#i choose to believe he never did this because he is sensitive and telling ciri anything would scar her further would make him collapse

[hanzajesthanza]

geralt and ciri and having a bigass scar on their face as a reminder of hatred and revenge ❤️ i know geralt’s scar was invented just for this book, but the fact that he hides it with his headband, oh, that nenneke gave him… like ciri tries in vain to hide her scar, combing her hair in such a way… and ciri’s scar is unable to be hidden. whereas geralt probably hides his well, since we never heard of it before ;). maybe it is because they are a vicious cat, and a calm, composed wolf…

now i just want to see child ciri, examining geralt’s face and his strange eyes on their way to kaer morhen—during which he surely took his headband off. once or twice. looking up at him with her huge child’s eyes, at his weathered face… witnesses below his hairline an ugly scar from ages ago, but doesn’t ask about it… he has so many anyways…

[yennefer-fan]

Yennefer and Triss in the books 

Some personal thoughts by Reddit user Kerok90

I've just finished reading the Witcher saga and I loved it so much. It's been an amazing journey and one of the best stories I've ever read. On the other hand, I think I finally understood Yennefer's and Triss's personalities. I therefore would like to share my humble opinion on the ladies, however, I'd like to point out that's not a Triss vs. Yennefer a.k.a. "best waifu" post. I like them both equally for different reasons.

Yennefer: 

To tell you the truth, I couldn't stand Yen when Geralt met her for the first time in the short stories. Even though she was an interesting character I hated the way she acted also her arrogance and rudeness annoyed me. All in all, didn't understand what Geralt saw in her, however, reading the books reshaped my opinion regarding her and now I can finally look under the cold surface of Yen and know there is more to her than meets the eye. Also, the most important thought that went through my head was that Geralt had always known these things about Yen. The witcher could see through her what's more he loved and accepted her for who she was. In my opinion, Geralt was able to see her true self partly because they had a lot in common. Even though they seemed to be very different I think they saw themselves in each other (they were both social outcasts with abnormally long lifespan - actually two individuals who had never experienced real love). The way I see it, before Yennefer met Geralt she hadn't had a man who really loved her therefore thought that all men are the same which is, of course, not true - she later realized it, though.

As for her attitude, Yen is a very complex character which means you can love her or hate her, but you cannot ignore her. She usually provokes an emotional reaction - be it a negative or positive emotion and I believe that's what makes her character so believable. In the books she seemed to be cold-hearted and arrogant but if you dig a little deeper you will understand she was an emotionally damaged person who went through a lot of things and had never felt loved by anyone (before Geralt and Ciri). She wore this cold mask as a defense mechanism in order to protect herself from being hurt again. The problem was that she had been wearing that mask for decades and therefore needed time to take it off - not to mention she thought others couldn't accept her. Although deep down inside she wanted to be loved and needed warmth - which could melt her heart. I guess there are only a few people in the books who really knew her true self (Geralt, Ciri, Triss and maybe her former mentor, Tissaia de Vries). Moreover, as I noticed she changed her behavior towards people she liked/loved and treated them with care. In those certain situations she even showed her fun side so the readers could realize she had a good sense of humor and actually wasn't a real ice queen. I know another reason why some fans dislike her is because of her attitude. People shouldn't forget that she was an introvert and introverts tend to be distant as they don't want to reveal too much of themselves (again, this is a well-known defense mechanism). The other thing I find interesting is that Yennefer was, just like her favoruite colors - black and white, a paradox. She seemed to be cold and indifferent yet if you can read between the lines you know she was full of passion. Yen was a very passionate woman although she tried to hide it partly because that's what she had been taught by her 500-year-old mentor, Tissaia de Vries. I think Yennefer needed both Geralt and Ciri to be able to open up and also to be able to show the readers her best qualities. If she hadn't met them we wouldn't have seen what lies beneath the surface. Among other things, we learned that she would have done anything for her loved-ones and was willing to sacrifice herself for them. I would say she was a sensitive, vulnerable person. Sensitivity manifests itself in myriad ways, though. Furthermore, while Yennefer was a brave, intelligent, powerful sorceress she was also kind-hearted, caring for her family and was a very honest person as well. I would call this "brutal honesty" which some people don't like in real life, however, I have always liked this personality trait for some reason. Everyone is different, though. Anyway, many people misunderstand her (I did too before reading the books) but I think we should never judge a book by its cover. On the contrary, we should try to dig a little deeper to understand the real reasons. I know that Yennefer cannot be everyone's favourite and by the way she doesn't have to be. I'm just saying try to see the whole picture since it could help you to understand an amazingly well-written character better. :)

