#GERALT LOVES HIS BARD WE DO NOT TALK ABOUT THE NETFLIX ADAPTATION

[geraskierfanficprompts]

Prompt 38

Jaskier has kept a secret for years. The ring with dandelions carved into it that he wears every second of every day is the only thing keeping him from turning into ash. He sleeps with a lovely woman one night, desperately trying to move on from Geralt (it doesn't work, he is still very much in love with his best friend) only to awake in the morning and find- FUCK She stole his ring! That conniving little-! Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! What does he do!? He races to the mirror and it confirms his worst fear. The glamour the ring gives him is gone. He can't see his reflection. He reaches a hand up to his mouth and feels his fangs. No- Nonono! Then his worst fucking nightmare ON TOP of his worst nightmare happens. He hears the stomping footsteps of a witcher approaching their room. Godsdamn it all. He hears the doorknob jiggle and.. Alright, he'll be the first to admit it, he panics. "DON'T COME IN, GERALT" The doorknob jiggling pauses. "Jaskier? Are you alright?" "Y- YES! Perfectly peachy! Don't come in!" Jaskier rushes around the room, pacing in panicked circles like a caged beast. He was a caged beast. He reaches to close the curtains of the only window in the room and like an idiot, he fumbles in place and ends up with his hand in the direct sunlight. He shrieks in pain and holds his hand to his chest. Geralt, scenting agony and hearing Jaskier yell, barges in without another moment of thought. Only to see Jaskier scrambling away from him in fear. In all his years of knowing Jaskier, he has NEVER been afraid of him. It physically pains Geralt to see it now. He doesn't understand why he wasn't allowed in. There's no lover of Jaskier's hiding in a corner embarrassed at being caught, Jaskier isn't indecent or anything, so why-? Then he looks at Jaskier, truly looks at him, and sees his blue eyes are glowing, and his mouth - Parted open as he pants - reveals fangs. Geralt's eyes dart to Jaskier's neck and it's confirmed. The worst part of it all, is the way Jaskier's eyes keep glancing between the door out of the room, and Geralt's silver sword. Geralt is infuriated. Not only did the woman Jaskier take to bed last night turn Jaskier into a vampire, but she also made Jaskier fear Geralt because of it. When Geralt says he isn't going to harm (let alone KILL like Jaskier had feared) Jaskier for the twentieth time, Jaskier finally believes him, and begs him to help him track the woman down. Geralt is intent on killing the vampire that ruined poor young human Jaskier's life. Jaskier is intent on getting his human-glamour, sunlight-immunity-enchantment ring back from this human he slept with, so he can go back to pretending he's human, like he has been doing for the past hundred or so years.

[fangirleaconmigo]

Hi, hope you're having a great day! I'm very glad you are so passionate about the books and are giving all those 'netflix only' fans, like myself, a chance for some deeper context and comparisons. You've talked some about the relationships Geralt and Yennefer have with Ciri and Dandelion. Is there a difference or a deeper relationship between Ciri and Dandelion in the books? Is he just her adopted father's friend or are they family in their own right? I've noticed the Netflix adaptation kind of makes a point of isolating Jaskier from all of Geralt's friends. No one seems to like him or respect him, if they can even stand him. It's very off putting. Then they hardly had the two interact so I'm worried it will be more of the same with his daughter, do you have any thoughts on that?

Hi Nonny! Thanks for the ask xo.

Yes, it’s a bit odd isn’t it? Jaskier tries to be friendly and he can’t seem to catch a break. I get, of course, that it’s a joke. It’s a really common type of running joke (common esp in sitcoms), where everyone is inexplicably mean to one person, and that’s it. That's the whole joke. (Like Jerry in Parks and Rec) I will admit that I literally do not get it. My sister will be laughing at stuff like that and it just does literally zero for my funny bone. I sort of just cringe.

But lots of people love it! And lots of people love it in TWN. Actually I read a Reddit comment where a person said that when Geralt punched Jaskier in S1, they laughed so hard they almost pee’ed themselves. (Paraphrased). And I have to be honest, with that type of humor. I just look at the screen and there's nothing. Not even a chuckle. Humor is just so damned subjective. And I don't get it. I would rather see nuanced characters and an amazing friendship in all its glory. But what can do you?

And with Jaskier, I think it's so interesting that in doing that with his character, they inadvertently make him such a tragically lonely figure. It is SO IRONIC. Of course in the books Dandelion annoys some people and charms other. He is loud and gregarious and funny and some people find him totally obnoxious and others find him extremely entertaining. But he is by far the most outgoing, extroverted, people loving character and probably has the most friends of anyone.

And yet somehow in the show, he is the most lonely one, in a way that feels kind of tragic! It's interesting! And for those who love angst, they are probably eating that up. You've got Jaskier playing Burn Butcher Burn, people cheering and laughing, while he dissociates and basically falls apart right in front of their eyes. And they just cheer.

Is there anything lonelier than being surrounded by people to whom you are invisible? People who see you as more of an object or clown?

And then if you take away all of his other friends, and make Geralt refuse to call him a friend for the first twenty years of their friendship, and you have somehow made the popular bard the most lonely character in the witcher world. (I think Yen is the most lonely in the books, because the sorceresses are such sharks to her. But in the show they are more of her friends)

But yeah. I don't think TWN meant to do that with Jaskier? I think they just thought it'd be funny? (total speculation) But here we are.

But I would very much like to see Jaskier be a fuller character, and more obviously to be a part of his beloved found family. I ADORED all of his scenes with Yen in S2. And I'd love to see more of his scenes written with the understanding of what he brings to the witcher universe. He is just a beating human heart of a loyal person who loves his found family. So let's see some more of that bond.

But you asked about Jaskier and Ciri in the books, and I've made that post here. XD

[mothpiercings]

i wrote this while on vacation then forgot about it for a week anyway

jaskier travels to future modern day where geralt is like 800 years old

after the dragon hunt geralt and jaskier part ways

geralt didn’t mean anything he said ofc, he was just angry and frustrated and he took it out on the one person he could always count on

but his stupid pride won’t let him apologize

even though he feels sorry as soon as the words leave his mouth

he watches jaskier walk away, and knows that he has to give his the bard some time

three years is a lot of time to give but geralt can’t find him

he has literally looked everywhere

oxenfurt, lettenhove, pasoda, hell even cintra (which he vowed to never go back to, but he needs to find jaskier)

the bard is nowhere

five more years pass

geralt still looks for him everywhere

every time there’s a bard with bushy brown hair or blue eyes or a lute with flowers on it, he’s reminded of jaskier and is filled with hope for one quick second

but it’s never jaskier

he hears it in a pub

it’s a no name pub he’s never been to, one he just stopped in after a hunt

and he hears it

the bard in the corner, talking to some patrons, acting as if it’s just casual conversation

“yes, yes, the great bard Jaskier, meletele bless his soul, wrote many ballads in his day, and had he not fallen to horrid fate, we might have more. but alas, we make do.” and he finished with a laugh.

a laugh

geralt storms out of the pub, probably scaring the few townspeople sober enough to notice

he takes on contracts that he knows are too dangerous for him

he goes to kaer morehn every winter and drinks himself near death

the others are worried for him, but bringing it up leads to geralt locking himself in his room for weeks

they don’t talk about it

he isn’t sober for more than a few hours at time for a decade

eventually geralt finds his child surprise

and he knows that he can’t keep this up AND be a decent father figure

he and yennifer sort things out and she helps him sober up

blah blah blah season two happens mainly as it did in netflix cannon except without jaskier

a few hundred years pass

everyone’s alive (all the witchers, yennifer, ciri, magic is the answer to everything)

it feels like forever

geralt never stops thinking about jaskier

everytime music changes or a new instrument is invented, all geralt can think about is how jaskier would respond

he cries the day he found out ab recording

all he can think about is how he would never get to hear jaskier immortalized like this

jaskier would never be remembered

that thought makes him cry harder

it takes yennifer and ciri a week to pull him out of his drunken depressive episode

geralt has settled in pretty well though

he’s generally good at adapting to change (even though the fact that his dog is named roach says otherwise)

he has a job that he mostly enjoys (he’s a park ranger. it’s the most fun he’s ever had and he loves it so much. if anyone ever found out he would kill them and then himself)

he and his family try to get together at least once a month

they got closer after they stopped having to kill to survive

when they finally got to a point where they could just be

they almost always go over to vesemirs (because despite what they say, he’s their dad)

it’s at one of these dinners, as everyone’s saying their goodbyes, a loud crack and swear is heard from the backyard

it’s a swear they haven’t heard in a long time

centuries maybe

then more swearing

geralt pauses and listens to the voice that he knows is dead

this is a nasty trick

the other witcher’s know that something’s wrong as soon as they see geralt’s expression change

they got rid of their swords a long time ago (it was the 70s after someone lambert tried to take them to a festival and almost killed someone. now they stay in the attic)

but they all carry daggers ofc

they grab their weapons and slowly stalk towards the yard

where the voice is still ranting and cursing

still in a language long dead

they open the door

geralt doesn’t belive it

“where the fuck am i, geralt” the bards voice is just like it was that day on the mountain

chapter/story two

none of them move for a beat

they can hear the man’s (jaskiers?) heart beating so fast it could come out of his chest

he doesn’t seem like a fake (dopplers went extinct a few centuries ago anyway)

if this was an imposter, they were too good at it

“jaskier” has the same scent he always has (wild flowers and a field after rain)

jaskier looks at the witchers, all big and scary and totally pointing their daggers at him

he can assume the other men are geralts brothers

though they don’t have a madellian, they each have a large ring with a wolf engraved

don’t ask jaskier how he noticed this

he doesn’t know

geralt stalks closer to the man (the man who was dead for almost 1000 years, the man who shouldn’t be here right now)

he hears a light growl from behind him and eskel lightly gripping his arm

but he has to do this, so he shakes the hand off and continues forward

with each step that geralt takes, jaskier smells… calmer

this confuses geralt, because even though they had been… friends for a long time, they parted ways on awful terms

in a language he hasn’t heard in such a long time, jaskier begins to speak

“geralt…” he repeats, “where the fuck am i?”

it takes a moment for geralt to process, and not just because he barely remembers the language

but the man’s voice sounds so much like jaskiers

and jaskier looks not a hair out of place

he looks. like he was simply plucked out of thin air in 12xx and deposited in 2022

[karen-kurobara]

Some moments of the book "Sword of Destiny" that I want to highlight - Geralt worries that Jaskier will not be scared during a hunt.

