The Witcher – A Review

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I’ve been a fantasy fan for a long time, but I haven’t played video games since the days of Atari. When the Netflix series “The Witcher” was announced I had no idea what was headed to the screen. While a long time fan of fantasy I’ve drifted away recently and read in many other genres. I still love it, but missed anything related to this series. I started watching the show with a blank slate, just really hoping for some excellent, accessible fantasy.

Before I get to the spoilers I will say that I did in fact like the series. I can’t say that I loved it, but it is swords and sorcery and that usually works out well for me. If you’re a fan of swords and sorcery it’s worth watching. There is a book series. I thought I would go and grab up the books, then I read this review. Perhaps I’ll hold off. Maybe it’s better to let the show stand on its own.

SPOILERS BEYOND THIS POINT

Why didn’t we get more of *this* Witcher?

Yes, it’s swords and sorcery. It’s got a ton of standard fantasy tropes in there. Eleves, dwarves, wizards, and even dragons. There are castles and wizard battles and swamp monsters and ghouls and…

and all those things are rammed in and around the plot in just 8 episodes.

The problem with epic fantasy is rarely the fantasy part. The problem is the epic part. There is SO much world building and background that it’s almost impossible to cram it all in to anything less than a massive series. The writers tend to do exactly what I said ~ they cram. The push and mash and squeeze as many of the eye catching ‘cool’ fantasy things into as short a span as they can in a desperate grab for eyeball time. The Witcher suffers from this. There is so much there and very, very little of it is actually the main character doing his job. Geralt is a magically created warrior designed to hunt and destroy monsters. The series opens with him battling a swamp dwelling giant spider with human features, then shows his fighting powers against people, then that fades away in order to start stacking in story.

As I wrote that I had to stop and really think about it. How could I complain about building in story? It’s exactly what I always say that I want. That is the part about cramming in the ‘epic’ part. The story is named for Geralt’s job, but then we spend huge amounts of time on Ciri, Yennifer, Jasker the bard, The Brotherhood (that is mostly women?) and a jumble of other bits. We see Geralt’s part in things, but only just.

Witchers are supposed to be constructed to have no human emotions. I suspect this is not the truth and much like the manner in which Spock is portrayed in the modern updates of the Star Trek series the character is deeply emotional, simply repressed to the point of psychological damage. I believe the emotions will burst forth in the form of rage at some point. A truly emotionless character would be far less interesting. What this emotionless warrior does is drift through the story. I want to like Geralt, but he’s flat. On purpose? Maybe.

So a flat character and a jumble of story. At least the whole thing will make sense when it’s fully rendered on screen, right? Wrong.

The time line jumps all over the place. I could never tell when in the story we were supposed to be. Were we in the past, the distant past, the present? It was almost impossible to tell for sure. Flashbacks to dead characters that have been replaced by magic shape shifters only made this worse. Apparently both the sorceress Yennifer and Geralt are supposed to be significantly older? Sorcerers are supposed to have greatly expanded life spans, but we’re only getting vague references to that? It was very frustrating.

The other part I found frustrating was the indecision of what the nature of the show wanted to be. Getting past organizational aspects of how the story was made, what were they trying to portray? There were tons of gratuitous nudity scenes. Generally speaking I am in favor of that sort of thing – if it advances the story in some way. These scenes all gave me the feeling that what they were aiming for was trying to take over the space vacated by Game of Thrones. The show wanted to be dark, and mysterious, violent and sexy… and then they added in Jasker the bard. Jasker should have been Joxer from Xena: Warrior Princess. They could have gone for a much lighter, entertaining version of the entire series. There were still monsters and fighting and love stories just with added camp.

I don’t know if I would stay on board for campy epic fantasy and that’s the show’s biggest issue. It can’t decide what it wants to be or where it wants to go. It’s a retro feel stuffed in a modern package that doesn’t quite fit.

There are other issues associated with the show as well. Yennifer as hunchback and deformed never sat quite right with me. Something was off about that portrayal. When she was transformed it confirmed my fear. This was actually a gorgeous Hollyweird actress that they’d made up to look that particular way, then magically transformed. I do not fall into any category other than ‘able’ so it’s not for me to discuss the depth of this, but despite truly excellent make-up and special effects it just didn’t sit right.

For more depth on this you should check out this article.

