#mintedpotters

[warlordess]

Yay! I finally get to contribute to a Geraskier fic! So excited!!

[thebibliosphere]

Hi bibmum, I tried to start watching the witcher because its all ive been seeing on my dash lately but i could barely get through the first episode. The witcher character telling a rape victim that she's the bad guy for killing her rapists? The "if i have to choose between a greater and a lesser evil, i refuse to choose"? Just. So nasty. But you seem to really love it so im just wondering if it gets better bc the first episode sucks.

I’d need to watch it again cause I don’t remember that particular line with Renfri (not doubting you, I just don’t remember how bad it is), but I think one of the key things about understanding Geralt’s character dynamic is that you’re not actually supposed to like him as he is at the start. 

He’s someone carrying a lot of trauma and with that a whole heaping side of depersonalization which can often come off as inexcusably cruel and callous from the outside, and we really don’t get into the whole “being a Witcher has something like a 99.999% fatality rate and that’s just how many die as children in training” thing for quite a while yet. 

The whole “witchers have no emotions” thing isn’t just some throwaway line meant to make them seem “othered” from humans or the “strong flawed silent” type we often have for heroes in popular fantasy media. He’s legitimately been conditioned to have zero emotions by his training, and part of his survival instinct is to maintain that facade by ignoring his own emotions because the thing about trauma is once you open that box and start trying to unpack it all, it’s impossible to put it back. And in Geralt’s case, opening up to things and becoming attached and caring is going to get him killed. (Not to even mention all the people that will die if he’s not around to slay monsters.) 

That doesn’t make any of the shitty things he says or does right, but as someone who deals with depersonalization as part of my own trauma, I thought the show actually handled his development quite well as the episodes progressed. You see him coming to terms with the fact that, shit, he can’t be impersonal anymore, he can’t stick to just his training because his training isn’t enough. His training got that girl killed. His training makes him the monster. And he knows that. And he’s determined to never let it happen again.

Thus begins his arc of growth, showing that Geralt is someone who does care, he does have profound compassion for those around him (if not always empathy) and he wants to help people so badly, but other than being a brute for hire, he’s not sure how to do that.* 

And then because fate is nothing if not a laughing trickster, Geralt suddenly finds himself flung into things that demand more emotional energy and depth than a  teaspoon and oh boy, does it never rain but it pours. Like the shiny, shiny bard who is basically ten people’s worth of emotions in one body and is determined, nay, decided to be friends and keeps following Geralt around like a lost puppy singing that fucking song. Or the witch who is seemingly hell-bent on her own destruction in the pursuit of what looks like power, but is actually just a desire to be in control of her own life after centuries of abuse, gaslighting and manipulation (and who, like Geralt, doesn’t know how to be “normal” and perpetuates the cycle of her own abuse because control and manipulation is all she’s ever known). Or the child who by the law of surprise is suddenly his. He is for all intents and purposes a father now, the one thing Witchers are never supposed to be, and just what the fuck is he supposed to do with a child? 

So he does the whole “run away thing” for as long as possible, because Christ, that’s a lot of scary emotions right there. That’s more emotions in the span of about 10-20 years than he’s dealt with in the some near 100 years he’s been alive. But he can’t keep running, he knows that. Destiny is an active force in this universe, and it will come to find him. It will hold his feet over the fire and hold him accountable for his actions, and worse yet, it will go after the people he loves if he doesn’t. 

So yeah. There are lots of things all the characters in the Witcher say and do that are Problematic. No one is an unproblematic fave, everyone is messy, ugly, broken and sometimes just outright cruel. Some parts of the show made me deeply uncomfortable (I’m thinking of the orgy scene with Yen in Episode 5 which is big yikes for a lot of us, though I have more thoughts on that than I have room for on this post) but there were other parts that made me realize that if the writing keeps up as it is, and we get to move beyond the “meet the characters” stage we’re currently in, this show has the potential to be phenomenal. 

So to finally answer your question? Yes, it does get better as the episodes go on. But there will still be moments that raise the yikes meter, but those moments are, I believe, intentional. The show wants you to have strong reactions to things and to throw your hands up and go “come on man! do better!” because we know they do get better. We know from all the other source material we have, that what we are seeing in the show right now is just the messy beginnings of a very complex story. 

And also just because the hero says or does something in the narrative, doesn’t mean the show is promoting the bad things as “right”. If anything it wants you to question it more because it’s the hero doing the thing, and heroes are supposed to be better than that. And we know they do, because deep down at its core, the Witcher is a story about a trained monster killer, who goes out of his way to help the monsters. Sometimes he can’t help them and death is the only option. But we’re all faced with things we’d rather not sometimes. Including the reality of our own actions, and Geralt is someone who is wading knee-deep in them.

