Just finished watching part 1 of season 3, and it just seems overall of a much poorer quality than the last two seasons.

• The dialogue is rushed, the editing is sloppy

• The visual effects for instance - the first scene where Geralt cuts down the bounty hunters - such obviously fake blood on screen

• Characters have become poorly defined, or losing definition - Jen treats Ciri terribly with her fellow witches while offering Ciri no chance to transition, Djikistra is easily fooled by Radovid, despite being a spy master, and having been reasonably effective in the last season. Stregobor offers himself up for trial with an unnecessary throwaway line

• Radovid himself is constantly referred to as someone who is way more intelligent, yet not much has been on show to prove that point

I agree with a lot of people that Henry Cavill seems perfect for this role, but perhaps he has jumped ship at the right time. Probably only going to get worse from here.

Season 3: The Witcher
Time to talk about Season 3 in full. What are your thoughts after watching it?

Series Discussion Hub

IMDb

TLDR: Speaking as someone who has not read the books nor played the games (just started Wild Hunt), I found the season to be... actually rather mediocre. So it's not just long time fans.

I really wanted to like this show. I absolutely love the Fantasy genre.

But... this was... not good. In fact, it was quite mediocre - which I would argue is the worst thing a show can be. If it's good, you'll fondly remember it; if it's bad, you'll hate it but still remember it; mediocre? Mediocre is never worth remembering.

Even as someone who has no real familiarity with the world or lore, there are issues I flagged from a writing and editing perspective on my first watch. When I watch something for the first time, I do my best to just switch my brain off and just watch it before I put the critical hat on. But I was noticing things despite trying to switch off and just watch.

• Firstly, there does not seem to be any consistency regarding how the magic in this world works? In Season 1, I swear I recall seeing all competent mages create portals; now, in Season 3, only specific mages can create portals?

• Just about every episode, I had a moment where I thought I had missed an episode because a character would be shown in a scenario and I had no idea how they got there or what they were referencing. I don't know if it's due to me not remembering what happened in a previous season, or a poorly edited transition, but I found myself confused on what was happening more than once.

• Speaking of editing, there was a moment in an episode where I actually said out loud, "That was a weird edit." I believe it was a cut from wide shot to close up shot of a character. It was such a strange and janky cut.

• With the exception of Geralt, Yennefer, Ciri, Jaskier and Vesemir, I have no idea who anyone is. I just don't remember their names. Hell, I don't even remember Graham McTavish's character's name. I remember it starts with a D. Whenever the characters are talking about someone and they mention a name, I have no idea who they're referring to.

• Jaskier's romance arc with... I'm gonna call him the Prince cause, again, don't remember his name... seems weirdly shoehorned in. As do a few other things as well, especially politically charged statements. To be clear, I am very OK with politics being present within art (if you don't think art is inherently political, good for you. You're wrong, but good for you) and I have no qualms with art being controversial, but even I sat there a couple of times when something was said and was like, "Who's... who's saying that? The character? Or someone behind the curtain?"

• The visual effects for the cities were overall pretty nice but I noticed with Aretuza that there wasn't a road leading to it. Where was the road?? Do people get to it via boat or cross country??

• Also, where are the monsters?? Where are the monster hunts? For a show named after a mutant who hunts monsters for a living, I feel like there's supposed to be more monster hunts than what was shown. There's a whole banquet table of "Monster Of The Week" monsters just sitting there and nothing was done with it because we had to focus on the politics of the Northern Kingdoms, the Brotherhood, and an upcoming war with Nilfgaard.
  This doesn't feel like a show that's meant to focus on politics. Game of Thrones felt like a show that was meant to focus on politics, but this isn't Game of Thrones (I haven't seen House of the Dragon but I assume that's also meant to focus on politics).

• Speaking of Niflgaard, an example of my earlier point about feeling like I missed episodes, when did Nilfgaard stop their war?? They conquered one place, lost one battle and a ceasefire was developed? All the characters spoke like the war had ended and I was like, "Wait, it did? When??"

• Also, what's with the sudden PG-13 approach to nudity? I understand it can easily get a bit gratuitous but the contrast between Season 1 and Season 3 is vast. Is it just a case of Actors wanting to be (rightly) compensated for nudity shots and the studio just didn't want to pay or were there complaints?

These are just off the top of my head, there are other things but this is already an essay as it is.

Overall, it all just seemed really phoned in. Not by the Actors, they actually all seem like they were doing the best they could with the material given to them. It felt phoned in by everyone behind the scenes. The editing, the visuals, the writing - the fucking writing.

It feels like someone wanted to do a different show but it was only going to be approved if it was re-skinned as a recognisable IP that people were likely to engage with.

Anyway, yeah. That's my two cents (or orins). Even someone who has no familiarity with any other Witcher content thinks the show is phoned in and mediocre.

Just finished S3 and I quite enjoyed it. I've read the books and played The Witcher 3 so have a decent understanding of the lore and the story the TV show is based on. Yes, there were some moments that could have been better. But I feel the criticism is over the top.

