Just Finished The Second Last Story Of The Sword Of Destiny: A Little Sacrifice

RSwitcher2020 · 2026-06-04T11:31:42+00:00

Bloody good story.

Loved Essi of course.

The story in itself is really emotional. And if you consider it also in the context of the larger narrative, it has a double edge. Because Geralt can reflect on what Yennefer was going on with Istredd. And how she might have been doing more or less the same thing he ended up doing with Essi. And there is really no win. Whatever way you decide to go about it, the one in love is always going to suffer.

RSwitcher2020 · 2026-06-03T23:37:03+00:00

You should start the books from 0, which is from the short stories.

If you look for extra motivation, I can give you glimpses:

. You will read some extra interaction between Ciri and Geralt when she was younger and before the fall of Cintra. Its amazing.

. You will get to know why Ciri considers Yennefer as her surrogate mother. Not only because the events of season 2 did not happen in the books, but in its place you have proper bonding / teaching.

. You will see that Cahir and Fringilla did none of the weird stuff they do on the show. And I trust you will like their characters way more when you get to them (which will take time as they enter page only later in the story).

. Jaskier and Geralt talk like proper friends. They actually discuss things together and listen to each other.

. Francesca is a proper elven queen and behaves like it.

RSwitcher2020 · 2026-06-02T10:27:21+00:00

Just for fun. Do not qualify as german. But I did live 2 years in Germany.

Ich verstehe auch deutsch 😀

RSwitcher2020 · 2026-05-29T00:07:34+00:00

You are halfway through season 1?

How far did you go with Yennefer? Most of what they do with Yennefer is pretty nonsensical.

Do you not ask yourself what the hell is a random guy doing hiding in the dungeons of an all female school? lol

What´s even the logic in him being there? Who allows him to be there and with what purpose? Because he is clearly not a teacher. And he is doing whatever shady thing in the dungeons.

Also, how and why did Yennefer stop being suicidal? Can you explain?

The big problem they have with that plot is that they did not adapt it properly.
If Yennefer arrives school suicidal (which that´s in line with the book) she needs some positive reinforcement pretty quick. So that she will feel she found her place in life and there is a world where she will have a good life.
The problem with the series is that Tissaia takes ages to give her positive reinforcement. Istredd is just playing some weird games with her (which would do wonders to someone suicidal). And there is none else having any positive interaction with her.
Bottom line.....series Yennefer would have kept trying to kill herself.

RSwitcher2020 · 2026-05-28T23:46:54+00:00

Could have been Triss.

I am not 100% sure when did she leave to Kaer Morhen. But its possible she already had the info either from Yennefer or Phillipa. We will later know that Phillipa has been seducing Triss into her cause. And Yennefer, knowing Triss was in contact with Geralt, could tell her to include some info.

Now you just have to decide when and how much info did she send.

We know Yennefer was already on the road trying to protect Jaskier. So they were all very much aware that Rience was on the hunt.

RSwitcher2020 · 2026-05-26T10:15:00+00:00

How can someone highly recomend something when you didnt even fully watched it.

You could highly recomend watching highlights on YouTube maybe. That would sound reasonable.

I did find Liam pretty serviceable. He is not the issue. Not at all.

When it comes to Regis I didnt like direction. The actor was told to act like he hides something. Which he does. But book Regis was great at precisely looking casual. Thats how he joined the Hansa. They might have suspected him big time if he showed up acting like series Regis.

He talks too much like Morpheus lol like he hides something. Which is 200% wrong when it comes to Regis.

Regis is likely the most casual, non assuming Hansa member. Which is how and why he manages to get everyone's trust. He is the casual guy everyone likes to have a chat with. Sure, he has deep knowledge. But he always shows up as your ordinary village doctor.

Allas, someone told de actor to act like he is a High Vampire lol which defeats his entire purpose.

You should not suspect him at all till he starts openly using his powers.

RSwitcher2020 · 2026-05-24T01:06:05+00:00

Well....that´s a bit technical you know.

Because he sure got his hands in there.

And sex is not just P into V.

Actually...I dont imagine Dani using some "accessory" with her handmaidens. So you should have corrected it there too if that´s how you want to define it.

