#the interesting part about regis (and all of them. every witcher character ever) is that he breaks his trope and

[hanzajesthanza]

my attempts to avoid thoughts of geralt's hanza continue to fail, as sapkowski talks about them in front of my face.

(from manuscript, on the subject of the hero and the quest):

On this expedition, the Hero (Simple or King) is accompanied by others who are stereotypical-canonical fantasy characters, in other words - clichés:

Wizard-Mentor (the aforementioned MERLIN, Obi-wan Kenobi, Gandalf, Allanon, Belgarath, Sephrenia or Moiraine, who supports the hero with advice and help); Faithful Servant (in the case of the King, literally, in the case of the Simple, rather a childhood friend, Sam Gamgee. He serves the plot to recite wise folk maxims and prove that the simple people are the most morally healthy; or to save the ass of his master/friend where magic and a sharp sword will not help, and common sense and a strong, faithful arm will suffice). Good Knight (charismatic LANCELOT, always loyal and ready to fight, sometimes with some dark secret in his life); Worse Knight (always with some dark secret in his life, ambitious like Boromir, in the clutches of Evil, secretly collaborates with Evil, regrets betrayal, undergoes catharsis, perishes); Trickster - Conniver (see LOKI in "Materia Magiczna"**), cheerful, but can cause trouble, which attracts like a magnet; Damsel in Distress, who is saved from danger on the way and included in the team. Usually a princess in disguise. For several volumes of the cycle she does not like the Hero, in the last she becomes his wife.

* Type A = Percival, a hero who does not have power and is searching it, and Type B = King Arthur, a hero who has lost his power and wants to regain it. in other words, Type A = Reynevan and Type B = Geralt :)

** another chapter of the book, "Materia magica, or the Little Magical Alphabetical Lexicon," it's a glossary of various myth and legend. in loki's entry, he recounts some myths of loki and equivalates him with other figures across various traditions: Odysseus, Pryderi, Bricriu, Mordred, Alyosha Popovich, Coyote, Anansi, Maui). then he lists a few fantasy/spec fic characters he categorizes as trickers: Cugel (Dying Earth), Kickaha (World of Tiers), Coyote (Coyote Blue), Peter Lake (Winter's Tale), Moonglum (Elric of Melniboné), Nifft and Haldar (Nifft the Lean), Random (Chronicles of Amber), Saruman (Lord of the Rings), Shimrod (Lyonesse), Silk (The Belgariad and The Malloreon), Gray Mouser (Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser), Talen (The Elenium).

my thoughts:

pretty obvious assignments here, for the most part.

regis is the Wizard-Mentor, but, as he soon loses his mystique, his intellectual, philosophizing manner becomes mundane and irritating than providing magical provenance. he advises incessantly, answering questions before they're asked, giving guidance when no one asked. he only appears to be omniscient, and the others may think he's so smart because he's hundreds of years older than them, but is really just a guy, a middle aged man with a troubled youth which he learned from. his advice is not magically guided and for this reason is fallable, mortal, human. maybe the cliché is also played with in that he's a vampire, not a wizard, sorcerer, or priest, "‘I see.’ The poet sighed. ‘Is Regis a sorcerer?’ ‘No. No, not a sorcerer.’" ... as vampires are typically evil and regis is decidedly a force of good. (on this topic, @wampirzielarz once compared-contrasted gandalf and regis and it was super interesting :))

dandelion is a combination of the Faithful Servant and the Trickster. he's geralt's best friend, and doesn't fight alongside him with sword but his presence is necessary to our hero for moral support, that all makes the first part an obvious assignment... and... sapkowski lists a wide variety of tricksters of various moral alignments, but amongst them are some heroes and some best friends of heroes (and anti-heroes). and asides from being geralt's closest friend, dandelion is, after all, a rascal, who uses words and good looks to get what he wants from people. "a cynic, a lecher, a womanizer and a liar." (also, because i think szarlej also fits this double-definition as well, i won't hesitate to give them to dandelion, as they serve pretty similar functions alongside their respective heroes).

milva is the Good Knight, "always loyal and ready to fight" describes her perfectly, and her 'dark secret' was her pregnancy and plans for abortion. (though, the attribution of lancelot... well, maybe this is why some keen eyes saw a potential in yenva). anyhow, the playfulness with the cliché comes from the fact that she's a woman, which is supposed to be surprising that the hero's strongest ally is a woman. i think the "charismatic" attribute is also supposed to be played with here, as milva is simple and not too well-spoken, only so in her cursing. in other words, she's a peasant woman, and not a born-and-bred nobleman. also, for her gender, she is a play on another trope sapkowski mentions a couple of pages later, but i can't go into it now because it's too funny.

cahir is the Worse Knight, though perhaps in reverse, for all of his associations with Evil was in the past and shed like sports colors when he changed teams. he has no betrayal, "I will never betray you, witcher," all of his ‘betrayal’ was before he was even allied with the hero. but of course, for these sins, he "undergoes catharsis, perishes".

the Damsel in Distress is evidentially angouleme, being "saved from danger on the way and included in the team." the rebuking of the cliché, of course, is that geralt is "genuinely angry, genuinely confused, genuinely embarrassed" when she offers her "gratitude" to him. also, that she is no princess in disguise, just an ordinary girl, though she is confused for the princess they're after (who also happens to be another play on the damsel in distress cliché). and again, like milva, i think angouleme is related to another specifically female character cliché sapkowski calls out; but i'll save it for another post.

[gayregis]

What do you think Regis and Ciri's relationship would be like? I was always a little upset that Geralt said he wanted Ciri to meet Zoltan and Reinart but he didn't say that about Regis or anyone from the Hansa. Do you think he wanted Ciri to meet Regis? What do you think their relationship would be like? I didn't understand why Regis was so impressed by Citi in Stigga, if she was obviously scared and they had like 5 min to talk. I don't like that all the characters are thrilled with Ciri at first sight. I also afraid that Ciri won't overcome her dislike of vampires as a witcher, and she and Regis won't have become friends :( What your thoughts on it?

this is such a good series of questions!!

i think that geralt did want ciri to meet the hansa, and i suppose she did - she mentions that they buried the bodies of geralt’s comrades outside of stygga when they left - though in the case of regis, of course, there was nothing left to bury. but i imagine that, in these moments, geralt told ciri about each member, their memories “living on” through story, which, in the witcher, is a form of immortality after death. but i think he specifically mentions wanting ciri to meet reynart and zoltan specifically because he thought (incorrectly, in reynart’s case :( ) that they were still alive, as opposed to the hansa, who he all saw either die in front of him or their corpses later when they buried them.

specifically for regis, i think geralt would have wanted ciri to meet him as they did become close and also regis helped a lot in terms of being geralt’s confidant during the quest to save ciri. but i also think that geralt would be still concious of how bizarre his and regis’ friendship is, and would think about it before any introductions - then again, the witcher seems to have less of these “planned introductions” and rather more of “by the seat of your pants introductions,” like when dandelion first meets ciri, it was both somewhat expected as (iirc?) they knew they were going to meet up with the other party (geralt and dandelion, yennefer and ciri), but how they actually meet up is a different story, because nothing in the witcher can ever be a calm summer afternoon, of course. so i believe that “the best” circumstances would be something like a formal introduction of ciri to all of the hansa members, geralt would simply introduce them all at the same time, because they’re each equally important in relation to him and ciri. i don’t thnk it would make sense for geralt to introduce regis separately from the rest of the hansa, because it would just take his character out of context (unless, of course, they were in some situation where the rest of the hansa wasn’t around). (and besides the point, but i think the most awkward formal introduction would be between cahir and ciri, because, it wouldn’t be an introduction at all, rather a third meeting. and canonically, cahir had dreams of ciri, so it would be even weirder since he’s already seen her a bunch and she hasn’t seen him at all.)

