Witcher Season 2 Watch + Fix (eps 1-4)
Dec. 30th, 2021 10:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
potofsoupI have read spoilers for the whole season, and have made my way through ep 1-4 at 1.5 speed! Below are my thoughts, as well as all the places I would tweak things, lol. (I was going to wait until I finished all 8 eps, but no one warned me how WTF episode 4 was, and I was worried that if I kept going, I would have forgotten the changes I would make to the first few.)
Ep 1: Okay, not a bad start — Ciri clearly has trouble communicating with Geralt, but they start being able to confide in each other a bit more. I wish Geralt didn’t jump from Ciri’s “I saw this” to “oh you have foresight”, but I guess he was maybe thinking about Renfri?
I think this episode could have been improved with a simple edit to the final confrontation to the bruxa. Instead of Geralt being all stabby stabby, he works with Ciri to get the bruxa to calm down enough to talk and hear her side of the story. Then, it could be that Geralt still decides that the bruxa needs to be killed because she refuses to not eat the villagers, or Nivellen decides to stab the bruxa before she reveals his complicity, or whatever, but at least:
a) you get to have a conversation about monstrosity and monstrous behaviors
b) Ciri doesn’t have to be cowering the entire time
c) Geralt gets to show his own humaneness
Ep 2: Okay, they get to Kaer Morhen pretty much immediately without further trouble, which is a bit of a downer after all the excellent fanfics that add drama to their journey, but sure, I’ll accept it. And the introduction of the Baba Yaga thing is a bit awkward, but at least it expedites Fringilla and Francesca’s relationship (I like that in ep 3 they’re both like “we both know that the vision was fake, right? But it did give us an excuse to do this Cintra thing.”), and it does the Yen-is-sans-Chaos reveal in a pretty safe way for Yen (she’s not trying to summon Chaos at a moment where she needs to defend herself, she’s not forced to out herself to any other people, and she then has some time on her own to cope).
What sucks is that Eskel gets introduced and killed before we had a chance to actually care about him, I could have done without all the random outsiders (I’m like “wtf, is it that easy to get to KM?”), and then Geralt basically misses key father-daughter bonding time with Ciri to do funeral rites for Eskel. Um… what?
So, suggested tweaks for the Eskel/KM part:
1) Change it so that it’s not Eskel, but some random red shirt Witcher that no one cares about. Let’s call him Neskel.
2) Make it so that Neskel doesn’t invite what seems like the whole town. Maybe have Neskel’s weird behavior manifest in directly attacking Ciri, and have the other Witchers defend her against one of their own. (Which helps Ciri understand Witcher code, and also helps cement the “we like Neskel but not at the cost of innocents”, so that they’re not just randomly bitter at Ciri later.)
3) Have ALL the Witchers, plus Ciri, go to Neskel’s funeral. Have a nice moment where people go around talking about fond memories of Neskel. This would help Ciri recognize that Neskel was a loved member of the group, that their lives are hard and full of trauma, but maybe she finds some aspect of it inspiring.
4) Do the training sequence *after* that, and have Geralt be there to encourage her. (None of that “so close” bs)
Ep 3: Okay, random Aretuza bs. I liked the moment where Tissaia mourns Yen, and some of the Aretuza politics and snippy social stuff was cute, if not terribly vital. There’s that random thing where I guess Yen lost her Chaos due to her use of fire magic? That’s kinda dumb but sure. The Cahir thing was completely out of left field, and honestly, I don’t need Tissaia doing torture, bleh. On the KM side, Geralt goes Leshy-hunting with Ciri? What a dumb way to endanger your child. Having a few small tweaks there so that Geralt doesn’t seem like a negligent father would be nice, but overall, no harm, no foul.
Suggested tweaks:
1) Have Yen tell Tissaia that she lost her Chaos, and Tissaia’s response is basically “you have to fucking get it back, you’re fresh meat to the other mages otherwise, they already want you out because of the fire magic thing.” And then she just kinda … pushes Yennefer out the door and makes up some excuse to the rest of the Brotherhood. So Yennefer is desperate and on the run, *without* the whole Cahir thing. Let’s just pretend that he slipped away at Sodden and eventually finds his way back to Nilfgaard.
2) I’ve read the Wikipedia episode summaries, so I know that Baba Yaga later wants Yennefer to sacrifice Ciri to her in exchange for getting her powers back. I think she should actually do that here. Like, Yen is desperate, and really wants her power back, and feeling really down, especially if the Tissaia convo went poorly. So have Baba Yaga show up and be like “lol you want your power back? Go to KM and get Ciri.” And Yen’s desperate enough to say yes. (It’s not like she hadn’t had half her classmates be turned into eels to power the magic of Aretuza. She’s long since learned that magic requires sacrifice, and what she needs to do is come out on top.) Anyways, this gets her headed towards Geralt (who she’s been avoiding since the Wish Fiasco).
