#supercupcakecollector-love

[hanzajesthanza]

Apologies if this has been asked before and I know that the English translations lose some of the flavor of the original, but which translation is the better one?

The ones by David French or Danusia Stok?

just for clarification, david french translated sword of destiny, time of contempt, baptism of fire, tower of the swallow, and lady of the lake, while danusia stok translated the last wish and blood of elves - so they haven't each translated the entire series, just their respective books.

as for my opinion of whose translation is better, i feel like it's largely inconclusive just because i have just reread baptism of fire, tower of the swallow, and lady of the lake way more than i've reread the other books in the series, which has allowed me more time to find out more inconsistencies and changes. so proportionately, i have more of an axe to grind with david french's translation just because i'm more familiar with his translation than danusia's...

david french gave us "quadrangular pier" in bounds of reason, should i even say "bounds of reason" as it's really "limits of the possible," the unnecessary "ands" everywhere, geralt calling dandelion "whoreson" instead of "son of a bitch" in time of contempt, geralt calling cahir "whippersnapper" in baptism of fire... the censoring of cahir saying "motherfuckers" instead changed to "bastards", "red binduga" becoming "timber port" (which annoys me so much???), ciri, milva, and angouleme's hair colors each being changed to "flaxen" or "flaxenhair"... angouleme saying "before you can say jack robinson", regis being described as "elderly" when there is no word describing him as that in the original text

as for danusia, i know we have "dandilion." so. 😅 we also have yennefer telling ciri "blowing a raspberry in a ballroom" instead of "farting in a ballroom" which i think is pretty misleading to show her character... though i do like her being called an "enchantress" instead of "sorceress," it has a nice ring to it :)

if anyone else has their opinions, feel free to share in the replies

[kinddivinity]

Do trans people have a “Daryl Davis” type figure to just sit down and talk with with those who are ignorant or afraid of them to show that most trans people are just people trying to live there lives normally

Because this mentality of a one size fit all solution to queer issues has utterly torn the community apart

It really has. The “trans” community specifically has burnt so many bridges with their behaviour that most of the actual LGB people want nothing to do with them, and other trans people who just want to live their lives also want nothing to do with them. Women, too, have had enough of the behaviour of many trans women and are starting to turn en mass against the community because we’re tired of being called dehumanizing terms like “chest feeder” and “birthing person” and “people who menstruate” to appease a tiny portion of the population, many of whom have been pulled into the social contagion of the trans trend, which is why I put “trans” in quotations at the beginning of the post.

But they refuse to see that at this point the issue is them. Their behaviour is what’s making people turn against them. They completely controlled the media for years and brutally shut down anyone who might have disagreed even a little and now they’re facing the consequences of those five years of bad behaviour running unchecked. “Queer acceptance” is actually going down after years of steady increase and TRAs especially refuse to even acknowledge the possibility that their approaches, their behaviour, is what’s causing that. There is no “one size fits all” approach. And the tran community has “Daryl Davis” type people, but the community clowns on them and hate them instead and ostracizes them and calls them “right-wing fascists/Nazis” for not spouting their one-size rhetoric all the time.

[alrightalrightdontloseyourblob]

Dammit your video got taken down (maybe it was those haters that falsely reported it)

yeah, i don't know who, but somebody reported it. i'm trying to appeal it, but youtube probably won't reinstate it. i'll have to edit it all again, most likely.

[nostalgiacriticshitpost]

Coolest thing happened to me, as I was going into the con building this weekend Doug was right there and he saw my friend and I and wanted a picture (we were Carmen Sandiego and Waldo) luckily I had met Doug twice before and was not as starstruck by him this time

Holy shit, nice!

[hanzajesthanza]

“a road with no return” was not initially written as a witcher story—it was a shortened and cleaned up version of another fantasy novel sapkowski was working on at the time, when he then got the call from fantastyka that they enjoyed his witcher and wanted more short stories.

“road” was only added to the witcher canon later, when he felt sympathy for the beautiful name visenna, and thought to incorporate her into the witcher via the scene we recieve in “something more.” (he says all of this in the preface to the publication of the story in maladie i inne opowiadania)

as for sterility, it is true that most sorceresses become sterile owing to the magic they use.

this is stated in bounds of reason:

Urging on his horse, the sorcerer galloped off towards the head of the column. Geralt, having glanced at Yennefer’s pale, furiously twisted face, began to feel sorry for him in advance. He knew what this was about. Yennefer, like most sorceresses, was barren. But unlike most sorceresses she bemoaned the fact and reacted with genuine rage at the mention of it.

not all sorcereresses, but most. use of magic has a sterilizing effect. this is why ciri, when she begins to practice magic in blood of elves, feels sharp pain in her lower body—

“(…) I know it’s unpleasant. You’ll get used to it.”

