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vesemirs · 10 days ago

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okay your whole analysis of why geralt felt bad is exactly what i was thinking but i'm ALWAYS convinced that i'm making cahir a poor little meow meow in my head so if YOU also think that geralt feels bad because he's being a dick to someone that straight up is not engaging then i am clinging to that interpretation as well (sorry i keep sending you asks sfgrsdgs i think i haven't followed you long enough to reply to posts)

yes! cahir at times has his own kind of innocence about him. it's part of his duality. because like the rest, like milva, like regis, he has his two sides to him. the black knight and the imperial soldier vs. the young man and innocent youth.

this is how he's introduced in blood of elves, well, introduced not in a nightmare:

Summoned from the antechambers, the knight entered the chamber with an energetic, strong and noisy stride, his black armour grating. He stopped short, drew himself up proudly, threw his wet, muddy black cloak back from his shoulder, and laid his hand on the hilt of his mighty sword. He leaned his black helmet, adorned with wings of a bird of prey, on his hip. Coehoorn looked at the knight’s face. He saw there the hard pride of a warrior, and impudence. He did not see any of the things that should have been visible in the face of one who had spent the past two years incarcerated in a place from which – as everything had indicated – he would only leave for the scaffold. A faint smile touched the marshal’s lips. He knew that the disdain for death and crazy courage of youngsters stemmed from a lack of imagination. He knew that perfectly well. He had once been such a youngster himself.

cahir's proud, honorable, and fights for an ideal like a real fairytale knight, but he's also youthful as such a knight is, which makes him a bit stupid.

one of the times cahir shows his immaturity, which even though is a blink-and-you'll-miss-it scrap of a dialogue tag, makes me laugh, is when he snickers at regis mentioning sex:

‘(...) Regis, in the name of science and the spread of knowledge, puncture some other myths about vampirism. Because I bet you’ve still got at least one.’ ‘Indeed.’ The vampire nodded. ‘I have one more. It’s the last, but in no sense any less important. It is the myth behind your sexual phobias.’ Cahir snorted softly.

like. regis just said "sexual phobias" and he started snickering. it shows me that, under it all, cahir is just... some young guy.

i mean, especially in the company, because he's the youngest of them (until they come across the company of the fair-haired angoulême. but even then, he's still second-youngest, and he and angoulême are not very far apart in age at all). milva's actually probably close to him in age than he is in age to angoulême, but her youth isn't emphasized by the narrative in the same way.

another example of cahir's immaturity, actually another contrast to regis' maturity, is this, from when they first meet:

‘Is he a sorcerer?’ ‘No,’ Regis answered from behind Pegasus, demonstrating his exceptionally sensitive hearing. ‘But does it really matter who I am? After all, I haven’t asked for your personal details.’ ‘I am Cahir Mawr Dyffryn aep Ceallach.’ ‘I thank you and am full of admiration.’ The barber-surgeon’s voice had a slight note of scorn. ‘I heard almost no Nilfgaardian accent when you pronounced your Nilfgaardian surname.’ ‘I’m not—’

cahir spits out his full name, not hiding his identity, giving his personal details, to who at this point is a complete stranger, makes me smirk, as he's a fugitive from the imperial forces. it makes me think cahir is the kind of person to send his IRL address to someone he's arguing with on the internet.

contrast cahir's immediate release of his full name, to how regis does it with his later in the chapter, only when geralt's sword has been held to his throat and he dramatically reveals himself to the rest of the company.

yet another moment in which cahir seemed boyish to me was later in september, when he mistakenly presumes dandelion was drawing a map or making tallies, and accidentally draws his ire:

‘(...) I can’t bear it when people look over my shoulder when I’m writing! And I don’t intend to put up with it!’ The Nilfgaardian moved away from the poet, and after a moment’s thought seized his saddle, sheepskin and blanket and dragged them over to Milva, who was dozing. ‘I apologise,’ he said. ‘Forgive my obtrusiveness, Dandelion. I glanced involuntarily, out of pure curiosity. I thought you were creating a map or drawing up some tallies—’ ‘I’m not a bookkeeper!’ the poet said, losing his temper and standing up. ‘Nor am I a cartographer! But even if I were, it doesn’t justify taking a sly look at my notes!’ ‘I have apologised,’ Cahir repeated dryly, making his bed in the new place. ‘I have reconciled myself with and become accustomed to many things in this honourable company. But I’m still accustomed to apologising only once.’

it makes me snort that he moved closer to milva, who he knew would defend him, haha. as she defended him against geralt in august.

and cahir's capacity for innocence and boyishness grows more when they are closer:

‘Just a month ago…’ Cahir moaned from his back. ‘Who’d have thought you’d be lugging me like this…’ ‘Quiet, Nilfgaardian… You’re heavier when you talk…’

especially when they winter in beauclair.

