Netflix include many scenes and storylines non-existent in the book that are obviously feminist like how male society treats them so bad and women are just objects in one of the speeches the Yennifer makes in the scene when she had to guard the woman about to be assassinated for not bearing a son. There is also the armor design that is wanting.
I recently started playing the Witcher 3, and man am i having fun. I love the investigative aspect of it as much as i love the combat aspect. Also, i think it was stated that Cavil is a fan of the books and games. More then the showrunner is apparently
And it's totally "their" fault that she can't have babies anymore. "They took away my choice!" No, bitch, you had the opportunity to travel the land with a man who loved you, but that would be "slow suicide" according to you. You then begged a guy to do the transformation, dude told you the consequences but you didn't care. That she's blaming some ominous "them" and not herself is peak irony. Fvck that show and fvck netflix.
Acesahn he should have gone for a more natural voice but it’s still not bad. Him and dandelion are good. Yen is the next best. Everyone else is basically garbage.
Iron Tusk Yes in the first episodes when Yen is deformed I felt for her and I think the actress did some great work. But once she became uber-sorcerer-goddess she lost her appeal and got kind of annoying.
“Can’t make up my mind about whether I like this guy, or absolutely hate him” In all fairness, this is pretty close to how the other characters in the book perceive Dandelion
Yeah I'm pretty sure that's the point of the character. He's an annoying prat who you still kind of like anyway even though most of the time you feel like you want to dunk his head in the toilet.
Yeah, they nailed him… Jaskier/Dandelion really is too much, but he is also too much for his world, and that is really his character. When is he not mentioned with an eye roll in the third game after all? ^^
What a great review. I found myself agreeing with almost everything you said. I don't have a problem with the different races here, because everyone came to this world through the conjunction (different dementions) so there is no real evolution here. Only the gnomes (not seen in the TV series) are actually from here. The elves call themselves the elder race, but they only preceded the dwarves and humans by a few thousand years.
I'm brazilian, and i got offended by that, it's pretty fucking stupid cast a bunch of pardos (this is what the government calls mixed people here) to interpret characters in a EUROPEAN FOLKLORE based story... Imagine if these woke retards discover that the native Tupi-guarini mithology is full of gods that have white skin and white hair, granted that this white skin gods are usually evil ones like Anhangua (although they would probably mistake him for a good one), but imagine this stupid woke folks screaming to the sky because someone decide to make a series about this gods and cast actors properly? Or if they discover that the african based religions like candomblé and umbanda, all these african gods here in Brazil are white like Iemanja?
Geralt: "I like Fringilla because she looks like Yenn and reminds me of her." Writers: "Better make sure she's inexplicably black with no similarities."
And of course Fringilla is Nilfgardian who never went to Aretuza. I think it's best to just consider them two separate characters: Real Fringilla, and Affirmative Action Fringilla.
@@danisalusha5739 It's much more racist to black wash characters than to criticize those methods and the same applies to gender swapping and sexism. Characters should match their templates!
Henry Cavill lifted this average show on his shoulders when he killed that first monster in the first shot of the first episode, and proceeded to carry it all the way to the finish line like an absolute boss. This show's survival in the long run basically depends on him.
@Seaworth Why the fuck is it relevant what other roles he plays? He's neither plump nor groomed, he plays a mutant guy who kills monsters for a living, who is adequately ripped as he should be with that kind of job. He also understands and plays an established character extremely well and on point, if you see this as a miscast you should probably get those eyes checked.
@@andreadebernardis4390 Well, as @xoddamCXVII said, not going to happen as in books in todays political scene. It is okay to treat Geralt as shit as he is a male character and white. Don't expect anyone else to be treated so.
I feel that the opening of Game of Thrones with the map, and how it changed across seasons, did alot more world building than people give it credit for.
Having sense of a place and time is very important. I remember when I read Metro 2033-35 series having map inside the book helped immensely. So when I read Witcher books years ago, I had a massive map of the world in my phone to check where characters are and where they are going.
I think it changed at every episode, depending on what was going to happen during the episode. Not only between seasons. (But I'm not sure, as I don't remember if they show, for example, the wall every time, even when it did not appear in the show)
There's no need to feel bad about praising the early seasons of GOT. They were legitimately great. Its only the later seasons that went down the toilet
@@corriblehunt4554 The red wedding is still one of the most impactful events of any film / tv / book ive ever seen.. At that point i hadn't read the books so it was such a shock. It also took me until half way through season 2 to accept that ned was really dead 😂
The short stories are actually pretty good and are solid source material for a show. Problem is Netflix decided to ignore most of it and make 75% of the show Yennefer fan fiction, and the few short stories they used were abridged. And of course Henry gets the character of Geralt, he's a huge fan of the books and the games.
i dont think there is a single person who would be a better cast than henry. he is just the perfect witcher. from the body to the voice plus he is a witcher fanboy
@@Ar1AnX1x If this show was a more traditional network effort like X files that episode would make a pretty good case for 'monster-of-the-week' episodes fitting the Witcher really well.
@@benrig89 Holy crap that would've been way better. And the beginning of the first episode kind of fools you into thinking that's what the show is gonna be
@@benrig89 I would have worried that it would have become something like supernatural though. Spn was mostly that, with some plot in between, which then spiralled into fifteen seasons with shit like fighting Satan fifty times, killing death, constant "here is a big bad that's totally worse than the last one," ending with shit like god himself having a sister. It was shit, but brought in the money
I thought they were gonna give Yennefer the Captain Marvel treatment. I was surprised she actually had to work for what she wanted and wasn't just instantly good at everything.
@@liampatrick3110 you mean where whenever she has any challenge she gets a power up and immediately wins. Or when she straight up gets power from an engine and is somehow more powerful than both Thor, hulk and base level thanos.
Yennefer was complex and done well, The Witcher I guess is who he is, Ciri though omg I just rolled my eyes every time she was on screen. She had no originality.
"If you've got scars, strip! And show them to me! I'll show you mine! There isn't a place on my body, the front at least that isn't scarred!" Julius called his men out on it too Edit: this quote is Alexander the great, not Julius wow lol
Even fucking Napoleon sometimes led his armies himself when the moral was low. Which it absolutely should be when your country is facing the fucking Nilfgaardine Empire
Henry Cavill is great as Geralt and when he's, you know, doing Witcher stuff. The problem is thats like 5% of the show while the rest is Yenifer and and bunch of "diverse" characters that look extremely out of place. I don't know why Netflix is determined to ruin every great piece of writing they can.
What ruined Yennefer for you? I thought the actress did a decent job IMHO- definitely not a perfect 1:1 with the books and games, but there’s hardly an adaptation out there that does.
The characters aren’t out of place at all😂. Thats just a lazy critique of diversity in a fantasy realm. Its not like they blackwashed any main characters.
@@antibull4869 yeah, when I first read this comment I tried keeping an open mind, but the explicit complaining about the fact that Yennefer and nonwhite characters existed and had significant screen time was kind of a giveaway
The characters are very much out of place indeed. Not as much visually, but in the way they behave and their personalities. Especially a combo between a Soviet-era old crone that sells fish on the market - and a pig, yet dressed in armor and occupying the throne. Nothing in common with the descriptions in the book. The games do justice to the characters, even if they are not identical, - yet they are believable and well defined. The very term" diverse cast" is an insult to a production, - meaning that it ignores the absence of talent, and actors are being shoved into the roles based on zero merit, - only to tick the checkbox on some bureaucrat's list. The Denzels of this world will NEVER go into any production, being considered for anything but their amazing acting ability. That's why they will never have anything to do with shows like this. So i'll stick to watching a master actor, like Denzel Washington - and not this shit.
The people from the forest were not elves, they were Dryads, but still, Dryads weren't black in the books, they have green skin, but their phenotype features are Northern European as well
yeah it's pretty obvious this is made by "progressives" Americans with a hard on for the SJW mindset. They couldn't give less of shit about doing books from Europe correct.
As someone who's read the books, while watching the show, I consistently thought "Wow, this is confusing as fuck. Will people even be able to understand what's going on?"
I watched it and thought '"wow why did they make a series that only those who read the books could understand". Turns out I even underestimated the clusterfuckery.
He did what he could with what he was given. Too young, too bulky and handsome but with butt nose, but damn, he showed he can portray Geralt. Mad respect for the guy nad trying to correct the course of the show. Too bad modern screen writing won.
Making Ciri interesting would have been a great challenge considering that she basically doesn't exist until the 3rd book, and spends that entire book in school in no danger whatsoever. This is also why the timelines are so screwy in season one, you would not have seen ciri until the last episode. The first two books are basically just geralt having random unconnected adventures, you get virtually no ciri, and little Yennifer. Great for world building but would not have done well on screen for new fans.
and the way the show did it makes someone who hasn´t read the books and knows the plot already take at least a quarter of the episode to make sense of WHEN this happens. and having 2 out of 3 POV characters not age doesn´t help that. some indication would´ve been helpful
Geralt i felt was done reasonable well...... The rest of the show was all over the place..... and time. Wizard fighting swordsman on top of hill/ cliff. Uses magic to keep summoning his sword, all i could think was Aard that bugger off the hill. Hell you are a wizard so your magic is stronger then a Witchers.
@@paulandclaudia3765 I know, I've been waiting for a proper translation into english. With that said I'd bet that CDPR did a better job adhering to the source material unlike the writers of the show openly admitting they pushed their leftist agenda.
@@paulandclaudia3765what are you saying "because the writers a woman" no because the writer is literally an SJW who brags avout using The Witcher as a saop box to push her ideology. Let's put it this way the writer literally commented on a scene they wrote in where a black and a white character have sex while a group of elite white scholars watch and applaud. She claimed this scene was to celebrate "diversity". I have no problem with interracial relations but WTF. On top of that even my friends who arent into politics love the game like the show but admit it focuses too much on Yennifer and the other female characters. Its literally called "The Witcher". Imagine if they made a remake of Cinderella that focused on the prince?
@@paulandclaudia3765 as far as that sex scene I'll take the writers word for what she meant. As far as The Witcher in general I'll continue to play the games and wait for the books. Lol 2020 and people still claim to not know what an SJW is, I'm guessing you never went to college or haven't been on Twitter.
@@paulandclaudia3765 then why are you here?you know that's kind of the "Critical drinkers" thing he calls out shitty writers of books movies tv and video games for putting social ideology over interesting characters and storytelling. That's why I like this channel. Do you think I care that you don't care your show far left propaganda? Enjoy it bro lap that shit up. Just don't waste my time like I give a shit about your opinion. Actually the last wish was the first to be translated to english in 2007 with the follwing 7 dropping every year or 2 until 2018 out order oddly enough as well. And I can tell you they weren't available in the U.S. last I checked probably 2016 or 2017 i couldn't find them but thanks for letting me know they're available I'd much rather read the books from the(a) real writer then waste my time with scrotum armor Nilfgaardians.
I agree about most of this. Except that medieval kings, and princes often took enormous personal risks in the thick of battle. Ask blind king John of Bohemia about that. Or the Black Prince or his dad Edward III. Or Francis I of France. Or Richard I or Henry IV or Henry V, or Edward IV, or Robert Bruce, etc. Also, if you look at extant effigies the knights were not that beefy. The Black Prince, who was one of the most warlike men of his age (or any other) was tall but also pretty thin.
Like Tony Montana says in Scarface, balls give orders. Soldiers in medieval times respected their Kings and Lords a lot more when they saw them fight on the front line.
