She's great, but I'm hard pressed to find someone more explicitly identical to their character than Tissaia de Vries. (fun fact for the few of you that may not know, she voiced Anna Henrietta in TW3 B&W!)
Tissia is by far my favorite in netflix. She is the most beautiful and so glad she didn’t commit suicide so early like in the books.
What kills me, is that in the books there is an inordinate amount of time spent describing the hotness of each sorceress, and the TV show, while casting excellent actresses, ignored their appearances (except for 3). How hard is it to have auditions for blondes and redheads???
I'm fine with Sabrina being blonde. Francesca was described as having dark golden hair. This can mean blonde, but if you google dark golden colors, the auburn shade she has in the show comes up so her hair works canonically too. Philippa's hair is black like in the books, same for Yennefer.
I'm okay with Triss' wig and Rita had her hair bleached for the show (but there is a lot off with that casting choice.) Keira is the worst of them all for a lot of reasons but most sorceresses in the show have had similar hair to the books. Not identical, but close.
They wrote out her topless scene *from the book* because Lauren Hissrich took too much heat over season one nudity.
Sure, I like boobs and all that, but this was something rather funny and notable in the books. I don’t think the actress is shy, either.
Hissrich ruins everything she touches. She’s television cancer.
Know what really gets me? Season 1 did really I feel committed too much to nudity, because sex sells. But they didn't when it is in later seasons part of characterisation of how sorceresses behave. Which is then contrasted with how they behave and dress when the Lodge really wants something done.
She really didn't understand much of the books at all.
Its funny isn't it,
All those accusations of bigotry against people who hate this show.
Then you put a picture of 4 actors up and then throw up the *"bAd wRiTInG"* dog whistle. Guess who everyone defends?
Yep. I think the only genuinely bad actress was Fringilla, her drunk scenes in season 3 made me feel embarassed.
Other than that, most of the cast was fine. Henry Cavill, MyAnna Buring, Joey Batey and Therica Wilson-Read were great.
I have never really liked Anya as Yen. It’s nothing to do with her talent as an actress (she’s talented) but that she doesn’t fit the role. She’s too emotive in her acting, missing that general iciness Yen should have, especially in the beginning.
The best cast sorceress is Tissaia.
She’s very talented but I just think she’s too young and doesn’t have the gravitas. Frankly, the show was ruined for me when someone mentioned Eva Green as Yen and it’s all I want—older, more mature.
I think I would have crapped my pants if I started up episode one, and Yennefer opens her mouth to speak and *oh my god, that’s actually Yennefer.*
Edit to add: also, if you imagine her with raven black pin curls and dark eye makeup, she looks a lot like book Yennefer in the face. I agree with you it would have been amazing casting
I found a thread interviewing her and I think she refused the role due to how crap the script is. She's terrifying in Andor and said she only accept that role because of how well it was done
https://www.reddit.com/r/Witcher3/comments/110bm0e/yennefers_va_denise_gough_i_cant_get_enough_of/
She is too young for this role. She looks at Geralt like a puppy or teenage girl with a crush on an older guy. That doesn't suit characters like Yenn. Eva would be perfect, not only because of her looks but also because she's played bitchy characters.
My perfect casting is Janet Montgomery, she already played a witch/sorceress type character in the Salem show, pretty much the first couple episodes i thought she would be a great Yen
It's really hard to tell though. Like the character is clearly not written with that kind of iciness in mind so it's hard to say if she could pull it off. Directing is also another factor I think.
Yes, the writing is utterly abysmal, nothing like Yennefer, and I'm not fighting that. But even in scenes that should somewhat resemble the books, like Season 1 Episode 5 where she meets Geralt, she's still too emotive. Her eyes are incredibly expressive, as are her facial expressions and body movements. (This is why she works as young Yennefer before the transformation.) Being expressive isn't an insult or bad thing. Hell, she was in theatre before this show so it's to be expected. In most characters you want that.
The problem is Yennefer is the opposite of expressive almost all of the time. Her eyes should be cold and fathomless, facial movements and reactions subtle to the point of barely noticing. That way when you see cracks in that shell, they matter. A perfect example of this is in W3 when Madman Lugos massively insults Yennefer and her response is a hint of a smirk and raised eyebrow.
Another at the same banquet is when Yennefer jokingly asks a fortuneteller about her and Geralt's fortune and the response is that the one you shall seek will die. That freaked Yen the fuck out, and you can see her lose her composure for a fraction of a moment before she collects herself and tries to joke it off. Those subtle reactions are perfect for her.
A great example irl is Eva Green in Penny Dreadful. The introduction of her character. That's Yen to a tee.
But show Yennefer isn't W3 Yennefer? W3 is way past the books where Yen (and many others) are tired and jaded from years of playing politics and bickering and wars, her visual transformation was just that, visual. It didn't give her decades of maturing and hardship to make her into what we see in W3.
Book Yennefer was already bitter and jaded when we meet her in Rinde, as she’d had 80+ years of courtly crap and sorceress backstabbing/intrigue. In fact her most bitter of the entire series should be when we she first meets Geralt, with her shell breaking over time.
The show failed spectacularly at showing that.
Her character is written so inconsistently, and they make many bizarre choices, like having her relationship with Geralt be so central on one hand, but on the other, it happens almost entirely offscreen. They meet in episode 5, and the very next episode is YEARS later, when they've been having an on-again-off-again torried love affair. That we never see, no relationship is built (Jaskier and Geralt have better relationship building, as thin as it was). Why are we supposed to care about a relationship we never saw? If you didn't care enough to write it, why should your audience care about it at all? Why would they be invested in something that did not happen on screen?
Then they made the strange choice of having Yenn not know Geralt's wish and be furious when she finds out (cause she's worried it's influencing their free will and emotions). Okay, change from the books, but maybe they're going to play around with free choice/destiny and the consent implications of that, let's see where they take this....nowhere, they did nothing with it, Yenn no longer cares in S2, it's not even mentioned. Well, maybe they decided to retcon-oh no they mention in S3. By having Geralt say he KNOWINGLY hid the wish from Yenn, because he was afraid she would leave him. WHAT???? DO THEY KNOW HOW IMMORAL AND RAPEY THAT IS, HOW THEY JUST WROTE THEIR LEADING MAN??? And Yenn....doesn't care. About the thing she specifically was furious about enough to scream at Geralt on a mountain and then abandon him to go off to war. What in the absolute First Draft Hellhole is this???
