Dark Saviour Wiki



Welcome to the Dark Saviour Wiki
The official wiki for the DCUO inspired YouTube series.

Overview
Dark Saviour is a YouTube series, chronicling the adventures of a super hero, named Dezarrakks. Aided by his father, along with other members of the DC Universe, Dezarrakks wages his war on crime, starting with the being who made him: Braniac.

The series is recorded, using video capturing software, on the MMO video game DC Universe Online. In game footage is recorded, while some additional material is written by Mike Taylor (series creator, and name of the lead protagonist.) Taylor will then record additional dialogue, dubbing it into the video footage.

Series Origin
Despite being a new project the idea for a series was always in Taylor's mind, ever since he began playing DC Universe Online, back in 2012. Taylor was also a text based role player and had an idea to integrate his Dezarrakks character into the Marvel/DC RP that was running on the forum. Free of the game's limitations, story wise, Taylor began crafting his character's story, adding in new characters and elements, the characters being created in-game also. Taylor's gaming time tends to be on-off, as was his time in the RP, leading to pauses in the progression of the stories and characters.

Some issues caused Taylor to leave the RP forum, though he is planning a new forum, to continue the stories. All the time Taylor had the idea for a video series in his head, but was unsure how to fully realise it.

The idea became more tangible when Taylor was out with friends, but it wasn't exactly an idea for a Dezarrakks series, more it was an idea for a different character: Cougar Man. Taylor's (self admittedly warped) idea for Cougar Man was a hero who was only interested in girls, aged 18-24. Once they turned 25 his interest would end. Cougar Man would never be interested in anyone under the age of 18. The series would take the form of a "let's play", with Cougar Man dialogue responses dubbed into the footage. A side arc would have seen Cougar Man attempting to join the Justice Realm (Dezarrakks's league), leading to encounters with Dezarrakks and other league members. However Taylor noticed a flaw with this setup, chiefly that Dezarrakks and the Justice Realm were largely unknown, only being of significance to Taylor and other league members. Taylor then had the idea to run with a Dezarrakks series, with the possibility of spinning off Cougar Man at a later date.

Series Planning
Naming the series wasn't a problem, as Taylor was a fan of DC's penchant for naming movies/series' after nicknames,rather than the lead characters proper name (The Dark Knight, Man Of Steel, Arrow etc). Taylor had been using the "Dark Saviour" name prior to playing DCUO, on the WWE games, as well as part of his Twitter handle, and felt it would be a natural nickname for his black and crimson hooded hero.

The next step was finding screen capturing footage, which was done fairly quickly thanks to some SOE forum members.

The next step was planning. Taylor already had numerous videos on his YouTube channel, ranging from Transformers to Doctor Who, and understood the necessity for structure. Taylor, a frequent pre-planner, mapped out a lot of storylines, character arcs, etc in advance. Taylor also had to consider several in-game limitations, including combat rating, already set stories, accidental "video bombing" from other players, and the issue of having multiple characters (from the same account) in the same scene.

Overcoming the last obstacle was relatively simple: Taylor created a new account and recreated Dezarrakks (using the previous, before respecced, Dezaras name). This allowed Taylor to record scenes of Dezarrakks and Dad Taylor together, and also provided another benefit: the chance to replay the revamped Braniac ship opening mission, allowing for access to the opening "break free" cinematic (something added after Taylor first played the game.)

Overcoming the set in stone storylines was something Taylor thought about carefully. It was decided that the characters would approach these stories from their own perspective, integrating extra footage into the missions to allow Taylor to "make it his own, somewhat". One thing that Taylor carried over from the RP (something he always kept) was Dezarrakks' escape from Braniac's harvester ship, disabling it and allowing others to be freed.

Character Development
Taylor envisioned Dezarrakks's journey as his journey, what he'd do if the scenario happened to him. Because of this he opted to give the character his own name: Michael Taylor. That may lead to problems here so the character will be referred to as Dezarrakks, while the creator will be referred to as Taylor.

