The Witcher’s comic relief is part of a long tradition of fantasy bards
TV Features For Our Consideration
Netflix’s The Witcher is a largely dour series, a gritty fantasy epic clearly meant to capture the same audience as Game Of Thrones. The first episode is a showcase of horrors including mass suicide, military slaughter, and a mage who kills and dissects young women he believes to be cursed mutants.
That bleakness is exactly what makes the introduction of Jaskier (Joey Batey) in the show’s second episode so exciting. (The character is called Dandelion in the English translation of the books by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski that the show is based on, as well as in CD Projekt Red’s video game series). When we first meet the bard, he’s so desperate for money and acknowledgment that he scoops up dinner rolls thrown at him by an unappreciative audience. Then he finds the show’s titular mutant monster hunter, Geralt Of Rivia (Henry Cavill), brooding in a corner of a tavern like a quest giver waiting for an eager party of adventurers to arrive. Sensing an opportunity to gather some exciting new material for his ballads, Jaskier starts following Geralt and spreading word of his heroic deeds. “You smell of death and destiny, heroics and heartbreak,” he says.
While Geralt might consider Jaskier a pest, their relationship is hugely beneficial to the witcher. Geralt turns from a misunderstood menace that most townsfolk would prefer to chase out of town to a legendary warrior—dubbed the White Wolf by Jaskier—that kings and queens are eager to employ and entertain. Jaskier’s song “Toss A Coin To Your Witcher” spreads just as virally in the show’s world as it did on the internet. Jaskier is Geralt’s biggest fan, and like any fan, he’s eager to get everyone to share his enthusiasm. If he makes some money by sharing Geralt’s tales, that’s a nice bonus.
Jaskier brings desperately needed levity to The Witcher while serving as an audience stand-in, someone who appreciates the impossible feats that Geralt can accomplish and literally cheer when something particularly incredible happens. He’s the best part of the show, but his role is far from unique, drawing from a long tradition of bards in epic fantasy.
While William Shakespeare is called the bard as a term of respect for his mastery of poetry, he’s also the founder of the tropes that The Witcher is drawing on. His plays regularly used jesters, fools, and performers to lighten up tragedies, speak truth to power, and directly address the audience. In the witcher’s world of dragons, wizards, and deadly warriors, Jaskier has nothing to offer in a fight and typically runs to Geralt for protection when confronted by a threat. Yet he’s often brutally honest in his assessment of situations as he tries to protect Geralt from his worst impulses when it comes to love and battle. Like most of Shakespeare’s fools, his advice is often ignored, but the humor and irony land anyway as he tells Geralt he should really stay away from his love interest, Yennefer (Anya Chalotra), whom Jaskier calls a “very sexy but insane witch.”
While Jaskier doesn’t directly break the fourth wall, he certainly puts some cracks in it. A collector of stories, Jaskier is quick to share information relevant to the situation while coyly pointing out, “There I go again, just delivering exposition.” He also lampshades the show’s confusing intersecting timelines, which are particularly hard to keep track of given that Geralt and Yennefer barely age. When he reunites with Geralt in episode five, Jaskier exclaims, “What’s it been? Months? Years? What is time, anyway?”
Shakespeare’s most notable fool is Puck, the fairy trickster whose machinations cause much of the conflict in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. He helps create a secondary template of capricious yet powerful bards found in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Tom Bombadil. Speaking only in rhyme and possessing abilities that even the great wizard Gandalf respects, Tom often refers to himself in the third person and seems aware that a great story is being woven around him. He’s a strange figure who doesn’t fit neatly into Tolkien’s elaborate mythology, in part because the character actually predates The Hobbit. While Jaskier brings manic energy to every scene he’s in, Tom slows the progress of The Fellowship Of The Ring to a crawl with his long tangential tales. It’s unsurprising that Peter Jackson cut the character in his film adaptations, even though he used some of Tolkien’s other songs from the series to great effect.
When the creators of Dungeons & Dragons looked to Tolkien’s works for inspiration for their rangers, wizards, elves, and dwarves, they also brought over bards, though they struggled with how to mechanically represent them. The class could initially only be pursued by characters who had already had several adventures and also had exceptionally high ability scores. This version of the bard used music and natural magic in the way of Tom Bombadil. But the model changed in later editions to be more along the lines of Puck, with bards becoming users of illusions, enchantments, and mundane misdirection.
Dungeons & Dragons is a game that favors specialization, and the bard was meant to be a jack-of-all-trades and master of none. As a result, it was regularly mocked by serious players looking to play mechanically optimized characters. That weakness is a running gag in Rich Burlew’s web comic The Order Of The Stick, which is inspired by the 3.5-edition ruleset for Dungeons & Dragons. The bard, Elan, is largely seen as a useless nuisance to the rest of the party, outclassed when it comes to fighting or magic. Yet Elan serves the traditional role of bringing a particularly goofy brand of humor to the series.
All of Burlew’s characters break the fourth wall on occasion by acknowledging the ways their actions are shaped by the rules of the game, but Elan is the most meta character. He might not actually seem like an adept storyteller when performing puppet shows or singing of his party’s adventurers, but he knows the beats well enough to understand where he fits in them. This allows him to predict plot twists and gives him a near-endless source of courage and heroism. While everyone around him might feel doubt, he knows that, as the good guys, they’re bound to succeed in the end. Every setback they experience is just serving a narrative purpose of making their inevitable victory all the sweeter.
