#seanchai

I have already made a post of Seanchai being potentially evil [x] but I found an article with the concept arts for the wraiths [x]. Apparently they were shared on twitter but, I don't have twitter so... Yeah once again something I didn't see.

To be fair, the final riders are looking quite similar to those concept arts. We mostly saw just two of them clearly. Eredin and Voleth Meir.

Here is their concept arts.

But there is another one we saw : Seanchai.

When I looked at the concept arts, one of them simply revived the memory of BO's introduction with double Jaskier.

He asked : what are you ?

They reply : I am many things, many faces, many places. [...] I have other faces if you prefer.

And they appeared as a strange armored man. That armored man is exactly one of the concept art. Also, for a bref moment, Jaskier's double has red glowing dot in his eyes. It happens just before he becomes the wraith. My photo is crap but I guaranty you this is clearly visible on screen.

So Seanchai is evil and manipulated Jaskier 😬.

The other concept arts under the cut, because they are cool.

“We’ve had Paul Mescal and Andrew Scott speaking at our events,” he says. “They may have done extraordinary things, but they’re ordinary people, just like anyone else who gets up and tells their story — they get up in the morning, they go to bed at night, they cry, they eat, they sleep, they have sex, everything that’s part of the human experience. 

[ID: Banner with a red and yellow background featuring Captain America's shield in the top right hand corner. In the bottom left hand corner is Iron Man's mask, and beside it are the words 'Fanwork Friday'. The text reads 'Resurrection, Reconstruction, and Redemption'. The Fanlore logo is in the center. /End ID]

Declared to be the fic that launched Stony, today we're reading Resurrection, Reconstruction, and Redemption by Elspethdixon & Seanchai.

A novel-length fic set within Marvel's 616 comicsverse, it is a fix-it fic for the Civil War story arc, known for its well-structured plot and characterization. It was also many fans' first exposure to the idea of Steve Rogers and Tony Stark being in a ship together, with some reading the story with little to no canon knowledge, and it inspired many of those same fans to try their hand at creating their own Stony fanworks.

Did you read this fic? Or do you just want to learn more? Check out its page on Fanlore!

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This was my favorite part to draw

I like to think this was the in universe reason we didn’t get 6 episodes but we did get awesome music

Seanchai can respect this bizarre bard’s unhinged commitment to music. It isn’t everyday they meet someone so passionate about music that they forget to be terrified of them.

Disclaimer: this contains spoilers from the show and the books (so potential plotlines we have yet to see (or not) in the main series. As always this is a gray point of view.

First the origin of the name/word is very interesting.

Seanchaí (shan-a-key) were traditional Irish storytellers and the custodians of history for centuries in Ireland. They could recite ancient lore and tales of wisdom whenever it was needed [...] In ancient Celtic society, bards held a position of esteem, second only to kings. Bards memorized vast amounts of poetry which they performed live, and their poems and songs were often the only historical record available. Some may consider them to be historians.

Source [x]

This is very in line with the character, Jaskier and the Lark, which I love !

Now let's dig into the character...

We don't know much about Seanchai motivations except that they collect stories through time and gives a little push to bring them back to life when the world needs it. But when they decide it does actually. Are they full neutral ? Hmmm.

First Seanchai appears to Jaskier in two forms. His own and the elven one. As himself, they are uncanny and don't hesitate to slap him for a simple and quite legitimate question in his position and to scare him just after that. Then they appear soft and welcoming in their elven form. Seanchai uses his empathy for the elves and his love for music and storytelling to gain his sympathy. But they forces the conclusion in him from the very beginning.

The Scoi’atel mean well.

Really?

This is strange but I like and dislike one special thing in the show. And I can't decide if it is right or wrong. Yet this is one of the most interesting thing of this series I think.

One of the main theme of BO is the past that is lost and history being rewritten.

In the series, we learn that the elves are not all good. Their history is shady and full of horrors. Yes we follow the adventure of heroic elves who freed the people from the cast system. But we see also that further in the past terrible things lie.

The monoliths that the dwarves used to fertilise their lands came from long before. Balor find their initial purpose : travel through worlds (and Avallac'h that it does through time also - mark my words). But this is sacrilegious for the dwarves who see their belief and culture being twisted.

In the same time Merwyn look up to her ancestors and worships a conqueror. The ancient elves they descending from are tyrans in reality. They crushed other civilisations. And she wants to do the same to save her people.

In the series it's unclear if they are really separating Aen Seidhe and Aen Elle. I hope they will. I will assume they do in the rest of my analysis.

Then we have the Continent in The Witcher time, where humans eradicate non-humans and there are replacing every culture by their own. This is wrong as much as what we learn about the elves in BO and we just scratched the surface. The elves we see persecuted are not bad people per se. The Scoia'tael are a natural response to what is happening. This is a desperate reponse to a desperate situation. But those before them. Those still hidden in the fog of history, are... (And BO just teased them for me)

My problem is not who is good and evil in this particular conflict but Seanchai... They chose to maybe alter history, asking Jaskier to give hope to the elves, reminding them of how they fought to free themselves before.

