S01.E03: Betrayer Moon

[Meredith Quill]

Episode Synopsis:

A picky eater, a family shamed.

[AnimeMania]

The timeline dazes and confuses you as Geralt rides his horsey from a blazing hot desert(?) where they are growing grain to a place with snow on the ground. Then he hunts a monster, how long, I do not know?

Ciri remains in the freezing cold how long, I do not know?

Yennefer goes on a sorceress' journey, how long, I do not know? Definitely several months by my reckoning. Possibly what we are seeing happen 30 or 40 years in the past. Was that supposed to be the King with the monster problem and his sister as young children at the party where Yennefer transformed herself. How long was that princess an monster? I am sure they can teach her language and how to be a proper lady and to be a Queen in no time.

There is always one character in every episode that seems to talk a little too much. Shut yer yap! sexy detective sorceress, less talking and more clue finding.

There is way too much plot going on in each episode, slow it down and throw in more nudity or more fighting, or both. How am I supposed to follow the story when there are naked women on the screen?

Great fighting, but not enough of it.

They still haven't explained the Witcher eyes, I guess I will have to look it up.

[Ottis]

I enjoyed this episode, from the world building to the character progression to the fight scenes. Bummed they made Yennifer beautiful, I liked her as she was. Also, we could use more info on these creatures and what it means to be bitten by one, etc. Geralt was given a bit more depth. 

[festivus]

38 minutes ago, Ottis said:

Bummed they made Yennifer beautiful, I liked her as she was.

Yeah, I was too but my son who knows the game says she's beautiful in that. I was hoping to see how she'd navigate things looking as she did. Oh well.

Geralt still thinking of Renfri. Me too, Geralt. Me too.

[MissLucas]

Well, I think the actress must be relieved - I'm sure she suffered neck and back pain from all the hunching. And I saw some artwork for the show before watching this episode so I knew that she sooner or later would undergo a serious makeover - did not expect it to be that bloody.

As for the time-line: I guess they are pulling a 'This is Us' with one plot in the past (Yennifer) and one in the present (Geralt), heaven knows where Ciri is - probably in the future to make the confusion perfect.

Also: being a princess in this world seriously sucks.

 

[DearEvette]

I haven't read the books or played the games so I plunged into this wanting to be surprised and entertained and let the world build around he story and plot and characters.  Up to a point it is interesting and I have been enjoying Geralt's story the most mainly because Henry Cavill is making Geralt fascinating and even a bit amusing.  I do like Yennefer's story but it feels a little 'YA' fantasy ish.  Ciri on her own is a bit boring.

But it is this episode that I started to see some real gaps in the story telling and realized that the show is going for visual impact and wide swings, not really giving any good connective story-telling tissue.

For instance, Yennefer grew up as a poor outcast, girl who slopped pigs.  The idea that she would somehow be better at knowing a courtly dance from a specific region just because she is from that region just doesn't make sense.

Also, I take it she was so upset she chose not to graduate from her Sorceress school?  But then decided to take the final exam all on her own and stride into the room all triumphant and upend all their after-school placement plans?  What kind of power does that  brotherhood council even have if some newbie  can just roll do that?

Also am I to gather that  if one of the rites of passage of Sorceress School graduation is that the new Sorceresses get to do the ultimate fixer-upper for their bodies and looks to make themselves look stunning beautiful and perfect?  because if so,  then it would have made more sense to make the other girls look less pretty when they were apprentices too. As it is,  Yennefer is the only one whose changed looks have any impact.  Every other one of the girls' changed looks reminds me of Hermione from the Harry Potter movies when she goes to the Yule Ball.  In other words, they put in some lipstick and combed their hair. 

I will say I liked the revelation of the different timelines. My take is Yennefer's is the earliest one (far past) , Geralt is some years later (past) and Ciri's is present day.

[thuganomics85]

Yep, there definitely seems to be some timeline trickery going on.  It sounded like a young Foltest was at the big sorceress ball, so I'm guessing Yen is going to be older and more experienced by the time she crosses paths with Geralt.

