Charlie Hustle Posted December 23, 2019 Share Posted December 23, 2019 44 minutes ago, Veltigar said: 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. The timelines jumps back and forth.. I didnt figure that out until episode 4. And i played the games.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charlie Hustle Posted December 23, 2019 Share Posted December 23, 2019 Having played the games (which is one of the best stories i have ever played) and watched season one. Would it be a waste to buy the books off amazon? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ferocious Veldt Roarer Posted December 23, 2019 Share Posted December 23, 2019 44 minutes ago, Werthead said: I don't think this is true at all. Here's one source: https://comicbook.com/gaming/2019/12/21/call-of-duty-modern-warfare-battle-royale-mode-bug/ Quote "Ciri was a really tough casting process, and we actually started by looking at someone much much younger," Hissrich told ET. "Ciri in the books is around 11 and we started there, and very quickly we sort of aged up the process." 44 minutes ago, Werthead said: 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. Why would you say it's nowhere near four years? Not counting the short stories, the five novels span roughly a period between the end of one major war and the conclusion of the next one. Four years sound more or less right. Fan made timelines I find on the Internet place the battles of Cintra and Brenna five years apart. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ferocious Veldt Roarer Posted December 23, 2019 Share Posted December 23, 2019 3 minutes ago, Charlie Hustle said: The timelines jumps back and forth.. I didnt figure that out until episode 4. And i played the games.. Wasn't it spelled in very big letters in Ep 3, where appear both a middle-aged King Foltest, and a preteen Prince Foltest? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charlie Hustle Posted December 23, 2019 Share Posted December 23, 2019 1 minute ago, Ferocious Veldt Roarer said: Wasn't it spelled in very big letters in Ep 3, where appear both a middle-aged King Foltest, and a preteen Prince Foltest? Maybe so.. Too caught up in the story to pay attention. Until i noticed ciri's grandma was prancing around in the mess hall. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Centrist Simon Steele Posted December 23, 2019 Share Posted December 23, 2019 6 minutes ago, Charlie Hustle said: Having played the games (which is one of the best stories i have ever played) and watched season one. Would it be a waste to buy the books off amazon? I don't think so. I think at least try the Last Wish collection. Some of the things you'll know ahead of time, but I'll say this, if you ever go back to the games after the books, there is so much more you glean from things. When certain characters show up, you see them in an all new light. I personally love the books, though they plod at times. Geralt is the focus of the first book, and the other characters you know show up in later books. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Veltigar Posted December 23, 2019 Share Posted December 23, 2019 17 minutes ago, Ferocious Veldt Roarer said: Wasn't it spelled in very big letters in Ep 3, where appear both a middle-aged King Foltest, and a preteen Prince Foltest? Just finished that episode and you are right on the money. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maia Posted December 23, 2019 Share Posted December 23, 2019 28 minutes ago, Veltigar said: Particularly weirded out by the Yennifer storyline. I can only imagine how someone without any background whatsoever must experience this. I read the Striga story and played about half of the first "Witcher" game and was indeed very confused for the first couple of episodes, particularly since they didn't visibly age Jaskier from appearance to appearance to give me a hint of what was going on. I understood what was happening by the third episode, though. Having watched to the end, I have now googled some of the characters and honestly, it seems that in many cases their stories are super convoluted, contrived and corny even in the source material. Constantly invoked "Law of Surprise" and "Destiny", really? I enjoyed what we were shown of the mages, who seem to be a lot like Aes Sedai from WoT, but their powers and limitations seem to fluctuate wildly according to the needs of the plot. I also liked Geralt, with his library of grunts and Yennefer's Buildungsroman. Cintran plotline was the weakest, though I liked Calanthe (though her last battle seriously undermined her credibility as a warrior-queen) and Ciri was alright, too. Spoiler I really don't understand Yennefer's quest for fertility, though. I mean, there are tons of orphaned and unwanted children whom she could have adopted in that world. She clearly intended to do so with the baby princess who drowned, so why the sudden left turn? She didn't cover herself with glory in that whole episode, BTW, and didn't come across as particularly powerful. I thought that sterilization is what allowed her to do magic without pulling energy from things