Likewise, Jaskier is fundamentally aware of exactly what kind of world he’s living in. He might not know nearly as much about monsters and magic as Geralt, but he’s quick to seize on any opportunity to benefit from them. When he finds Geralt trying to fish up a jar imprisoning a wish-granting djinn, he’s initially skeptical. But as soon as the cork comes out and the power becomes apparent, Jaskier starts shouting out wishes to claim petty vengeance and luck in love before the witcher can stop him.
While Elan, Jaskier, and most fantasy bards are armed with a lute, the role doesn’t actually require a musical instrument. The exiled ambassador Ahmad ibn Fadlan, played by Antonio Banderas in The 13th Warrior, serves the same purpose as he accompanies a group of Viking warriors on their quest to kill a monster. In this retelling of the legend of Beowulf, Ahmad serves as the audience stand-in, a refined man looking on with horror at the Norsemen’s crude manners while developing a deep respect for their honorable battle. Ahmad’s greatest contribution is to share the tale of their great deeds and sacrifice.
That role also manifests in The Witcher. When people repeatedly assume that Geralt has been killed fighting some monster or another, Jaskier is quick to contradict them. Like the audience, Jaskier knows that the hero is too tough to die off-screen and is sure to dramatically reappear covered in monster guts. But when for a moment he actually does believe that Geralt has fallen, Jaskier promises, “I’m going to write you the best song so that everyone remembers who you were. What we did. Then I’ll sing it for the rest of my days. You always said I had the most wonderful singing voice.”
That last line is patently false, considering Geralt insulted his voice earlier that same episode. But Jaskier’s been embellishing and changing Geralt’s tales for as long as he’s been singing them. In that way, Jaskier is not just a stand-in for the audience, but for the writers themselves. Tolkien hated the effects of industrialization on Britain, and Tom Bombadil is an embodiment of the beauty and power of nature that the series’ villains threaten to despoil. Puck addresses the audience at the end of A Midsummer Night’s Dream to ask them not to judge the play too harshly.
Sapkowski’s Witcher stories are filled with parallels to the political struggles and ethnic cleansings of Eastern and Central Europe. Those serious topics are part of what drew The Witcher showrunner Lauren Schmidt Hissrich to the material. When Geralt and Jaskier encounter elves who are trying to win back dignity for their people, Jaskier appreciates their plight, but when writing a song about the incident, he turns it into a more generic adventure story. Through Jaskier, Hissrich acknowledges the great appeal of escapist fantasy but also asks viewers to confront the messy issues of racism, refugees, and sexism that have traditionally been left out of these stories in the interest of having fun.
Jaskier’s agenda is a simple one that most writers can relate to: He wants to find fame, fortune, and adoration by telling stories that people love. As much as Geralt might mock his skills, Jaskier is good at his job because he understands what makes the witcher such a compelling hero. While Geralt might consider matching wits with wizards and hacking apart monsters to be simply part of a day’s work, Jaskier sees the seed of a fantastic story. Fundamentally what makes the bard so lovable is that he knows exactly what we as an audience want, and he can’t wait to give it to us.
160 Comments
Look, I might not get Joe Keery as Jaskier, but Joey Batey is fine.HOWEVER, Maya Hawke as Priscilla is my dream cast, eventhough she’s not from the novels but it doesn’t matter. Maya Hawke as any female singing bard in The Witcher is also good.
If they introduce Priscilla in the same timeline as the games then we’re a long, long way away from meeting her.I wasn’t aware that Maya Hawke was known for her singing.
Knowing what happens to Priscilla, I’m not sure that I’d want her included…
Yeah.One of the plotlines that just “ends” is her and Dandelions place in the plot.Hell, you bring Ciri back to the inn with Triss, Yenn, etc and he gets like two lines of dialogue about it.Him and Zoltan shoulda been on the boat for the final act.
When danger reared its ugly head
He bravely turned his tail and fled
I wonder what season will have Jaskier devoured with much rejoicing (yaaaaaay).
Spoony Bards are the best bards!
My spoon is too bard.
“For the love of God and all that is holy, my bard is bleeding!”
Yes, lol, Immediately thought of MP’s Holy Grail.Second favorite is Paul Bettany as Chaucer in A Knight’s Tale.And a special shout out to Danny Kaye’s brilliant performance in The Court Jester (1955).
Yes, lol, Immediately thought of MP’s Holy Grail.Second favorite is Paul Bettany as Chaucer in A Knight’s Tale.And a special shout out to Danny Kaye’s brilliant performance in The Court Jester (1955).
They *do* sort of nail that hilarious motif of a noble hero being followed around by a goddam minstrel who WILL NOT GO AWAY.
“
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Keep it down, you two!
“Dungeons & Dragons is a game that favors specialization, and the bard was meant to be a jack-of-all-trades and master of none. As a result, it was regularly mocked by serious players looking to play mechanically optimized characters.”To be fair, in AD&D the only way you could become a Bard was with ridiculously high ability scores (Strength 15, Wisdom 15, Dexterity 15 and Charisma 15, Intelligence 12 and Constitution 10.) and you had to start as a Fighter until level 5, than do 5 levels of Thief, then start taking levels in Druid.
