¶ Introduction to Sirens of the Deep
Welcome one and all to our 112th episode of Project Geekology . Today , we will not be throwing a coin to our witcher , but we will be talking about Geralt of Rivia , as well as Jaskier , or Dandelion , if you prefer on an adventure that has recently been released on Netflix . It's an animated film called Sirens of the Deep , and we have a lot to say about it .
I've got a lot to say about it . My name is Dakota .
I'm joined , as always , with Anthony , and I know that you say we weren't going to be talking about tossing a coin to the Witcher , but are we going to be talking about O Valley of Plenty ?
If by O Valley of Plenty you mean like the coastline and you know , like the ocean , then yes , yes , yes , and joining us as always , now , as always is .
Rich , I'm excited here , despite the siren songs that you may have heard to start the show , I think that we will all navigate these waters and come to an accord at the end .
We better , we sure as hell better . Yeah , we have a lot to talk about today with the Netflix film the Witcher Sirens of the Deep , adapted from my personal favorite Witcher story , which is called A Little Sacrifice , which is featured in the first Witcher novel , sword of Destiny .
I'm excited to talk about some of the pros and cons of how it was adapted because , yeah , I really love that story . But before we get into any of that , let's talk about what we've been up to this past week .
Anthony , we'll start with you what have I been up to ? I have been up to playing , you know , our topic of last week , marvel rivals . I've been playing more of that . I don't play it like crazy all the time , so like my rank isn't super high but like I'm almost in platinum , I've made it to gold one , so I'm getting up there , but I've been doing that .
I talked to you a little bit in the beginning , like before we started recording that I have been , you know , kind of full steam on another like stint of watching one piece . You know like I'll watch a whole bunch of it and then like I'll start taking a break , which I don't want to take like as long of a break as I did like this last time .
But there are some , some anime that like I want to watch this time around . I think the second season of solo leveling finished up , so I definitely want to watch that . The first season was awesome . I heard that the second season just kind of ups the ante , so I'm really excited about that .
And I also talked about I also talked to like rich and dakota off of the recording , but like a few months back I had applied for a remote position . It's an it position for the bank that I work for and I did not end up getting it that first time around . The position opened up again like five months later and I applied and this time I got it .
And I start at the end of this month that's awesome , dude .
I'm happy for you . I was like depressed when you said that you didn't get it the first time . I was just like , oh , but they left , they kept your application right and yeah , so it's . It's good that they kept it because they clearly liked you yeah , no , absolutely .
The hiring manager was the one that reached out to me when this position opened up and he was like , hey , we have a position opening up , applied now , and so so that's what I did , and they ended up hitting me up and they , yeah , they kind of like brought up points about last time .
Like you know that you know we're really impressed about this and you know it wasn't like fully there like choice to like choose the last person .
I think that , like as a collective , they chose the person , but they were , like you know , last time you really did make it hard and it felt a little unfair that we weren't able to pick you too , but we're glad that we get to pick you now . I'm really stoked about that and excited to kind of grow and learn a lot more .
And so , yeah , man , like big moves , I feel like I'm progressing and whatnot . I'm excited about that . But , yeah , how about you , dakota ? What have you been up to ? I know that you haven't been feeling so well .
So yeah , I , I got like really sick yesterday . I don't know what happened I don't think it's the flu or I don't know if it is the flu but I got like a really bad cold where I just had like chills on and off for the past two days . I almost like . I almost canceled the recording today because earlier today I was .
I was having a hard time talking , but as of right now I can manage an hour of conversation on and off , so that's not too bad . As far as what I've been up to , I watched a little bit of Daredevil the new marvel series that is on disney plus , oh same .
I watched the first episode . What'd you think it was ? I feel like that there's definitely they've got something going there . They definitely shock you , like pretty quick . In the beginning there was definitely some sort of symbolism that was happening there in the meta , though like not really inside the show .
Happening there in the meta , though like not really inside the show , but like in the meta . But you know , I I feel like that's something that we could probably you know , I don't want to divulge too much . It's fresh , it's new and I want to let it kind of , you know , release before we actually like talk about it .
But you know , like oh yeah , in a sidebar I was trying to figure out what you were saying about yeah , yeah , yeah , like , like the first , like 16 minutes , you know okay , yeah so yeah , I enjoyed it as well .
It was kind of weak compared to the original show in terms of the cinematography and the writing , but it's good to see these characters again , even only for a couple minutes I will say I mean the cinematography might not be as strong , but it's still stronger than a lot of what has been coming out recently for disney marvel stuff .
But it was nice seeing charlie cox again . You know it's hard to like see anybody else in that role and I'm glad that he's , so , he's , he's .
He's fantastic in that role , yeah rich .
Did you give it a shot ? Oh yeah , I mean , my bar is pretty low for superhero and star wars content . I think I have to be fair , kind of say that . So I really loved it . I mean , I think the only thing that you , you know , I had heard that I guess earlier versions or earlier shoots of this were more mainstream accessible , you know .
