The initial version of the review was manually blocked world-wide, hopefully this one does better... Here's the mail I got: i.gyazo.com/ed5b10c9a3859e272707121d5e7bf267.png Ultimately, my biggest regret is that nearly 4000 comments were lost from the original video :( Everything I said previously is still here. The changes are only to the background footage.
I appreciate your dedication, shame that netflix took down only your video about it. I really hoped it would be way better, but they made a piece of crap, I regret watching every second of it.
It's kinda fucked up that they always take the side of the ones that claim the copyright and never ask the creator for a response, or even check if this copyright is valid. Cmon youtube u're so rich u can afford to hire people to resolve these kind of problems.
I like how between this show, the books, and the games the Witcher world is ALWAYS just about to run out of monsters for Witchers to kill but no monster shortage is ever actually in evidence.
@@smartassdroid5149 you have to consider that 1- the reduction of the number is a LONG process and all these things take place in a span of roughly 100 years. 2- the number of witchers has fallen drastically as you can see in the anime (even though there are other schools and so on), so what was not enough for many witchers can still be plenty for the 4-5 remaining in the same region. 3- the more humans conquer the world the more monsters tend to disappear. Very few can adapt to live in cities. The witchers initially served as a vanguard to civilization and were far more numerous, then with the stabilization of society their usefulness have been declining for centuries since the conjunction and the arrival of men, so it is more about a general tendency of the whole history of that world.
True I feel like the only “evidence” is in the novels, when the real plot with Ciri begins there is little to no monster killing or monsters attacking them, even when Gerald and company are hanging out in the woods for a long time, I could be wrong though 🤷♀️
@@M..n..M true. Besides, it has been centuries since The Conjunction of Spheres. Evidently, witchers are not the only one who can kill monsters. Mages and Sorceresses needs ingredients from monsters to create potions and stuffs so they are more than willing to hunt monsters themselves. And the books, as well as medias, don’t have to show the evidences of monster shortage physically. I think good writing is not trying to make the audiences see everything that is happening, but let them make their own conclusions from dialogues or descriptions. For example, in the anime, a lot of witchers are actually poor as hell, and even the red-hair witcher didn’t make a lot of money because he couldn’t find any monster that pays well, meaning he only found common, weak monsters unlike the rare, strong Leshen that Vesemir managed to kill.
@@xLetalis it is... I tried finding a copy of it in my email but all I can see there is your reply to me. Anyway I hope the reupload will also get some comment traffic, it was really interesting.
it would be way better, shame they do not care about the lore or the ambience of the witcher as they end up making this things speccially the live action
The books and the games: Aard is like a wind gust, strong as a punch, unless you have a lot of perks, then it is a freezing wave reaching about 3 meters. Netflix: Got it, Kamehameha it is!
Didn't Vesmer drink a potion before using that sign? Forgive me, but it makes sense for his sign to increase its power if the potion is empowering one... At least, that is the way I foresaw it.
Nah you're being bullied because you're shit at opening up and talking to people and when someone talks to you confidently you get insecure and assume they're making fun of you
Well no. Don't get me wrong I actually criticize Netflix so much about Season 1 but even in books there aren't to much sign usage. Geralt rarely uses signs. In first 2 books and Season of Storms he uses rarely and after that nearly once in a book. And when he uses it is %90 an Aard. I only remember he cast an Quen aganist The Striga and not any other sign... I might be wrong though but yeah he uses signs really less.
Well it looks like Witcher 3 has sold almost 30 million copies, So for alot of people having the two swords is a very iconic look. It always made sense to me because its not like he can call a timeout and go get a different sword if something catches him by surprise.
I can see why Vesemir is always telling Geralt to stay out of it or avoid conflict. When him and Luka got involved it ultimately led to the down fall of Kaer Morhen.
Still didnt like that he and Luka didnt fought barehanded, I mean c´mon it was a Knight in the capital city what did they expect to happen? But yeah his whole insight to Geralt in the Bar Scene about the "Thugs" having nothing patriotic to focus on actually being a bad thing, since they´d turn on the next thing.
@@CombatSportsNerd ya I was saying that because I thought many Netflix animes seem to be unable to write a male protagonist that's NOT a somewhat romantic cocky rebel. Davion from the dota anime is exactly that personality as well. While I don't dislike that trait at all, it does get boring after a while
@@jewii3824 take it if i was you, far too many anime have the clueless protagonist thats fawned over by all the girls 😧 just feels like these writers are venting thier dreams through there anime. Not into it
I felt like it was trying hard to be like Netflix's Castlevania. You can see it very clearly in the way they portrayed Vesemir as this very cocky fighter who's always telling jokes, not taking things super seriously... He acts a lot like Trevor Belmont does in the series. Anyway, thank you for the entertaining review xLetalis, and sorry about the trouble they caused you blocking the original video. I also hope they make a sequel!
I kind of remember that one of the witchers in the first game say that they almost lost it when Geralts hair turned white, so seeing him bald was weird and unexpected for me
@@mikea2410 those extra trials made his hair white. Him being bald in the anime is literally pointless and changes nothing. It was just a stupid decision for a mild shock value.
While I was watching the final fight between Vesemir and the Sorceress, I only thought of one thing- "Who taught you to fight like that" "The Witcher you slew" 😭😭😭
@@xLetalis Hey leta I have a random question but In Touissant you can go to jail in 2 occations right? when Syanna is Dth and in a different occation I cant remember from one of your videos What was it? And is there any other way to go to jail
its amazing how dedicated you are to putting out content for us to enjoy that even after the original video is taken down you re edit it to abide to netflixs bs rules. i never got to finish the original video so thankyou for going through this effort for our enjoyment :D
What I really disliked about this anime imagining of events is HOW MUCH the sorceress plot changes the nature of the sacking of Kaer Morhen. Originally it was a testament of just how destructive the forces of fear, misinformation and prejudice could be. The witchers, even with their supernatural reflexes, signs, their knowledge and all their potions were helpless against a zealot mob of fearful commoners. In this it was just... a ton of high fantasy because the artist wanted to draw something flashy. All the poetry and writing is traded for an animated fight scene. I think I disliked that the most.
I feel like it's much worse than that. They turned witchers from marginalized minority, trying to get by in the unwelcoming world into a goddamn death cult, that torments children, kills women for coin, wants to unleash hoards of mutated beasts onto the unsuspecting population and generally are a bunch of assholes, who only care about money. It's not only an opposite of what witchers are (or at least should be), it's a conformation of every propaganda piece against them. Intentionally or not, it's the way of Netflix to say "In this case, stereotypes are correct and bigotry is completely justified", it's really fucked and disgusting.
@@malcolm4737 well said. I really don't have much argument against that. It's like the animators and writers were listening to someone describe how the world generalized and stereotypes witchers and then forgot that's supposed to be the perception, not the reality.
the Witcher story of how they were killed by power & prejudice gets kind of undermined if the Racist (modern) kingdom attacks their castle for killing a bunch of innocent people
@@gutfrets1693 exactly. The situation that Nightmare of the Wolf proposes makes the assault justified, at least in my opinion. I felt so strange and unsettled watching Kaer Morhen being attacked but with the new information, I didn't necessarily want them to win. It doesn't work with the lore, it's poorly executed and creates more questions than it gives answers. Just like that stupid fucking medallion tree.
Dark haired kid is probably the Witcher who dies in the 3rd episode of S1 Remus. Vesemir name drops him when asked which kids will survive. The Kitsu looks to have been inspired by the witcher dark horse comic fox children.
Wasn't his mum some kind of sorceress? I mean it fits lol. Also they live similarly long and know how magic works n shit, they r the only people equal to him apart from maybe elves lol
Netflix got jealous of the research and editing quality of the video you put up earlier lol. Btw I really like your takes on the TV Witcher adaptations so far. They should hire you for the lore and quality assurance of their projects considering your wealth of knowledge by this point.
@@CommanderJaneShepard the visual effects are flashy but what they actually do is as described by the books quite accurately. The big hadouken aard only disperses a swarm. Doesn't even harm the leshen. That's about as powerful as it should be, just a bit flashy is all. The only bit that could be considered OP is where he melts an entire lakes surface very quickly but that is not in combat and more of an oversight than anything else.
The ending was super sad. Him accidentally killing his love was heartbreaking. The whole battle was just so sad. All this destruction because of Tetra's obsession.
This is the most honest and non bias review of a movie I've ever seen. If netflix can't handle then they should just stick to their high school drama shows.
I think the personality of Vesemir which we know just starts to develop at the end of the movie, because he sees what responsibility he has, so he becomes the wise mentor figure. In my opinion I dont see a problem with the Leshen fight, we clearly see that Vesemir did like to joke around and enjoy his "youth" before he became serious.
