The best Witcher waifu

I have only played the Witcher 2 and 3 (and its DLC) but out of all the rulers in those game we met I would pick her despite her recklessness. Granted she also has the least power out of all of those since she rules a vassal state and not a kingdom but still. Plus despite her flaws she seems beloved by her subjects, no guarantees the next ruler would be as good. 

I agree on the lack of romantic subtext but I can see why Geralt would avoid her because of the whole Dandelion aspect. Plus, Geralt seems like he would mostly try to not get caught up in, uhh, those types of politics. Yeah, she does do a good job of listening to him until the end of the DLC when her emotions get the better of her and kind of drown out all reasoning. I have never read the books but from what I have gathered she comes across as kind of an airhead. Although like you said a lot can change in time, especially when you are a ruler. 

Totally agree with your last point. That scene totally made me fall for her. I have always like a well dressed woman, hence why I also really liked Josephine when I first saw her. One correction though. Damien wasn't the one horrified at that, it was her other two ladies-in-waiting. Plus, the dress does get fixed in the end so either Anna has done this before and knows it does not ruin the dress or she has really good tailors. 

I have a hard time seeing the "good ruler" thing. I don't get the feeling that she has a particularly sharp sense for economics or any of the nitty-gritty of administering a small nation. It could just as well be that Toussaint has a really strong infrastructure inherited from a previous regime, buffered by Emhyr's policies, and she has some kickass ministers who do the actual work and who will still be there for her hopefully more careful successor.

In my mind, her recklessness just makes it more likely that she's going to make a really impulsive decision that screws all that up, as she ultimately almost does in the DLC.

Add to that that I find Toussaint's overly romantic and wishy-washy local attitude subtly creepy and potentially dangerous. We have some historical examples of entire nations that became swept up in lovely wishful thinking, and it never ended anywhere pretty. Her being a popular and charismatic ruler who encourages her people to think they live in fairyland literally makes me shiver thinking about it.

Toussaint is one economic recession or international disaster away from tearing itself apart in confusion and denial or turning into something very, very ugly, and in my mind it's beautiful queen being publicly killed by her own naivete is a good first step to reintroducing them to the real world. But that absolutely isn't to say that she isn't an impressive woman in her own right.

And yeah, I'm a sucker for any video game that features a clothing store. If I get to pick a perfect outfit for every in-game occasion, and modify them throughout the game to reflect the player character's journey, then I can forgive almost everything else. One of my joys these last few months has been replaying Fable 2 & 3 as a female hero, at every turn having to balance the practicality of going on adventures with the fact that women did not wear fucking pants in daily life in the period those games reflect. That and the lovely Monty Pythonesque humor.

No, there definitely aren't enough glorious dresses for women in RPGs. And it's a huge wasted opportunity considering how gorgeous and stylish armored dresses and skirts can be made to look. You usually have to look to JRPGs for that, and they have a tendency to overdo it a bit. 

As a general rule, you can count on JRPGs to throw practicality and accuracy out the window in favor of flamboyance and outlandish-ness.

People really knew how to dress back then. Not like today.

*lovingly strokes favorite sixpence hat*

But yeah, that was one of my favorite moments in the DLC too. Like with Cerys, it must be such a joy to work with someone clever enough to appreciate Geralt's expertise while still bringing their own talents to the table. Geralt's average workday being what it is, I can't help but think that he enjoys those opportunities to show off and share his work, and how much people who aid him and actually manage to help must earn his respect compared to the dullards and helpless dithering cowards he's usually surrounded by on a job.

Playing through the series again, I'm honestly amazed at how well CDPrjoect portrays it's quasi-medieval women of note. No silly girlpower. They're all sharp as a tack and determined adults who found legitimate ways to make a difference and make themselves relevant in a world that isn't very forgiving of that sort of thing.

Shani saves lives every day with expert knowledge and tools, and anybody with sense respects her for that. Triss ruthlessly brokers power and information both to keep herself afloat and to protect and aid her dearest friends in their times of need. Yennefer is laser-focused and uses everything in her path to achieve her very specific and entirely human desires for real mortal prospects like a family and a stable setting to be with them in. And all their personal flaws are entirely believable too.

And less admirable but no less impressive sorceresses like Phillipa cynically exploit the weaknesses of everyone around them to get their fingers on the levers of power because they really do hate what a crapsack world everybody lives in and thinks they can change it into something more sensible. Even outright villainous women like Syanna are impressive in how far they've come with just their cunning and their resolve.

It's really no wonder poor little Geralt can't keep up with any of them.

I doubt anyone will read this post anytime soon, since activity is basically non-existent. However I'll just say that Yennefer can kick rocks. Between TW3 and the Netflix show I cannot see what anyone sees in the blasted woman. I detest people who lead other people around by the nose like a dog. Regardless of who or what they are. Such a mentality oozes obnoxious arrogance, which is all I see in Yennefer, someone whos only "nice" when it suits her. Shani was really the only woman in the trilogy (that Geralt can be with, kinda) that wasn't a crappy person. SO naturally she can't be a real long term option as a result. Because Witcher isn't allowed to have nice things at all. So I guess if the options are like the video above, and it's either Triss or Yen, then I guess it's Triss by default, because she at least does not constantly put Geralt down for basically no reason, and is, to me, a generally less toxic personality.

