#this is a bit disjointed but i'm too lazy to polish it to a shine so i'm just gonna dump this in the tags and run

[kenobihater]

On Lambert and Power Structures

Disclaimer that parts of this are speculative and up to interpretation. Everyone's entitled to their own opinions etc. etc., it's just I read a fic a while back that was SO out of character in my eyes that I needed to sit down, figure out, and type up what my views on Lambert and power structures actually are.

Lambert is above all things pragmatic, and because of that I do not view him as trusting very easily considering the shitty world he lives in. It just doesn't make sense to trust very many people when you've been burned before, and boy oh BOY has Lambert ever been burned! Because of that, it's only logical for him to not be overly trusting of others, and it makes even less sense for Lambert to trust institutions, which can lack the sense of morality or the code of ethics that a person might have considering they aren't people, but structures.

Institutions (whether the underworld, the gov't, the Church, or the witcher schools) consolidate power in a way that is virtually impossible for a single individual to replicate. This consolidated power is in the hands of flawed people, and oftentimes in the world of TW3, the flaws run deep. Whether those in charge crave influence, order, or wealth, it often leads to an abuse of power or some form of immorality in order to achieve their goals (e.g. almost everything the crime bosses do, both Radovid and the Church scapegoating mages and nonhumans, and all the ways the witcher schools hurt their trainees).

Another reason I think Lambert would be hesitant to trust power structures is that these institutions that exist can also take on a life of their own, meaning he couldn't just cut the head off the snake if the institution is corrupt and expect everything to fall apart immediately like he could with a single individual or even a small group (Karadin's band, for example). Yes, there are influential representatives for each individual power structure that are important to ensure they retain power (the crime bosses, the monarchs, the Hierarch, or the mages and instructors for the witchers), but when said individuals are killed or deposed, the power structure itself often endures in one form or another, even if it's diminished. That is, unless the entire power structure is taken in one fell swoop, as happened in the Sacking of Kaer Morhen. Not all of the wolves died, but enough important cogs in the machine were killed that the metaphorical wheels could no longer turn and the process of creating new wolf witchers was ended.

Lambert is likely familiar with how corrupt the underworld, the governments, and the Church are, though we get no information on his views on these structures. The easiest way to extrapolate his thoughts on institutions as a whole is to look at how he views his school. Lambert is painfully aware of the bloody history of the Wolf School, of how it as a power structure perpetuated a cycle of abuse by subjecting trainees to violence and death, and encouraged them to bring back more boys while out on the Path to traumatize in turn for the greater good of the Continent. Witchers serve an important role, a fact Lambert is undoubtedly aware of. That doesn't justify the abuse, experimentation, and senseless deaths that countless children were subjected to. Those two facts can, and should, co-exist.

Lambert is not the kind of man who would want to reinstate the power structure of the witcher schools. The way I read Lambert, he would NEVER sacrifice the well-being of children in order to ensure some country bumpkin doesn't die by drowner. He just wouldn't. He hates the legacy of his school, as evidenced by the many, many times he tells us in game. For example, at the beginning of The Final Trial, he comments to Geralt that he wishes the Salamandra assassins had torn down the rest of Kaer Morhen, the closest thing he has left to a home. If he's willing to give up the safety that Kaer Morhen provides him and his brothers during the harsh winter months just so the school can symbolically end, he must truly despise the place. Another example from the same quest is when he reminds Geralt that not everyone made it through the Trials, that many died, and that they were also taken against their will. Finally, when he learns that Yen is going to perform the Trial of the Grasses on Uma, he reacts with enraged disbelief, and a few lines later he clearly states that the secrets of their school have been forgotten, and that's how he thinks they should stay.

All of these bits of dialogue from Lambert add up to the indisputable fact of his view on his school as a whole: that the systemic violence and cruelty that young children were exposed to far, far outweighs any good the school may have caused by existing. The Wolf School ending is the lesser evil in Lambert's mind. Taking his opinion on his own school and the systemic violence it enacted into account, I'd be willing to bet he doesn't like the underworld, the governments, or the Church, either, considering they also often use their power to enact violence and oppression onto people.

I think Lambert can be a tough nut to crack characterization wise, but to ignore both his canon views on his school and his possible opinions on power structures as a whole that are discernible from said canon views does a great disservice to him as a multifaceted character and undermines the way his worldview was immutably shaped by his trauma. Thank you for coming to my TED talk <3