So...
Does anyone else here like to headcanon Radskier as a neurodivergent ADHD (Jaskier) / Austistic (Radovid) couple, or that's just me?
I think most of us agree that Jaskier is one of the single most ADHD-coded characters on any TV show ever, complete with a solid case of RSD (rejection sensitive dysphoria).
And yes, I know that a lot of what makes Radovid a bit "odd", when he's socially interacting with people, has to do with him having grown up as a spare to the Crown and the fact that be probably has CPTSD and PTSD, etc.
But that's just it, him being a prince might have caused people to assume he's simply "disconnected from the reality of a situation" because of a lack of consideration his whole life; when Radovid might just be failing to understand the implicit aspects of certain situations in a way that a neurotypical person would find obvious.
Because beyond his recent trauma, Radovid's own communication patterns, and the way he navigates social situations, puts him in the position of an outsider for whom social norms and rules make no instinctive sense, although he's cognitively learned them.
With Jaskier being both one of his special interests and his actual love interest.
Leading to some rather unique attempts at emotionally connecting with him and expressing emotional intimacy.
Because us neuroqueer (or plain neurodivergent) folks tend to bond through info-dumping and the sharing of special interests.
First thing Radovid does is signal that he loves Jaskier's music, that his favorite is "Song of the Seven", and that if Jaskier would like, maybe he could become their Royal Bard!
Which yeah, I know. Fanboy + royalty.
But take a moment and imagine Radovid having met Valdo Marx first instead, and immediately blurting out something like: "I've long wanted to meet you in person. My favorite bard is Jaskier - I absolutely adore "Song of the Seven" - and since the poetry of your own lyrics share certain similitudes with his work, I was wondering if you were as strongly inspired by him as an artist as I am. Ah, as a person. I'm trying to learn the mandolin, but I'm a bit shit at it, so I don't claim to be an artist. I just really love artists. Jaskier especially. Sorry, I'm Radovid, comma Prince."
Seeing what I've seen about him I'd find something like that happening 100% believable. I would have zero problem with the idea that Radovid would completely be oblivious to the fact that Valdo Marx might take offense not being Radovid's favorite, because that gay disaster sad wet cat of a prince would just think it natural for another bard to enjoy Jaskier's music, and be happy to discuss it with him and hopefully strike some kind of friendship over it.
His brain would go "We both love poetry and music, so clearly you must love talking about Jaskier, too, because he's awesome!"
It's just that his special interest is Jaskier's music, so he's using his love of Jaskier's music to attempt to bond with Jaskier himself and try to get to know him. And, when you think about it like that, the whole romance between the two of them becomes event more adorably hilarious, in a sense.
And it actually works, because without being egocentric per se, Jaskier does rather connect with people through sharing his own special interests which are his own songs and poetry and the tales he wishes to tell. And so, you could likely info-dump on him for hours about how much you enjoy his own songs and his stories and he'd bask in the whole thing and happily dive into it with greater depth, regalling you with anecdotes and his whole thought process on each of his songs, etc.
Also, Radovid doesn't really know how to flirt with him, other than by being very direct about his feelings ("You could be our Royal Bard!", "All I really want is a song. Pick your favorite, please", "Does the Witcher know how lucky he is to have you?", "The only good thing about this whole mess was meeting you", "I'm scared, Jaskier", etc.).
And direct / honest communication is one of the neurodivergent love languages, too.
We clearly tend to name things we need/want with the people we trust enough to be genuinely loving with, rather than make vague allusions regarding our needs. And we tend to hate, with a passion, people that expect us to understand subtlety and/or guess what's on their mind. Even more people that expect us to follow some "romantic script" while understanding what the next steps are.
Those "If a person really likes you, they'll..." psycho-pop articles are our worst nightmares!
If I really like you, I'll tell you I'm determined to figure out what makes you so special to me, alright? I'll try to get to know you and then see where it goes. I'll be honest. And if I'm not, that's because I'm too scared to pursue a relationship with you. But that will be on me for letting that opportunity pass me by, not on you for having "missread the signs" or "not realized I was into you when you should have".
And yeah, once again, Radovid playing Jaskier's song back to him can both read as him connecting through his own special interest for Jaskier's art, but also as him showing a willingness to attempt to learn Jaskier's own unique love language.
And I'd be curious to know how many Radskier fans are neurodivergent / neuroqueer themselves, because perhaps it's why that romance resonated so strongly with us, yet failed to connect with the majority of Geraskier fans (beyond the "Riley Syndrome").
Radovid and Jaskier romance each other in a way that's not only very queer, but neurospicy as well (and as hell)!
My whole life, I've been mistaken for flirting with people I was just being nice with, and completely missed the romantic and/or sexual cues other people were sending me.
