Teenagers are absolutely terrible and the fact that even blood related adults put up with them is a small natural miracle in and of itself, (I say that as a former rebellious youth myself, albeit a parent of small children still). They both have strong, abrasive personalities. They clash at first, and not only then, which is not unheard of in real life as well. They do grow out of it pretty quickly (one might argue abnormally so) and develop respect and strong feelings for each other, despite the ego clash. It's a rather accurate depiction of the often fraught parent-child relationship, actually.
Ah, but real parents of a teenager have had many years in which they have proved their love. So there is room for clashing without permanent damage. But for someone very powerful, old and experienced, to meet a vulnerable orphan and treat them badly from the beginning (before the girl has had time to show whether she is a likeable character or not) is cruel.
I have now finished 'Blood of Elves' and found that Yennefer continues to be cruel to Ciri right to the end (as well as having some lighter and better moments'. Here are some examples:
Y to Ciri: "Let's go, my ugly one" C: 'Why do you call me that?" Y: "I promised to be sincere." [how confidence-building, not!]
And bullying threats: "I can paralyse you, force you to drink an elixir, strip you naked, lay you out on the table and examine you for hours..." She does not, of course, do any of these things to Ciri, but imagine how scared the girl must have felt. I think if Geralt had witnessed this he would have been furious; but then Y could have put a spell on him to stop him reacting or even seeing. The fact that Ciri later comes close to Y (after enduring so much) is indicative of how forgiving she is, and how needy she is - like a dog that is kicked but still adores its master.
Now on to 'Time of Contempt' where I hope I will understand Y better. So far there has been little to redeem her, although I think Sapkowski's portrayal is superb.
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Hmmm don't take it the wrong way, I'm just curious but it seems to me that you are reading the books while being already biased towards Yennefer and that you try to find every little thing to prove that you're right. For example that quote you misused, choosing to believe that it meant the exact opposite of what Sapkowski actually intended it to mean. I mean one of the things that is awesome about Sapkowski's books is that every single character in there is very complex with both qualities and flaws. Which means that if you look for it you could actually prove that all the characters in the books are very bad people if you choose to only see their bad side. I just hope that you will continue reading and be open minded about that character, I seriously, sincerely do hope so, because you will miss a lot of interesting stuff if you just choose to discard half the information because it's not what you thought it would be.
The knowledge I have of Yennefer before the books is based on W3 and I actually think she is made out to be marginally worse in the game than the books (I have only read the first three). So yes, I began reading because I didn't like her at all so far. I want to understand her and what Geralt sees in her. I agree that imperfect characters are a lot more interesting to read about than goody-goodies. I do have moral boundaries, though, crossing which might stop me from truly loving a character. Unjustified unkindness to kids is one of those boundaries so I am finding Y very hard to like at the moment. I will persevere and maybe change my mind later in the series. Hats off to the author for having developed a character (well, more than one character) who are interesting enough to make us consider and discuss them so deeply.
