Reviews

Ah, Thanedd ball and coup. That's what part 1 of season 3 was building towards and apparently, it had to happen because everything is mashed together to make it happen. Yen's betrayal that happened in season 2 no longer matters, both Geralt and Ciri forgot about it now. And so do Vizimir, mages, etc. In fact, nothing matters as long as it's convenient to make things happen. Story development is forced together in a cringeworthy manner and some characters are outright forgotten (Francesca, hello?) because writer doesn't know what to do with them after they deviated from book. At the end, for most unbelievable reason, everyone needed to be Thanedd is at Thanedd... because that's what needed to happen.

Maybe there could've been more build up if they didn't spend time rewriting Radovid who was 12 years old at this time in the book, removing all his characters traits (paranoia and madness) just for it to have gay romance with Dandelion (neither homosexual nor bi in the book) without any other story purpose (yes, not even building toward Thanedd) but alas, priorities.

They say season 3 is true to the source material...correct, they stayed true to fast travel from game. Most characters moves half continent in one scene like space and time no longer matters. At some point I was wondering if there was supposed to be like 1-2 episodes in between scenes... yes, that level of discontinuity.

The only saving grace is that major actors are very good at what they do. Aside from a few awkward interactions because lines are just unworkable, chemistry among Geralt, Yennefer and Ciri is great. Chemistry between Dijkstra and Philippa is even better. Actors are the only reason season 3 part 1 is a 3/10, not 1/10.

So many unnecessary changes to make things worse.

To start, there's no baited ambush in the book. The problem of making such ambush out of the thin air is that such inserted event can't have consequences that moves the story. See... Rience cannot die because he still have large role to play in the story. So what happens? Geralt & Yen plan out the whole "bait" thing to get Rience and then Geralt only breaking his wrists when given opportunity to kill him because again, he can't die yet. That's like GoT season 8 level of plot armor which completely shutters suspension of disbelief.

Speaking of no point existing, what's the point of Francesca in the show? In the source material, she's one of the most powerful sorceress and play politics at the highest level. In the show, she's completely new characters leading Scoia'tael which I thought that it could be fine back then as long as writers have plans for her but alas nope. She's so far contributed nothing to the larger story by being an entirely different character. If anything, Francesca lost a critical role in the upcoming major event in Thanedd and overall became a much shallower character compared to the book.

Even larger character changes like Francesca aside, lots of minor details are changed for far worse results. For example, the show made it sounds like the reason elves are doomed is because Aelirenn fought against humans... like what? No, after The Conjunction, humans started to take previously elven land and it's natural for elves to fight back. In the source materials, there's been numerous conflicts between humans and elves already (of course) but after such conflicts, elf elders correctly predicted that the only way to win is to live among and outlive humans. Aelirenn, on the other had, was naive, hot headed, and wanted honorable "last stand" which end up dooming elven race not because she fought, but the way she ignored elders' words and rallying young elves who are needed to breed new generations of elves, resulting in a dramatic reduction in elven population for the next 200 years while human multiplied exponentially.

The point the source material wanted to make was that even justified, brave actions have unintended consequences. That's the moral of Aelirenn's story and it not only matches the overall dark theme, but the theme will be later repeated in Ciri's decisions. Whereas in the show, uhh... what is the moral of the story? You should never fight back? Like huh?

See the difference? The show replaces all the world building characters and fine details in the book with childish writing but they still have to follow overall story arc. The result? A fractured world and story that perplex both existing fans knowing the source materials and new audience alike.

Time jump is perfectly fine as long as there's continuity in story and character development but there simply aren't any.

Ser Criston Cole is suddenly a jerk who hates Rhaenyra and no, what happened in episode 5 does not justify this development. He become loyal to Alicent because she said something at his lowest point? But the show didn't even show what she said. And why does he detest Rhaenyra now because he can't marry her or thought he's being belittled? Seriously? That's like in-love high school teenager boy level of motivation and logic.

The grown Alicent Hightower is also contradictory to who she was - she suddenly cares about being honorable and really cares about Aegon's succession. Why? Where was that honor when she exploited Viserys mourning queen's death to become the new queen?

And Larys murdering the true father of Rhaenyra's son - the commander of City Watch whose name I don't even remember because he showed up and died like 30 mins after - comes out of nowhere and even makes less sense. Who is Larys anyway? Why is he suddenly becoming so central to the plot with only previous scene being telling Alicent about "the tea".

The only saving grace is Daemon's arc but no one asked ANOTHER child brith scene - the 3rd or 4th one we have over 6 episodes.

I honestly don't know what to say. The first 5 episodes haven't been perfect but they were very strong. Comparing first 5 episodes to the 6th one is like comparing first 5 seasons of GoT to season 6... not quite the season 8 level bad but the drop in quality is already noticeable.

Unlike fast paced first episode, second episode is relatively slow but for a good reason.

