How *Not* to do a Battle Sequence - The Witcher VS Lord of the Rings 

The last gunfight in Equilibrium.

@@halecj1The battle of the 5 armies. There is no comparision with the genius work of Peter Jackson. He is the ultimative Creator, countless directors try to copy- but never came near. He and his team won 11 oscars.

Agreed, Witcher/Wheel of time did so many things right , but missed building the foundation part.. so no one cares about anything , nothing has any stakes. How are you supposed to make a compelling story when you rush character/world building.

100% Battle of the Bastards from GOT. That moment when Jon Snow stands in front of an army - sword in hand and ready to hack everyone is just BREATHTAKING.

The siege of Ministirith. I’m not sure I spelled it right. I love that battle from beginning to end. I know it gets cut up by the heroes doing other stuff, but it still flows well.

An essential rule that not many know. @TheDreamArena

Good tactic for people who cannot recognise who is a ork or not

The movie "The Siege of Jadotville" does the same thing. So the viewer is never confused between side is the Irish battalion and which side is the Katangan army/French mercenaries.

Lord of the Rings mastered showing an epic battle in ways its many imitators during that time never quite understood.

@@AICW That's interesting. I think Black Hawk Down forgot that rule. /s

The tomatoes were totally committed to the scene.

"Alright so I'll just eat some stuff. Maybe a tomato." "Exactly, like a completely normal human being." "..." "You know how humans eat, right?"

😂 comments like this reinstate my faith not just in the internet but also humanity.

In all seriousness, that whole sequence in the Return of the King was heartbreaking. You knew they were heading right into a slaughter.

Or in Dandelions cabin.....

Yeah, me too. As soon as LotR Was shown, my first thought was: "I think it's time to watch those movies again. It's been a while."

i’m fresh from another rewatch of the extended versions,that’s why i’m deep in this rabbit hole of comparisons to other shows (RoP sucks in itself,abysmal when compared to PJs rendition).. and it just made me want to watch the trilogy AGAIN..

i watched it a week ago and already wanna do it again

Bro I'm cursed to watch all extended versions whenever I see a gandalf you shall not pass meme :D

@@eonadgm5416 sameee🤣

Just reading those lines I know exactly how they were delivered and I can feel them too.

Now someone write it how modern Hollywood writers would write that, for comparison

Man I’ve seen the film a dozen times or more but I still got chills reading that incredible dialogue. RIP Bernard Hill, my King

@@michaelxz1305 Scene begin Shit, this looks real bad Scene end

This show got really stupid halfway through season 2. I may have to read the books.

@@papajootsIt was stupid before the first season was done. Seriously, the whole timeline issue added nothing to the story but unneeded confusion.

@@papajootsThey're a lot better than the series.

yeah that what i dont understand about the show instead of following MCs with global conflicts happening around them we follow global conflict with small involvement of MCs

​@@InvertedWIngThe first season is a collection of short stories that were only loosely related. Maybe I'm remembering wrong but I'm almost sure the show runners changed some things slightly so they'd be more connected but it made less sense than the book.

Armageddon ($554 million gross)

@@RiskyDramaUploads Was not really dumbed down since it wasn't based on a book or similar, but you're right in it being 'dumb doing well'

Skyrim

@oreohunter7798 lol. To be fair i think skyrims success is more about the world and memeability. But yeah the systems are definitely dumbed down compared to other elder scrolls games

From what I’ve heard Dune seems to do a good job keeping faithful to its source material, have yet to see it tho

Dude took out a fully armoured Orc at long range with is first arrow. He was a beast!

Rather than being nervous and "losing his nerve", I always saw old-guy Tim as not having the strength to keep holding the bowstring back like that, and thus highlighting that these people were not proper soldiers, and wouldn't fare very well in battle...

@@julien4327 I think the bowstring slipped from his fingers due to the rain making it slippery, too. He had been holding it so long, until his fingers couldnt hold on anymore.

Also the fact the Uruk-Hai army seemed content to hold a stand-off and the tension broke into chaos because his arrow flew true and hit the gap in the armor.

Most bows used in battle had like at least a 100 pound drawback, the strong and well trained archers of the real world wouldnt hold back on a bow for much longer than 2 seconds because they were not physically strong enough to do so.@@julien4327

Oh man, a big budget Xena would be great. Camp and all.

and Herkules! :D

@@rumpelstilzchen7871 Lucy Lawless and Henry Cavill.

Flair.

@@Yvaelle Fantastic combo!

lol I love this description. Any battle that either has unrealistic pauses, unneeded dialogue or unbelievable action as in who is that idoit, its not a battle.

I felt this when I'd go to a friend's house and his family was watching Rings of Power. I asked "why are you watching this awful trash?" And they said "I have low expectations." That about sums it up for me.

If a three year old repeats the stories I told them to me, at least they have the huge significance of a tiny human developing their brains and storytelling-communication abilities. I'd be nothing but proud at the three years old. This show grants no such satisfaction.

Not to mention that 3 year old forgot like everything you told him other than some characteristics of the main characters and then started to babble up random stuff instead that he imagined could somehow make sense but of course makes no sense at all since he is 3 year old. Now imagine you are a writer for netflix and this is the best you can do. What do they pay those people? 150k a year? For someone they put on a high profile series like the witcher probably even more.. Maybe if they just hired 3 y olds instead they wouldnt need to fight account sharing so much because they had much less wasted money...

Agreed 100%. An old warrior called upon in the darkest of times. Anyone who's ever shot a heavy pull bow knows it's not easy to hold.

He's old, it's a dark and stormy night, his hand is wet, and even if he manage to hold back, somebody else would crack.

@@hafirenggayuda also they where dealing with Uruk-Hai who you cannot deal for peace. the battle was going to happen regardless

Came here to say exactly this :D

To be fair to the old soldier, I blame the idiot who thought it was a good idea to make everyone hold their bows fully drawn while the enemy was in range.. I always saw it as the old soldier going, "what the fuck are they teaching these idiots nowadays.. time to go to work.."

RIP Dáin Ironfoot, a hero since childhood.

But they don't need to, because they have amazing first aid huggers standing by. Ready to take care of any mortally wounded with a warm embrace.

I didn't even watch past season 1 after the incredibly stupid set-up for the battle of Sodden. This was the single stupidest battle scene I've ever seen in my life. They've got a defensive castle (which wasn't there in the books, they literally just had a hill, and if the series left it at that, the battle would have made more sense - but no, they added a castle. On the wrong side of the Yaruga bridge too) - and the first thing the sorcerers do is teleport themselves outside of the castle. Vilgefortz as a powerful mage and the leader of the defence leaves his troops in order to get into a duel with a warrior - and how does he use his powerful magic when he loses his sword? To magic himself ANOTHER sword (instead of, dunno, burn the non-magic opponent or something). Plus the special effects looked so... underwhelming. Compared to that, even the battle of Winterfell against the Whitewalkers looks great, despite the idiotic tactics - but at least the effects looked fine and there was some dramatic tension and some stakes.

