Eredin says 12 sentences during the whole game and.....
not a single one of it is not a one-liner without any depth.
This is everything he has to say during the whole game. Furthermore he gets less than 5 minutes screentime (not counting the fight, as the lenght differs depending on the player and difficulty and doesn't add anything to his characterization) in the 40-50 hours of main story.
"I have long awaited this and you. White Wolf."
"Tend to them. We've no time to lose"
"You shan't escape me this time."
"She'll not abandon you"
"You human are so...... impractical"
"The king is dead, long live the king."
"Any last words?"
"You had your chance."
"Witcher. I was hoping you'd come"
"I've something to tell you. But I'll do so afterwards."
"Avallac'h has tricked us both.
"He set us against each other.. and he's made off with Cirilla."
How can the antagonist of the game and leader of the titular Wild Hunt get such a treatment?
Though the worst part about this is that he wasn't just the antagonist of Witcher 3, but the overarching villain of the whole trilogy.
The trilogy starts directly after the books ending with Eredin kidnapping Yennefer from the Isle of Avallach.
The second game ends with Geralt making a deal with him. His soul for Yennefer and Geralt becomming "his best soldier". (according to Eredin)
The first game starts with Geralt at Kaer Morhen being purchased by Eredin and the Hunt.
The first game ends with Geralt and Eredin having a long conversation and Eredin telling Geralt he followed him during the events of Witcher 1.
So the previous games showed us he had a personal interest in Geralt, beyond just using him as a decoy for Ciri. Wouldn't this have been worth more than the 5 one-liners Eredin says towards Geralt during the again 40-50 hours main story? Especially because they spent some together while Geralt was a Rider of the Hunt and like mentioned aboved Geralt was his "greatest Rider"?
The Ciri/Eredin story got an even worse treatment. Eredin is Ciri's personal nemesis since Time of Contempt. He chased and made her life to hell for more than 7 years. Then we get the game, which finally resolves the Ciri/Eredin story and the only interaction between them is a single one-liner.
"You shan't escape me this time" is everything they have to say to each other. 40-50 hours main story and a single frikkin one-liner.
It's a shame that the lack of interaction other characters and the little screentime he gets in Witcher 3 makes him look like some mindless villain who is just evil for the sake of being evil.
Every Disney villain has more personality and depth. I can't believe the same developer wrote anatagonists like Jacques de Aldersberg and Letho.
Nah, the bloody baron has more personality in his small finger than the whole character Eredin.
The whole portrayal of the Wild Hunt is so unbelievable shallow and bland but Eredin topped it all.
A question to CDP: While writing the characters and story, didn't you think there might be something wrong if you couldn't even fill a beermat with the dialogue of the main antagonist?
Edit: Some suggestions to fix the issues with the Wild Hunt, Aen Elle, Eredin, Imlerith, Caranthir and the White Frost.:
- During the Kaer Morhen siege Geralt mentions that he remembers Imlertih from his time as a Rider of the Wild Hunt. This whole plot is criminally underdeveloped and it would have been a good opportunity to tell us what excatly happended during the time when Geralt was a Rider of the Hunt.
Did he help to conquer worlds? Did he kill innocents? Did he abduct children? We need a conversation about this subject at Bald Mountain. Geralt and Imlerith are alone and there is no real urgency at this time, so it would have been a good moment to give us this conversation.
- In the leaked documents there is a mission called "In search for Caranthir" right before we visit Gheels. Bring this mission back.
Caranthir needs more characterization. We know that Avallac'h created Caranthir so I guess he has some personal interest in him.
All we learn in the game is that he "went criminal". What dees this even mean? Did he "went criminal" just because he serves the Aen Elle king or is there more? Actually there has to be more, otherwise it doesn't make much sense.
We need a mission, in which we search for Caranthir and Avallac'h tries to convince him to give up his support for Eredin but fails. Currently Caranthir is just some faceless mage. This would give him more depth.
- Eredin should haunt Geralt in his dreams. The dream should take place right after the Battle of Kaer Morhen. (right before the moment Ciri wakes him up to kill Imlerith) There should be a long conversation between Geralt and Eredin during this dream. (similar to the Letho conversation at the end of Witcher 2)
-A playable flashback of the Tir na Lia events from Lady of the Lake. This would solve many of the problems with Eredin, the Wild Hunt and Aen Elle.