Brief warning of No spoilers.

This second book, titled "The Sword of Destiny", ends at the same narrative point as the first season of the Netflix adaptation, so this post doesn't contain spoilers for the main plot of The Witcher. Instead, I will highlight scenes from the book that were not adapted for television.

Still, I want to give a extra warning that if you are reading the book, or intend to read it, this is because the following post contains minor spoilers for the "A little Sacrifice" story.

Having said that…

In the second book of The Witcher saga, "The Sword of Destiny", we can find the story titled "A little sacrifice", which unfortunately was not adapted yet to the Netflix series, however it is important to mention that Lauren S. Hissrich (showrunner of The Witcher Netflix series) has mentioned on twitter her intention to present this story on screen.

This whole story is pure gold, as it has many small moments that show how much Geralt and Jaskier care about each other on a hunt.

Let's go in order and highlight the feelings that each of these moments evokes.

Context.

Putting us a little in context, Geralt has to carry out of a job on the coast, specifically in an area that is at risk of flooding due to the rise and fall of the tide, so anyone who goes there has limited time.

Jaskier of course accompanies the witcher, under the excuse of getting information for a ballad and incidentally finding a gift for a friend (a second female bard named Essi, I love her).

So both, bard and witcher, are attentive to anything they can find, Geralt looks for clues to carry out the hunt and Jaskier looks for something beautiful while they reflect about the life, when the first moment occurs:

Jaskier sees a skull and gets scared.

I find it a bit cute that Jaskier behaves like a child, his attention jumps from one thing to another for everything around him, but the moment he gets scared, the first thing he does is call Geralt. Geralt of course reacts immediately but expects the worst even if it ends up being a false alarm.

The story continues, and they keep talking and reflecting (something they do a lot in this chapter), and without missing a beat...

Geralt sees a corpse and avoids it so Jaskier doesn't get scared again.

What I like about this part is that Geralt is not the typical "Geralt -I-don't-care-about-Jaskier's-discomfort-during-a-hunt-because-he-decided-to-follow-me- of Rivia"

We could say that Geralt just doesn't want to listen to the diatribe that Jaskier would undoubtedly unleash.

But I like to think that Geralt really does care about Jaskier's comfort, 'cause we know from the first book that the bard dislikes violence and death to the point where he gets quite upset (practically a panic attack), a fact that Geralt undoubtedly knows.

Now, let's take a short time jump to the of battle's moment.

Jaskier asks Geralt to hold his hand and they run away from the battle.

At the moment of maximum tension, Geralt and Jaskier are outnumbered, the tide is rising and the enemies keep coming. The only option is to flee, but Jaskier won't leave without Geralt.

It is important to mention that in this part Jaskier didn't run away, instead waited until he and Geralt were able to flee, although everything goes to hell after this.

Geralt tells Jaskier to run away while he holds off an entire enemy army with all the odds against him.

As we see, Geralt says that he will contain the monsters so that Dandelion can flee, although Geralt himself knows that he has no chance of winning.

This fact, that Geralt stays behind while the others get to safety, is really something that is repeated on several occasions under different circumstances (and that later I will do a recapitulation of all these moments)

I won't talk about how these two managed to get out of this situation, my intention above all is to highlight the dynamic that Geralt and Jaskier had during the hunt.

We can summarize this in a couple of points:

Geralt is annoyed that Jaskier follows him to dangerous jobs, but he doesn't blame him directly to his face.

Geralt is somewhat worried that Jaskier isn't anxious or scared during a job.

Geralt also prioritizes the safety of Jaskier (and civilians in general), deciding to sacrifice stay behind in each battle, but Jaskier does not abandon him so easy.

Jaskier insists on taking his hand and run away together (although I think this is not the general rule, who knows, I hope to be able to read more interactions like these in the books that I still have yet to read.)

I don't understand how there aren't more people talking about this whole scene, maybe because it's something extensive but I love seeing how these two are during a hunt (something we never really saw in the Netflix adaptation, the closest we got was the hunt for the "demon", a Silvan in reality, and his eventual kidnapping by the elves).

Finally, a brief apology for any grammatical errors that I have made, English is not my first language and I' m still practicing

[itsrainingfeathers]

So......I watched s2 of Netflix Witcher. It wasn't great, but not absolutely horrible either. No clue what the writers were high on, but I want a hit of that stuff. Incredible bullshit, this season.

Here's some things I liked about it:

- How they adapted the plot of A Grain of Truth with Ciri thrown in the mix, and how she and Geralt just walked away from Nivellen in the end. A very powerful scene.

- Vereena!! She is one of my favorite characters in the books even tho she doesn't do that much, so it was really nice to see her in the series, too. I liked the few extra moments they gave her, and the chittering sounds, and all the non-human things. (Though her watching Ciri in the bath was a bit creepy-crawly, even if it was likely purely out of curiosity)

- I hate book!Yennefer so much and didn't like her in s1 either, but now she wasn't completely horrible??? unbelievable

- her interactions with Jaskier and Cahir were the best

- Francesca Findabair/Enid an Gleanna is in the books considered the most beautiful woman in the world, and she's absolutely gorgeous in the show, too

- Burn Butcher Burn slaps so hard (and Whoreson Prison Blues, too)

- Jaskier's mouse friends!!

- "The Aard incident" yes please tell me more about small witcherling Geralt's shenanigans

- "Ciri, this is my...dear friend." "Dear friend?" PLEASE (Yennefer's 'dear friend'-letter in Blood of the Elves is the funniest thing)

- ah yes, Yennefer's stuffed unicorn that broke under mysterious circumstances (she and Geralt banged on it in Sword of Destiny or Blood of the Elves)

- Nenneke my beloved (though she couldn't do magic in the books)

- I'm glad they included some smaller side characters (like Jarre, Rience's homies, Codringher & Fenn and the cat)

- Very much queercoded Jaskier (talking about the "artist"-scene here)

- and he has a hat now!! And a very nice coat

- Buffskier enjoyers were clearly onto something. How are you feeling?

- Yennefer's outfits were gorgeous

- Coën's eyes looked really cool (the potions affecting only one of them)

- the Temple of Melitele looked exactly like I imagined it in the books! And it had that cozy welcoming warm atmosphere

- Tissaia de Vries in what I think were night clothes? Anyway she looked lovely

- Bard in Kaer Morhen!! (if only Eskel were there...)

- Those shots of Yennefer with the sword on her throat were gorgeous

- and there were some decent interactions between her and Geralt?? I deeply dislike the relationship bc at least in the books Yen is abusive towards him (and, as we all saw, it's not great in the show either), but the scenes at the temple were even enjoyable.

- the "basilisks" were a bit too velociraptor-indoraptor-like, but their design was still great!!

- Dijkstra and dear Phil!

- I'm glad they brought Dara back

And here's some things I didn't like:

- Eskel. They really massacred my boy in every possible way.

- Ciri. What have they done to her. She had some scenes I liked (like her talk with Jarre), but it was mostly bad (for example, when she and Yennefer portalled to the farm from the temple). Like I've said before, a bland ass sack of flour.

- Book Cahir is so much better too. Really hoping they'll steer him more into that direction in s3. (And Eamon Farren looks a lot like this Finnish singer-actor-sex offender Roope Salminen so it's a bit difficult to take the character seriously. Not his fault ofc, this is just a me problem)

- Why were there so many witchers? Were all of them from Wolf School? Way too many witchers. Way. Too. Many. At least they died.

- The previous one had (except for Coën ofc) there but I removed it bc they made him into a Wolf Witcher. He is a fucking Griffin. Not. A. Wolf.

- Could've used any of those unnamed guys and dudes for the Groot storyline instead of darling Eskel

- watching the scenes with Triss at Kaer Morhen and imagining what it could've been like with good, gentle and kind Eskel there...I need to reread Blood of the Elves or something.

- "yeah Ciri Kaer Morhen is very secret place" and moments later Creepskel has brought some friends for a party

- Geralt's ridiculous fucking tiddy armor. (Though I think he made it himself? Ngl kinda iconic. And it looked good from certain angles, but mostly just...no)

- s1 main theme (Geralt of Rivia) was so thoroughly badass. Awe-inspiring. Magnificent. S2 main theme? I can't even remember the melody.

- Them using African violets for Feainnewedds shouldn't maybe bother me this much, but it does.

- How on Earth did Ciri manage to surprise and kill not one, but two Witchers in their sleep??? People who have enhanced senses and likely don't sleep too deeply due to nightmares, paranoia and such????? What

- and how come those basilisks beat the shit out of and killed a group of Witchers, but Geralt manages to kill the biggest, baddest one without too much of a trouble?? And without potions????? Make it make sense

- Geralt in full-on parent mode is the best Geralt, but am I the only one that found the relationship between him and Ciri a bit...empty? Lacking something?? I don't know how else to say it, it just felt weird (not creepy, that's not what i mean) like that

- That Baba Yaga motherfucker. What.

- The entire season seemed to lack depth in some way.

- The plot had some good things in it (like Jaskier and Yennefer's interactions, Temple of Melitele until Rience arrived, Dijkstra and dear Phil, Roach number 387's very emotional death), but other than that, it just felt off and I really didn't like it. I wasn't that interested in it and mostly watched it to pass time, out of curiosity, for the bard, and to know what the fandom was talking about.

So, as one Joey Batey once said:

Seriously, if you can stand occasional monologues and being introduced to so many new characters at once (especially in the short stories), they're so much better. Though I do think I would've liked the show much more had I not read the books (not all of them yet tho, still got 3 more to go). Oh well.

Even though I didn't like this season that much, I'm sort of excited to see what happens in s3?? Yennefer teaching Ciri magic, Jaskier's spy stuff, possibly the Scoia'tael, Cahir and Fringilla's fate...let's see how badly they fuck up those, shall we!

