S01.E04: Of Mages, Malice, and Monstrous Mayhem

[paulvdb]

Quote

As Merwyn forges an uneasy alliance to achieve her plans for Elfkind, the battle begins in Xintrea, where Eile finds her voice and Fjall loses control.

 

[AnimeMania]

It wasn't that bad, they could have gone with fewer F-Bombs to try to attract a younger audience. Them removing two the episodes to make the story tighter, might have been a good thing or a bad thing. I guess we will never know.  I would have liked more exposition about all of the elven mages and the story going from the three to the fifty-seven went by a little quicker than I would have liked. It was strange that the city didn't seem to have any guards patrolling the whole time "The Lark" was rallying the citizenry to rebel. The guards all kindly waited until the mobs had formed to make their presence known. It might also have been good to know about Elven lifespans and any other differences they have from humans.

What were the Dwarves doing with the Monoliths before they buried them all? 

[Enero]

So two episodes got cut?  Perhaps if they’d been kept the story threads would’ve made a little more sense. I didn’t get Balor’s endgame with the power of chaos? To destroy all those who looked down on him them rule the world? And why was it that when he and Eredin were running the kingdom they allowed it to go to pot with a famine etc? Again what was their end game?

Didn’t see this great love between the Lark and Fjall that resulted in him willing to die for her. Them falling in love must’ve been covered in the episodes that were cut. Or perhaps I missed some scenes cause I did fall asleep through a portion of episode 2 but didn’t go back to watch what I missed. So are we to conclude that the baby Lark was carrying at the end of the series was the first Witcher since the baby was going to be part Elf, part Monster and part Magic?

The initial introductions in the first episode intrigued me, even with the bad dialogue. But about halfway through that episode I started to lose interest as the story started to get a little clunky and key characters crossing paths to eventually form an alliance seemed more contrived than organic.

I didn’t feel like they made a strong connection between this story and the regular Witcher series. And that could be partly my fault as it’s been a while since I watched the original. Therefore a lot of the mythology and backstories I’m a little fuzzy on. 

This wasn’t horrendous, but it wasn’t great either. The story moved fast but I thought it missed a lot of important story beats. 

Edited December 28, 2022 by Enero

[AnimeMania]

I think Fjall was supposed to be the first Witcher.

[thuganomics85]

Well, that was an ending I guess.

Certainly not the worst thing I ever saw, but it really did feel almost incomplete and unfinished, and hearing that they cut back on two episodes really does explain it.  It just felt like I barely knew these characters and their motivations, and I'm apparently suppose to care about them somehow.  Only one I was moderately invested in was Scian, and that's just because she was Michelle Yeoh.  And it seemed like the baddies just had similar motivations: both the Empress and Balor had chips on their shoulders and were trying to rise above their stations, which had potential, but none of it made me care.

So, Fjall basically became the first Witcher, but ended up losing all of his humanity pretty much and had to be put down by Eile.  I guess they still have a few kinks to work out, heh.  I'm guessing their child plays a part in all of that.

Destroying the main monolith basically causes all of the universes to merge into one?!

Are we going to see Minnie Driver's character on the main show?

Considering how many times we heard "Black Rose" on this series, I'm thinking part of this was just used to boost Sophia Brown's potential singing career (she does have a good voice though!) 

Already forgetting half of what I just watched.  Oh, well, at least it was a good way to kill four hours.

[Sakura12]

Well that was a show I watched. 

Did they cut out episodes. Because I was confused on the sudden love story of the Lark and Fjall. 

I watched this foe Michelle Yeoh, she deserves better then this. I'm already wary for the final Henry Cavil season 3. This did not get me excited for it. 

The elves making the first witcher makes sense because the magic was there's to begin with. But they could've just had Jasiker sing the song in thr original show to tell us this story. 

 

[Kasienka]

Ughhh this was so bad. They needed way more time to develop the characters and the relationships between them. The actors deserve better than this. Also I am so unimpressed with Eredin and Avallac'h and their stories. I'm really worried for season 3 now.

Also are they trying to suggest that Ciri is a descendant or the Lark and Fjall? Or that they are Geralt ancestors? I didn't get it. If it's option 1 , the mage lady and Brother Dead would be better choice based by the looks.

The songs were good and that's it.

[Hanahope]

I agree, it was not good.  Hardly any character development.   and I still have no idea of the empress’s motivation other than she did not want to marry.  So just kill everyone and ruin the kingdoms.  Same with the head mage.

was this story really needed?  

[Fireball]

This could have been good... But it needed way more episodes to flush out the characters and their motivations. I actually was interested in the characters and getting to know them, but everything thing was rushed, and there wasn't enough time for me to be invested in the characters. I watched season 2 of the Witcher and I actually liked this better which isn't a good sign for Witcher season 3. 

[iMonrey]

I actually thought this was pretty good up until the end. This is the first time I've read that they cut back from six to four episodes so that makes sense because the ending felt really rushed and there were definitely some gaps in the plot. But I thought they did a pretty good job fleshing out the characters, especially Fjall,  Eile and Meldof. The whole thing had the same flavor as the regular series, some good chuckles throughout. 

Not bad but they didn't quite stick the landing. 

[Tyro49]

So which character was Minnie Driver?

[Tyro49]

Though I've never read any of The Witcher books I have been enjoying the series. This prequel has also taught me important things about The Witcher world's past.

Firstly, the Elves, oppressed in The Witcher, dream of a past "paradise" without humans. IT NEVER EXISTED!  The world of elves was just as full of wars, oppression, brutality, etc. as the "current" one.

Elves bemoan the fact that the chief human city was built on top of what had been the chief elven city. But, in a hint at an even deeper history, it turns out that chief elven city had been built on top of what had been the chief dwarven city! The same cycle; was there a time when even elves did not "belong" on this world? Did the "Conjunction of Spheres" happen once before, in an even earlier cycle? 

Were the monoliths created by the dwarves? What did they use them for?

Were elves dragged onto human worlds as well?

It seems elves and humans did not speak the same language at first, as shown in the final scene.

How many humans were dragged to this world, given that they were able to take it over?

[Kasienka]

23 hours ago, Tyro49 said:

Elves bemoan the fact that the chief human city was built on top of what had been the chief elven city. But, in a hint at an even deeper history, it turns out that chief elven city had been built on top of what had been the chief dwarven city! The same cycle; was there a time when even elves did not "belong" on this world? Did the "Conjunction of Spheres" happen once before, in an even earlier cycle? 

IIRC in the books dwarves mention that before the Conjuction it was the elven race that was the "top dogs" so to speak and they opressed the other races. After people took over, elfs started preaching the whole "we older races need to stick together" shtick.

I think though that all the other races are native to the Continent and it was only humans and mosters that arrived with the Conjuction.

Sapkowski doesn't spend much time in the books about this topic, Blood Origin is almost completely original Netflix story sans some characters that appear or are mentioned in the book.

[silverstream]

On 1/21/2023 at 7:42 PM, Kasienka said:

Also are they trying to suggest that Ciri is a descendant or the Lark and Fjall? Or that they are Geralt ancestors? I didn't get it. If it's option 1 , the mage lady and Brother Dead would be better choice based by the looks.

It seemed to me that they were suggesting Jaskier is the descendant - a bard to sing the last note of the song.

Edited July 9, 2023 by silverstream
I should really get in the habit of proofreading for spelling errors...