The Witcher Season 2 - Two Steps Forward, One Step Back
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 5 ม.ค. 2022
- Did Season 2 of The Witcher learn from past mistakes, or invent whole new ones? Fill your pints of mead, toss a coin to your Drinker and join me as I review the second season of The Witcher.
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Henry Cavill is the perfect example of what a great actor, who respects his character, can do with poor writing. This show would be lost without him.
for being the titular character he doesnt get nearly enough screentime or development but he still absolutely kills the role. If it had been literally anyone else the entire show would have flopped with one season. I feel so bad for him because you can tell how invested in it he is.
Rumors have it, Cavill is out after this season
I agree. I read the books after playing the games, and the only reason I continue to watch netflix's witcher is to see how weird they can get and laugh at it. After all, the show has almost nothing to do with the books in second season, except loosely following the gist of the story.
Cavill is really the only thing good about the show, and what I have gathered, also the only person in the production who has read the books. He has even confronted the director to redo some scenes as the original plan was to make some weird meta jokes.
At least they fixed the clothing and armors mostly.
100% agree
Literally no one would have given two fucks if Henry wasnt in this
"Perfectly casting Henry Cavill in a lead roll but then killing the show with awful writing" is a genre
_Cries in Superman_
Cavill perfectly casted as Gerald lol 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
That sad moment when you realize the Mod that put's Henry Cavill's face on Geralt in The Witcher III is the closest we'll get to a story about Geralt played by Cavill...
You could even broaden the thing a bit more :
"Casting a great actor for the male lead... and then killing it by casting wrong everything else and relegating said lead to side character in their own story"
And there are rumours that he's playing Commander Shepherd...
I just want to watch Geralt hunt different monsters. I like seeing him problem solve and figure out how to fight extremely specific monsters.
i would like to see a monster of the week style too with a narrative stringing the episodes together but its to late for that now.
@@jimmyjshorror This would work for the adaptation of the first two books, but then the plot needs to kick in, and it cannot be episodic. Being a witcher and hunt monsters for coin is part of Geralt's job, but not the center of the plot.
@@moonknightish I think to get a audience the first season should have been episodic with hints of backstory sprinkled, then the season finally could introduce some major revelations, then season could have been a even mixture.
Same. We don't need some global conflict, timeline jumping, psychological drama. Just give us a Witcher that's a witcher. Watch some CD Project Red witcher 3 cinematics and...do that.
@@moonknightish Supernatural ran for well over 10 years blending the "just a simple monster hunt", very contained and isolated episodes with the narrative-driving episodes for the theme of the season. It's doable. Quite easily too. Lots of time takes place between the big events. Fill up some of it with self contained stories instead of just jumping forward in time.
Just a little fact checking. In the book Yennefer didn't lose her powers after the battle and elder blood is not used to create witchers. The fact that they have started to put in their own ideas now is all I need in order to know that things are heading straight to hell.
They've been changing details and manufacturing drama since the beginning, there was just more of it in season 2.
Not to mention, they killed off Eskel. When they hinted at the fact that season two would pay more homage to the games, the dumbest fucking thing they could've done was killing off Eskel, since he has such a big role in the games.
What happened to Yennefer after the battle? I mean canonically
@@Visethelegend she was temporarily blinded when fringilla vigo flung a fireball right at her face, then she spent a long time recovering, before reconnecting with jaskier and eventually becoming ciri's mentor after geralt asked her to
@@rustyblade9366 Actually he's more fleshed-out in the third game only but yeah, he still becomes one of the nicest characters in the game even if we see him only for a quite short chapter in Kaer Morhen.
Henry said this in an interview: “I have no control over plot points and story lines and the over all script. All I can control is Geralt.” When he said that I knew that Henry….knows it’s kinda BS
yeah him saying that a few times in interviews was a major red flag that we were in for some unpleasant surprises when we finally watched season 2
Yea because he actual read and researched and played the game to get into his character. So he knows the real story.
Henry was did a amazing Geralt
His response is much better than "we did this for the fans"
@@2000blackstang he read and played etc, because he likes it, did this way before netflix was interested
Feel so bad for Cavill. An insanely talented actor whose roles have often been either ruined or undermined by poor writing
You can tell in his more recent interviews that he is starting to get frustrated with what they are doing to the show.
whose*
@@5banjostrings superman sucks
Well now Cavill can get his Warhammer 40k project going!! :D :D
maybe D:<
Atleast Yennifer's actress had amazing tits in this season. That one dress she was wearing i t hink in ep 3 WHOOOAWWWWAAAWEEEWAHHHH
@MetalHead4ever Yes he should. If he has any integrity and self respect left, that is. And if he hasn't already made the mistake to sign for more seasons.
The season 2 is underwhelming from the perspective of a book reader. The narrative from the books is far better.
I'm disapointed that Netflix absolutely destroyed the relationship Yennefer had with Ciri.
I find it strange that in a show about a monster hunter there is very little actual fighting. Fight scenes when they happen are great but pretty short.
Couldn't agree more with this. 👍
What about the video games?
money, money, money :)
Cavill is carrying this so hard. Half the show greatness is him alone.
Lol. no.
joey batey and Anya chalotra are all pulling their weight.
all phenomenal casting
more like i just watch this show for him
@@dcmastermindfirst9418 He's being far too kind. Other than Cavill, this show doesn't have enough to justify watching. I just "finished" episode 3, but I have to skip annoying characters, girls get it done scenes, diversity for the sake of diversity, etc. I skipped 3/4 and I'm guessing this show is just more of the same. Is the game/books like this?
@@Brian-uq4wu Lol. Are you kidding???
I love the other characters. I'm a Witcher fan and fan of the entire universe. I've loved all characters so far. The addition of Graham McTavish as Djikstra so far with Phillipa Eilhart is fantastic.
Henry is perfect for this show but there's alot more than just him to love.
And there's no "girls get it done" scenes. Yes there's a few race swaps but who cares?
The story is what matters.
Not woke politics
And the fact you think this series is even related to the game makes everything you say even less credibile and relevant.
This show is based on the book series not the games.
Go get a clue. You casuals have no right to an opinion on anything media based on the books you've never read.
@@dcmastermindfirst9418 Genuinely curious what kind of other shows you are into and the demographic this show is trying to reach. It's clearly not made for me but my taste in shows is not tide to my self esteem. I can't be hurt by social media chat for some reason, so don't worry. I just like dialogue, cha know?
I honestly wish I could watch a show and not be pulled out of it by forced wokeness (even if it's just in my head). Anytime they race or gender swap, to fit our 2022 culture, I just see the writers trying to score points rather than the characters in the scene. And when they make men look stupid in order to make the female characters look more powerful, I always notice as well. For example, please tell me that Ciri does not physically beat or fight grown adults (even women) later in the season. Magic would be fine. But that would be an example of a "girls get it done" scene. Brienne from GOT was an example how to make it actually work. Maybe because it's like a medieval setting that makes it hard for me to not notice these things in every episode.
And I think if a show is truly good, it doesn't need you to read the books or play the game first to enjoy it. I've never played League of Legends, but I loved Arcane. And it was very woke, but it was just too well made and written imo
What I (as an eastern European) really hate is that they removed all Slavic elements from the show. The buildings, the costumes, everything looks like generic western fantasy now. Even the monsters are all wrong. Baba Yaga should not be a nice old lady but a deformed ancient hag (more like Ladies of the Wood in W3 game). And Leshy is a humanoid animal spirit, not a tree monster, ffs. Chernobog literally translates to The Black God and it's a deity, not a stone dragon. And of course, the racial demographics must be identical to present day USA, even though this is supposed to be fantasy Poland of the Middle Ages.
The world of The Witcher is based on the fairy tales our grandparents told us, but none of that is in the show. Tell me about cultural appropriation.
yup thats spitting the truth. A shame there's a lot from the books that give us the excellent descriptions/characters and the games that give us literally how the creatures should look and its overlooked. The three crones for example would look mad af if they were in the show XD
Good to see i'm not alone.
Hmm your description sounds more interesting than this show, might have to read the stories
The shows crap it can't hold a candle to the games. I regret, I have not read the books
Amen! I'm Black-American and I hate all the "inclusion" politics happening in entertainment. It's annoying! I watch shows like this to understand the folklore of other cultures, not to be pandered too. Anyway, your description sounds more interesting than this show. I think I'll check it out.
Cavills back must be made of vibranium considering how hard he's carrying the show. His respect for his character and the Witcher story in general is so refreshing to see in an actor.
Guy's back must be hurting from all this carrying.
Well, he did injure himself to a point where it threatened his career. Let that sink in and imagine how bad the show is run if that happens.
And yeah, he is one of the few good things about this show for me.
I'm going with adamantium.
Superman genetically enhanced with Wakandan metal is my new headcanon
Generally I don't really like Cavill as an actor, but even I admit that he is THE MAN when it comes to this adaptation. I really wish that they gave his version of Geralt a good show, because as it stands the show is shit imo, and if season 3 is like the first 2 I doubt that I even bother to watch. (Also, huge fan of the books, and I literally had to take medication, becouse of how badly the showrunners fucked up not just the narrative, but even their own half-assed lore).
In fairness, I find Jaskier to be incredibly accurate compared to the books - everything that was described (berating people for not knowing the arts, ruining the plans, being unnecessary comic relief) is like exactly who he is in the books.
Very very sadly that is about the only thing that they kept close to the books
Comic relief is probably only that's accurate. Most of the books he barely talks to anyone about the arts and rarely ruins plans.
@@Lunartic_ but he DOES go around like "hey, I'm Dandelion. You know me, I'm famous"
That's because he's literally the only character that is *somewhat* book accurate. None of the other characters seem to have anything to do with their original personalities. So of course he looks "incredibly accurate" in comparison.
But at least in the books he does not ma.ke 4th wall breaking jokes just for a futile attempt to reach some teenager demographic. Yes, a serious show like Witcher does need a comic relief character, but not one that is so badly written.
I think the actor playing Dandelion (or whatever the name of the character is in the show) doesn’t get enough credit. Yes, he comes off as obnoxious, but so does the character in the books. That’s exactly the feeling we’re supposed to feel when we see this character, like you don’t whether to like him or hate him. I think the actor is doing a really good job at the role.
Yes, exactly. Clearly, the Drinker has never played the Witcher games. The first season the actor was hit and miss at capturing Dandelion, but in this second season he is much better and Dandelion lends a much needed comedic relief..
