Shouldn't Geralt be like a Vulcan from Star Trek?

[Phoenixmgs_v1legacy]

The Witcher 3 is my first time playing a Witcher game. I keep hearing in-game that Witchers have no emotions. However, I keep getting choices like having to choose between trying to save an extra 2 people that could risk the rest of the group all getting capture or like stopping a character getting tortured. Shouldn't Geralt or any witcher choose the logical choice. Why would a witcher care if a character is getting tortured if that is needed to get what they need? Also, why does Geralt even have relationships with people that doesn't have to do with needing them for his goals? Why does Geralt even care about Ciri? Why does he seem to have/had a romantic relationship with Triss (that's more than just for sex it seems)? I think I'm missing something or interpreting something wrong. A lot of the choices seem to be between the "witcher" choice (logical, no emotion) and a human emotional choice, which seems odd even having the human type choice if I'm role-playing a character with no emotion.

 

[Jack Action]

They aren't Vulcans, they're just encouraged to stay out of politics so they'd have a job regardless of who's in charge. That little tidbit got twisted by whoever wrote Monstrum into "Witchers are emotionless killing machines who only care about cash," which is why everyone's under the delusion that Witchers are exactly that.

...exactly how every single illiterate, lice-ridden peasant on the face of the planet has read Monstrum, on the other hand, isn't really explained.

 

[Azure-Supernova]

I'm pretty sure the lack of emotion is something that's drummed into recruits from an early age, if only so that they don't get involved with politics. It's nothing to do with the mutagens they partake during the Trial of the Grasses, which is what I initially assumed. As the series has gone on the player has been given leave to shape Geralt a bit more, with the first game offering two sides and a true neutral path. Vesemir have gotten to the Vulcan stage of supressing their emotions effectively enough to simply be, at least outside of his Witcher school.

 

[Phoenixmgs_v1legacy]

Like I said, it's my first Witcher game so I'm not fully versed in the world and whatnot. I even looked at the wikia before posting and it wasn't really that helpful either.

It is a common belief, even among Witchers themselves, that they have no capacity for emotion. This may be debatable - and rather relative, considering the rigors of their training and the dangers they face as a matter of course. Perhaps they have simply never had the time (or exposure to society) to develop or recognize the reactions to mundane experiences that most take for granted.

 

[DementedSheep]

The thing to remember about what is said about Witchers, including that said by Geralt (he lies whenever it's convenient for him) is that most of it is bullshit. They are suppose to be logical monster killing machines but in practice they aren't. At most they are muted (maybe) but I don't know whether that is actually from the mutagens or just training, a lot of them don't seem muted at all anyway.

 

[DoPo]

It is a common belief, even among Witchers themselves, that they have no capacity for emotion. This may be debatable - and rather relative, considering the rigors of their training and the dangers they face as a matter of course. Perhaps they have simply never had the time (or exposure to society) to develop or recognize the reactions to mundane experiences that most take for granted.

This strikes me as something either taken wholesale or paraphrased from some in-universe source. There is plenty of evidence that witchers do have emotions - from Geralt himself being allowed to express them (and doing so) to other witchers also doing the same. They are, perhaps, a bit more controlled around "common folk" and try to not show it as much, but they have never been actually shown as completely emotionless.

Heck, one of the more pervasive, if not as prominent, themes throughout the series is how witchers, humans, and the other races are pretty much the same, yet they keep bickering and drawing lines in the sand and throwing mud at each other in desperately trying to prove otherwise. It's one of the elements of the racism tackled in the series.

Moreover, propaganda, misinformation, willing and unwilling ignorance, as well as just plain old bigotry are so widely spread that taking anybody's words without a grain of salt is a bit ridiculous.

 

[The Madman]

Witchers are all emotionless abominations and should be burned!

"They roam the land, importunate and insolent, nominating themselves the stalkers of evil, vanquishers of werewolves and exterminators of spectres, extorting payment from the gullible and, on receipt of their ignoble earnings, moving on to dispense the same deceit in the near vicinity. The easiest access they find at cottages of honest, simple, and unwitting peasants who readily ascribe all misfortune and ill events to spells, unnatural creatures and monsters, the doings of windsprites or evil spirits. Instead of praying to the gods, instead of bearing rich offerings to the temple, such a simpleton is ready to give his last penny to the base witcher, believing the witcher, the godless changeling, will turn around his fate and save him from misfortune.

Indeed, there is nothing more repulsive than these monsters that defy nature and are known by the name of witcher, as they are the offspring of foul sorcery and witchcraft. They are unscrupulous scoundrels without conscience and virtue, veritable creatures from hell capable only of taking lives. They have no place amongst decent and honest folk. And this Kaer Morhen where these villains nest and practice foul rituals must be wiped off the face of the earth, and all evil traces of it need be treated with salt and saltpeter to complete the deed."

-Monstrum, or Description of the Witcher

But seriously, that's in-universe propaganda. It's pretty damned obvious after even just a few minutes of playing or reading that Geralt isn't emotionless. Emotionally stunted from a traumatic childhood and a solitary violent lifestyle? Certainly. But he's not without feelings or desires.

 

[Phoenixmgs_v1legacy]

It's pretty damned obvious after even just a few minutes of playing or reading that Geralt isn't emotionless. Emotionally stunted from a traumatic childhood and a solitary violent lifestyle? Certainly. But he's not without feelings or desires.

I thought as much as most of the game doesn't make much sense if witchers are emotionless.

 

[The Madman]

I thought as much as most of the game doesn't make much sense if witchers are emotionless.

