The Witcher 3: Triss or Yennefer – Who Is Your Better Choice for a Girl?

Despite Witchers generally being disliked, and at times even hated, Geralt is a real magnet for women, sorceresses in particular. Throughout the games, you have the option of romancing many women, but the two stick out from the rest, Triss and Yennefer. Both of them are powerful, and attractive and have a deep and strong bond with Geralt. Having said that, most players usually want to settle for one girl only and might have trouble deciding who to pick. In today’s post, we’re going to analyze both Triss and Yennefer and tell you which one of them is a better choice.

Triss or Yennefer: Personal history with Geralt

Triss and Geralt met after he was already involved with Yennefer and the two have already broken up for the first time. She is a pretty minor character in the books and doesn’t have as much personal history with Geralt as Yennefer does. The games certainly leave the impression she is as equally as important as Yennefer is when it comes to lore, but it’s not really true. You see Triss more in the games but in the books, it’s the opposite. In fact, Triss seduced Geralt and abused the fact that he was not on the best of terms with Yennefer. This doesn’t seem like a good start for a solid and long-term relationship.

Yennefer and Geralt met in The Last Wish novel. Dandelion and Geralt were attacked by a Djinn and the encounter ended very badly for Dandelion. The two made their way to Yennefer so she could heal Dandelion, what the two didn’t know at the time was that Yennefer was desperately looking for Djinn to heal her body. She wanted to have kids and couldn’t because Sorceresses like Witchers are sterile. Djinn would eventually turn on Yennefer and kill her, Geralt knew that but he also knew that Djinn could not kill his master, he made his final wish, he wanted to die with Yennefer.

It was implicated then and there that the two are now bound “forever”, and the fact that the two couldn’t discern whether they were truly in love with each other or simply bound by magic was the point of contempt between the two of them and source of much of their arguments.
Still, it’s a better love story than what Triss and Geralt have so the point goes to Yennefer.

Yennefer 1: Triss 0

Yennefer vs. Triss: Personality

Triss is sweet, calm, and generous, and oftentimes puts the needs of others above her own needs. She is willing to sacrifice much to fight for what she thinks is right and generally has a warmer relationship with Geralt and with other characters in the games. Most of the interactions she has with Geralt are kind and heartwarming, the two are known to argue at times but it’s nothing serious as Geralt knows he can always count on Triss and vice versa. She is independent but she also knows when to ask for help.

But! Triss is not perfect either, she is known to be manipulative at times, and resorts to some pretty drastic measures to achieve her goals. She slightly redeemed herself for those when she attempted to save all mages and other magical races from Novigrad.

Yennefer on the other hand should learn that sarcasm is not a personality. On my second and third replays, I’ve actually skipped most of the dialogue with her she was grating on my nerves so much. She is rude and rudeness should never be mistaken for “strength” and “witt”. There are plenty of ways to write a cynical character with a tragic backstory and it doesn’t have to be an obnoxious personality.

I mean damn, have you seen the state of Velen? People are practically roommates with fogglers and drowners, everyone has a tragic backstory in the world of Witcher and yet rarely someone acts as badly as Yennefer does. This is because she knows she is powerful and she can get away with it, and this is the worst offense in my books.

She constantly belittles and mocks people because she knows there aren’t to be any real consequences for it. Her interactions with Geralt are atrocious as well, and he’s nothing but kind toward her.
When it comes to the personality contest, Triss is the obvious winner in this one.

Yennefer 1: Triss 1

Power, Magic & Abilities

Triss is a powerful mage, we’ve witnessed her destructive magic plenty of times. She is an extremely skilled healer and is happy to provide the general populace with her range of elixirs. She has the standard “sorceress” package of abilities and is not someone you would like to meet on a battlefield. She is also an inventor of a powerful shield ability. Overall when it comes to both offense and defense Triss is someone who you would want to have on your team.

Yennefer is powerful as well, when compared to Triss she is older and wiser and has a few “grey tricks” up her sleeve. She is often regarded as the most powerful in the lodge, and she isn’t afraid to show it. Clearly, over the course of both books and games (and TV show), we witnessed how much more powerful she is than Triss.

Yennefer managed to subdue a Djinn, something that most magically inclined people would never dare to think about. One more thing that makes her incredibly powerful is the fact that she will use forbidden and frowned upon magic to get what she wants. This alone gives her an edge over most other mages in the world. In the power contest, Yennefer is a clear winner.

Yennefer 2: Triss 1

Relationship with Ciri

Even though both Yennefer and Triss have a good relationship with Ciri, Yennefer takes the point in this category as well. Triss has an “older sister” type of relationship with Ciri. The two are close but there were a couple of instances when Triss tried to involve Ciri in some sinister plans. She wanted to try out the Witcher mutagen on Ciri, and she basically wanted to use Ciri as leverage with the Lodge of the Sorceresses. This is not how you build a solid relationship with someone. It’s okay to forgive, but one should be wary when it comes to Ciri and Triss.

Where Triss’ and Ciri’s relationship is described as sisterly, it’s obvious and stated numerous times that Ciri sees Yennefer as a mother and Yennefer feels the same way. Yennefer would never hurt Ciri, a child she desperately wanted for such a long time. Ciri is just about the only character in the series that manages to break instantly through her icy facade and the only character that Yennefer does not treat like dirt under her feet.

Yennfer 3: Ciri 1

Conclusion

As you can see, even though Triss is overall a better person in some instances, Yennefer comes out on top. She has a longer and more significant history with Geralt, she is more powerful which in Geralt’s line of work is extremely important. She also is the canon choice for Geralt and their relationship is more fleshed out, in the books and in the games no matter how toxic it is.

The ending doesn’t really change all that much no matter who you choose so It’s a personal preference first and foremost. I went with Triss obviously, I found her easier to interact with, and I found the quests that involved her to be more interesting and engaging. But at the end of the day, you do you. Yennefer is a better choice lore-wise, and she has a better and more significant relationship with both Ciri and Geralt.

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