Line #39 Headscratchers/TheWitcher


1	* The whole VainSorceress thing makes no sense. Almost all girls with Gift that are sent away by their parents are either disfigured or from ''extremely'' poor families. Or both. This is explained that no-one wants to sent away their daughters, because that means no heritage. But in given settings women don't inherit anything, are [[ArrangedMarriage a trading good in marriage]] and are expected to [[StayInTheKitchen do nothing more exept being good wives and mothers]], no matter what is their social status. And marriage means dowry. It's also common knowledge that people with Gift are in almost all cases sterile, so there is no real chance that your daughter will give birth to bunch of kids. On the other hand, magic users have access to trendemous power, both literally and by means of diplomacy and wealth. So if everyone is so pragmatic with family management, the best way to use your Gifted offspring is actually sending it away for magical training (which goes for free and ''you'' are paid for it) and then raking actuall profits from having a sorceress in your family.
2	** None of this happens, because author needed a steady pool of BrokenBird characters.
3	** The issue of infertility is described in unclear terms. On one hand, many characters react as if it was magic itself that was the cause of infertility. On the other, it was stated outright that -- at least -- one very influential magician called for forced sterilisation of magic adepts, specifically to prevent uncontrolled proliferation of magical talent. Regardless of any other conclusions (or cans of worms to open), it implies that magic doesn't cause infertility in every case.
4	** The wizard students have it hammered into their heads that they're supposed to be above familial or even national loyalties. This, presumably, severely hampers the milking of profits, especially as young wizards don't have a whole lot of push. On the other hand, in light of ''Season of Storms'' it still doesn't explain everything.
5	** Most people who go into magic academies never become powerful sorceresses, leaving them with rather low-level administrative jobs at best; high level magical talent is ''rare''. Also, there is some major prejudice against magic and the magic users' internal hierarchy is completely separate from the family-based and feudal power structures that most people in this world understand as meaningful.
6	** Magical traning isn't free. At least in Aretuza you have to pay good money for each year, probably more than would cost for a dowry. Besides it was stated that when a girl finishes her magical education she no longer holds loyalties to her family, so it's unlikely that a family would benefit more from sorceress daughter than marring her off.
7	*** If you happen to have a magically talented or sensitive offspring, not only magic users will pick that kid and put in school, they are going to pay for it if you can't afford it. In short - it's not your financial burden. The whole assumption people are going to forget about their family just like that in a setting that virtually runs on family connections is just... it simply doesn't mesh together.
8	* Population. It's stated numerous times that humans came to this land at some point in the past, sailing from somewhere. WordOfGod says that humans landed less than five centuries in past, in group of less than ten thousands. That means WritersCannotDoMath combined with ArtisticLicenseBiology - human population in short stories (which take place a generation before saga) is counted in millions. To actually reach so high numbers humans would have to literally mate like rabbits with zero fatality before reaching maturity. To made this worse, there were two ''huge'' wars during that period - LastStand of elves and war known as Falka's Rebellion, the second one being a rather recent blood-bath spanned across nations. Not to mention [[EverythingTryingToKillYou smaller wars, diseases, famine, monsters...]]
9	** If the population doubled once per generation, which is nothing special in case of medieval times with around four kids reaching adulthood, you can easily get this or an even much higher number.
10	** IIRC, it wasn't ever mentioned that the First Landing was the ''only'' landing. The Connection of Spheres made it possible to directly sail from the Old World without using portals or other magic, and it's entirely possible that the colonisation continued for decades, if not centuries. I might've missed some cue or WordOfGod, but it appears that the population continued to grow due to resettlement in as major way as simple breeding.
11	** The elves inadvertently helped the humans considerably in this respect. There was a huge amount of crossbreeding between the two species in the early centuries, until it started to get clear to the elves that humans were outbreeding them from the gene pool with their faster reproduction rates, half-elves giving way to quarter and one-eighth elves, who differed little from ordinary humans. It is mentioned several times in the stories that nearly every human in the setting has at least one elvish ancestor in their family tree.
12	* We know that the elves somehow opened a cross-world portal and evacuated from the dying world. But how exactly did they manage that? The elves from another world can only manage short jumps, and probably couldn't help with such a big project.
