#it's about the cycles. the repeating story

[thelostgirl21]

OMG! It's never ever even remotely crossed my mind that "A Little Sacrifice" could have been written by Essi!!!

I was a bit confused re: why you said that you'd just realised it was Jaskier that had written the song, because I was like "Well, who else?"

She's a bard, too, so it could have been her!

Then again, I didn't know there was a short story called "A Little Sacrifice" and *actual mermaids* in The Witcher's lore while watching Season 3.

Hence why I initially believed this was a song that Jaskier had written to process his feelings for Radovid, and was almost disappointed finding out that it wasn't about him, but about an upcoming animated movie.

But then, I saw the ending of "Sirens of the Deep" and went "Wait. It doesn't match! So it is about Radovid!"

At the very least, to an extent.

Hence all the headcanons about Jaskier having written a first version of the song after the time he'd spent with Geralt in Bremervoord, and then continued working on it / modifying it to suit his own love story with his own Prince, later on.

About Geralt, makes a lot of sense, actually!

I mean, to Jaskier, Geralt is the one that appears to be sort of "otherworldly". A fantastic creature filled with ancient powers and... hair. Those stupid, stupid hair.

*Spoilers for Sirens of the Deep*

And now, I've just realised how funny it is that they came from the coast, reached the mountains to avoid Yennefer, FOUND Yennefer, and then, when Borch died, Jaskier basically went "Yeah, this idea was shit! Let's return to the coast! Go back to Essi, and look at the two local sirens frolick/fight for a little while, yes? "

One thing I also loved is that Sirens of the Deep sort of confirmed that one of Yennefer's appeals, as a partner for Geralt, is their shared cynism and pain over basically watching the world around them go through all these cycles - witnessing people with human lives having such short memories and repeating the same mistakes over and over again (feels especially relevant now) - while they are basically powerless to change, or truly influence them.

And it can thus be deduced that allowing himself to fully and openly acknowledge how attached he's gotten to Jaskier, and how much he appreciates having him as a life partner or "travel companion", would only bring more pain and loss down the line.

Because unless he's killed by a monster first, Jaskier will continue to age. H4 times at least 4 times 10... And he'll be 5 times 10, 6 times 10... Hopefully 7, 8, and if very very lucky 9 times 10!

But, even before then, he might slowly find it harder and more exhausting to accompany Geralt on his travels and monster hunts, dodge attacks, etc.

One mistake, or one moment of him being unable to come to his aid, is all it would take for Geralt to lose him.

In the story I'm currently trying to finish writing, there's a moment between Radovid and Geralt where he openly acknowledges that he feels relieved knowing that Jaskier now has someone to grow old with... someone that will be able to provide him with more comfortable means of transportation, good food, protection, and softer sleeping arrangements whenever Jaskier wishes to hit the road, amongst other things, tok!

(OK, and now I'm laughing thinking about Geralt traveling the path by carriage with an 80 year-old-bard, flanked by a small private royal army carrying delicious food rations and luxury camping equipment, because the husband of the King of Redania still needs to be where the action is to compose a proper ballad!)

But yeah, I guess that's why, despite how I fully acknowledge the absolutely heartbreaking and unfair impact Geralt's outburst and rejection had on Jaskier, I also can empathize with Geralt's own fears and inability to properly deal with loss at that moment.

His mother abandoned him, Renfri chose revenge over him, the woman he loves - and that he felt could understand his struggles more than anyone else - just abandoned him, too, and Jaskier will inevitably die and leave him behind whether he wants it or not. It's all too much to handle.

It's easier to leave Jaskier now, than eventually be abandoned by him, too. That way, he can pretend Jaskier never would have.

And, just as I believe that Jaskier's happy that Geralt has Yennefer now - someone that shares his almost immortality and can help him carry those burdens - I genuinely like to think that Geralt would be happy that Jaskier would have Radovid to share his shorter life with, while being able to appreciate and fully value the passage of time.

"Life's too short, do what or who pleases you, while you can," is a sentiment that Radovid can better grasp, understand, and share than Geralt.

So, even when Jaskier was attempting to connect with Geralt and comfort him after having watched Borch fall to his death, he was sadly putting emphasis on the difference between them.

Jaskier's life is too short. Geralt's life has already been too long. Watching Borch fall to his death only brought into sharp focus that people keep dying and leaving him.

Whereas it gave Jaskier a sense of urgency to not miss any moment of his too short existence.

