#Sword of destiny

[everything--under--the--stars]

I've been thinking about The Witcher books and tv show recently. Because half of the things that make Geralt seem cool and edgy in the show just don't exist in the books.

In the show he's always so stoic. Most of his exposition has to be told by side characters implying things and you just have to gage his reaction to decide if it's true or not. In the books however, he gives a full lore dump to anyone who's remotely nice to him.

Random Character: So how've you been?

Show Geralt: Hmmmm.... 😒 😔 😒...

Book Geralt: Terrible actually, thank you for asking. Monster hunting is dying out and I have zero transferable skills. Yennifer's left me again and Jaskier's off god knows where. Overall I suppose it could be worse, but that's the life or a Witcher. Also, my perfectly good leather jacket got ruined in a fight the day after I bought it :(

[killpilled]

Sword of Destiny

[fkaluis]

a little sacrifice

[dressupdragonne]

Be Not Afraid O' Chosen One

[ghostlylicious]

mannerisms from sibling caught on camera 4k

[dsamuelsonart]

"I don't know,'"she whispered. "But we're going the wrong way, Geralt." They went around an overgrown bend, and it turned out Ciri had been right.

-Sword of Destiny by Andrzej Sapkowski.

Personal piece illustrating one of my favorite sequences from the Witcher book series. Made from memory so some of the details may be incorrect, but hopefully I captured the essence of the encounter.

"A Bad Road" oil on paper, approx. 8 x 10"

[frenziedflame6]

"The ballad told of a certain witcher and a certain poet. About how the witcher and the poet met on the seashore, among the crying of seagulls, and how they fell in love at first sight. About how beautiful and powerful was their love. About how nothing–not even death–was able to destroy that love and part them. Dandelion knew that few would believe the story told by the ballad, but he was not concerned. He knew ballads were not written to be believed, but to move their audience. Several years later, Dandelion could have changed the contents of the ballad and written about what had really occurred. He did not. For the true story would not have moved anyone. Who would have wanted to hear that the Witcher and Little Eye parted and never, ever, saw each other again? About how four years later Little Eye died of the smallpox during an epidemic raging in Vizima? About how he, Dandelion, had carried her out in his arms between corpses being cremated on funeral pyres and had buried her far from the city, in the forest, alone and peaceful, and, as she had asked, buried two things with her: her lute and her sky blue pearl. The pearl from which she was never parted. No, Dandelion stuck with his first version. And he never sang it. Never. To no one."

[martusia714]

im reading sword of destiny for the first time and those two feral bards are reading Geralt to filth

[gemsbokk]

so I've been getting into the angstier side of the witcher

[endless-fables]

BRO MY AUNT GOT ME THREE OF THE ILLUSTRATED WITCHER BOOKS (THE LAST WISH, BLOOD OF ELVES, AND SWORD OF DESTINY)

ILY AUNTIE!!!!

[the-loner-valkyrja]

“There is no destiny... It does not exist. The only thing that everyone is destined for is death.”

[elwayken]

Shout out to Geralt of Rivia for being an empath and correctly sensing Yennefer was anger after she yelled at him

[killpilled]

A Shard of Ice

[hilda-dewitt]

Essi Daven

Trying to repaint my previous doodle

[thenightling]

The Witcher: Sirens of The Deep

A few days ago I got the chance to watch the new animated Witcher movie, The Witcher: Sirens of the Deep.

This is the second Witcher animated movie tied to the continuity of the Netflix live-action TV series adaptation of The Witcher (based on the Polish fantasy book series, which has a previous Polish TV and movie adaptation, and a video game franchise).

The film is based on the short story "A little Sacrifice" which is a short story in The Witcher anthology "Sword of Destiny."

The story is set before the sixth episode of season 1 of The Witcher Netflix series. Though it's the continuity of the live action series and most of the live-action actors provide their own character voices (Such as Jaskier and Yennefer), The Witcher, himself, Geralt, this time, is voiced by Doug Cockle instead of Henry Cavill or his recent replacement, Liam Hemsworth.

Doug Cockle is the English language voice of Geralt in The Witcher video game franchise. And he is the origin for the distinct gravely voice everyone impersonates now when playing Geralt of Rivia.

Doug Cockle has been battling prostate cancer so it was very nice to hear him get to voice Geralt for this animated movie.

Before we proceed: What is The Witcher? Well, the very abridged answer is in a medieval-style fantasy world that resembles Poland, many young (usually male) witches are raised since childhood to be professional monster hunters.

They are "mutated" with potions and spells to enhance their senses, slow / stop their aging, and increase their healing abilities. But these same traits that make them efficient monster hunters also makes them outcasts.

Geralt of Rivia is an age-less Witcher with white hair and yellow wolf-like eyes. He wears a silver wolf medallion that vibrates when a monster (supernatural creature) is near.

Geralt travels the countryside with his companion, a bard named Jaskier (pronounced as Yas-key-er). He kills monsters for a fee, but he will not kill any monster he considers to be innocent, or a non-threat. He will only kill a monster if he believes they are an immediate threat to innocent lives. He knows that sometimes humans are the monster and not the supernatural creature they may want dead.

Now there are things I loved and things I disliked about this animated movie. I'll start with what I disliked to get that over with and then move on to the more pleasant parts.

The Witcher: Sirens of the Deep adapts the story "A Little Sacrifice" which is a loose, Witcher-universe retelling of The Little Mermaid. Of course the animated movie couldn't resist taking a few tired, Internet meme-level, digs at Disney's The Little Mermaid and even the Hans Christian Andersen story.

The Witcher has its own in-universe versions of Hans my Hedgehog, Beauty and the Beast, and several other classic fairy tales and folktales.

