Zany misunderstanding

Question

Grid in plaintext

Across
1. Top metal band has a trademark for honorific title (7)
5. Smear fellow according to Spooner's scheme (6,4)
10. Money paid for releasing Welsh footballer, reportedly (4)
14. Crowd plunders hiking equipment (9)
15. Optimistic visionary shown by you to horrible pain (7)
16. Amazing tales describing inventor (5)
17. Sick return of ethereal historical region (7)
18. Hateful Targaryen as Tywin's prisoner (5)
19. Japanese letter following a T-Rex running to city (9)
20. Troves of saint remains (7)
22. Wild wolves of ice having new, perhaps religious pledge? (3,2,7)
25. It's a plant's part! (3)
28. A crazy retired man (4)
29. Toxic singer's fringe singles bearing fruit (6)
30. Pieces of advice for money paid to waiters, perhaps? (4)
32. Leaked data contains poetic work (4)
36. Frightened Mr. Capone in possession of a weapon (7)
37. It's a long time, in general (3)
38. Barnes's partner's family are aristocrats (6)
39. Controversy ahead of American ship's failure (4)
42. Assignment: take initial pose (4)
44. Wizard has infrared vision (6)
46. Coat of ursine components (3)
47. Top Swedish filmmaker working for police headquarters, maybe (7)
48. Invasion's year missing from overturned log (4)
50. Finally, predatory alien facing India's legendary creature (4)
51. Merchant described by basement broadcast (6)
52. Capital of the United Kingdom: Aberdeen? – Leaders taken aback (4)
55. Hong Kong martial artist's turned to be a swimmer? (3)
57. Official launch for remix of "Gonna Grind" EP (5,7)
59. Drunk leading men drinking evenly-colour'd porters (7)
62. City of Cincinnati acquired backers in the middle of playing Reversi (9)
64. African imprisoned in Taliban turf (5)
65. Gloomy American cutting a tree off (7)
67. A religion's follower is prisoner of witch in dungeon (5)
68. Sewers transformed to lairs (7)
69. Confusion in IT – a site launches (9)
70. Maybe a dog turned around after bells finally rung (4)
71. Revelation of elderly mafioso having weapon in front of him (10)
72. Na'vi – bizarre alien with strange tail and childlike innocence (7)

Down
1. Dean protects area with small people from another planet (8)
2. Heading off to investigate extremely large badger (6)
3. Shocker broke a rest (5)
4. Old-fashioned word's new charisma (8)
5. Minister, not pirate – zany misunderstanding (17)
6. Sport team missing finale – silence follows (6)
7. Extremely dense osseus material (5)
8. Produce advertising in time (5)
9. Addendums described by woman with sex changed (7)
11. Held back muscles, trained without the first bit of rest (9)
12. Superman returns, loses heart, almost grows old leading to escape (7)
13. Clean dumpster I left inside (7)
21. Twisted acting, perhaps by Ms. Thurman, leads to psychological damage (6)
23. Welles's beheaded body closer to decomposition (5)
24. Orange County to be leading Rolls Royce development, leading to political upheaval (7,10)
26. Regularly updated aunt's songs (6)
27. Father with a rather unusual artistic style (4)
31. Desire, for example, a set part (6)
32. Deschanel/Ferrell piece! (3)
33. Crimes of some burglars on steroids (6)
34. Mr. McFly facing robbery's first victim (6)
35. Watch with awe as Nelson, perhaps followed by central fleet, takes out Gore (6)
40. Part of line at the back of higher education facility is one of its kind (6)
41. Lady almost created a mess kicking out Nazis (6)
43. A child and small goat (3)
45. Essentially top-five city in Germany? (5)
46. Death of everyone after cutting out oxygen (4)
49. Dancing vain dance ahead of time (2,7)
53. Inside of Sodom and Gomorrah's centre, twisted American with strong smell (7)
54. European's raincoat torn (8)
56. Permission holder seen running after parasites (8)
57. Feet cut from spiritual mentor and ruler's soldiers (7)
58. Animal, or synthetic, protein (7)
60. Pristine, staggering dunes to the south of you (6)
61. Colonize US city with zero area (6)
63. Essentially inevitable First Lady (5)
64. Penniless fellow mixed up left and right (5)
66. Part of terrific story about Star Trek, for example (3-2)

Answer 1

Grid:

Wordplay explanations (across):

1a. M(-etal) + AH(ATM)A. 5a. Spoonerism of PLASTER MAN. 10a. Homophone of (Gareth) BALE. 14a. RUCK + SACKS. 15a. U + TO + PAIN*. 16a. TALES*. 17a. ILL + AIRY<. 18a. Substring. 19a. KANA after ATREX*. 20a. ST + ASHES. 22a. WOLVESOFICE* containing N. 25a. Substring. 28a. A + MAD<. 29a. S(-ingle)S containing PEAR. 30a. Double definition. 32a. Substring. 36a. AL ARMED. 37a. Substring. 38a. As in Barnes and Noble, the bookstore. 39a. F ahead of USS. 42a. T(-ake) + ASK. 44a. MAGE containing IR. 46a. Substring. 47a. S(-wedish) + (Jacques) TATI + ON. 48a. DIAR(-y)<. 50a. (-finall)Y + ET + I. 51d. Homophone of CELLAR. 52a. (UK + AB(-erdeen))<. 55a. LEE<. 57a. GONNAGRINDEP*. 59a. D(-runk) + MEN containing (-c)O(-l)O(-u)R(-d) . 62a. (-acquir)ED after REVERSI*. (Clue says "in the middle of" but that seems wrong.) 64a. Substring. 65a. US in ATREE*. Def seems a little loose to me. 67a. Substring. 68a. TOLAIRS*. 69a. INITASITE*. 70a. (-bell)S + PET<. 71a. ARM AGED DON. Definition rather loose. 72a. NAVI* + ET + (-strang)E.

