He came from the north on horseback, with white hair and a frosty face, walking between the fog of reality and legend.
In the last lecture, we explained the plot of the second episode of the first season of the American drama "The Witcher" in detail. To be clear, this second episode of the story is the beginning of a confusing timeline for light viewers. Yennefer was born in the front, the white wolf Geralt and the bard Dandelion met in the center, and Ciri escaped from the dead in the Sintra massacre and ran all the way in the back.
The three timelines are nearly a hundred years apart before and after the three arrows are launched, and they run through the turbulent and fantastic political situation of the entire continent.
Only by understanding the time position of these three people and their corresponding relationship with each other, can we further understand the screenwriter and the intention of bringing these three fate-connected characters closer step by step until they meet.
Then, in the third episode of the first season, Ciri's role will be relatively light. The main perspective of the screenwriter falls on the price of Yennefer's growth, and the most classic experience in the life of Geralt the White Wolf.
And these two plots, which seem to be separated by fifty years, are actually closely connected by a dark line. Now, let's take a look at the story of the sorceress Yennefer's crow turning into a phoenix.
Yennefer kicked off this episode with a sultry and passionate scene, which is also the consistent style of platforms like Netflix and HBO.
However, there is actually a lot of information implied under the fragrance: Yennefer is about to finish her studies to become a qualified sorceress, and will be sent by the Brotherhood of Warlocks to her hometown of Aedirn, to serve the king of Aedirn Vilferiel.
And the wizard Eastrette will also go to a distant place to continue his archaeological career. This is the perfect moment for two lovers to enjoy their last moments. But I didn't expect that as soon as the camera turned, the next gathering of the Warlock Brothers with surging undercurrents quickly changed the situation.
Here we briefly introduce the group of Warlock Brotherhood: in short, this peer club composed of court warlocks from various northern kingdoms.
This assembly has a very ancient history, and it has been tacitly regarded as a major authority in the north in modern times. Basically, it has encroached on all the forces in the northern countries, affecting war and peace, transactions between countries, negotiations between enemy countries, and even the situation of non-human races.
In the words of the warlocks themselves: it can directly interfere with the trend of the entire world situation and control the fate of the world.
According to the situation at that time, even though the kings of the north would negotiate together from time to time, the actual content of the final content had to be decided by the court warlocks.
However, this rally is not always twisted into a single string to the outside world. In the novel, some warlocks prefer to invade the Nilfgaard Empire in the north; while others protect the interests of the northern countries.
It can be said that the north and the south continued to rub against each other, and eventually the Nilfgard Northern Expedition occurred.
Well, in this seminar on the Warlock Brothers, the key topic is the distribution of graduation packages for these newly promoted sorceresses. The Nilfgardian Empire in the south was still a land of barbarians and chaos.
On the one hand , Sintra in the north hated the elves , and their ancestors carried out massacres against the elves .
In response to this feature of Sintra, some warlocks even mocked at the rally: Sintra should not use Druid mages to protect their country. This remark burst into laughter.
This dialogue actually echoes the scene from the first episode. Because in the first episode of the Sintra Massacre , it was the Great Druid Mossak who was guarding Queen Calanthe's side and trying his best to protect the city with magic.
So as expected by the words of the warlocks, Sintra really enabled Druids to defend themselves.
According to the original arrangement, the black version of Fringera Vigo will go to Nilfgaard, while Yennefer will return to her hometown of Aden. However, it was at this meeting that Strigob first proposed: Fringela Vigo is the second generation of art, and may only know obedience and lack the ability, it is better to let her go to Aden and Yennefer to Nefer Gard. You must know that Nilfgard was still a wild and chaotic place at that time, and there was no scene of the later heyday empire. Therefore, if Yennefer were to go to Nilfgaard like this, she would undoubtedly be exiled to the ends of the earth and suffer for a lifetime. So, her teacher Tishaya immediately retorted:
First, we have already agreed that Yennefer will return to Aden. Second, the king of Aedirn, Villeferriel, is the most fond of local sorceresses, and Yennefer, who is from Wengerburg, will definitely be very suitable.
But at this time, Stregob immediately uttered a message that surprised everyone: Yennefer has a quarter of elf blood!
As soon as the news came out, there was an uproar, and Stregob went on to explain: Cintra and Aedirn were separated by a strip of water, and they were important trading partners for each other, and the people of Sintra hated elves the most, and they once organized appalling elves slaughter.
If Cintra hears now that your most important trading partner, Aedirn, has actually used an elf descendant as a warlock, wouldn't that be spitting on Cintra's face.
Now, the whole situation has become irreversible. Fringera Vigo went to the prosperous Aden as the second generation of Shu, while Yennefer, who had no backer, was sent to Nilfgaard, south of Sodden.
It can be said that the struggle implied in this scene is not only the innuendo of the leading child, stepping on Yennefer who has no backer as a stepping stone, but also the inner contradiction of the Warlock Brotherhood, which is full of contradictions. In the later Second Northern War, this contradiction became more obvious. Yennefer felt a sudden shock when she heard the news.
