The Ringer-Verse - 'The Witcher’ Season 3 (Part 2) Reactions | Mint Edition

Episode Date: August 1, 2023

Jess, Jomi, and Steve are back to guide you through part 2 of the third season of ‘The Witcher.’ The trio discusses Henry Cavil’s last run on the show, the best and worst of the wigs in this season, and much more. Hosts: Jessica Celemons, Jomi Adeniran, Steve Ahlman Producer: Jonathan Kermah Additional Production Support: Arjuna Ramgopal and Steve Ahlman Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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You don't need weather tech floor liners in the summer unless you hit the beach or go camping. Then you'd want a cargo liner or a road trip goes sideways, ketchup goes rogue, ice cream drips. Yeah, you'd be pretty happy about those weather tech seat protectors. So just to be clear as the mud, you're inevitably going to step into the summer. You don't need weather tech unless you plan on doing summer. Visit weathertech.com today. You know, it's bocking season for our boy. You know, he was eating chicken, rice,

trout, fish, veggies. Yeah, yeah. Liam's going to have to eat a whole other person in order to get... Put in six hour days at the gym. Anything's possible. Hello, and welcome Into the Ringerverse.

The Ringers'X's podcast feed for all things fandom. I'm Steve Allman, and welcome once again. We are back to Mint Edition. It's the once-in-a-while podcast about all the fandom that you just can't live without. I once again, Steve Allman. I'm going to say it again, if you don't forget.

Joining me, as always, it's my co-host, Lord of the Memes, Explained of the Midnight Boys. He's here to fix Gerald's wig once again. It's Joe Me a Dinner on. What's up, man? You know, I just left the mall. Did you know there's a Dolbithana at the mall? Really? Yeah.

You know, I got a cream for that. It's right next to Dolce, Gabana, and the Banana. public. It's right in the middle. Wow, that's grown, man, that's real gross. And joining us again, now officially as our co-co-host, Jessica Clemens

permanent third chair. That's right. You've been on here for quite a while, but now we actually have official word coming down from the people on high that we can officially say Jessica Clemens is the third chair, third co-host of Mint E. Dition. What's our name? Is it just still

Just ovi? Justomi. Oh, man. It's not going to work. We might need to keep that in the bag. Okay, we'll keep it. I'll come up with something very nice. We'll get it on T-shirts.

We'll get it on T-shirts. It's great to have you, officially. I know. It's so funny because I didn't know any of the backs, like any of the behind the scenes of this. So I was like, oh, wait a minute. Yay. It's a surprise to you as well. We'll just keep having you come on every single week as a special guest forever.

Right. A very special guest that we may as well. just call our co-host, which we're very happy for. And we're excited to have you on. I'm excited. And before we get even more excited with the great show that we have for you today, some programming reminders. Wednesday, the men out boys are going to be giving you their instant reactions

to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle's mutant mayhem film. Guess what? It's pretty great. You're going to want to see this one. Friday, the House of Our is going to give you their latest trope's course on the enemies to lovers' trope. I can't wait. In celebration of good omens season two.

This means something to me, man. I can't wait to hear what yours is going to be, Joe. They're going to be great. I have choices. So many choices. They're also going to be just, people are going to listen to it as a recommendation. They're going to be like, oh, I'm going to read all of these or look at all of these. I can't wait to listen.

You're absolutely not going to want to miss that. They're going to be in their bag that episode. And on more Mint Edition news fronts, you might have noticed that we're on your feeds a lot more. and you're going to officially be seeing us on your feeds a lot more. Mint Edition is now bi-weekly. That means every other week we will be on your feeds, gracing your wonderful eardrums with all of the great things that you can't live without.

And you might have heard that there's a certain animated DC show that we've been covering for a little bit here on NITGISION. Young Justice! Yeah, finally! Yeah, finally. Show me, we did it, Joe. We can finally say, No.

No. I tried my best guy. This is why we keep you around. You can stop me at any point. I do it like good. That is great. But no, Harley Quinn is out. And you might have noticed that we've had a couple of episodes premiere.

And some people might have been like, hey, Steve, Jome, Jess. When are you going to talk about Harley Quinn? The answer next time that we're doing an episode is when we do that. We were going to finish up The Witcher and then we were going to be doing a mid-season check-in for Harley Quinn's season four. Beauty. in all of its glory. Spoiler, it's really, really good, and you should watch it right now.

It's really great. I haven't watched any of it yet, but I'm going to. It's just been such a busy week with Teenage Mutuals, with The Witcher, with everything, so now I'm going to watch it. There might be a lot of stuff that you might not want to miss out.

And Twisted Metal. Yeah, I haven't watched it yet either. I've been watching the Dragon Prince. I've been locked in on that, so you know, you've got to have priorities. True cinema. True cinema. I got to lock on true cinema first.

But listen, we got to pay the bills today, and we take apart The Witcher, Season 3, Part 2, the final few episodes as Henry Cavill takes his final bow as Geryl. Spoilers ahead for all of the Witcher lore up to this point, and season 3 as a whole. Let's go! All right, nuts and bolts, once again, The Witcher, based on the Polish fantasy series of the same name, starring Henry Cavill, taking his last walk around as our hero, Garalt.

Guys, let's give us our initial impressions of the final episodes of season three, and season three as a whole. What did we like? What did we like? We're finally at the end of the road here. I liked it. Guys, it's looking like a funeral in here. What's happening?

I liked it. You did. Stop making fun of me. No, I'm not. I liked it, but again, I like the Witcher a lot. And so this is like, like, the best fantasy I'm going to have right now because there is no fantasy on right now.

