#renfri is my favorite character

[nellieofthevalley]

There are two deaths that I wish the showrunners had written out of the show. Mainly because they were either totally pointless or they hurt me to my soul, the only reason Im making this is because they killed characters that never died in the books, they could PLEASE STOP KILLING MY FAVES.

Renfri and Tissaia. Renfri made me angry, Everything that ever happened to her could have been avoided, her death was meaningless and only happened to give trauma to geralt, who knew her maybe a day and then acted like he was the most affected by it. I wish she had survived, or at least had a more impactful role in the story

Tissaias made me uncontrollably sob. That death scene hit me so close to home that it scares me, The woman who until this point has been a boulder in the way of everything falling apart watching her friends and family be killed around her, and loosing herself completely when there was nothing she could do.

I miss her so much.

[wren-of-the-woods]

Well, my Renfri & Jaskier fic has taken on a life of its own -- I'm well over 5k and only maybe a third of the way through the plot. I'm having fun!

[dukeofdogs]

Geralt of Gwent

In this post I’ll be walking you through the magical thing that is the art of putting Geralt on various Gwent cards.

Let’s start with the “Geralt” named cards that you probably saw already. Here we have Geralt of Rivia (Marek Madej), Geralt: Professional (Dave Rapoza) and the five Witcher 3 signs: Geralt: Igni (Anna Podedworna), Geralt: Yrden (Anna Podedworna), Geralt: Aard (Bartłomiej Gaweł), Geralt: Axii (Manuel Castanon), Geralt: Quen (Oleksandr Kozachenko).

Now, on to the “obviously Geralt would be in these cards, but the cards are not named after him” category:

Our guy is seen looking at Roache’s shenanigans on the Roach (Anna Podedworna) card and enjoying a nice time with Dandelion in Sunset Wanderers (Anton Nazarenko).

One of my favorite cards (mechanic-wise) are Runewright and  Dulla kh'Amanni (Astor Alexander). Here we can observe the same scene of Geralt doing business with Dulla from two different places and considering that these two cards only work when they’re played together I think it makes these two art pieces even more amazing.

Now, here are the less obvious ones. These three cards are: Vanhemar (Chris Rallis), Olaf (Bartłomiej Gaweł) and Jutta an Dimun(Nemanja Stankovic). All three artworks portray scenes from Witcher 2 and Witcher 3. On the fisrt one Geralt is about to be executed by Vanhemar, on second he’s about to brawl with a bear and on third, you can see his shadow after defeating Jutta in a duel.

Here we have Renfri’s Gang (Toni Muntean), where we can see an illustration from The Lesser Evil short story.

In Siegfried of Denesle (Lorenzo Mastroianni) you can spot him in the crowd.

It wasn’t 100% confirmed that the guy on Pact (Zuzanna Kapuścińska) is Geralt, but we just assume it is ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ On Sly Seductress (Daniel Valaisis) you can see Geralt having some good time sleeping.

Last but not least is Beggar (Daniel Valaisis) where you can see a very handsome Geralt drawing (alongside other characters) made by the titular Beggar. This card contains another easter egg! In it’s premium version, you can see shadows of characters from Thronebreaker that are casually passing by the guy! See for yourself in this post.

[thedemonofcat]

One of my all-time favorite movies is "The Princess Bride." Currently, I'm toying with the idea of creating a Geraskier-inspired story, but I'm not quite in the mood for it. Instead, I've been thinking about casting characters from "The Witcher" as the characters from "The Princess Bride." Here's what I've come up with so far:

- Grandfather: Vesemir

- Grandson (or granddaughter, in my version): Ciri

- Princess Buttercup: Jaskier

- Westley: Geralt

- Prince Humperdinck: Radovid

- Vizzini: Dijkstra

- Fezzik: Eskel or Lambert (either one could work)

- Inigo Montoya: Renfri

- Count Rugen: Stregobor

I'm leaving out some of the minor characters since I can't think of good matches for them at the moment.

[fangirleaconmigo]

Lol, you JUST said you wanted to do a deep dive into Jaskier independent of Geralt as I was finishing this ask... almost didn't send it, talk about timing 😅

But, if you're still up for it, I wanted to know if there was ever any moment in the books where Geralt had to choose between Yen and Dandelion, as in an argument or putting one's safety over the other in a dangerous situation. If so, did Dandelion ever stand a chance? I mean, Yen can probably defend herself better than the bard can, but is it ever as automatic as you've mentioned it is when she's not around? Or does everyone, best friend included, know there's not a hope in high heaven this dude will ever choose anyone over Yen (before Ciri came into the picture)? I mean, Ciri IS the ultimate trump card, daughter trumps everything!!! Good dad, Geralt, for the win!

I've noticed in the show they did a good job of making it clear Geralt is all Yen no matter what (prior to the Ciri incident), even if he's terrible at showing it like Yen needs/wants and just ends up hurting her with his fail wolf ways. We can even see this emphasized by how he takes out his hurt on Jaskier on the mountain; or how he only appears to go get him afterwards just to find out where she may have gone. Sure, Ciri is involved in why he's looking for her but talk about word association; "need Yen, use Jaskier to find her." Sure she mentioned seeing him to Geralt, but that just helps cheapen Geralt's intention to find Jaskier, not the fact that he constantly uses Jaskier to get closer to Yen.

The reverse isn't shown as much in the show, whenever Yen was in the scene, Geralt's focus was 100% on her and only her. Even during their first meeting, when Geralt says he's only going to save her because she helped Jaskier, he had already obviously showed he was drawn to her and he makes the decision to help in spite of Jaskier's protests. Sure, Mr. Hero doing the heroic shtick is not new. But it was obviously not necessary for his wish to do what it did for him to be heroic just then. Nope, that wish was clearly him allowing himself to be selfish for a moment and screwing things up immensely by not thinking things through.

As a purely TWN watcher, I have my own silly uneducated theories on why someone so self restrained (after learning the hard lesson that was Renfri and how being a witcher was akin to being a butcher) would allow themselves that moment of selfishness... and how it directly involves a certain bard almost dying... perhaps a theory further vindicated by his later unjust accusation atop a mountain, but I won't bore you.