@@tonebonetones The man hasn't read a fucking book either, his whole fucking video is fulled of him going "EEEEEEH DIVERSE BAAAD" not realizing that in the witcher.. alot of Female Mages and elves... are actually fucking leader roles and strong... protagonist.
@@darkyperv34 They are, but in a different, more organic way. In the show, it's the usual "Yass, slay, Queen !" bullshit.
@@Jorvaskrr they didn't give off that vibe at all, I think individuals like yourself just Put that idea in your head, because you feed on propaganda that tells you how Women are being shoved in your face as strong individuals, it's the same type of reason liberals tend to be exposed to the opposite type of propaganda.
@@darkyperv34 Well, I mean not always. But sometimes I feel like they do it to "fulfill the quota".
The showrunner said yennefer is her favorite character and it shows. She went from a nuanced, believable character in the books to the show runners self insert power fantasy. In the books, vilgefortz was the hero of sodden (not yen). Ciri lost her magic( not yen) and Philippe was tissias favorite student (not yen). Not to mention yen getting more screen time than Geralt in his own show. Furthermore yen in the books would have never thought about sacrificing ciri to get her power back if she had lost it in the books, as ciri was like a daughter to her
And Ciri wouldn't wear a dress under any circumstances.(But she had to wear them when Triss was in Kaer Morhen , when painting a picture)
Yen's arc is still evolving, as is her relationship to Ciri... you'll see more of that in Season 3.
they also completely nerfed Eskel. he's such a cool character, almost on par with Geralt but he is treated like a selfish inbred brat and then killed off immediately..
@@genin69 Supposedly he is a very small charachter in the books. We know and love him from the games and it was a mistake to kill him off but if thry sre only using the books then it’s not the biggest deal
@@JA-lr5ix The cool thing though, is that it looks like Coen and Lambert have cool chemistry and will have more character time in season 3.
My biggest letdown was how the show made other witchers complete beginners and cannon-fodder. Each and every witcher is a monster-slaying machine, but in the series only Gerald is.
Exactly. When the witch first opened the portal, I was expecting all the witchers to go Terminator on the monsters. Instead, they started dropping like flies from a couple of basilisks and I was watching slack-jawed, wondering how they could possibly fight monsters for decades and keep the numbers up, only to die in their own home like chumps.
And Geralt fighing Vesemir? Why not tie a hand behind his back for all the challenge Vesemir gave him, the Witcher's sword instructor, with centuries of experience.
@@johnquentines1842 Yes but he is clearly older. Witchers live a long time but age does catch up with you at some point. Look at Vesemir's movie and you can see that the same thing happened to older witchers, there is a reason their numbers don't last forever and they kept making more of them every winter to keep up with how many died each year.
@@Zeratultheking except it doesn't. Not really. Vesemir in the books was over 250-300 years old and was said to look in his forties. Vesemir doesn't even know if he'd die of old age or has just stopped aging because no Witcher has ever died of old age.
Abd how from all the fodder eskel, a well known and beloved character, was the one killed
That Kaer Morhen part pissed me off a lot not gonna lie. Number one, there shouldnt be that many witchers left and there wouldnt be ANY left if they were as weak and stupid as they are depicted here. Number two, they all should have the same eyes as Geralt, because they all underwent the transformation. Number three, bringing whores into Kaer Morhen? Really? Number four, how the fuck did Rience find it. Number five, Ciri killing them in their sleep, further painting them as incompetent idiots. Number six, assassination of Eskel´s entire character. The source material has the potential to be 10/10 and seeing them butcher it like this makes me really sad.
Fun drinking game: Take a shot every time a character says how special or brave or important Cirilla is. You'll be pissed before the credits.
Problems with Cirilla being the Chosen One:
1. It's an outdated trope, but it's an essential part of the books, so that's that.
2. The actress playing Cirilla has the charisma and range of a damp sponge.
3. The writers keep telling us Cirilla is special and important and blah blah blah--don't tell, SHOW.
Did you EVER hear ONE character in the LOTR trilogy tell us that Legolas is a very good archer? Nope, but his skill is clearly on display. See how that works?
Pretty sure most to all elves are very good archers.... they have very good eye sight which works well for it. I would just say the Legolas stands apart from traditional elves as more of a combat archer due to his ability to also still use archery in close quarters engagements.
Exactly what I thought every time Garalt said one of those cheesy lines, but the real drinking game is taking a shot every time Garalt said the word "safe" (which is every scene with him and Cirilla 🙄
They did that in both the games and the books.... So the show COULD have used their wayt of showing but...
Well, but we have never known WHY she was special in the original books, until very end. At first she looks just like any ordinary girl of high birth and rights to the throne and that looks like the reason to hunt her. Also she possesses some magical ability, which is not too great and quite normal within setting. There are many who do. Only much later we find out about Aeh Hen Ichaer, The Elder Blood, and what it means.
My biggest problem with this series is this: when the show was announced, we were told it was going to be based on the books. Season 1 was mostly backstory, with some book elements thrown in from Sword of Destiny and The Last Wish, but it was alright. Everything they did more or less made sense and most of it squared with the canon we already had
But Season 2 is nothing like Blood of Elves. That's my problem. Voleth Meir is a Netflix invention; so is the fate of Eskel. The only reason I find this show compressible is because I know the story it's 'based on'. Think about it! The depth of the 'Dear Friend' lines are completely lost on anyone who hasn't read Blood of Elves. And that's just one example from the top of my head!
This season makes the Hobbit trilogy look like a faithful adaptation.
nobody wants a copy of the book, thats true that season 1 was on the tracks more than the 2nd, but you shouldnt compare the book and the show, there a lot that cant be written in the books and a lot that cant be shown. So it is destined to be different. I agree, it is a problem yet shouldnt be your biggest.
Season 2 showed absolutely no respect for the source material. The witchers inviting common whores into their *secret* castle? Vesemir basically betraying Geralt just to make more witchers? Ciri being not a tomboy, but an insufferable princess? Yeeeeah, no thank you!
As someone who never read the books or even played the games. I watched season 1 and honestly.. didn't like it much. It felt very.. not new person friendly and most characters just felt... bleh?.. recently finished season two and was further disappointed. I'm about half way into the game and I legitimately like these characters and Geralt himself much more engaging. Especially Yen. Haven't touched the books yet but from what I've seen.. Yen being a mother figure who was one of the very very few who Ciri trusted because she loved her for her and had no motivation other than to love her like a daughter.
Yeah look, I've played the games and read the books. I'm completely okay with a show moving away from the source material, but when the writers of the show come up with something that is far inferior to the story of the source material, that's when I have a problem.
@@Juicysilver agreed. I don’t understand why writers can’t just use things that people like and do more of that. It’s like if it isn’t broke don’t fix it right? The books are popular for a reason, the games are popular for a reason so look at what they did right and do more of it. No need to be creative and make something that is going to be an inferior product.
Have to admit, seeing ciri train and struggle with her training was strangely refreshing thing to see after years of that part not being in character arc for female characters.
They only did it because it was part of the game and books and is a HUGE part of her backstory. I'm sure if the writers had it their way we wouldn't have even got a whiff of those scenes.
Same. Felt it was a breath of fresh air. The female protagonist doesn't get everything magically given to her, and scoff at the clumsy boys.
@@scordova98 Except they exhagerated it. In the games (and books? Can't remember), in that scene she wasn't running past easily dodged wooden swingy things, she was fighting them. With a sword. While balancing on the beam. BLINDFOLDED.
A character arc the more recent Mulan should've had.
and the fact that all that training doesn't actually get used or matter in this season, sure it'll amount to something later but for now it just looks pointless and i LOVE it, real life training struggles
To be fair, the whole Netflix team should thank the lever living hell out of the Chad Henry Cavill, because he literally knew the source material and constantly changing the script to grab the perfect Polish Fantasy experience
No. Wrong. He changed ONE scene in season 2 for the better, but he constantly butchered the dialogue in season 1 until all that remained was "hmmm" and "fuck". And no, a Brit could never understand, let alone capture Polish fantasy.
@@Komix777 delusional comment
@@Komix777 Man doesn’t know what he talking about
The problem with both seasons of the Witcher is this, individually and taken in isolation the scenes and most of the set pieces (esp. In season 2 where the stopped deliberately avoiding the CDPR asthetic) are fine, they work on their own out of context, but the structure of how they are strung together is a mess, season 1's non-liner narrative burned through too much book material and was confusing and hard to follow, season 2 is a rush to jam all the characters into the right places, ticking off as many plot points as possible as Ciri is far older than she was in the book so the timeline needs to be compressed so she's the right age for the end of the story.
No matter how the show improves they will never overcome these structure issues
Cavill is also the one who actually wanted a Witcher show & is the only one seems to give a shit about the source material. You can see in the interviews that he genuinely cares & even kinda spergs about it at times due to fanboyism.
Sadly, Netflix put the worst fucking creators they could for the project.
Agree with mostly everything, except Jaskier. I actually love that character precisely because he is such a pain in the arse.
What this show really needed was to follow the story line of the books. They lost me halfway the second season, and I'm not planning to watch the next one. And you're right - Cavill is the best thing that happened to this show.
Same here. I enjoyed the 1st season, then lost interest throughout the 2nd, have no plans to watch the 3rd.
"Diverse adaptation of a Polish fantasy," was always a problem with this series. Imagine setting a fantasy in Nubia and casting Swedish actors to play some of the key roles. They wouldn't let it go for a second without trying to utterly ruin the people responsible.
The casting is one of the main reasons why I can't stand this show. The woman playing Yen is not a good enough actress to play such an important character, and I'm pretty sure Yennifer is not of Indian descent. It's understandable when you see who's in charge of the show though.
@@DarkPassenger enlighten me, is it some desert tribe lol?
@Yung Murk Jesus was whitewashed already in the early medieval times and ppl keep depicting him like that because they didn't know otherwise. Even Jews in Europe became white after centuries of mixing with europeans.
Reminder that asian christians depicted (or still do) Jesus's mother as asian. Same how Haitians depicts her as black woman.
@@DarkPassenger she is one of the better castings in the end.
@@DarkPassenger pretty sure there's not an india in the world of the witcher.
I still can't get over how this show butchered Eskel's character. And I thought it couldn't get any worse after what they did with Vilgefortz. Also, apparently the writers wanted to insert Marvel-tier humor in the second season, but Cavill stopped them believing that it wouldn't fit the Witcher, further proving that he's literally the only saving grace of this show.
When you see diverse character in the show, you see character that is butchered. Read the books, play the games and stop watching this shit.