Ep 4: Okay what the fuck. Why is Triss here to be like “let’s do girl stuff, Ciri” and also being super chummy with the Witchers? That should have been fucking Yen. (Why does Triss not tell Geralt that Yen is alive? Why does Istredd not tell Geralt?) I’m just so confused. There was also soooo much time spent implying that Triss and Geralt maybe had a relationship? And Triss is like “I liked your suffering” or smth??? Wtf???
Also, the heavy-handed elf abuse is … a bit much. (Sidenote: I feel like, if Cintra gets established as an elf haven, it’d be less like the Holocaust and more like Partition. There’d still be a lot of casualties, but more from “why don’t you go to Cintra where you belong” and “we hate all elves”, and not “we will systemically kill and jail all of you.”). This episode was just so full of misery porn. Also, why would Dara be a good candidate for being a Redanian spy?
Smaller but still irksome: why did they jump straight to Geralt and Ciri training together as if they’ve already bonded and have a deep relationship — and then have Geralt not stand up for Ciri when the other Witchers tease her? Is she “in” with the Witchers or “out”? :/
On the other hand, Yennefer/Jaskier bits were excellent! More of that, please!
So here’s where I think I’d make some heavier edits.
- Keep the Yen/Jaskier stuff as part of Yen’s journey to KM. Maybe have Yen ask Jaskier if he wants to come along, and he’s like “No, I promised myself I’m not going to go find Geralt, he has to come find me. Plus I’m needed here.” I hear there’s some good moments in ep 5, too, so move those over.- Actually let Geralt and Ciri bond a little bit. Have Geralt show Ciri the room where the kids went through the Trial of the Grasses, for example. Or the places that were destroyed by the pogrom. Give Ciri a more complicated understanding of what it means (or at least has meant) to be a Witcher. So that when Vesemir’s like “we can make new Witchers from your blood!”, Ciri’s like, “but do you *want* to make more Witchers?”
- Have Yen show up and offer to help Ciri. Tense moment with Geralt! Yen doesn’t tell Geralt that she’s lost her magic. (Maybe next episode.) Ciri is glad to have someone who can call the Witchers on their toxic masculinity and intergenerational trauma (not knowing that Yen/Aretuza has her own set of trauma.)
(Ep 5-8 Watch-and-Fix here)
Ep 1: Okay, not a bad start — Ciri clearly has trouble communicating with Geralt, but they start being able to confide in each other a bit more. I wish Geralt didn’t jump from Ciri’s “I saw this” to “oh you have foresight”, but I guess he was maybe thinking about Renfri?
I think this episode could have been improved with a simple edit to the final confrontation to the bruxa. Instead of Geralt being all stabby stabby, he works with Ciri to get the bruxa to calm down enough to talk and hear her side of the story. Then, it could be that Geralt still decides that the bruxa needs to be killed because she refuses to not eat the villagers, or Nivellen decides to stab the bruxa before she reveals his complicity, or whatever, but at least:
a) you get to have a conversation about monstrosity and monstrous behaviors
b) Ciri doesn’t have to be cowering the entire time
c) Geralt gets to show his own humaneness
Ep 2: Okay, they get to Kaer Morhen pretty much immediately without further trouble, which is a bit of a downer after all the excellent fanfics that add drama to their journey, but sure, I’ll accept it. And the introduction of the Baba Yaga thing is a bit awkward, but at least it expedites Fringilla and Francesca’s relationship (I like that in ep 3 they’re both like “we both know that the vision was fake, right? But it did give us an excuse to do this Cintra thing.”), and it does the Yen-is-sans-Chaos reveal in a pretty safe way for Yen (she’s not trying to summon Chaos at a moment where she needs to defend herself, she’s not forced to out herself to any other people, and she then has some time on her own to cope).
What sucks is that Eskel gets introduced and killed before we had a chance to actually care about him, I could have done without all the random outsiders (I’m like “wtf, is it that easy to get to KM?”), and then Geralt basically misses key father-daughter bonding time with Ciri to do funeral rites for Eskel. Um… what?
So, suggested tweaks for the Eskel/KM part:
1) Change it so that it’s not Eskel, but some random red shirt Witcher that no one cares about. Let’s call him Neskel.
