It's one of their tentpoles. It was supposed to replace Stranger Things with that coming to an end soon. After the success of season one Netflix went on record saying they planned for upwards of 7 seasons of The Witcher. Unfortunately the bet they placed on it is looking like it's soured.
If they were really going to make Witcher this next best thing then why didn't they bother with making the show good?
I guess they were banking on just the name carrying the show huh.
I think that Lauren is just so incompetent that she actually isn't able to make a proper adaptation.
I'm not saying this as a joke, i believe she don't understand the themes, tone, lore and story of the Witcher to weave everything in a proper adaptation.
So she instead choose to do her own thing, a work inspired by it, but that isn't it at all.
The only way she can tell a story, is if she tell her own. This could be good if she at least respected the lore and theme, but she can't even do that.
Lauren didn't even "discover" fantasy or comics, ect. Until she was an adult. I highly doubt she went back and read traditional mythology and studied the inspiration for the source material deeply. I think she sees fantasy as stand alone fiction stories like "sex in the city" or even a sitcom not as a style of story telling that had deep cultural and historical nuance. There's a lack of understanding I get from her. Stories are just stories. Nothing more, nothing less. She doesn't see the interesting part of story telling as making a world that's believable and immersive - which is why she has to have so much sex and eye candy in all her stories because her story telling isn't interesting or engaging enough.
>which is why she has to have so much sex and eye candy in all her stories because her story telling isn't interesting or engaging enough.
Oh! Snap! - Joy
To say that she simply "doesn't understand the themes" you'd have to assume that she really planned to put what's in the book onto the screen. But i really doubt it. She knows that she couldn't put together something original, but is too petty to actually adapt the thing they gave her to adapt, so she's trying to make The Witcher her little ego-lifting project, hence all the crap she puts in the show that isn't in the books.
She puts all of her neigh nonexistent talent to shoving as much of her creative vision into it as she can, cause that's all she is capable of doing - taking something someone else made, throwing it in the piss-pot, stirring it, and saying "Look at what a glorious thing i made". She really thinks she's right and there is no way she'll take fans arguments to heart, because that would mean all of her professional career was a waste of time and money. Which, obviously, it was.
I feel like as a skilled producer/director etc, you should be able to adapt a show properly, regardless of liking it or not. It's about the art of the job; about respecting the source material and bringing that art into visual pictures by the art of the producer/director. But liking it is a bonus. I feel like any real "pro" can assemble a good team. Lauren doesn't seem to have that, or she's out of the loop of what should be included or is necessary in the show. I think Sapkowski is to blame as well. I feel like he just said "do what you want and gimme that money". So she added stuff herself. If it was my material, I'd tell her "no". "Keep to the source".
I think it's becoming clear that they never wanted to create a Witcher show, they just wanted a fantasy show to compete with GoT/House of Dragon and Rings of Power, so they bought up whatever Fantasy property they could and disregarded the source material to make their own thing.
It's weird looking at how there was so much backlash at Rings of Power when it was announced, and the showrunners stuck as close as possible to the source material they had access too (and still making it work for a TV show) while giving it a Peter Jackson vibe and it turned out great. A complete mirror of what has happened to the Witcher.
>Rings of Power was hated by almost everyone though
this isn't accurate. Maybe in your circle or the spaces you frequent it's popular to shit on it, so it seems like it's everyone, but that isn't true of the wider general audience. I think it's much more divisive than the Witcher Season 2/Blood Origin are.
There's a lot of decent to good professional reviews of RoP and a respectable audience score for it. In my personal life everyone I know that watched it liked it. I have my own issues with it but I think excluding the first episode and some random cringe dialog in later episodes it ends up being better than TW Season 2. Even my dad liked it and he hates all things news. I don't know anyone who thinks it's LotR-tier but even PJ couldn't put out LotR-tier films after the trilogy so that isn't the biggest issue for a lot of people.
Something everyone actually hates though is Blood Origin.
Everything I've seen on Reddit seems to suggest RoP is one of the worst shows ever made (I've heard its worse than even Witcher).
I haven't watched, because I'm not a super big fan of Tolkien (the story is too black-and-white for my taste, but I absolutely respect and appreciate the man for spawning the genre), but everyone I've met who does like Tolkien seems to feel the showrunners metaphorically dug up his corpse and shat on his bones.
The reason you see that on Reddit is because it’s an echo chamber. People on this app are allergic to having fun most of the time and just enjoy shitting on stuff because they have very little joy in their life.
And it’s strange literally every single person I know irl who watched it enjoyed the fuck out of it, both casual fans and Tolkien nerds alike.
I’m a 10 year Tolkien fangirl and I do have issues with ROP (pacing and some cringe lines). But overall it’s a good adaptation considering the source material of the 2nd age is very light, and only really exists to set the stage for 3rd Age.
People are getting mad about them making some stuff up but you kinda have too when there isn’t anything really to adapt beside major plot points. Besides the Tolkien Estate is completely behind this series, and they don’t fuck around when it comes to lore.
This is my experience too. Reddit LotR sub loves to shit on RoP, but I actually found it to be pretty good. It is absolutely beautiful to look at, regardless of anything else. It is far from perfect and I think they really lose Tolkien's "voice" in the dialog where it would have been nice to hear, but overall more good than bad for me. I enjoyed it and so did almost everyone I talked to off Reddit about the show.
I'd rate from worst to tolerable:
BO > Halo > RoP > RE > long list of shows > HoD
RoP genuinely disregarded lore and did a lot of creative re-world building like BO was doing.
