#would include tissaia but we all know where she ends up :(

[craybii]

So many new things in the newest trailer to go through, so many good and crazy shots. V2 is gonna be amazing.

But anyways, I wanted to go through some of them and write them down for myself, so SPOILERS BELOW FOR S3/V2 since there’s a bunch of new shots from the trailer included.

These two shots are linked - originally I thought the eyes below were Yennefer's but this is Francesca 100%. In the shot above, we see Fringilla's head (her hair from the tavern) + Francesca's iconic braided hair - both of them are looking up at the fire circle that's crashing right down below on top of them - and then they both fall back if you watch the trailer. So the shot below is certainly Francesca watching as the fire collapses down on them. And those are her blue eyes, not purple like Yennefer's.

The shot above is continuation of that - Francesca seems knocked out or something and lands on Fringilla who protects them against the fire with magic in the very last second - this seems to be why the entire hall is completely destroyed in the following shots.

Here, we can clearly see Artorius Vigo (Fringilla's uncle) very much dead with Tissaia trying to desperately heal him - Margarita pulls her away in the very last second as fire explodes all around them (the firecircle that crashes on Francesca and Fringilla???) and puts up a shield to protect herself and Tissaia. So Artorius is a goner for sure. Tissaia and Rita save themselves in the last sec.

This one is interesting - for anyone who knows the books, all of the mages depicted here are part of the neutral faction of mages who were neither on Philippa's side or on Vilgefortz's, with some new tossed in as well.

There's Artorius Vigo, Bianca d'Este, Gerhart of Aelle (the oldest living sorcerer), Margarita Laux-Antille and Tissaia, plus more male mages - just extras but these should be Carduin, Marquard and Dorregaray. They seem to be defending against the arrows of the Scoia'tael who're standing across from them - since Artorius is alive here and the room looks fine here, this is before the fire circle crashes down. Also, since the elves are there, it would stand to reason Francesca is present as well - Fringilla and Cahir should be too. This could very well be the coup but it begs the question - where are Philippa, Sabrina, Keira and Triss, the northern sorceresses?

Sabrina being a badass Kaedweni HBIC in a new dress. The woman behind her in the first shot is Keira Metz, so they're definitely there after the ballroom has been destroyed. Knowing how she hates the elves, this rock is probs heading for one of them. There's more shots that seem to be in this same sequence from other promo material - Cahir swordfighting someone in this room, Francesca blocking a lightning bolt from Tissaia (she fires it from above), Istredd killing an elf, Stregobor staring in anger at the destruction.

I have no idea what's happening here but it looks terrifying - the ocean is completely dried up and Aretuza is burning down. The lightning probably means the portal in Tol Lara is going haywire and we know how that ends.

Perhaps the most devastating shot of this trailer for me. Margarita, Keira, Tissaia, Yennefer and Marti Sodergren staring at what is no doubt Aretuza falling down in flames once the coup has ended. Notice how Tissaia is completely grey - no doubt caused by the huge tragedy that has just destroyed everything she's ever worked for.

[do-what-the-knight-tells-you]

So I'm going to be really interested in what the Netflix adaptation does with Triss.

I haven't seen her in the books really yet, and what we've got from the show is a mage consistently portrayed as moral and sweet and kind. Rather innocent. But despite the lack of complexity (since we've seen her all of what, three times?), We know that she came out of Aretuza just like the rest of them, right? And that's gotta do stuff to a person.

I've only played the third Witcher game, but I think I've played through a good chunk of Triss' storyline there (until the mage escape), and the dialogue trees have been interesting. I knew that Geralt gets with her in the first game, and that it's partly because he's amnesic and doesn't remember anyone else yen, and that comes up here, in conversations with Yennefer, and in some of the paths you can take with Triss.

I'm sure I've not fully explored those trees, and I did not pick the path that ends with them having sex before she takes off with a boat full of mages, so there may be other takes, but many of the options I had speak to a lot of discomfort on Geralt's end. Like, he likes her still, and she clearly still holds a torch for him, but there are a lot of very bitter, very "are you going to withold information this time." "Can I trust you this time" "can we even talk fondly about that thing, considering the betrayal" type things they can say to each other.

Since we meet Yennefer in game first, convo between her and Geralt is definitely acting as a framing device, and the tree I followed there involved Geralt doing a lot of professing that he Didn't Know being with Triss was a betrayal of Yen, and Yen does a lot of ... Not really being into that answer? And also not liking that Geralt, like, wants to keep Triss from dying and stuff?