It should be triggered right after we reach Tir Na Lia with Avallac'h. Something like Avallac'h saying: "You know, Ciri was once here.....[....] (famous white screen.....Ciri flashback starts...)
- a conversation between Avallac'h and Ciri, in which Avallac'h is trying to convince her to make a child with the Aen Elle king.
They could explain the relation between him and Ciri, his relationship with Lara Dorren and that Ciri is a descendant and got her elder blood gene from her, what excatly going on with the white frost and why he helps her.
- a conversation between Eredin and Ciri in which Eredin tries to convince Ciri to poison the king They could explain the relation between Eredin and Ciri and why he haunts her in the game .
- a conversation between Eredin and Avallac'h showing us that they want the same (survival of the Aen Elle) but have different approaches in what way to accomplish that.
- Ciri trying to escape our of Tir Na Lia. While doing this she would find human slaves and graves. We know from Witcher 2 that the Wild Hunt abducts human children to use them as servants/slaves but this didn't play any role in Witcher 3. This would have been an easy way to implement this.
- while spending time in the Aen Elle world they could give us an in depth look on the Aen Elle (their world. history, motivations etc) and the threat of the White Frost for their world. This would help us to understand why they are chasing Ciri.
This playable flashback would solve many of the problems with the non-existent characterization of the Wild Hunt, Aen Elle and Eredin and I think it wouldn't be that difficult to implement it afterwards, because it's pretty seperated from the rest of the game. (playing as Ciri in a seperated area)
- when we reach Tir Na Lia with Geralt there should be human children as slaves/servants.
- A dialogue option to talk wit either Avallac'h or Gheels about the Aen Elle history and how the White Frost is destroying their world. We find anote in Tir Na Lia, which says that the White Frost is destroying more and more regions of the Aen Elle world. It would have been good to be able to talk about this with either Gheels or Avallac'h. (Additionally this would gives us a deeper understanding of the White Frost)
I think this additions would fix most of the problems with the lack of characterization and explanation regarding Eredin,Caranthir the Wild Hunt, Aen Elle and White Frost.
not a single one of it is not a one-liner without any depth.
This is everything he has to say during the whole game. Furthermore he gets less than 5 minutes screentime (not counting the fight, as the lenght differs depending on the player and difficulty and doesn't add anything to his characterization) in the 40-50 hours of main story.
"I have long awaited this and you. White Wolf."
"Tend to them. We've no time to lose"
"You shan't escape me this time."
"She'll not abandon you"
"You human are so...... impractical"
"The king is dead, long live the king."
"Any last words?"
"You had your chance."
"Witcher. I was hoping you'd come"
"I've something to tell you. But I'll do so afterwards."
"Avallac'h has tricked us both.
"He set us against each other.. and he's made off with Cirilla."
How can the antagonist of the game and leader of the titular Wild Hunt get such a treatment?
Though the worst part about this is that he wasn't just the antagonist of Witcher 3, but the overarching villain of the whole trilogy.
The trilogy starts directly after the books ending with Eredin kidnapping Yennefer from the Isle of Avallach.
The second game ends with Geralt making a deal with him. His soul for Yennefer and Geralt becomming "his best soldier". (according to Eredin)
The first game starts with Geralt at Kaer Morhen being purchased by Eredin and the Hunt.
The first game ends with Geralt and Eredin having a long conversation and Eredin telling Geralt he followed him during the events of Witcher 1.
So the previous games showed us he had a personal interest in Geralt, beyond just using him as a decoy for Ciri. Wouldn't this have been worth more than the 5 one-liners Eredin says towards Geralt during the again 40-50 hours main story? Especially because they spent some together while Geralt was a Rider of the Hunt and like mentioned aboved Geralt was his "greatest Rider"?
The Ciri/Eredin story got an even worse treatment. Eredin is Ciri's personal nemesis since Time of Contempt. He chased and made her life to hell for more than 7 years. Then we get the game, which finally resolves the Ciri/Eredin story and the only interaction between them is a single one-liner.
"You shan't escape me this time" is everything they have to say to each other. 40-50 hours main story and a single frikkin one-liner.
