By Luis Navarro
The story of “A Little Sacrifice” centers around Essi Daven, a young bard known as “Little Eye”, who joins Geralt and Jaskier on an adventure of romance between the mermaid Sh’eenaz and Prince Agloval. These characters and their stories draw us ever more so into the world of The Witcher, but the truth is, the heart of the story actually lies with Geralt and Yennefer. “A Little Sacrifice” gives us a raw look at how love gets complicated when flawed people try to connect but can’t escape their own inner troubles. This ain’t no fairy tale romance like The Little Mermaid – don’t get me wrong, I like the story between Algoval and Sh’eenaz – but the central theme of “A Little Sacrifice” explores a darker, more damaged side of love.
Geralt’s Trauma and Struggle with Identity
Geralt of Rivia, our brooding Witcher with more layers than an onion, carries a hefty load on his back, a past filled with abandonment and an ongoing identity crisis. Being abandoned by his mother, Visenna, left deep emotional scars for Geralt. The lack of a maternal bond that is so essential for young children created a profound sense of unworthiness and isolation in him.
“My mother? … I presume she had a choice … A choice which should be respected, for it is the holy and irrefutable right of every woman … she had the irrefutable right to her decision and she took it.” – Page 345, The Last Wish
He spent his life haunted by the question of why his mother rejected him, blaming himself and believing he was unlovable on a core level. This early trauma manifests in all of Geralt’s future relationships as a lurking fear of abandonment, preventing him from getting emotionally attached. The demanding training Geralt underwent to become a Witcher also took a psychological toll on him. The intense physical rigors and stripping away of emotions hardened his heart at a young age.
“The Trial of the Grasses, Calathe, is dreadful. And what is done to boys during the time of the Changes is even worse” – Page 344, The Last Wish.
Geralt buries the trauma of this experience, refusing to acknowledge the damage done to his psyche. The result is a repressed individual who struggles to get in touch with his feelings.
“Don’t try to make me the subject of a moving ballad, a ballad about a witcher with inner conflicts. Perhaps I’d like it to be the case, but it isn’t. My moral dilemmas are resolved for me by my code and education. By my training.” – Page 214, Sword of Destiny
As if all that childhood trauma wasn’t bad enough, imagine also feeling like you’re losing your purpose in life. Deep down, he is a knight errant whose character is defined by the five chivalric virtues of valor, honor, compassion, generosity, and wisdom. When Geralt tells the story of his first monster kill, he sees himself as a righteous hero, like a knight protecting the world from evil.
“As I left Kaer Morhen, I dreamed of meeting my first monster. I couldn’t wait to stand eye-to-eye with him. And the moment arrived … I came across him on the highway where, with some fellow monsters, deserters, he’d stopped a peasant’s cart and pulled out a little girl, maybe thirteen years old. His companions held her father while the bald man tore off her dress, yelling it was time for her to meet a real man. I rode up and said the time had come for him, too …”- Page 132, The Last Wish
But life was not a knight’s fairy tale, as he would soon find out.
“I wanted the girl, sobbing with gratitude, to kiss her savior on the hands, and her father to thank me on his knees. In reality her father fled with his attackers, and the girl, drenched in the bald man’s blood, threw up, became hysterical and fainted in fear when I approached her. Since then, I’ve only very rarely interfered in such matters.” – Pages 132 and 133, The Last Wish
He finds himself in a world where there are fewer monsters left with each passing day, and his profession and source of identity – being a witcher – is becoming obsolete. Not only that, he struggles deeply with the contradiction of people hiring him to kill the monsters that plague them, yet those same people still revile and fear him as another monster. This cognitive dissonance takes a psychological toll on Geralt. He is conflicted, feeling simultaneously like a heroic protector and a despised outcast. Talk about an existential crisis.
However, during the events of “A Little Sacrifice”, Dandelion makes a good point about how Geralt plays up as being different but is really just a normal guy inside.
“Do you know what your problem is, Geralt? You think you’re different. You flaunt your otherness, what you consider abnormal. You aggresively impose that abnormality on others, not understanding that for people who think clear-headedly you’re the most normal man under the sun, and they all wish that everybody was so normal.” – Page 207, Sword of Destiny
Geralt leans hard into acting the victim and the outcast. His relationship with society is complicated – it’s like he almost enjoys being hated and proves he doesn’t belong. But the truth is that it’s all a defensive coping mechanism. Though he refuses to admit it, the scorn people often show Geralt for being a Witcher cuts him to his core. After a childhood devoid of love, the hatred he often receives deepens the wounds of his past. It fuels a sense of alienation and validates the feeling of being an outcast unfit for human connection. By actively portraying himself as a societal reject, Geralt avoids having to be vulnerable or invest in connections that may hurt him again. He reinforces his outsider status as a means of protecting his inner fragility.
