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dph writes...

I searched through archives and didn't seem to find this question answered anywhere. A world-wide vote was recently held for nominations for a new set of 7 Wonders of the World. Chichén Itzá happenned to win. I am wondering if Chichén Itzá in Mexico was an inspiration for the pyramid shown in "The Green".

Greg responds...

To some extent, yes.

Response recorded on July 24, 2007

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JUNE 23

This day in Gargoyles' Universe History....

June 23rd...

2006
Obsidiana comes to the United States.


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JUNE 22

This day in Gargoyles' Universe History....

June 22nd...

2001
A crisis brings together representatives of four clans.

2007
Lexington continues his journey.


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MAY 26

This day in Gargoyles' Universe History....

May 26th...

1996
Broadway and Lex defeat Hyena and take custody of the Amulet, leaving Hyena for the cops. And in Guatemala, the gargoyles and Elisa battle Jackal. At sunrise, Jackal briefly believes he has the upper hand when Obsidiana turns to stone. But in reality, she had merely lost her pendant. Bronx recovers it, and he, Zafiro, Jade and Turquesa dispatch Jackal. As a result, Vogel decides to cancel Cyberbiotics' rain forest operation. After sundown, the travelers depart. But they bring Jade and Turquesa along to transplant samples of the rain forest flora in Avalon. They arrive on the mystic island at dawn and Goliath, Angela and Bronx sleep through the Avalonian day. Elisa introduces Jade and Turquesa to Princess Katharine and the Guardian, and all spend the day scouting Avalon for a good location for the rain forest transplants.


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MAY 25

This day in Gargoyles' Universe History....

May 25th...

1996
At sunrise, Goliath, Angela and Bronx turn to stone. But the Mayan gargoyles wear magic pendants that allow them to remain flesh, thanks to a missing Mayan Sun Amulet. During the day, Elisa watches Zafiro scare farmers away from the forest. Meanwhile, Hyena heads for New York in order to break into a museum and destroy the Sun Amulet. She's spotted by Broadway and Lexington.


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MAY 24

This day in Gargoyles' Universe History....

May 24th...

1996
Goliath, Elisa, Angela and Bronx leave Avalon and arrive in the rain forests of Guatemala. There they encounter Zafiro, Obsidiana, Jade and Turquesa, the last surviving gargoyles of the Mayan Clan. Together, they fight off an incursion against the rain forest by Jackal, Hyena and loggers working for Cyberbiotics, under the management of Preston Vogel.


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Dusk Rider Q writes...

This is less serious than my last post.

It had occured to me the other day while watching the Green that the Guatamalan clan and all the other clans take names. Some of them such as the Griff's clan have had contact for some time with humans, but what's Zafiro excuse. Is it only a Wyvern Clan tradition, not a gargoyle tradition across cultures, to remain nameless?

Greg responds...

Only the four pendant wearers had names. Unfortunately, only the four pendant wearers were still alive.

Response recorded on March 13, 2007

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catrina writes...

Did
the mayan's really deal with gay marriges?

Greg responds...

Human or gargoyle?

Response recorded on January 12, 2007

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Sonny writes...

Where is ChacIxChel in Guatemala? Is it a real place? The reason I ask is because I cannot find any info on the place.

Greg responds...

It's fictional.

Response recorded on July 08, 2005

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Chapter LI: "The Green"

Time to ramble...

Chapter LI: "The Green"
Story Editor: Cary Bates
Writer: Cary Bates
Directors: Kazuo Terada, Takamitsu Kawamura

PREVIOUSLY
Use a voice actor. Pay a voice actor. That's the rule, and it's a good one. What that means practically is that even the guy who says, "Previously on Gargoyles" needs to be paid for that episode. Or rather, we won't use someone to say "Previously on Gargoyles" unless that actor is already appearing in the episode, because we don't want to pay someone JUST to say "Previously on Gargoyles..." Now, if you know that one fact, then when you hear our good friend Thom Adcox saying "Previously on Gargoyles" at the beginning of the episode, then it's a pretty safe bet that Lexington is going to appear... and yet, as the episode begins, it seems, at least by this time, to be a fairly standard World Tour Adventure: Goliath, Elisa, Angela & Bronx in the exotic locale of the week. So where in the world (since it ain't gonna be Guatemala) is Lexington going to pop in?

