Netflix The Witcher
In Episode 5 of The Witcher on Netflix, Geralt makes a wish involving Yennefer that isn’t fully revealed. They talk about the wish later in the season, but it still doesn’t quite reveal what he wished for. Here are fans’ theories on Geralt’s wish and the reasoning for it, along with what has been revealed about his wish in the books. This post will have spoilers for The Witcher on Netflix, along with spoilers about the wish itself as mentioned in the books.
The third wish that Geralt made in Season 1 Episode 5 was never fully revealed. Even at the end of the season, he and Yennefer talked about the wish but they never quite came out and said exactly what he wished for. It seems to boil down to Geralt either wishing that his fate and Yennefer’s fate would be bound (and thus why they would always keep meeting each other), or that Yennefer would love him. In Episode 6, Jackdaw simply said: “I see why you didn’t want to lose her.” He didn’t spell out what Geralt wished for, but Yennefer took it pretty seriously.
If Geralt had wished for her to love him, it explains better why she got so angry at him, seemingly thinking that her feelings for him are nothing more than emotions caused by a genie’s wish. But more than likely, his wish was that their destinies would be bound, since the idea of destiny plays such a big role in the books and the TV series. Plus, since he was the Djinn’s master at that point in time and the Djinn can’t kill his master, wishing for his destiny to be bound to Yen’s would prevent the Djinn from twisting Geralt’s wish and killing Yen. Yen might still believe that their destinies’ being bound would explain why she felt so drawn to him.
Do the books or games give us any more hints about Geralt’s wish?
In the books, the author doesn’t quite spell out what he wished for, readers have said. Redditor u/BaronJaeveln wrote: “I don’t think it’s ever stated what the exact wish was, the author leaves it to the readers’ imagination. But it’s probably along the lines of ‘I wish for my destiny to be linked with Yennefer’ or some such.”
Redditor EDGE515 gives a more detailed explanation, writing that in the book, Yen was trying to subjugate the genie but it was still bound to its master, Geralt. Edge515 writes: “She tries to convince Geralt to make a wish to free it so that she may subjugate it, but he refuses because he believes that once it’s free of its obligation, it will focus all of its effort on destroying her. He then realizes that she is slowly losing control of her binding magic and once it breaks free will surely end her life. So he comes up with a wish that will not only free the djinn but also prevent it from going after her once the wishes are fulfilled. So he wishes to binds his fate to Yen’s and since djinn can not intentionally harm neither current or former masters, it has no choice but to leave her alone and leave.”
Geralt wanted to save her life, but why did he care so much? Fans say that he felt a kind of love-at-first-sight for her, and that was the only way he could think of to save her. Geralt’s initial intention was to wish for whatever it was that Yennefer truly wanted. But since she wouldn’t tell him, he had to think of something that would keep her alive and not be twisted in the way that genies tend to do.
Yennefer’s negative reaction to the wish later on in the TV series is interesting because some might argue that Geralt himself might have still been under her spell a bit still at this point. She was able to get under his skin with her magic like no one else had and he was clearly under one of her spells just shortly before. At the time he made the wish, he might not have been completely free of the spell yet.
Some fans think that Geralt’s being drawn to Yennefer is for a completely different reason. Here’s an interesting comment on Reddit about the topic based on the books:
The idea that Geralt could see through Yennefer immediately and fell in love with her because of that is fascinating and paints a beautiful story between the two characters.