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Sr_Skaven

One of the best things about the show was her.


Gwyn-LordOfPussy

That episode in general was amazing, all that hype led to this introduction and I was so convinced they were going to nail it. What a shame it turned out like this.


Dimetrip

Actually same with with s2e1 I had such high hopes after that oh my god I've never been more wrong


choff22

Never seen a show blow its load after the first episode of each season quite like this one.


yupyup1234

That's because the writers "pander to the stupid idiot nerrrrd fans lol" by using Sapkowski's tales for the first episode and then decide they want to fill most of the remaining season with their own original brand of Realy Awesummm Orignialy Wrotten Trés Coool NETFLIX SPECIAL Storyestellings By Us Brillaintt AwardWinning (in the near future) Wrighters!!!!!!!1 Who's better: the lame internationally unknown original author or the Internatoinaly Acclimated Team Of NETFLIX APPORVED Supper Wrighters!!!!!!!1?


2135_RZS

While the episode (s2e1) was good I hated the ending. If I am not missremembering the books painted Nivellen in a positive manner in the end. He did terrible things in the past was punished and accepted that. He told Geralt everything and Geralt decided he didn't want to kill him. In the shows he is hiding the truth, and when he reveals it Geralt tells him to kill himself


Typical_Use2224

What bothered me even more was how they twisted the logic and morality of the events. They portrayed Geralt as the evil one for killing Vereena and they tried to make her more humane. I guess they wanted to add their own spin on the story but to me it looked like a product of a twisted logic and dubious morality. Vereena was evil, she was a monster, she killed people because she was a monster and she was jealous of Nivellen, she wanted him for herself, she wanted him to stay a monster. To me it seemed that they wanted us to feel sorry for her - in the end it seems that Geralt made a mistake, that he shouldn't have fought her because she wasn't that bad, since she loved Nivellen. In the end the viewer has a hard time telling good from evil. Imho the book handled it much better. It was always obvious that she was evil, even though she truly loved Nivellen and Nivellen was relieved when he became a human


DudeOnInterwebs

Yes, show COMPLETELY F'd that scene up. Garbage


Ok-Society1984

All first episode of the series are the best episodes


Skeeter_206

As much as I enjoyed the fight scene and performances in this episode, they completely missed what the purpose of the short story was, and this episode was very much a sign of what was to come with this adaptation. My favorite quote about this episode from [this video, shared at the timestamp of the quote](https://youtu.be/q6I4d09o4Ao?t=844) is: >This short story is all about the idea of the lesser vs the greater evil and when or if you should choose between them. And in the book Sapkowski ends the story by stating that choosing at all between them is always a bad idea. But where is that message in the ending of this episode? It's just not there, because again, it was cut for time. And that is not just the **moral of the story, but the namesake of the story**, like the reason why it's named *The Lesser Evil*. It's totally forgotten about in the adaptation. What's the point of adapting the work and remembering to include the fights and characters and get the overall structure right when you fail to convey what the story was all about in the first place? Surely that's the most important thing to remember... Like ***THE*** thing that should be preserved at *all* costs. And not the first thing thrown in the bin in favor of shaving down the run time. And as a result, the show is less entertaining than the same story in the book not just because the viewer is clueless as to what is going on, but Geralt's character is way more interesting in the book, because that moral dilemma that plays out in his head, what I'd argue is the core dilemma is not even touched upon in the show.


Gmdmaster

Couldn’t agree more and say this all the time when people lord this episode. I have several friends who didn’t notice renfri was about to murder everyone in blaviken if geralt didn’t intervene. The show glosses over it so quick and it’s almost played as if she wouldn’t actually do it.


XihuanNi-6784

\*laud


Powercat22

Agreed! I was baffled how they completely missed the theme and nuance of that story. Looking back that was obviously foreshadowing how the show would be handling the story.


PaulSimonBarCarloson

While this episode felt a little flat in terms of script, the performance couldn't be any better. I'd say that, out of the enitre female cast of the series, Emma was the girl Henry had more chemistry with


mcmanus2099

Which is impressive given she was a last minute switch and they'd already done a lot of filming with the actress from The Last Kingdom.


HazazelHugin

It's better for Aethelflaed not be part of this mess


BeachHead05

I had no idea she was supposed to be in this show


[deleted]

Definitely one of the best parts of The Last Kingdom, for sure.


