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Yennefer is about 100 years old when she meets Geralt. The actress is 21. Even with Elven blood, Yennefer should not look like she was barely out of her teens.Yennefer made herself look a lot younger with magic. All the sorcerers do, but Yenn took it to massive extremes because of her deformity. At one point in the books Jaskier says she looks about 16 years old (at another point someone says she looks about 20, so she may have adjusted the glamour).
Oh, good.
I didn't need to know about Sapkowski's fantasies.
This makes sense within the world's framework. It's explicitly stated in the books that majority of sorceress are using magic to maintain a youthful appearance as a PR stunt. While not said explicitly it also might be a sort of confidence booster for them, in the same vein cosmetic surgery is used by some celebrities here and now.
Yennefer is about 100 years old when she meets Geralt. The actress is 21. Even with Elven blood, Yennefer should not look like she was barely out of her teens.Yennefer made herself look a lot younger with magic. All the sorcerers do, but Yenn took it to massive extremes because of her deformity. At one point in the books Jaskier says she looks about 16 years old (at another point someone says she looks about 20, so she may have adjusted the glamour).Oh, good.
I didn't need to know about Sapkowski's fantasies.
That is a pretty telling assumption about a writer.
First look at Henry Cavill in role.
I like it.
Boy, Legolas got old.
Anyone know if they are doing the books and video games or are they writing orginal plots for this?
It's based on the books. They do not have the rights to the video games.
Based on the casting announced, it looks like they are going to be adapting several of the short stories from the first two books, and possibly then moving into the third book (which is the first of the five-novel core "saga").
Ciri kinda sorta looks good too. Yen is a travesty.
How so?
Between this, His Dark Materials, and Carnival Row, we could be finally reaching a golden age of fantasy on TV.
Man, must they have faith in the abilities of their main character. He gets one whole line in a 2 minute trailer.
Hm. Doubts about Henry Cavill in the role here.
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Hm. Doubts about Henry Cavill in the role here.
He's playing the drow-like outcast that everyone hates. How hard can it be after playing such a horrible Superman? (too soon? :P)
MAAAAAAAAAAAARTHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!
PDK,
For me, I'll be glad to see Tyler do Superman for a bit.
Wow... the transformation between the two versions of Yennefer is impressive.
Can't wait.
Wow, I had no idea what to expect, but now I'm interested in watching it to follow Yennefer's story. The 'Meet Geralt' video, on the other hand, yikes. Can I just fast-forward though his scenes? :)
MAAAAAAAAAAAARTHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!
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MAAAAAAAAAAAARTHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!Wow, I had no idea what to expect, but now I'm interested in watching it to follow Yennefer's story. The 'Meet Geralt' video, on the other hand, yikes. Can I just fast-forward though his scenes? :)
Ha! But seriously, I don't mind Henry Cavill's acting, I just think the description of the character sounds pretentious and dull.
'He's strong and agile and has great endurance, and that makes him really interesting!' Uh, no. That makes him a memetic badass, just like every other action character out there, some with powers, some just played by Bruce Willis or Keanu or the Rock or Vin Diesel or Jason Statham or whatever.
'Really interesting' would require something deeper than his game stats, IMO.
RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32, 2011 Top 16
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What makes him interesting (at least in the books and games) is he's hated and reviled as an inhuman mutant, despite being super heroic and saving humans from horrible monsters. He's definitely an X-man type character in a fantasy setting. Shame if the marketing (or the show) isn't including that.
MAAAAAAAAAAAARTHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!Ha! But seriously, I don't mind Henry Cavill's acting, I just think the description of the character sounds pretentious and dull.
I enjoyed Cavill's acting as the Duke of York in the Tudors. After that role, everything he's done is forgettable.
What makes him interesting (at least in the books and games) is he's hated and reviled as an inhuman mutant, despite being super heroic and saving humans from horrible monsters. He's definitely an X-man type character in a fantasy setting. Shame if the marketing (or the show) isn't including that.
Some of the trailers have leaned on that: people calling him a monster, Yennefer saying people don't trust and fear him, and shots from one episode showing a crowd pelting him with rocks.
The TV show is up now.
It's decent but I think structurally flawed. They try to do the DUNKIRK thing of having three groups of characters in three separate timelines unfolding simultaneously, but fail to tell the audience that so it risks getting a bit confusing before it sorts itself out.
Also, the effects are a mixed bag, especially the big battle scenes which were clearly a case of not having the money to do them justice but trying to do them anyway.
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Watched the first episode. I am liking it.
Although I am not keen on the Nilfgaard armor though. A friend of mine heard tell that the armor design was supposed to represent the patriarchy or something, but I got that mental imagery out of my head. Once I got past that though, looking at it just looks like generic evil minion.
Other than the limits of their budget, it all looks fine.
Got to wonder why that guy only took two bottles when three were given though and what's wrong with Geralt's clothes? They look fine to me.
