#diedfromembarassmentlikeasim

[stealingyourbones]

Sam, Tucker and Danny get tired of drawing out Danny's summoning circle (which they use for quick transport and emergency evacuation of Danny from difficult situations. Or just to force him to take a break from heroing) They get a stamp with Danny's summoning circle on it for extra convenient summonings (perhaps circles that do not intend to bind the summonee into place can be Small and Stamp sized.... or they summon Danny as little baby man) just dip the stamp into Whatever (ink, blood, waterver else can be used) and Stamp it where you need it

genuinely a big brain move. They have to be sure to make sure that stamp doesn't get lost though. The chaos that would cause would be too terrifying to fathom

[gayregis]

thank you for explaining further! but, hmmm...

i still may not believe that this is completely in-character for geralt, i think he’s pretty pessimistic and not political enough to do this sort of thing. i feel like if he uncovered great human injustice on a mass scale (if? more like, when) he wouldn’t be compelled enough to go and fight it. he has killed men when they directly threatened him or his family, but groups of people? even in the rivian racial riots, he doesn’t kill, he makes an effort to just dance around and not kill anyone. he’s better at killing directly, not planning a coup or destablizing an injust political regime. to be honest, philippa rather would be a great character for this sort of thing.

the idea that geralt would hear about injustice, then go back to kaer morhen and be like “humans are monsters too, let’s kill this evil guy” seems out of character for him for one — not that he doesn’t care about others, as he certainly does, but he doesn’t really involve himself in regicide even when he hates rulers. when emhyr shows up to take ciri away from him, his daughter who he loves more than anything, he doesn’t unsheathe his sword and duel him. instead, he is prepared to accept death (at that point in the story when he’s exhausted, anyways)

and what’s more, that the rest of kaer morhen and mages would agree with him — this is what is even more astounding to me, because witcher schools are supposed to be apolitical, and mages, well, it’s debated on, but the goal of many (tissaia, the lodge) was to do magic for the sake of magic, that magic should be in the highest interest and political loyalties should come second (or rather, be influenced by mages controlling everything using political puppets).

it just seems unfathomable in the extreme to me that both geralt and a bunch of others would direct their power to destroy one evil ruler, because the thing is is that destroying one evil ruler would not be the end of their problems, right? they would surely foresee that doing so would create a precedent that they could use their power to kill rulers, which would make them the #1 target of every other ruler out there, and leave them in an inhospitable world.

from what it sounds like, this seems more of a fan fantasy where fans see injustice in the real world and want to consider their favorite characters banding together to dispose of the evil — racism, abuse, etc.— in a fantasy where one can tell if one is evil or not (which you can’t in real life, which is a huge conflict and ethical question that has plagued humanity for millennia).

i don’t think there’s much wrong with this AU from that perspective of it’s just nice to think about creeps being taken care of. but power fantasies have to be separated from what is in character; though there are some in character moments you’ve described, like geralt being dismayed at being called a warlord, i still don’t think i’m convinced that this would reflect canon characterization, or that it’d be something that i would be interested in.

no hate though, it sounds like an interesting hypothetical, but still too OOC for me and also not really in the themes of the witcher? the witcher is all about messy ethical solutions, that evil is never truly wiped out, that evil is difficult to discern and can come out of even the most innocent (e.g., ciri). it’s really a fatalistic and tragic view of statehoods and society ngl, but this, admittedly, doesn’t make for the most interesting fan content! so if you follow the canon characterization and lore of the witcher to a T, you’re likely not going to get the most interesting or positive scenarios to think about.

There has been some discussion about this and you are my favorite Witcher book blog so I thought I would ask you this: what are your thoughts on the popularity of Warlord AUs for The Witcher on AO3 where Geralt is a Warlord?

edit: i totally skipped the first part of this ask... omg thank you, it is an honor to be a favorite witcher blog!! i am very flattered that my opinion would matter to you anon 🥺❤️

honestly i have no idea what these AUs are, this is my first time hearing of it, so i don’t know anything about it, i haven’t seen any examples, and i would have to know the overall premise before judging it sincerely. buuuut... just based on this description...

my initial reaction is that i would disagree with this. geralt despises war and violence, that’s a pretty canon and essential character trait of his. he hates being a witcher because he hates having to decide who lives and who dies.

although killing is his profession, he didn’t have a choice in the matter, it’s all he’s known, and so he tries to use it to help people (by creating random and personal moral codes for himself that no one else uses, lol) but inevitably comes to do at least some people harm, because that’s just how things turn out (e.g., renfri), and this haunts his every waking moment because he feels such guilt for the death he has to deal, he doubts his own humanity, going so far as to believe he does not have the capacity to love (although he very much does!)

he loathes war, violence, killing, and death. his first action as a witcher was killing a pedophile, and in those initial moments, he felt pride for having saved someone— until he saw their faces of horror, as if he was the monster. his initial optimism and pride was quickly replaced with the realization that violence, while it can solve problems, leaves deep scars that never heal, and not only for those physically harmed.

his loathing for violence extends beyond himself, even, and i would say is actually the entire reason for the saga. his conscience speaking to ciri, “death dogs my footsteps, and i cannot, i may not expose you to that” is why he leaves her, he hates violence so much and never wants to expose anyone, especially a child, to the kind of life he has been fated to live — but because he is so loathing of violence and of himself, he overlooks the fact that violence occurs everywhere in the world, that he is not the only source of it — so ciri is lost to him and suffers exponentially more violence on her own (both then and later) as she would/may have been exposed to if geralt was not afraid and had took her.

