The Witcher Series Four Critique 1/3

This has been my second favourite series of the Witcher (beaten only by the first). They handled Geralt’s change in actor really well.  

  

*****SPOILERS*****

Clever

 

Four of my favourite decisions are as follows.

Geralt enclosed himself in a dome shield then heated up his sword. This increased the pressure, creating an explosion. This was an intelligent, creative decision.

There are very few monsters in Series Four. Initially, this was disappointing. However, the reason for this decision was very clever. The main enemies for the main characters were all Nilfgaard-affiliated: its emperor for Geralt, its law-enforcers for Ciri, and its mage (Vilberfortz) for Yennifer. Nilfgaard has behaved monstrously throughout all the series. Plus its emperor was to impregnate his own daughter, making him a monster. So I suppose this series does have monsters after all: human monsters.

Geralt is suffering because he won’t take a break to rest his leg. (After all, he wants to get to Ciri as quickly as possible.) Then, when he does take a day off, his leg is all better. In managing any chronic condition, people are told to pace themselves, i.e. don’t do too much, because it will actually slow you down overall. It was nice to see that reflected here.

Emperor Emhyr originally thought his Ciri was the real one. However, when she isn’t ruthless with a punishment, he suspects her to be an imposter. So initiates a swordfight and, due to her failure, Emrhy knows she is a fake. This was a clever way to figure this out. (Usually shows would either have the imposter admit it, or someone sees the real one, or someone else finds out about it then shares it.

 

The way Emperor Emhyr finds out he as an imposter Ciri was clever.

            Imposter Ciri wasn’t ruthless with a punishment. This makes Emhyr suspicious. So he initiates a swordfight and, due to her utter lack of skill, Emhyr knows she’s a fake. This demonstrated Emhyr’s intelligence.

            Usually shows make the imposter admit they are one, or the person being deceived sees the real one, or the deceived receives intelligence about a betrayal. So the show makers using this novel way demonstrates their creativity.

 

There were many moments that had an emotional tole.

Zoltan, leader of the travelling dwarves, stole from other travellers so he could feed his companions. He gives this whole speech about doing good where it counts and, somehow, this makes robbing people sound like the right thing to do.

The Rats’ induction ceremony was good. They’d say, “You don’t have anything,” before giving her a gift. Nice touch.

Jaskier says that Geralt hasn’t been the same since he lost the ones he loved. The dwarf responds, “If he has lost his love, he shouldn’t be the same.” Very poignant.

 

Jaskier isn’t portrayed as the brightest candle in the inn. But his character is often used to demonstrate that the show makers are.

Jaskier mentions something was fifty years and Regis adds, “Half a century sounds better.” Later, Regis says he was buried in the mud for fifty years and Jaskier quips, “Half a century sounds better.” This was a good turnaround.

Jaskier sings a song recounting a past adventure. This story is visualised on screen like a musical, with singing, dancing and actions all done to music. (It was done in a village square, making it reminiscent of the opening scene from ‘Beauty and the Beast’.) As a bonus, Jaskier has short hair in this scene (FINALLY).

 

 

Character Design

 

The monster designs were incredible.

            The greylock was a lion-sized cat. It had golden, glowing tentacles coming out of its mouth, along with similar tendrils wriggling around in its eyes. It was so completely unexpected and beautiful (making a parasite pretty is sickening but clever).

            The rusalka was perfection. Vines twisted around themselves to form her torso and limbs. They also composed her hair. All along the rusalka’s bodies, a few vines were moving. Finally, her make-up had been done to a high quality, making the vineless face mesh well with the vine-full body.

            The wraiths animation was another good example. It was made of smoke and dust billowing in the wind. Its shape had some skin, some rotting flesh, and even some bone showing (such as parts of the ribcage).

 

Human designs were interesting.

            Ciri’s wears her hair loose. Every other time we’ve seen Ciri, she has had her hair in complicated braids. This visual distinction of her situational distinction, between being a princess and being a Rat, was a nice touch.

            Mistle’s hair was magnificent. She wore it in dip-dyed braids, most piled on her head in a visually appealing manner. (Although she later changes her hairstyle which is naff in comparison.)

           The fortune teller of the emperor had a long, spiralling bangle on each arm. To see a bangle of that length was unique.

            Assire is a witch. Arriving on a broomstick, she wears a pointy hat, wears black, and does potions. Actual witches have been absent in the Witcher so seeing the witchiest witch to ever witch was a great piece of visual entertainment.

