The Witcher The Witcher IV - The Ciri Saga Begins

[Alienman]

I love this picture. Here we have CD PROJEKT teaching the newly arrived refugees Muakadwba and Basma the lore of the Witcher.

 

[Latro]

Fucking hate ciri…cowardly decision too. CDPR could just as easily made a new fem-protag as the last gambit of a dying/dead school or something, going with Ciri means they’re too afraid of turning people off

 

[moon knight]

They had her undertaking a ritual that was all but forgotten by the time Witcher 4 happens that apparently was never used on women before and was even incredibly deadly to men and could only be done to children as it's less lethal for the subject that way.

In Gwent expansion CDPR has established that the school of the Cat can make women witchers. Also, it is wrong to assume that Ciri underwent the mutations by choice. We don't know anything at all about the story.

 

[moon knight]

Sorry, but starting what is effectively a new series (they literally called it "A New Saga Begins") with a major, established female character still isn't "DEI". The Black Widow movie isn't "DEI Captain America" and Tomb Raider isn't "DEI Uncharted".

To me, DEI is about pushing and promoting unmerited diversity into an existing storyline. Typically by creating new Mary Sue-ish minority characters, raising the profile of obscure minority characters from the backpages of the lore (effectively the same thing), or race/gender-swapping existing characters.

But the good news is, you can still hate girlboss female power fantasies without calling it DEI. It's all good.

The name of the game is Witcher 4, not Ciri: A New Saga Begins. Witcher is a series about Geralt, not Ciri. Your comparison with Black Widow and Tomb Rider is nonsensical. Black Widow movie is not DEI Captain America movie, it would be if you had Captain America trilogy and in the last movie she shows up, he dies and they make Captain America 4 with her as a lead while he is dead. Tomb Rider has her own universe and would have been a DEI Uncharted if they made Uncharted 4 and put ugly , fat Lara Croft in the lead.

To me, DEI is about pushing and promoting unmerited diversity into an existing storyline. Typically by creating new Mary Sue-ish minority characters, raising the profile of obscure minority characters from the backpages of the lore (effectively the same thing), or race/gender-swapping existing characters.

But this is what they did. They are promoting Ciri and putting her in a place where she has no business being. As said this is a WITCHER game, she cant be a a Witcher. And guess what if Ciri was a young bastard prince and not a princess Witcher 4 would not star as him but it would either have a character creation where you play as a young Witcher mentored by Geralt, Geralt back as a lead, or it would not happen.

> Book is literally called the Witcher
> Books were from Geralt's perspective
> He was the main character

Ciri calls herself a witcher in the books multiple times. She's the coprotagonist of the Saga.

 

[Zboj Lamignat]

> Book is literally called the Witcher
> Books were from Geralt's perspective
> He was the main character

She absolutely was challenging for the protagonist title as the books went on. She is also the character to get an actual ending (shitty, retarded, and completely out of place ending, but still), while Geralt, and almost everyone else around him, was gotten rid of in a very low-effort, disrespectful manner.

None of this was OK, she was never interesting past the initial plot device stage and the decision to develop the entire story around her was comically bad, but facts are facts.

 

[AwesomeButton]

coprotagonist

 

[Commissar Draco]

Fucking hate ciri…cowardly decision too. CDPR could just as easily made a new fem-protag as the last gambit of a dying/dead school or something, going with Ciri means they’re too afraid of turning people off

They love to turn people off its called fighting the patriarchy and subverting the expectations or some such shite in new-speak westoid, they could make their own tranny and build their own story from beginning but where are the f... white men tears in that? Besides you do need some talent to do it.

 

[Lodis]

Isn't the primary audience for the Witcher games males ? Sure the third game probably brought in a bunch of new fans but it doesn't change the core basis of the games which was playing as some gruff monster hunter guy with a bunch of hot bitches pining over him. Wonder what they'll blame when the game doesn't sell like Witcher 3 instead of realizing that moving away from your core audience that built up your franchise is a pretty retarded move. Bioware learned that the hard way.

 

[Green]

Sorry, but starting what is effectively a new series (they literally called it "A New Saga Begins") with a major, established female character still isn't "DEI". The Black Widow movie isn't "DEI Captain America" and Tomb Raider isn't "DEI Uncharted".

To me, DEI is about pushing and promoting unmerited diversity into an existing storyline. Typically by creating new Mary Sue-ish minority characters, raising the profile of obscure minority characters from the backpages of the lore (effectively the same thing), or race/gender-swapping existing characters.

But the good news is, you can still hate girlboss female power fantasies without calling it DEI. It's all good.

