The Golden One - Marcus Follin - The Witcher Plagiarism Controversy. Utter Silliness!
Aired: 2020-03-25
Duration: 08:49


=== Contrarian Critiques (06:09) ===

[00:00:01]  Hello Laddingtons, this is a follow-up video to my game and book review of The Witcher.
[00:00:08]  Saw a comment saying that the author Andersi Sabkovsky had plagiarized his character, basically copied someone else's work.
[00:00:21]  And I looked into it and just thought it would be a good idea to respond to it because I thought it was a bit silly indeed.
[00:00:28]  Now first and foremost I want to mention the contrarian nature of everyone who criticizes him.
[00:00:35]  Whenever there comes anything popular, you always have these guys they have to go against the grain.
[00:00:41]  They have to be contrarian, they have to find faults.
[00:00:44]  And you know sometimes it's good to go against the grain.
[00:00:46]  It's good to say your piss if something is obviously wrong.
[00:00:51]  So you know I say porn is wrong even though it's very popular because I know it is wrong.
[00:00:56]  But some guys they just for the sake of it have to be special unique.
[00:01:01]  They want to be apart from everyone else and saying you know this is bad.
[00:01:05]  So therefore they find faults.
[00:01:08]  In this case they find faults with the witcher because yeah they want to be unique.
[00:01:13]  So they come up with these points of contention which I have looked into and I will refute them now.
[00:01:23]  But before I do so I would like to share some plans with you all my esteemed subscribers.
[00:01:32]  I'm actually writing my second book right now.
[00:01:35]  It's not a fiction book, it's more a social, cultural and political analysis of a few things.
[00:01:43]  But in the long term I do want to write fiction.
[00:01:46]  Fantasy or historic fiction.
[00:01:48]  I just need to sharpen my pen a bit more so that's why I'm writing a second book now and also because I have a lot of things I want to say.
[00:01:56]  But anyway I thought to mention this before I actually release a fantasy or historical fiction book and that is also to do with original ideas, original names etc.
[00:02:13]  So that was just the preface of my refuting the points of contention.
[00:02:21]  So anyway first thing The White Wolf is a moniker used by Sabkovsky.
[00:02:31]  The witcher Geralt Of Rivia is called the white wolf and apparently the other character is also called the white wolf, and this is rather silly, I would say.
[00:02:44]  You know, the white wolf is hardly an original moniker.
[00:02:48]  I don't think he's the first fantasy author to use the name.
[00:02:51]  I don't think there has never been a historical figure who's been referred to as the white wolf or the wolf.
[00:02:58]  You know, I call myself the lion, sometimes just as plenty of other historical figures or even fictional figures.
[00:03:06]  You call yourself the lion because you want to evoke a sense of royal majesty, Majesty, sense of vitality and power, that's why you do it.
[00:03:15]  Same thing with a wolf.
[00:03:18]  And I don't think the story would have been any less good if Gerald was called the strong bear or something like that.
[00:03:30]  Now, of course, a white wolf is more suiting because he has white hair.
[00:03:34]  Which is also the second point of contention.
[00:03:38]  Apparently, the other character also has white hair.
[00:03:42]  Now, we can talk about blonde hair.
[00:03:45]  First and foremost, you might wonder why my hair looks a bit darker and a bit more dull now than it did when I had long hair.
[00:03:52]  Simply a matter of sunbleaching, a lot of sunbleached, a lot of accumulated sunbleached hair.
[00:03:59]  But give it a few months, then Helios and Baldur will bless my hair with a golden luster again.
[00:04:07]  But anyway, speaking of hair, basically all other heroes have long blonde hair.
[00:04:12]  You can talk about Beowulf or Achilles or Elven heroes.
[00:04:19]  Everyone basically looks the same.
[00:04:21]  Speaking of elven heroes, here is the most epic of descriptions.
[00:04:26]  Glorfindel was tall and straight.
[00:04:28]  His hair was of shining gold.
[00:04:30]  His face fair, young, fearless, and full of joy.
[00:04:33]  His eyes were bright and keen and his voice like music.
[00:04:37]  On his brow sat wisdom and in his hand was strength.
[00:04:41]  So if I write a fantasy novel or a short story with a guy who has long blonde hair, would I have copied someone else's work?
[00:04:52]  No, it's just an archetype.
[00:04:55]  Same thing with having white hair.
[00:04:58]  You know, the story of the witcher could have been equally good if he had brown hair.
[00:05:02]  It's not a big deal.
[00:05:04]  So just because two characters have the same hair color doesn't mean it's copied.
[00:05:10]  Then the third point of contention, having a magical sword.
[00:05:16]  And I would say in basically all fantasy stories you have magical swords.
[00:05:22]  It would be strange if a character didn't have a magical sword.
[00:05:25]  Even in the Arthurian legend you have Excalibur, a magical sword.
[00:05:30]  It adds to the story.
[00:05:31]  It's nothing unique, it's nothing original.
[00:05:33]  When I write a story I will probably also have a magical sword imbued with some sort of cool thing or whatever.
[00:05:40]  So in my opinion the witcher isn't good because he is using magic, it's not good because he uses a magic sword, it's not good because he has a moniker that is a white wolf, it's not good because he has white hair.
[00:05:55]  He could have had brown hair or blonde hair.
[00:05:57]  The series would have been equally good.
[00:06:00]  So it's not a success because he has similar attributes as someone else.
[00:06:05]  It's a success because it is written in an entertaining and interesting way.

