Witcher Season 2 Watch + Fix (eps 5-8)
Jan. 10th, 2022 11:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
potofsoup(Ep 1-4 Watch-and-fix here)
Okay, I watched episodes 5-8 at 1.5 speed in one afternoon/evening, I think? Anyway, it got a little bit hazy. Overall, I feel like less time should have been spent on “everyone discovers that they need to use Ciri for something” part, because it lead to a lot of moving pieces that ultimately don’t matter. The Baba Yaga storyline is less bad than I expected. On the other hand, they really needed to spend more time actually showing Ciri/Geralt/Yennefer’s relationship. So, here we go, an episode-by-episode hypothetical fix.
Ep 5: Extremely boring bad guy (Rience, apparently) has to skulk around and threaten people for no reason. It’s cool that Yen gets to save Jaskier (giving up safe passage to Cintra), but ultimately she gets Baba-Yaga-ed in the dumbest way possible. Also, the Istredd/Geralt moments are cute, but at the cost of Gerald being away from KM for the majority of the episode, during which Ciri gets Bad Parenting from Vesemir (who just wants to use her blood to make more Witchers) and Triss (who is blandly supportive but then freaks out after the Elder blood vision). Like, Ciri’s motivations make sense! She wants to be strong! She’s tired of being afraid! She’s tired of being the outsider in the Witcher stronghold! And meanwhile NO ONE is like “Ciri, I hear you, but coming a Witcher is not the solution”. And when Geralt comes back, he doesn’t, either! He just stops the procedure.
Fixes:
- Well, my fix for the previous episode is to have Yen show up to KM, already charged by Baba Yaga to bring Ciri to her. So let’s start there. If you want Geralt out of the picture temporarily so that Ciri doesn’t immediately go to Geralt for counsel, he can be, like, investigating a closer monolith, in the Leshy forest or something (that monster from ep 3 has to come from *somewhere*).
- So Vesemir still comes to Ciri about wanting to make Witchers, but this time Yennefer is there, and Yennefer’s like “wtf”? And the Ciri can talk about all of her self-doubt, how she feels weak and wants to be strong, wants to not be afraid anymore. And hey, you know who has Strong Opinions about these things? Yennefer. Especially a Yennefer who, on the one hand, sees Ciri’s vulnerabilities echoed in her own past, and on the other hand, sees Ciri as a shortcut to getting her power back.
- (Why doesn’t Yennefer immediately nab Ciri and run? Because she doesn’t have portalling power herself. She needs to hang around long enough to teach Ciri and borrow *her* powers. At least, that’s what she tells herself.)
- Anyway, if you still want the vision quest to show Emhyr and the Elderblood thing, sure, go for it, but this time it’s Yennefer guiding Ciri. What she finds out makes her more conflicted about bringing Ciri to Baba Yaga, because she’s (a) become more connected to Ciri, and (b) sees the Baba Yaga endgame. (I’m actually okay with the Baba Yaga stuff in the theme of “people know Baba Yaga has her own agenda but still feel like they can out-maneuver her.”)
- And! What does Ciri get out of the vision quest? Have her remember Calanthe and Eist and Mousesack, and her royal court training! She goes to Vesemir and is like “let’s have a proper conversation about it — with the entire host of Witchers in KM.” After all, shouldn’t the others have a say about it? Plus this would give Ciri a good chance to be the confident expert for once — hosting councils is *her* home turf. Yennefer can even counsel Ciri.
- Have Geralt come back in the middle of the council meeting, and throw his weight behind “don’t give Ciri the Witcher serum wtf” but not in a “Dad is Always Right” way but in a “You want this because you were afraid, but look around you, you’re safe here, we’ll figure things out together” sort of way.
- If you want to have some more Monolith stuff, have a bit of Istredd studying the broken Monolith himself, and then going back to the Cintra Capital to report to Fringilla *just as* Cahir gets back.
Ep 6: There’s some really boring Istredd goes investigating into Ciri’s past thing, which … we already know about her past because we were in her vision, so this is just the show trying to show how other people find out. They *keep* doing this, with Istredd, Triss who then tells Tissaia, the Redanians poking around the Brotherhood, on and on and on… honestly, we don’t really need to care about the logistics of *how* they find out, we just need to know that everyone finds out by the end of ep 8.
