#extraordinary things

Keep your words on ice / your gaze lights the fire

Right off the bat, we’re given a clear indication that this song is, like many of Jaskier’s other works, about Geralt. Cold words, golden eyes. The juxtaposition here of ice and fire, coldness and warmth, sums up his relationship to Geralt quite well. The things Geralt says are cold and distant and sometimes mean, but his actions (including the way he looks at Jaskier, his “gaze”) show a softer and warmer, more caring side. There’s something special about the way that Jaskier is telling him that doesn’t need to change. As if saying he accepts Geralt as he is, harsh words and all, because he can see through Geralt’s actions that he is loved and cared for.

Radovid, I think, knows that this is about Geralt. When asking Jaskier to play for them, he says that they’d love a song about ‘the white-haired Witcher’. Of course, this isn’t the first song that Jaskier plays, but it’s safe to assume Radovid still thinks/knows that this one, too, is about Geralt. Especially considering “does the Witcher know how lucky he is to have you?” And imagine being Radovid, having your celebrity crush sing for you, and he’s singing a love song about the man he travels with. Radovid is living the life of Y/N, but by the gods, he’s also heartbroken.

they say ‘keep on playing nice’ / but I have no desire

A possible reference to Jaskier’s family and his upbringing around nobility, where everything is about appearances. They’re not telling him to be nice, just to play nice. They also don’t mean nice in the moral sense, they just want him to conform.

(After watching Sirens of the Deep, this line als or reminds me of Sh’eenaz’s aunt telling her to “just play nice” during her song.)

‘Play nice’ also has musical connotations and I’d imagine these are what Radovid would pick up on, as before he asked Jaskier if he was there to “play a pretty song” to which Jaskier responded that “[he doesn’t] do pretty”. ‘Nice’ and ‘pretty’ would obviously be synonymous here.

When Radovid stopped singing back to Jaskier in the cabin, this was where he stopped. So it’s likely this first section that meant the most to him.

Why waste our words when lips were made for extraordinary things?

This is such a crazy thing for someone like Jaskier to say. He’s an artist. He strongly believes in the power of words and in the power of music and I don’t think that he believes that words — in the form of song or in the form of conversation — are a waste. He talks far too much for that. So this is either self-deprecating, or he’s doing his job (“I’m an artist, Yennefer. It’s my job… to put myself in other’s shoes”) and singing from someone else’s point of view. Geralt’s, perhaps?

Alternatively he could also be suggesting that his words, no matter what he says, are a waste when he’s surrounded by nobility. They will fall on deaf ears. So if he can’t make them listen, why try, when he could just go and chase the things that he wants, and love who he wants while he does it?

In terms of Radovid, all that can really be said for this line is that I’m sure it made him swoon.

It’s not a want, it’s a need / it is paying no heed to what others say / to sing

As much as this song is romantic, it can also be read as Jaskier’s love for his craft. He doesn’t want to create, he needs to. He may be saying that this ‘need’ is going against expectations because his family perhaps didn’t want him to go down the creative route, or he could be saying going against expectations is art in itself. Also something of a reference to ‘Her Sweet Kiss’, with “it’s not a want, it’s a need” reminding me of “I am weak, my love, and I am wanting”

I can imagine Radovid would focus more on the romantic connotations, a need for love and his crush on Jaskier being a need. As it is “paying no heed to what others say to sing”, Radovid’s love must go beyond what Philippa and Dijkstra want from Jaskier, beyond how they use Radovid to further their goals, and beyond what is expected of him as the prince of Redania.

The greatest songs are made up / of unspoken words of love / of them, I’ve had enough / with you, I have enough

Jaskier, when he was a noble, was likely sick of not being able to express his true feelings. And he was probably sick of having other people dictate what made for a ‘great’ song, too. He’d had enough of nobles and had enough of not speaking his mind. “With you, I have enough” could refer to creating art. The ability to create music is all he needs in life to feel fulfilled. It could also relate to Geralt. That even though he doesn’t have a permanent roof over his head, or a lot of coin, and sometimes a lack of food, he’s content with the life they lead.

Radovid is living the noble life right now. He obviously finds it admirable and inspiring that Jaskier escaped it, considering he also attempts to leave in season 3. This song is a turning point for his life and I doubt he even recognised leaving as an option before realising that Jaskier had made it out.

With you, I am enough / I am enough

Jaskier is good enough for his found family. Sometimes he has to remind himself, because it doesn’t always feel like it.

Radovid is good enough for Jaskier. But sometimes he has to remind himself, because it’s difficult not to fall back into expectations.

But that second repetition of the line highlights that they’re enough even without those other people. Ciri, Geralt and Yennefer can help Jaskier see it, and he can do the same for Radovid, but they were both enough to begin with, regardless of others aconowledging it.

This is where the song ends in Jaskier’s performance, the rest is sung later in the season during the end credits, suggesting that it was written after this performance, or that this was the only part he found applicable to his current audience. I can see both possibilities:

Drop the sweet disguise / your heart’s beating too loud / the fairytales and little lies can’t drown out all the sound

The point at which ‘Extraordinary Things’ was written makes all the difference to the meaning of this line because I see three possibilities.

The first is that this is about Geralt, and that this part of the song was written at the same time as the rest of it, but that Jaskier didn’t feel the need to play it to the nobles in Radovid’s room.

“Your heart’s beating too loud” could possibly be in reference to Geralt’s enhanced Witcher senses and the idea of noises being overwhelming. In this case, I think the “fairytales and little lies” refer to the parts of Jaskier’s songs that are not entirely accurate to the stories he’s telling, a fact which often bothers Geralt, who doesn’t let Jaskier to lie whenever he had the opportunity to shut down what he says.

Alternatively, if it was written later but still about Geralt, then this part could’ve been written after the Mountain Breakup. Jaskier asking Geralt to drop the “sweet disguise”, both using the adjective “sweet” in a similar way to ‘Her Sweet Kiss’ where the meaning is changed from positive to negative, and also stating that he doesn’t think what Geralt said to him then was how he truly felt about him. How could it be? Also fitting this interpretation, the aforementioned “fairytales and little lies” probably reference the last verse of ‘The Golden One’, where Jaskier avoids the topic of what happened between him and Geralt to instead say that he managed to seduce Téa and Véa.

It even could’ve been written way later, about his relationship with Radovid. The “sweet disguise” referencing the ‘mask’ Radovid has, saying that Jaskier can see through it already because his “heart’s beating too loud”, like how he knew Radovid wasn’t drunk when he was speechless over this song because of the look in his eyes. But at the same time, the “fairytales” (the cutesy romantic relationship between a prince and a bard) and the “little lies” (the affectionate things both of them have said and done) doesn’t change the fact that they both have opposing goals they’re trying to further.

So take this heart, and break this heart / for extraordinary things

More evidence for this being written after the mountain breakup or about Radovid, though I don’t think it completely changes the possibility of it being written at the same time as everything else.

I find the second like ironic in that it juxtaposes the idea presented in the chorus of Jaskier having “had enough” of these kind of ‘Extraordinary Things’, but I think the irony is purposeful. It could either relate to the way he, despite despising nobility, still sees the pros in it and can’t completely resist it. Or it’s in relation to how he puts himself in harms way for the sake of artistic inspiration.

It’s not a want, it’s a need / it is paying no heed to what others say / to sing

the greatest songs are made up / of unspoken words of love of them, I’ve had enough / with you, I have enough / with you, I am enough

I am… I am enough