The Witcher on Netflix 2: Man of steel and silver

[Trigger Warning]

5 hours ago, Ran said:

Saw this linked on Reddit and thought it was interesting: the Butchering of Blaviken scene in the Polish TV version of The Witcher (called The Hexer). Geralt's actor there actually dubs Cavill for the Polish audio of the TV show:

They actually had some neat armor and weapon design. Surprised by Geralt's sword being a saber, but very much fitting for Poland's history. Also, whoever directed this was very clearly a fan of Japanese chanbara films.

I wish more shows would use chainmail, plate and leather almost always end up looking goofy but slap some mail in there and I'm convinced. 

[Corvinus85]

What a weird show. I just finished it. I actually enjoyed it more than I thought I would, but I recognize its flaws, and there are many.

It had its solid moments. When the storylines were miles apart, each one had enjoyable stuff. Sometimes common themes linked the storylines, but that's it. I have no idea why they chose to have such a disjointed narrative, and the final episode was, in general, a let down. Even as the puzzle was starting to come together, the pieces were put in place in a rushed manner.

I'm also concerned about how much is Netflix is really willing to invest in this. Given the property's popularity, and with only 8 episodes, it should have looked better. Other Netflix shows, like Altered Carbon and Lost in Space look superb, while this one looks almost like SyFy could have made it. 

I did like most of the characters, other than the apparent villains, and that's mainly because of so little background was given to them. Henry Cavill was the best part of the whole show. I also liked the bard. He provided some much needed humor to all this.

[Centrist Simon Steele]

5 hours ago, Gertrude said:

  Hide contents

If she doesn't run then they just meet in the yard and they can't meet in the yard. She's the Girl in the Woods for pete's sake. Maybe Geralt wouldn't recognize her if she's not surrounded by green leaves and softly dappled sunlight?

 

Because of how much they skipped, they couldn't do this scene properly. But done properly (as in the books), it's a truly powerful moment. Books below if you're interested in it:

Spoiler

Geralt spends much of the second series of short stories finding Ciri the first time, a runaway from her royal family who goes into hiding in Brokilon forest. When he finds her, she's about to be eaten by some foul thing, and Geralt saves her, then takes her home. I can't remember the details, but the child surprise stuff is relevant, and Geralt's doing the Geralt thing of denying destiny. He gets back to Calanthe, I believe they have a nice conversation, and he leaves Ciri there. Though I do believe on their journey back to Cintra, Ciri pushes Geralt on her being his destiny and he denies it.

Cintra is sacked, Ciri's adventures are rough, and she does end up at the farm, and eventually, too, Geralt arrives, brought there by the grave scavanger and promising Geralt the right of surprise. For a guy who hates destiny, he sure takes up that right of surprise any time it is offered. Basically he arrives, and well...let me just paste the moment below, understanding Geralt and Ciri have a history now. Geralt sees her while riding in the back of the cart, and this is what happens:

"They came together in the centre of the farmyard. The mousy-haired girl in a grey dress. And the white haired Witcher with a sword on his back, all dressed in black leather, gleaming with silver. The Witcher bounding softly, the girl trotting, the Witcher on his knees, and the girl's thin hands around his neck, the mousy hair on his shoulders. Goldencheeks shrieked softly. Yurga hugged his rosy-cheeked wife when she cried out softly, pulling her towards him without a word, and gathered up and hugged both boys.

 "Geralt!" the little girl repeated, clinging to the Witcher's chest. "You found me! I knew you would! I always knew! I know you'd find me."

"Ciri," said the Witcher.

Yurga could not see his face hidden among the mousy hair. he saw hands in black gloves squeezing the girl's back and shoulders. 

"You found me! Oh, Geralt! I was waiting all the time! For so very long...We'll be together now, won't we? Now we'll be together, won't we? Say it, Geralt! Forever! Say it!"

"Forever Ciri."

"It's like they said! Geralt! It's like they said! Am I your destiny? Say it! Am I your destiny?"

Yurga saw the Witcher's eyes. And was very astonished. He heard his wife's soft weeping, felt the trembling of her shoulders. He looked at the Witchr and waited, tensed, for his answer. He knew he would not understand it, but he waited for it. And heard it.

"You're more than that, Ciri. Much more."

It'd be like if Arya's story in Clash of Kings/Storm of Swords ended with Jon coming to her at that worst moment of the Red Wedding. Or something.

