Summary
- Ciri renounces her powers in The Witcher season 3, fearing the destructive nature of fire magic and the temptation of her Elder Blood abilities.
- According to the books, Ciri still has the knowledge and potential to regain her powers in future seasons, potentially becoming the Lady of Time and Space.
- While Ciri may have given up her powers, other characters like Yennefer and Vilgefortz emerge as powerful contenders in the absence of her abilities in The Witcher.
In a shocking moment from The Witcher season 3 Ciri appears to lose her powers, but the permanence of the moment, and its effects on her magic future in the next season remain to be seen. Ciri underwent quite the journey in Season 3 including being chased down by the Wild Hunt, and imprisoned by Vilgefortz, not to mention fighting several large monsters such as the Jackapace and the giant sea creature. Yet after all that, her biggest test came in the deserts of Korath, where she encountered many beings, including a sand monster, a unicorn, and a vengeance-fueled witch from the far future.
These strange interactions culminate in Ciri denouncing her powers despite spending several seasons of The Witcher attempting to master them. The Witcher season 3 had some good moments and some bad ones, and the portion involving Ciri wandering in the desert wastelands of Korath qualifieed as a misstep, particularly in how this portion differed from the same passage in the Time of Contempt novel. Season 4 will have to do a lot of course correcting, not just to restore Ciri’s powers, but all the agency she’d built up during the series in order to turn her into the character that fans have come to root for.
Why Ciri Gave Up Her Powers In The Witcher Season 3
After the unicorn Ciri befriends suffers from a poisonous wound, she becomes desperate to stop its suffering and eventually resorts to using fire magic in order to heal it. In The Witcher fire magic is forbidden because it’s seen as a destructive force that is difficult to control, as evidenced by Yennefer in season 1. At this point Falka shows Ciri visions of the Continent bending to Ciri’s will with the strength of her Elder Blood, and the Cub of Cintra doesn’t want anything to do with such temptation and decides to renounce her powers then and there.
While it might seem like Ciri is making the choice to give up her powers, this sequence is just another example of how things happen to Ciri, rather than her being able to enforce her own independence. In a season that was supposed to finally show Ciri striking out on her own, it reinforces her subordination. The visions Falka shows Ciri are supposed to comprise her Galadriel moment with the One Ring where, tempted by power, she refuses it and remains pure, but instead they simply show all the good Ciri could do and, disoriented, she just gives up.
Ciri Can Get Her Powers Back: What The Witcher Books Reveal
According to The Witcher books, Ciri doesn’t so much renounce her power as her ability to draw from it, meaning that while she can’t cast spells, she still has the knowledge of how it works should she wish to resume. She hasn’t forgotten how to use her power, especially after all that time training with Yennefer. For example, in Tower of the Swallow, Joanna enters Ciri’s mind and at the intrusion, Ciri reconnects with the power and is able to expel her even as she’s unable to draw from it herself initially.
As far as the books are concerned, Ciri will eventually get her powers back and become the Lady of Time and Space. It remains to be seen how fast this process w happen in Season 4, but fans have already waited through her witcher training with Geralt and her magic training with Yennefer to see her come into her own. Up until this point, Ciri hasn’t really been allowed to show what she can do, so hopefully the series won’t stall on highlighting that any longer than it needs to, particularly if it’s supposed to adhere to the source material to a greater extent going forward.
What Powers & Abilities Ciri Still Has Heading Into The Witcher Season 4
Technically speaking, Ciri still has all the powers she’s always had, but not the will to access them. Moving through portals, having visions of the future, and manipulating time and space are all within her wheelhouse, but she’s decided to forego their usage in favor of mystical martyrdom. Heading into Season 4, she’ll be as magically neutered as she chooses to be out of a need to atone for what she’s capable of in the future, which puts her at a great disadvantage to all the other characters who are leveling up next season and hoping to utilize the advantage of her absence in their favor.
If Ciri can trust her instincts and learn from her past mistakes, she will have no problem accessing the formidable powers she still possesses. She hasn’t forgotten how to access the power, she simply refuses to acknowledge the nodes that give her any access. If Yennefer can access fire magic and somewhat bend it to her will, then Ciri will be able to do the same once she learns to master it, but for now, she will present herself as Falka to the Rats and feign ignorance on the subject of magic in order to slip undetected in between those who have very little understanding of its properties but still wish to control her for their own ends.
If Ciri Doesn’t Have Powers, Who Is The Most Powerful Character In The Witcher?
Given that Ciri has rendered herself powerless, other characters in The Witcher can take her mantle for being the most powerful character. Now that Tissaia is dead, driven to self-sacrifice out of grief and guilt over what happened to her students because of Vilgefortz’s betrayal, there’s a power void. It only makes sense that Yennefer now inhabits it, particularly since like Ciri she’s capable of fire magic but chooses not to engage in it rather than withdraw from her power altogether because of her fear of making a mistake.
Speaking of Vilgefortz, he’s still very potent going into Season 4 of The Witcher, and even though Henry Cavill will be leaving the role Geralt of Rivia remains as formidable as ever. As it stands with the Brotherhood and the sorceress graduates of Aretuza, Yennefer is a strong contender for the series’ most powerful character until Ciri regains not just her power, but her confidence to use it wisely and sagaciously. It will be a tumultuous time for the Continent when Ciri decides that she can withstand the effects of using not just fire magic, but the extent of her powers to their full capacity.