Selfish Heathen
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Zone of Pain
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Since we had a thread on the recent The Mandalorian series, I think it's only fair that The Witcher gets one too.
I've never gotten into the books, graphic novels, or video games in the Witcher universe, but it's been hard to avoid all the video game references online and in pop culture (read: cosplay, cosplay, cosplay) over the last few years. I had a passing familiarity with the names of Geralt, Yennifer, and Triss and only the vaguest understanding of their characters and roles. Beyond that, I was "going in cold" on this series and just hoping for a few hours of good fantasy fun after having my initial curiosities piqued. I've been watching it over the past week and just finished today, and I think it delivered on my hope quite well! There are only eight episodes, but most of them are very dense with storytelling, and there's very little retreading of previous material, IIRC. (Compare with The Mandalorian, for example, which starts every episode with a minute of recaps, and I distinctly recall them replaying that one scene from Mando's childhood at least three times in the middle of the episodes…) I'll avoid posting any spoilers in here, at least for now, but I'm curious if anyone else here has started watching it and what your thoughts are. Have any of you read the books or played the video games? If you're not familiar at all with The Witcher, I'll give a brief primer. The setting is in a very Lord of the Rings/D&D/Game of Thrones-like universe of medieval kingdoms and magic. The titular character Geralt "The Witcher" of Rivia is a monster-slayer who was somehow altered by magic in his youth to give him great strength and basic magical abilities. Other key characters include sorcerers who perform various feats of magic, though we soon learn that performing magical acts always comes at a cost. Then you have your typical feuding monarchies that are vying for land and power. The first season follows Geralt and a couple of other characters with whom he will eventually interact in important ways. I think the actors chosen for the roles are great even though some of them don't look much like their arguably famous/iconic video game counterparts (Triss in particular). It didn't take long for me to forget Henry Cavill's Superman and accept him as Geralt; though, "dark and broody" Superman isn't far off from this guy. The writing does a pretty good job of showing and doesn't go overboard with exposition. The effects are pretty stellar, but I think we've come to expect all shows in this category to have Hollywood blockbuster-like material nowadays. My one big complaint is that the general method of storytelling here weaves different timelines together, but there's literally no indication that these are not all in "present day" until well past the halfway mark of the season. To avoid spoilers, I'll say that at some point character X runs into character Y, but we saw character Y die several episodes ago! It took me a few good moments of eye-squinting and head-tilting and pondering to realize that this wasn't a dream or an illusion of some kind but that the whole time I've been seeing several stories unfolding both at different points in time and over different rates of time. A few visual cues, or even the old tried and true printing of something like "10 years ago" and "today" on the screen would have greatly resolved this confusion with little negative consequence. Having figured that out, I almost want to go re-watch the earlier episodes to see if some things make more sense to me now, but I don't think it really makes that much of a difference. Once I "got it", the rest of things kind of clicked. My wife hasn't watched the series yet but is also very interested, and this was the one thing I told her about ahead of time to save her the same confusion. I wonder if this is a situation where the writers assumed the audience knew more of the story and didn't need timing cues to indicate what is really happening when. The quality of this board depends on the quality of the posts. The only way to guarantee thoughtful, informative discussion is to write thoughtful, informative posts. AppleNova is not a real-time chat forum. You have time to compose messages and edit them before and after posting. |
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Lord of the Rant.
Formerly turtle2472 Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Upstate South Carolina
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I've eyed this show from afar but never really looked at it. Since you started this I'm going to check it out now that I'm done with Mandalorian. It is either that or I try to finish Pokemon.
Louis L'Amour, “To make democracy work, we must be a nation of participants, not simply observers. One who does not vote has no right to complain.” Visit our archived Minecraft world! | Maybe someday I'll proof read, until then deal with it. |
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Selfish Heathen
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Zone of Pain
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But let's be honest: nobody truly finishes Pokémon. That's a lifelong addiction no mere mortal can outrun. So, we all know what your next choice must be.
I have one more thing I suppose I should mention for potential viewers. Since GoT set audience expectations for lots of T&A in "mature" fantasy shows, The Witcher of course has to serve up a nominal dose in the first episode to hook those looking for these more carnal shows. From then on, it's far more sparse but still occasionally present. I just wanted to present a fair warning for anyone concerned about younglings in the room. Of course, there's also a fair bit of blood, violence, and dismemberment as well. I think this infographic does a good job explaining the situation: Spoiler (click to toggle):
The quality of this board depends on the quality of the posts. The only way to guarantee thoughtful, informative discussion is to write thoughtful, informative posts. AppleNova is not a real-time chat forum. You have time to compose messages and edit them before and after posting. |
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Lord of the Rant.
