Eh, one of the "off" elements of the video game is Geralt is having more success as a Witcher in the past seven years than he's had in the past hundred. As a Witcher he does occasional jobs for people but mostly people are protective of monsters as endangered species and he has roughly as much respect as a poacher. In the Witcher games, monsters are everywhere, a dire threat to the public, and he's routinely saving whole villages.
I agree. But that's just something that comes with the nature of being an "action RPG video game". It's one of the compromises you have to make that naturally affects the narrative. I'm ok with that since I do accept the nature of the video game. Still it's no excuse for narrative inconsistencies in other aspects that are not directly affected by video game design.
You're correct that could have been where they went with it but it's interesting to also see the idea of "re-lapses" into old behavior. Nilfgaard has once more invaded the North and gone back to all of its old tricks of conquest (as we see in AOK). So the question is: Is Emhyr really remorseful as he was before or have the past seven years caused him to regret his giving up his daughter as a moment of personal weakness?
Well, a relapse is totally possible. But still Emhyr showed more emotions and nuances in that one long dialogue with Geralt in The Lady of the Lake after the battle for Stygga than he did in the entire storyline of TW3, even when he talks in private with Geralt. I mean, it's comprehensible that he lost his way again although in the books he was imo always described as somebody who felt that he is more forced by the "sachzwang of being emperor" to do certain things than by his own personal will. I remember those scenes with fake Ciri in which he showed humanity as well although he didn't have to and an all bad Emhyr surely wouldn't do. The way he is presented in the game doesn't imply such a behaviour and people who don't know the books wouldn't come to the conclusion that Emhyr maybe has a softer core than it seems.
Then again, people are complex and it's entirely (even common) for those we deem as "evil" to have loved ones.
That's it. And that's what I'm missing in Witcher 3. It imo fails to show Emhyr as a human being capable of feelings. Sometimes it's just a nuance, like the tone of the voice or it's volume that makes the difference. I'd hoped Charles Dance would deliver on that but I was disappointed by his performance though I think it was CDPR's more one-dimensional direction than him. The Charles Dance I know definitely has the capabilities to show even subtle nuances in voice and acting. Even a bigger disappointment that the probably best voice actor of the whole game voiced one of the most one-dimensonal characters in the game.... :-
1. The White Frost is destroying the Aen Elle world.
2. The Aen Elle have sorcerers protecting many of their cities and locations from destruction by it.
3. These are failing.
4. Ciri is someone they believe can help them do a new Conjunction of Spheres which will result in all of them coming over to this world. Which will kill Ciri in the process.
5. They will then exterminate humanity and replace them.
6. This is a stupid plan because the White Frost will be coming to the Witcher Planet not too long anyway according to Alvin and will eventually wipe out all inhabited worlds.
I have several problems with that.
1) It was never described that the Aen Gathe and the Conjunction of Spheres was the very same thing. Imo they are pretty much different things and CDPR only made them equal to be able to "let enemies rain from sky in the last 10 minutes of the game"...
2) It is nowhere explained or even mentioned that the White Frost threatens the world of the Aen Elle. Neither in the books nor in the game. The only information we have about the White Frost is that it threatens the Witcher world.
3) If the world of the Aen Elle is threatened by the White Frost and if they are able to open Aen Gathe with Ciri's help there is actualy no reason why they should choose the Witcher world as destination for migration. It would be much easier to choose a world that is not inhabited by thousand or millions of basically hostile humans. Of course there is he matter that the elves on earth and in the world of Aen Elle have the same predecessors which is also established in the games. It's also unlikely that everyone in the band of the Aen Elle wants the same thing he wants. Avallac'h surely doesn't. So the complex aspect of politics, racial conflicts and personal motivations is broken down to very simplistic and in the end unbelievable actions.
4) You say it yourself, the plan is stupid. So why do they do what they do? CDPR fails do deliver a good explanation for it. Stating that Eredin and basically every Aen Elle is just evil and hates humans and want to kills all humans is incredibly cheap imo.
5) None of that solves the question what the White Frost actually is...
About the only thing good about Whoreson is he makes Geralt feel like he's done SOMETHING decent in the past few weeks.
I don't know. I let him alive. I don't see how treating with Whoreson could make Geralt feeling better. Every minute in the sphere of this lunatic would pull a sane person down. And vengeance almost never leads to personal satisfaction.
If I was writing The Wild Hunt
1. The Wild Hunt soldier in the Elven Ruin would have been Eredin. Eredin and Geralt would get to talk for a bit before doing a fight. Eredin would then win the fight ala Letho despite Keira's presence and retreat through a portal because Ciri isn't here and he can't be bothered with this crap.
2. On the boat ride to Skellige, Geralt would dream of his time with the Wild Hunt where he would talk to Eredin as they discuss the fact the White Frost is destroying the Aen Elle homeworld and how they need to find a Elder Blood individual to help them.
Ciri would then come to rescue Geralt and they escape. Only for him to wake up during the Skellige attack.
3. Conversations with both Generals of the Wild Hunt before battle.
4. One final conversation with Eredin before you kill him.
I think one of the best solutions for that would have been three flashback scenes that shows the time when Geralt and his band of witchers (with Letho and his guys) encountered the Hunt for the first time in person, so basically the "prequel" to the Witcher games.
1) The first scene would be a Geralt POV playable scne that shows the events which lead to him trading himself in for Yennefer and agreeing to ride with the hunt (which is much a personal defeat). There is obviously a lot of potential here for talking and giving context to the whole background of the story and the Hunt. The moment for this flashback to take place could be the end of the prologue in Vizima after Geralt met Yen again and after the Rid Hunters hunted them on the way from White Orchard to Vizima. Of course this flashback would work better if Yen had more interaction and screen time in Vizima, e.g. by her taking the role of questioning about the past (instead of the barber).
2) The second scene would show scenes from Geralt riding with the Hunt. It would be only a set short and wild cutscenes (not playable) Geralt dreams about while he lays at the beach after the ship wrecking on his first way to Skellige.
3) The third flashback scene would show how Ciri helped Geralt to escape the hunt. So it would be a Ciri POV playable flashback scene. Imo the best place to set this scene is while Avallac'h and Geralt are travelling through different worlds. Imo the spot on the ice planet at the end in the tower just before they reach Tir La Nia would be perfectly suited for that because it has the proper context for Geralt to ask Avallac'h if he know how Ciri managed to free him from the Hunt.
And on top of that Eredin's dialogues in both Kaer Morhen and on Skellige at the end should be rewritten and enhanced to be able to make references to these scenes and bring the whole Wild Hunt story arc (that barely exists in the game without these kind of flashbacks) to a "proper end. By going all the way back to even before Witcher 1 CDPR would truly give closure to this triology of games, like the famous Uroboros.
