[RACHEL]

If I'm not mistaken, the games take place after the book series and only loosely reference past events from the books.

[Tiste Simeon]

Another excellent episode with

Spoiler

Yennefer and Geralt finally meeting! I thought that was a great scene. Not just the boobs but the chemistry between the two. Jaskier nails every scene he is in! They also mention the law of surprise again and Geralt acknowledges that it's something he's aware of or is heading towards or something - don't remember the exact line - but it shows that the three timelines are coming together nicely.

[Tsundoku]

Finished season 1. Not bad, especially once I figured out the multiple timeline thing by about the end of ep 3. Yes I'm a bit slow.

Haven't read the books or played the game but didn't mind Cavill as Geralt, even though the raspy voice got a bit old fairly quickly. A bit melodramatic in places but eh, that's not so bad.

Yennefer has nice bewbs, bless her.

This post has been edited by Tsundoku: 27 December 2019 - 01:28 PM

[Brujah]

Yennefer is an extremely beautiful woman, yet her acting and the persona they've given her out shines even her gorgeous looks, or accentuates them, however you want to look at it.

She's the total package. I don't feel as bad writing about how incredibly beautiful and well formed because these are not the things on which the foundation of her character are built.

This post has been edited by Brujah: 27 December 2019 - 05:40 PM

[Aptorian]

Have they given her an aura of bitchiness and better than everyone else attitude?

[Tiste Simeon]

Yep. And that develops more with each episode.

[EmperorMagus]

In my winter break, I have watched The Watchmen, The Expanse (S4), His Dark Materials, seasons 3 and 4 of the Wire, and now the Witcher.

In my opinion, this series outshined all of the above. It was the only one where I sat down intending to watch episode 1 to see if it's worth anything and not getting up until I'd finished the season at 7:25 AM the next day (right now). The only bad thing about the series is Cavill's portrayal of Geralt (he gets annoying quite early in the series), but I could ignore that easily because of how good everyone else was, specially Yennefer & Ciri.

I'm now feeling the pangs of post-story pain in my stomach, where I feel the need to fill the void in my life with anything.

Fuck that was a good finale.

[Traveller]

I'm on ep 3, enjoying it so far. Its weirdly like watching someone else play the game. I take it that was based on the same story as the Baron from W3?

Geralt is good, although he moves well for someone that's probably carrying several hundred pounds of dog tallow. I'd also like to see him going through every bin and drawer in each room, even while the owners are talking to him.

This post has been edited by Traveller: 29 December 2019 - 09:24 AM

[amphibian]

BfuckinK, on 29 December 2019 - 07:48 PM, said:

Skipping thread. Bruh wtf is going on? I’m so lost on this show! Finished Ep 4.

There's multiple time periods being shown. The oldest one is where Geralt first becomes a Witcher, has some adventures, becomes the Butcher of Blavikin, has more adventures, then meets Jaskier/Dandelion the bars, who then takes him to the big royal party where shit goes sideways. Possibly at the same time Geralt starts out, Yennefer gets her start as a magician and then goes on with her adventures.

Then the next time period is when Cintra falls, Ciri goes on the run, Geralt and Yennefer meet, and stuff happens.

The last time period being shown is how Geralt met up with Ciri.

All in all, maybe fifty years of story is being told and like Malazan, the more you pay attention and read or watch farther, the clearer it gets.

This post has been edited by amphibian: 30 December 2019 - 04:34 AM

[amphibian]

Read the post I made up above. It's spoiler free for where you are.

[Tiste Simeon]

Finished. Phenomenal. Leaves me desperate for season 2!

[Khellendros]

Finished watching the season, really enjoyed it, far more than I expected to. Girlfriend and I have been grunting at each other all week (stop it!). Cavill is certainly not the world’s greatest actor, but the character is basically both monosyllabic and monotone, so perfect for him I think he did a pretty good job, and both Ciri and especially Yennefer actor were very good.

I liked how each episode was both self-contained and managed to be part of a larger plot. And I was seriously impressed that they decided to interweave multiple timelines but without ever signalling that the timeline had changed, so you had to pay attention. I think that shows both guts and respect for the audience to be able to figure things out, and I think it worked really well. As Malazan fans, you should all be lapping up that kind of drop-you-in-without-explaining-anything tactic

Yes, at times I did get a few Xena: Warrior Princess vibes from the show, but the cheesiness, if anything, added to its likeability for me personally.

I should add, I’m speaking as someone whose prior knowledge comes only from the third game really, but for me it was cool to see things told in the lore of that game come on screen.

Really looking forward to season 2!