@@honkhonk5150 John of Bohemia was blind when he asked his companions to lead him to his last battle. In more recent times gen. Rommel was often up front with his troops. It is not a general rule but it did happen often enough and has an indicated problem of a leader being killed but advantage of him knowing what is going on and leading the troops. The way Crecy went (where John of Bohemia died) shows that having the leaders in front may be a sign of bad leadership just as Rommel in Africa was example on how to do it well. I suspect it all depends on a situation, disposition of the leader, his troops etc. I think this is the reason why this argument does not hold.
Plus, as I recall from the books, Calanthe is basically forced into fighting due to the fact that they are completely surrounded and need to break out of the encirclement.
I know the Persians, Greeks, and Romans used to sometimes lead from the front too, for example Alexander the Great, Leonidis, and maybe Julius Cesar (I don’t remember for sure but I think he lead from the front against the Celts)
Well, leading troops from the front lines is a double edged sword. At one side it is incredibly dangerous, as the ruler dying is damn close to an instant loss, on the other hand it may grant great morale. Also, Calanthe has the reputation of being a hardened and skilled warrior. Perhaps they should've casted an actual ripped/ buff woman in the role, that would've been more realistic.
@@bukkebruse2936 Actually there were many societies throughout history that had "warrior" women. Germanic tribes, Mongolians, and others had women who fought because they had to in order to survive. Yes, they wouldn't have looked like body builders but they would have definitely had more muscle and athletic ability than this actress.
I understand it; it's rather hard to paint a whole group of people green on a TV budget and have it look believable. It takes a lot of work and money to get people to look like Gamora does in Guardians of the Galaxy. But they still needed the Dryads to blend in with their forest home, so they took the pragmatic option. I get it. Ideally, we would've seen the Dryads be green-skinned and green-haired, but that would've been too much on a show that also needs to save money for the costumes, CGI, etc.
I am still so very annoyed about this... why change a characters race/gender for woke politics!?!?... may as well have a white blade, a black batman and a male mary poppins... stop catering to these ****heads! Stick to the god damned script!
Game of Thrones was also aided by a brilliant opening to each episode, highlighting where every scene will take place throughout. It was probably one of the best things it did.
I absolutely detest what Netflix has done to the base material, they completely butchered the short stories to get to the saga as fast as possible. Out of the 14 tale-like short stories, which are connected and gradually introduce Geralt, his work, his skill, his character, his backstory, his personal phylosophy and problems, and later Dandelion, Yen and Ciri as side characters, Netflix chose to adapt about 7 of them, poorly, and inflated the rest of the show with Yennefers/Ciris backstories/fanfictions. You could compare Witcher to the Hobbit/LotR. You want to get to the juicy long story of LotR asap, so you trim down the Hobbit to only the most crucial parts: you introduce Gandalf and Bilbo, the ring and Gollum, and rush through the journey in about three episodes. Then you want to set-up the other places and characters important for LotR, so you fill the rest of your season with Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli, Saruman and Frodo-fanfiction. That is exactly what Netflix did with the first season of witcher, a major set-up for the real story of season two. To me, it shows an absolute lack of respect for the book material, and if the writers are not skilled enough to adapt the series without butchering the stories and characters in this way, they should never have been placed in charge of the project. I don't mind the acting, diverse casting decisions, cgi and other stuff, some of it is good, some not so much. But I hate how they carved up the story.
I am watching 1st ep of Season 2 and have to stop midway because I'm so mad how they butchered the short stories and characters almost entirely. S2E1 introduces us to Nivellen, from chapter A grain of truth. Netflix just had to make Niv know all about the north-south war AND the Wild hunts. Then, when Geralt was asked why he came to look after a young girl, Ciri, "what changed" him, he answered "who" - "Yennefer of Vengerberg". And I just became speechless. Netflix just threw the "Child of destiny" out the window and made it a story about child adoption for a rom-com couple. I get that they want to "merge" characters and plots into the main saga plot but holy cow this is all bad and rushed writing. It just destroys Geralt's character entirely and the relationship between him and Ciri. In S1 they alrd made Geralt x Yen a rom-com thing with no chemistry, no bittersweetness nor passion like in the books, just merely LOLs. Damn, even Tissaia is having way more chemistry with Yen than Geralt with her. This may be the only thing I'm liking about the series.
Agreed, and this all comes down to the fact that they are copying the GoT formula. Unlike The Witcher, GoT is written from the perspectives of multiple characters. This is why it worked when the TV show did the same - they could show what Jon Snow, Tyrion, Daenerys etc. were doing in different places and had plenty of source material to do so. However, Sapowski's short stories are solely from Geralt's perspective, so trying to copy GoT and give Yennefer and Ciri comparable screentime and back stories was inevitably going to be a failure due to the lack of source material.
The 2 bishes helping the dragons are the only use of “inclusion” that makes sense considering it explains they came from Zerekania which is Witcher Arabia/Africa
Eli Odum I thought exact the same thing, all the others felt out of place except them. I don’t remember if they say where they are from in the show but by their outfit you can guess it’s some African inspired country, so it works
Carlos Oliveira yea the giant deserts yen goes teleporting to is prolly close enough. The dudes who imprison you in the Witcher 3 dlc is from there as well it’s a hole thing that makes their seamless “diversity” even stranger
SD obviously not however its not “Arabia” at all but an analogue for the general “African eastern” vibe. Yen’s bastardy is between an essentially English peasant and an elfy boi she’s fine. If you wanna talk about unexpected appearance due to strange casting decisions look at triss.
Characters aren't there to be lied necessarily, they are there to create the conflict to drive the drama, or to demonstrate something about the protagonist. Jaskier serves as a comedic foil, without which it would get very dark. Dandelion fails to do that in the books, so they fall into a dreary and depressing mood. I prefer Jaskier too Dandelion. Dandelion can't make up his mind how old he is in the books, coming across as this really wise old man, then turns out he is only 40 and still banging chicks.
Actually Calanthe died the same way in the books, she fought, was wounded and then she jumped out of a window so that she is not captured. Or was it Eist who died in the battle? I am not sure right now but Calanthe was a fierce warrior who stood beside their man. At least thats how I remember her from the books
No shit right? how is this hard to understand. They were going to be overrun so they had to fight... besides we're going to criticize a middle aged woman fighting on the battlefield but not the fact that women have strong magic in the story? humans with magic can rise to high places and are powerful in this, ehem (checks genre again) FANTASY story? jesus lol, giant monsters are ok but women fighting, that's just unrealistic
Josef Černý at one point she says she’s lived several lifetimes already or something to that effect right before the battle at the end so it seems like shes even older than that
@@noneyabusiness3253 At least in the books around this point she was around her early 80s. We do infact get told by her that she is currently 90 in the 5th or 6th book I think.
@@bcount1 Iam fairly certain about Yen's age, but Triss could well be anywere from her 40s to 60s. It was sadly never stated safe for the fact that she is younger than Yen.
Don't know if you'll see this, but having a general/king/queen/whatever in the frontline can be a HUGE advantage, seeing as it gives a great moral boost to the men. The risk to the commander is also fairly small, seeing as that person would have the best soldiers around for protection.
Even as a black guy myself i was asking my self how wtf the some of these black characters get into the position they have because yea it doesn't make much sense in the context of the world.
Personally, I really can't understand why they don't portray any location where practically everyone is white, or brown or black, or asian or native american. E.g. In Game of Thrones there were places in Essos where only Dany, Jorah and some minor henchmen of theirs were white. Variation (which equals diversity in real terms) doesn't harm at all.
There is a "Africa" in that world, its called Zerrikania, and its even more savage, wild and magical than the continent the story of the witcher takes place on.
Accessible magic and science. In GoT magic is hidden and unaccessible: dragons (dragons are magic because their lift/drag ratio sucks), mystic metals - all reserved to kings and so on. So all in all the rules are middle ages with some weirdness. In Witcher magic is so accessible a someone as powerful as Yennefer sees no problem selling magical boner pills to common folk. Magic and science lower the barriers to travel - hence people of obviously different race aren't as uncommon, yet still they seem to be limited. The worst part is really the whole "invasion" of Nilfgaard where a huge fortress is overtaken by .... army of footmen. Tell me, what's the point of a wizard defending a gate with a wall against ... arrows? Gates and stone walls require siege weapons - what's the point of magical barrier against arrows? Except for dumb drama? That's probably the biggest sin in the show - most battle scenes make zero sense.
I think that in the book that inspired this first session the only characters that were genualy ment to be black were the two woman serving the gold dragon in disguise. Portrayed as exotic and beautiful yet powerful warriors in ther own right.
Schar i refuse to watch the show, due to the pointless race swaping, so i don’t know what they skipped or left out. I only meant that they at least left geralt and ciri’s race’s alone, they actually resemble their game and book portrayals. Idk if they added feminazi stuff or some other random modern cancer.
@@brianosterman456 They mixed The Last Wish and Sword of Destiny novels in 8 episodes. I imagine that's why they didn't show geralt abandoning Ciri. Time and budget.
One thing that stood out after i read the short stories was that Geralt's relationship with Dandelion is portrayed as more strained in the tv shows, whereas in the books they are far far more chummy (this is going by the first two short story collections - last wish and sword of destiny) . For instance, theres a moment at the end of sword of destiny where Dandelion's trying to cross a river and says to Geralt 'Don't leave me behind or ill drown!' and Geralt replies along the lines of 'I would never let you drown, dear friend' The portrayal of Geralt in the shows is more along the lines of 'reserved dickhead', but in the books he's actually a lot more human/friendly in interactions with the people *that are close to him*. Also one thing off about this review, I would say is your point about Calanthe only being shown as strong even though she's just a wamen. That was still fairly accurate to the books i thought.
In the book she was firce warrior queen, that needed to be pushed down the city wall by a few of enemy soldiers to be finally killed, because she was not giving up. In series... she just jumps out the window by herself when the enemy is knocking on her door... They assasinated her character pretty badly - the made her a coward >:(
In the show every relationship of Geralt's has been butchered and I don't know which one was the saddest to miss. The way Jaskier/Dandelion was a good partner to Geralt, showing that even though he was a goofy troublemaker, he was also a very intelligent person with an ability to read people and a knowledge of the aristocratic world that a troubadour would possess over a witcher who mostly conducted business with villagers and townspeople. The way they haven't even thought of the relationship between Geralt and Ciri, stomping instead a big word of "destiny" over it, repeated pointlessly by every character who appeared on the screen. Or the way they completely changed the relationship between Geralt and Yennefer from their first meeting, where in the books she knows exactly what Geralt asked the Djinn for and in the show he apparently lies to her (?). I think the biggest character assassination has been performed on Yennefer, from being a sarcastic, intelligent, proud woman in the books to becoming a child in a dress who is supposed to be older than she looks, but acts younger in the show. People say the first season was good and that they kept close to the source material, but in my opinion these were the biggest signs of them actively hating the source material. None of the main characters were even similar to their book counterparts. Their relationships were completely changed and with them, the whole story changed.
Really? I think it was obvious after the third episode if you paid attention to dialogues. Don't binge watch the series or you miss a lot of details, short term memory has a limit.
I will pluck my eyes out when i have to see Henry Cavil choosing to bed to this Triss over Yen. And i choose Triss in the game but come on. I really hope they dye her hair fire red.
"Let me fight racism by making everything about race but hide it as "minorities" for my main argument to sound more convincing!" How to overshoot the goal and becomes the one thing you were trying to fight...
Fun Fact: The elves in this world actually came from an alternate reality world that basically "collided" with this one during a very rare phase shift event thousands of years prior to this story. That's also basically how all the "evil" creatures appeared. This would have been useful information that could have been included somewhere in the show's narrative.
