How To Fail At Adaptation - The Witcher

Hey Guys,

I hope you guys enjoyed today's video. As per usual, it took me far longer than it really should have to make this because procrastination is a constant enemy. But if you liked the video and want to help me in making more, then please do support me on Patreon.

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Anyway, thanks for watching, and I look forward to seeing why I'm wrong down below,
- Henry

Season 3 is far worse

I agree with almost everything you said, but I think that in The lesser evil, Sapkowski's message was that sometimes you've got choose one or the other. Because Geralt's choice wasn't between killing Stregobor or killing Renfri's men on the market, it was between killing him or her. And he abstained from that choice, wich led him to kill everyone on the market the next day. Renfri even says so on the night before, that she sees him covered in blood, alone, in the market, unable to make a choice. So, I don't think his point was that choosing at all is, in itself, a bad thing. His point is that inaction and not choosing will lead to an even bigger evil.

They failed to adapt the core of the series. Sapkowski is amazing at dialog, so much so Im preety sure you could translate the whole series as a theater play pretty seamlessly. The eastern european character of the story and setting is also abandoned. They had an episodic book to adapt and decided to forgo this huge asset. There's no reason to present Yennefer's backstory in the first season at all, and make it completely crowded for no reason. The casting is also bonkers. Can anyone believe that little gecko of a girl could be the athletic bandit- witcher-girl-planehopper Cirilla?

I read the books and now i know the show has ignored many things in the books.

Yeah, you should read the books if you liked the game or are new from the show.

HO LY SHIT!
I thought I enjoyed the Witcher series and it just had some minor flaws, what I didn't realize was how the writers of the show robbed me of a much MUCH better story. I understood that the lesson of the first episode was about not choosing between lesser evils, but I only understood it because THEY TOLD ME about it - I had no idea how the story related to that lesson except that Renfri wants Stregobor dead and vice versa, but it's never explained why killing either is a "lesser evil".
If this is the kind of stories I can expect in the Witcher books, I really, REALLY want to read them now.

Adaptations I've seen from best to worst because it's possible to make a good adaptation/prequel/sequel

1. the dark crystal age of resistance
2. good omens
3. harry potter
4.the hobbit
5. IT (the new movies)
6.twilight
7. tokyo ghoul
8.rings of power
9.Wednesday
10. the witcher

Now you may have noticed that everything after the dark crystal is a controversial opinion, especially after the hobbit which further proves the point that most are bad but hey, if you wanna watch something better thsn the witcher (which is still a fantasy settibg in most of my examples) feel free to look at the list again

How higher ups think they know better. Don't listen to fans or passionate people around them. Completely destroy a series. And somehow still be in business. Honestly most companies I know.

Can't believe they hired Dante from Dante's Inferno as Djikstra and didn't even utilise him properly

evil prevails when good men do nothing. either you make a choice and hope for the best or walk away and blame yourself for what ever happens. question tho (didn't watch the show just guessing based on the clip), if the plan was called off, and nothing was going to happen...why did the gang members squad up when they saw the witcher? i mean if the boss told me "no killing today boys the wizard gives zero fucks." the last thing i'd do is go out and fight a dude for NO REASON!

I could only stomach the first three episodes, all the diversity crap Netflix tries to cram down our throats was just too much to take.

The problem with the first episode is they never do explain the choice. Renfri says she will kill the girl and more but because that is after Geralt kills all her men there is little to tell that this isn't a reaction to that and was her original plan. My husband didn't understand it at all and I had to explain the story to him. He said he would have never understood that no matter how often he watched. They did such a poor job of adapting this story and I couldn't understand why. It wasn't for the sake of brevity. They could have done it with small lines here and there. They butchered this story.

I am not like many others that think the story in season one should have just been Geralt. I think it could have been a very strong show by making the three the main characters. And understanding how TV works building characters and relationships I had no problem with them bringing this all into the first season. Yennifer's backstory was definitely something I wanted to see and some of it I liked very much. But they butchered all of the books so far. They changed the main characters especially Yennifer in ways I hated.

I don't know why these show runners don't understand that we want to see our beloved stories come to life. As they exist in the books, filling in and adapting. Not replacing them with their own creations. Yennifer's story had to be created from the crumbs in the books but when they replaced existing lore with their own that is when fans really rebel.

Did you deliberately edit the parts you talk about sacrificing the story for time on scenes of Yaskier to point out that he didn’t deserve the time dedicated to him? I haven’t read the books and I was so confused watching the show, but even then Yaskier was one of the good things happening there..

how lucky i feel, because i've never watched the live action and still stick to the games and books

I think we should cancel Netflix subscriptions just like Egyptians did when they released black Cleopatra "documentary" that falsified history.

The original Polish adaptation is very close to text and very good if you ignore the "we will feed you for your work" level of budget. The arguments in this video hold no water.

Witcher audiobooks are one of the best things about being polish. I mean, music full voice acting. I even think they use the same voice actors that the games did.

