Off topic warning…..You just reminded me of watching tv commercials as a kid in the 1980’s. GE had a jingle: “GE, we bring good things to life.” I remember singing, “we bring dead things to life!” It’s such a happy tune, too!
@@danzaiIt was posted after Season 2 which was a horrible and just shitty season overally. Season 3 is much better but still falls short to what we fans expect from the Witcher.
@@MultiKamil97 I think season 3 is just as bad if not worse than season 2. Season 3 is where we get gay dandelion and the most boring desert episode ever
It's amazing how Lauren did not write anything she had claimed to write. The way she talks about the show makes you want to watch it because it looks like a really complex, smart story. But then you watch and you just feel you had been lied to.
The way she talks is her job really. She is to sell her services to the investors (producers) as best as she can, whether she does this, it doesnt matter. Was paid anyway..
She's just delusional. She thinks she's making a masterpiece of a show that's going to be remembered for decades and will go down in the history. We know it's a really bad take at adaptation and makes the Witcher's world and characters seem shallow and uninteresting but for her, everything there is perfect.
In this version Aretuza did not impose infertitility on Yennefer. She traded it for beauty. In book version practicing magic causes atrophy of ovaries. And if it doesnt, most sorceresses are forcibly sterilised and it has nothing to do wiith having sex with kings without the risk of pregnacy, but the mutation risk to fetus. Ciri (being a genetic labrat) were to be an exception of this rule.
They are not forcibly sterilized, it's and idea proposed by Tissia out of jealousy and belief, that sorceresses first and only priority should be magic.
@@TheKarabanera Aaaand also because of the fact that most children of sorceresses turn out to be absolute loonies whose magic liquefies their brains because kids aren't meant to have that kind of power
I love that this channel posted a single 4 and a half hour long video and then went silent for over 2 years before uploading their next one, that's the upload schedule I dream to have some day.
The best take on Netflix's Witcher I've ever saw/heard. The moment Ciri and Geralt hug for no reason at the end of the season 1 was so bad that I can't imagine anyone going "emotional" over it. However, in the books I was sad that Geralt and Ciri had to part after thier first meeting in Brokilon. One short story was all we had to understand that there was "something more" than destiny to these characters yet Netflix didn't care and made them just randoblmy stumble upon each other at the woods.. Such a waste.. Anyway, I can't wait for your future videos mate. Great stuff.
A lot of these video critiques feel like a real departure from popular attitudes into some strange fetish niche. The first season was great in a multitude of ways. What about destiny? You know, a predetermined course of events often held to be an irresistible power or agency? Audiences don't need character choices to drive characters together. Coincidence is sufficient. Contrivance is sometimes warranted (in service of externalities, to the production). The idea of destiny meaning "characters make choices to bring them together" is the unfortunate case of a viewer injecting their own ideas (sorry AP). Fiction, and specifically fantasy, is a world of "right place right time" for notable or unlikely things to happen (as opposed to D&D or Xanth, et al where fantastical things happen everywhere all the time). An example of a fantasy work that included people chasing each other around in a similar setting, as a matter of "destiny", was Willow (the movie). It can work. That being said, characters specifically making choices to engage each other, does not imply or follow the idea of destiny and that seems to be discarded in service of pretending there's something fundamentally and demonstrably wrong with season 1 writing. eg Characters emoting the feelings of the audience (Geralt and Ciri embrace) has no bearing, whatsoever, on the show as a whole. It provides catharsis and the audience doesn't need to think too hard when the show ends up delivering *something*. If the series only lasted that one season, the contrived embrace was warranted. Clearly, the issues with the writing are about the cheap drama tricks, willingness to lean into over-complicated justification for unexplained canon events, and focus on non-canon elements to the point of changing canon outright (evident in season 2).
@@Jack9C well yes, you can do generic epic power fantasy driven entirely by plot contrivances and some concept of destiny... but it's been done elsewhere and better. it's a wasted opportunity to do something different.
@@Jack9C The real problem with the embrace at the end of Season 1 to me was the simple fact that the two characters had no real prior history with each other, compared to the books where they had already had an adventure together, gotten attached to each other and been once separated before, both thinking they would probably never meet again. The show's scene wasn't a reunion, it was essentially the first time the two actually met. Instead there was an actual human connection between them in Sword of Destiny, not just the idea of Ciri being Geralt's Child of Surprise being the driving motivation for them to find each other. Whereas I actually cried when reading the ending of the second Witcher book (I've never even shed tears because of a book before that and I used to read quite a bit), I felt no emotion during the adapted version of that same scene in the show. Also, in the books it's a genuine surprise for the reader that Ciri is on the farm, whereas in the show the multiple points of view for that moment somewhat takes away from its impact, at least in my opinion. Could have still been a very neat moment, had they not fucked around with the timeline so much. (I'm not an advocate for 1:1 adaptation so I get that certain changes had to be made, but to me Geralt and Ciri never really meeting before that point was a pretty big misstep, because it also has rippling effects for Season 2.)
@@Jack9C "The idea of destiny meaning "characters make choices to bring them together" is the unfortunate case of a viewer injecting their own ideas" I take it you haven't read the books but its a major thread throughout that "Destiny is not enough". You have to still do the action/make the decision. Destiny will put you infront of the goal but will not place it in your hands.
as someone who's never read the books or played the games, this video finally made me understand why I was so confused about Renfri's role. everytime Geralt mentioned her I was like so his motivation is to make up for the fact that he killed this random woman he slept with one time? and that means protecting Ciri because both of them happen to be powerful princesses..? like this was the first time in a hundred years where he would face a moral dilemma as a witcher?
Yeah I'm in the same boat and I never understood why Renfri was so important to him. On a practical level, Geralt had been a Witcher far longer than she had even been alive and had seen the world and met many people by that point. She really wasn't that important in the grand scheme of things.
Witchers are not meant to deal with moral dilemmas, just killing monsters. It was a great story in the 1st book, built the world and Geralt’s character. Netflix writing killed all that in translation.
I've read the books multiple times and was same confused as you. Renfri is a character in one short story and is not mentioned further in the books, not even once.
This notion of inventing ways to make Ciri and Geralt dislike each other at first is so weird. Yeah sure their backgrounds are way too different, but it was literally done in the books and it was actually kinda sweet, but here? In Netflix Witcher it just feels like all if the characters just tolerate each other at best, and it looks really weird in the story about found family.
Watching this video, it's so obvious she could have done what she wanted, making them all independent characters, but in a way where they didn't quite fit where they were and felt out of place and missing something. And the missing piece was each other.
They obviously didnt look at ciri's portrait as a young child angry looking in a princess dress because that already tells more about her then they understood 😂
@@HarryerpoowThat’s actually the irony. They wanted to make a GoT, but then disregarded all the things that made GoT great: interweaving stories, character development, a slower (but not necessarily slow) pace, smart dialogue, the realistic subversion of tropes, etc. The Witcher novels had all these things. Instead, they took the amateurish adolescent route by focusing on nudity and vulgarity because it’s edgy. They also claim to have reinvented and subverted tropes/clichés when, in reality, they relied on the most generic tropes/clichés as a writing crutch and completely disregarded everything unique that The Witcher novels did with those tropes/clichés. They had the perfect property to rival GoT while still feeling new/refreshing, yet they did everything in their power to… not do that.
Geralt loses all his friends and died just because he chose family over destiny. That the show depicts him as a yes man to fate is absolutely revolting indeed
Yea, they changed the Brokilon part where Geralt and Ciri met. It's so funny because Ciri was inside the house, Geralt was also heading in the same house, but Ciri had to run to the forest in order to fulfill the prophesy of "the girl in the forest". It was so stupid.
In my first watch, I was amazed when I understood, that the stories are on different timelines and I thought, that I would find soooo many little hints and the tiny things, that would have consequenzes... so you can imagine my confusion on my second watch, when everything was just ... meaningless "easter egg" kinda stuff...
yes its ridiculou Lauren said in many interviews already that they focused on plotholes in the books, they did not care about source material, only looked for holes in the story to expand on those in the show, she literally said that many times, she just wanted to expand where Sapkowski left a field for interpretation and base whole show on this instead of just trying to adapt the books into a great dark fantasy show it should be... she even said there were not many 'holes' in the books but she worked hard as fuck to tell a story sapkowski did not. she is a fcking cancer to movie industry.
I had a similar experience. 1st watch "omg so good", 2nd "wait, things are off." This video is validating a lot of things I didn't particularly notice, but my brain did. Like, "destiny" being meekly followed bc... destiny, is not what the books and games are about. I support the strike, but hopefully it chills this whole "here's my take on this already-established work that I made up" (aka, fanfic) type of writing being given these platforms. Stars Trek and Wars, Ghostbusters, the rebooters seem to have forgotten what makes a good, meaningful story. Or, the ones that do know how to do that, Netflix cancels it after Season 2 bc they'd have to share the success money. Hopefully the strike changes that, at least.
So well put and understood. I really like the focus on whats actually tangibly wrong with the show not just harping on the “oh no feminism is ruining my witcher” or “its just too woke” lines thats im so fucking tired of hearing at this point. Your break down means so much more than the politically partisan surface level analysis i see everywhere else.
