Mjauv: The tropes of STRONK WOMAN is just tired ...
toxicTom: ... and taken directly from the books, which originated in the 1980's btw...
Mjauv: ...and the shows portrayal of a "racially diverse" fantasy setting...
toxicTom: That's something you have to live with, esp. on Netflix. It's laughable, especially since the books already had a lot to say about racism, xenophobia and racial supremacist ideas, using the metaphor of humans and non-humans.
I don't like this "ham-fisted approach", as you wrote, either, but IMO that's not the biggest problem of the show.
To clarify: the problem isn't the concept of powerful women but the terrible execution. I'd argue the problem starts in the writing room where female characters are generally less well written compared to male counterparts (why that is, is another question for another day). This in combination with a poor script and poor acting makes for a poor show.
And yeah, you are absolutely right regarding the race thing. But just because it's something we all have to get used to until the woke crowd has found some other issue to moan about, it's still worth pointing out how it makes the show worse.
Mjauv: Ok, I get what you mean. I don't mind a certain degree of creative liberty but I can't stand the ham-fisted approach to appease certain vocal groups regardless of the impact on the actual art.
As I stated above: the world of the witcher gives plenty of opportunity for racial diversity without making it look stupid. Then again, the nilfgaardian soldiers of the show wear armor that looks like it was made from wet toilet paper so what can you expect...
MichaelFurlong: How do you think they could do that? Have certain major port cities with trading links to various parts of the world which would provide diversity in those areas while homogeneity in the countryside?
Exactly. Disney is generally terrible at this but at least in the Cinderella remake of 2015 they showed the kingdom having a thriving city with a port where merchant ships would anchor. That makes a racially diverse setting plausible and thus, totally fine.
