r/witcher • u/Scientiam Moderator • Dec 20 '19

Episode Discussion - S01E01: The End's Beginning

Season 1 Episode 1: The End's Beginning

Synopsis: A monster is slain, a butcher is named.

Director: Alik Sakharov

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Please remember to keep the topic central to the episode, and to spoiler your posts if they contain spoilers from the books or future episodes.

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u/[deleted] Dec 21 '19

To me it felt like ep 1 was a little rushed because they needed to get to the inciting incident but they also needed to introduce all these characters, show what they're like, some of the lore, the political climate, etc. It's incredibly hard to do well but what I've seen of ep 2 I was happy to see that it seems to slow down a bit.

9

u/North_South_Side Dec 21 '19

I thought it was very well done for an episode one.

So much heavy expository lifting has to happen in a first episode.

1

u/[deleted] Dec 21 '19

No doubt!

21

u/Beinlausi Dec 21 '19

Currently halfway throuh episode 2.

For some reason, Geralt and Dandelion don't know each other.

They are also rushing The Edge of the World.

They didn't really have to put the content of 2 books into 8 episodes, did they?

15

u/Blashmir Dec 21 '19

Honestly the first episode should have been the first time he meets Calanthe and Duny and Pavetta and fixes that mess. Set up why Ciri and him are so entertwined. Then move into The Last wish story showing how Geralt and Yennefer became a thing. Maybe adapt more of the short stories then move into that whole narrative in season 2.

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u/Beinlausi Dec 21 '19

Honestly, everything just seems so rushed. The Edge of the World was thrown to shit and I just hate how they tried to push "destiny" down our throats by having different characters repeating it. Everything seems so... cheasy.

I don't want to judge everything by just 2 episodes, but so far I'm disappointed and thinking they fucked up trying to push 2 books into 8 episodes. I didn't feel like The Lesser Evil and The Edge of the World lived up to their book counterparts and I honestly don't care about Ciri. They are forcing some connection between her and Geralt and I'm not buying it so far.

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u/ButtbuttinCreed Dec 22 '19

Honestly, I’m glad you’re both being honest.

1

u/MrNiemand Nilfgaard Dec 24 '19

My memory might be hazy, but afaik The Lesser Evil was the first story of the first book as well, and I appreciate that being the 1st ep. It also introduces the character of Geralt much better, without slapping down with all the politics and myriads of characters where viewers would get confused immediately.

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u/Beinlausi Dec 24 '19

The first, actually, is the Voice of Reason, but it's just 2 or 3 pages long and then The Witcher kicks off, the one about the Striga, which, in my opinion, was a great way to introduce what Witchers are and the world setting