At this point there's no robbed experience that, if included, could save that shitshow. Any book fans that actually care about the books have abandoned the show for a long time now, with the most hardcore ones realizing it was shit since the very fist episode of season 1...

@@emmanuel1337 it's so funny you put it this way. Friends told me the show was really good (when season 1 was just over), so we watched the first episode together. After that I really had no idea why they thought the show was good and I told them that it was really really bad as a show and unfaithful af to the source-material. They told me "it wasn't that bad" But after season three they came back and told me "yup, you were right... the show is bad" The signs were there the whole time!

@@Manta665 Season 1 really got people completely blinded by Henry Cavill, one or two good fight scenes and a catchy song, while the show was barely The Witcher at all, with every character being a cringey parody of itself (or a completely different one or not there at all lol) and every element that made the IP good being twisted and diluted to no end. People really need to up their standards, so companies are forced to deliver good products, instead of shit like this "The Witcher" show. Everybody, fan of the books or not, could've been happy if they just adapted the awesome original material, but they went out of their way to change almost everything exclusively for the worse... Really weird stuff.

​@@emmanuel1337I don't know who the show was made for. The fans of the source material will go against you when you start changing and ruining things too much, and new viewers will have a hard time get a handle of things, because the structure of the show is abysmal as a whole. The changes they made, did nothing for the story. So why change them? To make things unnecessarily complicated? It's possibly the weirdest adaptation I have ever seen

@@Manta665 It took until Season 3? Season 2 was a shit show. Sure Season 1 wasn't COMPLETELY true to the books, but it still had semblance of hope. Everything after that came crashing real quickly though.

Exactly! Great point

Exactly! It’s not the fact Netflix’s the Witcher is doing things different that’s the problem it’s how they’re doing it and the reasons why 😠.

@iansirraven2151 precisely. Many of the best film adaptations make changes. Sometimes huge changes (just look at apocalypse now vs heart of darknesss the book its based on). Its all about the reasoning and how well it executes the change. Thats why i always try to judge films based off what theyre going for. Im not the biggest fan of horror, but i can see when a movie does horror well and will judge it accordingly

Agreed, my personal favourite example is from game of thrones. That series turned to shit incredibly fast in season four, and while the warning signs were there in earlier seasons, the first three are still pretty good. Somehow. But the point is that, as brain-meltingly angry as I am over how they completely changed, everything threw away really, about the story in later, my favourite scene is one that's not in the books. It's the one where Little Finger talks to Varys in the throne room, with cuts to jon climbing the wall. It's incredibly atmospheric and in just a few seconds it perfectly captures LFs character in a way that covers a whole heap of development that happens in the books but that the show didn't have time for. Changes to the source material can really enhance a story, byt only if they are done well. And if they are done by coke-snorting narcissists (GoT) or nerd-hating sorority girls who don't like the story they are adapting (witcher), then it's very unlikely that they will do a good job.

Personally, elves at Helm's Deep is my least favorite part of the whole LotR film trilogy. A major theme of LotR is that magic is leaving the world; especially once destroying the 1 robs the 3 of their power, the elves have nothing left in Middle Earth and so Humans must learn to take up the reigns and fend for themselves. This theme of 'lesser' folk proving themselves through valor and sacrifice is pivotal to why all the characters (especially hobbits) feel so heroic. Having Elves come save the day during Human's first major test in the trilogy uncercuts this. I also dislike it from a lore perspective because Lorien was under serious threat from Dol Guldur and had to fight their own battles.

they kept fighting on the very same spot for ages

The factors that made the choreography weird for me are: 1. People walking in and out of the battle - it removes the urgency of the battle if you can just do that. 2. People standing in place shooting at each other in a small room - the lack of dynamics is really weird. A real battle would be more chaotic. The fighters being so stationary feels like a battle from a school play. 3. People having dramatic moments in the middle of the battle and no one is shooting at them - admittedly this is a common trope but it is more pronounced here because of the small room and the fighters standing in place. If the battlefield is wide and chaotic, you can make up a head canon that the fighters didn't see the crying character, but if the crying character is 10 feet in front of you it's really hard to find excuses for why you didn't just shoot her.

@@One.Zero.One101, good analysis.

I was so disappointed when I saw Season 2....not even whole :D

Just about everything the people making this show did after season one was a bad call.

I'm betting they split it up because they wanted to milk as much as they could out of henry still being a part of the show as they could before the viewers truly tanked as they know it will.

I completely quit S3 about 10 seconds into this scene. It looked like a bad staging of West Side Story and I hate West Side Story.

@@waunke56That may have been part of it, but I also think the writer’s genuinely thought they were creating a good cliffhanger that people were going to love, which is really sad

peter jackson is the best.

I wouldn't say "one of", I think it's THE best. Second best is the battle of Minas Tirith. No other battles in the history of cinema come close to these two. Given the shoddy work from Hollywood the last few years, I don't think anything ever will.

@@Mat-ss8uw Sorry, but only if you really believe that bigger is better and physicality needs to plow down everything. Peter Jackson needs to make everything bigger, from the size of individual opponents and/or their weapons to the size of armies.

Shall I fetch you a box?

@@ohauss He did say that Helms Deep was better than Minas Tirith.

It's such a witless trope. I wish more movies and TV shows did battles the way The Gladiator, Rome, and Alexander did. With realistic formations, tactics, and a progression of battle that the viewer can follow, instead of just chaotic melee.

In Braveheart's defense, at least pike stop horses and cavalry goes for the flank. LotR is the worst thing to happen to happen to cavalry in medieval warfare.

@@Pure_Havoc To my memory, the reason why the LotR cavalry worked against the orc pike line was because the orcs broke rank - it was part of showing that evil cowers in the face of bravery, or the like. A broken pike line doesn't defend well against anything, it only does its job when the soldiers hold the line - and when you look closely, you can see the orcs looking back and forth, backing away, raising their pike points to the sky (making the pikes useless due to no longer pointing at the enemy), and so on. There were visual clues for why the pike line didn't murder the cavalry charge - the cavalry relied on intimidating the orcs into breaking discipline (rendering the pike line worthless, because pikes only work when pointing at the enemy), and it worked. Of course, I'm pretty sure that such details tend to get lost on showmakers who try copying that scene.

@@electrowave114I think it’s absolutely insane to add a scene like that though, all the orcs had to do was stand there and hold the pikes and the cavalry would all have died.

