Tear Jerker / Baldur's Gate III

As a Tear Jerker page, all spoilers are unmarked as per wiki policy. You Have Been Warned!

Main Game

General

• At any time, you can choose to end your relationship with whatever character you've romanced — Even in the epilogue. Your ex's reaction will range from heartbreak to outrage.
  Lae'zel: The wounds you inflicted will heal. But they will leave behind scars.
  Astarion: Well. Goodbye then, I suppose. You brought my dead heart back to life. It will keep beating.
• If you side with the Goblins, you agree to raid Silvanus' Grove. You begin by talking with Zevlor, who encourages you inside, unaware that you have turned against them. If you reveal your treachery, he is horrified by your cruelty. Then, once you've slaughtered your way through the fighters, the non-combatants can only beg for their lives as you butcher them.
• If you went to the trouble of making sure the tieflings got out of the Grove safely and wouldn't be harassed going to Baldur's Gate, it can become quite the Player Punch to find most of them slaughtered on the road to Last Light. The ones that did make it are completely traumatized with Survivor's Guilt, with several having only escaped because the cultists were too busy murdering whichever friends and relatives they weren't taking for slaves. And if you're not vigilant during the raid on Last Light they might get murdered in the attack, making your efforts All for Nothing.
• Selune’s defenses in and around the Last Light inn all collapse should her daughter die, showing that she's so devastated by the loss of her child that she can't or won't bring herself to protect her faithful.
  • On the same note, saving her daughter and enlisting her aid in defeating the man who'd kept her imprisoned for a full century results in her descending into Berserker Tears as she stomps his skull into a pile of mush.
• On the way to Auntie Ethel, you end up finding an Addled Frog. If you have Speak with Animals enabled, the frog is revealed to be trying her absolute hardest to not attack you thanks to Ethel's influence on the area driving the animals in the area into a maddened frenzy. You can help her by dealing with Ethel, but if you press the issue too much before then, she'll lose herself completely.
• If you believe the lament of the strange ox — That despite the horrific visions plaguing it, all it wanted was a simple life as a beast of burden eating hay and grass, getting brushed and sleeping in a warm stable — forcing it to transform, which makes it hostile and forces you to kill it, becomes this.
• To get the last Umbral Gem, you'll have to confront Yurgir, a devil that was forced into servitude and now has to kill Shar's Justiciars. When you encounter him, he's got quite the entourage, and fighting them directly will not end well for you. Having him kill his minions does result in a somewhat funny (albeit gory) cut-scene... But then there's the matter of his pet Displacer Beast. Break out the tissue box here, because when you tell him to kill his pet and you succeed on the dice roll, the resulting scene resembles someone deciding to end the suffering of a pet they've had for a long time.
  Yurgir: Just stand perfectly still... (shoots his crossbow)
• Lenore, the architect of the Arcane Tower. Her chambers are full of letters from friends expressing concern over her being a shut-in and handling the death of her beloved dog very poorly. Then, when you reach the apex, you can find Bernard, a construct built to give her hugs and tell her everything will be okay. We never learn what happened to her exactly, but it stings just a little more that you're told about the tower from two of her other friends who don't seem to know how unwell she was.
  • There are two hints about what happened to Lenore: The first is a letter from her friend, begging her not to try to domesticate a bulette. The second is the bulette itself — After you kill and loot it, you can find a piece of medium armor called the Slippery Chain Shirt. Its description reads, “pulled out of a bulette's gut, this chain mail shirt couldn't save it previous owner.” She was so lonely that she tried to make a dangerous creature her companion, and it turned around and ate her. Heartbreaking and nightmare-inducing.
• Defeating Ketheric Thorm in Act II allows you to loot his body. Amongst a selection of weapons, there’s a crumpled note that reads “Papa, I love you. LOVE FROM IZ.” It’s been around a century and he's committed countless atrocities, and he’s still holding this memento of the one thing that mattered to him the most — Isobel.
  • You can additionally loot his chambers and find that he keeps a letter from his late wife in a locked chest at the foot of his bed. If you find this letter before the fight, you can even try to reason with him by bringing her up.
• Orin may be the most Ax-Crazy of the Absolute's Chosen, to the point of sowing the seeds of the Cult's own implosion thanks to her Stupid Evil antics, but her backstory makes it abundantly clear she never had a chance to become anyone else. Raised as a child of incest in a fanatical Bhaal cult, she was attacked by her own mother at the age of seven before killing her and gaining Bhaal's favor in the process. It gets even worse if you uncover the full extent of abuse she suffered at the hands of her father and grandfather, Sarevok (who's been flanderized so horrifically that he comes across as even more depraved and pathetic than he was in the first game) as he was the one who wanted her dead at her mother's hands, but Orin's survival made him realize his plan had actually Gone Horribly Right, and Bhaal couldn't hope for a better Chosen than her if it wasn't for the Dark Urge. Revealing the truth about her upbringing is one of the few things that actually cause Orin to lose her composure, as she desperately tries to deny your words, and what does Bhaal do in response? Force her into the Slayer form so that she can die in battle with you, as he has no further use for her now. As repulsive and monstrous as Orin turned out to be, her upbringing makes it poignantly clear that she was doomed the second she was even born.
• Gortash's backstory doesn't feature as prominently as the other two Chosen's, thanks in large part due to him being comparatively well-adjusted and never alluding to it himself. But doing enough digging will reveal that his life was marked by extremely cruel betrayals and horrific abuse that will make you wonder why he didn't turn out more unhinged. To start with, his own parents sold him off to Raphael to cover their debts, and peering into his mother's thoughts makes it abundantly clear that she never loved him and always considered him a Spoiled Brat who deserved what he got. Being enslaved in the House of Hope is exactly as horrific as it sounds, as you can wander the place yourself as it echoes with the moans of miserable, suffering debtors, and a servant of Raphael's will flat-out tell you that he sadistically bashed up a young Gortash until he was blue in the face, something that even Karlach feels some pity about. After making his escape, Gortash got his revenge by enslaving his own parents with illithid tadpoles, and swore himself into Bane's service and unleashed a new era of brutal tyranny, but it's easy to see that his actions were merely perpetuating the Chain of Harm he himself was subjected to.
• If she survives until then, if you run into Arabella in act 2 she is looking for her parents, who ended up being butchered in the House of Healing. When you tell her, she understandably doesn’t take it well and tells you to go away. And if you find them before finding Arabella and pass an insight check, the narrator notes she’s scared and in no shape to hear the news about her parents yet.
• Killing Shadows in the Shadow-Cursed Lands leaves behind Shadow Vestiges. Clicking on them gives a bit of insight as to who these Shadows were before the Shadow Curse got them. Most of them either tell stories of simpler times or give context as to how they died.
  "She was a healer, trying to aid the wounded in the battle against the Sharrans. But there were so many..."
  "You sense a fading echo of the person who once was. A dockhand. He did not ask for this."
  "You sense this one hid for days as the sounds of battle got closer and closer to town. You didn't even care who won, so long as it ended."
  "A faded memory of a boy and girl sharing their first kiss. Your own heart almost flutters in tune with theirs."
• Reading all the notes in the House of Healing in Reithwin Town can turn one of the game's funniest moments into one of these. The Patients' Registry near the front desk indicates that the House was a normal hospital that treated the "minor diseases and injuries" of the people of Reithwin, and the Staff Betting Pool tells you that the undead nurses a. hadn't always been Sharran cultists and b. took part in some very normal medical break room conversations about unusual objects their patients stuck where they shouldn't. But then, you might notice that no winner is declared for the final round of the betting pool, and Sister Lidwin also didn't participate in the final round. Why? Because she was probably already noticing that things were taking a drastic turn for the worse, and shortly afterward, Ketheric Thorm ordered that anyone who wasn't a Dark Justiciar be turned away from the hospital — which then prompted her to frantically write her note to Harbourside Hospital in Baldur's Gate begging for supplies and aid. On top of that, by the time the players find the notes, they may have already killed some or all of the nurses without a thought to who they may have been in life, because the game doesn't do anything to indicate that they were ever anything but shambling slaves to Malus Thorm. Not that it makes much of a difference in the long run, but it puts a chilling and sad twist on one of the oldest and most effective horror tropes.
• The fate of Viconia, if you were a fan of hers in the original Baldur's Gate. She was always evil, yeah, but it was a pragmatic sort of evil and she did in fact have code of honor focused more on survival to the point of ruthlessness rather than on rampant dog-kicking, and was heavily implied to be that way largely because of the culture in which she was raised. Even her relationship with Shar was shaped by her traumatic past and the drow equation of darkness with comfort and protection. In her non-romanced ending, even if her alignment wasn't changed, she was described as continuing to perform heroic feats, to the point that the queen of the elven city of Suldanessalar personally thanked her for saving it from a Zhentarim plot, and she even proved willing to defy Shar, such as when she slew a cult she founded in Shar's name for betraying her. And yet, by the time the player encounters her in this age, she is a Shar high priestess responsible for the horrifically cruel indoctrination of Shadowheart, a sadistic, abusive, manipulative monster whom the player has no choice but to put down. And you can't even argue that this is a timeline where Viconia never traveled with the Bhaalspawn of Candlekeep, as she has the gems she was given as a reward for saving Suldanessalar in her quarters. Worse, her old traveling companions Jaheira and Minsc both speak of her with nothing but contempt, and are glad to see her dead. It can easily feel like a Take That! to her old fanbase.
• The refugees at the foot of Baldur's Gate have been denied entry due to suspicion that they harbor Absolute spies, as well as general xenophobia. There's also a couple who told their son that they're on vacation to hide how they no longer have a home to go to.
• In a small house just out of sight of Last Light Inn, you will find two skeletons huddled together on a bed, having seemingly laid there to die in each other's arms over a century ago. Looting the skeletons, you will find a wedding ring on each one, suggesting the pair were a married couple.