The point is, Netflix Jaskier is barely on equal footing with Geralt, in that he is absolutely NOT portrayed as an equal or shown to be Geralt's equal in the witcher's own mind. First season he's barely a friend, he's a joke to everyone they encounter, and second season he suffered for Geralt and Ciri yet had more character relationship acknowledgement and growth with the witch rather than the witcher or the child surprise.

TWN Geralt doesn't look like he'd ever choose Jaskier over anyone else. Not due to their relationship, at least... Maybe due to him being innocent or defenseless while Geralt is pretending he's not playing at the hero. From what you've said, Book Geralt looks like he actually knows how to treat his friends and appears willing to show favoritism to his best friend, as necessary, in moments of tension or danger. Does that also apply with Yen or has it not come up?

Sorry it's so long 😱

Hello Nonny! I must apologize for taking so long to answer. I was off tumblr for a long time so now I'm going through my older asks. Thank you for the ask!

I believe this is maybe in response to my post about Geralt being protective of Dandelion and rescuing him first even when there are many other people around to rescue.

I don't think they reflect this often in the show. Geralt does help him after the djinn, obviously, and tries to defend him with Filavandrel, so it isn't like he doesn't try to help him. But of course their TWN dynamic does not even come close to matching what I've described at that link.

As far as comparing that to Yen? I don't think so. I can't think of any situation that has come up. I mean, Geralt worships Yen, and if anyone threatens to kill her, he will absolutely put them down. But she also is so incredibly powerful, more so than Geralt and Dandy put together, and Dandelion needs so much help, so to be honest they would probably both protect him first (well, second, if Ciri is around) instinctively, he's their squishy fragile regular ol human beloved.

[realmythsmoved]

* ˙ ⭒ ⊱ 𝐆𝐄𝐓 𝐓𝐎 𝐊𝐍𝐎𝐖 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐌𝐔𝐍.

◈　what made you pick up the current muse(s) you have?　 ⋯ 　For my fandomless OCs, it's just because I love their characters or have grown to over the years and to get to know them more so that when I write about them in my WIPs, they are fully fleshed out characters. Of course, there may be some differences between for example Tori & Alex in the RPC and Tori and Alex in my WIP about them. But I do feel RP helps me to get to know my muses a bit better. (I'm not going to do all of my fandomless OCs but I will say that I do love all of them. And have books planned for many of them, after I finish the books of Tori & Alex's story.)

For Antoinette, I was inspired after seeing Beauty and the Beast (2017), idk why. Something about that movie just caught my muse and I was like what if one of the feather dusters was gay and black and ...yeah, Antoinette was born! I absolutely adore her. <3

For the [Redacted] Doctor, they were born out of a desire to see T'Nia Miller portray the Doctor (even though she was already in Doctor Who. I know, I know. But so was Peter Capaldi.) And then I kind of developed a personality for the Doctor and a story and yeah. The rest is history. <3 I adore them so much too. <3

For The Thirteenth Doctor, what can I say? She's my Doctor and I love her. And I can relate to her so much, but I also admire her character as well. So she's an interesting muse to play. I love RPing her. <3

For my Witcher muses: Yennefer, Ciri, Renfri, and Jaskier: Yennefer I love but do find difficult at times. However, I welcome the challenge. And I look forward to getting better at slipping into her voice as time goes on. Ciri is my favorite character and so it was an easy choice picking her as a muse. Similar to 13, I can relate to aspects of Ciri while admiring others. And that makes her an interesting muse to play. Renfri, I loved her story in the book and in the show, and wanted to make her really come to life. Jaskier is probably in my top 5 favorite Witcher characters, at least in the show. He brings some lightness but also is not too light that it takes away from the realism. He's a well-rounded character, I think. I often suck at portraying male characters, at least IMO, but Jaskier was an easy one for me to write because he's not super macho or anything lol. And he's a character I can also relate to in some ways, so yeah.

For my Bridgerton muses: Daphne, Eloise, Benedict, Simon, Kate, and Penelope. I adore Bridgerton. It's like Jane Austen meets Gossip Girl with more diversity and so once I finished watching s2, I was like....I need to add muses. Daphne is a character I really enjoy and s1 is told through her perspective, so you really get to know her. Eloise is ahead of her time and so bold and I love her for it. Benedict is artistic and sensitive, especially for the time he lives in. Simon is also a character I really enjoy watching and getting to know in s1. Kate is probably my favorite character of all (Eloise is a close second. And Daphne is a close third.). And Penelope? Who wouldn't want to explore her complex character?

Now on to my Arcane muses. Vi, Caitlyn, Jayce, Viktor, and Mel. Vi is a bit of a challenge, but like with Yennefer, I enjoy it. Caitlyn is probably the character I relate to the most out of these muses of mine, so of course I had to RP her. Jayce, I thoroughly enjoy him. Viktor same. Mel same.

Motherland: Fort Salem muses: Raelle, Tally, Abigail, and Scylla. I relate the most to Raelle and Tally but I adore Abigail and Scylla as well. I love the show in general and it being taken off Hulu is my villain origin story lol. <3 So portraying these wonderful muses just made sense to me.

Ann Walker is the character/person I relate to the most in Gentleman Jack, I'm much more of an Ann than an Anne, though I'd say I have aspects of both. LOL. But yeah, I felt like she was underappreciated so I picked her up as a muse.

Laura & Carmilla from the Carmilla Webseries & Movie: I'm pretty much the bisexual nonbinary version of Laura. LOL. So I had to RP her. And while I can't fully relate to Carmilla I do adore her as a character, so RPing her seemed to make sense.

Now on to my ASOIAF/Game of Thrones muses: Daenerys and Arya. These two are my favorite characters in that world. And I can relate to and admire both of them. So like with 13 and Ciri, that makes them interesting muses to play.

◈　is there anything you don’t like to write?　 ⋯ 　Besides the obvious topics that I'm uncomfortable with that are in my rules, I'd say I don't want to write angst for the sake of angst. Like I love angst, don't get me wrong. I adore angst. But it has to make sense for my muse and their story. I feel the same way about fluff, btw. hahah. As long as the mood makes sense for my muse and their story, though, I'm good.

