The Witcher (Netflix)

One difference I wasn't sure about at first bits it's growing in me is the slight reinvention of Emhyr var Emreis - he is no longer just the Emperor but his followers are reffering to him almost like a prophet or deity 'we serve the White Flame" iirc my Witcher lore, the Emperor is possibly also the head of Nilfgaards state religion, the black sun, much as the Queen of England is head of the Church of England, I wonder ifthey are running with the idea of mixing all thst up.

I could see Mark Hamill being OK as Vessemir actually.

I always wonder how old Vessemir is/was. Apparanrly a Witcher is technically near enough immortal after the trials, it's just given their job, they tend not to last all thst long, but Vessy could easily be well over 100.Yen of course is at least in her 50s when she first meets Gerallt, since sorceresses also have very long life spans.
 
  • Like
Reactions: ctg
Caledfwlch said:
One difference I wasn't sure about at first bits it's growing in me is the slight reinvention of Emhyr var Emreis - he is no longer just the Emperor but his followers are reffering to him almost like a prophet or deity 'we serve the White Flame" iirc my Witcher lore, the Emperor is possibly also the head of Nilfgaards state religion, the black sun, much as the Queen of England is head of the Church of England, I wonder ifthey are running with the idea of mixing all thst up.
Click to expand...

One of Emhyr's nicknames / honorific titles is The White Flame Dancing on the Barrows of his Enemies, a reference to the fact that he had all his competition to the throne of Nilfgaard murdered and used their gravestones to pave the palace's ballroom. I cannot remember if he is ever addressed directly as The White Flame by anyone in the books, but it doesn't seem too far-fetched that someone could use that title if they so wished. As far as I can tell, this has nothing to do with the state's religion and is not connected to the Order of the Eternal Fire or the Flaming Rose cults from the video games.

I always wonder how old Vessemir is/was. Apparanrly a Witcher is technically near enough immortal after the trials, it's just given their job, they tend not to last all thst long, but Vessy could easily be well over 100.Yen of course is at least in her 50s when she first meets Gerallt, since sorceresses also have very long life spans.
Click to expand...

Don't quote me on that but from memory, Yennefer is roughly 100 years old at the time the main series of novels takes place (late 1260s), Vesemir is at least the same age, as he was already an active Witcher during the previous century. As for Geralt, the novels' author once stated in an interview that he was about 60 by the time the third book takes place.
 
I watched the first episode and enjoyed it. It seems to be mixing the short stories with the longer narrative, which is fine. So far, so good.
 
Three episodes in, and it's not bad. Something feels slightly "off", though: it might be that there's not much sense of a wider world, despite the events of the first episode. I wonder if that's a matter of budget. I've got a feeling that Geralt and Yennifer's stories so far are purely backstory, and Ciri's is the present day (which means that Geralt's story is happening at least 20 years before Yennifer's). I think it's at it's best when it's low-key: the bits with Ciri in the woods have been good, but the high-magic bits in wizard school didn't feel as polished.

The fighting is good but please could people stop spinning around in swordfights? Stop showing them your back!

So, is the bard in the second episode Dandelion? I think the name he gave began with R, but I gather that his name is different in the original Polish version.
Silly question, perhaps, but are the short people we've seen dwarves, in the Tolkien sense, or just people who happen to be short? The elves look very human, and don't have the delicate features I'd expect, so I wonder if the magical creatures look more like standard humans in this setting.
 
Toby Frost said:
Three episodes in, and it's not bad. Something feels slightly "off", though: it might be that there's not much sense of a wider world, despite the events of the first episode. I wonder if that's a matter of budget. I've got a feeling that Geralt and Yennifer's stories so far are purely backstory, and Ciri's is the present day (which means that Geralt's story is happening at least 20 years before Yennifer's). I think it's at it's best when it's low-key: the bits with Ciri in the woods have been good, but the high-magic bits in wizard school didn't feel as polished.

The fighting is good but please could people stop spinning around in swordfights? Stop showing them your back!

So, is the bard in the second episode Dandelion? I think the name he gave began with R, but I gather that his name is different in the original Polish version.
Silly question, perhaps, but are the short people we've seen dwarves, in the Tolkien sense, or just people who happen to be short? The elves look very human, and don't have the delicate features I'd expect, so I wonder if the magical creatures look more like standard humans in this setting.
Click to expand...
It's not a matter of budget. This series has one of the biggest budgets in industry.

