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[DrunkShogun]

Olgierd being spared is the real punishment. I expect his ability to feel should return so he now has to live with the reality he killed his brother and ruined the life of the woman he apparently loved. Also trolling O'Dimm is always something I enjoy. Take that superior being.

 

[Mman235]

And, that is where people tend to not understand or where my point comes in. There is no true evil BUT human evil. Gaunter is the LITERAL personification of evil, he cannot be killed, he cannot be harmed, he cannot be banished. You can perhaps outsmart him once but you cannot make him go away forever. Why? Because evil exists within the heart's of men and so long as humans exist there will always be evil.

Willingly condeming someone to eternal torture is an act of the vilest evil way beyond anything Olgierd has done, and, by extension, is inherently feeding something like Gaunter.

 

[~Cross~]

But, Gaunter cannot be killed or even permanently banished.

And? Just because your actions dont have any finality to them doesn't mean you shouldn't do whats right in this case. Even if its just holding him back for a few years, you did an objectively good thing in doing so.

That's kind of the fascinating part of the choice at the end of the quest - do you defend the inherent evil or the evil by choice? Gaunter O'Dimm is evil incarnate, if not just straight up the devil himself (Witcher lore can be a little tricky in regards to actual devil imagery) and can't help but be evil because, hey, that's what he do.

Olgierd is evil by choice. We know that even at a young age he's pretty much a nobleman who likes to do bandit-level stuff. He talks about raiding and pillaging with Vlodomir when he was a teen. His relationship with Iris is the only redeeming part of his life, and every decision he makes once he falls in love with her is to selfishly keep that bond strong. The problem becomes the typical Faustian dilemma, where your wish is never really what you actually want.

It is a drowners nature to kill and eat people. Fiends and leshens are hyper protective of their territory, killing anyone that gets close to it. Just because its in their nature doesn't mean they shouldn't be stopped.

I also think Geralt is characterized just fine in the games. His "emotionless" and "neutral" spiel is just him deflecting. Geralt is a man-child with stunted interpersonal abilities, so whenever things get weird he deflects with one or the other.

 

[Back-In-Black]

And? Just because your actions dont have any finality to them doesn't mean you shouldn't do whats right in this case. Even if its just holding him back for a few years, you did an objectively good thing in doing so.

It is a drowners nature to kill and eat people. Fiends and leshens are hyper protective of their territory, killing anyone that gets close to it. Just because its in their nature doesn't mean they shouldn't be stopped....

I don't think there is an objectively right answer with regards to HoS. See, that's where I disagree and likely Grealt. He only kills monsters that hurt humans, if a Leshen or Drowner was out in the wild doing its thing away from humans I wouldn't seek to kill it even though I know it will attack anything that gets near it. Sometimes I feel sad wiping out these monsters who are usually only attacking because humans have encroached on their territory.

Olgierd is a right bastard and he deserves an eternity of punishment for his crimes. Letting him live lets him off to easy because he could always start pillaging and raping again.

 

[UpDownLeftRight]

CDPR messed up so bad releasing this expansion first. This one was soooooooo good. Better than anything in the game by a huge mile and as a result, I just didn't care for Blood and Wine. Good luck topping Gaunter/Von Beckham.

 

[Fantastapotamus]

Hearts of Stone made me realize that I'm not sure I need a "main plot" in a game. I'd be perfectly happy with a game full of "little" stories like Hearts of Stone.

 

[RustyNails]

Very few Witcher stories would take place if Geralt had a habit of giving up if he's up against something powerful.
Geralt has a history of taking risks to help cursed dudes who used to be bandits (he also has a history of banging bandits, but sadly there was no Sexy Ending in Hearts of Stone), I don't see what's so different about Olgierd that would make Geralt want to rob him of a chance at redemption and support a monster (in every sense of the word), especially by sitting back and enjoying the show. What is this, The Shitty Witcher 3: Lazy Hunt?!


This description doesn't fit Book Geralt one bit. Other characters from the novels describe Geralt as a compulsive hero, which is why half the time he works for free.
I can see how you could think that about Video Game Geralt, because CD Projekt Red did such a lousy job with Geralt's characterization (to this day gamers keep describing Geralt as incapable of showing emotions or quoting his made up Witcher code), but the OG Geralt? Nuh uh. Nope. No way.

Interesting. Can you give examples where Book Geralt and CDP Geralt differ? I thought everyone praised his characterization, including reviewers especially how CDP Geralt is apolitical and agnostic to things around him. That way user can make choices and make Geralt hpw they like: stoic bastard or someone more empathizing. For example, after the grand battle with Wild Hunt at Kaer Morhen mid way through the game, at

Spoiler

Vesemir's funeral

, Eskel says he will hit the road for the winter months. You can either say "I understand" or convince him to stay the winter at Kaer Morhen. In my first play, I said I understand, and in my second play I asked him to stay. Small things like these make the Geralt experience so good. It doesnt matter in the grand scheme of things but adds to his characterization. Screw Lambert though. Dude's a total ass.

 

[lome88]

CDPR messed up so bad releasing this expansion first. This one was soooooooo good. Better than anything in the game by a huge mile and as a result, I just didn't care for Blood and Wine. Good luck topping Gaunter/Von Beckham.

