Elisa Maza (pronounced "E-lisa") is a major character in the Disney animated series Gargoyles. She is the closest human friend to the Manhattan Clan, and helps the gargoyles adapt to the modern world.
Background[]
Personality[]
Being a cop in a big city like New York, Elisa can be tough when the situation calls for it. When she first meets the Gargoyles, she is quite skeptic about them, but becomes fast friends once she and Goliath find some common ground regarding their duty to protect the innocent. She cares for the well-being of them, going far as to keep tabs on David Xanatos when the Gargoyles or her family are involved. Over the course of the series, she falls in love with Goliath, who reciprocates, but neither of them admit how they feel about each other, as they have doubts a relationship is possible because of their different species. Eventually, they are able to get past this issue after they realize that they care for each other too deeply and finally confess their feelings in the Season 2 finale.
Physical Description[]
Elisa has long dark blue-black hair, brown eyes, and tawny skin with a family with combined African and Native American ancestries. Her normal outfit consists of black boots, light blue jeans with cuffs, a black shirt, and a red leather jacket. During the Avalon World Tour, she dons other outfits while visiting different locations that she is sent to by Avalon's magic.
When Puck uses his magic to transform her into a Gargoyle in the episode "The Mirror", Elisa loses her jacket, with its red leather color going to her wings while retaining her normal human skin color. She gains another foot in height, revealing her waist, along with a human skin-colored tail. She loses her shoes and gains double-jointed bare feet. She also gains extra bone structure on her forehead with small horns, bigger eyes, and pointier ears. The transformation also grants her a Gargoyle's superior strength, allowing her to go toe-to-toe with Demona on even terms, but still be able to use things such as Demona's laser weapon with incredible accuracy thanks to her police training. Initially, she is unable to use her newfound wings to glide due to a fear of heights, but overcomes it to save Goliath after he is rendered human by Puck's magic, and puts them to great effect when fighting Demona later on while the Manhattan Clan deals with Puck, despite their own handicap as normal humans.
Role in the Series[]
Elisa is an officer in the 23rd Precinct of the NYPD. While investigating a series of disturbances at the skyscraper of billionaire David Xanatos, she encounters Goliath and his clan of gargoyles. After he saves her from falling off the building, Goliath and Elisa form a close bond, connecting over their duty to protect and serve, and attraction grows over time, which soon makes her an enemy of Goliath's ex-mate Demona.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Her undercover name shares the first name of her voice actress, Salli Richardson.
- Elisa's physical design is also based on that of Salli Richardson.
- Elisa's last name was originally Chavez and was going to be Latina, but when Richardson was hired to voice her, her heritage was re-imagined as half Native American, and half Nigerian-American.
- When Elisa dresses up in costume, she dons the dress of Disney Princesses, most notably Belle and Jasmine. However, her overall design resembles a mix between Jasmine and Pocahontas, as well the inspiration for Detective Elisa Maza came from Officer Miranda Wright from Bonkers.
- Elisa and her earlier incarnations also had a number of different jobs, including a school teacher, firefighter, museum curator, inventor, and archaeologist. For a while, she was the former partner of Xavier (the early incarnation of Xanatos), a mother, and a descendant of the Scottish Princess who became Princess Katharine.
- The character design of Detective Ellen Yin from The Batman is an homage to her.
- Elisa's role and relationship with the Manhattan Clan is similar to April O'Neil from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
- The episode "Deadly Force" is the only episode where Elisa was physically injured and her life placed in danger, nearly dying in the hospital due to the severity of her gunshot wound causing her to go into cardiac arrest before the medical staff resuscitated her. The next episode has her using a crutch to convey the after-effects of the shot.
- By the time of "The Cage", Elisa is stated by Goliath to be a member of the Manhattan Clan, making her the first human known to be considered part of a gargoyle clan.
- Her DNA was used to create Delilah, along with Demona's.
- In the Goliath Chronicles episode "For It May Come True", Titania created a world where Goliath was human and married to Elisa, with two children. Elisa was also distrustful of the Gargoyles, having never met the Manhattan Clan and gotten to know them and become friends with them, causing her to join the NYPD Anti-Gargoyle Task Force and become a cold-hearted Gargoyle Hunter. However, canonicity is debatable.
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