@@liamcawley6799 Indeed. But Tolkien's work was as much metaphor for morality and the evils of ambition (literally, the One Ring is a metaphor for how ambition can warp and twist people - and that's why it did nothing to ambition-free Samwise, all it could offer was to make him the world's best gardener in the books, which Samwise deemed ridiculous, and the ring itself admitted was a stretch) as it was a war tale, and so the movies went more with his message than adhering strictly to realistic battles. Plus, the orcs aren't...the best trained. Uruk-hai are very well trained, but average non-Uruk orcs not so much.

Yeah, within a battle sequence that overall is amazing, the thing about drawing bows and holding in that position is completely unrealistic; there would be no reason to ever deplete your strength by doing that.

Yes, and it’s tied to a story reason that this old guy is up on the walls in the first place - they don’t have enough fighting young men so old men and boys had to take up arms. So it makes sense that he’s there, whereas it normally wouldn’t.

That's how I've always interpreted it as well.

@@julien4327 There's no need for interpretation. That IS how the scene was meant. It's so damn obvious too. Like, the old man is clearly shocked at his own action. Clearly he didn't mean to loose the arrow.

this is the first thing I noticed. It looks like a bunch of cosplayers posing for cool pictures.

Well movie fights are not about getting a fast win they are about the drama playing out between the characters. They need to have rising and falling action during the fight.

It makes a lot of sense for superhero fights, because that's how they appear in comics. You see a character in panel doing something. Once in a while you may get a zoomed out group shot, but it always goes back to panels featuring a linear blow-by-blow that greatly resembles a turn-based combat system.

Interesting. I read the first book years ago, but never checked out the show because I heard about as much. Which is a bummer because the lead actress is fantastic, especially in gone girl

@@TheWritersBlockOfficial It just means you have touched on a great systemic problem in writing. You honestly could do this whole video again almost verbatim for Wheel of time.

@@TheWritersBlockOfficial It is the single worst butchering of source material I've ever seen, and I didn't even particularly enjoy the book.

That show is so bland, I don't care about a single character in that show, hell the main bad guy and Padan Fain are both more interesting than all of them combined. Yet the show insists on making episode after episode of melodrama shit between these characters instead of moving the plot forward. I feel likewise about the rings of power show, is there a reason why all these shows are so fuckin bland, like is it studio meddling, lack of good writers, approval by committee / algorithm based decision making, like what is it ?

I can't even talk about this show without maniacally laugh/crying over how bad it is.

Exactly! The set for aretuza is actually pretty big so they easily could have spread it out amongst more rooms and chambers

Especially knowing that the mages can portel out to anywhere they want and instead they just stand their charging their spirit bombs while taking arrows to the face, like if they just opened portals under the elves feet that drop them in the ocean, they would have one in 10 seconds

@@TheWritersBlockOfficial It is so egregious that they didn't. They literally tried to make it feel like a grand battle in a single room, when putting the extra fights in the other Aretuza set pieces would have EASILY accomplished this like it did in the first season when the castle was sieged. It would have fixed the soldier versus mage issues because suddenly, in winding corridors, a soldier can get the drop on a mage without needing mcguffin "shield piercing arrows" (I bet they wish they had those in the first season).

​@@kyleoates6367Also they lack planing. It should have been more sneaky attack and while redanians are still rounding up the mages. Surely free-for-all meelee with magic less mages vs elves vs redanians who have to decide if they should release mages would be chaotic but probably more impacting than that courtyard brawl where mages should have sweeped the floor with elves

You know it reminds me of the Battle of Hogwarts, or well the scene with Harry, Hermione and Ron running around in between infrustructure to avoid creatures and spells. Granted it was a much bigger space, but if your in a battle with spells and arrows wizzing back and forth, you would think they would get for cover behind a beam or something.

That seems to be an issue with the writers not understanding the mentality of combat. Each side would want to kill the other side as fast as they can. Instead they do a lot of posing.

@@jasperzanovich2504 Strong people create good times, good times create weak people, weak people create awful cinematic combat?

@@JaneXemylixa No, there are plenty of people, me included, that have never been to war or any serious fight who still know that truth. They jsut think it has to look cool but don't understand what that means.

@@jasperzanovich2504 I'm in the same set as you And competence is cooler than standing around like an idiot, any day

@@jasperzanovich2504 No they just don't care. Normally someone who doesn't understand something knows they don't and go out of their way to find out. These people just don't give a sh*t and when asked why it ended up so poorly they just insist it's fine the way it is because you're too stupid to understand anything more complicated.

MyAnna Buring. Fun fact: She played the Duchess Anna Henrietta in the Blood & Wine expansion.

Yes it should have been lots of work to convince the kingdoms to gather a combined force that barely compares to nilfgardians it should have been inferior combined northerner army and mages vs nilfgard. Not just some peasant women and mages vs nilfgard with temerian army showing up to steal the glory like in show

It’s not good spectacle tho. There is no weight. It’s just a bunch of colored mist and slow motion, it’s about as exciting an action scene as an oddly satisfying compilation.

Yes, that battle was already extremely lacking. It had at least established stakes, but the structure was a nightmare. The geography of the whole area was really confusing, as was the time progression. You never really knew who was where or how much time progressed between scenes. You also never got to see how big Nilfgaards army was and since everything was constantly covered in mist and woods, you also never saw how many troops Nilfgaard had lost or how far they've advanced at any given time. It was basically impossible to follow what's going on. All these things were always perfectly clear in any LotR battle. Game of Thrones even managed to achieve the same thing on a TV budget with almost all of their battle sequences.

Exactly..id no idea who to root for...no one seems to know what they want..that francesca is one cluelesss queen..just decides on a whim to do something..and that usually ends with every elf dying around her...only for her to switch to something else in a flash...and then loosing everyone else ...fringilla too switches side at her convenience...so does caheir (wtf IS his problem? cant seem to decide who he's loyal to)...just going round and round in circles.i frankly didnt care who died in the Battle for Aretuza...

​@@damienspectre4231Did anyone important even die there?

I also hate how, like "everybody hates how we dumbed down the show, but we simply HAD to dumb down the show or else viewers wouldn't like it" is, on its face, pretty fucking dumb. If you dumbed down the show so people would like it, then how come PEOPLE DON'T LIKE IT?

LOL. Sorry, but having multiple plots doesn't mean there's necessarily anything to understand. Worshipping the great God GRRM isn't "understanding" - his politics has huge logic gaps stemming from himself not understanding why certain historical events that inspired him happened the way they happened - and nothing shows that more than the Red Wedding.

Politics? Was more about rape and murder and planing of more rape and more murder or talking about other rape and murder.

@@miriamweller812 And the show had more nudity then ever before. Yeah, that had nothing to do with it; twas politics fo sho!

