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nerdyelvenpolitologist · 2 years

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I think now I understand what is a problem with Netflix's The Witcher. When they decided to make this show it was obvious that they wanted to make something that would be response to Game of Thrones. Another epic fantasy based on books that already had tons of fans. And there were also games that had even more fans. It was so easy. But the thing is that Witcher didn't get all these fans because it was this epic fantasy. It's a story about bunch of outcasts that somehow makes a family.

It's not meant to be this epic fantasy. Of course there are some fights and battles but most of the time the characters are just talking, riding horses and talking, drinking and talking, laying in bed and talking, getting lost in the woods, because why not, oh now they have to fight someone. And someone have to save them because they just looks like they can save the world by themselves. They can't. They all need someone to look after them. And after that they talk.

Geralt is this guy that says he's so lonley and he doesn't have feelings 'cause he's mutant. All that when he's actually talking about his feelings to his friends that laugh at him when he tells them that he's going somewhere alone. Friends that somehow saw eachothers one day and decided "yes, i'm keeping them. we are the family now". Also not this traditional family that Netflix is making.

And that's also what made Witcher games such a hit. Because players were involved in the plot. Because you interact with others so much. I myself were on the edge of crying when i finished both main game and Blood and Wine dlc.

The Witcher is great material for tv show. Just not the one in style of Game of Thrones. It should be the one in style of Out Flag Means Death. And i find it so funny when i see all these fanfictions that focus on characters interactions and emotions while it's what we got in books. And what Netflix decided to cut off.

#the witcher #the witcher netflix #jaskier #witcher #geralt of rivia #wiedźmin #julian alfred pankratz #witcher meta #sapkowski #witcher books #It's like #books are what fans wants #and netflix keept it out #they added more fights and took out emotions #and made characters more sterotypical #should i made whole series where i talk why these characters are breaking sterotypes?

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silverfox66 · 9 months

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I wish I had bought The Witcher books before the Netflix series came out. Every paperback version now seems to have a huge ugly Netflix stamp on it, not even as a sticker, so you can't remove it 🙃. Guess I gotta stick with Ebooks until a new version drops without the Netflix stamp, or until I can find maybe some second-handed older version of the books.

#I care a lot about covers and always hate it when it has stupid shit like that Netflix stamp on it #especially now that the netflix series is a mess and doesn't seem to follow the books #and I hate how on some covers it says Netflix Original Series #as if Netflix tries to create the impression that they created the Witcher instead of Sapkowski #The Witcher

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meanpersonaart · 2 years

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Why there's so many artworks where Regis has light/grey eyes? His eyes are described as black (onyx even) so let our boi have otherwordly black voids for eyes for god's sake.

#emiel regis rohellec terzieff de godefroy #emiel regis #witcher fanart #witcher #the witcher #wiedzmin #regis #netflix witcher #the witcher 3 #i know people want to draw his eyes glowing in the dark but In natural light without shadows his eyes must be voids #peak character desing #crow boi #he should look like a crow #witcher books #andrzej sapkowski #christopher lee basically

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spilledbutter · 1 year

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forever bitter that netflix didn't let geralt keep his canon psychic monster-fighting powers which would have been 4000% cooler than the power to say "fuck" in 4000 different ways

#asi reads the witcher #asi rambles #i mean sapkowski also let this little bit of plot drop after like the first chapter but......#i will never let it go #geralt #geralt of rivia #geralt the witcher #witcher #the witcher #wiedzmin #the witcher books #twn #the witcher netflix

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widevibratobitch · 2 years

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Polish Witcher fans are just evil fucking people and i hate them so much <3

#this is very random but #yeah. brought to you by: i am stupid and i looked at the comments in a polish wither group under the new cast announcement post #despite knowing full well that im gonna see horrible disgusting far-right cishet boys being absolutely cruel racist fatphobic etc #whether you do or dont like the netflix series is absolutely irrelevant. this is just like. basic human decency.#they're not even shitting on the show anymore. they're insulting and degrading an actress because she's black and fat #because sapkowski described the character (yes there is blatant sexualisation of women in the og witcher books)#as having a figure more beautiful than Yennefer's #and that the statues of nymphs and goddesses would be eaten by jealousy if they saw her naked #(again. sapkowski's words not mine. old creep)#and guess what. the actress they hired is fat. note how sapkowski never once used a word 'thin' or 'skinny'. just 'beautiful'.#there is pure hell in the comments under that post.#pictures of pigs. 'disgusting fat hog' 'those statues would either laugh or throw up if they saw her naked' etc.#people arent even mad about her being black because they're so preoccupied with her not being skinny #i just dont get it. i genuinely dont understand why would anyone be so cruel. what do they get out of this?#like i dont usually wish bad things on people. but this is the exception. i genuinely fucking hope something horrible happens #to every single one of these people <333 not only them. from the bottom of my heart i wish bad things on people who are so disgustingly #racist fatphobic homophobic mysoginistic who are just cruel and take pleasure in other people's pain #having said that. the witcher community here on tumblr is amazing. generally people here are great. not only in this fandom.#and then i come out into the real word and i am forcefully reminded that poeple in general (especially here in this fucking country.#piles upon piles of young edgy boys obssesed with their beloved fascist political party. treating women as objects. insulting everyone #who is different. i am so sick of this. hate upon hate upon hate. like i really genuinely dont understand it. i just dont.#maybe im fucking stupid and naive but i dont want to believe that the majority of people. of men. is bad.#but then i see comments like these and i am just. speechless. i am honestly stunned with how horrible these people are.#anyway. its 3 am and im having a little breakdown over people on the internet being mean lol but i am an oversensitive little bitch so #whatever