(*As an aside: we see him at his best when he’s dealing with monsters and animals because they’re not complicated in the way humans are. He talks to his horses because he’s able to show Roach love and affection and care, and it just comes off as good horsemanship, and likely wouldn’t have been discouraged during his Witcher training. And he’s able to help monsters, because, well, he likely sees himself in them.)

[mysterious-foxes]

That juicebox person is really so proud of not learning anything new since they were seven years old? Embarrassing 😂 why are they still holding onto an opinion they had as a child. When I was seven I thought that the car radio and the TV in my house were connected and played the same thing, so that if you changed channels on one, it automatically changed the other. Like shocker, kids don't know everything and child logic doesn't apply to everything.

Lmao, true. When I was 10, I believed that babies were born through your belly button. It didn't take my parents or anyone telling me that to think I knew. Does that mean I was right back then? Of course not. I grew up and I learned.

[siryouarebeingmocked]

“I’m a coward who wants to throw shade at @yoonbum-in-drag​ but I don’t want them to actually see.”  bitter-trans-guy, 2019

“@cerebralzero​‘s avatar is a hand holding a gun! That means he’s suicide baiting, somehow!”

Stop trying to play the victim, pal.

In case anyone was wondering, here’s the post that triggered Brave Sir Robin/. Our ol’ pal mintedpotters also shows up, and is wrong, as expected. 

And BTG made a screenshot response post...to people he already blocked. Who can’t see it. And acted like he was the victim when he voluntarily joined the discussion. And look at this

 I’m justified in being wary of people who enjoy something that can and has triggered people, myself included

“If literally anyone is triggered by something, nobody else can enjoy it.”

This is just...sad. 

[tobeyisprochoice]

Tireddragon defended terfs on their last reply to me. Claimed that terfs "aren't even oppressing anyone". I expect there'll probably be some whining about how I "silenced" them by blocking them, but I'm not about to waste more time arguing with a terf defender.

I'm letting you know so you can block if you want to.

Thanks for taking the time to debate with them though, I think your arguments were really solid.

Thank you, I appreciate that! 💕

Yeah, that’s definitely not a good move on their part. I wanted to give the benefit of the doubt that they’re just ignorant, but it seems they’re willfully so. I understand you blocking them.

[cybro]

“transphobia leads to fucking murder

not sleeping with me to validate me is transphobia

therefore not sleeping with me leads to fucking murder”

maybe you should be fucking murdered if that’s how you wanna get your dick wet

[sockdreams]

I finally have a regular income so you can bet your bottom dollar I'll be ordering a bunch of stuff soon!! 💖💖💖

Yay!

[ourmanifestoisfun]

Valencia's character development is my fav thing e v e r honestly i love her

Valencia is pure delight :)

It would have been such a shame if she had just been a 1-2 episode character as originally planned. I’m so glad that she became a regular and I hope she gets more screentime next season and focus on her career and relationships (with Beth and everyone tbh)

[mintedwitcher]

since I just changed my username here I’m debating whether its worth the headache to change it across all my platforms too (the biggest headache will be AO3 but still...) 

[warlordess]

Chapters: 5/8 Fandom: The Witcher (TV) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Geralt z Rivii | Geralt of Rivia/Jaskier | Dandelion Characters: Jaskier | Dandelion, Geralt z Rivii | Geralt of Rivia, Original Characters, Cirilla Fiona Elen Riannon, Yennefer z Vengerbergu | Yennefer of Vengerberg Additional Tags: Post-Episode: s01e06 Rare Species, Not A Fix-It, Jaskier | Dandelion Saves Geralt z Rivii | Geralt of Rivia, POV Jaskier | Dandelion, Pre-Relationship, BAMF Jaskier | Dandelion, Family Drama, Dysfunctional Family, Monster of the Week, Potential S2 Rewrite, BAMF Geralt z Rivii | Geralt of Rivia, Slow Burn, Pining, Pre-Slash, (for now anyway), Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence Series: Part 11 of The Witcher (TV) Universe Summary:

Geralt has saved Jaskier a thousand times over the years. Until the mountain.

When Jaskier hears of Geralt's imminent execution, he has a choice to make. But is it ever really a choice when Geralt is involved?

New chapter posted! Three more to go for this arc and then I’m taking a break. (The arc will be complete enough that it reads as a stand-alone and I have many plans to eventually come back to this fic.)

[thebibliosphere]

Hey can i ask a kinda ignorant question? Are there any triggers for r/pe, abuse, or graphic gore in Discworld? Ive never read them but your blog made me curious... i figured I'd ask you about the triggers thing because im not really sure where else to go, and i trust your judgement... thanks in advance 💖

None that I can currently think of.

Pratchett was not a particularly graphic or gory writer. Some of his earlier work is a bit sexist (in that the satire he was aiming for falls flat) but he is as @vaspider rightfully said earlier, an author you got to watch evolve and expand his ideas in real time.

