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Lust for life and adventure, including new sensations, and novel experiences. This is what initially gets him on the road with Geralt, despite his love for comfort and luxury.

Insatiable curiousity. The absolute life threatening, insane situations he gets himself into out of just plain old sheer curiosity is astounding.

Ho-ishness. Harlotry. He is literally charged with harlotry at one point in a legal proceedings. The man is a slut. *plays Promiscuous Girl by Nelly Furtado ft Timbaland*

Vanity. Mans is always lookin his best. Geralt's like...Dandelion, look at my new outfit! Dandelion is like *sniff* not really up with the fashions are you? He's that bitch. He's pretty and he knows it and he shows it off. (of course he borrows the jacket later, so what is the truth here, Dandelion??)

But Joey thats EXACTLY what we would want, a 10 part Jaskier musical

11. Have you ever thought about writing a musical?

Joey: “Hey Joey and Madeleine, I love the way you tell stories through your songs, exclamation mark!” from Caroline. Thank you Caroline! Very, very lovely! “Have you ever thought about writing a musical, because I’d love to see one created by you.” Um, I actually have written a erm, a – I-I wrote a musical last year, um, ah, it was-

Madeleine: Amazing!

Joey: It was – it’s pretty fucking terrible. It’s so bad! 

Madeleine: It’s amazing, amazing

Joey: It’s – it’s so bad, it’s so bad, um, but there might be a little bit of it in the third album. I think that’s where, maybe, there might be little – little um, easter eggs, in there. Umm, annnnd uh, it was quite a good title! It was a good title of a musical, uh but the music was bad.

Madeleine: The music, no, the music was wonderful. Um, I-I loved it and I still loved it and I think I – I’m, yeah, but, I totally respect whatever Joey chooses to [do with it]

Joey: Essentially what would be nice one day is, we’re planning on, kind of, we – we – we’ll – we’ll, we’ll get to album five and then we’ll give a writer, ehh, um, ah like someone other than us, uh t– and we’ll go “yeah, m-make a musical out of this” and they’ll be fucked.

[Madeleine laughing]

Joey: And they’ll be like, “Wait, what do all the songs mean?” And we’ll be like, “Well, it’s up to youuu, it’s your interpretation!”

[laughter]

Jaskier is treated as a plot device

[This is sarcasm 😉 but it illustrates what I am saying there]

From the beginning, he has been used like that, but in the first season it didn't bother me that much, because even as a plot device, it was done correctly. For example, he was added to the story of the Law of Surprise. In the book, this is a random bard playing at the banquet. Linking Jaskier with the affliction Geralt experienced made the concept of Destiny explained by Mousesack more tangible. The more Geralt tries to avoid his destiny, the more trouble he gets into and, in the series, Jaskier is the key that locks Geralt into the path he tries to escape, without knowing it. Then when everything fires back at him, it has meaning even if it hurts because of all the implications of the rejection for him.

In the season 2, he is a plot device again, one that is from the book (the torture scene) and then he is used to get a lot of parts together, especially in the end. The problem is that he is more than a side character and he has flesh, so reducing his role to tropes too much creates frustration.

If I take Dara who has a plot device trope attached to him too. It's OK because he really is a side character. He links partially Dijkstra to Jaskier. And with the ending, he will clearly be a link to the Squirrels and Ciri.

Istreed and Stregobor too are plot device driven characters. In the book they appear just once, each in their short story. In the series they are used to set up part of the background lore and the human society, especially in regards of the elves. Those changes don't bother me.

Back to Jaskier. The problem is that he is not a side character, even if secondary. He has a strong emotional root and is important for Geralt development, especially for what's coming. He is set up like that and this is right but that's why we can't have him just being emotionally ignored all the time to fulfill his tropes duties.

