The Witcher Season 1 dropped on Netflix on December 20. It’s a show based on a series of books by Andrzej Sapkowski which have been translated from the original Polish for English-speaking readers. There are also video games and comics that made the books more popular. All of this is set in a fantasy world.
There are a lot of great shows on TV right now. And many network shows will be coming back for the second half of the season, and new shows seem to be popping up on various streaming services with regularity, so you might be wondering if The Witcher is worth your time. Or maybe you watched part or all of the first episode of The Witcher and are now thoroughly confused. Keep reading and I’ll help you sort out whether to give this show a chance.
This article is meant to be a review, but also a bit of a guide to help you navigate this new and unfamiliar world. Because of that, there will be minor spoilers. I’m going to give you some information about the main characters and a bit of a hint about the plot. What I won’t do is tell you endings — either of episodes or of the season, and I don’t think anything I’m telling you will be a huge plot twist. But I can’t explain it without giving some details, so if you don’t want to know anything, stop reading now.
Scratching that Game-of-Thrones Itch
If you are a Game of Thrones fan and want more of the same, here are some similarities:
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The Witcher’s horse is named Roach Both series are based on book series.
- The Witcher has been renewed for a second season, and word is that the creators have a seven-season plan, so it seems to be shaping up to be of a similar epic nature.
- There are dragons, and magic, and sword-fighting, and kings and queens and knights.
- There is nudity and sex.
- Neither series is set in our world, so if you like learning new names for places and trying to understand a fictional culture, you’ll like The Witcher.
Having said all of that, there are some differences:
- The Witcher also has Elves and Dwarves.
- It’s hard to say for sure, but it seems that The Witcher has more light-hearted humorous moments than Game of Thrones.
- The Witcher certainly has a shorter list of characters to keep straight.
- There is no official map of the world of The Witcher (more on that below).
- Though both series have an original soundtrack, you’re much more likely to be singing along to songs from The Witcher. Though you might recognize the tune to The Rains of Castamere, only really hard-core Game of Thrones fans are likely to know the lyrics.
Main Characters
There are three main characters in The Witcher, but you only meet two of them in the first episode. At the beginning, none of them knows either of the others, so the first season of The Witcher is mainly the tale of how they come together. But at first, they are each in separate places and, as I’ll explain below, their timelines are not parallel chronologically, which adds to the confusion.
The main character is Geralt of Rivia, played by Henry Cavill, and he is a witcher. What is a witcher? That is not very clearly defined in The Witcher season 1. Though the other two main characters get more of a traditional origin story, we meet Geralt when he’s already performing his role as a witcher, which seems to be to hunt and kill monsters that are threatening people and their livelihoods. Witchers are mutants, they are more powerful and live much longer than humans, and they have stunted emotions. The event that happens in the first episode serves to give Geralt a bit of a moral code that influences his decisions going forward.
The other main character we meet in episode 1 is Cirilla, princess of Cintra, mostly called Ciri. The queen of Cintra is Queen Calanthe, and she’s Ciri’s grandmother. Ciri’s parents are out of the picture (we’ll learn more about that in later episodes). Calanthe’s husband is not Ciri’s grandfather, either. Ciri’s character is central to the story, though she doesn’t not know or understand what makes her special. I suppose it might be a spoiler to tell you, so I won’t, but just trust me, she’s special.
In the second episode, we meet Yennefer of Vengerberg, the third main character. When we meet her, she is a poor deformed hunchback. Almost immediately she is attacked by a couple of lovers who think she was spying on them. It’s not entirely clear at first, but what happens is that as a reflex against the attack, she magically portals to a different location. Since we just met her, it’s not clear to us, but she didn’t know she could do magic, and I’m pretty sure she doesn’t realize she caused herself to teleport. Somehow unwittingly doing magic alerts other Mages, and soon after Yennefer is portalled back home, Tissaia de Vries, a sorceress, arrives. Tissaia is also the rectoress of Aretuza, a magical academy for young ladies. She makes a show of purchasing Yennefer (it’s unclear if Yennefer and her family believe she will be a slave or a meal). But instead, she joins a group of other young ladies at the academy. Being a mage causes Yennefer to age more slowly than humans, so when we see her in some of the later episodes, it is decades later than the time when she was at Aretuza.
There is one more character I’ll tell you about, and he is Jaskier the bard. He meets up with Geralt and insists on accompanying him, though Geralt wants no part of it. Jaskier is part musician and part marketer, and he sees the need for improvement in Geralt’s reputation after an incident that occurs in the first episode. Jaskier writes a ballad that you may have heard (and if you haven’t, you probably soon will) that actually does the trick, and slowly their relationship becomes more friendly. Jaskier often serves to give bits of needed exposition, since Geralt is a man of few words, and he also brings humor as well as music.
Timeline Confusion in The Witcher Season 1
I think the timeline is the element that will cause the most confusion amongst viewers who are unfamiliar with the source material. But don’t fret: I, too, was unfamiliar with the source material, and I figured it out. But it does take paying close attention; if you’re scrolling through Facebook or Twitter and only watching the show with half an eye, you might stay confused.