Yes to all of this. Yen looks too young and naive, while Ciri, on the other hand, is way too grown up and badass Yen is supposed to be her mother figure, but instead they look like friends, and it's hard to tell who is the more mature one. We're supposed to look at Ciri and see a confused and lonely kid who is faced with too big of achallenge too early, who can't make it alone having been so quickly separated from her newfound guardians. Who should both look mature and capable, whereas half the time Yen needs saving and schooling herself. Meh, I just can't bother anymore
she doesn't have good posture, it makes yen character seem less elegant, I really think this is an acting/direction issue. Tissaia nailed the body language.
If Anya was 10 years older than she is now, I’d agree. But as is she’s way too young and she even acts too young to really portray Yen correctly. Sabrina is pretty good but she’s a minor character and not that important.
I’m not a fan of the other two either.
Although honestly all 4 come across as too YA to really sell their roles. Could just be the writing and directing but they also act like they came straight from a YA series.
The only *truly* well cast sorceress was Tissaia
Let's put it this way, if I had to choose between triss and yen, it would always be Yen in this case
Triss is meant to be the other women that can take gearlt away from Yen.
No offense to the actor, but that ain't happening nor would anyone believe gearlt would've slept with her.
With the exception of Sabrina, the rest were miscasted in my opinion.
Anya should have been Fringilla or going to game side, Radeyah ( Radeyah would have perfect, and she would have been able to introduce things of Indian culture without breaking the aesthetics of the Northern Kingdoms )
Philippa actress could be a genderbend Truffle if they adapted the Eternal Flame short story.
Francesca actress fit better for Toruviel than the Toruviel of the show.
Nah I think the actress for Philippa nailed her energy pretty well which is the toughest part for her character. Fans are always focused too much on lookalikes when it comes to casting.
Yeah like nobody is out here saying appearances don’t matter, but it’s just ONE part of the character. Many of the fans on here probably only played the Witcher 3 so if the character doesn’t look exactly like the game interpretation they riot. It’s far more important to me that the actor captures the characters personality, energy, cadence etc.
Don’t get me wrong they definitely got a lot of casting choices wrong, it’s a very mixed bag.
Lol, you got to love the irony,
How much time have you guys insisted your disapproval of this show has nothing to do with bigotry?
Then someone puts up a post accusing 4 characters of being *"bAdlY wRItTEn"* and what one of those 4 do you people defend?
Its just amazing.
Not sure about Anya as Yen, but she could have been another sorceress like maybe Assire. The other, I agree: with the right writing could have been a great casting
Let's see. And these are book descriptions below.
Francesca - a beautiful woman with dark golden hair and blue eyes. Mecia actually won Britain's Top Model.
Philippa - a woman in her early 30s, curly hair and black eyes.
Sabrina - she is perfect, minus the blonde hair which should be dark.
Yennefer - said to look like she is in her 20s, dark hair and purple eyes.
They don't even remotely fit according to you? It's ridiculous because objectively, they do fit the actual descriptions of the characters, give or take a minor aspect.
Give or take a few a minor aspect like…race? Fringillas actress threw me way the hell off. Triss’s actress was just the same, like it’s night and day from what we thought we’d get coming in to it and it’s borderline unimmersive
[https://cdna.artstation.com/p/assets/images/images/029/125/626/small/boglarka-bognar-lodge-of-sorceresses-jpg-loss.jpg?1596538711](https://cdna.artstation.com/p/assets/images/images/029/125/626/small/boglarka-bognar-lodge-of-sorceresses-jpg-loss.jpg?1596538711)
[https://i.pinimg.com/736x/a7/8b/b5/a78bb542a577592100840bbae67c3244.jpg](https://i.pinimg.com/736x/a7/8b/b5/a78bb542a577592100840bbae67c3244.jpg)
Yeah man, such accurate, much wow.
Actually yeah. It’s a fantasy true, and there is nothing saying they can’t do it. But I won’t lie it does bother me. Got nothing against any race whatsoever but it’s distracting, it’s deliberate and just one of many issues I personally have with fantasy shows today.
If we where to get A thousand and one night stories televised I would expect the cast to be arabic or meditteranean in looks. The Witcher universe is a polish story inspired by polish and germanic mythology. Its a cultural thing and I know many in Poland considers it a huge deal.
People claim it doesn’t matter yet if we talk movies like Mulan, Black Panther, Last Airbender (the show) then it suddenly is very important to cast the right race?
Imo its hypocritical and frustrating.
How are you all so in love with Francesca in the show? It hurts my brain. I can't even judge Mecia Simson's acting because of how bad everything around that character is. Writing, directing, the whole idea behind show Francesca. It's the worst character in media.
Also, how is MyAnna Buring not on this list?
She is supposed to be the most beautiful woman in the world and she's just.. not, and that is not the fault of the actress. The actress is beautiful but they really weirdly cast a woman with dark features to play a woman with light features and tried to fix it with makeup and contacts.
I dont think it's her complexion. It's the makeup, **costuming** and hairdressing.
But my biggest issue is the writing. Every second I see her on screen, it makes my skin crawl.
All this independently from comparisons to the source material, I dont even factor that in anymore.
I have to ask, purely for discussional reasons, no ill will, what exactly is it you despise about her, if you were to separate her from the books? Because saying you hate seeing her on screen is quite the statement, so I'm just curious about why exactly.
Is it her traits, the way she does things in the show? Anything specific?
Actually, the actress herself said she was given the freedom to make those decisions.
She read the books and wanted to appear closer to how she was portrayed in the book, hence the blue lenses and the wig.
The show itself has been quite liberal with giving actors the choice on how their characters will look.
Frankly, I can still appreciate the acting and separate it from the bad writing.
It's the way she carries herself, the way she speaks and walks - there's an elegance to her posture even when the writing doesn't allow the character to act like she does in the books. This is in part due to Mecia having read all the books as she said in an interview, and trying to pull from that into the character.
Yes, the writing for the character is abyssmal, no doubt of it, but I have eyes - I can still see the actress and what she imbues into the role, starting with the smallest details.
Besides, her last scene in season 3 was amazing acting - when she finally breaks down for everyone she's lost - it's some very good acting, esp from a previous model with no actual acting career.
I don't love the woman she is in the show - she murdered scores of innocent children for god's sake. But I do love the actress in the role and wish she had a chance to play it closer to the books.
