The Bittersweet Ending is actually a Bad Ending ... and it's All Geralt's Fault. [SPOILERS]
Inspired by this statement from another thread:
Exactly. Ciri never wants to become the Empress. In this ending, however, she decides to become the Empress, acting contrary to her own desires and nature, because Emhyr has convinced her that she can do the most good for the world by taking on this responsibility.
By doing so, Ciri is making a mistake. At some level, she knows that she is making a mistake. She wants Geralt to kidnap her and take her away to the Blue Mountains by force. She's being handed the keys to a political and military machine that has nearly intractable structural flaws, problems that she is very poorly equipped to fix. She's going to get stuck marrying that jerk Voorhes. She's going to have a miserable life doing a job she won't enjoy. She'll be a slave in a golden cage for the rest of her life.
Because the developers at CDPR are good people, they make this very clear in the game. If Geralt takes Ciri to Emhyr, his court kneels to her -- this is portrayed as rather creepy. While Emhyr is talking to Ciri, Voorhes speaks with Geralt, asking him, "Do you know any who would not want to be Emperor of Nilfgaard?" Players who have been paying attention should immediately think to themselves, "No sane person would want to become Emperor of Nilfgaard."
Emhyr lives a miserable and depraved existence. Everyone is terrified of him, and responds to this terror either by obsequious obedience or hidden plotting against him. He has no friends, and nobody likes him, trusts him, or is really honest with him. Even Yennefer is polite to him, she would never be polite to someone she liked, trusted, or respected. It is strongly implied that he killed his own wife. He's sold out his most loyal and helpful agents and he's murdered one of the only people who could have been a decent peer, Foltest. All of the chaos of the second game was caused by Emhyr's mad lust for more power. His understanding of Ciri is so twisted that he believes that conquering Skellige (thus killing many of Ciri's friends) so that she would have more territory as Empress would be some sort of gift to her.
Emhyr has The Sickness really, really bad, and this sickness has thoroughly permeated the command structure of the Empire. Nilfgaardian occupiers of White Orchard and Velen are shown to be very brutal to the population and each other. We are even given a quest which shows that an elite Nilfgaardian soldier has been executed for desertion after he witnessed the murder of captured prisoners. Cleaning up this sickness from the inside is a job for veteran professional political operators acting from the shadows, like Thaler or Var Attre. Cleaning up this sickness from the outside is a job for pure revolutionaries like Saskia. Even "outside consultants" like Geralt and the other witchers could do a better job of fixing the problems of the Empire than Ciri, because her authority as Empress would come from the very man who made things bad in the first place.
----
This bad outcome for Ciri is Geralt's fault, because he lies to Ciri in order to convince her to visit Emhyr. From the game script:
Ciri: Why would you tell me now?
Geralt: Cause this could be your last chance to see your ... father.
Ciri: Think I should go?
Geralt: Probably just wants to talk.
Ciri: How can you be sure? What if he wants something more?
Geralt: Promised me he wouldn't force you to do anything.
Ciri: So I should go?
Geralt: He is your father ...
The first obvious problem here is that Emhyr's promises are worth less than nothing. The more damning thing though is that Geralt has just disowned Ciri. Emhyr isn't Ciri's father, Geralt is. Geralt earned the title and associated responsibilities of being Ciri's father through performing his professional responsibilities to Emhyr. Geralt is actually going against the Law of Surprise here! He's voluntarily giving his own daughter, who he loves and cherishes more than his own life, back to one of the most corrupt (and corrupting) people in the entire world. How could this possibly end well?
CDPR gives the player as Geralt multiple opportunities to tell Emhyr that he's not bringing Ciri to visit, and then the clear option to not bring Ciri. Emhyr blusters and threatens if Geralt blows him off, but nothing comes of this because Geralt is more powerful than the Emperor. The witchers in general are more powerful than the kings, which is why the royals are so dependent on them to clean up their messes. Emhyr hates this but admits as much to Geralt on his boat in the Skellige harbor: "You're insolent because you believe I cannot afford to hurt you; and you're right, at least for the time being..." The witchers, like the sorceresses, are generally free to go wherever they please and do whatever they think best -- this is why they are despised by so many.
In the ending where Ciri becomes Empress, it is clear from the dialogue that she has already been corrupted by Emhyr. She insults Geralt's profession, saying that "if [she] wished to change anything, [she] cannot do so hunting monsters round forgotten villages," Remember the warm fuzzy feelings you got whenever Geralt reclaimed a "forgotten village" from the monsters, allowing the population to return and get back to their lives? Ciri just told Geralt that none of that was important. Remember the epic battle against the Draugr in the second game, where Geralt saves the souls of two armies from damnation? Ciri just told Geralt that outcome wasn't a real change either.
Because she believes Emhyr's lies about who has the real power to change the world for good, she surrenders her sword -- the symbol of her power, authority, freedom, and destiny -- to Geralt at the end of the story. Good directing by CDPR means that many players start tearing up, they know this is a very, very sad moment indeed.
Contrast this grim moment with the good ending: Ciri gets a new sword, the best that has ever been forged, and is made heir to the legacy of the Wolf School by receiving all of Geralt's knowledge. Just as importantly, one of the witchers' few remaining critical weaknesses has been overcome: she is fertile, and needs only now find the right man (RIP Skjall) to help her raise an entire lineage of witcher heroes without the need for the miserable and sterilizing mutation process. Best of all, she is happy and free, which are preconditions for being truly effective.
