And like... Shouldnt the choice on who to make a mind flayer like... be a choice of anyone in the party? shouldnt each party memer be a viable option for that? why is it only the player or Karlach? Did they just not want to make these unique endings?
Totally agree. I mean, there are even better options story wise for the end here.
If we completely ignore the plot hole that is the Emperor giving up to join the Netherbrain (he should have at least attempted to convince Orpheus to help the cause, which he probably would have agreed to considering he himself volunteers to become a mind flayer should the player refuse), we still have the strange detail of not having Lae'zel offer to make the sacrifice. It doesn't fit her character to let Orpheus basically kill himself to save the world when Lae'zel could have done it, become the hero of her people and liberate the prince of comets. If not that, Voss. Where's he? Where are the honor guards he had assembled? When Orpheus for some reason (did I miss the explanation for how that's possible?) can turn non-tadpoled people (himself) into mind flayers, he could have just turned Voss, or any of his honor guards to mind flayers and finish the fight. I mean, even if having a tadpole is a must, there are plenty to be found around the place. Just go kill a random person and there's probably one there they can use.
Having players make impossible choices aren't effective when the reasoning behind them falls flat. I love impossible choices, I really do, but there has to be a reason behind the impossibility of it all. Here there are other choices, sometimes better choices. So, the choices that are presented to us, the player, just comes off as dumb and badly written.
I work as a developmental editor for novel writers and to be honest, I would have ripped this ending to shreds and told the author to redo it (in nicer words of course, I'm actually a rather kind person).
