Mistake by CDPR if you think that in anyway. She trusts her the same.
She literally says that she has plans for her, also in the Empress ending she says flat out that she "would rather not have her get involved this time", far from being in a position of trust by Ciri, big "mistake" by CDPR I hope and not a deliberate decision because of romance options.
Exactly. Ciri won't be in the shadow of them, she never was, she has always been independent. But she can always call upon them for help, guidance or comfort. It would to the overall appeal of the game.
I personally really want Geralt and Yennefer to be laid to rest (as in the books), that is why I personally don't want another Witcher game to happen, but if it is going to be Ciri then Geralt and Yennefer not being involved in some way would be really strange.
My point was that having the protagonist's parents in the game is not required for an interesting story. If that was different with Ciri, then it in some sense implies that she is not as good protagonist on her own merit as Geralt. But I think it might just be difficult to imagine her in anything but the already known "daughter" role. Which is one of the reasons I would not want her to be the next protagonist in the first place, since the demand for a Ciri sequel seems to be mostly from fans who want more "family" content.
Well even if by some miracle they manage to make a story all about her and not being related to her "parents" it would not be a really interesting story in the first place, I really don't want any more "Rats" tier stories, Ciri had enough of that.
But with the direction of TW3 and its endings, a family focus just would not make much sense, and it would be entirely realistic for Ciri not to meet Geralt for a few months (i.e. the likely duration of the game's story). I also doubt she would want to drag him out of retirement into her adventures, being independent and somewhat reckless, she would prefer to deal with any trouble on her own and at most tell about it after the end.
That is the point, she would not have a proper threat that threatens her in the first place if she does not come for him for help, which means a potentially uninteresting story.
So, I see putting Geralt into a Ciri game mostly as fan service, and it might not be worth it considering the cost of implementing it. Depending on the ending of TW3, it might not even make sense to meet him outside whatever place he retired at (Kovir or Toussaint), and having those locations in the game for the sole purpose of some fan service cameo quest (as I doubt that Toussaint for example would otherwise be an ideal place for the story, let alone recycled after already being used in the previous game) is not something that would be reasonable to expect. Although in the case of the "Ciri witcher, Geralt alone" ending, it would make some sense if they travelled together as witchers, but again, to me it seems like TW3 is about Geralt's retirement and Ciri becoming independent, so the obvious continuation would be to play as Ciri with little to no role for Geralt. If that does not sound interesting, then perhaps she is just not a great protagonist to begin with, and someone else might be better ?
I don't think she would be a great protagonist either, like in the books, she becomes the main character, but if Sapkowski did not see the reason to continue her story, then he most likely knows more than all of us that it would not be worth, but who knows? He may write a sequel to Lady of the Lake or not.
