The Witcher Season 2 is... Something Else
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- Опубліковано 26 чер 2024
- The Witcher Season 2 is out on Netflix... let's talk about it.
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Witcher Season 2 - Netflix: Today, we cover the new season of 'The Witcher' on Netflix. Is it good? Is it a trainwreck? A bit of both?
0:00 Hello there
0:30 Henry Cavill
0:45 A Grain of Truth
1:25 Tissaia
1:49 Djikstra
2:11 Rience
3:01 Oof
3:09 Geralt & Jaskier
3:48 the visuals
4:00 frustration
6:43 something more
7:46 Eskel
9:31 future videos // goodbye
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"We aren't off the rails, we're on a different track" is a very, VERY apt description of this season.
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@@zwabbah4841 .
I find creative liberties should be taken to prevent something from being a copy and paste of the source material, but witcher season 2 - took it too far.
I very much preferred the different track compared to the first season.
The path of the woke
I think what killed me the most about this season is how many characters acted like completely different people. Vesemir would never even entertain the idea of hurting Ciri. Eskel is one of the nicest witchers there is. Triss wouldn’t betray Ciri either. It all just felt so far off from how it should be
I was so confused when I saw Eskel in the show. I've only played the games, so I've only ever known him to be a pretty chill hunky dude. I did not recognize him at all when he entered the stage as this ratty looking bastard.
@@FilthyNobeard you know what's the worst part. To people who don't read the books, or played the games. Eskel was just some weird jerk that suddenly died, new people wouldn't care about his death. So it's just generally pointless because it makes fans dissappointed and made new watchers just confused or unbothered.
@@FilthyNobeard but you have to admit, that you can t compare the Games to the books ... cause they are not canon
@@abilawaandamari8366 Exactly what happened to me. Never read the books and haven't gotten to Eskel in the Witcher 3 and when he died in the show I was relieved because he was such dick. Now I'm just confused after learning he was one of the nicest witchers and was completely different in his other adaptations. Thank you screen writers......Henry Cavill is the only thing holding this show up, everything else is just mehh in Season 2. And my God I hate the elves in this universe like wtf, I usually like them in other fantasy worlds but not Witcher's.
Triss definitely would betray Ciri in this part of the story right? Not sure if you're familiar with the book story but if I remember correctly she and other sorceresses had lots of plans for Ciri
Knowing Henry Cavill, he’ll probably take criticisms like this seriously and fight for S3 to be better and closer to the books.
Well, netflix was ready to kill a major supporting character of the book who was also loved by many witcher fans , eskel. I have a feeling they will do the same thing they had done with cowboy bebop
Yeah you know him...
Honestly I wish that was true, but ultimately he's got little to no say in what direction the show will go heck the showrunner don't even consult the Author for it.
They have changed plot and characters soo much that I am afraid it's not possible to comeback to source material anymore.
Henry has no power. Why ppl attack actors is beyond me
Henry Caville as Geralt is like the same situation with Andrew Garfield as Spider-Man. Both love the character but the production wasn't in line with their enthusiasm.
No wonder Henry is that built and muscular, he's carrying this entire shit show on his shoulders
@@Pingwinho he was amazing as Geralt tho
@@Pingwinho a character in a book will never be able to translate identically to screen, the mediums are just fundamentally too different. Its why you dont see the most famous authors also being the most famous film makers. If its a side character then it might be possible but with the main cast who get the majority of focus, all that depth can never be translated perfectly to screen. The geralt we got is definitely stiff and lacking but is undoubtably GERALT. Which is enough. If you reply to this please dont type 10 paragraphs
@@Pingwinho no I just really don’t care that much, I didn’t even read all of your first reply, personally think it was wasted effort, you should make a blog or something, don’t waste all that effort in a UA-cam comments section
@@Pingwinho His lines probably have to do more with the writing rather than Cavill’s acting. Coming from someone who played the games first, I think he did as good a job as anyone could’ve done for geralt
@@Pingwinho stop the cap man
Henry Cavill seems like he's carrying this whole show on his shoulders...the man deserves credit where its due. He's working with a faulty script and honestly his scenes are the best and most interesting.
Henry Cavill has always been given a faulty script and has always performed phenomenally, I have hopes for S3 being faithful to the games and books with Henry’s more experienced point of view
Scripts perfectly fine. Critics love it. Deal with it. They don't need to follow the script if what they're putting on screen works. Loved the video games and love the show.
@Cthulhu That's true. I respect a lot of the actors who definitely work hard in their performances...it's just that the writing can get in the way sometimes.
Weirdly enough my favorite episode is the one where we see the least amount of cast members (1st episode) that episode felt so Witcher the episodes after that were all downhill.
@@davidhutch307 twittard moment
That's actually a great point about Eskel, I would have loved to see him bonding more with Ciri while she's training. That would have made his death a lot more impactful
Exactly
Dude season 2 was just badly written. There was so much non-sensical character development, with Yennefer's especially being weird as hell. Not to mention the whole plot felt like a weird fever dream of randomly put together events.
@@weasle2904 I could understand why you feel that way, though I still enjoyed it a lot. Decided to order the "time of contempt" book because of it:)
@@weasle2904 This is the best description of how I feel about the show so far. Yennefer almost felt like a completely different version from what we had in Season 1. I also thinking having her be powerless the ENTIRE season was a waste. I understand they're setting this up to be a long story with many seasons, but if it fails to meet numbers and is cut short, we'll be left with a half baked story.
Wait they killed Eskel? Those motherfuckers...
- Drop the chaos storyline
- Cut screentime to half for the lodge
- Focus on vesemir, jaskier, Ciri, Yen, & Geralt. It's The Witcher not GOT.
- More monsters ( the path )
- Focus more on character interaction, don't "walking dead it" panning out the screentime with sh*t no one cares about
- Use the books/games as a resource to better direct how the story should unfold. The ground work is already there, use it.
Cut Fringilla out completely and pick back up with her in season 5 or 6. They chose a mage with extremely little source material to make a main character and it shows.
last line is not possible anymore, I think director might be woke, since gaunter odim is a woman.
@@godsoffice5714 Or not woke, since the woman is a deceiving witch. Like a lot of women these days haha
@Seer-of-things end true lol
@@MrArjanOskam Yeah, at my place it's complicated... Maybe.
Laura said that the reason she killed Eskel was bc it was supposed to give Geralt a sense of urgency to quickly stop accidents like that to happen again and possibly to Ciri. Honestly, I feel the same way as you did. When he died, I felt nothing. If he died in a later episode after we see more of his TRUE personality. Would've cried as much as I did when Roach died (which was the only time)
She lied. I suspect they killed Eskel so that Coen could replace him and keep that diversity box checked.
@@MegaKurgen Doubtful... They could've just casted Eskel as a POC if that's what they wanted... Wouldn't have been the first character casted as a different race.
@@Hieiman The problem with that is they would not have killed him then.
What was really disappointing for me was to see such a asshole representation of the character only to have him come up briefly in a flashback almost accurately depicted,Lauren is insane I wish they would fire her from the show
@@DangleSan He was infected by a leshy. That's why he was acting so aggressively towards Ciri and Geralt. He was already changing by the time that he arrived. But it never should have happened in the first place, Eskel is supposed to take over for Vizimer at Kaer Morhen, not die as a mutated Leshy! It's one thing to change a few things, but this? No fucking way.
I'm really pissed at the writers because before it all, Hissrich said she wants to stay as close to the source material as possible, and that the books give so much material, she doesn't feel the need to invent her own. Well, that was a f***ing lie!
If she said the series will be inspired by the books and games that would've been fine, and I'd accept the changes.
When they started production and all those interviews and BTS were coming, I believed her when she said this. They even invited Sapkowski to the studio and all... I should've known better.
It's really disappointing man. I reread all the books and replayed all the games because of my hype for the show because I thought it was going to be a true adaption but God damn was I wrong. They basically just made a whole new original story with a witcher paint job
@@ErickeTR It's sad that Sapkowski doesn't really care about what Lauren Hissrich is doing. He basically wrote the Witcher because his son told him to take a part in some fantasy contest. Now, when his son died he's just indifferent about what is hapenning with his franchise.
