The Witcher (Netflix Series)

**Knight of Heaven** · December 21, 2019, 04:11 PM

Out of curiosity, how has it been more Americanised than for example the games?

I didn't feel the games were Americanized at all. Both Aesthetically and contextually. Hell even the original voice over is in Polish. The games made it feel like you were in eastern Europe in 14th Century, with fantasy trow in the pot. A mix of Fantasy tropes, with Slavic supernatural, traditional superstitions, and lore.
This combination made it somewhat for a unique, and novel experience, in the realm of fantasy/adventure genre.

The show seems to depart from, this, and present us the world of the witcher in a more generic setup. While the scenes with Geralt work very well, in no small part due to Henry Cavill, everything else seems devoid of novelty and inspiration.
Imo

The rest was all as if it were in any other British/American fantasy. Including the ethnical make-up, but most importantly the behaviour. Everyone behaves Western and practically nothing of the lore makes it into the game.

Yes it was obvious Netflix were trying to pander to a western audience, from the beginning. In the process they lost a bit what made this world more alluring. In my opinion.

**Mhaedros** · December 21, 2019, 04:48 PM

Some interesting points! It's probably a matter of it being too long since I played the games, so a lot of nuance has been lost to time..time for a replay of 3 I guess

**Wulfburk** · December 21, 2019, 05:46 PM

The books are more arthurian than anything else. The further the seasons go the more they should give nods to it, if they will adapt it faithfully.

Whats exactly slavic about the northern kingdoms in the books, that wasnt shown in the series, by the way?

I cant think of a single change from the books, other than introducing non white characters across the series, that is a change from supposed slavicness to american/british "generic" fantasy. If the costumes had been more faithful to the books it would have been even more "generic" medieval fantasy.

Most of the short stories are fairy tales turned upside down, in the source material, and the core of those were adapted quite faithfully id say.

It was the games that turned the whole "slavicness" up to eleven. I get that people love the witcher 3 and so do i, but saying netflix turned the witcher into a generic american fantasy show is rather hilarious. This netflix series with all its changes is ten times more faithful to the source material than the games, which have basically simply regurgitated the book plots in random ways, retconned the ending, kept ciri and yennefer out for 2/3rds of its run and made triss the main love interest in the meanwhile, and so on.

I get the impression the people wanting more slavicness would have loved if they had adapted the "slavic" quests of the witcher 3 other than the "generic fantasy" short stories. Have these people watched episodes 3? 4? 5? 6? If you think these episodes are generic american fantasy, im sorry to break it to you but you think the witcher source material is generic american fantasy. The problem is probably on your definition of that

**Love Mountain** · December 21, 2019, 07:16 PM

Renfri and Queen Calanthe are the best actors in this show. The female leads, Yennefer, is subpar.

**Ishan** · December 22, 2019, 12:35 AM

Fighting choreography in Blaviken was awesome. I was super pumped to see it. Watching episode 3 now...

**conon394** · December 22, 2019, 09:29 AM

Well my daughter picked the show to watch over kill la kill for now. Hmm so far I enjoy the series but season one feels lot an immense amount of plot lines that have to come out of nowhere each episode and I presume get somewhere in season 2 (I mean I keep expecting a bit character cross over if just in passing but no)? Or am I looking at something made up out short stories that will always feel more like a police procedural episode of the week with some characters or episodes I like?

**Sar1n** · December 22, 2019, 10:36 AM

Writers apparently find new ways to defy original material, common sense and the expectation of quality, not to mention their apparently inexistent reading ability.
Episode 4:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

**Ishan** · December 22, 2019, 10:48 AM

Witcher wiki says hedgehog as well:
https://witcher.fandom.com/wiki/Pavetta
Are you sure?

**Sar1n** · December 22, 2019, 11:00 AM

Could be differences in translation. There's a bunch of different fan translations out there.
Anyway, I checked the one I have here. It's unclear, though the description is more consistent with a boar than hedgehog, and at least once he gets called pig in reference to the looks.

**Cookiegod** · December 22, 2019, 11:14 AM

Well I checked the most trusted source on the internet now: Polish Wikipedia. "Jeżem z Erlenwald" = Hedgehog/"Urcheon of Erlenwald". Sar1n you either misremember or your translation is shite.

Not to mention that this is a ridiculously small detail to get angry at. Does this change the story so significantly if he's a bear instead of a hedgehog?!

**Sar1n** · December 22, 2019, 11:21 AM

Originally Posted by Cookiegod

Well I checked the most trusted source on the internet now: Polish Wikipedia. "Jeżem z Erlenwald" = Hedgehog/"Urcheon of Erlenwald". Sar1n you either misremember or your translation is shite.

Not to mention that this is a ridiculously small detail to get angry at. Does this change the story so significantly if he's a bear instead of a hedgehog?!

It's mostly that it looks ridiculous...kinda looked out of place for me.
I haven't checked the Polish translation to be honest. Referring to his name in connection with the curse, however, might be shoddy (though readers will know that it's an alias for a good reason)...

**Mhaedros** · December 22, 2019, 11:39 AM

It's always been a hedgehod.

Not to mention the name itself Urcheon means hedgehog.

**DaVinci** · December 22, 2019, 11:51 AM

Originally Posted by Sar1n

Could be differences in translation. There's a bunch of different fan translations out there.
Anyway, I checked the one I have here. It's unclear, though the description is more consistent with a boar than hedgehog, and at least once he gets called pig in reference to the looks.

Hm, it's hedgehog in the German book editions. I guess only a Polish reader of the original Sapkowski book releases could say for sure, or ofc Sapkowski himself.

**La♔De♔Da♔Brigadier Graham** · December 22, 2019, 12:10 PM

I very much like the series, I'm impressed with Henry Cavill's portrayal really.and all that

**Cookiegod** · December 22, 2019, 12:24 PM

Originally Posted by Sar1n

It's mostly that it looks ridiculous...kinda looked out of place for me.
I haven't checked the Polish translation to be honest. Referring to his name in connection with the curse, however, might be shoddy (though readers will know that it's an alias for a good reason)...

See the final battle, not only Yen's dress but also the same less than 2 dozen Nilfgaardians in that glorious armour in every shot, and then we can talk about looking ridiculous and out of place. You can really tell the series had a tight budget and ran out of money at a certain point. The hedgehog is ok under those circumstances. I wasn't weirded out as much as you were, not least because I didn't read the books and thus didn't have a mental image as to how he's supposed to look to me.

**conon394** · December 22, 2019, 12:54 PM

Yen's dress but also the same less than 2 dozen Nilfgaardians in that glorious armour in every shot

Yes but do want bad CGI instead? I mean even back in the day (with a A picture) Kubrick caused apoplexy when the Studio suits realized how many extras he was hiring for Spartacus and how long it was going to take to get them move like a trained army (and of course most of it cut by the suits because they thought it was boring - that is the final deployment by the Romans as per cohorts and sub units.)

**Cookiegod** · December 22, 2019, 02:51 PM

I'm not necessarily blaming them, as long as they did the best with their budget they could (I hope that to have been the case). It's just very cheap shots in this case and yes, plenty of CGI. At times you'll see the same guys several times marching near each other to make it look like a bigger army. The number of extras used is really painfully low. If at least the substance of the battle had been better, but no. Might well be the worst battle I ever saw on screen. I'm not sure though. Hollywood & Co. have never been good at filming battles, and yes, that includes most of GoT.

**the_mango55** · December 22, 2019, 03:14 PM

Only seen 2 episodes so far, first one I was disappointed in and second one was much better.

Episode 1 was filled with too much pointless exposition. Especially in the tower about the women born during the eclipse.