The name of the game is Witcher 4, not Ciri: A New Saga Begins. Witcher is a series about Geralt, not Ciri. Your comparison with Black Widow and Tomb Rider is nonsensical. Black Widow movie is not DEI Captain America movie, it would be if you had Captain America trilogy and in the last movie she shows up, he dies and they make Captain America 4 with her as a lead while he is dead. Tomb Rider has her own universe and would have been a DEI Uncharted if they made Uncharted 4 and put ugly , fat Lara Croft in the lead.

To me, DEI is about pushing and promoting unmerited diversity into an existing storyline. Typically by creating new Mary Sue-ish minority characters, raising the profile of obscure minority characters from the backpages of the lore (effectively the same thing), or race/gender-swapping existing characters.

But this is what they did. They are promoting Ciri and putting her in a place where she has no business being. As said this is a WITCHER game, she cant be a a Witcher. And guess what if Ciri was a young bastard prince and not a princess Witcher 4 would not star as him but it would either have a character creation where you play as a young Witcher mentored by Geralt, Geralt back as a lead, or it would not happen.

> Book is literally called the Witcher
> Books were from Geralt's perspective
> He was the main character

Ciri calls herself a witcher in the books multiple times. She's the coprotagonist of the Saga.

A saga that got worse and worse the more it became about her. And it's even paralleled in W3 where the strength of the game is in the sidestuff, not anything related to the Evil.Inc Wild Hunt or the White Frost, itself relegated to a plot device just like Ciri herself. Didn't even get a character arc or anything in that game, pretty much only existed for Geralt to react to.

 

[Elttharion]

Isn't the primary audience for the Witcher games males ? Sure the third game probably brought in a bunch of new fans but it doesn't change the core basis of the games which was playing as some gruff monster hunter guy with a bunch of hot bitches pining over him. Wonder what they'll blame when the game doesn't sell like Witcher 3 instead of realizing that moving away from your core audience that built up your franchise is a pretty retarded move. Bioware learned that the hard way.

The audience for grand strategy games is 99% male (the 1% probably toons) and CA still went out of their way to add more female characters and include female soldiers for some factions in the third warhammer game.

 

[volklore]

I think Ciri looks fine in the trailer whatever.
Main issue is that Ciri had no business being a witcher in the first place. The most retarded ending is being used as canon, great...
So CDP wanted to leave geralt behind, fine. Couldn't they make a new character? Use the lore to propose something new? They were able to create pretty cool original characters before...

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

They could have cashed in on the Gaunter o' Dimm craze (you know, that guy from the best part of W3) and had the game be about some poor bastard trying to get out of a contract, with him running afoul of Empress Ciri of Nilfgaard at some point.
But no, they had to ape the Americans and make the game about yet another ham-fisted girlboss.

 

[goregasm]

Just watched it. Enjoyed all 3 games in the series for what they were.

Ciri isn't really that interesting of a character outside of her being the mcguffin. Books kinda fell off after it became less of cool monster hunter memoir.

Can't personally get invested in playing as a melee ass kicking female protag so more likely than not going to be a hard pass for me dawg. Would have even preferred a shoe horned bullshit character creation over Ciri as the playable character.

 

[AwesomeButton]

I'm calling this now:

Notice that when Ciri is casting magic, she doesn't make the witcher's signs with hand. Instead her magic requires a physical connection to an element that serves as a conduit of the energy. I think CDPR will explain Ciri's becoming a Witcher as a special case, where she didn't undergo the full mutations and as a result is something of a half-witcher, with her magic functioning differently. This can potentially be expanded to explain her drinking a potion during combat, something in the lines of that potions wear off too fast on her.

 

[mondblut]

Ciri calls herself a witcher in the books multiple times. She's the coprotagonist of the Saga.

She's the copro... what?

 

[Tyranicon]

She's the copro... what?

-phile

Notice that when Ciri is casting magic, she doesn't make the witcher's signs with hand.

They're probably just going to go with "she's a witcher but better" because le elder blood. They took away her OP powers but she still needs to be super strong.

 

[AwesomeButton]

She's the copro... what?

-phile

No, that's the player

 

[AwesomeButton]

They're probably just going to go with "she's a witcher but better" because le elder blood. They took away her OP powers but she still needs to be super strong.

I was thinking she might be a "diluted" witcher in terms of special abilities, but they could give her some special combat abilities which we weren't shown in the trailer.

 

[duskvile]

I'm calling this now:

Notice that when Ciri is casting magic, she doesn't make the witcher's signs with hand. Instead her magic requires a physical connection to an element that serves as a conduit of the energy. I think CDPR will explain Ciri's becoming a Witcher as a special case, where she didn't undergo the full mutations and as a result is something of a half-witcher, with her magic functioning differently. This can potentially be expanded to explain her drinking a potion during combat, something in the lines of that potions wear off too fast on her.

It's okay. I like having different schools of witchers. I was hoping to see some new witcher protag different than Geralt.

