Book question: Yennefer's motives in the sword of destiny (golden dragon story)

[Tomice158]

Book question: Yennefer's motives in the sword of destiny (golden dragon story)

Hi! Just read the story at the beginning of "sword of destiny", and I don't understand Yennefers motivations.

First, Geralt suspects she is only after the treasure, talks about a conspiracy of jewellers and how sorcerers help them to keep the jewelry prices stable after such a big treasure appears. Her motives seem really low, and her cruel talk about the extinction of dragons and human superiority doesn't help either.

Then it seems like she needs the dragons treasure to heal her infertility. This is a selfish reason to kill a sentient creature, but slightly more understandable. Still doesn't let her look very charming/likeable.

But in the end, I'm puzzled. She suddenly helps the dragon and is on good terms with him. She even falls in love with Geralt again.
What happened? What did I miss?

---------- Updated at 08:41 PM ----------

After reading the passage again carefully, it could be interpreted in 2 very different ways IMHO:

1) She changes her behaviour once she sees the baby dragon up close. She might have realized that the dragon is benevolent and only protecting the baby, which made her regret her previous trophy hunt behaviour. She decides to help him and then forgives Geralt, who was always on the right side and impressed her with his wisdom.

2) She understands that whoever wins the final battle - dragon or villagers - will be angry with her, while she can't defend herself due to being shackled. Throwing the limited spells she could cast in this state against the villagers seemed more promising, as the dragon supposedly has some magic resistance. Her plan worked, as the dragon forgave her previous behaviour in the light of her recent aid.



Number 2 doesn't explain why she forgives Geralt and is in love with him again. Number 1 explains this better, but still leaves her in an awful light. She had probably seen the baby from afar already, but she still disabled Geralt and wanted to kill the dragon. She also knew the dragon is sentient and can be reasoned with (offered safe passage to those who retreated!)


Oh, and by the way: The baby is Saskia, right? Reading the books really makes the game more enjoyable! It's awesome how many story branches they picked up and continued.

 

[Kallelinski]

Desperate people do desperate things.

We don't know for how long she has already that desire to have a child, but compared to other sorceresses she can't deal with the fact that she is infertile. She is even quite desperate about it and tries almost everything, like even looking for a golden dragon, which should only exist in fairy tales.

Is it really worth it to take someones life just to have a really small chance to create another one? Do you really want to pass that burden to someone? Knowing that someone died for your existence?

All the dragon did was protecting the child and she was trying to kill the dragon for having a chance for an own child, that's just not right and thankfully she realizes that, at least i think so.
The scene before also escalates into a tumult, which also make it tricky to understand who is fighting for what. I think at first she tried to prevent others getting the dragon, so she can have it for herself, but seeing what the dragon does with the others, well, she probably realized that nobody is a match for him at all, so she resigned.

Yennefer, pale as a sheet, doubled over and turned around to vomit under the wagon.

The baby reptile, stumbling and hugging the ground with its rounded belly, came up to the wagon with a halting step. It chirped, stood on its hind legs and unfurled its wings. It suddenly went to snuggle up against the sorceress. Yennefer sighed deeply, looking puzzled.

Why was the baby dragon not afraid of her at all? Maybe it didn't perceive her as a threat (anymore).

"Excuse my boldness and my frankness, Yennefer. It's written on your faces, I don't even need to read your thoughts. You were made for each other, you and the witcher. But nothing will come of it. Nothing. I'm sorry."
"I know." Yennefer turned a little pale. "I know, Villentretenmerth. But I too would like to believe that there is no limit as to what's possible or at least that this limit is very distant."

And she is still hesitant to accept it, but later a child with ashe blonde hair crosses their path and changes that. That also explains her commitment at saving Ciri in Witcher 3.

And yeah, as far as i know it is Saskia.

 

[Tomice158]

Thx, I start to understand now!

She doesn't seem to see it as exchange of one life vs another. She portraits the dragons as biggest threat for humanity, so in her eyes, it has to die anyway. Serving as means to fulfill her biggest wish is just icing on the cake.
Her reasoning for the dangerousness of dragons is also strongly driven by her obsession with motherhood (the only beast capable of attacking humans behind city walls, where they protect pregnant women and small children - or something along these lines)

The baby dragon coming close seemingly makes her realize her mistake and her obsession.

 

[Kallelinski]

She portraits the dragons as biggest threat for humanity, so in her eyes, it has to die anyway.

You played Witcher 2, which showed that they are still a real danger (in the wrong hands) and in the end you could actually kill it, because it is indeed a threat to humanity, unless you free the dragon from its curse.

I don't think she would have participated in the hunt, if the dragon wasn't a chance to reverse her infertility.

 

[Willowhugger]

You played Witcher 2, which showed that they are still a real danger (in the wrong hands) and in the end you could actually kill it, because it is indeed a threat to humanity, unless you free the dragon from its curse.

I don't think she would have participated in the hunt, if the dragon wasn't a chance to reverse her infertility.

Well, there's also the fact that Saskia *IS* the Baby Dragon from said Short Story.

 

[Kallelinski]

Well, there's also the fact that Saskia *IS* the Baby Dragon from said Short Story.

If you decided to go with Roche, the whole story around Saskia/dragon remains quite untold, so it's even possible that you don't even know that the dragon is just controlled by someone else.