I’ve spent quite a few words picking this show apart. These issues are what distract me from flat out loving a successful fantasy series. There are really excellent parts to this show and good stories within the larger story. The series has been announced as having a second season already. My hope is that the story lines get sorted in better order, the actual power of Geralt comes forward (there was a lot of hype around the black eyes in the promo stuff and we almost never see that in the series) and the writers decide to make this story it’s own, not just a GOT replacement.

I do recommend watching the series. As always, supporting something new is vital to showing that we, the consumer, are actually interested in new and exciting shows and that we want something more than another remake.

Watching – on MY demand

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I am not a Luddite, but I am often accused of being one because I tend to express very negative opinions about tech and the issues that result from it not working correctly.

I spend an exceptional amount of time working with technology, specifically digital tools, at my day job. I am part designer, part modeler, and part film maker when I’m working on a project. I absolutely depend on having up to date hardware and software. I am connected all the time while I am working having three screens and up to a dozen windows open at any given time on my computer. I live in the future when I’m working. When I am not at work, totally different take on things.

I have a deep seeded need for technology to simply work when and where I want it to. This is where the problem starts. There are a multitude of technology based things for any and all parts of the home these days. I find that most of them amount to solutions gone looking for a problem. Could I have voice commands turn all the lights on and off in my house? Yes, yes I could. Will I ever do that? Not a chance. I can walk over and flip a switch to complete a circuit. The only times I’ve ever had a problem with that is when the light itself failed to work. How many people can say they never have a problem getting their automated things to work properly every single time without more effort that flipping a switch? I’ve witnessed it at the office I work in. One office’s lights are connected to a digital assistant. Guess what set of lights constantly has issues? Good guess.

So, why am I on about digital tools and connectivity? I am also one of the people that still has the Netflix DVD by mail service. Yes, actual discs in the good old postal delivery service. I can’t say I’m a constant on the mailing list, sometimes not getting to my new disc for a couple of weeks, but generally I get to at least three or four per month. I also still buy actual discs of the movies that I know I really enjoy and want to go back to.

When I really want to watch an older movie that I love I follow a procedure that’s remarkably similar to the light switch… I get off my ass, walk to the shelf where the movie sits, then take the disc back to the DVD player and watch my movie. Relatively little failure there.

What if you wanted to watch Dogma tonight? Could you? Even with Kevin Smith out there all over the place promoting stuff you still can’t just get it if you don’t own the disc. Sure, there may be some digitally savvy folks out there that could come up with it, but at what cost? What system? Do you have the right service?

This article in GQ has some really excellent points on this.

My bottom line is this – If I own the disc, there’s not a service out there that can stop me from watching it when and where I want to. I don’t have to depend on Netflix having it in their rotation. I don’t have to worry that there’s some kind of transmission problem that’s bogging down Hulu. No buffering on my computer. I just watch it. Pause it, come back to it… basically all the things associated with streaming, without the need to worry about what service has the movie or IF my digital library copy is still available or not… or worse, if it’s been altered for some kind of directorial re-write (thanks for that Lucas).

IF that makes me a Luddite, so be it. I’ll still watch my movies whenever I want and not depend on some service to do it.

An Anniversary

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A date slipped past in the midst of all the holiday goings on. Back on December 27th The Pretend Blog became a teenager. Yes, this blog has been around for 13 years now.

It has not always been on my own web site. I started this whole thing back in the days of LiveJournal if you can believe it. Thirteen years of putting stuff I want to get out of my head up here.

I am forced to admit that I haven’t built the sort of readership that people who pay for their own web sites normally want. I have NO intention of stopping this however. I will continue to keep my own content, thank you very much.

So – all these thousands of words later – teenager. Let’s hope the site gives me less attitude than most teens give their parents!

For any fans of nostalgia, the LiveJournal posts are still live. I don’t remember how to get into that site, but all that stuff can still be found here.

I’m also consistent about a lot of things. I still laugh every time I watch The Ultimate Showdown (from the second ever blog post by me!).

Recommended Reading!

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I’m cross posting this one over from Failbook. I am very excited to have found out about this.

While I was busy partying the new year in, others have been working. Hat tip to Jeff Young for pointing this one out to me.

“Sympathetic” from “In Harm’s Way” was one of the noted stories (no stars, but my name was on the list!) in Tangent Online’s 2019 Recommended Reading List!

I am super happy just to be mentioned.

Tangent Online Article

A New Year? Again?

