The Witcher is getting a Netflix series

[TEHPALLYTANK]

Anyway, that bard can go die in the hottest fire in hell, that is all I wanted to say. I hate every single part that he has appeared so far, idk if he is a character in the books but I find he ruins every single moment he is on screen, hate that character!!

The bard is definitely a character from the books, or at least the first book (only book of the series I can speak to, I haven't read the rest). And yes, he is supposed to be annoying. His singing was too good for me to care about the annoying aspects of his character though in the show.

[Ungeir]

I have only seen the first episode - it was great. It feels weird how everyone is discussing casting choices and ethnicity, and I think it's a bit sad how the topic overshadows more relevant discussions on the show. Personally, while I would have preferred matching the "lore" ethnicity of various characters more closely, I do understand that part of the audience expect a more diverse cast (especially in the US) and I appreciate that finding the best actor is more important. At the end of the day the acting, writing and production are what matters. For what it's worth my disapproval certainly has nothing to with racism - I just think that the Witcher is not the right franchise for this kind of casting. And if the showrunners really do want to prioritize casting diversity, I would have preferred them simply inserting original Ofiri and Zerrikanian characters. But now I am myself guilty of spending far too much time and effort on what should really just be a tangential and minor discussion.

So on more relevant matters, and having seen just one episode so far, these are my takes:

Cavill pulls off the role amazingly well, and I don't think he gets enough credit for what is actually a very difficult part. The supporting cast in Episode 1 were also top notch, with a few exceptions (Queen Calanthe looked like a theater performance, which is rather hammy on the screen, imo). Renfri and Stregobor are far better "one-shot" antagonists than I had expected. Freya Allan surprised me positively, and I think she has potential to carry an also very difficult part. Princess Cirilla is easier to deliver convincingly than the Ciri she will eventually grow into. Also worthy of mention, Mousesack made a big impression and I look forward to seeing more of him.

The final fight had blockbuster movie level choreography. The monster fight was perfectly fine - the CGI could have been better, but from a tv series I had expected worse. The costumes for anyone not in armor are superb. Music is decent, but I am probably judging it unfairly, as the CDPR Witcher games have such insanely good music that it's almost impossible to do an equal job.

I think that Renfri's hostage ultimatum was toned down too much compared to the source material, but that's a very minor thing. The story worked just fine as told in the show, but it did change the dynamics of Geralt's forced participation in the conflict.

My main (and only) dislike was the terrible battle scene and the Nilfgaardian aesthetics and armor. I suspect the weird armor was a cost-saving measure primarily - making armor in the style used in the various Witcher games would be rather expensive. The battle scene did look expensive from a production standpoint, and I commend them for trying to show the battle rather than doing the off-camera battles that Game of Thrones so often resorted to (especially in early seasons).

In the book, the Battle of Marnadal takes place in a mountain pass. Seeing the highly disciplined, numerous and well-equipped Nilfgaardians overwhelm and rout the defenders despite them holding a mountain pass would have been better - as a more realistic battle than the silly open-field bar brawl and worked better as a metaphor for the brutal and unstoppable expansionism of the empire. I know battles are extremely expensive and high-risk to produce, but a lot of that is down to wanting to integrate silly and unrealistic tropes like frontal cavalry charges and arrow volleys. Vikings (especially in early seasons) did a good job at showing formations clashing. I really hope that medieval and fantasy series and movies catch on at some point that gritty and more realistic battles are probably cheaper to produce than yet another rendition of the same old tropes.

The aerial shots of burning Cintra were great, though - those are visuals usually not seen in tv series. I don't know what the budget for this episode was, but I was pleasantly surprised at the scale, detail and quality of the environments. I just wish some of that budget had been spent on Nilfgaardian armor.

[BeepBoo]

Man I don't get the criticism of Yen's looks, I think she looks great.

Yen always looked like a super hot cold-hearted bitch and acted like it. I honestly liked the actress better when she was a hunchback, but when she transformed, she lost something to me. She looks like some basic and also seems to have lost some of her edge (at least as far as I've gotten, which is episode 4).

Totally get Triss criticisms though, everything from her looks to her mannerisms are off.

I attempted to ignore my looks criticisms and give her a chance, but holy hell, she is just decidedly not the triss in any way, shape, or form... on any front... that I was wanting or expecting.

But more importantly. Cavill is so on point.

100%.

The bard is definitely a character from the books, or at least the first book (only book of the series I can speak to, I haven't read the rest). And yes, he is supposed to be annoying. His singing was too good for me to care about the annoying aspects of his character though in the show.

Exactly. I thought he fit perfectly as well. Anyone who played the games knew what to expect, and he nails it. Typical annoying comical bard trope that incessantly bothers geralt and spins not-so-faithful stories.

Another minor gripe I have is the nilfgaard scrotum armor. I was expecting it to be because they didn't want to make "plate" armor props, but clearly they can, because every other city has "plate" armor kits, so I don't know why they went with that horrible stuff. The real nilfgaard stuff looks so badass.

