Elisa Maza

Eliza MazaGargoyles character
Background information
First appearance	"Awakening"
Voiced by	Salli Richardson

Detective Elisa Maza is the closest human friend to the Manhattan Clan and the love interest of Goliath on Gargoyles. She is a detective who assists the gargoyles in adapting to the modern world. She was voiced by Salli Richardson.

Background

Personality

Being a cop in a big city, 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. 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 develops romantic feelings for Goliath, who also harbors feelings for her as well. However, they both do not admit how they feel about each other, as they have doubts that a relationship could work between them because of their different species. Eventually, they are able to get past this once they realize that they care for each other too deeply and finally confess their feelings in the three-part Season 2 finale, "Hunter's Moon". They become a couple soon after this and remain together during the third and finale season of the show.

Physical Description

Elisa has dark blue hair, brown eyes and copper skin similar in appearance to Pocahontas. Her normal outfit consists of black boots, light blue jeans, a black shirt, and a red leather jacket. During the Avalon World Tour, she dons other outfits while visiting the different locations.

When Puck uses his magic to transform her into a gargoyle, 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 and bigger eyes.

Trivia

• Her badge number is 16123.
• Her undercover name shares the first name of her voice actress.
• Elisa's last name was originally Chavez, 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.
• Elisa and her earlier incarnations also had a number of different professions, including schoolteacher, 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.
• The episode "Deadly Force" is the only episode where Elisa was physically injured and her life placed in danger.
• Her DNA was used to create Delilah along with Demona's.