Oh-oh-oh-oh Olgierd!

A while back I wrote about how I decided to play The Witcher 3 for the fourteenth time (that's a bit of an exaggeration, but it's definitely more than I should have played it).  Throughout my current game I have tried to make some choices that are slightly different than the choices in my previous games.  I've managed to discover a few fun moments that I had missed in the previous games  For example, I decided to ride around the map a bit in Velen before I started completing quests.  I met an NPC on the road who was hauling a wagon full of corpses and being attacked by a pack of ghouls.  After you rescue him from the ghouls he reveals that he is hauling plague corpses.  Geralt, of course, informs him that this is most likely a bad choice and advises him to burn the cart where it currently stands and run the heck away.  Later on you run into the guy and he's not doing so well.  I've never had that encounter before.  I also discovered that you can rescue a mage who you witness being burned at the stake.  He's the douchey one from the party with Triss so you might decide that it's better for him to be barbequed.  You'll have to fight off a large retinue of guards, so be prepared.

Olgierd von Everec

But I didn't want to actually write about any of that...too late now, I suppose.  I've reached the point in my current game where I am venturing into the realm of the two DLC's.  The map has unfurled and I am venturing out to the northern part of the Novigrad/Velen map.  The main questline has introduced me to one of the characters who I have to admit that I really enjoy--Olgierd von Everec.

Olgierd is another great example of the amazingly well-written characters in The Witcher 3.  When Geralt first encounters him he seems oddly likable.  He's a bit of a rogue, but the kind of charming rogue that you'd want to follow.  As the story in Heart of Stone gets more complicated he becomes much harder to like.  What kind of idiot chooses his own pride over true love?  The kind of idiot that is Olgierd.

I've said it before, but I'll say it again--CD Projekt Red has some phenomenal writers who know how to make amazing characters.  I love the characters in The Witcher 3 because they are complex, relatable, and more human-like than those in other games.  There are so very few characters that you can chalk up as simply "good" or "bad" and they all have their share of flaws.  I've written about the Bloody Baron (now I can't find it) and how he's another one of those great characters.

One of my different Olgierd experiences from previous games was that I decided to fight him to save the life of a guy that his lackeys were going to kill.  In the past I've just had Geralt weakly argue and allowed the poor NPC to get his head lopped off.  I've been playing on the "Death March" difficulty and fighting Olgierd took about thirty minutes of dodging and hacking (he's very resilient and hits hard).  I have to say I enjoy the end of the fight and the scene where Olgierd's immortality is revealed much more than the option where the manor lady stabs him.  If you opt to fight and then defeat Olgierd, Geralt stabs him and then goes for the full decapitation.  Olgierd's head tips off his body at an awkward angle and then he just does this sort of ironic clap as it's revealed that he can't be killed.

Go back and play it.  You'll find Olgierd to be the same lovable yet hateable rogue that he was the first time you played.