Geralt is That Guy

[cimorene]

There's a post on Tumblr talking about how since the other witchers in s2 are regular guys in that nobody else is a bodybuilder and nobody else is wearing custom magically elastic goth fighting leathers, the ONE in-verse plausible explanation for those things about Geralt disappears. His physique isn't the result of the Witcher magics that make him superhuman, so he must be doing bodysculpting (when?) or using magic cosmetically for it. His clothes aren't just Witcher standard, so he has to be putting effort into being this fucking Danaerys goth princess Fabio. Which, fine, and in fact GREAT, because that's HILARIOUS, and why not? I'm sure lots of goths (and let's be real, metalheads) who like masculinity and um, D&D? And Nightwish? - would present themselves in that way if they had the magic; I'm just surprised that it's paired up with Geralt given the other stuff about his character.

There's another whole rant about how much more sensible the costume philosophy/approach behind Merlin (and Legend of the Seeker for that matter) is compared to the Witcher, but for now let's just say that IF the rest of the show broadly speaking is a vaguely Merlin sort of reality, Geralt is plopped in the middle there like Legend of the Seeker going "What's up?" only nobody acknowledges anything, or perhaps notices anything. Like the one human in cast of muppets, only he's the one Magical Girl Goth Fantasy Pinup Beefcake in a sea of generic colorful pg-rated Renfaire.

By the way, Wax finished series 2 obviously, and from what I saw, there were a FEW things that were a lot better this series, but overall the costume design is still terrible for all the same reasons as before.

Comments

[princessofgeeks]

I love your posts on costumes; I always learn things. You see things that just go right over my head; whoosh.

[cimorene]

That's lovely to hear! You might like fandom journalist Gavia Baker-Whitelaw's new YouTube channels about costumes, Behind the Seams, or her writings on the topic (usually she writes for TheDaily Dot, but she sometimes publishes elsewhere).

Or some of Karolina Zebrowska's videos about historical dress and costumes. I haven't watched all of her videos, but I usually tend to agree with her about stuff and a lot of her costume rants were like exactly what I was thinking, but in more detail than I knew. Ex: Her Beauty through the Decades the Realistic Way and Everything Wrong with those 100 Years of Beauty/Fashion Videos responses to the 100 Years Of ___ trend videos, or 1920s Fashion Is Not What You Think It Is (which almost made me cry from agreeing so hard) & 1950s Fashion is Not What You Think it Is and Victorian Fashion is Not What You Think it Is, or Bridgerton Costumes are a Historical Mess, But They Kinda Work or especially Are the Witcher costumes any good?

[princessofgeeks]

These sound awesome; thank you so much!!!

[brownbetty]

Geralt like, learned the secret of spandex from an elf, and uh. Sews all his own clothes. With spandex.

No wait, it's a curse! A spandex curse! He was cursed with "may all your pants ride up in the crotch!" and this is the result.

[cimorene]

A curse could explain why they got a lot tighter this season, but why did he simultaneously go from brown to black? Is he in mourning? Is it part of the curse?

[brownbetty]

He tried to circumvent the curse with new anti-curse pants, but the curse worsened as a result

[cimorene]

Then Yennefer refused to remove the curse for him and told him she would advise not replacing them again because she couldn't vouch for what would happen.

[stranger]

I would like to see the rant about Merlin's costume philosophy! It was so... tv ... even though the drama and slash vibes more or less drowned out everything else.

[cimorene]

Oh, it's nothing really special, because Merlin deliberately didn't go too close to historical dress. It was like modern clothes modified to suggest historical more than the other way around? Like the way Disney designed princess dresses, that level of historicity. And it did a great job of resonating thematically with the show because the show had that level of historicity, too: it was window dressing, a story about modern people in a playful "fairytale medieval au". And Legend of the Seeker is even further from reality than that... I'd say it's got a sort of comic book feel, a bit like Xena?

In a lot of individual garments, or moments, pieces of costuming from The Witcher will resemble these costumes, but never consistently. Because Merlin had a unified philosophy and approach, and the Witcher doesn't. Sometimes the Witcher comes much closer to a recognizable historical period than that... but unfortunately, it does that in many different, incopatible historical periods, associated with many different places, and often in the same outfit, or worse, two different outfits that are supposed to be coexisting in the same place.

[stranger]

That's pretty much what I think about Merlin, but I don't have enough background to pin down specifics, and anyway, you're completely right about the ahistoricity of the show overall -- which is a fair approach for source material that covers about ten irregular centuries and a lot of fantasy/myth anyway. We don't think the French romances were accurate about Roman Britain, do we? Nooo, they were telling stories *they* liked.

You make Witcher costumes sound a lot like historical-romance covers. Fantasy spandex is definitely the explanation.