u/DevouredSource

▲ 9 r/MauLer

Russian Roulette TV Shows only

Velma and Smiling Friends are in the same block due to both being Adult Swim comedies. Well calling Velma a comedy is a stretch, but that is what it tries to be.

Arcane might be a popular pick since at least the visuals of season 2 are pretty.

Some of you may chose One Punch Man since at least the writing still has some worth, but the production value of Season 2 and 3 are far from good.

Still no matter what you choose there is still a risk.

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u/DevouredSource — 12 hours ago
▲ 2 r/MauLer

New Russian Roulette but with video games this time

Due to how longer video games can take than movies the amount is down from around three to just one.

However if the “bullet” hits then you must do a full playthrough of the game in question. Hypothetically speaking of course.

I tried to select game IPs which EFAP have touched upon a lot, which made it easy to decide on the “bullets”.

Though Pokémon is included more so due to have at least one Nintendo pick. Yes, Game Fréak are the ones who make the games but Nintendo still own 1/3 of Pokémon.

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u/DevouredSource — 1 day ago
▲ 12 r/MauLer

Which game of Russian roulette would you choose?

If it isn’t obvious this is just for fun.

Though there isn’t an absolute consensus on whether Garfield’s Spider-Man or Holland’s Spider-Man are worse, so the one you hate the most is the potential “bullet”.

When it comes to classic Disney and Ghibli while there are many acclaimed movies not all of them are stellar. Which is why “choice yourself” is included as the boon.

Admittedly anime filler movies aren’t guaranteed to be bad, but they are quite beholden to the status quo of the TV show which limits the storytelling potential.

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u/DevouredSource — 2 days ago
▲ 4 r/MauLer

Which current or upcoming projects by creatives with a good track record do you think is worth keeping an eye on?

Travis Knight: Wildwood

While I do know upcoming movie is based on a book, I’m not familiar with said book.

However Knight’s prior stop motion movie Kubo and the Two Strings had a solid plot and spectacular visuals.

Hopefully Wildwood is at least on par with Kubo and the Two Strings.

Hiromu Arakawa: Daemons of the Shadow Realm

The Fullmetal Alchemist franchise is one of the most acclaimed anime franchises out there, but it has long since been put to rest.

However the lady behind the two Elric brothers eventually decided to explore a new sibling dynamic with the twins Yuru and Asa.

Still while there is some shared DNA Daemons of the Shadow Realm is not set in the same world as FMA.

There are multiple volumes of the manga to catch up on or you can watch the new anime adaptation that is still being aired.

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u/DevouredSource — 3 days ago
▲ 5 r/MauLer

When a full course AAA game isn’t possible, which decision do you prefer the game studio to make?

Nowadays there is an expectation for AAA games to be a certain length. Around 50 hours worth of playtime minimum.

Doesn’t mean that for example the story campaign of COD or Battlefield must be 50 hours, since multiplayer is where most of the playtime is spent on.

However more story driven games like Insomniac’s Spider-Man 2 are expected to have a long campaign, only to have a relatively short one.

Of course there are also replayable games which people can sink thousands of hours into like Minecraft, Spelunky, Super Metroid, etc. but they are besides this point unless they also are prices at the standard AAA price which currently ranges from 60-80 USD.

Additionally replayability is irrelevant for some people so it doesn’t factor into the total playtime.

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u/DevouredSource — 4 days ago
▲ 4 r/MauLer

From the top of your head which intriguing mysteries can you recall? With the caveat that you’re not allowed to use any mysteries from detective stories

The inspiration behind this post is The Little Platoon loathing how Bowser Jr. in the Super Mario Galaxy Movie spills out his evil scheme in his very second scene. Thus ruining the potential to have his plan be unraveled as the story progresses.

The Incredibles: the disappearance of superheroes

Not as in them going into hiding after the events of the prologue, but the fact that Syndrome has been using them as fodder to create the perfect Omnidroid.

There are multiple clues and hints before the iconic Project Kronos reveal such as:

- the newspaper Bob is reading saying that Gazerbeam has disappeared, or more so accurately his secret identity

- Bob and Lucius talking about having less contact with other superheroes

- the skeleton of Gazerbeam is a rather overt hint that leads directly to the full scale of what Syndrome has done

Fullmetal Alchemist: the philosopher’s stone

While the 2003 versions did take longer to reach the reveal than the manga/Bortherhood it is still revealed in the first half of the work.

