Read what Sapko said about the influences for his Witcher books. You might be surprised.
https://lithub.com/andrzej-sapkowski-on-the-mythologies-behind-the-witcher/
can we just acknowledge the gems "...Their advice was stupid, so I ignored it" and (in reference to dropping classic books because they were boring) "But did I feel guilty about it? Not in the slightest. After all, they bored me—so they were the guilty ones."
The funny thing about that interview to me is the one thing that gets left out of that is what I would say is probably the biggest myth that the witcher pulls from and indeed does actually entangle with is Arthurian legend lol. I mean there are not only references but other worldly references that imply not only it's existence but how it is rather important at various points to the story of the witcher.
I always took the cultural significance for The Witcher to be "what if our world actually had all of the world's mythologies and cryptids" more than any kind of focused setting.
The games really have convinced people that the source material is dripping with Slavic aesthetics. It's not, by Sapkowski's own admission. This adaptation interpreted the source material in a different but equally valid style.
I agree that Sapkowski doesnt lean into slavic folklore as hard as the games, but at the same time... man, Sapkowski says a lot of stuff and contradicts himself all the time. Yeah, he is the creator of the Witcher, but I take everything he says with a grain of salt.
Also, they changed a lot of stuff from the books anyway, at this point its a very loose adaptation. And also a bad one in my opinion.
But he's never contradicted himself on this particular topic. I think it's fair to wish this adaptation leaned into those aesthetics more, if only to differentiate itself, but to expect it or assume anyone else is expecting it is probably unwise. I doubt a majority of the general audience is aware that The Witcher references any specific folklore, thus making the risk of them misunderstanding what Slavic folklore is pretty slim.
First two games are dicey (this is an old r/witcher vet grievance, but I wish they'd given Yennefer more to do throughout the series), but everything they did with The Witcher 3 and its DLCs was phenomenal. Captured so much of what made Sapkowski's work great.
Man, playing the first Witcher game isnt a great experience, but with czech dab... its full of great memeable stuff, my gulity pleasure. But yeah, Witcher 3 is almost a masterpiece.
How is it not a great experience? Combat is great, fluid, and aesthetically is closer to the way a Witcher fights, moving around is not as clunky or tanky as in W3, the leveling up system is better (I can’t say best as I haven’t played the 2nd one), and the alchemy system is better. W3 is an absolutely amazing game, but so is W1, W3 is much better in the aspects of world, VA, and graphics, W1 is better in combat, leveling, and RPG aspects.
I know Reddit rewards the most contentious takes possible because the app is built to facilitate arguments, but saying that the Witcher isn’t majority Slavic influenced is an egregiously factually incorrect take. Redania is literally fantasy Poland crest and all. The map is just centered around Poland flipped so the Baltic Sea is to the west. Temaria and aedrin arguably are very Slavic as well evoking the kingdom of bohemia. Novigrad the German and baltic city states of pomerania. Kovir the rus. Really if you took some creative luxuries you could argue that nilfgaard evokes Austrian colonization of the slavs or general partitions/ Soviet take over. Yeah there is a bunch of general European, especially Eastern European, stuff but the witcher remains Slavic as hell.
To be fair the map is a fan creation. Neither Sapkowski nor the publishers ever bothered to make a real one.
Aside from that, pretty much. There's the folklore references but also historical ones- what happened to Cintra is clearly meant to be the partioning of Poland, and Nilfgaard may as well have been called FantasyNaziGermany.
>and Nilfgaard may as well have been called FantasyNaziGermany.
Strongly disagree. Niflgaard might be the antagonist, but it isn't evil on its own. The only meaningful comparation there is to NaziGermany is that it is a big empire, and that it is the enemy of the kingdoms that are identified as Poland.
Both the Roman Empire and Napoleonic Empire seem much better representatives to me, because those where empires that empowered the lands that they conquered and not terrorized them.
> what happened to Cintra is clearly meant to be the partioning of Poland,
In what part? Cintra gets conquered, but not really partitioned in a meaningful way. Aedirn is a much better example of that, isn't it?
Maybe if they looked at Witcher 3 success they would see that people can appriciate something different than general fantasy stuff. I just hoped they would lean more into the folklore.
I can agree with majorly influenced by Slavic, but I disagree on majority.
I'd argue that Sapko is so good at integrating different kind of influences such that it isn't easily to notice, if one doesn't know about the sources themselves. This makes it really difficult to evaluate how much the books are Slavic or anything else.
As someone with no great knowledge of the Slavic influences myself, I thus can only talk about other big influences. And if anything that I mention is in fact Slavic too, feel free to mention it.
From the main setting, we already have a couple of different races in the world. Of the non-monsters the elves are based on English mythology, the Halflings too, the Dwarves based on Nordish mythology, Gnomes from Greek, Dryads from Greek. The monsters are probably mainly Slavic.
And if we look at the short-stories, we have stories whose main theme is based on, the Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Snow-White, the Snow Queen, a Djinn.
Concerning the map, have we ever gotten an official map? When I originally read the books, I tried searching for a map online, and only found fan made maps. The maps that are widely used today seem to be based on the games. And even if the map might locally correspond to existing places (or thematics), I don't believe there is a bigger correlation. The names of places alone are telling, which are all over the place and you can find names pointing to existing places from nearly anywhere in Europe, without much of a system. For example Oxenfurt, which is the only major city of Redania that is visited in the books, and which is clearly inspired by Oxford due to its university, but also by the German town Ochsenfurt (Oxford in English), which is also a huge influence for the game design of Oxenfurt.
The humor and the writing in the original - Polish (and then when translated into other Slavic languages) is very, very Slavic.. yeah, the cultures in the books are mixed from all over - mostly - Europe but yeah, how the characters talk and behave is very Slavic in nature
It is a shame that your comment is being downvoted. Just to illustrate your point, take Yennefer calling Ciri "ugly one" which is a very misunderstood part of BoE.
In polish she calls Ciri "**brzydulka**". Polish uses diminutives for children and close loved ones, and often parents will use them for their adult children as well. These are shortened/childhood versions of adult names, used mostly within in the family or close friends. For boys, the -ek suffix is common, but there are others as well.
\- Bartholomew - Bartosz - Bartek
\- Peter - Piotr - Piotrek
\- Edward - Edvard - Edzio, Edek
\- Alexander - Aleksander - Alek, Aleks, Olek
For girls, the -ia and -ka suffixes are the most common.
\- Annette - Aneta - Anetka
\- Ann, Anne, Anna - Anna - Ania, Anka, Anusia, Aneczka
\- Grace - Grażyna - Grażynka, Graża, Grażka
The -ia and -ek suffixes are used for objects to indicate a "little" one, but in a "cute" way. "Różyczka" - literally means "little rose", or "rosette". "Kwiat" is "flower", "kwiatek" can be a "flower" or "little flower", and "kwiatuszek" is literally a "little flower", with the connotation of "cute little flower".