2) Make it so that Neskel doesn’t invite what seems like the whole town. Maybe have Neskel’s weird behavior manifest in directly attacking Ciri, and have the other Witchers defend her against one of their own. (Which helps Ciri understand Witcher code, and also helps cement the “we like Neskel but not at the cost of innocents”, so that they’re not just randomly bitter at Ciri later.)
3) Have ALL the Witchers, plus Ciri, go to Neskel’s funeral. Have a nice moment where people go around talking about fond memories of Neskel. This would help Ciri recognize that Neskel was a loved member of the group, that their lives are hard and full of trauma, but maybe she finds some aspect of it inspiring.
4) Do the training sequence *after* that, and have Geralt be there to encourage her. (None of that “so close” bs)
Ep 3: Okay, random Aretuza bs. I liked the moment where Tissaia mourns Yen, and some of the Aretuza politics and snippy social stuff was cute, if not terribly vital. There’s that random thing where I guess Yen lost her Chaos due to her use of fire magic? That’s kinda dumb but sure. The Cahir thing was completely out of left field, and honestly, I don’t need Tissaia doing torture, bleh. On the KM side, Geralt goes Leshy-hunting with Ciri? What a dumb way to endanger your child. Having a few small tweaks there so that Geralt doesn’t seem like a negligent father would be nice, but overall, no harm, no foul.
Suggested tweaks:
1) Have Yen tell Tissaia that she lost her Chaos, and Tissaia’s response is basically “you have to fucking get it back, you’re fresh meat to the other mages otherwise, they already want you out because of the fire magic thing.” And then she just kinda … pushes Yennefer out the door and makes up some excuse to the rest of the Brotherhood. So Yennefer is desperate and on the run, *without* the whole Cahir thing. Let’s just pretend that he slipped away at Sodden and eventually finds his way back to Nilfgaard.
2) I’ve read the Wikipedia episode summaries, so I know that Baba Yaga later wants Yennefer to sacrifice Ciri to her in exchange for getting her powers back. I think she should actually do that here. Like, Yen is desperate, and really wants her power back, and feeling really down, especially if the Tissaia convo went poorly. So have Baba Yaga show up and be like “lol you want your power back? Go to KM and get Ciri.” And Yen’s desperate enough to say yes. (It’s not like she hadn’t had half her classmates be turned into eels to power the magic of Aretuza. She’s long since learned that magic requires sacrifice, and what she needs to do is come out on top.) Anyways, this gets her headed towards Geralt (who she’s been avoiding since the Wish Fiasco).
Ep 4: Okay what the fuck. Why is Triss here to be like “let’s do girl stuff, Ciri” and also being super chummy with the Witchers? That should have been fucking Yen. (Why does Triss not tell Geralt that Yen is alive? Why does Istredd not tell Geralt?) I’m just so confused. There was also soooo much time spent implying that Triss and Geralt maybe had a relationship? And Triss is like “I liked your suffering” or smth??? Wtf???
Also, the heavy-handed elf abuse is … a bit much. (Sidenote: I feel like, if Cintra gets established as an elf haven, it’d be less like the Holocaust and more like Partition. There’d still be a lot of casualties, but more from “why don’t you go to Cintra where you belong” and “we hate all elves”, and not “we will systemically kill and jail all of you.”). This episode was just so full of misery porn. Also, why would Dara be a good candidate for being a Redanian spy?
Smaller but still irksome: why did they jump straight to Geralt and Ciri training together as if they’ve already bonded and have a deep relationship — and then have Geralt not stand up for Ciri when the other Witchers tease her? Is she “in” with the Witchers or “out”? :/
On the other hand, Yennefer/Jaskier bits were excellent! More of that, please!
So here’s where I think I’d make some heavier edits.
- Keep the Yen/Jaskier stuff as part of Yen’s journey to KM. Maybe have Yen ask Jaskier if he wants to come along, and he’s like “No, I promised myself I’m not going to go find Geralt, he has to come find me. Plus I’m needed here.” I hear there’s some good moments in ep 5, too, so move those over.- Actually let Geralt and Ciri bond a little bit. Have Geralt show Ciri the room where the kids went through the Trial of the Grasses, for example. Or the places that were destroyed by the pogrom. Give Ciri a more complicated understanding of what it means (or at least has meant) to be a Witcher. So that when Vesemir’s like “we can make new Witchers from your blood!”, Ciri’s like, “but do you *want* to make more Witchers?”
- Have Yen show up and offer to help Ciri. Tense moment with Geralt! Yen doesn’t tell Geralt that she’s lost her magic. (Maybe next episode.) Ciri is glad to have someone who can call the Witchers on their toxic masculinity and intergenerational trauma (not knowing that Yen/Aretuza has her own set of trauma.)
(Ep 5-8 Watch-and-Fix here)
