Ask Greg

Ask Greg is a Gargoyles fan website, and a part of Station Eight's Gargoyles Fan Site, owned and primarily operated by Eric "Gorebash" Tribou. The site is notable among the Gargoyles fandom because of its input from Gargoyles creator Greg Weisman, after whom the site is named. Through Ask Greg, Greg Weisman has revealed numerous plans that he had for Gargoyles (many of which have come to pass in the Gargoyles comic by Slave Labor Graphics). The site has become one of the pillars of the Gargoyles fan community.

Fans can submit questions and comments to Ask Greg and later read Greg Weisman's responses, which are posted publicly. The site also contains an extensive archive of past responses by Greg, organised by subject matter, and (since 2001) a condensed FAQ of the most commonly asked questions. [1][2] Before posting questions concerning Gargoyles, all fans are encouraged to look through the archives and the FAQ, as well as check in the Ask Greg Comment Room whether their question has already been answered.

In order to protect Greg legally, no original ideas are accepted on the site, including questions that suggest an idea. All questions and comments that are submitted to the site are read by Todd Jensen and Masterdramon, and any posts containing original ideas are removed so that Greg Weisman never sees them.

History

Ask Greg began at the Station Eight fansite, run by Gorebash. In 1997, following Gargoyles' cancellation, Robyn Weisman (Greg Weisman's sister) came across the website and sent an email to Gorebash saying that she thought her brother might like the page and that "he created Gargoyles". When Gorebash asked whether she could tell Greg about the site, she instead provided Greg's email address and told Gorebash to "tell him yourself". [3]

Greg and Gorebash soon set aside a few pages at Station Eight to allow Greg to communicate with fans. Responding to fans' questions, Greg quickly revealed information about the series and his future plans, such as the identity of Brooklyn's future mate, Katana. [4] Other tidbits (such as the names of Brooklyn and Katana's children and Oberon's mother) were revealed by Greg when he wasn't being specifically asked about them.

Initially, Gorebash reviewed each submitted post in order to reject original ideas. [5] In June 2000, Todd Jensen took on the role of moderator, in order to help Gorebash catch up through the ever-growing queue. [6] [7] By 2001, Gorebash had largely turned over the responsibility of moderating questions to Todd. [8] In March 2012, Masterdramon also volunteered to moderate questions, in particular (but not limited to) those unrelated to Gargoyles. [9]

Features

Though the majority of Ask Greg's content is questions from fans and answers from Greg, there have been a few recurring features which are not usually related to fan's questions.

Production Background

Greg has posted various memos and correspondences related to the development of the Gargoyles TV series. These cover the early roots of the series as a comedy show to the change over to a drama and the development of the major characters. Greg has also reproduced notes from the development of individual episodes of the series.

Episode Rambles

On February 10, 2000, Greg Weisman began watching every episode of Gargoyles with his family and recording his thoughts, reactions and memories. [10] He would encourage fans to respond with their personal reactions to each episode. The most recent entry in this series was posted on July 17, 2006, with Greg's ramble on "Huner's Moon" Part One. [11]

Stories

Greg Weisman has written and posted a few short prose stories on Ask Greg, including one about Hyppolyta and her reactions to Goliath being promoted to leader, and "Once Upon A Time There Were Three Brothers..." a prequel to the proposed Dark Ages spin-off. [12][13] Other stories posted (but not necessarily related to Gargoyles) include "Blather" and "NOT A TRUE STORY...". [14][15]

"This Day in Gargoyles' Universe History"

Between April 2007 and April 2008, Greg revealed what events had occurred in the Gargoyles Universe on certain dates. [16][17] The entires included dates for events seen in the show and the comic, events that occurred between episodes of the show (like Elisa ordering Halloween costumes for the Trio), future events with only a minimum of description (like "Goliath makes a bargain"), and events which fans do not yet know the significance of (such as the discovery of Philibert Aspairt's body in the Paris catacombs).

Contests

Patrick Stewart contest

On March 17, 1998 (one of the earliest contests ever on the site), Greg Weisman challenged participants to correctly guess which three roles (that appeared on the show) Patrick Stewart was, at least briefly, considered to voice. The prize was described as a "lot of personal satisfaction and gloating privileges." [18] On April 24, 1998, a little over a month later (and with only one other participant), Todd Jensen correctly guessed the three characters: Goliath, Macbeth, and King Arthur. [19]

Arthurian survivors contest

On April 20, 1998, Greg revealed that seven figures from legends of King Arthur had survived to the present day in the Gargoyles Universe, and initiated a contest to see who could name all seven. [20] At the time, Greg only told participants whether they had got all seven names correct, and not how many.

