The Ringer-Verse - ‘The Witcher’ Season 3 (Part 1) Reactions | Mint Edition

Episode Date: July 3, 2023

Steve, Jomi, and Jess are back to dive into the magical world of ‘The Witcher’ in the show’s third season. The trio looks at some of the strengths of the show, Henry Cavill’s performance, what his departure could mean for the show, and more. Hosts: Steve Ahlman, Jomi Adeniran, and Jessica Clemons Producer: Jonathan Kermah Additional Production Support: Arjuna Ramgopal Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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It's the Ringers Nexus podcast feed for all things fandom. Welcome back to Mint Edition. Once in a while podcast about all the latest fandom, you just can't live without. I'm your host, Steve Holmend, joining me as always is my co-host, Ringer Lord of the Means, explainer the Midnight Boys.

Toss a coin to him. It's Joe Me a Dinner, I can't really do much on this podcast this week, guys. I'm so sorry. My rate, been exceeded. Jomey's Raymondman has been exceeded. Goddain.

And we are also joined by somebody who has any time minutes to talk about The Witcher. Our ringer colleague, Jessica Clemens. Hi. I love this show. This show that we're on right now. Yes. And also, I can't wait to talk about the Witcher.

We love Mint Edition. We love the Witcher. And we love what we're going to be talking about. But first, that's right. Some quick programming matters before we begin, our wonderful show talking about the latest season of The Witcher. The Secret Invasion is here. It is upon us. Wednesdays, the Midnight Boys will be giving you their instant reactions to the latest episodes of Secret Invasion as well as on Fridays.

The House of Our will be giving you their deep dive. And Jessica Clemens has been giving us our wonderful video pods every weekend for our Easter eggs and Little Laura Dives. We love that. And there's going to be more coming from us on the feed in the days to come. But for now, we're going to fire up our best gravel voices and talk about season three, part one, colon, dead reckoning of The Witcher on Netflix. Quick spoiler warning for everything that has to do with The Witcher,

maybe a little bit of books, maybe a little bit of the video games, but if it's got a Witcher in the name of it, we're probably going to be spoiling it. Okay, some nuts and bolts for us. The Witcher, based on the Polish fantasy book series of the same name and recently adapted to a very successful series of video games by CD Prodig. Red. This is part one of two of the third season of Netflix's flagship fantasy series, The Witcher, starring Henry Cavill, Freya Allen, Joey Beatty, and many more. So when we began our series on The Witcher, us being Netflix,

it was kind of a interesting journey into the world of fantasy for Netflix, and we thought it would have been something that competed with the likes of Game of Thrones, maybe even Lord of the Rings, a big flagship fantasy outing that could really deliver numbers and I think with a more or less compelling performance from Henry Cavill, we've gone through a lot

with Henry Cavill in this first three seasons of The Witcher. Jomey, I know that you've been watching pretty much seasons one through now cramming for this illustrious pod that we're about to do. I think I'll start with you, Jomey. What are your thoughts on The Witcher as a whole? What did you think about season three part one?

Man, the witch as a whole, see, I got in a Game of Thrones late, you know, real late. I had to, you know, almost in the same vein, had to study up before season eight, right? And so I watched like, watching, I was watching a season of night because you only had, at that HBO Max, you know, seven-day free trial. At a time, I had no job. So your boy was like, ah, he was in trenches. You watched all of Game of Thrones in seven days? Also, how did that not make you just inherently?

a violent person. You know what I mean? Like, you know, you, you wake up, you know, you apply for jobs from like nine to two. Then from two to two to two, it was a game of Thrones time. From two to two to two was Game of Thrones time. For 12 hours. Yeah. Okay.

You know, you got to take, you know what I'm saying? You pause. You use the bathroom. You eat, you know what I mean? That's what we call fun employed. Straight thing. I just start being wild. I'd be eating turkey legs.

I'd be on a corset all the time. Listen, when I didn't have a job, I was eating cold cuts. And I was in goldfish crackers and just trying to send things out. Just cold cuts? Cold cuts. Tough. Down bad. Not me.

No, but this show, I think in the vein, I enjoyed it. I enjoyed it. I really enjoyed Henry Cavill's portrayal of Gerald. I like the found family aspect, you know, to put a malism in there. You know, I loved it. I loved seeing, like, you know, Gerald be the grumpy dad and Yenifer be the mom. And Siri being, like, the rebellious teenage. and Yasser, and Yasser being that uncle, you're like, hey, man, like, he's family, but also,

like, you know, he kind of like on the seat. You know what I'm saying? You know, he can't really come with us to all the family reunions, you know what I mean? So I really, really enjoyed that. And yeah, over the last, you know, two weeks of watching the show, that's like, I really, yeah, I really enjoyed what the show gave me in terms of character work. I think it was, uh, The Witcher's always had, like, this weird yo-yo relationship with me because I want to take it very seriously

because the show at times takes itself very seriously. But then again, it is the most unsurious show that I might have ever seen in my life. And then I think that's when something unlocks in my brain where I'm like, oh, I'm having a lot of fun now. Jess, I think that we've talked about this before. What do you think is probably the biggest strength of The Witcher as a series?

And then what translated into those strengths for season three? You go first. Tough. Wow. Well, the second season, and I've talked about this a lot, the second season kind of feels like a really big filler for the show overall because we're just getting into Care Mourne and the Witchers as a whole, which we never go back to.