The first thing to realize (and the show doesn’t make this clear until many episodes later) is that the scenes with Geralt in the first episode do not happen concurrently with the scenes involving Ciri in the first few episodes. Ciri’s timeline can be considered “the present,” but it’s unclear until the end how the timelines of the other two characters relate.
The exact time span for each character doesn’t really matter. It only matters when they meet each other. So what you have to know is that when Geralt and Yennefer meet, decades have passed since we first saw Yennefer. And the scenes in episode 1 with Ciri take place much later than the Geralt scenes in the same episode, because all of the things we see happen to Geralt during this season must have taken place over a longer time span than what we see happening to Ciri. Don’t worry too much about this; it will start to make sense before the final episode, I promise!
In a later episode there is a scene with Geralt and Queen Calanthe and you’ll realize, as you watch it, that it takes place before Ciri was born. That’s when the timeline stuff starts to finally make sense (or if you’re not paying close enough attention it could be the point where you get so confused you stop watching).
Sylvans and Dragons and Djinns, Oh My!
There’s a dragon in one of the episodes, but dragons don’t play as big a role in The Witcher as in Game of Thrones. There are a whole host of other monsters, though. It’s hard to tell if many of these are made up just for this world, or if the more obscure ones would be familiar to those familiar with Polish fairy tales. There is a kikimora, a striga, a hirikka (they’re pretty rare), and a djinn, which is the same as a genie, complete with the lamp and three wishes. And there are undead, complete with a bite that can be deadly (but their eyes don’t have a bluish glow).
And there is magic, and there are Elves, and Dryads. Full-blood Elves have pointy ears, but I’m not entirely clear what their powers are. Witchers seem to travel around — we don’t meet any others besides Geralt, so I’m not completely sure that’s true. Mages, once they’re trained, are placed in a particular kingdom, to serve the king or queen of that realm. There’s a whole Brotherhood of Sorcerers and rules for how magic can be used, and academies (sorcerers and mages are the same thing). There is also a Prophecy that figures rather prominently into the entire series, but we only get a hint of that in season 1.
Another detail that might help you, which I learned from having the closed captions on: when you hear another language spoken, it’s the Elder language. This was the language of the Elves, but it’s also the language used for magic, apparently.
Locations in The Witcher Season 1
The locations in The Witcher can be a source of confusion, especially since there is no map to follow. The books’ author never included a map; there are maps associated with some of the video games, and you can find maps on the Internet, which may or may not be exactly accurate. Another thing that confuses things is that there are cities that have the same name as Kingdoms, so then you’re a little unclear which is meant. And then the wars that happen over time can change things. If Nilfgaard invades Cintra, is Cintra still a place? It might depend on whether you mean Cintra the City or Cintra the kingdom.
Here’s a very brief and possibly not completely accurate geography lesson. There are Northern Kingdoms and there is Nilfgaard to the south. There are probably other places, too, but these are enough for The Witcher season 1. The northern kingdoms include:
- Rivia, where Geralt is from;
- Aedirn, with Vengerberg as its capital, where Yennefer is from;
- Cintra (the name of a kingdom and also its capital city), where Ciri is from;
- Redania, further north, where there is a town called Blaviken, where the events involving Geralt in episode 1 occur;
- Temeria, which is on the coast north of Cintra and south of Redania. Aretuza is on an island off the coast of Temeria.
- Brokilon forest is where the Dryads live. Magic seems to keep this forest from experiencing winter, even when immediately adjacent regions are cold and snow-covered. I’m very interested to know more about this kind of magic!
- Sodden, which is near Cintra, and where there is a battle toward the end of the season.
Nilfgaard is to the south, and they are the enemy. Though it seems that mages from both regions train together.
Should You Watch The Witcher?
I’ve given you lots of details to help you decide if The Witcher is for you. I enjoyed it, and I plan to re-watch The Witcher season 1 right before season 2 comes out. I think some of the details I’ve included will help you sort out the confusing parts. I think you’ll like it if you like fantasy shows, and if you like shows that are centered around characters. But if you’re not familiar with the source material, you have to be willing to pay attention and remember details. Much of The Witcher season 1 is based on a book of short stories, but the rest of the seasons will most likely be based on full novels, so they may not have the natural episodic quality this season has, with Geralt confronting a different monster in a different town in each episode.
From what I understand, the source material is very rich, and this should be a very interesting story. Netflix has given the green light for season 2, so here’s hoping we get to ride along to the end of it.
Another couple of things to consider: though the series is named for a male character, and Henry Cavill is undoubtedly the best-known of the actors, there are several strong female roles here who have major parts to play. Not just Ciri and Yennefer, but Tissaia de Vries and Queen Calanthe are strong leaders in their respective realms. However, it’s been noted that the gratuitous nudity seems to be all of the female side of things. This show has boobs in scenes where there is really no context for them (similar to Game of Thrones), but if you thought you might get to see Henry Cavill’s bare bottom, you’ll be disappointed. Like Game of Thrones, this show has much going for it, and doesn’t need to use sex as an appeal to get viewers to watch.
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