The Witcher: The Yen Storyline Anya Chalotra Hopes To Avoid In S4 & How It Might Change
Through three seasons of Netflix's "The Witcher," it's safe to say that Yennefer of Vengerberg (Anya Chalotra) has been through the wringer. Season 1 saw Yennefer being sold like livestock into the rigorous magical academy of Aretuza, eventually undergoing an excruciating magical ritual to make herself beautiful. She then spent Season 2 utterly broken and cut off from her magical abilities, having lost them as a result of forbidden fire magic.
By the end of Season 3, Yennefer has lost her surrogate mother, Tissaia (MyAnna Buring), and she and Geralt (Henry Cavill) are hopelessly separated from Ciri (Freya Allen). Undoubtedly, Season 4 is brewing up even more hurdles for Yennefer to overcome, including one particularly irritating storyline from the books that Chalotra is eager to avoid. "I hope she's not turned into a figurine for the next season," Chalotra joked during an interview with Vulture. " Because then I won't have much to do."
The plotline Chalotra is referencing occurs in the book "Baptism by Fire," where the sorceress Francesca Findabair (Mecia Simson) uses artefact compression to transform Yennefer into a small jade figure and keeps her in that tiny prison for 47 days. During this time, she is presumed missing by the majority of the Continent and plays no part in the story.
The show may have already passed this storyline
Considering the fact that this storyline would put Yennefer out of commission for an extended amount of in-world time, it makes sense that Anya Chalotra would push back against this plot point. Fortunately, it doesn't seem like this storyline will end up being adapted for the screen at all, since Netflix's "The Witcher" has already made major changes to the story that would lead to Yennefer's transformation.
In the books, Francesca Findabair compresses Yennefer into a figurine in order to smuggle her away from the island of Thanedd, fearing that Yennefer would be named a traitor after the coup at Aretuza, and would be subsequently hunted by the sorcerer Rience (Sam Woolf). After being returned to her normal state, Yennefer is recruited by Francesca into the newly formed Lodge of Sorceresses.
Not only is Rience already dead in Netflix's "The Witcher," but we've already seen the coup at Aretuza come and go in the middle of Season 3. The last time we saw Yennefer, she and the other surviving sorceresses were swearing their vengeance against Vilgefortz (Mahesh Jadu), which could be seen as a prelude to the creation of the Lodge. This might indicate that Yennefer will actually lead this organization in the show. On the other hand, Francesca does actually leave the side of Vilgefortz and Fringilla at the end of Season 3, perhaps leading to a storyline where we'll see her use this painful jade prison on Yennefer after all when she forms the Lodge. But regardless of what happens next, one has to assume that "The Witcher" won't let one of its most popular characters turn into a useless figurine for half the season.