#why do i not care radovid being not canon

[my-jokes-are-my-armour]

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[fawnnbinary]

They will literally do anything but admit that they accidentally wrote Jaskier into being in love with Geralt (With how hard they have tried to deny it I can’t even say its queer baiting any more and just think the straight’s wrote a gay relationship on accident.) Like I don’t know who this new character that they are setting Jaskier up with but exactly why is he falling in love with as opposed to the guy he has followed around for like 20ish years? Or hell even a tavern worker he visits on the regular would make sense than Jo-Smo all of a sudden making him think about a long term relationship.

(Watch me put my foot in my mouth cause like I said I don’t know the character. But seriously just admit he likes Geralt. At this point I don’t even care if they are end game. Just let Jaskiers pining be canon)

- SF anon

SF anon you're so right, and it's even WORSE that they're going with RADOVID of all people because they're BUTCHERING his character to do it!!! Radovid is canonically Vizimir's son, he should be TWLEVE at this point in the timeline, but they're aging him up, making him Vizimir's brother afaik, and now just???? Fucking throwing Jask at him I guess!!

They want to kill me specifically with this choice actually. Lauren is out to get me. Quite literally they just DON'T want their big macho main guy to like men so they're throwing darts at a board to pick another male character for Jaskier to be into. Quite literally I feel the need to rescue him from twn and put him safely in another adaptation like a stray puppy

[fictionkinfessions]

It may be a little late for this but I wasn't sure I wanted to say anything for Valentine's Day. Apologies for any inconvenience, MPC. If it's posted late, so be it, a fashionably late bard is never out of place and it's my own damned fault anyway.

Radovid, I'll address you first because our time together was shortest. You were everything I wished I wanted. And you deserved better than someone who didn't love you. I hope you found that someone and that my Very Bad Feeling about your canonical 'future' (from the perspective of it not having aired yet) is unfounded. But we don't always get what we hope for. I hope, if nothing else, you find love in this life, of whatever type you desire. Sending you virtual chocolates and flowers.

Yennefer. Gods, we had a time, didn't we? Our Geralt was a handful, never wanted to do much that was truly romantic. I grew rather fond of you, and while I no longer have romantic feelings about you, I have once again grown fond of you in my own way. You have that effect, don't you. I do hope your romantic endeavors in this life are less dangerous (though to be fair, you were probably as dangerous as he was and the real danger was that other people couldn't figure their own shit out without trying to kidnap and/or kill Ciri). Wine for you, perhaps? Or a very nice grape juice if you no longer drink it, I certainly have my own interesting history with alcohol in both this life and others.

Geralt, my dear Geralt, my Witcher. You always did hate this kind of thing, didn't you. Too bad, I'm feeling sentimental. You know, my heart always leapt when someone called me your bard. They sometimes meant it in a derogatory manner, but I never cared. Why should I? If I was on a leash, it was by my own choosing. To be in love is to walk happily into a cage, hopefully knowing the one you trust with the key would let you out should you ask. And I fell in love with you far quicker than perhaps I should. And maybe at first, it was the idea of you, not unlike how I thought I loved Radovid for the idea of him. But the longer it went on and the more of the real you, the you that held back his strength to not damage me when I was being a bratty 18-year-old idiot following a strange Witcher with a bloody reputation into the middle of nowhere. The you that saved Yennefer's life to pay her back for saving my own and because you couldn't just let her die. The you that went to Cintra and let them lock you up so you could protect Ciri when push came to shove. And you get flowers, if only because I know you wouldn't want anything and I find it amusing.

-Jaskier

x

[akilah12902]

Raksura Witcher?!? *vibrates excitedly* I would love to hear about that

[claps excitedly] Oh I’m so glad somebody asked about this one! This is a Raksura fusion au with Witcher, which actually works better than you might expect, although everybody is a bit… meaner. I’ve been having so much fun coming up with all the various ways politics, etc, intersect, and since my current Witcher sub-fixation is the Northern Kingdoms and the elves, I’ve been making all these various courts representing the different kingdoms and renaming everyone with more Raksuran names for the heck of it. I still need to add in Dol Blathanna and Francesca (her name is definitely Daisy, which is incredibly incongruous for the oldest queen in the entire Reaches) and a bunch of other elves but! to start!

Temeria | Silver Lily

Aedirn | Citrine Valley

Redania | Carmine Talon

Kaedwen | Sable Horn

Lyria and Rivia | Ebony Feather & Scarlet Adamant

Nilfgaard | Midnight Sun

Foltest | Wave: consort, black scales, blue undersheen

Adda elder | Sapphire: queen, red with purple webbing

    Iolite, Amethyst, Tide

Adda younger | Star Sapphire/Star: queen, red with blue webbing

Sancia | Taaffeite: queen, purple with gold webbing

Medell | Luster: consort, black scales, rose-gold undersheen

Ostrit | Fog: consort, black scales, silvery/gray undersheen

Radovid | Heliotrope: consort, red undersheen

Philippa | Cinnabar: very old queen, red with amber webbing and eyes

Roche | Talus: warrior, blue with a silver undersheen

Ves | Spring (wellspring): warrior, light blue with a yellow undersheen?

