Has seen a lot of complaints online about lore changing/lore drifting. Obviously Fallout, but also things like Star Trek, Dune, for Cain personally it was Conan.
Cain doesn't know where he got the term, but he's been using it for years. Cain defines lore drift as any change in established lore, intended or not, from a base to a sequel, whether base game to sequel game or base book to sequel book, or a shift in medium like a video game to TV show or book to movie.
There is lore that sometimes have to change because it doesn't work in different medium, sometimes they mess up, sometimes it seems like the person changing thinks they know better than the original lore creator. Cain wants to analogize it to Tokyo Drift, but feels it doesn't really work.
Cain has already gone over the difficulties of maintaining an IP and why he personally dislikes making sequels, and will go into some examples of lore drift in other media before he gets in Fallout. He is probably going to get a little salty.
Conan meant a lot to Cain, his first D&D campaign was based on Robert E. Howard's Conan. Book Conan was very different from movie Conan. Uneducated, but very smart. From the northern kingdom of Cimmeria, never saw foreigners until they sacked a fortress from a southern kingdom when he was 14. Conan goes out into the world on his own decision and turned out to be a master of languages, could sneak into a Stygian temple and pose as a native in Hour of the Dragon. A point Howard made over and over again is that Conan does not understand slavery. Conan meets a slave, and struggles to understand the concept of just submitting instead of fighting back. Movie Conan (first one), in contrast? His village gets sacked (Shouldn't have happened on Cimmerian's own turf), he is made a slave and he stays a slave until adulthood. Arnold was a great Conan, but Cain can't imagine Conan sounding like that, cannot picture Conan sneaking into a Stygian temple with that kind of accent. Just had to suspend his issues and separate Book Conan and Movie Conan.
In Star Trek, any member of that fandom knows the endless discussions. How the limit of warp has changed, how transporters work, how subspace works. The original series states in the very unpopular third season episode (Turnabout Intruder) that women can't be captains. It was dumb back then and Cain was only 3/4 years old but he is sure people criticized a progressive show like Star Trek for saying something like that. In The Next Generation, they simply ignore that. Female captains, female admirals, they pretended it never happened, Cain considers that a good change and an example of the difficulty of translating lore just from one show to another show in the same medium.
More recent example, Dune. Cain loves the books, 1984 movie, and the modern movies. In the book, Lady Jessica is beautiful, incredibly regal, people can't understand why the Duke doesn't marry her. Supposed to have bronze hair. Several chapters later, every Harkonnen is described as having red hair. This is important because it will eventually be revealed Lady Jessica is descended from Harkonnens. Sidenote, in the book and 84 movie, Reverend Mother Helena is scary, described as scary, the Bene Gesserit are like witches, and she looks scary in the 84 movie. Modern movie, Reverend Helena looks like someone's grandmother at a funeral, Jessica is a brunette, and all the Harkonnens are bald. Good opportunity for them to give a visual cue that Jessica is related to the Baron Harkonnen, completely ignored. Could go into other stuff, but the modern films diverge from the 1984 movie and the books in wild ways, but most people don't care. Cain gets it.
Cain has critiqued 3 different IPs, Cain views those critiques as constructive because they are actionable. Cain described them in a way where they could have changed what they did and it would have been better. Cain makes a point that he did not make a personal attack or call a director/ show runner an idiot. Cain thinks all of the actors in those shows/movies were good, certainly not their fault. Cain didn't have to do a personal attack, and when he sees people online do that in a comment or a video he dismisses them, just closes the tab. Cain considers that a sign they are very immature, and their arguments mean nothing to Cain. Just someone whining online.
A few years back, when Cain was in a supermarket and his beard was growing out, a toddler looked at him, pointed, and said 'Santa'. Didn't get mad at the toddler, thought it was cute and didn't think anything of it. But he wouldn't get game or movie advice from that toddler. If people start making attacks, he just considers them someone who opinions doesn't matter.
Now onto Fallout, as someone who made the first game and worked on the second one. Specifically talking about ghouls. Radiation caused ghouls, the Vault 12 residents at Necropolis were never exposed to FEV. Established that they need water, if you take the water chip without fixing the pump, they all die. They don't regenerate health magically. They mention seeing working trucks pulled by brahmin. Things they didn't explain, they didn't explain why ghouls were long lived, they did explain why mutants were long lived. Why do Ghouls live forever? Cain doesn't know, they didn't explain. What causes a Feral Ghoul? Cain doesn't know, they didn't explain it, didn't even touch upon a cure. Was Harold a ghoul, a mutant, a combination of the two? Cain doesn't know, they left it open. Jump to Fallout 2, you get a working car but you never see it driving because engine limitations. Fallout 3 and 4, suddenly ghouls don't need water/food/air. Lore change. Also, now you have working airships. Fallout is already changing from one game to the next, should not be surprised the TV show changes more lore. Now maybe Feral Ghouls can be cured/prevented, maybe some of them regenerate, maybe not. Maybe some old world drug keeps ghouls for going feral. Regeneration may not be related to ghouls, maybe someone found a super regen drug.
Lore drift happens. Happened to Fallout from the beginning. You can discuss it, dislike it, but shouldn't do personal attacks, Cain would just ignore those. Like with Conan, there may be a Book version and a Show Version you mentally separate. Thinks Fallout TV was well done and wants to see how things develop.
(No summary tomorrow, out again.)