Im pretty sure the point is that GoT clearly has more established/explained geopolitical landscape than does the Witcher and people still watched it. I mean, EACH show starts with a map showing where things will happen in the show. I know at least a few people who watched GoT SPECIFICALLY because the power games and political intrigue attracted them. The various factions and then general gols in GoT are well-characterized pretty much in the first season and there are characters from each house whom viewers can relate to. Pointing out the GRRM's understanding of Geopolitics is flawed has nothing really to do with the point the video is making. Generally, across about the first 4 seasons the politics in GoT are fairly extensive for a fantasy show and intelligble to viewers. In any case, assuming the worst of your audience is almost a guaranteed means to make sure your show is garbage. What good productions do when faced with complexity is craft in a way so it can be digestible by the audiance; saying Americans are too dumb too understand is really just saying "im too dumb and lazy to portray it". @@ohauss

Hahah. Yeah, it's not you

Lucky!!! Extended or Theatrical though .... 🤔

@@TheWritersBlockOfficial Extended (can’t be bothered to watch the theatrical cuts now) but they cut about 15 mins of each for the ads I think, minor scenes like Eowyn’s song but we were so mad😂

Wow where was that? Lucky you are

Yeah, I'm sure you appreciate shield-surfing and elephant-surfing. But yeah, senseless special effects devoid of any logic are so much better when PJ does them. Who cares about logic or what the old fool of a Tolkien actually wrote...

@@ohauss Tolkien definitely wished he wrote the shield surfing bit

​@@ohauss Wow, you have been plaguing the comment section. Is this your attempt to defend a poorly-written show like that of the Netflix Witcher series... through a strawman? smh. Seriously, stop being emotional and actually craft a comment to what OP has written and not what you think OP has written. ok? lmao

i actually agree with ohauss witcher fight scenes are just more entertaining the best being vs renley lotr scenes were imo pretty bland @@robertmcdougall1144

@@ohausslol looks like we found one of the clowns from the Netflix’s Witcher writing room 😂

Just hearing the directors comments about Henry Cavill taking the source material seriously a problem, showed the way this pile of crap was heading.

Yep. "Dance off" is a great way to put it. And archers lining up 20 feet away from their targets? What is this garbage?

Now I NEEEEED a doom clone set in a high fantasy world

Teh Lurd Of Teh Reings actually made a video of him; 'The Return of the Bowmaster'. I find it absolutely hilarious and ridiculous, well worth a watch! ALL HAIL THE BOWMASTER!!! P.S. 'descended' is a verb, 'descendent' is a noun (someone or something which has descended), which would be the correct form to use here. Cheers!

@@CornHolio945 Dey luRds r legEnDs

Spelling descendent like that, and no doubt not even understanding why you are wrong, leads me to assume you are American.

@@john.premose I see what you mean, and I think it would be more helpful if you would then go on to explain how to use it correctly. At least it's not "there" instead of "they're", small victory :).

Welp, that last statement is very wrong imo.

@@subfreakuent Elaborate on that.

"zero political messaging" when you like the message.

@@an6153 Today's "entertainment" is all about "the political message" while the stories are somewhere left at the bottom of the sack - we need more diverse cast cause white men bad and racists, we need more strong and independent women aka mary sues and emasculate men because sexism and patriarchy we need representation, cause viewers can't relate to the characters unless it fits their skin color, we need inclusion cause everything has to be rainbow shit.

Thanks! Where'd you study film? I did my undergrad in Film & Media Production at ASU

@@TheWritersBlockOfficial studied at MCAD in Minneapolis Minnesota, my professor Tom Pope is good friends with John Carpenter so of course we studied the Thing 1982

What;s funny is that it would be easy to introduce the visual clues towards each faction, Nilfgaard black and gold sun (in any case Nilfgaard is supposed to be highly advancec culture/civilization modeleld slightly on the Roman Empire, wiht touches of germanic Holy Roman Empire), Redanians red and white eagle emblem, Temerian black and silver lillies and so on, sorcerers also easily could be distinguished if they followed the book: "Where the four corridors joined beneath a column that supported the roof, had a clarity that came from Lanterns and magic globes. Soldiers and sorcerers gathered here. Among the latter were members of the Council: Radcliffe and Sabrina Glevissig. Sabrina, like Keira Metz, was also wearing gray men's clothing. Geralt realised that the coup was taking place before eyes and could recognise the different factions by their uniforms. " Witcher, Time of Contempt :) There were basically three factions duing the coup on Thanedd, sorcerers who were traitors allied with Nilfgaard led by Vilgefortz and Francesca Findabair, and sorcerers loyal to the kings of the northern realms, and neutral party, sorcerers seving neutral kingdoms :). Witcher has it's own worldbuilding unfortunately the show on netflix....COMPLETELY butchered it!!!! Seriously so much could have been done better if only they followerd the book story more closely!!!!! Witcher has more of this moral ambiguity but even there there are are villains often quite despicable and those more decent guys but in general it should be more a bit like Game of Thrones universe, various factions fighting for political dominance and the main characters in the middle of whole mess. Obviously context of the events is different in the books showing how big of a mess the show did! " Once again movement. Voices. The soprano sound of Keira Metz, the low nasal tone of Radcliffe. The tapping of soldiers boots. The raised voice of Tissaia de Vries. 'Let go of her! How could you? How could you do it?' 'She's a traitor!' said nasal, Radcliffe. 'I do not believe it' 'Blood is not water.' Philippa Eilhart said coldly. 'And Emperor Emhyr has promised the elves freedom. And an independent state of their own. And that was enough to immediately betray us.' 'Answer!' Tissaia de Vries said with emotion. 'Answer her, Enid!' 'Answer, Francesca.' The clinking of dimeritum shackles. And the lilting elvish accent of Francesca Findabair, the Daisy of the Valley, the most beautiful woman in the world. 'Me Va a Vort, Dh'oine. These N'aen and dice'n.' 'Is that enough for you, Tissaia?' said Philippa's voice, like a bark. 'Do you believe me now? You, me, we all are and have always been to her Dh'oine, human, which she being Aen Seidh has nothing to say to. And you, Fercart? What has Emhyr and Vilgefortz offered you to, to make you decide to betray us?' " Aen Seidhe elves in the witcher are supposed to be very much Tolkien-esque, tall ,beautiful, slender, long-lived and youthful, the show's casting does not reflect that! That is unfortunate, the elves in the witcher show don't look particularly beautiful, here Lord of the Rings films did the best to visually depict elvest!!! Which unfortunately is also not the case with the Amazon lotr tv show ugghh. Anyway there is so much wrong with the worldbuilding in the witcher show, there was enough material in the books to make it work but those morons working on the scripts completely don;t understand the source material! Elves in the witcher are supposed to have their own fashions and also the Scoia'tael units have particular sort of look, they have the squirrel tails as their recognizing mark they are guerilla warfare unit so their uniforms should also reflect that, they are fighting in the forests and hide in wilderness usually: " He recognised him immediately. From above, down the stair case, came running Dorregaray, the sorcerer in service to King Ethain of Cidaris. He recalled the words of Philippa Eilhart. All sorcerers representing neutral kings had been invited as observers to Garstang. But the way Dorregaray was peeling down the stairs suggested that the invitation had been withdrawn suddenly. 'Dorregaray!' 'Geralt?' Gasped the sorcerer. 'What are you doing here? Do not just stand there, run away! Quickly, down the stairs, to Aretuza.!' 'What happened?' 'Betrayal.' 'What?' Dorregaray suddenly shuddered and coughed in a strange way, and immediately bent over and fell, directly into the Witcher. Before Geralt could grab him, he saw the shaft of an arrow with gray feathers sticking from his back. He staggered with the sorcerer in his arms and it saved his life, because a second identical arrow, instead of going through his throat, slammed into the stone and the ironically smiling face of a Faun, ripping of the nose and part of the cheek. The witcher let go of Dorregaray and ducked behind the balustrade of the stairs. The sorcerer fell on top of him. There were two archers, and both had hats with squirrel tails. One was at the top of the stairs, staining his bow; the second was drawing his sword from its sheath and ran down the stairs, skipping several steps at a time. Geralt freed himself from Dorregaray and sprang up, while he drawing his sword. An arrow sang, the witcher stopped its singing by bouncing it off the tip of his sword quickly. The second elf was already closing, but seeing the arrow reflected by the sword, hesitated for a moment. But only for a moment. He threw himself at the witcher, his sword made the air moan with the swiftness of his cut. Geralt quickly sidestepped, so the blade of the elf slipped by his sword. The elf lost his balance, the witcher spun smoothly and delivered a blow to the side of his neck, just under the ear. Only once. It was enough. The archer on the top of the stairs again tightened his bow but had no time to release the string. Geralt saw a flash, the elf cried out, threw up his hands and fell down, hitting the steps. "

