Witcher 3 ending questions (obvious spoilers)

[Ihateregistering1]

Ok, so I just finished Witcher 3, and after I was done having a gamer orgasm over how phenomenal that game was, I had a question about the ending.

So I get why Avallach and Ciri lied about how she needed to possibly die to stop the White Frost (since Geralt would likely try and stop them), but why the hell did we need to go through the whole she-bang with fighting the Wild Hunt? Couldn't Avallach just bring Ciri to the tower and activate the ritual, or did he need Eredin to be killed before it could be done? Or did they need the portal to the Aen Sidhe's homeworld to be open in order to do the ritual?

Regardless, holy crap that game was amazing.

 

[The Madman]

Honestly the ending felt a bit rushed, I mean why was Crach even there to begin with and why did everything have to take place at that specific spot? Meanwhile aside from being an asshole little is ever revealed about Eredin and his right hand man Caranthir, we barely get to know them before they're dead. I'd have preferred more from them since in the few scenes they do show up they made for demanding villains.

Still complaining an already 100+ hour game isn't long enough feels kinda nitpicky so I don't hold it against Witcher 3 and the actual epilogues are satisfying and well done. Even the horrifically depressing 'bad' epilogue is well done.

As for why then and there? Things are pretty damned frantic. One second we're fighting Caranthir, then Eredin, then rushing through a freaking apocalypse so I'm not 100% certain but my headcanon reply is that with all the magical fighting going on it messed things up enough that Caranthirs trick of calling in the white frost went a bit wild after his death. Then with the tower of her dreams looming in the background and being the impetuous sort Ciri finally decided to take the final step herself in trying to not just stop whatever Caranthir caused but to end it once and for all.

I any case yeah, amazing game. I'm kinda hoping that Witcher 3 gets an 'enhanced edition' like the previous games did and the ending is reworked a little, but even so damned good game.

 

[Ihateregistering1]

Honestly the ending felt a bit rushed, I mean why was Crach even there to begin with and why did everything have to take place at that specific spot? Meanwhile aside from being an asshole little is ever revealed about Eredin and his right hand man Caranthir, we barely get to know them before they're dead. I'd have preferred more from them since in the few scenes they do show up they made for demanding villains.

Still complaining an already 100+ hour game isn't long enough feels kinda nitpicky so I don't hold it against Witcher 3 and the actual epilogues are satisfying and well done. Even the horrifically depressing 'bad' epilogue is well done.

As for why then and there? Things are pretty damned frantic. One second we're fighting Caranthir, then Eredin, then rushing through a freaking apocalypse so I'm not 100% certain but my headcanon reply is that with all the magical fighting going on it messed things up enough that Caranthirs trick of calling in the white frost went a bit wild after his death. Then with the tower of her dreams looming in the background and being the impetuous sort Ciri finally decided to take the final step herself in trying to not just stop whatever Caranthir caused but to end it once and for all.

I any case yeah, amazing game. I'm kinda hoping that Witcher 3 gets an 'enhanced edition' like the previous games did and the ending is reworked a little, but even so damned good game.

I was sort of torn on how much I actually wanted to see and know about the Wild Hunt. In some ways, they were way more intimidating and better villains when they were this seemingly unstoppable, mysterious, supernatural force. Once it was revealed that they are really just Elves (albeit extremely large Elves) and they can be killed just like anything else, it definitely sort of removed some of their intimidation factor. Of course, it's a game, and there still needs to be a way for you to win, so it makes sense.

On that note as well, what was the deal with the Aen Sidhe (or whatever) Elves? I'm only somewhat familiar with the source material, but were the Hunt from some sort of race of Super Elves or something?

It did make me laugh, the moment I ran into that tower and couldn't get in during regular gameplay, I knew it was going to have something to do with the final part of the game. It just looked too epic

 

[TP Potato]

My understanding was as follows: The Wild Hunt could sense whenever Ciri used her power. So while they didn't have to defeat the hunt to use the portal they wanted to time the battle to their use of it so A) Wild Hunt wouldn't interfere and B) Geralt, Yennefer, etc. wouldn't interfere.

Again that's just my thoughts, not sure if those are the actual reasons.

 

[The Madman]

On that note as well, what was the deal with the Aen Sidhe (or whatever) Elves? I'm only somewhat familiar with the source material, but were the Hunt from some sort of race of Super Elves or something?

The Wild Hunt are essentially just racist asshole trans-dimensional elves. This isn't something the games made it, it's from the book series. As for what makes the Aen Elle Elves special? Well they'd say it's because they're the superior race, but in truth not much. They're essentially just from an alternate world where instead of Humans winning over the other races it was Elves. They've since learned the magic necessary to transport themselves across worlds ala Ciri, and make a habit of doing so. Technically when appearing in other worlds it's most often as astral projections of themselves which is why the Wild Hunt are considered wraiths, actually teleporting from one world to another is extremely rare.

Ciri is a very, very, very distant ancestor of the most powerful progenitors of the Aen Elle, which is why she can do the whole teleporty trick when no other humans and even very few elves can do it. The fact that she's one of very few that can properly teleport at will is what makes her so special and why the Wild Hunt chases her.

 

[Ihateregistering1]

On that note as well, what was the deal with the Aen Sidhe (or whatever) Elves? I'm only somewhat familiar with the source material, but were the Hunt from some sort of race of Super Elves or something?

