Did CDPR fail to portray Ciri correctly in The Witcher 3?

[saltyB]

Did CDPR fail to portray Ciri correctly in The Witcher 3?

I am probably one of those people which only started to read the books after finishing The Witcher 3. Before that i didn't even really knew that The Witcher games were based on Books! Well okay maybe i heard it somewhere but i wasn't really interested in these (Shame on me)
So i didn't know about a lot of Details and Characters in that big whole Story! Especially Ciri!

So i didn't really knew about that Father&Mother&Daughter relationship between Geralt,Yen and Ciri!

Well, as the game was released and we all knew that "Ciri returns" i was like:" Ciri....returns...??? Ciri who?"
I saw the Intro with Ciri training and everything and well i couldn't really make my Opinion out of that.
And then i played the game, i loved it! I loved the Characters, and just everything...then came the first Quest with Ciri or should i say "Ciri's Story"


Okay there she was, in high heel boots with a beautiful face, and just everything else of her was perfectly designed...too perfect?
I enjoyed every moment that i could play with her because she was just awesome! And for me the most beautiful Character in the whole Witcher series!

Then came the Sauna Scene, oh wow, i think many of us, especially those who DIDN'T read the books before or didn't know anything about her, were thinking:" Damn...!"
Well no, she still had her bandage on but she was in underwear. At least...

So i was getting to the end, or i should stay it began with the Isle of Mists. More and more i was thinking:"Hm, wait aren't we players supposed to see her as a Daughter...and not a Sex Object, with High heels, a sauna scene of her half naked, her opened shirt button where everyone can see her Bra!

So there was me rethinking everything about her, because i wanted to change my Mind on her, not thinking about her being just a sexy girl, but being a beautiful daughter!
I started then reading the books, looking into the Witcher wikia...and there i could finally change my whole Opinion about her. I could see her really as Geralts Daughter now! I didn't care anymore about how perfect or sexy she was, i wanted only to be with her as a Geralt, as someone who loves his Daughter and support her! As a family!
Also i hope i don' t tell BS now, but in the books she wasn't even portrayed to be a "Really beautiful Girl" as far as i remember, right?

But...CDPR what?
We all know that CDPR likes to make their female Characters sexy and everything but please! Don't do it with someone who doesn't need that, someone we have to see as our Daughter! I mean she can be beautiful, but she doesn't need to run around in High Heels and with a Shirt button open where you can see her Bra and stuff!

(Well, thankfully they released that second clothing style for Ciri trough the free DLC which made her look more like a Witcher and not some Whore!)

But still!

I also read an interesting thread about how they failed to portray the Relationship between Yennefer and Ciri in The Witcher 3!

Here is the Link: http://forums.cdprojektred.com/thre...en-Yennefer-and-Ciri-and-an-incomplete-family


So, CDPR made basically everything right!
But in the End the failed in one of the most Important tasks, to portray Ciri in a way like the Books were doing!


What do you guy's think? Can you agree with me? Did you thought the same about Ciri?

:happy2:

 

[Percival_Dickenbutts]

I agree that they fucked up by putting her in high heels, absolutely ridiculous! Pointed it out months before the game even came out, but they refused to even acknowledge it.

If you are playing on PC however, there is a mod which gives her normal boots =)

Oh, and she was indeed described as being very beautiful in the books. The only characters that say anything in the contrary are: Yennefer (just to tease her a little bit)
and Bonhart (just being a mean asshole)

They portrayed her very well in terms of writing though, which is the most important thing. No amount of modding could have fixed THAT if they'd f****ed it up.

 

[saltyB]

They portrayed her very well in terms of writing though, which is the most important thing. No amount of modding could have fixed THAT if they'd f****ed it up.

That's true! At least they did portrayed her as a more individual Woman! Clever and Strong, but also Childish!

But they fucked up with the rest!

And yeah i kinda remember now, Yennefer always said to her "my ugly one" and thing's like that haha

 

[sv3672]

So, CDPR made basically everything right!
But in the End the failed in one of the most Important tasks, to portray Ciri in a way like the Books were doing!

The question is whether they actually wanted to portray her the same as in the books ? After all, she is not quite the only character who is different to some extent from the books, and in this case it can also be explained with her growing up and the events between the books and the games - in the former, she is a teenager, while in the latter she is an adult and is about to begin her own life as a witcher or empress. And when it comes to the lack of interaction between Ciri and Yennefer, it is not something that is specific to them, the game just does not have much interaction between NPCs in general, it focuses on interaction between the player's character and NPCs.

 

[Guest 3847602]

Yes, they somewhat failed. Not as much as they failed with Dandelion,Triss or Eredin, though...

 

[toudis815]

Not as much as they failed with Dandelion,Triss or Eredin, though...