@@cajchcankathank you! I don’t understand how anyone can read the books or play the games and then complain about the show being “woke”. The show was trash, regardless of whatever “woke agenda” people like to blame.
The book series of the Witcher has always been an odd one for me, cuz unlike Harry Potter, ASoIF and LotR, there is no sense of a grand objective that one must achieve in order to avoid a horrific outcome. The Continent is ruined by war and epidemic no matter what Geralt, Yen and Ciri do; racial predujice will never end no matter who wins the conflict. The funny part is that by spending too much time and effort trying to catch one person with the specific designs of using said person as a tool, the ambitious bunch all ended up in a far worse position than they had started with. Dijkstra got leg broken, Bonhart and Vilgefortz just got unalived, Emyhr lost a war (which he should have won if he wasn't so obsessed with Ciri), and Eredin's probably never gonna realize his interstellar invasion dreams. All because they each had a twisted mindset, a false trajectory set from a inhuman orientation. Geralt, Yen and Ciri cared for each other and helped one another grow into better human-beings; this helped them to live up to their positive standards in life, and for Geralt and Yen, eventually die with dignity. It's not their specific aim to defeat evil, but by simply living their lives to the fullest they have already managed make history. Despite the looks of things, the main trio's love and unity is by no means the sole reason for the antagonists' failure. Vilgefortz, Emyhr and Eredin failed because they abandoned all moral principles to chase an unclear objective, and more importantly, because they saw no one but themselves worthy of a dignified treatment. They use corporate ways of control and manipulation while losing sight of the true values in life worth preserving, aka respect, trust, love and a tiny dose of self-introspection. This is where I conclude that the Witcher books is true to real human history, in which individual decisions influence one another to result in generational and epochal characteristics. So I agree with you wholeheartedly that a lack of clearly-defined interactive decision-making resulted in the show's fundamentally skewed storytelling perspective. This is indeed a lack of basic understanding of the source material. I would actually recommend Cyberpunk 2077's way of storytelling, it mirrors the Witcher books' quite well.
"there is no sense of a grand objective that one must achieve in order to avoid a horrific outcome" I mean there really kind of is. Finding Ciri and not letting any bad actors exploit her.
The one think I am thankful towards Netflix for is the fact that this adaptation made me discover the books. I'm a 26 year old man and these books have had a real impact on my perspective on family and what should matter to me. Also, great video! You have a great sense of what truly defines a good story.
Same here. My first experience with this universe was Witcher 3, which was an amazing experience for sure, but there was so much story to this world that I wanted to know about. I was excited for the show to give me a taste of it, but the first season was ehhh and the second season was miserable and boring. I eventually bought the whole book series and I'm Blood of Elves now. Such an amazing series and much better storytelling than the show
@@doomdrake123 Terrible take lmao. You probably read a shitty translation, as a lot of the nuance in the authors writing doesnt always reflect when being done in different languages. Your inherent enjoyment of the writing is based on which English version you read. Or you can go above and beyond like others who understood this issue and learn Polish so you can truly experience what the author puts to paper. The books are very well written. When reading outside the original language you run the risk of being subject to the translator's interpretation of the writing and not the original writing itself. Its not always the case, as there are a few good translations of the series, but it depends on who you allow to be your conduit for understanding a story written in a completly separate language.
@@svenskhund3603 dude, the most memorable thing that Ciri did in the books is admire some other women's tits. Yeah I loved some of the minor characters, and the twist at the end is well foreshodowed, but the books are just meh. And no, I'm not learning polish just for some dumb books.
The "who's Yennefer" as the end baffled me so much. At no point was she mentioned in Ciri's jorneys, she wasn't linked to Ciri the way Geralt was, Ciri didn't have any prophetic dreams about her and what not. There was literally nothing. It'd have made as much sense if she just spouted Jaskier's or Vesemir's or literally anyone else's name.
The more i see from behind the scenes of this show, the more and more i want Henry Cavil to be the show runner. This also make me so hype for his 40K adaptation, even if it ends up as Henry Cavil spending his whole show budget buying minis and painting them while telling us about the 40K lore.
The depressing part is, it's not just Cavill. Nerds have had it *rough* the last few years. I remember walking out of Rise of Skywalker like "wtf did I just watch." I didn't even perceive it as a movie, it was just Things Happening. And that's why I hesitate to watch any Star Wars now. Today's suits just do not understand this stuff. I'm actually glad Cavill stood up to them. More actors should do that (cough Secret Wars cough). It's like, when anything is around long enough, we get a lazy or weird or cashgrab version. The entire MCU Phase 4, for example. After JJ S1 and Daredevil being good, we got meh Luke Cage, awful Iron Fist, and then the Defenders, one of the worst shows I've personally seen. But Netflix, in their infinite wisdom, handed the Defenders show runner a whole series designed around subverting fantasy tropes. People can improve with experience (we all start somewhere), but her attitude doesn't seem conducive to learning. Like, imagine Henry trying to argue with her about the character, does she seem like the type to hear him out and change her mind? Not to me. It's CEO-brain, "line go up" thinking, applied to art. Same crap that led to the strikes in the first place. Oh well, maybe the suits will listen once their bank accounts lose a few zeros. Lol.
You elegantly put into words some things what I felt about the show but couldn't quite describe, bravo! I'm eagerly awaiting for the next part. Also easiest subscribe of the year.
Cavil leaving makes all the more sense now. I watched the entire first season and it was just bland, but the first book was anything but. That was a first sign of things to come. Saying you rarely upload is an understatement, I'm glad we got something good out of such a letdown of a show.
52:23 As someone who had no children of my own, by choice, this switch gave me whiplash. The women I know who have chosen to be child free have never regretted that decision, even after decades. This 180° shift needed to happen _onscreen_ for it to make any sense at all.
The whole thing with a sorcery sacrificing themselves to make powerful orbs that explodes - that’s not what the lore says. In the books every sorcerer draws power from everything. The air, the earth and so on. That’s why cdpr implemented the fact that yen destroys a holy garden to extract information through necromancy about ciris whereabouts - because they followed the lore of the books.
@@irena4545 exactly, I don’t know why they would make the academy look so terrible. The books explains how yennifer had good experience of the academy and that she had a great relationship with tissaia
Dude, this is extremely well-done. I made a similar video (just one, I can't focus enough to do several), and this got so much I missed. Great work and examination on the theme and essence of the books that the show missed. Looking forward to the next part, buddy:)
As a Witcher fan I hate books after 2nd one. They are soooo bad and fanfiction like. Just really bad written male fantasy of being "so ugly, but so wanted", being so cool, so powerful, so attractive, so smart and the whole toxic relationships with Yen are just so awful. And the most terrible thing - a lot of men thinks she is an ideal woman 🤦 My max were like 5 books, couldn't go further. But the ideas and world are amazing, but everything else are so poorly written.
2:53 Ik u said u didn't want to open this can of worms, but It's just simple logic. It wouldn't make sense to have racism against short people, and tall people with sharp teeth and pointy ears, but not have racism against people who have a completely different skin color, and facial features than you in a fantasy world based on medieval Europe. This is something, GoT and CDPR both realized when making their adaptations, and something they tried to address by giving different factions in the world different looks, and interesting backgrounds. Shame this is still something the witcher fanbase can't come to a consensus on, especially after how horrendous this and many adaptions (besides TLOU, and few others), have been. Netflix's The Witcher will go down in history as a victim of its time. Damn shame.
Ale to zwykły paszkwil. Nawet jak zmieniali rasy to nie mogli być w tym systematyczni? Szpiczaste uszy nie mogą być jedynym wyznacznikiem rasy gdyż można je łatwo ukryć pod kapturem. Odcień skóry jest często wyznacznikiem rasy gdyż jest to najbardziej widoczna część ciała. Gadanie o rasizmie bez konceptu rasy jest idiotyczne ale to jest już zboczenie umysłowe wielu Amerykanów nazywać wszystko rasizmem nawet jeśli chodzi o dyskryminacje na innym tle. Ale nawet Bagiński sam powiedział, że kręcą serial dla idiotów
The last kingdom does destiny right. It uses it as a way to show how the protaganists belief differs from those around him. Without constant demonstrations of how. But it also helps to emphasize Uthred's ego in believing he is destinned for something, which is a major character flaw which often holds him back.
Meanwhile netflix witcher thinks it can just throw out the word "destiny" enough times and that will make it meaningful. It comes off about as meaningful as when Dom says "family" in fast and furious movies.
that is so true, what is so great about the Last kingdom is that it remains loyal to consistency, Uhtred has amazing character growth and development but his core beliefs never change and the writers never compromise his character agency just to push a certain narrative. Uhtred is a pagan that believes that Destiny is what truly drives a man and that he is destined for what is his birthright. which is bebbanburg no more no less.
Yeah honestly I believe anyone trying to adapt books to the screen should look at The Last Kingdom. It wasn’t a perfect adaptation, but for damn sure the closest any adaptation has ever come to even holding a candle to the books they are based on.