But I liked it. I like the second part more than I like the first part because I think there are more episodes that tailored to like more of the storyline in the second part than the first part. I don't think we really needed anything until the conclave. I could not disagree with you more.

Okay. In terms of what I was looking for. Actually, episode six was cool and then episode seven and eight. I was like, all right. We're chilling? That's what we're doing. Oh, okay. All right, for show.

The Korav Desert is so important. And that scene was, that episode with Siri was like... Important? Well, we'll get into it about the future of what everybody in those visions mean. Because it's very important. It could have been the most important thing in the history of television ever. No, not in television. And I was sitting there like, all right, so she just, she's just in this desert.

She's just in this, she's just, this is what we're doing. It's the biggest part. It's one of the biggest part. parts in the book. It's one of the biggest parts of the book. I'll see, but here's the thing, and I'll get to what my overall impressions were, it's a lot the final part of this season is a lot of tell,

don't show, but kind of show, but don't really tell what you just showed. And I think that my main problem is what Jomey has had with our episode in the desert, where this is clearly given to us as something that is supposed to be

kind of the most important thing that's been happening in the plot of The Witcher, because this is the, if we can, like, pull from Harry Potter, this is the book four, shit gets real moment of our series where everybody's supposed to kind of be coming towards a common goal and a common enemy

and a common purpose for, you know, uniting the realm and everybody else. And I just, like, we're really stretching ourselves pretty thin by fucking around a little tiny bit here. And I think that for the most part, there was just a lot of, There were too many plates to spin, and there were too many things that the show had to get right,

at least to set things up for this new season of a united front effort here. And I'm not really sure if I was feeling it. Tell me if I'm wrong, Jess. No, you guys have your opinions. Of course, of course. But can you see where we're coming from here? Yeah, a little bit. I think we both have different ways that we watch film and media, because also watching it,

I was like, this is really important for this young woman that's going through the desert. has to focus on like, she's not only going from being a princess into having an adopted family, her family dying, to actually being abandoned and having to know how to survive as an abandoned person.

And that was what Lauren, the showrunner, was focusing a lot on for the season was like, Siri, in the books, doesn't, isn't always with The Witcher and with Yenifer. She's going to be by herself.

In the books, there's a lot of horrible things that happen to Siri. And so they can't really translate that to TV. They could, but I wouldn't even run. Yeah. I was like, I wouldn't even want to see it. So I think this was a really good, like, viewpoint of it of like, oh, this young girl, she's abandoned, she's alone.

Everyone's against her. She needs to pull through this. How is she going to pull through this to just, like, being a rebellious team by the end of it? Of being like, I'm done. I'm finished. I don't want to take anyone's advice. I'm not, I'm going to actually take the advice that girl told me to do, stay freaking neutral instead of being invested in everything like I was before. Yeah, no, I mean, I understood, like, when it got there, I was like, okay, I see why this.

But again, like, it's, it's 55 minutes. I know. I devoured it. And there's, like, it's like 12 minutes of actual conversation with people. And the thing. Well, that episode is a lot of vibes, and it's a lot of, like. It's tough. Little horses in the book.

Right. Well, you're the thing. You're, like, Jess, you are our Witcher scholar for the most part. You've read most, if not all of these books. I read some of them, yeah. I read the third and four. So you can kind of tell that a part like this and a story like this is kind of very important because this is pretty much her emerging from the desert a changed character.

To be fair, I think the, okay, also first off for people watching this, hate listening to this and just listening to me, love The Witcher and they hate it. I think The Witcher does clearly lean more towards the books than it does. the video games. Sure. And even when they're using the books, the books can get to such outrageous, outlandish ways that they can't really incorporate it.

I'm not giving the showrunners or the writers of any sort of a pass of how they orchestrated all this. I just know, like, personally, it's like having my Scarlet Witch tattoo. I'm going to be more, Wanda Vision's going to be my favorite series over Loki because I have a connection to Wanda with my tattoo. But like, with The Witcher, I'm like, yeah, I read the books.

and I see what they're putting in here and I've listened to every interview and I'm like, I see what you guys are doing but no one else is into it as much as I am. And I'm very happy that you got a lot out of that episode because that was... No, truly, truly, because like that's... That's to know that something like that for the fans

can be executed on, even for just you or somebody like that. I'm just saying that like, Jomi and I have not read these books. I would say that we're more or less passive fans of the property and like, you know, when the show hits its highs, in our opinions, I would say, I think I think I can speak for you, Jomey. It's not, it's not now. It's not now. I mean, just watching the show is, I'm not going to say like a chore, but like, I have no idea what's going on.

Like, that's just like what it is. Like, you know, the Thandad Koo was going on. I was like, who are the people on the boats? Okay, so, all right, so the mages are fighting on both sides? And then, oh, yeah, and then, oh, yeah, and then, and then, oh, yeah, and then, and then, and then, and then, Jacobor, but then, like, they're also, okay, but then, so they're also majors on the evil side, but they came to the good side. There was all bad majors who stayed bad.

Look, sometimes it looked cool, and that's great. I'm like, wow, what a spectacle. But half the time, I don't know why anything is going on. I don't think the Witcher series is created at all for people that don't know the Witcher lore. It has not been a good on-ramp for people like me and Jomey. Even the first season where people are like, this is the best season. And I was like, it wasn't written for people that didn't know the Witcher. No.