geralt also expresses a few anti-war sentiments in the books. although he claims he is rivian for his clients, he does not claim nationality to any specific state. he kills both nilfgaardian and northern officers, not for military reasons, but because they threatened his friends and family. in the ending scenes of baptism of fire, he tells cahir that he “piss(es) on this war, this is for milva” when he wants to hold the bridge on the rivian-lyrian side against the nilfgaardians, telling cahir, who is a soldier, to forget about nationality and about war and instead fight only to protect his friends. this is a central concept of the witcher, to not be swayed by the abstract concept of a state, but instead care for your family and friends (i’m not saying any value judgement on this message, just pointing out that it is there as a prominent possible interpretation of the work).

so geralt as a warlord doesn’t really “click” for me, to be honest. it seems like it kind of disregards the essential tenents of his character, because warlords are all about conquering and maintaining territory, correct? (war + lord)?

i might say “maybe there’s something i’m missing, maybe it’s more like, geralt is an unwilling warlord, he is being forced to be one against his will/because it’s the only thing he knows, like how he is a witcher against his will,” but the thing is is that while geralt can justify it to himself to kill a monster if it’s obviously and directly going to harm an innocent person, i don’t think he could ever justify (and thus, never actually) kill swathes of people in war because of some abstract political concept, because in war, you cannot closely examine the morality of every soldier and judge whether they deserve to die or not... it’s war, death is dished out on massive scales without the examination, and so there is always a degree of killing innocents in cold blood (the thought of which disgusts geralt).

[stealingyourbones]

Offering of a juvenile nile crocodile skull

(Yes it is real and it is Very Cool)

Thinking about those AU's where there is something Other and Wrong about Danny Fenton

And just. People interacting with him who Know something is Off but they don't know what but they're trying to pretend everything is Okay because they don't want to be rude

People tip toeing around Danny because he is Creepy

Bonus point is Danny just doesn't notice anything. He's too tired to notice that people are acting strange ~~how is the way theyre acting any different from how people have always acted around him?~~

But like, less angst and more undead comedy. Something that *could* have been angst but framing makes it funny rather than sad

Addams-family-like Maddy and Jack Fenton where they aren't Bad Parents it's just that what they think is a good parent is Absolutely Not what everyone else thinks is a good parent. *convo between fenton parent and their kids when they were toddlers* 'Oh honey why are you carrying that little knife?' 'I want to kill the monster under my bed' 'why are you using that then? Here take this one' *hands them the fenton bazooka*

Something Off and Different about Jazz too - and Sam and Tucker. Less so with the latter two.

Dani is the most normal of the lot. The Fentons adopt her and absolutely no one questions it because thank god there is finally someone Normal in that family (once she gets enough ectoplasm to properly stabilise she becomes Less Normal but she is normal when they meet her and it happens slowly so they don't notice as both she and the rest of the town slowly and slowly become weirder)

OH! What about Amity Park, at some point, merges with a replica of it in the Ghost Zone? Amity Park IS Phantom's lair and thus it is the Lair of the Ghost King - it exists in both the living realm and the infinite realms. Someone who has lived in Amity Park for long enough can go into either the human world or ghost zone by leaving the towns borders - they end up in whichever realm they are trying to go to. A ghost can only go into the infinite realms (if they want to go to the human realm that isnt just amity park they MUST go through the fentons or vlads portal) and a non-amity park human can just go to and from the human world in amity park - again, they specifically need to go through the portals to switch between realms.

Animals associated with death can also use amity park itself to traverse the realms - this does not follow any logic beyond that of human myths and legends. Animals not associated with death are bound by the same rules as humans.

I have never even thought of 'Fenton's are the Adam's Family of Amity Park' but I need like 10000 fics of it now I love it sm.

[bloody-kitsune-lover]

Offering of a juvenile nile crocodile skull

(Yes it is real and it is Very Cool)

Thinking about those AU's where there is something Other and Wrong about Danny Fenton

And just. People interacting with him who Know something is Off but they don't know what but they're trying to pretend everything is Okay because they don't want to be rude

People tip toeing around Danny because he is Creepy

Bonus point is Danny just doesn't notice anything. He's too tired to notice that people are acting strange ~~how is the way theyre acting any different from how people have always acted around him?~~

But like, less angst and more undead comedy. Something that *could* have been angst but framing makes it funny rather than sad

Addams-family-like Maddy and Jack Fenton where they aren't Bad Parents it's just that what they think is a good parent is Absolutely Not what everyone else thinks is a good parent. *convo between fenton parent and their kids when they were toddlers* 'Oh honey why are you carrying that little knife?' 'I want to kill the monster under my bed' 'why are you using that then? Here take this one' *hands them the fenton bazooka*

Something Off and Different about Jazz too - and Sam and Tucker. Less so with the latter two.

Dani is the most normal of the lot. The Fentons adopt her and absolutely no one questions it because thank god there is finally someone Normal in that family (once she gets enough ectoplasm to properly stabilise she becomes Less Normal but she is normal when they meet her and it happens slowly so they don't notice as both she and the rest of the town slowly and slowly become weirder)

OH! What about Amity Park, at some point, merges with a replica of it in the Ghost Zone? Amity Park IS Phantom's lair and thus it is the Lair of the Ghost King - it exists in both the living realm and the infinite realms. Someone who has lived in Amity Park for long enough can go into either the human world or ghost zone by leaving the towns borders - they end up in whichever realm they are trying to go to. A ghost can only go into the infinite realms (if they want to go to the human realm that isnt just amity park they MUST go through the fentons or vlads portal) and a non-amity park human can just go to and from the human world in amity park - again, they specifically need to go through the portals to switch between realms.

Animals associated with death can also use amity park itself to traverse the realms - this does not follow any logic beyond that of human myths and legends. Animals not associated with death are bound by the same rules as humans.

I have never even thought of 'Fenton's are the Adam's Family of Amity Park' but I need like 10000 fics of it now I love it sm.