The Dark Urge

• Alfira's fate if you play as the Dark Urge. While she can potentially die if you side with the goblins, Alfira is guaranteed to die as she can potentially show up at your camp, bright-eyed and looking forward to journeying with you to Baldur's Gate. Most of the camp even welcomes her with open arms. Upon taking a Long Rest, however, you're suddenly treated to the gruesome sight of Alfira dead at your feet. Worse, she did not die peacefully or quickly. And just in case you think you can somehow save her life by killing the Dark Urge before taking a Long Rest, Scleritas Fel will just kill her for you.
• If you knock out Alfira before the night she's set to arrive, you will instead welcome Quill Grootslang, a dragonborn bard who was recently robbed by goblins and seeks refuge at your camp. She's nothing but a bubbly ball of innocence who's quite happy to have a warm welcome on the road for once. So, Bhaalspawn, who's it gonna be?
  • Tangentially related, in the dungeon of the Murder Tribunal, you can find the corpse of a young Flaming Fist member. If looted, you can find a love note on his body addressed to Quill, suggesting he potentially came looking for her and met a fate as grisly as her own at the hands of the other Bhaalspawn.
• Using the sixth-level Heal spell on the Dark Urge allows them to regain a bit of their past. If the spell is cast on them after refusing Bhaal, the Dark Urge can remember happier times when they were a child living in Baldur's Gate playing tag with a bunch of children. Based on your choice of dialogue, the narrator notes how happy the Dark Urge was back then, though the implications of what happened to your childhood playmates and your apparent adopted parents just adds to the overall depressing story that is the Dark Urge's life.
• The Dark Urge PC can potentially lose control and kill their Love Interest. Even if you've been playing them as an Ax-Crazy monster who happily feeds the Urge when it pops up, their look of sheer and utter heartbreak makes it clear that even the Urge itself is totally distraught. There's a unique Non-Standard Game Over where the PC can even convince their companions to put them down out of the utter despair they're feeling and the desire to never hurt anyone again.
• While the Dark Urge's situation is depressing enough if you've been portrayed them as trying to resist the Urge as much as possible, it's evidently worst if they're a Paladin. According to the Oathbreaker Knight, the Dark Urge swore themselves to an oath in an effort to do good, only to succumb to the Urge and break it. When meeting Sarevok at the Court of Murder, he reveals that the Dark Urge entered the Temple of Bhaal dripping with the blood of their order, implying they ultimately succumbed to the Urge and slaughtered everyone they knew.
• While many of them are bugged, the companions' reactions to finding out that the Dark Urge was not only a Bhaalspawn, but Bhaal’s Chosen and mastermind of the whole conspiracy surrounding the Cult of the Absolute, are absolutely devastating. Most of them are understandably furious, but "understandable" doesn't make it any easier to be scathingly rebuked by close friends or lovers for actions that the Dark Urge cannot explain or even remember, especially as some of them also blame the Dark Urge for not telling them the truth despite the fact that they only learned of their connection to the Absolute's leadership right then.

