Great list, nothing I can disagree with.
Maybe instead of replacing Phillipa, Triss tags along. I kind of liked having Phillipa there.
Philippa brings precisely nothing to the main plot that can't be brought by someone else. She is only essential to the Radovid Assassination plot quest. In the Sunstone quest, Philippa talks about wanting to be Ciri's advisor and asks Geralt to take Yen away. This is stupid for several reasons:
1. After Vergen, unless she's taken leave of her senses, Geralt is the last person she's going to blurt out her ambition to be Ciri's advisor.
2. If you didn't visit the Emperor then it makes no sense for her to say this because Ciri's never going to be Empress.
3. This is never mentioned again in the entire story so it's little more than a throw away line.
4. 'Taking Yen' away is another example of the game ignoring the Triss romance.
Switching her out for Triss provides an opportunity to build upon the Geralt/Triss relationship and add depth to Triss as a character.
I don't understand why many of you tries to force Triss in Kaer Morhen Uma quest! For me there isn't any logical reason why she should be there, dare to explain this to me please?
Two reasons. First off, at the end of
Now or Never Triss agrees to meet Geralt at Kaer Morhen yet only magically appears for the
Battle of Kaer Morhen. This is an inconsistency with the story. Secondly, it doesn't add any development to the Geralt/Triss romance story. As I pointed out in another thread, Triss romance is a tick box of triggers, much as that awful ending is.
1. Did you kiss Triss at the party?
2. Did you tell Triss you love her at the Docks?
Yes = Romance
No = No romance.
In contrast, romancing Yennefer is an organic process. You meet, you flirt, you meet again, you flirt some more, you make love, you break the Djin's spell and confirm your love is real, you interact, you flirt more, you make love again, you flirt some more and you make future plans. There is interaction with Yennefer across all three acts which grows the relationship organically and helps develop the character. The two couldn't be in more stark contrast to each other. Triss, the perfect example on how not to write a romance in a game, Yen's the perfect example on how to write a romance in the game. It's the Jeckyll and Hyde of writing.
If we take
The Witcher 3 as the stand alone game they seem to have wanted it to be then Triss suffers from a chronic lack of development and is a shallow character as a result. For a character that is such a major part of the protagonist's life, whether or not you romance her, and given the complex relationship between Triss, Geralt and Yen, it doesn't make sense to ignore her so. She, along with her relationship with Geralt and her relationship with Geralt and Yen needs much needed depth adding to it.
I don't think there should be a cat-fight between Yen and Triss. Whatever happened, it was Geralt's choice, I don't really think there should be grand conflict between them.
But I really wonder what kind of conversation happened between them in case you romaced both. I don't think it would ever be showed, but it's really interesting, what they told each other and how they realised he had confessed both.
Hence 'Non-violent' confrontation/argument. Emphasis on argument. There is no way in hell a woman is going to let her best friend sleep with her man and not have something to say on the matter. The reasons surrounding why that happened are irrelevant, it's simply a natural consequence that was ignored by the writers.
I would love to see it happen but there could be a problem with having Triss at Kaer Morhen during the UMA quest and that is that if CDPR keep the threesome scene the way that it is, how would it work at kaer morhen with triss and yen both there?
There's no way Yen could invite Geralt up to her room or vice versa without either one knowing, which makes the threesome impossible to happen. The 3some quest is completely designed around Yen and Triss having basically no interaction before Novigrad. CDPR would have to completely remove the 3some scene and have the confrontation at kaer morhen for it to make sense.
The threesome scene is in Novigrad, specifically the Kingfisher and, I believe, it occurs during Act 3 so there's no conflict to be had during Act 2. As for inviting them up to the room, perhaps, perhaps not. I could see Yen doing it but not Triss which is why we have the other option of it occurring shortly before the final battle.