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eke out posted:yeah they talk about how Nilfgaard is conscripting every mage -- they're just weapons to be used like anyone else they might force into their army, and how they're treated at Sodden explains why Yen and Vilgefortz get the gently caress out quick from the dig site Knight2m posted:I have not played the games or read the books, so my opinions are of the show only. What happened was about 99% the efforts of mages, so the peasants’ arrows were being guided by the mages, to hit mage-bombs filled with white mage-phosphorus. The Nilfgaarde folks are also not about avoiding waste or preserving ethics or dignity. They’ll just use whatever is the strongest or coolest thing available, or whatever the CO wants, and since they have a shitload of mages that they conscript they’re just another weapon, like an expensive bomb.
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Dec 22, 2019 22:00
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A change that the show does better than the books is giving more time with Jaskier/Dandelion. Adding him to Calanthe's soiree was perfect.
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Dec 22, 2019 22:11
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Arcsquad12 posted:A change that the show does better than the books is giving more time with Jaskier/Dandelion. Adding him to Calanthe's soiree was perfect. Meanwhile, adding Triss to the Striga episode was the opposite of perfect. It makes sense for her to be there obvs but imo wasted time they shoulda spent having Geralt do some witchering sleuthing and prep.
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Dec 22, 2019 22:12
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itry posted:Maybe they didn't show Emhyr because Charles Dance was busy. Even though he’s a bit old for the role. He or a young Bill Nighy would be perfect.
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Dec 22, 2019 22:29
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On episode 3 and Yen’s plotline is fantastic.
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Dec 22, 2019 22:34
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Tehran 1979 posted:Also going to ask again since I can't find a thread in the Book Barn, why did Geralt bite the striga? He was asked at the end of the first chapter and it wasn't answered. He bit her in the show too and at the time I just filed it under 'well that was weird but ok'. It's clear you read it but others in the thread might not have so I'll post the contents here: ... She swiped him across the neck with her talons, cutting him deeply. Blood splashed onto her face. She howled, striking him in the eyes with her other hand. He fell on her, grabbing her by the wrists, nailing her to the floor. She gnashed her teeth--which were now too short--in front of his face. He butted her in the face with his forehead and pinned her down harder. She had lost her former strength; should could only writhe beneath him, howling, spitting out blood--his blood--which was pouring over her mouth. His blood was draining away quickly. The was no time. The witcher cursed and bit her hard on the neck, just below the ear. He dug his teeth in and clenched them until her inhuman howling became a thin, despairing scream and then a choking sob--the cry of a hurt fourteen-year-old girl. He let her go when she stopped moving, got to his knees, tore a piece of canvas from his sleeve pocket and pressed it to his neck. ... Seems it was just him realizing his time being conscious was maybe limited, and he needed to disable her as quickly as possible so that he wouldn't get clawed again, and his arms were otherwise occupied. Knight2m posted:Wasn't aware of the different times lines until Ep. 3 when Foltest is at the party as a kid. I don't have any issues with it, once I was aware, it was easy to keep up with each. Actually this brings up (potentially) another problem with the plot that will be felt later, unless I miss my mark: (future plot spoilers warning)Making Yennefer be 'in training' during this period and spend the next 30 years spinning her wheels in court 'forgets' that she is one of the architects behind Ciri's lineage, perhaps even as far back as Calanthe, which is a major plot point. Now unless she's a time traveler she will have had no hand in it at all. Kind of a big deal :| Knight2m posted:Also, as someone who has no interaction with the source material or game, I'm really glad they didn't exposition everything to me. Clearly someone didn't pay attention to Dandelion in ep2. Knight2m posted:Same with Vilefortz turn. Seemed to come out of no where. Bad writing, sadly. Not to mention making him look somewhat weak, although it's possible he lost the fight to Cahir 'on purpose' so as to be out of the battle and not contribute to the north's success. Book spoilersIt was much more effective having him encounter Geralt (after up to this point being on neutral/friendly terms with him, at least in the 'join my side' sense) and just WHOOP HIS rear end as if Geralt was a 5 year old with a wooden sword. Now it won't really be believable if Geralt loses to him. enraged_camel posted:also, it is explained that nilfgaardian mages don't have any reservations about practicing certain forbidden schools of magic, which presumably makes their spells a lot more powerful (and explains why the brotherhood mages are not prepared for stuff like mind control worms and demetrium dust) Another weird choice. There's no such thing as 'fire magic' or any of that other garbage. I think the only 'schools' of magic ever mentioned as being a thing are necromancy and oneiromancy (dream interpreting). It's an odd (and imo bad) choice to try and make Nilfgaard have an 'advantage' in the use of magic to make them more scary. Book spoilers: The whole shakeout of the battle of Sodden (and ultimately, Thanedd), was to create a group of mages with no national allegiance so they wouldn't fight each other again, and it wouldn't really make sense with how the show is doing it to ever build that. A set of mages with apparently religious fanatic devotion to their leader with an overwhelming firepower advantage would never choose to hobble themselves in this way. Unrelated to that, I just flat out don't like how they're representing magic as it is. Creating magic brain worms that take over your mind and having a guy run forward spewing mist like that one orc with the torch at the battle of helm's deep. Just... dumb.
