#the witcher comics

[greenheroes]

Geralt in The Witcher: The Bear and The Butterfly by Simon Spurrier

(icons from my pinterest supeearman)

[revoevokukil]

A Question of Price popped into my mailbox today. Art by Matteo Bellisario. Simply for the visuals, it is probably my second favourite comic adaptation after A Grain of Truth.

And it's a Pavetta show.

They play with the green of her bloodline's eyes plenty and I can never say no to glowing eyes. Also, seeing the fury on Pavetta is truly awesome and delightful. I can only imagine her once she starts seeing through her husband's plans later on - hysteria my ass.

No spinning, floating table. Plenty of reaction-pics, though!

Like mother like daughter. Memeable.

As expected, they compressed the tale & tucked it-nipped it here and there. No Draig Bon-Dhu and his bagpipes; Drogodar and his lute represent! Having Calanthe utter 'Do not be cute!' instead of 'Stop being so clever.' I can easily live with. It was a shame though, to lose the antics of the gathered would-be-grooms. I guess Coodcoodak really gets all of the spotlight in this regard.

Crach puts me in stitches and personally I had never given thought to Eist appearing as he does here, but Emhyr is classically handsome even as a hedgehog.

Post-curse Emhyr is giving strong young-Cahir vibes.

Geralt is at his most refined, effeminate intellectual yet. 'He's an elf!' Doubtless 'the touch of someone else's coarse, unpleasant clothes against his swollen skin' contributes, though his verbal dance with Calanthe is unfortunately cut down to size. I like it, though.

[transwitcher]

you don't understand, i'm obsessed with these covers.

[sinnermannn]

I dunno if it’s under advertised or if it’s somehow gotten under my radar for so long but goddamn the comics for the Witcher are good. Maybe it’s my desire for more Witcher content and hate for what they did with the Witcher Netflix series. What did I expect it’s Netflix, and finding the comics felt like a godsend. I’ve played the games and DLCs multiple times but man the comics feel great to jump into. Hell the fact the comics are connected to the CD Project Red world of the Witcher makes it even better for me.

If you guys have read the Witcher comics what did you think of them? Do you recommend em? What do you think is the best medium for people to enjoy the Witcher franchise?!

[the-witcher-confessions]

"Witcher fans are some of most spoiled fantasy fans I’ve ever encountered, they have one of the greatest video games of all time, ( with more being made) really good audiobooks,comics, and audioplay with different actors, numerous role playing games based on the books, a super active fan community, do you know how many other fantasy book communities would kill to have that?

But apparently you think it all gets erased because of one bad tv show, most of us only get a bad movie or tv show, be grateful for what you have"

[hanzajesthanza]

graduated from mother university of cuntington with a masters degree of outmothering and slayology and 5 different types of phds for serving

[yellowspiralbound]

The Witcher & why fanon and canon are not as separate as they are in other medias

Okay so I just answered and reblogged this poll about what parts of the Witcher you interact with (fanon vs canon) and it made me realize that a lot of fans might not be aware of the fact that fanon and canon are not neatly seperated when it comes to the Witcher. It’s kind of a clusterfuck actually. So allow me to attempt to explain it. Before the post, let me make sure everyone understands that I am referencing the translations of the books. I have not read them in the original Polish. If anyone has and some of what I say is inaccurate, please let me know. Extremely long post ahead. 

First, we have to accept the fact that we are working with not one but three different canons. The books are, of course, the original canon. It is what everything else stems from. The games are often considered a follow up but are not necessarily canon to the books and were not intended to be. The original Witcher game was never intended to be a sequel to the books - that’s why Yennefer and Ciri are basically never mentioned. However, as the second and third game developed, the creators shifted gears and focused on creating a cohesive story set after the events of the books, Now, many if not most fans forget this. Then there is the show canon, which draws from the books but is largely it’s own thing. 

So what is the “real” canon? For some, the answer is anything written by Sapkowski...but there are stories set on the Continent and written by Sapkowski that are, by and large, considered superfluous to canon such as the Something Ends, Something Begins short story which Sapkowski wrote as a wedding gift for some friends. Beyond that, there is debate as to whether Sapkowski’s final depiction of Geralt is well...Geralt. While many book fans tend to believe that the Geralt met by Nimue at the end of Season if Storms is an illusion, I have spoken with many who believe it to be the real Geralt. So which is it? Sapkowski certainly hasn’t said as far as I am aware, so good luck figuring it out. And if Sapkowski’s work is the be all end all of canon...what are the games? 