Sure. But what for ? Minnie Driver said in interviews that Seanchai is an ancient elf. So what prevents them to be a very powerful Aen Elle that kept their knowledge to travel through time. Where did she collect the story she tells Jaskier from ?

Lore wise, I know what they tells is not true, of at least partially. I know that's the writer's take of the lore and they twisted it, but there is another twist to that, and I will get there later.

The only things I am sure:

Meta wise it's a trope. And there is one dialog that made me laugh as horrible as it was. Because Seanchai tries to trick the spectator to watch to the end revealing from the get go what interesting things would be developed in the story.

But if we consider the things just character wise there is a shadow. If this is an Ean Elle, there is a good chance that they wants the Scoia'tael to succeed but for wrong reasons.

Remember that at the end of season 2, Francesca learns the existence of Ciri and she is forming the first occurrences of Scoia'tael (in the series verse). The existence of ancient blood that can carry the hope for her people to reach their ancestors. Their lost powers...

And then we have Jaskier that is time framed by his short human life and empathises with the oppressed because he has a partial knowledge of elven history (and he's been traumatized, let's not forget). And that partial history is only augmented by what Seanchai says to him.

When he hears the prophecy (that it not the correct prophecy for Ciri - that would come later) he is confused but Seanchai reminds him what they want from him. Give hope to the elves. Become the bard that makes people rise as the Lark did in her time.

The prophecy could be interpreted differently. I have seen a lot of part elf Jaskier interpretations (which I understand but not share, at least as Eile descendant). But here is my take of it.

I precise that I don't find this a good idea, as the lore is pretty much fucked up at this point because they took the problem the wrong way round in my opinion. But let see.

The time of the spheres is upon us. The Ean Seidhe lost across the skies => Those are the ones Balor banished in the other world that will become the Wild Hunt. The scout team. (Which is strangely not far from true and totally wrong in the same time 😅)

Cast adrift in time, ever searching for love and left behind => I get that this is for Eredin and his lover. So the motivation for Eredin to have access to Ciri is to find his lover back ? (Hmmmm this is where it goes to strange places for me and forces a love story where none was needed. It was good enough as it was in the first place illustrating the cast problem within the elves society, and we didn't have time to connect with the power of their feelings to make it worth it)

The Lark's seed shall carry forth the first note of a song that ends all times and one of her blood should sing the last => this gives us simultaneously the hint that Eile is the ancestor of Lara Doren who is the ancestor of Ciri. And the fact that Jaskier henerits the strength of Eile in changing the world with his songs.

I take the seed and the song as a metaphores because Eile is a bard and will give birth of the lineage that leads to Ciri. The first note of the song is her story that leads to what Jaskier will do, inheriting her power of storyteller to the masses, and the last is what Ciri is meant to be. She is to be the end of the story, or more exactly the last chapter. The last note of the song.

If I am wrong, then I am wrong 😅.

Why don't I want Jaskier to be special blood wise ? Clearly in BO, the infant of Eile is impregnated with Fjall as a proto witcher, so monster blood. And that makes them so special (Which is twisting some things for the Aen Elle/Seidhe point of view but can still match a little bit). But if Jaskier henerits this blood also, it means that he has a portion of elder blood in him, making him special too.

For me, Jaskier shouldn't be special. This is the fact that he is ordinary that makes him different and so relatable. He is like us, ordinary people. His struggles are human like in a family that is god like. The best witcher, the strongest sorceress, the destiny child... I mean later on, in the books, within the hanza, he is the least special member and has no strength at all, but he endures to stick with Geralt whom he doesn't want to abandon to his impossible quest. Even Milva thought he was going to break. But except for his inflexible loyality and his pursuing of preventing Geralt to stay alone, as he knows the end would be disastrous, he is terribly normal. His personal quest is to help a friend, and this is as beautiful as other things. And in the same time, he is the witness that can write down history afterwards.

Like wise in BO but he just learns history from another, for this part.

But, coming back to the prophecy itself, if I understand clearly, his song, that resurrects the forgotten past of elven heroes, is meant to end all time ! Meaning it will do something that will lead to a catastrophy. Ergo then, making the elves victorious can be disastrous.

But then, while he is confused, Seanchai repeats their will, giving him the task to help the uprising of the elves only. And The Song of the Seven is that. This is just the battle cry of the whole story that has been told to him. What would he do of the rest of it ? I hope something gray that will make us wonder again what is right and what is wrong. Which is something I love in the books. But who knows ? I can't wait S3 to have a little bit more.

But you know ? What is funny in a way is that the series does the exact same thing that every iteration of civilisations did in the witcher world they show us. They rewrite things to tell others, they twist lore. So their message is strange isn't it ? Thinking about how a powerful story can change the world and changing so much to the story that makes it so in the same time. Beautiful paradoxe, isn't it ?