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2019 really does seem like a bit of a blur to me. I’m more shocked than any other reaction that it’s actually 2020 now.

I looked back at my new year post from this past January. I can’t say that I’ve truly shaken the slump, but I’m slowly getting better / back to where I once was. I read more (though I am still failing at the reviews thing), I caught up on more media that I had been missing out on and I’ve written a few thousand words. They weren’t spectacular words, but they were progress (and they are part of why there hasn’t been more being posted here).

Given my recent post on habits, one might think that I’d be putting something up here about resolutions and how big changes are coming, etc., etc…

Well, no. That’s not how I operate. Many years ago I made a New Year’s resolution to NEVER make a New Year’s resolution again. Guess what? Total success. Still going strong on that one. IF you want or need change in your life, the calendar is convenient, but not required. Make the change to grow or get better when you make that choice. Do what you need in order to adjust your habits.

I get the feeling that I should try to have some kind of review of the past decade, but again – not really my style. I don’t like list posts – they seem kind of cheap to me. This time of year is busy for sure, but readers that have time on their hands around travel time or in an attempt to get away from relatives want something new to read, not just another review / list.

As we all go crashing into 2020 (may you be able to live with all the vision jokes) let’s hope that the most amazing positive thing that happened last year for us is just a springboard to even more amazing in the coming year.

Habits

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Habits

Habits are difficult things to break. There are a lot of things I do that happen simply because they’re what I have always done. I have a listing in my internet bookmarks called ‘daily review’. Every time I am on the computer for any length of time I open that list of bookmarks and roll through each of the sites there. I don’t need to see any of those sites. They’re a mix of news, entertainment and web comics that I follow. It’s important to keep up on the news of the day, but there really isn’t a single one of those web sites that I couldn’t catch up with at some other point in the day OR just skip. Seeing the latest “Off The Mark” comic strip is not something that’s going to deeply change my day. I could skip all of them and not really miss anything at all. It’s a hard habit to break.

As it turns out, it’s also challenging to create new habits. Doing good things, making long term positive changes is not easy either. This applies to anything, but it is particularly difficult for me to do this with writing. My writing tends to take a back seat. There are a lot of reasons for this. The main reasons aren’t easy to pin down, but I think the biggest are lack of inspiration and fear of judgment

Writing at the level I really want is work. I tend to write when I am inspired. When I have that spark the words come pouring out. I have pages and pages of hand written notes with almost no scratch outs or edits. I become the Zeus of the story and chunks just pop from my head fully formed. The problem with that is combining inspiration and the actual time needed to sit and get all the words recorded. There’s at least a novel worth of words that have faded away because I couldn’t manage to get them to the page when the dream was fresh or the mood was in full swing. I can’t afford to wait on these pages. I need to sit and write and keep it all in some kind of recorded form, whatever that form may be. Typed, handwritten, voice recording – doesn’t matter. Get the words out there and do it all the time.

It’s easy to hear others talk about these things. I know that Ray Bradbury used to write ten thousand words a day. Sounds like the perfect recipe for writing books. I’ve often snatched a line from one of my other favorite authors. When I heard Jim Butcher talk about writing he said, “I don’t have a muse, I have a mortgage…” I knew there was truth there. Writing is work. Work needs to be done on a regular basis. I do not do enough of that kind of work.

Judgment

The other part of my inability to start good habits is this fear of judgment. If I put myself out there and claim to be a writer I will be judged by my ability to string together coherent statements with the proper use of grammar AND it will all need to be spelled right. Then, after all the basics, I need to actually have something to say.

Two main parts to that. First the spelling and grammar portion is not easy. I am terrible at spelling. I can look at this page alone and see at least 3 words with squiggly red lines under them. They are words that I absolutely should know how to spell and I just can’t seem to get them right. I don’t know why, but they don’t stick. It’s physically difficult for me to keep typing and not go back to edit while I’m letting the words continue to come out. Going back to edit can and should be something that is done after all the words are out. Too often I stop what I am thinking to go back and craft the perfect phrase or clean up all the spelling that is glaring at me in red. Breaking the flow stops the words and just as often as not they don’t start again. Grammar is worse. Grammar is one of those things that I know I should know, but I feel a bit like Gandalf in the LOTR movies, “I have no memory of this place…”. I am faking my way through it all and anyone that has half a clue about how grammar works probably cringes at the word salad I toss out.

