#hell that heartwrenching bit could've been in relation to multiple characters and a choice we make

[haldenlith]

My brain has, like everyone else, been going "brrr" on the mention of a "heartwrenching ending" that was mentioned for "one of the characters".

For the most part, I agree that a lot of signs point to Astarion being the unfortunate character to potentially have an unfortunate ending, but I'd argue any of our companions has the capability, given they're all entangled in some crazy shit, with maybe the exception of Lae'zel (let's be real, her quest is honestly fairly straight forward, excluding the tadpole situation). All that said, another character comes to mind as being the other candidate for being the tragic one: Karlach.

She's got Zariel to contend with, on top of the whole "I have a blazing infernal engine in my chest" deal. Zariel's no joke, and I'm not sure how we (the players) are meant to deal with Karlach's issue of being a runaway slave to her. Granted, there's the possibility the Archduchess of Avernus will simply not give a shit and be too busy fighting the Blood War to care about one soldier, but still. Karlach's got a hell of an issue (pun somewhat intended) there that could backfire spectacularly and tragically. In the case of the Engine, maybe even literally.

With Astarion, he's got... a lot. There's the potential of betrayal, sure. That one is obvious. He could betray our Tav, of course, and that would suck. But, I'm more focused on other little beats. Someone brought up the potential to reverse the process of becoming a vampire spawn with the caveat of the spawn not being enthralled for more than 200 years, which it's possible that's an angle Astarion will attempt to take and be cruelly surprised by (ie "Surprise! You're stuck like this"). There's also the fact that he's got some sort of seal on his back, something we still haven't even the foggiest clue could mean. And, perhaps in relation to that, Astarion's got more than just Cazador after him, for reasons unknown. For all we know, Cazador auctioned off Astarion's body and soul in exchange for some mysterious boon, and we won't find out until it kicks in. There are so many ways his story can go tits up, despite his (and/or our) best efforts.

Basically, what I'm saying is that both Astarion and Karlach, in my opinion, have the biggest "Everything can go right, and you can still lose" energy.

#haldie rambles #astarion #karlach #ultimately just me rambling and spinfoiling #hell that heartwrenching bit could've been in relation to multiple characters and a choice we make #we don't know #and that's the beauty of it #but yes those two lovely fools are my candidates for #“Voted Most Likely to Have Something Awful Happen to Them In Spite of Everything”