Summary
- Cahir may be ruthless and driven, but lacks magical ability and ranks lowest in power among The Witcher's villains.
- Rience wields fire magic but lacks finesse, making him less powerful than Yennefer in battle.
- Emhyr's influence and military might make him a formidable foe, despite lacking personal combat skills.
Netflix's The Witcher season 4 will have to bring several new antagonists into the fold.
With that in mind, it's a good time to reflect on the show's villains thus far, whether they are living after season 3 or not. The Witcher's cast will be welcoming some new faces ahead of season 4, which makes it even more worthwhile to look back on the show's villains, because it can help fans create a benchmark for future antagonists. Further, after three seasons of The Witcher, most of the show's villains have been around long enough to gauge their power and accurately rank them from least to most powerful.
The Witcher Season 4's Perfect New Villain Casting Will Fix A Major Show Problem
Despite its many challenges, The Witcher season 4 is on the way, and its newly cast canon villain could be enough to turn the Netflix series around.
8 Cahir Mawr Dyffryn Aep Ceallach — Nilfgaardian Intelligence Officer
Cahir Is A Clear Villain In The Witcher Season 1
Although the Cahir twist in The Witcher season 3 set Cahir on a clear path towards redemption, he is a clear villain when the show begins and deserves to be ranked. Unfortunately for Cahir, his lack of magical ability lands him at the bottom of The Witcher's villain power rankings. Still, Cahir is an able swordsman, and he notably defeats Vilgefortz in a duel during season 1, but it's clear now that Vilgefortz was holding back the majority of his power to continue his ruse.
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The other thing that can be said for Cahir is that he proves himself to be extremely driven and resourceful, even if his drive is the product of evil. Still, his ruthlessness and skill with a sword would do him little good in a fight with a witcher or a mage, so he takes the lowest ranking. Despite that low ranking, Cahir should make for a useful member of Geralt's party when he s them for good in The Witcher season 4.
7 Rience — Vilgefortz's Henchman
Known For Wielding Fire Magic
Rience is one of The Witcher's more intimidating villains, but the evidence suggests he is not as powerful as he thinks he is. Rience is certainly no match for Yennefer in a fair fight, considering how easily she holds his portal open at Shaerrawedd in The Witcher season 3. Rience certainly isn't a slouch, and he displays some pretty impressive fire magic before being killed by Geralt in season 3, but his lack of skill in any field other than fire tells against him.
Fire magic is extremely dangerous and, by extension, anyone who wields it is extremely dangerous, but its uses are limited. Rience's power is erratic and difficult to control even at the best of times, and there is little to no finesse in the way he fights. This would make it relatively easy for a full-blown mage who knows what they're about to defeat him. Even so, Rience is not someone to be trifled with lightly, as he proves in numerous fights.
6 Lydia Van Bredevoort — Vilgefortz's Assistant
Killed By Triss In The Witcher Season 3
Lydia is a Witcher character who is somewhat difficult to get a read on, but her fight with Yennefer and Triss in season 3 provides enough of a glimpse of her power to give her a ranking. During this fight, Lydia claims that Vilgefortz gave her "power beyond power," and for a moment, it looks to be true. Lydia puts Yennefer in a magical chokehold before the sorceress can even turn around, which is impressive considering how powerful Yennefer is.
Lydia communicates telepathically after The Witcher season 2 because she is no longer capable of coherent speech after she nearly died investigating a vial of Ciri's blood.
However, Lydia caught Yennefer by surprise, so this encounter doesn't necessarily imply that she's stronger than Yen. Further, Triss quickly subdues Lydia when she arrives, allowing Yennefer to kill Vilgefortz's assistant with a casual flick of her wrist. With that in mind, it seems Lydia exaggerated the amount of power given to her by Vilgefortz. Still, she is a serious threat and has a much broader magical range than Rience, making her one of the more powerful villains in The Witcher.
5 Stregobor — Kovirian Mage
Sacrifices Himself At The Thanned Coup
Stregobor is one of The Witcher's more detestable characters, but the noble sacrifice he makes during the coup of Thanned in The Witcher season 3 proves that he is one of the most powerful characters on the show. In this scene, Stregobor creates an incredibly powerful inferno to incinerate the Scoia'tael and buy time for his comrades to escape. Stregobor also demonstrates his power on several other occasions, including The Witcher's first episode, which depicts the masterful illusions in his tower in Blaviken.
While Stregobor is definitely one of the more powerful characters in The Witcher, his area of expertise is illusions, which makes him less powerful than someone like Vilgefortz. Stregobor has a lot more range and total ability than Rience, and he seems to have more raw strength than Lydia, but he's not a prodigy like Yennefer, nor is he a brilliant evil mastermind like Vilgefortz. Accordingly, Stregobor falls right in the middle of The Witcher's villains in of power, but he's closer to the bottom half than he is to the top.
4 Eredin Bréacc Glas — King Of The Wild Hunt
Former Captain Of Xin'trea's Army (Show Only)
Eredin is easily one of the most powerful characters in The Witcher books, but his appearance in the show's prequel, The Witcher: Blood Origin, suggests that he will not be the same character in Netflix's canon. In the books, Eredin is skilled with magic and incredibly powerful, even for an elven mage. In the show, however, he is depicted as an army captain without any apparent magical skills. Still, Eredin becomes the leader of the Wild Hunt, which implies that he must be pretty powerful in one way or another.
