To be honest, if the romance is not central and integral to Ciri's character development, the Plot, and her journey toward self-authorship while dealing with her trauma-resultant, problematic self, I am really not interested in any romance of any kind that is slotted into the game in order to give the masses the safe, feel-good fantasy of random OC bloke/gal nr 23.
(I do not count casual flings under this, but even here I think it would be a great idea to take into account how very much not like Geralt Ciri is - i.e. sex and sexuality itself should be somewhat of a sensitive topic to her. Some things that jump to mind have to do with self-objectification (remember the 'open one more button on my blouse to distract people from looking at my scar' comment?), clinginess due to abandonment trauma, awkwardness and insecurity mixing with forwardness and extroversion (seriously, Ciri is a very interesting mix in this regard), maintaining close relationships when nearly all your romantic liaisons have died on you, trust issues, etc etc).)
Video game romance plots should be able to graduate out of the teenage thrills of a tussle in the hay and actually try something daring and mature for a change. Particularly with a character like Ciri whose whole life is a psychological minefield in this regard. (Also, I really hope the audience is able to stop treating story characters as moral agents and start seeing them as tools for telling a story, letting us safely find out about something potentially complicated about the psyche.)
(I do not count casual flings under this, but even here I think it would be a great idea to take into account how very much not like Geralt Ciri is - i.e. sex and sexuality itself should be somewhat of a sensitive topic to her. Some things that jump to mind have to do with self-objectification (remember the 'open one more button on my blouse to distract people from looking at my scar' comment?), clinginess due to abandonment trauma, awkwardness and insecurity mixing with forwardness and extroversion (seriously, Ciri is a very interesting mix in this regard), maintaining close relationships when nearly all your romantic liaisons have died on you, trust issues, etc etc).)
Video game romance plots should be able to graduate out of the teenage thrills of a tussle in the hay and actually try something daring and mature for a change. Particularly with a character like Ciri whose whole life is a psychological minefield in this regard. (Also, I really hope the audience is able to stop treating story characters as moral agents and start seeing them as tools for telling a story, letting us safely find out about something potentially complicated about the psyche.)
