Greg "Xanatos" Bishansky writes...

My Gathering Journal

Day 2

I woke up, took a shower and went down stairs to sign up for the Mug-A-Guest, and was the first person to sign up to mug you. I noticed a lot of people got there early and Jeff Bennet filled up right away. I had this Apple Muffin for breakfast and went to the first panel, which was the Series Development panel. Unfortunatly I didn't have my schedual with me, and missed the Brynne Chandler Mug-A-Guest I signed up for, and I regret that.

That was a fun panel, and it was great to meet Tad Stones, someone who's work I admired for a long time. A lot of great stories were told, and after the panel I had to ask him the origin of the second Negaduck... it was interesting to discover that they're both the same character. I had an Evil Emperor Zurg question for him also, but forgot about it at the time.

Next came the Writing for TV Animation panel, which was great cause I got to meet Michael Reaves, who has been one of my favorite writers for ages. Learned a lot about the business, and I really hope we can get him to another Gathering.

Next I went to the Writing for Gargoyles panel, which I enjoyed immensly. it was great getting to meet the rest of the Writing Staff, and hearing about their experiences on the show, and they were all a pleasure. I hope we can get all of them back also.

I wondered around for a while and ended up in the Art Room chatting with friends like Aaron and Mara, Josh, and a lot of other people. I met your wife and kids for the first time in front of Erin's art. I encouraged her to keep drawing, cause I think she has some real talent. Her art was very cute as well. You have a wonderful family there Greg.

I went up to dinner later and had Chinese food, then we realized the time and hurried back just in time for the Radio Play. I really enjoyed it, and "Hunter's Moon" was always one of my favorites. I really regreted not trying a Scottish accent at the audition, cause now I think I could have been a great Canmore.

After the Radio Play, I went and watched some 3x3 Eyes for the first time, and now I am actively searching for the set. I'm having trouble finding it though.

I went up to my room and I forget what I did then, I think I watched a "Fraiser" re-run before my roommates came back, and we stayed up later just talking before we hit the sack

Todd Jensen writes...

I must confess that one thing that surprises me a little about Demona is how long it took her to realize the truth about Thailog. After all, we're dealing here with a gargoyle who prides herself on not trusting anyone, who's utterly and thoroughly suspicious about everyone. And Thailog strikes me as being about as thoroughly untrustworthy as they come. But the interesting thing is that Demona doesn't seem to suspect that Thailog is an unreliable ally until he finally comes out and says it in "The Reckoning" with his "I've decided to: a) kill your daughter, and b) dump you in favor of a clone that I made of you, who, by the way, is also a part-clone of Elisa." Of course, the guy is thoroughly cunning (I particularly noted how, in "Sanctuary", he cleverly drew attention away from himself after Macbeth blasts his way to freedom with the laser gun that Thailog slipped him by shouting at Demona "Didn't you search him?"), and as Macbeth himself admitted when Angela raised the same question at the end of "Sanctuary", love can be blind. But I do find it intriguing that Demona was so thoroughly duped by Thailog for so long (though it has a certain appropriateness to it).

matt writes...

hi Greg!

i recieved my prize in the mail, and needless to say i'm thrilled with it! i'm a Geography major and it was extremly interesting to me to learn more about the less known clans, both biologically, socially and culturally. i liked to see how the clans we have known had evolved to what they are in 2198. very very cool!!!

and hey, i also got your autograph! LOL

one question, i think i probably am ok since you never said anything, but is it ok to reveal things said in the prize in here or at the Comment Room? i wouldn't want to get you in trouble like the whole Fiona Canmore thing did... or do you just not want me to say some of these things to everyone? again, ifigure i'm ok since you didn't say to kep these a secret, but just want to check!

thanx again! great prize!!

Lady Leto writes...

Dear Greg.....

This is a respond to one of your ramblings. You asked:

'Is there anyone out there for whom City of Stone was your first Gargoyle experience? If so, I'd love to hear from you. Did you have a clue as to what was going on?'

Well I was getting my Dad to watch it with me for the first time. And throughout the whole thing he was asking me many question, most of them pointless like do all Gargoyles have tails? And kept on me about names. (Hudson right, nothing is real to humans till they have names.) So yes even with the flashbacks, "Previously" segment, and a hard core garg fan, he was very confused. I think next time I try to get him into Gargoyles I'll start at the beginning.

Also wanted say that it is really cool how you answer all these question. (I have been to the Archives.) It must take alot of time! And you even put up with the not so great questions! I just wanted to say thanks!

Kelly L Creighton/Kya White Sapphire writes...

Im very sorry if this was asked before, but looking through the archives I can't even begind to thing of what category it might be in.

You know a lot of us have created our own characters and our own stories. How do you feel about that?

Im very posessive. I would say "mine! leave it alone!" That's why I refuse to publish anything with my own character (myself I mean, not just a random character I created) in it, for fear that someone would role play as her or write about her in a way I didn't like.