    Geyser, Brook, Burn, Gill/Skye

Iorveth | Blackthorn/Thorn: warrior, forest green, gold undersheen

Saskia: massive predatory shifter skyling like a feathered serpent. Iridescent, blends in terrifyingly well when not in sunlight

Triss | Marigold: mentor, green? sky blue? Yellow?

Keira | Brass: mentor, intersex and a chimera, brassy with patches of different colored scales (blue-green?), maybe extra frills??

    Copper, Verdigris, Bell(?) - one is a warrior, Copper & Verdigris are close  

(the names underneath various characters are their other clutchmates. Foltest and Adda’s all died, and poor Ves’ did too; she was from a warrior-queen royal clutch, and she has immense guilt over not being able to protect Geyser when their court was destroyed. Keira, meanwhile, only has three clutchmates: she absorbed a clutchmate in the womb, and nobody’s quite sure if she was originally a mentor or a warrior, and she switches between feeling incredibly insecure about her sometimes-inconsistent mentor powers, because what if her clutchmate would have been a mentor and would have been better at it than her?? and angry and upset about them, because what if her clutchmate was the warrior and she would be able to do this better if they hadn’t merged??)

There’s exactly one (1) character who doesn’t need renaming; Gezras. In Witcher canon Gezras is the half-elven Grandmaster of the Cat School of Witchers, and in this au…

Gezras dug his disemboweling claws into the progenitor’s gut and tore her open. There was a wash of blood and a terrible stench, and the progenitor howled. Gezras could feel her scrambling at his mind, trying to force him to shift, but she was too weak from pain and bloodloss to make it stick.

Gezas grabbed her face, not bothering to be careful of his claws, and turned her face to his.

“I told you I’d kill you someday.”

“Why?” the progenitor gasped in her eerie, echoing voice. “The rulers will tear you— apart—”

“That’s where you’re wrong,” Gezras said, and dug in his claws. The progenitor—his progenitor, although he’d as soon reject that bond completely—died.

Gezras could hear the roaring of the kethels, and screams from the dakti. The flight would have felt the progenitor’s death, and her kethels and dakti, and even the rulers, would be bewildered and grieving—and much, much less directed.

The agitated uproar grew much more pointed, and a ruler screamed. Gezras grinned, and leaped for the exit of the progenitor’s quarters. It was time to clean house.

>:D

I also decided to make Radovid sympathetic and go right for actually really cute Adda/Radovid. Snippet below the cut because this is getting long, warning for attempted self-harm and implied intended rape.

(Radovid leaped at the first chance he had to escape Philippa and her colony, and Adda is so flattered and attracted to him that she agrees, and she does stuff like get him courting gifts after she’s claimed him and brought him back to her court because she didn’t get the chance to beforehand and he’s like... what is happening. why are you being nice to me.)

Radovid woke, uncertain of where he was. He was in a bed, somewhere in the colony—that much he could tell, from the cushions beneath him and the art of Aeriat in flight on the walls, just barely illuminated by a number of shells set into the walls—but this wasn’t his miserable little room in the consorts’ bowers, nor was it the relative safety of the nurseries that he’d only left a turn ago.

Something twitched against his thigh, and the last of Radovid’s sleepiness fled in a rush of panic.

no

He looked down and he saw a tail the tail of a queen the red tail of a queen—

nonononono—

“Radovid?” 

it was her it was Philippa she was awake and she had to have taken him and he was fucked—

<hr> 

When Radovid threw himself from her bed, sending her tumbling to the floor as the swinging bed partially overturned, Adda spent half a moment wondering if the colony was under attack, scenting the air frantically to try and determine who was here that shouldn't be. The air of the bower was still and warm, and Adda could still detect hints of sex in and among the bedding. There was no blood, no stench of Fell or other predators, no screams—just them, and the muskiness of sex and sleep, the sweetness of the tree, and Radovid's sudden panic.

Then Radovid sized the knife she'd given him as a courting gift, prying it from its sheath and turning the blade inwards, and she knew something was very wrong indeed—but it wasn't with the colony.

"Radovid!" Adda called in alarm, trying to reach out to him, trying to feel that connection—

"Don't touch me, you monster!" Radovid nearly shrieked. 

All the air in Adda's lungs left in a hiss. That hurt. She used her powers to communicate, better than she could with just words, and her consort was calling her a monster for it?

Something's wrong. I knew that. But I have to calm him down.

"Radovid, please, I don't understand what I did wrong," she said.

Radovid laughed, dissonant and with more than a tinge of hysteria. "You wouldn't, would you."