◈　is there anything you really enjoy writing?　 ⋯ 　Angst. Hurt/comfort. Fluff. Romance. Smut (sometimes). I enjoy writing anything and everything.

◈　how do you come up with headcanons?　 ⋯ 　It varies depending on muse. Sometimes if they're a canon muse, I'll react to themes or ideas or scenes in their canon. Or even fandom interpretations of them. For my OCs, I tend to think of headcanons based on what I feel needs expanding on. But tbh, I am always open to suggestions for headcanons for any of my muses.

◈　do you write in silence or do you play music?　 ⋯ 　It depends on my mood. I've done both. Hahah.

◈　do you plan your replies or wing them?　 ⋯ 　I'm much better at winging it, but I don't mind plotting and working things out if it's what my RP partner prefers. I'm flexible like that :)

◈　do you enjoy shipping?　 ⋯ 　Yes! I am shipping trash and proud of it. That being said, chemistry is always needed.

◈　what’s your alias/name?　 ⋯ 　Star

◈　age?　 ⋯ 　29, but going to be 30 soon

◈　birthday?　 ⋯ 　August 21st

◈　favorite color?　 ⋯ 　Blue,

◈　favorite song?　 ⋯ 　Long Live by Taylor Swift (Idk what she put in that song but I love it.), There It Goes by Maisie Peters, The Lighthouse by Halsey, Born for This by paramore, Daffodil by Florence and the Machine (that's the song that inspired my username etc.), Believer by Imagine Dragons, Thunder by Imagine Dragons

◈　last movie you watched?　 ⋯ 　Not sure

◈　last show you watched?　 ⋯ 　Sex Education

◈　last song you listened to?　 ⋯ 　What's Up by 4 Non-Blondes. Always reminds me of my favorite show ever (which I somehow have no muses from lol) Sense8.

◈　favorite food?　 ⋯ 　Anything Italian. Especially pasta & chicken parmesan. And meatballs.

◈　favorite season?　 ⋯ 　Summer! I was born in the summer, and I don't mind the heat. I actually hate being even a little cold. So spring and summer are the seasons that make me the happiest.

◈　do you have a Tumblr best friend?　 ⋯ I have trouble gauging things like this sometimes due to being neurodivergent, but I'm going to tag some friends/RP partners I love: @bewitchingbaker, @uncxntrxllable, @the27percent, @lovepurposed, @hegrowth, @jynxd, @shimmerbeasts, @ferinehuntress, @luposcainus, @vdinus, @shchvnts/ @mostmagicals, @indigodreames and tbh I consider all my mutuals friends. If you follow me, ILY <3

Pretending I was tagged by/ Stolen from @ferinehuntress

I tag: YOU if you want to do this. <3

[northernolddragon]

Your favourite BaW ending?

Good night or day. It is probably difficult to name a favorite ending, because one way or another in one of them there is a tragedy for a certain number of characters. For Regis and Geralt, for Anna Henrietta and Syanna. And, of course, for Dettlaff.

I always choose the Dettlaff surviving ending, because I don't think the character deserves to die, much less from his own friend. Especially, when his actions were only to save his beloved, who felt that the dedication and feelings of a vampire can be used in their cruel deeds. The rule here is that everything has its price. The price for using the strongest creature is just as high. Could Syanna have gone the other way? Could. But she chose the same as Renfri. And Dettlaff choose the same outcome as Geralt. And although the stories are strikingly different in their depth, they are in common in that the 'Black Sun' makes you believe in your own enormity, and not try to cope with it, but follow it, not trying to resist (maybe, this position of confrontation is impossible, or maybe, it depends on the damned one himself, on his choice).

When you go through the ending with the reunion of the sisters, you want to experience pleasant touching feelings. But you remember how Regis falls on his knees in front of a murdered friend and it seems absurd and unfair that you see the interaction of the sisters and their happy ending. It's about forgiveness. Geralt is being given a reward that didn't give up on him, I'm sure. Give him a monetary reward. There are no happy endings for everyone. And Toussaint is the same fairy tale as in the illusion of the magician, in an attempt to create an impression of visibility, only losing relevance, you barely see the dead body of Dettlaff, who died for deceiving the woman he loved. Sincerely loved. And his death in two endings brings bitterness. for this injustice.

If we take the events of Beauclair, I do not justify Dettlaff for being categorical in his emotions. And yet .. Why, if Syanna can be forgiven for the monstrous massacre of valiant knights, by proxy, you can imprison her in the Land of a Thousand Tales or in apartments that no other prisoner could dream of, Dettlaff had to restrain himself? Regis didn't approve of this, but he understood. This counterweight. It was necessary to establish a balance of justice. This is where the morale comes in. When you are cruelly lied to, you are betrayed, with your hands they commit atrocities that you yourself would not have committed, for the sake of 'saving' a loved one, what a flurry of emotions falls on a person as a result of understanding, and what on a vampire, who, by their nature, have equivalently stronger emotions? You can, of course, cling to this situation, and say that Dettlaff deserved to die, at least for arranged in the fairy tale capital. But if this 'fairy tale' has a happy ending, then the vampire should live in it, and Regis should be less sad, not burdened by either grief or curse. The Witcher, without reward and monetary respect, once again recognizes the truth, that not all monsters have claws and fangs.

This is strictly my opinion. Thanks for the question!

[arianaofimladris]

Season three thoughts&rant

I more or less watched the third season of Netflix’s The Witcher.

What I liked:

- Geralt with a sword. His fight scenes are at least pleasurable to look at, even if in a wider picture that fighting makes no sense. I no longer have any expectations towards this show, I mainly wanted to watch Cavill as Geralt while I could.

- Geralt’s fight with Vilgefortz. It was alright for the series standards. It is one of my favorite moments in the saga and while they thoroughly butchered the whole Thanned part, that fight was ok.

