geralt making a choice, beyond let these dudes kill me or kill them, so it
was hella confusing, i hate tv, the witcher
via https://ift.tt/2FSDecz
no, i completely disagree. the cycle of violence is probably one of the
largest themes in the witcher series, and the lesser evil is only one of
these stories. i actually didn’t understand the story until i read the
entire saga… so sorry if i answer this question with more references to
parts of the witcher that are unrelated to the lesser evil than to actually
the short story itself.
this is my take: in the witcher series, everything turns to be a cycle,
something inherited from the previous generation that you then pass on to
the next generation. the wheel keeps turning and you inherit and pass on
many different traits, and this is not confined to biological familial
relations.
the biggest theme and story of the series, in my opinion, is that of the
inevitable inherited violence and abandonment in the context of witchers.
geralt was raised as a witcher because he was abandoned by his mother, and
he was then given the burden of violence to carry out. because he doesn’t
want to put this burden of violence on ciri, because he wants to somehow
circumvent this cycle of inherited violence and prevent ciri from coming
into contact with it, he inevitably dooms her to the inherited violence
anyways - by deferring her as his child, she experiences the massacre of
cintra. and by trying to prevent her from inheriting violence, he realizes
after he’s left her that he’s unintentionally given her the other half of
the trauma coin he has as well - abandonment. as he was abandoned by his
mother, he has now abandoned her. so he searches for her, finds her, but
now undoubtedly needs to be raised as a witcher more than ever. thus she
inherits the violence, too… and then she’s abandoned again (this time not
intentionally), and when left to her own devices, becomes consumed with
this violence. it takes her over and she just kills and kills…
i think the lesser evil is about this. maybe not all of this about
inheriting things, but it’s about being consumed by violence, it’s about an
unending cycle. it’s not so much about who is right and who is wrong, and
stregobor and other sorcerers locked girls in towers and renfri and her
gang kill people. it’s not about that so much, the actual actions that they
do and weighing these actions to see which is lesser, which is eviler than
the other, but the fact that because they have engaged each other in this
dance, it’s now unending, and it will continue to destroy and destroy until
it finally ends in misery.
renfri isn’t “just as evil as her abuser” because it’s such a strange way
to frame it… she was abused, and then she herself became an abuser and a
killer. it’s not about the fact that it was wrong to abuse her, of course
it fucking was. of course she deserves revenge. but she, on this quest for
revenge, became obsessed with it, and became a killer in her own right,
taking out her pain on others. this is also what happens to ciri, later on
in the saga. except in my opinion (even though maybe this contradicts with
sapkowski’s vision), ciri reigns it in at the end, and she realizes that
violence is not the answer to everything, that this violence has destroyed
her entire life and her entire family, and that revenge is a wild goose
chase because you will never actually ever be satisfied with the amount of
revenge you get, so she leaves this world, she is the chosen one but she
ends her bloodline because she chooses to end the violence that has
consumed her.
the message is that violence begets violence. and that if you experience
violence, it is incredibly easy to internalize that, let it fester inside
of you, and begin to long for nothing but vengeance and death, and that
will lead to your ruin.
this is why geralt tells ciri in a voice colder than the walls of kaer
morhen that she will not pick up a sword again until she understands what
purpose it holds in a witcher’s hands… a sword is a tool of violence,
violence is necessary at times, but it must be controlled. you cannot let
the fact that you have experienced violence turn you into someone that
craves inflicting violence. you cannot wield a weapon with no regard for
the lives you may end. you have to think about what you do and not act on
primal instinct.
this is why ciri, after killing rampantly, has someone worse than the grim
reaper set on her heels… her horrific encounters with leo bonhart are just
a continuation of the violence which consumes her life. the cycle keeps
turning and turning, and every time it turns, it gets worse and more
grotesque.
and this is why renfri, after being dealt such horrible abuse and injustice
by stregobor and the men allied with him, turns to violence as her tool to
obtain justice. and the wheel turns, and people die. more blood is shed,
more and more, until everything comes to a halt and it ends in final death.
it’s not saying that “the abused are as bad as their abusers,” it’s saying
more like “being exposed to violence makes you vulnerable to also turn to
blind and indiscriminate violence that consumes you, and you should resist
this powerful temptation because it will make you a danger to yourself and
others.”
i’m not saying that this message is unequivocally right, i am just trying
to interpret what i think sapkowski was trying to say in this short story
and this series. i tend to feel that this message is a little milquetoast…
but i think it was personally helpful for me to understand my own life,
that revenge and violence aren’t always the helpful answers. they don’t
always make you happy, sometimes they just add to the tragedy. and it’s way
more complex than just seeing who is right… it’s delving into how feeling
that when someone has hurt you or done you injustice, that’s all that
matters, and it tends to blind you and make you stop thinking both about
what really matters.
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