Get ready for The Witcher season 2 with The A.V. Club’s character guide
The Witcher's second season premieres December 17 on Netflix. Here's everything you need to get ready for the show's return.
TV News The Witcher
The Witcher returns December 17 for its second season on Netflix with more monsters to slay, spells to cast, songs to write (we hope), and even a whole new set of armor for the eponymous witcher—and just in time, given that Henry Cavill’s muscles wore out the old leather sets.
In season one, series creator Lauren Schmidt Hissrich played with the light and dark elements of Andrzej Sapkowski’s fantasy book series—which had already been adapted as a mega-popular video game series—to offset Cavill’s taciturn-yet-charming performance with the garrulous ways of Joey Batey’s Jaskier.
Yennefer (Anya Chalotra) and Ciri (Freya Allan), meanwhile, began to come into their own, even as they found themselves inextricably linked to Geralt. Season two promises a deeper exploration of their bond, as well as more epic battles, lush production values, and a bounty of witchers.
Before Geralt takes up his sword again, it’s a good time for The A.V. Club to revisit the events of The Witcher season one, through the eyes of the main characters (and one character who’s poised to make a much bigger impression this year).
11 Comments
Vilgefortz’s not dead, he got back up later.
Thanks! This is useful and interesting. I take exception to one thing, though. “Yennefer swiftly begins to rise, though, once Tissaia inducts her into the study of magic at the mystical school Aretuza.” Change “swiftly” to “excruciatingly slowly.” She almost flunked out! She struggled mightily for a long time before finally blossoming. I hate to quibble over one word, but her agonizingly slow development at the school is a big part of her story and her character.
Flunked out = fluked out. Half her class got turned into slugs!! Traumatizing.
The Law of Surprise is one of the most hilariously goofy contrivances in all fantasy.
It’s completely nonsensical, why would anyone preference giving away an unborn child over the dozens of other things that have surely changed since they came home? I came home last night and my cat had puked up a fresh hairball, three pieces of post had arrived, and my garden had sprouted a handful of new seedlings.
Yeah. I know the show tends to not spend a lot of time on explaining how things work, which is sort of refreshing (although as someone who wants to always know everything about everything, also somewhat frustrating to me), but I don’t even understand the basic principle of the Law of Surprise. Like… does Geralt own Ciri now? Is she a slave? It seems like an extremely vague social principle in this culture.
Witcher 2, The Expanse, Hawkeye. There’s a lot to watch.
It’s weird, but I’m quickly becoming familiar with the properties the AV Club is being paid to promote.
Thanks for the reminder that Anya Chalotra is the most insanely attractive human in popular culture. What is the point of this comment? I don’t know. Anya Chalotra’s insanely attractive face bade me do it.
This show is such a happy odd duck. Diagramming the plot and relationships would be nuts. And the names – holy moley… take Yennefer of Vengerberg. Ok Vengerberg. You’re a Berg, I get that. Venger though? Is that supposed to be a derivation of Revenge? “Yennefer of Revenge-town” (?!) Yikes. Please God let “Yennefer of Vengerberg” be an answer on Wheel of Fortune. Pick “N” then buy a vowel: “E” … You’re done.Don’t get me started on Nilfgaard.
Pretty sure Vilgefortz survived his fall down the hill after losing his fight with Cahir.