Watch me make an account to connect with like-minded people about the fiery love of our lives.
I feel like I've been musing a post for days and yet nothing feels quite adequate as to convey the feeling of distaste the ending/s bring. I know that a lot of people, myself included, felt very connected and represented in Karlach as to topics of chronic disability/pain, escaping an abusive situation, trying to live their lives to the fullest with whatever time was given them. So many of us go through or know someone close who goes through an illness or lives with a disability that is causing their lifespan to be shorter, or the time here on Earth to not be as full as it would've been had this condition never touched their bodies. I felt immense connection to Karlach in the way that she didn't let her fire, love and spark to diminish, despite a decade in LITERAL hell, sold to Zariel who is the epitome of an abusive boss/relationship. I rooted for our girl to get out and STAY OUT and would do anything in my (Tav's) power to keep her happy and healthy - especially because as many of you already have said, she did nothing to cause this to herself. She got thrown there and she lost her actual HEART in the process of serving Zariel. And what did she get for surviving, for getting out of that abuse? Death.
We live in a world where everything is a tragedy in one form or another. Representation matters, it truly does, but it doesn't sit right with me to see every other character get a solution for their problems and Karlach, the absolute sweetheart of the group, is doomed. Just purely doomed. No matter how much you and Dammon try, no matter how many items of interest you find, no matter where you fucking go and what you fucking do - it's back to the abusive realm of Hell, and her "boss", or to straight up die. You go through her quest and realise that even if she said she'd rather do anything other than return to Avernus, Karlach DOESN'T WANT TO DIE. The way Samantha voiced those lines later in Act 3 broke me. Because it was as real as hearing the doctors say, there's nothing more we can do. And that is real - but I'm so fucking tired of it infiltrating my media. The media that is supposed to help me get away, forget reality, forget the trauma and tragedy of our collective lives and let me hope. Because hope is the most human emotion and we will cling to it until our last breath. I would cling to it together with my Tav, doing anything and giving her any form of hope that yes, we would fix it. But the game just doesn't let you do that. The writing doesn't let you have that good ending, where a MACHINE forced into Karlach's body, cannot be fixed no matter what.
Baldur's Gate is a story driven by the player. It's giving us a multitude of choices that ends the game in an equal multitude of ways. Yet Karlach is taken fully out of our control. No matter how much we try, it will always be a fail. You can either take away her dignity and return to Avernus in hopes of surviving and maybe finding a way to fix it (again, holding onto hope), or letting her die, literally burn to her death in the most crippling agony ever. She deserves none of this, has done nothing to deserve a fate as shit as this. I'm so sick and tired of constant reminders that my loved ones are doomed to die. I'm wary of letting my gf play the game knowing she already adores Karlach by proxy through me, but knowing how deeply shattered she is by the sudden loss of her own dear mom to cancer. I'm tired of having to see tragedy and pain depicted in a game of multiple choices, because there's so many linear games, books and movies where that is represented in plenty and the writers' accord. In this story, our story, the group of characters we meet and party with get to experience changes that will give them all kinds of ending options. If I want tragedy, let me have that choice - but don't force it upon me because I personally want a good, no less complicated but overall GOOD ending. Where a person who did everything they could actually gets to win for once.
I'm tired of losing in life, and doing just as much in a game where I try to see my choices matter, for them to not matter at all. I'm tired of losing people I love or having them live a life in chronic pain because "that's just how it is" and "it's the hope that kills". I won't accept any other addition to Karlach's ending other than being able to repair that engine and for my Tav and the group to see her break into tears of joy and disbelief, knowing that the curse of her life has been lifted, and that she can enjoy whatever good things life in Faerűn can offer.
I'm just...I'm really tired when games of choice (Mass Effect, Life is Strange, Baldur's Gate) end on a reminder that life is fleeting, pain is inevitable and hoping is in vain. If I want to do everything in my power to give everyone a good ending, I will do that. I want to escape reality and feel accomplished for the characters I love as deeply as some people in real life, I want to give Karlach the gift of curing her pain and giving her a life away from her abusers. Why is that so fucking much to ask for.
TL;DR: I agree with everyone in this thread and will do my darndest to wait and hope that a fixed engine ending can happen. Because I can't live with the fact that everyone else can get something good (complicated =/= inherently bad, mind you) at the end, but not the character that genuinely deserves it the most. JUSTICE FOR KARLACH!
