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The games are great... but the books are just way better from a storytelling perspective. In general books will always be the best when it comes down to storytelling. Nothing can beat it, not movies, TV shows, or games. There's plenty of exceptions to this rule, I mean a lot of books really do suck, but any book of a higher quality will never be beat.
I can't argue too hard since I'm an author with my first book coming out on the 10th.
It'd be a bit hypocritical.
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If we include the books and games, I greatly prefer Yennefer over Triss, even if the former can be a bitch at times.
If I were to have just played the games, however, I could see myself preferring Triss, as she's much more likable, brave and skilled as a mage in TW1, TW2 and TW3 compared to the books.
If I were to have just played the games, however, I could see myself preferring Triss, as she's much more likable, brave and skilled as a mage in TW1, TW2 and TW3 compared to the books.
I think the question now is, not whether it is plausible that Geralt truly loves Triss and truly does not love Yen anymore, or whether it contradicts the books, but whether we as players have a real saying in that matter. Going by the fact that we chose what Geralt says to both women, I'd say that we (players) do decide what his true love is. We as players decide what he thinks and feels in other situations as well.
Going by the consequences of that choice (or lack of consequences if you chose Triss) I'd almost say that Yen is indeed intended as Geralt's one and only true love (in the games as well), and choosing Triss only shows, that it was the "wrong" decision, and is not cannon, rather than an "equally valid" path.
Every other decision you make in the game feels good, because it does not feel like a "right or wrong" decision. That's (imo at least) is the beauty of Witcher 2 and 3. It just feels different if you choose the other option. In the case of Geralt's love life however, it really feels like choosing Triss is not really an equal option, but a "wrong" path. That is my personal dislike . Not the fact that you potentially see Yens boobies one additional time. And not the fact that there is more Yen content tan Triss content.
What are your thoughts, do we as players decide what is cannon to the (games) story, or is there only one "true" path?
Going by the consequences of that choice (or lack of consequences if you chose Triss) I'd almost say that Yen is indeed intended as Geralt's one and only true love (in the games as well), and choosing Triss only shows, that it was the "wrong" decision, and is not cannon, rather than an "equally valid" path.
Every other decision you make in the game feels good, because it does not feel like a "right or wrong" decision. That's (imo at least) is the beauty of Witcher 2 and 3. It just feels different if you choose the other option. In the case of Geralt's love life however, it really feels like choosing Triss is not really an equal option, but a "wrong" path. That is my personal dislike . Not the fact that you potentially see Yens boobies one additional time. And not the fact that there is more Yen content tan Triss content.
What are your thoughts, do we as players decide what is cannon to the (games) story, or is there only one "true" path?
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I cannot agree. Choosing Triss is an equally valid option. The Triss ending is a nice one, they live happily together in Kovir. If you choose Yen, the ending is also nice, even though I do not trust it - he always broke up with her and now they live happily ever after?
I feel that not killing Radovid is a wrong decision. Letting Roche be murdered by Dijkstra is a wrong decision. Just an example.
Without reading the whole thread (TrissvsYen Thread tend to be lengthy...), I want to focus on something else.
People are always Triss because...or Yen because..., why is noone talking about Geralt?
It is never mentioned in the games as far as I recall, though I think the whole "fuck every woman" thing (especially in tw1) is supposed to reflect that (you can fuck them, but you cannot love them): Geralt can't love because he is a emotionless mutant - at least that's how he sees it. The book is full of his selfpity. There is one Scene, where Yennefer says that she hates it when he calls himself a mutant.
This is why his relationship with Yennefer is so special (and so damn complicated).
He simply can't just say "i love you" and it takes like 20 years of pain and suffering before they both can say those 3 words to each other.
Thats what their relationship makes so great an important.
And now in the Games, Geralt and Triss?
Nothing.
Not even close.
They fuck around a bit (literally) and voilâ here comes the L-word.
This is why "book reader" (usually) like the "Geralt / Yen" thing more.
People are always Triss because...or Yen because..., why is noone talking about Geralt?
It is never mentioned in the games as far as I recall, though I think the whole "fuck every woman" thing (especially in tw1) is supposed to reflect that (you can fuck them, but you cannot love them): Geralt can't love because he is a emotionless mutant - at least that's how he sees it. The book is full of his selfpity. There is one Scene, where Yennefer says that she hates it when he calls himself a mutant.
This is why his relationship with Yennefer is so special (and so damn complicated).
"Geralt." "I'm listening."
