in non-witcher related news i have a new burn scar smack in the center of my collarbone that i got from. drumroll please. taquito cheese

attention, anyone who cares about the witcher s3’s character’s motivations with regards to the books but who hasn’t then read time of contempt, here is a post for you!

here’s some interesting differences between the book and show characters, especially in ep 5 (spoilers for the witcher s3 so far and the books):

since yennefer does not have her s2 beef w aretuza subplot, none of the mages are her direct enemies, and she is a member of the lower circle of leadership within the brotherhood, called the council, with philippa and 3 others who are not in the show. she is also not the one who calls the conclave; she finds out about it while bringing ciri to aretuza, and attends with geralt so that they can draw out the mage who is backing rience. in the book, they’re trying to convinced everyone that ciri died at cintra, and haven’t been together since then to keep up the illusion, so going to aretuza together will draw out the mage who knows ciri exists and is trying to kill her

vilgefortz is, firstly, the hero of sodden in the books. he’s the war hero against nilfgaard, and one of the leaders of the brotherhood. he’s also (spoilers for probably the second half of s3) working for nilfgaard now, and not in the way that s1 portrays where he kills his comrade on the battlefield after the battle’s over, but in an “even the hero of sodden who singlehandedly saved the north from nilfgaard wants power enough to ally with his enemy” way.

he is the leader of the chapter, which is the highest circle of leadership of the brotherhood. tissaia and francesca findabair are also members, as well as artaud terranova (guy who falls over the champagne glass table in ep 5). in ep 5 he recounts his backstory to geralt, some of it word-for-word, except for an important part: as part of his backstory, he fell in love with an unnamed mage before becoming a sorcerer, and after breaking up with her, decided he should pursue magic. he and tissaia are not together! i cannot stress this enough, in the books the mages are powered by their individual searches for power, and love does not tie them together! it’s what sets yen apart: she’s one of the only ones willing to sacrifice for another.

FRANCESCA FINDABAIR. member of the chapter/high ranked aretuza member, in the book shows up to the conclave party early, stirring up the northern vs nilfgaardian sentiments by being there. wild that she hasn’t appeared there in the show yet. her motives in the show are WHACK. in the books she did not have a baby and did not say she wants to genocide the humans (although that is propaganda against her): she leads the scoia'tael to fight for nonhuman freedom and allies herself with nilfgaard to continue to fight the north, and she will receive a free land for the elves (dol blathanna) in return for the scoia'tael being branded as war criminals and outlawed. in the books she is the catch-22 of stuck between a rock and a hard place: allying with imperialism will save her people but gut her guerilla soldiers who fought for it.

philippa eilhart is so far the best-written character this season (to me) because she is one of the only characters who everyone knows is seeking for power (in the book she’s referred to as the one who’s really on the redanian throne, backed by dijkstra) and she, directly, says that she’s looking to keep power in the north. in the books, most if not every mage’s motivations are for power, whether in a king’s court or by allying with nilfgaard, and the imperial machinations are what the politics in the books are about, so having a character not be preoccupied with interpersonal reasons and instead directly embody this is refreshing!

however! in the books philippa’s position is anti-nilfgaardian invasion, not anti-brotherhood. she’s pitted against vilgefortz, who’s allied with nilfgaard, instead of against him because he’s a leader of the brotherhood. the brotherhood as an institution isn’t interrogated as a state (unlike the northern kingdoms and nilfgaard), and her specific grievances against other court mages have to do with the fact that almost every kingdom is goading nilfgaard to attack so they can attack back and vie for power. she’s also got redania on a lockdown by killing vizimir right before the conclave party and i don’t know how this will play out in the show considering radovid exists as well

also in the books radovid is vizimir’s son who ascends to the throne after philippa and dijkstra kill vizimir, and (in the games) he makes it his life mission to kill philippa. he does not physically show up in time of contempt and adding him into the show as vizimir’s brother 1) crunches the timeline down to a period of time that makes a bit more sense than the books and 2) allows the show to make up the funniest fucking subplot with jaskier. oh my god none of that happened in the books but wouldn’t it have been hilarious. jaskier hooking up with the sweet and sensitive younger prince who’s a fan of his music and then smash cut to twelve hours later and he’s the fucking king of redania. the comedy potential is unmatched

great adaption choice the witcher netflix is making is that none of the characters try to pretend that ciri is dead. in the book it worked on exactly zero people so definitely a subplot that doesn’t need to exist

halfway through ep 5 and i have NOT seen any vilgefortz geralt art critique yet WHERE is the extremely necessary 2 hour scene of vilgefortz and geralt discussing paintings of the continent’s history

jaskier and RADOVID??? future bald BALD BALD BALD BALD BALD BALD mad king of redania radovid the fifth??????????????? insane choice for the series to make 10/10 no notes

jaskier mentioned the unicorn how the fuck does jaskier know about the unicorn???

i’ll be honest they should have given jaskier a bowl cut

i’ll be honest i did watch the witcher season 2 in a trance in one sitting on a cross-atlantic flight several years ago so i have zero recollection of the vast majority of it. now in s3 the sorcerers sure are recounting events that have happened! i think!

real talk one of my soapbox opinions is that adaptations only work when they have a good reason for existing, since the original story has already been told. why an adaptation should also exist is what makes or breaks it

the witcher season 1 works so well because it has an incredible reason for existing: it takes disparate short stories and tells them together, experiencing them at the same time, measuring 200 years in the span of a week, and in doing so interconnects them in a new way and adds layers to each tale

aside from the changes that season 2 makes from the books that don’t add to the themes of the work (and sometimes actively REPLACE story threads that have meaning), it doesn’t have a reason to adapt the story any longer. it is exactly as linear as the book is, and takes place in the same timespan. losing all momentum s1 had

i’ve only seen the first ep of s3 but time of contempt’s momentum slows way down from blood of elves so i have no idea what this will do to a season of television whose main event its adapting takes place in the span of like eight hours

okay in the books the idea that francesca findabair wants to genocide all the humans is heavily implied to be propaganda about her alliance with nilfgaard (and the real stakes of dol blathana and the payment the empire demands are revealed later) and not uhhhhhhhhh her actual stated opinion. what is going on

been watching the new witcher season for about 30 minutes. why is everyone wearing shirts from h&m

the witcher season 3 released 30 minutes ago and isn’t on any torrent sites yet