Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Story & Character Discussion [END SPOILS WARNING] Addressing Karlach (PLEASE PUT SPOILERS IN TAGS)

i fervently created an account specifically for this LARIAN GIVE ME KARLACH HAPPY ENDING PLEASE, I WANT TO BE HOT COUPLE TY

I agree with the general premise of this thread.
They should also probably fix

I'm unhappy about Astarion's treatment too - he deserved better - but at least his ending is more satisfying than Karlach's. And Astarion basically brought everything on himself while Karlach was enslaved against her will. Just... ugh. Terrible.

One small sliver of positivity:

I'm aware its somewhat difficult to make Larian Forum accounts at the moment, but I appreciate the support this thread is getting.

Just putting my voice into the crowd for this, Karlach's ending is incredibly disappointing given her previous interactions and dialogue throughout the story.

Effing hell, Larian. You guys had six years to figure out where you wanted the story to go. Six years! And you ended up with "uhm, a bunch of circles to nowhere?! Lolz, they'll never expect that!", which is pretty much a writer's equivalent of the Chewbacca defense, except with a lazier execution.

If you want to tell a story then tell the darn story and finish it properly. Don't deux ex machina it and don't leave it hanging.

It really doesn't matter what your medium is. If you want to do something then do it, and do it fully. If you get to where you feel the end should be and then need more room then create that room. Take your time, do the thing, and do it right. And do it to completion.

Do not do what the tv-guys did to GoT Season 8. That merely tarnishes the entire project and makes people feel daft for having paid so much attention to it in the first place. "Oh my, this is looking so grim, how will they resolve that? Oh, they didn't, they just clapped their hands and the problems all went away."

And don't do what you did to Karlach. "Oh my, her fate looks grim, I wonder how that will be resolved? Oh, it didn't get resolved, the story just ended, well fuck me sideways for giving a shit."

Its must be a trend in gaming industry of not giving player happy ending Far Cry being doing this since Far Cry 4, no matter what you do you always get shitty endings difference is that you want (A) Shitty ending (B) Extra shitty ending (C) Totally shitty ending.

Same here only option with Karlach here is let her die, she become mind flayer, or trapped in hell while she being hunted, and even more shitty is that she found solution for her heart but only if you play as origin Karlach no solution for companion Karlack because if they do they have to add more for Karlach as romance option after her cure and in her quest line which they did not that why if you chose to go with Karlach to hell with her, game just end right there no slideshow no nothing after story it just end. You invest so much time to be just shit all over at the end.

Larian, you created a fantastic 9,9 out of 10 game here, it's just the story endings that are not a homerun, especially for Karlach

Take it as a big credit to your character design and ideation team that so many people love a character you created and are willing to go to town for her. Hell, I know a few people who actually cried like babies (dudes in their 30s and 40s) when the whole thing went down.

Through the entire game you give hints on how to save her, even in her last MINUTES you give us the option to pick "we can still save you"


The problem is the way everything ends as well it's just a "we need to go, thanks bye" moment that ruins 70-80 hours of playthrough and leaves you empty and drained

PLEASE give Karlach the ending she deserves

Yeah. You're dead right.

The only reason people are this salty is because the characters we are complaining about were well written and emotional investment grabbing enough to provoke such a response. If no one gave a shit about these characters, we’d be having a whole different discussion.

I very much agree that Karlach in terms of personality was highly engaging and is a big part of why I feel she got shafted hard here. That's a definite credit to the writing team.

But at the same time... this is more then just that. All the other characters, including Gale who's got pretty much the exact same condition going on (thing inside body that's slowly killing him and there's no conventional way to cure it), were given a shot at fixing their problems, and got to walk away after everything that happened. Even though in Gale's case he pretty much brought that onto himself.

So what does it say about the plot, when the one character that is genuinely a good person, whose only crime was that she trusted the wrong person and got sold into a slave army, is the *only one* that's not allowed to have a somewhat positive ending? No matter how many hours you put into desperately trying to help her, and how many various methods and favors you find that could theoretically help her.

To me that isn't a well-written tragic story. That's just the Dungeon Master desperately wanting to kill off a PC because reasons.

I'm just at the last etappe of Act 1 (just after the Party together with Tiefling-Refugees, ready to venture down to the Underdark), playing as an Tiefling-Warlock, it seems to me "naturally" to be most open to a closer Relationship to the other Tiefling in our "Band of tadpoled Adventurers"...

And now i have to read here and elswhere about, what the Game-narrative has planned for KArlach...its now difficult a lot to me to simply continue with the above mentioned Relationship to this certain Member and even develop it up to some Sort of Romance...

It really seems either poorly written narrative around KArlach because of different reasons (like short Time for Development or some other) or its following the "Trend" in narrative Games with strong relationship between Players and Avatars to "force" unhappy endings...

I'm not very happy about this kind of Storytelling in a "Baldur's-Gate"-Game, but imho there is less hope that Larian "just gets the corner" regarding KArlach's fate...

You're giving Larian too much credit for the other companion quests in my opinion. No one got a truly decent ending except SH and Lae'Zel. Yet, Karlach got the shortest stick available.

There is an overarching problem that even scretches into the conclusion of the main story. It's fair to say Larian was doing their best to give players the impression that they can't write endings for the life of them. I genuinely think this game is missing a whole year of development. It's affecting everything near the backend and particularly internal consistency. It's riddled with bugs and systems that needed failsafes. Much of it is unfinished, unpolished, untested and unbalanced.

Judging by Act 1 and a good share of Act 2, Shart and Lae’zel seem to have the most companion-specific story moments in the world. After them, the three guys get 1-2 moments apiece. To me, aside from Karlach getting the short stick, it sounds like Astarion got megafucked, but I don’t really like him and think any ill fate he likely shall bring upon himself.

Wyll and Astarion's moments are heavily within Act 3, I enjoyed them personally. But all in all that means Karlach got an even shorter stick )':

I'm having a hard time wanting to play the game right now. Karlach is literally the only straight forward, genuinely good character. Despite her heart condition, I chose to romance her. Now, I can understand that life isn't always happy endings, but if someone chooses to stay with Karlach to the end, whether as a mindflayer or going to Avernus with her, that ending needs to have been shown...to completion.

While it's true, real life often clobbers you on the head and offers you no closure as to why or a way to fix the clobbering, but this is a game...and one we paid for. We are looking to *escape* hum drum real life and experience stories and outcomes different to the world we inhabit.

I brought my moral code into the game with me. So I guess I'm not a role player. I would feel horrid if I courted a Shadowheart or Laezel instead because I already told Karlach that I wanted her. That would be betraying her. I can't do that. So now I know I'm on a ride with no ending. I will chose to go to Avernus with her or possibly turn into a mindflayer to stay by her side (if that's even an option). But either way, there's no closure to show me how our lives turned out. Sigh...it kills the desire to play the game.

This post does an amazing job explaining the problem, IMO.

been there, decided to finish it and go to Avernus with her. Had to headcanon the rest though as the way it all ends is, as I wrote above, "gotta go, cya" and then it cuts to the generic Tav ending that you saved the world "all because of you"

But damn, I don't want to save the entire world, I just wanted to save the 1 individual in the game who deserves it the most

exactly @G4RIIK
the entire game starts with a carrot infront of your nose to save Karlach. Everytime you are close enough to actually grab it, it just disappears, just for a new carrot to be presented, which you continue to chase. When the game finally runs out of carrots the race just stop in the middle of the track and everyone is going home