"Now you will answer my question. The question that I've never asked. That which I was afraid to ask... I'm also not going to ask it today, but please answer it. Because... because I really wish to hear your reply. It's the one thing, the one word you have never said. Say it, Geralt. Please."
"I cannot."
"Why is that?"
"Don't you know?" He smiled sadly. "My answer would be just a word. A word that doesn't express feelings, a word that doesn't express emotions, because I am devoid of them. A word that would only be a sound, like the sound a cold and empty skull makes when it's struck."
She looked at him in silence. Her eyes, wide open, took on a deep violet colour.
"No, Geralt," she said. "That's not true. Or only partly true. You are not deprived of feelings. Now I see. Now I know that..."
She fell silent.
"Now you will answer my question. The question that I've never asked. That which I was afraid to ask... I'm also not going to ask it today, but please answer it. Because... because I really wish to hear your reply. It's the one thing, the one word you have never said. Say it, Geralt. Please."
"I cannot."
"Why is that?"
"Don't you know?" He smiled sadly. "My answer would be just a word. A word that doesn't express feelings, a word that doesn't express emotions, because I am devoid of them. A word that would only be a sound, like the sound a cold and empty skull makes when it's struck."
She looked at him in silence. Her eyes, wide open, took on a deep violet colour.
"No, Geralt," she said. "That's not true. Or only partly true. You are not deprived of feelings. Now I see. Now I know that..."
She fell silent.
Thats what their relationship makes so great an important.
And now in the Games, Geralt and Triss?
Nothing.
Not even close.
They fuck around a bit (literally) and voilâ here comes the L-word.
This is why "book reader" (usually) like the "Geralt / Yen" thing more.
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Now that I've read the books, I firmly prefer Yen to Triss for Geralt. It's, tbh, a little unfair simply because the books are adamant that Yennefer is Geralt's love and there are a lot of scenes that show what they both mean to each other.
Even before they say "I love you" to each other there's this intense undercurrent of unspoken feelings that cause a lot of issues with their relationship but keep them both longing for the other at the same time. It's like fire and ice colliding and causing an explosion. Like Vargeras said, it takes 20 odd years for them to slowly get over their own emotional barriers and to open up to each other. Until they get to that point, they repel each other in short order.
But I don't think time alone would've made that relationship work. Ciri plays a really big part in unifying both and healing wounds. The question also remains as to what sort of an influence the wish has on them. Open to interpretation, obviously. The way I saw it, it kept them bumping into each other to rekindle what might otherwise been eventually forgotten. It's like they were forced to deal with each other until they finally clicked beyond mere fascination that would wear out its welcome.
They relationship is very complex and thus interesting. They push and challenge each other when, really, no one else can.
As for Triss. She gets sidelined in the books so there's very little meat to work with there. The only elements there are that Geralt really cares for her, but is incapable of returning her love. There's twice where he turns her advances down and Yen also stamps her foot to shoo her away. The games do a better job with Triss and you can see a mutual affection. It's a more "traditional" relationship and sweeter without Yen's hellfire. That, however, doesn't make it worse, just different.
And that's what it comes down to. What do you want your Geralt to prefer? The games allow you to break off a very deep, 20 year long relationship that's also "reinforced" by a Djinn's spell. I mean damn, anything goes at that point.
Even before they say "I love you" to each other there's this intense undercurrent of unspoken feelings that cause a lot of issues with their relationship but keep them both longing for the other at the same time. It's like fire and ice colliding and causing an explosion. Like Vargeras said, it takes 20 odd years for them to slowly get over their own emotional barriers and to open up to each other. Until they get to that point, they repel each other in short order.
But I don't think time alone would've made that relationship work. Ciri plays a really big part in unifying both and healing wounds. The question also remains as to what sort of an influence the wish has on them. Open to interpretation, obviously. The way I saw it, it kept them bumping into each other to rekindle what might otherwise been eventually forgotten. It's like they were forced to deal with each other until they finally clicked beyond mere fascination that would wear out its welcome.
They relationship is very complex and thus interesting. They push and challenge each other when, really, no one else can.
As for Triss. She gets sidelined in the books so there's very little meat to work with there. The only elements there are that Geralt really cares for her, but is incapable of returning her love. There's twice where he turns her advances down and Yen also stamps her foot to shoo her away. The games do a better job with Triss and you can see a mutual affection. It's a more "traditional" relationship and sweeter without Yen's hellfire. That, however, doesn't make it worse, just different.
