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Ummm, I thought the first episode was pretty clear...... and delivered the same experience as I gleaned from the synopsis of the story?

To me, this obviously became a theme for the rest of the season, with the first episode laying out the core thematic problem the characters would need to face and answer, which is then what happened in almost every episode after......

 Easy E wrote:
Ummm, I thought the first episode was pretty clear...... and delivered the same experience as I gleaned from the synopsis of the story?

To me, this obviously became a theme for the rest of the season, with the first episode laying out the core thematic problem the characters would need to face and answer, which is then what happened in almost every episode after......

Big swing and miss for me in terms of what they wanted to do - see previous posts.

well that was quite a lark, and Cavill is pretty solid, I'll go 7/10 (would have been 8 but denying me Redheads has its price*)

* not saying there was anything wrong with the actor for Triss, she's bringing the smarts, sass and heart Triss needs but I'm errm mechanically biased towards the ginge

Just getting into the show.

Trying to decide.

Toss a Coin to Your Witcher?




Or

Joxer the Mighty?

I like that one of the most common dialogue ticks of Geralt is the grunt like acknowledgement. Hmmmmmmm.

Fun times.

 Easy E wrote:
I like that one of the most common dialogue ticks of Geralt is the grunt like acknowledgement. Hmmmmmmm.

Fun times.

He's channeling his inner Marge Simpson. It's a powerful spirit animal.

@ Kid Kyoto, neither it's clearly

Youtube has like 5000 covers of Toss a Coin to your Witcher all the sudden. This one's my favorite




Apparently the band Trivium is making one now too.

Its such a good Bard song. I mean the lyrics are pretty bad but calling the area "Valley of Plenty" to pander to locals is totally something a travelling Bard would do. It also helps that Jaskier is a good singer and has the chops to pull it off.

The whole thing is so catchy that there are at least a dozen posting of the song on Youtube and each one has at least 3 Million views.

I'm rather partial to The Wolven Storm from The Witcher 3.

It's like none of you have watched Galavant....

 Commodus Leitdorf wrote:
Its such a good Bard song. I mean the lyrics are pretty bad but calling the area "Valley of Plenty" to pander to locals is totally something a travelling Bard would do. It also helps that Jaskier is a good singer and has the chops to pull it off.

The whole thing is so catchy that there are at least a dozen posting of the song on Youtube and each one has at least 3 Million views.

Vally of plenty is more then JUST pandering, it tells people how great their area is in a way that it makes them feel rich, and thus if they're the valley of plenty, surely they can afford to... toss a coin to their witcher

 Easy E wrote:
I like that one of the most common dialogue ticks of Geralt is the grunt like acknowledgement. Hmmmmmmm.

Fun times.

It’s a drinking game.

BrianDavion wrote:

 Commodus Leitdorf wrote:
Its such a good Bard song. I mean the lyrics are pretty bad but calling the area "Valley of Plenty" to pander to locals is totally something a travelling Bard would do. It also helps that Jaskier is a good singer and has the chops to pull it off.

The whole thing is so catchy that there are at least a dozen posting of the song on Youtube and each one has at least 3 Million views.

Vally of plenty is more then JUST pandering, it tells people how great their area is in a way that it makes them feel rich, and thus if they're the valley of plenty, surely they can afford to... toss a coin to their witcher

there's also a bit guilting here, you think you've got it bad, at least you're not a friendless mutant who kills monsters for spare change.

Got around to watching yesterday, speaking as a previously uninvested person, overall pretty excellent. The ballsack armour and a couple of small cringe moments belies the generally pretty well executed "show, don't tell" approach to female characters. I'm not 100% sure, but I think I'd have preferred if they just stuck with chronological order rather than flitting about to try and hold back stuff for "big reveals".

Really looking forward to season 2.

I cant get into this at all =/
I want to but just cant seem to for some reason.

 Ratius wrote:
I cant get into this at all =/
I want to but just cant seem to for some reason.

You don't have to. I rate it a 6/10. Completely okay entertainment with very few stunning moments, and a handful of cringe moments.

I do think/hope it did well enough to warrant a few more seasons...and hopefully they'll iron out and develop more of a solid show. I think it has potential, but I wouldn't feel bad if you didn't enjoy it or get into it. You're not missing anything amazing.

I 'm a pretty big fan of the books and cames and I have to say I bounced of the show hard, it took a couple of sessions just to watch the 1st episode and while not a conscious decision I so far have not watched any more.

The thing is I cannot put my finger on any particular reason why, the casting decisions were an irritant but not a deal breaker, the cos play armour and its inane reason for existing was laughable but more of an eye roll than anything more. Still though I don't feel any real urge to watch the rest it just seemed like to much effort for too little payout.

