The Most Brutal Moments In The Witcher
Netflix's "The Witcher" may stray from both Andrzej Sapkowski's books and the popular video game series, but the controversial show does not skimp on the brutality. Geralt of Rivia (Henry Cavill) slashes his enemies every which way, lopping limbs and halving torsos with fell swoops of his steel and silver swords. Geralt must be ruthless to survive, because in the Continent, he's one of the good guys. Elves, monsters, mages, and outlaws are all out there, scheming to get a piece of each other by spells, archery, or simple, old fashioned, bone crushing savagery.
"The Witcher" doesn't have the cold brutality found in "Game of Thrones," even in its most vicious moments. But in terms of sheer quantity and variety — men, monsters, magic, swordplay, hand-to-hand, entire pitched battles — "The Witcher" is among the most quantifiably brutal fantasy shows going. So, after tallying up three seasons of death and destruction, here's a recap of the most brutal moments on "The Witcher."
The Battle of Marnadal Valley (S1E1)
The show's first instance of major human violence occurs during the Battle of Marnadal Valley, fought between Nilfgaardian and Cintran forces. The armies descend the valley's grassy slopes and collide in a mass of steel and fury. After a few seconds of manic combat, a battle axe swings out of the chaos and into the dome of a Cintran's helmet, splitting the metal and the skull underneath it.
Elsewhere, a Nilfgaardian soldier finds the time to ease his sword into an enemy's sternum. Following this are about a dozen kills in quick succession, all of them brutal and squelchy. Then, as the field thins of men and horses, King Eist Tuirseach (Björn Hlynur Haraldsson) gets the Harold II treatment with an arrow to the eye, nullifying any hope of a Cintran victory. There are so many varieties of murder here — slashed throats, crashing axes, plunging swords — that I risk running out of verbs both past and present participle.
Geralt kills Renfri's men (S1E1)
The streaming market has become so competitive that new TV shows cannot afford to tease their audience for too long — they need to show the goods. And in the case of "The Witcher," the goods involve Geralt of Rivia taking his sword to man and beast with bloody consequences.
Happily, the first episode — "The End's Beginning" — wastes no time. After sticking his sword through a kikimora's giant arachnid head, Geralt travels to the town of Blaviken, where he meets a gang of thugs employed by Princess Renfri (Emma Appleton). They swagger into frame with blades, crossbows, and tough talk, but Geralt isn't impressed. He dispatches the first enemy much like the arachnid, thrusting his sword through the goon's mouth and out the back of his head. Enthusiastic sound design amplifies the sound of steel, bone, and gore as Geralt tears through the hopeless rabble. By the time our anti-hero has finished severing heads and arteries, eight men and one woman lay dead, relieved of their limbs and blood.
The Blaviken fight scene is still held up as one of the show's best fight scenes, and much of that is because of Henry Cavill's physicality. The actor worked closely with stunt coordinator and second unit director Wolfgang Stegemann, who has enjoyed a strong working relationship with Cavill since "Mission Impossible: Fallout" in 2018.
Yennefer vs. the Assassin (S1E4)
In the fourth episode of Season 1, "Of Banquets, Bastards and Burials," a mage assassin attacks Yennefer (Anya Chalotra) and Queen Kalis (Isobel Laidler) as they travel through a snowy woodland. A troop of soldiers drive their plush carriage, but the assassin and his krallach — a kind of ferocious giant cockroach — makes quick work of them. We experience the attack from within the carriage, hearing the men's screams until one of them is thrown head first against a peephole, spraying blood across the carriage and Yennefer's face.
When the women disembark, they see the full horror of the assassin's power. The soldiers lay torn limb from limb, dying the snow red with streaks of blood. The horses are dead, too, slain by the krallach's mad barbarism. A lone soldier emerges, but so does the mage and his krallach, which chases the trio through the woods and a portal before killing the remaining soldier with its monstrous bladed leg.