Multiclassing was such a pain in the ass back in the day.Eventhe video games that were heavily based on d&d rule sets quickly eased up on those restrictions
I mention that in the previous paragraph:The class could initially only be pursued by characters who had already had several adventures and also had exceptionally high ability scores.
Well I’m a dumbass.
I’m so proud of someone for knowing this off the top of their heads (I’m just assuming you do and don’t have the PHB 2nd edition in front of you; you have a perspicacious air about you).
Actually I knew about it from a vague recollection of Spoony’s old Countermonkey series. I just up the specific requirements on Wikipedia.
Hey I know some of these words!
I expected at least one Skyrim reference.
Any person who starts in with “Oh, there once was a hero named Ragnar the Red . . .” gets an obligatory “Boo this man!” .gif.
https://giphy.com/gifs/iSxPmDWr97248/html5
(to be fair, you started in with “Oh, there once was a hero named Ragnar the Red . . .”)
so was i alone in thinking he was obnoxious, seemed to be from a completely different show and unfunny?
“Toss a coin to your Witcher” was one of the most uninspired, repetitive songs I’ve heard in recent memory. Every time the chorus line was repeated I kept thinking, “surely this is the last time” and nope, it kept repeating 50 more times.
*jots down note on legal pad* “Mmmhmm, and tell me what else led you to this feeling of hatred toward joy and fun? Something in your childhood perhaps?”
I guess the 30+ years I’ve been listening to and playing music has taught me to dislike lazy, uninspired music? I love joy and fun.
“Mmmhmm. So your mother, talk about your relationship with her…”
You are not alone.
There are fives of us! FIVES I tell you!
I felt similar. His addition to the show was the kind of annoying outdated “comedic relief” character that seems to screw things up for protagonist rather than really add to the actual plot. With a modern sounding pop folk song.
I believe you mean “inclusion,” since he’s been a part of the books since pretty much the beginning.
Sure. The way they wrote this character from the books for the Netflix series … *all the stuff a wrote phrased slightly differently*
If only he were Daffy Duck
Initially, I had the same reaction, but the character grew on me. By the sixth episode, I could appreciate his presence (if nothing else as the jester-speaks-the-truth foil). Still a bit annoying, however.
I had the same feeling, and maybe that was the point/goal. Much like Geralt, the audience(me) could not care less about him in the beginning, but as adventure continues his company was much more appreciated
I just wish they’d given him more of his role in the books and games, as more of the ‘damsel in distress’ as often as not. Or as the grifting whoremonger always looking for how to make a buck. It makes the moments where his loyalty as a friend shine through all that more meaningful.
Was really surprised to see how much love he was getting on twitter. I guess people like characters who are intentionally annoying? Made no sense why Geralt tolerated him. In episode 5 the entire plot with the Djinn began purely because Jaskier rocked up (out of no where mind you) and decided to an immature dick. Funny how the show’s quality picked up a bit once he stopped with the jokes and made his exit.
Seriously, before the bulging throat stuff came to pass, I started believing he was maybe Geralt’s Dark Passenger or something. In addition to just being outright annoying and punchable, I’m not a fan of the way he just pops up out of nowhere (or the apparent lack of aging?).
I mean you obviously aren’t alone, Geralt says in the show that he basically shares your opinion. As a Serious Person doing Serious Business, having this idiot coming around singing about you and otherwise being unable to defend himself or attack is going to be pretty annoying. But he ultimately helped Geralt by changing opinions about him and so he was tolerated.In the same way, Jaskier in the show was used as comedic relief (which you may or may not think is necessary but I enjoyed it) and his song brought more viewers to the show. He was also able to perform plot points that would have been difficult (or at least less meaningful) to do otherwise, such as bringing Geralt to the banquet where he became tied to Ciri. He served a purpose and, I’d say, generally a positive one.
To your point about the Pavetta’s betrothal banquet, in the books, Geralt was invited by Queen Calanthe, not Jaskier.
Right, that’s what I meant by less meaningful – Geralt doesn’t know who Calanthe is yet and having him get some queen’s invitation (I think) wouldn’t have meant as much or meshed as easily into the story as Jaskier going and bringing Geralt along. There absolutely would have been a way (several ways really) to do everything that Jaskier did without Jaskier, but having one person doing them added a sense of unity that the show was otherwise difficult to come by with the multiple timelines and time jumps.
No, what happened was that Calanthe and Geralt already knew each other.
Calanthe invited Geralt to the banquet under the alias “Sir Ravix of Fourhorn”, ostensibly under the guise of having him there keep the peace.
In reality, she invited him there because she knew that Duny was going to show up and she wanted Geralt to kill him. There are various hypotheses for why they changed it, including giving Jaskier more screentime, giving Geralt a reason to fight with Jaskier in the Djinn episode, and changing Calanthe’s personality.
Your reasons as to why they changed it may all be valid, I don’t know the writers, but they all support what I’m saying – that the presence of Jaskier allowed them to do different (presumably, for them, more desirable) things with the characters and plot. Doing it like it was in the book would have been possible but they wanted to do it differently and Jaskier’s existence let them.