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thunderboltfire · 2 months

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I have a lot of complicated feelings when it comes to what Neflix has done with the Witcher, but my probably least favourite is the line of argumentation that originated during shitstorms related to the first and second season that I was unlucky to witness.

It boils down to "Netflix's reinterpretation and vision is valid, because the Witcher books are not written to be slavic. The overwhelming Slavic aestetic is CDPR's interpretation, and the setting in the original books is universally European, as there are references to Arthurian mythos and celtic languages" And I'm not sure where this argument originated and whether it's parroting Sapkowski's own words or a common stance of people who haven't considered the underlying themes of the books series. Because while it's true that there are a lot of western european influences in the Witcher, it's still Central/Eastern European to the bone, and at its core, the lack of understanding of this topic is what makes the Netflix series inauthentic in my eyes.

The slavicness of the Witcher goes deeper than the aestetics, mannerisms, vodka and sour cucumbers. Deeper than Zoltan wrapping his sword with leopard pelt, like he was a hussar. Deeper than the Redanian queen Hedvig and her white eagle on the red field.

What Witcher is actually about? It's a story about destiny, sure. It's a sword-and-sorcery style, antiheroic deconstruction of a fairy tale, too, and it's a weird mix of many culture's influences.

But it's also a story about mundane evil and mundane good. If You think about most dark, gritty problems the world of Witcher faces, it's xenophobia and discrimination, insularism and superstition. Deep-seated fear of the unknown, the powerlessness of common people in the face of danger, war, poverty and hunger. It's what makes people spit over their left shoulder when they see a witcher, it's what makes them distrust their neighbor, clinging to anything they deem safe and known. It's their misfortune and pent-up anger that make them seek scapegoats and be mindlessly, mundanely cruel to the ones weaker than themselves.

There are of course evil wizards, complicated conspiracies and crowned heads, yes. But much of the destruction and depravity is rooted in everyday mundane cycle of violence and misery. The worst monsters in the series are not those killed with a silver sword, but with steel. it's hard to explain but it's the same sort of motiveless, mundane evil that still persist in our poorer regions, born out of generations-long poverty and misery. The behaviour of peasants in Witcher, and the distrust towards authority including kings and monarchs didn't come from nowhere.

On the other hand, among those same, desperately poor people, there is always someone who will share their meal with a traveller, who will risk their safety pulling a wounded stranger off the road into safety. Inconditional kindness among inconditional hate. Most of Geralt's friends try to be decent people in the horrible world. This sort of contrasting mentalities in the recently war-ridden world is intimately familiar to Eastern and Cetral Europe.

But it doesn't end here. Nilfgaard is also a uniquely Central/Eastern European threat. It's a combination of the Third Reich in its aestetics and its sense of superiority and the Stalinist USSR with its personality cult, vast territory and huge army, and as such it's instantly recognisable by anybody whose country was unlucky enough to be caught in-between those two forces. Nilfgaard implements total war and looks upon the northerners with contempt, conscripts the conquered people forcibly, denying them the right of their own identity. It may seem familiar and relevant to many opressed people, but it's in its essence the processing of the trauma of the WW2 and subsequent occupation.

My favourite case are the nonhumans, because their treatment is in a sense a reminder of our worst traits and the worst sins in our history - the regional antisemitism and/or xenophobia, violence, local pogroms. But at the very same time, the dilemma of Scoia'Tael, their impossible choice between maintaining their identity, a small semblance of freedom and their survival, them hiding in the forests, even the fact that they are generally deemed bandits, it all touches the very traumatic parts of specifically Polish history, such as January Uprising, Warsaw Uprising, Ghetto Uprising, the underground resistance in WW2 and the subsequent complicated problem of the Cursed Soldiers all at once. They are the 'other' to the general population, but their underlying struggle is also intimately known to us.

