Ep. 53 — 203 "What Is Lost" from Netflix's The Witcher (Part 1)

Elora from the Netherlands and Kyle from the US join Alyssa for our discussion of Netflix’s The Witcher Episode 203 “What Is Lost”. Very important bits include: Elora’s Visual Analysis Corner, primal human fears, The Pendulum in the Netflix series versus our Pendulum in The Hanza Discord, how much Stregobor just sucks, what makes a good villain, and our best impressions of Scottish Ciri.

This episode is available at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, and Stitcher.

Elora’s Photo References

Transcript

Cold Open

KYLE: Yeah, which is why I don't even see it as a criticism about the Fourteenth on the Hill, it's like you know, if this show takes her and builds her in a different way. That's great. Like I would love to see Triss have something else that she has.

ELORA: Instead of diarrhea mostly.

[Breakfast in Beauclair theme music by MojoFilter Media]

Introduction

ALYSSA: Welcome to Breakfast in Beauclair, a global Witcher Podcast. My name is Alyssa from GoodMorhen, and I’ll be your host as you, I, and our international hanza accompany Geralt of Rivia and his destiny, Cirilla of Cintra, across the Continent.

[BAFTAs]

Congratulations to the Witcher Netflix production team, which took home two BAFTAs this year: Barrie Gower and Sara Gower for Make-Up & Hair and Dadi Einarsson, Gavin Round, Aleksandar Pejic, Oliver Cubbage, Stefano Pepin, and Jet Omoshebi for Special, Visual & Graphic Effects.

[Hanza Meetup: Belfast]

We’re officially a month out from our first big hanza trip to Belfast! If you’re interested in joining us, join the Hanza Discord at bit.ly/thehanzadiscord for details.

[Patron Announcements]

This episode, we welcome Sydney from the US to our hanza on Patreon! Thanks to our patrons and producer-level patrons: Luis of Kovir, The Owner of The Churlish Porpoise, Katie (The Redhead of Toussaint), Jacob B., Ayvo of Gulet, Bee Haven of the Edge of the World, Charlotte from Vengerberg Glamarye, RedKite, The Original Roach, Codringher’s Cat, Libby, Clare Odell, Jennidy Mundilovitch, Wolf, Corey from the US, John of Ryblia, Tom from Australia, Jill Cate, The Tabby Witch, Olle from Sweden, James Carson III, Father of Bean, Psilocybe Sorcerer, A Toussaint Knight, Roxas, Jeanette of Brokilon, and Miriam of Temeria.

If you’d like to learn more about becoming a patron of the show, head over to patreon.com/breakfastinbeauclair.

[Episode Details]

As for this episode, Elora from the Netherlands and Kyle from the US call in for our discussion of Netflix’s The Witcher Episode 203 “What Is Lost”. Join us as we take a trip to Elora’s Visual Analysis Corner and discuss primal human fears, The Pendulum in the Netflix series versus our Pendulum in The Hanza Discord, how much Stregobor just sucks, what makes a good villain, and our best impressions of Scottish Ciri.

In our mid-episode news segment, “Tidings from Toussaint,” Lars from Witcherflix shares production updates on The Witcher Season 3 and The Witcher Season 4. We don’t have any listener call-ins for this episode’s “Dear Friend” segment, but you can send your thoughts on “What Is Lost” for Part 2 by emailing greetings@breakfastinbeauclair.com.

Without further ado, let’s get to our discussion of Netflix’s The Witcher 203 “What Is Lost” (Part 1).

Discussion

[Breakfast in Beauclair stinger by MojoFilter Media]

ALYSSA: Welcome to Breakfast in Beauclair. My name is Alyssa and today I'm welcoming two fantastic members of our Hanza to the show. Our first guest is an active member of our community who works for one of the largest independent craft breweries in America. Outside of work. He's passionate about real estate investing golf, video games and literature and plays his Ned Noose in the hands of D&D games. Please welcome the Hanza’s resident daddio, Kyle from the US. Hi Kyle!

KYLE: Hey, ow's it going? It's so good to be here.

ALYSSA: I'm so happy to have you. And you'll recognize our second guest from Breakfast in Beauclair Episode 27 “Before A Fall”. She's an illustrator and writer who also works at the Netherlands’ biggest company in reading accessibility for blind, visually impaired, and dyslexic people. You can also catch her in the European D&D games as Mallow. Please welcome Elora from The Netherlands. Hi, Elora!

ELORA: Hi. So nice to be back.

ALYSSA: I'm also very excited to have you as well. I feel like this episode is gonna be so much fun. 'Cause you guys are, first of all, great together. I love you guys. I feel like you guys also have a very special connection because Kyle you trusted Elora with a, with a big ol’ secret –

ELORA: Yeah!

ALYSSA: – earlier this winter.

KYLE: That’s right, Elora, keeper of secrets over here. Yeah, so she actually was the only person in the entire world outside of me and Lily who knew our daughter's name before she was born. Big secret. And that's because I had commissioned her to work on some art for her and it came out amazing and we love it. So thank you, Elora.

ELORA: It was really nice to work on. Freya is like a nice mythological name, we can do nice goddess drawings always.

KYLE: It is! It's great.

ALYSSA: I just love all the friendships that have come from the Hanza and it makes me so happy inside.

KYLE: I know! This should just be a like, a like a shout out for the Hanza in general, I knew none of you guys before this. It's great. I love it.

ALYSSA: It's really something special and if you, listeners at home, would like to get to know Elora, Kyle, and a ton of other wonderful people from around the world, you can do so at bit.ly/thehanzadiscord, but for now we can certainly get to know Kyle and Elora a little bit better. So Kyle, this is your first time on the show. The question that I ask everybody, how did you get into the Witcher?

KYLE: Yeah, no, that's a good question. And it was, it was a while back. Uhhhhhhhhhhh, wait, when did The Witcher 3 come out?

ALYSSA: 2015.

KYLE: 2015. Okay, so seven years ago, when that came out, a buddy of mine was big into playing it and he was the type of guy – he would run around and just get all the loot. You know, like he wouldn't even follow the story, he wouldn’t wouldn't even do the side missions, he'd be running around discovering things and like, especially in this Witcher 3 world, it really allows you to do that. You kind of just go wherever you want, and do whatever you want. And so I would spend hours watching him play this game, and I was like, I need to play this game. And I bought it, did my first playthrough. Honestly, my only playthrough; I'm not a huge like replay video games kind of person. Like I enjoy it. And then I'm done with it. I have played it a little but not like a full replay. So I bought it, played it. And then I was just so engrossed in the world that I – I realized that there were books that this was based on. And so I read through the books and actually, I didn't read the books, I listened to the books, I listened to the audiobooks read by Peter Kenny. It's so funny because I love doing the intro to that, you know, if you're listening to it, you hear it a lot. “The Last Wish, written by Andrzej Sapkowski and read by Peter Kenny.” I love that. Just love that. So yeah, so I listened to the books for like a year, and that's sort of how I delved into all this.

