misho8723 Lots of both trans women , non binary people and intersex such as myself have a problem with Elihal's writing it has beenn discussed in articles to death already . The writing is problematic for several reasons and it often (but not only ) boils down to the following:
to make a long story short is Elihal just a crossdresser , or a transwoman , or a non binary person or intersex . And the writing of the dialogues want you to fill in the gaps by straight up dodging the question altogether .
That and other moments of the dialogues between Geralt and Elihal where it's Geralts lines that are called into question .
If you want a full breakdown coming from each side there are articles out there . So yes Elihal was poorly handled .
Can you link some articles about this? I want to read about this issue because to this day I only read praises about the hunter in the game, which was outcast out of his village because he loved a man who was killed (son of a rich villager? I hope I remember this right) and about Elihal.. I mean what question about him do you want to be answered? Because he says that he just likes to dress as a woman, so you know from that who he is and even then, Geralt only said to him that he isn't someone who he was expecting to be, because from the books and games we know that Dandelion sleeps only with women and Elihal is mentioned in a paper where Dandelion's recent lovers should be and this is probably the first time in Geralt's life that he encounter some crossdresser - apart from theater actors and such - and that's why he acts at first so awkward (but doesn't joke about his crossdressing, judges him or laughs at him or anything in that sort) and after the answer that Elihal gives to Geralt, Geralt basically only wants to know what happened to Dandelion.. Geralt never asks something really privat if that doesn't have directly to do with his tasks or his contracts.. did you wanted him to refer to himself non-binary? I didn't even knew about the backstory of the homosexual hunter, because if you choose a different question when you are with him, he doesn't even mentions why he lives so far from the village and what happened to him.. and I mean, that's great.. I didn't know him as "that gay hunter" but as a hunter - people are always talking about that that your sexuality, sexual preferences, gender, etc. shouldn't determine your character, shouldn't be your specifics.. so there it is.. but on the other hand, most people know him because he is probably the only gay character in the game, so..
I found only one article that refers to Elihal and his encounter with Geralt and it says this:
"Things get a bit more interesting when you locate Elihal, which to your confusion is a male elven tailor who owns and operates his own shop. Geralt mentions that he was expecting one of Dandelion's girlfriends, to which Elihal tells Geralt to wait as he leaves and returns… dressed as a woman. Turns out Elihal is a cross-dresser who likes to take on alternate personas for the thrill of it."
"Needless to say, this is quite the twist and goes against your expectations. While wisely not played for flagrant laughs, it does throw Geralt off guard, and the humor comes from his subtly awkward reaction.
Should you choose to, he clumsily pries into how the two met, which makes for an amusing anecdote. It's a surprise turn that isn't treated as a huge deal, being equal parts delicate and funny, which is the best possible way it could've been handled."
Some people have problem with his dialog option, that is something the lines of "Ok, but I don't need to hear the rest" (about what Elihal and Dandelion did after their long conversation) and that that's out of character for Geralt.. really? He has basically the same response as with anyone who want to talk about sex with him (maybe apart from Yennefer, yet even with her he isn't in his shoes when it comes to this things) - he has even in the main game some scenes where someone wants to go into details about something sexual, and Geralt is "Yeah, yeah, enough.. I know too much details already"
And this is an pretty interesting article about Mislav, the hunter:
Mislav the Hunter: How The Witcher 3 Handles Diversity
But as I said before, if you have some links to those articles and can please send them to me I would be very thankful :)