Anyway, Geralt loses Roach in the fight of the episode, they go to Nenneke where once again, it’s Nenneke who has a meaningful conversation with Ciri, and *not* Geralt. They meet Yennefer, who gets Ciri to portal out without Geralt as Rience attacks.
Oh, there’s also some interesting drama in Cintra because Francesca gives birth to elf baby and promptly forgets the deal she made with Fringilla, at a moment when Fringilla is incredibly politically vulnerable, oops.
Fixes:
- Get rid of all the “3 different parties discover that Ciri is important” stuff. Or, if you need to keep one, just keep Istredd, you can skip the 2 random people he finds, and just have him do some research into lineage. He can go tell everyone afterwards, since he’s in Cintra and also connected to the Brotherhood.
- If you want to keep the Nenneke part to give everyone a glimpse into Geralt’s past and flesh out the religious landscape of the Continent a bit, have Yennefer come along. Maybe Yennefer finally admits to Geralt that she lost her powers (maybe when they get attacked by that monster and she isn't able to help), and Geralt’s like “let’s go see if Nenneke can help both you *and* Ciri.” And then it can be *Geralt* who has a conversation with Ciri about how important she is to him, and admitting that he might not know how to parent but it’s important to him that she can be allowed to find her own path, the way he was never allowed to.
- Maybe Yen can also have a convo with Geralt about Jaskier, like “he’s a good person, he’s helping smuggle elves, you broke his heart and you should go fix it” and Geralt’s like “hmm” and Yen’s like “please learn to emote ffs.”
- Guess what, you can still have Rience attack, without the random justification of scrying Ciri’s blood (wtf). Just have someone who sees Geralt et al going in tattle to the Redanians.
- So Yennefer still has to help Ciri create a Portal, but this time it’s mostly in order to save Ciri’s life.
- You can still end with Tissaia finding out about Ciri’s Elderblood thing, just have Istredd do it.
Ep 7: Yennefer leads Ciri toward the broken monolith in Cintra, learning the joys of teaching Ciri along the way. Geralt frees Jaskier from prison, mostly to… get an info dump from Jaskier about the fact that Yennefer is working for Baba Yaga? Some dwarves get involved, mostly to fight the Nilfgaardians who are after Ciri? Anyway, Ciri finds out that Yennefer wants to betray her, gets really upset, Geralt shows up to intervene, and sends Ciri home to KM (which they magically end up at in like, half a day…. from Cintra?? like, how the fuck does the map work? Is KM impenetrable or just like, the fancy Witcher house down the road that everyone knows about? ffs).
Meanwhile, Fringilla feels betrayed by Francesca, who is choosing elf baby over keeping the promise that they made over the Baba Yaga vision, Fringilla kills a bunch of Nilfgaardian asshole generals and threatens Cahir to sing her praises for when the Emperor shows up. This ends with the elf baby getting shanked in the night.
Fixes:
- I actually think that you can have a pretty good thematic thread this season about chasing power that you think you want vs. the importance of family and friendship. Baba Yaga actually ties into that really well, and so does Fringilla/Francesca/Yennefer, and so does Ciri, and so does all the background politicking.
- So, you can have the Fringilla / Francesca stuff this episode play out pretty much the same, but instead of some line about choosing blood over friendship, have Francesca basically say “well, we both knew that Baba Yaga was kinda fake anyway, and she promised me a baby and I got the baby, so I successfully manipulated her and I don’t need the treaty anymore.” Which then drives Fringilla back to pursuing *her* desire for power and acknowledgement within Nilfgaard. (And both of these, of course, plays into Baba Yaga’s plan. She gives people a false promise in order to have them over-reach, and then reaps their suffering as they fail)
- Meanwhile, Yen and Ciri have portalled somewhere close to the Baba Yaga meetup point (I don’t understand why they portalled to the place where Ciri ended up at the end of Season 1, only to have the family dead. It seems like such a “we’re a grim dark fantasy” sort of thing.) Anyway, you can still have Yennefer leading Ciri to Baba Yaga, but have it be that she’s thinking she can outwit Baba Yaga (just like Francesca). Maybe she tells Ciri that going back to the place of the black stone is a way to help her control her powers (and maybe Yen even justifies it to herself that she can get her powers back, harness Baba Yaga the way she was planning on harnessing the Djinn, and then use that to help Ciri.) And of course Ciri does miss Cintra. Ciri still finds out and still feels betrayed, and this time it cuts even deeper because Yennefer has been an actual mother to Ciri.