‘Tell that to Geralt,’ said Milva. ‘It’s him you should tell.’ ‘Yes, talk to him,’ said Cahir somewhat sarcastically. ‘During one of those brief moments when he’s free. Between the two activities he’s been engaging in for two months to help him forget.’ ‘As for you,’ snorted Angoulême, ‘you’re mainly available in the park, playing at hoops with the barons’ daughters.’

i love that he went from "remaining tactfully silent" to being a sarcastic, and even a mouthy little shit:

‘I guarantee you that the Witcher will hear my opinion on the subject.’ ‘Why, naturally,’ snorted Cahir. ‘How did I know you’d say that, Madam Fringilla?’

‘For you see, he hasn’t mentioned any such plan, and he usually tells me everything.’ ‘Of course he does,’ Cahir grunted. Fringilla ignored him.

all of this being said, cahir's also, on his other side, threatening. and frightening.

like when he appears in time of contempt:

Cahir Mawr Dyffryn aep Ceallach was furious. He had seen the girl he had been ordered to capture, but only for a moment. Then, before he had been able to act, the insane sorcerers unleashed such an inferno in Garstang that no action was possible. Cahir lost his bearings among the smoke and flames, blindly stumbling along corridors, running up and down stairs and through cloisters, and cursing Vilgefortz, Rience, himself and the entire world.

(and then, of course, almost immediately gets his ass kicked by ciri, his hand cut open, and is lying bleeding on the floor. well, that completes the image of cahir.)

but he can be really imposing and authoritative, when he wants to be. such as on the bridge with geralt turning the tide against nilfgaard, or when fighting geralt under the fireworks on the solstice.

something that's funny is that, when cahir gets all "military," his language got a bit censored in the english translation. whereas he cursed worse, originally.

like on the bridge, he calls the fleeing soldiers "skurwysyny," which became "bastards," but is really "motherfuckers."

and, when they cross the bridge over later on september 10th, as chronicled by dandelion:

Thus on the tenth day of September we all crossed to the left bank of the Yaruga, only once being hailed by the guard, at whom Cahir, wrinkling his brow imperiously, shouted back something menacing about imperial service, backing up his words with the classically military and ever effective ‘for fuck’s sake’.

Tak to dziesiątego dnia miesiąca września przejechaliśmy wszyscy na lewy brzeg Jarugi, raz tylko okrzyknięci przez straż, której Cahir, władczo zmarszczywszy brew, odwarknął groźnie coś o cesarskiej służbie, popierając wypowiedź klasycznie wojskową i zawsze skuteczną kurwą waszą macią.

So, on the tenth day of September, we all drove to the left bank of the Yaruga, hailed only once by the guards, to whom Cahir, imperiously furrowing his brow, growled something menacingly about the imperial service, supporting the statement with a classically military and always effective whore's your mother.

as far as i looked up, the official translation is correct insofar as the modern use of kurwa mać (from what i've read it's more used like "for fuck's sake" rather than "(your) mother's a whore," though you could specify, kurwa twoja mać if you wanted to use it that way) but this is the witcher, so the setting adopts some archaic language and uses of language.

back to cahir being a frightening S.O.B., i have to mention his imposing presence at stygga castle. this line sticks with me:

Again they chanced upon some men, this time armed. Cahir and Angoulême jumped towards them with a yell, and the men bolted, mainly, it seemed, because of Cahir and his impressive winged helmet.

and when his stature and presence is added to his strategist nature:

when they persuade the ferryman, you can literally see their different approaches as individual characters... god, what a beautiful D&D party they'd make:

(intimidation) ‘We can kill you,’ Milva said, grinding her teeth. ‘We can also beat you up first. Open your trap again and you’ll see what we can do.’ (perception) ‘I’m sure the fact there’s a war on,’ the vampire said, boring his eyes into the ferryman, ‘doesn’t interfere with smuggling, does it, my good man? Which is what your ferry is for, after all, craftily positioned as it is far from the royal and Nilfgaardian toll collectors. Am I right? Go on, push it into the water.’ (persuasion) ‘That would be wise,’ Cahir added, stroking his sword hilt. ‘Should you hesitate, we shall cross the river ourselves, without you, and your ferry will remain on the far bank. To get it back you’ll have to swim across doing the breaststroke. This way you ferry us across and return. An hour of fear and then you can forget all about it.’

