The Witcher Season 2 is... Something Else 

I think what killed me the most about this season is how many characters acted like completely different people. Vesemir would never even entertain the idea of hurting Ciri. Eskel is one of the nicest witchers there is. Triss wouldn’t betray Ciri either. It all just felt so far off from how it should be

No wonder Henry is that built and muscular, he's carrying this entire shit show on his shoulders

Knowing Henry Cavill, he’ll probably take criticisms like this seriously and fight for S3 to be better and closer to the books.

- Drop the chaos storyline - Cut screentime to half for the lodge - Focus on vesemir, jaskier, Ciri, Yen, & Geralt. It's The Witcher not GOT. - More monsters ( the path ) - Focus more on character interaction, don't "walking dead it" panning out the screentime with sh*t no one cares about - Use the books/games as a resource to better direct how the story should unfold. The ground work is already there, use it.

"We aren't off the rails, we're on a different track" is a very, VERY apt description of this season.

Henry Caville as Geralt is like the same situation with Andrew Garfield as Spider-Man. Both love the character but the production wasn't in line with their enthusiasm.

Henry Cavill seems like he's carrying this whole show on his shoulders...the man deserves credit where its due. He's working with a faulty script and honestly his scenes are the best and most interesting.

I'm really pissed at the writers because before it all, Hissrich said she wants to stay as close to the source material as possible, and that the books give so much material, she doesn't feel the need to invent her own. Well, that was a f***ing lie! If she said the series will be inspired by the books and games that would've been fine, and I'd accept the changes.

Laura said that the reason she killed Eskel was bc it was supposed to give Geralt a sense of urgency to quickly stop accidents like that to happen again and possibly to Ciri. Honestly, I feel the same way as you did. When he died, I felt nothing. If he died in a later episode after we see more of his TRUE personality. Would've cried as much as I did when Roach died (which was the only time)

That's actually a great point about Eskel, I would have loved to see him bonding more with Ciri while she's training. That would have made his death a lot more impactful

Game Eskel is like a more introvert, mellow version of a Witcher. It really helps show the contrast in personalities of the witchers. He’s like a somber older brother RIP “good eskel”

Seeing this video is kinda interesting because I just finished binge watching season 1&2. The main thing is I have no knowledge of the Witcher series and because of this I actually enjoyed the show a lot. Now that I’m starting to read and get into the lore of the world I can see why people aren’t to happy with the “adaptation”.

I only played the games, but I understand enough to see some things that don't make sense, like the monsters from the Cintran monoliths getting from Cintra to Kaedwin and Kaer Morhen in very quick time, or you know, Eskel being a Leshen.

When episode 1 wrapped up I went "HOLY SHIT! That's the most Witchery thing we've ever got out of this Witcher show!"...then they killed off Eskel, butchered Vesemir's character in a clear, blatant attempt to prey on the emotional attachment of people who've played the games.

There is a significant cultural difference between the original author of the books and the Hollywood creators of the show, which prevents them from properly understanding the source material. Apart from Henry Cavill and a few other people the rest of the crew (mainly behind the camera) cannot get immersed enough into the story and appreciate its true value. They are only scratching the surface and playing with the settings, but are unable to convey the same level of storytelling. As with many other movies and series, the business oriented sharks in Hollywood completely fail with the artistic side of the plot. A story of this magnitude was always going to be a challenge and it's not for everyone. In such case is better to take less risks and follow the source material more closely, rather than rewriting things you don't understand. Like an incompetent architect trying to rebuild a building without understanding the blueprint and forcing it to fall down flat, instead of carefully restoring the original.

