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kattahj · 4 years

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Thoughts on Witcher rewatch, episode 6: Rare species

I started reading this story in Sword of Destiny and got so acutely embarrassed that I had to stop after a few pages. It was like being invited to Sapkowski's middle school locker. Lots of bare thighs, giggling, and hints of bathtub orgies. It's not so much that it's sexist but that it's so adolescent. I'm not saying that the show's portrayal of Borch, Tea and Vea is unproblematic, but it's a little easier to ignore the leering bits. But don't worry, I will return to it eventually!

I know there are Class fans who watched this for Jordan Renzo, and I'm rather amused at how disappointed they must be. He plays an idiot and a douche who is killed off in a most unflattering way halfway through the episode, and we all cheer it on because fuck him for killing that poor hirikka.

The subtitles say that the hirikka "sort of looks like a faun", but surely it should be "fawn"? Because that's what he looks like. And he IS rather cute in a pitiful way, that poor starved creature.

"You overgrown cockhair" is a great insult.

So the dwarves see what's going on with Nilfgaard before anyone else does. And Borch suggests that Yennefer could have stopped it. Ah, the possibilities of alternate timelines!

Dara's a smart cookie. If only he had been smarter and not come with Ciri at all. :-( And he walks away in the end. Why did I remember him dying? Maybe because he's been knocked out so many times. Or does he die in a later episode? I find I barely remember eps 7 and 8 at all. I suck at arc-heavy stuff.

Geralt has such a nice smile. I'd wish to see it more, but honestly I think part of the reason I like it may be because it's so rare. Yen has an even lovelier smile, when it's genuine. So often it's just a sneer, but in bed with Geralt when she looks so radiant, she's so cute and I love it.

I can understand dragon hearts hypothetically curing a barren woman if it's just pcos or something, but Yennefer doesn't even have her reproductive organs. What would the dragon do, regrow them? Or just plant the seed in her womb? If she has a womb; I can't remember if that was taken too. (She could keep the foetus in a box... Sorry.)

Geralt's "uh" face when he let slip the Child Surprise thing is so great. :-D

"I can take care of myself." "You don't always have to." Well, she’s nowhere near the point of accepting that, is she?

Yen has a way of staring into the distance.

Ciri's finally getting a bit proactive, asking the right questions and then using the knife to attack the Doppler. Not that it does her much good.

I would NOT walk on that mountain path EVER. Then again, most of what happens on this show is stuff I wouldn't do ever.

Geralt is such a giant pile of fluff. It's funny, in one of the Man from UNCLE interview, Henry Cavill describes his character as "a steel fist wrapped in a velvet glove" and Armie Hammer describes his as "a puppy in the body of a wrecking ball", but here, Geralt is most definitely the puppy. (Yen’s too vulnerable to be the steel fist, though. If anything, she’s a puppy inside a steel fist inside a velvet glove. And that’s a weird image.)

Jaskier has genuinely been crying for Borch, Tea and Vea. Aw. You don't have to, they're fine!

Yennefer actually conjured up furniture for her tent. And look at the ornamentation on the tent poles! If this was modern times, she'd have a trailer with shower and everything. :-)

A bunch of little flashbacks showing the various times they've banged. I wonder what happened the other times between Rinde and this.

She expects him to be gone in the morning and then he's not gone and I'm emotional.

The Doppler/Cahir fight would have been more effective if I had the first clue which is which.

Yennefer can just freeze people in time. Yen, that's cheating! But why doesn't she use it again during the fight? She's very hands-on, Geralt does the only magic bit.

When push comes to shove, Yennefer can't just let another baby be harmed to get hers.

I understand Yen's need for independence, and why she's upset about the wish, but at the same time, there's only so far you can push people away if you want someone to be with you. (Then again, I'm like Yen in this respect, don't get too fucking close but don't let me die alone.)

Their parting is so sad, but if we compare it to the Istredd/Yennefer breakup it's not half as nasty. There's nothing truly unforgiveable said on either side. If anything, they're both right about each other. If it weren't for the destiny angle rankling Yen so much, it would be barely more than a tiff.

Interestingly enough, in the book Yen likes the thought of being bound to Geralt. The versions are quite different in some ways. (And I do need to finish reading this story, for proper comparison, embarrassment notwithstanding.)

And then he takes it all out on Jaskier instead. I think fandom's desire to fix this, more than the Yen/Geralt fight, is in part the inclination towards boyslash above all else, yes, but also that it has a more obvious solution: Geralt is out of line, he knows he's out of line, and if he wasn't so emotionally constipated he'd apologize.

In comparison, the Yen situation requires either breaking the bond, or Yennefer accepting it, and neither one of those is a minute's work.

(Sidenote: This is one reason I feel like I need to write Yen's version of my fic. I put her and Geralt back together without explaining how that happened, and I need to. But I also need to rewatch first to get the details right, especially since I’m so hazy on the last two eps.)

I hope we get more Fringilla and Cahir next season, I'd like to see what makes them tick beyond just religious fervour.

I feel like Netflix played themselves by waiting so long to deliver the soundtrack, because by now, I actually likes Joey Batey's songs with The Amazing Devil better than the ones he sings as Jaskier. I mean, Her Sweet Kiss is nice and all, but compared to the raw bitterness of Elsa's Song? Pass.

#the witcher #geralt of rivia #yennefer of vengerberg #jaskier #cirilla of cintra

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