ALYSSA: I know a lot of people have come in through the video games and through the books, but it's so fun to, like, have somebody else who also just loves Peter Kenny's rendition as well. Because they're phenomenal. They're so good.

KYLE: Oh, yeah. With little Scottish Ciri.

ALYSSA: Oh my God, that's my favorite part. 

KYLE: “Geralt!”

ALYSSA: "Geralt!" it's just every time, it gets me every time. So Elora, it's been I think a minute, at least a minute, since you were last on the podcast. What is new with you? What have you been up to? How is, how has life been, Elora?

ELORA: Well, completely different. I started this job, finished a story, pitched it, didn't get taken in by any great successes, started a new story, been doing lots of illustrating, and for the first time this year, it's actually been taking off more so I get commissions every once in a while, also through the Hanza, Thank you very much for facilitating that. So yeah.

KYLE: So you wrote like a full book.

ELORA: Yeah.

KYLE: Nice. And it just, you said it hasn't gotten picked up by anybody yet?

ELORA: Yeah, and, at this point, I want to move on to the new thing

KYLE: Yeah.

ELORA: It's always this debate whether I write in English and try it there or write in Dutch or try it here, because I read in English, usually. So writing in English is fine for me.

KYLE: Yeah.

ELORA: That's a very big market. And in the Netherlands, you get the other side where it's very a small market and really fantasy and sci-fi aren't picked up very often by publishers. They, they are like the kind of small neglected child of the publishing industry here.

KYLE: I think it was somewhere in the, must have been in the book channel of the Hanza I think, you said something about the sci-fi not being picked up, usually by like, Dutch writers because, like, English writers are seen as the experts or something? That is the most insane thing I ever heard.

ELORA: Yes, both fantasy and sci-fi! There's lots of translated genre fiction that gets published, but not very much Dutch. So there's also Dutch writers that publish under English American sounding pseudonym. I don't think it'll actually get taken more or less seriously, but apparently that's what the publishers think.

KYLE: If you, if you had an English pseudonym, what would it be?

ELORA: Well, 'Elora' is English. If you pronounce it right, so we just need to go somewhere with Sperber because that's very not English. Oh, like Sparrow? We just make it a different bird.

KYLE: Nice!

ALYSSA: Yes, more birds. Always with the birds.

ELORA: Sperber is ike sperber which is also a bird.

ALYSSA: Oh, interesting. Yeah. The more you learn. That's really interesting.

ELORA: Fun language facts!

KYLE: I was, I was just going to ask Elora I think I noticed the other day with your art. I think you had mentioned something about being pen and digital. Is that how you always do it? Like you start with pen and then kind of go over to coloring with digital.

ELORA: Yeah, I like how tactile drawing is.

KYLE: Yeah.

ELORA: But I like how versatile digital coloring is. I've tried all digital, but then it feels, I don't know, you lose a little bit of the happy little accidents.

KYLE: Yeah exactly.

ELORA: And, and I've tried all physical but I find painting and coloring so difficult.

KYLE: I was gonna say if you mess up the layering, the whole thing's messed up.

ELORA: Yeah! It's immediately the whole thing is ruined. So I want to have an Undo. And I don't, I don't need it as much when I'm doing ink.

ALYSSA: Yeah, I feel like you can be a lot more exploratory with your colors especially and like you change the vibrancy, you could change the hue, whereas with the line art, like I agree the tactility of that is so nice when you're working with like inks and pens and things like that.

ELORA: Yeah, you get line waves, which is like you can't really simulate very well, I don't think.

KYLE: Yeah. Alyssa, do you still do the, uh – is it watercolor or some type of-

ELORA: Pencils, right?

ALYSSA: Yeah. So I dabble in a lot of different mediums. I think I was doing a lot of colored pencil work at the beginning of the pandemic. And then I started doing more with watercolor and gouache and acrylic gouache. And yeah, and then I joined a Plein Air painting group, which is really fun, just because we get to go around and, you know, paint outside. Paint a lot of the architecture that's so integral to New York. So that's been a really fun thing to do every once in a while, you know, when I get the time, if there’s ever such a thing as free time.

KYLE: Yeah.

ALYSSA: It's a really nice, relaxing thing to do. And I really enjoy it. 'cause you also draw a little bit here and there as well, right, Kyle?

KYLE: Yeah, it's very much like my music where I do it more for me. It's one of those mediums where when I am feeling very creative, and I just need to like sit down and get it out. It's either music, or drawing, or writing, you know, like I do poetry sometimes. Like it's not something that I do as a career and I don't think I don't ever want it to be, it's just one of my outlets, I guess

ELORA: That's the best way honestly I think. Don't lose any, sell any bits of authenticity and like outlets that way.

KYLE:  Yeah, I don't practice it enough, is what I would say, to get better. You know, it's, it'll always sort of be what it is.

ALYSSA: That's Nice. I think a lot of people put a lot of pressure on themselves. Like, 'I don't want to draw because I'm not good at it'. It's just like, well, you're not going to be any better if you don't practice. And also, if it's just for you, what does it matter? Really?

ELORA: Yeah, really, that instinct of every hobby needs to be a side hustle.

ALYSSA: Yeah, its, ugh –

KYLE: Yeah exactly. I think there is just so much pressure to, to feel like you need to do something with your hobbies to diversify. You know, like we were joking before about diversifying the audio. It's like, you know, you want to be able to say I don't rely just on my corporate job. I also have this on the side that makes me some scratch.

ALYSSA: Right. But I think it's also beyond diversifying sources of income. It's also like diversifying the things that fulfill you, right? And like the things that bring you joy.

KYLE: Yeah.

ALYSSA: Which I've always been a very eclectic person in terms of my like, hobbies and things. So it's the philosophy that I very much stand behind.

ELORA: And also I feel like creative people are often just “I want to do something creative. It doesn't really matter what kind of making I'm doing as long as I'm making”.

KYLE: Yeah.

ALYSSA: So today we'll continue our discussion of Netflix's The Witcher Season Two with Episode 203 'What is Lost' in which Ciri and Yennefer attempt to prove their places amongst the witchers and the mages of the north. In the first scene, tensions have risen between the witchers following Eskel's death, Ciri begins her training as Vesemir conducts an autopsy on Eskel's corpse. We are just kind of thrown straight into it. We're there with Ciri in the training grounds as Geralt watches over her and she really, really wants to do this and you can see how important all of this is to her and Geralt is trying to kind of tell her like “Hey, it's okay, we can we can take our time you can train. There's a limit to how much you can do each day”, and I think she's, she's super stubborn about the whole thing, I think as anyone would probably be in the same scenario, but what did you guys think about the opening?

