The Witcher Season 3 Vol 1 Review + Vilgefortz and Ending Explained!

Ever since The Witcher Season 2 ended, things haven’t been going Netflix’ way. Firstly, there was a huge backlash when fans came to know writers didn’t respect the source material. Then there was the whole Henry Cavill exit debacle which literally broke the faith and interest of most of the fans. What little bit hype remained was shattered by the extremely disappointing and poor The Witcher: Blood Origin. With the a highly negative atmosphere around the franchise, hopes weren’t high for this season but against all odds, Season 3 has managed to impress fans and critics alike. Dive into our in depth review below but beware that a few minor spoilers for the season follow below.

The Witcher Season 3 Review – Best and Most Faithful Adaptation of The Series So Far

Wow, this season was like watching one of the best books of the saga come to life. I’m so happy with this season so far, especially episodes 2 to 5. Of course it took an entire episode to clean up the mess of Season 2’s second half but since then, it’s been surprisingly respectful to the source material and has ended Vol 1 which consists of 5 episodes on a high. This Volume was pretty high on politics and world building and set the stage for Volume 2 which is truly gonna be kickass, especially Episode 6. Henry Cavill’s Geralt, Freya Allen’s Ciri, Anya Chalotra’s Yeneffer, and Joey Batey’s Dandelion are once again the soul of the season and aside from these 4, its really hard to get invested in any other character.

For all the negativity regarding ‘not following source material’ around it, this season has been quite true to the books and many of the dialogues and sequences also felt like a carbon copy of Time of Contempt. While on the subject, I’d like to point towards the entire ball room sequence in the final episode (minus the Stegobor plot point) which brought that exceptionally well written chapter to life like a boss. Of course, a few of the plot points and characters were Netflix’ own brainchild but considering how they actually added to the overall experience, we can accept that.

For example, Istredd and Stegobor’s characters had pretty minor role in the books but including them in this season actually added more to the lore. Fans have always wondered what happened to them after the short stories, so I personally saw no harm in including them. Also, to make the Vilgefortz twist work on screen, adding Stegobor as primary suspect actually made sense as it was really difficult to make it work exactly like the books on screen. Moving on, even after being a book fan, I was quite happy to see some creative liberty they took to add certain action sequences throughout the course of 5 episodes.

Aside from its well crafted production design, beautiful cinematography, mesmerizing score, and well performed action, it was really good to see Geralt finally talk and chat more, rather than just grunting and cursing his way through the season. It’s a crime how showrunners stripped Cavill’s Geralt of impactful monologues and dialogues in previous seasons. However, they remedied this from Season 3 Episode 2 and we finally saw a more lore accurate Geralt who talks a lot about choices, morality, and pretty much everything else in the world. Now let us move on to the continuing and well as new issues with this season.

So, first of all, there are just too many forced homosexual characters and romances. Netflix has managed to turn Dandelion (Jaskier), Eredin, Prince Radovid, Philippa, and almost every second character in the series homosexual. The issue is that source is pretty rich that ways already and one of the main leads themselves will soon be revealed to be bi-sexual, so there is absolutely no need for this overzealousness. Also, certain on screen character depictions like Margherita Laux, Kiera Metz, and a few others do not match their book descriptions. And finally, the issue of introducing fearsome monsters and making Geralt kill them within 5-10 seconds continues. Hence, the action sequences are pretty short lived, but as mentioned above, this volume was pretty dialogue driven and the season has reserved its kickass moments for Vol 2 which comes out July 27.

Vilgefortz. Politics, and Ending Explained

Ok, so some of you might be wondering what the hell happened at the end of Episode 5 and who exactly is Vilgefortz and what does he plan to do. So, here’s what you need to know without being spoiled about the future episodes. The politics angle is pretty simple – everyone wants Ciri for her elder blood and the prophecy regarding it. At the ball, we see all the northern kingdoms’ spies and sorcerers uniting in hopes to plan how to deal with Ciri and the advance of Nilfgard led by Emhyr (Ciri’s father who also wants her). Among all this, our protagonists doubt Stegabor’s loyalties and motivations but ultimately, it turns out that Vilgefortz is the one playing the double game.

So, before the conclave can actually begin, something terrible is about to happen and we see Witcher being held by Dijkstra (spy of Redania) with a knife to his throat. Now, what you need to know about Vilgefortz is that he is an exceptionally powerful wizard and the main antagonist of the saga from here on. At the end of episode 5, it is revealed that he is the one pulling all the strings and also the man responsible for setting Rience on relentless pursuit of Ciri. What will happen in the upcoming few episodes will leave you shattered, and elevate the series to a new level, if executed well. It will also serve as the perfect transition point from Henry Cavill to Liam Hemsworth.

That’s all for today. Here’s to hoping that this one month break between the two volumes hypes up fans and viewers enough for Vol 2 to live fully up to its potential. The Witcher Season 3 Volume 2 arrives on Netflix on July 27, 2023. So, stay tuned!

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