Am I the only one who actually doesn't hate Syanna?

[El Espanol The Gopher]

I'm not defending her, what she did was horrible but I dont hate for it. She felt abandoned and the knights who took her away abused her the entire time. Then she became a bandit, the only thing she ever knew was hate and bitterness. I don't blame her for having Detlaff kill those knights, I think most of us would do the same in her shoes. What do you guys think?

[a bad driver]

I agree with you and I chose a path that allowed her to be saved. The thing about her situation (and many other situations you face over the course of the game) is that it all comes down to perspective. Depending on your point of view, it might be easier to side with one or the other but there is definitely a moral ambiguity to it where your choice is not necessarily right or wrong. To varying degrees, you can justify the motivations of either of the sisters. It's not difficult to empathize with Syanna. Sure, murdering and killing are bad (making it easy to side with the queen) but the queen was at least partly to blame (whether due to her actions or inactions). Did she do enough as the queen? Could she have saved her sister or prevented her sister from going too far?

In the Batman movie from the 90's, towards the end of the movie the Joker said to Batman "You made me!". It's easy to feel bad for the Joker in that scene. He's a criminal, a psychopath and murder. From his perspective, Batman was to blame for everything and turned him into the Joker. But Batman responded "I made you, you made me first." reminding the Joker that he started it all by killing Bruce Wayne's parents when Bruce was a child. In the end, its a sad story for both of them and they both have their own motivations.

[Blockmind]

Both dead xD + Detlaff too)))

[Babbles]

Probably shouldn't have tried to kill her sister though, that is taking the whole revenge plot thing a bit far ...

[El Espanol The Gopher]

Originally posted by Babbles:

Probably shouldn't have tried to kill her sister though, that is taking the whole revenge plot thing a bit far ...

She shouldn't of killed any of them, but to her it was justified. There are few things stronger than the bond between siblings, Syanna no doubt knew that, so obviously must of felt betrayed when to her, the Dutchess completely abandoned her and left her to die.

[Valden21]

I feel the same way, OP. I always go for a reconciliation between the two of them.

[HerrBaron]

Originally posted by Valden21:

I feel the same way, OP. I always go for a reconciliation between the two of them.

Yeah, this works great, and it's ever so noble, right up until Syanna stabs the duchess with the duchess' hairpin...

[Cootswig]

I saved them both by chance in my first run. I'm definitely ging to make sure they both die and mr vampire will live.

[s0d0]

I don't "hate" her, but I cannot see past her deeds.
If you have a hard time and get abused, pushed around etc, you have 2 options:
Let hatred get the grip of you and be about as cruel as people were to you, or you use it as a negative example of how you never want to be. Chosing the former is the "easier" option, but also worse. She had the chance to start a new life and as one can tell, she could be a good leader and a powerful character - she sure has her charme - but what has she gained with what she did? Was it worth anything? She is a strong character, despite her past, she should have known better.

[Valden21]

Originally posted by HerrBaron:

Originally posted by Valden21:

I feel the same way, OP. I always go for a reconciliation between the two of them.

Yeah, this works great, and it's ever so noble, right up until Syanna stabs the duchess with the duchess' hairpin...

That's because you screwed up. There's a list of things you need to do to get them to reconciliate, and the last step occurs AFTER you defeat Detlaff.

[El Espanol The Gopher]

Originally posted by s0d0:

I don't "hate" her, but I cannot see past her deeds.
If you have a hard time and get abused, pushed around etc, you have 2 options:
Let hatred get the grip of you and be about as cruel as people were to you, or you use it as a negative example of how you never want to be. Chosing the former is the "easier" option, but also worse. She had the chance to start a new life and as one can tell, she could be a good leader and a powerful character - she sure has her charme - but what has she gained with what she did? Was it worth anything? She is a strong character, despite her past, she should have known better.

She was attempting to take the throne from Anna, I do think she'd make for a better ruler despite her cold nature. That's just my opinion though.

[Nourmahal]

I certainly sympathise with her, but I find it hard to like her because her character is written as ‘evil’. Despite the abuse she went through, the game still makes the point that she was born during a total eclipse so thus is afflicted by ‘The Curse of the Black Sun’. Even if she isnt cursed, the stuff she did as a kid, like tricking the boy who had a crush on her sister to kill his own brother, just further pushes this idea that she was ‘born bad’. I think a lot more people would like her if she wasn’t presented as being naturally sadistic. I like her more than Anna Henrietta though, whose behaviour during Blood and Wine was equally murderous, ignoring Geralt’s warning about Detlaff because she didn’t want to believe her sister was responsible for the murders. The people of Beauclair should have revolted and overthrown her after the Night of the Long Fangs and sent her straight to the guillotine. Awful woman.

Though back to Syanna, I do think she deserves to be killed by Detlaff. She played him and thought she could get away with it. I think it unfair that to get the ‘good’ ending, Detlaff has to die, but Syanna can live and face no consequences for her actions. It’s like the game is rewarding her, she only had to kill a few people, now she and her sister are reconciled and can live happily ever after. That’s ♥♥♥♥♥♥ up. Detlaff is the lesser evil in the game in my honest opinion, and I sympathise with him more than Syanna because of how her character is written.