ELORA: I think it's a lot of that mindset for Ciri. It's not just I think a case of her wanting to become stronger to take revenge or something like that. It's also if I don't keep moving, I'll fall into a pit of despair like this Parks or Recreation joke: “if I just keep moving!”

KYLE: I think- I mean, what's hard for me is because I have this bias of the books I tend to keep comparing to the books which I know I shouldn't do because this is its own adaptation, but the thing that like jumped out at me the most from the very beginning of this episode was Ciri on the show and Ciri in the book just felt really different to me and I don't know if anybody else felt that way. And I don't know if I articulated it right in these notes that I took, but like in the show she comes off as almost like immature, not immature and like you know, she needs to grow up but just immature in the way of understanding things and then also dealing with like puberty and hormones and whatnot. Whereas like the book, she just felt much more like a kid who was listening to her dad, and was just kind of naive and trusting. I don't know, I just…get your thoughts on that.

ALYSSA: I would imagine a lot of that has to do with aging her up for the show, especially because the Ciri that we meet in the books is what? Like 10? She's very young and very impressionable, and is definitely in a place where she's not going to talk back to authority. 

KYLE: Yeah.

ALYSSA: Whereas the Ciri that we have in the show, Freya Allan's Ciri, is at an age where she's also coming into her own as an adult, and probably feels a certain level of command and respect, even within all of the witchers themselves.

KYLE: Right.

ALYSSA: So I would imagine that the age difference impacts that. And also the Ciri that we get in the show, we've been there with all of her trauma too. So we know what she's experienced with Cintra, with running around the continent trying to find Geralt in the first place. So it's probably just a lot of pent up rage is dealt with much differently as a teenager than as a preteen or child. I do think though, it would have benefited the story to have a sort of time jump at some point, just because even in Blood of Elves, there's a two year time jump between the Battle of Sodden and us coming to Kaer Morhen.

KYLE: Yeah.

ALYSSA: And I really did think that they might pursue a time jump. And I think it would have made sense in the course of everybody aging, exactly two years during the pandemic as well. I do think that would have benefited the story a little bit better to have that be explicit. But you know, we get the character that we get. So it's kind of whatever.

ELORA: Yeah, that's also probably they didn't want to do the time jump because they really wanted to show early Geralt and Ciri bonding since they skipped that in the first season. Because yeah, it is nice to see them actually get to know each other.

KYLE: Yeah, it's interesting. A point that I make continually is, this is a different story. It's like, you know, this is just a different Witcher story, essentially.

ELORA: Yeah, that's fine. It's still got the same spirit.

KYLE: It does.

ALYSSA: And we see that as we kind of continue on into the scene as well. Geralt eventually takes Ciri back inside, we run into Lambert and Cohen. And Lambert's very unhappy about everything that happened with Eskel, and sees Ciri as almost like, 'it's her fault that all of this happened”, which Geralt's rebuffs. He sends Ciri off, after they have lunch, which was kindly prepared by Lambert, and eventually brings that back to Vesemir in the laboratory, who's busy kind of minding Eskel's corpse and doing an autopsy. These scenes, I think what the Witchers shows the kind of tensions that can still run rampant with the brotherhood. At the same time. It's interesting to like, go into the laboratory with Geralt and Vesemir and just see how desperate Vesemir is to find out what exactly happened to Eskel and the lengths he may be willing to go in order to do so.

KYLE: It was clear that there was that, that strain with the relationship with the witchers. It's funny, they use the word 'brotherhood' because it doesn't really feel like it right now, especially again, I'll bring it back to the books quickly. But where it felt like in the books, they certainly didn't really know how to deal with Ciri, they still treated her like they were protecting her in some way. Whereas Lambert in here just feels like he wants her dead and gone. Like he just doesn't care about her at all. I don't know. That's how it came off. At first, at least I know things kind of change in the next few scenes or whatnot. But yeah, and then when it comes to like the Vesemir stuff, I know that we've never seen, like he has this whole, like, “Oh, how did this happen? We need to figure this out.” And I don't think we've ever seen a Leshen transform anybody before, any monsters transform anybody before. So I do like how it kind of adds this sense of danger. Not only dying when you're facing these things, but that you can get poked by one and then turn into one of them and possibly be contributing to this very dangerous Leshy population.

ELORA: Yeah that is a very good, primal human fear that happens, it's why zombies work.

KYLE: Yeah.

ELORA: And especially for the witchers probably, if you're the one fighting the problem, it's even worse to be the problem.

KYLE: It is funny how it comes across with the witchers. To me, at least outside of, if nobody saw this happening, the Witchers are seen as these very strong, you know, unfeeling type of people. And like you said before with Vesemir, it just seems like he's so concerned. And he's worried about the state of the witchers.

ALYSSA: Yeah.

KYLE: They are human. They do feel. Things like that.

ELORA: Yeah, really considers, at least Eskel, he calls his son, I think, in one of the scenes.

KYLE: Yeah.

ALYSSA: Yeah. And I think all of that is really underscored by the fact that as Geralt is moving through the keep to the laboratory, there's this flashback where he and Eskel are there one winter, they're training and they reminisce about them tying a bumblebee to a jug as children and then giving it hell. But you can see that relationship that they had, which I think is really nice, which is the feelings, as we were saying, that the witchers do have. I just think that scene might have been a little more successful if we had gotten a lot of that sentiment before Eskel actually died, because now he's kind of dead. And we're just like eh, I mean, he's gone already. So…

ELORA: I won't say too much about it because I'm sure you’ve mentioned it –

KYLE: Yeah, right.

ELORA: plenty the last episodes, but to make a character death have an impact in any type of story, you first have to even if it's just like, “Oh, here's, here's Eskel's teddy bear. Oh, my God, he's soft hearted”, and then he dies. At least you get something to care about. Yeah.

KYLE: It's almost like how they, they had the Nightmare of The Wolf, that had come out. And you kind of see some things from that in this season, you know, just how they act and things they say. And that sort of builds into each other. Whereas I wonder if, I don't know, but maybe they're going to have a show where Eskel's in it? I mean, we just get a little bit more about him. You know, I don't know. Maybe I'm hoping for that, more content is always good.

ELORA: It’s a little too late, I think. But yeah. More is always good

ALYSSA: Yeah. I think we definitely will get a lot more with everything that they've greenlit, which is super exciting. I think I agree with Elora that the time for Eskel content has probably sailed and is off into the sunset. In the next scene a month after the battle Tissaia transcribes the names of those who died at Sodden into a memorial and includes Yennefer's name. The Brotherhood debate Nilfgaard's intentions and plans but are cut short by Yennefer's arrival. Ater our time in Kaer Morhen we're brought to Aretuza where we're seeing a bit of the fallout of Sodden, you know, a month after the battle. And Elora, you had a really nice point about some of the visuals that were here as well.