He started to move, and Adda leaped. She couldn’t let him hurt himself. Radovid tried to shift, she could feel it, but she didn’t let him. She knew he was going to hate it, but he would be almost impossible to hold onto as an Aeriat. The knife was bad enough—she didn’t shift either, to make sure he didn’t get any scratches from her claws or scales, and she could feel him trying to stab her. She hissed as the extremely sharp knife opened stinging scratches across her back, and scrambled to pin Radovid’s arm so that she could maybe get the knife out of his grasp. Radovid snarled at her, but she had her tail wrapped around his waist, and she was stronger than he was.

When she had ahold of the knife, she tossed it across the room and wrapped herself around Radovid, not painfully, but enough to keep him from twisting free and running. If he didn’t want her—it would hurt, but she could live with that. But he was clearly far too ready to hurt himself, and if she let him do that, she would be an even worse queen than she already was.

Radovid clawed at her arms, making a terrible high-pitched keening noise. Adda could feel tears gathering in her eyes, and she tried crooning at Radovid, like she would to a fledgling. He snarled in return, but it was better than the keening.

One of other daughter queens showed up, then, poking her head into Adda’s bower, and Radovid thrashed like a landed fish.

“Adda, what—?” the other queen asked, her eyes wide.

“He was going to stab himself,” Adda said in a rush, before anyone could assume that she was trying to hurt her consort. “I don’t know what’s wrong, please, find a mentor, Triss or Keira or somebody—”

The other queen shifted and rushed out of sight.

“Radovid, please,” Adda said, turning her attention back to her consort. “I don’t want you to get hurt.”

Radovid laughed again, bitterly. “Not unless you’re the one doing the hurting.”

Adda flinched like she’d been slapped. “Why do you think I want to hurt you?”

Radovid turned his head to fix her with an incredulous stare. But as he caught her eyes, he frowned, just a little, squinting at her in confusion. “Philippa?” he asked.

[bard-llama]

Ciri contemplating on the Geopolitical chessboard that has formed: "Let's see, we have Meve in Lyria and Rivia, Anais could take up Free... Well, whatever... Temeria, Adda has a strong claim in Redenia, Skellige seems fine under Cerys, the Free Pontar Valley has Saskia, Kaedwen is leaderless, we don't care about Dol Blathanna... Stennis in Aedirn is a problem, but I'll find some way to get rid of him." Vooris is confused on why she would like to get rid of such a sycophant.

Ooooh, I like that! Like, politically, I think Ciri has to marry Morvran Voorhis, because we know that the Nilfgaardian nobles are displeased with the war and how much Emhyr has committed to it. So bringing in a daughter no one has ever heard of? Yeah, she would have to marry someone that appeases the noble families or she would face civil war.

Morvran was groomed by Emhyr as a potential successor (+ his dad was part of a plot to remove Emhyr and place Morvran on the throne, but he wasn't involved in it. Still, I might be a lil pissed if my mentor hanged my dad, even if my dad betrayed me). But we know that Ciri will be a very different ruler from Emhyr. She takes the throne wanting to make real change the way a lone witcher cannot, which likely means she'd enact a number of social reforms, even if she has to fight the nobility to get it through.

But all that is to say, Morvran's expectations of what his Empress will be like are probably wildly inaccurate at first, so he'd be very confused why she would get rid of someone who can so clearly easily be controlled.

But she doesn't want tools, she wants people. She wants to be able to make life better for peasants and nonhumans and other such marginalized groups. She wants to see leaders of other kingdoms that care about their people. That are reasonable and can be worked with. (That they all happen to be women is a happy 'coincidence'. But uh... turns out that in patriarchial societies, women tend to do a better job of not thinking with their cocks).

So there's the Free Pontar Valley with Saskia. There's Enid an Gleanna/Francesca Findabair in Dol Blathanna, Meve in Lyria and Rivia, and Adda the White in Redania/Kaedwen (Redania invaded Kaedwen and took over under Radovid). That's a lot of the North's real estate. All that's really left is Aedirn, like you said. And Stennis would be a problem, but it kinda depends on what state Aedirn is in. By which I mean, if Nilfgaard took over Aedirn after Demavend's death, even if Stennis was left alive (the coward probably ran from battle), then Aedirn would just need to be governed locally by someone loyal to Nilfgaard. Which some could maybe argue Stennis is, but uh... yeah, we know better. Also, he's a shit leader and if he was governor, then Aedirn is falling into ruin, esp after the invasion. So getting rid of him would be more like getting rid of an irritating beaurocrat. She could probably even do it without killing him, but where's the fun in that? Or maybe she extradites Stennis to Saskia and they put him on trial for the attempted assassination?

On the other hand, if Stennis takes over the throne after his father dies in W2 and somehow manages to not get taken over by Nilfgaard (which actually is possible, but only if we ignore the probable canon that Nilfgaard takes Lyria and Rivia too). Then you've got several strong (potentially) rulers and one weak link in the chain. But if Ciri wants to conquer Aedirn, then her army has to get there. Which is important for several reasons.