Flashy swordsmen wouldn't work in real life, but they are cool to watch, so I don't think we'll be saying goodbye to them anytime soon.

Yeah, the bard is Dandelion with a Polish name (the name in the books). I found an article explaining they changed the name in the games.

The timeline is indeed messed up, and you won't understand it until further in the story. About the dwarves, I don't remember, because I watched this months ago.
 
Hmm. I've finished the dragon-hunting episode and while it's entertaining, something about The Witcher just doesn't work for me. It's like a weird cross between A Game of Thrones and Labyrinth, and there's an odd feeling that while there will be blood and swearing and "serious" stuff, anything whatsoever from the D&D manual could wander in and start eating people.

The other problem for me is that few of the characters are all that interesting. Jaskier is amusing and annoying in about equal measure, and Yennifer just seems like a furious person who causes trouble (which is what I thought about the first two books). Geralt is interesting in a Dirty Harry way, but the more I know about him, the less interesting he seems. Ciri doesn't do all that much, but her journey is fairly engrossing. It's entertaining, but it's not classic TV.
 

Better. Netflix take a notice! I get chillies from hearing the official la la la (from games). To me and probably scores of other gamers it means the witcher time in most epic battles.
 
Last edited:
If you’ve read more than a couple of Andrzej Sapkowski’s Witcher novels, you know the Polish writer has created a rich and complex fantasy world for his monster-slaying hero Geralt, sorceress Yennefer, and Witcher-in-training Ciri to inhabit. But the masterminds behind Netflix’s Witcher TV series, the recent anime movie prequel Nightmare of the Wolf, and the three additional Witcher projects in the works clearly aren’t afraid to go off-book.

On one hand, this makes sense, because The Witcher franchise has grown so quickly—the show was given a second season before the first even aired, and two anime movies, a live-action prequel TV series, and a family-friendy animated show were all announced before that second season has arrived—that it feels like Netflix would need to look beyond the source material. But there are eight books in The Witcher series—so why look elsewhere? In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Netflix Vice President of International Originals Kelly Luegenbiehl explained, “Sapkowski created this very rich world, but in some ways only hinted at the potential of it.”

Case in point, the Conjunction of the Spheres—the ancient event that brought the worlds of elves, men, and monsters together that defines the series’ world and dictates much of The Witcher’s story. According to writer/producer Declan De Barra, “We were trying to understand what the world was like for elves right before the Conjunction of the Spheres. It’s very vague in the books as to what happened.” The result was the story that’s forming the basis of the live-action TV prequel series Blood Origin; according to Luegenbiehl, De Barra created it based on “a few lines in the books.”
Click to expand...
gizmodo.com

The Witcher's New Franchise Universe Is Kind of Making It Up as It Goes Along

The showrunners are doing more than reading between the lines of Andrzej Sapkowski's fantasy books.
gizmodo.com gizmodo.com
 
"I have lived through a whole Dark Age and three supposed End of Days. It is all horseshit!"

The quote of the first episode.
 
Binged the entirety of season 2 over 2 days and very much enjoyed it.
 
The fourth episode of season two has an unsubtle dig at the kind of fan complaints we frequently make here, when the Bard admonishes a dock guard discussing his writing style. Apparently, that was to address the difficult to follow writing style of the first season, according to Digital Spy. The second season is much more linear story-telling - something I myself much prefer. I can't stand timelines that jump back and forward and the only way to tell is an outfit or haircut.
 
There's something about it that hasn't quite hooked me yet. I do wish the writing could be improved but there's something else - something woven in the style.

Perhaps Game of Thrones Seasons 1-5 spoiled me.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Thread starter Similar threads Forum Replies Date
D What would be the best type of armour setup for a Witcher or similar? SFF Lounge 1
Werthead The Witcher by Andrzej Sapkowski Reviews & Interviews 10
Wo7f Witcher 3 Game Discussions 87
sozme Witcher Book Discussion 8
The Bluestocking The Great Switcheroo Book Discussion 11

Similar threads


Back
Top