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Whatever way you take there.. something will always not feel right about it.
Plus he tried to convince you that a Scoia'tael archer had a itchy finger and fired the arrow ?
Nah if you know anything about the Scoia'tael they know how to use a bow and efficiently
This one bothered me too. It seems designed to force a moral dilemma on you, but in the process jarringly breaks Gerald's character, as the otherwise incredibly perceptive, nuanced and inquisitive witcher who picks up on everything and thoroughly explores every possible avenue when it comes to murky situations is now reduced to an obtuse uninterested judge who acts blindly based on preconceived notions or so as to not offend his friend.
It would be fine if the game let you handle and interpret information you found, instead of Geralt doing that with a monologue, with later consequences illuminating how informed your judgement was. Regrettably, there is scant information to be gathered, with Geralt not bothering to inquire too deeply.
The moral question posed seems to be whether someone who is genuinely trying to do good should be spared regardless of having committed monstrous deeds in the past.
If your answer is no, then the rest is irrelevant anyway. If it is yes, then the question, which is the crucial question in this case, is whether the change in the man is genuine. It would be quite easy to at least determine whether Karadin is currently a slaver by inspecting his ship / talking to his crew. Do they seem like regular seamen running a merchant ship or scumbag roughs used to beating slaves into line? Are there traces of human cargo on the deck someone with witcher senses could pick up on? Are there shades of the dead Kiera's lamp could show on the deck?
It would be amazing if the game let you do this unprompted (and ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ I sure tried, and as far as I could tell there's nothing in any of the ships docked in Novigrad). Obviously if he's a slaver he's scum, despite donating to the orphanage where four of my kids happen to be.
If he turned out to be a legitimate merchant, there would still be a number of highly interesting things that would seem unavoidable for Geralt to ask when you meet him.
For example, since both Karadin and Aiden were of the School of the Cat, did they know each other? All the witchers from the Wolf School have known each other for decades at least, and new witchers cannot be created there anymore. Assuming it's the same in the other schools,
it seems impossible they would not be acquainted. What was their history, any grudges or unfinished scores there? Even if he didn't know him personally, why would Karadin accept a collection job on a fellow witcher of the same school?
Then, there is the most important question, since Karadin attempts to paint the killing of Aiden as an accident as opposed to a planned killing: What did Karadin expect would happen when he demanded a witcher's swords, that he would meekly give them up?
These questions seem a tad more relevant to Karadin's character than "Nice house." and "Does your wife know?"
Since we can't unhandicap the Geralt who seems to have been intellectually and perceptually stunted for this quest, all we have is what the game provides us with.
And what is there does not look good for Karadin.
Firstly, the literal looks - nothing about his demeanor feels genuine. His arrogantly sanctimonious way of speaking makes you expect he'll claim to have found God at any moment, which he kind of does when he says his wife prays for him. He flaunts first his adoptive family, then his charity donations in your face. A real pillar of the community.
Secondly, the implications. He says he deeply regrets all the others he killed, implying he killed innocents, as one would assume if they weren't he'd use that to justify the killings, as he does try to mitigate his guilt in the killing of Aiden. If the ones he killed in some way deserved it, his "deepest regret" doesn't make much sense.
He associated with Hammond, who we know was murderous pirate scum, which doesn't say much good about Karadin. Selyse apparently accuses him of being a slaver, which is quite a specific allegation. Why would she lie about something easily disprovable? He also seems to be making an unlikely fortune with his "flair for commerce" for being involved in legitimate trade.
Lastly, his version of the killing of Aiden is full of contradictions and makes little sense.
He first claims Aiden attacked them and they had to kill him, then says Vienne panicked and hit him in the eye with an arrow, kind of by accident. So which one is it?
He says Aiden took payment for a contract and then bungled it, keeping the money. How many times does Geralt get paid in advance for any contract, be it from a peasant collection or some rich nobleman? Never. Except on the rat removal job with Triss, where he finds the advance payment extremely suspect, and is proven right in the assumption. Since the game goes out of its way to make a point about advance payments not being a thing, Karadin's story does not seem believable.