1) After the Nilfgaardian War + the White Frost, her army is... probably not in the best state. And Nilfgaard enlists their infantry, meaning if you're a farmer or whatever of eligible age and fitness, you are now fighting on the front for Nilfgaard. But a lot of their infantry dies (because they're inexperienced and not soldiers), which means suddenly her realm doesn't have enough farmers to bring in the crops or to sow new ones for next year. That's likely part of why Nilfgaard was demanding grain as tribute from conquered villages. But locally, they probably destroyed most of the crops ('cause walking an army over a farm will do that), so there's already gonnna be (already are) issues with famine in her empire.

2) If Ciri did somehow put together the fighting force to take Aedirn, she has to get there. This is getting super long, so I'll put the map under a cut, but the only direct way from her territory (i.e. all of Nilfgaard below the Yaruga + Temeria and Temeria's protectorates (Brugge, Sodden, etc.)) into Aedirn is north of the Mahakaman Mountains, through Iorveth's forest. Which means she's have to march her army all the way to the northern tip of her territory and then establish supply lines through a forest that is filled with monsters and murdrous squirrels (well, maybe).

Okay, I guess technically a second way to get to Aedirn would be to go by sea and then sail up the Pontar. But transporting infantry by sea is a huge undertaking, so it's still not terribly practical.

And, frankly, their ability to sail up the Pontar could be limited. Because they probably lost a lot of their navy during the White Frost thing, but also, it's in Redania's best interests to prevent Nilfgaard from accessing the Pontar. Even if it means blockading the busiest trade route in the north. Which doesn't exactly help with the famines.

Besides, even if Ciri's army could make land on the Aedirnian shore of the Pontar. That is a very narrow strip of land. Dol Blathanna is kind of on Nilfgaard's side, so they might agree (or not be asked) to letting an army travel over their land.

There is a river off the Pontar that goes to Vengerberg, so potentially she could make land there. But once again, that means supply lines dependent on waterways that she doesn't control.

So how does Ciri take Aedirn? Well, I'd say 2 ways, maybe 3:

1) Send in a covert strike team to assassinate Stennis and sweep in during the chaos. Which is good in that the strike team could probably get to Aedirn easily enough. But if she's going to occupy territory, she needs her army. Which leads to:

2) Try to encourage Meve to take over Aedirn, maybe even promise trade agreements and/or support to make it happen. The bright side: all that extra territory is not Ciri's problem and Stennis is still gone. The downside: well, if Meve is the expansionist sort (i don't know her well enough to say one way or another), then potentially Meve might try to conquer Dol Blanthanna (bad for northern stability and geopolitics, but not that big of a deal to Ciri personally) and might try to push Nilfgaard's border further south, because she knows that having an expansionist on your border signals future fighting.

3) Or, Ciri could negotiate with Meve, get permission to bring her army through Rivia to get to Aedirn. Some problems with this: Meve really kinda hates Nilfgaard, so is not likely to be inclined to agree. Ciri would have to establish supply lines through Rivia, which would at any time be subject to Meve's whims, plus probably attacks from the locals, who both hate Nilfgaard and might be short on food.

Hahaha, this is a very long and political answer, so sorry about that, but theorizing like this is really fun!

Maps:

Here’s the best map we have for the continent:

And here’s a map with some very messy political territories highlighted.

Okay, sorry it’s horribly messy, but essentially what we can see is that Nilfgaard owns the western side of the continent all the way up to the Pontar. Above the Pontar, Redania owns a HUGE chunk of land spanning east beyond Nilfgaard’s reach. Nilgaard owns everything south of the Yaruga and the territory west of the Mahakaman Mountains below the Pontar. (Just an interesting note: Mahakam was a Temerian protectorate, so technically Nilfgaard owns them. But having a city inside a mountain is not the same as getting an army across said mountains.) On the eastern side of the Mahakaman Mountains, we have the main territories that Nilfgaard doesn’t own. First, the northern border of Nilfgaard in the east is with Lyria and Rivia. Then there’s the huge chunk of land that belongs to Aedirn, except Aedirn might not have an heir to rule. And above that (previously a protectorate of Aedirn) is Dol Blathanna aka the elven state that Scoia’tael aren’t allowed in. Then, on the other side of a mountain range, the Free Pontar Valley lies between the Pontar and Dol Blathanna. 

Which is all to say: Aedirn’s fate is very questionable, but they’re actually in a pretty good location to avoid being conquered by Nilfgaard.

[fictionplumis]

I’m gonna have to write a fic for this pairing, aren’t I? 

Nevermind the fact I still haven’t finished my Eddie/Venom/Flash one yet and I can never just write a short fic, no, it has to be a Thing and I always go for the really small pairings.

I just have a lot of feelings about the concept of coming to know yourself through your shadow, and let’s face it, Roche and Iorveth are each other’s shadows. All the qualities they hate about each other are the same things that personally drive them. 

And it’s true for both of them but I just keep sticking on Roche for some reason, the loyal Temerian Hound, who committed a lot of wrongs at the order of a king who saved him, and then lost that king, and, uh... 

