#and ofc the performance. ten million awards for samantha béart

[asharaks]

karlach's cutscene after killing gortash never ever fails to destroy me man like....it's so. yeah. she's spent ten years fighting and killing and desperately hoping and then-

-that's it. he's dead, and he's no fucking sorrier now than he was then. it's so bleak, and it's so real and raw, it just breaks my gay little heart. like yeah - you kill the bad guy, and there's no relief in it; no closure, no cure, no wiping away the years of suffering. it doesn't make it better (it doesn't make it worse); you spend your life waiting for this moment, and it passes like every other moment.

gortash would never have apologised. karlach always knew he wouldn't, never expected an apology, but that line (he's no fucking sorrier now than he was then) says it all: she wanted one. she was owed one. and gortash, king of entitlement, king of right by might, would never have given it up. his last words are him begging you to protect him from the woman he wronged, desperately trying to convince you that his value as an ally is greater than her right as a victim.

and you kill him, and karlach's left to reckon with everything he did to her. no more quest for revenge, no more goal to drive towards: just herself, and her impending death.

i love it so much as a revenge narrative, because there's no judgement towards her - no "kill him and you're as bad as he is" - because how could she possibly be?? but all the same, as justified as she is, as wronged as she's been, it doesn't go away when he dies. she still has to face the end alone, and it breaks my heart. because so often, there is no closure: the people who wrong us don't apologise, there is no last-minute cure, no moment where it all makes sense.

he's dead, and he's no fucking sorrier now than he was then.

#and ofc the performance. ten million awards for samantha béart #genuinely my favourite of the companion quest resolutions #karlach's quest is vastly underwhelming she is underutilised as a character and her questlines are mostly boring fetch quests #but that scene. jesus fucking christ that scene #screams #bg3 #karlach