The Witcher’s Bathtub Scene Made Geralt A Meme—But It Also Exposed His Emotional Character

Back in The Witcher season 1, there was one scene that made us all pause, chuckle, and then immediately turn it into a meme. Geralt of Rivia, brooding beast-slayer and mutant loner, sat shirtless in a bathtub, steamy and sprawled out. For some, it was pure fan service. For others (like me), it was a full-circle moment. That one visual told us everything we needed to know: Geralt wasn’t just a meme, he was the most emotionally honest character in the show.

Sure, the show had its sword-swinging, world-building fantasy flair, but it also knew how to wink at its audience. This was The Witcher, after all, not some generic fantasy series. And when the Netflix version finally brought Geralt’s infamous bath moment to the screen, I knew they weren’t just checking a meme box. They were giving us a rare look at the real Geralt, the one who didn’t hide behind grunts and one-liners.

Geralt’s Bathtub Moment: From Video Game Meme To Emotional Breakthrough

Now, if you played The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, you’d remember that opening scene like it was seared into your brain. Geralt, legs wide, foot scratching foot, lounging in a wooden vat like he didn’t have monsters to slay. The shot was iconic. “At first it was fun attaching the picture to Witcher stories because it’s always fun to enrage the kind of dudes who get mad online because they were shown some male flesh,” as per PC Gamer. “But then the complaints changed. People stopped being mad at Tub Geralt—they started being mad whenever we published a Witcher-related story without Tub Geralt.”