What I think saved me from feeling too weird was the tie into magic, particularly the magical words of power that were invoked via their magic staffs. In the first episode "The Age of Magic Begins" the
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| Cryotek using his staff |
various knights climb to the top of Iron Mountain in a form of challenge. It is at the end of this episode that each knight gains a magical animal totem that mirrors themselves, Leoric a Lion, Feryl a wolf, Darkstorm a Mollusk, Reekon a lizard, etc. Those knights that do not possess staves gain the ability to power magical power vehicles, obviously a ploy to sell more toys? One upside is the cast of characters is pretty good and each bad guy has a good guy to mirror him/her. In some cases the knights knew each other prior to the age of magic.
To activate each staff the wielder had to recite a magical verse. Amongst my favorites were:
Cryotek's Staff of Strength - "Three suns aligned pour forth their light and fill the archer's bow with might!"
Witterquick's Staff of Speed - "Sheathe these feet in the driving gale, Make swift these legs o'er land I sail!"
Darkstorm's Staff of Decay - "By what creeps, what crawls, by what does not; let all that grows recede and rot!" (Great for a staff of withering)
Lexor's Staff of Invulnerability - "The arrows turn, the swords rebel; let nothing pierce this mortal shell!
Come to think of it these would make great command words, phrases for more than just magical staffs, wands etc if one were so inclined. How about Lexor's for a potion of invulnerability?
Another use in a D&D campaign is the idea of the one shot nature of the staves; they required recharging at Iron Mountain. Now this could be a hindrance to a campaign as a whole as players might stay near the place of recharging rather than venture afar. However, if sufficiently powerful the players might husband their resources until the need is great, then head back (that's what I would do). Perhaps they are akin to powerful relics/artifacts in AD&D. Its not inconceivable to have say Lexor's staff of invulnerability keep everything out much like a cube of force, can only be used once until its recharged and usable by any class. Possession of such items might bring prestige in said campaign world if the items are well known or perhaps foes seeking to claim or steal it.
In terms of visual style the Visionaries had a very similar look to the other cartoons of the 80s, where the rise of manga was beginning in the USA. Interestingly the series was created by Flint Dille, who met none other than Gary Gygax when Gary was working on the D&D cartoon. This is fateful as Flint is none other than the brother of Lorraine Williams... Any TSR nerd from back in the day can tell you how much she is hated for ousting Gary from TSR. Flint would work for TSR for a time and the rest of his details can be found here. Anyways I digress.
In a way, Visionaries felt very much like the other cartoons of the 80s, MASK, G.I. Joe, He Man, Thundercats, Transformers etc, a bid to sell toys in the wake of the mega success of Star Wars. Looking back on it the series was an odd bird, it only lasted one season and felt even back then it was an attempt to cash in. It was also a short lived comic book series but I never saw one and was a fairly avid comic reader back then. Maybe that's me looking back on it through hindsight.
Not that I condone such things, but I'm sure there are places on the web to watch all of the episodes...