It's like Henry Cavill said in an interview, characters make stories, they didn't set a lot of the characters right, and I think that's why events that happened didn't feel quite as they should

The biggest difficulty I have with Season 2 is how fast everything feels. It kind of felt like one of those cheap greek gods movies where the main character is inherently great and learns combat/ magic at 1000x pace. It feels like Ciri was in Kaer Morhen for few weeks tops, and learned the ninja coarse thing in 1 day? Then she spent literally 1 day in the temple? Feels like it might be a downfall like another show that tried to accelerate things towards the end :(

As someone who hasn't read the books, Eskel's death meant nothing to me. In fact I was even a little glad that he died because he was kind of a douche to Ciri

What I'm worried about is the fact that the season mentioned the Wild Hunt as just lost riders trying to find their way home, and needed the Elder blood to do that. Is this some attempt to gain more empathy for the elves? Make them a tragic group?

Speaking of characters I'd like to see more of, Geralt. Felt like a side character to a show about the mage lodge

few things that irked me: 1. Lack of ciri's motivation to desperately become a witcher 2. The portrayal of Eskel, Vesemir and Yen. 3. The cursing felt weird too, like it wasn't as comedically or eloquently done as in season 1. 4. I don't know if whether Netflix wants to stick to the original work or form their own adaptation, both of which is fine but only if it's done well. A few key moments from the blood of elves are just copied and pasted and come off as underwhelming to me since the book has these powerful political monologues for most of its characters, especially triss during her stay at kaer morhen. 5. The action choreography was a bit clunky?? It was okay overall, maybe I was just expecting really cool witcheresque action.

the one thing this season made clear is that the people writing dialogue either never spoke to anyone in real life or they wrote everything in 2 or 3 days before a deadline or something

At 7:12-7:16 I was really impressed with his edit flipping between the two environments right as his words did. Really emphasized the point just that much more.

Just finished season 2 and I must say that I had nearly the same thoughts afterwards. This whole season shows perfectly that the creators tried really hard to make their own thing out of the witcher-world (just like CDPR did with the games) and managed to fail gloriously. I still hope that they will learn and do a better job in season 3 (just like they did with season 1, I actually loved that season), but I'm sceptical, because they already did really much damage...

I had the feeling that for several characters they just introduced them for the checkmark. They know that they play a role in BoE so they wanted them to have an appearance in this season, event though the role of these characters were completely different or could have been omitted completely in their version of the story. Mostly for Eskel, Yarpen and Neneke.

The Witcher series is good for people that have not played the games or read the books. If you have experienced any of those, the Netflix series is just dissapointing.

I am right there with you. I want it to be something more. This season was a sad fanfiction. I watched an interview with the main writer and it gave me a little bit of hope for the season. She said that Blood of Elves was hard to write for because she didn't feel that much of the book was translatable to screen. Although I disagree with that, she made it seem like the rest of the books were much more translatable especially the future books. I hope for good things for this series but season 2 was pretty disappointing. Quality visuals do not make up for poor writing that has little to do with the source material.

Henry cavill is absolutely great as geralt. And episode 1 was great, sadly the other episodes weren't as good.

Man, I understand that Blood of Elves is a slower book compared to the short stories, but is it so bad that you can't even adapt more than 20% of it? Does the audience really need a monster or a battle in EVERY episode? BoE has sooo many incredible character moments, so much great dialogue and it does have some nice action scenes too, just not with monsters. It's a shame that the showrunners want to make stupid turn-your-brain-off schlock instead of an actual good show or adaptation. Also all that swearing and jargon used by so many characters had me rolling my eyes every time.

This season I feel like I'm missing the great dialogue from the books. Yes there is not that much action in them, but to me character development, forming friendships and exploration are just as important and interesting.

Ciri and Geralt were close enough in age to be lovers, it was weird and there was no father/daughter dynamic. As well as this, many of the female characters were abnormally self absorbed. Best chemistry was between Yen and Dandelion, most other interactions felt wooden. In terms of make up, many have pointed out that you can have naturally different colour hair and eye-brows, but in this case every single character wearing a wig had mismatched hair and eye-brows, eventually it stood out as fairly weird.

