The Witcher |OT| Something More (Dec. 20th Netflix) - TAG SPOILERS WITH EPISODE

[Dakkon]

Interesting. Humans fucked everyone over then.

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Yep. Basically the Conjunction merged a bunch of dimensions across the multiverse, and when it happened humans arrived on the super populated Continent and did what we did best which is conquer basically everything and subjugate most of the people under our control. Non-humans in the Witcher pay a levy tax just for being non-humans in the cities.

The interesting thing is that Humans in the Witcher actually did originate from a fantasy version of Earth with dragons, and we pretty much fucked it up there too.

 

[Bubukill]

What's the Conjunction of the Spheres

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In the The Witcher universe exists the multi universe or multiple worlds/planes ( it may taken as just planets though)

The Conjunction of the Spheres is an event that ocurred thousands of years ago where all the existence worlds collided together for a moment, so everything gets messed around. This is how monsters came to The Witcher world (they may be called Aliens though lol) as well as humans.


Although, in the books it is implied that there are humans in different planes and that our world (planet earth, millenneals,memes etc) exists in The Witcher

 

[ryseing]

It's already better than the majority of thrones imo

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Nope. Just, nope.

I don't want to shit up the thread and only made the comparison because the show itself was inviting it with the late-season swerve back into grand-scale politics, but come on. And this is coming from someone who straight-up dislikes half of Thrones!

Episodes 2-6 are reasonably entertaining as monster procedurals, but episodes 1, 7, and 8 with the focus on an antagonistic kingdom we know next to nothing about are not good.

 

[ak1287]

They clearly didn't have the budget or knowhow to do the big fight scenes justice

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So just like GoT then

 

[ryseing]

So just like GoT then

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Heh, fair.

 

[RDreamer]

Nope. Just, nope.

I don't want to shit up the thread and only made the comparison because the show itself was inviting it with the late-season swerve back into grand-scale politics, but come on. And this is coming from someone who straight-up dislikes half of Thrones!

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I'm not sure you can say it's inviting comparisons by sticking closer to the source material released years before Game of Thrones' source material even was.

 

[elenarie]

Some event that happened a long time ago causing the original humans to come to The Continent from their own world being destroyed and also causing a ton of monsters to appear from their own world/dimension being destroyed.

Prior to the Conjunction, The Continent was just Elves/Dwarves/Gnomes afaik.

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Yeap. The world on which the Witcher takes place was originally populated only by members of the Elder Races, the ones you mentioned.

 

[mangopositive]

Just finished. Thought it was great. I played all 3 games and didn't feel lost in the slightest. The time jumps were difficult to keep track of, but I very much enjoyed the tales they were weaving together. I hope it's sucessful enough to get more than one more season.

 

[BioDigital Jazzman]

I finished it up today. I enjoyed it over all. I mainly liked Geralts monster of the week type stuff and Yennefers story lines. I didn't like the ciri stuff at all and I wish there wasn't a focus on it. Also I guess in the books Geralt doesn't do other signs. I was waiting for him to shoot some fire

 

[BloodHound]

The actress who plays yennefer is incredible. The actress who plays triss is actual awful at acting.

 

[Teiresias]

Just got to episode four. Can someone clarify for me.

Spoiler

Are there three timelines going on here? Yennefer, Ciri, and Geralt? I thought there were only two but suddenly Geralt is in Cintra talking to Mousesack.

 

[VeePs]

Just got to episode four. Can someone clarify for me.

Spoiler

Are there three timelines going on here? Yennefer, Ciri, and Geralt? I thought there were only two but suddenly Geralt is in Cintra talking to Mousesack.

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Yes.

 

[Mcfrank]

Just got to episode four. Can someone clarify for me.

Spoiler

Are there three timelines going on here? Yennefer, Ciri, and Geralt? I thought there were only two but suddenly Geralt is in Cintra talking to Mousesack.

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Exactly right. Yennifer timeline starts decades before the Ciri timeline.

 

[Mr.Beep]

Couldn't be bothered to finish it after the dragon ep. Never read the books but they seemed to adapt them so fast? I couldn't care for characters.
Cavill grunts a lot, couldn't get behind Yen's motivations. This was weak in my opinion.

 

[Lifendz]

Read the books a few years back but so far it's a pretty good recreation of the source material. I was worried for a few episodes because all the stuff with Calanthe and Pavetta kinda missed the mark imo, but the show managed to recover.

