Every monster fight in The Witcher season 3, ranked from worst to best

All eight episodes of The Witcher season 3 are out now on Netflix, and since it’s a show about a mutant monster hunter it should come as no surprise that Geralt and company once again face down quite a few beasties. I’m a sucker for a good monster fight scene, and The Witcher season 3 delivers big time.

The show has had its hits and misses over the years when it comes to the various beasts Geralt faces, which just makes the consistency and splendor of the monsters in season 3 all the more welcome. Let’s look back on every monster fight in The Witcher season 3, and rank them from worst to best!

5. The Jackapace

The rolling Jackapace is the first monster we see this season, and it’s a fierce one. It’s being kept by a miscreant named Veldhoek, who brags that it can track the scent of elven blood. The mage Rience purchases the services of the creature in order to find Ciri, which leads to a surprise attack in a hedge maze at the local Belleteyn festival where Geralt, Ciri, and Yennefer are trying to lay low in the season premiere, “Shaerrawedd.”

If you’ve played The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt you could be forgiven for thinking this beast is a Shaelmar, since it moves in a very similar fashion to the stony creatures introduced in the Blood and Wine expansion. However, the design of the jackapace recalls animals like an armadillo or even a shrew, with its strangely shaped feelers around its maw. Its enormous size makes it a formidable threat; even a glancing blow can mean serious damage.

The jackapace first corners Ciri in the maze before Yennefer arrives to give her backup. After that, it’s only a matter of time before Geralt shows up to put the beast to a swift end. This is a short fight that serves as a warm-up for what’s to come. It’s notable for being the only monster fight of the season where all three of our main heroes are present, but considering that it only takes Geralt a couple of well-placed blows with his sword to fell the jackapace, it lands on the bottom of the list. There are far more dangerous and thrilling monsters in season 3.

4. The Wyvern

Ciri’s first solo monster fight of the season takes place in Episode 3, “Reunion,” when she and her escort from the Giancardi Bank, Fabio, come across a side show where a “basilisk” is being shown off to a crowd. Of course, we soon learn that it isn’t a basilisk at all; thanks to Ciri’s time spent training with the witchers at Kaer Morhen, she knows it’s a much less dangerous monster called a wyvern, and a starving baby wyvern at that.

Ciri reveals this information, but it doesn’t go over well. The man hawking this “basilisk” to the crowd takes a swing at her with his cane, misses, and instead inadvertently unleashes the wyvern on the audience.

The fight between Ciri and the wyvern is the only monster battle in the first half of the season drawn directly Andrzej Sapkowski’s The Time of Contempt, the novel on which season 3 is based. Sapkowski describes the beast as having a whip-like tail, a draconic hide, and razor-sharp claws. The television show keeps the core of the wyvern sequence — it gets loose, Ciri kills it, and then passes off the credit onto an unwitting knight — while improving other elements drastically.

In the show, this scene also serves to introduce Mistle, who we’ll later learn belongs to a band of thieves called the Rats. Mistle steals Ciri’s coin pouch and knife just before she instigates the wyvern fight, leaving the Princess of Cintra unarmed to face the small, whip-tailed creature. As Ciri holds the wyvern down with a fallen pennant flag, Mistle has a change of heart and tosses Ciri her knife, allowing her to finish off the beast.

The wyvern fight is a fun romp that gives multiple characters their own moment in the spotlight. It’s probably the least intense fight in the season; it never really feels like Ciri or anyone else in the crowd is in legitimate danger. But that’s not really the point, in the show or the books. Instead, it serves to develop multiple characters, show Ciri’s self-righteous streak, and allow her to make her first monster kill.

3. The Sand Monster

Ciri’s journey through the Korath Desert in Episode 7, “Out of the Fire, Into the Frying Pan,” features more creatures than any other episode this season. From tracking the unicorn Little Horse to evading the antlion-like monster that tries to devour Ciri whole, the fledgeling witcher faces no shortage of challenges during her time in this scorching crucible.

But by far the most dangerous of the desert creatures is the enormous sand monster that Ciri fights late in the episode. This towering monster emerges from beneath the sand to attack Ciri and Little Horse with its numerous sharpened legs and maw filled with teeth. It also has a hardened carapace for protection. The sand monster isn’t just big, it’s fast. One slip up and Ciri would be a kebab.

Fortunately, her witcher training from Kaer Morhen serves her well. Little Horse gets some action too, kicking the sand monster with its hooves before the creature impales it with one of its sharpened legs.