[Zeek Daniels]

I like the show. But damn who ever is running the ship sucks at showing the audience wtf the time line is. It takes till episode 7 to put the entire series in context. I first noticed something was off in episode 3. And the its clearer that this show jumps around in episode 4. But after that the only scenes i know that are in lets call it present day are the ones with Ciri. Everything else i cant tell. And if i cant tell then someone whos watching the show that knows nothing of the witcher isnt going to be able to tell. And like i said its not till Episode 7 that all the pieces are put together.

My dad who i was watching the first 5 episodes with had no idea they were jumping around. I had to tell him.

[Gen4Glock21]

Binged the entire show last night and I liked it. I did not like how the show told the story. It took me about 3 or 4 episodes to realize they was jumping around to different points of the story. Still good and look forward to next season.

[MrPaladinGuy]

Does the series spoil any of the games ?

[LightBR]

Exactly. I thought he fit perfectly as well. Anyone who played the games knew what to expect, and he nails it. Typical annoying comical bard trope that incessantly bothers geralt and spins not-so-faithful stories.

I have played only the first game and admittedly haven't finished it yet, I don't remember him from what I've played, but I guess kudos to the actor then, according to you guys who know the character from books/game he is a faithful portrait and I guess the fact he annoys the living hell out of me is a sign he is indeed doing a good job on the role hahaha oh well....

[callipygoustp]

Two episodes in and I am enjoying it thus far.

Hmmm.

[Dellis0991]

So this isn't a dumpsterfire? Is it watchable?

It's watchable Tris's casting isn't so bad like people make it out to be nor is Yen casting so bad. Cavill did a fucking great job!

- - - Updated - - -

Does the series spoil any of the games ?

Kinda sorta its a mix between book and game.....it turned out great to me.

- - - Updated - - -

I did laugh a bit at the scrotum armor of the Nilfgaard army......you can't unsee that shit.

[mizeri]

Does the series spoil any of the games ?

nope, its taking place years before the game, also the games been out for a long time so even if it spoiling the game its pretty much on you.

[DarkAmbient]

I like the show. But damn who ever is running the ship sucks at showing the audience wtf the time line is. It takes till episode 7 to put the entire series in context. I first noticed something was off in episode 3. And the its clearer that this show jumps around in episode 4. But after that the only scenes i know that are in lets call it present day are the ones with Ciri. Everything else i cant tell. And if i cant tell then someone whos watching the show that knows nothing of the witcher isnt going to be able to tell. And like i said its not till Episode 7 that all the pieces are put together.

My dad who i was watching the first 5 episodes with had no idea they were jumping around. I had to tell him.

I didn't even realise there were time skips until episode 3. If there were any before that then I missed them.

[Skorpionss]

I didn't even realise there were time skips until episode 3. If there were any before that then I missed them.

There are 3 timelines, they all play out chronologically, it's just that they all start at different points in time. Geralt and & Yen Parts take place over several decades, while Ciri's takes place over a week or so.

I think they made the right choice to have it like this, rather than playing them separately. This way they can show all 3 characters in an episode and don't have to spends 2-3 episodes on each character, without showing the others at all.

[Sliske]

On black-washing the Witcher

The way the characters were originally described matters a lot. Going wildly of course means you're no longer making a Witcher adaption, you're making a fan-fiction.

I'll use Black Panther as an example. Wakanda is an ethno-state. To make a random very important character that lives in Wakanda full time be white would be ludicrous and ruin that part of the story. To make half of them white would cripple the show's original intention, that this is somehow an isolated hidden city. If half of the royal family are white, we're not only going to ask how the hell white children have two black parents, but we're going to ask why the hell they're pretending the city is hidden, when apparently travel to and from Wakanda is so easy that it has become a multinational hub for all people.

In The Witcher, racism is probably one of the top themes of the show. Everyone hates everyone - Tribalism is the rule of the day. Elves hate Zerrikanians (black humans), Zerrikanians hate Redians. Dwarves hate Redians, Skellige hates Redians and so on. If you start having multinational hubs and people walking through each others cities with no problem, that part of the story is immediately gone along with every and all storylines relating to it. You stop seeing the plight of the elves because this world displays itself to be a multinational non-racist world. You stop believing that any of their plight even exists because we clearly see elves mixing with humans later on and black humans mixing with white humans and so on.

These things didn't happen in the books and video games without immense conflict that even the show references, whilst simultaneously pretending none of it happened by its depiction as all places being multinational non-racist hubs.

It also immediately puts into doubt the safety of the world. One of the key ways tribalism exists even in our real world is by isolation. If two groups are isolated, within hours they'll likely start disliking each other. Now imagine if your world is so unsafe that walking through a simple forest will see you attacked by car-sized fiends, leshens and wyverns. You don't just travel thousands of miles unless you have an extremely competent escort due to your immense importance in the world. Which is why every time we see a non-native in a particular isolationist Kingdom, that person is always a master craftsman or mage. To have every single place in the show be depicted as multinational hubs immediately makes the world demonstrably far safer than what it is in the books and video games.

