‘The Witcher’ Season 3 Failed to Give Henry Cavill A Proper Send-Off

The Witcher season 3 is out, but did it manage to say goodbye to its star, Henry Cavill with a proper send-off?

All of The Witcher season 3 is now out for you to view. The Witcher season 3 marks Henry Cavill’s last a Geralt of Rivia. It’s a big change for the show and a risky moment. It was also a season that dealt with some big turning points in the plot. With all that fans were hoping that Cavill would get a good send off ending his tenure as a witcher on a high note. However, the show failed to give him that in what turned out to be a pretty lackluster third season.

There’s Just Not a Lot f the Witcher in The Witcher

The Witcher show has always tried to set itself apart from the books by being more of an ensemble story. You get to see things from a lot of points of view. Now on the one hand this is consistent with the themes of the books which often deal with points of view and who’s telling a story. But it is a big change from the narrative of the books which tend to focus on Geralt and what he is doing, though there are other POV characters. However, I feel that the show may have taken it a bit too far, especially in season 3, with Geralt often feeling like he’s not really in the story, or just an observer.

Take the three episodes of Season 3, Volume II. One episode sees Geralt sidelined amid a missive wizard battle. For large parts of the episode, he’s just kind of sitting around watching, instead of witching, with people wondering why he is even there. He does get into a fight, but it’s basically a side adventure. The second episode focuses on Ciri with basically none of Geralt. The final episode covers a lot of ground, and Geralt spends most of it in bed only at the end does get up for a final, mostly meaningless battle. He’s basically not in the last three episodes, and realistically he has no effect on what happens in them.

Trying To Be Game of Thrones

The Witcher season 3 does have its good points. But overall it fell a bit flat, and I think that’s in large part to the show’s trying to copy other big-budget fantasy epics. The Witcher books mostly focus on a small group of characters and their adventures. These tend to happen against the backdrop of the conflicts and politics of The Continent, but the books aren’t about following everything. The show on the other hand wants to do that. With characters at several major courts and a lot of people to juggle. It worked pretty well in season one, with the split timelines and everything coming together in the end. But I think by now it’s kind of backfired and meant that we spend less and less time with the core cast. In particular, Geralt suffers from this.

Geralt Has No Real Arc at the End

This may be partially a result of Netflix splitting the season, but by the end of it, it doesn’t feel like Geralt had a real arc. Looking at Volume 2, we see Geralt get beaten by Vilgefortz. He’s then pretty depressed and sent to heal with the dryads. He kind of drifts between giving up and healing. Then he gets better and wanders off to find Ciri, along the way he gets into a fight with some soldiers and that’s… it. It never feels like he has any big revelation or anything. Indeed his only driving goal throughout the season is the be with Crii and Yennefer. I dunno, it just doesn’t feel like his character went anywhere.

A Poor Sendoff for Henry Cavill

via Netflix

Henry Cavill has been a great Geralt and it just seems like this season didn’t do him any favors. The Witcher season 3 just doesn’t give Henry Cavill a good sendoff.  You might think the show would end on some kind of high note for him, letting him ride off into the sunset. I was actually wondering if the show would kill him this season. In the books and games, Geralt does die for a bit, and it would be a way to explain the different actors. It would also be an epic way to say goodbye to Cavill.

But Geralt just kind of putters along at the end of the season. In his one big fight, he gets beat badly. And there’s no resolution of Cavill’s Geralt here. He doesn’t confront Vilgefortz again this season, so if Geralt does kill the traitor, it will be a different Geralt that does it. I know you maybe don’t want to change a whole story just because an actor is leaving, but Cavill deserved a much better send-off than he got.

Author: Abe Apfel

Abe is that rare thing, an Austin local born and raised here. Though he keeps on moving around, DC, Japan, ETC., he always seems to find his way back eventually. Abe has decades of experience with a wide range of tabletop and RPG games, from historicals, to Star Wars to D&D and 40K. He has been contributing to BOLS since almost the start, back when he worked at and then owned a local gaming store. He used to be big into the competitive Warhammer tournament scene but age has mellowed him and he now appreciates a good casual match. He currently covers 40K tactics and lore, as well as all things Star Wars, with occasional dabbling in other topics. Abe remains in mourning over the loss of WFB to this day.