Is Geralt REALLY emotionless?

[Justin_760]

Witchers are supposed to be "stripped of emotion" - basically sociopathy/psychopathy where they dont have the capacity of feelings or emotions.

But is that really true? Geralt clearly shows emotion throughout the game. Not just surface level basic ones either, he is capable of deep emotion and sympathy for even total strangers. During the Cerys quest to help Udalryk, the Hym could only be tricked if the person felt "true sorrow" - which proves without a doubt that Geralt does actually have emotions.

So whats the deal with this, is there some lore explanation? Or maybe its just a narrative discrepancy... Itd be hard to have a protagonist devoid of feelings, strong emotional anchors are the foundation of most stories.

[Meanie]

Canon explanation: Witchers having no emotion started as a rumor spread by the peasantry. Many Witchers, including Geralt, were more than happy to pretend that it is true, since the peasants are, for the most part, a bunch of c*nts.

Witchers have the same amount of emotion as a normal human being.

[Capn Slam]

Geralt in particular is pretty adept at keeping his cards close to his chest, and this game goes out of its way to portray a lot of common folk as rubes and morons. The rare exceptions are the ones who are more likely to be friendly towards Geralt.

Plus, there's Lambert, who has to be constantly reminded to chill out.

[Lagrange]

Nope.

The only reason he feigns no emotion is because thats what society is taught, and in turn teaches the Witchers. They're supposed to he heartless killers, when in reality, they do feel emotions like a normal human.

[Livael]

As said above. Also sociopathy/psychopathy is not a lack of emotion, but a lack of empathy. Those are two very different things.

[v0]

games're games. rather read first two witcher short story books if you want better picture of big G vs emotions.

[Rerun]

Originally posted by v0:

games're games. rather read first two witcher short story books if you want better picture of big G vs emotions.

Im at the end of the second witcher short story book. he seems pretty chatty and emotional. without emotions how could he laugh at dandelions fart and coc.k jokes?

[Karl Marx (ص)]

there is a certain line between feeling emotions and acting on them alone,due to the mutations witchers are always calm and at a low heart rate,otherwise the whole story is about emotions of geralt for ciri,yennefer,triss and other choices in the game(lesser evil or evil).
as for all humans emotions are still a process of brain,but thousands of years of poetry and spritual philosophy, now most of the humans legit think it's some kinda supernatural vibe and that heart is doing the work n stuff.

[kampfer91]

Whether it is true or not , being emotionless help a lot when facing dangerous monsters .

[v0]

Originally posted by Lickahineyhole:

Originally posted by v0:

games're games. rather read first two witcher short story books if you want better picture of big G vs emotions.

Im at the end of the second witcher short story book. he seems pretty chatty and emotional. without emotions how could he laugh at dandelions fart and coc.k jokes?

yeah he's somewhat impaired in certain areas. but no way emotionless like terminator.

[Nyah]

He got moral and basic honor, like those who attack weaker than them because it's fun, they're going down hard

edit: plus it's a myth that they got no emotions at all, check the end where ciri dies for example...

edit2: witcher got one ball of steel, one ball of silver

[GoreTiger]

Saying they're emotionless is a nice ruse to cover up how they truly feel about a situation. It creates a scapegoat excuse for them to use if someone questions How they were able to carry out a deed.
There are likely many cases where a witcher was hired to kill a Monster that may not have deserved it, But for the sake of the human population still needed to die. Feigning a lack of emotions gives the Witcher a kind of free-pass on critisism for it.