So objectively, what was wrong?

Warning, a really long rant incoming!

Ok, I finally managed to finish Vol 1 of S3. I didn’t watch this season until i observed the feedback and fan opinions here on reddit, read some critic reviews and even watched Xletalis and neon knight’s review of the show, two of my favorite YouTube Witcher channels. I found the latter much better too and the one I’m agreeing with the most, since Letalis has always been pretty lenient and forgiving of the show imo. I recommend you go watch them to see some great critique of Netflix’s Frankenstein monster.

Anyway, the general vibe i got is that S3 is “better” than S2 and “more book accurate” something that didn’t inspire confidence in me seeing as S2 was literally 95% bottom of the barrel original material. Better than S2 could mean anything from very mediocre but watchable to somewhat decent but forgettable. I always maintained that the second season was the deepest and darkest bottom imaginable and it’s easy to climb up from there (i mean, can you stoop lower than tree Eskel, whores in KM or Yennefer sacrificing Ciri ?). That’s why I felt that S3 would be between S1 and 2 quality wise, so as to say pretty awful to painfully mediocre, and my hunch turned out to be true.

Naturally i went in spoiled and knowing almost all of the plot points and story beats, so I wasn’t surprised by anything (there is nothing from Netflix’s Witcher that merits a positive surprise reaction from me after what I witnessed from the previous seasons anyway). This season is indeed better than the second and around the quality of S1. So a very mediocre 6/10 at best if i switched my brain off to enjoy some mindless entertainment and reviewed this crap as its own thing. Much lower if viewed as a book adaptation, which should be the case since it’s marketed as one. Oh, the soundtrack is also an improvement from S2, tho not at the level of S1.

As for “faithfulness to the source material” the writers still pull a LOT of stuff out of their ass, and predictably most of them are inferior to the stuff they are replacing in the source material. If S2 had like 5% of BoE transferred to screen, then S3 showed at most 30% of ToC, and some of that was unsurprisingly and predictably twisted and distorted. I understand that the bar is abysmally low, but calling this thing “book accurate” is a stretch too far into the realm of olympics-level mental gymnastics.

Now i want to talk about a certain topic to demonstrate how the Witcher show is really…. Ridiculous, since (as usual) it made many egregious creative decisions that i want to point out. These alterations aren’t just some minor and easily ignored stuff, but huge ones with narrative consequences that will ripple across multiple seasons to come, assuming the show continues until “lady of the lake” which is unlikely imo.

Many posts here already talked about the mediocre writing, the amateur camera work, the inconsistent set designs, the clear green screens, the sometimes painful monsters CGI, the lackluster costumes and the terrible portrayal of characters. But in this one i want to talk about something that’s less discussed, which is the geographical landscape, the political setup and intrigue, and the nuances of the source material and how the show utterly botched these aspects. Then i will go on a quick overview for the future of the Witcher on Netflix. Anyway, without further ado let’s begin!

Part 1: the sad tale of the northern kingdoms***, Redania.***

First, to hammer home the point let’s go into some quick nerdy journey to the lore of the source material.

In the books the northern realms had different levels of economic development, size of standing armies, population and urban centers. All of this depicted a certain geopolitical landscape and delicate balance of power. Regarding the major four ones, Redania and Temeria are the strongest and most prosperous countries, while Kaedwen being the largest in size but the poorest in material and human resources. Aedirn is a mid-tier kingdom.

Then there are the smaller kingdoms like Rivia and Lyria, The Hengfors league, Cidaris, Sodden, Verden, Kerack, Cintra and Kovir. The last being small in size but extremely rich thanks to its huge ports, natural resources and competent leadership by the astute king Esterad Thyssen of Kovir. The other minor kingdoms have their strength too. Cintra for example is strategically located at the mouth of the Yaruga, with its southern border protected by the Amell mountains, it has a relatively strong army. Cidaris has a good fleet (like skellige) and a robust maritime trading network. Kerack (featured in SoS) was a poor backwater region that acted as a safe haven for pirates and smugglers IIRC. Each kingdom has its own distinct symbols and coat of arms. Sapkowski went even further by making the accent of peasants and villagers different between some of these places, and between city dwellers and the countryside. This all gave the feeling of a fleshed out, living breathing world, which while not being the most complex or elaborate (let’s not kid ourselves this is not the wheel of time, Malazan or ASOIAF when it comes to intricate world building or extensive lore after all, and Sapko didn’t even bother to make an official map for his world) was intriguing enough to act as a backdrop for the story the author wanted to tell.

Which brings me to Hissrich’s diarrhea particles known as Netflix’s the Witcher, where every northern kingdom an irrelevant shit hole that merits nothing more than a passing mention by some random character, while the political machinations, power schemes and court intriguing are centered solely around Redania.

It’s literally all Redania this, Redania that. I laughed out loud when i heard about how Redania supposedly has the largest army in the north, with Temeria and Kaedwen’s combined armies not being the fraction of Redania’s. This is nonsense. I understand that for a casual viewer such remark doesn’t mean anything which is understandable, but for someone who’s aware of the source material that this show “draws from” it’s a travesty.

