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Jan. 6th, 2020 10:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkat1. So, I've fallen in love with The Witcher series on NETFLIX. I think I may become fannish about something again. It's playing with my head. And it gets better and better the more I think about it.
Season 1 dropped with just 8 episodes -- and they are tightly plotted episodes, with great production, interesting metaphors, and some of the best drawn female characters that I've seen in a fantasy series. (I want more Netflix, please renew! If you can renew Stranger Things (which I think I've given up on) you can renew something I love.
I finished watching it on Sunday, and the more I think about it, the more it works and I love it to pieces. I may re-watch it -- which is something I rarely do. (I've only re-watched a handful of series in my lifetime. I'm not a re-watcher, too many shows, too little time. And I have insanely eclectic taste.)
It basically does everything that Game of Thrones did wrong, right. The Witcher washed the bitter taste that Game left in my mouth over the summer.
Here's a link to one of the meta's that I found online via Averil, I Love How the Witcher Proves How You Can Have A Sexist World Without Having a Sexist Story
Queen Calanthe – jfc, Queen Calanthe is how Daenerys Targaryen should have been handled. She’s a powerful woman, an unapologetically ambitious warrior woman, who falls and loses her throne and country – exactly the same way a King would have. Her flaws – her hubris, her selfishness, her unwillingness to let go of her granddaughter – lead to her downfall, but they do so rationally. She doesn’t go mad, or start making stupid irrational decisions, or have to be otherwise softened – she loses the battle. She was out-maneuvered, and her support was blocked, and she just failed. She just lost. Queens – any poweful woman, really – always go mad and have to be put down For The Greater Good, they never get to be a Tragic Hero in the classical sense – always Lady Macbeth, never Hamlet.
Exactly. We have a tragic story around a tragic Queen, whose story is told in reverse narrative order or not linerally.
That's another brilliant bit about this series -- it's not told in a linear or chronological manner. We are told it through flashbacks and out of sequence in places, and through various perspectives. And the focus is on the women here. The women are the central characters, with one male central character whose interactions with each of these women in some way or other change him and them, but not in a sexist manner.
I've never seen a fantasy series told in this way or done like this. Usually it's some guy's coming of age or hero's journey, but the Witcher kicks that to the curb early on. And I honestly thought Yennefer would be shown as a femme fatal or villain, but she's not and she could so easily have been shown in this manner.
There’s one single mention of rape, and that character does imply that this in part led to her not being a princess anymore – followed almost-immediately by the main character explicitly and pointedly calling her Princess, pointing out that it isn’t what was done to her that makes her monstrous, it’s what she herself does. Even so, it’s simply part of her backstory, she’s the one who brings it up, and there’s no gruesome flashback to “evoke sympathy” or whatever bullshit excuse to show women suffering.
It’s just. It’s so obvious that this showrunner is a woman. The comparisons to GoT are all over the place, and obviously – they’re both dark, gritty fantasies with a heavy political aspect – but the way this show treats its characters, and particularly its women, is just so refreshing. It’s not without its flaws, and while I’ll admit that there were a few moments where I was like, “did she really need to be naked here?” none of those moments were tasteless or predatory, and there was none of that gratuitous degradation of women that was such a hallmark (and turnoff) of Game of Thrones.
Exactly.
I need to find more meta or write it.
The female characters in this series blew me away. It's the first time that I've seen female characters drawn in this manner in a fantasy series. It was like my dream fantasy series come true. There's really only one central male figure, with a lot of powerful female characters, who are diverse, and powerful in various ways.
And the male character cares for women, he's not a misogynist.
Wow.
I've never seen anyone do a medieval fantasy series in this way. Usually it's well Game of Thrones. Most fantasy series are either Game of Thrones or Lord of the Rings. It's got to the point that I'd given up on medieval fantasy series. After Game, I thought, eh, that's it. Not torturing myself with this crap any longer. And then I tried this -- and was blown away.
Go watch if you have netflix.
2. Ah, the New Mutants Movie actually has an sir date!
"> New Trailer for New Mutants Film It airs in April 2020 and has a horror undercurrent. Maisie Williams is almost perfect casting as Rahn.
Season 1 dropped with just 8 episodes -- and they are tightly plotted episodes, with great production, interesting metaphors, and some of the best drawn female characters that I've seen in a fantasy series. (I want more Netflix, please renew! If you can renew Stranger Things (which I think I've given up on) you can renew something I love.
I finished watching it on Sunday, and the more I think about it, the more it works and I love it to pieces. I may re-watch it -- which is something I rarely do. (I've only re-watched a handful of series in my lifetime. I'm not a re-watcher, too many shows, too little time. And I have insanely eclectic taste.)
It basically does everything that Game of Thrones did wrong, right. The Witcher washed the bitter taste that Game left in my mouth over the summer.
Here's a link to one of the meta's that I found online via Averil, I Love How the Witcher Proves How You Can Have A Sexist World Without Having a Sexist Story
Queen Calanthe – jfc, Queen Calanthe is how Daenerys Targaryen should have been handled. She’s a powerful woman, an unapologetically ambitious warrior woman, who falls and loses her throne and country – exactly the same way a King would have. Her flaws – her hubris, her selfishness, her unwillingness to let go of her granddaughter – lead to her downfall, but they do so rationally. She doesn’t go mad, or start making stupid irrational decisions, or have to be otherwise softened – she loses the battle. She was out-maneuvered, and her support was blocked, and she just failed. She just lost. Queens – any poweful woman, really – always go mad and have to be put down For The Greater Good, they never get to be a Tragic Hero in the classical sense – always Lady Macbeth, never Hamlet.