I thought it was weird how all the witchers were black
@@Jim26D One was asian! LOL Didn't know asia was part of the continent
We need Henry Cavill + Marty Odonnel to make a halo movie
You know were they wanted to put the marvel-esque joke? In the Roach's death scene lmfao
Jaskier is exactly as he should be, as he was written in the books, as he is in the games.
When Yen escaped with that prisoner at the end of the 3rd or 4th episode I was like "Nah, it'll be fine" and I checked out.
If the showmakers followed the books as much as Henry Cavill does, we would have had a much better show
They don’t want a better show.
At no point was that ever the goal, and if it happened by accident they’d have cancelled it.
Although I thought the books portrayed yennefer more like a badass then the show did, the first book(where season 2 takes place) didn’t really have that exciting of a plot. There was no big evil that they had to overcome the only things that really happened were the scouts attacking once and the bounty hunters taking on geralt. The show runners had to improvise alot to keep the show interesting
@@griffinkiesler5786 The first book is basically world setup. It eases you into things before kicking into high gear with the second. It prevents the "what the hell is going on" mess we got with Season 1.
The source material is problematic and needs to be fixed, so sayeth the woke simpletons in charge.
I mean while the show is certainly in dire need of a better writer, the books aren't that great either when it moved away from the short story format into the larger arching plot line. Following the books one to one won't really make it good TV.
"What should we do for this season?" "How about we kill off Eskel for no reason." "Was he killed off in the books?" "Wait, there's a book?"
He's a very minor character in the books
@@increase9896 does not matter
Now I want Cdpr to make Eskel the next protagonist of Witcher 4.
@@increase9896 well why don't they make an interesting development that is not in the book for him instead? The problem is not killing eskel, but altering his character, killing him, and overall making their own characters and story and slapping witcher's character name on them.
Well you pretty much summarised the entire series up until now.
Haven't seen the second season yet, but if Jaskier comes along as a stupid prick that constantly endangers his friends then the actor is actually doing a great job.
the witcher 3 was one of the best RPG games ive ever played, had an incredible story with incredible characters. and yet hollywood still couldnt make something good with their hands being held.
Since you're referencing the game I can assume that you have not read the books, which is a shame really. The books are insanely good and are a great source material. The woke, diverse writing cast is able to butcher anything though. On a side note, I recommend reading the books if you enjoyed the game.
After seeing how horribly wrong the writing was in season two i have to agree. I would rather watch the entire witcher 3 game movie twice than ever taking a second look at this tv show... So disappointing. They had good characters, good artists, locations, CGI, really everything going, but they fucked up the writing royally...
Game is nothing compared to books. And i like the game.
You really should of pointed out Yen breaking free a Nilfgaardian captain in front of kings and the world’s most powerful mages only to run away with no issues, was at best, high school fan fic level writing.
Edit: In the books Yen doesn’t lose her powers, Ciri does. Yen and Cahir never even meet.
Yeah that was horrible, they literally all just stood there doing nothing. Absolutely lazy writing
Another small thing that bothered me was how quick they travelled to Kaer Morrhen from the outskirts of Cintra (end of the season) in what looked like about a day. Kaer Morrhen is literally wayyyyyy northeastward of Cintra no way you can make it that quickly even on horseback.
Xena the witcher
That was explained at least partly when the kings(I think it was them) mentioned that the mages had put up a no-magic barrier around the place. Though obviously it does seem rather convenient.
That was pretty bad.
@@AyazHB so no magic...but...no guards? no one even stands up? No archers? no anything? It made no sense.
The Witcher: A show about Mage Politics while the main character is the background character in his own show.
Aka: Hawkeye and loki.
@@shawklan27 Have you read the books? Geralt is very much a back seat character..Theres full books hes barely in..
That is the material they're working with. It doesn't matter in the books because there you can really go in depth when it comes to all the political manoeuvring. Much harder to pull off in a TV show.
@@MrKylecardinal True dat! Unfortunately that's pretty much all they got right from the books smh...
@@MrKylecardinal no I haven't read them but I do know that the shows that I mentioned had the title characters take a back seat in a good amount of the episodes while the side characters get most of the development like with hawkeye and kate bishop and loki with female loki
I grew up with the saga of The Witcher, instead of the hare potter. And basically Dandelion is an arrogant asshole with an overgrown ego who gets everyone into trouble and who needs to be saved all the time. Its task is to present a romantic view of this dark world. Jaskier is best described in a sentence from the book: "You are almost 40, you look under 30, you think you are under 20, and you act like you are 10."
I like Henry too but to be fair, when you said this season is Ciri's story, you have to realize the Witcher in general is Ciri's story. The books are about her, Geralt is one of the main characters but the books are very much her story.
Exactly my point. I get irritated when people say we see too much of Ciri . I immediately know they never played the games or read the books because as you said it sometimes feels like it's more Ciri's story than it is Geralt's story in the source material. I'm not saying the show is flawless but half of the "criticisms" in this video could be explained if people just bothered with the Source Material. Also Game of Thrones had 8 fucking seasons to distinguish between different locations. I remember back in season 1 I didn't know characters by there names just by there faces because they were so many of them. People need to learn to give shows time if they want every character and location to feel unique.
Anyway whatever, I personally have one desire for Witcher season 3. I always liked playing as Ciri in the Witcher 3 (the game) so I'm hoping she'll finish her training and we'll see that speed dash thing she could do in the game because it was sick.
At least they remembered that Triss has red hair this season.
hubba hubba
Triss doesn't have red hair in the books rd project red made her hair red to reflect her magic. However I do agree that the red hair is better, its just way to iconic!
@@aryanrathod416 Triss in the books had hair the colour of fresh chestnuts, which is close to auburn or reddish brown. But then Jaskier had hair so yellow he was called Dandelion.
She didn't have red hair in the books. Was like a reddish brown maybe. But then, witches can change their hair color easily.
@Cynir they really do. Like they must just hate the Irish
Honestly that first episode with the beauty and the beast storyline was my favorite part. We got Geralt, Ciri, a mystery, and a monster. Wish we had more of that.
It is based on one chapter in the books where it was done much better and before Geralt is with Ciri. You can probably fine it online for a quick read.
When this show sticks to the source material, it's good (not as good, but good). When they start making up original stuff, it's awful. Like William said, read the original short story.
When I saw that 1st episode I thought about how much they improved the show in season 2, but then in later episodes, I was getting a bit disappointed of how much show focused on all the boring politics between elves and nilfgard.
Seriously felt like Fringila had more screentime than Geralt.
yeah literally give me VERY high hope about S2, 20 minutes later it all shattered by eps 2
Ya, that's exactly my thoughts too. It was my fav episode of the entire show by far. Got to see more Geralt.
Just another reminder, that all of those "diversity elements" have nothing to do with medieval Poland, slavic culture and eastern-european folklore.
The show writers have absolutely no understanding that The Witcher series is not a generic fantasy world with random monsters but absolutely steeped in slavic folklore. The whole idea of these books was to create a fantasy world from an Eastern-European (Polish) perspective with all fantasy elements taken from Slavic myths and legends, fairy tales and folklore. But since Netflix is a US company and the show runners, producers and actors are all all from the US/UK, we get an inclusive, diverse fantasy world that's at the same time homogenized, indistinct and nonsensical.
The Critical Drinker made good points but he was also non plussed by the walking house. No idea that it's Baba Yaga's hut. Baba Yaga herself is an ugly crone (which she isn't in the tv series). That shows you how clueless the vast majority of people about Slavic mythology since Baba Yaga is just about the most famous Slavic Fairy Tales character of all.
And they detract from it...how?
@@Acid_Viking Problem with diversity in Witcher is that, in books, and in games (to small degree) racial tension, discrimination, judging people by stereotypes and conflict it created is one of motifs of the world. There is also a lot of commentary about it between lines.
Elves and Dwarves are not just some fantastical races. They're racial minorities in Witcher, based on real world ethnicities and cultures (mix of them). And for a reason.
But if you just put idealised diversity with no person questioning it it clash with whole World, you just get rid of one of main motifs of the book. Many choices loss their weight, many accomplishments don't matter, and many more stop making sense.
@@ravensblade It makes sense to me that, in a world where violent tensions exist between humans, elves, dwarves, etc., differences of skin color might seem incidental, by comparison. If black people were never enslaved in Witcher's setting, then white-black racism would never have developed to the degree that it has in ours. In other words, racist people in a fantasy setting do not have to be racist in all the same ways that we are.
@@Acid_Viking It makes no sense. You even mistake a cause and reason. Racism was a reason why enslaving black people were acceptable in times where enslaving white people weren't not a cause.
And differences of skin colour are not incidental. There is clear reason for colour of your skin. And it's one of the most visible differences human have.
In a world were having slightly different accent or not being from area was a reason for discrimination the more so would be skin colour. It most visible difference.
It's just sad truth.
Outside of that is simple realism. Idea of every village having mix of people of different ethnicities is simply illogical. They are called ethnicities for a reason.
Ps. And there was slavery in Witcher world
As a Pole, who read everything of Sapkowski's three times in original language and more I can only say:
I am simply sad. Sad, that they took something great, well-thinked and turned the main story line into simple bullshit (is there in this series even any story line?). Beyond that, most characters (expect Geralt and Yennefer) were simplified, or even "stupified" (like Triss and Vesemir who wanted to turn Ciri into a witcher, but in the books they were responsible lifeguides for her!!!).
Plus: I am sick of political correctness. This whole book was about racisim! Yes - about racism, but in the fantasy land, where people dominated all other races (especially elves) - there for, why in the series black elves, have nothing against the white elves? This is simply so fucking stupid...
Plus no.2: have you ever seen a dwarf in a movie before? I remeber how great Peter Jackson's guys could prepare Gimli as a visible dwarf differing from people, NOT just a midget hired to play a dwarf in a movie. This is ridiculous.
And one last word: Henry. Henry Cavill, plus Joey, and the girl that played Yenneffer - they felt this. They felt this specific dark fantasy world. Rest of the actors didn't probably even know is it based on some game or some book, or at anything and that's just some new script made by a scenarist.
Is this show dead yet? I quit caring and just wish it was put down like old yeller whenever Iam reminded about it.
Dude I gave read pan Sapkowski's work as well and I started getting sad at the episode detailing short story Kwestia ceny. They cut out everything I liked about it, all the suspense, the dialogues I liked...