The problem with the writers is that most changes they made (from the Last Wish short story collection, which I’ve read) just make things more confusing and harder to invest in. Queen Calanthe’s ruthless personality is better highlighted by having her invite Geralt, that gives her character more definition than just having her swear a lot, which is how the show seems to do it. Another example: the episode with the genie. In the book he accidentally finds it while fishing, which sounds a lot less contrived then “he can’t sleep due to knowing he claimed a kid by accident and needs a genie to help him sleep”.
They try to stuff way too much in and it ends up confusing and hard to take characters seriously or impactfully because there’s no time for a lot of this to breathe. Would have been better if they’d focused more on short stories in the start and then gradually ramped it up to include Ciri and current politics (Nilfgaard) rather than trying to interweave the two from the start. This is Hissrich’s first go as a showrunner and it really shows with some of these decisions.
Yeah, the plot is definitely more clear from the stories (I’m almost done with The Last Wish) but I also get that they wanted to have Ciri and Yennefer doing their things at the same time. Interweaving them like this was probably unnecessary but I also get why they did it, otherwise you’d end up with episodes without Ciri or Geralt or something.
Not to mention that his song made it so that Geralt was welcomed with open arms at the banquet and not immediately run out of town.
Yeah, compare opinions of Geralt in the first episode, especially after the “Butcher of Blaviken” event, to those later – people were impressed and excited with the prospect of working with the White Wolf and (presumably) wanted to toss a coin to their Witcher.
I’m with you. I can’t stand his character, mismatched with the setting, and who should have been gutted by somebody in the early episodes. Many have probably been killed for a lot less than being unfunny.
I didn’t find him particularly funny but I agree with the author that he does serves a purpose beyond comic relief.
I think, and this is what the article is getting at, is that you need someone who is outside of the story and feels a bit off to really define to borders of the scope of the story. Someone who can step out of the bounds of the story, trigger a reaction of “this is too much” and then step back in. And there’s your border. I’m not saying the show was perfect in utilizing Jaskier, I think he stepped outside a bit too much, but having him be on the edge did allow for the time jumping to coalesce more quickly and to get some basic exposition out of the way.
Just from the pictures I have seen of this character (I have not watched the show), this guy looks like a mega-douche that I want to instinctively punch in the face. I hate these types of characters.
You weren’t alone. But you already knew that.More importantly, your opinion is not as objectively correct as you tone suggests.
lol. objective tone? I phrased it as a question and also specifically “thinking” which is a word used in expressing ones opinion. My post was extremely subjective in tone.
I just felt his music felt way too modern-pop or broadway to believably fit in the fantasy setting.
Anachronistic sensibilities are an intentional feature of this particular fantasy setting.
Yeah, how dare they have a ‘modern-pop’ bard’s song in this fantasy television show where they talk about genetic mutations. Marek Oramus wrote the following about Sapkowski’s books:
“[Sapkowski] introduces 20th-century ideas and words into the medieval
world – things such as “ecology”, “genetic code”, “weapon of mass
destruction”, “demarcation line”, and so on. His characters have the
consciousness of modern people, even if they use archaic language. These
are other-worldly Middle Ages; it’s a mashup.”
I think he’s what makes the show bearable. The writing and special effects are not quite good enough on their own for me to take the show too seriously, and he is a sign that the show-runners recognize the level of their work and also don’t take it too seriously. I mean, just budget-wise … they can’t pull off something TOO serious without seeming a bit Ren Faire-ish. And to the other comment about the song sounding like it doesn’t fit realistically in the fantasy setting … well, take a look at that fantasy setting. It’s not exactly well-peopled or rich with internal consistencies. Kingdoms and towns and rulers seem to just “be around” and awfully close together without much in the way of realistic, I dunno, economies or cultures. And people so easily just run into each in the woods. Jaskier and his modern-pop music let you know what kind of show this is (similar to the modern tone or the take of Geoffrey Chaucer in A Knight’s Tale … if you didn’t like that, you probably don’t like Jaskier in the Witcher; me, I think they’re kinda the only things that make them interesting).
Nope. But this isn’t a very good TV show so it’s ok.
My biggest issue with Jaskier was when he complimented Geralt on his use of ‘reverse psychology,’ because that is certainly a thing someone would know about and casually reference in a medieval timeline.
Yes, that’s more about lazy writing, but having it come from Jaskier somehow made it worse.
Eh, wild medical anachronisms is pretty much part and parcel of the Witcher franchise. Without spoiling the details of Wild Hunt, there’s a pretty vital subplot in that game that depends upon both Geralt and the other party having a conversational knowledge of biological weapons, the germ theory of disease, and genetics to at least the level of Mendel’s experiments. This despite the game being set in the 1270’s, which would put it right about the time of the Golden Horde.
True, the whole idea of ‘mutants’ and the implied genetic engineering involved in creating Witchers (and other things) does have a similar anachronistic feel, but in the context of the show at least it seems implied that that’s magical mutation/genetic manipulation, not modern CRISPR/CAS9-style gene editing.To actually use the term ‘psychology’ feels much more egregiously out of place, but perhaps that’s just me. I’m also bothered by the anachronistic use of words like ‘sexy’ and ‘okay,’ which didn’t even exist in the 1800s, much less the 1200s.
Are you also bothered by the anachronistic use of the word “fuck.”?