and later, more notably, when he talks about a plan to interrogate, not kill in rage:

‘I was afraid,’ he calmly finished, ‘that you’d butcher Schirrú to death in your frenzy. And we wouldn’t get any information out of a dead man, would we?’ Geralt cleared his throat. He was growing to like the young Nilfgaardian more and more. He was not only brave, but smart too.

emblematic of him is cintra, at which he commanded a squad of soldiers, at literally the slaughter of cintra, and was, at the same time, terrified.

probably the entire explanation of his character right here:

‘A soldier doesn’t question his orders,’ said Cahir, feeling the dressing on his head. ‘Doesn’t analyse them, doesn’t ponder over them, doesn’t wait for them to be explained to him. That’s the first thing they teach a soldier where I come from. So you can understand that not for a second did I ever question an order which was issued to me. The thought of why I had to capture a Cintran princess didn’t even cross my mind. An order’s an order. I was cross, naturally, because I wanted to taste fame, fighting against the knighthood, against the regular army… But working for the intelligence service is also treated as an honour where I come from. If it had only concerned a more taxing task, a more important prisoner… But a girl?’

#im spiralling sorry for spam reblogging op 😭#text #meta #wiedźmin #cahir mawr dyffryn aep ceallach

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vesemirs · 10 days ago

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one thing about cahir is that he does not run away from shit. even when he really really should. he is brave and noble to the point of idiocy. isengrim was like ok i am taking you back to nilfgaard to probably be executed for treason and cahir was like “ok” and didn’t even fight back and let them tie him up and put him in a box because he knew he fucked up again and that was the consequence. i’m not calling him a bootlicker because he literally rebels against mentioned evil empire and fights them on the battlefield, but there is something funny about him entirely accepting evil and unfair authority even when it means his demise. he loses the deal he’s made with emhyr like “ok. you can break me on the wheel now. because i failed.” it wouldn’t be honorable to chicken out of his fate, so he won’t run. because he doesn’t want to. it’s all about honor with this guy. i mean regis barely asks milva who is this man, and cahir interjects to straight up tells regis his entire full name. even though that’s sensitive information and he is literally on the imperial wanted list at the moment. like no one fucking asked dude. cahir is literally the kind of guy to respond to a lukewarm online comment with his full name and address (which btw is in vicovaro). because he wears his honor and his name like a badge. he could have stfu as geralt accused and berated him, but instead he defends his honor by fistfighting a witcher (an injured and disabled witcher, but still a witcher who he has witnessed fight and kill coldly and calmly with superhuman agility and speed). and finally, we all know how he met bonhart. like no fuck you it’s my destiny to die by your blade. cahir was just comfortable with speedrunning death. i love how fascinating he is as this deconstruction of chivalry and knightly masculinity.

because sapkowski also tangles with this idea of “the knight” in the hussite trilogy and he also talks about it in historia i fantastyka and świat króla artura (a little bit) about how historical knights were essentially bandits sanctioned by law, and the romance and chivalry was a literary invention, and cahir gets to do both, because he’s just combining these elements of the modern, real world and fairytale. but unlike everyone else, who goes from fairytale to real—although cahir is set up as the black knight and this Evil Guy Hunting Innocent Princess, which is very fairytale—cahir goes from real to fairytale, because the invasion of cintra is so very real, and cahir’s journey is to leave behind this reality of violent knighthood, to become a kind of virtuous literary knight instead.

because i love how his persistance and determination in his pursuit of ciri, which is initially set up as evil and villainous, becomes part of his honor. because it’s his persistance to follow her down as he was tasked with as the black knight, which transforms into the noble pursuit of her as in a rescue as a truely knightly endeavor. which is just as powerful and insane as the darksided version of it. geralt tells him to fuck off multiple times and he even gets jumped and he still pursues geralt’s company because the only thing that matters is to find ciri. and i feel like he had even more persistence when seeking her for good, rather than when he was working for evil. maybe because this time it was personal and not a punchclock motivation. and that noble calling to find ciri held out even when geralt’s fatherly devotion lost hope. in tower of the swallow, he wouldn’t believe in her death even when he sensed it as much as geralt did. because that’s the same overconfident youth we saw in blood of elves, smirking when emhyr discussed this second chance with him. like no i don’t care what anyone says, even my own premonitions or the emperor i serve. we are gonna find this fucking girl—

like just really a masterclass in how to take a character from villain to hero, keeping his same motivations and obsessions and self-image, and at the same time make it relevant thematically with the whole story, setting, and historical and literary connections that have already been established.