And that's what it comes down to. What do you want your Geralt to prefer? The games allow you to break off a very deep, 20 year long relationship that's also "reinforced" by a Djinn's spell. I mean damn, anything goes at that point.
My take on the subject was that was pretty lazy to say it was a Djinn's spell.
In the case of Geralt, they should have just had the option "I feel different."
Almost like they didn't expect it to believable Geralt could change that way.
Some gamers are; many book readers do so. How many times have we read the same beaten to death 'Geralt in the books would do' argument? There are many people who frequent this forum who role play Geralt of Rivia from the books...nothing wrong with that.
From your perspective, yes. I thought Triss and Geralt in the games had a fulfilling and wholesome relationship, and in the books, less so but better than Yennefer and he ever had.
In the end, though, everyone has different tastes. Some are similar, some not so much. There is no right answer.
I agree, the whole "You got your wish" was pretty damn horrible on multiple levels. That particular option was indicative of the "good enough" aspect of storytelling in games. It's a shame, but when it's as much effort to create more dialogue scenes as it is, I can understand them cutting corners. Still, some corners just shouldn't be cut.
The only way that line makes sense is if Geralt is trying to let Yennefer down easy by lying that he didn't change his feelings on his own.
AND MAKES IT SO MUCH WORSE FOR HER.
In fact, that's my headcanon of that scene.
In terms of the story of the game, then yes we as the players create our own story (based on what CDPR limit us to), however the 'canon' Geralt (from the books) is set in stone as to who he loves, that doesn't mean that the player can't decide that Geralt wants to be with Triss, it just means that it is a factor (although one you can ignore). In the game, Triss is a valid romance option, however the third game seems to shift in favor of the books and in the end that means shifting in favor of Yen. I don't like using the term 'canon' because what is canon in the Witcher universe started and ended with the books, it doesn't make sense for an rpg to act on canon and tell you that you have made the wrong choice. Remember Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic? the canon for that game was to choose a male and play light side even though playing the dark side was arguably more enjoyable (just an opinion), and the canon almost ruined the game for me because it always felt like i was doing something the developers didn't want me to do. However fast forward until Disney buys Star Wars and now they declared that the star wars games are not canon.
Anyway back on topic, there in my opinion is not a true path, but there are people who play by the books and that is fine, they payed for their copy of the game so they can do what they want, yet others will treat the games as separate and make decisions on what they would do. So yeah i guess we the players decide what we want the story to be, but for now the games do hint and shift towards what you should be choosing. I don't think Andrzej Sapkowski would care what the player chooses, so decide for yourself what you want to do and forget about this 'canon' stuff when playing the games (just my opinion).
I agree that, considering the storyline of the games, the player is really free to make either choice for their version of Geralt and either one is valid. That said, as much as I love Triss, Yennefer really won me over and made me feel like those two were appropriate for one another; sadly she didn't win me over until I'd gone to Skellige and after I'd already told Triss I loved her, so on my first playthrough I end up with neither of the women.
This is why I find the whole Triss romance to be so annoying and unbelievable.. It has nowhere near the complexity, nowhere near the amount of history, nowhere near the amount of understanding, nowhere near the amount of intimacy, and nowhere near the amount of development as Geralt and Yennefer. Their love is one of a kind. Unreplicable.
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I think the entirety of the romance is amazing BECAUSE of the betrayal. Geralt doesn't love Triss because she's easy to love. It's because he knows what happened and chooses to love her anyway.
I like the first line 'the magic has gone'. I was glad to be free of the seeming wish driven flirting but yeah would have preferred different options to 'you got your wish'
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I think it's perfectly plausible for Geralt to love Triss and to not have the same feelings towards Yen as he once did. The amnesia opens up new windows of possibilityl I don't think there's a wrong path or a right path. I think they got the balance of content wrong but that doesn't mean i didn't find the Triss romance rewarding.
Think we as players decide what is cannon, until such point that the REDS decide they want to overwrite it. I'm reasonably hopeful given this is apparently Geralt's last foray that there is no true path.
Well, of course it also depends on what kind of relationship you personal prefer. Geralt and Triss had an easy, somewhat hollow but actually a quite realistic relationship.
But realism is not really needed, we are talking about a relationsship between an emotionless mutant and a (possibily) immortal sorceress.
That everyday thing just don't fit here.
They could have made Geralt turn gay and having a loving relationship with Zoltan Chivay.
There is nothing wrong with it, but it's just as weird as the Geralt/Triss thing given the information from the books.
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