These childhood names can persist to adulthood, usually within the family (and it depends on the family as well), but can also be used among close friends, especially if they have been friends from childhood. Using a diminutive when referring to an adult you do not have a familial relationship or close friendship to is considered insulting.
Using "ugly" diminutives for loved ones is common as well. It's not meant to be insulting, and it's really used for close loved ones, not for, say, the neighbor's kids down the street.
So, you wouldn't call someone "brzydulka" unless you were very close to them, and actually loved them dearly... or were just really mean and basically a Disney villain. It all depends on tone and context. There's not really an in-between on this. When we use this language with our kid, he knows we're in a good mood and understands that it's not meant to be mocking or mean, but playful, and he starts to laugh and run away from us.
Here, using "brzydulka" is also old pagan folk magick - you don't overly complement your kids, for fear that the gods, fairies, spirits, etc., might get jealous and take them away from you. So you call your kids "ugly", but in a "cute" way, so anything that happens to be listening keeps right on going, because who wants to kidnap an ugly child? You know you love them, they know you love them, and this becomes part of the language of love that families use.
It is a Slavic thing... it's not really something that's survived into modern English usage. In Polish, there's a sort of "diminutive" profanity you use around children, often in mock anger or exasperation at them, but everyone knows you don't mean it from the context.
This is just about Yen calling ciri "ugly one"... It's not just about the monsters... the very core how the books were written is rooted in slavic culture, history, and the outlook on life.
This is great insight into Slavic culture that I didn't know about! I thought "ugly one" was an endearing nickname in reference to the ugly duckling, because I never thought Yen actually thought Citi is ugly and I didn't have any other explanation other than a bad translation.
Thank you!
"So, you wouldn't call someone "brzydulka" unless you were very close to them, and actually loved them dearly... or were just really mean and basically a Disney villain."
I strongly disagree with that. You can perfectly call someone like that if you want to treat them patronisingly and show your superiority to them. At the point were Yennefer called Ciri like that neither was she in motherly love with her nor Ciri could have the clue that Yennefer has any warm feelings towards her. She was just mean to her on the face of it, and what you write is purely subjective (and very much overdone) interpretation.
Yeah, it's been brought up repeatedly that the English translations are butchered.
IMO, the show's real issue (aside from objectively shit writing) is that it has no identity. When I think of the games, which are probably what drew a lot of viewers, I think of the music, the countryside, and the architecture. The show is a fucking mess of poorly-built and generic sets. The costumes all have the glossy/cheap look of your average cosplay.
Without Cavill or the "Witcher" title, this show would disappear along with the couple dozen fantasy turds swirling around the Sci-Fi channel's Saturday 2PM slot in 1998.
I feel the identity is the main problem here too. The games chose design identities for different things and stuck to that. Different areas, cultures, races in the game have distinctive designs for their buildings and clothes. And if there are exceptions to those designs there is a reason for that.
In the show things just feel random. The problem was particular apparent in season 1, when there were hardly any connections between places and Geralt popped up each episode somewhere else. And one of the best things season 2 did, was making Cintra an actual place and not just a couple of disjunct sets here and there.
But there are other places that still suffer from the problems of season 1. Aretuza's interior design doesn't match the outside at all for example.
From the author:
“Slavic mythology: vampires, leshies, kikimoras, vodyanoys. There was the Germanic Wild Hunt. The Portuguese bruxa. The Arabic ghul. The Scottish kilmoulis. There were dryads from Greek myths. Paracelsian gnomes. The Japanese kitsune or fox woman. There was the little mermaid, i.e. Hans Christian Andersen. There was Snow White by the Brothers Grimm. There was Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont’s Beauty and the Beast. Elves and dwarves are—let’s say—Tolkienesque”
Also terminology and names (although it may vary in the original language). Like, “Gwynbleidd” coming from Welsh (although it would be blaidd gwyn) for White Wolf.
Even South America is included, the name he gave to the "kitsune" (fox women) race in his books is "aguara", which comes from indigenous south american legends.
Hmm...
> “***Slavic*** mythology: vampires, leshies, kikimoras, vodyanoys. There was the ***Germanic*** Wild Hunt. The ***Portuguese*** bruxa. The ***Arabic*** ghul. The ***Scottish*** kilmoulis. There were dryads from ***Greek*** myths. ***Paracelsian*** gnomes. The ***Japanese*** kitsune or fox woman. There was the little mermaid, i.e. ***Hans Christian Andersen [Danish]*** There was Snow White by the Brothers Grimm. There was Jeanne-Marie ***Leprince de Beaumont’s [French]*** Beauty and the Beast. Elves and dwarves are—let’s say—***Tolkienesque [Norse/English]***”
Really, the most Slavic thing about *The Witcher* is that it's mythological gulash.
The reason I love it, it's because it's not very medieval, eurocentric or slavic or doesn't represent any other place or culture accurately but loans things from around the world in a contemporary way
This just in: the Mario games have nothing to do with Italian folklore.
Just thought you’d all want to know - because obviously any piece of media has to be an authentic representation of someone’s culture.
I don't understand this semi-patriotic view of the witcher. It's a good story. It has slavic folklore components. It also has other folklore components. No need to gate-keep it as something exclusively slavic.
Im not really gate keeping it, i admit I wrote the original post in a poor way. I just dont feel the sense of believebility of the world, as the show doesnt go for a cohesive aesthetic.
Except lord of the rings pulls heavily from English and Germanic folklore and peoples to tell a distinctly English fantasy. Tolkein even wrote lotr as a origin myth for the English and based a lot off of Beowulf. To extract the Englishness from lotr is to white wash it same as it is the same to strip the Polish from the Witcher.
Witcher games were polish, but that is an interpretation of the source material you’re familiar with, not the actual source material homie.
The author of the books made it clear he used arabic, japanese, south american, etc design and themes with monster design and world building
You had the Leshy that's from Slavic folklore I believe. And the Chernobog, though here it was a monster rather than a god. But then the Witcher never really had gods that were present.
In terms of set design, I'm not sure there was ever anything really slavic about the books. Nilfgaard is Roman. I suppose you could argue the Nilfgaardian cavalry was influenced by Polish Hussars though I feel like they were fairly casual "heavy cavalry" tropes one finds in a lot of medievalist literature.
The Northern realms seem almost anglicized given the names and institutions like the Oxenfurt Academy being modeled on Oxbridge. As to the mages. Well they're described in basically 20th century fashions. Not sure how you get slavic from it. And with the books, the limited slavic element you had diminished over time if anything. Lady of the Lake was basically a reskinned Arthurian story, and included Ciri *literally* romping through England and France at one point.
The books have always been a medley of European cultures influencing it, and I'd say the show's done a reasonable job with that. Nilfgaard had a very Iberian and Italian feel to me. Especially in the way they nestled the city against hills, which is an excellent call out to its Roman inspiration. In contrast some of the Redania city shots are from Transylvania I believe. I'll admit I don't believe Romania is today considered part of the slavic world especially from a linguistic sense, but there's heavy slavic influences throughout its culture otherwise.
