XXXII. Gargoyles Miscellany

1. How could the Manhattan clan speak modern English when that wasn't a language in 10th-century Scotland?

Greg's answers:

I heard that Michael Reaves has a brilliant (because it's simple) solution for how Goliath, Hudson and the Trio could speak modern English upon waking at the castle. Demona used a spell from the Grimorum on them the night before they woke up. Perfect. They'd never even have to know that there was a change in the language. I love it. (Wish I had thought of it.)

[Later, he adds...] If you buy into Michael's explanation, then yes, I think you have to assume that the tenth century sections were translations for the viewers' benefit. I haven't STUDIED Michael's idea or thought about it's ramifications. So I'm not saying that the idea is canon (there's that word again) in my head yet. But I think it has promise.

As I've mentioned before, originally it was a cheat that we thought we could live with artistically.
 

2. When did all the members of the Wyvern/Manhattan clan learn to read?

Hudson and Broadway learned to read after "A Lighthouse in the Sea of Time." Bronx can't read. As for the others, we'll let Greg answer:

I believe Brooklyn learned to read shortly after awakening in the twentieth century. I believe Goliath learned from Demona in the tenth century. I believe Demona learned from the Archmage. I believe Lex learned in the tenth century too. Angela was taught by the Magus.
 

3. Who's that one gargoyle (bald with half a metal breastplate) who showed up as a member of the Wyvern clan, Demona's outcast Scottish clan, and the Avalon clan?

The in-show answer is that the gargoyle in question was once a member of the Wyvern clan. A few years before the massacre, the Wyvern clan had grown too large, so half the clan left to form a "colony" clan. This gargoyle was among those who left, but he left an egg behind in the Wyvern clan rookery- after all, it was safer there. Later, this colony was decimated, but this gargoyle survived to join Demona's clan as her second. The gargoyle's child, who hatched on Avalon, looked remarkably similar to his father.

The out-of-show answer, of course, is that they reused that "generic gargoyle" design for all three clans.
 

4. When the Emir was first mentioned in "The Edge," was the Gargoyles staff really planning that far ahead about him?

Greg's answer:

No, we didn't have Grief planned in THAT much detail that far in advance. The point is that little touches don't get by me. That was, I believe a Reaves/Perry throwaway line. But I remembered it. The second time the Emir is mentioned, in season two, I did have Grief in mind.
 

5. Are there homosexual gargoyles?

Yes.
 

6. Who is Fiona?

Fiona is Fiona Canmore, twin sister of Charles Canmore's grandfather and the great-great-aunt of Jason, Jon, and Robyn Canmore. A Hunter, she battled Demona in Paris in 1920. This encounter (or a parallel-universe version of it) would have been in an episode of Team Atlantis (the series that was based on the film Atlantis: The Lost Empire), an episode that overlapped the universes of Team Atlantis and Gargoyles. However, plans for the series were just nixed on July 13, 2001. This was due to Atlantis' disappointing performance at the box office. As a result, we'll never get to see it. (A terrible, terrible pity.)
 

7. What's this about a real Xanatos Enterprises? Did the show inspire the name or vice versa?

Greg's answer:

I can't say for certain, though I have an inkling, whether the show gave them the name. But I do know, because Disney's Legal Department did a search, that there was no Xanatos Enterprises in existence when the show first went on the air. There was a Xanacorp, however, which had been our first choice.

The company's website is http://www.xanatos.com/ - if anyone's curious.
 

8. What's The Gargoyles Encyclopedia?

A book written by Greg detailing everything there is to know about the 66 canon episodes of Gargoyles, detailing characters, places, episodes, a timeline, and more. It has been complete for some time, but a publisher for the book has yet to be found. (One hopes he eventually will!) Greg's Gargoyles Encyclopedia has nothing to do with the website of the same name.
 

9. If given the opportunity, would Greg be willing to do crossovers between Gargoyles and other universes?

Greg's answers:

Maybe. But not with any of the shows you named. [Gargoyles/Batman,Gargoyles/Spider-Man, Gargoyles/X-Men] They're all parts of LARGER Universes that I don't think would fit, unless the idea of the cross-over was like that old DC Earth-1/Earth-2 thing. Where the various characters are traveling between dimensions. Otherwise a story with these characters would have to be non-canon.