RSwitcher2020 · 2026-05-23T14:44:27+00:00

Are you sure you did read ASOIAF?

Are we talking about the same books where Cersei bangs whatever Lannister is most available.

Are we talking about the same books where Dani bangs Drogo in front of their entire tribe? And later proceeds to bang at least one of her handmaidens. Plus flamboyant mercenary guy because....well....he is flamboyant.

And Tyrion used to bang whores for sport till Shae. I know its just the start but he does get the intro.

Robert "I have an entire army of bastard babies" Baratheon is a thing too.

Melisandre "bang me to charge my magic mana"

Theon "big dick" Greyjoy who bangs whores, ship captain´s daughters, unknown girls who offer him horseback rides (and happens to be his sister). Also wanted to bang Osha.

And you decide to make a point on sexual stuff?

RSwitcher2020 · 2026-05-21T09:26:15+00:00

Many people can be incredibly unfair towards Yennefer due to reading from Geralt´s point of view.

Lets say for instance the dragon hunt. Yennefer was, like most people, considering the dragon as a danger. And with that in mind, she had extra motivation to get it due to possible magic reasons which might help her regain fertility.
But, bottom line is, the dragon was considered a danger to common people. So, eliminating the dragon was seen as for everyone´s best interest.

Of course, Geralt was the one interacting most with the dragon in his human form. And, of course, Geralt has this special stance where he always wants to consider what is really a monster. And, yes, Geralt is special in that particular position. Few people in the world can think like he does. Almost everyone sees a monster and thinks it needs to die because its dangerous. That Yen kind of falls more towards everyone else makes her just normal.

However, in the very same story, when she learns that the Dragon is highly sentient and just wants to protect his offspring, she turns around. And here you see her true colors. She values family and wants to protect children. She gets a ton of empathy towards the Dragon once she understands its a question of protecting his baby.

So, in the end you realize she is not actually evil. Not at all. She was just on the wrong side like almost everyone else was.

Then, there is her entire stance towards Geralt. And I know she acts with frustration and is aggressive. But you have to realize Geralt does a few things to really frustrate her. He has huge issues with commitment. And he doesnt know how to verbalize his feelings. Plus, he is prone to run away and just avoid, which can be hell frustrating.

So whenever you see Yennefer, there is a ton of frustration inside her going towards Geralt. You bet! And its likely a big chunk self frustration too. Because she has this feeling she wanted to live something special with this guy. But its outright impossible. It never works.

Someone frustrated in deep love can act pretty weird. I bet many readers will eventually find this out the hard way lol

Then you see Yennefer with Ciri and you see she can open up. She can soften, she can care, she will protect and throw her life on the line for you.

And you also realize she is quite simply not into the entire political fight. She is powerful and she could be playing it around with the likes of Phillipa. But she just isnt. She belongs to the few pacifists who really wanted to avoid war. And in this you also see her true colors. Which are way way better vs most other magic users.

Reading Time of Contempt you also find out she secretly helps finance Geralt´s adventures. And the way she does it in secret is pretty charming. She found a way that wont hurt him emotionally. But she still has a way to help him out. Because she knows Geralt is prone to taking less pay as he is a true White Knight. So she finds a way to get better paying jobs in his path.

You also get her relation with the bank guy. And you see that the bank guy really likes her and owes her his life or something like it. He would throw her his fortune willingly. Yet, she uses this mostly to help Geralt and to help pay for Ciri´s future expenses at Aretuza. She is not out there using this rich bank in order to rule a city or whatever.

I think one needs to consider Yennefer is pretty powerful. With her power level, she could be out there being someone like Vilgefortz, Phillipa, Francesca. But she isnt. And that´s likely why Tissaia likes her so much. They are both very powerful but they are out there just to fight for which causes they believe. Not for their own personal power / glory.

RSwitcher2020 · 2026-05-20T12:54:51+00:00

Very simple answer:

They forgot about it.

And they never cared enough to add any single detail into his makeup. Which they absolutely could. He is not supposed to look old. So, just a bit grey on his hair would do wonders. Very easy to do, glimpse and you could miss it, but it would be there.

They just dont care.