So yeah, much as we talk about the complexity (and potential for abuse) in the Yennefer/Geralt pairing, since that's the one we've seen, it does leave me very curious to see where we go with Triss, and if we go there, how we turn sweet kind Save-the-princess! Plant-growing Triss, into hyper-sexual, manipulative, you-were-injuired-and-i-took-advantage-of-your-lack-of-information-to-get-you-to-consent-to-something-you-would-not-have-otherwise Triss.

Book folks, or early game folks, wanna give me a lil more info?

Anyway, that makes all three mages Geralt can/has had a thing with in my playthrough... All three have lied, manipulated, or withheld, in order to get him to sleep with them, or similarly manipulated using sex and romance to get him into some other position or situation they needed, instead of asking.

Which, yeah, buddy, maybe stay clear of mages for a bit, huh?

I think the consistent theme may just be that mages and their personal agendas take precedence over everything else, including other folks' lives, consent, autonomy. We see it in Stregabor, in Fringilla, in the way Tissaia trained her mages, and here in these younger mages. Age, power, whatever, they definitely believe that they are doing the thing that is best for everyone, and should not have to answer to anyone or thing about it...

Which, not that Geralt Doesn't make his own choices, hang everyone else's opinions, but the difference in power, on scope, in control over continental events...

Yeah.

[tissaiasource]

hi! can you pls explain to me why yennefer hates aretuza? and why she treats tissaia like that in rinde? i'm not sure i get it. would be great!

Hi anon! I’ll do my best to answer your question but first I need to make a disclaimer.

I have not read the books so I cannot fully answer this question to the degree you may be hoping for but I will do my best to extract the answer from the show (with some info from the books included). This answer is based on the show and may contradict with lore from the books! 

Tissaia’s approach to teaching is cold, strict, and organized. She showed no concern for Fringilla when her hand shriveled up. Doralis attempted to catch lightning in a bottle and ended up electrocuting herself yet Tissaia was not concerned about whether or not she was still breathing.

Yennefer attempted suicide in episode 2. She hated Aretuza from the very start. It was never a place where she felt safe or loved. 

We saw Yennefer continuously underperforming. Her self esteem lowering further and further whilst her anger and frustration continued to grow. Tissaia’s comments did not help.

“Even if you were a beauty, still no one would love you”

“What you did there was pathetic”

“Do you know how many people wouldn’t blink if you died”

Then the whole fiasco with the chapter began and Yennefer found out she was no longer assigned to Aedirn, but Nilfgaard instead. Aedirn was the kingdom she grew up in, and Nilfgaard was known for having a poor reputation. She partly blamed Tissaia for not doing anything about it but at the end of the day there’s not much Tissaia could have done.

In the heat of the moment she went ahead with her transformation, only finding out she must sacrifice her fertility moments before the procedure took place. This is important, since Tissaia is the one who enforced this rule. In the books Tissaia emphasizes that nobody should be born a sorcerer/sorceress and demands that all apprentices are sterilized with no exceptions. Since Yennefer was frustrated and running out of time, she followed through, without too much thought of the consequences.

When the two meet again in Rinde, many decades passed. Tissaia warned Yennefer about her endeavors to regain her womb and reminded her of the sacrifice she made to become a sorceress. Yennefer responded. “But I didn’t know what it would mean to me”. For Yennefer, becoming a mother was important and she was angry at Tissaia for some of the circumstances which led to her motherhood not becoming a reality.

“The ability to create life. Real life. They take that from you. And then send you out so the only family, the only loyalty you have is to them. And you’ll trade it all for what? Looks that never change? A court full of idiots?”

“Even when we’re told we’re special, as I was… as you would have been… we’re still just vessels for them to take and take until we’re empty and alone”

To summarize, Yennefer holds a grudge against Tissaia (and Aretuza) for a number of reasons, especially for the loss of her womb. She is angry at the chapter, the people in it, Tissaia and the events which led to her fate. Hence why she treats Tissaia the way she does in Rinde.

[untaintedtea]

I should have written this earlier when Witcher Netflix was more fresh in my mind (I haven't done a proper rewatch yet) but I still wanted to write a post about some thoughts I had (that I actually remember lol) and stuff I want in the next season. It's like 99% about Geralt/Yen/Ciri bc I have three brain cells and they're dedicated to them.