In terms of strength, yeah, Blood and Wine can't hold a candle to the story of Hearts of Stone. But it totally makes sense thematically to end with Toussaint and Geralt's last ride into the sunset. Everything in Blood and Wine is a love letter to the books, the games, and to the character of Geralt himself. Hearts and Stone being the LAST piece of game that we get from this universe would have left it on an incredibly sour note.

 

[Coriolanus]

Interesting. Can you give examples where Book Geralt and CDP Geralt differ? I thought everyone praised his characterization, including reviewers especially how CDP Geralt is apolitical and agnostic to things around him.

ymean the guy that started the second game as Foltest's personal bodyguard?

from what little i remember of w1, geralt also was balls deep in court intrigue there.

 

[John Kowalski]

merely showed us a reflection of Olgierd's true nature.

oh SHIT check them symbolism gat damn

 

[orthodoxy1095]

CDPR messed up so bad releasing this expansion first. This one was soooooooo good. Better than anything in the game by a huge mile and as a result, I just didn't care for Blood and Wine. Good luck topping Gaunter/Von Beckham.

I disagree. Blood and Wine is the perfect sendoff, HoS was a nice middle chapter.

 

[stn]

As someone who's playing HoS for the first time, your title is a spoiler to me. I don't mean to be rude or anything, just that you should consider editing the title.

 

[Aikidoka]

This is the game that tried to make a moral choice out of sparing Whoreson- easily one of the most idiotic quests I've ever played. I'm not sure why TW3 continually tries to give these choices for abusers - three off the top of my head: the Baron (iirc the game actually gives you like 3 chances to console him), Olgierd, and whoreson.

Blood and Wine finally gave a worthwhile "spar or not to spare" choice with the sister. It stands out because your choice has direct consequences. (At least for me it immediately resulted in the death for everybody.)

 

[olag]

This is the game that tried to make a moral choice out of sparing Whoreson- easily one of the most idiotic quests I've ever played. I'm not sure why TW3 continually tries to give these choices for abusers - three off the top of my head: the Baron (iirc the game actually gives you like 3 chances to console him), Olgierd, and whoreson.

Blood and Wine finally gave a worthwhile "spar or not to spare" choice with the sister. It stands out because your choice has direct consequences. (At least for me it immediately resulted in the death for everybody.)

I can sort of understand this sentiment for whoreson, however with both olgeird and the baron the motivations for their actions are understandably, human even.This doesnt excuse their actions but I can definitely see why someone would feel like showing mercy to the baron.

Thats why the bloody baron quest is considered by some as one of the best quests in recent RPG history.

 

[Back-In-Black]

This is the game that tried to make a moral choice out of sparing Whoreson- easily one of the most idiotic quests I've ever played. I'm not sure why TW3 continually tries to give these choices for abusers - three off the top of my head: the Baron (iirc the game actually gives you like 3 chances to console him), Olgierd, and whoreson.

Blood and Wine finally gave a worthwhile "spar or not to spare" choice with the sister. It stands out because your choice has direct consequences. (At least for me it immediately resulted in the death for everybody.)

I agree about Whoreson, but the Bloody Baron and Syanna in BW are much more nuanced and complex. I still never gave the Bloody Baron any sympathy, as far as I'm concerned there is no excuse for beating your wife no matter how hard of a sympathy tale you regale me with and I told him as much. Syanna I was more sympathetic towards but I never told her that her actions were justified and continually judged her. I got the "good" ending but I was still upset that she likely would live a good life with her sister accepting her back into the fold. As far as I'm concerned she deserves to be punished severely for her actions, but such is the way of royalty, they get to get away with large crimes because their status protects them. My Geralt just scoffed and moved on.

 

[Coriolanus]

Hrm. The bloody baron is a right bastard, but, the witcher universe being the way it is, is/was the least shit choice on the table. Made clear as soon as he goes away.

Same way that emhyr is quite the horrible creature, but... compared to radovid? gimme emhyr every day and twice on sundays. Coulda been Dijkstra if the bastard didn't decide to murder my boy Roche, but noooo.

 

[Back-In-Black]

Hrm. The bloody baron is a right bastard, but, the witcher universe being the way it is, is/was the least shit choice on the table. Made clear as soon as he goes away.

Same way that emhyr is quite the horrible creature, but... compared to radovid? gimme emhyr every day and twice on sundays. Coulda been Dijkstra if the bastard didn't decide to murder my boy Roche, but noooo.

I didn't notice too much difference after he left and/or hanged himself. His men kept relative order but were still right bastards both before and after his death. After all, the first group of his men we meet at an Inn as one of them regales how they raped a young boy or girl (he couldn't decide which it was). I proceeded to cut them to pieces after initially sparing them.

 

[HK-47]

Infinite punishment for finite crimes will never jive with me. There is no just deserts when you are dealing with that kind of imbalance.

 

[Psychoward]

Just finished, didn't save Olgierd because I figured Dimm would get him anyway and I could outsmart Dimm later. Turns out in true Witcher 3 fashion, they didn't relay the choices clearly enough and Dimm walked away without Geralt even being able to confront him.

That being said, Olgierd basically made his wife's life a living hell and didn't seem to have any remorse so I was gonna end him anyway probably.

Edit: yeah you can argue Dimm is worse because he's basically Lucifer and if I had given an option I would have tried to outsmart him but lol at Olgierd being "shades of grey", he's a terrible person no matter how you slice it and deserved to be jailed or killed.