i think, honestly, a formal introduction between regis and ciri would go well, i don’t think too much would occur, even if only because of having questions but feeling that it’s not the right place or time to ask them -- like in a class, when a teacher asks, “any questions?...” and the entire class holds their breath because everyone is confused but no one knows exactly what to say -- i think it would be like that, because regis and ciri are BOTH very very naturally curious! regis would want to ask, so this is the child of destiny, this is your daughter, etc, etc, and ciri would want to ask pretty much everything about him to understand who he is. but i think both would understand, through experience, that a first introduction isn’t the time to ask every single question you have about a person. so it would be kind, but maybe overly formal becase of that awkwardness.

 i of course have all these headcanons and such about regis becoming a parental and mentor figure to angouleme, so i’m inclined to compare their relationship to that with ciri, but i think that would be a mistake. because angouleme and ciri are similar in build and appearance, and some traits and experiences of course, but they’re still different in my opinion, and their difference is exponential when you consider the differences of how angouleme and regis met VS how ciri and regis met, and that angouleme had no one else in her life VS ciri already has parents she loves. so instead of being more parental and advice-giving, i think regis would be kind to ciri of course, but i don’t think they would ever spend a lot of time together because ciri already has parents to spend time with, so regis would be still a sort of avuncular figure, good for advice and to listen, but not the main source of support. which is fine, i think. i think that the thing that ciri would most rely upon regis for would be dealing with her actions from when she was a rat, i think both regis and ciri have come out of a period where they have been the source of a lot of violence, and ciri may struggle with this and need advice from someone who’s been through it already.

i feel like regis also wasn’t overly impressed with ciri when he met her, his reaction seems more like dandelion’s to me, where she just appears as some young girl, the young girl that she is. i think only the observant or the close to ciri will understand that she is powerful (geralt, yennefer, milva (observant), cahir (half and half, i think he only understands it later)). regis and dandelion are observant in that they are intelligent and academics, but they often miss the background, the “fabric of reality” as i’ve referred to it -- things like the horseprints in the snow, regis was very willing to explain away as being somthing mundane, not considering it could have been something else. i think this logicalness of his character and unintentional insensitivity to the “powers that be” would make him more stumped than astute with ciri, unable to really figure her out despire having experiences in common with her. another trait that ciri and regis both share is being mysterious and a little closed-off if one doesn’t pry, and since they have no real reason to pry, i don’t think they’d be as close as characters that are more opposite to one another in this respect.

although regis did frighten ciri when they first met in stygga, i feel like they would totally get over that after a while. although dandelion aphoristically says in a little sacrifice that there’s never a second chance to make a good first impression, i think to how geralt and ciri got off on the wrong foot, as did yennefer and ciri -- and even though it was a more severe misunderstanding with yennefer, she ultimately became closer to yennefer than anyone else. so i don’t think that regis’s first impression to ciri would affect their friendship down the line that much, since ciri seems to have a knack for getting into poor first impressions with adults. but i do think it would influence how she sees him, because of course it would. everyone else met regis as he is normally, the pinnacle of kindness and thoughtfulness -- ciri saw him basically turn an entire room into hellish chaos and rip a guy’s throat out! it’s comical to us as the readers because we know regis and his very mild-mannered side, but to ciri, this would have been terrifying, of course demonstrated by her clenching her jaw so her teeth wouldn’t chatter. i don’t think that there’s any reason that they couldn’t eventually get over this, but i think it would definitely influence how ciri sees regis overall -- i think that even geralt sometimes forgets about what regis is capable of, like in lady of the lake when he vehemently defends regis’s right to be present in a coversation, when regis can actually just overhear the entire conversation although he walked away. to sort of summarize the situation, if your friend, who is a normal guy to you, had epic powers that you saw a couple of times, but he never really used them around you that much, you might not think of him as some kind of force VS, when you met your friend for the first time he was demonstrating his epic powers in full force... you would be way more aware of his power. but, these friendships may not have been super different at heart, because there’s still the same people involved in them. this is what i think, that ciri would just be the one who’s most aware that regis is a vampire, because she’ll never forget the first meeting -- but that does not necessarily mean she would end up trusting or liking him less at all!

i feel with the context of ciri being a witcher, it’s interesting because by the time regis appears in the series, the term of “witcher” is beginning to be unraveled with its threads examined for the readers. regis is part of this, and cahir is as well -- though regis is a monster, geralt has no desire to kill him, and yet cahir is a man, and geralt has a desire to kill him. the term of “monster” is questioned to hell and back throughout the entire series, but especially in regards to i think to these characters: geralt, regis, cahir, ciri, vilgefortz, and bonhart. each is a “monster” in some respect, either being labelled as one or doing monstrous things, or both. in ciri’s case, it becomes way more about “good” and “evil” than it does for geralt, who is more concerned with the original exploration of “human” and “monster.” for ciri, she actually became evil, she was a monster. but through many things, she learned her lesson and becomes something much more vague than just “good” or “evil” in the end. this is a lot like regis, who transversed the dichotomy of “evil monster” and “good human” to become something that’s neither of each (well, regis strives to be a good human, but just because he strives for it does not mean he 100% is that). so i think that because they have that similiarity, they would be more understanding of one another. especially with time as ciri begins to understand herself and the concept of evil more (as she had difficulty with vysogota -- the paradox is that she herself became evil, but then of course has her famous “repay evil” speech -- by that logic, she would want to exterminate herself, her ethical logic being clouded by self-preservation... but i think by the end she comes to realize that her evil was wrong as well, that she is not innocent, and even though this is true, she can still work against evil).

tldr ciri and regis are very similar characters, they would be friends due to this mutual understanding, but he would not be the most important figure in her life. they would likely bond over their shared struggles with good & evil, and also likely bond over making fun of geralt (as everyone does in this series)

[queenxxxsupreme]

Dettlaff SFW Alphabet

A/N: Okay so I had to do this to get a grasp of his character and how to write it. I hope this is good!

Affection (how affectionate are they, how do they show affection)  Dettlaff is extremely affectionate, but mostly when no one else is around. He always has to be near you, to be holding some part of you. Whether it’s your hand, the small of your back, his arm around your waist, his hand on your thigh or even his hand on your ass, this man has to be touching you. He needs to constantly be reassured that you are there with him and not some figment of his imagination because he can’t believe that someone as amazing and unparalleled as you is with him. 

Best friend (what would they be like as a best friend, how would the friendship begin) He is very closed off at first. He’s a hard one to become friends with and even harder to get to consider you a best friend. But you earn his trust and he instantly bonds to you. He likes to listen to you while you talk to yourself as you move around your house or your shop. He finds it interesting and somewhat odd that you talk to yourself so much. But it’s something that’s become endearing. He’s not much of a joker, but you make it your goal to make the Higher Vampire smile or laugh. You aren’t afraid of him and you know when he needs to be comforted or talked to versus when he needs to just be left alone. 