The spoiler-free stuff: I definitely loved it! There's some scenes in the book that I would have loved to have seen on screen that I'll mention later, but I really liked it for the most part. My main issue is the pacing, but I understand them trying to fit so much into only 8 episodes -- I hope next season will have at least 10 or even 12 eps to fully flesh out the storylines. There were times where I wondered how easy it was to follow if you didn't know the books, and it seems that it's kinda been mixed? But all-in-all people are loving it, there's lots of memes and new content, and I'm happy about that.

Yennefer's backstory and Anya Chalotra were the highlights for me, and I loved Tissaia as well. By "I haven't done a proper rewatch" I mean that I've only rewatched the first ep (Renfri ❤️) and the parts with Geralt/Yennefer lmao. I'll prob watch it all again later on. Now to the spoilery stuff (includes some refs to the books):

Some specific stuff I liked:

Geralt finally being able to sleep in the Last Wish episode and then him saying in the next ep that before he met Yen, "nights were restless" so she/the thought of her helps him sleep now? lol

Yen touching Geralt's face after he tells her she's important to him as if she can't believe she's important to someone right then and needs to make sure he's real or that she's not dreaming 😭

Téa and Véa and how they actually talked instead of not really communicating well themselves in the books

Yen's elven blood being emphasized and it being a thing that allows her to be naturally inclined towards magic…idek I'm just into that lmao

Geralt "hm"-ing all the time was excellent and is, unfortunately, v relatable

I wasn't gonna say this but since I posted about his casting on my blog previously…I'm still not a fan of Henry but I cannot deny his knowledge and dedication to Geralt and the Witcher lore, and I think he portrayed Geralt very well to the point where I don’t think I imagine anyone else playing the role now? I really mean this bc before I refused to reblog/tweet anything with him in it bc I’m petty LMAO

This is obvious but Toss a Coin to Your Witcher is the song of the year and Her Sweet Kiss is also good. @ netflix soundtrack WHEN

Some stuff I have issues with:

Istredd getting an expanded storyline is fine with me (and will probably set up better angst) but I wish he didn't do the thing Geralt does in Thanedd where he thinks about things Yen likes…I guess that's minor by itself, but Geralt thinking about the house in Thanedd is so important and I hope at least they keep that for the future. Also making the imaginary sorcerers Yennefer conjured up clap like in Thanedd is like…ok I'll allow it but Thanedd better be Extra Good bc I remember reading the part where they're in bed again when I wanted to make myself upset lmao

I wish we got the line when Geralt first called Yennefer "Yen" because "nobody's ever called me that. Say it again" is SO POWERFUL and I think that would have helped set up Geralt/Yen better in the series. Anya did describe the relationship as "animalistic and full of lust" and honestly that's fair but I also want people to understand why tf I'm smiling when we watch them fuck after the last wish instead of being like "ok but where did this come from" lmao. Yeah they’re horny af but pls!!!

Tbh I just want more Angst...like in the Bounds of Reason ep, the "you left" thing and Geralt asking for forgiveness was so short and would have been better if they just…expanded on it a little more…idek this is where I really wished they had an extra episode or two just to elaborate :/

The lack of baby dragon is so sad tbh. I liked that they did without Yen getting her titties exposed and threatened with rape obviously but the baby dragon running over to Yen tho!!

Ciri is my sweet child whom I love dearly and I understand her storyline but I wasn't super into her parts in a way? It makes sense since she's running and hiding and I felt her panic and loneliness and all that, but I think this could have only been fixed if they did Brokilon like in the books. I guess they'd have to cut down on Calanthe maybe?

As for the "Who is Yennefer?" ending:

I know many book readers weren't super satisfied with this, since ofc this is the famous "you're something more" scene, but I think it's fine within the context of the show because of the way Brokilon was handled (obviously I would have liked to see Geralt + Ciri interactions so we could have gotten “something more” though). It also sets up a connection between Yen + Ciri early on -- not really a strong one, but a connection nonetheless. And ofc it makes sense to people who don't know the books, and this is an adaptation after all.

I wish it wasn't as abrupt though? The fact that Ciri's first words to Geralt were about Yennefer is kind of a weird, but I guess that Ciri's vision was so vivid she couldn't help it maybe? And her mentioning Yennefer after Geralt talked about being linked by destiny enforces that it's all three of them linked.