Companions

Astarion

• During Astarion's romance route, he admits to the PC during his confession scene that the sexual slavery Cazador forced him into has left him with a very tainted view of intimacy in general, saying that even when he's with you he can't help the feelings of "disgust and loathing." You can hug him and agree to put sex on the back burner for "as long as (he needs)"... Or you can proposition him immediately, so he can "learn to enjoy sex for (his) own pleasure". He'll go along with it reluctantly, but afterward he'll lash out at the PC for being just one more in a long line of people who have used him. Heartbroken and furious, he breaks off their relationship immediately and storms out on them.
  Astarion: I didn't know how to say no. But I do now.
  • If you approach him in camp afterwards he'll angrily ask why you're bothering him, and if you try to apologize for what you did he won't accept it. Whatever you two had is over.
  Player Character: I can't forgive myself for what happened between us.
  Astarion: I can't forgive you, either.
• If you stop Astarion from deceiving his "siblings" into believing they won't die in the ritual, he'll snap at you afterward that he sees no reason to help others when nobody ever tried to help him or even said anything nice to him, and assures Tav that no one else out there besides them, including him, is actually altruistic and kind. On the one hand, it's kind of flattering to hear he thinks so highly of you. On the other hand, he considers you the only exception to a world where nothing will ever get better, no one does or ever will care about anyone else, and the only solution is to gather as much power for yourself as possible by whatever means necessary before someone else can screw you over.
• Astarion can reveal his darkest moment to the player when they talk to him about luring people back to Cazador: When Astarion took pity on his mark and tried to run, Cazador tracked him down and essentially buried him alive for a year.
• While making your way to face Cazador, you may find a dungeon full of victims Astarion and his "siblings" procured for their Master. Among them is Sebastian, a young man Astarion remembers almost perfectly despite this being one of his earliest targets and deeply regrets luring there. Sebastian, however, hates Astarion for his role in his fate, and is suitably horrified to learn that everyone he ever knew and loved has died in the 170 years he's been down there.
  • If you’re romancing Astarion, you can outright ask him whether he’d have brought you here instead of "that pretty clearing in the forest".
  • Moreover, if you push the topic and force him to admit that he would have almost certainly led you to your doom, he is so distressed by the thought he actually temporarily receives a debuff after the conversation.
• Just the state Astarion is in after you beat Cazador is saddening to see. He’s almost unrecognizable, and nearly unable to be reasoned with after 200 years of hatred, torment and hunger comes out in one horrible moment, and he genuinely wants to kill 7000 people just to spite Cazador by taking his place. Luckily you can talk him around, but seeing someone you've grown to care about or even love in that state is both horrifying and tragic. Astarion will outright tell you, when you talk him down from ascending, that he was so caught up in the moment that he wanted to be like Cazador and will fully acknowledge that he was like a different person there.
  • If you pass the insight check during the ritual, you'll realize he's not just caught up in the moment: All the blood from the ritual is quite literally scrambling his brain and making his vampiric instincts run haywire, meaning he's making a life-altering decision while not in his right mind.
• If you can talk Astarion out of Ascending, he unleashes 200 years of pent-up pain and hatred on Cazador. Neil Newbon holds back nothing during this scene, and while many players may find it satisfying to watch the monster who's been torturing your friend/lover for centuries die a bloody and painful death, it's still really hard to watch said friend/lover get that swept up in his rage and grief and then collapse to his knees, sobbing brokenly and just screaming.
  • Astarion is very clearly in shock afterward, claiming to feel "numb" and speaking with a noticeable tremor in his voice as he begs Tav to lead them out.
  Astarion: This place reeks of death, and I want to feel alive again.
• If he does go through with the ritual, the power instantly goes to his head — He moves into Cazador's palace and declares that he plans to create his own legion of vampire spawn and take his place as the most powerful vampire to ever live... Much like Cazador wanted. It's just... horrible to see him become everything he always hated.
  • There's something just generally very depressing about the state the ascension puts him in: Beyond giving him power, it just seems to have irreversibly corrupted him, his mind and his heart and wholly disconnected him from whatever humanity he had left. Where there was a softness and humanity to him as a spawn, he just seems perpetually angry, dismissive and condescending post-ritual.
  • This is even worse if you've romanced him, as despite his promises to cherish you as his "Consort," it's clear that he now just sees you as one more thing he owns. A successful Wisdom check at his offer to turn you into a vampire will prove that he'll always think less of you if you go through with it.
  • And it gets even worse still! He starts speaking to his "love" in a very patronizing manner, and issues warnings in thinly veiled threats: He won't NEED to Mind Rape them, because of course they won't give him a reason to! They'd never dream of leaving him, would they? It's all too clear that the player has locked themselves into the same sexually-abusive nightmare Astarion himself lived for two centuries, and this time there won't be any mind-flayer abductions to save them.
  • Ascended Astarion speaks in the same cadence — and even uses some of the same hand gestures — as Cazador. It's a brutal reminder that the Astarion players have come to know and love and let Ascend because they valued his agency is gone, replaced by the monster that made him (and possibly Vellioth, the monster that made Cazador), or who-knows-how-many monsters in that vicious cycle.
  • Should you choose the "become a mindflayer" ending, your relationship with Vampire Ascendant Astarion will end — because you're too ugly to be his Consort now. Everything the two of you have shared has already been forgotten, and now he finds the idea of you staying together laughable. This cuts especially deep when you consider that, in the same situation, spawn Astarion will insist that he loves you no matter what you look like and beg you not to call things off.
• After dealing with Cazador, Astarion may take you to visit his grave. Translated, his gravestone reads:
  Astarion Ancunin. 229-268 DR.
  • He was only 39 when he was killed — That would be a young death for a human, but for an elf (a species that typically lives more than 700 years and don't even consider themselves adults until they're somewhere between 80 and 100) it's practically Death of a Child.
  • Doubles as Heartwarming, but there's something beautiful about the player deciding to lay a flower on his grave.
  • We never learn anything about those left behind after his death, but at least someone cared enough to hold a funeral and bury him.
• If you romance Astarion then choose to break off the relationship before facing Cazador, his simply remarks that it's understandable, given that he doesn't "have much to offer right now, beyond new burdens to carry."
