this is amazing

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The Witcher 3 10th anniversary interview – the making of...

The Witcher 3 is a tapestry of interwoven stories. Its main narrative and sidequests are seamlessly connected, each making room for major and minor characters t

insane finds..!

great presentation of the W3 guest convos at the end

Spoiler

amazing! more cut content

w3 cut content is amazing...!

@SympathysSilhouette the cut content shows that originally there were scenes after the battle with Eredin/Wild hunt. In these, Yennefer reveals that she and the Emperor had plotted to exterminate the Lodge after they helped her find Ciri. The Lodge is then arrested and sent to their deaths, while Triss is spared by Yennefer. Crazy right?

This makes all the loose ends of the storyline from the start make more sense.

I listened to the summary of all of the 2012/2013 witcher 3 drafts.

So originally the Witcher 3 main story was 3 times longer and characters that were relatively minor had much more extensive storylines. The same goes for most of the characters that made it to the final cut.

There was a lot more Yennefer content which makes it obvious that she is the Geralt's canon partner. Also Yennefer vs. Geralt drama is far more intense than in W3 and they have a lot of arguments and fights over the past.

The Wild Hunt was much bigger in the story than in the final cut- which is shows that the developers already had extensive plans for it but couldn't make it due to budget/time limitations. They were actually fully fleshed out villains and in the final cut their role was massively reduced.

There was also supposed to be a battle between Nilfgaard & Skellige (just like the battles in Witcher 2) but they cut it out too.

the game had 3 different endings that were executed somewhat differently than in the final cut.

In the 2012 draft there was several endings for Ciri

1. supposed to die with Avallach trying to stop the white frost and Geralt gets super depressed, and eventually adopts a boy to train as a witcher.

2. There was also an empress ending. This is much more extensive than the one that made it in the final cut. So that friendly Nilfgaardian General was supposed to be Ciri's future husband. This ending was won if Ciri had a good relationship with the General.

3. There was a Ciri trying out being a Witcher and finding out that it sucks & she needs Geralt to bale her out. She almost gets killed by a Ballisk type monster. Then she finds that the white frost problem isn't resolved and fully becomes 'the lady of time and space' and devotes herself to the world ending crisis and leaves geralt and her friends.

So originally Ciri was never meant to be a Witcher lol so they really changed that in a major way.

And it is likely that the lodge was spared in the Witcher 3 at the last moment because they will probably re-appear in the Witcher 4. If they kill phillipa and friends that can't use them again.

Overall I agree with xLetalis that the Ciri as "lady of time and space" makes the most sense out of all the endings based on the books & games- and also logic. Her becoming a witcher would come second place and certainly she would not want to become an empress after all the horrific trauma she suffered.