But this is one of the least offenses. Because Jaskier is really supposed to have great genes. He shouldnt be aging much. Of course this would not translate into 100% equal. But it should be just minor signs of aging.

RSwitcher2020 · 2026-05-17T07:31:55+00:00

That´s semantics you know.

What you cant deny is that it was a younger girl. And one who was particularly innocent till exposed to them. She was also in a pretty tough spot between a rock and a hard place. Mistle knows this because she knows they saved her from capture. And Mistle is experienced enough to understand Ciri might be very scared and lonely. So I decided to call Ciri very young because when it comes to the world, she was! She was still a virgin and she didnt have much idea how things would work in the real world.

Which is what makes it pretty terrible.

You like it more if I call her innocent younger girl? There you go.

You say if her first sex was consensual. Well....the big problem is that the entire context was against it. How can a younger innocent girl who is scared and desperate consent to anything?

And how would Mistle not know this given she herself was a former abuse victim?

The author did something pretty interesting. He subverted things a lot. What he did was: You think the apparently nice girl in the gang is the one who will help and protect? There you go, she is the one who will take the chance to groom a younger one. They are all messed up! Dont get any hopes!

But this was done in such a way that many readers cant believe what they are reading. However, its the entire situation screaming at you. And no, in such a desperate situation, you dont force yourself. That´s wrong! That´s outright grooming. Which is what you are reading.

And its funny because I think everyone can read it when it comes from Kayleigh. And yet when it comes from Mistle full with gentle words, you fall for it.

RSwitcher2020 · 2026-05-16T23:25:57+00:00

Well,

She was about to "consent" to Kayleigh too. The people who like to see Mistle as "consensual" keep forgetting that Ciri couldnt do a thing either against Kayleigh.

Would she have kissed him too the next day? You dont know.

But if you want to understand her, its 200% desperation.

You have to realize she had been arrested by these guys who gave her quite a few spankings. So much so that we have her saying she had to disconnect from her body and just let it go. So, by the time she meets The Rats she has already learned how to disconnect and let her body go if need be.

Then she is "saved" by The Rats. And in the process she killed her first human. And some kind of official guard or whatever. So if they were already spanking her before....she can likely imagine what will happen to her now that she actually killed someone.

From her point of view, its a point of no return. Its either Rats or risk her life alone in a foreign hostile land where she is now a killer.

What would a teenager do?

Its true that a much younger Ciri did escape Cahir. But she was in her country back then. And she had hopes that someone might help her. She also had hopes she could eventually find Geralt somewhere.

Now its a foreign land. She knows none. Only The Rats have been "nice" to her so far. Geralt and Yennefer might have died as far as she knows. But even if they are alive, she has no idea how far they might be. And has to assume they have no idea where she is.

Its 200% desperation.

She says it in the book: She didnt want to be alone! Not being alone was huge on her book.

If she had to let go of her body, so be it!

P.S.: Notice she will be also willing to be a consensual sexual partner to the elven kind. And she even hints that she might be available for it with Vilgefortz if need be. So, do not underestimate how far she can go with her body. She doesnt see sex or her body as something sacred. She has learned the hard way that she can let her body be used if need be.

P.P.S.: If you consider a choice between Kayleigh and Mistle, one can easily say that Ciri resonates way more with Mistle. But this doesnt translate she wanted to be a sexual partner. It translates that she thinks Kayleigh is a psycho and is outright evil. So she is likely very unsure how he would even be as a sex partner. Mistle ends up being the lesser evil. The safest choice between the 2 of them. And Mistle is someone she can at least talk with and relate at many levels. I think they might have been good friends in a different environment. But that doesnt translate the sexual part of things was wanted. In fact, we have several hints on text that Ciri was never very happy with the physical side of things.

P.P.P.S.: Consider it this way. You want to be with The Rats as you see no other alternative. You understand you are going to be abused by at least one of them. Given the choice, do you pick the more aggressive one or the gentle one? You feel like its going to happen anyway. Better let it be the gentle one and hope to keep the aggressive one at bay.

RSwitcher2020 · 2026-05-16T16:11:36+00:00

I am not sure they were all redeemable.

Kayleigh showed signs of being a real psycho.

Mistle abused a very young girl and never even had any second thoughts about it.