But the romance between Jaskier and Radovid makes sense to me in a way very few other romances do, and is all about trying to understand how the other person's own brain works, and trying to figure out if we can be safely intimately open / ourselves with each other.
Even the whole theme of them both having learned to "wear masks" in order to fit in society, and feeling like they can't be their authentic selves around others, directly taps into that.
Radovid and Jaskier are both experts at "socially masking"...
One guess what community uses that language to describe the way they've often learned to function in society?
I'm almost wondering if all that talk about the two of them wearing masks isn't Joey's own way of letting us know he and Hugh have managed to sneak in a bit of neurodivergent representation in there as well without having officially told people they were doing it (in case a producer would have been scared it would have attracted the ire of the toxic dude bro gamers even more if they learned the romance between them wasn't just queer, but freaking NEUROqueer).
Also, I think every single person I know that identifies as sapioromantic and/or sapiosexual is neurodivergent.
Because many neurodivergent folks tend to find it easier to intellectually bond with someone (sapio) rather than emotionally bond with them (demi).
Personally, although I'm demisexual, I'm not demiromantic at all. What triggers my romantic attraction is having someone info-dump on me and excitedly share their special interests with me / intensely geek out.
I'm unable to experience any romantic attraction unless I find them aesthetically pleasing, they meet some of my secondary preferences, and there's a moment of intense intellectual stimulation / fascination / connection between us happening.
But I don't need to feel any type of emotional bond between us to get a crush.
So having Jaskier develop a sapioromantic and sapiosexual crush on Radovid meant everything to me (actually more, even, than him being panromantic/sexual).
Because that's a very typical type of neuroqueer a-spec attraction that I never ever would have dreamed getting some acknowledged representation for on a TV show.
I also recently saw an article that spoke about how one of the unique ways neurodivergent folks tend to share and express intimacy with each other is through instinctively paying attention to our partner's breathing patterns, and having a tendency to synchronize our own breathing with theirs.
I found it really interesting, because I do tend to be really personally hypersensitive to the way other people I care about are breathing and will often tend to spontaneously sync up my own breathing patterns with theirs.
Apparently, it helps with self-regulating our nervous system and feeling less overwhelmed in social and/or situations.
And, well, the moment that drove me completely insane about the Radskier kiss wasn't the kiss itself; it was this right here:
That moment of pure togetherness, where they are breathing together, their shoulders simultaneously relaxing, managed to visually convey a greater sense of deep shared emotional intimacy than any kiss or sex scene could ever have hoped to show.
Another thing I find really interesting with Radovid is that even with Jaskier, there are moments when he seems to fail to connect certain dots and accurately evaluate if some of his words or behaviors will come across as intended or as appropriate.
Like yes, he did evaluate that there was a risk Jaskier might be upset about him going to see Ciri behind his back... but he failed to realise the "obvious implication" that everything that had happened before (i.e. the romantic courtship and emotionally/sexually intimate night they shared) could then risk being interpreted as nothing but a deception on his part so he could get closer to Ciri.
Also, that "will you accept my offer then and stay?" comment, right after Jaskier told him "you're the king you get to tell people what to do!", really came off as Radovid mocking that statement, and wanting to prove to Jaskier that it's not as easy for him to make people do things just because he tells them to.
Ignoring context (i.e. Jaskier's best friend yelling and being tortured) and the emergency of the situation, while trying too prove a point about what Jaskier just verbally said (focusing on the words themselves rather than the context behind those words), feels painfully autistic.
Like Radovid, honey, you are 100% right. Jaskier is wrong to assume that just because you're king you can easily order people around without risking to suffer consequences, or without literally turning into a tyrant.
Yeah, I immediately cracked up and laughed out loud and thought that "will you accept my offer then and stay?" was one of the funniest lines on the show, because I basically said "just stay then!" in my own head the exact moment you told Jaskier the same.
I get your point, that's the first thing I thought, too.
But Jaskier doesn't care about whether he's factually accurate about his statement. He's in a state of panic thinking his queerplatonic husband is dying.
You correcting his assumption, by using the fact that Jaskier won't automatically do what you tell him to do just because you ask him to, is not a priority. Figuring out how to help Geralt is.
It should be obvious that Jaskier would take this statement as "I'll help only if you accept to stay and help me," rather than "Fine! If I'm king and I get to tell people what to do, that means you'll stay rather than go back to look for Cirilla with your Witcher, right?"
A neurotypical person would get it.
But as someone with AuDHD, my own brain genuinely instinctively went on the same path as Radovid and I burst out laughing, then went "Oh. Shit," when I realized how badly Radovid had just messed up the moment Jaskier got enraged and immediately said "I can't believe you are bargaining with this!"
So yeah, there's just something about these two that screams "neuroqueer2 romance", and I was wondering if I've been the only one seeing it?