In the books both Temeria and Redania were near equals. The first has the wise and smart “Vizimir the second” (not the laughing stock one seen in the show), it has the free, rich and bustling trading city of Novigrad situated at the mouth of the Pontar, the large capital city of Tretogor, the legendary university of Oxenfurt, and the most efficient spy network in the lore (followed closely by the Nilfgaardian secret service). Temeria has its capital of Vizima, possibly the second most important city in the north after Novigrad, the island of Thanedd where the sorceresses school of Aretuza can be found, the fortress city of Maribor (Triss’s birthplace), it has the Yaruga protecting its south, possesses an army that is Redania’s equal, has the dwarves’ living place in the mountains of Mahakam, and ruled by the equally smart and competent “king Foltest”, the one whom the show made a complete joke out of in S1 episode 3 btw.

So when the show sidelined Temeria, ignored Foltest, disregarded the vital role that it plays (and will play) in the plot, and portrayed it as this relatively weak kingdom that doesn’t hold a candle to “the mighty kingdom of Redania”, i became incredibly confused and disappointed. Without spoiling events in the later books for people who haven’t read them yet, but some of the consequential battles to come happen on the plains and hills of Temeria. I don’t want to go on and on as i’m sure you get the point, but let’s just say that the other kingdoms met an even worse fate. Queen Meve appeared for like two seconds in S2 never to be mentioned again. Aedirn and Kaedwen are basically nonexistent at this point aside from a quick mention by Sabrina and Philippa. Fuck Skellige too i guess…

Part 2: the essence of the political conflict in Blood of elves and Time of Contempt, and the show’s ever present obsession with ruining Yennefer.

The general political theme in the BoE and ToC books is the newfound distrust and split between the northern monarch and their magical advisors. The royals wanted to launch a preemptive strike directed at Cintra, catching Nilfgaard off guard and retaking the previously conquered kingdom. They knew the brotherhood of sorcerers won’t support such decision since they were reluctant to break the truce and start another war after they were bled dry at sodden hill, the merchant guild and the nobles didn’t want war because it’s obviously bad for business, the smaller kingdoms avoided any confrontation with Nilfgaard as some like Verden and Cidaris would be the first to bear the brunt of a Nilfgaardian blitzkrieg through the Yaruga, and Kovir had a neutral stance towards the whole thing because Nilfgaard and the north are both important trading partners.

That’s why the major five northern kings and queens held secret meetings and started to exclusively rely on their royal couriers to carry messages and orders. They wanted to sideline the brotherhood entirely as they sought to stage a false flag attack to make it look as if Nilfgaard started an unprovoked war, and in turn gain support from the undecided parties. This obviously alerted the brotherhood, and so one of the reasons behind the organization of the Thanedd conclave was their desire to regain power and influence over the northern monarchs (there are other reasons, but they aren’t relevant to this topic so i will ignore them here). It was also Vilgefortz who organized the grand meeting after consulting Tissaia, Artaud Terranova and two other mages. Some compelling and interesting stuff was brewing overall.

What we have in the series however is shallow nonsense where Yennefer is the only proactive player with a brain (of course, she’s Lauren’s self-insert after all). She’s the one to organize the conclave (lol) to “UnItE ThE MaGeS, after easily getting back in the good graces of the brotherhood because the plot demands it. The Thanedd ball is played out as this corny mystery hunt with the most clear red herring ever in Stregabor, while the real target has “definitive evil” written all over his forehead from the start. Ugh, the Vilgefortz reveal was so much better in the books and the conclave was written in a smarter and more interesting way.

I was also baffled to read that some people on the Netflix subreddit think the ball was “depicted faithfully” when so much of the stuff about it like the buildup and character motivations were altered or removed altogether. Including the scenes of Sabrina and Marti hitting on Geralt, or Philippa’s illusions are commendable but aren’t enough for me to consider the fifth episode “accurate”. Hell, Stregabor is practically a nonexistent character in Thanedd, yet the episode devotes half of its runtime on “we need to see the secret messages on Stregabor’s IPhone or something” xD.

In the TV series there is no tension between the magical order and the rulers of the north. There are no secret meetings between rulers; there are no discussions of war strategies or portrayal of the economic repercussions on the common folk due to preparations for war like in the books. There are only some awful costumes and cringey dialogue. The basically had the fucking blueprints given to them, only to throw them into the gutter !

What can i say other than “This really sucks”…

Part 3: the continent of two fucking alleys, three buildings with grey rooftops, the same damn looking inn and a crossroads.

Where is the damn diversity in landscape and locations? Can anyone even distinguish between Oxenfurt, Gors velen or Novigrad? Places that we supposedly saw in the show. Compare this to CDPR stellar visualization of the world and it’s day and night difference in care, quality and creativity.

Also why the hell is the scale and size of the map so laughably small, and why do characters keep popping up and meeting in the same geographical vicinity and in the most convenient of times ? This remind me of the some of the Turkish dramas i used to watch as a kid, where most characters are related to one another one way or the other and just keep meeting by “accident” in the streets of Istanbul, which these shows were keen to convince you that it’s a remote, tiny town and not one of the largest cities and capitals in the world lol.

