In Toussant, other than in Novigrad or Velen, Geralt is not continuously considered as a filthy Freak by the people. Instead they show him real respect for his person and profession. That also was a nice change of tone to me.
Just finishing the Witcher books and Anna Henrietta is the same. Geralt warns her that there is a war that can spill into her territory and she just tells him on how she basically demanded for the war to end and was surprised that it is still going on, not afraid as she has her knights. A small fish in a big pond indeed, not realizing how quickly her territory could be rolled. Then again, no one really wants the wine shipments disrupted so unbeknown to her she has some leverage there. As far as detail, also in the expansion. I just wiped out a monster nest near a vineyard and it left a big hole in the ground. Rode by there a day later and there were people filling in the hole. crazy I thought, but made things very much in motion and lived in. Also the building the first giant destroys has builders fixing it, really I could go on with many other examples, amazing.
The entier "Burocracy Quest" is actually a huge omage to "Asterix conquers rome" a cartoon / comic. They have to 12 Tasks in order to proof that they are gods, so rome capitulates. One of the tasks is "Get out of the house that makes people insane" and they have to get a document "A83" (same dokument as in the quest) in order to get throug and it pretty much turns out excatly as in the quest, with the big difference that they are there for a entier day and go actually somwhat insane bevour they fund the loophole. I loved that quest, so much memorys to my childhood.
Among higher vamps, blood addicts are viewed and treated pretty much the same as drug addicts or alcoholics are treated by humans, but worse, because in their bloodlust they attract attention and make trouble for all the other super vamps who just wanna chill or whatever. Also, the kids in Orianna's orphanage had much better lives than most orphans in that world, even with the blood sucking part. For many higher vampires, the human form has become the default, relaxed state due to their adaptability (at least that's how I see it), so it would be normal for Dettlaff's body to return to a relaxed state after being killed and all functions halted.
Vampires in the Witcher universe don't need blood to survive. They can live indefinitely, blood is just like alcohol to them. Regis abstains from blood completely because he was an addict in his younger days.
I'm pretty sure that Vampires in The Witcher don't need to drink blood. They just got addicted to it when they came to the Witcher world. Correct me if I'm wrong. That's just what I remember from when I played this ages ago.
Curse of the Black Sun was described in one of the short stories where Geralt had a discussion with a mage who was investigating it. CDPR did not elaborate on that, as the source material is available for anyone truly interested in it. To cut it short: Geralt himself did not believe the curse was real, and that it was fabricated by the Conclave for some unspecified political gains. Refer to "The Last Wish" short story if you'd like to know more.
This was an awesome series of ruminations Lore, thank you for making them. On a side note, i love that you can actually see part of that attention to detail you mentioned in your background, just observe the NPCs as you watch this.
I disagree regarding the 'good' ending not sitting well (I know it's subjective, but I'm going to explain why I disagree). Syanna is holding a grudge over her sister mostly because she expected to be granted a pardon and return from exile once Henrietta was appointed duchess, but also because of certain bad childhood memories, in which Henrietta blamed Syanna for something Henrietta herself did, which was believed to be one of the causes for Syanna's exile. Henrietta claims she actually did send her knights to look for her but she also claims that Syanna herself didn't wish to be found. We know this is most likely true, as Syanna was using a different name at the time - Rhenawedd. I think Syanna was so consumed by hatred, that she convinced herself that Henrietta didn't really care for her so she could justify her actions. So, if we're looking at the situation from Henrietta's perspective, she's willing to go above and beyond for her sister. She's so blinded by the blood that binds them and her love for her, that she doesn't actually believe Syanna would actually go to these lengths as to kill her, which is portrayed perfectly if in the ending where Syanna dies and Henrietta lives. She begs for Syanna's forgiveness as she wasn't entirely faultless herself, even though Henrietta can't be really blamed for something she did while they were merely children. Syanna, on the other hand, was so blinded by wrath and hatred, that she didn't really put much emphasis on her positive childhood experiences which involved Henrietta. It's as if none of it mattered anymore. Geralt's job was to remind Syanna that she and her sister loved each other once upon a time, and that Henrietta still cares a great deal for her. He needed to convince her that Henrietta couldn't be accused of something she did when they were children. I for one think the 'good' ending sits very well, along with the other endings, especially the one where only Syanna dies and you try to convince Henrietta that her sister plotted to murder her but to no avail.
The bank quest is actually an Easter egg: ua-cam.com/video/JtEkUmYecnk/v-deo.html The cartoon is French, of course, but used to be immensely popular in Poland, too.
Thank you for being one of the few people who cover games this extensively. And this is my favorite video game series so that just makes it all the better.
55:45 if you dont give magic ribbon to Sylvia Detlaff kills her and you can just let him go if I remember correctly. And 1:03:20 Geralt kills Oriana in Witcher 3 cinematic trailer: "A night to remember".
Another great rumination, thanks for doing it! Just a quick tip about 55:54 - it is possible to spare Dettlaff in one of the endings, actually. Spoilers ahead obviously: If you go to the land of fairy tales and not get the bracelet for Syanna, Dettlaff then kills her at the final confrontation and you can then chose to let Dettlaff go! Also, Geralt actually does kill Orianna, it's in the "A night to remember" trailer that came out even before the main game, you can watch it here ua-cam.com/video/ehjJ614QfeM/v-deo.html :) Goes to show how much further ahead CDPR planned.
Regarding the Bank-quest, since you seem to be unaware, it's based on The Twelve Tasks of Asterix (1967), "The place that sends you mad". With the same _permit A38_ you need to get.
1:09:20 Dettlaff returns to his "default human state" after dying because exalted state is like getting a boner. It is because of survival-evolution purposes, to hide themselves among humans. It's a feature for high tier vampires (higher vampire and bruxas), not for low end vampires (garkain, ekimmara....).
The actual reason is that most of the "vampire lore" that is in the game was made up by the people behind the game, the same ones who turned a prophecy about an ice age into freaking Galactus, not to mention all the things that make no sense in B&W itself.
wait this just came out today? I found your channel two days ago and watched all your videos on the Witcher excited to get to blood and wine and I looked at the description and saw I watched all the videos just in time for you to post this video. I feel privileged. :D
I think you're misjudging Syanna's character. Particularly I disagree that she doesn't feel any remorse over her actions. The way I see it, it's not that she doesn't feel any remorse, she just refuses to show it. It's a mask she wears, presenting herself as a monster out of spite. Also, it's very unfair to state that she intentionally caused "death and horror to many people on a large scale". It's pretty clear that her intention was to take revenge only on the four knights and her sister, and that she wants to stop the carnage. Why else would she agree to meet Dettlaff (other then feeling sorry for what she did to him, that is)?
90 hours ....thats it???? you must of been going thorugh this game as warp speed hell it takes me 160-200 hours just in the base game about another 10-20 for hearts of stone and about 90 just in blood and wine. anyway awesome vid and im glad you enjoyed what is for me the greatest game evermade.
Preacher2125 well he did say he cheated to make it in time, so he propably left a lot of side content out. i get why he had to do that but it really is kind of a shame in this beatutiful game.
Well, I played in the second highest difficulty NG+, I did the main quests and a huge portion of side quests during the storyline too. I beat the game in 42 hours on story alone. I got hearts of stone. Beat it in the same difficulty NG+ in just 5 to 7 hours including some of the question marks.
Purushangam Gaming Try Deathmarch if you haven't already, it makes the game so much better, especially if you're a Soulsborne fan. DM is the only way I'll play it now and it makes every fight pretty satisfying and realistic. It accomplishes what Soulsborne is masterful of, it doesn't feel artificial at all. It's not as on point as Souls but it does it much better than any other title I've played in a while. I even look forward to every encounter now. For a better experience I'd recommend it on a fresh run, on NG+ you've got that stockpile of food you eventually never need to eat so it makes it too easy by not having to buy food. I never bought any food until playing it on DM and damn does it highlight just how low Witchers get paid when you're having to by food or hunt wildlife so it not only makes it more enjoyable it also improves it's narrative through gameplay by making you rely on getting better jobs and haggling better prices.
Not liking the "good" ending is fine, because the way you handle things in the game lead you to the ending that would fit you. You did the things that would naturally lead to what happened, watching an alternative end to that would of course stand out from what you did and how you play. If you played the way that would naturally lead you into it you would most likely look at the neutral ending thinking the very same thing as you do now about the good ending. I think to fully appreciate it one has to play all the things that lead to it, to want to to things that way. It's fine, it's what a RPG should be like as I see it. I only stumbled upon these videos thanks to UA-cam and being so affected by the Witcher 3 in particular I sat through the first rumination video of Witcher 3 without any issues. 2 hours of someone talking about a game is not something I would normally do, which speaks a lot about how much the game matters. Hugely interesting, and so now I've watched all 3 videos on the game. Excellent stuff, and I found myself analyzing you in the same way you analyze the characters of the game. You're interesting to me because of how you analyze and come to conclusions about what you see. Just had to throw this in here. Now I will probably end up watching a whole bunch of these videos. Thanks for making these.
Finally I can watch this rumination after I finished the addon yesterday, even though I finished the main game and Hearts of stone a couple of times. I couldn't just finish Geralts journey, I didn't want it to end. But after CD Projekts panel and the little 10th anniversary video I had to finish it. Now I feel empty...
90 hours. well. Finished all three games recently and landed on 260 hours. Did everything I could find. Bet there are still hundreds of little things and sidequests left that I didn't manage to find though. These games are completely crazy in their scale.
Not sure how it has been told in the game [haven't played Blood and Wine myself yet], but in the books Regis states that blood isn't vital for vampire survival - it's more like alcohol for humans.
Regarding attention to detail, I wanted to share my 'wtf' moment in Witcher 3 (not blood and wine, but hey). Because it blew my mind. During the bloody baron quest with the botchling, Geralt tells the baron to make everyone stay inside that night and pour salt in front of their doors. That, in of itself, is completely irrelevant to the quest itself. Its just flavor. So, when you're going through the town during the blotchling quest, fighting monsters along the way and in a hurry, if you actually stop and look at the houses (which you normally wouldn't do, and have no reason to do for the quest)...they have lines of salt in front of them. Its not a long quest, the whole thing is transient and disappears once it s over. Amazing.
Great Rumination and I love the new Blood & Wine backgrounds. I hope you have one overlooking the Toussaint castle which is gorgeous. I heard that you’re doing Horizon: Zero Dawn later this year. That’s another absolutely beautiful game that you could probably take some more backgrounds from. I hope you stream some of it. It’s my personal game of the year so far.
