Headscratchers / The Witcher (2019)

Jaskier's Singing

• Is Jaskier supposed to be considered good or bad at singing? Was he sorta bad at first but then improved over time? Is he just popular in noble courts because all the women like to bang him?
  • Bad: The people at the first tavern thought he sucked (in fairness, the song seemed kinda crappy) and Geralt tells him he sucks.
  • Good: He's written at least one big hit (Toss A Coin To Your Witcher) that everyone knows, plus he's frequently playing in royal courts - which implies he's considered good.
  • He could be a decent singer and lutist (definitely something you can get better at over a few years, with constant practise), but bad at writing lyrics (which is a fair summary of Toss a Coin to Your Witcher; aside from the catchy tune, refrain and presumably appealing concept of monsters being chased away, the lyrics are full of awkward rhymes and bad puns). It's perfectly possible to write something gripping with bad prose and have a massive hit.
  • Jaskier's skills clearly progress throughout the series. His first song is crap, "Toss a Coin" has silly lyrics but a catchy tune and "Her Sweet Kiss", while still corny, already shows a developing range and foregoes the reliance on bad puns and bombastic delivery for a more intimate subject. Likewise, Jaskier's popularity also develops — at first even the yokels at a local tavern recognise him as awful, then he gets another tavernful of people singing along, and finally he's getting to sing at a royal court. Keep in mind, the show takes place across multiple decades and its shows in the characters' demeanour in more than one way.
    • It's worth noting that Geralt himself doesn't say Jaskier is bad. He says the bard's music is like "a pie with no filling", which is actually a pretty fair assessment: a pie with no filling looks pretty on top but has nothing of substance inside; Jaskier is a great singer and composer of some seriously catchy tunes, but the actual content—the lyrics themselves—tends to be hopelessly cheesy.
    • And even then, Geralt is Vitriolic Best Buds with Jaskier at best and was sleep-deprived and irritable at the time he said that.

Mages as soldiers

• Why do the countries in the story's world even bother fielding muggle soldiers? Mages can do more than twenty put together from what we've seen. For instance, opening portals inside cities and castles has got to be a very effective tactic. On that note, why do mages even work for muggle rulers and not just take over?
  • Mages have an incredibly posh and luxurious life of being The Man Behind the Man as is. There's nothing they'd honestly get that's better than the deal they have as is by taking direct control. Indeed, it's implied that the Mages are actually in charge of the North since they seem to do most of the daily ruling and alliance brokerage. Calanthe is one of the few rulers who is genuinely in charge of her kingdom.
  • As Mousesack shows, a single mage can hold an entire army at bay for a short time but eventually he's going to fall before numbers.
  • Plus, how many mages are there in the world compared to ordinary people?
  • Normal people fear non-humans. Whether they be mage, elves, monster or witcher does not matter. Tissaia even points out to Yennefer that if their actions lead to say the death of a king the people would look to blame someone and that someone will be magic users. A powerful sorcerer cannot withstand an army/mob of thousands by themselves. Simple overwhelming numbers would take them out. However, their rarity also makes them valuable assets in terms of court councilors members of high society.
  • Mages still need to draw their power from a conduit or else their spells end up being Cast from Hit Points. The Nilfgaardian mages are shown drawing from Nilfgaardian soldiers to launch fireballs at Sodden. You're still going to need expendable Mooks even if magic becomes your primary method of fighting. And, as we see during both the fall of Cintra and the Battle Of Sodden, superior numbers can still overwhelm mages. Also, they'd still need Mooks to actually hold onto power.
  • The mages don't take over because they've already effectively taken over. Borch straight-up tells Yennefer that she could have averted the entire Nilfgaard invasion if she'd been the one "advising" Emyhr.
  • Soldiers do more than just fight battles. They stand guard, patrol roads, etc. That takes large numbers. A single mage may be a match for a hundred soldiers in a straight-up fight, but a hundred soldiers can be in a hundred places at the same time, the mage cannot. No king could afford to employ large numbers of mages, even if he could find them. It's the same reason that nobody ever built a navy made up exclusively of battleships.
  • Also, mages generally don't seem to be able to do spells that can destroy large groups of soldiers. The exceptions are the Nilfgaard mages who use magic that is forbidden for a reason, as it generally kills the mage when they use it, or very rare and very, very powerful mages like Yenneffer or Fringilla. We are also clearly shown in the show that while the mages are dangerous and manage to inflict massive losses on the Nilfgaardians, they still get overrun by the end of the night and Yenneffer is only able to stop them by setting the entire forest ablaze. Those dead soldiers can be replaced easily, while it takes decades or centuries to train up each mage. They cannot be easily replaced.
  • On top of this, as the Battle of Sodden Hill showcases, a Zerg Rush can overwhelm even the most capable mage, as poor Coral learned the hard way.

