#ciri's being... ciri

[spielzeugkaiser]

It's about! the found family!!

#the witcher #geralt of rivia #jaskier #the witcher netflix #ciri #yennefer of vengerberg #them being a little family is all I ever wanted it makes me go aaaaaaa in the best ways #please yes more of that #a family can be one bard a pocketsized princess a family goat and a witch!

[gossip-girl-of-middleearth]

Jaskier and Geralt finally making it to the coast in season 3 but with Ciri and Yen as Plus Ones is akin to making plans with your lover on a cross-country road trip at 20-years-old only to achieve said plans two divorces and three children and a mortgage later in your early 50’s

#I mean like good for them #but Jaskier looking in this photo like he’s seething he wasn’t at the coast with geralt when he was young with sexy hair #his equivalent of being a Woodstock 70s/80s heartthrob now trying to survive in 2023 #Jaskier #geralt #geraskier #the Witcher #Witcher #Witcher season 3 #the Witcher season 3 #Witcher 3 #Henry Cavill #Joey Batey #Ciri #yennefer #the amazing devil #tad

[seance]

— I'VE BEEN THINKING ABOUT YOUR GENEROUS OFFER. I'LL DO IT.

#thewitcheredit #witcheredit #the witcher #jaskieredit #jaskier #userbecca #userava #uservia #ughmerlin #tusermich #netflixedit #edits #the witcher spoilers #[usual whining about me being unsatisfied with the fonts] #anyways. this scene destroyed me honestly #joey really is the king of putting such care into every single small detail #to give back the perfect shade of emotion needed to empathize completely with the character #you know redania is playing him somehow but you can't fault him this single decision #wanting to keep ciri and geralt and yen SAFE #from what he'd been through #the way his lips curls in both fear AND rage as he says 'get rid of him' truly embody all of this #loved the detail of him fiddling with his wounded finger #kissing him on the forehead as we speak

[hanzajesthanza]

andrzej sapkowski in the witcher presents his reader with many curious and refreshing takes on the fantasy genre, such as "what if dragons were good" and "what if elves were incels"

#i joke it's more like what if the ethereal being had angsty mournful man feelings #that he has feelings but can't work through them because #overemotionality is considered base and human so he's basically been bottling all of this for centuries #the elbow-high diaries #plus that his only purpose was really to be with lara and now she's gone and so what does that make him #i'm not getting all MRA lmaoooo what i'm saying is that there needs to be two to make a baby so he was one-half of that #and destiny didn't work out as planned so ... this is all that's left #reading ch 5 of lotl for the first time: THIS IS SO MESSED UP WHAT THEY ARE DOING TO CIRI!!! #reading ch 5 of lotl again and again: my god EVERYONE here is so messed up and SAD. well except eredin #eredin is like cool im gonna go fight a unicorn #'what are you talking about he wanted to kill auberon?' but not in a very intelligent way he was like to ciri 'so you wanna... kill him?' #imo book eredin is kind of a meathead and it's kind of refreshing with all these 4D chess players around

[essskel]

the whole ‘Eskel is a better witcher than Geralt’ stuff has always made me more sad than anything else. Geralt’s arc as a character is the building acceptance that even though he was raised a witcher and the profession is part of him : he’s a human, and he’s happy to be one.

but Eskel is a witcher. He’s not just ‘better’ at killing monsters he’s ‘better’ at wearing the title. He truly does work to cap his emotions, to succumb to the 9-5, to accept that his mutations make him something separate from the human he was born as.

He sees the stereotypes and the stigmatization of witchering and he only allows himself to step outside these forced boundaries when prompted by Geralt, Lambert, or Ciri, and even then he makes it clear that he’s making an exception.

And that’s not to say his moments of vulnerability and human connection are unnatural to him, he feels love and is drawn to protect those that he loves same as Geralt, but he’s out of practice in acting on these emotions because he’s a case study in survival repression.