ELORA: Yeah, I'm very excited to see how my visual notes are going to work in the audio medium. But yes, I thought the shot as Tissaia walks away from the notes is very beautiful, because it's this quiet moment of her dealing with the death of the sorcerers, who she's at least helped raise. And you've got the three windows of the building, through…whatever.

KYLE: Some kind of structure.

ELORA: Yeah, the structure. But then you've also got these lanterns on the left and right of the screen, and Tissaia in the middle, so that it repeats that three elements again. And that gives such a calm ordered feeling for the viewer, even subconsciously. Because you can see everything is laid out perfectly.

KYLE: I love that you brought this up, just because when I'm watching the show as much of a visual person as I am, I'm more paying attention to like what they're saying, especially like I'm trying to take notes for this. I'm like, oh, like what's going on in the scene? I like didn't catch this at all. And it just made me smile when I saw your notes in here because I was like, whoa, you know, like a different perspective that I probably wouldn't have caught five times over. So like, that was, it was really cool. You know, in the picture that you have, there's that one window on the right hand side, it has a tower inside, like does that mean? Does that mean anything? Like does that throw off the order?

ELORA: I- Okay, okay. I don't have an exact theory, like meaning interpretation. But-

KYLE: Yes, let's go!

ELORA: -what is often nice to do in composition is to have perfect repetition and one flaw. Usually the flaw catches your attention,  which then I wonder if like it’s Tor Lara, probably right, If it's like just having a little reminder for the viewer. Like remember, this tower, it will be important later.

KYLE: Yeah. Is that that Tower of the Gulls or whatever?

ALYSSA: That's the Tower of the Gull. 

KYLE: Yeah.

ELORA: Generally, when I watch I will notice most like, oh, this really nice visual.

ALYSSA: Yeah.

ELORA: But then if I'm watching more carefully, especially again, if I'm taking notes for something like this, then I'll pause and think like, okay, why is it a nice visual, I noticed the plants now as well, the plants also making it perfect symmetry, oh, my gosh, and the plants and the windows have a perfect perspective lines, drawing your eyes in the middle to Tissaia, beautiful.

KYLE: I love again, they brought it up because I think going forward, I'm going to try to see things like that now, you know, I mean, like, it's not something that was ever my purview of thought. So like very cool. I love it.

ALYSSA: I also really like how it starts as this very private moment with Tissaia, you know, from the front, she's transcribing these names, and it's – you get a lot of close shots of her face, as she's grieving and as she's putting Yennefer's name into this memorial. And then when she turns around and you get the shot that we've been discussing, it's immediately back to order and structure and, you know, a certain element of like architectural stoicism that has a really nice visual interpretation of the emotional journey that she's going into in these few moments. She leaves behind all of her emotions and just moves forward into her responsibilities. And MyAnna Buring's face acting in this whole fucking series is so good all of the time. She's amazing. Yeah.

KYLE: See, that's another thing I wouldn't think about, like, it just such a visual thing that like Yeah, like now that you say I'm like, “oh, yeah, she really does have a lot of good face acting.” And I guess maybe because I'm not in the acting world that I don't even think to look for that stuff. But that's cool.

ELORA: Which is why this podcast works well.

KYLE: Exactly. Yeah, no, it's educational.

ALYSSA: Audio-only medium is the greatest place for me to be like, “Hey, look at these actors' faces. Look at them!”

ELORA: Yeah, and me to be like, “Hey, look at this composition!”

KYLE: Yeah, exactly. We were talking about the names at Sodden Hill. The biggest thing that jumped out is that Yen is the fourteenth one on the hill in the show, whereas if you read the books, Triss is the fourteenth one on the hill. And I guess they had to make it Yen because of the story of the show. It just was hard to deal with for me, because that felt like a huge part of Triss' character in Blood of Elves. So it was like, I don't know, it was just a, just a strange move.

ALYSSA: Yeah, I definitely felt the same. I think both of us had the same note as we were watching this scene, was that yeah, Yennefer is on the list and and then not on the list and Triss even says toward the middle to end of the episode, like, "I'm not on Tissaia's list." And it's like, but you were, but you were!

KYLE: Yeah, you were!

ALYSSA: I do agree, like, I have a lot of questions about what their plan is for Triss' character and her arc, just because as we said, her moniker is the Fourteenth of the Hill, is so integral to her character and defines her arc, not just for, you know, Blood of Elves, but for literally the entire series.

ELORA: I wonder. Because I'll be honest, I didn't, I didn't catch this one. 

KYLE: That’s okay!

ELORA: I didn’t think about this.Because for me, Triss' arc was also a lot about her scars and being uncomfortable with this, like new body and your perception of her body, which was still in there.

KYLE: That's a good positive spin.

ELORA: It might be going more in that direction, then. I found it very… uh, this is maybe for later. But the fact that she said like, “I'm so glad that if one of us had to live it was you.”

ALYSSA: Yeah, that made me uncomfy.

ELORA: Me too, yeah, it was like, that doesn't feel like a nice friendship thing to say, that feels like you kind of don't mind dying, which yeah, I think it'll probably be more about her self image. And like her dealing with trauma, just like with a slightly different take.

KYLE: Yeah. Which is why I don't even see it as a criticism about the Fourteenth on the Hill. It's like, you know, if this show takes her and builds her in a different way. That's great. Like, I would love to see Triss have something else that she has, I guess I just know, other people are thinking about that, too. And it's like, of course, we're all thinking about that, like her not being the Fourteenth on the Hill. But they might have something in mind that makes her a better character, or not better in a good way, but just like maybe a more fuller character who has more than just being the Fourteenth on the Hill, essentially.

ALYSSA: Yeah, I mean, for now, it's all speculation, though. So I guess we will have our fingees crossed, and we'll see what happens with season three. But Anna Shaffer has done such an amazing job, I think, especially with what she's been given. So it's nice to kind of see her also, you know, grow through season one and season two as well. Once Tissaia leaves the balcony. They're interrogating Istredd about Nilfgaard and Istredd's like, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know. We haven't really seen a ton of the political dynamic between the mages yet. We got a little bit of the aftermath of Sodden in the very first episode when they had the medical ward. But now we're actually getting into like, what's our next move? How do we strategize? What conflicts are occurring between the mages themselves? Now is when it starts to get, I think, a little dicier and much more, you know, cerebral, it's juicy, it's very juicy.