Impostor

The second part is the judgment All this writing is out there for people to read, and very few people actually read it. The fact that I can name the people who interact with me when it comes to my writing says a lot about my success. That’s the true judgment part. It’s not having some troll throw angry words down about what I have said, it’s that all of this amounts to nothing. Getting somebody to react, somebody to actually read what I have labored to create would allow them to look at my terrible spelling and grammar and think, “this guy is a writer? I could do better…”. One of the harshest critiques I’ve ever had was at a book signing. The book signing had a line of authors from the anthology. As people shuffled along the line of authors this guy asked me, “and what story was yours?”. When I told him his face froze in place and then he said, “Oh. That one was… nice.”. I thanked him again and he stepped down the line to the next author. That really sucked. He’d read it and it did nothing for him. That was a tough one to overcome, but I’ve kept going in the hopes that I’ll sneak in with the cool kids again one of these days. It’s not easy. I am slowly slipping into the land of old men standing in the yard and yelling at the sky.

After all that

This is the sort of rambling, writerly life-style post that would normally end with some promise not to blog fade or to use the coming new year as an excuse to claim great changes are on the way. I’ve done all that before. I’m sure I’ll re-post one of my successful habits in the coming days about that. What I am going to say is that this is all a work in progress. I have seen some short videos lately that have resonated with me about habits, work ethic and the tool box fallacy. I’ll keep going. In the future somebody will dig these words up and bring them back for judgment – at least I will have made them react.

Post Script:

This is one of those “fully formed” examples. More than a thousand words that poured out all at once. Now to edit…

Reviewing the reviewer

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It has come to my attention that I am a terrible book reviewer.

This was not a mean or critical thing, it was just something that came up. I’m not sure the person that pointed this out to me even understands that was what happened.

I have more than 300 books read / reviewed on my Goodreads account. I only put books I’ve read since starting Goodreads on there with reviews. I am always honest about what my feelings are toward the book that I’m reading at the time. I give my opinion just as it is.

That brings out the two biggest problems with my reviews.

The first part isn’t really a problem as much as it is something that is common to anything posted on the internet. It’s out there and it’s not going away. I’ve given my opinion, but it’s exactly that – an opinion. My opinion on certain things has changed over time. It’s entirely possible that my opinion will change on the books over time. It’s fair for an opinion to change, but my reviews are static. What is out there, is out there. I’ve written before about the importance of reading books at the right time. This applies to me too – and there might be some reviews that were just the wrong time. I am a writer (hopeful author?) so I know the struggle of trying to get a story published. I always keep that in mind when I’m putting together a book review. Hopefully people will appreciate that about what I put out there.

The second part is the heart of the issue. I have never learned, studied or applied anything that resembles a structured critical book review.

I shouldn’t say never.

I recall writing book reports back in elementary school that had a structure. I haven’t looked at anything like that as an adult though. I should. When my friend asked me about a book that I’d read some years ago it turned out that I had posted a review to Goodreads. I went back to that review to ‘check my notes’ and see if I could answer the questions put to me. My review was something close to “meh, it was OK” and that was it. I couldn’t help. To be fair to myself, if it were a truly memorable book I suspect I could have been more help. What that did was point out a need. I need to get a better method for reviewing books and making notes to help me remember important details some years down the road.

I’ve got at least a half dozen books that I’ve finished reading and not posted anything about yet. I will have to see what I can come up with for the ‘new review format’ over the next couple of weeks.

How do you review what you’ve read?

This Site

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I am not a fan of change simply for the sake of change. Many (most?) things can simply be ‘steady on’ and I’m good with that. I frequently see solutions looking for problems in the day job and people pick these things up simply because they are new and flashy.

I really like solutions… IF there’s actually a problem to address. If things are running smoothly, why change them? I really like a certain level of consistency. I remember when everyone’s web site absolutely needed frames. Then everyone’s web site needed flash. Java. There are lots of things that have come and gone. That’s not me.

However.

I get it for certain marketing functions. I do. Sometimes things need to be freshened up and given a new coat of paint (or digital wallpaper at least).

I’m not a web designer. I know there are parts of this site that are broken and have been for some time. I know there are parts of it that need desperately to be updated. I have actually gone out and started a conversation with somebody that might be able to help me with this. Let me rephrase that – I know she can help me, the question is if I can afford her (she’s a pro). Coming from the creator community I will NOT ask somebody to work “for the exposure”. Just like winter time – you can die from exposure.