We were all very confused. The law of surprise was the most confusing thing for people that never have played the gamer. Yeah. They're like, they're like, this is a lot of surprise. I'm like, okay, cool. What constitutes it? Like, you guys aren't getting into the actual situation of it. And so I think that's what the, I will say that's what the writers have against them,

because all of them read the books. Like, Lauren is like, I've read every book twice. And I'm like, that's great for you. But for people that never have seen this, doesn't know this property. How are you going to explain all of this shit to them? and they don't. And not to have us sound like a broken record from the last episode that we did on The Witcher,

but again, this was the same problem that we had in the first half of this season where a lot of things that the Witcher choose off in their books needs to be boiled down for television because you do not have that kind of time. Even if you make a 50-minute-long episode of a character in the desert, you're going to be missing some stuff.

You need to truncate. You need to actually boil down the things to the actual core lessons, and that's a skill. That's a very hard thing to do. That's a challenging thing to do in fantasy, but I really don't think that they landed the plane that well on the tail end of this season.

Steve, that's a great point you made. Let's put a pin in that. This is what in the business we call a tease. Yes. We'll get back to that in a bit. But you wanted to talk. We got to talk about the big thing about the last episodes. And the last stand of our boy.

Henry Cavill. This is it. Yes. This is Cavill's last run as our titular Witcher. How do you think he went out? How do you think his performance? Like a bit? No, no, no.

But like, are you sad to see him go? Do you think that he could have had a bit more of a standing in the show? Is the show going to be missing something now that he's gone? Yes. On all front. Yes. Yes. Yes. And also because it's hard after three seasons and a bunch of spinoffs that you created that character.

Because it's like, Goral is big, intimidating, and has a deep voice. But in the games, he sometimes says funny, quirky, stupid shit. Right, because he's two edge lord to be like that. But Henry Cavill, like, molded himself into the Witcher or into Goral, but also made that character for the series. And I think that character was what everyone really liked. And now that it's leaving, it's kind of hard to lose that built character. is going to be replaced by Liam Hemsworth in the next season.

Now, why did you laugh like that? Why do you laugh like that? Because he's so tiny. Well, to be fair, compared to Henry Cavill, a lot of people are tiny. I'm saying as Goral, I can't wait to see my slim daddy. So Ken got cut. You see how Ryan Gosson got cut to be Ken? You know what I'm saying?

But those are Ken's a dog. All I'm saying is, I'm sure they got a plan for Liam Hensworth. He's like, bulk. You know, like, well, shout out to Bobby Wagner. You know, is bulky. season for our boy. You know, he was eating chicken, rice, fish, veggies.

Yeah, yeah. Liam's going to have to eat a whole other person in order to get... Put in six hour days at the gym. Anything's possible. Okay, so you're right. First thing I'm going to say is you're right. I keep going back to Liam from the Hunger Games, which is not what I should be doing because that's 10 years up.

Secondly, I read an interview where Henry Calvill was like, and I'm rolling my eyes saying this. He was like, I have a body that's built for this and a body that... He's like, I'm lucky to have a body that has, he said it has, he's like, I work out and it immediately shows. He was like, immediately shows. And I went down. Liam's out here fighting for his life right now. Literally, this man is running up with like freaking Moholland Hill, pushing a car, trying his hardest.

And here he comes to Henry Cavill. He put him on notice. I think Henry Cavill has honestly made, you know, made the show, at least for me. Yeah. Watching him doing staying. I was immediately locked in on like what he. he does as Girold. And to lose that,

kind of sucks, to be quite honest what you fake, guys. Like, it's just what it is. I wish we could have more time with him, but he's got to make that a Warhammer 400 show.

40K. 40K. Sorry, 40K, my fault. Don't worry, that's how much Liam's check is going to be for next season. Hey, all right.

When I first thought that Cavill was going to be, wow. If I didn't look at Jomey, if I didn't look at Jomey, I wouldn't have reacted. Oh, my God. Don't worry. You didn't react.

anyway. You couldn't see my face. That's rough. But man, I'm praying for you, bro. Oh, man. I got can. I'm a lot of candle for you tonight. That shit was sad, though.

I will spit up my coffee. God, well, we're losing another host in Mint Edition. I know. I'm joking. That's tough. No, when Henry Cavill was the primary draw for me when this show started. And in my opinion, it's one of the few roles that's like truly capitalized on his charisma to varying degrees of success, but like, I think this is probably like the most he's

had to chew on since Superman. Yeah, and he had fun doing it. Yeah, he had fun doing it. It's so interesting because, like, going back, even I looked at the script, they cut out a lot of his dialogue in the first couple seasons because they were like, Girl doesn't talk that much. Yeah, he just grumbling. He just needs to grumble.

And I was like, and it's like on paper, it feels like it's kind of easy to replace, But then I think just Henry Calvo made such a mole in this, or like a whatever you want to call it, that it's kind of weird to see someone else take it. I, yeah. And again, all the best of luck to Liam, truly. And I'm sure he didn't get that role for nothing. And I'm sure that he doesn't think that we don't think that he could probably bring something to this. But for the people that aren't leaving, what do you think the supporting cast is now going to have to step up?

Or do you think that now that we're going to be leaning a bit more on some of our more familiar characters to, I guess, maybe feel a bit more of a gerald-shaped hole in the show? You guys ready for the Yasker episode? Yeah. No. No. No. No. He fell out of love and that's where he dies.

Also, no, his wig was still kind of weird. It's so weird. It's the haircut. It's bad. I don't understand. Well, this one was neat. It was cut. And I'd still look bad.

I just don't get, like, he looked fine in season one. Yeah. He could have kept that going, but y'all was like, nah, we got to get him to perm. This thing got to get, like, Cat Williams. Cat Williams, that's what it is. I'm like, what are y'all doing? It's straight. If it gets wet, it's done.

