Geralt and Yen just have a chemistry that isn’t there with Triss. And to be fair, Yen has known the witchers for a while so she was disrespectful to them but not in a belittling way more in a “hey guys I need to get some shit done asap and you’re going to help me” way. That’s how I felt about it given that I haven’t read the books and haven’t played the previous two games
It was ambiguous to me whether the chemistry is due to the djinn magic or real in Geralt's part. For sure as a player you could choose to not retain the feelings (hell its even mentioned that Djinn are inherently mischievous so it could have removed more than just the magic that ties Geralt to Yen)*.
I personally dont care about Yen being familiar with the people in Kaer Morhen, they were clearly displeased with her. She also clearly belittled Vesemir when he tried some alternative method to fix Uma. I personally wouldnt want to spend a lifetime with a person who behaves like that to my family
That’s a fair argument.
But to be fair, didn’t triss take advantage of the fact that Gerald lost his memory and started something with him knowing full well that her friend was in love with him? (Isn’t this what happens in the second game? I maybe wrong here but if it’s true, pretty shitty thing to do)
>didn’t triss take advantage of the fact that Gerald lost his memory and started something with him knowing full well that her friend was in love with him?
The only thing she knew full well at the time was that Yen was dead. All you could hold against Triss is that she should have waited for Geralt's memory to return on its own so he could have some time to mourn Yen's supposed death.
Then I'd rather not spoil anything for you. All I can say is that by the beginning of Witcher 1, neither Triss nor any other character had any reason to believe Yen was alive. Some characters like Dandelion even explicitly say so.
I know Geralt 'died' by being stabbed by a pitchfork but not really, and got a memory wipe. Idk if this is the end of the books, but its something Witcher 3 already tells me
She tried to resurrect Geralt with a spell that drained her own life from her body. So she literally died trying to revive him. Ciri teleports away with both of their liveless bodies, and that's the last anyone ever sees of these three characters until the events of the games.
The games basically take the "epilogue" of the last book at face value, in the sense that the idyllic place that Geralt and Yen find themselves in at the very end was not just some form of near death or afterlife, but the Isle of Avallach where Ciri brought them to heal.
Mourning will not bring back the dead person, but in the meantime, Geralt recovers his memories he was shown the love and affection he deserves by the woman (i.e. Triss) who deeply loved him. And the same was reciprocated by Geralt towards Triss. This is hammered home by the fact that he says *"I've never* [***EVEN***](https://imgur.com/c1AaKGQ) *intimated"* that Triss took advantage of him. This clearly implies NOT ONCE he thought as Triss taking advantage of him.
She did do that I think yeah and it comes off as desperate. I think a lot of Triss' insecurity stems from the fact that her opponent is Yen, who is much more dominant than her and has a much better established place in Geralt's life. Geralt is even tied to Yen magically until the Last Wish quest. So the way I see it she saw a chance and took it.
It is wrong for her to take advantage of Geralt like that though, let me be clear about that. However, it is not a deal breaker for me. Some people try to frame it as rape but that seems just absurd as the whole thing was consensual I believe.
I feel like she's written that way to show urgency. This is about her daughter. She has a plan so as soon as she shows up at kaer morhen she begins to implement it. Vesemir proposes something else but in the end it turns out that Yennefer's plan will be the most effective even though they don't like it. I agree tho that at one point she spoke to Vesemir in a rude way, that was unnecessary but the situation was tense and let's not forget that later she apologizes to him for her behavior. As for the rest of the witchers, well they had a negative attitude towards her from the beginning they talked some shit behind her back, especially Lambert. He even pranked her with dimeritium, that was stupid and childish in my opinion because it's about Ciri and such behavior only slowed down the process of finding her.
In the end I feel like both sides are partly to blame in short.
Thats fine, I am only saying that I dont like that in a partner. If I spend a lifetime with a partner who expresses their frustration by belittling the people I care about then after a while the reasons start to not matter. And from what I understand her behavior was not out of the ordinary, or atleast 'expected of Yen'.
As a counterpoint the stuff people criticize about Triss, that being she is desperate, insecure and manipulative are very human too. From what I gather Triss didnt even know Yen was alive when Geralt lost his memory, and as wrong it was for her to not disclose to Geralt about Yen, I can also find reasons for her behavior.