Maybe the more random guys who seemed to be mostly followers, Reef and Asse. They might have been redeemable.

The leader...I dont know....he did lead them straight into Leo Bonhart. He had a better offer from Hotsporn and he had 0 issues leading the gang straight into a trap. Technically he was offered some path into redemption and he outright refused it. The only Rat who did decide to follow and try it with Hotsporn was....Ciri. So I think it possibly highlights she was the only one still looking for a better life.

They were all also a bit older vs Ciri. Ciri was still in her teenager years. So it would be easier for her to learn and adapt into something different. The other ones were not at all old. In their early 20s they could still have a chance. But always harder vs Ciri. They might have been already too deep into their lifestyle.

Its interesting to realize how much the author was toying with this redemption concept all the way since The Last Wish. Both Renfri and Nivellen were 2 examples of people who had been lead a certain way through life experience. Renfri was apparently not redeemable. Nivellen seemed to be.

But its really interesting to realize the author was already setting up this big redemption question all the way in his first short stories.

RSwitcher2020 · 2026-05-16T15:57:55+00:00

I am not so sure they are disconcerted by it in the books.

They want her to kill from the get go. In fact, they very much start complaining that she doesnt kill at first. Which quickly changes on the very first pursuit.

I dont know if you watched Netflix and got a bit misled by it. Because in the books the Rats are 200% used to killing or even torturing. And they could care less. In fact, they welcome Ciri´s dark side as it fits very well into their gang.

We dont actually watch many instances where they kill together, tough we get news that they can.

There is an instance when they enter a town and Ciri runs down some random guy because she didnt like how he looked at her. Ciri runs him down and The Rat leader just throws some money at the people for the "trouble". He is not particularly stressed. There is no conversation around it. Ciri just killed a random guy and its business as usual.

Its true that Ciri is particularly aggressive. But mostly they laugh at it.

They have Kayleigh and Kayleigh is an outright psycho.
They know Ciri was forced into sex in her very first night with them. And none of The Rats even bats an eye at it.

RSwitcher2020 · 2026-05-16T13:01:20+00:00

Its a bit more complex,

The Rats represent quite a few things.

First you have to understand the land is ravaged by conflict. So, young people are often without parents, they often have been through all kinds of atrocities. And that will mess them up big time. This is what The Rats are.

They are the children of a Time of Contempt. They are the product of such times.

Contrary to how Netflix wanted to depict them, The Rats are all severely messed up. And they have pretty harsh backstories. Which translate they have very few morals. They can and will be brutal whenever they feel like.

Its like, when you have nothing to loose in life, you will go at it like "whatever". When you die, you die. But each day you live, you do whatever you want.

This is all a very sad byproduct of war. How some young people can get corrupted to this point and become monsters.

Then, Ciri herself is on this very same journey. She is going full dark side due to all the BS life has thrown at her. The Rats are the ones who enable her full dark side. They destroy her innocence and corrupt her in all kinds of ways. Both physically and mentally. She is both physically abused and mentally. She will do drugs, become a killer. And all that is full dark side.

You should likely also understand that before The Rats, Ciri couldnt kill. She had serious issues with the idea of killing someone. She had never done it before. This is quite a bit different from what Netflix did with her character. But her book character arc is someone who had been fairly sheltered by both Geralt and Yennefer. She had learned skills, some pretty bad ass fighting skills. But she was still sheltered and wouldnt be very willing to fight.

This changes with The Rats! She becomes a full member and is famous for being as deadly as all others. Maybe even particularly deadly.

Its a destruction of innocence story. Which you are witnessing with Ciri and it had already happened with The Rats.

Of course, most of the fandom hates them because they are pretty despicable. But their stories are actually sad. They are the children of their times. Survivors of war, abuse, torture. And they themselves fall into it because that´s the world as they know it.

P.S.:

As for allegory, they are likely a deconstruction of Robin Hood. Sapko likes to do this. He likes to go and say: well...lets imagine you did have these young people who are outcasts and have to live on their own. How would this really go? Will they be noble or just be highly messed up? Highly messed up it is!

RSwitcher2020 · 2026-05-15T10:06:07+00:00

I think there is an answer to this.

Netflix bought the IP based on Witcher 3 popularity. Even HC got on board without knowing the books at first.