There has always been a trail before the "Trial of grasses" when you travel with Lambert in Kaer Morhen he talks all about it. They went in as large group effort just like in this movie but the scenario is diffrent. Lambert's group had to go trough "Old speartips cave" which would end in to diffrent ways either he wasnt home (Like in Geralt's case when he did the trials) or like Lamberts where they would be slaughtered and only the quick thinking children would survive. (If I remember correctly only three children made it out alive in Lambert's group) Another way to confirm that this incident happen as children, before you enter the cave you have the option to follow "the sound of a kid screaming help" which turns out to be a foglet who mimicked one of the kids voices trying to lure in prey. If you choose to kill "Old speartip" Lambert will make the notice of how dumb the "Test trial" is since all witchers end up dead in a swamp for a little coin. So that test is rather accurate to how the game lore shows it. They made a similar use in the movie except their goal was to survive, be quick on their feet and to not be a hero except I still find their trial to be more absurd with no rather goal unlike ingame. (Yes im aware the netflix series and the games are two diffrent lores)
Especially how they just sent them to die for no reason. If they had proper training and was sent out to a dangerous task where most will perish, that’s one thing, but this just feels like child murder.
@@oliverwest4944 bro that was the Trial of Medallion, where they already had Witcher mutations. “He who comes back with his medallion, proves that he is ready to set out on the path” something like that, quoted from lambert. Guess they didn’t have swords.
@@alexisea8874 Got experimental with my megascope and found this interesting realm, where people seem to put their dreams , thoughts and memories for everyone to experience.
Vesemir-Illyana relationship was the best part in terms of quality. That he still loved her was deep IMO especially considering she was someone from the past he hated and tried so hard to escape. Showed he had his old self in him. Really well done.
It's a 6/10 for me. Too much crammed into such a short time. I couldn't even feel connected to Vesemir the main fkn character. And wtf I haven't read the books so I dunno but Monsters destroying Kaer Morhen is a trash plot. It should've been the mob of Humans only (aided by mages and soldiers). Monsters are the default enemies of witchers it serves no emotional, moral value atleast to me that its monsters who did all the work and the mob of humans was only there to get slaughtered by witchers spamming whirl.
Yeah... humans were ultimately the real monsters, yet here that's not really the case. It's strange because something along those lines were the slogans for Season 1 of the show.
In the games and the books, humans were capable of taking down witchers through numbers, ambush, or taking advantage of their sympathy. It showed humanity can be monsters of the world.
@@toledochristianmatthew9919 they are for me. Humans with their superstitions, fear, and don't wanting to understand what the witchers are and why but calling them when shit got real... If I were a human in the witcher universe and I see a witcher I would ask him "where are you heading?" and go in the opposite direction xD I don't want to be in the way of the problem the witcher is called to fix.
Kinda the whole reason they carry two swords and how come that was never mentioned, to someone who doesnt know anything about the witcher kinda a big part of the witchers shtick
@@eliottdewitt893 The two swords thing was a game mechanic. It doesn't exist in the books. In the books the witchers wield silver swords only and use normal swords when there is one in the vicinity don't mix the game mechanics with the real lore.
Thank you Xletalis I've been following you since two years now not a single day you fail to interest us ❤ Keep growing can't wait for your 1M Sub celebration video including Geralt ❤❤❤
Great Xletalis for remaking the video, sad for both the lost video and especially the bunch of comments lost, one of the best comment section under a Witcher video i ever seen, full of considerations, discussions, thoughts, all quite polite. One thing sure, it wont be forgotten.
I have nothing to add to this video, all I can say is: agreed. Hopefully this video gets a lot of attention again and thanks for putting in all the work to reedit it
The "push them in a swamp and see who survives" trial might be a call out to the game and the quest with Old Speartip that is asleep near Kear Morhen. Not sure if I like it the way they did it in the movie, but there is a connection at least.
The Old Speartip was much better constructed imo, first it seemed like it went worse than usual when Lambert told his story, and also they had a clear goal to achieve, it felt more like a trial and less like being thrown in the middle of the swamp to die
It felt overly cruel and dangerous "trial". The dangerousnes of witcher training is in dangerousness of mutations and hard training. They wouldnt kill their few recruits throwing them to face monsters without weapons
The biggest WTF moment in this movie was when mob and monsters were fighting side by side against witchers and nobody questions that , for me it was beyond stupid ,there was even a scene when to monsters munch one witcher and not far away guy was pitchforking another
I wish you were the showrunner of the Witcher franchise. You know everything and really respect the original material from the books. Netflix could learn from that!
It's not that they didn't know how to do it right. They simply don't want to. Franchises are used as Trojan horses to influence and transport social-political values. Isn't new, really.
Gotta repeat myself then: Geralt shold've been a witcher already, he mentions the massacre happened while he traveled on the Path. Vesemir is WAY too young. I mean at least 100 years younger than he should be. Still, I enjoyed this anime about 10x more than the live action atrocity and I kindly ask Netflix to pull their head out of their asses, stop harassing youtube channels and READ THE GODDAMN BOOKS!
I'm a massive witcher fan also and I found the movie really good (the signs were a bit OP but I can deal with it). The animation was pretty good and I did not watch castlevania so I cant say it's a " copy ". To each his opinion I guess.
@@Blue-rv5jh Exactly that. It felt... I don't know, alien in a way. The characters,the background, the story, I never got "that" Witcher feeling we all know and love both in the games and in the books. I mean they tried,but for me personally, they failed miserably 😐
sad that i have to say this but glad that this post is an even bolder display and proof of *quality content* . and i thanks you for it. and thanks you for putting the effort of re-upload with changes. keep up the good work. wish you well. take care.
Surely it's worth a mention that the movie implies that the witcher who slew the sorceress, was vesemir himself. When he gets posessed by kitsu there's a conversation between the witchers in a bar where they say: "tell em about the time you swindled the redanian priest".
I am of the opinion that this was Vesemir's subconscious recognising the corruption that his mentor had embraced, that his order isn't as "honourable" as he thought it was. Anyway I feel like him intentionally murdering an innocent woman is very out of character, even for a younger, greedier version of Vesemir.
About the fox shape shifting elve, i think it was raised by Aguara/Vixena so it became one, as the one from Season of Storms. It would explain the powerful illusions. Not Alp as you said. Great video btw
At the beggining of Grain of truth story Geralt is hissed at by something from a tree and he speculated this could be "leszy" (forest creature in old polish) but he's uninterested to check it. This creature could fit that case, although it's obviously something quite different from W3 leszy/leshen creatures
Damn that copyright nonsense but its advisable to use gameplay footage, censors, copyright free music & put up disclaimers at the beginning for the best, speaking from experience. I hope this is the end of your troubles coz your work is phenomenal.
"Why yes, we care more about people criticizing our content than about making good content in a first place, how could you tell?🤡" - Netflix, probably.
In the Japanese language, kitsune can mean both a regular Japanese fox, a divine fox, or a demon fox. So with that being said, the elf hybrid is a vixen, and the girl we saw was her adopted daughter, Vixen's would take young female elves and over many years would start changing them into a vixen. They also could make very powerful illusions and even bewitch others to do their bidding.
Personally, I liked Vesemir's cockiness. It shows that he is confident in his abilties and it is normal since this would be considered as a good age for witchers. Also, it reminds me of the Witcher 3 where Geralt often comments on his foes.
@@henrikaugustsson4041 I really liked it for some very very badass and cool scenes. And also for the love story with his childhood friend. I found it very sweet and sad, and I thought it could fit perfectly in the books and games. As immortality for Witcher is often mentioned as a curse in the games etc. I kinda liked the trial of the herbs scene, even though it has a lot of issues. But yeah, there's some very very big issues.
Bizarre how the original video was flagged with copyright despite only having like 5 secs or so of video footage of the film. I liked the film overall, yet one big issue I had was the whole humans (Tetra's zealots, Kaedwen guards, the citizens) banding together against the Witchers towards the end. I mean, I thought they feared the monsters more than they feared the Witchers, yet they make an alliance with them to attack Kaer Morhen? Really left me scratching my head.
I hate the thing about them creating monsters. It seems that writers didn't know much or understand the conjunction of spheres. It also ruins the authentic feel of the monsters, since they were based on slavic folklore
What an insult and missing the entire point of the series for the Netflix writers to justify the pogrom against the Wolf Witchers by turning them into demonically evil conmen creating and unleashing monsters on peasants for profit. That'd be more of a Cat School move anyways. And they've screwed up the ages of Vesemir and the others. The only survivors of the pogrom were Witchers out on the Path when it happened, fully fledged Witchers, not post Trial Of The Grasses students. Netflix continues to destroy the property and lore, as it will with Season 2 and the Blood Origin drivel. When is CDPR going to get off their asses and make a proper prequel or sequel instead of just more Gwent?
