How The Shadow of The Torturer Inspired Dark Souls (Spoiler Free Review)

[@sonofthg]

Gene Wolfe actually died mpre recently (2019). He was an incredibly sweet guy and we are soo lucky to have had him around ❤

[@chalice12]

This is excellent. I'm a huge Gene Wolfe fan and TSoTT is one of my favorite books (I'm an English professor and actually presented a paper on Wolfe's Book of the New Sun at a conference years ago). I think your assessment of his influence here is spot on. I like how restrained you are on making this connection too, and not reaching for it. Please make more like this! There are so many great video games out there with literary influences. Note: notice in the Game of Thrones clip, there are two references there, one on TSoTT, and the other "Stormbringer," the sword of Elric in Michael Moorcock's epic.

[@notputtingmynamehere]

Botns is incredible and gene wolfe was a master of entering the mind of the protagonist. The way he has characters describe things we take for granted when they have no idea what they are looking at is one of my favorite features. One of my favorites is when Silk sees the night sky for the first time in Long sun as "diamonds spread across an onyx sheet" paraphrasing since its been years since ive read it. Still have NO IDEA what a lot of what happena in Short Sun aftee three rereads.

[@golemnist]

Great work!

[@jer2dabear]

My favorite book of all time. I get something new out of it on every re-read. Great video!

[@ingogotico1398]

Coincidentally I was reading this book while playing DS for the first time and thought wyf. In terms of atmosphere I agree they are on the same level. Later I found The book s theme is very different though

[@danieladamczyk4024]

I was looking for the games what could be Dark souls and so far ( 10 years) didn't found much. Your take of what predate DS is respectable as well.

[@roundninja]

I've been a huge fan of Gene Wolfe and Dark Souls for over a decade, I've beaten each game, watched tons of lore videos, and I've read TSOTT many times, so this video topic is something I'm pretty qualified on. Here are some of my thoughts: -Some of Wolfe's early accomplishments, like his service in the war and correspondence with Tolkien, have been a little over-glorified over the years. I think it was more a short piece of fan mail than anything too deep, which Tolkien did reply to, but it was a brief reply. Wolfe didn't really start to become a major writer until after Tolkien's death. I think the thing about him inventing the Pringles machine is fairly legit, though. -About the connections between Dark Souls and Wolfe, I guess I am not supposed to post spoilers so I will simply say that I concur.

[@ElVnugo]

There's a book called Shadows of the New Sun: Wolfe on Writing/ Writers on Wolfe, which is basically a compilation of interviews he gave over the years. It's an interesting read if you care to know a bit more about the guy and the way he was thinking while he was still writing TBOTNS.

[@UbiquitousPolitic]

Bro how does this only have 750 views!? Incredible, not an easy task to tease and synthesize this masterpiece in a short entertaining video

[@ElVnugo]

It will get better. Glad you had fun and thank you for commenting. It means a lot.

[@matrim41]

You are hilarious! Love your humor and your analysis of TBotNS. I hope you continue with stuff like this.

[@Hunter-ql6hs]

Great video, im gonna have to check out the book now!

[@sjoerddondersteen1337]

The Return of The ̶K̶i̶n̶g̶ Absolute Madman PS Cheers from the Netherlands, lad!

[@ElVnugo]

Hah you make it sound like I was away for months.

[@FazDux]

Fume knight's hitboxes certainly capture that constantly foreboding atmosphere and sense of constant danger in the air lmao I'm glad you didn't spoil the book so I can go read it now (the night land was 10/10 so I have high hopes) but what about the mod review

[@justathought-z8t]

I was confused. I thought that Fume had that invisible sword.

[@minusLipton]

HE'S NOT DEAD! we are so back

[@ElVnugo]

Check out the new one. Trust the process!!

[@minusLipton]

@@ElVnugo watched it just after it came out, another great wideo!!! keep grinding

[@ElVnugo]

@@minusLipton I'm used to your comments so I assumed you haven't seen it. Hope it's...watchable. Thanks. It will get better.

[@minusLipton]

@@ElVnugo after watching I just thought that my usual witty comment wouldn't really fit in. couldn't really think of anything clever at that time 🤔

[@chainslaughter231]

If you want some epic sci-fi/fantasy check out the Sun Eater series by Christopher Ruocchio if you haven't already. It's pretty great stuff in line with Wolfe and Herbert.

[@challengebrigade]

let's try Black Robes & Penal Mask. Brightbugs for claw fx whenevr we're trying to impress a girl by ressurecting or healing her. As for weapons.. Crypt Blacksword close but no cigar. Gael's sword is the Executioner's Greatsword -- just heavily weathered!! think about it

[@Runesocesius]

Brilliant video, love the justxaposition with DS

[@ungooglablegames]

I loved the finale, you probably know why. Outside of that, it's not true that you dumb down your content in tandem with the subject of video games, the video actually has an appropriate pace and amount of info. I wish more guys did this kind of content, but I don't know how many gamers also read, want to do youtube AND combine the two subjects. To take it from the opposite side, I recommend playing and doing a video about The Longest Journey trilogy. It falls apart hard and it doesn't include killing, but it's the closest a video game made me feel like reading a good book, instead of the opposite like you said. But the world contained within is incredibly original, just like you prefer.

[@ElVnugo]

I would love it if you would edit the bit about the ending cause I don't want it spoiled. It's a book review after all. Or is it? As for the longest journey, yea I played the whole series. Will think about it if it can be translated into a video I would like to make.

[@ungooglablegames]

@@ElVnugo I edited it, sorry I got excited=) Yeah, I would love to see you cover more literature in the future, especially now that I know how you think.

[@qaztim11]

I believe these influences only grow as the series continues and eventually morphs into elden ring

[@tingle2958]

I enjoyed this video, but it is absolutely filled with spoilers lol. Pretty misleading title. I'm glad I have already read the book 😅

[@ilovenuddlesandballs]

I respectfully disagree. You can't do better with teasing a book without revealing absolutely anything important and I admire the way he pivoted around almost every plot point other than the main premise, and even that is obfuscated by not discussing the setting. Not to mention that it doesn't reveal anything about how the book of the new sun as a series evolves and continues and if you look at it from that angle, the video teases the entire series without revealing almost anything but maybe it's themes and even that is oversimplified (seemingly on purpose). Have you watched until the very last second? It explains the "misleading" nature and I'm pretty sure it's supposed to mimic Sev as a narrator in some way. It's also a running joke from his other book review that I watched and it has something to do with people doing mental gymnastics just to put dark souls in the title.

[@randbrannigan2590]

Dude! Holy shit, I was thinking about this same topic after i read the books.