‘The Witcher’ Season 2: Showrunner Squanders Love Triangle Between Triss, Geralt, and Yennefer: ‘What We Didn’t Want Is a Women Who is Constantly Lusting After a Man She Can’t Have’
One of The Witcher Netflix series elements is the brewing and fated love story between Geralt and Yennefer. The mage and the witcher had sparks flying ever since their first encounter, but the inclusion of a djinn possibly tied their destinies together. In The Witcher Season 2, Triss’s unrequited feelings for Geralt hinted at a love triangle.
But showrunner Lauren Schmidt Hissrich explains the series will not necessarily follow the same love story mostly seen in the video game than the books.
Triss shows deeper feelings for Geralt in ‘The Witcher’ Season 2
Triss plays another role that fans remember in the first season of the Netflix series. She arrives at Kaer Morhen and is more than familiar with Vesemir and the other witchers. Triss has a previous history with them and Geralt. Geralt soon asks Triss to become an adviser to Ciri.
Geralt and Triss both met when fighting the Striga in The Witcher. Since then, they have developed a good friendship. But by The Witcher Season 2, they are both processing the aftermath of the Battle of Sodden Hill. In episode 4, Triss shows some deep feelings for Geralt when she asks him to spend the night after an emotional speech about feeling again.
But fans and even Triss know where Geralt’s heart really lies, and he softly rejects Triss. But Hissrich explains in an interview with Entertainment Tonight that the love triangle fans know between the characters is not what fans will expect.
Lauren Schmidt Hissrich was not looking to develop a real love triangle in ‘The Witcher’ Season 2
In a video interview with Entertainment Tonight, Henry Cavill stands by his choice as Team Yennefer. But for Hissrich, there is another story to be told. She explains the love triangle between Triss, Yennefer, and Geralt is only a focal point in the video games. The book series depicts a special bond between Geralt and Triss, with Triss feeling something more for the witcher.
But the books never dive deep into a love triangle. Hissrich explains in the show Geralt is mourning Yennefer, believing she is dead. He is not ready to move on. When it comes to Triss, her feelings for Geralt are not necessarily about love or sexual attraction.
“What we didn’t want is a woman who is constantly lusting after a man she can’t have and not growing or learning or changing,” said Hissrich. The showrunner explains Triss’s feelings for Geralt are about her coming out of trauma and learning to deal with it.
In Triss’s speech to Geralt, she tries to make him understand that witchers are like everyone else. The rumor of them losing their emotions during the Trial of Grasses is not real. In the end, Triss wants to move past her trauma and feel again, and Geralt is the one closest to her.
How do Geralt, Yennefer, and Triss’s stories differ in the video games?
Hissrich clarifies that The Witcher Season 2 was not meant to develop the well-known love triangle. Geralt and Yennefer will always find a way back to each other. But for Triss, she is deeply scarred by the events in The Witcher finale and wants a connection that does fall into “a love triangle trope.”
The story between Geralt and Triss is drastically different in the video games. Fans on Reddit help explain their romance. “Yennefer and Geralt have been together on and off for about twenty years. Geralt then lost his memory (the Wild Hunt erased it) and was with Triss for about two years. Triss, having been infatuated with Geralt for a while, withheld what she knew about Geralt and Yen. When he regained his memory, he broke up with Triss,” said one fan.
Triss’s and Geralt’s relationship is not genuine in the video games. Yennefer then learns of Triss’s betrayal later on. The Netflix series does not show any inclination to follow this storyline.
