Why The Witcher Fans Are Upset About Dijkstra's Portrayal In Season 3

"The Witcher" Season 3 Volume 1, as well as the upcoming Season 3 Volume 2, bears the heavy burden of expectation for fans wishing Henry Cavill a quality goodbye. And while there's plenty to enjoy this season, there are just as many, if not more, confusing moments in "The Witcher" Season 3 that leave audiences scratching their heads. Worse still, some aspects of the latest story following the White Wolf and his found family are the cause of active distress. Chief among these issues is the portrayal of one Sigismund Dijkstra (Graham McTavish).

Known best by his last name, Dijkstra appears briefly in Season 2 (in Episodes 4, 7, and 8), but so far, he has been featured in every single episode of Season 3, so viewers have been able to appraise his depiction more completely this time around. Unfortunately, this version of Dijkstra is not to fans' liking ... at all. The general impression seems to be that Netflix's rendition of the Redanian head of intelligence is less than half of the man that his book and video game counterparts prove themselves to be. But we're not stopping at general impressions. Here are some specific pulls from the "Witcher" community.

In r/witcher, a subreddit devoted to all things "Witcher," a discussion post about Season 3, Episode 2 ("Unbound") turned into an opportunity for fans to lament the Netflix production's depiction of Dijkstra. "I LOVE the books and I've almost finished reading 'Baptism of Fire.' However, it's SO off-putting with the deviation of some characters," said u/KingAndretti. "Like Dijkstra is the MASTER OF SPIES and there's nothing in Redania that he isn't aware of but yet Netflix is making him look like the outwitted geezer in these scenes." 

u/anchist echoed this frustration with their own comment, which deplored Dijkstra for letting "people dumber than [him]" walk on him.

u/Masonite23 added to this, saying, "I didn't like ... how Djikstra isn't a self-confident, calculating man." And this is where most of the other comments fell. According to the fanbase, Netflix's Dijkstra isn't just inept at his job, something which his previous incarnations simply wouldn't stand for, but he's also playing second fiddle within his own regime to Philippa Eilhart (Cassie Clare). Redditors such as u/Attlai and u/WHTWLF13 were vocally disappointed in Dijkstra's enjoyment of BDSM, which they felt was an unnecessary sequence to add.

For better or for worse, Netflix's version of Dijkstra is a different character than what came before. On-screen, he's blustering but ineffective, volatile but weak. His plots are foiled quickly, and he spends more time brooding on his failure than he does anything else. But for those who understand his previous iterations, Dijkstra is the pinnacle of brutal cunning. There's little outside of his control, and even less that he doesn't know. While he isn't necessarily an ally of Geralt, the pair often find themselves on the same side of a problem long enough to deal with it together. None of that really gets translated into Netflix's adaptation — not yet, at least.

As for Dijkstra's love life, his romance with Philippa on the show is based on what occurs in the books. Their tryst is very real, even if the particular acts are not depicted as thoroughly on the page as they are on the screen. It's also worth mentioning that "The Witcher" has featured numerous NSFW scenes before now which exposed far more than what was seen in the sequence between Dijkstra and Philippa.

"The Witcher" Season 3 Volume 1 is available to stream on Netflix. Season 3 Volume 2 will be released on July 27, later this month.