  Astarion: I was beginning to believe someone truly wanted me. But I shouldn't have deluded myself.
  • The other break up options are even worse. One is telling him you don't want to be "roped into his trauma". He's devastated, but accepts it readily, thanking you for giving him precious moments of peace and comfort, and wishing only that he could have had a few more. He is also unsurprised by your reasoning, and admits he was basically waiting for the other shoe to drop at some point.
    Astarion: Midnight chimes, eh?
  • The last one, you will tell him he's not ready to be in a relationship and basically imply you're dissatisfied with being with him. He again accepts it without surprise and agrees you probably deserve better than what he offers as a partner. In general, he always assumes he was the problem and it is devastatingly easy to convince him he somehow screwed up the relationship when he did nothing wrong.
• If he doesn't become the Vampire Ascendant, he doesn't immediately start burning in sunlight when the Netherbrain is destroyed, making him wonder if whatever the tadpole did to him is a permanent change, but sure enough, after a few minutes he does in fact start smoldering. He sadly remarks that "it was nice while it lasted" and runs off, yelping in pain and diving for whatever patch of shade he can reach. Best of all, if he and Tav aren't a couple, that's the last we ever see of him.
  • During his Origin playthrough, we see that he does quickly find a shady spot big enough to hide in, at which point he just curls up into a ball to wait for sundown. He almost looks like he might be crying when he does.
• If you're romancing Astarion and then get into a relationship/become friends-with-benefits with Halsin, the latter insists that you get Astarion's go-ahead before anything happens. Astarion jokes about Halsin being completely unsubtle about his intent and claims to be happy to allow the player "as much Halsin as (they) wish"... But then quickly asks if they want Halsin because "You know... We haven't... In a while?". For all that he acts flippant about it, it's clear that his issues with his sexuality and his expectations of what the player would want from him persist, especially with how relieved he seems when the player reassures him that they're not only interested in Halsin or him for sex alone.
• The PC can make a deal with Haarlep the incubus in the House of Hope: In exchange for something they want, he gets to shapeshift into them during sex whenever he wants, the catch being that the PC will feel it when he does so. Astarion thoroughly disapproves, but if he later notices the player character moaning, he gets uncommonly serious, noting that "(he knows) what it's like to lose control over your own body". Everyone else will be extremely uncomfortable with the situation and chew out the player for doing it, but Astarion seems to be the only one fully aware of the ramifications because he's lived through something similar.
  • On the more heartwarming side, if the player resigns themselves to just having to put up with it, he is not okay with their attitude.
  Astarion: That's not the point! You shouldn't have to "put up with it"!
• One conversation with him in camp reveals that he hasn't seen his reflection for 200 years, and doesn't even remember what color his eyes were before he was turned. It really drives home just how much he lost during his time as Cazador's spawn.
• If you get into a love triangle with him and another member of the camp (before his Act II confession), his confrontation dialogue is a bit different from most in that rather than asking you to make a choice between the two, he will simply ask if you're breaking things off with him to go be with your "new true love". If you tell him you'd like to be with him instead, he is visibly shocked and utters a surprised "What? Why?", before quickly trying to laugh it off. While he often plays it off very casually, he's actually a deeply Insecure Love Interest who genuinely never considered that you would choose him over someone else.
  • With the context of his confession — specifically the one you get for completing his Act II quest — this becomes even sadder; he mentions how he doesn't really know how to be in a relationship and that all he knows is being the "smarmy rake" archetype. He's all but convinced that he has nothing other than frivolous, sexy fun to offer and worries everyone else in camp would make a better, "deeper", less-complicated partner than he does.
• If you defend him from Araj's advances in Act II, but once he opens up to you later, rebuke him by saying you only slept with him for fun, not to "deal with all this", he has a particularly cutting response:
  Astarion: Yes! I suppose there's not much point to me if I won't have sex. My only talent, I'm fully aware.
• In the Lower City, you can trigger some ambient dialogue between him and Gale where they discuss faith and Astarion says plainly that he'll be leaving no offerings for any gods. When Gale questions if he's ever felt the call of faith, Astarion explains that he tried praying to every single one of them for help during his enslavement, but none ever answered.
• Arguably the worst way to end things with him, or at least one of the worst, is to just flat out refuse to help him take Cazador's place in the Rite without trying to talk some sense into him. He'll maul Cazador to death the same way he always does, then once his breakdown's over he dismissively tells his siblings "(they) can do whatever (they) want", snaps Cazador's staff over his knee (presumably trapping the 7000 other spawn in the dungeons forever), and declares that he's "done with this" and "done with (the player)" before leaving for good. It doesn't matter how much he liked you beforehand or even if you were a couple — One way or another, your relationship is as dead as the vampire on the ground.
  Astarion: I would say good luck out there, but... Honestly? I hope you die screaming.
  • Right before that verbal knife in the heart, the camera briefly switches to the player and they just look so let down — In earlier versions, it almost looked like they were just starting to shake their head at him in disappointment before it cut away.
• It's also possible to let Astarion start the ritual, then kill Cazador by throwing the dagger Rhapsody into his chest across the chamber, which immediately brings it to an end. Astarion spends a few moments on his knees lamenting the loss of "all that power", and no matter what you say to him after that he'll be absolutely enraged.
  Astarion: I was so close! I could've had it all! But you. Took. Everything from me! Cazador won after all. I'll never escape the hell he built. And if I can't escape, then no one can. Not them *snaps Woe over his knee*... And certainly not you! *Commence Battle*
• In Early Access, Astarion can admit that he was lying about a dream being "enticing" and open up to the player character that he dreamed of "[his] master, Cazador". The player then has the option of making a breathtakingly insensitive joke about not knowing Astarion was into having a master in the bedroom. Astarion immediately flies into nuclear rage at a level hitherto unseen (possibly why the scene got cut from the full release for being out of character) and threatens to brutally kill the player character "on instinct, just to fulfill [his] need to hear [them] scream". It doesn't track with Astarion's general behavior (trying to charm, manipulate, and please the party for his own survival), but absolutely matches with the PTSD he must have from all the Rape by Proxy Cazador made him go through - and opens up awful implications that Cazador personally assaulted him, on top of the honeypot missions.