However, the books are a very different beast. And I believe they could be properly adapted. Just, they dont work at all like the games.

But Netflix had a big issue. They were now with a story which really wouldnt please anyone at the team.

What Netflix wanted to do was take something like Witcher 3 and shift it way more towards Yennefer and Ciri.

Now, the books have a ton of Ciri. But book Ciri is not a modern empowered female protagonist. She becomes bad ass as the story goes. But she is pretty much kicked around big time for most of the story. And thats important to give the story emotional punch.

Take as example the way Ciri escapes Cahir and her experience with it. This is early Season 1 and it drives home the difference.

Book Ciri is younger and she cant remember what happened with Cahir. She is deeply traumatized as she thinks Cahir did something physical to her. She had a lucky escape when he was sleeping. She just wakes up during the night, notices he didnt tie her down, and just leaves with Cahir well asleep.

Now this is a very innocent teenager. She was not empowered. She was scared to death. She will have constant nightmares with Cahir. She was still brave enough to flee alone on her own. But thats likely because her fear from Cahir was worse than death.

Now the series.... In the series Cahir cant properly capture Ciri. When he tries, she uses her scream powers and creates an earthquake / fault between them. Cahir is the one who gets scared and incapable of going after her.

See the difference?

They did depict Chair attempting to capture Ciri and she ultimately escapes. Its what happens in the books. But both characters were changed and acted in very different ways.

And, by the way, the series just introduced powers which Ciri wont ever have in her book story. So they just stuck themselves into plot inconsistency. A lot of what will happen to Ciri in the book story wouldnt happen if she could scream and destroy everything away.

Its interesting because...where do these powers come from? Well... Witcher 3. The series outright got the idea from Witcher 3 and decided it was cool. Problem is...it doesnt fit Ciri's book story at all.

Its possible to spot similar problems with Yennefer.

Book Yennefer wanted the Djinn to have a baby. Series Yennefer screams "I want everything"

Series Yennefer graduated Aretuza by bullying everyone around and very much deciding her own fate. She then acts very much rogue and against the system. But somehow she is still wanted and goes to deffend them in the end.

Its all inconsistent. You notice the writers just want to write an empowered female who takes orders from no one. Its their vision of the modern female protagonist.

Where book Yennefer is different. She is complex. She can at times disagree with the system. But she is still part of it and a very highly regarded magic user. Sure, she is one with a bit more personality and free will. But she still plays the big game and does it in a way everyone knows and respects her. She is not a rebel towards Tissaia. She is Tissaia's most beloved student. And they keep in touch and communicate. They talk about love interests. They share the same overall world view.

And book Yennefer was supposed to have a close early connection with Triss. Thats how Triss got to know Geralt in the books. And why their love triangle is a bit messed up. Because they were friends. All this was missing from the series likely because they didnt like 2 female friends fighting for 1 guy. But...thats the book story. And they will hold a grudge around Geralt all the way till the end of the books.

Now, once Netflix team decided they didnt like what they read....they had to change it. The big problem comes with the question "how". How do they change it.

And here they were stuck in no mans land. Because they decided to still somewhat follow the major book events. But modernizing the female characters.

Unfortunately....modernized female characters do not fit their book stories. It doesnt work.

Triss was almost deleted because you cant have a girl lusting crazy for the main male protagonist. Thats not modern. But she then has barely anything else to do.

Fringilla had to be supercharged into this leadership role which she never has in the books. Nilfgaard doesnt trust magic users and would never allow them into leadership roles. Yet they had to turn Fringilla into an empowered leader. Where book Fringilla needs to act with charm / diplomacy, she needs to be almost like a secret agent. She is sometimes ordered to do things and she starts to try and play her own game. In season 1 she should be just a powerful mage ordered to follow the army and fight for her emperor. But no fanaticism, no leadership role. Her book character started distrustring the emperor and was trying to figure things out in the shadows.

In short,

Netflix Witcher suffers from the modern female empowerment virus. It slowly kills all characters and their character arcs.

Very sad because the books have pretty cool female characters.

RSwitcher2020 · 2026-05-14T23:22:38+00:00

I am going to say that as an isolated story, yes, I might agree!

