Jaskier’s new romance shouldn’t come as a surprise.
The Witcher season three part one spoilers follow.
Is The Witcher gay? As much as we would love to be talking about Geralt specifically here, we are of course referring to the show as a whole.
It’s a question we’ve wrestled with ever since Jaskier first described Geralt’s bottom as “lovely” all the way back in season one. At the time, showrunner Lauren S Hissrich denied any homoerotic undertones, explaining that this was “just an example of male friendship”.
To be fair, if any bottom was going to receive compliments from straight men, it would be the extremely pert and indeed lovely one that belongs to Henry Cavill. (We should know. We interviewed him).
Netflix
In the years that passed between seasons one and two, Jaskier’s longing for the Witcher began to eclipse even our own longing for more bathtub scenes. His signature song became one of heartbreak and a “burning love” directed at Geralt specifically.
And when they were finally reunited after an extended absence, Jaskier got his kit off the first chance he could get, showing off his newly-sculpted abs in a bid to impress Geralt and remind him of what he’d been missing out on.
Yet again, The Witcher team denied any homoerotic undertones between the pair.
At that point, the only thing we had left to hold onto was a promise from Hissrich that queer themes would be “coming down the horizon.”
Now fast forward four years, and suddenly, The Continent is a much more fabulous place.
After Nightmare of the Wolf tossed in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it gay character called Luka, the Blood Origin prequel wove in multiple queer storylines around Meldof’s lost love, Gwen, and Nathaniel Curtis’ “Fancy Gay Jesus” (as the cast liked to call him).
And now, season three of The Witcher itself has finally confirmed what we’ve always known; that Jaskier is indeed queer.
It starts with Prince Radovid fangirling over Jaskier’s music and shaking his hand for an awkwardly long time. Hey, we get it. Who wouldn’t want to bang the man behind bangers like ‘Toss A Coin To Your Witcher’?
Netflix
Honestly, it’s giving ‘Padam’, and we’re not the only ones picking up on those gay vibes by then either.
In episode three, Jaskier’s female lover points out that he’s obviously crushing hard on the Prince:
“I’ve cursed you for chasing tail of every kind. Women, men, dwarves, elves polymorphous…” – “That was one time and I regret nothing,” interjects Jaskier – “But never ever have I seen you have a crush.”
“Crushes are for children,” claims the bard in response, but he knows, and she knows, and we know, and hell, the whole damn Continent knows that Jaskier’s into Prince “Randy” Radovid (as we shall refer to him from henceforth).
It’s not until episode four that the pair finally kiss, though. “I can’t take you inside, sorry,” Jaskier says referring to the cabin in which he is guarding Ciri. “Then take me here,” replies Radovid in the horniest moment this show has seen since Yennefer first turned those bath taps on.
Jaskier was right though. This isn’t just a meaningless “crush.” And how do we know that? The answer’s right there in the lyrics of Jaskier’s new song, ‘Extraordinary Things’, which he sings at the tail end of this episode:
“The greatest songs are made up of unspoken words of love. Of them, I’ve had enough. With you, I have enough. With you, I am enough. I am enough.”
The Witcher invests a great deal of time into this new romance between Jaskier and Radovid. It’s not just one throwaway line followed by a disagreeable death. And crucially, this isn’t a sudden, abrupt change out of character either. This is a ship fans can actually get behind, one that develops Jaskier’s character further without eradicating anything that precedes it.
It’s not like anyone can deny Jaskier’s queerness at this point, no matter how much they might want to. And thankfully, the show doesn’t try and deny the character’s bisexuality (or pansexuality) either.
Susie Allnutt
This season, we’re introduced to Jaskier in the middle of a tiff with a woman he’s been having sex with. Bisexual and pansexual people don’t have to regularly sleep with different genders to establish or confirm their own sexual identity, but it’s heartening to see The Witcher readily embrace Jaskier’s fluidity so directly after years of denying that such a thing could even exist.
In a recent interview with Digital Spy, Joey Batey explained how great care was taken to avoid “all kinds of stereotyping” with this development, which led to “an awful lot of script rewrites”. That shines through in how organically the story leads up to this point in the first half of season three. And now it also lends more credence to earlier queer readings of Jaskier’s love for Geralt, too.
Still, that hasn’t stopped online detractors from whining that Jaskier shouldn’t be “gay” at all. We won’t link to these posts here as they’re easy enough to find on social media if you feel the need to look. But the crux of it all is that homophobes can no longer deny Jaskier’s queerness, so instead, they argue it’s wrong because it’s not faithful to the source material.
Sure, Jaskier isn’t queer in the books, that’s true, but where’s the outrage for the many other changes that Netflix has made to The Witcher then? Ciri is actually queer in the source material, yet these same detractors are pretty silent on the show’s failure to portray that so far. Andrzej Sapkowski’s text is only sacred when it concerns changes they don’t personally like then, it seems…
Speaking just recently to Gay Times, Batey commented on this “very vocal negative space within the fandom,” pointing out that it’s “actually the minority,” not the majority, who feel this way. We hope he’s right because it does seem absurd to object against a queer-coded character being revealed as queer in a world where basilisks and chernobogs are readily accepted as the norm.
As Jaskier sings in his new gay banger, their love is “not a want, it’s a need”. It’s about time that The Witcher finally recognised queerness as something integral and necessary in the same way that racial diversity has commendably been since day one.
Unfortunately, we’re not yet privy to how Jaskier’s new love story will play out. There are still three episodes left in season three, which is more than enough time to undo the great story work that’s been established here thus far.
Batey recently teased to Digital Spy that the next part is “quite brave in terms of its narrative beats,” so that gives us hope for something less cliched when it comes to Jaskier’s future.
But you know what would be really brave? If they made Geralt a bit gay too. We don’t mind if he ends up being a lovely bottom or a lovely top. Either way, it’s the least we deserve with all this uncertainty that now lies ahead…
The Witcher seasons 1-3 are now streaming on Netflix. Season 3 part 2 will be released on July 27, 2023. Spin-off The Witcher: Blood Origin is also streaming on Netflix.