ELORA: There's little factions within the mages. It's not just the mages versus everyone else. It's the mages versus the mages.

KYLE: Yeah, I think you can see the politics coming out throughout this season. And –

ALYSSA: Yeah.

KYLE: That makes it much more of a fuller show. You know, like when you think about Lord of the Rings, or the first trilogy of Star Wars, the one that they made in the early 2000s, like the one through three, like the the first episode was very politically heavy, and I mean, they all kind of were but, you know, it ends up being a more adult show, if you will, or much more mature.

ALYSSA: And I think, as you said, it grounds the world a little bit. Because we have these characters that both affect and are affected by the political machine that really occurs in the northern kingdoms.

KYLE: Yeah.

ALYSSA: So it's really interesting to see that both from the mages perspective, as well as later from the perspective of the monarchs that are at the memorial for Sodden. The one interesting thing that happens here, and we've seen this all last season, we'll see this the rest of the season as well, but Stregobor is using the Elven alliance with Nilfgaard that we've seen in the previous episodes to fearmonger and basically socialize his prejudices and normalize them. It's so annoying, I just want, I want Stregobor to just shut up.

ELORA: Generally yes, Stregobor just sucks.

KYLE: Yeah, I don't know how to feel they kind of make him like the big bad it seems like in this season, or not, maybe not maybe the little bad like he's just sort of a bad guy. I don't know.

ALYSSA: Yeah, I mean, it definitely feels that he's there to antagonize Yennefer and Tissaia, which I do think they need that and I do enjoy the fact that they've brought Stregobor through the show, brought Istredd through the show, because they were both oneshot characters in the short stories. And I think it makes a lot of sense to bring them here. And I do think, you know, for the most part, their inclusion in the story is successful.

ELORA: It also feels very female written, if that makes sense, like or I don't know if the writer on this, but I feel that there are more female writers in the writers room than are generally. Because it also feels very reminiscent of that “male colleague takes credit for female colleague’s job”, which is probably  Vilgefortz being the one that’s saved instead of Yen, but it's also fighting to be taken seriously, I think. Yeah.

ALYSSA: Yeah. And at this point, they're arguing about like, if we knew about Nilfgaard like, we wouldn't have fourteen mages dead and then Yennefer comes in and she's like, thirteen actually.

ELORA: Bam, bitch. I'm not!

ALYSSA: It's very Hollywood. It's definitely very Hollywood. But it works and then we like smash cut, opening credits! And that's kind of that.

KYLE: Yeah

ALYSSA: Yeah, Yen likes dramatic entrances.

ALYSSA: Yeah, absolutely. Girl’s been wearing the same dress for a month. And she's, she's back in it.

KYLE: Still smells like lilac and gooseberries though. You know it, you know she does.

ALYSSA: Oh 100%. Shop Vengerberg Glamarye at glamarye.com and you can smell like that too. In the next scene, the Elves arrive at Cintra under Nilfgaard's protection and the watchful eye of Francesca and Filavandrel. This is a very brief scene. It's just like oh yeah, meanwhile, I know Stregobor is like busy fearmongering, but this is what the elves are actually up to. They really are just looking for protection in war. But yeah, as Francesca and Filavandrel are discussing the Elven movements, they acknowledge that their migration to Cintra has definitely inflamed tensions between the elves and the humans throughout the northern kingdoms, which is kind of a nice little political tidbit. And Mecia Simson and Tom Canton are just so so so good in every scene they're in together. And I think this is another lovely demonstration of that. I do like that we continually get this slice of life with the elves. Every once in a while. And I've said this, I think on a previous episode, or on a guest episode, or on a future episode.

KYLE: Somewhere.

ALYSSA: I don't know, I've said this somewhere. I think it was On The Path. But I do think that the storyline with the elves and Nilfgaard is one of the strongest storylines in this episode, in my opinion. So I do like that we're kind of continually getting updates as to what's happening in Cintra.

ELORA: It's good that they give us sympathetic characters in each faction, but this is the setup we wanted for Eskel.

KYLE: Yeah.

ELORA: Getting these slices of life, which are very good at making you care about characters, you have to see them in their normal daily situation.

KYLE: Yeah.

ELORA: Well, it's not normal daily situation, but it becomes that and that helps a lot to make them more human.

KYLE: Yeah, I was gonna say that's what I really enjoy about good villains is that they're not this, you know, always evil kind of person, like they are a human. And you're like, Oh, I feel something for them. And that is difficult for me. So it's like, playing with your emotions is like the best part. Because like, oh, you know, they're, let's just say a mass murderer. 

ELORA: Yeah.

KYLE: But like I kind of feel for them in some way. And it's like, yeah, yeah, cuz they're human. And they also go through the same stuff we go through.

ALYSSA: And it makes for compelling television. I think the more complex the characters are, of course, and The Witcher is so ripe with gray moral conflict that it would benefit the show to really lean into that. And I think to an extent it does, and I mean, on that note, we kind of get more into the gray of other characters as well with the next scene. So in the next scene, Lambert and Coen bait Ciri into attempting the pendulum. This is basically what the witchers was up to for the rest of the episode – is just training…ugh? And torturing Ciri a little bit that yeah, they they kind of give her a hard time. Lambert particularly. And they find Ciri, you know, training. And to Lambert's, like, “I don't know, this is, this is a weak thing to be doing right now”. And she takes the bait and they take her out to this huge rig that has these moving pendulums. It has, you know, these spinning spikes, it has a bridge that we see later that she has to like, move across and jump, a wall she has to scale, and they plop her on it.

KYLE: They feel like the older cousins in this scene are just like older brothers type of thing. We're just like, antagonizing your little sister or little cousin or something.

ALYSSA: Yeah.

KYLE: I don't know if it's if it's exactly out of meanness, or if it's, you know, I'm just trying to see if she can prove herself, I don't know. But it was cool to see the pendulum in general just because that's something that I think everybody knows and everybody loves and yeah, so it was cool to see that.

ALYSSA: I do wonder if, like, Lambert's taking out some of his aggression on Ciri now that he has her alone. You know, we saw in the previous scene he was upset about Eskel's death. I wonder if he's kind of taking advantage of the fact that she's trading by herself outside and he can bait her into this as well. I would agree that the pendulum is super cool and I do like the way that they did it in the show. There's obviously different interpretations in The Witcher 3 and in the books but this felt, you know, like a little obstacle course, it felt very fun for television, especially. If you guys are or aren't in the Hanza discord, we actually do have a channel called the pendulum, which is where we put all of our life stuff and like group therapy.

KYLE: Yeah.

ALYSSA: The pendulum ended up being the right name for like, "Hey, this is what I'm going through at the moment. This is what I'm struggling with at the moment." And the pendulum just felt like the right Witcher name to give it! So yeah, that's there.