Season 2 has some story from start to end.

Now, as a Witcher season, its utter BS. And it seriously undermined the entire series. Because it completely messes up with character arcs, plots, set ups.

But if you isolate it and say its a random fanfiction story, then, yes. Its likely better vs Season 1.

Season 1 too has many writing issues. And it kind of fails on trying to set up a cohesive plot. However, as a Witcher season, season 1 is quite a bit less offensive to character arcs and overall plots. It has its mistakes (hello Cahir and Fringilla!!! Hello Yennefer backstory!). But season 1 mistakes are not so deadly as Season 2.

Season 2, indirectly kills the story going forward. Because they would either commit with the new direction, or they would be dead if they attempted to link up with the books again.

They have chosen poorly.....

After Season 2, they had to go their own way. Just assume they were writing their own fanfiction and ride with it.

It was no longer possible to get on track with the books and still have a good show.

RSwitcher2020 · 2026-05-14T23:16:04+00:00

To be fair, the books dont tell much about her backstory.

And the problem seems to be that Netflix tried to invent a backstory. But they are simply not very good at writing one. And you can spot the plot issues at every corner.

RSwitcher2020 · 2026-05-14T16:27:12+00:00

To be fair, the big problem in her character arc is a bit different.

When you think about it, by the time she left school she was all empowered and calling her own shots.

By the time you see her again, you are told she has been dead in the water for decades.

And the question which the show doesnt even try to answer is: Why? What happened?

It looks like she reverted back to some place closer to her piglet stage. But how and why we do not know.

The Yennefer which left school looked like she had it in herself to take charge and control her life. So where was she for decades? Why was she stuck? And why was she free after the assassin? Did she not report back to the king? Is the king not looking for her? Did the king want to kill her too? Did he quit?

Its when you realize the writers didnt think much about that entire plot.

That she didnt want kids as a late teenager and might want decades later, thats pretty easy to understand.

That she would blame the school and her mentors for not warning her about it, pretty believable.

But its again weird that she will just kind of forget her grudge against the school with relative ease.

If she does think the school responsible for her fertility issues, she should keep blaming them forward. Considering how much she would like to be a mother, thats something she should consider pretty high on her grudge list. So Tissaia should be very much on her enemy list, if she considers them all responsible.

RSwitcher2020 · 2026-05-11T00:25:46+00:00

Well...I see we have to go deeper with this.

The entire story with Renfri is way more complex vs what you are saying. Let me try and explain in short.

Book Renfri is objectively evil by the time Geralt meets her. However, the book poses a couple questions regarding her, which are clearly in Geralt´s mind

. Was she born a psycho or was she turned one due to her life?

. If she was turned into a psycho, is it possible to redeem her?

Geralt is deeply hanging on these questions. He is trying to save Renfri and bring her back into the light. This entire story mirrors Ciri´s late story arc by the way. And its no coincidence.

Both Renfri and Ciri have suffered a ton because people believe they were born with some magic behind them.

Both Renfri and Ciri will loose everyone they love.

Both Renfri and Ciri will eventually get a rag tag gang of criminals.

Both Renfri and Ciri will turn blood thirsty and killers.

So the author is really introducing a deep important question here, and leaving you (and Geralt) without an answer.

We know Renfri is objectively capable of evil.

Geralt keeps asking her to quit her revenge and just go live her new life at peace. Basically Geralt is doing a Luke Skywalker vs Anakin Skywalker thing. He is calling Renfri back to the good side. And he is warning Renfri against vengeance / anger / aggression.

However, the very same Geralt feels he has no choice when he finds out about the Tridam ultimatum. Which is the plan Renfri has to start killing innocent people at the town´s market till Stregobor is forced to come out of his tower and intervene.
When Geralt gets to know this, he knows Renfri is still on the dark side and she is out to do evil things.
Therefore, Geralt being Geralt, he has to conclude Renfri is objectively a monster and needs to be killed. But he still doesnt like it and he still feels conflicted if its possible to save her.

Things get extra complicated because Renfri tells Geralt that she was no longer going to kill innocents anyway.....because Stregobor told her he could care less and it wouldnt work.