Personally feel you're spot on, and I haven't even read the books. The Eskel situation really bugged me and I could never get over it. I really do hope it improves as it currently does no justice to the world of The Witcher

I didn't expect them to go for an exact adaptation but I did expect some semblance of characters resembling the ones I got to love. I'm kinda glad that it has been years that I have read the books so I don't feel as frustrated about the series as I possibly could.

"When Eskel died I felt nothing" gave me flashbacks to Daenerys S8 of GoT :(

This show has so much potential of being a good show but cause of the writing/writers I don’t think it will get any better

I think the death of Eskel wasn't meant to be emotional, but one of those character deaths that make an impact to another, in this case Vesemir, making him more and more desperate that the witchers are dying, and then at the finale it makes him tell Geralt that as he killed his son (Eskel), maybe they would have to do the same to his (Ciri). Tho I see why they kill Eskel, I agree with you that it was a waste, and could have been removed completely and change nothing. I too hope next season lives up to the books.

One thing which made it almost impossible for me to get into it is that everything looks like it was filmed in a big Disney amusement park or something. Everything is too neat and soulless,... Game of Thrones was far superior visually. It was fantasy but it felt real and believable. Costumes were flawless, leather looked worn out and not like it came fresh out of the factory, armors looked like they went through some sh*t, everything and everyone looked like they had been there long before the viewer sat in front of the TV screen. In The Witcher every single character looks too neat, there's no dust, no dirt, no small imperfections, it's simply lifeless and I think that's why a lot of people are comparing the show with Xena, because it looks like a cheap 90's fantasy show at times. I won't even talk about the casting,... The only thing which makes this adaptation worth it is Henry Cavill's dedication and the fight scenes which are incredible in my opinion. To be fair, Henry Cavill deserved better. I completely agree with you about Tissaia, Rience, Geralt and Jaskier and the first episode though. I really wanted to love it too but it doesn't do it for me.

The decision making with this show is just plain bizarre. On one hand, they defend how badly they butchered the source material by saying this show is meant to be its own thing (never mind the fact that they actually advertise it as an "adaptation" of the books), but having knowledge of the Witcher universe is pretty much a prerequisite to watch the show since the world-building and character motivations are done so poorly that most viewers who never read the books / played the games are left nearly clueless. On the other hand, if Netflix expects the audience to already be part of the existing Witcher fanbase (and let's be real here, I'm assuming that accounts for at least 60% of the viewers of the show), WTF are we seeing here?? We have chunks of important book material either skipped or rewritten (and obviously not for the better), and beloved characters who have more presence in the game world killed off for no purpose other than to show one big middle finger to everyone who played the games. Hey, I'm not saying you shouldn't enjoy the show or whatever. I am just disappointed to see so much wasted potential in a series that had every right to be perfect.

Thank you! I agreed with almost everything you said! I'm glad I'm not the only one who feels this way.

I only cared about your video game videos you made so far and was never planning on watching this one, but honestly this is a really good commentary on season 2 and glad you made it. You summarize many of the problems so well!

My biggest disappointment was Vesemir. There were so many great moments they could have done with him, some bordering on truly capturing the character, but they essentially turn him into an evil characiture of himself. Same thing happened with the animated show. Netflix has no idea how Vesemir is supposed to be portrayed, they just seem him as some evil/selfish/indulgent old mentor character its so wrong.

I think they are following way too many characters jumping around everywhere. Half the time it seemed like they would cut to another character in the middle of a scene and all the suspense was gone.

I knew it people have the same thoughts as me, once ive finished episode 6 it really goes to my mind that the season 2 doesn't have the same 'feel' that made me so invested on season 1

I thought, when watching Eskell’s death, that he would be brought back by either Yennefer or Ciri. I’m still wondering if that may be the case come Season 3 but I think that it’s highly unlikely

Why is no one talking about the Igni at the sword? That is one of the coolest things in the show! Also, one of my biggest problems is the lack of original score. Can you start humming any theme? I cannot either. The first season had much more memorable scores. Renfri's theme for example. Everyone remembers it. Can you remember Nivellen theme? Or Geralt fighting the Michelet brothers theme? Nope. It is all some generic score and nothing unique. It does not feel like witcher music at all.

