How I Love to Hate Yennefer of Vengerberg

Poor, scraggly Geralt at the beginning of this playthrough.

Why play something new when you can just replay The Witcher 3 over and over?  That's the true question you all should be asking yourselves.  Joking aside, I have committed myself to another epic (that means base game + all DLC) TW3 adventure.  My initially scraggly Geralt is starting to look like a real witcher and is currently travelling the rugged wilderness of Skellige.  It's upon reaching Skellige and playing through the main story missions that I realize how much I dislike Yennefer of Vengerberg.  (*I suppose it's worth stating that there are potential TW3 spoilers ahead)

From the very beginning of the game Yennefer rubs me the wrong way.  Throughout the second game Geralt begins regaining his memory and his memories of Yen lead him to want to track her down.  Then, when the third game starts, that need becomes even more urgent as he seeks out the aid of all of his allies to help track down Ciri.  Upon completing the White Orchard section of the game, Geralt finally is reunited with Yen--and it's not exactly a warm, loving reunion as she immediately yanks Geralt to Vizima to meet with the Nilfgaardian Emperor, Emhyr var Emreis, to discuss finding Ciri.  It's straight to business with no time for pleasantries or any indication of their ongoing relationship.  So Geralt has just spent a bunch of time trying to track Yen down and he doesn't even get so much as an "I missed you?"  That's cold!  Yen then decides that she will head to Skellige to investigate a strange magical event that could be tied to Ciri and leaves Geralt to search the swamps of Velen and the city of Novigrad for any traces.

Pretty, but cold.

Once in Skellige, Geralt and Yen are reunited and agree to work together to investigate potential Ciri sightings.  There are a few dialogue opportunities for flirtations, but again, Yen isn't really interested in Geralt's struggles or in anything other than her own plan to learn about Ciri.  Immediately it becomes obvious that Yen's not at all concerned about other people--she cooks up a scheme to sneak into the druid Ermion's laboratory and steal a powerful artifact, the Mask of Ouroboros.  Ermion is an ally and someone with a vested interest in Ciri's well-being--he could've probably been convinced to help seek her out...but noooo, Yen has to have things her way and isn't willing to compromise at all!

After stealing the mask (which Yen insists is just "borrowing") Geralt and Yen agree to meet up at the site of the mysterious magical explosion.  When Geralt arrives, Ermion is busily berating Yennefer for stealing the mask--an action that I always find hard to defend (even though it is important for the urgent purpose of tracking down Ciri who appears to be in danger).  Oblivious to Ermion's anger about the potential dangers of using the mask, Yen wanders off to use it while Geralt tries to level with the livid druid.  A sudden crack of lightning indicates that Yen has used the mask...even though Ermion warms her that it could set off a cataclysm!  Geralt and Ermion have no choice but to rush off to try to neutralize whatever chaos could occur from the usage of the mask.

The mask reveals that Ciri was attacked and was wounded, but narrowly managed to escape through a portal.  Yen is able to track the portal to the island of Hindarsfjall.  The village of Lofoten was the most recent victim of the Wild Hunt and likely where Ciri exited the portal.  A group of priestesses are performing a ritual when Geralt and Yen enter the village.  Geralt urges Yen to wait until they're done with it, but Yen barges right in and starts pressing the traumatized women for information about Ciri.  The angry priestesses point the duo toward a sacred garden--the last location where the only possibly surviving person who saw Ciri was known to have been.

Geralt and Yen set off for the garden to track down Craven, a young man who was the last person to see Ciri and someone who was actively exiled from his village for supposedly fleeing during the attack of the Wild Hunt.  They quickly discover that Craven died in his mission to redeem himself by killing the cursed werewolf Morkvarg.  Yennefer is in no way disturbed by this fact and offers up the ghoulish option of using necromancy to reanimate the corpse and find out what happened to Ciri.  The dialogue options allow Geralt to choose to try to dissuade Yen from using forbidden, dark magic, but there's just no reasoning with her!  She reanimates the corpse, yanks the truth out of it, knowing full well that her actions will likely destroy the sacred garden.  Upon the termination of the spell, two angry priestesses appear and discover that the garden is completely dead.  They inform Yen that she is now persona non-grata in Skellige--a fact that she doesn't seem at all miffed about.  The only redeeming part of the entire exchange comes when Yen expresses some genuinely concerned fear that Ciri might have been the victim of a nasty curse. 

Throughout the multitude of times that I've played TW3 I haven't found very many redeeming qualities in Yennefer of Vengerberg.  She seems blindly ambitious and almost completely selfish (with the one exception being her concern for Ciri and the role she played in helping Ciri control her magical abilities--but even this I question!  In the books Yen has a strained relationship with the Lodge of Sorceresses, but does seem to want to play into their schemes for world domination--Ciri, with her powerful magical abilities is the perfect tool for accomplishing those goals).  To make a Mass Effect comparison, I find Yen to be the renegade option--she's willing to stop at nothing to accomplish her goals.  Her personality completely puts me off and even though I do think she's the canon Geralt romance option, I have only opted to stick with her once.  As far as I'm concerned, the Last Wish is all in her head.