Gale

• Gale will be despondent if you pursued another party member after romancing him, wishing that you had at least had the decency to talk to him about it first. If you tell him that you would prefer to stay with your new lover over him, he will remark that he will be happy to have your friendship still — Eventually.
• At the tiefling party, Gale may admit he'd spent the past year in self-imposed isolation while he tried to cope with his condition. Only Tara kept him company, and even she was often away searching for artifacts. Few people even attempted to check on him as he'd lost his entire social circle, which he admits was small to begin with. It is a rare glimpse of the loneliness and depression Gale normally keeps quite well-hidden behind his Gentleman and a Scholar demeanor.
• Gale's speech calling out the player if they join the goblins and sack Silvanus' Grove, and calling himself out for being associated with you, one of his few raw emotional outbursts in the game.
  Gale: This is the worst moment: when the screams of the dying have faded, and the conquering hordes howl and yelp as they come to their vile climax. A massacre! A spectacle of slaughter! And I... participated. What are these bloody stumps, that used to be such delicate harpists of the Weave? Two shadows are darkening my soul. The shadow within, and the shadow without: You. You led me down this path. I don't know myself anymore. All this, it's not who I am. Around you, I'm not who I want to be.
• Gale has absolutely no trouble with Mystra's Heroic Suicide plan. No arguing, no "but surely there's a better way", nope — He just immediately accepts that him dying is the best way to fix everything. If you're playing as Gale yourself, you get special dialogue with his tressym, Tara, where she gets so upset at the thought that she can't even look at him and runs away from the conversation.
  • If the player has high rapport with him, it is possible to get Gale to admit that deep down — underneath his philosophical acceptance and wry commentary — he doesn't want to die and is utterly terrified by what Mystra has asked him to do. Which makes his commitment to following through with it all the more heartbreaking.
• When Elminster arrives to deliver Mystra's orders, he goes off on several rambling tangents before getting to the point. He may seem like a Cloudcuckoolander, but as the conversation goes on, it becomes clear Elminster is stalling because he very much hates having to tell Gale (whom he once mentored) he's been given a death sentence.
• If a romanced Gale dies in combat, using Speak With Dead on his corpse opens up a new question to ask. It turns out that Gale takes the phrase Undying Loyalty very literally.
  Player: Do you have any last words for me?
  Gale: When your sky dims... I will be there... waiting...
• Having Gale interact with the portal to Waterdeep in the House of Hope prompts a simple, mournful response:
  Gale: Gods, I wish I were home.
• In the dryad's love test, the player is asked what Gale's greatest flaw is. Surprisingly it is not his ego or pride as one might expect, but rather his belief that he and the world would be better off if he were dead.

