Is Geralt of Rivia a Mary Sue?

To me, the thing that keeps him from feeling like a Gary Stu is actually the fact that he's perceived as larger-than-life in the setting itself. Right from the first game, you hear about "Geralt of Rivia, the White Wolf". The greatest swordsman in the Northern Kingdowms. Beloved by the most powerful and fickle and beautiful women in the world. Rescuer of princesses. Hero of song and legend.

Except Geralt doesn't live up to any of that, at any point. He's easily overwhelmed by a handful of bandits if he isn't careful. He spends most of the story running errands for weirdos and creeps, wading through sewers and swamps and cemeteries fighting things he constantly has to prepare and ingest disgusting poisons to even have a chance against, collecting scars with every contract.

The only princess he rescues almost kills him in the process, and grows up to be a spoiled, spiteful bitch who marries a psychopath if he doesn't have to put her down first.

He has no power or standing, and gets no respect in daily life. People thumb their noses at him all the time and all he can do is shrug and look for other employers. He's constantly manipulated and used for other people's purposes, and his usual recourse when faced with complicated scenarios - hacking his way out - always leaves collateral damage to stain his conscience even though he was manipulated into that position in the first place.

And epic romances worthy of song my ass. His relationships are all clumsy and dysfunctional somehow and fraught with tension because the women he falls for are all too smart and determined for him to keep up with them. He spends most of his time walking around like a beaten dog, moody and miserable and feeling unworthy of affection.

...Until an angry racist stablehand stabs him in the back with a pitchfork. And he dies.

Yay.


Heh, that was pretty much my strategy too, once upon a time. It's hard to "get good" at a game if you don't have loads of time to consistently invest in it, or you're so busy with all kinds of different genres that getting bogged down in some of the more intense mechanics of one game just interrupts your fun, so turning down all the difficulty sliders and enabling cheat codes or whatever lets you immerse yourself when you want to without having to worry about all that.

After years playing and replaying all our favorite RPGs like that I started experimenting though. It turned out that turning the difficulty up to max and throwing myself into having to plan and strategize made me more invested in the stories, because the worlds they inhabited suddenly actually seemed dangerous and difficult, making the characters' woes and fears ring truer and more worthy of my efforts. 

Suddenly the darkspawn truly seemed savage and bloodthirsty horrors, and the Geth Snipers became terrifying cold killers, and Krogan mercenaries turned into powder kegs that would tear me apart if I got too close, and needed to be put down fast and hard. And barghests and graviers and fleders and kikimore warriors all needed such diverse tactics and preparations that every victory became a real triumph of Geralt's training and ingenuity.

And yeah, the alchemy system really, really shines in 1. I'll be interested to see if it performs equally well in 2 if you keep investing in it. Thinking about it, the Geralt who will gracefully cut my head off isn't nearly as scary as the one who will do the exact same thing... after blinding, stunning, poisoning and laying me flat on my back while setting me on fire to keep me out of the way while he deals with my friends. And I want my witchers scary.