Third best change from the books: Radovid and Jaskier’s romance
In The Witcher season 3, we get a romance between Prince Radovid and the bard Jaskier. This storyline did not exist at all in the books, which don’t suggest that Jaskier has any romantic inclination toward men. It’s inspired a predictable backlash, because gay romance on TV is triggering and scary to some.
However, the romance provides a lot more for Jaskier and Radovid to do. Jaskier only appears twice in Time of Contempt: he and Ciri bond as they guess what Geralt and Yen are saying to each other, and later he goes to Brokilon Forest to give Geralt news of the war. Giving Jaskier a romance wrapped up in the politics of Redania develops his character and helps us get a better feel for what’s going on in that kingdom. Plus, making Jaskier bisexual doesn’t feel off at all for his character; he’s always been sexually open-minded. The show even points out that he slept with a monster at one point. Is it really so hard to believe he might be interested in men, too?
Radovid benefits even more from this storyline. The Redanian prince is one of the most iconic villains from The Witcher video games but only appears once at the very end of the book series when he’s still a teenage boy who takes over the Redanian crown after Philippa Eilheart has his father King Vizimir assassinated.
The books leave us with the impression that Radovid will grow into a terrifying ruler prone to going on witch hunts because of his distrust of Philippa. The games, which are set after the novels, take that idea and run with it. A lot of people understandably love that version of the character.
The show takes a different route with Radovid, aging him up and making him Vizimir’s brother instead of his son. The romance between Radovid and Jaskier helps us get to know him before he’s thrust onto the Redanian throne. Since Radovid is hardly in the books at all, without this change he likely wouldn’t be part of the TV show in the first place.
So we can have no Radovid or the show’s version. Seems like an easy choice.
Third worst change from the books: Aplegatt the messenger
Since we’re on the topic of Redania, we need to talk next about Aplegatt, the messenger dispatched by Dijkstra whose death leads to major complications during the Thanedd coup. Aplegatt dies more or less the same way in both the book and the show, but the way Sapkowski handles it is far more powerful.
Aplegatt is the lead character of the opening chapter of Time of Contempt. As we follow him from town to town, we learn about the political situation on the Continent, as well as the status of Geralt, Ciri and Yennefer. Many of these scenes appear in the TV show, like Ciri telling him he’ll die by an arrow, but the way the show splits Apelgatt’s scenes across multiple episodes makes it much harder to actually care when he finally dies.
In the books, Aplegatt’s tale feels almost like a short story that Sapkowski snuck into a longer novel. It ends when Aplegatt is killed by a member of the Scoia’tael named Toruviel while on his way to deliver an important message for Dijkstra. Toruviel kill Apelgatt because of her hatred of humans, and actually acts against her orders in doing so. She shoots him for sport with her bow, believing a world with one less human is a better place. Her decision, fueled by prejudice, has huge consequences, which is very much in line with the themes of the book series.
By contrast, the show kills Aplegatt so quickly you’ll miss it if you blink. Also, he’s shouting his secret message out loud as he dies, which doesn’t make much sense. It’s just forgettable, whereas in the books it sticks with you.