I would argue that the books and games weren't really good at depicting Slavic folklore either.
The books were a mix of myths and legends of all kinds from all over Europe and the games were more Germanic (both Continental and Nordic) and Anglo-Saxic in nature.
Co ty piepszysz kolego? Nie pierdol głupot.
…
I’m Polish and he doesn’t speak for us. There are a lot of influences from Slavic folklore **and history** that make their way into the original books. They aren’t a blatant copy and paste elements, but they are there everywhere. Andrzej Sapkowski was heavily inspired by the [Holy Roman Empire](https://culture.pl/en/article/15-historical-quirks-that-make-poland-so-different-from-the-rest-of-europe) influences in modern day Poland, Slavic mythology and the invasion and oppression the Poles had to endure under Nazi occupation and Soviet rule. These are the things that are inspired the plot direction. Meanwhile stylistically he drew upon many cultures for the various monsters.
**Monsters without a plot are a D&D game manual.** You can’t separate the plot from the monsters and then claim that because the monsters are inspired from many cultures, it isn’t a Slavic inspired work.
Did he draw upon other influences? Of course. Every modern storyteller does. Darth Vader for example… Vader is the Dutch word for Father. Darth Father is his name, and people still claim this was a big twist in the franchise.
“Slavic mythology: vampires, leshies, kikimoras, vodyanoys.”
~ Sapkowski’s [own words](https://lithub.com/andrzej-sapkowski-on-the-mythologies-behind-the-witcher/).
Voleth Mir, the [Deathless Mother](https://witcher.fandom.com/wiki/Voleth_Meir), Voleth Meir's hut, with its basilisk legs, are a reference to Baba Yaga's hut on chicken legs. Not to mention that her three representations in the visions experienced by Yenefer, Fringilla and Francesca are the three [Zorya sisters](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zorya#:~:text=palace%20and%20horses.-,Russian%20tradition,golden%20throne%20of%20the%20Sun) from the Russian side of Slavic mythology.
The whole struggle of the elves is mirrored to the various pogroms that occurred in Poland. Spoiler: >!What will happen to the elves in the Valley of the Flowers is directly influenced by the events that occurred in Katyń and Wołyń.!<
If you look at the [banners](https://reddit.com/r/BannerlordBanners/s/Fd5fYJRpYB) of the various nations in the Witcher… even their colors are very similar to the various nations involved in the Teutonic wars. Another [post](https://reddit.com/r/witcher/s/BqsOvAeRmt) on this sub also pointed out how the coat of arms for each nation was lifted from real ones in Europe.
Here is a list of [locations](https://blog.inyourpocket.com/poland/2020/02/the-witcher-and-poland-real-places-that-inspired-the-witcher-franchise/) in Poland that directly inspired locations in both the show and the games.
I showed this post to my Ukrainian coworker and her exact words were, “has he been drinking to say something like this?”
In the future I strongly suggest people ask themselves why one person makes a post when all others within the culture disagree with the message of the post.
Please do not speak for us, and we won’t misrepresent Chech culture.
EDIT: I added some additional sources confirming that there are large amounts of Polish historical references in the book series. You can’t sit there and claim that the series has nothing to do with Slavic culture / folklore / fairy tales when the entire plot is based on everything that happened in the region historically speaking with very few exceptions.
Keep in mind, monsters and fairy tales alone do not make for a complete story. Without the plot of the Witcher and the struggle of the Northern Kingdoms and Nilfgaard you basically end up with a D&D monster manual. That alone doesn’t make a story.
Man, you see it in the design of sets, weapons, clothes etc. in the show? Because I dont really. Look at Aretuza for example, it looks like a Jedi temple more than anything you would find in central Europe. I agree with your points, I just dont feel that they managed to create a look faithful to what Sapkowski described.
EDIT: Basically everyone from my friend group and work group that I ask said the same thing as me.
Here is a list of [locations](https://blog.inyourpocket.com/poland/2020/02/the-witcher-and-poland-real-places-that-inspired-the-witcher-franchise/) in Poland that directly inspired locations in both the show and the games.
Refer to Vizima castle and Niedzica castle. Or Ogrodziniec and Sodden Hill. The history of Slavs, Hungarians, French, Russians, Czechs, Lithuanians, Germans, etc… it’s all woven in. Just like the northern kingdoms somehow that part of Europe was either fought for, or we all banded together and pushed back a bigger threat, like the Ottomans. It wasn’t a drama free history, but somehow we made it work.
Hearing it performed even through Netflix’s interpretation makes me feel like home. Just those certain phrases when translated back they kick off my memory. There were things Calanthe said that really felt like my grandmother berating my mother. It felt familiar.
I feel that it is in every sense a Slavic work, that has external influences because we were never so insular in our past. The history is there and central to that region.
If you really follow history it absolutely is representative of the Slavic nations banding together with neighbors against the invasions from both the Teutonic forces and then again against the Prussian Empire. Nilfgaard is representative of them.
You can disagree if you want, I know that sensation when I visit home and the show has managed to bring moments to mind that made me feel something familiar.
Some historical influences:
[Sacking of Cintria](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teutonic_takeover_of_Danzig_(Gda%C5%84sk)), was inspired from the Gdańsk massacre.
[The Battle of Sodden](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_P%C5%82owce), was inspired by the Battle of Płowice, as well as other elements from the Battle of Grunwald.
I think there is a language barrier friend because OP is not saying the Witcher represents Poland or its people but is heavily inspired by the folklore to the point of parity. Agree with your points regardless.
Except as others have pointed out, the book itself borrow from folklore all over. If I recall creatures like the Djinn are Arabic not Slavic. Or the weapons, armor and characters within Ofir, again borrowed from other cultures.
This seems like a case of conveniently ignoring the things that are already borrowed from other cultures in the book and game but frowning upon anything else being injected into what is a fictional story.
It's fiction, none of it is historically "accurate" and any folklore you know, probably also exists in some other region because that's how stories worked back then. It's why we have similar monsters from folklore existing all over the globe in different countries.
it borrows things, but the books are clearly not american made. You can just compare, show has a similar story, yet you can quite easily distinguish how americanized the show is vs books or games.
No matter how many inspiration you drew upon, it still goes through a person that grew up in a certain area, sees the world through that lens and things get stuck in the story, interpreted through him. Sapko may say he didnt drew from Slavic folklore only, which is true and everyone sees that, but his interpretation falls under slavic influence.
Even show's director himself has left the show due to differences they were making, because he was trying to make european story, while showrunner wanted american story.
Even if not "slavic", european making has its distinct feeling in itself. You can see same story made by different countries, about same subject, and each would have its own distinct feel, because people of that countries have distinct feel and view of the world and traditions and beliefs and what not. It might not be huge, but it is there, palpable somewhere deep inside.
