Triss or Yen?

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Triss or Yen?

  • I read the books and choose Yen!

    Votes: 80 29.3%
  • I haven't read the books and choose Yen!

    Votes: 45 16.5%
  • I read the books and choose Triss!

    Votes: 85 31.1%
  • I haven't read the books and choose Triss!

    Votes: 63 23.1%

  • Total voters
    273
Whilst I do like her green eyes and red hair in the game... I would prefer if it was changed to chestnut and blue

Well, nothing a modder (even of my level) can fix.

That'd be awesome! Man I can't wait for the Red kit to come out!
 
Well, other than the obvious panicking in life or death situations, you really see a lot of insecurity and fear of conflict in her relationships with Geralt and Philippa. In the Witcher 3, Triss still respects Philippa and seems to view her as a mentor, even though Philippa views her with utter contempt and has screwed her over bigtime both in the books and games. It seems to me that she's afraid to face the truth and fracture her relationship with a powerful patron. And when she gets upset with Geralt for going to confront Imlerith without telling anyone (and she's right! It was stupid!), she concedes the argument immediately after he rebuts with the extremely weak "Uhh, hey, you know I'd never let anything happen to Ciri" and pecks her on the forehead.

She's showing more backbone, sure, but I think the panicked plunge into quick fatalism in Now or Never and the fact that she is scared to press home an argument against Geralt -- even when she's clearly in the right -- just reinforces that the flaw is still present.

No one is perfect and indeed she might have been a coward in the books, no idea though exactly when she breaks and runs. Everybody has a limit though, again can't really say much since I'm not aware of the particulars, maybe somebody who read the books can provide some input on the subject.

Regarding fear though, everybody except crazy people feel it. It is what you when fear dominates you that defines a person. In the games it is clear she is trying to overcome it. I can think of three situations that might cause someone to take the easy route.

In Novigrad, with all the public burnings and such, she could have taken the easy road and teleported to an isolated place. Instead she remains and does something about it.
Again when Geralt asks for help, she masters her fear and suggest a risky plan.
Finally in the battle of KM, when the WH is about to overwhelm her, she doesn't turn tails and run but stays until Ciri comes to her rescue. Sadly she doesn't get more screentime so there are not many more examples.

As for the arguments, the situations work more like the two of them reach a better plan between the two as opposed one party doing whatever they want. It's called being reasonable, wise, team play, etc. Oh and she won't get into the water to retrieve the package no matter what, so she doesn't concede on everything :)

Fatalism, idk, if you are in a crappy situation and tense situation like that, it is normal to feel those things. She doesn't stop though. And I liked the fact that she relies on Geralt for help and thanks him. Some of the banter goes like "You've no idea how good it is to have somebody you can rely on on this shitty city." Geralt relies on her and thanks her too. It is called, being a decent human being.

Still, I wouldn't have minded if she actually broke down once and needed Geralt to calm her down. Like I said earlier they made her literally flawless in this last iteration.

Yen also concedes intermediately in the matter of their little escapade. And that's good, there are enough missing dialogues in the game to devote resources to that particular scenario.

As for Yen, I find her characterization very interesting. What I don't like is the lack of options when interacting with her. It does get better once the spell is broken (romanced or not), so I guess we can blame that on the malicious nature of dijins.

That aside, there are very good moments with Yen, her sense of humor and sarcasm I find them very appealing. Like "the view is to die for" or their jokes about a "wolf's life"

And none can fault her driven nature, it is very good too. Yet we can't mix being rude and secretive with that. They don't necessarily have to go together.

To summarize, Yen is a situation of glass half empty/full. She has very good qualities and very bad ones. With Triss, the glass is filled to the brim and dripping.
 
Yennefer! She is a blast!
Their love is a great deal. (If you read the books you'll understand, Yen had a very rough childhood). Triss is just a fling to Geralt, beside of course being a friend.
This game is made for Yennefer and Geralt. You understand it even from the trailers. If you don't romance Yennefer you miss so many fun dialogs and talk options. They are so fun to watch!

My favorite love is the elf in passiflora. I hoped Geralt could "save" her from there instead of being with those drama queens. ;)
 
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Haven't read the books. Played W1 and W3. There was no option for Yen in W1 or W2. I partnered with Triss in both W1 and W2. I get the idea of the backstory with Yen but fact is to romance Yen would feel more 'fitting in' with what appears to be the expected set up. I agree with previous poster that there is more interaction between Yen and Geralt and this would appear to indicate that the writers (i.e. game devs) have deliberately weighted the game towards the Yen-Geralt hook up. Having been with Triss consistently I agree that in comparison the number and depth of interactions is lacking compared to Yen. But I intend to pick up my game save just before committment time in 'Now Or Never' and not tell Triss 'I love you', then try the Yen path. Well, I intend to; but I always find it really difficult to play out of character in games. And I'll need to finish the game first - which I'm avoiding madly by doing everything else but finish! There are a lot of characteristics of Yen that remind me of my wife. Sometimes getting through shitty bits in life can grow a lot of shiney sharp bristles on people. Sometimes it's really not worth working through the stings and barbs but sometimes under all that you find something that makes dealing with all that the best decision you ever made. Err - gee, have I just argued myself into an awkward illogicality? Blarg - stupid #$%$#ing video game!! :X :help:
 
I've read the books for the first time in 2005, at age of 16, and was a bit shocked with Yen personality: it broke a few stereotypes in my mind about how main heroes in such type of books are usually portrayed. And I can't say that I was very fond of her, my final reception still was quite ambivalent.

