|
If you're just playing the games can't you read all of the books? They are all prequels to the games. For myself I think they're almost required reading before you play Witcher 3, certainly before you play Blood & Wine, if you're going to get the full impact of the story. I can see an argument for not reading them before playing Witcher 1 and 2 though given the memory loss thing.
|
#
?
Jan 31, 2022 19:39
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 19, 2024 12:56 |
|
|
I never played the first two Witcher games and I was just fine in The Witcher 3 because the lore dumps in the game were more than enough to cover any gaps between the books and the games/to reiterate things you wouldn't know if you hadn't read the books.
|
|
#
?
Jan 31, 2022 21:35
|
|
|
Pretty sure the spoiler happens after the white orchard tutorial map anyway in W3
|
|
#
?
Feb 3, 2022 09:42
|
|
|
It's a twist that can only work in text, and it's honestly not a big issue.
|
|
#
?
Feb 6, 2022 07:16
|
|
|
the reason to read the books isnt for lore or backstory, but for prose and narrative structure
|
|
#
?
Feb 6, 2022 07:39
|
|
|
The little asides and vignettes are the best part of the books. They help push the narrative along while being standalone stories. The Dijkstra shorts are wonderful, especially when he goes to visit King Thyssen.
|
|
#
?
Feb 6, 2022 08:17
|
|
|
I still have zero understanding why they (book spoilers that don't honestly matter) assassinated Thyssen, since he played ball.
|
|
#
?
Feb 6, 2022 09:47
|
|
|
Kaedric posted:I still have zero understanding why they (book spoilers that don't honestly matter) assassinated Thyssen, since he played ball. Because everybody is an rear end in a top hat would be my guess.
|
|
#
?
Feb 6, 2022 13:55
|
|
|
Arc Hammer posted:The little asides and vignettes are the best part of the books. They help push the narrative along while being standalone stories. The Dijkstra shorts are wonderful, especially when he goes to visit King Thyssen. I don’t know why it still sticks with me, but the chapter where Geralt is stuck on a barge with an annoying child and the scientist/biologist who keeps arguing with him about species names is comedy gold to me as it’s written.
|
|
#
?
Feb 6, 2022 15:34
|
|
|
chaosapiant posted:I don’t know why it still sticks with me, but the chapter where Geralt is stuck on a barge with an annoying child and the scientist/biologist who keeps arguing with him about species names is comedy gold to me as it’s written. If you've ever been in a position where you're doing a job because it's literally in your field of work and the contractor is telling you how it should be done, that scene is so, so true to life.
|
|
#
?
Feb 6, 2022 18:11
|
|
|
Arc Hammer posted:If you've ever been in a position where you're doing a job because it's literally in your field of work and the contractor is telling you how it should be done, that scene is so, so true to life. I’ve been there so many drat times that it just rolls right off me now. I like mainly how the Witcher novels are told through like little constantly changing vignettes. Like deciding the whole story was being told in the future between Nimue and Condomwarmers so late in the series is a really bold move and for some reason it works for me. But I can also see folks getting put off by poo poo like that.
|
|
#
?
Feb 6, 2022 21:40
|
|
|
Really appreciate all the feedback from my question. I've decided I'm going to finish up Sword of Destiny and then knock out Season 2 and while I'm very very slowly playing the game, not really worry about slowing that down intentionally. I'm sure I'll catch up on all the rest of the books before S3. Thanks!
|
|
#
?
Feb 7, 2022 03:50
|
|
|
spoilers I guess If that guy is Ciri's father and he wants to meet her, why not just send her a letter or a messenger and ask her instead of destroying countries with a giant army ?
|
|
#
?
Feb 7, 2022 07:09
|
|
|
Vim Fuego posted:spoilers I guess he wants to marry her so his children have elder blood which will help nilfgaard conquer the universe. ruling is his raison detre though and the last book ends with him finally meeting ciri again and deciding not to bother her
|
|
#
?
