The Witcher: Blood of Elves - Season 2 radical re-cut

[Gieferg]

After "The Last Wish" and "Sword of Destiny" here comes third part of TV-to-movie Witcher series edit. This one is based on the whole second season,

The main problem with this season was that instead adapting third book "Blood of Elves" writers have decided to go all in with their poorly written fan-fiction and most of the season was completely unrecognizable to the fans of the books. Not only the new plotlines were boring and pointless, they have also create plotholes and incosistencies, so the season initially looked beyond repair to me.

After watching season 3, which was still a mess, but not nearly as bad as second one, I've decided to give it a shot anyway. The idea was to create something at least resembling proper adaptation of "Blood of Elves" as there was no way to make it really faithful to the book.

The result is a movie build from book-accurate elements, things that keep the spirit of the books intact (and theoretically could happen
in the story but were not described by Sapkowski in detail), some of the Netflix additions that I didnt mind too much and some of those that I DO mind, but they're needed for continuity reasons. There are still some plotholes that were present in original version as well as some really questionable ideas but proportions between things that look like the book adaptation and those that certainly do not, were almost reversed. What is the most important thing - now we do not need to swim through the swamp of pointless nonsense through 8 hours to find some things thay may be enjoyable for book fans, but instead they fit in 2,5 hour movie (along with a bearable dose of nonsense).

What are the changes?
- new opening crawl and title card
- the order of scenes is rearranged
- Yennefer is put where her place is and is no longer main character
- she regains her powers with no connection to Ciri or Voleth Meir
- Voleth Meir plot is completely excised along with Yen's betrayal nonsense
- episode 1 is trimmed for pacing reasons and it's ending is modified to have more book accurate feel to it
- there are no monoliths and Istredd has only one scene
- Eskel is introduced just to pay a tribute to the book character and give Ciri her nice introduction moment and we never see him again
- no prostitutes in Kaer Morhen obviously
- Ciri's blood plotline was kept for continuity reasons, but nobody is considering trying the mutagen on her
- Fringilla's role is limited to three scenes
- Francesca is not psycho babykiller anymore
- Cahir doesnt appear at all (he will return in proper time and place)
- we still have Dijkstra and Vizimir plotting scenes intact as well as some of the scenes involving mages
- no Emhyr reveal
- a little modifications for some dialogue occur here and there
- 99,9% re-score (in stereo) available as default audio. 5.1 original music audio available as well. Both options in english and polish.

Running time: 158 minutes

 

[Zagadka]

Your two fan-edits of Season 1 were absolutely astonishing! They replace the original series for me and a vast majority of the Polish fans have also been under the great impression of your achievement. I know Season 2 is mostly a bland fan-fic, but I deeply believe that your edit will make it at least watchable and will help us find some redeeming qualities in Seasons 2-3. The use of the Witcher game soundtracks is a nice touch. Are there any fans of Andrzej Sapkowski's work here? You will be pleased .

 

[Gieferg]

I consider Witcher books to be something way (and I mean WAY) better than LOTR or any other fantasy I've ever read. In fact, after reading them, I've never ever enjoyed reading Tolkien anymore (only reivisit the movies since then).
Such a shame they didnt get a worthy adaptation like LOTR or even GoT did.

The second season was the worst of them (not counting that embarassingly looking spin-off that I've skipped with no regrets), so all I could do was to try and make it bearable. Hard to say yet, if that goal was accomplished. We'll see what people think.

Now it looks like the inevitable Season 3 edit that will follow next year may be a two-part movie (or very long one).

 

[Grim_Furiza]

I consider Witcher books to be something way (and I mean WAY) better than LOTR or any other fantasy I've ever read. In fact, after reading them, I've never ever enjoyed reading Tolkien anymore (only reivisit the movies since then).
Such a shame they didnt get a worthy adaptation like LOTR or even GoT did.

The second season was the worst of them (not counting that embarassingly looking spin-off that I've skipped with no regrets), so all I could do was to try and make it bearable. Hard to say yet, if that goal was accomplished. We'll see what people think.

Now it looks like the inevitable Season 3 edit that will follow next year may be a two-part movie (or very long one).

This edit is AWESOME!! 2024 Time of Contempt woooooooo

Would you be interested doing a book edit of the Game of Thrones show? Or A Song of Ice and Fire even. I would totally watch that!

 

[Gieferg]

I am a hardcore fan of The Witcher (books I mean) so I needed to do something with it (especially that no one did anything radical enough with it before), but I've never read GoT books (and won't since there is no ending to them), and the show isnt something I would rewatch, let alone editing it - nice 4 seasons and it went downhill from there. There were still some nice scenes in later seasons, but I was bored more often than entertained.

There are people who do that though, so you should be able to find something.

 

[Gieferg]

@stferguson78

You could nit pick over a few audio edits here and there,

Examples?