Triss Merigold makes her first appearance!  Safe to say that she is way different from how she was in the games (maybe this is more inline with the books?), but I like the actress and thought she played off Henry Cavill well enough.

Hope we get more council meeting just so we can see more of MyAnna Buring and Lars Mikkelsen facing off against each other.

Knew that Yen was going to end up making herself look beautiful at the end, but that was a brutal way to do it!

Striga's must be at least in the top five of the monster list, because damn, Geralt got his ass handed to him!  Although, I guess some of it could be because he wasn't trying to kill her, so he had to hold back.

 

[Kasienka]

 Striga looked so good. The whole fight was fenomenal and the practical effects on the monster were amazing. Didn't expect to see Triss in this story and it threw me off  a little, but she worked well . I think actress gave strong Triss vibes, though she didn't exactly have a lot to work with. Loved her hair and dress, costumes are strong point for this series.

Yennefer's story I enjoyed a little less than in the last episode. I appreciate showing more of the mages involvment in the world politics, but Yen's entrance at the end reminded me of all those teenage movies, when ugly girl suddenly gets a makeover and have a big entrance, and the "mean girl" gets left behind by the main guy. Not a fan of that.

Ciri's plot is the weakest part, the actress is really good, but she's not really doing anything interesting.

[Kasienka]

16 hours ago, DearEvette said:

Also am I to gather that  if one of the rites of passage of Sorceress School graduation is that the new Sorceresses get to do the ultimate fixer-upper for their bodies and looks to make themselves look stunning beautiful and perfect?  because if so,  then it would have made more sense to make the other girls look less pretty when they were apprentices too.

Agreed. It really bothers me that Yen's the only one who actually change her appearance. She had the most glaring flaws, but if everyone gets to have a session with makeover dude, something in their looks should have changed,

[ICantDoThatDave]

Eww. That is NOT Triss.  Like, not even close.

[Steph J]

4 hours ago, ICantDoThatDave said:

Eww. That is NOT Triss.  Like, not even close.

Why "Eww," if I may ask?  I've come into the series blind so I have no idea what the character is meant to be like from the source material.

[Lathund]

6 hours ago, Steph J said:

Why "Eww," if I may ask?  I've come into the series blind so I have no idea what the character is meant to be like from the source material.

Well I can't speak to ICantDoThatDave's specific reaction, but I would suspect it has to do with appearance. There are characters whose appearance isn't described much in the books, or where the description has room for interpretation. Where sometimes peoples' notion of what they should look like is based on their appearance in the games, which isn't canon. Triss is not one of them; she has at least one very distinct feature she's known by, which isn't present. Which isn't something I'd personally go "Eww" about, but I can understand it to an extent. There are other casting choices where characters are rather drastically different looking from the books, but where their physical appearance is described once at never refered to again. In those cases I couldn't really care less about that, only that the actors are good. Not that I care about this either, just seems a bit unnecessary. 

As far as character and personality, she didn't really have enough screen time to judge. The book crowd and game crowd tend to have very different opinions about her, so inevitably someone will hate her character no matter what. 

Edited December 23, 2019 by Lathund

[ICantDoThatDave]

That's it exactly.  It's such a casting miss that when she introduced herself as Triss I was hoping we'd find out it was someone impersonating Triss to trick Geralt.  Just Google "Triss Merigold" & click on images to see what Triss is "supposed" to look like.

[UnknownK]

So no red hair is a deal breaker?

I never read the books nor played the games (I did just purchased the first 2 Witcher games from GoG) so I had no idea what anyone was supposed to look like. 

If you just read the book you probably have a different idea of what the characters would look like then seeing them on the show or in the games. Everybody imagines things differently.

If you look at Harley Quinn (for example) in the comics she looks like a court jester and nothing like what she looking like in the movie Suicide Squad. As long as you get the characters personality, back story, and motivation correct you should be given a little artistic license with the looks.

[Kasienka]

I think in the books her hair are described as chestnut or reddish brown? Don't really remember that well. But changing hair colour doesn't really bother me. Calanthe supposed to be blond like Ciri, but the actress they chose is fenomenal as a Lioness of Cintra so... Who cares?

