UNfortunate last name???? I would said the opposite.

When used as a pejorative - Modern Reader - well, they're boring. Those kind of folk do exist, and they're angsty, uninformed, and take someone else's 140 character social media post as their own opinion without even a moment's thought. For those folks, they're devolving back into a bicameral mind where they hallucinate that the opinion of someone else they just read or heard was always their opinion despite demonstrable proof two weeks prior they had a completely different conflicting opinion on the same topic. The human mind is designed around that with its redundant complexes, but now instead of an organic return to that more primal activity, it's entirely artificial as they consume electronic text and videos instantly. As for just regular people who live in the latter half of 2024 - aka modern readers - your video thankfully cares about how the books relate to their original published content/cycle. I myself had completely forgotten about Elric for nearly 40 years (at least) until I happened across your other overview vid. It hit me "like a ton of bricks', and I was shocked I had completely forgotten about him. lol

Oh yeah, I agree. Endings are paramount. Good stuff. You've earned a subscriber here.

Man, this was exactly what I was looking for! I are very well spoken and explained exactly what I needed! I heard of Moorcock on a review about Sanderson, telling that the former would stand as one of the greatest of fantasy writers like, Tolkien, R.R.Matin, some other guy, (my bad) Jordan (I think), and Moorcock And the name caught my attention, but I had this fear, as I usually have with any classics, not just within fantasy that their just mid, or usually quite bad. And though I respect them all very much, because I can truly see the influence they had upon literature, I just slowly grew a bit tired of investing myself in books that are not fun, cause I'm no academic, I do it for fun, and if I'm not having a good time, I'd rather pass. I think I'm going to give this one a shot, though, the mere idea of Elric seems quite cool, kinda reminds me of Drizzt, Aragorn or the guy from the Witcher. That type of character is usually really cool, also I heard that Nightblood, on of my favourite swords so far, was inspired by Elric's sword, so I have to check it out. But thanks for helping me set my expectations properly. It's a collection of stories about a cool character, it's mostly about him, and his struggles. Thank you again

There's a lot of dark stories that have meaning. I also really dislike nihilism and meaningless stuff. The only fantasy book series that has those elements and executes them really well is "The Second Apocalypse" by R. Scott Bakker (but this series also contains a lot of other themes and elements of different philosophies so it's not pure edgy nihilism, it just happens to be one aspect of it). And when it comes to GRRM... I gave up long ago. There are many factors to the whole story but the main one (in my opinion) is that he just doesn't know how to wrap it up since all the fans figured out most of the themes and endings based on the foreshadowing he put in the story (which was really well done I have to say). The last two books were a bit fillery and like you mention he just added new plot points, characters and story elements without actually resolving any of the existing ones. Now he has created a problem where he has to write the 6th book (out if 7) and he just simply doesn't have enough space to wrap it all up. Lets say, compare GRRM to pretty much most fantasy writers nowadays... He just doesn't know how to resolve plots without building new ones. Compare that to Sanderson, Erikson (whom I'm not even a huge fan to begin with) actually write focused novels in their series and they move the plot step by step.

I think another aspect as to why there are so many purposeless stories nowadays is due to us as a society drifting away from our Christian roots. The Christian story is one that is cosmic in scope but with a beginning middle and end. A lot of folks write, consciously or not from their underlying worldview, and if you don’t believe there’s a purpose behind things, a story my be colored, to some degree, by ones personal worldview even if a direct commentary on that is not intended.

Corum is my favorite Eternal Champion. I would recommend the audio drama.

i hate GRRM he will literally to anything to never finish the books , and will instead spend that time to make new shows that he will then abandon after one season which will lead to them being bad , even when it come to things in asoiaf you give his worldbuilding skills to much credit Westeros has been stuck in a technological dark age for 8000 years with basically nothing changing post andal invasion , even culturally all of westeros in the exact same with minor differences between first men and Roynar compared to the andals , only thing i can say he does really good is his character writing.

Great stuff, man. I'm a recovering deconstructive nihilist myself. I was born a natural romantic. I'm glad I got back to that before I started writing seriously.

The most baffling thing to me about Martin is he was really close friends with the prolific Roger Zelanzny...how can you be that close with a master of fantasy and not learn how to succinctly tie up a series the way Zelanzny did with Chronicles of Amber?

Can't argue with you on the big man's main stuff but he's a great editor (you might dig Songs of the Dying Earth) and short writer (Lonely Songs of Laren Dorr, Sandkings) worth checking out

Amen, brother! Too many make excuses for GRR when there are none.

Fuck a modern audience.

His weakness and health problems are a direct result of his thin blood and albinism. There was a lot of inner-breeding in his family.

Youngin', I started playing DnD in about 1980, so I figure the game was about 6 years old at that time. At first we played the original with just 4 classes. That's it. Then Advanced was all the rage. We kept the fact that we played the game secret because we didn't want to be thought of as nerds. Oh how times have changed.

Discworld made fun of spell slots- wizards would memorize a spell for 20 years and it just abandons them after one casting lol

Arthas !

