Sigimund Dijkstra *Spoilers ahead*

[Xanatos]

I know Sigimund was a bastard but I felt bad having to kill him after her turned against Vernon and Ves. He was one of my favourite characters in the game. His quick wit and sarcasm was a joy to encounter.

[bgray9054]

Ya, that quest was poorly written, IMO. Very out of character for Dijkstra - he is INCREDIBLY intelligent (read the books if you haven't) and would never have done that - he would never try to do something like that with Geralt around - he would know Geralt would not tolerate him trying to kill his friends and think Geralt would just walk away (lol).

[every1hasnames]

I expected someone to do something. And Dijkstra was one of the ones i suspected would be the one to.


His speech to Geralt after you say good bye to triss which leads to the quest of ssassinating radovid. Tht speech he made firmly put it in my mind that He really isnt the kind of guy that would fully accept the terms of the agreement.

Like buzzardbee said what the agreement basically does is give leave redania open to an attack which would likely automatically mean Redania falls to Emyhr.


To be perfectly frank the agreement the three set up had little to no advantage to redania. Therefore If dijkstra had any intentions of protecting the country he was help leading in the past. Or in the actual case become its leader. He would have very little choice but to go against the agreement.

But Dijkstra is not dumb. Part of the agreement is Radovids death. Which favors dijkstra. He only chose to go along with the agreement until radovid was dead.


And btw there was no way he could go against the agreement and the other two just let him.


There was always going to be a fight. Some one was going to kill the others.


Either dijskstra tries to kill the others when he has the advantage or the others try to kill dijkstra to keep the agreement intact.


If Geralt wasnt their. I actually give Dijkstra more odds of succeeding.

[bgray9054]

I don't take issue with Dijkstra fighting for Redania, that's not the point - the point is being stupid isn't consistent with his character, in the books or in the games. He would not have gone ahead with plans to attempt to kill friends of Geralt's like Ves & Roche with Geralt alive, much less standing right there. A plan like that would result in about a 99.9% chance of Dijkstra getting sliced to pieces - Geralt had already broken his ankle in the books when Dijkstra got in his way. Just out of character for him to do something that meant almost certain death.

[bgray9054]

I don't disagree with all the details you're providing on the plan, but IMO they are completely irrelevant - I'm not saying wanting to save Redania was bad or dumb or unlikely, or anything of the sort - what I am saying is that any plan that included killing friends of Geralt of Rivia is just not something Dijkstra would have done because of the ludicrously high probability that it would result in his own death - he's simply too intelligent to do something so over-the-top stupid. I just think the storywriters could have done a better job with this quest.

[bgray9054]

Originally posted by BuzzardBee:

But having Dijkstra be willing to kill Roche, Ves and Thaler to further his own cause is not stupid. It's the smartest move he could make. He was confident that he and his men could kill all three

You hit on the part here that I think is just idiotic on an epic scale - Dijkstra knows Geralt. He knows his combat capabilities as well as what he generally will go along with and what he won't. IMO he would have never bet on himself and his men being able to take on Geralt of Rivia without a battalion of soldiers in full plate armor with cavalry and archers behind them, lol. I just consider his intelligence level above making such a poorly calculated move.

[bgray9054]

Originally posted by BuzzardBee:

Capturing a sorceress such as Philippa then might also have been deemed stupid considering the smart move would have been to kill her outright when he had the chance rather than just blinding her, wouldn't you say?

Even highly intelligent people do make mistakes. That happens often from overthinking things as much as from making stupid choices. Perhaps even underestimating your opponent. He was counting on Geralt not wanting to get involved since he was already reluctant to become part of the conspiracy to kill Radovid to begin with. It may have just turned far too messy for him that walking away might have seemed like a good idea at the time. At least that might have been Dijkstra's reasoning.

So, like I said, it might not have been a stupid decision on his part, just an ill-conceived one.

Absolutely - attempting to capture Philippa was also not a good idea although not quite to the degree of stupidity as trying to kill Geralt's friends in front of him and thinking he wouldn't defend them because at least Philippa was blinded at the time when Dijkstra was trying to capture - I think that mistake is a little more forgivable.