I think this ending line allows for flashbacks via communication? Like if Geralt were to tell Ciri about Yen (and Yen telling Ciri about Geralt), they could elaborate on the relationship between Geralt/Yennefer that way and maybe have a flashback episode or at least a few scenes. I don’t really imagine Geralt saying too much about Yen but still?

So that takes us to things I want in the next season (not exhaustive; I need to do a BoE re-read):

The Dear Friend letter!!

And obviously before that, Triss staying at Kaer Morhen for a while…I wouldn't mind if they completely wrote out any attraction she had to Geralt ofc, but Ciri being sure that Triss is "not Geralt's woman" is also good

Imagine Ciri reading Yennefer's mind and accidentally seeing her thoughts about Geralt…not that she'd even need to though, as long as Yen tells Ciri that Geralt's hands are very gentle is enough lmao. But I'd love the "what is there between you and Geralt" line! In general, I really want Yen/Geralt to be like, the most obvious thing to the audience lol.

Yen telling Ciri that she's lucky bc Ciri knows that Geralt will come back for her and Yen isn't sure that Geralt would do the same for her 😭

Since they're doing the story with Nivellen, I'm hoping for other short stories to be adapted too. My favourite is A Shard of Ice, and I read that it's Henry's favourite too so I'm optimistic about it being included somehow. And since Istredd has a bigger role, it could work? ALSO WE NEED EVERYONE TO KNOW ABOUT THE UNICORN. PLEASE

Flashbacks to Belleteyn (is having another orgy scene ok. pls say yes) and the Geralt seeing that the 14th name on the hill wasn't Yennefer. He wanted to die again ahhhhhhh

Yarpen asking Geralt "is [Ciri] yours?"

More Jaskier songs about Geralt/Yen…even just one pls

And more angst bc like. There's so much come on lmao hurt the audience

A lot of Yennefer + Ciri. Just a Lot of it.

[heytherefandoms]

...but it's for a loaded reason. When it all comes down to it, Yennefer wants to have a child to boost her ego and be important to someone. But looking at her character over the entire story, it's much more than that. Before coming to Aretuza, Yennefer is tormented and beaten by society for her disability, which she blames on her elven heritage. When she reveals this to Istreed, she's revealing how she blames her life's suffering on her very existence. I can't begin to describe how sad (2/?)

this is. Her self esteem and image low, to put it mildly. Then she’s at Aretuza and she realizes how her lineage actually helps her, that it is part of what makes her so powerful. But she can’t control it. Again, something is wrong with her: she’s undeserving of such power. This isn’t helped by the fact that she’s rejected from Aedirn because of. Again, she blames her existence for her life’s suffering and failings. Love for oneself is low. Feelings of importance is low. And she makes it (3/?) clear she wants to be seen as important more than anything. And yes, she falls into the trap of believing if someone else sees her as important and worth love, she can believe it herself too. But she never does. She feels useless working for the court, she feels useless working for the Brotherhood. And when she fails to save the baby from the assassin? She’s failed and proven to be useless yet again. And this is the part where I think I could be extremely biased in my interpretation of Yen (4/?) When she’s reflecting on the beach and talking to the dead baby, she’s thinking of all the ways the world was cruel to her and why. And at that level of awareness, she knows how she wishes life could have been to her. She wishes she could have been made to feel important. Not for her magic, but for simply living (as clearly her magic doesn’t make her important, looks at where she is in court and the fact that she failed this child). Having a child could be a second chance for Yen. Yes, it’d (5/? living vicariously through her child, but who hasn’t had a shitty life and thought bitterly how they could have done better? (Okay I know a lot of people but I personally fall into the category that does). Anyways, even Geralt sees it (and comments on it in a terrible way but Geralt’s never been good with his feelings) during the dragon hunt. Anyways, I shoulda been better and included actual evidence and quotes but I didn’t, AP Lang can sue me. But ye, I think you can feel for Yen once (6/?) you understand where she’s coming from. A poet I bet Yen would love is Plath, who said “Perhaps when we find ourselves wanting everything, it is because we are dangerously close to wanting nothing.” And what does Yen tell Geralt she wants? “Everything.” And for the longest time, nothing is all Yennefer accepts for herself. Tissaia tells it to her “you accepted a fucking bed in a pigpen as okay for yourself”. The rest of Yen’s storyline is trying to run away from that girl and believe (7/?) deserving of something more. So yeah, Geralt isn’t wrong when he calls her selfish for wanting a child to finally feel important. But while it’s untrue having children will make anyone feel fulfilled (an especially annoying role thrust upon women more than men) it’s not untrue it will never make someone feel fulfilled. IDK where I’m going with this, I’m just beating a dead horse now TBH. Sorry about that. And ik Yen’s motives and goals still aren’t fantastic, but I hope they’re more human (end) 

Hi anon! I think your first message got eaten by tumblr. Also I made that post yesterday at night,queued it, and immediately forgot about it so I was confused at first about what I wrote.