Tropes for Jaskier in season 2 and the growing frustration

In the books, Jaskier links some things together also, but we have plenty of bonding moments. I am aware that some of those moments are too slow and contemplative to be integrated in a TV show, but even shorten or different they are good. Sometimes they do, and I like it. Yennefer finding Jaskier, Geralt and Ciri by the fire, Geralt and Vesemir talking about parenthood.

As for the tropes we have :

Jaskier is the main link that connects the core destined family to Dijsktra and the Redanian Intelligence. That is correctly done.

I won't drift on Yennefer global storyline, but I have to mention it because Jaskier is used as a trope mostly for her. And as much, I loved when he interacted with her, everything else was pure trope, almost not hidden at all. And that leads to the "Geralt doesn't care for Jaskier" general feeling.

Let's get into this problematic really trope driven part, in detail.

It begins when Yennefer teleports to Voleth Meir. This is already a trope because she lost hope out of nowhere. She had just to turn her head to see that Jaskier was in back up. But he is here just to witness.

Then, at Melitele's temple, Yennefer tells Geralt that Jaskier was in trouble in Oxenfurt. We clearly see that he is concerned but the dialog was written to close this conversation quickly. Geralt doesn't ask "what happened to him" but "what kind of trouble". So Yennefer says the strict minimum, avoiding anything that could have led to guilt. So with that Geralt knows that Jaskier is in Oxenfurt, conveniently before Rience's attack and Yennefer's betrayal.

Desperate, the witcher rushes to his only friend. He frees him and the reunion is half perfect, half frustrating. Perfect because we had the hug, the emotions and all. But frustrating because the moment Jaskier tries to express his feelings about what Geralt did to him on that mountain, he is shut up.

I get Geralt's point of view, and I accept it. But what comes after destroys almost any emotional implications.

The scene in the lake was there purely to connect the dots. Yennefer and Voleth Meir. Jaskier is there to give Geralt the missing parts he needs. That's all. To hide it a little bit more, it could have been done without the "bath" part, with the two guys walking together and having a bonding moment.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed parts of this scene, especially Jaskier lines and Geralt navigating Jaskier's usual nonsense vibe. And I salute the efficiency. But I didn't need efficiency at that moment, nor this kind of fan service. I needed some catharsis for Jaskier. But the tropes are more important, apparently.

Then conveniently again, here are the dwarves. Geralt gets what he needs, Jaskier just waits until the plot moves forward. Then we have the "I'm sorry" scene that is lovely overall, and I was like "finally !". But it opened a new frustration with this line : "this is different".

Jaskier needs an apology from Geralt for the mountain, and we know that he shares some pain with Yennefer. He understands her. So he tries to connect the emotional response of Geralt on the mountain when he was so hurt that he hurt him back in his rage, to the fact that Yennefer is currently hurt too and hurts him blindly just the same. But with this "this is different", in a way, Geralt negates the depth of Jaskier's resulting pain of his actions.

[This is different - hmmmff]

Jaskier accepts the apology, takes his feeling back, because he understands that it leads nowhere and jokes about Geralt's lack of empathy which is a nice interaction, by the way, but the hurt is done once more. And it will be amplified later.

Encouraged by the dwarves he follows just to be shocked as he catches the cut head of a soldier, for comic purpose only. Jaskier is there to bring back Ciri to Kaer Morhen. He could have stayed with the dwarve lady. Why this unnecessary chock ?

Then we have a nice display of trust with Geralt giving him the responsibility of his child. This is one of the rare moments we can see that Geralt values him, because he trusts him to take care of his child. And the moment when it happens says a lot about the depth of his trust. But this is just to be rejected by Ciri seconds later, for comic purpose again.

And then at Kaer Morhen for the final fight, he is the summum of plot devices with the stone. From the moment he leaves Yennefer at the laboratory, he literally has no importance at all as a human being. He is just the stone with legs. And the worst of it is that we can see that it matters to the character to accomplish his mission, because he thinks he can be useful. And in the end, when his tropes duties are fulfilled he is tossed aside for comic purpose once more.

