alaterdate | The Witcher—TV Series [No Spoilers] (Reply)

I have never been into The Witcher as a videogame or book series. I've heard about it often in comparison to Dragon Age, and had it recommended to me because I love Dragon Age. But I always completely dismissed it because it just seemed like something I wouldn't actually like (I'll get to why later). So, why on earth would I watch the show?

Frankly, I don't really know. I heard a couple people I know talk about it; mostly about the realistic sword fighting and the distracting contact lenses (they are actually quite distracting). If I think back to before I binge watched the entire thing it was probably to see the sword fighting to get some visuals and ideas for a story I'm writing. Yeah, didn't really do that. The sword action was amazing and I consumed it pretty much without thought because the second something entertains me I forget all about analyzing it lol.

Even beyond that aspect though I loved the show, especially for the first half of it. The first episode grabs you immediately with a monster fight and a glimpse at the world and a super cute fearsome girl. Then we get into the territory of why I never found The Witcher series appealing.
Sex and titties.

Now, I wouldn't say I'm a prude, nudity doesn't shock me or make me cover my eyes at the audacity and I appreciate a woman's body (me being bi and all). It just makes me so uncomfortable when it's not something I'm explicitly choosing to consume. I don't put on a TV show to see a bunch of naked women and people going at it. I don't start a video game or read a book for it (unless I'm explicitly looking to read smut, only then is it something I'm choosing to consume). (I only completed Cassandra's romance in DAI once because I do not want to see videogame boobs! I really don't!)) I hate it so much! Part of it might be the publicity of it all, the fear of the "what the hell are you watching/playing?" question, but I also dislike when it suddenly crops up in (non-romance) books and reading is much more private. Another part might be that I'm just squicked by depictions of heterosexual sex ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ and that's mostly what you see in movies and TV. I don't 100% know why, but it bothers me and that's that on that.
That was the bad vibe I always got from the game, that it was a lot about sex and tits. And I don't know if it is or how much it actually includes, but that's the worry that always made me avoid it. And yeah I guess I kind of had the foresight then to expect the nudity and sex scenes in the show, but still that was absolutely not why I was there. I tolerated it in the show because I really liked everything else going on and I skipped a couple parts where it was too much for me, all was well.

So, despite the nudity and soft-core porn, I enjoyed the show. It took me a while to figure out it was non-linear, but when I did I thought that was interesting. It was fun to keep track of the timeline in my head. I was pleasantly surprised with Henry Cavill's performance because when I first heard he would play Geralt I didn't really think it was a good fit based on my pre-existing knowledge. My favorite characters were Jaskier and Renfri. I rooted for Yennefer at first, but by the middle she started to annoy me and I didn't care about her anymore.

Cut to me finishing the show, thinking it was really cool and I wanted to know more about my favorite characters. I should read the books right? Downloaded a sample and yep, the first pages has a girl rubbing her boobs on his face. Okay, thanks, no thanks. So, this is probably the end of me and The Witcher. I'll maybe watch a season two, but I'm actually satisfied enough with where it ended that I wouldn't really crave to watch more.