#shye rambles

I am having such a weird feeling because on the one hand I had a great 30th birthday with one of my best friends and their wife and their puppy, and their sister joined us for dinner and I count her as a friend too after almost 10 years of friendship with Sam, and I honestly don't think I could have asked for better. And I got many birthday texts/messages/facebook posts from important people in my life.

But my mother and my big sister weren't among them. My sister texted memes and complaints about her doctor's appointment and realizing part way through that she didn't have an ingredient for dinner, all to the family group chat. My mother responded. I reacted. And yet...not a word, not even a post to my facebook wall, even though I know they're both constantly on it and would have gotten a reminder.

Complicated. Conflicted. Confused.

On the one hand, I am looking forward to Jaskier having someone to banter off of/face off with that is his equal. I know he's been on a slow level-up path, but he's still outclassed by Witchers and Sorceresses and etc. Plus, I think having more regular people and intrigue could be really interesting for plot direction. (The actor they chose is also quite pretty, so I can't complain there either). And I assume as a bard they cast someone who, like Joey, can sing with the best of them, and that gives me great hope for a Bard-Off and/or some fantastic season 3 songs.

On the other hand, there are already So. Many. Characters. and I don't think, as someone who is essentially a canon foreigner, Valdo is necessary. Jaskier vs Cahir would still be a battle of the Regular™ Men. Jaskier has at this point earned his ability to go toe to toe with spymasters and generals I think. It would be a better way to highlight his skill and how one of the things that makes him dangerous is that he's underestimated.

I also think that casting Valdo is an attempt to cash in on the love we all have for him among the fandom. But the thing that makes him loveable is that he's such a blank slate and there can be 1000 wildly different takes, and all of them make us go "Yup. Classic Valdo." You know, for example some of us write him as Jaskier's rival, or Jaskier in a moustache, or Jaskier's ex. Some of us have reinterpreted him as a jerk with a heart of gold and made him into a love interest for an OC or reader-insert. Some of us made him the Phantom of the Opera. And all of us were correct. Except now, none of us are?

They fall in love over and over despite themselves.

She reminds him that there's more to the world, and that he can't stay inside his own head/song.

He fights so hard to save her, to change her fate in going into the Barn.

And in the end that is what dooms her.