Opinions of The Witcher Series on Netflix?

[KoolHndLuke]

7 hours ago, Wolfstorm321 said:

Western cinema is a joke, it panders to political agendas, that is why is so bad.

Films, music, and books are usually very reflective of the social and political climate in any region of the world at a given time. Besides, start a rumor and let it get passed around awhile and see how accurate it is when you hear it again later and it will be nothing like what you originally said. It's just that way with anything having to do with stories being re-told, even if they were based in fact according to eyewitness accounts or something. History books are rife with omissions, embellishments, and sometimes flat-out lies. 

 

Add to it that in damn near any screen adaptation, there are always going to be changes made to the original story due to various reasons. One is time constraint, another is simply not having the budget to accurately portray some things. There's actually a very long list of things to consider when creating a show or film, let alone an adaptation.

 

With this in mind, what people look for in stories is usually not how accurate the telling is- but how entertaining it is and I think the show does a pretty good job of addressing all these different considerations without sacrificing too much fidelity. In short, they did the best they could with the material while trying to reach as wide an audience as possible because they ain't doing it outta the kindness of their hearts- they want to make money at the end of the day.

[Canaris]

This racial shit is least of Witcher problems, the removal of original male characters and replacing them with politically correct female ones is much worse ( all of the Foltest council in ep three, Elderman and guard Nosikamyk in episode one etc ).

Same for changing characters to suit the PC narrative - Foltest was genuine good king in the novel who cared about his sister and stuff, here is a bumbling fool who needs Triss to sprung him into action because as we all know men are incapable of making decisions and they need strong whamyn of colour for that - Stregobor is full on scheming evil white man cunt mode, this whole "they dont want Yen because she is a quarter elf" bullshit is nowhere to be found in books but they shoved that shit because they needed poorly disguised raycism alegory etc etc et fucking cetera.

And i hate those fucking changes they did to the entire overarching plotlines ( Ciri entering Brokilon, "Ratboy", how Dandelion and Geralt met ), like what they fuck was wrong with the books ya cunts ? It was literally fucking written like an action movie - you just needed to film that shit and be done, why do you have to meddle so much >? 

 

Oh and anyone who compares Witcher to GOT should get kicked in the ass.. 

[Mr. Otaku]

16 minutes ago, Doctor Cadaver said:

I don't care, because it's not a big deal to me.  It's fiction, that's all what it is.  And I treat it as such, unlike some people.  I'll still watch the show, but I won't have a heart attack over it due to some discrepancies about race.

 

Besides, you can't please everyone.

Source material consistency/faithfulness is an important part of building quality fictional adaptation. Dragon Ball Evolution is also just fiction but it's hated universally for a reason, and the reason being utterly inconsiderate of the source material. Just putting it out there. If you like it, cool, but there are reasons why many others won't like it. I mean hell i haven't played the games or read the books and even i see how bullshit the casting really is.

[KoolHndLuke]

1 hour ago, Canaris said:

This racial shit is least of Witcher problems, the removal of original male characters and replacing them with politically correct female ones is much worse ( all of the Foltest council in ep three, Elderman and guard Nosikamyk in episode one etc ).

Same for changing characters to suit the PC narrative - Foltest was genuine good king in the novel who cared about his sister and stuff, here is a bumbling fool who needs Triss to sprung him into action because as we all know men are incapable of making decisions and they need strong whamyn of colour for that - Stregobor is full on scheming evil white man cunt mode, this whole "they dont want Yen because she is a quarter elf" bullshit is nowhere to be found in books but they shoved that shit because they needed poorly disguised raycism alegory etc etc et fucking cetera.

And i hate those fucking changes they did to the entire overarching plotlines ( Ciri entering Brokilon, "Ratboy", how Dandelion and Geralt met ), like what they fuck was wrong with the books ya cunts ? It was literally fucking written like an action movie - you just needed to film that shit and be done, why do you have to meddle so much >? 

 

Oh and anyone who compares Witcher to GOT should get kicked in the ass.. 

You bring up some good points. Foltest was a very capable king and was well respected. Stregobor had legitimate motivations rather than just being a scheming pos from what I've read. I don't know why they felt the need to change things there.

 

I think this guy describes it better as inspired by the books, not based on them and since I've read very little of them, I fall neatly into the category of casual fan and that bothers me. So, now I feel I need to go back and read the books to get things straight. Thanks for your opinions and insight guys. Happy holidays. 