So it's like we get this. And I know they're following the books, but it's like this second season was just more so, the biggest takeaway was the wild hunt and volithmir and that taking over, right? So I think going into the third season, I was like, oh, okay, I can't wait to see the fully developed wild hunt, and we have it. Yes. And that seems to be like the big event that the show either would want to tease out or the things that we as fans would probably want to see the most. And there have been like kind of debates amongst like either game fans or book fans that there are quite a few divergences from the books that have actually been, you know, rather contentious and people have kind of been going their own way. But I feel like it's been serving the story at least decently for now because they want to clearly make this a long form.

like long, like gestating series for multiple, multiple seasons. Yeah. Not to say that it's worth like dragging everything out for, you know, untold amounts of time to like, when are we going to get to the wild hunt? Well, Netflix can do that. Well, Netflix can do that and they definitely will do that.

Well, Steve, I don't know, man. Remember season one? But the homies was like, hey guys, we're just going to like make everything nonlinear. And if you're not locked in, you don't know what the hell's going on until you stop during midway. I'm not speaking for anybody in this room right now,

but you pause in the middle of episode 7 go, hey man, then we, if she did, then you look it up and it turns out that the whole thing was going on three separate timelines the whole time, you had no idea what was going on. Jomey is completely correct. Valid in every word of the sense. And they didn't learn their lesson

in the final episode of this season so far. The fifth episode, they do it again. The middle episode of the season. No, no, Johnny. It was kind of spinning in that episode. Hold on. Jome. Jomey, it was Oceans 11. It was Ocean's 11.

Which I love. Which is pretty great. Because I could understand that over an episode over like what, 20 minutes, not eight hours of television. We're going back and forth and back and forth through three, not two timelines, three separate timelines. And I'm watching and I'm like, yo, this character, I thought they were dead. Maybe I'm tripping, man. Maybe I must have, like I text Arjun and I'm watching the first episode, right? And there's that a rascar.

Is her name? Renfrey? Renfrey. Renfrey. And I'm like, she's going, okay, she's going to be the big bad. She's the big problem. Okay, I'm locked in. 20 minutes later, she gets stabbed in the chest.

I'm like, all right, what are we doing? And then I go through, I'm like, okay, I kind of see what's, okay, he's killing. Oh, it's like a once, like a monster of the week. He's got to kill some monster. And all right, cool. Like, I can rock with this. like this is no problem. Jennifer is doing her thing,

okay, they're going to eventually meet up. What do you mean? It's like been 30 years between each and every section I'm watching. What, like, what is happening? And I think this is probably the biggest flaw of the show where it kind of takes the structure of the books of Tad too seriously,

and then it forgets that that's a lot to give the viewer for seasons at a time where we have to kind of like piece together timelines and make sure that we are well within a sort of like acceptable time frame to actually piece together a story. Yeah. I think the biggest problem that I had with that was both that structure and the varying degrees of, I'll say, quality both either in acting and like stagecraft.

Like some of the... Speak on it. I was, I was, I was, I don't want to sound too reductive, but like, I've always... always considered The Witcher to be like prestige CW in a way. Wow. Not to say that it's not like... Because everyone's really pretty? Because everybody's...

Well, yes. I'm trying to understand. But it's never... It's an insult. He's trying to be nice. But you put CW in anything. That's like saying, with all due respect, the next thing he's about to say... And then just laying it down.

It's going to be nasty. That's what he said. That's what he meant when he said. Prestige CW. That's crazy. But here's the thing. And I don't want to devalue the amount of, like, good work that I know that the show's capable of and actually, like, really fun elements that it has. But, like, there are so many things that I feel, like, get tripped up in its own...

The show gets in its own way from being something that's actually, like, elevating itself. So instead, it has to take itself too seriously to the point of almost self-parity. And then I get to be actually having a good time because it doesn't take itself seriously. I agree with that. But it's also just so hard because we don't know the solution to this. It's like to make a good television show, especially with this one,

it's like, okay, we need actual fans of the property. So you get people that read the books, people that play the games. And then you get an actor that really loves the books and games. And then all of them are putting in so much two cents because you're trying to get that fan service of like, well, if I was making The Witcher,

this is what I want. And I think there's just too many hands in the pot and we're trying to do so much fan service that it's not working in the way that we want it to. And I personally, as a first, I don't know how we could have made it as a prestige opposite prestige CW. But I'm like, I think that's just the situation

that happened at hand was too many big fans trying to make the property from a book into a series. And the result of that being is you kind of get a hot mess of a show with some cool elements and sometimes it's all over the place. And that being the vibe, I'm kind of okay with it because

I think the Witcher could just be that and we're okay with it. Every outfit starts with a choice. What am I wearing underneath? Something comfortable? And let's be honest. Something that keeps everything looking smooth. That's where Vanity Fair lingerie comes in.

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Sign up for Fandual Predicts and predict it from the couch. Offered by Fandual Prediction Markets LLC, a registered futures commission merchant. 18 plus. Trading derivatives involve significant risk and may not be suitable for all investors. Manage your activity with our consumer protection tools. I wanted to actually, like, circle back to Henry Cavill of it all, because this is his final season playing Daryl. And to the much fanfare of the,

oh, he's going to be taking time off from the show to play Superman, oh, wait, no, he's not. He recently got a executive producer and acting deal with Amazon to work on Warhammer 40K, which he is the biggest fan of in the world. Just being like that rich and that celebrity and it'd be like, I love this property so much. I'm going to go, oh, I guess.

Well, DeWanonan Rock Johnson wasn't a fan of Black Adam. But he was a fan of money. He was like, oh, this big Egyptian dude, I want to play him. But like, I think just having that money in that time, that's like me being like, you know what? I'm going to make a Fortnite movie and I'm going to star in it. It's so funny. Nobody knows this game like Mitch. I think it's really funny because I had no idea where the sentence was going.

