The Witcher: 8 differences between the show and the books, explained
By John Fallon
Image: Netflix/The Witcher
Brokilon Forest and the Sword of Destiny
In the Netflix series, after the princess Cirilla escapes the Fall of Cintra and the clutches of Nilfgaard, she takes refuge in the woods. Ciri is drawn into a forest by Lady Eithné, Queen of the Dryads, who offers to help erase the traumatic memories of loss and war. None of it works, and eventually Mousesack — or rather, the Doppler imitating Mousesack — comes to take Ciri back.
This is a major deviation from the novels. In Sword of Destiny, the second collection of short stories, Geralt enters Brokilon to deliver a message to Eithné, who hates humans and rules over the forested region and its non-human inhabitants. There, he discovers a 10-year old Ciri on the run from a potential arranged marriage. Geralt rushes in and saves Ciri, who is being attacked by a giant centipede, and they bond as they make their way through the forest.
Geralt delivers his message and Ciri chooses to leave Brokilon with him. At the edge of the wood, they are ambushed by pillagers. Luckily, Mousesack and some Dryads arrive and save them, at which point Geralt leaves Ciri in Mousesack’s care and continues on with his adventures, which angers Ciri to no end.
So in the books, Geralt and Ciri meet before Cintra falls, which makes their eventual reunion in the season finale very powerful, because it represents Geralt finally accepting Ciri as his destiny, this after he leaves her following the events in Brokilon Forest. He will not leave her again.
In the show, when Geralt and Ciri finally meet after the fall of Cintra, it pretty much reads as two strangers getting very emotional about seeing each other for no particular reason. True, Ciri had been Geralt’s “destiny” since he invoked the Law of Surprise in Cintra — we saw that go down in the fourth episode — but they had no personal relationship.
Of all the changes made to the source material, the stuff in Brokilon Forest seemed to rankle Witcher fans the most. Lauren Hissrich even took to Twitter to defend her reasons for altering it:
Which makes sense, if you're a fan of the original books. That's how it's done, and it's beautiful! But for the purpose of television adaptation: if viewers are investing solely in Geralt for S1, and then get introduced to Yennefer, and several seasons later meet Ciri --
— Lauren S. Hissrich (@LHissrich) December 29, 2019
We lost some magical moments, which is why I'm SO excited that people are finding the books, to appreciate Sapkowski's stories in all their glorious detail. I also know that we've set the chess board in the best way for future stories to unfold, and to keep tv audiences engaged.
— Lauren S. Hissrich (@LHissrich) December 29, 2019
Personally, I don’t really buy that explanation — to pull off the Geralt-Ciri Brokilon story, Ciri may have had to be introduced a little later in the first season, but there’d be no reason to wait until season 2. But that’s the explanation we have.