Battle of Sodden Hill (S1E8)
The first season of "The Witcher" ends with Yennefer's stand against Nilfgaardian forces at the Battle of Sodden Hill, which unfolds with all manner of magical violence. For instance, Nilfgaardian sorceress Fringilla Vigo (Mimi Ndiweni) opens a portal bound for the Hill and has her archers fire into it, puncturing countless warriors on the other side with a hail of arrows. This ranged warfare is taken a step further when Yennerfer's forces fling small vials of explosive material at the enemy that detonate above in searing plumes of smoke, much like white phosphorus.
Things get really serious, however, when Tissaia (MyAnna Buring) persuades Yennefer to finally release her offensive power, which she has been sitting on for the right moment. Pensively, Yennefer rises and climbs a rocky outcrop above the battlefield where she becomes a human flamethrower, unleashing an enormous firestorm that knocks soldiers to the ground and incinerates them along with a whole field of woodland.
Geralt vs. Bruxa (S2E1)
Season 2 begins much like its predecessor — with brutality and death. A faceless monster eviscerates three travelers in the first 90 seconds, and then we're taken to a battlefield strewn with hundreds of dead and wounded soldiers, two of whom are skewered on the ground for good measure. Tissaia reads a victim's mind and witnesses his final moments, which involve putting a sword in an enemy's mouth before receiving a flying axe in his own head.
This is all brutal stuff, but we've seen it before. What we have not seen is the bruxa, a powerful type of vampire that's often female and always furious. Geralt confronts a bruxa in an old dusty mansion inhabited by Nivellen (Kristofer Hivju), a boar-faced human under the vampire's spell. The bruxa is far smaller than Geralt, but she opens her mouth and floors him with a fearsome scream. The terrible shriek is jarring enough, but her mouth is even nastier, with its gaping size and jutting fangs. Happily, Nivellen impales the bruxa with a spear before Geralt beheads her with his sword.
Roach's death (S2E6)
Animal deaths often hit hard. Hedwig, Mufasa, and Bambi's mother have haunted generations. Yet none of these dear animals die in detail. Their deaths are bloodless, sanitized, or in the notorious case of Bambi's mother, off-screen. The same cannot be said of Roach, Geralt's trusted horse companion.
In "Dear Friend...," Geralt escorts Ciri (Freya Allan) and Roach along an idyllic river that appears placid but has Geralt on his guard. "I'll try and draw it out first," Geralt tells Ciri. "it's some kind of chernobog." He does this by straying into the river's shallow depths, causing the winged beast to emerge from the trees and swoop towards him. Geralt stuns the creature with a few Aard spells, but it flies beyond his range and attacks the others with its vicious claws. Ciri escapes unscathed, but Roach is left with three deep, fatal wounds in her leg and flank. After delivering a short eulogy, Geralt puts his blade to Roach's throat and ends her suffering.
Henry Cavill and showrunner Lauren Schmidt Hissrich had different ideas about this scene; Hissrich intended to feature a meta-joke, whereas Cavill envisioned a far more solemn occasion. "Henry was so unhappy with the line," Hissrich told Polygon about the scripted dialogue. "Finally I said, 'You know what, you come up with something,' and he came back the next day with a beautiful speech."
Geralt vs. the Michelet Brothers (S2E6)
Geralt depends on swords and magic, but his clash with the Michelet brothers proves that for some enemies, he needs only his fists, feet, and a wooden chair. The four brothers surround him in a temple and, despite their blades and pitchforks, are hopelessly ill-equipped for Geralt's power and footwork. Knuckles and elbows meet abdomens, faces and teeth, one of which shoots out a thug's mouth in gratuitous slow motion. The Witcher could proceed in this non-lethal fashion all night, it seems, but the brothers just keep coming, so the sounds of pounding fists soon give way to those of steel and flesh as Geralt butchers them with their own weapons.
The scene is a reminder of Cavill's skill as a physical actor. Gregory Mele, a martial artist and expert on medieval melee, told Polygon that the British actor is "believable" as a fighter, although he did note that his style "owes more to Ninja and Zatoichi movies from the 1980s than it does historical swordsmanship."
Fringilla freezes time (S2E7)
American audiences may not have heard of "Bernard's Watch," the British children's TV show from the 1990s. It follows a young boy named Bernard who is able to stop time with his magic pocket watch, freezing everything and everyone but himself. His fundamental reason for using the watch is to stop being late for everything, but he also does other cheeky things, like swapping his classmates' food. However, one thing he absolutely does not do is ease a dagger into someone's eyeball. Alas, such restraint not shared by all, certainly not Fringilla Vigo, the Nilfgaardian sorceress.