[itsclydebitches]

it's so funny to me bc the way you talk about show!witcher makes me not want to play the game bc. i love the way jaskier and geralt are in the show and i dont want THAT ruined for me by whatever the game does with them. which is probably weird but it just goes to show everyone has their own tastes i guess slkjfhgdskfjhgkjh

aksdjflaksj oh no! lol Honestly though, if you like the Netflix dynamic you may still like the game dynamic, if only because so many of the criticisms against Netflix — that Geralt is too cruel to Jaskier, Jaskier is too much of a caricature, they don't start out as the close friends they're meant to be, etc. — exists for TW3 as well. So for someone who does like their dynamic as opposed to being critical of it, the game and show might somewhat go hand-in-hand? Or at least that’s a theory of mine. Though TW3 takes place post-canon and thus the two have settled into a solid relationship (we've already gone through the development the Netflix boys will presumably get), there's still this undercurrent of Dandelion as this... grudgingly loved annoyance, I guess. Which, if you've read any of the books, feels totally off base, whereas if this is your first/only Witcher experience it can feel like a whole ocean of potential. We know Geralt does like Jaskier, so what does it mean if he doesn't always act like it? The whole "I pretend like I hate you, but deep down I'd totally die for you. Now what tragedy will make me finally  admit how much I care?" characterization can be GREAT. Great enough that I've got a 37,000 word fic derived from the Netflix dynamic going, despite my own complaints! (I am a contradiction) So yeah, I both like aspects of their relationship even as I'm frustrated by them, and more importantly, I can see many of those same characteristics in TW3. Which might make it more palatable for you, anon, than previously assumed.

It's the books where Dandelion truly differs and, as an adaptation — not just that, but an adaptation where the creators said time and again they were going to be faithful to the books — where Netflix fails to my mind. There's plenty of great Dandelion-Geralt moments to discuss, but you know Netflix's initial meeting? Jaskier begging for any acknowledgement of his work, Geralt dismissing his song as untrue, the whole man with bread in his pants? Compare that to the scene that exchange was likely taken from:

“Geralt,” said Dandilion, standing in the stirrups to pick a fine apple from a branch which stretched over the orchard fence, “all the way you've been complaining about it being harder and harder to find work. Yet from what I just heard, it looks as if you could work here without break until winter. You'd make a penny or two, and I’d have some beautiful subjects for my ballads. So explain why we're riding on.”

“I wouldn't make a penny, Dandilion.”

“Why?”

“Because there wasn't a word of truth in what they said.”

“I beg your pardon?”

“None of the creatures they mentioned exist.”

“You're joking!” Dandilion spat out a pip and threw the apple core at a patched mongrel. “No, it's impossible. I was watching them carefully, and I know people. They weren't lying.”

“No,” the witcher agreed. “They weren't lying. They firmly believed it all. Which doesn't change the facts.”

The poet was silent for a while.

“None of those monsters…None? It can't be. Something of what they listed must be here. At least one! Admit it.”

“All right. I admit it. One does exist for sure.”

“Ha! What?”

“A bat.”

They rode out beyond the last fences, on to a highway between beds yellow with oilseed and cornfields rolling in the wind. Loaded carts traveled past them in the opposite direction. The bard pulled his leg over the saddlebow, rested his lute on his knee and strummed nostalgic tunes, waving from time to time at the giggling, scantily clad girls wandering along the sides of the road carrying rakes on their robust shoulders.

“Geralt,” he said suddenly, “but monsters do exist. Maybe not as many as before, maybe they don't lurk behind every tree in the forest, but they are there. They exist. So how do you account for people inventing ones, then? What's more, believing in what they invent? Eh, famous witcher? Haven't you wondered why?”

“I have, famous poet. And I know why.”

“I’m curious.”

“People”—Geralt turned his head—“like to invent monsters and monstrosities. Then they seem less monstrous themselves."

The casual intimacy of traveling together, grabbing a snack, and chatting to pass the time. Dandelion waves at "scantily glad girls," but it's just a single line, not his defining trait. He plays a little music without Geralt insulting him (because Geralt likes his music and has always been willing to admit it). Here, when Dandelion is wrong about what kind of monsters exist, he's not made to feel lesser for that belief, or to have it presented as a means of coning people out of their coin (note that Geralt doesn't take exception to the suggestion of staying and getting "some beautiful subjects for my ballads”). Geralt kindly explains the villagers' ignorance — an ignorance Dandelion is a part of, even if the text simultaneously points out that he can read people well and he wasn’t wrong to pick up on the fact that the villagers think this is all true — before they share a moment of humor together: "Ha! What?" / "A bat." A few minutes later though Dandelion challenges things a bit, leading to a philosophical discussion about the nature of monstrosity. Dandelion is intelligent! Geralt welcomes his insights! They jokingly call one another “famous witcher” and “famous poet”! It’s a totally different feel from the grudging acceptance to outright hostility shown in the Netflix show, or even the general annoyance that can permeate their interactions in the game. The books are the one place where I believed, without a shadow of a doubt, that Dandelion is Geralt’s best and truest friend  — and not just because no one else will put up with the Butcher of Blaviken. 

So you might still like them in the games! Even if you don’t, I’d recommend not letting that stop you. Obviously I have some criticisms there, but TW3 remains one of my favorite games ever. At the end of the day, the Dandelion-Geralt interactions are an incredibly short part of the tale compared to the whole. For those who aren’t happy with that relationship, aren’t happy with Yen, don’t like playing Ciri, can’t stand Triss, even don’t like this major arc... everything is just one small piece of a truly massive game. So I’d definitely still recommend giving it a try sometime. If you don’t like their interactions, go watch some Netflix clips on youtube after the Dandelion scenes to wash away the bad :D

[drowningbydegrees]

TITLE: Even in the Dark I Know You (Part 3 of 3) SHIP: Geraskier PROMPT DAY: Six - Monster MEDIUM (Netflix, Books, Games, Hexer): Netflix WARNINGS: No archive warnings apply, but canon typical violence SUMMARY:

The thing is, he’s seen Geralt in a bad way. Even the witcher can’t always avoid injury in his line of work, and so Jaskier has plenty of practice patching him up. But this is new, and it makes something awful and anxious twist in Jaskier’s stomach.

A contract goes wrong leaving Geralt captive and stripped of most of his senses by the time Jaskier gets to him.

WORD COUNT: 2,834 (8,195 total) AUTHOR’S NOTES: Written for @geraltwhumpweek Finally, the comfort part of the hurt/comfort

AO3 Link  Tumblr Part 1 | 2 

It’s the crash of thunder that finally drags Jaskier from sleep. Maybe just this once, Geralt’s lack of hearing is a gift. At least he can sleep through all the racket.

Except… Except the space on the bed usually taken up by the witcher is empty, and while that isn’t new in the grand scheme of things, Jaskier has still taken to immediately making sure he knows where Geralt is at. His friend would be furious at him probably, but what he doesn’t realize won’t hurt him and it certainly stresses Jaskier out a little less.

“Geralt?” Jaskier asks, stupidly, because of course there’s not going to be an answer. There’s no noise either though. Not of any of the idle tasks Geralt sets himself to to pass the time. And that’s maybe a bit alarming. It’s worrisome enough for Jaskier to sit up at least, eyes widening when he finds himself in an empty room.

“Bollocks,” he mutters, rolling out of bed and yanking his clothes on in a haphazard mess. It’s nothing short of miraculous that Geralt had stayed put as long as he did, but Jaskier was really hoping the spell would run its course before the witcher got tired of waiting. Maybe it did. Maybe Geralt is basking in the relief of being able to engage with the world again, which is not a combination of words Jaskier believes will ever apply to Geralt in any situation, but… Well, he chooses optimism, because the alternatives leave him queasy.

The innkeeper, much to Jaskier’s chagrin, hasn’t seen Geralt and okay, that’s fine. Geralt is up before sunrise half the time anyway, so that doesn’t mean anything. It does mean one thing, Jaskier guesses, that one thing being that Geralt isn’t here. Crinkling his nose and heaving a very put upon sigh that he’s sort of sorry Geralt isn’t around to hear and feel bad about, the bard stalks out into the rain.

There’s one likely conclusion Jaskier comes to when considering where Geralt might go. If he can see again, well he hasn’t seen Roach in at least a week on top of however long he was stuck with that bloody mage, and if there is anything in the whole wide world that Geralt of Rivia truly loves, it’s his horse. So, off Jaskier trudges through the mud to the stables.

Roach whickers at him, and Pegasus, his own mount, pokes her head over the stable door waiting for the apples he always brings. She stares until he’s forced to apologize and show her his empty hands. They’re both safe and warm and that’s good, but there’s no sign that Geralt has been here at all.

Jaskier wanders in search of places Geralt might have gone. The streets of the market are empty except for the occasional overflowing puddle where dirt road has worn away. The smithy is shut up for the day. The grand total of two people who are also out in the rain are no help at all.

Maybe Geralt went to go grouch at the awful mage, which would be very much an improvement over Geralt grouching at him. Also, entirely understandable because the woman is insufferable and Jaskier wants to do a great deal more than grouch at her about it. Either way, it’s the only place Jaskier hasn’t checked, so he sets off in that direction with only minimal grumbling about the weather.

The trek isn’t a long one, but it’s outside of the town proper. The landscape is probably quite beautiful under normal circumstances, but with the rain coming down, and worry crawling up Jaskier’s spine, it’s all horribly bleak. Grass and leaves that might normally be vibrant are dull in the lack of sunlight, leaving the rolling hills feeling like some melancholy memory. The mud squelches uncomfortably under Jaskier’s boots with every step. The poor man who’s caught himself out in this mess looks completely miserable in the hopelessly inadequate shelter of a solitary tree.

Said man lifts his head enough to slough some of the rainwater off of his face, and Jaskier’s heart lurches. It’s not any of the number of progressively more horrifying scenarios Jaskier’s mind cooked up to explain Geralt’s disappearance, but that’s a small comfort in the face of what he’s found instead. Wishing he’d thought to bring a blanket (or anything else, really), Jaskier ignores the rain and the mud, cutting across the meadow to make his way to Geralt.

---

He does not know how much time has passed. Long enough to slide from despair to fury and back again. Anger is the simpler one to cope with, so by the time he feels a hand on his shoulder, he’s bristling against the urge to snarl at his would be salvation. His chest shudders with it, even if he can’t hear himself protest. “I don’t need your help. I’m-”

What is he? Mutant? Monster? He’s the kind of creature villagers assume feels nothing. He’s the sort of thing a mage assumes no one will miss. He’s an entity defined by what he destroys, and in that he’s not so terribly different from the creatures he engineers the demise of. Hardly a person at all sometimes.

And yet, in the face of all his ire, there is still a hand on his shoulder. Fingers curl around it. A hand then, and he sullenly expects he’s going to be bullied into standing up, but it isn’t what happens at all. Against his thigh, he feels someone sink down to their knees. The hand leaves, but only in favor of being a pair of arms that draw him in. The bard, then. Stupid man. He’ll be whining about mud stains on his clothes later, not that Geralt is likely to hear a word of it.