As for the horrendous made up elven plot (that goes nowhere), they still make Francesca and the elves harp about this “search for Dol Blathnna” and treat it as this ethereal and mythical place when it’s a physical, real and well known region in the kingdom of Aedirn. Hell, even show Geralt and Jaskier travelled there in S1 E2.

Most importantly is the fact that these writers absolutely suck at introducing new characters in a seamless and natural way, and only resort to cheap plot contrivances where characters happen upon each other randomly in a map that’s 4000 km in length. They literally made Mistle meet Ciri at freaking Gors Velen which is in Temeria and next to the island of Thanedd, when the rats operate way down in Geso and Maecht which are within the Nilfgaardian Empire. It’s so ridiculous that i have to bring out a map to illustrate the absurdity of this whole situation. Geso is indeed that far from Temeria. Yet these writers want you to believe that the rats which live within Nilfgaard are casually hanging in western Temeria where they by pure luck meet Ciri!

They will likely also run across Ciri again after her whole escapade in the Korath desert (which we know will be in the season’s Vol 2) in a map that is larger than Westeros lol. They did the same to Bonhart. Now his disgusting cousin “Houvenaghell” is collecting slaves from the north to bring them all the way to Claremont in Ebbing! (Which is also a province of Nilfgaard), and his agents use Keira Metz who is there to….. sell some potions and offer some portal services somehow instead of being in king Foltest’s court as his advisor ? I guess that’s a thing too now lmao. Ciri and Yen also by the power of chance and perfect timing happen upon one of his men and they kill him. That’s the writers’ “brilliant” way of connecting Ciri, Bonhart and the rats btw. Pure coincidence and plot convenience of the highest order. This stuff, among many others makes this world seems so small, bland, non-defined and just boring and uninteresting. And here I thought that convenient encounter in Toussaint in LoTL is annoying, but this nonsense is another level of lazy, unimaginative writing.

This show sucks and world building (or lack of) is one of the primary reasons. That’s why you hear people say that the politics in the show is forgettable, simply because it really is. There’s no sense of scale, stakes, or buildup for any of these conflicts. Making characters talk in an overly dramatic manner and constantly say how “THiNgS ArEn’T aS tHeY SeEm” or “ThE wOrlD iS chAngiNG” or “WaR Is CoMiNg” doesn’t make for a believable intrigue. It makes for a good “so what?” from a perplexed viewer.

There are other instances of absurd fast traveling throughout this season too, that I would be writing for hours if i wanted to dissect each one down. If you don’t know the lore, you wouldn’t be aware that the characters are basically jumping between different kingdoms and cities and are cutting hundreds of miles of distances, From Kaedwen to Vengerberg to Novigrad to western Redania to Thanedd. Travel scenes are boring for the writers, and they don’t even bother showing the bare minimum to indicate the passage of time. I can hear the hanza laughing their ass off after breaking their backs from weeks of traveling and two full books to reach Toussaint from Brokilon lol.

Again, go look at the map I linked above to see how silly time and distance work in this show. It goes like this and i find it even more absurd than GoT S7 and 8 magic devices that the characters seemed to use to Travel the land. Like Dany flying from Dragonstone to the wall in few hours, Gendry running miles in the snow to reach castle black in 2 seconds, or Arya and the mountain traveling at snail speed from Winterfell to kings’s landing in one episode. Geralt and Yen going from Cintra and in the next scene reaching KM, or Geralt magically popping up near Gors Velen to safe Ciri from the hunt despite him supposedly being in Redania un the previous scene were insulting moments to the viewer’s intelligence, easily on par with the aforementioned examples.

Part 4: it’s all Doomed.

Getting back to the overall state that the show is stuck in right now and what does this all tell us. I think Neon knight’s video perfectly got the point across, which is the same thing i have been saying since S2 premiered. S3 was doomed to be very mediocre at best from the start, and even if the writers had a miraculous change of heart and wanted to follow book storylines, they won’t be able to pull it off due to the sheer mess and irreversible detour that the second season took the story to. The writers got themselves into a corner and It’s just near impossible to get back to book content now without the results being seen as anything other than an inconsistent, head-scratching clusterfuck.

