The Reason Behind Witcher’s Elves as Antagonist But Not Villains
The Witcher Series on Netflix include Elves, and the Witcher’s Elves are not shown as villains but do have antagonists’ roles.
The Witcher Series is based on the witcher books written by Andrzej Sapkowski and the witcher video games. The series was released on the platform Netflix in the year 2019, and it introduced various characters in different timelines.
The Witcher Season 1 include a Witcher, Geralt of Rivia, who hunts monsters to earn money; a powerful mage, Yennefer of Vengerberg, who was shown disabled but transformed herself through magic; and a young girl, Princess Cirilla of Cintra, Ciri, whose whole family died and is now on the journey to find her fate, Geralt of Rivia.
Besides these three characters, all the other characters are in supporting roles but very crucial to the series. In the Witcher Series, a fantasy genre, a darker side of the fiction is portrayed. The series introduces Elves, one kind of humanoid race that inhabit the Continent.
The Witcher Season 1 portrayed these kinds as someone always on the suffering side of the story. Once Geralt was hired to kill a monster that was no other than one of an Elf. The humans think of Elves as monsters and always torture them for being Elf. However, with a lot of suffering, Elves in the series were given antagonist roles, but they were never one of the villains of the series.
In the Witcher Season 1, one of the Elves were always on the side of Ciri to protect her from danger. Ciri, after the attack on Cintra, ran into the woods, and there she met with a person who helped her escape the soldiers of Nilfgaard. The person later turned out to be an Elf with the name Dara.
Throughout season 1, Dara helps Ciri escape the big dangers of the world. Instead of Dara’s protection, Ciri got herself in danger and was on the verge of being killed. However, Ciri, unaware of her potential, uses it and escapes from the hands of Nilfgaardian soldiers.
The Witcher Season 2: Witcher’s Elves Antagonists
Season 1 includes a small number of Elves compared to season 2, and season 2 explores their motives and intentions in detail. The Witcher Season 2 started with the doubt of Yennefer being alive or not. Later it was disclosed that Yennefer, along with Fringilla (the head of Nilfgaard army), was captured by the Elves.
The two main Elves, the ruler of their people, were Filavandrel, played by Tom Canton and Francesca Findabair, played by Mecia Simson. Some of the cruel decisions of Elves, like capturing Yennefer and Francesca, was because of the way humans treat them. They never experienced any type of kindness from the humans, the major reason for their hostility towards humans throughout the series.
The Witcher Season 2 included a happy twist towards Elves, as Fringilla gave Francesca and her people the whole Cintra to live and prosper. However, things changed when Cahir came back, and Fringilla’s side of people was not accepting the good treatment of Elves.
Francesca had a child under the protection of Fringilla, but later it was slaughtered, which turned Francesca into an antagonist character. Francesca then killed all the newborn children of humans living in Cintra as an act of revenge.
Elves in the series weren’t shown totally bad, their revenge was horrible, but they were capable of loving or caring for someone outside their group. The reason behind Elves being antagonists is focused on the main theme of the series – the worst monsters are the ones we create. The Elves were never evil, but their circumstances made them desperate for revenge.
Witcher’s Elves revenge is only fair because of the suffering they have experienced since they were born. It is possible that the viewers might not approve of Elves’ methods, and nothing justifies someone’s cruel acts.
However, the viewers did witness the unfair treatment of Elves during the entry of Jaskier in the witcher season 2. Witcher’s Elves’ feelings are real and make total sense, but their decisions of addressing those are not. Although their horrible past and present treatment are not an excuse for their cruel acts, they do explain their acts.
Throughout the Witcher Series, anyone can easily make out that the Elves only want to live peacefully and be treated with kindness and compassion. The Witcher Season 2 does show Elves’ side of aggression, but the aggression only came out when someone attacked.
Before the death of Francesca’s child, everything was going on well. The Elves have found a truce with Fringilla, and they were given a safe place with food and everything to live a peaceful life. In return, the Elves did all the things Fringilla asked them to do.
But the birth of the child changed everything, as the Elves didn’t want to fight, and their alliance with Fringilla weakened. At the end of Season 2, it was shown that Francesca, along with all the Elves, knew about Ciri being the Child with Elder Blood who can help their problems with humans.
Along with the whole Continent, Witcher’s Elves’ are too looking for Ciri to use her powers for their own good. Ciri is their only hope to live peacefully on the Continent with humans. The thing which makes Witcher Series interesting is that the audience might not agree with the characters, but many of them are understandable, and the viewers can relate to some of them.
Witcher’s Elves does have the sense of quality, which the biggest villains of the series doesn’t have. And they might be portrayed as antagonists for the main characters, but they are no villains in the series.