Slightly, but less so? Profanity is a component of language that’s harder to portray for a modern audience with the same impact. Someone saying ‘damn you’ simply doesn’t have the impact that ‘fuck you’ does to a contemporary ear. Plus, believe someone’s traced the earliest use of ‘fuck’ to the early 1300s, so it’s not THAT anachronistic. 🙂
If the Cybermen showed up or if they started singing Taylor Swift or got really into Crossfit it wouldn’t be out of place, considering this show takes place in a fictional world with monsters and talking dragons, and is in no way obligated to observe the timeline of our reality.
That’s… true, I suppose? But I think that would also make it a wildly different show.
accurate statement
Oh man if Geralt had an iPhone and some AirPods in when he was riding around I’d buy it
hey they need product placement somewhere. I suppose there could be a land with a lot of geckos running around, or he could just continuously eat apples
what if they all determined their destinies after hearing a version of all along the watchtower?
Yeah. Not one of prestige TV’s greatest moments but still better than a lot of Witcher.
And English?
I’m interested in your concept of authenticity. No one from the time period you think this story takes place in would speak in a way at all recognizable to you. Modern english is almost entirely (not entirely) different. It strikes me as a bit arbitrary to single out certain words as inauthentic. A little bit of Chacuer to illustrate: That sith that Crist ne wente never but onis To weddyng, in the Cane of Galilee,Bý the same ensample taughte he me That I ne sholdė wedded be but ones. Herkne, eek, which a sharp word for the nonesNot only does that not have any sexys or okays. It resembles no line from The Witcher at all.
Very valid point. However, I’d argue you could contemporize the Chaucer to be understandable and parsable to a modern ear, and the language construction alone would feel more authentic.“Since Christ only attended one wedding, in Cana in Galilee, by the same example I should have married only once. Remember his sharp words.”
“I’m also bothered by the anachronistic use of words like ‘sexy’ and ‘okay,’ which didn’t even exist in the 1800s, much less the 1200s.”It seems weird to me that you single out those words as anachronistic, when the simple fact that they speak modern-day English is anachronistic. If they spoke the way people spoke back in the 1200, we wouldn’t understand a single thing. Here is a sample of the Canterberry tales, from the 1300’s: “Whan that aprill with his shoures soote
The droghte of march hath perced to the roote,
And bathed every veyne in swich licour
Of which vertu engendred is the flour;”And that’s assuming they would be speaking English at all – this is a fantasy world based roughly on Polish folklore, so who knows what their language would really sound like.
Not to put too fine a point on it, but “okay” was popularized in the 1800s. It has a longer history than a lot of other words that would probably go unremarked. Humongous, for example, is a 20th centurey word.But honestly, they probably ought to all be speaking Polish and this is all in translation anyway, so I don’t get too caught up in it.
I’m currently listening to “The Last Wish” during my daily commute, and I’m struck by two things; very (though sort of knowingly) male gazey, and also sort of progressive but also very regressive view of women (also sort of knowingly) simultaneously, and secondly not as much anachronistic, as sort of unconcerned with chronology. It’s kind of a silly thing to require a fictional medieval world to be exactly like the real medieval world, especially when your main guy is a monster hunter, but it’s clear that Geralt has a very modern way of thinking.To be clear though, I love both the books and the show, and although I hate Elf on the shelf, I thought that, in the context of this sort of thing being very much spiritually within, if not actually in the canon already, I thought the turn of phrase, “pushed the elves way back on the shelf” was delightful.
some of this stuff is like “we’re going to pretend to be progressive for a minute so we can feel okay about more boobs!”
You can be progressive and have more boobs, they aren’t pretending really.
Are you reading it in the English translation? Apparently in the original polish the tongue in cheek and satirical tone is much more obvious.
To be fair, its not set in OUR 1270’s, that’s just the year of that fantasy world. And anachronisms abound in the books as well. As you say, its part and parcel of the franchise. As far as genetics and biology is concerned, the Witcherverse is way further along than we were in the middle ages.
I’d be pretty hesitant to compare the history in the world of The Witcher to our own. It is, after all, a fantasy universe. In The Witcher’s universe knowing oddly much about especially chemistry, medicine and biology, and magicians who behave and think in certain ways like theoretical physicists, while generally looking like you’re from Late Medieval times is a pretty integral part of said universe. Hell, the entire concept of a witcher is based upon it, mutating the human body through alchemical means and whatnot.
plus the witcher does technically take place in a multiverse, although from what i understand its only very vaguely referenced in the books. its a lot more explicit in the games, but its unclear how much of that stuff they want to use/can use/will ever get to
FWIW, I don’t believe I’m comparing the history of the real world with a fantasy world, but by all appearances, it’s a high middle ages setting, plus magic. I’m sure the worldbuilding is much more nuanced and complicated than that, but certain words and phrases will always sound out of place.
I suppose they might sound out of place. I guess I’m used to that sort of thing, considering I constantly make up my own universes for tabletop roleplaying games. If anything I like that it’s out of place. It reminds me that it’s not just a version of our world.
Right? I don’t think you can use “anachronism” with something where magic and fantasy is involved.“I mean sure, the guy can shoot fireballs out of his eyeballs and a laser ice ray out of his sphincter, but the fact that the doctor had knowledge of anti-septic technique just threw me out of the realism of the whole situation.”