=== Setting the Scene (02:38) ===

[00:06:10]  I like them.
[00:06:11]  I like the books because there is a lot of nuance to them.
[00:06:14]  In terms of geopolitics, economics, societal issues, even tolerance as I talked about, sexual Sexual morality, you know, he imbues the stories with a lot of relevant and interesting social commentary.
[00:06:29]  And that is also why I like it because it creates a bit more, it makes it a bit more immersive than just having you know battles and heroics, etc.
[00:06:40]  Now, furthermore, in regards to fantasy, my favorite setting, the Warhammer World, which is geographically speaking our own world, but with some changes also inspired by European history.
[00:06:52]  You have Kislev, which is Russia, you have the Empire, which is basically the Holy Roman Empire, then you have classical elves, which, you know, for a contrarian guy, he would say, oh, these guys have just copied Tolkien's work.
[00:07:08]  And I would say, no, they have just built on Tolkien's characters.
[00:07:14]  They've just taken elves, put them in a different setting, add a bit of grimminess to the dark elves, add a bit of nuance to the high elves, etc.
[00:07:22]  But I don't see it as something bad.
[00:07:24]  I just see it as a very nice setting.
[00:07:28]  And Games Workshop, if you're watching this, please do release more books from the old world.
[00:07:33]  It's a superior setting to Age of Sigmar.
[00:07:35]  I'm sorry to say it, but you know it's true.
[00:07:39]  So anyway, you don't always need to find nitpick faults.
[00:07:44]  You can just enjoy a story.
[00:07:45]  So that was just my response to the controversy, if we shall even call it that, of The Witcher.
[00:07:53]  So anyway, since this is a bit more light-hearted topic, I might throw in some other clips after this little sequence.
[00:08:01]  So yeah, enjoy that.
[00:08:03]  And as always, thank you for watching.
[00:08:06]  And I hope you're all staying safe.
[00:08:08]  XXO.
[00:08:10]  I was supposed to post boxing footage, but then I reminded myself that I will actually make a separate video.
[00:08:18]  Will be a quick heavy bag workout you can do at home for everyone who is fortunate enough to have a heavy bag.
[00:08:26]  But anyway, I thought just put in some gaming footage from The Witcher 3.
[00:08:32]  Visimir and Geralt are being attacked by a Griffon here, as you might see.
[00:08:37]  So yeah, again, I will recommend the game Good Times, Good Times.
[00:08:42]  And now the Cuddle Princess demands my attention.
[00:08:46]  But yeah, thanks for watching.
[00:08:47]  I'll see you in the next video.