Actually, the world of the Witcher was first inhabited by the Elves (the Aen Seidhe), some 2000 years before the arrival of humans at the time of the Conjunction of the Spheres. Humans, although late to arrive on the Continent, proved able to “out breed” the long lived elves, and so the Age of Elves would come to an end, and humans would become the dominant species on the Continent.
@@reimundkrohn8938 If memory serves, there is even a reference to humans originating from earth, and Ciri visiting a place with "humans with metal in their head", so some kinda cyberpunk world.
She still wants children for the wrong reason in the show (and probably the books) in the show she wants a child because it will adore her. After everything she's done and all the admiration she's acquired it isn't enough, because without self love it will never be enough, and she thinks a child can fill that hole, I didn't watch the series long enough to see if the writers forced ciri to fit that role, but a child can't make up for the love you don't have for yourself and it's not fair to expect a child to support you emotionally.
She isn't black. She is mixed heritage, I think. Quite liked that bit of casting, it was fairly close to the book? I think, been a while since I read it
I actually know why it's called Witcher. Talked to Sapkowski himself some 15 years ago, probably more. Apparently he was wondering why there is no male equivalent of the word witch (wizard is a bit different), and decided to create a world in which there is.
In the Polish language wiedźma (a feminine noun) is the word for "witch" in English. That's the problem with the Modern English language, compared to most other European languages, it has lost its grammatical gender for nouns. Some European languages even have one gender for the singular form and the opposite gender (yes, there are ONLY TWO genders) for the plural form.
@@secretname2670 I speak Russian (native), English (learned it since I was 5), German (learned at the University) and a bit of Spanish (same). I completely disagree. While English is a bit more limited in some aspects than other languages, it lends itself beautifully to a person who is capable (same as any other language). Like in woodworking, where same results can be obtained by different tools, if you know how to use them.
5:45 they mentioned Queen Calanthe nickname which is the Lion and they mentioned also how many successful battles she fought, so I think it's a prestige for her to fight in the middle of the battle, as many leaders did in medieval times... (Richard the Lionhearted also did this many times) generals fought in the rear only become a common thing after the renaissance era (so I think the show has many flaws but this one I do not count)
@@wojtekwieczorek6397 Not sure about the Lord of the Rings, but the Witcher universe definately has alot of Polish elements in it, so the original comment wasn't just a 'the writer is a Pole, so the universe is Polish' thing.
@@dgmetaxa having medieval Polish elements is still pretty fucking far from being set in medieval Poland. It also had a lot of Germanic, Celtic and even Asian influences, so it was a mixed bag. I'd say it resembled mostly medieval Europe, but even the historical periods from which the story drew its influences were mixed - for example, we didn't know shit about genes and genetics until the XIX century, but it's common knowledge in the Witcher's world. So yeah, despite elements of Slavic folklore and Sapkowki's upbringing, it has rather little to do with medieval Poland. Sapkowski deconstructed many European fairy tales in the short stories, most of them weren't even Polish. Too bad that aspect was omitted from the show. Especially the one that was mentioned in the story about the Dragon, because that was a typical Polish legend and Sapkowski basically did a parody of it, but I guess it wouldn't be interesting or funny to people unfamiliar with it, so I'm not surprised about this one. They could've left some of the others, though, especially that the story of Renfri was loosely based on Snow White and the seven dwarfs.
I felt like I had the same problem with the geography of The Witcher when I read the book series. I felt like I was constantly saying "What is this place and what is it near by? Which Kingdom is this?"
It irritates me that this show is clearly made for Witcher fans, evident by its lack of real world building and explanations, and yet it cuts SO much important content, delivers it in such a broken, poor way, and just expects us to clap because its The Witcher.
While it could be frustrating indeed, but this is just follow the books, which are not one long story, but a bunch of short novels which happens in same world, mostly with the same characters.
@@otapi well i wouldn't say this is an adaptation of the book. It's more of an book inspired thing. like game of thrones were the show and book are 2 diffrent things
@@otapi Actually, the series does contain a long story, but it starts in the third book (,,Blood of Elves") and continues till the end of the series, but the writers decided that it'll be fine and they will try to adapt the first two books from the series, which are indeed, short stories
Not to mention Harald Hadrada in the same year. Or Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden in 1643. Or Emperor Valerian in AD 260. Or Alexander the Great in every single battle.
This was the first show in a long time that I actually had to pay attention to while watching. Even then I was about halfway through before I realized there were multiple time periods, and almost to the end before I actually figured them out. All in all, I thought it was pretty good. The fights were well choreographed and I liked the flawed characters that showed growth/redemption. I didn't notice the forced diversity, as I generally assume fantasy settings are made up of whatever (unless they're based on real world places), and so, when there's someone who wouldn't have been in a climate (like the black general), I will just accept it, unless it becomes overly forced or their character is poorly written.
There is a difference between having to pay attention because the world is so right and detail and having to pay attention because the story is told in such a scattershot way that you couldn't possibly make sense of it unless you took notes. Especially in a fantasy series where everything has weird names and there is next to no chance you will remember a characters name after 1 scene.
@@dash4800 I was smashed out of my tree when it first came out and I didn't know what the fuck was going on when it all started to piece back into the original time period as one. Thankfully I was that blasted I couldn't remember half of what I watched and rewatched it recently sober. * honestly, I still haven't a clue what its about.
I was watching it as background noise while working on some other things and every time I would look up I would be confused as hell by the plot line. If you couldn't completely pay attention you'd easily miss a bunch of important things. I had no idea who important characters were and what the heck was going on so I thought it was weird, and all the time things completely flew over my head
I didn’t realize until you mentioned that there was very little worldbuilding that I don’t remember them bringing up the Conjunction of the Spheres at all which is a pretty big detail
Thanks for another great review. I agree with almost all you said, however I did thoroughly enjoy it and was happy to not be sure what the world was about or what exactly was going on, trusting and hoping that it'll be revealed later. This was a strength of it I think. Really looking forward to your review of the next season.
Hissrich: "The books are Polish and packed with Slavic spirit. It was important to keep that same tone in our show". SJW's: "Rheeeeeeeee!". Hissrich: "Slavs are Black".
@Anthony Roic Apart from DNA studies that show the frequency of gene related to the Horn of Africa/West Africa and the Middle East appear with a frequency of 18% (1 in 5 males). Another gene sequence shared amongst those of North African/Middle East/Southern European descent is found with a frequency of 30% (1 in 3 males). Not suprising given Sciliy was under muslim rule for 200 years from 860 A.D.
@Anthony Roic Actually, you are wrong, that's exactly how you apply that principle. It only works when you apply it to populations, and this has been done for all the races of man on earth, so we now have a fairly accurate picture of migration patterns in early human history, and this DNA data coressponds to historical migrations/invasions, in the case of Sciliy's recent history (~100,000 years) Africa, Greek, Goth, Roman, Muslim, Norman, Greek. In fact the data is so accurate you can work from the DNA frequencies alone to work out the patterns of migration if no historical data is present.
@Anthony Roic Geneaology is tracing of family trees or lineages through birth/marriage/death records, and it's entirely legitimate way of tracing your ancestry. However, it isn't as accurate as DNA profiling. As a matter of fact we are all descended from Africa, so to state we have no African DNA is incorrect. It may be true that one family lineage may have a low frquency of a gene that is highly represented in Afican/Middle Eastern populations, but all I am saying in population terms, that is all 5 million inhabitants of Sciliy taken together, on average more than>30% have DNA that links them to close African/Middle Eastern heritage (we are talking in the past 100,000 years by the way - obviouusly this goes way past written records). There is no such thing as the top 20 genes, there are only markers that can be used to predict our likely genetic makeup. The markers can be useful to distinguish local populations or different races. I think the ones you are describing may be markers that distinguish local populations or distinguish Caucasian populations from each other - but I'm guessing here. No disrepect meant.
Woke neo-liberal SJW fucks and the likes of Black Lives Matter racist anti-white movement dont care for the fact that if blacks were present in the north during the middle ages, theyd be killed on the spot or made slaves, not knights or anything. The woke culture sure likes to change historical aspects of everything. In 2075 they will say that blacks colonized America and had white slaves since 1600...hahaha but no, that is a real fine victim culture racism aspect they need to play the victim and demand shit from people of the 21st ct whom nobody of ever owned slaves. I demand justice from every black person in the US because of the white killed farmers in Africa by blacks who hate white people. Isnt it the same logic? Anyway, nice show, but intentionally turned woke for the SJW mind
I've watched the season twice, with the second time of watching with a youtube recap after each episode. After that I fully understood which made it worthwhile.
I’m weird but I enjoyed the Anthology style of stories for an opening season to set the world before the real meat of the story hits. I agree though it was a gamble. Casting Cavill was smart though he brought big star power and enough interest to get a second season
@@ri3121 whenever I watch something the drinker recommends, I almost always agree with all his talking points, and when I watch things he doesn't like I also find common ground with his remarks, thus I have built an understanding of his critique. This my only reply to your sheepish comment.
@@dagtheger8993 Nothing implies they started as a "melting pot". The northerners are always depicted as white while people in the east such as Zerrikanians are swarthy.
One thing I enjoyed about how they did the timeline, is it made it enjoyable to watch multiple times. Ive probably seen it through 8 times now and each time I feel like it gets better, which is because there is more I understand and catch.. But admittedly the first go through felt pretty bad. As far as just throwing you into the story, I felt that way in the games also... They were extremely hard for me to force myself to play and get into. But once I did I understood why people liked them so much.
@@falkenphil557 I liked it, too. It felt good when I figured out about halfway through the story that they weren't telling the story chronologically. I really liked the first season. It was the 2nd season where it kind of lost me.
I recently bought Witcher 3 ....for the Switch (it actually runs pretty well) ... anywho, I was looking for a game that was basically Zelda set in the Darksouls world. A friend told me to get Witcher 3 and within an hour of playtime it became one of the greatest games I've ever played. If anyone hasn't played it yet, my god... go buy it now
After having a slog of Mary Sue female characters (namely one Star Wars character) Yennefer was SUCH a breath of fresh air: learns from her failures, struggles/isn’t a prodigy and earns her success and power. Then as you say the complexity of her feeling everything she fought for wasn’t worth her current situation and she’s jaded and now motivated to amend what’s she done to herself. Nothings given, everything is earned and that’s why I love her
It was good enough to keep me interested until Season 2, but none of the emotional beats landed at all for me. Henry Cavill carries the show almost entirely and he needs more screen time.
@@bokrugthewaterserpent3012 Yep and not focused on "feelings" This showrunner is so incompetent that she originally wanted to make the show all about Ciri Its very clear that women should not direct shows about alpha males killing monsters and being badass
@@PriestlyBlock67 I mean, Ciri does end up driving the narrative when the proper "main saga" starts. Geralt going around killing things is a fixture of the short stories and games, *not* the novels.
But monarchs did actually sometimes fight beside their soldiers, leading from the front. Medieval battles weren't nearly as chaotic and bloody as portrayed in fiction - at least until one side is routed. Also, full plate armour would protect you against arrows and regular blows. You'd have a bunch of well trained guards watching your back too. As for the benefits, it was probably a giant morale boost to your troops, since they knew their leader is fighting with them. And the troops' spirit was important - battles were usually lost when your soldiers panicked, broke formation and ran away, not when they were all slaughtered.
I agree with you, ill miss the fire red head, but who knows maybe in season 2 when she actually gets to do something the actress will prove to be amazing. Fingers crossed
You have a real talent for taking lengthy, excruciating pain and disappointment and turning it into twenty minutes of real information and entertainment
“Set in your typical medieval fantasy world...” exactly where the problem lies. The setting from the books was unique af. Nothing like you’d see somewhere else.