The accusation about the bungled job is suspect in itself, as Lambert describes Aiden as quite the capable witcher, with whom he completed a fair number of contracts. The brash, hotheaded and abrasive Lambert does not seem the type to befriend and laud to high heavens a bungling incompetent fool. Quite the opposite; if anything, the things Lambert would appreciate in someone would be capability and skill.
So, what really happened with Aiden and Karadin?
Lambert claims Aiden was a decent guy, despite being from the infamous School of the Cat, which tends to bring about hired killers. For someone who spent tens of winters with the likes of Geralt and Vesemir, and the rest wandering the world, one would think Lambert would have a fair feel for the nature of people.
Even if we give no credence to Lambert's assessment and assume him to be a lousy judge of character, he would have no reason to lie about him and Aiden having done many jobs together. This is telling, as assassinations of people should be much easier and better paid than the hunting of deadly monsters for a couple of orens. Why would he waste his time doing dangerous miserably paid work with Lambert when he could be on the lookout for lucrative assassinations? One can only assume that Aiden had no desire to be a paid assassin.
For Keridan, it seems completely implausible that he would take on the job of collecting debts from a witcher. There is hardly anything more deadly than a witcher, and risking a fight with one for a fraction of a typically lousy payment does not seem a sensible risk/reward calculation for someone with such a flair for commerce.
This is to say nothing of the ludicrous notion of demanding his swords, which would practically force a fight. It is believable that those who think themselves skilled fighters and know nothing of witchers, or believe tales of their speed and prowess to be exaggeration or myth, would foolishly seek to provoke a fight with one. Keridan, being a witcher himself, would know better.
Keridan did not seek out Aiden to collect any debt. The greatest and only real thing of value for Keridan that Aiden had was that he was a skilled and deadly witcher. Keridan knew him as they were of the same school, and sought to recruit him into his gang of killers. Aiden, not wanting to be a paid killer, refused. Keridan insisted. Things turned violent, and Vienne shot Aiden in the eye, probably on Keridan's signal.
Where does this leave us with our choice?
Keridan is lying through his teeth about Aiden. He is, or until recently has been, involved in slave trade. At best he's a superficially legitimate merchant now, but it would seem he always has been a merchant. The only thing that changed is that he can now afford not to trade in risky things like killings and slaves. His circumstances may have changed; the man hasn't.
Let Lambert slice him up.
I like the idea behind this argument, but comparing whatever Geralt has to deal with during contracts doesn't seem applicable to me.
During the mission where you meet another Cat School Witcher, "Where Wolf and Cat play" or something like that, the Cat school witcher you meet has killed a village of peasants because they tried to to kill him so as not needing to pay him for the Leshen he killed.
How much was he supposed to get paid? 12 Crowns. That is less than a tenth of what Geralt gets for similar contracts. So comparing Gameplay mechanics and story elements doesn't really work in my opinion.
And why is Vienne drinking herself into an early grave. Seems to me like she has regrets about something, which makes it more likely that she actually ♥♥♥♥♥♥ up.
About Aiden having ♥♥♥♥♥♥ up the Contract:
That could mean a range of things, from him not being able to properly fulfill the contract, not fulfilling it in the way the contract issuer intended, or maybe just falling victim to court intrique, like what happened to Geralt with Foltest's daughter.
But overall, I think your argument still holds true.
Thank you both for such absolutely excellent posts & dissections of this quest and all the surrounding information. So well written and concise, I had to speak up and say thank you even though your comments are from a year ago. Looks like someone else already recently necro'd this thread anyways, so whatever.
I'm playing through TW3 yet again, and just got to this quest. In the past, I have never really known how to handle this quest. But after reading both of your posts, I no longer have any doubt whatsoever, this man truly deserves to die.
Thanks guys.
Thank you! :D