Ep. 51 - The Witcher: Blood Origin (2022)

[00:00:00] Hello and welcome to episode 51 of The Complete Works season 3. some fantasy elements. A few years later, we can see that still very much the case for most networks, looking for the next big thing. I mean, just, I think it was last year, suddenly it was like, House of the Dragon, which is literally a game that Thrones prequel was airing. At the same time as Lord of the Rings, the Rings of Power, Andor, and She-Hulk, which She-Hulk not really trying to be that,

[00:01:41] but still a big franchise thing.

[00:01:43] And it was just like, oh yeah,

[00:01:44] there's a lot of this. It's called No Clip. No Clip is the channel. And he does like feature length video game documentaries and they're like actual feature productions. They're not just like some guy on YouTube. It's the whole thing. And he did one on CD Project Red, which is the company that made the Witcher series and just

[00:04:23] about them as a company and how they made the Witcher. Yeah, I remember it was around Christmas time that year and I did binge it probably over a weekend. So, or that week, I don't really remember what the timing of when you were here, all that stuff. But yeah, definitely sat down and was like, gotta get into it, gotta go watch the Witcher. All right. And since then, the series, which was pretty well received at first, has hit some road bumps with many fans decrying a drop in quality as it went on

[00:04:25] and ultimately losing Henry Cavill as its lead Michelle Yeo is in it. We have to use a beast against him. We merge the creature's power with one view.

[00:07:07] Come on, big lad. who ultimately go up against the forces of Zintreya following its coup d'etat. Among the show's other main characters, you've got Eile, I think it's pronounced Eile, a lot of these are going to be like fantasy names that I don't know how to pronounce. Yeah, it's also like, I mean it's fantasy names so they're not real, but a lot of those names are like derived from like their Polish version of them, and you're just like, what is going on? Right.

[00:08:20] So Eile is a warrior of the Queen's Guard, played by Sophia Brown.

[00:08:24] Fjall, the one who ultimately becomes background of scenes at the end of them and says a one-liner to transition to the next scene. It's very weird. Okay. But he's just playing like a English comedian in this movie. It's very weird. Fair enough. Actually, speaking of also returning from the original show is Joey Beatty as Jessicaer. Who? Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, is that how it's passed?

[00:09:41] Okay. Who is saved and then told the story of the show that you're watching

[00:10:42] It usually is a Christmas thing. I don't know why, or yeah, December thing.

[00:10:45] I don't know why season three dropped earlier in the year.

[00:10:48] Maybe strike stuff, I have no idea.

[00:10:50] Or they're just like, let's get the shit out of here.

[00:10:53] You know, Liam Hemsworth.

[00:10:55] Yeah, I mean, that was a weird case

[00:10:56] where they announced Liam Hemsworth

[00:10:57] was replacing Henry Cavill

[00:10:59] before the final Henry Cavill season came out.

[00:11:01] You know, way before.

[00:11:03] It was before, I think it was ever had wrapped filming though.

[00:11:06] And it was just before it was out.

[00:11:08] But yeah, it definitely felt Exactly. And Damien Chizelle's Babylon also came out this weekend. A movie that I haven't seen Babylon. A movie that I liked. So there's... So January 2024, we'll do a person beat... We'll do a catch up from 2022. Pussin' Boots in Babylon. That's going to be a wild double feature. Of course, none of those three movies had the juice to top Avatar, the way of water in the number one spot.

[00:12:24] The rest of the top 10 consisted of violent era, I think or something like that. And but yeah, which are three years of one of my played play that game blew my mind. I loved it. It was like, I must put all of the time into this game. What there's books,

[00:15:00] then got all the books, read all those literally a point where Siri is doing a thing, and then it just kind of cuts to her running in the forest, and it's just like, oh, we have to get to this main plot point thing. And there's kind of no connective tissue. She's reunited with a character that hasn't been around in a while out of nowhere, and they're just like, ha-ha. And then they continue on our

[00:15:05] journey. They just forgot they were had this other story to tell it did where it's like, okay, like after the first few minutes, I figured out like, okay, that was the present day. Like the guy mentioned Geralt and I have heard the name Geralt. I know that's the character Henry Cavill place. Okay. So I'm assuming he is the Witcher, right? Like he's the titular Witcher. Yes, correct. And so he mentioned Geralt Like that's starting with that title card of like a thousand years before the reign of Daenerys. Yeah, like oh my god. And when I, before I watched House of the Dragon, that was my kind of thought going into it. I was like, I don't think I'm gonna like this. I loved Game of Thrones. And I was like, I'm not sure I'm gonna like House

[00:17:41] the Dragon that much.

[00:17:42] It just feels like a lot of backstory

[00:17:43] that I don't care about.