- Geralt and Ciri were alright, at least until any fighting happened. I do NOT buy Geralt standing idly by while he lets Ciri take the initiative in a fight. Not with the monster on the boat and certainly not with Cahir. But other than that, they did have a few nice moments.

- The actress who plays Tissaia. I did believe Tissaia is one of the oldest of the mages, that she is respected and that she is powerful. The only idiotic drawback being her romance with Vilgefortz, but the actress really shines in that role and if I’m to remember anyone from that show except Geralt, it’s her.

- The final fight scene in the tavern with Ciri meeting the Rats and with Percival music during the fight. This was actually the only moment in this season when I felt like I was watching a Witcher adaptation, to the point that I felt like this scene came from a completely different series than the rest of this crap. Which left me sad in the end, because this is how this show could have looked like if the scriptwriters bothered to actually adapt the books. There were changes, yes, I know, but I actually FELT like I was watching the Witcher. That scene, along with the Renfri tale from season 1, are for me  the best adaptation and if the whole series had kept such quality/level/accuracy, I would have been happy.

- Ciri on the desert. Ok, with one huge BUT. I was genuinely surprised to see that subplot quite accurately adapted, with all the little details like Ciri licking the cream she had, or her going the wrong way and returning to the start point. The pace was slower, but I enjoyed it. Freya Allan gives much better impression when she’s not on screen next to Yennefer (because she looks older than Anya). Still looks a decade too old for Ciri, but at least it’s not that obvious when she’s alone on screen.

BUT – I really disliked there the visions part, I hoped to never see Netflix Calanthe or Pavetta again. I scrolled past most of that. It was boring, too long and unnecessary. Also I saw a lot of people complaining about this episode and I think it could have been way better if it was edited in a different way. Those desert scenes, which are, I agree, quite boring in the end, could have been entwined with another subplot. Like Geralt in Brokilon. We would get some news about both characters without either plot being too long and slow. And let’s be honest, Geralt in Brokilon, lying stiff, is not too action-packed either. I think the filming material of the desert part was good (minus the shitty visions) and different editing would have helped a lot.

- The Milva actress is like a decade too old for Milva and also very tiny for a nicely looking, but well built and muscled young woman living among the dryads, but at least her dynamics with Geralt start on the right ground. If I were to point one woman in the whole season whom I did not dislike, it would be her.

General impressions:

- Once again, a show that requires the suspension of brain instead of the suspension of disbelief.

- Garbage scriptwriting. And I’m not even talking about the book accuracy – that ship had sailed loooong time ago.  I’m talking about writing dialogues that make you cringe every three minutes. I’m talking about writing and constructing scenes in a way that makes the characters act like complete idiots. There were so many scenes where I could come up with at least five different solutions on spot, tiny changes easily incorporated so that the characters’ behaviour would make sense.

- Destiny as deus ex machina. This is exactly the opposite to the books. All the bullshitting about people linked by destiny always finding each other. This is exactly what Sapkowski did not write. Destiny is not enough. You need something more. The “more” being character’s conscious decision to act or inact. Geralt’s and Yennefer’s fates were somehow bound by Geralt’s wish, but it didn’t magically made them a couple. Without effort from both parts, their relation kept falling apart (Because Geralt would walk away. Because Yennefer was afraid to open up and allow herself to get involved. You name it.). Same goes with Ciri.

- Soap opera drama. God, this is a dirty fantasy world, why do we get all these teary dialogues with cheap emotional play. Or the big inspirational speeches that look ridiculous. And don’t get me wrong, motivational speech, when delivered right, will make a huge impression and get the right result. Remember Aragorn before the battle at Minas Tirith, talking to the Rohirrim? But Yennefer returning from her banishment, bullshitting before the other mages about how they have to stand together, blah blah blah? I know, the show desperately wants to create her as the best, the smartest, the one who takes charge, whatever. Sorry, it’s not working.

-  I watched/listened to the series in English and my cringe tolerance in English is higher, but gosh, it was hard even there. I wonder how these dialogues sound to native English speaker who actually uses their brain while watching. Because when I heard/read bits of these dialogues in Polish, that surely brought out another level of cringe.

- I feel like you could cut off half (if not more) of the first five episodes and the story would lose virtually nothing important.

- The sex/kink scenes were, erm, boring is a mild word to describe them. So you don’t actually show any intimacy between the two main characters, but you waste screentime for Filippa and whoever just for the sake of ticking another checklist.

- I would love to see sth like “season three by characters screen time”, just to know how many minutes of Geralt we got in these eight episodes. I’m left with an impression that he was hardly there.

 The rest of rant in details

- Ciri the future queen, the saviour, the one who will unite them all. Hi the most generic idea in a fantasy universe that contradicts most of the typical, generic ideas.

- They had absolutely no idea what to do with Geralt in this season. They make him act like an idiot and not killing Rience in the first episode, so that he has a purpose in the next three, only to let him kill Rience in episode 6 ( which takes a powerful moment later on from Ciri, who kills Rience in the books). Or they make him act like an idiot and putting his sword away when he’s literally waiting for a monster to attack.

- Episode 6 deserves an entire post probably, but let’s put it here. On one hand, it was the only episode of that season which I did not scroll. On the other, this (along with the fifth one) was the one I paused out of cringe most often. It was better than the previous five in terms of “something is finally going on there”, but then if you didn’t kill your brain cells before, it was a damn hard thing to watch. I’m going to ignore the mages vs elves fight. It was hilariously bad with cheap effects. Filavandrel blowing right into Francesca’s face was too grotesque not to laugh out loud and yes, I am aware that was not intended as such. Sorry.

Tissaia had her “big” moment, but all I could think of was ��oh, so she unleashed the eels”. Well done, netflix.

And here comes the “fuck logic” part. All these scenes on the fields – the look like they are taking place MILES away from Thanned. And yet our characters run back and forth like it was 100m. Sorry, brain cells still working. Then we get our trio meeting in the middle of nowhere because Reasons and they have the perfect opportunity to just get the hell away. But no, here comes the soap opera in its full glory of teary speeches and Yennefer decides she needs to go back (miles away, but why would she care). I’m not buying it. Her priority should be Ciri. Since Rience had just teleported there, she should have been able to open a portal ANYWHERE and just send Geralt and Ciri away. But no, because it’s netflix.