 

 

[Wolfstorm321]

2 hours ago, KoolHndLuke said:

Films, music, and books are usually very reflective of the social and political climate in any region of the world at a given time.

 

If Akira Kurosawa's movies were rebooted by the current movie industry, it would have one third of the cast as whites, and another third as blacks, to portray medieval Japan. People would still remember the originals and the reboot would be quickly forgotten.

Art needs to endure the test of time. If its motivated by political agendas it wont last too long. You dont see people talking about soviet propaganda movies these days, because they were not art.

[Wolfstorm321]

Just now, Canaris said:

No they wouldnt. They would be 50/50 blacks and asians. And few trannies thrown in for a """"good"""" measure. And sjw's would still bitch about raycism, intolerance and shitload of other made up -isms. 

 

The whites would be trannies and empowered women.

[Nexussuckstwice]

2 hours ago, Wolfstorm321 said:

You dont see people talking about soviet propaganda movies these days, because they were not art.

The Soviet Union made its share of good movies and cartoons. You can't hear about it today only because:

1. The USA living in a bubble isolated from anything from Europe. Meanwhile Americans dominating the internet (and managed to piss off even own European allies)

2. The USA is a right wing reactionary nightmare and anything from the Soviet Union goes strictly against the agenda of both corrupted Russian and American elites.

3. Long forgotten like many good old American movies and cartoons (again cause those are from the past liberal era and doesn't fit the narrative)

4. Cause younger generation was intentionally cut off from the past cultural achievements by modern elites and dumbed down. This way it easier to control and manipulate.

5. Cause most things you could hear in the USA about the USSR is lies. And it was like that ever since the 50s.

[landess]

I believe I'll stick to my normal routine - 'If' it's any good, I'll binge watch it after 3-4 seasons, but am always wary of 'T.V.'.

 

T.V. tends to drag stuff on forever (a la soap operas) if it doesn't have a fixed story and ending. Too many shows start strong, then fall into the same old greed trap - staying long beyond it's serviceable viewership.

 

Why should I waste time trying to get invested in something if the show runners treat it with apathy after a few seasons and never end it in a satisfactory way. This ain't the 60's where TV shows generally could be watched in any order for the most part. Today everything is a 'mini-series', usually without a proper ending prepared.

 

Plus I REALLY hate commercials.......

[GrimReaper]

On 12/25/2019 at 5:52 AM, fejeena said:

 

.................
Back to the witcher:
Zerrikania are not black, only light brown ( with tattoos )
In the books are only two Zerrikanias, Tea and Vea.  So why add people of other cultures, races, skin colors ? Why insert into a story where there are no such people?

Think of Europe 200 to 300 years ago and try to find a black in germany, Scandinavia or Poland.
There are no trains or planes in the Witcher books. No talk of colonial times and overseas colonies. No slaves from foreign countries.
So if you add blacks or asians then you first have to create / add new countries in the witcher "universe" , and then you have to explain how the people came to Kaedwen, Redania or Temeria.
Ok that is creative but has nothing to do with the books and is not lore friendly.
 

------------------------------------------

So I prefer books.  Characters, landscape, clothes, fights, ... everything looks perfect, and always better than in a movie. ( if you have a little fantasy and imagination. )

https://witcher.fandom.com/wiki/Conjunction_of_the_Spheres

 

The background lore for The Witcher is pretty sci-fi with a multiverse and dimensional travel. The Wild Hunt for example are much like the Dark Eldar from Warhammer 40k, invading other worlds to collect slaves, yet most people in-universe think they're some weird force of nature that just happens. Black and brown people are not really far away if you think about the fact that humans and other races were forcefully transported into that world. According to the elves, humans are an alien species to their world. That a clash of dimensions would only displace light skinned humans from one world to another is probably just due to the fact that the author simply didn't take that into consideration when writing the books, since poland is pretty much 99%* white.

 

*I don't know the actual data but eastern europe isn't as diverse as the US.

[27X]

Reminder for anyone butthurt about casting and plot changes that Sapkowski is on the writing staff and still has right of refusal.

 

Also lol at anyone that thought any hollywood adaptation would ever be 1:1

[Nexussuckstwice]

6 hours ago, Alkpaz said:

You are right, the Berlin Wall was built to keep Europeans from flooding the USSR with illegals. People in the UK hated it there so much many of them defected to the USSR in hopes of a better life. It wasn't an Axis of Evil, it was an Axis of love and compassion. 

