Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Story & Character Discussion [END SPOILS WARNING] Addressing Karlach (PLEASE PUT SPOILERS IN TAGS)

yet it's the heart that cannot be fixed.

it's the heart that could not be fixed.

Ended up diving through /all of it/ at least there seems to have been SOME positivity in the Avernus ending. Letting Karlach die, and her becoming a mindflayer are just NEGATIVE on NEGATIVE. I didn't expect to be proven so right. Fuel to keep us going and get justice for Karlach!

how there’s no way to truly have a good ending with her (Returning to Avernus in any way is not a good ending imo)

gets shafted so hard after such great writing for her character.

This is going to be a bit of a ramble so bear with me, please.
This entire game provided an experience I didn’t know I needed until I got my hands on it. The last time I was this enthralled by a game and the story it provided was all the way back during the run of Mass Effect 1-3. Nothing was ever perfect, but it provided a beautiful story that pulled me in and kept me hooked, right up until the end.
Though, much like Mass Effect, what burned me on the experience was the end of the game. I understand that it’s not the end that matters most, but the journey itself. But, if the journey leads to an unsatisfactory end, why would I undertake it again?
I completed my first playthrough the other day, reloading and saving, desperately trying to find a piece of the puzzle I may have missed for Karlachs’ storyline, only to come up short each time. After beating the game, I reloaded my save and took to the internet to try to find what I could not. Learning that there was *nothing* I could do, despite the answers and solutions being right before me destroyed my desire to play again.
I’m a boring kinda person, I tend to romance the same character and make similar decisions on my playthroughs, because I enjoy that sort of stuff so why not go through it again, you know? But, knowing that I can’t do anything would be akin to playing through the entire Mass Effect trilogy knowing that no matter what I do, despite the chances and opportunities being present in universe, I could not prevent Tali from dying, prevent Garrus from dying.
The game is amazing, and I really did enjoy myself. Larian, you did amazing work in creating something that made me care about the characters you created. I just hope that something can be done to remove the shadow created by the end(s) for my favorite character. I don’t think anyone here is asking for a fairytale happy ending, but the opportunity to fix her heart and have what I’d consider to be a ‘good’ ending. The Steel Watchers, The Gondians, even the Ironhand Gnomes, I feel something could be done if we put in the work. As it stands now, it feels my agency as Tav is taken away, unable to pursue the options before me. Let me put in the work, let me help Karlach. Worst comes to worst? Fanfic it away that Karlach and my Tav wind up working at Mahadi’s Wandering Emporium in Avernus, right?

Her monologue about things being unfair and loneliness after your final interaction with Gortash just f*cking toppled me man, the performance was just stellar. This made me google if you can "actually save her" and the fact that the answer it no just took the wind out of my sails, it makes me not want to see the end. I might save Baldurs Gate, even the Sword coast, but my fiery positive adorable Tiefling is doomed? No thanks.

that it is actually a bug if you complete Wyll's companion quests AND have romanced Karlach, that you all can't go to Avernus? Because Wyll 'overrides' you and then only Karlach and Wyll can go?

I love a good tragedy

I helped Wyll to be the blade of avernus and collaborate with the emperor. After final scene on the pier I hade tears in my eyes the whole evening. Only Wyll could took Karlach to avernus, so no options to go with me instead is obviously wrong and make no sence at all. I expected the whole game, that I will be able to fix the engine and visited the smithy after each main quest or Karlachs quest completion and nothing. After finishing Karlachs questline I expected another one and nothing. Then I expected some way to visit avernus, kill Zariel and fix things somehow there and nothing again. I saved everybody in the foundry, had infernal ores and nothing. So literally I'm not able to start the game again until there will be better option how to save Karlach.

save Wyll's dad after he signed over his soul to hell, undoing literally any consequences for this man's personal arc and making it all good and daisy, and that Gale can just disobey a goddess with zero consequences but there is NOTHING I can do for my sweet girl who just wants to live so badly? Who is so relieved to finally be home? Let's be honest, I would have paid any price for this. In the first Act Raphael says something about how you will come crawling to him when all hope dies and by the tail end of Act III, I was ready to come crawling. I would have given him the crown and watched the Sword Coast burn in a heartbeat if the game would just let me. I think my biggest reason to stab him to death in the House of Hope wasn't even because it was the right thing to do, it was just the fact that he didn't offer me the one and only thing I wanted. Somehow the game made me go through the worst possible version of his point: it let me hope for all of Act II that I will surely fix it in Act III to just let me run around and try, to follow up on all the leads, while my hope is murdered by a thousand cuts. Except, there is no soul to sell at the end, nothing else to do. Would have loved all this incredible angst if it didn't end the sad and bleak way it apparently does. It just feels cruel. Not like the great tragedy it is supposed to be, but like the claws Raphael promised finally coming down on my head.

leave her on the astral plane? Time doesn't work there, so she should be fine. Right? Right? And the door is right there, at the beginning of act 3

One thing would be that if you killed raphael you could easily have her bide that time in the house of hope until you find a fix or even live there with her etc.