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When kids show heroes grow some balls!
16 years ago
Welcome to the Journal of OtakuMan24 Game Player. Hope you're ready for rants and ravings on video games and other miscellaneous topics. So I'm passing through io9's list of 32 shows/games/movies/etc. where characters have to play games OR DIE! (or die in the game)
They brought forth an old cartoon I used to watch when I was younger: "Dungeons & Dragons"
Based on easily the most legendary of tabletop RPGs, the premise was simple.
6 kids find an old roller coaster ride named, what else, "Dungeons and Dragons" at a carnival, which is actually a warp to the land of "Dungeons and Dragons". Said land is under siege by evil overlord "Venger", and the only help the kids get is from the midget Dungeon Master.
Each kid gets a magic weapon that corresponds to their class:
Ranger - Bow & Arrow
Barbarian - Club
Wizard - Magician's Hat
Thief - Cloak
Cavalier - Shield
Acrobat - Javelin
Evil overlord Venger wants these magic weapons to give him the power to rule the land, and is determined to ensure that he gets his hands on them. With a whiney baby unicorn in tow, the Dungeon Master gives them riddles and clues to help free the land of Dungeons and Dragons and get the kids back home. And in never-ending kid show fashion (ie, the show's producers never make plans for the show to end), each time they are about to get home, Venger thwarts their plans to escape or whenever they are about to stop Venger for good, something gets in the way and he makes his escape.
But what if these kids had had enough? What if they were sick and tired of being this midget's errand boys and girls and just want to get back home? What if they had enough of constantly running around in this world of magic and mystery (or Dungeons and Dragons)
This is actually explored in the episode "The Dragon's Graveyard" which was almost banned! In it, the kids once again are denied a chance to get home by Venger after going through another quest and taking out a Frost Giant (not actually killing him, but a good KO nonetheless). At the last second, Venger shows up, blows up the gate, and tries to kill the kids, and leaving without actually waiting to see them get crushed.
At this point, the kids have had it. Youngest kid, Bobby the Barbarian, just wants to see his mom and dad again. Constantly complaining and cynical kid, Eric the Cavalier, figures that something should be done about Venger, and much to everyone's surprise, their leader, the oldest kid Hank the Ranger, actually agrees with the often comic relief Eric. He's had enough. He's sick and tired of being kicked around by Venger, and being Dungeon Master's bitch.
If Venger's the cause of all the trouble here, then the solution is obvious:
KILL VENGER!
Why hasn't this been done before? He's a freakin' evil overlord that not even Dungeon Master, the impish midget semi-God of the world, can't beat. But Hank figures this guy needs to die and NOW! (It's never explicitly stated, but you can see that even his cool level head has reached a boiling point which is actually well animated in the cheap animation style and vocalized)
How to get rid of evil overlord Venger?
TIAMAT! THE most powerful dragon in all of Dungeons and Dragons. He's ready to find this dragon and do whatever it takes to get it to slay Venger.
And what does Dungeon Master do when he shows up after the kids have begun talking about this, he's ready to send them on another side quest to help a town that's been taken over by one of Venger's minions. But the kids actually grow some balls and more or less go,
"NO! Fuck that shit! Why the hell are we messing with his goons if we can just kill his sorry ass once and for all so he quits fucking up what we're trying to do. And that's GET HOME!"
So the episode then focuses on them having to grow a pair and actually come to terms that if they're ever going to get home, SOMEONE HAS TO DIE!
For a kid's show, not to mention an 80's kids show, that's PRETTY EPIC!
See for yourself and tell me what you think?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cg6xDfL7JgM - Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGr5TmN1IKo - Part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6yL1DnH6LI - Part 3
I myself haven't seen this show in a decade or more, easy. To see this here actually makes me go, "WHOA! Where did THIS come from?! This is good stuff! They were going to BAN this episode because of that?! WTF?!"
I can only imagine what kids TV might have been like if more kids shows in the 80's actually put their foot down, went "fuck this shit" and decided that it was time to take the bull by horns and just OFF the guy that's making lives shit for them! This is the kind of maturity that we often saw in Batman: The Animated Series, which is why that show kicked MUCH ass. Followed up by SuperMan which wasn't as dark, but actually did SuperMan RIGHT! Then we have Justice League and, well, one awesome leads to another. You get the idea.
