Awake, Oceanborn

I just want to move to a northern coastal town with my cat, get a cottage on a cliff by the woods and work as an Emergency Room Doctor. She/Her. Hufflepuff English is not my first language. Lurking>Posting I’ll probably subject you to TV Show/Film commentary.

[eyeslikefoxglove]

Hello everyone and welcome to my dumpster fire The Untamed/CQL commentary. Full credit for this idea goes to @inessencedevided and @trensu who have both done their own version. One is a first watch commentary, the other one is specifically focused on WangXian moments. Go read those, I guarantee they’ll be miles better that whatever I can cook up in my notes app.

Several things to note:

English is not my first language.

I’m moving countries in a week.

I’m preparing for an exam that I need to sit in order to even work in the public health system.

I swear, like a lot.

I’m slowly working my way through the novel but I’ve also not been able to sit down and read a book in the last six years. So now that I graduated I’ve started like... twelve? At the same time or so. I jump between them and it is The Best.

I don’t know to to properly format a tumblr post. So the idea is that I’ll keep editing this post to link every episode but pray for me.

EPISODE 1 - The ducklings are the best & WWX totally does not have a crush

Episode 2 - Wei Wuxian has Foot-in-Mouth syndrome & Foxglove absolutely has a crush

Episode 3 - Wei Wuxian is a Gremlin & Lan WangJi has a crush

Episode 4 - Meng Yao has a crush & Foxglove likes to babble

Episode 5 - WangXian flirts & The fucking lake does fucking what?

Episode 6 - Cold Pond Cave handfasting & Foxglove is a Lan Yi stan

Episode 7 - Wei Wuxian would cut a bitch for Shijie (we all would) & Lan WangJi can’t believe he’s in love with this gremlin

Episode 8 - WangXian go on a date & DON’T BLINK

Episode 9 - DON’T DEAD OPEN INSIDE & Foxglove loves all the tropes

Episode 10 - Tywin Lannister called, he wants the Rains of Castamere back & once again, Foxglove cheers when someone gets shanked

Episode 11 - The Yunmeng Sibs have shitty parents & *Screams in Doctor*

Episode 12 - Blanket and kittens for Lan WangJi & Foxglove really wants a fake relationship AU fic

Episode 13 - Attack of the Murder Turtle & WangXian dance around their mutual crush

Episode 14 - WangXian are a (v soft) Battle Couple & Foxglove is hella mad

Episode 15 - Stop fucking shooting fucking kites & Fuck this shit I’m out

Episode 16 - The pain continues & What the fuck is up with Wen Zhuliu

Episode 17 - Blanket and kittens for everybody & Foxglove is completely scatterbrained today

Episode 18 - Baby!Yunmeng Sibs & thoughts all over the place

Episode 19 - Yiling Laozu mode activated & BAMF!Lan WangJi avenging his husband

Episode 20 - ChenQing Syndrome & Tangents everywhere

Episode 21 - The PTSD is strong with this one & we need more braincells

Episode 22 - XuanXian friendship AU & Meng Yao can’t believe one of his boyfriends is this dumb.

And of course...

[aletheyass]

summer 2022 essentials:

golden crown of sorrow

bloody sword (to swing)

empty halls (to echo with grand self-mythology)

[incorrect-mcdanno]

Steve: Be the bigger person.

Danny: No? I'm 5'5" and bitter. You be the bigger person.

[injuries-in-dust]

[thetrashiestoftrash]

Scottish fold cats are also popular for their calm, easygoing personalities. But y'know, most people with severe arthritis also avoid physical activity for the obvious reason that it hurts. And if you give Scottish folds appropriate doses of painkillers, they become much livelier until it wears off, suggesting their chill attitude is just the result of constant pain.

[eggsaladstain]

Shadow and Bone season 1 but it’s just memes

[poetry-protest-pornography]

I'm... Uh.

So just like. A lot of homoerotic tension, then?

[yodas-yo-yo]

OG Supes movie. I'll take it.

[swingsetindecember]

idk if it will end well but we’ll have fun in the sun 

[prismatic-bell]

Rain Man.

A movie about how nobody takes autistic people seriously, and treats it as a joke. 😑

Since this is just a game anyway I’m ignoring that and picking #2:

Let’s go overthrow capitalism, guys!

[luthorville]

The Godfather. I approve.

[littlewomanly1]

[sarabeth72]

[freudensteins-monster]

[jackburtonsays]

[hotmenandotherdistractions]

[nuggsmum]

…. A bunch of guys in hazmat suits are going to try to capture me? (P.S. I hate this fucking movie)

[eyeslikefoxglove]

[grison-in-space]

idle Jaskier-related notion:

Joey Batey is really approximately the same size and shape as Henry Cavill, and there are a number of clever techniques in pretty much all Jaskier's costumes to hide this fact and make him look about three or four inches narrower than he actually is. The costumers work really really hard to make him look that twinky, often with cleverly cut shoulder decorations that pretend he's trying to look bigger than he is and have the actual effect of making him look a lot lighter.