Feb 7, 2022 07:20
|
|
|
scary ghost dog posted:total series spoilers Doesn't it turn out that his intentions are actually 'pure', in that the child conceived would save the world? I think in the books Ciri is not supposed to be 'the chosen one' or whatever, but rather the mother of them. I don't think Emhyr just wanted to be the big boss, that was more Vilgefortz's thing
|
|
#
?
Feb 7, 2022 07:23
|
|
|
Kaedric posted:Doesn't it turn out that his intentions are actually 'pure', in that the child conceived would save the world? I think in the books Ciri is not supposed to be 'the chosen one' or whatever, but rather the mother of them. I don't think Emhyr just wanted to be the big boss, that was more Vilgefortz's thing its a prophecy which means if it is true its probably misleading in some way. but wanting to be the father of the child that saves the world, when that child is prophecized to exist regardless of your actions and creating it yourself is an act of parental incest, speaks to his purity of heart. seeing ciri in person and changing his mind is him accepting he cant control everything
|
|
#
?
Feb 7, 2022 14:18
|
|
|
I came at this series through the games and reading a few of the short stories, I picked up the plot of the books from a synopsis, having lost interest about a quarter of a way through the first book. So with one of the big deviations being the Baba Yaga knockoff, I wonder if they're gonna make the Wild Hunt explicitly supernatural rather than imperialist elves acting like murderous Scooby-Doo villains. I don't think the Aen Elle would really work in this medium, but who knows.
|
|
#
?
Feb 7, 2022 21:25
|
|
|
Also of the many people who hunt Ciri in the books (full series spoilers), none of them have consistent motivations at all. The Aen Elle want her genes to create super navigators and evacuate the elves from the coming ice age. Vilgefortz wants to vivisect her for UNLIMITED POWAAA. Emyhr wants her child because he thinks it will rule and/or save the world. It's pretty clear IMO that none of them have a clue what destiny actually has in store and are just scrambling to get what they want.
|
|
#
?
Feb 7, 2022 23:50
|
|
|
scary ghost dog posted:total series spoilers Wow. How... Heinleinesque.
|
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2022 04:17
|
|
|
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WsTw4ZB5UFo
|
|
#
?
Feb 14, 2022 21:55
|
|
|
Pollyanna posted:O valley of PEEENIS.
|
|
#
?
Feb 16, 2022 07:16
|
|
|
My main complaint about this show is that they show so many characters and don't really explain who that character is or what their motivation is. Maybe I'm just dumb, but I can't keep half the characters in this show straight or tell you who's side they are on and whether they are good or bad. They should cut down the number of characters shown and flesh out the ones that do get screen time. Just replace a lot of the filler content with characters backstories or something, so we know who they are. It seemed like 80% of the show was just complete filler, characters walking from one location to another. And then 10% was "here is 5 minutes of some random character that you haven't seen for the last 5 episodes, doing something mysterious" and 10% of Geralt being awesome.
|
|
#
?
Feb 16, 2022 15:07
|
|
|
eXXon posted:If you played (most of? Can't remember when exactly, actually I think it was fairly early on) Witcher 3 you got the spoiler anyway. ... ngl that is a pretty bad take imho
|
|
#
?
Feb 20, 2022 07:33
|
|
|
Also, Geralt's boob plate armor is dumb
|
|
#
?