I mean... who really knows man. Not a big deal either way lol. I've no interest in the "woman is always right" stereotype that society loves to perpetuate. Yen is only tolerable when you just bend over backwards to her every whim, which is not an equal partnership and not the type of lifestyle I can even comprehend someone willingly choosing personally. Sure, Triss crossed serious boundaries in the previous two games, and it's a pretty big deal. Hence why I'm typically more inclined to pick neither. However, Yen's and Triss's relationship towards Ciri? couldn't care less about that. Ciri is a grown woman, and can feel however she wants about them and the situation as a whole. But I'll be damned if I choose to remain with someone I consider fairly toxic just because Ciri sees her as Mom. That's not my problem. Triss is fully capable of leading I think. Shes just not walking around acting like a total Tool while doing it. 

That's the part that gets me the most. He sacrifices of himself to free her from the Hunt, loses his memory in the process. Her response is "Pfft, yea sure you did, you're just BSing cuz you banged Triss" Like, excuse me where you THERE?! NO! absolutely ungrateful, unfeeling wretch of a response. She didn't care enough to come find him in all those months he was wandering around being totally lost. 

Book purists, feminazis, and people who have never been in a truly toxic or contentious relationship, and don't know what it feels like to wake up every morning next to a person you love knowing they're probably going to make you feel like a worthless shit at some point again today, if not as soon as they open their eyes.

There, that's all the explanation you need.

Because they don't understand how miserable a toxic relationship can be? I sure don't feel sad about that. But I think that lack of experience contributes a lot to the romanticization of love/hate "opposites attract" and generally unorthodox relationships in media. People imagine all the delicious feisty banter between clashing personalities and worldviews, and fail to consider what that looks like when you hit a rough patch and can't properly relate to or communicate with each other, but love each other too much to break it off, and how ugly that can get.

Team Fringilla!

Funny. I was watching season 2 of The Boys, and this Stormfront quote stuck out to me.



Unknowable bitch. That describes book Yennefer to a tee. Game Yennefer has much better characterization, still a bitch though. I wouldn't want to be in a relationship with her but my man Geralt is obsessed. I find a number of there interactions amusing, and generally prefer her to Triss. Both Yen and Triss are extremely manipulative, that's sorceresses for you. Sorceresses love Geralt, and Geralt loves Sorceresses. LOL.

Hmm. I don't hear any convincing arguments that Triss isn't in the right headspace to be in a healthy relationship by the time of the games, at least. Unlike Yen we can tell by her actions that she legitimately has developed beyond a lot of her flaws from the books.

The whole "she refuses to tell Geralt important things about his past" idea always rang hollow to me. She tries to bring his past up in the very first cutscene in the first game, and gets shot down because he doesn't feel ready to hear it, nor does he ask her or Dandelion or Zoltan any meaningful or concrete questions about it for the entire rest of the game even though they're all pretty forthcoming.

And when he finally asks in the third game and she immediately starts breaking things down for him, all the things she withholds except for that "grape" incident are things she can't possibly bring up without putting him on a direct collision course with the Lodge, probably meaning his death. With literally nothing to gain except airing out her dirty laundry, since Yen is dead so far as she knows and Ciri is out of their hands anyway. Almost nobody would have made the decision to tell him about those things in her shoes, so I sure don't blame her for it. And if their relationship starts at the beginning of the first game then he's the one to come on to her while she's vulnerable, not the other way around. Have a hard time seeing that as being manipulative.

Keeping the fact that she once seduced him under a magical influence secret is admittedly scummy, though I don't know that that's really seen as anywhere near as egregious a crime in the Northern Kingdoms as the same kind of violation would be in modern Western society. It's an objectively horrible action, sure, and Triss is certainly sensitive and intelligent enough to ought to at least feel ashamed of it in retrospect years later. But expecting her or anyone else to recognize its horror for what it really is feels like value transplantation to me. The idea that you have an inviolable right to command your own body and your own feelings without underhanded influences is fairly new and local, even today, and I wouldn't personally take it for granted that you can just project that moral principle on this kind of fantasy world.

Same for "she didn't blink an eye at the Lodge wanting to turn Ciri into a broodmare for their purposes!". Feels like that blot on her character should carry a lot less weight in a setting where that's the default fate of 99.99% of women everywhere? Part of the bittersweet theme of the book series ending is that nobody really has any easy answers for how to keep Ciri from being exploited or suffering in that same manner or worse at someone's hands, and the Lodge just so thinks that if so then it's probably best for everyone that they do it and carry out their plans around her with her consent and cooperation. And at the time it's not totally obvious that they're wrong. Though naturally, after the second and and third game it's patently clear that trusting Phillipa with anything resembling that kind of power would be a catastrophe.

But yeah, not convinced that Triss is the most problematic out of the two in the games. Outside those points which stuck out to me though, the video actually does a pretty good job discussing a lot of the trio's issues very fairly and from an impressive number of angles.