The slavic monsters are an aestetic choice, yes, but I think they are also a reflection of our local, private sins. These are our own, insular boogeymen, fears made flesh. They reproduce due to horrors of the war or they are an unprovoked misfortune that descends from nowhere and whose appearance amplifies the local injustices.

I'm not talking about many, many tiny references that exist in the books, these are just the most blatant examples that come to mind. Anyway, the thing is, whether Sapkowski has intended it or not, Witcher is slavic and it's Polish because it contains social commentary. Many aspects of its worldbuilding reflect our traumas and our national sins. It's not exclusively Polish in its influences and philosophical motifs of course, but it's obvious it doesn't exist in a vacuum.

And it seems to me that the inherently Eastern European aspects of Witcher are what was immediately rewritten in the series. It seems to me that the subtler underlying conflicts were reshaped to be centered around servitude, class and gender disparity, and Nilfgaard is more of a fanatic terrorist state than an imposing, totalitarian empire. A lot of complexity seems to be abandoned in lieu of usual high-fantasy wordbuilding. It's especially weird to me because it was completely unnecessary. The Witcher books didn't need to be adjusted to speak about relevant problems - they already did it! The problem of acceptance and discrimination is a very prevalent theme throughout the story! They are many strong female characters too, and they are well written. Honestly I don't know if I should find it insulting towards their viewers that they thought it won't be understood as it was and has to be somehow reshaped to fit the american perpective, because the current problems are very much discussed in there and Sapkowski is not subtle in showing that genocide and discrimination is evil. Heck, anyone who has read the ending knows how tragic it makes the whole story.

It also seems quite disrespectful, because they've basically taken a well-established piece of our domestic literature and popular culture and decided that the social commentary in it is not relevant. It is as if all it referenced was just not important enough and they decided to use it as an opportunity to talk about the problems they consider important. And don't get me wrong, I'm not forcing anyone to write about Central European problems and traumas, I'm just confused that they've taken the piece of art already containing such a perspective on the popular and relevant problem and they just... disregarded it, because it wasn't their exact perspective on said problem.

And I think this homogenisation, maybe even from a certain point of view you could say it's worldview sanitisation is a problem, because it's really ironic, isn't it? To talk about inclusivity in a story which among other problems is about being different, and in the same time to get rid of motifs, themes and references because they are foreign? Because if something presents a different perspective it suddenly is less desirable?

There was a lot of talking about the showrunners travelling to Poland to understand the Witcher's slavic spirit and how to convey it. I don't think they really meant it beyond the most superficial, paper-thin facade.

#The witcher #Sorry if its convoluted I just got reminded of something and it made me a little angry #and as I had this conversation a lot of times I've decided to put it into written text #sorry about being bitter #but these are some of my favourite books and I'm still upset when I get reminded how badly they were treated in the recent adaptation #I'm not saying you should never change anything #But it's good to have enough background to understand why some things are the way they are in the original #and to understand what the source material is about #we don't talk about particular character's looks or something (altough I feel they could care more about it too)#but central themes tropes and motifs #long post #it may seem like I'm talking from a high horse here #people are welcome to interpret literature however they want #Nobody has a monopol on themes #I just think that in this particular case the cultural context influences the worldbuilding #and if changed it doesn't have the same impact anymore #meta

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clairedelune-13 · 1 month

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I still fail to see why people still like HP not just cuz it’s “author” is a POS, but its just mediocre as a piece of fiction?

I outgrew it in fifth grade, cuz I found, like, twenty better things and my intelligence improved by so much.

I’ve gained more useful info reading Sapkowski’s Witcher and playing Dragon Age, watching Doctor Who and reading/watching Good Omens, then I ever did with HP.

Hell, I learned more reading TWILIGHT in tenth grade!

Trust me, stuff like Dragon Age and Doctor Who and Witcher and Good Omens (NOT THE NETFLIX WITCHER, FFS!) are far better for you than Hairy Pooper.

