The Witcher Season 2: Jumping Off or Falling Flat?
“The Witcher” is a beloved fantasy franchise that you might have heard of, especially if you’re reading this article. It started off as a series of novels by Andrzej Sapkowski, who, as you can probably tell by the number of hard consonants in his name, is polish. His work takes influence from a variety of East European folklore and follows the protagonist "Geralt of Rivia" as he goes on numerous adventures, fighting monsters and slaying demons of all sorts.
If you're familiar with The Witcher, it's probably thanks to the success of "The Witcher" video games, whose success pushed the series into the mainstream. "The Witcher 3" is considered to be one of the best open-world video games around and made the top of many peoples' "Game Of the Year" lists in 2015. It even beat out Ripper Casino!
Then, in 2019, Netflix launched the first season of the appropriately named series, "The Witcher", starring the perfectly cast Henry Cavil as Geralt. Funnily enough, even though I have played a little bit of "The Witcher 3", this series was actually my real introduction to the world and characters and is what pushed me to pick up one of the actual books and read it.
However, as a television show, "The Witcher" didn't exactly hit the ground running. It was plagued by its own narrative framework, which set certain characters decades in the past while we watched other characters run around in the present, without letting the viewer in on this fact. The most confusing scene for me was one where we watch the mother of a main character get married, who looks extremely similar to the main character in question, but then is revealed to be pregnant.
If you have seen the show, I'm referring to the scene where Ciri's mother declares her love for Hedgehog man. If you haven't, I wish I could see how utterly dumbfounded and lost you look right now. That would be hilarious.
Season 1 Recap
As I said, our main character is Geralt of Rivia- at least, when the series remembers that he is (I'll get back to that). He's a Witcher, which is a person who hunts monsters, not a witch. Yes, it's a bit confusing. Get used to it because it ain't getting any easier.
Early on, Geralt gets a bit of reputation for violence when he slaughters a group of men who allied themselves with a woman determined to hunt down a wizard who prophesized that this woman might bring the end of days (because she was born under an eclipse), and ordered her killed as a child. Does this woman really have magic powers? Did she just use an insane level of character and guile to get people on her side? I read this bit in the book AND watched it, and I still don’t know. The whole thing plays out very on the nose message of “In a world of monsters, people are the worst monsters of all”.
More relevant to the overall plot is the invasion of Cintra, the home of our aforementioned protagonist, Ciri. The Empire of Nilfguard, under the orders of their god-king “The White Flame”, sack the country and attempt to capture Ciri for her claim on the throne. Ciri manages to escape with some unknown magical powers, and a series of dramatic twists and turns eventually brings Ciri and Geralt together- despite Geralt’s best attempts to avoid being part of the plot.
Our two major supporting characters are Yennefer and Jaskier. Yen is a witch. No, not a Witcher, but a proper magic-wielding sorceress. She wants to have a baby, but for various reasons, she cannot, and no normal magic can fix it. Also, through a series of hijinks involving a genie, magic potions, and a dragon, Geralt and Yen are madly in love with one another but hate each other. It's complicated.
Jaskier is a bard and chronicle of Geralt's stories. He may not contribute much to the overall plot, but dang, can that guy sing! He provides most of the levity and comic relief in an otherwise very series and grim world. By the end of the first season, they are all separated, and Geralt and Ciri strike out on their own to see what the future holds.
Season 2 (Spoiler Free)
Season 2 starts us off almost immediately after the events of the first season, and immediately there are some major improvements. Firstly, gone is the first season's gimmicky format, and while it did make for a very unique first season, it was a massive headache to follow.
Instead, the story follows a far more linear storyline and either follows Geralt or Yennefer. Geralt takes Ciri to the cold mountainous fortress of Kaer Morhen- the place where Witchers go in the winter when the monsters are all hibernating. We're introduced to several new Witchers and Geralt's boss (and surrogate father), Vezimir.
Meanwhile, after the events of the first season’s finale, Yen finds herself captured- first by the Nilfgardians, then by the Elves. Then it’s revealed, also for reasons, that Yen has lost her magic. Her lifeline. Her power. She’s forced to struggle to survive by only her wits and her charisma, and you know what? She actually pulls off some really cool moments in spite of her handicap.
