Ciri is a Witcher. The Witcher isn't missing at all.

anyone who has read the books was likely surprised that ciri wasn't the main character of any of the games when they first started coming out :::especially since geralt dies at the end of the books :::

ciri was more the mc than geralt for most of the books. she's the child of destiny. she's the young character that grows up as we follow their journey. she's the one that finds herself and shows major character development throughout the books. the only character development geralt goes through is accepting his bond with ciri.

the first two games never mentioning ciri was outright bizarre tbh. only even remotely possibly because geralt lost his memory. like, with where geralt as at by the end of the books the only thing you could possibly expect him to do on regaining his memory is frantically search for signs of his adopted daughter

to a longtime book reader my reaction to ciri being the protag of the next game was "FINALLY"

my only curiosity at this point is how much she'll be like book ciri. does she know magic? in the books ciri goes to sorceress school and then gets trained in primal magic by unicorns and immortal space elves. can you fuck a horse? that was one of the more... questionable scenes in the book.

tangent: sapkowski's politics occasionally bleed through in weird ways in the books. like three's a scene where a woman finds out she's pregnant mid way through a literal war that our band wades through on their journey to save the world. the party basically needs the woman to proceed. she does not want the child. i believe it was the product of rape. yet for some reason geralt and a literal fucking vampire convince her that abortion is wrong and she should keep it instead of drinking a potion about it. it was so randomly out of character for everyone involved. but hey, that's catholics for you i guess...
/tangent

i think they generally said that ciri lost her elder blood powers after the king of the hunt was killed right? otherwise I'm gonna be really curious how handle that as well. she should be sort of the world's greatest sorceress otherwise. ooh, i wonder if she'll make quips about cyberpunk and/or other worlds she's traveled to. like, she spent Decent bit of time in Arthurian legend. she shows up briefly in Victorian London.

also, what will the world at large look like? they can't do it like the last time where your previous save could alter the new game based on your decisions. you were simply able to do too much. they'd need to make like 3 entirely separate stories at the very least. like, who rules the north? are you the empress of nilfguard? is the church burning all the nonhumans at record pace? you can basically decide the entire fate of the northern realms and all of its people in multiple ways... unless it just takes place elsewhere. maybe we'll be in zerrikania this time or some shit. there are many distant lands that the games never take us. it would be much more doable that way. then you'd just have to change dialogue and maybe swap out a few characters.

aaaanyway... yeah, anyone mad about her being the mc is a dumbass that doesn't know shit about the story.

They should do a Last Of Us prequel with Joel, but he dies in that one too due to time travel shenanigans.

I've never read the books, but... It was clear from game 3 that she was going to play an important role in the future. The entire plot of the main campaign in Witcher 3 was about HER powers. The Wild Hunt wanted her, not Geralt.

Plus also she's awesome anyway. What the fuck is wrong with people? Oh I can't enjoy my vibeo game with a wahmen as main character, it'll ruin my mood!

Honestly I'd rather be looking at a cute girl dashing around than an old man, even if I identify more with the latter. Video games are for exploring things. Fantasy worlds, dragons, wraiths... And the biggest problem with suspending disbelief is playing a character who isn't the same gender as the player? lmao.

Maybe I'm just not enough of a gamer. Only been two and a half decades or so since I first touched a computer and played games.

I was under the impression that it wasn't Victorian London, but The Plague Year. IIRC she, canonically, brings a blanket infested with plague lice from here to there, and ends up dropping it next to the ship Catriona, which is how the Catriona plague actually gets started. It was one of those "oh shit, yes, that explains everything" moments for me when I first read the books.

I've never read the books, but... It was clear from game 3 that she was going to play an important role in the future. The entire plot of the main campaign in Witcher 3 was about HER powers. The Wild Hunt wanted her, not Geralt.

Plus also she's awesome anyway. What the fuck is wrong with people? Oh I can't enjoy my vibeo game with a wahmen as main character, it'll ruin my mood!

Honestly I'd rather be looking at a cute girl dashing around than an old man, even if I identify more with the latter. Video games are for exploring things. Fantasy worlds, dragons, wraiths... And the biggest problem with suspending disbelief is playing a character who isn't the same gender as the player? lmao.

Maybe I'm just not enough of a gamer. Only been two and a half decades or so since I first touched a computer and played games.

hold up… ciri fucked a horse?

I 100% did, as the weird torture porn-esque deaths bothered me. I could've played if that questionable design choice wasn't made...