It's cooked. It's weird that it's permed. It's like a... Okay. Transport your senses with Saltigenado's limited edition perfume mist collection. At Sephora, spritz on lush notes of rainforest orchid and crisp sea breeze with Have fresco paraizzo.

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Grab a can and get after it. Best and worst of the wigs that were in Witcher's Season 3. Any thoughts? Well, what you're gonna call it always looks good? Girl's. Because it's always put up in a ponytail, so it's not hard to make it look good. It's messy. He's always dirty, so like the late she don't really see.

I thought we were talking only season three. Oh, yeah, only season three. Oh, okay. By comparison to season one girl's wig. Let me look at that out. Season one girl's wig was a lot better. I don't know. I felt like his wig wasn't too bad this season.

I think the one that got me was Tisa's when she went all the way white. Oh. You didn't like it? I was like, yeah. Well, maybe it's because I liked her with white hair. I mean, she, I'm talking about that scene. She uses the, the thunder, do the whole thing. And then Yenifer, Graham.

grabs her from the ledge. And that shot, I was like, oh, I don't know. They didn't lay your edges right. She's like, well, luckily it was the lightning and electrocuted. I mean, she's supposed to look a little messy, so maybe that's, maybe that's what I'm attributing it to. But I was like, yo. You can see the lace. The lace is pulling back because it's so messy.

Help her. Somebody. Somebody melt the lace. Melt the lace. Sorry. I just need help. And then I don't think Freya Allen, who plays Siri. I don't think she has a wig. I think they just dye her hair.

Which is, it feels like a bad dye. job. Does it? I think it's supposed to be like that colors. So I think it's like, it's like how I feel with Marga Robbie and Barbie. Her hair looks flawless, but I was also like, ooh, it's a shade where I think they're damaging it. They made it really fluffy and voluminous, but it's also kind of like a Barbie hair straightening. I would assume that, like, again, in all of those cases. You brought up Barbie. Okay. So I've seen some stuff on the internet. Yes. Right? Talking about John Cena versus Duolipa's wig.

Oh, yeah. They did dualiepia. but horrible. Somebody was like, they did that on purpose because, like, Barbie's, like, wearing a wig supposed to look

silly. That's true. John Cena, like, it's late. Like, it's perfect. It's perfect. It's also, to be fair,

John Cena has a bald-ass head, so it's easier to just, like, get that lace. It's the same tone. Just place it. Just place it. Because all you have to do is raise up and say,

beer or something. Right, yeah. Beer bruskey? Yeah. But also, they do that in Barbie. And also, they do that in Barbie. And also,

Barbies just have, like, the craziest hair. So it's like, it makes sense that they gave the Barbie that's in the ocean. But they threw Duolipa's wig at her blind. It's weirdly like. Ascance. What? wig-wise, I think, I think this, The Witcher, did a little bit. No, no, it didn't. No, it didn't.

They did it better than Duolipa. That's what I was going to say. I was going to say Barbie, though. And I was like, not better than Barbie, but better than Duolipa. Very true. I mean, it's not hard. There's no race. There's no race.

You put a helmet on better than you put on that wig. Anyway, Jomi, what have you got for us? Man, so. I got, I have question, I have one question and a whole bunch of notes. Just a lot of notes. Praise and polish? Or polish and polish? I don't know.

Polish and praise with Jomea dinner. Right. Let's go. So, guys, just straight up, what is the Dolbathon? What is that? Oh, it's, I need to know. It's a location that they talk about in the first season. Yeah, but they brought it back again and I was like.

Yeah, they make it sound like it's a god all the time, but it was a location that originally belonged to the elves and then the humans took. it over and now it's like ran by monsters but emmer owns it and emmer promised uh francesca the elf or well the leader of the elf she's not a queen technically um to she he offered it back to her if they succeeded in i think sherawed the first episode so they didn't see and this is this is kind of my problem because like all of those explainers and all of the things that they seem to talk about and i'm sure jomi's got more of these but like there was a like i'm not going to spoil anything in Oppenheimer when I'm about to make this comparison

But one of the smartest things that Oppenheimer does is when they're talking about someone or something, they do a very small cut to that person just to show you who they're talking about. And I'm not saying that the Witcher needs to do this, but there needs to find some sort of like visual onboarding for all of the things

that we need to keep track of. No, we didn't. Sequel, baby. Oh, God, no. We've got to cast him first. Kennedy. Yeah. All right.

Good. It's coming. Yeah, well, there's too many. There's so many. I was, like, listing off, I was like, here's the six major groups. And then I was like, this six is a lot. I was like, this is down to two or three. Yeah, and it's six.

And they kind of do, but they don't because it's like Vigelforts is a part of the brotherhood of mages, but he's also with Nilfgaard. So it's, it's so. Just boil that down to one thing. See, you said a whole bunch of words right there. Oh, sorry. I'm sorry. And none of them made any sense. Well, Vigal Forts is the villain. He's the bad guy.

I do know that. Yeah, Vigo Mortensen is the villain. No, stop it. Not Vigo Morden just shows up at the Witcher. Oh my God. We're like, we like it. Now, hold on. Yes. Hold on. Hold on. Vigo was Gerald. Hold on. Dolf Lungren is in the spinoff. Oh, that's true.

Is in the rat spinoff. And I'm actually kind of excited to see where Dolf Lungren is going to go in the Witcher. I'm sure you'll have some fun with that. I think he's going to be a witcher. He has to be a witcher. He's got to be a witcher. He's a big ass. He's a big ass big back man. I'm sure you'll enjoy that, you know. We're going to enjoy it. Who's, who's, you see, we, we speaking French now?