Ekhm.. and Avallach (I wouldn't be myself if I didn't mentioned him). His relationship with Ciri was the most ridiculous thing about Ciri herself

 

[Guest 3847602]

Ekhm.. and Avallach (I wouldn't be myself if I didn't mentioned him). His relationship with Ciri was the most ridiculous thing about Ciri herself

More like the most disgusting... Thanks for remining me about that.
:ugh:

 

[wright1978]

No i don't think they failed. I think her beauty is there in the books, so the visual translation is in keeping with that.
I probaly prefer her alternate oufit but heeled boots and a shirt neither make her a whore, nor unsuitable in a daughter character. It's a pretty disgraceful notion that a daughter character should be modestly wrapped up.

As for the Ciri/Yen , i don't think they failed to portray the relationship, the relationship is there. I don't mind at all that they decided it was right that where the chracters were now meant there was an element friction within their mother/daughter relationship.

 

[Lytha]

but she doesn't need to run around in High Heels and with a Shirt button open where you can see her Bra and stuff!

I agree about the high heels being a really stupid choice.

However. That cleavage button thing.

If you start HoS and get the cattle brand and then talk with Ciri about it, she does say something I absolutely love her for. She will talk about her own scar and that people at first kept staring at it. So she just undid another button. Problem solved.

This is something I absolutely love her for. Absolutely.


She doesn't have Ves-like "let's unbutton the shirt all the way down and show my navel and boobs because... uh... no idea, just because" attitude. Or Keira "let them see my nipples, so that no one can claim that my neckline is too modest"-attitude.

It's because she feels disfigured and so she wants to distract from it. And she wants to live without these fucking stupid stares of the "normal people" morons who always keep staring at anything that is different from normal. And that method worked for her. This is seriously awesome.


How awesome that is you can maybe only comprehend if afflicted by something similarly to that. If you know the devastating effect of those fucking stupid stares can have on the afflicted's psyche.

Anyway. That is awesome.

 

[saltyB]

Ekhm.. and Avallach (I wouldn't be myself if I didn't mentioned him). His relationship with Ciri was the most ridiculous thing about Ciri herself

That was really weird! I was really wondering about that after i read that Avallach actually was the one who forced her to get Pregnant with Auberon and everything...

---------- Post Merged at 04:50 PM ----------

The question is whether they actually wanted to portray her the same as in the books ? After all, she is not quite the only character who is different to some extent from the books, and in this case it can also be explained with her growing up and the events between the books and the games - in the former, she is a teenager, while in the latter she is an adult and is about to begin her own life as a witcher or empress. And when it comes to the lack of interaction between Ciri and Yennefer, it is not something that is specific to them, the game just does not have much interaction between NPCs in general, it focuses on interaction between the player's character and NPCs.

Well sure she is an Adult and everything but i think that also Andrzej Sapkowski would have never portrayed her like that, like they did in the Game!

---------- Post Merged at 04:53 PM ----------

I agree about the high heels being a really stupid choice.

However. That cleavage button thing.

If you start HoS and get the cattle brand and then talk with Ciri about it, she does say something I absolutely love her for. She will talk about her own scar and that people at first kept staring at it. So she just undid another button. Problem solved.

This is something I absolutely love her for. Absolutely.


She doesn't have Ves-like "let's unbutton the shirt all the way down and show my navel and boobs because... uh... no idea, just because" attitude. Or Keira "let them see my nipples, so that no one can claim that my neckline is too modest"-attitude.

It's because she feels disfigured and so she wants to distract from it. And she wants to live without these fucking stupid stares of the "normal people" morons who always keep staring at anything that is different from normal. And that method worked for her. This is seriously awesome.


How awesome that is you can maybe only comprehend if afflicted by something similarly to that. If you know the devastating effect of those fucking stupid stares can have on the afflicted's psyche.

Anyway. That is awesome.

But that is also something that just happen if you play HoS before the main quest! So maybe CDPR was worried about that button thing and tried to explain it, well which is good i guess. But still. That doesn't excuse the other things!

What i just want to add: It shows again that CDPR are able to write perfect Characters! That was never the problem

It was also very funny when Ciri said at the End: "What do you know about saving the World,silly?You're but a Witcher"

Ahhh, what a line! I really loved it! :')

 

[Rawls]

I think "failed" is a strong term. I thought she was largely portrayed well. However I had the fortune of reading the books before playing the game so I always saw her as a daughter rather than seeing any sort of romantic potential. If anything, I thought her character was a little too reasonable compared to the books, as she could be very impetuous in the books. I agree with sv3672 that this can easily be explained by the her growing up and maturing.

I also agree with the above that there are other characters from the books that are portrayed less well (Dandelion, Eredin and Avallach being the ones that immediately pop into my mind personally). I also strongly agree that Ciri's inherent trust in Avallach is difficult to understand for me.