Unfortunately, it's difficult to gauge how powerful Netflix's version of Eredin is compared to his book counterpart because he has hardly appeared thus far. Despite his relative weakness in Blood Origin, it's safe to expect him to be fairly powerful once he makes a more significant appearance in the main series. So far, he has only been seen in spectral form, which apparently makes him relatively easy to deal with, considering Geralt scares him off with a single casting of aard. If Eredin ever manages to physically enter Geralt's sphere, the titular witcher will have his hands full.
3 Voleth Meir — Demon From Another Sphere
Also Known As The Deathless Mother
Voleth Meir is one The Witcher's only villains that doesn't come from the books, and she is incredibly dangerous. Voleth Meir is a demon who was trapped in a hut by the earliest witchers on the continent, only to be freed by the meddling of Yennefer, Fringilla, and sca. Once free, Voleth Meir wreaks havoc by taking control of Ciri's body and using her powers to open a portal between spheres, flooding Kaer Morhen with monsters. Based on this, Voleth Meir might seem like The Witcher's most powerful villain.
The Witcher's creators revealed that Voleth Meir is in fact a dark elf and a part of the Wild Hunt in Netflix's canon.
However, Voleth Meir has a few key weaknesses that prevent it from taking the top spot. Firstly, Voleth Meir is from another sphere and can only exist in Geralt and Ciri's sphere with a vessel to contain it, which obviously restricts the demon significantly. Second, the most impressive displays of power that Voleth Meir demonstrates are actually a result of Ciri's abilities, which it controls through her. That being said, Voleth Meir may not be The Witcher's most powerful villain, but it's easily one of the greatest threats in the show's canon.
2 Emhyr Var Emreis — Emperor Of Nilfgaard
Emhyr Is Ciri's Biological Father
Emhyr var Emreis may not have any magical abilities or visible skill with a sword, but he wields a different type of power. Emhyr is the most influential person on the Continent, inspiring fanatic loyalty in his followers and striking fear into the hearts of his enemies. He is highly intelligent and utterly ruthless, and the vast armies he commands give him the military might he needs to fulfill his vision of the world. Further, Emhyr has a team of skilled mages and enough money to hire countless mercenaries if the need should arise.
Emhyr disinterred his enemies after conquering Nilfgaard, using their gravestones to pave his ballroom and earning the alias "The White Flame Dancing on the Barrows of his Enemies," or simply "The White Flame."
Emhyr isn't powerful in of personal ability in combat, but the influence he wields makes him more powerful than any soldier or mage. Emhyr controls armies and commands the loyalty of thousands, but his real power lies in his ability to outsmart and manipulate people. Despite his ruthless personality, Nilfgaardians see Emhyr as a messiah-like figure, which speaks to his ability to manipulate the masses. Further, Emhyr orchestrated the coup on Thanned, proving that he pulls the strings of even the mages.
1 Vilgefortz Of Roggeveen — Kovirian Mage
Vilgefortz Is Revealed As The Primary Antagonist In The Witcher Season 3
Only one character can match the intelligence and manipulation skills of Emhyr, and he also happens to be the most powerful mage in living memory. Vilgefortz of Roggeveen spends the first two seasons of The Witcher hiding his true strength and disguising his intentions, but his power is finally unleashed for all to see in The Witcher season 3. Vilgefortz shows off his unprecedented magical ability by easily defeating Geralt in a duel and demonstrates his ruthlessness by casually dismissing Tissaia when she finds out he's been feigning his feelings for her.
Vilgefortz has all the tactical brilliance and ruthlessness of Emhyr — which is probably why they are partners — but he's also ridiculously strong with chaos. What's more, Vilgefortz has the control to hide his real power from the rest of the mages, making him even more dangerous. Few mages can access so much power and those who can can't control it anywhere near as well as he does. Vilgefortz is also a brilliant liar and totally impossible to read, which makes it extremely difficult to manipulate him. There is no doubt that Vilgefortz is the strongest villain in The Witcher.
Based on the novels by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski and the video games, The Witcher follows the story of Geralt of Rivia, a monster hunter who struggles to find his place in a world where people often prove more wicked than beasts. "Ciri" Cirilla is the Princess of Cintra, who has magical abilities and whose fate has been linked to Geralt's. Yennefer of Vengerberg, a sorceress who trains to become a mage before deserting her duties and going solo, is also a main character in the Netflix series. The show's storylines are intertwined but told throughout different timelines, all of which eventually catch up to Ciri's, whose timeline of events is the most recent. Set on the Continent where men, monsters, and elves exist together, the characters all have separate journeys, though their destinies bring them into each others' orbits.
- Cast
- Henry Cavill, Freya Allan, Adam Levy, Amit Shah, Liam Hemsworth, Laurence Fishburne
- Showrunner
- Lauren Schmidt Hissrich
- Directors
- Lauren Schmidt Hissrich
- Writers
- Lauren Schmidt Hissrich
- Seasons
- 3
- Streaming Service(s)
- Netflix
