The Witcher is getting a Netflix series

[Very Tired]

ok. cause i was pretty confused for a bit thinking wtf...she's in the forest while IN a wedding feast. :P

Apparently the timeskips have already been discussed here and remains a pretty sensitive issue for people defending the show. But yeah, they should have just added a simple caption to tell all the viewers it was a long while ago rather than confusing a bunch of people.

[Jotaux]

ok. cause i was pretty confused for a bit thinking wtf...she's in the forest while IN a wedding feast. :P

That's Ceri's mother in the Wedding feast. Her puking at the end suggests shes pregnant with Ceri.

[Witchblade77]

incidentally, Pavetta's casting #chef'skiss

[dragi]

It's worth to watch? An epic show like ppl expect that will be?

[Syegfryed]

I don't know whether other countries have some weird chestnuts or whatever, but when someone in Poland says (or writes in Sapkowski's case) that someone's hair is "kasztanowe" (i.e. chestnut), they are referring to brown hair. As in, just brown (with some shades going to gold-ish hue direction, as was also the case with Triss), not reddish.

didn't Yen call Triss ginger slut too? and other books saying she had fiery hair? or auburn i dunno

as far i knew chestnut hair was supposed to be a "reddish" brown, like copper or amber, but i think it was messed up with the translation

[Biomega]

as far i knew chestnut hair was supposed to be a "reddish" brown, like copper or amber, but i think it was messed up with the translation

Chestnut as a color is defined as "reddish brown", since that's the color of... well, chestnuts.

Auburn is also reddish brown, but is usually not used as a general color but only in relation to (human) hair. Genetically, it's a variant of red hair (MC1R on chromosome 16).

The boundaries between red and brown are fluid, and it's up for interpretation what hues of brown are "reddish". Common usage of "chestnut" as a color meaning "reddish brown", however, suggests that an author using that word would indicate a reddish hue to brown hair. That's in English, of course - I don't know what word was used in the original, and how the usage of that word in the original language correlates to common usage color designations.

[Elim Garak]

Chestnut as a color is defined as "reddish brown", since that's the color of... well, chestnuts.

Auburn is also reddish brown, but is usually not used as a general color but only in relation to (human) hair. Genetically, it's a variant of red hair (MC1R on chromosome 16).

The boundaries between red and brown are fluid, and it's up for interpretation what hues of brown are "reddish". Common usage of "chestnut" as a color meaning "reddish brown", however, suggests that an author using that word would indicate a reddish hue to brown hair. That's in English, of course - I don't know what word was used in the original, and how the usage of that word in the original language correlates to common usage color designations.

In Russian chestnut is for brown. I guess in Polish as well, since it's a Slavic language too. It's a very common hair color in both Russia and Poland, it is reddish in light. But it is not fiery red like in the game. Nevertheless, the actress's hair color is darker than that - due to her middle-eastern roots - hence why she dyes it for the show:

[Skizzit]

It's worth to watch? An epic show like ppl expect that will be?

I quite enjoyed it, but the first season was largely about set-up. It was about explaining the three main characters, their histories, and their relationship with each other. The second season will make or break the series I feel.

[Biomega]

Very clearly the first season is primarily about hair color. Here's hoping they use that in S2 and let Triss comment on how utterly irrelevant it is what color her hair is.

[Sativex]

take this with a grain of salt as it IS wikipedia, but they seem to be providing plenty of sources, so..

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Witcher

prior to netflix series as of 2018, books sold over 33 million copies... that.. is provided that they didn't even start translating them into English WELL after books and games were released.

Might want to reread your source, that's video games, not books.

"The books have been described as having a cult following in Poland, and in Central and Eastern European countries.[1][2] The video games have been very successful, and as of March 2018, they have sold over 33 million copies worldwide.[3]"

It was very hard to find an English copy of his book prior to the first game.

[Witchblade77]

Might want to reread your source, that's video games, not books.

"The books have been described as having a cult following in Poland, and in Central and Eastern European countries.[1][2] The video games have been very successful, and as of March 2018, they have sold over 33 million copies worldwide.[3]"

It was very hard to find an English copy of his book prior to the first game.

