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Vashkoda writes...

Time is immutable -now-, but there must have been a period when experimentation was possible, or else many of the tricks characters have used to take advantage of timetravel could never have happened (Goliath rescuing Griff after realizing he had already done so, or Xanatos knowing to send himself that coin). This period would include, for instance, the events that allowed the original Archmage to get his hands on the Gate and later go back and rescue himself, or the original Xanatos getting transported back in time with Goliath and Demona and -then- realizing that he could send himself a valuable coin in the future and make himself rich. We've never seen these events happen, and it seems in fact that they have been erased from the timeline and replaced with ever-repeating loops (the Archmage himself admitted that his plan would keep succeeding "as it did, as it must, as it always will"), that seem to have no origin.

So my question is, have you ever sat down and thought about the stories that explain the missing "origins" of these loops? Like how the original Archmage was able to get the Gate to save himself from the fall, or how Xanatos originally got rich without the coin (or how he lived if in fact he wasn't rich before the time-trip), or Goliath's encounter with the London clan before he could rescue Griff? I know that you don't like discussing the alternate universe presented in "Future Tense" because it was never more than an illusion, but the events in this missing period did in fact happen, even if they seem to have been erased from history. So if you have indeed given it any thought, could you tell us about what happened in this missing period in regards to the characters I've mentioned?

Greg responds...

No. You don't get it. The loops existed as part of the timestream; they were born WITH the timestream. Always and forever. There isn't a FIRST iteration. These stories you have in mind didn't happen. Never happened. The stories presented on-screen of those events are the ONLY ones that exist in the GargUniverse. We might see some of it again from different points of view. But the events are the events.

They're called "Working Paradoxes". As opposed to the "Non-Working" kind where you go back in time and succeed in killing your own biological great-great-grandfather.

A "Working Paradox" is the bread&butter of time travel in the Gargoyles Universe. A "Non-Working Paradox" isn't allowed.

Response recorded on November 17, 2000