45:51 You got the death bit because of your conversation choices with Syanna at the palace. What happens is, if in fairytale land you get her optional dialogue in which she describes her story/past and motivations, in the palace you get the right dialogue options available to you (mixed in with the ones not there if you skip or dismiss them/her) that can lead to her forgiving her sister (all based on that info from the Fairytale Land) - or at least making her less mad so as to not try to kill her right then and there (depends on whether you believe she is capable of forgiveness). If I recall correctly you just chose one of the options that derail the conversation - in terms of you being able to convince her (almost certain one of the options you went with was "Ah honesty finally" instead of "Ever thought to forgive her?" which steers the conversation down a different path and potential outcome). Also, Syanna is based on a book character from the short story books, Renfri. She pretty much IS her (same can be said for many characters in the main game as well btw, like Priscilla another identical to a (dead) book character) She's attractive, has similar hair, supposedly afflicted by the "curse of the black sun", leads a group of bandits and wants revenge on someone that has wronged her as her main motive and will go to any lengths to get it. It's also the same short story where Geralt get's his "Butcher of Blaviken" fame from. Spoiler - he murders the whole gang as they were preparing to murder everyone in the village market to force a mage out of hiding (Renfri's goal was to kill him but couldn't enter his magically sealed tower)
The only way to get the "happy" ending is to take ALL THE RIGHT CHOICES, and there's like 5 or 6 of them. If you pick something else even once you get back to the same result as if you picked them all wrong. The "bad" ending is actually the best one. This is one of the reasons why (the main story in) B&W was shit.
They are very easy to figure out however if you go in with mindset of convincing - instead of attack/judge/criticize. B&W was good, if there's one real issue with the main story in it, was the 1 week skip between finding syanna and the city attack. Huge missed opportunity to add some "meat" to the big bad (detlaff that is, syanna gets that in Fairytale land). Instead all we get is the hint that there's a "person" there during the banquet/party quest and.. skip to beasts all over the city. The character needed more time to develop. I'm guessing it has more to do with deadlines needing to be met there. Maybe we'll get some info on that, like we got info on many of the missing content and ending parts of the main game. Maybe..
Well, if that really was Oriana in the trailer(and we don't really know that for sure), he couldn't have killed her unless she wasn't a higher vampire after all.
Orianna was a Bruxa, which are a form of intelligent Lesser Vampire, which can be killed. They just tend to blend in more than the other lesser Vampires (as they can take a more human form and are more intelligent). I actually like to call these vampires High Vampirers while Regis and Detlaff are "Higher". And it's only the Higher ones that can't be killed except by their own kind. We also know it's the same woman in the trailer as she looks exactly like her (on purpose) and also has the exact same voice.
Higher vampires can be killed. Alps, Bruxa and katakans. Genuine higher vampires(Regis, Detlaff, and The Unseen Elder) cannot be killed by humans. So Oriana is kill able.
It's like saying dogs are wolves but not "genuine wolves"(which is correct in terms of evolutionary biology but domesticated wolves became a subspecies of their own). I think CDPR didn't think it all through properly when they adopted the source material initially for the vanilla game.
well, you killed ALOT higher vampires during witcher 3, u didnt kill any 'elder' vampires. bruxa, katakan are also higher vampires. And it was proved somewhere in the interview by CDP worker that orianna is that chick from that trailer( biggest hint is a song she sings in trailer and also to that kid in the scene)
1:02:00 - That moment actually made my cry like a baby. It articulated what lifetime of living as person with aspergers in neurotypical society feels like way better than I ever could. Writing like that - that's what good art is all about.
Lovely rumination as always, I disagree with you about the flow of the ending doesn't matching the rest of the story but let get this out the way first: -Vampires don't need to drink blood -You can spare Dettlaff on one of the ending And now that you have taken your drink.... The real reason for the comment is, I got the distinct impression, after reading the diary, that both girls were impertinent prats, used to do as the wish without caring about consequences, just for the a laugh but also that Anna Henrieta was the most intelligent and the head behind most of the mischief that BOTH sisters used to do and that she could do many things freely because normally the blame and probably the punishment went to Syanna. So spoilers and then my theory about Syanna behaviour Since you saw, the good ending, you also know why was Syanna really exiled and that the deed was not done by her but by AnnaHenrieta, that is not just protecting her because of blood or her good memories of her, she is doing it because of guilt, the first direct rock that put the event on this game on motion where committed by her and she knows it. Which is why she is so desperately wanting Syanna forgiveness But Syanna does not hate Anna Henrieta, just like she does not want to wake up Dettlaff to the horrors of the world, she hates herself, because she see herself as the monster everyone tell her she is, and does not deserve to be loved. The proof of this is that she was most successful as a leader of band of thieves that on her own family and the only person who has dared love her was a vampire. And that is the reason, her sister even her sister betrayed her, Dettlaff devotion is just a preamble for his betrayal. So she leaves before that happens. Since she can come back to her sister, that betrayed her nor to Dettlaff that will betray her on the future, she run to the only place left, revenge, completing her dark spiral to darkness. And here is where the flow of the ending goes, if you decide to become her Mickey and tell her the obvious facts, that she is reusing to accept, she confront her sister, starting a road to maybe redemption/healing for both sister. I don't know if it's too late for Syanna, after all she has done, but if there isn't, that is the first step. On the other hand, if you go with the flow and reinforce her idea that she is a evil monstrous creature, she complete her revenge, where both system pays with their lifes their past mistakes, that led to the vampire attack. So the ending is about mutual forgiveness or mutual destruction. It is asking again if we should go one eye for an eye or if redemption exist, which is why i think it flow wonderfully with the rest of the themes and the flow of the game. On the ending with Dandelion, it's actually know that Syanna is locked away, even on the good ending, as the instigator of the attack, even if many believe that she will receive a lesser sentence with the excuse of being under a vampire influence, saving the face that the blood of the duchess line could be directly responsible for the disaster, even when it was, so that part is covered too
The bank quest is a referrence to a scene from "The Twelve Tasks of Asterix". Having seen the movie when I was a small kid, playing through that quest immediately put me back into that phase.
If you really pay attention to the story and put the peices together there are no villians in blood in wine ......not really there are only victims. think about it Dettlaff is a victim of Sylvia, Sylvia in a victum of her parents and of the knights that beat her and left her to die and that is how they become the victums of Dettlaff. it the whole cycle of violence thing. Syliva was shuned and pushed aside by everyone as a kid so that caused her to act out for attiton and would just lead to her being shuned more then at somepoint her own parents instead of reaching out to her had her banished. then the knights that where tasked with this beat her and left her for dead in the midle of nowhere to freeze to death.later when she ment Dettlaff she would use him to do violence on those that had done violence on her. ......My point is while some of these people my be more victims than others there are no true villans here....only victims. On the curse of the black sun. BaW is a good representation of the Curse of the Black Sun which is for me a fascinating topic to think about. Human nature and condition are something really complex and hazy. All is grey having read the books i have to say that the magic cures i BS and these people turn out the way they did because people MADE THEM THAT WAY!!!! back on the cycle topic there is a way to stop the cycle of violence. that is both very tragic and .....hopeful.....im not sure if that is the word i would use but its the only one that comes to mind. That way is to save Sylvia and kill Dettlaff. By killing Dettlaff you cut off the cycle at that step so he cant continue the trend and i have no dout that he would. he already showed he would when he attacked Beauclair just to force your hand. Killing Sylvia wouldnt be the end of that at least i dont think so. By saving Sylvia you can hopfully and it you do it right show her the error of her ways and get her to forgive her sister atleast enough to give her sister a chance and cut of the cylcle right there in two ways . one you got rid of the newest link in the chain in Dettlaff which is as tragic as it comes for he was just as much a victim as anyone and you make the person that was already neck deep in cycle to see how wrong she was by both talking her down and her sister telling her to her face that she was wrong in not standing up for her when she was thrown out. Thus allowing Sylvia to break her chains to the cycle for that moment long enough to forgive and be set free her self for it all at least thats how i see it. im sorry if this was to long but i tend to overthink these thing at times
Geralt met Regis quite early in books. He was on kind of self exile, trying to put his life toghether and start anew after breaking with blood drinking addiction. He became herbalist, and when met Geralt, he joined him in quest to find Ciri. Regis was great there.
Emotion is the bad guy in blood and wine, because of how Syanna feels she craves vengeance and uses dettalf, who because of his extreme emotions declares war to humans who have NOTHING to do with Syanna and starts a war (i don't know why the night of the long fangs is blamed on Anna or Syana when Dettlaff is the one who commands these vampires) and because of the emotions of Anna she doesn't sentence Syanna to death even if she's the master mind in those crimes. And who saves them? a witcher, someone who "doesn't have emotions" but Geralt in reality can see everything good and wrong in these 3 people and judge them (the power you have as the player).
Motive of the Black Sun curse is also present in books. It's also not answered. Anyone remembers Renfri? This is when Geralt has chosen the lesser evil and was known as Butcher of Blaviken, when he saved entire Blaviken and never was thanked for that.
You can spare Detlaff if you give up Syanna. Don't collect (or give her) the ribbon. Higher vampires "need" blood in the same way humans need wine. It is a luxury item perhaps discovered by accident soon after humans arrived into this world. Lower vampires and historically the higher ones as well would eat other flesh and drink the blood of the mammal and similar prey they catch.
This has been a real treat, thank you for the ruminations. I think this was the second time CDPR did the Curse of the Black Sun story which was a twisted take on Snow White in the books, the first take being about Eskel's destiny child in an extra quest in Witcher 1 which is canon to the games as Eskel mentions it in the Kaer Morhen part in Witcher 3 and obviously Syanna in Blood and Wine. As for Dettlaff, he can actually be spared by Geralt but only if he could kill Syanna, Orianna's fate is in the "A night to remember" trailer though it would have been awesome to actually play that scene in the game itself. As for the vampires turning into humans at death, I think it was an artistic choice rather than them originally being of a similar species to what humans were.
Well, its a bit too late but i want to point out that Higher Vampires usually described as “connected to the World”, or having some kind of dominion over the natural world. Like they can control birds and animals or lesser monsters and vampires. I think thats because in their original world they were linked to it too, feeding off it, being in symbiosis with it.
From the moment I stepped into Toussaint it hit me how much more colorful, vibrant and sharp everything looked. I got the mario ending and it felt a little unnatural for me. Detlaff regretted killing people for Syanna, she was made into who she was but at the end she was okay with her deeds just because she could get revenge. She simply went along with how everyone saw her. There was this line that perfectly describes Regis for me. Geralt asks him about him being an Elder Vampire. Regis asks him in return to imagine himself in a scenario that Geralt would dread being in, not in body but mind. Geralt says that it's always been the parties that he hates, having to wear the stupid suits, having to listen to the meaningless dribble of the aristocracy and just not being able to leave right that instant. Regis tells him to imagine himself being stuck there not for an hour but forever, with no hope of escaping. Geralt answers with: It would be tiring, really tiring. Regis responds: I couldn't have put it better. And then you talked about it so my comment's unnecessary.