@@Alecfisher01 I wouldn't say it's typical. The type of developmental stages in that universe vary. For example, the northern realms are visually dark ages Europe while Nilfgaard is in an Italian style Renaissance period.
06:23 "These people" are Zerrikanian women, guarding Villentretenmerth. That's actually in the books and them being black makes sense, because Zerrikania is supposed to be a country with huge deserts and savannahs where Zebras live. In fact, I guess these two are the only characters who were intended to be black at the time the books were written.
Yeah I know that. But even still, the Show should have explained that so new audiences will understand. A piece of material should be able to stand alone, something LoTR did to perfection.
@@moosejuice4231 i mean, if you played the games or read the books you would understand most of it lol. I hate the idea that every piece of media "needs" to be able to stand on it's own.
@@UwUOwl uh no. That's a bullshit argument. People are coming to this completely new to the series with no background knowledge people will be so fucking confused about what's going on. Just cos you are a Witcher nerd does not mean everyone else who watches it is.
Darnok Raerc well, you should be too. if you don’t like the canon, why are you watching to begin with? if you like it, you like it. if you don’t, sucks to be you. everything isn’t for everyone.
@@moosejuice4231 wow, you are really upset lol. Maybe you should get a therapist. The fact that you devolved from intelligent arguing to throwing insults proves that you have much to learn as an adult lol. Also, Game of Thrones is shit. It's not for me, so I didn't watch it. You seem to dislike the Witcher, so why are you even arguing?
I actually really liked the way they did it non-sequentially, however i completely agree with your second point in that i had no idea where they were in relation to where anyone else was at any given time, nor the rules or idiosyncrasies or even the social norms of the world they were trying to build.
@@Cj-xt6tv The games didn't get her TOO wrong, though. Yeah she didn't have blazing red hair, but she had chestnut with red. She also had blue eyes. That said the games were a HELL of a lot better than the damn show. But yeah, a minor character in the books because her role only got larger in the games when she started interacting with Geralt after he escaped the Wild Hunt when she used him like the cunt she is lol
Hollywood's new slogan: "Strive for mediocrity!" When you've set the bar so low that "The Flintstones" is high art by comparison, there's almost nowhere to go but up. (And if any producers, writers, or directors are reading this...no, that is NOT a challenge!)
ok let's be fair, the queen fighting was in line with the book, don't blame the writer for putting her in a battle, in the book many of them are fighters
I think it might have been better if they had left Ciri and Nilfgaard's whole thing off until season 2, because then they could have taken season one to do the world building and explain Ciri's connection to Geralt. Then we might have actually cared more about Nilfgaard trying to kill Ciri (well, cared about it more than you usually care about people trying to kill a girl). At the very least, they shoulda done SOMETHING to show what time each episode was in. With the two anthology books that this season pulled from, there is at least a sense of a cohesive timeline. I only read them once, but I don't think you meet Ciri until after you meet her parents.
@@malberolall Witcher and Witch hunter are 2 completely different things in witcher world. Witch hunters are obsessed heretics serving to the chruch of inifinite fire by burning witches. Witcherd are witchers.
Lmao somehow im not surprised 40k fandom made it's way here, we all just love grimdark and the Witcher has it in spades (the games and novels). The show was decent i liked it bois !
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@@cruelkid420 Now you can go away.
Netflix include many scenes and storylines non-existent in the book that are obviously feminist like how male society treats them so bad and women are just objects in one of the speeches the Yennifer makes in the scene when she had to guard the woman about to be assassinated for not bearing a son.
There is also the armor design that is wanting.
I recently started playing the Witcher 3, and man am i having fun. I love the investigative aspect of it as much as i love the combat aspect.
Also, i think it was stated that Cavil is a fan of the books and games. More then the showrunner is apparently
Drinker you magnificent bastard! I'd love to hear your take on Netflix's Lost in Space.
I guess Tywin is EFAPS Spirit Animal
Honestly I was amazed that their was a woman in a piece of media who's goal was to be a mother.
Hilarious though that she gives up the ability to have children, and now has regrets doing it. Love it.
chhand true. She is kind of the anti-feminist in that seeking being a “strong, independent woman” left her empty and unsatisfied.
She also left a sensitive, nerdy guy who loves her for the good looking chad who kills monsters.
@@oslafoirausuebutuoy5457 The nerd rejected her after she had rejected him MANY times.
And it's totally "their" fault that she can't have babies anymore. "They took away my choice!" No, bitch, you had the opportunity to travel the land with a man who loved you, but that would be "slow suicide" according to you. You then begged a guy to do the transformation, dude told you the consequences but you didn't care. That she's blaming some ominous "them" and not herself is peak irony. Fvck that show and fvck netflix.
The only part of this show that was near perfect was Henry Cavill as Geralt. He was amazing.
Well... if he didn't speak in a Batman voice...
Acesahn he should have gone for a more natural voice but it’s still not bad. Him and dandelion are good. Yen is the next best. Everyone else is basically garbage.
@@Acesahn He played the game way before the series, and loved it. I'd say he took Doug Cockle's voice as Geralt as inspiration.
Iron Tusk Yes in the first episodes when Yen is deformed I felt for her and I think the actress did some great work. But once she became uber-sorcerer-goddess she lost her appeal and got kind of annoying.
@@Mungstein I found pretty much in line with female nature...
“Can’t make up my mind about whether I like this guy, or absolutely hate him”
In all fairness, this is pretty close to how the other characters in the book perceive Dandelion
Yeah I'm pretty sure that's the point of the character. He's an annoying prat who you still kind of like anyway even though most of the time you feel like you want to dunk his head in the toilet.
Yeah, they nailed him…
Jaskier/Dandelion really is too much, but he is also too much for his world, and that is really his character.
When is he not mentioned with an eye roll in the third game after all? ^^
Dandelion sort of reminds me of Arnold J Rimmer.
Yeah CD is showing that they did their job really, really well
What a great review. I found myself agreeing with almost everything you said. I don't have a problem with the different races here, because everyone came to this world through the conjunction (different dementions) so there is no real evolution here. Only the gnomes (not seen in the TV series) are actually from here. The elves call themselves the elder race, but they only preceded the dwarves and humans by a few thousand years.
"The fresh Prince of Rivendel". This fucking killed me, well done
HAHAHA
Lol
I'm brazilian, and i got offended by that, it's pretty fucking stupid cast a bunch of pardos (this is what the government calls mixed people here) to interpret characters in a EUROPEAN FOLKLORE based story...
Imagine if these woke retards discover that the native Tupi-guarini mithology is full of gods that have white skin and white hair, granted that this white skin gods are usually evil ones like Anhangua (although they would probably mistake him for a good one), but imagine this stupid woke folks screaming to the sky because someone decide to make a series about this gods and cast actors properly?
Or if they discover that the african based religions like candomblé and umbanda, all these african gods here in Brazil are white like Iemanja?
Prince of Rivenhood
Same. Had to pause to laugh it off :D
Geralt: "I like Fringilla because she looks like Yenn and reminds me of her."
Writers: "Better make sure she's inexplicably black with no similarities."
And of course Fringilla is Nilfgardian who never went to Aretuza. I think it's best to just consider them two separate characters: Real Fringilla, and Affirmative Action Fringilla.
How many times has a moron called you racist for making that comment? Lol
@@kenhagler7166
At least she's a bad guy and not a flawless mary sue.
I swear this channel is safe heaven for racist.
@@danisalusha5739
It's much more racist to black wash characters than to criticize those methods and the same applies to gender swapping and sexism.
Characters should match their templates!
Henry Cavill lifted this average show on his shoulders when he killed that first monster in the first shot of the first episode, and proceeded to carry it all the way to the finish line like an absolute boss. This show's survival in the long run basically depends on him.
Yeah, it was shite and he was the only good thing in it
@Seaworth he's English
@Seaworth miscast? He absolutely nails the role, I doubt very much one could validly consider that "miscast".
@Seaworth Why the fuck is it relevant what other roles he plays? He's neither plump nor groomed, he plays a mutant guy who kills monsters for a living, who is adequately ripped as he should be with that kind of job. He also understands and plays an established character extremely well and on point, if you see this as a miscast you should probably get those eyes checked.
@Seaworth I'm not even a native speaker, but even so, it ain't my fault you're incapable of making a coherent point. Stop projecting.
Xenophobia is supposed to be a big issue in the Witcher world, yet it is barely even acknowledged in the show.
Hopefully, it will get better later ;P
Lol not in today's political climate
fr, wasn't a pretty good part of Geralt being kind of an asshole the fact that he was treated like shit at the start of his career as a Witcher?
@@andreadebernardis4390 Well, as @xoddamCXVII said, not going to happen as in books in todays political scene. It is okay to treat Geralt as shit as he is a male character and white. Don't expect anyone else to be treated so.
@@dago6410 And it didn't
I feel that the opening of Game of Thrones with the map, and how it changed across seasons, did alot more world building than people give it credit for.
Agreed, that opening was a stroke of genius.
Having sense of a place and time is very important. I remember when I read Metro 2033-35 series having map inside the book helped immensely. So when I read Witcher books years ago, I had a massive map of the world in my phone to check where characters are and where they are going.
I think it changed at every episode, depending on what was going to happen during the episode. Not only between seasons. (But I'm not sure, as I don't remember if they show, for example, the wall every time, even when it did not appear in the show)
There's no need to feel bad about praising the early seasons of GOT. They were legitimately great. Its only the later seasons that went down the toilet
Agreed. GOT was outstanding fantasy for about the first 5 seasons. Then it want all to hell once they outran the books.
@@braxxian It always happens when they outrun the source material. I remember seeing it all the time with Anime.
It's still fantastic as long as you pretend the show ends at the red wedding
@@corriblehunt4554 The red wedding is still one of the most impactful events of any film / tv / book ive ever seen.. At that point i hadn't read the books so it was such a shock. It also took me until half way through season 2 to accept that ned was really dead 😂
As soon as they killed Stannis is started to crash and burn...
“The Fresh Prince of Rivendale” I almost spit out my drink on that one
Wtf is rivendale? You mean Rivendell 🤣
same.. also: *rivendell
@@KeytarArgonian Maybe thinking of Emmerdale :D
@@KeytarArgonian how bout ramitupyourassdale?
Haha yeah I nearly choked.
The short stories are actually pretty good and are solid source material for a show. Problem is Netflix decided to ignore most of it and make 75% of the show Yennefer fan fiction, and the few short stories they used were abridged.
And of course Henry gets the character of Geralt, he's a huge fan of the books and the games.
i dont think there is a single person who would be a better cast than henry. he is just the perfect witcher. from the body to the voice plus he is a witcher fanboy
S1 should have followed the short stories to establish geralts background and dandelions personality. Then everything with Ciri holds more weight
I remember for the first five episodes, I actually thought the kingdom was called Milfgaurd. I'm like, that doesn't sound like too bad a place.
Oh yeah it doesn’t ;)
*wink*
I was thinking that for the porn parody 😂
In Cyberpunk 2077 (created by the same company that also did the Witcher videogames), there's actually a porn movie called "Milfguard" 🤣
Aye, lore has it that the cougars dwell in great abundance there.
I really liked the striga episode. It felt like a very well-crafted mini horror movie.
it's the third episode, right?
I thought it's just me but I enjoyed that episode more than the rest of the episodes combined.
@@Ar1AnX1x If this show was a more traditional network effort like X files that episode would make a pretty good case for 'monster-of-the-week' episodes fitting the Witcher really well.