Halsin

• Should you head to Baldur's Gate without lifting the shadow curse, Halsin, heartbroken by his failure, will choose to stay behind. It cannot be understated how completely and utterly devastated the Narrator wants you to know he is.
• Halsin revealing that he was kept as a sex slave for three years, especially because he downplays it so hard that it sounds like deep denial.
• Halsin telling the player that every other member of his family died long ago. Crosses over into heartwarming when he admits that he considers the player to be his family now.
• If the Rite of Thorns is completed, when you tell him Halsin instantly goes into shock. He then mentions that there’s no reason for him to fight anymore and tells you he’ll met you at your camp. He then sadly states that you can defeat the goblins if you wish and that he needs to be alone for a little bit.

Jaheira

• Khalid's letter is equal parts this and heart-warming, especially if you've played the previous games.
  'Since you've forbidden the writing of poems, I had to get Creative this year. I tracked down a retired Cormyrian war wizard with a magical method of transferring mental imagery to parchment. The art is... Imperfect, and perhaps better suited to Espionage than nameday gifts. With all my love, and from a safe distance. Khalid.
  Jaheira: "You twine your life around the people you love. And when they are gone, you grow around their absence instead. It is just another way they shape you."

Karlach

• If you choose to romance Karlach, she will be delighted to hear that you return her affections, even walking away from your agreement to meet later with a victorious "Yes!" It makes it all the more heartbreaking that, because of her infernal engine being out of control, she is incapable of touching you as she desperately wants to. You can persuade her to kiss you, but this will result in your face getting singed, much to her horror.
• Just the fact that Karlach, perhaps the sweetest companion you can recruit, gets no happy ending. At worst, she dies because of her infernal engine. At best, either Tav or Wyll joins her back in Avernus — a literal hell that she says she would rather die than return to — or she chooses to be turned into a mind-flayer. The tragedy of that last scenario is slightly downplayed, since she retains her personality and it stops her infernal engine from killing her without her having to return to Avernus and she's so happy about it that she treats this new ordeal as more of a minor inconvenience. Still, the whole situation is wildly unfair.
• Karlach's breakdown after confronting Gortash is absolutely jaw-dropping in its performance, the kind that empties out a kleenex box or two. If you've ever had a loved one diagnosed with a terminal illness, it might bring back some painful memories.
  Karlach: I feel like there should be a sunset for me to ride off into, or an orchestral swell, or... Something. But there's nothing, is there? I killed the bastard who ruined my life, and my prize is I get to crawl into a corner and die. Am I fucking missing something?! [...] I'm going to be as dead as Gortash any day now. Any moment. And what then? Off to the City of Judgment to waste into oblivion? Into the dirt to get eaten by maggots? Is that it for me?! Is that fucking all?! And you - You'll just keep going, won't you? Watching the stars. Warming your hands on the campfire. Dancing, eating, making fucking love all night - All of it, all of it. (Karlach's flames light up) That's my reward for everything I suffered. That's why I survived ten years of torment. The fighting, the clawing, the loneliness, the fucking loneliness... All of it, so I could rot. Because the person I trusted most gave me away to the devil. (the flames go out, and she begins to cry) It isn't fair!
• If you don't meet her until after siding with the goblins and massacring the Grove, word will have already reached her by then and she reacts to you with the kind of rage and hatred we don't see from her at any other point in a regular playthrough. Even successful rolls for deception, intimidation, etc. will not fool or scare her. At best you can convince her to let you fuck off before you attract any attention to her, and if you speak to her again she will become violent.
• Her response to killing Mizora, which sends the Cambion back to the hells, is harrowing. She's right there with Wyll as he suddenly starts to freak out, leaving most of the party wondering what exactly is wrong until Wyll is suddenly engulfed in flames and dragged into the hells along with Mizora for violating their contract through no fault of his own. According to D&D lore regarding devil contracts, which Karlach will explain if asked, Wyll is going to be tortured into a lemure, a horrific blob of melted flesh in a constant state of agony forever. She will rightly blame us and become despondent that a renowned hero and close friend, who refused to hurt her at great cost to himself, is going to suffer such a fate with no way to do anything about it.
  Karlach: How could I let this happen? To Wyll... To Wyll.
• Karlach will be heartbroken if you break up with her. She'll try to understand why and how it happened while reaffirming she still loves you, but doesn't know how to deal with it when the person she leans on when hurting is the one who hurt her. She'll claim to hurt in ways she didn't know she could (which is really saying something after being trapped in hell for 10 years). One choice will result in you unintentionally convincing her that she was at fault, that she made the wrong choices or acted the wrong way, flooding her with regret. Even if you immediately take it back, she'll sternly remind you that people's hearts, especially hers, are not playthings to discard and pick back up — You WILL get burned for it — and that the player needs to figure their mind out before hurting anyone else.
• The above doesn't even come close to her reaction if you cheat on her with Mizora. She will initially respond with anger and disbelief, then be utterly betrayed and devastated that you would do this both to her and Wyll by sleeping with an agent of Zariel. Her voice will be hoarse and broken, yet if you respond right she'll be willing to give you another chance if she believes you were manipulated, but you're still on thin ice.
• Her death scene in her worst ending is harrowing. Just as everyone is celebrating victory against the Netherbrain, everyone realizes that Karlach is nowhere to be seen...cue everyone discovering that Karlach has mere minutes to live as she's screaming and burning in agony. After fighting through the pain to give the PC one final goodbye, she burns into ash and it just...ends. The worst possible ending for one of the nicest and most heroic companions in the game is her dying an excruciating death as her friends watch helplessly.
  • Doubly so if you play as Karlach during this scene. You are treated to her inner monologue as she prepares to die, and while she is certain that this is better than returning to Avernus, she is clearly terrified throughout the whole ordeal, and dialogue choices here (as more internal monologue) range from her holding onto a shred of hope that she can resist burning out, to calmly accepting her death, to her panicking as she tells herself that she's not ready to die yet.