In reality Western Berlin was rather poor back then. In fact it was poor till the end of the 90s. And if you go watch "Little Dieter needs to fly" you will hear a lot of shitty facts about life in the Western part of Berlin right after the war such as people eating fucking glue and married women prostituting themselves for allied soldiers to get some food. Soviets meanwhile organized free food distribution for the civilians. Later Western part of Berlin due to its location in the middle of the Soviet occupation zone was abandoned by main companies and industry. Till the end of the 90s it was a city of artists and a free thinkers, not capitalists.

 

 

And when they tell you about Eastern Berliners leaving for better life in the West they do not tell you one thing:

Many of them did not fled but in fact crossed the line back and forth every day cause this way they could enjoy the best sides of both worlds - better salaries of the West and better healthcare and pensions of the East. That's when the Wall was installed. Not that I'm intended to defend the Stasi.

 

On the other hand Western Germans along with Americans were fed with loads of crappy propaganda too. And secret services spied upon anyone accused in sympathies to communists. In fact McCarthyism was just a better name for the old food fascism. Hoover's FBI was no less totalitarian than the Stasi.

 

Also they do not tell you that Eastern Germany after the reunification dropped into deindustrialization and depression (like the former Soviet Union itself). And now Eastern Germans hate Western Germans (and vice versa).

 

As for the UK don't make me laugh. Englishmen were fucked all over by the Tories (and so again today). Thatcher's austerity fucking destroyed British working class families.

If anything it was fear of the Soviets which led to many victories of the labor movement in Western countries and many improvements were implemented only to avoid the rebellion and even that was achieved only after violent clashes, repressions and deaths (in both Western Europe and America).

 

We can observe today the process of dismantling of anything achieved by the labor movement back then and average citizen in the most capitalist countries (UK, USA, Australia and unironically China and Russia) ain't doing better. 

https://www.citylab.com/equity/2019/04/economic-inequality-geographic-divide-map-census-income-data/586222/

 

Meanwhile Germans now enjoying free higher education and healthcare. (Exactly what Soviet Union implemented decades ago.)

 

[winny257]

4 hours ago, Nexussuckstwice said:

Spoiler

 In reality Western Berlin was rather poor back then. In fact it was poor till the end of the 90s. And if you go watch "Little Dieter needs to fly" you will hear a lot of shitty facts about life in the Western part of Berlin right after the war such as people eating fucking glue and married women prostituting themselves for allied soldiers to get some food. Soviets meanwhile organized free food distribution for the civilians. Later Western part of Berlin due to its location in the middle of the Soviet occupation zone was abandoned by main companies and industry. Till the end of the 90s it was a city of artists and a free thinkers, not capitalists.

 

 

And when they tell you about Eastern Berliners leaving for better life in the West they do not tell you one thing:

Many of them did not fled but in fact crossed the line back and forth every day cause this way they could enjoy the best sides of both worlds - better salaries of the West and better healthcare and pensions of the East. That's when the Wall was installed. Not that I'm intended to defend the Stasi.

 

On the other hand Western Germans along with Americans were fed with loads of crappy propaganda too. And secret services spied upon anyone accused in sympathies to communists. In fact McCarthyism was just a better name for the old food fascism. Hoover's FBI was no less totalitarian than the Stasi.

 

Also they do not tell you that Eastern Germany after the reunification dropped into deindustrialization and depression (like the former Soviet Union itself). And now Eastern Germans hate Western Germans (and vice versa).

 

As for the UK don't make me laugh. Englishmen were fucked all over by the Tories (and so again today). Thatcher's austerity fucking destroyed British working class families.

If anything it was fear of the Soviets which led to many victories of the labor movement in Western countries and many improvements were implemented only to avoid the rebellion and even that was achieved only after violent clashes, repressions and deaths (in both Western Europe and America).

 

We can observe today the process of dismantling of anything achieved by the labor movement back then and average citizen in the most capitalist countries (UK, USA, Australia and unironically China and Russia) ain't doing better. 

https://www.citylab.com/equity/2019/04/economic-inequality-geographic-divide-map-census-income-data/586222/

 

Meanwhile Germans now enjoying free higher education and healthcare. (Exactly what Soviet Union implemented decades ago.)

 

 

nonsense, know you the raisin bombers?

https://youtu.be/qIG0eetwmnM

 

Spoiler

the air supply for west berlin was better than the supply of the East German population!
on the contrary, the Russians confiscated everything of value. 
the East Germans had to afford post-war reprisals, reparation for the russians.
which was not the case for West Germany and West Berlin, America was more generous!