Well, the thing with Netflix's handeling of the PR is that they are rather clearly very unwilling to be edgy where the source material is very, very edgy. To an obnoxcious degree to be honest. The only thing that make the edge bearable is the fact it's balanced out by the characters acting like actual normal people in the non-action parts of the plot. . Netflix is unwilling to adapt the novella about a rapist, who's now suffering at the hands of an abusive partner, at least to some degree because of the fact he hates himself for having commited abuse in the past. (The Grain of Truth novella) for obvious twiter mob reasons. But without having stuff like that in there, there is no need for little human moments to balance out the thematic intensity. The tone ends up being entierley different. . As a side note: it's not just the books that are like that. The first chapter of the Witcher 3 has famine/wartime child canibalism/murder to save food, alcoholism and PTSD induced marital abuse, and extremist religious fanatics radicalising of teenagers from difficult family environments to further the goals of psychopathic political figures who they ally themselves with for tactical reasons.
@@bluesyrupgc4224 Would have made a hell of a lot more sense, and there's a precedent for Cats being prone to psychotic, murderous, deceitful and manipulative behavior. Something went seriously wrong with the mutagens of their Trials, side effects. Cat School kidnaps and turns people into monsters, unleashing them for profit, and all Witchers get blamed for it. Would have been a much better plot that doesn't spit on the lore as much. Or hell, have them be Idarran of Ulivo's experiments, a mad scientist disciple of Alzur's, one of the Witcher creators, creating and unleashing the monsters, and Witchers getting blamed for it. All it takes is a bit of creativity and respect for the property, which the writers clearly don't have.
Can someone please explain to me, did the grappling hook thingy shown at the leshen fight was at least mentioned in the books? I felt really weird seeing a Witcher using some form of a chain to swing like a monkey. It made me feel like Netflix tried to make witchers into some form of a ninja or something... Edit: I rewatched the scene and he literally had a grappling hook on his belt that he used to swing on the tree...
Gotta love your reviews, enough to watch it multiple times ! Keep up the good work, XLetalis, our love to The Witcher world only gets bigger with your content ( Commenting for algorithm engagement ! )
Been watching your videos since the Witcher 3 came out! I always enjoy your commentary on the Witcher Verse. Here's to hoping Netflix doesn't screw up Season 2 of the Witcher.
Before I watched the anime I thought they can't do worse than the first season, after I watched the anime I thought they can't sink any lower and now here we are. (After anime now I think 2nd season will be even worse.) Thanks for the content xLetalis, I think they should just assign you as an advisor or something instead of that disrespect to your content. I watched that show just for respecting Henry Cavill's passion and his way of doing things but all of these and 2 main actress doesn't even care to read the books that created the characters that they play is making this show worthless to watch. I just hope that they learn from their mistakes.
I said it on the original and I'll say it again. The Blood Swamp scene should've been replaced with a scene showing the witchers in training exploring the cave from TW3 where you find Old Speartip
That was a very thorough and good review and critique of the movie and it’s prompted me to watch the movie when I get the chance, I always appreciate your insights in the franchise as I haven’t read the books and only played the third game but I’ve seen a lot of your content and you’ve taught me a lot about the franchise. Thank you for the re-upload (I hadn’t been able to watch the original so I’m grateful you re-edited and re-uploaded it) and I’m sorry they took the first one down with a copyright. I hadn’t really been interested in the movie since I like Vesimir a lot in the game and from what I know about him but I just wasn’t sure about Netflix’s movie about his past but your video made me more inclined to actually watch it than I was before plus I wanted to watch your insights on it so thank you for that. I’ll be sure to come back here and to your community post poll about the movie once I watch it but that probably won’t be for a bit. Have a good one, and thanks again, my friend.
I'm so glad you mentioned the needless child brutality where they just slaughtered all those children in the swamp for no good reason before subjecting them to the mutations. I mean wtf was that? Witchers never did that. They died from the trials, not from some evil monster banquet. My God. That part pissed me off SO much in the film. Really put a nasty taste in my mouth and couldn't rightly enjoy the movie to its fullest after that. Seriously, where they did get their source material? What a waste of good Withcer candidates to just allow them all to get killed in such a way before subjecting them to the actual trials. Why did they write it that way?? Man....so disappointing.... As for the tree. They could've just hung the medallions for every witcher that dies, or for the ones who don't survive the trials. That backstory that they created in the movie was just a bad cop out. Kill all children, then hang their medallions? Seriously? They didn't even properly become witchers yet to at least give them a chance to survive such a brutish ordeal. How does that make any sense? This just makes witchers look more evil than they are. Seriously.....UGH....!
Ikr. Imagine you have 10 students and you send them to the swamps. 9 of them get killed and the 1 survivor dies in the Trial of the Grasses. That's so dumb. I can understand teaching witchers how to survive without their main weapon - swords, but they didn't teach them even that before putting them in the swamps, let alone ANY other skill that could save their lives that night. This "trial" was meant to test their instinct (at least I think so), but it doesn't fucking test instinct, it tests luck which witchers shouldn't rely on!
I'm pretty emotional when watching movies/series and can usually get hyped/feel something regardless if I think something is good or not. That being said: after watching this, I didn't feel anything, not even bitter disappointment. I was just watching and thinking: yeah this isn't it. My thoughts: The movie itself works fine and maybe is best as an entry point for new people getting into the Witcher world (whether they started with W3 or the netflix series and want something more), but it could've also been a Castlevania movie for all I care (considering art/anime style AND depth of world building); The animation is bland (in the sense of not being in any way unique towards the other netflix animated series, for instance Castlevania), the storyline is really shallow considering the whole Witcher world, the characters well thought out only in the 1 and a half hour of the movie, and don't work outside it. What I mean by that is that this movie doesn't expand nor really fit into the whole established Witcher world narrative and style, thus making it hard to like for people in the deep end of the witcher universe (bear in mind I'm an avid Gwent player, *HEH WHO ISN'T*, and read all the books and played all the games, like a true salty fanboi). You already explained a lot of things: the ending and the sacking itself doesn't fit the overall narrative, the idea that witchers were willingly creating more monsters (in the time where monsters still weren't going extinct btw), that geralt eskel lambert and vesemir were there when the sacking happened (it was explicitly stated that the only witchers surviving the sacking were those who were out at the time and that also makes the 3 stooges older in the general timeline, also there were 2 sackings/attacks on Kaer Morhen, I guess this was supposed to be the second, first being with the whole school of the Cat debacle [of course, no mention, but np there wasn't anything about other schools and it wasn't the plot point of the story so it's w/e]). I don't like the whole changing up of the process of becoming a Witcher just to fit a dumb tree shenanigan - that being said the tree would've worked just as fine with the old how to become a witcher system and the full fledged witchers only having medallions (and I would've liked the Nemeton/tree addition in that case). What I liked: -The idea of making Vesemir an adventurous type who started being serious after the sacking and reconsidered his lifestyle and purpose; -The idea of a tree where medallions are being hung -The idea of making a backstory about the peasant sacking of Kaer Morhen where most witchers (of the wolf school) died -The idea of mutated monster variations being found instead of the established archetypes, enrichening the world What I disliked: - The way the mutated monsters built the plot of evil monster making witchers, and at the same time the negation of well established archetypes (what makes witchers fun is the careful preparation and knowledge of the monsters, to an anatomical precision - completely disregarded for some extra dumb humor gore action scenes) - The changing of how the sacking was done - Making a sob story about a sorceress who leads it - 1st giving her an adventure with Vese that's supposed to humanize both sides, but instead does the opposite and makes the whole experience seem pointless in the 1st place, 2nd her controlling a shit ton of acolytes and monsters ??? (with manipulating Kitsu, which didn't do anything at all really, the way Kitsu's character motivation was done she didn't have to lie to her AT ALL) - Making Witchers be the "bad" guys and creating more monsters, easing into the most basic peasant narrative that worked in the whole universe as one of the motivating factors for everything around witchers happening (them being treated badly, mostly poor, without prestige, *falsely* accused etc) - the key point here being that witchers eating shit for something they didn't do just for being different being the main motivation for everything happening around them (*I atleast thought Netflix could catch that kind of discrimination plotline and beat it to death easily, but they instead decided to butcher it a whole other way*) - The art style making it indistinguishable from other series and thus less "witchery" - The whole plot being fitted to make a well rounded average animated movie, but sacrificing most of the worlds integrity to do it and making it even harder to build a good story upon it - Not trying to accurately follow points that already exist in the lore (think of the doppler plotline in the series) and instead adding/changing things up so it becomes even harder to do a good story moving on, when it could've just as easily been build upon the blocks that were already there - some good new ideas that were badly incorporated (nemeton/medallion tree, Vesemirs past character change and backstory, Daeglan and the Witchers of the old generation, mutant monsters [a thematic that for instance the first game explored really nice imo, with Salamandra and the stealing of the formulas to the creation of a mutant army])
I am not a big fan or anything, haven't played nor read, but when it was revealed that the witchers are actually led by someone with evil intentions it felt rather strange tor me and like the lore melted before my eyes. I though that the witchers were victims of racism basically etc but with this being their legacy no wonder people would hate them. The fact that the monsters and the mob did not instantly turn on each other felt very unrealistic (even for a making a pact with the devil, the normal people there should not be okay with fighting besides monsters and the monsters should have trampled the humans) despite mindcontrol or whatever. I do not know if I am to be sad or happy for the fans. Most seems to give it a 10/10 but ever since people give FF VII remake 10/10 despite the whisperers I feel more sympathy towards fans that sees their favorite franchise tank, change or be overtaken by new fans.
you summed it up perfectly! except personally i wasn't a fan of vesemir's personality change. i found it too different from his portrayl in the witcher 3.