So you know , when Charlie hears he's 10 , he hears about a series like , oh you know , I want to watch it . And when I heard about Daredevil I was like give me a sec .
I got to check it out , you know , and I remember with dr strange multiverse of madness , he , he heeded my warnings and just , he basically watched new rock stars analysis but he didn't see any live action clips of , of , of dr , you know , of scarlet witch going crazy and I'm watching this and even two episodes , and I know that he can't watch it .
You know , it's just , it's like he's yeah , they're not holding back , he'll watch it .
He could watch deadpool , because deadpool is kind of being ridiculous and it almost seems like it's not really it's cartoon . Yeah , it's cartoon , cartoony murder . Also , my wife fell asleep during the movie , so that helped a lot . Uh , but this is like a little too serious . You know , I'm just like I don't . I don't think I'm cool with it . I really liked it .
I mean , if only to see the characters back . Definitely , I love d'onofrio's kingpin .
It's just he's so good it's unbelievable , like .
You know what's weird is he like , for example , lost weight , you know , and they do comment on that in the first two episodes , yeah , but with another person it would feel like , oh man , they're not in character now , right , but for him it legitimately feels like part of the psyche of the kingpin in this moment , right , like he's leaner , he's healthier , but
he's weaker . You know , he doesn't , he's not as aggressive and I think , right , yeah , it's interesting , I just I love that . I'll just say that vanessa scares the bejesus out of me . I , I , she is .
Wow , I mean right right now , for me , two episodes in just a villain that is understated and that makes it all the more distressing okay , so I , I really I liked , which is which is weird , because she wasn't that character in the original show .
Yep , like she evolved into that character for this show . Yeah , so that's cool .
So I think it's . You know . Look , I try to give all of them a pretty good shake going in and it did not feel like a . I'm not going to say it was season four , but it's not terribly different . So if this is a multiverse , this is the universe right over . You know , it's just a little off .
Okay , sure , yeah , all right , you know it's like your favorite dish but you get it at a different restaurant . So it's still really good , but you know it's not the same as the other one got it well and that that's exactly what they're going for .
They're not trying to make it a season four , they're really like leaning in on the whole rebirth , like name , and they're not going based off of a storyline but more of it being a rebirth of the daredevil series .
You know , without them completely , you know reworking it and those like first , you know the like the beginning is them trying to like kind of move on from that . You know I feel like they could have maybe done that a little bit better , but it was still shocking enough . But you know I don't want to like reveal too much and dig too deep . You know .
I know that eventually we'll talk about it at some point .
Yeah , I'd love to dedicate an episode or two to Daredevil Born Again , because the episodes are long . The first episode is an hour long , which is unlike Disney+ .
I was excited man .
I was excited when I saw that . That gave me a little bit of hope .
And also , like you know , something that disney is and this is a crime to me is like they'll put a show . It'll be like 30 to 45 minutes and like six of it's like credits .
Oh man , oh yeah , that's a crime . Dude , like I'm like dude , I see what y'all did .
We didn't need to see all this yeah , I don't need to know who the icelandic typecaster is like , please right , it's so crazy like their credits are .
It's really insane before I cede my time over to rich in terms of what I've been up to this past week , I want to talk about a couple books that I got that I'm excited to jump into all of them avatar related the code of the book guy . Book guy . I start with Avatar Legends , the role-playing game , uncle Iroh's Adventure Guide .
Ooh yeah , it's the latest hardcover booklet or adventure guide for the Avatar Legends role-playing game . It's been out for a couple months now . This is the first I've picked it up and given a look at . Couple months now . This is the first I've picked it up and given a look at .
But yeah , it expands on the lore of the Avatar universe as well as giving you like five unique stories from different eras , starting from Kyoshi to Roku , to Hundred Year War , to Aang and then Korra , all taking place within a unique setting . So , yeah , I'm excited to jump into that . Next up , another Avatar book Avatar Frontiers of Pandora , solex Journey .
It may not be the Avatar that you guys were expecting to hear . I was a big fan of Frontiers of Pandora , the video game .
Yeah , it was pretty fun .
That came out a couple probably about a year ago at this point , and the character in it that they made an overarching narrative with for this comic series . It's a Dark Horse comic series , six issues and I don't know anything about what's in this book besides that it ties in with the video game Frontiers of Pandora , so I'm excited to jump into that .
And just this past week the first one-shot comic graphic novel for the Legend of Korra came out . It's called the Mystery of Penquan Island and I'm excited to jump into it .
It follows Mako and Bolin as they get a tip about something going on with Penquan Island and on the cover it kind of hints at , you know , like we will probably learn more about their early life with their parents . So there's a mystery there and I'm excited to jump into that .
So yeah , some some avatar content for me to read this week nice other than that . Yeah , I think I'm gonna cede my time to rich rich . What have you been up to this past week ?
I mean , I just got some work stuff going on , so that kind of takes over a little bit , but other than that , I finally finished outlaws . Well , I've completed the main quest and everything , and I'm doing like one of the dlcs now that they came out with I think there's another one on the way .