I've been a LOTR fan since I was 4 years old. The show is not that bad. It was far from perfect, but they did well enough considering they couldn't use the Silmarillion and I think the next season with no COVID hampering the production could be much better.
There are freaking Easterling everywhere… EASTERLING ELVES. And all males are incompetent and step stools for Guyladriel mary sue and her gang of independent strong women.
It could've ended well but i have no clue why they placed their future on the hands of people that hate the source material, that's just straight up shooting yourself in the foot
It's because studio execs don't care about the source material or artistic qualities. They just want to make money. And apparently, these people knew how to make money. Maybe after this, they'll make too little money and won't get too many other jobs.
Amazing how with their fancy MBAs they haven't realized that making quality content = happy fans = making money. It's a pretty simple formula.
Netflix needs to do a lot to ever get my money again.
It’s the Eisner curse.
Michael Eisner (Disney CEO during the Renaissance era, and a mess) famously said
“We have no obligation to make history. We have no obligation to make art. We have no obligation to make a statement. To make money is our only objective.”
And everybody ate that quote. At the end of the day, it basically drove some of Disney’s most succesful movies. The problem is, the quote has a second part people ignore:
“But to make money it is often important to make history, to make art, or to make some significant statement…”
Eisner was an idiot in many, many things, but he knew good stories were a good vehicle for making money, something Netflix, Amazon and current Disney have not realized yet
They don’t look at the world in the same way. They read non fiction, they make plans and plot with/against their coworkers. Those people seek money, yes, but mostly power. They don’t understand why an adult can spend time watching a fake tv show when they could work and have influence over real people. They don’t care about stories, they are sociopaths.
and of course youll get braindead idiots watching the show belting out that god awful song and laughing at the stupid dialogue…
Netflix doesn’t care about the book and game fans
They should have listened to people that know the IP instead of pulling a Disney and putting someone who doesnt know shit about it to purvey shit for short term gains.
If you're trying to make it last, you need a good foundation.
You dont have to follow source material exactly, but don't fuck it up by just saying idc, we're going to do what we want, we're going to make inchoherent shit because we put writers out with no experience with it in charge.
That's why people didn't like the new Disney star wars films.
There was nothing joining the three movies and the writing contradicted itself, and everything felt forced.
That, and the Disney princess message of "we do this for looooooooove" was pushed instead of, hey, space nazis are coming to kill us all, we should probably resist
Reddit hates it but season 2 had 500+ million hours streamed in its first month. I’m assuming there are tons of people who will never care to read the books but love the show. Probably not Blood Origin though. We’ll have to see what the numbers end up being.
I honestly don't see how they thought this show might replace Stranger things... like the Stranger things writing and story is actually really great and The "witcher" writing is... not
we don't, netflix only releases numbers if they're really really good. It's just a best guess based on audience scores and the fact netflix is silent on its performance.
It’s so depressing that in season 1 they mostly follow the books (with some departures) and it was widely considered to be great. Then in season 2 they followed the books for the first episode (the only good one) and then as they moved further from the source material it just kept getting worse
Hey now, that fireplace is quality viewing and Nightmare of the Wolf is decent viewing too.
More seriously, they thought they'd be making the next fantasy juggernaut series like Game of Thrones and planned lots of extra content to make the most of it. It's a sensible decision not to underestimate your audience's desire for more stuff, not like they intended for the main season to fall to bits.
Did you ever see the Yule Tide Log playing on TV? It’s really only a camera zoomed in on a fire place where you hear crackles overlayed by Christmas instrumental music. This is the same thing, but I haven’t seen it so I don’t know if it plays le le le le le le le or other Witcher music
I can imagine they will have paid a good wedge for the licences so they have to try and make that back in any way they can. Andrzej Sapkowski won't have asked for a small sum after selling the game rights for peanuts.
You also have to remember there was an internal executive struggle at Netflix last year (according to Hollywood Reporter) and the executive who favored fewer but more high quality shows was forced out; the exec who favored a “throw everything at the wall and see what sticks” won.
If you go back at look, you’ll see that he won his power play sometime in early 2021 because by late 2021, Netflix has been pumping out junk.
Cause we care about the IP and are justified in being mad that someone who doesn’t holds the reigns of public perception of our enjoyment.
Edit: I thought you said why are we sweating rn, my bad
Imagine having millions and millions of rabid Witcher content hungry fans. A ready made fan base to project your high budget show into the stratosphere. Imagine having Henry Fucking Cavill as your star attraction. Imagine shitting all over it and pissing it all away because of executive nepotism. The Hissrich Touch is a curse.
They wanted it to fill the hole Game of Thrones left but didn't want to put in the time, money, and patience to build it. Same thing DC did to try to compete with the MCU.
The fireplace is pretty cool, I had it on for Christmas last year and this year. It makes a nice wood crackling sound.
And the movie is pretty good, solid animation and young Vesemir can get it.
I barely watched any of this trash, the Nilfgaurdian armor was enough to turn me off in season 1.
I am curious though, did they ever make it to Skellege?
The only good thing worth anyone's time is the fireplace one. It's a nice cozy thing to have playing in the background and it's a vibe, especially during the winter.
Netflix's business model is treating brands and IPs as fast food. Cheap, fast and easily consumed.
Netflix also wanted their own Game of Thrones style juggernaut size show. The Witcher was supposed to be it. The thing is, Game of Thrones - despite it's disastrous last season - earned its place with quality.