KYLE: Yeah. I was gonna say just to the pendulum on our Discord is probably one of the better channels just because of that, where it's like you're allowed to feel human in a world at least for me, where growing up, you're not always allowed to have the feelings you have. So it's like having this community of friends who just allow you to be you and say like, yeah, you know, you're having a hard day. That's all right. And all those feelings are valid, like it is a great channel.

ELORA: Healthier than the Witcher pendulum.

KYLE: Yeah, exactly. So just more shout out for the Hanza discord, join up! We love getting people in there

ALYSSA: And then release all your trauma unto us in the pendulum.

KYLE: Yeah, exactly.

ALYSSA (VOICEOVER): Before we continue our discussion, we’re going to hand it over to Lars from WitcherFlix for recent news on the Netflix show. When we come back, Elora, Kyle, and I will continue our discussion of “What Is Lost”.

“Tidings from Toussaint”

[“Tidings from Toussaint” theme music by MojoFilter Media]

LARS FROM WITCHERFLIX: Hey, it's Lars from WitcherFlix and this is "Tidings from Toussaint". Welcome back everybody! The filming for Season 3 is well on its way - and Netflix revealed four new, exciting characters and their actors and actresses that will appear in the new season.

The most exciting one is arguably the fan-favorite character Milva who plays quite an important role in Geralt's storyline. She will be played by Chinese actress Meng'er Zhang. She is known for being in the recent Marvel movie "Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings". Netflix's character description for Milva reads as follows: "A human adopted by the dryads of Brokilon Forest, Milva is a fierce and talented huntress. Exact archery skills coupled with a stone-cold aptitude for survival make her a formidable adversary in the unforgiving Continent – those that cross her, do so at their peril." The second new character of Season 3 that was revealed by Netflix is Mistle, a character quite important to Ciri's story. Mistle will be played by Christelle Elwin who has appeared in "Half Bad" or "Bloods" before. This is what Netflix has to say about Mistle: "Mistle is a member of The Rats, a gang of misfit teenagers who steal from the rich and give to themselves – and sometimes the poor. She is street hard, suspicious of everyone and out for revenge, until a chance meeting that will change everything." The fact that Mistle is in Season 3 could also confirm the appearance of the other members of the Rats in some shape or form, like Giselher, Asse, Iskra, Kayleigh or Reef. But we don't know their actors yet.

Beyond these two book characters, Netflix also revealed two new original characters that were created for the show. First there is an elf named Gallatin. He will be played by Robbie Amell who is known for the show "Upload" and the movie "Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City" recently. Gallatin's description reads as follows: "A born fighter, Gallatin leads an army of guerrilla Scoia’tael fighting on behalf of Nilfgaard. Unafraid to speak his truth, Gallatin’s loyalty to his people ultimately leads him on a collision course with Francesca over power." If you ask me he sounds a little bit like the elf Isengrim, so maybe Gallatin is based on this elf from the books. Last but not least, there is a fourth character named Prince Radovid. But in contrast to the book and game character with the same name, the Radovid in the show is not King Vizimir of Redania's son, but his younger brother. He is played by Hugh Skinner whose credits include "Poldark" or "Fleabag". This is Radovid's official character description: "Royal playboy and younger brother to King Vizimir, Radovid finds himself suddenly a man on the inside of the Redanian Intelligence. With his good looks and drunken charm, Radovid amazes with how incisive he can be in political affairs, but it’s all games until someone gets hurt."

Meanwhile the Witcher production crew has moved back to the UK and after an Easter break the cameras started rolling again. To be precise, the crew filmed at Epping Forest near London in Essex. A lot of people from the area were able to take a look at the beautiful set. They saw horse carriages, beautifully crafted tents, benches and a lot of other props. Moreover Redanian Intelligence reported on several night shoots with various fires and lights. According to one of their early reports this set was for filming the Belleteyn festival that takes place in the Witcher book "The Sword of Destiny". In the show Geralt, Yennefer and Ciri will have a chance for bonding during this festival. In other news Redanian Intelligence reported that the Witcher will also be filming in Wales for Season 3. Gandja Monteiro, one of the new directors, posted photos on Instagram that showed her and other crew members like Dale McCready (the director of photography) scouting for locations in the beautiful mountains of Wales.

In other Witcher news, we have learned that Season 4 of The Witcher might be a very real possibility. In an interview with Brigade Radio, Witcher director Stephen Surjik revealed that the Witcher writers and producers have already mapped out Season 4. Even though Netflix has not confirmed anything yet, a renewal of The Witcher is quite likely. If they stick to the order of the books, a fourth season would probably adapt the third book in the Witcher main saga, "Baptism of Fire". By the way, showrunner Lauren Hissrich has always stated that she is planning to do seven seasons. So if we're lucky, there will be a lot more of The Witcher!

Last, but not least, there is also something new to report about the Witcher spinoff miniseries "Blood Origin": According to Redanian Intelligence, the new show was having some additional shoots, both in studio and on location. The reason for the reshoots is unknown. This was supported by show runner Declan de Barra himself, who posted a picture of a night shoot on Instagram. Luckily, it looks like the reshoots (that took place at Cowleaze Wood, west of London) only lasted about two weeks. Among the scenes that the crew filmed was an action sequence involving a camp, extras and horses. Unfortunately, we still don't know a release date for "Blood Origin" yet.

Anyway guys, that's it for me for today. I hope you all stay safe and well. We'll talk again in the next episode of Breakfast in Beauclair. Until then, thanks again for listening and good luck on the path!

[“Tidings from Toussaint” theme music by MojoFilter Media]

Discussion

ALYSSA (VOICEOVER): Hey everyone! Welcome back from the break. When we left off, Yennefer had returned to Aretuza and the Brotherhood of Sorcerers as Ciri takes on the infamous Pendulum.

In the next scene, Vesemir and Geralt leave Eskel's body to the wolves. This is something we haven't really heard of before. This is new for the show. And Elora, you also had a note about this scene as well.

ELORA: Another visual, okay, how am I gonna –

KYLE: This needs to be a spot for Elora in episodes, like “The Visuals”.

ELORA: “The Visual Analysis”. Yeah, this is I think the coolest thing I noticed on my rewatch, maybe people noticed it on their first watch, I didn't. There's this first shot that opens this scene, is the lake and the caves that they go into, but they do it vertically. At first I just was like, “oh, this is a cool shot, I'm gonna take a screenshot and see if I can analyze it a little bit more later”. Then as I analyzed it, I noticed that the way the caves are mirrored in the water makes it look like a wolf skull, which is such a cool detail because this is where the wolves live and apparently eat witchers. And I have to think of the work they have to do to make the set work, to actually adjust these rocks look like that. So that's incredible.