#anti harry potter #anti jkr #fiction #good omens #doctor who #andrzej sapkowski #dragon age #the sandman #twilight

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tio-trile · 9 months

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witcher 🤝 good omens

book solidarity

though i haven’t read GO yet, i have been looking through posts about what they changed and why it matters, and it’s all very interesting. i’m loving your posts about why these changes don’t work and how they messed the themes up from a books perspective!

what’s more awkward about it is that gaiman was involved in the production of the good omens TV show, in pratchett’s memory, and is relatively active with his fanbase. meanwhile sapkowski’s gone fishing both figuratively and probably also literally with regards to the witcher, and if he had a tumblr i think it really would be armageddon.

do you have any thoughts on that? author involvement, and if it matters after all? i’ve always somewhat envied GO fandom for having such an author-fan relationship but now i realize it didn’t affect much? though it seems the witcher “adaptation” has been nearly-actively hostile to the source material throughout all 3 seasons, season 2 of the good omens adaptation seems inaccurate in a subtler way throough characterization and consistency of themes, which is just as important. (and when changes are subtler or done to please fans, there is less outcry—which makes it all the more frustrating)

OMG hiii 🤝 okay literally, when I saw that you liked my ask ranting about the show I messaged my friend and said that you're probably like:

🤣🤣 Anyways, I think Sapkowski having a Tumblr would be personal hell......for him. I can't imagine him having social media...his vibe feels very "I'm the author and I'm dead" to me 😂 Also confession...for every little thing that I was unhappy about in Good Omens season 1...I talked myself out of by saying "at least it isn't like Netflix Witcher!" (😂sorry. But look at us now! :D )

Ultimately, I don't think author involvement has a direct effect on the quality of the adaptation. Just like anything, in some cases it may be good, in some cases it may be harmful (think about the varying quality of classic adaptations for which the authors for the source materials have been dead for hundreds of years, and JKR with the Fantastic Beasts series...). And, books and visual media are completely different media. In the end, it just comes down to the understanding and portrayal of whoever is adapting the source material. I know you're also not a huge fan of Witcher 3, but as an example, the Witcher 3 with basically negative author involvement got a bit more vibes right than the Netflix Witcher series which has Sapkowski as a "consultant".

#long post #ask #good omens critical #Aziraphale is such a nuanced character and hard to get right......reminds me of Regis #Rip when Netflix decides to touch him...

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thelostgirl21 · 8 months

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So, apparently, there's an actual short story called "A Little Sacrifice" where a Prince falls in love with a real mermaid in The Witcher's universe...

And Netflix is supposed to release an anime called "Sirens of the Deep", where Geralt and Jaskier get involved in the situation.

My question is: will this be happening before or after the events of Season 3?!

Because having a freaking Prince (Radovid) hearing Jaskier's songs, finding them "irresistible", and becoming heavily drawn to him as a result gives off crazy strong Prince/Siren vibes.

And metaphorically speaking, the whole song follows their story arc in Season 3 right down to the "twilit red horizon" (Redania's color is red, so is obviously blood and its association with death and murder...) and the Prince sadly immediately "sinking to darkest night" on his very first attempt to swim.

So, if Jaskier and Geralt had already met a mermaid and a Prince that had fallen in love with each other before the events of Season 3, and Jaskier had already written a whole ballad about it (that Ciri ended up learning) before he met Radovid, I'm thinking his own situation would have felt like such an insanely strong case of déjà vu!

[Note: In the short story, it's the Siren that swaps fin for foot, not the Prince. If the song is about "Sirens of the Deep", this means that either the ending of the short story has been changed...

... or something bad happened as a result of the mermaid's choice, and Jaskier decided to give them a different ending where the Prince attempts to become a mermaid, but finds himself sinking and needing the Siren's help (to embrace him and the choice he made, regardless of its consequences)?]

Otherwise, that means Jaskier composed that ballad with Radovid in mind in Season 3.

And then, on his travels with Geralt, winds up meeting an actual mermaid that fell in love with a freaking Prince - essentially facing the same dilemma he's been going through with Radovid - and probably would be going "WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS?! Is the world trying to fucking tell me something?! Unbelievable!"

I can already imagine the conversations...

Sh'eenaz: You couldn't possibly understand what it's like to -

Jaskier: Save it! I wrote a fucking song about it! And you know what? It was a pretty good one, too! Filled with plenty of symbolism and poetry... But you two just had to show up and turn it into a literal thing, didn't you? Now, each time people will be singing my song, they'll just believe it's all about Prince Aglobal -

Sh'eenaz: Agloval

Jaskier: Whatever! And forget I had already seduced a Prince with my songs, and been offered to go live with him in a castle before you two even met! Oh! And by the way, my Prince is now the King of Redania - the most powerful nation of the Northern Kingdoms - the only one that might be able to stop the Nilfgaardians! He's way more important than -

Sh'eenaz: So, did you accept?

Jaskier: Accept what?

Sh'eenaz: To give up the life you had before to be with him?

Jaskier: *Forgets all about his rant and lets out a heavy sigh.*. It's complicated... *Hesitates* I think I might have? Especially if Ciri had decided she wanted to go to Redania to unite it with Cintra, and become the Queen she'd always dreamed of becoming... But then, Ciri went missing, the Second War began, he actually did offer to come with me instead, but then his brother was brutally murdered and he was crowned King instead...

