Good morrow, peasants, and welcome back to our review of Netflix’s fantasy series, The Witcher. This episode gives us the opportunity to think deep thoughts about beauty, shame, and my specifically personal reaction to Dara. Oh Dara. Why, Dara? Sigh. I will mention a thing or two from the rest of the show, but heavy plot spoilers are for episode three only. So flash those fantasy-colored eyes, and seize your destiny, here are five thoughts on The Witcher season one episode three, “Betrayer Moon.”
1: Yennefer and Istredd
From the bottom of my heart I am a Yennefer-Geralt shipper, but I still love the two-episode-long whirlwind complicated romance between Yennefer and Istredd. Istredd is the first person to ever show Yennefer kindness, when he helps her return home after she accidentally creates her first portal. At Aretuza they sneak off to the ancient cavernous skull-gilded basement for, ahem, romantic rendezvous. Istredd lets Yennefer practice reading his mind and purposely thinks of things she’d love. Awww! Istredd is so cute he makes mind reading adorable!
But then we learn that both of them had been asked to spy on each other by their respective sorcery school principals, and Istredd had betrayed the secret of Yen’s one quarter Elf heritage, which leads Stregebor to assign Yen to advise a less powerful king. This leads to their big break-up fight… or does it? It’s pretty quickly resolved that though they betrayed each other, their love was real. The actual break up begins when Istredd asks Yennefer to accompany him to his own post-grad assignment doing archaeological magic research. That’s all Yennefer needs to hear to know that they cannot be together. She tells him frankly, she plans to pursue to power, and she can’t do that while she’s hanging around his stupid dig site. They shout at each other. Through their rage it’s clear they’re both heartbroken that the other doesn’t want the life together that they’d envisioned. Just in case you’ve forgotten, peasants, let me remind you, they can both make magic portals. Yen could do her thing in one country and Istredd could do his thing in another country and they could easily visit each other or go anywhere together during their free time. But that’s not the kind of relationship either of them want. They both want a romantic partner who wants the same kind of life that they do, and they both want different lives, so it’s just not going to work out, even though they love each other. Awww 🙁
2: Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholden
Apparently it is standard operating procedure for sorceresses to exchange their fertility for magical plastic surgery before graduating magic school and getting assigned to advise a king or queen. We don’t find out if this also applies to the male sorcery students; Istredd is the only one we meet and he seems to have been born exceeding traditional standards of appearance. (Feel free to use that pick-up line on your next Tinder date. You’re welcome). I could spend a great deal of time dissecting this practice alone, but the physical transformation of Yennefer of Vengerberg has its own deeply complicated implications. Yennefer never mentions back pain or other harmful symptoms that might be associated with her “twisted spine,” which leads me to believe her transformation is purely for cosmetic purposes, and I want to be transparent about my mixed feelings. On the one hand, I want to affirm Yen’s agency in choosing what to do with her own body. She even decides to keep the scars from her attempted suicide and her purple eyes. The scars remind her of her darkest moment, and her eyes… are very pretty. On the other hand, I want to see more television characters who don’t conform to an extremely specific body type. I want to see a badass mighty sorceress with a hunchback. I want to see a disabled woman pursue power and command authority. Transforming Yen in this way just feels like a missed opportunity.
At least it’s made clear that Istredd is in love with and sexually attracted to Yennefer the way she was before her transformation, and I appreciate that. Yennefer doesn’t have to change herself to be loved, but she does have to change herself to get political power, and she’s a lot more interested in power than anything else. In preparation for the procedure, Tissaia says, “we remake ourselves on our terms; the world has no say in it.” But the world clearly does. Yennefer remakes herself into a body that can more easily navigate politics in The Continent. She is not in charge of societal beauty norms. Like all of us, she is beholden to them, and beauty is in the eye of the beholden.
Continued below3: Dara, Why?! But Like, Really, Why?