@@MultiKamil97 I didn't know that... man, that's really sad
Didn’t she say to her the main characters are yen and ciri……….that tells you all you should need to know
Game Eskel is like a more introvert, mellow version of a Witcher. It really helps show the contrast in personalities of the witchers. He’s like a somber older brother RIP “good eskel”
I think the contrast of personality was supposed to highlight the power of the leshy. The "good eskel" still exists in this adaptation, but because of the pacing, we dont even get to see him. So like...why is he even there? Lol
@@dylzoe that is true, I don't play the video games and didn't read the novels, just came across the show in netflix and I was like " who is this person and why is he important?" I know I was missing something because his death is supposed to make the viewers and the other characters depressed but I couldn't careless about him since he probably only had 15 minutes of screen time.
@@dylzoe Eskel was brought in to be a point of conflict for Geralt and Vesemir in regard to Ciri's blood and the witchers. I think they used Eskel to set up Vesemir experimenting on Ciri's blood and wanting to turn her in to a Witcher.
Edit: to be clear I hated this change it was so stupid and unnecessary and it's so uncharacteristic of Vesemir to even consider it.
I thought it was lambert at first in the show
Seeing this video is kinda interesting because I just finished binge watching season 1&2. The main thing is I have no knowledge of the Witcher series and because of this I actually enjoyed the show a lot. Now that I’m starting to read and get into the lore of the world I can see why people aren’t to happy with the “adaptation”.
The problem is they called it qn adaption and the producer specifically said she would stay on the books. Season 2 is a fan fiction. It does not stay true to the books at all. Even less the games which is how most people ended up loving the stories. It is like calling fifty shades of grey a twilight adaption. They are both trash but it is still a fan fiction
Great then you'll be an addition to the pack bitching about the series, LOL peace
@easterndundrey I’m a college student so I’m on break right now, If that’s what you are referring to. Besides I haven’t started to read the book yet I’m playing the games rn.
It's no adaptation. It's a destruction.
same
I only played the games, but I understand enough to see some things that don't make sense, like the monsters from the Cintran monoliths getting from Cintra to Kaedwin and Kaer Morhen in very quick time, or you know, Eskel being a Leshen.
What was with the Monoliths is general?? And that deathwitch lady 🤦 it never explained her connection with the monsters, made no sense
Was eskrel not a Leshen in the books??
@@Sasso-pf1mo nobody becomes a leshen in the books. I'm not even sure if a human can become one as they are considered woodland spirits and are hundreds of years old. Eskel had more screentime in the games than he was mentioned in the books in fact
@@Sasso-pf1mo Eskel did not die early in the books and no human ever became a Leshen. The changes in Netflix series was just done out of shock value instead of proper pacing.
@@abrahamkresnik9726 That is the biggest problem for me with the show - it is not true nor worth the source material. It has broken and out of pace worldbuilding, nothing makes sense of all side stories etc.
I hate Netflix adaptation since last episode of S1. After everything was coming to a nice end and Geralt was heading to the farmer´s house to "obtain what he has at home, but does not know about it" (a ka Ciri founded in the meantime), not only Ciri runs away in the morning for no reason into the forest, but Geralt after his arrival rushes to the forest without any clue, too and he suddenly meats Ciri and woohoo, happy end!
WTF?
a) Why would he go to the forrest?
b) How would these two met and know not to run from each other?
c) Ciri is not a "gift of surprise", cause farmer HAS NOT the girl in his house = whole plot and climax built to this point was completely destroyed.
For what? For few extra moments of tension? You have ruined the whole story you are supposed to film. Now it is empty, generic, stupid.
And that is whole Witcher series by Netflix. Same problems, different execution. You are replacing something forged to a whole storyline into pieces of hardly same quality, stuffed with "bombastic" material, that is ruining the original plot you are adapting and now it isn´t working.
When episode 1 wrapped up I went "HOLY SHIT! That's the most Witchery thing we've ever got out of this Witcher show!"...then they killed off Eskel, butchered Vesemir's character in a clear, blatant attempt to prey on the emotional attachment of people who've played the games.
@@Yeet_Error You mean, thanks to books, we can always revisit that wonderful world and see some beloved characters - Witcher 3 is one of my most beloved games, but books are on another level.
I had the same reaction After episode One, then i realized, why they dont make shows like Xena or Hercules were every episode Is an Adventure that begin and end within the lenght of It? Could you Imagine having geralt killing a Monster each time and progress with the ciri plotline? Instead of making 8 episode with half hour of fillers each?
Yep, Vesemir in the books and games: "I will NEVER try to make more witchers even if I knew how"
Show Vesemir: "Ayyyy lmao let's inject Ciri!"
I still am not over on how they butchered Vesemir, an old weak witcher with the obsession of making more witchers...
@@Yeet_Error The games continue the original story, so what they did is controversial both to the books and the games. Also the games are in general very faithful to the books.
It's like Henry Cavill said in an interview, characters make stories, they didn't set a lot of the characters right, and I think that's why events that happened didn't feel quite as they should
There is a significant cultural difference between the original author of the books and the Hollywood creators of the show, which prevents them from properly understanding the source material. Apart from Henry Cavill and a few other people the rest of the crew (mainly behind the camera) cannot get immersed enough into the story and appreciate its true value. They are only scratching the surface and playing with the settings, but are unable to convey the same level of storytelling. As with many other movies and series, the business oriented sharks in Hollywood completely fail with the artistic side of the plot. A story of this magnitude was always going to be a challenge and it's not for everyone. In such case is better to take less risks and follow the source material more closely, rather than rewriting things you don't understand.
Like an incompetent architect trying to rebuild a building without understanding the blueprint and forcing it to fall down flat, instead of carefully restoring the original.
@d R Yes, they are well written escapist fantasy, which is far more than you can say about the Netflix series. I'm currently struggling to finish the 2nd season. It feels like a chore. The books, however, I couldn't stop reading...
I dont think the cultural difference plays any real part. the problem is politics. the book's themes and narrative don't fit into the writers worldview and political framework, so they need to be changed. the people responsible aren't really screen writers, they're political activists first, thats why the writing is so terrible. the political message is the main priority, the story mainly serves as the vehicle for that message.
As someone who hasn't read the books, Eskel's death meant nothing to me. In fact I was even a little glad that he died because he was kind of a douche to Ciri
lol its crazy cuz he helps to train Ciri and support her like an uncle, such a drastic change the show made for no reason at all
@@gazza7693 she said the reason they did it was to show the audience that the Witcher population is dying down and that shits about to get real I don’t know if it’s a good reason but it’s a reason
@@jonsantana4937 yeah a bunch of superhumans professional monster slayers dying like imbeciles while Geralt is The Terminator
@@Wotkiewic a professional monster hunter got injured by a leshen and never tried to cure himself lol. He was just hiding the scar like it was nothing
@@hantalg yeah it's like he was trying to hide he got infected by it, plus they never really explained how he got infected and became one.
The biggest difficulty I have with Season 2 is how fast everything feels. It kind of felt like one of those cheap greek gods movies where the main character is inherently great and learns combat/ magic at 1000x pace.
It feels like Ciri was in Kaer Morhen for few weeks tops, and learned the ninja coarse thing in 1 day?
Then she spent literally 1 day in the temple?
Feels like it might be a downfall like another show that tried to accelerate things towards the end :(
Exactly. Also, there was no sense of distance. Like, Geralt would travel between Kaer Morhen and other places across the world in mere minutes, you'd think the entire world is bunched up.
@@t.d.2016 well games did allow you to teleport via the town direction signs.
@@t.d.2016 They get around a lot of this with teleportation.
I think it's hard to introduce movement across great distances without it seeming tedious.
Part of the problem with that is that there's only 8 episodes per season, which is nowhere near enough to tell a story like this.
It should be at MINIMUM 10-12 episodes.
I think the netflix series should have had more episodes, 8 episodes makes the story feel like a speedrun…
What I'm worried about is the fact that the season mentioned the Wild Hunt as just lost riders trying to find their way home, and needed the Elder blood to do that. Is this some attempt to gain more empathy for the elves? Make them a tragic group?
Didn't even think of that. Is there even a differentiation between the Aen Elle and the Aen Seidhe in the show which had basically mirrored fates? Or are they both just elves and nothing more.
nah, in the books the wild hunt need ciri (her blood) to re-open the paths between spheres. they tweaked it a bit, but its lore authentic
Makes me worried about what they’re going to do with them in any future series?
