Good TV

Roz · Jul 3, 2019, 3:45 AM

@Roz said in Good TV:

@Wretched There's even more! There's a second Yen and Ciri image, too.

I am going to very briefly complain about media transitions: Yennifer looks way too young.

Doesn't she keep herself looking early 20s in the books?

Sparks · Jul 3, 2019, 4:35 AM

@Roz - Yes, plus the way she's described in the books, that actress honestly is superb. Yennefer is not supposed to be stunningly beautiful; it's her charisma and force of personality that draws people to her. If she and Henry Cavill have good chemistry, that casting was inspired.

Depending on where they start in the story, the actress playing Ciri might be a bit too old, but that's not necessarily something they couldn't tweak in the story. The actress for Ciri is otherwise spot-on for the book description as well.

Yennefer, Triss, and Ciri are all made more "cinematic" in the games; Triss, for instance, is not a redhead.

The books are really worth a read, though the English translation is considered lackluster compared to most. And though the final book of the saga takes a bit of a weird left turn into Arthurian myth and never really quite seems to resolve the Wild Hunt storyline it introduces. (Hence the "fix-it fic" that the Witcher 3 basically seems to be; where the first two games are in their own little alternate continuity, the third seems to take place within the book continuity, set right after the final book.)

At any rate, I think the casting is very true to the books. And I am certainly very happy it's an adaptation of the books rather than the games; as I think literally all of my friends who've discussed the Netflix series in my earshot know by now, I am hoping the series at least touches on the Korath Desert arc and Ciri befriending Ihuarraquax. (#GiveCiriHerUnicornBuddy2k19)

Roz · Jul 3, 2019, 5:04 AM

@Sparks said in Good TV:

The books are really worth a read, though the English translation is considered lackluster compared to most.

I think I heard a passing mention of new translations recently maybe.

Rinel · Jul 3, 2019, 5:10 AM

@Sparks said in Good TV:

where the first two games are in their own little alternate continuity, the third seems to take place within the book continuity, set right after the final book.)

Wait a minute

hold up

you're saying I can read books and skip the first two games, and just play the good one?

This is like the best news ever.

Roz · Jul 3, 2019, 5:20 AM

@Rinel said in Good TV:

@Sparks said in Good TV:

where the first two games are in their own little alternate continuity, the third seems to take place within the book continuity, set right after the final book.)

Wait a minute

hold up

you're saying I can read books and skip the first two games, and just play the good one?

This is like the best news ever.

You can read NO books and skip the first two games and just play the good one. I and plenty of others have done so.

Auspice · Jul 3, 2019, 6:30 AM

Edited because it shows how fucking long my workday was that I mixed up DA and Witcher.

...I need more sleep.

Sparks · Jul 3, 2019, 6:26 AM

@Rinel said in Good TV:

@Sparks said in Good TV:

where the first two games are in their own little alternate continuity, the third seems to take place within the book continuity, set right after the final book.)

Wait a minute

hold up

you're saying I can read books and skip the first two games, and just play the good one?

This is like the best news ever.

As Roz says, you don't even need to read the books; the third game does manage to stand on its own. There are bits of the game you may get more out of if you've read the books; Avallac'h is a more understandable character if you've read last two books, for instance. The vision of a particular character (who does not otherwise appear in the game outside of that vision) dying is a direct reference to events in Lady of the Lake. Etc.

If you do decide to read the books, there's only a few you really need to read; most of the others are short story collections or side-stories. However, the story collections are worth reading; they flesh out the earliest parts of Geralt and Yennefer's relationship pretty well, and a lot of characters who are later big players in the saga first show up in those stories. Also, the second of the collections (Sword of Destiny) has an extremely important and notable event in young-Ciri's life, as well as some useful backstory on her tale in general. And you get to see Geralt being both worst dad (in one story) and best dad (in another).

In terms of series chronology, with the bolded ones being the actual books of the Blood of Elves saga (i.e., Ciri's story), and italics being the games:

The Last Wish
Season of Storms
The Sword of Destiny
Blood of Elves
Time of Contempt
Baptism of Fire
Tower of the Swallow
Lady of the Lake
The Witcher (sort-of; it's supposedly set five years after the events of Lady of the Lake, but doesn't really seem to adhere to the book canon, and doesn't really seem to be part of the saga)
Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings (again... sort of?)
Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (snaps back into alignment with the books abruptly, no question this one is in line with established book canon, and it very directly resolves story threads from Lady of the Lake and centers in large part around Ciri, making it clearly part of the actual Blood of Elves saga; despite this, they did an excellent job of making the story stand on its own)

Coin · Jul 3, 2019, 3:02 PM

Witcher 3 even gives you the choice at the beginning to make the same choice you make at the end of 2, because it's a choice that repercusses throughout the game. So you don't need to read the books or play the games before it. It pretty much functions wonderfully as a standalone game. I didn't even finish it because of... reasons... but I will eventually. It's really good.

SG · Jul 3, 2019, 4:27 PM

I don't get the hate that Witcher 2 gets, it was a fun game with a cool story.