But as soon as Steve was like, he's going to finance his own, I was like, it's Warhammer 400,000. It's the only thing the guy talks about it. interviews. Exactly. I've seen as this guy Warhammer. Well, my biggest question is obviously I don't think that any,

I think I can speak for all us to say that like Henry Cavill is pretty much the nucleus and gravitational pull of this show as we see it now. He's going to be replaced in season four by Liam Hemsworth. Later on in this month,

late in July, the final episodes of this season will be released with him in it. Do you think that this show is worthy of continuing without him and what do you want to see once he's gone?

I mean, I can't imagine watching the show without him, to be quite honest with you. He's the best part of the show. He really, like, he really is like Girold in the sense of like, he's so gruff and opposing.

And, you know, even though like Goral isn't, Gerald isn't like, you know, super emotional and super expressive, you can see, in moments where he like does care for Siri and he does care for you know for

and it really delivers like honestly for me best part of the show so if he's walking away I'll see y'all later man we get y'all on a flippity flip the plus side is if they're following very close to the books

am I allowed to talk about the books yeah spoilers for all the movies oh spoilers for everything oh spoilers for everything it ties to the books and they separate right in the next season so pain that relationship between Siri and Garal is basically gone.

Wow. So with that being said, Jesus. But I think I'm still going to watch it, but that's because, like, I love fantasy, like anything. And while Rings of Power is off, Game of Thrones is off,

I'm looking for the next one. Sure. So I love the world building, and I love looking at the maps and being like, here's the territories, and I like the political scheming that goes into it. So I am watching solely off of that

and not really Garal or the Witchers. Yeah, but like, yeah, because we're not here for political intrigue, really. I am. You are, okay. Oh, the Nufgard is, you walk in? Yes. Oh, the Nelfg, oh, are you telling, okay, not to be this person. Would you guys not be on the NILF?

It's like, it's like, with Star Wars. Are you guys the rebels or are you like? Oh, like the clear bad guys here? Yeah. I don't want them killing my family, so I'm going to join the bad people. So that's what I feel about Nifgard. I'm like, they literally, everyone's afraid of Nelfgarde. Nifgard will come in and wipe out every territory.

You think I'm going to try to fight them? No, I'm going to be an Mofgardian. I can't do this. So you'd be on the Empire. That's crazy. Yeah, I would be. Jomi, talk about your political alliance in the world of the witcher.

I'll tell you what, man. Look, I understand. You know, we got to protect the continent. That's what everybody's saying. We got to fight for the continent. It's none of my business, man. I really don't care. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.

I don't care. I don't care with the hair doing, my boy. Are you? I got things to do. Are you the Witcher where he's basically like, look, I change with the times. That's what I'm saying. I got to do it.

I do. I just be grumpy. I'd be killing things for coin. You would be. And I'd be minding my business. You'd be like a mercenary. Oh my God. If I was that handsome all the time, I would have the luxury of not caring about a lot of things.

I mean, we'd all probably die from like a disease anyways pretty soon. Well, we would also, are we humans in this world? Uh, I mean, like, let's just assume that we're witchers. Let's assume that we're witches. Oh, I'd be like sleeping around. Yeah. 24-7. Of course.

That's all I'd be doing. Here's the thing, though. And this bugs me about any sort of, like, medieval. type of fantasy that world that I'm always like, it's always bugging me. Everybody's teeth should be fucked up. Nobody's brushing their teeth. Nobody should be brushing their teeth.

And everybody, like, you think the princess has a nice, beautiful smile and everybody, no, nobody brushes their teeth. Everybody stinks. Yeah, how does Gero get so swole? Like, there's no body building training out there, you know what I'm saying? I think the magic gives him muscles. It's just, well, because I mean, I don't know. because my boy Constantine from killing Eve,

the other Witcher, he had a little gut, you feel me? So I don't know what kind of sets. Henry Girobe doing at the crib. You know, Fiona Pout. Like, you eat protein. Like, what's his playing? Is he cutting? Is it cutting bulk season?

Like, how does he manage? I mean, if it's cattle, it's always bulk season. That is true. A, he's always finding those monsters that takes a lot of wind out of you. You're constantly getting it there. But also, B, what if it's, like, in world as well? like everyone's body's different, you know?

We could eat the same thing every day and have different body types. He just got the winning lottery. Yeah, yeah. I would absolutely be his, the leader of, like, the witchers that's in Cairmore and what's his name in the second season. I'd be him, just older with like a beer belly guy

and absolutely just be like, look, I just sit here. I just sit here. Wait for some witcher to return one day. Last thing I'll say about Cavill is he seems to be moving properties a little bit, And I've always like kind of felt that he was just on the cusp of never fully being properly utilized to like make him a list, a list. Like we know that he was very wildly successful as Superman. He's been very successful in this.

He was kind of almost James Bond. People didn't really like his Superman movies, but they like him. He's been in a multitude of like big franchise and spy movies, man from uncle, a bunch of these other films. I'm curious to find the thing that, like, actually makes him, like, his, like, known for a role. And I know that that's to say that it's Superman, but I feel like he wants to own the Witcher a little bit more here. No, he absolutely does. But it's also because he's the Witcher. Whereas when he's Superman, there's still the Justice League.

So he's still amongst five other, like, people. Oh, so, like, he doesn't have to share the screen. Yeah, he doesn't have to share the screen. Sure. But I do think that A-list is Superman. I don't think there's a world where we can be like, he's not a, like, he's missing his one. One role. Like, sure, you could be your little fantasy boy, but you're Superman.

Yeah, he's Superman to a lot of people. Even, like, when we talk about, like, the CW, I'm like, yeah, I'm like, that guy's also Superman. Like, that's, it's a big title to take. So I'm like, let them have their gold little metal for me. Like, it's a little participation trophy that he's been in the Witcher. You're Superman and you're Superman. I mean, because you can't sit here and say, like, he's not a good actor. Yeah.