@@johnsmead5096 yes , but they wanted to invade , not go back to their home world
@@johnsmead5096 they wanted to enslave other lands for Aen Aelle, since they’re world was close to dying
Speaking of characters I'd like to see more of, Geralt. Felt like a side character to a show about the mage lodge
I agree... I found it absolutely boring.
you could be surprised by how little Geralt appears in the last 2 books. He literally becomes a side character in his own series, and is in fact basically revealed to have no agency/impact on the plot anymore, almost a bystander. Although Ciri takes up most of the time, not the lodge, and it only happens in the later books.
Still it's one of the main things I heavily disliked about them. That and the fact that the last book is a meta-fiction mess that feels like the author is either trying too hard to give literary meaning to the series (by suddenly and hastily brute-forcing its insertion into the Arthurian legends), and/or he's flat out bored of his own characters and wants to get rid of them all.
@@36424567254 If they were doing the last 2 books, that woulda make sense.
@@McNab1986 sure, in fact I'm saying the book themselves did that later and I didn't like it, ofc I don't like the Netflix series doing it even earlier.
@@36424567254 even the 3rd game does it, with the ciri controllable bits.
You dont watch a TV series about a character for the supporting cast, not in the first/second season anyways
Sure build up stuff then branch out later, when alot for the main character has been covered and most dont notice it too much
the one thing this season made clear is that the people writing dialogue either never spoke to anyone in real life or they wrote everything in 2 or 3 days before a deadline or something
I had the feeling that for several characters they just introduced them for the checkmark. They know that they play a role in BoE so they wanted them to have an appearance in this season, event though the role of these characters were completely different or could have been omitted completely in their version of the story. Mostly for Eskel, Yarpen and Neneke.
Yarpen was so fucking wasted as a plot moment that I can't just... ugh, I feel embarassed. I forced myself to watch it till the end, the last 2 episodes are really... something else.
I have enjoyed the dwarf moments in the books (and games probably) almost more than anything else because of the witty dialogues and they decided to.. like you said, checkmark them and that's it. Instead we have all this Deathless Mother subplot stretched unbeliavably and even if it does conclude into something, it's just meh...
I feel like someone read the books, someone else played the games, though "oh oh lady of the woods, let's put that there somehow" "oh oh these leshen guys, really cool, let's put them there"
The monoliths were actually kind of interesting and it's good to see that at least there is some consequence (Ciri toppling down that pillar) but again, the way they raced back to Kaer Morhen from Cintra in a matter of hours is just plain stupid. And then Jaskier somehow finds his way there too - this is supposed to be a well hidden fortress in the desolated mountain area, snow covering the passes and so forth... and it's funny because earlier we actually see how it takes some time for the characters to travel through the realms
Also, Oxenfurt, Gors Velen, Cintra city, same fucking place, can't picture them anyhow in the world and the kings are just some goofs that cant produce a single intelligent line
make me sad.. Henry cavil is wasted in this.. why they cant follow the books.. feels like they are rushing so many books this will be done by season 4 .. the pace is weird. Oh well, love the books and the game
Exactly dude; lip service. Just like Brokilon in season 1; it's pointless to the story. They include these bastardized book references to what end? To appeal to book readers? If that's the case they're wide of the mark.
oh well im having Game of Thrones flash back when they made their own writing the last two seasons.. Lord of the ring not gonna be better in afraid
@@twatnocker7694 This whole season is a disgrace on the diversity issue. Witcher in the books and games was already full of the problems we face in our world - no need to underline that any further.
And there we have, black witchers in Kaer Morhen + one asian witcher, which does not make any sense realm wise. How did those children arrive in there. If you want to show multi cultural world, just show Nilfgaard for gods sake - it is supposed to be like that and it would fit to show some story from their perspective. Instead we get Witchers good, monsters bad, Nilfgaard bad, Mages - well divided, Ciri - not sure yet. That is so boring.
We are showed some black kings in the end, and for what? We don't know their names, only Foltest and Meve are speaking if I remember correctly. So what purpose do they serve? Are they just treated like some props, objects to fill in in some political manner?
Instead of showing how inclusive are you all over the place, just make one or two strong characters that can embrace their ethnicity or whatever. Show us Zerrikania if you want! Fill in the blank, don't change what already functions well!
Even Fringilla... damn, she is supposed to be one of that strong women in the series. But even that is downplayed to "she got that position from some witch/babayaga in the forest because she wished for it". Her strength manifesto, killing all those generals is quite alright actually, strong scene, but they should have showed us how she earned her title.
And Vesemir morals are like non-existent.
Vesemir: Give me your blood, I want to check
Ciri: Ok, but I will be the first
Vesemir: *flashbacks to young boys dying and in pain* NO CHANCE!
Ciri: But I want to, it's my decision
Vesemir: Alright then!
and then Geralt portals in: What are you doing!?
Vesemir: HEY BUT SHE WANTED THAT!
At 7:12-7:16 I was really impressed with his edit flipping between the two environments right as his words did. Really emphasized the point just that much more.
This show has so much potential of being a good show but cause of the writing/writers I don’t think it will get any better
The Witcher series is good for people that have not played the games or read the books. If you have experienced any of those, the Netflix series is just dissapointing.
I did both before it got mainstream and i enjoy the series very much. Only thing i miss a bit are the litle side storys about politics. At my point of view they mostly carried the first book so i guess they would not have harmed the second season.
Except for Cavill. He's a great book-geralt stand-in
I played the games and just took that show for what it is.. overall I enjoy it but I found the biggest mistake was not saving the twist at the end to some later season and just have emyhr drop it publicly
@@Darduel I think it's better to get the reveal out of the way now otherwise we couldn't get any scenes with the Emperor in person moving forward.
@@Darduel so you’d have no context for literally any of his actions the entire series? Yeah that sounds “fun”
few things that irked me:
1. Lack of ciri's motivation to desperately become a witcher
2. The portrayal of Eskel, Vesemir and Yen.
3. The cursing felt weird too, like it wasn't as comedically or eloquently done as in season 1.
4. I don't know if whether Netflix wants to stick to the original work or form their own adaptation, both of which is fine but only if it's done well. A few key moments from the blood of elves are just copied and pasted and come off as underwhelming to me since the book has these powerful political monologues for most of its characters, especially triss during her stay at kaer morhen.
5. The action choreography was a bit clunky?? It was okay overall, maybe I was just expecting really cool witcheresque action.
I agree with this and would add the musical changes. I really liked the soundtrack in season 1 and still have some of those songs poppin up in my mind today. It feels very unique while season 2 soundtrack feels a lot more generic and I actually can't remember a single piece right now. Not one song stands out.
i personally wasn’t a big fan, one of the biggest shortfalls i think was character portrayal, in the books there is so much background of geralt being a badass who will take on the world for ciri and it’s just underdone, also yennifer is not yennifer it’s a whole new character
This list is not long enough.
I could add 50 more things to it.
I said it before, I say it again:
I am so disappointed with season 2. Seriously, I didn't even have high expectations. I just wanted to see Gerald, the witchers and their story in some form. Turns out they decided to make a really bad fan fic season. I barely managed to hang in there till the last episode. Just for Henry actually. The almost only thing they did right was casting him. He is perfect for the role (I didn't even like him before). A disgrace. I got really upset when I read what their reasoning was. They must think of themselves as geniuses who are better and smarter writers than the original autor. The same crap that happened to GOT. A DISGRACE I tell you! Who hired them??? How comes they are even given the opportunity to do this kind of thing when they are clearly unfit?!
@@nahucombi I think Jaskier only had one song this season and it was neither catchy, nor fun, nor medieval-ish sounding.
Ok, forgot he also had a small song in the jail.
@@nela3986 the funny thing is, they even fucked up the casting Henry part, they told him no numerous times and only after exhausting several option for Geralt they gave him a ring and told him I guess you might as well audition. Gave him the role an hour after his audition.
Henry said he would call his agents every day to ask them to cast him or give him a shot.
Henry cavill is absolutely great as geralt.
And episode 1 was great, sadly the other episodes weren't as good.
I am right there with you. I want it to be something more. This season was a sad fanfiction. I watched an interview with the main writer and it gave me a little bit of hope for the season. She said that Blood of Elves was hard to write for because she didn't feel that much of the book was translatable to screen. Although I disagree with that, she made it seem like the rest of the books were much more translatable especially the future books. I hope for good things for this series but season 2 was pretty disappointing. Quality visuals do not make up for poor writing that has little to do with the source material.
that's so weird, I thought blood of elves is by far the best book in the series, and in fact the best candidate for an adaptation. Ironically, the later books feature Geralt *less and less* , Ciri and other side characters get all the "screen time" and, above all, all of the agency, while Geralt spends all his little time trying to catch up and always being late to the scene basically.