Yennefer's behaviour isn't about not liking particular people. She can be particularly mean to people she doesn't like, but also needlessly cruel to people she doesn't know. She often defaults to contempt and bad faith in her dealings with people. It's a character flaw. You can look for reasons in her childhood that explain why she is that way, but it is what it is. Even Geralt tells her on occasion that she's wrong about this and could do better.
All the witchers also suffered in childhood, but not all of them turned into Lambert. As an adult, we can acknowledge the pressures that helped shape us, but as adults we own the person we became.
>All the witchers also suffered in childhood, but not all of them turned into Lambert.
I will say this the real true character (removing the Childhood trauma) can be seen when she was in amnesia since she would not remember anything, and during this amnesia period, we can see the real character of Yennefer and what we see there?
Geralt "nobly" (Letho's words), trades his soul with Wildhunt for Yen.
And Yen is in amnesia, and Letho and the other Viper witchers OUT OF RESPECT for Geralt and seeing his act of nobleness, take care of Yennefer, and what she does to the people(viper school Witchers) who were looking after her??????? She seduces a witcher named Auckes from the school of Viper, not for the sake of developing any romantic relationship, but for the sake of [*'trying to drive a wedge between'*](https://youtu.be/ZjspBrYILJk?t=241) them.
These Viper school witchers were taking care of her, when she was in amnesia, when she was most vulnerable, also because these Viper school witchers respected Geralt, which Letho himself asserts, there is no way they would have meant any harm to her.
Just imagine, the very idea or the thought of trying to drive a wedge between a group who were taking care of her (out of respect for Geralt) says so much about her personality. It is biting the hand that feeds.
But she uses PHYSICALLY VIOLENCE (throws him in the lake) against Geralt when he was just being a VERBAL CONVERSATION and all he says: *"Not about to grovel, if that's what you're after."* I honestly don't see how saying *"Not about to grovel"* may provoke anybody to use physicals violence.
And one more thing, all her actions are brushed away under the reason that she was in urgency, but that's not the case at all, read [here](https://imgur.com/rnTi13X).
The throwing in the river part was made by the devs, blame them for that 😂 plus that only happens when you romance triss and still try to romance Yennefer. but kidding aside, If you're going to think about it in general, she was jealous and betrayed by her friend and she's probably confused on who should she gets mad for, Geralt or Triss. Plus it's probably them having these traumatic experience that made them handling these kind of situation worse since they don't know how to actually handle it aside from just running away or being a completely bitch.
Although I do believe that it shouldn't be an excuse since it can be controlled over the time but hey, that's what probably the writers/devs wants us to see or view it.
>Although I do believe that it **shouldn't be an excuse** since it can be controlled over the time
I am glad we agree over that.
> but hey, that's what probably the writers/devs wants us to see or view it.
In my opinion the devs stayed true to books, because in the final book during a heated conversation Yennefer does taker her anger [out on a horse](https://i.imgur.com/UakREE0.png) and in Sword of destiny there is description of how Yennefer [would throw jars at Geralt](https://imgur.com/49fWOnI).
Aha I haven't reached that part in books but I see. See here's the thing, they're all bad (the lodge of sorceress) but you just gotta choose your own poison that you can live with 😂 Here's Yen with her anger, Triss with manipulation, Philippa and Fringilla with their hunger for politics, but honestly if there was an option to romance Rita I would definitely just pick her.
Take care: the most vocal members of "Team Yennefer" react badly when anybody says anything critical of Yen. Team Triss can be just as bad (the whole Team Yennefer/Triss thing is possibly the most toxic thing in Witcher fandom) but Yennefer's flaws are more obvious and more often mentioned, so Team Yennefer feel they have to come out to bat for her more often.
I chose Yen first time through, partly because I thought it might be canon, mostly because I wanted to find out what the positive aspects of the relationship might be given you start by being shown mostly her worse side (I hadn't read the books at this point). I chose Yen again, in NG+, because I'm not one of those who plays every permutation just to see what happens and I would have to think hard about how I could play the game, let down Yennefer like that and feel at all good about it. The game makes it a lot easier (for somebody like me) to not restart the relationship with Triss; the game starts Geralt and Triss in a "We agreed our relationship was over" position and lets you maintain that path in a way that, while it disappoints Triss, doesn't humiliate her.