- And in that moment of betrayal, Ciri gets whisked to the hut where *she* makes a deal with Baba Yaga — she desperately wants to not be afraid anymore, to be with her family again, and Baba Yaga promises her that. And then Baba Yaga basically becomes the sleeper agent that’s in Ciri. (But she needs a functioning Monolith, so she’s gonna hitch a ride with Ciri back to KM.)
- We need an actual reason for Geralt to find Jaskier. Maybe he doesn’t know where Yen and Ciri portalled to, and needs Jaskier’s bardic/elf-smuggling connections. Anyway, I think Jaskier should tap his connections or overhear a Ciri/Yen sighting while performing, as well as the fact that the Nilfgaardians and the Redanians are both after her. They run into the elves and go and save Yen and Ciri from the various political factions that are after them. You can still have Ciri pointing to Yen’s betrayal, and Yen tells Geralt about Baba Yaga, but neither of them know that Baba Yaga is now hitching a ride with Ciri.
Ep 8: Okay distraught!Francesca is killing babies and declaring war on humans, aiyah. Meanwhile, BabaYaga!Ciri shanks some RedShirt!Witchers, opens the Monolith that’s in KM, summons some monsters, and starts wreaking havoc. Ciri is meanwhile trapped in a vision of the past where she’s having a good day with Mousesack and her grandparents. At first Vesemir wants to kill Ciri (and there’s even a nice echo to the killing of Neskel — they didn’t want to, but gotta kill the possessed person to protect the others). But somehow Geralt’s like “trust me,” and then a bunch of backup Witchers gets killed. Yen gives Jaskier a task that he pretty much fails at, then Yen makes a potion that… worked??? for some reason??? Anyway, there’s a moment where Geralt is begging Ciri to come back to KM to her family (even though we have seen pretty much zero on-screen interaction between her and Geralt), and dream!Ciri’s parents are begging her to stay in the dream (even though Ciri didn’t actually know her parents — this is clearly an attempt for us to see enough of Emhyr to recognize him later). Eventually Ciri makes the right decision (and Yennefer also does some potions self sacrifice thing), she portals Geralt/Yen/herself to some Conjunction thing and sees the Wild Hunt, which Baba Yaga joins (???). And the episode ends with basically all the political people deciding that they need to hunt down Ciri, and Emhyr shows up and reveals that he’s the one who killed Francesca’s baby and wants to find Ciri, too.
Fixes:
- I don’t really need Francesca killing babies, kthx. If you want to ship Fringilla/Francesca a bit, have them reconcile after they realize that pursuing Baba Yaga’s promises is not as important as the relationships that they already have. So Francesca decides to stay in Cintra and try to rebuild. Have Istredd show up with news about Ciri and Francesca can see that as being rewarded for staying. And now Fringilla and Francesca vow to work together to find Ciri.
- I don’t need BY!Ciri shanking Witchers, either. Just… have fewer Witchers, in general — you don’t need that many monsters, either. That’ll make the final fight less dumb-action and more focused on Ciri.
- Make Ciri’s choice a little more real here — instead of choosing between her parents who she’d never met, and a Witcher family that she’s never quite connected with, have her choose between a life with Calanthe/Eist/Mousesack, and a Witcher life with Geralt/Yennefer and the KM crowd that we actually spent time establishing.
- Have Jaskier actually do something. Have him actually succeed in delivering the jasper. Maybe he can sing a song from the Cintran court that makes Ciri realize that she doesn’t need to give up her past life in order to live her present one.
… And, that’s it! That’s my Witcher Season 2 fixit!
In review:
Ep 1: Ciri and Geralt visit Nivellen and gain sympathy for the bruxa. Everyone thinks Yen is dead.
Ep 2: Ciri and Geralt at KM, Neskel (Not-Eskel) returns from a leshy hunt, and before he has a chance to invite everyone from town, he goes all Leshy and Geralt ends up having to kill Neskel. All the witchers gather for his burial, and Ciri learns a bit about Witchers and KM. Ciri decides to do training, with Geralt's help. Yen/Fringilla/Francesca have their Baba Yaga vision, Yen realizes that she doesn't have Chaos, Frin/Fran teams up.