In the seventh episode of Season 2, "Voleth Meir," Fringilla freezes disloyal soldiers and kills each of them one by one, stabbing them in the ear, the nape, the throat, and yes, the eyeball. It's one of the queasiest moments in the entire show and it unfolds in full view of Cahir (Eamon Farren), who is powerless to stop her.
Francesca commits mass infanticide (S2E7)
Francesca Findabair (Mecia Simson) becomes one of the show's darkest characters when, in Season 2, Episode 7, "Voleth Meir," the elven sorceress finds her baby murdered. Believing the people of Redania to be responsible, Francesca condemns all local infants to death with her magical powers, an act that's supported by many of her people, who speak macabrely of "retribution."
The scene is not graphic — there's no physical interaction between the mage and the children and certainly no blood. Francesca wages her evil campaign by simply walking down the street and directing her cursed magic through walls and doors, which burns a symbol in the babies' chests before she raises her arms and suddenly drops them — a gesture that silences the crying children and sends their mothers into hysterical panic. The brutality here is not in the minimal violence but in the harrowing taboo, which would be much harder to stomach in any other genre but fantasy.
Geralt fights the basilisk monster (S2E8)
In Season 2's eighth and final episode, Geralt and his fellow witchers pursue Voleth Meir (Ania Marson), the Deathless Mother demon who has possessed Ciri and uses her as a pawn. Several witchers are killed when the demon, in Ciri's form, shatters an obelisk and sends the shards flying through the air at great speed. This action is followed by two basilisk monsters and then a direct confrontation between Ciri and Geralt, who must defend against her blows without retaliating, lest he maim or kill the young daughter figure.
The "final boss" moment occurs when Voleth Meir summons an even bigger basilisk that can overpower Geralt but cannot outwit him. The pair fight through the chapel and out to a high walkway from which Geralt almost falls before thrusting his sword upwards through the monster's head and yanking it towards him, cutting the skull lengthways and exposing the layers of bone, meat and brain. Nice.
Geralt, Ciri, and Yennefer take on Rience's outlaws (S3E1)
The hunt for Ciri continues in Season 3, although Geralt and Yennefer have finally united with her. Together, they flee numerous threats, including the Wild Hunt elves and outlaws in the employ of Rience (Sam Woolf), a fire mage with his own sinister handlers. The trio knows conflict is inevitable, so they spread rumors of their whereabouts in order to lure their enemies to the ruins of Shaerrawedd.
Combat erupts in melee, magic, and archery, so there's lots of brutality to choose from. Ciri lands a few good punches and sprains a man's elbow, which is a bit spiteful. But that's only dancing compared to Geralt, who rushes into the action spinning his sword and dagger, thrusting it into two men's throats. He pursues Rience through a portal and overpowers him, grabbing his wrists and twisting them to an obscene, bone-crunching angle. Geralt could finish him there and then, but he must return to the battle to eradicate the remaining thugs with his customary limb-pruning savagery.
The Battle of Aretuza (S3E6)
The warring alliances continue in Season 3, Part 2, and they come to a brutal head at the Battle of Aretuza in Episode 6, "Everybody Has a Plan 'till They Get Punched in the Face." Francesca, Cahir, and their forces arrive at the Aretuza academy, but Tissaia confronts them with the Brotherhood and erects a magical barrier to stop their advance. However, a barrage of arrows puncture the ethereal defense and kill several people, including one mage who receives an arrow to his eye — a bloody "Witcher" favorite.
Each side crosses the floor and lays into each other in a flurry of spells and swordplay. It's aggressive enough, but familiar in a show full of slicey melee. Then, in the middle of the chaos, Tissaia locks eyes on Francesca and unleashes a devastating spell in her direction. But just as Francesca prepares to die, Filavandrel jumps in front of her like that pilot in Air Force One, only instead of bursting into flames, he bursts into chunks of meat and covers Francesca in blood like Carrie on prom night.