Man id absolutely obliterate an orphanage to get a "spin off" or remake of The Witcher show but directed by Henrey Cavel and somebody competant. I would even keep watching this shit show if Henry Cavel was the witcher still. He IS Geralt and the fact they are recasting him is absolute bonkers

"How do you convert those pages of thoughts into visual form" Dexter Morgan says Hi!

"Cut for time" is a poor excuse. I'm sure they could've fit a lot more detail into each episode, if they actually wanted to. They just wasted time on insignificant stuff and left out the important things, because they're lazy and incompetent.

I honestly don’t think the show runner understood the books, the characters and the messages behind them all

I don't really understand why things have to be cut for runtime on a streaming platform has they aren't working to any set time frame. It's not like it's having to fit into an hour slot in between other programmes.

in the books gerald was never summoned by the wizard,he didnt even knew that he was in town.

I don’t understand why season 1 wasn’t just an introduction to the world by faithfully adapting the stories in The Last Wish as best as possible, hold off on any great events until the end and tease the drastic invasion by Nilfgaard in the last episode, making for a massive edge-of-seat cliffhanger for season 2?

If the story was focused on Geralt solely, I would have watched past Season 1.

The non linear storytelling in the first season is pointless…wannabe Tarantino-esque, without the intelligence to make it all work seamlessly

Hello! Great review as always, but one correction: As a witcher fan from Poland, the shorts only seem unconected - yes, you can read the books in any order, pretty much, but its better to read from first to last, many of the stories are relevant in other books, and they get connected later on :)

The problems stated before they filmed the first episode. When I saw the woke diversity hires and the controversy around first choice for Ciri, and then people shaming the fans for their legitimate gripes, I noped out of it. Haven't seen a single episode, just clips from content creators.

Jaskier is by far the worst part of this show , they just couldn't leave out the marvel like, cringey and over the top comedy in

I've just seen the first season, and the people who were praising it must have been watching a totally different TV show. This season was so bad I had to stop watching it, it was a dumpsterfire. Confusing plot, childish characters, it was just bad.

There's a reason henry left, this could have been an amazing show. It's just... not, but the cast did what they could with what they had. Atleast loving the witcher and the other characters, kept me somewhat looped in, so it was watchable, i'm guessing that's what they wanted to capitalize on.

Please do another video with the latest news about The Witcher being cancelled after season 3! 3 years ago, your video perfectly predicted what has now happened!

this is definitely one of those situations in which they should've just made a longer show. not everything needs to be 8 episodes.

When this video came out I wasn't agreeing, but some years and some seasons passed and, yeah.. fail they did.

Is it just me or did he just repeat the same point like 4-5 times? “Did it increase the runtime? Yes. But at what costs?” While just referencing how to the story has more details bc… obviously.

Ahem, I know I'm way to late for this, but "... in The Witcher books there are no scenes that rely on internal thoughts ...". What? The books spend huge amounts of time talking about characters (in the short stories Geralt's in the novels Ciri's as well)internal thought processes. I really like your videos and I doubt you'll ever read this, but how could you have come to such a conclussion?

Yeah, the show runner's incompetence is epic

I dont think this aged well. Season 1 was the high point

Still valid :) Loved the care for logic and context of the book stories.

Althought I agree that it's an awful adaptation, I'm gonna go on a whimp and say that it's a halfway decent fantasy show.
The biggest problem with the series is the fact that the creators hate the source material. So, naturally, the adaptation will suck as an adaptation. This is far more evident in Blood Origin, but that abomination deserves no mention at all.
Besides, compared to that awful Polish miniseries this is a blessing.

this video has not aged well

Serious ? it is difficult ? I would read the book would use it as the main campaign, and fill the rest with side quest style like the series, hercules the legendary journeys, Geralt going from city to city killing monsters and solving problems, and advancing the main story slowly respecting the Lore of course with the Filler that I would be inserting that would be the good old action fights deaths blood everywhere .

But why start at a collection of short stories instead of of the first book? My god it's beyond stupid

I think the easiest solution would have honestly been to do 24 episodes at 30 minutes each instead of 8 episodes at an hour each. Nearly doubles the run time and if you split is to 16/4/4 you can still have three "main characters" with the majority going to Geralt

I was really confused by the fact that Ciri after the battle is with the dark skinned boy with the fake mousesack, and then after that it shows her post battle being found by the woman???

So, what you're trying to say is that if the people that worked on the show had a lot more time they could had given us 100x better result of adaptation, damn.

F you netflix

I purchased the full series of books to see what I was missing. I cant count on videos to tell me and even if I did I would still wonder if it fit into how I saw things playing out in my minds eye.

It's another casualty of modern "content creation" over actual artistic expression and interpretation in media. Netflix honestly seemed to just want another big name IP to add to their library to combat HBO having Game of Thrones, actual quality be damned. That lack of oversight had them saddle the show with writers who clearly wanted to tell their own stories rather than adapt the original material, and what they left in was cut up to this mess. No wonder Cavill finally left.