So if Geralt is to be the star of the show, Blood of Elves really was the time to shine.
Hell, CDPR was basically writing an amazing mostly-original plot based on the main conflict in that book (humans vs non humans) in The Witcher 2, too bad they abandoned everything and basically retconned the plot for the much more praised open world sequel (which to me felt more like a fantasy version of Read-Dead Redemption gameplay-wise).
Man, I understand that Blood of Elves is a slower book compared to the short stories, but is it so bad that you can't even adapt more than 20% of it? Does the audience really need a monster or a battle in EVERY episode? BoE has sooo many incredible character moments, so much great dialogue and it does have some nice action scenes too, just not with monsters. It's a shame that the showrunners want to make stupid turn-your-brain-off schlock instead of an actual good show or adaptation. Also all that swearing and jargon used by so many characters had me rolling my eyes every time.
Apparently the wide audience complained that the first one didn’t have enough monster. Lol I guess no one can’t be pleased….instead of enjoying a show …people criticize what it has and what doesn’t. Blood of elves is super slow and boring…….time of contempt. Now that’s the book…
If the showrunner can't make a non-action sequences interesting or intriguing then that's the showrunner's fault.
Just look at Breaking Bad, not a lot of actions happened in few of the seasons but the conversations, the drama and the dialogues were amazing.
More than 20%? Darn near the second half was fanfiction. But yeah blood of elves would have been better straight up.
"Does the audience really need a monster or a battle in EVERY episode?" YES they do! That's the majority of the criticism on other threads, that this season was too slow. Do I agree with that? no! For me it had a nice pace. But also because I am willing to accept the show as it is. For me it is very enjoyable, because I do not care about the percentage of 1 to 1 adaptation, I read the books, I already had my valuable imaginative book time. I had my hundreds of hours game immersion time. Now it's visual entertainment and sit back time. Makes it much easier :-)
@@Llanovanya85 I and many others have no problem with creative license, no one expected a 1:1 adaptation. The games are well beloved even if they retconned some lore from the books and changed a few characters. But the difference is that the games are actually well written, something that cannot be said about the show.
This season I feel like I'm missing the great dialogue from the books. Yes there is not that much action in them, but to me character development, forming friendships and exploration are just as important and interesting.
Said almost the same exact thing to a friend. The action in the series is good... but there's too much of it at the expense of developing relationships between characters
A niche show could have done that, but it's very hard for such a Netflix show to do. That's the problem with big productions, they have to appeal to the mass market and not necessarily to fans of the original books. People criticized Game of Thrones for very similar things when the first season released, a lot of people who've read the books found the show to be quite shallow and simplified in comparison. This will probably always be a problem when making TV shows for a complex book series.
Just finished season 2 and I must say that I had nearly the same thoughts afterwards. This whole season shows perfectly that the creators tried really hard to make their own thing out of the witcher-world (just like CDPR did with the games) and managed to fail gloriously. I still hope that they will learn and do a better job in season 3 (just like they did with season 1, I actually loved that season), but I'm sceptical, because they already did really much damage...
CDPR didn't fail they literally created one of the best video games to of all time they story telling, pacing etc was brilliant.
@@rafalradziwill9017 i think he meant the tv show
Still hope they will stick closer to the books. So many great strories that would be fun to see on the screen
What? Season 1 was way worse than season 2. There was no chronological order and the constant jumps in time confused even people who have read the books. I can't imagine how hard it would have been for a new fan to understand what's going on. Also the cosmetics were laughable, monsters sucked, the lodge got most of the screentime and the showrunners didn't manage to capture the essence of the stories. I could go on all day.
@@rafalradziwill9017 my personal very unpopolar opinion is CDPR had an amazing semi-original plot with TW2, based on Blood of Elves (also my favourite The Witcher book by far, before it becomes all about Ciri and Geralt almost a barely relevant bystander), but also taking it further, developing much more the conflict between humans and non-humans which could culminate in founding a new nation basically.
Then they literally dropped all of that for TW3 in order to focus completely on Ciri, which while truer to the book plot (which btw has *already happened* for the most part in the game's continuity, or at least up until TW3 that's what we were being told), felt like a *complete* retcon with respect to TW2, at least the side I played (the non-human one). In fact those characters I fought for don't even appear, and the nation I helped to found is not even explorable in the game. That is why I feelt TW3 a massive letdown no matter what game critics say.
Personally feel you're spot on, and I haven't even read the books. The Eskel situation really bugged me and I could never get over it. I really do hope it improves as it currently does no justice to the world of The Witcher
I didn't expect them to go for an exact adaptation but I did expect some semblance of characters resembling the ones I got to love. I'm kinda glad that it has been years that I have read the books so I don't feel as frustrated about the series as I possibly could.
yeah, their idea of adapting the characters is based solely on names not on the character itself
Same here!!! Imagine all the people re reading the books before season 2 😪
@@nickvaassen4298 yup taht's me, watched season 1 then went on to read all the books, already started to have some problems with S1 but nothing TOO big tbh but this...yup
@@TheBNCyo my mom was really hyped about the first season and rewatched it a couple of times. She had read the books more recently than I did so I am really wondering how she'll handle this season
that’s the problem, they should adapt it exactly like the books, and if there’s a problem, they should make a small change, but it has to be one that makes sense, and it’s done well, you can’t just butcher the source material cause you’re netflix and don’t give a crap
"When Eskel died I felt nothing" gave me flashbacks to Daenerys S8 of GoT :(
Hmm
Ciri and Geralt were close enough in age to be lovers, it was weird and there was no father/daughter dynamic. As well as this, many of the female characters were abnormally self absorbed. Best chemistry was between Yen and Dandelion, most other interactions felt wooden. In terms of make up, many have pointed out that you can have naturally different colour hair and eye-brows, but in this case every single character wearing a wig had mismatched hair and eye-brows, eventually it stood out as fairly weird.
I actually agree about Ciri being too old. I suppose it's always the eternal curse of needing child characters to be played by people older than the character whenever there's mature themes. I also feel like Freya, Ciri's actress, looked significantly older than in s1?? She looked kind of like a girl then but now more or less looks her age. I guess Covid added another year. I remember the bit in the W3 game where Yennefer says to Geralt "look, our little Witcher has grown into a young woman" after he meets Emperor Emhyr and then Yen shows him that drawing of Ciri. That is YEARS after the events in the show, yet, as it stands currently the Ciri in the show *is* a young woman already.
@@harrypike5140 And to add to that, they were inconsistent with her height and you could tell when they were manipulating it with the camera angles, which was immersion breaking.
Sometimes she was the height of a kid, sometimes the height of a woman.
@@cheeks7050 yeah I get what you mean. She isn't tall. And I think being next to Cavill amplifies that. Anya is 5,5 whereas I picture Yen to be more like 5,9. Ciri is almost as tall as her in the show despite the fact she is meant to be a child
@@harrypike5140 I honestly think it’s the eyebrows, first season she had light eyebrows and now they are almost black. She lost a bit of “baby”fat on her face but I think it’s mostly the eyebrows
@@harrypike5140 in the books yennefer is actually quite short. and ciri in the show is like 14. geralt at this point is 50-70. dont know exactly
Awesome analysis, thanks!
One thing which made it almost impossible for me to get into it is that everything looks like it was filmed in a big Disney amusement park or something. Everything is too neat and soulless,... Game of Thrones was far superior visually. It was fantasy but it felt real and believable. Costumes were flawless, leather looked worn out and not like it came fresh out of the factory, armors looked like they went through some sh*t, everything and everyone looked like they had been there long before the viewer sat in front of the TV screen. In The Witcher every single character looks too neat, there's no dust, no dirt, no small imperfections, it's simply lifeless and I think that's why a lot of people are comparing the show with Xena, because it looks like a cheap 90's fantasy show at times. I won't even talk about the casting,... The only thing which makes this adaptation worth it is Henry Cavill's dedication and the fight scenes which are incredible in my opinion. To be fair, Henry Cavill deserved better. I completely agree with you about Tissaia, Rience, Geralt and Jaskier and the first episode though. I really wanted to love it too but it doesn't do it for me.
