Someone else made a thread about this but it was unreasonable paranoid republican stuff.

So I've watched to episode 5 of 8. My thoughts. Base stuff seems good.
But it seems there are unexplained aspects of the story where you'd really need to read the books to understand.
The story jumps around in time without explanation or letting you know where it's jumped around to.
The story might even jump into alternative versions of events or realities or something I think someone said in another thread?

Some more specific thoughts, possibly mild spoilers in it.

Shut up about destiny everyone in this story! And when it came to that right of surprise stuff, everyone babbled on about destiny or in Geralts case, a promise. But no one was like, it's what she wants.., Just imagine if she didn't love him how that conversation could have gone.

How is it those sorcerer that were turned into eels and then are around latter on, were they turned back? Alternative reality? Why was "piglet" favored by the head sorcerer?

How is it that Ciri didn't know who Geralt was earlier on but then when it shows the past, lots of stuff about him was discussed right in front of her?

Fuck wishes. May there be a fantasy story without wishes or time travel!!! And of course the wishes were wasted on stupid shit because otherwise the story would be resolved too easily.

I think you're a great example of how the makers of the show messed up in the telling of the story :D.

As for SPOILERY ANSWERS TO YOUR QUESTIONS (from someone who has never read the books, and hasn't finished any of the games)

- There is no time travel in the show
- The other witches were not turned back from eels, scenes with them later were probably in the past
- Dunno why piglet was favoured. She obviously had potential, being part elf, maybe that was communicated somehow. Or...Destiny? :D
- Ciri never met Geralt before, but there is one scene where the queen grandmother uses a double to pretend is Ciri, but it is actually not

...unless all your "questions" were simply examples to show why the storytelling was badly done.

The failed sorcerers were turned into eels. They were not revived, those ones were gone. "Piglet" (Yennefer) was favored for her immense power that she struggled to learn to control. She has elven blood so she has different magical abilities than most other mages.

Destiny is the point of the series, and the more characters resist their established destinies, the harder they are forced to comply. They won't shut up about it because it is a central theme. It is often speculated that Yen and Geralt aren't in love, the Witcher 3 game even explores the idea that it is a magic spell tying them together.

What's to resolve? The last wish is one of the earlier stories, before Nilfgaard and before most of the character conflicts.

Ciri didn't know who Geralt was because they PURPOSEFULLY kept the information from her. Calanthe did not want Geralt to claim Ciri, and did not want her to have anything to do with him. I don't know what you mean about them discussing him in front of her, Calanthe would not have allowed that.

No, it was both questions out of curiosity and demonstration of the shows failings. Those weren't my only questions either, just too much work to document all my points of confusion in hopes someone had an explanation. I KNOW. But there is wishes, and both suck for plot. Besides, the show jumps around in the timeline so much without explanation or giving you any idea where in the timeline you are, it almost feels like there is time travel.

Would it really kill them to give some narration via voice or text ever so often? Even This is the location and the date/time when moving to a new time line/plot line, X Files like.

I don't know, he could wish that his fellow witchers were alive again. Or that there could be more of them "made". Less monsters to fight. Put a end to curses/dark magic? Save the wishes for when you need them? There is countless possibilities. But as per Time travel and Wish rules in plots, they are almost always useless unless key to moving the plot along. Failed? But they succeeded n tasks. Much more so than Yennefer. Why even bother teaching them control just to turn them into eels? Why did they all just wait there to be turned into eels? So these sorcerers are evil, killing girls by turning them into eels? I mean she personally knew their names and shit, what a cold hearted nasty woman. Also a stupid women to essentially kill her more talented students. She was sitting at the head table with her mother when Geralt was loudly introduced as a famous guest. Then her grandmother sat Geralt next to her and discussed various stuff with Ciri on the other side of her. He saved Ciri's boyfriend!

He broke her weird ass spell where she spun around in a circle above the ground with her boyfriend while everyone else was being buffeted by wind, for a long ass time for no particular apparent reason. She was there at her own wedding when that weird ass "right of chance" thing came up after porcupine boyfriend thanked him for saving his life with her standing right next to him. And they somehow decided that meant Geralt owned Ciri for "reasons", again, in front of Ciri!

Also Geralt is famous by then thanks to the bard.

Does Ciri stick her fingers in her ears and hum real loud to herself when the cameras off her to avoid hearing anything?!? Otherwise what do you mean she doesn't know who Geralt is?!?

Also, the show makes a point of talking about the cost of magic, withering a hand to raise a blasted stone. But portals and wind and barriers etc happen, all sorts of magic, and no apparent cost. I think magic stories should avoid making up shit about the magic having costs if they aren't going to stick to it.

Ciri
Ciri's mother, Pavetta

They look the same to me. I see why I made that mistake. Along with the time jumping.