Also Jaskier was blond in the books. I never saw any adaptation, be it games or live action that gave him those golden locks:)

[ICantDoThatDave]

29 minutes ago, UnknownK said:

So no red hair is a deal breaker?

Pretty much, although the overall look is just wrong as well.  It may be petty but we all have our breaking points.  It doesn't ruin the show for me, but it ruins the character.  To me it's like if Tyrion from GoT was played by an actor that was 6'1" or if Gamora was suddenly orange-skinned in Guardians 3 & everyone acted like that was normal.  Or if Geralt had short black hair.  When you remove the one physical characteristic a character is most known for, it's jarring enough to take you out of the story.

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If you look at Harley Quinn (for example) in the comics she looks like a court jester and nothing like what she looking like in the movie Suicide Squad. As long as you get the characters personality, back story, and motivation correct you should be given a little artistic license with the looks.

But that's just a costume.  Characters can change clothes of course, but if underneath the costume Harley was an Asian woman with dark hair I'd question the casting there as well.

[Steph J]

2 hours ago, ICantDoThatDave said:

To me it's like if Tyrion from GoT was played by an actor that was 6'1"

With respect, this is a really specious example.  Tyrion's dwarfism is a crucial part of who he is as a person.  It defines how he sees himself as a person, his anxieties that he's "less than" and unworthy of love, and it defines how some of the other characters view and treat him.  If he were played by an actor who was 6'1, nothing about the character as written would make sense anymore, nor would his place in the narrative make much sense since Tywin probably wouldn't have as much of an issue with his son if he looked more like Jamie.

Does anything actually turn on Triss being pale skinned with red hair?  Because after reading the ew comment I went to some other forums to see what thoughts were and it seems like the issue a number of people are having is that she's not "hot enough."  Unless the character is meant to be a seductress - and that's not the impression I got from the show version, although I've only watched through episode 5 so I don't know if the character comes back and that becomes an aspect of her character, and as I say I don't know what her personality is supposed to be from the books and games - I have a hard time seeing how her looks really matter that much.

There's a difference between a physical characteristic being crucial to a character/the character's place in the story and it just being a matter of the author or audience's preference.

[ICantDoThatDave]

21 minutes ago, Steph J said:

With respect, this is a really specious example.  Tyrion's dwarfism is a crucial part of who he is as a person.

Fair enough, but you ignored my other examples.  Is Gamora being green a crucial part of who she is as a person?  Would you be OK if in the next GotG movie she was just randomly orange?  Or would your reaction be more along the lines of "whoa... that's not Gamora."?

[Steph J]

1 hour ago, ICantDoThatDave said:

Fair enough, but you ignored my other examples.  Is Gamora being green a crucial part of who she is as a person?  Would you be OK if in the next GotG movie she was just randomly orange?  Or would your reaction be more along the lines of "whoa... that's not Gamora."?

Personally, no, I don't see how Gamora being green, specifically, as opposed to orange or purple or any other "non-human" color, is a crucial part of who she is as a person.  If she's orange in the next movie it would be weird because the previous movies already established that she's green, but if they had made the decision from the start of the movie franchise to make her orange instead of green, I don't think that would have made her a fundamentally different character.  The Witcher series didn't start out with a pale redhead playing Triss and then switch midstream to having her played by a black woman, so I don't think your example of Gamora suddenly being a different color in the 3rd movie really works.  A character looking different in a film/tv series adaptation from how they're described in the source material is different from a character's look being inconsistent from one part of the adaptation to another part.

To touch on another of your examples, if Liam Neeson can play Ra's al Ghul then I don't see why an Asian actress shouldn't get a shot at Harley Quinn just because she's Asian, assuming she can embody the qualities of personality that make the character who she is.

[DearEvette]

Wait,  people think the actress who plays Triss is not hot?  Jeez people! She is gorgeous!

[Dobian]

Best episode so far.  We get introduced to Triss Marigold,, and the juxtaposition of Yennefer's transformation and Garelt's fight with the Striga was terrific.  And I remember the Striga story from Witcher 1 (game), so it was a fun all the way around for me.  It's also really interesting that the three main storylines - Geralt, Yennefer, and Ciri - are all different timelines.

