Netflix’s The Witcher is one of the streamer’s most popular TV shows, but it has to be said that Netflix got many things wrong about the world and stories of The Witcher. Netflix has a wide variety of shows, with many of them now ranking among the best TV shows of all time.
When it comes to fantasy content, Netflix has many different TV shows to choose from, though not all of them have succeeded. The Witcher has been a special case, as it had a strong debut, with its first season quickly taking it to the top of Netflix’s charts. However, its decline began with season 2, and the show has struggled to recover.
Even in its good seasons, The Witcher has been criticized and hasn’t been perfect, and, unfortunately, Netflix has consistently made the same mistakes with the show.
Ignoring The Books’ Most Mature & Darkest Themes
The Witcher is a lot more than exciting battles, dragons, monsters, and more. At its very core, The Witcher’s strength is its mature and dark themes, which add depth to the characters and make their stories a lot more complex. The Witcher explores themes like grief, death, identity, and the differences between good and evil, with the characters often ending up in a morally ambiguous area.
Netflix’s disregard of The Witcher’s mature themes has also led to the characters not being as developed as in the books and even being too different (as is the case with Vilgefortz). Surely, The Witcher season 4 finally confirmed the White Flame’s plans for Ciri, though it wasn’t as complex and dark as in the books.
Although Netflix has one more season to go, it’s unlikely it will be able to fix four seasons of consistent mistakes and avoidance of The Witcher’s deepest themes.
Sidelined Important Secondary Characters
While the main characters of The Witcher are Geralt, Ciri, and Yennefer, there are important secondary characters, too, that the Netflix show has either sidelined or completely forgotten about. Characters like Jaskier and Cahir have been increasingly more involved in the story in every season, but there have been others who deserved better.
Characters like Queen Calanthe (Ciri’s grandmother), King Foltest, Triss Merigold, and the other sorceresses and witchers have a bigger presence in the books, but in the Netflix series, they have been mostly left aside. Although some of them have become recurrent characters, as is the case with Tris, the show hasn’t given her the time and development she deserves, making her a forgettable character.
Geralt & Jaskier’s Friendship
As mentioned above, a secondary character who has been given a bigger role in The Witcher in every season is Jaskier, and that’s in large part thanks to Joey Batey’s incredible performance. Batey has used his natural charm to bring Jaskier to life, but something that Netflix didn’t quite get is the friendship and dynamic between Geralt and Jaskier.
Although everyone now knows that Geralt and Jaskier are best friends, and that Jaskier considers Geralt, Ciri, and Yennefer his family, their relationship isn’t like Netflix has portrayed it. In The Witcher season 1, Geralt was always annoyed by Jaskier and was even rude to him, which continued in season 2.
Season 3 saw Geralt being a lot calmer and understanding of Jaskier, and in season 4 he was now more appreciative of the bard, in large part thanks to Jaskier staying by his side at all times. In the books, Geralt always makes sure to show Jaskier how much he values him and his friendship, even if he isn’t the most expressive man out there.
Geralt, Ciri, & Yennefer’s Family Bond
A key element in The Witcher is the bond between Geralt, Ciri, and Yennefer, who form the family they all lacked (for different reasons, of course), but, for some reason, Netflix hasn’t given it the attention and development it deserves. Season 1 had them all separated, and while season 2 had Ciri and Geralt together, Yennefer was still on her own.
The three of them were finally brought together at the end of season 2, after Yennefer sacrificed herself to the Voleth Meir after she almost sacrificed Ciri. However, season 3 rushed through their time together, reducing their bonding and family time to a montage. Because of this, moments like Yennefer calling Ciri “my daughter” and other family moments have felt inauthentic.
Yennefer’s Motivations
One of the biggest mistakes Netflix made in The Witcher season 2 was the changes it made to Yennefer. As mentioned above, season 2 had Yennefer separated from Geralt and Ciri, even though this should have been the season that finally had them together as a family. Instead, Yennefer was temporarily turned into a villain.
Yennefer lost her powers at the end of The Witcher season 1, and in the following season, the Voleth Meir gave Yennefer a way to regain her powers, but at a huge price. Among the things she had to do was hand Ciri to the Voleth Meir, which she almost did.
Weirdly enough, that has been the one time when Yennefer’s motivations were clear, and in the rest of The Witcher, it’s unclear what she wants or desires to achieve aside from rescuing Ciri and killing Vilgefortz.
Rushing Through The Character’s Stories & Development
The world of The Witcher is quite extensive, complex, and rich, with various characters with equally complex and rich stories – it’s understandable, then, that the Netflix show would rush through certain moments and stories. However, this has resulted in an uneven pace, a lack of development, and many stories and characters being left aside.
This can make The Witcher feel repetitive and stuck, and can also make it confusing, as Netflix has skipped important details to fit the format and still appeal to a younger audience, and these are details that the audience will need as the stories continue to evolve.
Geralt’s Character
While Henry Cavill was a great Geralt of Rivia and has been praised for his performance, fans of the books and video games have been very honest about the flaws in Cavill’s Geralt. One of the biggest mistakes was how little Geralt spoke in the first season of The Witcher, and while he isn’t the most talkative person in the books, he definitely didn’t communicate in monosyllables and grunts.
Netflix has also ignored the most interesting and appealing part of Geralt of Rivia: his introspective, philosophical, and intellectual nature. While the show hasn’t dumbed down Geralt, it has definitely lacked this important part of him, which also serves to balance his tougher side.
At this point, with just one more season to go before Netflix’s The Witcher ends, it’s too late to fix this point about Geralt, but there could still be some hope for some of the above-mentioned mistakes.
- Release Date
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December 20, 2019
- Network
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Netflix
- Showrunner
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Lauren Schmidt Hissrich
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Anya Chalotra
Yennefer of Vengerberg
This story originally appeared on Screenrant