 

 

Visuals

 

There were many, many good shots.

            Yennifer ruthlessly reads the mind of a prisoner. Their eyes explode, covering Yen’s lower face in blood and gunk. It made her look like she’d eaten something raw, giving her a ruthless look, too.

            Jaskier gets sucked into a tomb. Milva shoots arrows into the ground so that Jaskier can pull himself along, hauling himself towards safety. Usually arrows are for ending life, so it was nice to see them used for saving life.

            Mistle walks away from Ciri. The camera focuses on Ciri, making Mistle’s image go out of focus. This fuzziness on Mistle’s blonde hair makes it look like Mistle is surrounded by a halo. Mistle’s angelic appearance reinforces her angelic behaviour towards Ciri.

           The camera watches the Rats riding horses into the distance. Most of them have their arms hidden by their cloaks. Ciri is all elbows, looking bad. Then Giz, their leader, rides ramrod straight, one arm held down at this cocky angle.

 

The title screens were the typical black, each episode having its own silver emblem.

            One episode is set in a swamp. The title screen isn’t the usual black but is instead underwater, complete with plants and eels. It was a shock to have such a drastic change after four series of black-and-silver openings.

            The final episode returned to the black-and silver. However, the viewpoint starts by travelling along the emblem’s side before panning out to the normal position. Then each separate element of the emblem merged together in an artful fashion. There was great attention to detail, making use of all three dimensions.

            The emblem for the final title had a bird. Then it started to flicker, like it was on fire. Later, Yen talks about them being reborn. A fiery bird and rebirth both indicate a phoenix.

 

Fringilla provided a treat for visual moments.

            Vilberfortz knocks Fringilla out. Then he pulls one of her braids from base to tip in an almost-loving caress. Even though he just hurt her. This juxtaposition was a good detail.

            A snake slithers around Fringilla’s upper body. Her whimpers, shakes and grimaces were so believable that it created an emotional response.

        At one point, Vilberfortz had all of Fringilla’s hair shaved off. This is a common violation used to humiliate a prisoner. It makes the audience really feel for Fringilla.

 

 

Fights

 

The choreography for the fights was really creative. The previous Witcher series also had this advantage, so one might presume they’d run out of new ways to do things. But nope, they’re still delivering.

            A bunch of soldiers were about to rape a girl. Geralt uses one of her farm tools to stab a soldier in the groin (fitting, considering what this twat wanted to do). Pinning another soldier to a wagon, Geralt then slides the soldier to the side, slicing him in half along the way.

            The tentacles of the greylock’s parasite wrap around Ciri’s sword. So Ciri does a flip, pulling the greylock off balance.

            Leo cuts open Kayleigh’s torso, puts one of Kayleigh’s bombs inside the wound, and then the bomb explodes. Killing someone with their own weapon is a good enough detail, but to do it in such a gruesome, creative way? Brilliant.

            The rusalka didn’t fight Geralt in the traditional sense. Rather, her vines restrained him and then pulled him under the water. It stopped Geralt from attacking her and it stopped Geralt from defending against her.

Leo stabs his sword into the dirt. Then he gets his enemy’s head and bashes it down on the sword pommel.

            An enemy is turned into a toad and then Vesimir stomps on this toad. Slime and blood splattered all over the screen, not just the environment. That really brings the audience into the scene.

            Geralt headbutts a soldier, pauses for a moment, then headbutts the soldier three more times in quick succession. This second headbutt came as a surprise, as did the fast repetition.

            Other sword fights were noticeable. Yennifer training with Vesimir was amazing. Then later came the incredible display of swordplay between Ciri and Leo.

 

Magical details are notable.

            The novices hold hands to create a shield. In most shows, when mages hold hands, it’s palm-to-palm with finger curled all the way in to be interlocking. But here, the novices put their palms on the back of the other person’s hands, fingers minimally sliding together just enough to stay together.

            Vilberfortz controls a floor portal surrounded by small stone structures. His mages jump through. There’s a burst of a black cloud with the mages dropping down from it. The Witcher (including this series) has always had horizontal portals that worked at ground level, so having a vertical portal at sky level was an interesting twist.

            To break the novices’ shield, Vilberfortz bashes his floor portal with his metal staff. This resulted in the shield having visible cracks, like when thick glass is repeatedly hit.