Exactly. We have a tragic story around a tragic Queen, whose story is told in reverse narrative order or not linerally.
That's another brilliant bit about this series -- it's not told in a linear or chronological manner. We are told it through flashbacks and out of sequence in places, and through various perspectives. And the focus is on the women here. The women are the central characters, with one male central character whose interactions with each of these women in some way or other change him and them, but not in a sexist manner.
I've never seen a fantasy series told in this way or done like this. Usually it's some guy's coming of age or hero's journey, but the Witcher kicks that to the curb early on. And I honestly thought Yennefer would be shown as a femme fatal or villain, but she's not and she could so easily have been shown in this manner.
There’s one single mention of rape, and that character does imply that this in part led to her not being a princess anymore – followed almost-immediately by the main character explicitly and pointedly calling her Princess, pointing out that it isn’t what was done to her that makes her monstrous, it’s what she herself does. Even so, it’s simply part of her backstory, she’s the one who brings it up, and there’s no gruesome flashback to “evoke sympathy” or whatever bullshit excuse to show women suffering.
It’s just. It’s so obvious that this showrunner is a woman. The comparisons to GoT are all over the place, and obviously – they’re both dark, gritty fantasies with a heavy political aspect – but the way this show treats its characters, and particularly its women, is just so refreshing. It’s not without its flaws, and while I’ll admit that there were a few moments where I was like, “did she really need to be naked here?” none of those moments were tasteless or predatory, and there was none of that gratuitous degradation of women that was such a hallmark (and turnoff) of Game of Thrones.
Exactly.
I need to find more meta or write it.
The female characters in this series blew me away. It's the first time that I've seen female characters drawn in this manner in a fantasy series. It was like my dream fantasy series come true. There's really only one central male figure, with a lot of powerful female characters, who are diverse, and powerful in various ways.
And the male character cares for women, he's not a misogynist.
Wow.
I've never seen anyone do a medieval fantasy series in this way. Usually it's well Game of Thrones. Most fantasy series are either Game of Thrones or Lord of the Rings. It's got to the point that I'd given up on medieval fantasy series. After Game, I thought, eh, that's it. Not torturing myself with this crap any longer. And then I tried this -- and was blown away.
Go watch if you have netflix.
2. Ah, the New Mutants Movie actually has an sir date!
"> New Trailer for New Mutants Film It airs in April 2020 and has a horror undercurrent. Maisie Williams is almost perfect casting as Rahn.
no subject
Date: 2020-01-11 09:45 am (UTC)However, communist countries were cut from the developements of non-communist cultures from as soon as dictatorship was established, from 1917 in case of Soviet Russia to late 1940s in case of Westernmost and Easternmost states. Even the intellectuals had to work with pre-dictatorship ideas and second hand rumours of foreign developements. You simply cannot have expectations of 80s book written in communist regime by the standards of 80s American novels.
Speaking about Witcher specifically, the tv series adapts pragmatically elements from the first three books. Only three of the stories in the first book were published during the communist regime and had to undergo censorship. As for censorship, the aim was primarily political, as to not allow proliteration of text that may possibly be interpreted as antigovernmental, and all and any texts originating in the USA were forbidden outright. All of media had to follow marxist ideological purity as stated by the Party. Later stories of Witcher became extremely politically engaged as a backlash to previous censorship, even when the story suffered somewhat - twice the plot grinds to halt, once to say that same sex relationships are not different from heterosexual ones, and once to say that abortion is a woman's right.
Speaking of which, it occured to me that Sapkowski was one of very few speculative fiction writers from the communist era that continued publishing in the 90s and beyond. For most, having to catch up with 60 years of culture developement was too much of a future shock. Witcher foreword was the last literature-related thing Lem wrote, for example.
no subject
Date: 2020-01-11 10:44 pm (UTC)When I spoke to averile who read the original Witcher novels, that had been published in the 1980s, she remarked that yes they are dated with 1980s sensibilities (she's former Russian and had read them, and recently re-read them in Russian). What she meant -- was that the Witcher books reflected the rape-culture that was highly prevalent in the 1980s. And the homophobia, equally prevalent back then.
From what you've stated above? It sounds like she was right -- that the rape-culture and attitudes regarding gender equality, sex, and race were reflected in Poland, regardless of its protection from the rest of the world?
no subject
Date: 2020-01-12 11:04 am (UTC)I am honestly surprised about the homophobia comment, as the book go all over themselves to present queer people as people. There's one homophobic joke in totality, so I don't really understand what caused your friend to make such opinion.
no subject
Date: 2020-01-12 11:13 pm (UTC)I don't agree with what you state above, but since we aren't on the same wavelength to begin with, it's most likely impossible for agreement to be reached.
I mean, I guess I see it differently -- from my perspective and the wavelength I'm on, culture has changed. I found "The Witcher" series remarkably progressive in comparison to Game of Thrones. And I wasn't alone in that - various people on my flist (who aren't American) felt the same.
But hey, mileage varies, and I'm okay with that.