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Artemis writes...

Re-watching Gargoyles for the first time in a decade now that it's on Disney+
I could't find anything in the archive. (I did find the answers about Goliath & Demon's ages/changes tho)
1) How old is David Xanatos ? (I'm guessing 37 in the first ep based off Vows)
2) How old is Fox?
3) How long did they know each other vs how long were they dating ?
4) Did anyone sign a prenup ?
5) How many languages do Fox / David speak?

Honestly, despite how dramatic their lives are, they seem like they have a healthy & strong relationship. They both put all their cards on the table & seem to really love each other. I think they have the most honest relationship & will die old & in-love together.

Greg responds...

1. David Xanatos was born in 1955.

2. Janine Renard was born in 1966. Fox was legally "born" in 1991.

3. Uh... they started dating in 1990. Obviously, they met at some point before they started dating, but I don't have an exact date for that.

4. Probably.

5. I'm sure Fox speaks many. And David speaks a handful. But I haven't counted.

Response recorded on June 06, 2022

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Anonymous writes...

1. Exactly much money did Xanatos have to pay in order purchase Castle Wyvern? I mean, I know Owen said the cost was astronomical, but I'd still like to know the exact amount.

2. After Xanatos purchased Castle Wyvern, exactly how long did it take for the castle to be rebuilt on top of the Eyrie Building?

3. In part two of "Awakening," there seemed to be a moment where Xanatos appeared to look upset after the sun had set and the storm was occurring. Was the reason he looked upset at that moment was because he thought the castle was not high enough above the clouds and therefore he initially thought the stone sleep curse on the Goliath and his clan was not going to be broken?

Greg responds...

1. I dunno.

2. Well... check out the various entries in "This Day In Gargoyles History" in the Garg Universe Chronology section of ASK GREG, and you can do the math yourself.

3. I'm not sure he does look upset.

Response recorded on June 03, 2022

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Jurgan writes...

On the Voices from the Eyrie podcast, you talked about how Xanatos isn't petty, and something funny occurred to me. You know who can be extremely petty? Goliath. For starters, he does have a thirst for revenge. I remember a discussion once in the CR about the characters' vices, and we decided Demona and Goliath have the same one, that being vengence. The difference is that Goliath usually keeps it under wraps, probably because he's able to admit when he's in the wrong and de-escalate.

However, G's pettiness shows up in other ways, too. In Deadly Force, he looks very smug about blowing up Xanatos's fancy guns. He gets jealous and overly protective of both Elisa and Angela at times. But my favorite is in The Edge, where he shouts at Xanatos for a while and then runs off, but not before smashing his street lamp. I don't know if that moments was intended to be funny, but it makes me bust out laughing every time. What did you think you were accomplishing, Goliath? Just venting, I guess. And then it even gets a follow-up in The Cage where Derek knocks Xanatos's desk lamp over. He can also be quite petty, or maybe it was just his cat DNA compelling him to push things off of tables.

Anyway, just a bit of disjointed praise/analysis. Summary: You can make characters more compelling by giving the heroes some villainous traits and the villains some heroic traits. This show is still teaching me stuff a quarter century later.

Greg responds...

Thanks. That was the plan. Glad it worked/is working. ;)

Response recorded on June 01, 2022

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Anonymous writes...

Which misconceptions about Captain Atom and his supporting cast annoy you the most?

Greg responds...

Hmm...

1. The conflation of Captain Atom with either (a) Doctor Manhattan or (b) Wildfire of the LSH. Cap is neither an empty shell full of energy as Wildfire is, nor does he have the godlike transformation/transmutation powers of Manhattan.

2. The idea that you can blow Cap up and his destruction releases the equivalent of an atom bomb. He's tapped into the quantum flow, but if he had built up enough power from the flow to be able to generate that kind of explosion, the excess energy would have instantly transported him into the future.

3. Anyone who divorces the Captain's story from the love of his children. That's his raison d'être. Period. That's not to say he can't participate in an adventure that has nothing to do with his kids. A League mission or what not. But if the story is about him, then everything with him is about his kids. He is a dad first. A super-hero and/or a soldier second/third.

4. Anyone who forgets that Cap is a man out of his time. It's not quite as big a deal as the kid thing. He has adapted. But it's important to remember that the 1960s was not that long ago to him.

5. General Wade Eiling is often mischaracterized from my point of view. This is a man with an agenda, but he's still (in his mind) a patriot. He's got a temper, but he's pragmatic not irrational. He'd never, for example, voluntarily place his brain inside the Shaggy Man. That's just silly to me. He's basically a proto-Xanatos. Wade's not as charming as David. But he's that smart and always armed with contingencies.

6. There are probably a lot of other things, too, if I thought about it too much. But the BIG ONE is...

7. The pronunciation of "Eiling." It's EE-ling, like an electric eel. All those people who pronounce it EYE-ling are just objectively wrong.

Response recorded on March 08, 2022

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Alex writes...

1. Do you think Xanatos will ever form a club with Lex Luthor and Norman Osborn? I can't imagine he would find Bruce Wayne and Tony Stark fun for long :)

2. Regarding their wealth do you think Xanatos and Luthor are billionaires and Osborn was a multi millionaire in terms of wealth?

Greg responds...