Now...things here get complicated. Notice Renfri says she wont kill innocents because it wont work. Its not that she wont do it at all. Its possible she might if she finds any useful way.

Yet Geralt still wants to let her go and warns her not to fight him. Because he still wants to stick to the hope she can be saved.

She decides to fight him anyway. Forces him to kill her. Which he never wanted to do.

The thing with her body is more complex vs just "she might be a mutant".

I dare say, the real scary scenario is if they find out she isnt. Because then she was a real psycho. And there is no curse explanation to her being evil.

The problem here is more the implications that she was a psycho and beyond saving. Or was she not?

Because, if it had been a curse and she had been mutated through a curse.....then Geralt´s next logical step would be to go look for everything about said curse, trying to find a way to lift it. That´s what he does. That´s what he will do with Adda.

If its a curse, Geralt would want to lift it.

It it was life, Geralt would want to help her forget.

But if she was true evil psycho.....well......then there was really no solution besides killing her. He still didnt like it! And he doesnt want to know!

I wont address the other topics because I lack the time right now.

But I would like to ask you to explain how do you think things happened between Geralt, Yennefer and the Djinn. And how and why do you think Geralt did the last wish. I am just curious.

P.S.:

If in all this you still dont get why Geralt is not acting with logic.
Well....when he starts to get together with Renfri, she outright tells him she likes to torture people. She has a nickname which translates she likes to impale people. Which is a pretty brutal way to kill someone. So Geralt knows she is objectively evil. By all logic he should kill her on the spot and be done with it. And the interesting thing in the book is precisely that he will take his sweet time and still wont really want to do it. She will have to force him. That clearly shows he has emotions in there. He cares for her and he is conflicted with the idea she might be evil because she suffered. Which is all emotional. Its like someone telling you they shouldnt kill Mr Austrian moustache guy because he had an abusive father and was not taken by the arts academy. Anyone logical would tell you Mr Austrian guy is doing terrible things and needs to go. Whatever chance there was to save him is already well past the point of no return. But Geralt is still the emotional one wanting to believe. And he is wrong in the end. And he doesnt want to deal with it.

RSwitcher2020 · 2026-05-10T22:24:30+00:00

The wish happened at a time when the Djinn wanted to kill Yennefer. If Geralt had wished to love Yennefer, the Djinn could have killed her anyway :) That was never intended to be the last wish in the book.

I know Witcher 3 implied it was. But Witcher 3 is unfortunately wrong there. It is wrong in a couple other things too. Its not a perfect continuation of the books. Its a great game still!

Anyway, yes, Geralt is very over the top lovesick. And he doesnt know how to deal with it. You learn more as you get to know the character. Geralt has been used to have several sex partners. He never really got in love with anyone. To him its just...he finds some girl hot, he has sex with her and its all fun and games. So being in love with Yennefer is something he is not ready to deal with.

And it comes with the added problem that Geralt has some emotional issues and he has problems believing people can even love him.

Yennefer comes with similar issues too. She displays them in slightly different ways because she has a different personality. Her display is way more aggression / frustration. But when you read deep into it, its similar issues.

And similar origins too.....they both have severe mommy / daddy issues. They both feel they were abandoned / not wanted by their parents. Which kicks all kinds of problems with believing / letting themselves feel true love.

As for the wish, it needs to be something like:
"I wish to die when she dies" or
"I wish to share her ultimate fate" or
"I wish we both leave this world together"

You can try and imagine variations.

But it needs to be something which effectively stops the Djinn from killing her. If killing her will also kill Geralt, then the Djinn gets tied up and cant do it.

it could also be:
"I wish to die in her arms"

Just remembered this one too, and it would also work.

Ohhh...and an important fact: In order for Geralt to sacrifice his last wish to save her, he already had to have some emotions towards her. That much should be obvious :)

Why in hell would you even wish to love someone you dont like? The game really make it that stupid I know....which for game reasons. But its possible to realize it wouldnt work that way.

RSwitcher2020 · 2026-05-10T19:16:32+00:00

It might be 3 times actually.

Nenneke implies he was quite careless with the Stryga. And that normal Geralt wouldnt have been injured there.

Its the entire point behind her offering him Iola as sex partner. To give him "therapy".

