So, today I read on Variety.com that Netflix will be bringing The Witcher to the small screen. Not the game, of course, but the Witcher-saga by polish author Andrzej Sapkowski.

I love the books and I really adore CD Projekt Red‘s The Witcher III-The Wild Hunt, but…

Why the hell do you have to go and adapt every successful fantasy saga to small screen?

I mean, is it too much to ask just to read the books and, apart from that, leave them well alone? Is it too much to come up with original ideas and concepts? Did you know? Writers do it all the time! Big surprise!

Don’t get me wrong. I am aware that the concept is not new and that it makes sense to adapt a successful novel or series for tv to broaden its audience, to bring a great story to people who don’t enjoy reading (and to make some more cash).

But, being the bookworm I am, I balk at the idea of seeing characters that I, as a reader, have treasured away in my memory and imagination, pressed into flesh.

I have, for example, a very firm idea of how practical prankster turned general Matrim Cauthon of Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time-series (another candidate up for adaption to the smallscreen, BTW) looks like, how he acts, the way he speaks. I love Mat just the way I imagine him. And I don’t want that illusion shattered by some TV-series, no matter how well it is done, no matter how good the production.

Sure. Noone forces me to watch these adaptions, of course. Unfortunately, I know myself and therefore know that I am quite unable to resist temptation. So I watched some episodes of the 2010 mini-series Legend of the Seeker, which is based on Terry Goodkind’s Sword of Truth-series. It was kind of ambitious, I guess? But, sadly, it fell way short of what I had come up with in my own mind.

But, I hear you ask, you really like The Witcher III. And that’s a video game based on a series of books!

While that is true, I read the books before I played the game. And CD Projekt Red simply did a masterful job of bringing the characters to life. I dare say, though, that I would not have been half as emotionally invested in the game if I had not already known the background-story, lore and characters.

What’s your take on this? Let me know, I’m up for discussion on the subject.