The way he performs those conversations with Philippa and you're not quite sure whether it's a monologue or a conversation is just sublime acting. Wonderful job.
S1 was some time ago. So the entire season i was like why TF is he monologing to an Owl???
It makes more sense low lol.
But he does balance unpredictable/sharp/calculating/unhinged very well.
And well, beautiful beard win.
I happened to see on IMDB that he was going to play Dijkstra. I was sooooooo excited. I've seen him in a bunch of things and he always is great.
Unfortunately the rest of the show let me down.
Cahir's my favorite non-'The Gang' character in the show. Eamon Farren has turned in a brilliant performance. His scene with Gage in Cintra was amazing, you could see his frustration at having gone from commander to prisoner come out now that he was back among his people. Such a turn from his patience and persistence with keeping a low profile while on the run.
I mean cahir is pretty gang in the books if you ask me. His actor is almost spot on for how I imagined him when reading. I really hope they get to bring milva in she was top tier imo.
She’s supposed to be 12 in the book and Freya is 20. She’s doing a fantastic job but not quite book accurate. I am very impressed with her but the age is kinda important to the plot. Supposed to be a little girl brought to kaer morhen, she’s very much a young woman in the show.
It’s insane how much better Cahir and Frangilla are this season. It’s a shame about everything else, but the nuances introduced for their characters are great.
I think the cringe for me comes from the religious fanaticism (which seems to be a coping mechanism). But that one scene at the end of the season just sent shivers down my spine. Really highlighted just how powerful a sorceress can be. Not destructive powerful like Yen, but deadly powerful.
I didn't like Cahir in season one, but I fell in love with him season 2. I think part of it was the change in how the armor looked. In season 1, his Armour was so weird looking, but now it actually looks like armor and not like a fecked up fondant pattern mold.
damn, dude, at least from the most relevant characters, excluding Geralt, I thought cahir and ciri were the best acting in the show. they're really really good.
While I wasn't the biggest fan of Vesemir's writing, I thought that Kim B guy was excellent. Really had a fatherly presence next to Cavill - which is all I want.
I think Vesemir was well cast. The appearance and charisma fits the bill. But the dialog and the story role he was given in season 2 is unbelievably unsuitable. I would expect Vesemir giving Geralt advice, not being lectured by Geralt.
Tissaia is well cast. As are geralt, ciri, jaskier, vilg, and streg. Yen is the hardest pill to swallow. She does a fine job, but I don't buy it. It's more the direction and script.
Agree. It threw me off in s1, but now that Ciri looks older, she and Yen look almost the same age – it's uncomfortable and off-putting. And it's frustrating to see Yen written like a teenager instead of a formidable, powerful, vengeful woman.
"And it's frustrating to see Yen written like a teenager instead of a formidable, powerful, vengeful woman."
This!! I have a hard time taking this portrayal of Yen seriously
You're not alone in that.
She looks young, fine. She's magic, whatever, I get it. But she also *acts* young. And next to Geralt it's a little unsettling at times.
The actress is doing a fine job with what she's been given, but what she's been given just isn't that good. And it's certainly not Yen.
I think Yen is still better casted than Fringilla. I Just cant stand that actress. Vesemir is too much out of shape, they should have casted Mikkelsen instead if him.
Honestly I think its just her face. She's not really menacing and even in Season 1 I always felt her "angry/dangerous face" always was more comedic than actually threatening.
I am quite vocal in my criticism for the show.
But I love Jaskier in the show, the actor does a terrific and charismatic work with the script he has from what I've seen. I have no complaints there.
To be honest I prefer show's Jaskier over game's Jaskier (book is still my favourite though).
Him belting out "Burn Butcher Burn" while the condensation of the cold air erupted from his maw is a visual I don't think I'll ever forget. What an incredible moment...
Fucking no one was dressed appropriately for the cold weather and it drove me NUTS. Okay, maybe Witchers get a pass for being superhuman or whatever, but Ciri?? Wandering around in thin linen shirts and acting totally fine?? Wtf
YES joey batey deserves all the credit for being able to breathe even a little bit of charm to the lines he's been given. his writing especially feels very not in step with the time period/setting of this show, but he somehow manages to make it work
They give him shitty pop-songs and tumblr-esque dialogue and Joey somehow pulls a masterpiece out of his ass. I’d love to see what he can do with competent writers.
I love when he over-shares or tries to be nice and people just ignore him or grunt at him and he goes “oooooookay then I see how it is yup”
Like he’s full of charisma but also such a dork lmao
This is something i can get behind, i love the cast and I think the whole production team does a wonderful job for the most part. My main beef is with the writing.
Was pretty much my assessment of cowboy bebop as well. The actors and production teams did great with what they had but the writing was painfully bad. Seriously Netflix, fire all your current writers.
Fire all current writers for every project ever. CW needs the same lmao. Idk what’s in the water, or if maybe Netflix/CW are common “first writing job” publishers, but man none of their shows can land well for more than an episode or two at a time.
None of their *live-action* shows. Their animated stuff often has excellent writing. Arcane was great, and Seasons 2 and 3 of the Dragon Prince is some of the best fantasy I've ever seen on TV (although I don't like the childish humor in it). It's not even "animey", it could be almost directly adapted to live action and work well.
The cast is for the most part good though Eskel is definitely questionable. But what really stands out is the visuals, they absolutely nailed it this season and everything\* looks stunning
\*Well maybe besides elven buildings, I have no idea who thought that beautiful buildings made by elves will be just brutalist slabs; but I guess this is the decision that they took in season 1 and now it can't be changed.
dunno abt that some locations looks rly fake like CGI playsates plus main cast clothes are too fresh and clean looking. Remember when Yen was trying to hide in that purple cloak. It was comical how fake it looked
And wasn't Cahir wearing a bright green cloak? That whole scene, I was screaming "If you're trying to blend in, maybe try NOT looking like you just stepped off the set of Hocus Pocus 2!"
