History Series / TheHexer

* TheGrimReaper: A Grim Reaper–like figure appears in visions and is thought to be a personification of death that follows Geralt wherever he goes. Curiously, it's strongly implied to be female, despite being always cloaked and having a skull for a face (the Polish word for death, "śmierć" is grammatically feminine).

* IndyPloy: When Geralt and Dandelion are [[spoiler:escaping from the Nilfgaardians planning their [[ShotAtDawn execution at dawn]]]], they mostly just act, and then react to whatever happens next. Including setting on fire the building ''they are locked in'', without first securing an actual escape route. For their defense, [[ItMakesSenseInContext they are both drunk during their escape]].

* FriendToAllLivingThings: Geralt in his youth, right down to [[spoiler: taming a she-wolf with ThePowerOfFriendship and instantly going to help a survivor of a pogrom, despite himself barely getting by during the Trial of Mountains]]. Even as an adult witcher, a monster hunter for hire, he only picks jobs where the monsters are ''actually'' dangerous to someone, rather than going into the wilderness to hunt those that ''supposedly'' are.
* GoThroughMe: Visenna, mother of Geralt, was trying to pull this, blocking the path to the young Geralt when he's to be taken away from her. The Old Witcher gently, if sternly overpowered her, not wanting to spill any blood.

* MonsterIsAMommy: During his Trial of Mountains, Geralt faces one in form of a wounded wolf, ready to attack whenever he gets into specific part of the woods. The wolf is later revealed as simply defending its litter.

-->'''Borch:''' Yes, yes, dragons kill goats, sheep, cows...
-->'''Geralt:''' (drunk out of his mind) A dragon is not a mouse - it has to eat a lot! [[SuddenlyShouting HUMANS CHOPPED DOWN FORESTS]], hunted down the game, limited the natural habitats... so what is a dragon supposed to do?

* FriendToAllLivingThings: Geralt in his youth, right down to [[spoiler: taming a she-wolf with ThePowerOfFriendship and instantly going to help a survivor of a pogrom, despite himself barely getting by during the Trial of Mountains]].

%%* CoolOldGuy: Old Witcher, the one who took Geralt to Kaer Morhen and watched over him.

%%* FriendToAllLivingThings: Geralt in his youth.
%%* GoThroughMe: Visenna, mother of Geralt, was trying to pull this. The Old Witcher gently, if sternly overpowered her, not wanting to spill any blood.

%%* HumansAreTheRealMonsters: As in the original books.

%%* MonsterIsAMommy: During his Trial of Mountains, Geralt faces one [[spoiler: and tames it]]. The wolf is later revealed as simply defending its litter.

%%* PrideBeforeAFall: Witchers get this treatment from the first episode. The kicker? Barely any of them learn the lesson, being all just designed for killing and not thinking too much. This ultimately leads to much slower and painful BreakTheHaughty for the whole guild in following years, until they eventually collapse.

* TheGrimReaper: A Grim Reaper–like figure appears in visions and is thought to be a personification of death that follows Geralt wherever he goes. Curiously, it's strongly implied to be female, despite being always cloaked and having a skull for face (the Polish word for death, "śmierć" is grammatically feminine).

* NobleWolf: During his Trial of Mountains, young Geralt encountered a lone she-wolf. She initially was hostile towards him, while protecting her den with cubs in it. Slowly, Geralt won her favour by tending to her wounds and giving them some of his food, naming the wolf Zębata (Fangtooth). Near the end of test, she accepted Geralt as a part of her family.

* OffscreenTeleportation: The Zerrikanians pull this, showing right behind the two would-be muggers threatening Borch - despite not being present in the shot a few seconds earlier. Both men instantly back down, realising they aren't facing a lone, defenseless stranger.

* ColdOpen: The first episode opens with an unknown white-haired man fighting ''something'' in a bog or a landfill. He apparently slays the monster, but is badly wounded himself. Then the action cuts back, setting up stage for young Geralt and slowly starting his tale, back when he was still a human boy. The series eventually reach the same landfill in episode 5.

* NotCheatingUnlessYouGetCaught: Vesimir decided to help Geralt survive Trial of Mountains, precisely because there was no-one there to check if everything was set fair.
* TheOathBreaker: Geralt's father. In past he [[ThePromise promised]] to give what he didn't expect to find back home to witchers as payback for saving his life. When it's due to give the boy, [[BullyingADragon he prefers to fight a witcher]] than do what he promised.
* OffscreenTeleportation: The Zerrikanians pull this, showing right behind the two would-be muggers threatening Borch - despite not being present in the shot few seconds earlier. Both men instantly back down, realising they aren't facing a lone, defenseless stranger.
* OneHitPolykill: Few times throughout the series, Geralt manages to kill two mooks in a single slash when they try to blindly charge him. This however only works on poorly trained and unarmoured opponents.
* PrideBeforeAFall: Witchers get this treatment from the first episode. The kicker? Barely any of them learns the lesson, being all just designed for killing and not thinking too much. This ultimately leads to much slower and painful BreakTheHaughty for the whole guild in following years, until they eventually collapse.

* SceneryPorn: One of few things that just about everyone had to agree about the series were impressive location shots, especially those in the wilderness. Even despite the mediocre quality of the film stock and shoddy development technique, those shots remain a sight to behold.
* SheIsAllGrownUp: Teenage Renfri is rather unimposing, scrawny thing, made look even worse due to her boyish haircut and constant pouting. When Geralt meets her a few decades later, she's a StatuesqueStunner with a fantastic figure, [[FemmeFatale more than aware of how her looks work on men]].

