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Post by Harkovast on Oct 4, 2018 13:02:46 GMT
Okay so my kids watch a lot of cartoons and it struck me that the shows on TV these days are freaking terrible.
I mean embarassingly bad.
All the characters seem to do it be ironic and make references to already dated internet memes.
I saw two different cartoons have drawn out running gags about the Golden Girls.
A sit com about old ladies from when I was a kid is now a major topic of kids cartoons.
No one makes good shows anymore about the kind of things kids might actually like.
When my son Rowan plays games he never plays at anything from cartoons. Its all things from movies like Marvel, where there are actual heroes and bad guys to get invested in....rather than the character trying to do some online dating or adding more diversity to the characters in a collectible card game (not kidding, those are both real story lines from cartoons they watch.)
I'll never get to make a cartoon show, obviously.
But I can still imagine one!
So that's what I've been doing.
I'm going to come up with a show that's freaking awesome with the kind of stuff I liked as I kid.
Now I've explained my nonsensical plans, let me tell you about....
THE LEGEND OF THE ULTRA SWORD!
"The Omnispheres have fallen to Dreadlord's evil and now he needs only the power of the Ultra Sword to conquer the entire galaxy!
All that stands in his way are Hawk, Princess Sapphire and their unlikely friends, and their desperate quest to restore freedom and hope to the Omnispheres.
These...are the LEGENDS OF THE ULTRA SWORD!"
The setting is a group of planets that are surrounded in mechannical rings and space stations, with energy beams linking them together that can be used to travel between them. These are The Omnispheres.
On these humans live along side small flying creatures called Magitechs. The Magictech are really clever and great with machines and building stuff, and helped construct the Omnispheres.
The royal family that rule the Omnispheres live in a floating space station palace that can travel around between the planets.
However, the peace is shattered when the Queen's brother decides to take power. He attacks the palace with a robot army and has the defences lowered by a traitor in the royal guard.
He captures the King and Queen and puts them in stasis and tries to take the Ultra Sword, the most powerful thing the Magitech have ever built.
But when he tries to activate it, the Ultra Sword zaps him (because the Magitech made it so it can't be used for evil.)
At this point, the Princess, who has not been captured yet, grabs the sword and runs off to an escape pod.
She puts the sword and her Magitech friend Widget into one pod and gets into another one and escapes the palace.
5 years later, when our story picks up, the Queen's brother now calls himself Dreadlord, and has a scary mask form where the Ultrasword injured him adn a robot arm. The people are all forced to work for him under his cruel and corrupt rule.
He's replaced the democratic council with his cronies who just carry out his orders (and also enrich themselves.)
On the factory planet, all the people are forced to build warmachines and robots in ever increasing numbers (while the planets prefect gives speeches about how grateful they should all be for Dreadlords kind rule.)
The magitech have all vanished, now one knows where they went , many think they are extinct.
No one dares to oppose Dreadlord's power.
But then one day, a young guy (marching with everyone else to the factory to make robots) sees something strange in a near by scrap yard. Its one of the escape pods, revealed from under a heap when more scrap is dropped down, knocking a pile over.
He slips away and goes to investigate, finding its the pod containing Widget and the Ultra Sword.
The first episode they go and find the princess and then the three of them decide to work to try to defeat Dreadlord.
However, when dreadlord finds out about them, he wants to get the Ultra Sword, as it will give him the power to take over all the galaxy.
I've started drawing art of some of the characters, so I'll post them so you can have a look...