@@fantasywind3923 Exactly. I only know the world of The Witcher through the games I need to pick up the books someday. But even in the games, I knew each faction at a glance thanks to their signature colors. Nilfgaard stood out wherever they appeared both thanks to their colors and their awesome armor. Same with the elves I could always tell them from humans even at a distance because, get this, THEY LOOK LIKE ELVES! And of course the sorceresses themselves. Don't get me wrong the female actors don't look bad at all in fact I consider them good looking but they are supposed to be beyond "good looking". They literally use magic to make themselves look absurdly beautiful. That also failed to be the case in the show for obvious reasons. Oh, and something I noticed while reading that part I assume is from the book. Something the showwriters seem to have failed to notice. Geralt, the Witcher, the main character of the whole goddamn world, is actually a part of it. Fancy that. And don't get me started on that horrid as sin "show" the rings of power. It's just another case of wanna-be writers being given the literal guidebook to success and throwing it away for the dumbest possible reasons.

@@mikezackman2093 yep, Geralt involvement in the events and actually his actions having impact on them is important thing, he is a protagonist, though obviously many other characters also get their time, and we can say Ciri is a protagonist as well, but the show's third season really sidelines Geralt depriving him of his agency. Regarding casting choices for sorceresses,...honestly only actress for Tissaia and Sabrina were alright rest were ughh awful choices and then also comes the problem with costumes, creating characterization, and general aesthetic choices there is a problem with those in the show from the very start, from the very first season witcher on netflix had problems with the visuals (hell for example even the locations where they were shooting seem bland, even though they could have used beautiful landscapes, like in the story Limits of the Possible, the mountain areas, they could have used the most picturesque locations to show off...but they didn't and it all just looks grey and uninteresting in the show!).

@@fantasywind3923 Oh absolutely everything from the costumes to the locations is very bland compared to what could have been. Not like they were lacking references or anything. But clearly, they didn't know how to do that or didn't want to and that's the whole feeling I get from everything in the show. The entire team is inexperienced, unskilled, and have the wrong vision for the material. They are too focused on what they think is best for a good story and too obsessed with their own beliefs.

Elf’s one side. Men and women in robes on the other

Goals are so often ignored in storytelling when they are the emotional hooks that we hang our attention on. - What are the GOOD GUYS trying to accomplish, and what are they trying to avoid? - What are the BAD GUYS trying to accomplish, and what are they trying to avoid? If the goals aren't there, we don't know if the heroes are winning or losing because we can't tell how far away they are from achieving their goals. We don't know how to feel about actions or events because we can't tell if they moved the characters closer to or further from their goals. A repeat offender is J.J. Abrams, who leaves the conditions for success very vague. He says it's more compelling to have the ultimate goal be a mystery than to actually spell it out, but I think it just makes writing easier when he can introduce something new and say it was part of the mystery.

I think you are right and that the battle of helms deep is a good example for that, but I think you misunderstood the connection. The goal of the uruks is to 'get into the fortress and then slaughter everyone by sheer number' whilst the goal of the defenders is 'prevent them from swarming us inside the fortress'. Because then the director and editors can create a swinging battle for the viewers. 'Oh no, the orcs have ladders!' 'well, our Allies can hold the walls.' 'Now they have a Ram and break through!' 'Aragorn and Gimli bought much needed time!' 'They broke through the wall!' 'Our Allies are fleeing' Etc.

On the magical spell bit, the battle of helms deep is a masterful display of the subtle use of it. As the rohirim charge the Uruks, we see another element of goals and stakes as the uruks line up their pikes to turn this last minute heroic entrance into a slaughter. But instead of Gandalf sending lightning or creating a force barrier, light that can be mistaken for a sunrise comes up to blind the Uruks, winning the battle.

@@seogoratjk It isn't light that can be mistaken for a sunrise, it *IS* the sunrise. Hence why Gandalf says to look to the east "at first light on the fifth day." Gandalf knows that at sunrise, sunlight will pour into the valley and blind those looking east. He uses no magic at all, just wisdom. As you say though, Gandalf almost never uses visible magic, and this was a stylistic choice of Peter Jackson's that I very much like. When Gandalf and Sauron (edit: SARUMAN) are fighting at Isengard, they're basically just whooping on each other with invisible magic strikes. If the Witcher production team had written that scene, it would have been lightning blobs and fire spells all over the place. Thankfully we weren't subjected to that.

@@kylelevi691 Gandalf and **Saruman.*

I've played Witcher 2 and Witcher 3 before watching the Nexflix series. And due to all the jumping around in the timeline i had to look up and explanation of what the hell was going on. Only to find out is a jumbled mess of the first book / first game. I was aware of these events that happens in the first part of Geralt's story, but most of it is explained through call backs and such in the 2nd and 3rd game, where i get the baseline of what happened. Though the Netflix series didn't even try to do that.

