The Golden One - March 20, 2020


The Witcher by Andrzej Sapkowski - Book and Game Review. Racial Tensions and Sexual Morals

Hosted by
Marcus Follin
Mentioned
Welsh Kaer Morhen Scoia'tael Jennifer Twitch Geralt
Coronavirus Seclusion Training Update The Witcher Plagiarism Controversy. Utter Silliness!

Episode Stats


Length

11 minutes

Words per minute

142.8

Word count

1,668

Sentence count

113

Harmful content

Misogyny

3

sentences flagged

Toxicity

3

sentences flagged

Hate speech

4

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

In this episode, I talk about The Witcher books and games, as well as the Netflix series. I discuss racial tensions in the books, and sexual morality in the games. I also talk about the first two games in the series, and give my thoughts on them.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00.000 The
00:00:30.000 Hello Laddingtons and Lassingtons.
00:00:48.880 I'm checking in from a secluded spot at a lake near Kaer Morhen, The Witcher's Keep.
00:00:56.480 So, as you might have discerned from the title, today I will talk a little bit about The Witcher games and books.
00:01:05.120 And before you ask, no, I have not watched the Netflix series for the simple reason that I don't want to be annoyed by it.
00:01:13.360 Because, you know, if you have a good opinion on something then you see a lot of forced diversity in it.
00:01:21.760 It destroys it, I get annoyed, and yeah, if I want to watch something nice I don't want to be annoyed and have to overanalyze things.
00:01:30.960 So I'm just not going to watch it, I'm just gonna continue enjoying the books.
00:01:35.920 So I'm halfway through now and that's enough for me to, yeah, recommend the books and talk a bit about them.
00:01:44.000 Now first and foremost, I do recommend you to, if you have to choose between, you know, if you have a limited amount of time I would recommend you playing the third game.
00:01:53.920 It's probably the best game I've ever played. You know, it's just an injection of European folklore and mythology and aesthetics into it.
00:02:03.680 So the aesthetics of it is medieval Europe with mythology and folklore.
00:02:08.240 Absolutely love it, gained so much aesthetic inspiration from it.
00:02:12.000 So yeah, that is something I definitely recommend.
00:02:14.880 And what you get in the game that you don't really get in the books, of course, the aesthetics and the music and that feel.
00:02:22.640 But the books are very entertaining, very well written, you know, they're a classic and they're a hit for a reason.
00:02:29.520 Now I would say though, before I begin to talk about more the two topics, which is racial relations and sexual morality.
00:02:39.680 I would also mention that you don't really need to play the second Witcher game.
00:02:44.480 I haven't played the first game, but I don't think you should really play the second game unless you are a really hardcore fan.
00:02:51.040 I played it once, actually streamed it on Twitch. It was actually five years ago I did that.
00:02:56.320 Shout out to all of you who were with me back then, but that game is not even nearly on par with the third game.
00:03:05.040 So if you're gonna play one game, just play the third game and yeah, you're in for a treat.
00:03:11.520 Actually, on a second note, I think you can actually play the game if you have the time and opportunity.
00:03:18.400 And since many of you are actually in quarantine right now, I suppose you do have the time.
00:03:23.360 What I like with the second game is that they explore more of the racial tensions between the Scoia'tael, which is the non-human gorilla, and the humans. 0.98
00:03:34.560 So you see this screenshot before you right now I took in the second game.
00:03:39.120 Yet race is the very reason we fight. We have pointed ears, yours are rounded. We are few, yet long-lived. 0.73
00:03:46.480 Your kind multiplies like vermin, though thankfully expires quickly.
00:03:51.360 So if you can't read the books, but you have access to the game, you can play the second game.
00:03:58.080 But the reason I don't necessarily recommend it is because gaming-wise it is quite difficult in the sense that it's unsmooth, if that makes sense.
00:04:08.960 Whereas the third game is just a true pleasure in every way.
00:04:13.520 But yeah, play the second game if you want. It deals more with the racial component of the series, at least.
00:04:20.960 And even if you haven't played any video games earlier, you know, it's like you play a story.
00:04:26.160 It's not like you are playing a game, you play a story.
00:04:30.640 So yeah, great, absolutely great game.
00:04:33.920 The books, there are two themes in the books that I thought would be particularly interesting to you, my dear audience.
00:04:43.440 First and foremost, perhaps the relation between humans and non-humans.
00:04:47.520 So the humans can be seen, what I thought about was the Saxons and Welsh. 0.63
00:04:53.440 And you have non-humans, primarily the elves being Welsh, being driven off from their lands into the mountains. 0.99
00:05:00.480 And the humans coming in a few centuries later to the continent and establishing kingdoms of their own.
00:05:08.160 They can be seen as Saxons.
00:05:09.680 Now, of course, as I said, the aesthetics, it's medieval, it's not migration era.
00:05:14.320 But the sensation of it, and especially since the elves, they have Welsh names, etc.
00:05:21.360 So that is the relation.
00:05:24.160 And then you have, you know, racism and discrimination in cities from humans against non-humans.
00:05:31.120 So you have that feel to it the entire time, but it's not moralizing in that sense.