No. Like, he's got good performances. I mean, I'm one, I'm a big fan of his, he's, he's, he's a big fan of his, He's thing in Mission of Possible Fallout. Yes. He was a great movie and he was really good in it. But at the same time, when you get cut from Superman and then you're like, nah, they're violent on a Witcher and you're looking around, it's like, my boy, like, when's this next check from the head?

You feel me? Like, what are we doing? Like, where's the next meal at? Well, it's especially because it's like, because imagine, because he was quitting the Witcher to do Superman more. So you get that job offer. you quit, you put in your two weeks at the last one and they're like, actually, no, we were sending this offer.

He had to, I'm sorry, but he had, like, someone said something at D.C. that made him think that he was going to keep playing, right? Yeah, the rock did. Yeah, the rock did, right? He went on, he went on IG, was like, yo, I'm back. And then James Gunn was like, hold on, play. Because I was like, no one would have did that. No one, like, that was too much.

And then he was just like, yeah, you'll be Superman again. And then you're just like, oh, poor man. I can't imagine he gives up the Witcher without the Superman thing. Yeah, without knowing, yeah. And so you kind of, you got to look at your agent, but like, hey, Blair, like, what do you do? You better call up Netflix right now and get me that Warhammer money. I shouldn't have been the one.

You should have been the one fighting out before me. Who's going on? Chris Pratt's in 80 movies right now, and I can't hold down one thing. Yeah, you can argue that, like, between Superman to the Witcher, he's got like a good thing. Like, you know, he is somebody who can, you know, handle a friendship at the same time. The way that was ended, you're looking at, like, can he really do it? And so we'll find out, I guess, with Warhammer 4K. if he's got the chops, he's got the guts.

Honestly, I think he's done enough. You know, and especially, like, again, I came back to The Witcher regardless of what the tire lines are doing because I was like, I like seeing a Gerald do the Gerald things. I like seeing him grunt and cuss and have sex with all these women. You know what I mean? I was locked in. It's pretty great.

You know, hopefully you can figure it out. Well, The Witcher is nothing short of a lot of lore and a lot of plot questions that we've had. And Jomey being our resident. newbie to the Witcher. We have our new section called Jomey's got some explaining to do, where he asks questions that we can probably need to explain because there's a lot going on in The Witcher.

This also, this little part of the podcast can also switch, though, where you explain it to us. Normally, I would be explaining, but Jomey's got a lot to get explained to him. I don't know what was going on for a lot of time. So I got a couple questions. I think the first one, this is very important.

I think it's like kind of sets up the, serious as a whole. What is the law of surprise? That's a good question because they bend it so much because technically you can say exactly what you want it to be. You can be like, I'm going to take the next crazy thing that's going to happen because you could just like run up and be like law, but it also only works if you save someone's life. Like you're in full debt to that person. I tell you what, it's like a little bit more magical manifestation. So I thought I thought it was like like one of them John Whitcoins where...

Basically. Where you're like, Laws a surprise. This is a favor. You owe me. Yeah, you owe me crazy. And so when you show up and you got that coin, it's like, hey, law surprise, sucker.

It's like, oh, snap. I've got to run the back. No, 100%. No, you're right. You're right. You're right. But it's also, it seems so loose. Why it's so loose is because

you have to be in full debt to that person to get the law surprise. So it has no real rules. So the people that have saved people's lives, like Dune being like, hey, I saved your life and the king being like, yeah, what do you want? He's like, I want the law of surprise. And I'm like, okay, cool.

Next wild thing that happens is yours. And he's like, I want your daughter's hand in marriage. And they're like, oh, shit. That's why he got, he was going to get Siri regardless because after he was straight up like, I'll just take the next law surprise. Like what's going to happen next? And then she throws up.

Like, I'll catch the next one. Also, yeah, the weird. usually probably it's like a horse stumbles in or something and you get a horse. Or like someone is like, my brother died and it's like, who you're in charge of the funeral. But this time it was like, you own a human now. Right. You own a baby.

So Jomey, if you could use a law surprise on somebody or something, what would you immediately use it after? Dang. Okay, so, I mean, we made the joke about Ray a little bit exceeded earlier, but Elon's going to go broke soon, right? We're hoping. So I used my law of surprise I own Twitter all of a sudden

Oh, that's a good one That's a good one Jomi, that's a good one So how is Elon in debt to you In order for you to use this? Almost said some crazy Almost said some crazy You gotta say all due respect first

Almost says some insane I saw the look on your face And they went a million ideas In your eyes just there I mean I'm sure The Spotify lawyers are listening and they locked in on this podcast right now. Okay.

Their ears are very trained in. All I'm going to say is... Say it to me off air because I think I might know what you're thinking about right now. All I'm going to say is we're just going to start from scratch. We're going to reboot everything, once everything all the way back. And then me and Elon could have a separate discussion on the side by what he needs to do to fix this thing up. But that's all I'm going to say in, you know, so the lawyers don't get on me. Right.

It's all like that. Yeah. Jess, what about you? What are you using your law of surprise for? Man, I'm not, I don't think things through. So it will be like, in the moment, I'll be like, I want the next meal that's made

and then hope that it's like a nice sandwich or something. Oh, that's not. I told you, I'm not smart. You really got to be careful. That's about location, location, location. It's monkey's paw. You're playing monkey's paw. Like, because you could literally, they could be like,

I want the next law of surprise and it's like, oh, I'm going to drive my car until like a building. And I'm like, oh, great. I have to be hit. Great. Like, you don't know what the law is. It is surprising how a civilized society can function under something like this. It doesn't happen that often.

It's not like every day someone's like, I suppose. I almost died. Here's your, because usually you can ask specifically, you could, Dune could have been like, I just want a lot of money and the king would have gave him money. Or I want a house over the hills and he would have got the house on the hills. But he asked for a law surprise. Right. So no one asking for a law surprise seems like a dumb idea.