Left to his own devices, Jaskier basks in his creature comforts. Warm spaces and comfortable beds and not the mud and the cold, cold rain. He must be lonely too, Geralt notes, because he hasn’t left Geralt in all this time, and the witcher can’t even hear him to carry on a conversation, and yet Jaskier stays.

What a pair they make. Geralt really shouldn’t need mercy in any shape, being what he is, but he wearily leans into it anyway. He’ll dredge up the energy to pull himself together, but right now he’s just tired. Bit by bit, he caves in the face of unsolicited affection, until he’s cautiously feeling his way up Jaskier’s arms, along his shoulders, cradling the bard’s face. He should let go. He means to. Jaskier leans into his hands and Geralt finds they just won’t budge.

It’s a stupid thing, an emotional thing, a want he’s set aside to gather dust because he knows better. But his mind has been shrieking its loneliness and isolation for what might have been hours, and the face cradled in his palms is sopping wet from the rain, but it’s Jaskier’s and he doesn’t want to be alone anymore. So, when he pulls Jaskier into a clumsy sort of kiss, it’s not so much about desire as it is about contact. He cannot see, cannot hear, cannot smell, but he can feel the hammering of Jaskier’s pulse where one of his fingers settles under the bard’s jaw. He cannot witness the way Jaskier’s arms wind around his shoulders or the way his lips part in surrender, but it’s warm and real, a beacon in this lost and empty place.

Geralt does not imagine the way Jaskier’s fingers clutch at his soaked through shirt. He does not imagine the pressure of Jaskier’s lips fitting against his or the tremor of what is probably a moan when the bard licks boldly into his mouth. For a second, just a second, the awful litany of alone, alone, alone goes silent.

But all at once Jaskier retreats, panting roughly against Geralt’s jaw. There’s a featherlight kiss pressed to Geralt’s cheekbone, a hand smoothing over his rain soaked hair, affection unmistakable even though he can’t see Jaskier’s expression. And he knows Jaskier probably wants to put a pin in this until they can talk about it, but Geralt isn’t sure that’s a conversation they’ll ever even manage, and in the meantime, that awful, lonely ache bubbles to the surface.

“What are we still doing in this town?” he demands, and though he cannot hear himself, he can feel the frustration bleeding into his words like a physical thing.

There’s no answer. Of course there’s no answer. How could there be when neither of them can bridge the gap between them? Geralt heaves out a sigh and tries to jerk his hand away when Jaskier grabs for it.

Only, one of Jaskier’s hands cradle Geralt’s clenched fist, and the other gently coaxes his fingers to relax. It’s just perplexing enough that Geralt lets Jaskier smooth his hand into a flat surface, and trace a shape in the palm of it with one finger.

W

There are more letters after that. An entire word. Not that it’s any less confusing.

Waiting

---

“For what?” A scowl takes up residence on Geralt’s face, much to Jaskier’s dismay. He’d been so pleased with himself for finally thinking of a way to communicate, thinking it would ease the way for Geralt, but maybe not so much. “If I’m going to adapt to this, it’s not going to be by sitting in that room.”

Oh. Oh no. The mage had said it would wear off, but Geralt couldn’t possibly have heard. Guilt twists miserably in Jaskier’s stomach as he realized the witcher must have thought this was a permanent affliction the entire time and that Jaskier wasn’t even trying to help him fix it. “Oh Geralt. I’m so sorry. I-”

Jaskier stops mid-sentence. The witcher can’t hear him now either. So, he takes Geralt’s hand instead, and traces another word.

Temporary

“The spell?” Geralt’s eyes aren’t even pointed in Jaskier’s direction, but his very genuine surprise makes the bard’s heart ache.

Sentences are slower going, but Jaskier isn’t about let it stand that Geralt thinks he matters so little that his closest friend would just leave him with this. So he tries, watching Geralt mouth the words as he spells them out.

If not, we would be fixing it!!!!!!!!

Maybe that was too many exclamation points. Geralt’s face scrunches up, and it’s either annoyance, confusion, or the fact that the rain keeps dripping from his hair into his eyes. None of those possibilities explain, “It’s not your responsibility.”

Well, that is something they’re going to be unpacking later, at length, when Jaskier doesn’t have to confine himself to sentences his frayed patience can handle spelling out.

I would never abandon you, Geralt. Never. I

“You what?” Geralt prompts when Jaskier stops writing, so quietly Jaskier misses it in the din of the rain. The thing is, there are things he wants to say, but he rather thinks Geralt deserves to hear it. They both do.

Care. I care. About you. Ridiculous man.

“Hmm,” Geralt says, and there in the moment, their back and forth is almost familiar. Jaskier allows himself a relieved sort of smile.

Now can we PLEASE go inside?

---

It’s longer than Geralt is sure he’s got the tolerance for before the spell finally fades. It does fade though, and Geralt doesn’t at all appreciate the mage’s parting gift. As it turns out, not even relief can just be gentle.

There’s no quiet easing of the world back into its rightful place, and while the wave it rides in on would be uncomfortably jarring to human senses, it’s agonizing for Geralt. Geralt wakes to find he’s already caught in the midst of an avalanche, an onslaught that is truly inescapable. The morning light is gray at best, but even with his eyes closed, Geralt feels like he’s staring into the sun. Ducking away only presses his nose more firmly to the blankets that smell of old soap and even older sweat, so overwhelming he can barely breathe. It’s raining again, and where the sound might be soothing any other day, right now it’s like a constant banging right in his ear. Geralt hasn’t even sat up yet, and he’s already feeling something like vertigo, and he hasn’t been sick in ages, but he’ll be damned if he isn’t right on the edge of it now.

He sucks in a shaky breath and hides his face against the pillows, waiting for it to pass. It’s a terrible decision, all told. Absently, he fists his hands in his hair and pulls, straining to focus, but it’s only pain rolling out in one more direction. The scent of all the other people who have slept in this bed is far too much and with his eyes squeezed shut, Geralt scrabbles for the edge of the bed, stomach lurching threateningly.

It doesn’t matter in the end. Nothing comes up but an awful, sour taste that collects at the back of his throat, and that might be worse because the nausea refuses to pass. There’s nothing comfortable about his head hanging over the side of the bed. The room itself isn’t offensive, but even the subtle sweetness of the wine left in the bottom of a carafe across the room is too much, inescapably so.

Geralt doesn’t realize he’s even made a sound, but a warm hand splays between his bare shoulder blades, more familiar now than it’s ever been. Jaskier, bless him, has probably been practically vibrating with the need to have a conversation, but he doesn’t try to. He doesn’t speak, barely even breathes as he presses closer and coaxes Geralt from the side of the bed.

Rosemary. Jaskier shuffles and Geralt catches a hint of it, and it’s the first thing since he’s woken up that hasn’t threatened to upend his stomach. So really, it’s just instinct that makes him roll over and take reluctant refuge in the space under Jaskier’s chin. Conveniently, Jaskier folds his arms around Geralt like the witcher belongs there, and the bard’s shoulder blocks the light far better than anything else so far.

Jaskier must feel when Geralt’s pride catches up with the rest of him, because there’s a hand cradling his head, a thumb sweeping indulgently across his temple. Still, Jaskier doesn’t speak, but Geralt can feel the bard’s lips move against his hairline. Stay.

“I don’t need this,” Geralt mutters, his own voice like screaming right in his ear. He hates the way he shudders in the wake of it. “I’m not-”

“Geralt. You don’t have to be unbreakable.” Jaskier whispers, but it’s a careful thing, quiet it enough that it almost doesn’t hurt. “I’m certainly not.”

“It’s different.” Against Geralt’s forehead, he can feel the steady beat of Jaskier’s heart. “You’re human.”

“And you’re what?” Jaskier asks like the answer doesn’t matter. He scritches at the nape of Geralt’s neck, a welcome relief, no matter how much the witcher doesn’t want it to be. By inches, he melts into it, chasing after the soothing scent of rosemary and Jaskier’s skin as he hides away from the light.

“...not,” Geralt settles on, quietly as he can manage, though the rumble of the word rattles his teeth in his skull. “I can’t be this.”

“I’m going to assume by ‘this’ you mean your self-loathing… self. So no.” Jaskier smiles against Geralt’s forehead, and he wants to be frustrated, angry, something, but the feeling won’t come. Later, he might fume about the vulnerability he was forced to suffer through the last few weeks. Later, he might be inexplicably angry that Jaskier stayed and treated him like he was worth the trouble of sticking around for, even though they both know that’s ludicrous. For now though, he just doesn’t have the energy.

Instead, he thinks about the way Jaskier yielded, when all the world was dark and silent and terrible. Alone, alone, alone. Without thinking, he tips his head up, and maybe it’s to tell Jaskier to please stop talking, or maybe it’s to learn what Jaskier’s mouth feels like molded to his in the light of day. The world has still gone dreadfully sideways, and even as the aching in his head begins to recede a little, Geralt still feels one drink away from puking his guts out. He allows himself a single kiss, a quiet, tender thing before reality overwhelms anything he might happen to want.

“Right. Good. Okay, I guess that clears some things up. Anyway, don’t be that.” Jaskier’s voice is painful in the way every sound is painful, but it’s more the tolerable, pressing on a fading bruise kind of hurt, and Geralt bears it willingly. When Geralt shuffles to press his forehead against the bard’s collarbone, Jaskier doesn’t resist or give chase. He snuggles into the blankets, his body a buffer of sorts. Geralt hears a quiet hitch in Jaskier’s breathing, an anxious hesitation before he pulls the witcher more snugly into his arms. “Just be mine.”

[hamliet]

Girls Don’t Want Boys, Girls Want Monsters: Netflix’s The Witcher Review

Finally, the show we deserve. 

Men get all their superhero power fantasies of kicking villain ass. Finally there’s  a story that has that and includes women’s emotional power fantasies about falling in love with monsters who change. It doesn’t treat either as ridiculous or limited by gender, either, since Geralt falls for a monster too and women get to kick ass as well. 

Essentially, it’s a story about defeating monsters: often through integration with the shadow, sometimes involving love and connection, sometimes violence, but the violence is never glorified. It’s good. 

NB: I’m in the middle of reading the books (in the middle of Blood of Elves so far). I haven’t played the game since video games aren’t really a medium I enjoy. So I’ll make some comparisons since the show covered the two books I’ve read thus far, but please don’t put spoilers for the books below!

Let’s talk my favorite aspect of every story: characters. 

Renfri. 

