The Witcher Series Four Critique 2/3

 

 

*****SPOILERS*****

 

Emiel Regis

 

In a graveyard, Geralt and co meet Emiel Regis. He says he’s the most fearsome thing in the graveyard. They’d just encountered a deadly wraith so, if taking Regis at his word, he is very powerful. The show gives plenty of hints as to what.

Regis keeps Geralt’s soiled bandage and later sniffing it. So, he likes blood. Combine this with being the most fearsome thing in the graveyard, he’s a fearsome, undead, blood-loving creature. Witcher is based on Slavic mythology so there’s one major candidates: vampire.

Later, there’s a trial of ordeal: someone needs to pick up a red-hot horseshoe without coming to harm. Regis manages this, showing he’s impervious/resistant to damage. Like a vampire.

After this, Regis demonstrates his speed and also his strength (ripping the chains of Geralt and Jaskier). Again, like a vampire.

The final clue is that Regis put guards to sleep with nothing more than a touch. This isn’t a direct reference to folklore. However, vampires could mind-control their victims, and mind-control can be used to put people to sleep, so Regis sending people to sleep is a more subtle hint than the previous ones.

A few people think Regis is a mage for having done this stuff. But once Regis saves Geralt and Jaskier, Geralt doesn’t like Regis and says they shouldn’t meet again. As Regis has only done nice things for Geralt and co, the only reason Geralt could dislike Regis is if he were a monster.

Then yes, he confirms he’s a vampire.

Plot

 

The recap at the start of this series was really good and thorough. For a show like the Witcher that has such a long gap between each series, a good recap is essential.

 

Many interesting details of plot emerged this series, too.

            Yennifer asks Fringilla to join her against Vilberfortz (the bad side) because Fringilla can’t hide anymore. She even looked convinced. Then the next scene with Fringilla is her joining Vilberfortz! So Yen convinced her of the danger, but not of which side to join. Fringilla joining the winning/bad side is hardly a surprise. But then it turns out Fringilla is a spy for Yennifer, turning expectations on their head.

Everyone is after Ciri. Emhyr wants to get her pregnant (his own daughter) to fulfil a prophecy. The elves want her because she’s the long-awaited descendent of a powerful elf, allowing Ciri to take the elves to their celestial paradise. Then there’re Geralt, Yennifer and their allies, all who want Ciri back with her family.

The emperor’s spy tells Leo to find the Rats, with Falka being especially important to the emperor. Leo assumes the spy wants them alive. The spy tells Leo to instead kill them all. Earlier, the spy was plotting with other nobles against the emperor. Getting Leo to frustrate the emperor’s plans let us see the spy’s plans in action.

When Milva tells the boys that she’s pregnant, everyone else starts discussing how they can manage her safety and nutrition. Then Milva shouts, “I did not ask for opinions!” The men just took Milva’s control and agency over the issue. The men most likely thought they were being helpful but, unless help is asked for, it’s just interference and not respecting boundaries.

The Queen of Rivia knights Geralt as ‘Sir Geralt of Rivia’. Which, minus the ‘sir’, has always been the title he’s been known by. It’s come full circle.

 

 

Humour

 

The most consistent source of humour came from Jaskier.

            My favourite line from Jaskier is: “I hope you like the taste of leather because you’re going to have his boot so far up your arses that you’ll be biting buckles.” Wowza.

            During the musical scene, Jaskier is looking at a portrait of himself and blows it a kiss. I love how even Jaskier’s story about himself plays up on the full-of-himself theme.

The dwarves ask Geralt, Jaskier and Milva questions. Each time, Jaskier starts to answer truthfully, but Geralt always interrupts with something like, ‘Nothing’. The bard then repeats it with a question mark, like he’s been scolded or chastised like a naughty child.

Someone mentions they can smell a cow. Jaskier says, “You can’t possibly smell a cow from…” then a cow moos. So Jaskier says, “Oh, look, a cow.” He went from derision to wonderment in a moment.

Zoltan asks if the whole story will be a song, clearly exasperated. Jaskier looks at Zoltan and, with a straight face, says, “Yes, bitch.”

Jaskier encourages Geralt to take his time walking away. But when the screaming starts behind them, Jaskier whisper-shouts, “Limp faster!”

Geralt and co keep saying no when the dwarves ask them to join. But as soon as the dwarves mention they have food, Jaskier declares, “We’re in!”

 

The dwarves are another source of amusement.

            Yarpen declares, “Boil my balls and call it tea.”

           A priest had tried to burn two girls for witchcraft. He even had a trial by ordeal planned (pick up a burning horseshoe). Once the girls are saved, two dwarves hold this priest down and Zoltan moves the burning horseshoe to between the priest’s legs. One end would touch his groin and the other his arse. A creative punishment.

        One dwarf says, “And leeches. I hate blood suckers,” with disgust. Regis the vampire coughs and the dwarf adds, “Sorry.”

 

Leo, the Witcher-killer, has three hilarious moments due to his lack of a filter.

            He says of the emperor’s spy, “You’re far from the emperor’s cunt.” I’ve never heard ‘never far from their side’ said so creatively before.

            Leo says to a grieving widow, “Let’s see if he’s still alive.” Then cheerfully adds, “Oh, no, he’s dead.”

            Asse, a large member of the Rats, tells Leo, “You’ll have to go through me first.” Leo responds with, “That’s a lot to get through.”

 

The women have funny moments. For characters with more serious plotlines, the humour was managed so as not to diminish the tone.

            Whilst battering an enemy with a levitating weapon, Assire (in the tone of a school mistress telling off naughty children) says, “You are not nice!”

            “You did not put the Elf Queen in your cleavage,” a sorceress says as Yennifer indeed pulls Francesca (as a figurine) out of her clevage.

            The Rats are robing a noblewoman. Ciri opens the door and asks in the most polite voice possible, “Apologies, milady, but can you step out of the carriage,” before yanking the noblewoman out. Ciri’s voice matched neither the situation nor the actions.

             

Men provided other funny moments.

Regis informs the ferryman that he’s a vampire. The ferryman calmly says, “Oh,” before leaping into the river.

Milva punches a guy in the face. Later at the witch trial, this man calls Milva a witch and asks, “Can we burn her first?”

Just before the group start to eat, someone asks, “Any words?” Jaskier, a bard who loves words, says, “Fuck, no, let’s eat.” So that by itself is funny. But then Regis adding, “Your best poem yet”? Burn.

Jaskier hears a bunch of soldiers insulting each other. One of the common themes was calling each other ‘seed-waste’, literally ‘you’re so bad that the sperm used to make you was wasted’. Never heard anything like that before.

 

New Geralt

 

Geralt had a new actor. This transition was handled well (even with me who didn’t know about it in advance).

            In this series, Geralt is introduced from behind, the side, at boot-level. In other words, his face wasn’t shown for a good amount of time. So, it allowed the audience to know it was Geralt without confusing them with the new face. A great way to ease in the character’s new actor.

         The new Geralt looked scarily like the original actor. Sure, a few angles of the face accentuated the new actor’s longer face. But for the most part, the face caused no hiccoughs.

          When this new actor talks, he sounds just like the old Geralt. He perfected the all-important ‘hmm’. However, when he shouts, he is clearly a different person. But as most of the lines are spoken, not shouted, the new actor focusing on talking was the sensible decision.

            Finally, Geralt has a persistent leg injury that affects life and fights. This means that a new face isn’t the only thing different about Geralt. This had the benefit of drawing attention away from the new face.

            Clearly, there were few instances where the new actor for Geralt was noticeable. Hence this transition was handled perfectly.