"Henry Cavill is a massive fan of the books and the games and he quit the show because the writers wouldn't stick to the books and he just cares about the source material so much."
Henry Cavill not only did not know that the books existed when he started pursuing the role of Geralt, but he actually thought that the books were based off of the video games (and he still didn't bother to read them) and he didn't learn that the games were actually based off the books until Lauren told him (even though the first thing in the game credits is that they're based off the books); as of 2021, he as only read the full series once — right before he was cast in 2018; while he has played TW3, he has only played a little of TW2 (and I've never found any evidence that he's played the first game); and he also has not played the DLC for TW3.
Henry Cavill also started heavily pushing the narrative that he's just such a massive fan of the books and how important adhering to the source material is to him during the press for S2 to deflect from how it was due to his acting choices of cutting Geralt's lines and either saying nothing or just grunting instead that Geralt's characterization — who is much more verbose in the books — was book inaccurate in S1:
He also lied about the situation and tried to act like Geralt was never originally written as being verbose and blamed the lack of dialogue on Yennefer and Ciri's prominence, which cannot be true as confirmed by Lauren:
And tried to act like the lines he was cutting weren't that important anyway so it wasn't really a big deal, which also cannot be true as confirmed by Joey:
He also started pushing the narrative that adhering to the source material is so important to him and it's 'tricky' to do that with Lauren's vision, but his definition of "Lauren's vision" is the show being an ensemble piece with Yennefer and Ciri at the forefront (like the books) and the show in general heavily centering around women (like the books):
So the idea of him caring so much about "book accuracy" is, in fact, not accurate to the books at all as his problems were the prominence of women in the show when Ciri is the main character of the main book series, which the show started adapting from S2 onwards (which is when Henry Cavill started to complain about wanting "book accuracy" in the first place), and when women are very prominent, central, key figures in the books and they often drive the plot forwards.
Lastly, S3 was the closest adaption of the books out of all the seasons so far, so the idea that he quit after S3 because the writers just weren't respecting the source material and the show wasn't following the books doesn't make any sense anyway.
"Henry Cavill is the only reason why the show was even close to the source material at all."
I've not only never seen any evidence of this, but if anything, I've seen the exact opposite: Henry Cavill was either directly responsible for or at least contributed in some way to a lot of things that went against the books or didn't happen in them.
As I already pointed out, he cut Geralt's lines in S1 and either said nothing or just grunted instead which is inaccurate to Geralt's characterization in the books. Here's another quote from Joey affirming that:
(Just to note: During the press for S1, he frequently talked about how the games inspired his performance as Geralt — sometimes talking about them even more than the books despite how the show is based off of the books, not the games — and it wasn't until S2 press that he suddenly changed his tune and started talking about how important adhering to the source material ie the books is to him. He also only started advocating for a more book accurate Geralt because he got dunked on by reddit for his book inaccurate performance in S1.)
He didn't want to play Geralt and Jaskier's friendship as directly as in the books and buddy-buddy with each other:
He didn't want to have any kind of conflict in Geralt and Ciri's relationship in S2 — at least on Geralt's side of things:
Nor play Geralt struggling with fatherhood at all — all of which led to the domino effect of Yennefer's betrayal:
Eskel's death (which in itself also led to things like Vesemir trying to create new witchers and Lambert's attitude toward Ciri):
And Voleth Meir being the big bad of the season:
He didn't want Geralt and Triss to even just platonically find comfort in each other in S2 — which is what happens in the books:
He nixed a sex scene between Geralt and Yennefer in S2 because he didn't think it'd be in character of them to have sex after reuniting which, uh, is absolutely in character of them:
While this is an incredibly inconsequential change, given the prevalence of this idea that Henry Cavill is such an ardent defender of the source material ie the books and how much he wanted the show to adhere to them, I do think it's important to note that he pushed for — and got — more signs into the show even though by his own admission that is more of a game thing than a book thing and he got it into the show for the explicit purpose of catering to game stans:
This is also another incredibly inconsequential change, but again, given how prevalent the idea of Henry Cavill pushing for perfect source accuracy is, I do just want to point out that he would wear his armor 24/7 to make it look worn down:
Even though it is canon in the books that Geralt will buy himself brand new clothes, so the idea that Geralt's clothing has to look worn down and can't be brand new is not actually book accurate.