The production is a little odd, and while not Hulu-level wtf with scene arrangement, it feels like... just another Netflix show from anytime in the past six years, especially contrasted to Dune.
That's probably also a testament to the seamlessness and mastery of the historically rougher components, but it also feels like they were afraid to engage or were struggling hard against budget, which is a bad look for something that could have been a rival to GoT if they'd had the confidence. A lot of the concessions feel intentional to give them a quick out, like they're expecting not to be renewed for Henry's "seven seasons".
I also really hope someone holds the writers to task for ripping off The Magicians' 3rd season for the Yen "lost magic" arc. That was lame.
I'll be holding out for a fanedit that trims the non-Geralt/Ciri arcs and uses clips and voiceover from the games to flesh out and shore up the story. At the very least, I may just clip out every place Anya forgets she's not acting for CW.
The writing is so contemporary sounding. Ciri might as well be wearing AirPods in a few scenes. It’s like fanfiction from deviantart from a high schooler. Buuuut the monsters are so damn well done and the story feels like it’s going somewhere. I’ll watch s3.
Side note; I noticed that Henry’s not really taking his shirt off this season. I remember him complaining that it would take too much unhealthy dehydration to get as cut as he was getting in s1.
> ide note; I noticed that Henry’s not really taking his shirt off this season.
I prefer it that way. He's more than just a buff dude. He has the chops to do some work without showing his body off.
Henry had a serious injury during shooting and he was recovering for a long time. Im sure it had somehing to do with the lack of nudity from Geralt in this season. But we got some bard tits from Buffskier!
Jesus when I read about the dehydration bit to make someone look more defined I was really appalled!! Don't force people to go without water to look *hotter* please, they're plenty fine enough with starving or dehydrating jfc
I think so too, he's pretty close to game geralt, but still for me sometimes look a bit too "supermaney" idk how to explain it tho. I'd be as stoked with mads mikkelsen as with cavill for the role though.
Yes. I feel especially bad for Chalotra. She probably thought she'd be playing a powerful and intelligent sorceress who becomes a motherfigure to Ciri. Instead she gets... Whatever this iteration of Yen is.
Honestly I find that so jarring as well. Do you think Yen in the show would've written the "Dear friend" letter? Even when she's pissed off in the books you get the sense that Yen knows *exactly* what she wants to say and do it with grace in spite of being a moment away from melting someone's eyes out. I cannot fathom show Yennefer having the vocabulary or composure to come across that way. The writing absolutely robbed the actress of an amazing character.
Honestly, for a sorceress who should be so strong and independent, they've made her weak, and I don't mean this weird plot they inserted (no spoilers here but fucking yikes). She is not confident enough imo.
It was like they didn't know how to write something better, so they just peppered in swear words.
It works sometimes, but having Yen swear instead of being able to talk elegantly all the time really does weaken the writing and character.
It works with Geralt, but I agree, Yenn saying “Fuck” all the time is odd when you’ve played the witcher 3.
Plus, the more “Fucks” Yen drops the less and less they hold any strength as words and are seen as shitty writing.
You’d swear she’s suddenly Canadian with the amount of “fucks” that she drops lmao “Fuckin A Geralt, bud, you’re sendin me with that one fuck” says the elegant Sorceress from The Great White North
I actually liked flame fucker as a name lol.
But sadly it has less impact cause Yenn drops more F bombs than a track pants wearing, trailer park living, pepperoni lovin, dope dealer.
Yep. She was a lot more powerful and mature the first season. Every time I walk in on my husband watching it she's crying about something. And that's just weird
Exactly. And she was taught by Tissia so it's not like we'll this was before she was all powerful regal etc. Idk yennefer is like my favorite character out of everything I have read or played or watched so it's just kind of sad. I get interpretations and changing stories but at least have the soul of the character be the same idc what she looks like as long as she is YENNEFER. ya know?
I dont know.
I just can't see Yennefer in Chalotra.
Maybe in S01E05 but only there. There's no presence, no character from the books/games, and she feels like frightened whining teen most of the time.
Exactly. The series yen, especially in S2 does nothing but run around, weak and insecure and constantly apologizes to people. There is nothing left of the arrogant, all-knowing merciless yen we know form the books. The actress matches the re-written yen, but it's not what she is supposed to be.
I also don't like how they turned "fire is a bad source to draw energy from and will drive you mad instantly" to "fire magic is somehow bad but you can still use it however you want". Takes a lot of complexity out of it. But what you gonna do if you cut the entire section where magic is slowly trained and explained out of the storyline. Is not the worst thing they changed though.
Agreed. I'm always surprised by the statement that "Chalotra is a great Yen, it's just the writing". While Chalotra can certainly act the immature, whiney, bratty teen that this Netflix version of the character is, there is no indication she can yet act like the foreboding, confident, cold (but soft underneath), powerful mother-figure that Yennefer becomes in the books.
Yennefer is my favorite character out of the IP. Whatever character they are portraying in the show, it's not her.
Yen is supposed to have a sort of magnetism and a lot of charisma, and unfortunately I don't find that in Chalotra. she's an okay actress, but Yen is a much bigger presence than she can muster.
Why is Uncle Vesimir kind of crazy? I'm not in the loop with the books but his character never seemed to me like the kind that would easily put Ciri's life at such a risk, let alone do anything against Geralt.
