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The world of The Witcher has become so vast and expansive with its many forms of storytelling from video games to the immensely popular Netflix series. The first season has shown just how incredible the books are, which are full of monster slaying, action, and sex. What completely sells the series is the portrayal of Geralt of Rivia by the tall and dashing Henry Cavill. Once viewers get to the second season, the world of The Witcher becomes much bigger as politics gets into the plot as it involves the fight with elves, mages, and other creatures over control of the kingdom. It was a huge departure from the books, which fans weren’t fond of, but the new season seems to be going back on track to how the series began. It still has the political powers at play, but the main focus goes to Geralt, Yennefer (Anya Chalotra), and Ciri (Freya Allan) as they form a tight-knit family.
As season three starts, everyone is still content with finding Ciri to control the entire Continent. The young princess is just discovering her mysterious powers that could be the key to saving this world. Everyone from kings, elves, and mages wants Ciri for different reasons, all of which can be bad for the young princess. Both Geralt and Yennefer train Ciri to use her abilities to defend herself from any threat and learn how to control them. In the process, a bond forms between all three of these characters. We also learn there is a new enemy at play who has nefarious plans for Ciri that can mean terrible things to come. There are also some incredible emotional and comedic antics with Jaskier (Joey Batey) as he still manages to get pulled into Geralt’s adventures.
With every sign of trouble, the trio is always on the run, but they somehow find this quite comforting that they have this familial bond. While Ciri continues to train in the ways of a hunter with Geralt, Yennefer also gives the young princess a few magic lessons to control her abilities. It is perhaps one of the best things about this season is seeing how these three get along as a family should. However, they are put at a crossroads as they are forced to split up once they are attacked by the fire-wielding mage Rience (Chris Fulton) and the elves. We see Yenn taking Ciri back to her old academy in Aretuza to keep her safe while Geralt goes after Rience and discovers who is truly behind this.
There’s a lot to cover in a span of five episodes in the first volume as it sets up an all-out war among the creatures of the Continent. With the elves, there’s some division among the ranks as they try to find the best course of action against humanity. In the meantime, the Kingdom of Redania continues the search for Ciri with the King’s right-hand man Dijkstra (Graham McTavish), and his partner Phillipa (Cassie Claire) pulling all the strings underneath the ruler’s nose. There’s also the Brotherhood of Sorcerers trying to keep things together without any bloodshed. We also can’t forget the White Flame (Bart Edwards) still trying to unite the Continent under his command. So there’s a lot of parties at play this season getting their hands on the Continent with Ciri being the key to all of it.
What is great about this season is that despite all the political intrigue, The Witcher doesn’t lose sight of its main characters. Geralt continues to grow as a character embracing his newfound light and fun side covered in his dark and broody facade, which Cavill does a great job in portraying as he makes his final run as the character before giving the reins to Liam Hemsworth who will be taking over in the next season. With Yenn finally getting her powers back, she is back as a powerful mage who is also trying to fix all the mistakes she has caused in her wake, a great feat that Chalotra does an impeccable job doing. Ciri is also coming on her own as she becomes more independent and handles herself like a pro being a trained hunter. Allan gets to play with a lot of emotion with Ciri this season, and it seems to be paying off after seeing her grow in the past two seasons.
There are a lot of setups this season as it slowly unveils who the Big Bad is. What is great is that we get to see a lot more creatures this season that Geralt and Ciri have to contend with as well as some power struggles happening within the elves’ community and in the Brotherhood of Mages. We also get to see Geralt getting deep into high society with Yenn at a party filled with sexual tension, betrayals, and intrigue. The final episode of the first volume utilizes the Rashomon effect in the story that works quite well, making this perhaps one of the better episodes of the season so far. Despite leaving the first volume on a cliffhanger, it does offer things to look forward to once the second volume drops soon.
The new season of The Witcher is a return to form as the show in some ways as it goes back to its roots to show what made it so entertaining. It is also a nice way to start our farewell tour with Cavill as Geralt as the transition begins to leave the role on hopefully a high note. The third season displays how much amazing chemistry Cavill, Chalotra, and Allan have together. However, it does lack the potential of what made the franchise great by taking its focus away from the monsters and mythology and mostly capitalizing on the politics of this expansive world. It’s difficult to judge the third season as a whole since the audience is only getting half the story, but there’s still enough interest to keep everyone invested in what The Witcher has in store before saying goodbye to Cavill in the role.
Netflix is now streaming the first volume of The Witcher’s third season. Volume two will drop on July 27th, 2023.
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