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Essays 07 January 2020, 18:43

The Witcher from Netflix vs The Witcher 3 - We Compare Sapkowski's Adaptations

After the premiere of the Netflix Witcher we woke up in a world where we have two adaptations of Andrzej Sapkowski's books that have gained international fame and recognition. We try to compare them applying different criteria.

Table of Contents

Source material fidelity

Can someone tell me what's going on here? What was the purpose of these events? Where in the book was that described? - The Witcher from Netflix vs The Witcher 3 – We Compare Sapkowski's Adaptations - dokument - 2020-01-07
Can someone tell me what's going on here? What was the purpose of these events? Where in the book was that described?

This is partly a derivative of all the previous categories, and you can, perhaps, already guess the verdict. You might be taken aback here, because while Netflix depicts the events from the books, while the games are sequels. Well, both productions coincide to a certain extent with the events described by Andrzej Sapkowski – and these parameters can be compared.

I used to severely criticize The Witcher 3 for deviations from the source material. The concept of White Cold is wrong! Avallac’h role is wrong! Emhyr var Emreis is dumb! Truly, crimes against humanity. Netflix' series allowed me to realize that CD Projekt RED, in principle, did nothing wrong. You can go much further, subverting original themes and coming up with your own, pull out from the incredible magic hat – and wait for a standing ovation.

There's no abuse committed by RED on the source material that couldn't be forgiven when compared to, get this: a killer doppler that copies Mousesack right before killing him, then enters the holy forest of Brokilon like it was a public house, and the dryads do absolutely nothing to try and expose him, prevent him from delivering Ciri to Cahir. Or the magic battery of Aretuza, powered by eels, who used to be the apprentices, I mean, can't they use nuclear, or wind? Even the ideas of the Polish TV series The Witcher don't seem so stupid to me anymore.

THE VOTE IN THE OFFICE

Still, "only" 68.4% of my colleagues consider the games more in line with the spirit and plot of the books. A quarter considered the games and the series on par.

Which was more faithful to the original?

Christopher Mysiak

Christopher Mysiak

Associated with GRYOnline.pl since 2013, first as a co-worker, and since 2017 - a member of the Editorial team. Currently the head of the Game Encyclopedia. His older brother - a game collector and player - sparked his interest in electronic entertainment. He got an education as a librarian/infobroker - but he did not follow in the footsteps of Deckard Cain or the Shadow Broker. Before he moved from Krakow to Poznan in 2020, he was remembered for attending Tolkien conventions, owning a Subaru Impreza, and swinging a sword in the company's parking lot.

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