Im not generally a fan of open world RPGs but i fell in love with witcher 3 and its expansions that i have like 200+ hours of game time logged into it lmao
Great video, just a couple of things to point out. As many have stated already, Higher Vampires don't need the blood to live, it's more like Alcohol for them. Another thing is about Regis's torture, because there's actually another point that scene shows that you didn't mention: How badly Regis doesn't want you to see the Unseen Elder. So badly in fact that he'd rather go through immense torture. About the Unseen Elder, I don't believe he's being oversold, or at least, not for Regis and the other Vampires that warn you about him. When you meet him, you see that Regis is held there, not able to do anything, at the mercy of this Elder. He knows that this Elder could kill him, who's a Higher Vampire himself, at an instant. This Elder is so powerful it can make mincemeat out of the other Higher Vampires. Another thing is that this Vampire is also so quick and strong that Geralt couldn't even react beforee being killed or bitten. And with all that information, Regis and Orianna (who warn you about him) also know he's incredibly impatient and quick to anger, which aren't good traits for someone who can kill you in an instant.
I finally finished blood and wine the other day too, and I got the same ending, I would not have known either that it was suppose to be the bad ending. I was happy with the way it ended, also happened to me too I always picked the tan dialog before the yellow couldn't believe that i was killed from it lol. I thought about Lore when that happened
About the background -- I'm confident you can find much better views in Toussaint. For one, you could try that hill where you were posing for a portrait. Also, you _have_ to go back to Skellige Isles. Particularly I'd like to recommend the area north of Fyresdal (Ard Skellig). Somewhere near that overgrown siege tower, I think. Aside from the beautiful braided river, there are fine specimen of Skelligan flora all around, and really nice views of three distinct mountain ranges.
I still think my favorite small part of this DLC (apart from the ending) is at the very start, asking the bandits to listen to the touissant knights; and then what happens when they ignore Geralt :P
I have a question. Do you think that Toussaint justifies existence of Witcher's world? You said during the rumination on Witcher 3 vanilla that this brutal and dark universe is not worth existing. Is your opinion changed now, after seeing some positive things in the HoS and beauty of Toussaint and friendliness of it's people? Does Toussaint bring the Witcher world more towards net positive?
Christian Changer I don't think so, I'm thinking it builds upon that dispair we see everywhere else but in a much sinister way. I believe the Touissant we see is the result of the Vampire's research into the Human Blood Farms we read about in TM. Everything that the Vampire's believed to produce a rich amount of blood is in abundance here. These people are safe considering the rest of the world, these people are happy, they're well fed and have a strong desire for good Wine, it's eerily similar to their findings. I'm not saying that this is true but I believe there's just too many coincidences and if it is true then CD P-RED is seriously up there with the Soulsborne series when it comes to these important little details that paint a story that you'd otherwise not know, and this would fit perfectly.
Fox Die Fox Die nope , the lore of toussaint and its population in evident in the game and books , basically, toussaint was built and populated by elves (IE the elder races) , but when the conjunction of spheres happened and humans popped up , they started to invade (at mass) the empires that the elder races built , among them was toussaint , it is specifically stated , that the reason toussaint’s architecture looks so fairy tale-ish was because it was built by elves , and if you actually look at other elven architecture in the game , you’ll find that toussaint looks dead on similar , what we know is that in toussaint there was a massive massacre of elves , upon which the humans won , and occupied toussaint , and there is a wonderful quest called “extreme cosplay” about a group of rich nobles performing a play about the story of the last elven king of toussaint , who surrendered and gave humans occupation of toussaint , and obviously the play goes wrong , but the point is toussaint’s history is very clear , and has nothing to do with vampire experiments, actually there was never a vampire epidemic in toussaint , that only happened in the dlc (meaning not a while after the war ended)
It's possible to let Dettlaff go, when he killed Syanna. You can also see Orianna's fate in cinematic launch trailer to Witcher 3 "Night to remember". Fun fact: It came out little over a year before "Blood and wine" expansion.
Superlative analysis as always. I was profoundly enamored by the setting of this DLC being that it was so idyllic and picturesque. The cultural disparity between the base game world was refreshing and a nice touch. The plot and characters were just if not even more engrossing and palpable in this expansion. The only aspect that really detracted from my elation was the unduly punctuation of high tier fantasy in a world that otherwise be estimated in rather low to medium range tier. It’s good they were trying to broaden their horizons and provide something a little more peculiar and grandiose in this dlc from the more mundane down to earth tones that is characteristic of the series but I think they were a little too avid in doing so. Something just felt out of place and with how abjectly redoubtable the higher vampires are presented. It’s not just incoherent with the novels(at least what I can glean from fans as I’ve never read them). But also the games which typically don’t depict creatures which such god like status. The interaction with the elder vampire was disappointing as I felt Geralt should have had at least a fighting chance. It begs the question that if elder vampires,as there are multiple, are so adroit and ferocious that they can eliminate mages and the most competent Witcher in one sweep, what is the inhibition to extirpate all other races.’ Oh but there is the gate that must be protected and we can’t have that being jeopardized by fully fledged conflict.’ Fair enough but some part of me thinks that the very execution of the vampirism theme borders a tad on the fabulous and absurd within the own Witcher universe and makes all previous enemies grossly underwhelming. That being said one meriting quality of the encounter with the elder is that it demonstrates the incredibly versatile nature of the Witchers who are not just well trained swordsmen. They are well versed tacticians and diplomats. Even if Geralt couldn’t fight his way out he recourses to subterfuge and negotiating. Overall this expansion also provided some closure for Geralt’s personage(since we likely won’t be seeing him again in future titles)where he settles down with his own estate.
I do not think Syanna was evil. The people who she had killed had wronged her, even abused her. Betrayed by family...left to die after being abused by these so called Knights and worse of all...betrayed by her sister(at least in her pov). The attack on Buclear was a result of both sister's actions..and the end result of a death sentence passed down to a young lady because she was a bit of a tom boy and acted unlady like at times. It is interesting that we find out that the Duchess herself did some of the same things...but because Syanna was supposedly born under the curse, it is decided that Syanna must die....so she is sent off with the notion that she is not to survive. Syanna's use of Dettlaf is another sign of someone being in over their head. When I played...everything flowed naturally into the good ending...and I do think it is just a matter of luck. I had no idea that getting the ribbon would save her life...I just did it because it seemed to matter to her. As for what happens after...I am sure as per usual some innocent monster will be blamed and I am sure that the Knights will be sent on various missions to cleanse the land of Vampires. And I am sure they will fail and some will die...and the duchess will use their deaths to rally the people. An amazing DLC...loved every minute...and I love your Rumination's...well done sir!
She is certainly a tragic character and a victim of circumstance there is no doubt about that. Unfortunately, contrary to the themes in most fiction these days, an evil character having a shitty childhood does not suddenly make them less evil. Anyone who convinces someone that genuinely loves them that they have been kidnapped by some mysterious group for the purposes of manipulating that person into killing her childhood abusers and her own damn SISTER (who also truly loves and cares for her unconditionally) is evil, plain and simple. She even tries to manipulate Geralt into a romance in the hopes that it will make him more willing to protect her against Dettlaff after he realizes she used him and never actually cared about him. Yes, the curse of the black sun is pretty horrible whether or not the magical curse itself is real because of the superstitious social implications but her childhood does not in any way excuse what she does in this story. She had several chances throughout her life to avoid the outcome that is Blood and Wine, including: Building a life for herself as a peasant, building a life for herself with Dettlaff, realizing that her sister always loved her despite the stigma around her curse and ASKING to be allowed back into Beauclair upon Anna Henrietta becoming duchess, or literally ANYTHING that wasn't manipulating and/or trying to kill everyone who ever cared about her in a petty revenge plot. Tl;dr: She had several chances to not be evil but did it anyway. Being sympathetic does not make her any less of a garbage person.
"Unfortunately, contrary to the themes in most fiction these days, an evil character having a shitty childhood does not suddenly make them less evil. " Unfortunately, if you have such a cartoonistic concept of "evil", the Witcher world may be too complex for you. "Anyone who convinces someone that genuinely loves them that they have been kidnapped by some mysterious group for the purposes of manipulating that person into killing her childhood abusers and her own damn SISTER (who also truly loves and cares for her unconditionally) is evil, plain and simple." Except she doesn't know that her sister loves her and cares for her, let alone unconditionally, and would have no way of knowing so, since she didn't speak out at the time. "She even tries to manipulate Geralt into a romance in the hopes that it will make him more willing to protect her against Dettlaff after he realizes she used him and never actually cared about him. " Except she doesn't. Quite the opposite. "Yes, the curse of the black sun is pretty horrible whether or not the magical curse itself is real because of the superstitious social implications but her childhood does not in any way excuse what she does in this story. " Which is irrelevant to the point, which is not to excuse anything. "She had several chances throughout her life to avoid the outcome that is Blood and Wine, including: Building a life for herself as a peasant, building a life for herself with Dettlaff, realizing that her sister always loved her despite the stigma around her curse and ASKING to be allowed back into Beauclair upon Anna Henrietta becoming duchess, or literally ANYTHING that wasn't manipulating and/or trying to kill everyone who ever cared about her in a petty revenge plot. " That is, sorry to say, pure and unadulterated BS. It not only presupposes omniscience on her part, but also fails to understand the dynamics of premodern society. "She had several chances to not be evil but did it anyway. Being sympathetic does not make her any less of a garbage person." And living in Disneyworld is not an argument to call someone a "garbage person".
Oliver H: Seeing manipulation of loved ones and assassination plots as evil is not a cartoonish view of evil, and if we are to take every terrible person's shitty childhoods into account when viewing whether or not someone is a good person like people do with fictional characters, most serial killers would be considered justified in today's world. So yeah, no. The curse of the black sun is absolutely relevant to the conversation because it is what sets off her entire character arc. She would not have been banished in the first place if not for it, so perhaps pay a bit of attention. Finally, I think you'll find that NOT coming up with an evil assassination plan to get revenge on royalty is significantly easier than doing so. It takes a lot of commitment. A shit ton more than letting it go. Blackvial: You're entirely right. In the books Geralt is pretty damn sure it doesn't exist. But the author was clever enough to give the audience just enough evidence from Stregobor to make it unclear to the reader. Geralt is not all-knowing. He's very smart, but doesn't have all the answers and admits it frequently. Just because Geralt has a belief does not make it true. It's up for the reader to decide.