Cuddles (do they like to cuddle, how would they cuddle) You wouldn’t know it from looking at him, but the Higher Vampire is hands down the best cuddler ever. It comes over time, of course. He doesn’t just immediately start cuddling you. But when he finds that he’s able to be comfortable around you, when he feels safe, he’ll lay across the sofa between your legs as best as his long limbs will allow and plant his face on one of your thighs. He wraps one arm around your hips and the other comfortably holds your thigh. You’ll sit like this for hours, only moving sometimes when his weight on your leg makes it go numb. You’ll brush your fingers through his dark hair, sometimes reading out loud to him and other times, you just have quiet conversations. 

Domestic (do they want to settle down, how good are they at cooking and cleaning) He does want to settle down but he can’t cook. He’s tried to learn from watching you but he always manages to mess something up and the food ends up inedible. He can, however, clean rather well. He likes to help you clean up the house after you’ve made dinner. 

Ending (if they had to break up with their partner, how would they do it) He’d let you down softly, as careful as he could. He’d explain all the reasons why it didn’t work out or why he can’t stay. Your tears break his heart but he pushes that feeling aside just long enough to get out of sight. Then he loses it. 

Fiance(e) (how do they feel about commitment, how quick are they to want to get married) Dettlaff wants commitment but with Syanna, the last human he loved, he finds it hard to believe that anyone is worth becoming attached again. It takes him a while to open up to you and even longer to fully let you in. But once you are, the Higher Vampire is practically wrapped around your pinky finger. He’s old fashioned. He likes the idea of marriage but again he isn’t sure if it’s worth it.

Gentle (how gentle are they both physically and emotionally) His emotions are strong and while he doesn’t let you know exactly how he’s feeling, it’s very easy for you to tell what kind of mood he’s in. There are times when he feels everything so intensely that he can’t help but show it. Whether he be in a mood where all he needs is you, or if he’s angry at the world or someone who wronged him. 

Hugs (do they like hugs, how often do they do it, what are their hugs like) Dettlaff hugs you often, but mostly when no one is around because no one needs to know the dark and brooding Higher Vampire is soft™️. His hugs are firm and squeeze the air out of your lungs. He always wraps his long arms all the way around you, tucking your head under his chin and kissing the top of your head. 

I Love You (how fast do they say it) This many takes for-fucking-ever to tell you he loves you. Sure he shows it and actions often speak louder than words, but you can't help having doubts in the back of your mind. It takes him so long that you think maybe he’d never feel that way towards you. But then after a particularly stressful day, Dettlaff shuffles into the bedroom where you're sitting up on bed reading a book. He lays down carefully on the bed, his head in your lap. He whispers the words in Nilfgaardian, forgetting that you speak the language rather fluently. Your heart skips a beat and the book in your hand is discarded so you can card your fingers through his hair. You smile softly and confirm that you feel the same way. 

Jealous (how jealous do they get, what do they do when they are jealous) Dettlaff doesn't necessarily get jealous. He's more possessive than anything. But on the rare occasion he does get jealous, he falls silent and broods until you assure him he is your one and only. 

Kisses (what are their kisses like, where do they like to kiss, where do they like to be kissed) His kisses are fierce but gentle and always, always passionate. He’s so tender with you, afraid he could break his fragile little human. He likes to kiss your lips, of course, but he also likes to kiss the top of your head. He likes it when you leave kisses along his jaw and when you kiss his neck. He’s a sucker for neck kisses.

Little Ones (how are they around kids) Dettlaff is extremely good with kids. He has a scary and intimidating demeanor, but he's very warm with children. 

Mornings (how are mornings spent with them) Dettlaff can hear when you start to wake, when you groan softly and start to stretch your muscles. He’s holding you in his arms, you're curled into his chest. He kisses the top of your head, whispering a good morning to you. Things are quiet until you decide the day must begin. 

Nights (how are nights spent with them) Nights are also predominantly quiet. He's content with helping you clean up around the house and then when you try to talk him into sleeping, he usually protests. However, whenever he hasn't slept in a couple days, he gives in and climbs into bed, resting between your legs with his head on your lap. He makes sure you have a silver knife within reach just in case the worst happened. 

Open (when would they start revealing things about themselves, do they say everything at once or do they wait a while and reveal everything slowly) The Higher Vampire is more shut off than anyone you've ever met. It takes a while for him to warm up to you and a while longer for him to open up and become comfortable with telling you things about him. You’ll be telling him about something that reminds him of his childhood in Nazair and he will tell you little stories, stories you're sure no one else had the pleasure of previously hearing. After you prove to be trustworthy, he opens up about Sanna and tells you of the woman you'd only hear Regis mention once in a great while. After this, you begin to understand the Higher Vampire. 

Patience (how easily angered are they) His patience depends on what he's doing or who he's dealing with. If it's Geralt, he can be short with the witcher. Dettlaff is far more patient with you than any others. 

Quizzes (how much do they remember about you, do they remember every little detail you mentioned in passing, or do they kind of forget)  He remembers every single thing about you. He listens to every word you say and locks it away so he will never forget. 

Remember (what is their favorite moment in your relationship) By far, his favorite moment of your relationship is when he first set his eyes on you. You were in a tavern with a small group enjoying the quiet, rainy evening and sharing drinks. Regis talked Dettlaff into joining him and Geralt at the tavern. Your melodic laugh stood out, catching the Higher Vampire’s attention. You appeared so lively and so happy. Your eyes met his and unlike so many others who cowered away from the intimidating man’s gaze, you smiled at him. Soon enough, you were making your way over to the table with the two vampires and the witcher. You introduced yourself, your eyes staying on Dettlaff. Your confidence combined with your laugh and the kindness in your eyes seemed to cut through Dettlaff’s moody exterior. He introduced himself and took your hand, kissing your knuckles. From that moment on, he couldn’t picture life without you.

Security (how protective are they, how would they protect you, how would they like to be protected) This man makes sure you are safer than the Duchess herself. This can get a little annoying but you try to be patient with him and explain to him why it's not okay to hiss at anyone who walks too close. 

Try (how much effort would they put into dates, anniversaries, gifts, everyday tasks) He tries only on anniversaries. You don't go on many dates at all. You both prefer quiet nights at home. But on anniversaries, he goes all out. He finds flowers and your favorite sweets and gifts them to you along with a rather expensive necklace 

Ugly (what would be some bad habits of theirs) He lets his emotions run his actions and his decision making. When anger overwhelms him, he becomes dangerous. 

Vanity (how concerned are they with their looks) This man effortlessly looks the part of an ancient vampire and he pulls it off so well. 100% he cares a lot about his looks. 

Whole (would they feel incomplete without you) He is his own person (or vampire) but you are a huge part of his life. He felt so empty for the longest time but then he found you and learned what he was missing. 

Xtra (random headcanon) He is a very good singer. No one would know if, but his voice is absolutely stunning. He doesn't sing very often though. He mostly hums when he's brushing his fingers through your hair. 

Yuck (what are some things they wouldn’t like, whether in a partner or in general) He can't stand strong scents. His nose is super sensitive so strong and overwhelming scents give him headaches. He also can't stand a disloyal and unfaithful partner. He can't stand being lied to. It literally makes him lose his shit. 

ZZZ (what are their sleeping habits like) Dettlaff sleeps very poorly. He doesn't make an effort to even try to sleep until he can't keep his eyes open. Nightmares plague his dreams and the fear of waking up violently to one of these nightmares is enough to keep him from sleeping around you. 

