2021
Television The Witcher | Netflix | There are book spoilers here
- Thread starter Revan
- Start date
So, I watched this without having played or read the books at all. This was a bit of new territory for me because normally with fantasy movies/series I had read the books before hand. I have to say I didn't understand everything but I also wasn't totally lost, maybe some on here can help me out.
But first, couple of points what I enjoyed and what I didn't like:
- It's instantly clear that the series is heavily influenced by a video game, Geralts voice, the camera setting etc. This results in some cool things, I did like most of the fight scenes for example but also in some storytelling that is quite unusual, e.g. the quest style tasks. But I guess with the biggest fanbase coming from the video games the focus is fair enough.
- The story is veeery loose and quite random. Big time jumps don't really help, definitely got confused a couple of times. It felt like the two main characters of the season, Geralt and Yennefer, just strolled along without a purpose for quite a big part of the season.
- Character development was also a bit weird, especially Yennefer goes from an almost animal like being to a very confident and over-ambitious person within about 2 episodes.
- I generally really like the scenery and the different settings. Cgi ranged from very bad (first monster, gold dragon wtf?) to decent, the show is also doing a very good job in portraying magic I thought.
- Very good acting all around, sometimes they've been let down by the writers with quite cringey and cheesy dialogues but maybe that's just me, I also dislike the majority of superhero movies who suffer the same issue. As for the specific characters:
- Geralt: Very good actor, good lead character. Its a bit hard to really understand what his additional magic(?) skills are apart from being a brilliant sword fighter but maybe it'll get explained in other seasons. I also don't really understand the roles of witchers in the universe. They seem quite disliked for some reason because I think they're quite useful. Also, everyone seems to know their power but quite a lot of morons already thought it would be a good idea to look for a fight with Geralt, bit dumb if you ask me.
- Yennefer: She's the only thing I read something about before hand as I heard that people wanted Eva Green to play her and that she's well liked. Gotta say I expected a bit more, the actress is great, but the character not so much. Comes across as quite a delusional and spoiled brat, yes I know hard childhood and all that but all she does is bitch about how no one is worthy and how she wants better. Also, for her being apparently very powerful she has been smacked around quite a bit, had no chance against this assassin mage with his scorpion pet for example.
- Ciri: Actress has a great presence (creepy face) but the character hasn't really done that much, has she? What was the whole forest trip about, seemed like a waste of time. One for the future with her being very powerful.
- The bard (forgot his name): Entertaining, although they tend to go over the top with his jokes. The witcher song is great.
- Tissaia (the teacher?): Very cool character, bit like a younger and more attractive McGonagall. Enjoyed her teaching that brat Yennefer some manners. Only letdown was how weak she turned out to be in the final battle, is she dead now or still alive?
- The cintra queen: Liked her at the beginning but over time (well going backwards in time actually) she became quite dislikeable. Has also quite a spoiled brat character it seems, why the hell would she go behind Geralts back not only once but twice? Ungrateful idiot, good riddance I feel.
- Fenri and Tiss: Very minor characters but I quite liked both, shame they both died already.
-Stregabor and this other mage fighting mage: Hard to make out their ultimate game, what was the last scene of the fighting guy about? (When he got conscious again after losing the fight)
- The nilfgaard duo (Fringilla and uhm, dunno): Brilliant, propably my favorite minor characters. Great cast, the guy looks like one hell determined villain and the mage is oozing cold class (She seems also quite strong?) Ultimately I don't really understand Nilfgaards endgame? Is it the classic case of a nation wanting to conquer as much as possible or are there other reasons? I feel I missed out on some sort of explanation.
Also, how exactly does magic work? At first I thought that they need to drain their power from living surroundings like plants (hence the flower scene right at the beginning of Yennefers teaching) but it doesnt really seem to be the case? And what was that big event a couple of years back everyone is refering to? Conjunction of spheres or something like that?
Right, gotta read through the thread now to see if I can make sense of things, would appreciate answers nevertheless of course.
But first, couple of points what I enjoyed and what I didn't like:
- It's instantly clear that the series is heavily influenced by a video game, Geralts voice, the camera setting etc. This results in some cool things, I did like most of the fight scenes for example but also in some storytelling that is quite unusual, e.g. the quest style tasks. But I guess with the biggest fanbase coming from the video games the focus is fair enough.
- The story is veeery loose and quite random. Big time jumps don't really help, definitely got confused a couple of times. It felt like the two main characters of the season, Geralt and Yennefer, just strolled along without a purpose for quite a big part of the season.
- Character development was also a bit weird, especially Yennefer goes from an almost animal like being to a very confident and over-ambitious person within about 2 episodes.
- I generally really like the scenery and the different settings. Cgi ranged from very bad (first monster, gold dragon wtf?) to decent, the show is also doing a very good job in portraying magic I thought.