Actually , if I'm reading everything correctly , just kind of in a holding pattern to mlb , the show is downloaded . That would be , uh , exactly eight days from now I will come home from work and I will be a happy man .
Baseball will be in full swing , so stuff ready for that yeah , it's , it's it's uh spring training right now , right oh yeah , I'm making my family watch meaningless games taking place in this tiny little stadium in florida yeah yeah , they're , yeah it's .
They're just like what already , like we're getting started like these don't count so , but it's right around the corner it's still fun to see the the players you know warming up yeah , so that's .
Oh yeah , I did , I'm sorry , go , I was going to say like , with us being on the topic of video games , dude , I completely forgot . It's probably because I'm feeling like pretty sleepy right now , but I completely forgot that , like I've also been playing Monster Hunter Wilds .
Oh yeah , how is it ?
Dude , it's awesome . Yeah , it's awesome . The the world is like pretty open . Now there's definitely like spots where you kind of load in , but it's nowhere near how monster hunter used to be , where like every zone was like you know , like you would have to load in and load out . Monster hunter world took away a lot of that .
But now , like the , the home bases that you go to you can go straight to like the zone from there . Like you don't load in from there . I mean there is loading , like you know , when you go to hop into a hunt to like help somebody else with a hunt , then like you'll like load into their game and then like you'll kind of of join them there .
But it's been fun , like it's really cool . I feel like they definitely a lot of the like almost like all of the weapons . They've done a lot of TLC over the years of like certain weapons , like especially like the hunting horn and stuff , and this is like the culmination of that .
You know I like monster hunter and that's why I had asked you , I think last week or like last oh yeah , last episode .
If my brother was excited , yeah if he was gonna get it .
And yeah , man , it , it was worth it . The weight was worth it . I've been , you know , monster hunter . Like to me is is like you MLB the show to Rich .
I heard that , depending on the weapon that you choose , your gameplay style could be Devil May Cry or Elden Ring . Yes , which is so funny .
For a long time it's kind of been like that , when you're fighting with something like a long time , it's kind of been like that , like when you're fighting with something like a long sword or like a great sword , you're going to be doing a lot of like slower swings .
The long sword is faster than the great sword , but yeah , like it that does feel like a little bit elden , ringy or dark souls like . But then you like you use the dual swords and like it's a lot of like hack and slashing and you're like , you know , just a lot faster yeah , a lot
¶ Our Witcher Experience and Background
faster .
And then sometimes there's like this ability that you can use with the dual swords that allows you to do this crazy combo that , like you like attack , go into the air , use your like the , the like not grappling hook , but it's like a , you know , it's like a kind of like a grapple to , like you know , pull yourself back to the monster and then , like you do
this crazy like windmill , attack down the back of it . So , yeah , that's definitely like devil may cry . And then then you have a lot of long-range weapons like bows and and bow guns . I actually have been using a lot more bow guns this time around .
I dabbled with it in Monster Hunter world and rise , but I usually stuck with the insect glaive or even like the dual swords . I used to play a lot of gun Lance before that . But yeah , like I've been messing around the bow guns in this one . But yeah , it's just been fantastic . I don't know if you've heard anything about it from austin .
I know austin I haven't spoken to him in a bit , yeah , so I haven't heard anything but he's probably enjoying it too oh , I'm sure he is yeah , so knowing my brother rich , we kind of cut you off .
Yeah , sorry about that oh , no , no , no , I've heard of this monster hunter . I'm not there yet . Like I said , I since I have the uh , what's baseball ?
Listen , let me put it this way I played 1408 hours mlb the show last year , from release to you know , as a few weeks ago , where I just couldn't take the fact that the rosters weren't updated , because I'm a petulant child and I , it feels , honestly , the problem is they've got me because it feels wrong , like even if a team has just three players that are
different , I'm like that's team chemistry , baby , that's different . I can't play . I cannot play . I wish I was that person who could just keep a copy of a game and play it , because you know the truth is how many changes they're going to be ? Probably none . I paid an absurd amount of money . I got the digital early release because I'm a crazy person .
So that's , I'm going to get that . I'm going to get digital cards that I get to open early because that'll be awesome . So I have shiny cards in a digital game but it'll , it'll have .
It'll have the , the rosters that are correct so I'm telling you , you know what .
You know what it comes down to the reason I play that game and nobody really knows this . I only do the baseball part so I can get the cards right . Like I play this diamond dynasty mode and I just want to get the cool cards like they .
Just they come out with like a different version of francisco lindor , that's like a hologram , and I'm like , oh , that's nice , so like they really have you , this is a card collecting game where you have to play baseball to earn more fancy cards . That's kind of cool , so that's really all I'm doing right is like mindlessly grinding .
It's a collection , I get it I mindlessly grind against only the computer , basically on Rookie . I don't want to challenge myself , I just want to enjoy myself , and then I just earn these cards . So that's the secret , is all my games . I'm either just playing poker in Red Dead or playing Sabacc in Outlaws or Gwent in Witcher .
