The Witcher review (the game, the books, and the first season of the Netflix TV show)

Experience them in that order.

*Image taken from the Amazon.com website. No copyright infringement intended.

February 10, 2025

Categorization: Fantasy

How experienced: Played on PS4, then read on Kindle, then watched the first season on Netflix.

Light spoilers ahead.

Today I did my usual audit of the nearest bookstore to see what is “trending”. This is how elder goblins like me find out what the youngins are into these days as many of us do not have the “Tiktok”. I was disappointed not to see any books from The Witcher series. Has its heyday already passed? I was expecting it to come back into popularity, as I understand that Netflix has or is about to release a new season. I remember a few years back that it was ubiquitous in the stores, and it would always bug me that some stores would not have the complete set. A happy problem, I suppose, and not even a problem compared to this complete dearth. If a Netflix program can’t resurrect what should already be a Classic, what will?

This rambly post, of course.

The Witcher 3 was the first game I ever played on a PS4; a most propitious beginning. I knew nothing of The Witcher when I started, what it was about, that it was even a book, absolutely nothing, except it won Game of the Year and was a highly recommended RPG. And so I was in the right mindset to get absolutely blown away by Andrzej Sapkowski’s universe. He had written some of the most amazing, complex characters and relationships into the Witcher, and I got to discover it first-hand, as Geralt of Rivia. And so I believe, through sheer luck, that the order in which I experienced The Witcher (The Witcher 3 game, books, then TV) was absolutely the best way to do it. There is nothing quite like living the lore by being the Witcher yourself, and finding your heroic path through a world that does not understand or appreciate you. It cuts deep, the first time you play The Witcher 3.

Can I just brag here that through sheer ingenuity, I got the best ending when I finished The Witcher 3 (a friend told me that there are 5 or so?), the ending that is most in keeping with the books, without having read the books beforehand.

Pauses for admiring looks from crowd.

But the special thing about The Witcher is that no matter how dark it is, the joyful and humorous moments make it all worthwhile. Sapkowski has managed to weave a world where journeying through the darkness is made worthwhile by the people you meet and the relationships of all sorts you make along the way. The bard, the sorceress, the dwarves, the doppelganger, the monsters (who aren’t monsters), and so many more to discover, these characters both in the game and in the books are fully fleshed out fellow adventurers, the people you save and who save you. The Witcher is, in itself, a beautiful metaphor for life.

The Witcher does not moralize, but you do feel, not really like you learned something, but you are thinking a little but more about life, while you experience it as Geralt. I really don’t like spoilers, as you know, but one of the most poignant themes that resonates with me, and is something special to The Witcher, is that it is not the fact of being a monster, that makes one a monster. I feel like this underlying theme gives The Witcher a unique depth that Fantasy lovers can really burrow into.

I have to say though, The Witcher is moody and quite dark, and the story is not written in a way that is easy to follow. There is a reason that it is written the way it is, and having read through the entire series twice I can say that that is part of its brilliance, but it might not be for everyone. It’s the reason why, the first time I read the series, I stopped in the middle of one of the last books, and why I have only watched the first season of the Netflix program. I think you have to really be in the mood for it, to immerse yourself in the darkness and brilliance of it.

And Geralt is… Sigh. I was already a little in love with him even just following the back of his long-white haired head and leather double-sworded get-up throughout The Witcher 3 (is it the gruff voice? The Legolas-reminiscent hairstyle? The emotional unavailability hiding the tenderest of hearts? The Howard Roark-like unflappable integrity that can withstand anything the world thrown at it with the exception of his soulmate’s feminine wiles?)… and then Netflix had to go and make HENRY CAVILL Geralt in the show.

*Image from Netflix.

Oh my goodness, I hear he “builds” computers too. I always thought that was a funny thing to say, as if a computer was a house. But what a strapping… gulp… multitalented… young man.

But I digress. clutches pearls

Of all the brilliant things that Mr. Cavill did as Geralt, however, the most amazing thing he did was copy Geralt’s rough and sort of dead I-am-no-longer-a-human-I-am-a-Witcher voice from The Witcher 3 game. Like, how on earth did he do that?? It is uncanny. And with the voice, everything just follows, the mannerisms, that stony face where you just know he is feeling emotions even as he is obviously not expressing them and denies it (in his dead voice).

If you haven’t experienced any of it, just… play The Witcher 3, and see where you end up from there (best case obsessed like me?). It is not a perfect game, I mean, sure the combat becomes repetitive, but that is literally the only gripe I have about it, because who cares? It does what an epic open world game is supposed to do (and which very few manage to do well), which is to make you want to explore every nook and cranny of it, leaving no adventure-stone left unturned.