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  1. #1
    Incredible Member Wandering_Wand's Avatar
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    Default Netflix's The Witcher

    EDIT: For now, we've decided to discuss spoilers in this thread. PLEASE USE THE SPOIL TAG "[ SPOIL ] ABCD [ /SPOIL ]" (remove spaces in the brackets for your post) WHEN DISCUSSING CRUCIAL ELEMENTS OR QUESTIONS, ETC.


    Hey everyone, I want to start a thread (didn't see anything recent) about Netflix's latest show The Witcher that premiered on December 20th, 2019.
    I've provided very basic information immediately below, but the point of the thread is to be a place of discussion focusing on the show itself and the books it's being adapted from. NOTE: The show is NOT adapting the video games. This has been a point of discussion across the Internet regarding this show as most people are originally familiar with the games. I've posted some general information on those points as well.

    Anyway, happy discussions!

    ——

    Quick Summary
    The first season is adapting Andrezj Sapkowski's collection of short stories introducing The Witcher, Geralt of Rivia from The Last Wish and Sword of Destiny. Official first season summary below:

    Geralt of Rivia, a solitary monster hunter, struggles to find his place in a world where people often prove more wicked than beasts. But when destiny hurtles him toward a powerful sorceress, and a young princess with a dangerous secret, the three must learn to navigate the increasingly volatile Continent together.

    It's important to note that the video games take place after the novels/stories, of which there are seven total when including the collection of short stories and main saga ending with The Lady of the Lake. The books are more or less based on Polish folklore, ancient culture, etc.


    The first season's eight episode titles and chapters they're loosely adapting are below, for reference. The average run-time of the episodes throughout the entire season is about one hour:

    1. "The End's Beginning" (The Lesser Evil)
    2. "Four Marks" (Edge of the World)
    3. Betrayer Moon (The Witcher)
    4. Of Bastards, Banquets, and Burials (Question of Price)
    5. Bottled Appetites (The Last Wish)
    6. Rare Species (Bounds of Reason)
    7. Before a Fall (Sword of Destiny)
    8. Much More (Something More, the Battle of Sodden)

    Timeline FYI
    The show experiences some "time skips" and flashbacks in the first season as the show decided to set up the backstories of the other two main characters, Yennefer and Ciri. This has led to slight confusion among some viewers (both new and those familiar with the stories). The main purpose of this was to offer a proper introduction of the main trio outside of just Geralt. Thus, the first season showcases some intertwining threads from episode to episode. This does clear up by the end of the season, so stick with it and see how it all comes together!

    Misc.
    -Season two has already been ordered by Netflix and will air in late 2021.
    -The Witcher medallion in the show is much closer to what's described in the books opposed to the commonly known wolf's head from the games.
    -The showrunner, Lauren S. Hissrich, has writing and producing credentials for shows such as The West Wing, Justice, Parenthood, Do No Harm, Private Practice, Daredevil, The Defenders, The Umbrella Academy
    -For the English/American readers and audiobook listeners, Jaskier = Dandelion.

    witcher-pic.jpg
    Last edited by Wandering_Wand; 12-24-2019 at 11:38 AM.

  2. #2
    Extraordinary Member CRaymond's Avatar
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    Is this a spoiler thread?

    I have so many questions and almost all of them require some level of spoil.

  3. #3
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    Yennifer was the star of this series by far. Loved her.

  4. #4
    Incredible Member Wandering_Wand's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by CRaymond View Post
    Is this a spoiler thread?

    I have so many questions and almost all of them require some level of spoil.
    Let's do it! I'll update the OP to request everyone use the spoilers:
    Spoiler!
    end of spoilers tags when appropriate. If it gets out of hand, we can create a spoiler discussion thread.

    Quote Originally Posted by kidfresh512 View Post
    Yennifer was the star of this series by far. Loved her.
    She was great. Her arc was wonderful and the actress was very good. I think that was her first big role and if so, she did an amazing job.

  5. #5
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    Never read the books or played the game, but its not bad, IMO.

    don't care for the vague time skip, though

  6. #6
    Incredible Member Wandering_Wand's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by The Cool Thatguy View Post
    Never read the books or played the game, but its not bad, IMO.

    don't care for the vague time skip, though

    I've seen some very useful timelines created by fans that may be useful here. Let me see if I can find the best looking one. Only problem is that it's likely to be a bit spoilery.

  7. #7
    Mighty Member Nazrel's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by The Cool Thatguy View Post
    Never read the books or played the game, but its not bad, IMO.

    don't care for the vague time skip, though
    Well, they were left with the problem of the fact that Ciri is a main character but doesn't show up until the novels, and they're were doing the short stories, and the background stuff this season. Everything with her this season is just stuff vaguely alluded to in the novels or just made up whole cloth (pretty sure she never befriended an elf or the dryads); the season ends before what would be her first scene in the novels (or maybe her first scene, I believe there was a paragraph of her first meeting Geralt, before cutting to her at Kaer Morhen)
    Last edited by Nazrel; 12-24-2019 at 11:07 AM.
    Context is king.

    X-23's most basic surface level characteristic that any idiot should grasp: Stoicism.
    I don't demand that her every minor appearance be a nuance in-depth examination of her character, but is it to much to ask she be written in Archetype?! This is storytelling 101! If you want people to stay invested in a character, you need to, at the bare minimum, write them such a way that they can plausibly be believed to be the same character!

  8. #8
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    Even having read all the books the time-skips threw me for a bit of a loop at first.

    I knew the Yennefer scenes had to have been long in the past given her history in the books and games, but the other time-skips took a little getting used to.

