Awesome / The Witcher

Original Short Stories & Novels

• In 'The Edge of the World' a group of vengeful elves have Geralt and Dandelion at their mercy. Geralt negotiates a deal for his friend to go free, at which point the resident Lovable Coward tells him exactly where to stick it and demands that if they so much as touch Geralt then they damn well better kill Dandelion too, or he'll use his influence to set the entire world on elves everywhere until every last one is dead and their precious mountains ground to rubble. Yeah.
• "Money opens all doors."
• Geralt destroying a whole unit of Scoia'tael on Thanedd as they chase Ciri followed by him pulling a You Shall Not Pass! on Vilgefortz.
• Vilgefortz of Roggeveen gets a villainous moment of awesome by completely trashing Geralt during the Thanedd Coup. And not even with offensive magic either, he battles the greatest swordsman in the North with a metal staff and beats him black and blue before shattering his sword. Along with his arm and femur, the latter injury leaving Geralt with an impediment in his style to the end of his days even after the compound fracture has healed years later.
• A fifteen year old Ciri falls through the portal in Tor Lara and survives a trek across the Korath desert for seven days and seven nights before collapsing; surviving on a few mouthfuls of dew every morning to stave off her thirst!
  • She also renounces magic when drawing upon the forbidden element of fire, which seductively promises her eternal power in exchange for the deaths of her loved ones.
• Milva saving Geralt and Dandelion from a Nilfgaardian mounted scout patrol; the White Wolf kills three but his still-healing leg betrays him and he falls against a wagon, about to be cut up by the heavy cavalry when Miss Barring annihilates each one of them with a single arrow for each of the five remaining attackers. Bonus points for the last shot being at near point-blank range as the charger bears down on her.
• The titular baptism of fire is taken up by Emiel Regis Rohellec Terzieff-Godefroy, who, inspired by Geralt's decision to stand as a champion in combat against the opressed, picks up a white hot horseshoe from a blazing hearth to prove an autistic girl's innocence against a depraved mob and their cleric; who wishes to burn the girl alive for the "crime" of otherness and witchcraft. His hand is not harmed at all.
  • He also saves Dandelion and Geralt from the hangman by freeing them from the middle of a Temerian camp, flying in at night on the full moon with all his powers and hypnotizing the guards into a slumber.
  • Towards the end of the novel, he tanks an arrow to the chest as if it were nothing.
• "By the Great Sun," Cahir grunted. "He deflected two arrows!"
• During a battle between Nilfgaard and the remnants of Lyria for a bridge spanning the Yaruga, Cahir and Geralt lead the breaking and fleeing Lyrian and Rivian infantry back to the front through a combination of shaming and charisma and hold the Nordling flank of Queen Meve's partisan army against the full might of Black Ones. Not for any ideology, but to defend Milva as she's miscarrying on the shoals beneath the overpass due to an arrow wound; while Regis attempts to save her life with his medicinal knowledge:
  And so it came to pass that a witcher and his Nilfgaardian ally roared angrily, whirled their swords, and without a thought, two allies, companions, and comrades, charged into uneven battle against their common enemies. And this was their baptism of fire.
  • Geralt cutting down cavalry while balancing on the bridge battlements evokes some awesome Wushu ass-kickery. "His acrobatic feat astonished his attackers. And amazed they died."
• Ciri, despite being beaten, disarmed, collared, forced to watch her lover and friends die in their own piss, blood and shit and their heads being sawn off, strip-searched, doped with fisstech and thrown into a public arena for bloodsport; she still has the presence of mind and the sheer courage to attempt to rebuke the audience for their blood-lust when she's simply defending her own life.
  • Here's the Child of the Elder Blood's condemnation.
  "You vile beasts!" Ciri turned and let her soft eyes wander over the bleachers and benches. "You unappreciative pigs! You rascals! You mangy bastards! You want blood? Come on, come on down – taste it and smell it! Lick it before it dries up! Brutes! Vampires!"
• An economic and cultural one for the Northern-most Kingdom of Kovir and Poviss; a rich, mercantile nation that puts Redania, Kaedwen, Temeria and Aedirn to shame as an advanced and prosperous society.
  • Just listen to this.
  After a short time, the kings of Kovir were bound by blood to all the dynasties of the world and strongly adhered to the Treaties of Lan Exeter. They never interfered in the affairs of neighbors. Never tried to claim a foreign heritage, although, more than once, the king or prince of Kovir had every reason to be considered eligible to succeed the throne of Redania, or Aedirn, or Kaedwen, Cidaris, or Verden, or even Rivia. Mighty Kovir never tried to annex further territory, never sent their ships of war, equipped with ballista, to foreign shores, never usurped the title, "Ruler of the Seas." Kovir was satisfied with the Mare Liberum Apertum, the sea is open and free to trade. Kovir professed a religion of trade and profit.