I stand corrected. but the main point still stands. the fact that most of the books in the series weren't even translated until after the games contributed to fewer overall sales in english speaking world. prior to release of the game, according to the article anyways, it doesn't seem like official translation existed at all. which has exactly fuck all to do with actual quality of the books. "Three body problem" for example, aka hugo award winner of 2015 - took almost 10 years from its original publication date before it was translated into english and prior to that it was only best seller in china. so... /shrug

and the thing is.. I'm not even claiming that these books are pinacle of writing or best fantasy ever written. all i'm saying is that this putting of GoT on a pedestal as if its some amazing writing, while shitting all over Witcher books, which in my opinion are far more readable, even in translation and I'm about 99% sure that translation into english is... not the most amazing, given my experience with Russian to English translations is.. simultaneously funny and sad. GoT is NOT a pinnacle of fantasy writing either... or any kind of writing pinnacle. (yes I am aware that books were originaly written in Polish, I brought up russian as another slavic language that can and often does suffer in translation so I would imagine that polish doesn't fare much better)

[Skorpionss]

I don't really have a horse in this race but I tried Reading GOT a couple of times and didn't make it more than 50 pages into the first book, the writing is very tiresome to read. I haven't tried reading the Witcher books though so I don't know how that compares.

[Kronik85]

I understand that the success of this show hinges on whether a character has reddish brown rather than brown hair but may I divert the conversation so someone can explain to me wtf Vigefortz is about?

I assume he owns the van or something that other Mages need to get around the world or are they just like a walking joke other Mages like to put front and center because it's just hysterical watching him "mage"?

Lay person:. Wow so your like a Warrior Mage or something?

Vilgefortz: Damn straight!

Lay person: So you have the powers of a Mage and the prowess of a Warrior, that's fucking sweet bruh. So you can throw fire balls and stab people? That's sweet as fuck.

Vilgefortz:....well, I stab people. I use my chaos to make swords and...

Lay person:. OH! So you make tons of swords and whirl them around like a living bladestorm! Awesome, can't wait to see it!

Vilgefortz:. Errr well no. I only use one at a time and I just make a new one when I happen to get disarmed, making swords actually requires an immense amount of chaos so I can make maybe....3 or 4 during a battle.

Lay person: Oh...well, that's...good? Thanks for coming.

[Syegfryed]

I don't really have a horse in this race but I tried Reading GOT a couple of times and didn't make it more than 50 pages into the first book, the writing is very tiresome to read. I haven't tried reading the Witcher books though so I don't know how that compares.

i read 3-4 books and give up

tiresome, boring, and i don't like a series who is not based around a person or group of protagonists, his fetish to kill characters just to kill also don't appeal me, i could read without knowing most of people names and their backstory, and they would matter little

[Skizzit]

i read 3-4 books and give up

tiresome, boring, and i don't like a series who is not based around a person or group of protagonists, hi fetish to kill characters just to kill also don't appeal me, i could read without knowing most of people names and their backstory, and they would matter little

Yeah, I tried reading Game of Thrones a few years before the series was a thing and just something about the way Martin writes I didn't like. Far too much focus on describing the violence and sex acts and not enough building interesting characters and worlds. Part of me thinks the biggest reason the TV series did well is because they took those 6+ pages of over indulgent detailed descriptions and turned them into a few seconds of screen time which made them much less intrusive.

That said, I also recently tried reading The Witcher books and couldn't get into them either but I think it was more due to the way you are just dropped into the middle of the world and it is kinda confusing at first. At the time, I had other series like Sanderson's Stormlight Archives lined up to read and since I already knew I loved the way he wrote from reading Mistborn, I went with that instead. I fully intend to give The Witcher another shot at some point where as I highly doubt I will return to ASoIaF.

[Aliven]

As a fan of the books, after watching 6 episodes i struggle to watch last two.

Like, this is pile of horse shit. The only reedeming quality is Henry Cavill, actress who play Yennefer and Jaskier. I suspect they changed ciri eyes color between episodes because i remember them as a blue in earlier episodes.

I mean, they abolish pretty much the source material, tore it and shit on it. The events are so completly fucked up i dont even know how they want to salvage this. They like, make something straight out of fanfiction, put a scene ripped from the books, with dialogues etc, and then go back to fanfiction. When i heard one of the characters utters the words "The time of sword and axe is night" i actually said loud "Oh go fuck yourself show!".

Look, i dont care about obvious lack of money (spell effects and "dwarfs" were laughable), casting (i dont care if Fringilla is black, really, really dont) but just destroying the events, characters and outcomes?

I would say the only GOOD episode is first and 5 of those i watched. They genereally are more or less accurate representation of quick stories they are based on. Obvious cutting corners aside they are decent, something like 6/10. Rest is so far something akin to 3/10.

I didnt imagine somebody can fuck it like they fucked up polish witcher series but lo and behold, they actually manage it.

