The Other Worlds Shrine

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  • The Witcher (Netflix Series) - SPOILERS (season 1)

  • Your favorite band sucks, and you have terrible taste in movies.
Your favorite band sucks, and you have terrible taste in movies.
 #171701  by Julius Seeker
 Thu Jan 30, 2020 10:56 pm
The show is enjoyable; I'm in the middle of season 1. At first, it's not entirely apparent, but by episode 2 or 3, you realize that all of the character arcs are at different points in time, just not entirely when.

Rough guesses based on the chronology and statements of time passing:

Ciri's story is in the present time.
Geralt begins about 20 years before the present.
Yennifer begins about 50 years before the present.
Geralt and Yennifer meet a few times between 15 years before present and present - unless the scenes are out of order. If they are, then this could have happened earlier.

I just finished Episode 6, so I can't comment on what happens after.

Anyway, the series plays out much like a higher production and better acted Hercules or Xena story. The vibe is a bit of The Last Kingdom or Marco Polo, gritty, dark, humourous, characters on different wavelengths. Henry Cavill nails Geralt's mannerisms from the games - and now I want to badly read the books! The writing manages to nail the humour as well.

I can't compare it to "Game of Thrones" because I didn't watch that one - though I might in the future.

Also, I began playing The Witcher 3 - finally.
I'm going at a snail's pace because I turned the mini-map off, so I'm learning most of the landscape of each location I visit before cracking the main objectives.
 #171742  by kali o.
 Thu Feb 06, 2020 3:25 am
There were certain aspects I liked (casting, for the most part, though Yennifer and Ciri took some getting used to) and certain aspects I did not (the time jumps).

But all in all, I liked in enough to binge watch the whole thing over 2 or 3 days. And I will probably watch the whole thing again soon.

I just hope they don't screw up and keep the series gritty.
 #171749  by Julius Seeker
 Mon Feb 10, 2020 12:33 pm
They'll make changes after season 1 on some things. Probably not anything gigantic. They are changing the Nilfgaardian armour. They'll also likely shift them away from the role of villain at a point where it suits the story to do so.

And speaking of Hercules and Xena comparisons:
 #172972  by Julius Seeker
 Thu Jan 13, 2022 10:49 pm
My thoughts on season 2.

1. I understand why critics like this one better, the production is more consistent, character dev is heavier than the first season, it’s more formulaic—that’s popular with critics.
2. I read the book Blood of Elves before the season, and I was super worried because that’s pretty unfilmable, but they made it work by writing a new core plot and fitting the elements of the book around that… a common tactic for book adaptations that don’t really work, like American Psycho and Dracula.
3. Speaking of formula, I much preferred season 1’s take where they made Ciri’s story a character arc, Geralt’s story episodic, and Yen’s kind of in the middle—two main arcs for her, from Crooked girl to stunning sorceress, and then her quest to have a child. The second season has a three new arcs for her. All characters have 3 arcs, and they’re much more intertwined. They also added more points of view to expand the world. Of course, there’s nothing that could be done because the first season was based on shorts and the second was based on a novel, episode 2-8 at least.
4. Jaskier was great as he was in the first season. I thought Fringilla was the most improved character. They fixed Ciri’s dissolving eyebrow problem from the first season.
5. Really looking forward to season 3, but hope it’s not another two years.