Spoilers ahead for The Witcher Season 2.
The White Flame is the mysterious leader of Nilfgaard, who inspires awe in Cahir and Fringilla. Though his name is Emhyr var Emreis, the Season 2 finale revealed the true identity of the White Flame on The Witcher. This big bad happens to be none other than Ciri's father. The Emhyr who ordered the death of Francesca's elven baby is a far cry from Duny, the nice hedgehog man from Season 1's "Of Banquets, Bastards and Burials." So how did Ciri's dad get so evil? And what does he have planned for his super-powerful daughter?
Geralt helped facilitate Princess Pavetta marrying Lord Urcheon of Erlenwald (also known as Duny) during Pavetta's wedding feast, which is how their daughter Cirilla became his child surprise. Though Geralt was skeptical, it seemed he was fulfilling destiny with this union. Their wedding night is all The Witcher Season 1 showed of Pavetta and Duny, but as Mousesack told Geralt in "Before a Fall," they died when their ship was lost at sea while Ciri was a baby. So how did Duny go from dying from drowning to being the White Flame and Emperor of Nilfgaard?
The show is leaving viewers in suspense, but the books by Andrzej Sapkowski provide the answers. Book spoilers ahead. Turns out, Duny wasn't really in love with Pavetta, even if his performance was quite convincing. And he had big plans to take back his rightful claim to Nilfgaard. His father had been the emperor of Nilfgaard but was defeated by the Usurper. (The Usurper was behind the hedgehog curse on Emhyr.
After Ciri was born, Duny wanted to fake the deaths of himself, Pavetta, and their daughter. As seen in Ciri's Dol Durza vision with Triss in Season 2's "Turn Your Back," Duny is trying to get Pavetta to flee with Ciri on a boat to protect their baby daughter from people who believe in Ithlinne's Prophecy. But in reality, he wanted to pretend they died on the boat to help his attempt at taking back the Nilfgaard throne. Pavetta figured out his plans and got Ciri off the boat. When Duny/Emhyr found this out, he had a fight with Pavetta, resulting in her falling off the boat and drowning. Emhyr escaped, successfully killed his "Duny" persona, and went on to become the Emperor of Nilfgaard, the White Flame.
Though Emhyr is a character in the Witcher book series, his identity of being Ciri's father isn't revealed until the last novel in the Witcher Saga, The Lady of the Lake. So TV viewers are getting this revelation far earlier than book readers and Henry Cavill discussed moving up this important detail with Decider. "Obviously, there are reveals that happen at different stages, but that's going to be a tricky one to keep under everyone's caps,” Cavill said. "If this were to go on for many, many seasons, then people are going to learn that information, especially after Season 1, when so many people actually read the books. So the information is freely flowing on all the forums out there, and they wanted to reveal it now. It's an interesting angle."
Ciri in the books never discovers that Emhyr is her dad, which is probably for the best since his master plan is to impregnate her. I mean, what's an emperor to do when the prophecy states that Ciri's descendants will rule the world? (Answer: Don't engage in incest with your daughter.) Since the show is letting viewers know who Emhyr is, it seems likely that Ciri will discover the White Flame trying to entrap her is her father since she's now seen him in visions. That's bound to make for an awkward family reunion if Emhyr's plan on the show matches his plan in the books.
Another twist that The Witcher still has up its sleeve is who Emhyr's conspirator is. In the books, he works with the sorcerer Vilgefortz. Though Vilgefortz on the show is still kind of seeming like a good guy, he's an evil mastermind pulling the strings. If the show follows that storyline in Season 3, then Vilgefortz is one to watch out for. In fact, the show already established that Vilgefortz could be working with Emhyr since he appeared to push Tissaia into telling the Brotherhood about Ciri.
Ciri has enough people after her, but making the White Flame her father is a major betrayal. Emhyr at the end of "Family" made it clear he's actively going to be after his daughter in Season 3. So good thing she has a father figure she can actually rely on in the form of Geralt of Rivia.
Images: Netflix