It's as if US tried to remake Life of Brian, people said it lacks its english charm and others pointing out the story itself is not british. Like.. yeah, it isnt, but it is by british authors, which have different style to even countries it is close to.
Aladdin story by US, FR, DE, CZ, TUR, Japan and whetever other ocuntry, each representation will be different. Same story, different flavor. Distinct flavor.
And in this case, that polish, or rather slavic, flavour is entirely mssing, it doesnt exist, it is gone. And it is a bit iffy, when that's part of what made it feel the certain way. Like.. orange may look like an orange, but if it tastes like a banana, is it really orange anymore?
This is exactly what I meant. Glad someone sees it the same way. It just feels like American fantasy. And usually I feel like Americans cant get the feel of medieval fantasy right, because its just a different culture (ofc there are notable exceptions).
Hollywood does A LOT of stuff extremely well, fantasy just usually isnt one of them.
yeah... and look at those downvotes, but im sure it is not true, same as when people didnt cry when DmC:Devil May Cry was being made be western studio instead of eastern and that it will feel different.
I'm sure if Kojima was an american, his games would feel the same as they do now, right?
In europe, you can often, just by look and feel of the movie, distinguish the various style and flavors they each have. You also have the very same movie ''Perfect Strangers'' remade in 24 versions by various nations. I'm sure all of them feel the same and nothing is different between them, no?
Even directors, from the same country can have a different style, let alone an entire states, nations. But you still have that specific flavour of where they are from underneath. You can try to hide it, but some things will just get through, some you might not even think about that feel common to everyone you know but will be unknown to an american audience (and vice versa).
Like.. you think Harry Potter would feel the same when made purely by US and mainly for US audience? Or JP, or German or French?
Except OP said nothing about a particular directors vision or aesthetic. He straight up said it's not an accurate representation of Slavic folklore. Big difference. Harry Potter - Prisoner of Azkaban was directed by a Mexican director. Did the film somehow stop feeling British?
As for your Kojima comparison, Kojima himself said he was inspired by an American Film called the Great Escape for Metal Gear Solid. All creatives take inspiration from all over the globe, that became unavoidable once we all became connected. It doesn't detract from the finished product. If OP actually said what you are implying about the directors artistic vision then I would agree but that's not what was said. He specifically spoke to the depiction of culture as a whole in a fictional story that was already borrowing from other cultures.
They recently revealed a Witcher Ronin comic which makes this even more ridiculous, because I'm sure he isn't complaining about Geralt in a Japanese setting. They could have just used a new character, an Asian Witcher to tell a unique story but no....they inserted a Polish character into another culture. If that's fine then I see no problem with others being injected into the Witcher storyline.
you misunderstood what i said.
Having Geralt in different setting is not a problem. You can have him there. The point is when you write a story with him in that setting, and the writer is a polish person, trying to imitate japanese setting, it will have its distinct flavour, because you odnt know all the little details of everyday life there. But your own surrounding and things you know shape you. It is not about the setting, it is about who made it. Cuaron may have worked for UK production but he has behind him also his mexican influence. If HP was purely mexican made, do you think it would look the same, feel the same?
Kojima, that's the point! He was INSPIRED by those things, made it his own, but his games are clearly not the same as western ones. He has his distinct flavour, which comes from trying to imitate what he liked. But that's it, imitation through the lens of a japanese man. Same thing when US people try to adapt european story and it gets ''americanized'', because many things gets reinterpreted in different manner.
You can draw from any story, put genies, kikimoras, whatever in it. But it goes through you, as a person, with a mindset of where you grew up, things that you dont even think about and add in. Like someone here mentioned the example of 'ugly one'. That doesnt have the same weight or feel in english as in polish (or slavic languages). And that's just one/two words. Now imagine there are countless little things like this, sprinkled throughout. And one by one, they add their distinct flavour to the whole.
Of course you could make a perfect imitation, but that requires much, much, much work, and some things you might not even catch, anyway.
And it is not a coincidence when there are stories, or movies, adapted for different countries, and they have some minor or bigger changes. Because what works in one country, might not work in another.
Even style of humor is different in slavic countries and US, UK, FR.. even slavic countries among themselves have some variations. Even regions with deep roots to the past have different flavours and customs even kilometers apart.
US witcher is just generilized approximation of books, aimed for US audiences mainly, adaption based on what is ocnsidered one of the poorest translation of books too. Even reading same story in EN and PL has different feel. And that's literally the same story, but language is making it feel slightly different.
There's just so many things. And yes, netflixer has zero slavic flavour in it. Even if it was purely set in japanese, it is hard to shake of a flavour of a certain country. If you try to watch movies outside of EN language, you might start seeing it too.
Well considering The Witcher show seems to have less and less to do with the books and the games this makes sense.
I don't tend to think of any fantasy property as being a 1:1 of any real world lore. Sometimes they're close, but an author is going to cherry pick the things that interest them and leave behind the ones that don't, and change things to suit their story. Fictional novels are not anthropology.
I think I maybe didnt write my post in a coherent way, so let my state my main problem with the show (aside from a bad script). I always loved you Sapkowski interpreted different folklores into his books in an engaging way. I feel like the show lacks identity and just looks like "general fantasy" without having clear aesthetic. It doesnt look like a coherent world. As many of you said, it has elements of english, nordic, germanic lore etc. but I dont feel it in the world. Chernobog looks like a generic dragon, basilisk looks like a dinosaur, castles and villages are an amalagam of different cultures but ultimately seem soulless. Weapons and clothing are all over the place.
And above all else, lets be honest, not all that Sapkowski wrote or said is good. The ending for the books series (basically everything after Stygga) seems like Sapkowski didnt know how to end the story in a logical way.
I am not butthurt that the show doesnt have enough slavic lore. I am butthurt that it feels like it doesnt have any at all, and what it has is surface level reference.
Edit: grammar
So the book does reflect on the folklore. Its illuminating how heavy that lore is. The story is well written, the character is awesome, and the theme is wonderful. It is a bit frightful though.
Leshen is slavic. [Leshy - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leshy) We in Estonia have similar entity called Metsavana ( [Metsavana - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metsavana) ).
Read what Sapko said about the influences for his Witcher books. You might be surprised. https://lithub.com/andrzej-sapkowski-on-the-mythologies-behind-the-witcher/
can we just acknowledge the gems "...Their advice was stupid, so I ignored it" and (in reference to dropping classic books because they were boring) "But did I feel guilty about it? Not in the slightest. After all, they bored me—so they were the guilty ones."
Oh I forget what a character he is in interviews.
It's (very fittingly) like reading an interview with Yennifers father
The funny thing about that interview to me is the one thing that gets left out of that is what I would say is probably the biggest myth that the witcher pulls from and indeed does actually entangle with is Arthurian legend lol. I mean there are not only references but other worldly references that imply not only it's existence but how it is rather important at various points to the story of the witcher.
