S01.E08: Much More

[AnimeMania]

1 hour ago, Loandbehold said:

Someone on Twitter posted a picto-timeline. My problems were how the specific dates were chosen and also that the post-coital convo b/w Geralt and Yenn made it seem as if they'd seen each other b/w their first time and the dragon request.

Witcher Timelines

There was also another timeline in that long jumbled comments section for people who don't want to scroll through most of the comments.

I really want them to add to the timeline the scene were little boy Geralt and his mother are having breakfast.

Edited January 8, 2020 by AnimeMania

[tennisgurl]

Looking at the whole season, I have to admire how trope-y the show was, and how the story seems to have a good handle on when to play these epic fantasy tropes straight, and when to play with them. There is so much that seems to come straight out of the DnD handbook, like the dwarfs and the Yennifers backstory and goals and the obsession with fate and curses and such, pretty lost princess Ciri, which was just gloriously medieval fantasy style in how straight it played everything. However, there were also some twists here and there that kind of went off script, so to speak, like a lot of the stuff with Calanthe and Eist (blood knight medieval queen) the golden dragon being the old guy who was on the hunt, it had enough personality to keep it unique, and not just a carbon copy of a bunch of other stories. I also think that I cut this show a little extra slack in some parts because I dont think that the show took itself too seriously, and is quite aware of what kind of genre this is, and enjoys the genre while also sometimes poking a bit of fun at its conventions. When so many shows are in a mad dash to prove how "edgy" and "unpredictable" they are by just throwing in random plot twists and and ideas that go nowhere, I can appreciate that they are just enjoying playing in a genre that the writers clearly enjoy. 

This whole season was kind of a prologue to the rest of the series, at least thats what it felt like to me, which had its good points (lots of time setting characters and the themes of the series up) and its bad (where is anyone in relation to anyone and who is fighting who?!) but it did sure make me interested to see where they go next season, possibly in adapting a more traditional narrative, less based on short stories and more based on a full arc?

[ShellsandCheese]

On 1/6/2020 at 9:23 AM, Danny Franks said:

Another thing I don't care for - sometimes a tiny fireball can wither a whole person, and sometimes lifting a rock withers your arm, but at other times people can do loads of magic and just get a bit of a nosebleed or look like they have a stomach ache. Either give us consistency, or explain why it's not consistent.

They explained all of this, I think you just missed it. 

[DearEvette]

11 hours ago, tennisgurl said:

However, there were also some twists here and there that kind of went off script, so to speak, like a lot of the stuff with Calanthe and Eist (blood knight medieval queen) the golden dragon being the old guy who was on the hunt, it had enough personality to keep it unique, and not just a carbon copy of a bunch of other stories.

Nah.  Those are also full on fantasy staples.  But you are right, the show knows that it is leaning in to its own well worn genre conventions.  And it is doing it with some humor instead of taking itself too seriously ... except for Yennefer. She takes herself waaaay too seriously.

[Morrigan2575]

12 hours ago, tennisgurl said:

This whole season was kind of a prologue to the rest of the series, at least thats what it felt like to me

S1 was based on 2 prequel short stories to the main 5 novels. So, I think that's by design. I'm hoping the remaining seasons go 1 for 1 with the books (6 Seasons total) but, I know that's pretty long for a Netflix Series. Especially if we have to go 2 years in between each season 😌

[pfk505]

I had a rather long post done here, but having seen the "spoiler policy" and the non-existent thread to discuss the books, I'll self-censor and just say I thought the show was quite well done but still lacking much of what made the books special.

The best thing about the show was Cavill's performace. He absolutely nails everything about Geralt. My favourite thing about season 1 by a country mile.

Edited January 12, 2020 by pfk505

[iMonrey]

What annoyed me about the big battle scene is that the mages should have been focused on taking out Fringilla from the start. It didn't seem to occur to any of them, except Yennefer towards the end of the battle. There were about 20 mages - I know Fringilla is supposed to be really powerful and using "forbidden" magic and all that - but she was vastly outnumbered. Instead everyone was just focused on fighting off the army. Which would have been simple enough if they took out Fringilla first.

Overall I enjoyed the season but still feel like they expected the audience to be familiar with the material.

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The very opening of the video game establishes the world quite effectively and had I seen this first, it would have made the series seem less muddled. The show should have had a prologue, al' la Lord of the Rings style, to help those uninitiated with the lore understand the setting better.

Agreed - this is what I was asking for from the beginning. We needed captions for timelines and locations. 

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It felt like a love letter to the gamers without attempting to become really accessible to the people who don't have the background with the games. 