after her graduation? That it was a lump cost for everything? But then it was hinted that Geralt was son of a witch, so I don't know. Are male mages also sterile? They don't seem to be eunuchs... Also, what's the deal with Fringilla's suicidal acolytes? Are Nilfgaardians religious fanatics of some sort? And if mages are typically long-lived, how is it that her uncle was already on the council when she was a young student? Full marks for the creative and highly effective use of the portal spell! Did she somehow ensorcel Sabrina(? - the one who made those boys drop explosive vials) and the swordy mage? I guess Sabrina(?) could have been secretly a traitor, but the dude was fighting the Nilfgaardian commander for real... Why didn't Mousesack count as a court mage, BTW? They wouldn't do anything about Cintra because it supposedly didn't accept a mage, but he had been there since Ciri's parents wedding! Not that he turned out to be much use... Elves as pointy-eared humans are painful and it is unclear why they don't escape persecution by just cropping their ears. Also, how come that their magic didn't help them at all, when we saw that it can be very powerful? Are they vulnerable to iron or something? All in all, there is lots of room for improvement, but I was entertained. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ferocious Veldt Roarer Posted December 23, 2019 Share Posted December 23, 2019 25 minutes ago, Maia said: Spoiler Also, what's the deal with Fringilla's suicidal acolytes? Are Nilfgaardians religious fanatics of some sort? And if mages are typically long-lived, how is it that her uncle was already on the council when she was a young student? Full marks for the creative and highly effective use of the portal spell! Did she somehow ensorcel Sabrina(? - the one who made those boys drop explosive vials) and the swordy mage? I guess Sabrina(?) could have been secretly a traitor, but the dude was fighting the Nilfgaardian commander for real... Spoiler As for the disposable wizards - that was just silly. Silly, silly, silly. As for Sabrina "crossing sides" - first, there's a Very Important Metal Box, all but labeled "Chekhov's Gun". Seemed to be the bad guys' secret weapon. Then, the box is opened inside the walls and little black worms crawl out. And finally we get a shot of Sabrina with one of the worms up her ear. They probably stole it from "Star Trek". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maltaran Posted December 23, 2019 Share Posted December 23, 2019 22 hours ago, Zorral said: Hooooo-kay ... what is this White Flame I am suddenly hearing referenced? Is it a religion? a form of sorcery? a person? The White Flame Dancing On The Graves Of His Enemies is one of the titles of the Emperor of Nilfgaard (or possibly just a nickname for this specific Emperor) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gigei Posted December 23, 2019 Share Posted December 23, 2019 One thing that I liked in the books that wasn't in the TV show was the sense of melancholy of the Elder Races. Season 2 should be good for that. *crosses fingers* The Witcher world used to be covered in primeval forests inhabited by the dryads. The world was wild, untamed, and teeming with monsters. The witchers were created through magic and mutagenic herbs, mushrooms, etc. because they were needed to make the land safe for humans to live in. Now there's only one dryad forest, Brokilon. The monsters are also much fewer now, so much so that people think they don't even need witchers anymore. They omitted it in the dragon hunt story but in the books, there were regular humans (a shepherd? and a blacksmith?, I mean not even soldiers or knights, just regular people) who were convinced they could kill the dragon themselves. They poisoned a sheep that the dragon ate. Hence the people harassing Geralt. Witchers don't get much respect in the current era unless the people have a really pressing need for their services, and even then when the witcher is done with the monster killing, they still prefer that the witcher go away right afterwards. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
karaddin Posted December 23, 2019 Share Posted December 23, 2019 2 hours ago, Ferocious Veldt Roarer said: Wasn't it spelled in very big letters in Ep 3, where appear both a middle-aged King Foltest, and a preteen Prince Foltest? Yeah, i suspected at the start of the 3rd episode that there were significant time skips for Geralts story and we were seeing the rise of his fame with the bards tales spreading. It only made sense that the same was happening with Yen's story and they were both well before Citi. King Foltest then confirmed that Yen was even earlier than Geralt - 20-30 years earlier. There are also indications of them both bring significantly earlier that Ciri in the discussions of the geopolitics of the time, with Nilfgaard not being treated as a threat and Cintra the major power. This is all then solidified when Geralt goes to court and pegs his time at that point to another 30ish years before Citi. I assumed the times would converge and they did. