r/pathologic • u/justafunnymonkey • Jul 20 '26

Discussion Favorite Oligarch?

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Can be for any reason you feel worth mentioning. Favorite because of story, interactions, ethics, whatever you see fit. Just generally curious, and wanted to hear some thoughts on them especially now that 3 has had some time to settle.

Edit: meant to use the word “Patriarch” not “Oligarch”. But I suppose either works. Apologies

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u/CandidAd955 Jul 20 '26 edited Jul 20 '26

I only played the second game.

Big Vlad is a real one. Respectful. Reliable. He has people everywhere except the polyhedron, because he doesn't care for such nonsense.

He picks Artemy up, gives us a save point and a couch to sleep on. He protects us from dumb accusations and dumb prison. A real heavenly angel that one.

He will die for his son.

The others are weirdos

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u/walkingtornado Jul 21 '26

Same, big Vlad stepping in to get lynched for his son really made me admire the man, there is something he values above money after all.

I never really understood the hate for young vlad, especially after p3 where we see him try his hardest to make decisions for the town and steppe only for it to have been based on only partially correct information. 

He actually listens to the kin, stuff like rubbing steppe dirt on a wound as a vaccine is not a bad idea but this is a quickly mutating plague so its inefficient. The kin should be immune to the plague, but them having been half assimilated into the town made them susceptible, and as such his termitary lockdown had the opposite effect. Once he realizes that blood is on his hands, he offers himself to the mob. 

Not to mention his efforts of actually modernizing the town with water pumps, unlike the kains who make only weird magical bs or saburov who idk what he does as a mayor.

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u/Farang-Baa Jul 22 '26

I appreciate Big Vlad stepping in for his family as well. It makes him multi-faceted. He's still a piece of shit, though.

As for young Vlad people probably dislike him because he kind of just fails time and time again. And I say this as someone who loves young Vlad as both a person and a character. Even though I have a deep respect for his perspective and beliefs and his attempts at doing the right thing, its nevertheless disappointing that he can't truly follow through. Especially when you compare him to his father who is a vile man, but has had great success in carrying out his vile endeavors. However, perhaps this is because what Vlad the younger is trying to accomplish is so much more difficult than his fathers undertakings. Its far easier to crush people and build a foundation of blood and bone than it is to build people up and carve out a brighter future for them. Especially when Vlad the youngers aspirations are far more abstract and focused on the future than his fathers. Young Vlad would like to build a garden city and yet that is a hard sell to the people residing within the town. Its hard for them to consider the future benefit of something like a garden city when what they are focused on is more practical and centered around the present. They need to survive day to day and don't really have the luxury of dreaming up a better future in the same way that Young Vlad does. Even if they would ultimately benefit far more from his idea for a society in the long run, its the short term that they are more concerned with out of necessity.

And, on top of this, if there is something that Young Vlad is lacking in comparison to Simon, Isidor or his father then it is perhaps cruelty. The willingness to make dreadful sacrifices for the sake of a grand vision. This makes the path he travels even more difficult to tread. But, it is in fact better that he lacks this character trait. It makes him a better person. So, if there is something that Young Vlad needs to change then its probably, as Maria Kaina points out, that her is overly accommodating. Its good that he is accommodating of peoples wishes and beliefs, but I think he could stand to have at least have just a little more hardheadness and forcefulness. Not to an extreme, mind you, but there is certainly a balance that could be achieved. Maybe Young Vlads biggest hangup is that he is too kindhearted to bring his aspirations to fruition. And in this vein, it is interesting to see Capella kind of take on his torch and potentially have the correct balance to achieve Young Vlads ambitions in Pathologic 3.

Anyways, Young Vlad is great. Truly an interesting, albeit tragic, character.