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Season 1
Episode 1: The End's Beginning
- Two events serve as Establishing Character Moment for our protagonist, Geralt of Rivia:
- First would be his encounter with a kikimora, a Giant Spider-like creature with more monstrous features and sentience. Despite a few scrapes here-and-there, Geralt defeats the enemy with nary a scratch. We also see Geralt at his optimum fighting condition: he is well-equipped with weapons and potions, and he seems to end the fight just around the time he intended.
- Second would be where he earns his infamous moniker, "the Butcher of Blaviken." When Renfri's band of thugs hold the town hostage, he shows that he can cut through them like a hot knife through butter—as well as deflect crossbow bolts along the way.
- The Butchering of Blaviken is done in a one take shot from when the first cross-bow bolt is launched at Geralt. Blink and you'll miss it, but while Geralt is dealing with his third opponent, he reverse-grip bats another bolt past his own head!
- The first human kill Geralt performs. Once again shoving a sword through his foe's mouth, then levering the flat through his skull!
- Renfri, the Shrike herself battling the witcher to a near standstill with short-sword and dagger, laying three cuts on him before finally being disarmed. Whether because of her own mutation, or Geralt holding back, she leaves an indelible impression on Geralt for the rest of his days.
- The forces of the kingdom of Cintra, to its credit, manages to demonstrate its capability as a professional army at the Battle of Marnadal—with its reigning monarchs Queen Calanthe and King Eist at the forefront. Were it not for Nilfgaard's superior numbers, the loss of naval support, as well as the mortal wounding of both Calanthe and Eist, they probably had a chance of surviving.
- Their Court Mage, Mousesack, is no slouch either, conjuring up a Deflector Shield that buys the Cintrans (especially Princess Ciri) time to escape.
- Credit is due as well to Nilfgaardian knight Cahir, whose command of Marnadal (and direct role in killing King Eist) paved the way to the sacking and downfall of Cintra.
- Cirilla using her powers as a Source to scream the house down on her captor, Cahir. First causing his horse to rear and collapse, then to repulse his attempt to restrain her, followed by toppling a monolith that then splits the earth into a great chasm between them.
Episode 2: Four Marks
- Geralt demonstrates that he is not only a brutish warrior, but a Genius Bruiser capable of Talking the Monster to Death as well—eventually convincing Filavandrel and his minions to let him and Jaskier go:Filavandrel: If I bring my people down from these mountains, it would mean bowing to human sovereignty. They'll make slaves of us! Pariahs of half-blood children...Geralt: Then go - somewhere - else. Rebuild... Get strong again. Show the humans that you are more than what they fear you to be.Filavandrel: Like you, Witcher?Geralt: I have learned to live with them. So that I may live.Toruviel: Please, my King. There are others. A new generation. Evellien who wish to fight! Let us take back what's ours. Starting now.Torque: Wait!Filavandrel: Torque! Stand aside!Torque: The witcher could've killed me. But he didn't... He's different. Like us!Geralt: If you must kill me... I am ready. But the Sylvan's right. Don't call me human.
- As part of her Training from Hell, Tissaia de Vries forces the Aretuzan witches to bottle lightning, leading a number of the less-powerful girls to be badly injured, including Yennefer. When Yennefer understandably lashes out at her Stern Teacher, Tissaia doesn't just block the lightning, she catches and redirects it.
Episode 3: Betrayer Moon
- Geralt's contract to lift the Striga Curse from Adda the White. What's more remarkable is that compared to the kikimora fight, Geralt is trying his hardest not to kill her. He even loses his sword and his potions are destroyed during the fight, but he still lasts all night against the cursed being.
- Geralt tries to open the hunt by entrapping her in a silver chain lariat, that's pretty much the only part of the fight lifted from the page. After she busts the bonds Geralt is forced to use the Aard to such an extent that the old castle floor collapses them both into the crypts.
- No silver-studded gauntlets for our witcher? Just pull out a silver, snarling wolf-snout knuckle duster! One that Geralt uses to punch Adda across the cellar as she dives at him!
- Geralt football-spearing Adda away from her mother's tomb as she tries to outrun the rising morn. Then sealing himself in her sarcophagus with a Yrden.
- Notably, in The Last Wish, Geralt was aware of the nature of the curse, and only fought the striga for a short while to exhaust her before he hid in her crypt and sealed it to wait until dawn. Here, he fought her until right before dawn arrived, and he didn't know he needed to wait that long to break the curse until he'd questioned the one who cast it, so his entire plan to contain her was made up on the spot.