Inspired by this statement from another thread:
Exactly. Ciri never wants to become the Empress. In this ending, however, she decides to become the Empress, acting contrary to her own desires and nature, because Emhyr has convinced her that she can do the most good for the world by taking on this responsibility.
By doing so, Ciri is making a mistake. At some level, she knows that she is making a mistake. She wants Geralt to kidnap her and take her away to the Blue Mountains by force. She's being handed the keys to a political and military machine that has nearly intractable structural flaws, problems that she is very poorly equipped to fix. She's going to get stuck marrying that jerk Voorhes. She's going to have a miserable life doing a job she won't enjoy. She'll be a slave in a golden cage for the rest of her life.
Because the developers at CDPR are good people, they make this very clear in the game. If Geralt takes Ciri to Emhyr, his court kneels to her -- this is portrayed as rather creepy. While Emhyr is talking to Ciri, Voorhes speaks with Geralt, asking him, "Do you know any who would not want to be Emperor of Nilfgaard?" Players who have been paying attention should immediately think to themselves, "No sane person would want to become Emperor of Nilfgaard."
Emhyr lives a miserable and depraved existence. Everyone is terrified of him, and responds to this terror either by obsequious obedience or hidden plotting against him. He has no friends, and nobody likes him, trusts him, or is really honest with him. Even Yennefer is polite to him, she would never be polite to someone she liked, trusted, or respected. It is strongly implied that he killed his own wife. He's sold out his most loyal and helpful agents and he's murdered one of the only people who could have been a decent peer, Foltest. All of the chaos of the second game was caused by Emhyr's mad lust for more power. His understanding of Ciri is so twisted that he believes that conquering Skellige (thus killing many of Ciri's friends) so that she would have more territory as Empress would be some sort of gift to her.
Emhyr has The Sickness really, really bad, and this sickness has thoroughly permeated the command structure of the Empire. Nilfgaardian occupiers of White Orchard and Velen are shown to be very brutal to the population and each other. We are even given a quest which shows that an elite Nilfgaardian soldier has been executed for desertion after he witnessed the murder of captured prisoners. Cleaning up this sickness from the inside is a job for veteran professional political operators acting from the shadows, like Thaler or Var Attre. Cleaning up this sickness from the outside is a job for pure revolutionaries like Saskia. Even "outside consultants" like Geralt and the other witchers could do a better job of fixing the problems of the Empire than Ciri, because her authority as Empress would come from the very man who made things bad in the first place.
----
This bad outcome for Ciri is Geralt's fault, because he lies to Ciri in order to convince her to visit Emhyr. From the game script:
Ciri: Why would you tell me now?
Geralt: Cause this could be your last chance to see your ... father.
Ciri: Think I should go?
Geralt: Probably just wants to talk.
Ciri: How can you be sure? What if he wants something more?
Geralt: Promised me he wouldn't force you to do anything.
Ciri: So I should go?
Geralt: He is your father ...
The first obvious problem here is that Emhyr's promises are worth less than nothing. The more damning thing though is that Geralt has just disowned Ciri. Emhyr isn't Ciri's father, Geralt is. Geralt earned the title and associated responsibilities of being Ciri's father through performing his professional responsibilities to Emhyr. Geralt is actually going against the Law of Surprise here! He's voluntarily giving his own daughter, who he loves and cherishes more than his own life, back to one of the most corrupt (and corrupting) people in the entire world. How could this possibly end well?
CDPR gives the player as Geralt multiple opportunities to tell Emhyr that he's not bringing Ciri to visit, and then the clear option to not bring Ciri. Emhyr blusters and threatens if Geralt blows him off, but nothing comes of this because Geralt is more powerful than the Emperor. The witchers in general are more powerful than the kings, which is why the royals are so dependent on them to clean up their messes. Emhyr hates this but admits as much to Geralt on his boat in the Skellige harbor: "You're insolent because you believe I cannot afford to hurt you; and you're right, at least for the time being..." The witchers, like the sorceresses, are generally free to go wherever they please and do whatever they think best -- this is why they are despised by so many.
In the ending where Ciri becomes Empress, it is clear from the dialogue that she has already been corrupted by Emhyr. She insults Geralt's profession, saying that "if [she] wished to change anything, [she] cannot do so hunting monsters round forgotten villages," Remember the warm fuzzy feelings you got whenever Geralt reclaimed a "forgotten village" from the monsters, allowing the population to return and get back to their lives? Ciri just told Geralt that none of that was important. Remember the epic battle against the Draugr in the second game, where Geralt saves the souls of two armies from damnation? Ciri just told Geralt that outcome wasn't a real change either.
Because she believes Emhyr's lies about who has the real power to change the world for good, she surrenders her sword -- the symbol of her power, authority, freedom, and destiny -- to Geralt at the end of the story. Good directing by CDPR means that many players start tearing up, they know this is a very, very sad moment indeed.
Contrast this grim moment with the good ending: Ciri gets a new sword, the best that has ever been forged, and is made heir to the legacy of the Wolf School by receiving all of Geralt's knowledge. Just as importantly, one of the witchers' few remaining critical weaknesses has been overcome: she is fertile, and needs only now find the right man (RIP Skjall) to help her raise an entire lineage of witcher heroes without the need for the miserable and sterilizing mutation process. Best of all, she is happy and free, which are preconditions for being truly effective.