And now, by saying that, Jaskier is sadly reminding Geralt that even if Jaskier hasn't fallen to his death alongside Borch, he'll still be dying and leaving him soon.

Yennefer and Radovid sort of allow Geralt and Jaskier to better handle those differences, because they aren't each other's only love nor source of support and companionship.

They can more fully appreciate the time they share, despite knowing that they might be forced to go on their separate ways, accompanied by a single one of their partners / travel companions (Yennefer for Geralt, and Radovid for Jaskier), for a little while.

Re: Radovid and Season 3, you've just reminded me of something else, too! Radovid knows ALL of Jaskier's songs, right?

So, he would quickly spot any change that would have been made to it, right?

Imagine Radovid catching Ciri singing "A Little Sacrifice" at some point, suddenly hearing lyrics he isn't familiar with, listening to it to the very end, and then excitedly going, in full 'fanboy mode': "Oh my Gods, Jaskier! You've added more verses to your song, and they are brilliant! But wait. I thought Agloval's transformation went well, and he immediately took to being a merman like - well, a fish in the water? What do you mean 'If he sinks to darkest night? I don't underst - "

*Cue him noticing how Jaskier has increasingly started blushing.*

"Oh! Oh... A-hem, yeah... I mean, my swimming was pretty shit..."

*Cue Jaskier blushing even harder.* "Shut up. Your swimming was fine, the currents trying to pull you under sucked!"

Poor Ciri is trying to figure out what's suddenly going on, and Geralt is just going "Don't worry, even I can never tell if they're frolicking or fighting."

@thelostgirl21 your post made me realise that... Jaskier did write A Little Sacrifice. Now my head is spiraling into subtext from every side. I can't keep up lol

For if your goal be paradise

A life with your true love

Ponder all your wants in life

And make a little sacrifice

[shivunin]

Hi, I just wondered what your favourite part of the Fenhawke romance was? Like, a scene/moment that really made you fall more in love with him? I love your writing so much!!

Oh, that is very kind of you to say! 💗I'm glad you enjoy the things I've written. I've really been enjoying writing for this ship, especially the past few months c:

As for your question...

Man, that's tough. I have a hard time picking one thing---I mean, *gestures to all the fic* you know? But I can narrow it down to a couple of scenes/elements:

The fact that a romanced Fenris still calls you "my friend" even after the act 2 romance scene. This is just...the bedrock of their relationship to me. Yes, that night went very poorly (understatement, I know), but at the core they are friends and he trusts Hawke in a way he's likely never had the cause or opportunity to trust someone before. I believe he never stopped loving Hawke, and it was a matter of laying those feelings out and understanding them one at a time. Romantic love not replacing platonic love or eclipsing it, but building or twining together is just... *chef's kiss* that's the good stuff.

The moment during the romance conversation in Act 3 when you can see Fenris go from hoping (painfully hoping!) that there is still some way he and Hawke can be together to actually believing it will happen. There is a shift in his body language that I could watch (and...have) over and over.

The element of choice? This is not going to be coherent, but the fact that he is learning for the first time what it means to have options and preferences, and he spends a lot of time exploring and understanding himself...and after all of that, the thing he keeps coming back to is Hawke. I think it's gorgeous. A song with refrains of pain or fear and choruses of decision and hope. He's loyal to a fault, in many ways, but understanding how much of himself exists to share and then still choosing to share it is just...man. I said this wasn't going to be coherent lol, so there you are. "If there is a future to be had..." like he doubts its existence but he's willing to chance it for Hawke. Man.

But, honestly? I've played DA2 a lot of times and never romanced another character, even though I've played through multiple romance storylines in each of the other games. I can't shake the Fenris romance. Every time I open a new playthrough, I tell myself that this is the time I'm going to romance Isabela, and every time Fenris rips that dude's heart out and I just......alright, yeah. Okay. Here we go again.

[thelilylav]

~

Raven shook her head. This was cruel! Requiring teenagers to give up on their own dreams, to condemn them to the same lives as their parents. Even trapping them in the good stories was unkind.

What kind of life had no choices?

On destiny and growing up and Ever After High. I guess.

[tblsomedoodles]

Just a young Rider with his baby dragon. Nothing bad will happen to them. honest.

Rereading Eragon (b/c reading fourth wing and Iron Flame only succeeded in making me want to read something that actually focuses on the dragons/dragon riding aspects. b/c that's why i was there) and thought, hey this would be cute to draw for a speedpaint.