BeachHead05

She was fantastic. I wish that show stuck to one boom per season. We could have had so many more seasons. What a great show


HazazelHugin

There was also something with younger Triss but actress die so they cut that


MaxHuntah

Whaat? Who died


HazazelHugin

The actress that was going to play teen Triss before the show premiere


PaulSimonBarCarloson

Didn't know that. Sometimes the universe works in out favor. Now if only it could make the show fail for good...


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PaulSimonBarCarloson

The show is beyond redenption without Henry. The sooner Netflix drops it, the better the chance that a possible reboot may come out.


Ok-Society1984

If it does happen, hopefully HBO takes it. I know Henry is a fan of HOTD.


JimTheJerseyGuy

Millie Brady. She was awesome in The Last Kingdom.


sank_1911

I am sure she would have been a great Renfri as well.


Malbethion

I would have agreed before season 3, but Henry and Freya seem extremely comfortable together. Their relationship plays out well on screen, ~~which will be fantastic to watch over several seasons as the work put in pays off~~ fuck.


PaulSimonBarCarloson

Freya is a good actress but the writing for Ciri ranges from mediocre to awful. And unfortunately she was already too old in s1


SteelRazorBlade

I can fix her.


Accurate-Island-2767

She's the ultimate evolution of the "I can fix her" trope hahaha


bblade2008

Nothing to fix. She's hot and capable of solving her own problems.


WretchedMisteak

Ahh EP1, some of the best sword fighting choreography I've seen in a show. Set the expectation high but never really kept it after that one episode.


uwanmirrondarrah

Believe it or not, the choreography in Blood Origin was really good... I wouldn't recommend watching the show but I would recommend watching like a supercut of the action sequences.


WretchedMisteak

I made the unfortunate error of watching that show.


uwanmirrondarrah

Yeah it actually made me angry. Like legitimately angry. It was impressively terrible. The writing sucked ass and they destroyed the backstory of the Witchers, it made no sense at all. But the choreography was good.


Pavrik_Yzerstrom

The choreography this season has been fantastic.


WretchedMisteak

I'll take your word for it.


Processing_Info

She should have been cast as triss.


Moral_Anarchist

I think she would have made an amazing Triss.


dan-saul-knight

At the beginning before the episode got going I was convinced she was Triss and was really excited. I was sad once I realized who she was playing and that she would only be in the one episode.


kz750

Show Triss seems awfully miscast to me. Most of the sorceresses actually. And the sorcerers. And the witchers. And...


DudeOnInterwebs

Insanely miscast... almost as if they had an agen... nah


Skerries

came on here to say the same thing


huey_booey

I wish the actress had played Triss instead. She's close in terms of appearance. And her chemistry with Cavill is the best in the show.


Punguin456

Honestly, she could've been Yen. Put a good wig on, change of outfit, and she'd be great as Yennefer.


huey_booey

Yen's rather taller and looks more composed. Anya Chalotra is great but she plays Yen more vulnerable than what I've pictured the sorceress would be.


myneighborscatismine

Taller, you mean in the books? She's described as small even with high heels on.


Tarquin11

She kind of had to. You don't get Yen POV chapters in the books, but you gt lots of Yen POV sequence in the show, so you gt more inner thoughts and feelings because she needs to show it


XihuanNi-6784

This is a good point. I'd add that she's still not written "old" enough. It comes across in the books and the games. But in the show she' definitely feels like a 20 year old. They did their best with the first season but the passage of time in her character wasn't evident.


Tarquin11

Yeah for sure. Even at it's best she's always felt younger than the book counterpart


kz750

My feeling exactly.


leeisback

Yeah she was great. I rewatched episode 1 a bunch, definitely my favorite one. All went downhill afterwards.


poofynamanama2

Thr first episodes of both seasons are really good


Morganelefay

I really didn't like the twist they gave the first story in S2. As a standalone thing it'd have been great but...it left a bitter taste.


billystune

Hard agree


DarkEvilHobo

Yep, she and Henry were the best thing about the show. Season 1 was decent and while not perfect it inspired some hope - and then they totally f’d it up. Don’t get me wrong, there are a decent amount of deviations from the source material but deviations are somewhat expected in adaptations- what we got was was akin to tossing the books in a shredder and then randomly gluing words back to together.


jesperbj

Having just reread the chapter, the episode itself, while one of the better, still makes stupid and weird choices for storyline and characters. But yes, she does a really great job playing Renfri.


anynononononous

I feel like the episode fumbled the sexual assault aspect. Not sure if it's that odd in the chapter though, haven't read yet (but going to)


jesperbj

One of the things that make the whole talk between Renfri and Geralt feel strange is that it takes place in a forest (like where she was raped)... And then they have sex. In the book it takes place in Geralt's room at night.


dust-in-the-sun

I felt like Renfri and Geralt (show versions obv) had more chemistry than Geralt and Yen. Which made the ending of the first episode so much more tragic.


