You don’t have to be Geralt to love or hate Yennefer from The Witcher saga. She’s a well-crafted character with as many flaws as her strengths and has done both morally good and bad things throughout The Witcher 3. It’s the only Witcher video game she appears in but she’s already made a bigger impact in its story than Triss ever did in all three games.
That’s because Yennefer is never afraid to achieve any ends or goals regardless of the means; this sorceress just doesn’t care about what other people think most of the time. After all, she’s older than most witchers and is among the most powerful among her peers. Yennefer has no qualms on unapologetically committing some amoral or petty deeds; here are 10 of those shameless acts.
10 NECROMANCY
Finding Ciri has always been the priority in the main quest for The Witcher 3. It seems Yennefer understands this better than Geralt and prefers to get down to business instead of playing Gwent– even if that business means resurrecting a corpse for interrogation.
That corpse also happened to be romantically special to Ciri but this didn’t deter Yennefer one bit. Yennefer even went the extra sadistic mile to torture the poor reanimated corpse for information. Even sorceresses like Triss consider necromancy vile and cruel, but Yennefer is different in a bad way sometimes.
9 DESTROYING A SACRED GARDEN
In addition to vandalizing a corpse for information and desecrating Skellige’s burial rites, Yennefer also added salt to the wounds by destroying an important landmark for the place. This landmark was the Garden of Freya, something sacred to the locals.
Yennefer didn’t hesitate draining the Garden’s power in order to fuel her necromancy. This destroyed the place and was blatant disrespect for the traditions and sanctity of the locals of Hindarsfjall. Somehow it was worth it but it’s hard to imagine Geralt seeing Yennefer in the same light again.
8 HAVING A ROMP WITH GERALT DURING AN IMPORTANT EVENT
It’s understandable wanting to jump in bed with Geralt for the first time after being separated for years but sneaking out of an important event in Skellige while also carrying out a covert mission is a little unprofessional.
Well, Geralt is half to blame for this but Yennefer just had to suggest doing it on the unicorn. Their long-awaited romantic reunion just had to happen in the middle of something crucial to the main story. Oh well, it was worth it, for both of them.
7 BOSSED KAER MORHEN WITCHERS AROUND
Yennefer and Geralt’s friends never really got along well even before the events of the video games. So when she finally met them again after years of separation as well, not even a polite greeting was exchanged.
As soon as she teleported to Kaer Morhen, Yennefer immediately started bossing everyone around from Vessemir to Lambert. At least everyone knows not to doubt whether Yennefer missed her witcher “friends” or not. Her manners also seem to be reserved for royal matters.
6 KISSING GERALT IN FRONT OF TRISS
Triss nabbing an amnesiac Geralt for herself was indeed a vile decision but Yennefer seemingly forgot that she also cheated on Geralt several times over before the events of the games. That’s why her petty gesture of kissing Geralt in front of Triss came off as a power move.
To Yennefer’s defense, all the pieces fell into place; she was extremely thankful that Geralt brought Ciri back and Triss was there to witness a spectacle. That’s why she does this kiss even if Geralt chose Triss; every bit of revenge counts.
5 DISRESPECTING VESEMIR
It’s one thing to insult Geralt and boss Lambert and Eskel around but mocking Vesemir is a serious offense. Even Geralt and Lambert quickly took offense when Yennefer was being rude to Vesemir regarding what to do with Uma.
Lambert was particularly defensive since Vesemir was essentially the only father figure that these lonely witchers have. Even Vesemir outranks Yennefer in terms of age– he’s around three centuries old while Yennefer is only a bit past 100. Vesemir never got an apology.
4 RISKING SKELLIGE’S DESTRUCTION
Of all the people in The Witcher 3’s world, it seems the Skelligans took the brunt of Yennefer’s pragmatism and disregard. From another perspective, it even appears that she thinks lowly of all of them.
She risked all of Skellige by using the Mask of Uroboros– a powerful artifact that can destroy the archipelago. Yennefer even disrespected Ermion and proceeded to activate the mask behind his back while he’s distracted. That’s how much she loves Ciri, supposedly.
3 TREATING GERALT LIKE A DOORMAT
Both Geralt and Yennefer are not perfect and they’re done some damaging things to each other long before Ciri came into the picture. Still, it seems Geralt is the more hopeless of the two as Yennefer sometimes just keeps him for utility.
Moreover, Yennefer clearly doesn’t respect Geralt most of the time and certainly treats him differently compared to people like Emhyr var Emreis or other kings. According to Lambert and Eskel, even, Geralt gets the brunt of Yennefer’s abrasive attitude.
2 HELPING A DICTATOR
Speaking of Emhyr var Emreis, Yennefer has made a good ally out of him while Geralt was busy with Triss in the past two games. However, of all the people that Yennefer had to help, it just had to be a brutal dictator like Emhyr.
Moreover, Yennefer’s a smart woman and likely knows that Emhyr would make a terrible father for Ciri yet she chose to help him. Heck, she didn’t even warn or talk to Ciri about Emhyr. Siding with a dictator alone should be deplorable enough.
1 SUBJECTING UMA/AVALLAC’H TO THE TRIAL OF GRASSES
Here’s where Yennefer lost the respect of all the witchers of Kaer Morhen (minus a henpecked Geralt). Yennefer casually planned and suggested subjecting Uma to the Trial of the Grasses, which is a traumatic mutation experience for any witcher.
Of course, she was right as usual and it was the only way to restore Avallac’h, but she could have at least shown some empathy for her witcher friends and be apologetic about it. At least they got Ciri back after all that effort.
NEXT: The Witcher 3: 5 Ways Yennefer Is The Best Sorceress (& 5 It’s Triss)