Then comes the Powerful Girl netflix trope and when Cahir catches up with Geralt and Ciri (were they just standing on that field so he could go all the way after them?). Geralt does not know what his intentions are. He doesn’t know how good a soldier he is. And yet he lets Ciri charge madly at him and stays SEVERAL METERS away. Yeah, cool, I do see what the scriptwriters wanted here, let’s let Ciri have that fight. So maybe, idk, get Geralt involved with half a dozen of elves in the meantime to justify why Ciri is fighting Cahir? But no, he just stands aside. If Cahir wanted to kill Ciri, if he got the best of her, there was no way Geralt could have intervened in time. A+ parenting. And again this is just making Geralt an idiot. I don’t like it.

- Lydia. Why did they turn someone who was most probably a servant and also unhappily in love with Vilgefortz, a victim, into his willing accomplice and Rience’s master. I should not be happy that she died, but she was absolutely awful in the series.

 - Except for Tissaia (who acts mature and in a way that demands respect) and Sabrina (who looks pretty and dresses on the verge of scandalous but in a stylish way), the other sorceresses could easily blend in with any other women on screen and I wouldn’t be able to tell they are supposed to be sorceresses. You could switch Keira with Annika or Vespula and there would be literally no difference. I have some trouble with Filippa, because she was usually alone on the screen and thus recognisable as a sorceress, but somehow, depending on what she was wearing and how her hair was styled, she looked 30 or 50. I literally have no idea why, but she could look pretty and young in one outfit/hairdo, and then she would look way older and uglier. It’s confusing.

- This story, in general, lacks believable relations. Normal, casual relations. Even in the background or whatever. The only one I can think of in this season is Annika and that werewolf (or Zola and Yurga in the first season).

There is Filippa and Dijkstra and while the actors give a good performance, what the hell was that – first with the whipping for literally no purpose (yeah, except the obvious American “the powerful woman” trope) and then with drunken Dijkstra coming to Filippa and begging her to kill and blame him for the failure. What. the. hell. was. that. Why were they not portrayed as a powerful duo who has (or had) some kind of romantic relationship, but first of all who come as equal partners in the plotting. There was also this subplot of Filippa and that blond assassin with hideous haircut and her only purpose was to kill and show that Filippa fucks women. Cool. It’s not like later on there is an actual relationship between Filippa and Triss.

There is the fuckin F girlboss duo (Francesca and Fringilla) I had hoped to never see again after season two, yet here we go again. Bleh.

We get Jaskier and Vespula and Jaskier is discussing his love interests while laying in bed of his other lover. Believable as hell.

There is Geralt and Jaskier and while in the last two episodes I finally began to see the friendship between the two of them, the friendship I should have seen in the past two seasons as well – with Jaskier’s creation this series goes, I can’t be sure of how Jaskier sees that friendship. I really, really hate it because this was probably the deepest friendship this whole universe gives us, the kind of “against all odds” friendship. I wouldn’t want Jaskier to have any other thoughts towards Geralt.

- Just please pack Yennefer into a tiny figurine and store her somewhere for the next season. I know that the showrunner wants to have a show about women, but I’m tired of seeing this imposter of Yennefer being the acting factor of everything. Yennefer taking charge of the sorceresses? Yennefer funding the Lodge? Just pack her and store her.

- I’m not even going to bring up the CGI or the costumes. The first I want to forget, the latter I have already forgotten. There wasn’t a single outfit that caught my attention in a good way, something I would want to be inspired with.

I’m aware no one is going to read this long a post, but I needed to spill it out. In the end it’s sad to see two scenes that could have come from a decent book adaptation among a shitload of crap.

[10moonymhrivertam]

❤️ What is your favorite line that you’ve written in a fic?

💕 What is your favorite fic that you’ve written?

😎 What fics do you prefer on a scale of canon compliant to wildly original?

❤️ What is your favorite line that you’ve written in a fic?

Y'know what, I think I do actually have a standing answer to this! Although now I don't know whether to be concerned or not cuz it's an old line XD But I posted an unfinished (as in, bracketed author's notes still in the text kind of unfinished) fic specifically so as not to lose the line, so I shall slap it in here.

Ah. Turns out it works best as a set of lines, but it was still the first thing that popped into my head, so here goes:

CW: Non-Graphic Animal Death

Carlos was counting the lab mice, suspicious that the bonsai they lived next to may have picked up some carnivorous tendencies. [...] Carlos lost count of his mice. His hands hovered over the cage, frozen. What had Cecil just said? Miss Frizzle? Aunt Valerie ? It refused to process. Carlos turned away from the cage to grab his phone, missing as the bonsai unfurled a branch and snagged a mouse by its tail and dragged it, shrieking, into its thick leaves.

END CW

💕 What is your favorite fic that you’ve written?

Oh, gosh, there are a few contenders. I could say the first one I remembered making, because I got to hand it to Mary Pope Osbourne before I knew giving authors fic was Bad. And I really don't remember much about the contents of it, just that it was handwritten and I did a little cover for it.

Of my modern fic, I think I'll pick two, due to them being the fics I've shown the most commitment to.

Face to Unfamiliar Face, recursive fic of @tulipscomeinallsortsofcolors's Love and Other Fairy Tales. I think about it a lot because I'd like to do more work on it. Alas, every time I go into it thinking that this time I will post it to AO3, I start sketching out major structural edits and get scared of the workload and let the poor thing keep languishing. I should just carry it over directly and then redux it later, just for the purpose of archiving it. Maybe I'll do that today. (Thank you in advance if so, Willow 💜)

And The Princess's Son (Ba, Ba), a Witcher fic where Jaskier is Renfri's kid. It haunts me constantly. I think as-posted, it's finished and satisfying from a reader's perspective, but from my Author's Vision it's unfinished, so the haunting continues. Alas, the redux keeps stalling out in the first few chapters. And then I don't want to just skip forward to get it started with because I feel like I can better build up the Lilit stuff so it's not such a Deus Ex Machina, even if I don't think I've changed all that much about the mechanics of her whole Thing. 😭

😎 What fics do you prefer on a scale of canon compliant to wildly original?

