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Baldur’s Gate 3 is a game that I think about a lot. It is a game that has brought me great joy… and great sorrow, often at the same time. No character exemplifies this dichotomy more to me than Karlach. She’s plucky and chaotic and as charming as any video game companion has been, but the end of her story in Baldur’s Gate 3 is what fascinates me so deeply. The bittersweet goodbye hurts every time, showing that victory isn’t always about winning.

For the record, I absolutely romanced Karlach the first time I played Baldur’s Gate 3 because she’s funny and could easily break me in half with her bare hands, which is kind of the perfect criteria for any romantic interest for me. I pursued every side-quest, tried everything imaginable to free her from the infernal engine that was both the source of her strength and her eventual destruction. I wanted so badly to ride off into the sunset with my new tiefling girlfriend to cause trouble in some other part of the Sword Coast.

If this were most video games, there would be a way to free Karlach from the Sword of Damocles that dangled over her head. The “victory condition” for her story, as it were, would be to find a way to allow her to live a happy life outside of Avernus, doing as she pleased rather than going back to fight the endless hordes of demons in the Hells. She helped save the world, after all; doesn’t she deserve a happy ending?

However, as fans who have reached the end credits on Baldur’s Gate 3 know, that is not the case. While there are a couple of variations depending on if you turn her into a Mindflayer near the end of the game (Baldur’s Gate 3 has almost TOO many options), the main two outcomes for Karlach are to either return to Avernus to fight against the arch-devil who once enslaved her, or to allow the infernal engine to overheat and consume her in fire.

Neither of these are “good” endings; though you could argue that living to fight in Hell is better than dying in a pile of ash, Karlach states throughout the game that she doesn’t want to return to Avernus ever. Being separated from the world, forced to battle devils and demons night and day, all with the knowledge that she can never see her friends again, is something she says she would rather die than endure. While she can be convinced to live, this is very much a compromise. For Karlach, even victory comes at a steep price.

This ending choice always gets me feeling things simply because that is how life is sometimes. You can do everything right your whole life and still find yourself all alone. You can eat right and exercise regularly and discover your health is failing. You can obey every law and still end up in prison. You can be a good person and find yourself as the villain in everyone’s story.

Fate can be cruel and can make you feel helpless, offering you the illusion of choice only to rob you of it at the last moment. Life is messy, complicated, and cruel at times; Larian Studios understands that art should reflect that. And, despite knowing the inevitable outcome will not bring me joy, I still try to save Karlach in every playthrough of Baldur’s Gate 3 because the journey – not the ending – brings me joy instead. I can’t save her, but I can help her live a good life until the end, and that is just as important.

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