@@benrig89 Holy crap that would've been way better. And the beginning of the first episode kind of fools you into thinking that's what the show is gonna be
I'm with you all. That was my favorite episode by far! I actually did really like the show though. So we'll see how it goes.
@@benrig89 I would have worried that it would have become something like supernatural though. Spn was mostly that, with some plot in between, which then spiralled into fifteen seasons with shit like fighting Satan fifty times, killing death, constant "here is a big bad that's totally worse than the last one," ending with shit like god himself having a sister. It was shit, but brought in the money
I thought they were gonna give Yennefer the Captain Marvel treatment. I was surprised she actually had to work for what she wanted and wasn't just instantly good at everything.
Captain Marvel DID have to work for what she wanted and was in no way PERFECT.
@@liampatrick3110 you mean where whenever she has any challenge she gets a power up and immediately wins.
Or when she straight up gets power from an engine and is somehow more powerful than both Thor, hulk and base level thanos.
But why bewbs at every chance possible. Sigh
I also really liked how supremely selfish and unlikable she is.
Yennefer was complex and done well, The Witcher I guess is who he is, Ciri though omg I just rolled my eyes every time she was on screen. She had no originality.
“There’s a very logical reason generals lead their armies from the rear” *laughs in Julius Caesar and Hannibal Barca*
"If you've got scars, strip! And show them to me! I'll show you mine! There isn't a place on my body, the front at least that isn't scarred!"
Julius called his men out on it too
Edit: this quote is Alexander the great, not Julius wow lol
@@reapordeath Pretty sure Alexander the Great said that
@@MrPCMN-mi1zb actually yeah, got the two confused i did.
Even fucking Napoleon sometimes led his armies himself when the moral was low. Which it absolutely should be when your country is facing the fucking Nilfgaardine Empire
@@reapordeath there is nothing great about Alexander.
Henry Cavill is great as Geralt and when he's, you know, doing Witcher stuff. The problem is thats like 5% of the show while the rest is Yenifer and and bunch of "diverse" characters that look extremely out of place. I don't know why Netflix is determined to ruin every great piece of writing they can.
What ruined Yennefer for you? I thought the actress did a decent job IMHO- definitely not a perfect 1:1 with the books and games, but there’s hardly an adaptation out there that does.
Amen.
The characters aren’t out of place at all😂. Thats just a lazy critique of diversity in a fantasy realm.
Its not like they blackwashed any main characters.
@@antibull4869 yeah, when I first read this comment I tried keeping an open mind, but the explicit complaining about the fact that Yennefer and nonwhite characters existed and had significant screen time was kind of a giveaway
The characters are very much out of place indeed. Not as much visually,
but in the way they behave and their personalities. Especially a combo
between a Soviet-era old crone that sells fish on the market - and a pig,
yet dressed in armor and occupying the throne. Nothing in common with
the descriptions in the book. The games do justice to the characters, even
if they are not identical, - yet they are believable and well defined.
The very term" diverse cast" is an insult to a production, - meaning that it
ignores the absence of talent, and actors are being shoved into the roles
based on zero merit, - only to tick the checkbox on some bureaucrat's list.
The Denzels of this world will NEVER go into any production, being
considered for anything but their amazing acting ability. That's why
they will never have anything to do with shows like this. So i'll stick to
watching a master actor, like Denzel Washington - and not this shit.
The people from the forest were not elves, they were Dryads, but still, Dryads weren't black in the books, they have green skin, but their phenotype features are Northern European as well
Not to forget that Eithné is described as "silver eyed", so naturally we get a black woman with dark, almost black eyes.
yeah it's pretty obvious this is made by "progressives" Americans with a hard on for the SJW mindset. They couldn't give less of shit about doing books from Europe correct.
You fired on Monday
They had to fight really hard to get a blond Ciri because at first they decided to go BAME (black, Asian, minority ethnic).
If I remember correctly, they didn't have green skin, they painted it that way
As someone who's read the books, while watching the show, I consistently thought "Wow, this is confusing as fuck. Will people even be able to understand what's going on?"
I played the games and had no clue what was happening most the time. Pbbbt hoping for a better season 2
"The Last Wish" also has a confusing timeline.
As someone who hasnt read the books, i didnt have that hard of a time understanding what was going on.
@@iSeeEZEkill It took me a while to connect that they were different timelines going on all at once but once I got that I was good
I watched it and thought '"wow why did they make a series that only those who read the books could understand". Turns out I even underestimated the clusterfuckery.
Henry Cavill really got the look and feel and attitude right for the Geralt of Rivia role. Spot on in my eyes
He did what he could with what he was given. Too young, too bulky and handsome but with butt nose, but damn, he showed he can portray Geralt. Mad respect for the guy nad trying to correct the course of the show. Too bad modern screen writing won.
Making Ciri interesting would have been a great challenge considering that she basically doesn't exist until the 3rd book, and spends that entire book in school in no danger whatsoever. This is also why the timelines are so screwy in season one, you would not have seen ciri until the last episode.
The first two books are basically just geralt having random unconnected adventures, you get virtually no ciri, and little Yennifer. Great for world building but would not have done well on screen for new fans.
and the way the show did it makes someone who hasn´t read the books and knows the plot already take at least a quarter of the episode to make sense of WHEN this happens. and having 2 out of 3 POV characters not age doesn´t help that. some indication would´ve been helpful
I heard Cavill is an actual fan of the games and this was his dream role. It's too bad the writers don't share his passion for the source material.
Geralt i felt was done reasonable well...... The rest of the show was all over the place..... and time.
Wizard fighting swordsman on top of hill/ cliff. Uses magic to keep summoning his sword, all i could think was Aard that bugger off the hill. Hell you are a wizard so your magic is stronger then a Witchers.
@@paulandclaudia3765 I know, I've been waiting for a proper translation into english. With that said I'd bet that CDPR did a better job adhering to the source material unlike the writers of the show openly admitting they pushed their leftist agenda.
@@paulandclaudia3765what are you saying "because the writers a woman" no because the writer is literally an SJW who brags avout using The Witcher as a saop box to push her ideology. Let's put it this way the writer literally commented on a scene they wrote in where a black and a white character have sex while a group of elite white scholars watch and applaud. She claimed this scene was to celebrate "diversity". I have no problem with interracial relations but WTF. On top of that even my friends who arent into politics love the game like the show but admit it focuses too much on Yennifer and the other female characters. Its literally called "The Witcher". Imagine if they made a remake of Cinderella that focused on the prince?
@@paulandclaudia3765 as far as that sex scene I'll take the writers word for what she meant. As far as The Witcher in general I'll continue to play the games and wait for the books. Lol 2020 and people still claim to not know what an SJW is, I'm guessing you never went to college or haven't been on Twitter.
@@paulandclaudia3765 then why are you here?you know that's kind of the "Critical drinkers" thing he calls out shitty writers of books movies tv and video games for putting social ideology over interesting characters and storytelling. That's why I like this channel. Do you think I care that you don't care your show far left propaganda? Enjoy it bro lap that shit up. Just don't waste my time like I give a shit about your opinion. Actually the last wish was the first to be translated to english in 2007 with the follwing 7 dropping every year or 2 until 2018 out order oddly enough as well. And I can tell you they weren't available in the U.S. last I checked probably 2016 or 2017 i couldn't find them but thanks for letting me know they're available I'd much rather read the books from the(a) real writer then waste my time with scrotum armor Nilfgaardians.
We need to talk about the fart sounds.
K4g4m1 indeed
hopefully someone will put together a montage in about a month er so.. 90 seconds of GOT farts, lol..
here's my thought : they are shite, meant to be like a drum rimshot "laugh here" but the jokes are missing
YES! I just scrolled down to comment that I laughed out loud each time.
Definitely. I like the wet ones. Sounds more dramatic.
I agree about most of this. Except that medieval kings, and princes often took enormous personal risks in the thick of battle. Ask blind king John of Bohemia about that. Or the Black Prince or his dad Edward III. Or Francis I of France. Or Richard I or Henry IV or Henry V, or Edward IV, or Robert Bruce, etc. Also, if you look at extant effigies the knights were not that beefy. The Black Prince, who was one of the most warlike men of his age (or any other) was tall but also pretty thin.
Like Tony Montana says in Scarface, balls give orders. Soldiers in medieval times respected their Kings and Lords a lot more when they saw them fight on the front line.
All who were capable men. Not a middle aged grandma.
@@honkhonk5150 John of Bohemia was blind when he asked his companions to lead him to his last battle.
In more recent times gen. Rommel was often up front with his troops. It is not a general rule but it did happen often enough and has an indicated problem of a leader being killed but advantage of him knowing what is going on and leading the troops. The way Crecy went (where John of Bohemia died) shows that having the leaders in front may be a sign of bad leadership just as Rommel in Africa was example on how to do it well. I suspect it all depends on a situation, disposition of the leader, his troops etc. I think this is the reason why this argument does not hold.
Plus, as I recall from the books, Calanthe is basically forced into fighting due to the fact that they are completely surrounded and need to break out of the encirclement.
I know the Persians, Greeks, and Romans used to sometimes lead from the front too, for example Alexander the Great, Leonidis, and maybe Julius Cesar (I don’t remember for sure but I think he lead from the front against the Celts)
Well, leading troops from the front lines is a double edged sword. At one side it is incredibly dangerous, as the ruler dying is damn close to an instant loss, on the other hand it may grant great morale. Also, Calanthe has the reputation of being a hardened and skilled warrior. Perhaps they should've casted an actual ripped/ buff woman in the role, that would've been more realistic.
Let’s not forget how many soldiers will die, not fighting the battle, but defending the leader…
@@jamesbizs I'd wager about as much as would die to kill said leader while losing sight of their surroundings
She was such a bad casting decision. She's a really good actress but had no clue how to sell this character enough to make her believable.
a medieval buff woman? yeah sure.....
@@bukkebruse2936 Actually there were many societies throughout history that had "warrior" women. Germanic tribes, Mongolians, and others had women who fought because they had to in order to survive. Yes, they wouldn't have looked like body builders but they would have definitely had more muscle and athletic ability than this actress.
Dryads of Brokilon? More like Dryads of Brooklyn.
Just dont stop with the car...
LOLOLOLO
I remember this on the Gwent subreddit and everyone lost their shit
I understand it; it's rather hard to paint a whole group of people green on a TV budget and have it look believable. It takes a lot of work and money to get people to look like Gamora does in Guardians of the Galaxy. But they still needed the Dryads to blend in with their forest home, so they took the pragmatic option. I get it.
Ideally, we would've seen the Dryads be green-skinned and green-haired, but that would've been too much on a show that also needs to save money for the costumes, CGI, etc.
Doney is the main villain and wants to bred chiri, his own daughter... Step up from GOT incest... God save me
I can't help but notice you didn't mention Triss in the show even once...which is fitting because for me she was poorly portrayed and cast
Agreed. Triss is powerful. Geralt cares for her deeply. Hopefully they delve into her character in season 2.
There's no such thing as a "show" Triss, there are only 2 versions of Triss - Book Triss & Game Triss. Period.
I am still so very annoyed about this... why change a characters race/gender for woke politics!?!?... may as well have a white blade, a black batman and a male mary poppins... stop catering to these ****heads! Stick to the god damned script!
@@chalp1290 I hope not. The casting and the direction they took this show has removed any and all fucks I may have given about this show.
I honestly keep forgetting Triss was even in the show...
Game of Thrones was also aided by a brilliant opening to each episode, highlighting where every scene will take place throughout. It was probably one of the best things it did.