Edited December 24, 2019 by Dobian

[HeySandyStrange]

13 hours ago, DearEvette said:

Wait,  people think the actress who plays Triss is not hot?  Jeez people! She is gorgeous!

Right?! Lmao. Her not being a red head does not negate the actress's beauty.

Spoiler

Also, for the record, according to the info I've read online, book Tried was a blue eyed brunette, not a green-eyed redhead like game Triss. So one could say the show is sticking closer to the source material on that front. 

 

[WatchrTina]

On 12/21/2019 at 10:03 PM, DearEvette said:

I will say I liked the revelation of the different timelines

I have absolutely NO clear sense of the different timelines.  I've seen other shows do it (hello Treadstone) and I've been able to follow it but I've seen nothing in this show that facilitates my making the mental leap between past and present.  I think at some point I was supposed to note the young incestuous siblings during the party where Yennefer the beauty made her debut but my brain just rejected that info.

 I will say that I enjoyed . . . no, that's too strong a word.  I will say that I took note of the parallel story lines with the two young women undergoing painful, bloody transformations in the two different plot-lines.  That was interesting story-telling

21 hours ago, Dobian said:

It's also really interesting that the three main storylines - Geralt, Yennefer, and Ciri - are all different timelines.

Wait, there are THREE timelines?  Okay now I AM lost.  But then I sort of forgot all about the wandering princess.  She heard voices calling her into the woods right?  Presumably that was a sorceress or mage since she looked like she was unable to resist the call (and it must not coming from a elf, since they shot her elf-friend.)  Okaaaay.

On a shallow note, I have to say that any excuse this show comes up with to show Henry Cavill with this shirt off is okay by me.

Last but not least . . .  I'm concerned about Geralt's horse.

[DearEvette]

53 minutes ago, WatchrTina said:

I have absolutely NO clear sense of the different timelines.

No real explanation just throwaway dialogue.

We already know from  the first episode, that Calanthe is the queen of Cintra and is killed.  This is Ciri's timeline.

In this episode, Geralt (or someone in his storyline) makes a comment about Calanthe being queen.  So in his timeline she is still alive.  Hence his timeline has to take place before Ciri's.  How much before we don't know yet.

And then at the Sorceress School they talk about Cintra having a King (not a queen).  So Yennefer's timeline has to pre-date Calanthe's rule.  So her timeline has to be before Geralt's.

It is confusing because they don't really show anything.  You really have to puzzle it out.  At first Ithought it was bad continuity. But it is just bad storytelling.

Edited December 25, 2019 by DearEvette

[WatchrTina]

25 minutes ago, DearEvette said:

It is confusing because they don't really show anything.  You really have to puzzle it out. 

The other thing that is confusing is that people don't age.  For example I scoffed really hard when it was revealed that Ciri is the GRANDdaughter of Calanthe.  I'm all for there being women of a "certain age" who are timeless and look the same at 50 as they did at 30 (e.g. Catherine Deneuve) but come ON.  Couldn't they have tried to age the actress a bit for the scenes with her "granddaughter" and also to differentiate that timeline from the one in which she (Calanthe) appears as a much younger woman?

I'm okay with The Witcher not aging because he's not human.

Edited December 25, 2019 by WatchrTina

[nodorothyparker]

That was a lot of screen time for naked women to be writhing around in their own blood and muck.  I get what they were going for with showing the agony of transforming into their "true" selves, but that was still a lot of screen time for naked women to be writhing around on the floor.  The "doctor" remaking Jennefer is played by an actor who also did a memorable turn as a rather nasty character on the last two seasons of Harlots, so this almost felt like a step up for him.

Because this show is all about the tropes, I already know we'll be seeing Yennefer severely regretting so blithely paying for her transformation with her womb somewhere down the line.  I guess the ugly ducking to beautiful enchantress thing was to be expected as that's a fairly standard trope as well and women don't get to be permanently ugly in these stories unless that's their entire character, but her grand entrance felt more like a plain Jane in a Disney movie removing her glasses and suddenly every man going hey, wait a minute ... than as big a transformational moment as I think we were supposed to see it as.

