The Witcher (Netflix Series)

[Knight of Heaven]

[NorthernXY]

We should be a bit more hesitant in condemning the show for its overly contrived "wokeness" before we have even seen it. Being woke isn't always bad, it's just usually bad. This could be the long prophesized exception. I am hopeful and think that the inherent darkness and grittiness of the Witcher world will act as a sufficient buffer against the apparent overly zealous "wokeness" of the creators' personalities.

My post about the Nilfgaardian guard armor proves it will suck. Nobody thinks it looks good and would never be produced by a blacksmith. The person who green lighted it is obviously incompetent.

[saxdude]

I know right? Crindgy betas whining about SJWs.

The testicle armour does looks terrible though.

[NorthernXY]

I know right? Crindgy betas whining about SJWs.

The testicle armour does looks terrible though.

Does complaining about betas complaining about SJWs make you an alpha?

This forum is for discussing topics people find interesting. Should people only be allow to post how awesome the show is going to be?

[saxdude]

This forum is for discussing topics people find interesting. Should people only be allow to post how awesome the show is going to be?

You're not whinging about the show that you haven't seen, you're whinging about the writing staff (or the "SJW females" as you crindgely call them) taking a political stance on the lead writers personal twitter account (of all things, take a freakin breath) against racism, xenophobia and inhuman, criminal behavior. Gods forbid she talks about anything other than the real important stuff, like the fluting of the breastplates.

Does complaining about betas complaining about SJWs make you an alpha?

Haven't the slightest, I do know that complaining about the "females" ruining your show about elves and dragons doesn't though. Stick to the Thanos chin armour.

[gastovski]

[NorthernXY]

You're not whinging about the show that you haven't seen, you're whinging about the writing staff (or the "SJW females" as you crindgely call them) taking a political stance on the lead writers personal twitter account (of all things, take a freakin breath) against racism, xenophobia and inhuman, criminal behavior. Gods forbid she talks about anything other than the real important stuff, like the fluting of the breastplates.


Haven't the slightest, I do know that complaining about the "females" ruining your show about elves and dragons doesn't though. Stick to the Thanos chin armour.

So should we just post how stunning and brave she is for making token black characters? She stated a year ago when the show was announced she wouldn't be doing any race swapping and it turns out that's exactly what her plan was. I really don't care if there's "elves and dragons" or not in fiction, I really don't care for most things make believe. The books were pretty damn good as well as the games because plot and character development were the priority.

[Love Mountain]

So should we just post how stunning and brave she is for making token black characters? She stated a year ago when the show was announced she wouldn't be doing any race swapping and it turns out that's exactly what her plan was. I really don't care if there's "elves and dragons" or not in fiction, I really don't care for most things make believe. The books were pretty damn good as well as the games because plot and character development were the priority.

You can do whatever you want. However, when your only criticism is the politicization of the source material rather than its artistic merit, then you're being the very sort of "SJW" that you accuse the writers of being. If the hypocrisy doesn't bother you, fair enough, but a lot of people are tired of hearing the same, lazy criticism over and over again.

[Knight of Heaven]

the politicization of the source material rather than its artistic merit

Its not like they cant go hand in hand...

[Love Mountain]

Of course not, that's my point. A provocative movie can be a very good film. The story King Kong, for example, can be used as an allegory for slavery... Black Panther, Sorry to Bother You, The Legend of Korra, the list goes on. That's why immediately attacking something because it has something that can be perceived as "SJW" is a silly exercise.

There's a difference when the political message gets in the way of being a good film, but you kinda have to watch the film or show to actually recognize that. Not a trailer.

[Knight of Heaven]

Of course not, that's my point. A provocative movie can be a very good film. The story King Kong, for example, can be used as an allegory for slavery... Black Panther, Sorry to Bother You, The Legend of Korra, the list goes on. That's why immediately attacking something because it has something that can be perceived as "SJW" is a silly exercise.

There's a difference when the political message gets in the way of being a good film, but you kinda have to watch the film or show to actually recognize that. Not a trailer.

Im saying it can. No that always it is so.


BP is quite an overrated film imo. It is average movie at best just like most marvel movies incidentally. Legend of Korra also has tons of issues not nearly as good as Last air bender for one. And the "woke part" came in quite forced in the end, which wasn't a particular good ending, nor a particular good written season for that matters. It didn't add anything to it. It would had been better if it had, if it was part of the plot and character development. But they didn't even did that. Might not have been intentional, but it came out as so we can have the token lesbian main characters. The end.

Last Air bender ending in contrast was epic. Because overall was a solid good written show.


