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Netflix's The Witcher TV Series


TheVileOne

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On 10/31/2018 at 1:36 PM, J.T. said:

Why does Geralt look like a well fed and properly hydrated Elric of Melibone and not in a good way?

So he fucked up and sported a moustache that pretty much destroyed his career as Superman, and here he is clean shaven in a role where he'd probably would look 1000% better with some sort of facial hair.

 

You're not the first guy to make the Geralt and Elric of Melibone comparisons. Some have even accused Sapkowski of plagiarism.

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6 hours ago, EVA said:

Well, @TheVileOne?  Surely you’ve seen this by now.

Yes, I have.

I'm generally happy with it. Cavill is actually a good Geralt. Anya Chalotra is a great Yennefer, and Joey Batey is my MVP of the show as Jaskier. Freya Allan seems pretty decent so far as Ciri. So far, my main letdowns are Triss, Fringilla, and Cahir. I get why some of the changes are made. Specifically, Nilfgaard is basically the Empire now when in The Witcher, things were never that black and white. I see what they are going to do with Cahir, but starting him off as a religious fanatic and sociopath wearing penis armor did not work for me.

Action and stunts are good. The Striga fight was captured fairly well. The show actually maintains the magic and fantasy elements from the books, while some of the rules have been significantly altered. CG visuals were a bit of a mixed bag, you could see that's where the edges of the budget were. Some looked OK, others they were clearly very limited.

Cavill clearly cared more about this role than he ever did Superman, and it shows. This was a character he actually wanted to play. 

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I'm three eps in and fucking love it.  I have gotten over how Geralt is equal parts Elric of Melibone, Mr. Spock, and a main character from a Monster Hunter game.  It is what it is.

it is odd how Henry Cavill is still his old wooden self but somehow his demeaner speaks volumes in this particular role.  I love how Geralt does violent and inappropriate things that a normal person pushed to the limit would do like punch mouthy bards in the stomach or headbutt abusive elves.  He wobble legged the shit out of that female elf and I laughed my ass off.

And what Vile One said.  I am totally hooked on Yennefer's side tale and Jasker is a perfect foil for Geralt.

The fight choreography is also 100% badass.  My hat's off to the swordmaster.

 

Edited by J.T.
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Yennefer's backstory was a great addition.  Jasker's just perfect.  I've seen critiques of people going on about Cavill's actiing but he hits Geralt pretty much dead on to the boots (you know, aside from being buff and attractive).

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On 12/24/2019 at 10:14 PM, Eivion said:

Never played the games outside of half an hour of 3, and I never read the books. Enjoyed it a good deal.

We're six hours in. I've never played any of this. We enjoy it a lot. Granted, we did come in forewarned about the time issue.

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So yeah, this was pretty great. Cavill absolutely nailed it and casting turned out to be great as a whole after not being so sure on appearances alone. I feel like the show was at its best when it was dealing with small scale stories rather than the big wars like the first and last episodes. For me, the striga episode was the best and felt like it was straight out of the game (and yes I know that wasn't their source material). Had the dark twist on a fairy tale that the setting does so well. The mage warz conversely felt really weak and had little emotional Impact. I'll probably check out the books sometime between now and season 2.

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I'm not reading anything else in here, but help settle a discussion between my wife and me: Are there 2 or 3 different timelines happening here? I'm off the opinion that there are three, but I'm only up to episode 4.

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49 minutes ago, Craig H said:

I'm not reading anything else in here, but help settle a discussion between my wife and me: Are there 2 or 3 different timelines happening here? I'm off the opinion that there are three, but I'm only up to episode 4.

Ciri's is linear. Everything else is before it but makes frequent leaps towards Ciri's.

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2 hours ago, Craig H said:

I'm not reading anything else in here, but help settle a discussion between my wife and me: Are there 2 or 3 different timelines happening here? I'm off the opinion that there are three, but I'm only up to episode 4.

Three.

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I read a mostly awesome article comparing The Witcher to GoT, but it's so much more than that. It does an excellent job of talking to the video game-y nature of the show even though they say they mostly drew upon the books for source material. I think it does somewhat of a disservice to the show but the author does point out that it's not dumb but it does embrace its preposterous nature. She also really down plays the strength of Game of Thrones through the first 4 or 5 seasons to be fair. Still a fun, brief read!

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5 hours ago, TheVileOne said:

 thus Anya Chalotra > Emilia Clarke. 

In the question of "Who is more awesome:  Venus or Aphrodite?" I think the answer is both.

And yes, the series seems to draw more inspiration from the games rather than the novels.  Fringilla and Cahir are definitely nowhere near close in thematic accuracy to their literary counterparts.

Edited by J.T.
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13 hours ago, Matt D said:

Ciri's is linear. Everything else is before it but makes frequent leaps towards Ciri's.

Yeah, Ciri's the "current" story, Geralt's and Yenn's are backstories then everything sync's up by the end.

 

 

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7 hours ago, J.T. said:

In the question of "Who is more awesome:  Venus or Aphrodite?" I think the answer is both.

And yes, the series seems to draw more inspiration from the games rather than the novels.  Fringilla and Cahir are definitely nowhere near close in thematic accuracy to their literary counterparts.

Just some inter-fandom banter noting how The Witcher kept Yennefer's violet eyes, while poking at Game of Thrones eliminated that aspect ? 

Quote

Yeah, Ciri's the "current" story, Geralt's and Yenn's are backstories then everything sync's up by the end.

I can see why people would find this narrative jarring. There are multiple timelines being shown on screen, and the show makes it appear as if they they are happening at the same time, but the narrative leaves you bread crumbs or dialogue markers to show approximately when they are happening and the gaps in between. 

And it doesn't become all that noticeable until Episode 3 with the ball at Aretuza. I enjoyed it because it made the show feel different. I felt it gave this season a bit of an edge. 

When Calanthe told her retainers to get the guy in the jail, I figured, 'Oh that must be Geralt and Geralt is already in Cintra,' but he was already gone when they went to retrieve him. I thought that was a pretty good payoff toward the end of the season.

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10 minutes ago, TheVileOne said:

Just some inter-fandom banter noting how The Witcher kept Yennefer's violet eyes, while poking at Game of Thrones eliminated that aspect ? 

I

The answer is simple: Hissrich > D&D

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