#anti netflix the witcher

[agirlking]

[wanderingwolfwitcher]

[darklinaforever]

Today we really get called homophobic /queerphobic for nothing these days.

Because I don't 100% appreciate (without completely hating it, I remind you, I still can't wait to see what Franchaela will give us) the gender change from Michael to Michaela in Bridgerton.

Because I hope we don't change Benedict's romance with Sophie with a man instead, by also changing Sophie's gender for example (although fortunately that shouldn't happen at all).

Because I don't like Rhaenicent (even though this queerbaiting ship doesn't even have a place in the dance of the dragons storyline).

Because I don't like Rhaesaria and I'm firmly against it (it comes out of nowhere and won't go anywhere and what's more it goes against both the character of Rhaenyra who would never cheat on Daemon and that of Mysaria who would never be sincere with Rhaenyra).

Because I don't like the identity and gender problems that the writers attributed to Rhaenyra who in HOTD wants to be a man (seriously, wtf ?), not to mention suddenly inventing her a bisexuality that she actually doesn't have in the original Fire and Blood canon.

The fact of making Jaskier in The Witcher also like men for a plot that serves no purpose ? It doesn't seem to me from what I remember that he also likes men in the books, however I remember that Ciri was on the other hand bisexual ?

So once again, why make a character who isn't queer in the books a character who is queer in the adaptation when you just have to adapt the ones who are queer ?!

Regardless, it kills me to be called homophobic / queerphobic because I disagree with some seriously questionable writing decisions.

Or worse, telling me that I'm homophobic /queerphobic for loving fictional problematic queer relationships... That's still a strong shitty argument.

[anti-rop]

GRRM has had some misses with some of his takes, but this is not one of them. All of this can easily be remedied by adopting the "Don't like, don't adapt" philosophy.

source and GRRM's blog post

[german-garbage]

If your way of making Dandelion canonically bisexual is to age up a child (that grows up to be a xenophobic megalomaniac) to make him his love interest I'd rather you kept him straight.

[supercupcakecollector-love]

https://youtu.be/o3uXZcy5EjE?si=P7dLDL469w1z23Oy

Her response to a very disrespectful question about HC at 1:04 is sooo telling, like compare this to how she talks about Liam and Joey and the rest of her cast members

She so wants to tell everyone to get over him already and the reasons why

[ramen-flavored]

Damn, I wish they didn’t leave the season 3 finale on a cliff hanger like that. What a shame there won’t be a fourth season.

[tiredmoonslut]

The way HC's exit has overshadowed what was the most accurately adapted, and in my opinion most compelling and dramatic season of the show is gonna piss me off for the next several years, I feel it.

Okay I was gonna keep these in the tags but actually nevermind, salt post inbound

Henry Cavill is a good actor and a good Geralt, I'll never deny this, but the revisionist history that's going on because of his leaving the series is a bunch of nonsense being puppeted by his dudebro gamer fanbase that wants to keep holding him up as the Witcher god.

The whole "he left because of inaccurate adaptation" argument really falls apart when so much of season 3 was pace-for-pace with Time of Contempt...and Henry didn't leave the show until after production on it had wrapped, as confirmed by both Anya and Freya. It loses even more weight when Henry has gone on record more than once that he hadn't even read the books or known they existed before pursuing the role of Geralt in S1.

Also, it literally cannot be denied that this same group of people who ride-or-die for him go completely silent about Freya, Anya, and Joey---or worse, become misogynistic and racist, when what makes the story of The Witcher great is Geralt's relationships to these people and the way he acts as a catalyst in their journeys.

It's just so annoying. Be upset that he's leaving all you want, but don't make shit up and don't be a fucking dick to everyone else who works on that show as if one of them is the imposter who's responsible for his exit---when the much more likely truth is that Warner Bros. was gonna pay big bucks to have him back as Superman.

[clairedelune-13]

Rereading The Witcher for the bajillionth time and reminded why I want to torch Netflix Studios and eat popcorn while it burns.

Those fuckers butchered my beloved book series. Rot in hell, corporate cunts.

[rogue205]

Way late to the party but I am still PISSED about how badly Eskel was both done dirty and absolutely wasted as a character in Netflix’s Witcher. They also seemed to realize that they forgot(for non-book readers) to show just HOW MUCH Eskel meant to Geralt so they also threw in that little “flashback” which also did nothing.

Will I ever stop being salty as fuck about that?

Nope. Not a chance.

That killed the show for me. That and how crappy Jaskier is also handled. I didn’t bother with season three.

[astaldis]

One thing the guys who criticise Netflix for its racial diversity in The Witcher always seem to forget

Had this discussion with this guy on Reddit again, always the same arguments, of course, the lore allegedly is all Slavic/white European. And then they pretend to care for the identity of other cultures and that they should be preserved and distinguishable and that there's Zerrikania on the continent for black people. Yes, Zerrikania, featuring so prominently in the books, right ...