Since then I've re-read the whole saga three times (right after TW1 release and right before TW2 and TW3 releases). And the deeper I get into the lore, the older I get myself - the better I understand her and her motives, and the more I respect and like her. Now I am strongly believing that Yennefer and depiction of her relationships with Geralt are the one of the greatest achievements of pan Sapkowski as a writer.

And I couldn't get rid of this feeling in the game, which is a compliment to CDPR writers :)
 
you forgot to add "in my opinion" because there are people who think differently.

I don't think it's necessary to add "in my opinion" to a discussion of which romance option you prefer for your fantasy protagonist in a video game. It's explicitly implicit already, just by the nature of the discussion. :)
 
I've read the books for the first time in 2005, at age of 16, and was a bit shocked with Yen personality: it broke a few stereotypes in my mind about how main heroes in such type of books are usually portrayed. And I can't say that I was very fond of her, my final reception still was quite ambivalent.

Since then I've re-read the whole saga three times (right after TW1 release and right before TW2 and TW3 releases). And the deeper I get into the lore, the older I get myself - the better I understand her and her motives, and the more I respect and like her. Now I am strongly believing that Yennefer and depiction of her relationships with Geralt are the one of the greatest achievements of pan Sapkowski as a writer.

And I couldn't get rid of this feeling in the game, which is a compliment to CDPR writers :)

+1
 
Not sure if poll results are legit. Are we talking about the 'books' as in whole saga? How can people still hate Yen after reading Lady of the Lake?? Or are half of the guys who voted "read the books and choose Triss" because they started reading the books after the games, where they already have a bias opinion? Triss was portrayed quite negatively in the books as well. hm. May someone enlighten me?
 
Not sure if poll results are legit. Are we talking about the 'books' as in whole saga? How can people still hate Yen after reading Lady of the Lake?? Or are half of the guys who voted "read the books and choose Triss" because they started reading the books after the games, where they already have a bias opinion? Triss was portrayed quite negatively in the books as well. hm. May someone enlighten me?
it's quite simple. They have different opinion. There is nothing wrong that they like Triss. Or you think Triss character is so bad that no one can feel sympathy towards her?
 
It's really not ridiculous, though. One of the things that makes these characters fun and engaging and interesting is that they've all got a tragic flaw, and Triss's real glaring flaw is cowardice. That manifests itself a bunch of times in the books, and while I think they did an understated job of it in the games, it still shows through really well:

- Wanted to flee at Sodden Hill, and again in Rivia when the shit hit the fan. Both times Yen slapped some resolve into her.

- Wouldn't stand up to Philippa or other powerful members of the Lodge in the books, even though she says herself that what they're doing is wrong.

- When the Nilfgaardians have her in TW2 she loses it before they even get down to the torture.

- In Now or Never, she's completely panicked throughout the whole thing. If Geralt doesn't show up, the whole thing is doomed.

Yennefer's flaw is that she's completely self-absorbed and the examples of this are numerous going back to her introduction in The Last Wish.

And in their relationships with Geralt these flaws manifest themselves pretty obviously. Yennefer will never, ever allow Geralt to win an argument with her, she has to be the dominant force in the relationship. And Triss is too insecure to really assert herself, which makes her come across as weak and submissive when she's with Geralt (and she mostly is).

Thank you! someone who has read the books. It's starting to piss me off when these people who have "allegedly" read the books still flame on Yen. Not being defensive but people are technically saying Sapkowski's literature is crap compared to the game which is more 'ridiculous'
 
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For what it's worth, I do not think the novels are particularly great. There are some great moments in them, but the overall narrative has serious issues, which I don't think it'd be appropriate or constructive to go into detail about here and now.

Yen is not written as a likeable or particularly good person. That people love her and think she's great is entirely puzzling to me. To me, their relationship is more of a tragic look at a good man trying to save a bad woman from herself, in kind of a twist on the classic device of a good woman trying to save a bad man from himself.

How can people still hate Yen after reading Lady of the Lake??

It's not a question of hating the character, it's a role-playing game in which you've been placed in the shoes of Geralt of Rivia and you're making the decisions for him. If you gave me the choice of hitching the rest of my life to a spiteful, possessive, self-absorbed woman who doesn't really respect my values or opinions,* I'd say "no way." Partially because I've been there before (it's miserable) and partially because I'm removed from the situation and I can see it for what it is.

Throw Triss out of the equation entirely. I'm sending that second djinn a fruit basket.


* She has good qualities, too, of course.
 
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it's quite simple. They have different opinion. There is nothing wrong that they like Triss. Or you think Triss character is so bad that no one can feel sympathy towards her?

Triss is not bad,but she's a minor character compared to Yen.And Triss wasn't portrayed in a particularly postive light in the later books.I gree the results of the poll are very questionable.
 
To me, their relationship is more of a tragic look at a good man trying to save a bad woman from herself, in kind of a twist on the classic device of a good woman trying to save a bad man from himself.

I'm sure a lot of readers and even Sapkowski himself would disagree with the way you look at their relationship. But it's your opinion and I respect it. It's really hard for people who have not read the entire saga to understand Yen's position or Geralt's perspective. CDProject Red also made it seem like whatever romance between Geralt and Yen was held by the last wish, this is of course due to the fact so that the choice to romance Triss is open. But in fact, in the 1st book containing the last wish short story conveyed that the last wish only causes Geralt's Fate to intertwine with Yen for their rest of their life, which he did so to save this Sorceress' life whom he just met from the cunning Djinn. There was actually never love involved in the last wish but only fate. I understand that a lot of people will find Triss' personality more attractive and comfortable but there are also a lot of people in the forum who put down Yen's role in the series which I feel compelled to explain. Thanks for hearing me out anyways.
 
 
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