I cannot understand how some people love Yennefer so much. She shows such a selfish, spiteful and power-hungry personality much of the time. I think she is a great invention of Sapkowski but even in the books she's pretty awful. I think the only men to like such a woman would have some kind of emotional damage. So she is interesting to watch but impossible to like IMO.
Yeah im not even going to respond to you. I would take thousands of words to explain Yens deep, complex character properly so that you would understand her and realise she actually ISN'T selfish in the slightest bit, she isn't power-hungry at all either. Infact ill respond to these 2 statements briefly... So power-hungry you say? That's why she drops out of politics, plots in order to retire happily with Geralt, together, doing what they want, when they want and wherever they want. If she cared about power she would remain in her court sorceress position at Emhyr's court, or she would of joined the lodge.
Selfish you say? Am i reading this or do my eyes deceive me. Sacrificing herself to 4 months imprisonment because she wanted to find her daughter Ciri, Sacrificing her life to try and revive Geralt, Just like Geralt did in the books she used her one wish for matters of love and affection and not to gain power. Geralt could of asked for power but instead choose to save Yens life, Yen could of asked for power but instead wanted to be truly 100% in love with Geralt without the dark cloud over their head that it might be a side affect of a wish. Pinning all the blame on herself after Freya's garden and not letting geralt take any of it. why? She loves and respects and cares for him and doesn't want him to take unnecessary reputation damage for her actions. Many other situations she acts completely SELFLESS not Selfish but i cba listing em all off.
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I was one of the people who disliked yenn because i didn't knew a lot about her, I've seen her action in game and refused to help her with the djinn, i got to admit that ive seen her as a monster and refused to see her good points ported in the game. Then ive seen this thread and it opened my eyes toward her, it made me do a 180 in the way i see her behavior and started to understand her actions and reasons.
What i love about yennefer is that she seems like a real person, she can be reckless and impatient. She love ciri in a way that make her do things that will punish her, because time is at the essence and she will take full responsibility for her actions. She forgave geralt and triss for their affair, geralt had an affair with her best friend. Yeneffer was triss's best friend years before she meet geralt, this alone tell so much about her.
She forgives Geralt but im not so sure if she forgives Triss. She already told Triss off about in the books and she does it again and this time even worse in the games. Geralt also lost his memory, yeah she doesn't like to look at that as an excuse but deep down she understands. Imagine for instance Yennefer had amnesia for 1 year and geralt found out she had been banging Eskel for the past Year until she regained her memory. Yes, you understand and can forgive, but it wouldn't exactly be easy. You wouldn't just go "Eskel been shagging my love? Ohh well Yen lost her memory" He would be pissed asf at Eskel for betraying him like that and with Yen he would be like "You lost your memory... whatever.. still disgusting asf you know this... eughh"
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Ok I think you can't even imagine how many times that topic has popped up already, in the exact same words you use....
So I'll just post here a link to some tumblr post I made to answer that very question
here you go
That post you have is good. But there is one problem, you make it seem like Yennefer is the bigger one to cause the mistakes when it actually the other way round. Geralt is one who she put her trust into finally after 60-70 years of being a sorceress (at this point, vengerberg) and Geralt is the one who ran away from her with but a simple letter, imagine how she felt from that? For her then to be able to get back with him when he suddenly shows up again, 4 years later? Absolutely remarkable. Just shows how much Geralt actually meant to her and how much she loved him. Yes, she didn't actually realise it was love that was bringing her back to him, she didn't understand why she is still connected to this man after the betrayal he did, but she was and we know from her later accepting that she can infact love somebody that she loves Geralt. That is why she was able to forgive him and get back with him. When Geralt however is incapable of confessing his love for her after she had decided to leave Istredd, she realises that i do infact love Geralt, but i can't enter a relationship with him if he can't admit it, i need that clarity to enter a proper relationship and i can't do based of Don't Knows. Thus is why SHE now in turns runs away from Geralt, leaving behind a letter. It just builds the characters and both realise how similar and yet so different they are and these opposites attract them to each other very deeply, the past they have been through and the situations they have both had to endured. It's one of the main reasons that bound them, that and also their daughter and their unparalleled love for each other