[00:17:44] And I think the first two episodes,

[00:17:47] or the first episode maybe like kind of fell That trope, that set up in like a tight air quotes, tight four episode thing, and it's not some like long drawn out series or whatever, is fun, pretty cool for me. I enjoy that like, how are these seven people gonna fight their way through a city and get to the empress and the fortress and all that stuff. As far as an actual like good show,

[00:19:01] it's pretty thin, I've described it already.

[00:19:03] It's just these seven strangers.

[00:19:06] Can they put to these enemies? And then this is you get the chance to see like when they were the powerful empire that ruled the world kind of thing at the in this episode or the series. So like it's neat on that level, but Witcher stuff, it's all the lore backstory things are all like wink, wink, nudge, nudge, hint it at. There's no, there's never a moment in the Witcher where someone's like, and now I must tell you the history

[00:20:21] of like, and like tells the main character

[00:20:23] the back like a like, you know, a 20 page monologue

[00:20:26] about what this empire was. Luke says something to Obi-Wan, like, oh, you fought with my father in the Clone Wars. And that was in the movie in 1977. Like that was the original Star Wars, and it was there. And it's like, oh, that line tells you, there's a whole rich history of wild shit that probably happened. And then you watch Attack of the Clones in practice. And it's like, man, I wish it was just this one line

[00:21:41] that never, that never happened, that never expanded beyond that.

[00:21:47] Yeah, I wish my on in the book, that like the current chapter, but give you that glimpse that, oh, there's a future to this world where someone has now written history about this war. Right. Or there's a past where like stuff like that. So that's the like kind of implied world building lore stuff that goes on throughout all

[00:23:03] the books that then now when you're making a TV I watched the first one, saying that this is a Marco Polo situation, like Michelle, you know, is only in the end of the first episode. Yeah. And I was like, okay, maybe I'll try to watch episode two as well. I watched the first one and then I was thinking about watched episode two and then A, didn't really have time this weekend. There was a film festival going on and B,

[00:24:21] I had like no desire to go any further.

[00:24:25] Yeah. Siri, who's like the young princess with Freya Allen from Gunpater Milkshake, who's the young... Oh yeah, I think I remember saying that she was in The Witcher, right? The girl. Yeah, she plays Siri and then I forget the actress's name, Anya something or Anna something. Anadharvus? She's not Anadharvus? She's not Anadharvus, no.

[00:25:41] Uh, who plays Yannifer and it's their three, you know, anachronistic and stuff that maybe I'm letting it out to be with his character. It felt pretty anachronistic in the prequel show. That's right. Oh, definitely. And that like one scene that he's got. But he is like the, he's the comedic relief guy

[00:27:00] and he's a lot of times they make him,

[00:27:04] at least in the books a lot,

[00:27:05] like the damsel in distress She gets a fight scene in, she's fighting with, it truly is like the end of Marco Polo, right? Let's show him the last time that it's an ever-surd fight. Yeah, cool. And so yeah, it gets a sword fight. It's pretty cool, it's pretty fun. She's like an elf princess or something, like an elf warrior. And so she has like the elf ears,

[00:28:20] she has like blue eyes, I think.

[00:28:22] And as soon as a whole thing,

[00:28:23] I will say, before I started the show,

[00:28:26] like before I clicked play, was facing front of me. Isn't it like oddly terrifying to consider the fact that like my thumbnail for the office is different from your thumbnail from the, like, or any weird? A little weird? Yeah, no, a little bit, yeah, 100%. Scary. Anyway. I mean, it was, it's such common practice now, but I remember when like people discovered they were doing that years ago, it was like, oh God, what, why?

[00:29:41] Yeah.

[00:29:42] So yeah, Michelle Yoe isn't this.

[00:29:43] And yeah, she get there in the last 10 minutes. She beats the shit out of them with the sword scabbard and then is like, well, there may be potential yet to teach you. Fate to credits. You're like, no, actually. Fine. Episode two, let's go. Yeah. Yeah, basically. But I will say if that guy that screenwriter did write episode two,

[00:31:00] she is pretty heavily featured in episode like she becomes the third

[00:31:03] leader, whatever, I guess you could say or something like that in the crew.

[00:31:06] OK.

[00:32:05] dislike the action at all. I think there was just, I don't know, it's a world that I felt like I had a barrier to entry. Yeah, very fair.

[00:32:07] The other thing too with the fights with the action and stuff, I don't remember if it's all of season one of the original

[00:32:14] the main series or if it's just season one or episode one and two or something. There is a little bit of it that is

[00:32:21] choreographed by the, I forget I don't remember the guy's name, that he was the Night King on Game of Thrones, who was the

[00:32:26] stunt guy for kind of thing. And she's going to teach them that because you got to get the band together. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I do think Michelle, you know, is, is good in the show. And it gives her more to do than a lot of other things that we've seen recently. So there's that. I mean, obviously you had everything everywhere, which was great. But then it was also, you know, school for good and evil and positive fury and minions to and boss level and, you

[00:33:46] know, gunpowder, milkshake and all, all. And it's you know it comes close I think to the the mega not Megan Morgan reaction where it's pretty fun that she gets to really lean into that and lean into that figure of authority, kind of thing that we've been tracking a lot and just like everybody in the world knows who she is and is afraid of her. And in the other episodes, like they all like,

[00:36:20] oh shit, it's her, like they all freak out

[00:36:22] when she shows up.

