(aka, can we give Geralt a break please?)
Okay, I’m going to preface this by saying that while I do love and adore Jaskier, I identify fairly heavily with Netflix!Geralt in a lot of ways, and tbh he’s probably my favorite character in any version of the media. If you hate him, this probably isn’t the blog for you, but I say this so that if I seem biased in his favor over Jaskier’s, or if this post seems excessively Jaskier-critical, you know where I’m coming from.
(I have also not yet seen much of s2, so this will have absolutely no references to anything shown in s2.)
So, without further ado, let’s talk about the Mountain Scene, and why my main reaction to it is “oh my god please give every single person here a hug, a blanket, and like three years of therapy”.
One: Jaskier and Boundaries
Over the course of the show, Jaskier, extremely consistently, ignores Geralt’s boundaries.
That sounds harsh, but… he really kind of does. There are multiple scenes where Geralt will request that Jaskier leave him alone (the scene in the Posada tavern in ep. 2, getting punched in ep. 2, the scene in the Cintran tavern in ep.4, “I just want some damn peace” in ep. 5) and then Jaskier does not.
I would ABSOLUTELY NOT say that this is to toxic levels (and considering Geralt’s self-isolating tendencies is probably good for him), but taken at face value, there’s a very consistent pattern of Jaskier not leaving Geralt alone when he requests to be left alone, or indicates that he doesn’t want to be talked to. And Geralt’s not subtle about it, either, “fuck off” is about as blunt as it gets.
So you get to the mountain scene, and Geralt is, once again, attempting to indicate that he wishes to be left alone, and Jaskier, again, ignores that.
This isn’t to say he’s unsympathetic, or self-centered, but it’s a kind of sympathy that goes counter to what Geralt needs in that moment.
One and a Half: Geralt and Boundaries
Another relevant thing here is that Geralt has a history that has essentially worn away at his ability to enforce those boundaries. He’s clearly willing and able to state them, and state them loudly, but if you look at the scene after Renfri’s death in ep.1 where he just lets them stone him, or the “then I’ll die” phrase from ep.3, it reads to me as someone who’s been told his entire life that his wants and needs and even life don’t matter. Which is, you know, not great. And the thing about this is that it’s pretty common if that someone pushes at your boundaries one time too many, you end up pushing back.
Two: Sympathy and Flippancy
Okay, now here’s where we get into what that means.
Jaskier is shown, over the course of the show, to care about Geralt a great deal, a care that Geralt is only shown as reciprocating in certain moments. That being said, Jaskier’s approach to Geralt’s problems is very… shall we say, careless. What comes to mind the most is their first scene in ep.5, where Geralt is clearly upset about being unable to sleep and Jaskier, while he has an initial moment of clear and obvious concern, as soon as it’s revealed that it’s insomnia he starts laughing. Many of his interactions with Geralt have a self-centered undertone to them – his lamenting about the Countess de Stael, his pushing about Ciri despite Geralt’s lack of interest in talking about it, even the “we could go to the coast” speech can read as him expressing his own wants, rather than trying to figure out Geralt’s.
And, specifically, when you get to the mountain scene, that’s there too.
After all of the bullshit that Geralt’s been through in the past twenty-four hours (see below), Jaskier approaches him in what is clearly an attempt to cheer him up or reassure him, but in a way that doesn’t make his care or his intentions particularly obvious. Specifically, it’s a lighthearted “whoof, what a day–”, which..
If I were in Geralt’s position, again, and someone approached me during an emotional breakdown with that, I would absolutely read it as flippant and uncaring. (Which is NOT to say that it is, or that that’s what Jaskier intended, just that that’s what it sounded like.)
Three: Dragon Hunting’s Stressful as Fuck
The thing I see the most ignored about the dragon hunt is that Geralt has been through just ridiculous amounts of shit in under 24 hours. Let’s sum up, shall we?
1.) First, there are a bunch of background stressors, like the fact that the Reavers could just decide to kill them all in their sleep, and Geralt clearly doesn’t quite trust Yennefer’s presence in the group (see his conversation with Borch).
2.) Borch, Tea, and Vea die in front of him because he couldn’t pull them back up. Like, I know we’re all accustomed to stuff like that because of movies and TV but that is going to fuck you up pretty bad.
3.) Geralt, an extremely guarded person, gets very vulnerable with Yennefer in her tent, which is definitely going to leave him with some Stuff to Process
4.) Borch, Tea, and Vea are alive and Borch is a dragon oh and also now they have to fight and kill a bunch of Reavers too, which would be a shock to anyone’s system
5.) Borch reveals one of Geralt’s secrets without any prior warning and without his consent.
6.) Yennefer breaks up with him, explosively, and he retreats from everyone else.
For Geralt, who presumably has a lot of trouble dealing with emotions and interpersonal stuff, that’s just. that’s so much emotional turmoil all in one go. He’s probably absolutely reeling from everything and attempting to process on his own.
So let’s sum all this up.
Jaskier has a history of ignoring Geralt’s requests for space, no matter how blunt of forward, and a history of not appearing to care about Geralt’s problems or issues, in favor of his own ideas or his own problems. Whether or not the latter is true, from Geralt’s perspective it’s definitely there.
Geralt’s been through just so much shit and is most likely in a really fragile emotional state when Jaskier approaches him, and approaches him in a way where it’s easy to miss the fact that he’s trying to help.
So he snaps. Which is a perfectly understandable reaction to the situation.
Like. It is absolutely the wrong reaction to the situation. Jaskier doesn’t deserve what Geralt said for what he’s done.
But given everything that’s gone down, how consistently Jaskier ignores Geralt’s requests for space, how much stress Geralt’s been under, I can totally see what’s going through Geralt’s head, and it’s, essentially, “oh my god I just want to be left alone to deal GO AWAY” and then you get the mountain scene.
It’s not a good scene, and no one is perfectly flawless, but it’s a very very human scene. And from my place behind the fourth wall where no living human was actually hurt and I can see all sides equally, I just want to give everyone there a hug and some therapy.
(Disclaimer: I do actually love Jaskier and I love him very much, but I did want to address all of the shit he does in canon that’s never mentioned in the fandom)
