Where Game of Thrones had a steep learning curve because of the millions of characters and the nuanced medieval political drama, The Witcher is challenging for a number of other reasons. Netflix's big fantasy epic is told out of order through at least three different timelines and hardly scratches the surface of the worldbuilding found in the books and video games that the series is based on. There's a lot going on in The Witcher outside of the sex and magic, and it might leave some viewers—who haven't played the games or read the books—a little, well, confused. But there's one very important idea in The Witcher season one that doesn't get a lot of actual explanation in the series, despite being the entire driving force behind why the main characters are connected. It's called the Law of Surprise, and it's key to understanding this show.
Here's how The Witcher wiki describes the Law of Surprise:
The Law of Surprise is a custom as old as humanity itself. The Law dictates that a man saved by another is expected to offer to his savior a boon whose nature is unknown to one or both parties. In most cases, the boon takes the form of the saved man's firstborn child, conceived or born without the father's knowledge.This Law of Surprise is apparently inspired by Polish and Slavic folklore. One Redditor in The Witcher subreddit provided a pretty good background on where The Law of Surprise comes from:
Lately I'm seeing a lot of confusion about the Law of Surprise (Prawo niespodzianki - literally "Right of the Unexpected") - which at first, pardon the pun, surprised me. I thought everyone was familiar with that motif since childhood. Maybe the show didn't explain it well, but surely when you hear "Give me what you have at home but don't know" it rings a bell?The Redditor goes on to point to a Russian fairy tale from 9th century folklorist Afanasyev called "The Sea Tsar and Vasilisa the Wise" that mentions customs similar to those found in The Witcher. But, how this is actually applied to the plot of the show is a little bit more complex. It comes into play the fourth episode of Season One when Queen Calanthe (who dies in the first episode) is having a banquet for her daughter Princess Pavetta. Calanthe intends to strategically wed her daughter off to form political alliances, but a mysterious knight named Duny shows up to claim Pavetta as his bride. Apparently, years earlier, this knight saved Calanthe's husband, King Roegner's, life. When Duny saved Roegner's life, he said, “By tradition, I chose the Law of Surprise as payment ... Whatever windfall he came home to find would be mine.” This turns out to be Calanthe's daughter Pavetta, because Roegner returned home to find out he would be a father.
Related Stories
Now, by real life terms this whole law is pretty shitty—to claim ownership over one's daughter to be your bride. But, at least The Witcher sidesteps this by revealing that Pavetta and Duny are somehow in love, even though the man has the head of a gopher. (Did I mention Duny has the head of a rodent? Because Duny is also cursed for some reason and has a cute little gopher head.)
Calanthe doesn't want to abide by this ancient rule, so she orders her men to kill Duny. That's where Geralt steps in to defend Duny and save his life. After a brief tussle, Calanthe agrees for Pavetta and Duny to be wed, and Duny turns back into a human.
But, after Geralt intervenes, he jokingly tells Duny that he should be repaid with the Law of Surprise for saving the gopher man's life. The thing is, no one yet knows that Pavetta is already pregnant with Duny's child, Ciri. And because Geralt evoked the Law of Surprise it means Ciri is now tied to him through the Law of Surprise. This is why the whole of Season One is building toward Ciri and Geralt being together, because she is now his to protect. It's unclear what exactly the Law of Surprise means for Geralt and Ciri, but for now we know that their destinies are intertwined.
Here's hoping the second season will be a little bit more coherent, as showrunners have promised.
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7pr%2FQrqCrnV6YvK57xKernqqklravucSnq2ispmSudHyTam5qamhkxKmt02agrGWknbJuuMCwZKieXajCs7zRoqqeZaSdsm7DyK2aoZ2iZA%3D%3D