00:05:37.440 It's more about the Witcher being in between the two.
00:05:40.000 So he's a human, but he's also not a human because he's a mutant and, you know, he is viewed with suspicion.
00:05:46.960 So he's an outsider anyway.
00:05:49.680 So both in the games and the books, you can stumble upon guys such as this, who says the following. 0.98
00:05:56.480 Readily, you are a mutant, a freak, a useless relic of a bygone age that should be burned like a withered branch.
00:06:04.800 So, as I said, he's being viewed with mistrust by a lot of humans, but he also has his profession. 0.99
00:06:10.880 He's a Witcher, so he kills monsters to protect humanity, basically.
00:06:16.000 That being said, moving on to the second theme I'd like to discuss in regards to sexual morality. 0.84
00:06:22.560 Something to note as well in regards to the sorceresses is that they are infertile, so therefore they can be promiscuous. 0.99
00:06:34.240 But, you know, some guys, they will say that the Witcher books promote degeneracy.
00:06:40.080 It doesn't really. I found this really interesting quote in regards to Triss Marigold.
00:06:45.200 As far as her erotic life was concerned, Triss Marigold had the right to consider herself a typical enchantress. 1.00
00:06:52.080 It had begun with the sour taste of forbidden fruit, made all the more exciting by the strict rules of the academy and the prohibitions of the mistress under whom she practiced.
00:07:01.920 Then came her independence, freedom and a crazy promiscuity which ended, as it usually does, in bitterness, disillusionment and resignation.
00:07:11.280 Then followed a long period of loneliness.
00:07:14.880 So you see, yeah, there is a lot of promiscuity in the books, but it's not seen as something good.
00:07:19.600 And the way it is written is quite crude in the language.
00:07:24.000 And I like that. It's nothing fantastical about it.
00:07:28.960 It's very base human nature on display.
00:07:32.240 And that's also part of the charm of the books.
00:07:35.360 That it's very, you know, gritty and filthy like that.
00:07:39.200 And of course, you know, crudeness, sexuality, it goes into it.
00:07:43.520 But I wouldn't say it is something that hails up sexual decadence as something virtuous.
00:07:49.360 It's just it's there, just as plundering of villages, it's there because that's how humans are in these situations.
00:07:58.240 So the sorcerer says they are promiscuous because they are infertile, basically.
00:08:04.960 Witchers are also infertile, applies to Geralt, of course, too.
00:08:08.880 So he doesn't really have that option to settle down and have a family.
00:08:12.320 So he and Jennifer, they have this sort of complicated relationship.
00:08:16.640 So those are two aspects that I thought were particularly interesting.
00:08:22.800 But it's not black and white.
00:08:24.080 It's more like it's there and, you know, the characters are developed around it.
00:08:29.120 But it's not something he is not promoting tolerance for the sake of tolerance.
00:08:34.960 He also points out that, you know, in the cities where there are dwarves, elves, humans, they tend to stick to themselves.
00:08:41.840 Then pogroms and distrust and mistreatment.
00:08:46.160 And it appears because it does appear when humans live close to each other.
00:08:49.920 So it's not, you know, the moral of the story is not to be tolerant to outsiders.
00:08:55.120 It's more about, you can view it at least.
00:08:58.080 You can view it as, you know, when you have different species or races living next to each other, there will be conflict.
00:09:05.040 Then, of course, if you want to interpret it as humans are being,
00:09:09.840 um, having prejudice and being mean to others, yeah, you can say that too.
00:09:15.200 It doesn't bother me in the least.
00:09:16.640 I think it's still a good, interesting thing.
00:09:18.880 And then also something I can say for both the books and the game is that,
00:09:22.880 you know, there is a lot of gems in terms of, you know, societal issues and economics,
00:09:29.920 et cetera, that you can appreciate, that I appreciate.
00:09:33.520 You know, Invisible Hand of the Market, for example, just thrown in there for good measure.
00:09:38.480 It gives it a bit more mature feel to it.
00:09:41.360 And yeah, I sort of like that when you can pick up these small details.
00:09:46.720 And in terms of the books themselves, I said it was, I said they were entertaining.
00:09:51.920 They are.
00:09:52.400 Dandelion is, yeah, my favorite character, I would say.
00:09:55.440 Not that I relate to him, but I think it's fun when he, yeah, just is himself, basically.
00:10:01.840 So yeah, entertaining books, good stuff, definitely something I can recommend.
00:10:07.200 So yeah, that's my thoughts on The Witcher.
00:10:10.880 And again, if you haven't played The Witcher 3, you are missing out.
00:10:16.080 I'm actually replaying it now because I, as I said to you, I was going to do it when I hit
00:10:21.120 a hundred thousand subscribers and yeah, it's long overdue.
00:10:24.320 So I'm replaying it, but I'm not doing any Let's Plays because I just want to enjoy it by myself.
00:10:29.920 And because, well, you know, it takes a bit of time to make Let's Plays and I would rather
00:10:34.640 make book reviews instead.
00:10:35.920 I think that's more productive and more appealing to more people.
00:10:40.880 So anyway, I hope you're all staying safe in the quarantine and
00:10:46.400 I hope you enjoyed this little talk along the, this fine lake.
00:10:53.040 So I will see you in the next video.
00:10:54.880 XOXO, BOO! 1.00
00:10:56.880 Also, I'll see you in the next video.
00:11:10.400 Number 4
00:11:10.880 Thank you.