Him not understanding that primo is an ordinal number ("first" in Latin) because he heard some blowhard idiot alderman use it incorrectly. Which is funny because from the interstitials wr know a lot of the witcher textbooks use Latin (or the in-universe equivalent)

I always thought "himbo" was a misnomer for Geralt because he's actually very quick-witted and learned...but in Crossroads of Ravens he really is just young, hot, and dumb
#Witcher

I do appreciate that he avoids the temptation of including character cameos from the rest of the series (namely, the sorceresses). Too often prequel/midquel stuff lean on that and make the world feel smaller as a result

As much as I would love an irl version of one of the in-universe witcher textbooks, I know we'll never get it because Sapko is an old man who doesn't like unnecessary work (which good on him!)

Onto chapter 10 or "Geralt being a credulous dumbass". Though it does address how witcher work involves a ton of fraudsters and dead end leads. He's slowly but surely growing into his dry sarcastic ass self every time he utters the phrase, "that's no curse, that's chlamydia"

Anyway Chapter 9 rocks. Perfect kick in the balls ending.

A great detail about Geralt being a novice witcher is that he still perceives his work through the lens of his schooling: the breakdown of the cardiovascular system as he kills someone or the textbook description of the striga. But when out in the world he slams into the complexity of...humans

Shout out to audiobook narrator Peter Kenny for emulating the sound of a medieval physician's voice from behind a mask. Love little touches like that

Chapter 9 is the best one so far and makes me wish Crossroads of Ravens was more a proper short story anthology rather than a novel. These individual contracts are begging to be fleshed out

Lol @ Geralt not understanding a Latin phrase and Nenneke responding "read a book"

For the record I don't have a problem with Nightmare of the Wolf's "retcon" (though not really because the Netflix stuff is its own universe) where the witchers themselves bring about the pogrom. The witchers are already morally dubious, so it always felt like a natural extension

I'm tempted to say that Crossroads going more into detail about the fall of Kaer Mohren is Sapko settling the score of the Netflix version of events, though I'm not discounting that Nenneke withholding the full truth

THE WITCHER: CROSSROADS OF RAVENS CHAPTER 8 THREAD:
We've got Queen MILF Nenneke, a digression into a woman's immutable right to abortion, and Sapko characterizing a female character solely by her "heaving breasts"
WE'RE EVEN MORE BACK

thank god the red zone channel started running commercials. when it was commercial-free i'd get to 7:30 p.m., look at how i'd spent my day, and realize i'd burned through an entire sunday without growing or developing at all as a consumer. and if i'm not a consumer i'm nothing at all

Didn't mind this for a free beta, but it's kinda absurd for a game you shelled out $70 for. Wasn't stress testing the servers part of the reason to hold a public beta in the first place?

I appreciate Sapkowski going "nah, I don't feel like conlanging, they speak Latin"

Eskel's last name is Kamisky lmao. Picturing him with a giant mustache and a Chicago Bears jacket

Sapko is *really* emphasizing the geography and timeline more than he ever has before. I wonder if part of that is to pre-empt CDPR and the Witcher 4 by establishing a more concrete canon and world that they're obliged to follow

Crossroads of Ravens: Geralt's Internship

I'm sorry it's just so funny imaging a young Geralt on his first time out as an independent Witcher coming up with his own catchphrase
"Seriously?"
Gotta workshop that, man.

THE WITCHER: CROSSROADS OF RAVENS CHAPTER 1-2 THREAD:
Opens with a Bible verse and Geralt citing Witcher legal code. WE'VE NEVER BEEN MORE BACK BABY

So anemic and limp-wristed, it makes the original "Our God is an Awesome God" sound like Handel's Messiah by comparison

"They're recasting because they can't afford to digitally de-age Jesus" might be the best summation of our current moment