Netflix's The Witcher Season 4 premiered on October 30, 2025, but even before it was released, the series was entangled with issues with Liam Hemsworth coming on board to play Geralt of Rivia after Henry Cavill. Therefore, even after being a season that depicted the story of Andrzej Sapkowski's books, it failed to impress the fans.Amid all the confusion, another canon storyline was also affected. Many viewers thought Ciri's romance with Mistle, one of the Rats, was a part of the show's attempt at being woke. However, the storyline actually comes from Sapkowski's third book from the Witcher saga, Baptism of Fire, which was originally released in the mid-1990s, but the English translation came out in 2014. Therefore, just like several other elements shown in The Witcher Season 4, Ciri's romance is also canon and not created for the show.More on this in our story.The Witcher Season 4: Was Ciri’s romance canon? Details explored in depth View this post on Instagram Instagram PostThe Witcher Season 4 sees Geralt on his way to look for Ciri with several new members joining him in his quest, including Jaskier, while Yennefer gets ready to fight her own fight against Vilgefortz and tries to unite as many witches as she can. Ciri, on the other hand, gets to live a very different life and gets a taste of freedom by living as Falka and joining the Rats, a group of young thieves.While enjoying this new feeling of freedom, Ciri also grows closer to one of the rats named Mistle, played by Juliette Alexandra. As the series began receiving criticism from fans, the relationship between Ciri and Mistle also came into question, as some viewers thought it was Netflix's attempt at making the show modern. However, ScreenRant pointed out that that was actually not the case. Ciri's and Mistle's story actually comes from the author of The Witcher, Andrzej Sapkowski.As the story of Ciri with the rats is covered throughout several books, this particular story with Mistle is taken from the third book, Baptism of Fire, which came out in 1996, making the relationship canon.Furthermore, the story further helped Ciri question and learn more about life, which she couldn't encounter before, as she did not get a chance to feel the normal human emotions in her tragic life of running and hiding. The storyline also helped alleviate Ciri's character arc, which would further help in the final season. While talking to Variety, the showrunner of the Netflix series, Lauren Schmidt-Hissrich, also spoke about how being with the rats and Mistle helped Ciri experience something new and more humane, which she earlier didn't feel, and said:"We did want to give her these moments of questioning. Is this love? Is this what it feels like to be in love? Because these are things that Ciri has never experienced. She’s never had the ability to have these normal human experiences, and it doesn’t end on a nice note."The Witcher Season 4 stars Liam Hemsworth, Freya Allan, Anya Chalotra, Joey Batey, and Laurence Fishburne, among various others.Also Read: How does Yennefer’s power in The Witcher Season 4 set up her next chapter? Details explored