 

[Lord_Potato]

I'm calling this now:

Notice that when Ciri is casting magic, she doesn't make the witcher's signs with hand. Instead her magic requires a physical connection to an element that serves as a conduit of the energy. I think CDPR will explain Ciri's becoming a Witcher as a special case, where she didn't undergo the full mutations and as a result is something of a half-witcher, with her magic functioning differently. This can potentially be expanded to explain her drinking a potion during combat, something in the lines of that potions wear off too fast on her.

You don't really need to be a witcher to cast signs. When Ciri was still a child and stayed in Kaer Morhen after Geralt first found her, witchers were trying to teach her signs. She could not cast them, true, but not because she did not go through mutations but because at that time she had no control over her magical talents. However the fact they even tried teaching them to her is meaningful.

Later in life she doesn't have a need to cast them since she knows much more powerful magic - actual spells taught to her by Yennefer. During the trailer she draws power from water (an act she learns from Yennefer in A Time of Contempt) and later hits the monster with a spell.

 

[racofer]

 

[Zeriel]

Sorry, but starting what is effectively a new series (they literally called it "A New Saga Begins") with a major, established female character still isn't "DEI". The Black Widow movie isn't "DEI Captain America" and Tomb Raider isn't "DEI Uncharted".

To me, DEI is about pushing and promoting unmerited diversity into an existing storyline. Typically by creating new Mary Sue-ish minority characters, raising the profile of obscure minority characters from the backpages of the lore (effectively the same thing), or race/gender-swapping existing characters.

But the good news is, you can still hate girlboss female power fantasies without calling it DEI. It's all good.

Maybe this makes sense on corporate marketing level, but otherwise it's completely nonsensical.

There are two ways of looking at Witchers: as what they are, and a profession. Witchers are created mutants, and yeah, it kills most men, and all women. Now you could be a monster slayer as a profession, and say that's what a Witcher is, without being a mutant... that would actually be kind of cool to have some random human mook who is doing monster slaying as a job without mutant powers, just through sheer ingenuity and skill, but Witchers already have a short life expectancy with all those powers. This is something that's sort of lost in the games since Geralt has to win, but monsters are dangerous and sooner or later Witchers end up dead, let alone some normal guy.

The de-powering thing offers an explanation... like Ciri, through some strange sequence of events, loses her powers, and THEN decides to become a Witcher--but the more I think about that explanation the less it makes sense. If she has her powers, why would she use them to become mutated? It's better to just be Empress of Space and Time. If she DOESN'T have her powers, and decides to go through the trial of the grasses without them... why would she survive?

Again, this can all be handwaved, but from the perspective of the setting its full pants-on-head retarded. I think the best outcome here is they are using her for marketing materials and she is even less important to the game than she was in 3, showing up as a cameo character (like Geralt presumedly will, since they talked about bringing his voice actor back). Otherwise we're looking at the worst story justification for the series ever, and what it says about the writing staff is really bad. If the core writing for the protagonist is this awful, the rest of the game is going to be sewer discharge.

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

Wasn't it explained in the books (or was it the games? I forget) that Witchers aren't even needed anymore anyway due to the advances in technology, magic and formation of professional armies and monster extermination teams? Iirc witchers were created out of desperation following the conjunction of spheres, which just flooded the world with magic, monsters, and even worse, elves. Something was needed to fight monsters, so a bunch of morally dubious alchemists and sages got together and started experimenting on children to try to make the perfect killing machine.
So give it a couple of decades or so and you could probably have a fairly successful non-witcher monster hunter, using a combination of tools and alchemy. Basically fantasy monster-hunter batman toting a blunderbus loaded with sanctified silver flechettes.

But naaaah that would be interesting. Easier to just mimic Disney and shove a chick in it and make her gay.

 

[Tyranicon]

Wasn't it explained in the books (or was it the games? I forget) that Witchers aren't even needed anymore anyway due to the advances in technology, magic and formation of professional armies and monster extermination teams? Iirc witchers were created out of desperation following the conjunction of spheres, which just flooded the world with magic, monsters, and even worse, elves.
So give it a couple of decades or so and you could probably have a fairly successful non-witcher monster hunter, using a combination of tools and alchemy. Basically fantasy monster-hunter batman with a blunderbus loaded with sanctified silver flechettes.

But naaaah that would be interesting. Easier to just mimic Disney and shove a chick in it and make her gay.

Also monsters are dying out. It's been said a few times before in this thread, but even during Witcher 3 it was well past waning, so by the time of Witcher 4, Ciri is just going to be some loon desperately asking people for monsters to slay.

Of course, they could just do the stupid thing and be like "x happened, and now there's monsters everywhere again!"

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

It would be pretty funny if Ciri fucked up and accidentally caused another conjunction of spheres with her dimension jumping bullshit.
Like she hops into some nightmare dimension, wakes up discount Cthulhu and he follows her home.