Who Is Valdo Marx in ‘The Witcher’ Season 3? Meet Nathan Armarkwei Laryea’s New Character

Part 1 of season 3 of ‘The Witcher’ continues to give us new characters that can contribute to the storyline. Of course, while we know that Jaskier was always meant to be a supporting character that added charm and comedy to the series, season 3 explored more of his story. That was when we were introduced to Valdo Marx, who seems to be someone Jaskier never liked. So, who is Valdo Marx in ‘The Witcher?’

Valdo Marx is an incredibly famous and talented musician who leads a musical group hired in all sorts of different places around the Continent. Jaskier regards Valdo as his greatest rival even though Marx doesn’t seem to be bothered by him at all when he can’t even remember his name.

Of course, Valdo Marx was never meant to be an important character in ‘The Witcher, but his presence allowed us to learn more about Jaskier and the many people he encountered throughout his life. Marx, however, had a great scene during the end of part 1 when he provided the music to what was a great series of scheming on the part of Geralt and Yen during the ball in Aretuza. Now, let’s look at what we know about Valdo Marx.

Valdo Marx is Jaskier’s rival

One of the things that we always knew about Jaskier was that he was a talented musician that went around the Continent to find fame and glory as a bard. Of course, it was only when he met Geralt and started singing stories about the exploits of the White Wolf that he became quite prominent among the people of the Continent. But while he may have seen his fair share of success in terms of his fame and his ability to woo men and women alike to bed, Jaskier still struggled to put himself at the top of the ladder in terms of the best musicians.

We always knew that Jaskier had a rival because he made that clear in season 1. Back then, we saw that Jaskier and Geralt bumped into one another when the Witcher was looking for a creature called a Djinn so that he could wish for some sleep. However, Jaskier thought that he was the one that had freed the Djinn, and that was when he made it clear that he had a rival that he wanted to get rid of.

His first wish was for his “Cidarisian foe” to “be struck down with apoplexy and die.” In the books, Geralt was the one who brought this topic up as he described Jaskier’s rival as a “troubadour who considers my companion, also a poet and musician, a talentless wastrel who panders to the taste of the masses.”

In that regard, we always knew that Jaskier wasn’t the best in what he did because he had a rival that was better and more popular than him. Nevertheless, it seems like Jaskier’s appeal is to the masses, while his rival was more appealing to the nobles of the Continent. And we all know that Jaskier’s appeal was banked on his stories about Geralt’s adventures as a Witcher.

We finally met this rival in episode 4 of part 1 of season 3 of ‘The Witcher’ when the trio of Geralt, Ciri, and Jaskier were onboard a barge that was about to ferry them to Aretuza so that they could go to Yen. That was when Jaskier seemed disturbed that a musical group had made its way to the barge. The group started making music as Jaskier sluggishly approached them to meet Valdo Marx.

Clearly, this Valdo Marx character, played by Nathan Armarkwei Laryea, was the rival that Jaskier wanted to bring down. What made things worse for Jaskier was that Valdo didn’t even remember his name, proving they were on entirely different levels of fame. While Jaskier himself is talented and known by the masses, Valdo seems more successful in terms of his financial capacity because he hired other musicians that formed part of his musical group.

In that regard, Valdo is not only a talented bard but is also quite charismatic as a leader because he was able to form his own musical group. On the other hand, Jaskier has always been a solo act that didn’t have other musicians working alongside him.

What happened to Valdo Marx in ‘The Witcher?’

After Valdo and his group boarded the barge to Aretuza, he boasted that the mages of Aretuza hired him and his group to sing in an exclusive ball. Not willing to surrender to his rival, Jaskier lied about the fact that a mage named Yen hired him for an important task as well, although he didn’t even say what this important task was.

Eventually, Valdo and his group tried to one-up Jaskier by singing an impromptu number on the barge. They made it seem like this song was about Geralt and Ciri, and that was when Ciri told them to stop singing because they would disturb the Aeschna swimming with the barge.

One of Valdo’s singers said that the point was to disturb the Aeschna and that they weren’t even sure that the creature stalking them was an Aeschna because he heard that these creatures couldn’t even swim. And not too long, the Aeschna attacked this singer.

Thanks to the efforts of Geralt and Ciri, everyone on the ship survived the Aeschna attack, although the boastful member of Valdo’s group was injured. Still, they all made it to Thanedd Island, where Aretuza was.

The trio of Geralt, Ciri, and Jaskier met up with Yen. Jaskier and Ciri went a different path as the bard was tasked to guard the princess while Geralt and Yen were going to attend the ball in Aretuza. And during the ball, Valdo Marx and his musical group provided the music that the attendees danced to.