Lae'zel

• If you reject Vlaakith's offer and successfully convince Lae'zel to do the same, she will have a major crisis of faith. For the first time in the story, you see the resolute Githyanki warrior break down upon seeing how the highest power and object of worship in her culture has forsaken her, to the point where she'll be in denial for awhile afterwards, as she believes she can still win Vlaakith's favor. It's not until Voss comes to her that she accepts the truth and snaps out of her funk.
  • It's arguably even worse if she wasn't present for the conversation with Vlaakith (or if she was unconscious at the time). After all the blood she's shed and spilled fighting by your side, learning that you made such a momentous decision without her — a decision that has effectively marked her as a traitor to the Githyanki for helping you — causes her to rage at you for a while before quietly declaring that she needs time alone to think.
• If Orpheus is a Mindflayer at the end of the game, Lae'zel can potentially attempt to kill him when he appears one last time. You can either let her do the deed...or stab her in the back to stop her. Doing the latter nets you a poignant scene of Lae'zel realizing you betrayed her in her final moments, as she bleeds out on the ground with her face twisted in a combination of anger and despair at the PC's actions.

Minsc

• Talking to Minsc about his previous adventures will lead to him eventually talking about Dynaheir and how she initially hated living in Baldur's Gate until she discovered Sorcerous Sundries, where she would then drag Minsc to every single day to look at the various magical items. As the story goes on, Minsc's smile fades a bit as he reminisces. Despite his seemingly unbreakable and jovial nature, it's clear that he still misses Dynaheir very much.
• After getting Minsc back, he and Jaheira will immediately start arguing in camp: Jaheira is upset that Minsc doesn't seem to bear her any ill-will for leaving him behind, then when Minsc calls Jaheira his Wychlaran she gets even more upset and reminds him that she is not his witch, she is his friend, and she doesn't want him to treat her as anything else or vice versa. Most of the conversation is Anger Born of Worry on Jaheira's part, but knowing how much Minsc misses Dynaheir also suggests that Minsc is trying to use Jaheira as a Replacement Goldfish for her or perhaps is being so reckless lately in part because he considers losing Dynaheir his ultimate failure and he desperately doesn't want to lose his last living friend.
• Minsc approves of killing Viconia at the House of Grief. Even if she was the Token Evil Teammate in the other games and a bit of a Jerkass in general, it's still disheartening to see Minsc happy to put down a former ally.

Minthara

• Minthara can give some insights into what life is like among drow's high society and how messed up it can be. Assassins were already trying to kill her when she was just a baby, and she was only saved by her mother shielding Minthara with her own body. Then when Minthara came of age, her mother would try to kill her herself. While Minthara justifies this as an act of Tough Love on her mother's part in order to prepare her for the cruelty of drow society, she would spent most of her youth without friends or lovers out of paranoia that they might betray her. The player character can be the first, and probably only, person whom Minthara can genuinely trust.
  • Speaking of lovers, Minthara reveals in a conversation with Karlach that her first lover was a high priestess of House Vandree. However, the romance came to a tragic end when Minthara was given orders to kill her. She complied, but gave her lover some comforting words as the poison did its work. Karlach is left speechless by the revelation.
• Learning more about Minthara once you recruit her makes killing her at the goblin camp (or at the Emerald Grove during the raid) Harsher in Hindsight. At first glance she looks like just an Ax-Crazy Bad Boss who relishes in slaughtering innocent men, women, and children in the Absolute's name, but after you save her from execution and free her from the Absolute's control, you learn that many of her atrocities were the result of the cult's brainwashing.
• After defeating Orin the Red, Minthara is left only partially satisfied that the woman who violated her and relished in her suffering is gone, knowing that in Orin, Minthara saw a broken and deranged reflection of herself, just as she was under the Absolute's thrall. The drow notes soon after how fortunate she was that you took her in as a companion, lamenting that should she have died when you first met her, she would've been just another nameless victim of your crusade against the Cult of the Absolute, utterly forgettable.
  Minthara: If you had killed me when we first met, I would have been just one more casualty of your crusade against the Absolute. And nobody would remember me...
• If you're playing as Karlach romancing Minthara, when your infernal engine begins to melt by the end of the game, the drow offers to accompany you back to Avernus to keep yourself both alive and out of Zariel's clutches. But should you refuse her offer and insist that you'd rather die in your home than to return to the Hells, Minthara collapses into Broken Tears knowing that she's doomed to lose her lover with your choice and opts to accompany you in your last moments instead.
  Minthara: All of your strength, all of your passion... All of your fire. Extinguished. Such a waste. I will never understand it, and I do not accept it. But if this is what you choose, I will stay with you until the end.

