Netflix found great success with The Witcher as 76 million people watched the first season, but as some viewers were neither familiar with the book or games on which the series is based, Geralt and Yennefer’s relationship left much to be explained. What is interesting here is that because the story of The Witcher universe takes place in show, book, and game, there is information to glean from each medium that contributes to understanding how the pair are as a couple.
How Geralt And Yennefer Met
The books were written by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski, and in the short story, “The Last Wish”, Geralt and Dandelion, or Jaskier, as he’s called in the show, accidentally release a djinn. Dandelion becomes injured after inhaling the mysterious red mist that escaped when the djinn was unsealed. If this sounds familiar, it is because until this moment, the book and show coincide in events until things begin to play out slightly differently between the two.
The books offer us the closest approximation to what that wish could be. Sapkowski writes in “The Last Wish”,
“‘Your wish,’ she whispered, her lips very near his ear. ‘I don’t know whether such a wish can ever be fulfilled. I don’t know whether there’s such a Force in Nature that could fulfill such a wish. But if there is, then you’ve condemned yourself. Condemned yourself to me.’”
The genius in this is that we may never know exactly what the wish was, and it does not matter. Geralt wished for something that binds these two together by fate, and that is enough to get the pair together. Over the next two decades, Geralt and Yennefer have what could be described as an on again, off again relationship, though in the end it becomes clear that the pair were always going to be together.
How Their Relationship Is Represented In Different Mediums
As mentioned earlier, the show leaves questions unanswered, but this should not come as a surprise given how much material needed to be presented in each episode of season one. In both the books, the relationship between the two is more fleshed out in a number of ways.
In the games, there is far more evidence of the pair being a caring couple, particularly represented through a back and forth of witty comments. For those who may not be familiar with The Witcher 3 – Complete Edition, there is easily over one hundred hours of gameplay across the main story and substantial additions through downloadable content.
There, Geralt and Yennefer work together far more often than we see in the show. They both work to find Ciri, and then have several quests together. During this time, we see a playful dynamic between the two. This is a rather large departure from the show, which seems to only have time to give the pair romantic or serious interactions, where in the game it is often witty banter. Hopefully, this is something their relationship will display in the second season of the show.
Magic Undone, But Love Remains
A final point to note is that in the game, players complete a quest to remove the binding magic cast by the djinn through that last wish. While the implication of this is that Geralt and Yennefer would not longer care for one another, the opposite is true. Though the magic is cast aside, their relationship remains intact.
With Season 2 of The Witcher in development but likely far off from release thanks to Covid-19 concerns, now is a great time to dive into the books or games to learn more about the world inhabited by Geralt and Yennefer. Readers can click here for the best order to read the books, since there are quite a few to choose from.
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