Just watched it this week. I enjoyed it overall, but then the series was my introduction to The Witcher. I’ve since played 3 on PS4, and appreciate the multiverse concepts they are building.
It would be much better if Netflix put this much effort into creating high-quality films and TV series, rather than harassing online creators for reasonable criticism
That thumbnail is so confusing 😂, I keep thinking it’s Aang from the Avatar the last airbender, it looks so much like him lol love your content keep up the good work!
You are amazing. I am from brazil and I enjoy so much your videos. so much sad that the original was deleted ;-; . Continue being this magnific youtuber!!
Man, I replayed the whole thing just to give you one more view, you deserve it! Your review was actually the reason why I decided to watch the movie, I wasn't that convinced until I saw the length of the video and understood you had plenty to tell about it (Netflix's advertising wasn't very inviting to say the least). They should only be glad you do these kinds of videos, it is the best advertisement they can get
It felt like they were trying to tell the type of story that the Witcher 3 told with 1/10th of the time and even less passion. I mean, how the **Fuck** do you forget to involve signs? That is literally the only reason Witchers can perform magic and you have Vesemir line them all up like the crew had just finished watching Castlevania s1 for what looked like a fucking hadouken.
This review was brilliantly done, been following you for little over a year now and don't plan on stopping, for me, I would have loved if the animation of the show was based off or was the same style as the live action trailers for the Witcher 3, imagine having monster fights and magic portrayed in that animation???
Theyre keeping the wish-tier medallion? Smh Thats legitimately the most lazily designed thing im surprised theyre keeping, imagine if halo changed what a halo was, into like some X shaped thing instead of a majestic space donut.
@@xLetalis Yeah but thats what i am confused about , in his Trial of the Grasses his love of her keeps him alive and with purpose and gives him willpower to survive. And then he forgets about her ? I am so confused.
(This comment is written again due to film reupload). That witcher who killed Tetra's mother might have been from cat school. That would fit their character.
If Netflix blocks this again, they should know they will lose many fans. Unnecessary blow to the Witcher's community, particularly since it falls under the Fair Use conditions. So essentially, Netflix abusing the burden of proof as usual.
As someone who is new to everything to do with the witcher the magic part really did confuse me in my head I thought Vesemir was a special witcher who was just really talented in magic hence the super flashy magic scenes thanks for clearing that up
Now Letalis, don't take this wrong but i wrote a massive comment on the last one and I'm too lazy to redo that XD I'll rewatch the vid because I love the channel!
The last kid around could be Remus who was also seen in season 1 of the Netflix adaptation and was mentioned before by Vesimir as you've shown at 14:50. Would make sense considering he was also trained at Kaer Morhen same time as Geralt and co. But obviously I don't know for sure. Don't get too frustrated by the Netflix quarrel and keep up ur awesome work. Cheers
The initial version of the review was manually blocked world-wide, hopefully this one does better...
Here's the mail I got: i.gyazo.com/ed5b10c9a3859e272707121d5e7bf267.png
Ultimately, my biggest regret is that nearly 4000 comments were lost from the original video :(
Everything I said previously is still here. The changes are only to the background footage.
It's a real shame the original video was removed
oi my uncle watches your channel too
I appreciate your dedication, shame that netflix took down only your video about it. I really hoped it would be way better, but they made a piece of crap, I regret watching every second of it.
Godammit Netflix - why are you blocking people who bring in majority of your subscribers ?
Anyways, I hope it ends here.
It's kinda fucked up that they always take the side of the ones that claim the copyright and never ask the creator for a response, or even check if this copyright is valid. Cmon youtube u're so rich u can afford to hire people to resolve these kind of problems.
I like how between this show, the books, and the games the Witcher world is ALWAYS just about to run out of monsters for Witchers to kill but no monster shortage is ever actually in evidence.
As if power swordsmanship with magic can only have one function... Silly.
@@smartassdroid5149 you have to consider that 1- the reduction of the number is a LONG process and all these things take place in a span of roughly 100 years.
2- the number of witchers has fallen drastically as you can see in the anime (even though there are other schools and so on), so what was not enough for many witchers can still be plenty for the 4-5 remaining in the same region.
3- the more humans conquer the world the more monsters tend to disappear. Very few can adapt to live in cities. The witchers initially served as a vanguard to civilization and were far more numerous, then with the stabilization of society their usefulness have been declining for centuries since the conjunction and the arrival of men, so it is more about a general tendency of the whole history of that world.
True I feel like the only “evidence” is in the novels, when the real plot with Ciri begins there is little to no monster killing or monsters attacking them, even when Gerald and company are hanging out in the woods for a long time, I could be wrong though 🤷♀️
@@M..n..M true. Besides, it has been centuries since The Conjunction of Spheres. Evidently, witchers are not the only one who can kill monsters. Mages and Sorceresses needs ingredients from monsters to create potions and stuffs so they are more than willing to hunt monsters themselves. And the books, as well as medias, don’t have to show the evidences of monster shortage physically. I think good writing is not trying to make the audiences see everything that is happening, but let them make their own conclusions from dialogues or descriptions. For example, in the anime, a lot of witchers are actually poor as hell, and even the red-hair witcher didn’t make a lot of money because he couldn’t find any monster that pays well, meaning he only found common, weak monsters unlike the rare, strong Leshen that Vesemir managed to kill.
There will always be monsters, whether they’re human or not is an entirely different question.
Imagine if Netflix invested as much time actually reading the lore as it does in nitpicking on CZcamsrs.
Shame about your lengthy comment which you had to post twice :S
@@xLetalis it is... I tried finding a copy of it in my email but all I can see there is your reply to me. Anyway I hope the reupload will also get some comment traffic, it was really interesting.
This! ^
it would be way better, shame they do not care about the lore or the ambience of the witcher as they end up making this things speccially the live action
This.
The books and the games: Aard is like a wind gust, strong as a punch, unless you have a lot of perks, then it is a freezing wave reaching about 3 meters.
Netflix: Got it, Kamehameha it is!
exactly what I thought, I even muttered Ka me ha me HA!!! at the bridge scene!
I called it a hyduken from street fighter lol
It was an anime so it must be Overpowered as fuck I guess?
Didn't Vesmer drink a potion before using that sign? Forgive me, but it makes sense for his sign to increase its power if the potion is empowering one... At least, that is the way I foresaw it.
How exactly do u get perks in the books?
Netflix is like a school bully. He wants knowledge like you, but he's not capable of it, so he beats you with *copyright*
this indicates how much they care about fans
I think you had nicer bullies than I because mine didn't beat me with copyright xD
or youtube bots are shitty
Nah you're being bullied because you're shit at opening up and talking to people and when someone talks to you confidently you get insecure and assume they're making fun of you
@@Thomas-jo4rz Ñ
Netflix forget that Witchers have more than 2 signs...
And more than 1 potion!
@@xLetalis and more than 1 sword lol
Well no. Don't get me wrong I actually criticize Netflix so much about Season 1 but even in books there aren't to much sign usage. Geralt rarely uses signs. In first 2 books and Season of Storms he uses rarely and after that nearly once in a book. And when he uses it is %90 an Aard. I only remember he cast an Quen aganist The Striga and not any other sign... I might be wrong though but yeah he uses signs really less.
I mean they used 3 in the movie, and don’t they carry one sword and keep one on their horse?
Well it looks like Witcher 3 has sold almost 30 million copies, So for alot of people having the two swords is a very iconic look. It always made sense to me because its not like he can call a timeout and go get a different sword if something catches him by surprise.
I can see why Vesemir is always telling Geralt to stay out of it or avoid conflict. When him and Luka got involved it ultimately led to the down fall of Kaer Morhen.