Look, I’ll be honest, I haven’t played the second game so I’m not too clear on what happens with Saskia and Vergen and Henselt (besides the fact he’s shit and Roche kills him, spoiler alert I guess), so I can’t really say how all that ties in to where he ends up in the third game, but in the third game he’s in a pretty shit situation, doesn’t seem all that concerned with the Socia’tael anymore, and is more than willing to kill Radovid for the sake of Temeria. I’m assuming the general idea is that Anais will take over the throne, and then what? 

What does Roche do from there? 

He has the blood of two kings on his hands and Emhyr isn’t exactly the kind of man to give into his promises without some kind of backhanded result. Making a deal with him is like the damn Monkey’s Paw, and it wouldn’t really be smart of any ruler to give Roche a position of power in a court. 

So we have a man who’s known nothing but war and following the orders of his king, who has decided one of his first acts WITHOUT orders is to kill another king for his country, and then really has no place in that country afterwards. 

We could obviously go down the PTSD and depression route very easily here, but I’m not the kind of person to just settle on that and Vernon Roche probably isn’t either. Now that he has no ties, it’s time for this bitch to go find himself. 

And maybe that means just wandering aimlessly for a little bit. 

And maybe that means coming across some wayward elves getting harassed. 

Roche, naively maybe, had thought that with Nilfgaard taking over, shit like that would have stopped. It was supposed to stop. The elves are allowed wherever they wish now, so long as they behave, and these ones clearly aren’t Socia’tael or the people harassing them would have been long dead. And that’s how Roche finds himself helping Aen Seidhe refugees under an alias and realizing how much of an absolute shit lord he had been. 

I know some people like to have it where Roche doesn’t hate non-humans, he just did it because he was ordered, but shit like that tends to be a bit more engrained. When you’re around someone, ADMIRE that someone, and they’re so flippantly disregarding the lives of people they consider OTHER, it rubs off. Roche is not immune to propaganda, nor is he necessarily a good person since there’s really no such thing. There’s just people, who sometimes try their best and sometimes don’t, and who sometimes change and sometimes don’t. 

So here we have Roche realizing the hate he felt for these people was never really his own. There’s nothing here to hate. The Socia’tael, yeah, maybe, but not the innocents he drove from their lands and sometimes killed if they didn’t obey Foltest’s ordinances. 

So he does a Personal Growth, which both makes him feel shitty and wrecked with guilt, and also makes him determined to help and be Better. 

And then fucking Iorveth shows up and nearly blows his cover to shit.

At this point, it’s still okay to hate the Socia’tael for Roche, because they’re war criminals and gods dammit, if he can be better, then so can Iorveth, Iorveth just chooses not to. But whatever, Roche has officially decided that he’s not going to pick a murderous fight over this because he’s not that kind of person anymore and it’s not his job to enforce the rules. He’s helping now. 

But, uh. Roche can have a little fistfight sometimes. As a treat. Because Iorveth’s face is very punchable and Iorveth is his usual haughty, smug self who takes way too much amusement from Vernon fucking Roche helping elven refugees. 

Only he’s not just very amused, he’s only amused to pissed off Roche, reality is he’s pretty confused and suspicious of this. Because HE would never go off and help dh’oine no matter how bad off they are, so obviously Roche wouldn’t go off and help Aen Seidhe without some ulterior motive. 

Iorveth bides his time and somehow manages to find a time that’s ripe for Talking. Not the goading shit-talking they do, but like an actual TALK. It maybe starts out as an interrogation, but Roche doesn’t raise to the bait like Iorveth assumes and then Roche is all sincere about shit that happens to relate a lot to what Iorveth has been feeling too, and oh gods damn it all, now he’s sympathizing with Vernon Roche. Empathizing, even.

Iorveth hates it. 

Roche doesn’t seem to particularly care how it makes Iorveth feel and Iorveth hates that too. 

Overall he regrets he even asked.

Then something something something they have to do a Thing together. I don’t know the exact details, probably has to do with displaced elves. 

Let’s just say Nilfgaard hasn’t fully conquered the North yet, like they’re almost there, it’s in that stage where they technically occupy the area but there’s a lot of unrest and certain people (racists) aren’t very keen on certain rules (rules telling them not to be racist) so they’re causing Problems about it. 

Maybe they get wind that there are some Witch Hunters holding a decent amount of elves hostage, but not quite enough for Nilfgaard to bother with them, so Roche is like, sure, okay, I’ve been getting better at this whole sneaky sneak thing, I’ll go sneak the elves out. And Iorveth is obviously not letting Roche go do that alone, because it’s Roche, and Iorveth still wants to be suspicious of him and doesn’t like him, and someone needs to be there to actually rescue the elves if Roche dies, also he kind of wants to see Roche die (he doesn’t, but semantics) so he goes. 