Thinking about it, the thematic incoherence could of been fixed so easily. Yennefer was denied her place at Aedirn because of her eleven blood, right? It would of been interesting if Yennefer was instead suppose to be King Foltest’s advisor but her actions at the ball changed Foltest’s destiny (and Temeria’s fate) as she choose to scheme her way to Aedrin anyway. Decades later, when Geralt tries to lift the curse at Foltest’s court, King Foltest could have ended up dead (a consequence of the curse lifting.) With King Foltest dead, Nilfigaard invades Temeria and has enough fire power to overwhelm Cintra. This leads to Queen Calanthe’s death and Ciri’s hunt for Geralt. All of which culminates in Geralt, Yennefer and Ciri meeting at the Battle of Sodden. You could even tie in the fact of Geralt and Yen meeting in the town of Rinde wouldn’t of happened if Yen hadn’t decided to go to Aedrin, (seeing as she left Aedrin’s court because of the assassin etc.) and if it didn’t happen, Geralt and Yen’s fate wouldn’t have been tied together by the Djinn’s last wish. It also wouldn’t of happened if Geralt hadn’t of meet Dandelion and gone to Cintra, landing him with a Child Surprise (which causes Geralt to look for the Djinn in the first place, in the show at least). It wouldn’t have followed the books, but it would be an interesting take on how the three were always suppose to meet and destiny was always drawing them closer. I’d cut out Yen losing her magic entirely, and centre the second season on Geralt, Yen and Ciri in Kaer Morhen attempting to train Ciri. Introducing the viewers to the School of the Wolf and the sacking of Kaer Morhen. It could also show how Ciri is the reason Geralt and Yen choose to stay together and attempt to overcome their many, complex issues. The Scoia’tael, Temeria and Nilfgaard could be secondary plot-lines.
Poland is central Europe not eastern (we can be really touchy about that xD). The show started with good reviews by audience because we were blinded by "it's something! We are getting SOMETHING!" but when the emotions eased we realised that something was not even close to what we deserved. It was something shitty. . And I DO want to talk about the casting. Ciri is WAAAAAY to old and too conventionally atractive, she was suppose to be an unremarkable little girl, and in third season she looks older than Yennefer who's suppose to be her mother figure. Calante? She looks like her mother not grandma, hey couldn't even be bothered to add grey hair to her in the later events. . Oh My God you mentioned the polish series, it used to be the meme in my country. The "beautiful dragon" mostly, but yes, characters wise? It did a better job, but the 5$ budget overshadowed everything...
It is a disgrace how Hollywood leftists disrespected Polish culture. Casting Indian woman as Yennefer, Random non whites, barely a single Polish person even in the show 😂 Leftwing Jewish people really hijack everything maliciously and turn it into one bland multicultural piece of garbage. They wouldn't do this to a series about Anne Frank tho
It seems to me the showrunner is in way over her head. The buck stops with her. It appears she hasn't managed any of her responsibilities properly and that has trickled down into every aspect of the series from budget to writing to casting to set design and costumes, to SFX and everything else. These productions don't need someone who is learning on the job they need a seasoned professional with a proven track record. How she jumped from story editor, researcher roles to showrunner is beyond me. If I'm being unnecessarily hard on her or I'm misunderstanding her experience, I'm sorry. But it sure doesn't look like it.
34:24 I’m sorry but I laughed so hard at Henry saying “unlocking levels before you can use that skill tree” to describe your hard work to get to your destiny, it’s this part of his personality that everyone loves and becomes his fan, it’s his “nerdiness” that charms people and makes him trustworthy when it comes to his work in fantasy and such
As someone who lives with a disability that I was born with and some of the mental health, as well as physical health problems it causes, and being brought up in a rather toxic family situation to boot, I do find Netflix's portrayal of Yennifer extremely problematic in a number of ways.
@@kirielbranson4843 What this video said... Using the Kuleshov Effect, the show directly compared someone with a physical disability to someone that was born cursed and grew into a literal monster. They show Geralt curing the striga as they show Yennefer's physical transformation insinuating her physical deformations needed fixing which can be a "problematic" message for some people.
The Witcher is a masterpiece of post-modern literature, ironying fantasy trophes. People who adapted this, didn´t get it and trying to make another generic fantasy. This simply don´t make sense.
This, RoP, WoT, Halo, Willow, Resident Evil, and so many others are why Hollywood should make sure to include show runners / Directors / producers that like the franchises in the production and not only actors / consultants. The modern hacks are either too stupid, too shallow or too activist to bother understanding the source material. Writing takes more than skill and talent. It requires depth, foresight, planning, and foremost the discipline to go through it again and again until the character actions are consistent and makes sense with the overall themes and plots.
Your series of analyses is just great and way more entertaining than the show itself! I wish Netflix put so half the thought you did when they created their series. I hope you make similar critique series for other tv shows.
I'm happy and sad I found your channel and watched this. You broke down and organized all the thrills and ills with this show. I played the first game when it was released. I read the first book because of the game. I waited for the rest of the books to be translated into English while anticipating more of the game series. Netflix took all of the joy out of the amazing books. The highs are not high enough to forgive the glaring issues with production and storytelling. Newly subscribed and thank you for doing this. It's incredibly well done!
Just hearing this screen writer speak obsessively about how good her take on this show is made me realize why the show turned out bad. She was the wrong hire for this show. No relevant experience, and no connection with the story. Thanks AP for so professionally citing her through video footage. Wish she put a thread of your professionalism in writing this lol. She doesn’t care besides the fat cash check from this.
Hissrich does not come across as someone that takes the work serious enough, not a real professional, someone that forms a team of writers and just has a laugh and fun! I'm not saying people shouldn't enjoy their work, but there's a degree of childishness and lack of professionalism that seems to come through the more i listen and watch clips of her talking. This is not someone trying to adapt great work, this is someone wondering how they can "reimagine" it to create their own vision off the back of someone elses. She'd be right at home working with the Rings of Power team (perhaps she could move over there and let some real and serious producers/writers take over).
I stumbled onto this series of Witcher videos through recommendations and I felt you were familiar. Then I saw you did that massive video on Assassin's Creed Origins I watched a year ago. Great to see you back.
After watching this I am MOURNING the loss of what could have been a far-reaching show with deeply important ideas the world needs right now. This show needs to be remade and done RIGHT!
OMG! I never realized they were representing "Destiny" purely by saying it in lines, now I know why I felt weird when Geralt and Ciri were said they were bonding by Destiny and I couldn't understand it. Thank you!
Great analysis. Best take I've seen so far, not just completely shitting on everything with no base. After reading The Last Wish, Sword of Destiny, and Blood of Elves, I'm even more mind-boggled at how bad the show conveyed the literal theme tying everything together--for fuck's sake, it's sword of DESTINY and in the last scene of the book the last line was 'something more is needed' after geralt and ciri built up their relationship naturally in brokilon!! how more obvious could it be!! side note, though, would you mind giving credit to the fanart you put in at 28:30? There's a ton you included in there without it being properly credited.
I literally had to watch the first season again because nothing made sense to me. The plot was awfully hard to follow and after finishing the second season I don’t even care anymore. Everything feels so disconnected and so many things are not explained. Hell, the prequel Netflix released was way better at narrating a family coming together than this mess 🤦♂️
There's a trend in modern screenwriting I've noticed where the best stuff happens "off camera" - here most of thr jnteresting character development happens off-screen, like how in the Star Wars prequels the really interesting story of how the lightsaber got back in the story is never told, how we never learn about Kylo Ren's obsession with his grandfather and alienation towards his parents come from. A story that should've started with the birth of Ben Solo and the fate of the lightsaber only gives you little drips of this formative background rather than tying it into where the story was going. This is how relationships are presented and developed in the Witcher- we see the mechanical aspects of how the characters come together, but the majority ofvthe emotional bonds develop during the cuts between scenes instead of ever being shown.
I didn't even want to watch the witcher, but just because you made a video on it made me want to watch it just to come back to your video and watch it.
@@tabbybard The books first. If you like the books, then enjoy the games (especially the third). Whatever you do, don't watch the show, please. It is the worse way to explore this story.
@@tabbybard there are also Witcher comics and manga Witcher Ronin by CD Projekt Red. Witcher Ronin I think you'd find especially interesting as it has been written by the same man who wrote Cyberpunk Edgerunners
If you want some good Witcher content go for books by Sapkowski, games by CD Projekt Red or read comics by them or manga Witcher Ronin (it was written by Rafał Jaki the same guy who wrote Cyberpunk Edgerunners)
I am a huge fan of witcher book series. Its not only fantasy series, it contains also sone philosofy. Watching netflix's verison i started to think that maybe this is partialy not their fault? Maybe so much meanig is lost in translation that they just could not understand it... you just proved otherwise. Thank you.
29:29 The reunion scene was really very emotional in the end of the...... ‘Sword of Destiny’ book. But in the show it just makes no sense. They've shown the iconic consequence while neglecting its causes. When the showrunner talks it makes you believe that she's concient of how things work but what we see tells us quite the opposite.