The death cutscenes were absolutely gratitudous in the first entry, but honestly, if you can get past that the whole series is quite good and it's really great storytelling and acting watching Laura arc from terrified recent college graduate put into unthinkable situations that she must find a way to survive all the way to cocky know-it-all who must literally nearly end the entire world and accidentally kill many countless innocent people to finally find hubris and actually start being a decent human being

The thing about them is that they are loud, directed, and often affect the first impression a game gets. If this wasn't with The Witcher fame, the effect would be more notable, and oftentimes they don't admit why they really have a problem with the game directly.

Although I really liked cyberpunk and I’ve finished both that and Witcher 3 and cyberpunk is my favourite…

Really? I thought Witcher 3 was iconic, like it broke out of the regular gaming culture and into the mainstream, idk if cyberpunk did that.

My world would be better if Witcher 4 is better than 3 but I have doubts

They are remaking the first game, but I don't know if there are enough details about it yet to know how extensive the overhaul will be. The second game doesn't need one.

I did watch someone else play it (they cut out a lot of the death scenes). I liked the evolution of the character, as she grew despite being put in situations that were wilder than what any normal college graduate would face in the real world. Learning from her decisions, and not being broken by them, is something that I admire about the character building of Laura. I hope any future games won't have those gratuitous as fuck death scenes or that lead dev dude who wanted players to feel 'protective' over Laura (dude was a weirdo).

lead dev dude who wanted players to feel ‘protective’ over Laura (dude was a weirdo).

Oh yuck!

The good news is past the first game the death cutscenes are far less gratuitous, and honestly as long as you've got decent enough reactions you don't see very many of them. The third game in particular puts a ton of effort into being respectful, including for example, actually having NPCs speak in local languages with English subtitles rather than a crowd in Mexico City all speaking English for example

The problem with Ghostbusters (2016) didn't have anything to do with having an all female cast

That's what I just said.

If women arent the ones greenlighting these movie, directing them, or even writing the script, how could they possibly be the problem?

I listed a bunch of actually good "woke" media. They were made by a trans and black creators but if you want examples of women being funny look at Veep, the Good Place, 30 Rock, Parks and Rec, etc.

The problem as I pointed out is a predominately white male board member of business grads who feel having an all female cast is all they need to market a movie, so they can skip giving a shit about the product.

it was more about the timing of the jokes, the lack of slow quiet scenes to build atmosphere, and the effects being crappy unmemorable CGI

Because Sony can't make a movie to save their lives. Look at Morbius, Kraven, Madame Web, etc.

There was a time in the early 00s/10s where society said "any representation is good representation".

Movies like Black Panther and Get Out were inherently going to do well because they catered to an audience demand that had been long underrepresented.

Nowadays there are actually good movies in competition. We dont have to settle for bad representation. If you want a horror movie that's an allegory for not transitioning you can watch it, if you want a vampire movie where the vampires are an allegory for racism and white exploitation that's in theaters right now.

Spotting background character 1 and 2's gay kiss in Disney's reboot of Buzz Lightyear feels a lot less exciting to me.

When a bunch of white board members decide to make a movie "for women" and resurrect a dead IP and start forcing a script, that will be inherently more shallow than going to Amy Poehler and asking if she has an idea to pitch.

This is why Marvel succeeded in giving Ryan Coogler a higher degree of creative control for Black Panther than Sony did for any of the female cast in Ghostbusters.

While I'm enjoying diverse films like Sinners and I Saw the TV Glow, if you're more interested in Disney's live action remake of The Little Mermaid, or Disney's live action remake of Snow White, go right ahead and watch it. I'm not saying you can't.

But the idea you have to "support it" is nothing but marketing. I don't think you're really supporting diverse stories, I think you're supporting corporations who exploit diversity and intentionally rage bait the worst racists imaginable for free marketing instead of investing the areas that you point out would make the movie better.

I didn't played the game or read the books but I think if you are playing a game that is called Witcher and the Witcher himself is missing that is a big issue.

Normally you would get a new game with a new title but big companies want to use the IP and think using a known title is always better than coming up with a new title.

As I said I didn't played Witcher 3 so dunno if it makes sense, but I wouldn't be surprised if people are unhappy when their main character is missing in the game.

I’m trying to remember the first game I played with a female lead and I think it was portal. And that woman didn’t speak. Strangely the next was transistor and she technically didn’t speak either.

What ISN’T woke to conservatives/republicans anymore?

Please don’t answer that, I know the answer, but come on. Pick up a book.

My man Geralt looked like he was in dire need of a nap during the entire run of Witcher 3. Let him rest, people.