Ep 3: Yen gets to Aretuza and tells Tissaia that she lost her Chaos, and Tissaia basically shoves her back out the door (in order to protect her but also bc power is everything). Feeling desperate and alone, Yen agrees to Baba Yaga's deal of getting Ciri, starts heading toward KM. Geralt does some training with Ciri, and takes her Leshy hunting. Ciri learns about how to be a Witcher, bonds with Geralt and Vesemir and other KM denizens.
Ep 4: Yen runs into Jaskier on her journey up to KM, they have some good moments -- Jaskier helps smuggle Yen through Redania, Yen helps Jaskier when he gets caught by Rience. Yen asks Jaskier to travel with her to KM and Jaskier decides to stay where he's more needed (also because he wants Geralt to apologize, which Yen agrees with). Yen shows up at KM and offers to help Ciri with her magic (secretly hoping to get Ciri strong enough to portal to Baba Yaga). Background stuff about Cintra becoming a haven for elves, and Frin/Fran bonding moments.
Ep 5: Geralt goes to investigate the Leshy forest and finds a broken Monolith. Yen begins to be attached to Ciri as she teaches her magic. Vesemir pressures Ciri about using her blood to create Witcher mutagen. Ciri is tempted and confused, and has a good convo with Yen about feeling powerless. After a vision quest with Yen's help, Ciri remembers Calanthe and Eist and decides to call an all-Witcher council to discuss whether to bring back the mutagens or not. Geralt returns in time to (a) explain Witcher mutagen trauma, (b) reassure Ciri that she doesn't need that to be a Witcher, (c) reassure Ciri that he's there for her, she doesn't need to be a Witcher. Meanwhile, Istredd does some Monolith-studying and Cintran records research, and realizes that Ciri has Elderblood. He returns to the Cintran capital just in time to see Cahir return.
Ep 6: Geralt, Yen and Ciri gets attacked by a monster and Yen isn't able to use her magic, leading to Roach death. Geralt takes both her and Ciri to Nenneke for magic help. As they arrive, Yen talks to Geralt about how Jaskier is nearby and he really needs to go and apologize. Geralt grunts thoughtfully. While there, Geralt talks with Ciri about her worries, and he talks to Yen about how she is more than her magic. Rience attacks, and Yen and Ciri portal out, leaving Geralt. Meanwhile, tensions rise in Cintra under Cahir, and Francesca has a baby.
Ep 7: Yen leads Ciri to the broken Monolith in Cintra, thinking she can outwit and control Baba Yaga. Meanwhile, mounting tensions in Cintra as Francesca thinks she's outwitted Baba Yaga and starts reneging on her promises to Fringilla. Cut back to Ciri, finding out Yen's plan and feeling betrayed, then hearing the voice of Baba Yaga, saying that she knows what Ciri wants. Fringilla, in order to seize power, kills the Nilfgaard generals. Geralt finds and frees Jaskier, apologizes to him properly, and Jaskier uses his bard/smuggling connections to find out that (a) Yen/Ciri are in Cintra and (b) Nilfgaardians and Redanians are both after her. (Meanwhile, in Aretuza, Istredd tells Tissaia about Ciri.) Geralt and Jaskier (and dwarves) go to save Ciri from Nilfgaardian soldiers, and they ride back to KM. There is a flash of Baba Yaga inside Ciri. Francesca's baby gets assassinated.
Ep 8: Francesca declares war on all humans but then Istredd shows up and tells her about Ciri, and from that Francesca finds hope.* Meanwhile Ciri is living her dream of the past, while Baba Yaga pilots her body to open the Monolith at KM and summon monsters. The Witchers agree that they don't want a re-run of Neskel, and while Vesemir leads the other Witchers to deal with the monsters, Geralt, Yen and Jaskier try to get Ciri back. Yen is using potions and Geralt is using his words and Jaskier is playing a song from Cintra. These things combined reminds Ciri that she has family here, and that she hasn't lost Cintra forever, either. She says goodbye to Calanthe, Eist and Mousesack in her vision (no parents bc she has no memory of them), and returns just in time to do that weird portal thing and foreshadow the Wild Hunt. Emhyr shows up, reveals that he's behind the baby killing, ousts Fringilla. Montage of Emhyr, Elves, Redania, and Brotherhood all deciding that they need to hunt down Ciri, juxtaposed with Ciri being happy with her family at KM.
---
* Shippy alternative: Francesca goes to Fringilla in her distress and they reconcile. Istredd tells them about Ciri and Francesca finds new hope, and vows to help Fringilla find Ciri, their alliance restored.
