Ep. 1 — “The Witcher” with Chris E. (Remastered)

Guest Chris E. joins Alyssa in New York for the inaugural episode of Breakfast in Beauclair to discuss the first short story from Andrzej Sapkowski’s The Last Wish, “The Witcher.” Very important bits include: New York strigas, Pirouette Power!, “Is time a human construct that also applies to the dead?”, and King Foltest’s potential as The Ultimate Reality Television Superstar 9000™.

This episode is available at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, and Stitcher.

Transcript

Remastered Introduction

ALYSSA: Hey there! Welcome to the pilot episode of Breakfast in Beauclair, a global Witcher podcast. I’m excited for you to start—or restart!—the show from the very beginning. It’s been a few years since this first episode was released and I thought it was time to revisit and remaster it. The production quality and conversational depth of the podcast has grown tremendously over the last few years: from blanket forts to an in-home sound studio and from one person in New York City to an international hanza.

Breakfast in Beauclair examines the lore, culture, and history of the Witcher Universe through chapter-by-chapter or episode-by-episode discussions with guests from all over the world. Along with the pilot, I’d also recommend listening to a recent episode of the podcast to get a feel for where the show has ended up. I hope you have fun following the path the show has taken just as much as I have.

While you’re catching up on the podcast, you can join our community on Discord at bit.ly/thehanzadiscord. That’s the hanza, h-a-n-z-a, discord.

We’ll see you on the Path! Enjoy the show.

Cold Open

ALYSSA: “Foltest, King of Temeria, Pontar, and Mahakam; got his younger sister, Adda, pregnant. Neither the ‘bay-bah’”—

[Laughs]

ALYSSA: “Neither the bay-bah.”

CHRIS: No, keep going. “Neither the bay-bah.”

[Alyssa laughs]

Introduction

[Breakfast in Beauclair theme music by MojoFilter Media]

ALYSSA: Welcome to the first episode of Breakfast in Beauclair, a global Witcher Podcast. My name is Alyssa from GoodMorhen, and I’ll be your host as you, I, and our international hanza accompany Geralt of Rivia and his destiny, Cirilla of Cintra, across The Continent.

Because this is our first go, we’re going to get some housekeeping done before our discussion. Things like: “What is The Witcher?” “What’s this podcast?” “Who am I?” and “What are we doing in this first episode?”

—

What is The Witcher?

The Witcher is a series created by Andrzej Sapkowski, a Polish fantasy writer. In 1986, his first short story, The Witcher, was submitted for a contest and published in Fantastyka, Poland's leading science-fiction and fantasy literary magazine. The story was met with success from both readers and critics, eventually spawning an entire fantasy universe and a number of literary works from Sapkowski about the main character, Geralt of Rivia.

Without giving too much away, Geralt is a monster hunter, a profession known in his world as a “witcher.” Witchers are trained from childhood and mutated to develop near-superhuman abilities. Think Captain America, rather than Thor.

Geralt lives on The Continent, which has independent kingdoms in the north and the large Nilfgaardian Empire in the south. The Continent is home to not only magical and non-magical humans, but also a number of other races such as elves, gnomes, dwarves, halflings, dryads, werewolves, vampires, and a whole host of other beings and creatures.

The entire series is set over quite a long period of time and throughout Sapkowski’s work, Geralt grapples with moral ambiguity, his understanding of family, and destiny.

The series has inspired two early 2000’s film and television adaptations in Poland, a wildly successful trilogy of video games from Polish developer CD Projekt Red, and an upcoming Netflix series starring Henry Cavill as Geralt of Rivia.

—

So, I know that you’re here and I know that you found it, but I’d love to answer for you:

What is this podcast?

The name “Breakfast in Beauclair” references scenes in the last book, Lady of the Lake, in which Geralt’s close friends and brothers-in-arms gather around the breakfast table each morning to relax and have engaging conversation.

In this podcast, I’ll sit down with a new guest to discuss The Witcher Universe, beginning with the short story compilations before diving into the five-part saga, the standalone novel, and the upcoming Netflix series. Our guests join us from all around the world and you, as our friend and listener, will get varied and interesting points of view on The Witcher Universe from new readers, hardcore fans, and other Witcher content creators.

If you’re new to the series, read along with us! We’ll be discussing the books in their chronological order of events. We’ll start with The Last Wish, then The Sword of Destiny, which are both short story compilations, then, Blood of Elves, Time of Contempt, Baptism of Fire, Tower of Swallows, and Lady of the Lake. We’ll then go back and read Sapkowski’s 2013 “sidequel” to the short stories, Season of Storms.

As a bonus—I’m also incredibly thrilled to be partnering with Lars from Witcherflix to bring you our mid-episode news segment, “Tidings from Toussaint.” WitcherFlix is the internet’s daily fix about Netflix's upcoming Witcher series and each episode, Lars will join us from Berlin to bring us all the recent updates on the show.

—

And I know everyone’s been wondering all over the internet, but:

Who am I?

My name is Alyssa and I’m hosting the show from New York City. Last year, I started an Instagram account called GoodMorhen, which translates the text of The Witcher into a visual experience. I’ve met so many wonderful people through GoodMorhen and I’m looking forward to building something new for our community together. Introversion and introspection have been part of the GoodMorhen identity, but, truthfully, I'm an extrovert at heart and I’m looking forward to taking a very social approach to this next project, Breakfast in Beauclair.

—

And finally:

Are we getting to the episode?

The answer is yes.

This week, we’re joined by our friend, Chris, to discuss the first short story in Andrezj Sapkowski’s The Last Wish, “The Witcher.” Together, we’ll explore themes such as an introduction to the witcher profession, character development in short stories, and King Foltest’s potential as The Ultimate Reality Television Superstar. During the mid-episode break, we’ll hear updates on the Netflix show from Lars from WitcherFlix .

If you’re reading The Last Wish along with us, you’ll notice that it doesn’t start with “The Witcher,” but rather the first part of “The Voice of Reason,” which is the framing narrative thread that connects each short story in The Last Wish compilation. We’ll be covering the “The Voice of Reason” as one complete short story in Episode Seven.

Without further ado, let’s get to this episode’s short story, “The Witcher.”

Discussion

[Breakfast in Beauclair stinger by MojoFilter Media]

ALYSSA: Hey everyone! My name’s Alyssa and welcome to our first episode of Breakfast in Beauclair. Today, I'm joined in New York City by my friend, Chris, who's reading The Witcher Saga for the first time. Hey, Chris!

CHRIS: Good Morhen, Alyssa!

ALYSSA: [Laughs, then sighs.] It’s such an awful pun. And I know it's my pun... But it's so bad; it's so good at the same time.

CHRIS: Yeah, I'm just glad that I get to use it in front of however many people are going to listen to this.

ALYSSA: [Laughs] Well, now it's forever immortalized, um, in this first episode. Today, we'll be discussing "The Witcher," which is the first short story in Andrzej Sapkowski's The Last Wish. And, Chris, this is your first time into the series, right?

CHRIS: Yeah, so, this is my first serious dive into the series. Before now, my previous experience has been through just people telling me that I really need to get into it. So, in my personal life, I've had, like, a bunch of friends just telling me, "You need to get into it, you need to get into it," and I've been hesitant. Then, I came to work here and, of course, the first thing I hear from Alyssa is, "You really need to get into it." So—

[Alyssa laughs]

CHRIS: I figured since all aspects of my life seem to be dominated by this series that I was going to give it a try.

ALYSSA: And what did you think? Do you think you made a good choice?

CHRIS: I do. Overall, it's been a very exciting experience. I'm actually pretty excited for the Netflix series now. After you told me to read the first short story I went ahead and read the rest of the book so, I guess that's indicative of something.

[Alyssa laughs]

ALYSSA: So, considering that this is your first read, was there anything that surprised you about The Last Wish?

CHRIS: I will say that it surprised me at how much I enjoyed it. So, usually, like, the three things that I look for in any genre, series novels that I read is prose, detail, and delivery. I know that sounds a little bit prepared, but that's something that I always, kind of, think about when I'm reading any story. One, how well does it get you involved into it, to want to learn more about the characters? Two, more the description of the details, like, how well does it pull you into the scene? How well can you see, like, people fighting, their emotions, you know, are people trembling and things like that. And also, being able to finish off with this, sort of, manner where you want to know what happens in more detail and you want to keep following the story. So for me, I feel like all of those checkboxes have been… checked with the Witcher series.

ALYSSA: I'm really glad to hear that, um, especially considering that this is your first time going through the saga and it's really exciting to hear from someone who has never really experienced the books or the lore before, um, that you're enjoying it!

CHRIS: Yeah, no, thanks so much for getting me into it.

ALYSSA: Ha! Yes.

[Laughs]

ALYSSA: I get credit for something.

CHRIS: And I also get to use your "GoodMorhen" pun so there's that.

[Breakfast in Beauclair theme music by MojoFilter Media]

“LATE NIGHT ALYSSA”: Hey! It’s me, “Late Night Alyssa,” “After Hours Alyssa,” “The episode was finished a week ago and we have a last-minute addition Alyssa.”

When we recorded the discussion for Episode 01 back in July, I was basing my pronunciation of the town’s name on Peter Kenny’s pronunciation in the audiobooks, which sounds like:

[Audio clip of Peter Kenny, in which “Wyzim” is pronounced, “Vi-CHEEM,” with a hard CH sound.]