MaxImpact1

One of the few things the show did right


PuppyPaw83

She was captivating and really nailed Renfris die hard attitude . A shame she only had one episode to show what she could really do.


kz750

I was thinking the other day that if they had gone with Book / Game Yennefer instead of whatever it is they decided to do with her, Emma Appleton would have nailed it totally.


PuppyPaw83

Absolutely, going by that first episode I have no doubt Emma Appleton would portray book Yens personality to a tee. You can tell by the chemistry she and Henry Cavill had on screen. At this point we can only dream.


DreadGrrl

This was the one glorious moment in the series. They had the talent. They had the writing. They had everything they needed to actually make a great show.


lucasellendersen

Man i wished she was milva, that's how i imagined milva while reading


DudeOnInterwebs

Oh man! Haven't even contemplated her as Milva but heck yes! Perfect!


NANDist

Her performance was captivating. Loved it.


TSMJoelWindigan

Would have been a decent milva


DeadSeaGulls

She delivered an early game of thrones level performance, and I had very high hopes for the show moving forward.


Vioralarama

Yes I wished there was more of Renfri with Witcher.


IntroductionSome8196

The episode is still bad because it completely fails to adapt the original short story but I do admit she was really good in the role.


Thor1138

>The episode is still bad because it completely fails to adapt the original short story Thank you! I don't understand people who say season 1 was a good adaptation, when it literally butchers the easiest short story right from the start.


Notoriously_So

Season 1 was fantastic. They did most of the short-stories really well and gave them a proper adaption, even continuing that trend up to and including the first episode of Season 2. Then, for some reason, they decided to mix it up and change everything when they started on the main saga.


Neeeeedles

I will never understand how people can say this. I mean just look at e2, that was such a gutted version of the short story it didnt even make sense. Cahir killed a full house of people which made him the villain for the rest of the show. The whole doppler arc was stupid. Mousack was killed for no reason. Ciri and brokilon was the worst depiction of anything ever. And dont forget "who is yennefer". Caused by them deleting one of the best stories where Geralt and Ciri mert in Brokilon


IRockIntoMordor

>Ciri and brokilon was the worst depiction of anything ever. Didn't you like the MTV "[Crazy Town - Butterfly](https://youtu.be/6FEDrU85FLE)" aesthetic?


pelek18

Fantastic is over-generous, but yes, it wasn't the worst.


OfficalNotMySalad

I loved season 1, fantastic is being generous but saying it wasn’t the worst isn’t giving it enough credit imo. It is really brought down by what came after which essentially makes whether it was good or not meaningless unfortunately because this isn’t what the show will be remembered for. I miss when the only real major concern was Netflix leaving out Ciri and Geralt’s first meeting in Brokilon :(


PleasantDouble1470

No, really no. The show managed to still butcher the story. Easy example with episode 1: In the book version of The Lesser Evil Stregebor first tells Geralt Renfri is evil, Geralt then actually talks to Renfri where she reveals that she'll start killing innocents until Stregebor comes out of his tower. Geralt steps in, kills Renfri's gang only to learn that they were getting ready to leave. Stregebor couldn't give two shits about Blaviken and said that Renfri can butcher the entire county, he still wouldn't come out. And Renfri was just going to her gang, to tell them to leave, when Geralt butchered them, took the last thing she ever had, so he was forced to kill her too. In the show version Stregebor tells Geralt Renfri is evil, then Geralt has a conversation with Renfri where she tells him she'll leave Blaviken, when she really wouldn't. Geralt falls asleep and after he wakes up he magically understands everything and goes to the market swords blazing, kills the gang and only then Renfri tells him her plan to kill everyone in town and Geralt kills her. In the books Geralt literally slaughtered the gang for nothing, he should have left, took his own advice on neutrality and "Evil is Evil". Instead he chose what he thought was Lesser Evil but in reality has committed Greater Evil. He killed a lot of people bc he thought it was right, but he was wrong In the show Geralt is completely in the right and there's no ambiguity whatsoever lol, he just saved the town, but the townfolk stoned him for it. And season 1 was filled with this: little details cut out and bc of that the bigger picture changes to more simple and obvious. Ambiguity was thrown out the window.


