I didn't have any expectations coming into The Witcher's first season because I didn't know anything about it. I was pleasantly surprised by the first season, and I was even excited for the next season.
I binge-watched the second season in record time, and I loved it!
The Witcher includes best-selling books, popular video games, and one of Netflix's Top 10 TV shows.
Why is it so popular? Can you write the next fantasy hit? How can your writing improve by digging deeper into this well-worn fantasy?
Fantasy
Fantasy might be a well-worn genre, but that doesn't mean that it doesn't have more to offer.
Fantasy is perhaps one of the world's oldest genres. An example would be The Epic of Gilgamesh which is "the world's oldest work of literature outside the Bible." (History of Civilization by Jerry Combee and George Thompson).
The Witcher isn't unique in the fantasy genre. In fact, it's often compared to The Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones.
But that isn't surprising.
There's nothing new under the sun.
The trick is to tell a familiar story in a new way.
What exactly is the fantasy genre? It's defined as "a genre of theoretical fiction that incorporates magical, otherworldly components into the narrative. The setting is entirely fictional but still contains elements that resemble the real world." ("What is the Fantasy Genre?" by Austin Carmody).
Let's look at the first two ingredients first.
The Witcher's world is the Continent.
I'll be honest the Continent really confused me at first.
Neither the show nor the books grounded the audience with a map.
Fantasy worlds need a map more than historical worlds because even if the story is set in Europe in the Ice Age, we already have a mental image of what Europe looks like.
We don't know what the Continent looks like though.
Although The Witcher's world was a little confusing, it reminded me of The Lord of the Rings. Likely, because in both worlds, the heroes were traveling.
The Witcher's magic was easier to understand.
According to the Witcher's fandom, "Magic plays a large and central role in The Witcher universe. It is used not only by witchers, but by the many mages, priests, druids, and the myriad of other magical creatures that inhabit the literature. Magic is used by harnessing the power of Chaos. While a few simple spells, like a witcher's sign, can be used by anyone, only those born with the power, known as Sources, are capable of truly wielding its incredible power."
There's also whatever Ciri is, but we won't get into that.
The only part of the Witcher's magic that I didn't understand was Geralt's potions. Geralt's potions made his face pale, his veins bulge, and turned his eyes black.
Usually, it's better to show instead of tell, but there are exceptions.
It is never wise to leave your audience confused.
What I didn't understand is that Geralt's potions were poisoning him. Witchers are mutants, but they were human once. They were turned into witchers through extreme changes and tests. Many didn't survive. These mutations allow them to take these potions that are deadly to normal humans.
The Witcher's real-world elements are a little harder to pin down, but it isn't as complicated as it might seem.
It's emotion.
Geralt wished for love.
Ciri was afraid so she wanted to be safe.
The humans hated everything that was different.
Yennefer longed to matter but she couldn't fill that void.
Real-world elements are simply universal themes. Like Geralt, we wish for love. Like Ciri, we're afraid. Like humans, we hate. Like Yennefer, we long to matter.
Simply put, we could relate to The Witcher's characters because they feel the same things that we do.
I think ultimately that's why this well-worn fantasy has seen so much success.
It's not because the show revolutionizes fantasy, but rather, it uses techniques that are as old as storytelling.
"There's a grain of truth in every fairy tale," ―Andrzej Sapkowski, The Last Wish
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