A bit of a rant about amnesia, Geralt and Triss.
I often see Triss getting accused of using Geralt in the first two games, taking advantage of his amnesia and even going as far as saying she raped him. While I have no problem admitting Triss is at fault and that she wasn't being honest, I find the lack of credit people give to Geralt ridiculous. They try to portray him as a poor victim, a mindless moron for Triss to play with and exploit, a person robbed of any sort of critical thinking and comprehension ability. I refuse to see him like that, it's certainly not how I choose to play him and it's definitely not the Geralt I saw and played in the first two games.
In TW1 when Geralt starts a relationship with Triss, he does so on his own free will and initiative. Triss' manipulation mostly consists of withholding info about his past and spreading her legs once Geralt shows interest to see them spread. Knowing Triss' obsession with him, it's hardly unlikely she would say no to him, but she is not forcing Geralt to do anything, nor does she go to great lengths to seduce him or start a serious relationship with him. Geralt is the one making the moves and taking the initiative in pursuing her while Triss even plays it hard to get at times, demanding Geralt to convince her he is serious about them being together, asking him to prove his loyalty by giving her the ring, as well as acting a certain way around Alvin. This is all optional and depends on the player choice, so it's not like poor Geralt is stuck in Triss' claws, to be used and raped as she pleases, he is the one trying hard to start a relationship with Triss and she embraces it, not vice versa.
Another accusation is how Triss pretended to be Yennefer and that is not true. At the beginning of TW1 Geralt simply says he feels a bond while he speaks to Triss and that he senses she was important to him(which isn't completely false, as Geralt did see Triss as a close friend in the books and treated her accordingly) at which Triss tries to tell him something, only to get interrupted by the Salamandra attack. The next time they talk, after Triss recovers from the attack, she tries talking about the events from the past, but Geralt cuts her off and explicitly says he is not ready to talk about the past yet. From that moment on, Triss is guilty of not taking any initiative to bring up the events and people from Geralt's past and embracing the situation as Geralt starts showing interest in her. It's a shady and above all a selfish thing to do, but she is not pretending to be someone she's not, nor is she misleading Geralt into thinking she is, let alone raping him. Geralt has no recollection of Yen and the woman he potentially pursues and falls in love with is Triss.
Another very important aspect of the whole amnesia abuse thing that is mostly ignored and the reason it's unfair to say Triss has been taking advantage of Geralt for two whole games is what happens at the very beginning of TW2. Once Geralt's memory starts returning, he remembers Yen, realizes Triss wasn't being honest and demands her to tell him the truth. The thing that shows he understood what Triss did even at that point is the way he asks her. He says, and I quote: " I need you to tell me about Yennefer, in detail. I want to hear it all, even the things you don't want to tell me, even the things that might hurt".
Unfortunately, we never see that conversation taking place, but whatever Triss told him, even if we assume it's the bare bone info, which is probably not true considering the way he asked her and Dandelion's narration saying that Geralt spent most of the trip to Flotsam talking to Triss about Ciri and Yen long into the evenings, we can assume he had a pretty good idea of his past as well as the way Triss used his amnesia by the time they reached Flotsam. Of course, without his memory restored, he can't comprehend it fully, but to say he is still somehow unaware of Triss' actions at that point is to assume he is a brain dead moron lacking anything resembling a critical thinking mind. Geralt is not a stupid man, nor is he a naive fool, he knew at that point what Triss did. How he treats Triss after that and whether he continues pursuing a romance with her is up to the player, but from the story perspective, again, Geralt is the one taking the initiative, not Triss. He is the one proposing the famous bath, after which Triss brings up Yennefer and says she is ready to go look for her and that she owes her that.
Another thing is using the Rose for mind control. If Triss had bad intentions of using the Rose to control him, there would be no need to bring up Yen and start encouraging Geralt to change plans, drop Roche and go look for Yen instead, at the very moment she managed to acquire the thing that will allegedly put Geralt under her control.
Thinking how Geralt only became aware of Triss' actions once he fully got his memory back and victimizing him by acting like he had no say and responsibility for what has happened between him and Triss(especially since it happened on his own initiative) is imo reducing Geralt to a dumb, naive, idiot of a man. I'm all with Yen on this one, she doesn't take that bullshit and holds him at least partially responsible, and with full right imo. I refuse to roleplay a poor innocent low IQ rape victim Geralt who simply got taken advantage of by the big bad Triss without even realizing it.