#atroupeofpigeons

[exitpursuedbyasloth]

@atroupeofpigeons said “@exitpursuedbyasloth you seem so Knowledgeable please can you explain to me what on Earth is going on with the whole djinn wish thing and Yennefer and Geralt??? I only watched the show and in s1 in Rare Species I think (?) they sort of vaguely explained how it binds them but frankly it came off to me horrifyingly rape-y :/ did I miss something? Or is their romantic relationship separate from the whole ‘their lives are bound by Destiny’ deal? It just puzzles me to no end”

Answering this in a new post cause my answer was too damn long.

Well, you’re not wrong. Nor are you the only one who feels this way, nor did you miss anything. The exact nature of Geralt’s last wish was intentionally never clarified by the book’s author Andrzej Sapkowski. The showrunner for the Netflix adaptation SAYS they will eventually reveal the wording. But their version and Sapkowski’s are very different, so I don’t know if this is their own invention, or something Sapkowski told them, or if they’re just bullshitting because they have said things about the show that ended up WILDLY different (like Eskel). All we do know is that the wish created a unbreakable bond between them. Destiny in the show isn’t just poetic hyperbole, it’s apparently an actual force of nature, a Magical Whatevermabob. The wish created a bond, the bond creates an influence, it’s something that can be felt, which we see in other Destiny bound folks, Geralt and Ciri, Pavetta and Hedgehog Knight. It’s not a love spell, but it does create something internal which can be felt. Which means Yenn/Geralt were engaging in a sexual relationship with an outside influence effecting them, an outside influence that was not freely chosen. Which, yes, brings consent into question. That is the bare fact of the matter. It’s an already questionable situation made far worse by the show’s lazy writing and story gaps, by the show not explaining the situation at all.

I think they want you to see the romance separate from the bond, but the problem is they never showed the romance. They just told us they had a romance, trust us it was like really awesome and they’re meant for each other, but it happened almost entirely offscreen. Why is the audience supposed to be invested in something you never showed? There’s a couple of softer moments, but most of their interactions are sex, Yenn being duplicitous, or Geralt being a dumbass. We see a lot of betrayal and hurt. Toxicity. All while a djinn wish created a bond between them. You meet someone, and you feel this bond, this connection with them. That bond could influence you, make you think it’s love. Then you find out the bond was created by a djinn who bound you two together. How could you NOT question if anything is real between you two? How could you separate the djinn bond pulling at you, and your own emotions pulling at you? How can you be sure the bond does not effect emotions? Yenn on the mountain was right. And I don’t know how the show can fix this, cause I don’t think the show particularly cares. Therein lies the problem.

[And to be clear, I like both characters on their own, I think they’re strong and complex and interesting. I empathize with both of them. I am simply criticizing the weaknesses in the writing and how the show treats their relationship.]

The writing for the show is clearly relying on the audience to fill in all the gaps of the show-verse with all the lore and backstory of the games/books. BUT the show-verse deviates so dramatically from the gameverse and bookverse that their lore/backstory is no longer applicable. I can’t take Geralt and Yenn from the books, and implant their romance into the show because it’s all too different. Which just leaves huge gaps in the show, sudden dramatic character shifts. It’s lazy, bad writing. Your character development shouldn’t happen in a completely different medium. There’s a lot I like about the show, but there’s a lot the show does poorly. It can do individual moments well enough, but the show is BAD at telling it’s overall story. Pacing, plotting, organic character development. It’s weak story development when looked at in isolation, from a show-only perspective. Stuff just...happens.

Super-long analysis of the Geralt/Yenn dynamic and the show’s writing flaws under the cut...

