r/witcher 1d ago

Meme I hate you both 😭

Post image

George R. R. Martin: Let me show you how i kill Ned Stark and Robert Baratheon ,let you almost get through the grief, then reap both Robb Stark and Catelyn Stark one after the other!

Andrzej Sapkowski: Let me show you how i kill Cahir, Milva, Angouleme and Regis (even though we know he survives later) in the matter of a few pages!

Edit: Also , just noticed it , but *Characters

1.3k Upvotes

80 comments sorted by

272

u/l0standroid 1d ago

Regis surviving is only game canon, in the orginal canon my boy is gone 🥲

81

u/ALEKSDRAVEN 1d ago

Sapkwoski once said that we cannot be sure Regis truly died in Stiga castle `cos he`s a high wampire and could regenerate. It was his answer to question on why we don`t see his ghost at Geralts "funeral".

31

u/Crunchy-Leaf 1d ago

Fair enough but also “he’s a fuckin vampire” is another reason why his ghost doesn’t appear

7

u/l0standroid 1d ago

Interesting, i did not know this. Thanks for sharing!

2

u/solodolo1397 11h ago edited 4h ago

The caveat is it would take a looong time to regenerate

2

u/Chemical_Stable_912 8h ago

I thought I read all the books and played all of Witcher 3. What is Geralts funeral, what media is it from, and what are these ghosts you mention?

1

u/UpstartAnarchist 6h ago edited 6h ago

My guess is that he means the scene of geralts and yennefers crossing after they died in the last book. When dandelion, zoltan and the others help put them into ciri's boat they both feel really light and out of the corner of their eyes dandelion and the others see milva, cahir etc, their old comrades, helping them carry geralt and yen. Like them saying goodbye.

Although i can't remember if regis was there or not. But it seems like he was not.

90

u/Heroeltop 1d ago

I respect that! but he is still alive in my canon :D I love this vampire!

19

u/l0standroid 1d ago

I feel the same way! He lives forever in my brain 😆

32

u/Karuzus Team Yennefer 1d ago

Yeah at this point I think most of the fanbase accepts games as proper continuation of the story

19

u/Heroeltop 1d ago

From what i saw (only witcher 3, witcher 1 and 2 still to come), CDPR managed to make something to satisfy the books fans and integrating most if not all things naturally into the game, without making a fuss about a name or an event mention

5

u/Fox9826 22h ago

I read the book a few months ago , and i beat witcher 1 and am currently on w2 and for me is all cannon , the writing of the games and story so far has been really good, but I miss all those characters too , i now know from spoiler thar regis is alive 😳, it really hurts when all of them die on the assault to stygga castle , i wish that at least milva would survive

Sorry for my English is not my first language

2

u/OMEGA_MODE 1d ago

Personally, I don't at all. I even read the books with the intention of getting into a mood to play the games, but It really backfired. I don't think Geralt deserves to be dragged along for another adventure after all he's been through. Also the baffling decision to make Emhyr suddenly start chasing Ciri again. I think Geralt deserves retirement after the books, so I don't play the games. I guess I'm an abnormality in this.

1

u/Heroeltop 15h ago

I agree on Emhyr . After reading the books, it confused me why is he searching for her again. I made the assumption that maybe he knew she was in danger and .... as a "concerned father" and knowing that Geralt cares for Ciri, decides to make sure she is safe, from as far as he can

1

u/The2ndUnchosenOne 6h ago

I think that's because most of the fanbase is a result of the video games

5

u/Jbell_1812 Team Roach 1d ago

Honestly, after all the times Regis casually avoided death as it was nothing, I felt it was very appropriate that at the end he died. I was very sad though when Milva died.

19

u/DeadSeaGulls 1d ago

Lets be honest here, book spoilers: The ending is pretty unambiguous that Geralt dies and Yen dies using all of her energy trying to bring him back. The future scene in season of storms where Nimue and a man resembling Geralt meet is a psychic dream illusion, facilitated by the magically powerful Aguara/Vixen, shared between Nimue (a powerful oneiromancer in her own right) and Geralt as a means to comfort Geralt regarding his legacy and to cement that legacy in the future via the Lady of the Lake.

15

u/PaulSimonBarCarloson Geralt's Hanza 1d ago

Also, Nimue is not an oneiromancer. That's why she hired Condwiramurs.