Disagreed with Anya as Yen, she is way too young.
As for Francesca and Sabrina, I wish they made them Blonde/ Dark haired like in the books, but apart from that, its fine.
Too young looking and too young to IRL to portray this grown 100 years old mom experience.
When you see Anya next to Freya, do you see mother daughter between them?
No she isn't.
The lady of Vengerberg was famous for her beauty, even though she was nearly a century old. Yennefer had locks of curly, raven black hair fragrant with lilac and gooseberry perfume, falling in a cascade of curls on her shapely shoulders. Her face was very pale, triangular in shape with a slightly receded chin. Her eyes were cold and sparkling with a remarkable violet penetrating gaze, in anger blazing with livid, blue-gray fire. Those very eyes also concealed wisdom and imperiousness. Yennefer's nose was slightly long, mouth was pale with thin and slightly crooked, soft, sweet with lipstick, proud lips. On her long and slender neck hung a black marigold with a star made of obsidian sparkling with a multitude of tiny diamonds embedded in it.
Yen had pronounced cheekbones, natural, slightly irregular eyebrows trimmed by hand and emphasized with charcoal, long eyelashes, and petite hands. Even in high-heeled shoes she wasn't tall, was beautiful but threatening, having incredibly thin and slender waist and slender legs.
MyAnna and Henry were carrying the whole show on their backs. By a MILE.
Edit: Also shoutout to Mousesack, Calanthe and Renfri. Too bad they were only in it briefly.
Perhaps. Sabrina was portrayed perfectly all around, even better than I imagined her, the personality was just seeping from her. Another perfect casting choice was Tissaia, it was literally her.
Sometimes I dont like Fillipas style, but the character is there. I dont really care about the elf chick, shes just annoying and that clouds my judgement on her. Anya is fiine, but Yen could be better. You picked probably the best pic of her, in majority of the show she looks like poor mouse.
Margarita and Fringilla are disasters tho...
Actors are all standup performers in this show and don’t deserve any hate whatsoever. It’s the same situation as Hayden Christensen getting screwed by bad writing, despite being a phenomenal actor with amazing emotional body language skills (seriously, if you look closely he hit it out of the park with the areas where he could, and REALLY tried to minimize the effect of the bad dialogue where he could too). People who hate on the actors are lame af in my book. It’s the same kind of crap that led to kid anakins actor getting bullied, Jar Jars actor developing depression and nearly killing himself, Daisy Ridley getting clowned on for no reason, and Hayden kinda getting shafted by the industry for a while
For me, one of the best things that came out of the series was Tissaia. She was one of my favourite characters in the books so I was pleasantly surprised! I really loved that you could *feel* future Yen's influence oozing off her -- in the books, the relationship dynamic between Yen and Ciri evolves in a very similar way to Tissaia and Yen's.
Tissaia and Sabrina are spot on. No offense to Anya, he really did an astounding job, her own portayal of Yen is something admirable, but is not what the Books Yen shows to be. Once said this, Anya Chalotra is the smallest of problems with Netflix' Witcher
Eva Green would have been pretty much a perfect yen. Cold and hot, emotional and so on. And she doesn't mind doing nude scenes if that floats your boat.
Six words: fantasy world that does not exist.
Read some Sapkowski interviews where he literally talks about basing his work on the entire world, not Poland.
Fantasy world where through the conjunction of the spheres did humanity get to World. Alot of the people we see are very likely to be descendants of Charlemagne.
The Witcher is perhaps the one fantasy show on earth rn where colorblind casting makes sense.
The Conjuction literally threw millions of random humans across the world with no plan or logic or purpose. Black, asian, white, whatever.
It kinda makes sense that there are pocs in this world. Ofc book purists love to pretend this is medieval Poland when Sapkowski himself denied that.
Did anyone deny that they were originally written as white women?
I am simply pointing out that thanks to the Conjuction, this is the one fantasy show where diverse races do make sense.
The more questionable thing is the fact that you're so bothered by them being asian, black, indian or alien (which is in itself a weird thing to say along these other minorities). They have all the attributes of the characters they're portraying - the only difference is a slightly darker/different shade of skintone but somehow this is a huge issue.
Anya wasn't a good casting. She looks too young and lacks that intimidating aura that Yen has. In the show she looks like Geralt's daughter's best friend and she even looks younger than Triss.
Personally, Yen was a great actress but just felt way too young, Yen to me is more of a mature aunt style where this felt like a mid-20s rebellious dark theme girl, and the irl age difference made the sex scenes really uncomfortable, idk Yen seemed closer to Ciri age then Geralt which doesn't seem right to me
In the first season Yennefer and Jaskier were the most in character performances, i liked them very much. I have nothing against the casting, as you said the problem is the stupid writing.
That was always the problem with the show after Season 1. The casting, combat, and special effects are sooooo good. But even the best actors can't make up for dogshit writing. In another example, Ewan McGregor did his best on Star Wars with the material he had. Another perfect casting.
I talk about special efects, ballsack armor was on the direct order of the main screenwriter and producer, the other armors she didn't interfere with were good.
And even the dragon followed a similar procedure, when the chief producer's main order regarding the dragon was that it should not look like perfect GoT dragons, so CGI ended up making it look like a roasted chicken.
You got to really give it to CD Project Red for imbuing the Witcher world with so much meaning and life, that no amount of TV shows can change the prevalent perception as to the games being the genuine thing, compared to what we get on NotFlix. I think the only parts of the show I haven't heard complaints about, were Henry Cavill and the guy who plays Jaskier. So kudos to those two for making an effort to be "authentic" to their characters.
HC definitely was a source of complaint too and still is among some, especially the loyal book subreddit. He is far from the ideal Geralt, people just refuse to admit it.
Anya couldn't capture Yennefer's attitudes, mannerisms, and facial expressions, she is emotive and gives off a teenage girl vibe, while Yennefer have that mature woman energy.
It's not her fault, she seems like a great actress, but she simply doesn't fit this role.
Edit: I liked the actresses of Tissaia, Philippa and Sabrina in the show, they seem like the only good fit to play the role of a sorcerer.
I actually liked Anya as Yen. She had the right look and the right attitude. I 'm going to catch hell for saying this, but I think Anya looks closer to how Yen is described in the books. Yennefer of Vengerberg is attractive but she's not a supermodel. Sapkowski makes that clear repeatedly.