I completed almost all of the misc objectives in BaW but I've still not found the Roach quest (I didn't even know about it until after my last playthrough). I just started a fresh run with TW3 and I'm looking forward to finally playing that part. Anyone else notice that Touissant is eerily too similar to the Vamp's experimental human farms? I believe there's a very good chance that Touissant's current state is heavily influenced by those experiments and if they really are then that would completely change the overall tone of the entire area. I'm not saying that it is but I am saying that it seems way too damn similar to be a coincidence. The population is in abundance of what the Vamps consider to produce blood that they consider ideal, it's nearly everything they considered to be a successful farm. Edit: I just now finished watching this and my take on Detlaff is that he didn't deserve to die even taking his actions attacking the city into account, he did what the only thing he could do considering what his weakness is (Which I believe Regis mentions this)- He cares too much and is very naive, his emotions are on a totally different level than ours and he doesn't understand the way humans work, he doesn't understand lying or being cruel just to be cruel. This guy wasn't just heart broken, the damn woman preyed upon him and used his love for her as a weapon...the problem is that he is not the one to be preyed upon, if anything he's a predator. A predator that only wants to be treated the same as everyone else. They can't understand how he feels, the smallest thing could get to him because of this, kinda like how a child's feelings but not, I can't really describe it because it's not how we as people feel because we generally don't care about things on an extreme level as we get older we become more jaded. Detlaff can't understand why people are doing the things they're doing, he's on a completely different level than we are and so naively innocent. If someone does something cruel to him he's going to take it much harsher than we would, one of the differences being the fact that his reaction is fatal/deadly. If anything he should've been allowed to live with Regis continuing as Detlaff's guide to this world so he can learn why people do the things they do and not to let the things get to him. After playing BaW I ended up hating the Duchess because of this, Detlaff is not the villain, the Royal Family was and the Duchess failed all of Touissant and allowed her subjects to get slaughtered and I hate that the only way to get the so-called "Good Ending" is by saving the true villain. Don't get me wrong, I'd rather none of them get killed but if I had to choose it would be the Royal Family, hands down. I didn't explain this as well as I could have but I don't have the time atm, hopefully I was able to get my point across in a way that makes sense.
I thought the person who visits you at the end is always Ciri unless she's dead, and what she has to say changes based on her fate after the game. I think that if she's still alive, she should always visit you, with/without the woman you got serious with.
1:08:05 -- The only higher vampire in the books is Regis. Also, the game has most likely changed the rules here (I'm pretty sure Regis wasn't supposed to be just "mostly dead" after being incinerated by Vilgefortz)
First... Just wanted to say Arch, like you, I originally had the "they both die" ending, and while I didn't like that outcome, it felt totally natural to me, and only on a whim decided to see if there even were other options and how to get them. Getting the "good" ending required that I break character regarding the Sister which I also didn't like, because you basically have to butter her up and agree with her that she was an innocent victim in regards to all of their problems, at least imo. But I kept it because I wanted the Duchess to remain alive, for Dandelion if nothing else.
As far as the visitor thing, there is one thing I didn't like. I just wish that both Yennefer and Ciri visited Geralt. I believe that even if she ends up being the Empress she would find a moment to visit him. Honestly, if I was in charge of that, I'd code the whole event differently: If you romanced either Triss or Yennefer, she visits you. If Ciri came back from her confrontation with the White Frost, she does as well, but if she didn't Dandelion shows up instead. This way you always get one visitor (Dandelion, if you got the bad ending and didn't romance anyone/tried romancing both Triss and Yennefer), but if you were faithful to your love interest and a good role model to Ciri, you get more out of the event. Heh, here's hoping that someone will make such mod some day. Black Sun curse is left similarly vague in the books. Geralt actually had a run in with Renfri, girl suspected of being under it and it resulted in massacre that gave him his "Butcher of Blaviken" nickname (Renfri also fell to his sword). Makes even more sense for my approach to Geralt as the extension of book character to try his hardest to save Syanna to make up for that situation. As far as scientific proof, a mage who autopsied some other girls born under the Black Sun, reported that they had quite substantial and gruesome internal mutations and abnormalities. However, cicumstances suggest that, even if the curse is real, it is possible for the person being affected to control herself and limit violent outbursts.
Half an hour in to your video and although I appreciate the love your showing for this incredible title, I think it's a crying shame you cheated your way thru and obviously skipped a lot of content.
Great rumination Lore, but that's no surprise to be honest! I laughed so hard at enchanted gentleman vegetables of steel :D Also you stepped on Thumbelina you monster :((
To be clear abaut the whole Geralt's emotion thing, I'll tell you how it really is. Witchers were made to be emotionless, so they would be effective and it was in fact a requirement to call someone a witcher in ancient past. We do not know if they were really so or close to it but it doesn't matter. That's why you need a little kid to make a witcher; you wipe his memory out but even then his mind is young and you can shape it anew once he wakes up after the Trial of Grasses. Over time as Witchers became more scarce, orphans became harder to come by and the process of chemical mutation started to diverge from it's orginal form... Witcher's transformation became more imperfect over time - to the point of accepting people with disabilities or unfinished mutations as full Monster Hunters where normally they would stay to become teachers for new generations or join the monks who tended to the Witcher Keeps. Considering that, Gerald was subjected to additional mutations. Those appear to be the trials that were in ancient past part of the standard procedure but were discontinued over time. But he lacked the precize mental training that would wipe his emotions completely as it wasn't known. They could also pump him with some more potent versions of standard poisons. Unless it was something even more experimental, in which case wtf. So, there is the unspoken fact that witchers are made to not SHOW emotions rather to not have them. The ancient witchers appeared to not have emotions and it was taught by the elders to free oneself from them. But even if - modern witchers just taught to be professional to use the mysticism around their proffesion in their favor. If you are perceved as a killing machine, you'll be paid more and people will be more willing. Even then Gerald is one of the more stoic of the witchers, even if the most sarcastic one. Eskel is close but Lambert is a better egzample of a modern witcher.
I just finished Blood and Wine and the ending I ended up getting was the Sisters reconcile. I am kind of in a completely opposite camp from you Lore. I really don't like Anna Henrietta and I completely understand Sylvia Anna. Annarietta has shown herself to be an incompetent leader who would rather see her people burn than make a personal sacrifice. And it shows long before you ever get to the endgame. Annarietta never thinks to invite a professional to deal with the Giants and the horrible dead people plants that plague the area, no she would rather have imbeciles play at Knights and Chivalry because it's all below her radar and her station. Who cares if a Giant crashes a peasant or two, hell maybe dozen. But as soon as her shining knights and representatives of her authority get decked, well it's time to call in the big guns. If it wasn't for Annarietta's meddling Syanna was more than ready to put the people of Tousaint ahead of herself and meet with Dettlaff. And she knew he would more than likely try to kill her if she did. The biggest sin Syanna commits in this game is being stupid. She thought she could play with a higher Vampire and get away with it, that was dumb yes. But she barely killed four knights, at least some of which probably deserved it in general, and all of whom deserved it from her perspective. Even the blood drunk Witcher from the School of the Cat who massacred a village couldn't kill a child, but those knights left Syanna to die. Geralt killed people for significantly less. And I am not even starting to talk about how cathartic it must be for Geralt to finally save a girl cursed by the black sun. Having to kill Dettlaff is unfortunate, and the consequences to Reiges are even more so. However, if he is this ready to fall off the deep end over Syanna it was only a matter of time before he wiped off one city or another for offending him in some way. Personally it is my opinion that the safest option is to put him down. Blood and Wine has three Villains, and they are Annarietta, Syanna and Dettlaff. Syanna triggered the conflict through foolishness, but it was Annarietta that doomed her people, and it was Dettlaff who gave the order to butcher the people of Beuclaire. Syanna is the lesser villain in comparison to both Dettlaft and her sister. Also I feel like the reconciliation is a left turn only if you didnt get to know Syanna throughout the Fairy Tail land. It becomes crystal clear that despite of what the world tried to turn her into Sylvia Anna is not a monster. And on some level she wanted to live in a world where she still had a loving sister, where she still had her Annarietta who shielded her from nightmares.
unlike in the base game i kinda like the bad ending in blood and wine. i feel it's events would lead into him saying he rather settle down and stop monster hunting. he had time to think about it and may have thought due to what happen it was not worth it anymore.
My first time playing through TW3 was on easiest difficulty, I did some sidequests but did not go out of my way to do them. and it took me 110h to finish the game. 90h for TW3+expansions is a speed run ;)
There is no debate as to whether Geralt has emotions or not; during Triss' quest Geralt can say "I love you" to convince her to stay behind if they're in a romance. There are many other instances where it is blatantly clear that he has emotions. The real debate is whether or not the process that transformed him into a witcher has had any effects on his capacity to feel emotions, and if so, to what degree.
You have couple of things wrong here. You can let Dettlaff go when he kill Syanna, if you don't give her a red ribbon. And second high vampires don't need blood for living. The human blood is for them like alcohol or drugs is for us.
Quick heads up, a GDC presentation of designing Beauclair (the big city in Blood and Wine) just got posted today: ua-cam.com/video/9vEfH9SJ9mY/v-deo.html
In Toussant, other than in Novigrad or Velen, Geralt is not continuously considered as a filthy Freak by the people. Instead they show him real respect for his person and profession. That also was a nice change of tone to me.
I have a feeling Dandelion is to thank for much of that rehabilitation of the Witcher profession, iirc those bards are supposed to be big in Toussant.
Yeah he had the same thing in the books. Toussaint is the only place that suits him.
You actually can spare Dettlaff's life if you "let"(by not getting the ribbon for her) him kill Syanna and then let him go.
Just finishing the Witcher books and Anna Henrietta is the same. Geralt warns her that there is a war that can spill into her territory and she just tells him on how she basically demanded for the war to end and was surprised that it is still going on, not afraid as she has her knights. A small fish in a big pond indeed, not realizing how quickly her territory could be rolled. Then again, no one really wants the wine shipments disrupted so unbeknown to her she has some leverage there.
As far as detail, also in the expansion. I just wiped out a monster nest near a vineyard and it left a big hole in the ground. Rode by there a day later and there were people filling in the hole. crazy I thought, but made things very much in motion and lived in. Also the building the first giant destroys has builders fixing it, really I could go on with many other examples, amazing.
The entier "Burocracy Quest" is actually a huge omage to "Asterix conquers rome" a cartoon / comic. They have to 12 Tasks in order to proof that they are gods, so rome capitulates. One of the tasks is "Get out of the house that makes people insane" and they have to get a document "A83" (same dokument as in the quest) in order to get throug and it pretty much turns out excatly as in the quest, with the big difference that they are there for a entier day and go actually somwhat insane bevour they fund the loophole. I loved that quest, so much memorys to my childhood.
Among higher vamps, blood addicts are viewed and treated pretty much the same as drug addicts or alcoholics are treated by humans, but worse, because in their bloodlust they attract attention and make trouble for all the other super vamps who just wanna chill or whatever.
Also, the kids in Orianna's orphanage had much better lives than most orphans in that world, even with the blood sucking part.
For many higher vampires, the human form has become the default, relaxed state due to their adaptability (at least that's how I see it), so it would be normal for Dettlaff's body to return to a relaxed state after being killed and all functions halted.
Vampires in the Witcher universe don't need blood to survive. They can live indefinitely, blood is just like alcohol to them. Regis abstains from blood completely because he was an addict in his younger days.
I'm pretty sure that Vampires in The Witcher don't need to drink blood. They just got addicted to it when they came to the Witcher world. Correct me if I'm wrong. That's just what I remember from when I played this ages ago.