The show's been dead for me ever since, my deepest condolences for this insult to Polish modern literature :(
Lol I was thinking the same thing about hiring midgets that cracked me up. Great comment Bart
Political Correctness and absolute bullsh*t is pulling my country apart by creating issues that weren't there to begin with and it's being combined with bribery to (TRY) and gain lasting power. As an American, I hate this destructive crap!
@@ladyweasellou3367 Me too, it's really disgusting how bad things have gotten out of hand. Keep spreading the truth no matter what.
All the time spent with Yennifer really does drag the show down. So many characters behaved as though she was the most amazing person in the world, and I was like "Why do they think this?"
The irony is that if we actually got the Yennefer we were familiar with, this would actually work, but this Yen that we got is so insufferably whiny it's hard to watch.
Yeah, she almost comes off as a self insert.
@CCP Tube how can she be diverse if she is white tho lol
@@MetalGearBronya Its clear the script writers aren't interested in Geralt's story arc despite the show title. Writers who Day dream with the source material and how to make it fit their favored characters better while clearly unimaginative and unable to delve into the world building created for the story itself. The plot keeps unfolding as if the Witcher's world is bound to the unwritten laws of '21. Teary-eyed hormonal heroines and their counterparts cold but predictable patriarchal villains. Its a far cry from Sapkowski's living conditions of Iron Curtain Poland and he could safely publish his imaginative works with the demise of the Berlin Wall. Book Yen was power hungry after years of basic survival and despised crying because it showed weakness in front of other mages who would just as soon stab her in the back when it was convenient. Show Yen is being written by people where survival is a social fight for attention identical to today where attention is society's concept of power. Book Mages were political with century long secret struggles for control, '21 writer room Mages constant overt emotional struggle and unpredictability equals decision-making.
@@MetalGearBronya I wish they got Eva Green to play Yennifer.
It's no step forward, four steps back. It's the biggest insult to my native Poland since the Yalta Conference.
This. Focus on wrong characters. Terribly boring action scenes. At the end of the season we are back to the first square.
Black elves and a black character that keeps getting told she's a liberator and so amazing, what's not to like?
@@achilles8530 Ah yes, us Poles have to apologize for our *checks* white privilege of getting genocided by totalitarian regimes.
@@achilles8530 Don't forget asian elfs and black and asian witchers too, you probably forgot them because they either rapidly go offscreen or die soon, meaning the "diverse cast" breaking lore exist only for tokenism.
@@user-ju2jt8yh3i yeah i also cant wait for the non-binary witcher telling us how much non-binary he/she/it is sarcasm off: i hate it when those stuff is happening
Am I the only one that thinks Ciri's character could have been portrayed significantly better? At least in the books, she was a kid and acted like a kid. She complained all the time and she was super energetic, and over time, she matures while developing her relationship with Geralt, Triss and Yennifer. Also maybe I'm wrong but I remember Ciri's training was significantly tougher in the books than the show. In fact, she was so beat up that when Triss arrived to Kaer Morhen, she unveiled how damaged Ciri was. I remember Ciri training at Kaer Morhen for like an entire winter before going to Nenneke's to train her magic skills with Yennifer.
Frankly, I think you give this show waaaay too much credit. It's little more than a cash cow made by people who don't understand or care about the source material but only about hitting beats that will give the show a good rating. Like more and more movies and TV shows lately it felt more like a product for consumption than the work of art it should have been.
Yeah, I think drinker is holding back criticism on this, maybe out of respect to Cavill or the source material. The truth is, it's down there alongside dogshit shows and movies reviewed before. Shit actors, acting, writing, unnecessary representations and also butchering the lore of Witcher itself.
"She's learning to be a witcher by playing total wipeout" that got me.
No big balls though, can't be the final form.
One small detail that I really appreciated was Ciri still failing at the end, even after all that training. We see her fall countless times and yet she never makes it to the very end obstacle course even once.
She works hard to get what she wants and still does not get it. That's just so rare, I love it
I think that's what they where going for. I loved the part when they decided she was indestructible. Apparently she just can't be hurt... did I miss something?
yea i admit i kinda liked how they were giving her shit on the obstacle course, then you cut back and they are still yelling at her but you realize they are now trying to coach her and im like yes, more of this please. Shes earning respect but they are still gonna give her shit bc thats what they do
Hissrich must have finally participated in some basic creative writing course. XD
The problem with Ciri failing the obstacle course is they never showed Ciri actually overcome adversity. There was never a scene of her wanting to give up and quit. There was never a discussion between Geralt and Ciri about why the training was important. There was never a scene showing that Ciri has never actually been pushed like this before, showing that she was a pampered princess who acted like a Tomboy, but never reeeaaalllly had it difficult. Instead, she just hits the ground running when it comes to training meant for literal mutants.
I dunno, it just never felt believable for me.
@@skeeter2069 Obviously it could have been better, but I feel most shows would have her prove her doubters wrong by overcoming the obstacle. But in this case she never does. She struggles and fails time and time again and gets nothing out of it. I was fully expecting her to succeed at the last leap when Getald was watching and yet she didn't.
Unfortunately...from what I remember from the books, the more time that passes, the more the story circles around Ciri instead of Geralt. Which I didn't like because Ciri imo is just another chosen one. The Witcher is one of the rare times when I'm hoping that they'll divert a bit from the books and give Geralt more stuff to do.
My favorite part of s2 was by far Cahir. The actor is great and completely does justice to the book character. Can't wait to see more of him.
One thing that people are forgetting about source material is fact that Witcher started as a bunch of short stories with world and character putting it loosely together.
Throughout the time it started to grow, develop and morph into wider story.
Original, first piece was created as a entry into Polish Sci-Fi and Fantasy mag "Fantastyka" writers contest...
Cheers!
I.
Wondering how the showdown with cahir and geralt will go at thanedd. In fact, im wondering how everything will go. Probably not how anyone would imagine it.
I like how they set up Yennefer to be someone yearning to have a child but then have her attempt to kidnap Ciri, who is basically a daughter to yennefer in the books.
The sarcasm pls 💀
Geralt just feels like an extra in his own story most of the time.
His fault for not being a strong black woman
@@GigglingStoners you laugh but the white male did slavery and woman not allowed to vote. Now ur crying? No buddy u don’t get to complain. U had ur time, the future is female
@@ProudCommie Troll detected
At least he is not the butt of every joke in his own show. And actually succeeds in what he was trying to do. Unlike Loki.
@@ProudCommie bahahahaha hahaha you'll never be a real woman.
Dang I kinda like Jaskier and the metajoke. The character is a nice foil to Geralt and provides some light humor and upbeatness. In that moment when you hear him singing and you find out he is the one taking away the refugees, I felt that same feeling of pleasant suprise and comfort that you sorta see Yennefer express.
Well, that saved me many winter evenings, thank you very much. I think I've seen all I need to see of The Witcher.
I read an article about this yesterday. The showrunner was apologising for “the ONE mistake we made” in S01was we didn’t focus enough on Ciri & this is regretful and I apologise -we feel we have rectified this in S02 (paraphrasing there)
Strangely it crossed my mind that the whole PR push on this show was Cavill, as well as-to your point- the show is called The Witcher.
Cant have Single focus on a male lead role these days
Great point. I went into the first season thinking the Witcher was the central role. Never played the game.
Finished the season confused in more than one way and just generally dissapointed.
@@JohnSmith-fg9pz Thing is, Ciri is the center piece of of all this.
Geralt is still the protagonist, but Ciri is the key of the whole plot, wich connect everything.
I see the problem you are pointing out, Netflix is trying to turn this around and probably want to make Ciri the protagonist and Geralt just a secondary character.
This folks are so deep in their woke bs that they wouldn't see both characters are important for the story in their own way...
@@thatbodymechanic believe me when i say that the game is an experience that anyone should have.
The Witcher is only a thing because of the games wich is a testament of how good they are.
And is amazing especially in witcher 3 how the plot isn't half as convoluted as the series, and this in a game that is in essence an open world game.
@@efxnews4776 Let's face it. Most games are better than anything coming out of Hollywood these days.
Frustratingly, they killed off a perfect character that could've helped explain or show Geralt's past.
Who?
@@cliffg.4205 Mousesack?
@@cliffg.4205 Eskel
But they want you to watch the Animated Witcher movie to find that out. Because why tell the story of your character's life in a series supposed to be about your character's life?
You were supposed to watch the animated movie while waiting for season two.
I've enjoyed the Netflix version, but nothing will be able to replace the original Wiedzmin. Polish Ciri has such a no nonsense view of her place in the world, and Geralt is willing to face down destiny itself to protect her. It's just beautifully done.
Since you clearly know about the original content the show is based on i’m so curious - was the dynamic between Geralt and Ciri compelling as well? I know book readers might have not enjoyed the show as much as I did but I thought the focus being on a father and daughter bond mainly instead of romance or friendship was refreshing.
@@abiade9614 I actually have never read the books. I started in on The Witcher with the second game, then went hunting for further television-based media and found The Wiedzmin. As far as I'm concerned, nothing can replace it. The show isn't about their bond, as such, because once Geralt finds out he is bound by destiny to be with her, he just refuses and leaves. The thing is, he's worried because his life isn't fun or glamorous or remotely safe, and he wants what's best for Ciri. Ciri, on the other hand, is all gung-ho about the entire venture. "Destiny said so, I'll pack my things!". Geralt gives destiny itself the finger and goes through hell to keep away from Ciri and the constant political bullshit*t trying to yank him back to her kingdom. Ultimately (as usual), destiny sets Geralt up to save everything by single handedly killing sh*tloads of people and monsters, then in the last scene of the last episode, Geralt and Ciri run across each other by sheer chance. Geralt gives up his hopeless rebellion against forces beyond his control, and embraces Ciri as the lost daughter she was. I tell it poorly, I know, but believe me when I tell you that everything was laid out so perfectly that when they collapsed into each other's arms at the end I burst out crying. I like Henry Cavill as an actor, and I love The Witcher, but I never cried with the Netflix series. So much wasted potential.
@@RussianPrimeMinister it’s too bad they couldn’t remain faithful to the books fully. It seems to be the main reason for all the problems the fans find in the show. I actually find the Weidzmin movie on TH-cam so I’ll have to watch it too. :)
A fair review
You've vocalised my feelings about the shop perfectly.
Adding a few things that a hadn't realised but now seem obvious.
Cheers
(I'm working through the un-drunk Christmas cocktails, I'm currently on a 4 pack of snowball cocktails, nice!)
Having read the Books I can say that the second season doesn't have anything to do with the books plot lines like 85% of the time. And replaces it with more contrived, worse stories.