The origins of this episode ("The + [one word title]" attributable to me) come from two semi-competing desires. 1) I wanted to make sure we hit every continent, including South America on the World Tour. And I believed that the stunning visual image of Quetzacoatl, the Flying Serpent was another great inspiration for a Gargoyle character. 2) Frank felt strongly that we had not seen enough of Hudson & the Trio during the Tour. I'll admit, as I have before, that I underestimated their popularity and probably overestimated -- at least at the time -- the interest in our little odyssey 'round the world. But even then, I could see Frank's point. I didn't want to not do our Mayan adventure, so Cary & I constructed a story that would give us an interesting experience in the Green, but would also bring us back to the deep purples of Lex & Broadway's Manhattan.

IT'S ALL IN THE DELIVERY
Some great lines in this one, mostly from Hyena & Jackal:

Hyena...
"Hey, he's a fan."
"Have I mentioned how much I hate Gargoyles."
"They get no mercy." (This right before H&J get slammed by a pretty darn impressive throw of a bulldozer shovel.)
"Bowling for Gargoyles!" (To which my daughter Erin responded with: "That was disturbing." I found it interesting that in all the gonzo stuff in this episode, the thing she found most disturbing was Hyena rolling up into a ball. I mean is that really as disturbing as Jackal's dream of "resculpting" Goliath's head?!!)

Jackal...
"If a tree falls in the forest... do I get to hear it scream?"
"Timber!"

Zafiro had a good line too: "There's no such thing as a few trees."

And Goliath: "What's left of their world is rapidly dwindling."

And Broadway: "Leave our mothers out of this." (Broadway always thinks in clan-parentage mode. My son Benny wondered if they even knew whom their mothers were. Of course, they did. Not biologically, but they knew which females gargoyles were their rookery mothers. All gone now.)

And Morgan (to an unconscious Hyena): "You have the right to remain silent."

"WHAT IS THE GREEN?"
My kids wanted to know.

First off it's hot. Elisa takes off her jacket, revealing her (in this instance) short-sleeve black t-shirt. Even this slight clothing change for her comes off as exciting to me.

Second, it's full of potential herbal medicines, admirably demonstrated by Obsidiana.

Third, it's got Obsidiana. And Turquesa and Jade and the amazingly designed Zafiro. And the revelation, that long ago, Gargoyles were everywhere in the world. In hindsight, I wish that all four characters had had the serpentine lower body. Though I'm glad that only Zafiro had the feathered wings and snake-like head. There's a great Mayan/Aztec flavor to all four gargs. And you wouldn't believe the trouble we had figuring out their names. Now they seem so right. But we went through many permutations, before figuring them out. I think at one point, Zafiro was named Jose.

Fourth, it's got that cool pyramid.

Fifth, it's got amulets which defy the basic Day/stone dynamic. We had some fun with that. And my son Benny liked seeing them alive in the morning. It was different.

Sixth, what didn't get mentioned was Oxygen. I had a line in there which talked about the dilemma of losing the rain forest on the basic level of how much of our oxygen it produces. I felt that was a VERY important message. Frank felt it was preachy. I lost that battle, or ceded it or something. But the line's not in there.

FOR A CHANGE OF PACE
Elisa is accepted fairly easily by the Mayan Clan. Obsidiana takes a particular shine to her. Despite having undergone a Wyvernesque massacre, none of the Mayan gargs have a knee-jerk negative reaction to humans. And certainly nothing on the level of what Elisa had just experienced in New Olympus.