As mentioned above Dezarrakks retains the in-game origin story: he escapes the Braniac Harvester, aided by the Justice League. Dezarrakks's escape allows the rescue of others that are trapped there. Taylor still sees this as slightly "full of itself" as it may misinterpret Dezarrakks as a kind of liberator, that everyone else is free because of him. However Taylor also defends that it is Dezarrakks's story but, despite that, the existence of other players' characters won't be denied. The character, voiced by Taylor, is played very close to Taylor's own personality, being quick witted, sharp tongued, but serious and responsible when required.

(There is a big story difference between the RP Dezarrakks and the "Saviourverse" Dezarrakks. A wiki may never be written about the RP version so the contrast will be listed on his page.)

The second lead character is Dad Taylor. Real name Theodore, nicknamed "Dad", he is Dezarrakks' father, serving as his mentor. Taylor sometimes refers to Dad as "Dez's Felicity". Dad is former military, now working at Waynetech, assigned to work with Dezarrakks by Batman/Bruce Wayne. Upon in-game creation Dad was never going to be fully utilised, instead being used as a "mule" (extra inventory/bank space for other characters' spare items) but Taylor enjoyed levelling the character and decided to flesh him out more. Dad is stubborn and sharp tongued but is on the same page as his son, evidenced by episode 2's "probably hookers" "yep" exchange. Despite the banter Dad is very protective of his son, shown when he tried to convince Dezarrakks to retreat from Bane (also episode 2.)

Agent Thomas is a new character, created specifically for the series. Considering Dezarrakks is the only Dark Saviour character to appear in the RP this might seem odd. However other characters created were intended to appear in the RP, whereas Agent Thomas was created after Taylor's departure from the board.

Thomas is by the book, to the point of having no sense of humour. He is FBI, ex military (serving under Dad), wears shades inside and is always scowling. He dislikes Michael but respects Dezarrakks, leading to an interesting three way dynamic. Thomas was created as a way to explore Dezarrakks's hero/civilian personas and interaction with other characters.

Writing And Recording
When writing an episode Taylor takes a different approach, as opposed to writing a Transformers: The Soap episode, for example. With a Transformers episode Taylor has to set up each scene, create each shot, but with Dark Saviour a large portion of the work is already set up. This can be both beneficial and problematic. A beneficial scene would be Dad and Dezarrakks at the base of operations, or on the phone to each other. These scenes are written beforehand, as they're set up by the creator.

A problematic scene can be an instance or open world scene. In a mission Dezarrakks has to follow a particular path, fulfilling set objectives. This can be an issue where writing is concerned, as dialogue is written after the footage is recorded. This causes Taylor to adopt a different writing strategy, having incomplete scripts before filming begins. Taylor uses the term "action scenes" for this footage, and "character scenes" for the content he can control. Taylor will write character scenes before shooting, but write the action scenes after filming, in response to dialogue and actions in the footage. This was going to be the strategy for Cougar Man originally. Character scenes generally contain more dialogue than action scenes.

Music
The music used in the series is from the Batman: Arkham video game series. Taylor's favourite piece of the games is the menu theme from Batman: Arkham City, and felt it would be perfect for his series' opening title sequence. When talking about Batman music Taylor mainly associates the Danny Elfman score, from the Tim Burton movies, with Batman. Taylor sees that as his Batman score, the music he associates with Batman most. He believes the Arkham music has a more broader spectrum, whereas the "Batman March" could never be associated with anyone else.

Aside from the Batman: Arkham scores Taylor has recently used some Nightwish tracks, including Bye Bye Beautiful and Storytime.

Season 1
The first season of Dark Saviour consists of five episodes and follows Dezarrakks and Dad Taylor investigating what happened while Dezarrakks was on the Braniac Harvester ship. The pilot episode was uploaded on October 12th 2014, with episode 2 (Cleaning Up The Streets) being uploaded on October 19th.

Episode 3 (Metropolis) was uploaded on November 2nd, with Episode 4 (One Step Closer) uploaded on November 23rd. The season finale (The Dark Saviour Rises) was uploaded on December 21st, 2014.

Due to production times, family and work commitments there is no set upload schedule for the episodes.

Another thing that Taylor does is record video logs, detailing various behind the scenes elements, and talking about the series in general.