- Very good acting all around, sometimes they've been let down by the writers with quite cringey and cheesy dialogues but maybe that's just me, I also dislike the majority of superhero movies who suffer the same issue. As for the specific characters:
- Geralt: Very good actor, good lead character. Its a bit hard to really understand what his additional magic(?) skills are apart from being a brilliant sword fighter but maybe it'll get explained in other seasons. I also don't really understand the roles of witchers in the universe. They seem quite disliked for some reason because I think they're quite useful. Also, everyone seems to know their power but quite a lot of morons already thought it would be a good idea to look for a fight with Geralt, bit dumb if you ask me.
- Yennefer: She's the only thing I read something about before hand as I heard that people wanted Eva Green to play her and that she's well liked. Gotta say I expected a bit more, the actress is great, but the character not so much. Comes across as quite a delusional and spoiled brat, yes I know hard childhood and all that but all she does is bitch about how no one is worthy and how she wants better. Also, for her being apparently very powerful she has been smacked around quite a bit, had no chance against this assassin mage with his scorpion pet for example.
- Ciri: Actress has a great presence (creepy face) but the character hasn't really done that much, has she? What was the whole forest trip about, seemed like a waste of time. One for the future with her being very powerful.
- The bard (forgot his name): Entertaining, although they tend to go over the top with his jokes. The witcher song is great.
- Tissaia (the teacher?): Very cool character, bit like a younger and more attractive McGonagall. Enjoyed her teaching that brat Yennefer some manners. Only letdown was how weak she turned out to be in the final battle, is she dead now or still alive?
- The cintra queen: Liked her at the beginning but over time (well going backwards in time actually) she became quite dislikeable. Has also quite a spoiled brat character it seems, why the hell would she go behind Geralts back not only once but twice? Ungrateful idiot, good riddance I feel.
- Fenri and Tiss: Very minor characters but I quite liked both, shame they both died already.
-Stregabor and this other mage fighting mage: Hard to make out their ultimate game, what was the last scene of the fighting guy about? (When he got conscious again after losing the fight)
- The nilfgaard duo (Fringilla and uhm, dunno): Brilliant, propably my favorite minor characters. Great cast, the guy looks like one hell determined villain and the mage is oozing cold class (She seems also quite strong?) Ultimately I don't really understand Nilfgaards endgame? Is it the classic case of a nation wanting to conquer as much as possible or are there other reasons? I feel I missed out on some sort of explanation.
Also, how exactly does magic work? At first I thought that they need to drain their power from living surroundings like plants (hence the flower scene right at the beginning of Yennefers teaching) but it doesnt really seem to be the case? And what was that big event a couple of years back everyone is refering to? Conjunction of spheres or something like that?
Right, gotta read through the thread now to see if I can make sense of things, would appreciate answers nevertheless of course.
Blimey, I'll have forgotten about it by then
Pretty sure it's going to be early 2021.
I imagine a big part of it will depend on Cavill's film commitments though.
Assuming HBO follows a similar release time with the new GoT in 2021, I’d imagine they‘d want this out as early as possible. Fairly close to the holidays, not much past from when it was released initially.
Shouldn't it be the other way around? That if you don't want any book discussion, create a new thread with show only.
I obviously created the thread for both book and show discussions, and for more than one year there was book only discussion (or talking about the casting choices related to their book and show counterparts). There have been massive spoilers given from the very first page of the thread.
It is going to be a bloodbath either way. It is the destiny of these shows.
You were the absolute worst person in the GoT thread for book spoilers
Well, until Robin came along at least.Surely it's easier for the people who've read the books to go create their own thread now seeing as they are in the minority and this has a big fat NETFLIX in the title which implies the TV show.
Watched Ep1. Not impressed. Sword fighting was excellent and Renfri was 
.
The Eden scene was there just to show boobs, not that I'm complaining.
Pacing was off and dragged at times, dialogues were meh and acting apart from Geralt and Renfri was also forgettable.
4/10
.The Eden scene was there just to show boobs, not that I'm complaining.
Pacing was off and dragged at times, dialogues were meh and acting apart from Geralt and Renfri was also forgettable.
4/10
It literally says Netflix in the title.
The Netflix part was added recently from some mod (I guess). You like it better now?
In all honesty, I don't know why I should make another thread to discuss book-related things after making this thread to discuss book-related things and discussing them for more than a year.
If people want a 100% spoiler-free thread, just make your own thread and mods should ban anyone who mentions the book word there. Also, to book readers, be careful in non-spoiling stuff (like putting them in spoilers). Of course, that is easier said than done, it just didn't work in Game of Thrones, but it has worked perfectly well in The Expanse.
NB: Bear in mind that there are also spoilers coming from the games. While they are not canon, the stories of them take place after the books, so there is some leakage of information.
Last edited:
This thread is not going to go well is it
Jesus Christ this thread is somehow getting even worse for arsiness than the GoT ones were
Book related things such as your first post...
...or...?
Australia is on fire and the US is poking Iran with a stick to start a war. Why are people picking this hill to die on?!
Because the Fringilla casting should’ve been the mage lady with a fair complexion in the Tower with Yennefer in the last episode for serious reasons.
And cleavage.