Nilfgaardian armor

• Why is the Nilfgaardian armor so... wrinkled? Does it have any practical purpose?
  • They follow the white flame, it's supposed to look like fire.
  • Tough to imagine what the advantage could be. In the games, Nilfgaardian armour seemed more advanced than that of other people, having a distinct Renaissance vibe to it. In the series it actually looks more primitive, like it's made of boiled hides or something like that.
  • Since they expanded their army very recently, and they're fond of We Have Reserves, it's possible that it isn't particularly advanced, and they just made it as cheaply as possible to equip all their troops.
  • Its certainly supposed to be made of iron, but it looks like the designers were aiming for a vaguely organic, yet rough-hewn appearance. I doubt that they had other reason beyond making the Nilfgaardians stand out distinctly from the Northern soldiers. Considering the negative attention the style has gotten, I wouldn't be surprised if they update it for the second season.
  • Potential thought: Nilfgaard is noted as being in the south, so it might be much more humid than the more northern climes, causing unprotected steel to rust more quickly than would be useful, so they stretch oiled leather over the plates to keep the armor from rusting, and the wrinkly look is either due to imprecise measurements or repairs.

The nobleman suicide

• Why did the nobleman cut his own throat instead of taking the poison? We are clearly shown he was offered three vials and only took two. In-universe, it is obvious the knight knew there were three people there, and we have no reason to think he believed there wasn't enough poison for everyone.
  • This might be unlikely/unsubstantiated, but it may be similar as to why certain samurai engage in seppuku instead of other forms of suicide: it's the more martial/masculine thing to do. Women and children, like in many patriarchal/medieval societies, are treated differently.
  • Perhaps he was being noble, choosing the dagger so there'd be more poison for other people.
  • Pure speculation, but it's possible he didn't trust that the poison would work and/or was concerned that it would be slower or more unpleasant than a dagger to the throat.
  • Speculation here as well, but I was under the impression that he purposefully took two out of the three in the soldier's hand to leave one for the soldier himself.
  • He stabbed himself for the same reason Calanthe jumped out the window: he's a drama queen. Very into the "going out on your own terms" type of guy.

To Brokilon and back

• Ciri left Cintra, walked to Brokilon, then wandered back to Sodden. Except, isn't Brokilon really far from Cintra and Sodden? As in, nowhere near the front lines?
  • Looking at this map◊ for reference, not really? There's no exact distances marked, but Cintra (the capital, where Ciri would likely be hanging out), Brokilon, and Sodden Hill are all relatively close to each other—anywhere from a few days to maybe a week's journey.

Inconsistent Witcher eyes

• Why is Geralt the only Witcher in the series with yellow eyes? It's not like the designers and costumers could have forgotten the detail with all the effort they took with Cavill's look for Geralt.
  • If this troper is remembering the books and the games correctly, this is because Geralt is somewhat unique in his eye appearance. All Witcher's have "cat-like" eyes, but the colors are all variable. IIRC, Geralt's specific eye color is a result of his unique reaction to the Witcher cocktails that turn boys into Witcher's. Geralt has a lot of these "unique" features to him, most likely to make him more distinct and believable as one of the strongest, best, and "heroic" Witchers.
  • Above explanation no longer applies. Netflix's animated movie "The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf" is a canonical prequel to The Witcher series. All Witchers - including young recruits Lambert and Eskel - are shown with yellow eyes. Likewise, in the flashback scene Geralt has of Eskel, Eskel has golden eyes, but in the second season's second episode, Eskel's eyes have a different color.
  • The boring answer would be to cut back on budget costs. Generic contact lenses can be potentially harmful to the wearer's eyes, it is much safer to have an optometrist issue them to you, even if they are just cosmetic. Since Geralt is the main character, and his eyes are an iconic part of his look, he gets the golden eyes and the others don't.

Artorious and Fringilla

• Since mages live for decades if not centuries, and Artorious is already elderly by those standards, how can he be Fringilla's uncle? He was already leader of the Brotherhood when she started studying in Aretuza, and any siblings he may have had would've been long past their child-having years, if not dead. And the way they talk about each other speaks of a very close familial relationship.
  • Possibly he's actually the uncle to one of her parents - making him officially her granduncle but that's a bit of a mouthful.

Yennefer's magic

• So, ultimately, what brought Yennefer's powers back?
  • Her body had just been a vessel for the Deathless Mother; that could plausibly re-kindle its exhausted connection to chaos.

Queen Meve Of Lyria

• It is revealed that Lyria is led by a queen in the scene where the royals discuss Ciri's existence. How did Queen Kalis' daughter Maeve not only become queen but acquire a primary seat of power given her father's fervent "traditional" attitudes towards having a male heir to the point of having his Queen assassinated by a Ronin Mage?
  • Simple: He never did get a male heir, so he had to give up and go with one of his daughters after all. Remember, the assassin wasn't after the princess (she was just collateral damage), so presumably the older girls were spared. Whether or not the king married again and still didn't get any male heirs might be an interesting thought experiment, but ultimately not important. All we can say is that Maeve has to be tougher than she looks in order to hold onto her throne rather than just being married off.