Agreed about the Battle of the Bastards. A lot of people seem to love it, but for a show that's supposedly gritty and realistic, GoT was so often ridiculously dumb about battle tactics. Sansa never told Jon that a large force of cavalry would soon be arriving because . . . why again? (Answer: The writers by this point seemed to think that yelling "HAHA! SURPRISE!" at viewers was the ultimate screenwriting achievement, much more so than creating characters who behave like rational or realistic human beings.)

For me, the best battle in GoT was Battle of the Wall. While not perfect, I felt at least that one had good battle tactics, same for King's Landing. But Battle of the Bastards was just visual spectacle. Looking beyond that, it was dumb AF.

It's really interesting battle to see. The rohan has a multi layer strong defence but there is a sea of orcs who seem stronger than your average Rohan reservist in 1vs 1 fight. We can see how tide of battle moves back and forth. There is actions and counter actions.

Yes, but the main characters being there also lends credence to the fact that the stakes are high. That's why they are there

"I believe people would still be invested in the Battle of Helm's Deep" Sorry but almost everyone who wasn't a child when the LOTR movies were released hated them. They are very unfaithful to the book and contain way too much dumb humour, and completely lack gravitas. If you wonder why stuff like the Witcher got ruined it is essentially because people like you gave a massive pass to Jackson and his terrible scriptwriters to ruin Tolkien's work and it has been happening ever since as a direct result.

@@pretentiouscritic6513 Worst take I've ever heard. The movies were very well received, crushed it at the box office, and are still regarded as some of the best, if not the best, movies of all time. The most pretentious thing is believing that everyone else believes something just because you do.

@@Crimsonfangg You obviously aren't old enough to remember the mixed reaction at the time, and worse are incapable of simply googling box office numbers - none of the films are anywhere near the top grossing films of all time despite the fact the book outsold almost literally every other book ever written. The books were hated by the Tolkien estate and most of the older fans. It is only people like you who obviously aren't smart enough to read a book who write endless fanboy comments online that liked them. Either way it doesn't matter whether you liked them or not anyway: the point was not that they suck it was that they are not remotely faithful to the original book: which you didn't understand because you are obviously too intellectually limited to read anything.

As Power Rangers Ninja Storm once said, "Fight anyone not in primary colors"

Rience.... :(

Ok, so what you mean is you wanted to see 40 000 people fighting INSIDE A BUILDING.

I just want to understand why those dumb mages would stand around in an enclosed space taking arrow after arrow from magicless elves, instead of dispersing / teleporting away and taking them out from a distance guerilla style, heck that fortress is their home, surely they would know how to navigate it better than outsiders

@@ohaussno what he means is that the entire episode is devoid of logic. Go back to your Netflix writer buddies, buy a brain, and try being better writers.

@@ohauss 40,000?? Id be happy with 40. Didn't they expressly say something about it only being 16 elves or something? Maybe 20? So one dies to haduken (crazy powerful, better not use that to great effect ever again or by anyone else) a few more to lightning, a few to misc. spells... how is the entire Brotherhood of Mages struggling to fight like, a dozen elves with arrows? And all the fighting takes place in a very small courtyard. This "epic battle for the future of mages and elves on the continent" is a stupid 20 v 20. In S1 one witch crushed the spines of like 40 charging soldiers, in this? Nah. Yen levelled a few acres of forest and men with her fire, Stregobor? Maybe got another 1 or 2 / 20 with his fire.

I mean the chance of showing ACTUAL battles was wasted by the show, I mean the events on Thanedd are a skirmish in comparison, but when the coup on Thanedd was taking place there was supposed to be Nilfgaardian second invasion, kingdoms of Aedirn and Rivia were attacked, there were sieges and serious battles like battle of Aldersberg the siege and sack of Vengerberg and so on!!! The war broke out with the powerful nilfgaardian army invading the northern kingdoms! They had source material to depict huge battles for real! Like the battle of Marnadal in Cintra in the first episode of season 1! Witcher Time of Contempt book which is supposed to be material for the third season has the whole events of the war described: " 'Nilfgaard attacked Lyria and Aedirn,' began the bard after a while. 'Without any declaration of war. The reason said to be an attack by Demavends army on some border fortress while the sorcerers met in Thanedd. Some say it was a provocation, that those were Nilfgaardian forces dressed as Demavends soldiers. How it truly was, we will never know probably. In any case, the Nilfgaardian answer was very swift and massive. A massive army crossed the borders, one that had to be collected in Dol Angra for weeks, months even. Spalla and Scala, the Lyrian border fortresses were destroyed while marching. Rivia was prepared for months of siege, but surrendered after just 2 days. The merchants and guilds were demanding it. They were promised, that if the city opens its gates and pays ranson, it will not be ransacked...' 'Was the promise honored? 'It was' 'Remarkable.' The witchers voice changed again. 'Honoring promises in these times? Not to mention, that in the past there were no promises, and no one expected them. The merchants and craftsmen did not open city gates in the past, but were defending the walls, everyone at their outpost or war machine.' 'Money has no country Geralt. The merchants dont care under whose flag they earn money. And the Nilfgaardian paladins dont care whose taxes they collect. The dead don't earn money, nor do they pay taxes.' 'Continue.' 'After the surrender of Rivia, the Nilfgaardian army continued to the north. They almost did not face any resistance. Demavend and Meve were pulling their soldiers back, because they could not create a line, and begin the decisive battle. So the Nilfgaardians got to Aldesberg. To prevent a blockade, Demavend and Meve decided to go to battle. The formation of their armies wasnt the best.. Dammit if there was more light I could draw you...' " ... "The kingdoms of Aedirn and Lyria could barely muster up three thousand cavalry and ten thousand footman, and about a fifth was cut off the battle during the first days, cut off in besieged outposts and fortresses. Part of the remaining army, the enemy had to reposition to the rear and guard their flanks, endangered by attacks of our light cavalry or the ambushes of Scoia'tael commandos. The remaining five or six thousand , in that no more than twelve hundred armored knights, stood in the fields in front of Aldesberg. Coehoorn threw a thirteen thousand army at them, in that ten banners of heavy cavalry, the blooming nilfgaardian knighthood. And now they are celebrating, brawling and demanding beer. Victory! What a surprise... " ... "'Vengenberg fell after a week,' added Dandelion. 'You will be surprised, but there the guilds defended bastions and their sections of wall until their last breath. The attackers killed the castle crew, defenders of the city and anyone who lived therein, six thousand people total. A massive escape ensued after that. The crushed squads and civilians began to escape to Temeria and Redania. Crowds of refugees stretched through the Pontar valley and Mahakaman foothills. But many were not able to escape; the nilfgaardian light cavalry were hunting them, cutting them off... Do you know why ?' 'I don't. I don't understand... I don't know much about warfare, Dandelion.' 'They wanted prisoners. Slaves. They wanted to catch as many people as possible. That is the cheapest work force in Nilfgaard. Thats why they were so focused on hunting refugees. It was a big hunt on people, Geralt. An easy hunt. Because the army was routed and no one defended the poor.' 'No one?' 'Almost no one.' " In any case the magical battle between sorcerers in the book also was quite full of effective scenes :). " 'It is Tissaia's doing. She suddenly decided on which side to stand. She has removed the block, dissipating the aura and neutralizing the dimeritium. Then everyone jumped at each other's throats! Vilgefortz and Terranova on one side, and Philippa and Sabrina on the other... The columns broke and the roof collapsed... And Francesca opened the entrance to the basement and then, there were these elven devils... We shouted that we were just neutral but Vilgefortz laughed. Before we could build a shield, Drithelm received an eye through the eye, then covered him like a hedgehog... I did not stay to await the development of the issue. Marti, do you have much left to do? We have to get out of here!' " If the magic effects shown were tiny bit more impressive, people actually shooting lightning, fireballs, explosions etc. :)

