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stev posted:(POC getting acting gigs will never be a bad thing, unless a character being white is super loving important to the story).
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Dec 24, 2019 09:49
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Water Buffalo mozzarella is in fact much tastier than the cheese made from the cow, due to its higher fat content. Also shut up about loving race swapping or whatever the gently caress. The novels were written by some lovely genre author who cares what people looked like in the books DeadFatDuckFat fucked around with this message at 10:04 on Dec 24, 2019 |
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Dec 24, 2019 10:02
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So Yennefer did a huge non-consensual magical orgy.
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Dec 24, 2019 10:12
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NoNotTheMindProbe posted:So Yennefer did a huge non-consensual magical orgy. yeah i just got to this bit if you're going to do a hot take get on team #yentherapist
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Dec 24, 2019 10:13
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I don't agree with what some of you itt are saying that one need to know the source material to enjoy or understand the show. Anecdotal of course, but my friends and I had slim to no knowledge before watching and we're all liking it a lot. And while I'm sure that we're missing a lot of the nuances and depth that book readers know, it's not that difficult to follow along. Watching a show that assumes that you pay attention and rewards you when you do is pretty fun. Some general examples that have been mentioned itt as hurdles for newcomers, spoilerd because the touch on some plotlines: Geralt drinks potions, his eyes goes weird and he's better at fighting. He's older than he looks and knows a little bit of magic, but he's not as old and good at magic as the mages and sorceresses. And Yen making fun of Jaskier for getting older shows us that humans age normal. The good guys don't use portals when they prepare the ambush/defense at Sodden because any magic user can spot and follow portals. Portals that can't be traced are super difficult to make and needs high level magic to pull off. Magic can get depleted, so conserving power is smart. When Geralt killed Renfrei in episode 1 it was with regret and because his hands were tied. It set him up as a good person in a poo poo situation and as someone who would try to do the right thing instead of settling for the lesser evil. I didn't need a deep backstory to understand that they were both seen as monsters and that he identified with and understood her situation and motivations. It's also pretty obvious that there's history between Yennefer and Geralt between episodes, and that their relationship is complicated. And sometimes dragons can disguise themselves as men in order to save their eggs from lovely humans. Because humans are bastards who destroy magic forests, drive the elves from their homelands and throw djinns into rivers. But, you know, humans gonna human My point is that the show isn't nearly as obtuse as some book readers might believe. A lot of the stuff you guys have been posting about are things that I'm looking forward to learn more about, like the potion stuff that seems really cool. But I don't need the details to enjoy the show. Little droplets of exposition lets me know that there's a bigger world that I'll get to learn about later. And in my opinion that's preferable to huge infodumps of details. If I want to know more, I got threads like this one to read through. Or the books and the games. By the time season 2 rolls around I'm invested enough to really appreciate it if they go into more details. Until they do, I'm satisfied with what I've been shown so far, and I trust that I'll enjoy what comes next.
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Dec 24, 2019 10:27
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Just got finished with the season, and well this turned out to be a major pleasant surprise. I was super leery of Cavill as Geralt, but he actually delivered a really respectable performance and channeled that growly laconic wit pretty well. Jaskier/Dandelion somehow also managed to be more entertaining than aggravating, which is a fine line to walk. I'd say one of the larger weaknesses of the show was that it doesn't signpost very clearly that the early episodes are not in the same chronology. I've read the books so I knew what to expect, but that feels like something that can be pretty easy to miss if you're not expecting it, leading to confusion further down the line. Also, "Toss a Coin to your Witcher" owns https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHoIQa_kXkA Perestroika fucked around with this message at 11:12 on Dec 24, 2019 |
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Dec 24, 2019 11:09
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Yo but, Portals Yen and Istredd used a untraceable portal in ep2 and ep3 with the flowers. That poo poo is rare but lmao they were using it loving around so they must have some for this event?? It just seemed like a pointless goofy scene imo Show could benefit with a bit more cinematography too. This was pretty much the Netflix Marvel production team. the_enduser fucked around with this message at 11:15 on Dec 24, 2019 |
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Dec 24, 2019 11:12
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Tertius Oculum posted:Yo but, Portals Yen and Istredd used a untraceable portal in ep2 and ep3 with the flowers. That poo poo is rare but lmao they were using it loving around so they must have some for this event?? It just seemed like a pointless goofy scene imo Istredd used the magic elderblood flower to do that, and also it didn't work
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Dec 24, 2019 11:15