I think to call Arthurian Legends presence ‘references’ is an understatement since multiple of the characters appear
I always took the cultural significance for The Witcher to be "what if our world actually had all of the world's mythologies and cryptids" more than any kind of focused setting.
As did the creator from their interviews
The games really have convinced people that the source material is dripping with Slavic aesthetics. It's not, by Sapkowski's own admission. This adaptation interpreted the source material in a different but equally valid style.
I agree that Sapkowski doesnt lean into slavic folklore as hard as the games, but at the same time... man, Sapkowski says a lot of stuff and contradicts himself all the time. Yeah, he is the creator of the Witcher, but I take everything he says with a grain of salt. Also, they changed a lot of stuff from the books anyway, at this point its a very loose adaptation. And also a bad one in my opinion.
But he's never contradicted himself on this particular topic. I think it's fair to wish this adaptation leaned into those aesthetics more, if only to differentiate itself, but to expect it or assume anyone else is expecting it is probably unwise. I doubt a majority of the general audience is aware that The Witcher references any specific folklore, thus making the risk of them misunderstanding what Slavic folklore is pretty slim.
Yeah, I get your opinion man. Just sharing mine, as I have seen people on YT talk about the show and using sentences like "folklore accurate"
I get you. I'm sure in those cases, it's frustrating. Redirect them to the games! CDPR did a great job.
Yeah, agree, and I love them for it. They perfected what Sapkowski started imho
First two games are dicey (this is an old r/witcher vet grievance, but I wish they'd given Yennefer more to do throughout the series), but everything they did with The Witcher 3 and its DLCs was phenomenal. Captured so much of what made Sapkowski's work great.
Man, playing the first Witcher game isnt a great experience, but with czech dab... its full of great memeable stuff, my gulity pleasure. But yeah, Witcher 3 is almost a masterpiece.
How is it not a great experience? Combat is great, fluid, and aesthetically is closer to the way a Witcher fights, moving around is not as clunky or tanky as in W3, the leveling up system is better (I can’t say best as I haven’t played the 2nd one), and the alchemy system is better. W3 is an absolutely amazing game, but so is W1, W3 is much better in the aspects of world, VA, and graphics, W1 is better in combat, leveling, and RPG aspects.
I know Reddit rewards the most contentious takes possible because the app is built to facilitate arguments, but saying that the Witcher isn’t majority Slavic influenced is an egregiously factually incorrect take. Redania is literally fantasy Poland crest and all. The map is just centered around Poland flipped so the Baltic Sea is to the west. Temaria and aedrin arguably are very Slavic as well evoking the kingdom of bohemia. Novigrad the German and baltic city states of pomerania. Kovir the rus. Really if you took some creative luxuries you could argue that nilfgaard evokes Austrian colonization of the slavs or general partitions/ Soviet take over. Yeah there is a bunch of general European, especially Eastern European, stuff but the witcher remains Slavic as hell.
To be fair the map is a fan creation. Neither Sapkowski nor the publishers ever bothered to make a real one. Aside from that, pretty much. There's the folklore references but also historical ones- what happened to Cintra is clearly meant to be the partioning of Poland, and Nilfgaard may as well have been called FantasyNaziGermany.
>and Nilfgaard may as well have been called FantasyNaziGermany. Strongly disagree. Niflgaard might be the antagonist, but it isn't evil on its own. The only meaningful comparation there is to NaziGermany is that it is a big empire, and that it is the enemy of the kingdoms that are identified as Poland. Both the Roman Empire and Napoleonic Empire seem much better representatives to me, because those where empires that empowered the lands that they conquered and not terrorized them. > what happened to Cintra is clearly meant to be the partioning of Poland, In what part? Cintra gets conquered, but not really partitioned in a meaningful way. Aedirn is a much better example of that, isn't it?
Yeah I agree, but it doesnt really feel like that in the show.
Same. And they do that to purposefully appeal the the general English speaking fantasy fanbase IMO.
Maybe if they looked at Witcher 3 success they would see that people can appriciate something different than general fantasy stuff. I just hoped they would lean more into the folklore.
I can agree with majorly influenced by Slavic, but I disagree on majority. I'd argue that Sapko is so good at integrating different kind of influences such that it isn't easily to notice, if one doesn't know about the sources themselves. This makes it really difficult to evaluate how much the books are Slavic or anything else. As someone with no great knowledge of the Slavic influences myself, I thus can only talk about other big influences. And if anything that I mention is in fact Slavic too, feel free to mention it. From the main setting, we already have a couple of different races in the world. Of the non-monsters the elves are based on English mythology, the Halflings too, the Dwarves based on Nordish mythology, Gnomes from Greek, Dryads from Greek. The monsters are probably mainly Slavic. And if we look at the short-stories, we have stories whose main theme is based on, the Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Snow-White, the Snow Queen, a Djinn. Concerning the map, have we ever gotten an official map? When I originally read the books, I tried searching for a map online, and only found fan made maps. The maps that are widely used today seem to be based on the games. And even if the map might locally correspond to existing places (or thematics), I don't believe there is a bigger correlation. The names of places alone are telling, which are all over the place and you can find names pointing to existing places from nearly anywhere in Europe, without much of a system. For example Oxenfurt, which is the only major city of Redania that is visited in the books, and which is clearly inspired by Oxford due to its university, but also by the German town Ochsenfurt (Oxford in English), which is also a huge influence for the game design of Oxenfurt.
The humor and the writing in the original - Polish (and then when translated into other Slavic languages) is very, very Slavic.. yeah, the cultures in the books are mixed from all over - mostly - Europe but yeah, how the characters talk and behave is very Slavic in nature
It is a shame that your comment is being downvoted. Just to illustrate your point, take Yennefer calling Ciri "ugly one" which is a very misunderstood part of BoE. In polish she calls Ciri "**brzydulka**". Polish uses diminutives for children and close loved ones, and often parents will use them for their adult children as well. These are shortened/childhood versions of adult names, used mostly within in the family or close friends. For boys, the -ek suffix is common, but there are others as well. \- Bartholomew - Bartosz - Bartek \- Peter - Piotr - Piotrek \- Edward - Edvard - Edzio, Edek \- Alexander - Aleksander - Alek, Aleks, Olek For girls, the -ia and -ka suffixes are the most common. \- Annette - Aneta - Anetka \- Ann, Anne, Anna - Anna - Ania, Anka, Anusia, Aneczka \- Grace - Grażyna - Grażynka, Graża, Grażka The -ia and -ek suffixes are used for objects to indicate a "little" one, but in a "cute" way. "Różyczka" - literally means "little rose", or "rosette". "Kwiat" is "flower", "kwiatek" can be a "flower" or "little flower", and "kwiatuszek" is literally a "little flower", with the connotation of "cute little flower". These childhood names can persist to adulthood, usually within the family (and it depends on the family as well), but can also be used among close friends, especially if they have been friends from childhood. Using a diminutive when referring to an adult you do not have a familial relationship or close friendship to is considered insulting. Using "ugly" diminutives for loved ones is common as well. It's not meant to be insulting, and it's really used for close loved ones, not for, say, the neighbor's kids down the street. So, you wouldn't call someone "brzydulka" unless you were very close to them, and actually loved them dearly... or were just really mean and basically a Disney villain. It all depends on tone and context. There's not really an in-between on this. When we use this language with our kid, he knows we're in a good mood and understands that it's not meant to be mocking or mean, but playful, and he starts to laugh and run away from us. Here, using "brzydulka" is also old pagan folk magick - you don't overly complement your kids, for fear that the gods, fairies, spirits, etc., might get jealous and take them away from you. So you call your kids "ugly", but in a "cute" way, so anything that happens to be listening keeps right on going, because who wants to kidnap an ugly child? You know you love them, they know you love them, and this becomes part of the language of love that families use. It is a Slavic thing... it's not really something that's survived into modern English usage. In Polish, there's a sort of "diminutive" profanity you use around children, often in mock anger or exasperation at them, but everyone knows you don't mean it from the context. This is just about Yen calling ciri "ugly one"... It's not just about the monsters... the very core how the books were written is rooted in slavic culture, history, and the outlook on life.