Thanks for all the care you've invested into making these videos. I've read the Witcher in Ukrainian which I believe is a bit easier to translate into from the Polish original. I am very happy that the book series was conveyed well in English as well. The show is an absolute fail of course. But what we're left with, namely the book and the game series, is not that bad after all :)
"So, Geralt was a witcher and Ciri was a princess on the run. And that's really all that they were" Possibly two of the most rich characters in literature, reduced to that? Really? I don't know what kind of writer you have to be to say this with such confidence. Geralt was never just a witcher (what even is being a witcher anyway). Geralt was always Geralt, deep, contradictory, fascinating. Saying he's just a witcher is a thing only people who don't know him say, the books make a point of showing that.
An aditional thought, maybe the reason I love the Witcher is the whole point of it was these characters are who they are because of the choices they made, and sticks a middle finger at pre-determination. Which I have opposed all my life. Allow m to use quotes from other stories: "There is no Fate but what we make for ourselves." - Sarah Connor, Terminator 2. "A strong man doesn't need to read the future, he makes his own." - Solid Snake, Metal Gear Solid. If the show writers understood these simple things, they'd get it.
Im realizing that the focus on characters is why people can get into witcher 3 without any knowlegde of previous games or books. Im currently playing through it and, even tho the first few hours are kinda hard to get into, after that, when i start to meet these old friends and see how much they value each other, everything falls into place. I dont know much about the lore or whats going on, but i dont really mind it and i learn as i go. All i want is to help geralt find ciri and meet his friends.
Excellent analysis. I bailed on the show after season 1 because I could tell where this was going and couldn't bear to see another beloved story be bastardized. I have lots of criticisms about the show, but you managed to eloquently put into words what I couldn't put my finger on as the main reason the show sucks.
I'm 43 now and have watched every story I ever cared about be destroyed. I lost all joy in all forms of entertainment and media because it's sll infested with anerican politicssnd agendas now. Makes Mr sorry I even lived this long...
Hmmmmmm, casting was a big factor in this show, and I among many hated it partially to the unecessary Western diversity hire, though the changes to the story and cringy dialogue were the biggest offenders.
You did such a thorough breakdown of all the reasons why I felt bored or frustrated or confused throughout watching the show! Appreciate this. Interested to hear what you have to say about seasons 2 and 3 lol
Thank you for this video. The show has made me so angry, precisely because the writers don’t seem to understand the underlying themes AND ESPECIALLY this one. Edit: also the fact that much of the story is about humanity and morality. Which is why I fucking hate what they’ve done to Jaskier. He’s so important as Geralt‘s friend…
As Villentretenmerth said to Yennefer - "(..)You and Geralt are belong together, that's obvious, but it's not going to work anyway". That's the real meaning of destiny in the saga.
Argh, the way they made both Calanthe and Yennefer constantly whinge on how bad they have it because of men - when they're literally some of the most powerful people (not women - people) in their world, with one being a queen in her own right and the other one a powerful sorceress... It just made them both look annoying, whiny and unaware of their own privilege (their complaints would certainly make sense in the world of the witcher, but not coming from them. Give those lines to a peasant girl who was assaulted by some soldiers and later ostracised by her village because she got pregnant as a result). As if to emphasise the stupidity of it, Calanthe says "if I was a man, I could just tell them all to eff off" (no, she couldn't, and if she did, that would make her a bad king), then a minute later she basically says as much to the Nilfgaardian emissary, so where exactly are those limitations she talks about? (Oh, plus she hears about the enemy invasion and chooses to continue with the party. So... she's whiny, complains of her queenly duties, offends people for no reason, and she's also stupid). She already was a powerful, dignified, respected and feared woman in the books, but in the series they made her crass, vulgar, complaining and a bad ruler... all in the name of making her a powerful and feared woman? Meanwhile Yennefer complains about being deprived of her fertility and how it's unfair, but - they added a scene where she literally says "yes, please, I'll have beauty over fertility, do it!". Which makes her someone who basically blames everyone else for her own conscious choices. Make it make sense. I couldn't watch past Season 1.
As a person who watched the show with no prior knowledge of the books or games, a lot of your critiques hit home. Characters and plot points blow around like leaves in the wind with no cohesive explanation and I didn't pick up on any overarching theme or message. I think the comparison you made to anime filler is spot on.
Note that when the 'showrunners', the so-called 'writers' talk about their 'achievements', they always say things like: 'It was fun to..', Or, 'It was interesting to me..', ~ Obviously, completely blind to the fundamentals of storytelling, making a good TV show, adapting a great book, or screenwriting.. ~ The very things they are theoretically being paid large sums of money to do.. Square pegs in round holes.. Un-creative people who have an erroneously high opinion of their capabilities.. A trend which, it would appear, is also crashing Hollywood, Disney, and many other 'entertainment' franchises into a crater of extinction..
Lauren Hissrich doesn't understand the source material at all. All she had to do was read the books and perhaps the playing the games would have helped her as well.. this is such a shame.. almost as bad a Game of Thrones ending.. almost
One thing I've noticed about Lauren Hissrich compared to showrunners of other series, like, say, Game of Thrones, The Rings of Power or even great series like Breaking Bad, is just how pervasive a presence she is in every public appearance. Is that just me, or does she just seem to be CONSTANTLY showing up with the other actors at every conference and group interview, waxing lyrical about her 'vision' and how *she* sees the characters - even whilst *the actors playing them* are sitting right next to her. I feel like I've seen more of HER talking about the show and the characters than any of the actual actors playing the roles. I don't remember showrunners of other series being such a looming public presence - in fact, I don't think I could even tell you who the showrunners of Breaking Bad, Westworld or other hit tv shows were. But there's no way ANYONE on this earth can avoid knowing that Lauren Hissrich is SOLELY RESPONSIBLE for EVERY SINGLE MOMENT of EVERY ASPECT OF THIS SHOW...!
netflix witcher is so bad it can bring dead back to life
this video was posted when the series was still bearable.. you ain't seen nothin' yet.
Off topic warning…..You just reminded me of watching tv commercials as a kid in the 1980’s. GE had a jingle: “GE, we bring good things to life.” I remember singing, “we bring dead things to life!” It’s such a happy tune, too!
@@danzaiIt was posted after Season 2 which was a horrible and just shitty season overally. Season 3 is much better but still falls short to what we fans expect from the Witcher.
@@MultiKamil97 I think season 3 is just as bad if not worse than season 2. Season 3 is where we get gay dandelion and the most boring desert episode ever
@@danzai wait they made dandelion gay, why?? Thank god i stop watching :D
It's amazing how Lauren did not write anything she had claimed to write. The way she talks about the show makes you want to watch it because it looks like a really complex, smart story. But then you watch and you just feel you had been lied to.
The way she talks is her job really. She is to sell her services to the investors (producers) as best as she can, whether she does this, it doesnt matter. Was paid anyway..
yup, he lies more than most politicians
You don’t feel you were lied to.. you literally were lied to
I think she truly believes every word she uttered and just plain sucks at writing and thinking deep thoughts. Common theme these days
She's just delusional. She thinks she's making a masterpiece of a show that's going to be remembered for decades and will go down in the history. We know it's a really bad take at adaptation and makes the Witcher's world and characters seem shallow and uninteresting but for her, everything there is perfect.
In this version Aretuza did not impose infertitility on Yennefer. She traded it for beauty. In book version practicing magic causes atrophy of ovaries. And if it doesnt, most sorceresses are forcibly sterilised and it has nothing to do wiith having sex with kings without the risk of pregnacy, but the mutation risk to fetus. Ciri (being a genetic labrat) were to be an exception of this rule.
They are not forcibly sterilized, it's and idea proposed by Tissia out of jealousy and belief, that sorceresses first and only priority should be magic.
@@TheKarabanera Aaaand also because of the fact that most children of sorceresses turn out to be absolute loonies whose magic liquefies their brains because kids aren't meant to have that kind of power
Great video essay, really encompasses all my problems and discontent with the show as a fan of the books
I love that this channel posted a single 4 and a half hour long video and then went silent for over 2 years before uploading their next one, that's the upload schedule I dream to have some day.
Quality over quantity.
Are you implying he doesn’t work hard? Like the other person said, Quality over Quantity.
@@PhilfromAustin No I'm not implying that lmfao
The best take on Netflix's Witcher I've ever saw/heard. The moment Ciri and Geralt hug for no reason at the end of the season 1 was so bad that I can't imagine anyone going "emotional" over it. However, in the books I was sad that Geralt and Ciri had to part after thier first meeting in Brokilon. One short story was all we had to understand that there was "something more" than destiny to these characters yet Netflix didn't care and made them just randoblmy stumble upon each other at the woods.. Such a waste..
Anyway, I can't wait for your future videos mate. Great stuff.
A lot of these video critiques feel like a real departure from popular attitudes into some strange fetish niche. The first season was great in a multitude of ways. What about destiny? You know, a predetermined course of events often held to be an irresistible power or agency? Audiences don't need character choices to drive characters together. Coincidence is sufficient. Contrivance is sometimes warranted (in service of externalities, to the production). The idea of destiny meaning "characters make choices to bring them together" is the unfortunate case of a viewer injecting their own ideas (sorry AP). Fiction, and specifically fantasy, is a world of "right place right time" for notable or unlikely things to happen (as opposed to D&D or Xanth, et al where fantastical things happen everywhere all the time).