This fight features a unicorn kicking a sand monster. For that reason alone, it deserves a place of honor on our list. But this battle also represents a crucial turning point for Ciri. It’s the first time she has to defeat a monster on her own. The stakes are kill or be killed, and Ciri has no choice but to step up to the challenge. After using some acrobatics and ripping off a piece of the monster’s own carapace in order to bash in its head, Ciri ultimately prevails.

This is an exciting encounter with slightly jumpy animation reminiscent of old school Ray Harryhausen stop-motion creatures. It’s not the most breath-taking monster fight in The Witcher season 3, but it’s still a good time. It belongs right smack in the middle of the list.

2. The Aeschna

The aquatic aeschna is perhaps the most traditional monster hunt of the season, since it’s the only one where Geralt and Ciri actually accept a contract to exterminate a threat. The aeschna is a huge, ferocious sea-dwelling monster that climbs aboard a ferry and wreaks utter havoc until the witchers are able to put it down.

In “The Invitation,” we learn that a monster has been plaguing the gulf which Geralt, Ciri, and Jaskier need to cross in order to return to Aretuza. Though Geralt is initially hesitant, Ciri convinces him to take on the contract as a way to secure their passage, and so that she might continue her training in the witchering trade.

We get some great build-up as Ciri and Geralt stand at the edge of the ferry, observing unnatural ripples in the water as the aeschna tracks the boat’s progress. Ciri gives us some information about the beast: it’s covered in spikes and has a thick hide with only one real vulnerable spot on the top of its head.

The Witcher sets up the aeschna showdown well, but allows us to almost forget it’s coming by distracting us with an appallingly annoying group of musicians on the boat. When the aeschna finally attacks one of them, we’re almost thankful that it cuts off their impromptu performance.

Geralt and Ciri have to work together to fight the aeschna, using only their swords and reflexes. It’s a well-structured combat sequence which makes ample use of the confined quarters on the ship to keep things unpredictable and exciting. A particular highlight is when Geralt and Ciri get separated and must trade swords in order to stay one step ahead of the aeschna.

After ripping the aeschna’s tail off in the gears of the ship in order to draw its attention away from Ciri, Geralt squares up for the final showdown. It’s then that Ciri makes her move, riding the water wheel mechanism of the ship to a high enough vantage that she can jump down and impale the aeschna through its vulnerable pate.

The aeschna is an all-around solid monster hunt which gives Geralt and especially Ciri a chance to show off their combat skills. It also serves as a wonderful bonding moment between surrogate father and daughter, which is the cherry on top.

1. The Mage’s Flesh Abomination

As good as all the monster fights in The Witcher season 3 are, there’s one which stands head and shoulders above the rest: the many-limbed abomination Geralt faces in the castle of Vuilpanne.

During the second episode of season 3, “Unbound,” Geralt continues his hunt for the sorcerer Rience and his mysterious patron based on information he gets from Codringher and Fenn. While Codringher and Fenn don’t know who Rience’s boss is, they know where this dangerous sorcerer is doing his “dirty business” and experiments: an abandoned castle called Vuilpanne, next to a series of scarlet ammonite mines on the outskirts of Piana.

Geralt sets out for the place alone expecting a fight, and what a fight he finds. After downing a witcher decoction which heightens his strength, Geralt enters the spooky castle. Deep in its bowels, he finds a series of disembodied heads belonging to teenage girls attached to the walls of the place through fleshy, disgusting tentacles. That’s scary enough, but after Geralt finds one young woman who survived the ordeal, the true threat emerges: the bodies that belonged to those tentacled heads, which have all been merged together into a horrifying creature with far too many limbs for comfort.

Geralt’s showdown with this abomination is a desperate struggle that forces the witcher to bring his full strength to bear against a foe that could easily tear him to pieces if he steps wrong. It’s a creepy monster, from the spider-like way it moves to the gross sounds it makes as its flesh reshapes itself. It’s one of the most horrifying sequences of the entire Witcher franchise, right up there with season 1’s Striga battle.

As Geralt impales one of the torsos protruding from the flesh beast, a corresponding disembodied head dies. The hideous creature then redoubles its efforts, while the remaining two heads scream for it to kill Geralt so he can’t “hurt” them anymore. It’s the stuff of nightmares.

Pretty much everything about the abomination battle is The Witcher at its best, from the terrifying design of the monster to the dark atmosphere and setting to the spectacular fight choreography. And it’s a marked improvement over the source material; since we know that this creature was created by Rience’s employer, it gives us even more reason to fear them.

All told, there’s no question that the flesh abomination is the standout monster fight of The Witcher season 3.

All eight episodes of The Witcher season 3 are now available to stream on Netflix.

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h/t Mashable