I'm fine if you want to take a story in a new direction, but the creators of the Netflix show dont seem to have a vision theyre sticking too. So no matter what you like about the witcher, no one is happy

@@TheWritersBlockOfficial I think they’ve changed everything so much, i really don’t understand why they made ‘The Witcher’ and not a new IP. Could’ve made it more suited to their audience of ‘younger Americans’ then. But yeah i agree the show is convoluted and contradictory. Like when someone kills one baby we should feel bad? But then when someone murders hundreds in Oxenfurt we should feel bad for the murderer. Nothing works, like you said. Like season 3 was all about retconning season 2 so it can actually tell the story of the books a little bit, but that then sabotages their (albeit not very good) creative vision, leading to a show that just doesnt know what it wants to be.

​@@wjaston4161"i really don't understand why they made 'The Witcher' and not a new IP." The reason for that is obvious. I watched the Witcher because I liked the books. I wouldn't have watched a new IP. Being part of an existing and beloved IP made the show an instant hit.

@@Jehty_ yeah, I mean obviously I understand that. That was more just a statement of frustration rather than a serious question. I apoligise

Thank you so much! That's very kind of you to say

I called the elf lady Chelsea one time because I couldn’t remember her name. But yeah I agree this felt out of place. Filavandrel was the king and then he just wasn’t important anymore

⁠@@Asteroids50the problem is, in the books Filavandrel is not the king of the elves but only the leader of the free elves in Dol Blathana (where the episode with the sylvan takes place). When Francesca Findabair (elf lady) becomes queen of Dol Blathana by Nilfgaards grace AFTER the coup on Thanedd Isle for her part in it Filavendrel becomes her Advisor. Additionally, the first meeting of Geralt and Jaskier and their adventure in Dol Blathana is set about 10-20 years before the main plot and the coup on Thanedd Isle.

They stuck with the books in the first season and went off the rails after that. I agree, the books are different but my intention was the same as the video creature. To talk about the tv show plot, characters, and writting.@@robertkinz6642

Francesca Findabair (aka elf lady aka Enid an Gleanna) is probably the most butchered character in the show, the whole dreams and baby plot doesn't even happen in the books it's purely show conjecture, she's actually one of the Archmages of Aretuza and Vilgefortz's co-conspirator in this whole betrayal schtick.

@@owendewaal9805this would be super cool to see in the show. I wish they had set this up. The show made it feel like a surprise. Like I didn’t know Francesca and Vilgefortz even knew each other!

I mean by definition it is subjective. Objectively it increases the odds of angering fans. But whether or not its a nad choice artistically is subjective

@TheWritersBlockOfficial Calling a Spear when it's a Sword doesn't make it subjective. As for artistic reasons, it is objectively stupid. There is a difference between adapting because it doesn't fit the new media as to changing the art that is already there. If the story has no or little resemblance to its original, you end up with stories that are just piggy backing off the success of the original. There's a difference between adding your own artistic ideas and riding the fame of the original source material.

Changes have to happen to change mediums. We cant just watch geralt ride roach for an hr while he thinks about cintran politics. The subjective thing that makes the changes good or bad is if they remain thematically and narratively consistent. It’s subjective because some people will see issues where others dont, but if you do it right everyone can enjoy the adaptation as a stand alone work. Jackson greatly abbreviated frodo leaving the shire, ommited tom bombadil and the forest, the barrow weights, etc. he rolled characters together to make the movies version of arwin, etc. these are really quite large changes but they dont actually effect the characters actions in relation to their motivations, or the overall plot. On the rare cases where they do, the plot is changed to reflect the other changes. This makes the adaptation, which has to make changes, internally consistent.

@drunkenhobo I clearly typed, " There is a difference between adapting because it doesn't fit the new media..." So you rebuttaled nothing, DRUKENhobo.

@@gamerrant whats a “drukenhobo”. 🤡

So glad i could do that for you :)

I really enjoyed ( though could see flaws) up through season 2. But with the departure of Henry cavil and the just downright nonsensical direction of season 3, I've felt the need to discuss the shows issues. I think whats odd is now the show feels like it views the audience as the enemy. I get why people who were deeply invested in the books took problem with the direction of seasons 1 and 2, but now the choices they are making seem to not even reward those who initially enjoyed the show. Very strange to watch unfold. But if making content on youtube has taught me anything, its that the audience always has to come first

He did another video on season 3 that was also good. It’s nice to find a creator that doesn’t just complain about stuff, but actually offers critical analysis and positivity

@@TheWritersBlockOfficial Yeah, it has a lot of problems. More than some random producers thinking the audience is stupid, the showrunner Lauren had made some alarming comments that she wanted to focus on the female characters and not Geralt, that she never liked fantasy an barely finished the first Witcher book, and she specifically looked for writers who were NOT diehard Witcher fans. Overall I thought S3 was slightly better than S2, but overall this show was amazing IP put into the hands of people who have no respect for the source material. It's a recipe for disaster. I'm personally not coming back for S4, but there's a lot Netflix can learn from.

​@@Asteroids50There are more of them. Neon Knight for example had a fair, if strict analysis of all the show's faults that was ultimately kinder than what I would've expected.

@@Aesanthirgood to know. I prefer critical content with good analysis. I haven’t watched his video yet, so thanks for the rec!

To be fair here magicians in the Witcher are all beautiful cuz they use magic to change how they look

of all things to fixate on..