Formerly turtle2472 Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Upstate South Carolina
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I do appreciate the heads up on that. I'll be letting my kids know not to watch it and it will end up being the show I watch when they aren't around. I skipped GoT because the sexual content. Heck, I had a hard time watching Jessica Jones first season because of it.
Louis L'Amour, “To make democracy work, we must be a nation of participants, not simply observers. One who does not vote has no right to complain.” Visit our archived Minecraft world! | Maybe someday I'll proof read, until then deal with it. |
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Selfish Heathen
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Zone of Pain
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FWIW, The Witcher definitely doesn't come close to GoT in terms of gratuitous T&A in sheer volume, but there's enough present to at least tick the boxes. From the little bit of GoT I watched (I gave up somewhere in seasons 2 or 3), I found its recurring sexual content to be eye-rolling and overwhelmingly skippable. The Witcher's sexual content is brief enough that it could be a mere footnote by comparison, but again, it is there. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
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Selfish Heathen
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Zone of Pain
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Netflix has published an interactive map+timeline website that allows you to explore the events in the first season of their version of the Witcher universe. If any of you have watched the show and, like me, were confused about the particular timing of events, this should easily resolve any of that.
Spoilers ahoy! https://www.witchernetflix.com/ The quality of this board depends on the quality of the posts. The only way to guarantee thoughtful, informative discussion is to write thoughtful, informative posts. AppleNova is not a real-time chat forum. You have time to compose messages and edit them before and after posting. |
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Lord of the Rant.
Formerly turtle2472 Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Upstate South Carolina
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I finally watched the first episode and I think I'm going to like this show a lot. I don't know the game series so I won't be upset that they didn't follow some storyline a game developer came up with or anything.
Since this thread hasn't been very active I'm not going to bother putting spoiler tags up. I will try to be slightly less obvious though since others might catch the series later. I was surprised that the one character got killed in it. I was expecting her to become a sidekick or something rather than pick a fight. Louis L'Amour, “To make democracy work, we must be a nation of participants, not simply observers. One who does not vote has no right to complain.” Visit our archived Minecraft world! | Maybe someday I'll proof read, until then deal with it. |
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Hoonigan
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Canada
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Rocket Surgeon
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: The Canadark
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I’ll persevere then. I had to turn on the subtitles because the first episode was so damn mumbly. I’ll try the second and see if it improves or if I get used to it. (To be fair, the first episode of The Wire was the same.)
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Lord of the Rant.
Formerly turtle2472 Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Upstate South Carolina
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Nice edit/montage! I look forward to seeing those scenes in the show.
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BANNED
I am a filthy spammer. Join Date: May 2020
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Just playing through the first half of the first Witcher video game I didn't have a clue what's in store from Netflix's The Witcher. However, in the wake of seeing the s3.amazonaws.com/mobile-legends-pc/index.html first series of the show I can say that I'm wonderfully shocked.
Last edited by kscherer : 2020-05-19 at 11:42. |
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BANNED
I am a filthy spammer. Join Date: May 2020
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Only playing through the first half of the first Witcher video game I didn't know what to expect from Netflix's The Witcher. But after seeing the first season of the show I can say that I'm pleasantly surprised.
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BANNED
I am a filthy spammer. Join Date: May 2020
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Just playing through the s3.amazonaws.com/mobile-legends-pc/index.html first half of the first Witcher video game I didn't have the idea what's is in the Netflix's The Witcher.
Yeah, Mobile Legends and Witcher are not the same thing, which makes you a spammer. Please go away! ~ Kscherer Last edited by kscherer : 2020-05-19 at 11:36. |
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Lord of the Rant.
Formerly turtle2472 Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Upstate South Carolina
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What do you like best about it samuelddarden? I wonder if it is the same things I liked?
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Space Pirate
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Atlanta
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This was A FUN SHOW!!!
Please buy some Viagra? ... |
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Senior Member
Join Date: Feb 2015
Location: UK's most densely packed city. It's not London...
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I still do not understand why this forum allows new users to post hyperlinks...
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Which way is up?
