The Witcher (Netflix) - 2019/2020

Ancalagon said:
I've watched the first three episodes.

Cavill is great as the Witcher - he really pulls it off.

Seems like they adapted a lot of the short stories, which I think is good because some of them feature Ciri heavily. Ciri is older than I pictured her being - I pictured closer to something like 8 years old in the books.

Some of the cuts that they made to the short stories in order to adapt them to the screen butcher them a little in my opinion. Like, Foltest has already been mentioned - he wasn't such an ass in the books.

The other thing I wasn't fond of is the Devil. I'll try to avoid spoilers, but basically not only did they kinda ruin the Devil as a character by taking out a lot of his sassy dialogue, they also sort of butchered what comes next - the true reason for why he is there, and the dialogue between the Witcher and the third party.

Specifically, the whole thing was about the elves refusal to learn agriculture or advance, which is omitted in the series, and to me would make the entire thing make no sense if I hadn't read the books. It is the elves refusal to change and adapt, to learn agriculture, which lands them in a mess. I don't feel that this really landed in the series.

Yennefer's back story.... its okay. Her mentor is interesting as a character, but the actress who plays Yennefer is nothing like I pictured her. Gone are the ringlets which she is said to have, and I thought she was smaller in stature.

Overall it is decent though.
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Ciri is only in one of the short stories - The Sword of Destiny. She really only becomes a main character in the novels. I've only watched to Episode 6 but it seems they cut it because she doesn't remember the events of that short story.

Yeah I also don't like what they did to Mousesack (
he's not dead in the books wtf
) and Eyck of Desnsele. He might as well be a completely new character. Yen relationship with him is also wierd AF. Like did they read the short story? Again, missed oppurnity not having Doug Cockle be Borch, I didn't like his actor at all.

Agreed with the feeling of butchering the short stories. They don't even mention Vizima with the striga. The one with the Djinn is way also better in the books. Again, also not really a fan of what they're doing with Yen. And with Borch, they cut all the political intrigue from that short story. I liked Yarprin but the other dwarves looked wrong.

I thought it would happen, but the show has lost a lot of it's slavic roots. You can still feel that atmosphere in the games, but the show feels very westernized. The show is still good, it's just not blowing me away. Episode 4 is the best one so far, I think.
 
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The_Imp_ZA said:
Ciri is only in one of the short stories - The Sword of Destiny. She really only becomes a main character in the novels. I've only watched to Episode 6 but it seems they cut it because she doesn't remember the events of that short story.

Yeah I also don't like what they did to Mousesack (
he's not dead in the books wtf
) and Eyck of Desnsele. He might as well be a completely new character. Yen relationship with him is also wierd AF. Like did they read the short story? Again, missed oppurnity not having Doug Cockle be Borch, I didn't like his actor at all.

Agreed with the feeling of butchering the short stories. They don't even mention Vizima with the striga. The one with the Djinn is way also better in the books. Again, also not really a fan of what they're doing with Yen. And with Borch, they cut all the political intrigue from that short story. I liked Yarprin but the other dwarves looked wrong.

I thought it would happen, but the show has lost a lot of it's slavic roots. You can still feel that atmosphere in the games, but the show feels very westernized. The show is still good, it's just not blowing me away. Episode 4 is the best one so far, I think.
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Pretty sure Ciri appears in a few of them, because they actually meet more than once before the Witcher accepts his destiny. They meet at Brokilon for instance - Geralt is there when she drinks the waters, expecting her personality to be obliterated.

But that isn't the only time they meet, I'm pretty sure of it. By the time the Witcher accepts his destiny, I think it is the third time they meet.

I'm also not loving the hardcore feminism in this series. The book are progressive and I feel well balanced in their depictions of men and women without getting preachy. They also show racism and how humans basically destroy the environment, again without being preachy.

The series makes the whole feminism angle far more prevalent, and it loses balance because of it. But I guess that is popular these days.
 
Ancalagon said:
Pretty sure Ciri appears in a few of them, because they actually meet more than once before the Witcher accepts his destiny. They meet at Brokilon for instance - Geralt is there when she drinks the waters, expecting her personality to be obliterated.

But that isn't the only time they meet, I'm pretty sure of it. By the time the Witcher accepts his destiny, I think it is the third time they meet.

I'm also not loving the hardcore feminism in this series. The book are progressive and I feel well balanced in their depictions of men and women without getting preachy. They also show racism and how humans basically destroy the environment, again without being preachy.

The series makes the whole feminism angle far more prevalent, and it loses balance because of it. But I guess that is popular these days.
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No dude. You've got it wrong. I checked and yeah I forgot one, so it's two not one. Geralt meets her for the first time after claiming Law of Surprise in The Sword of Destiny, when she's around 7 years old, in Brokilon Forest. At the end, they go their separate ways as Geralt leaves Ciri with Mousesack. Ciri is pissed because Geralt is her Destiny. Ciri then bounces around Skellige and Cintra until Nilfgaard invades. The next time they see each other is in Something More, where she ends up in Kaer Morhen after Geralt meets her again after claiming Law of Surprise from a total stranger, who had been looking after her. I thought that happened in the novels but misremembered.

Episode 5 was very weak, I feel like they lacked the budget and should have moved it to season 2. Seriously, the Dragon Hunt is one of the best short stories and they didn't get it right. We didn't even get to see
Borch yeeting Eyck with his tail, come on. Also killing Eyck was lame, sorry. He's a chop but a really interesting character. Why is Yen using swords? She's a mage.
 