So when came the time of bonding between the three main characters, I was very crossed about the fact that the family core was specifically restricted to the three of them. In the words of Geralt : "us three, we'll help each other". Why specify the number ? We already know they are bonded by destiny. We already understood that they are the core. I mean the whole season 1 was built in a specific way to tell us that. That "three" triggered me in a bad way because of Jaskier's rejection moments before. Because it was another form of rejection, even if this one he didn't hear.

The problem is : if the character had no specific emotional background or development, this could be OK. But he has, and a strong one. Jaskier is shown to be very empathetic and raw in season 2. He is hurt. He goes through a lot too. But he is denied comfort all the time.

To be comfortable with his storyline, either way too much was shown or not enough. I'll go for the second. They want to tell too much in a too short format. They compressed, changed too much from the source material to fill in. I found some interesting things in the bad deviations but some characters suffocate in return. Jaskier is one of them.

And the brain is a formidable machine. He links the dots by itself and makes the connection we need. But in this case filling the gaps makes everything cruel for the character.

Let's take a look at the main things that create those gaps.

Jaskier's alcoholism

There are two things I prefer much more from Joey!Jaskier than from Book!Jaskier. First, he is more romantically driven than sexually. Secondly, his alcoholism has an explanation. In the book, he drinks since teenagehood and just drinks a lot. Sometimes there are comic purpose to it but nothing more. Well I mean from where I'm at in the books, there is no other purpose than that.

In the series, they kept a surface comic relief but there is a clear sad end to it, which makes everything bitterer. Jaskier drinks too much when he is not well. That's set up in the first season in Bottle Appetites. When he finds Geralt, he is drunk and finishing what seems like a strong alcohol flask. The reason, he says it himself : He is heartbroken, because his muse has left him.

This is the only moment, in the first season, we see him being drunk.

In the second season however, alcohol is omnipresent. Before we even see him, there is already a hint that he is drinking too much. Yennefer hears him half through Burn Butcher Burn. If anyone needs me, I'll be at the bar. Then we have the song itself to tell us how much heartbroken he is. And we know why and by whom. So… This is not a surprise to see him drink in his following shots.

When Yennefer finds him and looks inside the tavern through the window, he has an empty glass in this hand and soon asks the bar maiden to have another drink. It's early in the morning and he is already drinking. The bar maiden makes a face of disapproval and seems concerned but Yennefer comes and she just goes away.

Then the whole scene of reunion is punctuated by Jaskier's alcoholism. (I am not having this conversation without a drink - Offers Yennefer alcohol to drink over Geralt's absence in their lifes - Slurs words trying to find better booze, illustrating that he is not sober - Always has a bottle in hand)

Like I said there are comics elements into that but what the background of this scene is telling us is that Jaskier isn't well at all. He is heartbroken (Geralt) , traumatized (Bleobheris) and his empathetic side is perpetually hurt (the general elven situation in Redania where he fights his own way). He is drowning himself in alcohol to anesthetize himself. This is a very strong emotional set up.

Then we have the goodbye scene when the emotional link between Yennefer and Jaskier is settled for good. They share pain. They understand each other from a profound invisible wound. She is a sorceress without magic, he is a poet without his muse. Geralt is the chaos of his magic.

This is a very good bonding moment. Then we have the torture scene which is another pike of emotional distress for Jaskier. Then the prison… even if it is comical again in the delivery, listen to the song carefully. It's sad…

It's been a long time travellin' / On roads that lead to nowhere / With hopes and dreams that always rot.

Sometimes it takes a prison cell / The tricks and tales, the traitors' tell / To help you see that freedom is all you've got.

Even the chorus is hard : So lock me up and sock me up and throw away the key.

It is fun because Jaskier keeps his internal light going and finds his way of freedom by harassing the guard.