And i personally dont see it as attacking something, i see it as criticism. I do think condescendingly pushing for social political agendas in vogue today on media it is valid criticism. Mind you not saying it is the case. Never said that. The show isn't out yet.

But it most certainly think it is valid criticism. Specially if you dont particularly support such agenda politically. Which im not saying i dont or do, im saying it is perfectly valid stance to get. No one should be forced to value propaganda after all. Whatever that might be.

At any case all i said was Netflix track record isn't the best with this kinda of stuff.

[Wulfburk]

Triss is on the right here, btw (sabrina glevissig, yen and triss, respectively)

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Oh, and here you get hungarian actress Trokan Nora, who is playing a dryad.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

And in fact, the casting for extras was done exclusively in Hungary.

But oh my gawd, they turned one sorceress (fringila vigo) black, the outrage!

[Cookiegod]

You can do whatever you want. However, when your only criticism is the politicization of the source material rather than its artistic merit, then you're being the very sort of "SJW" that you accuse the writers of being. If the hypocrisy doesn't bother you, fair enough, but a lot of people are tired of hearing the same, lazy criticism over and over again.

There's no logic in the reasoning.
1) Criticising politicisation doesn't mean you can appreciate artistic merit.
2) What's being criticised is exactly that it probably wasn't done for artistic merit, but for politial correctness. So the claim that one has to search for artistic merit in something that wasn't done for that is weird.

I haven't read the books, so I have no stake in this. But I do find this quota fulfilment saddening. I'm 100% sure there's lots of fascinating material in African history, culture, mythologies, etc. But instead of making movies or series about it once in a while, they choose to blackify this? How is that a good thing? Imagine a remake of Black Panther with a few asian and white dudes in it. Didn't watch the movie, because I'm not into superhero stuff, but you get the point.

And I do relate as to how casting can break the immersion for some people. That's how I felt watching "Rome". Great series, excellent even, but every single actor, and especially the blonde and blue eyed ones as Northern European as it gets. Ironically with an Italian playing Vercingetorix. And that same example also shows that you can criticise a show and still enjoy it.

As for politicisation, it's again how it's done, not what the message is. Richard Wagner was a despicable person with despicable beliefs, but his operas are good none the less. Because he was able to present his ideology ("free love" = incest, blood purity, revolution, moral nihilism, to just name a few) in a compelling way that isn't flat-out hitting people over the head.

SJW movies/series/etc are bad because they are clearly forced, and forcing themselves on the consumer in the bluntest way possible. They do remind me of some Soviet/Nazi movies I have watched, not in terms of the ideology itself, but more the way it's presented and how their movie industries suffered as a result of this.

[Sar1n]

Triss is on the right here, btw (sabrina glevissig, yen and triss, respectively)

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Oh, and here you get hungarian actress Trokan Nora, who is playing a dryad.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

And in fact, the casting for extras was done exclusively in Hungary.

But oh my gawd, they turned one sorceress (fringila vigo) black, the outrage!

Compare those shots with the trailer. There are some good photography tricks with lighting, angle and focal length in play.

What bother me a lot about casting is that the books had some important visual motives going that are easily broken by wrong cast, and they did exactly that. One of main motives in books could be summed as "Good looking doesn't mean good". Geralt was described as quite ugly in books, in contrast to the playboy Vilgefortz (role perfect for Cavill), the whole sorceress business, etc...

In books, Triss had carefully crafted image that evoked innocence and cheerfulness, and used it as a weapon, just like almost every other sorceress. Look at actress, especially her appearance in trailer, and ask, is she the right one for that? Vigo had a minor plot point that will have to be ignored or mess up things even further...she's a relative of Toussaint ducal family, and that is used as excuse so she can keep close to Geralt during his stay in Touissant. Touissant, that runs on the chivalric France trope for a damn good reason which would be subverted and broken by making the people there black.

[Wulfburk]

Geralt isnt described as ugly in the book. He is described as having a nasty smile, but he is explicitly called good looking by Yennefer, for example, in the Last Wish. Even Milva mentions him as handsome in baptism of fire.

And Sapkowski dream cast for Geralt was Kevin Coster back then, i didnt know he was ugly either.

[Sar1n]

Geralt isnt described as ugly in the book. He is described as having a nasty smile, but he is explicitly called good looking by Yennefer, for example, in the Last Wish. Even Milva mentions him as handsome in baptism of fire.

And Sapkowski dream cast for Geralt was Kevin Coster back then, i didnt know he was ugly either.