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Dec 22, 2019 23:24
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Kaedric posted:Bad writing, sadly. Not to mention making him look somewhat weak, although it's possible he lost the fight to Cahir 'on purpose' so as to be out of the battle and not contribute to the north's success. Book spoilersIt was much more effective having him encounter Geralt (after up to this point being on neutral/friendly terms with him, at least in the 'join my side' sense) and just WHOOP HIS rear end as if Geralt was a 5 year old with a wooden sword. Now it won't really be believable if Geralt loses to him. It seemed pretty obvious to me that he lost on purpose when he woke up and bashed a dudes face in while seemingly completely uninjured.
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Dec 22, 2019 23:34
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Binged through everything today and as a fan of the books and 3, I was pleasantly surprised. They definitely stuck to more from the books than I expected them too. Geralt and Dandelion were perfect, but turning Cahir into a bloodthirsty monster was just wtf. The changes to Brokilon were a disappointing whiff for me as well. Still, I can't wait to see how they take things going forward.
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Dec 22, 2019 23:48
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DeadFatDuckFat posted:It seemed pretty obvious to me that he lost on purpose when he woke up and bashed a dudes face in while seemingly completely uninjured. I don't know if I'd call it obvious, decided to watch it again, and he randomly shouts at Cahir 'what do you want, why are you here?', which would be utterly pointless if faked. Simply fighting the bad guy would be sufficient to fool the others. Additionally him getting knocked the gently caress out was definitely not for play, it cuts to a sharp stone covered in blood where he fell, and he stumbled through the forest until he found the other mage and clocked him. Again, always up for interpretation I suppose. In any case I guess I'm in the end just arguing that his heel turn here is premature (as we hardly know him as a character at all), and a little hamfisted/moustache-twirly.
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Dec 22, 2019 23:50
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This was way better than it had any business being, I'm shocked. Cavill is Geralt.
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Dec 22, 2019 23:50
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Kaedric posted:I don't know if I'd call it obvious, decided to watch it again, and he randomly shouts at Cahir 'what do you want, why are you here?', which would be utterly pointless if faked. Simply fighting the bad guy would be sufficient to fool the others. Additionally him getting knocked the gently caress out was definitely not for play, it cuts to a sharp stone covered in blood where he fell, and he stumbled through the forest until he found the other mage and clocked him. Again, always up for interpretation I suppose. In any case I guess I'm in the end just arguing that his heel turn here is premature (as we hardly know him as a character at all), and a little hamfisted/moustache-twirly. Ah, I'm probably just misremembering it then.
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Dec 22, 2019 23:54
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Finished the series. Loved it warts and all. I thought the pacing and narrative choices actually worked really well when the thing is seen as a whole. Can't wait watch season 2. I'm reinstalling Witcher 3 already.
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Dec 23, 2019 01:12
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The pressing question is why did you uninstall it to begin with.
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Dec 23, 2019 01:24
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I haven't played the games or read the books, and I'll just echo what everyone else has already said. Every scene with either Geralt, Jaskier or Calanthe were fantastic. I really hope the bard is in season 2 as well. If he isn't in the rest of the books, they should add him anyway. He is a god damned treasure.
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Dec 23, 2019 01:37
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Kaedric posted:
I heard the exposition dump, but when they're throwing out a lot of unfamiliar places and civilizations, it's tough for me to keep up. It might have been just after that episode I turned on subtitles so I could follow more of the story. I might have done better in history class if the prof. had subtitles.