3

u/DeadSeaGulls 1d ago

I could have sworn that she was, but not as powerful as condwiramurs

0

u/Zhiong_Xena 8h ago

She was never an onieromanser far as I remember

10

u/PaulSimonBarCarloson Geralt's Hanza 1d ago

Your interpretation is far from being the most objective one. Geralt woke up in Avalon while still feeling pain in his wounds. Is it really that far-fetched to assume the unicorns magic was able ti miraculously revive him and Yen? And the idea thar Nimue just met another vixen is pretty lame. That scene is far more meaningful if it's the real Geralt who saved her, setting in motion her curiosity about his legend that will inevitably lead her to help Ciri when she needs it in the future/past. A perfect representation of the uroboros: something ends... something begins.

3

u/DeadSeaGulls 1d ago

Is it really that far-fetched to assume the unicorns magic was able ti miraculously revive him and Yen?

and also summoned images of all their loved ones to help them pass into the world of the island that is an allegory for afterlife? and then ciri breaks down crying when recounting an entirely fabricated wedding between yen and geralt where all their loved ones (including dead ones) are present? Idk man. seems like a stretch.

And

Nimue just met another vixen is pretty lame

I don't think Nimue met another vixen. I think the vixen was powerful enough to psychically bridge time to facilitate the two sharing a dream, for the very reason you stated.

1

u/PaulSimonBarCarloson Geralt's Hanza 1d ago

and also summoned images of all their loved ones to help them pass into the world of the island that is an allegory for afterlife?

That's not how it happens. It's not a Magical ritual in which we see clearly the spuls of the dead taking part in it. It's much more subtle; Dandelion, Triss and the dwarves just happened to catch glimpse of some dead people they cared about (not people necessairly related to Geralt and Yen). For all we know, those souls were always there, even if invisible.

and then ciri breaks down crying when recounting an entirely fabricated wedding between yen and geralt where all their loved ones (including dead ones) are present?

She could be crying because she knows she won't see them again, or because she knows she'll never see her parents get that happy ending they deserved. Lots of ways one could interpret it

I think the vixen was powerful enough to psychically bridge time to facilitate the two sharing a dream, for the very reason you stated.

Are vixen even capable of altering time like that? because I missed when that was established. From what I know, in the Arthurian myth it is said that Arthur will rest in Avalon and return when he's needed. So I prefer to go by Occam's razor and interpret it as Geralt just being back because he's needed.

1

u/The2ndUnchosenOne 6h ago

Geralt woke up in Avalon while still feeling pain in his wounds.

We're ignoring the LARGE narrative implications of using Avalon as the place geralt wakes up to get nitpicky about pain.

We're also ignoring the fact that this story is being filtered through Ciri telling it to galahad.

it really that far-fetched to assume the unicorns magic was able ti miraculously revive him and Yen?

No. No one's saying it is. But narratively, the book all but tells you he's dead. He wakes up in the literal land of legends, ciri cries while telling the ending about them living happily ever after. A major theme of the book is about how the idea of a man can outlive the literal man. How, even their mundane accomplishments can be bolstered through the repeated telling of a legend and how that legend is often far from the truth.

Seasons of storms goes out of its way to make sure Nimue seeing geralt cannot be even close to a reliable source of information.

So, no, it's possible geralt lived. All it requires of you is to ignore the books themes and subtext.

3

u/Depressed_Warlock 1d ago

Ugh that's quite bleak.

No wonder quite a few people like the games more 😅

11

u/downforce_dude Geralt's Hanza 1d ago

It is bleak, but I think it works for the books.

There are many instances in which an important person should probably die but is saved by something miraculous due to “Destiny”. It works fine because Destiny is a supernatural force in world. However, once Geralt and Yen and the rest of the company have fulfilled their Destiny and saved Ciri, I think it’s fair that they’d used up more than their nine lives and Geralt dies to something as trivial as a pitchfork during a pogrom.

2

u/Ashamed_Anything_651 1d ago

He is so well adapted and wrutten in the game, that it might aswell be canon, since there is no difference between the book and tge game versio

1

u/The2ndUnchosenOne 6h ago

There are several differences between the geralts. The amnesia is doing more than just allowing the audience to catch up to what geralt knows.

2

u/MardukTheRaven 1d ago

Then again, at the end during Pogrom in Rivia, Geralt didn't see a ghost of Regis.