- Geralt biting a still feral Adda behind the ear to prove who's the Alpha here, as she tries to rip him apart. This is after she's already opened his throat with her remaining talons!
- Intercut with this entire sequence, it should be noted, would be Yennefer undergoing the procedure that transforms her hunchbacked body into the Ms. Fanservice sorceress we will see for most of the series. The entire process is a Painful Transformation that apparently distorts and bends the subject's body to the desired shape—with all the Body Horror and blood this entails. Yennefer scores major points for willingly undergoing this without any anaesthetic.
- Most of the cinematography of this sequence is breathtaking. With a ghastly screeching Adda, backlit by the moon through the Gothic arches, Yennefer writhing, drenched in blood as fire rages against her side profile. The blue-white illumination of the witcher signs as they cut through the dark. And the gold rays of the dawn sun creeping into the catacombs as the Striga Princess advances on a battle-torn Geralt.
Episode 4: Of Banquets, Bastards and Burials
- An Offscreen Moment of Awesome: when the bar storyteller tells his tale of how Geralt was swallowed by the selkimore they paid him to fight, Jaskier calmly takes down notes, confident that Geralt got away fine. Just as the storyteller claims that Geralt obviously died, Geralt walks in, covered in selkimore guts, but clearly no worse for wear.
- On a minor note, the fact that the whole tavern rises into singing "Toss a Coin to Your Witcher" just immediately after Geralt enters. As shown later in the episode, the song's even reached the ears of the Cintran royal court. Whether Geralt admits it or not, Jaskier's attempt at spinning his reputation positively is working.
- The all-out battle royale that breaks out during Princess Pavetta's betrothal is full of these:
- When Queen Calanthe tries to have Urcheon of Erlenwald (who is secretly in an affair with her daughter Princess Pavetta) executed for intruding during her betrothal, Geralt immediately realizes the knight is cursed, sought to reason with the Queen—and when ignored, jumps straight to his defense in a Back-to-Back Badasses moment. As they cut through the Royal Guard of Cintra, Calanthe looks justifiably horrified at the pair of warriors she's just challenged.
- Eist (then still a nobleman of Skellige) also jumps into the fight when it devolves into a brawl, backed up by the entire Skelligan contingent of the wedding guests, acknowledging the right of Urcheon's cause—even as it leads him to oppose the Queen he clearly has the hots for.Eist Tuirseach: The Law of Surprise has been called! You kill them (draws his dagger and glares at the oncoming opponents), kill me.
- Right after the above, we get a short clip showing Geralt, Urcheon and Eist all fighting at once, and it is glorious.
- Queen Calanthe, realising the threat Geralt and Eist's reaction poses, takes a sword and begins pacifying the brawlers herself. This includes walking straight towards Eist, who immediately ducks out of the way of Calanthe beheading the attacker behind him. He may be on the opposing side, but Calanthe isn't about to let her future King be skewered while she has anything to say about it.
- The crowner for this entire scenario, however, goes not to any warrior, but to the unassuming Princess Pavetta herself. Deceived by her mother (who almost had her lover Duny/Urcheon killed), she screams and unwittingly unleashes the extent of her powers (much like her daughter did earlier), summoning a vortex that blows away everyone. Were it not for Mousesack and Geralt trying their best to contain her, it's not unreasonable to assume she would have torn the castle down.
Episode 6: Rare Species
- Geralt and Yennefer fighting off the Reavers to save the dragon egg. Of particular note is the moment where the lead Reaver blinds Geralt and stabs at his face with a spear, but Geralt catches it anyway. Earlier, in the middle of the two of them fighting hard against superior numbers, Yennefer shouts "Aard, now!" and rushes to Geralt. He catches her, they share a Big Damn Kiss and Geralt hurls an aard so powerful it knocks four Reavers clear out of the cavern (implied to be from Yennefer empowering Geralt's sign with her own magic). That is how you Battle Couple.
Episode 7: Before a Fall
- Ciri's powers awakening in full to save her from former friends betraying her. The aftermath is not pretty, but goes to show just how much power resides within Ciri. Also, this was merely a side effect: she was actually prophesying about the coming of the White Chill.
Episode 8: Much More
- Yurga the farmer, nothing more than an ordinary man, sticking around to bury the dead left behind by war. He knows that it's dangerous, not least of all because Geralt tells him, but carries on anyway because it's simply the right thing to do.