My sentiments exactly. It seems like it would have taken very little effort to clarify a lot of this. In that sense it reminded me of His Dark Materials - another show that took for granted its audience would already have read the books.

I didn't really have a problem with the differing timelines, but there were way too many strange character and place names thrown around. I found myself desperately wanting to see a map - something a helpful poster provided in previous episode thread. That's something the audience needed to see in the show frankly.

[Morrigan2575]

5 hours ago, iMonrey said:

There were about 20 mages - I know Fringilla is supposed to be really powerful and using "forbidden" magic and all that - but she was vastly outnumbered. Instead everyone was just focused on fighting off the army. Which would have been simple enough if they took out Fringilla first.

Given that Fringilla is from the School/Brotherhood of Mages, it's possible they might not have wanted to harm/kill one of their members. Even Fringilla didn't kill Tissaia. Maybe some unwritten rule? Of course we still don't know why Vilgefortz killed that other mage. 

[Sakura12]

Just finished this. I wasn't too sure about it in the beginning. Coming here and finding about the 3 timelines after watching the second episode helped a lot. It made me understand the show a bit better. It wasn't perfect but it made me interested in learning more. 

I get people being annoyed with Yennefer complaining about not being able to have children when she's the one that made the choice to give that up to look beautiful. But it's been decades at this point she probably is lonely. That's price of a long life as well. I still love her character and knew she'd be asked to unleash her chaos at some point. I also think they did a great job setting up Geralt and Yennefer's relationship. They don't trust anyone but can't stay away from eachother whenever they meet. 

Fringella is hardcore since she doesn't tell her cult followers that they can trade something else to keep their lives and use the magic. Is she doing that because it's what happened to her? Thar cult must be something special that so many are willing to give their lives for it and never wonder why she doesn't. 

The bard grew on me. Ciri only grew on me because I looked up some gameplay on her, because I wanted to see what her purpose is. Hopefully she'll get better now that she's with Geralt. 

As for the Witcher to me he kind of felt like a secondary character on his own show. I guess they want to save his backstory for season 2 since they waited until the finale to show a bit of it. I think that hurt getting to know and connect with his character. Seeing where Yennefer came from made me interested in her. Geralt became interesting when he was with her because as he said he says more to her in 5 minutes then he says in a week. 

I'm looking forward to next season and am debating if I should read the books before. 

[Haleth]

Ok, that was both terrible and highly entertaining, also silly and derivative but I’m disappointed it was only 8 episodes. I’m glad all the timelines came together although I didn’t have any problem understanding when scenes were occurring. (I’ve never read the books or played the game.). I do need more explanation of the cult of Nilfgaard and what the whole White Flame thing is about though, and why Ciri is so important to them. (And what her power is.)  I hope we learn more about Geralt’s backstory.

Yen’s whining about having a child reminds me of a teenage girl who wants a baby because it’s someone who will love her. Very selfish.

Loved seeing Long Susan as head mistress at Not Hogwarts.

Fun show. They don’t take themselves very seriously. 

[Sakura12]

3 hours ago, Haleth said:

Loved seeing Long Susan as head mistress at Not Hogwarts.

It took me until the finale to recognize where I'd seen the actress that plays Tissaia. Ripper Street just popped into my mind. Lol. 

[Scarlett45]

I enjoyed the series, I will probably rewatch again to catch things I wouldnt catch the first glance. I do think streaming series do themselves a disservice when they only have 8 episode. I think 10 is the minimum you can do to move the plot along and give episodes a chance to breathe- I actually prefer 12-13 episodes, 8 is too few. 
 

I haven’t read the books but I’m intrigued. 

[Morrigan2575]

22 hours ago, Scarlett45 said:

I enjoyed the series, I will probably rewatch again to catch things I wouldnt catch the first glance. I do think streaming series do themselves a disservice when they only have 8 episode. I think 10 is the minimum you can do to move the plot along and give episodes a chance to breathe- I actually prefer 12-13 episodes, 8 is too few. 
 

I haven’t read the books but I’m intrigued. 

It seems like more and more streaming/cable shows are moving towards 8 episodes but, it really is too short. Like you, I think 10 episodes should be the minimum. 

[Sakura12]

Yeah 8 episodes is too short. I wanted more. Lol. I guess that's a good sign. I do think 10 is a good number, since its a little less than half of a regular network shows that have too many episodes. 

I will also to have to say that Anya Chalotra who plays Yennefer is a great actress for being so new. I've seen some interviews with her and she's awkward as hell. Lol so its impressive she's able to play such a confident powerful character. And I love how much of a fanboy Henry Cavill is for Geralt. I wasn't going to give this show a chance. I'm glad I did. 

