The Scene From The Witcher Books Fans Wish Had Been Included In The Show
When the Netflix series "The Witcher" premiered back in December 2019, it became the platform's most-watched opening season at the time, with 76 million households streaming it in its first four weeks, per Digital Spy. Season 2 proved even more successful and is now one of the streamer's most-viewed series of all time with 462.5 million hours of view time (and counting) as of early 2022.
But long before viewers became gripped by the TV show, the world was first introduced to Geralt of Rivia in a series of books written by Andrzej Sapkowski. "The Witcher" started off as a Polish short story published in 1986, but thanks to its cult following, it grew into six more novels and a few collections of short stories by 2018. 2007 marked the start of Geralt's adventures being adapted into a video game series and spinoff games, which have sold over 50 million copies, with another entry currently in development. The 2019 Netflix series was quickly destined to expand into more as well, with an animated film ("The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf") hitting the streaming service two years later and a prequel series tentatively slated for release later this year.
As with every book-to-screen adaptation, showrunners have to decide the key details from the source material to bring to a series. Of course, not every detail from the books can make it onto the screen, as is the case with "The Witcher." Fans were left disappointed when one scene from "The Witcher" books, in particular, did not make it into the Netflix adaptation as expected.
Fans think the Brokilon forest scene should have been different
Season 1 of Netflix's "The Witcher" introduces Geralt of Rivia, played by Henry Cavill, as a domineering, mutated human who hunts monsters. His fate becomes entwined with that of Princess Ciri (Freya Allan) after he invokes the "Law of Surprise" as payment for saving her father's life, and his destiny is now to protect her. Though initially running from this fate, he spends the latter part of Season 1 trying to find her and bring her under his protection.
How the two eventually reunite in the TV series is where things go wrong for many readers of "The Witcher" books. In a Reddit thread, u/hanna1214 points out that Brokilon was a major scene in the books that played out differently in the show. In "Sword of Destiny," one of the short story collections, Geralt and Ciri meet in Brokilon, but in the Netflix series, the two meet for the first time in the Season 1 finale, while the scene in Brokilon forest is set much earlier in the season's timeline and devoid of the Witcher. Ciri still drinks the Water of Brokilon, but Geralt isn't there to witness that it doesn't affect her as expected.
Several Redditors agree this scene should have stuck to the source material. u/Saru1295 explained the Brokilon scene was a pivotal moment for Geralt and Ciri's relationship and wrote, "That moment makes him accept the existence of his bond to Ciri — [a] bond that even the stern queen feared enough to make a single exception and release the girl even though she desperately needed her." u/Polv9132 agreed and wrote, "Changing how Geralt and Ciri met in Brokilon was the nail in the coffin for me. People who haven't read the books, truly don't understand how important that moment is."
u/RSwitcher2020 added that the Brokilon scene should have been closer to the source material because it's what builds Ciri's character in the books. They explained, "[It's] at Brokilon that we start to see that Ciri understands she is special and has some kind of destiny." While the next season saw Ciri grappling with this concept as well, fans will have to wait to see if the change to the Brokilon scene has any further long-term effects on the story as a whole — Season 3 is still in early development (via TechRadar).