Okay, I watched episodes 5-8 at 1.5 speed in one afternoon/evening, I think? Anyway, it got a little bit hazy. Overall, I feel like less time should have been spent on “everyone discovers that they need to use Ciri for something” part, because it lead to a lot of moving pieces that ultimately don’t matter. The Baba Yaga storyline is less bad than I expected. On the other hand, they really needed to spend more time actually showing Ciri/Geralt/Yennefer’s relationship. So, here we go, an episode-by-episode hypothetical fix.
Ep 5: Extremely boring bad guy (Rience, apparently) has to skulk around and threaten people for no reason. It’s cool that Yen gets to save Jaskier (giving up safe passage to Cintra), but ultimately she gets Baba-Yaga-ed in the dumbest way possible. Also, the Istredd/Geralt moments are cute, but at the cost of Gerald being away from KM for the majority of the episode, during which Ciri gets Bad Parenting from Vesemir (who just wants to use her blood to make more Witchers) and Triss (who is blandly supportive but then freaks out after the Elder blood vision). Like, Ciri’s motivations make sense! She wants to be strong! She’s tired of being afraid! She’s tired of being the outsider in the Witcher stronghold! And meanwhile NO ONE is like “Ciri, I hear you, but coming a Witcher is not the solution”. And when Geralt comes back, he doesn’t, either! He just stops the procedure.
Fixes:
- Well, my fix for the previous episode is to have Yen show up to KM, already charged by Baba Yaga to bring Ciri to her. So let’s start there. If you want Geralt out of the picture temporarily so that Ciri doesn’t immediately go to Geralt for counsel, he can be, like, investigating a closer monolith, in the Leshy forest or something (that monster from ep 3 has to come from *somewhere*).
- So Vesemir still comes to Ciri about wanting to make Witchers, but this time Yennefer is there, and Yennefer’s like “wtf”? And the Ciri can talk about all of her self-doubt, how she feels weak and wants to be strong, wants to not be afraid anymore. And hey, you know who has Strong Opinions about these things? Yennefer. Especially a Yennefer who, on the one hand, sees Ciri’s vulnerabilities echoed in her own past, and on the other hand, sees Ciri as a shortcut to getting her power back.
- (Why doesn’t Yennefer immediately nab Ciri and run? Because she doesn’t have portalling power herself. She needs to hang around long enough to teach Ciri and borrow *her* powers. At least, that’s what she tells herself.)
- Anyway, if you still want the vision quest to show Emhyr and the Elderblood thing, sure, go for it, but this time it’s Yennefer guiding Ciri. What she finds out makes her more conflicted about bringing Ciri to Baba Yaga, because she’s (a) become more connected to Ciri, and (b) sees the Baba Yaga endgame. (I’m actually okay with the Baba Yaga stuff in the theme of “people know Baba Yaga has her own agenda but still feel like they can out-maneuver her.”)
- And! What does Ciri get out of the vision quest? Have her remember Calanthe and Eist and Mousesack, and her royal court training! She goes to Vesemir and is like “let’s have a proper conversation about it — with the entire host of Witchers in KM.” After all, shouldn’t the others have a say about it? Plus this would give Ciri a good chance to be the confident expert for once — hosting councils is *her* home turf. Yennefer can even counsel Ciri.
- Have Geralt come back in the middle of the council meeting, and throw his weight behind “don’t give Ciri the Witcher serum wtf” but not in a “Dad is Always Right” way but in a “You want this because you were afraid, but look around you, you’re safe here, we’ll figure things out together” sort of way.
- If you want to have some more Monolith stuff, have a bit of Istredd studying the broken Monolith himself, and then going back to the Cintra Capital to report to Fringilla *just as* Cahir gets back.
Ep 6: There’s some really boring Istredd goes investigating into Ciri’s past thing, which … we already know about her past because we were in her vision, so this is just the show trying to show how other people find out. They *keep* doing this, with Istredd, Triss who then tells Tissaia, the Redanians poking around the Brotherhood, on and on and on… honestly, we don’t really need to care about the logistics of *how* they find out, we just need to know that everyone finds out by the end of ep 8.
Anyway, Geralt loses Roach in the fight of the episode, they go to Nenneke where once again, it’s Nenneke who has a meaningful conversation with Ciri, and *not* Geralt. They meet Yennefer, who gets Ciri to portal out without Geralt as Rience attacks.