I absolutely detest what Netflix has done to the base material, they completely butchered the short stories to get to the saga as fast as possible. Out of the 14 tale-like short stories, which are connected and gradually introduce Geralt, his work, his skill, his character, his backstory, his personal phylosophy and problems, and later Dandelion, Yen and Ciri as side characters, Netflix chose to adapt about 7 of them, poorly, and inflated the rest of the show with Yennefers/Ciris backstories/fanfictions.
You could compare Witcher to the Hobbit/LotR. You want to get to the juicy long story of LotR asap, so you trim down the Hobbit to only the most crucial parts: you introduce Gandalf and Bilbo, the ring and Gollum, and rush through the journey in about three episodes. Then you want to set-up the other places and characters important for LotR, so you fill the rest of your season with Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli, Saruman and Frodo-fanfiction. That is exactly what Netflix did with the first season of witcher, a major set-up for the real story of season two.
To me, it shows an absolute lack of respect for the book material, and if the writers are not skilled enough to adapt the series without butchering the stories and characters in this way, they should never have been placed in charge of the project. I don't mind the acting, diverse casting decisions, cgi and other stuff, some of it is good, some not so much. But I hate how they carved up the story.
I am watching 1st ep of Season 2 and have to stop midway because I'm so mad how they butchered the short stories and characters almost entirely.
S2E1 introduces us to Nivellen, from chapter A grain of truth. Netflix just had to make Niv know all about the north-south war AND the Wild hunts. Then, when Geralt was asked why he came to look after a young girl, Ciri, "what changed" him, he answered "who" - "Yennefer of Vengerberg". And I just became speechless. Netflix just threw the "Child of destiny" out the window and made it a story about child adoption for a rom-com couple.
I get that they want to "merge" characters and plots into the main saga plot but holy cow this is all bad and rushed writing.
It just destroys Geralt's character entirely and the relationship between him and Ciri. In S1 they alrd made Geralt x Yen a rom-com thing with no chemistry, no bittersweetness nor passion like in the books, just merely LOLs. Damn, even Tissaia is having way more chemistry with Yen than Geralt with her. This may be the only thing I'm liking about the series.
Agreed, and this all comes down to the fact that they are copying the GoT formula. Unlike The Witcher, GoT is written from the perspectives of multiple characters. This is why it worked when the TV show did the same - they could show what Jon Snow, Tyrion, Daenerys etc. were doing in different places and had plenty of source material to do so. However, Sapowski's short stories are solely from Geralt's perspective, so trying to copy GoT and give Yennefer and Ciri comparable screentime and back stories was inevitably going to be a failure due to the lack of source material.
The 2 bishes helping the dragons are the only use of “inclusion” that makes sense considering it explains they came from Zerekania which is Witcher Arabia/Africa
Eli Odum I thought exact the same thing, all the others felt out of place except them. I don’t remember if they say where they are from in the show but by their outfit you can guess it’s some African inspired country, so it works
Carlos Oliveira yea the giant deserts yen goes teleporting to is prolly close enough. The dudes who imprison you in the Witcher 3 dlc is from there as well it’s a hole thing that makes their seamless “diversity” even stranger
You could also explain Yenefer's appearance as she was a bastard child.
Also, blacks are not from "Arabia."
SD obviously not however its not “Arabia” at all but an analogue for the general “African eastern” vibe. Yen’s bastardy is between an essentially English peasant and an elfy boi she’s fine. If you wanna talk about unexpected appearance due to strange casting decisions look at triss.
They weren't black in the comic book.
"I honestly can't make up my mind whether I like this character or absolutely hate him."
Fortunately that is the point of Jaskir/Dandelion.
I like him but I can see how he annoys people and gets on Geralt’s nerves
*Jaskier
Yup could not stand him until I realized I was annoyed with him everytime Geralt was as well. If that was the intention of the writers then bravo.
Characters aren't there to be lied necessarily, they are there to create the conflict to drive the drama, or to demonstrate something about the protagonist. Jaskier serves as a comedic foil, without which it would get very dark. Dandelion fails to do that in the books, so they fall into a dreary and depressing mood. I prefer Jaskier too Dandelion. Dandelion can't make up his mind how old he is in the books, coming across as this really wise old man, then turns out he is only 40 and still banging chicks.
"i do find myself hoping the gamble pays off"
it definitely did not pay off
Actually Calanthe died the same way in the books, she fought, was wounded and then she jumped out of a window so that she is not captured. Or was it Eist who died in the battle? I am not sure right now but Calanthe was a fierce warrior who stood beside their man.
At least thats how I remember her from the books
Indeed, she's known as "The Lioness" for a reason.
Cintrians were outnumbered, she tried to save the day :P
No shit right? how is this hard to understand. They were going to be overrun so they had to fight... besides we're going to criticize a middle aged woman fighting on the battlefield but not the fact that women have strong magic in the story? humans with magic can rise to high places and are powerful in this, ehem (checks genre again) FANTASY story? jesus lol, giant monsters are ok but women fighting, that's just unrealistic
Lioness of Cintra. They called that for a reason
She also says she is not the type of leader who stands behind their men, she wants to lead from the front.
I want a Ricky Gervais Acton figure with big ball swinging action
Amen!
Revered Kiwi 😂😂😂🤣🤣🤣
I'm stealing this.
Make sure you splurge on the one that comes with a wheelbarrow. No other way for him to carry those massive balls of his
I want a set of sniveling Hollywood figures with awkward embarrassment on their faces, we can play together?
Just to clarify a thing about Yennefer, during the events of this she is in her 70s-80s. I think that explains her getting bored fairly well.
Josef Černý at one point she says she’s lived several lifetimes already or something to that effect right before the battle at the end so it seems like shes even older than that
@@noneyabusiness3253 At least in the books around this point she was around her early 80s. We do infact get told by her that she is currently 90 in the 5th or 6th book I think.
It's a shame the show doesn't really get into details like that
@@bcount1 Iam fairly certain about Yen's age, but Triss could well be anywere from her 40s to 60s. It was sadly never stated safe for the fact that she is younger than Yen.
@@bcount1 Yeah Yen is like a 100+
Don't know if you'll see this, but having a general/king/queen/whatever in the frontline can be a HUGE advantage, seeing as it gives a great moral boost to the men. The risk to the commander is also fairly small, seeing as that person would have the best soldiers around for protection.
The Gladiator!!
The Battle of Goose Green in 1982 , where Colonel H Jones was killed leading the battalion, but led to victory.
I like how the "go away now" changes based on how good was the review
Even as a black guy myself i was asking my self how wtf the some of these black characters get into the position they have because yea it doesn't make much sense in the context of the world.
Personally, I really can't understand why they don't portray any location where practically everyone is white, or brown or black, or asian or native american.
E.g. In Game of Thrones there were places in Essos where only Dany, Jorah and some minor henchmen of theirs were white.
Variation (which equals diversity in real terms) doesn't harm at all.
There is a "Africa" in that world, its called Zerrikania, and its even more savage, wild and magical than the continent the story of the witcher takes place on.
Accessible magic and science. In GoT magic is hidden and unaccessible: dragons (dragons are magic because their lift/drag ratio sucks), mystic metals - all reserved to kings and so on. So all in all the rules are middle ages with some weirdness. In Witcher magic is so accessible a someone as powerful as Yennefer sees no problem selling magical boner pills to common folk. Magic and science lower the barriers to travel - hence people of obviously different race aren't as uncommon, yet still they seem to be limited. The worst part is really the whole "invasion" of Nilfgaard where a huge fortress is overtaken by .... army of footmen. Tell me, what's the point of a wizard defending a gate with a wall against ... arrows? Gates and stone walls require siege weapons - what's the point of magical barrier against arrows? Except for dumb drama? That's probably the biggest sin in the show - most battle scenes make zero sense.
As the Drinker said. They did a bad job of explaining the world geographically.
I think that in the book that inspired this first session the only characters that were genualy ment to be black were the two woman serving the gold dragon in disguise. Portrayed as exotic and beautiful yet powerful warriors in ther own right.
remember when fringilla was being mistaken to yen
well that's not gonna happen in the show :D
Ali Gmal yep at least they left geralt and ciri alone, imagine a black geralt being called «pale as shit» imagine the cringe.
@@isakisak9989 they were originally going to make Ciri black and only cancelled it when everyone criticised it.
Schar i refuse to watch the show, due to the pointless race swaping, so i don’t know what they skipped or left out.
I only meant that they at least left geralt and ciri’s race’s alone, they actually resemble their game and book portrayals.
Idk if they added feminazi stuff or some other random modern cancer.
@@MrScharleyXV yea it was kinda weird how he never met her till the end but they knew each other
@@brianosterman456 They mixed The Last Wish and Sword of Destiny novels in 8 episodes. I imagine that's why they didn't show geralt abandoning Ciri.
Time and budget.
One thing that stood out after i read the short stories was that Geralt's relationship with Dandelion is portrayed as more strained in the tv shows, whereas in the books they are far far more chummy (this is going by the first two short story collections - last wish and sword of destiny) . For instance, theres a moment at the end of sword of destiny where Dandelion's trying to cross a river and says to Geralt 'Don't leave me behind or ill drown!' and Geralt replies along the lines of 'I would never let you drown, dear friend'
The portrayal of Geralt in the shows is more along the lines of 'reserved dickhead', but in the books he's actually a lot more human/friendly in interactions with the people *that are close to him*.
Also one thing off about this review, I would say is your point about Calanthe only being shown as strong even though she's just a wamen. That was still fairly accurate to the books i thought.
In the book she was firce warrior queen, that needed to be pushed down the city wall by a few of enemy soldiers to be finally killed, because she was not giving up.
In series... she just jumps out the window by herself when the enemy is knocking on her door...
They assasinated her character pretty badly - the made her a coward
>:(
In the show every relationship of Geralt's has been butchered and I don't know which one was the saddest to miss.
The way Jaskier/Dandelion was a good partner to Geralt, showing that even though he was a goofy troublemaker, he was also a very intelligent person with an ability to read people and a knowledge of the aristocratic world that a troubadour would possess over a witcher who mostly conducted business with villagers and townspeople.
The way they haven't even thought of the relationship between Geralt and Ciri, stomping instead a big word of "destiny" over it, repeated pointlessly by every character who appeared on the screen.
Or the way they completely changed the relationship between Geralt and Yennefer from their first meeting, where in the books she knows exactly what Geralt asked the Djinn for and in the show he apparently lies to her (?). I think the biggest character assassination has been performed on Yennefer, from being a sarcastic, intelligent, proud woman in the books to becoming a child in a dress who is supposed to be older than she looks, but acts younger in the show.
People say the first season was good and that they kept close to the source material, but in my opinion these were the biggest signs of them actively hating the source material. None of the main characters were even similar to their book counterparts. Their relationships were completely changed and with them, the whole story changed.
Sapkowski's novels are a good read, dude's a decent writer.
The novels are terrible and the author is clearly a retarded sadist.
I didn’t realise that it wasn’t shown chronologically until the 6th episode.
... and then, in a blink of an eye, everything came into its place.
Same. I had to stop and rewatch it all.
I Had to watch the entire season twice to get it
Really? I think it was obvious after the third episode if you paid attention to dialogues. Don't binge watch the series or you miss a lot of details, short term memory has a limit.
I didn’t realise until I watched this review 😀
New Critical Drinker video pops up...
Me: "Source of power, should draw from it."