But if you want to see a Garg/Justice League cross-over, check out that parody story I wrote for DC Comics.

[Later, about a crossover with Buffy...] I love Buffy, but I'm not sure how the two universes would interact.
 

10. What's this about a Captain Atom/Gargoyles crossover?

Greg wrote a short parodic story he titled "An Exercise in Self-Indulgence," which was later retitled "The Flashback of Notre Dame." It was printed in DC Comics' JLA Showcase 80-Page Giant #1, published in February 2000. It was a bit of nostalgia for Captain Atom/Justice League Europe fans, with a pretty heavy (and funny) portion of Gargoyles parody. Worth picking up, if you can find it.
 

11. Who is Greg's favorite character on Gargoyles?

Greg likes them all, as they are all his children. However, Goliath is the prism through which all the other characters were viewed.
 

12. Which Gargoyles character does Greg think is most like himself?

Greg's answer: None really. Or all of them put together. Or Vinnie, because I'm often hapless. Without hap.
 

13. What is Greg's favorite episode of Gargoyles?

Greg's answer:

[...] As to my favorites, well it's hard. My single favorite episode is "The Mirror". Great animation, a great premise, a great story, great character work and....IT'S FUNNY. I'm proud of that, because I got some flack from people who didn't get it in script. They thought it was too complicated. But the conceit played clear and well on screen, and the jokes still play great.

After "The Mirror", I immediately think of our multi-parters. "Awakening" got it all started and has some gorgeous stuff in there. "City of Stone" really expanded our whole universe and has some of our most honest emotions in it. Plus the Scotish History and Shakespeare and the whole stone human premise stuff is all great as far as I'm concerned. "Avalon"  is more rocky, but I'm fond of it. "The Gathering" was hell to produce but had these great revelations in there. Titania's so good at the end there it still makes me smile. And "Hunter's Moon" really tied everything up wonderfully, with great  animation, a powerful story, some terrific character work and an ending that left us open to do more, but could still be  viewed as the end of a novel.

What next? There are some obvious choices. Although I think it's interesting that the first ones that my mind goes to tend to be the ones that had the best animation. "High Noon," "Future Tense" and "M.I.A." for example, though all also have other reasons why I like them so much. M.I.A. has Douglas Bader in it and was sort of written for my father. Bader was/is a real hero to my dad. My whole family went with Sir Douglas and his wife to Disneyland once when I was a kid.

"Deadly Force" was probably our most important story. A very powerful episode. "A Lighthouse in the Sea of Time" was another powerful one, but it suffered from having mediocre animation.

I have a personal fondness for "Vendettas" and "The Journey". I like Vinnie a lot more than most of you. Plus I voice directed Vendettas and personally wrote the script for Journey, so I'm even less objective about those two than I am about the rest. Still, I do believe that if either episode had had the kind of animation that "The Mirror" had you'd all like them a lot, lot more. "Vendettas" in particular depended on comic timing that the animators didn't give us. I also tell myself that Journey would have been better if I had produced it. At least, I wouldn't have messed with my script, reordering scenes and making dumb errors like having Goliath glide off at the end of the episode after making a huge deal over the fact that his wing was injured and he couldn't glide.

How many have I listed? Twenty? Thirty? I could easily keep going. There's something I like in every single episode. It's like choosing from one's children.

So I'll just shut up now.
 

14. Can Greg connect me with other Gargoyles fans?

Greg's answer:

[...] though I encourage gargoyles fans to correspond with each other, I'm quite sure that a chat or comment room would be a better place to find an e-pal.
 

15. Does Greg have any part in or know about The Gargoyles Saga (TGS)?

Greg knows that TGS exists, but he is not involved with it in any way, shape, or form.
 

16. Who should play Macbeth in a Gargoyles live-action movie?

Greg's answer:

I don't know. [Sean] Connery? He's probably too old now. Guess we'd have to hold auditions. :)

[The questioner states the opinion that John Rhys-Davies would make a poor Macbeth because of his size.] Actually, I'm not sure I agree with you about John.
 

17. Can we trust close captioning to interpret hard-to-understand dialogue?

No. While, sometimes, they do follow the show's script, more often they just type what they think they heard- and are just as uncertain as the other viewers on confusing lines.
 

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