Kelly L Creighton/Kya White Sapphire writes...

you asked for gathering journals. here ya go!
Gatheirng 2001
http://www.coloden.com/isle/g01.html
Gathering 2000
http://www.coloden.com/isle/g2k.html

Todd Jensen writes...

Another word about "Gargoyles 2198". I will state here that the part about the series concept that intrigues me the most actually isn't so much the "main plot" (the Space-Spawn occupation, Samson's resistance movement, etc.) or even the general potential for various 22nd century adventures. What makes me most interested in this projected spin-off is that it offers the best hope, of any of the cycles in your Master Plan, of exploring the issue of, what I'll call for lack of a better term, "peacetime" human-gargoyle relations.

What I mean by that is this. It's obvious enough to me that, once humans become aware that gargoyles are an intelligent race, and when they reach the point where they'd be living alongside them with a certain degree of tolerance of their existence (as in, after the UN passes the "Gargoyle Minority Protection Act"), there'd inevitably enough be a lot of interestingly complicated circumstances. Because the big difference between gargoyles and "conventional" minority groups is that gargoyles aren't part of the human race. They're a non-human species with a unique biology and culture. So that would lead to situations between the two races where there would be no real precedence, situations different from those of conventional race relations of the sort that we face today. The gargoyles aren't human, but an involuntarily nocturnal species, and an autonomous one at that, yet living (for the most part) in the middle of human nation-states (and, in at least two cases, major human cities). So there's a definite recipe for complication from the start.

Of course, once the New Olympians reveal themselves to the world, human will get some experience in dealing with a non-human race (well, in this case, partly human). But New Olympus will be easy by comparison, given that it's a sovereign state; dealings with the New Olympians would most likely be a "simple" case of international diplomacy (if international diplomacy with a nation-state populated by centaurs, minotaurs, sphinxes, and other beings from classical mythology). But the gargoyles are actually secretly living amidst humans, with the "biggie" clan (in the sense that it's the one that "Gargoyles" focused on) actually living right in New York. So there'd be a whole can of worms about where gargoyles fit in with human law, human government, and so on. And that could clearly lead to a lot of interesting stories.

It's equally clear that that wouldn't be happening to the gargoyles in the present day, at least for a while (given that nearly everybody still think of them simply as monsters; as I recall you mentioned here, the big problem with Goliath's trial would be simply giving him a trial in the first place); so obviously the necessary setting for such stories would have to be "Gargoyles 2198". Of course, the fact that the Space-Spawn will be conquering the Earth in the first episode would make the issue much more complicated, but I imagine that it'd still be fertile ground for a lot of interesting situations. At any rate, that's probably what intrigues me the most about "Gargoyles 2198". Seeing how humans solve the problem of sharing their planet with a non-human intelligent race living among them.

matt writes...

ok, i know you've said that the English gargs are pretty much limited to what we saw in "MIA", but are there smaller differences in different English gargs. i mean, no two gargoyles ever look totally alike, right? but in a large English garg clan with only a few limited features, wouldn't they start to look pretty similar? are there different colors these gargs can have besides browns and whites? are there any that have legs more similar to a bird than a horse or a lion? are there any that have different kinds of wings or something?

it doesn't bug me that the English gargs look SO different from the other gargs we've seen around the world, and i know that that bugs some people... but it does bug me that the English gargs seem to be limited to only features we saw in "MIA"...

guess thats all i have to say about that, LOL!

Entity writes...

I have something to add about the definition of "sentience." Hopefully you remember this comment thread by the time you get to this. It involved talk of "The One" vs. "The Other" and the ethics of destroying planets in Star Trek, etc. Here's my take:

"Sentience" is a distinctly different quality from "Intelligence." Sentience is being self-aware. Therefore just about all life with a backbone is sentient. Intelligence is the ambiguous one. But we don't like ambiguity, so that's why sentience has taken the role it has in popular language. I say my dog is sentient, a frog isn't. I say a human is intelligent, so is a gorrilla, but a dog isn't. I guess it's ALL subjective in the end.

It brings me to another distinction: the one between sentience and artificial intelligence. Coyote, for instance, can throw a zinger, but is he self-aware? I don't think he is. Xanatos hasn't achieved (or would wish to achieve) that much, has he?

Shan writes...

More of a comment than a question, actually. I saw the thread about you having considered a GARGOYLES Shangri-La story, but unsure about the legalities since it originates from Hilton's LOST HORIZON. I can tell you one other cartoon series that did go to Shangri-La: JEM in 1986. Richard (Rick) Merwin wrote an episode called "Journey to Shangri-La" where Jem and co. go to Tibet after joining a quest to discover the mythic city; it's a serious episode, not a parody or satire. I'm not going to say much about the episode (both because it's neither the right forum nor my place to rant) but I thought you might find it interesting. Don't know what clearance, if any, they had though. I have heard when a sequel book was developed to LOST HORIZON they had to deal with Hilton's estate. Just stuff to contemplate and share with the group at large, I guess, but if you have any thoughts or commentary...