Okay, I felt like this post (by @panur & @underthebluerain) deserved some visuals, so people could really understand and truly appreciate just how dramatic the difference in body sizes and shapes between these two gorgeous, absolutely lovely men, is!
And just how skilled the costume design team is, on the show, when it comes to giving the illusion that a character is much smaller (in Jaskier's case) or much larger (in Radovid's case), than their actors actually are.
There was an incredible post, a while back, that really explained how those wizards work their magic!
And it's utterly fascinating!!! Seriously, if you haven't read all of that yet, I highly suggest you go and take a look!
But yeah, when you look at the way their clothes have been designed this season, there's definitely been some attempt to make Jaskier look generally smaller than Joey Batey really is, while making Radovid look generally bigger than Hugh Skinner really is, too.
A few examples (with my extremely humble interpretation / things that have grabbed my eye when I look at their costumes. Please bear in mind that I am but an humble fan with no experience in costume design, so there's probably tons of stuff I've missed, and/or I might have misinterpreted some of those designers' intent):
Then, of course, there's Radovid's cloak that just... triples his size or something!
So, when you look at them side by side with their clothes on (even without the cloak), there really doesn't seem to be such a huge difference in body size and shape between the two.
Why are they so pretty though?
Like yeah, you do get the sense that Radovid might be a bit leaner, and that he has a longer torso, perhaps, but it's not THAT dramatic of a difference...
As soon as you get them out of their costumes, however...
On that last gif, you can really see that Joey's roughly the same height as Henry Cavill, and get the sense that he'd probably fit really well in a Witcher's armor, too!
Technically, their heights are listed as:
- Henry Cavill: 1,85cm (6 ft 7/8 in)
- Hugh Skinner: 1,83cm (6 ft)
- Joey Batey 1,82cm (5 ft 11 5/8 in)
So, Joey's like 1 1/8" smaller than Henry and 3/8" smaller than Hugh.
Since I'm ½" taller than my own partner and virtually never realize it, I doubt they'd notice that 3/8" difference between them.
But yeah, one of the really funny "side effects" of costume designers being so good at their job is when you somehow manage to forget about it while watching the show and then this happens:
and your brain needs a moment to re-calibrate its settings because you're like "Right! Buff bard! Right... 6 feet tall really strong looking damsel in distress that keeps complaining Geralt could break him like a twig, when it would be something closer to splitting a log!"
Makes you wonder if people in Jaskier's family are just... naturally muscular or something (lots of fast-twitch muscle fibers?!)?
Because, while Joey is apparently into climbing, kick boxing, swimming, fencing, medieval sword fighting, etc.
Jaskier complained about needing to walk down the path of a mountain on his own, because his fancy boots kept sliding.
He does a lot of traveling and walking, sure... But that doesn't really help you develop your upper body / pectorals / arms, etc. in such a way!
Unless he just... likes the way those muscles aesthetically look on him?
You know, I really wouldn't put it past him, now that I think about it...
Over the years, Jaskier has just developed his very own calisthenics workout routine to build and maintain his looks, but feels the need to hide it.
Because "body fitness" is not exactly a popular discipline on the Continent at that time.
People tend to train to learn how to fight, or develop muscle mass while working the land or their craft, not because "they like the way those muscles look on them when taking their clothes off!"
So, Jaskier wears clothes that hide his actual body shape, since he's afraid that, if people saw and noticed how built he really is, then they'd just assume he knows how to fight and defend himself, when he doesn't.
People might stop shoving him out of harm's way, pulling him behind them to stand between him and the danger, coming to his rescue, etc.
And, since Jaskier's whole ongoing survival sort of depends on people spontaneously stepping in to save his sorry arse, well...
In the bedroom, however, the added bit of upper body strength and endurance does wonder when you want to be able to fuck someone against a wall while keeping their feet off the ground (for example).
Being able to lift and carry more than your own weight definitely has its advantages...
As Radovid has no doubt found out...
And, if the prince turned out to be a bit lighter and easier to carry around than Jaskier was initially expecting him to be, you definitely won't hear him complaining, either!
Although, I must admit that part of me also likes the idea that they might have been able to accurately "size each other up", so to speak.
Radovid's just there looking at all the lines and proportions on Jaskier's pants and shirt, while figuring out where his shoulders and arms actually stop underneath; being both fascinated by the actual size of Jaskier's body, and the choice of clothing design that's making him look much smaller than he appears to be (if his calculations are, indeed, correct)...
While Jaskier's just looking at all those layers covering Radovid, while attempting to get a rough estimate of the total naked weight underneath, and for how long he could keep him lifted... Hypothetically... For science...
But even there, there's a huge difference between knowing those clothes are playing with your perceptions and briefly getting a mental glimpse of what you think might be closer to the truth... And actually gazing upon or getting your hands all over said truth!
Because sincerely, no amount of me trying to look at this while attempting to make abstraction of the whole illusion created by the clothing design:
is successfully going to be able to make me see this:
Hence why I tend to forget about it, and need a moment to re-calibrate almost every single time Jaskier winds up getting shirtless!
Seriously, just look at the bottom gif of him shirtless, then at the top where he's got his clothes on a few times, one after the other, and try to tell me that you're able to visualize where all of that body at the bottom is managing to fit in there at the top!
It's like part of it literally went missing!
So, even if Radovid had managed to guess that Jaskier was a lot buffer than his choice of clothing was letting on, and vice versa, I'm thinking they'd still have been in for quite a bit of a surprise when they actually got each other's clothes removed!
Therefore, that headcanon would still work, regardless of Jaskier and Radovid having guessed that each of them used their clothes to make themselves appear less threatening, or more imposing than they really are.
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