Was kind of on the fence about the actors cast to play Yen and Geralt but I'm happy that both are killing it. And for fucks sake I can't get that oh valley of plenty song out of my head. No wonder Geralt became famous after he met Dandelion.

 

[Teiresias]

Exactly right. Yennifer timeline starts decades before the Ciri timeline.

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Spoiler

So Yeneffer's is the furthest in the past, with Geralt in the middle, and Ciri the latest?

 

[HStallion]

During the puppet scene with the devil I was kind of hoping for some small reference to Gaunter O'Dimm

 

[DominicanPower]

The timeline thing is non issue once you get a grasp of the story.

 

[Mr.Beep]

Read the books a few years back but so far it's a pretty good recreation of the source material. I was worried for a few episodes because all the stuff with Calanthe and Pavetta kinda missed the mark imo, but the show managed to recover.

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How short are these god damn books? Ep 2 where he meets the elf king? and spend 3 mins deliberating with him is laughable. Why do we even care?

 

[Napoleonthechimp]

They could have made it more clear in the first episode

Spoiler: Episode 1 spoilers

that Renfri's gang was planing to kill innocent people in the town till Stregobor would come out from his tower, to make it more clear why people in the town were afraid of him after his fight and why he was seen as a "monster" to them.. in the show it looked as he was killing them in self defense.. and shame that they didn't include "Tridam ultimatum" part of the short story in the show.. it's not clear why Geralt decided to go back to Blaviken, when Renfri told him before that she decided that she is going away from the town with her gang

And I really hope that they show Jaskier's philosophical side more in the future and how he helps Geralt when he needs to hear the hard truth sometimes - that he is sometimes just annoyingly stubborn and rejecting help from others when he knows he needs it

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Spoiler: for episode 1

It isn't explicitly stated but I can imagine Geralt thought that Renfri said that and then seduced him just to keep him out of the way. In the same situation I'd at least check out what's going on in the village after seeing she's gone.

Personally I prefer not to have everything explained clearly.

 

[Mcfrank]

Spoiler

So Yeneffer's is the furthest in the past, with Geralt in the middle, and Ciri the latest?

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Yes.

 

[BloodHound]

So how many books did the first season cover?

Theoretically, how many seasons would it to take to cover the 8 books and 3 games?

 

[Sobriquet]

So how many books did the first season cover?

Theoretically, how many seasons would it to take to cover the 8 books and 3 games?

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It covered some short stories. I believe the showrunner said it would take 7 seasons to cover the books.

 

[BloodHound]

Spoiler

So Yeneffer's is the furthest in the past, with Geralt in the middle, and Ciri the latest?

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I wish this show would actually state how old the three main characters are or how much time has past to give viewers some context.

 

[EatChildren]

So how many books did the first season cover?

Theoretically, how many seasons would it to take to cover the 8 books and 3 games?

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Haven't yet finished the first season so I cannot answer that, but I doubt they'll adapt the games. They're not official sequels to the novels, even if they licensed the IP, and even if they wanted to Netflix would likely have to form a contract with CDPR.

 

[Dakkon]

During the puppet scene with the devil I was kind of hoping for some small reference to Gaunter O'Dimm

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They can't reference game characters, they're owned by CDPR.

 

[Flipyap]

Couldn't be bothered to finish it after the dragon ep. Never read the books but they seemed to adapt them so fast? I couldn't care for characters.
Cavill grunts a lot, couldn't get behind Yen's motivations. This was weak in my opinion.

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This season rushed through two short story collections, covering most major plot beats, but skipping pretty much all the details and character moments that made the stories interesting.
From here, they have five novels to adapt, but those are rather light on plot and mostly focused on the kind of character moments they've rushed past this season. It's going to be interesting to see what they do next because I can't imagine it slowing down now.

 

[Deleted member 42055]

I definitely had to explain the time skips to my mom, but overall they didn't bother me too much it was nice getting more time with the Queen, that actress kills it

 

[Chiaroscuro]

I wish this show would actually state how old the three main characters are or how much time has past to give viewers some context.

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I don't think it is necessary, the only needed information is that sorceress don't age and witchers age very slowly.

But if you need more, at the "present day" in the show (Ciri story) Yennefer should be around 90 years old, and Gerald around 50-60. Ciri is 12-13.

Yen story begins around 70 years ago, she spend a lot of time learning magic and later more than 30 years at a court, before becoming errant and later met Gerald.

Gerald story begins around 20-25 years ago, each adventure is years in between, meeting Yennefer several times.