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NoNotTheMindProbe posted:So Yennefer did a huge non-consensual magical orgy. What I absolutely loved about that scene is that it's full on GoT-style gratuitous nudity, except that unlike GoT they put a character in the middle who is extremely aware of how gratuitous it all is. Very well played Perestroika posted:Just got finished with the season, and well this turned out to be a major pleasant surprise. I was super leery of Cavill as Geralt, but he actually delivered a really respectable performance and channeled that growly laconic wit pretty well. Jaskier/Dandelion somehow also managed to be more entertaining than aggravating, which is a fine line to walk. Literally just finished the last episode - very similar feelings. The show is clearly made by people who cared. They don't have a massive budget and you can see they're making every penny work. The sword stuntwork is fantastic. I was okay with the chronology. By episode three it's clear that they're doing the chronology thing. By episode 4 it's clear why - the season is about establishing why the characters are in the mindsets they are in when they reach the end. It's also clear that 'time passes' between each episode - Dandelion promises to make Geralt famous and the very next episode starts with him being acclaimed as the White Wolf. I thought it was well handled. I think the best point I can make though is that I spend the first half of the season getting upset at the changes they were making from the book versions of the stories, but by the end of the episode I could see exactly why they needed to make that change. e: Doubling up on the Joey Batey acclaim. I think Dandelion is an extremely difficult character to play because he needs to be annoying to Geralt but endearing to the viewer, and it would be so easy to get on the wrong side of the line on that. Batey nails it every time. Alchenar fucked around with this message at 11:25 on Dec 24, 2019 |
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Dec 24, 2019 11:19
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I really enjoyed the show, and it seems that not knowing anything about the books / games was a major contributing factor. For instance, I just gathered early on that the setting is racially diverse and rolled with it. Would not have occured to me it would annoy some people without reading this thread.
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Dec 24, 2019 11:30
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It's amazing how many people are mad about the races of wizards, but give no shits about beautiful Mousesack being killed for the sake of a lovely doppelganger plot that lasts five minutes.
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Dec 24, 2019 11:44
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stev posted:It's amazing how many people are mad about the races of wizards, but give no shits about beautiful Mousesack being killed for the sake of a lovely doppelganger plot that lasts five minutes. Maybe he's a big deal in the books? In the show he was on for 5 minutrs prior to that. Didn't feel like a major character.
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Dec 24, 2019 11:47
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Herostratus posted:Maybe he's a big deal in the books? He doesn't appear again in the books but he doesn't get done dirty like that.  And they highlighted the fact that dopplers have the memories and skills of the person they're impersonating, then immediately forgot it so Ciri could suss the guy out with the old 'you're eating sushi but you're allergic to fish' routine. It was all very dumb. stev fucked around with this message at 11:56 on Dec 24, 2019 |
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Dec 24, 2019 11:50
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Tertius Oculum posted:Yo but, Portals Yen and Istredd used a untraceable portal in ep2 and ep3 with the flowers. That poo poo is rare but lmao they were using it loving around so they must have some for this event?? It just seemed like a pointless goofy scene imo Strom Cuzewon posted:Istredd used the magic elderblood flower to do that, and also it didn't work Yeah, I didn't know what flower he used or why it was special, but my impression was that what he did and used was powerful and not ordinary. So a nerdy older student using a powerful spell to impress a freshman rang true to me. It didn't even occur to me that the sorceresses not using magic to get in position later could be seen as inconsistent until I read this thread.
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Dec 24, 2019 12:03
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I was a bit worried when people were saying that all of Nilfgaard would be black during production because it would be kind of odd for everyone to call them the "black ones", but they didn't do that so it's not a big deal.
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Dec 24, 2019 12:28
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Wow. I was expecting this to just be a string of "Hey, remember this part of the video game?" scenes and not an actually good show. Having not read the books I loved the twisting chronology of the story. On the second or third episode my wife asked me "uh, did we skip some episodes or something?", and I dropped out to the list because I wasn't exactly sure. Have they decided on a second season yet?
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Dec 24, 2019 13:24
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Frankenstyle posted:Wow. I was expecting this to just be a string of "Hey, remember this part of the video game?" scenes and not an actually good show. Having not read the books I loved the twisting chronology of the story. On the second or third episode my wife asked me "uh, did we skip some episodes or something?", and I dropped out to the list because I wasn't exactly sure. Have they decided on a second season yet? It was renewed for a second season a month or so before it was released.
