The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf (2021)

Rather than Geralt of Rivia, this tells the tale of Vesemir.  When Vesemir was a boy, Delgan the Witcher came to the estate to purge a demon.  Delgan was well-paid for the purging.  Vesemir, who is just a servant boy, now had dreams of being a witcher.  His desire for wealth and adventure outweighed his growing affection for Illyana, a servant girl on the estate.  Years later, Vesemir is the most successful of the witchers and also an admitted hustler.  Asked to assist an old acquaintance, Filavandrel the elf, to find missing elf girls, Vesemir declines unless he is paid.  Meanwhile, in the halls of King Dagread, the sorceress Tetra Gilcrest accuses the witchers of spawning the very monsters that they then extort money to slay.  Only Lady Zerbst argues against her, winning the king's indifference on the subject.  Further events move the king toward Tetra's view but still not to the point of attacking the witcher stronghold of Kaer Morhen.  Instead, Tetra and Vesemir are sent as a team to purge the forest of monsters.  There, they discover a mutated elf girl with a new breed of basilisk at her side.

Here is the story of how Kaer Morhen came to be the ruins that appear in the Netflix series, how Vesemir became the oldest remaining witcher, and why the ability to create new witchers was lost.  As this is animated, the magic is impressive and the monsters are immense and plentiful.  The special effects budget has no limit, and it shows.  However, the story likes to jump about on the timeline, which can be confusing.  There are scenes of young Vesemir as a recruit and then adult Vesemir as something of an obnoxious lout.  This gets most confusing when shifting between the current pool of young would-be witchers and Vesemir's cohort of youths.  When are we?  The story takes place over a 50 to 60 year period but there is no apparent difference in these times.  

At the end of the movie, Vesemir collects the surviving witcher candidates and takes up their training.  Among them is Geralt of Rivia, who is bald so as not to reveal him too easily.

Generally okay.  It provides some history for the world and gives some very good reasons why people would distrust witchers.  Why that distrust isn't equally applied to the sorcerers who made them is not explained.

The Witcher, Season 2

Having finally found Ciri (Freya Allan) in the finale of the first season, Geralt of Rivia (Henry Cavill) intends to protect her.  On their way, they stop at the Sodden battlefield.  Yennefer (Anya Chalotra), the third main character of the first season, is missing and presumed dead in the wake of the battle.  Heartbroken, Geralt resumes his journey toward home, Kaer Morhen.  Kaer Morhen is the home of the witchers, a fortress where they train and heal.  There are fewer than twenty left and no means of making more.  As part of his plan to protect Ciri, he begins training her to fight.  The other witchers join in the project and Ciri proves an apt pupil.  Meanwhile, Yennefer is not dead, but she lost her magic at Sodden.  She is crushingly ordinary and now just a captive of Nilfgaardians and later elves.  However, she learns that she may regain her powers by setting herself against Geralt.

As with last season, there are political machinations among the various factions and dissension among the mages of Aretuza (this world's Hogwarts).  Though various kingdoms and their noble rulers appear, it is hard to tell one from another.  Every kingdom is this multicultural melange, that makes it difficult to pick out who is from where.  Even the clothing is indistinguishable.  The world's elves are equally multicultural and seem no different from humans except for having pointy ears.  The world-building is atrocious.  All too often, a keep, fort, or city has not a single cultivated field outside the walls.  How do these people eat?  At one temple, the head priestess lights hundreds of candles.  Unless these are being manufactured by magic, that's unsustainable.  Sure, it looks cool, but really?

The world is tiny.  Several times, characters teleport from one realm to another only to have their pursuers arrive on horseback.  With so big a lead, you still get caught.  Then there was the pure lunacy.  The Black Knight was captured during the Battle of Sodden and is due to be executed.  The monarchs of the alliance are all in attendance as are several mages.  Rather than hacking off his head, his would-be executioner hacks off his manacles and the two flee.  No one pursues them.  Literally, they are just outside the place of execution and ride off down a brightly lit path and not a single arrow nor a single spell is sent to impede them.  What?  The dialogue is weak, often nothing more than the expected cliches answered by more cliches.  Too much of the dialogue is delivered as deep insight rather than the run-of-the-mill pap that it is.

It is not terrible, but it isn't good.  Still, I will watch the next season when it is released.

The Witcher

The story opens with Geralt the Witcher (Henry Cavill) fighting a massive, spider-like swamp monster.  Once he has killed it, he takes part of the corpse to a local town for bounty.  It is quickly apparent that Witchers are strongly disliked by ordinary folk.  It is strange to see how hostile they are to someone who could easily slaughter them.

The series follows three characters: Geralt of Rivia, Ciri (Freya Allan), and Yennefer (Anya Chalotra).  Though all appear in each episode, it isn't until the 3rd episode that it becomes clear that their timelines don't match.  Yennefer's induction into an order of magic predates Geralt's adventures by 30 years or more.  Soon after, Geralt attends the wedding of Ciri's parents, placing him about 15 years ahead of Ciri.  This would work much better if people actually aged.  It seems that Yennefer stopped aging when she achieved her mage status and Witchers are long-lived thanks to their mutation.  However, other character who recur don't seem to have aged either.

Geralt's story is mostly episodic as he fights the monster du jour.  He is infamous as the Butcher of Blaviken but also famous thanks to the songs of Jaskier the Bard (Joey Batey).  By the end of his series of adventures, his timeline has caught up to Ciri's.  Geralt tends to be laconic and has a deep, gravely voice that is very unlike Superman.  His eyes are yellow and his hair is white, leading to him being called the White Wolf.  As an aside, avid fantasy readers will surely have noticed the similarities between Geralt and Elric of Melnibone.  Elric also has white hair - he's an albino - and is called the White Wolf.  Michael Moorcock was probably not thrilled about Geralt of Rivia.

Cirilla "Ciri" the crown princess of Cintra finds herself on the run in the first episode when Cintra falls to the invading forces of Nilfgaard, a dark and murderous nation.  Before she sets out, she is told to find Geralt of Rivia.  Her adventures are nothing but a headlong flight from one peril to the next.  However, she does manifest powerful magic in times of stress.  If she knew how to use these powers, she would be formidable.  Her story has the weakest character arc though it is the thread that ties the others together.

Yennefer starts as a hunchback girl in a backwater town.  However, she has some innate magic talents that bring her to the attention of the local version of Hogwarts.  Involuntarily enrolled, Yennefer is not a very good student but, when she does have successes, she demonstrates unusual power.  Upon completion of her studies, her body is transformed into a beautiful woman.  Of the central characters, she has the most interesting character arc.  She is uncertain what she wants and where her loyalty should lie.  Magic is described as chaos that must be controlled and balanced; it is clear that Yennefer has had difficulty finding that balance.

The greatest weakness of the series is the setting, especially after Game of Thrones.  When the nations of Cintra, Aedirin, Sodden, Temeria, or Nilfgaard are mentioned, it is hard to have any notion of them.  There is no apparent difference between them in language or culture.  Nor do we have a map to place things.  Really, beyond Nilfgaard being the Mordor of this world, it was hard to fathom the politics with the sole exception of Cintra.  With all three stories now synchronized, perhaps that will be resolved in season 2.

All in all, it is an enjoyable show and worth watching.  Thumbs up.