Her story was somewhat sanitized from the books (it’s a lot more brutal what happened to Renfri) but well adapted. Both versions--the book and show--depict sincere empathy for our deconstructed Snow White. I loved her dialogue with Geralt, in which Geralt praises her for escaping the huntsman her stepmother hired to kill her, and she laughs and says that she didn’t. He let her go, but not before raping and robbing her. The story never directly answers if the prophecy was true or not; Geralt doesn’t believe it, but a lot of things Geralt doubts turn out to be true. Renfri was supposedly attacking animals as a child; however, the person reporting that is highly unlikely to be unbiased (Stregobor) so is this even true? Did Renfri become a killer because she was horribly abused and left with no other option? (That’s the option that I think seems most likely.) 

We can’t know. The Witcher isn’t interested in giving its audience palatable answers. It’s interested in provoking questions. The show gives more answers than do the books, again likely due to the medium, but it still lets these questions linger. 

Renfri’s story is not the first one in the books, but it is the first one the show adapts, and that’s a good decision imo. Her story embodies The Witcher’s themes and questions:

By acting the monster, we make monsters out of others. 

To defeat monsters, you must be a monster. 

What, then, can heal, especially in a world so broken?

Ciri.

Our deconstructed Rapunzel (yes, there are a lot of fairy tale references). As far as her story goes in its adaptation, the addition of Dara was well done. Sadly, no, Dara is not in the books, but his addition gave Ciri an arc beyond merely running in this story. 

That said, Ciri in the books is much younger than she is in the show. Which is okay, because Ciri is somewhat emblematic of the future: there’s a lot unknown about her powers, she needs to be protected from everyone trying to grab her and use her powers for themselves. She is Geralt’s destiny, and she is the future of the world of The Witcher. 

NB: I can’t discuss Ciri without shouting out to the casting director for casting Pavetta: how did they find an actress who looks so much like Ciri’s actress? It’s almost eerie. 

The episode where Geralt finds out about the Law of Surprise and his reaction to Pavetta’s pregnancy is perhaps the only story that I felt was better in the show than in the books (again, this isn’t inherently a quality thing but a medium preference). It added some much-needed hilarity (Geralt’s perfectly-timed “destiny can go f--” *Pavetta vomits* and all he can say is, “fuck”) and gave Geralt an arc. 

Geralt.

Mm. 

I liked how they handled his character and his struggles with what it means to be a Witcher and/or human. His struggles to understand himself are relatable, and fairly well set-up for future exploration. He’s a foil of Ciri, Yennefer, Jaskier, and Cahir so far, and I’m particularly intrigued by the monster theme and the foiling that is already set up thus with all of the above except Jaskier (who is no monster). Geralt was skeptical about saving the striga for her father, but managed to succeed, and I wonder if he will somehow be able to save himself from his own inner fears/monster by being a father. (Basically, I am curious as to how being Ciri’s de factor dad is going to challenge him.)

Jaskier.

Or, Dandelion, as he’s known in the books. The bard adds some much needed levity to the tale, and as @aspoonofsugar​ says, he’s pretty much Donkey from Shrek. But he is used fairly well within the story: he shows Geralt even before Ciri and Yennefer enter his life that he has a purpose beyond being a killing machine. In that sense he’s the foil of Renfri (Renfri accomplishes the same, but through violence) in that Geralt saves him and he clearly thinks highly of the Witcher. Jaskier is in some ways humanity in all its paradoxes and foibles, annoying and stupid, kind and clever, funny and truthful, deceptive and respectful. 

Cahir.

I’m a sucker for ravens as part of an aesthetic, as well as pretty, tormented bad boys. Yes, I know he’s a character I’m sure will arouse much handwringing and puritanical policing a la his other archetype brothers (Loki, Kylo Ren, Snape, etc). I don’t care. I do think the show made him much darker when compared to the books, but I still expect his arc to go in the same direction as the books. He’s a complicated, conflicted, complex character, and I’m not sorry for feeling empathy for him. 

But I am curious about his foiling with Geralt. Both are characters seeking Ciri to fulfill... something, and monstrous in a way (Cahir more for what he does, but there’s a humanity to him as well).

Yennefer.

Finally, my favorite, my baby murder daughter. 

Yennefer’s character was fascinating. I appreciated that she’s allowed to want deeply, her own wants, instead of attaching her wants to be whatever the male character desires. She wants to have children. She wants love. She wants to be beautiful. Her desires are traditionally feminine, and the show doesn’t put this down. And she also kicks ass and takes names, she fails, she’s allowed to be angry, to be mean often, to want to learn and to want to be the best. 

The show doesn’t punish Yennefer for her ambition. Neither do the books. She experiences consequences, both positive and negative, for her every choice. The show reveals her backstory right away, whereas the books don’t, but again that’s a medium thing. I think both do excellently in setting up Yennefer for our empathy. It doesn’t apologize for her or her wants or actions; it lets her arc and the story itself do the talking. 

Yennefer’s not here to be your cautionary tale or your role model. She’s just there to be her and to live. 

That is, to an extent, perhaps the best kind of role model. 

That doesn’t mean the show did everything in Yennefer’s story justice. I wasn’t thrilled with the adaptation of her first meeting with Geralt--the orgy in the background isn’t in the books and is a very bizarre decision given context. While, I loved Tissaia’s character and her foiling with Yennefer: they are too alike to ever get along, I really didn’t understand the point of Tissaia turning the other girls into slugs in episode 2. It was unsettling and not in the books. It was a heavy-handed metaphor not explained until episode 7 (about treating people as expendable slugs) that didn’t tell us anything we didn’t already know about how the world and Dark!Hogwarts worked. If anything it made the school seem foolishly cackling-mustache evil instead of the true current of darkness within it: manipulation and utilitarianism. As part of effort to control things, that control itself can lead to chaos. 

I think the rest of the series set this precise dilemma of a precarious balance between self-control and manipulation/utilitarianism quite well, though (it goes hand-in-hand with the theme of a “lesser evil” to quote Renfri’s story). I’m excited to see this explored more. 

Other comments:

When comparing the show to the books as I’ve read so far, I think the show made some smart changes for adapting to a visual medium. For example, Foltest and Adda’s story was adapted as a mystery: what is the monster? Who is the father? Who is the curser? Can the monster be saved? Whereas the book doesn’t do that: you know immediately that the monster is a striga, Foltest is the father, and he wants the striga saved. The answer to who cursed Adda is never clear in the written story either, whereas the show declares it was Ostrit (the book leaves it very much up in the air as to whether it was Ostrit or Adda’s mother). However, the way this particular episode weaves Adda’s story of rebirth with Yennefer’s rebirth was beautifully done. (Foltest is a good dad. We need more good dads in stories; of course, if we had more good dads, we’d have far less stories.) (I’m jesting.) 

The dialogue is at times... well it’s not like it’s The Rise of Skywalker levels of “who wrote this???” but it’s not always stellar. Actually, I’d say the quality tends to swing wildly about between clever (episode 4) and just confusing (episode 5). But in general, I think the dialogue issue is representative of the show’s largest issue: it struggles to know when to trust its audience. When should it give details? When should it trust them? When is it spoonfeeding, and when is it just confusing? It tries to walk a fine line and stumbles a bit. It succeeds, however, with the characters as I mentioned earlier with Yennefer, Geralt, and Ciri. 

My advice for the show going forward (not that they should definitely listen to me) is to forget Game of Thrones. It’s pretty obvious that this show is a passion project made by people who love The Witcher. I really hope they lean into that aspect instead of into the GoT-replacement aspect (because there are definitely aspects of that, particularly in the mood/aesthetic, tone, and gratuitous nudity--which is not exploitative or disturbing, but it also wasn’t necessary, isn’t in the books, and so felt like pandering). 

However, the sheer love for the material still really shines  through. They made me care for the characters, they interested me in the world, and they have me hooked for season 2. The showrunners’ excitement for the story and adoration of its characters is contagious, and I hope the show lets this excitement spread. 

[notquiteaghost]

i just wrote up a very barebones transcript of all the geralt & jaskier scenes in ‘four marks’, because i can’t find any online, and it took me like an hour so i might as well share it

it only takes note of action that interrupted dialogue, cuz i just wanted a reference for the dialogue, and it also only covers their actual conversation in the first scene. but other than that it should be accurate. i used netflix subtitle spelling for names

>>>  

JASKIER: I love the way you just sit in the corner and brood.

GERALT: I’m here to drink alone.

JASKIER: Good, yeah, good. No one else hesitated to comment on the quality of my performance, except… for you. Come on. You don’t want to keep a man with bread in his pants waiting. You must have some review for me. Three words or less.

GERALT: They don’t exist.

JASKIER: Whaaat don’t exist?

GERALT: The creatures in your song.

JASKIER: And how would you know? … Oh, fun. White hair… big old loner, two very, very scary-looking swords, I know who you are. You’re the Witcher, Geralt of Rivia. Called it!

>>>

JASKIER: Ah. Need a hand? I’ve got two. One for each of the, uh, devil’s horns.

GERALT: Go away.

JASKIER: I won’t be but silent back-up. (pause) Look, I heard your note, and yes, you’re right, maybe real adventures would make better stories. And you, sir, smell chock-full of them. Amongst other things. I mean, what is that? Is that onion? It doesn’t matter. Whatever it is, you smell of death and destiny. Heroics and heartbreak.

GERALT: It’s onion.

JASKIER: Right, yeah, yeah. Ooh, I could be your barker, spreading the tales of Geralt of Rivia, the– the Butcher of Blaviken!

GERALT: Come here.

JASKIER: Yeah?

(GERALT punches JASKIER in the stomach. JASKIER groans and wheezes.)

GERALT: Come on, Roach.

>>>

JASKIER: Reading between the lines, and the gut punches, chum, I’d say you have got a bit of a… an image problem. Were I to join on this… feat to defeat the devil of Posada, I could relieve you of that title. All the North would be too busy singing the tales of Geralt of Rivia, the– the White Wolf, or– or something.

GERALT: Butcher is right.

JASKIER: Do you mind if I hop up there with you? It’s just, I’m not really wearing the right kind of footwear–

GERALT: Don’t touch Roach.

JASKIER: –Yeah, right.

JASKIER: You know, the elves called this Dol Blathanna, before bequeathing it to the humans and retreating to their golden palaces in the mountains. There I go again, just… delivering exposition. … Geralt? Geralt? Geralt, wh-where are you going? Geralt, don’t leave me. Hello? What are we looking for again?

GERALT: Blessed silence.

JASKIER: Yeah, I don’t really go in for that. Have you, uh, have you ever hunted a devil before, Geralt?

GERALT: Devils don’t exist.