Why is noone talking about how so many of the main characters suddenly have completely different personalities in season 2? Even for audiences who don't know the books and games... In season 1 they show yennefer who cares about the new girls at Arethusa and warns them of the dangers of this path and the brotherhood, even if she does it in her though love way . We are presented a yennefer who wants a child more than anything, she realized that she didn't understand back than what she was sacrificing for her powers, the power to create actual live. If anything the season 1 yennefer would give up her powers in order to get a child and now she is presented with her perfect "Geralt, me and a child"-opportunity (which they even show!) and instead she wants to sacrifice Ciri for her powers???? Gerald in the first season is painted as someone who understands that in this rough world there is rarely something just black or white... I mean the whole lesser evil episode or foltest, who slept with his sister and then let his ppl suffer under the stRiga plague just to cover up his mistakes... Geralt had sympathy for that! He says he himself hasn't done only good either. Now in episode 1 S2, when his friend confesses that he has been cursed because he raped the Priestess... when he was young and dumb and hanging with the wrong ppl and under the influence of drugs and is clearly full of regret about it and says that he deserved his punishment, aaaaand seconds ago killed his lover (the only "women" who has ever loved him for who he is) to save Ciri, once again proving that he is not a bad man at all, but nevertheless Gerald judges the living f out of him and turns his shoulder on him, like "you are a bad, bad person and that's that" that flips the whole picture of Gerald on its head. Suddenly we are back to black and white storytelling, good against evil. Tissaia, same thing... before was this tough lady, who was willing to do uncomfortable things in order to get to the needed results, very disciplined, turning girls into eels for the "greater good"... Now suddenly is a softie and thinks it's a good time for romance while the whole continent is upside down. War, her mages (who are practically her daughters) dying off, political uproar, invasion ... The Tissaia they presented in season 1 would never think of getting romantically involved in such times That's just some examples of the inconsistent characters. And I'm not even talking about the whole subject if all the changes they made to the books are good or bad. That's a completely different topic entirely... but at least make it consistent

Thank you, you speak right out of my heart with this Review

This is my first time coming across your channel, and I have to say that I will be watching many of your videos in the future.

100% my sentiment. I don't expect 1:1 I expect an adaptation. And I also liked a lot of stuff they changed especially in season 1 but it was still at its core the same story. Season 2 is not an adaptation. Spending a lot of money on everything and then hiring second grade dropouts to write the show is typical Netflix.

As I’ve only played the games, I was confused when they killed Ermion in season 1, and now in season 2 they kill off Eskel? This is The Last Jedi kind of writing

Awesome analysis, thanks!

Just can’t go wrong with Witcher content! Plus you do great making the videos. Very well done in my opinion. Keep them coming. 👍

Okay, I will say it... It doesn't need to be like the books... but it needs to make a little bit of sense. Done. Also! I love the fact that they just fucking fast traveled from Cintra TO KAER MORHEN... in seconds...

The interrogation scene was okay, albeit a bit predictable with the liquor and the fire, what really grinded my gears was how Yennefer got in the tavern. He was literally torturing someone, shouldn’t he have locked the door at the very least? These kind of stupid decisions really brought the writing down for me.

Djikstra? However you spell it. Is the voice of Dracula for Netflix Castlevania. The guy is a legend.

Completely agree 100% with everything you've said. What a sad waist of Eskel.