An example of a fantasy work that included people chasing each other around in a similar setting, as a matter of "destiny", was Willow (the movie). It can work. That being said, characters specifically making choices to engage each other, does not imply or follow the idea of destiny and that seems to be discarded in service of pretending there's something fundamentally and demonstrably wrong with season 1 writing. eg Characters emoting the feelings of the audience (Geralt and Ciri embrace) has no bearing, whatsoever, on the show as a whole. It provides catharsis and the audience doesn't need to think too hard when the show ends up delivering *something*. If the series only lasted that one season, the contrived embrace was warranted.
Clearly, the issues with the writing are about the cheap drama tricks, willingness to lean into over-complicated justification for unexplained canon events, and focus on non-canon elements to the point of changing canon outright (evident in season 2).
@@Jack9C well yes, you can do generic epic power fantasy driven entirely by plot contrivances and some concept of destiny... but it's been done elsewhere and better. it's a wasted opportunity to do something different.
@@Jack9C The real problem with the embrace at the end of Season 1 to me was the simple fact that the two characters had no real prior history with each other, compared to the books where they had already had an adventure together, gotten attached to each other and been once separated before, both thinking they would probably never meet again. The show's scene wasn't a reunion, it was essentially the first time the two actually met. Instead there was an actual human connection between them in Sword of Destiny, not just the idea of Ciri being Geralt's Child of Surprise being the driving motivation for them to find each other. Whereas I actually cried when reading the ending of the second Witcher book (I've never even shed tears because of a book before that and I used to read quite a bit), I felt no emotion during the adapted version of that same scene in the show.
Also, in the books it's a genuine surprise for the reader that Ciri is on the farm, whereas in the show the multiple points of view for that moment somewhat takes away from its impact, at least in my opinion. Could have still been a very neat moment, had they not fucked around with the timeline so much. (I'm not an advocate for 1:1 adaptation so I get that certain changes had to be made, but to me Geralt and Ciri never really meeting before that point was a pretty big misstep, because it also has rippling effects for Season 2.)
@@Jack9C "The idea of destiny meaning "characters make choices to bring them together" is the unfortunate case of a viewer injecting their own ideas" I take it you haven't read the books but its a major thread throughout that "Destiny is not enough". You have to still do the action/make the decision. Destiny will put you infront of the goal but will not place it in your hands.
@@stacksmalacks8826 I think the destiny it is supposed to be ambiguous, just like Renfri's black sun curse.
as someone who's never read the books or played the games, this video finally made me understand why I was so confused about Renfri's role. everytime Geralt mentioned her I was like so his motivation is to make up for the fact that he killed this random woman he slept with one time? and that means protecting Ciri because both of them happen to be powerful princesses..? like this was the first time in a hundred years where he would face a moral dilemma as a witcher?
Yeah I'm in the same boat and I never understood why Renfri was so important to him. On a practical level, Geralt had been a Witcher far longer than she had even been alive and had seen the world and met many people by that point. She really wasn't that important in the grand scheme of things.
Witchers are not meant to deal with moral dilemmas, just killing monsters. It was a great story in the 1st book, built the world and Geralt’s character. Netflix writing killed all that in translation.
I've read the books multiple times and was same confused as you. Renfri is a character in one short story and is not mentioned further in the books, not even once.
This notion of inventing ways to make Ciri and Geralt dislike each other at first is so weird. Yeah sure their backgrounds are way too different, but it was literally done in the books and it was actually kinda sweet, but here?
In Netflix Witcher it just feels like all if the characters just tolerate each other at best, and it looks really weird in the story about found family.
Every clip with Lauren had me rolling my eyes. She is so full of herself.
strong successful woman, youre just jealous, who hurt you, where is your tv show, youre mysoginist.
Watching this video, it's so obvious she could have done what she wanted, making them all independent characters, but in a way where they didn't quite fit where they were and felt out of place and missing something. And the missing piece was each other.
You just hate women
it's her accent
They obviously didnt look at ciri's portrait as a young child angry looking in a princess dress because that already tells more about her then they understood 😂
"I'm nobody's pretty and stupid material! I'm not any material at all!" interlaced with "I'm gonna make an order to cut your head off!".
The moral of the story: don't just try to copy Christopher Nolan. Or write an adaptation when you don't understand the source.
Copying works better when you understand what you are copying and what is good about it in the first place...
To add the moral of the story is not everything has to be Game Of Thrones.
@@HarryerpoowThat’s actually the irony. They wanted to make a GoT, but then disregarded all the things that made GoT great: interweaving stories, character development, a slower (but not necessarily slow) pace, smart dialogue, the realistic subversion of tropes, etc. The Witcher novels had all these things.
Instead, they took the amateurish adolescent route by focusing on nudity and vulgarity because it’s edgy. They also claim to have reinvented and subverted tropes/clichés when, in reality, they relied on the most generic tropes/clichés as a writing crutch and completely disregarded everything unique that The Witcher novels did with those tropes/clichés.
They had the perfect property to rival GoT while still feeling new/refreshing, yet they did everything in their power to… not do that.
Geralt loses all his friends and died just because he chose family over destiny. That the show depicts him as a yes man to fate is absolutely revolting indeed
Yea, they changed the Brokilon part where Geralt and Ciri met. It's so funny because Ciri was inside the house, Geralt was also heading in the same house, but Ciri had to run to the forest in order to fulfill the prophesy of "the girl in the forest". It was so stupid.
In my first watch, I was amazed when I understood, that the stories are on different timelines and I thought, that I would find soooo many little hints and the tiny things, that would have consequenzes... so you can imagine my confusion on my second watch, when everything was just ... meaningless "easter egg" kinda stuff...
yes its ridiculou Lauren said in many interviews already that they focused on plotholes in the books, they did not care about source material, only looked for holes in the story to expand on those in the show, she literally said that many times, she just wanted to expand where Sapkowski left a field for interpretation and base whole show on this instead of just trying to adapt the books into a great dark fantasy show it should be... she even said there were not many 'holes' in the books but she worked hard as fuck to tell a story sapkowski did not. she is a fcking cancer to movie industry.
I had a similar experience. 1st watch "omg so good", 2nd "wait, things are off." This video is validating a lot of things I didn't particularly notice, but my brain did. Like, "destiny" being meekly followed bc... destiny, is not what the books and games are about.
I support the strike, but hopefully it chills this whole "here's my take on this already-established work that I made up" (aka, fanfic) type of writing being given these platforms. Stars Trek and Wars, Ghostbusters, the rebooters seem to have forgotten what makes a good, meaningful story.
Or, the ones that do know how to do that, Netflix cancels it after Season 2 bc they'd have to share the success money. Hopefully the strike changes that, at least.
So well put and understood. I really like the focus on whats actually tangibly wrong with the show not just harping on the “oh no feminism is ruining my witcher” or “its just too woke” lines thats im so fucking tired of hearing at this point.
Your break down means so much more than the politically partisan surface level analysis i see everywhere else.
so true couldn't agree more
exactly, these types of "arguements" get so tiresome, considering the original books are probably even more explicitly progressive than the show
@@cajchcankathank you! I don’t understand how anyone can read the books or play the games and then complain about the show being “woke”.
The show was trash, regardless of whatever “woke agenda” people like to blame.
The book series of the Witcher has always been an odd one for me, cuz unlike Harry Potter, ASoIF and LotR, there is no sense of a grand objective that one must achieve in order to avoid a horrific outcome. The Continent is ruined by war and epidemic no matter what Geralt, Yen and Ciri do; racial predujice will never end no matter who wins the conflict. The funny part is that by spending too much time and effort trying to catch one person with the specific designs of using said person as a tool, the ambitious bunch all ended up in a far worse position than they had started with. Dijkstra got leg broken, Bonhart and Vilgefortz just got unalived, Emyhr lost a war (which he should have won if he wasn't so obsessed with Ciri), and Eredin's probably never gonna realize his interstellar invasion dreams. All because they each had a twisted mindset, a false trajectory set from a inhuman orientation. Geralt, Yen and Ciri cared for each other and helped one another grow into better human-beings; this helped them to live up to their positive standards in life, and for Geralt and Yen, eventually die with dignity. It's not their specific aim to defeat evil, but by simply living their lives to the fullest they have already managed make history. Despite the looks of things, the main trio's love and unity is by no means the sole reason for the antagonists' failure. Vilgefortz, Emyhr and Eredin failed because they abandoned all moral principles to chase an unclear objective, and more importantly, because they saw no one but themselves worthy of a dignified treatment. They use corporate ways of control and manipulation while losing sight of the true values in life worth preserving, aka respect, trust, love and a tiny dose of self-introspection. This is where I conclude that the Witcher books is true to real human history, in which individual decisions influence one another to result in generational and epochal characteristics. So I agree with you wholeheartedly that a lack of clearly-defined interactive decision-making resulted in the show's fundamentally skewed storytelling perspective. This is indeed a lack of basic understanding of the source material.