  And an absolute and undisturbed neutrality.
• Sile de Tansarville's magnificent Batman Gambit for the Lodge of Sorceresses, that ends up playing a pivotal role in the contribution to the Northern victory at Brenna.
• After escaping from Bonhart and Skellen and recovering from her ordeal at the former's hands. Ciri pulls off an epic Let's Get Dangerous! sequence along with applying This Means War Paint of the charcoal grease variety around the eyes that everyone thinks Imperator Furiosa popularised. She then rides on Kelpie to arrive at the Nilfgaardian village of Dun Dâre on Saovine Eve and like an avenging angel wipes out four of Skellen's boys who have been wiling away their days at the local inn and tormenting the inhabitants in their boredom.
• The epic Mook Horror Show that Ciri subjects her pursuers to on the frozen and fog-laden surface of lake Tarn Mira. Utilizing the skates that belonged to Vysogota's daughter and her childhood proficiency in the art she honed on the fjords of Ard Skellig, she blitzes them with hit and run attacks that leave four men maimed to death, another accidentally killed by a panicked Stefan Skellen while one of the last breaks down in tears and flees on all fours to be cut down in the mist. Rience also gets a deliciously appropriate Karmic Death for crushing Yennefer's fingers with thumbscrews and threatening to do worse to Ciri with his own hands. He falls through the ice (due to his own botched spell) and as he grasps desperately for leverage, Ciri cuts eight of his phalanges off with the blades on her boots during a run-up pitch perfect speeding swerve that sends him under the floats and into the frigid depths to drown with the others. Only Skallen and two of his men survive the massacre and then only due to Ciri's mercy.
  • Geralt himself gets an epic Mook Horror Show in The Time of Contempt where he makes mince out of a Scoia'tael squad taking part in the Thanedd coup. The Scoia'tael themselves don't have too much time to get properly scared, as Geralt's in no mood to fuck around and tears straight through them, but Cahir - whom the elves were assisting after a previous run-in with equally pissed off Ciri - gets a front-row seat and he is horrified out of his wits.
• Bonhart being brave enough not to turn tail and run from the Wraiths of the Wild Hunt who block his path after Ciri. Fortunately his horse isn't as courageous, (or as sociopathic) and it is likely he thought the cavalcade were a mere illusion.
• A captured Yennefer humiliating Bonhart when he brags about how he's killed witchers in single-combat and will do the same to Geralt. He promptly tries to rape the sorceress when she insults him for a coward too many times only to have his eye nearly taken out with a fork she secretly pocketed at Vilgefortz's table, which she plunges deep into the sadist's cheekbone and though Yen's dress is torn off and she is given a shiner among other injuries, she definitely makes the bounty hunter come out of the engagement in a far worse state; breaking his nose by smashing a stool in his face, kicking him in the crotch and slashing him with the edges of her dimeritium shackles. The topper to this scene is that when Bonhart wants her guards to help him hold her down so he can exact some payback, they both refuse as they know Geralt is coming for them!
• Before the above, Yennefer gets another awesome moment by effectively taking the wind out of Vilgefortz's sails: when the sorcerer is trying to break Yennefer's spirit by claiming Ciri is dead and his men have killed Geralt, Yenn promptly calls him on his bullshit, pointing out that the absence of the more brutal of his entourage, such as Rience and Schirrú in torturing her and the more fearful manner of his remaining guards indicates that Geralt and Ciri are not only still alive, but that they've likely killed a good many of Vilgefortz's underlings in the process. She also sneers that Vilgefortz is desperately clutching at straws because with Ciri having escaped his grasp, his plans are in ruins and it's only a matter of time before his enemies in the north and Nilfgaard track him down. It works so effectively that Vilgefortz can only splutter angrily and threaten her with violence in response.
• Ciri beating Eredin in a sword-fight through an environmental take-down and hobbling the leader of the Red Riders to add insult to injury. Then Ihuarraquax helps her unlock her potential as the Lady of the Worlds, teleporting through dimensions for the first time (repeatedly!) in order to escape the Wild Hunt.
• The jaw-dropping side story of the Hildebrant Clan. Don't mess with halflings in the Witcher-verse.
• Milva's final curtain.
• Regis letting loose and saving Ciri from Vilgefortz's cronies. "The opportunity arises," he said, as if in explanation, "when you just can’t resist the drink."
• Cahir's noble Last Stand against Bonhart.
• No more running. Ciri stands firm against Master Swordsman Leo Bonhart and uses her pendulum balance beam training to score blows against a vastly more experienced fencer which causes him to fall from the rafters and cripple himself. Even better, not only does this Implacable Man beg for clemency from the girl he's psychologically and physically tortured but when Ciri scorns him a Coup de Grâce, takes his witcher medallion trophies and leaves him to die, he tries a last ditch attack which ends in a textbook Backstab Backfire.
  "You won..." he croaked, looking at Swallow’s blade. “You won, Witcheress. It was a pity it was not in the arena… It would have been a spectacle..."