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Ancalagon said:
]

Yennefer's back story.... its okay. Her mentor is interesting as a character, but the actress who plays Yennefer is nothing like I pictured her. Gone are the ringlets which she is said to have, and I thought she was smaller in stature.

Overall it is decent though.
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Yen's front story on the other hand... Her boobs were an extremely pleasant pair of surprises...
 
dualmeister said:
Clearly for fans. Bored out of my mind and his face looks like it has a butt on. Moves on.
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I can appreciate this. I had to explain stuff to my wife throughout - they skipped through so much without giving proper context that I imagine someone that hasn't read the books or played the games would be hella confused.

Finished the last episode - we enjoyed it. There were some cockups though. The dwarves, Triss (Jeeebus what a train wreck!) and not showing the mages being mages most of the time. "A" for the amount of tits though :)
 
Started with a bang, but when you reach episode 3
Damn.
Quite apparent the show runners have no clue what they are doing.
Triss? In the books she is described as cheerful, ready to burst into laughter at any moment.
In the series she is unattractive and boringly serious.

In this one episode they show 3 different timelines with no explanation or indication that it is 3 different timelines.
If you have no prior knowledge you would be lost without realising how lost you are.

Disappointing.

The action and visuals are great though.
That's all it has going for it at the moment.
 
Beyond.Celsus said:
Started with a bang, but when you reach episode 3
Damn.
Quite apparent the show runners have no clue what they are doing.
Triss? In the books she is described as cheerful, ready to burst into laughter at any moment.
In the series she is unattractive and boringly serious.

In this one episode they show 3 different timelines with no explanation or indication that it is 3 different timelines.
If you have no prior knowledge you would be lost without realising how lost you are.

Disappointing.

The action and visuals are great though.
That's all it has going for it at the moment.
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I imagine when they were planning the character of Triss it went something like:

759602
 
Im absolutely LOVING this show (non book reader, played games a little). Best sword fighting i've seen in any show by miles.

Beyond.Celsus said:
In this one episode they show 3 different timelines with no explanation or indication that it is 3 different timelines.
If you have no prior knowledge you would be lost without realising how lost you are.
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LOL! After reading this thread it kinda makes sense, didnt even realise haha. fok, that is pretty poor.
 
Accidentally binged all 8 episodes yesterday.

Absolutely loving it, Cavill IS Geralt.

Timelines are confusing, they should have made it more apparent somehow. Spent most of the show explaining what was happening.

Still, loved it. Can’t wait for season 2.
 
Watched ep 1 and have to say the sword fighting is impressive. One thing I hate about GoT is that the sword fighting is so lethargic, as if they're carrying weapons that weight half a ton or something.
 
Overall rating 6.5/10
Never read the books or played the game but enjoyable so far only because of Cavill's performance and the sword fights. Some of the characters look like they belong in Comic Con and the timeline is confusing. Besides Geralt, there are no real interesting characters. I did like Renfri's character but unfortunately she's killed off in the first episode.
 
R13... said:
Watched ep 1 and have to say the sword fighting is impressive. One thing I hate about GoT is that the sword fighting is so lethargic, as if they're carrying weapons that weight half a ton or something.
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Also only watched ep 1 and also really liked that fight scene with the group of thugs. I know nothing about the character so was cool to see him use his powers to kinda stun those dudes mid-fight, he did it so effortlessly and straight back into swordplay.
 
saor said:
Also only watched ep 1 and also really liked that fight scene with the group of thugs. I know nothing about the character so was cool to see him use his powers to kinda stun those dudes mid-fight, he did it so effortlessly and straight back into swordplay.
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Aard. In the game you level it up and it becomes quite powerful. What I loved was that he used it with the guys who had shields - same as the game, that’s how you best a shielded opponent. Little things like that really make me love the show, there’s a ton of attention to detail.

Quite looking forward to seeing if he uses any of his other abilities. There’s a specific one he should have used in the last or second-last episode, which he didn’t. I’m not sure why, perhaps it’s too draining. Either way, loving it.
 
UrBaN963 said:
Accidentally binged all 8 episodes yesterday.

Absolutely loving it, Cavill IS Geralt.

Timelines are confusing, they should have made it more apparent somehow. Spent most of the show explaining what was happening.

Still, loved it. Can’t wait for season 2.
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What do you think would be best for timelines and consistently.
Date stamping using the Lore Year?
Date of the sacking of Cintra and say it on screen? (they did like showing non-burnt town vs burnt town as one of the only real indicators)

Obviously it would need to be consistent, and perhaps only needed for the 1st season?
If season 2 is all 3 stories arcs on the same timeline?
Not sure if there might be more flashbacks?
 
Finished episode 6. The "Pulp fiction" kind of time lines ****ed it up for my wife (especially Ciri's time line, episode 5 she's with the elves in the woods but in Geralds time she's being courted at the castle). SO doesn't know The Witcher books or games (not a games player at all). I enjoy it so far.
 
Rocco1 said:
What do you think would be best for timelines and consistently.
Date stamping using the Lore Year?
Date of the sacking of Cintra and say it on screen? (they did like showing non-burnt town vs burnt town as one of the only real indicators)

Obviously it would need to be consistent, and perhaps only needed for the 1st season?
If season 2 is all 3 stories arcs on the same timeline?
Not sure if there might be more flashbacks?
Click to expand...

Not sure. Different hair perhaps, or something which clearly shows it.
 
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