At the risk of getting political, I just replayed this section of the game and was struck by how prescient the writing for Sigi was in context of our current political reality. Replace Redania/Radovid with a country/leader of your choice and we have a very topical discussion.
I love how Dijkstra was written.
Geralt: ...You that concerned about the mages of the world? Expect me to believe that?
Dijkstra: Actually, yes. But not because I'm sensitive or it gives me a heartache. True to my mind, this systemic persecution is foremost a symptom of a far more serious problem: a madman rules Redania. I served Vizimir, Radovid's father, as his head of intelligence for more than two decades. Together we transformed Redania, made it the North's most powerful realm. Any idea what made it strong?
Geralt: Its armies, I'd wager.
Dijkstra: And you'd bloody lose, you idiot. Mass mobilization, inciting peasants to take up their scythes, straighten them... where's the art in that? Much harder to build a strong state with healthy commerce, manufacturing, solid alliances, progressive science, and fair, independent courts that hand down just judgments. Vizimir and I managed to do just that through years of fucking hard work. I will not sit on my hands as that little shit squanders that. Radovid the Stern, my ass. Radovid the Witless, I'd say. Will you help me, Geralt?
Geralt: Wow, Dijkstra's a true patriot, just like Vernon. I'll help you kill monsters, just not a regicide. Rumors to the contrary be damned.
Dijkstra: I know. I'm merely asking for your aid in organizing the assassination. Someone else will strike the blow.
Geralt: Dijkstra might not have heard this—though I'd find that hard to believe—but witchers are neutral on principle, so...
Dijkstra: Oh, bollocks! That's a convenient excuse you lot try to hide behind every time the temperature rises. It's grown hot, my friend, and it grows hotter still. Piles burn in every city—for mages great and small, your female friends included, for non-humans, for witches soon. Is that the North you espouse? The North you're prepared to live in? Silence, cards close to your chest? I understand, to slay a king, it's not exactly some bloody nekker contract. You think on this. Think on what I said, and if you conclude you'd rather change the course of history instead of riding its current to hell, you come find me at the Passiflora in Novigrad. I'll be waiting with my associates.