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Dec 24, 2019 13:33
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CJ posted:I was a bit worried when people were saying that all of Nilfgaard would be black during production because it would be kind of odd for everyone to call them the "black ones", but they didn't do that so it's not a big deal. Thronebreaker localized this as "blackclads" which was more elegant.
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Dec 24, 2019 14:30
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stev posted:It's amazing how many people are mad about the races of wizards, but give no shits about beautiful Mousesack being killed for the sake of a lovely doppelganger plot that lasts five minutes. The show shitted on brokilon, cahir and Ciri. The more i think it about the less i like it. The dudes at CDPR did a better job with the writer material
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Dec 24, 2019 14:53
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An issue with the battle of Sodden is that it is never actually shown in the books so a lot of the characters present really don't get a lot of time to shine and feel shoehorned in (even though they were there, they feel shoehorned because there's just not a lot of material for them). Like, I'm happy that Gelvissig and Coral are shown at Sodden, but neither of them really have substance in the books either so in a show that has to pare down elements for time constraints, they have even less to do. Hell, I don't think Coral had a major part to play until in any book Seasons of Storms and that book came out fifteen years after Lady of the Lake. Sabrina got like one scene in Time of Contempt and had a far larger part in Witcher 2 after she was loving dead.
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Dec 24, 2019 15:13
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Frankenstyle posted:Have they decided on a second season yet? Yeah it got "renewed" before it went to air. I don't understand how Netflix works.
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Dec 24, 2019 15:14
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JBP posted:Yeah it got "renewed" before it went to air. I don't understand how Netflix works. There is enough material for a few seasons, a built in fan base, a void created by GoT and D&D isn't writing it.
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Dec 24, 2019 16:03
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JBP posted:Yeah it got "renewed" before it went to air. I don't understand how Netflix works. They commission a new show to try and get new subscribers, announce a second season before it comes out to try and build hype, then cancel after the second season if it isn't a megahit so they can the repeat the process with another show aimed at another demographic.
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Dec 24, 2019 16:11
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Yeah I fully expect season 2 to blast through the first two novels and for that to be all we get. Maybe a third season will be on the cards it it really takes off.
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Dec 24, 2019 16:16
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I've got a feeling that the next season or two, while pulling from the saga, will butcher/rearrange/remove a lot of it. I'm hoping that's not the case.
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Dec 24, 2019 16:23
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The more I think about it, the more I feel that adapting the books is and was a bad idea. The games really elevated the material by using the world but avoiding dealing directly with Sapowski's cliche writing. The world and characters felt fully fleshed without needing to overexplain their origin stories.
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Dec 24, 2019 16:40
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But if you’re not familiar with the books you might do something dumb like romancing Triss.
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Dec 24, 2019 16:47
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I always find it fascinating when a show or movie produces such an exceptional range of reactions as this.
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Dec 24, 2019 16:51
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LinYutang posted:The more I think about it, the more I feel that adapting the books is and was a bad idea. The games really elevated the material by using the world but avoiding dealing directly with Sapowski's cliche writing. The world and characters felt fully fleshed without needing to overexplain their origin stories. They were fully fleshed out because of Sapkowski's writings. Having the game be based on a series of seven books gave it a huge advantage in developing characters and relationships.
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Dec 24, 2019 16:57
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chaosapiant posted:They were fully fleshed out because of Sapkowski's writings. Having the game be based on a series of seven books gave it a huge advantage in developing characters and relationships. That's the point - they were able to build on the (kind of shaky) foundation. The games wouldn't have been nearly as good if they'd just adapted the books straight.
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Dec 24, 2019 17:03
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Episode 6 was a down point for me. So much melodrama and lovely special effects. The fight scenes were embarrassing, too.
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Dec 24, 2019 17:25
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stev posted:That's the point - they were able to build on the (kind of shaky) foundation. The games wouldn't have been nearly as good if they'd just adapted the books straight. Yes. Like Yennefer is really introduced late in the game series but her and Geralt's relationship feels thoroughly grounded because of the dynamics the story establishes, their alluding to common adventures, and so on. Like I felt the adaptation/followup of Last Wish in the game was way more moving and more effective than the short story, especially as it comes after a sequence where Yennefer is driven out of a town for her brazenness and reminded again of how alone she is, besides for Geralt.
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Dec 24, 2019 17:25
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stev posted:It's amazing how many people are mad about the races of wizards, but give no shits about beautiful Mousesack being killed for the sake of a lovely doppelganger plot that lasts five minutes. I think the only people really mad about the race of wizards are everybody who dogpiles anyone who dares to say they didn't like it.