Thanks for your lengthy explanation! You’re right, we can feel for Yen because we’ve seen everything she’s been through and all that. Tbh, from my personal POV, I still don’t really get why she wants her own, biological child this badly (as in, she could have easily stolen or adopted one), but I don’t like children all that much so let’s leave that aside (also the fact that her life isn’t exactly child-friendly, like Geralt said, but then again, there seems to be going on a lot of war and violence everywhere all the time, so).

What I was trying to say, and probably didn’t, I can’t quite remember right now, is that I’m kind of upset with the writers for giving Yennefer such a… you know, this typical “main character woman has a deep dark shame, a secret she can never tell anyone - she’s infertile”/”main character woman can’t have biological children and it is what Makes Her Life Hell Forever, as it was the Only Purpose of her life” kinda story. I don’t mean this in a way of critizising women who really, really want to become mothers and see it as their life’s goal, that’s totally valid, of course. It just annoys me that they gave Yennefer such a stereotypical Tragic TM story and goal. We know that she’s lived at least two lifetimes worth of years, and they wanna tell me she never gave up on that dream? She spent between a hundred and a hundred and fifty-ish years chasing that one goal? Never adjusted it? Never looked for alternative ways? Or found a different way for herself to become important to someone? 

I don’t know. I don’t know how to explain that I understand why she would hold on to that her entire life, and that I think it’s perfectly fine to tell stories of women who really badly want to have biological children, while also explaining that I dislike how women keep being portrayed as inherently always wanting to become mothers in media, without contradicting myself. I hope I made myself somewhat understandable.

Also, AP Lang as in the citation method? Yeah, it can choke. I don’t know it and I’ve never used it, but I had to use MLA 8 for my BA paper and citing. is. the. worst. Just let me list all my sources at the end without having to specify exactly where I found which sentence on every single page!! There HAVE to be simpler ways to cite!! Anyway I handed in my BA paper like three weeks ago so knock on wood and cross your fingers for me.

(not that I’m scared, I already handed in like half of it as a seminar paper and got it back corrected, and my professor’s a real sweetheart, I asked for like 5 days extension because I had trouble writing because of my med’s side effects, and she was like “oh??? health comes first my dear, have an entire month of extension!!! hope you’ll get better soon!!!”, but still)

Also, if anyone knows how to tag answers before posting them, please let me know? I mean I get asks like once a year but it’s still annoying to post them, then having to go to my dash and edit the post to add the tags there.

[help-i-need-a-cool-username]

Since you all love my "if it wasnt so full of death itd be a sitcom" comment heres ideas for a (somewhat cringy) sitcom!AU

(The Nanny theme song was stuck in my head while i wrote this)

So we got our main characters: Ciri, Geralt, and later Yennefer (her name will be shorted to Yen for the purposes of im typing this up on my phone and i dont have the patience to type her full name 40 times)

Side/returning characters: Jaskier (he becomes a main character by season 3 because he's a fan favorite), at least two of Geralt's brothers, Vesemir, Yen's friends/former coworkers (i didnt watch season 1 so i dont know their names im sorry), and i dont really know who Tissaia is (again ive only watched s2) but i know she's significant to Yen's story so i feel like she'd be introduced in the second season where Yen is 100% a main character

First ep

Open with Ciri moving in with Geralt. Literally the first shot is her first time walking through his front door.

Whats the house situation? Is it like rural? In the mountains? The suburbs? Does Geralt live with his brothers? Did Geralt buy a new place specifically because he was getting Ciri? Does he only live there part of the year and everything is covered with dust? Either way the house is big and filled with non-child friendly things

If Geralt lives with his brothers you meet them in ep1 and Yen within the next two eps, if not you meet Yen in ep1 and the brothers in the following episodes (Jaskier comes in about halfway through the season)

Does Ciri go to school? If so this includes her first day if not/if its summer it includes a conversation about whether or not to go to school

Ciri went to private school or was home schooled when she lived with Calanthe. Here she would be going to public school?

