'The Witcher' Season 3's ball costumes are packed with hidden clues
The Witcher Season 3's standout episode of Volume 1 is one full of fabric, otherworldly costuming, and political signaling through fashion.
It's the Conclave Ball, episode 5, "The Art of the Illusion", that steals the show — even more than the horrifying monster in episode 2. A lavish dance through twists, turns, and overlapping perspectives within the halls of the sorcerer fortress of Aretuza, the episode is a self-contained investigation set in the past and present. And it's one hell of a party.
Costume designer Lucinda Wright and makeup and hair designer Deb Watson do their best work of the season in this scene, as Yennefer (Anya Chalotra) and Geralt (Henry Cavill) try to unmask the puppetmaster behind rogue mage Rience (Chris Fulton).
SEE ALSO:'The Witcher' review: Season 3 levels up for Henry Cavill's last rideWright tells Mashable she spoke with showrunner Lauren Schmidt Hissrich and Netflix's VP of international originals Kelly Luegenbiehl to plan the ball costumes, who she says told her, "I want it to be the Met Gala, it's medieval time."
"As soon as they said that, I thought, well, we're gonna go for it," says Wright. "Every single person that you look at, you should think, 'yeah, thatis the outfit.' We filmed it over about four or five weeks, so it had to be something they were comfortable in and they were going to put on every single day."
"I want it to be the Met Gala, it's medieval time."
In the episode, every sorcerer has an outfit that matches their personality or power. Philippa Eilhart (Cassie Clare), for example, wears a headdress of black feathers atop a halter neck black gown with a long, fluffy, feathery train skirt and embellished with sequins in an owl-like pattern — she can transform into an owl at will. "With Philippa being an owl, I always like to have a feather or something to signify it," says Wright. "She is kind of fluffy but there's a rod of steel in that character...For me, she was trying to be [the Aretuzan sorcerers'] equal if not stronger."
The dress code is important.Credit: Netflix / YouTubeYennefer's gown, a sparkling halter-neck in a deep dark shade of her signature purple, adapts something she's worn over the whole series: her amulet. But you'll notice it's been moved for deeply romantic reasons.
"The thing with Yennefer is now she gets her power back. I wanted the silhouette to be sharper and back to that strong look from Season 1," Wright explains. "She always has her necklace, always every single shot, so when we did the dress for the ball, we removed it from her neck and we put it near her heart...That to me was her true love for Geralt. That is the moment."
Of course, Geralt is begrudgingly forced out of his signature leather armour into a plush, patterned, silver and black outfit. If you've played The Witchergames, every single party sequence (and there's a few of them) sees Geralt, who prefers the open road to political parties, as happy to attend as he is facing down a wyvern or jackadaw. Wright and her team worked with Cavill to bring the witcher's fanciest TV outfit yet to life, and they had a trick to making things seem extra uncomfortable for Geralt.
"We wanted it to be slightly too tight. It was meant to be slightly uncomfortable, so we brought it in as tight as we could — but he still had to dance, of course," says Wright.
Featured Video For You
Henry Cavill dug deep into 'The Witcher' games and fantasy fiction to get his Geralt just right
Are there any Easter eggs hidden among the glitz and glamour of the Conclave Ball?
"There are very particular ones in the ball, there's colours and who is allied with who," says Wright. "I use colour a lot and there are some clues in there. But until you see the other episodes afterwards, you won't realise it until you see it." We know just how important and political colour can be in the royal courts of our favourite fantasy series — remember Alicent Hightower's green dress from House of the Dragon?
Related Stories
- 'The Witcher' review: Season 3 levels up for Henry Cavill's last ride
- Henry Cavill crafted his own version of Geralt by digging deep into 'The Witcher' books and games
- 'The Witcher' Season 3's weapons are full of hidden clues
- Top streaming deals in January: Lock in a free month of Paramount+ ahead of the Grammys
- Let's talk about that nightmare fuel monster from 'The Witcher' Season 3
Without the second volume of Season 3 — that's coming July 27 — it's hard to know, but a rewatch of the final moments of the ball reveals some possible allegiances. After Geralt and Yennefer go all Hercule Poirot on everyone, the real identity of Rience's master is revealed not as Stregobor (Lars Mikkelsen) as was initially concluded, but as the mage Vilgefortz (Mahesh Jadu), the highest ranked of the Brotherhood of Sorcerers. Vilgefortz has seemingly done a deal with spymaster Sigismund Dijkstra (Graham McTavish) of Redania, who tells Geralt in the episode's final moments, "You should have picked a side," echoing Vilgefortz's earlier statements. You'll notice Dijkstra wears black velvet with gold accoutrements, just as Vilgefortz wears black robes with gold jewellery, but with a red underlay — the official colour of Redania.