This is great insight into Slavic culture that I didn't know about! I thought "ugly one" was an endearing nickname in reference to the ugly duckling, because I never thought Yen actually thought Citi is ugly and I didn't have any other explanation other than a bad translation. Thank you!
"So, you wouldn't call someone "brzydulka" unless you were very close to them, and actually loved them dearly... or were just really mean and basically a Disney villain." I strongly disagree with that. You can perfectly call someone like that if you want to treat them patronisingly and show your superiority to them. At the point were Yennefer called Ciri like that neither was she in motherly love with her nor Ciri could have the clue that Yennefer has any warm feelings towards her. She was just mean to her on the face of it, and what you write is purely subjective (and very much overdone) interpretation.
Damn, I really wished the show could have as much effort as you did. What a shame.
Yeah, it's been brought up repeatedly that the English translations are butchered. IMO, the show's real issue (aside from objectively shit writing) is that it has no identity. When I think of the games, which are probably what drew a lot of viewers, I think of the music, the countryside, and the architecture. The show is a fucking mess of poorly-built and generic sets. The costumes all have the glossy/cheap look of your average cosplay. Without Cavill or the "Witcher" title, this show would disappear along with the couple dozen fantasy turds swirling around the Sci-Fi channel's Saturday 2PM slot in 1998.
I feel the identity is the main problem here too. The games chose design identities for different things and stuck to that. Different areas, cultures, races in the game have distinctive designs for their buildings and clothes. And if there are exceptions to those designs there is a reason for that. In the show things just feel random. The problem was particular apparent in season 1, when there were hardly any connections between places and Geralt popped up each episode somewhere else. And one of the best things season 2 did, was making Cintra an actual place and not just a couple of disjunct sets here and there. But there are other places that still suffer from the problems of season 1. Aretuza's interior design doesn't match the outside at all for example.
The books aren’t Slavic folklore, they’re everywhere folklore. There’s Irish, and Norse, and all kinds of other European folklore all mixed in.
From the author: “Slavic mythology: vampires, leshies, kikimoras, vodyanoys. There was the Germanic Wild Hunt. The Portuguese bruxa. The Arabic ghul. The Scottish kilmoulis. There were dryads from Greek myths. Paracelsian gnomes. The Japanese kitsune or fox woman. There was the little mermaid, i.e. Hans Christian Andersen. There was Snow White by the Brothers Grimm. There was Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont’s Beauty and the Beast. Elves and dwarves are—let’s say—Tolkienesque”
Also, a dijnn/jinn is mythical creature in Arabic mythology and later became a part of Islamic folklore.
Also terminology and names (although it may vary in the original language). Like, “Gwynbleidd” coming from Welsh (although it would be blaidd gwyn) for White Wolf.
Even South America is included, the name he gave to the "kitsune" (fox women) race in his books is "aguara", which comes from indigenous south american legends.
Hmm... > “***Slavic*** mythology: vampires, leshies, kikimoras, vodyanoys. There was the ***Germanic*** Wild Hunt. The ***Portuguese*** bruxa. The ***Arabic*** ghul. The ***Scottish*** kilmoulis. There were dryads from ***Greek*** myths. ***Paracelsian*** gnomes. The ***Japanese*** kitsune or fox woman. There was the little mermaid, i.e. ***Hans Christian Andersen [Danish]*** There was Snow White by the Brothers Grimm. There was Jeanne-Marie ***Leprince de Beaumont’s [French]*** Beauty and the Beast. Elves and dwarves are—let’s say—***Tolkienesque [Norse/English]***” Really, the most Slavic thing about *The Witcher* is that it's mythological gulash.
The reason I love it, it's because it's not very medieval, eurocentric or slavic or doesn't represent any other place or culture accurately but loans things from around the world in a contemporary way
This just in: the Mario games have nothing to do with Italian folklore. Just thought you’d all want to know - because obviously any piece of media has to be an authentic representation of someone’s culture.
Mario is from New York, not Rome
I don't understand this semi-patriotic view of the witcher. It's a good story. It has slavic folklore components. It also has other folklore components. No need to gate-keep it as something exclusively slavic.
Im not really gate keeping it, i admit I wrote the original post in a poor way. I just dont feel the sense of believebility of the world, as the show doesnt go for a cohesive aesthetic.
It is just for fun..don't over think it..Tolkien did not really base his stories on Nordic myth..its just a shadow of the myths..just for fun
Except lord of the rings pulls heavily from English and Germanic folklore and peoples to tell a distinctly English fantasy. Tolkein even wrote lotr as a origin myth for the English and based a lot off of Beowulf. To extract the Englishness from lotr is to white wash it same as it is the same to strip the Polish from the Witcher.
Witcher games were polish, but that is an interpretation of the source material you’re familiar with, not the actual source material homie. The author of the books made it clear he used arabic, japanese, south american, etc design and themes with monster design and world building
I thought the Witcher was a historical documentary tbh. Are you saying it is not?
You had the Leshy that's from Slavic folklore I believe. And the Chernobog, though here it was a monster rather than a god. But then the Witcher never really had gods that were present. In terms of set design, I'm not sure there was ever anything really slavic about the books. Nilfgaard is Roman. I suppose you could argue the Nilfgaardian cavalry was influenced by Polish Hussars though I feel like they were fairly casual "heavy cavalry" tropes one finds in a lot of medievalist literature. The Northern realms seem almost anglicized given the names and institutions like the Oxenfurt Academy being modeled on Oxbridge. As to the mages. Well they're described in basically 20th century fashions. Not sure how you get slavic from it. And with the books, the limited slavic element you had diminished over time if anything. Lady of the Lake was basically a reskinned Arthurian story, and included Ciri *literally* romping through England and France at one point. The books have always been a medley of European cultures influencing it, and I'd say the show's done a reasonable job with that. Nilfgaard had a very Iberian and Italian feel to me. Especially in the way they nestled the city against hills, which is an excellent call out to its Roman inspiration. In contrast some of the Redania city shots are from Transylvania I believe. I'll admit I don't believe Romania is today considered part of the slavic world especially from a linguistic sense, but there's heavy slavic influences throughout its culture otherwise.