On a Doylistic level this makes sense, because it's hard to make Geralt look Huge and Imposing next to your non-combatant harmless sidekick if said sidekick is a jacked six foot burly man.

On a Watsonian level, however, the notion of Jaskier as this big meaty dude aggressively arguing with all his tailors to ensure that he looks as non threatening and foppish and entertaining as possible while also looking as sexy as he can (for a Jaskier definition of sexy, at least) is generating considerable entertainment for me this fine morning.

[grison-in-space]

"No! My shoulders must look slender!"

"But, sir, you could look ripped!"

"Absolutely not! I must look slim and gentle and unassuming!"

"As you wish, sir... So do you wish it to be cut with much excess fabric, so that you look small and also very wealthy to afford so much?"

[howling] "No! I must look slender and gentle and also above else very attractive!"

[grison-in-space]

Geralt doesn't notice any of this until they try to share a tiny hostel bed on the road and Jaskier cuddles up to him and abruptly there is no more room in that bed

[gossip-girl-of-middleearth]

I need a full picture costume run down of this by someone in the fashion field stat

[redhorsedawn]

Ask and ye shall receive! I may not work in the fashion field but I do work in the costume production industry for theatre/film so this is totally my area. Using clothes to change someone’s appearance is super common, and Tim Aslam’s costume design for The Witcher is actually a really good example of this, so buckle up because this is a long ride!

Creating an illusion like this has two main components: shape (the style lines created by the clothes), and fit (the way the clothes hang on the person’s body), and is the result of close collaboration between the designer and the production team. 

We’re going to talk about season one, because that’s where the difference is the most obvious. Take a look at Geralt:

First, let’s talk about shape. The goal here is to make Geralt look strong and imposing, and the best way to do that is to exaggerate the triangle of his upper torso. See how much broader his shoulders look than his waist in both images? A loose shirt over tight pants is a classic way to establish this, because the shirt blousing at the waist (note that the pants sit high up at the natural waist) makes the hips looks narrower in comparison. Note also that his shirt has an asymmetrical closure - a centered vertical line down the shirt would make him looks slimmer, while the off-center one adds width.

His armor does this by giving him those massive shoulder pieces, which both lengthen and raise his shoulder line. I would estimate that they raise Henry Cavill’s shoulder line by a good two inches just from the bulk of the leather alone. His torso armor also does a really clever thing by having a very subtle V shape to the vertical lines, making his waist look smaller. If you count the number of stripes above and below his belt (again, sitting high at the natural waist), you’ll notice that the narrow stripe at the front edge of the armscye disappears, which allows the side stripes to make that V shape.

Now let’s talk about fit. The fit of Geralt’s shirt looks simple but is actually super specific. It’s very easy for an actor to get lost in a shirt that is too loose - if there’s too much extra fabric then it will just make the actor look smaller by drawing attention to how baggy it is. This shirt fits just right: the sleeves are full enough to allow for movement but still relatively fitted (and rolling up the sleeves actually also helps add breadth to Geralt’s torso by continuing the horizontal line at his waist). The body of the shirt fits smoothly across the shoulders and chest, and has just enough fullness to drape at the waist without feeling baggy.

Now let’s look at Jaskier.

We’ll start with this look. Shape and fit are very interconnected here so it’s just gonna be a jumble. First thing I notice: the jacket. Unlike your traditional fantasy/historical doublet, all of Jaskier’s jackets end at the waist, rather than continuing into a peplum/skirt like Geralt’s armor does. This cropped jacket is evocative of childhood/immaturity, an association that is generally considered to have its roots in schoolboy uniforms of the 19th and early 20th century (see the image of schoolboys wearing “Eton Jackets” below)

Jaskier also tends to wear his jackets open. This creates a vertical line down his torso, which is generally slimming, but it also totally obscures the shape of his torso. The brain is going to take the line of his hip, which we can see, and the armscye of his jacket, (which actually looks to be cut ever so slightly artificially narrow but it’s hard to tell) and fill in a line between them, which is likely going to end up being slightly narrower than his actual ribcage. He does have poofs at the top of his sleeves, which can be a technique used to add width, but if they’re cut and fit carefully you can actually hide some of the breadth of the shoulders inside the poof and make it look like the fullness comes from the poof and not the body.

Note: the “armscye” is the technical name for the armhole, but specifically the torso part. The corresponding sleeve part is the “sleevehead.”

