Avallac'h: The Most Misunderstood Witcher Character
A Character Study
I feel people have wrongly judged him for someone that we only get for ONE chapter and a small cameo from Geralt and one other prospective so I would like to speak on my prospective of Avallac'h as a character.
Starting out it is interesting to me that whenever he speaks of Ciri having the promised child he seems to shut down. Right off the bat that sounds to me like dissociation. Not nefarious evil.
But notice that when Ciri insults Auberon this is the first time his face changes. Why? He says this is her 'only chance to be free' and his face goes back to that blank, stone look once he returns to the subject of a child. Only chance to be free? Hmm...
"You don't know what you mean." He says. And then he runs away from her. He says this more than once. "You don't know what you mean." "You don't know what you're talking about."
Or in another translation "You don't know what you're risking."
So, what does this all mean? Well as it turns out Auberon has the answer.
The King claims that Ciri is there selfishly so she doesn't have to experience Avallac'h's lab, but Avallac'h never once told her that his lab was an option. She doesn't even KNOW there is an alternative.
"If it isn't me, it will be Avallac'h and his lab.""You cannot even imagine what it would mean for you to go there." And Avallac'h doesn't want to do that to her. He doesn't want to use his lab. So, in his own strange way Avallac'h is trying to protect or save Ciri from this horror.
Again, back to this line.
"You don't know what you mean." "You don't know what you're talking about."
Avallac'h does NOT want to use his lab on her. He is doing everything within his power to avoid it.
Why? He must genuinely care about her in some way. We don't know the reasoning that he does. Does Ciri remind him of Lara? Or is he doing this out of duty to Lara to protect her child? Because no matter what anyone says Avallac'h clearly wholeheartedly loved Lara and Ciri as he states is a part of Lara.
Whatever it maybe he does care about Ciri, or he would have taken her straight to his lab in the first place.
I don't think Avallac'h actually wanted any of this for Ciri at all, but he thought that her sleeping with the King was the only way he could preserve her life.
This is after Ciri has pissed off Auberon and the alternative must be Ava's lab. The walls of the palace have ears. Avallac'h must know and he has mysteriously disappeared.
So, what happens next?
The King is dead. Poisoned.
People claim Eredin, but Eredin was surprised. He had no idea. So, who else does that leave us with?
Avallac'h who has been mysteriously missing when usually he is around to console Ciri after the King has been a prick to her. I think in the end he poisoned Auberon to protect Ciri.
As Avallac'h told Geralt "Someone else will help her now." we know he meant himself. Avallac'h has clearly done just that if he hasn't been behind the scenes doing so all along.
Another interesting thing to note a lot of people use the "he strangled Ciri" to claim him as evil, but depending on the translation he didn't actually do that.
It says he "COULD" choke her. Not that he did. He appears to just be holding her. Not pleasant sure but not choking either. She did just say something that must have been horribly painful to him. (and maybe just maybe he was a little tempted by her proposition of it being him instead of Auberon)
He was quite quick to forgive her, wasn't he? Perhaps because they both acted foolishly.
Finally, I want to point out a couple of other things that someone who is evil just wouldn't bother to do.
I find it interesting that Avallac'h realized she was embarrassed and upset and he 'quickly' stopped to comfort her. To say it was fine in his own way.
Comforting her. Using her own language. Which in the elf world means he's probably lowing his status for her.
When Ciri is upset about the king being a total prick to her. Again. Avallac'h patiently hears her out. Even if hearing those details of the woman that shares Lara's eyes doing things with another man must be awful. A "strange smile" indeed.
Bonus: Avallac'h helps Geralt
And at one-point other humans who if I recall correctly, he was guiding through a blizzard for some reason? Maybe it depends on the translation?
Does he really hate humans or is he just bitter he lost Lara to one? I suspect he doesn't really hate them as much as he says he does, or he wouldn't be helping them at all. "Bored she-elves"? Tsk tsk. This has nothing to do with bored elves. It is all about you and Lara.
All in all, Avallac'h is not a bad guy. He is not evil. That does not mean he is 100% a good person, but nobody is. One thing we can get is that he does care about Ciri.
What is Ciri to Avallac'h? We may never know. Maybe even he himself has no idea.
Thus ends my character study on Book! Avallac'h (for now) and I thank those that took the time to share open-mindedly (I hope) this little study with me.