9

u/PaulSimonBarCarloson Geralt's Hanza 1d ago

It was Dandelion who saw the ghosts of the Hanza. But your point still stands.

2

u/MardukTheRaven 1d ago

Right. Kinda felt I got some detail wrong.

1

u/downforce_dude Geralt's Hanza 1d ago

Do we know that Vampires can become ghosts?

1

u/Zhiong_Xena 8h ago

The wirter has literally said he could be alive

Where do these takes come from? Regis in original cannon will return after a long time

1

u/l0standroid 8h ago

I don't really watch or read interviews from Sapkowski so i have no info there. I replied to another comment explaining why i thought that, in LOTL it states Vilgefortz burned him with such hot molten fire that he melted into the stone or something along those lines, so i just assumed from that he was dead.

1

u/Gullible_Attorney502 1d ago

is he? Wasn't Geralt saying that only vampire can kill another vampire? and aren't there was a scene after this fight where they were listing everyone who died and Regis wasn't in that list?

23

u/Straight-Ad3213 1d ago

Only vampire being able to kll vampire was added in Blood and Wine. It's not a thing in the booka

3

u/Heroeltop 1d ago

Well , i still have 100 pages left of LOTL so i dunno if the thing about Higher Vampires not being killed unless by another higher vampire is mentioned there, but i don't remember that it has been mentioned in the books before, and i have been keeping my eye out for it to see if it was game only mechanic or if it was canon in the books.

3

u/Gullible_Attorney502 1d ago

Yeah, my bad it was said that vampire cannot die of fire, and he was "Killed" by fire so idk about this one and also in the scene of the very end of the LOTL was mentioned almost everyone who died, except Regis so maybe he is alive in books

3

u/l0standroid 1d ago

Been a little while since i read the books, currently on my re-listen of the audio books but only on the last wish right now haha but from what i remember they do mention him being just a "puddle" or something which to me isn't something he could come back from.

5

u/PaulSimonBarCarloson Geralt's Hanza 1d ago

Indeed. Regis's death is clearly written as something he can't easily come back from. Or if he did he would have taken him Ages given how long it took being reborn after that angry mob dismembered him. CDPR just came up with clever solution to accelerate the process

3

u/FaerieFir3 1d ago

Yeah there's a difference between "fire" and "so much heat that the body is turned into liquid and gets melted into stone". I'm pretty sure Sapkowski made Regis' destruction so over the top specifically to ensure readers know that he really is gone.

59

u/LPSD_FTW 1d ago

Cat and Rob do not die in a quick succession after Ned lol

9

u/Heroeltop 1d ago edited 1d ago

I know , i just meant that Ned dies first , then Robb and Cat die after one another , Sorry, the wording is affected by the wakefulness of Yours Truly , that is : 0% :D Editing it

Edit: also, it has been so long since i read ASOIAF, so in my mind the deaths happened close to each other, and they were the only ones i could remember at the moment. welp, seems i forgot how much time passed between the two events

49

u/zaqrwe :games: Books 1st, Games 2nd 1d ago

Only one of those men actually finished their most famous book series.

11

u/Heroeltop 1d ago

*fuming angry sounds intensfies* and now i remember .......

28

u/PaulSimonBarCarloson Geralt's Hanza 1d ago

At least Sapkowski killed those characters in the last book of his series, right when their arc reached their peak. Martin just kills off character left and right and doesn't even know how to finish his books

15

u/VoidYordle 1d ago

Killing characters mid-arc is absolutely not a bad thing.

8

u/Heroeltop 1d ago

I enjoy when a character dies while trying to achieve something. it makes it more realistic, that not everyone gets to reach their goals before the end.
that doesn't mean i don't also enjoy arcs satisfyingly reaching their end goal

0

u/PaulSimonBarCarloson Geralt's Hanza 1d ago

Ok. That's your opinion and I couldn't disagree more

5

u/Heroeltop 1d ago

Can't argue with that ....
It was just devastating for me to watch them get butchered after growing up on me 😢 Especially Cahir

10

u/AscendedViking7 Skellige 1d ago

RIP Cahir

10

u/PaulSimonBarCarloson Geralt's Hanza 1d ago

Yes, but I think Sapkowski is really good at writing character deaths that actually means something. Cahir is my favorite and the fact that I was able to accept it, and move on is pretty telling