Soo, does the updated title mean we can continue talking about the books?
You have to be one of the most ignorant posters on the forum.
Thanks! Any other insult?
To be fair, @Revan did start the thread and we have been discussing book-related stuff since more than a year before the first season aired. Some people just enjoy comparing stuff between the show and the books and speculating about what that means for future seasons.
To be fair, his first post was about the Cavill casting for the TV show.
It was actually about him being cast as Geralt and wishing they now cast a great Yen. Both pieces of information that come directly from the books.
That's a stretch mate, like "stretch armstrong melted so that he stretches 10 metres" levels of stretching. Obviously he's being cast as the same character from the books - you are aware how adaptations work right?
It's been a mix of game talk, book talk, casting talk and speculating about the show based on all of those things since then. The thread has been a place for all of that stuff. It's only now that the season has been aired and there are plenty of newcomers that it's become a problem. That's understandable but at the same time you can see how it's annoying for those of us who want to continue discussing freely that we should suddenly do this in another thread than the one we've been using for more than a year.
The mods will have to decide, I guess.
It doesn't really matter who started the thread to be honest, it's a thread for the TV show, and multiple people have asked nicely for the previously used rules regarding a thread for a show based on books to be applied, but unfortunately that would mean the OP would have to concede something, which doesn't seem in his nature from his posts on this forum.
Forgive me, I'm in a mood to be playful but admittedly it's to cover up how angry/depressed I am.
Also tagging @Revan
Precisely. In the very first post, there was information about casting someone as a character from the books, long before that name was mentioned from Netflix or the show's producers.
I have to agree with this.
Cavill was announced as being cast the same day as this thread got created.
https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/...vill-cast-as-geralt-in-witcher-netflix-series
You're right. The OP post mentions by name also Yen which was months before she was cast.
But in all honesty, by just reading the first page it is clear that it was a TV show, but in relation with the books and games. People were discussing how certain events will play out, casting choices (including for characters which we still haven't seen), and most importantly
Give a price to this post. Absolutely spot on. Just 14 months before the show was released.
I don't know why everyone is jizzing their pants about the song. 2 simple lines repeated ad infinitum.
Somebody didn’t toss a coin to their witcher this year.
heck can we not just be sensible and put things from games and books that will hopefully show up in the future in spoilers. Personally I don’t really care if book or game stuff gets mentioned but for some I guess it’s a real problem if you’re new to the world.
Heck wonder what you guys are going to be like when the Damascus Unicorn of death shows up and Geralt has to fight a horde of flying squirrels.
Heck wonder what you guys are going to be like when the Damascus Unicorn of death shows up and Geralt has to fight a horde of flying squirrels.
Is it wrong that I fancied Yennifer just as much when she was a hunchback
Thoroughly enjoyed this having loved both the games and the books.
My one complaint would be how difficult it was to tell what parts were set on the past and what parts in the present. Haven't checked through 20 odd pages of previous posts so don't know if this problem was just felt by me or others.
My one complaint would be how difficult it was to tell what parts were set on the past and what parts in the present. Haven't checked through 20 odd pages of previous posts so don't know if this problem was just felt by me or others.
Think it's dodgy that you fancy young girls, period! I enjoyed her performance as Yen, but found the romance scenes with Geralt a bit awkward, as it felt like he was messing around with his mates daughter.Is it wrong that I fancied Yennifer just as much when she was a hunchback
The threesome with Geralt, Yen and the dwarf who's name I forget is going to be messy as feck in here.
The issue was this was a thread about the show seemingly when the show started. I don't think anybody who started the show would have gone back and read through the thread to see if it had non TV show stuff (and I don't think it was mentioned either)
And looking at the first post it seems to just indicate that it's going to be about the show
It now has the book spoilers part in the title which is a dilemma
Now asking for book / game spoilers to be put in spoiler tags is a nuisance but not putting them will be an annoyance too.
Anyway if this manages to top GoT in terms of timeline guessing, spoilers then that is some doing
And looking at the first post it seems to just indicate that it's going to be about the show
It now has the book spoilers part in the title which is a dilemma
Now asking for book / game spoilers to be put in spoiler tags is a nuisance but not putting them will be an annoyance too.
Anyway if this manages to top GoT in terms of timeline guessing, spoilers then that is some doing
She's 23 mate.
Ok I recently turned 41, but this level of ire towards me fancying a 23 year old really makes me feel bad about myself.
Were you expecting a rap? I mean admittedly it's no "On Our Own", but I don't think people were investing in the lyricism, tbf.
I dunno, I figure that if you're gonna say something is amazing then it kind of needs to be. I mean don't get me wrong, it's OK but people are writing home about it.
Comparing between the books and show regarding events already transpired is fine. But the main thread for the show should not have any book talk that may impact ones viewing experience in the future. That's my take any way.
Not ‘cos its the Stairway to Heaven of minstrel fetishists though... more ‘cos it’s the “webuyanycar.com” of meemable jingles.
Though thats a bit harsh. It’s probably somewhere equidistant between the two.