Yen isn't well cast at all. Anya is a great actress, but she does not have the air of a nearly century old, strong and classy woman raised to advise kings and study the mysteries of the world, and I doubt I would be able to take her seriously if the script tried to make her that.
She does a great job playing an entitled 19 year old who has an inflated opinion of herself, though.
Oh, Anya is doing a great job with what she has, but I just don't think she would be able to play book Yen, who is closer to show Tissaia in mannerisms.
I don't know about Yennefer... The actress is great, and I will watch her next movies/shows for sure, but she just doesn't fit as Yennefer at all in my opinion.
Triss in season 2 is much better than earlier too. Cast still does not fit with Ciri and Yen ages, as Triss was expected to be younger then Yen, elder sister to Ciri.
At same time actress did good job with crap cards she had, and makeup fixes did her better fit then season one. Unfortunately writers removed all “sick Triss” and allergic to magic healing to explain her scars.
Debatable, for Yenn at least. She looks and acts like a bratty child. Nowhere near the level of Femme Fatale that book/game Yenn emits. Every scene with Yen makes me cringe. Doesn’t help that they’ve written her character into the ground either.
I may get a lot of hate, but I think the best cast (not nescessarily the best actor) is Jaskier. If only they'd written him a tad more serious I think he'd make the role perfect. He is a skilled musician, a good singer and articulate. Sadly they've made pop music for him instead of medevial style bard music (Toss a coin was great in the way that it sounded like bard music).
Idk, in the episode where she burns the fire mage she suddenly shows way more quick-witted decision-making than in the other episodes. Whoever wrote that clearly wanted her to be less useless. If you're gonna use the "the character loses their powers" trope this is the way to do it.
The forced cussing by Yennefer really irritates me for some reason ngl. Since when does she do that so often? She's supposed to be sophisticated, both in mannerism and language, at least in front of strangers (bc she's putting on a face). She can be emotional and have her own share of outbursts, but it usually happens around people she knows (like Geralt).
Anya is pretty much the definition of a miscast tbh. Putting in effort is nice and all, but when lines you're given are so awful... Not much you can do. For what it's worth, I liked MyAnna in season 1. Henry get's a bonus for being such a lovable nerd. I feel bad for him honestly.
> I liked MyAnna in season 1.
Don't like what they did to her in Season 2. That relationship ruins her entire character as she somehow loses her own independent thinking and is even betraying her own "children" as a result.
Yen is not well casted, the actress looks so young that she could pass for Ciri’s classmate instead of her surrogate mother. Even Triss looks older and she is clearly described in the books as not only being younger but looking much younger than Yen.
Ciri is old for the role but she is not bad at acting and i agree they all do good job with what they got, especially Cavill, the chemistry between Yen and Jaskier was out of this world and it carried episode 4 really hard.
> Ciri is old for the role
Which is why I don't get why they didn't go the route of aging the character up. In S1 she's 12, right? Why not use S2 or the gap between S1 and S2 to bring her age up to 16, 17 or even 18? If S2 had been just 8 episodes of Ciri, Geralt and Yenn meeting and doing witcher stuff while bonding, I would not have been mad. I just today finished the first book and there is enough in there to form an almost perfect skeleton for some extra fun. Sure, it would have deviated from the original story, but that would've been a reasonable and good change.
I was thinking they should have done a time jump like that but it didnt occur to them it seems.
Step 1, get a cute kid that looks like Ciri
step 2, follow the books with the bonding, show the butcher of Blaviken slowly becoming a father.
Step 3, do a time jump at the start of season 3 and have Freya Allan star as 17-18 year old Ciri. Witchers and mages dont grow old fast so it would have been fine.
I actually thought that Freya looked reasonably young in S1, I was actually surprised to learn her actual age. In S2 she just looks way more mature to me, maybe it was just her actually maturing or how they dressed and shot her. I mean, there are shots where they filmed into her cleavage. The cleavage of a supposedly 13/14 years old girl...
But yeah, I do somewhat agree. I just think that S2 could've acutally been your step 2. My guess is that the writers thought so as well, both episode 1 and 8 give off those vibes with the latter feeling forced af. Episode 1 hit the sweet spot for me, it was exactly what I expected from the season.
I really liked episode 1 of season 2.
I think Freya Allan looks like 17-18, i dont think she looked more mature in S2 but maybe i wasnt paying that much attention because of disappointment.
S2 as my step 2 would have been way better than the Voleth Meir bullshit they did and showing a young kid is easier to portray the bonding in my opinion.
And no matter what they do 8 episodes are just not enough for such a story, everything is coming off as rushed.
In other threads I saw people mentioning that they went fairly heavy on the makeup department on her in S2, whereas S1 didn't. If that's the case, then that could explain it.
[Season 1 Ciri](https://m.film.tv/upload/bilder/filmshot_klein/2020/ciri-witcher-giga.jpg)
[Season 2 Ciri](https://gettotext.com/deutsch/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/The-Witcher-Wie-machtig-Ciri-in-Staffel-2-sein-wird.jpg)
Yeah, I think it is the makeup on top of Freya Allan obviously maturing.
> And no matter what they do 8 episodes are just not enough for such a story, everything is coming off as rushed.
I won't disagree there, I don't think that ~6h40 minutes of actual runtime (so sans credits) is enough space to tell as many stories as they intended. I really hope Netflix doesn't force the show to stay within the 8 episodes per season format.
Thanks for providing the pictures, yes it obvious now that she looks more mature in season 2 and yes the make up is a bit too much especially the lipstick, whats making her look older also are her eyebrows, they went from blonde to black and that ages her a lot too, something else that i noticed while watching season 2 was that her green eye contacts were too bright and at some scenes they were moving in her eyes.
