Netflix - The Witcher - Assassin of Polls

Good choice Sifr I wasn't familiar with her, Poldark (the newer version) is one of those shows I have been meaning to watch since it came out..... 

Thanks for sharing the photo slimgrin727

If anyones interested.

Also watched a YouTube video about the TV show and the stupid comments by the Director/Producer about why they changed a couple of the characters to black people (including Triss) and the answers were complete nonsense which is basically what the video was saying. And the second one is a follow up.

Its here if you want to watch it:

I saw that first video and I think he's grasping. Saying a character can't change appearance because the narrator described them in a certain way is a paper thin argument. I also feel like people have a much bigger issue with race changes than any other changes, which is apparent by the fact that almost no one complained about the changes they made to the appearances and personalities of characters like Triss and Dandelion in the video games. People are a lot more upset if they make changes to a character's ethnicity for some reason.

I agree with some of his other points, especially how nonsensical Lauren's comments about American accents are, but I did chuckle a bit when he said

Never played any of the games nor read any of the books but I like fantasy settings so might check it out.

Yes, I just saw the first. I'm referring to the 2 minute mark where he says the descriptions of hair styles, hair colors, and eye colors are never there for just cosmetic reasons, which I disagree with. They add flavor to the story, but are otherwise not that important. That's why it doesn't matter that Triss' eye color changed in the games or that her skin tone isn't quite the same in the Netflix series. Just like how it doesn't matter that Syrio Forel has hair in the adaptation of A Game of Thrones or that the Hound's scar changed to the other side of his face. The person who made the video says it's important that Yennefer is pale because Sapkowski constantly describes her as such, but this adaptation is not Sapkowski's work, so that shouldn't matter. Sapkowski himself said many times that a completely faithful adaptation is not interesting, so these minor changes should not matter. (I believe he compared adaptations to women: the less faithful ones are more interesting.)

I agree that Fringilla's race change is a bigger issue because of plot relevance. It was important in the plot that she looks very much like Yennefer, which becomes relevant in the Toussaint chapters, so that's gonna be a change in the adaptation that I won't really like.




That's something I fully expected when they were making a mostly American adaptation (although this is a coproduction with the Polish Platige Image, which worked on the video games). I'm a Belgian and I wasn't too fond of the American adaptation of the Belgian comic book Tintin by Steven Spielberg, in which characters pay on a Belgian market with UK pounds for some reason.

I think Sapkowski once mentioned that he thought the Russians could make the best big-scale adaptation of The Witcher because they understand the culture more, and I think he has a point there. Still, Tomek Baginski (who directed the game cinematics) is involved as executive producer, and they have a prominent Russian director (Alik Sakharov), so it does seem like a multicultural production, even if Netflix and Sean Daniel are calling the shots. At least it's interesting to seen an American take. We've had Polish adaptations before (a horrible TV show and three incredible video games), so I don't think anything is lost if this show ends up being awful.

This is exactly my concern. American adaptations are more generic by nature. It's very rare to see an American production company do justice to a foreign IP. And yeah, the dryads....not a fan. They look like mangy hippies, not an unearthly, deadly race of forest warriors. 

Yeah its funny when they go for inclusivity and actually get racial stereotyping and also dilute the "diversity" the author actually put into their books!!!!!

In regards to the Dryads specifically I really like the female dryad at the Druids Grove in TW1, she had "Snark".  

In the books Yennefer is older than Triss whose actress is not only older than Anya but looks like she's twice her age, Geralt ever thinking Fringilla resembles Yennefer, or Geralt even having enough money to afford muscle supplements is a clear example of the casting crew and writers not giving a damn about accurately adapting the books. About the race bending of multiple characters, it makes the northern kingdoms' infamous xenophobia questionable, and depending on the amount of money the showrunners placed into the non humans' designs the pogroms could potentially become questionable too.

I don't know. That'd have been like Alan Rickman playing Loghain. It'd just have been too perfect. A less obvious - and less recognizable - choice leaves the actor/actress some elbow room to put their own spin on the character. Which they need for it to feel fresh enough to be engaging at all. 

Once you're adapting a book series that has already been adapted into a video game series, and not even for the first time, making some tweaks is absolutely necessary.

For those tweaks to be in direct conflict with the atmosphere of the source material and the authenticity of the setting, and very clearly politically motivated at that, is another matter.

Timothy Dalton would have made a kickass Vesemir though. And you could basically have transplanted Harry Treadaway's doctor Frankenstein into the witcherverse as a morbidly enthusiastic alchemist or Oxenfurt researcher without any conflicts at all.

Not sure about Creeve Carney as Dandelion. He has the looks, but I remember his Dorian Gray as very brooding and sensual, with none of Jaskier's flamboyancy or earnestness, and haven't seen enough of the guy's other work to know if he's capable of it convincingly.

Don't give them ideas. I only brought it up for comparison. Look at what they're doing to this franchise.

That said, you're totally right. I had no idea Templeman looked like such an ugly, dignified, badass cross between Woody Harrelson and Mick Jagger. Put him in plate armor and he'd be ready to go.