So, this week I begin Madman's Paradise! I've got a lot from this episode, so I expect it'll take three to five more installments to finish up. This is a pretty decent S3 episode. S3 is by far my favorite season of Transformers, due to the more complicated stories. Rodimus has a great line in this one. "Don't panic yet. Stay calm till we know what's going on. Then we'll panic." Classic.
The particular models for today are all (well except for the prisoner, but that was the template for his body) of Mara-Al-Utha, the rogue Quintesson scientist banished for practicing sorcery. It seems odd that a society advanced enough to construct a dimensional transport would mind sorcery. I'd think they'd just want to analyze and quantify it.
The small model, the Quint sans robe, showed up in Transformers: The Complete Ark
(order it today!) already. I had room in the Quint section, so I figured what the hay? I duplicate it here in the interest of completeness. You can't really have a page on Mara-Al-Uthar without that model, can you? I find it very interesting that the Quintessons had individual models. This is a very similar body to the main Scientist model, but different enough to be distinct. We see other instances of this, with multiple Prosecutors too. We may even see an alternate Executioner, not sure.Next week, expect more exploration of Madman's Paradise! Hope you enjoy.
5/16 Update -- I realized that this was supposed to be part 2, which is why it starts so abruptly. I'm renaming the post, and made some tweaks to the image itself to kind of pull it all together. Expect four more parts to Madman's Paradise.
Could the alternate Executioner models have been strictly in 'Space Pirates' rather than the cartoon? General Ghyrik looked different in some panels due to different artists, but I can't recall if his and Jolup's designs were different besides Jolup's cape. Did they always have upper fangs? That's what I had to add to Impossible Toys' Executioner for my Ghyrik custom.
ReplyDeleteI liked this one too: nice continuity with 'Surprise Party', a glimpse into an odd side of Quint history, and it was unique without breaking the tone of S3.
But you'd prob'ly think it bites,
Livin' in a Madmannn's Paradise...
-Bumblevivisector
That is one creepy looking Quint. No wonder why they banished him. :P
ReplyDeleteI wonder if Floro Dery came up with all these models for the Quints when he was working on the movie, or that this particular Quint was done by others specifically for season 3. In any case, the Quintessons are all incredibly well designed, with a lot of imagination. They are supposed to be scary of course, but a pleasure to watch at the same time :)
ReplyDeleteFloro did at least the first draft of the movie Quintessons... I'm not sure if he did the final polish too. By this episode, he was no longer on the show, so it would have been someone else.
ReplyDeleteI forgot... why exactly did Dery leave the show?
ReplyDeleteThey replaced him. Probably they were trying to cut back on cost, what with the movie not doing as well they thought it would. It's also why Akom was chosen to animate after the movie 'bombed' over Toei and other studios.
ReplyDeleteIn the animation world, it's not uncommon to see someone who's a designer work in other areas too, such as Dery has (like story-boarding for example). So he continued on with other work. Anyone remember Pirates of Dark Water?
Out of curiosity, where's part 1? Hitting the "Madman's Paradise" tag only brings up this post.
ReplyDeleteSorcery isn't always the same thing as casting magic spells (or what appear to be magic spells). It's why the spells are being cast — namely for things a society might consider bad.
Perhaps the Quintessons didn't mind the spells but objected to the things Mara-Al-Utha did with them (whatever they were). It wouldn't be too much of a stretch to hypothesize he'd tried to "pull a Starscream" with spells and got exiled for sorcery (ie. practicing spells with evil intent) when he failed.
I don't think he's gotten to part 1 yet.
ReplyDeleteYeah, since Mara-Al-Utha tried to subjugate the Menonians, I don't think it's that much of a leap to assume he'd tried before elsewhere.
The closest I think Starscream got to doing that (in the cartoon) was in the God Gambit, and even in that Astrotrain had all the glory.
Say... what if Madman's paradise took place in the realm of Dungeons and dragons?