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Post by Harkovast on Oct 4, 2018 13:37:41 GMT
Here is Widget, the Magitech! Widget is nervous and a bit frantic, but also super smart about science and building stuff. He's a cute little guy who provides some comic relief when he gets into trouble or gets scared. Magitech don't have eyes on their heads. Instead they have floating glowy orbs over their heads that change shape to express their moods (and fade away when they fall asleep.) The older one down in the corner is the wise elder magitech who is held prisoner by Dreadlord. Dreadlord interrogates him sometimes for information on things. The Elder always seems sad and disappointed with Dreadlord and calls him by his actual name (which I haven't decided on yet. I need to fill in a lot of the names!)  |
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Post by Harkovast on Oct 4, 2018 13:52:52 GMT
Okay so here is Shadowtech, who is an evil Magitech, and Dreadlord. Magitech are about a foot tall, Shadowtech is about two feet tall and is mechannical looking. He has scarey red eyes that are almost always in the same angry expression. He has loads of spidery arms to let him quickly build and create is evil machines. Shadowtech is the power behind the throne. He doesn't want to directly run things, but he's behind the scenes advising Dreadlord. Shadowtech is just completely evil and sinister. He rebuilt Dreadlord, but the cybernetics still cause Dreadlord a lot of pain. The elder magitech warns that Shadowtech can never remove dreadlord's discomfort, as ending peoples suffering is not in Shadowtechs nature. Dreadlord himself has a cool mask and red eye. There are pipes coming off his head to his collars, which connects to machinery on his back, under his cape. Dreadlord usually has an angry expression and is generally hateful and bitter. He commonly zaps his minions with energy to punish them for failures. Its meant to be that his decision to be evil doesn't bring him any happiness, and his endless desire for more power never gives him peace. He isn't directly fought very often in the show, in order to make him more threatening. He's really powerful and can basically beat anyone else in the show in a straight fight.  |
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Post by Harkovast on Oct 4, 2018 14:05:40 GMT
Here is a full picture of Dreadlord, along with one of his evil robots. I made their heads look like Dreadlord's mask, but with the human parts missing. Their hands can change to be sword blades or energy cannons, so they can switch to what they need. I don't want the robots to become too weak and crappy, they are meant to be pretty tough. I always hate when bad guy minions get shitter over time!  |
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Post by Harkovast on Oct 4, 2018 14:24:54 GMT
Okay so let me tell you more about he good guys. Here is a picture of Lancer and the Princess (who doesn't have a name yet.) Lancer used to be the Captain of the Royal guards but was accused of treason (by bad guys who would later later help Dreadlord take over.) She was outraged and quit, and has been in exile ever since. Shes cynical and doesnt care about helping anyone, but the good guys persuade her to help again. She often complains about how she doesn't think what they are doing will work (and says Widget is a flying rat), but shes a very brave warrior who can kick anyones butt. She has a robot leg that she detaches when shes relaxing, and when trouble starts she can make her spear appear. This can stab or chop through most things, and fire energy blasts. She also gets a red visor over her head that targets onto enemies as she's fighting. The princess (I might call her Princess Sapphire) is kind and compassionate, and generally wants to do things to help people (annoying Lancer who complains about getting involved.) Her Tiara lets her create energy barriers to protect herself and others. It can also be used to heal people. Her abilities are defensive as befits her kind nature. Dreadlord wants to capture her so he will have the entire royal family as his hostages and no one will be left to challenge him. Once he captures/destroys her and gets the Ultrasword he will be able to rule the galaxy unopposed.  |
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Post by Harkovast on Oct 4, 2018 14:25:24 GMT
I need to draw some more of the characters, I'll post em when I do.
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Post by zaealix on Oct 4, 2018 14:42:22 GMT
Part of me thinks Dreadlord's backstabbing buddy from the Royal Gaurd is going to make quite a few appearances as sort of... Basically, Baboon to Dragon from Skunk Fu, or Jessie&James to Team Rocket. Basically that guy that's dangerous enough to warrent major attention from the heroes but not so dangerous to have good odds of winning a straight fight.
As for the Shadowtech...Hunh. Part of me wonders where it came from because I could easily see it having a giant robot suit or something waiting in the wings for when Dreadlord is brought down by the heroes.
EDIT: I just remembered- why does the Princess split the sword&her friend off from herself? The Escape Pods were too small for all three?
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Post by Harkovast on Oct 4, 2018 21:08:26 GMT
yeah there wasn't room to all pile into one pod. they are just meant to be one person things.
The traitorous guard guy is one of Dreadlords main minions.
Hes going to have an over the top title like Grand High Sky martial.
He got Lancer thrown out and then betrayed them to boost his own position.
Dreadlord lets his minions rule how they want as long as they obey him, so the people are oppressed and exploited and corruption is rife. Bandit gangs now prey on the people unopposed, as Dreadlord's minions either don't care or are happy to get bribed.