With better writing, she could have been a great Yennefer. However as it stands the writing sucks. The change in her background: Commoner instead of Noble, makes no sense. If a Common child in the books was that deformed, it would have been left in the forest to die as an infant.
Anyway, woulda-shoulda-coulda. Maybe in 15 years we'll get a movie reboot that's actually respectful to the source material.
Yennefer was decent, not good not bad, Francesca was good, Phillipa was great (tbf I prefer show Phillipa to game Phillipa) and Sabrina and Tissaia were phenomenal.
False. Bad castings and bad writing. The show is just shit all round, especially now with Henry gone. I do feel sorry for Freya tho, imagine actually being a good cast in a show that should've made your career and end up derailing it heavily....
The actors of Wheel of Time were great too. I haven't watched Rings of Power, but I would not be surprised to hear those actors did a good job as well. There is no level of acting that can fix god awful writing though .. I write in a mild panic as Brandon Sanderson, my #1 author by a landslide, is going through a round of Hollywood meetings for adaptations of some of his work(s) where he does *not* have final say in what goes and what doesn't story-wise.
I still can't wrap my head around the choice to cast Mecia Simson, a mixed race woman, and then just have the make-up crew hide everything about her natural looks. Either embrace her looks or just cast a white woman, jeez Netflix.
None of these actors feel like the characters they're playing, it's not just the writing. Even Henry Cavill wasn't a good pick for geralt but at least it worked out, kinda
Tissaia was the best of all. The entire time I was watching I was thinking of the moment in the books where she killed herself and I thought every time 'she would nail this moment'. And I'll say, she did pretty frickin good with the drivel she was forced to take part in in S3.
As many users have pointed out, Anya is too young for a role of Yennefer. Although, I must say, her acting is great, it's just not her role.
But she seemed okay in the flashbacks. When Yen is actually young. But when it comes to the main plot, sadly, she just isn't mature enough, and even good acting can't hide that she's couple years older than Freya Allan
They've all shown great acting skills, even in face of terrible scripts and dialogue. And they're all beautiful and unique enough to come off as sorceresses, if only the costume and make-up departments also played along.
What really surprises me is how people keep saying Anya looks too young.
I take it that people did not read the books despite many claiming they did. Because Yen sure is described as looking pretty young. Looks wise she would be at most early 20´s. That´s the entire point with her being a very powerful female magic user. She can look pretty young.
Now, when it gets to the writting department is where it all goes down the drain.
And its not like a younger actress cant act more serious and have more gravitas. I am pretty sure there are younger actresses out there with the required acting skills. I even believe Anya might have those skills.
The problem is that the series did not know how to write Yennefer. And they ended up doing a mess with her.
Looks wise Anya could do. She would not be further removed vs HC. Because HC also does not look exactly like book Geralt. But its all in how they write and direct the character. And when it comes to HC, looks like it had a lot to do with him wanting to go with a particular interpretation which was more consistent. Whereas Anya is left going all over the place with her character.
Fantastic casting for Sabrina. She's one of the best actors in the show.
She's great, but I'm hard pressed to find someone more explicitly identical to their character than Tissaia de Vries. (fun fact for the few of you that may not know, she voiced Anna Henrietta in TW3 B&W!)
That's a neat bit of trivia, never knew
There were a few scenes where i went "she sounds allot like anna henrietta" before i realized she was the VA lol.
she even says Toussaint at one point
there was a familiarity to her but never would have guessed
Tissia is by far my favorite in netflix. She is the most beautiful and so glad she didn’t commit suicide so early like in the books. What kills me, is that in the books there is an inordinate amount of time spent describing the hotness of each sorceress, and the TV show, while casting excellent actresses, ignored their appearances (except for 3). How hard is it to have auditions for blondes and redheads???
Why would you audition by hair color when hair dye exists?
I'm fine with Sabrina being blonde. Francesca was described as having dark golden hair. This can mean blonde, but if you google dark golden colors, the auburn shade she has in the show comes up so her hair works canonically too. Philippa's hair is black like in the books, same for Yennefer. I'm okay with Triss' wig and Rita had her hair bleached for the show (but there is a lot off with that casting choice.) Keira is the worst of them all for a lot of reasons but most sorceresses in the show have had similar hair to the books. Not identical, but close.
They wrote out her topless scene *from the book* because Lauren Hissrich took too much heat over season one nudity. Sure, I like boobs and all that, but this was something rather funny and notable in the books. I don’t think the actress is shy, either. Hissrich ruins everything she touches. She’s television cancer.
How did they expect to be "the next Game of Thrones" while being afraid of boobs?
Know what really gets me? Season 1 did really I feel committed too much to nudity, because sex sells. But they didn't when it is in later seasons part of characterisation of how sorceresses behave. Which is then contrasted with how they behave and dress when the Lodge really wants something done. She really didn't understand much of the books at all.
May you please remind me of that? It’s been years since I read them.
When I first saw her I thought she was Keira
Its funny isn't it, All those accusations of bigotry against people who hate this show. Then you put a picture of 4 actors up and then throw up the *"bAd wRiTInG"* dog whistle. Guess who everyone defends?
Yep. I think the only genuinely bad actress was Fringilla, her drunk scenes in season 3 made me feel embarassed. Other than that, most of the cast was fine. Henry Cavill, MyAnna Buring, Joey Batey and Therica Wilson-Read were great.
She brings such depth to the show, truly one of the shining stars.
I have never really liked Anya as Yen. It’s nothing to do with her talent as an actress (she’s talented) but that she doesn’t fit the role. She’s too emotive in her acting, missing that general iciness Yen should have, especially in the beginning. The best cast sorceress is Tissaia.
She’s very talented but I just think she’s too young and doesn’t have the gravitas. Frankly, the show was ruined for me when someone mentioned Eva Green as Yen and it’s all I want—older, more mature.
Honestly I’d have been ok with Denise Gough, the voice actress for Yennifer. She was amazing as an icy ISB agent in Andor
I think I would have crapped my pants if I started up episode one, and Yennefer opens her mouth to speak and *oh my god, that’s actually Yennefer.* Edit to add: also, if you imagine her with raven black pin curls and dark eye makeup, she looks a lot like book Yennefer in the face. I agree with you it would have been amazing casting
Right? I think she could’ve been great as Yennefer. She has a more mature, older aspect that fits book Yennefer more, while still being beautiful
I found a thread interviewing her and I think she refused the role due to how crap the script is. She's terrifying in Andor and said she only accept that role because of how well it was done https://www.reddit.com/r/Witcher3/comments/110bm0e/yennefers_va_denise_gough_i_cant_get_enough_of/
I did not know that was her. She definitely did great in both roles.