[FauxFurry]

15 hours ago, Wolfstorm321 said:

 

If Akira Kurosawa's movies were rebooted by the current movie industry, it would have one third of the cast as whites, and another third as blacks, to portray medieval Japan. People would still remember the originals and the reboot would be quickly forgotten.

Art needs to endure the test of time. If its motivated by political agendas it wont last too long. You dont see people talking about soviet propaganda movies these days, because they were not art.

People do remember propaganda if it is offensive enough to either contemporary audiences or later generations. See Triumph of the Will, the Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion, The Happy Merchant images or the SCUM Manifesto for examples of this. Even The Birth of a Nation (which wasn't necessarily intended to be propaganda, just a more-or-less faithful adaptation of The Clansman novel) is still notorious for its applicability as just that though it is still featured in college film making courses as it was a ground breaking piece of cinema.

[FauxFurry]

6 hours ago, 27X said:

Reminder for anyone butthurt about casting and plot changes that Sapkowski is on the writing staff and still has right of refusal.

 

Also lol at anyone that thought any hollywood adaptation would ever be 1:1

He is a fairly mercenary sort so of course he would do whatever increases the marketability of his work, even licensing it out for use in a medium which he despises (such as video games).

It never pays to become more invested in a series than the ones who own the IP rights and thus profit from it.

[Nexussuckstwice]

1 hour ago, winny257 said:

the air supply for west berlin was better than the supply of the East German population!
on the contrary, the Russians confiscated everything of value. 
the East Germans had to afford post-war reprisals, reparation for the russians.
which was not the case for West Germany and West Berlin, America was more generous!

Yeah, tell it to a man in that documentary.

Or to the East Germans today. Did you know they still call you "Wessi?"

 

https://www.marketplace.org/2019/11/11/the-unintended-consequences-of-german-reunification/

[winny257]

1 hour ago, Nexussuckstwice said:

Yeah, tell it to a man in that documentary.

Or to the East Germans today. Did you know they still call you "Wessi?"

 

https://www.marketplace.org/2019/11/11/the-unintended-consequences-of-german-reunification/

I am on October 4th, 1957 born in East Germany, i know everything about east and west germany.
you have forgot that the Wessis to the East German Ossis say. 

[Dojo_dude]

On 12/22/2019 at 4:32 PM, winny257 said:

there are other discrepancies, nothing against black skin color, I am not a racist, but a Black Fringilla makes me wonder. 

  Hide contents

 

 

I believe i'm in the wrong movie. 

Wait what! Triss is blakc now! WTF!

Ok, let me vent a bit hear. I'm Brazilian, my family is mixed and nothing else BLOWS my immersion more than random African characters appearing in this series.
Token, exactly a token diversity placement, f*cking why!? This is a fantasy series, yeah, but it's also a Polish fantasy series and takes place not as far as I know in a non-coastal region. If you want to randomly have 'Moors' (at the time?) randomly placed, then change the lore then. F*ck it all up, why not eh?

It's soooo f*cking stupid! If you can't watch a show unless there's your ethnicity represented in it, you're the f*cking racist who will have a hard time adapting at all.
I'm calling it! There's no Brazilians in Star Wars Rise of Sky-farter! Boycott, racist terrible!

[Dojo_dude]

6 minutes ago, Alkpaz said:

No es Portugues pero: 

 

I actually got a good laugh out of that! Thanks! And I didn't need to type huehuehue ?

[winny257]

1 hour ago, Dojo_dude said:

Wait what! Triss is blakc now! WTF!

Ok, let me vent a bit hear. I'm Brazilian, my family is mixed and nothing else BLOWS my immersion more than random African characters appearing in this series.
Token, exactly a token diversity placement, f*cking why!? This is a fantasy series, yeah, but it's also a Polish fantasy series and takes place not as far as I know in a non-coastal region. If you want to randomly have 'Moors' (at the time?) randomly placed, then change the lore then. F*ck it all up, why not eh?

It's soooo f*cking stupid! If you can't watch a show unless there's your ethnicity represented in it, you're the f*cking racist who will have a hard time adapting at all.
I'm calling it! There's no Brazilians in Star Wars Rise of Sky-farter! Boycott, racist terrible!

you don't know, as the books were created Poland was socialist, there were no foreigners, let alone dark-skinned people in poland, the socialist regime would never have allowed that.
how I already said, I was born in the socialist part of Germany, i have 32 years no dark-skinned person seen in the GDR.
only after the reunification of Germany in 1989, I saw dark-skinned people for the first time.
so the The Witcher series on Netflix is not true for me. 