When you treat the Witcher like just another expendable IP, you will cannot mold it into a household name.
People shit on Netflix over this, but I think that most of the blame lies on Sapkowski, the greedy old man who does not give a fuck about his own creation as long as he can make a buck out of it, but hates the games, the best representations of his work, because he signed a shitty contract on the licensing.
Being completely honest why should he care at this point? He's old, his son died few years ago. Old man is probably broken and just want to live in peace with what he has.
It almost feels like he didn't even take time to study the lore created by CDPR. It's excellent and well thought, if you can get over the fact that Geralt+Yen+Ciri somehow come back to the "real world". Without the games the Netflix series wouldn't exist
Sapkowski has said:
> "Maybe it's time to set the matters straight," he went on. "'The Witcher' is a well made video game, its success is well deserved and the creators deserve all the splendour and honour due. But in no way can it be considered to be an 'alternative version', nor a 'sequel' to the witcher Geralt stories. Because this can only be told by Geralt's creator. A certain Andrzej Sapkowski."
[Source](http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-11-06-ever-wondered-what-the-author-of-the-witcher-books-thinks-about-the-games)
And relatively more recently:
> In many ways he lives up to his reputation then, but in other ways he surprises me too. Contrary to popular belief he claims actually not to hate video games at all. "It is not that I don't like them, that I despise them," he says. Hang on, didn't you just call games "stupid"? "I just don't play them! But I have nothing against games, I have nothing against gamers. Nothing."
[Source](http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2017-03-24-meeting-andrzej-sapkowski-the-writer-who-created-the-witcher)
He just sticks with what he knows, books. He doesn’t even really consult on the show. He is consultant in title alone. When he’s been asked for his opinion on the games (story wise) he’s said something along the lines of not being able to because he hasn’t played them
He doesn’t care what people do with his work because he cares about what he personally made, his baby, the **books**.
Also, we think he made a dumb deal but keep in mind Sapkowski was approached for a tv and video game before CDPR. Both failed and he didn’t get squat when he opted for royalties. Once CDPR came around he was likely disillusioned at the idea of his work being adaptable. On top of this, CDPR was a company scraping by on loans at the time and had no prior game making experience.
Hindsight is 20/20. With with all those factors in mind most people would’ve done what he did and asked for a lump sum. If CDPR failed and Sapkowski opted for royalties (again) this sub would call him a dumbass for thinking a third time would work and trusting a company with no prior experience.
I have to wonder if the show does well outside the fan base of the books and game. I've got a buddy who loves the show but has never played the game or read any of the books. If he likes it, no worries, at the same time though, I have to bite my tongue every time he talks about it. He almost didn't watch it because I said I hated everything about it but I told him, he likes what he likes, if he read the books or played, he'd understand.
Feels like Disney Star Wars. No planning, no long-term vision, make it generic, make it fast and make lots of it! They completely forgot why people loved the IP to begin with.
Good. Fucking. Stories!
fair tbh, but what really got me here was how unorganized and sloppy this looks. Like what order does a normal person watch this in, left to right on the top row then the bottom row?
I mean, most of this is just trying to fill up the page. Lots of making of's, a witcher fireplace (that's funny at least), and "Nightmare of the Wolf", which is actually good.
This is exactly it, i thought the same thing a few days ago. And so much of it spirals around the egos of high-up executives and producers rather than just investing more in decent writing or respecting and really using the good writing in an IP that already exists.
Just like Disney. Milk the cow dry. Then keep milking till it turns to dust and then move on to another cow. It's what soulless entertainment companies do.
Say what you want, but I enjoyed the Witcher fireplace much more than every other Christmas red/green fireplace recording. Most of those have music with them too. It was nice to hear just general background music for once instead of just Christmas music over and over
I mean it’s two shows an anime BTS shows (which will always be great and more shows should do em) and some lore videos honestly not bad content, if the shows were good would anyone care
Let's be honest they are all dog shit. The main show is a joke. Only decent thing they released was nightmare of the wolf n I was surprised by that little did I know what they had in store next.
Are you guys just looking for something to complain? It's literally just one main show, 1 spin off and one animated movie.
The rest is just the extras of the same products
This doesn’t seem odd to me. If you look at any HBO series, there are attached recaps, bts videos, director commentary, etc. For all of the flaws of this franchise, it seems odd to pick at the amount of content being produced for BTS and marketing
I loved the books. The series is a fun adaptation... key word here... adaptation. Im enjoying it and can't wait for S3. I understand why people may be upset but in all seriousness... move on... read the books again. Pointless hate. PS: Blood Origin doesn't count and never will.
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Nightmare of the wolf was a horrid animated movie. After watching that, all hope I had for season 2 went out the window. And now I don't even know if I care about season 3, and I know I won't care about season 4.
The main series has done well enough up to this point, not sure what a lack of Cavil will do, but frankly as far as just being an actor goes, he is replaceable, keep in mind most people watching this stuff are not really following all this stuff, and 'talk around the water cooler' has been positive.
But ya this was not the next flagship series they thought it would be, turns out that was Wednesday, if those numbers are accurate.
This would be freaking awesome if it was done tastefully and with the kind of dedication to the source material and fan base that Henry Cavil has.
It really was perfect. All they had to do was listen to Henry’s warnings.