ALYSSA: I'd imagine it's probably a mix of like CG and environmental shots as well because you get like this really nice, like, you know, twisted circular pan of – I'm making broad wild gestures, here behind the microphone. But you kind of get this really nice twisted shot. And I think the really cool thing about this as well now that we're looking at a still, which I should probably put all these on the Breakfast in Beauclair Instagram or Twitter when this episode comes out.

KYLE: I was gonna suggest that, put that out and put Elora's audio over it and that’ll give you some good content.

ALYSSA: That would be really, really, really great content as well. I will test that. But yeah, the cool thing about this shot as well is that the artwork for Nightmare of the Wolf was also a skull in the same style as the episode artwork that we get throughout season one and season two. So it's really nice.

KYLE: I do like that, that style that they have where it almost looks like a coin of some sort or like melted metal that they've put into some kind of shape. It is cool.

ALYSSA: And I have so many thoughts. When we get to the end of the episode, I have a huge conspiracy theory and it does involve the show artwork for this episode.

KYLE: Oh, I can't wait.

ALYSSA: Man, but yeah, so the illustrations that they include with each episode are really nice. And as someone who does include illustrations for every episode, I can appreciate them as well. While Geralt and Vesemir are here, they start talking about, like, “the continent is changing! What if we have another conjunction!” And Geralt's like “don't even start on the possibility of another conjunction”, but it seems like Henry Cavill and Kim Bodnia had a lot of time to talk about their characters in preparation for the season which is really awesome. So I love every moment that we have with the two of them acting as father and son and as father and grandfather throughout this episode as well.

KYLE: I do think that the continent changing in the, this like “setting up the conjunction” stuff was a really good piece to weave in on Lauren's part, or whoever's, you know, actually writing the episode or directing the entire, you know, outlook of everything. Because it seems like it's a really nice way to weave in the short stories and the novels themselves and make that connection. I think the conjunction is almost a character in itself this season. So it was really cool to see that weaved in.

ALYSSA: And it'll also be the subject of the upcoming show Blood Origin as well, will be entirely focused around the Conjunction of The Sphere.

KYLE: Oh, that's right.

ALYSSA: So yeah, everyone's always preoccupied with the conjunction and monoliths, but we will get a lot more media around all of these as well. All these mysteries.

KYLE: Yeah, the monoliths thing is so interesting to me, like I am curious to see if – I'm sure that's going to be in Blood Origin because I'm like, where did the monoliths come from?

ELORA: Gotta be. Yeah, I wonder if they're kind of playing with the idea of viewer having watched Nightmare of the Wolf because you, you hear “this Leshy is mutated”. And if you have this knowledge of like, “oh, but the witchers also did that, hmm, can I trust Vesemir?”. 

KYLE: Yeah.

ELORA: For just someone who's only watching and not reading, I think like a nice little seed of tension.

ALYSSA: And as you move forward from the scene with Geralt and Vesemir, we're then brought back to Aretuza where in the next scene, Yennefer reunites with Sabrina and Triss at the baths, and Triss confides in Yennefer how the Battle of Sodden affected her mentally and physically. As we kind of see how the continent is changing, or Vesemir speculates that the continent is changing, we start to see how the events of the worlds have now affected some of our characters are sorceresses and Triss and Yennefer, specifically. And I think this really does plant the seed that we do see in the series, and as we talked about earlier, right, like Yennefer has lost her magic, we know that from the earlier episodes, even if the other characters don't. We also hear how the Battle of Sodden affected other characters such as Triss, and hopefully, as we said earlier, we'll get to see the effects of that play out over later seasons and a full character arc for Triss.

ELORA: What I think was nice was them showing the viewer again that both Yen and Triss have scars, that they consciously choose to not mask with magic, and that they choose to keep because it reminds them what happened in their past is part of them now, which is a nice little thing that helps the viewer understand why they connect, they understand each other well, I think.

KYLE: Do we know from the show that they can cover their scars if they want to? Or that they can kind of change their appearance? Because I don't, I don't remember how it's been pitched up.

ALYSSA: Well, we do see, I think the next scene or a couple of scenes from now that Stregobor apparently has no hands.

ELORA: There's some kind of camouflage, yeah.

ALYSSA: So I guess, you know, to an extent, but you know, we do get Triss with the entire season with a very high neckline and all of her scenes. And Yennefer obviously has the scars from her suicide attempt in season one, which she then shows, I think particularly in episodes seven or eight. But that is a really good point to bring up, especially for Triss of course, but with the two of them that theme of overcoming and accepting I think a certain amount of their trauma and their past. And there's a specific line that Triss and Yennefer have here where Yennefer says “We'll find a cure for your scars, I'll talk to Tissaia.” And Triss cuts her off to say '”No, what's lost is lost. I'm not on Tissaia’s plaque, I'm not dead, I have to find a new way forward.” And first of all, it's like oh, she said the thing she said the name of the episode! 

KYLE: Yeah!
ALYSSA: But at the same time, ou know, I'm sure that that phrase of just “I'm not dead, I have to find a new way forward”, that almost feels like as if it was written as like a fortune cookie for her, for Yennefer, because she too has to like accept the fact that she doesn't have her magic anymore. At the same time, she's not dead, she has a shot, and she has to find a new way forward as well. How she goes about that though…as we get too late, like other parts of the season gets a little dicey. You know, even just this little line is a bit of a reminder as to like the path that she's going to move forward with in this season.

KYLE: So that makes me curious of the “we’ll find a cure for your scars”. Wouldn't the cure be glamarye or what have you? Isn't that what they call, like, when they cover themselves up?

ALYSSA: Um…glamarye at least makes you more beautiful. I do know that. There might be a difference though, to them, between masking it or obscuring it versus actually healing it. And I think there's definitely a question about like, what are the actual limitations of magic, although, again, that kind of gets chucked out the window when we see that Stregobor has no hands.

KYLE: Yeah.

ELORA: Yeah, that's definitely possible. So yes, we definitely know that Tissaia will know a cure.

KYLE: Does that – does that mean he's more powerful, you think?

ALYSSA: Or he's, like, struck a deal with the devil like unclear? I would believe either.

KYLE: Maybe he is the big bad we just don't know it yet.

ALYSSA: And I mean on that note, we might as well continue talking about Stregobor because he comes into the next scene and in the next scene, Stregobor tells the mages about Falka's rebellion, a story familiar to readers of The Witcher series. Istredd counter Stregobor fear-mongering with his knowledge of history. Stregobor pulls up this like illusion or illustration, a diorama, whatever you want to call it. It’s magic!

ELORA: It's magic! A hologram.

