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scans_dailyRemember a 1980's cartoon called Visionaries?
If not, this won't mean much to you, so my apologies.
It's a terrific little show IMHO, 13 episodes of world building and sword and sorcery fun.
The premise is that the planet Prysmos, in a trinary star system, has millenia long (at least) periods of alternating between magic and science ruling the world. When Science is in the ascendant, magic is mere folklore and legend, when Magic is in charge, all technology more complex than basic physics like a block-and-tackle simply stop working, electronics fail, electricity ceases to flow in machinery, and the laws of Magic are in charge. Sure it's nonsense (Gravity keeps working of course, but maybe it changed from being based on Newtonian Physics to "The Ground sucks"), but as a leaping off point it's a great start.
It also had a healthy dose of subversiveness in it's plotting (It was the last production of the 80's cartoon powerhouse Sunbow, so they got away with a lot they otherwise wouldn't have managed) such as; Merklynn, the master wizard of the planet was a scheming, self serving pain in the ass half the time, only recharging the characters powers if they'd do what he says, and cheerfully dealing with either the good guys or the bad guys, he didn't judge what you used the power he granted you for, only that you used it.
The heroic side, the Spectral Knights maintained a democracy in their realms, but had to deal with the consequences of that (As Churchill noted, democracy is the worst form of government, apart from all the others we've tried), whereas the Darkling Lords ran a tyrannical dictatorship, which is a lot more straightforward to operate. They both accept the concept of "One Man, One Vote", but disagree on interpretation of the phrase! :)
Of course, it was all based on a Hasbro toy line.
Each character had a hologram "totem animal" they could transform into, and a specific spell they could invoke. The male characters either had staffs (with another holographic representation depicted on it) or a vehicle, will specific spells allowing them to channel powers like "Speed", "Strength", "Wisdom", "Knowledge" for the good guys, and "Decay", "Destruction", "Fear" and "Invulnerability" for the bad guys. Those who didn't have staffs had vehicles that only they could empower (The cartoon was a little vague on that one depending on dramatic necessity). They also all had catchy little rhyming couplet spells, easy to remember (and yes, I do recall them all, one of those odd little geeky things which I have surprisingly little shame about wasting braincells on :) )
But of course, this being the 80's the two female characters, the heroic Spectral Knight Galadria (Yes, that's a Tolkein reference) and the villainous Darkling Lord Virulina (Not a Tolkein reference, but a rather wonderful name, no?) had neither action figures, nor specific spells. That always irked me (and other fans), especially as the totem forms they had, a dolphin and a shark respectively, were only useful in water-based situations, and as Aquaman and Aqualad can tell you, those don't crop up all that often in most action adventure series. They got the short end of the wand, as it were, thought they at least had the decency to make Galadria (voiced by the marvellous Susan Blu, also the voice of Stormer in Jem, Marissa Fairborn in Transformers, and possessed of a gloriously sexy, "smoky" voice) a very competent fighter when the need arose.
The sadly also short lived comic from Marvel's "Star Comics" line, (Six issues, and cancelled halfway through a story no less) decided to deal with the power imbalance.... At the start of issue 5, they are sent on a quest by Merklynn, to seek out four elemental jewels which the fate of magic depends on...
I love that they've got something unique to them, and shields are a lot more practical than staffs it must be said. Also that the need for a holographic image has been incorporated...
Later we see the spells being used, with Galadria helping some innocents who have been injured during a battle for one of the gems...
I should add that the budding romance between Galadria and the rather lunkheaded, but in a sort of Obelix style way Cryotek, was very cutely handled.
And in issue 6, Virulina decides to show her ally Cindarr what SHE can do...
Oh yeah, THAT was a bad mistake Cindarr. Violence against women is a particular no-no, violence against newly magically empowered women is a shortcut to PAIN.
Alas we never got to see that, as it was the last issue, but it's nice that they managed to get this in under the wire.
If not, this won't mean much to you, so my apologies.
It's a terrific little show IMHO, 13 episodes of world building and sword and sorcery fun.
The premise is that the planet Prysmos, in a trinary star system, has millenia long (at least) periods of alternating between magic and science ruling the world. When Science is in the ascendant, magic is mere folklore and legend, when Magic is in charge, all technology more complex than basic physics like a block-and-tackle simply stop working, electronics fail, electricity ceases to flow in machinery, and the laws of Magic are in charge. Sure it's nonsense (Gravity keeps working of course, but maybe it changed from being based on Newtonian Physics to "The Ground sucks"), but as a leaping off point it's a great start.
It also had a healthy dose of subversiveness in it's plotting (It was the last production of the 80's cartoon powerhouse Sunbow, so they got away with a lot they otherwise wouldn't have managed) such as; Merklynn, the master wizard of the planet was a scheming, self serving pain in the ass half the time, only recharging the characters powers if they'd do what he says, and cheerfully dealing with either the good guys or the bad guys, he didn't judge what you used the power he granted you for, only that you used it.
The heroic side, the Spectral Knights maintained a democracy in their realms, but had to deal with the consequences of that (As Churchill noted, democracy is the worst form of government, apart from all the others we've tried), whereas the Darkling Lords ran a tyrannical dictatorship, which is a lot more straightforward to operate. They both accept the concept of "One Man, One Vote", but disagree on interpretation of the phrase! :)
Of course, it was all based on a Hasbro toy line.
Each character had a hologram "totem animal" they could transform into, and a specific spell they could invoke. The male characters either had staffs (with another holographic representation depicted on it) or a vehicle, will specific spells allowing them to channel powers like "Speed", "Strength", "Wisdom", "Knowledge" for the good guys, and "Decay", "Destruction", "Fear" and "Invulnerability" for the bad guys. Those who didn't have staffs had vehicles that only they could empower (The cartoon was a little vague on that one depending on dramatic necessity). They also all had catchy little rhyming couplet spells, easy to remember (and yes, I do recall them all, one of those odd little geeky things which I have surprisingly little shame about wasting braincells on :) )
But of course, this being the 80's the two female characters, the heroic Spectral Knight Galadria (Yes, that's a Tolkein reference) and the villainous Darkling Lord Virulina (Not a Tolkein reference, but a rather wonderful name, no?) had neither action figures, nor specific spells. That always irked me (and other fans), especially as the totem forms they had, a dolphin and a shark respectively, were only useful in water-based situations, and as Aquaman and Aqualad can tell you, those don't crop up all that often in most action adventure series. They got the short end of the wand, as it were, thought they at least had the decency to make Galadria (voiced by the marvellous Susan Blu, also the voice of Stormer in Jem, Marissa Fairborn in Transformers, and possessed of a gloriously sexy, "smoky" voice) a very competent fighter when the need arose.
The sadly also short lived comic from Marvel's "Star Comics" line, (Six issues, and cancelled halfway through a story no less) decided to deal with the power imbalance.... At the start of issue 5, they are sent on a quest by Merklynn, to seek out four elemental jewels which the fate of magic depends on...
I love that they've got something unique to them, and shields are a lot more practical than staffs it must be said. Also that the need for a holographic image has been incorporated...
Later we see the spells being used, with Galadria helping some innocents who have been injured during a battle for one of the gems...
I should add that the budding romance between Galadria and the rather lunkheaded, but in a sort of Obelix style way Cryotek, was very cutely handled.
And in issue 6, Virulina decides to show her ally Cindarr what SHE can do...
Oh yeah, THAT was a bad mistake Cindarr. Violence against women is a particular no-no, violence against newly magically empowered women is a shortcut to PAIN.
Alas we never got to see that, as it was the last issue, but it's nice that they managed to get this in under the wire.