You can’t spend 8 hour ruining Yennefer and breaking any possibility of fostering a meaningful bond between her and Ciri in S2, only to backtrack by spending 20 minutes in the first episode of the next season showing some cheap montages and thinking that all is well. The audience isn’t dumb. Ciri and Yen’s relationship should have been already formed by the end of last season independently of Geralt’s presence. You can’t speed run the build-up to Thanedd in 4 mere episodes as you should have laid the groundwork for all that starting from the second season, instead of saturating the runtime with tree Eskel, backstabbing Vesemir and the Deathless mother crap. By season three most pieces should have been in place already, Francesca should have been firmly allied with Nilfgaard by this point, Cahir should have been ready to storm the Thanedd party, Philippa, Dijkstra and most stuff about Redanian politics should have been explored more by the start of S3, hell even the conclave itself should have been proposed in S2 since that’s what happened in the source material. The kings of the north should have had a more prominent role in the previous season and so on. This is all paramount since ToC is an eventful book by itself and eight episodes aren’t enough to backtrack and start introducing elements from the previous book while at the same time rushing at a frantic pace to show the plot of ToC. In short, season 2 was a complete waste of time and even the idiots in the writing room realized that, albeit too fucking late. Who could have thought that adapting BoE, which is cornerstone of the whole saga was more crucial than dedicating hours for boring, poorly written B plots (that won’t eventually matter anyway) with Cringella, Francesca and her baby and Voleith Meir…..

Consequently, the best they could do now are half-assed clumsy attempts at “redeeming” their mistakes, resulting in a product that struggles with its identity as it tries to achieve two fundamentally incompatible tasks, which are reconciling some of the narrative absurdities of S2 with Sapkowski's story while simultaneously inserting book stuff in a jarring and confusing way, and in the process creating a weird mesh mash that makes no sense. It just doesn’t and will never work. Starting from scratch with a better team and a coherent vision is the only solution to remedy this disaster.

Now, to end this babbling on a good note.

Season 3 isn’t performing well, or at least likely not according to Netflix’s expectations. It dropped 15% compared to the corresponding number of episodes for S2; the latter already suffered a similar decline in viewership compared to the first season. Episode-to-episode Viewership retention is significantly worse when contrasted with S2 (50% drop in views between first and fifth episodes, while S2 dropped only 20% in that regard). In other words casual viewers can’t bother to finish this series. And all this before Henry is officially replaced by Liam comes next season mind you….

It’s clear that Netflix’s Witcher is going into a downward spiral and that’s why we now see some tone-deaf and pathetic marketing that reeks of desperation by Netflix to try and get people watching this mess. I frankly can’t see a bright future for this franchise on the streaming giant, especially when Netflix chopped off actual good shows for much less.

Anyway, i got a bit carried away with my ranting. I see how damn long this post has become, which wasn’t really my initial intention. Unfortunately there’s so much wrong with Hissrich’s Witcher that a short comment won’t be enough to explain such chaos. I will end it here.

P.S: English isn’t my native language, so please go easy on me folks :)

Is it worth it? I have not had interest since the controversy about Henry leaving etc.

Only played the games, never read the books so I've no clue about the plot going forward but season 1 and 3 have been fantastic. I'm biased towards 2 cause Yen would have not fucked up like that. Hell no

Anyhow, that monstrous amalgamation of flesh and limb with the fucking heads on the wall was nightmare inducing. And I want more.

Guys I just finished episode 3 of the third Season and I don't know what to say, I probably just need to rant and express my disappointment somewhere people are understanding me. I know I am late to the party and didn't watch it when it aired. I also know that the the general opinion of the show is bad, but I always thought "How bad can it be? People are overreacting".

But after finishing the 3. episode I no longer have hopes and don't want to continue. Especially after this last scene with Ciri and Geralt which felt like some interns created that (won't say more, don't want to spoil)

Let me clarify, I didn't read the books, I only played Witcher 3 and a have a lot of hours in multiplayer Gwent, so I don't know too much of the story. Of course it annoyed me a bit that the actors don't look like in my lovely Gwent cards or in Witcher 3, but I thought, "nevermind, as long as they can represent the characteristics of the characters I don't care".

But this show feels like a parody of The Witcher universe. Everything feels so cheap and the characters somehow over the top. I don't know if it's the script, the camera, the actors or a combination of different thing, but I absolutely don't enjoy watching this show.

On top of all these I can't follow the storyline. Everything is so convoluted, new characters all the time. I noticed how happy I was to see Geralt sometimes inbetween (except in the last scene mentioned above)

First season was okay in my opinion, would give it a 6.5/10, I didn't like the second season, but there were some moments which were good, would give that one a 4/10, but the first three episodes of the third season are a clearly 0/10.

Like I said, I don't know why I am writing this, maybe I just need some positive words that one day there will be a Witcher movie/show which will be good. Or that someone will tell me that it will get better from episode 4 on. But currently I don't know if I want to continue watching it, although I love the Witcher universe.

S03E01 - Shaerrawedd

S03E02 - Unbound

S03E03 - Reunion

S03E04 - The Invitation

S03E05 - The Art of Illusion

S03E06 - Everybody Has A Plan 'Til They Get Punched In The Face

S03E07 - Out of the Fire, Into the Frying Pan

S03E08 - The Cost of Chaos

Post Season 3 Discussion Thread

I haven't read the book nor played the game, I've enjoyed everything related to The Witcher on Netflix, but I just ended Season 3 Episode 1 and it sucked hard. I feel that everything goes so fast and the acting a little bit off... What's your opinion??

I haven’t read the books or played the game but I’ve now watched the show 4 different times. And every time I watch season 3 I just get more mad lol.