Still didnt like that he and Luka didnt fought barehanded, I mean c´mon it was a Knight in the capital city what did they expect to happen? But yeah his whole insight to Geralt in the Bar Scene about the "Thugs" having nothing patriotic to focus on actually being a bad thing, since they´d turn on the next thing.
the 'somewhat romantic, cocky rebel' is basically the exact same as Trevor Belmont.
I'm glad I'm not the only one who realised! Also felt a connection with Vesemir's chain and the Morningstar.
I love pappa vesemir
To be fair he wasn’t the first character to have those treats
@@CombatSportsNerd ya I was saying that because I thought many Netflix animes seem to be unable to write a male protagonist that's NOT a somewhat romantic cocky rebel. Davion from the dota anime is exactly that personality as well. While I don't dislike that trait at all, it does get boring after a while
@@jewii3824 take it if i was you, far too many anime have the clueless protagonist thats fawned over by all the girls 😧 just feels like these writers are venting thier dreams through there anime. Not into it
I felt like it was trying hard to be like Netflix's Castlevania. You can see it very clearly in the way they portrayed Vesemir as this very cocky fighter who's always telling jokes, not taking things super seriously... He acts a lot like Trevor Belmont does in the series. Anyway, thank you for the entertaining review xLetalis, and sorry about the trouble they caused you blocking the original video. I also hope they make a sequel!
I had to remind myself a few times that I was not in fact watching Castlevania, they felt so similar.
Yep, hard to see that conservative traditionalist witcher in him.
all these netflix animes are a like
Agreed
100% agree with the castkevania comparison
I kind of remember that one of the witchers in the first game say that they almost lost it when Geralts hair turned white, so seeing him bald was weird and unexpected for me
They went for the Aang-look.
Yup eskel says it in Khaer Morhen
He had hair in the movie by the time of the ending he went thru the extra trails witch made him lose his hair
@@mikea2410 those extra trials made his hair white. Him being bald in the anime is literally pointless and changes nothing. It was just a stupid decision for a mild shock value.
@@veiregor trails turned his hair white but also could if made his hair bald at first. In the books theirs barley any info on garlts child hood
While I was watching the final fight between Vesemir and the Sorceress, I only thought of one thing- "Who taught you to fight like that"
"The Witcher you slew" 😭😭😭
Lol flying axe to the back of the head! Take that bitch! 😂
Is this the battle where an experienced witcher was tricked like a little bitch?
@@artemonz1851 Yes, yes it was
@@artemonz1851 It was literally him being taught to NEVER hesitate by Deglan... thats the point. Clearly it went over your head
Trust me, there was a damn good reason why Yennifer was walking around topless.
yeah... or 2
@@xLetalis yes
It was at that point that I was convinced they casted her well.
@@xLetalis Hey leta I have a random question but
In Touissant you can go to jail in 2 occations right? when Syanna is Dth and in a different occation I cant remember from one of your videos
What was it? And is there any other way to go to jail
@@UAGoWSuplexer both occasions are when Syanna is dead, it's just the in 1 of them Dettlaff is dead and in the other he's alive
Such a shame that someone at Netflix can't handle constructive criticism. Thank you for the altered upload and your dedication. We do appreciate it
Altered upload? Is there any way I can watch the original response?
@@erebo._.sapien It was blocked world-wide, as written at the start of the vid :c
its amazing how dedicated you are to putting out content for us to enjoy that even after the original video is taken down you re edit it to abide to netflixs bs rules. i never got to finish the original video so thankyou for going through this effort for our enjoyment :D
"Can i copy your lullay?"
"Sure, just make its a cheap, low effort version'
What I really disliked about this anime imagining of events is HOW MUCH the sorceress plot changes the nature of the sacking of Kaer Morhen. Originally it was a testament of just how destructive the forces of fear, misinformation and prejudice could be. The witchers, even with their supernatural reflexes, signs, their knowledge and all their potions were helpless against a zealot mob of fearful commoners.
In this it was just... a ton of high fantasy because the artist wanted to draw something flashy. All the poetry and writing is traded for an animated fight scene. I think I disliked that the most.
I feel like it's much worse than that. They turned witchers from marginalized minority, trying to get by in the unwelcoming world into a goddamn death cult, that torments children, kills women for coin, wants to unleash hoards of mutated beasts onto the unsuspecting population and generally are a bunch of assholes, who only care about money. It's not only an opposite of what witchers are (or at least should be), it's a conformation of every propaganda piece against them. Intentionally or not, it's the way of Netflix to say "In this case, stereotypes are correct and bigotry is completely justified", it's really fucked and disgusting.
@@malcolm4737 well said. I really don't have much argument against that. It's like the animators and writers were listening to someone describe how the world generalized and stereotypes witchers and then forgot that's supposed to be the perception, not the reality.
i had the exact same thoughts
the Witcher story of how they were killed by power & prejudice gets kind of undermined if the Racist (modern) kingdom attacks their castle for killing a bunch of innocent people
@@gutfrets1693 exactly. The situation that Nightmare of the Wolf proposes makes the assault justified, at least in my opinion. I felt so strange and unsettled watching Kaer Morhen being attacked but with the new information, I didn't necessarily want them to win. It doesn't work with the lore, it's poorly executed and creates more questions than it gives answers. Just like that stupid fucking medallion tree.
Dark haired kid is probably the Witcher who dies in the 3rd episode of S1 Remus. Vesemir name drops him when asked which kids will survive. The Kitsu looks to have been inspired by the witcher dark horse comic fox children.
The "It's absolutely what Geralt would do" made me lose it, it totally is. That man has a weakness for sorceresses
Wasn't his mum some kind of sorceress? I mean it fits lol. Also they live similarly long and know how magic works n shit, they r the only people equal to him apart from maybe elves lol
Netflix got jealous of the research and editing quality of the video you put up earlier lol.
Btw I really like your takes on the TV Witcher adaptations so far. They should hire you for the lore and quality assurance of their projects considering your wealth of knowledge by this point.
Weird copyright issues, hope Netflix does witcher season 2 better than season 1.
Also got to say the witcher powers in this anime Look like dragonball z goku attack, he shouldn't be this overpowered.
@@CommanderJaneShepard I expect it to be a politically correct inclusion mess like the first season... I'm watching it for the HC memes...
@@CommanderJaneShepard the visual effects are flashy but what they actually do is as described by the books quite accurately. The big hadouken aard only disperses a swarm. Doesn't even harm the leshen. That's about as powerful as it should be, just a bit flashy is all. The only bit that could be considered OP is where he melts an entire lakes surface very quickly but that is not in combat and more of an oversight than anything else.
please dont expect to much they care more about their agenda than the story and the fans
@@gj4312 i see
The ending was super sad. Him accidentally killing his love was heartbreaking. The whole battle was just so sad. All this destruction because of Tetra's obsession.
Wait did Vesemir kill Ilyana? I need to rewatch
@@xLetalis Iirc, Tetra transformed Ilyana into herself, so Vesemir thought he was killing Tetra but it was really her.
bro didnt you watch it twice? how did that get past you?@@xLetalis
This is the most honest and non bias review of a movie I've ever seen. If netflix can't handle then they should just stick to their high school drama shows.
I think the personality of Vesemir which we know just starts to develop at the end of the movie, because he sees what responsibility he has, so he becomes the wise mentor figure. In my opinion I dont see a problem with the Leshen fight, we clearly see that Vesemir did like to joke around and enjoy his "youth" before he became serious.
Remus is that episodic witcher we see in S1 that tried to kill the striga before Geralt. He's standing next to Lambert there in the final shot.
And his name was said at one point.
What are aang and azula doing in this anime?
Thank you for saying Vesemirs weird dialogue was out of place in that first fight! That scene bugged the hell out of me.
The trial in which most kids died didn't make much sense. It felt rathar absurd.
There has always been a trail before the "Trial of grasses" when you travel with Lambert in Kaer Morhen he talks all about it. They went in as large group effort just like in this movie but the scenario is diffrent. Lambert's group had to go trough "Old speartips cave" which would end in to diffrent ways either he wasnt home (Like in Geralt's case when he did the trials) or like Lamberts where they would be slaughtered and only the quick thinking children would survive. (If I remember correctly only three children made it out alive in Lambert's group)
Another way to confirm that this incident happen as children, before you enter the cave you have the option to follow "the sound of a kid screaming help" which turns out to be a foglet who mimicked one of the kids voices trying to lure in prey.
If you choose to kill "Old speartip" Lambert will make the notice of how dumb the "Test trial" is since all witchers end up dead in a swamp for a little coin. So that test is rather accurate to how the game lore shows it.
They made a similar use in the movie except their goal was to survive, be quick on their feet and to not be a hero except I still find their trial to be more absurd with no rather goal unlike ingame.
(Yes im aware the netflix series and the games are two diffrent lores)
Especially how they just sent them to die for no reason. If they had proper training and was sent out to a dangerous task where most will perish, that’s one thing, but this just feels like child murder.