Oh man I swear the castle/fortification scenes in Cintra had stones painted on plywood. Genuinely bad. At least use shallower depth of field so it's blurred. It's covid times yes.. But I assume that also means real fortifications aren't swarming with tourists. Surely they could have found suitable locations.
I really think it's executives pushing to meet some arbitrary quarterly benchmark so they're trying to cache in on the Witcher brand as fast as possible.
This is what I've been thinking. The world feels off somehow, you don't get the natural feel of some places. There's no muddy and dirty feel in swamp area or foggy and damp forest, everything seems too clean like you said.
Also, I like Henry as Geralt but am I the only one who think he's too buff to be a Witcher? How do you get that buff in a world like that lol, there's not a lot of monster in the books so I suppose Geralt is struggling to live, there's nothing much to eat anyway. Isn't he described as skinny yet muscular guy? It would affect his movement and flexibility in combat.
Anyway, I stopped watching after a few eps in S1, can't bring myself to continue because the pace, everything happened too fast...and few other things too ofc.
thank you for the most accurate translation of my thougths
I felt the same thing. Game of thrones has ruined fantasy shows for me due to the level of detail and "realism" it had. The wheel of time is even worse than Witcher season 2 in that regard. It seems like people with freshly dry cleaned costumes standing around at a Renaissance fair.....
@@NoOne-hl2eo Henry is too buff? I think he nailed that just right. Still nowhere near Letho.
The decision making with this show is just plain bizarre.
On one hand, they defend how badly they butchered the source material by saying this show is meant to be its own thing (never mind the fact that they actually advertise it as an "adaptation" of the books), but having knowledge of the Witcher universe is pretty much a prerequisite to watch the show since the world-building and character motivations are done so poorly that most viewers who never read the books / played the games are left nearly clueless.
On the other hand, if Netflix expects the audience to already be part of the existing Witcher fanbase (and let's be real here, I'm assuming that accounts for at least 60% of the viewers of the show), WTF are we seeing here?? We have chunks of important book material either skipped or rewritten (and obviously not for the better), and beloved characters who have more presence in the game world killed off for no purpose other than to show one big middle finger to everyone who played the games.
Hey, I'm not saying you shouldn't enjoy the show or whatever. I am just disappointed to see so much wasted potential in a series that had every right to be perfect.
You are right. I havent read the books and I was confused for the whole season
No, you do not need to know the Witcher universe beforehand. I don't, and I was able to follow not only season 1 with its twisty timeline stuff but also season 2. It's not rocket science you're watching, damnit.
The sole reason I am now into the Witcher is because of this show, so please, stop talking for others with your own disappointment. So tired of people that make blanket statements for everyone. There's thousands to hundreds of thousands of people that enjoy this. The only people in this comment section are people that just came to find others that agree with them, like one giant circle jerk.
@@blinkachu5275 Hey like I said, if you enjoy the show, good for you! If you want to praise it, go ahead! It's the internet for pete's sake. There are thousands of people who'd agree with me and probably thousands that would agree with you. No need to tell people to stop voicing their opinion about a TV show lol.
"beloved" Eskel in books wasnt even important character so he is nameless for people only reading books, in game on the other hand, yeah, he was a character
@@davidcastro5307 I have read about 4 of them and even I had no idea what the hell was going on 😂
Thank you! I agreed with almost everything you said! I'm glad I'm not the only one who feels this way.
It's a testament to your skill in a role when people dislike most or all of the material but love how you portray a character.
My biggest disappointment was Vesemir. There were so many great moments they could have done with him, some bordering on truly capturing the character, but they essentially turn him into an evil characiture of himself. Same thing happened with the animated show. Netflix has no idea how Vesemir is supposed to be portrayed, they just seem him as some evil/selfish/indulgent old mentor character its so wrong.
As a non-book reader, I never saw him as selfish or evil. I saw him as a caring leader/father who had to make hard choices. I actually really liked him, but I wish they'd had him fight more. For the oldest of the witchers, I'd expected him to kick way more butt
I felt like they directly contradicted their own anime show. Vesimir was basically the last surviving Witcher because the other Witcher were screwing around recklessly with alchemy and he tried to shut it down... sooo fast forward to Ciri and Vesimir suddenly thinks experimenting on a girl with elder blood is a good idea? He's the swordplay teacher, not an alchemist. It's literally nonsense.
He wasn’t evil he was awesome
@@ericwright8592 wrong wrong wrong wrong
In what manner is anything he did evil? At every oozing where he did anything morally grey it was because he was pushed to a point where he didn’t feel like he had a choice, you’re actively reaching for a reason to hate it because it’s not exactly like the books
Why is noone talking about how so many of the main characters suddenly have completely different personalities in season 2? Even for audiences who don't know the books and games... In season 1 they show yennefer who cares about the new girls at Arethusa and warns them of the dangers of this path and the brotherhood, even if she does it in her though love way . We are presented a yennefer who wants a child more than anything, she realized that she didn't understand back than what she was sacrificing for her powers, the power to create actual live. If anything the season 1 yennefer would give up her powers in order to get a child and now she is presented with her perfect "Geralt, me and a child"-opportunity (which they even show!) and instead she wants to sacrifice Ciri for her powers????
Gerald in the first season is painted as someone who understands that in this rough world there is rarely something just black or white... I mean the whole lesser evil episode or foltest, who slept with his sister and then let his ppl suffer under the stRiga plague just to cover up his mistakes... Geralt had sympathy for that! He says he himself hasn't done only good either. Now in episode 1 S2, when his friend confesses that he has been cursed because he raped the Priestess... when he was young and dumb and hanging with the wrong ppl and under the influence of drugs and is clearly full of regret about it and says that he deserved his punishment, aaaaand seconds ago killed his lover (the only "women" who has ever loved him for who he is) to save Ciri, once again proving that he is not a bad man at all, but nevertheless Gerald judges the living f out of him and turns his shoulder on him, like "you are a bad, bad person and that's that" that flips the whole picture of Gerald on its head. Suddenly we are back to black and white storytelling, good against evil.
Tissaia, same thing... before was this tough lady, who was willing to do uncomfortable things in order to get to the needed results, very disciplined, turning girls into eels for the "greater good"... Now suddenly is a softie and thinks it's a good time for romance while the whole continent is upside down. War, her mages (who are practically her daughters) dying off, political uproar, invasion ... The Tissaia they presented in season 1 would never think of getting romantically involved in such times
That's just some examples of the inconsistent characters. And I'm not even talking about the whole subject if all the changes they made to the books are good or bad. That's a completely different topic entirely... but at least make it consistent
*Geralt
And yeah the thing with Nivellen really upset me because it's so out of character for Geralt. It ruined the whole episode and took away the very thing that made this story in the book great
Tbh I think Geralt judged Nivellen like that in the beginning because he knew he was lying Geralt can see right through ppls lies and that’s why he was angry Also Nivellen was cheating during the drinking game and hiding a monster So Geralt know he is untrustworthy I think Geralt should work on more empathy but he stays so serious so he can protect Ciri But yeah he can be very harsh towards ppl especially when he knows they’re lying
@@candygirl845 I watched it again. I still feel like they are presenting it very much focused on the rape reveal. Geralt and Ciri have a somewhat understanding conversation with him after vereena is dead, Ciri says it doesn't matter whether she was a monster or not because she loved him. They don't flinch when Novellin says he turned a blind eye when she attacked the villagers, but the second he says rape this dark sound effect comes on and Ciri and Geralt instantly have a big time disgusted look on their face and turn their backs. It's just completely inconsistent to me and weird. I have no idea what they wanted to tell with this episode. Vereena is attacking villagers randomly, although she is being fed by novellin. At the same time she is completely capable of disciplining her urges, she comes to help Ciri when she is having her nightmares and they are having a conversation about what truely makes a monster since humans are the ones to kill everything and everyone. Later she doesn't attack Geralt, she hides in the ceiling after he discovers her feeding on novellin, but Geralt stabs her and now they have to fight. Novellin and vereena didn't ask for Geralt to come over to visit. She was not attacking them. The only thing why it would have been plausible fir Geralt to attack her is because of the villagers, but again, he didn't even flinch when that came up. Instead: "there. I broke the curse" ok thanks, Novellin didn't ask him to and says so.
Aaaaand they made it a whole thing in S1 how Gerald doesn't kill just because you are a creature, in order to be a monster you have to harm ppl. Vereena was not harming them, still was sentenced to death instantly for being a broxa (is he going to kill Regis too than?)