[27X]

13 hours ago, FauxFurry said:

He is a fairly mercenary sort so of course he would do whatever increases the marketability of his work, even licensing it out for use in a medium which he despises (such as video games).

It never pays to become more invested in a series than the ones who own the IP rights and thus profit from it.

That's the rub though, OMG THEY'RE RUINING THE ORIGINAL, except the guy making the original is gleefully ruining the original. Kind of hard to opine about keeping it in the family when the patriarch is busy peeing out the second story window.

[FauxFurry]

I've never been one to hold the source material as sacred when the creator just sees the work as a source of a paycheck (or half a laugh), anyway. I'm more likely to be disappointed if an adaptation reverts changes made by a superior adaptation than I would be about the initial changes themselves.

That is certainly how I feel about series such as Full Metal Alchemist or Hellsing whose originals I can't stand yet absolutely adore their 'bastardizations'. 

 

That is why I was willing to give The Witcher on Netflix a go despite the chicanery that accompanies their live action programming at times though it is true that part of that is due to the good will which they built up by bankrolling final seasons for cancelled network shows and indie animation which have gone on to become some of my favorite shows to date (especially Beastars).

 

If anything, I am worried that the original author's influence will botch things up if he doesn't have anyone to keep him in check as was the case with George Lucas when making the Star Wars prequels or JK Rowling when doing anything at all without the input of the filmmakers who bought the franchise to an even larger audience than the best-selling books ever could.

[Sillius_Maximus]

having no knowledge of the lore, the game, the books, or anything beyond "there 2-3 witcher games and some mods on Netflix"

 

OMG, i love it..

 

the bard is hilarious.....

 

4 episodes in, im pleased that its not just porn so far.... (didn't think it would be but still, perhaps its um the game that gave me that impression lol)

[RitualClarity]

On 12/22/2019 at 5:14 PM, サマエル said:

 

I'm with you, Im not racist, definetly not a racist thing but always the biggest problem for me with any kind of "adaptations" in general. Triss and Fringilla (and that black soldier) are the biggest immersion break, just small details and it may sound fussy but i really appreciate fidelity to the lore, it's a good show though

yea.. they could have different people in the video but the main characters should be more loyal to the story and intent.  I'd say the same if they decided to change the intended race in any movie. For example someone told me that the Ghost in the Machine was suppose to be Asian. I don't know if that is true but it makes sense. If that is true than there shouldn't have been a white woman as the lead.   There are mentions (at least in the game) of dark complexion peoples that are met through the story from the land (I forget the name) and all the writers of this video series needed to do was to work them in through the story line.  If they decide later to deviate from teh story using the "universe" then it makes sense that some would be present. In the game you run into some

On 12/22/2019 at 6:49 PM, GrimReaper said:

- Whoever designed the Nilfgaardian Armor should be sent to jail, that thing is a crime against humanity.

- Triss played a pretty boring role, zero personality and the actress doesn't look like Triss, at all.

- I found Yennefer a bit too much of an angsty teenager. She didn't have much development and was the same after 'two or three lifetimes', as she said in the last episode. I also found her monologue with the dead baby pretty cringe tbh, lamenting about how us poor womens have it hard despite her being a powerful mage that has probably more freedom than 99.9% of the population, female or male. Her shitty childhood was due to her being a cripple, not because she was a girl. For me at least it was feminism of the wealthy liberal fainting couch variety being shoehorned into the script and not much else. Funny how they choose one of the most powerful females in the world to hold that speech instead some peasant girl with nothing.

- Geralt was pretty dope tho, too bad he didn't have enough screentime for my liking

- Boobs

 

I also didn't like how the mages were portrayed in the series. Granted I've only played the games but the mages there are a scheming bunch, always playing their own little games without regard to anything else. The series made them look like Hogwarts, they've shown the audience way too much for my liking.

I was told by a fan that loved the books as well and so far it was pretty true to the books (as much as reason)  As for Yennefer apparently this is her backstory and according to some .. she was very much like she is in the movie until she spent years with Geralt.

As for Geralt.. I got nothing against Cavel but... in my mind .. he (Geralt) is suppose to be thinner, slimmer and not so much "superman" in physical shape.  I will complement his voice acting and getting the speech of the character down pretty good.

