"It takes bravery to stand against a crowd."
Hello everyone!
Or, shall we say, welcome back to Jaskier's world, which Geralt is only living in, and he's mostly disgruntled about it.
When tonight's blog choice was first announced, back in the day, I was super stoked, because Nightmare of the Wolf had been a pretty good addition to The Witcher universe, and it seemed like Netflix was really going to go places with these adaptations.
... of course, then the Henry Cavill thing happened, and one thing led to another, and now I don't know when season 4 is even airing, nor will I be watching it.
But I DID watch this one, because it's an adaptation of a short story that Andrzej Sapkowski wrote, called 'A Little Sacrifice'.
I loved it back then, and I love it even more now, so let's go ahead and have a look at Sirens of the Deep, shall we?
Geralt and Jaskier are in the middle of nowhere, trying to evade Yennefer, per Jaskier's instructions (Jaskier is literally ALL of us, because the relationship between our witcher and the witch is absolutely NOT healthy and fairly toxic all around). They're also supposed to hunt down a sea monster, but when Geralt corners it, merpeople show up to plead for mercy, saying it can't kill humans and so whoever hired Geralt has the wrong culprit.
Thus, having not delivered on the contract, they don't have much money, which is when Jaskier's hired as a bard for the upcoming festival that the king himself of the town they're in will be attending - and they link up with Jaskier's childhood friend, Essi.
That's right, this corner of the world is Jaskier's origin story, and it's not really a dreamy one because he was bullied and targeted for being different and wanting to become an artist rather than working the sea.
Also, his chief bully was the king's illegitimate son, Zelest, who's gone on to leading all the armed forces of the town, much to Jaskier's disgruntlement.
That, however, is not his chief problem at the moment.
The big problem presents itself in this: the town survives off fishing, specifically for oysters, and the pearls within, but in doing so, they're depleting natural hunting grounds for the merpeople and other sea creatures below the surface.
And in the middle of this is the love story between human prince Angloval, and merprincess Sh'eenaz, who have somehow been able to communicate without speaking one another's language (also, despite the fact that one has a tail and the other legs, they've done the deed, which I'm not sure the logistics of ...), and want their union to bring peace and stability.
Not that either set of parents approve, the human king certainly does not, and the mer couple, well, absolutely not.
At this time, Geralt is hired to investigate another attack on a fishing boat, right after his medallion rings during the banquet, indicating a monster to be near.
After a wake-up call when a fishy assassin fails to get him while asleep, he accepts Essi's help in taking him across the flats during low tide, to figure out who the hell sent the assassin, and who's responsible for the killing.
Which is when Zelest shows up to kill some creatures, basically ruining Geralt's chances and kickstarting a war all on his lonesome, though an argument between the two young star-crossed lovers doesn't help things, either.
But Geralt's not so quick to point fingers, because, as he says, this is the same as every feud since the Conjunction and something smells fishy to him.
Turns out, this Little Mermaid retelling has its own sea witch character in the form of Melusina, the royal auntie, who's revealed to be masquerading as a human princess to try and sway Angloval to her side.
It ALSO turns out the king and she have been conspiring to get Angloval to back off, so that an all-out war could be declared, and Melusina could get revenge on her sister (the queen, natch), who, as she says, 'stole' the king from her, as they were in love first, but Melusina being barren meant he turned to the woman who could give him a child.
Which is why she wants to kill Sh'eenaz, too, while she's at it.
This escalates into a fight, before which Geralt, Jaskier, and Zelest, who renounced his father and his position after learning he'd been helping perpetrate a lie, are supposed to be killed, but of course it all goes to hell in a handbasket.
The animated genre REALLY does justice to what Geralt as a witcher can do, and I'm of the firm belief that the show as a whole should have been animated from the get-go. Live action is well and good but, animated is the way to go.
Anyway.
Essi convinces Angloval to stand for what's right, and he arrives just in time for Sh'eenaz to have her hope restored, which is just as well since his father almost slices her tail off. Geralt defeats Melusina and Angloval sends everyone home, where his dad thinks that the boy's going to follow his idea, which is Sh'eenaz will tale the potion Melusina made her and turn human, sacrificing for the love she has for her prince.
Except what happens is ANGLOVAL drinks the potion, telling his father that if he cared half as much for his kingdom as he did his own pride, he'd still have a son, then disappears under the sea with his new wife.
Geralt and Essi share a night together (and those SHOTS OF GERALT, MESSIRS, THIS IS A WENDY'S), but ultimately he admits he can't settle down with her like she would have wanted, and she wants a family. She doesn't blame him, and they part amicably, with Jaskier and our witcher hitting the road again - far, FAR from Yennefer, thank you VERY much, per Jaskier himself!
A one and a half hour story that combines elements of The Little Mermaid as well as Romeo and Juliet, it ties in neatly into the larger universe (Jaskier even cracks a joke about leaving Geralt alone at a ball one time and him landing himself with a kid) and still stands strongly on its own two feet. I really enjoyed it, the style it was done in, and wish they'd do more animated installments in the future.
All in all, a great way to spend a lazy afternoon or evening, and I definitely recommend!
xx
*images and video not mine
No comments:
Post a Comment