History Literature / TheLastWish

* LivingMacGuffin: Princess Pavetta of Cintra has various nobles vying for her hand, though the dowager Queen Calanthe wants her to marry into the royal family of Skellige for political reasons. Then the monstrous-formed Urcheon arrives to claim her hand in accordance with an oath given by Calanthe's dead husband. [[spoiler:After Geralt and a druid stop the nobles from killing each other and Pavetta's latent magical gift from destroying the castle, Pavetta marries Urcheon, whose curse has been [[ThePowerOfLove lifted by true love]] and now uses his birth name Duny, and Calanthe marries Eist Tuiseach, the king of Skellige who had confessed his love for her when she was injured during the fiasco.]]
* NonindicativeTitle: More like, deliberately misleading (both in original Polish and English translation). "The Last Wish" refers not to a LastRequest but [[spoiler:to the last remaining (out of three) wish a genie owed to Geralt]].

** This is one of the arguments why Renfri is not some kind of mutant - the Black Sun prophecy claims "sixty women in crowns of gold, which will fill the rivers with blood". It's obviously not a proper prophecy: as Geralt points out, it doesn't rhyme.

* SlashedThroat: In "The Witcher" Geralt narrowly survives having his neck ripped open by the still-partially-a-striga Princess Adda. He got lucky: The claw swipe in question missed anything ''really'' important, and he got medical attention soon after. He still spent a few months in a hospital.
* TraumaticSuperpowerAwakening: Hiring Geralt to kill the boyfriend of a latent sorceress [[spoiler:Pavetta]] was a bad idea.
* UnreliableExpositor: In "The Lesser Evil" Geralt doesn't really believe either Renfri or the wizard is telling the whole story. The one claims she was driven to evil by the abuse she suffered at various hands, the other says Renfri is a mutant who was born AxCrazy.

* "The Voice of Reason": The FramingStory. While Geralt recuperates from injuries sustained during "The Witcher" at the Temple of Melitele, Head Priestess Nenneke makes him recount some of his adventures.

* "The Lesser Evil": An InNameOnly deconstruction of "Literature/SnowWhiteAndTheSevenDwarfs".

* "The Last Wish": A deconstruction of "Literature/{{Aladdin}}". Geralt and Dandelion encounter a djinn, and Geralt meets Yennefer of Vengerberg, his lover for most of the series.

* "The Last Wish": A deconstruction of "Literature/{{Aladdin}}". Geralt and Dandelion encounter a djinn, and Geralt meets Yennefer of Vangerberg, his lover for most of the series.

* "The Lesser Evil": An InNameOnly deconstruction of "Literature/SnowWhiteAndTheSevenDwarfs". Geralt ans

* "The Voice of Reason": The FramingStory. While Geralt recuperates from his injuries at the Temple of Melitele, Head Priestess Nenneke makes him recount some of his adventures.
* "The Witcher": A deconstruction of SaveThePrincess plots.
* "A Grain of Truth": A gleeful deconstruction of "Literature/BeautyAndTheBeast".
* "The Lesser Evil": An InNameOnly deconstruction of "Literature/SnowWhiteAndTheSevenDwarfs".
* "A Question of Price": A critical look at the fairy tales like "Literature/{{Rumpelstiltskin}}", where a supernatural being asks for "what you don't expect to find back home".

* "The Last Wish": A deconstruction of "Literature/{{Aladdin}}".

Consists of six short stories [[FramingDevice framed]] by a seventh narration. While not an immediate part of "The Witcher Saga" (which spans books three through seven), it introduces most of its protagonists (Geralt, Yennifer, Dandelion) and foreshadows Ciri's origin story.

* ''The Voice of Reason''. The FramingStory. While Geralt recuperates from his injuries at the Temple of Melitele, Head Priestess Nenneke makes him recount some of his adventures.
* ''The Witcher''. A deconstruction of SaveThePrincess plots.
* ''A Grain of Truth''. A gleeful deconstruction of "Literature/BeautyAndTheBeast".
* ''The Lesser Evil''. An InNameOnly deconstruction of "Literature/SnowWhiteAndTheSevenDwarfs".
* ''A Question of Price''. A critical look at the fairy tales like "Literature/{{Rumpelstiltskin}}", where a supernatural being asks for "what you don't expect to find back home".
* ''The Edge of the World''. A deconstruction of OurElvesAreBetter, among other things.
* ''The Last Wish''. A deconstruction of "Literature/{{Aladdin}}".

