this made me have so many triss/trissefer/merihart thoughts in discord which i will now paste here:
so my take on it is–triss who is not who she was, who maintains the outer appearance of being caring and soft but can’t make herself genuinely feel those things anymore, but she loves yennefer, and she wants SO BADLY for yennefer to love her that she makes yen believe triss is a Good Vampire, works with yen to take down other vampires, yearns for yen’s approval
and then one day yennefer discovers triss is still killing people. and vamp philippa (perhaps the one who turned triss) has been watching and laughing at triss’s weakness, telling her it’ll all collapse soon enough, and when it does and triss only barely escapes the fight with yen with her life, phil swoops down on her to ~comfort~ her and remind her who she truly is now
in fact maybe triss wants yen’s love so bad that for a while she even does live off animal blood, or occasionaly drinking from people but not enough to kill…but she just misses the POWER she felt when she drained people, how GOOD it felt, how FREE
there’s a moment where triss comes really close to truly committing to the good side. she loves yennefer so much, is so drawn to her and needs her so much…but then, eventually…she’s alone again. and the need is so strong
there’s also a thing where. vamp philippa’s love is (seemingly) unconditional. she knows triss’s darkest nastiest depths and still wants her. whereas with yen, triss has to deserve it, and that’s so hard
OH MY GOD WHAT IF. WHAT IF. what if yennefer sees how hard it is for triss not to drink from people, and offers to let triss drink (a limited amount) from HER. and triss (who is down to only killing one person a month instead of two a week) takes her up on it eagerly bc the idea of drinking from yennefer is so heady and, frankly, hot, the idea of yen feeding her, of triss consuming her–and it’s INCREDIBLE and they’re both really turned on and maybe they fuck about it, and it becomes like a weekly thing. and oh, the utter betrayal and violation yen feels when she realizes triss was still killing even then….the only way triss escapes is by turning into a bat and getting the hell out, which she wouldn’t have been able to do if she hadn’t been eating people. but then, she wouldn’t have had to. GOD.
Ending scene: It’s a big showdown between the three. It looks like Triss is going to stay with Philippa. Yennefer tries one last time to save Triss- she doesn’t care if Triss chose Philippa, wouldn’t contest it, but she *knows* that Philippa is bad for her, and she wants Triss safe.
So Yennefer and Philippa fight.
At first, it’s evenly matched- Yennefer is a skilled hunter, but Philippa has not lived long just by sitting around. Triss watches though, undead heart somehow beating in her throat, as Yennefer keeps getting battered. Until finally, her sword and stake are knocked out of her hands, and Philippa pins her to the ground.
Phillippa says something, but Triss can’t hear her over her own feral fear. One moment, she’s standing on the sidelines, hand over her mouth as she watches the fight. The next moment, that hand is plunged into something wet and rotten, and when she pulls it back, she realizes she’s clutching Philippa’s heart. Phillippa looks back at her, spitting up black ichor. Triss can only as the light in her eyes dies, and she does too.
Within moments, Yennefer’s crawling out from underneath the corpse, now truly devoid of life. She gets her sword and cuts the head off with one decisive strike- there will be no revival for Philippa Eilhart.
Then she turns to Triss.
“Are you going to kill me?” Triss says. Philippa’s heart has dropped to the ground, and she kneels next to it, eyes dull and hands black and sticky with ichor.
“I should,” Yennefer says, her voice raspy. She swallows a sob. “For all the destruction you’ve wrought, Triss Merigold, I should kill you and burn your body until even the ashes are gone.”
Triss sighs. She tilts her head back with a sad smile, exposing her neck. “Go ahead,” she says quietly. “For what it’s worth… I’m sorry, Yen.”
The moon shines bright as Yennefer lifts her sword.