Rinel · Jul 3, 2019, 4:42 PM

I didn't wanna play witcher 2 because I haven't finished witcher 1, but witcher 1 is HORRIBLE

SG · Jul 3, 2019, 4:53 PM

@Rinel Yeah, the first third of 1 was dogshit. I ran into a glitch that made it impossible to proceed and had to start over.

I remember the second half of the game picking up, but that first half was such a bad experience I don't know if I'll ever replay it.

Ghost · Jul 3, 2019, 4:55 PM

I want this series to kick ass; I do.

I worry that (like so many things these days) fanbase entitlement is going to take a hardcore Montezuma's Revenge shit all over it: "blah blah dont like Cahill blah blah wig blah blah too many white males blah blah put the color red on a sign that was blue in the video games blag blah someone's twitter account said a thing blah blah ratio of x to y demographic blah blah doesnt use two swords blah blah Siri doesnt look like she does in Witcher 3"

Luckily, some fan-loved shows didn't get entitlement wrecked, like the Expanse, Deadly Class, etc, but every nerd-loved setting coming to tv/movies I always brace for it. Amazon's Expanse is coming, Wheel of Time, LotR, etc.

tl;dr I'm gonna watch the Hell out of Witcher. Very excited. Hope entitlement doesn't fuck up me getting a full show run.

Rinel · Jul 3, 2019, 5:26 PM

It's true that most of those series are very, very white (WoT has a pretty diverse cast, though not really in the main characters). Which is fine in and of itself, but it's sort of a Bechdel-y systemic issue.

The problem of course is that if you change someone's race (e.g. black Siuan Sanche instead of vaguely Mediterranean) you'll have an explosion of angry nerds screaming about the SJW menace.

Thenomain · Jul 3, 2019, 5:33 PM

@Roz said in Good TV:

@Thenomain said in Good TV:

@Roz said in Good TV:

@Wretched There's even more! There's a second Yen and Ciri image, too.

I am going to very briefly complain about media transitions: Yennifer looks way too young.

Doesn't she keep herself looking early 20s in the books?

Books? Video games? Media? Then maybe the complaint is she looks in her 30s in the games. Who cares if the show is any good?

Sparks · Jul 3, 2019, 5:36 PM

Yeah well, people can whine about the series not being exactly like the games, but this is an adaptation of the books; I (and other book fans) will endeavour to shout louder than they do if we have to.

I mean, adaptations are never 100%; the Expanse isn't a perfect retelling of the books, but it keeps the spirit of the story intact (no doubt because the authors are heavily involved with the show). If we get something that's along those lines here, it doesn't need to be a completely accurate retelling of the Blood of Elves saga. As long as it keeps the spirit of the story—which is, arguably, that the family you find and make along the way is more important to who you are than bloodline or prophecy, and "destiny" will ruin your life if you let it—then I will be happy.

Roz · Jul 3, 2019, 5:38 PM

@Thenomain said in Good TV:

@Roz said in Good TV:

@Thenomain said in Good TV:

@Roz said in Good TV:

@Wretched There's even more! There's a second Yen and Ciri image, too.

I am going to very briefly complain about media transitions: Yennifer looks way too young.

Doesn't she keep herself looking early 20s in the books?

Books? Video games? Media? Then maybe the complaint is she looks in her 30s in the games. Who cares if the show is any good?

Lol. To be clear, I haven't read the books, and I absolutely prefer her looking in her 30s in the video game. I'd love an older actress because, yeah, sue me, I get annoyed at the constant "older male lead and younger female lead" dynamic (even if Yen is obviously way, way older than she looks). But hopefully the actress will have the requisite presence and charisma and they have good chemistry, because in the end, that's what'll make their relationship dynamic fun to watch.

Sparks · Jul 3, 2019, 5:42 PM

@Roz - yeah. Part of what makes Yen who she is in the books is a ton of charisma, despite not being classically beautiful, combined with 80+ years of experience and everyone underestimating her because of how young she keeps herself looking.

If the actress has charisma and good chemistry with Geralt, I think it'll work fine. I wouldn't mind if they'd made her look older, but I'm fine with sticking to the apparent age in the books.

Thenomain · Jul 3, 2019, 5:46 PM

@Roz

This is absolutely why I went with the Geralt/Yen combo in Witcher 3. Not only did she not take his nonsense while supporting his goals, but she was shown to be a character with depth and nuance. All the characters were, in their own way, but the writing for Yennifer impressed me more than I was expecting. In the end they were equals.

If that's the Yen from the books then good on them. And if not, I'm still interested to see what they do.

Roz · Jul 3, 2019, 5:49 PM

@Thenomain There was no moment of competition for me when it came to the Yen/Geralt pairing. Like, I would worship at the Queen of Yennefer, she's so great. Triss literally is all like "Haha sorry for totally manipulating you while you lost your memories" and I was like "exCUSE?"

But yeah honestly Geralt and Yennefer have to be one of my favorite video game pairings of all time. Dayum.

Thenomain · Jul 3, 2019, 5:52 PM

@Roz said in Good TV:

There was no moment of competition for me when it came to the Yen/Geralt pairing.

I think we need to start a Yennifer Fan Club on this board.