Oh, there’s also some interesting drama in Cintra because Francesca gives birth to elf baby and promptly forgets the deal she made with Fringilla, at a moment when Fringilla is incredibly politically vulnerable, oops.
Fixes:
- Get rid of all the “3 different parties discover that Ciri is important” stuff. Or, if you need to keep one, just keep Istredd, you can skip the 2 random people he finds, and just have him do some research into lineage. He can go tell everyone afterwards, since he’s in Cintra and also connected to the Brotherhood.
- If you want to keep the Nenneke part to give everyone a glimpse into Geralt’s past and flesh out the religious landscape of the Continent a bit, have Yennefer come along. Maybe Yennefer finally admits to Geralt that she lost her powers (maybe when they get attacked by that monster and she isn't able to help), and Geralt’s like “let’s go see if Nenneke can help both you *and* Ciri.” And then it can be *Geralt* who has a conversation with Ciri about how important she is to him, and admitting that he might not know how to parent but it’s important to him that she can be allowed to find her own path, the way he was never allowed to.
- Maybe Yen can also have a convo with Geralt about Jaskier, like “he’s a good person, he’s helping smuggle elves, you broke his heart and you should go fix it” and Geralt’s like “hmm” and Yen’s like “please learn to emote ffs.”
- Guess what, you can still have Rience attack, without the random justification of scrying Ciri’s blood (wtf). Just have someone who sees Geralt et al going in tattle to the Redanians.
- So Yennefer still has to help Ciri create a Portal, but this time it’s mostly in order to save Ciri’s life.
- You can still end with Tissaia finding out about Ciri’s Elderblood thing, just have Istredd do it.
Ep 7: Yennefer leads Ciri toward the broken monolith in Cintra, learning the joys of teaching Ciri along the way. Geralt frees Jaskier from prison, mostly to… get an info dump from Jaskier about the fact that Yennefer is working for Baba Yaga? Some dwarves get involved, mostly to fight the Nilfgaardians who are after Ciri? Anyway, Ciri finds out that Yennefer wants to betray her, gets really upset, Geralt shows up to intervene, and sends Ciri home to KM (which they magically end up at in like, half a day…. from Cintra?? like, how the fuck does the map work? Is KM impenetrable or just like, the fancy Witcher house down the road that everyone knows about? ffs).
Meanwhile, Fringilla feels betrayed by Francesca, who is choosing elf baby over keeping the promise that they made over the Baba Yaga vision, Fringilla kills a bunch of Nilfgaardian asshole generals and threatens Cahir to sing her praises for when the Emperor shows up. This ends with the elf baby getting shanked in the night.
Fixes:
- I actually think that you can have a pretty good thematic thread this season about chasing power that you think you want vs. the importance of family and friendship. Baba Yaga actually ties into that really well, and so does Fringilla/Francesca/Yennefer, and so does Ciri, and so does all the background politicking.
- So, you can have the Fringilla / Francesca stuff this episode play out pretty much the same, but instead of some line about choosing blood over friendship, have Francesca basically say “well, we both knew that Baba Yaga was kinda fake anyway, and she promised me a baby and I got the baby, so I successfully manipulated her and I don’t need the treaty anymore.” Which then drives Fringilla back to pursuing *her* desire for power and acknowledgement within Nilfgaard. (And both of these, of course, plays into Baba Yaga’s plan. She gives people a false promise in order to have them over-reach, and then reaps their suffering as they fail)
- Meanwhile, Yen and Ciri have portalled somewhere close to the Baba Yaga meetup point (I don’t understand why they portalled to the place where Ciri ended up at the end of Season 1, only to have the family dead. It seems like such a “we’re a grim dark fantasy” sort of thing.) Anyway, you can still have Yennefer leading Ciri to Baba Yaga, but have it be that she’s thinking she can outwit Baba Yaga (just like Francesca). Maybe she tells Ciri that going back to the place of the black stone is a way to help her control her powers (and maybe Yen even justifies it to herself that she can get her powers back, harness Baba Yaga the way she was planning on harnessing the Djinn, and then use that to help Ciri.) And of course Ciri does miss Cintra. Ciri still finds out and still feels betrayed, and this time it cuts even deeper because Yennefer has been an actual mother to Ciri.