My computer thought otherwise and decided to shut down when i was almost done, corrupting the video.

The doodle got save (thank you csp for your recovery feature!) but yeah, no speedpaint to go with it.

So back to the drawing board. Literally. (and the speedpaint is already late too : / )

[palaceoftears]

Mahi thinking about how forming a family outside the palace would be :c and Gulsah not being capable of letting go💔. They hsve been together for 10 years after all, she doesn't know better than serving her, Mahidevran IS her family as much as Suleyman and the rest is it for Mahi, and so that's why both master and servant were ready to do anything to keep their beloved ones, which only turned to divide them even more after their actions threatened not only a rival, but also the familiar in question (Mahi putting poison on Suleyman's table, Gulsah risking Mahidevran's position by attacking Gulnihal). The two of them also overstep their respective positions by doing so. Mahidevran, a concubine, requires from Suleyman the loyalty he should have for a wife, Gulsah wants to be valuable for Mahi but also to make decisions for both or them, equaling her humilliation to her sultana's when she's just her servant (maybe she also sees herself as Mahidevran's wife 👀, this dialogue is kind of confirming that atp she can't see herself as someone else's soo). And Mustafa works as some type of union between both Suly-Mahi & Mahi-Gulsah, ofc he's an stronger one for the first pair, he's their son, but I think his care for Gulsah recovering may also have influenced Mahidevran giving her other chance, she's been shown to be a second (or third, shall we make ibro and gulsah compete for the role?) mother for him after all, in certain way that makes all of them family too.

There's also the fact that Gulsah is someone her sultana can rely on, the only one that she could truly trust for so many time, she knows every little facet of hers and I think in a palace where you have to always put a facade on, it must be a relief. That's why this just comes as a sincere wish from Mahidevran (in contrast to later, when she just wants to get rid of her servant by marrying her off), for Gulsah to escape what she can't, and it parallels her letting go off Nergissah, only that this time she accepts Gulsah's useful loyalty and keeps her at her service, while in s4 she reachs that selfless stage for which she can actually send her closest ones away. Same that she wanted to do to the only one that serves her at that point, Fidan, even if the later refuses (and Fidan is another old woman so there's not many chances for her, similar to Sumbul/Hurrem but even w less posibilities since she's as poor as Mahi). But what both scenes share is Mahidevran's idea of family as a salvation from sorrow, a new start that she can't give to neither Gulsah or Nergissah and Fidan.

During e25 Mahi herself is trapped in a situation she can't do much against, only staying patient untill she explodes later in the season, while, after Mustafa's death, she's already experienced the happiness of the new start of a family, her granddaughter being all it's left from it... An orphan, in the "spring of her youth", sent to an unknown powerful future husband, whose child she could name Mustafa. It is a little similar to Mahidevran's own story, to the untold part of it and what we know of her before Suleyman's accession to the throne, that she took refuge in his love, they became a family, possibly the reason for her to begin again and never mention her past out loud (and seemingly not even remembering it). And with a new family it comes a new identity, makes a lot of sense Nur refers to Suleyman as a paternal figure for Mahidevran, he's the patriarch of the new household she goes to after all, he gives her life a new meaning, she's his "spring rose"/gulbahar and everything she does has to please him (he even says he's "proud" of her when she gives birth to Mustafa). It caught my attention that, as much as she takes on a maternal role during all of Nergissah's life, she also shows a little bit of that side to Gulsah here, who also shapes her identity in relation to Mahi, dedicating her life to make her happy and proud (and, like Plami pointed out here, Gulsah's name meaning forecasts her ambition for more while ties her all the most to her master). For both women, the struggle is they can't make more mistakes since the families they belong to could discard them (Mahi can send Gulsah outside, she sent her to Edirne once, same place Suleyman warns he could exile his haseki to in e23) but can't truly adapt to the new situation either, what they consider their home it's very unstable and it's doomed to break. As a result, Gulsah will eventually change sides and Mahidevran will redirect her efforts to Mustafa, they're going to become traitors, with the difference Mahi will have the opportunity to begin again far from Topkapi, to form another family with her son, even if once again it will prove to be unstable (tho this time not for internal factors between them, but for external ones).

