Does Syanna have any regrets with Dettlaff?
Syanna: “I regret nothing!”
Let’s talk about this in detail.
That isn’t the face of someone who regrets nothing. That also isn’t the face of someone who just spent their time saying someone (said person walking through the door, Dettlaff) is a tool to them and nothing more than a tool.
This IS the face of someone who holds regret for their actions and the terrible truth of them that this person is about to find out.
In this moment, before Dettlaff walks through the door, he thinks he has just found the ones responsible for kidnapping and holding his beloved hostage. Syanna (or Rhena, at least before it’s revealed), can hear the fighting outside. She can hear Dettlaff coming to rescue her. However, of course it’s all a ruse. He doesn’t know that yet. But just for a brief moment, blink and you might miss it, before he opens the door, this flash of regret & guilt washes over her face with her back to him. He hasn’t even called out to her yet, but once he says ‘Rhena!’, she brings her head down as if to compose herself before putting on the act of Rhenawedd.
And then, of course after this, the truth of her is revealed with it and Dettlaff doesn’t take it well.
Now onto this scene in the Land of a Thousand Fables:
When Geralt starts asking her about Dettlaff, she gives this cold response, saying he was a tool and ONLY a tool. But notice how she kind of hesitates to explain him at first before deciding to call him a tool. It’s almost as if she is trying to look for the right words to say. It’s like she wants to say something else, but goes with the most obvious choice even would think from her.
“Dettlaff… was a tool and only a tool.”
But after she explains to Geralt that she learned to trust no one long ago and that now Dettlaff has to learn the same as she did, notice how Syanna ALSO turns her back to him, looking down after telling Geralt this.
I’m sorry, but this still doesn’t look like someone who doesn’t regret their actions. It just seems like someone putting on an facade, acting like nothing effects them once so ever.
Now the last, and probably one that drives it home for me…
“Dettlaff…it’s not that simple. I–”
“Oh no. It’s very simple. You either deceived me…or not.”
During the confrontation that is absolutely needed where Syanna and Dettlaff can just talk about all that has happened, Syanna is now showing her regret a little. However, I would like to point out how we can’t see her face or expression when she tries to explain herself to Dettlaff. It’s very interesting in particular they wouldn’t show us it, especially with how Syanna continues to only show her true emotions when her back is turned to others or if it’s with someone she trusts.
Now, people usually try to say: “Well, she is scared of Dettlaff in this moment! He’s going to kill her!”
But didn’t Syanna just say she isn’t afraid to see Dettlaff and that she KNOWS he wouldn’t harm her. However, she is nervous to see him because it’s “always nerve-wracking to see an ex, especially when said ex is a vampire.”
Now why would she point that out in particular if he was nothing more than a tool?
I’m sorry, but I don’t buy the fact that Syanna didn’t care of Dettlaff or that she didn’t have any regrets in using him for her means. Syanna is a silvertongue. She knows how to use words to either get her way or to cut you down with them. However, someone good with words or planning things out like her can still show emotion and struggle with composing it. They just cleverly try to hide it with their words, hence, Syanna turning her back and hiding what she’s really feeling, but using sharp words to make you believe something else.
It doesn’t justify what she did. It doesn’t make up for the fact she used someone who cared for her deeply.
But we honestly can’t look past the fact that she did care for Dettlaff and has some regrets about what she did to him. In the morally-grey world, you can care about someone, use them, and still have regrets/guilt about it too.
She was so bent and focused on revenge and only that she used someone she cared for and that cared for her deeply that it led to a disaster. After all, it’s like she told Geralt: “I’ll either get burned or I’ll burn all else down. No other options.”