The sneaky sneak plan fails, go figure. And here’s where I might have to twist canon a bit because how well known is it that Roche helped plot against Radovid? Dunno, but we’re gonna say not too many people actually know, just those in power. And Temeria is established and under Nilfgaard, but Roche isn’t in a position of power there and when the sneaky sneak plan fails, he’s not wearing any indication that he’s WITH Temeria. So say someone that knows him from his Blue Stripes days sees him and they’re like, huh. Vernon Roche hates non-humans and didn’t immediately ally himself with Temeria and Nilfgaard. Clearly this is an ally. 

So at first getting caught is sort of fine, because now he’s making awkward conversation with a racist and getting introduced to other racists but no one is trying to kill him so like. Okay. Could be worse. 

And then the alarm sounds because Iorveth was spotted and they drag Roche to go corner him. 

Iorveth is fully expecting Roche to keep up his little ploy and he can’t even say he blames Roche, because it’s a good way to sneak in and save people, IF Roche isn’t seriously considering going back to being a shit lord just because it’s convenient. They’re pretty out numbered. Fighting would be a bad idea. Iorveth is still pissed, obviously, and feels betrayed, and he plans on giving Roche no end of shit about this later even if he DOES use the position to save the elves. 

Only Roche curses under his breath and turns his sword on the nearest Witch Hunter and all hell breaks loose. For the first time Iorveth finds himself fighting WITH Roche instead of against him. 

And it’s kind of fun. 

Just as thrilling. 

And they actually turn out to be a very deadly team together. 

So they rescue the elves and have every intention of escorting them back to the refugee camp they know of when they’re told about the camp these elves came from. One that was attacked by Witch Hunters. It’s a thing they’re doing now, kidnapping elves and destroying refugee places. So instead they point the elves in the direction of the camp they came from since the roads are all clear, and they go on their little crusade to save elves. 

And along the way they learn stuff about each other. 

Roche learns more about elves in general, and the uncultured swine actually starts finding himself more and more fascinated by the deep complexity and emotional connection to the world they have. He envies it, even, because even when Iorveth has nothing, he has that connection. Roche has only ever had Temeria and now, well. Only himself, really, and he’s still trying to figure out what to do with that. 

Iorveth takes the slightest amount of pity for the useless dh’oine, because the idea of not having that connection, that thing to moor him down, sounds intolerable. How do humans survive without that? So he starts making a half-assed (or at least he tells himself it’s half-assed) effort to help Roche recognize the natural world around him a bit more and have more respect for it. 

It’s the fact that Roche is TRYING, genuinely TRYING that really makes Iorveth feel a certain way. 

And he opens up a bit about himself, his past, why he joined with the Socia’tael, and after seeing everything he’s seen, and what he’s STILL seeing, Roche starts understanding it a bit more. The actions of desperate people pushed to the edge, what they do when diplomacy fails, when assimilation means death, the tactics they resort to because there is no fair fight otherwise. 

Now he can’t hate the Socia’tael either. He can’t even dislike them. Hell, he even finds himself admiring them. 

And Iorveth learns about humans. 

Nothing groundbreaking, exactly. Not about the species as a whole, anyway. Maybe that they’re capable of change, which is pretty revolutionary in his mind, and sometimes they stop into places and Iorveth sees that some humans do, indeed, have compassion for things that aren’t exactly like them. 

The most interesting and useful thing he learns is that human body hair isn’t that bad and against what he would have assumed, he actually kind of likes it? Especially the stubble that Roche can never seem to entirely shave off in the morning--because it turns out Roche is actually pretty cleanly for a human when he has regular access to be. 

The texture and burn of it scraping at his skin is nice, okay? It’s new and nice and maybe he can understand why there are so many mixed-elves running about despite how awkwardly bulky and clumsy dh’oine are. Also they’re warm. And, at least in Roche’s case, large. So yeah. He’ll concede the point that they make good bedpartners, and that’s ALSO something Iorveth learns about humans. 

[llendrinall]

I love crossover fics.

For instance there's this good fic that Detroit: Become Human that is a crossover with Batman.

The worst part of loving crossover fics is when you get a thought like "Omg what if Jaskier was Maleficent and Diavals kid" and then actually looking it up and finding nothing. Kinda sucks.

Sorry for the random thought.

Oh, don’t apologize for your thoughts. The ask box is open :)

I usually stay away from crossovers because they make me wary. They require twice as much familiarity/knowledge with the original content, double the investment when reading the story but with no promise of double reward. Plus, I guess I have come across too many fics where the only premise was What if set A of characters met and befriended set B? Haha, wouldn’t that be fun?

No, it’s not very fun.

That said, I have read some gorgeous crossover fics. There was a Supernatural/Criminal Minds story that worked extremely well (The FBI division for weird cases following the Winchesters). There are also a few short fics in which Q from the Craig 007 movies is a young Holmes brother. Those are fantastic because Ben Whishaw’s Q does resemble Cumberbatch’s Sherlock, and he is both a genius and a government worker so he is a nice mixture of the canonical Holmes brothers. Very good.