“It hurts… My belly… Down here—”

“You’re a woman, it’s a typical reaction. Over time you’ll harden yourself against it. But in order to harden yourself you have to practise without any painkillers blocking you. It really is necessary, Ciri. (…)”

presumably her ovaries, as in voice of reason 6, it’s explained by nenneke that yennefer’s ovaries are atrophied and there’s no chance of reversing her infertility, caused by use of magic.

“No one can help her; it's impossible. She's a sorceress. Like most female magicians, her ovaries are atrophied and it's irreversible. She'll never be able to have children.”

yennefer speaks to geralt about the emotional pain of infertility, which was caused by her magic ability. what i mean to point out by using this quote is that in order to use magic, they “give up” their ability to have a child—and as they’re children when they begin to train in magic, this is not really a consensual decision they can make.

“Nature is born again, the cycle repeats itself. But not for us, Geralt. We cannot reproduce ourselves. We were deprived of that potential. We were given the ability to do extraordinary things with nature, occasionally literally against her. And at the same time what is most natural and simple in nature was taken from us.”

of course, she’s also not talking about forced sterility amongst magic users, as no such thing occurs, despite tissaia de vries’ opinion that it should—see ‘the poisoned source’ epigraph in blood of elves.

however, concerning that concept that magic usage sterilizes the body, there is not one hundred percent sterility, one hundred percent of the time.

bodies are weird and diverse, and there’s bound to be a few exceptions. visenna was one of these, apparently—and more, fringilla vigo was also supposed to be an exception, owing to a deleted scene from lady of the lake which sapkowski described in the interview “F8 Key,” in which fringilla’s great-great-great… granddaughter goes to play with a cat, but it hisses at her and runs away—suggesting that geralt was also an exception to this rule.

as for coën, it’s said that it’s his first winter at kaer morhen—which could be taken to mean that he’s a wolf, but just has never returned to kaer morhen for the winter before. but it’s understandable how people can also take this to mean that he’s from a separate school—and since cats are not allowed at kaer morhen as established in season of storms, a griffon makes some sense.

Unraveling the fanon or canon bits in the witcher through out the different canons is a mess, for example, people think Coen is from the Griffin School, and even criticized the show for making him a wolf, when its not mentioned in the books at all that he’s a griffin

The Griffin school isn’t even mentioned until Lady of the Lake and thats only once, and its not the one scene where Coen shows up

Or Sorceresses being sterile due to the effect of magical energy on their bodies despite Geralt’s mother being established as one ( since she appeared in the very first witcher story before the saga envisioned im guessing this is a case of “ the author not coming up with that part of canon yet”)

[anghraine]

I am the other person that still loves the 90s might and magic games

They were so good!!

I'm not sure I am even capable of feeling more nostalgic about any piece of media than Might and Magic VII specifically (1999 so technically a 90s M&M game :D). It's one of the first RPGs that I personally mastered rather than simply watching my parents play it and eventually figuring it out; my mother and I used to play it at the same computer, with her playing our thief and wizard, and me the cleric and knight. And damn, it had so many fantastic elements:

an absolutely massive variety of potential armors to wear that often looked comically terrible together

potion experiments that you can theoretically figure out/learn (but you might die in the process!!)

ARCOMAGE

really cool class progression tied in with skills - I still really like the mechanic where e.g. your cleric has to become a full priest in order to master spirit magic

I always really liked how in-game pricing is affected by your general reputation in a specific region AND a specific character's Personality stat AND having the merchant skill to a certain numerical rank AND specifically upgrading your merchant skill to a higher tier...

one of my favorite cheats in the late game: get your high-level wizard's Water Magic to grandmaster. Get the high-level priest's Merchant to grandmaster as well. Use the priest to buy good quality non-magical goods at their exact value. Give the purchases to the wizard and cast "Enchant Item" at grandmaster level. Give your enchanted items back to the priest to sell at full value as magic items. PROFIT.