Geralt and Yen’s Complex Relationship
So how does the story of “A Little Sacrifice” impact Geralt and Yennefer’s relationship, considering she’s not even in it? Well, that’s where Essi comes in. She sees the real sensitive side of Geralt that he buries deep down. It’s crucial to underscore Essi’s youth and the simplicity of her view on love. She is someone whose little eyes are still filled with stars. Her understanding of romance is unburdened by the emotional scars that Geralt and Yennefer carry. Essi is drawn to that hidden vulnerability in Geralt, hoping to connect with the man beneath the cold exterior.
“‘You’re sensitive,’ she said softly ‘Deep in your angst-filled soul. Your stony face and cold voice don’t deceive me.’” – Page 214, Sword of Destiny
In “A Little Sacrifice”, Geralt finds himself in a predicament with Essi when he learns she’s caught feelings for him. He knows he can’t love her back the way she loves him, and were he to entertain her, he would only end up breaking her heart later on when he ultimately rejects the deeper emotional connection that she seeks. But if he refuses to be with h er at all, that would also be rejecting her in its own way. No matter what Geralt does, Essi is gonna end up heartbroken. And in dealing with this situation, he realizes he cannot truly find comfort in someone other than Yennefer.
“A little sacrifice, he thought, just a little sacrifice. For this will calm her, a hug, a kiss, calm caresses. She doesn’t want anything more. And even if she did, what of it? For a little sacrifice, a very little sacrifice, is beautiful and worth… Were she to want more… It would calm her. A quiet, calm, gentle act of love. And I… Why, it doesn’t matter, because Essi smells of verbena, not lilac and gooseberry, doesn’t have cool, electrifying skin. Essi’s hair is not a black tornado of gleaming curls, Essi’s eyes are gorgeous, soft, warm and cornflower blue; they don’t blaze with a cold, unemotional, deep violet. Essi will fall asleep afterwards, turn her head away, open her mouth slightly, Essi will not smile in triumph. For Essi… Essi is not Yennefer. And that is why I cannot. I cannot find that little sacrifice inside myself.” – Page 232, Sword of Destiny
Yennefer, perceptive as she is, also sees through Geralt’s stoic front and picks up on his pain. This creates a sense of connection in her wounded heart that draws her to Geralt as someone who understands suffering. Her backstory is as traumatic as his. Growing up despised and abused just for her looks, something she had no control over. Her childhood was straight-up traumatic – no sugarcoating it. Her relationship with Geralt perfectly illustrates the ways this trauma manifests. Her need to control comes from deep fears of being left alone. She is haunted by abandonment issues stemming from childhood mistreatment, leaving her constantly on guard, desperately trying to maintain control over her relationships.
Geralt and Yennefer, both scarred by their respective traumas, find a distinctive solace in one another. Yennefer’s inclination towards control, rooted in her fear of abandonment, intersects with Geralt’s hesitance to openly express emotions. Though their relationship can be toxic and unhealthy at times, two damaged people like Geralt and Yennefer feel an inexplicable yet profound connection, recognizing a shared experience of pain that makes them gravitate toward one another.
“… if Yennefer feels like I do now when she’s with me, I feel sorry for her … No, I won’t continue to hate Yennefer for not being able and not wanting to give me more than a little sacrifice. Now I know that a little sacrifice is a hell of a lot.” Page 231, Sword of Destiny
The Witcher’s Portrayal of Love
Love in The Witcher isn’t all roses and sunshine – it’s more like a dark, stormy night with occasional flashes of lightning. It’s the kind of romance that makes you question if your heart is playing Gwent with destiny. But it’s also real and mirrors the complexities we face in our own relationships. Geralt and Yennefer, each carrying the weight of their own scars, find an oddly comforting haven in one another. Anyone who has been in a relationship can relate to their struggles – the push and pull, the vulnerabilities, and the shared experiences of pain. It’s what makes their story so captivating compared to others (sorry Triss) and the reason why it it resonates on a deeply human level. It’s a reminder that love, sometimes, can emerge from the darkest storms of our lives.
All photos credited to CD Projekt Red
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