Im thinking the reason why Ciri's there isnt mentioned until a later episode, or its mentioned but in a later episode you get a flashback sequence

If the brothers are there, its about them picking on Ciri but also trying and failing to accommodate her

I was thinking the ep ends with Geralt calling Yen to ask for help (and her showing up which is right where the ep ends) but in tv canon he actually called Triss first so maybe we should be going with Triss???

Ep 2

this is where we meet one or more of his brothers if he's not living with them

(Most modern aus Geralt doesnt live with them but if were trying to match what essentially starts at s2 Geralt and Ciri should be living with them. Im not sure which option is better for a sitcom (the typical "you dont live here but you're always here" characters vs a general "we live together and that makes up at least 60% of our problems"))

Ive decided were going with Triss (and she's the one who calls Yen) so Triss takes Ciri out shopping and stuff while also showing her around the city/town. They have a fun girls day.

This is the ep where Geralt's situation with Yen (and Jaskier) first comes up ("who's Yennefer?"). Probably when he's talking to Triss

Im thinking thats a ~mystery~ that the audience (and Ciri?) dont find out about until the end of the season (if its in the first season at all)

I just realized idk if Vesemir lives with his kids (if Geralt lives with his brothers) or not but also i didnt give anyone jobs 😂. I have no idea who works what job please drop suggestions in the notes/reblogs

Other eps and Scenes

the one Yen is introduced has to be ep 3 or 4 if its not in ep1. Triss told her (or she told Jaskier and he told Yen) about Ciri and she had to see for herself

Canon's almost betrayal plot line doesnt fit in here so were gonna ignore it

Because this is a sitcom Yen and Geralt's first/second on screen convo is a bit icy. Idk how her relationship with Ciri starts here so you all tell me

Jaskier's ep. So Jaskier's been mentioned in almost every ep before this one. Ciri has started formulating What Happened between Yen & Geralt and Jaskier & Geralt ideas by now.

If were going by canon then Yen saw him get arrested for something and told Geralt (or in this version she couldnt pay the bail herself for some reason) and then Geralt went down and bailed him out OR im thinking Jaskier ends up in jail and the only phone number he still has memorized is Geralt's. "Geralt? Its me. Im so sorry about this but youre the only phone number i can remember. I need you call Priscilla and to tell her where I am. I need her to bail me out." Either it goes to voicemail because Geralt doesnt answer unknown calls or Jaskier talks so much and Geralt talks so little Jaskier's phone time was up before anything meaningful was said. So of course Geralt is the one that shows up to bail him out. And it goes like canon: Jaskier is mad, Geralt says something, Jaskier folds

Just because Jaskier folds doesnt mean he's not still mad. Throughout the season he has moments where he stops what he's doing to say something mean to Geralt. This makes Ciri want to find out what happened between them more

Theres a flashback episode, maybe it her mom's/grandma's birthday or her death day so Ciri is sad. Geralt and Ciri have a nice conversation in her bedroom, because this is a sitcom and all emotional conversations with children can seemingly only happen in the kid's over decorated bedroom. But she starts telling stories about her grandma and THIS is where we see Ciri's backstory

Theres definitely a Yen & Ciri bonding ep and another Jaskier & Ciri bonding ep.

Theres plenty of moments that show despite their tv gold dynamic Yen & Jaskier have some type of understanding or friendship between them. they also hang out occasionally which adds to the Mystery

a obligatory Ciri Spends The Day With Her Uncles episode

Ciri & Vesemir and Geralt & Vesemir have bonding moments

Geralt & Ciri have PLENTY of bonding moments. They have a whole ep where they go do things Geralt used to do with Vesemir. If Roach is still a horse then she is definitely in this episode

Jaskier has a Tik Tok

At least one person goes to one of Jaskier's gigs for some important reason

At some point someone asks Ciri about what its like to live with divorced parents and she realizes Yen has become a mother figure to her

Obligatory "i dont know what 13 year old girls like and i botched my present" side plot episode. Ciri's Uncles mean well but they have NO idea what they're doing

