Ep. 71 — 101 "Of Ballads, Brawlers, and Bloodied Blades" from Netflix's Blood Origin
Ben from the US and John aka Softie from the UK join Alyssa for our discussion of Netflix’s The Witcher: Blood Origin Episode 101 “Of Ballads, Brawlers, and Bloodied Blades”. Very important bits include: our standouts and critiques, how the framing narrative eases the viewer into the prequel, pre-Conjunction Elven architecture, the early journey of our protagonists and how their internal conflicts are illustrated in combat, and whether or not the betrayal of the monarchies was justified. Plus, Softie brings a revelation of monolithic proportions.
This episode is available at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, and Stitcher.
In this Episode
[00:00] Cold Open
[01:07] Introduction
[08:58] Episode Highlights & Lowlights
[15:30] “How does the framing narrative ease the viewer into ‘Blood Origin’?”
[22:29] “How is the Elven aesthetic realized?”
[34:14] “How do Fjall and Éile cope with their losses?”
[39:03] ‘Tidings from Toussaint’, Mid-Episode News Segment
[43:56] “How does the show further contextualize the monoliths?”
[52:59] “Do you believe the betrayal of the kingdoms was justified?”
[1:03:47] “How are the fight scenes representative the characters’ internal conflicts?”
[1:17:56] Outro & Credits
Relevant Links
Transcript
Cold Open
Transcript to come.
[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.
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[Episode Details]
As for this episode, Ben from the US and John aka Softie from the UK call in to discuss Netflix’s The Witcher: Blood Origin Episode 101 “Of Ballads, Brawlers, and Bloodied Blades”. Join us as we discuss our standouts and critiques of the episode, how the framing narrative eases the viewer into the prequel, pre-Conjunction Elven architecture, the early journey of our protagonists and how their internal conflicts are illustrated in combat, and whether or not the betrayal of the monarchies was justified. Plus, Softie brings a revelation of monolithic proportions.
We’ll be following a new discussion format for these four ‘Blood Origin’ podcast episodes. Instead of scene-by-scene, we’ll open with a brief synopsis of the episode before answering book-club styled questions to dig more into the characters, plot, and themes of each episode. I’m excited to trial a new format after 70 episodes, so let me know if you have any feedback on the new structure via email or social. Your feedback will help inform the direction of our discussions for our Time of Contempt and ‘The Witcher’ Season 3 episodes.
In our mid-episode news segment, “Tidings from Toussaint,” Lars from Witcherflix shares some insights into Season 3 of ‘The Witcher’ on Netflix.
Without further ado, let’s get to our discussion of Netflix’s ‘The Witcher: Blood Origin’ Episode 101 “Of Ballads, Brawlers, and Bloodied Blades”.
Discussion
[Breakfast in Beauclair stinger by MojoFilter Media]
Transcript to come.
ALYSSA: Today, we’ll kick off our discussion of Netflix’s ‘The Witcher: Blood Origin’ with the series premiere Episode 101, ‘Of Ballads, Brawlers, and Bloodied Blades’ in which a tavern brawl puts Éile on a collision course with destiny, emotions get the best of Fjall, and a royal betrayal leads to bloodshed. Here’s a quick synopsis of the episode:
ALYSSA (VOICEOVER): In Episode 101, Jaskier is saved from a Temerian army camp by the Scoia’tael. In the midst of the battle, a mysterious elven storyteller whisks him away to tell him ‘The Story of the Seven’. We are introduced to Éile, a warrior-turned-bard from the Raven Clan, and Fjall Stoneheart, an exiled royal protector from the Dog Clan, who meet in a jail cell in a village at the edge of the world. Meanwhile, Princess Merwyn of Xin’trea, continually belittled by her brother, the king, stages a coup against the three elven monarchies with Chief Sage Balor and High Commander Eredin, who each have their own agendas for achieving power on the Continent. Despite Merwyn’s active role, Balor and Eredin keep her as a puppet empress and unite the now-leaderless kingdoms under their Golden Empire. They raise monoliths in hopes of reaching and conquering other worlds for their own prosperity. When Éile and Fjall learn of Merwyn’s betrayal, they seek out Scían of the Ghost tribe for help on their quest to assassinate the empress.
Transcript to come.
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, Ben, Softie, and I will continue our discussion on ‘Of Ballads, Brawlers, and Bloodied Blades’.
“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 and happy new year. After the release of the Witcher spinoff miniseries ‘Blood Origin’ on December 25th, 2023 will be the year that will see the release of Season 3 of The Witcher main show. It will be an adaptation of the second book in the main saga, Time of Contempt, and at the same time the final season of Henry Cavill as Geralt. He will be replaced by Liam Hemsworth in Season 4 that is already confirmed.