You’ll see references to characters being “dispatched” but most of the time the books cut away when any violence is about to happen and it’s left up to the reader to come up with their own horrors. I think perhaps one of the more graphic ones is in Night Watch, but it’s not gratuitous violence for the sake of violence.

[mysterious-foxes]

Ive had a memorial tattoo vaguely planned for YEARS. I dont know what the design will look like but I know what I want to incorporate in it. I just have to wait til I have the money to actually go get it done

Totally fair!! I hope you are able to soon! And when you're financially able to, definitely meet with your tattoo artist to go over your concepts and have them draw something up.

[siryouarebeingmocked]

Mintedpotters blocked me because someone made the mistake of @ing me for a response.

Which is ironic, considering she started of the post by going ‘fight me on my gun control opinions’.

Oh, and nobody @ her. It would be completely pointless. Do it and I swear, I will block you for a while.

Side note; antigunners have a habit of going ‘gun control doesn’t mean confiscating all the guns!’, even when nobody said it did. It’s not even a strawman, because it’s not based on anything.

https://mintedpotters.tumblr.com/post/187921373771/if-you-really-are-true-to-the-words-in-your 

As I recall, there was no significant change in the overall murder rate after 1996. It did go down, but it had been going down already, and there was no real change in the rate.

http://www.gunfacts.info/gun-control-myths/guns-in-other-countries/

> . You are legally required to uphold a certain standard, otherwise your license for owning firearms can be revoked, much like with a driver’s license.

America already has that. Commit a felony, get committed for mental health, or even get hit with certain restraining orders, and you can’t legally own guns.

It’s the whole ‘innocent until proven guilty’ thing.

Also, driver’s licenses are only for public roads. Nothing keeps you from owning a vehicle, or operating it on private land.

> So the cries of “what about self defence” are little more than fearmongering tactics designed to spread paranoia in people who don’t quite pay attention.

That sounds a lot like a handwave and well-poisoning, not an actual rebuttal or support of your earlier implication that people don’t need guns to protect themselves;

Speaking of which, I strongly doubt this actually happened, if you can’t take potential internet argument. I’ve noticed a lot of people like you are all mouth and no trousers.

Of the top of my head, a crackhead or mentally unwell person or even just someone who’s angry isn’t always going to be intimidated into backing down, and there are multiple examples of people who charged cops and civilians with a knife, even with guns pointed at them.

Including in Australia.

> And of course there are the occasional extremists who do get their hands on a gun in order to commit a crime, but it happens far less frequently. You’re more likely to find stories about someone being attacked by a croc than you are to find mass shootings in Australian news.

Mass shootings are rare crimes in the first place, and even before 1996, you had a much lower proportion of the population with guns than the US, criminal or legal.

Also, most of the legal owners in the US will never point their gun at someone in anger. Even if you include the suicide numbers, it doesn’t break 1%. Most assaults and murders are with illegal guns.

Also, aidara is a pseudointellectual blowhard who’s consistently, so if you’re using him as a source, you’re...special.

Also, I like how you handwave away gun murders and mass shootings with ‘oh, those are extremists!’ And imply everyone in Australia who committed one since 1996 originally got the gun for that purpose.

Also, you did not mention mass shootings in any prior post in this thread. You’re just saying whatever comes to mind, because you’re making it up as you go.

[tobeyisprochoice]

Hey Tobey just wanted to drop a line and say that I'm sorry for hijacking your rant post. Especially for losing my temper on it too. But yeah. Just wanted to say that if there's more additions to it from that pro lifer, I'll make my own thread.

No worries! I’m playing catch up and it’s funny to see how easily you’re destroying them! I picked a good time to fall asleep 🤣

[pommedeplume]

Hi, I just saw your post about the HP Femslash collection through @mxlfoydraco's blog, and I was wondering, is there any requirement for fic type (fluff/smut/etc) or length? Because I have a Linny fic on AO3 that I'd like to submit for the collection.

Yeah, the only requirement is on the post. As long as it features a femslash pairing prominently it’s good to go. I just don’t want people adding works where it’s like “oh hey did you know ginny and luna are dating?” and it turns out that’s the extent of the femslash. They don’t have to be ALL the fic is about but a reader shouldn’t have to be desperately searching the fic to find the femslash.

If the collection ever swells to like 500 fics or something I might start suggesting people add only femslash centric fics but for now I just want to increase exposure of femslash in general :)

AND YES PLEASE MORE LINNY FICS ALWAYS.

(link to the collection for passersby)

[alloverthegaf]

mintedpotters replied to your post: it’s so fucking humid I took my bra off do you...

Australian DD cup, I know the pain

WHAT DO WE WANT

A COMFORTABLE FUCKING CHEST