For those who have not yet watched all of Season 2 of The Witcher, please be aware that spoilers are contained within this article.
Season 2 of The Witcher not only saw the introduction of Geralt’s (Henry Cavill) beloved mentor, Vesemir (Kim Bodnia) but his and Ciri’s (Freya Allan) arrival at Kaer Morhen, the location where witchers train and spend most winters.
During this stay, something important was discovered about both Ciri and the witchers.
This led to Vesemir creating a new trial witcher mutagen. However, things did not go according to plan, and the mutagen was taken by Rience (Chris Fulton).
Along with this, Kim Bodnia also discusses how much Vesemir struggled to come to a decision regarding the witcher mutagen elixir.
Vesemir is conflicted about giving Ciri the witcher mutagen
While Vesemir does offer up the witcher elixir to Ciri, he is conflicted about the decision, even though it was her special blood that led to the creation of the mutagen in the first place.
Witchers have not been created for many years now in The Witcher, and this is thanks to the fact that the method for creating the elixir has been mostly lost to time.
Thanks to Ciri’s blood, Vesemir created a new elixir. But, even though he offered it up for Ciri to take, he was still conflicted about doing so.
This was because there is only a small success rate when it comes to creating witchers. During the Trial of Grasses, many of those who participate die.
However, with no new witchers being created, they are slowly dying off on the Continent, which Vesemir is deeply saddened by.
And, it was this conflict that Kim Bodnia was aiming to portray in Season 2 of The Witcher.
“It’s so complex. I’m still working on it! It’s like, oh god, it’s awful,” Bodnia said when questioned by Collider about Vesemir’s conflicting emotions.
“You’re totally right, and that is exactly the complex inside Vesemir right now and I have no idea where it’s going with that painfulness. To sacrifice and go into that mindset and, you know, I could lose my own son! I can lose her, I can lose everything just to keep on going with creating more witchers. It’s tough. It’s very tough. I’m still working on it.”
Ciri was also conflicted with her choice
In a separate interview by Collider, Freya Allan also reveals that Ciri was in conflict as well. Although, her conflict arose from the dangerous procedure and convincing Vesemir that it was okay to give her the elixir.
“She discovers a massive thing about her past and then she’s trying to say she wants to be a Witcher and she’s trying to convince him to go forward with it and he’s telling her some really horrible [things],” Allan revealed.
“There was so much happening that we really did sit down at the table and chat for a very long time about it. And that was one of my favorite scenes to shoot because not only do I learn so much of Kim and his way of working, but also he just offers so much and is so real.”
Season 2 of The Witcher is currently available to stream on Netflix.