[amphibian]

I thought Cavill did a great job in the more complex acting scenes like with Yennefer stop the mountain or when he interacted with Calanthe several times. He's a surprisely agile actor in terms of being able to convey a bruiser having complex emotions and dealing with people who have more power than he does (especially women).

Ciri/Allen is not the strongest actress, but she did alright. It might be that the most complex scenes she had were with the Brokilon dryads, Dara, and the other scenes were mostly her fleeing or acting quickly before something happened to put her in motion towards destiny again. I'm looking very much towards her longer scenes next season.

Yennefer/Chalotra to me did a better job acting with Tissaia, Istredd, and the time spent as a hunchback than she did on the beach with the baby or the tent conversation with Geralt. She was pretty stuff in the latter two and was much more able to convey things in other situations. Still a great find for the role.

I thought the actors playing Fringilla, Calanthe, Dara, and Jaskier did absolutely terrific in their roles. Eist had limited screentime, yet the connection was there with Calanthe.

There was also a very big difference between certain battle scenes in terms of choreography and camera angles. Perhaps some episodes got little budget or people who weren't that experienced in action while others got absolute masters.

The Doppler vs Cahir fight was kind of miserable, even with the difficulty of doubling. The Geralt scenes were almost all superb and they treated Yennefer well also.

[Gem Windcaster]

Help, I've got 'Toss a coin to your witcher' stuck in my head. It doesn't help probably that I keep rewatching the series.

[Maark Abbott]

...Fuck.

[Gem Windcaster]

...Hmmm.

[Gothos]

It seems there's a inverse relationship between how well you know the book world and how much you like the series.

After watching through this with the lady of the house over New Year's Eve and on the New Year's Day, I have... mixed feelings.

Spoilers all, of course.

Spoiler

First, let's start with the good.

Jaskier was absolutely brilliant. I've never expected this kind of performance, I'm completely sold. 11/10!
Cavill's Geralt is awesome. It's a significant turn towards the dark and sordid like in the series, as opposed to the ever-sardonic and jovial Geralt from the games. I've nothing to add or remove, it's a 10/10 performance to me.
Ciri is great, even if her storyline was butchered. Also weird watching a 17-year old actress play what's supposed to be a 12-year old character is a little weird, but for her work I've nothing to whine about. A solid 9.

All things considered, I did enjoy it, though the nitpicking was constant, and that's mostly due to the numerous changes and retcons compared to the books. Worst offenders would be as follows...

The character assassination of Eyck of Denesle. The brave and honorable veteran knight from the short story is turned into a complete joke of a man, robbed of his dignity and warped into a laughing stock. I cannot forgive this. Whoever thought this up is complete trash of a human being and deserves to be abandoned and forgotten by their peers. Nothing warranted this.

The character butchering of Foltest. While I understand that they had to give Triss, who they transplanted into the story in this time probably to give her a background with Geralt for later, something to do... but doing so has stripped away a whole dimension from the King. Instead of Foltest coming to Geralt in disguise after the audience to be the exposition bomb and showing he cares - Triss fills that role instead so Foltest is just a bitter, gluttonous, grumpy old selfish bastard with no character qualities whatsoever. This is a crime.

Inserting conflict with Elves into Cintra is a cheap, stupid way of inserting some sort of a tension between Ciri and her companion, there's nothing even suggesting the kind of butchery suggested in the series. Filavandrel's rebellion, which wasn't even taking place until much after the story of the books, would take place far to the northeast around Dol Blathanna, far away from poor old Cintra. Calanthe had a fiery reputation but not for slaughtering elves with glee, but for acting like she was a guy in a country that didn't want to permit it. This whole aspect of the plot is brain dead.

Turning Nilfgaard into some sort of religious fanatics or order... while the exact opposite would be true in the books. Any mention of some prophecy or whatnot would be welcomed with sneers and mutterings about 'northern occult bullshit' by the distinguished Nilfgaardian nobility or even smallfolk. Same with making Nilfgaard sound like some backwater at the start. Also, any talk of more things 'being possible' for wizards in Nilfgaard is a direct contradiction as well - in the Empire, wizards are right under boot and have no freedom or standing, and their power is mistrusted and limited. It's a misrepresentation of the highest order.

Vilgefortz would smear Cahir over a sizable portion of land if they ever fought. I didn't believe a single second of that fight.

While we're there - painting Sodden as brave, selfless sorceresses and wizards, coming to defend the people of the north themselves while their kings sit and wait. In fact, in the book battle of Sodden, the wizards of both sides would pretty much annihilate each other, while the battle was decided by conventional arms of regular armies. They stood WITH the kings, not in their stead, and mostly defending their privileges and abundant wealth. You'd think they're being morally bleached for some reason in this series.