- Cahir showing his superiority in sword-fighting over Vilgefortz, disarming him over and over until Vilgefortz runs out of magic to make his sword reappear, finally ending the battle by kicking Vilgefortz off a hill.
- The mages defending Sodden Hill show just how dangerous magic really is, wiping out entire groups of Nilfgaardian soldiers for every mage on the battlefield. Nilfgaard, on the other hand, have Fringilla, who in turn is every bit as capable of putting severe dents in the Northern mages' defenses and is a keen strategist.
- Triss' nature magic. Early in the battle she magically grows mushrooms that release toxic gas clouds all around the ground where the Nilgaardian soldiers are walking, incapacitating or outright killing many. Later she blocks the keep's destroyed gate with a wall of vines that not only form a line of defense, but grapple and strangle soldiers trying to break through, essentially adding them to the structure as meatshields.
- Fringilla proves to be one of Nilfgaard's major trump cards in the battle. Using her magic she is able to single-handedly blast down the keep's gates, after which she uses a portal to have her soldiers fire arrows in. She then opens the portal in the keep's courtyard, assassinating numerous of the keep's own archers in the process with the teleported arrows. Finally, she has a male mage approach the keep under a veil of mist to drop a box of parasites, which infest the keep's defenders to turn on the Northern mages.
- Yennefer showing what happens when she really lets go, absorbing the flames from the keep in order to unleash an enormous firestorm that wipes out a large portion of the Nilfgaardian army and unwittingly buys just enough time for Foltest's army to arrive and do battle with the remaining Nilfgaardian forces.
- Destiny leading Geralt and Ciri to meet each other. Because of the merchant family's adopting of Ciri, Ciri is Geralt's child surprise twice over.
Season 2
Episode 3: What is Lost
- After being egged on by Lambert's Drill Sergeant Nasty taunting, Ciri takes on an obstacle course that's designed for Witchers-in-training who are much further along their training than she is, ostensibly just to humiliate her when she repeatedly gets her ass kicked by it. Despite being bloodied and bruised, she keeps going, even when Lambert decides she's had enough and tells her to stop, to the point that, by the time Geralt finds out she's doing it, she's managed to complete all but the very end of it.
Episode 4: Redanian Intelligence
- Scrambling for a plan in a city where everyone is searching for them, Cahir and Yennefer learn of a mysterious figure called the Sandpiper who is helping smuggle the persecuted elves to safety. Who is the Sandpiper? None other than Jaskier, utilising his talents and contacts to help. Why? Partly because it's the right thing, and partly because he has the foresight to know it won't stop at elves.
- Sigismund Dijkstra Establishing Character Moment: Foiling an assassination attempt on Vizimir by his closest advisors by dispatching one with a throwing knife and forcing the other to drink the poisoned wine meant for Vizimir. And later going on to show how much The Chessmaster he is by laying out to Vizimir his plans. Ladies and Gentlemen, The Hyper-Competent Sidekick of the Witcher Verse has arrived, and Graham McTavish plays him to perfection.
Episode 5: Turn Your Back
- Yennefer saving Jaskier by waiting for "fire fucker" to threaten her with a burning finger, then spitting out the mouthful of liquor she's been holding so that his face gets scorched. Turns out, Yenn doesn't need her magic to be a dangerous woman!
- Jaskier also helps somewhat with his own rescue, picking up on Yennefer pretending to be his wife near instantly in spite of being terrified and in a great deal of pain from torture, allowing her to get close enough to make her play.
Season 3
Episode 1: Shaerrawedd
- Yennefer and Geralt both get one of these during the battle:
- With Geralt having gone through Rience's portal, Yennefer needs to keep it open so he can return. She does just that - despite it being a new strain of Chaotic Insanity she's not used to - while dishing out wind blasts to Francesca, Dara and two elf mooks when they try to blindside her.
- After two arrows manage to fly through the portal, Geralt - realizing that something's wrong on the other end - breaks both of Rience's wrists, grabs his sword and then heads back through the portal, whereupon he proceeds to absolutely demolish the attacking elves. Bonus points for this moment being a single shot.
Episode 7: Out Of The Fire, Into The Frying Pan
- Wandering in the desert of Korath, Ciri is attacked by a giant scorpion monster. She ends up ripping off part of its carapace and beating it to death with it.
