Jaskier the Queer Bard
I have THOUGHTS.
Was reading a Reddit where people were OFFENDED that The Witcher is clearly queer coding Jaskier and apoplectic does not cover my response.
1. Do you know how many fucking straight relationships queers deal with. We watch them, support them, cheer for them, ship them. We do not demand or take offense that they do not reflect our experience. Because no one cares to actually stop the rampant heteronormativity in entertainment and no one gives a fuck about our experience.
2. For better or for worse, coding is often all we get. Straight folk get to see their relationships ALL. THE. TIME. On pretty much every show. Queers get to read between the lines with a legit queer character now and then. So you want to take that from us too with your heterosexual outrage. This isn’t about your devotion to the core material or to the purity of the characters. It’s because it grosses you out to imagine that a character would form an emotional and physical attraction to a member of the same sex. This is nothing but bias and straight up homophobia.
3. Speaking of source material, the books were written in the 90s, at the height of the cultural wars around queerness. I have not read them but have seen people assert that they misogynistic. If they are not homophobic, they would certainly not present a progressive view of queerness. Do we really want to hold up problematic source material?
4. Fuck straight folk who find it offensive that Joey Batey is playing Jaskier as bisexual.
5. God bless him and the show runners.
And do NOT get me started on how many queer people/characters have been straight-washed by the entertainment industry. But really, take offense that you don’t get to see heterosexuality 100% of the time. Fuck you.