DID YOU NOTICE THE HOMAGE?
To THE SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN & THE BIONIC WOMAN? I think we did some cool things with Hyena's bionic ear and Jackal's seven-figure eye.

Also, Jackal has a built in hair dryer?

And there's a moment in the museum when Hyena activates her rear jetpacks, when both my kids and my wife thought that she had "rocket-boobies". The shot switches from front to back, and her jets emerge from bionic shoulder blades. But if you miss the camera-angle switch, it can certainly look briefly as if her breasts have become rocket powered. Top that Lyndsey Wagner!

Heck, Jackal even has a built-in Bionic wrist-watch. For some reason, I find that particularly hilarious. ("And he tells time...!")

VOGEL
Just a taste of him here. He's largely a place-holder. A bad employer of our two bad villains. But we tried to make even this little bit of Vogel interesting. He's still somewhat morally-challenged. And he reveals that he has gained more responsibility as Renard's affliction has worsened.

This episode is, by the way, loaded with references to OTHER World Tour episodes. That's supposed to be a no-no. We couldn't guarantee that they would all air in order within the World Tour Tier, i.e. between the AVALON Three-Parter and the GATHERING Two-Parter. But I guess, we had some confidence that "The Green" would air after "Golem", after "Grief", etc.

THE GOLIATH & ELISA FANCLUB
I love how they disagree with each other without losing respect or concern for each other. It's so DAMN mature.

WE TRASH ANOTHER LANDMARK
Yep, we're knocking down and burning down the rain forest right & left (in an attempt to save it by influencing public opinion, no less). But we also trash another museum. I was SO cavalier about it at the time, but when I see that Mammoth skeleton go down now, I cringe.

Cool amulet though. It rolls. It frisbees with a great sound effect. Since we had the NYC plot ending -- before the Guat-plot ended -- with Hyena's defeat, we wanted to maintain some suspense. So we have Broadway and Lex come to the incorrect but believable conclusion that the Amulet must be destroyed. Fortunately, they decided to confiscate it instead. And, yes, it survives the destruction of the Clock Tower in Hunter's Moon. Then back in Guatemala, we have Obsidiana lose her amulet so that we could see her in stone and wonder if Broadway had destroyed it so that all four Mayan gargs would be sleeping.

Speaking of Hyena's defeat, she goes down after a head injury. In today's world of S&P there's no way we would be allowed to give her that head injury in the first place.

WHAT IS THE GREEN PART TWO
Seventh, I hope, without getting TOO preachy, it managed to teach a lesson. Erin thought so. Which is perhaps good enough for me.

Anyway, that's my ramble. Where's yours?


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Anonymous writes...

Are the pendanat wearers in The Green a cross section of gargoyles in the guatemala clan or were there other weird looking gargoyles there before the massacre?
Were there gargoyle beasts in the Guatemala clan?

Greg responds...

I'm not sure how you're defining "weird looking". I assume you mean Zafiro and his snake-like lower body. In which case, yes, there were others like Zafiro.

There were also gargoyle beasts.

Response recorded on September 23, 2004

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Galax writes...

What happened to Turkesa and Jade? Do they still live on Avalon?

Greg responds...

Turquesa & Jade did/will eventually return to the rain forest.

Response recorded on September 17, 2004

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Anonymous writes...

Almost every gargoyle clan we've meet in the show or that you've us about protects something. The Guatemalan clan protects the rain forest. The Loch Ness clan protects the Loch Ness Monster, the Manhattan, London and Ishimura clan naturally protects New York City, London and Ishimura respectively. And the Avalon clan protects Avalon while the Labyrinth clan presently protect the homeless of New York.

1. So what does the New Olympus clan protect? Mount Thanatos? The whole of New Olympus? Or have they abandoned their duty much like the London clan when they lost Griff(since you did say they were isolationists)?

2.What does the Pukhan and Xanadu clans protect?