And when she understood from her teacher Tishaya that she was deported to the south because of her elf descendant status, she instantly understood who betrayed her.
It turned out that only the teacher Tishaya and his first love, the wizard Istride, knew that he had a quarter of the elf blood.
It is impossible for Tishaya to disclose this information to the other party on her side. Therefore, the leaker can only be her boyfriend Istride.
This bolt from the blue made the young couple who were originally cuddling turned against each other in an instant. In order to control her own destiny, Yennefer decided to take a path of no redemption.
In Arethusa School of Magic, there is a warlock who can transform the body of a warlock, and Yennefer resolutely chose body transformation.
This clip of external plastic surgery is a bit bloody and cruel, and it will feel slightly uncomfortable when you watch it for the first time. This is also in line with Netflix's consistent large-scale shooting methods.
After some painful smashing and remodeling, the ugly and terrifying monster with a hunchback and crooked mouth disappeared. In its place was Yennefer, a beautiful fairy-like sorceress of Wengerberg.
Of course, here, there are some differences between the settings of TV series and novels:
In the American TV series, Yennefer had to cut off her uterus in order to shape her appearance, and she became an infertile sorceress from then on.
But in the original, the sorceress was originally barren. The screenwriter changed it this way, obviously to highlight the key points, what Yennefer finally paid and sacrificed in order to complete the improvement of her self-shape and firmly control her own destiny.
There are several scenes in the novel where Yennefer is bitter about being a sorceress and not being able to get pregnant. She tried to break this curse in various ways, and she also met Geralt because of this obsession, but she never got what she wanted.
Of course, it was precisely because of his own desires that he could not. This made Yennefer love Ciri in the future, and regard Ciri as her daughter from the bottom of her heart.
In short, whether it's the TV series cutting off the womb for transformation, or the necessary price to be paid to become a sorceress in the novel. We know Yennefer's growth and transformation, as well as her sacrifices and sacrifices, through this scene.
This scene has to remind me of my favorite "Langya Bang" in costume dramas. In Hai Yan's writings, Lin Shu, a young general with a white horse and a silver gun whistling back and forth. In order to avenge Zhaoxue for the 70,000 Chiyan heroic souls, he was forced to smash his body to reshape it by peeling his skin and smashing his bones. In the end, Mei Changsu, whose appearance was greatly changed and whose body was weak and often relapsed with cold illness, was formed.
And from the Jinling youth who has descended the fierce horse, bent the bow, and fought the brightest battle in the sky, he has no power to tie the chicken, and he has low eyebrows and smiles, calculating the people's hearts and disturbing the political situation. The transformation from Lin Shu to Mei Changsu was a huge sacrifice he made for revenge, and it was also the only shortcut to fulfill his wish.
Fortunately, from Lin Shu to Mei Changsu, his innocent heart has never changed. When the country was in trouble and the mountains and rivers were broken, Mei Changsu, who was far away from the hustle and bustle, chose to return to the familiar northern battlefield and finished his life in the way of Lin Shu.
Whether it is Mei Changsu, who peeled his skin and smashed his bones and never regretted it in "Langya Bang", or Yennefu, who is obsessed with nirvana and rebirth in "The Witcher". We are all gratified to see that their hearts may have never changed after experiencing a double blow both physically and mentally.
In this way, Yennefer, the goddess of nirvana and rebirth, calmly walked into the dance scene.
The dance at that time was the scene where the kings of the north and the south, and the sorceresses who were about to be assigned to them, danced the celestial sphere dance.
In this scene, Villefurel, the king of Aedirn, and the sorceress Fringila Vigo, who was assigned to him, just finished dancing, and chose to rest in vain.
It seems that King Aedirn and the audience feel the same, and they are not interested in the dark-skinned Fringela Vigo.
At this moment, Yennefer arrived gracefully in a long black dress, and her charming and moving instantly confused King Aedirn.
"Okay, it's you, you are my appointed sorceress." And Yennefer's confident and moving contrast were two other gloomy and helpless faces.
One is naturally Fringela Vigo, who was robbed by Yennefer. Originally, as the second generation of art, he could work in the prosperous Aden, but now he can only be assigned to the remote Nilfgaard.
This is also the original sin of Fringera Vigo's inhumane massacres in the Battle of Sorden and the Nilfgaard War in the North.
Of course, the screenwriter's original creation of this scene does reasonably explain the reason for Wei Ge's late performance in the TV series, but it is still cruel to change Wei Ge's character. This point, we will talk about it in detail when we talk about the battle of Suoshan Mountain. And the other gloomy figure is naturally Yeniv's teacher Tishaya.
It wasn't that she was angry because Yennefer disobeyed herself, but when she saw Yennefer, who had a hunchback and crooked mouth in the past, turned into the radiant she is now. She instantly understood what Yennefer had chosen to sacrifice. At that moment, she was deeply distressed for Yennefer. Alright, let's finish explaining the plot of Yennefer's transformation. What does this passage have to do with Geralt's story?