Still the ultimate point as Dr. Marcoh put it: it is the devil’s work. That in order to bypass the normal rules of alchemy you must use human souls.

However while philosopher’s stone themselves are a dead end to Ed and Al getting back their bodies, there are still more details to uncover about their origins and those who employ them.

Both 2003 and the manga/Brotherhood get a lot of mileage of exploring the truth within the truth.

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u/DevouredSource — 6 days ago
▲ 2 r/MauLer

Creative differences can certainly make a lot of friction, sometimes so far as for a creative and a company to split up.

If you have a case in mind that isn’t on the poll then please make a comment about it.

Cristopher Nolan

Pretty simple that Nolan likes cinema and isn’t found of being delegated to streaming.

George Lucas

He certainly willingly sold his company to Disney, though that doesn’t change the fact that all the initial ideas for the ST were thrown out the window.

John Lasseter

Sexual allegations resulted in him leaving Disney and now he is working for Skydance.

Jeffrey Katzenberg

He hated Eisner and founded Dreamworks.

Hideo Kojima

Konami didn’t want to work with him anymore, but Kojima certainly landed on his feet with Kojima Studios and deals with PlayStation.

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u/DevouredSource — 7 days ago
▲ 11 r/MauLer

Their scheme is not an underpants gnomes’ plan, but rather:

  1. make new games or remake/remaster old games

  2. make movies related to said games

  3. profit due to game sales and box office returns

However instead of actually taking advantage of what makes their games unique they go for a safe and sterile approach.

Meaning we are probably stuck with:

- generic animated action comedy Mario movies: look a power-up

- generic fantasy Zelda movies: look Epona, look a grassy field, look the Triforce, look totally clever Ganondorf

- generic animated action comedy Donkey Kong: iconic Seth Rogen laugh, let us point how absurd fighting over bananas is

- barely any horror atmosphere Luigi’s Mansion: the games have never had any gore, but they still have their moments of dread

While not guaranteed, Nintendo still seem inclined to use safe molds. No matter how unfitting those molds are for the IP on question.

We will for example never get an attempt at a Splatoon movie in the same vein as K-Pop Demon Hunters. That mold isn’t even that complicated and meshes well with Splatoon:

- big climatic song at the climax, which the Splatoon games themselves love to use as seen with the Calamari Inkanation remixes and Ebb & Flow remixes

- main characters are mostly female and Splatoon is heavily skewed towards female idols and the females player character option

However betting on a musical is too risky, so no a potential Splatoon movie won’t take advantage of the games strengths.

Instead if we ever do get a Splatoon movie it will do an Avatar and go for as safe and generic music as possible.

There is something absurd with how Demon Slayer is flourishing financially thanks to being committed to its own identity (hate it if you want but the series has its own style as literally seen with how the attacks are animated), yet Nintendo are all in on watering their content down for mass consumption.

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u/DevouredSource — 9 days ago
▲ 16 r/MauLer

Most likely this will be a battle between Lord of the Rings and the OT.

Admittedly I’m showing bias by including the Cornetto Trilogy on the poll, but while not as famous as the others it is still a stellar trilogy.

Flexibility is also allowed for what counts as a marathon, but all three movies of a trilogy must be watched. Meaning the Godfather might suffer since I’ve heard mixed opinions on the third entry.

If you want to bring up another trilogy, then just make a comment.

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u/DevouredSource — 9 days ago
▲ 13 r/MauLer

Morbid curiosity counts here, which judging by prior sentiment is Rheinland way Toy Story 5 gets picked here on this sub.

Regardless only Dreamworks and Laika are betting on something new. Though Dreamworks is stuck with Illumination under the Universal umbrella, but they are still currently separate.

Aardman, Illumination, and Pixar are all playing it safe. Though Shaun the Sheep had never overstayed its welcome unlike the Toy Story and the Minions.

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u/DevouredSource — 11 days ago
▲ 10 r/MauLer

Western TV shows are not the only ones capable of being driven off a cliff.

Now there are potentially a lot of series to being up, so take the poll as inspiration rather than absolute law.

Still to expand upon the shows included in the poll:

Bleach

There is an argument to be made that the recent adaption of the final arc redeemed the show, but there has been plenty of discourse around Bleach which nets it a spot on the poll.

Naruto/Boruto

Milked to death and beyond. The series still makes a profit though so makes sense.

One Punch Man

The first season is one of the greatest seasons of television ever made and then Bandai Namco threw the show at J.C Staff to continue with a season 2.