Moody Ciri episodes like tv canon

Ciri doesnt realize Jaskier is actually a professional singer until one of her school friends who's a big fan find out she knows him

THE FINALE: i actually dont know what happens here other than maybe the truth of the Mystery comes out

EDIT: i forgot to mention that its very important either Ciri or Geralt is not christan. Its solely for the whole "Geralt is her godfather" to make no sense (its the funny moment for the sad flashback episode)

Ciri's life in modern aus (and canon) is wild like her parents died when she was little so she was raised by her grandma but when her grandma dies her godfather who she's never met gets custody of her and she has to leave her home to move in with him and then because he gets custody of her his ex-wife comes back into the picture because the godfather needs the ex-wife's help with raising Ciri. Also now she has a lot of scary quasi-uncles and a quasi-grandpa who she sees occasionally. And then theres the godfather's ex-best friend who's a musician and the complete opposite of everyone in her godfather's family and somehow the ex-wife won him in the divorce

[bard-llama]

WiP Wednesday: Bloodlines

So I’m semi-self-employed and set my own hours, which is amazing in theory, but in actuality, very difficult when you have the self-discipline of a soggy piece of bread. So the IDEA was “can’t start writing until after I do work, because I won’t want to stop once I start”. But I didn’t want to start work either, so instead, I did “unrelated research” which led me down the rabbit hole of tracing the Northern Kingdoms’ bloodlines and the Elder Blood specifically. So... have some ramblings/summaries about how everyone is intermarried and how the Elder Blood shows up and random ideas of fics that could come from this.

So firstly, a little history from the Witcher ‘verse, which I’ve learned primarily from the wikis with help from lore experts who have actually read the books. So, humans arrived on the Continent 1200 (TWN) to 1500 (books) years ago, with the Conjunction of the Spheres. Not a lot about that time is really known, but the actual settlement of the Northern Kingdoms happened only around 500 years ago in an event called The First Landing where 4 ships bearing the ancestors of all the Northern Kings landed in the Pontar Valley. No one knows where these people came from, but they went on to 1) discover magic/teach humans how to use it and 2) rule all of the Northern Kingdoms. 

So we know that all our current rulers are connected to those people, but how? I present to you: two bloodlines that people have put together (they differ slightly from each other in that it looks like some stuff like Lyria’s existence may have been a later addition)

In the family tree above, the colored dots notate the Elder Blood. Shiadhal was an Aen Elle and consort of King Auberon Muircetach. Their daughter, Lara Dorren, started the Elder Blood line amongst humans when she married and had a child with Cregennan of Lod, a human sorcerer. Both humans and elves hated this and murdered them for it, with Cregennan dying at human hands. Lara managed to escape, but she was an outcast and a heavily pregnant one at that. Ultimately, she had her baby and died protecting her from the cold of winter. That baby, Riannon, was then adopted by Queen Cerro of Redania, which is part of why she was later married to King Goidemar of Temeria. 

Below, I drew out just the Elder Blood’s line, not including other branches (though there’s an interesting connection between Riannon, her children, and Falka, her adoptive sister. She ended up raising Falka’s daughter as well, which is why the top family tree up there shows Riannon having had tripletts. But as you can see from that, Adela (Falka’s daughter) does not have the Elder Blood while Fiona and Amavet do. 

What’s interesting about the Elder Blood line is that it’s a very small/confined family tree that intermarried pretty closely. Like, Calanthe’s parents, Dagorad and Adalia, had the same great-grandparents. That’s close! 

But with Dagorad and Adalia’s union, the Elder Bloodline was united once more in the path that leads down to Ciri. But what’s interesting is that, in canon, the Elder Blood’s powers skipped a generation in Calanthe. ‘cause based on this, I’d expect her to have MORE power, not less. Though, obviously, we don’t really know how the Elder Blood gene works and also, I know shit all about geneology, so like, grain of salt. 

Adalia, Calanthe’s mom, was a powerful magic user, but not a mage. The distinction is that mages are formally trained and undergo transformations and shit. But even though she didn’t formally become a mage, she was close with a lotta sorceresses, including Tissaia de Vries. Her mother’s bloodline was uncertain bc of an affair, so it wasn’t known that Adalia and Dagorad were related (tho tbh, I would think some must have suspected bc Adalia’s mom was the child of an affair between Amavet (Riannon’s son and child of the Elder Blood) and a Countess. But Adalia’s mom, Muriel, was denied that inheritance at first and had to fight for it, so seems to me like knowledge of the affair was fairly wide-spread, in which case, there must have been suspicions that Adalia’s true grandfather was Amavet, twin brother of Dagorad’s grandmother Fiona.)