Having said all of the above, I'm for the most part very satisfied with Ciri's portrayal in the game. The boots never bothered me honestly. She has some of that boastfulness and immaturity left from the books, but is also very likeable and easy to form a paternal relationship with. And honestly, the ability to feel that paternal connection with her is the most important part of the game for me from a story perspective. The endings are even entirely dependent on the way you build that relationship. So I thought it was very well done overall ... with a few minor problems (most of which have been pointed out above).

 

[Krull32]

For me yes.
I really dont like her in the game.

I don't care about her look. She is an Adult Woman and she can wear what she wants, but they clearly ruined her character...If she would have died in the Game i would not react to that...

 

[saltyB]

---------- Post Merged at 05:48 PM ----------

I think "failed" is a strong term. I thought she was largely portrayed well. However I had the fortune of reading the books before playing the game so I always saw her as a daughter rather than seeing any sort of romantic potential. If anything, I thought her character was a little too reasonable compared to the books, as she could be very impetuous in the books. I agree with sv3672 that this can easily be explained by the her growing up and maturing.

I also with the agree above that there are other characters from the books that are portrayed less well (Dandelion, Eredin and Avallach being the ones that immediately pop into my mind personally). I also strongly agree that Ciri's inherent trust in Avallach is difficult to understand for me.

Having said all of the above, I'm for the most part very satisfied with Ciri's portrayal in the game. The boots never bothered me honestly. She has some of that boastfulness and immaturity left from the books, but is also very likeable and easy to form a paternal relationship with. And honestly, the ability to feel that paternal connection with her is the most important part of the game for me from a story perspective. The endings are even entirely dependent on the way you build that relationship. So I thought it was very well done overall ... with a few minor problems (most of which have been pointed out above).

Well as i said! I wrote it from an Point of View of someone who didn't read the books before! I now know that the Parental connection in this game, is one of the main tasks and they did it very well. No doubt about that! I was really adoring every moment i had with her ingame as Geralt! And i am also sad that everything ended now, so we won't see much Geralt & Ciri moments anymore. Cuz the next Witcher game will probably change a lot!

But that's another Topic...!

But I can't say that you are right or wrong with your Answer, because everybody has his own Opinion about that.

For me, as someone who didn't knew about the Books before i played the game, i feel, that CDPR didn't portrayed her that well ingame. Except for the Dialogs, and how they Write her Character! That was completely okay!

 

[Akka]

What do you guy's think? Can you agree with me? Did you thought the same about Ciri?

No.
I never read the books, and yet I always, always saw Ciri as being Geralt's daughter. She is a (very) beautiful young woman, but there was never, ever a moment where there was any kind of doubt about how the main story was about "save your beloved daughter". Not only that, but I was in fact pretty impressed by how much the game actually managed to make me feel that way.

I'll grant you that the high heels thing was ridiculous. But for the rest ? Sexualization, failing to present Ciri in a father-daughter relationship ? Nah, not at all. You're either overthinking that, or are the one with troubles looking at women and not sexualize them

 

[saltyB]

I'll grant you that the high heels thing was ridiculous. But for the rest ? Sexualization, failing to present Ciri in a father-daughter relationship ? Nah, not at all. You're either overthinking that, or are the one with troubles looking at women and not sexualize them

I didn't said that the game failed to present Ciri in a father-daughter relationship.
And no i am not someone "with troubles looking at women and not sexualize them lol"
I am also not overthinking that, but again...

From my Point of View the game portrayed her just wrong for me. To make it more clearer maybe, if i were Geralt, i wouldn't ler her go hunting monster or whatever with that outfit!

And also what was the Purpose of the Sauna scene? Just to have some unnecessary Conversations with some random people, that you don't even see after that anymore?!
And to be honest, if i were wounded like Ciri was, i wouldn't go into a Sauna. Hell no!
Or do you want to get salt from your Sweat into your wounds? and also Warm places like Saunas are a paradise for bacteria! But okay, after all it is still a Game but i hope that you understand what i mean.

For me it was just a unnecessary thing!

 

[cyberpunkforever]

the games take elments from the books but they are not 100% based on the books, the games are invented by cdpr, they are like fan fiction or something like that, they use the characters from the book but they can change some aspects to make a game more interesting or appealing,
books and games are entirely different things, they have also diferent objectives, it's like comparing a book with the movie, one thing is to imgine and the other to see, and a game is to play,
i do think it's a good idea for ciri to wear som light armor, not normal clothing, but that's up to the devs, they wanted this character and the others in the game to look and perform as they do in the game and it's totally respectable, the games are their creation

 

[Rawls]

To make it more clearer maybe, if i were Geralt, i wouldn't ler her go hunting monster or whatever with that outfit!