It's just completely all over the place for me how they rewrote it. Nothing goes together. I have no clue what they were trying to convey with this episode. It just made for big confusion regarding the morals and ability to logical thinking of Geralt and Ciri. And pls someone explain to me what the dying words of vereena to Citi are about. "He will come for you too" ??? I feel like they are randomly writing those wannabe meaningful wisdoms in there to add tragedy.
But I'm very open to being enlightened. I really really want to like the show, but so far I'm rather disappointed
@@schafswiese Geralt leaves people to sit in their own shit if they got themselves there. In terms of season 1 with the striga episode it was Ostrit that cursed Adda and it's alluded to that he raped her as well (when Geralt mentions smelling him on her bedsheets) so he used him as bait for the striga while Foltest is a horrible person trying to cover up his incest affair.
With Novellin, Geralt sees him being chewed on by some creature and takes action because that's his friend. He doesn't know their situation because Novellin wouldn't tell him. After she's dead and he's "cured" Novellin finally comes clean about everything including the rape part and that just sends Geralt's patience over the edge so he leaves this guy to sit in the shit he did to himself.
@@brosky8744 I dont qiute understand. foltest didnt bring the striga curse over the land, but he knew what the monster really was and refused to do something about it and ppl have been killed because of it. but geralt doesnt let him sit in that shit. instead they have a heart to heart conversation and geralt is sympathetic to foltests human weakness and mistakes.
and the thing about VEreena, yes i Thought about htat before, but still i would be confused ... its not like he is out of nothing stumbling into a room where his freind is being attacked. than i would understand why he instantly attacks. instead he knew that something was fishy and Novellin was covering up something. Novellin was not fighting or resisting in any form, Novellin is clearly breathing and blinking while Vereena is drinking... idk, stuff is simply not fully making sense to me and its even more tragic since there was a perfectly logical source material story to begin with. they could have just stick to it, put Ciri in the mix, done. instead they remixed it to confusion
This is my first time coming across your channel, and I have to say that I will be watching many of your videos in the future.
I thought, when watching Eskell’s death, that he would be brought back by either Yennefer or Ciri. I’m still wondering if that may be the case come Season 3 but I think that it’s highly unlikely
I think they are following way too many characters jumping around everywhere. Half the time it seemed like they would cut to another character in the middle of a scene and all the suspense was gone.
Yeah it's just too fast. If they spread it out over 2x more episodes it would work better. Too many stories in not enough screen time.
Yeah I think it would actually benefit from seasons being like idk twice as long. It felt super fast.
THIS. My sister was constantly asking “who is this guy now? What happened to the other story?”
Yes I think some of the character’s stories should’ve been moved to season 3 or something so we weren’t jumping around so quickly. I had so much trouble keeping track of what was happening this season, and it never really slowed down!
When it comes to discussing the quality of an adaptation, I generally use the following analogy:
Basically, I go by a statement made a Anime ADR director about how, “There is no such thing as an accurate Translation. You would never say, “Wow, that’s the most accurate Apple Pie I’ve ever had!” “ I apply this to all Adaptions as well.
An Apple Pie is not “accurate”, it’s just tasty or not.
But, when I order Chocolate Cake, you tell me I’m going to get Chocolate cake, I’m looking forward to getting the chocolate cake, and then you show up and serve me an Apple Pie (and still try to tell me it’s chocolate cake when it clearly isn’t), I am gonna be upset with you and be predisposed to disliking the Apple Pie because I DID NOT ORDER AN APPLE PIE!!,
Maybe there are some people who ordered the Chocolate Cake, were served the Apple Pie, and can still find the Apple Pie tasty. But, I am not one of them. I wanted my Chocolate cake, you gave me Apple Pie, and I bit into the pie (already upset with you for messing up my order) and thought it tasted bad.
Maybe the Apple Pie would Taste better if I walked in and said, “Give me any Dessert” and didn’t know what you would serve me, but frankly I’m just not in that position.
But, I hope that even if I was in that “Give me any Dessert” situation, I would still feel the way I do and think the Apple Pie is bad.
The Witcher Season 2 is being served Apple Pie when you ordered Chocolate Cake. And the Apple Pie on its own doesn’t taste very good.
Bravo. 👏🏻 Perfect analogy, couldn't agree more.
👍
I liked the apple pie. Yeah I ordered chocolate cake, but thankfully I enjoyed the Apple Pie. Plus I got it for free.
@@kjk607 sure the apple pie is good, but I still would have preferred the chocolate cake, maybe if the chocolate cake was just a little off I still would have preferred it more than just a completely different apple pie.
I guess it was not adapted very well. Feel like they introduced ciri too early, couldve maybe had her come by the end of 2nd season. When you play witcher 3 you do all the side quests, explore the world 3 times over and then maybe you go find ciri. Thats the good stuff.
Great video. Agreed with almost everything you said.
Absolutely spot on review.
Why is no one talking about the Igni at the sword? That is one of the coolest things in the show!
Also, one of my biggest problems is the lack of original score. Can you start humming any theme? I cannot either. The first season had much more memorable scores. Renfri's theme for example. Everyone remembers it.
Can you remember Nivellen theme? Or Geralt fighting the Michelet brothers theme? Nope.
It is all some generic score and nothing unique. It does not feel like witcher music at all.
I think no one is talking about the igni sword because it was used to kill one of the most loved characters eskel 😭 but it was very cool though
Yep. the lack of music almost ruined the entire season for me. S1 had a good score.
Witcher 3 as a whole especially the dlcs has the best music in any game ever and they just don't take advantage of it. Especially the town bard music
I guess I'm in the minority because I thought season 1 had the worst soundtrack of any show or movie in the past decade. The game was far better. Season 2 nearly removed all the music which solved the horrible sound but didn't replace it with something better. Howard Shore transformed Lord of the Rings from a good fantasy film to the most iconic trilogy of all time.
yeah i completely agree about the music. They kept bringing back renfri's theme which made no sense to me?
I was pretty disappointed by the changes. It completely missed the mark at times while remaining just faithful enough to the source material to be watchable.
I only cared about your video game videos you made so far and was never planning on watching this one, but honestly this is a really good commentary on season 2 and glad you made it. You summarize many of the problems so well!
Thank you, you speak right out of my heart with this Review
As I’ve only played the games, I was confused when they killed Ermion in season 1, and now in season 2 they kill off Eskel? This is The Last Jedi kind of writing
Well they are minor characters in the books, so it is somewhat fine.
But you are right, there is alot of "I am smarter than the source material"
Yeah, it can be hard for game-onlies. Eskel and Moussack were minor characters in the books, but in the games they have a huge role. Sorry for your loss 😅😅
@@t.d.2016 I mean yeah in the game, you only meet Eskel when you arrived at Kaer Morhen. But you get the feeling that he's really close to you as Geralt and afraid something bad would happened to him when the battle of Kaer Morhen occurred, meanwhile Eskel in the Netflix show...idk I don't even care when he died.
While I wish Ermion and Eskel survived because I do love them in the games, in the books neither is heard from again after the points the shows killed them off, so there is nothing that contradicts them dying. We know that Eskel didn’t die in specifically the way the show depicts it, but could a leshy have killed him like a week after everyone left Kaer Morhen in Blood of Elves? Perhaps.
Ermion is never mentioned after Cintra and Eskel is minor as well. I don`t think it matters really.
100% my sentiment. I don't expect 1:1 I expect an adaptation. And I also liked a lot of stuff they changed especially in season 1 but it was still at its core the same story. Season 2 is not an adaptation. Spending a lot of money on everything and then hiring second grade dropouts to write the show is typical Netflix.
I'm a non reader, but I found season 2 to be better than 1. It was generally more coherent and Geralt wasn't as boring a character. Both are fun, but flawed. No real depth.
I think the death of Eskel wasn't meant to be emotional, but one of those character deaths that make an impact to another, in this case Vesemir, making him more and more desperate that the witchers are dying, and then at the finale it makes him tell Geralt that as he killed his son (Eskel), maybe they would have to do the same to his (Ciri).
Tho I see why they kill Eskel, I agree with you that it was a waste, and could have been removed completely and change nothing. I too hope next season lives up to the books.
well done review!
i too played witcher 2, 3, dlc and read All the books..
Okay, I will say it...