Chatting with a Polish listener this morning at 4AM, which is the day before the episode airs, he pronounces it:

[Audio clip of listen, in which “Wyzima” is pronounced, “Vee-eema.”]

So.

[Laughs]

These are not the same.

[Laughs]

I just wanted to give you a heads up that in this discussion, I, kind of, become… The Butcher of Wyzima.

[Mimics ba-dum tss]

If you don’t get that reference yet, I promise you will in Episode 03.

All of that to say, I wanted to own up to the possible pronunciation error before the episode aired. At the time of upload, Episodes 01, 02, 03, 04, and 06 have already been recorded and may have similar errors. Moving forward that Polish listener has lovingly agreed to help improve and correct pronunciation for the show. I know this is only the first episode, but thank you in advance for your patience while I work to refine the podcast week-over-week.

So, now that that disclaimer’s out of the way—let’s get on with it!

ALYSSA: So, today we're going to be discussing "The Witcher," which, as I said, is the first short story in Andrzej Sapkowski's The Last Wish. Part I starts:

[Reading] A stranger enters an inn in the town of Wyzim. He’s not old, but his hair is entirely white and, unconventionally, he carries his sword strapped on his back. He asks for a room at the inn and is denied. Overhearing the stranger’s accent, some of the patrons in the inn start a brawl, which the stranger ends quickly and lethally. Guards come into the tavern and attempt to threaten the stranger into surrender. Instead, the man uses magic to hypnotize the guards into leading him to the town’s castellan.

CHRIS: So, my first thought was, "That was a situation that went from 1 to 10 very quickly." I think what was interesting the most about the whole section was just how you… go into it thinking that, "Oh, there's going to be a fight," and it just descends into a complete massacre.

ALYSSA: Yeah, absolutely. I think the interesting thing about this part is that we really don't know anything about this character that walks into this inn. We kind of see that, from the perspective of the people in the inn, the innkeep, etc. he's coming into their town and as soon as he does, he, kind of, keeps to himself, but even while doing so, a brawl starts up around him. It's not the kind of thing where it's, like, a fist fight that gets taken outside. You know, someone goes to slice someone up and then suddenly half the room is dead.

CHRIS: Yeah, for me, personally, that was just completely unexpected. And I also think what was very interesting about this section was how well it gets you immediately involved into wanting to know more about this character, especially as you witness him being, like, targeted, marginalized. So, I think what was really interesting about the scene also is that in the very beginning, you just are immediately drawn to this character to understand why there's so much bias against him. Because obviously, as they go, they–they’re talking about Rivians and you're wondering, first of all, who are Rivians? And you immediately understand, though, that they're not looked upon favorably. You immediately get a sense of sympathy for this main character and you’re–and you kind of want him to go out and have a fight, but what ends up happening is he just straight up kills them. So, for me, personally, it was like a, "Oh, woah," moment.

ALYSSA: I think the other thing to note here is that you really don't have any idea of… if this is something that that character has experienced before. This stranger that's now in Wyzim… is this the way that he always acts? You know, with, kind of, very minimal prompting, where he just starts massacring everyone. You really have no understanding of his backstory at this part of "The Witcher."

CHRIS: Yeah, I mean, for me, personally, like, one of the most interesting sections was where there's so much detail being involved in the description of what's happening, that it really puts you in that frame of mind and that sense that you are there. And a particular line that I found very interesting, or very detailed, rather, was:

[Reading] The stranger retreated toward the wall, tense and alert. He held the sword in both hands, sweeping the blade through the air. No one moved. Terror, like cold mud, was clear on their faces, paralyzing limbs and blocking throats.

CHRIS: So the use of, you know, "tense and alert," "Like cold mud," uh, which was very interesting, I would never have come up with that.

ALYSSA: From the passage that you read out, it makes it really clear that this kind of massacre isn't something that people are used to. Like, it's not like we get dropped into the story and it's clear that this is the status quo. We actually get the opposite, that a lot of people are surprised and scared by this reaction from the stranger and about the fight that breaks out, which I think sets a really nice tone for the rest of the story.

CHRIS: Yeah, leaves a lot of questions unanswered. I don't think anybody, anywhere would expect a scene like this to unfold.

ALYSSA: No.

[Chuckles]

ALYSSA: And we do get a lot of questions answered, though, in the next part.

[Laughs]

CHRIS: …Tune in next week!

ALYSSA: [Reading] In Part II, Velerad, the castellan of Wyzim, speaks with the man, who introduces himself as Geralt of Rivia. As it turns out, Geralt is in town to inquire about a royal proclamation for a witcher’s job with a large reward. Velerad the castellan gives Geralt the details of the job: Foltest, King of Temeria, Pontar, and Mahakam; got his younger sister, Adda, pregnant. Neither the baby nor Adda survived the birth and were buried in a double sarcophagus beneath the palace. Seven years later, the infant became a striga, a monster, and began terrorizing Wyzim. It’s been seven years since then and Foltest seeks someone to reverse the curse on his daughter, the striga. The castellan also tells Geralt that a group of noblemen would be willing to pay the witcher for killing the striga outright.

ALYSSA: So, we learn a lot in this chapter, we get, kind of, a lot of exposition through Velerad, the castellan, and the man, who we now know is named Geralt. When we first meet Velerad, the castellan of Wyzim, he is… playing with a heavy mace and in my headcanon—this isn't in the books—but in my headcanon, he also has his feet up on the table. And it's just, like, this very bold, non-verbal power move of just playing with this mace and talking to a stranger who just killed three to four people in his town.

CHRIS: That is a good point to bring up. Because even if there's lacking detail in the story, it does evoke in you an imagery of–of what's happening in the scene. I really like the visual—the visualization behind here. Especially for, like, noting for you, you kind of added visualization in your head, which I think is indicative of how well the story knows where to provide detail. For me, personally, I'm imagining, sort of, this big, burly guy who, like you said, either has his feet up on the table or on the chair.

ALYSSA: Yeah.

CHRIS: And just, kind of, like, looking offhandedly with the mace, just, kind of, like, twirling a little bit… what is it called… uh, like a little dreidel.

ALYSSA: [Laughs] I don’t know if you can—I don't know if physics supports the idea that you can twirl… a mace like a dreidel.

CHRIS: I think you could. Because, because the mace has points. So, it's also a very interesting thing to imagine as a–as a balancing act. Because those points are sharp. So if you can balance it well enough, you could, kind of, like, spin it with your hand, but also if you mess it up, it's going to land, like, on your crotch and then you just "maced" yourself.

ALYSSA: [Snorts] "Maced" as a verb, not for the spray, but rather for the very heavy… medieval… weapon. [Laughs]

CHRIS: Very heavy. Have you ever actually tried to lift one?

ALYSSA: I have not. But I can be damn sure that it doesn't twirl like a dreidel. [Laughs]

CHRIS: It is utterly, like, amazing, like, the type of weapons that exist. I'm imagining people holding them and wielding them, like, a mace—there are, like, smaller maces, but, like, the full-sized ones that were meant to, like, hit people. That was it. That's like something else.

ALYSSA: If there's anyone around that can fact check if you can spin a mace like a dreidel… let us know, write to us. But in my mind, he's, kind of, playing with it as you would a bat. So, he's got it in one hand and he's just, kind of, like, tapping it against his other, just… laying with his feet up on the table—almost like Gaston from Beauty and the Beast—and just, you know, whacking it around in a way that's, kind of, meant to make a presence for him.

ALYSSA: But anyway, now that we've spent so much time on… Velerad’s mace, we do learn a lot more about the witcher, Geralt of Rivia, and also the purpose for why he's here in Wyzim.

CHRIS: Yeah, and I think there's a lot of interesting points in terms of, like, emphasizing the kind of person that Geralt actually is. Uh, we still don't know a lot about him, but we're starting to slowly form ideas. We're already carrying this sort of pre-existing notion that he's a very violent, potentially violently tempered person based on the fight that happened before that escalated, but we also see him in this scenario where he's very calm, collected, and very patient. And it, kind of, evokes in you a sense that… is this person, some sort of professional? What is it exactly that he does? He's obviously well-trained in fighting so, it must be something in terms of some form of combat. So, in my mind at least, when I was reading this, the first thought that I was entertaining was, "He is here for some sort of adventure," and it kind of prepares you to be, like, "What exactly is this adventure?" And that's when we, sort of, find out more about the striga, which by the way, I really like as a word. Really rolls off the tongue nicely.

ALYSSA: Stri-ga.

CHRIS: It sounds very cool.

ALYSSA: It does. It does. And we learn a lot about what a striga is from Velerad's initial description in this part of the chapter.

CHRIS: I think it's interesting to, sort of, go into the overall description and detail that is provided by Velerad. It's just, it's amusing to imagine Geralt is there seriously trying to listen and get as much information as possible and Velerad is, kind of, just very dismissively being like, "Hey, you know, this is the situation, but [psh] good luck. It ain't–it ain't happening."

