Talk:Triss Merigold/@comment-88.5.17.226-20180708082142/@comment-79.121.84.143-20181005230935

@Felixgotrek, I have to agree, I'm one of those who replied to this guy some time ago, looks like some just want to force their subjective opinions on everyone else no matter what. That's why I only comment every once in a while, knowing from experience that it only goes back and forth pointlessly. But this quote from another comment by the OP:

"Taking only the books into account, I wouldn't say she raped Geralt, because in them she was a different person. A better one."

should've kind of ended the debate, when even the original accuser admits there's not enough evidence in the books to support the accusation. How someone subjectively views a character in non-canon sequels shouldn't be relevant to book content. At most the games could retcon a way of interpreting the book event in their own context, but in fact it isn't even mentioned. Chances are because the writers didn't consider it important to the story.

Again, I see nothing that proves it was different than something like the quest with Keira Metz, and it happened at a time when Geralt was temporarily broken up with Yennefer, he did sleep with other women (including a 17 years old Shani) as well under such circumstances, even if he regretted it later. So, I'm not convinced at all he needed any sort of mind control.

Just a reminder re Lambert, he isn't in Vizima during the events of TW1. He says so clearly in the prologue, he agrees to search for Salamandra in Kaedwen, and isn't seen again in the game. Either that, or he lied to all the other witchers.

Regarding Triss admitting to having taken advantage of Geralt in TW3, I don't see this as clear proof of bad intentions in the time frame of TW1. One can feel guilty about past actions in hindsight in light of new knowledge (such as learning that Yennefer's alive, which happens only after the ending of TW2), even if they originally didn't seem wrong at the time. I do think it would've been better to tell him about his past sooner, it's just not black and white why she didn't.

I still maintain that the idea of Triss impersonating Yennefer in TW1 by reusing her lines is nonsensical, it doesn't explain either why she also says book lines from other Lodge members, nor why Alvin similarly "impersonates" Ciri at times. As far as I know, it's just a byproduct of an admittedly not well executed idea by CDPR to use other characters in place of Ciri and Yennefer when they didn't feel confident yet that they could portray them well enough in a game with their limited resources and experience. But come the prologue of TW2, this oddity is gone, and Triss is back to her self from the books already before Geralt learns about his past. A change that wouldn't make sense if the impostor theory was true, but if we assume it was bad writing in TW1, well, CDPR did what they could by fixing it in the next game and pretending it didn't happen.

On the topic of magic, I don't think the average sorceress has such powerful mind reading and controlling abilities as suggested above, and Triss is relatively young (by sorceress standards) and inexperienced. Someone (especially a witcher) controlled by a spell would normally find out about it afterwards one way or the other, and reading memories of conversations from years before out of an amnesiac man's mind is also something I think would be very difficult.

Finally, I comment on this bit:

"We are judging things as human beings from planet Earth, we're not from some fantasy world with looser/different morals."

This is an important point of difference, when playing, I try to think and judge in the context of the fictional world, from the POV of the characters, because it's an RPG where we're playing as Geralt of Rivia. And in TW3, he loves or at least likes both sorceresses (choice dependent, but he can't hate them, no matter your choices), he doesn't particularly care about what wrong they did or didn't do years before, and in the end is shown happy with either in the epilogue and later in Blood and Wine. Of course, there are subtleties to these relationships, they aren't perfect, but characters do try to move on from the past, learn from their mistakes, which is a theme also seen in other parts of the game and expansions.