The set-up in the books is similar to that of the show, with a couple of key differences; Geralt’s not looking for a djinn he just finds it while fishing, Geralt’s first wish doesn’t accidentally harm Jaskier/Dandelion (the djinn just starts strangling Jaskier because it’s annoyed by him; Geralt’s first wish actually saves Jaskier because he wishes for the djinn to ‘fuck off’ and off it fucks), there’s no creepy dubiously consensual orgy at Yennefer’s (when Geralt arrives, she’s sleeping), and when Yenn is trying to trap the djinn, it actually starts destroying a town full of people not just her house, meaning the whole town was in danger.  But the biggest difference in the book version is that Yennefer hears the wish from the start. She’s shocked by it, doesn’t think there’s any force in the universe that can grant it, but if there is, she tells Geralt that it means “You have condemned yourself to me”. The nature of the wish also causes them to doubt if their feelings/bond is organic, because the wish bound their destinies. Which causes them to be insecure and uncertain with each other, constantly coming together and breaking up. It’s never really resolved, they just kind of live with it. The most likely theory of what the wish was, is that since a djinn cannot kill his master, Geralt wished to bind his and Yenn’s lives/fates/destinies/deaths together. So it can’t kill Yenn without killing Geralt, which it is bound by its own magic not to do. Now, I don’t think Geralt was malicious or anything in that wish, and it may have been the only way out of the situation that saved himself, Yennefer, and the town. These stories are VERY influenced by Slavic folk tales, where using clever wordplay and methods of trickery to get out of magical shenanigans is a common theme (one thing I mourn about the Netflix adaptation is how very un-Slavic it is, and no, I’m not referencing the PoC they cast; I mean the whole feel, the aesthetic, is very ‘vague Anglo-Saxon artfully grungey pseudo-medieval’ which has been done to death). Yenn knowing the nature of the wish in the books is a large departure from Show! Yenn having no idea. Book!Yenn would at least know that there was a wish created bond, and wouldn’t have felt so betrayed by Geralt not telling her. Show!Yenn had no idea, and was shocked and angered when learning about it, because it IS an influence on them and she had no idea she was under the influence. It’s not a direct mind/heart control like a love spell or anything, but Destiny does create bonds you can feel. This was shown with Pavetta and Hedgehog Knight (Calanthe was right to be pissed and object on that ground), and Geralt and Ciri (but being a parent/child relationship, and Ciri being orphaned and in need of family, it’s much less problematic). This is made worse by the show using Destiny Bonds as a short cut, instead of actually taking the time to show bonds forming naturally. Pavetta and Hedgehog Knight said they fell in love almost immediately. Geralt is almost immediately in Dad-mode with Ciri; I feel it came on too suddenly, I would have liked to see more of an awkward struggle for him to learn how to be a Dad, but that’s just me. We do see Geralt actively trying to connect with Ciri, be emotionally available, help her with her problems, we SEE their relationship). However, we see almost nothing of Geralt and Yenn together, yet they are apparently hugely influential on each other, have an incredible bond...built on what? We never see. Which is a problem for the reasons you stated. If you don’t show any reason for them to be so in love other than a djinn wish, what are we, the audience, to assume? 

By leaving it vague, combined with how the show uses Destiny, and it’s unfortunate habit of lazy writing and short cuts, it DOES have the effect of making the basis Yenn/Geralt relationship questionable. By the way the show works, the ‘bond’ that Destiny creates is something that is emotionally tangible (as in, you can feel it like an emotion). So it would be easy to confuse that feeling for one of genuine connection, it could influence your choices even if you know its there. So, are they enamored with each other because of love, or because of the bond of Destiny? We, the audience, cannot know because the majority of their relationship is off-screen, we never see it. We have no basis for judgement, we don’t see them forming an organic bond, a connection, loving one another. What we see is they meet in episode 5 during a dubiously-consensual orgy, she promises to help Jaskier, makes Geralt remove his armor and take a bath, then uses a mind-control spell on him to make him go nuts so he’s locked away just so she can get Jaskier alone so she can take the djinn. Geralt returns, they fight, he makes a wish, they bang, he gets the hell out of there. BY THE NEXT EPISODE, they’ve been having a years-long off-and-on torrid affair that is supposedly so life-altering and formative for them (we never see this), they have sex, have some soft pillow talk, fight, Geralt acts like an ass about her desire to have kids, they save a dragon baby, whoopsie the wish-created bond is revealed, Yenn fucks off like she absolutely should. And the next season Geralt says Yenn is the reason for him being a changed man, they eventually meet back up BUT WHAT’S THIS?  Oh, Yenn tries to sacrifice his daughter so she can get her power back (she did not know Ciri was his at first, but kept on the plan even after knowing, her plan simply didn’t work). Geralt is pissed, as he should be, but their final conversation at the end of 2x08 doesn’t make a lot of sense, he says he doesn’t forgive her but that they’re destined for each other but there needs to be more and ciri is the more...which, Geralt, honey, a baby is not going to save a failing relationship. And then he says “Us three will help each other. What is destined cannot be avoided.” which...is okay for a partnership, but that is REALLY not the basis for a romantic relationship. Like he seems resigned, he has no choice in the matter. And he might not, if he bound their fates together; but that doesn’t mean they need to be in a romantic relationship. Because if Destiny forces you, it’s not your choice. And a sexual/romantic relationship that is not your choice is, well, non-consensual.

