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The one that I really struggled with was being forced to choose a trainer knowing whoever wasn't chosen would be killed.


Well, the trainers can settle that matter themselves by dueling. smile This of course means that you end up with Hermosa (who is the better choice with regard to gameplay mechanics anyway), because Kenneth is reluctant to fight her while she is not.

That said, the whole idea of "I won't fight a woman because our Dragonslayer codex forbids me to" is just one of the laziest pieces of writing in the entire game. Just seconds earlier, Kenneth bragged about having trained Commander Rhode - how is he supposed to have done that if he's not allowed to fight a woman? smile You can either be protected from danger or you can become a Dragonslayer - not both at once.

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Still not sure whether it was better to make the choice (especially nasty in the case of the weaponsmith which was couched pretty much as deserving vs. useful) or to leave it to the island to choose at random.


The weaponsmith only wins the competition because he is the one to set up the rules - Radcliffe suggests both should forge the best sword they can craft. Wesson however has told you before (since you usually meet him before Radcliffe) that he is an armoursmith in Aleroth, not a swordsmith. So had the task been for each of them two forge the best armour they can create, probably Wesson would have won.

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or to leave it to the island to choose at random.


Philosophically, there is no moral option here. Theoretically, if you get a suboptimal set of servants, picked at random by the island, your whole enterprise of saving Rivellon is at stake, possibly resulting in even more deaths.

When there is no morally correct choice available, there are only ethical choices left - meaning the lesser of two evils, specifically in this scenario: If four people have to die anyway, who is most deserving to live, in comparison - "deserving" hereby meaning "most useful for the greater good of saving Rivellon".

I agree the general concept of the game not giving you alternative options at certain decisive points of the plot is one of the main weaknesses of DKS: Even when you've played the game already and know some things are stupid, you still can't prevent your character from doing them because your main quest demands you to.

That said, I do find it quite in-flavour that, if you have to make such a life-or-death choice at some point in time in the game anyway, that it's enforced by an entity representing nature - in this case, the spirit of the Island. It makes sense for her to think in harsh terms of natural selection, even when it wouldn't be strictly necessary.

Effectively, anyone you don't choose as your servant dies anyway, because as we know Damian covers the whole ground of Sentinel Island in poisonous fog shortly afterwards, so... wink