I haven't played the game for a few months and only came back to see if the ending had been changed. Thanks @TheRedQueen for advocating for changes during the beta!
I chose "The good ending is miserable and nothing short of a complete rewrite could make it any better" because that is what I would need to play the game again. There are small tweaks that could be made to make *less* of a downer but the end game is deeply flawed.
@Sozz just introduced to the concept of lampshading and I'm going to start using that word all the time. The "someone needs to become a mind flayer" is a lampshade event. lol wut? We have just freed the Gith messiah and we have the chosen of one of the most powerful gods in Faerun on our side I think we will be okay.
So you can kinda feel okay if Orpheus decides to become ghaik once he says no Gale's offer. But that is still a downer because the rebel Gith lose their most powerful weapon against Vlaakith as well as their most powerful weapon against the mindflayers. From a practical - not moral - stance that's bad news for the multiverse because the Gith prevent the mindflayer empire from reforming. Metaknowledge tells us that the rebel Gith actually do pretty well against Vlaakith without Orpheus but Tav doesn't know that at the time. And from a moral POV sitting there saying "go ahead, destroy your soul and the hopes of your people if you want" doesn't feel right either.
Hope people don't mind if I bring this in from this thread - I'm trying respect RQ's desire to keep the conversation in this thread.
https://forums.larian.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=949890#Post949890Good thread! Your summary captures my feelings well.
Oh well. I'll pass on this patch and let Tav's noble suicide stand as the depressing end to the journey.
Wow! If this is the best "good" ending we can have, then I'm now not sure I'd even want to play the game at all. This is to me an utterly horrible way for my game to end, not just a downer ending.
It isn’t.
Gale's ending could be better if it were rewritten to be consistent with FR lore. It would be the good aligned choice if we saw Gale get a Gawain and the Green Knight like moment where he sacrifices himself and we all get a scene where Mystra tells Gale he has redeemed himself that would nice. And Mystra would be acting like the Mystra of the forgotten realms novels, not like one of the gods from DOS2
But that's not ideal if you aren't playing Origin Gale because it takes attention away from Tav. Tav is no longer the main character, she is part of Gale's party.
Some are happy with squiding out and assuming that they will be good mind flayer. But we have sooo, so, so much in evidence in the game that tells us that is a bad assumption (all of which is backed up by FR lore)
So sacrificing your soul and committing suicide before you complete Ethel's prophecy of becoming a mind flayer that slaughters all their friends is the good ending. (good aligned, not just good for me). You avoid all the deadly sins, notably the sin of pride - Orpheus has more to offer the multiverse than does Tav. Letting him take the hit is, at best, a neutrally aligned option.