I would say they did the show a disservice with the time jump editing.

To this viewer, the time jump is the only "hook" the series really has. Otherwise, it would be generic fantasy series #435.

A thing the show has not quite gone into that Witcher 3 managed to go into a lot (and that I love) is that Witchers are basically the Spartan Program (from Halo) but monster hunters.

Taken as children, drilled in physical training and education, genetically modified.

It's pretty great. Witchers have a vast encyclopedic knowledge of the monsters they face, their strengths, weaknesses, and the tools to stack the odds in their favor with the mutations giving them an edge to do it. A witcher even brews potions that help them but are highly toxic and would kill a normal person. This one lets them hold their breath much longer, this one lets them see in near total darkness like a cat, this one makes their blood poison to vampires and other necrophages, etc...

Love it.

The only thing that really irked me was the "costume wardobe" everything was too clean and clearly "new" for my liking, it really didn't sell the show for me.

This doubled up on the bard and his look, screenplay and general "Babbling English lad looser hugh grant wannabe" acting was abysmal... Both me and my GF think he single handily ruined the show for us lol.

GOT has proven dragons can be done... and that frigging gold dragon was the worse bit of CG I have seen since the OG polish Witcher film. Absolutely broke any kind of immersion.

 Lance845 wrote:
A thing the show has not quite gone into that Witcher 3 managed to go into a lot (and that I love) is that Witchers are basically the Spartan Program (from Halo) but monster hunters.

Taken as children, drilled in physical training and education, genetically modified.

It's pretty great. Witchers have a vast encyclopedic knowledge of the monsters they face, their strengths, weaknesses, and the tools to stack the odds in their favor with the mutations giving them an edge to do it. A witcher even brews potions that help them but are highly toxic and would kill a normal person. This one lets them hold their breath much longer, this one lets them see in near total darkness like a cat, this one makes their blood poison to vampires and other necrophages, etc...

Love it.

I'm predicting that we'll get more info oin what witchers are and how they're made early season 2.

Blood of Elves starts off with Triss coming to Kaer Morean to help with Ciri and she expresses worries about their training, if they had subjected her to mutagens (the answer is no) this seems the ideal time to give some flashbacks etc of Geralts training as a boy.

BrianDavion wrote:

 Lance845 wrote:
A thing the show has not quite gone into that Witcher 3 managed to go into a lot (and that I love) is that Witchers are basically the Spartan Program (from Halo) but monster hunters.

Taken as children, drilled in physical training and education, genetically modified.

It's pretty great. Witchers have a vast encyclopedic knowledge of the monsters they face, their strengths, weaknesses, and the tools to stack the odds in their favor with the mutations giving them an edge to do it. A witcher even brews potions that help them but are highly toxic and would kill a normal person. This one lets them hold their breath much longer, this one lets them see in near total darkness like a cat, this one makes their blood poison to vampires and other necrophages, etc...

Love it.

I'm predicting that we'll get more info oin what witchers are and how they're made early season 2.

Blood of Elves starts off with Triss coming to Kaer Morean to help with Ciri and she expresses worries about their training, if they had subjected her to mutagens (the answer is no) this seems the ideal time to give some flashbacks etc of Geralts training as a boy.

I think that's plausible. They already laid out the groundwork for his childhood to be more developed with his flashbacks and hints.

 Argive wrote:

BrianDavion wrote:

 Lance845 wrote:
A thing the show has not quite gone into that Witcher 3 managed to go into a lot (and that I love) is that Witchers are basically the Spartan Program (from Halo) but monster hunters.

Taken as children, drilled in physical training and education, genetically modified.

It's pretty great. Witchers have a vast encyclopedic knowledge of the monsters they face, their strengths, weaknesses, and the tools to stack the odds in their favor with the mutations giving them an edge to do it. A witcher even brews potions that help them but are highly toxic and would kill a normal person. This one lets them hold their breath much longer, this one lets them see in near total darkness like a cat, this one makes their blood poison to vampires and other necrophages, etc...

Love it.

I'm predicting that we'll get more info oin what witchers are and how they're made early season 2.

Blood of Elves starts off with Triss coming to Kaer Morean to help with Ciri and she expresses worries about their training, if they had subjected her to mutagens (the answer is no) this seems the ideal time to give some flashbacks etc of Geralts training as a boy.

I think that's plausible. They already laid out the groundwork for his childhood to be more developed with his flashbacks and hints.

it's what I'd do. heck do it right and they could even have some tension added to the matter by making viewers worry "... ohh gak are they going to do this to her?!"