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[itsclydebitches]

How do you go about redeeming villains from a writing perspective? How would you write Adam, Salem, Cinder, ect and make a good redemption to them. A lot of villains are redeemed through death, but I know many don't find that effective. How do you take a character who has genuinely hurt the protagonist and committed atrocities and give them a compelling redemption?

Oooh tough (but fun!) question. Honestly, I think most characters are “redeemed” (I don’t consider it true redemption) via death because most characters simply don’t have the time or proper setup to be redeemed in a way that feels appropriate. To demonstrate what I mean I’m going to use Regis as an example. You all are doomed to suffer through my Witcher obsession even as we chat RWBY. I’m so sorry. 

Regis, if you don’t know, is an immortal vampire who is a blood addict. Long story short he had a pretty messed up youth wherein he was a slave to his addiction, terrorizing people and, it’s implied, killing a whole lot of them to feast. It’s, you know, a bit not good. But he becomes one of the most beloved characters in the fandom because: 

He underwent an incredible punishment that feels fitting for his crimes. Regis was dismembered by a village he attacked, buried, and spent fifty years in isolation, thinking about his sins. This not only served as just desserts but gave him the time needed to think about how he got there and why he wanted to change his ways. That change—decades of reflection—makes sense in a way that most, “I decided one day to stop being bad” redemptions don’t.  

Regis then goes on to lead an incredibly altruistic life. He becomes a surgeon, helping those he once hurt. He assists Geralt on his quest for Ciri for no reason other than it’s the right thing to do. We see his changed behavior in action every time he’s in a scene. 

At the same time, Regis doesn’t ignore or dismiss his past. He frequently makes reference to it and, though he’s not wallowing in self-pity, he doesn’t let himself off the hook either. We’re more open to accepting his redemption precisely because he doesn’t think he’ll ever be fully redeemed. Like being an addict, it’s life-long work, not something you just finish and completely move on from. 

During book/game content Regis is removed from anyone he ever hurt simply because they’re all long dead. Though he speaks about his past, we as the audience never have to grapple with seeing someone, say, scream at him for killing their baby. Which finally brings me to perhaps the most important point: 

We never know anyone other than this good guy Regis. His past is in the past, something we hear about but never have to actually experience. Therefore it’s so much easier to dismiss it. Hearing that someone did something horrible simply isn’t the same thing as knowing them when they did that thing, and when the character has since worked to make amends, that good version is always going to supersede the bad one. 

Going back to the actual fandom in question, Cinder and Adam have none of this (Salem being a slight exception since we got flashbacks to her as a good person). We’ve only ever known them as villains, which right off the bat makes them incredibly difficult to redeem. If I were to attempt it though I would need to have them face some fitting punishment, work through a compelling reason to change their behavior, have a great deal of time to enact that change (including failures because change is never linear), and separate them from the people they’ve abused. Which might seem an odd thing to include because doesn’t every redemption include the villain reconciling with the heroes? Pretty much, and that for me is a problem. Keeping the villains among the main cast sets up the expectation that they have to forgive them, sooner or later. We’d reach a point where if Adam or Cinder had been Good Guys for a season, two, three, the audience would be going, “C’mon! What more do they have to do? Why are Blake and Ruby still giving them the cold shoulder?” When in reality they’re free to continue hating them until the end of time because of what they’ve done, but that’s not what we expect from a story. There’s too much pressure for the victims to “get over it.” Plus, it ultimately wouldn’t assist the villains in their efforts either. Having your victims around constantly reminds you of your own failings and/or introduces a lot of pressure to just give up. If you’re surrounded by people who (rightfully) hate you it’s easy to go, “Well fine. If being good doesn’t change their opinion of me then why bother?” (given that former villains are going to have a harder time with the concept of doing something because it’s right, not because you get a reward out of it). If I were to redeem them with any hope of success and satisfaction on the part of the audience, I’d have to do all of the above and then have them leave. Go somewhere else. Start over. Lead entirely new lives under new names and with new goals. Because I don’t believe that redemption can occur among your victims without pressuring those victims to assist or validate said redemption which is… not good. If we’re talking about “Please forgive me for being a dick that one summer,” that’s one thing. It’s something else entirely to have the implicit message of, “Please forgive me for all the murder, torture, and abuse.” So Cinder and Adam need to head off to another kingdom to start over. Salem would ideally find a new planet… 

Honestly though? I wouldn’t be interested in redeeming them. I know a lot of people are really invested in redemption arcs—in the message that you can always change for the better—and while I believe that, I’m not sure from a practical perspective whether that’s worth upholding to the extent a redemption arc does. Meaning, you reach a point where the crimes your characters have committed are just so horrendous that they have lost all right to engage with society. The risk and damage done to others is too great. There’s a reason why many crimes are given life in prison as opposed to “Meet certain standards of Goodness and then we’ll let you out again.” The amount of harm Cinder, Adam, and Salem have done to society means, to my mind, that they’ve lost the right to be a part of that society. They should still change if they have the inclination to, but that doesn’t mean they can or should be rewarded for it by the people they hurt. Which is why, if you’re redeeming a character, immortality is definitely handy. The character has the time needed to change in a way that simply may not be possible in a normal human lifetime and once they do change, the society they’re re-entering into is not the same one they harmed. So if Salem was cleansed of the grimm pool influence, we learned that’s what was the primary motivator for all these bad deeds, she is repentant, is punished, works hard to change, enacts that change, and as an immortal is able to re-enter society as someone new fifty years later… then yeah. We might have a compelling redemption. 

[the20thcenturykid]

TOP 10

So I was tagged by @alexzandrake (if you overcome your social anxiety feel free to write ;) ) and because it’s difficult to me to choose the best of my favs here your have 10 of my favs in no particular order~

10. Doctor - Doctor Who

No matter what incarnation (I’m still haven’t watched classics all whoops) Doctor is always amazing. I can’t choose which regeneration was the best, cause they all are some part of him, his journey and growth (and downs). Love how flawed he is and yet so good-hearted. Can’t wait for 13th!

9. All Might/Toshinori Yagi - Boku no Hero Academia

How could I not love dad-Might? But honestly, he decided to single-hended became a symbol of hope for those who can't fight. His image of “mighty hero” looking like from old American hero-comics is a good contrast for how damaged he is due this whole “hero work”.

8. Olivier Armstrong - Fullmetal Alchemist (actually like every god damned character in this series??? especially women)

As woman in men's world, how could I not love this badass military queen? She’s strong not only psychically but mentally. As one of best general in Amestris army she takes command on the strongest men in the army in lil mother-like but strong-handed way.

7. Sera Masumi - Detective Conan

Tomboyish high-school girl who don’t get girls stuff, likes martial arts, is interested in detectives work, would probably wreck the world for her brothers? It looks like my autobiography??? She’s a strong intelligent gurl who can fight for what she believes. Not only by beating people.

6. Emiel Regis Rohellec Terzieff-Godefroy - The Witcher

I really had hard time to choose one from this series, but I was in love in Regis since primary school when I have read books and games didn’t exist. Former bloodholik, from years trying to restrain from drinking. A loner, but great Geralt’s friend who helped him and his “happy” company to find Ciri. Books left me devastated, but Blood and Wine helped me to recover.

5. Jim Lake Jr - Trollhunters

How to make a great and relatable character in kids cartoon about saving the world? Put in one jar tons of anxiety, stress, love for parent, some of responsibility and goofiness, clumsiness and lil of hardcore badassness and good character development. Plus magic-shoujo transformation. Voila! Here’s Jim.