Unfortunately, there’s nothing vaguer than the contract between author and audience about suspension of disbelief. Only at the very far edges – namely, *internal* contradiction – can we firmly say it’s been breached. Even questioning stuff like Plot Stupidity is a bit murkier than that, especially in works where many different characters evince it regularly.It sucks, though. Technically, we do regularly sign up for fantasy worlds with a huge possibility space, but when that fantasy world pulls out something that feels wrong to us, we want there to be a more objective way to articulate our objection to it. We want it to *be* wrong, rather than simply *feel* wrong.
Wait… you think that a story with dragons and sorcerers and strigas is set in OUR dark ages?I would love/hate to hear your takes on a story that happens “a LONG TIME AGO” in some other galaxy.
I do not think that, nor did I say that.
The idea of ‘reverse psychology’ has been around for longer than pre-history, I mean, literally half of Sun-Tzu’s writing is basically about reverse-psychology. Its a very simple concept, most assuredly not named that til recently, but most of everything is translated both from one language to another and from one colloquial origin into the watcher’s own. Calling it reverse psychology is for us the watcher to understand the concept he’s talking about without extra expositioning.
This is very true, and an excellent point. It’s specifically the use of the modern label that bothers me, but you’re right, it’s a useful shorthand.
Additionally, sorry about throwing my book report at you, but terminology in fantasy literature is one of my favorite topics 😀
Adding onto that, the idea of not using terms like ‘sexy’ and ‘okay’ falls apart a bit when you put it into a realistic context because none of the words they should be using are native to our world. They aren’t speaking English, French, Japanese, etc. so you can think of any word they use as a translation to our own. Its like watching Vietnamese movie and having a problem with the subtitles saying ‘sexy’ because the Vietnamese don’t have the word ‘sexy’ in their language. They just have their own word that means basically the same concept as the English speakers completely different word for the same concept.
No worries! I appreciate the conversation, and recognize this is largely my own personal preference.
While I generally agree with you,* I do think there are certain phrases that are so clearly tied to a particular era that it is distracting to use them in non-modern stories. “Translating” words like ‘sexy’ or ‘okay’ is one thing, but surely it would feel anachronistic for someone in armor to suddenly bust out “yo, that’s totally phat!” And where that line is will differ for different people, depending on what they think of as “normal” (i.e. non-slang) speech. *My pet peeve in terms of movies forgetting that they are ‘translating’ is accents. I was watching Citizen X last night, and everyone was speaking English with a Russian accent, even though we’re supposed to imagine that they’re speaking Russian, in which case they wouldn’t have an accent. But back to my earlier point, I probably would have been annoyed if they had used distinctly American phrases, because that changes the flavor of the conversation. The words we use reflect the way we think, and someone in 1980s USSR doesn’t think like an American.
That’s…. exactly Witcher, mate, the books are very anachronistic, specifically because society evolved massively due to magic. You’re barking up the wrong tree, and what’s worse, influencing others that likewise know nothing about Witcher. The universe itself is a mish-mash of medieval settings and anachronistic technology, psychology, sciences in general.
A fantasy adventure show purged of anachronistic language could be tedious and limiting. You know the concept they are trying to convey with those words. Maybe in 1200 CE Poland they’d have used a euphemism about goats or something that no one watching this fantasy tv show show would understand, including people in Poland.edit: edited for rudeness on my part
That’s because a jester unemployed is nobody’s fool.
The character is called Dandelion in the English translation of the
books by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski that the show is based on, as
well as in CD Projekt Red’s video game series
One thing I think is funny is tht Jaskier is his original name in the Polish versions of the books, but it’s just the Polish word for “buttercup”. They changed it to Dandelion in the English versions because that supposedly sounded less feminine than Buttercup but honestly it seems like a lateral move to me.
A whole article about fantasy bards and not one mention of Fflewdur Fflam? He had a magic harp!
I urge everyone to read the novels. Dandelion is absolutely hilarious. Incredibly well written character.
Dour? It was 8 hours of schlocky camp ridiculousness. Nothing really got serious until the 2nd half of the last episode.
Dandelion is portrayed so perfectly in the show, they did an amazing job with the Witcher TV series!
Important to note is that The Witcher’s comic relief also comes from Geralt himself. Cavill knows how to play him to a tee, and it really helps in that regard with the way he gives Geralt that “old man who’s done with this shit” vibe. I’ll never forget the conclusion of the Law Of Surprise scene, that shit was hilarious.
“Fuck.”
“But the views.”
1.) Yes, you’re right it’s funny2.) However it does sort of traffic in the weird idea that pregnant women are just constantly, randomly puking. Morning sickness is a thing, but way, way *less* of a thing that it’s made out to be. The woman in my life *never* had significant morning sickness when she was pregnant with our kid.
