. Elisa had a VERY strong relationship with her family. Plus I think she has friends. The fact that most of those friends are cops, is hardly surprising, since most of us pull our friend pool from our environment. I don't think that Elisa dates much. She would, I think, be very hesitant to date cops or lawyers that she works with. (It's dicey even today for a woman to date co-workers and still be taken seriously.) And she's sure not gonna date perps. And given her schedule, that limits her opportunity to meet people. We happenned to meet her between relationships, but I never thought she NEVER dated. The force does define her a bit. But not entirely.

4b. She's self-sufficient. Which is different. But she has a lot of love to give. And a cat.

4c. Eventually, all things.

5. Racially/ethnically, I don't think she's picky. Her parents' successful marriage; her attraction to Jason, her attraction to Goliath, certainly, indicates she's pretty open. Religiously? I don't know how much that would matter to her either, assuming values were shared. Financially. Well, she wouldn't want to date a bum, i.e. someone who wasn't first self-sufficient as she is. I think she has some traditional values and dreams... again modeled from her own family. But I think those values and dreams are pretty middle/working class, generally.

6. Main one: didn't meet the right guy. Otherwise, see above. She had a goal, a plan. To be a detective for the NYPD. She didn't want anything to stand in the way of that. Then she got there, and meeting eligible guys isn't that easy. Doesn't mean she wasn't looking or even hopeful.

7. Hope you're still around to read these answers.

Greg responds...

My advice is to start picking up the comic book... In time, all will be revealed there...

Greg responds...

I've noticed that too. But I have to assume it's a coincidence. Red, black, blue isn't exactly an exotic choice for either character. I've worked on both series, and certainly, no one on The Batman has ever snuck up to me and whispered, "Ellen's a tribute to Elisa, you know."

Greg responds...

Why would he do either of those things? What possible motivation would he have? How would that aid his cause AT ALL?

Greg responds...

The Magus filled her in off-camera.

Greg responds...

I won't answer this now, except to say BUY THE COMIC BOOK -- all will be revealed!

Greg responds...

Elisa's skintone is very similar to Salli's, I think. Though I may not be the best person to judge this. Elisa's mother is African American. Her father is Native American. She gets her skin more from her father, it seems to me. But she was never meant to be caucasian.

Greg responds...

Wasn't everybody?

Greg responds...

Well, she did change her clothes occasionally. La Belle Elisa dress that she wore on Halloween and "Eye of the Beholder". The tough girl outfits she put together for "Protection" and "Turf". The clothes she wore briefly in episodes like "Hunter's Moon, Part One" and "Eye of the Storm". The dress she wore in "The Journey". There may be a couple of more examples that I can't think of at the moment.

The short REALITY answer is that redesigning new clothes for her every episode would have been prohibitively expensive and cause multiple animation errors overseas. So we limited her wardrobe changes to situations where story called for it.

Think of her standard outfit as a dramatic conceit.

Within the show, I just think that's a look she's comfortable with. I pretty much where the same outfit everyday myself. Tennis shoes, jeans and a t-shirt. Of course I don't wear the same t-shirt everyday. I have black t-shirts, white t-shirts, red t-shirts. And most of them have some kind of decal or design on them. But...

Anyway, the plan for the comic book is to start giving her a wider variety of costumes. But we still love that red jacket, blue jeans and black t-shirt. So that won't go away.

Greg responds...

I think that a few factors come into play.

I think that Demona is unaccustomed to fighting in human form, which is why she has difficulty in "High Noon".

I think on Avalon, she was under the Archmage's thrall, which dampened her own skills... as it dampened her free will.

And I think that Demona has an obvious rage problem, and since much of that rage is laser-focused on Elisa specifically, she often lets her anger get the better of her skills.

Also the battles have always been brief, with many distractions and third party interventions.

I think Elisa's pretty tough and savvy, but in any sustained conflict between the two, I'd absolutely put my money on Demona.