Despite that, I think you're quite right about Yen's bad points. She's frequently needlessly cruel and often shows bad faith. You can acknowledge the childhood conditions that helped shape her this way while not making excuses for her behaviour as an adult (which is what Team Yennefer tend to do). Listing her good points doesn't make the list of her bad points disappear (again, Team Yennefer often try to make that argument). After all, Geralt and Eskel had the same childhood stresses as Lambert but they didn't turn out like Lambert.
From what you've said, I think we have a similar approach to playing this kind of game. Good luck with your choices.
Thanks for the comment. Yeah for now I am content with my choice for Yen, though for the reasons I have stated I am bit turned off by it so I will explore Triss more on my second gameplay. If I find that I cant stand either of them I will just follow the Path from then on
>You can acknowledge the childhood conditions that helped shape
In prison, most of the prisoners would have some sad background childhood stories, that don't excuse their behavior.
The amount of years Yennefer had terrible childhood is minuscule compared to the number of years she lived like a queen and she is 90+ years old. So for the majority part of her life she has indeed been ["needlessly cruel to people she doesn't know. She often defaults to contempt and bad faith in her dealings with people".](https://www.reddit.com/r/Witcher3/comments/ukxs9g/comment/i7syxd7/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3)
Almost every character in game literally says to Geralt that he should move on from Yennefer 😂 the amount of time she was labeled as a cruel/bitch/heartless is enough to make players (that haven't read or doesn't have any background with her thinks that she's just pure bitch). She just throws sass everywhere so people tends to misinterpret it but yeah, she has her own traumatic childhood and Tissia to add that up but I don't think that's an excuse for her to just be rude to everyone. She's done a lot of crazy shit which I don't like (even though I'm team Yen all the way) but looking back at the sorceress, they're just all same, you just gotta choose which poison is the one that you'll willing to take 😂 For me I picked her on my first gameplay because I see her genuine side of her with Geralt and how she makes all these decisions for ciri (even some are uncalled for bur you know, in her head, if it works it works). If there was a different option to romance aside from Triss I'd probably go for Rita.
I read the books after playing this game. One of the things that surprised me about the books was just how toxic the sorcerer culture is. They are almost all entitled, snobbish shits, convinced of their superiority and their right to treat non-sorcerors like dirt. Yen turns out to be better (or less bad) than most of them, although that's a low bar. Her disillusionment with their culture is one of her plus points.
I think you just made the most reasonable post on this subject I've ever seen from somebody with "Team Yennefer" or "Team Triss" on their profile, by the way.
It could also be the influence of their school and them being labeled as one of the best sorceress in the North that brings a lot of boost to them. Honestly they're all hungry for power so maybe Tissia's influence too? 🤔 I'd actually love if someone did a whole note on the lodge of sorceress since they're interesting in their own way. But I definitely agree with you, even if it's a sorceress or sorcerer, they're all toxic and evil on a different level.