Dungeons & Dragons is a game that favors specialization, and the bard was meant to be a jack-of-all-trades and master of none. As a result, it was regularly mocked by serious players looking to play mechanically optimized characters. That weakness is a running gag in Rich Burlew’s web comic The Order Of The Stick, which is inspired by the 3.5-edition ruleset for Dungeons & Dragons. The bard, Elan, is largely seen as a useless nuisance to the rest of the party, outclassed when it comes to fighting or magic. Yet Elan serves the traditional role of bringing a particularly goofy brand of humor to the series.Which is actually further subverted, because as it turns out, Elan is by far the most optimized member of the party. This was a gag that Burlew has rarely highlighted as the series progressed, but it’s always been there: the Order of the Stick is, in fact, ridiculously unoptimized from a powergamer perspective. The character with the most balanced mental attributes is the fighter, to the point that he’s been invited to be a mage, cleric and paladin at various points in the narrative. The dwarven cleric’s dump stat is charisma, the mage is an enchanter with a prohibited spell school of evocation, the rogue’s primary weapon is a bow-and-arrow, and the off-tank is a halfling barbarian/ranger that dual-wields daggers.By contrast, Elan is a bard with 18 charisma, and a prestige class that allows him to use charisma for damage calculations if he can make a pun as he does so, and he has confirmed points in Perform (kazoo) so he can use musical instruments while keeping his hands free. From a min-maxer perspective, he’s more or less the only character in the group that is actually designed to maximize his class and ability scores. Even better, his father is a ruthless min-maxer, which made his son a natural target for his machinations:
My wife and I were calling him Guybrielle, a play on Xena’s Gabrielle.
That only works if he and Geralt have extreme amounts of sexual tension between them
I mean, I’m down for that.
they didn’t?
Further reading/viewing:The Court Jesterstarring Danny Kaye, Angela Lansbury, Glynis Johns, and Basil Rathbone
+10 for any reference to the 13th Warrior. Goddamn I love that movie.
“I am an Ambassador, damn it! I am supposed to talk to people!”So much love for that movie. Makes me laugh, makes my cry. All of the characters were great, included the random extended cameo by Omar Sharif. The Michael Chrighton book its based on, on the other hand… the Beowulf ties are much clearer, it’s just not nearly as entertaining.
If I can die after honestly using the Viking prayer….That final scene is all goosebumps and glorious death.
Agreed! (Particularly if I could also include “Ibn”’s prayer, which balancies things out nicely). There are worse things than going out with a line that is somehow introspective, tragic, and badass.Though, that’s not actually the final scene, which is part of why I love the movie. You get that goosebump moment, but then the horror and tragedy is over, and life goes on. They died, but they died for something, and they’re remembered.
Plus Tony Horton! Dem Vikings were doing mountain climbers all day long.
“13th Warrior” reference! Truly an underrated gem.
The first episode is a showcase of horrors including mass suicide Where was the mass suicide in the first episode?
The poison being handed out to the noble families, and the parents administering it to their children, sometimes rather forcefully.
Oh wow I totally forgot about that, thanks. I guess I didn’t really consider it “mass” suicide as it only looked to be a few noble families and the queen offing themselves. I guess my requirements for saying“mass” are much higher, like an entire legion falling on their swords.
I didn’t love Jaskier at first, but he grew on me. In general I thought this show was at its best when it had a sense of humor about itself and let the actors have fun with their characters and at its worst when it was self-seriously grim.
I kinda wish they kept his name as Dandelion. It really plays up his comic dandy attitude and appearance.
He’s not very leonine though….
On the plus side, 5e Bards are totally kickass. Mine is 5th level now, 1 of only 2 original party characters and overall probably the most useful.He’s a Nac MacFeegle Gonnagle who plays mousepipes so I get to do a horrible Irish accent when I play him too:)
My comical NWN bard was named “Robin Maclederhosensonson.”
Are they buffbots like they were in Pathfinder? That was really the biggest criticism of the transitional D&D iterations (and the Pathfinder offshoot, obviously,) not so much that they were useless. It’s that nobody playing a classic “lots of battles and looting” campaign would ever want to bother with the bard’s job on a round-by-round basis. He kept “haste” up without needing to blow a very valuable wizard spell slot on it, and then could choose one other pretty good buff too. And then he could, uh, selectively debuff one enemy by demoralizing them? Obviously I’m not bothering to get the details right, but the gist of it is, buffbots are super useful but incredibly boring to play. Most GMs doing major “kill’n’loot” campaigns would just give the party an NPC bard. They’d also quite pointedly not have the enemies think to kill the bard first, even though it often made sense (especially if the enemies outnumbered the party and thus could soak the alpha strikes.)
Now, if your campaign was more geared towards RP, bards could be a lot more fun… but that immediately raised the question of why you were bothering with a D&D-like ruleset instead of some tabletop game that was *vastly* superior for storytelling and roleplaying.
No they’re all around utility players now. I’ve killed trolls with Vicious Mockery, ended the battle with AoE spells that take out a whole group of baddies, can heal, can make it so my buddies don’t get hit, can pick locks because we don’t have a thief, will be able to haste our fighter next level because our Wizard is a necro that doesn’t have haste, etc…It’s the first version of Bard that’s actually not boring to play.
Crivens!
point of order: gary gygax was not a tolkien devotee, nor was he a huge fan of high fantasy. he was in fact unaware that hobbits were invented by tolkien and assumed they were public-domain mythical characters. the original influence for d&d’s mystical world came completely from pulp fantasy and sci-fi (edgar rice burroughs, jack vance, robert e. howard).