I also question the motives of people who do this sort of thing. If you love a world so much you wish to adapt to TV, why fundamentally change major parts of it? Is there a shortage of slavic/European people to pull from? Of course not. So what is the motive? What is the reason for doing this? I can't understand it. Having ran through the typical reasons for bad casting choices - lack of suitable actors, nepotism, racism, selfishness and so on, i've come to the conclusion that this was either likely extreme selfishness as some sort of 'diversity hire bonus' on Netflix's part, or racism. I can't say for sure it was racism, but i do question the morality and intentions of someone that would take Ciri, probably the most well known slavic heroine of all time, then intentionally ask for B.A.M.E. people to apply for the role within the show.

There has to be a reason for not sticking to what the books say when it would be quite easy and popular to do so. You can't just ignore that.

[Radeghost]

Triss casting is just so cringeworthy, that's obvious blackwashing. Triss is a white redhead with freckles.

[Syegfryed]

Love all the "totally not racist" people complaining about casting choices that have NO impact on the story.

i am more black than the triss actress and still find annoying they changing everything about her, no name characters with no importance its totally irrelevant so they could change, but other things are just a bad move to do, like i said before, it bring more division than union

I know what the intention was but honestly it is just atrociously annoying and boring, the acting the voice, everything is just really really bad in my opinion. But that is the beauty of opinions and taste, each has their own, I'm glad you enjoy him, I just can't bare and almost find myself skipping the parts he is in so far.

i think if he was annoying then he did the job well, i can totally understand people not liking him tough, but meh, not that bad to the point of skipping him , that episode with the dragon and the genie he was ok

- - - Updated - - -

Yen always looked like a super hot cold-hearted bitch and acted like it. I honestly liked the actress better when she was a hunchback, but when she transformed, she lost something to me. She looks like some basic and also seems to have lost some of her edge (at least as far as I've gotten, which is episode 4).


I attempted to ignore my looks criticisms and give her a chance, but holy hell, she is just decidedly not the triss in any way, shape, or form... on any front... that I was wanting or expecting.


100%.


Exactly. I thought he fit perfectly as well. Anyone who played the games knew what to expect, and he nails it. Typical annoying comical bard trope that incessantly bothers geralt and spins not-so-faithful stories.
.

agree 100%

About Yen, i like her more hunched i don't know why too

[lagiacrux]

finished season 1 a few minutes ago, just some quick thoughts here.

cavill NAILS IT! 100%. im totally on board with that.

i couldnt warm up to yens actress. i dont know what it was but she didnt meet my expectations.

im more on the fence with triss. i kinda liked but also kinda didnt. would probably need a rewatch to sort my opinion out.

the timejumps were, how do i put this, not well "shown". i watched with a friend that had no background on the witcher, and he didnt get the timejumps ... at all. and its ok if you want to hide them and then make a big deal out of the reveal for a "gotcha-moment", but they didnt do that either. it was more like "what? how? why? ... thats stupid!" moment.

big shoutout to queen calanthe and jaskier for their performances. i enjoyed every second they were on screen.

all in all it was good time, with some minor problems.

[LightBR]

i think if he was annoying then he did the job well, i can totally understand people not liking him tough, but meh, not that bad to the point of skipping him , that episode with the dragon and the genie he was ok

I actually responded that very thing in a reply a page or two back, kudos to the actor in the end, he is indeed doing a good job on his role if he annoys me that much and the character is the same lol, I didn't skip anything but it was a close one hahah, and I agree on your statement when he was ok in those parts

[Thelxi]

I've watched half of it so far and it's better than I thought it would be. Visually it is very impressive. I like the style of everything and it looks very expensive. The cast really looks the part too.

The writing is not great imo; too much of the convoluted story is told through monologues for my liking. It's more Disney and LotR than it is GoT, even though it is trying to be more serious and adult. It has such a big budget though that it gets away with it for me.

[stevenho]

The creators of the show fkd up by choosing to film the entirety of the short stories and it resulted in an incomprehensible mess.
I love the books and I had high hopes for the show but sadly it turned out to be meh.

It can however be saved IF the authors recognize where the problems lie. The really important part of Sapkowski's work is the story of Ciri, not Geralt. And if they focus on her in the next seasons, the show can be saved. Even the first seasons episodes about her escape were thrilling, while Geralt and his monster slaying was mostly cringy.

[Rampant Rabbit]

I like the show. But damn who ever is running the ship sucks at showing the audience wtf the time line is. It takes till episode 7 to put the entire series in context. I first noticed something was off in episode 3. And the its clearer that this show jumps around in episode 4. But after that the only scenes i know that are in lets call it present day are the ones with Ciri. Everything else i cant tell. And if i cant tell then someone whos watching the show that knows nothing of the witcher isnt going to be able to tell. And like i said its not till Episode 7 that all the pieces are put together.

My dad who i was watching the first 5 episodes with had no idea they were jumping around. I had to tell him.

I like the show too, and I think this is the only real issue I had with it. I think it's a big problem for people that have no prior knowledge about the witcher.

Beside that, the issues I had with the casting choices were negligible. I actually enjoyed most of the acting.