I'm as confused as everybody else on the multiple timelines at this point, so I'm just going with it for now.  Of course all the petty little warring kingdoms are being controlled behind the scene by an overarching council of wizards and sorcerers because of course they are.  It's a mildly interesting idea, but it doesn't feel like it holds up very well in the apparent reality that any novice can basically hold her breath until she gets the assignment she wants, regardless of who's doing it.

The show has now twice made a point of telling us witchers don't have emotions or feel things like normal people.  Of course that means that someone will likely be falling hard for another someone in fairly short order.

The washed out looking princess (Just how many princesses are even in this story?) needs to do something soon because as of now she's not really doing anything for me.

 

[Morrigan2575]

On 12/25/2019 at 4:09 PM, WatchrTina said:

Wait, there are THREE timelines?  Okay now I AM lost

As best I can tell, Ciri is present timeline, Geralt is past and, Yen is even further in the past.

Having some time to think about things and being totally unspoiled (never read the books or played the games). I wonder if Yen and Gently meat up in the different timelines? Ciri's mother knew Geralt (to some extent) since she sends Ciri to him for protection/safety. We know that there was talking of sending Yen to advise Ciri's great grandfather. Maybe they meet in the far past and then again in the present?

Everything seems to be centered on Ciri and her family/politics and, they seem to live long lives.

Edited December 27, 2019 by Morrigan2575

[tennisgurl]

Of course Yen has to get a magic makeover, look at her! She had glasses and a ponytail! She probably had paint on her sorcerers robes! 

Glad that this princess rescue went a bit better. And that Renfri hasn’t been forgotten. 

[Loandbehold]

On 12/25/2019 at 4:09 PM, WatchrTina said:

I have absolutely NO clear sense of the different timelines.  I've seen other shows do it (hello Treadstone) and I've been able to follow it but I've seen nothing in this show that facilitates my making the mental leap between past and present. [...]  

 I will say that I enjoyed . . . no, that's too strong a word.  I will say that I took note of the parallel story lines with the two young women undergoing painful, bloody transformations in the two different plot-lines.  That was interesting story-telling

Yeah, having not read the books (although I have now ordered the first one) and not being a gamer, I am pretty much lost when it comes to the timelines. I didn't even know Geralt and Ciri were in different timelines until it was brought up in the prior episode threads. I'm horrible w/ names, so didn't realize the grandmother (really, she looked like she only old enough to  have been Ciri's mother) was the same person who had just won the war described by Renfri (I think that's the character's name). 

In this episode, it seems like Geralt's character had advanced some number of years since Episode 2 b/c the prostitute is going over his healed-over scars and says she knows about that from the bard's song. But she didn't recognize one that was not fully healed. I'm assuming she's referring to the bard from the prior episode. 

I couldn't begin to say whether Yennifer's or Geralt's timeline was the earliest. At least not w/o reading it here. I'm wishing for titles to be shown when someone appears on screen, a la Burn Notice.

Renfri: Advises Geralt of his true destiny. Centuries in advance. Dies. Maybe. Now if they did that, I might remember who she was. 

I agree that the transformation scenes toggling back and forth was extremely well done. While the Yennifer awing the court at the dance was a scene out of Disney and practically every other young adult coming of age story, she did go through a wee bit more than just removing her glasses and her hot friend putting a dab of make-up on her. 

[Bruinsfan]

There's also the matter that unlike the usual movie-ugly that our heroine is getting a makeover for, being a hunchback who can barely move well enough to do everyday chores with a jaw so twisted it makes speaking difficult actually does sell someone being willing to make some black magic bargains to improve their physical state. Given that all the other students were usual levels of young actress attractive I imagine the guy was mostly providing pretty dresses and hair & makeup tips, but he actually had his work cut out for him with Yennefer.

[Danny Franks]

Sorceresses can get magical 'surgery' to become hotties. How handy! And also, in keeping with the 'women are sexy and mysterious and can't be trusted' ethos of this fantasy property. Of course she's hot. How can she have any worth if she's not?