"Lauren wanted to make Roach's death a joke."
Just to address this point specifically, Lauren wanted to make a meta reference about how all of Geralt's horses are named Roach. That in no way, shape, or form means that she wanted to make Roach's death into a joke or even that the scene had to be played comedically. This is what Lauren had to say about the subject and the 'joke' in question (which, js, actually fits the tone of the books more):
And as far as the "Henry Cavill is the only one who cared about the source material and he's the only reason why the show even stuck to the books at all" front goes... Henry Cavill did change the dialogue in this scene to a book quote/reference; however, the quote in question ("Enjoy your last walk across the meadow and through the mist. Be not afraid of her for she is your friend.") is not something that Geralt himself says and the line/scene from the books foreshadows Geralt's ending in them.
So, at least imo — especially taking into account the incredibly high standard the fandom has set for Henry Cavill as the #1 defender of the books — I don't think this change was actually book accurate especially given the narrative significance of that exchange in the books.
yeah, anyway, friendly reminder that henry cavill ran a massive pr campaign against lauren, the writers, and the show during the press for s2 to deflect from the role he played in the show deviating from the source material such as how geralt wasn't as verbose as he in the books in s1 because he would cut his lines — and the only reason why he even changed his tune about that is because he got dunked on by reddit for his acting choices in s1, after which point he lied and blamed everyone else for geralt's lack of dialogue while taking all of the credit for pushing for a more book accurate geralt even though all of that was his fault in the first place.
he also started pushing that whole narrative and how he can't really affect the script that much (despite lauren and every other actor saying otherwise) in the press for s2 to deflect from how he was the catalyst for eskel's death (which in itself led to vesemir trying to create more witchers and lambert's harsher attitude toward ciri), yennefer's betrayal, and voleth meir being the big bad of the season due to the domino effect of how he didn't want geralt to struggle with fatherhood at all and, basically, not have any character flaws.
and he also started the whole narrative about how important the source material is to him because he was actually just mad that he was co-lead with two women (ciri is the main character of the main series, btw) and because the show heavily revolves around women (which the books also do).
also s3 was the closest adaption of the books by far, even closer than s1, so~ 🤷♀️
There is more to the Witcher then just Geralt you know
I blame the games for this, as he’s the player character and there for in most of the scenes so people assume that he`s the pov character in the novels, with the exception if the short story collection, where arguably he is the protagonist, The Witcher really is an ensemble cast that has many pov switches, by main character standards Geralt shows up surprisingly little in the final two books( hell the final battle of TLOTL has none of the main characters in it for most of the duration) if anything, Ciri is the protagonist, its her story
rewatched that Witcher S4 teaser trailer and it infuriated me
1. in an incredible show of Doctor Who raised instantaneous transferred pettiness, I despise New Guy Geralt already
2. netflix I hate to break it to you but this is Imminent Hansa Shenanigans Season - Geralt is simply not going to get the chance to wander alone with roach through the woods without Jask bullying him, Milva bitching at him, Cahir stalking him and Regis snarking at him
And you really think Netflix would reveal all that in what was meant to be a very first glimps of Liam as Geralt and not as any teaser trailer like you write? That was just when they started filming episode one. Nobody in their right mind would make a teaser trailer at that point. Sorry, but if they did reveal all of the Hansa already, they would be utterly stupid.
And what do you mean with "instantaneous transferred pettiness"? What about those (sadly only few) seconds was petty??? They wanted to make it look a bit similar to Geralt's opening scene in S1E1, why not? It looks mysterious and they are going to ride through some misty bogs for sure. Or did you mean it's your pettiness that was raised, not Netflix'? That could be true, of course ...
But if you want to hate something, I guess you'll always find reasons. I would just make sure, they aren't as silly as these before posting them on tumblr 😂
@astaldis hey you. uh. tagged this with #anti henry cavill
and like. you do you. but. uh. I'm pretty sure that that's Not the guy who thought going alone and killing monsters was the Point Of The Show?