In certain way, Mahidevran is a nomad through all the series, from an unknown place in the past before she was an slave, to wherever she may have gone to be educated, to Manisa's palace, to Topkapi, to Edirne, Topkapi again, Manisa again, to Amasya and later Bursa. And what's important about that for this post is that everytime she tasted the peace and happiness of family she had to lose it, being it via Suleyman falling out of love with her, the sudden deaths of baby Suleyman, Fatma hatun & Ibrahim pasha or by how the Amasya fam was murdered. She could never rely on the security and the simpleness of the family lives she describes to Gulsah and Nergissah. By the end of the show Mahidevran is symbolically an orphan not only of the parents we don't know, also of the men that gave different meanings to her life inside the system, Suleyman and Mustafa. Still, a little bit of her hope survives with Nergissah escaping this life full of suffering and I find it poetic and very telling that, while we see the damage the succession wars are bringing and Suleyman's obsession for loyalty, Mahi is ready to give up all she has (even if little, but she transfers the servants that remain with her to her granddaughter) for Nergissah to find peace in a new home.

[the-crow-binary]

I'm just saying, it took thousands upon thousands of years and many more random combinations of homo sapiens and humans to craft your body, and then you go and call it ugly??? That's just rude. Hundreds of thousands of years worth of work went into that body. Respect it, bro.

[goatpaste]

gets so fucking sad remembering Lucy Steel isnt my oc and actually has a canon story of experiencing seven layers of deep disturbing trauma in the span of a few months at age 14

[lovedeathalice]

No fucking way that was the ending of jjk💀💀💀 MID!!!!!!!

[four-color-words]

Yes, I love the Hawks and Thanagar as a concept. Yes, I also can't stand Carter Hall. I contain multitudes.

[pilonciillo]

[secondimpact]

i have reached the dragon's dogma 2 part of dragon's dogma 2

[corvid-ghost]

Damn I seemed to have gotten a very different read from Anthem than everyone else ig

[fullmetal-scar-simping]

It's funny when someone responds to you claiming you're just repeating their point, meanwhile they missed the part where I talked about them failing to grasp that being upset about the Nazi association to Amestris while saying all fascism is bad and that the Nazi association means people have "misunderstood" the moral of fma and thus "proves Arakawa's" point is attributing ignorance to the critics while falsely claiming Arakawa's work as consistently anti-military (it absolutely isn't).

But I shouldn't be surprised.

[the--days]

so it's like this.

you're young and you're scared and you're trapped in the feywild (happens to the best of us) with the love of your life. You're a half-elf and she's a fullblooded elf but you don't think about it very much because you're barely surviving day to day. And you get offered a deal to get yourself home again, and you take it. And the price of your freedom is that you leave her still trapped there, alone.

And then five years pass. And you age a century in that time, and you grow, and you change, and you find her again, and you're still in love, and you meet people, and you lose people, and you love them too, and you learn, and you start wanting a future again, and caring again, taking care of yourself, taking care of other people--

and after all of that, at the end of things, you find out the man responsible for all of the misery in your short, sad life has cast a spell which gives him complete control and ownership of you- mind, body, and soul (again. this happens to the best of us). And you are given the choice to stay under his thrall, and live a thousand years-- or to age and die, like humans do, and to be free of him.

And the love of your life is there, and you're married now, and she's still a full blooded elf, and you're still a half-elf, and you think about what that means a lot more than you used to.

And still, after everything you've learned-- you choose your freedom. You choose leaving her behind.

[mityenka]

you guys will call anyone doomed by the narrative these days. when i do it i'm right though

[thats-a-lot-of-cortisol]

2 & 3 from section 1 for peri and 7 from whichever section has a more interesting #7 for diodore -moss

oooh these are fun ones!

2. Describe their tent set-up (outside and inside) (Peri)

I think Peri's tent is constructed similarly to Gale and Astarion's (boxy, fabric walls, little covered area outside). Deep blue fabric w/ golden astronomical embroidery, mostly the sort of thing you see on star maps. Little golden tassles around the edges of the tarp (?) and the doorframe. He'd have a small, circular, dark wood side table short enough that you can use it sitting on the ground, and a dark blue pillow next to it; there would be some parchment and a bronze miniature astrolabe on the table. The inside would be just. full to the brim with the gaudiest night-sky-themed pillows you've ever seen. No bedroll, no palette, just a nest that would put those cube pits in trampoline parks to shame. There would be two bird perches for his familiar Medani: one taller one next to his tent and one shorter one under the overhang. The shorter one would have a crow-sized bow-tie hanging from it. Rugs on rugs on the outside area ofc. 3. What would their character quest be titled? Why? (Peri)

This is a hard one! His tav ending involves taking over the Waterdeep arm of the Harpers, so I think his arc would have something to do with that. He'd be pretty bitter about being dropped into another near-apocalyptic mess when dealing with the last one a few years prior was supposed to be a one-time thing. Something-something ptsd in a world that doesn't have the words for that yet, something-something 'once a hero always a hero', something-something the weight of responsibility...he's a planeswalker so I think part of it would be whether he decides to stay on Toril long-term and directly help rebuild the Waterdeep Harpers or if he continues to run travel around afterwards, so maybe The Far Traveller/The Far Walker?

