Did they ever explain what their reasoning was for Karlach “needing” a tragic ending? Like. I can appreciate a good tragedy, but I feel like in order to make a story like that work, the events of the story need to be more meaningful than just “here’s this super wonderful and likeable character, look at how great she is despite all the awful bullshit she’s been through… oops now she’s dead.” Like with the Karlach-dies-on-a-random-dock ending, what are they even communicating? Thematically, Baldur’s Gate 3 is all about fighting for freedom and autonomy and stuff, and sure, in the Karlach-burns-to-death ending, she dies in Faerûn instead of presumably going back to Avernus and working as a slave soldier for Zariel again, but… Idk, I feel like a better version of the “tragic ending” would be like, she’s basically accepted her imminent mortality, and players can’t persuade her to un-accept that, but maybe the player character can convince her to go back to Avernus to fight Zariel, with the sliver of a chance that if she’s able to stay alive for long enough, Zariel will give up and have her guys fix the engine? Or maybe something happens in the game that leads her to make that decision on her own. Because if she really really really “has to die”—if that’s what the CEO wants, that is—then she may as well die fighting for the future that she deserves.
I think that that’s what bothers me so much about her ending, having written all that out. It’s like she doesn’t even consider the possibility of living a long life and growing old with the people she loves and stuff, and like I know that there are millions and millions of people in real life that are in a similar situation, but this isn’t real life—this is the Forgotten Realms! There are literal magical sparkling unicorns in the Forgotten Realms! This is meant to be escapist entertainment, and goddamnit, Karlach should realize that she deserves more!
