I write, read, and walk the bogs. I have thought too much about The Witcher. I am interested in the evolution of ideas and I like creating things. Let's talk!
Cut Content
The Witcher 3's original ending had different epilogues and a different final boss - Geralt's love for Ciri. And as Ciri tries to be a witcher, it turns out harder than she thinks.
Character Study
Does Avallac'h love or hate Ciri? In a twisted Grail Quest, Merlin condemns himself to the Lady of the Lake who becomes his salvation through unexpected compassion. The Swallow does bring rebirth to the elves, but it is impossible to heal the whole world. Only the Waste Land of the (non)human heart.
Article
The Lady of the Lake confuses The Witcher's readers because Nimue is us – the lighthouse that completes the story. Ciri, adrift in timeless mythosphere, searches for one more moment with Geralt and Yennefer, waiting for someone to believe. For a fairy tale ceases to be just a tale when readers do.
Article
What could 'eternity' mean for the Aen Elle in a meta fantasy? The Conjunction closed the door into infinite possible worlds, trapping the elves in The Witcher's. Power over Time might be better thought of not in sci-fi terms but as of being able to cross the border between Myth and reality at will.
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The Conjunction of Spheres is the true catastrophe that trapped elves and fantastic beings in The Witcher's historical time where one race consumes others. In Myth though, they remain neither dead nor alive, and Elder Blood preserves this power of moving freely between Myth and History.
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Why is Ciri so powerful? Can Ciri time travel in The Witcher books? With Elder Blood, the Lady of the Lake accesses Mythic Time where past, present, and future exist simultaneously. Sapkowski writes fantasy about fantasy, showing a fairy tale unfolding endlessly.
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Andrzej Sapkowski wrote Ciri as the Holy Grail. Drawing from Celtic mythology and Arthurian scholarship, The Witcher and The Hussite Trilogy explore the Triple Goddess, Wiccan theology, female sovereignty, and love as the Grail's power. The Grail is a Woman.
Cut Content
Why is there an elven Tower, Tor Gval'cha, on Skellige? What is Ragh nar Roog really? Why are the Aen Elle taller than the Aen Seidhe? The Witcher 3's cut content tells of Freyja the elf, Alderwalk, Leib-Olmai, the white ships, and even the cult of the Eternal Fire - created as a joke.
Cut Content
Who created the Wild Hunt? Why did Eredin and Avallac'h fight? Who will be the new king of the Aen Elle? The Witcher 3's cut content digs into the 'family drama' behind elven politics.
Character Study
In the Witcher games, Eredin is a template death knight. In game-fanon, he is frequently a BDSM, ultra-top/dom, plotting maniac. In the Witcher books though, Eredin is a reckless but loyal servant of the Aen Elle, disillusioned, haunted by the prospect of failure, and resolved to do what’s needed.
Cut Content
In The Witcher 3, we discover that UMA - the Ugliest Man Alive - is actually Avallac'h, transformed by a curse. Cut content reveals how CDPR used the Curse of Inversion to transform Avallac'h from the books' antagonist into Ciri's mentor.
Commentary
The loneliness and alienation, the Waste Land of the human heart, is a recurrent motif in The Witcher. Re-reading "Pirog, or There’s No Gold in the Gray Mountains" by Andrzej Sapkowski I get stuck on how he analyses Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea Cycle.