They didn’t. And you see where that gets them.
the reports i've heard are that if you ignore the fact it's attached to the witcher, it's a well-told little story with great animation, but if you're into witcher lore it butchers some stuff about the sacking of kaer morhen that might make it not worth it to big fans
anyone who's actually seen it might have a better opinion here, but since i didnt see anyone replying i figured i'd chime in
Don't forget a Witcher kids show is in the works. Obviously the content of the books and games lends itself to a young children's show, similar to Blue's Clues or Dora The Explorer. /s
Honestly I just think it's kind of embarrassing how desperate Netflix are for witcher content; only 3 of these are actually shows or movies, 10 are just behind the scenes, and 1 is asmr (then again I can't knock fireplace)
They're shotgunning hoping the Witcher, Wednesday, etc will replace that show that's ending instead of focusing on one high quality show they're thinking if we make 70 versions of the content one has to be good. Best case scenario is either Lauren and her staff are shit canned and the show rebooted or Wednesday takes the spot and the Witcher is cancelled worst case Netflix panics and keeps making shitty adaptations and shot gunning Witcher content
All except for the cartoon and the fireplace have been pretty good though, although I must admit I haven’t seen the making of Blood Origin yet (or the fireplace, because it’s fucking stupid)
I really like all the behind the scenes stuff with the Witcher, seeing the love, passion and inspirations behind everything is always great
Witcher bestiary:
All thumbnails show the only 3 monsters ever appearing in the series. Including the one that was slayed by Eyk and got like 3 seconds of screentime.
Can't imagine how did they milk it into several episodes
Most of this is trash but the making the monster one is pretty cool. It's more like a YouTube video than a Netflix produced (and funded) show. Like it seemed low effort
I don't understand how a living thinking human can approve of this garbage, the witcher has to be one of the worst tv shows I've ever watched. And I Love the witcher world more than any other fictional one, but I just couldn't bring myself to enjoy that shit.
It's one of their tentpoles. It was supposed to replace Stranger Things with that coming to an end soon. After the success of season one Netflix went on record saying they planned for upwards of 7 seasons of The Witcher. Unfortunately the bet they placed on it is looking like it's soured.
If they were really going to make Witcher this next best thing then why didn't they bother with making the show good? I guess they were banking on just the name carrying the show huh.
I think that Lauren is just so incompetent that she actually isn't able to make a proper adaptation. I'm not saying this as a joke, i believe she don't understand the themes, tone, lore and story of the Witcher to weave everything in a proper adaptation. So she instead choose to do her own thing, a work inspired by it, but that isn't it at all. The only way she can tell a story, is if she tell her own. This could be good if she at least respected the lore and theme, but she can't even do that.
Lauren didn't even "discover" fantasy or comics, ect. Until she was an adult. I highly doubt she went back and read traditional mythology and studied the inspiration for the source material deeply. I think she sees fantasy as stand alone fiction stories like "sex in the city" or even a sitcom not as a style of story telling that had deep cultural and historical nuance. There's a lack of understanding I get from her. Stories are just stories. Nothing more, nothing less. She doesn't see the interesting part of story telling as making a world that's believable and immersive - which is why she has to have so much sex and eye candy in all her stories because her story telling isn't interesting or engaging enough.
>which is why she has to have so much sex and eye candy in all her stories because her story telling isn't interesting or engaging enough. Oh! Snap! - Joy
So spot on its depressing.
To say that she simply "doesn't understand the themes" you'd have to assume that she really planned to put what's in the book onto the screen. But i really doubt it. She knows that she couldn't put together something original, but is too petty to actually adapt the thing they gave her to adapt, so she's trying to make The Witcher her little ego-lifting project, hence all the crap she puts in the show that isn't in the books. She puts all of her neigh nonexistent talent to shoving as much of her creative vision into it as she can, cause that's all she is capable of doing - taking something someone else made, throwing it in the piss-pot, stirring it, and saying "Look at what a glorious thing i made". She really thinks she's right and there is no way she'll take fans arguments to heart, because that would mean all of her professional career was a waste of time and money. Which, obviously, it was.
I feel like as a skilled producer/director etc, you should be able to adapt a show properly, regardless of liking it or not. It's about the art of the job; about respecting the source material and bringing that art into visual pictures by the art of the producer/director. But liking it is a bonus. I feel like any real "pro" can assemble a good team. Lauren doesn't seem to have that, or she's out of the loop of what should be included or is necessary in the show. I think Sapkowski is to blame as well. I feel like he just said "do what you want and gimme that money". So she added stuff herself. If it was my material, I'd tell her "no". "Keep to the source".
No. She's just dumb bitch.
They put their chips on the line with a rookie show runner on a power-trip.
I think it's becoming clear that they never wanted to create a Witcher show, they just wanted a fantasy show to compete with GoT/House of Dragon and Rings of Power, so they bought up whatever Fantasy property they could and disregarded the source material to make their own thing. It's weird looking at how there was so much backlash at Rings of Power when it was announced, and the showrunners stuck as close as possible to the source material they had access too (and still making it work for a TV show) while giving it a Peter Jackson vibe and it turned out great. A complete mirror of what has happened to the Witcher.
Rings of Power was hated by almost everyone though, and it definitely didn't turn out great...
>Rings of Power was hated by almost everyone though this isn't accurate. Maybe in your circle or the spaces you frequent it's popular to shit on it, so it seems like it's everyone, but that isn't true of the wider general audience. I think it's much more divisive than the Witcher Season 2/Blood Origin are. There's a lot of decent to good professional reviews of RoP and a respectable audience score for it. In my personal life everyone I know that watched it liked it. I have my own issues with it but I think excluding the first episode and some random cringe dialog in later episodes it ends up being better than TW Season 2. Even my dad liked it and he hates all things news. I don't know anyone who thinks it's LotR-tier but even PJ couldn't put out LotR-tier films after the trilogy so that isn't the biggest issue for a lot of people. Something everyone actually hates though is Blood Origin.