This animated movie points out how the mermaid almost gave up her home, friends, and the world she had always known, just to be with her prince. And this seems to be a cynical dig at what Ariel does in Disney's adaptation of The Little Mermaid and more or less what the Mermaid does in the original Hans Christian Andersen story.

However, despite the popular Internet whining that Ariel gave up everything for a man- it seems everyone forgets, and doesn't respect, that Ariel wanted to be human BEFORE she ever saw Eric. He was just the icing on the cake. In the Disney film she sang "Part of your World" before she ever saw Eric. She only sang the reprise after she saw him.

Ariel didn't like having a tail and wanted to be of the human world long before she saw Eric and yet it seems so many people can't respect the character's wishes.

Anyway, I digress. Besides the attempt to poke at the original fairy tale and Disney version, another part that did not sit right for me just because it was jarring was the awkwardly inserted Sea Witch song.

This was deliberately reminiscent of Ursula's "Poor Unfortunate Souls" song from Disney's the Little Mermaid. And I get what they were going for but it took me right out of the story. It did not fit.

(Side note: I do like that The Sea Witch is the aunt of the mermaid (siren) in this. The Sea Witch is also the aunt of Ariel in a cut scene from the Disney animated movie, and is re-established as her aunt in the Disney's The Little Mermaid Broadway musical.) When Jaskier sings, or even Essie, it makes sense within the context of the story, because they are bards- fantasy world vagabond folk rock musicians basically. But The Sea Witch song didn't really fit. The song wasn't terrible, but it took me out of the story, this isn't quite the right setting for that sort of thing, it wasn't a musical before except for the bard songs.

The story does address that The Sea Witch is barren, which touches on the lore from the novels, that magick users- Witchers, Sorcerers, sorceresses, and witches are usually unable to have children. The magical energy that they become conduits for also renders them infertile.

This lore is much simpler than the weird "magical hysterectomy" thing the live action Witcher show did with Yennefer in the first season of The Witcher. That was completely unnecessary and bordered on offensive. I suspect someone working at Netflix might regret how they handled Yennefer's infertility in the live action show.

And finally I felt the Yennefer scenes of The Witcher: Sirens of The Dee were unnecessary and kind of shoe-horned in just to put her in there. It reminded me of how they worked "imaginary" Lestat into season 2 of Interview with the Vampire. It just felt awkward and unreal until she made him wake up because he was being attacked. That made me wonder if maybe she really was dream walking and entering his dreams as he slept. That part was intriguing.

Now on to the good stuff.

I love that Geralt got to play detective in this story. He always felt a bit like a magical, medieval, Batman and here he really felt the part. I like how he was able to figure out a certain character was The Sea Witch in Disguise from a clue about fruit. I love when he gets to be clever instead of just using brute force on his adventures.

The story is loosely The Little Mermaid where a prince falls in love with a siren (Mermaid) and one has to give up their home to be with the other. Meanwhile the selfish king and Sea Witch have been conspiring together to bring about war and so The Sea Witch can avenge herself against the Siren King that spurned her for not being able to produce a child for him.

There are a few clever misdirections such as with the king's underappreciated bastard son, who in similar stories would have been the one conspiring with The Sea Witch. And it was well-written enough that this neglected son went from bully to likable and noble hero.

I knew The Prince was going to choose to become a merman (Male siren) because I was already familiar with the short story and the song "A Little Sacrifice" that Ciri (Geralt's adopted daughter) sings in season 3 of The Witcher. Nevertheless I was happy with how the story ended.

I felt bad for The prince's half-brother.

I like that ultimately the name "Julian" was treated like a deadname and Jaskier's chosen name was respected.

Back during season 3 of The Witcher when Ciri sang "A little Sacrifice" I imagined that Jaskier must have taught her the song. And thanks to finally hearing Joey Batey (Jaskier) sing it in the animated The Witcher: Sirens of the Deep, I can now fully embrace my headcanon that Jaskier taught her the song, maybe even used it as a lullaby for her.

I had been waiting and hoping for a version of that song done by Joey Batey (Jaskier) and this did not disappoint.

The animation is gorgeous. I am reluctant to call it an anime since it is American made and not Japanese even though Netflix calls it their own "Anime studio."

Despite The Little Mermaid being an inspiration, this is NOT intended for children. There's violence and some brief sexual content.

I love when Joey Batey sings and when Jaskier and Essie sang "My Story" it very much reminded me of "The Horror and the Wild" by Amazing Devil (Joey Batey's band). The lyrics of "My Story" aren't that great though. The lyrics are kind of weak. I guess I was spoilt by Ride of The Witcher and Toss a Coin to Your Witcher. That song deserved better lyrics.

A little Sacrifice is the better song.

The mention of songs about the Werewolf caper and some of Geralt's other adventures that haven't been adapted by Netflix yet made me curious about unreleased Jaskier songs. The name dropped songs tend to turn up sooner or later such as with Season 2's "The Golden One" which retold the dragon story from episode 6 of season 1 of The Witcher.

The Witcher: Sirens of The Deep is not perfect but it is still a good animated movie. I would likely watch it again if one of my friends wanted to watch it with me. I do like it a bit more than the first Witcher animated movie, the prequel, Nightmare of the Wolf. Final note: Just to give a little credit: The Saturday Morning cartoon Alvin and the Chipmunks (The 8th season, called "go to the movies" featured a version of The Little Mermaid where the prince becomes a merman at the end, long before even The Witcher short story. And the Tom Hanks movie, Splash, did it too.

[ghostlylicious]

guyssss do you like my fuckass annotations