Callum Nathan Thomas Edmunds / MauLer93 / MauLer and the EFAPshere - Objective discussion about not-Channel Awesome featuring Rags, Southpaw and more!

[Hankus McSix]

The KOTOR thing is weird, though. He definitely has some familiarity with other SW games (used footage from the OG Battlefront in the TLJ review, talked about The Force Unleashed on EFAP, played one of the Disney ones on stream), but somehow never touched KOTOR? The two most widely known and respected games in the franchise? The ones that have the most to offer from a writing perspective? Two games that are also pretty accessible and usually serve as a gateway/entry point to the wider EU for a lot of people? There's no clear answer for why he never played it, except for his general lack of curiosity towards most media (I do think if the remake had come out already he would probably have played that instead).

So after reading this I was thinking. Obviously some ppl already brought up that Maulers consumptionhabits are very normie, he watches big films and that's it. No books, no indie films or games.

But specifically thinking about KOTOR I realized Mauler jsut doesen't play any RPGs. The closest he gets is with the Souls games but he didn't play KOTOR, he didn't play Bg3 when it came out. And that's really surprising you'd think that as someone who's all about storytelling in mdoern media he'd play the biggest RPG of the year which is widely praised for it's story.

Does he just no like RPGs? Is he too retarded for them? Does he need more gameplay to be grabbed and therefore it's not all about the story and Doomer was right all along? Truly the more I think about this man the more I am shocked he has career in media criticism whilst consuming the bare minimum of media.

 

[Cornfed]

So after reading this I was thinking. Obviously some ppl already brought up that Maulers consumptionhabits are very normie, he watches big films and that's it. No books, no indie films or games.

But specifically thinking about KOTOR I realized Mauler jsut doesen't play any RPGs. The closest he gets is with the Souls games but he didn't play KOTOR, he didn't play Bg3 when it came out. And that's really surprising you'd think that as someone who's all about storytelling in mdoern media he'd play the biggest RPG of the year which is widely praised for it's story.

Does he just no like RPGs? Is he too retarded for them? Does he need more gameplay to be grabbed and therefore it's not all about the story and Doomer was right all along? Truly the more I think about this man the more I am shocked he has career in media criticism whilst consuming the bare minimum of media.

You would think that someone who loves to talk about good writing would introduce his audience to games like Planescape Torment, or any of the old school Black Isle or Obsidion games to compare and contrast writing in old games with newer titles.
Even something like playing 20 hours or sp of Morrowind and comparing the writing to Starfield. But if it is not cape shit, low IQ goyslop entertainment he is not interested.

 

[Gloria The Glorious]

Does he just no like RPGs? Is he too retarded for them? Does he need more gameplay to be grabbed and therefore it's not all about the story and Doomer was right all along? Truly the more I think about this man the more I am shocked he has career in media criticism whilst consuming the bare minimum of media.

Even something like playing 20 hours or sp of Morrowind and comparing the writing to Starfield. But if it is not cape shit, low IQ goyslop entertainment he is not interested.

I know I say this all the time here, but MauLer only does videos on what he likes. His channel doesn't have any actual goal, no matter what he may claim otherwise.

 

[BiggestKai]

Call me MATI but I've really come to hate this hyperbole where average-below average games are the worst thing ever because they're the new flavor of the month and some hack needs to make a bunch of videos about it.

 

[Gloria The Glorious]

Reviews for Netflix Avatar are pretty brutal (people are saying the movie was better by virtue of being shorter). Will he magically find a way to love the original series to mock this version? Will he just ignore it (like he honestly should since it's not a series he cares about)? Or is he going to somehow think the live-action version is better?

 

[Hankus McSix]

Reviews for Netflix Avatar are pretty brutal (people are saying the movie was better by virtue of being shorter). Will he magically find a way to love the original series to mock this version? Will he just ignore it (like he honestly should since it's not a series he cares about)? Or is he going to somehow think the live-action version is better?

I think they'll ignore it and talk about season 2 of Halo instead

 

[6MillionCoofs]

I listened to the latest Drinker podcast. I was floored when Mauler said he never played KOTOR. I get he may have been a bit young when the game came out, but for Star Wars fans it is a corner stone of expanded universe lore. I should not be surprised. It is right in step with him and alot of the hangers on only be familiar with the pop of pop culture crap. The only thing that makes Drinks stream entertaining to listen to are the other (much better) guests.

I mean, I was a huge SW fan growing up. I’ve never played it or read much of the EU books. It’s not surprising that a dude that fell into the SW grift because he got mad at one movie has not played it.

It is why everyone was looking foward to the KOTOR remakes. A lot of people invested nowadays had never played it.

 

[Lobster Cult High Priest]

Reviews for Netflix Avatar are pretty brutal (people are saying the movie was better by virtue of being shorter). Will he magically find a way to love the original series to mock this version? Will he just ignore it (like he honestly should since it's not a series he cares about)? Or is he going to somehow think the live-action version is better?

Did he talk about Korra or was that just ER who did the Legend of Whorra series?

 

[P5Fever]

Did he talk about Korra or was that just ER who did the Legend of Whorra series?

Just E;R

 

[ronnal]

Reviews for Netflix Avatar are pretty brutal (people are saying the movie was better by virtue of being shorter). Will he magically find a way to love the original series to mock this version? Will he just ignore it (like he honestly should since it's not a series he cares about)? Or is he going to somehow think the live-action version is better?

The only position they can take that would make them consistent is just to say that they're both bad and move on.

 

[Gloria The Glorious]

The only position they can take that would make them consistent is just to say that they're both bad and move on.

Correct. And oh boy the shit show that would cause.

 

[janny state defector]

I never heard his opinion on Souls. It does not surprise me that he didn't like something that didn't beat him over the head with the plot.

