#i don't think geralt left her there for that conversation on purpose

[mintedwitcher]

Okay so I had this as a part of another post, but it got way too long and deviated far too much from the actual point of the conversation, but here are more of my thoughts about the Witcher.

SPOILER WARNING: This post is going into detail about things that happen in season one and two of the Witcher, so if you haven't watched both and want to avoid spoilers, scroll now.

I think that season one was confusing, albeit for different reasons than season two. In season one we have three contrasting and displaced timelines (Ciri's, Yennefer's and Geralt's), that only come together three times throughout the first season (Rinde, where Geralt meets Yennefer, the dragon hunt, and the final scene where Ciri finds Geralt in the woods). The pacing is confusing and disjointed, and none of the timing really adds up.

Let's take the last 2-3 episodes as an example, after Cairngorn, Yennefer goes (apparently immediately) to Aretuza and joins the war effort at Sodden, but Geralt seems to wander for a while before making his way to Cintra, where he then spends an unknown amount of time - both in attempting to convince Calanthe to hand Ciri over, and then in the cells - only to escape in the middle of the siege. He then seems to wander for even longer after that - while Ciri's off running through the woods for we don't even know how long, meeting Dara, meeting the Dryads in Brokilon, meeting and escaping the Doppler (who apparently was brought to Cintra immediately following the siege) - before finally finding Ciri on the outskirts of Sodden, where the battle is just starting. Then the pair of them travel to Sodden to find the apparent immediate aftermath of a battle that Yennefer left to fight in an unknown amount of time prior.

And yes while we could theorise that the battle at Sodden lasted much longer than a single night as shown in canon, it still doesn't fully line up with the other characters travels.

The timing is odd, it's confusing, and I honestly really didn't enjoy very much of season one because of it. 

Season two, however, is confusing in a different way, and I'll freely admit that the vast majority of my confusion is aimed at the existence of Emhyr. Like, let's think about this character rationally. This is Ciri's father, apparently survived the shipwreck that killed Pavetta, and he wants to find Ciri. Okay, that tracks. BUT, he was there when Geralt claimed the Law of Surprise and got Ciri. He was there for that. So if he truly wanted to find his daughter, should he not have started with the Witcher?! Furthermore, why did he not just... return to Cintra after the shipwreck? Why did he conquer Nilfgaard and use their army to conquer Cintra? Why did he not just come back? Cintra was his home, too. He was - by marriage at least - a prince in Cintra, so why did he not just return? Why did he have to go to such extraordinary lengths to "find his daughter", when he ought to know full well where she is, because he knows who claimed her.

One possible theory is that he did return to Cintra originally, only to be exiled by Calanthe. We know from experience that she is willing and able to exile just about anyone under the guise of "protecting Ciri", even when it's not the right or smart thing to do. So it wouldn't be entirely impossible to believe that she could've done the same thing to the man who married her daughter, the man she actively hated and tried to murder. 

The slightly less possible theory is that Emhyr isn't Duny at all, but another Doppler using Duny's likeness for some reason.

A third possible theory is that Duny is Emhyr, but he's not actually interested in finding his daughter, he's just using that as a cover for a much darker purpose. What that purpose could be, I have no idea. But given the fact that Emhyr did literally just have an infant slaughtered for next to no reason, we can be pretty sure of the idea that Duny isn't a family man anymore.

But I digress. I think there are a lot of holes to consider in the Netflix adaptation. I certainly would've preferred a more cohesive narrative flow, especially in season one, where there is no distinction between the disjointed timelines - in fact it took me several episodes before I realised that the scenes we were being shown were not in chronological order.

I genuinely hope that season three follows the energy and storytelling example of season two, though. If we have to go back to the disjointed and disconnected timeline jumping of season one, I'll quit.

#the witcher #long post #meta #sort of #again these are my OPINIONS #do not bring discourse here #discussion is welcome

[captainsupernoodle]

I'm not sure exactly how to articulate this but Ciri and Yarpen's discussion about what it means to live as a dwarf and a human in this world where prejudice has been so stirred up, like, Yarpen getting angry in his discussion with Geralt probably at least partly because it's stirring up all his complicated feelings about his own decisions and his frustrations with the people around him who have already criticized his decisions and geralt's/the witcher's specific brand of neutrality really gets gnarly in this situation

But then when Ciri asks her questions, Yarpen thinks it's worthwhile to break down his reasoning behind his decisions, handing her his raw truths and doubts and fears, and they share this moment of connection in the middle of Ciri trying to grasp how the world around her works and is changing and Yarpen making decisions about how to deal with it and they end the moment with acknowledging a shared history of grief

#every background discussion in this book is like POLITICS and its goooooood #friends trying to convince friends #the witchers and enchantresses having specific jobs and skills that influence their perspectives #i wouldn't be surprised if some of this also ties back to the witchers being a dying phenomenon #khaer moran is raising its last daughter and she's not going to be a witcher #i don't think geralt left her there for that conversation on purpose #but hes friends with the dwarves and he's comfortable with her being in their care #whether on purpose or incidentally by example he's exposing her to the perspectives of other people and she's asking questions #trying to understand and empathizing #also like children aren't dumb and they know when shit's wacky so explain things to them even when it's hard and ugly and complicated #the Witcher #blood of elves #noodle reads #noodle reads the Witcher