Netflix’s The Witcher isn’t the only adaptation based on the book series of the same name, but it was originally intended to stay close to the source material. In bringing the story of The Continent to life, there are 8 books to draw from, 2 of them being collections of short stories to help build the world up before the main story begins. Netflix used the short stories in season 1 for just that—each episode had its own small story to see from beginning to end, adding a kind of overarching plot with Ciri learning that she needs to find Geralt before the eventual tie-in of everyone’s storylines.
Originally, the writers and directors stated that they planned to follow the books closely, and though The Witcher was close to the short stories which inspired it, some people weren’t happy with the changes that were made, nor did they appreciate the convoluted timeline the show used without any indication that these stories were not happening simultaneously. The creators seem to have gone back on that commitment and have begun to spin their own story for season two and onward. Here’s a closer look at some of the changes they've made this season.
Geralt visits Nivellen with Ciri
There are already changes made from the books right off the bat in episode one. However, this episode is still the closest to the source material. When we meet Nivellen this season, the man who is cursed into being a monstrous, boar-like creature is friends with Geralt, who has Ciri along with him. Neither of this is true in the books. Though the 'beauty and the beast' similarities are in the text, this was the last of the short stories to be brought to life in the show. At that that point in the books, Geralt hadn’t even met Ciri.
When Geralt finds Nivellen in the books, it’s because he was traveling nearby and noticed there was a creature around that was killing people. He stumbled across the mansion on accident while searching for it, where he meets Nivellen for the first time and learns of his life story. Geralt had already been tracking down the bruxa Vereena at that point too, so it wasn’t a surprise that was being hidden from him.
Kaer Morhen’s Witchers
When Geralt and Ciri arrive at Kaer Morhen, they find the main hall already full with almost all of Geralt’s other witcher brothers, only missing Eskel who comes in later. There looks to be near a dozen Witchers there, and they all come to embrace Ciri and her witcher training eventually. This is where Geralt first takes Ciri in the books, and they do begin training her to be a witcher that winter, but the number of witchers left in the books doesn’t even reach half a dozen.
The attack on Kaer Morhen by humans that Vesemir references in the show did, in fact, kill most of the witchers, as they had the help from another witcher school, the school of cats. The schools are where the witchers are trained, all having slightly different mutagens and fighting styles. The witcher mutagens were also destroyed in that attack, and no witcher was made after that. So by the time Geralt and Ciri reach Kaer Morhen in the books, there are only 4 wolf witchers left—Geralt, Vesemir, Lambert, and Eskel. They are joined by a 5th witcher, Coën, who is the last of the griffin witchers.
Eskel’s Death
Speaking of the witchers at Kaer Morhen, Eskel was never supposed to die. This is perhaps the most controversial change Netflix made for The Witcher, as Eskel was a fan favorite. In the show, we meet him when he comes in after Geralt and Ciri, injured after fighting a leshen or leshy as the other witchers called it. He immediately seems hostile to Ciri upon meeting her. Later, when he turns into a leshen and he can’t control himself, he is killed by Geralt to save Vesemir, and his death is blamed on Geralt bringing Ciri to the keep.
There are a lot of differences here between the show and the books. First, the leshen isn’t an enemy in the books, it’s a monster that was created for the games. There also were no new monsters coming from the monolith that Ciri toppled in the show, so it couldn’t have infected him like that even if he did fight one. Second, Eskel never showed any hostility to Ciri in the books, and neither did any of the other witchers. They all welcomed her and Geralt with open arms, as they would with any other child surprise. Lastly, Eskel was a character foil to Geralt, even having his own surprise child before, which could have been a nice plot twist to uncover.
Yennefer’s Magic
While Geralt and Ciri were off training in Kaer Morhen, Yennefer was dealing with her own problems on the other side of The Continent. After the battle of Sodden and Yennefer’s disappearance after winning the battle with her fire magic, many people thought she had died. It’s revealed that Franchesca had taken her as a prisoner early on in season two, originally bound in dimeritium chains, a special metal that suppresses magical power. Later, it’s stated that her magic was completely lost because of using fire, a dangerous and forbidden use of magic.
There’s a chance this was a simple change in her plotline in the battle of Sodden—she was blinded mid-battle, only later getting her sight magically restored while still bearing the emotional scars of it. However, Nilfgaard never took her as a prisoner, and she certainly never lost her magic. In fact, her disappearance and the inclusion of her name on the list of those sorcerers lost was traded with another sorceress—Triss. In the books, Triss was the name written on the monument and wasn’t actually dead; she was only thought to be dead because no one could recognize her due to her burns.
Voleth Meir
An overarching plot of the whole second season of The Witcher was the Voleth Meir, or the Deathless Mother. Fringilla, Francesca, and Yennefer all have dreams of her and discover her together. She offers to grant whatever each of the three women want most, and they have no idea that she is actually a demon who feeds on pain and had been locked up there by some of the first witchers. Francesca wants a safe haven for her people and her new baby, Fringilla wants power, and Yennefer wants her powers back. Even after Fringilla and Francesca do accept her offer, though everything they quickly received was also just as quickly taken away from them. Voleth Meir used their pain to free herself and then possess Ciri, causing the final battle and killing several of the other new witchers.
Voleth Meir never existed in the books at all. There were a lot of changes made to even include this plot. Fringilla and Francesca don’t play much of a role at all until later in the book series, so their plots were both changed and made more prominent. Francesca was also declared the elven queen by Nilfgaardian Emperor Emhyr, not because of who she thought she was seeing in her dreams.Also, of course, Yennefer never had this plot. So by pulling these three together and changing their stories, the Netflix show developed the Deathless Mother.
Nilfgaardian Emperor Emhyr Reveal
Sometimes, the changes made from the source material are necessary to make a movie or TV show more successful, or to make the plot more balanced. Emhyr is Ciri’s biological father throughout the entire series, and does send several different people searching for her including Cahir, before Emhyr decides he can’t trust him anymore. What Netflix did is simply speed up the reveal that he is Ciri’s father.
In The Witcher books, we first meet Emhyr early on in the series, though we’ve heard about him before then. We don’t learn much about him, however, besides that he can be rather cruel and unforgiving. The reveal that he is Ciri’s father doesn’t happen until closer to the end. It’s actually better that Netflix changed this one, as they don’t have to hide who he is throughout the rest of the series and can then play off the idea of family more. If the showrunners of the Netflix series intend to change more details from the books, hopefully then can create equally useful additions in the future.