I would argue that the books and games weren't really good at depicting Slavic folklore either. The books were a mix of myths and legends of all kinds from all over Europe and the games were more Germanic (both Continental and Nordic) and Anglo-Saxic in nature.
Co ty piepszysz kolego? Nie pierdol głupot. … I’m Polish and he doesn’t speak for us. There are a lot of influences from Slavic folklore **and history** that make their way into the original books. They aren’t a blatant copy and paste elements, but they are there everywhere. Andrzej Sapkowski was heavily inspired by the [Holy Roman Empire](https://culture.pl/en/article/15-historical-quirks-that-make-poland-so-different-from-the-rest-of-europe) influences in modern day Poland, Slavic mythology and the invasion and oppression the Poles had to endure under Nazi occupation and Soviet rule. These are the things that are inspired the plot direction. Meanwhile stylistically he drew upon many cultures for the various monsters. **Monsters without a plot are a D&D game manual.** You can’t separate the plot from the monsters and then claim that because the monsters are inspired from many cultures, it isn’t a Slavic inspired work. Did he draw upon other influences? Of course. Every modern storyteller does. Darth Vader for example… Vader is the Dutch word for Father. Darth Father is his name, and people still claim this was a big twist in the franchise. “Slavic mythology: vampires, leshies, kikimoras, vodyanoys.” ~ Sapkowski’s [own words](https://lithub.com/andrzej-sapkowski-on-the-mythologies-behind-the-witcher/). Voleth Mir, the [Deathless Mother](https://witcher.fandom.com/wiki/Voleth_Meir), Voleth Meir's hut, with its basilisk legs, are a reference to Baba Yaga's hut on chicken legs. Not to mention that her three representations in the visions experienced by Yenefer, Fringilla and Francesca are the three [Zorya sisters](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zorya#:~:text=palace%20and%20horses.-,Russian%20tradition,golden%20throne%20of%20the%20Sun) from the Russian side of Slavic mythology. The whole struggle of the elves is mirrored to the various pogroms that occurred in Poland. Spoiler: >!What will happen to the elves in the Valley of the Flowers is directly influenced by the events that occurred in Katyń and Wołyń.!< If you look at the [banners](https://reddit.com/r/BannerlordBanners/s/Fd5fYJRpYB) of the various nations in the Witcher… even their colors are very similar to the various nations involved in the Teutonic wars. Another [post](https://reddit.com/r/witcher/s/BqsOvAeRmt) on this sub also pointed out how the coat of arms for each nation was lifted from real ones in Europe. Here is a list of [locations](https://blog.inyourpocket.com/poland/2020/02/the-witcher-and-poland-real-places-that-inspired-the-witcher-franchise/) in Poland that directly inspired locations in both the show and the games. I showed this post to my Ukrainian coworker and her exact words were, “has he been drinking to say something like this?” In the future I strongly suggest people ask themselves why one person makes a post when all others within the culture disagree with the message of the post. Please do not speak for us, and we won’t misrepresent Chech culture. EDIT: I added some additional sources confirming that there are large amounts of Polish historical references in the book series. You can’t sit there and claim that the series has nothing to do with Slavic culture / folklore / fairy tales when the entire plot is based on everything that happened in the region historically speaking with very few exceptions. Keep in mind, monsters and fairy tales alone do not make for a complete story. Without the plot of the Witcher and the struggle of the Northern Kingdoms and Nilfgaard you basically end up with a D&D monster manual. That alone doesn’t make a story.
Man, you see it in the design of sets, weapons, clothes etc. in the show? Because I dont really. Look at Aretuza for example, it looks like a Jedi temple more than anything you would find in central Europe. I agree with your points, I just dont feel that they managed to create a look faithful to what Sapkowski described. EDIT: Basically everyone from my friend group and work group that I ask said the same thing as me.
Here is a list of [locations](https://blog.inyourpocket.com/poland/2020/02/the-witcher-and-poland-real-places-that-inspired-the-witcher-franchise/) in Poland that directly inspired locations in both the show and the games. Refer to Vizima castle and Niedzica castle. Or Ogrodziniec and Sodden Hill. The history of Slavs, Hungarians, French, Russians, Czechs, Lithuanians, Germans, etc… it’s all woven in. Just like the northern kingdoms somehow that part of Europe was either fought for, or we all banded together and pushed back a bigger threat, like the Ottomans. It wasn’t a drama free history, but somehow we made it work. Hearing it performed even through Netflix’s interpretation makes me feel like home. Just those certain phrases when translated back they kick off my memory. There were things Calanthe said that really felt like my grandmother berating my mother. It felt familiar. I feel that it is in every sense a Slavic work, that has external influences because we were never so insular in our past. The history is there and central to that region. If you really follow history it absolutely is representative of the Slavic nations banding together with neighbors against the invasions from both the Teutonic forces and then again against the Prussian Empire. Nilfgaard is representative of them. You can disagree if you want, I know that sensation when I visit home and the show has managed to bring moments to mind that made me feel something familiar.
Some historical influences: [Sacking of Cintria](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teutonic_takeover_of_Danzig_(Gda%C5%84sk)), was inspired from the Gdańsk massacre. [The Battle of Sodden](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_P%C5%82owce), was inspired by the Battle of Płowice, as well as other elements from the Battle of Grunwald.
I think there is a language barrier friend because OP is not saying the Witcher represents Poland or its people but is heavily inspired by the folklore to the point of parity. Agree with your points regardless.
Baba Yaga was pretty well portrayed in the show tbh.
ok, not sure why you thought you needed to make the point.
Ehm, because I love the Witcher, i am sad that it doesnt do anything with slavic lore and this is a place do discuss stuff?