[DarthPleasantry]

I thought the sorceresses were in impractical gowns because almost none of them live at the school. They came for a meeting and the invasion caught them by surprise. They mustered out in what they had on. I don’t think the few inhabitants at the school owned armor to change into, either. I thought it helped make them look woefully unprepared.

[Morrigan2575]

That and non of them are Warriors/Fighters. I doubt any of them would have thought of armor, let alone had it handy. Their intent was to hide behind the walls and, hold the Fort until the actual fighters/army showed up.

To me it was about as realistic as a fantasy show could get for a fantasy world. 

[Scarlett55x]

Which is better? witcher or lord of the rings?

[MarySNJ]

On 12/22/2019 at 11:14 PM, Stardancer Supreme said:

It took me 7 episodes to finally figure out that each episode runs on 3 different timelines.   So Geralt was actually in the castle when Cintra fell to Nilfgaard?  Imma need a flowchart to map this out so it makes sense to me.  Hopefully this won't happen in the next season.

I would have liked to see the process to becoming a Witcher. It might have been similar to how Yennefer was taken to Mage School. 

Other than that, I came into the Witcher with no experience playing the game or reading the books. I thoroughly enjoyed binging the season and look forward to season 2.  

 

I just binged season 1 after being nagged by my kids to give it a try. I enjoyed it but was confused about geography and timeline. While trying to get more information about what happens when, someone pointed out this interactive map on Netflix with a timeline, that I found really helpful. 

@Sakura12

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Fringella is hardcore since she doesn't tell her cult followers that they can trade something else to keep their lives and use the magic. Is she doing that because it's what happened to her? Thar cult must be something special that so many are willing to give their lives for it and never wonder why she doesn't. 

I don't think those Mages were given a choice or necessarily willing. They're conscripts (slaves?) under the control of a religious fanatic, and judging by the expression of the one Mage's face as she looked down on steaming pile of her fellow conscript's robe and ashes, it was something they were forced to do rather than being willing true believers. 

Edited March 9, 2020 by MarySNJ
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[Rockstar99435]

So I finally got to finish the series. It had its issues, but I like the world and characters enough that I bought the books for my next quarantine reading project. The different timelines were confusing at first and I don't think they did a great job of explaining who people were and where places were in relations to others. Like someone else suggested, the show could've used a Game of Thrones type map at the beginning of episodes so we'd know where everything is.

Yen is my favorite. I get why people find her "I didn't have a choice" stuff to be annoying, but I think it's like all the people in their 30s and 40s who are still drowning in debt from their student loans. Yes, on one hand, they were legal adults when they signed the papers and took the money and they knew that they were going to have to pay it all back with interest....but did they really understand how much money it would turn out to be? Yennifer knew what she was giving up, but did she really understand the true price? I do think just making her watch an average 3 year old for a weekend would be enough to snap her out of her 'a child would love me unconditionally forever' stuff. The first time the kid threw a screaming fit because she cut his sandwich longways instead of into triangles would send her running back to her orgy parties.

On a completely shallow note, Fringella's cape in the big battle was awful. It was so distractingly bad that I became convinced that at a pivotal moment, she was going to remove the cape and reveal that the forbidden magic she was using allowed her to become pregnant, setting up a big conflict for Yen. 

[foxfreakinmulder]

I came into this blind, I knew nothing about the books or game I just wanted to watch a cool show about a Witcher that kills monsters but there wasn't too much of that. The timeline didn't bother me I figured it out when it showed the queen with her daughter who wanted to marry that hedgehog or whatever he was. I wish they showed how Geralt became the Witcher we saw Yennefer schooling but not Geralts.  I had a hard time with Geralts low deep gravely voice I felt like I was watching a Batman movie having to turn my volume up and up just to try and make out what he was saying.  I didn't care for the singing stalker I thought he was annoying and found it strange that he wanted to follow this man that clearly didn't want him around. Just my take on it though like I said I know nothing about the books or game I just don't think it's for me so I'm probably not going to watch season 2.

[AnimeMania]

7 hours ago, foxfreakinmulder said:

I had a hard time with Geralts low deep gravely voice I felt like I was watching a Batman movie having to turn my volume up and up just to try and make out what he was saying.

I watch everything with subtitles/closed captions. I just pretend like I am getting too old to hear everything clearly, but I don't think that is the real reason. It also gives me a leg up if I need to spell a character's name correctly.

[Anela]

I agree that this felt like the pilot episode of something. It was okay, but not great.