Found the parsed dialogue trees with devnotes for myself and been shuffling through them. Can't say I found anything hopeful (I'm sure if there was anything somebody would already be yelling about it), but it's curious to see how the return scene is described in the notes.
"She snaps, and a flame appears at the tip of her finger. This snap triggers her fully into the current situation. Sadness is gone. Karlach Cliffgate is gone; Karlach Demonsbane is back. She hands the player one of the lit cigars as she speaks. The subtext here is "I would never have come back here, but I fucking love you, so let's do this thing together.")"
I mean, as much was clear from the scene itself I think, they did a good job with it. But the "Karlach Cliffgate is gone; Karlach Demonsbane is back." is doing a lot of work here regarding the attitude change and making it sink in that she's going back into survival mode, and solely because of you (while at the same time, another note prior to that points out that she sees the player's decision to come as a sacrifice on their part).
Makes me remember all those times Sam talked about how Karlach talked less and sounded differently (lower, gruffier, angrier) in Avernus, and all the in-game hints we've got to the fact that she wasn't allowed to be soft for all those years, despite desperately wanting to.
Even in the best interpretation Karlach in this ending will not be able to be the same Karlach we've met until we get her out of there. Ack.
I mean, and water is wet, but, like. That wording hit me hard.
Holy shit. I mean... i'ts no secret that that i consider that ending incredibly tonedeaf for every reason i ever listed but reading solidified it and put it into perspective even more.
"She snaps, and a flame appears at the tip of her finger. This snap triggers her fully into the current situation. Sadness is gone. Karlach Cliffgate is gone; Karlach Demonsbane is back. She hands the player one of the lit cigars as she speaks. The subtext here is "I would never have come back here, but I fucking love you, so let's do this thing together."
This is CRAZY. THE WAY IT'S WORDED IS CRAZY. No wonder it was tonedeaf, it's incredibly hasty an abrupt. I really don't know how this flied, jeez. This is old news, i don't really know why it hit me like that, must be the wording as you already pointed out ahah