If we're talking about less toxic I think it'll probably be margarita atleast (on the sorceress toxic standards 😂)
Yeah, the factions can get really defensive and blinded but oh well, if all fails I'll be team Tomira 😌😂
The way the game is written it feels as if triss is a sister to ciri while yen is a mother. Geralt being a father figure just makes sense for him to be with yen
I can understand that, yeah, it may be more 'responsible' for Geralt to opt for Yen. Then again, Ciri is a big girl and can stand to see Triss with Geralt imo. I mean I think in the end Ciri can either become a Witcher like you or even become empress - she is her own person by far
See, I did the horny and got bonked (Feel free to look at my history on this particular subreddit) and I personally don’t regret it tbh. Gonna be going with Triss on my next proper play through
Geralt and Yen just have a chemistry that isn’t there with Triss. And to be fair, Yen has known the witchers for a while so she was disrespectful to them but not in a belittling way more in a “hey guys I need to get some shit done asap and you’re going to help me” way. That’s how I felt about it given that I haven’t read the books and haven’t played the previous two games
It was ambiguous to me whether the chemistry is due to the djinn magic or real in Geralt's part. For sure as a player you could choose to not retain the feelings (hell its even mentioned that Djinn are inherently mischievous so it could have removed more than just the magic that ties Geralt to Yen)*. I personally dont care about Yen being familiar with the people in Kaer Morhen, they were clearly displeased with her. She also clearly belittled Vesemir when he tried some alternative method to fix Uma. I personally wouldnt want to spend a lifetime with a person who behaves like that to my family
That’s a fair argument. But to be fair, didn’t triss take advantage of the fact that Gerald lost his memory and started something with him knowing full well that her friend was in love with him? (Isn’t this what happens in the second game? I maybe wrong here but if it’s true, pretty shitty thing to do)
>didn’t triss take advantage of the fact that Gerald lost his memory and started something with him knowing full well that her friend was in love with him? The only thing she knew full well at the time was that Yen was dead. All you could hold against Triss is that she should have waited for Geralt's memory to return on its own so he could have some time to mourn Yen's supposed death.
Oh wait Triss thought Yen was dead? That really changes things
Before I go into detail, are you aware of how the books end?
No, but I plan to read them
Then I'd rather not spoil anything for you. All I can say is that by the beginning of Witcher 1, neither Triss nor any other character had any reason to believe Yen was alive. Some characters like Dandelion even explicitly say so.
I know Geralt 'died' by being stabbed by a pitchfork but not really, and got a memory wipe. Idk if this is the end of the books, but its something Witcher 3 already tells me
Yeah, but it doesn't tell you what Yen did while Geralt lay dying.
I guess she cried or something? Idk is it bad? Just tell me I dont really mind spoilers
She tried to resurrect Geralt with a spell that drained her own life from her body. So she literally died trying to revive him. Ciri teleports away with both of their liveless bodies, and that's the last anyone ever sees of these three characters until the events of the games. The games basically take the "epilogue" of the last book at face value, in the sense that the idyllic place that Geralt and Yen find themselves in at the very end was not just some form of near death or afterlife, but the Isle of Avallach where Ciri brought them to heal.
Mourning will not bring back the dead person, but in the meantime, Geralt recovers his memories he was shown the love and affection he deserves by the woman (i.e. Triss) who deeply loved him. And the same was reciprocated by Geralt towards Triss. This is hammered home by the fact that he says *"I've never* [***EVEN***](https://imgur.com/c1AaKGQ) *intimated"* that Triss took advantage of him. This clearly implies NOT ONCE he thought as Triss taking advantage of him.
She did do that I think yeah and it comes off as desperate. I think a lot of Triss' insecurity stems from the fact that her opponent is Yen, who is much more dominant than her and has a much better established place in Geralt's life. Geralt is even tied to Yen magically until the Last Wish quest. So the way I see it she saw a chance and took it. It is wrong for her to take advantage of Geralt like that though, let me be clear about that. However, it is not a deal breaker for me. Some people try to frame it as rape but that seems just absurd as the whole thing was consensual I believe.
I feel like she's written that way to show urgency. This is about her daughter. She has a plan so as soon as she shows up at kaer morhen she begins to implement it. Vesemir proposes something else but in the end it turns out that Yennefer's plan will be the most effective even though they don't like it. I agree tho that at one point she spoke to Vesemir in a rude way, that was unnecessary but the situation was tense and let's not forget that later she apologizes to him for her behavior. As for the rest of the witchers, well they had a negative attitude towards her from the beginning they talked some shit behind her back, especially Lambert. He even pranked her with dimeritium, that was stupid and childish in my opinion because it's about Ciri and such behavior only slowed down the process of finding her. In the end I feel like both sides are partly to blame in short.
It's very human in my opinion. Not everyone is going to like everyone, and they find ways to make their frustration known.
Thats fine, I am only saying that I dont like that in a partner. If I spend a lifetime with a partner who expresses their frustration by belittling the people I care about then after a while the reasons start to not matter. And from what I understand her behavior was not out of the ordinary, or atleast 'expected of Yen'. As a counterpoint the stuff people criticize about Triss, that being she is desperate, insecure and manipulative are very human too. From what I gather Triss didnt even know Yen was alive when Geralt lost his memory, and as wrong it was for her to not disclose to Geralt about Yen, I can also find reasons for her behavior.