@@henrikaugustsson4041 also a lot of them dies from the mutagens, makes no sense to cull them before that lmao
@@oliverwest4944 bro that was the Trial of Medallion, where they already had Witcher mutations.
“He who comes back with his medallion, proves that he is ready to set out on the path” something like that, quoted from lambert.
Guess they didn’t have swords.
As much as I love this movie, this was the worst scene in the entire film.
To me it seemed like a Witcher skin stretched over a Castlevania frame.
Imagine the next Witcher game looks like the intro cinematics from TW3. 🤯
phil wth are you doing here
@@alexisea8874 Got experimental with my megascope and found this interesting realm, where people seem to put their dreams , thoughts and memories for everyone to experience.
Damn Philippa kinda bad tho 🥴
@@SnakeJuice 😏
Vesemir-Illyana relationship was the best part in terms of quality. That he still loved her was deep IMO especially considering she was someone from the past he hated and tried so hard to escape. Showed he had his old self in him. Really well done.
Vesemir never hated her though...
@@angelaoyebola2781 yeah I said he hated his past but I didn't say he hated her which is obv not the case
@@ahagha9911 oh okay. Gotcha
When Aard looks like Kamehameha
It's a 6/10 for me. Too much crammed into such a short time. I couldn't even feel connected to Vesemir the main fkn character. And wtf I haven't read the books so I dunno but Monsters destroying Kaer Morhen is a trash plot. It should've been the mob of Humans only (aided by mages and soldiers). Monsters are the default enemies of witchers it serves no emotional, moral value atleast to me that its monsters who did all the work and the mob of humans was only there to get slaughtered by witchers spamming whirl.
Yeah... humans were ultimately the real monsters, yet here that's not really the case. It's strange because something along those lines were the slogans for Season 1 of the show.
In the games and the books, humans were capable of taking down witchers through numbers, ambush, or taking advantage of their sympathy. It showed humanity can be monsters of the world.
@@toledochristianmatthew9919 they are for me. Humans with their superstitions, fear, and don't wanting to understand what the witchers are and why but calling them when shit got real...
If I were a human in the witcher universe and I see a witcher I would ask him "where are you heading?" and go in the opposite direction xD I don't want to be in the way of the problem the witcher is called to fix.
Kinda the whole reason they carry two swords and how come that was never mentioned, to someone who doesnt know anything about the witcher kinda a big part of the witchers shtick
@@eliottdewitt893 The two swords thing was a game mechanic. It doesn't exist in the books. In the books the witchers wield silver swords only and use normal swords when there is one in the vicinity don't mix the game mechanics with the real lore.
Thank you Xletalis I've been following you since two years now not a single day you fail to interest us ❤ Keep growing can't wait for your 1M Sub celebration video including Geralt ❤❤❤
Hey, thank you :)
Great Xletalis for remaking the video, sad for both the lost video and especially the bunch of comments lost, one of the best comment section under a Witcher video i ever seen, full of considerations, discussions, thoughts, all quite polite.
One thing sure, it wont be forgotten.
This, I was like "wait, you did a new video before this one?"
@@kotarldo yes, unfortunately removed for copyright cause several scenes of the show
I guess Netflix thought that Vesimir and the other Witcher was a part of the school of the Aard and not a part of the school of the wolf.
I have nothing to add to this video, all I can say is: agreed.
Hopefully this video gets a lot of attention again and thanks for putting in all the work to reedit it
The "push them in a swamp and see who survives" trial might be a call out to the game and the quest with Old Speartip that is asleep near Kear Morhen. Not sure if I like it the way they did it in the movie, but there is a connection at least.
The Old Speartip was much better constructed imo, first it seemed like it went worse than usual when Lambert told his story, and also they had a clear goal to achieve, it felt more like a trial and less like being thrown in the middle of the swamp to die
@@xLetalis But this is netflix. If you give Netflix two ball bearings im empty room they lost one and broke another.
It felt overly cruel and dangerous "trial". The dangerousnes of witcher training is in dangerousness of mutations and hard training. They wouldnt kill their few recruits throwing them to face monsters without weapons
It’s decent but not what a true lover of the Witcher series would produce.
Agreed
Totally disagree. What would “true” lover of the series create instead?
@@schoolofdank5736 something that is more grounded where vesemir is not a superhero who can jump like a Naruto character.
Yay! - was waiting for this ,missed the first one unfortunately, - seriously thank you for taking the time to edit and re-upload this for us!
The biggest WTF moment in this movie was when mob and monsters were fighting side by side against witchers and nobody questions that , for me it was beyond stupid ,there was even a scene when to monsters munch one witcher and not far away guy was pitchforking another
indeed
I wish you were the showrunner of the Witcher franchise. You know everything and really respect the original material from the books. Netflix could learn from that!
Theres much more a showrunner has to do than know thr material. But being a guy they ask before making drastic changes would have been great.
It's not that they didn't know how to do it right. They simply don't want to. Franchises are used as Trojan horses to influence and transport social-political values. Isn't new, really.
The art style of this film made me think it was another Legend of Korra... the faces, the style, etc... really made me remember Korra.
I haven't seen it ;[
Same animators if I’m correct
Same made me wanna rewatch LoK
Netflix should have just hired you as a consultant for all of their work
Commenting once again to compensate for the comment that was lost on the previous video :) Thank you for your content! I'm enjoying every video)
Glad to hear it :)
The last young Witcher with the dark hair is Remus, the Witcher who is killed by the striga in season one.
Gotta repeat myself then: Geralt shold've been a witcher already, he mentions the massacre happened while he traveled on the Path. Vesemir is WAY too young. I mean at least 100 years younger than he should be.
Still, I enjoyed this anime about 10x more than the live action atrocity and I kindly ask Netflix to pull their head out of their asses, stop harassing youtube channels and READ THE GODDAMN BOOKS!
I was also very annoyed by the timeline screw up,I do think the anime was good beside from that
the live action is way better
@@stefman3553 ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
You didnt like the live action??
As a MASSIVE Witcher fan,it pains me deeply to say this, but I will do so anyway. This was just BAD my friend. Hugely disappointed 😑
I'm a massive witcher fan also and I found the movie really good (the signs were a bit OP but I can deal with it). The animation was pretty good and I did not watch castlevania so I cant say it's a " copy ". To each his opinion I guess.
I agree with you. It didn't feel like im watching something related to witcher.
@@Blue-rv5jh Exactly that. It felt... I don't know, alien in a way. The characters,the background, the story, I never got "that" Witcher feeling we all know and love both in the games and in the books. I mean they tried,but for me personally, they failed miserably 😐
sad that i have to say this but glad that this post is an even bolder display and proof of *quality content* . and i thanks you for it. and thanks you for putting the effort of re-upload with changes.
keep up the good work. wish you well. take care.
Surely it's worth a mention that the movie implies that the witcher who slew the sorceress, was vesemir himself. When he gets posessed by kitsu there's a conversation between the witchers in a bar where they say: "tell em about the time you swindled the redanian priest".
I am of the opinion that this was Vesemir's subconscious recognising the corruption that his mentor had embraced, that his order isn't as "honourable" as he thought it was. Anyway I feel like him intentionally murdering an innocent woman is very out of character, even for a younger, greedier version of Vesemir.
About the fox shape shifting elve, i think it was raised by Aguara/Vixena so it became one, as the one from Season of Storms. It would explain the powerful illusions. Not Alp as you said. Great video btw
She looks like an alp, but yeah I think they suggest she's the first aguara, created at Kaer Morhen :O
Kitsu for the elf is a lazy name, in Japanese folklore you find kitsune, intelligent foxes that shapeshift into humans.
At the beggining of Grain of truth story Geralt is hissed at by something from a tree and he speculated this could be "leszy" (forest creature in old polish) but he's uninterested to check it. This creature could fit that case, although it's obviously something quite different from W3 leszy/leshen creatures
Damn that copyright nonsense but its advisable to use gameplay footage, censors, copyright free music & put up disclaimers at the beginning for the best, speaking from experience.
I hope this is the end of your troubles coz your work is phenomenal.
That forth kid at the end was Remus, the Witcher that was killed by the striga in season 1.
No monsters to kill but a elf hybrid can summon thousands
2:24 I didn't know Vesemir was a Jedi with light sabre and everything.
"Why yes, we care more about people criticizing our content than about making good content in a first place, how could you tell?🤡"
- Netflix, probably.
Kitsu, short for Kitsune: Japanese for fox and/or shapeshifting fox-spirit.
I liked the revelation that vesemir didnt belive geralt would be among those that would survive the training
yep, the grasses specifically
In the Japanese language, kitsune can mean both a regular Japanese fox, a divine fox, or a demon fox. So with that being said, the elf hybrid is a vixen, and the girl we saw was her adopted daughter, Vixen's would take young female elves and over many years would start changing them into a vixen. They also could make very powerful illusions and even bewitch others to do their bidding.