Sh'eenaz: So, he was willing to sacrifice his world for you?

Jaskier: I guess... I mean, I think he meant it...

Sh'eenaz: Well, at least you two breathe the same air, and you can both walk... And Geralt's mate, from what I've heard, is a powerful sorceress that knows how to create portals. It's not like you can't quickly travel between your two worlds when you miss your family, thanks to her, and he can't accompany you on those visits at times, too...

Jaskier: ...

Sh'eenaz: ...

Jaskier: Yeah, I think your Prince should definitely follow you at sea. Humans are idiots.

Sh'eenaz: Well, if he does, maybe you could write a ballad about us; make it one where a Prince falls in love with a dashing travelling bard, then chooses to renounce his throne to accompany him on his travels?

Jaskier: Yeah, you wait right here in your *motions at the bay surrounding them* little pond; I'll go see your Prince and either convince him to come here and join you, or grab and throw him right into the sea myself! After that, I've got a King to catch...

#Radovid #Jaskier #Radskier #The Witcher #The Witcher: Sirens of the Deep #A Little Sacrifice #Princes can't resist a good song apparently!#They're all freaking drawn to Sirens...#Jaskier and his innate competitiveness #Freaking mermaid attempting to upstage him...#As if luring Princes at sea with the power of your songs was hard!#Been there done that wrote a ballad...#My posts #My thoughts

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astaldis · 1 day

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One thing the guys who criticise Netflix for its racial diversity in The Witcher always seem to forget

Had this discussion with this guy on Reddit again, always the same arguments, of course, the lore allegedly is all Slavic/white European. And then they pretend to care for the identity of other cultures and that they should be preserved and distinguishable and that there's Zerrikania on the continent for black people. Yes, Zerrikania, featuring so prominently in the books, right ...

What they totally seem to overlook, humans came to the continent through the Conjunction of the Spheres about 1,500 years before the events of the novels. They did not evolve on the continent through survival of the fittest. The distribution of skin colour on the continent ought to be mostly random. Yes, people who came from hot places in their original world and have a very dark skin colour as adaptation to the climate in their lost sphere of origin might prefer to settle regions like Zerrikania with a similar climate. But why wouldn't they settle in Toussaint, for example? Fringilla being dark skinned does not have to mean she has ancestors from Zerrikania and does not need to be explained in any way. Same with culture, people from all kinds of different cultures have very likely landed on the continent together and mixed their cultures while they were helping each other to survive in a totally new world. Why should there be distinct cultures related to skin colour and climate after only 1,500 years of populating the continent? A mix makes a lot more sense under these unique circumstances.

There was also a very funny thing one guy asked me when I wrote something like: Oh yes, the Korath desert is very Eastern European.

Did you know there's a desert in Poland? Yes, there actually is. We also have several "deserts" in Germany, but they are all so small, even a toddler would have difficulty getting lost in one of them 😂. Of course Sapkowski was exclusively thinking of this miniature Polish desert when he created the Korath 😂.

#the witcher netflix #the witcher tv #the witcher #racial diversity #wokeness #anti woke #woke #woke liberal madness #andrzej sapkowski #conjunction of the spheres #fringilla vigo

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hanzajesthanza · 1 year

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appreciation for sapkowski's geralt

i wrote a long post for r/wiedzmin sooo i'm also going to post it here (feel free to comment on both platforms if you use reddit):

in the midst of everything that's going on with h*nry c*vill and li*m h*msworth, i want to foster some love for the original geralt of rivia, who first emerged in publication in december 1986, way before any netflix show used the name or any actor called himself “geralt.”

because to me, there's only one original, real geralt, and that is the geralt of the books. no one is geralt, except geralt himself.

so, reblog and comment (or leave in the tags) any favorite scenes, moments, qualities, or character development from geralt, or about his relations with other characters in the series, that you appreciate from the book series. and please keep it sapkowski's canon-only, if you can (the books, the short stories, even the non-canon something ends, something begins).

i’ll start:

what i love about geralt is that he holds complexity as an inversion of the trope of the hero. he feels very real to me — he just wants to be left alone, to do his job, but he also gets lonely and he’s overall a sensitive and emotional character underneath the black leather and silver-studded surface. while he’s practical-minded (like in bounds of reason and a shard of ice being annoyed that eyck takes money for hunting monsters because it hurts his business, or demanding that he gets the right amount of agreed-upon pay for the zeugl contract), he also is compelled to do what is “right” (like in the lesser evil, the last wish, or something more intervening with renfri in the marketplace, saving yennefer from the djinn, deciding to go back to cintra to get ciri after all)

i love how he’s always so conflicted, hesitant, and troubled. he often overthinks things, and makes decisions that often don’t benefit him personally, but are either selfless or good-natured. i don’t think he’s a grouch or unfriendly — i think he responds quite reasonably to the world and situations around him (like in baptism of fire, he’s pretty whiney and upset for the majority of the book, but his daughter is literally missing and his broken arm and leg are barely healed, of course he’s distraught.)