ALYSSA: So, for some more robust detail about what Velerad tells Geralt: Velerad gives Geralt the history that prompted this proclamation from King Foltest. King Foltest, in his youth, got his younger sister, Adda, pregnant and neither the baby nor Adda survived birth. Thus was born a striga. So, after the striga started terrorizing Wyzim, the town brought in a lot of sorcerers and mages and all sorts of people in order to figure out what to do about it. A lot of people offered ways to kill it, but there was one person who told Foltest that it would be possible to reverse a curse that had been placed on the striga in order to turn the striga back into his daughter. And this is, kind of, what prompts Foltest to continually send out this proclamation to find someone to reverse this curse. Velerad notes that Foltest will not allow the striga to be killed.

ALYSSA: So, at this point, Chris, what is your impression of the situation from Velerad's telling?

CHRIS: I'm thinking of it in the perspective of, like, as you–as a reader, what are you thinking about… of this character, Foltest? Because you–you discover and find out that he has an incestual relationship with his sister; he had a child with her. The child is… who knows what's going on there. The only person whose word-of-mouth you have right now is Velerad and the whole situation is–it just–it sounds messed up. That's–that would be my immediate impulse: is to think this Foltest character he's–he must be a messed up person. Because anything that has incestual connotations, and especially in light of, like, there's this striga character has been killing people for, what, over seven years?

ALYSSA: Yeah, seven years at this point.

CHRIS: Right. And it seems like people are, kind of, trying to do something, but at the same time, it's, like, it's been seven years. Are people actually trying to do something? It's sets a good framework of what the scene looks like and also provides a bit of pre-context on some characters that we haven't yet met.

ALYSSA: Absolutely. At this point, we really do only see Velerad's side of the story and we really don't have any other insight into any of the other players in Wyzim.

ALYSSA: Ultimately, Geralt asks Velerad, you know, "Have any other witchers been here?" Velerad says that for the most part, a lot of the witchers—when they heard the curse on the striga was to be reversed and that she wasn't to be killed—a lot of them just shrugged and left. Velerad here tells Geralt about a proposition that some noblemen in Wyzim offered that previous witcher. In the text, he says:

[Reading] “You see, Geralt, there are some wise men in Wyzim, in high positions, who’ve had enough of [the] whole affair. Rumor has it these men persuaded the witcher, in secret, not to fuss around with spells but to batter the striga to death and tell the king [that] spell had failed, that his dear daughter had been killed in self-defense—an accident at work. The king, of course, would be furious and refuse to pay an oren in reward. But that would be an end to it.”

ALYSSA: As it turns out, those men offered that witcher one thousand orens, which is the local currency in Wyzim and in Temeria. As Geralt, kind of, presses Velerad for more details, Velerad admits that witcher, kind of, ran off as soon as he saw the striga. Geralt then asks Velerad if those men still have that money pooled.

[Chuckles]

ALYSSA: I kind of love this move on Geralt's part, where it's just, like, this super Cash Money Power Move™ and he, kind of, just takes advantage of the fact that there's just a free market around "witchering"—

[Chris and Alyssa chuckle. Turning nouns into verbs is fun sport.]

ALYSSA: —in–in this area right now.

CHRIS: You–you really see his Harvard Business School education right now.

ALYSSA: [Laughs] Velerad offers Geralt 800 orens in order to do it, then a thousand. And Geralt, in this moment—I think this is so epic—he replies:

[Reading] “Just in case, the wise men should be thinking about how to save me from the king’s anger and get those fifteen hundred orens, of which rumor speaks, ready.”

ALYSSA: Velerad responds:

[Reading] “It was to be a thousand.”

ALYSSA: And Geralt says:

[Reading] “No, Lord Velerad. The witcher who was offered a thousand ran at the mere sight of the striga, without bargaining. So the risk is greater than a thousand. Whether it is greater than one and a half remains to be seen.”

[Mimics explosion]

ALYSSA: It's so good. And he just… I think it's a really good moment of deduction on Geralt's part.

CHRIS: No, it's like you said, it's an absolute power play.

ALYSSA: Yeah, well, he's refusing to be taken advantage of by Velerad in this moment.

CHRIS: I’m–I'm wondering if it's "being taken advantage of" or if it's just Geralt, kind of, coming in and being like, "Well, you know, I'm a professional. I know what I'm doing. You guys obviously don't."

ALYSSA: Right. And for these noblemen, it's… Geralt is definitely a pawn in their larger plan, which Velerad, kind of, hints at when he tells Geralt that there are people in Wyzim that have had enough and they just want the striga done Foltest be damned.

CHRIS: I think what's also interesting is, sort of, the transition of the relationship between Velerad and Geralt. So, in the beginning, Velerad is treating him with this, sort of, level of distrust, you know, using his mace, you know, spinning it around, trying to look… impressive. And then towards the end of this conversation, he's, like, having him [sit] next to him and offering him a beer.

ALYSSA: And that's definitely something that we see, you know, throughout the story. Despite our first impression of this character, Geralt, in the inn where he, kind of, you know, slaughtered half the patrons—

CHRIS: I was about to bring that up too.

ALYSSA: Yeah, we—

CHRIS: I was gonna ask. It's like–it's like very interesting how that kind of gets overlooked towards the end.

ALYSSA: Yeah.

CHRIS: What's interesting to–for me to think about that is… I wonder what's going on in Velerad's head, in thinking, "This guy wants to come take on this–this creature that we haven't been able to face for seven years. I just saw him, you know, just mercilessly execute, like, three, four guys." So, in his mind he's probably thinking, "Maybe this person has a chance." So, you kind of have this notion of that's why it's getting overlooked.

ALYSSA: I mean, I have a feeling it's so low-risk for Velerad at the same time. It's like—

CHRIS: It's also weird, ‘cause he just murdered a bunch of people. People are obviously going to be freaked out talking about it and he, Velerad, is just kind of like, "Don't do it again."

ALYSSA: Right. But you know, if he kills the striga, then great. If he doesn't, from Velerad's point of view, it's, kind of, no skin off his back. It's just another person who, kind of, bit the dust trying to get this job done and things will, kind of, continue in Wyzim as they have for the last seven years.

[Reading] In Part III, King Foltest and his group of advisors meet the witcher. Foltest questions Geralt about his experience as a witcher before leaving Geralt to be debriefed by Velerad, the castellan; Lord Ostrit, the magnate; and Lord Segelin. The king’s advisors give the witcher further details about the task and the striga.

ALYSSA: So, now that we've gotten, like, a general background on the history of Wyzim and the striga in it, we finally get to meet the infamous King Foltest. And—

CHRIS: All too pretty.

ALYSSA: [Laughs] He's so pretty! Um, Sapkowski—

CHRIS: I love that little subtle inclusion. "What a pretty man. A little too pretty…"

ALYSSA: [Laughing] No need to be jealous.

CHRIS: Touché.

ALYSSA: So now that we've heard this setup from Velerad about all of these players in Wyzim, what did you think now that you, kind of, get this first impression of Foltest?

CHRIS: So I think it's, like, really interesting to put, like, face to name—or whatever that phrasing is. I–I don't remember. Because you, kind of, go in knowing these things about Foltest and you, kind of, want to go in hating him, because the things that he did are, well, obviously, of incestual nature. You get to see him in his natural state, you get to, sort of, come in being, like, "Oh, this guy's going to be, you know, a jerk. He's gonna be mean—”

ALYSSA: Or just weird.

[Laughs]

CHRIS: Or just weird. You don't really know what to expect with him going in there. But you also kind of get the feeling that there might be something more going on behind the scenes, like, why is this whole situation of such great importance to him? Like, why doesn't he just go and kill the striga?

ALYSSA: Right, right. Yeah, you don't really get too much insight into Foltest's values yet. You just know that this is something that he demands: is that the curse on the striga be reversed and that she's not to be killed. That's, kind of, as much as he says or questions Geralt about before leaving himself. There's just something so silly. There's this one line that I just think is so odd. When Foltest is meeting Geralt for the first time, he asks:

[Reading] “What made your hair so gray? Magic? I can see that you are not old. That was a joke. Say nothing.”

[Chuckles]

ALYSSA: And I feel like it's one of those things that you totally expect someone who's medieval royalty to say.

CHRIS: I think he's just somebody who's, like, kind of, like, out of their mind in a way. It's very absurdist.

ALYSSA: Yeah.

CHRIS: I like it, because that's the way I talk.

[Alyssa laughs]

CHRIS: In case, you haven't, you know, picked [up] on that.

ALYSSA: "That was a joke. Say nothing." So iconic.

[Laughs]

CHRIS: It's–it's–yeah, this… it's great because it's, like, you can't say anything to it. But it also, kind of, is, like, who is this person?

ALYSSA: Exactly. So after Foltest leaves, all of his advisors… kind of, let down their guard a ton. And, you know, one climbs into his chair; they all, kind of, relax now that the king is gone. Geralt now has the time to learn a little bit more about the striga from this panel of advisors, which consists of Velerad, the castellan; Lord Ostrit, the magnate; and Lord Segelin. The theory that they present to him, which Geralt more or less confirms, is that it's possible to break the spell on Foltest's daughter, the striga, by catching her outside of her sarcophagus at the third crowing of the cock.

ALYSSA: We get a lot more detail about, you know, the physicalities of this striga from Velerad and Segelin specifically. Velerad, as we, kind of, got the feeling before, is so frustrated about this whole entire thing. He tells Geralt:

[Reading] “The princess looks like a striga! Like the most strigish striga I have heard of! Her Royal Highness, the cursed royal bastard, is four cubits high, shaped like a barrel of beer, has a maw which stretches from ear to ear and is full of dagger-like teeth, has red eyes and a red mop of hair! Her paws, with claws like a wild cat’s, hang down to the ground!”