He never solidifies a relationship with Ciri in the way Lambert does (in the books), he’s not even shown goofing around with her like Coën. He’s kind to her and he loves her and he goes on to put his life on the line to save her, but the vastness of his self-imposed missed opportunities is sickening. And that’s not even touching on the decay of his relationship with Lambert, or his white-knuckle grip on Vesemir.

Eskel is a good fucking witcher, he’ll dispose of your monsters faster and cleaner than his brothers ever will. But when his niece starts reminiscing on her favorite memories from childhood, he’ll be waiting a long damn time before she says his name.

#his vacant relationship with ciri genuinely haunts my waking dreams OH MY GODDDDDDDDDDD #please don’t take this post as ‘anti-eskel’ he’s literally my url. i’m just being sad abt him bc he makes me sad #eskel #witcher eskel #kaer morons #the witcher #the witcher games #lambert #double shot

[jay-arts-t]

First drawing of 2024 and it’s them

#the witcher #geralt of rivia #Yennefer #Ciri #tw3 #yenralt #yenralt being the best parents

[the-butch-of-blaviken]

hm. thinking about Geralt, Eskel and Lambert watching Vesemir doting on Ciri like the granddaughter he never had, going easy on her during her training when she asks for it politely, making a show of lecturing her when she's being mouthy when it's obvious to everyone he's already forgiven her. Lifting her off her feet and spinning her around when he sees her again for the first time in years. And all the while Vesemir's sons in every way except blood are watching and watching and thinking, so you were capable of being affectionate and considerate and a decent fucking human being all this time. You just chose not to be this man with us.

#of course it's so much more complex than that but can you imagine!!!!!! seeing their father finally acting like one with someone else!!!!!!! #and they're happy for ciri but i'm CONVINCED a part of them couldn't help be at least a little bit jealous of her #also i might make a follow-up on this post about this but. i KNOW vesemir was also making up for all the ways in which he failed his sons #with ciri. trying to atone for following the guild's rules and being an instructor first and a father second to them all these years. #frothing at the mouth rn #vesemir #my post

[dadralt]

#thewitcheredit #one true family #the witcher netflix #twn s3 spoiler #**gifs #something something different parenting styles #yen giving hugs and being physically comforting to ciri #geralt believing in ciri so much #(and comforting yen at the same time) #THEY'RE BOTH THERE FOR THEIR DAUGHTER #ready to kill and maim and die #i'm just having feelings 😭

[skoulsons]

man, I love the “you need to stop talking about this kid like she’s got some kind of life in front of her” to “ellie, are you okay?” to “oh, it’s we?” to “I’m just gonna get her killed, I know it. I have to leave her” to “it’s okay, baby girl. I got you” to “it wasn’t time that did it” to “I’m taking us home” pipeline

#I was talking to meg earlier but #nothing #and I genuinely mean NOTHING #will ever do to me what joel and ellie have #this trope is delicious and delivers every time #hopper and eleven #geralt and ciri #daisy and coulson #hunter and omega #silco and jinx #frank and amy #and whatever other father and daughter trope there is are all great #but something about Joel and Ellie. #being each others saving grace. #how they ground each other. #how they’d follow each other to the ends of the earth. #how they’re each others best friend. #there’s so much comfort in each other. #there’s so much. way too much love. more than they know what to do with. #how they became what they did. hating each other to be so ferociously in love with the other #PLATONICALLY!! I fear someone will accuse me some day so I have to clarify I’m not a freak #I just love their love #but there is something so incredibly different #but also so special and incredible and absolutely insane that no other father-daughter relationship has done #the last of us hbo #tlou spoilers #joel miller #ellie williams

[autistic-echo]

i think we as a society should indulge in trans masc ciri a little bit more

#girl i thought this when i was 12 too #not very cis in my humble opinion #transphobic triss smh /j #if we are being real medically transitioning in the witch’s universe isn’t far fetched at all #yennefer’s transformation is more physically changing than like top surgery or bottom surgery tbh! #also ciri is already like canonically queer so her being trans masc doesn’t actually seem that far fetched #the witcher #the witcher books #blood of elves #the witcher blood of elves #ciri #cirilla of cintra

[spielzeugkaiser]