- And in that moment of betrayal, Ciri gets whisked to the hut where *she* makes a deal with Baba Yaga — she desperately wants to not be afraid anymore, to be with her family again, and Baba Yaga promises her that. And then Baba Yaga basically becomes the sleeper agent that’s in Ciri. (But she needs a functioning Monolith, so she’s gonna hitch a ride with Ciri back to KM.)
- We need an actual reason for Geralt to find Jaskier. Maybe he doesn’t know where Yen and Ciri portalled to, and needs Jaskier’s bardic/elf-smuggling connections. Anyway, I think Jaskier should tap his connections or overhear a Ciri/Yen sighting while performing, as well as the fact that the Nilfgaardians and the Redanians are both after her. They run into the elves and go and save Yen and Ciri from the various political factions that are after them. You can still have Ciri pointing to Yen’s betrayal, and Yen tells Geralt about Baba Yaga, but neither of them know that Baba Yaga is now hitching a ride with Ciri.
Ep 8: Okay distraught!Francesca is killing babies and declaring war on humans, aiyah. Meanwhile, BabaYaga!Ciri shanks some RedShirt!Witchers, opens the Monolith that’s in KM, summons some monsters, and starts wreaking havoc. Ciri is meanwhile trapped in a vision of the past where she’s having a good day with Mousesack and her grandparents. At first Vesemir wants to kill Ciri (and there’s even a nice echo to the killing of Neskel — they didn’t want to, but gotta kill the possessed person to protect the others). But somehow Geralt’s like “trust me,” and then a bunch of backup Witchers gets killed. Yen gives Jaskier a task that he pretty much fails at, then Yen makes a potion that… worked??? for some reason??? Anyway, there’s a moment where Geralt is begging Ciri to come back to KM to her family (even though we have seen pretty much zero on-screen interaction between her and Geralt), and dream!Ciri’s parents are begging her to stay in the dream (even though Ciri didn’t actually know her parents — this is clearly an attempt for us to see enough of Emhyr to recognize him later). Eventually Ciri makes the right decision (and Yennefer also does some potions self sacrifice thing), she portals Geralt/Yen/herself to some Conjunction thing and sees the Wild Hunt, which Baba Yaga joins (???). And the episode ends with basically all the political people deciding that they need to hunt down Ciri, and Emhyr shows up and reveals that he’s the one who killed Francesca’s baby and wants to find Ciri, too.
Fixes:
- I don’t really need Francesca killing babies, kthx. If you want to ship Fringilla/Francesca a bit, have them reconcile after they realize that pursuing Baba Yaga’s promises is not as important as the relationships that they already have. So Francesca decides to stay in Cintra and try to rebuild. Have Istredd show up with news about Ciri and Francesca can see that as being rewarded for staying. And now Fringilla and Francesca vow to work together to find Ciri.
- I don’t need BY!Ciri shanking Witchers, either. Just… have fewer Witchers, in general — you don’t need that many monsters, either. That’ll make the final fight less dumb-action and more focused on Ciri.
- Make Ciri’s choice a little more real here — instead of choosing between her parents who she’d never met, and a Witcher family that she’s never quite connected with, have her choose between a life with Calanthe/Eist/Mousesack, and a Witcher life with Geralt/Yennefer and the KM crowd that we actually spent time establishing.
- Have Jaskier actually do something. Have him actually succeed in delivering the jasper. Maybe he can sing a song from the Cintran court that makes Ciri realize that she doesn’t need to give up her past life in order to live her present one.
… And, that’s it! That’s my Witcher Season 2 fixit!
In review:
Ep 1: Ciri and Geralt visit Nivellen and gain sympathy for the bruxa. Everyone thinks Yen is dead.
Ep 2: Ciri and Geralt at KM, Neskel (Not-Eskel) returns from a leshy hunt, and before he has a chance to invite everyone from town, he goes all Leshy and Geralt ends up having to kill Neskel. All the witchers gather for his burial, and Ciri learns a bit about Witchers and KM. Ciri decides to do training, with Geralt's help. Yen/Fringilla/Francesca have their Baba Yaga vision, Yen realizes that she doesn't have Chaos, Frin/Fran teams up.