When it comes to discussing the quality of an adaptation, I generally use the following analogy: Basically, I go by a statement made a Anime ADR director about how, “There is no such thing as an accurate Translation. You would never say, “Wow, that’s the most accurate Apple Pie I’ve ever had!” “ I apply this to all Adaptions as well. An Apple Pie is not “accurate”, it’s just tasty or not. But, when I order Chocolate Cake, you tell me I’m going to get Chocolate cake, I’m looking forward to getting the chocolate cake, and then you show up and serve me an Apple Pie (and still try to tell me it’s chocolate cake when it clearly isn’t), I am gonna be upset with you and be predisposed to disliking the Apple Pie because I DID NOT ORDER AN APPLE PIE!!, Maybe there are some people who ordered the Chocolate Cake, were served the Apple Pie, and can still find the Apple Pie tasty. But, I am not one of them. I wanted my Chocolate cake, you gave me Apple Pie, and I bit into the pie (already upset with you for messing up my order) and thought it tasted bad. Maybe the Apple Pie would Taste better if I walked in and said, “Give me any Dessert” and didn’t know what you would serve me, but frankly I’m just not in that position. But, I hope that even if I was in that “Give me any Dessert” situation, I would still feel the way I do and think the Apple Pie is bad. The Witcher Season 2 is being served Apple Pie when you ordered Chocolate Cake. And the Apple Pie on its own doesn’t taste very good.

It's always hard when you're so familiar with and fond of the source material. Having only previously played the games , I really enjoyed it and look forward to more. The show might not satisfy the long time fans but I think it'll make a lot of new ones.

Thank You! I totally agree with you on the second season! I hope the showrunners behind Lauren Schmidt-Hissrich improve the show in that regard... But now, I would be interested in your oprinion about the anime "Nightmare of the Wolf" because I had similar issues there...

well done review! i too played witcher 2, 3, dlc and read All the books..

I was pretty disappointed by the changes. It completely missed the mark at times while remaining just faithful enough to the source material to be watchable.

I have mixed feelings. There are some beautiful things about this show. And honestly, it is just so cool that we have a The Witcher show. I enjoy many scenes, just because I wanted to see these Charakters on screen for so long. But many things they done to charakters like Yen, Eskel or Cahirs story just hurt my brain. I just don't understand what the destination is... Also can you tell me why the videogames have like 10 times better dialogs? C'mon... I am a bit sad. But I still had my fun with the season. And the fight scenes are great in my opinion

Great video. Agreed with almost everything you said.

It's a testament to your skill in a role when people dislike most or all of the material but love how you portray a character.

If it was more focused on slow paced, character based horror rather than action fantasy I think it'd be better served.

Hey, love your videos! Cool to be watching the channel grow 🤙

The thing that most bothered me in the second season was the amount of plot armour Yennefer has. The acting was good it was the script that did not make any sense whatsoever. The most stark example was ... SPOILER ... the botched Cahir execution. They had absolutely no chance to escape from that situation. All the northern kings, their guards all the mages there did absolutely nothing. Did not even attempt to chase after them.

great video and i agree with you

The Witcher is supposed to be The Sopranos with medieval Slavic flair. Witty dialogue, adult problems with psychological depth and a gritty tone without melodrama, tired Western tropes and formulaic TV storytelling. What we have here is a CW show with better production values (I've actually seen better writing in some CW shows). I don't mind changes. I MIND bad changes that add nothing of value. LOTR trilogy changes stuff from the books. GoT Season 1 changes stuff from the books. Blade Runner is completely different from the source material. What do they have in common? Changes that recognize their medium and elevate their source material on a different platform. Witcher show sadly doesn't have that. I'm seeing a lot of people saying "I liked it". The problem is, The Witcher deserves more than "I liked it". It can be profound. It can be complex. It's not supposed to be easily digestable and make you say "It was okay". Anyways, here are some links to some good TV scenes and how the tone of Witcher could have been executed: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-YOc63DbbMI4.html ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Zg5yDzzOEps.html ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-mjxR77b9muc.html

what they did to eskel was heartbreaking.. + there was no shani!!!!!

Absolutely spot on review.

This video made me finally hit that subscribe button. You gave a real evaluation of the show instead of just praising it for fear of backlash and for that sir I thank you!