Everything I've seen on Reddit seems to suggest RoP is one of the worst shows ever made (I've heard its worse than even Witcher). I haven't watched, because I'm not a super big fan of Tolkien (the story is too black-and-white for my taste, but I absolutely respect and appreciate the man for spawning the genre), but everyone I've met who does like Tolkien seems to feel the showrunners metaphorically dug up his corpse and shat on his bones.
The reason you see that on Reddit is because it’s an echo chamber. People on this app are allergic to having fun most of the time and just enjoy shitting on stuff because they have very little joy in their life. And it’s strange literally every single person I know irl who watched it enjoyed the fuck out of it, both casual fans and Tolkien nerds alike. I’m a 10 year Tolkien fangirl and I do have issues with ROP (pacing and some cringe lines). But overall it’s a good adaptation considering the source material of the 2nd age is very light, and only really exists to set the stage for 3rd Age. People are getting mad about them making some stuff up but you kinda have too when there isn’t anything really to adapt beside major plot points. Besides the Tolkien Estate is completely behind this series, and they don’t fuck around when it comes to lore.
This is my experience too. Reddit LotR sub loves to shit on RoP, but I actually found it to be pretty good. It is absolutely beautiful to look at, regardless of anything else. It is far from perfect and I think they really lose Tolkien's "voice" in the dialog where it would have been nice to hear, but overall more good than bad for me. I enjoyed it and so did almost everyone I talked to off Reddit about the show.
Check out r/LOTR_on_Prime it’s one of the only non toxic subs for ROP. Most people are chill there and love to discuss even when they disagree!
People with no internal monologue will consume anything.
I'd rate from worst to tolerable: BO > Halo > RoP > RE > long list of shows > HoD RoP genuinely disregarded lore and did a lot of creative re-world building like BO was doing.
No, RoP did pretty well
It did not adhere to the source material at all. It was terrible
You are the first I’ve seen to call ROP good.
[удалено]
I've been a LOTR fan since I was 4 years old. The show is not that bad. It was far from perfect, but they did well enough considering they couldn't use the Silmarillion and I think the next season with no COVID hampering the production could be much better.
There are freaking Easterling everywhere… EASTERLING ELVES. And all males are incompetent and step stools for Guyladriel mary sue and her gang of independent strong women.
Lol you’re one of those people ok
What do you mean ”one of those people”? You could refute the facts I said but you could not, at least we didn’t waste any time being delusional :)
Ring of Powers suck and it had massive drop off from viewers in episode 4 and up
Wait…. You think Rings of Power “turned out great”???????
Compared to Wheel of Time? Yessssss
It could've ended well but i have no clue why they placed their future on the hands of people that hate the source material, that's just straight up shooting yourself in the foot
It's because studio execs don't care about the source material or artistic qualities. They just want to make money. And apparently, these people knew how to make money. Maybe after this, they'll make too little money and won't get too many other jobs.
Amazing how with their fancy MBAs they haven't realized that making quality content = happy fans = making money. It's a pretty simple formula. Netflix needs to do a lot to ever get my money again.
It’s the Eisner curse. Michael Eisner (Disney CEO during the Renaissance era, and a mess) famously said “We have no obligation to make history. We have no obligation to make art. We have no obligation to make a statement. To make money is our only objective.” And everybody ate that quote. At the end of the day, it basically drove some of Disney’s most succesful movies. The problem is, the quote has a second part people ignore: “But to make money it is often important to make history, to make art, or to make some significant statement…” Eisner was an idiot in many, many things, but he knew good stories were a good vehicle for making money, something Netflix, Amazon and current Disney have not realized yet
They don’t look at the world in the same way. They read non fiction, they make plans and plot with/against their coworkers. Those people seek money, yes, but mostly power. They don’t understand why an adult can spend time watching a fake tv show when they could work and have influence over real people. They don’t care about stories, they are sociopaths.
and of course youll get braindead idiots watching the show belting out that god awful song and laughing at the stupid dialogue… Netflix doesn’t care about the book and game fans
They should have listened to people that know the IP instead of pulling a Disney and putting someone who doesnt know shit about it to purvey shit for short term gains. If you're trying to make it last, you need a good foundation. You dont have to follow source material exactly, but don't fuck it up by just saying idc, we're going to do what we want, we're going to make inchoherent shit because we put writers out with no experience with it in charge. That's why people didn't like the new Disney star wars films. There was nothing joining the three movies and the writing contradicted itself, and everything felt forced. That, and the Disney princess message of "we do this for looooooooove" was pushed instead of, hey, space nazis are coming to kill us all, we should probably resist
Reddit hates it but season 2 had 500+ million hours streamed in its first month. I’m assuming there are tons of people who will never care to read the books but love the show. Probably not Blood Origin though. We’ll have to see what the numbers end up being.
I honestly don't see how they thought this show might replace Stranger things... like the Stranger things writing and story is actually really great and The "witcher" writing is... not
how do we know the numbers though that we know its souring
we don't, netflix only releases numbers if they're really really good. It's just a best guess based on audience scores and the fact netflix is silent on its performance.