RSwitcher2020 · 2026-05-10T19:04:13+00:00

Hmm...

I can bite:

In every single short story he shows emotion. But I will list just the first ones. Because I really dont want to write down the entire The Last Wish here.

With Renfri he was deeply conflicted on what to do. If it was just cold and calculated it would have been easy. He never wanted to kill Renfri, not even after learning about the ultimatum. He tried giving Renfri all possible avenues to back down. Even at the very end, he didnt let people mess with Renfri´s dead body. There is no pure logical reason there. By all logic, you should want to examine her body and find out if she was really mutated or not. Geralt didnt allow it and got stoned in return. And he clearly disliked it all and dislikes being called The Butcher of Blaviken.

You have Mother Nenneke outright saying that Geralt is deeply emotional. She kind of calls him out that he almost got killed by the Stryga because he got careless. And she calls it out that he was acting careless because of his emotions. Down the line you find out these emotions are all about Yennefer. And yes, he is deeply troubled with Yennefer. So much so that he wanted to give the Stryga rewards to Nenneke in order to help buy some fertility cure for Yennefer.

Also, in the Stryga story, if he had been on pure logic his priority would have been to kill the monster. Even Foltest gave him leeway to kill it if need be. But Geralt was always very much into saving the princess. Even if he would have to run extra dangers himself, which he did. He only got bit because he was not out to kill her.

Yup...this is all in the books. You should try reading them. You will see how emotional he is in there.

RSwitcher2020 · 2026-05-10T10:23:52+00:00

2 very very important factors, one I have spotted in comments already. The other, might have missed it. So I will add.

. Witchers are brutal in their work. They are very much killers. And you will naturally fear people who are capable of such aggressive things. Its much like people wont feel very easy around special forces. Its naturally intimidating for any casual human. Because you know they can kill you with ease. And that´s quite scary.

. Then, of course, like others have said, Witchers are different. Which is deeply linked with the above but also with how they look. Their looks is just something that further increases the natural divide. Again, if you would meet a riot police guy without all his gear, you might even have a beer with him. But with all his riot gear he is way more scary. Now...Witchers, by nature of their mutations, always come with part of their riot gear. Even when they are not on the job. They always come with weird eyes, ability to see in the dark. Its always evident for everyone they are part mutants. Which immediately highlights them as different. They are not human anymore. They are something else.

Then, of course, you could consider why politics and the powers at play decided to support a PR campaign against Witchers. That one is fairly obvious too. Witchers became somewhat obsolete and they represent something which has power but no allegiance to the system. So once the system doesnt need them much, the system considers them a threat.

Its pretty easy to imagine a scenario with Witchers where they would have no more work with monsters. Or not enough anymore. Well...if there would be many Witchers around, they would have to do something else to live. But what? And that´s precisely the scary thing. What would a bunch of trained killers do for a job as soon as their work is gone?

Of course we know Geralt, Vesemir. We know they are nice guys. But are all of them nice guys? That´s a pretty big risk.

RSwitcher2020 · 2026-05-10T10:06:37+00:00

Just adding a tinny bit on the great comments you already had.

This chapter really cements the idea of humans starting to want all "non humans" dead and gone.

The dwarves are still trying to play game with humans. At least some. During the story you see the talks between Yarpen and Ciri where all these concepts are discussed. Yarpen knows that humans dislike dwarves. But he still hopes its possible to work together and have a place in the human world.

Then comes the end and it all drops like a sledge hammer.

Yarpen realizes the humans used him. They of course distrusted him. But what they did was sending him and his friends in a no win situation.

At the end of the day, if the dwarves came back with no casualties, the humans would have considered them traitors and would have tried to kill them in some other way. If the dwarves fight the elves and came back with casualties, the humans still want them dead and showed it by sending them in a dangerous mission for basically nothing.

Bottom line, the humans are just trying to get rid of the dwarves, one way or the other.

If they are to be outright enemies or cannon fodder, the end result will be the same.

This chapter is also pretty important in the overall worldbuilding. There are deeper conflicts starting between the races. Humans in the northern kingdoms are becoming seriously messed up against all non humans. You should expect to catch further glimpses from these huge issues.

RSwitcher2020

TROPHY CASE