It's Jumica. Oh, I'll, I'll take, I'll, I'll, I'll take, I'll, I'm going to. All right. So here, here are my notes, right? And so I got a couple, a couple of things that I'm not really, I'm really lining up for me, the, the back half of this season, right? So, Tom Hick Bigginski is the, one of the executive producer on the show. And he talks about simplifying the meeting at, uh, at Artoosa, right? That the politics have to be simplified. Yeah. And I would just love to know what was simple about any of that?

My question, what's the complicated version? It was a lot more in the books. It was huge. And also it involves like Yonifer getting kidnapped. Jennifer was not the leader of it. It was like a bunch of other people. It was a lot of shit. But I think it could have been more simpler.

Oh, yeah. Yeah, because, I mean, and they talk about, like, we simplified it. So Yenifer, you know, calls the conclave. I'm like, cool, that part I get. But why does every single faction of every single part of the continent need to be there for the whole thing? Like, that's the, like, yeah, I mean, it's simple. I was like, simple for whom, sir? God, I ate that shit up.

I did not understand. We're in the second half of this season. We barely knew anything that came down the pipe. line from the first half, and now we're already still being, like, info dumped a lot more stuff in this latter half. Well, I think that was... I feel like it's just going to compound because things are getting more and more high-stained. I don't know about info-dump. There was no...

Sorry, not info-dump, but more of, like, we need to, like, parse these things together. And it expects a lot of that from the viewer, which is a lot, because I, I, the part that I was like, oh, I'm eating this up is the fact that we have Redonia that has, like, these three mages and they're staging a coup the same time as Yenifer and... and Tessia and Struggabor also doing it too. And then Vigel Ford's working for Nilfgaard's staging. The viewer can't be omniscient like this.

We can't be expecting to know everything that's going on all the time. That's the part that I'm like, I get that because I'm someone that's like, I'm like, this is insane. I was like, I didn't know that they were working for Nilfgaard. I didn't know they were working for Strugger. And then like you're piecing that together

and you're like, you guys are all ultimately here for the same goal. You could have worked together. But then at the end it's like we can't because we all want Siri for different reasons. Right. So in the end it's like, okay, well maybe you can cut out us knowing all of this stuff

in order to simplify what one plot line needs to be. Who could we have cut? Who could we have cut out, right? So, because the elves are the Schoietel, the Schoetel that worked for Nelfgard. And Vilgelfort is with them. So we can't cut those people out, right? And then we have a technique, I guess we could have cut out

Radania, because that's Philippa and Dexter. Because they, we did just true. That's a name. I haven't thought about Dexter in a thousand years. I could have gotten rid of Redonia, but like, I feel like some of the more like interesting I'd be splitting hairs at this point.

I do like Radat. And then I like the arc they have where they just keep kill, Philippa just keeps killing people because she's like, this is the only way we can do this. None of you guys are willing to do it. And as fun as that is,

but I feel like I could just as easily if you replace that with something that makes a bit more sense from our central character. I guess from the central characters. Yes. So I guess we could have taken out the Brotherhood of Mages.

I'm only thinking about logistics with like what we can strip down to the essentials. Yeah. And I know that that's probably, you're going to be sacrificing a lot more of world building that you, that fantasy stories called for. Yeah. But again, if you're just spinning too many plates, a couple are going to fall. And we've got kind of a few falling plates come the end of this season.

So, Jomey, what else did you kind of seem to struggle with? No, I mean, again, it's just a lot of, not a villains per se, but a lot of facts is coming together to understand why half of them are there. And it's just like, cool, I guess we got this big little fight scene that's going to go crazy in episode five. I think this is like my biggest overall note of the whole thing. Episode six should have been the finale. I kind of agree. That should have been the last thing we saw.

It could have been the finale. I think it should have been. I think it could have. The showrunner, Lauren Schmidt, Hers. She says, if you're saying there's a huge event, that changes everything, you need to see how it changes things, right? And so, like, I'm pretty sure, like, this, like, season three was, came a lot from the second book, Time of Contempt. But they use some of the stuff from the third book, Baptism of Fire, to keep the thing pushing.

And while I can kind of see where she's coming from, like, you know, you want to, like, like, even, like, Game of Thrones, you know, you have the Battle of Art Home that's, like, season five, episode eight. And it's like pretty, you know, pretty influential and like things happen. But like episode 9 and episode 10 are very engaging like with the whole story as like as a Game of Thrones story as a whole. It engages like the battle of the battle of Harlem Room in episode 8, season 5 episode 8, like just gives a through line to the entire season as a whole. Right. where I feel like this was a logical ending with, you know, Henry Caval leaving, like, he's literally, like, lying in the sand after getting beaten by the door for.

Yeah, that's true. That's true. That is true. That is very true. You could have cut it right there. That is true. So, two things. Two things.

Lauren, uh, Lauren the, um, the showrunner, she mentioned how, like, she was like, we did not want to make this Game of Thrones. And I wonder if it got to that level of, like, we don't even want to do. what Game of Thrones did with their episodes. But also, I think, again, and this might be a punishment on the writers,

they're saying so close to the source material that they're like, we have to end the season here when the book ends, which is like, you don't have to. No, there doesn't have to be a big line of demarcation for that story. They're just racing to, like, get as much of the books out as they can before, like, they're cut off. Maybe, I think more that they wanted to kind of end

on a sort of, knowing that Cavill was leaving, they wanted to give him as much breath as possible for this last sort of chapter in The Witcher's Story, which I guess you can make a decent argument for, but for the sake of truncating this into a season of television where you're already pretty bloated in the back half, I would say that this is a fine place to end it. Yeah.