If there’s gonna be a part 2 it’d be great to see the story how Vesimir met the lady from the auction house in hearts of stone
Personally, I liked Vesemir's cockiness. It shows that he is confident in his abilties and it is normal since this would be considered as a good age for witchers. Also, it reminds me of the Witcher 3 where Geralt often comments on his foes.
Who else thought the movie was really good but had low expectations? It was pretty damn good
it was good, i put off watching it for a week because it looked bad, but i liked it
It was mostly generic trash in my opinion, with a few good things to keep my interest. I wouldn’t say good, more like bearable.
@@henrikaugustsson4041 I really liked it for some very very badass and cool scenes. And also for the love story with his childhood friend. I found it very sweet and sad, and I thought it could fit perfectly in the books and games. As immortality for Witcher is often mentioned as a curse in the games etc.
I kinda liked the trial of the herbs scene, even though it has a lot of issues.
But yeah, there's some very very big issues.
Bizarre how the original video was flagged with copyright despite only having like 5 secs or so of video footage of the film.
I liked the film overall, yet one big issue I had was the whole humans (Tetra's zealots, Kaedwen guards, the citizens) banding together against the Witchers towards the end.
I mean, I thought they feared the monsters more than they feared the Witchers, yet they make an alliance with them to attack Kaer Morhen?
Really left me scratching my head.
I hate the thing about them creating monsters. It seems that writers didn't know much or understand the conjunction of spheres. It also ruins the authentic feel of the monsters, since they were based on slavic folklore
What an insult and missing the entire point of the series for the Netflix writers to justify the pogrom against the Wolf Witchers by turning them into demonically evil conmen creating and unleashing monsters on peasants for profit. That'd be more of a Cat School move anyways. And they've screwed up the ages of Vesemir and the others. The only survivors of the pogrom were Witchers out on the Path when it happened, fully fledged Witchers, not post Trial Of The Grasses students. Netflix continues to destroy the property and lore, as it will with Season 2 and the Blood Origin drivel. When is CDPR going to get off their asses and make a proper prequel or sequel instead of just more Gwent?
Well, the thing with Netflix's handeling of the PR is that they are rather clearly very unwilling to be edgy where the source material is very, very edgy. To an obnoxcious degree to be honest. The only thing that make the edge bearable is the fact it's balanced out by the characters acting like actual normal people in the non-action parts of the plot.
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Netflix is unwilling to adapt the novella about a rapist, who's now suffering at the hands of an abusive partner, at least to some degree because of the fact he hates himself for having commited abuse in the past. (The Grain of Truth novella) for obvious twiter mob reasons. But without having stuff like that in there, there is no need for little human moments to balance out the thematic intensity. The tone ends up being entierley different.
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As a side note: it's not just the books that are like that. The first chapter of the Witcher 3 has famine/wartime child canibalism/murder to save food, alcoholism and PTSD induced marital abuse, and extremist religious fanatics radicalising of teenagers from difficult family environments to further the goals of psychopathic political figures who they ally themselves with for tactical reasons.
I really wish the plot made Cat School released the monsters, but then blamed it on the Wolf School for all the collateral damages
@@bluesyrupgc4224 Would have made a hell of a lot more sense, and there's a precedent for Cats being prone to psychotic, murderous, deceitful and manipulative behavior. Something went seriously wrong with the mutagens of their Trials, side effects. Cat School kidnaps and turns people into monsters, unleashing them for profit, and all Witchers get blamed for it. Would have been a much better plot that doesn't spit on the lore as much. Or hell, have them be Idarran of Ulivo's experiments, a mad scientist disciple of Alzur's, one of the Witcher creators, creating and unleashing the monsters, and Witchers getting blamed for it. All it takes is a bit of creativity and respect for the property, which the writers clearly don't have.
Can someone please explain to me, did the grappling hook thingy shown at the leshen fight was at least mentioned in the books? I felt really weird seeing a Witcher using some form of a chain to swing like a monkey. It made me feel like Netflix tried to make witchers into some form of a ninja or something...
Edit: I rewatched the scene and he literally had a grappling hook on his belt that he used to swing on the tree...
It's not in the books :) Such a long chain will hardly fit in a roller on your belt
Gotta love your reviews, enough to watch it multiple times ! Keep up the good work, XLetalis, our love to The Witcher world only gets bigger with your content
( Commenting for algorithm engagement ! )
I'll never complain about "too much boobs." There's no such thing.
Amen!
yeah especelly in the witcher
Been watching your videos since the Witcher 3 came out! I always enjoy your commentary on the Witcher Verse. Here's to hoping Netflix doesn't screw up Season 2 of the Witcher.
Before I watched the anime I thought they can't do worse than the first season, after I watched the anime I thought they can't sink any lower and now here we are. (After anime now I think 2nd season will be even worse.) Thanks for the content xLetalis, I think they should just assign you as an advisor or something instead of that disrespect to your content. I watched that show just for respecting Henry Cavill's passion and his way of doing things but all of these and 2 main actress doesn't even care to read the books that created the characters that they play is making this show worthless to watch. I just hope that they learn from their mistakes.
I haven't finished my current play through yet, but watching the Battle of Kaer Morhen in this video makes me want to start a new play through
I said it on the original and I'll say it again. The Blood Swamp scene should've been replaced with a scene showing the witchers in training exploring the cave from TW3 where you find Old Speartip
That was a very thorough and good review and critique of the movie and it’s prompted me to watch the movie when I get the chance, I always appreciate your insights in the franchise as I haven’t read the books and only played the third game but I’ve seen a lot of your content and you’ve taught me a lot about the franchise. Thank you for the re-upload (I hadn’t been able to watch the original so I’m grateful you re-edited and re-uploaded it) and I’m sorry they took the first one down with a copyright. I hadn’t really been interested in the movie since I like Vesimir a lot in the game and from what I know about him but I just wasn’t sure about Netflix’s movie about his past but your video made me more inclined to actually watch it than I was before plus I wanted to watch your insights on it so thank you for that. I’ll be sure to come back here and to your community post poll about the movie once I watch it but that probably won’t be for a bit. Have a good one, and thanks again, my friend.
My pleasure :) Thank you for the comment
@@xLetalis, of course, you’re welcome, thank you for the content and the insight.
I'm so glad you mentioned the needless child brutality where they just slaughtered all those children in the swamp for no good reason before subjecting them to the mutations. I mean wtf was that? Witchers never did that. They died from the trials, not from some evil monster banquet. My God. That part pissed me off SO much in the film. Really put a nasty taste in my mouth and couldn't rightly enjoy the movie to its fullest after that. Seriously, where they did get their source material? What a waste of good Withcer candidates to just allow them all to get killed in such a way before subjecting them to the actual trials. Why did they write it that way?? Man....so disappointing....
As for the tree. They could've just hung the medallions for every witcher that dies, or for the ones who don't survive the trials. That backstory that they created in the movie was just a bad cop out. Kill all children, then hang their medallions? Seriously? They didn't even properly become witchers yet to at least give them a chance to survive such a brutish ordeal. How does that make any sense? This just makes witchers look more evil than they are. Seriously.....UGH....!
yeah :(
Ikr. Imagine you have 10 students and you send them to the swamps. 9 of them get killed and the 1 survivor dies in the Trial of the Grasses. That's so dumb. I can understand teaching witchers how to survive without their main weapon - swords, but they didn't teach them even that before putting them in the swamps, let alone ANY other skill that could save their lives that night. This "trial" was meant to test their instinct (at least I think so), but it doesn't fucking test instinct, it tests luck which witchers shouldn't rely on!
I'm pretty emotional when watching movies/series and can usually get hyped/feel something regardless if I think something is good or not.
That being said: after watching this, I didn't feel anything, not even bitter disappointment. I was just watching and thinking: yeah this isn't it.
My thoughts: The movie itself works fine and maybe is best as an entry point for new people getting into the Witcher world (whether they started with W3 or the netflix series and want something more), but it could've also been a Castlevania movie for all I care (considering art/anime style AND depth of world building); The animation is bland (in the sense of not being in any way unique towards the other netflix animated series, for instance Castlevania), the storyline is really shallow considering the whole Witcher world, the characters well thought out only in the 1 and a half hour of the movie, and don't work outside it. What I mean by that is that this movie doesn't expand nor really fit into the whole established Witcher world narrative and style, thus making it hard to like for people in the deep end of the witcher universe (bear in mind I'm an avid Gwent player, *HEH WHO ISN'T*, and read all the books and played all the games, like a true salty fanboi).