* SuddenlySignificantRule: After several failed tries to kill off Geralt, the Witcher Council invoked as the last attempt an old dead and buried custom in which a young graduate has to face other witcher in a final trial of swords (this is the reason why in the movie's opening credits montage sequence Geralt is shown in armor while other graduates wear simple robes). It didn’t work – Geralt defeated his opponent.

* MonsterIsAMommy: During his Trial of Mountains, Geralt faces one [[spoiler: and tames it]]. The wolf is later revealed as simply defending its litter.

* NoNameGiven: The Old Witcher, again.
-->'''Geralt''': They've called you "[[EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep Old Man]]". I never asked about your name

* KatanasAreJustBetter: One of the most controversial decisions of the moviemakers was to choose a katana as the witcher's weapon, most likely due to using aiki-ken as a basis for fencing choreography. It should be noted though, that only ONE of two witcher's swords resembles a katana, but complainers tend to ignore entirely the existence of the other, regular broadsword, which also happens to be the silver one.

* CoolOldGuy: Old Witcher, the one who took Geralt to Kaer Morhen and watched over him.

* FriendToAllLivingThings: Geralt in his youth.
* GoThroughMe: Visenna, mother of Geralt, was trying to pull this. The Old Witcher gently, if sternly overpowered her, not wanting to spill any blood.

* {{Guyliner}}: Elves wear excessive amount of eyeliner, regardless of gender and their age. This also works as a quick tell to spot one in the crowd when they have their ears covered, given typical elf is [[OurElvesAreDifferent malnourished and wearing ragged clothes, no different than a beggar]].

* HeroesPreferSwords: Not only swords are trademark weapon of witchers, but it's outright stated in the first episode they consider it an ultimate weapon. [[spoiler: Subverted when they are ambushed by archers]].

* HumansAreDiplomats: Vesimir, being in the series an old human druid, prefers to use diplomacy instead of swords to resolve conflict with the elves living around Kaer Morhen. His insistance of talking first, killing maybe is one of the factors leading to reveal of [[spoiler: Gwidon's conspiracy and getting him expelled]].

* InMediasRes: The series opens with adult Geralt slaying monster, goes back all the way down to his childhood and then follow his life for next four episodes until he gets to that fight.

* InVinoVeritas: [[spoiler: When interrogating Geralt and Dandelion about whatever they know about Falwick's conspiracy and the potential whereabouts of Ciri, they are both force-fed liquor]]. While Dandelion is initially enthusiastic about the concept of such torture and insists he can just get himself drunk on his own, he's mostly doing so to both buy time and avoid having the bottle forced down his throat.

* LuckBasedSearchTechnique: Invoked by Geralt and Dandelion who were trying to find a way out of the same dungeon Ciri was previously held in. Geralt concluded she must've activated some type of secret passage, so he told Dandelion to touch and push everything on the height of a little girl.

%%* BadassAdorable: Young Geralt, bordering on BadassAbnormal thanks to his mutations.

** After a few rounds of alcohol-fortified interrogations, [[spoiler: Geralt and Dandelion have to escape their current predicament from the Nilfgaardian captivity. They decide to set the shed they are locked in on fire. ''Then'' they realised they still hadn't found the secret passage leading out of the TortureCellar beneath it]].
* AlreadyMetEveryone: Geralt first met Renfri during his first steps as a witcher, when he [[NiceJobBreakingItHero saved her]] from three armored men ordered to kill her by her stepmother, Aridea. As Administrivia/TropesAreNotBad, this makes Geralt's decision in "The Lesser Evil" even more dramatic.

* AllOfTheOtherReindeer: Due to his [[CombatPragmatist unorthodox views on combat]] Geralt was hated both by other students and his instructors (except the Old Witcher). Geralt's uniqueness was a direct result of Vesemir purposely interrupting the process of mutations for the purpose of creating a new type of witcher that, not being deprived of higher feelings and deeper thought associations, would be able to adapt easily to new situations and to coexist with humans. [[spoiler: Vesemir died without revealing this information to Geralt and Jarrow kept it secret - it was not until the final episode Geralt learned from old Jarrow about his origins.]] Geralt turned out to be the only surviving witcher from his generation, which proved that Vesemir was right.
* BadassAdorable: Young Geralt, bordering on BadassAbnormal thanks to his mutations.

* CodeOfHonour: In the books, there was no actual witcher code, although Geralt made up a code of his own. In the series, witchers have a code that allows them only to fight in an "honorable" way ([[HonorBeforeReason even against monsters]]).
** However, there are numerous hints throughout the series the code is a mere ''excuse'' used by elders to control the guild, trainees, shape interactions with humans and abuse their own power, with no actual set rules. Thus mirroring Geralt's personal "code" from the books in basic function, but with sinister intent behind it.

* CompilationMovie: Upon production and marketing for both movie and the TV series, ''nobody'' said a word the film is going to be this trope. This not only created unrealistic expectations (the production took place roughtly in the same time when ''[[Film/TheLordOfTheRingsTheFellowshipOfTheRing The Fellowship of the Ring]]'' was filmed), but was a decision made against the will of pretty much anyone involved in the filming by TV execs[[note]]Back in the day it was a norm for Polish National TV to create a CompilationMovie out of big budget series they were involved in, which usually had the same kind of result. This practice was discontinued only by mid 00s.[[/note]]. The final product was condemned by pretty much everyone, but it also strained fan perception of the TV series. [[CriticalDissonance For contrast]] professional critics considered the ''series'' to be one of the better Polish TV productions of all times and it had a ''really'' good viewer share upon initial run among common audiences, even being aired and holding in what was then considered prime hours.

* DeathByIrony: Thornwald was the witcher who saved Geralt's father from a pack of werewolves and laid claim on Geralt in accordance with the Law of Surprise. Years later, Geralt faced him in a trial of swords and killed him in the process. Thornwald probably didn't even know who he was facing.