The Witcher season 2 reunited the audience with Geralt, Ciri, and Yennefer, and the latter’s story went through some major changes from the source material, and she was powerless through most of the season – but why did Yennefer lose her powers? The Witcher has become one of the most popular universes in the fantasy genre, and it started as a series of short stories and novels by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski. The Witcher became widely popular after being adapted to video games, and in 2019 it got its first English language adaptation thanks to Netflix, quickly becoming one of the platform’s most popular titles.
The first season of Netflix’s The Witcher approached Sapkowski’s stories differently and went for a non-linear (and at times confusing) narrative, following three characters in different places and points in time, with their paths converging towards the end of the season. These characters are Geralt of Rivia (Henry Cavill), Yennefer of Vengerberg (Anya Chalotra), and Ciri (Freya Allan), and they continued to be the show’s main focus during season 2. Now, although the Netflix series is based on Sapkowski’s books, season 2 made various changes, mostly to Yennefer’s story, which ended up being quite divisive.
Yennefer’s life has been quite complicated from the beginning, as she was born with deformities due to her being quarter-elf, and in order to go through the initiation process to become a mage and become beautiful, she made a big sacrifice and she’s now unable to have children. While this has marked Yennefer’s journey, she has become a powerful sorceress, so much so that she was able to channel all her chaos during the Battle of Sodden Hill and use fire magic against Nilfgaard’s army, but that came with a price. The Witcher season 2 revealed Yennefer was left powerless after using fire magic during the battle, as it’s a forbidden type of magic that requires a sacrifice, so she spent the whole season trying to get her chaos back, which made her vulnerable to other powerful creatures.
Yennefer was captured by Fringilla (Mimî M. Khayisa) and company who were later captured by elves and taken to Francesca Findabair (Mecia Simson), with whom they later encountered the Voleth Meir. The Deathless Mother presented itself differently to each woman and offered them different deals depending on what they desired, and in Yennefer’s case, what she had to do to be given her powers back was capture Ciri and deliver her to a black door outside Cintra. However, as she was about to honor the deal, Yennefer changed her mind and stopped Ciri from getting close to the door. She then followed Ciri and Geralt back to Kaer Morhen, where Ciri was possessed by the Deathless Mother and killed various witchers, and to free the princess from her, Yennefer sacrificed herself and offered her body as a vessel. Ciri portaled herself, Yennefer, and Geralt to the Voleth Meir’s home sphere, where the Deathless Mother joined the Wild Hunt, and when they returned, Yennefer got her powers back.
This is very different from Yennefer’s story in the books, where she didn't lose her powers and was only blinded temporarily. The Witcher season 2 was all about how different characters are looking for Ciri for different purposes, and while Yennefer’s actions come off as predatory, taking her powers away is what ultimately pushed her arc forward and led to her properly teaming up with Geralt and Ciri, and hopefully, season 3 will see the mother-daughter dynamic between Yennefer and Ciri that fans were hoping for in season 2. Yennefer’s life has been quite tough and complex, and her magic gave her a sense of value, and losing her chaos sent her on a much-needed inner journey to find herself. In addition to that, Yennefer losing her powers also helped push the arcs of Fringilla and Francesca as they were approached by the Deathless Mother at the same time, and they all showed, in different ways, how everything comes with a price.