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Dec 23, 2019 01:45
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Donnerberg posted:I really hope the bard is in season 2 as well. If he isn't in the rest of the books, they should add him anyway. He is a god damned treasure. I don't think this is any kind of spoiler, but meta-plot wise for the books and the games they're roughly the memoirs of Jaskier telling the adventures of Geralt and crew
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Dec 23, 2019 02:02
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Knight2m posted:I heard the exposition dump, but when they're throwing out a lot of unfamiliar places and civilizations, it's tough for me to keep up. It might have been just after that episode I turned on subtitles so I could follow more of the story. I might have done better in history class if the prof. had subtitles. I liked the part of the series where I thought I wouldn't have to care about any of that information.
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Dec 23, 2019 02:30
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Avynte posted:I don't think this is any kind of spoiler, but meta-plot wise for the books and the games they're roughly the memoirs of Jaskier telling the adventures of Geralt and crew "memoirs" 
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Dec 23, 2019 02:42
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The games are significantly better than the books and sapkowski isn't a good writer. The problem is that the showrunner isn't a good writer either.
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Dec 23, 2019 03:04
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DeadFatDuckFat posted:The games are significantly better than the books and sapkowski isn't a good writer. The problem is that the showrunner isn't a good writer either. Very few are
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Dec 23, 2019 03:05
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Rocksicles posted:Very few are True. But there are a fair amount of "decent" writers.
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Dec 23, 2019 03:28
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I like the show, but it's a little sad that live actors don't hold a candle to the "acting" of the cartoon characters in Witcher 3. I will forgive them if they somehow get Jocko Willink to appear as Letho of Gulet in season 2.
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Dec 23, 2019 03:54
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Very fun show, and I'm looking forward to future seasons. I'm much more familiar with the game lore than the book lore, but based on the summaries I've read of the stories they adapted I think they kept the best parts while expanding on them in sensible ways. Only real complaint I have is that I really would have liked to have seen Geralt actually display all the sign magic he had to Yennefer when she asked about it, that seemed like a really well written way to naturally display those different types of magic so that we'd as an audience know what Geralt can and can't do with magic in the future, and I was disappointed when it didn't happen. Like, as someone who's played the games I know what these signs are as he does them, but I think that they're really missing out on a chance to define that so the audience can be familiar with what's going on in the moment. Having the full mages just basically do whatever they want with magic works fine for me given how they establish that, but when Geralt's magic toolkit is far more limited and has firm defined limits on what he can and can't do, I don't see any real value in keeping that a mystery. I liked the time-hopping approach by and large, though with where things left off I'm totally on board for a mostly linear story in season 2 with only occasional flashbacks. Cavill ralso rocked it like I knew he would, I read some reviews that didn't think his voice was at the level of the voice actor from the games, but I think he did a great job in his department. Gave me that same exact vibe while not quite coming across as an attempt at trying to straight up copy that performance.
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Dec 23, 2019 03:56
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NowonSA posted:Only real complaint I have is that I really would have liked to have seen Geralt actually display all the sign magic he had to Yennefer when she asked about it, that seemed like a really well written way to naturally display those different types of magic so that we'd as an audience know what Geralt can and can't do with magic in the future, and I was disappointed when it didn't happen. Like, as someone who's played the games I know what these signs are as he does them, but I think that they're really missing out on a chance to define that so the audience can be familiar with what's going on in the moment. Having the full mages just basically do whatever they want with magic works fine for me given how they establish that, but when Geralt's magic toolkit is far more limited and has firm defined limits on what he can and can't do, I don't see any real value in keeping that a mystery. Yeah, that would be cool. We saw some Quen and Aard right? The ghoul fight would have been a good chance to see Yrden since those monsters are all CGI anyways, and slowing them down probably wouldn't have cost any more to do.
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Dec 23, 2019 04:06
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Yrden seems like it would’ve solved issues in several fights.