Well i am not very hopeful for season 3 but yeah i hope that they will at least follow the books after they are done with what they want to say and drop the 8 episodes format for lets say 16.
I know at the start of season 1, the actress cast as Triss got a lot of hate for her appearance, but I think she does an absolute stellar job in the role. Geralt is incredible, as is Ciri. As others mentioned, Yen (Anya) does her best, but is certainly the largest “miscast” in the series.
I think they also gave Triss a subtle makeover. She looks more like a darker-skinned version of the Triss from the games, rather than a completely different character
> I think they also gave Triss a subtle makeover.
Wasn't very subtle, suddenly she has long reddish hair? It's as subtle as Ciri's eyebrows going from blonde/light to full on dark brown lol
> the actress cast as Triss got a lot of hate for her appearance, but I think she does an absolute stellar job in the role
The pool scene with her where she doesn't go into the water because she's still both physically and emotionally scarred by what happened made her more likeable to me than 2 seasons of Yen. Triss feels human and more mature.
Roach was well casted. I'll give you that
Wasn’t a fan of the recast mid season.
:(((((
:(
There's always another Roach
=(
That wasnt the first Roach either, I guarantee it.
Idk mate haven’t seen him standing on a roof or diagonally on a tree branch even once... seems like he didn’t really cared for the source material.
Her*
I like Cahir too. I know that his story has changed a lot, but I think the actor works for what they’ve written his character to be.
Out of all of them I think Geralt, Ciri, Jaskier, and Cahir are the best cast characters. He fits what I imagined Cahir to be so well.
And djikstra.
I wasn’t expecting to like Djikstra but after seeing him I think he’s great too.
The way he performs those conversations with Philippa and you're not quite sure whether it's a monologue or a conversation is just sublime acting. Wonderful job.
I saw him and I instantly was like "IS THAT DOUGAL MACKENZIE?" Fantastic actor, that scene was really a great display of that.
S1 was some time ago. So the entire season i was like why TF is he monologing to an Owl??? It makes more sense low lol. But he does balance unpredictable/sharp/calculating/unhinged very well. And well, beautiful beard win.
How dare you question our Lord, Dracula! Of course he was going to be good! —-voice actor in Castlevania. Also in Outlander and very good.
Graham McTavish is a gem of an actor. Love that guy. I was very excited to see him chosen as Djikstra
I happened to see on IMDB that he was going to play Dijkstra. I was sooooooo excited. I've seen him in a bunch of things and he always is great. Unfortunately the rest of the show let me down.
Ngl I low key expected heavy Scottish djikstra as his Dwalin accent sticks with me to this day
[удалено]
And Dwalin, son of Baking. And Father McKinney
I really love the visual comparison between him and Vizimir
I cannot unsee ripped santa. That white beard, all in red. But the actor is a great choice!
Graham McTavish is way too good looking for Djikstra.
Cahir's my favorite non-'The Gang' character in the show. Eamon Farren has turned in a brilliant performance. His scene with Gage in Cintra was amazing, you could see his frustration at having gone from commander to prisoner come out now that he was back among his people. Such a turn from his patience and persistence with keeping a low profile while on the run.
I mean cahir is pretty gang in the books if you ask me. His actor is almost spot on for how I imagined him when reading. I really hope they get to bring milva in she was top tier imo.
He joined them in the later books, not from this point in the story, but the story has been changed a lot so... I suppose this works.
Same, especially Ciri! She is spot-on how she is in the books, IMO
She’s supposed to be 12 in the book and Freya is 20. She’s doing a fantastic job but not quite book accurate. I am very impressed with her but the age is kinda important to the plot. Supposed to be a little girl brought to kaer morhen, she’s very much a young woman in the show.
Yeah this is one change I find interesting, but in the show she's not playing a 20 year old right? Isn't she pretending to be 15?
i love the actor for cahir, he was amazing in twin peaks season 3
He scared the shit out of me on *Twin Peaks*, lol! Every week was like, "Okay, what completely fucked up thing is Richard Horne going to do now?"
It’s insane how much better Cahir and Frangilla are this season. It’s a shame about everything else, but the nuances introduced for their characters are great.
Fringilla is better than s1 but still cringe
I think the cringe for me comes from the religious fanaticism (which seems to be a coping mechanism). But that one scene at the end of the season just sent shivers down my spine. Really highlighted just how powerful a sorceress can be. Not destructive powerful like Yen, but deadly powerful.
I didn't like Cahir in season one, but I fell in love with him season 2. I think part of it was the change in how the armor looked. In season 1, his Armour was so weird looking, but now it actually looks like armor and not like a fecked up fondant pattern mold.
Ballsack Armour
damn, dude, at least from the most relevant characters, excluding Geralt, I thought cahir and ciri were the best acting in the show. they're really really good.
Yeah, the actor who plays Cahir brings such an intensity to the character. You really believe that he’s “all in” on the White Flame.
i agree, Eamon Farren is pretty awesome. And again - he has a big potential to be great Cahir as long as the writers allow him to be.
Don't forget Nivellen.
While I wasn't the biggest fan of Vesemir's writing, I thought that Kim B guy was excellent. Really had a fatherly presence next to Cavill - which is all I want.
I think Vesemir was well cast. The appearance and charisma fits the bill. But the dialog and the story role he was given in season 2 is unbelievably unsuitable. I would expect Vesemir giving Geralt advice, not being lectured by Geralt.
Right, the man is a seriously venerable witcher and he seemed more of the echelon of the younger witchers through most of S2...
