#i still suspect henry cavill left because of the lack of respect for the source material

[volixia669]

Rant about Witcher S2

Feeling kinda sad seeing Witcher Gifs. Not because people are enjoying the show, please, enjoy it! I'm not here to judge your viewing habits!

But personally, I actually thought it would be a good show in S1. They missed some things here and there, and it didn't reeeeaaally feel like it was based on slavic folklore & culture, but I was hoping that now people were hooked, they'd use more of what people weren't familiar with, and get into some of the morally grey stuff as well as the much darker aspects of Witcher lore & slavic lore.

Instead they turned Baba Yaga into a generic demon.

Baba Yaga.

(Click Keep Reading for the rest of my rant because I don't want to be rude but also wow do I have so much to say about S2)

Technically only identifiable as such due to the house with chicken feet, that's how badly they fucked such an iconic piece of folklore up.

Season 2 also brought us "what if Eskel were an ass, and we killed him, then were shocked that people were upset we changed his character AND weren't upset at his passing"

In addition, it downplayed to near non-existence the roles Triss and Yen had in mentoring Ciri, it used the generic demon to kill most of the witchers thereby making the fault of the witcher's decline (checks notes) Yen, Ciri, and a generic demon instead of HUMANITY.

It tried to do the whole "dubious ethics of Witcher creation" but without Lambert's justifiable anger regarding being made a witcher as a kid, it doesn't have the same emotional weight.

Oh, oh. We also have a beautiful friendhsip between two badass women formed, then ruined due to...Interference from Deus Ex Generic Demon.

And like. They could have actually used Yen, The Elf Woman, and Nilfgardian Sorceress (sorry, blanking on names), to show how Baba Yaga ISN'T an evil witch, but rather, well, more complicated than that. How the deals Baba Yaga offers depends on both her mood, and how much respect you give to her. That the morality of what's offered & given also depends on perspective.

But nope. Generic Demon.

Which that plotline leads to blood libel.

This will likely need more explaining, so buckle up.

First up, blood libel is a variant of antisemitism where Jewish people are accused of murdering children thereby fueling pogroms aka genocide attempts. It's been around in Europe for centuries. Centuries.

The holocaust was not the first attempt to kill Jews, it was just the most well known, and most systemic.

Now, sometimes writers will make a fantasy race an analog to the Jewish people. Sometimes the intent is malicious, sometimes its positive, sometimes its neutral. Sometimes they don't intend to, they're just using tropes another writer used which is based on another writer's tropes, which is based on a metaphor/analog.

Now, I do not know all the details about how the author of the witcher books originally wrote the elves.

I DO know that how they were portrayed in the show was as a people looking for a homeland, and were part of a diaspora, with concerns about not enough "purebloods" in the new generation.

Its not at all accurate to the experiences of actual Jewish people, but it IS accurate to the perception of Jewish people many goyim have. (Also yeah, there's some Jews who are concerned about not enough pure Jewish kids, but that's like, a couple of very specific sects and even within those sects not everyone agrees on that.)

Anyways, the blood libel comes in what happens when the elven woman's baby dies. The Jewish analogs go and kill a bunch of non Jewish, I mean non Elven babies.

Fuck you Lauren Hirsch.

Fuck you for that plotline.

Even if it WERE canon, why the fuck would that plotline be deemed appropriate. Even if we pretended it wasn't blood libel, it's still a minority murdering a majority's kids, which oh right, is exactly the kind of shit fox news blabs on about.

I mean hell, the elves were enslaved. I bet there's incredibly false, racist, enraging, propaganda from the 1800s claiming freed slaves would kill children.

But they even put blood over doorways in a fucking bastardization of passover. A holiday where some sects ACTUALLY DISCUSS HOW HORRIBLE THE WHOLE KILLING BABIES THING IS. Oh, and the blood over doorways WAS ANIMAL BLOOD TO TELL THE ANGEL OF DEATH THAT A JEWISH FAMILY LIVED THERE. IT WAS WARDING. IT WASN'T A THREAT.

And instead of the elves being a faction with complicated motives stemming from racism, colonialism, and just having no where to go, they're turned into bland villains. The fuck kind of writing is this.

Oh, and before I forget, another pile of steaming shit to add to the shit pile? Vesemir giving a bunch of sex workers a date rape plant, thereby making it so they CANNOT CONSENT TO SEX, and also being okay with bringing strangers to the keep which makes zero sense.

Its disgusting, misogynistic, and seems like the scene was intended to be played for comedic effect with the mention of the plant as a sort of handwave to explain why the keep is still secret.

I have ZERO issues with sex workers, and in fact want more positive representations of sex workers. What I am not okay with is when media shows characters casually using an actual plant to drug sex workers thereby removing their agency, and it's intended to be a comedic scene.

Fuck that.

There's just...So much wrong with Season 2's writing, with the choices made, with the lack of respect for slavic culture, that I just cannot bring myself to watch the latest season.

Henry Cavill's Geralt is great! I love Anya Chalotra as Yen! I love that Joey Batey fought for Jaskier to be queer! There's so much great acting, costumes, and more.

But the writing choices.

The writing and directorial choices, as well as Hirsch's responses to criticism from fans means I just can't enjoy this season.

So I look sadly at the gifs, knowing that they're showing some great moments, but I can't enjoy them the way that I would have if S2 had been written better.

And you know what? I hope we get to hear more about what was going on behind the scenes. I want to know who wanted what. WHo shouted down what decisions. And just how, how in the world these writing decisions got finalized and aired.

#the witcher #netflix the witcher #lix rambles #this is not a positive post #i just have so many feelings because i enjoy the world and characters #only for so many bad choices to be made #i still suspect henry cavill left because of the lack of respect for the source material #sure there was the dc deal but that doesn't feel like enough to pull him away from a dream gig #unless it turned into a nightmare gig