We've learned some new lore today Anthony about rich .
The rich lore .
The rich lore . Yeah , it's very rich lore that we gain once a week , it seems . Last week we learned about Lady Luck and his old car . Now we're learning about card games in a baseball game . Love it All right guys , Should we jump over and start talking about the Witcher ?
Yes .
Let's start by talking about our experience with the Witcher franchise over the years , where we first jumped into that , how deep into witcher lore we got . And yeah , I'll start with rich all right , let's see .
So I think , yeah , my first exposure was the witcher 3 . I just looked like a cool game , read , read a couple , you know , watched some reviews or whatever , and just got it , loved it right away . I mean , that's my kryptonite . I mean you know the amount of side quests . I mean it's paralyzing , but it's the kind of game I love to play .
You know , it takes me forever to get through because I'm very meticulous and I but I enjoy that meticulous and I but I enjoy that so much . And then you give me some magic and you let me ride a horse , you know , like you're really . That's it , I love it .
That's it .
So I started I . So then I I really enjoyed it , and then I heard that they were making a series , so I decided that I might start reading the books . But so I decided that I might start reading the books , but I guess caveat is that I decided to read all of those books in spanish . So just you know , it's not my , it's not my strongest language , right ?
So I'm not sure if there's stuff , if there's like innuendo , that I may have not kind of picked up on in in my read it's an interesting choice , though .
Why did you ? Why did you ? I know it's not like an english first book . It's originally a polish book , so it's translated into english , so I guess the translation would probably be just as strong into spanish . But why did you choose ? Uh ?
just because I figured , if I'm going to push myself to read more in spanish , then I should do it with something that I'd really like that's fair , so I've only I've only really read fantasy in spanish , essentially like yeah like dragons , almost involved in everything . So I really , you know , but I did , I did really love , love all the you know .
I did notice , obviously , how , like , the game is different than the story that you're presented in the book . And then the netflix series . I was very excited for that and I will say I watched all of it . I was confused .
There were times where I would just like finish an episode and I would go on wikipedia and go like that's not what I remember I was , because I thought it was this language thing . I was like maybe I just read it wrong in Spanish , so let me go to the wiki in English .
And sure enough , there were just wholesale changes that I didn't like , because for me it's the game and then the books that's my headcanon . So the series deviated so much from that that I I really disliked it . Well , that's why cavill left .
I respect that yeah , ultimately yeah yeah , yeah , they were making changes . You know , the thing I appreciate about henry cavill a lot is that I mean he is a nerd and when he does something he will like full send into it and like he will . Like you know , he'll make sure he does his homework and he wants to stick with the stories and the books .
But with the adaptation of Geralt from the game and so , like I thought he did pretty well and then they want to start to deviate and so that's why we have Liam coming out sometime . I don't even know , like I felt like that was supposed to be out like a long time .
Are they still doing that ? Are they still doing a season four Dude .
I want to know , like I think that like now they're probably like , ooh , I don't know . I mean , even Henry Cavillill was like , trying to be like , yeah , just give him a chance , you know . But even then , like you know , most of us are like , no , we don't want to , but but yeah , I feel that a lot I've wanted to . I don't .
Well , before I say anything , rich , you got any more tidbits or anything that about your connection no , that's , that's kind of just yeah .
When I suggested the Netflix , this show that we're going to talk about today , honestly I didn't see a trailer . I had no . It was like I had just put Netflix on and I don't normally surf Netflix , so it's rare that I even go to my home screen on it .
If we're watching Arrested Development , I even go to my home screen on it , Like if I'm we're watching a particular , we're watching , like you know , Arrested Development . I go to exactly to that . So I opened it and one day it was just right there and I was like Whoa , where did that come from ? I have not heard anything about this .
So I , just before I even took a look at it , I was just like , hey , you know , we should , let's take a look at this . And as we'll see , I think , as the episode progresses tonight , I think a common theme with Netflix seems to be making changes for no apparent reason whatsoever .
Yeah , it doesn't mean that it was a bad movie , but yeah , there were really random changes , I will say . But we'll definitely talk about that more in a bit .
anthony , let's jump over to you so mine is pretty much similar to riches . I mean me being a gamer . I played the game .
I I didn't play the first or second witcher , I think I had heard about them before , but I had had seen the Witcher 3 , the Wild Hunt and like , I think at some point it was like the , the version that had all the DLC and it was on sale . So I got it and , you know , I took the dive into it .
I feel like they do a pretty decent job with explaining things that have happened before in the game . I still think that it would be interesting to play the first two , but that was like pretty much like my first experience with it . I absolutely loved the game . The world was really interesting .
I liked the idea of you know , this mutated being that's like a monster hunter that has these magic abilities . And then I hopped onto the show . I watched the first season , which , for the most part , I did enjoy . I started the second season and immediately fell off . I was just like there's just something not right about this . Fell off like .
I was just like there's just something not right about this and I've always wanted to hop into the books but I've never had the chance to , but they're like in my purview , you know totally yeah so I .
