‘The Witcher’ Season 4 Sparks Outrage Over One Controversial Scene

The Witcher’s fourth season is facing a rocky start, with reports showing a major drop in viewership compared to earlier seasons.

The latest season pulled in 7.4 million views globally in its first three days, a far cry from the 18.5 million views Season 2 earned at its debut and the 15.2 million for Season 3. Some of this difference is due to timing: Season 2 premiered on a Friday, giving it fewer days to rack up views, while Season 3 was split across two parts, which limited early-week totals.

Critics and fans have also been less than impressed with the series. Most of the negative feedback has focused on Liam Hemsworth’s portrayal of Geralt of Rivia. Currently, the show holds a 56% Tomatometer score from 25 reviews and just 19% on Popcornmeter from over 1,000 ratings.

However, a new controversy centers on a specific scene rather than Hemsworth’s performance. In Season 4, Ciri, played by Freya Allan, grows close to a street group called The Rats. A scene in Episode 1, which features Ciri and Mistle sharing their first kiss, has sparked intense backlash online.

This moment occurs right after another Rat member, Kayleigh, threatens Ciri and tries to s***** assault her. Mistle steps in to protect her, and the scene quickly shifts to a kiss between the two, leaving some viewers feeling the framing was inappropriate given the circumstances.

Reddit users reacted strongly, with one writing, “Oh my god, when I say I was thinking please please don’t go that direction and they did…sigh. When would a woman be in the mood after that? So bizarre!” Another said, “I just made a post about this I agree!! Cringed me out so bad I had to turn to Reddit to vent. WTF.”

Freya Allan addressed the criticism in an interview with TVLine. She explained, “I knew there was a lot of discussion about this relationship between Mistle and Ciri. It’s kind of a controversial one online and there’s a lot of conversation around it. I actually felt like it was really important to maintain some of that. I wanted it to be complicated and I didn’t want it to be perfect. I didn’t want it to be a fluffy little romance.”

Allan added that exploring Ciri’s interactions with Mistle allowed the show to reveal new sides of her character. “Mistle is a character that enables us to see parts of Ciri we haven’t seen and really shows a different kind of vulnerability in her,” she said. “There’s also a big part of her saying goodbye to her childhood. There’s a push and pull there, and I think we really get to see how desperate Ciri is to not be alone.”

The relationship between Ciri and Mistle ends tragically. In the season finale, Ciri is the only member of the Rats to survive a confrontation with Leo, witnessing the beheading of her friends, including Mistle.

Despite this, Allan sees value in the storyline. “Mistle is the one who’s confronting Ciri with the fact that she’s trying to run from her past, push it all away and become this different person, and just lean into this anger she has towards the world. But Mistle … comes in and says you can’t just run away from who you truly are. In order to find out who you’re going to become, you can’t just run away from that past.”

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