All Dreadlord cares about is increasing his military and power...adn now capturing the princess and the Ultra Sword.
the sky martial is very arrogant and constantly boasting, giving himself medals etc, but hes smart enough to let other people take the fall when things go wrong to avoid Dreadlord's wrath. He's competent and a powerful warrior, but his hubris lets the heroes out wit him some times.
I see him as kind of the arch enemy for Lancer specifically.
Lancer was thrown out becuase during a space battle with piratical raiders, when the good guys were about to win, Lancer refused to fire on the raiders mothership, allowing it to escape.
The Sky marshall guy and others secretly loyal to Dreadlord claimed she was a traitor and wanted her put on trial.
She refused to show up and defend herself, basically saying if they didn't trust her after all she had done, she was leaving, so no one knows the explanation for her strange actions and whether she really was a traitor or not.
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Post by StyxD on Oct 4, 2018 21:40:41 GMT
Okay so my kids watch a lot of cartoons and it struck me that the shows on TV these days are freaking terrible. I mean embarassingly bag. What? But I thought we're living in some kind of an animation renaissance! It just got good at the start of the decade! And it was… well, it was supposed to be getting even better… Okay, okay. I have a few comments and questions about this grand vision. So, what does the Ultra Sword even do? And why won't the good guys use it to conquer the galaxy? Since the bad guys can't even use it! What motivated the brother to take the throne? And why does a monarchy have a democratic council?  "Dreadlord" is a hard name to sell to your subjects. Maybe "Awesomelord"? So what happened with the guy who found the Princess? How was he supplanted by the Lancer? I think the magi/shadow tech designs are freaking cute. The creepy shrimp-like arms of the shadow guy are a nice touch. The robots having half a face like their master is also pretty interesting. So, the big theme of this cartoon would be robots and cybernetic prosthetics on all the characters? Pretty interesting. It's like Deus Ex set in He-Man's world. |
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Post by Harkovast on Oct 4, 2018 22:21:21 GMT
The ultra sword can be used as a really kick ass weapon to slice through bad guy robots. But it has massive power in it that you can tap into to do more awesome stuff.
I planned a bit where Lancer says sarcastically that she will give them a lift if they can recharge her space ships energy cells (with the assumption that thats impossible), but they hook it up to the sword nad can immediately do it. It is implied to have even more amazing powers if you can use it properly.
Shadowtech can't recreate the sword, but if they get hold of it he can corrupt it so the bad guys can harness its power.
They have a council because its meant to be a sort of constitutional monarchy. Their society wasn't run just on the monarchs whims until dreadlord took over. the people had representation and proper laws and stuff. Dreadlord has thrown all that in the trash and rules through force doing whatever he wants.
Dreadlord was jealous of his sibling and thought he could do better. he thought they were squandering the potential power of hte magitechs creations and could use it to rule the galaxy.
He is implied to have been led astray by Shadowtech, and now hes an evil cyborg who is twisted and hateful.
Shadowtech is always a sinister agent of corruption, feeding the worst impulses of those who work with him to get them to do what he wants.
The Magitech know of Shadowtech and consider him very scary and evil! He is implied to be a being of pure evil, who is always malicious and sinister.
I liked the idea that the magitech are loveable and funny, but he is creepy and menacing.
I haven't drawn the hero guy yet, but he is still in it, I swear! He is coming soon! Along with the fifth main character...Rock the Geosapian.
So the heroes are-
hero guy
princess
Lancer
Widget
Rock.
Classic 5 man band.
Dreadlord has a pretty on the nose name, but most things in this world do.
Its a kids show so I want to have really clear names so we know whats what.
Ultrasword, magitech, dreadlord, its very clear whose who.
I tried to make it well thought through so it makes sense, but not too complicated.
Dreadlord does not care about his popularity, since everyone has to do what he says or get destroyed. His name basically says it all about how he rolls.
All the schools, museums and libraries have been closed because Dreadlord doesn't need anyone learning anything, just labouring to make his armies stronger.
He is the bad guy and we don't like him!
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Post by Harkovast on Oct 4, 2018 22:23:14 GMT
Regarding the tech, yeah it works so most of the powers comes from cybernetics and fancy technology, a lot of which is unique to particular people.
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Post by Canuovea on Oct 5, 2018 4:16:42 GMT
Pitch it then.
