It deviates in the way it gets from A to B, and it was always going to be an adaptation that differs from other versions of the story. But the actual journey from A to B isn’t going to differ that much.

But close-minded so-called “purists” were always going to hate it.

It's not just fantasy, look what they did with Asimov's Foundation. Now to be honest, it still has some great additions (whole genetic dynasty plot and its casting are actually, IMO, the best part of the show), but it does changes books way too much for any Asimov fan to feel comfortable.

I guess the pattern I'm observing is that networks want the fanbase, but they don't have the balls to actually adapt the books as they should be.

This ain’t the books my dude, they have modify and change things by definition when they adapt things. When looking at this show as its own thing, not a continuation or retelling of already told stories, it is great! Took me a while to do that too, as I read a lot of books and always left movies that were adapted mad at what they changed. I have learned to separate the two and I find that I enjoy a lot more adaptations now.

My connection to the Witcher universe was built purely on one game, Witcher 3, so I'm not very strongly attached to Eskel. I did note that his foray in to the TV series was left very short, which was a bit strange, him being one of Geralt's closest friends, but I can live with it. I can totally understand more knowledgeable fans who are pissed off, though.
I enjoyed season 2 very much as a whole, it was more coherent than season 1 and it seemed like they had been given a bump up with the budget as well. The series is beautifully done. Especially Henry Cavill and the girl that plays Ciri are awesome in their roles. Didn't mind the Vesemir they went with, he's good as well. Mark Hamill would have been awesome, but maybe he's a bit too awesome to look past and see the character he's playing at this point.
The race swapping ticks me off, it's so dumb and even disrespectful that European fables and stories just cannot be respected as they are, but there has to be this meddling with identity politics that doesn't make any sense. Even most minorities would rather not have these artificial quotas. People of all backgrounds are completely capable of relating to characters who don't look like them, as long as the characters and the story are well done.
Well, it is what it is at the moment and the show is so well made otherwise, that I'm able to look past the current day crap and enjoy what they are doing.

That's not an issue to me, honestly. So long as the actors resemble the characters in personality, why does it matter whether they are white, black or green? I understand that the source material is inspired in Eastern European folklore, but ultimately the work is set in a fictitious world, not in Eastern Europe. Reminds me when they announced the Powerpuff Girl live-action show several months ago and a lot of people complained that Professor Utonium was black. 

Aside from that, Netflix fulfilling quotas of actors of certain ethnicities is embarrassing and downright bad. That's where I totally agree. 

I thought only Geralt had yellow eyes because he was able to handle more of the chemicals during the trial of the grasses? 

I didn't read the books or play any of the games, and I think it is pretty bad.

It sounds like if they did follow the books, I would dislike it even more though.

My only issue is I wish Netflix would not land on just 8 episodes. Do 13 like cable. Is that so hard?

They used to do 13 for things like Daredevil and the like back in the day, but everyone complained that 13 felt like too much padding back then, so over time they’ve shortened their seasons of original content down.

His implementation really sucked especially because it was so damn short but I didn't feel like he really was an asshole in the show. After Geralt killed him they had that short scene when he thought back about the old time with him telling him to train more. In that scene he was a nice dude and it showed how close and important they were to each other even walking away arm in arm. I felt like he only was an asshole after he got stung which not only transformed his body but also his mind. Not sure why not everyone felt like that who watched the show.

But yeah, too bad he was only in the show for so little time and most of it was showing him as asshole after he got stung. That's why they fucked it up, not because he was an ass after his fight.