Yeah. I kind of feel like, so here's my thinking, right? And here's me putting on my hat on, my creator hat on. I think, I don't know how long they want the seasons to be. I guess like eight episodes, you know, we could, you know, throw some stuff. They mentioned that they put some book one stuff into this season. You know, if they need eight episodes, whatever make it happen, I'm going to watch it and be like, man, I don't have no idea what's going on here, but it looks cool, you know, thing going on. And then you end the whole thing, like episode seven and eight with the Thanade coup, right?

Yeah. Yeah, that, okay, I get that. That would have made sense, yeah. Then you go into season four, right? And he goes in, Yasker goes into the woods and he finds Gereyat. And he's like, hey, man, you kind of look like a handsome brother. He's like, don't worry about it. Don't even think about it.

And it would have been. In no one certain term. Yeah, don't worry about it. Just don't think about it. It would have been an easier just reveal. Right? And it would have been like, that makes complete sense, right? Like, it's just like, oh, he's a different person.

Who cares? That's the only nod I'm giving them for the future of, you don't. Don't acknowledge it. I don't want you to acknowledge it from anything from the books. I don't want you to use any reference from the books that you're like, this justifies why we have a new character

that does not look like Geralt. You smaller, bro. You lose some weight. To be fair, we don't know how they're going to do this. They haven't even begun filming the fourth season, let alone with the strikes going on right now. There will not be any sort of progress on that until that's over likely.

We don't know how they're going to handle that. Hopefully it is handled well. Well, what's his name? the executive producer. Tomek Beginski. Yeah, in an interview with Yahoo News, he straight up was like, we are going to address

that Gerald is a new person. And he was like, there is something we're taking from the books. Outside of a tongue-in-cheek joke, I feel it's a mistake. Yeah, no, that's what I'm saying. I'll see how it works. I mean, like, it could be like,

man, he had to go dip in this pool and he came out, his face was disfigured, so we had to go dip in another pool. Face was disfigured, looking like Liam Emmer-Mzworth. Jesus. But that in that one,

we fixed his face. We fixed his face, we didn't fix his muscles. but don't worry about it it's all good yeah you know like that is you know whatever

and then so you end with that we end with him in the dirt in episode 8 you come back season 4 different person and that first episode is just him and and

and Jennifer right yonifer goes and creates her new hoggward school for magic and wizard stop stop the quest for muscles and then we're all like you know

does this whole like you know, fights about, you know, fights the people at the, what, the, the crossing, I don't know what that was, but he does a thing. The soldiers? The soldiers, yeah. And then episode two, we're like, man, what happened to Siri? Boom, cut. Next episode.

And then we have the whole Siri episode is episode two. And then it takes the bit of that end part of the, like the final scene. and it puts that episode. So the whole thing is Siri. And then we're like, hey, what's my name? What's your name? It's Falka. And we're like, boom.

And those are the first two episodes of season four. I think we'll be cooking with grease a little bit. That one is good. That is good. Because I was also like, I think they're also trying to time it with the spinoff series. I don't know what they're doing now with the delays. But the Rats spinoff series is like coming, coming. And they're probably like, we need to make sure the rats are at least acknowledged.

See, man. these spin-offs and things. They said, I read somewhere recently that they said, Whicher is one of like the top shows for Netflix. And it's so interesting because I only hear like people say such negative things about it that I was like, is it like one of the top shows? But they're giving it so many spinoff. So it must be making money.

I think it's probably one of the better IPs that Netflix has that they want to double down and spread cast a wide net for. That makes sense. Okay. Because they keep you, it's getting an anime. It's getting, yeah. It's getting an anime. It's got. Not Jiu-Sukkison, tell you that.

Hey, it's not even Castlevania. Ain't nothing Jiu-Kaisen. I love J-Jitsu Kaysen. Yeah, I mean, I just feel like this season, the back half, was just like, I'm going to say all over the place totally, but you had like a natural stopping point and you kept going. So then you're sitting in the next, especially when you follow up my boy in the sand, just got beat.

And then the next episode is Homegirl and the, And it's in the desert. I was just like, we're having a tough time. Yeah, what are we doing? But my last thing, and I need you guys to

do this for me real quick. The horse actually has a name in the books. I would just like you guys. I would love to see you guys try and pronounce it. Let me make sure you guys can Steve, I would love for you to pronounce

that. in the document? In the document right there. This word. I'm going to spell it out for the fans at home. Okay. It's I-H-U-A-R-R-Q-U-A-X. How would you pronounce that, Steve?

Iher-quois. Mm, you hear-Hir-Q-A-R-R-A-R-Q-E-H-Haw-Quacks. See, I don't think it was, it's not that hard. You look at me like I would, like, duh. Idiot. Idiot. In the, in the, there's a little like post-season three, like the producers and the showrunners come. At the end of that, like in the credits, they try to pronounce this and like, no, like, almost nobody can do it.

Even one guy was like, oh, it's spelled I-H-U-A-R-R-Q-U-A-X, but it's pronounced Jeremy. It's like, Har-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-O-H-H-H-E-H-H-E-H-E-R-H-E. Yeah. I did watch the making of season three on Netflix, so that's the only reason why I knew how to pronounce it. I mean, it's not hard. Like, who are quacks? I think the problem with a lot, and this goes for, like, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings as well,

we're putting so much emphasis on different letters because we assume it's like, oh, it's so insane. But it's like, nah, it's kind of just how you see it. It is an absurd amount of vowels. I mean, my name is Olua, I'm a little juicer. I'm locked in, you know, these things. Right. It's natural.