[00:36:24] So it's very cool.

[00:36:25] Yeah, definitely.

[00:36:26] Yeah, I think she's out into like the cosmos, right? He disappears. And that he becomes one of the guys that's like after Siri in the

[00:37:41] main story. And he needs the source young girl that like has a prophecy. If you remember that, she has a vision. Yeah. She is the elf that Siri is descended from is like the actual string of connections. Okay. So that becomes the whole thing is that she's got elven blood with a source of prophecy and magic and yada yada yada. Everybody on the continent wants Siri. And then a couple of the characters, Aridin and Avelock,

[00:39:03] are in blood origin that come back as villains. I don't know where and saves her. They were not together before that. And for some reason he's there and finds her and saves her. And it's just like, what's the Wild Hunt doing? Where was Geralt? Where was he? How did Sierry get into this forest? What's going on? It's just totally disconnected from the previous scene. And I forget how that episode ends, but I was just like, I think I'm out of here. We're just gonna cut to, oh shit, the main story.

[00:40:22] That's right.

[00:40:23] The Wild Hunt is here.

[00:40:25] It felt weird to met a place.

[00:40:26] Yeah. Oh, witches are, they're people that have been trained and magically enhanced to fight monsters because monsters have fallen into this world along with magic and chaos. Yeah, yeah, yeah, all that stuff. Is that because of the conjunction of spheres that happens in the show?

[00:41:40] Okay.

[00:41:41] Yes.

[00:41:42] So he doesn't become the Witcher because of that, it's a class of people that feels like a weird way to phrase it, but basically that are destroying themselves, like they're hunting monsters, and once there's no more monsters, there's no reason to have witchers anymore. They're killing off the only reason they exist. So it goes into that, and then a lot of it is the perception of them as these

[00:43:02] also monsters. You're a mutated human. In the books, they assume. Yeah, so it gets very weird and heady because of the, like I was saying, the series connected to that elf and she's like a source of magic and stuff. She eventually gets the ability, she develops the ability or whatever to jump between worlds. And a lot of it is just like, it's a desert. It's kind of like, you know,

[00:44:21] it's just nondescript other fantasy worlds.

[00:44:23] I guess spoilers for the end of the book series,

[00:44:27] whatever, if you're interested in reading them. I was talking about with the gorilla elven warfare people and they kind of create this myth of the last elven stand, but really it's just to get the elves to suicide charge and kill themselves off, you know? It's all that kind of stuff. And Geralt and Ciri become these mythical characters that are referenced in those historical excerpts at the beginning and ends of

[00:45:42] chapters and stuff. I don't know. I think it's really interesting. It's really cool. And I certainly was when COVID happened. And I think I've played like, I've played through like three games this year maybe. And you know, I really enjoyed them. I finished God of War Ragnarok, which fucking rules that games amazing, speaking of God of War again. And then I played Ratchet and Clank, the new one. I forget what it's called. Rift Apart is the name of it. And then I started Death that Spider-Man 2 gets played as both of them, you know? It gets to do both and also Venom's in it. And he's voiced by Tony Todd, which is pretty rad. I don't think I knew that, that's incredible. That's incredible casting right there. So yeah, pretty stoked for that. So yeah, I'm excited to play Spider-Man 2.

[00:48:20] It might be a while until I get to it,

[00:48:23] which is okay because it'll be cheaper by the time

[00:48:24] it gets to it.

[00:48:25] So it'll all even out.

[00:49:24] Geralt is hurt and he's recovering in a druid scrove or some shit. And he's like, and this one time I fought this and then it's each short story is him telling a different monster he fought.

[00:49:30] So it's like really unconnected from everything.

[00:49:32] And I think that was published last but like technically chronologically it's first.

[00:49:36] So I think that gets so I recommend checking out the last wish if you're interested in dipping your Shang Chi, superhero fantasy stuff. But I was actually more thinking like, holy weapon. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, holy weapon, which is also like, you know, a big fantasy movie, epic war, seven people who have to gather together to defeat this guy. Yeah, true. So I think holy weapon and some of the other like kind of Wuxia movies of that era, like Butterfly and Sword

[00:51:01] might fall into that category.

[00:51:03] And then yeah, I mean, the TV work is kind of the big thing.