Why do I feel like this is like the purge where like it's like one thing that kind of like keeps civilization whole, even though that it's like completely wild and unnecessary for like one day or for one thing you get this one random act that will either fuck you up or fuck everything else up but then everything goes back to normal. I don't know. Laws surprise, it's a lot to explain. Understandable.

Okay, so another question I had is so Siri seems like the key to everything, right? She's half elf, half human, she's got, you know, the magic. She's also like a witcher in training. She seems like each side, the humans and the elves, both want her on their side,

but they're also fighting anyway. So, like, can't they just, like, do that and then the winner gets Siri? Or, like, why do they need to want to, why does each side need to get her before we get this thing cracking? So each faction has a mission, and the humans is basically Nilfgardian, right?

And the Nilfgaard emperor is her dad. That's, like, cool reveal. And he's like, I just want her by my side. Spoilers. The next book. I saw that. I saw that. And I was like,

Hey, man. Hey, man. He's going to marry his daughter. Hey, man. He's got married. Oh, really. Oh, really? From all the Ring of his crew,

we're not, we're not used to some incestuous relationships here. Okay. Did I say I liked any of that? No. Was I docked in? Was I watching Game of Thrones?

I'm just saying, it's not the wildest. Yeah, sweet home Alabama, baby. Yeah. That's what I'm talking about. You said, oh, your sister? Go in. Go, yeah, lock in.

That's right. I'm locked in. Yeah. I'm saying it's not out of the wild. It doesn't happen that much. And did you guys watch Rings of Power? Hell not. Where did it happen?

Jomey, come on that shit was boring, bro. He's not wrong. Where did it happen in Rings of Power? Because it's like the Witcher, you don't see it, but Game of Thrones is playing so crazily. Very true. It's HBO. They're like, yeah, everyone's messing with someone in the family for some reason.

This one isn't as wild and loose with that. It isn't. That's why, and that is why. But yeah, the Nelfgards, the humans just want Siri for that. But the elves want it because she's the prophecy. of like basically the second coming of Christ and the elves will be able to rise to power with her powers because she has the elder blood

so that's why they're fighting because they both want her. Eventually though, again a little spoiler, I'm sorry. The Nilf guardians are like, look, we can work together. She's my daughter, she'll come to my side and you guys can work underneath us so you still get your prophecy and I get my daughter-wife.

Daughter-wife. That's what she is. I hated every second of that word. Daughter wife. Listen, I mean, war's messy. Cousin bride. Yeah, because it seemed like, I mean, from like, I guess, like, what, episode one, they're like, they already attack, you know, series grandmother.

So I'm like, hey, man, let's get this thing cracking. It was locked in. It's going back and rewatching it seems, it makes it more confusing, I feel like, if I went back and did it. Because the second season focused on her ancestry. Yes. And then we don't really need any information about her grandma. But then we push forward so far to where, like,

how is any that relevant? Yeah, exactly. And then we're all, all of a sudden, we're from Volathmir, the Kermor and the Witchers, and then we're like, here's six factions that need Siri. And I'm like, okay, I need to know the six factions, why each of them need her. Or at least give us one to care about or something. Like you just, I guess it's like you just choose yours. And as a human, I guess in a weak person, I will be Nilfguards.

Which, like, this is such, this is the problem that a lot of fantasy adaptations come with. Because a lot of these fantasy series are very lore rich. There's a lot of factions, families, political intrigue, all of those things. It's a lot to juggle for a TV adaptation, film adaptation, all of these things. To simply include all of them doesn't make it so that you are all comprehensive and people will appreciate the story. Whittle it down to two factions that need her or something so that like there's some divide. 100%. Well, eventually like, because like Radania basically works under like people and they go forward and they like eventually will merge together. but it's so, it does make it so confusing

and it's so hard for me to be like, watch only fantasy shows and then people are like, there's 12 teams. Yeah. What do I, what does this mean? And I'm like, you're not wrong. If they're just showing me different flags of different families and it all gets lost in the shuffle at some point.

I guess you have to also watch Blood Origin too. Which is the spin-off. I love blood origin. Listen, praise to the most, Michelle Yo. That's my homie. I'm a home girl. Yep, yep. Homey of Jomey.

A Jomey, homie, but I can't do it. I love blood orchard. Okay, so another thing I had, episode two, we see a whole bunch of, like, limbs attached to some bodies. Oh, yeah. It was kind of weird. And I love this.

This is the things you notice when you watch a show, like you may line a show in two weeks. Oh, yeah, you catch everything. Carol kills every single animal, every single monster the same. He puts a sword through the mouth. into the brain and then pulls it out. Right. You won't

stop noticing it. I didn't notice that. He does it every single time. That is his move. That is the move. They spat out two stabs it up through its chin into its brain and then pulls it out. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Like that's the finisher. Yeah, it's a good finisher. Which yeah, it works. But in this episode we find

that there is a girl named Taryn. I was calling her Alexa the whole time. Why? Because he's fake Siri. God, damn it. I already knew where that was going and I was so mad at you.

I was so mad at you. He teed up. And he got me. Yeah. Damn it, Jomey. So she, like, and like she, and he explains to, she explains to Siri, hey, they're trying to like, not reincarnate you, but make copies of you

and implements them with your memories and trying to manipulate you. and I was like, I guess this is set up for the second half of the season, but also I kind of felt like that was kind of like really important. And they kind of just, she's just there with having the lady take care of her. And I'm like, that seems important. You she, shit, why is tearing alive? You'll see. I'll see.

