The Witcher TV series has been announced for Netflix, and although no information about the plot has been released, it’s probably safe to assume it’ll be about Geralt and his adventures slaying monsters and being made to dress up in silly outfits for court. There are definitely some things we’d want to see in the upcoming show, to make sure that it retains the feel of The Witcher, but to also kick the arse of Game of Thrones. Here we go.
Monster Hunting
The Witcher is about a character who’s job it is is to find and slay monsters for money. The secret is though is his order has ways in which to remove monsters from areas, and to make them stop killing or hurting humans, and not necessarily through slaying them, but rather through understanding them. It would be great to see a lot of monster hunting, but also to show the decision Geralt has to make between slaying a creature just following its instincts, or getting paid. The villagers aren’t going to care why the graveyard is haunted by a wight, they just want rid of the vengeful spirit. The best Witcher quests are when a simple job turns complicated, and sometimes it’s the humans who are the real monsters.
Spectacular Combat
In the Witcher 3, the animations for Geralt’s attacks numbered near 600. He has a very fluid combat style, utilizing his 2 blades, his magic signs, his potions, traps and gadgets. We want to see Geralt using everything at his disposal. The introductory cinematics for the games do this well, as we will see him drinking a potion to see in the dark, setting traps before a fight and equipping his silver weaponry. On top of that, we need some properly fast and lethal combat. Geralt can out-duel any man thanks to his augmented reflexes and abilities, but even so overcoming a group of soldiers with armour and shields is a very different fight to hunting a Griffin.
Real-life Issues
Fantasy TV shows don’t do a great job of portraying issues that modern people can relate to, but in The Witcher, there are characters and interactions that will surprise, and will certainly do a better job than Game of Thrones. Geralt himself is regularly shunned for being a freak, a constant outcast. The sorceresses are the most powerful beings in the land, but are relegated to being advisors to kings who grow fat and mad and wage wars. As anyone who remembers The Bloody Baron quest line in The Witcher 3 (and who doesn’t), even life in a fantasy land filled with ghouls and gretchins can be populated by people who are struggling with issues that people are today.
Witcher Schools Lore
One of the coolest parts of The Witcher is of course the witchers themselves. They’re split into different schools across the land, and from doing the Witcher Gear quests, you can find out a bit about your brothers from other schools. The games take place in a time when the Witcher population is at an all-time low, your own school (School of the Wolf), has not seen a new initiate in many years, the castle is falling apart, and there aren’t enough of you to keep all the lore up to date. You find out that there are schools of the Bear, Cat, Manticore, Griffin and Viper, each with their own lore, lands and awesome outfits. Hopefully the TV show will spill some more light on these different types of witchers, and maybe even have a series set in the heyday of the witchers, when you couldn’t throw a rock without hitting a grumbly, yellow-eyed monster slayer.
A More Grey Geralt
Geralt is great, but in the game you can choose how he is. You can be cruel, or innocent. You can be sullen, or jokey. The TV show will probably nail the most generic Geralt, the one we all imagine, but we’d like to see him with more grey morality. He’s an anti-hero, for sure, but in the same way Han Solo is. We know he’s a good guy, really. We want to see Geralt struggle with his eternal, internal tug-of-war between his altruistic desire stop wars and conflicts and protect the weak, and his determination to just be a simple Witcher, travelling on the road and doing a day’s work for a day’s pay. We’d also like to see him have some sort of weakness of character. He can’t be realistically charming all the time given his profession and lifestyle! Let’s not have a Geralt that everyone in the show loves, let’s give him some real grey areas where we actually dislike him and his actions.
What do you want to see in The Witcher series? Do you know a game series that would make a better series?