But that was the 90's! What if this all started in the 80's? Imagine the possibilities!
~Otaku-Man
P.S. Yes, I am aware that evil overlord Venger is voiced by Peter "Optimus Prime" Cullen.
EDIT: Looks like maybe this show DID have an ending after all!?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IgSsgFzlqLo
EDIT 2: Nope, I was wrong. Just a segment where they actually paid for good animation.
They brought forth an old cartoon I used to watch when I was younger: "Dungeons & Dragons"
Based on easily the most legendary of tabletop RPGs, the premise was simple.
6 kids find an old roller coaster ride named, what else, "Dungeons and Dragons" at a carnival, which is actually a warp to the land of "Dungeons and Dragons". Said land is under siege by evil overlord "Venger", and the only help the kids get is from the midget Dungeon Master.
Each kid gets a magic weapon that corresponds to their class:
Ranger - Bow & Arrow
Barbarian - Club
Wizard - Magician's Hat
Thief - Cloak
Cavalier - Shield
Acrobat - Javelin
Evil overlord Venger wants these magic weapons to give him the power to rule the land, and is determined to ensure that he gets his hands on them. With a whiney baby unicorn in tow, the Dungeon Master gives them riddles and clues to help free the land of Dungeons and Dragons and get the kids back home. And in never-ending kid show fashion (ie, the show's producers never make plans for the show to end), each time they are about to get home, Venger thwarts their plans to escape or whenever they are about to stop Venger for good, something gets in the way and he makes his escape.
But what if these kids had had enough? What if they were sick and tired of being this midget's errand boys and girls and just want to get back home? What if they had enough of constantly running around in this world of magic and mystery (or Dungeons and Dragons)
This is actually explored in the episode "The Dragon's Graveyard" which was almost banned! In it, the kids once again are denied a chance to get home by Venger after going through another quest and taking out a Frost Giant (not actually killing him, but a good KO nonetheless). At the last second, Venger shows up, blows up the gate, and tries to kill the kids, and leaving without actually waiting to see them get crushed.
At this point, the kids have had it. Youngest kid, Bobby the Barbarian, just wants to see his mom and dad again. Constantly complaining and cynical kid, Eric the Cavalier, figures that something should be done about Venger, and much to everyone's surprise, their leader, the oldest kid Hank the Ranger, actually agrees with the often comic relief Eric. He's had enough. He's sick and tired of being kicked around by Venger, and being Dungeon Master's bitch.
If Venger's the cause of all the trouble here, then the solution is obvious:
KILL VENGER!
Why hasn't this been done before? He's a freakin' evil overlord that not even Dungeon Master, the impish midget semi-God of the world, can't beat. But Hank figures this guy needs to die and NOW! (It's never explicitly stated, but you can see that even his cool level head has reached a boiling point which is actually well animated in the cheap animation style and vocalized)
How to get rid of evil overlord Venger?
TIAMAT! THE most powerful dragon in all of Dungeons and Dragons. He's ready to find this dragon and do whatever it takes to get it to slay Venger.
And what does Dungeon Master do when he shows up after the kids have begun talking about this, he's ready to send them on another side quest to help a town that's been taken over by one of Venger's minions. But the kids actually grow some balls and more or less go,
"NO! Fuck that shit! Why the hell are we messing with his goons if we can just kill his sorry ass once and for all so he quits fucking up what we're trying to do. And that's GET HOME!"
So the episode then focuses on them having to grow a pair and actually come to terms that if they're ever going to get home, SOMEONE HAS TO DIE!
For a kid's show, not to mention an 80's kids show, that's PRETTY EPIC!
See for yourself and tell me what you think?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cg6xDfL7JgM - Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGr5TmN1IKo - Part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6yL1DnH6LI - Part 3
I myself haven't seen this show in a decade or more, easy. To see this here actually makes me go, "WHOA! Where did THIS come from?! This is good stuff! They were going to BAN this episode because of that?! WTF?!"