By July 5, 1999, nobody had identified all seven names correctly. However, by this time, Greg had also realised that an eighth Arthurian character (eventually revealed to be the Green Knight) was also extant in the Gargoyles Universe. In a ramble on that date, he officially restarted the contest, now in search of eight names, and offered a prize to the winner. [21] At this point, Greg still only marked entries right or wrong, with no partial credit. Eventually, as no correct answers were forthcoming, on January 6, 2000, Greg started to give points to each entry, depending on how many names were guessed correctly. [22]

On January 26, 2000, Todd Jensen submitted an entry with the eight Arthurian survivors correctly identified, and Greg received the entry and responded on March 18 of the same year. With the contest over, and the eight Arthurian survivors identified, Greg finally revealed how each of them were able to survive until the present day: [23]

1. King Arthur Pendragon. Slept under a spell in the Hollow Hill.
2. Merlin. Son of Oberon by a mortal woman. Imprisoned in the Crystal Cave.
3. The Lady of the Lake. One of the Oberati.
4. Sir Percival. The Fisher King. Mr. Duval. Founder of the Illuminati. Spends a lot of time in Castle Carbonek, a sort of mini-traveling-Avalon, where time passes differently. Also uses the Holy Grail to maintain his youth, though at a very real physical cost, due to his, shall we say, sins.
5. Lady Blanchefleur. Percival's wife. Queen of Castle Carbonek. She lives there and uses the Grail. The only cost being her estrangement from Percival.
6. Morgana le Fay. A changeling in the old-fashioned sense.
7. Nimue. A sorceress with connections to Merlin, the Oberati and Morgana. (Think about it.)
8. The Green Knight. An Oberati.

Clans contest

On July 5, 1999 (the same day that Greg restarted the Arthurian survivors contest), Greg also initiated a second contest that he described as "all but impossible". Claiming that 14 gargoyle clans existed before 2258, the contest asked participants to name the location of all 14 clans. [24] Again, initially Greg did not give points for partially correct answers, although he started to do so on October 11, 1999. [25] Full points were awarded for correct answers, and half points for almost-correct answers (for example, an answer of Japan earned half a mark, where Ishimura would earn a full point). [26][27]

Early on Greg wrote that, "Anyone who can guess 8 out of 14 is a true fan. Anyone who can guess 10 is a true fan with too much time on his or her hands. Anyone who can guess 12 is a true fan with too much time and a lot of intuitive ability. Anyone who can guess all 14 is just a psychic freak." [28]

Vashkoda finally identified all 14 clans correctly on September 2, 2000, and Greg received the response a week later on September 9. [29]

The ten clans extant in the present day Gargoyles Universe at the time of the contest are as follows:

1. The London Clan. London, England.
2. The Ishimura Clan. Ishimura, Japan.
3. The Mayan Clan. ChacIxChel, Guatemala.
4. The Korea Clan. Pukhan, Korea.
5. The Xanadu Clan. Xanadu, China.
6. The Loch Ness Clan. Loch Ness, Scotland.
7. The New Olympian Clan. Mount Thanatos, New Olympus.
8. The Avalon Clan. Oberon's Palace, Avalon.
9. The Manhattan Clan. New York, U.S.A.
10. The Labyrinth Clan. New York, U.S.A.

Two clans (the Wyvern Clan, Scotland and the Camelot Clan at New Camelot, Antarctica) would be formed before 2198, and two more (the Liberty Clan in Queen Florence Island, Canada and the Liberty Clan in Paris, France) in the following century.

"ALONE": The Demona Contest

Greg initiated the Demona contest in a ramble on August 22, 1999. Participants were asked to suggest reasons - both conscious and subconscious reasons - why Demona would have picked "ALONE" as her access code in "City of Stone" Part Four. [30] On February 5, 2000, Airwalker was selected as the winner of the contest, and Derek! was given an honourable mention. [31]

The Hyena Contest

The Hyena Contest was started on March 28, 2000, and participants were challenged to give a reason for Hyena's smile as she is arrested by Elisa at the end of "Her Brother's Keeper". [32] On July 18, 2000, Adam was selected as the winner. [33]

Gargoyles 2198: The Contest

On September 26, 2000, Greg initiated a fill-in-the-blanks contest, publishing a document about the unmade Gargoyles spin-off, Gargoyles 2198. The document had 525 important words replaced with place-holders, and participants were asked to fill them in. Prizes would be awarded both to the individual who found most of the correct answers before anyone else, and for the first person to totally complete the puzzle. [34] Clues were also provided. [35] On June 11, 2001, Greg published the results of the contest, listing every participant according to how many words they had found and writing out the entire document again with the blanks filled in. Phil found most missing words (183) and Matt found the last correct answer, finishing the contest. [36]

Lightbulb Contest

The Lightbulb Contest began on September 5, 2001. Participants were asked to finish Fang's joke from "The Reckoning", which began "Hey, Goliath, how many gargoyles does it take to screw in a lightbulb?" The winner would be the punchline that Greg found the funniest, and as an incentive Greg said that he would allow Fang the chance to finish the joke, using the winning entry, if Bad Guys was ever made. [37] On July 20, 2002, Greg ended the contest. There were five honorable mentions. DragonWolf's entry was awarded second place, and Aris Katsaris was awarded first place for an entry lampooning Greg Weisman's evasive responses at Ask Greg. Since Aris Katsaris' entry could not be used in a script, Greg said that DragonWolf's punchline would be used given the opportunity (and assuming that a funnier punchline had not presented itself). [38]

Rain of the Ghosts Typo Contest

On December 13, 2013, following the release of his novel, Greg challenged participants to find two typos that slipped past the book's publishers. As there were two typos, two winners were initially anticipated. [39] On April 02, 2014, Harlan Phoenix submitted a winning entry with a typo that Greg did not have in mind when the contest started, potentially expanding the contest to three separate winners. [40]

See also

• Ask Greg website