I would actually recommend Cyberpunk 2077's way of storytelling, it mirrors the Witcher books' quite well.
I’ve got a question: what exactly do you mean with “corporate means of control”?
"there is no sense of a grand objective that one must achieve in order to avoid a horrific outcome" I mean there really kind of is. Finding Ciri and not letting any bad actors exploit her.
The one think I am thankful towards Netflix for is the fact that this adaptation made me discover the books.
I'm a 26 year old man and these books have had a real impact on my perspective on family and what should matter to me.
Also, great video! You have a great sense of what truly defines a good story.
Same here. My first experience with this universe was Witcher 3, which was an amazing experience for sure, but there was so much story to this world that I wanted to know about. I was excited for the show to give me a taste of it, but the first season was ehhh and the second season was miserable and boring. I eventually bought the whole book series and I'm Blood of Elves now. Such an amazing series and much better storytelling than the show
You sure? The books are terribly written.
@@doomdrake123 Terrible take lmao. You probably read a shitty translation, as a lot of the nuance in the authors writing doesnt always reflect when being done in different languages. Your inherent enjoyment of the writing is based on which English version you read. Or you can go above and beyond like others who understood this issue and learn Polish so you can truly experience what the author puts to paper. The books are very well written. When reading outside the original language you run the risk of being subject to the translator's interpretation of the writing and not the original writing itself. Its not always the case, as there are a few good translations of the series, but it depends on who you allow to be your conduit for understanding a story written in a completly separate language.
@@svenskhund3603 dude, the most memorable thing that Ciri did in the books is admire some other women's tits. Yeah I loved some of the minor characters, and the twist at the end is well foreshodowed, but the books are just meh.
And no, I'm not learning polish just for some dumb books.
@@doomdrake123 Yea okay im not gonna reguard your opinion with anything of substance after that rebuttle lmao. You can move along now.
The "who's Yennefer" as the end baffled me so much. At no point was she mentioned in Ciri's jorneys, she wasn't linked to Ciri the way Geralt was, Ciri didn't have any prophetic dreams about her and what not. There was literally nothing. It'd have made as much sense if she just spouted Jaskier's or Vesemir's or literally anyone else's name.
The more i see from behind the scenes of this show, the more and more i want Henry Cavil to be the show runner.
This also make me so hype for his 40K adaptation, even if it ends up as Henry Cavil spending his whole show budget buying minis and painting them while telling us about the 40K lore.
The depressing part is, it's not just Cavill. Nerds have had it *rough* the last few years. I remember walking out of Rise of Skywalker like "wtf did I just watch." I didn't even perceive it as a movie, it was just Things Happening. And that's why I hesitate to watch any Star Wars now.
Today's suits just do not understand this stuff. I'm actually glad Cavill stood up to them. More actors should do that (cough Secret Wars cough).
It's like, when anything is around long enough, we get a lazy or weird or cashgrab version. The entire MCU Phase 4, for example.
After JJ S1 and Daredevil being good, we got meh Luke Cage, awful Iron Fist, and then the Defenders, one of the worst shows I've personally seen.
But Netflix, in their infinite wisdom, handed the Defenders show runner a whole series designed around subverting fantasy tropes. People can improve with experience (we all start somewhere), but her attitude doesn't seem conducive to learning. Like, imagine Henry trying to argue with her about the character, does she seem like the type to hear him out and change her mind? Not to me.
It's CEO-brain, "line go up" thinking, applied to art. Same crap that led to the strikes in the first place. Oh well, maybe the suits will listen once their bank accounts lose a few zeros. Lol.
FOR THE EMPEROR
"This here is a guardsman"
*Holds up an unpainted mini*
"Let me tell you all about these guys while I put some color on them."
@@fretienkamp6735 I'd watch that
You elegantly put into words some things what I felt about the show but couldn't quite describe, bravo! I'm eagerly awaiting for the next part.
Also easiest subscribe of the year.
Extremely easy subscribe. He vocalized all my problems with that show and added more things that I didn't even notice. Great video.
Cavil leaving makes all the more sense now.
I watched the entire first season and it was just bland, but the first book was anything but. That was a first sign of things to come.
Saying you rarely upload is an understatement, I'm glad we got something good out of such a letdown of a show.
52:23 As someone who had no children of my own, by choice, this switch gave me whiplash. The women I know who have chosen to be child free have never regretted that decision, even after decades. This 180° shift needed to happen _onscreen_ for it to make any sense at all.
And she never even had that 180 in books. She didn't choose to be infertile, she was made infertile, same way as Geralt.
The whole thing with a sorcery sacrificing themselves to make powerful orbs that explodes - that’s not what the lore says.
In the books every sorcerer draws power from everything. The air, the earth and so on.
That’s why cdpr implemented the fact that yen destroys a holy garden to extract information through necromancy about ciris whereabouts - because they followed the lore of the books.
And in the books they don't turn unsuccessful candidates into eels to power up the school, either :D
@@irena4545 exactly, I don’t know why they would make the academy look so terrible. The books explains how yennifer had good experience of the academy and that she had a great relationship with tissaia
Finally, my subscription paid off.
Dude, this is extremely well-done. I made a similar video (just one, I can't focus enough to do several), and this got so much I missed. Great work and examination on the theme and essence of the books that the show missed. Looking forward to the next part, buddy:)
"Casting is the least of this shows problems."
Thank you! Both for this statement and for the thought you've put into these videos.
as a Witcher fan (started when books came out in polish) I hate the Netflix adaptation with passion, really interested in what you'll say
You and me both, though for me it started with the Czech translation. It completely blew off my mind, while Netflix just completely gutted everything.
As a Witcher fan I hate books after 2nd one. They are soooo bad and fanfiction like. Just really bad written male fantasy of being "so ugly, but so wanted", being so cool, so powerful, so attractive, so smart and the whole toxic relationships with Yen are just so awful. And the most terrible thing - a lot of men thinks she is an ideal woman 🤦 My max were like 5 books, couldn't go further. But the ideas and world are amazing, but everything else are so poorly written.
@@LSG101097 Really curious that's what jumped out at you from the books lmao.
Lay off the gender studies for a bit
@@LSG101097It seems like you didn't really understand those books.
2:53 Ik u said u didn't want to open this can of worms, but It's just simple logic. It wouldn't make sense to have racism against short people, and tall people with sharp teeth and pointy ears, but not have racism against people who have a completely different skin color, and facial features than you in a fantasy world based on medieval Europe. This is something, GoT and CDPR both realized when making their adaptations, and something they tried to address by giving different factions in the world different looks, and interesting backgrounds. Shame this is still something the witcher fanbase can't come to a consensus on, especially after how horrendous this and many adaptions (besides TLOU, and few others), have been. Netflix's The Witcher will go down in history as a victim of its time. Damn shame.
Ale to zwykły paszkwil. Nawet jak zmieniali rasy to nie mogli być w tym systematyczni? Szpiczaste uszy nie mogą być jedynym wyznacznikiem rasy gdyż można je łatwo ukryć pod kapturem. Odcień skóry jest często wyznacznikiem rasy gdyż jest to najbardziej widoczna część ciała. Gadanie o rasizmie bez konceptu rasy jest idiotyczne ale to jest już zboczenie umysłowe wielu Amerykanów nazywać wszystko rasizmem nawet jeśli chodzi o dyskryminacje na innym tle. Ale nawet Bagiński sam powiedział, że kręcą serial dla idiotów
DAD IS BACK WITH MILK🥰
The last kingdom does destiny right.
It uses it as a way to show how the protaganists belief differs from those around him. Without constant demonstrations of how.
But it also helps to emphasize Uthred's ego in believing he is destinned for something, which is a major character flaw which often holds him back.
Meanwhile netflix witcher thinks it can just throw out the word "destiny" enough times and that will make it meaningful.
It comes off about as meaningful as when Dom says "family" in fast and furious movies.
that is so true, what is so great about the Last kingdom is that it remains loyal to consistency, Uhtred has amazing character growth and development but his core beliefs never change and the writers never compromise his character agency just to push a certain narrative.
Uhtred is a pagan that believes that Destiny is what truly drives a man and that he is destined for what is his birthright. which is bebbanburg no more no less.
Last Kingdom is a great show!
Yeah honestly I believe anyone trying to adapt books to the screen should look at The Last Kingdom. It wasn’t a perfect adaptation, but for damn sure the closest any adaptation has ever come to even holding a candle to the books they are based on.
@@Wighafocit was good for first three seasons; then Last Kingdom started to play loose with the books too. Quality certainly dropped.
Okay, THIS is the best video essay/criticism of the show I´ve watched. Well done, well said.