Triss: 

I think it's not surprising that I quickly gained a liking to her in Blood of Elves. In my point of view she was unique among the sorceresses with her friendly, cheerful, youthful attitude. Somehow she lacked bitterness and grudge which was a refreshing change. Also Triss was very kind to Ciri which showed me she was a nice person. I liked her deep conversations with the witchers as well and having read them I realized she was so much more than a cheerful young sorceress. Even though Triss looked very young, early 20-ish, I guess she was between 40-60 and had more life experience, more depth than people would think. She striked me as a woman who seemed to be very cheerful but under the surface she wasn't so happy and needed love. When I read her internal monologue about Geralt I thought that she had never experienced this before and that's why she became jealous of the relationship Geralt and Yen had. I believe she never wanted to hurt Yennefer just simply wanted to experience that "thing" with Geralt to understand what Yen saw in him. Don't get me wrong sleeping with one of her friends' ex boyfriend wasn't the nicest thing to do, however, she paid a great price for it: she fell in love with the witcher and had to deal with an inner conflict. Personally I felt sorry for her because she finally found a man who wasn't like the others she had met before - this man friendzoned her, though. I always wanted Triss to find someone else who would have made her happy.

Another thing is that Triss also needed Yennefer, Geralt and Ciri to show her best qualities and to be able to grow as a person. She loved them and one way or another these people really changed her. By the way, I found it interesting that even though Triss and Yen were friends their personalities were so different (introvert/extrovert; older/younger; distant/friendly; confident/insecure etc). Some people say this character was too flat/one dimensional in the books I disagree with them, though. Actually we don't know lot of things about her as Sapkowski just gave us little details regarding Triss which were like little puzzle pieces. We have to collect these pieces to see the bigger picture. To be honest, I've been wondering about her personality because a few fans told me Triss was shy in the books since she even blushed when Geralt kissed her on the cheek at Thanedd Island. Even though she indeed blushed I personally don't think she was this shy little girl. On the contrary, she had feminine pride and confidence as she knew what she wanted when it was about flirting. I think she was flirtatious and was even a bit sly (it was implied in the books). The thing is the readers could only see her inner conflict and behavior towards Geralt because when we met her for the first time in BoE she had already been in love with him so it might have seemed like she was a shy woman. But in my opinion she only felt shy around Geralt. Some people dislike her because she chose the greater good. While I get their point to a certain level I think Triss was just trying to do the right things. She was an idealistic and politically driven since she believed the Lodge could change the world for the better. She wasn't a power-hungry sorceress she was just a woman who wasn't confident enough to choose a side. Even Geralt told her in Blood of Elves that such double loyalty was devilishly difficult to manage. Geralt knew it was impossible to manage and he was right. Even though it's true that (initially) Triss wasn't confident and brave enough also didn't have the courage to say "NO" we shoudn't forget she was a young sorceress who had just started her journey. The way I see it, she needed to learn from her mistakes also these mistakes had helped her to mature and became Fearless Triss Merigold (who read the books know what I am talking about). Actually Triss's story was all about her beautiful metamorphosis. Personally I wasn't mad at her partly because I valued that she realized her own flaws and because it was clear to me that she was (just like Yennefer) a good person. She was a good person who was initially insecure and had to deal with her internal conflicts/inner demons. To me that's what made her believable and it totally felt like I was reading about a real person. Her metamorphosis was beautifully-written and I loved her so much at the end of the last book. All in all, I love these ladies for who they are. Thanks for reading and I'm sorry for my poor grammar.