Last but not least... come on. I can very well understand some captain of the guard being an outlander from lands beyond the sea, it wouldn't be beyond the realm of belief that there would be ambitious people coming in to make a name for themselves that would explain diversity casting for wizards, knights maybe, mercenaries... but the smallfolk make no fucking sense. It's roman britain all over again. Just stop.

[Khellendros]

Yeah, your complaints are definitely based 100% on the fact that you have read and liked the books and the TV show went in a different direction. As someone who has not read the books and has no knowledge of what happens in them, I had no issues with any of those things (but did think other elements were weaker).

Some of the things which you criticise I actually thought were strengths of the show (e.g. Calanthe and elven slaughter, I thought this added an excellent grey dimension to her character). Ok, so it might not be the same as in the books, apparently, but I guess I'm in the happy position of being able to take the show as its own thing.

A couple of other things might depend on what happens in a future season. For example, the Nilfgaard magic freedom thing - I actually got the sense that this was a lie and will be exposed as such in the next season, but we'll see. Similarly, with Vilgefortz, that final scene suggested that he might have deliberately thrown the fight with Cahir, but again I guess we'll find out in the next season.

Your last point feels pointless to me. Call me PC if you want, but I just don't see how some extra's skin colour takes away from enjoyment of the show when it has no bearing on plot or character.

[Gothos]

Khellendros, on 07 January 2020 - 05:13 PM, said:

Your last point feels pointless to me. Call me PC if you want, but I just don't see how some extra's skin colour takes away from enjoyment of the show when it has no bearing on plot or character.

Guess it's all about looking at the same object from different sides. I'd say that if it has no bearing on plot or character, why do it? Change for no reason within the story makes no sense. It makes about as much sense to me as casting Ed Sheeran as Kalam - screwing with the setting like this is just stupid. Don't re-write (hi)story.

It's doubly irritating when you consider that this is, was, the best way we could smuggle a little bit of the eastern flavour into the global consciousness other than poor criminals (like in Fugitive) or wartime traitors (like in Enigma). Some say this is diversity, but to me it kills diversity by making everything look the same. At least the games got it right.

[amphibian]

Gothos, on 07 January 2020 - 07:30 PM, said:

Khellendros, on 07 January 2020 - 05:13 PM, said:

Your last point feels pointless to me. Call me PC if you want, but I just don't see how some extra's skin colour takes away from enjoyment of the show when it has no bearing on plot or character.

Guess it's all about looking at the same object from different sides. I'd say that if it has no bearing on plot or character, why do it? Change for no reason within the story makes no sense. It makes about as much sense to me as casting Ed Sheeran as Kalam - screwing with the setting like this is just stupid. Don't re-write (hi)story.

It's doubly irritating when you consider that this is, was, the best way we could smuggle a little bit of the eastern flavour into the global consciousness other than poor criminals (like in Fugitive) or wartime traitors (like in Enigma). Some say this is diversity, but to me it kills diversity by making everything look the same. At least the games got it right.

But this is a situation where the planet they're on did not have humans prior to the Conjunction of the Spheres. They traveled there from elsewhere and as a result, people everywhere have a ton of different skin colors.

I understand that the books and the games are heavily linked into a Polish heritage, but this makes sense for the TV show. It looks good and it lets some great actors do their jobs on-screen without penalty for their non-white skin color. That's worth a lot.

I also thought Eist saying we're losing and then dying wasn't a buffoon thing - it was a display of the futile stand + loss for Calanthe and we do see more of him to bring retrospective meaning to his character.

I agree that Calanthe being an elf murderer is a great move. It makes Ciri and her destiny a more complex thing. It creates a question of "would she just ignore this and continue being a human Cintra above all royal like her grandmother?" It brings the elf genocide into the story in a way that characters other than Geralt and Jaskier experience.

The tensions between human and non human are constantly popping up in the show and that's a good thing.

Nilfgard being off screen and treated like a civil war hotbed was a smart move. It makes the invasion force led by Cahir and Fringilla more of a surprise.

I am also not a fan of "the magic users have a very powerful and somewhat benevolent cabal" independent of the royals approach the TV show has. It makes the sudden decline post Yennefer an odd one. The enmeshment with the royals that the books and games have is a better approach, but it'd chew up a budget for Stodden to have two combined armies clash fully there. I note the budget bc the Nilfgard invasion seemed to be more a series of raids that shocked defenders, toppled courts, and led to slaughter of civilians.