he’s complex and yet he’s also simple, as dandelion writes, “straightforward as a halberd shaft.” he doesn’t scheme or plan, which is refreshing in a world of shady sorcerers and spies. he’s straightforward with his feelings and intentions. he loves his family and friends, and that's his real motivation throughout the series.

my favorite scenes for and with him are probably (in chronological order):

the voice of reason iv, where he speaks with iola about his past, his origins at kaer morhen, and his life as a witcher, how he was initially filled with certainty that the world needed him.

the voice of reason v, where he speaks with dandelion about his troubles as a witcher and finding work.

the last wish, when he falls in love with yennefer at the end and thinks about how beautiful she is, how he knew she would become everything. how he regrets scrutinizing her and hurting her with his eyes, vowing to never think like that about her again. how he saves her life with no ulterior motive — the fact that yennefer hears the wish and says that he’s condemned himself to her… they both have such low self-esteem, they’re both traumatized and troubled in their own ways, from their own trainings, but he, as one vulnerable person, reached out to another, equally vulnerable person, implying ‘let’s not tear each other down, let’s try to heal together.’

eternal flame, when he tears his brand new, twenty-two crown jacket, trying to mend it in vain by the fountain. and when he can’t kill dudu, and when he softly laughs at the end, agreeing to go with dandelion & dudu, dainty, and “chapelle” to the passiflora.

sword of destiny. i love how selfless he becomes once ciri enters the picture, and he didn’t even initially know who she was. he doesn’t bemoan his fate as a witcher, burdening a child with his troubles. he acts so kindly and appropriately towards her, entertaining her, protecting her…

something more. all of something more, but especially when he finds ciri, dropping to his knees and holding her so tightly 🥺 promising they’ll be together forever.

blood of elves ch. 1, when he wakes ciri from her nightmare and covers her with the sheepskin, reassuring her.

blood of elves ch. 3, when he instructs ciri to give up her sword, they fight a disagreement, and he makes an impossible leap to catch her.

blood of elves ch. 5, when he swears to philippa that if any harm comes to ciri, he’ll… and then immediately passes out from loss of blood.

time of contempt ch 3, when yennefer wouldn’t let him wear his “pretentious” headband, and he’s messing with his hair and whining about it.

time of contempt ch. 5, when his voice breaks telling dandelion that ciri needs him, that she cannot be left alone.

baptism of fire ch. 1 and 4 & tower of the swallow ch. 3 and 5, every time his knee badly pains him.

baptism of fire ch. 5, when he has fish soup with his newly formed company and grumbles about how they're "a team of heroes, a fellowship of idiots, united by a common goal which none of them understand."

baptism of fire ch. 7, when he speaks with milva, and then speaks with regis, refusing to go through ysgith upon learning that milva is pregnant and after talking to her she decided to keep the pregnancy. he says that he thought he was ready to go to ciri at any cost, but this is too high a cost. he’s not willing to risk milva and put her in danger for himself, her child for his child. like, his company became another family to him, forged in the fire of war.

baptism of fire ch. 7, when he and cahir hold the jaruga bridge together!

tower of the swallow ch. 5, when he mistakes angoulême for ciri, goes hot and cold at the same time, tries to calm himself with axii, and it doesn’t work! and then cooperates, “only for her sake.” because even if she’s not ciri, he recognizes she’s a young girl who needs to be rescued and brought into a family, very much like ciri.

tower of the swallow ch. 5, when he speaks with fulko artevelde and cleverly denounces and dissects authoritarianism as a governmental philosophy. it’s such a good dialogue!

tower of the swallow ch. 6, when he apologizes to cahir for losing his temper and his mind in the mine, and also for accusing him of being a traitor.

tower of the swallow ch. 7, when he finds out that his company is in danger and immediately demands to leave and ride to them.

lady of the lake ch. 2, when he calls regis his friend in the caves underneath mount gorgon.

lady of the lake ch. 3, when he and dandelion part ways and he “gasps audibly” upon hearing dandelion wants to stay in beauclair.