It's a shame that the lack of interaction other characters and the little screentime he gets in Witcher 3 makes him look like some mindless villain who is just evil for the sake of being evil.
Every Disney villain has more personality and depth. I can't believe the same developer wrote anatagonists like Jacques de Aldersberg and Letho.
Nah, the bloody baron has more personality in his small finger than the whole character Eredin.
The whole portrayal of the Wild Hunt is so unbelievable shallow and bland but Eredin topped it all.
A question to CDP: While writing the characters and story, didn't you think there might be something wrong if you couldn't even fill a beermat with the dialogue of the main antagonist?
Edit: Some suggestions to fix the issues with the Wild Hunt, Aen Elle, Eredin, Imlerith, Caranthir and the White Frost.:
- During the Kaer Morhen siege Geralt mentions that he remembers Imlertih from his time as a Rider of the Wild Hunt. This whole plot is criminally underdeveloped and it would have been a good opportunity to tell us what excatly happended during the time when Geralt was a Rider of the Hunt.
Did he help to conquer worlds? Did he kill innocents? Did he abduct children? We need a conversation about this subject at Bald Mountain. Geralt and Imlerith are alone and there is no real urgency at this time, so it would have been a good moment to give us this conversation.
- In the leaked documents there is a mission called "In search for Caranthir" right before we visit Gheels. Bring this mission back.
Caranthir needs more characterization. We know that Avallac'h created Caranthir so I guess he has some personal interest in him.
All we learn in the game is that he "went criminal". What dees this even mean? Did he "went criminal" just because he serves the Aen Elle king or is there more? Actually there has to be more, otherwise it doesn't make much sense.
We need a mission, in which we search for Caranthir and Avallac'h tries to convince him to give up his support for Eredin but fails. Currently Caranthir is just some faceless mage. This would give him more depth.
- Eredin should haunt Geralt in his dreams. The dream should take place right after the Battle of Kaer Morhen. (right before the moment Ciri wakes him up to kill Imlerith) There should be a long conversation between Geralt and Eredin during this dream. (similar to the Letho conversation at the end of Witcher 2)
-A playable flashback of the Tir na Lia events from Lady of the Lake. This would solve many of the problems with Eredin, the Wild Hunt and Aen Elle.
It should be triggered right after we reach Tir Na Lia with Avallac'h. Something like Avallac'h saying: "You know, Ciri was once here.....[....] (famous white screen.....Ciri flashback starts...)
- a conversation between Avallac'h and Ciri, in which Avallac'h is trying to convince her to make a child with the Aen Elle king.
They could explain the relation between him and Ciri, his relationship with Lara Dorren and that Ciri is a descendant and got her elder blood gene from her, what excatly going on with the white frost and why he helps her.
- a conversation between Eredin and Ciri in which Eredin tries to convince Ciri to poison the king They could explain the relation between Eredin and Ciri and why he haunts her in the game .
- a conversation between Eredin and Avallac'h showing us that they want the same (survival of the Aen Elle) but have different approaches in what way to accomplish that.
- Ciri trying to escape our of Tir Na Lia. While doing this she would find human slaves and graves. We know from Witcher 2 that the Wild Hunt abducts human children to use them as servants/slaves but this didn't play any role in Witcher 3. This would have been an easy way to implement this.
- while spending time in the Aen Elle world they could give us an in depth look on the Aen Elle (their world. history, motivations etc) and the threat of the White Frost for their world. This would help us to understand why they are chasing Ciri.
This playable flashback would solve many of the problems with the non-existent characterization of the Wild Hunt, Aen Elle and Eredin and I think it wouldn't be that difficult to implement it afterwards, because it's pretty seperated from the rest of the game. (playing as Ciri in a seperated area)
- when we reach Tir Na Lia with Geralt there should be human children as slaves/servants.
- A dialogue option to talk wit either Avallac'h or Gheels about the Aen Elle history and how the White Frost is destroying their world. We find anote in Tir Na Lia, which says that the White Frost is destroying more and more regions of the Aen Elle world. It would have been good to be able to talk about this with either Gheels or Avallac'h. (Additionally this would gives us a deeper understanding of the White Frost)
I think this additions would fix most of the problems with the lack of characterization and explanation regarding Eredin,Caranthir the Wild Hunt, Aen Elle and White Frost.
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