The ages in this show!! I have made some jokes about this before, but it gets me - with aging Ciri up and bringing her closer to Jaskiers age when they meet I can not help but draw parallels. Like Geralt bonded way differently with both of them (which makes sense because Ciri has been his Child surprise since birth and Jaskier just randomly turned up one day and followed him like a puppy) but it's so funny to me. also I'm 100% sure Jaskier was horny as fuck from the beginning so there was a whole different vibe from the get go

#the witcher #the witcher netflix #jaskier #geraskier #geralt of rivia #yennefer of vengerberg #I wanted to draw Geralt being maximum tired by remembering that #and also #ALSO #one thing I still don't forgive them from S2! (or like one of many many things #it wasn't just Yennefer who changed Geralt #it was 100% Jaskier first #if Geralt had been in the 'butcher' mindset of 'I need nobody' when meeting Ciri #if he hadn't met Jaskier before and had been friends with him for TWENTY FUCKIN YEARS #if Jaskier hadn't worn him down a bit - make him less guarded and more open #Geralt meeting Ciri would not have gone as well as it did #It's my firm believe that Jaskier is Geralts first deep relationship outside of his brothers were he truly bonds and learns to trust again #you can take that from my cold dead hands #and not because Geralt is a loner who doesn't talk to people - we see he has a lot acquaintances #but nothing is ever permanent there #no one who stays #I want to draw something funny but in my mind!! #I want a fic were Ciri and Jaskier talk about this and Geralt acknowledges that too #also a fun version #ciri and jaskier shenanigans

[pygmy-huff]

Jared is on my list, I had bad vibes from the start and thought he'd just coattail Cirie, but this is way worse. Take your Andrew Tate ass out of the damn house, flop.

#bb25 jared #big brother #bb25 #cbs big brother #big brother 25 #I know for a fact if he wasn't Cirie's kid Izzy would've been crying and throwing up like she has been over Cameron. #Atleast we got Cory... Atleast he's been fine but the girls are definitely saving this season 100% #And don't even get me started on Jared being weird about Blue and her race. Acting as if he's exotic and shit. Effed up #I see why he gave Lukkke a pass. The guy saw his toxic ass in that Kkkyle Dahmer cheese sleeping idiot.

[hanzajesthanza]

“what does geralt get from that friendship…”

another post examining the weight of geralt and dandelion’s friendship… because i don’t think people recognize how painful and debilitating loneliness can become.

the witcher as a deconstruction of the genre takes fantasy tropes to their most logical ends—it asks us to consider what The Lone Swordsman feels, looks into the humanity in a Cold-Blooded Killer. and it turns out he’s not cold-blooded at all.

that despite some superhuman abilities, he laments and worries and curses himself, just like any other worker of any other profession. just as the farmer is scorched by the sun, the washerwoman’s back aches, and the scholar goes half-blind studying, a witcher deals with all of the pains and annoyances and dangers of his job in a mundanely human way.

but the farmer, the washerwoman, and the scholar have something the witcher does not have—they’ll always be seen as human and part of their society. at the end of the day after enduring all of their labor, they have their wife to caress, festivities to attend, and taverns to frequent. but for a witcher? after the killing is over, what does he have? no one and nothing. not even a thank you. he is met with fear and hatred everywhere he goes, baseless bigotry and dislike.

I did my job. I quickly learned how. I’d ride up to village enclosures or town pickets and wait. If they spat, cursed and threw stones, I rode away. If someone came out to give me a commission, I’d carry it out.

so he faces not just loneliness, but being deliberately ostracized and cast out from society. geralt can’t even find a polite word in most settlements, much less a friend.

‘(…) Tell me, where should I go? And for what? At least here some people have gathered with whom I have something to talk about. People who don’t break off their conversations when I approach. People who, though they may not like me, say it to my face, and don’t throw stones from behind a fence. (…)’

this kind of loneliness is not a mere inconvenience. it’s completely altering to your self-perception and ability to see the positive in the world.

each day is not lived, but endured.

day in, and day out—forced to the most difficult and lowest labor in order to survive, and knowing that were you to die, no one would search for your body, few would miss you, hell, they might even spit “good riddance”.

in this situation, to find a friend, is not only friendship, but a rescue.

without dandelion, geralt may have drowned—drowned in solitude, amidst a sea of strangeness.

