Originally Posted by rdslatez
I think Sam actually mentioned this to an extent during one of their interviews. Saying that Karlach is very much living in the moment but also ignoring her trauma/problem. Playing as well, non-Karlach, you only somewhat see it because it really only gets brought up after you give a second piece of infernal iron to Dammon, and during a bit of act 3 after the date or after Gortash. She finally gets some good news and doesn't want it spoiled by what Dammon says, and then ofcourse it all comes crashing down after Gortash. It's REALLY sad, and any attempt to offer a solution like Avernus is immediately shut down. Which, is understandable, it's hell and enslavement/conscription, but the reality is that the only chance to fix the problem is to go back to hell to find a solution.

I still don't think that sits very well, where it's "I don't want to face that 10 year trauma so I'd rather die" because it feels like 2 ends of an extreme. It's why I keep flipflopping between what ending I prefer, because it's impossible to offer Avernus where you fight for her without it getting shutdown. Until she is literally about to explode. Simultaneously, it's also why I kind of dislike the Avernus ending because it feels like such a sudden shift. Where she's ready to fight as hard as possible, shows no fear and is gonna ruin Zariel. I think my most recent playthrough that's got to Act 3 was done mostly before Patch 2 so I think I missed a lot more of the build up for the tug of war of her emotions, so maybe that's a mute point. But it does feel really jarring to me, like you said.

here we go talking in spoilers again ahah

I haven't been to the finale of the game as Karlach and I haven't watched it anywhere, so I don't know what's canonically going through her head at that pier. Playing as Tav, the only way I can explain that jarring change to "Okay fine Avernus it is" is, like. That fear and instinctual primal desire to live got the better of her at the very last second there, and when Wyll and/or Tav extended that last straw to grasp on she took it in the heat of the moment (gods that expression just feels wrong here)? And then the whole cutscene later in Avernus is either adrenaline and some endorphins or whatever flaring because her body is celebrating Not Dying OR she's doing the EXACT same thing as in the beginning of the game and putting on the brave face. Either way that's going to blow up (jesus fuck) in their faces spectacularly later, I think. BUT STILL as long as she's not dead there's a chance to get out again and my Tav, as many others, is very determined to make that happen SOMEHOW.

Doesn't stop me - and her - from feeling extremely selfish for that ending still, however. Q_Q

Originally Posted by NomTheBurritos
Reading this brought back tears to my eyes again after having experienced that playthrough myself. It'snot as much that her condition has been kept away from the player, nor that it hss been written badly - because it's some of the best tragedies ever, honestly.

I mean, I do agree. It's actually well done in some regards and that's frustrating. Because again, it's like... the possibilities (not even the cheesy ones like wish spells or scrolls or whatever, actual directly linked to her possibilities) are right there. Even if they don't work in the end and we're still adamantly meant to fail (in which case, I do have the same question as Karlach herself - WHY HER), at the very least should've been available to be tried. Like, I, as a Tav, I want to try.

Also as someone mentioned a while ago it's really mean that the only person who can't climb out of the narrative pit we meet them in is Karlach, who also had very little to do with the fact that she got into that situation. Like, all of them are victims, 100%, but at the very least our other resident bomb-in-chest haver got his hubris to blame. And even so he's fine. Karlach is just... what, some people are just unlucky? Sometimes all bad things happen to one person just because? Is that the moral here? It's not even a sickness (as in a classic terminal patient cases) that indeed just strikes people out of nowhere, it's a very much man-made/devil-made condition that was actively done to her. And if the former is, okay, often something that you have no choice to accept, then the latter is just mean. You got royally screwed over, deal with it, oh and also even your vengeance didn't feel good or change anything. Sigh.

I suppose that's its own sort of tragedy, but when put in a line up with everyone else... why her, indeed.

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