I for one never got the impression that Henselt and Dethmold were "O.K. guys". Henselt was a racist, land-hungry tyrant with a quick temper, and Dethmold, a morally bankrupt, power-mad inquisitor and dabbler in the black arts.

I do think Roche was outmanuevered, on several occasions. I don't think he was quite as smart or cunning as he'd like to believe. Bottom line, however, he was a soldier.

it is established from the outset that Henselt is has been scheming against the other Northern rulers, and, in Roche's view, he and Dethmold are the prime suspects as the forces behind the Kingslayers. I thought it was pretty clear that they were despicable characters, and the writers did everything short of showing them raping puppies* to demonstrate that. You can't blame the writers if you made up your own backstory and decided they were good guys.

The game gives you lots of choices with consequences that change the game in substantive ways. There are two entirely different Chapter 2s based on decisions you make, and roughly four different Chapter 3s. The fact that you don't like the choices does not make it not an RPG.

Henselt raped Ves. I don’t really see much need to debate the issue any further.

Agreed, since when does rape make someone "a pretty OK guy".

That was the sole reason I had Geralt let Roche kill him.

About the raping thing...I am not sure it actually happened. Remember the previous flashback, with Roche/Iorveth's duel? It was pretty unrealistic (probably intentionally) and I don't think it really happened, it was just their version of it (2 people meeting at an open field to duel over each other's belives while their units need orders? Not likely)
This was her version of the story. Whether it happened or not, or if she was a traitor remains unclear. What Henselt said didn't really help-he was arrogant and an ass, but he didn't really say he raped her. Not to mention when Geralt said that Ves was lying.
Perhaps he is an ok guy for a king after all :)

Geralt said that Ves was lying about why she was left alive, she was obviously intentionally left alive to lure Roche and Geralt into a trap. Not that she lied about what happened to her.

He doesn't. Dethmold gets away. Just finished beating the game this way.

If you had paid attention Ves just tells them that Henselt and Dethmold laughed at her for begging for mercy for her comrades and then let her go . The flashback is totally for our sake so we ( the gamers) know what really happened.
and That's why Geralt says she's lying that they just let her go without doing any sort of harm to her.

And wht are you talking about luring Geralt and Roche into a trap, she was the one who ( alongwiyh Geralt) talked roche out from heading straight into battle and get himself killed.
& i think you can see why she didnt tell roche about being raped, as he would really lost all control then

they shouldn't call him whoreson

Funny thing is: you do run straight into battle anyway...

c'mon, wht are you talking bout
geralt and roche use the ravines, if they had run straight into battle , they would've taken the shortest route , the battlefiled fromm which geralt lifted the cursed mist or whtever
and they both would've got slaughterd ( even geralt cant take on hundreds of enemies at once)

Did you play through the game on Iorveths side? He gets some great character developement there.

He's utterly loyal to Saskia and doesn't seem to have any problems with working together with humans. He even defends the man who allegedly poisoned Saskia against a lnych mob because he believes in Saskias ideals which apparently include justice.

Iorveth? Totaly not the homicidal human hating elf he appears to be at the beginning.

I personally told Roche to shove his honor and Temeria by not killing the king and going to save Triss. It is left open for you to decide, and whether Geralt's reasons are exactly yours doesn't matter. You can repute.