JASKIER: Right. Obviously. Then, uh, then what are we doing?

GERALT: Sometimes there’s monsters, sometimes there’s money. Rarely both. That’s the life. 

(GERALT gets hit by something.) 

GERALT: Shit!

JASKIER: Act Two begins! What was that? Looks like a tiny cannonball from a… Oh my gosh. ... Geralt, it is a devil. Ohhh, I have to see this magical, this mythi– 

(JASKIER gets hit in the forehead, and passes out.)

TORQUE: Leave me be!

GERALT: You talk.

TORQUE: Of course I talk!

GERALT: What happened with you? Your mother fuck a goat?

TORQUE: I am Torque the Sylvan, a rare and intelligent creature!

GERALT: You’re a dick. With balls.

TORQUE: Balls I got from humans, who left out filled with iron, meant to poison me!

GERALT: Ow!

TORQUE: Did your mother fuck a snowman?

GERALT: You are intelligent, I’ll give you that. So I won’t kill you. But you can’t stay here.

TORQUE: Neither can you.

(Something hits GERALT in the head.)

>>>

JASKIER: This is the part where we escape.

GERALT: This is the part where they kill us.

JASKIER: Who’s they?

ELF WOMAN: (in Elder) Beast!

GERALT: Elves.

JASKIER: Oi, that’s my lute! Give that back! Quick, Geralt. Do your– your witchering–

GERALT: Shut up!

ELF WOMAN: (in Elder) You shut up!

JASKIER: Oh, my Elder speech is rough, I only got part of that.

ELF WOMAN: (in English) Humans, shut up.

JASKIER: (in Elder) Ah, got it, thanks so much.

ELF WOMAN: Do you wanna die right now?

GERALT: As opposed to later?

JASKIER: No, please, not the lu–!

GERALT: Leave off! He’s just a bard.

ELF WOMAN: You don’t deserve the air you breathe. Everything you touch you destroy.

JASKIER: You hide in your golden palaces. You beat a bound man, too scared to even look him in the eye!

ELF WOMAN: Do you like my palace? Hmm? Does it live up to the tales you humans tell?

(GERALT headbutts her. She falls back, coughing.)

JASKIER: (laughs) Yeah, take that, pointy. … Wait, what’s–what’s wrong with her?

FILAVANDREL: She’s sick.

JASKIER: Oh, and who’s this?

TORQUE: He’s Filavandrel, king of the elves.

FILAVANDREL: Not a king. Not by choice.

GERALT: You were stealing for them.

TORQUE: I felt for them. They were forced out of Dol Blathanna.

JASKIER: Forced out? No, they chose–

FILAVANDREL: Do you know anyone that would choose to leave their home? To starve? To have a Sylvan steal for them? 

TORQUE: Toruviel, no one was supposed to get hurt.

TORUVIEL: What’s two humans in the ground when countless elves have died?

GERALT: One human. And you can let him go.

FILAVANDREL: And Posada will learn that we’ve been stealing. The humans will attack. Many will die, on both sides.

GERALT: The lesser evil. No matter what you choose, you’ll come out bloody, and hating yourself. Trust me.

FILAVANDREL: That’s the problem. I can’t. This is necessary.

GERALT: I understand. As long as you understand that it won’t be long before you follow me in death.

FILAVANDREL: Yes, because they’ve pushed us from viable soil. Even chaos is polluted. Synthetically enhanced so humans can make magic.

GERALT: Chaos is the same as it’s always been. Humans just adapted better.

FILAVANDREL: You say adapt, and I say destroy.

GERALT: You are choosing to starve. You’re cutting off your ear to spite your face.

FILAVANDREL: You think this is about pride? My elders worked with humans, and got robbed of all they had. And when they fought back, they were slaughtered. “The Great Cleansing”, humans call it. I call it digging a mass grave for everyone I loved. And now the humans proudly watch these very fields grow, our babies fertiliser for their grain. I don’t wish to bury anyone else. I was once Filavandrel of the Silver Towers. Now I’m Filavandrel of the Edge of the World. If I bring my people down from these mountains, it would mean bowing to human sovereignty. They’ll make slaves of us. Pariahs of half-blood children.

GERALT: Then go somewhere else. Rebuild. Get strong again. Show the humans that you are more than what they fear you to be.

FILAVANDREL: Like you, Witcher?

GERALT: I have learned to live with them. So that I may live.

TORUVIEL: Please, my King. There are others. A new generation. Evellien who wish to fight. Let us take back what’s ours. Starting now.

TORQUE: Wait!

FILAVANDREL: Torque, stand aside.

TORQUE: The Witcher could’ve killed me. But he didn’t. He’s different. Like us.

GERALT: If you must kill me, I am ready. But the Sylvan’s right. Don’t call me human.

>>>

JASKIER: Credit where credit is due, that whole reverse psychology thing you did on them was brilliant, by the way. (imitates Geralt) “Kill me, I’m ready”. … That’s the conclusion. They just let us go, and you give all of Nettly’s coin to the elves.

GERALT: Filavandrel’s lute not gift enough for you?

JASKIER: Yeah, she is a bit sexy, isn’t she? I do have respect for Filavandrel. He survived the Great Cleansing once. Who knows? Maybe he can do it again. Be reborn. (singing) Will the elf king heed what the witcher entreats? Is history a wheel doomed to repeat? No, that’s– that’s shit.

GERALT: This is where we part ways, bard, for good.

JASKIER: Look, I promised to change the public’s tune about you. At least allow me to try.

(JASKIER sings the opening verses of Toss A Coin.)

JASKIER: (singing) And so cried the Witcher, “He can’t be bleat–”

GERALT: That’s not how it happened. Where’s your newfound respect?

JASKIER: Respect doesn’t make history.

(JASKIER continues to sing Toss A Coin.)

GERALT: Hmm.

[phoenixkaptain]

In terms of adaptation, the Witcher series on Netflix is the worst I've seen in a very long time.

You can like it! I don't care if you like it, I'm just tired of people being like, "It's not a good adaptation" only for someone to be like "well, it's based on the books not the games, of course it's not like the games" BITCH IT ISN'T LIKE THE BOOKS EITHER!!!

1) In the books, Geralt met Dandelion/Jaskier because Dandelion was running away from the intimidating older brothers of a woman he slept with.

2) The majority of people in the books have no fucking clue what a witcher is. They find Geralt scary because he is a giant muscle man with two swords and cat eyes. A lot of townspeople do hate witchers, yes, but there are a few that are friends with Geralt! They know him and like him!

3) Why can't Renfri be a badass in a skirt? Why does she have to have short hair and wear men's armour? In the book, she cut her own hair (not very well), wore a skirt with a slit (she had the slit in her dress so she could tear off the bottom and throw a bunch of fabric in her opponent's face, blinding them), and was tragic because she goes to Geralt knowing she'll die. He kills her men and her men alone, but when Strego-bitch comes to disrespect her body, he let's the people think he killed innocent men and let's Stregobor turn all the townspeople against him so that Renfri doesn't have to be dissected like a monster. Renfri wears her armour and skirt because it's all the femininity she had left after she was raped and disowned, but that's not good enough for Netflix, I guess.

4) (This one isn't as big as the others, but a nitpick) Yennefer is short and not conventionally attractive. She wasn't a beauty everyone fell for, Geralt literally looks at her and can see remnants of her being a hunchback. Everyone looks at her, the only two who find her hot are the elf and Geralt after a fucking djinn almost kills her.

5) Geralt can't smile in the books. They never state this outright, with those words, but everytime his smile is described, it is described as nasty or weird-looking. He can't smile, the boy doesn't know how to, he's like that polite cat picture, he doesn't how to facial expression

6) Geralt calls Vesemir his dad and if Netflix ruins this in season two I will actually write a fifrmty page letter complaining about it and send it to them because Vesemir is Geralt's dad and Geralt loves him and talks fondly of him and I will beat up anyone who acts like they have a bad relationship, Netflix-

7) Where's my girl Nenneke??? Where is she??? Where did she go? Just in general, while on the topic, where is the Temple of Melitele, the only goddess people worship??? Where are the priestesses who can fuck on temple grouds because Melitele is goddess of fertility?? Where is Nenneke??? Where's Melitele???

8) What happened to the literal god of harvest that saved Geralt and Dandelion from being killed by elves??? They didn't have a change of heart, in the book, a literal GOD came over and was like, "stop it, this dude is great and his bard is okay." Where did they go? What happened to them?

9) The goat guy was like "Whoa, you can't kill Geralt!!! We were having a good time! He didn't try to kill me at all! If you want to kill Geralt, you have to kill me first, because this witcher guy is my buddy, now!"

10) Dandelion cries when they break his lute. He is a sad puppy. Geralt sees this and starts trying to escape.

11) Geralt complains to Dandelion that people want to fuck the monsters, monster fuckers exist and thrive, where are the monster fuckers, where is the monster fucking representation? I want Geralt to kinkshame the monster fuckers because they're taking his job, you can't take this away from me.

12) Please stop having sex. The book didn't have graphic sex scenes. Why do we need to watch two people have boring sex for twenty minutes? If I wanted to watch attractive people have sex, I would watch porn. I don't want to watch third-rate porn that brings the story to a halt. Have a cut. Cut to them starting cut to them ending. I am so tired of the sex, it is sooooooo boooooring. "Oh, wow, Geralt's fucking Yennefer again, what a surprise, this sex scene is totally different from the last time Geralt shoved his dick into someone, I'm sooo invested in watching Geralt push his dick around for a bit. Yeah, this is fun, this is investing, this is what I watch high-fantasy for, woooooooow." Stop it. Dandelion is the slut, why are all the sex scenes with Geralt? Why doesn't Jaskier ever get down and dirty? Why don't we ever see him shirtless? I have many complaints.

That's all, for now. Like I said, if you like the show, that's great! I just have some problems with it as an adaptation and I'm tired of people thinking I'm talking about the games. I'm talking about the books. It is not a good adaptation of the books. It just isn't.

[drowningbydegrees]

TITLE: Even in the Dark I Know You (Part 2 of 3) SHIP (if applicable): Geraskier PROMPT DAY: Five - Loneliness MEDIUM (Netflix, Books, Games, Hexer): Netflix WARNINGS: No archive warnings apply, but canon typical violence SUMMARY:

The thing is, he’s seen Geralt in a bad way. Even the witcher can’t always avoid injury in his line of work, and so Jaskier has plenty of practice patching him up. But this is new, and it makes something awful and anxious twist in Jaskier’s stomach.