Feb 20, 2022 09:25
|
|
|
Are the books worth reading as a show liker? I could go for some sword and sorcery nonsense. I watched it with my partner recently and we absolutely hated it until the final few episodes of season 2. Now we're going through the video games starting with 1 and rewatching it because we have nothing better to do. The early episodes are a lot more fun on a second run. Went in knowing vaguely that Geralt is a super hot total anime badass whos slays baddies from seeing other people play the games, and that season 1 had timelines. There were way too many proper name drops without being invested, or even getting so much as a LotR prologue map shot. On the second watch, it's so much more fun because we actually know everyone. Mostly, sort of. What the gently caress is Nilfgaard's deal? They act all religious but the White Flame is just some guy? yeah dad to someone we care about but still, who and what is this conquering empire everyone is so mad about and what is their religion? Geralt is especially good the second time around knowing he's a dang likeable character not just a glaring gruff sex hero. Even stuff that felt really cartoonish the first time. I now love how video gamey his Butcher fight scene in episode 1 is. Wearing tight leather pants and doing pirouettes in his first of many terrible costumes, it rules. He parries a guy with his sword behind his back. Geralt that's so fuckin badass. Fringilla is the only sorceress that knows glamour or no, you can get fuckin stabbed through your cleavage-hole? Fantastic. It's all so perfectly stupid. The first game is also way more fun than it deserves. Objectively trash but
|
|
#
?
Feb 23, 2022 23:52
|
|
|
Nilfgaard is the Holy Roman Empire. They're an expansionist state that has until recently been wracked by internal struggles thanks to an interregnum caused by a usurper holding the throne and the various guilds and banks being at each others throats. The White Flame is the son of the last king and his return from exile helped unify the Empire for a short period. Unfortunately the guilds have a lot of power, so he declares a war on the Northern Kingdoms as a means to maintain momentum and buy time to shore up more populist support. Emhyr's other goal is world domination via a son that was prophesized to be born of him and his daughter Ciri. Yeah, incest. This God baby prophecy would see the world under Nilfgaard's rule and "save" it from destruction, presumably referring to the entropic death of the White Frost, a supernatural cold that inevitably kills worlds across dimensions.
|
|
#
?
Feb 24, 2022 00:07
|
|
|
BrotherJayne posted:... ngl that is a pretty bad take imho scary ghost dog posted:hard disagree Do you have particular points of disagreement or what? Honestly, I can barely remember any specific details about Tower of the Swallow (just general hyper-violent chasing of Ciri through war-torn hellscapes) even though I only read it 2-3 years ago, but this goodreads review squares with my memory (spoilers, obviously). It even mentions this bit about Dijkstra in the far north: Kaedric posted:I still have zero understanding why they (book spoilers that don't honestly matter) assassinated Thyssen, since he played ball. Maybe it made sense to other readers, perhaps some enjoyed it, but it was definitely superfluous. I've also read through reviews of and spoilers from Lady of the Lake and none of them had made me want to actually finish the series. Anyway, it's pretty clear they're going to change things in the show, for better or worse. But if I had to pick Witcher storylines for screen adaptation, the bloody baron from Witcher 3 is far more compelling than anything from Tower of the Swallow.
|
|
#
?
Feb 24, 2022 00:28
|
|
|
eXXon posted:Do you have particular points of disagreement or what? Honestly, I can barely remember any specific details about Tower of the Swallow (just general hyper-violent chasing of Ciri through war-torn hellscapes) even though I only read it 2-3 years ago, but this goodreads review squares with my memory (spoilers, obviously). It even mentions this bit about Dijkstra in the far north: the lady of the lake ties up even the smallest loose end and resolves plotlines you forgot about. character arcs conclude for things you didnt even realise were characters. it is far and away the best book and justifies all of the little tangents and small scenes from the previous three
|
|
#
?
Feb 24, 2022 00:35
|
|
|
Give me the Geralt parts or Baptism of Fire in S4. Adventures across the war-torn landscape and hanging out with Regis, no closer to his goal at the end of the book than the beginning. It will even feel like the video game.
|
|
#
?
Feb 24, 2022 00:35
|
|
|
scary ghost dog posted:the lady of the lake ties up even the smallest loose end and resolves plotlines you forgot about. character arcs conclude for things you didnt even realise were characters. it is far and away the best book and justifies all of the little tangents and small scenes from the previous three Pretty much this. Tower of the Swallow is low point of the series, and deffo blurs, but h Def sticks the landing in the fifth book
|
|
#
?