  She did not answer.

  "I gave you that sword, remember?"

  "I remember everything."

  "Why me..." he moaned. "You will not hurt or murder a defenseless man... You are too... noble."

  She looked at him for a long time. A very long time. Then she bent down. His fish eyes nearly popped out of their sockets. But she only tore the medallions from around his neck – the eagle, the cat, and the wolf. Then she turned and walked towards the exit.

  He leaped at her with a knife in his hand, cunningly and treacherously. As quiet as a ghost. Only at the last moment, when his dagger was about to go into her back, did he scream. In it was all of his rage and hatred.

  She avoided the cowardly attack with a half-turn and jumped away. She immediately shifted and struck, hard and strong, with her whole arm, strengthening the cut with a twist of her hips. Swallow whistled and cut with the tip of its blade. Bonhart clutched at his throat. His fish eyes bulged from their sockets.

  "I told you," Ciri said coldly. "I remember everything."

  Bonhart stared at her, wide-eyed. Then, he fell.

  He fell backwards into the dust, which billowed around him. He lay on his back, tall, skinny as a skeleton, and squeezed his throat with all his might. But no matter how firmly he held, his life slipped out between his fingers and the layer of grey dust under his body grew wet and black.

  Ciri stood over him. Without saying anything. But ensuring that he saw. That this last image would be the image that accompanied him wherever he went.

  He looked at her with hardening eyes. He convulsively reared up, digging his heels into the ground. Then he gurgled, like a funnel emptying.

  And that was the last sound he made.
• Vilgefortz is tag-teamed by Geralt, Yennefer and Regis but his magical mastery is so complete that he bats the first around like an insect, incapacitates the second and obliterates the third when the heroic higher vampire manages to draw his blood for the first time. Now he wants to leave Geralt a broken pile of bones for the rest of his days by beating him once more in single-combat.
  The rod flashed and whirled, spinning around the sorcerer. Both opponents dodged around each other in a deadly dance. The rod flicked like lightning. Geralt managed to parry the hammering blow. Vilgefortz skillfully deflected. Each time steel met steel, it groaned pitifully.

  The wizard was quick and nimble like a demon.

  Geralt was fooled by a swing at his torso and a mock punch from the left – the opposite end of the stick hit him in the ribs. Before the Witcher could get his wind back, he received a strong blow to the hip that almost knocked him down. He dodged a blow to the top of his head, but did not escape the stab at his stomach. He was thrown against the wall. He had enough presence of mind to fall to the floor. Just at the moment, the iron rod brushed his hair and it slammed into the wall, raising sparks.

  Geralt rolled, the rod drew sparks from the ground right next to his head. A second blow came and hit his shoulder. The shock sent numbing pain and weakness down his legs. The wizard raised the rod. His eyes burned in triumph.

  Geralt clenched his fist around Fringilla’s medallion.

  The rod fell. It struck the floor, a few inches from the Witcher’s head. Geralt rolled to the side and quickly got up on one knee. Vilgefortz jumped after him and swung again. Again, he missed by inches.

  He shook his head, unable to believe his eyes. He hesitated a moment. Then sighed, realizing what was happening. His eyes twinkled and he leapt and swung his magical weapon. But it was too late.

  Geralt quickly slashed him across the stomach. Vilgefortz screamed, dropped the rod, and took a few steps backwards. The Witcher followed, kicked him between the stumps of two columns, and slashed his sword in a wide arc diagonally across the wizard’s torso to his collarbone, drawing blood.