ALYSSA: And he's just so frustrated with this, like, presentation and fanfare and falsehood of, like—or what he believes is a falsehood—of calling the Princess “a princess” because he just believes it's absolutely ridiculous to say that it's anything other than the striga that it is.

CHRIS: It just, kind of, a fair assessment though because, you know, it's been [chuckles] seven years. I feel like I say this a lot, but if I was a peasant living in this kingdom, I'd be like, "Geez, seven years. Couldn’t get anything done." Well, I don't know. We live in New York and the subways haven't been fixed. [Alyssa laughs] So, really, I guess it's normal.

ALYSSA: Right.

CHRIS: Are the subways our striga? I just thought about that.

ALYSSA: I think the Hudson River tubes are probably our striga—

[Chris lets out a rare, punctuating laugh.]

ALYSSA: —considering that they were destroyed during Sandy in 2012. That was seven years ago.

CHRIS: Subways are our striga.

[Alyssa laughs]

CHRIS: You can see the metaphor in the story, which is why I like it.

ALYSSA: We get a lot more detail from Segelin, who does seem to be the most level-headed of the group. And he tells Geralt:

[Reading] “…the princess moves with incredible speed and is far stronger for her height [and build] than one would expect.” He also tells Geralt, “Within the palace walls people always die, irrespective of the moon’s phase. But she only ventures out during the full moon, and not always then.”

ALYSSA: So we learn that the striga here doesn't do any daytime attacks, and that most if not all of her attacks are really centered around the old palace which Foltest had abandoned once the striga became active.

CHRIS: So, I actually had a question about this part because I was–I was interested to know. It's interesting to me–to me that they have so much detail about this character, but nobody's really survived an encounter with it. Especially, I highly doubt Segelin or Velerad or Ostrit have actually seen it firsthand. So, it was interesting where this information is coming from.

ALYSSA: That is a perfect segue. So we do actually—

CHRIS: I come with a plan.

ALYSSA: We do at the end of Part III learn that two people have survived attacks by the striga in the past, a miller as well as a soldier.

[Reading] In Part IV, we're brought to Geralt's private chamber where a hooded soldier brings one of the survivors of a striga attack, a miller, to Geralt and the witcher inspects his scars to learn more about the striga and its capabilities. When miller leaves, the hooded soldier is revealed to be King Foltest himself, who talks to Geralt one-on-one to understand the theories about his daughter. Geralt tells the king the spell might be reversed by spending a night at the palace and believes the third crowing of the cock, as long as it catches the striga outside of her sarcophagus, will end the spell. The witcher acknowledges that he can’t guarantee the princess’ normalcy if the spell is reversed, but commits to Foltest that he will try.

CHRIS: Foltest comes off as such an interesting character. Everybody's going to have preconceptions of him, but we see him here coming in as, sort of, this, you know, inconspicuous hooded soldier obviously wanting to get information.

ALYSSA: Yeah.

CHRIS: You know, contrasting with his previous attitude where he was kind of, like, "You guys deal with it. Tell him every–all the information, all the details, I'm going to be, you know, doing something else. I don't know, finding another sister or whatever." [Alyssa chuckles v. awkwardly.] That a bad–that was inappropriate joke. I apologize.

ALYSSA: You know Foltest, kind of, takes things into his own hands. As a king, he comes off as surprisingly self-aware in this moment and not only self-aware, but also vulnerable, seemingly despite everything that we've learned about him from his advisors up until this point.

CHRIS: I can't help but imag–like, you know how you, like, went ahead and visualized that Velerad just putting his feet up with the mace, just twirling it?

ALYSSA: Yeah?

[Laughs]

CHRIS: I can't help but, like, visualize Foltest as, like, this weird, like, I'm like, "SoCal" guy who's, like, comes in and you just see, like, with the witcher, like, sitting talking to the miller and then the miller leaves and then the hooded soldier, you know, lets him out, turns around, puts his hood down and is like, "'Sup, son!"

ALYSSA: [Laughs] Just completely "Punk'd."

CHRIS: [Laughs] There's cameras everywhere with—

ALYSSA: [Laughs] Oh my god. It's like that—what is that show that's, um… Undercover Boss!

CHRIS: Oh.

ALYSSA: Undercover Boss.

CHRIS: So you—

[laughs]

CHRIS: —you think Foltest, like, turns around with a fake mustache, pulls it off, like, "I heard you complaining about paternity leave."

ALYSSA: [Laughs] I think I almost imagined—like, now that we're here. In this conversation. I'm, kind of, wondering what had to happen before Foltest got into that room.

CHRIS: You mean, how did he get set up to escort the miller?

ALYSSA: Like, he just, like, got dressed in a soldier's uniform. [Chris lets out a “ha!”] I wonder if he stole it. And he had to go meet this miller who, I guess, didn't know what Foltest looked like, I'd imagine that you don't always see your kings and queens or your royalty as a peasant. It would be very rare.

CHRIS: Which, actually, I mean–I mean, that would work in his favor, because he would just tell you know, all the guards. He'd be like, "Back off, I got this."

ALYSSA: Right.

CHRIS: "You. Give me your uniform. Take it off right now, because I need it." [Alyssa laughs] He definitely seems like the kind of character who would just walk up to a soldier and be like, "What size are you?"

ALYSSA: Ooh, that's a personal question. [Laughs]

CHRIS: …way to take it to another level.

ALYSSA: As I do.

ALYSSA: As I said earlier, like, in this moment, you kind of see how self-aware Foltest seems to be. You know, contrary to what we've assumed up until this point, he seems very aware that there are noblemen who have some sort of plot against him. And he kind of bares himself in a moment of vulnerability to Geralt. Where, turns out he does have insecurities about this whole situation. Like, "Is this whole thing my fault, because Adda was my sister?" You know, despite almost the protective layer of royalty that he has, his conversation with Geralt really brings about his humanity and I think it's so funny that you have a character like Geralt. We see very different sides of him depending on who he's with, but he always brings about, kind of, this truth to the characters that he's speaking to and Foltest acknowledges this, actually. He tells Geralt that there's, you know, something about him that inspires trust.

CHRIS: Foltest shows up with his performance of, like, you know, "punking" Geralt and being like, "Yo, I'm your boss undercover. Haha." [Alyssa laughs] And, like, there's so much character development that goes on behind Foltest. One, you have all these preconceptions, obviously. I'm going to say that at least six more times in this podcast, by the way.

ALYSSA: [Laughs] We love the word "preconceptions."

CHRIS: Yeah, I do too. Anyways, you go in with these preconceptions and you see Foltest somewhat behaving, like, similar–like, when you first see him, you're like, "Oh, he's kind of, like, a childish character. You know, obviously, probably, out of his mind in some way." And then you see him with this, sort of, clever, cunning strategy of coming in to talk to the witcher himself. He wants to find out more details; he wants to find out more information. What he says to Geralt is very enlightening, because one, he's threatening Geralt. Telling him, you know, I know about the whole plot of councilmen and the wealthy individuals who want to just see the striga dead so they'll pay whoever's on the side. But he's, like, "I obviously already, eh, found out about that, because I am the Undercover Boss and I've been watching everybody!" So he's, you know, he tells Geralt it would be a foolish endeavor for anybody to come in with that attitude because I will just kill them.

CHRIS: My favorite section was when Foltest's attitude, kind of, changes towards Geralt. So when Geralt essentially tells him, "In the case that your daughter comes back, here's what you must do." You can see Foltest's attitude immediately shift toward Geralt. And I think–and additionally, like, the detail that comes in with this section it–it allows you to visualize. There's a lot of depth to this character because the way that it's described is:

[Reading] Foltest grew pensive. “I thank you for your advice, witcher. I will pay heed if—And now listen to me carefully. If you find the case is hopeless, kill her. […] Do not worry, you have nothing to fear from me. I’ll shout at you in front of others, banish you […], nothing more.”

CHRIS: So, you see him with this level-headedness, this well-rounded individual who is capable of, like, intimidating you because he obviously gets Geralt… uh, I forget the exact description, but essentially Geralt gets, like, a little bit nervous when he tells him, like, "I'll just kill whoever kills her without trying."

ALYSSA: Right.

CHRIS: But he also displays this, sort of, understanding and just nature, which is, you know, if–if there's nothing that can be done, do what you must.

ALYSSA: Right. As a follow up to that excerpt that you read, Chris. Foltest tells Geralt about the subplot against him that it would be really convenient and cheap for those nobleman, because the king will order the witcher beheaded or hanged and the gold will remain in their pockets. He tells Geralt that:

[Reading] "I won't punish anyone who kills her in self defense, but I will not allow her to be killed without trying to save her."

ALYSSA: We learn a little bit more, I think, about what Foltest values in this situation.

CHRIS: He sounds like, uh, what would make a bad husband and a bad father, but what he displays here, is this, sort of, parental, caring attitude.

ALYSSA: There's an opportunity here to contrast, you know, what people believe are Foltest's incompetencies with what we, kind of, see Foltest himself doing. We hear about this in detail from his advisors, that there is kind of tension among the commonfolk when it comes to Foltest, because of how long the striga situation has been going on for.