[00:51:05] I mean, I kind of you where they are, right? And she does. And she goes back, she brings like 50 yards with her or whatever, and she misleads the crew into this like Canyon where they're like bottle-baked. And then the soldiers show up. And then she like, so you're like, oh my God, Michelle, yo, is how dare she double cross them?

[00:52:20] Oh no.

[00:52:21] And she like whistles.

[00:52:22] And that's when Uthar won that or whatever his name was.

[00:52:26] Yeah, him and his band of mercenaries show up Evil Queen kind of thing, then an overt witcher thing. So there's that aspect of it too, but also like, kind of wanna reread the books now. I don't know, I just sort of like a sort of baby be like, damn, witcher's cool. You know, I don't know if this is a, I don't know if witcher blood origins is necessarily a cool thing as far as witcher stuff,

[00:53:40] but it may be remember how cool the witcher books are,

[00:53:43] and I wanna go read them again.

[00:53:44] So.

[00:53:45] Okay, there's some value in that, I think.

[00:53:46] I guess that works.

[00:53:47] Yeah. Also the thing with Geralt and the other witchers in the main series is like they're the last ones, like the knowledge of how to make witchers is lost. Right. It's been hundreds of years, there's no new ones. Here it's like, well, what if we're Han Solo? You know, it's like one of those kind of thing. What if we just show you how they do it? But it's real gross and gnarly and he, you know,

[00:55:01] like kind of like liquefies in his body

[00:55:02] and all this whole, because his genes are changing

[00:55:05] and all this stuff.

[00:55:06] Right.

[00:55:07] And then he comes out as sort of, Game of Thrones, you know, it just feels weird, right? Yeah, yeah. And it's really just the like, I can't think of a specific example from House of Dragons or House of the Dragon, but like, you know, just like them like referencing a place and you're like, well, I know what happens in 700 years there. Right. Just that added weight of like them saying a name or like a town

[00:56:22] or a city or something, you're like, oh shit.

[00:56:25] Yeah.

[00:56:26] But I got to imagine like somebody who like didn't watch Game that in blood origin, I guess, also. And all of that just went straight over my head. Had no idea. Who's this fucking yes-year guy? Yes-year. And truly that one was just like, I was able to figure out he was part of the main show. But that did take me a little bit out of it, I think. Yeah, and there's a lot of, I mean, it is interesting to have that

[00:57:40] because that is a lot of the witcher stuff,

[00:57:43] the books, particularly,

[00:57:44] have that like framing it's going on with this. And they pop up again throughout the show, like every episode or something like that. Mini driver narrates every now and then. And then I think at the end of the episode, and then two became three. Every time it happened, it made me think of the D&D episode of Community, where it's the cleaning lady, and have a good night with the Galadriel voice.

[00:59:03] That kind of thing happens a season three of the Witcher. Could be, maybe if you go back and rewatch it, you might, there might be some new things to uncover. You're there's secret mini drivers, like a Mike Flanagan show, but only with mini drivers at the background. Right. Right. Yes, exactly. That makes sense to me, I think. All right, I think it's about time for us

[01:00:21] to wrap this up, right, Mike?

[01:00:23] I think so.

[01:00:24] I've rambled about the Witcher long enough.

[01:00:26] And I will say, because of gets to the heart of everybody's feelings on the show. And this is a two star review from Ava0407. I only finished the series from Michelleio. Yeah, pretty much.

[01:01:43] I don't remember her character's name,

[01:01:45] but there are like dwarf lady joins the crew. to do one chapter at a time. That's right. We'll do the books, we'll play the game, we'll watch the show, it'll be a whole thing. It'll take us 20 years, but it'll be worth it. Yeah, exactly. I will say, so this is the only real piece of Witcher media I've ever watched. I think I did watch our buddy Kyle Cullen who edits our podcasts. I think I went over to his house at one point in like 2015

[01:03:01] and I think I watched him play the Witcher 3

[01:03:03] for like 10 minutes.

[01:03:04] Hell yeah.

[01:03:05] So there was that, you can tweet at us at Complete WorksPods. That's WRKSNO in the word works.

[01:04:21] And you can find the rest of our podcast

[01:04:23] on Rapture Press alongside many other podcasts,

[01:04:25] book on the comp books and movie news

[01:04:26] and all that good stuff. Disney Plus. First episode only I assume. Yeah, we'll do the first episode. We'll say we're doing the first episode of either one of us wants to continue past it. We can do that too. But yeah, the first episode of American Born Chinese is the point. And hopefully she's in that first episode for more than the last five minutes like has been the case. God damn it. I didn't even consider that. I keep, how can I forget?

[01:05:40] That's almost certainly going to happen.

[01:05:41] Yeah.

[01:05:42] Guarantee.

[01:05:43] But I think if we can both see it, but she was crossing will be the plan this weekend.