There are more civilized and less "mentaly able" vampires.
Blood is to vampires what wine is to humans. (Pun intended)
It was Regis. He is higher vampire. Not "vampires" in general in there.
Curse of the Black Sun was described in one of the short stories where Geralt had a discussion with a mage who was investigating it. CDPR did not elaborate on that, as the source material is available for anyone truly interested in it. To cut it short: Geralt himself did not believe the curse was real, and that it was fabricated by the Conclave for some unspecified political gains. Refer to "The Last Wish" short story if you'd like to know more.
Poor lady. All night was walking with back pain :(
This was an awesome series of ruminations Lore, thank you for making them.
On a side note, i love that you can actually see part of that attention to detail you mentioned in your background, just observe the NPCs as you watch this.
Actually you can spare Dettlaff life in the ending which lead to the prison ending (the one where only Syanna dies), great review!
I disagree regarding the 'good' ending not sitting well (I know it's subjective, but I'm going to explain why I disagree). Syanna is holding a grudge over her sister mostly because she expected to be granted a pardon and return from exile once Henrietta was appointed duchess, but also because of certain bad childhood memories, in which Henrietta blamed Syanna for something Henrietta herself did, which was believed to be one of the causes for Syanna's exile. Henrietta claims she actually did send her knights to look for her but she also claims that Syanna herself didn't wish to be found. We know this is most likely true, as Syanna was using a different name at the time - Rhenawedd. I think Syanna was so consumed by hatred, that she convinced herself that Henrietta didn't really care for her so she could justify her actions.
So, if we're looking at the situation from Henrietta's perspective, she's willing to go above and beyond for her sister. She's so blinded by the blood that binds them and her love for her, that she doesn't actually believe Syanna would actually go to these lengths as to kill her, which is portrayed perfectly if in the ending where Syanna dies and Henrietta lives. She begs for Syanna's forgiveness as she wasn't entirely faultless herself, even though Henrietta can't be really blamed for something she did while they were merely children.
Syanna, on the other hand, was so blinded by wrath and hatred, that she didn't really put much emphasis on her positive childhood experiences which involved Henrietta. It's as if none of it mattered anymore. Geralt's job was to remind Syanna that she and her sister loved each other once upon a time, and that Henrietta still cares a great deal for her. He needed to convince her that Henrietta couldn't be accused of something she did when they were children.
I for one think the 'good' ending sits very well, along with the other endings, especially the one where only Syanna dies and you try to convince Henrietta that her sister plotted to murder her but to no avail.
you kill the oriana in trailer, dont you? (a night to remember trailer)
The bank quest is actually an Easter egg: ua-cam.com/video/JtEkUmYecnk/v-deo.html The cartoon is French, of course, but used to be immensely popular in Poland, too.
I found it interesting to hear how he enjoyed the quest none the less , even without getting the all the dozens of direct references :D
Likely because even the cartoon is based on real life. That type of bank bureaucracy is universal.
Its fairly popular here in Switzerland (or a bit more north in Germany) too, I myself never read the comics but very much enjoyed the movies.
Really popular in Italy too. Well, northern at least.
Honestly thought it´d the same for the US, was that a mistaken assumption?
Permit A38 is direct ripoff. I laughed immediatly when I heard it in game. I immediately knew how quest will eventually end :D
Thank you for being one of the few people who cover games this extensively. And this is my favorite video game series so that just makes it all the better.
55:45 if you dont give magic ribbon to Sylvia Detlaff kills her and you can just let him go if I remember correctly. And 1:03:20 Geralt kills Oriana in Witcher 3 cinematic trailer: "A night to remember".
If you wanted to see closure to Orianna, its actually one of the games pre-release trailers.
Amazing foreshadowing on behalf of CDPR.
Another great rumination, thanks for doing it! Just a quick tip about 55:54 - it is possible to spare Dettlaff in one of the endings, actually. Spoilers ahead obviously: If you go to the land of fairy tales and not get the bracelet for Syanna, Dettlaff then kills her at the final confrontation and you can then chose to let Dettlaff go!
Also, Geralt actually does kill Orianna, it's in the "A night to remember" trailer that came out even before the main game, you can watch it here ua-cam.com/video/ehjJ614QfeM/v-deo.html :) Goes to show how much further ahead CDPR planned.
An excellent presentation with some very shrewd comments. Thank you. I will start a play through tomorrow 👍🏻
Regarding the Bank-quest, since you seem to be unaware, it's based on The Twelve Tasks of Asterix (1967), "The place that sends you mad". With the same _permit A38_ you need to get.
There is no vampirism in Witcher universe because Vampires are a race just like dwarves for ex. it's not a curse.
1:09:20 Dettlaff returns to his "default human state" after dying because exalted state is like getting a boner. It is because of survival-evolution purposes, to hide themselves among humans. It's a feature for high tier vampires (higher vampire and bruxas), not for low end vampires (garkain, ekimmara....).
Curious, but where was this mentioned ?
Books. Baptism of fire
Chamo Lily Ahh. I only read up to Sword of Destiny so far.
The actual reason is that most of the "vampire lore" that is in the game was made up by the people behind the game, the same ones who turned a prophecy about an ice age into freaking Galactus, not to mention all the things that make no sense in B&W itself.
Regis' specialization is empathy.
wait this just came out today? I found your channel two days ago and watched all your videos on the Witcher excited to get to blood and wine and I looked at the description and saw I watched all the videos just in time for you to post this video. I feel privileged. :D
Skelzore haha same exact situation im in
I think you're misjudging Syanna's character. Particularly I disagree that she doesn't feel any remorse over her actions. The way I see it, it's not that she doesn't feel any remorse, she just refuses to show it. It's a mask she wears, presenting herself as a monster out of spite.
Also, it's very unfair to state that she intentionally caused "death and horror to many people on a large scale". It's pretty clear that her intention was to take revenge only on the four knights and her sister, and that she wants to stop the carnage. Why else would she agree to meet Dettlaff (other then feeling sorry for what she did to him, that is)?
Regis specializes in being a bro, and to none's surprise he does so in an spectacular way.
90 hours ....thats it???? you must of been going thorugh this game as warp speed hell it takes me 160-200 hours just in the base game about another 10-20 for hearts of stone and about 90 just in blood and wine. anyway awesome vid and im glad you enjoyed what is for me the greatest game evermade.
Preacher2125 well he did say he cheated to make it in time, so he propably left a lot of side content out. i get why he had to do that but it really is kind of a shame in this beatutiful game.
Well, I played in the second highest difficulty NG+, I did the main quests and a huge portion of side quests during the storyline too. I beat the game in 42 hours on story alone. I got hearts of stone. Beat it in the same difficulty NG+ in just 5 to 7 hours including some of the question marks.
Purushangam Gaming Try Deathmarch if you haven't already, it makes the game so much better, especially if you're a Soulsborne fan. DM is the only way I'll play it now and it makes every fight pretty satisfying and realistic. It accomplishes what Soulsborne is masterful of, it doesn't feel artificial at all. It's not as on point as Souls but it does it much better than any other title I've played in a while. I even look forward to every encounter now. For a better experience I'd recommend it on a fresh run, on NG+ you've got that stockpile of food you eventually never need to eat so it makes it too easy by not having to buy food. I never bought any food until playing it on DM and damn does it highlight just how low Witchers get paid when you're having to by food or hunt wildlife so it not only makes it more enjoyable it also improves it's narrative through gameplay by making you rely on getting better jobs and haggling better prices.
lmao i finished everything + expansions all question marks death march 130 hrs
Yeah wtf how do u cheat through one of the very very best modern day game.
Thank you so much for going through the game and I'm very happy that you enjoyed your time with it! :D
Not liking the "good" ending is fine, because the way you handle things in the game lead you to the ending that would fit you. You did the things that would naturally lead to what happened, watching an alternative end to that would of course stand out from what you did and how you play. If you played the way that would naturally lead you into it you would most likely look at the neutral ending thinking the very same thing as you do now about the good ending. I think to fully appreciate it one has to play all the things that lead to it, to want to to things that way. It's fine, it's what a RPG should be like as I see it.
I only stumbled upon these videos thanks to UA-cam and being so affected by the Witcher 3 in particular I sat through the first rumination video of Witcher 3 without any issues. 2 hours of someone talking about a game is not something I would normally do, which speaks a lot about how much the game matters. Hugely interesting, and so now I've watched all 3 videos on the game. Excellent stuff, and I found myself analyzing you in the same way you analyze the characters of the game. You're interesting to me because of how you analyze and come to conclusions about what you see. Just had to throw this in here. Now I will probably end up watching a whole bunch of these videos. Thanks for making these.
Finally I can watch this rumination after I finished the addon yesterday, even though I finished the main game and Hearts of stone a couple of times. I couldn't just finish Geralts journey, I didn't want it to end. But after CD Projekts panel and the little 10th anniversary video I had to finish it. Now I feel empty...
90 hours. well. Finished all three games recently and landed on 260 hours. Did everything I could find. Bet there are still hundreds of little things and sidequests left that I didn't manage to find though. These games are completely crazy in their scale.
Not sure how it has been told in the game [haven't played Blood and Wine myself yet], but in the books Regis states that blood isn't vital for vampire survival - it's more like alcohol for humans.
Regarding attention to detail, I wanted to share my 'wtf' moment in Witcher 3 (not blood and wine, but hey). Because it blew my mind. During the bloody baron quest with the botchling, Geralt tells the baron to make everyone stay inside that night and pour salt in front of their doors. That, in of itself, is completely irrelevant to the quest itself. Its just flavor. So, when you're going through the town during the blotchling quest, fighting monsters along the way and in a hurry, if you actually stop and look at the houses (which you normally wouldn't do, and have no reason to do for the quest)...they have lines of salt in front of them. Its not a long quest, the whole thing is transient and disappears once it s over. Amazing.
again awesome talk man, really like that you go in depth on every charachter and choice. keep up the good work! :p
found this channel about a week ago on the witcher 3 lorerun and ive been loving it keep up the great work
Great Rumination and I love the new Blood & Wine backgrounds.
I hope you have one overlooking the Toussaint castle which is gorgeous.
I heard that you’re doing Horizon: Zero Dawn later this year. That’s another absolutely beautiful game that you could probably take some more backgrounds from. I hope you stream some of it. It’s my personal game of the year so far.
45:51 You got the death bit because of your conversation choices with Syanna at the palace.
What happens is, if in fairytale land you get her optional dialogue in which she describes her story/past and motivations, in the palace you get the right dialogue options available to you (mixed in with the ones not there if you skip or dismiss them/her) that can lead to her forgiving her sister (all based on that info from the Fairytale Land) - or at least making her less mad so as to not try to kill her right then and there (depends on whether you believe she is capable of forgiveness).
If I recall correctly you just chose one of the options that derail the conversation - in terms of you being able to convince her (almost certain one of the options you went with was "Ah honesty finally" instead of "Ever thought to forgive her?" which steers the conversation down a different path and potential outcome).
