Geralt of Rivia

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Character
Name: Geralt of Rivia
Occupation: Contracted Monster Slayer
Relationships: Yennefer of Vengerberg (on-again off-again lover)
Cirilla Fiona Elen Riannon (adopted daughter)
Fandom: The Witcher
Other:
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Geralt of Rivia is the main character in The Witcher series across the books, games and TV series. He has been played by Michał Żebrowski in Wiedźmin (The Hexer) the 2002 Polish TV show, and Henry Cavill (S1-S3) and Liam Hemsworth (S4-S5) in the Netflix adaptation of the books.

Canon

Books

As a young child, Geralt was given to the Witchers of Kaer Morhen to raise, with the expectation he would finish the tests and become a Witcher. Part of this process requires undergoing mutations, which are viewed negatively by the majority of the population. During this time, his teachers encouraged the young men to make up surnames to better fit into the general population. It was then that he selected "of Rivia", despite not being from the country.

Geralt successfully survived the mutation process, and went into the world to work as a Witcher (generally slaying monsters). Witchers age more slowly than normal, and as such Geralt has developed a variety of relationships over the years with those who respect him as a friend and not merely a mutant, such as Nenneke, a priestess of Melitele, Triss Merigold, and others. During a battle, he saved Queen Meve of Lyria and Rivia. She promptly knighted him, and he earned the appellation "of Rivia" in truth, much to his amusement.

Games

Netflix Adaptation

Some of the main differences noted by viewers of the Netflix adaptation are:

  • Geralt is much more stoic and monosyllabic than in the books or the game, due in part to Henry Cavill's acting choices.[1]
  • Geralt's relationship with Jaskier features more prominently; for example, Jaskier is the reason for Geralt's presence at the banquet during which Geralt ends up bound to Ciri by Destiny.

Geralt's Appearance

Geralt's appearance is perceived by many to be more (too?) appealing in the show than it was thought to be from the books' descriptions.[2] As a result, Geralt is the object of much fandom thirst.

However, readers have noted that the book descriptions of the character might not have been fully accurate:

[prokopetz, Jan 8, 2020]

Mm. I grant that book Geralt is often drawn as a total gargoyle, particularly in fanart, but what I get from the actual text is a fairly handsome dude who people find off-putting because literally all of his facial expressions are unpleasant.

[abyssalcorvid, Jan 8, 2020[3]]

I haven’t read the books, but I’ve been given to understand that Geralt is actually quite handsome, and it’s the symptoms of his witcher mutations which people find off-putting, such as yellow cat-like eyes, the pale white hair, and so on.

Which seems pretty appropriate for random superstitious peasants. But the audience is a bunch of modern monster fuckers, so…

[lucklesslavender, Jan 9, 2020[4]]

haven’t read the books, but I seem to recall the games describing him as someone who would be considered handsome if he didn’t have super pale skin, white hair, and glowing yellow eyes, which to me just means he’s good looking and peasantfolk are cowards

Fandom

Shipping

In 2018, before the release of the Netflix adaptation, the main Geralt ships were Geralt/Yennefer (canon pairing) and Geralt/Emhyr (due to the influence of astolat's stories.) Current juggernaut ship Geralt/Jaskier did not even rank within the fandom's top 10 pairings on AO3.[5]

Post-Netflix adaptation, the number of fics being written skyrocketed. Now the vast majority of shipping involves pairing Geralt with Jaskier and Yennefer of Vengerberg. Jaskier's is the juggernaut ship, because slash.

Character Pairing Ship name
Jaskier Geralt/Jaskier Geraskier
Yennefer of Vengerberg Geralt/Yennefer Yeralt
Both Geralt/Jaskier/Yennefer Geraskefer

When the two are added together, pairing Geralt with a Reader-Insert or Original Character is extremely common as well, slightly more so than Geralt/Jaskier/Yennefer. (See Geralt/Reader.)

Less common, but not rarepair ships, include:

Character Pairing Ship name
Emiel Geralt/Emiel
Eskel Geralt/Eskel
Emhyr Geralt/Emhyr

Common Tropes

Example Fanworks

Fanart

Art Gallery

Fanfic

Podfic

Fanvids

Resources & Fannish Links

References

  1. ^ Netflix's The Witcher Is Based on a Fantasy Book Series With a Few Key Differences, Popsugar.co.uk article by Mishal Zafar, posted on Dec 23, 2019.
  2. ^ Netflix’s Witcher vs. The Games vs. The Books, unleashthegamer.com, Jan 15, 2020.
  3. ^ https://abyssalcorvid.tumblr.com/post/190156090631/prokopetz-wiserodin032402-prokopetz
  4. ^ https://lucklesslavender.tumblr.com/post/190161694316/prokopetz-wiserodin032402-prokopetz
  5. ^ "fail-fandomanon thread about the Witcher's most popular pairings as of Jan 19, 2018". Archived from the original on 7 Dec 2020.
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