#ridingrootless

[reinvent-and-believe]

Sam, having now just watched ep 4, and having many same feelings about Jaskier, can we also add, the way they let him so deliberately pause and pronounce Artist when he said no artist will be safe (not me also thinkin about othering and queerness and art as a thing in the world just in general, nuh-uh)

Ummmmmmmm I don’t know how I didn’t see this ask until now?????? My bad, friend!!!! But YES yes yes I have a lot of feelings about this

And it makes sense, because Jaskier’s identity as an artist is intrinsically tied up in his queerness. How could it not be? If we’re speaking Netflix canon, Jaskier’s entire career has been a love song to a man who doesn’t love him back. If that’s not some queer artist shit I don’t know what is.

And of course, art as a refuge for queer and “othered” folks!!! I really liked that they specifically tied the parts of Jaskier that make him a good artist - reading other people’s intentions, but also walking in their shoes, building that deep-running empathy - into the good he’s doing in the world. It’s why he’s able to bond with Yennefer in spite of himself and his heartbreak over Geralt and his pettiness, it’s why he’s found something bigger than himself and he’s working in the elven cause. Anyway I have lots of feelings about all of this and I’m not articulating any of them well but YES YES YES. I take issue with....most of season 2, really, but personally I found the way they wrote Jaskier’s arc really fantastic.

Not to mention his season 2 costume is, what, an Oscar Wilde cosplay????? That purple coat?????????? Definitely feels intentional lmao

[housedzemael-archived]

ridingrootless replied to your post “I'm tempted to stream the Witcher games”

id hang out in strim if you did! (or try to, anyway, bc work and stuff, but it could be funnnnn)

awesome! Ill let you know (and god probably link it all to hell on this blog) when I decide to!

[ravel-puzzlewell]

@ridingrootless replied to your post: @neranishin Btw, you wrote “because he is...

This is good point! But to be fair, I also know a number of people in RL whose faith/spiritual practice looks a lot more like… a partnership with Various Powers, with ritualistic elements. Gann is perfectly fine /believing/ in the spirits and their power (and probably expects to be incorporated in that version of an afterlife? idk), which isn’t /worship/ but I think he sees himself as part of that cyclical structure, much as Kaelyn (or Arizan) sees a hierarchical one

Listen, I have nothing against these people and their practices, but this is completely different context. Gann does not ~believe~ in spirits, he KNOWS they exist, just like everyone else in Rasheman does. You cannot NOT believe in spirits there when a giant ass rainbow bear is storming your city. Also, Gann doesn’t interact with spirits as a part of any, sorry for pun, spiritual practice. He gets to summon meteorite showers and insta-resurrect and so on, which is really incomparable to the any benefits people can get irl. Gann is making deals for tangible powers and spells, it’s closer to contracts with the devils basically - which is why Gann instantly realizes how to get a discount from the devils in Academy and gets a job offer from them on a spot. Again, that’s what he is - a negotiator.

About seeing himself as part of a cycle - no, I don’t believe so? Mostly because he never says so and he has A LOT of opportunities to do so. You talk with him about religion a lot, and especially in a period when he denies existence of the gods - it would be a perfect time for him to give his counter-theory, right? But instead of going “no, when I die I’ll go back into cycle of life”, he’s just “your wall is bullshit and fuck your gods.” Then he comes in terms with existence of gods and the Wall, but still doesn’t change his core worldview, so I really don’t think he really ever cared about afterlife. I can see how he’d always assume he’ll become one of the spirits too, because it’s kinda logical for his job, but I don’t think he put a lot of investment or thought into that to like, really matter.

Honestly, I don’t believe that in, say, modern AU, Gann would engage in any of these spiritual practices. As I’ve said, he’s a loyalist and very quid-pro-quo survivalist - he’s gonna support whoever helped him. if spirits are not giving him ability to summon storms and earthquakes, I don’t think he’ll bother.

[reinvent-and-believe]

hey hey don't also think about how Jaskier's first reaction to the hrikka was 'what a cute friend' too and look how that went and then put that in the context of Geralt sending Jaskier away and oh no

oh

oh nO

I AM THINKING ABOUT IT

I’m thinking about it a LOT

Jaskier just wants cute little nonhuman friends but then the Sir Eycks of the world chop them up or throw stones at them or constantly remind them that they’re not enough they’ll never be enough why should they even try

wow I’m sad

[personalmephistopheles]

oooo A! also P, and U?

A - If you could rec a piece of music to accompany one of your fics, what would you pick? Why? This one is very general, but a lot of my Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy work goes well with songs from Elvis Costello’s National Ransom album, but let me pull out some specific pieces.

“Changing Channels” (Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy) - “The Universe Expanded” - Franz Ferdinand

“‘Darling’” (Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy) - “Bullets for the New-Born King” - Elvis Costello

“The Eucharist” (BBC Sherlock) - “After the Fall” - Elvis Costello

“Of Dubious and Feline Memory” (Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy) - “Jimmie Standing in the Rain” - Elvis Costello

P - What are your pet peeves in other people’s work? Maybe lack of paragraph breaks and/or signifiers thereof. Like I don’t care if you put an extra space in there or if you indent (or both) but PLEASE do not give me a single massive paragraph unless you’re doing something stylistic.

U - Any stories that took a abrupt u-turn from where you thought they were going? Again, I know it’s not published yet, but the Trysts with Mephistopheles triptych was 100% meant to be self-indulgent porn, but sometimes the parallels are just. There and demand to be let in.

[personalmephistopheles]

ridingrootless replied to your post: is the correct phylum for wiwaxia is 'cool hat'

wears hat and IS hat, v advanced organism

[dietraumerei]

ridingrootless replied to your post: oh hey, ppl who are more organized than me – I saw...

this one? open.spotify.com/playlis…

oooh -- I think there's another one (he mentioned a song that doesn't seem to be on this?), but this is awesome, thank you!

[personalmephistopheles]

ridingrootless replied to your post “Just remembered that I legitimately saw people in the Tinker Tailor...”

I'm so-- why *wouldn't* they have a christmas party, is a better question

Spies are too cool for festivities, clearly.