Inside The Witcher 3 Story (Retrospective)
16The Witcher 3 set out to craft one of the most iconic RPG games ever made, they faced a pivotal choice: lean on Andrzej Sapkowski's beloved low fantasy book series for an easy win, or forge a new and original narrative.
Rather than simply adapting Sapkowski's stories, The Witcher 3 achieved the extraordinary by embracing his distinctive writing style. Drawing from folklore, mythology, and epics, the game reimagined these tales with maturity, humor, and satire, turning traditional character tropes on their heads and infusing them with the human condition.
In this retrospective video essay, we dive deep into The Witcher 3, storytelling, characters, and everything that makes great RPG's.... great.
The Baron (Phillip Strenger): Analyzing the psychology and motivations behind one of the most sophisticated RPG questlines ever crafted.
The Lady of the Woods: Unveiling the identities and significance of The Crones, The Lady's of the Woods, and "The Mother".
Eternal Fire: Exploring the thematic connections between The Eternal Fire and current world events.
Fools' Gold: Settling the decade-long debate surrounding Yontek's true nature and the curse pigging the people of Lurtch.
Skellige: The mythological inspiration behind the three incredible stories told in the Skellige quest-lines to choose a new ruler.
Time Stamps:
0:00 Intro
2:05 The Baron
14:45 The Lady Of The Woods
21:15 The Eternal Fire
31:14 Yontek
38:02 Skellige
41:14 Lifting The Curse
47:24 Slaying The Giant
54:57 The Berserkers
102:54 Conclusion
#TheWitcher3 #Retrospective #VideoEssay #Documentary
Sources and Credit:
Primary Literary Sources:
The Witcher Book Series by Andrzej Sapkowski
The Last Wish - Sword of Destiny - Blood of Elves - Time of Contempt - Baptism of Fire - The Tower of the Swallow - The Lady of the Lake - Season of Storms
The Saga Of King Hrolf Kraki (Unknown)
Homers Odyssey (Unknown)
Secondary Literary Sources:
"The Spiral Dance" by Starhawk
"The Masque of The Red Death" by Edgar Allan Poe
The Witcher 3 Wiki - https://witcher.fandom.com/
"The Hobbit" by J.R.R. Tolkien
Additional:
The Genius of the Crowd (poem) by Charles Bukowski
"The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey" (2012 film) directed by Peter Jackson
Music:
The Witcher 3 Original Soundtrack
Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Rynos Theme, Floating Cities, Metaphysik, Past the Edge, Mourning Song, Crypto, Agnus Dei X, Twisting, Send for the Horses, Division
#retrospective #videoessay #thewitcher3
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