You already explained a lot of things: the ending and the sacking itself doesn't fit the overall narrative, the idea that witchers were willingly creating more monsters (in the time where monsters still weren't going extinct btw), that geralt eskel lambert and vesemir were there when the sacking happened (it was explicitly stated that the only witchers surviving the sacking were those who were out at the time and that also makes the 3 stooges older in the general timeline, also there were 2 sackings/attacks on Kaer Morhen, I guess this was supposed to be the second, first being with the whole school of the Cat debacle [of course, no mention, but np there wasn't anything about other schools and it wasn't the plot point of the story so it's w/e]). I don't like the whole changing up of the process of becoming a Witcher just to fit a dumb tree shenanigan - that being said the tree would've worked just as fine with the old how to become a witcher system and the full fledged witchers only having medallions (and I would've liked the Nemeton/tree addition in that case).
What I liked:
-The idea of making Vesemir an adventurous type who started being serious after the sacking and reconsidered his lifestyle and purpose;
-The idea of a tree where medallions are being hung
-The idea of making a backstory about the peasant sacking of Kaer Morhen where most witchers (of the wolf school) died
-The idea of mutated monster variations being found instead of the established archetypes, enrichening the world
What I disliked:
- The way the mutated monsters built the plot of evil monster making witchers, and at the same time the negation of well established archetypes (what makes witchers fun is the careful preparation and knowledge of the monsters, to an anatomical precision - completely disregarded for some extra dumb humor gore action scenes)
- The changing of how the sacking was done
- Making a sob story about a sorceress who leads it - 1st giving her an adventure with Vese that's supposed to humanize both sides, but instead does the opposite and makes the whole experience seem pointless in the 1st place, 2nd her controlling a shit ton of acolytes and monsters ??? (with manipulating Kitsu, which didn't do anything at all really, the way Kitsu's character motivation was done she didn't have to lie to her AT ALL)
- Making Witchers be the "bad" guys and creating more monsters, easing into the most basic peasant narrative that worked in the whole universe as one of the motivating factors for everything around witchers happening (them being treated badly, mostly poor, without prestige, *falsely* accused etc) - the key point here being that witchers eating shit for something they didn't do just for being different being the main motivation for everything happening around them (*I atleast thought Netflix could catch that kind of discrimination plotline and beat it to death easily, but they instead decided to butcher it a whole other way*)
- The art style making it indistinguishable from other series and thus less "witchery"
- The whole plot being fitted to make a well rounded average animated movie, but sacrificing most of the worlds integrity to do it and making it even harder to build a good story upon it
- Not trying to accurately follow points that already exist in the lore (think of the doppler plotline in the series) and instead adding/changing things up so it becomes even harder to do a good story moving on, when it could've just as easily been build upon the blocks that were already there
- some good new ideas that were badly incorporated (nemeton/medallion tree, Vesemirs past character change and backstory, Daeglan and the Witchers of the old generation, mutant monsters [a thematic that for instance the first game explored really nice imo, with Salamandra and the stealing of the formulas to the creation of a mutant army])
Totally agree, im abit harsher in terms of judgement. Im curious what your view of the witcher netflix series? More disappointment?
This is exactly what I thought about the film tbh you articulated it better than I could
I am not a big fan or anything, haven't played nor read, but when it was revealed that the witchers are actually led by someone with evil intentions it felt rather strange tor me and like the lore melted before my eyes. I though that the witchers were victims of racism basically etc but with this being their legacy no wonder people would hate them. The fact that the monsters and the mob did not instantly turn on each other felt very unrealistic (even for a making a pact with the devil, the normal people there should not be okay with fighting besides monsters and the monsters should have trampled the humans) despite mindcontrol or whatever.
I do not know if I am to be sad or happy for the fans. Most seems to give it a 10/10 but ever since people give FF VII remake 10/10 despite the whisperers I feel more sympathy towards fans that sees their favorite franchise tank, change or be overtaken by new fans.
you summed it up perfectly! except personally i wasn't a fan of vesemir's personality change. i found it too different from his portrayl in the witcher 3.
@@sarahlandrum9730 totally agree, idk why geralt was bald lol i thought he was a child of surprise to Vesimier .
3 things that xLetalis really loves:
1. The Swirling Attack
2. Yen vs Triss
3. "LESBOMANCY"
4. Selling Ciri!
The 4th witcher youngling was Remus, Get's mentioned earlier alongside Lambert and Eskel, he is also the witcher who died to the Striga in season 1
I've been looking for this video for days thinking I'd been Mandela Effect'd or something lol.
Netflix should go and remove Cuties instead of removing accurate critisism about their shows.
Just watched it this week. I enjoyed it overall, but then the series was my introduction to The Witcher. I’ve since played 3 on PS4, and appreciate the multiverse concepts they are building.
It would be much better if Netflix put this much effort into creating high-quality films and TV series, rather than harassing online creators for reasonable criticism
Creating high-quality tv series and films is hard, while blocking people on the internet is not.
High quality is not part of Netflix's vocabulary
@@hoesmad8626 Lies.
That thumbnail is so confusing 😂, I keep thinking it’s Aang from the Avatar the last airbender, it looks so much like him lol love your content keep up the good work!
Same studio that made Avatar
You are amazing. I am from brazil and I enjoy so much your videos. so much sad that the original was deleted ;-; . Continue being this magnific youtuber!!
Man, I replayed the whole thing just to give you one more view, you deserve it! Your review was actually the reason why I decided to watch the movie, I wasn't that convinced until I saw the length of the video and understood you had plenty to tell about it (Netflix's advertising wasn't very inviting to say the least). They should only be glad you do these kinds of videos, it is the best advertisement they can get
Dang it, hopefully they'll leave you alone now.
This review is really helpful for me, since I have been on the fence about watching it or not.
It felt like they were trying to tell the type of story that the Witcher 3 told with 1/10th of the time and even less passion. I mean, how the **Fuck** do you forget to involve signs? That is literally the only reason Witchers can perform magic and you have Vesemir line them all up like the crew had just finished watching Castlevania s1 for what looked like a fucking hadouken.
This review was brilliantly done, been following you for little over a year now and don't plan on stopping, for me, I would have loved if the animation of the show was based off or was the same style as the live action trailers for the Witcher 3, imagine having monster fights and magic portrayed in that animation???
Thank you :)
Theyre keeping the wish-tier medallion?
Smh
Thats legitimately the most lazily designed thing im surprised theyre keeping, imagine if halo changed what a halo was, into like some X shaped thing instead of a majestic space donut.
Right? I don't know why people in charge of these adaptations try so hard to be different
@Scr3pted Attacks yeah you got us on the practical aspect. But I still like the style of W3 Ones better
But those medallions looked like that in the games not in the books.
Thank you for reuploading the video. I was unable to watch it because of the yt block. I appreciate it 🙏
You think they named the mutated elf Kitsu as a reference to "kitsune?" Y'know, since she turns into a fox and can cast powerful illusions?
That’s exactly how uncreative Netflix is, so I think that’s exactly right.
I never understood why Vesemir waited 60 years to go search for his childhood love ?
I mean he didn't go searching for her ;]
@@xLetalis Yeah but thats what i am confused about , in his Trial of the Grasses his love of her keeps him alive and with purpose and gives him willpower to survive. And then he forgets about her ? I am so confused.
(This comment is written again due to film reupload). That witcher who killed Tetra's mother might have been from cat school. That would fit their character.
If that was the case she won't speak as though the Kaer Morhen witchers are the only ones in the world ;]
Wasn’t it hinted in the movie that it was vesemir who did it? In that dream-state or whatever?
@@henrikaugustsson4041 it was said that he did it but I assumed it's just him feeling guilty or something, not that it actually happened
I've watched first version of this
If Netflix blocks this again, they should know they will lose many fans. Unnecessary blow to the Witcher's community, particularly since it falls under the Fair Use conditions. So essentially, Netflix abusing the burden of proof as usual.
Maybe the sign adult Vesemir was casting to kill the bats and ravens is Aard and Igni mixed together? Food for thought
As someone who is new to everything to do with the witcher the magic part really did confuse me in my head I thought Vesemir was a special witcher who was just really talented in magic hence the super flashy magic scenes thanks for clearing that up
He was actually a swordfighting instructor at Kaer Morhen before the sacking :)
I wish we got to see quen being used right before a fight.
Now Letalis, don't take this wrong but i wrote a massive comment on the last one and I'm too lazy to redo that XD
I'll rewatch the vid because I love the channel!
The last kid around could be Remus who was also seen in season 1 of the Netflix adaptation and was mentioned before by Vesimir as you've shown at 14:50. Would make sense considering he was also trained at Kaer Morhen same time as Geralt and co. But obviously I don't know for sure.
Don't get too frustrated by the Netflix quarrel and keep up ur awesome work. Cheers
thank you ;]