Vilgefortz on the left in black, gold, and red, while Tissaia wears deep emerald.Credit: Netflix / YouTubeIt's not clear what Vilgefortz's plans are, but we know he's also working alongside the southern empire of Nilfgaard — as Redanian court mage Philippa figures out earlier in the season, and is confirmed through Geralt and Yennefer's discovery of Vilgefortz's romantic connection with the telepathic mage Lydia van Bredevoort (Aisha Fabienne Ross), who was Rience's direct report (stay with me). There are other mages in the conclave ball wearing black including Marti Södergren and Keira Metz, so there may be mages allied with Vilgefortz.
But there also may be those allied with Vilgefortz's partner, the powerful sorcerer and head rector of Aretuza, Tissaia de Vries (MyAnna Buring), who wears a distinctly bright emerald green gown with her signature high necked collar. There's black in her costume, leaving it rather ambiguous about how connected she is to Vilgefortz's treacherous alliance with Dijkstra. But sorcerer Sabrina Glevissig (Therica Wilson-Read) wears a light golden gown with emerald stars in her hair and Aretuza's current headmistress, Margarita Laux-Antille (Rochelle Rose), wears pearls and a dusky green gown, so they may be Tissaia's allies in their verdant outfits.
We'll have to wait until Volume 2 to figure out just how coded this costume feast of a conclave ball was.
How to watch:The Witcheris now streaming on Netflix. Season 3, Volume 2 arrives July 27.
TopicsNetflix
(责任编辑:资讯)
- Weather update for second Pak vs Ban second Test match day one
- Lee, Yoon reconcile as PPP drops proposal for party chief's ouster
- 龚俊龙:凝聚更多社会力量,为家乡发展献计出力
- Mood and habit tracker Tangerine is simple, pretty, and as chill as you want it to be
- Pakistan Cricket at crossroads after shock defeat at Pindi
- Naver, Kakao strive to combat deepfake porn spreading online
- New US special envoy for NK human rights issues takes office, plans to visit Seoul next week
- 直播销售野生鱼 荥经一男子被罚款
- 尽锐出战 全力冲刺 确保川西大数据产业园如期开园
- I used the Pixel 9 Pro XL in the shower — does the screen work when wet as claimed?
- 讲好熊猫故事 传播文化内涵
- Court approves Edison Motors' deal to acquire embattled SsangYong Motor
- Massachusetts man holds onto hood of car for three miles in road rage incident.
-
CrowdStrike outage is still causing hundreds of flight cancellations daily
Three days after a faulty update in cybersecurity company CrowdStrike's software caused a global IT ...[详细] -
Lee renews call for universal COVID
Lee Jae-myung (L), the presidential candidate of the ruling Democratic Party, speaks during a meetin ...[详细] -
客家人的年味,少不了梅菜扣肉丨故乡的肉味_南方+_南方plus成人世界里的美食之旅,更多的不过是重拾童年时的舌尖回忆罢了。中国素有八大菜系,每一道美食都足以让人垂涎欲滴!酸甜苦辣咸,蕴含着不同人生哲理 ...[详细]
-
Facebook and Instagram just made high
Facebook is making a push to increase the information you can see on posts from high-reach Facebook ...[详细] -
Pakistan to host South Africa before ICC Women’s T20 World Cup
In preparation for the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup, South Africa’s women’s cricket t ...[详细] -
工行广东分行行长韩松:年内向广东市场投放1.8万亿元信贷资金
工行广东分行行长韩松:年内向广东市场投放1.8万亿元信贷资金_南方+_南方plus人勤春来早,岭南焕生机。2月18日龙年开工首日,广东省高质量发展大会在深圳召开,对广东高质量发展再谋划、再鼓励、再出发 ...[详细] -
Korea mulls fourth doses of COVID
This photo taken Dec. 10 at a Seoul vaccination clinic shows syringes filled with Moderna booster do ...[详细] -
Lee renews call for universal COVID
Lee Jae-myung (L), the presidential candidate of the ruling Democratic Party, speaks during a meetin ...[详细] -
How to Backup Your Gmail Account
There are a number of reasons why you might need to backup your email account. You might be changing ...[详细] -
Lampard 'excited' by Everton relegation battle
LONDON:Frank Lampard says he is "excited" by the challenge of Everton's relegation bat ...[详细]
- First officially approved Gen IV nuclear reactor in the US breaks ground
- Lampard 'excited' by Everton relegation battle
- 退休市民张英虹热衷公益演出 为山区群众送上欢声笑语
- Court approves Edison Motors' deal to acquire embattled SsangYong Motor
- Best smartphone deal: Google Pixel 8a on sale for $449 at Amazon
- Court approves Edison Motors' deal to acquire embattled SsangYong Motor
- Family separation didn’t work, so Trump is punishing asylum