What they totally seem to overlook, humans came to the continent through the Conjunction of the Spheres about 1,500 years before the events of the novels. They did not evolve on the continent through survival of the fittest. The distribution of skin colour on the continent ought to be mostly random. Yes, people who came from hot places in their original world and have a very dark skin colour as adaptation to the climate in their lost sphere of origin might prefer to settle regions like Zerrikania with a similar climate. But why wouldn't they settle in Toussaint, for example? Fringilla being dark skinned does not have to mean she has ancestors from Zerrikania and does not need to be explained in any way. Same with culture, people from all kinds of different cultures have very likely landed on the continent together and mixed their cultures while they were helping each other to survive in a totally new world. Why should there be distinct cultures related to skin colour and climate after only 1,500 years of populating the continent? A mix makes a lot more sense under these unique circumstances.

There was also a very funny thing one guy asked me when I wrote something like: Oh yes, the Korath desert is very Eastern European.

Did you know there's a desert in Poland? Yes, there actually is. We also have several "deserts" in Germany, but they are all so small, even a toddler would have difficulty getting lost in one of them 😂. Of course Sapkowski was exclusively thinking of this miniature Polish desert when he created the Korath 😂.

[darklinaforever]

Quick note on the costumes in HOTD. They are not good. They absolutely do not correspond to what we are supposed to have based on the era from which GRRM is inspired. Just see with the official character arts validated by GRRM. When I see people spitting on the costumes of The Ring of Power by saying that the costumes of HOTD blow out those of TOO... Sorry but no. And I want to say that at least those in TROP are sometimes pretty to look at. And the excuse that it's inspired by the Middle Ages and therefore that it's serious by the show's defenders makes me laugh too. The costumes do not match at all what the books present. The costumes are just bad and a little too often recycled throughout the episodes. I don't understand those who defend costumes. Worse, the color of the Velaryon house is not respected in HOTD. For what ? Especially since most of these HOTD and GOT fans are sold on how recognizable the different houses are, particularly thanks to their colors. These people are also the same people who will attack The Witcher and The Ring of Power on the infidelity of the costumes. What is this hypocrisy ?! Again, I don't understand how so many people can believe that HOTD is a good show let alone on the costumes. One of my favorite things about watching a historical or inspirational show is the costumes and HOTD is so poor on that... And that saddens me as much as the disastrous writing.

[just-a-witcher]

[caernua]

what the HELL is the costume department doing 💀💀💀💀

[dol--blathanna]

I try not to post too much TWN negativity on this blog, because I know plenty of people enjoy the show just fine, and I hate being an asshole and raining on other people’s parades. But, god, the way that the show treats Yennefer - or rather, mistreats her - just upsets me and pisses me off so much. 

The book already puts her through the wringer - too much at times, honestly - but the show just takes it to a whole new level. The amount of suffering they put her through that wasn’t present in the books is so frustrating to me. Like adding in random torture scenes that weren’t present (the hysterectomy scene, being tortured by Stregebor), losing her magic powers, constantly being captured in S2, not even having a particularly good court standing - like in S1 when Fringilla mocks her for not helping advance Aedirn at all, and Yennefer doesn’t even have a good comeback to that. It’s as if the show is just obsessed with giving her constant Ls and never really letting her come out on top. Sidenote: I am fine with angst, in fact I enjoy it, and I am fine with a character going through hardships and suffering. You can do a lot of great character, story and theme exploration with angst, and sometimes it’s necessary for a character to suffer to develop that. If I wasn’t fine with angst, I wouldn’t be a fan of the witcher lmao. But when I see a character who already goes through a shit ton of misery in the books get forced into even more suffering in the show that never happened....I start to have a problem.

And then, of course, S2 committed the cardinal sin with that stupid ass Voleth Meir plotline. As if torturing her, having her be captured, making her lose her powers, wasn’t bad enough - they completely character assassinate her by making her almost sacrifice Ciri to a fucking demon. Something that is so bewilderingly OOC for Yennefer, something that never EVER happened in the books. When the show got bored with creating narrative suffering for her, they decided to take it to a meta level by character assassinating her in a really bizarre, stupid way. Because, why was this necessary? I know that they were concerned about the fact Yennefer doesn’t really show up much in Blood of Elves, I understand they wanted to create a plot line for her that got her more involved in the main plot. But - why this???!!! There were 101 different plot lines they could have given her that didn’t involve her trying to sacrifice Ciri to a fucking demon, in the process completely messing up her relationship with Geralt and Ciri!!

And this is the main reason I’m making this post - her relationship with Geralt and Ciri being messed up. I’ve seen a lot of articles recently about S3, all stating that Yennefer essentially has to grovel to Geralt, that he ignores her for potentially a full year, that at the beginning he doesn’t even let her enter the same abode as them - what the fuck!!! It upsets me so much. Because this was the biggest problem with the VM plotline - it completely upends Geralt and Yennefer’s dynamic. In the books, their relationship is way more equal - in fact, it honestly would be accurate to say that Yennefer is the more dominant one in the relationship, not Geralt. The show is now completely turning that on its head, and making Geralt the dominant one - but not personality wise, more in a moral highground type way. Because now, whatever stupid shit Geralt does, or has done in the past - e.g. tell Yennefer she’d be a terrible mother, which he never apologises for - none of that matters!! Because it will never be as bad as Yennefer trying to kill Ciri. Instead of a relationship where they both fuck up and both make mistakes, like in the books, in the show the emphasis will all be on Yennefer. Yennefer is the one fucking up, Yennefer is the one making absurdly stupid mistakes, Yennefer is the one who needs to apologise and grovel and beg for forgiveness. 