The end of season 3 kind of ruins the show because Netflix has killed off the majority of all the smaller role characters. So where is the show supposed to go?

The fight scene with Vilgefortz and Geralt was just not believable in my opinion. I get that Vilgefortz is supposed to be portrayed as a great fighter but Geralt isn’t as weak as they made him seem.

Why didn’t Triss or Yen just heal Geralt at Aretuza? Why send him to Brokilon forest to heal? Again, not believable seeing as how everytime someone got injured Triss immediately healed them.

Yen is supposed to be Ciri’s “motherly figure” but then just abandons looking for Ciri to take over Aretuza with only like 5 mages left? Yen wouldn’t just give up looking for Ciri especially with Geralt still injured.

Like I said I haven’t read the books or played the game but just from a show stand point it feels like Netflix killed the show already. I really loved season 1 and 2 but season 3 was just a big let down.

Last thing is it’s really upsetting Ciri and Geralt/Henry weren’t reunited before he exited the show.

Old topic at this point. But man it was a dumpster fire....wonderful acting, great environment, but the writing is just bad. The way I keep explaining it to my wife in comparison to the books is they have the same conclusion just different steps to get there. So much is messed up though with the factions and the world building. The one amazing thing they did was the last episode with the Rats. If they can recapture that magic for season 4 and 5 they will have a redemption arc

The Witcher

Premise: The witcher Geralt, a mutated monster hunter, struggles to find his place in a world in which people often prove more wicked than beasts.

Links:

• IMDb

• Wikipedia

• Trailer

Hey guys and gals, can you please summarize what happened in the third season? I am a huge fan of the books and know the story fairly well. I am not watching this nonsense of a tv show, but kind of curious where they went with the story.

The Witcher

Premise: Geralt of Rivia, a solitary monster hunter, struggles to find his place in a world where people often prove more wicked than beasts.

Links:

• IMDb

• Wikipedia

• Trailer

Greetings fellow Witcher fans and especially those of you who have recently watched the season 3 of the show! Here is my own little review/rant about this season. I'm sure critics of the season have already been plenty, but I do feel the need vent out, so bear with me!
And I'm really sorry for how long it is, I got carried away

This is gonna be full of spoilers though, so if you haven't watched S3 nor read the books up to this point of the story, you might wanna keep yourself free of spoilers :)

So, I'm a books reader, and I really loved them, and thus like most of you I guess I was hyped with the Witcher show. And still like most of you, I was deeply disillusioned with S2, which gave me very low expectations for S3. But I watched it, and while it's not as terrible as I feared it could have been, it's still not great at all.

The whole point of this season was basically to completely abandon the plot they started in S2 and that nobody liked, and reconnect to the events of the books. But the process felt very awkward, partly for reasons that were unavoidable due their choices with S2, but also because of a lot of poor choices they made in this season.

Overall

Overall, the season is all over the place. S2 storyline was terrible but atleast was consistent with itself. S3, in its attempt to reconnect to the events of the books, brought a lot of inconsistency with its own character arcs. And while, as a reader of the books, I can see where they're trying to go, I think that for non-books readers, a lot of things just didn't make sense. And I'm really curious to hear how you've perceived the whole progression of the story.
As for me as a book reader, while I recognize the events of the books, it often felt like just a superficial "checklist". By that, I mean that they just made the characters speedrun key events of the books, as a way to say "look, this happened, just like in the books, like the audience asked!". But because of the complete change in characters arcs of S2, and the simplistic and illogical storyline of S3, most of these events were devoid of the meaning and the buildup that they had in the books. And so, none of them hit like they were supposed to.

And all this was definitely not helped by very questionable editing and very vague geographical awareness.
About the first point, there have been many strange cuts and scene transition that didn't make sense at all, especially in the buildup to Thanedd. I'm genuinely wondering how anyone who hasn't read the books is supposed to understand what the hell is happening right after Ciri and Yen argue, where you suddenly see Ciri being chased by the Wild Hunt, and then Geralt spawning out of nowhere to help her, and then Yen somehow knows about Ciri going and doesn't feel bothered at all. This is not even a matter of storyline at this point, it's just simple editing. It's as if they had removed half of the scenes that connected their story in a somehow consistent way.
And also, the whole emotion of that scene of Yen/Ciri parting ways with Geralt is very shortly after rendered meaningless when the whole trio get reunited barely one episode later (if it wasn't in the same episode). The pacing and the editing in the buildup to Thanedd was completely all over the place. And you're just better off forgetting about everything that happened before Thanedd, so that you can focus on the big event.
And about that Geographical awareness bit, what I meant is that there is a big dissonance between the fact that the show is trying to sell you this big northern world with the kingdoms and everything, and the fact that all the characters seem to be just 5 mins away from each other at any point. You kinda lose track of how far things are supposed to be from each others, how much the characters move. And considering that a big point of the follow-up of the story is about Geralt and his group traveling across the continent, they're really gonna have to fix this and stop making characters teleport all over the place.