Anyway, Adalia had an affair with Queen Bienvenu of Temeria’s ex-husband (who failed to provide said queen with any heirs and whose virility in the bedroom was commonly poked fun at by bards). They married, elevating Adalia from Countess to Duchess - and then the ex-husband died (possibly from heart troubles related to too much viagra lmao). Queen Bienvenu wanted rid of Adalia, so she arranged the marriage to Dagorad, which eventually made Adalia Queen of Cintra, and mother to Calanthe.

Regarding the magic - Adalia may not have had formal training, but she had a lot of raw power and was called the Seer Queen. After Dagorad died and Calanthe married, she left Cintra and lived at Aretuza until she died of old age, only visiting Cintra once, when Ciri was born. 

An interesting thing here is that Cintra threw out the Brotherhood of Sorcerers, to which Adalia was fairly closely tied. So I hc that Dagorad made the initial decision to throw out mages, but Calanthe upheld it and this caused a rift between her and her mother, who was allegedly loving and affectionate with Calanthe (and spoiled her rotten) when she was little.

But anyway, the point is - Calanthe inherited the Elder Blood on both sides but, for whatever reason in canon, the magic skipped her generation, instead manifesting in her daughter, Pavetta, and granddaughter, Ciri. 

But they didn’t know Pavetta had magic until she had an activation moment - when her mother tried to kill her lover. So... what if Calanthe just never had her activation moment?

AKA what would be a fun way for Calanthe to learn that she does actually have magic? I feel like the sheer shock and dismay on people’s faces when they find out should 100% factor into this decision lmao.

And since we’re ignoring canon, I’m gonna throw out some ideas I had when first (incorrectly) reading these family trees.

Because of the way they’re positioned near each other, I at first thought that Gutram of Sodden (part of the bottom middle tree in the first graphic, right-most tree in the second one) was Adalia’s brother. Again, not canon, I just misread it, BUT, what if he was? That would mean that Foltest and Pavetta were actually fairly close cousins, sharing a common great-grandmother who has Elder Blood (Muriel). To me, this spells POTENTIAL for Adda the White having Elder Blood powers/the Elder Blood having affected the striga curse. It would also mean Sancia’s magic is related to the Elder Blood, which means any curse she might have placed on her incestuous children would have been stronger. (In canon, it’s a big “she could have, but who knows for sure”, bc the actual striga curse was cast by Ostrit.)

At first, I thought the whole family tree in the 2nd graphic was supposed to represent the Elder Blood and saw the bloodline leading down to Radovid V and went 👀👀👀. Now, canonically, there’s no connection between Radovid and the Elder Blood. But it came VERY close to there being one. So tracing the blood back to Riannon, she had 2 children with Goidemar. But after Riannon’s death (and after his son, Amavet, got himself murdered for sleeping with a count’s wife), Goidemar married Adda of Cidaris and had a son, Cedric, who went on to inherit the throne of Temeria. Cedric married Berengaria of Kovir, daughter of King Guido Thyssen. Cedric’s line continued to rule Temeria, BUT Berengaria’s sister Ramona married Vizimir I and became Queen of Redania. Their child, Radovid IV, is Radovid V’s great-grandfather. So - no Elder Blood for Radovid, but it would be easy to tweak things to make it so. What if Cedric was actually Riannon’s child instead of Adda of Cidaris’? What if, instead of Radovid IV marrying Fiametta of Cidaris, he had an affair with Adalia or Muriel? Or, what if Radovid IV was actually Cedric’s child instead of Vizimir I’s? Point is - what if Radovid has some Elder Blood and that’s part of what’s driven him mad?

In remembering that Calanthe and Meve are cousins, I went on a hunt to figure out who their shared relative is. The answer: King Egon of Lyria and King Correl of Cintra. Egon had twin daughters who married Correl’s 2 sons, and one line went on to rule Lyria while the other inherited Cintra. None of the family trees above really show that, but King Correl of Cintra is Calanthe’s great-great-great-grandfather. No idea what to do with this knowledge, but hey, now I know lmao.

As you can see, I have gone off into the deep end and also accomplished neither writing nor work so far today, but... at least it was fun?