I guess my overall review for the season (finished it tonight) is that it's fine. I will watch it and always see what they didn't do and then be equally mystified by what they created in place of excellent details. This was my big problem with the Game of Thrones tv series, and why I hated that. Something about the Witcher, however, holds me enough that I do not hate it. I see enough good in it and hope for the future. I'm sad about all the stories skipped and we presumably will not get, but when they are combining scenes from the first three books in the series (Ciri's escape from Cintra is the prologue of the third book), things will be cut.

I suppose they didn't believe audiences would follow an aimless monster of the week story with no BIG story the first season. I disagree. A hint of a bigger story could be there (the looming war and the sides trying to pull Geralt to their side), but the Mandalorian has shown adventures of the week still can work.

Edit: And about that ending you spoiler tagged:

Spoiler

He could only find her in the woods because Renfri said so? I mean, the showrunners went to extra trouble to make this convoluted. The only reason Geralt and Ciri couldn't meet in the yard is because of something the showrunners added in the first episode that was beyond confusing in the moment.

 

[Centrist Simon Steele]

4 hours ago, Corvinus said:

What a weird show. I just finished it. I actually enjoyed it more than I thought I would, but I recognize its flaws, and there are many.

It had its solid moments. When the storylines were miles apart, each one had enjoyable stuff. Sometimes common themes linked the storylines, but that's it. I have no idea why they chose to have such a disjointed narrative, and the final episode was, in general, a let down. Even as the puzzle was starting to come together, the pieces were put in place in a rushed manner.

I'm also concerned about how much is Netflix is really willing to invest in this. Given the property's popularity, and with only 8 episodes, it should have looked better. Other Netflix shows, like Altered Carbon and Lost in Space look superb, while this one looks almost like SyFy could have made it. 

I did like most of the characters, other than the apparent villains, and that's mainly because of so little background was given to them. Henry Cavill was the best part of the whole show. I also liked the bard. He provided some much needed humor to all this.

The Bard. I'll never understand why they reverted his name to Jaskier (as it was pre-English translation) and not keep the silly English name of Dandelion, which was pronounced by the reader of the audiobook as Dan-dillyon. Alas.

[BigFatCoward]

10 hours ago, Werthead said:

 

That reminds me that Season 4 of The Last Kingdom should be on Netflix soon-ish.

Which books is s4 covering? 

[Seli]

1 hour ago, Simon Steele said:

The Bard. I'll never understand why they reverted his name to Jaskier (as it was pre-English translation) and not keep the silly English name of Dandelion, which was pronounced by the reader of the audiobook as Dan-dillyon. Alas.

Even more fun, at least in some cases the Dutch subtitles use the Polish names while the dialogue uses the English version, the one I most notice it with is Roach subtitled as Płotka.

[Werthead]

2 hours ago, BigFatCoward said:

Which books is s4 covering? 

The Pagan Lord and The Empty Throne.

[Gertrude]

3 hours ago, Simon Steele said:

Edit: And about that ending you spoiler tagged:

  Hide contents

He could only find her in the woods because Renfri said so? I mean, the showrunners went to extra trouble to make this convoluted. The only reason Geralt and Ciri couldn't meet in the yard is because of something the showrunners added in the first episode that was beyond confusing in the moment.

 

My response was firmly tongue in cheek and I recognize that it's contrived.

 

As for the Bard - I don't care what his name is, he's super annoying and not in a particularly endearing way at this point.

[Corvinus85]

4 hours ago, Simon Steele said:

The Bard. I'll never understand why they reverted his name to Jaskier (as it was pre-English translation) and not keep the silly English name of Dandelion, which was pronounced by the reader of the audiobook as Dan-dillyon. Alas.

Oh, so that was Dandelion. I had heard the name, and kept waiting for the character to appear. 

[Veltigar]

4 hours ago, BigFatCoward said:

Which books is s4 covering? 

This is what I love about TLK; It is so good that whenever it is brought up in the thread of inferior series like Vikings or The Witcher someone has to ask for an update about it  Shows that it is quality. 

[Gertrude]

I liked the Last Kingdom for a while, but I can't remember why I lost interest. It was toooo ... something. *shrug*

[Mark Antony]

1 hour ago, Gertrude said:

I liked the Last Kingdom for a while, but I can't remember why I lost interest. It was toooo ... something. *shrug*

Awesome?  