Are they a form of fanon that Sapkowski has given his blessing to? Nope. Sapkoski hates video games. Like there are decisions he made in Season of Storms (published after the first two Witcher games) that I’m fairly certain he made specifically to fuck with the game producers (like Dandelion being a blonde for example). Everything I’ve ever learned about the man suggests he would do this. And yet Season of Storms also hands the game producers their golden goose: a Sapkowski-written ending where Geralt doesn’t die, where he continues to travel and hunt monsters. Which is exactly what Geralt did in the games. And after that Sapkowksi actually met with some of the producers for the third game, something I don’t believe he did for the first two (feel free to correct me if he did). So did Sapkowski take inspiration from the games for this ending? It’s possible. I personally don’t think it likely but we know it’s possible because of a certain character in Season of Storms: Brehen. 

Brehen, for those of you who may not remember/know, is a Cat witcher that Geralt meets at the very end of Season of Storms. Now this is important, Geralt’s meeting with Brehen is the first time ever that Sapkowski insinuates there are different schools of Witchers. And you might be thinking “What about the medallions of different animals that Bonhart had?” It isn’t ever really implied they’re from different schools. Coen, who has a griffon, is shown with the wolves all the same during Blood of Elves. Of course, the game producers had already decided to take the different medallions as representations of schools but It is only when Brehen begins to use the word “us” that there is a confirmed implication of schools by Sapkowski. Is this proof that Sapkowski used the games as inspiration for Season of Storms? Not at all. What it is, is solid evidence that both the game producers and Sapkowski had been influenced by a third party: the pre-CDPR comic run. 

Now, this is where things get interesting. The pre-CDPR comic run is not that well known outside of Poland (and perhaps even in Poland, I am not sure). I discovered their existence on the Witcher subreddit and promptly read the fan translations of them that you can find online. Only one of the six comics released between 1993 and 1995 is an original story. This comic, Zdrada or Betrayal, is where the story of the Cat and Wolf tournament often is from. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, go read basically any fanfiction with Aiden in it. It will more than likely be brought up. This comic is the first instance of a school system like the one we have now. Now, this comic was based on an idea by Sapkowski. He gave the author of the comic run, Maciej Parowski, a basic idea and Parowski expanded upon it. To what extent Parowski expanded the idea isn’t really known. The schools could be entirely his own invention, but it is more likely that Sapkowski suggested them. It is extremely likely, however, that Parowski’s characterization of the Cats as a school influenced Sapkowski - especially considering the 18 year gap between the publication of Zdrada and the publication of Season of Storms. So when did Parowski’s fanon interpretation of Sapkowski’s outline become canon? Did it become canon? I personally consider it canon but not everyone does. 

Essentially what it boils down to is that there is a high chance that Parowski’s fanon directly influenced both Season of Storms and the Witcher games. And yes you can argue that Parowski’s work isn’t fanon because it was based on an idea by Sapkowksi but...that’s what all fanworks are - stories based on the original ideas of the author. The same can be argued about the show. Large parts of the show are Lauren Hissrich’s fanon interpretation of Sapkowski’s work yet it is a canon in its own right. 

In conclusion, Sapkowski never avoided fanwork like say, Neil Gaiman. In fact, he actively encouraged it in the case of Parowski and Hissrich. Whether or not he ever encouraged the game producers in any capacity is...highly debatable. There’s some serious tension there guys. I personally think that he did with his choice in how to end Season of Storms but that’s just me. From what I know of Sapkowski, the man is, quite frankly, far too proud to ever admit to being wrong about video games and the producers so draw your own conclusions on that one. 

But yeah, fanon has had a serious influence on canon in the case of the Witcher and there are so many different canons that separating the two entirely is more or less impossible. And I haven’t even talked about the pre-CDPR TTRPG, the CDPR TTRPG, the mobile gwent game, or the CDPR comic run, all of which fall into the liminal space of “not fanon but not canon either.” 

Please feel free to correct me if any of this is wrong or if you have read the original Polish copies of the books and some stuff I’ve talked about is translation error. Also if anyone has a translation of the pre-CDPR TTRPG stuff please contact me. I would do unreasonable things for a translation of them and would be eternally in your debt. 

[vesemirsexual]

stop…I love my little family….