The Wild Hunt are essentially just racist asshole trans-dimensional elves. This isn't something the games made it, it's from the book series. As for what makes the Aen Elle Elves special? Well they'd say it's because they're the superior race, but in truth not much. They're essentially just from an alternate world where instead of Humans winning over the other races it was Elves. They've since learned the magic necessary to transport themselves across worlds ala Ciri, and make a habit of doing so. Technically when appearing in other worlds it's most often as astral projections of themselves which is why the Wild Hunt are considered wraiths, actually teleporting from one world to another is extremely rare.

Ciri is a very, very, very distant ancestor of the most powerful progenitors of the Aen Elle, which is why she can do the whole teleporty trick when no other humans and even very few elves can do it. The fact that she's one of very few that can properly teleport at will is what makes her so special and why the Wild Hunt chases her.

But is there a particular reason they are so huge? The Elves in the world of the Witcher are all depicted as being small and skinny, but the Wild Hunt warriors are all 7' tall and wear armor that looks like it weighs 100 lbs. At first I thought maybe it was just the way they looked in their armor, but when you meet Ge'els (where he isn't wearing armor) he towers over Geralt and Avallach.

What I don't get is why ...

Why is fighting the last Crone only avaliable in the bad ending? If you ask me, we could've gone after her in an additonal quest. Yeah I understand Geralt want's to find Ciri's Witcher medallion as his only memento of her, since she apparently died in the bad ending.

But it was still Vesemir's medallion to, we should've gone after the Crone to get it back anyway.

Oh yeah, I totally forgot about the last crone! Oh well, guess I'll have to play through the game a 2nd time (oh darn...).

 

[The Madman]

But is there a particular reason they are so huge? The Elves in the world of the Witcher are all depicted as being small and skinny, but the Wild Hunt warriors are all 7' tall and wear armor that looks like it weighs 100 lbs. At first I thought maybe it was just the way they looked in their armor, but when you meet Ge'els (where he isn't wearing armor) he towers over Geralt and Avallach.

Artistic license to make them seem cooler and more intimidating if I had to make a guess. I don't recall anything from what I read of the books depicting them as truly outstanding physically. Most of the time when it came time to describe the differences between an Aen Elle and an Aen Sidhe elves words like 'haughty' and 'cold' tend to be used rather than any major physical differences.

Or maybe it's just magic. Lots of magic. The buffed up fantasy equivalent of steroids and lots of em.

 

[Ihateregistering1]

But is there a particular reason they are so huge? The Elves in the world of the Witcher are all depicted as being small and skinny, but the Wild Hunt warriors are all 7' tall and wear armor that looks like it weighs 100 lbs. At first I thought maybe it was just the way they looked in their armor, but when you meet Ge'els (where he isn't wearing armor) he towers over Geralt and Avallach.

Artistic license to make them seem cooler and more intimidating if I had to make a guess. I don't recall anything from what I read of the books depicting them as truly outstanding physically. Most of the time when it came time to describe the differences between an Aen Elle and an Aen Sidhe elves words like 'haughty' and 'cold' tend to be used rather than any major physical differences.

Or maybe it's just magic. Lots of magic. The buffed up fantasy equivalent of steroids and lots of em.

Yeah I figured it was just to make them look intimidating, wasn't sure if there was an actual canon explanation.

 

[Spushkin]

What I don't get is why ...

"Spoilers"





Why is fighting the last Crone only avaliable in the bad ending? If you ask me, we could've gone after her in an additonal quest. Yeah I understand Geralt want's to find Ciri's Witcher medallion as his only memento of her, since she apparently died in the bad ending.

But it was still Vesemir's medallion to, we should've gone after the Crone to get it back anyway.

Then this "bad" ending would feel even poorer, if it had nothing special. And it's something additional for completionists to do, I guess.

 

[Arkliem]

On that note as well, what was the deal with the Aen Sidhe (or whatever) Elves? I'm only somewhat familiar with the source material, but were the Hunt from some sort of race of Super Elves or something?

The Aen Seadhe are the elves that left the Aen Elle and decided to make a home in the world of the Witcher. I would assume the Aen Elle are stronger because they're from a world where magic was natural. The world of the Witcher originally didn't have any magic at all in it. I would assume that after conjunction, it still has less magic in it than the world of the Aen Elle.


My biggest issue with the end sequence is how stupid the assault on Naglfar is. We already know that Geralt has no real way to deal with the white frost. They needed sorceresses to block the frost at Morhen. So why did they send him in there without one?

 

[sageoftruth]

My understanding was as follows: The Wild Hunt could sense whenever Ciri used her power. So while they didn't have to defeat the hunt to use the portal they wanted to time the battle to their use of it so A) Wild Hunt wouldn't interfere and B) Geralt, Yennefer, etc. wouldn't interfere.

Again that's just my thoughts, not sure if those are the actual reasons.

That's what I figured as well. Summoning that portal took far too long considering Geralt was able to get to her before it was finished. With the Wild Hunt's portal-jumping abilities, the only thing that creates distance between them and Ciri is the fact that they don't know exactly where she is. The Wild Hunt would be on Ciri before she had the chance to venture into the portal and cull the frost.