Geralt

Strangely, in this sea of inconsistency and illogical character arcs, Geralt kinda stands as the only stable character. It's certainly helped by Henry's performance and understanding of the character. He felt kinda overwhelmed and left out by all the events happening around him, but that's the vibe that you generally get from the books, so atleast this aspect is preserved, despite how inconsistent the show's story is.
His fight with Vilgefortz felt kinda underwhelming compared to how I remembered it in the books though. Yes, he got badly beaten up just like in the books, but I have this memory of it really feeling like a trauma, and a shock of you as a reader being completely suprised to see Geralt getting so easily destroyed. Though it might have to do with the initial surprise gone. Curious to hear how the non-book readers perceived this fight.

Yennefer

While Henry's performance could keep his character afloat, there's no saving from how much they butchered Yennefer's character arc, despite how amazing of an actor Anya is.
I think that Yen is my favorite character from the books, and it's really painful to see her being depicted as a completely different character. You'd think that they couldn't fuck up her character more than what they did in S2. And yet, seeing her being begging for Geralt's attention in the first episode, and completely changing the meaning of the whole "Dear friend", was tough to watch.
Her reconciliation with Geralt was touching, and was probably one of the best scenes of this season, but it just didn't feel "organic". It was forced for the convenience of the storyline, but I didn't believe in its natural development, it happened way too easily. And no amount of "Dear friend" letters will change my mind about it. I just had to force myself to accept it and continue the story, like many things in this season.

And while the reconciliation bit of her relationship with Geralt didn't feel natural, her sudden motherly relationship with Ciri felt even more forced. In the books, it happens slowly and naturally and makes perfect sense. But here, with the mess of S2 and speedrunning pace of this season, it kinda just felt like it happened out of nowhere. And Yen almost sacrificing Ciri barely had any consequence, since everything was solved and forgotten within the first 20 mins of the season.
And yet, she abandoned her again at Thanedd fairly easily. How do they really want me to believe in Yen/Ciri mother/daughter relationship when they make Yen prioritizing other things at literally any occasion?

Her story at Thanedd is all over the place, she makes strange choices and it often felt like the writers didn't know what to do with her. They changed the nature of the Banquet's morning, by having Yen being in bed rather than having disappeared, which gave a lot of ambiguous uncertainty and thrills in the books. All that to make her leave Aretuza, find Ciri, abandon Ciri, go back to Aretuza and generally not being of much use there.
And by making her not being "compressed" into a statue by Francesca during the fight, they once again created a big change in the story. Because, instead of a Yen who is mostly absent in the follow-up events, you have a Yen who is gonna be very much present. It also removed a bit to the trauma of Geralt's defeat. Since atleast, he hasn't lost Yen (while in the books, at this moment, it felt like he had lost everything).

I have no more hope for the character of the show's Yennefer. She's all over the place. She doesn't have clear motives or consistent personality. Her personality is constantly changing for what is the most convenient for the plot. And it's only thanks to Anya's amazing performance that it doesn't strike as too obvious.

Ciri

Some people may not agree with me, but I personally wasn't too bothered by Ciri's character in this season. She's relatively consistent with herself since season 2. Her little escapade in the market from the books was nailed on. However, since they put much less emphasis in the show on her trauma from her encounter with Cahir, her fateful meeting with him rang much less climatic. And it wasn't helped by the fact that they made her be all like "you took everything from me", while in the books she barely aknowledge him, which made the scene ring very differently.
Up to this point, she's been dragged by the events around her, but from now on she's gonna be writing her own story. Unlike other characters, she came out of those 3 seasons without being too much ruined, so we can only hope that they won't fuck up her character arc, now that she's away from Geralt and Yen, and thus more exposed (narratively speaking).

Jaskier

Jaskier didn't serve much purpose throughout this season, and I'm confident in the belief that they only created this romance with Radovid as a way to give him some screentime. Overall, he was forgettable up until Geralt went to Brokylon.

Francesca

Francesca's character was already massively changed in the show by making her betray much earlier in the books. They ruined her already, so I had no much hope for her in this season. She's supposed to be one of the most powerful and respected mages of the Continent, and yet she keeps making the dumbest choices and ending up crying. It's gonna be hard to make the character recover from that in a believable manner, if they wanna restore her standing to how it is in the books.

Cahir

They somehow managed to make Cahir reconnect to his situation at this point of the story in the books. But at what cost? At the cost of making his character and his motivations all over the place. I don't understand anything about the logic of his story in this season. They make him go through all this trouble to earn back Emhyr's trust, with the pointless murder of that Elf I forgot the name, all this to suddenly change his mind about Ciri out of nowhere. They decided to give Cahir more screentime in the show, to explore his character, but it just made things more confusing. There's nothing about what they showed about him that indicated that he doesn't wanna hurt Ciri and wants redemption. His character arc until the fateful meeting actually pointed toward the opposite.
How did his character feel for non books readers? Because even as a book reader, I kept being confused.