A video log is uploaded prior to the upload of each episode.

Season 2
Planning for Season 2 is underway, and is due for upload in 2015. It will consist of five episodes and introduce new characters to the series. The characters revealed are Agent Thomas and Flogirl (both returning), Terrainia (new regular), Betty Taylor (also returning), DashTracker, Bern Unti (EUPC/Saviourverse version), CSI Mike Copple, and Cougar Man. The main villain is an original character, named Stunshock.

Taylor had initially hoped to launch season 2 on April 5th, as announced on his Twitter feed, but recently stated April 5th might not be the exact date. However, despite being confident of an April launch, the season has still not launched. One reason is the use of outside voice acting; Taylor allows the outside VAs to record their dialogue on their own time. He feels it's only fair, as no one is getting paid.

Despite timing setbacks Taylor recently confirmed the completion of episode 2.4, as well as the Elseworlds: Steel Saviour movie.

A team up episode was uploaded on February 15th, 2015, serving as a season 1 sequel/season 2 prequel. The story introduces Flogirl, a character created by Zoe Glanville. Flogirl is one of the co-founders of Taylor's DCUO league, Justice Realm.

Season 2 publicly launched on June 28th, 2015, with the episode Foundations. The second episode (Revelation And Mystery) was made public on July 26th, 2015. Episode 3 (Dash) was published on August 16th, 2015, with episode 4 (Cougar) published on August 30th, 2015. The season finale (Conflict) went public on September 20th, 2015.

Crossovers With Other DCUO Players
On the DCUO forums Taylor keenly reads the fiction of other DCUO players, most notably a user by the name of BernUnit81 (Mike Alger). Taylor reads Alger's stories, providing feedback, and Alger watches Taylor's videos, also providing feedback. The two communicate regularly and Taylor had an idea to include Bern in a future Dark Saviour story. This would require Taylor to have a PSN account, as Alger is a USPS player, which Taylor had planned on doing. Taylor now owns a PS4, as crossplay has been postponed. A benefit of crossplay would've been easier interaction between the PS and PC characters, but Taylor is fine with reverting to Plan A.

Alger even allowed Taylor to create an EUPC version of the Bern Unit character, enabling Bern Unit to appear alongside the Dark Saviour version of Dezarrakks. The difference in servers, between the original Bern and Dezarrakks would make any crossover (between players) a multiversal affair. Assuming crossplay happens, the original Bern Unit would be a part of the upcoming Steel Saviour universe (as both characters are on US servers.)

Regarding the EUPC version of Bern Unit, Taylor allows the creator as much creative control as possible, with Alger providing feedback on the scripted scenes involving the character.

EUPC Bern Unit will appear in season 2 of Dark Saviour, voiced by Taylor. The crossover with USPS Bern Unit is still planned to happen.

Taylor also received a comment from a YouTuber named Scions, who suggested Taylor watch his video. Scions is the name of Dijon Eric Sutherlin's DCUO league, also on the USPS servers. Taylor watched Sutherlin's video: a pilot episode for a new YouTube DCUO series, called "The Figment". It follows the story of a young hero, given powers by an exobyte, who performs heroics, while juggling his everyday activities. Taylor became a fan of the series, seeing the parallels to his own series, and talk of a crossover with their characters began, extending to suggestions of a three man team up with Bern Unit too. Taylor's initial thought was that it would involve his Steel Saviour version of Dezarrakks, through PS4 or crossplay, but on May 18th, 2015, Sutherlin posted a teaser, showing The Figment encountering the Dark Saviour Dezarrakks. Taylor had no idea of the teaser, until Sutherlin showed him, but was pleasantly surprised and admitted to "geeking out at seeing his own feet". One of Sutherlin's leaguemates dressed as Dezarrakks for the teaser, faithfully recreating Dezarrakks' season 1 look.

On May 27th, 2015, Taylor uploaded a teaser of his own, showing Dezarrakks in scenarios from each of his season 1 encounters, but this time his actions are being observed by The Figment, indicating that time travel, as well as crossing dimensions, may be in play as well. Dad Taylor's character model was dressed up to represent Figment in the teaser.

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