I can only imagine what kids TV might have been like if more kids shows in the 80's actually put their foot down, went "fuck this shit" and decided that it was time to take the bull by horns and just OFF the guy that's making lives shit for them! This is the kind of maturity that we often saw in Batman: The Animated Series, which is why that show kicked MUCH ass. Followed up by SuperMan which wasn't as dark, but actually did SuperMan RIGHT! Then we have Justice League and, well, one awesome leads to another. You get the idea.
But that was the 90's! What if this all started in the 80's? Imagine the possibilities!
~Otaku-Man
P.S. Yes, I am aware that evil overlord Venger is voiced by Peter "Optimus Prime" Cullen.
EDIT: Looks like maybe this show DID have an ending after all!?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IgSsgFzlqLo
EDIT 2: Nope, I was wrong. Just a segment where they actually paid for good animation.
There's actually been some interesting study into pop culture heroes and what defines them as such. A big part of it is being a supporter of the status quo; even Batman works with traditional authorities in support of a system that some consider diseased or broken. It's the characters who try to change things that are usually villains, or anti-heroes at best.
This is one hell of an episode, especially for your typical marketing-campaign cartoon. You can tell that the ending is a tacked-on Aesop to an otherwise ballsy story. I mean, here is an evil warlord who was probably murdered and mad life miserable for thousands of people, and killing him makes the heroes instantly as bad as he is? Call it rationalization, but something's not right there.
There're also some really good uses of silence in the episode, or at least periods where no one is making eye-gougingly bad puns.
Fuckin' A.
As for the whole "Not kill you" thing, the best example of that is Star Wars, specifically Return of the Jedi (which was out, and might have been on VHS at the time this show was made). You got Luke against his father, running the risk of turning to the Dark Side (which Palpatine would love nothing more), and laying down his arms so as not to turn evil.
I see traces of that in this episode.
What's more, they made a point to him that they COULD kill him. They could have blasted him into oblivion with that "Magic Missile" shot of his, but they didn't. And what's more, they made sure that sank in. He was DEFEATED, maybe not physically, but definitely mentally. He's down there, on his knees, knowing full well that he had LOST.
Another point is Bobby, the youngest of the kids. He's ready to bash Venger's head in for hurting his animal friend (or as I prefer to think of it, very low on HP). Hank looks at him and sees the hate in this kid and thinks, "That's not normal."
Acknowledging this in an 80's cartoon is actually quite something if you think about it.
~Otaku-Man
Yeah, there's a lot of stuff going on in this episode that wouldn't show up in mainstream shows for years, but the ending still feels way forced. Nothing suggests that killing Venger would be a bad thing; it would have been way awesome if the kids had grilled Dungeon Master on his reasons for just putting everything back into the status quo.
DM clearly doesn't want Venger to die, and would rather see him redeemed over being killed. Apparently there's quite a bit of interesting information over at the Wiki for the show:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dungeons_%26_Dragons_(TV_series)
There was a last episode planned called "Requiem" that would put a lot of things in perspective and end the series. It was never animated, BUT audio WAS recorded like in a radio drama. Maybe, someday, it will be animated by a fan or officially.
What's even more interesting, I mentioned that kids cartoons really showed signs of maturity with Batman: The Animated series which was headed by Paul Dini and Bruce Timm. (Dini, as a matter of fact, was the creative mind behind the Batman: Arkham Asylum game which reunites many Batman: TAS alumni). But check THIS out:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o.....agons_episodes
As you can see here in this episode breakdown of D&D, Paul Dini was actually the scriptwriter for some of the early episodes! (Apparently his career goes as far back as He-Man, and he's even the creator of Minerva Mink for Animaniacs!)
So apparently, it's no accident that D&D, which began airing on CBS syndication in 1983, has some serious material underneath it!
Sure the animation budget out of Toei (which makes this PARTLY anime, but not by much, not enough to get out of "Cartoon" status) wasn't the best, even though some scenes (like the one I added in) definitely had more money put into it. Apparently, this was also a show that fought the old cartoon "Get Along Gang" mentality as best as it could.
So yeah, definitely eye opening to see some of these old cartoons that I grew up in now that I'm older. Makes things much more... interesting.
~Otaku-Man
I laughed every episode I watched on toon disney.