A contract goes wrong leaving Geralt captive and stripped of most of his senses by the time Jaskier gets to him.

WORD COUNT: 3,219 (5,361 total) AUTHOR’S NOTES: Written for @geraltwhumpweek Part one covered Day four. This one covers the prompt for day five and part three  will be for day six. Ultimately, it’s hurt/comfort. The comfort part is a little bit this part, but mostly the next. 

Part 1 on Tumblr | AO3 Link

Geralt recognizes that Jaskier’s insistence on assisting isn’t new. He’ll concede that sometimes it’s even genuinely helpful. Only, he’s never been quite so conscious any of those times, and everything is cast in a different light - or lack thereof - being able to move of his own volition and still managing to be so utterly lost. Their exit is far too peaceful to be much of a secret which almost guarantees they have an audience that Geralt cannot see or shy away from. What shred of dignity remains bitterly wishes Jaskier had just left him instead of leading him out of this place like some wayward pet. 

There is no hazy light at the top of the stairs this time, only Jaskier's free hand coming to rest on his arm in a steadying gesture when their trajectory takes them upward. It isn’t necessary. He isn’t helpless. Geralt opens his mouth to say as much, but his body picks just then to betray him, the toe of his boot catching on a stair. He doesn’t fall, not really, but the forward lurch leaves Geralt chastened enough not to jerk out of Jaskier’s grip the way he wants to. 

He’s been pushing against this spell for days, but nothingness still sprawls in every direction. No matter how hard Geralt strains to hear, silence is all that greets him. What information he can glean with his remaining senses is woefully inadequate for anything more strenuous than existing. Under his shoes, he can feel when they cross the threshold from the marbled palace floors to the cobbled pathway outside. There’s a very slight give later when stone is traded for damp, muddy streets. 

They’re walking through town probably, but Geralt can't smell people or animals or even the aftermath of rain he knows must be lingering in the air from the way it settles on his skin. They might be surrounded by villagers or stumbling through the dead of night, and much to Geralt's horror, he realizes he wouldn't recognize the difference. Jaskier is probably prattling away about something the way he always does, and Geralt notes with a distant sort of sorrow that he misses even that.  

His only anchor is Jaskier's hand in his, their palms flush, the bard’s fingers slid neatly between his. It's the closest Geralt has to a lighthouse in the storm he's trapped in. How do you know it's even Jaskier? Some fretting thing in him whispers its doubt because he’s never had to recognize someone with so little to go on, but that, at least, is fleeting. Jaskier often rubs the pads of his thumb and forefinger together when he's anxious. It's the same cadence of Jaskier's thumb sliding back and forth over Geralt's knuckles. 

"Jaskier," he says, or thinks he does. He can feel the vibration of his vocal cords anyway, though he cannot hear himself speak. He must given the immediate response it earns him. The bard’s hand squeezes his, and there’s a hand patting his forearm through the fabric of his shirt in the way Jaskier tends to in the rare, awkward instances where he’s trying to be… comforting or something, and can’t find the words to do so.  

Geralt allows himself to be convinced because what else is there? Suspicion set aside, Geralt trades out pointless caution for a more ambient sort of misery.. 

---

It’s easy, even for Jaskier, to get stuck on the fact that Geralt isn’t very talkative and leave it at that. The truth is more complex, the bard comes to realize as they trudge back to the inn. Instinctively, he’s adapted to the ways Geralt does communicate, leaving room for a noncommittal ‘hmm’ here, glancing over in anticipation of a raised eyebrow there. All this time they’ve had a language of their own, written so deeply into the way they exist in each other’s space that even Jaskier doesn’t really notice until it’s lost. No longer is Geralt’s silence long suffering or irritated or maybe a little bit reluctantly fond. It’s just silence and Jaskier has no idea how to coax him out of it. 

Jaskier knows that ego or stubbornness would have Geralt licking his wounds in peace under any other circumstances. It’s only the fact that he has no way of orienting himself that keeps his hand in Jaskier’s. Somehow, even knowing, it still aches when they finally reach the room, and barely get the door closed before Geralt pulls out of his grip. It’s a safe place to start, and Jaskier is glad he left the witcher’s things where he’d found them earlier if it means Geralt finds his way any more easily. 

Though speaking up wouldn’t make any difference, Jaskier watches in silence as Geralt feels out the edges of the cramped sleeping room. The witcher’s fingers brush along the top of the dresser, the windowsill beside it. There’s a tub in the corner, full of clean water from a bath Geralt must have called for and never returned to indulge in. It’s long since gone frigid judging by the way Geralt’s nose scrunches when his hand skims the surface. 

The bed is like most beds in most inns in most towns they pass through. It’s passable, big enough for two if they don’t mind close quarters. The blankets are ragged and sort of threadbare, but at least they look clean. There is a brief moment where Jaskier wonders if he ought to break with their usual habit and get a room of his own, to spare Geralt in whatever way he can, but it’s an idea almost immediately discarded. Geralt circles the bed and returns to Jaskier, hands outstretched until they find the loose fabric of Jaskier’s chemise sleeve. He does not so much as twitch when Jaskier says his name, and there’s no ignoring in that moment that this wouldn’t just be leaving his friend to fumble through his routine without anyone to witness the challenge of it. He’d be leaving Geralt with no idea that he was just down the hall. 

“You’re going to grouch about this, I’m sure,” Jaskier offers up conversationally, though Geralt can’t possibly hear him to reply. When Geralt lets him go in favor of feeling his way back towards the tub, Jaskier flops down on the bed. “The things we do for love.”

---

At least igni doesn’t fail him. He’s heated up water a thousand times, and even without his senses to guide him, Geralt manages fine. The victory is tiny and largely insignificant, but desperately needed. It’s still a death sentence in his line of work, to be hampered like this, but that’s a concern he shelves long enough to shed his torn, dirty clothes and sink into the almost too hot water. Though it stings at wounds he’d nearly forgotten even having, drawing a quiet, pained hiss through his teeth, settling in the tub is otherwise heavenly. 

Not quietly enough, Geralt realizes with a start. If he’d at least had his sense of smell, he’d have expected Jaskier at his back, but instead, the gentle pressure of the bard’s hand around his shoulder is an unpleasant shock. He snarls and pulls away, unable to hear the placating explanation Jaskier is inevitably offering up. Whatever the words may be, they’re accompanied by a bottle being pressed into his hand that he recognizes the shape of, though he’s rarely touched it himself. It’s a question, an offer, drawing Geralt’s focus enough that the tension slowly bleeds back out. 

With a resigned sigh, Geralt allows a single, terse nod and settles against the side of the tub once more. They’ve done this often enough that he can believe Jaskier’s fingers burrowing into the knotted mess of his hair are driven by something other than pity. He doesn’t really know what does motivate the bard, mind you, but this isn’t such a new thing as to set Geralt on edge. 

And it’s pleasant, in a manner Geralt won’t allow himself to need, but takes refuge in just this once. It doesn’t matter that he’s been stripped of his vision when his eyes are closed to the world anyway. The lavender oil Jaskier is currently using to detangle his hair is familiar enough that Geralt doesn’t need to be able to smell it. It’s enough that he can recognize the slickness of it. The unwelcome silence he’s drowning in is more easily ignored with Jaskier rubbing soothingly at his scalp. If he misses anything, it’s the soft, aimless tunes Jaskier tends to hum in moments like these. He thinks he might hear an echo of it, but it’s only his imagination, wishful thinking as he lets Jaskier’s fingertips trace circles at his temples and card through his hair. Geralt drifts without really meaning to, coaxed ever so briefly into something other than an overwhelming sense of affliction.  

---

Foolishly, Jaskier lets himself believe things are looking up. They sleep the way they always do, side by side, and in the dark Jaskier can almost pretend it’s all normal. Only Geralt’s fingers splaying over Jaskier’s heart suggest anything is amiss, and Jaskier pretends not to notice. He turns away to smile, though Geralt can’t see it anyway. With any luck, things will be back to normal in the morning. 

Nothing is back to normal in the morning, not that Jaskier knows that. Geralt is still fast asleep when Jaskier wakes, and as far as the bard is concerned, that’s the best thing for everyone. Melitlele knows the man needs it after the state Jaskier found him in. 

There’s no real need to be quiet, but Jaskier holds his breath out of some ingrained habit. Jaskier risks a careful caress, sweeping Geralt’s hair from his face, and leaves the witcher to sleep. With any luck, he’ll come back with breakfast and Geralt will be back to his usual, taciturn self, and they’ll waste little time in putting this town far behind them. 

As it turns out, the letter the lord sent him back to the inn with has secured them a surprisingly obliging innkeeper. So, his efforts to acquire breakfast go well. They might be the only thing that goes well. 

The bed is empty when Jaskier returns, and Geralt is packing. Trying to, anyway. It’s less of a wreck than Jaskier would expect from anyone else in this predicament, but for someone as terrifyingly competent as Geralt, it still breaks his heart to see. Thinking only of the need to somehow comfort his friend, Jaskier sets the tray he’d been carrying aside and reaches out. He does realize his mistake, but only when Geralt startles and pushes him away like some sort of threat. Funny, he’d always thought it would be entertaining to finally get the drop on Geralt. It is, in fact, not entertaining at all. 

Geralt takes a wary step closer, and for a second Jaskier thinks he’s severely miscalculated. Only, there’s no violence in Geralt’s body language when he reaches out. Instead, his fingers carefully trace the outline of Jaskier’s face the way he’d done in the dungeon. Finally, finally, he relaxes, apparently satisfied with whatever he’s found. Jaskier swallows against the unanticipated intimacy and wonders if Geralt can feel the way his cheeks heat up a little, but if the witcher notices, he doesn’t say so. Not that he says much on a good day, and this is… not a good day.

It’ll pass Jaskier reminds himself as they muddle through breakfast and then everything that comes after to varying degrees of success. Geralt might be even less well equipped for idleness than Jaskier is, bristling like a particularly affronted house cat at what the bard can only assume are imagined provocations, because it’s not as if he’s said anything. It’ll pass. Jaskier believes that. He just very much wishes he knew when. 

---

They’re still at the inn. Geralt is aware of that much, for all the good it does him. The days have started to bleed together, and they’re still at this blasted inn, and Geralt doesn’t know why. Jaskier seems rather insistent on delaying the inevitable future where they have to contend with reality, and the worst part of it is that even if Geralt bothers to ask, he couldn’t possibly hear the bard’s explanation. 