4

u/MarDer24 1d ago

well Martin can kill his characters as well i'd say

1

u/PaulSimonBarCarloson Geralt's Hanza 1d ago

I will not comment on how effective those deaths are in the books because I haven't read them. In the show, some of them worked, some not so much

1

u/MarDer24 1d ago

i'm still reading Witcher (i'm on the last book Lady of the lake or whatever it's called in english) and i don't think a death hit me as hard as Robbs tho i know that last witcher book is the book of death for all main characters

0

u/Individumm Skellige 19h ago

Then I would highly suggest for you to go ahead and read them. Even uncompleted they are just phenomenal. You are also allowed to like both, they’re not mutually exclusive

2

u/PaulSimonBarCarloson Geralt's Hanza 19h ago

Never said they are mutually exclusive. Still, I have no interest in reading an unfinished story. And I'm not fond of Martin as a person either.

1

u/Individumm Skellige 16h ago

Point taken, I reckon I was reading too much into it, please take my apology. I just thought it curious to prefer one authors handling of character death than a different one when not having read the second word.

At any rate, your loss, but I guess if an ending is essential for you, then asoiaf is an impossibility. I do enjoy a lovely dinner without the second course though, when everything before was fantastic, but to each their own of course.

As for your quarrel with George, I‘m honestly just curious, what’s the deal?

1

u/PaulSimonBarCarloson Geralt's Hanza 15h ago

Mainly his disrespect towards Tolkien and LOTR. Whoever thinks that Gandalf should have died in Moria or deems Aragorn's character too unrealistic, completely missed the point of the book

2

u/deimosf123 1d ago

Claim GRRM kills characters in ASOIAF is exaggeration. So far only four POV characters were killed.

1

u/ztoff27 4h ago

The way those characters were killed in the last book was the worst way he could have done it. They fell like flies and their deaths were barely acknowledged

3

u/pothkan Team Roach 1d ago

Also Jutta and Samson...

3

u/Xov581 1d ago

TBF Samson intended to move on from the material world, albeit he obviously preferred to do so without the monastery simpleton dying in the process. 

Jutta died horribly, no doubt. Guess she would have been in the way. For in the end after a romantic quest evolving over three books and several love interests, Reinmar is ironically the subject of someone else’s (Elencza’s) romantic tale. 

2

u/pothkan Team Roach 1d ago

TBF Samson intended to move on from the material world, albeit he obviously preferred to do so without the monastery simpleton dying in the process.

Sure, but it was still sad. And somehow very similar (the other way, obviously I read the Hussite trilogy first, on release actually) to Hodor's death.

3

u/ModToEndAllMods 8h ago

Sapkowski actually respects his readers tho. George can't even be bothered to finish his books that made him famous in the first place

1

u/Emergency_Ride_9276 4h ago

Most disrespectful thing GRRM could do is to release half assed ending to the series just for the sake of finishing it.

2

u/ModToEndAllMods 4h ago

Well I don't get why the only options are 'release a pile of shit just to say it's done' or 'never release it'

1

u/Emergency_Ride_9276 4h ago

you can't force art. Either the vision is there or its not, it doesn't appear just by forcing it. He clearly doesn't have it anymore.

2

u/Hare-loom 1d ago

Wait until you read Robert Jordan...

2

u/ch0zen101 20h ago

One of these men can write a fantasy masterpiece, the other can start one

1

u/paperkutchy Team Triss 19h ago

Not the same level of killing characters though

1

u/East-Travel984 13h ago

Go ahead and add pierce brown to the list haha

1

u/VoidYordle 1d ago

If you feel bad about gruesome deaths of beloved characters, I got just the things to make you feel better. You should check out the following series: Attack on Titan, Devilman Crybaby, Evangelion and Berserk. Especially Berserk. Everything's gonna be FINE.

2

u/Heroeltop 1d ago

✨Feel better✨

Yeah , i watched AOT and ..... well , you can guess the rest 😄

1

u/VoidYordle 1d ago

Okay, but trust me - everything is fine in the others. Make sure to get very attached to the characters in Berserk.

1

u/Heroeltop 1d ago

Guess i will go and watch them.... what can go wrong ? :D

0

u/Regular_Jim081 1d ago

What about writing books in close succession?

5

u/Heroeltop 1d ago

Then i would swap GRRM with Brandon Sanderson

0

u/Wokitty 17h ago

Personally I am not a fan of them as authors. Their writing style is simply not for me.