Now, Geralt should have said something to Yenn early on, it would have at least ameliorated the issues of informed consent somewhat, put both of them on equal footing. I don’t know if the Netlfix writers didn’t do this because they didn’t care/didn’t see it as an issue or just never noticed (given their track record, either is likely), or just wanted to create drama/strife and didn’t care about the implications. I don’t think Show!Geralt was trying to take advantage of Yenn. He may not have known or believed the wish could create such a bond. His emotions would also be influenced, which he may not have recognized. Show!Geralt is also kind of a himbo, it just may not have occurred to him. We don’t know because they’ve clarified nothing. Both because of their own ineptitude and their desire to create drama cheaply. And because they have a track record of not really understanding consent (the dubiously consensual orgy at Yenn’s where everyone was under her spell, the “These women are too drunk to remember where they are” bullshit with the prostitute invasion of Kaer Morhen). It could be that in never occurred to them that the way they wrote the wish/bond could have an influence over Geralt and Yenn, or that Geralt not telling Yenn about the nature of the wish is really, really fucked up. Or did they notice, and simply didn’t care. Which I sadly think is more likely, because the wrote Yenn being furious about not being told about the wish, so they saw that it was wrong. But do they think her concerns were silly? Unfounded? Of course they’re not. The concerns would be valid for anyone, but ESPECIALLY someone like her, who was constantly thrown into situations against her will, who fought to control her fate/life, who was failed by people/institutions she tried to trust. Her desire for power, control, didn’t come from nowhere.

The situation was already bad. But the the writers made it worse with their inexplicable decision to have Yenn attempt to sacrifice Ciri for her own power. Geralt would be perfectly in his rights to not forgive or trust her after that. Yes he has his own mistakes against Yenn, he should have told her about the wording of the wish, he’s absolutely wrong in not doing so (the show has given us no reason why he didn’t); but this is not about Geralt and Yenn, Yenn didn’t do something to Geralt she did it to Ciri. I like Yenn as a character, I want Ciri to be safe with her, for her to have a mother-figure and magic instructor without having to deal with Aretuza’s bullshit; I just don’t know if I can realistically see this happening now, so soon and with her facing so little consequences for her betrayal of Ciri. And yet, Geralt seems resigned to the fact that they’re all stuck together by Destiny. That’s one thing in a parent/child relationship, it’s a whole other can of beans when it comes to romantic relationships.

I generally don’t think the show is intentionally creating a questionably consensual romance. But every once in awhile, something will throw me off, makes me wonder if they are (and keeping it on the backburner for shock!). Some of the lyrics in “Her Sweet Kiss” for example (but they also see Jaskier as comic relief, don’t really take what he says seriously, so...). Yenn’s reaction on the mountain, or Geralt’s resignation that they can’t be rid of each other, so might as well be a family. Like...waht? What am I supposed to do with that?

In the show, Geralt/Yenn a really poorly written dynamic all around. The audience probably wouldn’t be questioning why they’re together if the show ever bothered to actually SHOW (show, not tell) us why. They’re strong characters on their own, it should not have been difficult to show them falling in love. But the show just...didn’t bother. I can’t even fully tell if they are deliberately trying to make the audience wonder about the consensual nature of their romance or not, if they truly think they did enough by just telling the audience they, like, super into each other. For some reason. Trust us. We’d show you that reason, but that would get in the way all these tits and CGI.