okay like I’m answering like this bc apparently tumblr put a limit on how long you can make asks and I was getting too long as usual but hahahaha well

my friend my countryperson, I  can talk about them and then I will see myself out and start drinking way too early because of the pain, but not counting the addendum which killed me because yes hahahahahahahahha OH MY GOD YES *cries and kicks netflix*, it's choke full of parallels because like (I'm going off netflix and what books I read wrt witcher I haven't finished them yet but I got enough)

like first of all there's direct jaskier > stede and geralt > ed comparisons in the sense

jaskier and stede are both nobles/rich people who came from money/titles and gave it up to lead an 'adventurous' life or anyway something that puts them completely outside their original class status but don't care for what it brings them and at the same time are kinda gnc wrt what one would presume is A Real Man in their universes (but also irl tbh) because they both dress well/care about their appearance and put a lot of effort in maintaining it (I mean book!jaskier curls his fucking hair pls)/use what they learned in high society when they have to and the situation calls for it but at the same time they don't behave like anyone who doesn't come from high class is a lesser person and they don't gaf wrt who they're friends with

on the other side geralt and ed never mind the clothing similarities (because the black is just netflix!geralt game and book isn't exactly into LEATHER BLACK AESTHETIC but netflix is so we'll count it) have the whole thing where most people they meet/know perceive them as someone extremely dangerous/at times inhuman [for ed because for geralt it's most of the time when he's not with friends]/feel like they have to play into that part in order to get by in life/are sort of born into a violent job that makes them risk their life over and over (like geralt didn't have a choice about it and ed pretty much couldn't have done anything else) and they basically tried to embrace it as much as they can even if they want other things from life starting with being treated for themselves/like human beings also we can add that they both come from a poor background and they have a shitload of parental trauma that they never worked through (geralt with his mother and ed with his father) and to top it all off they're canonically seen by others (and themselves to a point) as monsters (geralt bc he's a mutant and ed has the whole kraken defense mechanism)

to which we could go with the first obvious bunch of relationship parallels in the sense that in both ships (not counting how bad netflix is at show don't tell) the thing is that jaskier/stede immediately see ed/geralt as someone they like/they want to be friends with and they don't care about whatever bad fame they have if they even knew about it (I mean netflix!jaskier doesn't even know wtf is geralt before he goes and talks to him while everyone was giving him a wide berth and stede had shown ed the secret closet after literally five seconds he didn't know he was blackbeard) and make them feel like they don't have to pretend to be someone they're not at least with them while on the other side they feel like they can also be themselves without getting judged for their idiosyncrasies or for all the reasons they didn't fit in high society

to which we could add that ed/geralt have canonically saved stede/jaskier's asses as well I mean in netflix we mostly had bottled appetites when it came to geralt saving jaskier's ass but in the books it happened way more often as far as I read up and ed signed his freedom away to save stede's life like we serious

but then there's the other parallel which you hinted because yes there's the whole angle with the what makes you happy part but let me go into it a second

like, jaskier and ed in that sense is kinda obvious because they're the two who bring up the whole 'wanting to figure out what makes me/you happy' (and the one difference is that since obv netflix!witcher isn't going that route geralt was never gonna say IT'S YOU while stede did but I mean that went unsaid) but they're also the two that are more in touch with their feelings, because jaskier has no problem bringing up the thing and admittedly he's the one out of the two of them who tries to actually talk about stuff and same for ed who for being like... in a fairly crap position for it is actually way more open about his own feelings and needs and shit than stede is (more on that later), takes the first step and puts himself on the line...

which brings us to the fact that at the end of S1s of both shows jaskier and ed are the two people who are in the same position because they’ve been left heartbroken by ed/stede ie the two people they trusted/cared for the most (and were in love with) and you don’t want to know how much I screamed when ed was working through it with the breakup song because my immediate thought was ‘if it was the same universe and he heard burn butcher burn he’d track jaskier down just to have drinks with him about the fair-headed assholes who obviously broke their heart’ and I’m just sad I don’t have time to write that crossover but like are we fucking serious, and the fact that both of them pretend they’re over it after but actually aren’t (ed cries in the nook at the end of S1 and jaskier is lit. crying while singing the last line of BBB) isn’t anything I can get over atm

I can also rant about the fact that actually jaskier and ed are the ones that have uuuh the most similar fashion choices because YEAH YEAH I KNOW THE BLACK LEATHER but listen to me a second like jaskier dresses all Not Exactly Masculine™ with his own flair, not with previously put-together outfits, and he has the post-breakup red leather outfit, but it’s still nice stuff (the frilly shirt, the silken vest) because he figured out what he wants to dress like and has no issue donning that right, while ed starts with the black leathers but that’s his blackbeard thing, then moves on to stede’s frilly stuff and he likes it but it’s still not him™, and the moment he could actually pick and choose what he wanted... he got stede’s trousers and the silken pretty (red) floral vest, the long hair and nothing else including the trademark beard, which is... Not Exactly Masculine™ but is his own flair over what he found out he liked wearing and he was exploring it before izzy had to go ruin it but I digress

meanwhile netflix!geralt and stede until the end of S1 dress in... well, coded outfits unless someone puts them out of it in the sense that geralt never gives up his leather get-up unless jaskier gives him the nice clothing and stede has only frilly coordinated outfits all the time except when they’re at the academy (and we could talk for ages wrt he and ed being dressed the same when they kiss but nvm that) but at the same time like the other witchers don’t dress like geralt so we can take for granted that he chose that get up and likes it/maintains it same as stede liked the frilly clothing and never cared that he was judged badly for wearing it, but it’s kinda armor-y for them if it makes sense imvho? idk I’m ranting but anyway let’s move on to the actual stuff

because clothes nonwithstanding on the other side geralt and stede have in common a terrible level of emotional constipation brought by the fact that both of them think that they can’t be genuinely loved/cared for by other people/think they’re bad news for them, like the fact that geralt keeps on telling himself he doesn’t have feelings (false) vs how stede keeps on saying he agrees he’s a monster and ruins beautiful things is... kinda the same thing at the end of it because neither of them is anywhere near in touch with his feelings (as much as stede is good at making others discuss them) and it takes them a... I don’t want to say traumatic event bc that doesn’t exactly fit, more like a lifechanging revelation like thing to start getting over it - like, for geralt is finding ciri and having to be emotionally available for his daughter and therefore getting more in touch with his feelings for others at the same time, for stede is hearing mary talk about what it means to be really in love and realise that’s what he was feeling because he couldn’t recognise it as it never happened to him before and no one actually loved him like that either, and while with geralt/jaskier isn’t exactly 100% the same bc obviously geralt is close with the other kaer morhen witchers jaskier is still the first human friend he had and obv in between witchers it’s a different thing

which brings us to the part where geralt and stede are the ones who actually cause heartbreak for jaskier/ed, geralt because he has the pent up rage moment and unloads on jaskier also probably because he knew he could do it with him and on one level he thinks jaskier would be better off without him anyway but doesn’t realise how much it actually would have hurt him and stede because he thinks he ruins everything and that ed would be better off without him when instead ed is a lot worse off without him, so they basically are working on assumption about themselves which are not true and end up driving away the other two who has just bared their heart out to them ops

so like geralt and ed would have an interesting conversation and stede and jaskier would have the same because both would be like eh being a noble sucked, but the double date would be something because it would end up with jaskier and ed siding vs the other two being like eeeeh we did fuck up didn’t we but I digress

and I mean at this point I’m here sobbing like why the fuck are these fictional people doing this to me but YEAH THERE ARE PARALLELS and I’m nowhere near ready to consider most of this without feeling like I’ve been personally attacked