I think solidly in the middle as a reader? I know I lightly avoid 'modern AU' tags in AtLA and Witcher and stuff, but not strenuously. I like plenty of Sanders Sides fic where they're proper people and not just figments in the mindscape. But I think I also prefer to read when it's not super rooted in canon, either? Fleshed out side characters and Everybody Lives, Nobody Dies for the win, baby!!!

Now as a writer...

One of my provided filter-able tags is canon divergence XD I still like to keep things pretty rooted in canon, though. I like having a scaffolding to build around. Going too far into original territory tends to make everything feel a little too wobbly.

I think the most original I get is smashing together fandoms that don't necessarily make sense based on tiny details. (Or details that aren't there. Ben Wishaw and Colin Morgan are just. Connected in my brain for some reason and so I have Once And Future...Spy?!)

[eskelwolfed]

Do you have a favorite muse after Eskel?

I guess you mean the muses I write myself?

First of all, since I write them I automatically love them all. Writing a character you hate makes little sense but I've seen that on Tumblr too, and mad respect to people who do it. Totally valid!

I would say that, apart from Eskel, my faves are Sadie, Yala and Nuramon. It's impossible to rank them though! Perrin and Laila grew on me too, and we know that I love rescuing characters from canon to give them a better story to tell, so the dead himbo squad is also highly appreciated. (Harwin, Rhea, Renfri, Laila, Gwain, Eddie...I can't name them all rn!)

[sixxxer]

no because the reason why everyone and especially tumblr is so enamoured with jaskier is probably because he’s the only character that, while his writing isn’t flawless, is at least fun and memorable

[nellieofthevalley]

Something something the witcher oc

[hanzajesthanza]

appreciation for sapkowski's geralt

i wrote a long post for r/wiedzmin sooo i'm also going to post it here (feel free to comment on both platforms if you use reddit):

in the midst of everything that's going on with h*nry c*vill and li*m h*msworth, i want to foster some love for the original geralt of rivia, who first emerged in publication in december 1986, way before any netflix show used the name or any actor called himself “geralt.”

because to me, there's only one original, real geralt, and that is the geralt of the books. no one is geralt, except geralt himself.

so, reblog and comment (or leave in the tags) any favorite scenes, moments, qualities, or character development from geralt, or about his relations with other characters in the series, that you appreciate from the book series. and please keep it sapkowski's canon-only, if you can (the books, the short stories, even the non-canon something ends, something begins).

i’ll start:

what i love about geralt is that he holds complexity as an inversion of the trope of the hero. he feels very real to me — he just wants to be left alone, to do his job, but he also gets lonely and he’s overall a sensitive and emotional character underneath the black leather and silver-studded surface. while he’s practical-minded (like in bounds of reason and a shard of ice being annoyed that eyck takes money for hunting monsters because it hurts his business, or demanding that he gets the right amount of agreed-upon pay for the zeugl contract), he also is compelled to do what is “right” (like in the lesser evil, the last wish, or something more intervening with renfri in the marketplace, saving yennefer from the djinn, deciding to go back to cintra to get ciri after all)

i love how he’s always so conflicted, hesitant, and troubled. he often overthinks things, and makes decisions that often don’t benefit him personally, but are either selfless or good-natured. i don’t think he’s a grouch or unfriendly — i think he responds quite reasonably to the world and situations around him (like in baptism of fire, he’s pretty whiney and upset for the majority of the book, but his daughter is literally missing and his broken arm and leg are barely healed, of course he’s distraught.)

he’s complex and yet he’s also simple, as dandelion writes, “straightforward as a halberd shaft.” he doesn’t scheme or plan, which is refreshing in a world of shady sorcerers and spies. he’s straightforward with his feelings and intentions. he loves his family and friends, and that's his real motivation throughout the series.

my favorite scenes for and with him are probably (in chronological order):

the voice of reason iv, where he speaks with iola about his past, his origins at kaer morhen, and his life as a witcher, how he was initially filled with certainty that the world needed him.

the voice of reason v, where he speaks with dandelion about his troubles as a witcher and finding work.

the last wish, when he falls in love with yennefer at the end and thinks about how beautiful she is, how he knew she would become everything. how he regrets scrutinizing her and hurting her with his eyes, vowing to never think like that about her again. how he saves her life with no ulterior motive — the fact that yennefer hears the wish and says that he’s condemned himself to her… they both have such low self-esteem, they’re both traumatized and troubled in their own ways, from their own trainings, but he, as one vulnerable person, reached out to another, equally vulnerable person, implying ‘let’s not tear each other down, let’s try to heal together.’

eternal flame, when he tears his brand new, twenty-two crown jacket, trying to mend it in vain by the fountain. and when he can’t kill dudu, and when he softly laughs at the end, agreeing to go with dandelion & dudu, dainty, and “chapelle” to the passiflora.

sword of destiny. i love how selfless he becomes once ciri enters the picture, and he didn’t even initially know who she was. he doesn’t bemoan his fate as a witcher, burdening a child with his troubles. he acts so kindly and appropriately towards her, entertaining her, protecting her…

something more. all of something more, but especially when he finds ciri, dropping to his knees and holding her so tightly 🥺 promising they’ll be together forever.

blood of elves ch. 1, when he wakes ciri from her nightmare and covers her with the sheepskin, reassuring her.

blood of elves ch. 3, when he instructs ciri to give up her sword, they fight a disagreement, and he makes an impossible leap to catch her.

blood of elves ch. 5, when he swears to philippa that if any harm comes to ciri, he’ll… and then immediately passes out from loss of blood.

time of contempt ch 3, when yennefer wouldn’t let him wear his “pretentious” headband, and he’s messing with his hair and whining about it.

time of contempt ch. 5, when his voice breaks telling dandelion that ciri needs him, that she cannot be left alone.

baptism of fire ch. 1 and 4 & tower of the swallow ch. 3 and 5, every time his knee badly pains him.