 

[Pharaoh]

Just finished. Overall I really loved it. The show improved with each episode and finished strong. Surely some cuts were made in the adaptation but that's to be expected. Later episodes also did a pretty good job in hiding the budget. Now the wait for Season 2 begins.

 

[BloodHound]

I definitely had to explain the time skips to my mom, but overall they didn't bother me too much it was nice getting more time with the Queen, that actress kills it

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Yea Queen Calanthe was another great character. Actress killed it.

 

[Sirhc]

I finished it up today. I enjoyed it over all. I mainly liked Geralts monster of the week type stuff and Yennefers story lines. I didn't like the ciri stuff at all and I wish there wasn't a focus on it. Also I guess in the books Geralt doesn't do other signs. I was waiting for him to shoot some fire

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Igni does get some use, they actually cut at least one major use of it from this season so who knows what the plan is. The books themselves slow down on the monster hunting a lot.

 

[NCR Ranger]

This season rushed through two short story collections, covering most major plot beats, but skipping pretty much all the details and character moments that made the stories interesting.
From here, they have five novels to adapt, but those are rather light on plot and mostly focused on the kind of character moments they've rushed past this season. It's going to be interesting to see what they do next because I can't imagine it slowing down now.

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I hope they do slow it down. I feel like many of the characters weren't given enough time to breathe in the first season. I have that problem with a lot of media these days, so maybe I am just an old man who can't keep up and feels like most shows these days just rush from one set piece to the next with no breathers in-between.

 

[Lashley]

I hope they do slow it down. I feel like many of the characters weren't given enough time to breathe in the first season. I have that problem with a lot of media these days, so maybe I am just an old man who can't keep up and feels like most shows these days just rush from one set piece to the next with no breathers in-between.

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I feel like they will slow it down. This season was just introducing everything.

 

[scitek]

So uh, ep. 8...

Spoiler

Don't fuck with Yen, huh?

 

[J_Viper]

Well color me surprised, EP4 was quite enjoyable.

Feared the worst when Not-Dandelion showed up, but even he was bearable. I actually dug the case-of-the-week vibe. Procedurals aren't my thing, but Henry is so damn good as Geralt that I could really watch his take on that character get mixed up in miscellaneous hijinks.

Hope the back of the season continues to improve.

 

[SpottieO]

Once I understood there were time slips occurring (in episode 4 I think) then everything clicked and I was able to piece together all the different timelines.

I bought Witcher 3 on PS4 and put like 15 hours in to it before dropping it but this makes me want to grab the Switch port lol.

 

[Sulik2]

I am loving this show so far. Finished episode 4. I'm really digging it. Geralt, Ciri and Yen are fantastic. Triss needs a recast, her actress was just bad at acting. The monster in episode 3 was great effects work. I'm having no issues with the timelines. By the end of 4 it's pretty clear exactly when each storyline is occuring. This is making me finally want to play the witcher three.

 

[SABO.]

You are not getting it. There is no flashback but three stories being told at different times.

First is Yennefer and how she become a sorceress. That happened "more than 60 years ago" (Yennefer is 90 as far as I know).

Second is Gerald story, which begins around 40 years after the Yennefer's one. His story is about the time he battled the monsters, and meet Yennefer for the first time. Those two stories joined after the point Yennefer tried to protect the queen and princess from the assassination attempt (bring in the court for more than 30 years as she said in that episode). After a while being an errant sorceress she met Gerald. At this point Gerald also met and helped Ciri's parents, being tied to Ciri by the Surprise Law.

Third story is Ciri, happening "now" around 12-15 years after Gerald story.

All stories are told chronologically and without flashbacks. Same characters appers as child, adult and elderly as humans got old and Witchers/sorceress do not.

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This makes a lot more sense, thanks for spelling it out.

Edit: finished 7th and that helped a lot too.

Bring on ep 8

 

[Rosenkrantz]

Just 2 episodes in and it's fucking terrible. Godawful dialogue, subpar cinematography (why everything that shot in the night is so dark?), less than stellar performances from more than a few cast members, ugly CG. But that's not even the worst part, the worst part is how people tell their entire background to complete strangers they've met a couple of minutes ago, this is just fucking dumb.

 

[BrightLightLava]

They really need to work on Geralt's colored contacts. He often looks cross eyed. Yen's look great.