1. I think we touched on this in one or two of the RadioPlays. You can check 'em out on YouTube. There are links in the Gargoyles Wiki.

2. I haven't done the math.

Response recorded on September 01, 2021

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Todd Jensen writes...

I decided to reread "Clan-Building" as well, after rewatching the first two seasons of "Gargoyles" on DVD, starting with Chapters One and Two ("The Journey)).

The "hunting" analogy continues even past "Hunter's Moon" with Vinnie stating that he hunted a gargoyle down, and Castaway mentioning it (both specifically use the word "hunted").

In my "review comments" on "Hunter's Moon", I noted how it ended, in its final scene at the castle, on what went well for the gargoyles (they're back in the castle, they've made peace with Xanatos, etc.), with their being revealed to the public not mentioned. "The Journey" opens with it being made clear that their problems aren't that over after all, with the public's alarm, the foundation of the Quarrymen, and even Brooklyn raising the question of whether Xanatos really has changed that much. I think his sardonic "Welcome home" establishes the "It's not so happily ever after, after all" tone - in contrast to the way Elisa said "Welcome home" at the very end of "Hunter's Moon".

Greg responds...

It was nice to finally be able to do my version of "The Journey" - as opposed to the reedited piece that was used in The Goliath Chronicles.

Response recorded on August 17, 2021

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Todd Jensen writes...

Rewatched "Future Tense" on DVD today. Things I noticed this time on it.

Bronx looks sad when Hudson's death is revealed; given the bond the two had showed throughout the series, I thought if both fitting and touching (even if it's not really Bronx).

Goliath tells Brooklyn "we thought our odyssey was fated". I thought "odyssey" an appropriate term, since Odysseus spent twenty years away from Ithaca, and Goliath supposedly spent forty years away from Manhattan - and since gargoyles age at half the speed of humans, twenty years for humans would translate to forty years for gargoyles. (I'll admit I'm reaching here - and it feels odd to be linking Goliath to Odysseus when I'd normally think of comparing a different "Gargoyles" character to Odysseus - a fellow Greek trickster....)

The Xanatos Program's intention of using the "World Wide Net" to download itself on every computer marks one of the extremely few occasions I can think of where the Internet was alluded to on "Gargoyles"; the only other example that comes to mind was Sevarius receiving his instructions for "kidnapping" Thailog via "electronic mail". (It also got mentioned in one of the Goliath Chronicles episodes, but that doesn't count.) The near-absence of the Internet from the series certainly makes it appear
technologically dated" from today's perspective.

Greg responds...

I think "odyssey" is a particular apt word. And though Goliath and Odysseus don't have a lot of character traits in common, I do think the comparison here was intentional. And they are both big, strong heroes.

The absence of something like the internet is less of a problem for me - in terms of dating the series - than, say, the brick-sized cellphones that Xanatos and others occasionally use.

Response recorded on August 17, 2021

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Todd Jensen writes...

Rewatched "Cloud Fathers" on DVD yesterday.

This time while watching it, I wondered how Bronx left Beth's apartment. Goliath and Angela glided off without him, and I didn't see him going out the door with the Mazas (which wouldn't have been an option in any case, for obvious reasons).

We get another bit of hunting "verbal imagery", though one of the rare occasions where it's not directed at gargoyles, when Xanatos refers to Coyote the Trickster as his "true quarry".

Coyote the Trickster disappearing when he got the Mazas to look away for a moment reminds me of the tradition about how, if you look away from the faerie-folk for even a moment, they can vanish.

Greg responds...

Don't really remember Bronx's exit without rewatching. But mightn't he have just walked down the outer wall of the building.

Response recorded on August 17, 2021

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Todd Jensen writes...

Rewatched "Bushido" today (I rewatched "Sentinel" yesterday, but had no new thoughts on it).

What most struck me this time around was the parallel to "Awakening", with Taro as like a less-serious version of Xanatos. The two specifics I noticed were the gargoyles' awakening in the theme park, which reminded me of the clan's first awakening in Manhattan, and their wondering if someone had moved the temple, which evoked Xanatos moving the castle to New York.

Greg responds...

Those parallels were very intentional.

Response recorded on August 17, 2021

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Todd Jensen writes...

I've now rewatched "Heritage" and "Kingdom" on DVD. No new thoughts on "Heritage", but I still really enjoy the gargoyles bringing Cagney to the clock tower to look after him in Elisa's absence. I thought it appropriate that it was Broadway who found the kitty (he's the one of the four left behind gargs who's closest to Elisa). And I liked Hudson's rapport with Cagney, while missing Bronx. Including Cagney rubbing affectionately against Hudson - he's got no problems with gargoyles (though Maggie's another story).

I found myself wondering how that containment unit was still functioning after Fang ripped the cables apart to transport it. (To make up for it, I noticed this time around - and really liked - the way they did Talon's voice while he was stuck in there.)

As you pointed out in your ramble, Xanatos's security system does far more damage to the castle than to the gargoyles - I cringe as I see it blowing pieces of the castle apart (small wonder that, by the time of the Double Date story, Owen was getting fed up with all those repairs!) - but Xanatos's lines made up for it.

Greg responds...

Xanatos is just so much fun...

Response recorded on August 16, 2021


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