I have a little bit of a different introduction to the witcher because I never played through witcher 3 . Um , I've only played a couple hours into it . I think you know enough to give me like a good like vibe of the game . I think at the time that I was doing I just didn't have a lot of time to devote to video games .
But I would like to jump back in eventually . But prior to that , prior to having played the Witcher 3 , I had jumped into the novels . I was really big into the novels leading up to the release of Netflix's show . I was excited to see how they would adapt it . Getting such a big name as Henry Cavill on board was very exciting for me .
So I think I read the first five books . The first two books are short story compilations , then the the other . I think there's five other novels . I read three of them . They're like actual novels pertaining to the life of gerald's , yennefer , siri and and so forth .
And yeah , I enjoyed them , but not as much as I enjoyed the first two novels , which are short story compilations . For some reason I felt like that was like the pinnacle of how good the witcher can be , you know , in terms of like . It's a short , all-encompassing story .
It has a moral lesson that it tries to teach you by the end of it and it's always just like short and snappy , but it's always pretty cool because it's a different monster hunt of episode every single short story . So I like those first two novels the best . But uh , yeah , I did not like the netflix series .
I tried to , I really tried to , but after the first season I think I watched the first episode of the second season and I I fell off . Yeah , like I couldn't watch anything past that point .
But yeah , so I'm excited to talk about this because unfortunately , I think Netflix's show which is why I was like reading the novels was so bad to me that I stopped reading the novels .
So I still have like two or three novels left and I think there's a new novel that just came out by Andre Sapkowski , like another Witcher novel Again , again , I have no idea what the chronology is between the novels into the witcher game . I know that there is probably some differences there , but I don't know how much yeah , I can't tell you that I know .
I mean , I think that there were things that from the game that I definitely saw on the show , but in terms of how it's laid out I don't really recall .
I do know that the beginning of witcher 3 they give you an opportunity to make decisions that you would have made at the end of witcher 2 , I believe , and it kind of gives you like a history of the , of the , the game franchise . But how that plays with the novels I'm not really sure yeah , I don't know we'd have to .
We have to , like , do some more research and get back to you guys on that . But what did you guys think of sirens of the deep anthony ?
we'll start with you I thought that sirens of the deep was pretty good . I I enjoyed my watch . I don't know , I haven't read the short story like you have , dakota , so I don't know . You know what the major changes would be from that , but for the most part I really did enjoy it .
There were some aspects of it that were derivative of the little mermaid I guess that's kind of the like , the the joy of those first short stories with the witcher , because like there's a beauty and the beast short story , there's a snow white short story , you know like .
So this was the clear derivative of the little mermaid , right , right , like you have this human prince that is , you know , in love with this mermaid princess , and you know they even have a sea witch that you know comes up with this like potion to like turn her into human .
Like there's a lot that I'm like bro , this is like the little mermaid with a monster hunter in it . Like I'm not saying it was bad , though like I enjoyed it . You can always take a story and like put your own spin on it , and this was the spin with the witcher on it , right , and it was cool , like I I really I really liked it .
I felt like Geralt was very much so the one that I remember from like the video games . You know he's this like monster hunter , but like he's very awkward and just like social interactions . You know that's just not his thing . You know his social interaction is with swords and that's it .
Well , not that's it , but like that's really what he is , like that's his job . His job is to kill monsters and you know , just do his thing . So seeing his , his social interactions in the show reminds me of a lot of the social interactions from the game . A lot of it like made me like chuckle because his awkwardness is funny .
Yeah . So let's break down the story a little bit of Sirens of the Deep and I'm going to try not to get it blended too much into the short story A little sacrifice . There's the Witcher and Jaskier , or Dandelion if you follow the short story . Actually , is he Dandelion in the game ?
Yes . Yeah , he is yeah , yeah , he is okay yeah .
So the witcher is tasked to come and visit a small seaside town , basically , where there's been a series of attacks on human fishermen who are like pearl divers and stuff by mermaids and other merman-like creatures that the mermaids are in cahoots with .
And we find out that there's a prince named prince aglaval who is in love with the princess of the merpeople named shianuts not ariel , it's different , it's shea nuts and yeah , so that that kind of just start starts a , not like a . That doesn't necessarily start a war , but it does . It's something that aglaval's father , the king , is incapable of getting behind .
It's a marriage that would never work . So he's doing everything in his power to stop that from happening , and he does . He goes so far as to basically start a war that he knows isn't true , so that he can break these two individuals apart and eventually love persists .
That's an excellent rundown , and the one thing I guess I want to start with is I don't really understand why anything from the original story had to be changed .
Right , yeah , so there's actually quite a bit of stuff that they changed from the original story . There are some beats that are still there and there's enough beats where it's just like well , why not just keep the rest of it ? And there's enough beats where it's just like well , why not just keep the rest of it ?