lady of the lake ch. 9… when he and yennefer finally find ciri again, and he greets her “ciri,” he answered, with a lump in his throat, “i’m glad to see you again.” him not feeling anger, grief, or hatred… just fatigue and with a great need to be done with it all. when he looks towards the corridor that ciri came out of, “as if expecting someone else to come from there. ciri shook her head. he understood,” like, he didn’t forget about his hanza, he didn’t forget about cahir and angoulême, even though he probably already sensed they had died… he still was hoping that they would survive. him not interrupting yennefer and ciri’s hug until a long time had passed, recognizing and respecting their mother-daughter bond, not being jealous of yennefer but encouraging their love. and as they descend down the marble staircase, he instructs ciri, still a father to her after all this time and after all these trials, with yennefer behind them, him telling her that everything is just a symbol, and commenting on her swordplay, saying “calmly,” “stick close to me,” and that if ciri ever tries to deflect a crossbow bolt with her sword like that again, she’ll get a spanking 😭

lady of the lake ch. 12… you know why. ψ but to be more specific:"very well," said the witcher, walking towards the exit. "but this is the last time! dammit, it really is the last time!" and "stop," he wanted to cry," where are you going? it’s enough that i always piss into the wind."

season of storms epilogue, when “he” speaks with nimue on her way to aretuza. he says that even more than a hundred years after his death, that geralt of rivia would be happy, if people remembered him, if they remembered the name of his horse. yes, he would be happy… if only he could know it. then they discuss how witchers will always be needed, for evil always will lurk in the darkness. and he reassures her to follow her destiny, which she does, and because of this, ciri follows her destiny at stygga castle!

his very specific aesthetics: his white hair, his weird eyes or as angoulême rhymes, "oczy dziwoczy!", his "hideous smile" and "hideous squint," his angular features, large nose, his (tower of the swallow ch. 7) torn ear and lost medallion, his sword over his right shoulder (and silver sword kept on roach), his black leather gloves and jacket "bristling with silver spikes," and his silly leather headband!

a complex character, a tragic hero, and really, just a normal man trying to survive, do the right thing, and protect his loved ones in a world of war and contempt.

#the witcher books #geralt of rivia #geralt #the witcher spoilers #c: geralt #analysis #not really analysis but its a long post lol

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thenightling · 1 year

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Jaskier / Dandelion (What’s in a name?)

To my own surprise I’ve come across some Witcher fans who did not realize Jaskier and Dandelion are the same character. One comment I saw even said (about Jaskier) “He’s a lot like the Dandelion character from the games.” That’s because... it is the same character. I have seen the question asked of “Why did Netflix change his name?” well, technically Netflix changed his name back to the original Polish. (Jaskier = Yas-key-er in pronunciation.) The Witcher started as a fantasy novel series (and short stories) from Poland where the books were originally called Wiedźmin. The author, Andrzej Sapkowski, was quoted as saying he’d prefer the title The Hexer for English language translations but no one listened to him. The title The Witcher comes from a made up class of monster hunters in the book series. These monster hunters are trained since childhood and are physically enhanced to make them more capable of taking on supernatural threats. In the case of The Witcher’s protagonist, Geralt of Rivia, the transformation gave him enhanced strength and senses, yellow, wolf-like eyes, and white hair, giving him the nickname “The White Wolf.” Witchers are also semi-immortal in that they don’t age as mortals do and don’t die by disease. Because of these transformations there is fear and superstition attached to them such as the misconception that Witchers don’t have human emotions. (Needless to say this is not true.) In The Witcher novels, Geralt of Rivia (our monster hunter protagonist), is befriended by a flamboyant bard. In the original Polish the bard was known as Jaskier. Jaskier directly translates to Buttercup but in English printings of the novels his name was changed to Dandelion (weirdly pronounced as Dan De Leon in the audiobook for The Last Wish).

When The Witcher was adapted into video games, Jaskier’s name was again changed to Dandelion in the English language versions. In some countries it’s apparently Marigold.

Someone clearly decided the name Buttercup is just too feminine but... The character is kind of feminine. Look at him!

When Netflix decided to make an English language TV show out of The Witcher Jaskier’s name was restored to the original Polish, Jaskier, but not translated to English (again, the translation would be Buttercup).

So yes, this is a bit of a Princess Peach / Princess Toadstool situation in that in the 1980s in the Mario Brothers video games the princess was known as Princess Toadstool and this carried over into cartoons and other media. Her original name directly translated to Princess Peach and was restored in the 1990s. So in regard to Jaskier / Dandelion... Original Polish novels = Jaskier (Directly translations to Buttercup) English language video games = Dandelion English language novels = Dandelion English language Netflix TV show = Jaskier.

And to complicate things even further, Jaskier isn’t even his original name. It’s sort of a stage name. His original name is Julian Alfred Pankratz, Viscount de Lettenhove. No wonder his shortens it to Jaskier. He’s also got a secret alias of The Sandpiper, which he uses to help smuggle the oppressed to safety.