Could be a different translation, but I vaguely remember his complexion and eyes giving people the creeps, and not only when did his enhancements show.

[Wulfburk]

Yeah apparently there are great differences between one english translation and another, not to mention differences to the polish version. However, giving the fact that Geralt wasnt anywhere near ugly in the games either (specially the famous one, Witcher 3), i dont think its a problem.

On Fringilla Vigo, im not sure they will tackle her lineage (it would be rather weird yeah). There are many other alternative reasons she could be said to be in Toussaint doing what she did that woudnt change the main plot and her interaction with Geralt and his hansa.

[PointOfViewGun]

It's interesting how people get offended by a cosmetic change but don't really care when the character's basic traits are misrepresented...

[NorthernXY]

Im saying it can. No that always it is so.


BP is quite an overrated film imo. It is average movie at best just like most marvel movies incidentally. Legend of Korra also has tons of issues not nearly as good as Last air bender for one. And the "woke part" came in quite forced in the end, which wasn't a particular good ending, nor a particular good written season for that matters. It didn't add anything to it. It would had been better if it had, if it was part of the plot and character development. But they didn't even did that. Might not have been intentional, but it came out as so we can have the token lesbian main characters. The end.

Last Air bender ending in contrast was epic. Because overall was a solid good written show.


And i personally dont see it as attacking something, i see it as criticism. I do think condescendingly pushing for social political agendas in vogue today on media it is valid criticism. Mind you not saying it is the case. Never said that. The show isn't out yet.

But it most certainly think it is valid criticism. Specially if you dont particularly support such agenda politically. Which im not saying i dont or do, im saying it is perfectly valid stance to get. No one should be forced to value propaganda after all. Whatever that might be.

At any case all i said was Netflix track record isn't the best with this kinda of stuff.

I couldn't make it through all of The Legend of Korra. I wanted to like it because of how much I enjoyed The Last Airbender, but the writers forgot how to write compelling narratives. The movie, which I also couldn't finish, changed the Inuit Waterbenders to white along with Tibetan Aang, as well as changing the Japanese Firebenders to Pakistani/Indian. It wasn't for artistic reasons, but to pander to people who care about identity politics and can only identify with people who are exactly like themselves.

Race swapping because of political agendas in settings that lack mass transportation like the Classical Period or (fantasy) Middle Ages detracts from the focus on story. So you have a bunch of black people in a place called the Northern Kingdoms. Why are they so far away from the equator? How'd they get there? Why do they have zero cultural trace of where they immigrated from like a name, language, religion, customs, etc? Why are there almost no people of dark olive or brown skin tone (Southern Mediterranean or Middle Eastern) when they would live closer to the North and thus be more likely to be represented because of proximity and culture? Introducing racial tokenism disrupts art because now they've introduced plot holes and inconsistencies and should explain them so the audience isn't left scratching their head wondering why something is out of place or doesn't make sense.

As others have stated, the books and games dealt with social issues in a way that felt genuine and not pandering to a demographic. Why not create your own art that focuses on the demographic you care about? If it's good, you'll have an audience.



So it turns out that she lies to the people most likely to watch the show.

[Knight of Heaven]

And in fact, the casting for extras was done exclusively in Hungary.

But oh my gawd, they turned one sorceress (fringila vigo) black, the outrage!

That is because the show was mostly shot in Hungary. Hiring extras were you shot your show, is normal procedure for this kind of productions.

I remember when GoT got criticism because it hired lots of Moroccan extras to portray slaves and the people of slavers bay. There was outrage because Dany was a white savior of black slaves...

People ignored the fact they were shooting those scenes in Morocco. So most of the extras would be Moroccan.


About Fringila Vigo, not going to lie it is weird. Given her being the cousin of Hanrrietta and all. But it is too soon to tell what is her role in the show.

It's interesting how people get offended by a cosmetic change but don't really care when the character's basic traits are misrepresented...

I dont think that is generally true. But at this point Cosmetics is all people have. All you have is a Trailer and photos. Of course criticisms would be based on appearances.

I couldn't make it through all of The Legend of Korra. I wanted to like it because of how much I enjoyed The Last Airbender, but the writers forgot how to write compelling narratives.

Never watched the live action film. Heard it was very bad. Korra was ok, but not nearly as good as Last air bender, not even close. It all came down to the writing, and the concept they chose for their stories. Btw Netflix is doing a continuation of the last Air bender. It is going to cover the chapters after the end of 100 year war. (Search for Zukos mother, and such arcs that are covered in the comics). Good news is done by the same people who did Last Air bender.