* [[TheButcher The Butcher of Blaviken]]: Geralt in ''The Lesser Evil''.
* AnachronicOrder: ''The Voice of Reason'' is set immediately after the ''The Witcher'', which is chronologically the last adventure Geralt recalls. The rest seem to follow each other, though.
* EstablishingCharacterMoment: ''The Witcher'' really hammers in what being a witcher is all about, what methods they use, and what CrapsackWorld they operate in. The events in this short story were so iconic, the developers of the [[VideoGame/TheWitcher video game adaptation]] put them into the opening cutscene, even though it had only tangential connection to the main plot.
* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: ''The Witcher'' short story again. Witchers are said to be novelty thing, not relic of the past. Visimir is called king of Novigrad. Magic closer resembles traditional folklore, not MagicAIsMagicA. The most notable difference is social position of the sorcerers - they are travelling pariahs not unlike witchers.
* EverythingsBetterWithPrincesses: Averted with Princess Adda in ''The Witcher'', who was the result of an incestuous affair between the King and his sister and spends the first fourteen years of her life as a ''striga'', and again in ''Lesser Evil'', which features a sociopathic leader of a warband, who happens to be a princess by birth.

* PropheciesRhymeAllTheTime: One of the arguments why Renfri is not some kind of mutant - the Black Sun prophecy claims "sixty women in crowns of gold, which will fill the rivers with blood". It's obviously not a proper prophecy, as Geralt points out, it doesn't rhyme.

* {{Yandere}}: The Bruxa in ''A Grain of Truth''

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: ''The Witcher'' short story again. Witchers are said to be novice thing, not relic of the past. Visimir is called king of Novigrad. Magic closer resembles traditional folklore, not MagicAIsMagicA. The most notable difference is social position of the sorcerers - they are travelling pariahs not unlike witchers.

* EstablishingCharacterMoment: ''The Witcher'' really hammers in what being a witcher is all about, what methods they use, and what CrapsackWorld they operate in. The events in this short story were so iconic, the developers of the [[VideoGame/TheWitcher video game adaptation]] put them into the opening cutscene, even though they had little to do with the game's own plot.
* EverythingsBetterWithPrincesses: averted with Princess Adda in ''The Witcher'', who was the result of an incestuous affair between the King and his sister and spends the first fourteen years of her life as a ''striga'', and again in ''Lesser Evil'', which features a sociopathic leader of a warband, who happens to be a princess by birth.

The first book in ''TheWitcher'' series by Andrzej Sapkowski, originally in Polish but translated to English [[AdaptationDisplacement after the game became popular]].

* ''The Voice of Reason''. The FramingStory. While Geralt recuperates from his injuries at the Temple of Melitele, Head Priestess Nenneke makes him retell some of his adventures.

The first book in TheWitcher series by Andrzej Sapkowski, originally in Polish but translated to English [[AdaptationDisplacement after the game became popular]].

* ''A Grain of Truth''. A gleeful deconstruction of "BeautyAndTheBeast".

* TraumaticSuperpowerAwakening

* ARiddleForTheAges: Just what exactly [[spoiler:Geralt]] wished for with his last wish?

* ''A Grain of Truth''. A gleeful deconstruction of ''BeautyAndTheBeast''.
* ''The Lesser Evil''. An InNameOnly deconstruction of ''SnowWhiteAndTheSevenDwarves''.

* ''The Last Wish''. A deconstruction of ''{{Aladdin}}''.

* Yandere: The Bruxa in ''A Grain of Truth''

* ''A Question of Price''. A critical look at the fairy tales like ''{{Rumpelstiltskin}}'', where a supernatural being asks for "what you don't expect to find back home".