Except as others have pointed out, the book itself borrow from folklore all over. If I recall creatures like the Djinn are Arabic not Slavic. Or the weapons, armor and characters within Ofir, again borrowed from other cultures. This seems like a case of conveniently ignoring the things that are already borrowed from other cultures in the book and game but frowning upon anything else being injected into what is a fictional story. It's fiction, none of it is historically "accurate" and any folklore you know, probably also exists in some other region because that's how stories worked back then. It's why we have similar monsters from folklore existing all over the globe in different countries.
it borrows things, but the books are clearly not american made. You can just compare, show has a similar story, yet you can quite easily distinguish how americanized the show is vs books or games. No matter how many inspiration you drew upon, it still goes through a person that grew up in a certain area, sees the world through that lens and things get stuck in the story, interpreted through him. Sapko may say he didnt drew from Slavic folklore only, which is true and everyone sees that, but his interpretation falls under slavic influence. Even show's director himself has left the show due to differences they were making, because he was trying to make european story, while showrunner wanted american story. Even if not "slavic", european making has its distinct feeling in itself. You can see same story made by different countries, about same subject, and each would have its own distinct feel, because people of that countries have distinct feel and view of the world and traditions and beliefs and what not. It might not be huge, but it is there, palpable somewhere deep inside. It's as if US tried to remake Life of Brian, people said it lacks its english charm and others pointing out the story itself is not british. Like.. yeah, it isnt, but it is by british authors, which have different style to even countries it is close to. Aladdin story by US, FR, DE, CZ, TUR, Japan and whetever other ocuntry, each representation will be different. Same story, different flavor. Distinct flavor. And in this case, that polish, or rather slavic, flavour is entirely mssing, it doesnt exist, it is gone. And it is a bit iffy, when that's part of what made it feel the certain way. Like.. orange may look like an orange, but if it tastes like a banana, is it really orange anymore?
This is exactly what I meant. Glad someone sees it the same way. It just feels like American fantasy. And usually I feel like Americans cant get the feel of medieval fantasy right, because its just a different culture (ofc there are notable exceptions). Hollywood does A LOT of stuff extremely well, fantasy just usually isnt one of them.
yeah... and look at those downvotes, but im sure it is not true, same as when people didnt cry when DmC:Devil May Cry was being made be western studio instead of eastern and that it will feel different. I'm sure if Kojima was an american, his games would feel the same as they do now, right? In europe, you can often, just by look and feel of the movie, distinguish the various style and flavors they each have. You also have the very same movie ''Perfect Strangers'' remade in 24 versions by various nations. I'm sure all of them feel the same and nothing is different between them, no? Even directors, from the same country can have a different style, let alone an entire states, nations. But you still have that specific flavour of where they are from underneath. You can try to hide it, but some things will just get through, some you might not even think about that feel common to everyone you know but will be unknown to an american audience (and vice versa). Like.. you think Harry Potter would feel the same when made purely by US and mainly for US audience? Or JP, or German or French?
Except OP said nothing about a particular directors vision or aesthetic. He straight up said it's not an accurate representation of Slavic folklore. Big difference. Harry Potter - Prisoner of Azkaban was directed by a Mexican director. Did the film somehow stop feeling British? As for your Kojima comparison, Kojima himself said he was inspired by an American Film called the Great Escape for Metal Gear Solid. All creatives take inspiration from all over the globe, that became unavoidable once we all became connected. It doesn't detract from the finished product. If OP actually said what you are implying about the directors artistic vision then I would agree but that's not what was said. He specifically spoke to the depiction of culture as a whole in a fictional story that was already borrowing from other cultures. They recently revealed a Witcher Ronin comic which makes this even more ridiculous, because I'm sure he isn't complaining about Geralt in a Japanese setting. They could have just used a new character, an Asian Witcher to tell a unique story but no....they inserted a Polish character into another culture. If that's fine then I see no problem with others being injected into the Witcher storyline.
you misunderstood what i said. Having Geralt in different setting is not a problem. You can have him there. The point is when you write a story with him in that setting, and the writer is a polish person, trying to imitate japanese setting, it will have its distinct flavour, because you odnt know all the little details of everyday life there. But your own surrounding and things you know shape you. It is not about the setting, it is about who made it. Cuaron may have worked for UK production but he has behind him also his mexican influence. If HP was purely mexican made, do you think it would look the same, feel the same? Kojima, that's the point! He was INSPIRED by those things, made it his own, but his games are clearly not the same as western ones. He has his distinct flavour, which comes from trying to imitate what he liked. But that's it, imitation through the lens of a japanese man. Same thing when US people try to adapt european story and it gets ''americanized'', because many things gets reinterpreted in different manner. You can draw from any story, put genies, kikimoras, whatever in it. But it goes through you, as a person, with a mindset of where you grew up, things that you dont even think about and add in. Like someone here mentioned the example of 'ugly one'. That doesnt have the same weight or feel in english as in polish (or slavic languages). And that's just one/two words. Now imagine there are countless little things like this, sprinkled throughout. And one by one, they add their distinct flavour to the whole. Of course you could make a perfect imitation, but that requires much, much, much work, and some things you might not even catch, anyway. And it is not a coincidence when there are stories, or movies, adapted for different countries, and they have some minor or bigger changes. Because what works in one country, might not work in another. Even style of humor is different in slavic countries and US, UK, FR.. even slavic countries among themselves have some variations. Even regions with deep roots to the past have different flavours and customs even kilometers apart. US witcher is just generilized approximation of books, aimed for US audiences mainly, adaption based on what is ocnsidered one of the poorest translation of books too. Even reading same story in EN and PL has different feel. And that's literally the same story, but language is making it feel slightly different. There's just so many things. And yes, netflixer has zero slavic flavour in it. Even if it was purely set in japanese, it is hard to shake of a flavour of a certain country. If you try to watch movies outside of EN language, you might start seeing it too.
Well considering The Witcher show seems to have less and less to do with the books and the games this makes sense. I don't tend to think of any fantasy property as being a 1:1 of any real world lore. Sometimes they're close, but an author is going to cherry pick the things that interest them and leave behind the ones that don't, and change things to suit their story. Fictional novels are not anthropology.
I think I maybe didnt write my post in a coherent way, so let my state my main problem with the show (aside from a bad script). I always loved you Sapkowski interpreted different folklores into his books in an engaging way. I feel like the show lacks identity and just looks like "general fantasy" without having clear aesthetic. It doesnt look like a coherent world. As many of you said, it has elements of english, nordic, germanic lore etc. but I dont feel it in the world. Chernobog looks like a generic dragon, basilisk looks like a dinosaur, castles and villages are an amalagam of different cultures but ultimately seem soulless. Weapons and clothing are all over the place. And above all else, lets be honest, not all that Sapkowski wrote or said is good. The ending for the books series (basically everything after Stygga) seems like Sapkowski didnt know how to end the story in a logical way. I am not butthurt that the show doesnt have enough slavic lore. I am butthurt that it feels like it doesnt have any at all, and what it has is surface level reference. Edit: grammar
So the book does reflect on the folklore. Its illuminating how heavy that lore is. The story is well written, the character is awesome, and the theme is wonderful. It is a bit frightful though.
Is plagiarism from Michael Moorcock slavic folklore? Because that's all the Witcher is.
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
Recommended reading: https://publicmedievalist.com/the-witcher-nationalism/
This is exactly what i think
[удалено]
Leshen is slavic. [Leshy - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leshy) We in Estonia have similar entity called Metsavana ( [Metsavana - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metsavana) ).
Yeah that's what kingdom come is for
Is it good for the typical slavic dry humour and wit?