5 best (and worst) book changes in The Witcher season 3

Second best change from the books: Introducing the Rats

Season 3 of The Witcher leaves off with Ciri meeting a band of thieves known as the Rats. These six teenage bandits play a huge role in the book series, and the way Ciri meets them is more or less the same. However, the Netflix show fleshed out the Rats’ introduction, and avoided one of the book’s most controversial scenes.

In The Time of Contempt, Ciri first meets that Rats after she’s imprisoned by mercenaries alongside Kayleigh, who is one of their number. After being rescued by the rest of the group, Ciri decides to go by the name Falka and stick with them. However, only a few pages later Kayleigh tries to sexually assault her. Mistle, another member of the Rats, stops Kayleigh from committing this horrific act…only to then sexually assault Ciri herself. These back-to-back sexual assaults are very uncomfortable; the book frames Mistle’s actions as “gentler,” but it’s still assault. She doesn’t even redress Ciri after Kayleigh’s failed attempts before making her own move on the princess. In the following book, Baptism of Fire, we learn that Ciri and Mistle have entered into a somewhat toxic relationship.

The TV show set up Ciri and Mistle’s eventual relationship better by having Mistle show up during the basilisk fight in Episode 3. So the characters already have some history, which lays the groundwork for a potential romance.

The season ends before any sexual encounters with Kayleigh or Mistle. It’s possible the show will skip those entirely, but even if it does include them, it will likely be better than the books since the assault will be spaced out from the introduction of the Rats.

Second worst change from the books: The ball on Thanedd Isle

Perhaps the most significant change from the books is how The Witcher season 3 handles the ball at the mage’s stronghold on Thanedd Isle. In the books, this event is called by Vilgefortz as a political summit. It’s not just mages present, but also political leaders, and everyone’s there specifically to argue about where the mages should place their allegiance. Most of the conversations revolve around politics, which makes it a little easier to follow all the shifting factions once the coup gets underway.

The Netflix show completely changes the purpose of the Thanedd ball, making it more about a call for unity among mages in order to help protect the Northern Kingdoms against Nilfgaard. It’s also a murder mystery party as Yen and Geralt try to draw out Rience’s mysterious employer.

The show decided to go in a completely different direction with the ball on Thanedd, although it ends the same way: in a bloody coup. While the murder mystery party is fun, it’s not as meaty as the political intrigue from the books.