Harpson/Fae-son are also potential options. "Fae-son" nods to him being a changeling without it being super obvious (like Astarion's "The Pale Elf"). It would also mimic his backstory reveals from RoT ("oh he's not 'from here' so, like, the Feywild" -> "OH he's not from here"). 7. Describe their arc. How would a player help resolve it? What choices can be made? Can your Tav be turned down a dark path, or pulled to a lighter one? (Diodore)

Buckle up because we're in for a long one here. I've thought about Dora's story arc a lot because she's the first of my tavs that I truly made for the game while having full control over her backstory, etc. (versus Corentin, who had their arc baked into the story as a durge). Dora's a paladin of Corellon (oath of ancients) and her story arc as a companion would have to do with whether or not she should accept capital-r-Redemption, the process by which a drow can be truly "freed" from Lolth and rejoin the ranks of the rest of elven society. It involves all of the Redeemed drow's memories being erased and them being reincarnated as a surface elf. The implication seems to be that without that, regardless of a drow's actions, they'd be thrown back to Lolth when they die? Or at least that their eternal fate is unknown (which is the way I prefer to think of it for. personal reasons). Under normal circumstances, Dora would be a long way from Redemption being presented to her at all (she's not even 200 yet and has only been on the surface for a couple decades), but like with the other gods' Chosen among the companions, near-apocalyptic circumstances tend to speed up those sorts of things.

Of course, you'd have the themes of faith & relationship with deity when they're all unequivocally real and are also mostly all assholes; maintaining or breaking generational cycles; facing the unknown; morality when none of your choices are "good" (and how that interacts with morality vs self preservation); power vs freedom; identity outside of the people who made you; etc. The choice would first be presented to her sometime in late Act I/early Act II, likely the first long rest after the group resurfaces from the Underdark and you've probably gotten some of her backstory already. I have no idea how Larian would have characterized Corellon, but he's considered one of the more benevolent/open-minded deities iirc, which could be interesting to see contrasted with Mystra, Vlaa'kith, and Shar. How much that open-mindedness would extend to a drow, even one who has been a faithful follower even before she escaped to the Surface (and who inherited that faith from her father), is unclear. At the beginning of the game she would be leaning towards accepting Redemption, despite her own misgivings about whether or not she would still be her in that case.

Her final decision (at the ending pier scene) would depend on the relationship she has with the PC and the other companions. Her best ending, imo, would be her not accepting Redemption but continuing to be a force for good. If she has a good relationship with the PC, she would have something to lose. I think seeing the House of Mourning would affect her too. After all, the thing Corellon is offering to her as a way to find peace is the same thing the Sharrans are using as a way to manipulate and control others.

She's viscerally aware of how she was socialized and very actively chooses "good", so pushing her towards a darker path would be incredibly difficult but not impossible. If you side with the goblins she'll leave immediately, and turn on you if she's in your party when you attack the grove. But if you decide to try and control the cult in Act II, depending on your over-all actions before then and how you've interacted with her, you could disillusion her to the point of convincing her to break her oath. That path would entail convincing her that controlling the cult is actually the best idea. I'm sure there would be other times that her oath could break that wouldn't necessarily lock her into an "evil" path, especially with how Oathbreakers are handled in the game. Knocking out Minthara instead of killing her outright and letting Auntie Ethel go in Act I instead of killing her are two things that come to mind.

If she doesn't choose Redemption she would be at the epilogue party, of course. I'm a bit undecided on what would happen if she does choose Redemption. She may not be there at all, w/ Jaheira, Halsin, Minthara, and/or Astarion mentioning running into her in her new, reincarnated state. Or she would be there, confused, and mention how the PC seems familiar in a way she can't quite place. In that case, she would ask them how they know each other and mention something about feeling a twinge of grief looking at everyone, but that she doesn't know why she feels that way. It would be up to the PC how much they tell her (if they tell her anything at all).