CHRIS: Sorry, I just like to imagine that this episode of Undercover Boss has been going on for seven years.

ALYSSA: [Laughs and sighs] You know, maybe. Honestly. I wonder if he's, kind of, gotten us that—maybe that is how he's gotten all of his information about, like, the pending uprising that could happen. Oh, man. Do you think he wears a mustache and, like, fake eyebrows?

CHRIS: Yeah, we talked about this. He takes–he pulls off his fake eyebrows. He pulls off his fake mustache. Looks at Geralt and says, "Guess what?!"

ALYSSA: We don't get this description in this book. But in a different book, we learn that Foltest has a profile that's so perfect that it could be stamped on the side of a coin. I can imagine that someone who has that distinct of a profile would totally need, like, a fake nose if they were on Undercover Boss. You would absolutely need, like, a prosthetic face… to pull that off.

CHRIS: I want–I want to–I want to imagine that he gets one of those like Groucho Marx masks where it's, like, you know, the big glasses and, like, a big nose and, like, the little fake mustache? [Alyssa laughs] But, like, it's not like everyone knows who it is. But in this world, like, he wears it on and Velerad is like, "Who are you? You're a different person. I don't know who you are."

ALYSSA: So, in the show notes, I think I'm going to put a link to SNL's parody of Undercover Boss with Kylo Ren from Star Wars, just so you can, kind of, get an idea of what I'm personally talking about if you're unfamiliar with the series.

CHRIS: And I'm going to post the one to the Key and Peele episode because that one, in my opinion, is better.

ALYSSA: …Okay, we're gonna include both links in the show notes. So check out breakfastinbeauclair.com, click the "Listen" button, find Episode 01: The Witcher.

CHRIS: And vote for mine.

ALYSSA: [Laughs] So before we move on, Chris, you did have one more thing to say about this part with Foltest?

CHRIS: Yeah, I think one of the interesting bits about this is–is it leaves you wondering how deep Foltest's character goes. With the descriptions, you can imagine him as a person, as a character. But at the same time, you, kind of, feel like you're not imagining the whole person you want to know more about him. And it sets you up real—as you brought up before—it sets you up really nicely to, sort of, want to read more and find out more about his character in, you know, later series.

ALYSSA: Right, right. Yeah, Sapkowski does a really nice job of providing depth and three-dimensional characters. The Witcher in general is this huge, huge, huge ensemble cast. The short story was, you know, meant to be a standalone and it's really incredible, you know, the amount of character development that Sapkowski packs into this one short story. And we learn a lot more about, like, these secondary characters in the next part, Part V.

[Reading] In Part V, Geralt, alone in the abandoned old palace, prepares for battle by taking vials of potions and readying his silver blade. He hears footsteps on the grounds and it’s Ostrit, the magnate, who offers the witcher a thousand orens to leave immediately. He wants everything to stay as it is so Foltest can be removed from the throne. Ostrit threatens Geralt and Geralt knocks him out.

CHRIS: Ostrit's such a… jerk.

ALYSSA: [Laughs] Tell me how you really feel, Chris.

[They laugh]

ALYSSA: So, at this point in the story, we are now finally seeing Geralt at work. He's done all his research about the job-at-hand and now we're seeing him, kind of, alone in his element preparing for the upcoming battle. He takes vials of potions, which he's pre-prepared. They heighten his senses, put him in a place physically and mentally where he's ready for this upcoming battle. He hears footsteps on the grounds and he notes that this can't be the striga and he, kind of, goes out to confront whoever this is. And turns out to be Ostrit who has shown up at the old palace in order to try to bribe the Witcher into just leaving outright. So, in this huge moment of exposition we learn from Ostrit that he loved Foltest's sister Adda. He admits that he's the only one who wants Foltest dead, which—Eugh! Aah!—this is kind of gross considering that he's in love with Foltest's sister who has been gone for fourteen years. He holds this grudge, wants Foltest offed. Off of the thrown. Off of… life. Eugh? And—

CHRIS: "Off of life." I like it.

ALYSSA: "Off of life!"

CHRIS: Yeah.

ALYSSA: To Geralt, Ostrit is relatively non-threatening, especially because Geralt's souped up on vials of potions. Ostrit threatens the witcher. He tells Geralt, like, "I have this talisman, which is meant to protect me," and Geralt—I think on the inside—just, like, laughs in his face, because he knows that this is dumb. He just smacks Ostrit with a gloved hand and just completely knocks him out.

CHRIS: What it sounds like to me is, like, when you're super drunk to the point where you're just, like, your eyes are closed. You can't open it. [Alyssa laughs, but she’s been sober for three and a half years and cannot relate] And you're just standing there and someone's trying to, like, hassle you and be like, "Yo, let's go. Let's go. Let's go." And you're trying to, like, stand there and just be, like, bigger than them, trying to intimidate them, trying to like back off. But in actuality, you're, like, "Please don't touch me. Please don't do anything. I might projectile vomit on you [She laughs because she can relate to this] if you–if you come close." I think it's important to note, also, how, like, he's–he forces himself to speak very slowly because of his heightened senses.

ALYSSA: Geralt forces himself to speak very slowly, yeah.

CHRIS: Right. When he's talking to Ostrit.

ALYSSA: Yeah. I think it's also funny to note the amount of superstition that Ostrit displays here. That he has this talisman—

CHRIS: That doesn't do anything.

ALYSSA: And Geralt, again, like, in his head makes fun of it before knocking him out. I think it sets up a little bit more about the world as a whole and, like, the beliefs that people have, you know, whether they're peasants or whether they're, um, noblemen. You know, this is a world where magic exists. I think it's interesting to note that Ostrit has that belief.

CHRIS: Ostrit kind of comes off as the bad guy and Foltest comes off as, you know, the good guy who's, kind of, being victimized.

ALYSSA: At this point in the story, yeah.

CHRIS: It sounds like Ostrit is just as [lovestruck]—just wealthy individual, who was, I guess, in some ways, mistreated and wants to get justice for it, but the way it comes off as, is that he, kind of, is the bad guy in all of this. I don't remember how well the book detail goes into it, but, sort of, like, the way that Adda felt about Ostrit and Foltest.

ALYSSA: How Adda felt about Ostrit and Foltest?

CHRIS: Mmhm. Because was it just like a one-sided love? Was it, uh…

ALYSSA: I mean… [Chuckles, because consensual incest is the entire plot of this story and Chris has momentarily seemed to forget that.] Adda—

CHRIS: I–I know they had like a striga baby. But, you know.

ALYSSA: I mean, Adda clearly didn't have a child with Ostrit.

CHRIS: That's the thing is, like, was that purely circumstantial? Or was it–did she want that to happen? You know, it raises that question, like, what was–what was that? What did that relationship actually look like?

ALYSSA: Yeah, you know, throughout conversations with each of Foltest's advisors, we hear that, you know, Foltest and Adda had always spent a lot of time together. And their mother, the queen, had just, kind of, like, witnessed this relationship blossom. One of the advisors notes that, like, they were always together, but we didn't really expect this until all of a sudden Adda was pregnant. So, I would imagine that whatever incestual relationship that Foltest and Adda had, it was mutual and it was long enough and hidden that I don't think Ostrit would have been, you know, on her radar. Obviously, because Adda's dead, we don't really hear anything about her side of the story and it doesn't seem that Foltest knows about Ostrit's feelings toward Adda.

CHRIS: Right. So that's what's curious, I think, through the section for me at least.

ALYSSA: So, at this point, Geralt has prepared himself for battle. He has knocked out Lord Ostrit in the old palace. And before we get to the battle, we're going to take a break and when we come back, Chris and I will continue our discussion of "The Witcher."

“Tidings from Toussaint”

[“Tidings from Toussaint” theme music by Bettina Campomanes]

LARS FROM WITCHERFLIX: Hey, it's Lars from WitcherFlix, and this is "Tidings from Toussaint." Every episode I'll give a nice, little update about what is new for the Witcher show on Netflix.

Since that crazy day when there was the Witcher panel on San Diego Comic Con and the first Witcher trailer was released on June 19th, a lot of interesting things have happened. I hope as much of you as possible have watched the trailer yet, if not, just do it. It's a really great way to raise the hype level even higher.

Anyway, there was a lot of speculation about a very important character that was missing in the trailer, our beloved bard and Geralt's trusted friend, Dandelion, who will almost definitely be called Jaskier in the show, which is his original Polish name. But, we don't need to worry. Showrunner Lauren Hissrich confirmed that Jaskier, who will be played by Joey Batey, will have an important role on the show. He was only missing in the trailer, because his lighter presence harmed the dark and sinister feeling of the trailer, but we will definitely meet him later—and the best thing is we will hear his beautiful, angelic voice.

At the moment, the post-production team is hard at work. Actors like Adam Levy, who will be the druid, Mousesack, are doing ADR sessions, which means he is rerecording his dialogue to improve audio quality. Lauren Hissrich mentioned on Twitter that other departments are working like busy, little bees at the moment. Editors, VFX teams, music composers, sound editing teams, and colorists. So, work is going well at the moment according to the showrunner.

