 Are you a fan of Game of Thrones? Do you need something to fill that void in your life since season 7 ended, and we just never got more of Game of Thrones? Well, then I'm going to recommend The Witcher on Netflix. I'm going to get into more thoughts on why I don't think this is a direct analog to Game of Thrones. The comparisons are somewhat, but they're not a ton, so it's not the same show. No, it's not Netflix's Game of Thrones, though you could potentially call it that. But I'll get into that later. The Witcher is an adaptation of the book series The Witcher Saga, written by... Yeah, I'm not trying to pronounce that name. I'm just going to fuck it up if I do. Specifically, this season is based on the first two books, which are really more a collection of short stories rather than full novels. And I say the first two, because I've since watching the show read the first two books, and it feels like it's based more on the first one, but there are definitely stories from the second one in there, so I have to say it's based on both. Another thing I do want to point out, this is an adaptation of the books, not the games. So if you think that it's going to be the story of the games, you're wrong. Just throwing that out there. The story of the show is not told in a continuous fashion. That meaning there are three separate storylines following our three leads. Geralt, Yennefer, and Ciri. Now, each of these stories takes place within a set timeline, but they're told interweavingly, making the first season slightly confusing on the first time watching it through. Short version. Yennefer's story takes first, then Geralt's story, then Ciri's story. If that helps you keep them straight, great. If not, not much I can do for you. All three stories do converge at the end of the season, but leading up to that point is still slightly confusing on when exactly each of the stories takes place within the timeline. Luckily, Netflix is releasing an interactive map and a timeline to show you exactly when they take place. So I would suggest looking those up. I will probably link those at the end of this video. And back to characters. I'm going to go through what I'm going to call the main cast because they're the characters we spend the most time with. First, we have Geralt, the witcher of the show. He claims that he doesn't really care about others that much, especially those that aren't going to pay him, though he really does care, and he has this heart of gold. He's also bound to Ciri by Destiny, though he claims that Destiny can go fuck itself, though he ends up starting to believe in it by the end of the show. Secondly, we have Ciri, who is on the run after her homeland gets attacked and almost destroyed by the Nof guardians. She is bound to Geralt because Geralt saved her father and law of surprise, yada, yada, yada. And the final main character that we have is Yennefer. Yennefer is a sorceress who literally had her womb cut out so that she could become hot. Where I come from, we call that fucking hardcore. Yennefer is honestly one of my favorite female characters of all time because she gradually goes from doing anything to get power to realizing that she's willing to sacrifice herself for others. Each of the main characters has an amazing arc. Like I just mentioned, Yennefer is as her going from I'll do anything to get power to I want to be happy, I want to have kids. Geralt going from fuck Destiny, it can go screw itself to alright cool Destiny's a thing apparently. Ciri goes from effectively thinking that everyone that she has ever loved is this Paragon effect basically to realizing that people can be awful and not everyone's good just because of where they were born. They each have an amazing arc and it's so much fun to watch how they each grow and change over the season. I'm also going to bring up Yaskier who you may know as Dandelion if you've played the games or read the books. I could not speak as to why they decided to go with Yaskier for the show as opposed to Dandelion but every time I ever speak about Dandelion I'm going to call him Dandelion because Dandelion is much more fun to say. Other secondary characters of the show include Calanthe, Ciri's grandmother who she appears multiple times throughout Mausack the Druid, he also appears a few times Dara, he travels with Ciri for a bit before leaving her because he's like you're going to get me killed and you're like your grandmother so screw you. There's also Tris Marigold, she appears in a few episodes she also looks a bit different from her in-game model oh wait I see it, it's the hair only thing that's different from her at all. Other secondary characters that are slightly important to include East I think I'm pronouncing that right now positive Ciri's grandfather Tizia, the woman that taught Yennefer Stregobor, a wizard who I absolutely despise because he's a bit of a bastard Renfri, she only appears in one episode sadly but she's fairly important because she effectively kicks off Gerrit's whole destiny-plot thing Istrid, a former lover of Yennefer who's fairly important overall Kahir, I think I'm pronouncing that one right? Not positive, he's the king of Nilfgaard the one that invades Centra at the beginning and last one that I'm going to name because this is the only one that I can remember with it on my head Frangilla, the mage for Nilfgaard You remember at the beginning how I said the show had some similarities to Thrones? The number of characters is why Now earlier I said that this was based on the books not the show or games so like the books, this doesn't have a fight every five minutes, unlike the games so this show is told mostly through dialogue and that's not a bad thing so honestly if you're expecting the show to be like ah, I die monster every five minutes that's not what happens there are actually relatively few monsters within the scope of the show he fights more humans than he does monsters in fact there's even an episode where he defends a dragon from other hunters so because the show is actually more dialogue less fight heavy every fight scene with an exception of one or two is really really really well done the only one that I can remember being really wonky was the first one that we see this massive battle that is a battlefield it's a lot of shaky cam and whip pans and so it felt really awkward for me to watch but at the same time it also emulates the chaos that is a battlefield I'm a bit of an amateur swordsman so I've been in massive battle type scenarios a few times and I can very much confirm that that is pretty much what it felt like just a lot of chaos not really knowing what's going on, who's friend or foe but it does feel really wonky to me to watch so that is something to keep in mind last thing I want to talk about is the show's soundtrack that is phenomenal the instrumentals are freaking great they're so much fun I've listened to the soundtrack a number of times since finishing it and I can guarantee you've heard at least one song off of this soundtrack even if you haven't seen the show Toss the Coin to your Witcher which is a great song in and of its own right I very much enjoy it but there's another song on this that if you haven't listened to I highly recommend it's her sweet kiss sung at the end of episode 5 or episode 6 can't remember which one it's another dandelion song which it's pretty much Geralt and Yennefer's relationship kind of kind of like how Geralt feels like he keeps getting screwed by this it's a great song, highly recommend it and if you somehow haven't heard Toss the Coin to your Witcher highly recommend that as well it's a lot of fun it's greatly enjoyable to just listen to and you will get it stuck in your head and sing it all the time like I do also I apologize if you have seen the show and do know Toss the Coin it is stuck in your head now I apologize it's also stuck in mine and with all that I've talked about I want to get back to the question that I posed in the title of this video and kind of at the beginning is this show the next Game of Thrones I would argue that no it's not now if you're a fan of Game of Thrones you are most likely going to enjoy the Witcher that's just a fact of these two shows having similar type plots with similar characters and just the fact that medieval fantasy if you're into that you're probably going to like the show but these shows are not direct analogs I don't think that they can actually be compared to each other in terms of pure they are basically different companies versions of the same show the Witcher is much more one on one and while it does have three main characters it tends to focus on a single character and doesn't it isn't so massive that you almost need to like look up a wiki to follow it outside of the confusion of the first season I had no trouble following who what character was doing what and when now if Game of Thrones when I watched that I actually had a lot of trouble especially my first time through and I don't know if that's a product of me being who I am or what so I wouldn't say that the Witcher and the Game of Thrones can be directly compared but if you like one you're probably going to like the other that's honestly all I have to say I highly recommend that you go watch the Witcher right now if I have to give it a score I'm going to say that it easily rolls at 18 so much fun super enjoyable a few wonky things about it but overall just highly enjoyable show great fun I hope you guys enjoyed that video sorry it took me so long to get this out it was just hard for me to make this video feel like it ever felt right I hope that you guys enjoyed the video if you want to follow me on twitter and instagram links are going to be in the description as always and I hope that you guys had a great day and as always peace out