What bothers me most is that they made female characters "stronger" by making them, especially emotionally, weaker and made the witchers who genuinely cared for her only want her for her blood, which was no ingredient for witchers in the books.
Yennifer in the show stole other character arks: In the book it was Ciri who lost her powers, it was Vilgeforz who was the MVP of the battle at Sodon Hill, and it was Triss who was presumed as KiA at the same battle and thus bore the tittle of the Fourteenth from the Hill.
just another case of average writers think they are smarter than they actually are. They have gems on their hand. And it didnt blow up
@@katajiro8178 Yennefer also got blinded by Fringilla Vigo in that battle.
Yeah, they're all so mean to her in the show, it's unreal. And to your previous point, this show was a dumpster fire from the begging. Exactly like Cowboy Bebop. I could even use things people said about Bebop for The Witcher and they would apply. Unfortunately when it comes to The Witcher not many people know the source material and for some strange reason they refuse to admit that it's exactly the same bad adaptation like the rest of them. They get very defensive when you criticise it and strawman you to high heavens. For example nobody says that there can't be any changes or that it has to be 1:1 translation word for word and other similar strawman arguments. You can definitely make changes if the different medium requires it. I would even accept changes that someone makes just because they want to, but they have to give me good reason for it, or to put it in a different way, the result should be really fucking good and definitely not worse than the source material. From what Netflix has done to the story you can see that they have no respect for the books.
There are examples of adaptations that changed a lot of things from the source material but are still very good and respectful towards it like Harry Potter movies or Lord of the Rings trilogy. To this people oftentimes say that they remember exactly the same discussions and fans also complaining about changes after the release. I find it hard to believe that they were exactly the same. I could accept that some book purists were complaining about Peter Jackson movies not including Tom Bombadil or swapping Glorfindel for Arwen and so on. And yes, I agree that those are pretty futile complaints but they're definitely not exactly the same. Even with Harry Potter, which I was a huge fan of way before the movies started coming out and yeah, I remember being a bit dissapointed when Goblet of Fire started changing the story more significantly but I liked the movies anyway in the end. These changes were not so bad that it would ruin my experience completely like it is with the Netflix show. And there are even videos that raise great points for example how they changed character of Ron to be just stupid comic relief (similar to Jaskier) oftentimes because they wanted to make Hermione look better and more competent ( th-cam.com/video/lCzxwcBZFuI/w-d-xo.html ). So even though these movies are pretty great and fans love them, they're still being critised for the changes they deserve to be critised for.
When you say that the changes that Netflix made are awful people oftentimes act like you're saying that all changes are bad and filmmakers just can't change things period. No, there are levels to this.
And it's such a shame that people won't know how much better the books are. Everything in the books is ten times better, like the stuff with elves becoming resistance fighters known to everyone as Scoia'tael. There's a great story which Geralt tells Ciri about elven girl Aelirenn also known as White Rose of Shaerrawedd and Geralt is trying to use that to teach Ciri important lesson about neutrality and price of war. Big part of the books is also Geralt, Ciri and Triss traveling with military convoy which is accompanied by Yarpen Zigrin and his dwarves and at the end of that part of the book there's great cruel twist with Scoia'tael where always jolly Yarpen is depressed as fuck because he can't belive what humans made him do just to test his loyalty and how much did it cost him. That't probably my favourite scene. Although it's probably better that Netflix didn't touch these things because they would fuck it up.
The first episode o butchered my favorite story from the books. Kinda mad
I like how you pointed out the mix of ethnicity and geography not being taken seriously. I definately noticed this season that it seemed weird that it was unlike the books or games in that sense and it did take me out of the story everytime i saw a black elf, or the fact i think the mages all seem to be female or of a different ethnicity except the bad mage of course
Female mages could be fine because there was actually a covenant of female wizards - and it was popular to sent unwanted noble daughters for magic school same way sons were expected to join military. But otherwise - yes. How skin color diversity is supposed to work in the series is just fd up. Elves were the original oppressed racism victims. Just make them ALL black if hamfisting is you thing.
@@romank90 i can deal with females being mages, thats not a stretch. But even triss who is supposed to be a natural redhead is not. And the only white guy seems to be stregabor the bad guy... and yeah youre spot on with the elves
There were a few black witchers and even an asian one that had like 1 second of screen time in the hall of kaer morhen
They also blacked Triss Merrigold. At this point I genuinely think it's a Hollywood fetish.
@@DekkarJr Witchers and mages should possibly be different ethnicities since they are presumably recruited from all over and trained to do their job. Regular village folk not so much. It maybe didn't jump out at me so much in the Witcher because Netflix but it did jump out in Dune when the Fremen were all different ethnicities, as they're a tribe and presumably all related to each other.
The magical cabin on legs is actually in Slavic folklore as Baba Yaga's cottage. It's kind of shoehorned in just for mythology brownie points, though, along with the witch herself.
1 step forward, 8 steps back.
We've never really seen Henry Cavill gone through his full potential as an actor. He deserves more screen time and more great roles.
Superman did that. And look how that meant.
What you're forgetting is that a good actor needs a good writer
Watch the show "Blue Collar".
I thought Cavill did an awesome job in the Snyder Cut-first time in my life I've ever thought superman could be scary
Not saying that this is how it should be, but it’s worth noting that Geralt in the books isn’t exactly soaking up the pages, he’s practically a minor character for half of the main series
He's good in Mission Impossible Fallout
I thought it was one step forward and two back. If it wasn't for Henry Cavill trying his hardest, the whole excessive mage boredom, unnecessary character changes, diversity casting and "why the fuck did they make Eskel into Lambert and just got rid of him for no reason?" would've driven people away before episode 4. It's not even "The Witcher" anymore most of the time.
Totally agree
I just felt that Yennefer drama subplot became the center of the story. So important that the plot only advanced when she stopped being kidnapped, and then proceeded to "kidnap" Ciri.
For me Ciri looks like the protagonist, but in reality Yennefer still sets up the pace.
Honestly, Geralt _is_ kind of a framing device for the wider world in the books, too. He's clever, deeply introspective, and has a heart of gold underneath his gruff exterior, but even so he's a very stoic man and the books (IIRC, I know at least the first book that's a collection of short stories is, and I'm pretty sure at least a couple of the other are, too, but it's been a couple years) are written from _Dendelion's_ (what Jaskier's name is in the books and games), perspective. The games give _way_ more of Geralt's inner dialogue than the books do. A lot of the time in the books, Dandelion is trying to pull on threads and coax thoughts out of the quiet and stoic Geralt and then pontificating to the reader about his best guesses as to what was really going on in Geralt's head and what he felt about different things. He wasn't nearly as hostile to Dandelion in the books, though he was still always very standoffish. Geralt's reluctance to talk very much about his life as a Witcher is actually a big part of what aroused Dandelion's fascination with him, sensing that documenting his life as a Witcher could be a very successful venture while also being academically beneficial, since Geralt was one of the very last of a dying breed.
So, yeah. I'm actually okay with Geralt being treated this way... In theory. I think they still drift away from him too much and don't give enough screen time to him just being witty and funny, and I really don't like the unnecessary changes they've made to the plot, but overall... He kinda is a vessel for exploring the world he lives in. Which, BTW, is probably why he translated so well to being a video game character.
Also, Jaskier is a little more annoying in the show than in the books, but he is 100% written to be insufferable. It's not so bad in the books, since he's the narrator/ author and I think the idea is that he writes himself as being cooler and more capable than he really is, but he absolutely gets on everyone's fucking nerves. I don't think he's _quite_ as bumbling in the books, but he definitely is at least _a little bit_ of a bumbling idiot, like someone who is on his first year out of school after getting his PhD, has never worked a day in his life, and hasn't the fuckingest idea how the real world works, but thinks he does because he just spent a decade studying it from indoors.
As a big fan of "The Witcher" books, I find this show to be an abomination. There is nothing left from original story. The elements that they adapted in the show, are twisted and out of context. Shame, the story in the books is epic. I only finished season 1 of the show, because of Henry Cavil. The deviations from source material were so big, that I wondered "how are they going to explain or fix it later?" After watching episode two of 2nd season, it was all clear. There is nothing to fix. The story has been butchered, and now they are desecrating the corpse. If they think that they are better writers than Sapkowski, why not write their own books. I'm sure that would sell.
The show mostly fails in character and ambiance. For a genuine abomination watch Foundation
Im all good with it being completely different. Games have their own story, books their own and the show its own story. I love all of it
I agree. I did wonder after Season 1 and after I had read all the books, how they would address the saga. To be done faithfully would be wonderful for me but I don’t think it would sit well with a casual audience. The five volume saga mostly separates the main characters, doing their own stuff in different parts of the worlds. They are all heading towards the same point eventually but having their own adventures. Large parts of the saga don’t feature Geralt at all - how would that sit with a casual audience. And throughout the five books, Geralt and Ciri are barely ever together - in fact Ciri spends barely any time with the main characters. Fantastic story, recommended reading, but I don’t think it would sit well with a casual TV audience.
That's pretty much how I feel about Wheel of Time. A massive lost opportunity.
Best thing about season 2 is that it's made me get back into the books again so I can forget this abomination.
You ever wonder why Cavill is so damn good at playing characters that we care about? Why most of his roles involve a man that is honorable and competent? It's because he, himself, is honorable and competent.
Then you look at what flaws all the shows he has been on had and you start to see that those issues stem from people trying to tear that very image of a good man down at every opportunity.
Just about every major film today is intrinsically designed to erode the idea of the strong, heroic, male. They are trying to force our young boys into a life of ineptitude and mediocrity.
It seems to me that a lot of things are made by weak, inept and childlike people who want to excuse their own behaviors and ways of being so they create shows based around characters like that, to normalize it.
Honestly Henry Cavill is part of a dying breed, here is a man who is strong, cool and smart but at the same time he still has that childlike wonder whenever he speaks of his characters, you see him literally nerd out about everything.
What can be derived is that Henry Cavill is a happy man that enjoys his work and it shows
Gotta acknowledge /\/\3|\| have a greater spirit otherwise \/\/( o )/\/\3|\| will constantly want to tear it down to their level. Or you can accept that /\/\3|\| should be inept and mediocre like \/\/( o )/\/\3|\| are.
🤫 you’re not allowed to speak truth to power w/o at least disguising as a joke c’mon now 🤫
IT's also because, just like us, he cares about these characters.
6:30 that was new level of perfection . Thank you. Great stuff my man
It really takes me out of the show when I see so many different races from the same region.
