...if two lovers suffers amnesia and one recovers first but makes no attempt to locate the other and that other lover was you, what would you think?
After your recovery, how would you feel knowing the person you loved and claim to love you made no attempts to find you during your most vulnerable time?
I know some people claim that it's not realistic for the women to go after or go looking for the man. Honestly I find that arguement to be ridiculous because, in the witcher world she is a sorceress and she is not limited by resources. Also there are no legitimate reasons why a women can not go looking for her lover who is suffering from amnesia.
I am late to the conversation and I am answering as I catchup and pardon if I am repeating someone else...
There is two major problems with any condemnation of Yen for not seeking Geralt and they both stem from Yen's own personality/drive/desires.
1) Yen tends to be a sneaky shit. She does't like to share her thoughts or plans or anything. She doesn't like to answer to anyone else AND she seems a bit on the vindictive side.
- Its clear she found out about Geralt/Triss early on from her conversations with Geralt..."I didn't want to interfere..."
- AND she calculates, correctly, that their "bond" is strong enough that it well draw him back to her eventually.
2) She was part of Nilfgaard. The Emperor helped her regain her memory and gave her purpose so she was in his debt.
- Why is this? I think it leads us to the reason she is working with Emhyr at the beginning of TW3. He 'recruited' her to find Ciri.
- She says she has been looking for Ciri for a while and exposed herself to the Hunt, seemingly, one too many times. That's why SHE sought to FINALLY meet up with Geralt, to enlist the worlds best tracker / hunter.
I think an argument could be made that Yen was hurt by Geralt(anyone who actually played the Yen romance will understand) and his 'real-love' he has with Triss AND her defense mechanism was to throw herself into her work. Since that work was connected to Ciri, it isn't hard to see how Yen would let that FEED her and motivate her. Even THINKING about Geralt would be a distraction to her...and if anything, Yen wouldn't allow herself to be distracted if Ciri was in danger.
So then, if she found out Ciri was in danger why wouldn't she THEN get Geralt, memory be damned? I think Emhyr at first only wanted Ciri for personal reasons...through the course of tracking her down did Yen become aware of The Hunt. Seems it was VERY close on the tail of that revelation that she did indeed start tracking down Geralt, who had by this time fully regained his memory.
That carries us RIGHT to the end of TW2 right? Six months of Geralt tracking down Yen...inside that time I think Yen would have discovered The Hunt and their connection. I am trying to remember if there were dates/time associated with the various flashbacks.
The Baron story...Anna had been gone less than a year and she was not there when Ciri arrived there.
Skjall was pretty ripe when they found him but, THAT was within a year right?
Uma...the Baron says he won Uma in a card game in Novigrad but not how long ago
Dandelion hadn't been missing for TOO long, I got the impression it was at most a month or so...
I can't remember the conversation with Dijkstra during the walkthrough in the bathhouse vault...he might have said exactly how long that was since it went "booom".
Point is, in my book, Yen has an "OUT" for not going back for Geralt. In the beginning she was unable to and when she could, Geralt was indisposed and then Yen COULDN'T because of the hunt and then FINALLY, in true Yen fashion...when she really needed a witcher, she finally went to Geralt.