In the course of the last week, various new actors and roles have been confirmed for the show. Actress Trokán Nóra will play a dryad warrior. It's the one we have already seen in the trailer standing next to Ciri. Packy Lee, who is famous for his role on Peaky Blinders was cast as Nohorn, a member of Renfri's gang from the short story of "The Lesser Evil." This role was previously played by Shane Attwooll, but had to be recast because of reshoots that were necessary for reasons we still need to learn. Moreover, Anna-Louise Plowman, famous for her work on Black Sails and Stargate SG-1, will be an unknown character named Zola. Isobel Laidler will play a character that doesn't appear in the books either named Queen Kalis of Lyria, who appeared alongside Anya Chalotra's Yennefer in the trailer already.

But, arguably, the most interesting character to be cast will be played by child actor Tristan Ruggeri. He will play a young Geralt of Rivia. Lauren Hissrich already mentioned several times that there will be plenty of flashback scenes in season one of the show and we will be kind of surprised about the timeline and how everything will fit into place. But, to see a young Geralt of Rivia before he became a witcher is definitely something that makes hearts of Witcher fans beat faster. But, what exactly will we see? Young Geralt could appear in one of old Geralt's fever dreams during the short story, “Something More.” But, what will little Geralt do? Will we see the Trial of the Grasses and how he was turned into a witcher? Will the witchers take him to Kaer Morhen? Will we even meet Geralt's mother, Visenna? One thing is for sure, this is gonna be very interesting.

Alright, guys, that's it for me for today. We'll talk again in the next episode of Breakfast in Beauclair. Until then, thanks for listening and good luck on the path.

[“Tidings from Toussaint” theme music by Bettina Campomanes]

Discussion

ALYSSA: Thanks for the update, Lars! Welcome back from the break. I'm here with Chris discussing the first short story from The Last Wish, "The Witcher." When we left off Geralt of Rivia, a witcher, had followed a royal proclamation to the town of Wyzim, where he was asked by the king to reverse the curse on a striga terrorizing the town.

[Reading] In Part VI, Ostrit awakens tied up. Geralt intends to use him as bait for the striga. As he hears the striga awaken, Geralt lets Ostrit go and the striga catches up to the magnate and kills him much sooner than Geralt had been expecting. Geralt battles a tough fight against the striga using his silver weapons and armor. Eventually, he scares her off and, in her absence, locks himself inside her sarcophagus so she can't return before morning.

CHRIS: Okay, so I just need to cut in and say that this entire section has one of my favorite lines.

ALYSSA: Okay.

[Laughs]

ALYSSA: Let's hear it.

CHRIS: [Reading] The striga stood motionless, her gaze fixed on Geralt. Suddenly, she opened her jaws—as if proud of her rows of pointed white teeth—then snapped them shut with a crack like a chest being closed. And leapt, slashing at the witcher with her bloodied claws. Geralt jumped to the side, spun a swift pirouette.

ALYSSA: Can I share my favorite line?

[Laughs]

CHRIS: No, because we need to talk about mine first, because I freaking love when people include ballet terms in fight scenes.

ALYSSA: [Laughs] Well, I love this out-of-context line, which I have in my notes with zero context. It's just:

[Reading, again, oddly cheery as if producing content for Mr. Rogers and children’s programming] Besides, there were probably no cocks in the neighborhood.

ALYSSA: …So, what about your ballet terms and fighting?

[Laughs]

CHRIS: I don't know how to continue after your cocks comment, but okay. Thanks for–thanks for sidestepping mine for that. Anyways, ballet terms, overall in fight scenes, are just the most well-placed... terms.

[Alyssa chuckles]

CHRIS: The visualization that it gives you, I like imagining and visualizing that throughout this fight scene, you see this striga, this giant, domineering, scary creature—very fast, taller than–than you would expect—coming out and lunging at Geralt. Just imagine, sort of, like, a Matrix-like scene where it's, like, slow motion. You see the striga, kind of, lunging, and then off to the side, you just see, sort of, the camera zoom out. Geralt just with one leg up on his knee, with his hands in the air, his eyes closed, with a little tutu on, [Alyssa laughs] doing a pirouette, spinning, thinking to himself, "This is what you've trained for, Geralt. This is what life's all about." And then he finishes with an arabesque.

ALYSSA: Honestly, you're probably not wrong.

CHRIS: Shout out to those who know what that means.

ALYSSA: …Did you take dance classes?

CHRIS: …Maybe.

ALYSSA: [Laughs] How many years?

CHRIS: I said maybe. I didn't say yes.

ALYSSA: So, we're going to assume that it's at least ten.

CHRIS: Which is the score that Geralt gets for landing that arabesque by the way.

ALYSSA: Perfect score from Chris.

[Chris has wandered away from the mic and is now attempting pirouettes in the small office of our co-working space at 10PM on a Tuesday.]

ALYSSA: …There's still pirouettes going on in the office.

CHRIS: These shoes are not made for pirouettes. That's another thing. Geralt's shoes, what must they be like to allow him to do a pirouette? Think about that.

ALYSSA: They must be flat-soled then. As a witcher, would you want—

CHRIS: Yeah, so then, there's probably no traction on the ground in a sarcophagus. So there's probably a lot of dust.

ALYSSA: No, I'd imagine it'd be, like, either cobblestoned or marble or something.

CHRIS: Cobblestone, really? I was imagining—well, that's interesting, because I was imagining a smooth, marbled, or smooth granite..

ALYSSA: Or dirt. Or, yeah, or some sort of like compressed dirt or—

CHRIS: Something. Yeah, I feel like Foltest is the kind of person who would probably spend extravagantly on the tomb of his… sister-wife.

ALYSSA: [Laughs] Oh, man, there's so many TV shows about that concept. So, what we've learned today is that Foltest is beautiful reality television fodder for multiple TV shows and outlets.

CHRIS: ABC, contact him.

ALYSSA: [Laughs] Holler at your boy.

CHRIS: He is pretty, don't forget about that.

ALYSSA: Oh, yeah! Yeah, that is true.

CHRIS: So he's already camera-made. You don't have to hire a makeup team or anything. He's–he's ready to go.

ALYSSA: Oh, damn.

CHRIS: Just get a–get a camera crew.

ALYSSA: Oh no, Foltest would be perfect for reality TV. Eugh!

CHRIS: You think he'd be good on "Love Island?"

ALYSSA: That's a good question.

CHRIS: Yeah, think about that.

[Alyssa chuckles]

ALYSSA: Geralt has, kind of, decked himself out in a lot of silver. Reason being is that silver hurts or is lethal for monsters. Because his goal is still to reverse the curse rather than kill her outright, he does try to knock her around without using lethal force.

CHRIS: …And then he does a swift pirouette.

[Alyssa laughs]

CHRIS: I think the whole detail that goes into this fight scene was also just incredibly impressive, because it is a quick fight scene. But it provides you with so much visualization and detail that you feel like you are, kind of, like, a witness. Maybe–maybe you are the cock that is supposed to be there, [Alyssa laughs] you know, standing at the walls being like, "Woah, this is badass."

ALYSSA: This is a very strong visualization right now.

[Laughs]

CHRIS: …In more ways than one.

[Alyssa laughs]

CHRIS: But I do seriously think that this fight scene was extremely impressive.

ALYSSA: Yeah.

CHRIS: One, it gets bonus points for, you know, obvious reasons: dance moves. Secondly, I think the whole–it really demonstrates very well the professionalism that Geralt exhibits. He obviously knows what he's doing, he comes prepared, even with this sort of… Ostrit, kind of, throwing a slight wrench in his plans, he still makes do with that whole situation.

ALYSSA: Yeah.

CHRIS: Also cold-blooded, the way that he lets Ostrit die.

ALYSSA: Yeah, not great. I mean, you're right, like Ostrit is, kind of, this, um, difficulty in the plan. Geralt takes an opportunistic approach to Ostrit being there and uses Ostrit as a means of witnessing what this striga is capable of.

CHRIS: I look forward to the end of this episode of Undercover Boss.

[Alyssa laughs]

CHRIS: When Foltest is like, "So… about Ostrit.”

ALYSSA: Eugh! Rough.

CHRIS: ”I saw what you did there. I got cameras everywhere. We saw it all. There was a camera in the cock!—

[Alyssa laughs]

CHRIS: “—The cock was watching!"

ALYSSA: Oh no, we will not be able to escape this anymore.

CHRIS: Which is funny, because there actually was not even a cock there.

ALYSSA: No, there was. I feel like there was.

CHRIS: Can we just call it a rooster, to be honest? I feel–I feel very inappropriate calling it a cock. It was no–there was no rooster there. That was the whole thing he said–he thinks to himself that—

ALYSSA: He thinks to himself that there's probably not, but it is at the end of this part or the next part that I believe that they hear it.

CHRIS: Are you sure?

ALYSSA: I'm pretty–I'm fairly certain.

CHRIS: We come prepared.

ALYSSA: There's a thing about, like, the cock crowing for the third time.

CHRIS: For the next, uh, five minutes, you're going to hear pure silence as I read to figure out if Alyssa is correct or not.

[Breakfast in Beauclair stinger by MojoFilter Media]

ALYSSA: So now that we're back from our minor break, [both laugh] we did find out that there is a rooster in Wyzim.

CHRIS: I apologize for alienating the hardcore fans out there that were definitely screaming into their headphones, "There is a cock! There is a cock!"

ALYSSA: Please don't blast me on Twitter over this.

CHRIS: Why would they blast you? You got it right.

