snowfalls3 replied to your post “i just remembered what they were referencing with...”I haven't read the books yet but I've known about...
I haven't read the books yet but I've known about how their relationship came to be in them and I was really confused watching the show, ngl. especially since I thought Yen was going to immediately see that Ciri is the kid she could be a mother to, but instead they made her believe that all she needs is her magic back. when for a long time she had that a still felt empty, in the show's word. so yeah idk it's a bit messy
Truth be told, the thing about the books is that they don’t spell things out as much as the show does. Case in point, they don’t spend as much time on Yennefer’s desire to have kids, and Yennefer herself is portrayed as much more subdued (to be fair, we also just don’t spend as much time in Yen’s perspective as we do in Geralt’s and Ciri’s).
So it’s not really all that obvious that Yen sees Ciri as a daughter when they first interact (there’s even this weird sense of rivalry there, but let’s not get into that), and she keeps calling her her “ugly one” - but it turns into “my ugly one” (affectionate) pretty early on, and Ciri picks up on that, and... Honestly, do you have an hour to talk about their relationship? Because I just realized that’s where I was heading with this. 😄 Let’s just say that I don’t actually remember Ciri outwardly calling Geralt ‘Dad’, but she does call Yen ‘Mama’ from time to time, and it always hits me like a bag of bricks right in the feelings. (That being said, I don’t mean to downplay Ciri and Geralt’s relationship there, theirs is very obviously just as important and just as much of a parental dynamic - Yen and Geralt just show affection in different ways and that’s part of what’s so beautiful about their respective relationships to Ciri and how she essentially learns their “love languages” I guess.)
If I’m being honest, the thing that probably bothers me the most about this adaptational change is that it has the potential to prioritize Ciri’s relationship to Geralt when her relationship to Yen should be just as strong and important (which is already something that the games are guilty of, let’s be honest). That’s very much my bias here. In theory, I get what they were going for, they wanted to have a simplicistic “love vs. power” story for Yen, but that still would’ve worked so much better if a) they built up the relationship first, so that’s earned and/or b) have Yen make that choice herself at Cintra, and don’t just force the truth out of her through a vision and Nilfgaardians.
Anyway, anyway, I already ranted and rambled on for too long, the point being Yen and Ciri are great, their relationship is great, I love them, please don’t make me come for you, Netflix.