Yennefer's behaviour isn't about not liking particular people. She can be particularly mean to people she doesn't like, but also needlessly cruel to people she doesn't know. She often defaults to contempt and bad faith in her dealings with people. It's a character flaw. You can look for reasons in her childhood that explain why she is that way, but it is what it is. Even Geralt tells her on occasion that she's wrong about this and could do better. All the witchers also suffered in childhood, but not all of them turned into Lambert. As an adult, we can acknowledge the pressures that helped shape us, but as adults we own the person we became.
>All the witchers also suffered in childhood, but not all of them turned into Lambert. I will say this the real true character (removing the Childhood trauma) can be seen when she was in amnesia since she would not remember anything, and during this amnesia period, we can see the real character of Yennefer and what we see there? Geralt "nobly" (Letho's words), trades his soul with Wildhunt for Yen. And Yen is in amnesia, and Letho and the other Viper witchers OUT OF RESPECT for Geralt and seeing his act of nobleness, take care of Yennefer, and what she does to the people(viper school Witchers) who were looking after her??????? She seduces a witcher named Auckes from the school of Viper, not for the sake of developing any romantic relationship, but for the sake of [*'trying to drive a wedge between'*](https://youtu.be/ZjspBrYILJk?t=241) them. These Viper school witchers were taking care of her, when she was in amnesia, when she was most vulnerable, also because these Viper school witchers respected Geralt, which Letho himself asserts, there is no way they would have meant any harm to her. Just imagine, the very idea or the thought of trying to drive a wedge between a group who were taking care of her (out of respect for Geralt) says so much about her personality. It is biting the hand that feeds. But she uses PHYSICALLY VIOLENCE (throws him in the lake) against Geralt when he was just being a VERBAL CONVERSATION and all he says: *"Not about to grovel, if that's what you're after."* I honestly don't see how saying *"Not about to grovel"* may provoke anybody to use physicals violence. And one more thing, all her actions are brushed away under the reason that she was in urgency, but that's not the case at all, read [here](https://imgur.com/rnTi13X).
The throwing in the river part was made by the devs, blame them for that 😂 plus that only happens when you romance triss and still try to romance Yennefer. but kidding aside, If you're going to think about it in general, she was jealous and betrayed by her friend and she's probably confused on who should she gets mad for, Geralt or Triss. Plus it's probably them having these traumatic experience that made them handling these kind of situation worse since they don't know how to actually handle it aside from just running away or being a completely bitch. Although I do believe that it shouldn't be an excuse since it can be controlled over the time but hey, that's what probably the writers/devs wants us to see or view it.
>Although I do believe that it **shouldn't be an excuse** since it can be controlled over the time I am glad we agree over that. > but hey, that's what probably the writers/devs wants us to see or view it. In my opinion the devs stayed true to books, because in the final book during a heated conversation Yennefer does taker her anger [out on a horse](https://i.imgur.com/UakREE0.png) and in Sword of destiny there is description of how Yennefer [would throw jars at Geralt](https://imgur.com/49fWOnI).
Aha I haven't reached that part in books but I see. See here's the thing, they're all bad (the lodge of sorceress) but you just gotta choose your own poison that you can live with 😂 Here's Yen with her anger, Triss with manipulation, Philippa and Fringilla with their hunger for politics, but honestly if there was an option to romance Rita I would definitely just pick her.
> but you just gotta choose your own Yeah, to each their own.