So in the short story , anthony , it's not a prince , it's a duke , it's Duke Aglaval . It doesn't really follow like Shianauts and the merpeople at all in the book . So they definitely give a much more heavy focus to the mermaids in this one . Yeah , there's definitely a lot more of a focus towards the mer people in this .
You know like they actually go into the water and show you like what they're dealing with under the water . They don't do that at all in the book and there's really not that much of a . There is a sea witch , but it's not half as like . They basically made this movie much more in line with the little mermaid than the actual story is basically .
Would you take that to like be the case ?
which that's .
I just in terms of like there was no real Ursula character in the short story , but they definitely turned it into a Ursula , you know , taking human form and corrupting the royal line , basically , yeah , I was watching it .
I ended up watching it because you know what I do . So I watched it three times . The first time I just watched it too late and fell asleep . The second time I'm watching it and I remember I had flashes because I late and fell asleep .
The second time I'm watching and I remember I had flashes because I'd been falling asleep the night before and I'm going man , this is , this is like the little mermaid , you know , and I don't remember feeling that again , I read it in spanish . So , you know , then half of me is like maybe I just didn't pick up on it .
You know , I don't know , like that doesn't make sense to me . I can read it well enough . So , yeah , you know , by the end , you know , I obviously it dawned on me that it was really similar in a way that I don't understand .
I mean , there was enough of a veiled reference to it right in the story , the way it was originally written , that I think you didn't need to , kind of like hammer home . I mean I'm surprised they didn't have a singing crab . I'm just surprised , right , like they actually .
They did give the ursula character a singing role in this movie uh , which is very funny , I , I enjoyed that at least , but but there's really no reason for that . I don't know . I actually didn't hate it , but yeah , anyway , continue .
Yeah , and that's the thing , and this is what bothers me . I mean , I hate it pains me as an English teacher by trade to say this aloud , but this is one of those scenarios where the Netflix stuff makes me wish I hadn't read the books right like I wish I was .
Yes , I wouldn't I agree , because I agree , I don't know why . Then I'd be like hey , you know what ?
I love this content related to this game that I have no knowledge of outside of the game . But no , I went ahead and read and I have spoiled it . So I thought this was just a random thing because , dakota , as you know , there's nothing called Sirens of the Deep in any of the books , right , yeah ? So I am like , oh , this is random new content .
And then , as I'm watching it , I'm like wait , this is like part , like the last little sacrifice , and I'm like you , you , you probably like realize short , like , probably like 20 minutes , in that , like this sounds very familiar . Yes , and you know but and then the little mermaid stuff , and I'm just sitting there I'm going . I'm really confused .
I thought this was something different , but it's something that's already been done . But they're not doing it the same way and I , you know , I will say look , I really enjoyed my time with gerald , like anthony was saying yeah .
So , anthony , they changed quite a few things , like there was no king in the original short story . Zeleste is just a character in the story . He's not like the half brother of prince aglaval in again in in the story Aglaval is just a duke and he's kind of a jerk to like .
So the basic premise of A Little Sacrifice is that there are a bunch of different characters that need to basically do a little sacrifice if they're ever going to either get along with the people that they're trying to get along with .
Or , you know , prince Aglaval with the people that they're trying to get along with , or Prince Aglaval , who's kind of a snooty duke , not Prince Aglaval , but Duke Aglaval is not as chivalrous as he's portrayed in this movie . He's actually a real jerk and he's very bratty . Why isn't the mermaid willing and able to come onto land ?
And Sheenot says why aren't you willing to give a little sacrifice of your own ? The whole thing is about a little sacrifice , even from like side characters to side characters , and in the movie they actually do mention the term a little sacrifice two or three times , so they aren't like shy about hiding .
That is the adapted work that they're trying to get to , but they conflated some stories like a lot and then like diluted some stories a lot like the SE Davin character is like one of my favorites ever , like she's so good , like the way that she's written in the book . Se Davin here is just , she's just a character that you know the wisher beds , basically .
Another thing that they changed is yaskir , or dandelion . I don't think they ever mentioned that he's from this town but they made a very big deal about how you know bremavort was like the place that he was from , that he decided to leave in this movie and they made that a huge plot point that could have been used for other things . But I mean , I get it .
They want to make yaskier seem more important to the story overall and the witcher mythos . So yeah , rich . What do you think is the change that most bothered you ? Or , if there's a change that didn't bother you like , why ?
well , like all right , so you know at the end , when you have who has to make the sacrifice , the prince ends up making it , which I ? I don't know . It's just a weird . I think it's a needless flip-flop .
I think it's right , because in the book it's sheenots who decides to choose legs and come on to land , but in this story it's the prince going into the water . Yeah , I mean it . He gave a little sacrifice , like it's Huge sacrifice .
It's not the same . In a world where monsters are diminishing , right , and you know , you have literally a monster hunter , right , becoming human while leaving all you know is difficult , right , it's not a bad step up , right , in terms of you know , you're kind of going from a close to extinct race Right To now part of a race that is thriving .