You know what I'm saying? There you go. So you know. Yeah, it's regular. Elder scroll. All right, Jess, what do you have for us? You ready for my section? This is a fun game.

For everybody listening? and for everybody in this room, including you, Kerm, you can even play. This is The Jess Mess. And like most of my stuff, is always very messy. I just have some trivia for you guys. Messy trivia. Some fun, messy trivia. And I'm going to give you guys five questions, a range of questions about that all, you know, have to do with The Witcher.

Ready? Right. So for the first one. Which of these actors were in the running to play Garalt Arrivia around the 2018 auditions? Was it Sebastian Stan, Ben Barnes, Liam Hemsworth? Or all of the above. Oh, I hope it was Ben Barnes. Oh, Ben Barnes.

I want to be Ben Barnes. But you know what? Actually, I think there's going to be a part of me that says all the above. It's probably all the above, but I really want it to be Ben Barnes. It's so fun because when I ask people if they knew who Ben Barnes were,

as they were like, no. What are you talking about? Ben Barnes is a legend. I go for, I go for Narnia first. He's definitely Prince Caspian. Yeah, he's Casspean. He's Cassian. All of the above?

Chris Caspian, Sebastian Stan, Liam. Kerm? All of the above. The answer is all of the above. They all auditioned for the 2018 Garal Rivia. And funny enough,

Henry Cavill annoyed them the most by harassing them nonstop about please let me audition. And they were like, we don't even have the scripts ready. And then when he finally got the audition, they were like, he is really good,

but so is Liam Hemsworth. So it's very interesting that Liam Hemsworth now replacing Henry Cavill was on the bench from the auditions. So clearly that means maybe Ben Barnes and Sebastian Stan might have passed

once they figured out that Henry Cavill was leaving. Respect Liam. Liam, I know you're listening, my boy. I'm so sorry, the disrespect. I got to walk away. I'm so sorry about the disrespect, my boy. We don't mean that. We just having a good time.

Bucky's, well, to be fair, Bucky's busy. Bucky's busy. Ben Barnes has got Team Marvel money now. I think Ben would have been a great girl. I think Ben would have been an amazing girl. He would have been so fun. Ted would have been great.

I feel like maybe now, like, the time has passed. and he's on to other things. The actor that also played Istrid, the Black Mage, he also auditioned. And they gave him Istrid instead. Cool, cool. I mean, a Black girl would have been fun. Hey, that's where I was going.

I can't imagine now the internet would have taken that news. Yeah. But it would have been fun. I think, I mean, Henry Cabo is obviously the, it's funny you say that because Henry Cabo is obviously like the choice for the role. It's funny that, like, they were like, oh, no, no.

Like, the dude, like, looks. Yeah. Like, that's how Girok just looked like a Dorot just seems like a question of what could have been versus what should have been. Right. Okay. Question number two. Other than Henry Cavill, there's another actor on set that's a big fan of the Witcher, acting as the Witcher Bible on set for her fellow actors.

Is it Glessavig, Tessia, Yannifer, or Philippa? I'm going to say Yennafer. I'm going to say Philippa. You don't have to guess. I know. These names sound very outrageous. Kerm puts his hands up. He's like, I abstain.

I don't know. I'm lost. What version of the Bible y'all do you read? This is not a Corinthians Stop. I got up from my chair because I couldn't re- Joe me.

It's not the Deeronomy, I know. We're out of pockets. This roof. What is this? New Testament? It's the New Testament. It's a new New Testament. The Bible 2.

2.0. 2. Stop. This time, Jesus comes back with a vengeance. As Tessia of Aratoosa. Glesific. Glessophic.

Was the blonde mage That hit on Garol at the coup But she's a huge fan of the book She's read all the books And everyone kept asking her How would their characters react to this? And she was like, well this is what your character does She was there

Okay, number three Two Truths and a Lie Joey Beatty, who plays Yaskier knew how to play the loop Before being casted He's currently the vocalist in a band Or he attended the same performing art school As Robert Pattinson

One is a lie Can you spot the lie? The lie I'm gonna say that he is currently a vocalist in a band I'm gonna say Padinson I'm gonna go with the first one The loot or whatever that is The loot

Yeah I don't believe it No no no no Do the Looke kind of knows how to play the lute Give me the Lute Okay The lie was He didn't go to the performing art school With Robert Pattinson

He did actually know how to play the lute And he is the lead singer of a band Called the Amazing Devils Oh boy cool Well great cop their new single There you go Cops the new single Number also in an

interview, they were doing two truths and a lie, and he was like, I have won a Tony, I won a Grammy, I am a lead singer in a band, and he went, this actually hurts my feelings. This hurts my feelings. He said we know which one's the lie. Which is so hurtful. One of the villains of the Witcher actually teaches a course at Marabella Film School titled villain course. Is it Stregobor, Vigelphorz, Emmer, or Rienz? It's got to be Stregor. Yeah, Stregorbor. You don't have to guess this one. There's another made-up name. The Kerm is befuddled yet again. It's actually Vigel Forts. who is the villain of the show.

Wow. In his acting class, the tagline for it says, you will be learning firsthand villainous traits and the characteristics of what makes a conflicted character. Okay. Neat. I wonder what we study. I think just being meat, like that face he has,

having very thick eyebrows. Here's how Tom Hiddleston does it and just, you know, wing it after that. Just do what Tom Hiddleston does. Just do that. That's what he says, the first day of class. You know Tom Hiddleston? He just throws him up on the board. Who is this?

Tom Hiddleston. And last, last but not least. I like how you mentioned Rance, and that was the first time it came up in this whole podcast. Well, he dies so sloppily. He had the opportunity to die in, like, the first episode. He went out the saddest of anybody? Yeah. And it's so sucks because that was that character's first time.