The Highlights (Spoilers)
What carries this series is its core of main characters. Whenever Geralt is allowed to let loose is a treat, and there are some great fight scenes where he really goes ham that are a blast to watch. I just wish they were done in long-takes, like in the Matrix. As ever, Henry Cavil shines in his performance.
The runner-up for this season is Ciri. Most of season 2 focuses on her internal struggle to decide what she is. Is she a princess who wants her throne back? Does she want to throw it all away and become a Witcher, like Geralt?
What really stands out for me is her training montage. It's sad to say that there haven't been many compelling female characters in recent years because Hollywood is so determined to push the "strong women" message that characters will compelling struggles and arcs (like Disney's Mulan) are replaced with all-powerful Mary Sues, who are the best because the writers said they are (live-action Mulan).
I’m really pleased to say that this isn’t the case with Ciri OR Yennefer. They both struggle and fight tooth and nail to get their achievements, and when the other Witchers begin cheering Ciri on, it’s because she’s genuinely impressed them, despite her eventual failure in training. Which is such an unexpected event in a modern show that I have to laud it.
The other surprise of this season was Fringilla, the Elves, and the Nilfgardians. I found their entire subplot to be strangely compelling, as the inter-political motives of these characters and factions collided. Fringilla is a sorceress like Yen but devoted to Nilfgaard and its leader "The White Flame". After meeting Baba Yaga, she allies with the Elves and offers them refuge in exchange for their men to bolster the Nilfgaardian armies. This is the straw that breaks the camel's back for the other nations, who see this as proof that Elves can't be trusted and begin persecuting them to the extreme. I get Nazi or Tzarist Russia vibes from it, which puts Nilfgaard- the nation we've been shown so far to be the baddies, on the moral high ground, even if it is for selfish reasons.
Also, they have replaced the wrinkled scrotum armor the Nilfgaardians wore in the first season with some immensely superior gold plate, which looks leaps and bounds better.
And speaking of improvements, it really does seem like the show is trying to correct discrepancies that got fans riled up in the first season. The armor was the start, but they also made (through magical retconning) the sorceress Triss into a redhead, like she's supposed to be. That alone gives me hope that the writers actually care about the show and its fans, somewhat, since they took the feedback and acted on it instead of throwing a hissy fit on Twitter.
Let Downs
While the worldbuilding and the narrative are far improved from the last season, it still has some ways to go. For instance, the magic system, while impressive to watch on screen, leaves me with no idea what characters can or cannot do with it. For instance, we’re told that fire magic is bad and dangerous, and it leaves Yen bereft of her powers. Why? I dunno. Some sorceresses, like Yen, are innately powerful, but others like Triss and Fringilla aren't nearly so talented. Is it training? Luck of the dice? I dunno.
Now, while in the first season it was really fun to watch Geralt run away as hard and fast as he could from the plot, in season two, he has accepted his path… which makes it somewhat disappointing that Geralt himself, as a character (and supposedly the MAIN character) isn't explored very well. He's just Geralt. Doin' his thing. Do do do.
While Yen’s interests and motivations are deeply explored, I feel like we don’t see her struggle all that much. I know this show only has eight episodes a season, but maybe could we have seen her grovel a bit more? After all, she was quite the nasty piece of work in the last season, but that seems to have changed for whatever reason between seasons.
Also, even though there is magic and teleportation is literally an option, characters without such abilities end up jumping around the world to locations they need to be surprisingly quickly. It’s not late-game-of-thrones bad, but there are some moments that make you ask, “Wait, weren’t they over there a couple scenes ago?”
Oh yeah, Jaskiers there too. He lays down one lit song, gets himself into trouble for no good reason, and is dragged into the plot by Yen and Geralt, only to end up doing nothing other than be there. Don’t get me wrong, I like the character. Just don’t make other characters insist that they “need” him, only to never have him actually do anything.
Overall
That being said, season two of The Witcher is far, far superior to season one in a lot of fundamental ways. If they keep improving as they did for this season, I suspect that they could have a really good show on their hands a season or two down the line. There’s so much potential here, and if they keep going in the direction they are headed in, they’ll unlock that potential.
7.5 / 10 A serious improvement from the last season. Carried mostly by its characters and Henry Cavil.
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