Old blog archive: 10 July 2001

Okay, so here’s how that cut scene in Dishonor actually went (yes, I sat down in front of my roommate’s TV with a pencil and a sheet of paper and WROTE this down–laugh all you want ;o) ):

    The Wraith’s following Konk’s scout ships. Dagrons are in the air, following the ship as well but flying ahead of the Wraith.

    “Ioz! Tula! Keep that sail as full as possible–we’ve got a Treasure to steal back!” Ren, from the helm with Niddler next to him

    Scene switches to show Ioz and Tula doing something with ropes and other stuff on the deck. They straighten up, glance at each other, and run over to Ren at the helm, who looks at them calmly but curiously, smiling a little. Scene changes to show a head-shoulder shot of them.

    “Ren, Tula and I–ee–erh–” Ioz, stumbling over his words

    “Well, go on–he won’t bite you.” Niddler, looking amusedly at them

    “We just wanted to thank you for what you did for us back there.” Tula, gratefully

    “Ahh… *punches Ren’s shoulder, and Ren grins a little* you’ve got the right stuff, lad–you wouldn’t know Dame Fortune if she jumped out of a cake, but you’re a good man for all that.” Ioz, kind of with gruff admiration

    “*laughs* I’ll take that as a compliment because I’m too tired to fight.” Ren, sounding a little dull

    Scene changes to an angled overhead shot of the bridge. Ioz turns and goes back to the deck below. Tula starts to turn, but Ren takes hold of her arm.

    “Tula, what were you hoping to find among those maps? It could’ve cost you your life!” Ren, curious and somewhat concerned

    Angle changes to focus on Tula. She turns away from Ren, sobering considerably.

    “For some, even that’s a small price.” Tula, softly

    She departs the helm. Ren sits on (I think) a trunk just behind the wheel and kind of slumps forward, Niddler still next to him.

    “She’s hiding something, Niddler. What, I don’t know. *hesitates, and sighs* How am I ever going to gather the Thirteen Treasures of Rule if I can’t even unite the four of us?” Ren, sounding puzzled, frustrated, and actually seeming somewhat similar to Luke Skywalker from Star Wars: A New Hope

    “Oh, Ren, don’t be so hard on yourself–a few days ago you were just a lighthouse keeper!” Niddler, stumbling on his words to try and console Ren

    Scene pans out over the deck, showing Ren and Niddler in the back looking down at Ioz and Tula in the foreground.

    “Ioz is just in this for himself, and Tula’s keeping secrets. *scene changes again to profile Ren* You and I may have to continue without them.” Ren, glum but pensive

    Quick “eyecatch” of the scout ship and the dagrons before returning to the Wraith.

    “If the wind keeps up like this, we’ll catch that cob-keeled son of a sea pooch before daybreak, Ren!” Ioz, heartily (Andy’s note–grr, I DID NOT just type “Heartilly” as in Rinoa from FF8…sheesh! Anyway…)

    “Lighthouse keeper…maybe that’s all I should ever have been…” Ren, frowning

So yeah. WHY did they cut this out in PoDW?! It would’ve helped a lot of things flow much more smoothly–so we knew that Tula had some motive for joining Ren and the quest, and wasn’t just being spontaneous by gassing Ioz and Zoolie and taking the Treasure and Compass and giving them to Bloth and–argh! *breathes* ;o) Anyway.

Old blog archive: 10 July 2001

Quick little post before Physics lecture…

I guess I’ll go ahead and start making a list of differences between Dark Water and Pirates of Dark Water. I started to last night, but my computer crashed, so let me try again.

Openings
The opening for Dark Water is totally different. It uses different clips from the series, as well as ones animated especially for the opening–and Hector Elizondo doesn’t do an opening narration. All it is is the music, which is slightly different as well. I’ll come back, rewatch it, and put down point-for-point differences just because I’m such a geek. ;o)
Voices
Niddler. *nodnodnod* In the episodes that Cartoon Network showed and Boomerang is currently showing (speaking of which, the Turner building is just a few blocks from me…depending how I get off the freeway to get to my dorm, I pass it frequently…hehehe), they dubbed over his voice in episodes 1-5 with Frank Welker (I believe) doing the voices. However, in Dark Water, Roddy McDowell voiced him, and there’s a BIG difference. Roddy’s voice is much deeper, making Niddler not sound like a comic-relief character. If you remember “Break-Up,” the other monkey-birds sound normal, and so does Niddler in DW. Roddy also does a good job of depicting emotions more subtly and without the exaggeration Frank had to resort to sometimes. (He left the show b/c he wanted more money…ugh. Not to mention, with how they wrote episodes 6-13, his voice would’ve been really awkward for such comic relief…it would’ve been much better in 14-21, I feel, though.)
Editing
When they edited Dark Water to create The Pirates of Dark Water, they fixed up some transitions between scenes, adding little clips here and there to make it not as stilted as it seemed now and then. Some examples I can think of immediately are that in Dark Water, after Alomar died, Ren didn’t bow his head as he did in PoDW; it immediately cut to Bloth offering 50 gold pieces for his men to kill Bloth. I’ll eventually make a list–I’m so going to dissect those 5 episodes. ;o)
Another major editing point was that they completely cut out a scene at the very end of Dishonor in PoDW. It just seems to end with Bloth snarling, “Make speed, you slugs! They’re getting away!” and that’s always kind of nagged at me, and I now know why. Here’s what actually happened:

    Ren calls for Ioz and Tula to make the Wraith sail faster or something like that–but the two of them kind of glance at each other, drop what they’re doing, and go over to Ren, where they thank him, somewhat stumbling over his words (I especially love Niddler’s “What? He won’t bite you, you know,” to Ioz when he’s trying to get his words out). Ren kind of brushes it off (I think he tells them to not let it happen again or something), and when Ioz walks off, Ren takes hold of Tula’s arm and asks her what she was hoping to find in those scrolls, pointing out that she could’ve lost her life. (I can’t BELIEVE they cut this out!! Argh!!) Tula then looks immensely saddened and comments that sometimes a life is a small price to pay for something, and walks off. Ren lets her go, and goes over to Niddler, wondering how he’s supposed to save Octopon when he can’t even unite the 4 of them since Ioz is only in it for himself and Tula’s hiding something. Niddler tries to be helpful by offering that Ren was just a lighthouse keeper the day before, and Ren starts wondering if that’s all he ever should have been.

This was in the comics. I’m just wondering why the HELL somebody decided to cut this out of PoDW!! Argh!
Other things, though, were that they actually re-animated scenes for PoDW. They made the Dark Water in episode 3 look less…well…goofy, I guess, and they changed some facial expressions and other things like that. Once again, I WILL come up with a list when I have time.

Grah, time for class…

Old blog archive: 09 July 2001

Testing…new blog and stuff. I forgot what it’s like to tweak a new one.

Anyway, yeah, I go by the name Andorus, and am the biggest PoDW/DW fan that I know, and since I’ve recently acquired all the episodes (including the original Dark Water miniseries–and recently meaning as of this afternoon *grin*), I figure that I’d need a separate blog to talk about everything about the show that I want to talk about here. So yeah. Jaa, for now. ;o) This template’s going away really soon…