Crossovers work best when they are unbalanced. Set A of characters is in Universe B, but set B of characters is only mentioned in passing. (Ex: your faves go to Hogwarts, there is no mention of Harry Potter at all except in a Quidditch context). Or set A and B share a universe, but the focus is on A’s storyline.

Now I have got all that exposition out, let me say, Anon, what in the nine heavens and thirteen hells was that thought? What, what– it’s in my mind now! What if The Witcher’s Jaskier was Maleficent’s and Diaval’s kid?

It’s not that I can’t see Maleficent and her pet human crow having a romantic and sexual relationship. I’m sure they would be fantastically goth together and make each other very happy. Or that they wouldn’t blend well with The Witcher, because that setting admits all kind of supernatural beings. Maleficent wouldn’t even stand out at all.

It’s that Jaskier is a viscount. An aristocrat. A nobleman. And even though it’s barely mentioned, it’s a very important aspect of his character. It explains a lot of his psychological make-up. Jaskier is a noble. This means that at some point either one if his parents received a title (Why? What did they do?) from a king (which one? Certainly not Radovid. Was it Foltest?) and, instead of shrugging it off and flying away, they kept the title and all the trappings associated with it.

There is a huge story in there, Anon. I don’t think Maleficent respects human kings enough to want to be involved with them ever again. So, was it Diaval? What did he do? Or was it Maleficent after all who asked for a title and land because even though she doesn’t care she knows that humans do? Maybe she just wanted the land, a nice haunted forest for her and her family, and the title was an afterthought so humans would respect her authority.

And just what happened that a king saw it fit to handle a title? Each time a king grants a title his position weakens, so he has to give it to someone who is both loyal, powerful and not a threat. Now, this I can believe because The Witcher is quite good at reflecting the real political nonsense of late medieval times. And Maleficent got tangled on it somehow. Sure. Maybe there was a little princess in danger and she is a sucker for those.

But why did she keep it? Was it for Jaskier’s benefit? Because she wanted him to have all the best opportunities and make plenty of little humans friends?

Does Jaskier know he is not entirely human? I bet he doesn’t. I bet he hasn’t realized he is not aging as he should. I bet he can fly but doesn’t because the air is very cold and it’s bad for his voice, plus his hair is enough of a mess. I bet his dad calls him “my sweet song bird”.

What a question anon. Come on. Go on and write us the fic in which Vesemir finds out Jaskier can fly and, after a short but intense internal freak out, he decides not to say a word to Geralt because he deserves to be completely gobsmacked by it. Please and thank you. Five Times Someone Learned Something of Jaskier’s Origins and One Time He Explained It All Himself.

The one time he is talking to Emperor Emhyr.

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I waited until I was at home with an actual keyboard for this, since I generally don't like to type a lot on my phone... Also, it's been a loooong day and I'm trying to catch typos but beware....

I don't mind spoilers at all! Lol I've already gone looking into game and book canon, though I wasn't aware Jaskier ended up with anyone. I think the show is willing to diverge from book canon some (such as season two) but that, in general, the overall arc will follow the books. For all that the show is probably going to stick with Geralt/Yennefer, I agree that it's surprising how much the show is willing to also have this unrequited ship between Geralt/Jaskier, though I'd also love to know what percentage is the show's doing and how much of it is purely down to Joey Batey's improv and natural chemistry. I hope that Jaskier gets a lasting relationship by the end, even if whatever happens between him and the prince turns out to be a fling. I just want to see him happy...

I consider myself a fan of bard whump as well, but not gratuitously or for its own sake--I think I'm like you in that there has to be resolution (unlike season two) to make it worth it. Though I'm a sucker for angst, I think that, ultimately, what makes hurt/comfort worth it is the comfort at the end--that whatever the character is put through, they'll get out of it and people will help them heal. I think that's what was missing from season two, for Jaskier, but hopefully it'll be better with whatever happens in season three. I'd actually love to see spy!Jaskier (and more pirate-y outfits, please--nothing against the more bard-y outfits from season one but that shirt, vest, and coat were amazing in season two).

I don't have a Twitter, so I didn't see that post, so thanks for sharing it! It sounds more interesting than what I found in an article online. I don't know if I'm a fan of an evil!Jaskier, though it could be interesting--I've certainly read a few fics that were much more, shall we say, morally ambiguous, and those were fascinating--but certainly a dark!Jaskier would be fun. I wouldn't mind if a character, such as Radovid or someone else, sort of got into Jaskier's insecurities, his unresolved hurt over the previous season (not to mention the mountain) and just sort of twisted--like what happened to Yennefer in season two with the Deathless Mother--until Jaskier just sort of...lashes out. Does something, I don't know what, out of spite and pain.