Ep 3: Yen gets to Aretuza and tells Tissaia that she lost her Chaos, and Tissaia basically shoves her back out the door (in order to protect her but also bc power is everything). Feeling desperate and alone, Yen agrees to Baba Yaga's deal of getting Ciri, starts heading toward KM. Geralt does some training with Ciri, and takes her Leshy hunting. Ciri learns about how to be a Witcher, bonds with Geralt and Vesemir and other KM denizens.
Ep 4: Yen runs into Jaskier on her journey up to KM, they have some good moments -- Jaskier helps smuggle Yen through Redania, Yen helps Jaskier when he gets caught by Rience. Yen asks Jaskier to travel with her to KM and Jaskier decides to stay where he's more needed (also because he wants Geralt to apologize, which Yen agrees with). Yen shows up at KM and offers to help Ciri with her magic (secretly hoping to get Ciri strong enough to portal to Baba Yaga). Background stuff about Cintra becoming a haven for elves, and Frin/Fran bonding moments.
Ep 5: Geralt goes to investigate the Leshy forest and finds a broken Monolith. Yen begins to be attached to Ciri as she teaches her magic. Vesemir pressures Ciri about using her blood to create Witcher mutagen. Ciri is tempted and confused, and has a good convo with Yen about feeling powerless. After a vision quest with Yen's help, Ciri remembers Calanthe and Eist and decides to call an all-Witcher council to discuss whether to bring back the mutagens or not. Geralt returns in time to (a) explain Witcher mutagen trauma, (b) reassure Ciri that she doesn't need that to be a Witcher, (c) reassure Ciri that he's there for her, she doesn't need to be a Witcher. Meanwhile, Istredd does some Monolith-studying and Cintran records research, and realizes that Ciri has Elderblood. He returns to the Cintran capital just in time to see Cahir return.
Ep 6: Geralt, Yen and Ciri gets attacked by a monster and Yen isn't able to use her magic, leading to Roach death. Geralt takes both her and Ciri to Nenneke for magic help. As they arrive, Yen talks to Geralt about how Jaskier is nearby and he really needs to go and apologize. Geralt grunts thoughtfully. While there, Geralt talks with Ciri about her worries, and he talks to Yen about how she is more than her magic. Rience attacks, and Yen and Ciri portal out, leaving Geralt. Meanwhile, tensions rise in Cintra under Cahir, and Francesca has a baby.
Ep 7: Yen leads Ciri to the broken Monolith in Cintra, thinking she can outwit and control Baba Yaga. Meanwhile, mounting tensions in Cintra as Francesca thinks she's outwitted Baba Yaga and starts reneging on her promises to Fringilla. Cut back to Ciri, finding out Yen's plan and feeling betrayed, then hearing the voice of Baba Yaga, saying that she knows what Ciri wants. Fringilla, in order to seize power, kills the Nilfgaard generals. Geralt finds and frees Jaskier, apologizes to him properly, and Jaskier uses his bard/smuggling connections to find out that (a) Yen/Ciri are in Cintra and (b) Nilfgaardians and Redanians are both after her. (Meanwhile, in Aretuza, Istredd tells Tissaia about Ciri.) Geralt and Jaskier (and dwarves) go to save Ciri from Nilfgaardian soldiers, and they ride back to KM. There is a flash of Baba Yaga inside Ciri. Francesca's baby gets assassinated.
Ep 8: Francesca declares war on all humans but then Istredd shows up and tells her about Ciri, and from that Francesca finds hope.* Meanwhile Ciri is living her dream of the past, while Baba Yaga pilots her body to open the Monolith at KM and summon monsters. The Witchers agree that they don't want a re-run of Neskel, and while Vesemir leads the other Witchers to deal with the monsters, Geralt, Yen and Jaskier try to get Ciri back. Yen is using potions and Geralt is using his words and Jaskier is playing a song from Cintra. These things combined reminds Ciri that she has family here, and that she hasn't lost Cintra forever, either. She says goodbye to Calanthe, Eist and Mousesack in her vision (no parents bc she has no memory of them), and returns just in time to do that weird portal thing and foreshadow the Wild Hunt. Emhyr shows up, reveals that he's behind the baby killing, ousts Fringilla. Montage of Emhyr, Elves, Redania, and Brotherhood all deciding that they need to hunt down Ciri, juxtaposed with Ciri being happy with her family at KM.
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* Shippy alternative: Francesca goes to Fringilla in her distress and they reconcile. Istredd tells them about Ciri and Francesca finds new hope, and vows to help Fringilla find Ciri, their alliance restored.
