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The Rats: A Witcher Tale
Movie

The Rats: A Witcher Tale

2025 • Unknown

Woke Score
7
out of 10

Plot

To pull off a daring heist, a gang of six misfit outlaws will have to do something they've never done before: trust each other — and a washed-up Witcher.

Overall Series Review

The Rats: A Witcher Tale is a prequel feature focusing on the eponymous gang of young outlaws and their heist, positioned to humanize and make sympathetic a group of characters traditionally disliked in the source material. The plot extensively explores themes of class division and systemic oppression, framing the criminals' amoral actions as a justified response to a fundamentally corrupt society. A key emotional anchor is the developing bond between the two lead female characters, which explicitly introduces a same-sex relationship as a central element of the narrative's emotional stakes. The established male authority figure is a 'washed-up' Witcher who only achieves a heroic moment by sacrificing himself for the younger, diverse, female-led 'found-family' of thieves. The entire structure of the story elevates the marginalized and criminal element while depicting the Continent's traditional order as universally cruel and unjust. The moral framework heavily relies on justifying the actions of a criminal gang through a lens of social commentary on poverty and systemic failure, replacing universal moral laws with subjective survival ethics.

Categorical Breakdown

Identity Politics8/10

The narrative makes an active effort to provide "needed context" for the group of outlaws, highlighting "class divides" to present the morally questionable criminal gang as sympathetic victims of a harsh system. The plot structure is designed to rewrite their story to be more "heroic-seeming" and likable, relying on an intersectional lens of oppression and marginalized status to justify their amoral actions, rather than their individual merit.

Oikophobia7/10

The film focuses on the "class divides in the Continent" and frames the established social order as fundamentally corrupt and brutal, represented by the wealthy villain and his fighting arena. This provides a narrative justification for the protagonists, a criminal gang, to actively work against and steal from the structures of their 'home' civilization, suggesting the home culture is fundamentally broken.

Feminism6/10

The main female character, Mistle (a "fallen-royal"), is a core member and central protagonist of the gang of thieves, representing a 'girl boss' archetype where her fulfillment is found in an anti-establishment, criminal 'found-family.' The male Witcher, Brehen, is introduced as a "washed-up" and "drunken" character who eventually serves as a mentor and self-sacrificial figure for the benefit of the younger, diverse group led by female characters.

LGBTQ+8/10

The emotional core and stakes of the film are tied directly to the relationship between Ciri and the female Rat Mistle. The story provides context for Ciri's trauma by explicitly stating that Mistle was a "girl she was starting to love," which centers an alternative sexuality as the primary source of the lead protagonist's emotional weight and vulnerability.

Anti-Theism5/10

While not directly attacking religion, the entire moral framework of the film is built on moral relativism where the criminal actions of the protagonists are justified by the 'systemic oppression' and 'class divides' they face. The narrative dismisses any higher moral law by making amoral, criminal survival the heroic and only viable path for the protagonists, treating morality as purely subjective to power dynamics and circumstance.