Also, Syanna is based on a book character from the short story books, Renfri. She pretty much IS her (same can be said for many characters in the main game as well btw, like Priscilla another identical to a (dead) book character) She's attractive, has similar hair, supposedly afflicted by the "curse of the black sun", leads a group of bandits and wants revenge on someone that has wronged her as her main motive and will go to any lengths to get it. It's also the same short story where Geralt get's his "Butcher of Blaviken" fame from. Spoiler - he murders the whole gang as they were preparing to murder everyone in the village market to force a mage out of hiding (Renfri's goal was to kill him but couldn't enter his magically sealed tower)
The only way to get the "happy" ending is to take ALL THE RIGHT CHOICES, and there's like 5 or 6 of them. If you pick something else even once you get back to the same result as if you picked them all wrong.
The "bad" ending is actually the best one.
This is one of the reasons why (the main story in) B&W was shit.
They are very easy to figure out however if you go in with mindset of convincing - instead of attack/judge/criticize. B&W was good, if there's one real issue with the main story in it, was the 1 week skip between finding syanna and the city attack. Huge missed opportunity to add some "meat" to the big bad (detlaff that is, syanna gets that in Fairytale land). Instead all we get is the hint that there's a "person" there during the banquet/party quest and.. skip to beasts all over the city. The character needed more time to develop. I'm guessing it has more to do with deadlines needing to be met there. Maybe we'll get some info on that, like we got info on many of the missing content and ending parts of the main game. Maybe..
1:13:40 Now it struck me... all three party quests were with redhead companion... Triss, Shani and Anna Henrietta :)
If u didnt realise Orianna is that chick from the witcher 3 trailer ( a night to remember) pretty cool stuff, so geralt kills her in the end i suppose
Well, if that really was Oriana in the trailer(and we don't really know that for sure), he couldn't have killed her unless she wasn't a higher vampire after all.
Orianna was a Bruxa, which are a form of intelligent Lesser Vampire, which can be killed. They just tend to blend in more than the other lesser Vampires (as they can take a more human form and are more intelligent). I actually like to call these vampires High Vampirers while Regis and Detlaff are "Higher". And it's only the Higher ones that can't be killed except by their own kind.
We also know it's the same woman in the trailer as she looks exactly like her (on purpose) and also has the exact same voice.
Higher vampires can be killed. Alps, Bruxa and katakans. Genuine higher vampires(Regis, Detlaff, and The Unseen Elder) cannot be killed by humans. So Oriana is kill able.
It's like saying dogs are wolves but not "genuine wolves"(which is correct in terms of evolutionary biology but domesticated wolves became a subspecies of their own). I think CDPR didn't think it all through properly when they adopted the source material initially for the vanilla game.
well, you killed ALOT higher vampires during witcher 3, u didnt kill any 'elder' vampires. bruxa, katakan are also higher vampires. And it was proved somewhere in the interview by CDP worker that orianna is that chick from that trailer( biggest hint is a song she sings in trailer and also to that kid in the scene)
1:02:00 - That moment actually made my cry like a baby. It articulated what lifetime of living as person with aspergers in neurotypical society feels like way better than I ever could. Writing like that - that's what good art is all about.
Cheers, brother. Just one more enlightening and enjoyable rumination which I'm sure to revisit multiple times before I am through.
Lovely rumination as always, I disagree with you about the flow of the ending doesn't matching the rest of the story but let get this out the way first:
-Vampires don't need to drink blood
-You can spare Dettlaff on one of the ending
And now that you have taken your drink....
The real reason for the comment is, I got the distinct impression, after reading the diary, that both girls were impertinent prats, used to do as the wish without caring about consequences, just for the a laugh but also that Anna Henrieta was the most intelligent and the head behind most of the mischief that BOTH sisters used to do and that she could do many things freely because normally the blame and probably the punishment went to Syanna.
So spoilers and then my theory about Syanna behaviour
Since you saw, the good ending, you also know why was Syanna really exiled and that the deed was not done by her but by AnnaHenrieta, that is not just protecting her because of blood or her good memories of her, she is doing it because of guilt, the first direct rock that put the event on this game on motion where committed by her and she knows it. Which is why she is so desperately wanting Syanna forgiveness
But Syanna does not hate Anna Henrieta, just like she does not want to wake up Dettlaff to the horrors of the world, she hates herself, because she see herself as the monster everyone tell her she is, and does not deserve to be loved. The proof of this is that she was most successful as a leader of band of thieves that on her own family and the only person who has dared love her was a vampire. And that is the reason, her sister even her sister betrayed her, Dettlaff devotion is just a preamble for his betrayal. So she leaves before that happens. Since she can come back to her sister, that betrayed her nor to Dettlaff that will betray her on the future, she run to the only place left, revenge, completing her dark spiral to darkness.
And here is where the flow of the ending goes, if you decide to become her Mickey and tell her the obvious facts, that she is reusing to accept, she confront her sister, starting a road to maybe redemption/healing for both sister. I don't know if it's too late for Syanna, after all she has done, but if there isn't, that is the first step.
On the other hand, if you go with the flow and reinforce her idea that she is a evil monstrous creature, she complete her revenge, where both system pays with their lifes their past mistakes, that led to the vampire attack.
So the ending is about mutual forgiveness or mutual destruction. It is asking again if we should go one eye for an eye or if redemption exist, which is why i think it flow wonderfully with the rest of the themes and the flow of the game.
On the ending with Dandelion, it's actually know that Syanna is locked away, even on the good ending, as the instigator of the attack, even if many believe that she will receive a lesser sentence with the excuse of being under a vampire influence, saving the face that the blood of the duchess line could be directly responsible for the disaster, even when it was, so that part is covered too
The bank quest is a referrence to a scene from "The Twelve Tasks of Asterix". Having seen the movie when I was a small kid, playing through that quest immediately put me back into that phase.
If you really pay attention to the story and put the peices together there are no villians in blood in wine ......not really there are only victims. think about it Dettlaff is a victim of Sylvia, Sylvia in a victum of her parents and of the knights that beat her and left her to die and that is how they become the victums of Dettlaff. it the whole cycle of violence thing. Syliva was shuned and pushed aside by everyone as a kid so that caused her to act out for attiton and would just lead to her being shuned more then at somepoint her own parents instead of reaching out to her had her banished. then the knights that where tasked with this beat her and left her for dead in the midle of nowhere to freeze to death.later when she ment Dettlaff she would use him to do violence on those that had done violence on her. ......My point is while some of these people my be more victims than others there are no true villans here....only victims.
On the curse of the black sun. BaW is a good representation of the Curse of the Black Sun which is for me a fascinating topic to think about. Human nature and condition are something really complex and hazy. All is grey having read the books i have to say that the magic cures i BS and these people turn out the way they did because people MADE THEM THAT WAY!!!!
back on the cycle topic there is a way to stop the cycle of violence. that is both very tragic and .....hopeful.....im not sure if that is the word i would use but its the only one that comes to mind. That way is to save Sylvia and kill Dettlaff. By killing Dettlaff you cut off the cycle at that step so he cant continue the trend and i have no dout that he would. he already showed he would when he attacked Beauclair just to force your hand. Killing Sylvia wouldnt be the end of that at least i dont think so. By saving Sylvia you can hopfully and it you do it right show her the error of her ways and get her to forgive her sister atleast enough to give her sister a chance and cut of the cylcle right there in two ways . one you got rid of the newest link in the chain in Dettlaff which is as tragic as it comes for he was just as much a victim as anyone and you make the person that was already neck deep in cycle to see how wrong she was by both talking her down and her sister telling her to her face that she was wrong in not standing up for her when she was thrown out. Thus allowing Sylvia to break her chains to the cycle for that moment long enough to forgive and be set free her self for it all at least thats how i see it. im sorry if this was to long but i tend to overthink these thing at times
Geralt met Regis quite early in books. He was on kind of self exile, trying to put his life toghether and start anew after breaking with blood drinking addiction. He became herbalist, and when met Geralt, he joined him in quest to find Ciri. Regis was great there.
Emotion is the bad guy in blood and wine, because of how Syanna feels she craves vengeance and uses dettalf, who because of his extreme emotions declares war to humans who have NOTHING to do with Syanna and starts a war (i don't know why the night of the long fangs is blamed on Anna or Syana when Dettlaff is the one who commands these vampires) and because of the emotions of Anna she doesn't sentence Syanna to death even if she's the master mind in those crimes. And who saves them? a witcher, someone who "doesn't have emotions" but Geralt in reality can see everything good and wrong in these 3 people and judge them (the power you have as the player).
There's a love for a project present in the Witcher 3 that is almost exclusive to CPR.
Majordomus is a easter egg of Basil Fawlty (Fawlty Towers), played by John Cleese
Motive of the Black Sun curse is also present in books. It's also not answered. Anyone remembers Renfri? This is when Geralt has chosen the lesser evil and was known as Butcher of Blaviken, when he saved entire Blaviken and never was thanked for that.
Blood in the Witcher world for Vampires is like Cocaine or some other A class drug, they don't need it but it's highly addictive and hard to wean off.
You can spare Detlaff if you give up Syanna. Don't collect (or give her) the ribbon.
Higher vampires "need" blood in the same way humans need wine. It is a luxury item perhaps discovered by accident soon after humans arrived into this world.
Lower vampires and historically the higher ones as well would eat other flesh and drink the blood of the mammal and similar prey they catch.
This has been a real treat, thank you for the ruminations.
I think this was the second time CDPR did the Curse of the Black Sun story which was a twisted take on Snow White in the books, the first take being about Eskel's destiny child in an extra quest in Witcher 1 which is canon to the games as Eskel mentions it in the Kaer Morhen part in Witcher 3 and obviously Syanna in Blood and Wine.
As for Dettlaff, he can actually be spared by Geralt but only if he could kill Syanna, Orianna's fate is in the "A night to remember" trailer though it would have been awesome to actually play that scene in the game itself. As for the vampires turning into humans at death, I think it was an artistic choice rather than them originally being of a similar species to what humans were.
Well, its a bit too late but i want to point out that Higher Vampires usually described as “connected to the World”, or having some kind of dominion over the natural world. Like they can control birds and animals or lesser monsters and vampires. I think thats because in their original world they were linked to it too, feeding off it, being in symbiosis with it.
From the moment I stepped into Toussaint it hit me how much more colorful, vibrant and sharp everything looked. I got the mario ending and it felt a little unnatural for me. Detlaff regretted killing people for Syanna, she was made into who she was but at the end she was okay with her deeds just because she could get revenge. She simply went along with how everyone saw her.
There was this line that perfectly describes Regis for me. Geralt asks him about him being an Elder Vampire. Regis asks him in return to imagine himself in a scenario that Geralt would dread being in, not in body but mind. Geralt says that it's always been the parties that he hates, having to wear the stupid suits, having to listen to the meaningless dribble of the aristocracy and just not being able to leave right that instant. Regis tells him to imagine himself being stuck there not for an hour but forever, with no hope of escaping. Geralt answers with: It would be tiring, really tiring. Regis responds: I couldn't have put it better.
