Disagree again.
Spoilers for ME3:
There was a whole bunch of narrative problems with the ending to ME3 that we don’t have here. Your whole goal until that point was destroying the reapers, but that is suddenly presented as the worst choice. Controlling them was the plan of a space Nazi who is no longer in control of themselves, but that option now looks more reasonable. The third option was just a bit weird. All that came out of the blue, they weren’t options you were working towards during the game or even considered until then. You don’t fight to seize the power for these outcomes, there was no climatic show down. The game’s big bad, who is totally winning at this point, just turns up, gives up on what they’ve been doing for millions of years and leaves everything up to your tiny meat brain (because you’re so awesome, I guess). None of which made sense. Then there’s what was actually shown in the cutscene. Whatever you chose, the mass relay network was shown to be destroyed. That made all your decisions pointless, because galactic civilization depended on them, so whatever alliances you made or peace you brokered would be moot, whatever the ending. And if your crew survived they were likely stranded on some alien planet. Bioware tweaked some of that, but the whole thing was still very jarring. There’s good reason it got such a backlash.
BG3 is very different. The game makes it clear that taking the power for yourself would be bad news for everyone else. It’s hardly surprising if taking this option trumps decisions like whether you saved a few refugees along the way. Maybe that your plan all along, maybe you did a last minute heel turn, either way you should have an idea of what a massive deal that is.
If not, the decisions you made up until that point mattered. Some of the those decisions are reflected in the final scenes where characters talk about what’s next for them. Others aren’t shown, but that doesn’t change what you did in the game.
I’d be fully up for them expanding on how it plays out at the end, but it’s nothing like the ME3 mess. I was pretty satisfied with the end I got for my good playthrough.
What is the story of Baldur's Gate 3 about then?
The premise of the game is being abducted and infected with a mindflayer tadpole that is supposed to turn you into a monster but gives you the temptation of dark powers instead. More fundamentally, it is a personal journey about taking back control over your fate after having it snatched away by external forces which is basically mirrored in every companion story arc.
Wyll's central struggle is getting out of the deal that makes him a slave to a devil and becoming his own man again.
Lae'zel's struggle is about shaking off her indoctrination and discovering that her sense of self can be conceptualised outside of the tyrannical society that demands her unconditional self-sacrifice.
Gale's story is about overcoming the inadequacies instilled into him by the skewed power dynamic of his relationship with Mystra.
Shadowheart's struggle is about taking back her stolen sense of identity by either rediscovering her past or fully embracing her false identity and taking over the cult that indoctrinated her.
Astarion's arc is about emancipating himself from his abuser by either killing the influence hes had over him or by taking his position.
Karlach... I don't really know since I took her head at Wyll's behest but I'm sure it's something about escaping Zariel.
The overarching struggle that unites all the origin characters with the player character is getting rid of the tadpole or turning it into your strength. In fact, if you play an original character that is your
only personal story and your
sole motivation. That means how you approach the tadpoles and how you indulge in your stolen power should absolutely be central to the story. Destroying the brain is sort of the obvious goal the moment you discover it at the end of act 2 and understand how it relates to your predicament. Then, when you finally have gathered the infinity stones and stand in front of the brain, and you maybe even pass the ridiculous 99 skill check by using advantage and inspiration points - the game simply tells you that the central choice that runs like a golden thread throughout all the game's acts was a red herring and all that really matters is the last minute plot contrivance you're presented with. The game once again takes your hard earned agency out of your hands and tells you that you need some external power to solve your problems rather than being able to rely on the intrinsic qualities you have gained on your journey.
In that vein, the whole "the brain was controlled by non-illithids before but It's a netherbrain now so you have to sacrifice a soul or condemn an entire species" plot beat is actually fairly similar to Mass Effect 3's ending (you just condemn the Gith instead of the Geth). Some last minute revelation, an artificial fateful decision that has next to nothing to do with your previous choices (i.e. the journey that led you to that point) but adds a bittersweet note to the ending for the sake of drama. Roll credits.
Also I don't get why you think controlling the Absolute is supposed to be a shitty, unfinished ending. They MADE IT into a last minute choice. It didn't have to be this way. They could have added genuine build up for this ending, tied it into mastering your tadpole's powers etc. but they CHOSE not to. They could have given us different options of what we're going to do with that power (like they did in Divinity) but they CHOSE not to. Why you think this is somehow a defence of the ending is beyond me.