Feb 24, 2022 07:38
|
|
|
I feel that it is really telling that the first season of the show I watched in two evenings. This season I stopped after two episodes, several weeks later I watched another couple of episodes, and I am now not overly inspired to continue. I know I will, but it really says something about the difference between season 1 and 2.
|
|
#
?
Feb 25, 2022 14:22
|
|
|
I like show but dang even still on the first janky rear end game where Geralt has amnesia, swamp, left click, sex tcg, I’m digging the atmosphere more. We also put it in polish for the voice acting since that was what everyone said to do back when it first became a sleeper hit. Is that still recommended, and in the later games? So far it’s a fun change exploring the world pre-superman in its native language. Especially playing it with my partner being russian- I’m conversational but far from fluent and this is prolly the most polish I’ve ever heard. It all sounds like Very Weird Russian. She obvs gets more than me of the dialogue, but there’s parts where I follow everything, parts where I kinda sorta follow without the subs, and parts where I’ve got no idea what these crazy west slavs are talking about. It’s like getting Witcher world and a small bit of Poland. Mostly I just hope the polish stuff stays good in the following games instead of the english voice actors becoming the main focus? Again, really like the show but 2000s game polish Geralt with his left clicks and cat eyes is now the real Geralt to me. Oh, and is the polish va good to poles? For all I know they could sound like crazy cartoons. E: it’s kinda crazy how we went from thinking this show was dumb poo poo to liking it to playing ancient rpg as our nightly bonding thing, and I’m glad to be finally be on the Witcher train. The sad strange mutant sex machine man is actually a good character wtf Edgar Allen Ho fucked around with this message at 01:43 on Feb 27, 2022 |
|
#
?
Feb 27, 2022 01:36
|
|
|
The English in Witcher 1 ranges from bad to passable to hilariously awful. It has the jank charm to it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-egGn5WYrk Witcher 2 has much stronger voice acting and it started the trend of the English voiceovers applying regional accents to the various countries that I find really cool. Triss remains the weak link for voicework unfortunately. Dandelion is also rough but he's got a smarmy charm so I let it pass. Witcher 3's voice acting in English is fantastic across the board and several of the voice actors from the game have cameos and even major roles in the Netflix show. The Polish voice acting remains good throughout but since Poland doesn't really have the huge range of accents you get with English, characters are differentiated more on personality and local stereotypes. A good example of the difference is the character of the Baron in Witcher 3. He's a massive alcoholic former peasant soldier who killed his way into being the local ruler. In English he and his men are all given working class Brummie accents to emphasize his lower class roots, while in Polish he's more of a wheezing drunk you'd see at 2 am stumbling home from the pub. Arc Hammer fucked around with this message at 02:02 on Feb 27, 2022 |
|
#
?
Feb 27, 2022 01:54
|
|
|
Arc Hammer posted:The Polish voice acting remains good throughout but since Poland doesn't really have the huge range of accents you get with English, characters are differentiated more on personality and local stereotypes. A good example of the difference is the character of the Baron in Witcher 3. He's a massive alcoholic former peasant soldier who killed his way into being the local ruler. In English he and his men are all given working class Brummie accents to emphasize his lower class roots, while in Polish he's more of a wheezing drunk you'd see at 2 am stumbling home from the pub. I think that there are some work-arounds, like in this particular case they could've given the Baron some linguistic quirks, which would show his roots. Many peasants do have a distinctive language. What pained me the most were Skelligers. In Polish they didn't sound like Vikings at all!
|
|
#
?
Feb 27, 2022 12:18
|
|
|
To be fair in English they're not vikings either, they're exaggerated Northern Irish. Redanians have Manchester accents Temerians are a mix of Birmingham and West Country accents Skellige is Northern Irish Poviss and Kovir are Yorkshire and sheffield Kaedwen is Irish Aedirn is Welsh Mahakam Dwarfs are scottish Nilfgaardians are Dutch and German Toussaint is Swiss and silly French accents
|
|
#
?