That's exactly what I thought about Eskel's character after watching him die in the very first episode he appears. And the reason I think they showed that many Witchers is to just show how powerful those hybrid Basilisks were. I mean so many Witchers died like flies fighting them and then there's Geralt who single handedly killed a Silver Basilisk. This season was better in visuals than the last one but it was stll an overall disaster.

I was very uncomfortable about Vesemir's character, the moment he wanted to make Ciri's blood into the mutagen. And yeah, those fears eventually and unfortunately came true. Every witcher other than Vesemir and Geralt is tough to really connect with and is written to be a drunk moron. And Eskel died in the most unexpectedly stupid and needless way. I honestly preferred S1 over S2. I also wish they had used Yarpen Zigrin better, but that's just a wish, not really a criticism. There's a difference between trying to make the adaptation unique and trying to change every plot detail, and I don't think they saw the difference, this season...

Almsot 29k of subscribers, good job mate! :) Anyway, looking forward to future reviews of the show

Damn, I'm really sorry to hear all the backlash that has started to come out about this season. I binged it within two days and loved it. Literally couldn't turn it off and am still really happy with it. It's unfortunate to see all this frustration from people but since I didn't read the books and only watched the games, I can't talk speak much more on that. I hope S3 can bring us all together. I really dont want to see this go the GOTs route.

Thank you. You summarized my thoughts exactly for S2 of The Witcher series. There is so much about this story and the characters that they were able to butcher this season: Geralt completly abandoning Nivellen in the end of the episode, killing off Eskel just because (and making him an asshole), Vesemir lusting over Ciri's blood to make more witchers, Ciri not having the time to train and gain confidence in herself, Yen wanting to sell off Geralt's child surprise for her own gain... I mean, they were not faithful to the characters and their essence.

Great video. Thanks again! Without getting too much into the nitty gritty, I feel like I'm being alienated as a massive fan of the books and the games. If I'd never heard of the Witcher IP I'd like it a lot more.

Good review

“Kaer Morhen is a secret, safe haven for the remaining School of the Wolf Witchers.” *a few scenes later* “Sex party!”

Triss Merigold was for some reason my Favourite Character of Season 2. Great improvement from season 1 !

I totally agree what you say about Eskel, there should have been buildup of character towards end of season and then Eskel dying at big fight In Kaer Moen, it would been much more impactful. I didn't like what they did with Ciri at that fight.

I read the book many years ago and thought I was going crazy while watching. I was like I don't remember ANY of this?! I understand there is going to be changes but it was NOTHINg like the books. I'm glad to hear I'm not crazy and I am remember the books correctly.

It definitely the writing for me this season and it’s definitely different than what I expected. I thought there would be a time jump or montage of Ciri training not just a couple of nights in Kaer Morhen. I don’t if it’s panini but I’m a lot book to screen adaptations have been really failing except for DUNE right now. I rather them follow book or game which season 1 did a wonderful job of doing and it made remember all the side characters and plots which I enjoyed.

This is exactly what I expected after s01 to be honest, unfortunately. They make so many truly awful writing choices in that season, including but in no way limited to humiliating vilgeforts and turning Nilfgaard into a meme. It's exactly like you said. They take a complex, detailed and very, very rich story and turn it into a one-dimensional pile of really dumb Hollywood tropes, and it makes no sense why they did that. I also really despise the "lol why did you expect a 1-1 recreation" muppets. Literally everyone who does not have some form of compulsive disorder understands that tv is different from books. They understand that you need to streamline some things, removing or merging side characters or subplots, and sometimes you can or should insert things in there that are not in the source material. An example for me would be from GoT. I hate more or less everything after s04e01 with a burning passion, for much the same sin as committed by the Witcher, and going back over s01-03 makes me see several really bad things I did not notice. In short, I hate almost all of the "adaptions" made by the two sociopathic pieces of sentient shit who were in charge, but my favourite scene, a scene that I still enjoy, is not from the books. It is the scene where varys and littlefinger discuss the nature of power and the purpose of power against the backdrop of jon snow climbing the wall. It's a fantastically well-written and well-acted villains monologue, and it can still give me goosebumps (Im 99% sure that one is straight from GRRM himself). It perfectly sums up and explains littlefinger and his motivations, which there has not really been room for like in the books, in a way that takes away nothing but instead enraptures the audience.