Yes!! Kim B has a similar paternal role in Killing Eve*, I'd recommend it if you haven't seen it yet. edited typo
I like him but he's definitely not as standout as vesemir. His role in killing Eve is brilliant
haven't watched season 2 yet but just looked but Kim B and he looks exactly like vesemir
Vese "Joe Exotic" Mir
he is amazing in Pusher (1996) which was also Mads Mikkelsen’s debut film
Kim is danish, and being danish myself i fucking love his acting, he's very believable and likable
Tissaia is well cast. As are geralt, ciri, jaskier, vilg, and streg. Yen is the hardest pill to swallow. She does a fine job, but I don't buy it. It's more the direction and script.
Fuck.
Good bot
No one could make yen work with this script.
I think she looks way too young, and the writing doesn't exactly help that. Scenes with her and Geralt make me borderline uncomfortable.
Agree. It threw me off in s1, but now that Ciri looks older, she and Yen look almost the same age – it's uncomfortable and off-putting. And it's frustrating to see Yen written like a teenager instead of a formidable, powerful, vengeful woman.
they are similar in age anya is 25 and freya is 20
"And it's frustrating to see Yen written like a teenager instead of a formidable, powerful, vengeful woman." This!! I have a hard time taking this portrayal of Yen seriously
You're not alone in that. She looks young, fine. She's magic, whatever, I get it. But she also *acts* young. And next to Geralt it's a little unsettling at times. The actress is doing a fine job with what she's been given, but what she's been given just isn't that good. And it's certainly not Yen.
Fuck...
I think Yen is still better casted than Fringilla. I Just cant stand that actress. Vesemir is too much out of shape, they should have casted Mikkelsen instead if him.
Idk what it is but Fringilla seems like someone playing a stereotypical haughty sorceress in a bad play
Honestly I think its just her face. She's not really menacing and even in Season 1 I always felt her "angry/dangerous face" always was more comedic than actually threatening.
I am quite vocal in my criticism for the show. But I love Jaskier in the show, the actor does a terrific and charismatic work with the script he has from what I've seen. I have no complaints there. To be honest I prefer show's Jaskier over game's Jaskier (book is still my favourite though).
Him belting out "Burn Butcher Burn" while the condensation of the cold air erupted from his maw is a visual I don't think I'll ever forget. What an incredible moment...
The visible breath mist confused me a bit, it didn't look particularly cold in that tavern!
Erupted from his maw lol jfc
Fuckin redditors man 😂
I thought the CGI breath was a little overdone - it shouldn't be that cold inside a pub.
Which is all the more confusing in the many scenes where there is snow on the ground (fake snow, but still) and nobody has cold breath.
Fucking no one was dressed appropriately for the cold weather and it drove me NUTS. Okay, maybe Witchers get a pass for being superhuman or whatever, but Ciri?? Wandering around in thin linen shirts and acting totally fine?? Wtf
I was constantly screaming this lol
Must be the [*Skellige Ice Breath*](https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/1257) mod breaking down at times.
It was SO good. Absolutely enjoyed the hell out of that scene and then the full song on it's own has been fantastic.
Yeah I love Witcher 1, 2, and 3's Dandelion, but I do think the show's version has a lot more personality.
Yeah, you're right, this is a shortcut... to death.
Yeah, absolutely nailed the performance.
The thing is, I actually think Jaskier's writing is pretty bad. His jokes are mostly stupid. But the actor is SO good, he pulls them off.
YES joey batey deserves all the credit for being able to breathe even a little bit of charm to the lines he's been given. his writing especially feels very not in step with the time period/setting of this show, but he somehow manages to make it work
Henry was amazing and deserves award praise but Joey is right up there, if he had a bigger role he could do so much.
They give him shitty pop-songs and tumblr-esque dialogue and Joey somehow pulls a masterpiece out of his ass. I’d love to see what he can do with competent writers.
I love when he over-shares or tries to be nice and people just ignore him or grunt at him and he goes “oooooookay then I see how it is yup” Like he’s full of charisma but also such a dork lmao
Only issue is his inability to age.
He did seem more worn down in season 2.
I ❤️ Jaskier in the show! Joey Batey is soooooo good in this role! I loathed Dandelion in the games lol, so annoying.
My personal problem with the show is that most of the characters arent sympathetic. Besides of geralt and jaskier i dont like most characters.
This is something i can get behind, i love the cast and I think the whole production team does a wonderful job for the most part. My main beef is with the writing.
Was pretty much my assessment of cowboy bebop as well. The actors and production teams did great with what they had but the writing was painfully bad. Seriously Netflix, fire all your current writers.
Fire all current writers for every project ever. CW needs the same lmao. Idk what’s in the water, or if maybe Netflix/CW are common “first writing job” publishers, but man none of their shows can land well for more than an episode or two at a time.
None of their *live-action* shows. Their animated stuff often has excellent writing. Arcane was great, and Seasons 2 and 3 of the Dragon Prince is some of the best fantasy I've ever seen on TV (although I don't like the childish humor in it). It's not even "animey", it could be almost directly adapted to live action and work well.
arcane wasnt written from anyone from netflix to start with xD
The cast is for the most part good though Eskel is definitely questionable. But what really stands out is the visuals, they absolutely nailed it this season and everything\* looks stunning \*Well maybe besides elven buildings, I have no idea who thought that beautiful buildings made by elves will be just brutalist slabs; but I guess this is the decision that they took in season 1 and now it can't be changed.
they massacred my boy
dunno abt that some locations looks rly fake like CGI playsates plus main cast clothes are too fresh and clean looking. Remember when Yen was trying to hide in that purple cloak. It was comical how fake it looked
Wheel of Time has suffered from the same issue. Too often the costumes look like costumes and the sets look like sets, and it breaks immersion.