baptism of fire ch. 5, when he has fish soup with his newly formed company and grumbles about how they're "a team of heroes, a fellowship of idiots, united by a common goal which none of them understand."

baptism of fire ch. 7, when he speaks with milva, and then speaks with regis, refusing to go through ysgith upon learning that milva is pregnant and after talking to her she decided to keep the pregnancy. he says that he thought he was ready to go to ciri at any cost, but this is too high a cost. he’s not willing to risk milva and put her in danger for himself, her child for his child. like, his company became another family to him, forged in the fire of war.

baptism of fire ch. 7, when he and cahir hold the jaruga bridge together!

tower of the swallow ch. 5, when he mistakes angoulême for ciri, goes hot and cold at the same time, tries to calm himself with axii, and it doesn’t work! and then cooperates, “only for her sake.” because even if she’s not ciri, he recognizes she’s a young girl who needs to be rescued and brought into a family, very much like ciri.

tower of the swallow ch. 5, when he speaks with fulko artevelde and cleverly denounces and dissects authoritarianism as a governmental philosophy. it’s such a good dialogue!

tower of the swallow ch. 6, when he apologizes to cahir for losing his temper and his mind in the mine, and also for accusing him of being a traitor.

tower of the swallow ch. 7, when he finds out that his company is in danger and immediately demands to leave and ride to them.

lady of the lake ch. 2, when he calls regis his friend in the caves underneath mount gorgon.

lady of the lake ch. 3, when he and dandelion part ways and he “gasps audibly” upon hearing dandelion wants to stay in beauclair.

lady of the lake ch. 9… when he and yennefer finally find ciri again, and he greets her “ciri,” he answered, with a lump in his throat, “i’m glad to see you again.” him not feeling anger, grief, or hatred… just fatigue and with a great need to be done with it all. when he looks towards the corridor that ciri came out of, “as if expecting someone else to come from there. ciri shook her head. he understood,” like, he didn’t forget about his hanza, he didn’t forget about cahir and angoulême, even though he probably already sensed they had died… he still was hoping that they would survive. him not interrupting yennefer and ciri’s hug until a long time had passed, recognizing and respecting their mother-daughter bond, not being jealous of yennefer but encouraging their love. and as they descend down the marble staircase, he instructs ciri, still a father to her after all this time and after all these trials, with yennefer behind them, him telling her that everything is just a symbol, and commenting on her swordplay, saying “calmly,” “stick close to me,” and that if ciri ever tries to deflect a crossbow bolt with her sword like that again, she’ll get a spanking 😭

lady of the lake ch. 12… you know why. ψ but to be more specific:"very well," said the witcher, walking towards the exit. "but this is the last time! dammit, it really is the last time!" and "stop," he wanted to cry," where are you going? it’s enough that i always piss into the wind."

season of storms epilogue, when “he” speaks with nimue on her way to aretuza. he says that even more than a hundred years after his death, that geralt of rivia would be happy, if people remembered him, if they remembered the name of his horse. yes, he would be happy��� if only he could know it. then they discuss how witchers will always be needed, for evil always will lurk in the darkness. and he reassures her to follow her destiny, which she does, and because of this, ciri follows her destiny at stygga castle!

his very specific aesthetics: his white hair, his weird eyes or as angoulême rhymes, "oczy dziwoczy!", his "hideous smile" and "hideous squint," his angular features, large nose, his (tower of the swallow ch. 7) torn ear and lost medallion, his sword over his right shoulder (and silver sword kept on roach), his black leather gloves and jacket "bristling with silver spikes," and his silly leather headband!

a complex character, a tragic hero, and really, just a normal man trying to survive, do the right thing, and protect his loved ones in a world of war and contempt.

[inexplicifics]

Hey, I'm sorry if you've already answered this, but what are your plans for future awau fics, if any? I've already reread the whole series and I'm really curious about a lot of the characters and the directions you're wanting to go with them. Also! I absolutely adore your writing and I think Melina is my favorite character (and of course Lambert and Melina may be my favorite pairing)!

So! At the moment, future AW AU fic plans, in roughly in-universe chronological order:

From Naked Stones of Agony, in which Lambert and Aiden have a conversation - this might actually need another chapter, we'll see how the bunnies go

Griffin/Marika fic, untitled, in progress, set in the spring after the conquest of Temeria; thus far, they haven't actually met on page yet, but hopefully they'll like each other when they do

That Is Born Out Of Agony, the Renfri fic, which is with Rose for beta and ought to go up in the next few weeks; set in the autumn of the same year Geralt conquers Redania

Sasha/Aiden fic, untitled, in progress, set after the conquest of Redania; thus far, pure romantic fluff

Aren & his pride adjust to Kaer Morhen, which is currently a set of Vibes more than a real fic

Morvran fic, untitled, in progress, set the winter after the conquest of Redania, in which Morvran is Very Confused by everything about Kaer Morhen and most especially the Warlord and the Warlord's terrifying daughter

Yen & Fringilla Have A Conversation, untitled, set during the Morvran fic

So That You Can Make Anew, in which the council of Kaer Morhen have a very interesting meeting indeed, set in the winter after the conquest of Redania

tentative: the Count de Lettenhove gets what's coming to him, currently Vibes and a vague idea that Aubry really ought to get to punch that asshole

Julita in Toussaint, untitled, set the year after the conquest of Redania; not sure where this is going, but the girl assigned as Julita's maid is Extremely Confused

The Progress, which is going to be many fics, gods help me, and is currently just Vibes until I finish...uh...everything above this

[withered-rose-with-thorns]

I had to survive. I stole rather than starve. I killed rather than be killed. Nohorn and the others saved me. And they'll be by my side at the market as I get my revenge. Lilit help me, I will take down anyone in my way. (insp) WITCHER LADIES APPRECIATION WEEK (1/5) Favorite Minor Character - Renfri

[storm-and-starlight]

The Mountain Scene

(aka, can we give Geralt a break please?)