And then you talked about it so my comment's unnecessary.
Im not generally a fan of open world RPGs but i fell in love with witcher 3 and its expansions that i have like 200+ hours of game time logged into it lmao
Great video, just a couple of things to point out.
As many have stated already, Higher Vampires don't need the blood to live, it's more like Alcohol for them.
Another thing is about Regis's torture, because there's actually another point that scene shows that you didn't mention: How badly Regis doesn't want you to see the Unseen Elder. So badly in fact that he'd rather go through immense torture.
About the Unseen Elder, I don't believe he's being oversold, or at least, not for Regis and the other Vampires that warn you about him. When you meet him, you see that Regis is held there, not able to do anything, at the mercy of this Elder. He knows that this Elder could kill him, who's a Higher Vampire himself, at an instant. This Elder is so powerful it can make mincemeat out of the other Higher Vampires. Another thing is that this Vampire is also so quick and strong that Geralt couldn't even react beforee being killed or bitten. And with all that information, Regis and Orianna (who warn you about him) also know he's incredibly impatient and quick to anger, which aren't good traits for someone who can kill you in an instant.
Nice vid. I loved how much more relaxed you seem in this one. Re-subbed instantly.
Underrated channel great videos mate I know old video but Witcher is timeless so
A very interesting analysis of Blood and Wine. A really good DLC.
I finally finished blood and wine the other day too, and I got the same ending, I would not have known either that it was suppose to be the bad ending. I was happy with the way it ended, also happened to me too I always picked the tan dialog before the yellow couldn't believe that i was killed from it lol. I thought about Lore when that happened
17:45 it actually was an elven castle, the best preserved elven sight around.
About the background -- I'm confident you can find much better views in Toussaint. For one, you could try that hill where you were posing for a portrait. Also, you _have_ to go back to Skellige Isles. Particularly I'd like to recommend the area north of Fyresdal (Ard Skellig). Somewhere near that overgrown siege tower, I think. Aside from the beautiful braided river, there are fine specimen of Skelligan flora all around, and really nice views of three distinct mountain ranges.
I still think my favorite small part of this DLC (apart from the ending) is at the very start, asking the bandits to listen to the touissant knights; and then what happens when they ignore Geralt :P
I have a question. Do you think that Toussaint justifies existence of Witcher's world? You said during the rumination on Witcher 3 vanilla that this brutal and dark universe is not worth existing. Is your opinion changed now, after seeing some positive things in the HoS and beauty of Toussaint and friendliness of it's people? Does Toussaint bring the Witcher world more towards net positive?
Christian Changer I don't think so, I'm thinking it builds upon that dispair we see everywhere else but in a much sinister way. I believe the Touissant we see is the result of the Vampire's research into the Human Blood Farms we read about in TM. Everything that the Vampire's believed to produce a rich amount of blood is in abundance here. These people are safe considering the rest of the world, these people are happy, they're well fed and have a strong desire for good Wine, it's eerily similar to their findings. I'm not saying that this is true but I believe there's just too many coincidences and if it is true then CD P-RED is seriously up there with the Soulsborne series when it comes to these important little details that paint a story that you'd otherwise not know, and this would fit perfectly.
Fox Die Fox Die nope , the lore of toussaint and its population in evident in the game and books , basically, toussaint was built and populated by elves (IE the elder races) , but when the conjunction of spheres happened and humans popped up , they started to invade (at mass) the empires that the elder races built , among them was toussaint , it is specifically stated , that the reason toussaint’s architecture looks so fairy tale-ish was because it was built by elves , and if you actually look at other elven architecture in the game , you’ll find that toussaint looks dead on similar , what we know is that in toussaint there was a massive massacre of elves , upon which the humans won , and occupied toussaint , and there is a wonderful quest called “extreme cosplay” about a group of rich nobles performing a play about the story of the last elven king of toussaint , who surrendered and gave humans occupation of toussaint , and obviously the play goes wrong , but the point is toussaint’s history is very clear , and has nothing to do with vampire experiments, actually there was never a vampire epidemic in toussaint , that only happened in the dlc (meaning not a while after the war ended)
It's possible to let Dettlaff go, when he killed Syanna.
You can also see Orianna's fate in cinematic launch trailer to Witcher 3 "Night to remember". Fun fact: It came out little over a year before "Blood and wine" expansion.
Superlative analysis as always. I was profoundly enamored by the setting of this DLC being that it was so idyllic and picturesque. The cultural disparity between the base game world was refreshing and a nice touch. The plot and characters were just if not even more engrossing and palpable in this expansion. The only aspect that really detracted from my elation was the unduly punctuation of high tier fantasy in a world that otherwise be estimated in rather low to medium range tier. It’s good they were trying to broaden their horizons and provide something a little more peculiar and grandiose in this dlc from the more mundane down to earth tones that is characteristic of the series but I think they were a little too avid in doing so. Something just felt out of place and with how abjectly redoubtable the higher vampires are presented. It’s not just incoherent with the novels(at least what I can glean from fans as I’ve never read them). But also the games which typically don’t depict creatures which such god like status. The interaction with the elder vampire was disappointing as I felt Geralt should have had at least a fighting chance. It begs the question that if elder vampires,as there are multiple, are so adroit and ferocious that they can eliminate mages and the most competent Witcher in one sweep, what is the inhibition to extirpate all other races.’ Oh but there is the gate that must be protected and we can’t have that being jeopardized by fully fledged conflict.’ Fair enough but some part of me thinks that the very execution of the vampirism theme borders a tad on the fabulous and absurd within the own Witcher universe and makes all previous enemies grossly underwhelming. That being said one meriting quality of the encounter with the elder is that it demonstrates the incredibly versatile nature of the Witchers who are not just well trained swordsmen. They are well versed tacticians and diplomats. Even if Geralt couldn’t fight his way out he recourses to subterfuge and negotiating. Overall this expansion also provided some closure for Geralt’s personage(since we likely won’t be seeing him again in future titles)where he settles down with his own estate.
as far as I remember the major domo character is a reference to Fawlty towers which was a 70s UK sitcom with john cleese .
Absolute classic!
Wrong you can spare Detlaff in the bad ending. That's the whole purpose of making sure Regis isn't hunted by his own and called a traitor
I really like the background, try to get a shot from the castle overlooking the city aswell!
I do not think Syanna was evil. The people who she had killed had wronged her, even abused her. Betrayed by family...left to die after being abused by these so called Knights and worse of all...betrayed by her sister(at least in her pov). The attack on Buclear was a result of both sister's actions..and the end result of a death sentence passed down to a young lady because she was a bit of a tom boy and acted unlady like at times.
It is interesting that we find out that the Duchess herself did some of the same things...but because Syanna was supposedly born under the curse, it is decided that Syanna must die....so she is sent off with the notion that she is not to survive.
Syanna's use of Dettlaf is another sign of someone being in over their head. When I played...everything flowed naturally into the good ending...and I do think it is just a matter of luck. I had no idea that getting the ribbon would save her life...I just did it because it seemed to matter to her. As for what happens after...I am sure as per usual some innocent monster will be blamed and I am sure that the Knights will be sent on various missions to cleanse the land of Vampires. And I am sure they will fail and some will die...and the duchess will use their deaths to rally the people.
An amazing DLC...loved every minute...and I love your Rumination's...well done sir!
She is certainly a tragic character and a victim of circumstance there is no doubt about that. Unfortunately, contrary to the themes in most fiction these days, an evil character having a shitty childhood does not suddenly make them less evil.
Anyone who convinces someone that genuinely loves them that they have been kidnapped by some mysterious group for the purposes of manipulating that person into killing her childhood abusers and her own damn SISTER (who also truly loves and cares for her unconditionally) is evil, plain and simple. She even tries to manipulate Geralt into a romance in the hopes that it will make him more willing to protect her against Dettlaff after he realizes she used him and never actually cared about him.
Yes, the curse of the black sun is pretty horrible whether or not the magical curse itself is real because of the superstitious social implications but her childhood does not in any way excuse what she does in this story.
She had several chances throughout her life to avoid the outcome that is Blood and Wine, including: Building a life for herself as a peasant, building a life for herself with Dettlaff, realizing that her sister always loved her despite the stigma around her curse and ASKING to be allowed back into Beauclair upon Anna Henrietta becoming duchess, or literally ANYTHING that wasn't manipulating and/or trying to kill everyone who ever cared about her in a petty revenge plot.
Tl;dr: She had several chances to not be evil but did it anyway. Being sympathetic does not make her any less of a garbage person.
"Unfortunately, contrary to the themes in most fiction these days, an evil character having a shitty childhood does not suddenly make them less evil. "
Unfortunately, if you have such a cartoonistic concept of "evil", the Witcher world may be too complex for you.
"Anyone who convinces someone that genuinely loves them that they have been kidnapped by some mysterious group for the purposes of manipulating that person into killing her childhood abusers and her own damn SISTER (who also truly loves and cares for her unconditionally) is evil, plain and simple."
Except she doesn't know that her sister loves her and cares for her, let alone unconditionally, and would have no way of knowing so, since she didn't speak out at the time.
"She even tries to manipulate Geralt into a romance in the hopes that it will make him more willing to protect her against Dettlaff after he realizes she used him and never actually cared about him. "
Except she doesn't. Quite the opposite.
"Yes, the curse of the black sun is pretty horrible whether or not the magical curse itself is real because of the superstitious social implications but her childhood does not in any way excuse what she does in this story. "
Which is irrelevant to the point, which is not to excuse anything.
"She had several chances throughout her life to avoid the outcome that is Blood and Wine, including: Building a life for herself as a peasant, building a life for herself with Dettlaff, realizing that her sister always loved her despite the stigma around her curse and ASKING to be allowed back into Beauclair upon Anna Henrietta becoming duchess, or literally ANYTHING that wasn't manipulating and/or trying to kill everyone who ever cared about her in a petty revenge plot. "
That is, sorry to say, pure and unadulterated BS. It not only presupposes omniscience on her part, but also fails to understand the dynamics of premodern society.
"She had several chances to not be evil but did it anyway. Being sympathetic does not make her any less of a garbage person."
And living in Disneyworld is not an argument to call someone a "garbage person".
in the books Geralt believed the Curse of the Black Sun was complete bullshit
Oliver H:
Seeing manipulation of loved ones and assassination plots as evil is not a cartoonish view of evil, and if we are to take every terrible person's shitty childhoods into account when viewing whether or not someone is a good person like people do with fictional characters, most serial killers would be considered justified in today's world. So yeah, no.
The curse of the black sun is absolutely relevant to the conversation because it is what sets off her entire character arc. She would not have been banished in the first place if not for it, so perhaps pay a bit of attention.