4. Balalayka - Black Lagoon

Badass woman as head of ruthless Russian mafia who looks like she might murder you. And she would without a single thought. It speaks for itself.

3. Lelouch Lamperouge - Code Geass (I had to google his name lol)

More hardcore Light Yagami but less annoying and in mecha anime with way better ending. Usually cold headed, when you think he already forgot about what morality is, he shows that even if he acts like the total asshole he isn’t one to the core and still care for people. Just don’t show it. But he’s ready to let die thousands to achieve his goal. He’s fucked up.

2. Mephisto Pheles - Ao no Exorcist

Man, I really like characters with doubtful morality. No matter what this series is I really love this annoying bastard. Even when he’s the main gamer in this series we still don’t know exactly what his real aim is, and honestly, I don’t care. Lovable mix of goofiness, otaku and bastard.

1. Shiroe - Log Horizon

Kirito, but 100 times better and more badass. I the beginning of series lil lost and anxious, but never stupid or naive. When he begins to get used to situation he’s in, he starts to be lil asshole who prefer to play bad cop for the sake of result which is always to help others than himself. Plus if you ever enjoyed playing any support character in multiplayer games you’ll be in love like me.

That’s for now. I probably forgot half of them (like Jigen, Hoozuki or Ginko), but I can’t remember every single series or film I watched. Plus there’s no more space for them all :V

So I’m tagging @puzzotopo , @shin-red-dear , @soyoudneverguess , @bananafosters-and-books and @bi-spying :3

[fmpmarta]

The Witcher Series

The Witcher was written by Andrzej Sapkowski back in 90s. It has gained a bigger recognition once CDPR has taken interest of the stories and payed for the rights to make game about Geralt. They claimed the world and the characters for the benefit of the game continuing Geralt story even though at the end of the series Geralt just like Yeneffer died ( CDPR pretty much revived Geralt and Yen ). The biggest recognition the series received after the lunch of The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt. 

I have read The Witcher about 4 years ago and still come back to reading the series once a year. The books themselves are amazing and I will speak on it more in coming paragraphs but I’d like to notice that The Witcher itself isn't something I ‘geek out’ over purely because of the story but also because of the Polish folklore it has within. The Witcher (Wiedzmin) has been written by Andrzej Sabkowski, a Polish writer but I didn’t expect it to have so much of the folklore in it. The books have rich language and are written beautifully ( in Polish ). It was one of the things which brought me a little bit closer to my own language and reminded me of how much I have forgotten or simply exchanged by another language. It was something which brought me closer to my country while still being so far away from it. I think that's why I bonded so deeply with it and was quite proud of the work, I frankly still am. 

Characters as even the writer said are the main focus of the book, everything else exists just so the characters may live. The series has a lot of complex characters and they are very ‘humane’ beings, and what I mean by that is none are perfect, just like in real life, perfection doesn't exists. Very often we meet and see characters who are the heroes and villains, there could be some plot twist in between but many the line is visible between good or bad. In the Witcher such thing is not so obvious, even with the main characters. Geralt himself is a flawed person and a lot of time he makes bad decisions or in his case very often stays neutral and doesn’t make them at all. 

The series has also a lot of world wide issues as war, racism, sexism, manipulation and control, simply put - chaos, not only within the humans but also  in between races. Elfs, dwarfs and humans are the main races occupation of The Witcher realm, however there are monsters which have seen brought along with magic ( that's how the humans are able to become sorceresses ). Some monsters are not just mindless killing machines but among the ‘monsters’ there can also be found Higher Vampires who relatively look just like humans however are way stronger and immortal ( most of them see others aka humans or elf as weak and pathetic and they do not engage in wars or anything to do with anyone but themselves often live away from people ) as an example I can use Regis who becomes friends with Geralt ( the irony ) and Geralt himself describes Regis to Yen after his death as precisely more human than any living being he ever met. 

The first appearance of humans on the continent happened after they feed the world they themselves have destroyed. It can very simply be put together to how human nature is destructive and even if we posses knowledge and are able to expand it our nature seems to be destructive. They arrived after the Conjunction of the Spheres ( that's when monsters entered the world ) and stayed on the continent at that point Elves didn't see them as threat and believed they will lead to fast extinction of their own kind soon ( oh they were wrong ). Elves didn't now about how humans are build and live. Both of those races seemed very similar however elves could live hundreds of years up to 600 however their women could rely bear child as their cycle would only happen once or twice a year. Elves had also a different culture of ‘reproduction’ . Human women however can bear a child every year and as a result humans grew in numbers and soon Elves became outnumbered. Every since then Elves have seen humans as animals unable to suppress their own needs and simply put by Iorveth  ( one of the older elfs ‘fighting for freedom’ ) ‘We are few, yet long-lived, your kind multiples like vermin, though thankfully expires quickly’. 

Dwarfs at the end of the day don’t care about issues and only when feel threatened engage in wars but are a very strong wars and some are a part of Scoia’tael ( inhuman forces aka bandits/terrorists fighting for freedom ) as they are sick of betting discriminated by humans, however there are some dwarfs who hate elves and don’t understand their blind pride they carry themselves till death. 

I do not want to do on about how great and amazing The series is because is as my passion for it is gigantic and in fact it would take multiple posts for me to truly express the whole The Witcher universe. I love the idea of this sort of universe cruel yet beautifully in its own way and that could be the idea of a game. Making something both beautifully yet sad which is the reality of our world depending how you see the reality you live in.

[moiraineswife]

Can you expand on the Geralt, Regis, and Philippa being autistic? I'm intrigued...

Yes friend. Yes I can. As it happens I’ve already talked about Phil at length here, but I got distracted by…Life before I could get to the boys. So I’ll do that now. Much like Phil’s this isn’t going to be very ordered….Or detailed, unfortunately, bc I can’t remember everything I wanted to say on the subjects, and I don’t have the spoons to go trawling through the books atm. 

This is all, also, entirely book based, because I’ve never played the games (I just occasionally reblog gifsets here bc a)- pretty, b)- CONTENT and c)- oh look nice visual representations of my children) but idk what’s going on there. 

Regis: 

Regis presents some potential vague problems with the autistic thing bc he’s not human…but as I’m not suggesting all higher vampires are automatically autistic, and because I love my dear awkward bean, I don’t really care and we’re pressing on with haste. 

-Okay, okay, the biggest/my favourite thing for this hc with Regis is his habit of infodumping/overexplaining EVERYTHING. He either just gets really into it/excited about Sharing His Knowledge, or else he can’t filter what of all the many things bouncing around in his brain are actually important (bc they are all important) so he just says everything meanwhile the hansa are all just ‘Regis pls we got the point ten minutes ago STOP TALKING’ And he knows he does this, and he’s tried so many times to get a hold on it and stop but it just…It’s not happening. 

-Regis having special interests in herbs/plants, particularly if they can be used for medicinal purposes…Or making moonshine. He’s had several lifetimes to Indulge this interest and he pretty much knows everything about everything. 

-He has a pretty distinctive pattern of speech. And I like the idea that his Extreme Authentic Regis-Flavoured Politeness that’s a fairly staple part of his character is something that’s developed over the years, first from a coping type mechanism bc the politer he was, the harder it was to accidentally say something wrong and offend someone, and eventually transitioned into an internal rule so this is now just the way he is/has to be. 