Feb 27, 2022 16:43
|
|
|
Now having been through most of the first game, into a season 2 rewatch, and also spoiled by skimming the thread and watching with the wiki open: I'm kinda glad I watched the show first. A lot of the complaints I retroactively get- characters like the other witchers feel completely different. But not knowing them at all, guys like Lambert and Vesemir didn't feel like dumb assholes or anything, just very different. Some stuff is retroactively worse. The main one is Nilfgaard. Originally we thought the white flame was either a deity or a Jesus/Muhammad type guy. So when Geralt takes a soldier at swordpoint, and the soldier chooses death, it makes sense. Now knowing the actual story, it's more like a swiss guard dying because... Louis XIV will save his soul? Accent wise, they really could have used some dialogue coaching to help establish who was from where and where things were taking place. Ah yes, the incest kingland accent, not the pigpen land accent. Do that and maybe steal from the LotR films. There's more than enough scenes of people we barely know standing around a war table doing Politics. Use the excuse to have a big sweeping shot of a map while somebody points out locations. Like, there is literally a scene in S1 where Cahir is in a war tent with a map. They don't show the map. This has all been said before so I shouldn't go on. I still Like Show but it's baffling why they went with a whole different thing. But it made me finally play the dumb games and will prolly order the books, so eh. Both game Geralt and Cavill Geralt rule. Can't wait to get to the actual good games and play Yugioh instead of Sexy Ladies. And like I said yesterday, I'm playing with my fiancée, if 2 and 3 combat is anything like 1 combat then even splitting the 200 hours of rpg is going to give us terminal carpal tunnel in our gaming hands. Geralt you stupid fuckwit you are the best swordsman in the land use autoattack.
|
|
#
?
Feb 27, 2022 23:15
|
|
|
2 and 3 play more like Dark Souls lite. They're direct button input combat rather than the halfway thing the first game was doing. 2 can be brutally hard at first because the targeting is wonky and backstab attacks from enemies do massive damage.
|
|
#
?
Feb 27, 2022 23:27
|
|
|
Yeah the one thing I cannot accept in the adaptation is the treatment of Emhyr as some sort of cult leader. The whole point of Nilfgaard is that it is a scientific, industrialist, imperialist power sweeping away the old ways of petty kingdoms and Polish folklore.
|
|
#
?
Feb 28, 2022 00:28
|
|
|
Strategic Tea posted:Yeah the one thing I cannot accept in the adaptation is the treatment of Emhyr as some sort of cult leader. The whole point of Nilfgaard is that it is a scientific, industrialist, imperialist power sweeping away the old ways of petty kingdoms and Polish folklore. Yeah going in blind, it was clear that the witchers and mages took a scientific approach to all the swords-n-sorcery bullshit in the world. Of course the religious fanatics would be an existential threat to them. But between the known fact that magic and elves and poo poo exist, and the fact that Cintra in episode 1 is in full-on Führerbunker mode complete with forcing cyanide into the mouths of the Goebbels children, you can't entirely deny that the religious guys might be right. Except woops that isn't the story at all? Sorry for threadbombing with thoughts about episodes from two years ago but this universe has really shot up from writeoff to dethroning any fantasy but LotR for me. Especially in the last week or so. Rewatching/the game has been a main escape from Bad News from family in Russia. My partner is also enough of a dweeb to know some of the (russian versions of) the folklore that goes into some of the monsters and stuff, and idk if I'd ever hear that otherwise. Good stuff. It's really a perfect mix at its best of camp and spooky. Lookin forward to reading the books.
|
|
#
?
Feb 28, 2022 02:54
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 19, 2024 12:56 |
|
|
I finished Lady of the Lake the other day(favorite book, tied with The Last Wish) and jumped into the series. First episode was stellar. The rest? What the gently caress was that poo poo? Edit- Also loved the first game, it's what got me into the series Narzack fucked around with this message at 21:18 on Mar 9, 2022 |
|
#
?
Mar 9, 2022 21:15
|
|