#god.#cahir mawr dyffryn aep ceallach #text #meta #wiedźmin

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vesemirs · 10 days ago

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[books only, anti netwitcher/twn]

Cahir Mawr Dyffryn aep Ceallach is, in my opinion, a small and yet vital example of anti-imperialist sentiment which Sapkowski so often demonstrates throughout the Witcher series. Cahir exemplifies the soldier who has grown disillusioned with war, who has lost the shine in his eyes that drove him to serve the family name and crest. By the time he joins Geralt’s hanza, he insists he is Vicovaran, not Nilfgaardian - his tribal nationalism, his ties to his family, and his wish to be perceived independently of a colonial power that seeks to absorb him have taken over his identity as a soldier. “I am not a Nilfgaardian,” he says, fire and sadness in his eyes.

Cahir clearly bears the markings of toxic masculinity, serving to be a man, be like his father, prove that he has honor and strength and valor as esteeming for a knight of Nilfgaard. His idea of bravery, his concepts of fairness or loyalty, even his notions of power were foisted upon him; he swallowed these blindly for a time. Even time in Nilfgaardian dungeons did not dilute his patriotism, but a brush with Ciri and the staying of Geralt’s hand did.

Far from being a justified villain sitting in a redemption arc meant to lessen the criminality of Nilfgaard and its soldiers, Cahir’s character moves from a literal bootlicker to a rebel willing to die against his former ruler. And here is where we move to the character analysis:

Cahir claims to be in love with Ciri, to be drawn to her by something he cannot quantify or explain, something that even to him is so bizarre that he expects Gerald to laugh at him. Cahir cannot believe the words that are coming out of his mouth but he cannot quantify what he’s experiencing any other way. He awkwardly, if eventually, settles into the hanza, absorbing the emotions, personality traits, and behavior patterns of his fellows. Like the other members, he is swept away by Geralt’s dogged and determined passion for finding Ciri, and almost definitely doubly caught up in the pull of Force and Destiny.

This amalgamation of emotion, new experience, and magical pull leaves Cahir incapable of comprehension. The pull to Ciri (which lingers from his orders and has now been replaced with Geralt’s fevered doggedness) can only be interpreted to him by love. After all, why should a knight not love the damsel in distress? The princess he risks his neck to save? Cahir fails to ask himself why he should do any of that, why his pull should mean that.

I posit instead, that Cahir is filtering these intense emotions through the only lens that his upbringing as a man in a military house in a vassal state of an imperialist empire gave him - that of romantic (or sexual) love. He is not in love with Ciri. He does not want to marry her, have children with her, or grow old with her. But even he can’t see that, and certainly, no one around him is emotionally and psychologically versed enough to point it out. And so he goes on, blindly mistaking compassion for love, simply shifting his obsession with bringing her to Emhyr to bringing her to Geralt.

In my opinion, it is the only way in which Cahir’s actions and declaration of love can be interpreted to be 1) not vicious or predatory, which Geralt never would have permitted had he viewed as such and 2) not antithetical to the themes of redemption, growth, and anti-war that are so core to the stories of the Witcher. Cahir is a byproduct of toxic masculinity and blind patriotism whose worldview and emotional perspective are limited by his upbringing, who voices his feelings in the only way in which he can. I believe it is also why Cahir dies and is never granted the gratification of being with Ciri and surviving to ‘claim’ his reward, with of course the additional parallels of courtly love and the claiming of the Arthurian Grail (more strong themes Sapko uses).

Addition! Forgot this! Cahir sees Ciri in himself; a scared kid, taken advantage of, made a pawn by Nilfgaard and everyone in Nilfgaard's control. But this is just another thing he can't stomach or digest, and so he calls his camraderie and shared trauma love.

I’ve seen other explanations that include publishing pressure laced with homophobia (to explain Cahir’s weird confession), and I can’t speak to that with my personal knowledge, I strongly believe that those possibilities both back up this analysis and are inextricably linked to it.

#this. mindblowing ngl #i mean it does kinda clash with the way he talks about her tattoo 💀 but it still makes more sense than anything else lmfao #cahir mawr dyffryn aep ceallach #text #meta #wiedźmin #wieża jaskółki

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