Thinking about it, the thematic incoherence could of been fixed so easily. Yennefer was denied her place at Aedirn because of her eleven blood, right? It would of been interesting if Yennefer was instead suppose to be King Foltest’s advisor but her actions at the ball changed Foltest’s destiny (and Temeria’s fate) as she choose to scheme her way to Aedrin anyway. Decades later, when Geralt tries to lift the curse at Foltest’s court, King Foltest could have ended up dead (a consequence of the curse lifting.) With King Foltest dead, Nilfigaard invades Temeria and has enough fire power to overwhelm Cintra. This leads to Queen Calanthe’s death and Ciri’s hunt for Geralt. All of which culminates in Geralt, Yennefer and Ciri meeting at the Battle of Sodden. You could even tie in the fact of Geralt and Yen meeting in the town of Rinde wouldn’t of happened if Yen hadn’t decided to go to Aedrin, (seeing as she left Aedrin’s court because of the assassin etc.) and if it didn’t happen, Geralt and Yen’s fate wouldn’t have been tied together by the Djinn’s last wish. It also wouldn’t of happened if Geralt hadn’t of meet Dandelion and gone to Cintra, landing him with a Child Surprise (which causes Geralt to look for the Djinn in the first place, in the show at least). It wouldn’t have followed the books, but it would be an interesting take on how the three were always suppose to meet and destiny was always drawing them closer. I’d cut out Yen losing her magic entirely, and centre the second season on Geralt, Yen and Ciri in Kaer Morhen attempting to train Ciri. Introducing the viewers to the School of the Wolf and the sacking of Kaer Morhen. It could also show how Ciri is the reason Geralt and Yen choose to stay together and attempt to overcome their many, complex issues. The Scoia’tael, Temeria and Nilfgaard could be secondary plot-lines.
Poland is central Europe not eastern (we can be really touchy about that xD).
The show started with good reviews by audience because we were blinded by "it's something! We are getting SOMETHING!" but when the emotions eased we realised that something was not even close to what we deserved. It was something shitty.
.
And I DO want to talk about the casting. Ciri is WAAAAAY to old and too conventionally atractive, she was suppose to be an unremarkable little girl, and in third season she looks older than Yennefer who's suppose to be her mother figure. Calante? She looks like her mother not grandma, hey couldn't even be bothered to add grey hair to her in the later events.
.
Oh My God you mentioned the polish series, it used to be the meme in my country. The "beautiful dragon" mostly, but yes, characters wise? It did a better job, but the 5$ budget overshadowed everything...
It is a disgrace how Hollywood leftists disrespected Polish culture.
Casting Indian woman as Yennefer, Random non whites, barely a single Polish person even in the show 😂
Leftwing Jewish people really hijack everything maliciously and turn it into one bland multicultural piece of garbage.
They wouldn't do this to a series about Anne Frank tho
You’re Eastern European
Lol
It seems to me the showrunner is in way over her head. The buck stops with her. It appears she hasn't managed any of her responsibilities properly and that has trickled down into every aspect of the series from budget to writing to casting to set design and costumes, to SFX and everything else. These productions don't need someone who is learning on the job they need a seasoned professional with a proven track record. How she jumped from story editor, researcher roles to showrunner is beyond me. If I'm being unnecessarily hard on her or I'm misunderstanding her experience, I'm sorry. But it sure doesn't look like it.
In what other universe woukd we be allowed to be promoted to such a career with NO EXPERIENCE OR TALENT to justify it?
It's all nepotism in Hollywood
34:24 I’m sorry but I laughed so hard at Henry saying “unlocking levels before you can use that skill tree” to describe your hard work to get to your destiny, it’s this part of his personality that everyone loves and becomes his fan, it’s his “nerdiness” that charms people and makes him trustworthy when it comes to his work in fantasy and such
I always hated Cavill and he can't even act in any of his works. 👎
I don't care if he considers himself a "nerd" for whatever franchise.
@@FeuerblutRMwe are the ones that consider him as a nerd an love him for it
@@FeuerblutRMWho asked?
As someone who lives with a disability that I was born with and some of the mental health, as well as physical health problems it causes, and being brought up in a rather toxic family situation to boot, I do find Netflix's portrayal of Yennifer extremely problematic in a number of ways.
Such as?
@@kirielbranson4843 What this video said... Using the Kuleshov Effect, the show directly compared someone with a physical disability to someone that was born cursed and grew into a literal monster. They show Geralt curing the striga as they show Yennefer's physical transformation insinuating her physical deformations needed fixing which can be a "problematic" message for some people.
Everything in this show at best was just mid. if Cavile weren't the lead this show would be similar to Rings of Power.
The Witcher is a masterpiece of post-modern literature, ironying fantasy trophes. People who adapted this, didn´t get it and trying to make another generic fantasy. This simply don´t make sense.
This, RoP, WoT, Halo, Willow, Resident Evil, and so many others are why Hollywood should make sure to include show runners / Directors / producers that like the franchises in the production and not only actors / consultants. The modern hacks are either too stupid, too shallow or too activist to bother understanding the source material. Writing takes more than skill and talent. It requires depth, foresight, planning, and foremost the discipline to go through it again and again until the character actions are consistent and makes sense with the overall themes and plots.
Your series of analyses is just great and way more entertaining than the show itself! I wish Netflix put so half the thought you did when they created their series. I hope you make similar critique series for other tv shows.
To put it simply, it's a teenage romance fanfic level of writing that misinterprets a story and it's themes and messages
Like last time, your analysis of the story and themes was amazing. The way you pointed out the problems and explained it is great! 😊
The characters saying "destiny" so many times pissed me off like you wouldn't believe!
I'm happy and sad I found your channel and watched this. You broke down and organized all the thrills and ills with this show.
I played the first game when it was released. I read the first book because of the game. I waited for the rest of the books to be translated into English while anticipating more of the game series.
Netflix took all of the joy out of the amazing books. The highs are not high enough to forgive the glaring issues with production and storytelling.
Newly subscribed and thank you for doing this. It's incredibly well done!
Just hearing this screen writer speak obsessively about how good her take on this show is made me realize why the show turned out bad. She was the wrong hire for this show. No relevant experience, and no connection with the story.
Thanks AP for so professionally citing her through video footage. Wish she put a thread of your professionalism in writing this lol. She doesn’t care besides the fat cash check from this.
They say "destiny" so many times, it stops sounding like a real word.
Hissrich does not come across as someone that takes the work serious enough, not a real professional, someone that forms a team of writers and just has a laugh and fun! I'm not saying people shouldn't enjoy their work, but there's a degree of childishness and lack of professionalism that seems to come through the more i listen and watch clips of her talking. This is not someone trying to adapt great work, this is someone wondering how they can "reimagine" it to create their own vision off the back of someone elses. She'd be right at home working with the Rings of Power team (perhaps she could move over there and let some real and serious producers/writers take over).
I will never forgive them for what they did to Eyck.
Thronebreaker depicted him perfectly and Netflix trashed him along with every other character
THE RETURN OF THE KING🎉!!!
I stumbled onto this series of Witcher videos through recommendations and I felt you were familiar. Then I saw you did that massive video on Assassin's Creed Origins I watched a year ago. Great to see you back.
Oh my God this literally made my day
Great video and i have huge respect for you to go through all those content where Hissrich says things i couldn't go through that much pain.
When the world needed him most, he returned.
After watching this I am MOURNING the loss of what could have been a far-reaching show with deeply important ideas the world needs right now. This show needs to be remade and done RIGHT!
OMG! I never realized they were representing "Destiny" purely by saying it in lines, now I know why I felt weird when Geralt and Ciri were said they were bonding by Destiny and I couldn't understand it. Thank you!
When I heard they cut the first meeting in Brokilon, I knew they had broken the story irreparably.
Great analysis. Best take I've seen so far, not just completely shitting on everything with no base. After reading The Last Wish, Sword of Destiny, and Blood of Elves, I'm even more mind-boggled at how bad the show conveyed the literal theme tying everything together--for fuck's sake, it's sword of DESTINY and in the last scene of the book the last line was 'something more is needed' after geralt and ciri built up their relationship naturally in brokilon!! how more obvious could it be!!
side note, though, would you mind giving credit to the fanart you put in at 28:30? There's a ton you included in there without it being properly credited.
The bit about Hissrich watching Dunkirk and copying it when she was writing the pilot is so well observed.
One of the best book series and still the best roleplaying games!🥰
I literally had to watch the first season again because nothing made sense to me. The plot was awfully hard to follow and after finishing the second season I don’t even care anymore. Everything feels so disconnected and so many things are not explained. Hell, the prequel Netflix released was way better at narrating a family coming together than this mess 🤦♂️
This video really hit all the big points in the head, really glad to see more people say exactly what I've been thinking for a while
There's a trend in modern screenwriting I've noticed where the best stuff happens "off camera" - here most of thr jnteresting character development happens off-screen, like how in the Star Wars prequels the really interesting story of how the lightsaber got back in the story is never told, how we never learn about Kylo Ren's obsession with his grandfather and alienation towards his parents come from. A story that should've started with the birth of Ben Solo and the fate of the lightsaber only gives you little drips of this formative background rather than tying it into where the story was going. This is how relationships are presented and developed in the Witcher- we see the mechanical aspects of how the characters come together, but the majority ofvthe emotional bonds develop during the cuts between scenes instead of ever being shown.
I didn't even want to watch the witcher, but just because you made a video on it made me want to watch it just to come back to your video and watch it.