I don't mind too much, in Yennefer's case, because she was actually physically limited and probably suffering chronic pain, due to her scoliosis. Although that didn't seem to be part of her decision.

I find it amusing that Geralt is irresistible to women, all around the world, but men (and, to be fair, older women who aren't potential sexual contests) don't like him at all. The 'whore who likes the hero enough she'd do it for free' is a tired old trope, reminiscent of Conan the Barbarian stories.

Not a fan of the Triss casting.

Spoiler

This character seems older, wiser and less genuine than the game version (and I don't much care whether the game version was faithful to the books or not, this is a personal preference).

The strega was genuinely creepy and disturbing, like a lot of the monsters in the games are. One thing I do like about the mythology of this world is that it's genuinely dark, and all the monsters have actual reasons and explanations for their existence.

So Yennefer's timeline is the furthest in the past? She's going to play a part in Nilfgaard's decision to attack Cintra, by the look of it. From that point, all we know is that Calanthe knew who Geralt was, and told Ciri to find him, so I guess we're going to see the timelines mesh at some point.

Edited January 2, 2020 by SilverStormm
Tagged game talk.

[Bruinsfan]

On 1/1/2020 at 5:58 AM, Danny Franks said:

I find it amusing that Geralt is irresistible to women, all around the world, but men (and, to be fair, older women who aren't potential sexual contests) don't like him at all. The 'whore who likes the hero enough she'd do it for free' is a tired old trope, reminiscent of Conan the Barbarian stories.

I mean, consider what her usual john is probably like in this setting, and with that in mind in walks someone who looks like Henry Cavill and is neither abusive nor possessive/clingy, but just engages in a bit of interesting casual pillow talk afterwards. I think his frequently-remarked-upon horsey smell is about the only downside.

[Scarlett45]

I am liking this series very much. I noticed the king of the kingdom Geralt was assisting was a little boy in the scenes with Yennefer and that helped establish the timeline for me. 
 

Henry Cavill is doing an excellent job of displaying emotion with minimal dialogue. 

On 1/2/2020 at 10:24 AM, Bruinsfan said:

I mean, consider what her usual john is probably like in this setting, and with that in mind in walks someone who looks like Henry Cavill and is neither abusive nor possessive/clingy, but just engages in a bit of interesting casual pillow talk afterwards. I think his frequently-remarked-upon horsey smell is about the only downside.

Was it explicitly said she didn’t take payment? I assumed he owed the Inn Owner for the room but paid her upfront. Given what I’ve seen of Geralt he would pay the sex worker (you know the person doing the work) first, and the bureaucracy last. 

[iMonrey]

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Was it explicitly said she didn’t take payment? I assumed he owed the Inn Owner for the room but paid her upfront. Given what I’ve seen of Geralt he would pay the sex worker (you know the person doing the work) first, and the bureaucracy last. 

He gave her a bag of coins as the innkeeper was banging on the door, and she said "what about the room?" Cut to Geralt and the innkeeper outside, the innkeeper is keeping Geralt's horse until Geralt returns with payment for the room. 

(Aside from that) I found this episode a bit difficult to follow. I don't need my high fantasy to be quite this dense. I don't think I'd have grasped the timeline differences without the aid of this forum. And there are just way too many strange character names and strange kingdom names. 

I think they might be going for a Westworld-type "surprise" by revealing the timelines at the end but I'd prefer a more straight forward narrative with captioned establishing shots for the timelines. They must know some people have it figured out from the books or whatever so what's the point of being so obtuse? It just makes the story more confusing. For example, the juxtaposed transformations of Yennefer and the monster made me think Yennefer was going to turn out to be the monster. 

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But it is this episode that I started to see some real gaps in the story telling and realized that the show is going for visual impact and wide swings, not really giving any good connective story-telling tissue.

That's a good way of putting it. I shouldn't have to do homework on every episode to make sure I'm following it.

[Otherkate]

1 minute ago, iMonrey said:

 

For example, the juxtaposed transformations of Yennefer and the monster made me think Yennefer was going to turn out to be the monster. 