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Dec 23, 2019 04:09
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i expect we'll get at least a basic witcher tutorial in season 2 during ciri's training in kaer morhen. but i agree it would have been good to see more sign and potion stuff this season, and also wished we got some mysterybox hint stuff with the wild hunt
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Dec 23, 2019 04:13
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Knight2m posted:I heard the exposition dump, but when they're throwing out a lot of unfamiliar places and civilizations, it's tough for me to keep up. It might have been just after that episode I turned on subtitles so I could follow more of the story. I might have done better in history class if the prof. had subtitles. Knight2m posted:Also, as someone who has no interaction with the source material or game, I'm really glad they didn't exposition everything to me. I'm okay with not knowing the entire history from the onset and just learning as the story plays out. I'm looking forward to season 2. Kaedric posted:Clearly someone didn't pay attention to Dandelion in ep2. Jaskier in episode 2 posted:The elves called this Dol Blathanna before bequeathing it to the humans and retreating into their golden palaces in the mountains... Sorry  I was just making a joke, not actually saying you weren't paying attention to the zillion nameplaces and whatnot.
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Dec 23, 2019 04:24
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Honestly, when they introduced Ciri in Episode 1 and then right off the bat its war, I feel they could have waited for that and showed us more castle life with Ciri or something. Her plotline felt a lot of Hurry Up and Wait. Why not start with her parents death or something instead etc. Show is good, but could use some more TLC and some writing upgrades here and there and some pacing. I want more Roach and Geralt time and more emphasis on his Witcher talents, potions, and monster tracking/hunting.
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Dec 23, 2019 04:27
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Have they said who's going to be Vesemir? Or we won't know about that until they're closer to filming season 2?
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Dec 23, 2019 04:30
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Shows fine, I'm not sure it's something the majority outside the fandom can really enjoy though. Cavill is great as Geralt though they really should have explained more about Witchers, their powers, how they cast magic, had Geralt going on random adventures more before they introduced the destiny and ciri plot. Not a big fan of Yen's actress after finishing the show and honestly everytime ciri was on screen I was waiting for it to get back to Geralt. Does anyone really care about the mage plot? I'm also a bit bummed realising that they're just focusing on the books so some of the best parts of the universe like Letho, Gaunter O'dimm etc won't be in it.
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Dec 23, 2019 04:50
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My gf watched the first three episodes without me and enjoyed it. I think the show has appeal more broadly since she liked GoT but has no idea about the Witcher outside of it being a video game I played
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Dec 23, 2019 04:56
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Just Chamber posted:Shows fine, I'm not sure it's something the majority outside the fandom can really enjoy though. Cavill is great as Geralt though they really should have explained more about Witchers, their powers, how they cast magic, had Geralt going on random adventures more before they introduced the destiny and ciri plot. Not a big fan of Yen's actress after finishing the show and honestly everytime ciri was on screen I was waiting for it to get back to Geralt. Does anyone really care about the mage plot? Probably would have been better if they'd introduced Yennifer with her first meeting Geralt and being a lover/antagonist for a while, then gone back in to her backstory. Also yes having one plot line being 'watch a young girl run through a forest being scared' was maybe not the smartest use of an entire season of an actor.
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Dec 23, 2019 05:05
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Boring and drawn out as most of the Ciri stuff was this season, I must say that actress pulled some fairly impressive nonverbal acting in the last episode. Got me excited for when she has more material to actually chew into.
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Dec 23, 2019 05:07
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DeadFatDuckFat posted:Yeah, that would be cool. We saw some Quen and Aard right? The ghoul fight would have been a good chance to see Yrden since those monsters are all CGI anyways, and slowing them down probably wouldn't have cost any more to do. He tried Axii on Renfri.
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Dec 23, 2019 05:20
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I wasn't paying close enough attention, but did they cast a different horse for roach each episode. I hope so.
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Dec 23, 2019 05:21
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Nitrousoxide posted:I wasn't paying close enough attention, but did they cast a different horse for roach each episode. Same horse all the way through. My wife noticed and asked if immortal horses were a thing I mean, she is in the video game but...
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Dec 23, 2019 05:28
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The roach thing is actually pretty sad. Witchers’ horses probably end up getting eaten by ghouls and poo poo in a horrific manner regularly.
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Dec 23, 2019 05:38
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in the games Roach kicks a lot of rear end on his/her own
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Dec 23, 2019 05:41
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That roach side quest written by Comte at the end of the last DLC is really funny too.
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Dec 23, 2019 05:42
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Did they choose an older actress for Ciri so she didn't age out of the story?
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Dec 23, 2019 05:43
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