Fringilla

I don't understand what the hell they're trying to do with Fringilla. She's basically a completely different character from books' Fringilla at this point. I see that the show is trying to make me care about her elf-savior plot, but I just dont find it interesting at all, and I would have preferred she remained as she was in the books. She's the one character from this season whose storyarc keeps diverging further and further from the books, while the rest of the events have been trying to converge back toward the book's story.
I suspect one of the main writers has chosen her as their victim for some self-projection. And that would explain why her plot is so out of place and receives a lot of screentime.

Rience

Rience had just become a comical relief at this point. A useless minion who can't get anything done. Now, in the books, he was also nothing more than a minion of Vilgefortz, but while being much weaker than his master, he was actually threatening. If I remember, one of the reasons Francesca transforms Yen into a small statue at Thanedd is to protect her from the revenge of Rience.
Nothing worked well about him in this season. The whole setup of the ambush at Shaerwedd was cartoonishly simplistic and it's hard to justify why Geralt didn't finish him off then. And what was the point of sparing him awkwardly if it was to make him attack out of nowhere at Thanedd and be killed super easily, before my brain even had the time to register that it was him attacking?
He was supposed to last a good while more in the books though, so what are they gonna do now to replace him?

Emhyr

This one is gonna be positive. I love the choice of actor and the short but good performance. He's very cool. And the fact that they decided to add him some scenes to show more of his more human side but also ruthlessness was welcome.
Just kinda hard to explain how he forgives Fringilla so easily, after she betrayed him, escaped from Cell and casually came back after having a walk on the Continent, only to have her plot on his back literally the scene right after.

Radovid

I can accept that they chose to transform Vizimir's teen kid into his young adult brother, why not. I can accept that they create a romance plot with Jaskier in order to give him some screen time, why not. I can accept that they wanna make him step a bit into the spying world, why not.
But...at the end of the day, his character feels completely out of place. He doesn't integrate well with the rest of the plot, he's on a completely different vibe, it sometimes felt like he was on a completely different show, happening in parallel of the main show. I couldn't care less about his emotional crying plead to Jaskier, while everyone else and the whole plot is in Thanedd.
And now, from an empty out-of-place character, he has become kindgof Redania, instead of the regency council led by Philippa and Djikstra. Definitely don't feel confident with this one.

Fake Ciri

The moment they revealed that this girl thought she was Ciri, I knew exactly what they were gonna do, and that's indeed what happened. It's just very convenient and not very believable that she disappears from the plot for a few episodes, before suddenly reappearing at Nilfgaard as fake Ciri. And I don't really like her being the Fake Ciri.
In the books, Fake Ciri was a pure nobody who didn't believe to be Ciri, had to be taught royal manners, and suffered from impostor syndrome due her being treated so good purely because she ressembled someone else. Her interactions with Emhyr in the books are touching and pretty deep, because both of them know she's a fake, and yet Emhyr ends up showing some tenderness.
With Fake Ciri being a former Aretuza student who has been brainwashed into believing she's actually Ciri, it takes a whole different meaning. Not a big fan.

Other characters and events

Why Vizimir, and the other kings in this show in general, be such a buffoon? I can't recognize the guy who, in the books, along with Meve, casually suggested to have Ciri killed for the peace of the North.
I love the performance of the actors playing Djikstra and Philippa, they totally nailed the characters. Just felt weird to see Djikstra attacking Geralt and getting his ass kicked, predictably. The SM bit was weird too and unecessary. And I'm not sure how they're gonna deal with the relationship between the two, with Djikstra being already aware of Philippa's involvement in Vizimir's death.
Vilgefortz is still cool af, even though the whole reveal of his real motive got dragged-on for too long, with the whole fake guilt of Stretogor (who cares about Stretogor anyway) that was way too on-the-nose. Why did they kill Lydia so soon tho??? I don't remember her being killed off so early in the books, might be remembering wrong.

And finally, the whole coup at Thanedd didn't hit as good as in the books. Instead of an internal mage purge organized by a part of the mages, it has become a purely Redanian plot. And it devolved mainly into a mages vs scoia'tel fight, instead of a messy mage vs mage + scoia'tel.
When the scoia'tel and the mages conveniently lined up facing each other, it was sooo cliché it was kinda cringe. They tried to put some order into a situation that's supposed to be messy and ambiguous, and it breaks the immersion by moments.

What comes next?

If the showrunners truly wanna be more loyal to the books now, and they can survive the backlash of this not great season, then they are in a good position to get some redemption. Yes, it's not gonna be the same without Geralt, but right now, the story is at a point where it's kinda a new beginning for everyone.
They can get a fresh start and now stay true to the books, because the plot allows it at this very precise point. And if they do it correctly, they might be able to make us forget a bit about the awkwardness and bad writing of the last 2 seasons. But my confidence in the showrunners' competence is very low at this point, and I'm sure it's a feeling that's shared by many.

Anyway, that's already long af. If you've read everything, thank you for bearing with me and see you next season for a new rant

I don’t know if this is just me or not but I see of lot of people saying that season 3 wasn’t that good but me personally I just finished the show and found season 3 quite good probably a 7-8/10 just wanted to see why people aren’t big fans of it. Interested to see your reasonings