[Zorral]

Spoiler

 

 "Geralt!" the little girl repeated, clinging to the Witcher's chest. "You found me! I knew you would! I always knew! I know you'd find me."

"Ciri," said the Witcher.

 

Spoiler

5 hours ago, Werthead said:

The Pagan Lord and The Empty Throne.

Omigawd -- Ciri's a child?  She is very young in the show, but she's not a child.  The difference between print Ciri and show Ciri changes so much -- it has to.  Good grief.  Why did they change her to late adolescence from child?

 

[Zorral]

3 hours ago, Veltigar said:

This is what I love about TLK; It is so good that whenever it is brought up in the thread of inferior series like Vikings or The Witcher someone has to ask for an update about it  Shows that it is quality. 

I just read book #12 over the weekend -- Cornwell's books are short and to the point all right. The point of this one is non-stop action and fighting, and Uhtred being called "grandpa" by those who don't know to whom they are speaking -- except, of course, the baddest big ugly vile warrior, whom he must defeat.  Baddest Big knows Uhtred is Uhtred and can't wait to kill grandpa.  Ha!  However, he is feeling his age.  It does look as though there shall be at least two volumes after this -- and they'd better be quick, because he really hasn't got much time . . . .

Spoiler

He conveniently loses yet another wife so he can hook up guilt-free (he was vaguely wondering about this problem the moment he lays eyes on New Sexy) now with the New Sexy though he is grandpa ... but that's OK because he dreams of meeting up with Gisela again in Valhalla.

 

[Ferocious Veldt Roarer]

1 hour ago, Zorral said:

Omigawd -- Ciri's a child?  She is very young in the show, but she's not a child.  The difference between print Ciri and show Ciri changes so much -- it has to.  Good grief.  Why did they change her to late adolescence from child?

From what I've read, casting problems - they couldn't find a good child!Ciri, so they rewrote the part into a teenager!Ciri.

[Centrist Simon Steele]

7 hours ago, Gertrude said:

My response was firmly tongue in cheek and I recognize that it's contrived.

 

As for the Bard - I don't care what his name is, he's super annoying and not in a particularly endearing way at this point.

I took your meaning that way--I think I was so excited rereading that scene from the book, I wasn't clear. The contrivance of her running into the woods then running back to him seemed really...I don't know even know how to explain it, and I was agreeing with you.

[Centrist Simon Steele]

7 hours ago, Corvinus said:

Oh, so that was Dandelion. I had heard the name, and kept waiting for the character to appear. 

That's funny, you reminded me that I did the same--in the U.S. the publisher released like six of the books in English, but they skipped the second book because it was a collection of short stories. So I found a fan translation online (it's actually a fantastic translation, much better than the official ones, I think), and they used the name Jaskier. The short story about the golden dragon, I kept thinking, who the fuck is this Jaskier guy being jammed down our throats? We already have a goofy bard.

I think I didn't make the connection for much longer than it should have taken for me to piece it together.

[Centrist Simon Steele]

2 hours ago, Zorral said:

  Hide contents

 

 "Geralt!" the little girl repeated, clinging to the Witcher's chest. "You found me! I knew you would! I always knew! I know you'd find me."

"Ciri," said the Witcher.

 

  Hide contents

Omigawd -- Ciri's a child?  She is very young in the show, but she's not a child.  The difference between print Ciri and show Ciri changes so much -- it has to.  Good grief.  Why did they change her to late adolescence from child?

 

Spoiler

It was a strange change. She was probably Arya's age in Game of Thrones, and very similar in character, to be honest. I can speculate on why they changed it, but that'd veer into book spoilers that haven't happened. I think the girl who played Ciri was really good, so I got over it, but yeah, it was rather jarring.

 

[Werthead]

3 hours ago, Ferocious Veldt Roarer said:

From what I've read, casting problems - they couldn't find a good child!Ciri, so they rewrote the part into a teenager!Ciri.

I don't think this is true at all.

The books have an anomalous discrepancy that when Ciri first shows up she appears to be about 11-12, but then she's getting into much more adult situations and I believe at one point is directly said to be 16, when the time that passes in the books is nowhere near four years. Possibly continuity error on Sapkowski's part, which they've solved by just casting older to start with.

[Veltigar]

Just finished the second episode. What a confusing mess of storylines and they don't really appear connected at all. Particularly weirded out by the Yennifer storyline. I can only imagine how someone without any background whatsoever must experience this.