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tori_reviewsThe Witcher 1x04: Of Banquets, Bastards, and Burials
I liked this episode quite a bit, but some weird feeling is telling me...not exactly that I shouldn't, but maybe that even though I like it I kind of don't like it as intended? It's hard to describe and I can't nail it down, but that's the problem with immediate reactions, sometimes they're confused.
So let's tackle my thoughts in some kind of order. Firstly, the title is so trying to be Game of Thrones; and I can't quite work out what it's referencing here. Banquets certainly, the plural even debateably fits; I can only think of one burial, but at least I can think of one; but where do do the bastards come in? If I can think of any it's that Ciri was conceived out of wedlock, and that's kind of a stretch.
I guess the streak continues, and my dive into wondering how the timelines fit was more or less answered. We've got three distinct time periods for the three main characters, which is going to make them colliding a bit awkward. I'm not quite sure where we are in Yinnifer's time, I thought I heard her say she'd been at court for 30 years by this point, so that should bring her closer to Geralt's time, though probably not quite there; but I'm basing that off of incest king's age last time and I'm not real sure how old he was supposed to be.
It's pretty clear that we are moving through these three stories at different rates too. If I heard right, we're decades into Yinnifer, I figure months or years into Geralt, and days maybe weeks into Ciri (unless time moves different in elf-lands). I don't know where that's going to lead us, but while the pace actually feels about right Geralt (skipping over travel time or random him doing slaying and focusing on big events) I feel like it's short-changing the other two. I still feel like they're more interesting characters with more interesting arcs, but we're racing through Yinnifer's without any time to really delve into her; and it leaves Ciri somewhat stagnant as she can't progress very far very quickly. So I guess the timelines are still something of a concern, but at least I have something of a handle on it.
In addition to just feeling too fast, this episode definitely gave Yinnifer's story the short straw. At least all three plots are in it, but aside from her monologues I don't think there was a lot of character. I really wonder how the book is structured, particularly Yinn's story, because her dissatisfaction with her life and choices seems like it would be a lot more interesting in book form than it is here. You can narrate over a few years of boredom and regret fairly well, but try and turn it into a monologue at a certain point in the story it sounds like exposition. The closing monologue was better, both just better written and better at giving us insight into who she is right now. I have a nagging feeling about where this is going, but I'll save that for if it happens (or maybe even if it goes a different direction).
I actually don't have a lot to say about Ciri's plot, it's moving slowly which I think is why we don't get more actual development from what she learns about her family. At some point we are going to need to see her take control of her own life and see what she does with that control, but I'm not holding my breath for that to happen this season. It's okay if we spend some time seeing her grow, and we are getting that to some extent even if it's slow, but I hope they have a good handle on when the right to shift gears into the next phase with her will be.
It's Geralt's story that I feel the most unsure if I'm responding to correctly. Because I really liked that plot, and that being the A-story contributes to why I liked the ep in general. I even liked him in the story here; but the story here is not about him. There is a lot of interesting stuff going on around him, and because we know there are going to be consequences for the things that happen here it adds extra weight to it; and his actions and observations are all interesting. But because we know how those consequences affect everyone but him, it doesn't feel like his story or like he's the point of what happens. The point is that we're probably still playing out consequences from things Yinn did a generation earlier and creating consequences Ciri will have to live with a generation later.
I've been racking my brain trying to come up with a good parallel, because the video game comparison isn't really doing it for me any more. And the most I'm coming up with is that Geralt is like the Doctor if he was a stoic loner instead of an interesting meddler. I'm not quite sold on that comparison though, and it will need some refining even I do want to go with it. But that's the way my brain is tilting.
And maybe that's why I feel like he's supposed to be more interesting to me than he is; while the circumstances drive many or most episodes of Doctor Who, the Doctor's character is still important even if only to the audience. And it feels a bit like the writers want us to care about Geralt's character, and it's not like I don't at all, but he is neither driving events around him or the most interesting thing about them. So I like the plot, I'm just not sure I like it quite for the reasons or in the way I'm meant to, hence the odd feeling discussed at the start.
I don't know if that makes any sense. It's not even straight in my head obviously, much less in words, I'm sure. But I have almost no knowledge of how fandom feels about this show as I write the reviews; so their unblemished, but also not sure if I'm saying anything interesting.
