The investment in these characters stories is proof of how good Larian’s writing can be. Most of us are not questioning that, on the contrary lol
But there is no question that Karlach’s storyline is much, much shorter and “plain” than other origins (just check the quest log lol after finishing the game). Whatever the reason for it, the thing that bothered me the most wasn’t even the possible endings for her - it was the path LEADING there.
I’m even playing as Karlach (aka avatar Karlach) now hoping that I’d get more bits about her personal story, and that some moments in the game would change/adapt due to her specific predicament.
In Act 1 this kind of happens. She gets some specific dialogue and moments, like after facing the paladins of Tyr. Playing as her, it made me excited to expect some more content that I might’ve not seen playing as a custom tav.
But, towards the end of Act 1, it seems Karlach-specific moments are essentially over. The story progression of her character, the fact that she is dying - that she could not be touched, then now she can - is mostly ignored by other origins (some don’t even comment on her dying - I’m looking at you, Astarion). There IS a bit extra content about her backstory in moonrise towers, but it feels gratuitous and disconnected.
Other origins have a crescendo in their stories, twists and turns, that leads to an end that, even when bitter sweet, fulfills you because the path leading there was rich and expertly crafted.
That’s where Karlach’s story fell short for me. She doesn’t have nearly as rich a path, or as carefully crafted interactions that fill you with satisfaction during the course of the game, building up to an ending that could’ve been sad, but fulfilling. In that sense, she does feel like an afterthought - and that’s not up to the standard of the rest of the game.
I think if the rest of the game was kind of sloppy or mediocre, we might’ve let many of these issues slide, or they’d blur with the rest. But the fact that we KNOW how good the writing is/can be (Astarion’s story arch is incredible, for example), made us - well, greedy. Greedy in a good way, I suppose, because we want every character in the game to have the same level of writing and development.
I’m not expecting tons of new content or anything, but I would like to see some rewritten dialogue options, some added reactions from origins and the like. Unrealistically, I’d love a full rewrite of Karlach’s questline and storyline to the same level of richness as Shadowheart’s. But it won’t happen.
Instead, if we could at least have avatar Karlach’s story plot holes covered or fixed - like, for example, Gale talking about dying to her as if she can’t understand what it feels to be at the brink of death when she herself is dying too lol (what an absolute self centered bastard he sounded), or Astarion confessing to Karlach to then completely ignore when she is told she will die (that’s cold even for him) - if moments like these, when it seems writers forgot about her, could be fixed, I’d already be content.
Playing as her is becoming a very strange experience after having such a rich experience as tav. I wish Larian would at least review and patch the path leading to Karlach’s ending as much - if not more - than the endings themselves.
Certainly, its undeniable, the work put in. But, there's more to be done with time and patience.