 

The mages are suppose to be petty and scheming bunch. There is mentions even in the game about how they were before. The "Brotherhood" was very bad and this is the time they were in power. Later the Sorceresses founded their own bunch and that is what most will remember from the game.   However, the entire section lead to much to be desired.

 

The settings though was pretty dam impressive. 

 

Over all I wasn't really happy with the series. Besides the changes (Triss one of them however apparently I am being told by many that she didn't have as big a part and didn't have flaming red hair etc in the books)  among other things.. moving more for the book instead of the game. which for me seems a bit crazy.. since Witcher gain their mainstream fans due to the game not the books. Which if I understand correctly... we wouldn't have as many books translated as we do now if there wasn't a game.  The game caused increase interest in the books.  the movie should have been more inline with the Game not the Books in my opinion. 

 

However, Fringilla was the most stand out change that makes it hard to enjoy the series. The actress acting was excellent don't misunderstand me. She did an excellent job just it is hard to follow when I am so use to the game.  Triss did show some characteristics I'd expected so that helped quite a bit. The main issue is their jumping around like someone high on speed and meth.. I had a hard time following what was happening and where things were .. I can only imagine those that aren't into the game / book having serious issues. For the first quarter of one of the episodes I was wondering why the grandmother was still alive and the grand daughter was being named something different than Ceri... lol.  One episode the mage is killed by the shapeshifter.. then the next one flashes back (which confused me) and he was alive again.. confusing. They could have done a better job of combining it in a way that would be easier to follow

[RitualClarity]

On 12/24/2019 at 1:21 PM, 27X said:

Ciri has plenty of time left.

 

Also miscast implies the actress they got can't play Fringilla, which is flat ass wrong. She's playing Fringilla p much on the money. The only straight miscast on the show is Triss and in this instance this is Triss before she realized exactly how obtuse Foltest actually is, and before Temeria became the line against Nilfgaard and Triss had to start getting her shit together. Triss is also not written anything like the books aside from being proficient at the Sphere of Nature, which you can't blame on the actress.

 

The chance of her being recast is p much zero unless she leaves the show of her own volition.

yes as far as I can tell the actress playing Fringilla is doing an excellent job. I disagree with the Triss statement.. I believe she is doing a good job. (if following the book from what many I know and from what I have read) only different if you follow the game. In any case. I believe the shortcomings are more due to the director etc as opposed to the actress. Time will tell if this is the case or not.

 

They likely have these actors on a contract for a considerable time. Chances of any of them leaving any time soon is very slim. If it does happen. The will get another African American to fill the spot Suddenly changing Fringilla from a Black woman to a white woman or even any different race would be far worse now. IMO

Quote

Well.....there's no place like LL to stir up a shit-storm over some discrepancies between the fictional lore and any adaptation or re-telling. Perhaps we should stop modding games while we're at it since it is changing the original "vision" of the devs and writers? I'm thinking of replacing Triss and Yenn in my game since I want to see if I like another version of them better. Maybe African American for Triss and a beautiful American Indian for Yenn. Then I'm going to turn Geralt into a Drowner. 

actually, I might of liked an American Indian for Yenn..    Or someone along those lines. 

[27X]

45 minutes ago, RitualClarity said:

actually, I might of liked an American Indian for Yenn.. 

 

There's a mod for that.

As for modders complaining about differences, that's kind of the whole point of modding, and on a site dedicated 100% to vanity mods, it sure is going to be a thing no matter what, and the more fetishy and OCD the concept the more likely you are to hear why it should have been the entire basis of the mod to begin with, kind of like the part where canaris says stregobor is nice kindly old man when he's as racist and misogynist on the books as he is in the show.

 

As for Triss, in the show she's basically a cipher or any mage not Yenn, which is pretty much the opposite of the books. Triss has the same weakness for snogging Geralt does, but she plays "the game" way better than Yenn ever thought about, she's a scalpel in the instances where Yenn is a two handed hammer.

 

Also it's kind of hard to lambaste a show based on just getting started into the books and then complain the books aren't being followed. Stregobor and Vilgefortz being fine examples. Contrary to canaris magical 4chan interpretation Stregobor is a tenth dan dick, Foltest was a popular king, he sure as hell wasn't a just one, and Vilgefortz should have been able to kill Duny pretty easily but didn't for some reason, but he was able to kill one of his own allies when no one was looking on the pretext he couldn't drag him back to the keep, so maybe the series isn't as different from the books as you think.