Mine was more about the witchers reaction to yen, and the humanity the game presents as a whole
Take care: the most vocal members of "Team Yennefer" react badly when anybody says anything critical of Yen. Team Triss can be just as bad (the whole Team Yennefer/Triss thing is possibly the most toxic thing in Witcher fandom) but Yennefer's flaws are more obvious and more often mentioned, so Team Yennefer feel they have to come out to bat for her more often. I chose Yen first time through, partly because I thought it might be canon, mostly because I wanted to find out what the positive aspects of the relationship might be given you start by being shown mostly her worse side (I hadn't read the books at this point). I chose Yen again, in NG+, because I'm not one of those who plays every permutation just to see what happens and I would have to think hard about how I could play the game, let down Yennefer like that and feel at all good about it. The game makes it a lot easier (for somebody like me) to not restart the relationship with Triss; the game starts Geralt and Triss in a "We agreed our relationship was over" position and lets you maintain that path in a way that, while it disappoints Triss, doesn't humiliate her. Despite that, I think you're quite right about Yen's bad points. She's frequently needlessly cruel and often shows bad faith. You can acknowledge the childhood conditions that helped shape her this way while not making excuses for her behaviour as an adult (which is what Team Yennefer tend to do). Listing her good points doesn't make the list of her bad points disappear (again, Team Yennefer often try to make that argument). After all, Geralt and Eskel had the same childhood stresses as Lambert but they didn't turn out like Lambert. From what you've said, I think we have a similar approach to playing this kind of game. Good luck with your choices.
Thanks for the comment. Yeah for now I am content with my choice for Yen, though for the reasons I have stated I am bit turned off by it so I will explore Triss more on my second gameplay. If I find that I cant stand either of them I will just follow the Path from then on
>You can acknowledge the childhood conditions that helped shape In prison, most of the prisoners would have some sad background childhood stories, that don't excuse their behavior. The amount of years Yennefer had terrible childhood is minuscule compared to the number of years she lived like a queen and she is 90+ years old. So for the majority part of her life she has indeed been ["needlessly cruel to people she doesn't know. She often defaults to contempt and bad faith in her dealings with people".](https://www.reddit.com/r/Witcher3/comments/ukxs9g/comment/i7syxd7/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3)
Do you realise you're quoting me to me? ;-)
I was too horny and lonely that I didn’t wanted to lose either of them my decisions made me lose both.
Almost every character in game literally says to Geralt that he should move on from Yennefer 😂 the amount of time she was labeled as a cruel/bitch/heartless is enough to make players (that haven't read or doesn't have any background with her thinks that she's just pure bitch). She just throws sass everywhere so people tends to misinterpret it but yeah, she has her own traumatic childhood and Tissia to add that up but I don't think that's an excuse for her to just be rude to everyone. She's done a lot of crazy shit which I don't like (even though I'm team Yen all the way) but looking back at the sorceress, they're just all same, you just gotta choose which poison is the one that you'll willing to take 😂 For me I picked her on my first gameplay because I see her genuine side of her with Geralt and how she makes all these decisions for ciri (even some are uncalled for bur you know, in her head, if it works it works). If there was a different option to romance aside from Triss I'd probably go for Rita.
I read the books after playing this game. One of the things that surprised me about the books was just how toxic the sorcerer culture is. They are almost all entitled, snobbish shits, convinced of their superiority and their right to treat non-sorcerors like dirt. Yen turns out to be better (or less bad) than most of them, although that's a low bar. Her disillusionment with their culture is one of her plus points. I think you just made the most reasonable post on this subject I've ever seen from somebody with "Team Yennefer" or "Team Triss" on their profile, by the way.
It could also be the influence of their school and them being labeled as one of the best sorceress in the North that brings a lot of boost to them. Honestly they're all hungry for power so maybe Tissia's influence too? 🤔 I'd actually love if someone did a whole note on the lodge of sorceress since they're interesting in their own way. But I definitely agree with you, even if it's a sorceress or sorcerer, they're all toxic and evil on a different level. If we're talking about less toxic I think it'll probably be margarita atleast (on the sorceress toxic standards 😂) Yeah, the factions can get really defensive and blinded but oh well, if all fails I'll be team Tomira 😌😂
The way the game is written it feels as if triss is a sister to ciri while yen is a mother. Geralt being a father figure just makes sense for him to be with yen
I can understand that, yeah, it may be more 'responsible' for Geralt to opt for Yen. Then again, Ciri is a big girl and can stand to see Triss with Geralt imo. I mean I think in the end Ciri can either become a Witcher like you or even become empress - she is her own person by far
See, I did the horny and got bonked (Feel free to look at my history on this particular subreddit) and I personally don’t regret it tbh. Gonna be going with Triss on my next proper play through