Yep. Witchers are like the plumbers of the Witchers world; they only ever show up when there's trouble and they demand an exorbitant amount of money in exchange for fixing anything, except that in this case instead of a leaking toilet it's a gryphon that just ate half your family and this dickhead is offering to kill the beast but only if you pay him almost everything you've got. No wonder they aren't much liked and there's so much negative propaganda surrounding them.

Wealthy and more educated people don't much like Witchers either seeing as Witchers are basically highly trained killers for hire that answer to no one save themselves. They're basically a giant liability waiting to happen, and even if Witchers are supposed to stay neutral for the purpose of avoiding this kind of fear mongering, the truth is they're still just people and have been known to get involved politically before. Geralt being no exception despite how often he claims to hate politics.

Easiest way to think of Geralt as portrayed in the books is that he's stony and cold on the outside, having endured some serious emotional trauma in the past, but that just means he holds those that he trusts all the closer. He tries to adhere to his Witcher training to stay neutral but seeing as a number of his friends and family have no such code, they tend to drag him along with them as he doesn't dare stand aside and risk losing one of the few people in this world he cares for come to harm.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

Geralt is taciturn, occasionally to a slightly ludicrous degree, but he's certainly not emotionless. Indeed, he has a couple of pretty powerful emotional moments in the game that show tremendous depth of feeling.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

Monstrum is racist propaganda that openly slanders Witchers, and is apparently the most read book in the entire universe. Witchers do have emotions, and can express them quite strongly. They are a little stilted and awkward, because they spend most of their time not slaying monsters in isolation. It was a pretty big part of Blood of Elves that the Kaer Morhen Witchers were almost clueless about how to raise Ciri until Triss came along to help them.

 

[Aetrion]

Witchers do have emotions, it's just that people believe they don't have emotions because if they adhere strictly to their creed Witchers will work for anyone, disregard any problems not pertaining to monsters, and never do anything for free. The game frequently gives you the option to break these rules.

There is some theme in the game of Witchers slowly but surely becoming kind of jaded to the world, Geralt mentions in one of the cutscenes that he feels no excitement anymore at fighting monsters because he's done it so many times. Things that seem terrifying or exhilarating to a normal person seem mundane and boring to a Witcher, again adding to their reputation.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

I'd say that witchers are just not driven by emotions like most people. They're kind of introverted and stoic. Part of it is their mutations and training, part of it is the circumstances of their life. They're always on the road, witching and whatnot. And like someone said already, they're encouraged to stay neutral. That's not something very common in most people even in real life today. Everyone always has an opinion about everything and everybody always takes sides.
Emotionless witchers was a part of anti-witcher propaganda. But the disdain for witchers is understandable when you take into consideration how witchers are created. These people take children knowing full well that on average only 3 out of 10 will survive the Trial of Herbs. They may not be emotionless, but they certainly are less emotional than your average human. At least the witchers that came before Geralt were. And even that little fact was turned on its head in The Witcher 3. Witchers of Kaer Morhen are fine with being the last of their breed. They don't want to create new witchers. They don't want to put children through that. Lambert is the best example of that. He hates being a witcher. Or more precisely, he hates that he wasn't given a choice.

 

[TranshumanistG]

I actually think that this does make witchers seem similar to Vulcans. Both are born with emotions but taught from a very young age to suppress them and act in accordance to tradition, in a logical and calculated way, earning a reputation of cold heartless people. And still, representatives from both groups from time to time face situations where they can't help but give way to their emotions, sometimes relinquishing control just for a bit, sometimes all together.

 

[Jandau]

Geralt has at no point been emotionless, not in the games, not in the books. Witchers are brought up to be emotionally uninvolved to avoid getting tangled up in politics and feuds. Also, emotions can be a liability in their line of work in general, where a cool head is likely crucial. However, they are still people and they do feel. Geralt isn't an exception either, and all the witchers have emotions.

What is true is that they are in general fairly withdrawn and stoic, which comes off as heartless. They have a job to do, and that job is fairly important - not as much as it used to be, but they are hardly obsolete. They can't afford to get tangled up in petty politics and such. Also, they need to get paid because food is a thing, as are repair costs and travel expenses. People often perceive witchers as heartless because they insist on payment, even if the client is a village of destitute peasants, but if they didn't you'd soon have no witchers left.

 

[Azure-Supernova]

Like I said, it's my first Witcher game so I'm not fully versed in the world and whatnot.

The biggest example I can give that you can access immediately is in the Killing Monsters trailer for the Witcher 3. Geralt and Vesemir ride past the woman about to be hanged, Vesemir tells Geralt to stay out of it but Geralt clearly has other ideas. I've not read the novels so I can't say whether this crisis of purpose exists in the pre-amnesia Geralt, but all throughout the Witcher Geralt seems somewhat disturbed whenever he's actively choosing to kill people. This leads me to believe that Witchers aren't as cut and dry as documents like Monstrum, which is clearly propoganda.

One only has to look at Berengar, who was seemingly seeking to cure his infertility and harboured deep hatred for what was done to him.

 

[Politrukk]

It was the perfect excuse to make Geralt somewhat a bland protagonist.

Everything that is boring about him can be written off as "that's just the witcher part of him".

 

[KingsGambit_v1legacy]

During the training process when boys grow into witchers, they ingest potions and herbs that mutate them. They become stronger, faster and their eyes change among other things. Side effects of the mutation include loss of desire/libido and emotions. Geralt however, his mutation didn't proceed as normal...It changed his hair white and his capacity for emotions and desire stayed with him. He is an exception even among the handful of witchers in the world.