I agree. The problem is: in many of these situations, no matter what you do you never don't back her play. You just give advice or offer your help. And then again there are things which just seem to be wrong no matter what. I wouldn't want my daughter to do "stupid things". That doesn't mean I would try to stop her doing so at all costs. But I would give her my best advice and try to guide her the best I could. That's what Geralt can do in the game. He offers his help and support with the lodge for example, offering Ciri to acompany her. I'd do that just because to be polite and supportive. I wouldn't force her to. Ciri could refuse the offer but she doesn't. That isn't a situation in which Geralt "undermines" her self-assurance. It's just a natural father-daughter situation, not a sitution that change the believings of a person on a fundamental level. Or take the situation in Avallac'h's lab. Ciri asks Geralt whether she should destroy the place or not. Of course you could just "Do whatever you want." But I don't see that neither as a rational nor an empowering answer tbh. I think even the opposite is true. It's a lazy reply without showin any responsiblity or any self-assurance. You cannot empower others with self-assurance if you don't have any principles and self-assurance yourself, I'd say. It seem the natural choice telling her to just calm down. What's the point in the opposite? Why should letting her throwing around some chairs empower her self-assurance. It just indicates that she has a troubled characters and indeed needs some support, no matter if she is an adult or not. And then again, she could just do it anyway. Why does she always listen and agree to what Geralt says? How is that a sign of a complex, independant human character of someone who is designed to have a strong will.
So my problem is not that empowering your daughter is a bad concept. Not at all. I even agree with that. The problem is the way this is implemented in the game with the lack of nuanced dialogues and with the ignorance of slightly different perspectives and context. It's not like the answers are all that "clear" like it is said here from time to time. Of course it's easy to evaluate on the topic once you know all the answers and consequences. But in the very choice situation - if you play the game for the very first time - things aren't nearly that clear and transparent. You don't know that the overall decisive moment is letting Ciri do whatever she wants to do without saying one word against it in every given situation. Maybe you think that the decisive moment is more complex and nuanced, allowing for more than own guiding principles no matter the context, a principle that isn't known or transparent to the player in any case. Not even speaking about the simple fact that almost all of these choice situations seem minor and don't differ much from other situations that don't count to the final consequence and the ending. I say it again, it feels oversimplified and arbitrary in its implementation and execution. Maybe it would work better with better dialogues and writing but then again I still think that the situations in the games aren't nearly sufficient to initiate the change at the end - especially not with Ciri's and Geralt's background.
Edit: I hope that wasn't too much text. If yes, I'm sorry.