Finally, I think you'll find that NOT coming up with an evil assassination plan to get revenge on royalty is significantly easier than doing so. It takes a lot of commitment. A shit ton more than letting it go.
Blackvial:
You're entirely right. In the books Geralt is pretty damn sure it doesn't exist. But the author was clever enough to give the audience just enough evidence from Stregobor to make it unclear to the reader. Geralt is not all-knowing. He's very smart, but doesn't have all the answers and admits it frequently. Just because Geralt has a belief does not make it true. It's up for the reader to decide.
I completed almost all of the misc objectives in BaW but I've still not found the Roach quest (I didn't even know about it until after my last playthrough). I just started a fresh run with TW3 and I'm looking forward to finally playing that part.
Anyone else notice that Touissant is eerily too similar to the Vamp's experimental human farms? I believe there's a very good chance that Touissant's current state is heavily influenced by those experiments and if they really are then that would completely change the overall tone of the entire area. I'm not saying that it is but I am saying that it seems way too damn similar to be a coincidence. The population is in abundance of what the Vamps consider to produce blood that they consider ideal, it's nearly everything they considered to be a successful farm.
Edit: I just now finished watching this and my take on Detlaff is that he didn't deserve to die even taking his actions attacking the city into account, he did what the only thing he could do considering what his weakness is (Which I believe Regis mentions this)- He cares too much and is very naive, his emotions are on a totally different level than ours and he doesn't understand the way humans work, he doesn't understand lying or being cruel just to be cruel. This guy wasn't just heart broken, the damn woman preyed upon him and used his love for her as a weapon...the problem is that he is not the one to be preyed upon, if anything he's a predator. A predator that only wants to be treated the same as everyone else. They can't understand how he feels, the smallest thing could get to him because of this, kinda like how a child's feelings but not, I can't really describe it because it's not how we as people feel because we generally don't care about things on an extreme level as we get older we become more jaded. Detlaff can't understand why people are doing the things they're doing, he's on a completely different level than we are and so naively innocent. If someone does something cruel to him he's going to take it much harsher than we would, one of the differences being the fact that his reaction is fatal/deadly. If anything he should've been allowed to live with Regis continuing as Detlaff's guide to this world so he can learn why people do the things they do and not to let the things get to him. After playing BaW I ended up hating the Duchess because of this, Detlaff is not the villain, the Royal Family was and the Duchess failed all of Touissant and allowed her subjects to get slaughtered and I hate that the only way to get the so-called "Good Ending" is by saving the true villain. Don't get me wrong, I'd rather none of them get killed but if I had to choose it would be the Royal Family, hands down. I didn't explain this as well as I could have but I don't have the time atm, hopefully I was able to get my point across in a way that makes sense.
Regis should be the ruler of Toussaint. Now, that's one ruler you DO NOT wanna fuck with, even if your name is Emhyr.
I thought the person who visits you at the end is always Ciri unless she's dead, and what she has to say changes based on her fate after the game. I think that if she's still alive, she should always visit you, with/without the woman you got serious with.
Either Triss or Yen visits you and if you romanced neither then you get Ciri. If Ciri died then you get Dandelion.
1:08:05 -- The only higher vampire in the books is Regis. Also, the game has most likely changed the rules here (I'm pretty sure Regis wasn't supposed to be just "mostly dead" after being incinerated by Vilgefortz)
First... Just wanted to say Arch, like you, I originally had the "they both die" ending, and while I didn't like that outcome, it felt totally natural to me, and only on a whim decided to see if there even were other options and how to get them. Getting the "good" ending required that I break character regarding the Sister which I also didn't like, because you basically have to butter her up and agree with her that she was an innocent victim in regards to all of their problems, at least imo. But I kept it because I wanted the Duchess to remain alive, for Dandelion if nothing else.
Another one! Great!
BTW The Toussaint background is beautiful.
You should do some Loreruns for the witcher 3 and its' expansions!
Dam you are great at this. I have no memory left
Saving progress @58:19. Wouldn't want to do the entire rumination all over again.
As far as the visitor thing, there is one thing I didn't like. I just wish that both Yennefer and Ciri visited Geralt. I believe that even if she ends up being the Empress she would find a moment to visit him. Honestly, if I was in charge of that, I'd code the whole event differently: If you romanced either Triss or Yennefer, she visits you. If Ciri came back from her confrontation with the White Frost, she does as well, but if she didn't Dandelion shows up instead. This way you always get one visitor (Dandelion, if you got the bad ending and didn't romance anyone/tried romancing both Triss and Yennefer), but if you were faithful to your love interest and a good role model to Ciri, you get more out of the event.
Heh, here's hoping that someone will make such mod some day.
Black Sun curse is left similarly vague in the books. Geralt actually had a run in with Renfri, girl suspected of being under it and it resulted in massacre that gave him his "Butcher of Blaviken" nickname (Renfri also fell to his sword). Makes even more sense for my approach to Geralt as the extension of book character to try his hardest to save Syanna to make up for that situation. As far as scientific proof, a mage who autopsied some other girls born under the Black Sun, reported that they had quite substantial and gruesome internal mutations and abnormalities. However, cicumstances suggest that, even if the curse is real, it is possible for the person being affected to control herself and limit violent outbursts.
loving the background
Half an hour in to your video and although I appreciate the love your showing for this incredible title, I think it's a crying shame you cheated your way thru and obviously skipped a lot of content.
Background is very nice indeed.
Anna Henrietta: The one beast Geralt wasn't allowed to slay.
Great rumination Lore, but that's no surprise to be honest! I laughed so hard at enchanted gentleman vegetables of steel :D Also you stepped on Thumbelina you monster :((
To be clear abaut the whole Geralt's emotion thing, I'll tell you how it really is.
Witchers were made to be emotionless, so they would be effective and it was in fact a requirement to call someone a witcher in ancient past. We do not know if they were really so or close to it but it doesn't matter. That's why you need a little kid to make a witcher; you wipe his memory out but even then his mind is young and you can shape it anew once he wakes up after the Trial of Grasses.
Over time as Witchers became more scarce, orphans became harder to come by and the process of chemical mutation started to diverge from it's orginal form... Witcher's transformation became more imperfect over time - to the point of accepting people with disabilities or unfinished mutations as full Monster Hunters where normally they would stay to become teachers for new generations or join the monks who tended to the Witcher Keeps.
Considering that, Gerald was subjected to additional mutations. Those appear to be the trials that were in ancient past part of the standard procedure but were discontinued over time. But he lacked the precize mental training that would wipe his emotions completely as it wasn't known. They could also pump him with some more potent versions of standard poisons. Unless it was something even more experimental, in which case wtf.
So, there is the unspoken fact that witchers are made to not SHOW emotions rather to not have them. The ancient witchers appeared to not have emotions and it was taught by the elders to free oneself from them. But even if - modern witchers just taught to be professional to use the mysticism around their proffesion in their favor. If you are perceved as a killing machine, you'll be paid more and people will be more willing. Even then Gerald is one of the more stoic of the witchers, even if the most sarcastic one. Eskel is close but Lambert is a better egzample of a modern witcher.
1:12:41 -- ...which is exactly what happenned in Witcher 1, be the way (Adda using Foltest's seal).
I just finished Blood and Wine and the ending I ended up getting was the Sisters reconcile. I am kind of in a completely opposite camp from you Lore. I really don't like Anna Henrietta and I completely understand Sylvia Anna.
Annarietta has shown herself to be an incompetent leader who would rather see her people burn than make a personal sacrifice. And it shows long before you ever get to the endgame. Annarietta never thinks to invite a professional to deal with the Giants and the horrible dead people plants that plague the area, no she would rather have imbeciles play at Knights and Chivalry because it's all below her radar and her station. Who cares if a Giant crashes a peasant or two, hell maybe dozen. But as soon as her shining knights and representatives of her authority get decked, well it's time to call in the big guns.
If it wasn't for Annarietta's meddling Syanna was more than ready to put the people of Tousaint ahead of herself and meet with Dettlaff. And she knew he would more than likely try to kill her if she did. The biggest sin Syanna commits in this game is being stupid. She thought she could play with a higher Vampire and get away with it, that was dumb yes. But she barely killed four knights, at least some of which probably deserved it in general, and all of whom deserved it from her perspective. Even the blood drunk Witcher from the School of the Cat who massacred a village couldn't kill a child, but those knights left Syanna to die. Geralt killed people for significantly less. And I am not even starting to talk about how cathartic it must be for Geralt to finally save a girl cursed by the black sun.
Having to kill Dettlaff is unfortunate, and the consequences to Reiges are even more so. However, if he is this ready to fall off the deep end over Syanna it was only a matter of time before he wiped off one city or another for offending him in some way. Personally it is my opinion that the safest option is to put him down.
Blood and Wine has three Villains, and they are Annarietta, Syanna and Dettlaff. Syanna triggered the conflict through foolishness, but it was Annarietta that doomed her people, and it was Dettlaff who gave the order to butcher the people of Beuclaire. Syanna is the lesser villain in comparison to both Dettlaft and her sister.
Also I feel like the reconciliation is a left turn only if you didnt get to know Syanna throughout the Fairy Tail land. It becomes crystal clear that despite of what the world tried to turn her into Sylvia Anna is not a monster. And on some level she wanted to live in a world where she still had a loving sister, where she still had her Annarietta who shielded her from nightmares.
Simply amazing expansion to the most amazing game ever
There is an ending where detlaff lives, if you don't get the ribbon for syanna in the fairy land
unlike in the base game i kinda like the bad ending in blood and wine. i feel it's events would lead into him saying he rather settle down and stop monster hunting. he had time to think about it and may have thought due to what happen it was not worth it anymore.
My first time playing through TW3 was on easiest difficulty, I did some sidequests but did not go out of my way to do them. and it took me 110h to finish the game. 90h for TW3+expansions is a speed run ;)
55:54 -- Not true. If he kills Syanna, he doesn't attack Geralt, and there's a choice to let him go or fight.
There is no debate as to whether Geralt has emotions or not; during Triss' quest Geralt can say "I love you" to convince her to stay behind if they're in a romance. There are many other instances where it is blatantly clear that he has emotions. The real debate is whether or not the process that transformed him into a witcher has had any effects on his capacity to feel emotions, and if so, to what degree.
You have couple of things wrong here. You can let Dettlaff go when he kill Syanna, if you don't give her a red ribbon. And second high vampires don't need blood for living. The human blood is for them like alcohol or drugs is for us.
Quick heads up, a GDC presentation of designing Beauclair (the big city in Blood and Wine) just got posted today:
ua-cam.com/video/9vEfH9SJ9mY/v-deo.html
Ahem...you CAN spare Detlaf...if you do the ending, where the bad sister dies through his hands.
You can spare dettlaff, when you bring him seana without the ribbon he will murder her and then you have an option to leave him be
Lore, you are a beautiful human being. Has anyone ever told you that?
That woman it STILL walking in a figure 8 with back pain!
that regis vs dettlaff scene though