This series is like Japanese Christmas - it looks like Christmas, it smells like Christmas, but it doesn't feel like Christmas because the people involved don't understand its main concept. The only reason I watched the second season is Henry Cavill as Geralt and Kaer Morhen, but I got so disappointed with how the portrayed Vesemir I don't feel like watching any more seasons.

I really feel like one character they butchered alongside with Eskel was Vesemir. He did not at all feel like the oldest and wisest Witcher or a mentor to Geralt, instead he was moody, quick to anger and acted on pure emotion in the final episode, willing to instantly kill a young girl instead of even considering to try and cure her. And Geralt had to talk him out of it, when I really felt like that argument should have been between Geralt and Lambert instead. Someone defended Vesemir's actions by saying that it showed his fatherly instinct to protect this boys but I still feel like they didn't really portray his character fittingly in this season. He just didn't feel like Vesemir to me.

Cavil might have to become head writer of season 3

The only reason I can think of for offing Eskel is to deepen the mystery of the new monsters that are different. Too bad they didn't do more with it. If they'd had a few more episodes showing the witchers trying to uncover how he turned and such, it could have given his death more meaning.

How they made all other Witchers pretty much useless idiots to make Garelt the hero is such a cringe...

You know I'm glad the show is my first experience with Witcher material (known about the books and games forever but never gotten to reading or playing) so having only seen the show, I love it

It really bothers me it's not an adaptation of the books, because 1) the screenwriters actually said it will be very loyal to the books and 2) when I read the books like Blood of Elves and so on, I totally pictured it in my mind as a tv show and I hoped I will get one one day. But then... the creators of the show "well nope, let's make our on fan fiction that has nothing to do with books for no reason."

I loved the games and followed the lore religiously. The show pushed me over the edge where Gaunter O'Dimm scene was given to Fringilla what a joke

Wonderful review! Sums up my thoughts about the season as well. I think they wanted to show how Geralt has to make tough decisions by killing Eskel, but like you said, the bond wasn't really there. They tried to patch this up by including the flashback/memory of younger Eskel and Geralt talking about the bee, but I'm sure that it made no one besides book fans feel anything.

I think that one of the things that, first timers who criticize the fans who hate on the show, don't understand is how rich is the story in The Books and that it really could've been better if the proportion of changes weren't greater than source material included.

you matched my thoughts. thanks. I do, instead of many fans, get, that you can not translate a book word by word into a film. But this was not just a bit to much for me

I'm close to finishing my second reading of the books in 2yrs. I actually didn't mind that they changed so much this season. While I was going in prepared for a much closer adaption, I hadn't really thought about the fact that Blood of Elves, as written, probably isn't very good TV. And ultimately, everybody ends up at season's end being more or less where they were at the end of BoE. The only decision I really disagreed with was the super early revelation regarding the nature of Ciri's powers. I don't know.... the knowledge that she can do what she can do just feels like something that the other character's really shouldn't know or understand. But, beyond that one point, I was pretty enthralled for the whole season and can't wait for what's next!

I think the show would benefit from showing a map or something to help establish geography. If you haven't played the games or read the books you gotta be confused about where every place they mention is relative to one another.

I honestly would love a video going over the differences between this and the book, I liked the season but I havnt read any books so I would love some context

my highlight of season 2 was the jaskier argument with the dock guard who basically voices fan complaints about season 1. What was especially cool was that the actor was Alastair Parker who voices some NPC's in the witcher 3 as well as ungrim ironfist in warhammer total war.