3.What exactly do New Camelot and New Wyvern clans protect?

4.What abou the Queen Florence Island Clan(after they've been freed from their stasis)?

5.What about the Notre Dame Clan?

Greg responds...

1. I think they have become too insular. It's something I would have made an issue of, given the chance.

2. Pukhan Clan is more interested in protecting their concept of justice. Xanadu Clan protects the endangered Gargoyle Beast species.

3. New Wyvern is very traditionalist. So they protect Wyvern and it's surroundings. By contrast, New Camelot is very internationalist.

4 & 5. Haven't gotten that far in my thinking yet, but at the least they'll protect the Island and Paris, respectively.

Response recorded on May 28, 2004

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DPH writes...

If you don't have your notes about the Guatamela clan handy, you might want to pull them out.

1)You listed the location of Guatamela clan as Chacixchel, Guatamela, but I can't find that location on a map. So can you specify the coordinates (so many degrees west by so many degrees north) of that location?

2)Was there a theme to the places where Jade and Turquesa visited on their world tour which lead to their return to Guatamela? If so, can you tell us what it is?

Greg responds...

1. Nope.

2. A theme? I don't know. I'm not sure I know ALL the places they went. I just have a couple of stories in mind.

Response recorded on May 11, 2004

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DPH writes...

Here's a quote:

Pamber writes...

have jade and turquesa returned to guatemala from avalon yet? did they go on adventures wherever avalon sent them?

Greg responds...

Yes. Yes.

So here's my follow-up questions:

1)when did Jade and Turquesa make it back to Guatamela?

2)how hard was it to get those transplanted plants from Guatamela to grow on Avalon?

Greg responds...

1. Not saying.

2. Not very.

Response recorded on March 23, 2004

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matt writes...

have we seen the person or persons responsible for massacreing the Mayan Clan and stealing the Sun Amulet in any of the episodes of Gargoyles?

i must say Greg that for some reason that i'm not entirely aware of i really really like the Mayan Clan. they are my favirote clan. so, my birthday is coming up, care to give me any tidbit of unknown information about them? hehee

Greg responds...

I think I've missed your birthday, twice over now.

And no, we haven't yet met those that destroyed the Mayan Clan. I'm glad you like 'em though. I have more plans for them.

Response recorded on August 07, 2003

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matt writes...

1. do the Mayan Pendant Wearers ever get sunburns?

2. why did you decide not to give/make all the Mayan Clan with the lower snake-like bodies?

3. is it just coicidence that Zafiro (1996) looks so different from the other Mayan gargs? (reptile facial features, feathered wings, snake body) are those features more common in the Mayan Clan or more rare?

4. did you ever figure out where you would have Jade and Turquesa journey to on their trip home from Avalon? where would they go?

Greg responds...

1. I've never given it any thought? Any biologists out there with a theory?

2. I wish I had, frankly. That's a mistake I think we made. We wanted to really tie Zafiro in with Quetzacoatl, and I was so focused on him, that I didn't think to do the same with the others. I like their upper body designs a lot, but I wish I had had the art guys give them snake lower bodies too. I've decided that the majority of the slaughtered Mayan clan were lower-snake types. And when the new batch of eggs hatches the hatchlings would reflect that fact.

3. See above. After the fact, I think they're more common. But I'd like to see a mix of lower Zafiro with (for lack of a better term) upper Obsidiana, etc. Or upper Zafiro with lower Jade. You get the idea.

4. Yes.

Response recorded on June 13, 2003

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Justin writes...

Dear Greg,

You said that, and Goliath has also said that, "Long ago there were clans all over the world." Well that is a pretty vague statement. I do understand it was intentional but the idea has bothered be for close to six years now, where were these clans? Were there any in the americas? Africa? Italy? Moscow? I really would like to know how far the species migrated.

Thanks

Greg responds...

What part of "all over the world" don't you understand?