3 episodes in, I thought it'd be abysmal, but I find myself really enjoying it. I do like that they went for a "fantasy armor" aesthetic instead of sticking to muddy "realistic" colors.
Not surprising, I hated GoT deeply, and this is like, anti-GoT in terms of attitude towards characters and general themes.

Watching this with the wife at the moment. I've never played the games or read the books, so I sort of feel a little thrown in at the deep end. the story is compelling if a little confusing with the disparate timelines, and I have no real clue what witchers 'are' other than monster killers. I feel like the backstory needs fleshing out more.

 queen_annes_revenge wrote:
Watching this with the wife at the moment. I've never played the games or read the books, so I sort of feel a little thrown in at the deep end. the story is compelling if a little confusing with the disparate timelines, and I have no real clue what witchers 'are' other than monster killers. I feel like the backstory needs fleshing out more.

It's touched on a bit in the show in the same way that it's touched on in the books and games until you are a bit of the way in. I don't think they REALLY explain what witchers actually are until the 3rd game.

Witchers are collected as kids by other witchers, taken as payment for jobs they do, orphans they adopt, or whatever.

The kids are then put through the medieval fantasy version of the spartan program from Halo. Rigorous study and physical training. They learn all about the various monsters and their weaknesses. Massive amounts of obstacle courses, stamina, reaction speed, and fighting with various weapons training. They learn poisons, cures, and some alchemy. They learn a few "hand sign" spells. Just brief little things.Nothing even remotely close to what a actual mage can do but it helps.

This is topped off at some point (still as kids) when they go through a mutagenic process that is "stabilized" with spells (with the aid of a sorceress or wizard) that augments them. They live longer (potentially hundreds of years), have enhanced reflexes, and a resistance to toxic substances which allows them to drink their potions and other alchemical mixtures that would kill a normal person. Maybe 3 in 10 children survive this process? More training and study and then a final set of trials. This last set usually kills off 1 or 2 of the surviving 3. Those that make it out the other end are given a necklace pendant that marks them as a full witcher. It has some properties that are not super important but they are shaped like whatever school they graduated from. Geralt comes from the school of the Wolf. The Serpent, the Cat, the Gryphon are some of the others. At the time of the stories witchers are more or less dieing out. Not just because of how dangerous their lives are but because people hate them for being mutants and they are just as often killed by the people they are working for as they are the monsters they hunt. Some of the schools have lost the ability to make more witchers. Either because the process has been lost, or the wizard/sorceress support is gone, or the mutagens have become increasingly rare. Other things.

In the books, at least up to the last book in the Saga (I do think Sapkowski published more short stories?) there were no other schools, Witchers were essentially an invention of a rogue wizard, and with the sacking of Kaer Morhen and it's laboratories, no more could be made. Witchers themselves tried, but without wizard help, the trials were just a cruel way to kill kids.

In the story Voice of Reason Geralt talks about his medallion coming from his school. While the other schools are not mentioned as schools a Cat School Witcher shows up in another school and a Griffon medallion shows up somewhere.

Season 2 cast and director additions :

Game of Thrones alum Kristofer Hivju is making his way to a new fantasy realm.

The actor has joined the cast of The Witcher at Netflix. Hivju, who played Tormund Giantsbane on Game of Thrones, is one of seven additions to the cast for season two, which is in production.

Hivju will play Nivellen, who in the Witcher books is a man cursed to take on the appearance of a monster. When he meets Geralt (Henry Cavill), however, the witcher realizes Nivellen isn't actually a monster because he's not repelled by silver.

Also joining The Witcher for season two are Yasen Atour (Young Wallender) as Coen, Agnes Bjorn as Vereena, Paul Bullion (Peaky Blinders) as Lambert, Thue Ersted Rasmussen (F9) as Eskel, Aisha Fabienne Ross (The Danish Girl) as Lydia and Mecia Simson as Francesca.

"The reaction to season one of The Witcher set a high bar for adding new talent for the second season," said showrunner Lauren Schmidt Hissrich. "Sophie Holland and her casting team have once again found the very best people to embody these characters, and in the hands of these accomplished directors, we’re excited to see these new stories come to life."

Stephen Surjik (The Umbrella Academy), Sarah O'Gorman (Netflix's Cursed), Ed Bazalgette (Doctor Who) and Geeta Patel (Superstore, Dead to Me) will each direct two episodes of the second season.

Cavill and fellow stars Anya Chalotra, Freya Allan and Joey Batey are set to reprise their roles. The Witcher, which Netflix says was one of its top-performing series in the fourth quarter of 2019, is set to return in 2021.