It goes without saying that a lot of fans of Geralt and his world are waiting impatiently for The Witcher season 2 to hit Netflix so that they can binge-watch it and then comment on it for the next year until the possibility of a season 3 becomes reality. But as of now, the commentary is still on season one, the books and how they’ll be fit into the oncoming season that will see Geralt and Ciri traveling together, at least part of the time if the books are going to be followed closely. But stopping to take time to look at the weapons the Witcher wields is kind of interesting since there are two main weapons that Geralt handles and they have a different purpose since the steel sword is basically the everyday, multi-purpose sword that can handle monsters or humans but is usually more effective against humans, largely because human beings don’t normally have the same physical properties that many monsters tend to. There are some monsters that will succumb to steel, but a lot of times the darker and stronger the monster, the more specialized the weapons have to be.
The silver sword, which isn’t much good in a regular fight due to the softness of the metal, as Cavill confirms, is still highly useful against monsters for the reason that silver is often seen as pure, and as a result can work against the dark, supernatural creatures that are seen as impure due to the nature of what they are. Silver doesn’t necessarily work against everything, but when hunting monsters this blade is usually fastened to the saddle of his trusty steed, Roach, and if things go well Geralt will usually be prepared with the sword at hand or close by. But since he doesn’t like to endanger Roach it’s usually more likely that he’ll have it in hand and ready to go.
Learning that they use rubber swords on set and stunt swords isn’t too hard to believe since there are likely moments when they use actual metal blades, but for safety’s sake and to avoid bashing the hell out of each other it’s easier to think that the actors are using blades that are conducive to the movements that they’re executing and can be edited in later when the scenes are shot and ready to be touched up. But having watched a sword expert comment on the different sword fights in movies and actually praise Cavill’s movements and the choreography in the show, it’s nice to think that those that are designing the fight scenes took into account how Geralt would move and how his swordsmanship requires a certain type of blade and hilt so that he’s able to keep his movements smooth and fluid. The angled crossguard isn’t exactly uncommon in swords, but it’s not something that one might have seen all the time. The trick of this however is that the angled guard does make it just a bit easier, for some people, to roll the blade along their wrist and thereby complement their fighting style. It’s an odd thing to think about when thinking of a sword fight and how people move about, but rolling a blade over your wrist is often a fancy and not entirely needed move, though it can be advantageous if one knows how to use it.
That’s another trick since when choreographing a fight there are certain rules that need to be followed of course, but the idea is to find a fighting style that the actor and the character can work with and adapt to their body and their movements to make it feel and look natural. Geralt is like a white-haired buzzsaw when he fights, and his movements are measured and yet smooth enough that he appears to shift effortlessly from one position to the next and always has his blade where he needs it for the best defense or the best offensive position. Out of the many different sword fighters that people have seen over the years, Geralt comes across as one of the absolute best since he’s absolutely confident and undeniably brutal since he doesn’t tend to leave people alive unless he wants to or needs to.
Season 2 is already looking like it’s going to be great and the best part is that people don’t have the long left to wait since The Witcher will be back in December and it’s bound to happen that we’ll see plenty of monsters and will also (hopefully) see Ciri become even more powerful and begin to develop the kind of skills to go with that power so that she can become the badass that she is in the books. There are a lot of questions that arose during season one that people wanted to be answered as well. Thankfully there isn’t a lot of time left between now and then.
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