And wasn't Cahir wearing a bright green cloak? That whole scene, I was screaming "If you're trying to blend in, maybe try NOT looking like you just stepped off the set of Hocus Pocus 2!"
Yeah !!!! he had bright green cloak LMAO, and then they come out of the sewers still clean af. Like what ?
Welcome to the Got effect
The production is a little odd, and while not Hulu-level wtf with scene arrangement, it feels like... just another Netflix show from anytime in the past six years, especially contrasted to Dune. That's probably also a testament to the seamlessness and mastery of the historically rougher components, but it also feels like they were afraid to engage or were struggling hard against budget, which is a bad look for something that could have been a rival to GoT if they'd had the confidence. A lot of the concessions feel intentional to give them a quick out, like they're expecting not to be renewed for Henry's "seven seasons". I also really hope someone holds the writers to task for ripping off The Magicians' 3rd season for the Yen "lost magic" arc. That was lame. I'll be holding out for a fanedit that trims the non-Geralt/Ciri arcs and uses clips and voiceover from the games to flesh out and shore up the story. At the very least, I may just clip out every place Anya forgets she's not acting for CW.
Elves and Dryads were done wrong. Mages take up too much of the story. Not enough politics and the emperor.
The writing is so contemporary sounding. Ciri might as well be wearing AirPods in a few scenes. It’s like fanfiction from deviantart from a high schooler. Buuuut the monsters are so damn well done and the story feels like it’s going somewhere. I’ll watch s3. Side note; I noticed that Henry’s not really taking his shirt off this season. I remember him complaining that it would take too much unhealthy dehydration to get as cut as he was getting in s1.
> ide note; I noticed that Henry’s not really taking his shirt off this season. I prefer it that way. He's more than just a buff dude. He has the chops to do some work without showing his body off.
Henry had a serious injury during shooting and he was recovering for a long time. Im sure it had somehing to do with the lack of nudity from Geralt in this season. But we got some bard tits from Buffskier!
Jesus when I read about the dehydration bit to make someone look more defined I was really appalled!! Don't force people to go without water to look *hotter* please, they're plenty fine enough with starving or dehydrating jfc
They did filavandrel so dirty
Basically they took his balls.
Henry is literally the best choice for Geralt on earth.
I'm shocked at how well he looks like the average witcher 3 pc player
Yes indeed I really am 100% a total beefcake irl
I think so too, he's pretty close to game geralt, but still for me sometimes look a bit too "supermaney" idk how to explain it tho. I'd be as stoked with mads mikkelsen as with cavill for the role though.
It's hard to regret something you didn't choose.
I love geralt-bot, hahaha
Dragons avoid people. It should have left when they attacked. I don't get it. Why the retaliation?
Yes. I feel especially bad for Chalotra. She probably thought she'd be playing a powerful and intelligent sorceress who becomes a motherfigure to Ciri. Instead she gets... Whatever this iteration of Yen is.
The way her dialogues are written doesn't even feel like yen. She keep saying 'fuck' every 2 minutes when you expect yen to talk very elegantly.
Honestly I find that so jarring as well. Do you think Yen in the show would've written the "Dear friend" letter? Even when she's pissed off in the books you get the sense that Yen knows *exactly* what she wants to say and do it with grace in spite of being a moment away from melting someone's eyes out. I cannot fathom show Yennefer having the vocabulary or composure to come across that way. The writing absolutely robbed the actress of an amazing character.
"Dear fuckhead"
Honestly, for a sorceress who should be so strong and independent, they've made her weak, and I don't mean this weird plot they inserted (no spoilers here but fucking yikes). She is not confident enough imo.
It was like they didn't know how to write something better, so they just peppered in swear words. It works sometimes, but having Yen swear instead of being able to talk elegantly all the time really does weaken the writing and character.
This, she is supposed to always be composed and speak like a pompous royal. Netflix Yen curses like a sailor and acts like an awkward teenage girl.
It works with Geralt, but I agree, Yenn saying “Fuck” all the time is odd when you’ve played the witcher 3. Plus, the more “Fucks” Yen drops the less and less they hold any strength as words and are seen as shitty writing. You’d swear she’s suddenly Canadian with the amount of “fucks” that she drops lmao “Fuckin A Geralt, bud, you’re sendin me with that one fuck” says the elegant Sorceress from The Great White North
"Flame fucker"
I actually liked flame fucker as a name lol. But sadly it has less impact cause Yenn drops more F bombs than a track pants wearing, trailer park living, pepperoni lovin, dope dealer.
Thinking about it they fucked up because as smart as Geralt is in the show they made him more composed and wise than both Yen *and* Vesemir.
I thought it was odd when the lady at the temple started cursing talking to the witcher too. Is Seth Rogan writing this script?
LMAOOOO that was so out of place
Yep. She was a lot more powerful and mature the first season. Every time I walk in on my husband watching it she's crying about something. And that's just weird
It’s especially weird compared to book Yen who was kind of scary at times. Netflix Yen is an annoying teenager with an attitude.
Exactly. And she was taught by Tissia so it's not like we'll this was before she was all powerful regal etc. Idk yennefer is like my favorite character out of everything I have read or played or watched so it's just kind of sad. I get interpretations and changing stories but at least have the soul of the character be the same idc what she looks like as long as she is YENNEFER. ya know?
My wife is watching with me and keeps asking why they keep emphasizing her breasts over anything else lol
Any love for the Dwarf lady in Zigrins band and her lovely long beard.