Queen Catherine, always my fave! I don't think I ever sided with Avlee, honestly, she's just so much cooler than the elf king.

your castle starting out as a trash heap and getting fancier and fancier as your prestige grows and you make friends and influence people

the barrow downs catacombs maze is one of the first gaming puzzles I ever personally solved. Everyone else in my family was baffled and I put together the trick to navigate them and get to the meditation spot.

the choice! I was using to very railroad-y games and actually being able to make a decision that changes the plot is so cool. I did try to choose the path of evil once, but I just can't, lol.

those special magic ore houses in Erathia? I loved that.

tracking down the teachers for every single skill at every single level and figuring out where they live and how to get there etc - it really does feel like an accomplishment (especially Nighon, good lord).

If the tutorial was skippable I'd probably have a zillion hours still logged on it, honestly.

[endiness]

@supercupcakecollector-love Considering the doxmoi leaks and the multiple reddit comments about him, this is what was the final straw of him being fired, he wouldn’t say his lines and repeat them in a racist accent so they would have to do retakes, not to mention this explains why he’s clearly not trying at all in the second half of the season

"not to mention this explains why he’s clearly not trying at all in the second half of the season"

okay, i have to say with this in particular, like. i really think that is when he was likely allegedly fired. because his acting really does take a noticeable downturn in the latter half of the season and it fits with what the timeline would be:

april 4, 2022 — filming for s3 of the witcher starts

late july to early august 2022 — production shuts down for 2 weeks apparently due to hc getting covid

sometime during the production of s3 — hc is allegedly fired due to sexist behavior

second half of summer 2022 — liam is hired

sometime during the production of s3 — some staff start following liam on sm

early september 2022 — filming for s3 of the witcher wraps

especially taking into account that filming for the last ~three episodes would've started sometime around very, very late july/early august.

[astaldis]

10 TV Shows

I was tagged by @do-androids-dream-ao3acc for the "10 tv shows game", rules: add 10 gifs from your favourite shows, tag 10 people. Thanks for tagging me, I'll try my best, but I don't watch much TV, no idea if I can come up with ten (unless I go 40 years back or so 😅):

The Witcher, of course.

Before that I was a big Supernatural fan.

Also The Walking Dead

Lucifer

Damnation (such a shame there was only one season)

The ABC Murders

Monk

Almost Human (also only one season 😭)

Startrek

All Creatures Great and Small (the old one, I didn't even know there is a new series until I looked for gifs here 😅 Unfortunately there are hardly any for the old series)

Some rather old ones, but I got 10 😊. What are your fav 10 TV shows? Tagging @disdaidal @bylightofdawn @my-jokes-are-my-armour @scuddish @morriganwarrior @littlestsnicket @endiness @kuwdora @supercupcakecollector-love @bittersweetbark @nikki-farr @joker1315 @ahh-fxck

(but only if you'd like to and have the time, no pressure at all) and everybody else who would like to do it.

[hanzajesthanza]

exactly! especially during the creation of the short stories.

WC: How, as the creator of the Witcher world, do you judge the work of the sketch artist, looking at the already drawn land ''between Ina and Jaruga''?

AS: That's where the biggest problem lies, stemming from the simple fact that I've never had the ambition to create worlds. Never! The world of the Witcher was always an allegory to me. I've never done what's supposed to be a Commandment of every fantasy writer, especially one that writes a longer story or a novel. He starts with the heavy duty of... cartography, meaning he has to draw a MAP. On the north he puts the mountains, on the south he puts the sea, the swamp, a lake, some rivers and everybody knows exactly where and through what bridges the hero goes and how far he is from the capital city. And if he'll go further to the east, he'll probably find the Grey Mountains, where, as we all know, there is no gold. I've never bothered with that and it was on purpose. It came from the fact that my world was supposed to be an allegory and from the fact that I was doing a different take on fairy tales! Themes and problems were more important, these two words, from which I usually built the title and that often appeared in the dialogue, was more important. The world in ''geographic'' categories simply didn't exist for me. It was, of course, supposed to be a fantasy, quasi-feudal world. It was to be inhabited by sorcerers, witchers, wizards; humans and other races: dwarves, hobbits, elves, dryads and half-elves. But this world and the order governing it didn't really exist. Despite creating many geographical names, towns, and you should know that I've put quite a bit of effort into making sure I never repeated them. Then I started changing that practice and some names started coming up again.