I'm. pretty sure he was the guy who Left because the source material to show ratio made him distressed? genuinely, please correct me if I'm wrong, but otherwise I'm genuinely confused as to why you tagged it, unless it was to mention your hate for the guy in a general kind of way? which. again, cool whatever, but like. c'mon. really? I was just trying to make A Fun Little Post, why are we suddenly talking about how much we hate henry cavill??
I'm pretty sure that how @supercupcakecollector-love meant it was exactly like I tagged it. I guess we are kind of a little group of the Witcher Netflix fans here who have come to actively dislike Henry Cavill because of all the hate the show gets for him leaving (including boycott calls and blatant disregard for the other cast members, especially the non-white ones) and all the myths around it that he has helped create. If you are interested, read @endiness posts on Henry Cavill and his alleged call for book accuracy. (Spoiler: It's not true, he himself is responsible for a couple of major changes and @endiness gives loads of links to interviews with HC and other cast members that prove this).
Really sorry that I have turned your post (I believe you that it was meant as a joke) into something more serious. It's just very, very rare to come across a post like this that is not meant seriously.
And to clarify, I did like Henry Cavill at first, a lot even, but in the course of all this "No Henry - no Witcher" shit, I've really become allergic to him, and what @endiness has dug out about the man has not exactly helped to alleviate this allergy, the contrary.
just to address the conspiracy theory that henry cavill left because he cares about the source material SO MUCH on this post:
henry cavill started heavily pushing this narrative in s2 press in order to deflect from how he is the one responsible for making geralt's characterization book inaccurate in s1 by either cutting his lines and saying nothing or just grunting instead.
he also lied about his responsibility and involvement in geralt's lack of dialogue either by acting like geralt was always written that way which is not true as confirmed by lauren:
LAUREN: In the first episode, when I originally wrote it, Geralt spoke a lot because that’s what he’s like in the books. People always think of Geralt as stoic, but in the books he talks nonstop. […] We immediately starting pulling back on that and by the time we shot the final episode, the script much more matches what’s onscreen because together we really learned what was working. In that way, we honored a lot of what’s in the books but also made sure it works for the guy that you see onscreen.
or he'd blame the prominence of yennefer and ciri for it:
"In Season 1, there wasn't really much of an opportunity for expansive dialogue which Geralt is known for — in the books, he's often known to monologue — because we had two original origin stories which were the center point of the show."
or he tried to act like the lines he was cutting weren't even that important anyway so it didn't really matter that he was cutting them which cannot be true as confirmed by joey:
JOEY BATEY: 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.
also, every time he's talked about how important adhering to the source material is as if that's somehow opposed to lauren's vision, this is his definition of lauren's vision though:
"On season two, I wanted to bring as much of 'Book' Geralt into the show that Lauren's vision and that the plot would allow. That's a tricky thing to do, because the plot, as Lauren has said, is very centred around bringing women into the centre of The Witcher."
"Lauren’s vision was more of an ensemble piece than the first Witcher books. It’s driven a lot more by the characters of Yennefer and Cirilla."
so he was actually just lowkey mad that he was co-lead with two women (like the books) and that the show's an ensemble piece (like the books) and that the show heavily centers around women (like the books.)
also, just to add — as this is usually in conjunction with the idea of him being such an ardent defender of the source material — the idea that henry cavill is such a massive fan of the the franchise has been completely overblown. he not only didn't know the books existed when he started pursuing the role, but he actually thought that the books were based off the games and he didn't learn otherwise until lauren told him. he's only read the series once back in 2018 before he was cast. and even when it comes to the video games, from the way he's talked about it, it sounds like the only game he ever really played is tw3 as afaik he's never talked about the first game and he's said he's only played a little of tw2. (he's also never played the dlc for tw3.)
→ The Witcher 3 | Geralt of Rivia & Emiel Regis
“ We have witnessed - and, in fact, on several occasions incited - many great and weighty events. After all that toil, I believe we deserve a bit of a rest. “
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