I think it’s time we talked about Henry Cavill and him being the “biggest defender of the source material” and leaving the show because he just couldn’t “stand them deviating from the books any longer” because when you look at it closer it’s… not really the truth at all.
I’m not here to shit on Henry or his version of Geralt. If you love him and his Geralt then great! But I feel like this narrative has spired so out of control to the point where it became misinformation.
It’s often talked about how Henry would change scenes to make them more “book accurate” or refuse to do certain storylines because of the same reason, so let's take a closer look at all the instances where it did happened.
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His decision to make Geralt grunt and cut most of his lines to the point where Joey had to improvise and take his lines, so that the plot would make sense. Which goes well against the books, when everyone who has read them knows just how much Geralt loves a good monologue.
HC: "Actually, I think, none of the grunts were in there. All the grunts I either added or didn't say anything and grunted instead. And, it was often up to the other actors to go, 'I think he's not going to say anything now.' So, I think the grunts were often a surprise for anyone who's watching.'"
JB: "Henry likes to cut his lines, 'cause he's lazy. No, he literally just likes to cut them. He likes to do more up here [frames his face with his hands] and just with face and hmms and grunts. There's a lot of hmms, and so I often have to take a lot of his lines and turn it into a lot of my stuff so that the plot happens."
JB: “Henry tends to cut his lines, say less, which means I have to say more. So I had to improvise quite often.”
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Roach’s death scene
After S2 came out, Lauren received a lot of backlash for Roach’s death scene, with multiple sources citing that she wanted the moment to be more “comedic” before Henry Cavill stepped in and refused to participate in such horrible anti source material activities.
LH: "Henry was so unhappy with the line. Finally I said, 'You know what, you come up with something. I trust you, you know this material so well, you know the book so well, you don't even have to pitch it to me.' And he came back the next day with a beautiful speech that's at the end of 'Sword of Destiny' when Geralt is facing death.”
This is the line he ended up using:
“Enjoy your last walk across the meadow and through the mist. Be not afraid of her for she is your friend."
This was Lauren’s response to the backlash AND the original line.
LH: “Here's what was scripted, in homage of the fact that a previous Roach had existed, and another one will exist soon. It's hardly a joke. Henry wanted a longer, more emotional moment, which I was more than happy to give him. Don't create drama where none exists.”
He looks at Ciri, until she understands. She nods, anguished for Geralt.
CIRI
Of course. Say goodbye.
Ciri walks away. As soon as she's gone
Geralt reaches into his boot, pulls out his knife. Without hesitation, he plunges the knife downward, offscreen. Roach's labored breathing goes silent.
GERALT
You were my favorite Roach.
So, Geralt ends up quoting an excerpt from ‘Sword of Destiny’. The quote originally isn’t said by Geralt but by Death, or rather Geralt imagining Death, depends on how you view it. It’s said when he’s at his lowest almost delirious after thinking that Yennefer had died at the battle of Sodden Hill, and he has nothing left to live for. The quote is also foreshadowing Geralt’s own death at the end of the saga. Which to me doesn't work that well with Roach at all. That line was a response to Geralt thinking he's lost the love of his life, not his horse. In my opinion, the original line Lauren penned out is more heartfelt and actually more emotional and more book accurate as well.
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The absolute removal of any Triss and Geralt “romance”
Now, irrelevantly on your feelings on book Triss and Geralt you have to admit that that short-lived “romance” is indeed a part of the books and therefor book accurate. So the removal of it would go against Henry’s rhetoric of fighting to make this show as much book accurate as possible. What’s more, he didn’t want them to not only have a romantic relationship but not even share platonic intimacy, which also happens in the books.
"The thing that was important to me, which we took directly from the books, is that Triss asks Geralt to spend the night with her and, in the books, he actually says yes once she says just basically lay with me, nothing is going to happen. Henry felt very, very strongly that when we were playing this scene he still believed that his one true love, Yennefer of Vengerberg, was dead. He was still mourning her. So he didn't actually want to go that extra step and have them have any intimacy whatsoever."