  The wizard screamed and fell to his knees. He lowered his head and looked at his chest and abdomen. For a long time, he could not look away from what he saw.

  Geralt calmly waited, with Sihil raised, ready to strike.

  Vilgefortz lifted his head and wailed shrilly.

  "Geraaaaaalt!"

  The Witcher did not let him finish.
• Geralt and Ciri going full Badass Family as they mop up Skallen's hirelings while indulging in some fuzzy-feeling father-daughter bonding dialogue.
• Ciri jumping in front of her adoptive father to deflect a crossbow bolt at close range.
• The Witcher, but even more vitally, the Sorceress Yennefer convincing Emhyr to give up his incestuous plans for Ciri.
• "But this is the last time! Damn me, but it really is the last time!"
• Merigold's Hailstorm. Yennefer's Shield. Spells so magnificent, they got renamed after them.

2002 TV Series

• See here.

CD Projekt Red's Video Game

• The pre-rendered introduction cinematic before reaching the main menu is a retelling of Wiedźmin, published way back in 1991. It's an excellent, action-packed sequence that stays almost entirely true to the original story down to each individual blow. A breakdown on this fantastic intro to this mythos:
  • Geralt prepping all his tools of the trade as the sun sets on the old manor along with an awesome voice over narration.
  • A key game mechanic, but the detailed visuals of the potion imbibement definitely count. Geralt seems to take an infusion of Cat, Petri's Philter and an unknown third toxin to increase sensory perception and for a moment our protagonist looks as evil as the stories the old wives would have their children believe. The poisons course through his veins and brings them into sharp relief, his facial bones shift under his skin, becoming gaunt and bestial and his gold eyes blaze even brighter than before. A clear indication that our hero isn't remotely human.
  • The fact that Geralt can hear the Foltest family crypt inch open from his position across the courtyard and up from the deep catacombs.
  • Using the traitor responsible for Adda's curse, Ostrit. (Who tried to bribe, then threaten, Geralt to leave,) as bait to lure the monstrous Princess right where he wants her.
  • Geralt's use of Le Parkour to navigate the crumbling battlements and how he can passively fight a barrel-chested, incredibly powerful young monster by repeatedly diverting her clawed swipes and knocking her back with hand-to-hand combat.
  • Silver chain Weapon Twirling, plus catching Adda with it while she's in a mid-air leap.
  • Striga!Adda gets one too when she busts free of a material which is supposed to be as kryptonite to Necrophages.
  • Geralt using both the Quen and Aard Signs in tandem to unleash a Charged Attack that is literally a torrent storm of Hex power crackling from the monster hunter's hands. Also, the smirk he gives when he releases the Sign, sending Adda flying past and off her four paws for the second time due to the abrupt change in pressure when she manages to crawl up to him; roaring, just inches away from the source.
  • After punishing her with an interesting variant of the "Hey, You!" Haymaker. The silver sword finally comes out. But at this point, all Geralt has to do is an Intimidation Demonstration coupled with a bit of a Close Callhaircut that exemplifies his masterful control over blades, and the traumatized girl of a monster runs for the hills.
    • The brief and intense face-to-face moment where he reflects her primal aggression right back at her, also perfectly encapsulates the fact that for witchers to fight the monsters of the Continent, they really are similar, at least in genetic construction.
  • The Witcher takes what could be White Honey to detoxify his souped up enzymes, seals himself in Adda's coffin for the rest of the night with a Yrden and promptly falls asleep while she futilely bashes on the stone lid from the other side!
  • Next morning. With the curse apparently lifted. Geralt somehow survives having his throat torn out by Adda's partially cursed arm and still rabid mind. Fridge Horror sets in when you see he has no reminders of the wounds on his neck in-game, imagine how grisly his other collection of injuries, seen all over his torso, arms and legs in the second installment, not to mention his facial scars in the first, must have been to leave marks when being "gravely wounded" turns out to be an eventual full recovery...
• The establishing shot of the Old Sea Fortress as Vesamir and Eskel take a wounded and amnesiac Geralt to safety. Much like the witchers themselves, the music and panorama exemplify them as relics of the past, old and misbegotten yet still a mighty force in the world capable of affecting great changes. It's difficult not to feel something close to awe during this scene and the music will send shivers down your spine.
