[Heavy Spoilers] Thank you for the poetic, intelligent, emotional plot, end and epilog(s)

Reminder again, this contains heavy story spoilers including the ending of the main game – if you havent finished it, or havent experienced all versions of the endings, dont read on, you will get spoiled.

After finishing the Witcher 3 – getting the best ending (because following in ones footsteps isnt all there is in life.. (slant)), and then getting into the different epilogues and versions of the three endings – I basically went out on the internet looking for notions of other people experiencing the same "art" I did. And basically hardly found any.

I revisited reviews, looked for post game discussions, and listened to spoilercasts – and what I have come to find is, that more than two thirds of the people who finished this game – werent able to appreciate what I found to be exceptional, because – basically, they in no way had the capacity to do so.

In the past two days, I learned, that the discussion about "games as art" is superfluous, because – when confronted with something of actual meaning, value, or beauty, or even something that is the product of meticulous craftsmanship – you could hit "gamers" over the head with it and most of them still wouldnt get it.

So this is a thread, about reviewers not being able to see a big picture, because most of them only can afford to put 20 ours into a game – so the popular concensus becomes, that the bloody baron questline is – "whats great about the game – storywise". While this is perfectly understandable – the notion that the entire gaming community, from my point of view, wasnt able to actually surface that this product is actually exceptional – in more than one way, as a story telling device, first was what drove me to – seek out actual reactions of people having finished the game.

I was surprised with what I got.

People not understanding, why the way you mentored Ciri should have the impact it was made to have in the game. (Underlying theme throughout all questlines, and all … sigh)

People not understanding, why some of the decisions were deemed "good mentoring" by the game and others werent.

People not understanding the on the nose "what is happening" exposition, even in the bad ending, at all.

People not understanding, why Gerald went after the medallion in this ending, in the first place. Mistaking the fight against the last lady of the woods as the driving motivation.

People not getting, when they were asked to describe it – not even mentioning, the stark and beautiful contrast of White Orchard in the winter at the end of the game.

People being confused about what the White Frost is (exposition wise), people not getting who or what the Wild hunt was, people not getting, that they visited their home world, people not finding the reports of their generals in the book that is placed there, people not getting that the "next is a very cold world where, .." was foreshadowing, …

People being disappointed about Uma not being Ciri at that point (come on…) in the game.

People being disappointed about the reveal on the Isle of Mists – because at that point in time they just wanted to move the story forward – complaining about "fetch quests with dwarves".

While I appreciated the emotional "grounding" of both the setting and the "And Then There Were None" plot mechanic, that allowed me – for the crucial moment that followed, to believe – for that important five seconds, that the game really…

People not getting the development arcs of the romance plotlines ("And then I said, no – I want to be witching instead, …"), but at least that is excusable, as life experience comes over time.

The little sociopolitical parallels to more recent and even current political developments. Allthough open to interpretation. cough Dijkstra rhm.

So –

In the end, i want to profoundly thank CD Project Red, for still aiming at the level of production they wanted to realise and were able to accomplish in the end. Even all that you get for it, mostly is a vague notion in people, that they have experienced something special.

From those few, clearly in the minority, who actually can have somewhat of an appreciation about this game being art – it was a real pleasure, and it is a real loss, that those aspects of what made Witcher 3 special – arent surfacing through the review channels in a way that I could see media pundits "picking them up". This was an emotionally and intellectually joyfull experience – with the necessary explosions and effect fireworks in between ("They should have made it more like the Battle for Kaer Morhen!1!").

No, Lambert wasnt "Just a jackass" – you just missed some exposition.

submitted by harlekinrains
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[Heavy Spoilers] Thank you for the poetic, intelligent, emotional plot, end and epilog(s)