The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf<\/em>, is the animated prequel to Netflix\u2019s The Witcher<\/em> series. Rather than Geralt, it follows his teacher, Vesemir, and details the events that lead to the near annihilation of the Witcher order at the hands of the sorceress Tetra. Over the course of the film, Vesemir loses his friends, his prestige, his home, and even the life of his first (and only) love. And what makes it doubly tragic is that, while unintentional, all that happens is ultimately Vesemir\u2019s fault.<\/p>\n About halfway through the film, as Vesemir and Tetra become reluctant allies to hunt down a strange new monster-elf hybrid, Tetra tells a story about a witcher who was hired by a cursed priest to kill the sorceress who cursed him. The witcher killed the sorceress and the priest got better. However, it was discovered later that there had been no curse: the witcher had bribed the cook to poison the priest. It was con all along\u2014and an innocent woman died because of it. Vesemir\u2019s only reaction at hearing the story is a morbid appreciation of the con\u2014lamenting that he hadn\u2019t been the one to think of it.<\/p>\n In the climactic battle of the episode between Vesemir and Tetra, we learn that Tetra is the daughter of the sorceress in the aforementioned story. Moreover, the witcher of the tale didn\u2019t just murder her mother, he did it in front of Tetra\u2014even though he knew she was hiding in the cupboard watching. This trauma is what pushed her to become a sorceress and set in motion what would eventually become the witcher genocide we see in the film.<\/p>\n But here\u2019s the dark truth hiding within the film: it wasn\u2019t just some random witcher who killed Tetra\u2019s mother. It was Vesemir himself.<\/p>\n Slightly before Tetra reveals her relation to the story she told Vesemir, Kitsu traps him in a series of illusions. In one of them, Vesemir is drinking in a tavern, regaling the people with the tale of the midwife he told earlier in the film. At its completion, Luka asks him to \u201cTell \u2018em about the time you swindled the Redanian priest. Had him thinking he was cursed.\u201d<\/p>\n As the film establishes earlier in the film that what you see in an illusion comes from either the mind of the caster or the mind of the victim, it\u2019s obvious that Kitsu dredged up this bit from his memories. And to be clear, Luka\u2019s words are not just Tetra\u2019s story being regurgitated. Never did she mention that the priest was Redanian: that knowledge comes from purely from Vesemir\u2019s own memory.<\/p>\n Moreover, it\u2019s not that Vesemir was lying to Tetra when he reacted to hearing her story. It\u2019s more tragic than that: he didn\u2019t even remember killing her mother. Her defining moment\u2014the event that would shape her entire life\u2014was a story he used to tell while drunk and had forgotten about over the years.<\/p>\n The lesson here is that, despite being the film\u2019s protagonist, Vesemir is not a hero. Even before he gained supernatural powers he was a scam artist and a thief. As the film shows, even as a witcher, he cares only about making coin. He refuses to help friends for free and has no qualms about leaving a child alone in a monster-filled woods.<\/p>\n Tetra is justified in her hatred of witchers. For decades they have been making monsters for the sake of profit\u2014whether it be a young Vesemir coning a priest or Deglan\u2019s mages splicing together new creatures to hunt. Many innocents have died because of this, regardless of how many naturally occurring monsters the witchers dispatched.<\/p>\n Yet, in all this tragedy there is hope. It is only because Vesemir partakes in and later comes to reject the immoral nature of how the witchers operate that he becomes the perfect person to teach the next generation. He has already made the mistakes and learned from them. Because of this, Geralt and his young friends will never have to. They will be not only better witchers but better men as well.<\/p>\n The Witcher: Nightmare of the<\/em> Wolf<\/em> can be seen on Netflix<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/biggestinjapan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/w1.jpg?resize=960%2C571\")
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