• When a dozen of Salamandra's hired bandits try to rush a weakened Geralt on the battlements of Kaer Morhen in the prologue, the White Wolf leads them up the ruined turret staircase and leaps up just as a section of the steps crumbles under the combined weight, sending three of his pursuers plummeting to their doom.
• In the first major quest hub, if you chose to save the witch that's being hunted by the villagers of the Outskirts, Geralt delivers an awesome rebuke towards the torch and pitch-fork wielding mob and their crazed fanatic of a ring-leader. Did we mention he stops said instigator cold by holding him at blade-point?
  The Reverend: Begone, Witcher! And leave the witch, or we'll burn you too!
  Geralt: I'd like to see you try, pleb. (places steel sword tip under his beard)
  The Reverend: Uuuuuh!
  Geralt: Shove off. And maybe I'll let you be... You have two options. Wait until I leave and then murder Abigail - but then I'll come back. I'll slay every lice ridden peasant, anything that moves and can't climb a tree. Or, you can try to lead honourable lives, clear your conscience, start again - like humans. The choice is yours.
• The fight with the Tower Golem in a raging thunderstorm.
  • Then clobbering Javed with your spiked glove after you solve the massive Salamandra case in Chapter II, and find out he's posing as Raymond with a magical illusion. Then you get to take on both him and the Professor within a burning circle of fire, sometimes at night and nearly always in the pouring rain, with embers dancing all around. Epic.
    • Geralt manages to get the best of both of them in regards to fencing. So the prof is forced to use an alchemical gas bomb to bring Geralt to his knees, then the pair of them flee through a teleportation portal before he recovers!
• Vincent Meis, Captain of the Guard by day, Lycanthrope Batman of the Temerian Capital by night. When Geralt stumbles upon his lair, stocked with weapons and armour, he actually quips whether Vince thinks himself a superhero!
  • And if you spare him. He'll aid you later in the game against Salamandra thugs, whether he's cured or not.
• When Geralt storms Salamandra's main lab in the Trade Quarter with his allies and cuts down the Professor, we get this awesome Call-Back to when the infamous bandit shot poor Leo with a crossbow.
  Professor: You have what you wanted. Show mercy. Never hurts to ask... (fires hidden wrist dual bolt launcher)
  Geralt: (deflects the offending quarrel with bored effortlessness)
  Professor: So you can parry arrows in flight.
• After escaping the turmoil in Vizima, Geralt resolves a conflict between a group of sentient amphibians called the Vodyanoi and the human settlement of Murky Waters. For his actions, the Lady goddess of the Lake knights Geralt, gives him a magic sword, and tells him to go and face his destiny. That's right, Geralt is now King Arthur.
  • Actually, the sword in question Geralt receives is a silver blade called Aerondight. "Arondight" was the sword given by the Lady to a very different, somewhat philandering knight, effectively turning Geralt into Lancelot. Which is actually even more appropriate!
• When Ada's curse is renewed by the duplicitous Roderick de Wett, the witcher is press-ganged by Foltest into lifting the curse once more. The difference this time? The Striga is full-grown and Geralt is trapped in an elven crypt with her from midnight until dawn with nowhere to hide. Now the White Wolf could at this point unleash all his aggressive mutation strains, equip a Perun rune-stone emblazoned silver sword and lure the Princess away from her sarcophagus to kill her in a pitched battle. What's far more satisfying is utilizing signs and the environment to keep her at bay for a full six and a half-hours, (thankfully not in real game-time) but still undeniably impressive, as the later cutscene shows that canonically Geralt was not harmed at all during the entire night's tussle!
• Geralt vs the Assassin in the closing cinematic.
  • Foltest gets one, armoured or no, for being able to last more than a second unarmed against a mutant on a potion-induced combat high.
  • Another for the White Wolf, the rival Witcher seems to be doped up to the gills on Blizzard and Willow, making both Geralt's enhanced reflexes and his telekinetic magic all but useless. Our hero is on the ropes, but, being a consummate professional, Geralt off-sets the assassin's guard by throwing his hefty reward pouch in his face, bursting coins out everywhere, lops off his right arm, lays his belly open and severs his spine; all before every last Gold Oren showers to the floor.
• The sadly never realised and heavily improved version of the first Witcher, Rise of the White Wolf, never made it to the Xbox 360, PS3 or the PC but we do have this ridiculously awesome pre-rendered cinematic of Geralt shadow training at his campfire in the dead of night. The animation or mo-cap, whichever it is, is slick as hell.

Netflix Universe

• See here.

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