Again, we have another open jacket, this one with strong vertical lines. See how the line of Jaskier’s hip flows up through the edge of the doublet all the way up through the armscye? This makes his torso look narrower despite the jacket’s shoulder tabs. In contrast, this line is always broken on Geralt’s outfits, whether at the waist with his shirt or with the giant shoulder pieces with his armor. Jaskier’s pants also tend to fit more loosely, which de-emphasizes the triangle of his shoulders to waist.

Okay this is my favorite image to illustrate everything we have going on here. Look at Jaskier’s jacket. What’s the first thing you notice? The bright yellow inset slashes in his chest. The high contrast in color draws the eye inwards and distracts from the breadth of his shoulders, where we have another cleverly cut poof. His jacket is again cropped, with strong vertical lines, over the baggiest pants he wears in the season.

Now look at Jaskier and Geralt together. Jaskier is all about long vertical lines, while Geralt’s predominate lines are either horizontal or diagonal. Additionally, Jaskier’s hips look even to his shoulders, even if they’re not, and Geralt’s shoulders are exaggerated. The two characters have a very different presence, even if the actors underneath are similar.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this introduction to costume design! Creating the illusory effects like this is one of my favorite things and I am excited to share!!

[gossip-girl-of-middleearth]

I… I did not expect anyone to respond, let alone respond with a fucking screenshot-worthy answer. I love you. I literally love you. Can I marry you? Wait, can you be my tailor? Do you have an Etsy shop? I’m gonna be an archaeologist one day, I’ll need OUTFITS PLEASE I WANNA INDEFINITELY HIRE YOU

[porphyriosao3]

This is not my ship.  This is not my subject.  This is really not anything I ever anythinged about.  I just have to reblog this because of the utter BALLER response this person gave, which revolutionized my perception of costume design without me even knowing I wanted said perception revolutionized.  This comment is everything good about tumblr in one place, and @redhorsedawn, I salute you.  Magnificent.

[poisonousbuttercup]

#and jaskier being consistently so much smaller in fic#is proof that all these tricks WORKED#and worked so well that people didn't even notice or question them#just accepted them and quickly incorporated it into their fanon

[forever-memes]

2022 intensifies

[mist-the-wannabe-linguist]

IT’S LITERALLY JANUARY 2ND IN THE YEAR OF THE TIGER WHAT THE FUCK

[pixelmuppet]

2016 was also the year of the Monkey

[stalker-among-the-stars]

New rule: if you’re old enough to know what you are doing, zoos should just let the animals kill you if you fuck with them.

[dovewithscales]

I second the new rule.

[memeuplift]

[thomasthetwinkengine]

We don’t deserve cats

[rafawriter]

[sirowlington]

demolished

[obviouslypancakes]

Gottem!

[whyisthisfrenchguymasturbating]

i went to fact check this and he literally is

[celero-loves-dragons]

fuck them up philip

[rootbeergoddess]

I just witnessed a murder

[tk-duveraun]

This is a fandom gatekeeper free zone. I don’t care if you only watched the movies. I don’t care if you never read the companion novels. I don’t care if you never played the games.

Are you having fun? Legit. Let’s go. Canon is for giving us a meeting point, not for excluding people.

Cheers friends.

[vulptilla]

“Canon is for giving us a meeting point, not for excluding people.”

[geraskefer]

INCORRECT WITCHER QUOTES [#09]

[inber]

Here's how (in my opinion) TWN could have easily a) kept Eskel's character truer to the books, b) still kept his appearance to one/two episodes, and c) retained their whole 'mutated monsters' plot point.

Rant under cut.

I was not expecting a CDPR version of Eskel; I wasn't expecting a goat, nor a lot of screen time. I was expecting him to die. I was expecting him to be a minor character because that's what he is in the books.

But what makes him so endearing (even as a minor character) is his steadiness and his respect for others. Especially women; even women he might mistrust.

First off: they shouldn't have cast Basil Eidenbenz.

I don't say this because Basil is a poor actor! It's just incredibly hard to believe that Eskel and Geralt could be passed off as siblings, or that Lambert is the youngest witcher. That's not Basil's fault; that's poor casting.

From 'Blood of Elves':

Eskel stood next to Geralt, resembling the Wolf like a brother apart from the colour of his hair and the long scar which disfigured his cheek. And the youngest of the Kaer Morhen witchers, Lambert, was there with his usual ugly, mocking expression.

Secondly, Eskel is polite and kind in the books:

It was Eskel's behaviour which was most unlikely; he got up, approached the enchantress, bent down low, took her hand and kissed it respectfully. She swiftly withdrew her hand. Not so as to demonstrate her anger and annoyance but to break the pleasant, piercing vibration triggered by the witcher's touch. Eskel emanated powerfully. More powerfully than Geralt. "Triss," he said, rubbing the hideous scar on his cheek with embarrassment, "help us. We ask you. Help us, Triss."