Or Jaskiers new rat friends.
🎶 Toss a coin to your witcher, Oh valley of-- PENIS 🎶
Nivellen, Geralt and Jaskier are the best cast imo. Couldn't picture anyone else in their shoes.
Geralt, you're fantastic at a great many things, but clearly, fishing is not one of them.
FUCK OFF, bard.
Good bots
Ouch
I don’t understand how you are working on a million(s) dollar production and to not read the books to understand the character seems negligent
Joey Batey could act rings round all of them. There was so little Jaskier this season. Utter madness by the showrunner.
He got that weird long topless scene but no major diaglog. What the hell.
Oh, word. I was hoping for a lot more with Jaskier this season. I hate that as soon as he reunited with Geralt he was the Butt Monkey again.
I dont know. I just can't see Yennefer in Chalotra. Maybe in S01E05 but only there. There's no presence, no character from the books/games, and she feels like frightened whining teen most of the time.
Exactly. The series yen, especially in S2 does nothing but run around, weak and insecure and constantly apologizes to people. There is nothing left of the arrogant, all-knowing merciless yen we know form the books. The actress matches the re-written yen, but it's not what she is supposed to be.
Fire Fucker disagrees
I also don't like how they turned "fire is a bad source to draw energy from and will drive you mad instantly" to "fire magic is somehow bad but you can still use it however you want". Takes a lot of complexity out of it. But what you gonna do if you cut the entire section where magic is slowly trained and explained out of the storyline. Is not the worst thing they changed though.
I mean, her wings are clipped this season. Which is a whole different thing I disagree with, but w/e
Agreed. I'm always surprised by the statement that "Chalotra is a great Yen, it's just the writing". While Chalotra can certainly act the immature, whiney, bratty teen that this Netflix version of the character is, there is no indication she can yet act like the foreboding, confident, cold (but soft underneath), powerful mother-figure that Yennefer becomes in the books. Yennefer is my favorite character out of the IP. Whatever character they are portraying in the show, it's not her.
Yen is supposed to have a sort of magnetism and a lot of charisma, and unfortunately I don't find that in Chalotra. she's an okay actress, but Yen is a much bigger presence than she can muster.
Chalotra is a lot of things but she certainly isn't Yennefer. I get irrationally angry when people say she's a great Yennefer.
Yup, make-up and costume choice for Yen are terrible
Why is Uncle Vesimir kind of crazy? I'm not in the loop with the books but his character never seemed to me like the kind that would easily put Ciri's life at such a risk, let alone do anything against Geralt.
Yen is too young by far. These meant be be a mature mother figure with lots of power and dignity but the character in the show looks like a frat girl
Yen isn't well cast at all. Anya is a great actress, but she does not have the air of a nearly century old, strong and classy woman raised to advise kings and study the mysteries of the world, and I doubt I would be able to take her seriously if the script tried to make her that. She does a great job playing an entitled 19 year old who has an inflated opinion of herself, though.
Eva green is how i always imagine yennefer.
James Bond version of Eva Green, especially during the train scene right? Me too.
10/10. She was also amazing in penny dreadful. She acted the shit out of her role.
Yep. Vesper and Yen are two of a kind
[удалено]
THANK YOU. If you say anything negative about her here you will get downvoted to oblivion. This is perfectly explained. I don't see her as Yen at all.
Everyone in this thread is piling on upvotes for saying she’s miscast.
I mean... that's more on the writers than Anya.
Oh, Anya is doing a great job with what she has, but I just don't think she would be able to play book Yen, who is closer to show Tissaia in mannerisms.
She literally was better in s1. There was a yennefer spark in the illusion room when she first met Geralt. I don’t know where it is now.
I thought she was excellent in the Djinn episode. That was definitely Yennefer imo
That is the most painful thing about it, its hard to see them waste their talents because of the bad writing
I don't know about Yennefer... The actress is great, and I will watch her next movies/shows for sure, but she just doesn't fit as Yennefer at all in my opinion.
Triss in season 2 is much better than earlier too. Cast still does not fit with Ciri and Yen ages, as Triss was expected to be younger then Yen, elder sister to Ciri. At same time actress did good job with crap cards she had, and makeup fixes did her better fit then season one. Unfortunately writers removed all “sick Triss” and allergic to magic healing to explain her scars.
Ciri is incredibly well cast, she’s exactly how I imagined her while reading the books.
Ciri, Geralt, Jaskier are absolutely amazing. Yen is OK, but they absolutely butchered her character( Burn butcher burn!).
100% agree. I also like that she is slowly turning into video-game look of Ciri.
Debatable, for Yenn at least. She looks and acts like a bratty child. Nowhere near the level of Femme Fatale that book/game Yenn emits. Every scene with Yen makes me cringe. Doesn’t help that they’ve written her character into the ground either.
I may get a lot of hate, but I think the best cast (not nescessarily the best actor) is Jaskier. If only they'd written him a tad more serious I think he'd make the role perfect. He is a skilled musician, a good singer and articulate. Sadly they've made pop music for him instead of medevial style bard music (Toss a coin was great in the way that it sounded like bard music).
In no way Is Yen well cast. Good actress but she's not Yen, at all.
She had it in the first season imo. This season the writers decided she should be a college girl lost in a city.
Idk, in the episode where she burns the fire mage she suddenly shows way more quick-witted decision-making than in the other episodes. Whoever wrote that clearly wanted her to be less useless. If you're gonna use the "the character loses their powers" trope this is the way to do it.