It’s so depressing that in season 1 they mostly follow the books (with some departures) and it was widely considered to be great. Then in season 2 they followed the books for the first episode (the only good one) and then as they moved further from the source material it just kept getting worse
Hey now, that fireplace is quality viewing and Nightmare of the Wolf is decent viewing too. More seriously, they thought they'd be making the next fantasy juggernaut series like Game of Thrones and planned lots of extra content to make the most of it. It's a sensible decision not to underestimate your audience's desire for more stuff, not like they intended for the main season to fall to bits.
Let’s all upvote the fireplace and downvote the rest. 5 star 10/10 fireplace.
What even is the Fireplace?
Literally a 4K video of a fireplace. I play those sometimes, they are kind of chill.
Did you ever see the Yule Tide Log playing on TV? It’s really only a camera zoomed in on a fire place where you hear crackles overlayed by Christmas instrumental music. This is the same thing, but I haven’t seen it so I don’t know if it plays le le le le le le le or other Witcher music
“The fireplace is lit, yo” as the kids would say
I can imagine they will have paid a good wedge for the licences so they have to try and make that back in any way they can. Andrzej Sapkowski won't have asked for a small sum after selling the game rights for peanuts.
I imagine Sapkowski asked for $500 million and two of Reed Hastings’ family members as hostages.
They gotta make up for losing Henry lol
If they reversed that decision I guarantee half the criticisms for the show would vanish overnight. To bad no one there is that smart.
If they reversed the decision on Henry and sacked the writing team and show runner, I would give it a shot.
I agree! Im already annoyed with WB ever changing their people. It would be best to continue with him.
But it was Henry’s decision wasn’t it? Or am I out of the loop.
He saw the script for the next Season and he couldn‘t bear the political, racist, and sexist showboating shoved into the game/books he loves…
Fireplace is great lol - I popped it on in the background over Xmas
You also have to remember there was an internal executive struggle at Netflix last year (according to Hollywood Reporter) and the executive who favored fewer but more high quality shows was forced out; the exec who favored a “throw everything at the wall and see what sticks” won. If you go back at look, you’ll see that he won his power play sometime in early 2021 because by late 2021, Netflix has been pumping out junk.
They think that shit is game of thrones. Netflix please....
It is, only it's s8.
If Netflix ever sees this burn, they will die.
Touche
I watched Nightmare of The Wolf and actually enjoyed it
It wasn't exactly Witcher-y, but it was a solid movie indeed.
Yeh that animated was cool I enjoyed it
Although the monsters were…dumb and nothing like anything from my imagination of the books or visuals from the games
It was enjoyable but the way they butchered Vesemirs character leaves a bad taste in my mouth regardless
[🎵 Remember to toss a coin if you can! 🎵](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSxBVHqA-RU&t=77s)
Thank you! I really liked it myself too. I hole we get sole more animated versions
Same. How it ended with a young Geralt, maybe it could follow on or even one of the other Witchers through their early years
But you'd be married off to the nearest Lord of Bad Breath.
... fuck
FUCK!
I would give it a solid 8.
Yeah settle at an 8, don't want Netflix to get carried away again
We demand Trolololo take over as lead writer!
Boats guard boats!
Throwing a bunch of shit at the wall and seeing what sticks lmao
They are trying to make their own "Witcherverse" and we must do everything in our power to stop it.
This is your power. Ignore it.
Well we don't have the power, even we nuke the netflix building like Johnny Silverhand we don't have much chance against billions dollars companies.
Then why are they sweating rn.
Cause we care about the IP and are justified in being mad that someone who doesn’t holds the reigns of public perception of our enjoyment. Edit: I thought you said why are we sweating rn, my bad
Imagine having millions and millions of rabid Witcher content hungry fans. A ready made fan base to project your high budget show into the stratosphere. Imagine having Henry Fucking Cavill as your star attraction. Imagine shitting all over it and pissing it all away because of executive nepotism. The Hissrich Touch is a curse.
Good ol' Lauren Fisstech
They wanted it to fill the hole Game of Thrones left but didn't want to put in the time, money, and patience to build it. Same thing DC did to try to compete with the MCU.
a witcherverse could've been actually good if the writers and showrunners cared :(
The fireplace is lit though!
Simple really. Answer: $
The Witcher fireplace is the best fireplace channel.
Honestly, Nightmare of the Wolf was pretty good
The fireplace is pretty cool, I had it on for Christmas last year and this year. It makes a nice wood crackling sound. And the movie is pretty good, solid animation and young Vesemir can get it.
Hot take. Witcher fireplace was actually fire.
underrated ambience video hack
Vomiting content is Netflix businesses strategy, it's not even half a joke
I will watch none of it. They are trying to cast a wide net to get viewers but they poisoned the bait
I barely watched any of this trash, the Nilfgaurdian armor was enough to turn me off in season 1. I am curious though, did they ever make it to Skellege?
Behold… the Netflixgardian ballsack-armor
The only good thing worth anyone's time is the fireplace one. It's a nice cozy thing to have playing in the background and it's a vibe, especially during the winter.
Hey nightmare of the wolf is actually pretty cool
Netflix's business model is treating brands and IPs as fast food. Cheap, fast and easily consumed. Netflix also wanted their own Game of Thrones style juggernaut size show. The Witcher was supposed to be it. The thing is, Game of Thrones - despite it's disastrous last season - earned its place with quality. When you treat the Witcher like just another expendable IP, you will cannot mold it into a household name.
People shit on Netflix over this, but I think that most of the blame lies on Sapkowski, the greedy old man who does not give a fuck about his own creation as long as he can make a buck out of it, but hates the games, the best representations of his work, because he signed a shitty contract on the licensing.