Very, "Look at what you've all done to me", if I'm being honest. I still don't know about an evil!Jaskier, which I think is different than a dark!Jaskier, but either way, I think it could be believably done if it's a sort of revenge. Jaskier is a very caring person, which is partly why I love him so much and why I don't want to see him evil--he's just got this light and this warmth and I don't want to see it gone--but if it's framed in a "this is what happens when there's nothing left to give" or "I'm tired of giving and just being taken for granted, tired of only being needed when I'm useful, this is what happens when I've had enough" way, I could probably get behind it. And at that point, in my mind, you basically just take the whole end of "Old Witch Sleep" and then turn Joey loose on set and that's really all that needs to be done because he'll do the rest; like, just, we hear the song and that's all we get--we're listening, it's music and vocals, it's purely auditory--and yet the story, the emotions, are all there, so what if we actually got to *see it* too?

At that point, I suppose, what would have to happen is for Geralt, Yennefer, etc, to show that they do love Jaskier, even at his worst, to counter whatever manipulations and lies are being told to convince him that he isn't loved. That would also serve to bring resolution to the mountain breakup, too. Because even if Jaskier has forgiven Geralt--which I think Joey indicated in a recent interview--that doesn't mean the hurt, the pain, the anger just immediately goes away, or that old wounds can't be reopened. Trust takes time to get rebuilt and in that time, someone else can come along and start chipping away at it.

I don't know how to match this Netflix post with the bit I've read from TV Tropes about the book version of the character, either, but like you said, the show doesn't necessarily follow the books, so those aren't reliable indicators of what's going to happen. I'm not sure what you mean by the actors' "character types" though I think it might have something to do with what sorts of characters that actors might be well-suited to play based on their own personality/temperament.

Okay, I think I've addressed everything from your response, though no one can say I'm short-winded as a result. That's my norm, though, honestly. Like Tim Curry as Wadsworth in "Clue". It's amazing how much speculation we can make out of so little!

I've never asked a question on here; I don't know how it works. I hope I'm doing this right. Feel free to skip this....

Anyway, proceeding as if I am doing this correctly, regarding the gay noble who's supposed to flirt with Jaskier and the confirmation of a character who's supposed to be a prince.

I've been tentatively excited about the idea of a gay noble flirting with Jaskier. Excited because I'd be overjoyed to see a canonical gay romance and because I'd be absolutely delighted to see Jaskier fall in love with someone who loves him back (I do ship Jaskier with Geralt but I doubt the show will make it canon because it'd piss off the book purists, and I think the way the show will make the most audience members happy is to have Geralt end up with Yennefer and then set up Jaskier with another man [all that said, Geralt/Jaskier/Yennefer is my OT3 but that would require Netflix being brave enough to allow polyamory]). Let the bard be happy!

However, I've been nervous that there will be even more bard whump in S3. When Jaskier was talking to Yennefer about people donating to the cause of helping the Elves, it sounded like he thought that they were all, well, donations. Money sent in good will. But then the spymaster dude said he wanted the bard brought in to pay up and.... I'm nervous about how the payment will be collected. My guess is that, most likely, Jaskier will be forced to be a spy but....

And then, because I haven't yet read the books (waiting on my library hold), I went to TV Tropes. I didn't find a Prince Radovid but I did find a King Radovid and he's apparently about as bad as the Emperor. He's apparently just a terrible person. So if the Prince isn't a separate character but is the same character prior to becoming king, I don't see how Jaskier would be interested in this guy.

So, maybe they are separate characters and the Prince is a much better person than his father and he and Jaskier will just be a sweet couple. But I'm nervous. I'm worried the storyline could get pretty dark but maybe I've just read too many hurt/comfort fics.

you're doing wonderfully don't worry lmao!

in terms of jaskier and relationships (and presuming you don't mind book spoilers since you've had a sneaky look yourself, and if you DO mind spoilers ignore all this and send me an angry ask and I'll answer again lmao), I haven't read the books but I'm pretty sure he ends up with a woman in them? and although the writers clearly aren't sticking to the book content (cough season 2 cough) they are definitely going down the yenralt route (terrible a job though they're doing of it) so yeah, geraskefer/geraskier unfortunately is unlikely to be a thing. I am however surprised at just how blatant they've made the unrequited love between jaskier and geralt, even if they haven't actually stated anything there's so much that can be taken that way, so who knows where jaskier is going to end up relationship wise. i would assume, if it's anything at all, that this "relationship" with the prince guy is likely to just be a fling though.

here's where we differ lmao bc I'm a sucker for jaskier whump, I just hate the lack of comfort we get for him 😔 so yeah if they whump him again i need some sort of resolution to it not just "oh hey let's torture the bard and then never mention it again." but anyway, considering the set up of this storyline at the end of s2, and that I think spy!jaskier is a significant plot in the books (?) i'm hopeful that it's going to be a decent story!

with this information given from twn twitter, and what we already know about jaskier in s3, it's probably reasonable to assume that these two characters are going to be connected, and the "until someone gets hurt" makes me🤞in a vaguely evil jaskier stan sort of way.

but again, this info compared with the book character doesn't seem to add up, especially when taken with the actors "character types" lmao and twn propensity to ignore the books.

basically, we know nothing lmao i'm just speculating and hyperfixating on a random line of a script that may or may not even be real. we move✌️