Okay. All right, four two, we hope. We hope. They're sticking really close to the damn book. Like, this time they are. They're like, I think season two, they took a lot more. They took a little bits and scraps to the point of like, are you even covering a book in this one? Because like it feels like they were just trying to make sure that they had like themes and names and places.

And that was kind of it. 100%. Jomey, what's your next one? There's my last one. I think this is the most important one. I think we should talk about this. Yazaker's haircut gets worse every season. It's awesome.

It's terrible. But it makes no sense because it's like he's still getting it cut shaped. But it's bad. It looks like coconut head. That's the classified. Exactly. Exactly. He had like, you know, the little short thing on top of season one.

I was like, I'm rocked with that. It looked good. It looked good. It was kind of long in season two. I was like, okay, man. We can run that thing back. And then season three double down. I'm like, ah.

There's a little sliver in blood origin where it gets a little bit longer from season. Again, you are not selling us on blood origin right now. You know what I'm saying? The bear season two out, you know what I'm saying? There's a lot of game left. I just can't, yeah, it's not going to go down like that. That's interesting, though. I just don't, like, it was like, you know, kind of a joke, but like, not really, my boy, you need to cut.

You know, I'm sure they got barbers out there on the continent. You know, I got some brothers. Well, do you think it's because he just is progressively getting worse, worse as in like, because in the beginning, he was a bard that was singing tales and doing these things. And then, like, he's captured on a ship at, like, one point. That's true. He's just like he's having a really rough time. It's hard.

You're not ready making a coin. He can't really get a haircut. He's getting thrown. Like, we opened the season. He's getting thrown out the crib because he was out there messing around. And I mean, maybe that's it. He's wilding too much, you know?

He can't afford a cut, man. I know what I'm saying? I know a guy out there. He gets you. You know what I'm saying? Two silvers. Two silvers. Two silvers.

He'll get you nice. Get you a shape up. Get you a lineup. That's just two songs. You know what I'm saying? The beard going to cost an extra silver, though. You know what I'm saying? We don't do beers for free out here.

you know what I'm saying? You can't, yeah. But I know there's got to be someone of the continent to get my molyaska right, bro. Gotta be one. All right. Well, thank you so much for all of those wonderful questions, Joe.

I'm glad we cleared up. I'm so glad we did that. I cleared it so much. Listen, and we're all about clarity here on Mint Edition. Transport your senses with Solteichanado's limited edition perfume mist collection. At Sephora, sprit on lush notes of rainforest orchid and crisp sea breeze with he fresco paraizzo.

of floral and fruity scent inspired by Rio's nude beach with cheeky bikini or caps her sun-kissed bliss with immonada jolada where zesty Brazilian lemonade accord meets coconut milk and golden brown sugar don't miss Sol de Janado's limited edition perfume mist collection only at Sephora but next we have Jessica's wonderful section of the pod we call the Jess mess yeah and like my brain it is gonna be chaos it's going to be unintelligible chaos. There's a reason Jess and mess rhyme.

So season three, I would say the overarching theme for it, right, you guys, is neutrality. Right? We're all like, they bring up neutrality in every episode, but I also think it's in love. It's in passion.

It's in loving your partners and your significant others. And there are a couple Easter eggs that came across that were like sharing that. And in the first episode, we get the Bellatin Festival, which is a festival of fertility. And in one of the books,

it's actually where Garalt and Yonifer meet. and then in the festival in the show, she's wearing the same dress she wears in the orgy scene in the first season. And it's to remind him of the first time they met. So it's a full circle moment of incorporating the book, the festival of fertility, and her birthday, and that dress. Fun fact.

If I met somebody in an orgy, I'd remember it. Yeah, you don't need just the dress. I remember everything I saw there. I will not forget. Trust me. Well, maybe it's not his first orgy since then. You know what I'm saying? Sure.

Maybe. You know what? No what? I take that back. Girl, you've probably seen some stuff. The ringerverse contains adult content. Oh, yeah. Oh, I'm about to get into it. So then, Yaskir, which I didn't read anything about his wig, but his outfit and his accessories are all from past lovers. And the hearts on his outfit now represent his new partners. So it would be the king's little brother and the woman Vespula that he's sleeping with at the beginning. And seeing as love and sex is so important to everyone in this show, I went back through season one, season two, blood origin, and even three.

and counted everyone's body count. Oh, wow. Yep, and stories and an actual banging. All right. I don't know. This is tough. I know. And four of the top five are in this current season,

are in season three within the five episodes that we saw. Okay. So I want you guys to take a guess at who you think are the top five people with the highest body count in the Witcher TV series on Netflix. Not in the books, not in the games, it's just for the people that watch the series. Which Jomey will probably be able to guess these immediately because he just watched them off.

Okay, so we also need to account this is both on-screen lovemaking and anecdotally. People saying, oh, hey, I had a roll around with so-and-so. Yes. Oh, yes. To which, I don't know. I mean, Bards talk a lot of shit. I mean, you would start with Yassaker, Gerald. Because Yasser, yes, of course, because he's got to be the top of him because he's just talking all of this stuff.

Asker's number one. You're right. You're correct. Got to be. Yeah. So you have two, three, four, and five. Garald's there for sure somewhere. No?

Garalt is. Garalt's number two. Number two. Okay. Girl's number two. I mean, I'm saying Annifer because we've seen her in season one. She was with, what's his name? Ishtred.

But she's not kissing and telling like anybody else. No, but she, I guess that's one. She hooks up with Eastrid. Yeah. And she hooks up with Garral. Yeah. Right. And there was a couple other stories where she talks about trying to hook up and following through with one night.

With one, but that's one. Like, I feel like there's one more that happens. Jennifer is number four. Number four. Jennifer's number four. So we're still looking for three and five. All right. So who from Blood Origin is in the top five because I don't understand who this is?

