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Laura 'ad astra' Sack writes...

This was an originally approved question got booted as part of the new rules. I'm hoping to be hitting on the problems and correcting them. It probably seems a little out of date since I first posted it after Missing aired. (I also originally mispelled Klarion like a Clarion. As of this posting you are about 100 answers away from a separate posting apologizing and mocking myself for the mistake. I'm looking forward to how you'll respond to that posting when there is no previous post to be referenced.):

Catching up before posting leaves me making comments of shows that aired weeks ago! I don't have a lot to say on all of them, but as a whole they've been outstanding:
Missing
1- (question) I believe someone has already asked if Zatana stays in her old school. {yep- several people asked, and you answered} With Z Tubes it is easily possible and would leave her with a sense of stability. But it does leave me wondering- Zatara appeared openly a member of the Justice League-
a- Do her friends know she was connected to the superheroes?
b-Had magic herself?
c-Lost her father?
d-In the comics Zatana lives in a family mansion full of magic. Does it, or something like it, exist in the YJ world?
2 (comment)- I see I am not the only one to notice Babs & Bette together again.
3- (comment) Didn't love Riddler's costume. I think I have a think for bowlers :)
4- (comment) Nice touch- Cat looking badly tired reporting the news. The only time I remember broadcasters looking tired was 9/11. (I think the lead anchor for NY1 went 48 hours straight on air.) This would be a matching level event.
5- (long question- modified at end) (I'm asking this question in case the how itself is a spoiler. Other folks have asked how.) Others have asked about children in positions that suddenly being separated from adults might have been injurious, even deadly. Often I see issues of intent helping get around certain such unpleasantries- ie. Since even most really bad guys would not want newborns dropping to the floor as their parents disappear, that wouldn't happen. Either the swirling magic would deposit then on the floor more slowly, or the spell itself would take a few seconds to finish for parents to move the child from the unsafe position. (Much like the image of Hudson and Goliath stretching against the stone sleep in Awakenings when they realize they were lured away from the castle before the massacre.) Intent does seem possible here, otherwise why would the age of 18, a societal construct that doesn't even cover the whole world, effect the spell. {Or is that 'affect'? Both look wrong to me. My grammatical instincts stink.} But that it doesn't seem to work because I don't think Clarion {see- wrong spelling;} cared one way or the other if babies died. (IIRC the more light hearted source material had a misguided kid causing the whole story, djin powered, I think. His not wanting any kids dead would be enough for there not to be.)
a- I don't know anything about the other magic folk. Would their intent affect Clarion's spell? And if so did any of them have enough basic empathy to care to protect the children at the moment of the transition?
b- That wouldn't help children in cars or buses at high speeds or on planes. If you watched the show Flash Forward and saw the image of planes falling out of the sky into buildings, that sort of devastation seems inevitable on the children Earth. The actual vehicles may be fine from the adult Earth, but any loss of life would be permanent. On the other hand, that sort of trauma would deeply scar the world. I can't imagine the event would not be mentioned frequently overshadowing most other events for episodes to come. While the tone of this story is way more serious that the original World Without Grownups, it wasn't that dark. Am I misreading that there was a way that the millions of planes and trains and cars of the world were largely somehow stopped from killing thousands of children?
{In an answer that has since been posted you said something to the effect of "that would depend on Klarion." So explicitly -were there mass child casualties that night? And if not, was it Klarion's intent that prevented it? If it was his intent, was that intent at all based in compassion?}
6- (outdated question- you've since explained the mechanics of it all making the answer here 'no'.)- In World Without Grownups the adult world was the original and kid one was a copy. By that logic only property damage on the adult world was permanent. Was that the case in Missing?
7- (Comment) I love that Wally took the Sippy cup as his souvenir it speaks volumes to his growing maturity. Though as a mom all I can think is, "I really hope that wasn't the kid's favorite."
Mmm… That makes me think; when I started watching Gargoyles and following this site I was in college. Now I'm married with two kids, (one who will need to be picked up in a moment…). It really behooves me to thanks you, and Gorbash and all the Station8 helpers and posters for years of enjoyment. Besides a like community of fantasy lovers, some of the best lessons of story craft I've had came from these shows and these pages. Like why it was important that it was clear that Elisa was never in danger from the start of Long Way to Morning. Or how you can have a great double entantdre (sorry, no French spell check) in a kids show if you actually make the first meaning solids enough to stand on it's own (Spidy). It has made me far more appreciative of and attentive to good entertainment. Thank you all.

{Even though it is a pain and annoyance to edit, repost and wait longer for a response, thanks also to the helpers who are culling the list to help make it more manageable. Now I still have a ton of reading to catch up on before posting any new questions or reviews so I'm guessing I won't have another question till at least 300 more are posted.}

Greg responds...

1a. I assume you're asking about her old friends from her old school. If so, yes.

1b. No.

1c. No.

1d. SPOILER REQUEST. NO COMMENT.

5a. People died. Kids were hurt or died. I don't know about "thousands", but more than a few.

5b. I don't think we made any attempt to hide how dark things were. The fates of Zatara and Zatanna were also meant to be symbolic for a whole lot of people.

7. Thank you. That's nice to hear (or read, I guess).

Response recorded on October 30, 2012