Fleeing Nilfgaard’s army, Ciri has the incredible fortune to run into Dara, a very nice Elven boy her age. Dara decides to travel with Ciri to find Geralt, and does everything in his power to keep her alive. Last episode he risked his life to drag Ciri out of the besieged Cintran refugee camp. This episode, he awakes to find Ciri walking zombie-like into a mysteriously whispering forest. He might know something we don’t, or he might reasonably be suspicious of any mysteriously whispering forest; either way, he once again risks his life to save her, and is rewarded with an arrow in his shoulder.
I assume he has an ulterior motive that will reveal itself later, but given no such justification yet, I have to ask, why? Why would you do this Dara? You barely know Ciri. She has done nothing for you. Let her go, Dara! She’s just gonna take your money and ghost you until she calls you collect from a casino in Malta asking for more money for her “master’s degree.” I know you’re lying, Justin! And I know you got married on my birthday! … I’m sorry, what were we talking about?
4: Chaos, Destiny, and the Great What Ifs of History
In this episode we see several connections between our three favorite heroes in their different timelines. Stregebor, the same sorcerer who hired Geralt to kill Renfri, attempts to make Yennefer advisor to Nilfgaard instead of to Aedirn, where she’d rather be. Yennefer sees the young Prince Foltest flirting with his sister Adda at her graduation ball, and decades later Geralt battles the monster that became of their child. At that same ball we hear mentioned Princess Calanthe, who will grow up to be Ciri’s grandmother. Are these the magical coincidences of chaos, or the spiritual certitudes of destiny? We the viewers are also begged to wonder, what if Yennefer had accepted Stregebor’s wishes and gone to Nilfgaard? At the time the king was a useless drunk, but his heir became a warmongering emperor. Would Yennefer have tempered him? Would she have supported him in her own quest for more and more power? Would Yennefer herself be hunting Ciri? Did destiny lead Yennefer to Aedirn, or, like the formidable sorceress she is, did she adeptly manipulate the force of chaos to her own ends? These are not questions to be answered; they are only to be pondered. I love a show that can ask deep questions without feeling the need to answer them. No, I’m not over the ending of Lost, and no I will not let it go, Justin! … I’m sorry, what were we talking about?
5: I Guess This Time the Real Monster is… Shame
In the tried and true tradition of “monster-of-the-week” the fantastical monsters Geralt is hired to slay are nothing compared to the societal ills they represent. This time, the real monster is shame.
King Foltest murdered his sister out of shame for their incestuous relationship. When their child became a striga, a heart-eating monster, many more innocent people died for that shame as well. Even after King Foltest figured out the gist of what was happening, he allowed the striga to continue killing rather than risk revealing his shame. Sir Ostrit cursed Adda’s womb for the shame of her choosing her brother over him. (We’ll never know Adda’s true feelings for sure. Foltest and Ostrit both claim she really loved them, and they both seem like pretty unlikable murder-y dweebs, but maybe she’s into that). If you’re not a woman over thirty like I am, it’s possible you haven’t seen Bene Brown’s Ted Talk on shame, or read any of her very cool books. She says, wisely, “Shame derives its power from being unspeakable.” It is only after the shame is spoken aloud that Foltest allows Geralt to attempt to reverse the curse. Ostrit admits he cast the curse, but never truly interrogates his own shame. The striga, embodying that shame, literally eats his heart.
I must pause, briefly, to say that the striga is a profoundly terrifying monster, visually as well as thematically. Fantastic monster production!
In addition to fighting Foltest’s shame, Geralt must also battle his own. Unconscious, recovering from his excellently choreographed brawl with the striga, Geralt repeatedly calls out for Renfri, the cursed princess he failed to save in episode one. Geralt tries very hard to do the right thing, always, and he is haunted by the possibility that he could have saved Renfri. Triss attempts to talk to him about it, but he dismisses her out of sensitivity. The wise Bene Brown would urge him to share his shame with a trusted loved one, that it may be cleansed by the light of empathy and understanding. (That’s how she talks. I love her). If he doesn’t, his shame will continue to fester, and eventually it will eat his heart.
My dearest peasants, may you take some time to appreciate your own unique beauty, may you find the courage to share your deepest shame with a trusted empathetic loved one, and if you happen to see a princess with the power of magic screams walking zombie-like into a mysteriously whispering forest, turn around and walk away. Until next time, good luck on the path.