  9. #9
    Incredible Member Forseti's Avatar
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    It seems pretty straightforward to me though I could be wrong, not having read the books. spoilers:
    Geralt's and Yennefer's stories span a number of years while Ciri's scenes take place over a short time. G's and Y's stories eventually catch up to Ciri's present.
    end of spoilers
    Live true or lie well.

  10. #10
    Incredible Member Wandering_Wand's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Forseti View Post
    It seems pretty straightforward to me though I could be wrong, not having read the books. spoilers:
    Geralt's and Yennefer's stories span a number of years while Ciri's scenes take place over a short time. G's and Y's stories eventually catch up to Ciri's present.
    end of spoilers
    That's pretty much exactly it.

  11. #11
    Put a smile on that face Immortal Weapon's Avatar
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    I didn't even know there were time skips and flashbacks until the 4th episode. Seeing characters that already died showing up again threw me for a loop.

  12. #12
    Extraordinary Member CRaymond's Avatar
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    I liked Cavill as Geralt. He knows his face and how to make it work for the camera. He glowers and smolders like a champion. His Batman voice left me hitting rewind a LOT.

    On my Facebook, friends and I discussed how the names of places, persons and things are all very confusing and lost on people unfamiliar with the text or the culture(s) that inspired The Witcher. Kikimora? Did he say Kookaburra? I LOVE that the showrunners trusted their audience' intelligence and curiosity, but some testing should've been done to allow for a teensy bit more exposition.

    Similar to how the cinematographers of Game of Thrones color graded scenes in order to better tell location, I wish The Witcher's team would've color graded in order to tell time. Like warm for distant past, bleak for middle, and blue or unnatural bi-lighting for the Sodden battle culmination. I realize this probably would've given the hand away too soon, but boy howdy I was really confused until episode 3.

    spoilers:
    The choice to cast an entirely new character as Geralt's mother in the final episode was... weird.

    I realize he probably had family trauma to mirror Yennefer's but both hers AND his seemed to come out of nowhere... though hers could've been started in the assassin portal escape race that ends in a burial.

    Back to Geralt, I was half-expecting his mother to be revealed as Tissaia.
    end of spoilers

    A lot of that last episode felt clunky, rushed, odd.

    Jaskier was almost perfect. I loved his unconventional friendship with Geralt, but I was disappointed to learn that his sexuality wasn't bent.

  13. #13
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    Quote Originally Posted by Nazrel View Post
    Well, they were left with the problem with the fact that Ciri is a main character but doesn't show up until the novels, and they're were doing the short stories, and the background stuff this season. Everything with her this season is just stuff vaguely alluded to in the novels or just made up whole cloth (pretty sure she never befriended an elf or the dryads); the season ends before what would be her first scene in the novels (or maybe her first scene, I believe there was a paragraph of her first meeting Geralt, before cutting to her at Kaer Morhen)
    spoilers:
    In the second collection of short stories she first met Geralt in that forest with the Druids several years before Nilfgard's attack on Cintra. The show reworked that story into being part of her flight from Nilfgard and took Geralt out of it. Also a lot of what is shown from Ciri's pov is told in flashback in the novels. A lot of it is made up as well, but much of what is shown about Yennefer is also made up. In the books Ciri knew she was Geralt's 'child of surprise' from a much younger age, like 5 or 6, and had met him years before Cintra fell.
    end of spoilers

  14. #14
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    Quote Originally Posted by CRaymond View Post
    I liked Cavill as Geralt. He knows his face and how to make it work for the camera. He glowers and smolders like a champion. His Batman voice left me hitting rewind a LOT.

    On my Facebook, friends and I discussed how the names of places, persons and things are all very confusing and lost on people unfamiliar with the text or the culture(s) that inspired The Witcher. Kikimora? Did he say Kookaburra? I LOVE that the showrunners trusted their audience' intelligence and curiosity, but some testing should've been done to allow for a teensy bit more exposition.

    Similar to how the cinematographers of Game of Thrones color graded scenes in order to better tell location, I wish The Witcher's team would've color graded in order to tell time. Like warm for distant past, bleak for middle, and blue or unnatural bi-lighting for the Sodden battle culmination. I realize this probably would've given the hand away too soon, but boy howdy I was really confused until episode 3.

    spoilers:
    The choice to cast an entirely new character as Geralt's mother in the final episode was... weird.

    I realize he probably had family trauma to mirror Yennefer's but both hers AND his seemed to come out of nowhere... though hers could've been started in the assassin portal escape race that ends in a burial.

    Back to Geralt, I was half-expecting his mother to be revealed as Tissaia.
    end of spoilers

    A lot of that last episode felt clunky, rushed, odd.

    Jaskier was almost perfect. I loved his unconventional friendship with Geralt, but I was disappointed to learn that his sexuality wasn't bent.
    spoilers:
    That's also straight from the books. Geralt's mother was a sorceress who abandoned him as a child but showed up to heal him at that point. It's the only time he ever meets her. The show version of the scene is pretty cut down though. The entire big battle from the last episode is basically made up. The aftermath is shown in the books, but not the battle itself.
    end of spoilers

  15. #15
    Put a smile on that face Immortal Weapon's Avatar
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    Can someone explain to me how the law of surprise works? I don't feel episode 4 did a good job of introducing the concept. From what I picked up on, it's a promise made between individuals where the person who makes the promise will have to pay back his debt with something he or she is unaware of and other will have to come back for eventually. If ether party don't follow through on their deal destiny will royally screw them over.

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