A land like this, even a fantasy one wouldn’t be so multicultural. I don’t know what the people are like from each region.
I agree. The worst, however, is when they also do it to Fantasy races. Nothing breaks my immersion more than seeing "diverse" Elves, Dwarves, Dryads etc.
It was supposed to be based on Slavic mythology but they ruined it..
LOL you can't enjoy a show because brown people distract you. Got it. That's not fucking stupid at all.
fire the writers and let Henry Cavill manage the writing for the 3rd season, let him hire the new writers and give him veto over all plot decisions. He knows the material and genuinely appreciates the series from the perspective of a legitimate fan. He carries the show.
Not a bad idea! 💀🔥⚔️
literally i wouldnt watch it anymore without him
I’m on board with that!
Just cancel the whole show. Let it fade into diverse apathy and be forgotten.
@@hieug.rection1920 nah
As someone who hasn't seen either seasons yet, I really appreciate that summary with no spoilers in the first minute of the video. That's exactly all I wanted to know.
yes, save your time and spend it doing something else, i would have rather spend my time watching the clouds or water running under a bridge!
this show is so unrewarding...
I actually gotta say this was a terrible review. And I'm almost always in line with CD.
It's an okay show. If you're a fan of the books and/or games you're either gonna fan boy and ignore all the faults or fan boy and be enraged by all the faults. If you've never read/played the witcher series it's probably the best case.
I wouldn't 100% take The Drinkers word for it. I actually enjoyed season 1 more than 2. Season 2 just seemed stuck in the same place without anything to show for it, while season 1 had great pacing and was never boring. I'm saying this as someone who is brand new to the Witcher universe - never read the books or played the games.
But keep in mind that its a difficult show to follow, sort of like season 1 of Game of Thrones but moreso. I've watched season 1 three times, and it was only on my 3rd re-watch that I truly grasped the scope of the story & where all the different races and kingdoms fit in.
If nothing else, I'd watch it if you like Cavill & tits - cause there is plenty of both
@@bidenonabender5903 me too
Although the main thing that bothers me is the painful amount of exposition, there is one particular seemingly insignificant moment of this show that absolutely blew a fuse in my mind and I couldn't get past it. When Ciri first teleports her a Yen into an empty house in shambles with a long dead Zola, the writers then say "oh, there is an emergency that Yen and Ciri need to get to quickly" so the 2 girls hop on 2 saddled horses and ride off... Zola has to have been dead for a while because it's not like they walk into the house and are repulsed by the stench of burnt flesh. There are no embers or flames or any sign that the fire was recent so at a MINIMUM it has been several days since Zola's death... So how on earth are there TWO SADDLED HORSES tied up outside of Zola's house!?! For some reason, THIS hit me hard as some of the laziest bit of writing in the show so far. Writers needed characters to go somewhere, writers spawned in 2 mounts.
This was one of the fairest reviews I've seen of this season. Slainte.
One criticism I had with season 2 was the relationship between Geralt and Ciri felt rushed; we never see them bonding; they are just instantly on daddy/daughter dialogue dynamics, except for scenes where Geralt has to be the writers' idea of a reluctant but ultimately committed father. The whole thing feels like we're are not privy to the important relationship building that must be happening between episodes and that lessens the impact of the family bond they decided Ciri and Geralt have now, leaving the audience with no build up just deflated payoff moments when the time comes to cash out.
Other than that apart from the first episode, I felt the writers wanted the audience to know they were dumbing things down for us, which is understandable given that many people can't follow the big flashing red ball in a game three card monty with pint glasses.
For me the worst part is definitely that the best character for me (Geralt) has the least screen time
It's the same in the books. It's not Geralt's story, it's Ciri's.
@@Kryt05 they are not really following the books either, they're just making their own story
@@Kryt05 they aren't even following the books, even in the books Geralts still had presents, he's back ground character in tv series
@@kyotheman69 He isn't. And he's probably more competent in the show than in the books. You guys have no idea what you are talking about.
@@Kryt05 Ah yes, the endless chapters spend on Fringilla in the books. Somehow, I can't remember them.
Worst part for me was how they keep reminding us how 'powerful' Yennefer is, whereas they haven't shown us much at all of why they say it. Then Tessia also loves her so much, although Yennefer has always shown contempt.
Then there was Ciri.. who wasn't shown at all as being wanting to take revenge or having any interest in the kingdom in the first season. Yet now she is suddenly, in the beginning of the season, fully motivated to do that and is so good at 'witcher' training. They didn't develop it at all
I dunno if you've ever had a child before but their contempt for their parents is common and as Yen has been made into a mage at a later stage in life she has basically been reborn especially as her new life contrasts with her old life so the way she is behaving is just like a teenager having contempt for their parents. The parents don't like this but it doesn't mean they don't love the child or don't want what is best for that child. Why Tessia formed a bond with Yen to start with is still a bit of a mystery to me though.
I agree with what you said about Ciri her motivations to become a witcher are unclear.
@@matthewtalbot-paine7977 Thanks for the explanation. I agree with what you say. However, what I meant was that Yen is just one of the many girls (and boys?) that Tessia has taken in. Yet she has a special heart for the one who seems to despise her most.
Now I can understand that a parent can be like this (and also that she knows Yen is the more powerful among her students).. it's just that the show hasn't really shown that development very well
@@matthewtalbot-paine7977 Also, after rewatching the 1st season, I see no reason for Yen's misbehaviour unto Tissea. She's always been good to her, except for maybe calling her piglet in the beginning.
@@purplespark8 Yen's entire plot this season made no sense. Not only did she not have a well established reason to turn her back on Tissaia in the first place, but while robbed of her magic she figures the best time to stage an escape is under the nose of the lodge of sorceresses, brotherhood of sorcerers and a group of kings....and SUCCEEDS. Like, she just grabs a horse and bails.
This could be forgiven if we actually see her struggle with the loss of her power and consequences of her actions, but she still weasles her way out of everything. Cahir, an expert soldier, needs to be saved from a Redanian soldier by Yennifer, who has no physical combat training whatsoever, carrying a bit of wood. Rience, a seasoned firemage, is bested by Yennifer playing drunk. What the fuck? If you decide to rewrite the story to take away her power, at least show us she's struggling.
I don't mind the extra subplot for Yennifer. I think she''s a great character played by a great actress who could use some fluff to work with, but the writers seem so hell bent on showing us what a boss babe she is that they forget to let her struggle. Yennifer just torched an entire fucking army. It's okay to balance it out with failure.
@@bertbrekfust838 Yeah. Agreed. Her 'failures' seem to be more of 'wants and desires', but not much else.
I’ve gotten into the Witcher through the books and so far they’re a lot of fun. There is a lot of time devoted to side characters in the books so seeing that in the show doesn’t come off wrong to me. I do appreciate that Ciri isn’t a Rey. Knowing that she probably is the most important character in the story and knowing that she isn’t perfect makes her far more relatable. The show hits and misses.
You know, I finally was able to finish the second season and I realized that I wish that I could have a dozen Witcher Season 2s than honestly anything else. This was the first time in a very long time that I felt like the audience wasn't insulted with the new season.
However I've had a lot of time between seasons to the books and play the games and, yeah... some things are off.
I honestly don't mind Jasiker because he was honestly one of the highlights for me and didn't really mind the diverse casting because it just helped knowing who from whom.
As a book and game fan, it's interesting to listen to this review of the show on its own merits rather than as an adaptation of (much better) source material. Something interesting to note that is 98% of Yen's story this season, and probably 70% of Ciri's did not happen in the books. It's totally contrived by the screenwriters, and pretty much entirely ignores the source material and even Netflix's own Witcher anime. As a show I completely agree with the two steps forward, one step back analysis. However, as an adaptation of the books, its about three steps and a tumble down the well. Geralt is still dead on thanks to our nerdy lord and savior Henry Cavill, and Ciri is a high point, but pretty much every other character in this show has very little resemblance to their book and game counterpart (Vesimir was great but his motivations are like, literally the opposite of the books and games).
That's when I stopped watching - i think ep5 - when Vesemir insisted on using Ciri's blood (somehow?) to make more Witchers. That's like the total opposite of what Ves is.. That's when I turned off the TV.
Let's not forget how Fringilla Vigo is supposed to resemble Yennefer...
@@ArmchairOps DON'T EVEN GET ME STARTED ON THAT
@@ArmchairOps Hey, they’re both women…that’s like 3/4 of a resemblance right there! They’re even of similar height. I mean, how can you be sure it’s not the same person playing both roles?
@@laz3ra Yeah that put me off to. In novels no one wants to restart witchers "production" and least of them witchers themselves. It was so idiotic.
Totally agree, if they focused more on the actual Witcher and utilized Henry Cavill's super imposing coolness while toning down the secondary characters (by a lot in some cases), maybe have him travel to some more exotic locations ...the show would be killin' it for everyone
I’d rather see a sexy strong female bad ass on screen then some not interesting white male who had their chance. It’s over for ur kind u understand? U didn’t let women vote, u did slavery and now ur gonna cry? Buddy we are being merciful, be thankful this is it
@@ProudCommie What the hell, I think this the wrong place for that kinda talk everyone is here just to comment or voice how they feel about the show. Also what the hell did you mean when you said your kind to the the person above? Because I'm genuinely confused as the person above didn't say anything wrong, they just said that they think the show would be better if it focused on Gearlt of Rivia (Henry's Character) which a vast majority of people who are fans are here for as Gearlt is many people's favourite. Also what's with the generalizations?
@@adeancousland2404 it’s bait or a genuine fool suffering from a bad case of white mans burden
You really like Henry Cavill don't you?
@@ProudCommie the forces behind the Atlantic Slave Trade, the current anti- straight (white) male rhetoric, and the indoctrination of ppl into such beliefs are one in the same. The people in the comment section are not the enemy
The show literally cut out the entire story in the books where Geralt and Ciri first meet. At the time neither knew who the other was, and come to care about one another independently of their shared destiny. It's what makes their meeting in the forest (season 1's ending) so impactful, since Geralt assumed she had burned along with Cintra, and already viewed her as something of a niece.
The show has done literally none of the groundwork for this. Don't get me wrong, once Geralt and Ciri already for no reason care for one another, their interactions are great (because the actors are), but it just feels hollow.
The evil witch who lives in a house with chicken legs is portraying Baba Yaga. One of the most famous Slavic mythology figures. The witcher is based on east European (Slavic) mythology figures. The author is polish . And most children get told by their parents that Baba Yaga comes to get them if they’re not doing as they should . So this is not odd at all
Drinker 2021: "I love how the Japanese idea of Eastern Europe is some kind of quasi medieval society."