Down:

1d. MARTIN around A plus S. 2d. (-c)HECK + L(-arg)E. 3d. AREST*. 4d. CHARISMA*. 5d. MINISTERNOTPIRATE*. 6d. SQUA(-d) + SH. 7d. (-dens)E + BONY. 8d. PR IN T. 9d. ANNE + SEX*. 11d. ABS + T(-r)AINED. 12d. KA(-l)EL< + AGE(-s). 13d. Substring. 21d. I confess I don't understand this one, though the overlap between TRAUMA and TRUMAN is interesting. (Is it possible that jafe is confusing Uma THURMAN with Ms. TRUMAN? If so, then the start would be ART<.) 23d. (-t)ORSO + (-decompositio)N. 24d. OC TO BE + RR + EVOLUTION. 26d. Alternate letters of UPDATEDAUNT'S. 27d. DAD + A. 31d. Substring. Isn't the def a bit off? 32d. Substring. 33d. Substring. 34d. MARTY + R(-obbery). 35d. ADMIRAL + (-fl)E(-et) without AL. 40d. QUE(-ue) after UNI(versity). 41d. MAD(-e) + AME(-ss). 43d. Double definition. 45d. First five letters of ESSENTIALLY. 46d. OF ALL minus O. 49d. VAINDANCE*. 53d. (-s)ODO(-m) + (-gom)OR(-rah)< + US. 54d. RAINCOAT*. 56d. LICE + SEEN*. 57d. GUR(-u) + KHA(-n) + (')S. 58d. PROTEIN*. 60d. U + DUNES*. 61d. SE(-a)TTLE. 63d. (-in)EVITA(-ble). 64d. B(L->R)OKE. 66d. Reversed substring.

Answer 2

NOTE: From now on, l will use $\mathrm{\LaTeX}$ to explain clues.

CAUTION: This post may change over time.
CAUTION: This post may contain spoilers.

---

Italicized = definition
BOLD CAPITAL = entry/solution
$\mathcal{GOTHIC}$ = anagram fodder

What l have now:

|1 M| A |2 H| A |3 T| M |4 A|███|5 M| A |6 S| T |7 E| R |8 P| L |9 A| N |███|10B|11A| I |12L| | |███| |███| |███| |███| |███| |███| |███| |███| |███|13 |███| |███| | |14R| U | C | K | S | A | C | K | S |███|15U| T | O | P | I | A | N |███|16T| E| S | L | A | | |███| |███| |███| |███| |███| |███| |███| |███| |███| |███| |███| | |17 | | | | | | |███|18 | | | | |███|19 | | | | | | | | | | |███| |███|███|███| |███| |███| |███|███|███|███|███| |███| |███| |███| | | |███|███|20 |21 | | | | | |███|22 |23 | |24 | | | | | | | | | |25 | |26 |███| |███| |███| |███|27 |███| |███| |███|███|███| |███| |███|███| |███|███|28 | | | |███|29 | | | | | |███|30 | |31 | |███|32 | | |33 | |34 |███| |███| |███|35 |███| |███| |███| |███| |███| |███|███| |███|███| | |36 | | | | | | |███|37 | | |███|38 | | | | | |███|39 |40 | | | | |███| |███| |███| |███| |███|███|███|███|███| |███| |███|41 |███| |███| | |42 | | |43 |███|44 | | | | |45 |███|46 | | |███|47 | | | | | | | | |███|███| |███|███| |███| |███| |███| |███| |███| |███| |███| |███| | |48 | |49 | |███|50 | | | |███|51 | | | | | |███|52 | | | |███|███| |███|███| |███|53 |███|███|███| |███| |███| |███| |███|54 |███| |███|55 | |56 | |57 | | | | | |58 | | | | | |███|59 | | | | | | |███|███| | | |███| |███| |███| |███|███|███|███|███|60 |███| |███| |███|███|███|61 |███| | |62 | | | | | | | |63 |███|64 | | | | |███|65 | |66 | | | | | | |███| |███| |███| |███| |███| |███| |███| |███| |███| |███| |███| | |67 | | | | |███|68 | | | | | | |███|69 | | | | | | | | | | |███| |███| |███| |███| |███| |███| |███| |███| |███| |███| |███| | |70 | | | |███|71 | | | | | | | | | |███|72 | | | | | | |

Clue Explanation:

Across 1. Top metal... (7)

Top$\rightarrow$Metal band (A-H...A, without hyphen) has a trademark(ATM) for honorific title*

Across 5. Smear fellow... (6,4)

Smear fellow (plaster man)$\xleftarrow{\mathrm{according\ to}}$Spooner's scheme $=$ MASTER PLAN
Note: The "Spooner's" indicator is located far away from its fodder.
According to the enumeration, the original poster wanted MASTER PLAN
instead of "(plaster man)".

Across 10. Money paid ... (4)

Money paid for releasing Welsh footballer (Gareth Bale)$\leftarrow$reportedly $=$ BAIL

Across 14. Crowd plunders ... (4)

Crowd (RUCK) plunders (SACKS) hiking equipment

Across 15. Optimistic ... (7)

Optimistic visionary shown by yoU TO horrible$\rightarrow\mathcal{PAIN}$ (PIAN)

Across 16. Amazing tales ... (5)

Amazing$\rightarrow\mathcal{TALES}$ (TESLA) describing inventor

Across 25. It's a plant's part! (3)

It'S A Plant's part!
Note: "part" is doing double duty. Did you intend "&lit;"?

Down 2. Heading off ... (6)

Heading off to$\rightarrow$investigate (cHECK) extremely$\rightarrow$LargE badger