Just on those merits alone , the switch makes no sense and I think it was just like something to do because you know it's 2025 , so they just flip-flopped and I think that it's sloppy . If you're going to change something , then it still needs to be logical , and I just think that the prince , he would .
I mean he's essentially leaving his royal line , right , I mean , like that's it , that's the end . I mean he's going to the ocean . I mean he's not having a human baby after that . It doesn't . It's just frustrating .
They also change . They also change the look of the mermaids . I don't know if you caught that from the story , but like they're very human-esque in the books , I think in like the first , like two or three lines of the short story . It explains that She-Anot has like the most magnificent breasts that Geralt has ever seen , or something like that .
Yeah , yeah , I mean you know you're right , these were not the most attractive mermaids I've ever seen . You know , yeah , it doesn't sell it . Like honestly , I was like that looks like I don't know , I don't know fish that well , but like I , I it's . It made it a little it did . It definitely made it less believable .
I mean it definitely made it less believable I mean the only thing , that that that the prince would fall in love with . Yes , the only thing that I think makes sense .
I guess right is that it like when you , when the other people are like disgusted by it , right , you're like yeah , no , I get it right , like you can , you can better understand the opposition to it , but I just don't , I don't understand the change .
I mean , even in Greek mythology , like the sirens , they were attractive , but the point was that they were able to lure sailors because of their song and because they were attractive .
And also it is kind of a weird stylistic choice on Netflix's part , because they aren't shy about making it like a rated r product , you know like they curse plenty . There's so much gore it's like crazy . Lots of violence . They really I don't know .
I mean it's weird that they chose that to be their siren , but yeah , so let's talk a little bit about essie davven , because her character while it was nice seeing an adaptation that included her , it really missed the mark on what made her so great .
I guess I don't know if that makes sense , or just some of the backstory in regards to Essie , she ends up falling in love with the Witcher and there's a long back and forth between the Witcher and her as far as , like , what they're willing to sacrifice for their relationship and ultimately she realizes that the Witcher is not capable of a little sacrifice for
her . That is something that is not possible and I think that is like part of the heartbreak of the story . A little sacrifice is that , you know , like she realizes that what she wants from Geralt is not something that he can give .
So she takes a gift given to her by Dandelion and Dandelion told her that this pearl was given as a gift for her birthday from him and Geralt and she takes that as like his only sacrifice really to her and throughout the story she's she says that like , the thing that she fears most is dying to some illness .
And then , like the narrator of the story , which is Jaskier , he tells us that , like he'll , he'll never tell Geralerald the true .
You know how , you know , several years later , after this a little sacrifice story took place , he carried her to her grave because she died of like some smallpox or something like that and she , she like , wanted to be buried with this pearl that you know she believes is from gerald .
So it's , it's just such a sad ending that like goes completely , like undone I'm not undone , but like it just they , they ignore it completely in this , in this film . But yeah anyway , all that being said , I do like the movie . I think it was a fun movie but , like rich said , I wish I hadn . Rich said . I wish I hadn't read the story .
It's honestly fun . It really is . I actually , if I just take that previous knowledge , I like the Little Mermaid ties . It actually made it fun . I thought to myself hey , you know what I it fun , yeah , yeah . Actually I said I thought to myself hey , you know what ?
Like I might be able to re-watch this with my wife and she'll catch those vibes right away and go oh , I like this right . Like it might actually make it more enjoyable for her too .
So what's frustrating about it is just that they're , I don't know , like if I could see rich is like silently fuming over there , just like he's trying to like be as positive as possible , but he seems to be more upset about the changes that they made to this story than I am , and this is like my favorite Witcher story , but I feel you , man , it wasn't bad ,
like it's a fun movie , and I liked that they added all that stuff about the mermaids . I liked the inclusion of like a sea witch , slash kraken .
That was a cool like sea battle , and they definitely took it in their own direction , though , and that's that's kind of what bothered me , and I think that that's why they didn't call it a little , a little sacrifice , just because they took that concept and cherry picked what they wanted , and went another direction .
Basically , this isn't hamlet right . I don't need your reimagining . Yeah , actually this is recent modern literature . All right . You know it's not even 50 years . If you're going to adapt something that is recent in media , then you need to make it match . That's the problem .
They would never get away with this if this was like Lord of the Rings , exactly . Oh no , yeah , there match that's the problem .
They would never get away with this if this was like lord of the rings exactly . Oh no , yeah , there'd be riots .
They'd get strung up . Yeah , it'd be so crazy , just like all these gandalfs walking down the street . Just like you shall not pass the cars on bridges . There'd be crazy yeah , everybody , nuts .
Anthony , you got any final thoughts on Sirens of the Deep ?
The Sirens were in the deep , they were . There were other animals , like sea animals that were down there , that were humanoid , which I thought was interesting . But yeah , I'm coming into this without you know , reading that short story , so you know , I don't know , like what changes were made . I mean , you know how I feel about changes being made .
I guess I'm most curious about what you think , because Rich and I have our own opinion based on some pre-existing knowledge . What do you feel about the movie having like forgetting everything that we said today ? Basically , right , right . What are your ?
thoughts I I enjoyed it , you know .
