From what we know in the Witcher 2, the last thing Triss saw of Geralt or Yen was that they both had died in the massacre and were being carried off to be buried by Ciri. So, Geralt shows up with amnesia and is alive. Should Triss assume Yen made it as well?

better telling him about what happened instead of just being oh fuck me pls

Game Triss did not just exploit Geralt's mental state (Geralt had feelings for a sorcerers in W1, he just did not know who, and Triss was certainly not going to tell him the truth lol), she tried to replace Ciri with Alvin, and Yennefer with herself. That makes Triss a rather desperate, and unhinged person... Book Geralt (all memories in tact) would have been much more wary of Triss. Right before the massacre in Rivia, Yennefer, who had invited Triss to meet Geralt in Rivia (more or less to rub it in Triss' face that Yen Ciri, and Gearlt were basically a family something Triss would never truly have) Yen chastises Triss for sleeping with Geralt, and more importantly for selling out Yen and Ciri to the lodge which ended up with Yennefer being tortured, and Ciri almost getting much worst. Triss has a habit of choosing the lodge over her so called best friend, and "little sis". When it comes to the lodge, Triss is even willing to sacrifice Gearalt, her obsession. And yes, Triss is obsessed with Geralt, why else would she accept Yen's invitation to come to Rivia knowing full well that it's Yennefer's plan to attack Triss with as much verbal abuse as possible? Yen was actually hoping that Geralt would get violent with Triss, because of the aforementioned events (especially for what happened with Ciri), but Triss snaps back that Geralt would never lower himself to such violence, which really pissed Yennefer off because she knew it to be true. lol

In the books, Geralt had many insecurities when it came to commitment, Yennefer wanted to love Geralt but only if they were going to be exclusive. Geralt's commitment issues caused all kinds of problems, because of those issues, Yen tried to find love elsewhere (then Geralt would get depressed and jealous), one fiasco nearly ended with Geralt and Crach an Craite fighting to the death over Yennefer, but it did not go that far because Yennefer (overcome with fear and anxiety that her two loves were going to fight to the death) ran away. Yennefer and Geralt's romantic struggle was a constant theme in the books, and it was arguably the most important one by the time their love was fully realized at the end of the series. In the end,Yen gives her life for Geralt's, and their 'daughter' Ciri takes them to an Island where they can live happily together, both Yen and Geralt having accepted true love. Two themes juxtapose nicely at the end of the books, Yen and Geralt's true love vs. Triss' obsession--Geralt's one time booty call. The prior is what the books were working towards, the latter is the product of the old insecure Geralt and a surreptitiously crazy red headed sorceress XD...

As for the W3 romance, a person picking either Triss or Yen without the aforementioned information, will probably lean towards Triss, they will probably overlook the fact that Triss was exploiting Geralt's mental state. Though people who have only played the games might still feel inclined to pick Yen, because Geralt from the the middle of W2 onwards, wants to find Yen, and by the end of W2 the player is basically told how important Yennefer is to Geralt.

Not pretending I am reading all that text. I skimmed. But ok, not interested in getting into a full discussion of the Yen v Triss thing. But, merely in terms of a SINGLE plot point, in what way do people think that Triss exploited Geralt's amnesia?

My takeaway was this. Before Witcher 1 in the game's lore, Yen and Geralt were killed in front of Triss. Triss departs ways with their bodies and Ciri goes to bury them. Then Geralt shows up alive, with amnesia. Geralt expresses feelings for Triss, says they have a connection, yada yada. Thats the setup in Witcher 1. So Triss says, great! Yens dead. Her boyfriend likes me now. I will work on getting his memory back but I don't have to recount his life story to him.

I think that's exploiting his amnesia a bit, but not to the extent of "oh, you have a true love but, luckily, you also have amnesia and I'm not telling you about her." Everyone thought she was dead. Not until Letho told them otherwise in Witcher 2 was that clear again.

Right? Please no book spoilers.

