https://doi.org/10.67147/literariness.v1i4.022
Slow Violence in Crookback Bog: Dark Ecology and Environmental Memory in The Witcher 3
DR SHARADA DEVI V
Assistant Professor
Department of English
University College
Thiruvananthapuram
drsharadadevi@universitycollege.ac.in
LEKSHMI S MOHANAN
2nd year MA English Student
University College
Thiruvananthapuram
lekshmismohanan2002@gmail.com
Abstract: As powerful sites of environmental storytelling, video games offer interactive narratives that shape ecological consciousness. Existing studies tend to neglect how narrative-driven games construct irreparable environmental damage. Timothy Morton’s dark ecology and Rob Nixon’s notion of slow violence, which have garnered significant popularity in literary and environmental humanities, remain underexplored in studies of gaming narratives and the ethical/political dimensions of player choices. This paper contends that The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt employs its interactive narrative structure and ethically complex characters to enact a form of dark ecology, teaching players that irrevocably broken systems cannot be perfectly restored. This research draws on Lawrence Buell’s concept of environmental memory, Rob Nixon’s concept of slow violence, and Timothy Morton’s concept of dark ecology to examine two significant narrative arcs—the Crookback Bog sequence and the Whispering Hillock quest—in a no-commentary walkthrough video. It emphasises how the game’s user interaction distinguishes interactive gaming tales from passive ecological texts. This study seeks to (1) show how choice-driven quest structures in gaming narratives embed ecological ambiguity; (2) illustrate the refusal of environmental restoration as an interactive pedagogy of climate grief; and (3) broaden ecocriticism to encompass the procedural and participatory nature of digital storytelling.
Keywords: Dark Ecology, Slow Violence, The Witcher 3, Gaming Narratives, Interactivity
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