*place of power
@@guywiththeprojector A video isn't a place so I modified the quote so that it actually made sense ;-)
@@kyle857 Thinking ahead.
nice
5:04 Literally every swedish King during any conflict up until Carolus Rex
The fact that this video featured Kristen Britain's Green Rider series for even a split second made my heart swell with joy 😊
Triss Merigold... Look How They Massacred My Girl... why Netflix... why?
Good grief, no kidding. Zero people would have any sort of conflict choosing between Yen or Triss in the Netflix version.
I see you also are a man of culture. *brofist*
I will pluck my eyes out when i have to see Henry Cavil choosing to bed to this Triss over Yen. And i choose Triss in the game but come on. I really hope they dye her hair fire red.
@@sUstO They won't. She's brunette in the books and those are the base for the show.
@@theColJessep Yes and no. The books describe it as "chestnut" with a hint of red. Sapkowski even said it's more red-ish.
Diversity for..."reasons".
Reasons not to watch it anyway
Sychlo Killent “2nd.” L.
@@Artisttinge After just 10 streaming. The first one was "Stranger Things" season 3. You're delusional.
@@MT-eo6tq most watched doesn't go into quality
"Let me fight racism by making everything about race but hide it as "minorities" for my main argument to sound more convincing!"
How to overshoot the goal and becomes the one thing you were trying to fight...
Fun Fact: The elves in this world actually came from an alternate reality world that basically "collided" with this one during a very rare phase shift event thousands of years prior to this story. That's also basically how all the "evil" creatures appeared. This would have been useful information that could have been included somewhere in the show's narrative.
I remember the narrator from Witcher 3 saying that, something like "Ahh the conjunction of the spheres". That narrative was great and well done
Actually, the world of the Witcher was first inhabited by the Elves (the Aen Seidhe), some 2000 years before the arrival of humans at the time of the Conjunction of the Spheres. Humans, although late to arrive on the Continent, proved able to “out breed” the long lived elves, and so the Age of Elves would come to an end, and humans would become the dominant species on the Continent.
@@reimundkrohn8938 If memory serves, there is even a reference to humans originating from earth, and Ciri visiting a place with "humans with metal in their head", so some kinda cyberpunk world.
Yen's message to 'some women' ends up being something about 'don't let the baubles cloud your eyes, family and children is the road to happiness'.
She still wants children for the wrong reason in the show (and probably the books) in the show she wants a child because it will adore her. After everything she's done and all the admiration she's acquired it isn't enough, because without self love it will never be enough, and she thinks a child can fill that hole, I didn't watch the series long enough to see if the writers forced ciri to fit that role, but a child can't make up for the love you don't have for yourself and it's not fair to expect a child to support you emotionally.
You forgot all about that Black Triss Merigold.
Shh we don't talk about that.
In the next season, they'll just say she used magic to become a white ginger...
I hope.
At least she was kinda hot
@@salamandercleaverson7512 she was not hot at all she looks like trash
She isn't black. She is mixed heritage, I think. Quite liked that bit of casting, it was fairly close to the book? I think, been a while since I read it
Black Triss Merigold who *ISN'T A REDHEAD.*
"The Fresh Prince of Rivendale".....I died😂😂😂😂😂
+1
i fucking paused the video cause i was laughing so hard...he got us gud
One of my favorite lines
*Rivendell
"Rivendale"
Wut
I actually know why it's called Witcher. Talked to Sapkowski himself some 15 years ago, probably more. Apparently he was wondering why there is no male equivalent of the word witch (wizard is a bit different), and decided to create a world in which there is.
The male counterpart to a witch is a warlock. It's better he came up with something new though.
@@vincer7824 Including the negative vibe? Like in witch hunt, bewitched etc. My understanding at the time was that was his point :)
In the Polish language wiedźma (a feminine noun) is the word for "witch" in English. That's the problem with the Modern English language, compared to most other European languages, it has lost its grammatical gender for nouns. Some European languages even have one gender for the singular form and the opposite gender (yes, there are ONLY TWO genders) for the plural form.
@@ImrikCZ english is a very primitive and limited language for all it's worth as a communication tool and should not be relied on for creating art.
@@secretname2670 I speak Russian (native), English (learned it since I was 5), German (learned at the University) and a bit of Spanish (same). I completely disagree. While English is a bit more limited in some aspects than other languages, it lends itself beautifully to a person who is capable (same as any other language).
Like in woodworking, where same results can be obtained by different tools, if you know how to use them.
5:45 they mentioned Queen Calanthe nickname which is the Lion and they mentioned also how many successful battles she fought, so I think it's a prestige for her to fight in the middle of the battle, as many leaders did in medieval times... (Richard the Lionhearted also did this many times) generals fought in the rear only become a common thing after the renaissance era (so I think the show has many flaws but this one I do not count)
"The Fresh Prince of Rivendell" - Tea out the nose stuff.....
@Titan Mechanism* SherHood
Yeah, racist jokes always crack me up!
The obligatory black/minority cast in the medieval Poland was disturbing.
If the Witcher takes place in Poland, then I guess Lord of the Rings takes place in England , right?
@Up To The Wolves what the actual fuck are you talking about lmao
@@wojtekwieczorek6397 Nope. Just the Shire.
@@wojtekwieczorek6397 Not sure about the Lord of the Rings, but the Witcher universe definately has alot of Polish elements in it, so the original comment wasn't just a 'the writer is a Pole, so the universe is Polish' thing.
@@dgmetaxa having medieval Polish elements is still pretty fucking far from being set in medieval Poland. It also had a lot of Germanic, Celtic and even Asian influences, so it was a mixed bag. I'd say it resembled mostly medieval Europe, but even the historical periods from which the story drew its influences were mixed - for example, we didn't know shit about genes and genetics until the XIX century, but it's common knowledge in the Witcher's world. So yeah, despite elements of Slavic folklore and Sapkowki's upbringing, it has rather little to do with medieval Poland. Sapkowski deconstructed many European fairy tales in the short stories, most of them weren't even Polish. Too bad that aspect was omitted from the show. Especially the one that was mentioned in the story about the Dragon, because that was a typical Polish legend and Sapkowski basically did a parody of it, but I guess it wouldn't be interesting or funny to people unfamiliar with it, so I'm not surprised about this one. They could've left some of the others, though, especially that the story of Renfri was loosely based on Snow White and the seven dwarfs.
I was confused as well but after rewatching it, the whole show made so much sense and kinda built the world with each episode.
I felt like I had the same problem with the geography of The Witcher when I read the book series. I felt like I was constantly saying "What is this place and what is it near by? Which Kingdom is this?"
It irritates me that this show is clearly made for Witcher fans, evident by its lack of real world building and explanations, and yet it cuts SO much important content, delivers it in such a broken, poor way, and just expects us to clap because its The Witcher.
While it could be frustrating indeed, but this is just follow the books, which are not one long story, but a bunch of short novels which happens in same world, mostly with the same characters.
it isnt that much becasue it differs very much from book ;/ but it helps if you played any of the games
@@otapi well i wouldn't say this is an adaptation of the book. It's more of an book inspired thing. like game of thrones were the show and book are 2 diffrent things
Cant hear you, too busy clapping
@@otapi Actually, the series does contain a long story, but it starts in the third book (,,Blood of Elves") and continues till the end of the series, but the writers decided that it'll be fine and they will try to adapt the first two books from the series, which are indeed, short stories
“Why risk your entire kingdom fighting on the front line where you could die at any moment?”
*Cries in King Harold*
Sajuek and Richard the III.
Yeah, The Drinker ain't a medieval expert.
“Careful of those archers they’ll have someone’s eye out!”
Sargon of Akkad has a response to this 😂
Not to mention Harald Hadrada in the same year. Or Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden in 1643. Or Emperor Valerian in AD 260. Or Alexander the Great in every single battle.
Perfectly reviewed. Basically mentioned everything I thought about when watching and researching the show just a few days ago 👍🏼
This was the first show in a long time that I actually had to pay attention to while watching. Even then I was about halfway through before I realized there were multiple time periods, and almost to the end before I actually figured them out. All in all, I thought it was pretty good. The fights were well choreographed and I liked the flawed characters that showed growth/redemption. I didn't notice the forced diversity, as I generally assume fantasy settings are made up of whatever (unless they're based on real world places), and so, when there's someone who wouldn't have been in a climate (like the black general), I will just accept it, unless it becomes overly forced or their character is poorly written.
There is a difference between having to pay attention because the world is so right and detail and having to pay attention because the story is told in such a scattershot way that you couldn't possibly make sense of it unless you took notes. Especially in a fantasy series where everything has weird names and there is next to no chance you will remember a characters name after 1 scene.
@@dash4800 I was smashed out of my tree when it first came out and I didn't know what the fuck was going on when it all started to piece back into the original time period as one. Thankfully I was that blasted I couldn't remember half of what I watched and rewatched it recently sober.
* honestly, I still haven't a clue what its about.
I didn't realize the different times zoned until I rewatched it just before season two released and thought it was much better second time around.
Same her on all counts.
I was watching it as background noise while working on some other things and every time I would look up I would be confused as hell by the plot line. If you couldn't completely pay attention you'd easily miss a bunch of important things. I had no idea who important characters were and what the heck was going on so I thought it was weird, and all the time things completely flew over my head
It felt more like *The Yennefer* than The Witcher
🤣
Nah
It would have been glorious if it was.
she is so disgusting for me for some reason
@@kobiljonkamolov6655 disgusting? That's a bit much. You must be 11 years old or something.
Toss a glass to your drinker
Oh valley of whiskey
Show me the way to the next whiskey bar
I didn’t realize until you mentioned that there was very little worldbuilding that I don’t remember them bringing up the Conjunction of the Spheres at all which is a pretty big detail
Thanks for another great review. I agree with almost all you said, however I did thoroughly enjoy it and was happy to not be sure what the world was about or what exactly was going on, trusting and hoping that it'll be revealed later. This was a strength of it I think. Really looking forward to your review of the next season.
“Fresh Prince of Rivendell” 😂😂😂
I died!
Hissrich: "The books are Polish and packed with Slavic spirit. It was important to keep that same tone in our show". SJW's: "Rheeeeeeeee!". Hissrich: "Slavs are Black".
Non-linear chronology? How fucking unnecessary. That's even more du jour than Game of Throne knock-offs.
@Anthony Roic Apart from DNA studies that show the frequency of gene related to the Horn of Africa/West Africa and the Middle East appear with a frequency of 18% (1 in 5 males). Another gene sequence shared amongst those of North African/Middle East/Southern European descent is found with a frequency of 30% (1 in 3 males). Not suprising given Sciliy was under muslim rule for 200 years from 860 A.D.
@Anthony Roic Actually, you are wrong, that's exactly how you apply that principle. It only works when you apply it to populations, and this has been done for all the races of man on earth, so we now have a fairly accurate picture of migration patterns in early human history, and this DNA data coressponds to historical migrations/invasions, in the case of Sciliy's recent history (~100,000 years) Africa, Greek, Goth, Roman, Muslim, Norman, Greek. In fact the data is so accurate you can work from the DNA frequencies alone to work out the patterns of migration if no historical data is present.
@Anthony Roic Geneaology is tracing of family trees or lineages through birth/marriage/death records, and it's entirely legitimate way of tracing your ancestry. However, it isn't as accurate as DNA profiling. As a matter of fact we are all descended from Africa, so to state we have no African DNA is incorrect. It may be true that one family lineage may have a low frquency of a gene that is highly represented in Afican/Middle Eastern populations, but all I am saying in population terms, that is all 5 million inhabitants of Sciliy taken together, on average more than>30% have DNA that links them to close African/Middle Eastern heritage (we are talking in the past 100,000 years by the way - obviouusly this goes way past written records). There is no such thing as the top 20 genes, there are only markers that can be used to predict our likely genetic makeup. The markers can be useful to distinguish local populations or different races. I think the ones you are describing may be markers that distinguish local populations or distinguish Caucasian populations from each other - but I'm guessing here. No disrepect meant.
