Episode 2, Four Marks - Geralt

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Last episode, Geralt starts off knowing that making choices sucks and ends learning that it turns out life can screw you over for avoiding choices too. There is absolutely no escape.

Also he's now been tarred with the reputation of being a mad dog who went on a killing spree for no reason.

The interesting thing about that is there's actually no evidence that his worsened reputation has actually impacted his life negatively. When we meet him this episode, he's brooding in a tavern having evidently successfully exchanged legal tender for food and drink and being otherwise left alone (and he's in full armor without a cloak this time, so he's not even trying to hide that he's a witcher) which is a huge step up from the previous episode when he was refused even the answer of which direction to leave in.

And this isn't that strange if you think about it. It is entirely possible that raising the possibility the heavily armed monster killer might go berserk has actually reduced the amount of overt harassment he faces given, as I argued back in the first chapter, people's behavior toward witchers seemed to involve the idea they could act with relative impunity.

It's now that Jaskier enters the situation. This isn't Jaskier's chapter, though! We're only paying attention to what that means to Geralt right now.

Jaskier: "No one else hesitated to comment on the quality of my performance, except for you. Come on. You don't want to keep a man with bread in his pants waiting. You must have some review for me. Three words or less."
Geralt: "They don't exist."
Jaskier: "What don't exist?"
Geralt: "The creatures in your song."

Now, there are different, if similar, reasons to bring this up.

One is that it's just annoying when people are wrong, one is that Geralt would be embarrassed to be loudly wrong about monsters in front of a crowd and is assuming Jaskier cares, and a third is that, as a monster-hunter, being wrong about monsters can be deadly and his objection is practical. Which is motivating Geralt at the moment is a mystery, though future episodes will shed some light on the matter.

Jaskier responds by realizing Geralt is Geralt.

"White hair, big old loner, two very very scary-looking swords. I know who you are. You're the witcher, Geralt of Rivia."

Now, in the previous episode, Geralt introduced himself to Marilka and it's entirely possible Stregobor didn't even know his name, as he just calls Geralt "Witcher". Now, Marilka was a kid and Stregobor was a horrible person, so this can't be taken as proof about how well-known Geralt was, but it does seem likely Geralt's actual name is spread around a lot more. I think it's notable that Jaskier starts off with "white hair", the trait that's Geralt-specific rather than witcher-specific.

Geralt responds by fleeing the area.

It's hard to say if his motivation is primarily concern Jaskier's going to incite a riot by alerting everyone else to his presence or if it's primarily about escaping the conversation he's already in.

Someone on tumblr noted he drops a coin in the process, possibly for his drink but apparently for Jaskier as the man's holding it in the next scene. Again, his motives are unclear - he may have thought paying Jaskier would make him go away, he might have actually liked the performance, he might just believe in always giving money under the circumstances, he might have felt bad for Jaskier.

"A job I've got for ya. I beg you. A devil, he's been stealing all our grain. In advance, I'll pay you. A hundred ducat."

Since this happens only in response to Jaskier announcing to everyone that hey, hey everyone, hey it's the witcher :D we know that Geralt did successfully avoid the notice of a lot of the people in the tavern. However, the only thing that happens is the guy wants to hire him and some others gawk at a distance.

"Why wouldn't you travel by main roads?"Wo Geschichten leben. Entdecke jetzt