 

I absolutely thought that's what was happening. The screams were even the same. I was confused by the presence of the 2 kids in the dancing scene, but only had any idea what was going because of this forum.

I've never played the game or read the books, so I am coming this not knowing anything. I'm sort of enjoying it (campy as it is sometimes), but I think it needs to be more clear as to what the heck is going on with these timelines. 

[chaifan]

Count me among those who would never have picked up on the different timelines if it wasn't for reading these threads.  As noted above, there have been some throwaway lines re: who is Queen, battles won/lost, etc., but if I wasn't told about the timelines those would have been meaningless to me.  (Most were anyways.)  In a modern story it would be different, as there would be a million things that would signify different timelines - fashion, hairstyles, cars, music, home decor, etc.  But here, everything is the same. 

Which means there are two explanations - 1) the timelines really aren't integral to the stories being told, and if no one knew there were different timelines until the end reveal, it wouldn't matter.  or 2) it's just bad writing. 

Regardless, I'm sort of bored. I don't care about any character in any timeline.  All the dark scenery, hushed voices, a gazillion weird character/place names, makes it really hard to follow. 

 

 

[paramitch]

Agh, this one was very hit or miss for me.

Just as with the pilot, there were some scenes that were completely illogical and campy.

Why, for instance, is Yennefer nude to the waist for her magical 'surgery?' And yet covered down where he's, um, operating? Basically because the show wanted lots of shots of bloody boobies while Yennefer writhed and shrieked. It was laughable and ruined the scene for me (and I felt really sorry for the actress).

I'm really unhappy with the show's approach to nudity as a whole so far. It feels distressingly familiar (former GoT viewer here) -- want to dress up a scene? Let's have a lot of naked ladies walking around for absolutely zero reason (i.e., pilot episode)! Need to spice up a scene? Just add boobs! Etc.

Meanwhile, I was sorry Yennefer transformed -- I thought she had this wonderful ugly/beautiful thing going on before, and now she's just sort of boring looking, if lovely.

Although I do like Julian Rhind-Tutt, who played the doctor, so am always glad to see him. He's one of those HitG actors that is always charismatic and watchable whenever he pops up.

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I didn't even know Geralt and Ciri were in different timelines until it was brought up in the prior episode threads.

@Loandbehold, I'm embarrassed to say that I didn't pick up on this at all until this episode. Much less that there are THREE, not two, different timelines being shown.

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The other thing that is confusing is that people don't age.  For example I scoffed really hard when it was revealed that Ciri is the GRANDdaughter of Calanthe.  I'm all for there being women of a "certain age" who are timeless and look the same at 50 as they did at 30 (e.g. Catherine Deneuve) but come ON.  Couldn't they have tried to age the actress a bit for the scenes with her "granddaughter" and also to differentiate that timeline from the one in which she (Calanthe) appears as a much younger woman?

THIS, @WatchrTina!

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@DearEvette: Also, I take it she was so upset she chose not to graduate from her Sorceress school?  But then decided to take the final exam all on her own and stride into the room all triumphant and upend all their after-school placement plans?  What kind of power does that  brotherhood council even have if some newbie  can just roll do that?

This entire situation confused me. I didn't understand the point of any of her actions there at all. If she had just gone with the program, as far as I can see, the outcome would have been exactly the same (and she could've had anesthesia for the damn surgery). She could still have made her play for the kingdom she wanted.

Also, I agree that nobody else looked that different. Also -- does Tissaia only train women, not men, to be mages? I just don't get the whole "now as you graduate we will make you fantastically beautiful" thing, when not a single male mage or wizard on this show so far is remarkable to look at in any way (although I thought Mousesack was quite nice-looking despite his name). Which again -- it's a bit icky for me overall. I guess I just was really bummed that Yen became so ordinary (although I would love it if her story actually dared to show her that beauty isn't always a gift, either).

The striga story was okay, although the incest thing between the king and his sister just felt weird to me. Geralt's fight with it was seriously campy (as is becoming usual for me with this show), especially since he didn't really need to fight it at all? Why didn't he just climb into the crypt, shout to lure the striga, then pop out the next morning?