— Andrzej Sapkowski in an interview with Waldemar Czerniszewski, 1993

and later, during the swing of the saga:

Question: When did you start thinking about the witcher world as a single whole? Do you have a map of this world?

AS: I understand that in your question we are not talking about the world, but about the size of the world - in other words: from when could I know exactly how many days a horse or wheel trip will last from Novigrad to Cintra? It began with the "Blood of the Elves," of course. Until then, this distance was of little interest to me - although of course I knew that there are two such cities. If we are talking about the world in a philosophical sense, then it was always, nicht Wahr? The map, of course, exists. It was done by [Stanislav Komárek], my Czech translator, I then supplemented and expanded it.

— Interview with Sapkowski "Don't be a kurwa like Geralt" (1996)

small edit because i wanted to mention this, too:

also, when i think of these statements about the map in tandem with this statement:

Question: Does the appearance of Geralt, Triss, Dandelion and the other characters corresponds with your idea of ​​their appearance?

AS: Believe it or not, but when I write, I do not see my heroes. I have no images and pictures before my eyes, I just put the letters on the sheet in the right order. I do not know what Geralt, Yennefer or Dandelion look like. For me they are only letters on the paper. And the reader, when he takes the books, sees exactly the black letters on a white background - everything else is done by his imagination. My task is to arrange these letters in such a way that the reader is happy and interested.

— Interview with Sapkowski "My best book is not written yet" (June, 2015)

though he could have simply have been trolling… if his response is genuine, then i’ve often wondered if sapkowski has aphantasia? it would be quite interesting, as an author.

FINALLY A FUCKING MAP THANK YOU NERDS IN WARSAW

[ladynearthelake]

Top 10 TV Shows

Thanks for the tag @supercupcakecollector-love

In no particular order:

Steven Universe

Gravity Falls

Great British Baking Show

The Bear

Critical Role, even though it’s an internet show, I’m counting it

The Office

Parks and Rec

Seinfeld

Bluey

AJ Styles knows what’s up

And last but not least,

The Witcher

Let’s tag @overhillunderhill and @poemsingreenink . Tell us your top ten tv shows using gifs.

[endiness]

@supercupcakecollector-love: I really hope the show confirms that he has a different title and is not V/the stern, so we can go to Ao3 and tell them to fix the tags for his character

pls 🙏

also, like, not to be a conspiracy theorist about this. but i really do think the show is gonna confirm this and that he isn't actually based off the stern especially since the show already used "stern" to describe hedwig and at her funeral no less. and the bold really does fit radovid and what his character would be going through the rest of the show well. also something something jaskier saying that radovid's "braver than he knows" and bold/brave being synonyms.

[astaldis]

Incorrect Witcher Quote

for @supercupcakecollector-love

"Yule, the time of delicious food, merry song, candle light, mistletoe and delightful togetherness," Jaskier sighs, looking at the other members of the Hanza, enraptured by the prospect.

"I'd prefer TWOgetherness," Geralt mumbles into his non-existent beard. It could be a great night spent with his lover. But he is no spoilsport, and a Hanza is a Hanza.

(more Yule Hansa fun here)

[can-i-make-image-descriptions]

[Image ID: Tumblr reply from superCupcakeCollector-love reading: Yeah, lots stop normalizing stuff let's weirdize some shit /End ID]

“Cringe culture is dead” I promise you it is not. Please keep killing it. This is an ongoing fight. You’re all doing great though. I love you and please keep being weird. Please keep having fun.

[nicholasthepunisher]

i'm trying my best 😭😭

[luimnigh]

How was penny able to create constructs of her weapons? Are they hard light dust? The maiden magic? The fact that penny is all aura now?

It’s very clearly magic. Cinder and Raven have done the exact same thing. 

[nostalgiacriticshitpost]

I like how people are respecting Doug again after he said he was fine with being made fun of by the internet

i know! i got couple videos with clip from q&a stream where Doug says he likes oneyplays' nostalgia critic jokes in my youtube recommendations and i liked seeing people being way more positive about him. i was hating on oney several months ago because i don't really find the way he jokes about NC funny but as far as Doug's laughing at them it's fine in my book.

people should know that Doug is actually really self aware and he's definitely not an ego maniac like some people perceived him for no reason whatsoever.

now i low key wish Doug would actually appear on oneyplays someday so even more respect would come his way lmao.