Woke neo-liberal SJW fucks and the likes of Black Lives Matter racist anti-white movement dont care for the fact that if blacks were present in the north during the middle ages, theyd be killed on the spot or made slaves, not knights or anything. The woke culture sure likes to change historical aspects of everything. In 2075 they will say that blacks colonized America and had white slaves since 1600...hahaha but no, that is a real fine victim culture racism aspect they need to play the victim and demand shit from people of the 21st ct whom nobody of ever owned slaves. I demand justice from every black person in the US because of the white killed farmers in Africa by blacks who hate white people. Isnt it the same logic? Anyway, nice show, but intentionally turned woke for the SJW mind
I've watched the season twice, with the second time of watching with a youtube recap after each episode. After that I fully understood which made it worthwhile.
I’m weird but I enjoyed the Anthology style of stories for an opening season to set the world before the real meat of the story hits. I agree though it was a gamble. Casting Cavill was smart though he brought big star power and enough interest to get a second season
The only reviewer I trust. You are doing God's work sir.
Why did I read this in the Drinker's voice?
@@nemesisastraea6659 not the only one lol
Yup!
The only review you should trust is your own, otherwise you are just a sheep
@@ri3121 whenever I watch something the drinker recommends, I almost always agree with all his talking points, and when I watch things he doesn't like I also find common ground with his remarks, thus I have built an understanding of his critique. This my only reply to your sheepish comment.
"The heavyhanded 'diversity' grates on the nerves after a while." Sums up eighty percent of television nowadays, doesn't it?
correct.
If I remember right, everyone in this world are refugees from another world, implying they started with a melting pot.
@@dagtheger8993 Nothing implies they started as a "melting pot". The northerners are always depicted as white while people in the east such as Zerrikanians are swarthy.
@@AimForMyHead81 Try reading the books
Netlix Witcher is so bad that it actually makes original Polish tv series a masterpiece 🤣
One thing I enjoyed about how they did the timeline, is it made it enjoyable to watch multiple times. Ive probably seen it through 8 times now and each time I feel like it gets better, which is because there is more I understand and catch.. But admittedly the first go through felt pretty bad. As far as just throwing you into the story, I felt that way in the games also... They were extremely hard for me to force myself to play and get into. But once I did I understood why people liked them so much.
wrong. the decision was made to make it look smart for dumb people. you are the dumb people. Show creators laughed at you in season 2. Be better.
@@JohnDoe-yr3lm ummmm…. Ok…. I suppose no one else can enjoy an aspect of something you didn’t then.
@@falkenphil557 I liked it, too. It felt good when I figured out about halfway through the story that they weren't telling the story chronologically.
I really liked the first season. It was the 2nd season where it kind of lost me.
I recently bought Witcher 3 ....for the Switch (it actually runs pretty well) ... anywho, I was looking for a game that was basically Zelda set in the Darksouls world. A friend told me to get Witcher 3 and within an hour of playtime it became one of the greatest games I've ever played. If anyone hasn't played it yet, my god... go buy it now
The fresh prince of Rivendell broke me.. I'm still laughing..
After having a slog of Mary Sue female characters (namely one Star Wars character) Yennefer was SUCH a breath of fresh air: learns from her failures, struggles/isn’t a prodigy and earns her success and power. Then as you say the complexity of her feeling everything she fought for wasn’t worth her current situation and she’s jaded and now motivated to amend what’s she done to herself. Nothings given, everything is earned and that’s why I love her
It was good enough to keep me interested until Season 2, but none of the emotional beats landed at all for me. Henry Cavill carries the show almost entirely and he needs more screen time.
@@bokrugthewaterserpent3012 his on screen time was abysmally low
Like the last episode had 6 and a half minutes of him on screen
@@bokrugthewaterserpent3012 Yep and not focused on "feelings"
This showrunner is so incompetent that she originally wanted to make the show all about Ciri
Its very clear that women should not direct shows about alpha males killing monsters and being badass
He was the only character that I was interested in. I had to fight the urge to fast forward all the other parts, especially Yen.
I really liked Yens storyline.
@@PriestlyBlock67 I mean, Ciri does end up driving the narrative when the proper "main saga" starts. Geralt going around killing things is a fixture of the short stories and games, *not* the novels.
Back when we thought these shows had a chance. When we thought the makers wanted to try to impress us instead of piss us off deliberately.
But monarchs did actually sometimes fight beside their soldiers, leading from the front. Medieval battles weren't nearly as chaotic and bloody as portrayed in fiction - at least until one side is routed. Also, full plate armour would protect you against arrows and regular blows. You'd have a bunch of well trained guards watching your back too. As for the benefits, it was probably a giant morale boost to your troops, since they knew their leader is fighting with them. And the troops' spirit was important - battles were usually lost when your soldiers panicked, broke formation and ran away, not when they were all slaughtered.
most often i would said
I said "damn you all . Damn you all to hell" after i saw what they done to my girl triss
I agree with you, ill miss the fire red head, but who knows maybe in season 2 when she actually gets to do something the actress will prove to be amazing. Fingers crossed
@@JasperLane even her acting is gold
She's ugly as syphilic dick
Red hair and blue eyes with fair skin turned into just another mixed mutt with no ethnic roots in any race.
Every other character: looks like the so in the games (mostly)
Triss: let's change her completely
@@bunnieskitties293 But technically she has more roots than you.
I do like the lack of CGI for this one. It gives it an old school appeal that I find oddly refreshing.
Yeah, it felt like watching Xena or Hercules, but with modern after effects.
@@emytzu ya exactly
@200 subs with no video challenge ya thats exactly why I liked it. For some reason I thought of Dune or The Never Ending Story
lack of cgi???????????
@@phillytheflyerable well, lack of expensive CGI ya.
You have a real talent for taking lengthy, excruciating pain and disappointment and turning it into twenty minutes of real information and entertainment
Love your videos. I'd love a short series as well if ever an option!
“Set in your typical medieval fantasy world...” exactly where the problem lies. The setting from the books was unique af. Nothing like you’d see somewhere else.
The Witcher in itself is set in a typical fantasy world
That’s literally the books
@@Alecfisher01 I wouldn't say it's typical. The type of developmental stages in that universe vary. For example, the northern realms are visually dark ages Europe while Nilfgaard is in an Italian style Renaissance period.
It's not typical medieval fantasy. It's heavily based on Central European Slavic culture
@@kamilpotato3764 what the show or the books?
@@dariusluknar4810 Books
06:23 "These people" are Zerrikanian women, guarding Villentretenmerth. That's actually in the books and them being black makes sense, because Zerrikania is supposed to be a country with huge deserts and savannahs where Zebras live. In fact, I guess these two are the only characters who were intended to be black at the time the books were written.
Yeah I know that. But even still, the Show should have explained that so new audiences will understand. A piece of material should be able to stand alone, something LoTR did to perfection.
@@moosejuice4231 i mean, if you played the games or read the books you would understand most of it lol. I hate the idea that every piece of media "needs" to be able to stand on it's own.
@@UwUOwl uh no. That's a bullshit argument. People are coming to this completely new to the series with no background knowledge people will be so fucking confused about what's going on. Just cos you are a Witcher nerd does not mean everyone else who watches it is.
Darnok Raerc well, you should be too. if you don’t like the canon, why are you watching to begin with? if you like it, you like it. if you don’t, sucks to be you. everything isn’t for everyone.
@@moosejuice4231 wow, you are really upset lol. Maybe you should get a therapist. The fact that you devolved from intelligent arguing to throwing insults proves that you have much to learn as an adult lol. Also, Game of Thrones is shit. It's not for me, so I didn't watch it. You seem to dislike the Witcher, so why are you even arguing?
Why does that Commando insert make me laugh so much??! Great stuff again!
I actually really liked the way they did it non-sequentially, however i completely agree with your second point in that i had no idea where they were in relation to where anyone else was at any given time, nor the rules or idiosyncrasies or even the social norms of the world they were trying to build.
"You're a wizard Harry"
*fart noise*
laughed way too hard at that, what the hell
then perhaps you'll laugh at this joke
ua-cam.com/video/3owSSPoTdaE/v-deo.html
I saw this years ago LMAO!
denying us a hot crazy redheaded Triss is hard to forgive
And she is a very minor character in books
#1 the games got her wrong
#2 it won’t even matter as she’s a minor character
@@Cj-xt6tv #3 poontang
@@Cj-xt6tv The games didn't get her TOO wrong, though. Yeah she didn't have blazing red hair, but she had chestnut with red. She also had blue eyes. That said the games were a HELL of a lot better than the damn show.
But yeah, a minor character in the books because her role only got larger in the games when she started interacting with Geralt after he escaped the Wild Hunt when she used him like the cunt she is lol
@Ivan nope she is reddish brown and had a lot of relations with man and woman alike
Priceless!!! “Dated worse”, “gets sad” and “fresh prince” were amazing!
You make some of the best content on UA-cam! Thank you for making me laugh so hard!
Hollywood's new slogan: "Strive for mediocrity!" When you've set the bar so low that "The Flintstones" is high art by comparison, there's almost nowhere to go but up. (And if any producers, writers, or directors are reading this...no, that is NOT a challenge!)
New?
"I've dated worse to be honest "😂😂😂😂😂😂
ok let's be fair, the queen fighting was in line with the book, don't blame the writer for putting her in a battle, in the book many of them are fighters
Yeah she's written as a great warrior in the books. It may seem like more Hollywood BS, but if you don't like it, blame the author.
I think it might have been better if they had left Ciri and Nilfgaard's whole thing off until season 2, because then they could have taken season one to do the world building and explain Ciri's connection to Geralt. Then we might have actually cared more about Nilfgaard trying to kill Ciri (well, cared about it more than you usually care about people trying to kill a girl). At the very least, they shoulda done SOMETHING to show what time each episode was in. With the two anthology books that this season pulled from, there is at least a sense of a cohesive timeline. I only read them once, but I don't think you meet Ciri until after you meet her parents.
''She struggles to master Khaos''
The Holy Orders of the Emperor's Inquistion would like a word with you
@Wrulol the Witch(hunt)er would like to know your location
We have a Strike Cruiser in orbit. Shall we purge the witches?
Ave Imperator. Brother Alexandros, out.
Emperor protects, brother.
@@malberolall Witcher and Witch hunter are 2 completely different things in witcher world. Witch hunters are obsessed heretics serving to the chruch of inifinite fire by burning witches. Witcherd are witchers.
Lmao somehow im not surprised 40k fandom made it's way here, we all just love grimdark and the Witcher has it in spades (the games and novels). The show was decent i liked it bois !
Still a hell of a lot better than the final season of game of thrones.
That's not a very high bar though.
That’s not a huge feat at all though. Way better than season 8, but not as good as any of the other 7 honestly
@@shahrezaziz3264 let's say 6
Better then season 7 & 8
Nope - Blackwashing is the worst.
The racism against Whites these days is out of control.
"Fresh prince of Rivendell" that killed me 😂
All i want is a random guy to sing, "Pram per ram, pram ram pa ram" as Geralt walks pass him.
If you can't tell whether you like Jaskier or hate him - that means they really got this character right.
How did Geralt end up in Wakanda?
On a magical SJW carpet ride.
We wuz medieval europeenz an shieeet
“Fuckadoodledo!” The greatest thing I’ve ever heard.