-Kind of a combination of the above point and the first: Regis explaining things in ways he thinks are very clear and explicit (while also maintaining the necessary politeness rules) but everyone around him is just ???? regis wut???? 

-Regis calling himself a coward when it comes to combat situations because he doesn’t know how else to explain the fact that he freezes up and panics in these situations (the dude basically cannot die, okay, this isn’t a mortality fear, but there’s something going on). The truth is, though, that battles are sensory hell, too much noise, too much feeling, too much visual stimulation too much and he can’t deal with it (sweet bean) 

-I like Regis being on the other end of the empathy spectrum to, say, Philippa, and being hyperempathetic (which I think fits him fairly well - I mean….The guy is an immensely powerful, centuries old higher vampire….and he spends his time chilling, making moonshine for passing strangers, and being a bloody barber surgeon and helping people with his vast wealth of Knowledge. And also the way he responds to, say, the girl in the village when he performs the whole fire miracle thing to save her, despite the fact it’ll expose him, because he just nope, not having this. And he feels things so deeply, he CARES so much, he’s such a good soul, this suits him well) 

-Okay but in contrast to that Regis is pretty fucking unflappable. He doesn’t really do big displays of emotion very well, and tends to approach most things with Logic. (See: that moment in LotL when Geralt is like ‘okay ppl we have a job we are LEAVING’ and the hansa just explodes into action and rushes off to hop to it. Meanwhile Regis sits there, chill as you please, just like…yes, okay Geralt, an explanation if you please, I require Reasons before I leap into action thank you very much) And he’s got that expected ‘comes across as pretty withdrawn/composed’ thing going on too.

Geralt: 

Geralt, like Regis, presents a few slightly thorny problems bc a lot of the things that read as traits for him are muddled up with the whole witcher mutations…but again…i Relate too much to care, and I’m too tired to get into a debate with myself concerning this, so onwards and upwards… 

-I feel like he’s somewhere in the middle of the empathy spectrum. Like you’ve got Phil who’s just…None and doesn’t give af, Regis that’s just like *feels everything so much and vibrates with it* and then Geralt’s in the middle where he….Can’t really read people’s emotions very well, but there’s also a fairly large heaping of compassionate empathy in there, in that he WANTS to help people he just…Doesn’t quite understand them very well? So he’s like…Trying His Best on the empathy front. (bless) 

-Geralt kind of going the opposite direction that Regis went with the talking/socialising thing. Where Regis is really polite/long-winded to kind of compensate and attempt to cover all bases, Geralt is just...To the point. Blunt. Says what he’s thinking/what he means. Doesn’t have time for anyone who does anything other than that. He gave up trying to riddle out manipulation/lies long ago. Either talk simply, or don’t talk at all. 

-Geralt repeatedly being like ‘what is this feeling I am experiencing?’ *prods it uncertainly* which has a name: alexithmiya, and is Great Fun btw. 

-Let’s be honest here, he’s really not the world’s biggest emoter. That isn’t to say that he doesn’t have emotions/doesn’t feel (ofc he does) he’s just really not very good at showing it. 

-Absolutely less than zero, well into negative figures here, interested in politics. There’s too much lying, too much manipulation, too many games, too many exhausting little factions and social rules and nuances to try and figure out and he is decidedly Too Old For This Shit. 

-Same vein: hates spies/spying. Can’t be doing this with all this under the table, betraying, two-faced bullshit. Wasn’t made for it, can’t be fucked with it, stop doing it, please and thank you. 

-Geralt transcending the typical autistic realms of same!clothes/same!food and heading into the territory of same!name: every horse I have ever, or will ever, own is called Roach. Nice and simple. 

-His witcher medallion ending up being a comfort object because of how constant/present it is. It’s a nice weight, and it probably doubles as a stim toy tbh because the spiky bits can get rubbed between fingers. 

-Geralt having very set Internal Rules/demonstrating black and white thinking. He’s very firm about these sorts of things in the games, things along the lines of not killing dragons/intelligent beasts etc, etc. But also his views on neutrality/not taking part/wanting to be removed from what’s happening (these do change slightly, but it takes a damn long time) 

-I can make an argument for Geralt being change resistant/struggling to adapt without too much trouble. He does the same thing day in day out and has done for years, and doesn’t seem in any great hurry to stop doing that. 

-Literally every speech Geralt makes to the hansa is just...Geralt. Child. Ur trying. But lead by action, okay? 

I could go on but...that’ll do for now. (also this took 16 years to answer and I apologise for that I hope your intrigue didn’t die in the intervening time D:) 

[pommeverte3]

Random thoughts about Geralt and Yennefer.

I know that I have already written several posts about the Yennefer/Geralt relationship and this may sound like rambling but I was thinking again about them and about how some people like to say that Yennefer is not right for Geralt. According to some posts I've seen she is not right for Geralt because she is bossing him around, because she is cold and doesn't listen to him, or simply because she is a terrible person and Geralt deserves better. Apparently, it's that simple : Geralt shouldn't love her, it doesn't make any sense. And in fact it doesn't indeed make any sense at all. But that's precisely the point.

Geralt is as you know a Witcher, a mutant. He has cat eyes and white hair. And because of the way he looks people think of him as less than human, as a monster. The worst part of that though is that inside Geralt is very much human and that because of the way witchers are considered he has been taught to believe that he was a monster. He has been taught to pretend he was not human, to pretend he was not able to feel emotions. And he pretended so much that he ended up believing his own lies. And in a way it made things easier for him, it was easier to make mistakes when he could pretend that they were the actions of an emotionless mutant who couldn't act in any other way. It was easier to not be perfect and to live with himself. And then he met Yennefer. And Yennefer happened to see something in him. Something that made him worth loving, all of him, the cat eyes, the white hair, the imperfections and the mistakes. She is that one person who knows him, all of him, every little flaw he has ever tried to hide and she still thinks he his worth it. She is the one person who will fight to make him see that he his not a monster. And in the end when Geralt gives up being a Witcher for Yennefer, it's not a job he is leaving behind, it's the monster, it's the mask he has used for so long. Because thanks to Yennefer he is willing to accept who he is, to accept that he is human and that he belongs, that he shouldn't be different. And because he has seen something in Yen as well he is willing to do the same for her, to love her, all of her, every single little flaw, every fear and every doubt. And because of that, Yennefer allows herself to let go of her own walls and to be fully herself with him. So sure Yennefer is not perfect, Geralt is not either. They are not even perfect for each other maybe. But that's not relevant. The only thing that matters is that when they are together they can be finally completely themselves, they can finally find a place in the world where they belong. Not the masks, not the monster and the sorceress but Geralt and Yennefer. For that reason Yennefer is the only possible choice for Geralt, the only one. Not because of what she can do for Geralt, but because of the way Geralt feels when he is with her. The fact is, we are all Geralt, we all hide behind masks every single day, we all pretend to be things we are not. And how many of us will find that one person with whom we can be completely, entirely ourselves ? I will add also that Sapkowski did something really interesting with this saga. Most authors only write the masks, the things about their characters which are acceptable, which won't confuse us, which won't force us to question our own masks. Sapkowski didn't. He wrote real characters, he wrote them entirely, he wrote what lies behind the masks. And it's unusual sometimes, it's disturbing. Yennefer is unusual and disturbing. And it's amazing to read.  