Meanwhile, the striga disemboweling the guy responsible was sort of hilariously disgusting, but I'm getting that this is part of the show's, er, appeal. And when the striga-princess and Geralt both chomped each other's necks the next morning, I swear part of me was simply waiting for him to grab a healing potion from inside his coat.

It's weird -- this show's production, costumes and props are all over the place. Some scenes, things look laughably cheap (the wizard's staff in the pilot, OH MY GOD, or little items in set dressing or costumes), but then in others everything looks amazing (like the striga's abandoned castle). 

I still hate the score. It seems to alternate between "tinkly pretty fairy music" and semi-discordant yell-singing by an underpaid singing group against vaguely tribal beats.

I'm still watching, I'm just not in love. And I want to be.

[Loandbehold]

7 hours ago, paramitch said:

Although I do like Julian Rhind-Tutt, who played the doctor, so am always glad to see him. He's one of those HitG actors that is always charismatic and watchable whenever he pops up.

I didn't recognize him. Thanks for the info. I first saw him on the late, lamented Keen Eddie where he played Mark Valley's partner.

[paramitch]

36 minutes ago, Loandbehold said:

I didn't recognize him. Thanks for the info. I first saw him on the late, lamented Keen Eddie where he played Mark Valley's partner.

I adored "Keen Eddie!" Thanks for the blast from the past. That's totally where my affection comes from, and I missed that connection even after visiting IMDB.

[Zuleikha]

Why, for instance, is Yennefer nude to the waist for her magical 'surgery?' And yet covered down where he's, um, operating?

Ha, I'm so used to this sort of thing with TV that I didn't even process how weird it was for her to be covered at the waist. 

But there is a small justification in that the magical cosmetic surgeon put the potion only on the parts of her body that he transformed, so he needed access to her twisted spine but not her legs.

Also, I agree that nobody else looked that different. Also -- does Tissaia only train women, not men, to be mages?

Tissaia only trains female sorcerers. There is a different school for male sorcerers. 

I don't know why the makeup artists didn't do more to uglify the actors playing the female mages in their student days, so we could get clear contrast with their beauty transformations. It wouldn't have taken anything dramatic... it's TV, so just put less makeup on them in the first place and let the lighting make them look washed out/sallow. Then do normal TV makeup post-transformation so all of a sudden they look more eye-catching.
 

[Bruinsfan]

That might have given away which were the before scenes and which were the after, which seems to be a big no-no where this production is concerned. Who needs linear narratives or a way to gauge character development?

[Haleth]

The timeline issue is confusing. I only realized Yennifer’s was long ago because the 2 kids at the sorceress ball were the future incest king and his sister. There was a painting of them in the monster’s castle.

A lot of this show is pretty cheesy. (I’m not a reader or gamer.)  But I’m kind of interested to see where it goes, what will happen when the timelines and characters come together. 

[supposebly]

This show is just not very engaging. Archetypes and stereotypes and a lot of stilted dialogue. The acting is hit and miss as well for me. While I'm starting to get how this all might go together, I  just don't care much. Or that there is a field of skeletons.

I did feel bad for the striga monster somehow. Poor thing. Somehow I  found her an interesting monster.

I guess it's too much to ask to have a main character with scoliosis on a fantasy show.

Where is the bard? Not that I miss him since I never understood why he started following Geralt around. But did he go somewhere?

Edited September 3, 2020 by supposebly

[Anela]

The "artist" had to work his magic between her legs? Really? 

I never used to be that squeamish when it came to video games, but that monster might have ensured that I'll never play that game. I did love the way it took care of the one guy really quickly. 

I guess I'll have to read the books, because it feels like it's trying to be more than it is, if you know what I mean. I prefer shows that start out slower, and then really take you somewhere. I agree that the sorceress school thing, feels more like a YA novel. 

[femmefan1946]

On 12/23/2019 at 6:15 AM, ICantDoThatDave said:

Just Google "Triss Merigold" & click on images to see what Triss is "supposed" to look like.

Or you could just say she's a redhead instead of vaguebooking.