@@jatzi1526 Except when they don't. Some of those casting choices....

Have you even watched The Witcher? Or are you saying that to contrast this show? Because although the witches are supposed to be gorgeous, they're... meh. Frankly, the one reminds me of Yzma from Emperor's New Groove. And they put at straight-up ugly characters in a sex scene, which nobody wants to see that.

​@jatzi1526 have you ever seen a person cry heavily? It doesn't matter how beautiful you are - you will not look beautiful in that moment. So yeah, I agree with the OP, that's why emotions do not feel real in modern shows - they don't allow their mains to lose themselves in real emotions - wail, ugly cry, etc

When this series first came out I had just finished Witcher 3 and was so excited. To see how it all progressed is really disappointing. I honestly couldn't be bothered to even watch this season, I just lost complete interest after season 2. They truly did this series a disservice by allowing idiots who don't even like the series be in charge of making the series

For me the killer was all the little things they failed to make proper use of, like requisite for example. I knew there were shenanigans with the casting, but at least they had Henry, who was a diehard fan. You could almost feel the writers' and show runners' indifference. The series didn't feel like it was about the Witcher, but more their warped, boss babe version of the original female characters...@@LazySillyDog

Exactly!!! And conversely, if you've done enough set up for the characters, the audience will forgive A LOT later down the road.

@TheWritersBlockOfficial ultimately the characters are the story, and without any characters it's just an empty world. I really wish the makers of the series actually understood this and developed the characters in a way we would care about them. Every great show I've watched I liked or disliked the characters, but with this I just flat out don't care about them

Very true! In my own #starshatter decalogy, the 1st installment in a character introduction book@@TheWritersBlockOfficial Some criticized me for this choice but the fans loved it. Like you said, later down the road, I had the freedom to flesh out all the main villains. I even had the space to write them going on a villain's journey of their own.

Aye, true. This Bowmaster sniped Sauron from Helm's Deep. He hit him squarely in the bull's eye)))))

EXACTLY!!! Rohan as a community is given so much character that you even care about the random villages

Thanks! A lot of the response to this video has been focused on "yeah witcher bad" but I really did want to focus on the lessons that can be taken away. RU-vid tends to favor negative content, so I generally try to camoflauge Positive Storytelling advice with "Negative" framing. Glad this was helpful.

😂🤣

Haha I try to be accurate when I can. I'm sure I'll make a goof later on. But I do know the difference between a clip and a magazine at least :)

Agreed.

Glad it was helpful!

Sometimes I think the writers were creating some kind of fan fiction

Oh thats rad! You playing dnd or a different tabletop rpg?

The good and old DND. The table consists mostly of new players, and I think the system is a bit more intuitive.

@@gutembergbezerra69 Old as in an older edition? I've only messed around with 5e as a DM. Campaigns I've tried to run are often to big in scope, but after playing Baldur's Gate 3, next campaign I'm gonna run is definitely gonna focus on a much smaller but dense settings

I mean, the sorceresses are beautiful by their own magic and dress sexily to achieve their aims of manipulating kings. One mage in the games (Triss) should not be exposing her breasts because of the Battle of Sodden. The show actually does that better than the games for her, inexplicably, but then the show has made Margarita a body positive large black woman instead of the most beautiful human alive...so I don't know.

Because boobs are awesome

Maybe because for centuries there was a repression on the bodily exposition because of religion, and after the sexual liberation/revolution in the sixties, it became a comercial exploit to sell products? Sometimes some women use their sexuality to their advantage or financial gain, others times they're exploited because of financial situations or or abuse of a power relation. It still remains a difficult debate because, unfortunately, we don't live in an utopia. With the internet nowadays, I have the feeling that people want to impose their worldview on others while they don't take into account the many aspects a situation can have, or even judge things on a case by case but rather generalise based on their own worldviews. I don't mean this as a remark on this post, just a general observation.

I get you, but to play the devil's advocate, the way they dress is intentional. Ofc part of it is just the devs wanting them to wear those clothes, however, in the books it's actually clearly explained, and I dare say agree with Sapkowski. Some dress that way because of what @adamp6320 said, but it's more than that. (and yes, Triss should have an ugly scar on her chest) It's all about societal standards and ideals of beauty. Male sorcerers let themselves age to their 40s or even longer, because people value maturity more in men. Women on the other hand stay younger, and dress provocatively to establish that they're outside the bounds of society - it's about freedom for them. It's funny you called them that in your comment, because for example the writer states that in their society, only two types of women wore their hair long and didn't wear a cap, sorceresses and prostitutes. This is true in real life as well btw, 'brothel fashion' becoming mainstream, e.g. bright lipstick.

@@sztallone415 technically the Triss scars would not be very noticeable, she says herself that: "Damn it, I'm Triss Merigold, the Fourteenth One Killed at Sodden. There are fourteen graves at the foot of the obelisk on the Hill, but only thirteen bodies. You're amazed such a mistake could have been made? Most of the corpses were in hard-to-recognise pieces - no one identified them. The living were hard to account for, too. Of those who had known me well, Yennefer was the only one to survive, and Yennefer was blind. Others knew me fleetingly and always recognised me by my beautiful hair. And I, damn it, didn't have it any more!' Geralt held her closer. She no longer tried to push him away. 'They used the highest magics on us,' she continued in a muted voice, 'spells, elixirs, amulets and artefacts. Nothing was left wanting for the wounded heroes of the Hill. We were cured, patched up, our former appearances returned to us, our hair and sight restored. You can hardly see the marks. But I will never wear a plunging neckline again, Geralt. Never.'" Witcher, Blood of Elves So that 'you can hardly see the marks implies that the scarring is not as bad and it's maybe just her extreme reaction. In any case one can imagine the healing magic allowing for some cosmetic changes and removal of scars over time. After all magic is used to fix up the ugly or disfigured candidates for sorceresses: "Unlike priestesses and druidesses, who only unwillingly took ugly or crippled girls, sorcerers took anyone who showed evidence of a predisposition. If the child passed the first years of training, magic entered into the equation - straightening and evening out legs, repairing bones which had badly knitted, patching hare-lips, removing scars, birthmarks and pox scars. The young sorceress would become attractive because the prestige of her profession demanded it. The result was pseudo-pretty women with the angry and cold eyes of ugly girls. Girls who couldn't forget their ugliness had been covered by the mask of magic only for the prestige of their profession." Witcher, The Last Wish

Honestly, I almost delayed the video. I was very close to spending the whole weekend dominating the continents as The Vampire Coast

@@TheWritersBlockOfficial _Henry Cavill wants to add you as a friend_

Thanks!

Hah. My bad. It gets to me too. But it's one of the few shots from that section that lasts more than a half second so It works better in the video essay format. Sorry for the feels tho