Okay, I’m going to preface this by saying that  while I do love and adore Jaskier, I identify fairly heavily with Netflix!Geralt in a lot of ways, and tbh he’s probably my favorite character in any version of the media. If you hate him, this probably isn’t the blog for you, but I say this so that if I seem biased in his favor over Jaskier’s, or if this post seems excessively Jaskier-critical, you know where I’m coming from.

(I have also not yet seen much of s2, so this will have absolutely no references to anything shown in s2.)

So, without further ado, let’s talk about the Mountain Scene, and why my main reaction to it is “oh my god please give every single person here a hug, a blanket, and like three years of therapy”.

One: Jaskier and Boundaries

Over the course of the show, Jaskier, extremely consistently, ignores Geralt’s boundaries.

That sounds harsh, but... he really kind of does. There are multiple scenes where Geralt will request that Jaskier leave him alone (the scene in the Posada tavern in ep. 2, getting punched in ep. 2, the scene in the Cintran tavern in ep.4, “I just want some damn peace” in ep. 5) and then Jaskier does not. 

I would ABSOLUTELY NOT say that this is to toxic levels (and considering Geralt’s self-isolating tendencies is probably good for him), but taken at face value, there’s a very consistent pattern of Jaskier not leaving Geralt alone when he requests to be left alone, or indicates that he doesn’t want to be talked to. And Geralt’s not subtle about it, either, “fuck off” is about as blunt as it gets.

So you get to the mountain scene, and Geralt is, once again, attempting to indicate that he wishes to be left alone, and Jaskier, again, ignores that.

This isn’t to say he’s unsympathetic, or self-centered, but it’s a kind of sympathy that goes counter to what Geralt needs in that moment.

One and a Half: Geralt and Boundaries

Another relevant thing here is that Geralt has a history that has essentially worn away at his ability to enforce those boundaries. He’s clearly willing and able to state them, and state them loudly, but if you look at the scene after Renfri’s death in ep.1 where he just lets them stone him, or the “then I’ll die” phrase from ep.3, it reads to me as someone who’s been told his entire life that his wants and needs and even life don’t matter. Which is, you know, not great. And the thing about this is that it’s pretty common if that someone pushes at your boundaries one time too many, you end up pushing back.

Two: Sympathy and Flippancy

Okay, now here’s where we get into what that means. 

Jaskier is shown, over the course of the show, to care about Geralt a great deal, a care that Geralt is only shown as reciprocating in certain moments. That being said, Jaskier’s approach to Geralt’s problems is very... shall we say, careless. What comes to mind the most is their first scene in ep.5, where Geralt is clearly upset about being unable to sleep and Jaskier, while he has an initial moment of clear and obvious concern, as soon as it’s revealed that it’s insomnia he starts laughing. Many of his interactions with Geralt have a self-centered undertone to them -- his lamenting about the Countess de Stael, his pushing about Ciri despite Geralt’s lack of interest in talking about it, even the “we could go to the coast” speech can read as him expressing his own wants, rather than trying to figure out Geralt’s.

And, specifically, when you get to the mountain scene, that’s there too.

After all of the bullshit that Geralt’s been through in the past twenty-four hours (see below), Jaskier approaches him in what is clearly an attempt to cheer him up or reassure him, but in a way that doesn’t make his care or his intentions particularly obvious. Specifically, it’s a lighthearted “whoof, what a day--”, which..

If I were in Geralt’s position, again, and someone approached me during an emotional breakdown with that, I would absolutely read it as flippant and uncaring. (Which is NOT to say that it is, or that that’s what Jaskier intended, just that that’s what it sounded like.)

Three: Dragon Hunting’s Stressful as Fuck

The thing I see the most ignored about the dragon hunt is that Geralt has been through just ridiculous amounts of shit in under 24 hours. Let’s sum up, shall we?

1.) First, there are a bunch of background stressors, like the fact that the Reavers could just decide to kill them all in their sleep, and Geralt clearly doesn’t quite trust Yennefer’s presence in the group (see his conversation with Borch).

2.) Borch, Tea, and Vea die in front of him because he couldn’t pull them back up. Like, I know we’re all accustomed to stuff like that because of movies and TV but that is going to fuck you up pretty bad.

3.) Geralt, an extremely guarded person, gets very vulnerable with Yennefer in her tent, which is definitely going to leave him with some Stuff to Process

4.) Borch, Tea, and Vea are alive and Borch is a dragon oh and also now they have to fight and kill a bunch of Reavers too, which would be a shock to anyone’s system

5.) Borch reveals one of Geralt’s secrets without any prior warning and without his consent.

6.) Yennefer breaks up with him, explosively, and he retreats from everyone else.

For Geralt, who presumably has a lot of trouble dealing with emotions and interpersonal stuff, that’s just. that’s so much emotional turmoil all in one go. He’s probably absolutely reeling from everything and attempting to process on his own.

Four: Geralt Snaps.

So let’s sum all this up.

Jaskier has a history of ignoring Geralt’s requests for space, no matter how blunt of forward, and a history of not appearing to care about Geralt’s problems or issues, in favor of his own ideas or his own problems. Whether or not the latter is true, from Geralt’s perspective it’s definitely there.

Geralt’s been through just so much shit and is most likely in a really fragile emotional state when Jaskier approaches him, and approaches him in a way where it’s easy to miss the fact that he’s trying to help.

So he snaps. Which is a perfectly understandable reaction to the situation.

Like. It is absolutely the wrong reaction to the situation. Jaskier doesn’t deserve what Geralt said for what he’s done. 

But given everything that’s gone down, how consistently Jaskier ignores Geralt’s requests for space, how much stress Geralt’s been under, I can totally see what’s going through Geralt’s head, and it’s, essentially, “oh my god I just want to be left alone to deal GO AWAY” and then you get the mountain scene.

It’s not a good scene, and no one is perfectly flawless, but it’s a very very human scene. And from my place behind the fourth wall where no living human was actually hurt and I can see all sides equally, I just want to give everyone there a hug and some therapy.

(Disclaimer: I do actually love Jaskier and I love him very much, but I did want to address all of the shit he does in canon that’s never mentioned in the fandom)