(P.S. I will say, I personally think that in writing the whole 'The most sunshine character who's suffered some truly horrible shit doesn't have a happy ending because that's poignant or whatever' trope is kind of uninspired by this point, BUT I would definitely not be up in arms about it that much if it felt solid on all accounts. )
Honestly I have as almost big a problem with the painfully obvious tragedy-bait the current incarnation of her story has as I do with the story inconsistency itself. Like, I want to save Karlach because she's nice, and the fact that I can't in a choice based RPG sucks. I understand the people who like tragedy and like her ending to be tragic, however I don't think it's too much to ask to ALSO have an option that isn't so tragic, because again, this is a choice based RPG and through hard work and effort I feel like I should be able to get a good ending for the character I like.
I totally agree with this. I mean look at Shadowheart.
The player is able to turn her away from Shar and rescue her parents, resulting in a very happy ending. Even if she still has a twinge of pain from time-to-time, she has her family back and has a new lease on life. She's happy and feels like the future is hers to mold.
I'd consider that a happy ending, even if has that one small blip. Why can't Karlach have a happy ending too? I'm confident that many of the Karlach fans in this thread want to see Karlach cured. She can have a downside--like still having Zariel chasing her to the ends of the universe--but be happy and able to live a life with love and possibilities in it. As players, we should be able to choose from a range of fates for Karlach spanning from happy to bittersweet to tragic. I would argue that all characters should have possible outcomes along that spectrum.