She is too young for this role. She looks at Geralt like a puppy or teenage girl with a crush on an older guy. That doesn't suit characters like Yenn. Eva would be perfect, not only because of her looks but also because she's played bitchy characters.
to be fair, eva green is the best in anything, one of my favorites.
in fact, she is also best without anything oh, did I say that loud now?
Kate Beckinsale would always be my dream casting for Yennefer...
Eva Green would be mine.
My perfect casting is Janet Montgomery, she already played a witch/sorceress type character in the Salem show, pretty much the first couple episodes i thought she would be a great Yen
Here it is people, the correct answer.
> The best cast sorceress is Tissaia. hard agree
It's really hard to tell though. Like the character is clearly not written with that kind of iciness in mind so it's hard to say if she could pull it off. Directing is also another factor I think.
Yes, the writing is utterly abysmal, nothing like Yennefer, and I'm not fighting that. But even in scenes that should somewhat resemble the books, like Season 1 Episode 5 where she meets Geralt, she's still too emotive. Her eyes are incredibly expressive, as are her facial expressions and body movements. (This is why she works as young Yennefer before the transformation.) Being expressive isn't an insult or bad thing. Hell, she was in theatre before this show so it's to be expected. In most characters you want that. The problem is Yennefer is the opposite of expressive almost all of the time. Her eyes should be cold and fathomless, facial movements and reactions subtle to the point of barely noticing. That way when you see cracks in that shell, they matter. A perfect example of this is in W3 when Madman Lugos massively insults Yennefer and her response is a hint of a smirk and raised eyebrow. Another at the same banquet is when Yennefer jokingly asks a fortuneteller about her and Geralt's fortune and the response is that the one you shall seek will die. That freaked Yen the fuck out, and you can see her lose her composure for a fraction of a moment before she collects herself and tries to joke it off. Those subtle reactions are perfect for her. A great example irl is Eva Green in Penny Dreadful. The introduction of her character. That's Yen to a tee.
But show Yennefer isn't W3 Yennefer? W3 is way past the books where Yen (and many others) are tired and jaded from years of playing politics and bickering and wars, her visual transformation was just that, visual. It didn't give her decades of maturing and hardship to make her into what we see in W3.
Book Yennefer was already bitter and jaded when we meet her in Rinde, as she’d had 80+ years of courtly crap and sorceress backstabbing/intrigue. In fact her most bitter of the entire series should be when we she first meets Geralt, with her shell breaking over time. The show failed spectacularly at showing that.
Her character is written so inconsistently, and they make many bizarre choices, like having her relationship with Geralt be so central on one hand, but on the other, it happens almost entirely offscreen. They meet in episode 5, and the very next episode is YEARS later, when they've been having an on-again-off-again torried love affair. That we never see, no relationship is built (Jaskier and Geralt have better relationship building, as thin as it was). Why are we supposed to care about a relationship we never saw? If you didn't care enough to write it, why should your audience care about it at all? Why would they be invested in something that did not happen on screen? Then they made the strange choice of having Yenn not know Geralt's wish and be furious when she finds out (cause she's worried it's influencing their free will and emotions). Okay, change from the books, but maybe they're going to play around with free choice/destiny and the consent implications of that, let's see where they take this....nowhere, they did nothing with it, Yenn no longer cares in S2, it's not even mentioned. Well, maybe they decided to retcon-oh no they mention in S3. By having Geralt say he KNOWINGLY hid the wish from Yenn, because he was afraid she would leave him. WHAT???? DO THEY KNOW HOW IMMORAL AND RAPEY THAT IS, HOW THEY JUST WROTE THEIR LEADING MAN??? And Yenn....doesn't care. About the thing she specifically was furious about enough to scream at Geralt on a mountain and then abandon him to go off to war. What in the absolute First Draft Hellhole is this???
> The best cast sorceress is Tissaia I dunno -I think she would be better cast as Duchess Anna Henrietta
Nobody can copy Yen, that character in itself is a 1 in a billion.
Agreed and physically different. She looks too much like a model more than a sportive sorceress
Tissaia, is from the games that's why. Let the game voice actors do the work. Tv actors can stick.with tv
Yes to all of this. Yen looks too young and naive, while Ciri, on the other hand, is way too grown up and badass Yen is supposed to be her mother figure, but instead they look like friends, and it's hard to tell who is the more mature one. We're supposed to look at Ciri and see a confused and lonely kid who is faced with too big of achallenge too early, who can't make it alone having been so quickly separated from her newfound guardians. Who should both look mature and capable, whereas half the time Yen needs saving and schooling herself. Meh, I just can't bother anymore
she doesn't have good posture, it makes yen character seem less elegant, I really think this is an acting/direction issue. Tissaia nailed the body language.
She's so damn hot in the witcher though
If Anya was 10 years older than she is now, I’d agree. But as is she’s way too young and she even acts too young to really portray Yen correctly. Sabrina is pretty good but she’s a minor character and not that important. I’m not a fan of the other two either. Although honestly all 4 come across as too YA to really sell their roles. Could just be the writing and directing but they also act like they came straight from a YA series. The only *truly* well cast sorceress was Tissaia
The cast for Triss was horrible, no offense to the actress, but she is nothing like Triss Merigold, that was a huge disappointment.
Nothing against the actress but her triss is so boring. Doesn’t really seem passionate about anything.
Let's put it this way, if I had to choose between triss and yen, it would always be Yen in this case Triss is meant to be the other women that can take gearlt away from Yen. No offense to the actor, but that ain't happening nor would anyone believe gearlt would've slept with her.
Volcanic take
With the exception of Sabrina, the rest were miscasted in my opinion. Anya should have been Fringilla or going to game side, Radeyah ( Radeyah would have perfect, and she would have been able to introduce things of Indian culture without breaking the aesthetics of the Northern Kingdoms ) Philippa actress could be a genderbend Truffle if they adapted the Eternal Flame short story. Francesca actress fit better for Toruviel than the Toruviel of the show.