And this is what I mean by, the show is obsessed with giving her Ls. Not only do they make her suffer, they character assassinate her by forcing her character to do this cartoonishly evil thing, and then punish her for it!! They don’t just take away her powers, her court standing, they even strip her of her own relationships!!! And I ask again - why is this necessary?? Who decided that punishing her like this would be an extremely important plot line, an improvement, over the original source material? Like back when the show was first announced, I sure as shit wasn’t thinking “oh wow a netflix witcher show - I sure do hope they have a plot thread where Geralt refuses to talk to Yennefer, and doesn’t even let her into the same fucking house as him, because she tried to kill Ciri!!” who wanted this??? Who thought this was a good idea??? Honestly, it makes me feel as if someone on the writing team hates Yennefer and wants her to suffer, both in a narrative and meta level. And no, I’m not talking about that infamous Beau deMayo interview - something that caused a huge amount of online drama and should be taken with a big old pinch of salt, especially since the writer who made this claim was responsible for some pretty questionable decisions, namely the whole Treeskel thing. I’m not making a direct accusation here - it’s more a feeling. When I look at TWN, I cannot help but sense a level of contempt and spite towards the character of Yennefer. That doesn’t necessarily mean someone in the writing team genuinely has it out for her, but if that’s the impression that I get from the way they treat her in the show, then something has gone very wrong with the narrative decisions they made for her.

And this is why, not only can I not let myself be excited for S3, it’s why I’m genuinely feeling dread about it. Every time I read interviews about how Geralt and Yennefer have this really rocky start and he’s ignoring her or whatever, my stomach just sinks. And again - why was this decision made? Who thought this was a good idea? And yeah, the TWN team have already said they’re trying to fix the problem with their relationship caused in S2, but a) the way they are going about fixing it only serves to punish Yennefer’s character more and b) it should not have been something to fix in the first place. It’s also why I can’t bring myself to believe that S3 will suddenly be more faithful and better than S2, esp in regards to Yennefer (aside from the fact they’ve made this promise before and failed to deliver). Because the early plot points of a story are extremely important in setting the foundation of your later plot, especially in a series like the witcher. If your foundation is inherently flawed, it doesn’t matter how good your later seasons are; they are built on a faulty base, and will therefore lack a good structure. Case in point with Yennefer. Without going too much into book spoilers, let’s just say she has a really rough time of it post-Time of Contempt in the books. So in the show, either a) they will just put her through even more suffering and leave you thinking “wow did this entire show exist just to punish Yennefer?” or b) they will have to deviate away from the books. Neither of these options are particularly good. (this also is one of my problems with S2 as a whole - they were so desperate to put in all this insane blockbuster action and dramatic plot points, but sometimes in stories you need moments of calm to make later dramatic plot points more hard hitting. In the books, Blood of Elves was the moment of calm before Time of Contempt’s batshit, action packed drama. In the show, you never get that moment of calm. Why should I care about whatever happens in Thanedd if S2 had Ciri get possessed by a fucking demon and go on a killing spree? But anyway.)

And I think the reason why I’m particularly disappointed with the way that the show has treated Yennefer’s character so badly (aside from the numerous promises of “we’re a faithful book adaptation” being complete lies) is that Yennefer is a character who already receives a lot of unfair hate. Obviously there’s the annoying “Team Yen vs Team Triss” thing from the games, but even within the show there were a certain type of fans of a certain ship who hated a lot on Yennefer for daring to get in the way of their ship. Like, I’m so sick of seeing Yennefer getting hate for stupid, unfair reasons - and now even the show is treating her like shit??? Like, give me a break!! 

I’m just tired of it. And obviously, if you like TWN and you’re excited for S3, that’s fine. In fact, I’m honestly jealous, I wish I could feel the same. And who knows, maybe the show will improve its treatment of Yennefer, maybe they’ll finally give her some Ws. But that’s what I thought about S2, and was proven VERY wrong. Any confidence, trust or optimism I had left for the show was completely destroyed by the Voleth Meir plotline in S2, and the show will have to work very hard to rebuild that trust for me. And unfortunately, everything I’ve heard about S3 so far is only confirming that they’ll continue to treat her poorly.

[hanzajesthanza]

young radovid through philippa’s tutelage learning of his family history and primogeniture, redania’s like of succession, thinking to ask her, if there were kings before his father, who were the sorcereresses before her?

and the pleasant, coy smile she gives him being answer enough, that there has been none but philippa eilhart for a long, long time