New Witcher - Blood Origins - Spoilers allowed

[MNblockhead]

There are some intense character changes that almost amount to character assassination. When you look at how Yennefer in the books, she is a little harsh, but ultimately a very caring mother figure to Ciri, whereas in the show they concoct a plot of her losing her magic and wanting to sacrifice Ciri.

I get that they wanted to add a plot line so that yen had something to do, because in the books she is not the point of view character, and so you just hear about what she's up to, instead of seeing it directly, but when they wrote a plot for her, it did not match her characterization in the books.

Thanks for explaining it. I can see how fans of the books would be upset. Yennefer was one of my favorite characters in Witcher III but they really didn't get too deep into her backstory in the video game. This is probably a situation where not having read the books makes it easier for me to enjoy the TV series. Generally, I am pretty could about segmenting my expectations and enjoyment of stories based on the medium, but when they drastically change favorite characters, that can certainly be disappointing.

I think that the show is trying to make a relatable character arc of redemption for Yennefer. For me it worked in the show (not having experience with the books to compare with). Do you think the more caring mother figure approach would have worked as well in the show?

Then there are world building faults, like how people travel across the world really fast by horseback. Like, there is this really weird scene where geralt and yen reunite, and it's really far from Kaer Morhen, and yen rides away, and Geralt follows, and the next time you see them they are riding into the castle, and that is the first time they have a conversation about the urgent matter that prompted them to write off, even though it would take weeks to get there.

That's something I've learned to have to shrug off with most shows, especially epic fantasies. At least in the Witcher they could have hand waived it by a throw away mention of teleportation travel.

And they depict the witchers at Kaer Morhen as incompetent compared to how they are in the books. It takes several witchers multiple minutes to just hold their own against some monsters, whereas they're supposed to be pretty badass, and should have been able to take on those monsters much faster, maybe even solo.

This doesn't bother me as much. Makes for more dramatic scenes. Where shows usually fail in this regard is making the protagonists selectively competent or incompetent to force a plot point without any in story rationale. Geralt certainly seems to be the most bad-ass of the bunch, which may make sense from a TV storytelling perspective, but perhaps not from the world building done in the books and games.

It just feels like the writers didn't think the original books were any good and so decided to change stuff, rather than try to give fans something that matched the stories they liked.

Well they felt the sotry, world, and characters were good enough to invest into the show. But show writers are always going to adapt the source material for the screen. Show writer egos and the desire to put forth their own vision likely also plays a large part.

And even if I'm open to adding stuff to fill in gaps, they did it in a way that messes up characterization and threatens to make it so great parts of the story later on won't fit. A mean and heartless show Yen wouldn't protect Ciri the way she did in the books.

Well a redeemed Yen would. I could see that showing a more motherly side of her early on could make it more difficult in the truncated story telling of the TV show for audiences to accept her as the scheming badass she has to be to survive in this world. Yen is still one of my favorite characters in the TV show, but then I'm not invested in the story telling of the books. I've really enjoyed the three Witcher shows on Netflix so far, but thanks for helping me understand why fans of the original books are not so enthused.

 

[Ryujin]

And they depict the witchers at Kaer Morhen as incompetent compared to how they are in the books. It takes several witchers multiple minutes to just hold their own against some monsters, whereas they're supposed to be pretty badass, and should have been able to take on those monsters much faster, maybe even solo.

I will say that this certainly stood out for me, even not knowing the source material. Geralt may be the protagonist and therefore, would likely be depicted as the toughest of the lot, however, it seemed like the other Witchers couldn't have held their own well enough to get the job done. It seemed like they should have been taken down more by intrigue, than brute force.

 

[Jahydin]

Liked the first season of Witcher, but these reviews make me hesitant to give this a shot.

 

[Ryujin]

Liked the first season of Witcher, but these reviews make me hesitant to give this a shot.

It's only 4 episodes, so not a huge time investment. If you like it, then great. If you don't, then you haven't lost much.

 

[Mort]

I will say that this certainly stood out for me, even not knowing the source material. Geralt may be the protagonist and therefore, would likely be depicted as the toughest of the lot, however, it seemed like the other Witchers couldn't have held their own well enough to get the job done. It seemed like they should have been taken down more by intrigue, than brute force.

Yeah, overall I was ok with the show, but this part made me scratch my head. I mean, the way they are depicted, how are ANY of them still alive?

 

[Tonguez]

Liked the first season of Witcher, but these reviews make me hesitant to give this a shot.

You actually take notice of Rotten Tomatos reviews? Thats your first mistake right there ….

 

[RangerWickett]

I decided that, if several people here liked the show, I'd give it a try. Man, this is badly paced, and their understanding of what scenes are for could use some work.

I don't really mind the fact that the lore completely fails to match up with the books, because history is not THAT important to what I care about: good stories.

But yeah, I'm not feeling this. I gave it and episode, but it feels poorly planned.

 

[Jahydin]

You actually take notice of Rotten Tomatos reviews? Thats your first mistake right there ….

Really? I think the user reviews are pretty helpful. There is just so much media to consume, it's nice to have something to filter out the "meh".

 

[Henadic Theologian]

I quite enjoyed it. Never having played the games or read the novels, I don't have any investment in the source material.

I've never played the Witcher (although I have the first one through thanks to a free promotion when the last Witcher came out), and never read the books, so I suspect I'll enjoy it too, but isn't kind of a messed up that this Witcher: BO show seems designed more to appeal to D&D fans then Witcher fans?

 

[John R Davis]

It's an evenings entertainment.
Fight scenes pretty good.
I like the 4 episode format to tell a tale.