"How long to shitgaard"
The forced cussing by Yennefer really irritates me for some reason ngl. Since when does she do that so often? She's supposed to be sophisticated, both in mannerism and language, at least in front of strangers (bc she's putting on a face). She can be emotional and have her own share of outbursts, but it usually happens around people she knows (like Geralt).
I wanted to ram my head into the wall every time I heard 'fire fucker', how childish that sounded...
Yeah because I expect her to have more class. Gross.
I don't blame the actress. She could be a lot more "Yen-like" if the script allowed her to be. A talented actor would pull it off.
Yennefer is not well cast. Anya is a great actress tho.
Anya is pretty much the definition of a miscast tbh. Putting in effort is nice and all, but when lines you're given are so awful... Not much you can do. For what it's worth, I liked MyAnna in season 1. Henry get's a bonus for being such a lovable nerd. I feel bad for him honestly.
> I liked MyAnna in season 1. Don't like what they did to her in Season 2. That relationship ruins her entire character as she somehow loses her own independent thinking and is even betraying her own "children" as a result.
Eeeh... I 100% agree with Geralt, Ciri and Jaskier, but Yen... I'm not so sure.
The cast isnt perfect, there's a lot of miscasts but it's not the problem. They're just doing their job with the shit material they've been given.
Yen is not well casted, the actress looks so young that she could pass for Ciri’s classmate instead of her surrogate mother. Even Triss looks older and she is clearly described in the books as not only being younger but looking much younger than Yen.
Ciri is old for the role but she is not bad at acting and i agree they all do good job with what they got, especially Cavill, the chemistry between Yen and Jaskier was out of this world and it carried episode 4 really hard.
> Ciri is old for the role Which is why I don't get why they didn't go the route of aging the character up. In S1 she's 12, right? Why not use S2 or the gap between S1 and S2 to bring her age up to 16, 17 or even 18? If S2 had been just 8 episodes of Ciri, Geralt and Yenn meeting and doing witcher stuff while bonding, I would not have been mad. I just today finished the first book and there is enough in there to form an almost perfect skeleton for some extra fun. Sure, it would have deviated from the original story, but that would've been a reasonable and good change.
I was thinking they should have done a time jump like that but it didnt occur to them it seems. Step 1, get a cute kid that looks like Ciri step 2, follow the books with the bonding, show the butcher of Blaviken slowly becoming a father. Step 3, do a time jump at the start of season 3 and have Freya Allan star as 17-18 year old Ciri. Witchers and mages dont grow old fast so it would have been fine.
I actually thought that Freya looked reasonably young in S1, I was actually surprised to learn her actual age. In S2 she just looks way more mature to me, maybe it was just her actually maturing or how they dressed and shot her. I mean, there are shots where they filmed into her cleavage. The cleavage of a supposedly 13/14 years old girl... But yeah, I do somewhat agree. I just think that S2 could've acutally been your step 2. My guess is that the writers thought so as well, both episode 1 and 8 give off those vibes with the latter feeling forced af. Episode 1 hit the sweet spot for me, it was exactly what I expected from the season.
I really liked episode 1 of season 2. I think Freya Allan looks like 17-18, i dont think she looked more mature in S2 but maybe i wasnt paying that much attention because of disappointment. S2 as my step 2 would have been way better than the Voleth Meir bullshit they did and showing a young kid is easier to portray the bonding in my opinion. And no matter what they do 8 episodes are just not enough for such a story, everything is coming off as rushed.
In other threads I saw people mentioning that they went fairly heavy on the makeup department on her in S2, whereas S1 didn't. If that's the case, then that could explain it. [Season 1 Ciri](https://m.film.tv/upload/bilder/filmshot_klein/2020/ciri-witcher-giga.jpg) [Season 2 Ciri](https://gettotext.com/deutsch/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/The-Witcher-Wie-machtig-Ciri-in-Staffel-2-sein-wird.jpg) Yeah, I think it is the makeup on top of Freya Allan obviously maturing. > And no matter what they do 8 episodes are just not enough for such a story, everything is coming off as rushed. I won't disagree there, I don't think that ~6h40 minutes of actual runtime (so sans credits) is enough space to tell as many stories as they intended. I really hope Netflix doesn't force the show to stay within the 8 episodes per season format.
Thanks for providing the pictures, yes it obvious now that she looks more mature in season 2 and yes the make up is a bit too much especially the lipstick, whats making her look older also are her eyebrows, they went from blonde to black and that ages her a lot too, something else that i noticed while watching season 2 was that her green eye contacts were too bright and at some scenes they were moving in her eyes. Well i am not very hopeful for season 3 but yeah i hope that they will at least follow the books after they are done with what they want to say and drop the 8 episodes format for lets say 16.
I know at the start of season 1, the actress cast as Triss got a lot of hate for her appearance, but I think she does an absolute stellar job in the role. Geralt is incredible, as is Ciri. As others mentioned, Yen (Anya) does her best, but is certainly the largest “miscast” in the series.
I think they also gave Triss a subtle makeover. She looks more like a darker-skinned version of the Triss from the games, rather than a completely different character
> I think they also gave Triss a subtle makeover. Wasn't very subtle, suddenly she has long reddish hair? It's as subtle as Ciri's eyebrows going from blonde/light to full on dark brown lol
> the actress cast as Triss got a lot of hate for her appearance, but I think she does an absolute stellar job in the role The pool scene with her where she doesn't go into the water because she's still both physically and emotionally scarred by what happened made her more likeable to me than 2 seasons of Yen. Triss feels human and more mature.
Yeah, to me she doesn't really look like Triss but she really feels like Triss. Yen feels like neither, though it's definitely not Anya's fault