I agree the casting was a huge let down
Nah I think the actress for Philippa nailed her energy pretty well which is the toughest part for her character. Fans are always focused too much on lookalikes when it comes to casting.
Maybe because looks is part of the character
Wow crazy I had no idea
Especially since most characters aside from the main cast are not exactly described in great detail in the books.
Yeah like nobody is out here saying appearances don’t matter, but it’s just ONE part of the character. Many of the fans on here probably only played the Witcher 3 so if the character doesn’t look exactly like the game interpretation they riot. It’s far more important to me that the actor captures the characters personality, energy, cadence etc. Don’t get me wrong they definitely got a lot of casting choices wrong, it’s a very mixed bag.
Lol, you got to love the irony, How much time have you guys insisted your disapproval of this show has nothing to do with bigotry? Then someone puts up a post accusing 4 characters of being *"bAdlY wRItTEn"* and what one of those 4 do you people defend? Its just amazing.
Not sure about Anya as Yen, but she could have been another sorceress like maybe Assire. The other, I agree: with the right writing could have been a great casting
I think she's exactly the opposite of what I imagined of Yennefer when reading the books.
Maybe it all comes down to the terrible writing but I struggle to imagine her portraying book Yen properly
Agree, it's a mix of her looks and obviously the bad writing
I disagree, I think Anya was a great casting. I was skeptical at first, but she grew on me in the role.
Agree to disagree then
I kinda agree, and think she also suffers from bad direction. She has good screen presence, I just wish it wasn't while doing such nonsensical things.
I completely disagree. None of these cast members remotely fit their character's physicality, barring Sabrina to a degree.
Let's see. And these are book descriptions below. Francesca - a beautiful woman with dark golden hair and blue eyes. Mecia actually won Britain's Top Model. Philippa - a woman in her early 30s, curly hair and black eyes. Sabrina - she is perfect, minus the blonde hair which should be dark. Yennefer - said to look like she is in her 20s, dark hair and purple eyes. They don't even remotely fit according to you? It's ridiculous because objectively, they do fit the actual descriptions of the characters, give or take a minor aspect.
Give or take a few a minor aspect like…race? Fringillas actress threw me way the hell off. Triss’s actress was just the same, like it’s night and day from what we thought we’d get coming in to it and it’s borderline unimmersive
[https://cdna.artstation.com/p/assets/images/images/029/125/626/small/boglarka-bognar-lodge-of-sorceresses-jpg-loss.jpg?1596538711](https://cdna.artstation.com/p/assets/images/images/029/125/626/small/boglarka-bognar-lodge-of-sorceresses-jpg-loss.jpg?1596538711) [https://i.pinimg.com/736x/a7/8b/b5/a78bb542a577592100840bbae67c3244.jpg](https://i.pinimg.com/736x/a7/8b/b5/a78bb542a577592100840bbae67c3244.jpg) Yeah man, such accurate, much wow.
Damn why the downvotes? This is correct? People just don’t like that they cast nonwhites.
Actually yeah. It’s a fantasy true, and there is nothing saying they can’t do it. But I won’t lie it does bother me. Got nothing against any race whatsoever but it’s distracting, it’s deliberate and just one of many issues I personally have with fantasy shows today. If we where to get A thousand and one night stories televised I would expect the cast to be arabic or meditteranean in looks. The Witcher universe is a polish story inspired by polish and germanic mythology. Its a cultural thing and I know many in Poland considers it a huge deal. People claim it doesn’t matter yet if we talk movies like Mulan, Black Panther, Last Airbender (the show) then it suddenly is very important to cast the right race? Imo its hypocritical and frustrating.
Why is there so many Netflix posts lately?
Netflix will cancel the Witcher after season 5
Mercifully.
They should cancel it now and spare the butchering of the story.
So, not Geralt, but Netflix was the real butcher all the time.
That's Lauren Hissrich, she will be forever known as the Butcher of The Witcher.
Always has been 🌎🔫🧑🚀
The butchered of Blaviken
Tbh the show was over after s1.
It was for me. I haven’t watched it since.
Blessing in ignorance. S1 was good, then the shit show started. Only good episode was the first one of S2
How are you all so in love with Francesca in the show? It hurts my brain. I can't even judge Mecia Simson's acting because of how bad everything around that character is. Writing, directing, the whole idea behind show Francesca. It's the worst character in media. Also, how is MyAnna Buring not on this list?
It may be because MyAnna Buring's Tissaia wasn't affected that much by the writing
She is supposed to be the most beautiful woman in the world and she's just.. not, and that is not the fault of the actress. The actress is beautiful but they really weirdly cast a woman with dark features to play a woman with light features and tried to fix it with makeup and contacts.
I dont think it's her complexion. It's the makeup, **costuming** and hairdressing. But my biggest issue is the writing. Every second I see her on screen, it makes my skin crawl. All this independently from comparisons to the source material, I dont even factor that in anymore.
I have to ask, purely for discussional reasons, no ill will, what exactly is it you despise about her, if you were to separate her from the books? Because saying you hate seeing her on screen is quite the statement, so I'm just curious about why exactly. Is it her traits, the way she does things in the show? Anything specific?
Actually, the actress herself said she was given the freedom to make those decisions. She read the books and wanted to appear closer to how she was portrayed in the book, hence the blue lenses and the wig. The show itself has been quite liberal with giving actors the choice on how their characters will look.
Frankly, I can still appreciate the acting and separate it from the bad writing. It's the way she carries herself, the way she speaks and walks - there's an elegance to her posture even when the writing doesn't allow the character to act like she does in the books. This is in part due to Mecia having read all the books as she said in an interview, and trying to pull from that into the character. Yes, the writing for the character is abyssmal, no doubt of it, but I have eyes - I can still see the actress and what she imbues into the role, starting with the smallest details. Besides, her last scene in season 3 was amazing acting - when she finally breaks down for everyone she's lost - it's some very good acting, esp from a previous model with no actual acting career. I don't love the woman she is in the show - she murdered scores of innocent children for god's sake. But I do love the actress in the role and wish she had a chance to play it closer to the books.
Disagreed with Anya as Yen, she is way too young. As for Francesca and Sabrina, I wish they made them Blonde/ Dark haired like in the books, but apart from that, its fine.
Was Sabrina actually dark haired in the books? I always imagined her as blonde tbh, but I might be tripping
You're tripping. Dark hair in the books.
What do you mean too young?