FFS the books are actually able to be copy pasted and we would have fantasy epic on the scale of GoT or Tolkiens.

- - - Updated - - -

I understand that the success of this show hinges on whether a character has reddish brown rather than brown hair but may I divert the conversation so someone can explain to me wtf Vigefortz is about?

I assume he owns the van or something that other Mages need to get around the world or are they just like a walking joke other Mages like to put front and center because it's just hysterical watching him "mage"?

Lay person:. Wow so your like a Warrior Mage or something?

Vilgefortz: Damn straight!

Lay person: So you have the powers of a Mage and the prowess of a Warrior, that's fucking sweet bruh. So you can throw fire balls and stab people? That's sweet as fuck.

Vilgefortz:....well, I stab people. I use my chaos to make swords and...

Lay person:. OH! So you make tons of swords and whirl them around like a living bladestorm! Awesome, can't wait to see it!

Vilgefortz:. Errr well no. I only use one at a time and I just make a new one when I happen to get disarmed, making swords actually requires an immense amount of chaos so I can make maybe....3 or 4 during a battle.

Lay person: Oh...well, that's...good? Thanks for coming.

Havent met him yet on the show, but in the books Vilgefortz from Roggeven is one of the most IF not the most powerfull mage to ever lived. In show he can be plumber for what i saw before his introduction.

[Tabrotar]

You can be on the NY Times bestseller by selling 9k books in your first week.

It's not like video games or music or movies.

No one buys books any more, not even digitally.

I read the original Game of Thrones book in the 90s, when I was in high school, and maybe the 2nd one before I lost track of the series when I went to university in 1999. I had never met anyone else who had ever read them at all until many, many years into my WoW raiding career, when I was getting to know some real hardcore nerds like myself. And then, they announced the series was being made, and then every nerd ever picked them up.

Hell, I even got a 2nd set of the books from my sister (who was an athlete and a homecoming queen type of person) for Christmas one year, and she literally thought they were the latest craze, in like, 2013.

Wtf you´re talking about?

Nobody is buying books anymore? What are you on?

Everytime i go into a bookstore i see tons of people buying books...

Just bcs you don´t like books and don´t buy them means everyone isn´t buying books anymore ffs...

[oplawlz]

FFS the books are actually able to be copy pasted and we would have fantasy epic on the scale of GoT or Tolkiens.

Man, you are really overselling those books. I mean they're entertaining, but it's a very simple fantasy serial we're talking about here. There's a reason they were relegated to obscurity before the video games fleshed the world out.

[Biomega]

Man, you are really overselling those books. I mean they're entertaining, but it's a very simple fantasy serial we're talking about here. There's a reason they were relegated to obscurity before the video games fleshed the world out.

That's pretty much what I've found, too. The books are okay. They're not groundbreaking in any way, very run-off-the-mill fantasy fare, except for the Slavic-inspired mythology that plays into it in parts - but there's also standard Tolkien-style elements like elves and dwarves and whatnot. The storytelling is largely mundane, and there isn't really any obvious expertise going into it like there is with GRRM. The world-building is okay, but not spectacular.

The fact that the books had a "cult following" says very little, because there's a ton of series out there for which this is true.

[Skizzit]

As a fan of the books, after watching 6 episodes i struggle to watch last two.

Like, this is pile of horse shit. The only reedeming quality is Henry Cavill, actress who play Yennefer and Jaskier. I suspect they changed ciri eyes color between episodes because i remember them as a blue in earlier episodes.

I mean, they abolish pretty much the source material, tore it and shit on it. The events are so completly fucked up i dont even know how they want to salvage this. They like, make something straight out of fanfiction, put a scene ripped from the books, with dialogues etc, and then go back to fanfiction. When i heard one of the characters utters the words "The time of sword and axe is night" i actually said loud "Oh go fuck yourself show!".

Look, i dont care about obvious lack of money (spell effects and "dwarfs" were laughable), casting (i dont care if Fringilla is black, really, really dont) but just destroying the events, characters and outcomes?

I would say the only GOOD episode is first and 5 of those i watched. They genereally are more or less accurate representation of quick stories they are based on. Obvious cutting corners aside they are decent, something like 6/10. Rest is so far something akin to 3/10.

I didnt imagine somebody can fuck it like they fucked up polish witcher series but lo and behold, they actually manage it.

FFS the books are actually able to be copy pasted and we would have fantasy epic on the scale of GoT or Tolkiens.

Out of curiosity, what exactly did they change that makes you feel so strongly that they ruined the series so badly?