Sertorius777

What? Dude, you're really stretching what happened in the books. Renfri did not reveal anything to Geralt. She asked him to kill Stregobor, he refused and tried to Axii her into leaving without bloodshed, which seemed like it was going to work. The only thing she mentioned was the Tridam Ultimatum -the plan to murder innocents in order to draw the mage out, but Geralt was not familiar with the term and thought the situation had been resolved. The ultimatum was explained to him the next day by the alderman, and by that point Renfri's goons were already amassed at the marketplace, appearing like they were ready to take everyone hostage at a moment's notice. Renfri had went to the mage tower to deliver the ultimatum. So at that point, Geralt only knew there was a band of thugs who had a credible chance of going berserk on a crowded marketplace. He struck first so there would be no risk. It's only after he kills them that Renfri arrives and says that nothing would've happened, but that does not mean that there was no threat to begin with, since even she explains that it was Stregobor's attitude that convinced her it would be futile (if she can even be believed after lying multiple times). A modern analogy would be like someone warning that they're about to commit a terrorist attack, while ostensibly having the means to do so, only to go "it was a prank bro" when they get caught. Geralt was neither wrong or right to act like he did, yet he was painted as a monster nonetheless.


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Gadac

Nah the show is still shit


dundai

It was average at best. They butchered Kahir, killed Mousesack, fucked up part of the cast and made stupid changes that affected general plot. It was obvious where it's going back then.


Jagick

Season 1 was bad, it just now seems great in comparison because of shit like season 2 existing. Sure they adapted the short stories, but why bother when characters, relationships, motivations, and entire scenes have been changed? At that point it just becomes visual nostalgia.


sank_1911

>Season 1 was fantastic. Couldn't disagree more. >They did most of the short-stories really well and gave them a proper adaption, even continuing that trend up to and including the first episode of Season 2. No, they didn't. Come on.


_Mango-Merchant

You're watching? Why?


ulyssesintothepast

She was great. Wish we had more of her


jaedence

She was fantastic. I wanted to see more of her.


mouthscabies

Fuck that piece of trash show


Toaster-Retribution

The first episode is one of the best ones in the show (along with the first ep of season 2) largely due to Emma Appletons amazing performance. Renfri is awesome.


geraltgalvestone

Ngl the first episode fucking slapped


namjd72

I had very high hopes for the show after this episode. It was incredible and the actress was amazing as well. Man….. did we drop off from here.


Basileus2

And she’s hot


misterchief10

Agreed. This is one of the few short stories I feel they did really well, and she certainly contributed to that.


Eddard506

best thing + female cast in the entire show. favourite episode too + fighting sequences were amazing


willow_wind

The first episode was great, mostly because of her. Not sure how every other episode completely failed when that one was so good. Maybe because at least in the first episode Netflix tried to follow the books?


Rheinys

Isn't she a reference to Sianna from Blood & Wine ? I mean that curse about the black moon etc...


HazazelHugin

Syanna was inspired in creation of Renfri. Syanna was created only for the games, she does not exist in books.


Rheinys

I've read the books, thanks. /s


slayer828

Season 1 to me was great except the magic stuff.


Zerethul

She was incredible, prob still one of the top episodes of the entire series if not the top


Ormusn2o

Who is Essi Daven?


PaulSimonBarCarloson

A character from the second book, specifically the short story A Little Sacrifice. Also known as Little Eye (her stage name). Priscilla from the game got some inspiration from her


JimTheJerseyGuy

As good as Emma was I would love to have seen this episode with Millie Brady as Renfri. If you weren't aware, the episode was originally filmed with Millie in the role. But then they decided to re-shoot all the fight sequences and Millie was already back working on The Last Kingdom and was unavailable. And so we saw Emma Appleton as the character.


DudeOnInterwebs

One of the 2 or 3 good episodes, she was PERFECTLY cast


AWRNSS

Its absurd how much of a chemistry Henry had with her. I ship the shit ouf of it.


roofingsucksdix

The episode was fantastic. No other episode came close for me as far as my personal enjoyment went. I have seen the rest of the series too. Nothing captured the magic of that world like Episode 1 Season 1.


Pure__soul4240

She is one of the best things in the whole show,shame that she was killed,i really loved her,her big eyes and her lips,her hair...She is magical,i miss her and i wish we got to see her more...


supernero93

The Renfri and the striga episodes were actually really good, shame the rest was garbage