There’s so much to love about The Witcher, but Doug Cockle really is the cherry on top. He’s just a very nice lad, and quite the character even when he’s not portraying the monster-hunting grump. Ever since CD Projekt revealed that Ciri would be The Witcher 4’s protagonist, he’s also been incredibly supportive, even though it means he’s (partially) out of a gig.
He’s gone to bat for Ciri again in a recent Fall Damage video (cheers VG247), where you can also see him reacting to memes, player reviews and tweets, while also educating gamers on matters of the heart.
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At 1:24, he reads a tweet posted during The Game Awards reveal, bemoaning the “entire Game Awards chat spamming ‘woke’ because the Witcher 4 has you playing as Ciri”.
“It’s not woke,” he says. “There’s nothing woke about it. It’s a cool character from The Witcher and they’re going to focus on that character. I think that’s awesome. We can’t just have Geralt for every single game for The Witcher ad nauseum out through eternity. Besides, we’ve seen the end of Geralt’s journey. Blood and Wine was supposed to wrap up Geralt’s journey. I celebrate Ciri; I celebrate her being the protagonist.”
Cockle goes on to advise the impotent Ciri-haters to read the books. “If you read the books, then you understand why CD Projekt went down this avenue—there’s a whole rich world of stuff to explore with Ciri that they didn’t do when they put her into The Witcher 3 because the story was about Geralt. But she hints at it. If you think it’s woke, read the damn books. They’re good, first of all. And secondly, you won’t think it’s so woke anymore.”
Unsurprisingly, I completely agree with Cockle, though I am so incredibly tired of “woke” still being this pejorative spat about by the most unimaginative, toothless nerds. It simply means you’re aware of injustice and bigotry. It’s like the absolute bare minimum for not being an ignorant muppet. So we should celebrate accusations of wokeness. It’s a lovely (if accidental) compliment.
Granted a female protagonist isn’t woke, because acknowledging the mere existence of 50% of humanity is a million miles away from being alert to systemic injustice.
Anyway! While I’m really looking forward to playing as Ciri, who’s a flipping badass, I still hope we’ll hear more of Cockle’s voice and see more of Geralt down the line, as more than just a cameo. Cockle’s just such a great performer, and Geralt’s a beloved character for good reasons.
You also may have noticed that it’s The Witcher 3’s 10th anniversary. And since we’re still utterly obsessed with one of the best RPGs ever made, we’ve been celebrating the milestone with videos, features and interviews. I look forward to doing the same in another 10 years (as a corpse, naturally).
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