13	** The older elves had access to the powers of the Elder Blood. It's an essential plot point that Ciri is theoretically able to create long-term gateways that would allow the Wild Hunt to evacuate ahead of the White Frost. Elder Blood was a rare trait and the elves had a bitch of a time recreating it later on.
14	*** In ''Literature/LadyOfTheLake'', which takes place in the far future, we learn that all Aen Sidhe elves have evacuated from the world, fleeing the encroaching ice age. Such a large-scale evacuation would need a stable gateway and, consequently, probably wouldn't work without Elder Blood. So, presumably, Ciri or her descendants decided to help Aen Sidhe. (Unless, of course, something unexpected happened, like a new Conjunction of Spheres or a new Elder Blood planewalker emerging.)
15	* In ''The Blood of Elves'', Geralt takes an elixir in preparation for a fight that increases his combat prowess but has the detrimental side effect of lowering his rationality and reducing his control over his emotions. When he sees a group of assassins approaching, he notes to himself that he doesn't want to kill them but that if a fight starts he will have no choice, due to the elixir's effect on his mind. And indeed, he is so overcome with anger during the fight that he butchers all of them in gruesome ways. However, before his fight with the striga in ''The Last Wish'', he took several elixirs that had a similar effect on his combat prowess but obviously without the drawback, as he maintained strict control over himself during the course of the fight. He was very careful to hurt the striga without causing any lasting injuries. So if Geralt has elixirs that can enhance his abilities without robbing him of some of his mental faculties, why didn't he take one of those instead of the one he used in ''The Blood of Elves''?
16	** As I recall, the elixir he took in ''The Last Wish'' only enhanced his senses to a supernatural degree, allowing him to sense the Striga's position perfectly at all times. He did the fighting itself with his own skill.
17	* Why, in ''Literature/LadyOfTheLake'', do Geralt and Yennefer decide to commit suicide? I mean, I get that they think it's BetterToDieThanBeKilled (and given Nilfgaard's methods of execution they're probably right), but Yennefer is no longer wearing her AntiMagic shackles, so she could just teleport them to Kaer Morhen the instant the guards looked away. Is it just a case of HonorBeforeReason, since they promised to follow through with it?
18	** And what would they do next? Because for sure not [[HappilyEverAfter living happy ever after]]. Ciri stays with the emperor, no matter what they do. And the emperor wants them dead, but in his courtesy he's [[LeaveBehindAPistol leaving behind a dagger]]. So no, they have no reasons or purpose to escape, since there is nothing left for them to live for.
19	** Or you can treat it as a SchmuckBait. Since they didn't commit suicide and Ciri is with them, most of the readers relax and assume it's an EarnYourHappyEnding. The author decided to still go with TorchTheFranchiseAndRun plans he had for a while, providing a fake HopeSpot for extra sadism.
20	*** And now he [[spoiler: [[MoneyDearBoy turned around]] and said that they lived after all]], even if the games are in a separate continuity.
21	** This happened mostly because of the PTSD equivalent that Geralt was suffering at this moment. He traveled half of the known world to get there, made some very close friends along the way and in the end, saw them all die. He rescued Ciri, but at what cost? After hearing Emhyr explanation of his actions and of his plans, he was so bitter and disillusioned (not to mention severely wounded after combat with Vilgefortz) that he simply didn't have the strenght to endure it anymore. There was also aproximattely entire Nilfgaardian military around, so even with Yennefer's sorcery and his swordmanship, it was a lost cause. To make it even worse, there was no way for Yennefer to teleport them off this place, since it was clearly said earlier that the evil aura of Stygga castle would warp and skew every teleportation effort. And finally, there are Geralt's words to Emhyr in which he vowed to steal Ciri from him, no matter what. So no, letting Geralt live wasn't an option and despite all his abominable plans, Emhyr still had enough honor left in him to offer them a swift and mercifull death, instead of disgrace of an executioner's blade.
22	* So why exactly does Geralt grab his sword '''by the blade''' for some finishers, and somehow kill his enemies with the shaft? It doesn't even qualify as {{Rule of Cool}} because it just looks plain weird and should logically hurt his hands, given how hard he swings it...
