eyeslikefoxglove

[eyeslikefoxglove]

summer 2022 essentials:

golden crown of sorrow

bloody sword (to swing)

empty halls (to echo with grand self-mythology)

[eyeslikefoxglove]

Steve: Be the bigger person.

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

[eyeslikefoxglove]

Shadow and Bone season 1 but it’s just memes

[eyeslikefoxglove]

I'm... Uh.

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

[eyeslikefoxglove]

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.

[eyeslikefoxglove]

2022 intensifies

[eyeslikefoxglove]

[eyeslikefoxglove]

[eyeslikefoxglove]

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.

[eyeslikefoxglove]

INCORRECT WITCHER QUOTES [#09]

[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.

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]

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

[eyeslikefoxglove]

SERIOUSLY WOULD SOMEBODY PLEASE JUST KILL STREGOBOR ALREADY

[eyeslikefoxglove]

[eyeslikefoxglove]

I wasn’t ready 🥺😭🫂

[eyeslikefoxglove]

“i’m sad and idk how to feel better”

“i don’t know what to draw”

“i always mess up”

“BUT I SUCK”