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Boyzeee
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What's really funny is that I just banned a different moderated spammer who had this to say:
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At any rate, Alcimides is lurking so maybe he can shed some light/flip a switch. In the meantime, I'll just keep swinging the hammer. - AppleNova is the best Mac-users forum on the internet. We are smart, educated, capable, and helpful. We are also loaded with smart-alecks! :) - Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. (Mat 5:9) Last edited by kscherer : 2020-05-19 at 11:48. |
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BANNED
I am a filthy spammer. Join Date: Jan 2021
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I think the series was really very cool. As far as I know, a sequel is coming out soon and I'm really looking forward to it! I haven't read any books about the Witcher universe, so I can't say how accurately the game and the series convey all the atmosphere and details. About the game, it's really sooo addictive game. I thought that I would not lose more than 10 hours in it, but in the end the steam shows 100+ hours. The only game I played as much was rocket league, for which I even buy rocket league items, but that's not the point right now. Do any of you know when the sequel to the series will be released? I would be happy if someone wrote the exact date.
Go away, spammer! ~ Kscherer Last edited by kscherer : 2021-01-06 at 12:23. |
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Space Pirate
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Atlanta
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DID YOU KNOW that they shoot the entire thing in Toledo???
It may sound strange, but a LOT of strange things come out of Toledo. DID YOU KNOW that Rocket League items are actually BANNED in Toledo?? Not because they don't want them, but because they want them TOO MUCH. Toledoans (not Toledites) are PASSIONATE about games. They are also notoriously poor losers. Hence the ban. ... |
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Mr. Vieira
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Tennessee
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Only two things come from Toledo...steers and radiation tech engineers. I don’t see any horns so you must be a radiation tech engineer.
And, as far as I’m concerned, the only good radiation tech engineer is a dead radiation tech engineer. You people disgust me with your jumpsuits and level detectors, walking around and shoving it down everyone’s throats what you do. “Oh look at me, I’m taking readings...”. You know, there was was a time, not all that long ago, where decent society wouldn’t put up with your kind. But now everybody’s all “those radiation tech engineers are people too”. Yeah, whatever. I can’t turn on my TV anymore without seeing a couple of you in about every other commercial or TV show, with your little clicking wands and fancy gloves, assessing contamination levels. I can’t change the channel fast enough! I told my son if he EVER grows up to be a radiation tech engineer, he won’t be welcome in my house anymore. He’s got a couple of classmates whose dads are radiation tech engineers. They actually came to the PTA meeting last week, can you believe that shit?! I waited in the car. Say, that reminds me...two radiation tech engineers from Toledo walk into a bar...”hey, does this taste like chicken?” the first one said. “Only if it’s crossed the road!” I guess I’ll get arrested/fined for telling that joke come January 20th, huh? We used to have a thing called “free speech” in this country! Welcome to AppleNova! |
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Lord of the Rant.
Formerly turtle2472 Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Upstate South Carolina
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Hey Ken, be sure to kill their links when they actually get them in. We'd hate for them to get google points for it coming up in their indexing.
Louis L'Amour, “To make democracy work, we must be a nation of participants, not simply observers. One who does not vote has no right to complain.” Visit our archived Minecraft world! | Maybe someday I'll proof read, until then deal with it. |
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Which way is up?
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Boyzeee
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Brad likes to keep that stuff around for a little script he runs from time to time. So, unless he chimes in otherwise, I've been trying to remember to leave them alone.
Generally, if I get to the spam post before there are any replies, I move it to a special thread where all that crap is "stored". But, since there are these fun replies, I left it alone for context. If Brad reads this, he might update a tad on the goings on. I would rather disable the links, TBH. - AppleNova is the best Mac-users forum on the internet. We are smart, educated, capable, and helpful. We are also loaded with smart-alecks! :) - Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. (Mat 5:9) |
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Lord of the Rant.
Formerly turtle2472 Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Upstate South Carolina
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Gotcha. In hindsight I should have PM'd you that, but at least others know there is a method to the madness.
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Ninja Editor
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Bay Area, CA
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@pscates2.0
Off-topic (click to toggle):
When I was a kid, people who did wrong were punished, restricted, and forbidden. Now, when someone does wrong, all of the rest of us are punished, restricted, and forbidden... and the one who did the wrong is counselled and "understood" and fed ice cream. |
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Mr. Vieira
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Tennessee
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You're going to cause a black hole or something. Stop.
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Ninja Editor
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Bay Area, CA
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Lord of the Rant.
Formerly turtle2472 Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Upstate South Carolina
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The Witcher season two debuts on Netflix December 17.
I'm looking forward to this season! |
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Lord of the Rant.
Formerly turtle2472 Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Upstate South Carolina
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Season three confirmed as well as a "family friendly" spinoff.
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Lord of the Rant.
Formerly turtle2472 Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Upstate South Carolina
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