It was on originally it was a different actor. This was the first change because the other actor couldn't do it. So this guy showed up was in two episodes and got his head chopped off. Yeah, they said, oh, man, we got to replace Rance. Yeah, might as well keep it. Well, yeah. They said, we can't change it up like this. Henry's going.

Now we got rants. Man, the show's falling apart of the scene. Let's cut this thing off. Dang, that's tough. I know. And last, one of these words is not real in Witcher lore. Can you spot the fake one? No, definitely not.

Eirwock X. What you guys know is actually real. Which we just spelled. Brock Killen, Bombarda, or Korath? Man, I could be here for three years and I wouldn't get this right. Yeah, no. I'm just going to guess Korath. Let me see.

Man, let me. What are you looking at? Let me see. What are you looking at? What are you looking at? What are you looking at? I'm looking at the document. I want to get in the heart in the cars.

I have a one and three chance. Broccoli. Broccoli? Broccoli. Broccoli? It's Bombarda. That's a spell from Harry Potter. Wow.

Corrath is the desert that Siri gets stuck in. Clearly we are not Witcherheads nor are we Harry Potter. I thought I went with Harry Potter because I was like, oh, they both have. I was going to do Lord of the Rings, but I was like, I don't think I could do this. We wouldn't remember spells from Harry Potter even if. I don't know anything from Harry Potter. Oh, damn. That's on me.

Well, Brock Killen is the forest where the dryads were fixing Garalt. Right. And then Korath is the desert that she gets stuck in. But Herar Quox was the unicorn. Wonderful. All right. Final thoughts, folks. What do we have to say?

What does it all mean, Jomey? What does it all mean, Jess? Which is season three? How do we feel? Look, I'm just glad that I'm employed because Henry Caval is looking grim for our boy. He's got Wariammer. He's got Warhammer, but ain't anybody watching it. I can be unemployed and as handsome as Henry Cavill in Fieldshast.

That's very true. No, I mean, in all serious, just no. Like, this was a role that I think he embodied extremely well. And it sucks that we won't be seeing him going for it for whatever reason. Whether it be like his agent, you know, fumbled a bag or Superman thing or he wasn't happy. Like, no matter what, it's sad that we won't be able to see him in this meet him again. And yeah, hopefully when Warhammer 40K comes out, we can see him deliver because he's a good actor. He was a fine Superman, despite all the Zach Snyder stuff.

And he was a really good girl. And so, you know, to have, like, two legacy-defining roles, you know, strip from you for whatever reason sucks. So whatever happens next, I hope that it's something that we can all look and be like, we finally got Henry Cavill his thing. Like, he finally got to finish out his thing. And that's really just what I hope going forward. Yeah. I'm going to watch this and finish it because that's, that's, that's. That's who I am with every series.

You will complete all of the Witcher. The spinoffs too. I'll just like turn it on just because I'm like, I got to know. Yeah, you got to know. An endless thirst for knowledge. But yeah, I'm excited for the fourth season. I love the introduction of the rats. The rats are horrible, horrible, morally skewed children and adults.

So I'm excited to see how they're going to make it work in the series. I'm excited for Yenifer to start the lodge of sorceresses, which is just a female team of sorceresses. And I am really excited. I think, I am sad that Henry Cowell is going too, but I hope his fellow castmates, I want them to succeed. And so I'm still watching. For Yonifer.

For Yonifer. Not for Shiri. I definitely think that Cabell deserved a little bit better of at least a send-off because of what he kind of gave to this role. And ultimately, he kind of like christened and pushed off this entire franchise for Netflix that was supposed to just kind of be this blockbuster series for him. But now it's a vehicle for a bunch of other shows. And it kind of rested on his shoulders for a minute.

And he deserves his due. I think I might dip my toe into the Witcher lore a bit more. The books are worth reading. I know you'll like the book. If some of the spin-offs are good, or if the anime, anime is decent. Maybe I'll take a look at one of the books. Because the map.

Because of the map. The map is, I love, I love, there was a great, great little reel when I saw that, like, the book has a map. I'm a little bit more excited. And it has a, it's a good map. If it's a good map. If it's a good map, if it's a good map, I'm into a good map. There's a place you got to go.

I can get you there or no. I'm just imagining, like, not Garo, but like, some, like, cheapy version of a character in the show. Just singing that song. The Jennifer just walking through the map. I'm the map. I'm the map. That would be, that's real comedy right there. Wonderful for something.

Write that down. All right. Well, while we work on our Witcher spin-offs, we're going to bid you at due for this week of Mint Edition. And before we go, reminder that on Wednesday, the Midnight Boys are going to be giving you their thoughts on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film Mutant Mayhem. And then on Friday, the Troops course returns to the House of Our, with enemies to lovers.

We are produced by the great John Karma. And we would like to thank you once again for listening to us. We're really excited to officially welcome Jess as the third chair of equal power and respect for all of us here. Jomi, do you have any parting words for us?

Man, I got a couple. I got a couple. Shout out, as always, to our guy on the sticks on the ones and twos Sam Kerm See because it's the Women's World Cup And Sam Kerr is Y'all not locked in I gotta watch Women's World Cup Nigeria going to the next round

Baby we are in these streets Super Falcons let's go And thank you all As always for listening We love y'all And no matter if we look like Henry Cavill or we look like Lee's Hempers We will be here next time

We'll be fine and we'll be here I'm the math I'm mad, man I'm the math. I'm the math. Yeah, Scair's got to sing it, though. I hope not.