Hunter Arden

TV!Geralt treats Dandelion as if he's no better than a rock in his shoe and it drives me insane. Dandelion is Geralt's canonical best friend and for some reason they thought it would be a good idea to make Geralt (famously averse to unnecessary violence, may I remind you) hit Dandelion shortly after they first meet??? What the actual hell??

I've a feeling they reduced Geralt and Dandelion's dynamic down to "grumpy and sunshine" for comedic value entirely and that drives me insane. They cheapened an incredibly compelling and beautiful friendship. Geralt loves Dandelion. He doesn't constantly glare at him with derision and annoyance. Dandelion is in fact one of the very few people who are privileged enough to see the genuine fondness in Geralt's eyes when he looks at them. Geralt laughs at Dandelion's jokes. He enjoys Dandelion's singing. He's almost always happy to see him.

To me, it made sense that Geralt would be mad at this guy who is so much younger and more oblivious about many things. As opposed to calm and even keeled all the time. When Jaskier gets a little older and wiser, and Geralt is in a better place, their relationship eventually improves. But it’s also not as male centric as, for example Witcher 3, which I appreciate, so it doesn’t focus as much on their dynamic.

If you only care about Jaskier and Geralt’s silly (and inconvenient! Jaskier goofs up so much lol) but sweet relationship, then sure, you can look elsewhere, or later in the show. In context, I didn’t see it as butchering the source material in favor of cliches. I feel as though the writers worked with what they had (er like Cavill).