ALYSSA: This is true.

CHRIS: Yeah. They should be… heralding you on Twitter.

ALYSSA: [Snort-laughs] I wonder the last time that anyone in the world—

CHRIS: Heralded you?

ALYSSA: —used "herald" as a verb.

CHRIS: Right? I feel like "herald" is a very useful word. I feel like "herald" would be a great word in–in this series.

ALYSSA: Yes. It's also a period piece. It's also a medieval period piece. So, it's not out of place.

CHRIS: Exactly.

ALYSSA: Speaking about how illustrative this scene is, the Netflix trailer just dropped recently. We do get minor teasers of something that does look like this battle with the striga, which is really exciting because it's something that we're gonna be able to see on screen. We do know that Foltest has been cast. So, this is probably something that we are going to see in the Netflix series.

CHRIS: I'm gonna be so excited if he does a pirouette on Netflix. [Alyssa laughs] You have no idea. I'm actually very intrigued to see what the–what the fight scene is going to look like. Choreography is one of those, I think, underrated talents.

ALYSSA: …I'm afraid for your reaction to this.

[Laughs]

ALYSSA: On YouTube, there is a trailer for a stage production of The Witcher.

CHRIS: Yeah.

ALYSSA: I'll also put a link to this in the show notes if I can find it again. But I have seen… hints and glimpses of a stage production of The Witcher. And I don't remember if it was a play or a musical off the top of my head, but if it was a musical, I'd imagine that there would be some pirouettes here and there.

CHRIS: There's gonna be a lot of pirouettes, for sure. [Alyssa laughs] I feel like–but there was also a–a TV show in Poland in the 90s. Because I had a friend telling me that–that if I go into it without high expectations, it's not terrible.

ALYSSA: Yeah. So in 2001, there was a movie, which was then followed by a TV series in 2002.

CHRIS: Right.

ALYSSA: So that exists and it is one of the adaptations that has been created over the years, along with CD Projekt Red's trilogy of video games, and the upcoming Netflix series.

[More pirouette power]

ALYSSA: If you can hear any noise in the background, Chris is now doing pirouettes around our office.

[Laughs]

CHRIS: Oh, you know what it is!

ALYSSA: Of course! I was in dance for fourteen years.

CHRIS: Oh shit.

[Alyssa laughs]

ALYSSA: So while Chris is preparing to audition for the American Ballet Theatre—

CHRIS: Not yet.

ALYSSA: A couple more weeks of training.

CHRIS: I just need to fight a couple more strigas and then I think I'll be good to go.

ALYSSA: [Laughs] Just get that pirouette practice in.

ALYSSA: There's a weird thing here in Geralt's last encounter with the striga where he finally scares her off and this isn't necessarily a concept that appears throughout the rest of the books. And I believe that the only place that it shows is here in this short story where Sapkowski goes into detail about… Geralt taking the hatred from the striga, or like, malice and energy from her, and redirecting it back toward her. And I haven't been able to figure out if this is something that's metaphorical or whether it's somehow literal in terms of, like, magic. But I find it really interesting and it's not a concept that appears in any of the later books.

CHRIS: I think it's a very intense scene, regardless if it's metaphorical or not. Like, the sheer thought of something entering your mind that is just utterly terrifying you and scaring you, especially if it's a creature such as a striga. Like, what would scare a striga? It's a very weird thing to think about. But also to think about it in the sense of, like, you as an individual. What if your greatest fears were just played on loop in your head and you couldn't stop it?

ALYSSA: Right. I wonder if it's also something that's almost animalistic on both of their parts. Where it's not even something that can be verbalized, per se. It's just this, kind of, fight or flight reaction that's entirely physical that causes her to retreat.

ALYSSA: After the striga retreats and Geralt scares her off. He—Eugh! Euck!—he opens the sarcophagus and just gets in beside Adda, beside Adda's… skeletal… dead corpse and just, kind of, takes a nap there. He uses magic to lock the sarcophagus closed. He sets up an hourglass so he knows how long is nap’s going to be, and he just tucks in.

CHRIS: Says ‘good night’ to Adda. Tucks her in.

ALYSSA: Yeah. Yeah.

CHRIS: I don't know why you were so grossed out about that. There's just some people who don't like to sleep alone.

ALYSSA: [Laughs] Yeah, that's a mood.

CHRIS: To each his own, you know. What–what? Is he going to sleep next to? The striga? The cock? The cock is busy. The cock has a job to do.

ALYSSA: I wonder if Geralt could have just locked the sarcophagus from the outside and then just wandered off for a couple hours.

CHRIS: I don't remember if we talked about it, but what were the–the specific rule–the rules where you have to sleep…?

ALYSSA: I think the rule was that someone had to stay in the palace and the striga had to be outside of her sarcophagus.

CHRIS: But I think it was all—no, I–I think you had to sleep next to it. That was the problem. Or, like, within the vicinity of it. So what is he going to do? I think the sarcophagus is his best bet, because it's huge—

ALYSSA: It’s protective.

CHRIS: Right. He just uses a little bit of magic and the striga can't get in.

ALYSSA: Yeah.

CHRIS: Striga's gonna be running around the castle freaking out.

ALYSSA: Right.

CHRIS: You know? Cock’s gonna be like sitting back with a beer being like, “LOL. This is ‘lawlage.’”

ALYSSA: [Laughs] So Geralt locks himself inside and settles in for a nap. Which takes us to Part VII:

[Reading] Geralt sleeps through dawn, he climbs out of the sarcophagus, and the princess is on the floor, transformed, naked and unconscious, but physically normal. She wakes and lashes out at him as if still a striga, cutting him across the neck with her hands and he bites her neck until they both faint.

CHRIS: The two things about that scene that stood out to me was, one, the detail that is provided about her after she's transformed back into a little girl where he just describes her as ugly.

ALYSSA: Aw, yeah.

CHRIS: Which was really unfortunate and sad. I don't–I'm not gonna go into the full… because, I actually do have the quote here, but I'm not gonna go into it.

ALYSSA: I mean, if you spend seven years… if you're suddenly, kind of, awakened as more or less a zombie after seven years and then you spend an additional seven years as a complete monster with no sense of self-care—

CHRIS: That–yeah.

ALYSSA: I'm, like, unsurprised that when she's transformed, ya girl’s still dirty.

[Laughs]

CHRIS: I–I just–I...

[Chuckles]

CHRIS: Geralt doesn't come off as a judgmental character. But I do enjoy the thought of, like, after all this having come down, him waking up being, like, “Is it–is it all over–over and then, like, walking over to her–in her and his first thought just being, like, “Ew.”

ALYSSA: [Laughs and sighs] We love it when male writers describe female characters. It's great. [Chuckles]

CHRIS: Especially in such great light.

ALYSSA: Or no light. We're currently in the old palace. Actually, he lights up a torch too—

CHRIS: No, it’s–it’s dawn. Yeah, he has a torch and I think it's dawn—

ALYSSA: But he's inside. Does it matter if it's dawn?

CHRIS: This is true. I forgot about that.

ALYSSA: Did they put a window on the crypt so people can see out and see in?

[Laughs]

CHRIS: I mean, dead people would need to know what time it is too…

ALYSSA: …I think time is a living person construct. I don't know if the dead have any concept of time.

CHRIS: We can have a full conversation about this, but, you know, there are eviden–there is evidence of time being able to be manipulated. So, think about that. Maybe the clock is a human construct, but you know what? That rooster needs a job [Alyssa chuckles] and that clock gives him a job. So don't you dare try to take that away from him… or her—

ALYSSA: I think internal body clock is probably different from the larger concept of time.

CHRIS: Yeah, we–we're getting dangerous into metaphysical conversation here.

[Alyssa laughs]

CHRIS: So, I think it might be useful—

ALYSSA: We're going to take this offline.

CHRIS: Yeah. We're gonna fight about this.

[Alyssa laughs]

ALYSSA: As you said, we do get a physical description of the princess now that she's been transformed and Geralt notes that she is more or less normal, if not… a little underwhelming on his part.

CHRIS: Geez. That's—

ALYSSA: [Awkwardly] I was–it was the best thing I could–it was the best way I could phrase it.

CHRIS: Well, also, additionally, I don't know if it's Ger–I don't think Geralt's the one thinking this. I think it's just that the author's description of this girl. I just enjoyed the thought of Geralt thinking the stuff; I don't think he did. I'm pretty sure he's like, "Is it over?"

ALYSSA: Yeah. Yeah.

CHRIS: And that's what is also additionally… that was the second part that I neglected to mention. How he lets himself, kind of, be caught off-guard.

ALYSSA: Right.

CHRIS: So, he is a professional without a doubt. But in this situation, like, this fourteen–he doesn't really take a precaution to check is this fourteen-year-old girl… is–is she harmless?

ALYSSA: Right. So presumably, after he slept a couple hours, the potions and everything that he took to prepare himself for the battle, has, in theory, worn off, I'd imagine. So a lot of Geralt's senses are now back to normal—or at least a witcher's "normal.” As he's examining her fingernails and her hands to see that they are in fact quite normal—

CHRIS: Yeah, yeah. Have to just to take a step back from a previous point I made. He does take precaution. I don't know. I mean, what could you do in that situation where you could be like… do you–do you, like, kick her? Or what do you do?

ALYSSA: Well, we learn that he bites her.