It doesn't need to be like the books... but it needs to make a little bit of sense. Done.
Also! I love the fact that they just fucking fast traveled from Cintra TO KAER MORHEN... in seconds...
yeah, this season made the world feel so small
It was a newgame plus
@@dankdungeon5104 with the "Fast Travel from Anywhere" mod
It's always hard when you're so familiar with and fond of the source material. Having only previously played the games , I really enjoyed it and look forward to more. The show might not satisfy the long time fans but I think it'll make a lot of new ones.
As Neonknight said - on its own, it is not bad. But it is maddening when you know the source, and you know the show could have been so much better.
No need for 1:1, but they tell different story, and did not capture the spirit of the world and characters at all.
@@Eth77930 Witcher fans whining about straying from source material while Wheel of Time is on the background murdering the lore :DD Both are shows i really enjoy even though neither was accurate the to books, but to be fair neither was Game of Thrones.
Honestly im the last guy that complains about new stuff apart from the books. But this was insane. And funny thing is i never red the books and this seasonw as horrible for me. Bad characters and bad plots. And after seeing the differents to the books its just depressing
@@Eth77930 even on its own its shit. season1 good season 2 super bad
@@tgw98 nah, season 1 was chaotic yet boring and really REALLY ugly.
great video and i agree with you
Just can’t go wrong with Witcher content! Plus you do great making the videos. Very well done in my opinion. Keep them coming. 👍
The interrogation scene was okay, albeit a bit predictable with the liquor and the fire, what really grinded my gears was how Yennefer got in the tavern. He was literally torturing someone, shouldn’t he have locked the door at the very least? These kind of stupid decisions really brought the writing down for me.
I mean this whole show is pure teenager garbage
@@oui2826 lol
I thought the same thing, how could a powerful ruthless mage let some idiot woman stroll into the warehouse he was torturing Jaskier in and just...look at her. And when he did go to kill her he was made to be a complete fool and got burnt because she blew some alcohol in his face, what tripe.
@@gazza7693 No kidding... seems like all the characters this season are brilliant in one scene but total idiots in another (or competent one moment and incompetent 3 scenes later) depending on what the writers need to have happen.. just terrible writing and lack of consistency
@@MotoMarta IKR, I liked Vesemir and Rience for like maybe 20 minutes then they would say or do something so out of character I didn't even recognize them at all. Triss in my opinion is the most faithful to her book counterpart, her appearance of course being the one big change they made.
Hey, love your videos! Cool to be watching the channel grow 🤙
Almsot 29k of subscribers, good job mate! :) Anyway, looking forward to future reviews of the show
Good review
How they made all other Witchers pretty much useless idiots to make Garelt the hero is such a cringe...
So you just didn’t watch it then? The other Witchers literally fought off two basilisks and looked badass doing it. You’re reaching and it’s obvious.
@@alexbarn3841 in the background while dying like flies with very little thoughts put into their fight choreography…very badass indeed
If it was more focused on slow paced, character based horror rather than action fantasy I think it'd be better served.
This video made me finally hit that subscribe button. You gave a real evaluation of the show instead of just praising it for fear of backlash and for that sir I thank you!
I proudly click this video 7 times and finally got it without an add.
what they did to eskel was heartbreaking.. + there was no shani!!!!!
You would just get cockblocked by Ciri anyway …
Great video. Thanks again! Without getting too much into the nitty gritty, I feel like I'm being alienated as a massive fan of the books and the games.
If I'd never heard of the Witcher IP I'd like it a lot more.
Djikstra? However you spell it. Is the voice of Dracula for Netflix Castlevania. The guy is a legend.
Completely agree 100% with everything you've said. What a sad waist of Eskel.
1. it's waste not waist.
2. eskel is barely mentioned in the books.
@@dcmastermindfirst9418 maybe I was talkin bout his waistline.
@@digitaldevil7522 Were you?
I doubt it. You just have little to no grasp of basic English.
I have mixed feelings. There are some beautiful things about this show. And honestly, it is just so cool that we have a The Witcher show. I enjoy many scenes, just because I wanted to see these Charakters on screen for so long. But many things they done to charakters like Yen, Eskel or Cahirs story just hurt my brain. I just don't understand what the destination is... Also can you tell me why the videogames have like 10 times better dialogs? C'mon... I am a bit sad. But I still had my fun with the season. And the fight scenes are great in my opinion
Video games had good writers that cared about the characters and the show has bad writers that don't ? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
@@MandalorSkyrd Yeah could be true, but dont want to accept it💔
Yeah, some of the dialogue this season was... rough. Especially Yennefer's, imo.
the people behind the dialogue couldn't look more precarious, it looks like they were writing stuff 15 minutes before the scenes or some shit like that
Same. There are things I really enjoyed and things I wish can be wipe out of my memory...
Thank you. You summarized my thoughts exactly for S2 of The Witcher series.
There is so much about this story and the characters that they were able to butcher this season: Geralt completly abandoning Nivellen in the end of the episode, killing off Eskel just because (and making him an asshole), Vesemir lusting over Ciri's blood to make more witchers, Ciri not having the time to train and gain confidence in herself, Yen wanting to sell off Geralt's child surprise for her own gain... I mean, they were not faithful to the characters and their essence.
This review is personal proof that I'm not crazy. Thanks. Well done.
Agreed. We need more screen time of Past Eskel. We need the brotherhood bond between him and Geralt
The Witcher is supposed to be The Sopranos with medieval Slavic flair. Witty dialogue, adult problems with psychological depth and a gritty tone without melodrama, tired Western tropes and formulaic TV storytelling. What we have here is a CW show with better production values (I've actually seen better writing in some CW shows).
I don't mind changes. I MIND bad changes that add nothing of value. LOTR trilogy changes stuff from the books. GoT Season 1 changes stuff from the books. Blade Runner is completely different from the source material. What do they have in common? Changes that recognize their medium and elevate their source material on a different platform. Witcher show sadly doesn't have that.
I'm seeing a lot of people saying "I liked it". The problem is, The Witcher deserves more than "I liked it". It can be profound. It can be complex. It's not supposed to be easily digestable and make you say "It was okay".
Anyways, here are some links to some good TV scenes and how the tone of Witcher could have been executed:
ua-cam.com/video/YOc63DbbMI4/v-deo.html
ua-cam.com/video/Zg5yDzzOEps/v-deo.html
ua-cam.com/video/mjxR77b9muc/v-deo.html
How about I thought it was very good?
@@AfroGaz71 so you just said you liked it bro lol
@@sebastianzuzi311 I thought it was better than just liking it. It was far better than the first season.
@@AfroGaz71 The first season was already mediocre-bad to begin with. To be slight better than mediocracy is not even an accomplishment. lmao
@@zeroskaterz92 Second season was very good. I can understand the stans of the books being salty but there's a lot of money gone into this series for it to get just them as an audience. They'll have to just suck it up I guess. Lol!
The only reason I can think of for offing Eskel is to deepen the mystery of the new monsters that are different. Too bad they didn't do more with it. If they'd had a few more episodes showing the witchers trying to uncover how he turned and such, it could have given his death more meaning.
I knew it people have the same thoughts as me, once ive finished episode 6 it really goes to my mind that the season 2 doesn't have the same 'feel' that made me so invested on season 1
I felt that right on the second episode (peharps, even on the first one). I only watched a few scenes of the third episode and called a day, I couldn't tell what it was but to me the entire show fell so different in a bad way. (And this comes from someone who never played the games nor read the books, it just looks worse).
i dont get it. Season 1 was already extremely bad
havent played the games or read the books, im definitely going to in the near future, but for those that have, whats your coolest storyline or character you want added to the netlifx show, seems there gonna go like 6 seasons which i love but wanna know what i should be looking forward to.
I was really looking forward to them exploring Ciris powers. And I was hoping that her Powers where like in the games ... But you know how that turned out... I just hope in future seasons that Ciri will get similar Powers or at least some cool powers.
I just want Yennefer to actually be Yennefer.
That's exactly what I thought about Eskel's character after watching him die in the very first episode he appears. And the reason I think they showed that many Witchers is to just show how powerful those hybrid Basilisks were. I mean so many Witchers died like flies fighting them and then there's Geralt who single handedly killed a Silver Basilisk. This season was better in visuals than the last one but it was stll an overall disaster.
The extra witchers made no sense either but I'm guessing that's because they needed canon fodder for the generic villain at the end. Oh how they mangled this beautiful story, it hurts.