I hope you haven't done it. Better read Sapkowski's books YTber said she loves them.
@@karolinakuc4783 so its book then games then tv show?
@@tabbybard The books first. If you like the books, then enjoy the games (especially the third). Whatever you do, don't watch the show, please. It is the worse way to explore this story.
@@tabbybard there are also Witcher comics and manga Witcher Ronin by CD Projekt Red. Witcher Ronin I think you'd find especially interesting as it has been written by the same man who wrote Cyberpunk Edgerunners
You are a legend
If you want some good Witcher content go for books by Sapkowski, games by CD Projekt Red or read comics by them or manga Witcher Ronin (it was written by Rafał Jaki the same guy who wrote Cyberpunk Edgerunners)
I would goneven with old Polish low budget TV show. First two episodes are overexplaining Geralt's backstory but otherwise it's quite solid.
I am a huge fan of witcher book series. Its not only fantasy series, it contains also sone philosofy. Watching netflix's verison i started to think that maybe this is partialy not their fault? Maybe so much meanig is lost in translation that they just could not understand it... you just proved otherwise. Thank you.
The guy that does the Audiobooks, Peter Kenny is a Vocal GOD. He is so damn good.
29:29 The reunion scene was really very emotional in the end of the...... ‘Sword of Destiny’ book. But in the show it just makes no sense. They've shown the iconic consequence while neglecting its causes. When the showrunner talks it makes you believe that she's concient of how things work but what we see tells us quite the opposite.
Thanks for all the care you've invested into making these videos.
I've read the Witcher in Ukrainian which I believe is a bit easier to translate into from the Polish original. I am very happy that the book series was conveyed well in English as well.
The show is an absolute fail of course. But what we're left with, namely the book and the game series, is not that bad after all :)
Just read the books instead. Another epic failure after Tudors and Rome.
That reunion is easily the best scene in the books imo. The version of Brokilon and the finale of the season 1 was nothing short of butchery.
I didn't even watch the show I'm just here boosting this video in the algorithm and basing my entire opinion of the show on this one video to boot
"So, Geralt was a witcher and Ciri was a princess on the run. And that's really all that they were"
Possibly two of the most rich characters in literature, reduced to that? Really?
I don't know what kind of writer you have to be to say this with such confidence. Geralt was never just a witcher (what even is being a witcher anyway). Geralt was always Geralt, deep, contradictory, fascinating. Saying he's just a witcher is a thing only people who don't know him say, the books make a point of showing that.
That sounds like something antagonist from Witcher would say.
An aditional thought, maybe the reason I love the Witcher is the whole point of it was these characters are who they are because of the choices they made, and sticks a middle finger at pre-determination. Which I have opposed all my life.
Allow m to use quotes from other stories: "There is no Fate but what we make for ourselves." - Sarah Connor, Terminator 2.
"A strong man doesn't need to read the future, he makes his own." - Solid Snake, Metal Gear Solid.
If the show writers understood these simple things, they'd get it.
Im realizing that the focus on characters is why people can get into witcher 3 without any knowlegde of previous games or books.
Im currently playing through it and, even tho the first few hours are kinda hard to get into, after that, when i start to meet these old friends and see how much they value each other, everything falls into place. I dont know much about the lore or whats going on, but i dont really mind it and i learn as i go. All i want is to help geralt find ciri and meet his friends.
I rarely wander onto the Twitters, so I never knew about the tweets explaining the shortcomings of the first 2 seasons.
Excellent analysis. I bailed on the show after season 1 because I could tell where this was going and couldn't bear to see another beloved story be bastardized. I have lots of criticisms about the show, but you managed to eloquently put into words what I couldn't put my finger on as the main reason the show sucks.
I'm 43 now and have watched every story I ever cared about be destroyed. I lost all joy in all forms of entertainment and media because it's sll infested with anerican politicssnd agendas now.
Makes Mr sorry I even lived this long...
No this is Destiny 2
He's right IT IS YOU WHO DOES NOT KNOW PLATYPUS
Hmmmmmm, casting was a big factor in this show, and I among many hated it partially to the unecessary Western diversity hire, though the changes to the story and cringy dialogue were the biggest offenders.
The problem USA and they are so ingrained with thought of destiney.
You did such a thorough breakdown of all the reasons why I felt bored or frustrated or confused throughout watching the show! Appreciate this. Interested to hear what you have to say about seasons 2 and 3 lol
Drinking game: take a shot anytime you hear the word destiny.
Season 2 of this show makes the Peter Johnson movies look like faithful adaptations in comparison.
OMG HES BACK
Thank you for this video. The show has made me so angry, precisely because the writers don’t seem to understand the underlying themes AND ESPECIALLY this one. Edit: also the fact that much of the story is about humanity and morality. Which is why I fucking hate what they’ve done to Jaskier. He’s so important as Geralt‘s friend…
Cast does not matter? Bro, do you know a guy named Henry? That´s how the showrunners think, or do not think
People already loved Ciri for who she was the way she was written before. She was a whole character the way she was. They didn’t need to do anything
As Villentretenmerth said to Yennefer - "(..)You and Geralt are belong together, that's obvious, but it's not going to work anyway". That's the real meaning of destiny in the saga.
Argh, the way they made both Calanthe and Yennefer constantly whinge on how bad they have it because of men - when they're literally some of the most powerful people (not women - people) in their world, with one being a queen in her own right and the other one a powerful sorceress... It just made them both look annoying, whiny and unaware of their own privilege (their complaints would certainly make sense in the world of the witcher, but not coming from them. Give those lines to a peasant girl who was assaulted by some soldiers and later ostracised by her village because she got pregnant as a result).
As if to emphasise the stupidity of it, Calanthe says "if I was a man, I could just tell them all to eff off" (no, she couldn't, and if she did, that would make her a bad king), then a minute later she basically says as much to the Nilfgaardian emissary, so where exactly are those limitations she talks about? (Oh, plus she hears about the enemy invasion and chooses to continue with the party. So... she's whiny, complains of her queenly duties, offends people for no reason, and she's also stupid). She already was a powerful, dignified, respected and feared woman in the books, but in the series they made her crass, vulgar, complaining and a bad ruler... all in the name of making her a powerful and feared woman? Meanwhile Yennefer complains about being deprived of her fertility and how it's unfair, but - they added a scene where she literally says "yes, please, I'll have beauty over fertility, do it!". Which makes her someone who basically blames everyone else for her own conscious choices. Make it make sense. I couldn't watch past Season 1.
As a person who watched the show with no prior knowledge of the books or games, a lot of your critiques hit home. Characters and plot points blow around like leaves in the wind with no cohesive explanation and I didn't pick up on any overarching theme or message. I think the comparison you made to anime filler is spot on.
A rare case of English speaker properly recognizing AS's story. Nice review, really well done.
The only expectation woke screenwriters can't subvert, is that they'll make a terrible show.
If by woke you mean more concern with looking progresive than understand their craft than I can only agree.
Note that when the 'showrunners', the so-called 'writers' talk about their 'achievements', they always say things like: 'It was fun to..', Or, 'It was interesting to me..', ~ Obviously, completely blind to the fundamentals of storytelling, making a good TV show, adapting a great book, or screenwriting.. ~ The very things they are theoretically being paid large sums of money to do..
Square pegs in round holes..
Un-creative people who have an erroneously high opinion of their capabilities..
A trend which, it would appear, is also crashing Hollywood, Disney, and many other 'entertainment' franchises into a crater of extinction..
Lauren Hissrich doesn't understand the source material at all. All she had to do was read the books and perhaps the playing the games would have helped her as well.. this is such a shame.. almost as bad a Game of Thrones ending.. almost
I’m two chapters into baptism of fire…so I guess I’ll see you on three months when I can finally watch this series…very excited to watch it tho!
these videos just make me want to read the books and play the games again xDD
One thing I've noticed about Lauren Hissrich compared to showrunners of other series, like, say, Game of Thrones, The Rings of Power or even great series like Breaking Bad, is just how pervasive a presence she is in every public appearance. Is that just me, or does she just seem to be CONSTANTLY showing up with the other actors at every conference and group interview, waxing lyrical about her 'vision' and how *she* sees the characters - even whilst *the actors playing them* are sitting right next to her. I feel like I've seen more of HER talking about the show and the characters than any of the actual actors playing the roles. I don't remember showrunners of other series being such a looming public presence - in fact, I don't think I could even tell you who the showrunners of Breaking Bad, Westworld or other hit tv shows were. But there's no way ANYONE on this earth can avoid knowing that Lauren Hissrich is SOLELY RESPONSIBLE for EVERY SINGLE MOMENT of EVERY ASPECT OF THIS SHOW...!
It would be actually interesting to see more of the actual decision-makers talking about making the decisions. But your point still stands.
the scene of Geralt reuniting w Ciri in The Hexer legit makes me cry every time
I can't believe Lauren fucked it up so bad
Ive thought about going back and rewatching the show because i like the fight scenes, but if i do im skipping all the parts that only have yennefer
God damn I’m glad you’re uploading again.