Though I've also been under the impression that there are plenty of great cartoons about nowadays. The Voltron series on Netflix strikes me as about the same style as this, from what I've seen. Not the same, mind you, but similar in style.
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Post by Harkovast on Oct 5, 2018 9:53:09 GMT
I'm sure there are some good cartoons, but the style of cartoons I watched as a kid seems to have mostly vanished.
The episodic, heroes having adventures against a recuring bad guy style show was once absolutely everywhere. I can ream off dozens, now there is perhaps one or two.
They are remaking Thundercats now to be a weird ironic parody thing where the characters look like old chewing gum.
All the heroes now don't actually ever do anything heroic, with that being framed as a clever subversion. But the subversion has now become the norm. I fully expect the characters to never actually have proper adventures now , or to avoid breaking the forth wall etc.
I could pitch the idea, but the odds of this going anywhere are ridiculously small.
Realistically this is just for my entertainment. (And maybe yours, if you are reading this and find it entertaining.)
When I've drawn some more characters I will try writing out an episode as a script to give the idea of what the show is meant to be like.
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Post by zaealix on Oct 5, 2018 13:00:50 GMT
Hrrrm. I had saw in my mind's eye a progression of scenes, but I'm not sure if it's a thing you'd go with since it presumes a more...Limited run, but basically- Dreadlord gets his arm replaced three times by shadowtech, and each time he suffers worse pain, because each arm is stronger then the last. You don't see his reaction but you hear it as the camera cuts away to a place out the room. The first time we cut to the hallway as he grunts 'ow Ow rrrgh!' Second time we cut to the Elder who presumably is in his cell elsewhere in the palace shaking his head in dismay/recoiling in horror (depends on how much these Magitech critters are supposed to be responsive to good&evil and whatnot.) as Dreadlord yowls 'rrrgh, aaaagh! Curses!' Last time the cut is to showing the royal palace he's remodeled as he basically outright screams in pain 'AAAARRRGGGHHH'. But then again if this is more episodic then 'actual plotline progression is a thing' then it's also an idea that probably wouldn't gel. Then again, with how scary Dreadlord would have to be and the amount of effort it'd take for the heroes to defeat him, it miiight work, if only because it seems like something that would take fair amount of episodes to do justice to both Dreadlord and to this notion.
Alternative idea was Shadowtech making an arm that'd build up power over time ( not enough to rival the ULTRA SWORD of course, but very potent!) But it'd start to hurt Dreadlord if he let it build up too long, so he'd be encouraged to use it's power, and that power could go into things like zapping his henchmen, or a temporary Super-Strength beyond whatever Dreadlord can normally do. The idea being this arm would be another sign of Shadowtech's corrupting of Dreadlord, what with feeding his destructive tendancies!
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Post by Harkovast on Oct 5, 2018 14:17:44 GMT
I want it to be episodic and have an ending, like at the end of however many episodes they over throw dreadlord and free the royal family. Things shouldn't just run and run or end without resolution. But at the same time, I want people to be able to watch the episodes without having to know a ton of backstory. The voice over on the starting credits will tell you the basic gist and you will be good to go for that half hour. Dreadlord wont appear a massive amount (if hes over used he will start to seem lame.) But there will be scenes of him getting his cybernetics adjusted by shadowtech and grimacing in pain nad getting lightning crackling over him. Its going to be assumed throughout the show that Dreadlord is more powerful than everyone else, so he wont specifically get his powers improved (as he's already the strongest!) The exception will be that near the end he will get hold of the Ultra Sword (cause he has to near the end!) Hero dude now has art! He's got goggles, overalls and boots because he comes from Planet Ferros, which has loads of factories and foundries. Now they have all been taken over by dreadlord to make more weapons, war machines and evil robots. I liked the idea that he's sort of a working class hero, whose gear reflects his upbringing. Also I think its a fun contrast that the Princess is dressed all pretty and nice and he is more ruggedly equipped. He has some shoulder pad armour that he can use to help protect him adn block attacks without weighing him down too much. He doesn't have a name yet. The Ultra sword has a cog on the hand guard that spins around when it charges up its power. The lines running along it glow brightly when it gets more powerful.  I've also decided the princess should be able to teleport short differences. that will let her dart in the way of attacks to protect people, and also help explain how she could get away with the Ultra Sword. |
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