Witcher

[tielan]

Eps 1 and 2. A bit bloody, kind of intriguing, definitely helpful to watch with someone who knows whats going on and can make the links for me.

I feel a bit like my mother, who asks questions while watching something as simple and straightforward as an episode of Stargate SG1. At least this is a more complex kind of storytelling, I suppose, although I am close to just calling it "rather confusing".

I wouldn't say that this is my jam, but it's interesting so far.

Comments

[james]

Do you want to know something that makes it make more sense? (I don't think it's a spoiler, it's about the story structure.) I ask because some folks don't want to be spoiled for anything at all.

[tielan]

If you mean they're jumping back and forth through time between the section with Renfri and the section with Cirilla? rmc28 already pointed that out to me while she was watching.

I don't mind being generally spoiled, but it's kind of nice to watch something that I don't presently have investment in. Of course, that usually ends up being a problem because without investment I'm not inclined to watch the rest of the episodes...

[james]

Yes, that was going to be it! I watched season 1 without knowing and was confused the whole time. I told my partner when she started and she wasn't confused (much) at all. I think they made the series thinking most people watching would be familiar with the books.

[tielan]

It helped having someone else point that out or I'd likely have been very confused, too!

[kuwdora]

They definitely made some Choices in the way to lay out the narrative for season 1 (which are primarily based on the short stories and not the main novels). If you keep with the show, I think you will find Yennefer's story very interesting to unfold.

[tielan]

I did read a wee smidgeon of spoilers about Yennefer's story, because I was thinking "I don't remember the graphics I saw representing this."

And I'm going into this utterly and completely blind: I thought it was a game, but was told it was short stories, then novels, then assorted games, so... I'm learning!

[kuwdora]

The show will only draw from the books, they don't have the legal rights to use the game material. (Though there are a few rumors of things for season 3 that are making people go ???? so maybe that's changed, I'm not sure yet...)

The popular saying in the fandom is "witcher canon is 50 canons in a trenchcoat" because in addition to the show and books/short stories and the PC/platform games, there's a tabletop RPG and most recently a mobile app game that people will sometimes pull details into their stories. It's very much like a rubiks cube to sometimes figure out where people are getting the details from when you're reading witcher fic for the first time. Many people won't actually know what is fanon or canon stretched into a fanon characterization, so it can be a bit odd if you start noodling around for stories, heh.

Anyway. Let me know if/when you'd like some Yen recs when you make it through the show. I'll have a few I can send your way. ♥

[tielan]

The popular saying in the fandom is "witcher canon is 50 canons in a trenchcoat"

*dies laughing*

Love that phrasing.

Will do, although it's likely to be slow going. I'm watching with rmc28 and we're basically in opposite time zones.

[rmc28]

I finally got around to watching the series because of a particular (long, ongoing) fic series, that I started reading because the author is one I will read pretty much everything they write. And then I got invested, and yes some things were spoilers but also because TV / book / game do different things, sometimes not at all!

Elsenet someone who had been seen Season 1 TV Witcher and was a bit meh about it asked me why I was invested enough to watch it twice, I reproduce the list below:

1. epic fantasy look cool, Geralt pretty
2. multiple powerful women characters (who talk to each other about something other than a man, too)
3. interesting story structure (esp season 1)
4. Geralt's combination of overt 100% Done With Everything and actual repeated kindness and strong morality
5. Jaskier
6. my friend wanted to watch it (hi tielan!)
7. season 2 Geralt being a Good Dad repeatedly

Later on I saw a Yennefer gifset from S2, and yes, also that. I am a bit meh about Yennefer's motivations through most of S1, but I really like her journey in S2.

[tielan]

my friend wanted to watch it (hi tielan!)

Thank you for watching it with me! I surely wouldn't otherwise!

[novel_machinist]

If you have any witcher questions, I will be SO HAPPY TO TALK.