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The removal of the Yen and Geralt sex scene in S2
"We just wanted to be very careful that it was true and real, and it didn't turn into something that we, as actors, didn't believe it should be," Cavill stated. When Yennefer and Geralt unite, they embrace, but it doesn't go further than that. He continued: "We wanted it to be emotional rather than sexual. It was really, really important, and we had to lean away from what was originally on the page." Initially, Geralt and Yennefer were written to have a more passionate night.
"These are people who believe one thing about the fate of another and then find out something else is true," Cavill said about Geralt believing Yennefer was dead. "That's not how they behave," the actor added. "How they behave is they just want to be with the person and emotionally recognize their existence again in that shared space.”
This one is a bit tricky because I am willing to get behind an actor who doesn't want to do a sex scene out of comfort reasons or whatnot, but Henry saying that "That's not how [Yennefer and Geralt] behave”, is quite absurd in my opinion. Because that is very much how Geralt and Yennefer behave, especially in the short stories and ToC. They are inherently a very sexual couple who come crashing in and out of each other’s lives while having very passionate sex. But I can understand wanting this scene to be more “emotional” (as if sex isn't emotional), so this one I am willing to give him a bit more leeway on. But still saying that that would be out of character for them is, in my opinion, absurd.
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Geralt being the perfect father figure to Ciri with no flaws and no struggles (which inevitably snowballed into the Yen Betrayal Arc)
LHissrich: “In interviews, Henry explains how he felt strongly that Geralt NOT be bumbling, nor a struggling father figure. In fact, a lot of S2 is about how Geralt does come from a loving (albeit unconventional) family. Henry was passionate about this shift, and we discussed it a lot, and ultimately thought it was wonderful for his character development. But it also had the domino effect of changing what Ciri needed from Yen when she entered the picture. Thus, introducing the idea of balance.”
HC: When it came to the relationship between Ciri and Geralt, I wanted to make sure it didn't fall down the trope-y line of just conflict and, actually, we saw the protective, wise nature of Geralt. I worked very hard to make that happen on the show.
Geralt being a struggling father is very much a theme in the books, especially Blood of Elves. He doesn’t always know what to say or what to do, and he makes mistakes, which is so very human of him. Also, it’s just more interesting for characters to have struggles and overcome them in time! But that’s not what Henry Cavill wanted to do with Geralt. What we got instead is Geralt who already basically knows exactly how to parent, he always knows what to say, what pep talk to give. Lauren then goes on saying that “it also had the domino effect of changing what Ciri needed from Yen when she entered the picture. Thus, introducing the idea of balance*”* So, it is fair to speculate that through Henry’s refusal to showcase Geralt having any flaws at all and act book accurate snowballed into The Controversial Yennefer Betrayal Arc because she needed to be the one struggling more (or at least a little bit in comparison to Geralt) with becoming a parent.
If anyone remembers more instances of him changing the plot and actually doing it to be more book accurate, I’d love to hear it. Like I mentioned before, I’m not here to shit on Henry, but it does feel like the whole internet just run with him being “the protector of the source material fighting the stupid writers” with no actual proof behind it and never looked back. Because when you look at all the instances where he did indeed change stuff, you find that none of them are actually that book accurate.
I think it’s also important to note that the person who started the entire narrative of the writers “hating the source material” was Beau Demayo. Yes, that Beau Demayo who has been in the news lately for being outed as an abuser who was fired for sexual harassment from X-Men ‘97. Who lied about Marvel firing him “because he was gay” who was also fired from The Witcher for emotional and physical abuse and then went on to accuse his fellow ex writers of hating the books, so I feel like there might be a pattern emerging here. And I’m not saying the writers are perfect and never made any mistakes when it comes to the show, but with everything going on, I feel like it’s important to keep that information in mind.