So – some small hope that things will brighten up in the near future. We’ll see how it works out together!

The Dragon Prince

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The Dragon Prince main characters

I am a long time fan of the fantasy genre. Yes, I was first hooked by The Hobbit a long time ago, but since then the heroic sword and sorcery story has always had a place in my heart. I love it.

I admit, for a while I wandered away. I’d seen plots that looked, felt and moved the same way for a long time. Before I began writing and learning what a trope was I began to see and understand the commonality among my favorite stories. I still like them.

Since then I have always hunted for fantasy stories that could give me the heroic journey without making me bored while doing it. Subtlety, nuance, shifts in the way things are presented or the way worlds are constructed are all things that catch my attention. I am a particular fan of changes to world building.

IF you’re of a similar mindset, I humbly suggest you find a way onto Netflix and watch The Dragon Prince. It is excellent fantasy – the best I’ve seen in a long time. You might look at it and think it is a show aimed at children. That is and is not true. This show takes on a number of very deep themes and issues. These affect people no matter how old they are and we all still need to deal with those things.

This article: How The Dragon Prince Became the Best Fantasy Show on Television, Animated or Not has a number of very good things to say.

This article:
The Dragon Prince Ended Season 3 With a Battle That Could Rival Any Lord of the Rings Movie is full of spoilers but also covers a lot of excellent points about the show.

My quick hits from the show?

The characters are strong and complex. There are good examples of behavior and bad examples of behavior. Both examples show the consequences of those actions, and it’s not always black and white. Clear cut answers are few and far between in this show.

The story is stronger because it can’t take short cuts. There’s something to be said for avoiding the cheap method of getting a point across. The romance isn’t punctuated with explicit sex – that’s not an option. There is no violence simply because an ‘action scene was needed’. The story needs to carry the day.

Things that are considered divergent to many people are shown in this show without needing to sledge hammer the point home. Nobody bats an eye at the fact that one of the best generals for the humans is deaf. I don’t know ASL, but I’m betting those lines are actually animated with real words. There is a creature missing a leg (trying not to be spoilery) that has been made to look ‘normal’ because of preconceived viewpoints. It’s there, but it’s not the point and that’s what I really like about it. You can’t use your standard assumptions because they might not be the case. I think that’s a very strong argument for world building and quality story telling.

IF you’re not worried about spoilers, check out those articles. Either way, do yourself a favor and go check this show out. Totally worth your time.

Vegas Baby!

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The thing about going to Las Vegas is the show. It’s very flashy. It’s very showy. It’s a massive glittering facade. Once you’ve passed the point of being overwhelmed by the shear magnitude of it all… how you perceive the place largely depends on your interests and cash flow.

Right after Philcon I headed to Las Vegas for a week for a convention. The convention was all work related – and significantly larger that most science fiction conventions I attend. There were somewhere in the range of eleven thousand people at this convention. Much like any other convention, there are good aspects and bad aspects. There are great panels and there are clunkers. There was a massive party along the way too.

Lonely looking the other way

I attended this convention alone. Nobody from my office was there. I knew less than a handful of people at the con and failed to connect with an old friend that lives in the area. Thing is, under those circumstances Vegas can be quite a different place.

I didn’t have any time to book shows or do most of the “tourist” stuff. I was also lucky enough to have traveled to Vegas with my wife earlier this year. We did a couple of shows and a lot more of the “tourist” stuff when we were there together. Being there alone, without those things going on, gave me some time to just sit and watch. There is certainly a lot to see while you’re there. Most of what I saw was people being overwhelmed by the scale of the place. They were all in for the show.

I’m not saying that there aren’t still things for me to see or do in Las Vegas, but sitting and just watching gave me the chance to be more objective about it. It’s huge and showy but it’s a vast facade. It’s a massive, glittering object in the middle of nowhere. It was definitely a more depressing view. When you sit and watch you notice things. I saw more than one person there that was busy purging alcohol from their system. This happens when you drink too much – but this was a Tuesday afternoon. I saw a lot more of the people working and keeping the facade running. I saw at least 2 ankle monitors for folks working at various places. It had the surreal aspects of the old movie version of the Time Machine. The happy people didn’t notice who was getting eaten.

Looking the other way from the high roller

I don’t know when I’ll get the chance to get back to Vegas again, but I do know that I’ll be looking at things a lot differently the next time I go.