How long we have to wait for Season 3, we don't really know at the moment. Netflix revealed back in September that the new season will see its release this summer. But when exactly is not known. In an interview with Collider, showrunner Lauren Hissrich talked about the possibility of splitting up Season 3 into two parts. The reason for this would be the time consuming work on the special effects. She adds that she thinks that the post production for Season 3 will take at least seven more months. Splitting up a season of television due to VFX work was prominently done last year with Season 4 of ‘Stranger Things’, so this is definitely not unheard of. So what exactly does this mean? According to this, we can expect new episodes of The Witcher in August at the earliest.
In an interview with IGN, Lauren Hissrich talked about the Witcher show's future with Liam Hemsworth as Geralt of Rivia: "What I’m excited about is that we are allowing this franchise to continue growing, and that we get new energy and chemistry that we haven’t discovered yet. And to me that’s part of the fun of television; you don’t know where exactly the adventure is going to end. So it’s something I’m really excited about." In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Lauren also talks about giving Henry cavill a heroic sendoff. She said: "Geralt’s big turn is about giving up neutrality and doing anything that he has to do to get to Ciri. And to me, it’s the most heroic sendoff that we could have, even though it wasn’t written to be that. Geralt has a new mission in mind when we come back to him in Season 4. He’s a slightly different Geralt than we expected." Lauren also talked about Season 3 as a whole and as an adaptation of Time of Contempt: "What is so interesting is that Season 3, to me, is the closest thing that we’ve done as a one-to-one adaptation of the books [...] Obviously, we can’t do every page, but Time of Contempt gave us so many big action events, plot points, defining character moments, huge reveals of a big bad. There’s so much to do that we were able to stick really, really closely with the books.
On social media, Lauren also talked about another recasting that (as reported a few months ago) will already take place in Season 3. Sam Woolf will be replacing Chris Fulton as the rogue mage Rience. As expected, scheduling conflicts are the reason for this change. This is what Lauren said: "Chris Fulton was AMAZING and we were so sad (as was he) that the dates we needed him for didn’t align with the movie he was shooting. Sam Woolf had huge shoes to fill, but don’t worry, Rience is just as scary in S3!"
In another interview with Collider, showrunner Lauren Hissrich looked into the future and talked about a possible endpoint of the Witcher main show. She said: "It has been my goal with my executives at Netflix to always have an end point in mind because to me, when you start just writing stories without knowing where they're going, you can get lost. And what I think is so interesting about what we have figured out, to answer your question in two ways, yes, I absolutely know where the series is going to end. I know what season it's going to end. I know how it's going to end, which is very, very exciting."
Last but not least, thanks to a report by Redanian Intelligence we have learned about a new book-character that will make an appearance in Season 3 of The Witcher. It is the legendary Falka. She is a historical figure in the books who lived about 120 years before the Witcher main saga. She became notorious for starting a bloody rebellion against her own father, King Vridank of Redania, to win back the throne that Falka thought was rightfully hers. Falka will be played by British actress Hiftu Quasem who appeared in productions like ‘Ten Percent’ and ‘Killing Eve’ before. Redanian Intelligence reports that she had been involved in the shooting in Morocco back in July 2022 where she filmed with Freya Allan. This would hint at Ciri having more visions. These will be some interesting scenes.
Anyway guys, that's it for me for today. I hope the new year brings you all happiness, good health and a lot of great moments in the world of the Witcher! 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, Ben, Softie, and I had discussed our overall highlights and lowlights, the series’ framing narrative, and how the show establishes the world and stakes in Episode 1.
Transcript to come.
ALYSSA (VOICEOVER): Hey guys! So I did get a chance to ask about the original Polish here. According to Bolo from Poland, “The name monolith does appear. But it's common to not repeat the same word over and over again—contrary to what you might think after all the pirouettes in the Witcher! The description of said stone is, “on the top of [...] the hill there was huge stone supported by a few smaller ones.” Not a monolith like Washington, DC in size or shape; not even menhir-sized as far as I can read into this. Especially since it's explicitly stated to not be smooth not two sentences after. It looks like it's more of a classic trope of the lay lines intersections since it's there since forgotten times rather than the since the Conjunction.” This information has sparked some discussion in the Hanza Discord (with pictures!) about how the stones in Blood of Elves have been interpreted around the world by readers of different translations. You can find that in the Hanza Discord under the book discussion #no-spoilers channel.
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, Wolf, John of Ryblia, Tom from Australia, Jill Cate, The Tabby Witch, Olle from Sweden, James Carson III, Psilocybe Sorcerer, A Toussaint Knight, Miriam of Temeria, Softie, and Mary the Moo.
Special thanks to Ben and Softie for joining us for this episode and our international hanza for their support.
Transcriptionist: Charlie Lim
Editor: John Matthew Sarong, Krizia Marrie Casil