One of the lessons the story tries to teach is to let children stand up for themselves rather than do everything for them. That's why choosing to let Ciri face the sorceresses on her own makes it more likely you will get one of the "good" endings. So not "letting" her go out on her own is an impulse the game designers would view negatively IMO. Plus light armor or no armor makes more sense for Ciri as quick reflexes (and teleporting) are her fighting style, not heavy or medium armor based fighting. Besides she has the best armor a character can have in a video game - plot armor. What's Geralt got to worry about?

And also what was the Purpose of the Sauna scene? Just to have some unnecessary Conversations with some random people, that you don't even see after that anymore?!

Well, I think it gives some background incite into Ciri's character (even giving a reference or two to the books). You see who she is when she's not on the run constantly, which is different from most of the other Ciri missions to that point. It's also a chance to build some sort of emotional feelings (not necessarily romantic - but at least gratefulness) towards Skjall. This is important because it impacts your view of what Yennefer is doing to nameless, and it also helps you understand why Ciri feels obligated to bury Skjall later in the game.

 

[saltyB]

i do think it's a god idea for ciri to wear som light armor, not normal clothing, but that's up to the devs, they wanted this character and the others in the game to look and perform as they do in the game and it's totally respectable, the games are their creation

Well, Ciri is running away from the Wild Hunt, killing and fighting while trying to survive! And then she appears in a Outfit that doesn't fit her situation at all!
like you say: look and perform as they do in the game! Well, Ciri is performing as a Fighter, a woman which has to defend herself!

Again, i am glad that they gave her the Second Outfit DLC, cuz that's what i am expecting for a Character to wear, when he is in a Situation like Ciri !

 

[lucasra]

I agree with cyberpunkforever on this. Maybe CDPR never intended to capture Ciri exactly how she was in the books, rather giving her their own touch. This is the same for a lot of characters actually, especially Geralt. He's not as grumpy and has a sense of humor for example ;D

 

[saltyB]

One of the lessons the story tries to teach is to let children stand up for themselves rather than do everything for them. That's why choosing to let Ciri face the sorceresses on her own makes it more likely you will get one of the "good" endings. So not "letting" her go out on her own is an impulse the game designers would view negatively IMO. Plus light armor or no armor makes more sense for Ciri as quick reflexes (and teleporting) are her fighting style, not heavy or medium armor based fighting. Besides she has the best armor a character can have in a video game - plot armor. What's Geralt got to worry about?

Plot Armor-Oh, the best armor indeed! haha
Even Dandelion would survive every fight with his Plot Armor!^^

No but, okay....i see we have two different point of views here! As far as i see, and i criticize it from a logical point of view, everyone needs armor if he know's that he fights against someone else that has armor and a weapon! Everyone in the Witcher world who has an interest to fight someone else with a "Physical" Weapon has Armor or at least something that can protect him from hits somehow! Even Witcher, have at least light armor!

Okay now sure Ciri has the Elder Blood superpowers and stuff. But she stills fight a lot with her sword against other people with Swords or other Weapons!
So again...nearly everyone who fights with a real weapon in the Witcher world has some kind of armor or protection! Except for Ciri!
And Ciri to be fair is not a real Witcher, she isn't a Mutant so she is basically much easier to hurt or to kill as for example Geralt, cuz she is still a Human!

So that's why i said, if i were Geralt i wouldn't let her wear clothing like she does, because i would be kinda worried! Because from a logical point of view and if you look at the witcher world, it would be suicide to fight like that! Even if you have superpowers!

Even some Monsters have "Protection"!

Sorceresses don't have Protection cuz they mostly fight with Magic! They don't need that!

And again Andrzej Sapkowski i think wanted to create a kinda realistic world, or better a immersive World!

But something like that breaks the immersion for me!

Well, I think it gives some background incite into Ciri's character (even giving a reference or two to the books). You see who she is when she's not on the run constantly, which is different from most of the other Ciri missions to that point. It's also a chance to build some sort of emotional feelings (not necessarily romantic - but at least gratefulness) towards Skjall. This is important because it impacts your view of what Yennefer is doing to nameless, and it also helps you understand why Ciri feels obligated to bury Skjall later in the game.

But they still could have done that completely without the Sauna Scene. Also Skjall has basically nothing to do with the Sauna scene! No! it is sad to be honest that they put that Sauna Scene into the game, because Ciri wasn't really able to interact with Skjall a lot because of that!

No Sauna Scene= More interaction with Skjall!

---------- Post Merged at 08:32 PM ----------

I agree with cyberpunkforever on this. Maybe CDPR never intended to capture Ciri exactly how she was in the books, rather giving her their own touch. This is the same for a lot of characters actually, especially Geralt. He's not as grumpy and has a sense of humor for example ;D

But Geralt fits much more perfect into his Role as Ciri does with his Appearance at least!