“their relationship is hugely beneficial to the witcher. Geralt turns from a misunderstood menace that most townsfolk would prefer to chase out of town to a legendary warrior”I guess this makes sense. It always seemed weird to me that they were friends, especially since I never played Witcher 1 & 2.
Personally, I’ve always liked my bards to be spoony.
How can you fail to mention the greatest comic relief bard of all time, Fflewddur Fflam!
No Fflewddur Fflam?
Seriously, how has no one mentionned this guy yet? http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_GIMeSOZEe6Y/S-gFJyYH3BI/AAAAAAAAAQ4/uZxdCuwIuGU/s1600/assurancetourix2.bmpHe needs to be included in any list of famous. And then beaten up thorougly.
No, the fan base of GOT and The Witcher are not the same. The shows can not be compared, to be fair. One takes it’s self overly serious and the other doesn’t at all. There is a huge difference.
I cannot understand why AV Club didn’t do episode reviews of this show. Especially considering the massive popularity of the games. I also wish they would review The Expanse.
On balance, the AV Club liked this show which I just can’t understand. It’s cheesy as fuck. Poor writing, shit acting (apart from Cavill who is great), unecessary deviations from the source material. I couldn’t get past Ep 5.
Episodes 5 and 6 were the nadir for me. Terrible dialogue, bizarre character motivations out of nowhere, writing changes that made things overcomplicated and more confusing rather than less. Both had the same director so that may have been partly the cause. I was watching with a friend and we pushed through, 7 and 8 improve a bit (no Jaskier, what a coincidence) though the Nilfgaardian captain and Fringilla the mage need a few more acting lessons (Fringilla needs to tone it down while he needs more range than just “pissed off”)
I love this show. It’s basically a modern Hercules/Xena and so far has been a fantasy that depicts no gratuitous sexual violence to prove its a gritty dragon show for grown-ups so I hope it lasts forever.
nice
The tradition goes as far back as antiquity, and coincides with the advent of drama (see the sentry in Antigone by Sophocles, for example, or the role of the Satyrs in dramatic plays by Aeschylus and Euripides).
“Hey Geralt! Knock knock!”“Who’s there?”“Euripides!”“Euripides who?”“Euripides these trousers, you mend-a these trousers!”“…….fuck…”
On a tangential but
fun note, as well as bards, there used to exist travelling students that became
“quills for hire” for local lords. They were often the third sons of nobles who
had gone through training to be a monk or priest. (Firstborn son would be the
heir, secondborn would go into the army and thirdborn into the church – that way
the family would have a member in every seat of power). These thirdborn sons
often had no interest in the spiritual life and ended up dropping out. The only
skill that they had to offer was that they could read and write in Latin and
maybe Greek. They were known for
drinking and debauchery and for a few coins, would happily write a filthy and
insulting poem for you dedicated to your worst enemy. The name of these unsavoury
characters was “Goliard” and I would really LOVE to see one portrayed in a
movie or miniseries.
Just remember to “toss” a coin “to” your witcher, not “throw” a coin “at”.
The 2e Bard was secretly really powerful. Because of their faster experience progression, they’re often better at spellcasting than a Wizard.
Finished the first season and it’s like the first half of a season. In the battle, I can’t tell what the heck is happening, who or where the assaulting forces are, and in the big climax I couldn’t tell exactly what was happening or its effect…is the battle over? This show is pretty freaking incoherent.For the bard, he was okay at times but they would turn it up and make him incredibly annoying at times…the beginning of the djinn episode was just painful, he tromps in, grabs the jar, starts yelling wishes, passes out, it was like inhaling a fart directly.
My thoughts exactly, it feels like they wrote it after being practically guaranteed a second season. As a fan of the franchise I would never recommend this to someone coming in blind. Also episodes 5 and 6 were the absolute worst in so many ways, felt like a cheesy 90s fantasy.
yeah it felt like bad R-rated episodes of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys…ones without even an Autolycus appearance
when I realized the mages were trying to hold a broken down old keep on the SAME SIDE of a huge ravine with a narrow bridge as the bad guys, I mean,I thought they lived in a school! just cross the bridge and hold them there…
His introduction reminded me of Saul Goodman. Things were grim between Walt and Jesse when suddenly there’s this fast talking, hilarious dude to lighten the show up.
As a point of clarity, maybe mention that bards existed through many cultures and traditions before and independent of Shakespeare? We call him The Bard because he was The Bomb, but the tradition goes back through time.
These comparisons between GoT and The Witcher, and specially the sometimes not so subtle inference of who begat who, are really getting tiresome (not saying that this is the purpose of the article).
Sapkowski wrote 5 books in The Witcher series before Martin published A Game Of Thrones.And Williams wrote 2 books in the Torn and Sorrow series way before either of them published their sagas and which were a major influence on Martin (as he has declared many times not so sure on Sapkowski).So let’s value all of them for their wonderful independently and unique storytelling and stop it with the “tape measurement” thing.:wink: 😉
But can he say “the pellet with the poison’s in the vessel with the pestle”?
I’ve never previously considered the connection between Puck, Bombadil and D&D bards. I always assumed the D&D magical bard was drawn in part from the magical bards found in Celtic/Celtic-Christian myths.
Yo. If you come to Skara Brae, you best be prepared to get jacked by 6 to 8 kobolds right off the bat, son.