*minor spoilers in rant*

Gerlt gets lectured about getting a kid and then leaving it behind. The surprise thing was a prize, a reward, But suddenly now it's a obligation? The previous surprise thing was interpreted as a spouse but now its as a dad that replaces actual parents? Why not as a slave, he can claim his princess then work her to the bone. And its interpreted as him getting her because her mother vomited after he already left indicated her pregnancy, but she was obviously pregnant before the agreement, unless I missed a sex scene during this marriage. I mean it's all so damn arbitrary decided.

And then latter talking to the queen there's this stupid discussion where the wizard who says "Kings who go against fate get their heads on pikes" Really now, but she's a queen so she should be safe. Shut up about this destiny shit! So some supernatural forces are guiding things to a specific outcome, why can't these supernatural forces guide to less shitty outcomes because lots of shit is happening.

Hopefully the series doesn't turn me off to the games too much, I mean you play the games in part for the story and if there is lots of annoying talk of destiny there too.,,

I take it that the books also blab on about destiny, got it, I will never read them then.

I actually thought their approach to go with three different story lines that take place in three different time periods and how they juxtapose them was the most interesting aspect of the series. It's not all that complicated either, as every character has their own clearly separate story and timeline and as long as they don't meet yet, you don't really need to worry about how they connect to each other. I wouldn't say that the story jumps around in time; what's true though is that the timelines of Yennenfer and Witcher occasionally make bigger leaps forward in time, to make it possible that all three stories connect in the end. And it's also true that the series' clues for when the stories take place are rather vague and subtle and require the watcher to pay good attention. Personally, I didn't mind that, but at least on one occasion these clues hinge on the tense of a verb in one single sentence and can also get lost in translation if you don't watch it in the original language or with faulty subtitles. They could have been a little clearer in those cases.

Apart from that, I'm a bit torn about the series. It's not bad, but not really all that good either. I has lots of trashy elements, due to bad special effects and CGI, wooden dialogues and performances (I particularly don't like the lead of Henry Cavill much), but who knows, maybe also due to the original writing; I've only read the German translation of The Last Wish, which I thought a bit pulpy as well.

And I admit, as someone who hasn't read most of the books and didn't play more than 1-2 acts of the first game, not everything in the series made sense to me; e.g. the story of the first episode and how it ended.

It would have been better if it had given us a date and place for each switch. Not only to tell the timelines apart but to know how much time has even pass from one event to another.

Yennafir, she didn't look all that bad with her hump and side of her mouth issue, and she didn't look amazingly better once those were fixed. But those sparkly special effect or whatever purple eyes, I liked those. I wish I had eyes like that.

I don't know, I think I would have thought it less interesting and more tedious that way, if everything had been handed to me on a platter, but I would have had to juggle with a lot of fictional dates, but to each their own.

Fair enough. Like I said, I'm not that familiar with the books, and I do agree that the story-telling feels like a bit of a mess; maybe that's precisely why I thought that approach interesting, because it was the only hint at a structure, something a little bit coherent, and something to figure out when the stories themselves didn't seem all that interesting to me. But I do see where you're coming from. I'm not really a fan of The Witcher, so I don't have any strong feelings towards the series, but I fear it won't make me a fan either. If the way Cavill plays the Witcher is passable, I guess I just don't really like the character very much in general.

Yes, there are a number of beats that are either poorly scripted and / or poorly communicated through the directing.

TBH the season feels like a first draft that was rushed into production.

Agree.

I didn't have as many issues with the series, but I certainly feel the show is over-all rather generic.

I will say this though...

... My wife has never read the books, doesn't play games, and had no prior idea what The Witcher was...

... and she binge-watched the whole series and claims to have enjoyed it.

So, if nothing else, this may be a "gateway" to Sapkowski's work and / or the CDPR games.

So the games and the books prattle on about destiny too? Do any of you like that destiny stuff? Does it attract you Witcher, repel you, or indifferent?

*spoiler for series ahead*

All throughout they've been missing each other, but if "destiny" is so powerful and "wanted" them together then how come it took the whole season for them to meet. And even then she started randomly running off like she might miss him, one last psych out I guess.

And then they go embrace each other like lovers or or father daughter or wizard familiar or whatever... This is literally the first time they've met each other, even seen each other. I can understand why with Ciri since she's been on the run this whole time but Geralt? And how did they recognize each other? Because destiny told them? Because "girl in woods"? Oh yeah, you find a girl in the woods and it's destiny, there can't be that many of those in the foresty country side!

Meanwhile people are dying in droves, but at least two strangers have met at last.

They don't focus on it much but it sure looked like Yen killed some of her own people while she was flooding the area with lava or whatever it was. I also once again note how there is no cost to her casting magic. Or does cost only mostly apply if you don't have enough mana/chaos saved up? Why is it the bad guys couldn't make fireballs without killing people?

I haven't read the books, don't know much about the lore, but I did notice that she took all the fire away from the settlement before sending it on the enemy troops. I assume that was the cost repaid.