His "In Defense of Dark Souls 2: A Measured Response" series of videos was my favorite of his (despite it being so needlessly long) because he's rightfully calling out how retarded hbomberguy is about Dark Souls/Bloodborne.
Even then when I got to his critique of Dark Souls' plot I was so baffled by his weird gripes with the storytelling that I came to the conclusion that Mauler is one of those people that just lack imagination. Most of the eFap regulars are the types of "reviewer guys" that treat storytelling like a mathematical equation rather than an art form.

TL;DW
He basically just spergs over the fact that not everything is explicitly explained in Dark Souls.

"The story is also poorly written, [...] Dark souls is filled with an extreme omission of universal rules and description of motivation of characters and attention to events taking place."

Dark Souls is deliberately vague in it's lore because it evokes a feeling of mysticism, like an old religion or folklore, being overly descriptive would take away from that. It's not like it asspulls random plot conveniences out of nowhere, the world is consistent it's just not explicitly explained how things work.
It's the same reason why many people (myself included) think midi-chlorians were a bad addition to Star Wars lore, the Force is far more interesting when it feels like an old religion that operates on faith.

 

[Rodeo Roadrunner]

His "In Defense of Dark Souls 2: A Measured Response" series of videos was my favorite of his (despite it being so needlessly long) because he's rightfully calling out how retarded hbomberguy is about Dark Souls/Bloodborne.
Even then when I got to his critique of Dark Souls' plot I was so baffled by his weird gripes with the storytelling that I came to the conclusion that Mauler is one of those people that just lack imagination. Most of the eFap regulars are the types of "reviewer guys" that treat storytelling like a mathematical equation rather than an art form.

TL;DW
He basically just spergs over the fact that not everything is explicitly explained in Dark Souls.



Dark Souls is deliberately vague in it's lore because it evokes a feeling of mysticism, like an old religion or folklore, being overly descriptive would take away from that. It's not like it asspulls random plot conveniences out of nowhere, the world is consistent it's just not explicitly explained how things work.
It's the same reason why many people (myself included) think midi-chlorians were a bad addition to Star Wars lore, the Force is far more interesting when it feels like an old religion that operates on faith.

I personally think FromSoftware's style of storytelling doesn't result in great stories, or even good 'lore', but instead they have strong worldbuilding based on visual style and elements. The story isn't very deep, and while it isn't explained, I also think it is intentional. While their DS style games are technically RPGs, they have weak story when compared to great stories of other classic RPGs. Instead they focus on visual storytelling and letting the player imagine or create a backstory on their own. The lore in Elden Ring for example is not that detailed at all, most of what people think of as the lore is youtubers or 'influencers' making up their own story based on 3 lines of text in the game. The obsession over the Blue Dancer, Malenia, and Millicent. There are basically 4 lines of texts on items in the game that refer to the Blue Dancer, rot god, etc, and people made up all sorts of 'lore' for what this is supposed to mean, when the reality is, it would take the game devs about 5 minutes to come up with some text for items they wanted to add, have no real explanation or reason for it, and just make the players imagine what the story actually is.

 

[6MillionCoofs]

Most of the eFap regulars are the types of "reviewer guys" that treat storytelling like a mathematical equation rather than an art form.

Just because they treat it as an equation does not mean they a smart enough to understand it. Most people are terrible at equations after all.

 

[janny state defector]

I personally think FromSoftware's style of storytelling doesn't result in great stories, or even good 'lore', but instead they have strong worldbuilding based on visual style and elements.

I almost entirely agree with everything you're saying, though I'd personally say the story and lore in Dark Souls 1 is good (I'm a little less inclined with other soulsborne games) because it serves the game well and feels cohesive.
I certainly wouldn't say that the "hands off" approach to storytelling is very impressive though, being able to avoid finer details removes a lot of the challenge, but it can and has been done poorly.
DS1's story/lore feels like a book with some pages ripped out, subpar imitators feel like a book where those missing pages were never written in the first place.

Just because they treat it as an equation does not mean they a smart enough to understand it. Most people are terrible at equations after all.

I'm not a famous novelist or anything so take my opinion with a grain of salt, but the formula for a "good story" would be so insanely complex and have so many constantly shifting variables there would be no way to reasonably put it to action.
You could have the most watertight story ever with zero plot holes or inconsistencies and it can still suck because it's just boring to read.
It's the same thing with being a charismatic person, people who try to follow rulebooks on that shit are almost invariably socially awkward because it simply isn't a puzzle you can "logic" your way through with your 115 IQ, it's a mindset that you have to internalize through countless fuckups.

 

[ronnal]

m not a famous novelist or anything so take my opinion with a grain of salt, but the formula for a "good story" would be so insanely complex and have so many constantly shifting variables there would be no way to reasonably put it to action.
You could have the most watertight story ever with zero plot holes or inconsistencies and it can still suck because it's just boring to read.

I still remember Rags declaring that a film that was just a recording of a wall would be objectively perfect because there wouldn't be any plot holes.

 

[janny state defector]

I still remember Rags declaring that a film that was just a recording of a wall would be objectively perfect because there wouldn't be any plot holes.

Rags has an exceptional level of midwit retardation lmao. Even when I had a bias in favor of him a few years back I thought he was a moron.

 

[Hankus McSix]

Man I really wish for another disaster to strike, Mauler is playing it super safe rn. Going after low hanging fruit like Madame Web and Chris Stuckman is kinda boring. It really does feel like the Synth man debacle followed up by the Last of Us debacle really spooked him in general.

 

[Wulfpack Legend]

 

[Kirtto]

What is the deep lore on MauLer vs Anderson bad blood? Is it really all because Mauler called him a big faggot and Anderson being a big lib or is there more to it?