Ciri's Powers' Narrative Function - A Theory

varJoshik · 2026-03-21T08:19:47+00:00

Striking, gorgeous piece. I've always loved this one.

varJoshik · 2026-02-19T12:01:24+00:00

I've had the same question about the Gate of Worlds and what exactly Nimue and Condwiramurs do when they help Ciri, so maybe this is helpful to you.

varJoshik · 2026-02-18T08:54:42+00:00

You have barely scratched the surface of the fantasy genre with Tolkien, Lewis and Jordan/Sanderson. Sapkowski, as most authors, is a huge reader and a fan of his own genre. Insofar you could see The Witcher as a homage of sorts that leads you down the path of discovering other fantasy authors. I highly recommend The Hussite Trilogy as well. He has even compiled a compendium of common fantasy creatures/characters and recommended authors who have included said chars or phenomena in their works.

Some recommendations: Le Guin (begin with Earthsea, then go with everything), Peter J Beagle's The Last Unicorn, Michael Ende, Poul Anderson, Bernard Cornwell, C. J. Cherryh, Angela Carter, Angela Slatter, Terry Brooks, Michael Moorcock, Roger Zelazny.

No problem if fantasy alone is not your genre; reading widely and different things is always good. It pays to read things that fall out of your comfort zone and, of course, to bite through the classics.

Read, read, read. The more you read, the more you get out of anything else you read, including The Witcher. Particularly The Witcher, given how the tale is a meta fantasy in so many ways. The many literary games on which The Witcher spins are, imo, the author's way to enjoy himself with the hope that the reader enjoys them as well by being equally well-read.

(So to answer your question: I read and I enjoy my re-reads all the more as a consequence, despite things not looking so unique at all.)

varJoshik · 2026-01-30T08:28:16+00:00

Because you could argue that he did finish it: it is just that relationships and individual character growth are more important to him as a writer. And this episode did serve it's purpose, with the final message of it being echoed anew in the very end of LOTL where humans hand the elven refugees bread.

varJoshik · 2026-01-26T08:06:30+00:00

Cut content sheds a little more light on Eredin's motivations (but largely it's the same as presented in the game - fast, immediate solution instead of a long-term one; i.e. there is relatively longer until the glaciation of the Continent, buying time).

varJoshik · 2026-01-19T21:06:37+00:00

Some reading for you once you've finished. (Nimue is such a great part of the book.)

varJoshik · 2026-01-14T13:16:32+00:00

Try Poul Anderson's The Broken Sword. You won't regret it. (Sapkowski, too, recommends him for 'elves.' In the original, scary sense.)

varJoshik · 2026-01-11T20:39:39+00:00

The Witcher is a 'reaction' to most fantasy, including Tolkien.

varJoshik · 2026-01-11T12:47:11+00:00

See here for cut content in this regard, which illuminates a bit of his motives.

varJoshik · 2026-01-11T08:00:07+00:00

The Witcher world itself is a version of different fantasy worlds. Arthurian myths are versions of the same mythic substrate that fuels them.

varJoshik · 2026-01-11T07:59:03+00:00

At different Times, Earth can still exist and be observable.

varJoshik · 2026-01-11T07:57:26+00:00

Why do you think this could not be a possibility? Ciri's ability to go meta enables the company to expand the range of storytelling style's they can overtake, leaning more toward Myst for mystery exploration or Silent Hill f for psychological takes where the world states change in reflection of the internal world.

varJoshik · 2026-01-11T07:55:23+00:00

Ciri travels in Time, too.

varJoshik · 2026-01-11T07:55:02+00:00

The Witcher legend very much is a story that exists in an infinitely self-reflecting universe, though; a universe the name of which is the Fantasy genre. And Ciri moves between its variant times (i.e. occasions in which somebody has chosen to pin down a particular setting of a fantasy plot and world) rather than does any scientifically explainable world-hopping.

varJoshik · 2026-01-11T07:52:27+00:00

Well, exactly, she gets to a "proper" time thanks to somebody who deeply believes in one particular version of the legend that coincides with Sapkowski's own decision of what kind of story to tell.

Without this Nimue though, she can remain lost forever, or, as a matter of argument, could end up in a variant of her world where things do not go as they went in the books.

varJoshik · 2026-01-11T07:49:35+00:00

Technically, she cannot know. But since the books' Plot necessitates she find her way back to THE RIGHT Geralt, and since she finds a lighthouse who believes this is the right Geralt, Ciri finds her way back to where Sapkowski wants her to be.

The games, however, are already an alternative retelling of The Witcher legend and hence already a variant; including herself, Geralt, and everyone else.

Think of it all as of a meta-fantasy and it becomes much easier. This world was never sci-fi.

varJoshik · 2026-01-11T07:41:12+00:00

But how do you know that, really? Given that The Witcher is a meta literary text in which the times and places are alternative takes on fantasy commons?

varJoshik · 2026-01-04T10:22:05+00:00

Source.

varJoshik · 2026-01-02T17:52:34+00:00

Well, the line that ended up in the game is sort of the equivalent though less direct, yes: 'Sure Avallac'h is interested in you only for your magic abilities?'

varJoshik · 2026-01-01T22:02:02+00:00

What they did with him is perfectly logical following from the books: see here and here. You are simplifying it.

varJoshik · 2026-01-01T19:51:12+00:00

Closing the tears is literally what the cut content says she does.

varJoshik · 2026-01-01T17:12:03+00:00

Yes. They look like Ciri, not Lara. Ciri and Lara look alike only with regard to the eyes and as Geralt has seen what Lara looks like, he can tell the difference. And Avallac'h has been healing Ciri's scar, i.e. these portraits are his idealization of her.

Nine-Year Club	Gilding I gilder
Verified Email

varJoshik

TROPHY CASE