First of all, it is most certainly not Triss' right to put off Geralt getting his memories back, furthermore it is not her right to decide what memories Geralt can and cannot have, no matter how painful she thinks they might be (there is no bases for the painful memory argument in the W1, most certainly not W2), also the last thing that happened to Yen and Geralt was that they diapered, Ciri took them away. Geralt, has residual memories of a sorceress, and Triss lets Geralt believe that that sorceress is Triss. While Geralt is in this state, Triss "his friend" then tries to recreate the family Geralt had with Yen, by replacing Yen with herself, and Ciri with Alvin, preying upon Geralt's residual memories, all the while doing nothing to help Geralt get his actual memories back. Probably hoping that Geralt will start 'remembering' Triss in Yennifer's place, and then have Alvin take Ciri's. We find out in W3 that once Yennefer found powerful mages that she got her memories back rather quickly.

Triss knows that Geralt has amnesia, the other witchers tell her this, she could have been working from the start to help Geralt get his memories back, but she does not. Triss at the start of the Witcher was in contact with the lodge, who she could have asked for help. By the time W2 rolled around it was too late for Triss to ask for help, and this caused all sorts of problems with Letho etc, and Triss just ended up spilling the beans to Geralt anyway since she figured Geralt was getting his memories back no matter what she did. Considering Triss' past actions, Geralt is probably lucky that Triss did not use the rose of remembrance on him.

I think the likelier reading is something milder. You are construing the character's actions as entirely ill motivated and intentional. I think the game writers were shooting for something more varied and complex.

I'll see what I think again after I read some more in the books. Almost finished Sword of Destiny now.

Yes, just ignore all the examples I gave you. lol Triss intentionally preyed on Geralt's amnesia, and did nothing to help him get his memories back, for her own selfish reasons, Triss even admits this in W3, that is "ill motivated" and if something is "ill motivated" that does not automatically make it 'not-complex'. Even if it is not complex, complexity is not an issue (it would be a red herring, and it does not matter whether or not Triss' motivations were complex or simplistic), the issue is what Triss did and did not do. What she did was (for "two games") prey on Geralt's amnesia, what she did not do was help Geralt get his memories back (even when she had the power and resources to do so), which would have saved Geralt a whole lot of trouble. Why? Triss is obsessed with Geralt, and does not want him to go back to Yennefer. Triss does not love Geralt, she turns into a teenage girl whenever she thinks about him, it makes her do stupid things, though it's hard to think it possible, she does even more inane things for the lodge. She will even place the lodge before Geralt, Yen would never do that, I don't even think Fringilla would. It's like Triss has a thing for licking Philipa's...boots. Though Triss is not the only sorceress who does; Philipa must have been a herder of cats in another life.

"beauty in the eyes of the beholder" :)
some ppl just can't live without theory of conspiracy. Life become too dull i guess.

Some people find it difficult to actually think, therefore they can do not but be dismissive e.g. call something "conspiracy", even though they have been provided with evidence, and factual examples.

Over on the main forums the Triss vs. yen fight went on for 800+ pages. Try to break that record. I'll start:


Triss >>>>>>>> Yen

Yennefer has purple eyes.
Your argument is invalid.

Just to chime in a bit - I always wonder why everybody assumes players of TW and TW2 will automatically opt for Triss...

I never liked her that much in the previous games, tbh. Went for Shani in TW (Triss just way to bitchy for my taste), and kind of rejected her (whenever I could) in TW2. Once events in TW2 had played out and the whole "rose of rememberance" business is uncovered I really came to resent her, making me glad I didn't go after her to begin with.

I fully intended to dump both them silly sorceresses in TW3, but once I realised there wasn't another option really (except from being alone for seemingly forever) I did put the moves on Triss... her having gotten a personality transplant in between games did help making that choice, though, since, as stated, I never cared much for her previously... If Yen just had been a little less annoying... really only starts to get better once Ciri is around, I think.

(And as far as the books are concerned - haven't gotten that far yet, but neither Yen nor Triss seem like people I'd like to be with if it was up to me, djinns, last wishes and "true love" be damned...)

At what book does Triss first appear? (No spoilers please.) I just started Blood of Elves and still haven't heard much about her other than her name.

She should be the first sorceress to appear in the book series, short stories not withstanding.

Really? She appears pretty early in Blood of Elves, definitely still in the first half of the book... So, if you haven't "met her" yet, you're bound to pretty soon ;)
IIRC, you meet Yen first in Blood of Elves (meets up with Dandelion)...