And actually Sapkowski likes to play with this idea, and not only with Geralt and Yennefer. Each and every one of his characters has some dark side, some secret, and each of them deals with it in a different way. Dandelion makes fun of himself and refuses to take himself seriously. Regis is a vampire and tries to hide it by using some perfume and pretending he just is a normal human being... And to be honest, does it make sense for Geralt to be friend with Dandelion ? Does it makes sense for a witcher to be friend with a vampire ? No it doesn't. But somehow in spite of their differences they care for each other enough to understand each other, or to accept each other at least when understanding is not possible. They care for each other enough to try to see past the masks and the pretending.

I love this idea, I really do. I think this is a wonderful metaphor for the way these things happen in real life. We are all so different. We all have parts of ourselves we would rather not show to the rest of the world. And fact is, if we think about it, none of our romantic relationships makes any sense, none of our friendships makes any sense. And yet we all try so hard to find these people who will allow us to be ourselves, who will teach us to love and accept who we really are, who will make us feel like we belong somewhere. And I think that it is the real meaning of the witcher saga, that's what the story is all about. In the end, Geralt and Yennefer found just that. And I think people saying that Yennefer is not right for Geralt just didn't get the global meaning of the saga.

[gayregis]

do you have any examples of the witcher subverting common fantasy tropes? (other than the obvious like ciri being the chosen one but doing evil actions, the male lead being a pacifist etc) i like the books but i have friends who don't wanna read it bc they think it's just another generic fantasy story based off the netflix trailer, i obviously am not gonna force them to read it if they absolutely don't want to but it always hurts when good works go unnoticed because of misinformation

okay!! i won’t give book quotes for this one, this is just off the top of my head, because i think including quotes would take a really long time and wouldn’t helo the point. also there’s probably things i missed here

geralt 

tropes: Icy Cold Killer / Witches Stealing Kids

actuality: is a very emotional man who was born into his profession of killing and never had a choice in the matter. doesn’t want to kill for a living, is a pacifist at heart. adopts ciri because he truly is a good father and loves her and eventually teaches her witcher skills so she has a form of self-defense.

yennefer

trope: Bitchy Witch

actuality: sincerely selfless woman who risks her life multiple times to save her child from harm, does many things to save her lover, only seems bitter and closed off to the most of the world because she has been hurt by everyone she knows and doesn’t let everyone in.

ciri

tropes: Prissy Princess / Chosen One

actuality: she is a princess for approx. 1.2 seconds and then she loses everything she’s ever known, and will continue to lose everything she’s ever known. 

as the chosen one, her powers don’t help her much, she’s super powerful but still super vulnerable and her life continues to be shit - she loses everything again because of her powers, which make her a target. everyone is after her for her powers, she’s the macguffin of the story, she’s been reduced to the holy grail because of them. being the chosen one is more of a curse than a blessing.

dandelion

tropes: The Coward / The Freeloader / Slovenly Bastard

actuality: okay yeah he’s all of these things never mind he demonstrates incredible bravery and loyalty (doing something even though you’re scared to death to do it is bravery), he keeps being by geralt’s side not as a nuisance or a leech, but because geralt genuinely needs him there as his best friend.

milva

trope: The Girl of the Company

actuality: isn’t just there to be sexy while shooting arrows, is not a love interest to any of the main male characters, literally just exists in the company as a woman and no one is creepy towards her because of it. pregnancy arc is handled relatively well and she is given actual story and emotions of her own instead of being reliant on any male characters for developent

regis

trope: Every Single Vampire Trope Ever (esp. being heartless/part of an evil organization)

actuality: “the epitome of humanity,” is a healer/medic/surgeon whose profession it is to preserve life, is kind and acts with goodwill. 

the vampires in the witcher don’t drink blood to survive like hungry beasts or out of evil cultlike activities, but instead it’s like alcohol to them and they face the same social issues as humans surrounding it. also of course every other vampire trope is broken, like sunlight, garlic, wooden stakes, running water, religious symbols...

cahir

trope: Evil Soldier of Darkness

actuality: he is a young man who was manipulated by his family and his society into service of an imperialist nation, he never wanted to cause harm to ciri but raher just sought honor for his family. he then spends the entire rest of the saga redeeming himself.

angouleme

trope: Shitty Orphan Does Crime For Fun

actuality: she’s an extremely young woman who has faced abuse her entire life and has stolen and killed out of pure survival. she is actually a genuinely good person and warns geralt of the attempt on his and his company’s lives.

the sorceresses who were on thanedd and of the lodge

trope: Vain Women Get Nothing Done And Only Think About Men

actuality: 10 insanely powerful women form a powerful political cabal, at least one is a lesbian, they unanimously decide to bar the organization from men because they speak about how men are too emotional and can’t be trusted, they are capable and dangerous as an organization and would have succeeded if not for freak accidents.

witchers in general

trope: godless fiends who thrive on violence

actuality: they were created as a profession to eliminate monsters as being threats to humans, but the threat of monsters has faded and now finding work is more difficult than ever.

sorceresses in general

trope: witches steal kids

actuality: sorceresses take in unwanted daughters, from families who gave them up, and if they show magical prowess they continue to be trained

the striga (princess adda)

trope: Horrific Monster

actuality: a 14 year old girl who has been mistreated all of her life

a grain of truth

story: beauty & the beast

actuality: the real beast is the beauty who tries to rip her boyfriend’s head off

the lesser evil

story: snow white & the seven dwarves

actuality: snow white is no princess, she has been forced into a life of killing which she has become comfortable with

the last wish (heading into the bounds of reason)

trope: love at first sight

actuality: electrocute your ass at first sight, yennefer and geralt fight in the last wish, and after they fall in love date for 4 years they inevitably break up again because love at first sight doesn’t exist and they’re both too immature to hold a sincere relationship until much later

the bounds of reason

story: a peasant can kill a dragon, dragons are beasts that attack villages

actuality: you’d need professionals to kill a dragon, and also the dragons were trying to protect their child and are sentient, intelligence, respectable, and beautiful creatures.

dudu

trope: Evil Doppleganger

actuality: dopplers are incapable of being evil, they mimic forms to survive in this world dominated by violent humans.

the aen seidhe

trope: Elves Are Pretty Boys Who Don’t Do Violence

actuality: these pretty boys do a lot of violence. they kill humans because humans have usurped nearly all of their territory and pushed them out.

the aen elle

trope: Elves Are Pretty Boys Who Don’t Do Violence

actuality: these pretty boys do a lot of violence. they’re colonizers and slavers who take over entire worlds.

unicorns

trope: Unicorns Are Pretty And Docile Creatures

actuality: unicorns and elves have been at war, unicorns are incredibly intelligent and sentient and are their own civilization

nilfgaard

trope: Evil Empire

actuality: it is an imperialist nation, thus it is evil, but there are many nilfgaardian POVs throughout the saga which demonstrate that even though they are committing atrocities they are still very much human. they’re not faceless evil.

geralt’s company

trope: Grand Quest To Save The World

actuality: geralt in the saga, i think as one of the sorceresses said, is just running around lost, getting upset. geralt running around with his gathered company in the wilderness is not a grand march towards power or fame, but rather the journey of how geralt becomes a better person and a better father, he finally accepts help, he finally becomes a leader.

the quest doesn’t concern power or being a grand hero, it’s not a beautiful march. it’s a bunch of idiots traipsing through the forests, grasslands, and marches, trying to dry out their boots and footwraps because the ground is muddy. 