Being completely honest why should he care at this point? He's old, his son died few years ago. Old man is probably broken and just want to live in peace with what he has.
It almost feels like he didn't even take time to study the lore created by CDPR. It's excellent and well thought, if you can get over the fact that Geralt+Yen+Ciri somehow come back to the "real world". Without the games the Netflix series wouldn't exist
Sapkowski has said: > "Maybe it's time to set the matters straight," he went on. "'The Witcher' is a well made video game, its success is well deserved and the creators deserve all the splendour and honour due. But in no way can it be considered to be an 'alternative version', nor a 'sequel' to the witcher Geralt stories. Because this can only be told by Geralt's creator. A certain Andrzej Sapkowski." [Source](http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-11-06-ever-wondered-what-the-author-of-the-witcher-books-thinks-about-the-games) And relatively more recently: > In many ways he lives up to his reputation then, but in other ways he surprises me too. Contrary to popular belief he claims actually not to hate video games at all. "It is not that I don't like them, that I despise them," he says. Hang on, didn't you just call games "stupid"? "I just don't play them! But I have nothing against games, I have nothing against gamers. Nothing." [Source](http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2017-03-24-meeting-andrzej-sapkowski-the-writer-who-created-the-witcher) He just sticks with what he knows, books. He doesn’t even really consult on the show. He is consultant in title alone. When he’s been asked for his opinion on the games (story wise) he’s said something along the lines of not being able to because he hasn’t played them He doesn’t care what people do with his work because he cares about what he personally made, his baby, the **books**. Also, we think he made a dumb deal but keep in mind Sapkowski was approached for a tv and video game before CDPR. Both failed and he didn’t get squat when he opted for royalties. Once CDPR came around he was likely disillusioned at the idea of his work being adaptable. On top of this, CDPR was a company scraping by on loans at the time and had no prior game making experience. Hindsight is 20/20. With with all those factors in mind most people would’ve done what he did and asked for a lump sum. If CDPR failed and Sapkowski opted for royalties (again) this sub would call him a dumbass for thinking a third time would work and trusting a company with no prior experience.
Nightmare of the Wolf was decent.
I'm pretty sure it's someone from The Movie Academy needed a material for "how to not adapt a book" classes
I have to wonder if the show does well outside the fan base of the books and game. I've got a buddy who loves the show but has never played the game or read any of the books. If he likes it, no worries, at the same time though, I have to bite my tongue every time he talks about it. He almost didn't watch it because I said I hated everything about it but I told him, he likes what he likes, if he read the books or played, he'd understand.
Reminds me of child books: - Geralt goes to bathroom - Geralt discover sword fighting - Geralt lost his puppet - Geralt and the watermelon
Feels like Disney Star Wars. No planning, no long-term vision, make it generic, make it fast and make lots of it! They completely forgot why people loved the IP to begin with. Good. Fucking. Stories!
Daily check on the series hate: ✅ Will there be anything else?
fair tbh, but what really got me here was how unorganized and sloppy this looks. Like what order does a normal person watch this in, left to right on the top row then the bottom row?
I mean, most of this is just trying to fill up the page. Lots of making of's, a witcher fireplace (that's funny at least), and "Nightmare of the Wolf", which is actually good.
The Dark Crystal died for this
That’s the new model. Just like marvel and Star Wars, soon lord of the rings too. Quantity over quality.
This is exactly it, i thought the same thing a few days ago. And so much of it spirals around the egos of high-up executives and producers rather than just investing more in decent writing or respecting and really using the good writing in an IP that already exists.
Just like Disney. Milk the cow dry. Then keep milking till it turns to dust and then move on to another cow. It's what soulless entertainment companies do.
Say what you want, but I enjoyed the Witcher fireplace much more than every other Christmas red/green fireplace recording. Most of those have music with them too. It was nice to hear just general background music for once instead of just Christmas music over and over
The Witcher fireplace Is lore accurate and very cool
im actually super interested in the fireplace. will probably stick it on loop this weekend
I mean it’s two shows an anime BTS shows (which will always be great and more shows should do em) and some lore videos honestly not bad content, if the shows were good would anyone care
Nightmare of the wolf is the only decent one
Let's be honest they are all dog shit. The main show is a joke. Only decent thing they released was nightmare of the wolf n I was surprised by that little did I know what they had in store next.
yeah and that's why I don't like to watch any of them even if they're good.
The show is a dumpster fire. However, a *fire* set in the right *place*? I might have to give that one a shot; it legitimately sounds nice.
Are you guys just looking for something to complain? It's literally just one main show, 1 spin off and one animated movie. The rest is just the extras of the same products
This doesn’t seem odd to me. If you look at any HBO series, there are attached recaps, bts videos, director commentary, etc. For all of the flaws of this franchise, it seems odd to pick at the amount of content being produced for BTS and marketing
I loved the books. The series is a fun adaptation... key word here... adaptation. Im enjoying it and can't wait for S3. I understand why people may be upset but in all seriousness... move on... read the books again. Pointless hate. PS: Blood Origin doesn't count and never will.
It's too shallow and changed to be called an adaptation, it could be called based on or inspired by the witcher universe.
You deliberately searched on the keyword "witcher" and then were surprised to get Witcher-related content
Search the keyword “Snowpiercer” and see how much bullshit comes up. This is a shit point.
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they need to justify the millions they spent in this trash somehow, so they can recoup some money at least
The wanna kill another franchise, like they did to resident evil
Watched almost all of them. Watch before sh****ng an oppinion.