She's not. She's not. None of them. I had to watch Blood Origin again to find out that the people that said was not enough. It did not beat the record of these people on the show. Okay, again, no better advocate for blood origin than you on this planet. Please, please just give it a chance. It's only like three episodes.

I'm kind of at a loss here. Do you want to know? Sure, yes. Number three, beating Yenifer is Philippa, the Owlady. Because she can make people orgasm with her mind. So her body cat is nearly. That was like in the last episode. Hey, hey, if you make people orgasm, which in the orgy scene, no one did.

No one did. Bottom tier orgy right there. The bottom is your origin. And number five is the Queen of Centra, the grandmother to Siri herself. Because she's been married twice. Twice. And then hooked up with someone on the side. Of course, of course.

So those are the top. But like, as far as a numbers game is concerned, that's like triple digits with Yassikur, just talking wild shit. And then everybody else is more on-screen conservative numbers. When it came to actual physical, I would probably say, yes, Yenifer and Philippa are in the top. Sure. Because Philippa, we see her. and only three or five episodes while out and good for her.

Nuts. Go off, baby. Putting up numbers. Go do that. Whip that man. I was about to say. Whip that man. She was getting reparations.

Yeah, she was. All right. And maybe that's why I was cheering it on. Yeah. I said, go off, baby. I see you. I respect you. And then we have her with Eva and I hate Eva.

It was the worst. You'll see her, I see them as the time goes on. And you will also equally hate them. But those are the body counts because I had to go back through and watch it and research it. And let me tell you, not. hard to find those things on the internet.

Beautiful, Jessica. Beautiful. This is an applause, by the way. Now it is, people are going to be like, Jessica said that this is how many times Yasker began in on. They don't know now. You locked them in. That's true. Yasker gets down the most out of everybody. Rightfully so. With that wig.

With that wig. God. So, we, so they end on a cliffhanger, which you know, sure. Why not? Okay. This was, this was, I kind of wanted this to be, but like, my first and last question. It was like, did this

need to be split in half of a season because we kind of have a cliffhanger for no reason. No, no. But it took 18 months for us to get the third season. And I think they're doing that. What they're doing, which are already like, I think finished rapping on some of them, there's a bunch of side shows coming, right? Yes. The rats are getting a show.

There will be a Witcher Expanded Universe on the Netflix. So I think they're giving us something in between the third season and the fourth season. So they're like, oh, timeline-wise, we need to give a lot of room. so that's the only reason they extended half of it, like an extra month. That and it's Cavill's last season, and they want to, like, kind of draw it out for the numbers.

It did not need to be it. It feels pretty bad, but especially given the finale of this first half. Jomey, what did you think of this final episode? I thought it was, I liked the episode.

We talked about, like, the timelines and the Ocean's 11. At one point, I almost, like, paused. I was like, didn't I see this before? Did I accidentally rewind? Same. My PS5 tripping, But then you see it from like different angles

And you're like, oh, okay They was locked in This is all right It's a heist movie We locked in All right for show for show And then it ends with The dude

The bad dude Stabbing homie in the neck And it's like Hey player You know what you think you're gonna do And I'm like I know who that is You didn't have to like hide that

Oh yeah Dijkstra Yeah you have to hide Dijkstra for me Guys I know we know he's the op Right So I thought that was weird just like a weird place to stop in all honesty. I guess it makes you think, okay, well, first off,

what I want to say about this Ocean's 11 madness is the only reason I knew it was a flashback was because every time we go back to them banging, it's in a different position. So I'm like, you guys are telling us a story and you've had sex three times already in the tale of retelling this. And it's so...

You got to add three to their count. Yeah, yeah. No, no. Well, no, this was based off individual people. Because they've had sex with each other a lot. A lot. This is just what we're just what. with different people.

Lose count. Lose count. Oh my God, Jomey. Like it's oranges at the store. Loose count. Jesus Christ. I think that fin-hout, I think that cliffhanger, though,

for people that don't read the books, don't play the games, and are just watching the series, you're still kind of wondering, is a struggle bore bad, right? I think people, I think it was said out loud like, no, it's not struggle bore.

Oh, no. But then you're like, wait, so what is that guy doing with Dexter? Philippa, and then what's happening Radania, if they're working with this guy. So I think that cliffhanger is like, I don't know who's playing chess anymore. I don't know who's on the board.

But that's the thing. It's not to say that it can't be solved within one explainer in one episode. Easy. Because there's nothing really to wait on. It's just like, okay, we're waiting on an explanation is all that we're waiting on. And it's only a month.

Sure. So maybe that's the redeeming part. And it's not like incredibly plot heavy because we have an overarching thing that we're kind of waiting for for the end of the season. This is just a very plot-heavy middle. Can I ask a question?

Do you think this could also be like a step for Netflix to figure out whether or not dropping them all, dumping them all at once is a good idea? I mean, or do you think it's just because Henry Capable? In an era of Netflix figuring shit out, I don't know if a mid-season break in between,

like for a month, not even, for a finality. Stranger Things did it, right? Stranger Things did it. But those also were guaranteed gangbuster numbers, and every episode is like an hour and a half. Did they, it was in like two episodes two or something for the last bit? Yeah.

It was just like, yeah, it was really weird. I don't know. I think, I mean, Netflix does it as a reality shows where they would dump like four at a time, four out of time, and then you get the finale. Then you get a reunion, right? Oh, okay. It's like a month worth of content. I think Netflix is committed to the bench model,

but at the same time, you have to start trying new things because, When it's all said and done, like, you don't want, like, you don't want people to, like, talk about your show for a week and then it's over. And then that's it. And then we stop talking about strangers things after one weekend or whatever it is. But they're not, they've always said they're going to commit to the binge model. So, like, whatever it is, you're going to get how many episodes a week, regardless of whether it's over two weeks or over it's over one week or whatever it's within six months, whatever. They're not going to start doing one episode a week like it's, you know, like it's HBO. They just, they don't work that way.