It's just, to me, something that's just so completely out of character that I actually roll my eyes when I get to that point in the story. There's a couple quests in the game that are like that and I've seen threads on CDPR's forums about them, too, so they seem to be common ones that people are just like "wut?" :)

[every1hasnames]

Your thinking because of his intelligence he wouldnt have tried to kill them because he knows Geralt is their and he "knows he wouldnt stand a chance" against Geralt.

But your forgetting intelligence may also be the reason why he did it anyways.


Look at the situation Radovid was just killed. The group meets up. Nobody has a clue Dijstra was going to betray them.

dijkstra has the advantage of surprise. He has all the people that would go against his plan at one place. Unaware of his intentions. NOt only that he has their trust. Mayhap not full trust but at the very least he has enough of their trust that they didnt beleive nor think he was going to do what he did.

In a strategic point of view this would qualify as one of the best chances he could possibly have to fullfil his plan to kill them. If he had waited. Roche ves and thaler would 1 have more time to figure out his plan against them. Roche and Ves are experienced soldiers. Killing them while knowing he is trying to kill him while i would be more difficult as they have soldiers of their own.

Thaler would just dissapear. He is a spy after all and knows enough to keep himself safe and hidden from djkstras men.

All the while roche ves and thaler would ensure the agreement with emrh goes through.

Remember The agreement is for Temeria. In order for the agreement to be stopped Djkstra has to make sure Roche Ves thaler and anyone else does not ensure its completion.

In other words he has to kill them.

Because if their messenger who is delivering the signed agreement is killed. Guess what they would just send another one.

Djkstra has to kill them.

this would qualify as a really good chance to. IF IT WASNT FOR GERALT.


Now intelligence is not the only thing that motivates people to do something or not do something.


Their are other factors that would do the same thing.

For example bravery or cowardice.


Past events shows even though djskstra knows of geralts abilities. He has shown that he isnt afraid of him Atleast not enough to stop him from trying to stand against him. Evidence is when you go to get phillipa from him.


Depending on your choices Djkstra does attempt to stand in your way in hopes to keep phillipa. IN which yes he does get his leg broken again. But he does stand in Geralts way. He does try to stop geralt from getting phillipa.


My point is your assuming because geralt is their it would be idiotic for Djkstra and because of his intelligence he wouldnt have attacked when he was their.


He has proved otherwise. He has shown in the game that regardless of Geralts abilities. Djkstra will still try to stand against geralt.



So yeah I dont find it out of his character at all.


Also ask yourself this 1 question. If someone was trying to do something that would cause your hometown to be destroyed. You know you cant stop them kill them or any of the sort. You know if you tried you would at the least get your butt beaten at the worst killed.


Would you do nothing? just chalk it up to guess my hometown is going to get destroyed?

[bgray9054]

Originally posted by every1hasnames:

Snip (For space saving)

I fully understand your case, just as I understand what BB was saying earlier in the thread - what I cannot get past is that Sigismund Dijkstra KNOWS that chances are better than not that Geralt of Rivia will not let him betray and murder his friends in Ves & Roche who have helped him quite a bit over the years and that if it turns into a fight, Geralt of Rivia will friggin' slaughter him and 10 of his chump soldiers and won't even break a sweat doing it. That's why I think it's stupid to do what he did. I'm not saying I have a proposed solution for how the quest should have gone, only that the way it was written, IMO, does not fit Dijkstra's character as far as the intelligence level he demonstrates in the lore. He would have come up with a far better plan than this.

It would have been more believable if Dijkstra had marched in about 100 soldiers and had them all surrounded and then pulled the move. But with what he had...no way, no how.

[every1hasnames]

It would be really good if he had a whole army as well. But he doesnt. Anyhoo your free to your opinion.

But in my opinion it wasnt out of his character.

Bye now.

[bgray9054]

Originally posted by every1hasnames:

It would be really good if he had a whole army as well. But he doesnt. Anyhoo your free to your opinion.

But in my opinion it wasnt out of his character.

Bye now.

Yep never anything wrong with agreeing to disagree. Happy gaming, brother.

[Xanatos]

I enjoyed reading all these comments. Sometimes I didn't pay attention to the details in certain quests and now I see that Dijkstra was not as bad as I thought. If it came down to a choice between betraying recently acquired allies and risking death for the sake of protecting his much loved home town Redania from Emhyr's grasp I could relate to this. The execution could have been a bit better I'll admit but seeing this quest generated different opinions and mindsets in each player CDPR must've somewhat known what they were doing.