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Actually no we’re talk about this real quick rn because a) it’s interesting, b) I will take any and ever opportunity to talk about Geralt so: quick thread on ‘Why Show Geralt Is Good, Actually’
The show was my first exposure to the franchise, so I formed these opinions without the influence of the games or the books. From the get-go, we’re shown that Gerat has two sides and never the two shall mix.
He presents himself as closed off, cold, aloof, everything a witcher stereotypically is. But at the same time we as an audience are shown that this is a front. He’s deeply caring, sentimental even, and carries the pain of every failure and every stone thrown because of them.
We don’t get the opportunity to see these traits develop very much due to the nature of the show, so they’re tossed at us pretty haphazardly. We don’t have endless chapters or countless hours of gameplay to get to know this Geralt. But they’re important nonetheless.
This is a Geralt who has his roots in book Geralt but has diverged in big ways. The books give us precious little in the way of backstory, they prefer to show Geralt’s character and personality through his actions. And that works for them. It doesn’t work for the show.
We have to establish that Geralt may want to look scary and intimidating, but that he’s very much a soft soul who can’t ignore a call for help. The show therefore has created a new Geralt all its own.
Show Geralt is emotionally confused. He can and does recognize emotion in himself and others, but he fails to react to those things the “correct” way, which I think accounts for a lot of the thinly veiled hate for this version of the character.
This is a man who has been abandoned, ripped apart and turned into something new, made into an outcast not only among humans but his own kind too, and tossed out into the world with absolutely no guidance or support.
He struggles IMMENSELY to protect himself from emotional ruin. He’s never allowed to keep anything important to him. Look at his fleeting “romances”. Look at the way he dotes on Roach, the one living thing that’s constant in his life (and even she is fleeting in her mortality)
People love to point at his dismissal of Jaskier on the mountain as some kind of proof that he’s a terrible person. I look at that scene and see a man who has been struggling to understand all the why’s of Jaskier’s friendship with him for decades.
Jaskier threatens to tear down his protective walls and worm his way into Geralt’s heart and Geralt is absolutely /terrified/ of that. When (and it’s absolutely a when not an if, in his mind) Jaskier disappears from his life, it will destroy him. So he acts first.
Jaskier isn’t a simple fling he can enjoy in the moment and safely step away from the next morning. Whether you ship it romantically or not, their friendship is extremely important to Geralt’s character. Geralt lashing out is 100% in defense of his own heart.
Yeah, it was crappy of him to yell, crappy of him to incorrectly blame all of his hardships on Jaskier, but this is intentional. If he pushes Jaskier away now on purpose, Geralt will never suffer the intolerable pain of the bard inevitably walking away on his own.
Tl;dr There’s a lot more nuance to show Geralt than some people are picking up on. He isn’t a cold heartless asshat. He isn’t a demon for doing what he did to Jaskier. He’s a wounded animal protecting his bleeding heart. He’s in pain. He’ll grow. He’ll learn. I promise.
