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The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf features a devastating twist that reaffirms the true price witchers pay for becoming magical soldiers.
WARNING: The following contains spoilers for The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf, now available on Netflix.
In The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf, fans discover that Vesemir had a tormented past where he wanted to be more than just a gofer. He envisioned a path filled with monster-hunting and money, which is why he went off to Kaer Morhen to become a witcher under Deglan. However, while he did earn coin and a famed reputation across the realm, there’s a devastating twist revealing the true price witchers pay to become magical soldiers.
As The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf shows, Vesemir is almost broken in training. Young recruits are converted into magical super-soldiers but the problem is, not everyone can withstand the process. Many die and are discarded like rubbish, leaving Vesemir colder and colder as he realizes he can’t get attached to anyone. Eventually, he absorbs everything and becomes an esteemed slayer of monsters, working across the land and filling his pockets. However, a ghost from the past arrives when he and Luka are arrested near Ard Carraigh for dissent at a bar with the king’s knights.
There, while in captivity, he meets Lady Zerbst, who holds a spot on the royal council and is surprisingly vouching for the witchers. Tetra wants them killed, as she thinks they’re deceiving mankind and seeding out monsters so they can kill and garner income in a sinister scheme, but Zerbst is adamant that they need to trust them. It’s soon revealed when she meets Vesemir in the pantry that she’s actually his childhood bestie, Illyana.
Vesemir’s stunned as she’s old, around 70 in fact, reaffirming that aging slowly is something all witchers do. The thing is, because his mind is so young, he forgot about her and the love he had, which is instantly rekindled. She got sold off and ended up here, marrying a royal and having daughters before her husband died. She’s now a grandmother and while she lived a happy life, part of her remains unfulfilled. Vesemir feels the gap too, as she never got the lake house she wanted, which she always hinted was supposed to be their happy ending.
Part of him feels selfish as he abandoned her, only now realizing that he could have left her to die when she stopped writing, heartbroken over their parting. But even though he looks like he’s in his 20s, they’re still in love. It’s why, when she sneaks to his base to help Vesemir’s tribe fight off Tetra’s army, they kiss in the moonlight knowing death could befall them.
Eventually, she becomes a casualty, leaving Vesemir in tears because he regrets not spending more time with her. But it comes with the territory, as the bravado and power of being a witcher were always going to push Vesemir down a different, self-absorbed destiny. As for the future, with young Geralt being five or so at the end of The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf, and almost 100 in the live-action series, that means Vesemir will be just under 200 years old as Geralt brings Ciri to the new base to train. Now, after knowing the heartache Vesemir endured, fans are anxious to see if he remembers Illyana in Season 2, and if it was all worth it.
Watch Vesemir and Illyana’s story in The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf, now available on Netflix, with The Witcher Season 2 arriving on Dec. 17.
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