ALYSSA: Yeah, basically right? Of this burning woman and a fire and it's genuinely very cool the way that, like, it was constructed and the way that appears on screen. But Stregobor starts, like, putting on a show for all these like lower mages of you know, “Falka slaughtered everyone. And she, like, killed her father. She slaughtered people in the street. She cried death on all kings!” And Istredd kind of like, sneaks like, crab walks into the room. And he's like, I don't know about that!

ELORA: Um, actually!

ALYSSA: Istredd's like she just wanted her throne back and Stregobor was like, no, but she was quarter-elven. And now we're back to this whole thing again, it's a mess. Yeah, he does – he goes on about like she's quarter-elven, like Yennefer was! If we allow our power to be diluted by Elven blood, Thanned will be led to ruin! And it's like, oh my God, just stop. Like, who is this serving? Nobody!

KYLE: It feels like a commentary on what is going on in the world at the time. Yeah, just putting blame on certain races, if you will, or cultures or whatnot. I think that's probably what they were trying to get across.

ELORA: Maybe a little clumsily. But it's definitely a book theme as well. So fair enough.

ALYSSA: We saw, like, the power of mages to, like, stir up political trouble and cultural trouble as well. Like we saw this Nightmare of The Wolf between Tetra and then the populace that was drawn to Kaer Morhen. And we also see this as well, and it can only have bad consequences, even if we don't exactly know where they're going to go with Stregobor’s character, like, um, this can only go poorly. Like, I don't know what to tell you. I feel like this is a bad idea. It's bad juju. And it's yeah, like this – this is terrible. So some of the interesting things about this, though. I know in a previous episode of Breakfast in Beauclair, Lars in one of his, in one of his segments, I think it was episode 47. Lars does speculate that Falka's Rebellion might be a really good piece for the next anime movie that they create. As of right now, we're recording at the end of February, we don't have any idea what the next anime movie will be and its kept very tightly under wraps, but I think I do agree, like this can definitely be a possibility. And because they have a tendency to, you know, drop easter eggs for the things that they're working on. I think it would be a really good subject for especially like a gory anime movie the way Nightmare of The Wolf was.

KYLE: Oh, my god Nightmare of The Wolf. That, I mean, just the beginning scene. I literally watched that scene in the beginning of that movie and then walked away for like, a day.

ALYSSA: Yeah, I did the same thing!

ELORA: Yeah, it was a lot.

KYLE: It was like, I can't, I can't watch this right now. I have a new child, I can't be watching this shit. But yeah, I think the movie like an anime movie on Falka's Rebellion would be huge. It kind of follows the structure of what we see now with a lot of things where they're building out that universe. With all the little things that may have been in a book, it would make sense for them to do something about Falka.

ELORA: I'd really like them to explore the story like that and I'm very happy that they mentioned Falka already. It's always a rough balance in the story to give the viewer the information they need without it feeling like just someone lecturing at you. Well, Stregobor is doing that literally here but it does work. My commentary on the books would be that it it handles that less deftly than the show is so far, in that Sapkowski does have a tendency to give you a chapter of mages telling you about this bit of history. I have a tendency to not focus as much during those bits, at least this way you get just a little bit of a seeding. You know, oh, actually this is also a character that you need to know about. Oh, there was something about her wanting her throne back. Oh, she was a bit elven, okay. That, that is more efficient than here is the start story of Falka I like as if they would have just 10 minutes in an episode be like a block off telling you about Falka.

ALYSSA: Yeah.

ELORA: They get to disguise it by definitely this way instead of having a very obvious 'you need to know about Falka because in a bit' there's got to be some stuff. They get to make it look more like you can tell now that Stregobor is painting Yen in a bad light that, that's what this episode is about. So you kind of get to push it away like this has served its purpose but you still have the information.

KYLE: Yeah. And I wonder, no spoilers here. But if the whole Falka thing is setting up another Falka reference set from the books, hit him with the dab.

ELORA: Interesting, seems important that we know this name for some reason.

KYLE: It seems important.

ALYSSA: We just got a clue!

KYLE: Just read the books if you haven't.

ALYSSA: Aside from all of this information about Falka and Stregobor's fear mongering, as we said, he does say something to Istredd, which I think is really interesting, a really clever part of the writing. Istredd is talking about like, well, Falka's means were a little bit justified. She had her reasons and Stregobor says “A historian should know bloodlines better, but history does have a way of repeating itself, doesn't it?” And I did like this just because, especially on a rewatch, Istredd entire storyline in the season is all about bloodlines. But he does that in the next five episodes. So I do really like the fact that they kind of planted the seed here, even if it's not about you know, Ciri as we'll find later and this is about Falka, it is a throwaway line. I do like the fact that it alludes to the rest of his arc for the rest of the season.

ELORA: Yeah, he's a good historian.

ALYSSA: He's the goodest boy. And I do like the way that they've used him here.

KYLE: Yeah, I love him.

ELORA: I love that's also like an improvement that the show does to the books, because they do do some. In the books, he's there for a short story and the whole short story like this takes you, he's competing with Geralt for Yennefer, I hate him so much. So like the first bits that he had, I was, like, instinctively like oh, I hate this guy. And then it turns out actually in the show yeah, he's – he's actually all right. He's actually a nice guy.

ALYSSA (VOICEOVER): Before we get to the rest of the episode, we’re going to take a break here. Next episode, join me, Elora from the Netherlands, and Kyle from the US as we continue our discussion of Netflix's The Witcher 203, “What Is Lost.”

Outro & Credits

[Breakfast in Beauclair theme music by MojoFilter Media]

ALYSSA: Thanks for joining us at the breakfast table! For show notes, transcripts of each episode, and a complete list of our social platforms and listening services, head over to breakfastinbeauclair.com.

Breakfast in Beauclair is created by Alyssa from GoodMorhen. It’s hosted by Alyssa with the “Tidings from Toussaint” News Segment by Lars from WitcherFlix. The show is edited by Alyssa with music by MojoFilter Media.

Breakfast in Beauclair is produced by Alyssa in New York City with Luis of Kovir, The Owner of The Churlish Porpoise, Katie (The Redhead of Toussaint), Jacob B., Ayvo of Gulet, Bee Haven of the Edge of the World, Charlotte from Vengerberg Glamarye, RedKite, The Original Roach, Codringher’s Cat, Libby, Clare Odell, Jennidy Mundilovitch, Wolf, Corey from the US, John of Ryblia, Tom from Australia, Jill Cate, The Tabby Witch, Olle from Sweden, James Carson III, Father of Bean, Psilocybe Sorcerer, A Toussaint Knight, Roxas, Jeanette of Brokilon, and Miriam of Temeria.

Special thanks to Elora and Kyle for joining us for this episode and our international hanza for their support.

Transcriptionist: John Matthew M. Sarong

 

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