 

[Jadow]

I wish the soundrack was more remarkable (outside of Jaskier's songs), then again I have Witcher 3's OST in my head whenever I think of this series so...yeah kinda unfair there, but just think about how Geralt fighting a monster would be like with this track playing.

 

[Demon Lizardman]

Henry Cavill would make a good Sephiroth...

Just saying.

 

[Jest]

I wish the soundrack was more remarkable (outside of Jaskier's songs), then again I have Witcher 3's OST in my head whenever I think of this series so...yeah kinda unfair there, but just think about how Geralt fighting a monster would be like with this track playing.

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This is so aggressive. It honestly reminds me of the type of tracks used in the Spartacus TV show. And that worked there because of intentionally over the top combat scenes.

 

[DarkChronic]

Just finished the first episode. Wasn't a huge fan. Came away with a resounding, "This is fine, I guess." Was pretty bored throughout. And finding out it's a monster of the week show has me really disinterested in continuing. Ah well. Maybe I'll give it another shot some day if it gets picked up for a second season.

 

[Jest]

Just finished the first episode. Wasn't a huge fan. Came away with a resounding, "This is fine, I guess." Was pretty bored throughout. And finding out it's a monster of the week show has me really disinterested in continuing. Ah well. Maybe I'll give it another shot some day if it gets picked up for a second season.

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It's not what I would consider a MOTW show. There's a much stronger throughline plot than MOTW shows. That's not to suggest that you should continue if you're not feeling it. Just wanted to clarify that aspect.

 

[Hot Priest]

Just finished the finale.

When it's trying to be Game of Thrones-lite, the show is an unmitigated disaster. They clearly didn't have the budget or knowhow to do the big fight scenes justice, and it's hard for the viewer to give a damn about these places we only know vague things about, as the ostensible antagonists barely get any screen time. Thrones should have taught any fantasy show that the visuals of a map are quite helpful.

The procedural monster of the week stuff is alright though, and I thought there was some gold to be mined with the Jaskier/Geralt relationship. Shame that future seasons will likely have to lean into the large scale stuff rather than the smaller stories.

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Why are you complaining about something the show wasn't even trying to be about? Large scale battles are less than 1 percent of it and it's not driven by its antagonists, it's driven by the 3 main characters. If you want to claim that it's a "disaster" you have to actually construct an argument as to how it fails on its merits, rather than what you wanted it to be.

 

[HStallion]

Just finished episode 8 and didn't realize that was it for the season. Wasn't bad, wasn't great either. A lot of weird choices held things back and I hope they tighten things up for the second season.

 

[henhowc]

Just finished the first episode. Wasn't a huge fan. Came away with a resounding, "This is fine, I guess." Was pretty bored throughout. And finding out it's a monster of the week show has me really disinterested in continuing. Ah well. Maybe I'll give it another shot some day if it gets picked up for a second season.

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it's not a motw show. S2 was already confirmed before s1 dropped. Time to give it another chance. :p

 

[Hot Priest]

Just finished the first episode. Wasn't a huge fan. Came away with a resounding, "This is fine, I guess." Was pretty bored throughout. And finding out it's a monster of the week show has me really disinterested in continuing. Ah well. Maybe I'll give it another shot some day if it gets picked up for a second season.

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It's not motw. This thread is a dumpster fire of wrong information and awful hot takes.

 

[Jest]

This season rushed through two short story collections, covering most major plot beats, but skipping pretty much all the details and character moments that made the stories interesting.
From here, they have five novels to adapt, but those are rather light on plot and mostly focused on the kind of character moments they've rushed past this season. It's going to be interesting to see what they do next because I can't imagine it slowing down now.

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I hope they do slow it down. I feel like many of the characters weren't given enough time to breathe in the first season. I have that problem with a lot of media these days, so maybe I am just an old man who can't keep up and feels like most shows these days just rush from one set piece to the next with no breathers in-between.

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The Showrunner has said that she estimates it would take around 7 seasons to fully tell the tale of the saga. So that estimation suggests that the pace would slow down. And honestly, I think the pacing with regards to the short stories was due to wanting to get to the meat of the saga in the first season and being limited to 8 episodes to do so.

As much as book readers would have liked to let the short stories breathe, for a story so definitively Fantasy to survive in TV, it needs to get to the serial hooks as quickly as it can. Otherwise the average viewer is far more likely to quickly dismiss it as generic and move on. This is especially true of Netflix style "drop the whole season at once" shows. People need a reason to keep coming back and the hooks that a serialized story offers by necessity lend to that.