The Witcher (Netflix)

[Fynn]

With only two days to go, the first season of Witcher on Netflix is almost here! So, who's going to be watching?

This is a definite watch for me, though I'll probably be going in about two days later since I'll be traveling to my parents and we're gonna watch it together. The Witcher 3 remains my favorite game of all time, but it only really gets that distinction because it stands on some particularly giant shoulders - a book series that I love to death, and which this series happens to be based on instead of the games, actually! A wise choice.

So who's excited? Any game or book fans getting into this? Or perhaps you're entirely new to the franchise and will be making this your starting point?

[Freya]

Yeah, i'm interested.

Henry Cavill is hot so well ya know. Gotta see him shirtless some more

[Freya]

We're 4 episodes in. It dope.

[fat_moogle]

I've just bought The Witcher III as it's on sale. If I watch this will it spoil anything? I mean the game was released ages ago but I'm not going to start playing it until after FF7R because there's literally no other game I can think about right now.

[Fynn]

The books are sequels to the books and the show is based on the books. You can safely watch them without being spoiled / in fact, it’s preferable to the other way around I personally always recommend people read the books before playing the games, actually

[fat_moogle]

Yeah I've seen you trying to push paper on people many a time! I can't say that I'm a book person, but thank you for confirming that I can safely watch the show

[Fynn]

I can't say that I'm a book person

*stares in judgement*

[WarZidane]

I thought it was good. Very entertaining.

Anyway I wanted to rant a little about the timeline because I keep seeing people (elsewhere) on the interwebs saying it's confusing and all over the place, but it's really not.

Spoilers for all 8 episodes:

(SPOILER)
Okay, so a short tldr: All three main characters have their own timeline, but their own timeline *is* chronological. Yennefer's timeline starts before Geralt and Ciri, but her first appearance is her timeline's start and every episode is after the previous one. Same goes for Geralt, whose timeline starts after Yen but before Ciri. And of course, same for Ciri, whose timeline starts last.

How can you tell? It's a few obvious clues spread over the episodes.

So here's Geralt's timeline:
Episode 1 - his starting point. The whole Renfri situation where he earns the title "Butcher of Blaviken".
Episode 2 - He meets Jaskier. You can tell it's after episode 1 because people call him the Butcher of Blaviken.
Episode 3 - He's not with Jaskier here, but you can tell it's after episode 2 because the prostitute at the start mentions a few ballads and "the bard".
Episode 4 - Now, I'll admit there's no 100% way to tell this one is after episode 3 from what I recall. This is, however, the point where you realise Geralt's timeline starts long before Ciri's. He's at a party in Cintra where Ciri's not even born yet. The reason I think it's after episode 4 is..
Episode 5 - Geralt is restless because he's ignoring his child of surprise. Jaskier mentions that at least a decade has passed since they met. This is also where Geralt and Yennefer's timelines converge by virtue of them, well, meeting.
Episode 6 - This one's obvious, Yennefer and Geralt already know eachother, therefore it's after episode 5. At the end of the episode, Geralt splits up with Jaskier and realises he has to check on his child of surprise, which brings us to...
Episode 7 - Geralt is in Cintra to check on Ciri. He's closing in on Ciri's timeline, as you witness his side of events that transpired in Ciri's timeline in episode 1.
Episode 8 - Well, obvious one, direct continuation of episode 7. He's trying to track down Ciri after the fall of Cintra. Their timelines converge in this episode.

So there you have it, for Geralt, episode 3 and 4 could theoretically be in reverse order, but there's no point, it doesn't matter and episode 5 gives you the subtle implication that 4 was the last one before it anyway.

Now for Yennefer:
Episode 2 - Yennefer's starting point. A stressful situation causes her to subconsciously open a portal and she's found by Tissaia, who starts teaching her about magic.
Episode 3 - Direct continuation of episode 2, she continues her training. This is where you find out her timeline started before even Geralt's; Foltest is present as a little boy. She undergoes the transformation and seduces the king of Aedirn to become his advisor.
Episode 4 - Timeskip for Yen, she mentions having spent three decades as advisor for Aedirn.
Episode 5 - Again, Geralt and Yen's timelines converge here as they meet.
Episode 6 - Same as Geralt, a little dragon-hunting adventure where they reunite and at the end of the episode have a falling out.
Episode 7 - Goes to see Istredd after the fallout with Geralt. Returns to Aretuza and decides to help against Nilfgaard.
Episode 8 - Continuation of episode 7, sorceresses vs Nilfgaard. The timeline converges with Ciri's here, they don't meet but the battle is concurrent with geralt and Ciri's episode 8.

