Experiencing the Worst Ending

Okay, let me be honest here--I've played an ungodly amount of The Witcher 3--over 900 hours.  It's my favorite game and I just love returning to Geralt, the Witchers, the sorceresses, Ciri, and the strumpets in Novigrad that yell hilarious things as you navigate the city.  When you've played a game as much as I've played The Witcher 3 you might feel the urge to make different choices...you know, just to see what happens.  I decided to choose some things that I don't normally choose and will now narrate the disastrous consequences.  (I suppose it's worth mentioning that this will contain spoilers for The Witcher 3)

Things started to go wrong early on--I fully intended for Geralt to re-ignite his relationship with Triss Merigold.  I chose all the flirty, supportive options (except for maybe 1 or 2) but decided that Geralt shouldn't drop the big "ILY" as Triss is departing.  Apparently, that's the clincher.  Even though I like Triss as a character (and relationship choice), I do feel that Yennifer is the canon option.  I always ponder the dead rose of remembrance--it's supposed to stay alive forever...as long as there is still love in the relationship, if it's dead...well, that's not a great sign.  Plus, there's always the issue of Geralt losing his memory and Triss sort of stringing him along.  So, overall, choosing Yen isn't the worst thing ever.  I did not intend for things to fall apart with Triss though!

I've never really paid much attention to exactly which key decisions can impact the ending.  I really only had it in mind to ignore Emhyr and dissuade Ciri from visiting her dear ol' daddy.  There are other decisions though that have a big impact on the ending...and I chose poorly.  The earliest of those decisions occurs immediately following the tangle with the Wild Hunt at Kaer Mohren--Geralt chooses to comfort Ciri who is struggling with her magical training.  Geralt can either tell Ciri that it's okay, not everyone is good at everything or offer up a break to take her mind off of the training.  One of my favorite parts of the game plays out if you choose the break option--Geralt and Ciri have a silly snowball fight and share a cute hug at the end.  Instead, I chose option number 1 and got to watch as a sad Ciri joined Geralt for a round sad drinks.

The second key decision takes place after Geralt has rescued Margarita Laux-Antille and has reunited the Lodge of Sorceresses.  They want to speak to Ciri and she's feeling nervous about them due to their past schemes--Geralt can either reassure Ciri that she should go in alone and handle it herself or can offer to go with Ciri.  I decided that Geralt should go with her (to offer support) and it turned out to be the worst of the two decisions.

The last disastrous decision occurred while visiting Avallac'h's hidden laboratory with Triss and Ciri.  It's here that you discover that Avallac'h has a very intense fascination with the Elder Blood (and Ciri) and his "friend" tells Ciri that he actually hates her and that she's a dirty "half-breed."  Ciri is visibly upset and expresses frustration with her "gift."  Geralt can either choose to tell her to calm down or can encourage her to vent her frustration by trashing the lab.  Choosing the "calm down" option means that Ciri becomes angry and storms out of the lab.

Geralt sadly contemplates Ciri's medallion.

I didn't think too much about the choices I made and was stunned when Ciri seemed to picture all these events in a negative fashion as she took on the White Frost.  Then, a brand new ending that I had never seen started to roll--Geralt is in Velen and he's looking for the last Crone.  A werewolf has offered to show him in exchange for Geralt's help in rescuing some wolf pups who are in danger from some local villagers.  Geralt finds the group of villagers and discovers that they've trapped the she-wolf and plan to kill her and the pups.  There's virtually no hesitation as he kills the peasants--it's brutal.  Then, the werewolf leads him to the swamp village where the Crones reside.  Weavess confronts Geralt and implies that Ciri is dead--tons of monsters swarm the area as the fight takes place.  Once Weavess is dead, Geralt frantically searches the village for the Wolf medallion that once belonged to Vesemir but that Ciri lost during her battle with the Crones.  He finds it and then sits and stares at it as tons of monsters swarm the village.  There's a strong indication that Ciri's death has caused him to lose his will to fight.

I felt so bummed by this ending that I contemplated reloading my save before the Isle of Mists.  Holy crap does that ending suck!  I decided against the re-load since 1.) there was probably a good 30-ish hours of stuff to re-do and 2.) I've experienced the other two endings plenty of times.  I guess it was worth the experience of finally getting to see all of the endings...but, like my renegade Mass Effect run...never again!