One recurring creative choice keeps detracting from the story.
While Season 3 of The Witcher is building up to be the series’ best, Netflix’s adaptation of Andrzej Sapkowski’s fantasy books still feels too scattered at times. The Continent has grown larger than ever, with dozens of key characters clashing for power while rogue mages have their own scheme to take control. As a result, Season 3 of The Witcher needs to squeeze the most of each scene while simultaneously juggling too many subplots. Now, more than ever, the series needs a solid emotional core to keep things together, which is hard to achieve when the main party keeps getting split up.
‘The Witcher’ Season 3 Should Stop Splitting Up the Family So Often
After Season 2’s finale finally unites Geralt of Rivia (Henry Cavill), Yennefer (Anya Chalotra), and Ciri (Freya Allan), Season 3 starts off strong by giving The Witcher’s main characters time to find their purpose together. Even though these are wonderful characters on their own, the series shines brighter when Geralt and Yennefer explore their on-again, off-again romance or join forces to train Ciri in combat and magic. The reason for that is simple: the Continent’s fantastic monsters and political intrigue can only matter if we care about the people caught in the middle of the turmoil. Furthermore, we can only fear the fate of a show’s main characters when we have enough time to get to know their hopes and dreams. Without that, The Witcher would be devoid of purpose, which is why keeping the party together can lead to stronger storytelling.
Episode 1 of Season 3 also proves The Witcher can conjure its best action set pieces when the found family is kept together. In the new season’s first episode, the main characters unite to lay a trap for Rience (Sam Woolf), the fire mage who’s been hunting Ciri since Season 2. The battle that ensues is arguably the best of the entire show, showcasing everyone’s unique abilities and finding the time to show how even a non-warrior like Jaskier (Joey Batey) can be essential to victory. It seems evident that converging different subplots and allowing everyone to be in the same place allows for better storytelling. And yet, before Episode 1 is over, The Witcher decides to split up its central group once again.
With all the main characters separated, The Witcher can return to the adventure-of-the-week structure, focusing on new monsters in each episode. Unfortunately, Season 3 proves this format represents the least exciting approach to The Witcher universe. By the end of Volume 1, all the characters are reunited again, which makes their splitting up feel futile. In addition, since the group gets torn apart so often, we no longer feel the emotional impact of each farewell.
Of course, that issue is not exclusive to Season 3. As good as individual episodes might have been, the confusing timeline of the show in Season 1 kept Geralt, Yennefer, and Ciri separated for most of the runtime. Even though we were thrilled to see more of Geralt and Ciri’s unlikely father-daughter dynamics in Season 2, the show kept finding excuses to put them on different paths. Meanwhile, Yennefer was underused as a sort of antagonist instead of joining the two in their adventures. In its first episode, Season 3 teased it would make up for lost time by keeping the group together, which proves to be a red herring after Geralt and Yennefer take on different missions with regard to Ciri’s safety. That’s unfortunate, to say the least, as The Witcher’s writers should have realized by now that the show is better when it focuses on its found family.
‘The Witcher’ Works Better When It Focuses on Its Family Unit
It’s easy to understand why Season 3 of The Witcher chose to split up the family for most of Volume 1. After Season 2 of the show was criticized for steering away from the source material, showrunner Lauren Schmidt-Hissrich confirmed the series would be more faithful to Sapkowski’s third book, Time of Contempt. Because of that, Season 3 of The Witcher works hard to adapt all of the book’s main events, sometimes to the detriment of character development. Sure, Season 3 does seem to be sticking closer to the original material, yet it seems like the TV show has failed to use its found family to the most of its potential.
Since the start of the series, Geralt has been depicted as a stone-cold warrior who puts up his walls against the prejudice that people of the Continent have towards mutants. Meanwhile, Ciri constantly runs away from her duties as a princess, often ignoring the pain she helps to create by keeping herself hidden. As for Yennefer, her desire to be seen by everyone as something more than the farm girl she once was has led her to hurt the people who care the most about her. Even Jaskier drowns in self-indulgence and takes the coward’s leave when things get too messy. These are deeply flawed characters, which is part of the reason we love them, but together, they help each other to be better people.
One of the main appeals of the found family concept is that it shows how even the loneliest person on the planet can still find kindred spirits and change their toxic behavior for the sake of those they love. That’s why Geralt is constantly struggling to maintain the neutrality associated with Witchers, as his desire to protect Ciri makes him realize the political games of the Continent can’t always be left to chance. Ciri is also on a path of self-discovery, using Geralt’s self-sacrifice as an example of the monarch she must be. Yen, in turn, has learned to forgive herself and put the safety of her found family above her pride. Finally, Jaskier has been inspired by Geralt to help other people, even though his life might be at risk.
The Witcher’s found family is what makes these characters change for the better, becoming more interesting in each episode. However, this emotional growth happens mostly when the show’s core group is together, which seems to be seldom these days. Season 3 Volume 1 has given fans more evidence that the show is at its peak when the band is all together. Hopefully, for Volume 2 and further seasons, the writers’ room will also realize its best not to split up the family so much.