Drinker 2022: "I just can't decide which area was my favourite: the gray castle, the brown castle, the grey village, the grey mountaintop..."
As someone living in the Slavic lands: (looks out of the window)- "Checks out, no notes!"
The winters really are something in the merry post-soc/commie lands.
@@pawelabrams Concerning the colors... We tried red once and the world still talks about it 🙂
Drinker wants caucasians without the caucuses…
@@adamhbrennan He wants people that fit the character.
If my character is supposed to be European, i shouldn't cast an American or Latin-American actor cause it won't really fit. The actor might be great, but you'll always tell there's something off.
In which video did he say that?
Sacrificing Eskel's story for Yennefer and that singing guy did it for me. Season 2 is the last, despite the fact that Henry is killing it as Geralt. Netflix did it again.
Yep. And Eskel doesn't have much of a role in the Witcher from what I've heard but still.
@@tiredman99 It's a pretty important friendship story between him and Geralt in the books and even in the games. He is pretty major among witchers from the books.
@@cerebelul yeah he and geralt are from the same generation
I loved Jaskier in season 1. But they tried to make him useful in season... which he isn't
@@cerebelul I've read all the books and eskel is hardly in it. I hated season 2 but lets not act like Eskel was some huge character he has much more to do in the games than the books
The house on legs is a reference to the home of a Baba Yaga.
i didnt even finish season 2 and i never even thought about it either after stepping away. they really killed with this season
DUDE your critique about the locations all looking the same was exactly what I said to my wife after we finished watching. The show fell into being a generic fantasy world with just a coat of Witcher gloss put over top. No variation in aesthetics be it armor, clothing, linguistic/dialogue, etc.
Every single person, every single kingdom looks like they shop at the same store for their wardrobes.
The show also suffers from world building by not showing a map to casual viewers unfamiliar with the actual world/regions. Game of thrones was brilliant to incorporate this into their intro every season so you can see where the characters are and acknowledge the relation to their location with everyone else.
This show needs to do that - not an intro , but do a pan out and show the world map, and then zoom in or SOMETHING so we can identify distance would help. It would also help us call out the BS of immediate fast travel like when Ciri teleports with Yen to the farm near Cintra - only for Geralt to show up with the dwarves in a Caravan and slow horses at convenient, bad writing timing.... *Groan*
Lol , and your final line about theres a good show in here, it just is hidden is also exactly how I felt when the season ended.
I appreciate that they distinguished the Nilfaardian soldiers this season much better, which was a response to the criticism of them from season 1. Hopefully they can do the same sort of thing for other factions too.
@@SaurontheDeceiver Yeah, their armour design didn't look like it was traced from Mousesack's ballsack this time, which was a definite improvement.
I couldn’t tell in certain scenes where they were or what city is being shown because everywhere looked the same.
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The real good story of the show is in the games.
And i be honest here, the only person in the show that have played the games is precisly Henry Cavill...
Thats the reason why he is carrying the show on his shoulders.
For me, the most let-down of 2nd seasons were the witchers themselves. we have like 25 witchers and 12 of em are straight up NPC even without names. Also the certain "moment" in the second episode that happend in Kaer Morchen straight up killed the show for me. Vesemir got butchered as character as well, but thats a bit spoiler
How can it be a spoiler when hes nothing like vesemir :D
Finally someone says something I agree with. I wish they did a lot more exploration with the other Witchers.
Yeah. Vesemir acts like a teenager. Impetuous with decision making. Not like the oldest Witcher who would have copious wisdom from years of surviving.
@@TILLEYJS Also the dynamic I loved about vesemir was his grandfather like role in Ciris life. This show has completely missed that.
just because they're witchers doesn't mean they're all s-tier badasses. geralt got piked by the mobs, they got sacked by the human attack years back, and there are dead witchers a plenty in the games.
"we've all been there!"
Just perfect!
One of the most balanced and hilarious reviews yet!
I always felt like Jaskier was intended to be a piece of comic relief that could move the story along when necessary. Having him ruin a plan because someone insulted his music was a bit much, but I personally find him enjoyable to watch and gives one of the very few pieces of levity in a world so serious and gloomy.
I feel like jaskier is one of the only charackters that is actually well adapted into the Show Format has he still should have a massive Ego Problem at this point habe a good heart but be mostly inkompetent
I feel like he is The worst about The series
Jaskier / Dandelion was a muppet, the show pictures him correctly in my opinion. Although, he gets in troubles most of the time by sticking his pecker in married women or nobles daughters, show somehow missed this so far.
@@DonCristoBaal
There were a few lines in between for example when he gets interrogated and doesnt know why and asks about it
Jaskier in books is not stupid comic relief, he is the one who delievers the witcher's story. He is not a fighter, but he is talented musician, he is educated, he is alsmost fucking celebrity (by middle ages standarts lol) when Geralt and him meet. And of course he likes life and most of all WOMEN. What we have in ntflx is a pathetic excuse that shares the name with Sapko's bard, there is no Jaskier in this show.
Of all the creators I follow, it was your opinion that I was most looking forward to. I know the Witcher world inside out, I first read the books back in the 1990s. I am Polish and in my country most teenagers grew up on Sapkowski's books. The vast majority of die-hard fans of the books rate the series negatively. I think it wouldn't even stand up as a generic fantasy series if the brand "The Witcher" wasn't attached to it. The Witcher book world is divided into two first volumes of stories and five volumes of the Witcher saga. In the short stories, the main character is Geralt. The saga is really the story of Ciri, but Geralt and his companions are also very important. The show puts the main emphasis on female characters, highlighting even those who appeared in the books in the deep background or even episodically (Fringilla, Francesca Findabair). On top of this, the personalities of many characters are drastically altered, with some characters behaving downright illogically. Many threads appear which were not present in the books, and which seem superfluous (monoliths, elven child, deathless mother). Additionally, the season ending wasted one of the biggest plot twists of the entire saga. The fact that Emhyr is Ciri's father was only explained in the last, fifth book of the saga and it was a plot twist that made the reader's jaw drop. Imagine if The Sixth Sense started with "Hi Cole, I'm Malcom, I'm a ghost and only you can see me". Sapkowski's story is a really mature, well created, very well thought out and complete work. I don't know why Netflix is trying to "improve" it by force.
Not enough creators on TH-cam are familiar with the source material. Most of us viewers who read the books hate the show.
@@vincentl3065 The overwhelming majority of reviewers who know the source material have completely destroyed the series in their reviews. I don't know why the show's creators decided to make an adaptation if they have no intention of sticking to canon in the slightest. They could have done what CD Projekt did when making the games and could have created their own story. Maybe it wouldn't be anything outstanding, but then they wouldn't piss off fans who know the books. As much as I don't see anything wrong with adding new storylines, I can't understand why they almost completely changed the main plot. And I have absolutely no idea why they changed the personalities of most of the characters. To me, these changes are pointless. It seems as if Hissrich wanted to push Yennefer and other female characters into every possible thread. Yennefer lost her powers (in the books it was Ciri and it was a very important moment for that character in the context of the whole plot, not only a gimmick), Yennefer is the heroine from Sodden (in the books it was Vilgefortz). Fringilla didn't play any significant role in Nilfgaard because Emhyr was famous for being so cunning and intelligent that he couldn't be manipulated, he didn't allow himself to be controlled by wizards. There are a whole lot of changes like this. I could list them all day.
And to think that before the first season I thought that the biggest problem would be armour that looked like a scrotum.
Netflix is trying to "improve" everything by forcing diversity and non-sensical plotlines that "empower" the female leads and push male leads aside. They're trying to shove modern-day political issues and "political correctness" into a fantasy story set in a medieval slavic culture. If I ever see another black elf or a black mage I'm gonna lose my fucking mind.
The slavic culture and stories are literally my country's past. The witcher books and games are just as popular here as they are in Poland which we neighbour. I havent played the games as I found them extremely boring from what little I tried to stomach, but I've always only heard praise about the books. The show seems pathetic compared to either, the books or the games.
At least it’s a better adaptation then the wheel of time one
They simple have to ruin it with their woke crap. I dont give a shit if it is a fantasy world or not, in Slavic setting, there shouldnt be any black people, just like there shouldnt be any white people in African setting. The biggest insult for me is what they did to witchers. How do you take a baddass monster killers and turn them into a bunch of complete retards incapable of fighting even a single basilisk is beyond me. Bringing whores to Kaer Morhen? Fucking what? Eskel hiding his wound and NOBODY noticing. Again, fucking what? Witchers laughing at Ciri while she tries to train, why? We just have to portray men as incompetent and toxic idiots nowadays, dont we, whatever woke faminazi wrote that episode. Dont even get me started about Vesemir, Marigold, Vilgefortz, Triss and hell, even Cahir is done dirty here.
I honestly find Dandelion and Geralt to be the two best-casted people in the entire show. The show claims to be an adaptation of the books but continues to wander farther off the books lore. Not only do they wander off the lore of the books they can't even keep up with the shit they made for themselves. 😆 It's kinda foolish, they literally made an animated movie as a back story to the witcher. Then goes right off the rails, first switching Vesemir's true motives (WHICH WAS DEPICTED IN THE ANIMATED FILM), then saying "Elder blood is the key to witchers" when they previously stated "If you kill us there will be no more witchers" us referring to the mages that were proficient in mutagens. They need to fire the writers and just scrap the whole show at this point.
Or at least force the writers to read "Time of contempt" at least once before writing anything on season 3.
Cast*
What people can’t figure out is to find one consent, cause fans of the books have one opinion, fans of the games have others and the fans of the show, and people who didn’t acknowledged the world of the Witcher have others, it seems like some people were liking a lot of points were other weren’t, it’s difficult to get praise from everyone because a lot of people tend to take the material that they came in contact first as the one that every other should be, but at the same time the show tries to get the games fans and the books fans and of course people who didn’t knew the Witcher to get satisfaction, like this point made about jaskier, I’ve seen a lot of people that likes the games and the books too say that he is one of the best characters in the show, and I’ve seen people that weren’t close with The Witcher loving him too, at the same time there are people that aren’t too enthusiastic about him, I think that the Witcher is such a big universe and has so many different fans across the media that people can’t get to a consensus, I love the show and I agree that the season 2 is much better than season one, mostly for the great amount of people that got in contact with the show first, cause it seems much less confusing and more welcoming to this amazing world, the series quality is awesome maybe people should try to view the series as one in a different path of the books, not a thing that is totally different but one that has it own course, because sometimes people expect to be so much alike the books that they can’t appreciate the series as it’s owns and it quality.