‘(…) And I’m alone, completely alone, endlessly alone among the strange and hostile elements. Solitude amid a sea of strangeness. Don’t you dream of that?’

No, I don’t, he thought. I have it every day.

because dandelion is not only a bright soul, characteristic rippling laughter and the strum of a lute, but someone who will intently listen to geralt, someone who mutually enjoys his company.

‘(…) you almost jumped out of your pants with joy to have a companion. Until then, you only had your horse for company.’

someone who doesn’t see him as strange and at the fringes of society at all, but as an utterly normal man.

and doesn’t impose demeaning, sappy sympathy onto him, but sobering and realistic “quit your bullshit” which ridicules the very thought that he should internalize societal hatred.

Do you know what your problem is, Geralt? You think you’re different. (…) [You don’t understand that] for people who think clear-headedly you’re the most normal man under the sun, and they all wish that everybody was so normal. What of it that you have quicker reflexes than most and vertical pupils in sunlight? That you can see in the dark like a cat? That you know a few spells? Big deal.

dandelion isn’t “willing” to accept geralt for himself—he already has accepted him. and to him, it’s no difficulty, it’s nothing worth discussing, because he sees no abnormality and no strangeness in him.

while others “prefer the company of lepers to witchers,” dandelion has already offered geralt to share his room and board. not out of sympathetic pity, not out of fetishizing curiosity. because… they’re friends.

and what else does this friendship save him from?

not only from others, but from himself.

worse than enduring others’ apathy and hatred is one’s own thoughts—the darkness and negativity which builds from witnessing and experiencing such behavior.

dandelion’s ability to counter and dispel geralt’s pessimism and self-flagellating tendencies—again, not out of pity, but out of friendship—is undeniably invaluable. someone to rescue you from your darkest thoughts, when you begin to spiral.

and in this darkness, all you can do is cry. you cry, beg for someone to help you, please—

Help! Why doesn't anyone help me? Alone, weak, helpless – I can't move, can't force a sound from my constricted throat. Why does no one come to help me? I'm terrified!

to be alone, the saga reminds us, is worse than a death sentence. to be alone is to “perish; stabbed, beaten or kicked to death, defiled, like a toy passed from hand to hand.” to be alone is to suffer, and to be with someone is to save them from that suffering.

'(…) I wouldn't like anything bad to happen to you. I like you too much, owe you too much-'

'You've said that already. What do you owe me, Yennefer?'

The sorceress turned her head away, did not say anything for a while.

'You travelled with him,' she said finally. 'Thanks to you he was not alone. You were a friend to him. You were with him.'

it is true that geralt has saved dandelion countless times, helped him, gotten him out of some scrape… but to ask what did geralt get in return? are you kidding me?

did you ever consider that it is dandelion who saved geralt?

by being with him. by being by his side. by being his friend.

indeed, dandelion has rescued geralt, countless times, from the yawning jaws of endless loneliness. he’s helped him, chased away the danger of geralt’s own rumination. and he’s gotten him out of scrapes, his own insecurities and bitter helplessness.

so what does dandelion give geralt? what does geralt get from their friendship?

an amusing question. what one gets from friendship is the friendship itself. and that is more than enough.