Have been looking forward to another vid from you, and was by no means disappointed 👍🤘

after the boy band battle royale and the drug dissing you now my favourite channel

You're back! Radical

I loved the Corum books, possibly more than the Elric novels. I read them twice as a kid. I think it may be time for a re-read! Now do Hawkmoon!

I love your content man keep it up!

Resisting temptation is strong in this one😂.

Thanks for making this video. Awesome to get some cool ideas, plus love the jokes.

Another great vid. Keep up the good work. 👍

Love your Michael Moorcock videos ❤️‍🔥! I've read the first two books in both the Elric of Melnibone and Corum saga and I love Moorcock approach to Sword and Sorcery with Psychodelic flair. Apart from Dungeon Syth I think it would be a good pairing to listen to Moorcock's band " Michael Moorcock and the Deep Six " and their 1975 progressive rock concept album "The New Worlds Fair" .

Your vids are great man! Wish there were more

The original D&D character that brought all of our favorite silver/white hair beauties to light 🙌🏽

Excellent post. Elric has been my favorite fantasy hero (anti??) for well over 40 yrs. Moorcock is a genius and I hope Elric is brought to the big screen or series before my time is done

Pretty good background in this video. Well done, Franklin.

The Elric Saga needs a movie franchise. It's far more interesting story than the relatively lame Lord of the Rings series. I think the guy who plays Daemon Targaryen on House of the Dragon would make a very good Elric.

how is he 'underrated' if when there is a pale figure everyone says "ELRIC" or everytime there is a dual wielder ELRIC or everytime there is a swordsman that is a sorcerer ELRIC. he isn't underrated. he just isn't interesting enough on his own to have anything outside his book line and holywood cant create new so they steal imagry they cant buy nice ov you to make a video about originality and then plug your book 'Wizard Slayer' I'm sure it will be as original as you claim your video/thought is.

Any chance you’ll be making more Elric videos? Or more videos in general?

Great video!

I will admit at my age I had forgotten about Elric, and yet instantly (and I do mean INSTANTLY) remembered him from my childhood when I saw the title of this video. Literally like a flash. Good lord, I based any number of D&D characters kinda around him. I have to go find some books now and remember what I lost to that grounded and mundane thing we call a dirt ball, er . . . Earth! lol

A Song of Ice and Fire also takes a lot of inspiration from Elric. Brynden Rivers, also known as Bloodraven, is a prime example. Creepy looking albino prince with a magic sword (Dark Sister) and magical abilities who does questionable things to achieve his goals. Eldric Shadowchaser is also another name for the prophesied hero of the long night, Azor Ahai, who wields a magical sword, Lightbringer, which he killed his wife to create and contains her very soul within. So yeah I think it’s pretty safe to say George Martin is a fan of Elric

Clearly not copying Elric

It's crazy how influential Moorcock's work are to Witcher (obviously) ASOIAF (different exceptional race of white-haired people with superpowers) D&D (Soul-eating Evil Sword among others) and Elder Scrolls (the Eternal Champion is literally the first protagonist of the first ES games)

Hey dude, not sure if you’ll see this or if you just made these to help promote your book (which I’ll add to my backlog) but I just wannna say I like your style. It’s hard to find people my age who appreciate these pulp classics from the golden age of SFF. Best of luck on all your future books!

This book is totally trash!

Thomas Covenant, the most foul of all anti-heroes

I began reading these books 44 years ago! He developed the Multiverse in a time where this was conceptualized in Quantum Physics. Hugh Everett was the founder of this idea in physics and Moorcock in literature. Marvel and DC just copied the concept.

I’ve never really thought aside from aesthetics Elric and Geralt have that much in common. Elric is just the straight up edgy anti-hero while Geralt is kind of just playing that role because it’s the one society has cast him in while actually having a heart of gold. I’m not denying Moorcock’s impact on the modern fantasy genre, especially when it comes to high concept stuff. But people who say the Sapkowski just ripped off his work are dullards who can’t see past the genre tropes to the actual writing. The Witcher is way more focused on the human elements than the actual sci-fi/fantasy concepts and high melodrama that Moorcock explores. The Witcher series is also more self aware and deconstructive of the genre where the subversion of Elric was just making a sword and sorcery character who was the opposite of Conan and pioneering the portrayal of a morally grey main character in fantasy (which at the time was kinda revolutionary). I’m not saying I don’t like Elric stories or even denying the obvious impact they’ve had on modern sci-fi/fantasy, but people who act the Witcher is just complete plagiarism of the Elric saga have not seriously engaged in the literature.

Whatchu know about Ulrik Skarsol hmmm?

Sword & Sorcery

I really need to get back into reading. I used to devour comics as a kid, then fantasy magazines, then books, now I spend way too much time on social media. I really need to slow back down and immerse myself in books again.

ohhh so this is how viego came to be, makes sense now.

One character that is clearly strongly inspired by Elric and his saga is... Kain, from Blood Omen and Legacy of Kain. A vampiric and cruel overlord hated by the people he rules over and the enemies of his empire, he does not held the world in such contempt, as he is in the middle of a cosmic war between the forces of order and chaos, all trapped in a wheel of suffering and death by the god of destiny and he's more worried about breaking such wheel than about morality.

Dark Horse Comics did some amazing Elric graphic novels.