(This is when the witchers don't understand some of Ciri's 'odd' behaviours, some of which are due to her chaos, but some of which are due to puberty and her period.)

After Triss gives the witchers a right bollocking for being so stupid about not understanding the needs of a young woman, this is how Eskel reacts:

"I cannot train today," she recited in the utter silence, slowly and emphatically, "for I am... I am..." She looked at the enchantress. Triss winked at her, smirking like a rascal well pleased with his mischief, and moved her lips to prompt the memorised lines. "Indisposed!" ended Ciri loudly and proudly, turning her nose up almost to the ceiling.

Vesemir hawked again. But Eskel, dear Eskel, kept his head and once more behaved as was fitting. "Of course," he said casually, smiling. "We understand and clearly we will postpone your exercises until your indisposition has passed. We will also cut the theory short and, if you feel unwell, we will put it aside for the time being, too. If you need any medication or-"

"I'll take care of that," Triss cut in just as casually.

And another example of Eskel's respectfulness, when Lambert is being a right shit:

"And how," muttered Lambert, brazenly eyeing Triss's breasts which strained against the fabric of her dress. Eskel cleared his throat and looked daggers at the young witcher.

Can you imagine if they'd cast an older person who was there to slap Lambert upside the head? Who apologised to Ciri and told her they'd do better? Who was there to balance out Coën and Lambert's laddishness?

So, how could they retain their storyline with a more book-based Eskel?

Geralt and Eskel are out with Ciri - perhaps training, perhaps hunting game/meat. Drawn to Ciri, a monster attacks (Eskel's leshy). A fight ensues in which Eskel is killed due to an underestimation of the mutated/different monster's strength.

Geralt has a proper chance to say goodbye to Eskel - the man he trained with, grew up with. Eskel dies a minor character - but one that we could have liked. From there, they then pursue the question of 'what is this new breed of monster', because it shouldn't have gotten the better of Eskel.

I'm not disappointed because I felt they owed us anything from fanon. They didn't owe us more episodes or lines. I'm disappointed because the plot they chose for a fan favourite was ridiculous, and it did not have to be.

Not only was Eskel's death absurd in S2, Geralt's reaction to it was far too casual. The reminiscing scene in the next episode felt disingenuous because we'd witnessed such a nonsensical display in the episode before, and because of the stark age difference between the two men. It grated.

They knew we cared about Eskel. Why did he get his own big entrance and close-up hug with Geralt if they didn't know?

But TWN dismissed so much of the 'Blood of Elves' material - even though it's a good story.

I guess I'm just thankful we have fandom ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[eyeslikefoxglove]

ALL OF THIS.

Honestly when I saw the first trailer I didn’t see the scars and I thought he was Lambert because of how he behaved. Then I saw Lambert’s actor and I though “oh, random non-canon barely out of his teens witcher they made up to bulk up numbers at KM”. It made sense he was distrustful and angry and rude to Ciri (an outsider) if he’d been younger than Geralt when they tried to exterminate the witchers.

It even made sense that he were Eskel when I was watching the full show in the context that HE WAS SICK, which was my honest first impression. Sick people don’t always act like themselves yeah? It could had been used by the other people there to clue them in that something was Very Wrong, heck, it’d been easy to show the bond between him and Geralt this way. Instead I was left watching That Mess, knowing something was off with Eskel, being proven absolutely right and just waiting and thinking “oh this is when they make him tell them what’s wrong and they help him”, but that clearly didn’t happen because the show gave him a whole new personality.

[toss-a-coin-to-your-stan-account]

Good morning/afternoon/night to people who miss Renfri, geraskier shippers who don’t hate on Yennefer for being Geralt’s love interest, those who became interested in The Witcher after seeing Jaskier, wlw/nblw with crushes on Yennefer, netflix-only fans whose understandings of Eskel and Lambert come only from fanfic, “Jaskier Goes To Kaer Morhen” fanfic writers, Jaskier Whump writers who utilize the “Tortured By Nilfgaard for Information about Geralt and Ciri” trope, any fanfic writer who has named a fanfic/chapter title after a The Amazing Devil lyric, those who appreciate the nuance of Calanthe’s character, and people who love Dara and wish he got more recognition

[jaskiers-sweetkiss]

SERIOUSLY WOULD SOMEBODY PLEASE JUST KILL STREGOBOR ALREADY

[whatareyoureallyafraidof]

[joeybateydearly]

I wasn’t ready 🥺😭🫂