I stopped watching after 10min.
It sucks.
I see Superman, but no Martha?
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Finished earlier tonight. It was pretty good, and not all too confusing for someone with 2 hours in The Witcher and about the same in Assassins of Kings, and having never read the books.
The disparate timeframes thing is probably the shows biggest flaw, especially since I had no idea that Geralt and Yennifer are basically the elderly. I managed to get my head around it where it made sense midway through Epi 2. The final 2 episodes, though, where Geralt and Yennifer are catching up to Ciri in time really started to come together, and the finale episode was pretty on-point.
7/10 for the slow start and non telegraphed time jumps.
Actual rating: 5/10
Fantasy show rating: 7/10
If you're hungry for some fantasy TV, this'll do. I found it very cliche, predictable, and kinda dull. A couple moments here and there were interesting.
Time jumps like that work best when:
1) We have some idea that there is time involved in the story.
2) It matters.
An example that shows how it works: Westworld season 1. Even if the audience doesn't know exactly which time frame is which, and we don't know what the connection is, we know that time switching is a thing in the show. Also, in that show it mattered to the story.
It kind of felt like this season of The Witcher was just a prologue to the actual story.
All that said, it's easy to devour fantasy TV shows and feel like there isn't much out there to watch. I at least appreciate the effort and got enough out of the show that I'll watch season 2 if it comes.
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It kind of felt like this season of The Witcher was just a prologue to the actual story.
Yeah, I got that impression to. Eight hours of them fighting their darnedest to keep the characters destined to 'make the party' from being in the same room. Ugh.
OTOH, I loved the mages fighting at the end. I could totally dig a version of The Magnificent Seven with all the cowboys replaced by wizards...
OTOH, I loved the mages fighting at the end. I could totally dig a version of The Magnificent Seven with all the cowboys replaced by wizards...
I'll start on the screenplay...
OTOH, I loved the mages fighting at the end. I could totally dig a version of The Magnificent Seven with all the cowboys replaced by wizards...
That would work, given that The Magnificent Seven is basically already Seven Samurai with all the samurai replaced by cowboys.
The Magnificent Seven Sisters: A Forgotten Realms Movie
Although given their power level, probably an extremely short one.
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It was okay...
I liked it a lot and binged through The Witcher pretty hard, but I'd also been reading the books. And as a librarian I'm obligated to say that the books are always better.
It's the small things.
Like the focus away from the Fairy Tale origins of a lot of the stories. It's a lot less apparent that Renfri is a dark twist on Snow White. And I was sad that Geralt didn't take her body at the end, so the wizard can't conduct an autopsy to prove he was right.
Or how it omitted the part of the peasants poisoning a sheep in a failed attempt to kill a dragon. Because that was the story that originally inspired The Witcher.
Or how they felt the need to have Geralt be 110% toxic masculinity and unable to be bros with Jaskier. He has to be all brooding and standoffish rather than hanging around fishing together and being actual friends.
And I'm sad we didn't get the story of Ciri and Geralt getting lost in the woods together before Geralt realizes who she is.
Yennifer never seemed quite right either. Likely because I had such a clear vision of the character in my head, and the actor came off as much less confident and much more flailing. Yenn always seemed much more sure of herselves in the game and the books. She didn't feel like a century old witch in the series.
The time jumps were weird at first, but I quickly grew used to them. Honestly, I can't think of a better way to handle showing the origins of the three characters without having dedicated flashback episodes. But that would be awkward as we wouldn't get Yenn until 3/4 through the season and Ciri until the last couple episodes.
The only Thing that bothered me in the final fight was Vilgefortz duel with the Nilfgaard guy. So, you have mages here eliminating whole Regiments by squinting hard, and they sent the guy as an assassin whose trick is - replacable swords?
I was hoping to see a gish in action, but yeah pretty underwhelming. Especially, since he made a thousand comments about his military experience that only he had.
Ok...really enjoyed the heck out of that. I have zero experience with the series going in, so for me everything was new
and I thought it was pretty great. Yennifer seems fascinating as a character, Geralt is good in a brooding, living weapon sort of way. Very curious about what fate has in mind for Ciri.
and by the end my main thought was
"The whole season is basically the Prelude"
Can't wait for the next season.
might not wait and just go buy me some of the books
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Can't wait for the next season.
might not wait and just go buy me some of the books
Ditto. Where Game of Thrones made me want to NOT read the books, I'm veering the other way here, and feeling like there's a lot of story I'm missing, and only getting some cherry picked highlights here. (Same with GOT, but in that case, I got the feeling that there was a lot of story *I didn't want* that the showrunners were mercifully glossing over...)
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It's difficult for me to take Superman seriously when he has such an obvious wig.
LOL
Captain,
I'm sure if they found a way around the mustache, this wig thing can work too! ;)