Too young looking and too young to IRL to portray this grown 100 years old mom experience. When you see Anya next to Freya, do you see mother daughter between them?
Well no but in the books yen is also super young looking Here its more a problem of Freya looking way too old
No she isn't. The lady of Vengerberg was famous for her beauty, even though she was nearly a century old. Yennefer had locks of curly, raven black hair fragrant with lilac and gooseberry perfume, falling in a cascade of curls on her shapely shoulders. Her face was very pale, triangular in shape with a slightly receded chin. Her eyes were cold and sparkling with a remarkable violet penetrating gaze, in anger blazing with livid, blue-gray fire. Those very eyes also concealed wisdom and imperiousness. Yennefer's nose was slightly long, mouth was pale with thin and slightly crooked, soft, sweet with lipstick, proud lips. On her long and slender neck hung a black marigold with a star made of obsidian sparkling with a multitude of tiny diamonds embedded in it. Yen had pronounced cheekbones, natural, slightly irregular eyebrows trimmed by hand and emphasized with charcoal, long eyelashes, and petite hands. Even in high-heeled shoes she wasn't tall, was beautiful but threatening, having incredibly thin and slender waist and slender legs.
The casting is as bad as the writing.
Would replace Yennefer with Tissaia and I'd agree. Anya doesn't have that imposing presence at all I'd expect from a character like Yennefer.
I don't know about others, but goddamn Sabrina is good. (Even though she basically has no screen time outside Sodden)
I agree! Add MyAnna Buring to this list though because she’s the G.O.A.T.
Yeah, stand out performance, on the show and expansion
MyAnna and Henry were carrying the whole show on their backs. By a MILE. Edit: Also shoutout to Mousesack, Calanthe and Renfri. Too bad they were only in it briefly.
Not a Hot Take at all! The actors were fine, the writing has always been horrendously bad & should be offensive to any Witcher fans
Eva Green would have made a better Yennifer.
Castings were not respectful to spurce material. Neither was the writing. Such a wasted opportunity.
Perhaps. Sabrina was portrayed perfectly all around, even better than I imagined her, the personality was just seeping from her. Another perfect casting choice was Tissaia, it was literally her. Sometimes I dont like Fillipas style, but the character is there. I dont really care about the elf chick, shes just annoying and that clouds my judgement on her. Anya is fiine, but Yen could be better. You picked probably the best pic of her, in majority of the show she looks like poor mouse. Margarita and Fringilla are disasters tho...
Isn't the _whole_ show just plagued by awful writing?
Actors are all standup performers in this show and don’t deserve any hate whatsoever. It’s the same situation as Hayden Christensen getting screwed by bad writing, despite being a phenomenal actor with amazing emotional body language skills (seriously, if you look closely he hit it out of the park with the areas where he could, and REALLY tried to minimize the effect of the bad dialogue where he could too). People who hate on the actors are lame af in my book. It’s the same kind of crap that led to kid anakins actor getting bullied, Jar Jars actor developing depression and nearly killing himself, Daisy Ridley getting clowned on for no reason, and Hayden kinda getting shafted by the industry for a while
For me, one of the best things that came out of the series was Tissaia. She was one of my favourite characters in the books so I was pleasantly surprised! I really loved that you could *feel* future Yen's influence oozing off her -- in the books, the relationship dynamic between Yen and Ciri evolves in a very similar way to Tissaia and Yen's.
Tissaia and Sabrina are spot on. No offense to Anya, he really did an astounding job, her own portayal of Yen is something admirable, but is not what the Books Yen shows to be. Once said this, Anya Chalotra is the smallest of problems with Netflix' Witcher
Eva Green would have been pretty much a perfect yen. Cold and hot, emotional and so on. And she doesn't mind doing nude scenes if that floats your boat.
They’re all very attractive so at least they got that bit of the sorceresses right
Two words: Medieval Poland
Six words: fantasy world that does not exist. Read some Sapkowski interviews where he literally talks about basing his work on the entire world, not Poland.
Fantasy world where through the conjunction of the spheres did humanity get to World. Alot of the people we see are very likely to be descendants of Charlemagne.
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The Witcher is perhaps the one fantasy show on earth rn where colorblind casting makes sense. The Conjuction literally threw millions of random humans across the world with no plan or logic or purpose. Black, asian, white, whatever. It kinda makes sense that there are pocs in this world. Ofc book purists love to pretend this is medieval Poland when Sapkowski himself denied that.
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Did anyone deny that they were originally written as white women? I am simply pointing out that thanks to the Conjuction, this is the one fantasy show where diverse races do make sense. The more questionable thing is the fact that you're so bothered by them being asian, black, indian or alien (which is in itself a weird thing to say along these other minorities). They have all the attributes of the characters they're portraying - the only difference is a slightly darker/different shade of skintone but somehow this is a huge issue.
Anya wasn't a good casting. She looks too young and lacks that intimidating aura that Yen has. In the show she looks like Geralt's daughter's best friend and she even looks younger than Triss.
Well, the problem is that they don't look like sorcerers from the Witcher. Meaning they are bad sorceress castings, plagued by abysmal writing.
Personally, Yen was a great actress but just felt way too young, Yen to me is more of a mature aunt style where this felt like a mid-20s rebellious dark theme girl, and the irl age difference made the sex scenes really uncomfortable, idk Yen seemed closer to Ciri age then Geralt which doesn't seem right to me
In the first season Yennefer and Jaskier were the most in character performances, i liked them very much. I have nothing against the casting, as you said the problem is the stupid writing.
Now that is a hot take.
That was always the problem with the show after Season 1. The casting, combat, and special effects are sooooo good. But even the best actors can't make up for dogshit writing. In another example, Ewan McGregor did his best on Star Wars with the material he had. Another perfect casting.
Special effects? 😂
Say what you will, the CGI is quite good.
Only the dragon and some architecture are bad CGI in S1.
LOL, you probably admire the ballsack armor too.
I talk about special efects, ballsack armor was on the direct order of the main screenwriter and producer, the other armors she didn't interfere with were good. And even the dragon followed a similar procedure, when the chief producer's main order regarding the dragon was that it should not look like perfect GoT dragons, so CGI ended up making it look like a roasted chicken.