#the witcher books #gerlion #geralt of rivia #dandelion #jaskier #the parallels with ciri’s story makes me so emotional like… #ciri is just geralt but younger and alone. and thus she suffers so immensely #i included ciri’s nightmare because i think that’s how it feels to be alone #you just cry out ‘help! why won’t someone help me?’ and no one answers #and the funny bit is that everyone is like ‘ugh you cannot get RID of dandelion’ like #i think that’s the most comforting and relieving thing about him. he will never leave and abandon geralt. #there is nothing geralt *would* or *could* do to ever push him away #the kind of friendship where you never worry about being too ‘weird’ for them because they straight up dont care if youre weird #honestly idk how more people dont see them like this because i feel like loneliness is so pervasive right now #does everyone else just have this kind of best friend and for that reason take dandelion’s presence for granted #s: i want to be by your side #c: geralt #c: dandelion #excerpt #analysis #like. this is how it is: #the entire world: ‘you’re nothing you’re worthless and you’re inhuman’ #dandelion is NOT like ‘omgggg of course you are something 🥺🥺 pwease don’t think badly like that’ #no. he’s like ‘the hell? that’s the stupidest thing ive ever heard. why the hell are you even listening to that’ #dandelion has a kind of masculine energy that the fandom does not like lmao

[laurikarauchscat]

"Little sister!" The woman calls her, smile just as beautiful as Ciri remembers.

Her body, warm and soft and fun, envelops the travel weary soul.

#triss merigold #witcher triss #Triss #the witcher fanart #the witcher 3 #traditional art #the witcher #the lodge of sorceresses #Merigold #witcher art #witcher fanart #Ciri's first crush #The reason why the red headed queen of skellige draws her eye in the first place. #Unrequited #One sided #Sketchbook3 has brown and black paper #so i decided on the visualy brightest character i could think of to draw. #That being said: I prefer game Triss because twn version is not nearly pathetic enough #and the book version never really registered strong enough with me to have a clear image of her. #One sided Ciri/triss

[cerealbishh]

"Triss! It's good to see you." "And you."// "It's good to see you." "You too."

#the witcher netflix #the witcher s3 spoilers #the witcher s3 #the witcher 02x04 #the witcher 03x05 #anna shaffer #henry cavill #triss merigold #geralt of rivia #geralt x triss #i feel like the distance keeps getting smaller and smaller in each of their first scenes together of the season lol #i find it so sweet that their first lines together after s1 are telling one another that it's good to see the other #idk if that even made sense tbh #idk he just seems so soft around her and i've never really seen him get super pissed with her after s1 #a great friendship #like they clearly respect and care about one another #lol and the stares after #i love how there's a blonde in the middle in s2 it was ciri and now it's sabrina #i feel like she expected him to be disappointed with her or angry about not being to help ciri in that first s3 gif cuz that's how she feel #so she's taken aback when he genuinely tells her that it was great seeing her #no scenes in the woods for them so far... #tw: fire

[the-butch-of-blaviken]

I’m rereading The Last Wish in the french translation (which so far isn’t bad, as opposed to what I’d heard) and it strikes me that despite Geralt’s efforts to curate his own presentation (situating himself by adding “of Rivia” to his name, adopting the Rivian accent), people get to take one look at him and pick the parts of him that are easiest for them to hate at any given moment.

In the first short story, when he walks into an inn in Wizima, people identify him as a Rivian and reject him based on that. Then, later, Ostrit accuses him of being a vagabond, a brigand — a landless, individualistic man whose loyalty goes to no one. At other points, he’s identified solely through the lens of his trade: a group on the margins of society whose intentions are unclear (and who goes out of its way to maintain this aura of secrecy) and is thus not to be trusted.

So he lives in this in-between state, alternatively seen as someone from somewhere or from nowhere or something else entirely, but most importantly, not from around here. And that’s just in the span of his introducing short story. I think Sapkowski does a good job of showing us one of his main characteristics right from the start: the fact that he doesn’t belong anywhere, and that this is the first thing people will ever see when they look at him.

I keep thinking about young Geralt workshopping his name before going out into the world (finally, he can choose who he’s going to be) before Vesemir laughs at him for his ridiculous-sounding name and advises him to choose something that’s not going to stand out. But the truth is that he was always going to stand out, no matter where he went.

#there might also be something to say about the two people closest to him also being closely associated to a specific location #yennefer ‘of vengerberg’ and ciri ‘of cintra’ #like the more they tie themselves to one place the more it rejects them or they’re separated from it? #idk i’ll keep thinking about it as i go #geralt of rivia #the last wish #the witcher books