Okay I've had a couple days to stew, I finished the sewing I was sewing when the trailer dropped, I got it shipped and it arrived at its destination. Let's talk about the Witcher 4 trailer because I'm not impressed.
I don't care about the fact that it says The Witcher Ciri is the best ending. Empress Ciri made no sense to begin with and the dead Ciri ending straight up just isn't in character for Geralt. This is fine.
What I DON'T like is the fact that Ciri is a full blown Witcher. Oh Andromeda is it because she's a woman?! Are you sexist??? You're mad because they made a girl Witcher??? Are you one of those game bros that hates women??? No!
Retconning the trial of the grasses like this sits very wrong with me and it's not "oh she can't be a Witcher cuz girls can't be witchers". There are tons of other media in this multimedia franchise with female witchers. The thing these all have in common is that they were Children when they went through the trials. Ciri would've been twenty at the Youngest when she went through the trials, which is a major retcon that it has Implications. In Kaer Morhen's map in the Witcher 3 you can go into one of the caves, read a thing about all the boys and the ages they were when they went through the trials. They were about 6-10 years old. The thing about the trials is it's heavily implied that you do the trials while they're so young so their body can adapt to them and make them fully a Witcher and being prepubescent is a necessary aspect for proper mutation. After a certain age (around puberty) the trials become Unsurvivable. With the Ciri full Witcher thing this is retconned, obviously, but that leaves me with one question. Why then were we torturing and horrifically medically traumatising the kids that survived, of which over half didn't, if you could just make a Witcher as an adult? I want, so genuinely, to hold out hope that they'll explain this in a way that makes sense but the fact that they made her a fully mutated Witcher instead of using the Elder Blood as a way of explaining how she's doing a Witcher's job doesn't make me eager. The Elder Blood was already there, the Elder Blood already made her crazy stupid powerful, it was already cool and unique no changes to Ciri needed to be made as an entire compelling game system can be built around her learning how to control that aspect of herself without going through the formulaic Witcher stuff we got with Geralt.
I love Ciri, I don't mind playing as Ciri! My thing about this isn't against Ciri. What I am is Very scared with this trailer drop that we are not getting Ciri as I love her, but instead a mass produced marketable recognisable brand image. I do not trust that CDPR knows who Ciri is. I do not have faith we will get a Good (read: compelling, complex, multifaceted, unique, and well understood) Ciri. I'm not even holding out hope that we will see her blink mechanic from the third game. CDPR has proven, multiple times, they do not care about internal consistency in their games. From the fact that the Shani romance option from the Witcher 1 had NO effect on the Witcher 2 and no MENTION of it until much later in the updates, to the poor writing and consistency around Radovid's age (of which he is textually in these games referred to as being born in 1255 making him 15, 16, and 17 but treated in dialogue and appearance like he's 40), to the fact that none of the choices in the Witcher 2 mattered for the state of the politics in the Witcher 3, it is expressly clear CDPR does not care about making their games consistent. I would not be surprised if Ciri's entire characterisation, arc, and abilities are completely shattered with the release of the Witcher 4.
I expected a Ciri protagonist, I did, they were going to keep the brand recognisable and Ciri IS the central figure of which everything in the books revolves around this is fine. I also understand that they are not using books canon and this is their own thing. What I think though is that, if this goes the way it's looking at the moment, the stripping her of everything that made her unique is more disrespectful to Ciri as a character than the fact that she's a Woman Witcher. She can be a Woman Witcher! However she was not using her Elder Blood powers in that trailer, she was not blinking around that monster, she was not manipulating time and space as she was even shown to do in the Witcher Three. Sure it's a cinematic trailer and not gameplay, things can change between now and then, but I am Very Apprehensive with what they've showed us so far.
I want a Ciri protagonist where we get Ciri, the Lady of Time and Space, not just Another Witcher. Not just the same formula as the last three games. I hope when we get more info they actually show us they understand Ciri instead of Geralt 2, electric boogaloo, girl version this time. I want to play as Ciri!! I'm Very Nervous.