If you want me to list every clan location... well, I won't. I'm not going to go through an Atlas and start choosing spots.

The Americas? You know it. Africa? Sure. Italy? Absolutely. Moscow, specifically? I don't know.

They are an old race. Now on the verge of extinction, but once upon a time they were (briefly) the dominant species on the planet. They spread out.

Response recorded on May 27, 2003

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matt writes...

1. is the leader of the Mayan Clan always or usually one of the Pendant Wearers?

2. does the name of the Pendant Wearer change in relation to sex? like the Sapphire Pendent on a male would be Zafiro, on a female Zafira for instance...

3. have gargoyles been in Guatemala longer than humans?

4. did Oberon ever find out about those tropical plants transplanted to Avalon? if so, what was his reaction?

5. how are those plants doing in 2001 anyway?

Greg responds...

1. Usually, I'd say. Almost always.

2. I'd think so.

3. I'd think so.

4. I'm guessing he's okay with it.

5. As far as I know they're flourishing.

Response recorded on May 12, 2003

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Adam Carlson writes...

How many gargoyle clans were there when the show was ended?
Do any of the other Avalon gargoyles join Angelia in the real world?

Greg responds...

1. In 1996, the following clans were extant (although some were far from healthy in numbers):

Avalon
Ishimura
Labyrinth
Loch Ness
London
Manhattan
Mayan
New Olympian
Pukhan
Xanadu

2. Eventually, others would visit. But I don't immediately see anyone else taking up permanent residence outside Avalon.

Response recorded on April 22, 2003

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Gipdac writes...

1) What is the name of the Mayan wizard that made the Sun Amulet?
2) Was s/he male or female?
3a) Did s/he have a 'title'? (Like Magus was The Magus, and Archmage was The Archmage) b) What was it?
4) In the show they said that the wizard made the Sun Amulet in the tenth century. What year was it?
5a) Did the wizard have some kind of conduit? (Like the Grimorum?) b) If so, what was it?

Greg responds...

1. Eye Dono

2. Yes.

3. Yes. Eye Dono.

4. Are you sure about your facts? I do not have a specific date down for the actual forging of the Amulet. But I do show that by 990, the Mayans and Gargoyles were watching over the rain forest around Chac Ixchel.

5a. Eye Dono.

Response recorded on March 04, 2002

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Gipdac writes...

1) Are there always two female pendant wearers and two male pendant wearers?
2) You said before that the gargoyles that have the name of the color aren't always necessarily that particular color. But do the gargoyles named Zafiro and Jade have two be male and the gargoyles named Obsidiana and Turquesa have to be female?
3) Is one of the pendant wearers always the leader of the clan?

Greg responds...

1. It's a tradition. But it's not etched in stone. (Pun intended.)

2. No. There can be male forms or female forms of all four names.

3. It usually works out that way, but it's not a hard and fast rule either.

Response recorded on February 14, 2002

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Gipdac writes...

1) You said that Zafiro had not had the pendant for very long. How long did he have it before march, 2198.
2) Will we ever meeting the new Obsidiana, Jade and/or Turquesa in G2198?
3) After the events of march 2198 is Zaphiro the leader of the Mayan Clan?
4) Who was the leader of the Mayan clan before march 2198?

Greg responds...

1. Not very long.

2. Ever? Yes.

3. I'm not sure. I'm leaning that way, but I'm not sure.

4. Not saying.

Response recorded on November 02, 2001

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Anonymous writes...

Are there still four mayan pendants in 2198?

Greg responds...

As far as I know.

Response recorded on November 02, 2001

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Anonymous writes...

Care to explain why the gargoyles in the British isles are so different since in London we have animal headed ways, in Loch Ness aquatic gargoyles and in wyvern the generic ishimura/guatemala kind?

Greg responds...

'Generic ishimura/guatemala kind', huh? Don't agree with that.

But no, I don't currently care to explain it.

Response recorded on September 11, 2001


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