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The Witcher: Evil is Evil


AncalagonTheBlack

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@Zorral

Sapkowski has written a historical series set in 15th century Poland, and I'm sure is very aware and familiar with the history of the region. I'm not sure how far it expresses itself in The Witcher, though this article at Polygon draws a lot of assumed connections between the material and Polish history.

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1 minute ago, Ran said:

 this article at Polygon draws a lot of assumed connections between the material and Polish history.

Thank you -- there was something about this (found the books unreadable like the WoT books, so am nonbooker for this series also) that constantly brings to mind for me those times in this region of our world.

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Vulture already reviewed the first 6 episodes (w/0o spoilers, I think) --  iirc, it was in Vulture. Or the NYT? Operative word, was, iirc, 'thin.' Followed by 'stretched', 'confusing', and 'darker'. Some weak praise.  Forbes says it improves on season 1.  Agreed on mourning loss of quippery and smartassery, and no scenes of Cavill in hot tub.  :lol:

 

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I'm laying sick in bed (couldn't even sleep because I felt so shit all the night), so I might be among the firsts who already finished with E8. 

No spoilers included. But of course I don't intend the whole discussion to remain spoiler free. 

So, not familiar with the source material, or anything, just watched it. I found S1 pretty good, so obviously: I jumped on it. Observing the whole picture, it was good, it improved. It ain't perfect, tho. I expected more improvement: sometimes the amount of CGI they delivered wasa little bit too much (says the guy who enjoys watching SW prequels), the story was simple yet we didn't get to walk around it properly. The story makes you over- or underestimate most problems (which can be annoying at some point), sometimes the central conflict flows a strange way, and it never lets you enjoy small things. Given the amount of important characters with an active role this season, there could have been 10 episodes a well giving the whole thing almost two more hours to show and explain itself. Character dynamics would've benefited from this the most I guess, along with backgrounds if certain things, places, entities and characters. 

May sound bad, but overall, it was pretty good.

Didn't expect to be thrown into such deep water (I have yet to decide if that's a positive thing or not). 

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As someone who has read the first 4 novels, there is a lot of filler or stuff Netflix made up, that's not in the book I should say. More so then season 1 and there was a lot of that the first time around. It seems to me, they are trying to add as many monster kills and action scenes as possible. I'm watching the ending of the 8th episode now and this entire epic battle wasn't even in the novel.

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On 12/16/2021 at 7:39 PM, DireWolfSpirit said:

I think I read a lot of the first season was filmed around the Budapest region.

Indeed! Henry Cavill used to go to my former hair dresser’s other client’s mate’s gym :lol: I never once spotted him though, but he really enjoyed his time here if his social media at the time is to be believed and that made me very happy. 
 

I watched the first two episodes and I think the show is better than the books. It was a delight. 

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11 hours ago, GallowKnight said:
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They did my boy Eskel dirty

 

I take he is someone more important in the books/games?

The 2nd episode was solid, and I noticed a significant improvement of the soundtrack. It seems they got a new composer.

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By the way, what's up with these Elven names? So we had Filavandrel (did they recast?) and now we have Francesca and Gage. lol 

Peter Jackson was the only one who managed to make Elves look more otherworldly. The rest are generally very pedestrian, just guys with pointy ears.

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I've seen the first three episodes so far. Generally a moderate improvement over Season 1, even if the internal politics of the sorcerers are completely somnambulant and the TV show is inexplicably focusing on them far more than in the books. Big improvements in production quality, especially CGI and costumes. Also intrigued that Kaer Morhen seems much more overtly influenced/inspired by the video games then anything else we've seen so far. Given CDPR and Netflix's collaborations in marketing, it makes me wonder if Netflix will pick up the game rights and adapt those stories as well.

Bit weird that Eskel, a relatively major character in the books and games, was introduced purely to kill him off five seconds later. That seems random.

16 hours ago, sifth said:

As someone who has read the first 4 novels, there is a lot of filler or stuff Netflix made up, that's not in the book I should say. More so then season 1 and there was a lot of that the first time around. It seems to me, they are trying to add as many monster kills and action scenes as possible. I'm watching the ending of the 8th episode now and this entire epic battle wasn't even in the novel.

The books are super-short (at least compared to the epic fantasy norm). If they were faithful to the novels, they'd adapt at least two, if not three books a season and the show would be over in 2-3 seasons, so I can see why they stuck to a slower pace and added more side-missions.

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I take he is someone more important in the books/games?

Not hugely, but he doesn't die five seconds after we meet him.

Spoiler

In the book canon, he is Geralt's best friend at Kaer Morhen and helps out with training Ciri. He has an edge and is a bit of an arsehole, but is also loyal when push comes to shove.

In the games he gets an expanded and more heroic role, helping defend Kaer Morhen against the Wild Hunt. When Vesemir falls in battle, Eskel becomes the new leader of the Witchers.

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By the way, what's up with these Elven names? So we had Filavandrel (did they recast?) and now we have Francesca and Gage. lol 

Elves have elven names and a human-sounding, easier-to-pronounce name. Francesa Findabair's real name is Enid an Gleanna.

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Peter Jackson was the only one who managed to make Elves look more otherworldly. The rest are generally very pedestrian, just guys with pointy ears.

Yeah, the elves are slightly better this time around. Haven't seen any dwarves yet, they were fucking terrible in Season 1.

However, it is a point of Sapkowski's that his elves are just ordinary people, they're not superhuman and they don't have too many inhuman abilities apart from a greater (but not immortal) lifespan and a greater sensitivity to magic and the natural world. If you told Sapkowski his elves are not like Tolkien's, he'd take that as a compliment.

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@Werthead

They're similar lengths to the Expanse novels and that show does a really good job of managing it's story, without adding too much filler. I honestly think it's a case of Netflix wanting at least one major action scene in each episode, which the books just don't have.

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1 hour ago, sifth said:

@Werthead

They're similar lengths to the Expanse novels and that show does a really good job of managing it's story, without adding too much filler. I honestly think it's a case of Netflix wanting at least one major action scene in each episode, which the books just don't have.

The Expanse novels are all almost uniformly 530 pages in hardcover, over 600 pages in paperback. The shortest Witcher book is around 350 pages in paperback and the longest is around 500. The Expanse books are a lot bigger and they have a hell of a lot more going on. The Witcher books are much more languid in pace (at least the novels are, the short stories are much better-paced).

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17 minutes ago, Werthead said:

The Expanse novels are all almost uniformly 530 pages in hardcover, over 600 pages in paperback. The shortest Witcher book is around 350 pages in paperback and the longest is around 500. The Expanse books are a lot bigger and they have a hell of a lot more going on. The Witcher books are much more languid in pace (at least the novels are, the short stories are much better-paced).

Season one of the Expanse didn't even cover the entire first novel, just the first 2/3's. So that's about 350 pages give or take. Season two of the Expanse covered the remaining 1/3 of the first book and the first 2/3's of the second novel. Season 3 did something really amazing and covered the remaining 1/3 of the second book and all of the third book.

I honestly think having little to no filler makes for a better paced story and is one of the reasons why I view Robocop as one of the greatest films ever made, despite it only being a little over 90 minutes long.

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