Season 2 was a mess but the recent Season 3 was so bad the meme One Frame Man was born.

The Promised Neverland

A relatively niche series, but going from an excellent execution of the initial premise to an unmitigated mess is a sight to behold.

While I want to avoid spoiling the first part, suffice it to say the later parts had a Batman V Superman Martha moment.

[Insert initially good Iseaki series here]

This is kind of cheating but Isekai is such a popular genre that it might as well be included. Though keep in mind the first season or at least first episodes must have actually been good, before the quality was isekaied to another show.

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u/DevouredSource — 11 days ago
▲ 1 r/MauLer

Three dimensional characters is a rather nebulous term, but everybody gets the gist.

However it has to be both character and event/reveal. After all a character does not exist in isolation but is rather dependent on the portrayal in the story.

Lord of the Rings Two Towers: Frodo deciding to give Sméagol a second chance

While abandoning the rest of the Fellowship (aside from Sam that tagged along) after Boromir’s betrayal was a necessity, Frodo giving Sméagol a second chance was not.

It is a major decision Frodo did of his own volition, even if Sam isn’t very enthusiastic about the call.

Additionally Frodo reaching a hand out to Sméagol shows how he chewed in the words Gandalf said about Bilbo’s decision to spare Gollum.

Fate Zero: Kiritsugu Emiya blowing up an airplane

In a lackluster version Kiritsugu would have killed a bunch of strangers to save the many, but no his adoptive mother was on that very plane.

Yet he is relieved for taking down the ghouls that had been made out of all the plane passengers. People were saved this time from dark magic, unlike when he as a child failed to kill his infected childhood friend.

However he can’t find any real solace over having killed the person who had taken him in and taught him to survive.

He can’t do nothing besides breaking down and crying, cursed to kill in order to protect. After all if he didn’t make the harsh decision then even more would have died.

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u/DevouredSource — 13 days ago
▲ 3 r/MauLer

The intention here is more so potential “pallet cleansers” than “improve your media diet”

We ultimately engage with what we want to engage with, it isn’t more complicated than that.

Vinyl and CD

The quality certainly beats the lowest quality offered by streaming. Though a lossless CD and a lossless stream are in theory of the same quality.

VHS, Laserdisc, DVD, and Blu-Ray

Doesn’t matter which physical media you use, so long as you don’t use a streaming service.

Retro and vintage video game consoles

In a previous poll the 2000’s were the most popular

Books and Audiobooks

You know the good old let your eyes watch something else besides a screen.

Your current collection

There is always stuff to rewatch or a backlog to clear.

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u/DevouredSource — 14 days ago
▲ 16 r/MauLer

There will likely be a lot of overlap, so might be worthwhile to bring up a lesser known title like Yoshi’s story which the Little Platoon touched on in his video on the Super Mario Galaxy movie.

Splatoon 2 Octo Expansion

The story of Octo Expansion is a story about proving one’s worth.

This can both be seen during the final gambit of the story and the optional super boss of inner Agent 3.

The latter being a mental challenge where you best the greatest warrior you can imagine at their peak.

For the main finale of the story itself though:

- after finishing dozens of intentionally created tests you create your own path to bust out of the facility you’ve been trapped in

- you beat a brainwashed Agent 3

- you and everybody else twart the AI Commander Tartar’s plan of destroying all sapient life so that he can start anew with the DNA of the test subjects who completed his tests

While the stakes at the end are as large as the entire planet being in danger, the conflict is always grounded in the question “do you have what it takes?”

Which thanks to good old hard work and friendship turns out you in fact do.

Edit: spelling

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u/DevouredSource — 15 days ago
▲ 21 r/MauLer

Decanonise the bad stuff

People have for years begged Marvel to reverse Spider-Man One More Day undoing Peter and Mary Jane’s marriage. Though it is doubtful if that is enough to win back those fans at this point.

Make new good entries despite the trash remaining canon

Andor is most likely the go to example for this sub of a diamond surrounded by trash.

Community might also count with the “bad seasons” being excused as caused by a gasleak. However I didn’t watch beyond the early seasons so don’t take my word for it.

Starting over with a hard reboot or alternative universe

Technically the Pokémon games did this with X and Y since mega evolution is exclusive to a different timeline than the original one.

However there isn’t really much focus on the story and lore of Pokémon, so starting over with an alternative universe isn’t particularly impactful.

Just put it to rest

Not everything needs to go on indefinitely.

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u/DevouredSource — 16 days ago