And as for Ciri's timeline, well, we already established she starts way after the other two, and her story is very straightforward since she's on the run. No real need to elaborate much there since we even already established that her timeline finally converges with the other two in the final episode.


Alright, rant over, carry on.

[Fynn]

Five episodes in and I’m really loving the show. There’s not much I can complain about really. The casting in particular is surprisingly exceptional. Can’t wait to see more.

[Psychotic]

I’m also on Episode 5. It’s been decent, solid enough, but hasn’t been anything mind blowing either.

I’m not a fan of the narrative structure of time jumps. It’s not that I don’t get them so much as I don’t get the point. Maybe they’ll all come together by the end and I’ll reassess my opinion then, but until then they feel disjointed.

I really liked Yen’s story as the pig girl in training and I’m interested to see where they go with her.

[Fynn]

I think the time jump thing is mostly there in reference to the short story collections that this season seems to be adapting. The chronology there was all over the place but that honestly made sense because they were mostly standalone. I expect the chronology will be much more streamlined going forward, since it’ll be covering the novels, which are much more chronologically linear

[WarZidane]

It's also just there to show the experience Geralt and Yen have. By the time Ciri is born, they've both lived a lifetime already. The alternative (doing it all chronologically, rather than just doing their three stories chronologically individually) would result in worse pacing, episode 1 not having Geralt in it at all and Ciri not being introduced until episode 7.

[Fynn]

Alright, finished this. I am very happy with how this season turned out and I can’t wait to see more. I like how it feels very faithful to the spirit of the source material while adapting the story in a few ways that don’t just make it work better as a show, but just give it its own identity.

So here are a couple of things that the books did differently, so that those of you who can’t wait for the story’s conclusion can maybe pick up the books in the meantime:

- Geralt is far more outwardly friendly towards Jaskier in the books, and we never really see how they meet
- On that note, a lot of the backstories that we’re expanded here we’re just mentioned in passing in the books. Yennefer is one big example as it’s only later along the series that we get POV chapters for her and we never delve deeply into her backstory.
- Did you know Renfri was actually a spin on Snow White? In the two short story collections, most of the stories are actually edgy takes on classical fairy tales and it is glorious for the most part. Sometimes it’s just plain depressing (you are not ready for the Snow Queen )
- Speaking of, there are quite a few short stories that didn’t get adapted so far - and it looks like they won’t, considering the next season will most likely start just like Blood of Elves. It makes sense in terms of pacing, since the stories cut really had nothing to do with the plot of the saga later, but they’re still cool to check out because they’re great.
- Pretty much everything about Nilfgaard is different in the books. They’re an invading force, true, but there is no mention of them having any religion or evolving from a trouthole province.
- On that note, Fringilla and Cahir are completely different characters in the books. Not better, not worse, just different - like I said, different take.
- The fantastic racism angle is much more subtle in the books. Cintra isn’t a bigoted ethnostate. And wow did they change Calanthe into a bastard here. Went from regal lady of war to female Robert Baratheon? Again, not saying better or worse, just different.


So yeah, I’m definitely looking forward to more and might just do a book reread in the meantime! Would be great if we could do an EoFF book club out of this if more people joined in

[Chris]

I can't handle watching it. Mr. Cavill is too sexy. Can't stop staring at his ass and crotch bulge.

[Del Murder]

I finished season 1 and really liked the show. I started reading the books once I saw this was in development. I'm on the second one now. So the show spoiled some things for me though it clearly made some changes and upped the pacing from what was in the short stories. Though I loved some quips that were taken directly from the books such as 'money opens all doors'.

I also played Witcher 3 a while back and the fight scenes in this show sometimes look directly lifted from the video game. Even the music is there!

Cavil's grizzly voice was unnerving at first but I got used to it. I also was a little caught off guard with the time skips since they didn't have a dramatic pause or music change once it was revealed to be a time difference (compared to Westworld which did it better). However it made total sense to tell the story this way to appropriately set up the three main characters.