23	** Geralt uses a bit of ConfusionFu and IntimidationDemonstration along with his widely employed CombatPragmatism, embedding the cross-guard into an opponent's jugular would make a gang of footpads think better about further tangling with the Witcher.
24	** Grabbing the sword by the blade [[AluminumChristmasTrees is a real swordfighting technique]]. The guys who made the combat choreography for the game were well aware of it. Apart from RuleOfCool, it makes perfect sense against the tough opponents -- in RealLife this kind of stuff was meant to get through full plate armour.
25	** Some medieval longswords even have an unsharpened portion of the blade called ''ricasso'', which is specifically intended to be grabbed onto in combat and used for thrusting and heavy cleaving attacks against a heavily armored opponents, much like a polearm would've been used.
26	** Holding the sword by the blade is a perfectly acceptable fighting strategy, especially if you have hand protection. Even a leather glove would be more than enough to hold the sharp edge of a sword long enough to swing it around and use the hilt as an impromptu hammer.
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28	* Ok, so, Dudu. The man's name is a homophone for a euphemism for feces. Was this intentional as a low brow joke, or is it not so unfortunate a name in Polish?
29	** It is an unfortunate case of not translating a name which has a different meaning in a different language. In Polish it doesn't seem to have any particular meaning (besides sounding quite silly albeit rather accordingly for a halfling); it does, as a matter of fact, exist in some countries as a real name.
30	** Dudu, along with Duduś, is a diminutive from "David" in certain parts of Poland
31	** Dudu's full name is "Tellico Lunngrevink Letorte, Penstock for short, and Dudu to friends."
32	* Why do Geralt never use Signs in the books? I understand he probably can't spam them like in-game, but I don't seem to recall him using one even once.
33	** He uses them infrequently, more in short stories than novels. Perhaps he is used to the swords as default choice and just mostly lives by without Signs. At one point he implicitly states he needs the medallion to cast Signs, which makes for a simple answer after he loses it.
34	** At the end of ''Literature/BaptismOfFire'', it's noted that Geralt's signs are not as effective as he hasn't had access to his usual array of potions which boost his magical ability.
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36	* So, is it ever adequately explained why Witchers use two different swords for monsters and men(ish)? You would think a silver plated steel sword could pull double duty and probably be less expensive on the wallet to repair than a pure silver sword.
37	** It's (a) not silver-plated, but solid silver and (b) silver is relatively soft. Aside that, there is also ShrugOfGod, because Sapkowski's answer to continously repeating this question was, is and probably always will be "Why not?"
38	*** I meant that why ''doesn't'' Geralt use a silver plated steel sword instead of a second, expensive and as you put, soft, silver sword? even though it has a meteor iron core according to the lore meteor iron is also crap metal, whereas at least plating his regular steel sword in sliver or inlaid in silver (as silver hurts monsters when they touch it, not just from cuts made by silver) probably would save on the expenses that Geralt has most of the time.
39	*** When Geralt is given a replacement sword by Zoltan in ''Baptism of Fire'', they discuss basics of sword making. As far as it goes, you can do it two ways: make a hard core with softer metal around it, which is easier to make, but unfortunately wears down easily and damages even faster ''or'' you do the reverse, with soft metal inside as a core and hard metal on the outside. This makes it harder to make, but far, far more durable when used. Now with this reasoning in mind, answer yourself where in this "silver plated steel sword" is and if it solves anything.
40	*** Second one. Soft core, steel outer, plated or inlaid in silver. Cut down on how much silver you need and how often you'd have to repair the damn thing.
41	*** You just described the first one, while missing the point entirely. It it really that hard to grasp the following? Silver is softer than steel, but still harder than flesh and bones. This makes it perfect against monsters, who won't parry with metal-made weapons nor use metal-made armour. This also makes it inferior against humans, who are going to use metal-made weapons and armours, which will be harder than silver, which is going to chip and bend, requiring constant costly repairs... while you can just carry a second sword. It's that simple.

Context Headscratchers / TheWitcher