Do you mind If I use your words as a pattern for my humble and not very popular opinion? It's not a direct answer to you but trying to generalising a little....
I believe if there is a Witcher 4 in the future then it will 100% be with Ciri as Protagonist.
Why? i dont think CDPR had no thought behind calling the Epilogue " Something Ends, something begins"
(i know thats the books epilogue aswell
(No, it's not the books epilogue, but a spin-off, a funny joke Sapkowski wrote for a friend and finally publised, but nothing to do with the Geralt fo Rivia's original stories) but i still think there is reasoning behind this little detail)
Something Ends= Geralts tale
Something Begins= Ciris tale
The Epilogue was basically about the future of Ciri.
I don't think so
The Witcher ending is likely the Canon they choose (
marketing choose) (IMO) because its what she wants (Book Ciri would never ever consider becoming Empress and i dont think this point is invalid because game ciri changed blabla...we know very little about how ciri changed over the years, almost nothing tbh)
Needed an easy way of finding differents endings in a Solomon's way
The Empress Ending never says she is crowned, so thats open aswell.
Everything is open. It's hard to lock the door and throw out the key
the "bad" ending never says she is dead, she just doesnt come back to Geralt.
Yes, like in books where is never writen that Geralt dies... The power of imagination.
The Overpowered Argument is something i cant understand. They made her overpowered because her flashbacks are just story, nothing else. you can't just start the fight again and craft oils, new armor, potions etc. playing as Ciri.
(It was be more credible, more accurate don't make the player fight as her, but only some shorts video scenes. Fighting as Ciri doesn't make feel her closer, IMO True Ciri's story is not only about her fiighting skills) The teleporting thing could be limited by some sort of combo points or sometihng else.
(If CDPR hadn't make the player fight as Ciri the teleporting power in combat system would never be a trouble).
It's not like Geralt was not overpowered
(Geralt is less overpowered than books, normal enemies cannot see his moves and attacks... and some players claim that combats motions are TOO fast!)
Thank you