Originally Posted by jono11
I don't have a problem with there not being a happy ending, or with the game "railroading" you into seeing Avernus as the bad ending. One of the things BG3 does extremely well is challenge the way most people think about video game companions. We're conditioned to treat our companions in ways that would, in real life, often just be enabling shitty behavior and not being a good friend. But in BG3, doing that gets you some pretty shitty people for companions by the end of things: a psycho religious zealot, an arrogant demigod, a douchey turbo-vampire, etc. At the same time, the actual relationship between the player character and the companion characters is refreshingly dynamic, with you being able to influence people and how they think without first needing to meet a certain threshold of "so-and-so liked that" points.

So with all of that said, if the only choices are Avernus or death, I agree with the game as it originally framed it: Avernus is the bad outcome. That's the outcome where you didn't respect your friend's choices, you kept pushing and pushing and pushing--and if you romanced her, you probably guilt-tripped the shit out of her. You don't know how horrific her life was in Avernus, but you can get a sense from her post-Gortash speech. And now you've pressured her right back into that same horror, just to assuage your own feelings. You pressured her into accepting a life of pain and suffering that she did not want. If you did that to someone in real life who had a terminal condition, you'd be a real asshole.

The problem only arises when they give you such an obvious third option, and even hint at one or two other possible ones earlier in the game. And then they have the gall to put the words "we did all we could" in your mouth.

Right, its weird that larian made a new epilogue cutscene for the avernus ending that frames the situation as being super cool and sick(metal music playing, karlach smoking a cigar, them actually going to fight zariels forces headon instead of i dunno, laying low?), like it completely ignores everything that karlach had been saying before. They said they were gonna give us a new ending and instead put in a cutscene thats tonally inconsistent with everything, because they thought we hated the ending for karlach due to it being depressing, which isnt the case - players hate the ending cos we dont have any ways to explore alternate paths for her like for every other companion.

If they really wanted the new avernus epilogue scene to make sense, they needed to add conversations with karlach where she comes to terms with going back to avernus with us and seems as battleready for it as she does in the ending. THAT or have her be angry and depressed that we made her go back, but i think we all know that'd just make fans even angrier so larian couldnt do that. Although the idea of larian promising us a new ending that ''karlach deservers'' and its just an even more sour cutscene of karlach saying she hates us for making her go back, is pretty funny lol.

But personally, i kinda hate the avernus ending to begin with and just want larian to expand her questline + let us fix her engine, because whether or not the avernus ending is framed as a good or bad ending doesnt matter, her character quest is still nonexistent compared to the other companions, and i dont want her story to continue on off-screen, i want to explore it ingame.

Last edited by lemontree; 27/09/23 12:08 PM.