#The Witcher #Witcher #Buttercup #Dandelion #Jaskier

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nerdyelvenpolitologist · 1 year

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Blood Origin thoughts. Spoilers ahead.

Honestly, it's shit.

The thing that I hated the most is how it looked. In books we have descriptions how elven cities were beautiful, delicate, breathtaking. Here... I was kinda expecting Deanerys to fly on a dragon there. It's too simple. Too ugly. Too human. And speaking about humans. Here we have elves that act just like humans. Just with different ear shape. In books the elves are different. Here's a part about elves from humans perspective when they first arrived on a continent.

Secon thing is that they're basing whole franchise on polish book by polish author. Use our culture for gods sake! And I'm not talking about races. I really don't care what skin colors they have. But they did the most americanized version of a continent they could. Would it hurt to put a four-head god's statue somewhere? Would it hurt for some of them to wear krajka as a belt? In Poland is a castle called Krzyżtopór. In the times of it's glory the celling of one of the rooms were made of aquarium. With water and fishes. Why couldn't they use is? I mean I know why. Because they would have to actualluy care.

In games, especially Witcher 3 you can see that the world is a fantasy one. But at the same time it looks like what we know. The villages, the forsts - it's so Polish. So familiar. So ours. The Novigrad - they made port looks like one from Gdańsk. And it means so much. For forgein players it's nothing. But for Polish ones it's such a great thing. That we finally have that huge franchise and it's ours.

The creators told that they wanted to create this series because Sapkowski didn't write about the history of Continent. How american of you. But they also fucked up so much because the first witchers were created by human mag Alzur. First he tried on a men. The children. And he succesed on children. Also the elves that lived on the continent knew how to travel between the worlds. They learned it from Unicorns.

And speaking od caracters. Avalac'h WHAT THEY DID TO YOU?! Also Eredin being the first openly gay character in netflix series. Eredin. The leader of a Wild Hunt. The main antagonist of a Witcher 3 game. Great job you guys.

Like honestly the only thing they took from Poland is how much characters are swearing. Exept from the part that eleves were not vulgar.

And about good things - the whole 3 minutes with Joey were good. They should put way more Jaskier there. But Scoia'tel helping him is FUCKING BULLSHIT.

Francesca Mills as Meldof was great.

Sorry for a bit of a chaotic post but I've just watched it and fuck, they butchere the source material so much.

#blood origin #the witcher #witcher #the witcher netflix #wiedźmin #jaskier #sorry but this show is bullshit

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supercupcakecollector-love · 11 months

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the Witcher fandom, a rant

why is it so hard for people to believe its possible for a show to come back from a bad season, if Picard can come back after a bad season 2 why cant the Witcher?

don`t fall for the “Henry left because it wasn't like the books” rumor perpetuated mostly by alt right youtube channels who call everything they don't like “Woke” the real reason is likely because of contract disputes, he signed an unfair contract with Netflix signing away his likeness hence why his face couldn't be shown in his dc cameos, and why he hasn't been legally able to do any projects outside of netflix and he understandably wanted out

if there was a schism between the people working on the show over accuracy wouldn't other people involved in the project has left as well, like the polish producer Tomasz Baginski, who is a huge fan of the novels and worked on the games

is it so ludicrous to believe that they saw the reaction to season 2 and overcorrected, its happened before with tv show were they get retooled after audience reaction

we are getting the conclusion to the stuff that was set up in season 2 that felt incomplete because it was, the political intrigue of the northern kingdoms, Geralt/Yennifer reconciling and talking about the wish Ciri and Yennifer bonding ( I have a whole other rant coming about how Yennifer`s actions at the end of last season were misinterpreted by most people and how she was not the one in control like it may have seemed on first watch )

why would they bother filming in the Sahara for the desert scenes or doing super complex scenes like the Thanedd ball/ coup if they didn't care about the material and could just make a safe lower budget monster of the week style show with mass appeal

I might ad that a good chunk of the outcries from so called “fans” over the accuracy were often done with the addition of racist, misogynistic, and (now given what we know about season three) homophobic comments aimed at the female and poc cast and crew members, if it really was about representing the source material why would they feel the need to make comments like those that have nothing to do the story or characters

im not saying you have to like this show, I have alot of problems with it myself but ever since that false headline about Andrzej Sapkowski supposedly “ hating” the video games the Witcher fandom has had a serious problem with blindly listening click/ragebait headlines and putting words into peoples mouths, please stop doing this so we all can have a better fandom experience

#the witcher #TWN #the witcher netflix #the witcher fandom #im tired so tired

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