This relationship is very secret. At this dance, there is a flashing scene: a little prince and a little princess are among the crowd, and the little prince keeps hooking up with the little princess. Why did the director of this scene specifically mark it with a close-up? Because their stories are closely related to Geralt's legendary adventure in this episode
Thirty years later, Geralt ventured all the way to Vizima, the capital of Temeria, where he started a peak duel with the vampire bird.
This is the first short story in "The Rise of the White Wolf", the first volume of the "Witcher" series. Many fans of the original novel opened the door to a new world by reading this short story.
It should be noted that there is also a major difference between the novel and the TV series: the white wolf in the novel came to Temeria following a reward notice, and the purpose of his trip was to kill the vampire bird.
In the TV series, a sorceress blocked his way, hoping he would come forward to solve the matter.
And this sorceress is Triss Merigord, who many game parties are thinking of.
Triss in the novel is beautiful and kind, and the deep emotions formed by Kyle Mohan and Ciri moved everyone.
In the game, Triss is even more beautiful with red hair and is the goddess in the hearts of many players. A point to be made here, because there is no copyright to Yennefer in the two games "The Witcher 1" and "The Witcher 2". Yennefer doesn't appear from the beginning to the end, only in "The Witcher 3".
Therefore, in "The Witcher 1" and "The Witcher 2", the female lead who played against Geralt is more Triss.
This has caused many players to be preconceived and have a soft spot for Triss, but feel uncomfortable with Yennefer who only appeared in "The Witcher 3". So far in the game circle, there are still many players who choose to see the ending of White Wolf and Triss together.
In the TV series, we found a tragic discovery: the goddess Triss actually turned into an aunt with instant noodles, and even her hair color changed from red to black.
Thinking about Wei Ge who became a black man, and looking at the goddess Triss in front of her, it really poses no threat to Yennefer at all.
In this way, Triss asked the White Wolf to come forward and solve the crisis of the vampire bird for King Foltest of Temeria.
It was only at this time that we discovered that this man is now middle-aged, and he is still handsome in the novel, but Foltest, who is already fat in the TV series, is the little prince at the ball that year.
And his sister Yada, who was by his side back then, has now been buried in the ground.
Fortest and his sister Yada have an affair and give birth to a baby girl. Because someone secretly cast a curse, the baby girl died not long after birth, and Yada also died of dystocia.
The grieving king buried them together in a tomb beneath the palace. Seven years later, on the night of the full moon, the people in the palace were surprised to find that the princess in the tomb not only did not die, but also turned into a terrifying monster - a vampire bird.
The monster killed all the people in the palace, and the palace was abandoned. Every year on the night of the full moon, monsters will come out of the tomb to forage.
So the king started looking for a way to deal with the monster. At this time, a hermit told the king that if anyone could spend the night in the tomb, the curse would be lifted.
Now, the task is up to Geralt.
On the night of the full moon, Geralt drank the strengthening potion and came to the old palace alone.
At midnight, the vampire bird emerges from the catacombs. Geralt fought against the vampire bird. After a bloody battle, Geralt barely defeated the vampire bird, but suffered a lot of injuries. So he got into the coffin of the king's sister first.
At dawn the next day, Geralt got out of the coffin and found that the vampire bird had changed back to the appearance of a girl and fainted beside the coffin. However, when Geralt approached, the princess, whose curse had not yet completely subsided, suddenly attacked Geralt, and Geralt was injured and fell into a coma.
This whole fight scene between Geralt and the vampire bird can be said to be very accurate and in place, and almost completely restores the details of the novel. It is also highly consistent with the animation of the game "The Witcher 1" for this scene, which can be said to be a great benefit shared by the original and game fans. And the tragic scene of the white wolf fighting with the vampire bird is constantly connected with the scene of Yennefer's transformation through montage. Making the transition of the whole scene look delicate and fit can be said to be a highlight of this episode.
Well, we have finished reading the third episode of the first season of "The Witcher", and summed it up:
In the story of this episode, Yennefer paid a painful price to complete a gorgeous transformation. She became a goddess warlock and captured the king of Aedirn at the ball, firmly controlling her own destiny. And Temeria Prince Foltest, who also showed incest potential at the ball. Thirty years later, the vampire bird problem caused by the curse of incest was finally resolved by Geralt.
While advancing on multiple lines and all kinds of dangers, the timeline of the protagonists, like two people running from the north to the south, is getting closer and closer.
So, in the next episode, we will talk about the most important drama in the worldview of "The Witcher"-the election of the princess Paveta of Sintra.
This is also one of my favorite chapters in the original novel, taken from the short story in Volume 1 "The Rise of the White Wolf", called "The Problem of Price".
Everything is exciting, and it will be in the next lecture, so stay tuned!
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