CHRIS: Well, he bites her after she wakes up and tries to kill him.

ALYSSA: The scene that Sapkowski describes is that Geralt, kind of, examining her to make sure that there are no remnants of her striga physicalities left. So, that her teeth are normal, her pupils look normal, her hands are normal. And you know, she wakes up—

CHRIS: And her eyes open up, yeah.

ALYSSA: —her eyes open. Which is [Eugh!] freaky. You know, she's still acts as if she's still a striga and she still has the capabilities that a striga would have. So she just cuts him across the neck using just her fingernails. Geralt pins her down using both of his hands and—

CHRIS: He's profusely bleeding.

ALYSSA: He's bleeding all over her. As, kind of, a last resort, because his hands are holding her down, he just chomps on her neck until she—as Sapkowski describes—breaks down. Not as a striga, but as a fourteen-year-old girl would and then they both just faint.

CHRIS: It's a weird–it's such–such a weird scene to visualize. One, because, like, how long are her nails to, like, cause that much damage? And two… I–I would assume that in that situation, you… most people would probably have done the same? But it's also such a strange thing to be, like, "Let me bite her on the neck to alleviate this situation right now."

ALYSSA: Two things here. Now that you brought that up, I actually wonder if when she's transformed back… you hear about those people who hold, like, record-breaking, like, nail lengths that just curl around themselves. Or when she was transformed back—

CHRIS: Are her nails normal?

ALYSSA: I mean, normal or just, like, really crunched down? As if she was rock climbing.

CHRIS: Like–like she–you know, like the striga has been going to manicures and pedis [Alyssa chuckles] in the meantime, making sure, being like—

ALYSSA: "I'm a princess goddamn it. I'm gonna look like one."

CHRIS: Yeah.

ALYSSA: Clearly they were sharp enough to injure Geralt and—

CHRIS: Severely.

ALYSSA: Severely!

CHRIS: That's the thing is, like, he passes out.

ALYSSA: Right. And we do learn in other chapters, specifically in the connecting story throughout The Last Wish, which is called "The Voice of Reason," how severe Geralt's injuries are after this battle.

CHRIS: Right.

ALYSSA: In regards to Geralt, actually, you know, biting her, I think that's all that he really could do at that moment.

CHRIS: He–I mean he says that. It's more just as interesting visualization.

ALYSSA: Right.

CHRIS: Like, imagine you are attacking someone. Like, imagine you are her and you're attacking somebody. And then you–and then this person just, like, grabs at your neck with their mouth.

ALYSSA: Right. Well, she could be lethal for him and she almost is. So—

CHRIS: Well, no, so, she definitely is.

ALYSSA: Yeah, it's definitely, like, a last—

CHRIS: But I think–I think the concern isn't that she's going to kill him. I think the concern is—and he's–he's rightly so—is that, you know, he'll pass out soon and then she will kill him.

ALYSSA: Yeah. I mean, so, he does what's necessary in that moment. But again, like, bearing in mind that in her current state, in her human form—

CHRIS: She's still very… that's–that's why it's interesting about the nails. Also, the fact that, like, a fourteen-year-old girl, who obviously is, more than likely, malnourished in some sense, has the strength and ability to lunge at this fully-armed, trained—

ALYSSA: I mean, well, she ate Ostrit a couple hours before. [Laughs]

CHRIS: That's also a very interesting point. I wonder what her stomach must look like.

ALYSSA: Eugh!

CHRIS: Think about that.

ALYSSA: Rough.

CHRIS: Yeah.

ALYSSA: Maybe she's like a snake where she's just super, super skinny and then just has a li'l pouch.

CHRIS: …Moving on.

[Alyssa laughs]

ALYSSA: I think the other thing to note here is that Geralt accomplished his task. This worked. He reversed the curse on this princess; it would be stupid for him to kill her now or to be killed by her now. He's still bearing in mind the fact that he still has a job to do even in this specific moment where it's, kind of, turning life or death for him after the curse has been reversed.

CHRIS: Yeah. It just further exemplifies his professionalism. He didn't really exhibit any intent—well, somewhat, but not a lot—exhibit the intention of just taking the short road and grabbing the little sum and just killing the striga really quickly.

ALYSSA: Right. Yeah. He definitely goes throughout this job with integrity and I think that's something that we learn about Geralt is… despite that first scene that we had in the inn, where he killed all these people, what we learn about him as a witcher, in his profession, is that he's doing this with integrity and I think that's really interesting about him as a character.

CHRIS: Yeah, shows a lot of character development, which is extremely important especially in a short story and very hard to accomplish. As a finishing note, it does a fantastic job because it does two things. One, it raises the question, obviously, of what happens when Geralt wakes up? And two, it raises a question of when he wakes up and Velerad asks him, "Why did you bite her on the neck?" Is there something more behind that?

ALYSSA: Yeah. I mean, despite Chris's hypothesis as to… the camera situation that is available in the old palace in Wyzim, um, no one else really knows what happened.

[Reading] In Part VIII, Geralt wakes two days after the battle. Velerad concedes to Geralt and expresses his disbelief that the curse had been reversed, but by this point Geralt has fallen asleep.

CHRIS: Which is another exemplification of his professionalism, because he asks, essentially, "Is the job done?" before he passes out again.

ALYSSA: Yeah, I mean, Velerad tells him one, as soon as dawn broke, everyone, kind of, ran to see what the outcome was. Presumably, they picked up Geralt and I wonder if they found Ostrit's remains and how that conversation went.

CHRIS: You can ask the rooster.

ALYSSA: Eugh! And then—

CHRIS: I want–I want the rooster to be a character in the story.

ALYSSA: [Laughs] We do get roosters and chickens in different episodes and different things.

CHRIS: Oh see? Even the rooster is, like, a foreshadowing of what's going to happen later on in the series.

ALYSSA: Not quite. But when we–if we were to talk—

CHRIS: Don't take this away from me now, Alyssa.

[Alyssa laughs]

CHRIS: You–you put in my mind that the rooster becomes a character.

ALYSSA: Chickens are very important part of Breakfast in Beauclair. We're not going to find out until the very last book Lady of the Lake.

CHRIS: So, stay tuned.

ALYSSA: Stay tuned for all of the episodes—literally all of the episodes—um, until we get to the last book and you'll find out why chickens are important to our podcast.

CHRIS: There's a scene with the rooster from this story—

[Alyssa chuckles]

CHRIS: —where people are like, "Isn't that Geralt? Of Rivia?" And the rooster's like, "Yeah. I seen that dude do some shit."

ALYSSA: Word on the block.

[Alyssa chuckles]

CHRIS: Word from the cock.

[Chris finger snaps at Alyssa like an idiot, which deserves her next line:]

ALYSSA: …in Chris's news segment.

CHRIS: Yes, called "A Word from the Cock."

[Alyssa laughs]

ALYSSA: So, this brings us to the end of the short story "The Witcher" and, Chris, what did you take away from the short story?

CHRIS: I, overall, greatly enjoyed it. I do think that this story was very well written and does a very good job bringing the reader in to want to know more about all the characters involved, uh, especially for a short story. It was a quick read obviously, but I thought the level of detail that went into it really put you in the mindset of all the characters, really wanted you to understand where the development was going, who they are as people, as–as individuals. Really did a good job detailing the scenes, putting you in each of the moments when Geralt is in the tavern getting into a fight, when he's standing high out of his mind and Ostrit is yelling at him about, you know, some dumb stuff he did. [Alyssa laughs] It does a fantastic job just keeping you perpetually in the loop making things go quick, but keeping you enticed and does a fantastic finishing job making you want to read more and continue on with the series to understand what exactly is going on? What is happening? What is this world? Who is Geralt? Do we like or do we hate Foltest? Why did Geralt let himself get bitten? Things, you know, of that nature. So—

ALYSSA: Yeah.

CHRIS: If a story does a good job leaving you with questions, making you want to find answers to those questions without, sort of, leaving you on, like, a very obnoxious cliffhanger, I think that's a fantastical talent and… full praise.

ALYSSA: Well, I'm really excited that you enjoyed your first dive into the Witcher and that you're really interested in learning more about the world and lore.

ALYSSA: So, that is it for our show today. Chris, thank you for joining us and thank you to our community for listening. Next episode, we're going to head down to North Carolina for a discussion with our friend, Charlotte, to cover the next story in The Last Wish, "A Grain of Truth," before diving behind-the-scenes of her lore-accurate perfumery, Vengerberg Glamarye.

ALYSSA: …That's a wrap!

[Celebratory high five. Alyssa laughs.]

Outro & Credits

[Breakfast in Beauclair theme music by MojoFilter Media]

ALYSSA: Thanks for joining us at the breakfast table! For show notes, transcripts of each episode, and a complete list of our social media platforms and listening services, head over to breakfastinbeauclair.com.

Breakfast in Beauclair is created by Alyssa from GoodMorhen. It’s hosted by Alyssa with “Tidings from Toussaint” News Segment by Lars from WitcherFlix. The show is edited by Alyssa with Audio Production by MojoFilter Media. Breakfast in Beauclair theme by MojoFilter Media and the “Tidings from Toussaint” theme by Bettina Campomanes.

Breakfast in Beauclair is produced by Alyssa in New York City.

Special thanks to Chris for joining us for this episode and our international hanza for their support.

 

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