Season 3 of The Witcher is finally here and that means there are plenty more monsters for Geralt of Rivia to hunt down.
*WARNING: Spoilers ahead for The Witcher season 3* — As a professional monster hunter, Henry Cavill’s Geralt is no stranger to facing off against all manner of beasties but season 3 of the Netflix series sees The Witcher contend with some of the most fearsome creatures he’s ever crossed paths with.
Episode 1 | Jackapace
The first episode of the new season features a jackapace, a creature unlike anything existing Witcher fans will have seen as it appears to be a new creation for the show.
Geralt, Yennefer and Ciri cross paths with the beast when attending a party after the fire mage Rience lures the creature to attack them.
The jackapace takes on the appearance of an enormous woodlouse with armor-like plates covering its back. To travel at greater speeds, the monster curls up into a ball and rolls around.
It’s a strange sight but it certainly makes for an unsettling creature.
Episode 2 | Flesh Monster
Episode 2 features the most disturbing monster we’ve come across in all three seasons of The Witcher.
The Flesh Monster, as it’s being called, is made up of a mess of human body parts after at least three – perhaps more – young sorceresses from Aretuza were taken prisoner and experimented on.
Geralt discovers the creature when investigating an underground cavern below a castle where the fire mage Rience had been taking refuge, although the type of magic being practiced there is far beyond his skill set.
Attached to the wall of the cavern are the disembodied heads of the three sorceresses whose minds are seemingly linked with the writhing mass of arms, legs and torsos. One by one, the three heads perish as Geralt deals attacking blows to the Flesh Monster.
Episode 3 | Werewolf, Wyvern and the Wild Hunt
Episode 3 is the busiest chapter in terms of monster appearances in season 3.
The first creature that Geralt comes across is a werewolf named Otto and he’s a character who the witcher has crossed paths with before.
Otto greets Geralt as an old friend and explains to Jaskier that the witcher was once hired to kill him but instead, saved his life after giving him an amulet that can stave off his monstrous transformation.
Their encounter nearly results in disaster, however, as Teryn – a young girl who Geralt and Jaskier were trying to help – grabbed the amulet from Otto’s neck, almost causing him to transform but thankfully, Geralt managed to recover the amulet and stop Otto from becoming a werewolf in the nick of time.
Wyverns are lizard-like creatures that often get mistaken for dragons in the world of The Witcher. While they may be able to fly, wyverns do not breathe fire, instead preferring to target enemies with the venomous stinger in their tails.
The scene is a reference to both The Witcher books – where Ciri has a similar encounter- and a minor quest that players will experience in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt video game where Geralt happens upon a showman trying to pass off a young wyvern as a basilisk.
Episode 3’s final scene also features a brief encounter with the Wild Hunt, a group of spectral knights that TV fans will also have seen briefly in the season 2 finale.
Led by an individual named Eredin, the Wild Hunt are actually a band of elves sent from another world to capture slaves, although they have since set their sights on Ciri due to her elder blood and magical powers.
Seen as an omen of war, the Wild Hunt typically travels as a ghostly projection in the sky but when needed, can take corporeal form and hunt their prey on the ground.
As one of the big-bads in the world of The Witcher, we can expect to see the Wild Hunt causing their fair share of trouble as the show progresses.
Episode 4 | Aeschna
The fourth episode in The Witcher season 3 includes a feisty encounter with an aeschna, a water-dwelling creature.
Scholars in the world of The Witcher long disputed the existence of aeschnae as they were once quite rare but they began to thrive in the polluted waters of the Pontar Delta where the creatures grew big enough to snatch people and livestock from passing ships.
Geralt and Ciri barter their way onto a ferry in season 3 with the promise of protecting the vessel from the creatures should one attack.
In the books, aeschnae share similarities with praying mantises but the TV version of the creature appear as something more akin to an oversized and mutated newt or salamander.
Season 3 of The Witcher arrived on Netflix on Thursday, June 29, 2023, while volume 2 will follow suit on July 27.
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