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zorral Posted December 23, 2019 Share Posted December 23, 2019 Tor.com weighs in -- and is a confused as everybody else. Even after trying to read, the poster said, an unreadable book. https://www.tor.com/2019/12/23/to-prepare-for-the-witcher-i-read-the-book-it-didnt-help/#more-534491 Also very off put by the sexism and rape. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Werthead Posted December 24, 2019 Share Posted December 24, 2019 3 hours ago, Ferocious Veldt Roarer said: Why would you say it's nowhere near four years? Not counting the short stories, the five novels span roughly a period between the end of one major war and the conclusion of the next one. Four years sound more or less right. Fan made timelines I find on the Internet place the battles of Cintra and Brenna five years apart. For the entire saga, yes, but not between the end of Sword of Destiny and the end of Time of Contempt, where the action is more or less continuous with no timeline breaks. After that point there is more scope for longer breaks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Centrist Simon Steele Posted December 24, 2019 Share Posted December 24, 2019 2 hours ago, Zorral said: Tor.com weighs in -- and is a confused as everybody else. Even after trying to read, the poster said, an unreadable book. https://www.tor.com/2019/12/23/to-prepare-for-the-witcher-i-read-the-book-it-didnt-help/#more-534491 Also very off put by the sexism and rape. I'm not sure I agree with their assessment of the book. But to each their own. In terms of sexual violence, it is far tamer than Game of Thrones, but sexism? I don't know. I feel like they're wrong, but I'm a white male, and I honestly think that makes it harder for me to say, "No. No sexism here." Edit: I did start a rewatch with my son. Since he hadn't read the books, I was curious to see what he thought. He enjoyed it. He really likes Henry Cavill in this, and he thinks the show was fun. He likes the philosophical nature of good/evil/neutral, etc. I noticed this time the little hints about the time discrepancy. Ciri saying to her grandmother "you were my age when you won the Battle of (something I forget)." And then in another scene, Renfri says, "Calanthe just won the Battle of (something I forget)" suggesting that when the Blaviken episode takes place when Calanthe is 15 years old. I didn't catch these little hints, and I suspect that Hirsch built this to be re-watchable, so to speak. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mladen Posted December 24, 2019 Share Posted December 24, 2019 Honestly, it wasn't as sexy as it could (should, perhaps?) have been. Those orgies remind me of the "sexposition" days of Game of Thrones. The nudity could have been handled better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ran Posted December 24, 2019 Share Posted December 24, 2019 4 hours ago, Simon Steele said: I didn't catch these little hints, and I suspect that Hirsch built this to be re-watchable, so to speak. It was fun for me, as I noticed the details and realized part of the fun was trying to piece together the timeline. Ciri's obviously in the forefront, but then figuring out the distance between Yennefer and Geralt, and they from her, was something that had hints in each episode. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gertrude Posted December 24, 2019 Share Posted December 24, 2019 There's a lot being made of the time-line and I don't think it's a big deal. Like Ran said, it was fun once you figured out it was a thing. That wasn't as confusing as book/game fans think it was. My main complaint is just the story and tone, which I don't see many people respond to. (Some reviews do, but that's not what the commenters latch onto - they are eager to talk about the time jumps and why they are or are not confusing to new watchers) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Antony Posted December 24, 2019 Share Posted December 24, 2019 Yeah the timeline stuff is maybe confusing for two episodes. Made pretty clear in eps 3-4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Philokles Posted December 24, 2019 Share Posted December 24, 2019 I hadn’t read the books or played the games and also found that the time jumps weren’t too hard to figure out. I realised Ciri was ahead of the others when Mousesack, I think, mentioned Stregobor’s purge as being long ago in episode 1. I wouldn’t necessarily have organised it that way - Yen’s character goes through so much change in her first 2 or 3 episodes in ‘real time’. I think her story would have worked better as a flashback after Geralt meets her. At least Geralt’s character remains relatively stable in the 30ish(?) years covered in the series. In regards to Ciri’s age, Geralt says he has been away for 12 years when returning to Cintra - so I don’t think they actually aged the character up when casting someone older. Unless Geralt has lost track of the years that does seem extreme as Freya Allen looks a lot older than 11 (IMDb says she’s 18). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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