I I liked it , even though , yeah , like I said , there was definitely a lot that was ripped from the little mermaid the sea witch yeah , that musical number was interesting because I mean , anytime that there was singing in this show , it made sense like it was like you know , jess here's , he's a bard , you know , and so like that's his thing .
But the sea witch , like it was like something completely out of disney , like she's singing while all this magic is happening . It was like very like I was like , okay , this is interesting . But yeah , like you know , I , I all , I I saw ursula . You know I saw
¶ Breaking Down the Film's Plot
Ursula . You know I saw Ariel . It was , you know , very interesting . Just , yeah , you had Witcher thrown into it , but you know , I did enjoy it . Do I feel like I might have felt differently had I read the short story ? Probably , I mean , you know how I feel when they make changes to anything I enjoy .
You know , I semi-ripped the Avatar Netflix series , so I probably would have felt different .
I will say that the Witcher series is much further from the books than the Avatar series is from the animated series . So yeah , so yeah yeah how about y'all ? well , I will say that I enjoyed it for the most part .
So I didn't fully remember the story , but I knew that they had made some changes because , like some stuff wasn't clicking in my head from like . You know , when I watched it I was like , man , this seems a little off . But you know what , I'm enjoying it . I'm just gonna like go for the ride and see how this compares to the , the short story later .
And then I read the short story . I was like , oh , actually , this is like completely well , not completely different , but you know there's there's quite a bit of like change . That just didn't need to happen but it happened dude .
So dakota said maybe I shouldn't have gone back to read that I know I should have .
I should have just enjoyed stayed the story . What I will say ? I loved the animation style . I thought that was like it really really strong animation style .
I did too .
The animation was really well done , especially in the combat scenes like oh it looks so good to my seat and you never like didn't know what was going on on screen , which was , you know , that's rare for like something where there's like 20 plus people on screen . Very good animation .
I was really pleased with it yeah overall , I would say maybe seven , seven and a half out , you know , on its own . You know , having that , having like foregoing my knowledge of what it's based off of , but yeah , I enjoyed it . What ?
about you , rich ? I think I'm in the same boat . I did really like the animation . I thought that the voice acting was really well done . I thought that whoever voiced Geralterald , just the writing and the delivery was perfect . It made me feel like I was playing the game or , to henry kevill's credit , the show .
You know , he was excellent as well , so I thought that was great . I remember there was specifically one sequence , but gerald is like running up something . It's a monster , he , and he's just like running up the steps , like like the back , like if he were going up like a stair , like a kind of an oval star , a round staircase , just the way .
He's like pitter patter , and they were cutting back and forth , back and forth , back and forth , and I was thinking about how you know , this is something that's really cool .
That wouldn't be done the same way if it were live action and in that moment yeah I kind of said to myself they're doing a really good job of not making an animated movie but using the medium of animation to tell a story which I thought was really cool .
No , that's a good way to put it .
Yes , it's not just , it's not just anime , it's not like okay , so we couldn't get the actors , we're gonna do this .
You know , it was actually like they played with it , so I I enjoyed that and what's actually interesting is they did get some of the actors back from the TV series on Netflix .
Like , the character who plays Jaskier on the TV series is Joey Batty and he's playing Jaskier again here , and I think there's a couple scenes with Yennefer that they actually bring back Anya Chalatra from the live-action series as well .
I thought they sounded good , so that's awesome , I mean it was not Henry Cavill as the Witcher .
That was a guy named Doug Cockle .
Could have fooled me . Could have fooled me .
He's got a good Cavill impression . I guess he just thought , you know he thought of Henry Cavill and Cross Between Him and maybe Christian Bale's Batman .
Love it cavill , and cross between him and maybe christian bale's batman and love it guys . Thank you so much for listening to us here for our 112th episode of project geekology . Next week we have a fun show rich .
You don't know what we're covering yet because we haven't told you , but anthony and I were talking pre-show and we've decided to cover Dungeons and Dragons . Honor Among Thieves . It's on Netflix and I'm excited . I really like that movie .
Same . I'm actually very excited . I've seen that and I actually was thinking I was going to ask you guys if it was worth a watch , because I figured you guys had seen it already , you know . And then I was like ah , you know what , they've probably already talked about it and it slipped my mind . So this is , uh , really cool .
I'm excited , yeah I actually had to ask dakota that if we covered it , because I forgot if we did or not . I know we did talk about it ? Don't think so like in the beginning , you know yeah , I don't think we did not like a full discussion ?
yeah , yeah , but we shall make an episode of Honor Among Thieves next week , episode 113 . Yes , guys , thanks so much for listening to us here for our 112th episode . If you'd like to check out any of our socials , be sure to click into our show notes down below , where you can find any of our links for other social sites .
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Oh my gosh dude this is , I guess , juicy sizzling slim jim . All right , uh , all right , guys . We'll see you in the next one already y'all gerald of rubia .