I find it weird, especially given the events that have been transpiring in this past season because I'm like, okay, well, if we're really trying to like up the pomp and circumstance of Cavill leaving or we're blowing out the Witcher universe or something like that, I feel like they would want to go full force with the entire season and really just make that. either elongated for some reason or, I don't know. To be fair, I don't agree that it should have been split up because it felt like an arbitrary split. It also felt like they already shot it and they were planning on just doing the binge mode, like dumping. And then they went, well, if we did have to cut it into two, where could we cut it? And you're like, I guess here.

In the middle of an episode. And that's maybe why they made it an Ocean 11 episode to like outweigh the what they already had written. Okay, full circle moment. Figured it out. Now we know what the Witcher did. If you had told me that there was a writer's strike when they were making this season. Oh, my God.

I might have believed you. If you said it during Ocean's 11 episode, once I realized this was Ocean's 11, I'm sorry. I didn't hate it. It was more so that I was like, oh, so nothing bad happens. Right. I was like, confirm nothing bad happens because you guys are banging right now. Yeah. You guys are in a safe space.

Well, they've banged in a worse conditions. They've banged in like a cave where like a fight was happening. Loose count. Loose count. Loose count. Loose count. I think what made it weird for me was. they were like coming back July 27th.

And I was like, that's, like, that's in three weeks. Yeah. It's like, where's this week? Oh, yeah. They want to as well drop the joint. Like if it could come coming back in October. In three months. Even like, even like August.

That's true. I'm like, oh, okay. I see y'all got the things to work on. Y'all got them CGI.G. Beasts of work. I know it's been a lot of time, you know, people have always been coming about CGI, CGI. You got to work. You got a lock in cool.

It's literally three weeks. That's true. I didn't think about that because it's like, 29th and then you have July. I was like, oh, we have like exactly a month. But then I was also like, I'm not going to watch it for like four days. So now I'm watching it and it's July. And I'm like, wait, this literally comes out in two weeks.

Come on two weeks. That's wild as hell. I didn't think about it like that. That's it. Because when breaking bad and did a break, it was like three months. Yes. It would have been something like that. As is a show, you should take two months off just for fun.

Just to spite me. Only two. Just despite me. You know one? Only two. What are you talking about? And ran for seven seasons. What's wrong with you?

Uh-huh. Yeah. What's wrong with you, man? Only two. I have some, I have some, I have some respect. Shameless ran for like eight. What? I said,

I said shameless ran for like eight. All right. All right. Well, they got Calcestis and DeBair. And Shameless? Yeah, and Carmie there. The shameless got a little too many great people that are now doing. Jeremy Allen White, good for him.

Good for him. Good for him. Good for him. I hated him and shameless. Love him in this. Good for us. Good for us. Oh, yeah.

And with that. We're going to call that a wrap on this week's Mint Edition. Thank you guys so much for rocking with us. And we hope you enjoy The Witcher. Decent recommend for me, I would say. Have fun. Cavill's last run. We're going to have fun with it.

I will say, have fun watching it. But this is a series where you can't turn away and come back and know what's going on. There's a lot of information in every minute. Oh, yeah. No, it's dense. Yeah, it's dense. This is not a you can cook while watching. This is not like a smoking.

Second Syrian experience show. This is not. You got to sit and watch. Because guess what? Somebody's probably going to be banging when you're when you least expected. That's the time you can walk away is during the bang scenes. But I'll be counting. Look, I'll be counting.

Loose count. All right. Oh, my God. Don't forget, Secret Invasion is well upon us. Wednesdays, the Midnight Boys are going to give you their instant reactions for every episode of Secret Invasion. And on Friday, House of R will give you their deep dives as well. And on the weekends, Jessica Clemens will be giving you her Easter egg. video pods that we've been loving so much.

And we've got more coverage on the feed coming to you soon. We are produced by the great Kerm, as always, with additional production from our Juno Ram Gapal. Thank you so much to our new pod interns as well. Jack and Olivia, shout us to them. And thank you, Junior Mintz, once again for rocking with us. That's crazy. Christian in the room right now, you ain't say nothing about Christian.

That's so crazy. That's so disrespectful. Jack and Olivia are not even here They're not even here They're like in the ether somewhere They're probably at home Enjoying their vacation You know eating some like getting ready for the ribs

And the chicken tomorrow They got to take today off And Christian right here Not Christian right here In the studio with us And you don't even mention him That's crazy You didn't let me get to that

You got I got parts of the outline That I'm not talking about That's crazy man That's crazy man Right before Independence Day too That's nuts bro That's wow man.

What's independence? What's the independence? That's the thing I've got to do with this. Christian, thank you so much for being here as well. Christian, you want to get on this mind? We're not. And thank you for joining me on my last episode of Mint Edition.

As I am no longer... No longer those. Thank you again, Junior Mintz, for joining us again. Jomi, do you have any parting words? Yeah, man. Let's not forget Christian. Yes, we will not forget Christian. Shout out to Christian. Shout out to all the Junior Mintz out there.

Appreciate y'all. We love y'all. Remember, don't exceed that rate limit. Right. Shout out to our boy. Tweet responsibly. You know. Yeah, wait for my tweets.

Don't, right. Shout out to our boy. Tap the bell as well. Number one out here in these streets. Nikelle, Alexander, Kerma. Right. And, you know, for everybody out there, I'm claiming the law surprise.

Whatever's next. I want it. It's mine. Be careful. got a lot of babies right now. Oh, no, loose count! Loose count!