@@anitaremenarova6662 I thought to myself screw this show but watched it nonetheless because of the efforts Henry put in this show.
By adding in extra witchers they ruined the worldbuilding element that is perhaps the most esential to the story. Witchers are HATED by the general populace... a mob raided Kaer Morhen and KILLED all of them except for the ones who were out at the time. The order of the Wolf consists of 5 witchers and one of them is not even fully trained and left to never be seen again.
@@pj-rex5971 Yeah, the character performances of a certain few are carrying this show on their back. Without them I would've stopped watching a long time ago.
@@MrFallenone You mean Coen? He is fully trained and his story is explained later in the books.
I loved the games and followed the lore religiously. The show pushed me over the edge where Gaunter O'Dimm scene was given to Fringilla what a joke
@@FluffyBunniesOnFire in the games Gaunter freezes time to stick a wooden spoon through a drunk’s eye that was annoying him. Fringilla does something similar by putting the knife through that general’s eye.
it was the brothel climbing the mountain...drunk...in some shawls for me, at least in the beginning
I honestly would love a video going over the differences between this and the book, I liked the season but I havnt read any books so I would love some context
Triss Merigold was for some reason my Favourite Character of Season 2. Great improvement from season 1 !
🤮
It’s crazy how much better she looked and came off just on them adding some length and color to her hair this season
yea she was good
Yeah the "fire fucker" nickname was funny at first, but when Yennefer sees the corpses of that family and says "fire fucker" seriously... Yeah kinda undercut the drama a bit.
Also, at this point I wouldn't mind if they swapped Vilgefortz for Stregabor. He has more screen presence than Vilgefortz and having (*spoilers* )the big bad be the villian that got away from episode 1, will make things come full circle for Geralt. It'll be drastically different but, eh, at this point why not. Vilgefortz in the show is just there.
Oh man I'm glad I'm not the only one who feels this way on Vilgefortz. I literally forgot which actor on screen was portraying him. We just don't get enough screen time with each character and their storyline to care about some of them. They need to slow down.
The thing that most bothered me in the second season was the amount of plot armour Yennefer has. The acting was good it was the script that did not make any sense whatsoever. The most stark example was ... SPOILER ... the botched Cahir execution. They had absolutely no chance to escape from that situation. All the northern kings, their guards all the mages there did absolutely nothing. Did not even attempt to chase after them.
I was also shocked by how ridiculous that scene was. They realistically would have been caught and killed in a second. Plus the mages sending those dumb “wanted” drawings instead of sending one of their own to search for them…
This is my first fantasy show I have gotten really into. What other fantasy shows do y’all recommend? I particularly enjoy magical fantasy like this show.
I think the show would benefit from showing a map or something to help establish geography. If you haven't played the games or read the books you gotta be confused about where every place they mention is relative to one another.
I was very uncomfortable about Vesemir's character, the moment he wanted to make Ciri's blood into the mutagen. And yeah, those fears eventually and unfortunately came true. Every witcher other than Vesemir and Geralt is tough to really connect with and is written to be a drunk moron. And Eskel died in the most unexpectedly stupid and needless way. I honestly preferred S1 over S2. I also wish they had used Yarpen Zigrin better, but that's just a wish, not really a criticism. There's a difference between trying to make the adaptation unique and trying to change every plot detail, and I don't think they saw the difference, this season...
@@walldntv Eskel being the one that died wasn’t a drunk. Well not exactly. He was like a brother to Geralt. Also how do you forget about Vesemir is beyond me. I don’t think you ever see him drink in games. He’s a protective father figure for Ciri but in S2 he’s I dunno, a fucking mess at best imho.
You know I'm glad the show is my first experience with Witcher material (known about the books and games forever but never gotten to reading or playing) so having only seen the show, I love it
New here... But good review man!
One thing maybe worth mentioning is that Eskel's death allowed the main cast further insight into the stellacite revelation, along with the connection to the monoliths, etc.
the whole monolith plot is such a stupid ridiculous thing anyway that Istredd uncovers mostly by himself anyway
As someone who never actually read the books, or played the game or even watched the show I really haven't don't understand anything you are talking about but I still enjoyed the video 👍
I read the book many years ago and thought I was going crazy while watching. I was like I don't remember ANY of this?! I understand there is going to be changes but it was NOTHINg like the books. I'm glad to hear I'm not crazy and I am remember the books correctly.
The books are and will always be Canon
What order should I be reading the books in? Chronological (timeline) or the order in which they were published?
Honestly will watch just for henry cavill. Man has his whole passion for this and i respect that
This is exactly what I expected after s01 to be honest, unfortunately.
They make so many truly awful writing choices in that season, including but in no way limited to humiliating vilgeforts and turning Nilfgaard into a meme.
It's exactly like you said. They take a complex, detailed and very, very rich story and turn it into a one-dimensional pile of really dumb Hollywood tropes, and it makes no sense why they did that.
I also really despise the "lol why did you expect a 1-1 recreation" muppets. Literally everyone who does not have some form of compulsive disorder understands that tv is different from books. They understand that you need to streamline some things, removing or merging side characters or subplots, and sometimes you can or should insert things in there that are not in the source material.
An example for me would be from GoT. I hate more or less everything after s04e01 with a burning passion, for much the same sin as committed by the Witcher, and going back over s01-03 makes me see several really bad things I did not notice. In short, I hate almost all of the "adaptions" made by the two sociopathic pieces of sentient shit who were in charge, but my favourite scene, a scene that I still enjoy, is not from the books. It is the scene where varys and littlefinger discuss the nature of power and the purpose of power against the backdrop of jon snow climbing the wall. It's a fantastically well-written and well-acted villains monologue, and it can still give me goosebumps (Im 99% sure that one is straight from GRRM himself). It perfectly sums up and explains littlefinger and his motivations, which there has not really been room for like in the books, in a way that takes away nothing but instead enraptures the audience.
GOT went bad in S04, making no sense at times. Hound and Arya are at the gates of the moon, introduce themselves to the guards and are allowed to just go back once Lysa's death news is given to them. Imagine the captain of the gates (appointed by LF or even independent) allowing a Stark girl to just leave 🤪🤪
The Swearinnefer and Cahir 'escape' reminded me of that, what level of writing stupidity takes you to where all the northern Kings and mages let them escape right in front of their eyes, suspension of disbelief is needed sometimes for fantasy but geez this is just hiring losers for the writing room
I personally enjoyed Season 4 of GoT and 5-6 to some extent. 7 was just insufferably stupid and mispaced, S8 i won't even comment on. But i agree a 100% that it's not about whether the adaption is a perfect copy of the source material or not, but rather does it faithfully portray the characters, primarily in terms of their fundamental beliefs and motives.
I am really sad to see so many modern-day Hollywood crap just butchering interesting characters in all kinds of adaptations, and for no reason whatsoever. It's almost like a bad fan-fiction on the part of the screenwriters...
@@rorschach6809 For me, the all-time dumbest moment in the Witcher (and that's REALLY saying something at this point) was after Yen and Ciri portal out of the melitele temple, into that farmhouse. There they find that the farmers habe been killed, seemingly by Rionce. And yet, once they go outside they find two saddled horses, just waiting for them outside....
That's a level of lazy, plot-convenient way of writing that truly boogles the mind.
@@gustavchambert7072 Lauren and her writing team were on a fisstech bender for every script meeting
@@Bayomeer Yea, It's just so incomprehensible. I mean, it's one thing to make adaptions to make the material work on screen, but that's never what they actually do. They almost always re-write entire storylines and characters, making them only superficially resemble the original.
And what confuses me extra much about the Witcher is that while they do that in the show, they at the same time rely almost entirely on the audience having read the books or played the game to understand what's going on. Events, characters, places and plots just zoom inat lightning speed, with little or no exposition or time for the audience to grasp the context.
I have read all the books and played the games, and I barely keep up with what's going on. I can only imagine what people with no prior knowledge feel.
It's really, really baffling. They went out of their way to promise a faithful adaption, and they have written a script that is borderline incomprehensible without extensive knowledge of the source material, and yet they almost completely disregard that source material.
I watched the entire season. Every episode I was hoping the next one would get better.
ive read the first book and half of the second one, and there has never been a moment in the series that i could regionize from the books lol. i thought it was just my memory being hazy cuz it has been a while since i read them, but i guess not...