Unless, maybe, he’s just waiting for Geralt to find his footing. It seems like the sort of foolishly compassionate thing Jaskier would do. That isn’t fair, Geralt knows, when the thought crosses his mind, but Jaskier’s endless optimism is more than he can handle being the recipient of just now. 

Said endlessly optimistic bard has curled in against Geralt in sleep. His breath comes in soft puffs against the witcher’s throat, his presence soothing as much as Geralt doesn’t want it to be. He’s trapped Geralt’s hand between his own and the broad expanse of his chest, a steady heartbeat thumping against the witcher’s palm, announcing his continued existence. It’s proof of life, and Geralt despises that when he pulls his hand out from under Jaskier’s, it feels like losing a desperately needed tether. Blind, deaf, or otherwise, Geralt cannot need this to get by.

So instead, he sets about finding his footing. It’s likely night if Jaskier’s presence in bed is anything to judge by, so hopefully that means he can try this without an audience. At the very least, Jaskier isn’t awake to try and stop him. Gritting his teeth in frustration at the time it takes, he searches out his clothes and boots. There’s no certainty he hasn’t woken Jaskier with his efforts, but there’s no telltale hand on his back when he sits to tug his boots on, no one grasping at his hand when he gets to his feet.  

One hand outstretched, Geralt finds his way. One, two, three steps to the door, where the handle is cool under his palm and turns with ease. He remembers enough of the inn to know there’s a window to the right and a hall to the left, so he braces against the wall, feeling out door frames and counting steps until he reaches the empty gap telling him he’s found the staircase. 

He stumbles on the first, but the rest are easier, evenly spaced and simple enough to descend. The bottom floor is heralded by the end of the stair railing, and much to Geralt’s relief, he catches himself before tipping forward too precariously. If only the rest could be so easy. 

Because he remembers the room, sort of. He remembers that there are tables. That there is a bar at the far end. That the exit is horribly far away from the staircase and that it’s all too much empty space to serve as a guide. None of that stops Geralt from trying, slowly picking his way across the floor and hoping to whatever deity might listen to faithless witchers that he’s at least alone in his fumbling. 

The trek to the door is embarrassingly arduous. He grits his teeth when his knee knocks against a bench. He sucks in a sharp breath when he’s tripped up by what he thinks might be a fallen tankard. The whole thing might as well be an eternity, and Geralt isn’t sure what the point is if the rest of his - probably very short life - is going to be like this. But he does reach the door. 

The cool breeze that meets him bolsters Geralt’s resolve. There was a point to all this. It’s probably cheating to try and do this in a place he mostly remembers, but he has to start somewhere, and checking on Roach seems as worthwhile a place to start as any. There won’t be any walls to guide him, but Geralt thinks he knows the way more or less, and if he counts the steps, maybe not every time will have to be such a damned event. 

Geralt does not, more or less, know the way. He finds his footing, picks out a path clear enough that walking feels almost normal, in a direction that should end with the doors to a stable. It doesn’t. It doesn’t end with doors to anything, and by the time Geralt recognizes the error, there’s soft grass squelching under his boots. The inn was near the edge of town. Geralt remembers that much at least. So it follows that he’s simply gone the wrong direction. 

“Fuck,” Geralt mutters under his breath, and again more emphatically as the breadth of his trouble sinks in. He’d turned around, reaching a few steps to one side in search for a stable that clearly doesn’t exist, and there’s no telling what direction he’s even facing now. It should be a simple thing to turn around and go back, but now there’s no telling if a given step will take him back to civilization or risk him being hopelessly lost.

And then there’s the rain. He would have smelled it. He would have heard the distant rumble of thunder that must come with a downpour like this. He would have seen the gathering shadows overhead that have all opted to pour their sorrows out on him. If the mage had left him with anything at all, he could have at least avoided this. 

But the only thing she left him with was the chill of a harsh downpour that saturates his clothes, and the knowledge that a deluge like this will keep villagers indoors and away from wherever he’s accidentally wandered off to. Aimlessly, he reaches out and while the tree he eventually finds his way to is hardly a refuge, it’s the best he’s likely to get. 

Exhausted in a way that has nothing to do with lack of sleep, Geralt sits at the base of the tree. The ground has already gone muddy under the grass, but he can’t bring himself to care. Mud is the least of his problems when he’s fallen so far as to have to wait for help to walk back to a rented room at an inn he doesn’t even know how Jaskier is paying for where he will continue to lose track of time… and everything else. 

Geralt has been captured, chained up, jailed, but he’s never been trapped like this, alone in his own head. He cannot listen for approaching footsteps or strain to hear a familiar melody. He cannot scent the air for the presence of some other life nearby. Even the fuzzy outlines he’d briefly grasped onto the first time the mage did this have failed him now. He thinks back to Jaskier’s hand leading him through town, to the bard’s fingers threading through his hair, to the steady heartbeat he’s memorized the shape of under his palm. Even these lifelines are no more than individual points of contact, always one gesture away from being lost to him entirely. 

Geralt thinks he understands loneliness. He knows what it is to be alone, and usually professes to prefer it, even if he lets Jaskier chase after him. But here, in the confines of his own head, Geralt learns what it is to be well and truly isolated, knowing the only possible respite is someone else’s mercy offering a momentary connection. Laid this low, Geralt can only sit with his head bowed beneath the pouring rain.

[itsclydebitches]

God I want so bad to like the dandelion and geralt friendship, it's too mean and just unnecessarily aggressive in the show and I hate dandelion in the game (Though I barely know him but I cannot accept on of the first quests with him cause he literally planned to fuck over a woman he already fucked over once before, and going around to all the women he fucked over when looking for him OOOOOOOO NO) so I rly should read the books lmao, they sound like they really care about each other

For me personally, as someone interested in the portrayal of gender in media and whose knowledge of that absolutely colors readings of character interactions, both Netflix and the TW3 failed to do anything inspiring. Worse, they erased what little complexity we started out with. The game is very focused on Dandelion's playboy nature, to the point where it becomes outright insulting to the women associated with him. To my mind there's nothing inherently wrong with Dandelion sleeping around, it's not even a problem to make the flamboyant guy into that caricature (no matter how stereotypical it may be), but it is discomforting to, as you say, provide this list of women who didn't merely have short-term relationships with him, but were "fucked over" in one manner or another. Women who are waiting for him to return because they believed his lies. Women who are presented as so stupid they can't see past the ridiculous trick he and Geralt are pulling. Women presented as "too" feminine because they want him to do awful things like read to them from romantic stories. Women who are so dense Geralt can make comments about Dandelion's sister having a different father and mother, but they don't pick up on that... It all just leaves a bad taste in my mouth. They're presented as his foolish toys, not his equal lovers. We could have easily gotten a character who just liked sex. Likes hedonism. He's happy enjoying his time with a variety of people and they, in turn, are happy to share that with him. Instead, TW3 presents most of the interactions as conquests, demeaning the women in the process, with Pricilla presented as the mythical, not-like-other-girls woman who therefore deserves Dandelion's actual love. Insert a non-ironic "I can change him" meme here.

In contrast, Netflix presents Jaskier as a little less of a womanizer (so far), but his relationship with Geralt is so shockingly aggressive that I honestly didn't think I was watching the same characters at first. Geralt hates Jaskier's music? Acts like he thinks he's stupid? Is so immersed in his own grief that he lashes out to the extent that he drives Jaskier away? Outright hits him? It's another characterization built on a simplistic understanding of masculinity, in this case not that one man is a womanizer, but that the other, as the tough one of the duo, must be cold, unfeeling, violent, and aggressively dominant. We know ("know") that deep down he's a softie, but a real man — a real witcher, a real action hero — never shows that unless his back is up against the metaphorical wall. Both the game and the show strip Jaskier and Geralt of their complexity, reducing them to a sterilized version of their assumed character types, rather than the original versions that had far more depth. And I don't want to present Sapkowski's work as super progressive from a Western perspective or anything — it's really not, particularly when it comes to how he writes women. That's it's own can of worms... — but for someone who's not really a book fan, the Geralt-Dandelion dynamic was nevertheless one of my favorite parts. The super tough monster hunter unambiguously loves this flamboyant bard and they have philosophical discussions together while helping the local people? Sign me up! And yeah, the Netflix dynamic is its own kind of relationship, it's even one that that audience can (obviously) get super invested in (we love a tsundere), but it's definitely not their relationship — which is what the creators claimed they were adapting and what anyone with a passing knowledge of the books has been led to expect. Which is why the claims of, "But it's only been one season. They're going to develop" fall flat to me because there was no need to start the two in a worse place — to bank so heavily on those gendered stereotypes — when the books never needed that. Do we really think development can only occur through one character starting by hating the other? Or at least pretending to?

I know I've used this example in another post somewhere, but imagine if Harry met Ron on the train and just... really disliked him. Ron forces himself into Harry's presence and is way too annoying about it. He's a tagalong, a nobody, a complete simpleton, talking too much and is way too invested in Harry's fame. (And not in the way book!Ron legitimately struggles with later on. Just in a... “”Wow, this guy is actually the worst” way). Harry spends the entire first movie trying to ditch this guy, or very grudgingly putting up with his presence, going so far as to hex him for the talking about The Boy Who Lived and getting so cruel he drives Ron away before they can go after the stone together. We know, because they're both main characters, that they "really" love each other, but the movie has largely failed to show that. Harry Potter fans would rightly be like, hey... what the fuck lol. This isn't Ron and Harry? At all. You've not only erased the fantastic dynamic they had, you've completely messed with Harry's character by turning him into the very thing he's not supposed to be: a stuck-up, judgmental, overly critical celebrity. What were you thinking? And if people were like, "But it's only the first movie. There are six more on the way!" you'd know it wouldn't really matter. Even if the rest of the movies turn them into the best friends they were always supposed to be, we've lost the original start to their tale. Their future interactions will always be colored by this beginning. And the entire fandom, a good portion of who will only ever see the films, has run with this canon, filling up the community with a thousand "Harry initially can't stand Ron" fics, fanart, and headcanons. There's absolutely nothing wrong with that enjoyment, but fans of the books, particularly those who know the movie was trying to pass itself off as a faithful adaptation, aren't wrong to be frustrated by such a needless change, the impact it's had, and go, "Why didn't you just have Harry smile at Ron on the train and buy him sweets? Why couldn't they just have been friends like they were written?" even if you can simultaneously understand why this new dynamic is interesting and compelling all on its own.

ANYWAY yeah, I would recommend the book dynamic over all others. I'm really only a short story fan, but within that Geralt and Dandelion's interactions are absolutely some of my faves 👍