ReplyDeleteThere does seem to be an interesting thread of magic users in the Sunbow shows... I always thought it would have been interesting to have the Dungeon Master and Venger meet Beort, Solomon, Merklynn and Falkama.
ReplyDeleteRoadstripe: your speculation is reasonable, though I believe the episode said he was banished for practicing sorcery, not for what he did with it. Rewind could have been oversimplifying though.
ReplyDeleteD.M. and Anonymous, I kind of like that idea. Menonia is not all that far off of what we saw in the Dungeons & Dragons cartoon.
It's pretty easy to imagine Bobby and Shelia stumbling onto this kingdom and Bobby getting caught up in The Red One's scheme with Shelia locked in a dungeon, and the rest of the gang catching up and eventually freeing The Golden One. Of course, the Dungeon Master would have given a cryptic warning ahead of time, but they wouldn't have interpreted it correctly...
That is so true. In practically every episode which you obviously remember, it seemed to go that way. The show was filled with irony. They gave probably the most noble weapon to Eric the biggest buffoon, whereas Shelia the thief was probably the least presumptuous and most trusting.
ReplyDeleteGood times.
Anonymous, have you read Requiem, the script for the unproduced final episode of the series? It's quite good, and gives Eric a lot to do and lets him be heroic without compromising on who he is as a character. It also ties up the ongoing Venger storyline and gives the kids a guilt-free option to go home. They have it (and much more) for download here:
ReplyDeletehttp://dungeonsanddragonscartoon.blogspot.com/2009/08/requiem.html
Thanks Jim, this was the one episode I hadn't experienced yet. I think I prefer Eric have at least some positive qualities since he's supposed to be a good-guy.
ReplyDeleteWhile I was looking I bumped into this here:
http://www.youtube.com/user/dndrequiem/videos
Trying to animate the last episode, how cool is that?
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1400161698/requiem-dungeons-and-dragons-the-animated-series?ref=search#CanYouTellMeHowICanGetTheMusiOfJohnDougOnCdIHearSomeMusiInYourVideMusiIsGreaThanYou
ReplyDeleteI love it when fans show this kind of initiative. And I too like it when Eric is able to be heroic. I wouldn't want him to just have a personality transplant, but when he can overcome his own weakness and save the day, I find it very satisfying.
ReplyDeleteDery did not leave the show, he was forced to work at home because of politics. Someone schemed and falsely fabricated charges against Dery to take over the art direction of the show from him.
ReplyDeleteAfter the movie, he was offered to work on GI Joe. Because he was also constantly harassed by one of the directors, he left for Hanna-Barbera.
The studio was not trying to cut back on cost, the studio hired more artists after Dery left.
My apologies Gabriel, I wasn't aware of any of that. The information I had was based on interviews I'd read.
ReplyDeleteI know a thing or two about politics and ego clashes. Unpleasant and sometimes unavoidable even among well meaning people.
@Jimtron ~ I think you've got a point about Rewind. Many words don't translate cleanly from one language to another, sometimes causing a shift in meaning.
ReplyDeletePerhaps Mara-Al-Utha wasn't convicted of sorcery per say, but because he dabbled in the occult (somewhat similar, but not the same). However, Rewind couldn't say that as he was translating from ancient Quintesson to modern kid-friendly English, and I don't think the word "occult" would be accepted on a kid's show in the '80s.
To the highly rational Quintessons, an occultist would basically be a madman. To an occultist, a fantasy setting with real magic would be a paradise.
Naturally, I'm putting too much thought into a kid's show, but it passes the time I guess. :\
@Gabriel
ReplyDelete"Someone schemed and falsely fabricated charges against Dery to take over the art direction of the show from him."
Geez, what kind of an a** would do a thing like that?! O.o
Dery was and is a talented guy. I'm fortunate enough to occasionally share breakfast with his daughter. It's a shame he wasn't on the third season, but his contributions in seasons one and two were amazing, and I think the Transformers community is lucky to have had him.
ReplyDelete"and I think the Transformers community is lucky to have had him."
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely! :D