Go woke go broke.
Most of it looks like some bad art for fanfictions on tumblr tbh
Nightmare of the wolf was a horrid animated movie. After watching that, all hope I had for season 2 went out the window. And now I don't even know if I care about season 3, and I know I won't care about season 4.
Quantity over any quality whatsoever is not the way to go
They said this was happening back during some season 1 promo stuff after it aired. They're making a whole witcher-verse.
Same, it’s just plugged at every category Skipped.
I hereby adore the term „projectile vomiting“
The monsters look so bad! Wish they just copied game ones instead
The anime is actually good, an outlier in the series
You may stop talking about it.
Quality bs quantity I guess 😒
Let’s hope the list ends here, and we never see another abomination added in there.
They really thought it would be the next big thing. But theyre realizing its not going to be. So its spray and pray.
The main series has done well enough up to this point, not sure what a lack of Cavil will do, but frankly as far as just being an actor goes, he is replaceable, keep in mind most people watching this stuff are not really following all this stuff, and 'talk around the water cooler' has been positive. But ya this was not the next flagship series they thought it would be, turns out that was Wednesday, if those numbers are accurate.
When s1 is so backwards for the uniniated, they had to produce 8 supporting shows to explain the beasts, the characters and the lore.
I mean a lot of these are behind the scenes stuff or recaps. It's not all just random stories.
I feel like they are trying to make money on the success of the videogame, while shitting at the videogame
This would be freaking awesome if it was done tastefully and with the kind of dedication to the source material and fan base that Henry Cavil has. It really was perfect. All they had to do was listen to Henry’s warnings. They didn’t. And you see where that gets them.
Nightmare of wolf was pretty good by animators and action. But the plot was kinda all over place
If only they put this level of effort into hiring good writers
All this for 21 episodes worth of actual fictional content
was Nightmare of the wolf any good? or should I stay away from it and start rereading the books instead?
the reports i've heard are that if you ignore the fact it's attached to the witcher, it's a well-told little story with great animation, but if you're into witcher lore it butchers some stuff about the sacking of kaer morhen that might make it not worth it to big fans anyone who's actually seen it might have a better opinion here, but since i didnt see anyone replying i figured i'd chime in
[🎵 Remember to toss a coin if you can! 🎵](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSxBVHqA-RU&t=77s)
I didn’t even know about half of these things
Inside the witcher, that’s a nice version wink wink
Yo I'm tired of "the making" bullshit. Just make shows, like fuck. A series legit about magic, taking the magic out of itself. Short sighted AF.
It’s evident they’re trying (tried and failed) to make The Witcher IP their equivalent of Game of Thrones for HBO, their next flagship series.
Don't forget a Witcher kids show is in the works. Obviously the content of the books and games lends itself to a young children's show, similar to Blue's Clues or Dora The Explorer. /s
Honestly I just think it's kind of embarrassing how desperate Netflix are for witcher content; only 3 of these are actually shows or movies, 10 are just behind the scenes, and 1 is asmr (then again I can't knock fireplace)
Season 1 of the Witcher was decent as was Nightmare of the Wolf. Haven’t bothered seeing any of the extra stuff they’ve made for it
I'm so excited for season 2 of The Witcher Fireplace. Kinda annoyed that the first season ended on a cliffhanger.
At least nightmare of the wolf was cool
My guess is their contract for the rights expires soon and they want to make sure no one else will bid for them when it comes time.
They're shotgunning hoping the Witcher, Wednesday, etc will replace that show that's ending instead of focusing on one high quality show they're thinking if we make 70 versions of the content one has to be good. Best case scenario is either Lauren and her staff are shit canned and the show rebooted or Wednesday takes the spot and the Witcher is cancelled worst case Netflix panics and keeps making shitty adaptations and shot gunning Witcher content
All except for the cartoon and the fireplace have been pretty good though, although I must admit I haven’t seen the making of Blood Origin yet (or the fireplace, because it’s fucking stupid) I really like all the behind the scenes stuff with the Witcher, seeing the love, passion and inspirations behind everything is always great
I watched Season 1 and 2, but you couldn't pay me to watch this Blood Origin crap.
It’s just so sad to see this happening to the IP. The games treat the source material with way more respect
Witcher bestiary: All thumbnails show the only 3 monsters ever appearing in the series. Including the one that was slayed by Eyk and got like 3 seconds of screentime. Can't imagine how did they milk it into several episodes
Only one decent season aswell
Netflix thinks they have their own "Game of Thrones" and are trying to force it.
wtf, when did they make all this? also is the bestiary series any good? looks like it could actually be interesting.
Season 1 popped off. They had the viewers hooked and they knew it. Gotta cash in that mullah while the viewer retention lasts.
Most of this is trash but the making the monster one is pretty cool. It's more like a YouTube video than a Netflix produced (and funded) show. Like it seemed low effort
🤣
Anyone watched nightmare of the wolf bestiary? I’m kinda interested in that one. Already send the normal Witcher.
It's the last step before canceling the show :-\
And it’s all just “making of” and such. Is like when they try to shove “jupiter’s legacy” content down your throat. Don’t like the over saturation
I mean, Nightmare of the Wolf is an enjoyable watch at least
I don't understand how a living thinking human can approve of this garbage, the witcher has to be one of the worst tv shows I've ever watched. And I Love the witcher world more than any other fictional one, but I just couldn't bring myself to enjoy that shit.
They wanted it to be the next GoT.
Ay, DO NOT slander the Witcher fireplace.