The Story
The video above is the opening cinematic of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, which can help give you a feel for things. There are a lot of different characters and threads running through these tales, but I will try to give you the gist of the main narrative running through this series of stories.
The main character is a Witcher called Geralt of Rivia, who has a slightly unusual backstory compared to most Witchers. First of all, his mother was a sorceress and willingly gave Geralt to the Wolven Witcher school as an infant. Geralt also showed an incredibly high tolerance during the Trail of the Grasses and was therefore subject to even more experimental mutations no other Witcher could survive. This basically makes Geralt the best of the best when it comes to Witchers, though it also left with with pale white hair, earning him the nickname The White Wolf. After training for years under his mentor Vesimir, Geralt left his training and home to go out and walk the path, i.e. start looking for Witcher work.
Geralt, while never looking for it, seems to end up embroiled in all sorts of epic and momentous events and eventually falls for a sorceress called Yennefer of Vengeburg. Geralt manages to get them linked with a magical bond that means they will always be caught up in one another’s destinies. Geralt also makes many other friends and enemies and the shape of the world he lives in changes around him. Often Geralt is put in positions where his moral choices help shape the larger events he really doesn’t want to be involved in.
Many years ago, an Elven Queen with fantastic powers fell in love with a Human, something unthinkable between the racial barriers and hate towards each other. The Elder blood line from this union is a powerful MacGuffin in this history and becomes entwined with Geralt’s story. After saving a princess Geralt is offered a reward and invokes the Law of Surprise, something Witchers use to recruit young boys to their ranks. The law states that the Witcher be given whatever the client did not expect when they return home. In this instance the princess is with child and this child is a female, she has a rather large full name, but she is known as Ciri. Geralt initially rejects Ciri for being female as Witchers are male only. But after their paths cross for the third time Geralt comes to the realisation that Ciri is linked to his destiny, he adopts the child as his own and Yenneffer becomes her adopted mother. They teach her how to fight and use magic from both their expertises and find out that Ciri has some very special abilities. You guessed it Ciri is a descendant of this Elder bloodline and starts to manifest evidence of having the abilities of her ancestors.
This sparks a series of attempts for people in positions of power to attempt to coerce, control or even kidnap and forcibly impregnate young Ciri. Luckily, she has the best Witcher in the land as a father and a powerful sorceress as a mother. But even Geralt and Yennefer despite all their skills may struggle to protect Ciri from a world that wants to use her powers. And not only that, but Ciri’s abilities allow her to travel between different worlds in alternate dimensions and this has attracted interest from elsewhere. A major force of strife in Ciri’s life is her biological father, the once disguised and thought dead Duny, turns out to be Emyr, the Emperor of all Niilfgard and the most powerful Human on this planet.
There are some themes here which on first glance scream at a Tolkien influence, but at the same time this is a land with prostitution, murderous villains, pious genocidal priests, drunks, junkies and hungry starving kids who are sacrificed to old dark spirits. Which I think you’ll agree seems more in GRR Martin territory?
Geralt is a lover, a warrior, a father and a detective and I think my most enjoyable aspect of the game was playing crime scene investigator whilst using Geralt’s super senses.
The Potential
Above is a little bit of fan casting from me, Nicolaj Coster Waldau as Geralt of Rivia. He’d be perfect for it once he finishes this final season of Game of Thrones, don’t you think?
Ultimately in the right hands this could be Netflix answer to both Amazon’s Lord of the Rings and HBO’s Game of Thrones, as it straddles the lines perfectly and anyone who has played the games will be able to see the potential here for something truly epic. Of course, it’s all in the execution and the writing, anyone remember a film called The Hexer some years ago? That was an attempt to adapt these stories into a movie and it failed miserably on all fronts. It’s remarkable at times how some writers and studios are able to take a great story and somehow destroy it!
If Netflix get the story for this all planned out well, we could have a mega hit on our hands, or we could get another version of The Hexer, it remains to be seen, but I have faith in Netflix to get this right. So does the author, Sapkowski himself has been brought on board as a consultant to the show and is said to be very pleased with the finished scripts so far.
It’s also worth noting that the showrunners have stated they are adapting the books for this show and not the video games and this does make sense because those games and the story within are hugely popular and would definitely prove problematic to adapt and I do believe there are some conflicts in story as both the books and the games veered off in slightly different directions as well.
If you have a spare 200 + hours this year at any point (don’t have to rush it) why not give The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt a chance, it’s frankly a masterpiece and like me you may just become totally hooked on the world of The Witcher. Its available on Xbox One, PS4 or PC and it has won countless Game of the Year prizes since its release in 2015.
Stay tuned to LRM for any updates about the upcoming Netflix show as we find them out, and as always please feel free to leave your thoughts in the usual place below.
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The Source Material & Universe
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