So till this point, they set up an emotional bomb for him. But they didn't allow him to explode or to be comforted to prevent that. When Geralt frees him from jail, he may be fully sober for the first time in a long time. He begins to let things go but is shut up as I said before. But then we know what happens. Zero catharsis and rejections, with the dwarves, Ciri and we can guess the witchers too, from what happens next for him.

As we don't see him healing from previous emotional hurts, they are adding powder to his bomb.

So when Yennefer finds him sleeping in Kaer Morhen, the only conclusion we can have seeing him sleeping with a bottle and being hangovered is that he went out to the drain again and drank to oblivion. The brain connected the dots. Sure it's light again in the surface narrative but he is not well and...

No-one cares…

If it wasn't for the interactions with Yennefer, that I found lovely, I have a big problem with Jaskier at Kaer Morhen because the plot device trope ends up with him just being humiliated. Not because he can be clumsy or annoying sometimes, but because he is not wanted. And it's not his fault, not in the slightest.

We have another strong setup for the emotional bomb that is waiting to explode, back at Cintra.

Geralt gives him the responsibility to go with Ciri, at Kaer Morhen. So he is in the fortress because Geralt asked him to, not because he chose to.

But the only interactions we can see of him with the other witchers makes everything else inconfortable. As we don't see anything else but rejection or disinterest, the brain filling the gaps again, the only conclusion we have is that he is not welcome but we don't know why. The fact he is drinking back on the fortress tells at least that he is not well again. And it's bad enough for him to sleep with a bottle, like a comfort object.

Then again, he helps as much as he can. He goes through the big fight against the basilics with a hangover from outer space, without any context or any skills to have a chance of survival. He is just invested with the mission Yennefer gave him, and tries to give his stupid rock to Geralt.

And just to add how much unimportant he is. This is the fact that Lambert pushes him out of his way that fulfills his purpose as the rock plot. By the way, Lambert could have killed him doing so, because Jaskier fells in the middle of the room in the same direction that the basilisk is going…

[Get off my way bard...]

Then everyone is bonding except him. His very last screen time is used to make a joke about another rejection.

When you join that with his silent wounds, it makes him a very sad clown. He is nothing more than an object in that room for the others (except Yennefer, though they are not speaking but they share something emotionally).

I'm pretty sure there are a lot of things that were cut down in this big scene, and maybe something more than just pure action. There are small hints that Geralt hears Jaskier screaming his name but chooses to stay focused on Ciri, for example, and there is a forced comic relief when Jaskier is crawling his way to him under the tables. There is this line that was just put over. Maybe it was from another take where it had more sense. But this way, it's used as a diversion of how dire the situation could be for him and it reinforces the plot device use of the character, nihiling his own struggles.

I don't mean like they have to focus on him, in this situation. The problem is that if something is shown, then it has meaning, and if it's not shown then it has meaning too. So if we see how much is hurt and then not a single character even asking him if he is OK once, then the only thing told is that no-one really cares for him. That's as simple as that.

Conclusion

There is little chance that Jaskier will find catharsis about all of that in the next season. And if they follow the story for his part this will lead to another bunch of bitter moments.

and it reminded me of this moment from the Season 2 press:

Ok. Here it is. We don't know what happened behind the scenes. We don't. We truly don't. And please be real.

Yes, I write Geraskier and a recast throws that into chaos,but tbh most of the Geraskier goodness I love comes from fanon. I don’t ship it in canon anyway, I just adore it in fanon. (And I love it in the books)

I appreciate and respect the work Henry has done, but Geralt is so much bigger for me than whatever the show does, especially now that I’ve read the books and fallen so in love with the book version of Geralt.

And as for Liam, we’ll just see what he does. I wouldn’t have cast him, but I wouldn’t have cast Hcav either. I’d be boo’ed out of the building if I told you guys who I would cast. 😂 But HCav made it his own and Liam might too.

Yeah it’s awkward and weird and slightly bizarre to switch out the main character in a tv show that isn’t Doctor Who. But eh. I’ll give it a chance. If I hate it I have a feeling it won’t be the fault of the casting.