the goal of the quest is not to save the world or find great power or complete a prophecy or save a desperate lover, but rather to just get geralt’s daughter back. his daughter. because he loves her and wants her to be safe. that’s all.

you can’t step two inches in the witcher without breaking a trope. they’re strewn everywhere, like crackers on the sidewalk. step, step. now the pigeons are eating the crumbs

i think largely you have to look at sapkowski’s personal history with writing and fantasy bc iirc he was a scholar or something about arthurian legend and also he was influenced by many polish folktales

[gayregis]

Hi, just wanted to ask, how did you get into the witcher franchise (did you read the books before you played the games or vice versa?). Love your blog, byeeee :)

ty for the ask!! i hope you dont mind if i go too in-depth because i was legit thinking about this earlier today... 

tldr: i played tw3 and liked it, then read the books

i got into the witcher because one of my favorite gaming youtubers was doing a playthrough of tw3 on youtube in around i think september 2017. i liked this specific gaming youtuber for being shit at games and not caring about it... but tw3 was a different game. it felt like the decisions mattered, that there was an actual story here, that when this youtuber made shitty decisions and didn’t really care about the characters involved, i got frustrated because this game seemed really good... so i picked up the game myself and played it though, it was magnificent. not to r/witcher “the witcher 3 is literally the best game created in this history of ever” but it was sincerely good... not only does it have a great story, characters, and graphics, but it is genuinely comfortable to play as a game, even if you’re not great at games (i like playing video games but i’m not good at them when it comes to combat, i literally just would prefer to hack and slash through). so, i played through tw3 and the fact that it made me cry multiple times i found to be really interesting... but it was still just a game to me, it wasn’t something i thought about when i have time to daydream headcanons. i had read i think the witcher (short story) halfway through playing, just to get a feel of what tw3 came from, but from that, i realized the books and the games were incredibly different entitities, and i decided to not read the books until i had finished the game, or at least until i had more free time on my hands (mind i was in high school and was a senior, and during this time was when i was submitting college applications... exceptionally stressful, and the reading/writing part of my brain was absolutely fried from essay writing and reviewing). i was particularly struck by geralt and ciri’s relationship and the isle of mists quests fucked me up pretty bad. 

then around later 2017, i was really enjoying tw3, and had finished tw3′s base game and hearts of stone, and was now making my way into blood & wine. i was just playing it like normal, then came the part when geralt met regis. at first i wasn’t too interested (i mean, i was, but in the story of blood & wine, not in the books) until the little journal text pop-up appeared on my screen. you know, the one about quests you just received, or characters you just met. it was going through the motions of saying i finished this quest, picked up this new one, i was all like fine, fine, okay, alright, and then it just fucking puts regis’ long-ass name on the screen taking up a good amount of my FOV and i am immediately like, what? what the fuck? who the fuck? that’s the name? of the guy we just met? that guy??? he didn’t seem like someone with a name like that? who the fuck IS this guy.

so i head over to the wiki page for regis. i thumb through the basic information, i’m pretty interested, this quest stuff to find ciri sounds interesting. i decide to give the witcher books another try, because i have more free time now and am way more invested as everyone here as characters. also, i want to find out more about yennefer, because she was being badmouthed by everyone i saw online, and i wanted to read more about her and see if she was really so bad (spoilers: she’s not at all, the internet is just misogynistic).

i don’t think that i’m going to actually really care about these books, i just want more flavor and explanation about how in hell a witcher met a vampire and these two somehow became friends. so, i don’t care about reading them in order. i go online and find fan translations of every book, i open baptism of fire and i just start reading the bit about the fish soup. i’m suddenly just laughing my ass off, really interested in who these other characters are, milva and cahir, and how dandelion seems to actually be the best friend to geralt that he was said to be in tw3. i also notice immediately that geralt... oh my god, geralt’s such a cranky bitch. i’m SHOCKED at how annoying geralt is. i realize that this is probably what geralt’s been like, this whole time, and tw3 just gave me a sterilized version of him. i’m trying to decide if i like this change or not, at first i HATED it... but then realized it actually gave him a character, where in tw3 he feels a little more... empty, waiting for the player to project a personality onto him.

so, i just read all of the hansa bits of baptism of fire, skipping over anything i don’t understand. i am saddened when i can’t find any more, so i move onto tower of the swallow. and then lady of the lake. “oh, so that’s why geralt was surprised to see regis in blood & wine...” feeling at a loss after reading stygga, i start at the beginning and make my way through the books chronologically, like they should be read. i soon realize that this series really isn’t about killing monsters at all, and i’m thrilled. i thought the series was just going to be about geralt killing things in a swamp and reporting back to whoever hired him, like in tw3... and i was wrong. this series is about personal connections! relationships! ... and fatherhood. [see read more for personal junk]

i can’t remember when i started disliking tw3. it must have been around the time that i finished the books (im using the word finished loosely... i still havent finished some scenes because theyre too violent to read and continue with my day in peace, and i also read tos/lotl by skipping around, so i never got the full experience of reading them as full novels).

i just distinctly remember returning to my tw3 new game+ save after rereading the fish soup scene, and thinking about how lonely the game felt... i just felt so dispairingly alone, this loneliness that i hadn’t felt while playing before, that i had to put the game down. i returned to the game again, but i had just reread edge of the world... and i felt so alone again. 

so reading the books ruined tw3 for me, not out of malicious intent, but just because i think i realized geralt isn’t meant to be the lone wolf. the novels center around him and his family and friends, and i just genuinely missed that when replaying tw3. plus, i began to realize a bunch of things, like ciri’s scar is supposed to be bigger, geralt’s supposed to wear his hair in a headband, yennefer’s hair is actually curly, dandelion’s supposed to actually be in the game. there were so many inconsistencies with the characters i had imagined while reading the books that eventually i just stopped playing tw3 (i already played it once, so nbd) and got really into the books. 

sometime later i saved up like $80 to buy the paperback versions of the books (UK versions including season of storms) because i knew i was in really deep lol and i wanted the official translations super badly, also we were doing an assignment in class that allowed us to do something with our favorite book, but we needed to have it in-person and not as an e-book, so it was the perfect excuse. much time spent on hansa headcanons later and... here we are today.

a read-more, because this is more personal. 

the witcher series picked me up at an eerily appropriate time. two things in it stood out to me: 1) geralt’s relationship with ciri 2) regis’s alcoholism. 

i distinctly remember an event where i started crying in front of my parents because my dad was being so absent in my life or maybe it was because they were arguing, something like this... and i remember referencing tw3 isle of mists quest actually by saying “i shouldn’t have to learn it (good parenting) from a video game” ... lol. it wasn’t an epic burn from a 17 yo, but it was just a painful remark made in anger. i still think back to it because of how first watching geralt hug ciri made me feel and how i was actually really bitter because i was jealous of ciri for about a week after completing the quest. then i kind of pushed it out of my mind and didn’t think so much about it, until the night i mentioned it.

in late march of 2018, something very bad happened in my family. that’s probably the best way to describe it. the situation ended in my parents finally separating. my mom and i were pretty afraid and lost after that. after i had collected my thoughts and everything and went back to as “normal” as i could, about a month later, when the creative part of my brain finally began to function again and wasn’t inhibited due to fear, i clung to the witcher more than i did before... and this time, actually particularly to regis, because guess who has a whole redemption arc relating to not being alcoholic and being a genuinely good person who speaks gently and heals the vulnerable?