Quote Originally Posted by HammeredWharf View Post
Geralt is a huge softie. He's constantly driven to help others even when he knows it's not worth it. The Butcher of Blaviken nickname is just a misunderstanding. In the end, he
Spoiler: Major book spoilers, but you know this if you played the games.
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dies trying to protect nonhumans from oppression.


That's why The Witcher never felt like real dark fantasy to me. It's full of sympathetic characters and humor, and usually aims to be bittersweet rather than depressing. However, since the definition of dark fantasy is loose, one could call TW that and it would be pretty hard to refute.
I think the big difference is that no matter what Geralt does he never really makes anything better. He fixes a few problems for local people, and is for sure a sympathetic character but there is no way to make the world better without massive upheaval. One of the core tenets of The Witcher seems to revolve that people are worse and more horrible than "monsters" are. Because at the core of it all of Geralt's stories the most horrible stuff is because people are terrible.