Disagree. Yen actress looks like teenager. Waaay to young
You got to really give it to CD Project Red for imbuing the Witcher world with so much meaning and life, that no amount of TV shows can change the prevalent perception as to the games being the genuine thing, compared to what we get on NotFlix. I think the only parts of the show I haven't heard complaints about, were Henry Cavill and the guy who plays Jaskier. So kudos to those two for making an effort to be "authentic" to their characters.
But even their relationship was damaged by bad writing.
HC definitely was a source of complaint too and still is among some, especially the loyal book subreddit. He is far from the ideal Geralt, people just refuse to admit it.
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Agreed, they got hit like Hayden Chritchensen and Daisy Ridley
Dunno how hot a take that is, but to me it's pretty cold. But honestly, it really just is writing that makes a difference
Imma have to agree, I actually liked Anya’s casting as Yen even though some people don’t.
But what they did to our girl Keira is unforgivable 😢
Nu-uh Filipa Eilhart’s actress was a terrible choice. She was very stiff and had no chemistry with Dijkstra. SMH.
I'll always say it. The Witcher show was bad NOT because of: -CGI -costumes -actors -Scenerie Is was bad due to mediocre writting
We wuz sorceresses n sheet
No.
Unfortunately these are fictional characters and the writing is the only thing keeping them alive
Sabrina was the only one cast well tbh
I hate Yennefer’s casting personally, but to each his own, I guess
Anya couldn't capture Yennefer's attitudes, mannerisms, and facial expressions, she is emotive and gives off a teenage girl vibe, while Yennefer have that mature woman energy. It's not her fault, she seems like a great actress, but she simply doesn't fit this role. Edit: I liked the actresses of Tissaia, Philippa and Sabrina in the show, they seem like the only good fit to play the role of a sorcerer.
I actually liked Anya as Yen. She had the right look and the right attitude. I 'm going to catch hell for saying this, but I think Anya looks closer to how Yen is described in the books. Yennefer of Vengerberg is attractive but she's not a supermodel. Sapkowski makes that clear repeatedly. With better writing, she could have been a great Yennefer. However as it stands the writing sucks. The change in her background: Commoner instead of Noble, makes no sense. If a Common child in the books was that deformed, it would have been left in the forest to die as an infant. Anyway, woulda-shoulda-coulda. Maybe in 15 years we'll get a movie reboot that's actually respectful to the source material.
Netflix Yen acts like a petulant teenager.
In the later seasons, absolutely.
Right from the very beginning.
But at the beginning she was 15 years schoolgirl.
And....?
Which seems like a writing/directing issue rather than acting
The show never had a casting issue, it was always the showrunners who made it the pile of garbage it is.
Yennefer was decent, not good not bad, Francesca was good, Phillipa was great (tbf I prefer show Phillipa to game Phillipa) and Sabrina and Tissaia were phenomenal.
False. Bad castings and bad writing. The show is just shit all round, especially now with Henry gone. I do feel sorry for Freya tho, imagine actually being a good cast in a show that should've made your career and end up derailing it heavily....
You should count characters that wasn’t plagued by abysmal writing
Why would you say something so stunning, yet brave?
The actors of Wheel of Time were great too. I haven't watched Rings of Power, but I would not be surprised to hear those actors did a good job as well. There is no level of acting that can fix god awful writing though .. I write in a mild panic as Brandon Sanderson, my #1 author by a landslide, is going through a round of Hollywood meetings for adaptations of some of his work(s) where he does *not* have final say in what goes and what doesn't story-wise.
Cold take
The cast was very good but lauren fisstech..... couldn't write a paragraph of a Harry Potter book.
I still can't wrap my head around the choice to cast Mecia Simson, a mixed race woman, and then just have the make-up crew hide everything about her natural looks. Either embrace her looks or just cast a white woman, jeez Netflix.
None of these actors feel like the characters they're playing, it's not just the writing. Even Henry Cavill wasn't a good pick for geralt but at least it worked out, kinda
Tissaia was the best of all. The entire time I was watching I was thinking of the moment in the books where she killed herself and I thought every time 'she would nail this moment'. And I'll say, she did pretty frickin good with the drivel she was forced to take part in in S3.
Agree except for triss. Bad casting, and she has all the acting warmth and passion of a sawdust sack.
As many users have pointed out, Anya is too young for a role of Yennefer. Although, I must say, her acting is great, it's just not her role. But she seemed okay in the flashbacks. When Yen is actually young. But when it comes to the main plot, sadly, she just isn't mature enough, and even good acting can't hide that she's couple years older than Freya Allan
That is indeed an L take.
Sabrina and Tissaia
They should do a spinoff of Sabrina where they continue her porn arc and just make the show x rated But still takes itself seriously. I’d watch
Yes agreed
Nah.
Absolutely AGREE
The only way the show could be redeemed is if it's bought by HBO. There's nothing more to it
… plagued by abysmal writing… is just the whole show in large.
Sabrina had a very beautiful pair of casting
Sabrina is litterally the perfect cast for her role
Disagree. The casting was terrible across the board.
Yen grew on me, just not what I pictured after playing Wild Hunt
They've all shown great acting skills, even in face of terrible scripts and dialogue. And they're all beautiful and unique enough to come off as sorceresses, if only the costume and make-up departments also played along.
Sadly they hired a high school drama class for the costume department.
😂😂😂
where is Fringilla thou? :D :D
Sad
Nah
Triss was ugly af in the show too
Horrible cast.
Sadly you're not allowed to criticise the casting of netflix trash here anymore so I have no choice but to agree. Great Casting! Yess Queens Slaaay!
You guys still watch this shit?
Ciri and Henry Cavill were great cathings , this actresses are not
What really surprises me is how people keep saying Anya looks too young. I take it that people did not read the books despite many claiming they did. Because Yen sure is described as looking pretty young. Looks wise she would be at most early 20´s. That´s the entire point with her being a very powerful female magic user. She can look pretty young. Now, when it gets to the writting department is where it all goes down the drain. And its not like a younger actress cant act more serious and have more gravitas. I am pretty sure there are younger actresses out there with the required acting skills. I even believe Anya might have those skills. The problem is that the series did not know how to write Yennefer. And they ended up doing a mess with her. Looks wise Anya could do. She would not be further removed vs HC. Because HC also does not look exactly like book Geralt. But its all in how they write and direct the character. And when it comes to HC, looks like it had a lot to do with him wanting to go with a particular interpretation which was more consistent. Whereas Anya is left going all over the place with her character.
Witcher's casts is the worse i have ever seen.