Personally I'm sick of this trend where intelligent and well regarded characters start cursing like common peasants for shock value. Yennefer's lines almost made my eyes fall out from all the rolling.
It's lazy writing. Can't write great dialog that bring weight and importance to the scene. Use a naughty word to show that weight and importance. Same thing, but worse, in the new Star Trek. They curse because they literally can't think of dialog in that show.
@@asleeperj Well and they can't be bothered to write one contrary to their huge paychecks. But man they get all the prestige to be executive producers and staff writers for the Witcher!
Exactly! The constant swearing seems adolescent and pointless.
everything about Yennefer in this show is off-putting. She's like a mud-golem come to life. Complete trash.
Yeah, I felt like season 2 had a lot of just straight-up unnecessary swearing for the sake of having it. Made for a lot of cringe-worthy dialogue
That's what happens when you take a story written by a slavic author, telling slavic folklore style story about a father and a daughter... written by woke, American hipster writers who have no cultural base, background or depth, nor personal experience in being a father. They'll naturally forget the father figure is even important, because... males are not important for anything these days. So let's instead tell a story about Yennefer and Ciri. Try to exclude Geralt wherever possible, because he's just there to do the action.
Sad, but true.
@Michael Lochlann 'Noooo, stop noticing patterns!'
@Michael Lochlann I don't think there is an "agenda". It's all happening out of personal preference. The show runner said time and time again she doesn't like Fantasy, Swords, Magic etc. so why did she want to tell The Witcher on Netflix? She found the story of Yennefer compelling. There you go. Naturally if you are not interested in general in a genre, you'll never really gonna give it room to breathe.
worst thing is how nobody in the entire world seems to be squatting... this is an outrage! ;-P
Except yen and ciri’s relationship are a big part of the story too…just not like this
Wow, great review. You expressed everything supremely well
I remember this show to be marketed as more faithful adaptions to books but this show practically throws the 3rd book out the window when they could just follow it almost 1:1 and you would have a great show.
I'm having a very hard time understanding why the script writers decided to run through so much story so quickly. There's a ton upon ton of smaller stories, which would be not only interesting, but also world/character building.
I think TV has lost a bit of the magic of the older style of episodic storytelling. If you recall back in days of yore, that’s kind of how shows happened. Every episode was it’s own contained short story from 1-20, then episodes 21-25 would have “the underlying plot” happen. It would have been cool since the Witcher is sorta like a collection of short stories to see it in that format
I didn’t think there were many interesting smaller stories in the first book.
One of my biggest gripes is Geralt not having his swords so often. The scene where they have to take down that flying creature, he uses a pointy fucking stick and Ciri as bait. Then he actually has a line that's basically "where are my swords?" after he takes the thing down.
And I know it's a touchy subject, but the race swapping of certain characters in this series is a bit jarring. I haven't read the books, but after having the characters be established as looking a certain way it have to remind myself "oh yeah, I guess that's Triss" everytime she's on screen. Triss is supposed to be a pale redheaded woman with freckles, not a middle eastern woman with eyebrows that don't match her hair. If they wanted to make her look natural, they should have colored here eyebrows as well and not made it obvious that she's not a redhead.
Yennifer seems to be completely different than how she's portrayed in the books (from what I've read from people's posts that have read the books) and games. In those media, she's a smart, calculating, witty, confident woman who always has a plan. In this season, she's a snarky, impulsive, I'm-better-than-everyone type that acts like a spoiled brat. Yennifer from the books and games would never be tempted to sacrifice Ciri to some witch-demon living in a shack on legs, even if it meant getting her powers back.
To be fair, Yennefer is all those things in the books. A smart, calculating, witty, confident, snarky icy dickhead, but tender in moments to Geralt and ciri.
However show Yennefer is a fucking vindictive emotional wreck that lost her powers because tropes.
haven't you noticed? hollywood hates redheads. famously redhead characters are either changed to no-longer-redhead, or just race-swapped. i don't understand it, but it has been noticeable the last 2 or 3 years, on MANY occasions.
@@steelwingstudios-brettalle3473 longer than that. But yes, the war on gingers is a thing.
I find it funny, that they miscast Fringilla this badly. Her most notable feature in the books is her pale white skin and that she has similarities to yennefer without being as cold.
Meanwhile, in the adaptation: lets make her black and work for the bad guy. Also, in the books, Nilfgaard isnt nearly as evil as in the show. The sorceresses work together to influence politics and not against each other.
Season 1 was a convoluted mess and too yennefer centric, thats why I wont even touch season 2. Henry Cavil was literally the only good part of it, maybe Jaskier also.
Some of the casting makes certain storylines not quite impossible, but a bit awkward. Characters who are related, for example, or who are supposed to resemble one another are a mix of black and white on the show. Looking back at the original series (produced in Poland in 2002, I believe) it had pretty much no budget for special effects, but the casting was mostly spot-on for the characters and actually focused more on Geralt. TH-cam has it here: th-cam.com/video/Z-ZXEMicBSI/w-d-xo.html
I'm so glad you finally kinda like a series that i also like.
I am wondering what this show might have become with Henry Cavill as Geralt, Henry Cavill as chief writing consultant and directed by Henry Cavill.
Not that I am implying someone is automatically great in multiple disciplines, but it seems better than the alternative, especially with an amateur professional of the material.
And I want to underline the possible connection of the word "amateur" having been dragged into the mud and the developments we see here, because where fandom comes from love (ama), it is definitely not a bad idea to hire a fan. It's related to why works driven by indie spirit tend to be great, too. Because dependent means dependent on money business, i.e. not love.
I’ve read the books several times through and played the games for hundreds of hours. This show does not feel like The Witcher.
There’s a reason sticking to source material and themes is important - fantasy writers build these massive stories with tried and true strategies and narrative structure. Deviating from source material too far ruins immersion and the very themes that made the story believable.
If you read the books you'd admit the great majority of them are about grand political intrigue and monologuing, and Geralt is merely the eyes of the reader to view it all. The way the show has treated him, is actually pretty accurate. As a huge fan of the games, I found the books to be pretty disappointing.
@@brednbudr2406 "grand political intrigue" and the show is easily failing at that
It 100% feels like the Witcher. Get a life
@@amirhoseinizadi925 says you. Loving it
@@brednbudr2406 Guess you're one of those fans who wants constant action, cool flashy fights and epic battles all the time. Books are way better than games in terms of story, characters and dialogues. Don't get me wrong, the games are amazing and they captured the spirit and atmosphere from books brilliantly but they can't compete with Sapkowski's writing. Only Thronebreaker gets close to that level.
I wish Netflix didn't butcher this book adaptation, it's my absolute favorite book series and totally worth a read.
It's a real shame when someone destroys something you love, especially a book series as good as The Witcher is. I'd love to see a TV adaptation of The 1st Law books by Joe Abercrombie, but certainly not by Netflix.
The biggest problem is the writer is a sellout who doesn't care about truly protecting the heart of his work. He got pissy with cd project with the games because he didn't think the games would be successful and negotiated a terrible contract. And then he his deal with netflix allows them to make all the spin off shows and movies and animated specials that they could ever want. The dude that the games would fail and still signed his IP over and has said he is happy with the show and the portrayal of his characters in it. I dont dislike the show. I am happy with show overall but complaints about the books being ruined need to be put on the writer of the books and not just netflix
@@WILLTY13 The books aren't great. Let's be real here. They aren't. Whenever I hear people make this argument, I always bristle a little bit since you're actively ignoring reality to push a narrative about the author.
Before CDPR, no body cared about his series. That's the reality. He sold the IP to them because they were a nobody company that were making a game surrounding his nobody books.
There is zero reasons to expect it would have become the smash-hit success that it did.
I do think him constantly pretending he didn't rip off Elric of Melnibone is pretty shiesty, but everyone rips off everyone and it's not like things are so 1-1 that legal action can be taken.
Point is this constant, "He's an asshole for feeling butthurt his stuff sold with CDPR" is misrepresenting the facts.
The first episode which is closest to the source material IS ironically THE best episode. Funny.
@@Malthizar no one in the west cared/knew about the series you mean. They were translated in 17 languages except English before the games made it a household name, also there was a tv show made in Poland in the 90s, and multiple polish comics as well. There are bands in eastern europe who write songs about the witcher, a band called Percival Schuttenbach is named after a character in the books, there is a Polish Olympian archer who wears a witcher medallion to every Olympic games. They are a massive success in slavic countries because they have a lot of slavic folklore and names similar to that region, the first editions that were translated to English are actually really badly translated and a lot of dialogue comes across as wooden and badly written when its the translations fault. CDPR was also not the first video game company to make a witcher game, there is an abandoned witcher game from the 90s that was in development but then the company went bankrupt and it was abandoned, but they actually invented the word "Witcher". Wiedzmin is actually translated exactly to "Hexer" but this company instead chose the word witcher because it was similar to Wiedzmin and thought Hexer sounded lame for a monster hunter. Sapkowski doesn't think mediums can converge so he just doesn't care, but when lots of foreigners (especially westerners who speak English) started to think that his books were fan-fiction of the games then he become really offended by this notion and then began to criticize and degrade it because he doesn't like the fact the games were more popular world-wide than his books ever were. Henry Cavill even admitted he thought the books were based on the games and were fan-fiction novels, not the other way round.
I've skipped most scenes, but Henry scenes? Absolutely great
Finally got round to watching the last episode and I wonder if there is a glimmer of hope for Season 3. I agree that for the most part season 2 is a bunch of things that never happened in the books, particularly the whole faceless mother storyline. But right at the end of the last episode it felt that everything was being lined up correctly. Yennefer has her powers back (not that she should have ever lost them), it sets up why all the different groups want Ciri, Yennefer is to take Ciri away for training. It’s not perfect but it is like Season 1 ended mostly okay, and then Season 2 totally diverged of the rails leaving only slight threads of commonality with the books but right at the end of Season 2 things were brought back to mostly on track. I’m not holding my breath but it does allow for season 3 to be more faithful to the books.
What this show actually NEEDS is to focus on the main character upon which its named.
What this show needs is to have the actual main character be the same as the original main character they are adapting. So far from 2 seasons the only thing in common has been the name. Cavill does a great acting job but as far as writing goes this character is not Geralt at all.