I liked this episode quite a bit, but some weird feeling is telling me...not exactly that I shouldn't, but maybe that even though I like it I kind of don't like it as intended? It's hard to describe and I can't nail it down, but that's the problem with immediate reactions, sometimes they're confused.
So let's tackle my thoughts in some kind of order. Firstly, the title is so trying to be Game of Thrones; and I can't quite work out what it's referencing here. Banquets certainly, the plural even debateably fits; I can only think of one burial, but at least I can think of one; but where do do the bastards come in? If I can think of any it's that Ciri was conceived out of wedlock, and that's kind of a stretch.
I guess the streak continues, and my dive into wondering how the timelines fit was more or less answered. We've got three distinct time periods for the three main characters, which is going to make them colliding a bit awkward. I'm not quite sure where we are in Yinnifer's time, I thought I heard her say she'd been at court for 30 years by this point, so that should bring her closer to Geralt's time, though probably not quite there; but I'm basing that off of incest king's age last time and I'm not real sure how old he was supposed to be.
It's pretty clear that we are moving through these three stories at different rates too. If I heard right, we're decades into Yinnifer, I figure months or years into Geralt, and days maybe weeks into Ciri (unless time moves different in elf-lands). I don't know where that's going to lead us, but while the pace actually feels about right Geralt (skipping over travel time or random him doing slaying and focusing on big events) I feel like it's short-changing the other two. I still feel like they're more interesting characters with more interesting arcs, but we're racing through Yinnifer's without any time to really delve into her; and it leaves Ciri somewhat stagnant as she can't progress very far very quickly. So I guess the timelines are still something of a concern, but at least I have something of a handle on it.
In addition to just feeling too fast, this episode definitely gave Yinnifer's story the short straw. At least all three plots are in it, but aside from her monologues I don't think there was a lot of character. I really wonder how the book is structured, particularly Yinn's story, because her dissatisfaction with her life and choices seems like it would be a lot more interesting in book form than it is here. You can narrate over a few years of boredom and regret fairly well, but try and turn it into a monologue at a certain point in the story it sounds like exposition. The closing monologue was better, both just better written and better at giving us insight into who she is right now. I have a nagging feeling about where this is going, but I'll save that for if it happens (or maybe even if it goes a different direction).
I actually don't have a lot to say about Ciri's plot, it's moving slowly which I think is why we don't get more actual development from what she learns about her family. At some point we are going to need to see her take control of her own life and see what she does with that control, but I'm not holding my breath for that to happen this season. It's okay if we spend some time seeing her grow, and we are getting that to some extent even if it's slow, but I hope they have a good handle on when the right to shift gears into the next phase with her will be.
It's Geralt's story that I feel the most unsure if I'm responding to correctly. Because I really liked that plot, and that being the A-story contributes to why I liked the ep in general. I even liked him in the story here; but the story here is not about him. There is a lot of interesting stuff going on around him, and because we know there are going to be consequences for the things that happen here it adds extra weight to it; and his actions and observations are all interesting. But because we know how those consequences affect everyone but him, it doesn't feel like his story or like he's the point of what happens. The point is that we're probably still playing out consequences from things Yinn did a generation earlier and creating consequences Ciri will have to live with a generation later.
I've been racking my brain trying to come up with a good parallel, because the video game comparison isn't really doing it for me any more. And the most I'm coming up with is that Geralt is like the Doctor if he was a stoic loner instead of an interesting meddler. I'm not quite sold on that comparison though, and it will need some refining even I do want to go with it. But that's the way my brain is tilting.
And maybe that's why I feel like he's supposed to be more interesting to me than he is; while the circumstances drive many or most episodes of Doctor Who, the Doctor's character is still important even if only to the audience. And it feels a bit like the writers want us to care about Geralt's character, and it's not like I don't at all, but he is neither driving events around him or the most interesting thing about them. So I like the plot, I'm just not sure I like it quite for the reasons or in the way I'm meant to, hence the odd feeling discussed at the start.
I don't know if that makes any sense. It's not even straight in my head obviously, much less in words, I'm sure. But I have almost no knowledge of how fandom feels about this show as I write the reviews; so their unblemished, but also not sure if I'm saying anything interesting.