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Dec 24, 2019 18:24
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My head-canon is that Mousesack survived and went back to Skellige to lick his wound's, where he's back advising Crach an Craite and awaiting Geralt's arrival in Witcher 3. In my head, the games are canon sequels to the books and it's all one big-rear end story line.
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Dec 24, 2019 18:29
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Arglebargle III posted:I think the only people really mad about the race of wizards are everybody who dogpiles anyone who dares to say they didn't like it. Nah go read all the 0 star reviews on metacritic and you will see how 99% have no real critiques other than complaining about wokeness and sjws. Or how they ruined the slavic atmosphere of the books and games.
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Dec 24, 2019 18:50
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It's a good production move though - they get to use the same actor for much more of the story but don't actually need to keep him around much longer. The kind of decision that makes it clear they were making every penny count.
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Dec 24, 2019 18:50
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LinYutang posted:The more I think about it, the more I feel that adapting the books is and was a bad idea. The games really elevated the material by using the world but avoiding dealing directly with Sapowski's cliche writing. The world and characters felt fully fleshed without needing to overexplain their origin stories. His writing is actually pretty good, and not really cliche at all. He doesn't generally have the badass hero valiantly winning the day etc. It's one of the reasons I really like his work, in that there's actual stakes and almost always things never work out perfectly (no happily ever after, as it were). Which actually reminds me: they messed up The Lesser Evil in the show. The whole point was that even though Geralt made a choice, as opposed to staying neutral, it didn't matter and was in fact still the wrong thing to do. In the show he confronts Renfri's crew and kills them to prevent them from murdering the townspeople as leverage against Stregobor, then Renfri shows up and flat out says she will kill everyone in Blaviken until Stregobor comes down (while holding a little girl hostage with a sword against her neck, no less). This is essentially 'dumbing down' the conflict, because it very simply makes Geralt justified to kill Renfri at that point. There's no wrong choice here. He can be sad about it after, but in the end he had no choice, right? After this Stregobor comes in and incites the townspeople to violence against Geralt, because you see, he's a BAD GUY(tm). In the books: Geralt confronts Renfri's crew in the town square, fights them, and then Renfri shows up. She states that Stregobor refuses to leave his tower, no matter how many people she would end up killing, so she gave up. However, seeing that Geralt killed all of her friends, she fatalistically decides to fight him, and loses. Stregobor shows up after and still wants to take her body to autopsy, but when Geralt refuses, Stregobor insists Geralt come with him and leave the town, since the townspeople won't understand why Geralt killed these people, and will think him a monster. Geralt refuses, and the townspeople show up and start throwing stones until the Alderman comes and stops them, and he tells Geralt to never come back. Here you have a situation that could have been completely avoided, no one would have died. Choosing the 'lesser evil' was a mistake (as it always is). No one in the story is an out and out moustache-twirling villain, as they are in the show. It's magnitudes better. Kaedric fucked around with this message at 19:16 on Dec 24, 2019 |
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Dec 24, 2019 19:00
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Kaedric posted:So I guess you tell me which one is more cliche. Please! There is no fighting in the War Room!
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Dec 24, 2019 19:10
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NoNotTheMindProbe posted:So Yennefer did a huge non-consensual magical orgy. Naw, they reference a couple times that the town is a bit ... repressed, sexually, and all she was doing was some magic Spanish Fly, complete with magic safe-word. JacksLibido posted:I think there are a lot more people who are annoyed by it than are willing to speak up for fear of being beaten down as "racist", I'm one of them. I don't mind POC being cast in fantasy Europe, it helps break up the "everybody is blonde with blue eyes" type shows you get like with LOTR. However, I think Netflix went off the deep end a bit with Triss, Yen, Fringilla, Istredd, and Vilgefortz all being race swapped. That's a LOT of main characters to be swapped, and it kinda took me out of the slavic fantasy. The boat ride towards Sodden Hill really emphasized just how much they changed it up. The only ones that bothered me were Fringilla and (not sure if this counts because it's a show-only character, but since elves I don't think were shown as having dark skin) Dara, but not because of their skin color. The problem I had was how.. modern? they looked? Not sure how to exactly describe what I mean, but it's kinda like if one of the white sorceresses was cast as Alicia Silverstone? Like, I would absolutely expect to see those actors in a tween drama. Dara especially was a bit too pretty-boy for a homeless elf I think.
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Dec 24, 2019 19:13
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Proteus Jones posted:Please! There is no fighting in the War Room! You're right, that was needlessly incendiary, removed.
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Dec 24, 2019 19:17
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