Yennefer deserves a lot better than The Witcher ever gives her

that of Netflix The Witcher has always taken liberties with the source material, changing things as the creators saw fit to create their favorite version of the story for their adaptation. Bits and pieces of the short stories were changed in the first season and a slightly new timeline was created; there is a whole history in it Blood originand Geralt is one small more heroic than his book counterpart. But for all the positive and negative consequences of those changes, one change has consistently frustrated the entire series: Yennefer.

[Ed. note: This post contains spoilers for season 3 volume 1 of The Witcher.]

The Yennefer of Andrzej Sapkowski’s novels is a rare talent, even among magicians. She is extremely powerful, always independent and determined, in addition to her vision of making the world a better place – or at least a little more to her liking. She is a smart and cunning actor in a world full of them.

While she is occasionally wrong or misguided, she is never anyone’s fool or pawn, and she does not put the people she loves in danger (at least not in undue danger).

Netflix’s Yennefer, on the other hand, has few of these traits. She has a huge chip on her shoulder and is desperate to prove herself to everyone around her, including Geralt and Ciri, at every turn. She’s a powerful mage, but one who rarely gets a chance to use her powers for more than fleeting blows against nameless hordes of random foot soldiers.

Even more frustrating, though, is the fact that Yen is turned into the silly wild card of the show so often.

For two seasons in a row, Yennefer has been forced to make mind-boggling decisions, with disastrous results.

First, and worst, is her attempt to kidnap Ciri towards the end of Season 2. While she does manage to recant her betrayal during the course of that season, it’s the kind of move that, in a better show, should destroy the trust. and Ciri in Yen, forcing them to continually question her loyalty and motives, carefully regaining their trust over the years.

While this is a huge change from Yen’s book version, it’s not necessarily a bad one. Yennefer doesn’t have to be immune to error, and adding a new dimension complicating her relationship in the found family at the center of the Witcher stories could have been an interesting element, if played honestly and thoughtfully – especially if you think how many times she just disappears from Sapkowski’s version of the story. But it’s not treated as a new dimension for her character at all. Instead, the show continues into season 3 with some magic lessons that mostly take place off screen and a brief foray into ice skating. It has gone from a huge betrayal to a minor error of judgment and water under the bridge.

While at first it seems like the creators are just choosing to ignore what already felt like an out of character flaw for Yen, in season 3 it starts to feel like she’s just their outlet for plot-critical bad decisions when, after a few episodes, she decides to urge the mages to come together for a conclave.

Although the political situation in season 3 is not as clear as in Time of contempt, the novel on which this season is based, everyone knows very well that the tension between the kingdoms of the north and Nilfgaard is rising again. This is a wildly unstable time politically, and a time when kingdoms probably shouldn’t be without their mages, and all those mages certainly shouldn’t be in the same castle together.

Image: Netflix

Despite how obvious this all seems from the jump, Yennefer goes ahead with her planning, unbothered by the idea that treachery may be in the air – and her fellow mages in Aretuza agree. Then she and the rest of the mages seem shocked at the ball that ends the first part of Season 3 when Dijkstra, Vilgefortz and Stregobor all seem to have competing conspiracies. To make the show’s decision making even more accurate, Tissaia, the oldest and most impressive of Aretuza’s mages, goes from being skeptical of Vilgefortz and immediately wary of his intentions in the books to being madly in love with him in the show.

It’s a hugely disappointing position to watch these characters play when they could have been some of the brightest political actors on the show. What’s worse is that watching Yen make such a disastrous decision for the second season in a row almost undermines any credibility in her character’s ability. The creators of the show seem to take the audience’s love and trust in Yennefer for granted.

But after two consecutive seasons of using her character as the vehicle for all of the show’s worst decisions, how can they expect her to continue to be a character we look for and believe in?

The witcher‘s Yennefer could have improved on the book’s version of the character, giving fantasy television an impressive new watermark for powerful and interesting wizards, a role often reserved for wise old men or overly powerful boredom. But so far, Netflix’s The witcher changed the book’s version of the character into one that’s a barely competent mess of bad ideas, off-base instincts, and consequential betrayal. One of the biggest advantages of a The Witcher adaptation has always been the room it would have to expand Yen; instead, the show has wasted her even more than the books.