King Viserys marrying Alicent Hightower, estranging house Velaryon against almost everyone's advice and destroying any friendships between Rhaenyra and Alicent surely set up for what to come. It draws parallel to Robb Stark marrying Talisa, triggering the the Red Wedding and fall of Starks. The underlying plot and character are of course very different but it's very clear that this is the first domino to fall. The slow build up of episode attest to it... this is where it all starts.

Also, Rhaenyra facing Daemon at Dragonstone with dragons in each side is also a great. It reinstates dragon's paramount existence as a weapon and behind what makes Targaryen the most powerful house in the realm - a much needed scene after how GoT treated dragons toward the end.

Not only did this episode unnecessarily kill Eskel and made Kaer Morhen no longer secluded place no ordinary can reach (contrary to the book), it also frames 3 Crones as "old gods" Elven ancestors worshipped and behind alliance between Francesca and Nilfgaard. And Francesca is not a member of the chapter as Yennefer didn't recognize her.

All of that completely changes Francesca's motivation in upcoming Thanedd coup, making quite a few plot holes unless writer can fill them without making other ones. And that's the danger of straying from source materials - writer still has to follow the overarching storyline but it now makes less sense because previous deviation.

Too early to call, of course, but this episode worries me.

Out of all casting choice, Spike is only one that is passable (surprisingly). The rest? Bad, worse and WTF. Jet barely possesses the original feel & chemistry and Faye is a just an entirely different character. I'm okay with changing characters but they have to be for the better...not this.

The animation was gorgeous, combat scene was amazing and musics are on point, but some creative choices the writer made were mix bags. There are some good arcs mixed other poorly written arcs that neither fit into the Witcher universe nor make sense even considering the movie standalone.

Let's go over this one by one, starting with the worst one - sacking of Kaer Morhen.

In the source material, though not clearly explained, sacking of Kaer Morhen was by religious mobs instigated by propaganda pieces like the Monstrum, and with the help of handful mages. And because the castle was gate kept by the Witcher's Trail, which was considered dangerous even for young witchers to cross, the siege was only possible with mages' help. But there was definitely no monsters involved. It just makes absolutely NO SENSE that common townsfolks turned mobs would fight along side monsters as fear and hatred toward perceived monstrosity of witcher is the primary motivation of the attack (not to mention they're afraid of monsters too). And there was no Kaedwan knights assisting the assault either - such details seem minor until you realize that it affects all later interactions between witchers and Kaedwan knights, soldiers, nobles, etc., which there are few.

Most importantly, the movie choice to have Deglan and Reidrich breed hybrid monsters so that they can make more money make no sense and strongly contradicts how witchers are portrayed in the source materials. In the source materials, witchers are cold, indifferent and maybe callous, but as a group, witchers are was never portrayed as villains capable of such act, and that's even after Kaer Morhen's fall and witchers lose its core organizing structure. And in general, witchers' contracts aren't that lucrative to begin with. A Witcher can make much more coins (and safer) if he's willing to serve a king, as demonstrated by Geralt during his service to Foltest. So, basing the sacking of Kaer Morhen on such setting was both unbelievable and uncomfortable to watch.

Which leads to Tetra, whose character arc also leaves much to be desired. Mostly, her hatred toward witchers is not well explained. Initially, it seems like she hates witchers because of something about "purity", which is a noble concept in the Witcher universe - neither mage nor human are really "pure" to begin with. And though it's perfectly fine to bring a new concept, there's NO EXPLANATION of what "purity" even means here. And her personal grudge - something about her mother being wrongly accused because of a witcher wanted to make money - is wrapped into just few sentences. You really can't describe the motivation behind the most important story event on a hollow word "purity" and just few sentence of background story. It really felt like she hated witchers because story needed that to happen.

And Kitsu (name derived from Kitsune, which means fox in Japanese), an original creation but heavily parallels Aguara race (also means fox in Guarani) from the book, e.g., fox-based, able to cast powerful illusions, made from kidnapped elven girl, etc. These setting are fine but her arc was also heavily flawed. Mainly, why was she attacking civilians in the beginning and was spared at the end of the movie? Illyana said "she didn't ask for this" so Vesmir spare it her but uh... did everyone just forgot the entire story started because she used monsters to attack travelers for some unknown reason? And no, she was not under the control of Deglan or Reidrich, Deglan clearly said they thought she was dead.

Finally, the good ones - Vesmir and Illyana's arcs were quite good. Vesmir is portrayed very differently in the movie when compared to source materials, but it was nicely done. Origin story was simple and bit too romanticized compared to darker tone of the source materials, but it was complete and made sense. And Illyana's story arc is also surprisingly complete as both her actions and motivations are believable. The chemistry between two was also quite good.

Overall, it's still a decent movie, but much of the writings were shallow. It's not too hard to maintain suspension of disbelief during the movie, but once you're done with it and think about what happened, you will get so many "wait, what?" moments.