Shadowheart

• While it is enough to give her second thoughts, trying to talk her down from killing the Nightsong^note Unless you succeed the persuasion roll after selecting "Choose your own way" and "Your life is whatever you make it", which will skip right to her tossing away the spear; but given that it's DC 30, unless your Tav is a Charisma-based class with Persuasion expertise, odds are your only hope is a Critical Success. will eventually end in her saying that she'll step over your corpse to fufill what Shar is asking if you continue to argue against her. She's not bluffing either; If you choose "You want to fight? Fine." after that, she'll lament that she didn't want to fight, she wanted you to see reason, before initiative is rolled. Given that she's been a part of the story and quest since the beginning, seeing her turn against her friends for a misguided goal is heartbreaking; more so on subsequent playthroughs after you know that her loyalty to Shar is based on lies.
• Turning her back on Shar in Act 2 breaks her, badly. She loses all her smarm, and if you tell her to wait at camp to swap out another party member, she dejectedly claims that it's a good idea to send her packing, because she'd "just be deadweight anyway." She's in a deep depression for several long rests after that, and still quite morose until the conclusion of her personal arc in Act 3.
  • When you return from the Shadowfell after sparing Nightsong, Shadowheart will "land" worse than the others, revealing to you that before you left, she was pulled aside by Shar to be thoroughly rejected and condemned. She's cagey with details, but its made clear the experience is horrifying for her. Adding to this, she still has her cleric abilities, but the narrator notes that she can't bring herself to admit where they're coming from now (Selune), and admitting it might fully break her. Given that she's spent decades bad-mouthing and spiting Selune due to her church's teachings, the conversion is humiliating.
• If she breaks free of Shar's curse in Act 3 by sacrificing her parents, as they requested, she'll spend the rest of the game in mourning. Realistically, her feelings will come and go, but the moments when her loss hits her are heartbreaking.
• Shadowheart can have some of her memory restored by consuming a Noblestalk mushroom, where she's given a brief memory of her childhood. In the memory, she's being bullied by the other Sharran recruits, mocking her name choice and otherwise being jerks to her, with only one acting as her Only Friend... Who she can't even remember. You can later reunite with the friend, Nocturne, and she'll remain the only Sharran not hostile to Shadowheart should she turn on Shar. This should be something to take comfort in, except Shadowheart can't remember her at all and is unsure how to proceed with her. Nocturne insists that, despite remaining loyal to Shar, she refuses to fight or pursue Shadowheart, and while she can try to encourage Nocturne to turn on her as well, Nocturne admits she's not as brave as Shadowheart, making it pretty clear she's only remaining a Sharran out of fear.
• When you reach Baldur's Gate after she's turned her back on Shar, she's confronted by members of her former cloister who waste no time in berating and insulting her. When you go to the House of Grief itself, she's met with more of the same. It's not just betrayal, there is genuine contempt and spite in all their words. Whether you've romanced her or not, it can be anything from heartbreaking to infuriating listening to scum like this talk down to her, especially when you consider that it's probably been going on the entire time she's been a Sharran.
• At the House of Grief, Shadowheart can finally confront her Mother Superior, Viconia DeVir herself, about why she went to all this effort — Kidnapping her as a child, keeping her parents locked up, erasing her memories, brainwashing her, sending her on a suicide mission, cursing her with a painful chronic injury in her hand that causes spikes of intense pain any time Shar wishes, etc — just to break her, and her particularly, wondering why she was so special. The reason given? She wasn't special, Shar just wanted to spite Selune by corrupting one of her followers completely and she was just the first young Selunite they tripped over. All this torment, a lifetime of abuse and mistreatment, everything they did to her and her parents and made her do, just for petty spite directed at someone else.
• The glimpses we get of her life as a Sharran during this adventure is pretty chilling.
  • On the way down to face Viconia, you can come across two side rooms that are locked, but are easily picked open. One is an infiltration training room, where a number of disguises and fanciful sets of clothing sit, and Shadowheart muses that this was her favourite part of training because she got to pretend to be someone else for a bit. Yeesh. On the other side there's the interrogation room, where Sharrans are trained as masters of torture; while Shadowheart doesn't precisely remember the training, she's hit with a sense of muscle memory, and realizes she definitely took part in torture with obvious regret and self-loathing.
  • You can find a small nook where Shadowheart used to hide from the others, which she'd decorated to resemble a nice forest scene... One that looks very similar to the glade she was abducted from. Here you can find a page from her diary she'd hidden away, where she's deeply worried about the fact her memory is about to be wiped and she absolutely doesn't want it. Considering how, at the beginning, she'd believed her memory wipe was consensual, this pretty much confirms that it was forced on her and she'd just been lied to or given false memories of agreeing.
  • You can find a diary of Viconia's where she'd been taking notes on Shadowheart's indoctrination step-by-step, and Shadowheart is deeply disturbed by how clinical it sounds, like she was being treated like an experiment. Considering that Shar had her kidnapped and put through all this just to prove that any Selunite can be driven to Shar's side, that's pretty much exactly what she was.
    • During this, Shadowheart notes that there are four decades worth of notes. Older Than They Look at play, but this means that Shadowheart has been enduring all this abuse and horror for forty years. Not quite as bad as Astarion, maybe, but still pretty bad.
  • During the fight with Viconia, when she finally reveals where her parents are, she casually informs Shadowheart that she's actually been to see them many times, she just kept having her memory of them wiped after. These visits weren't for her benefit, either, they were to rub it into her parents' faces how their daughter's brainwashing was coming along, which included having Shadowheart herself take part in their torture. As much as it adds to her own self-loathing, the horror her parents must have felt seeing their daughter being corrupted this way is indescribable.
    • Instead of killing Viconia, the player also has the option of betraying Shadowheart to her in exchange for Sharran support against the Absolute. After everything you and Shadowheart have been through, even potentially being her lover and/or someone she respects and believes in as her confidant and best friend, you can easily toss her to Viconia just for some extra firepower in the final battle. The gut punch Shadowheart experiences moments before being dragged away is made worse when every companion disapproves of such an act - even Lae'zel, someone who had attempted to murder her much earlier in the game, views handing her over to be brainwashed as a fate that not even she deserves.
    • Try talking to Shadowheart after a long rest, where you find her memories wiped again and turned into an obedient worshipper of Shar who has no memory of her adventures and time spent with you and the rest of the party. Trying to connect with her via your tadpole reveals that she truly is beyond the point of saving, and that any memories of her will die with the player. Trying to break through to her, whether it's apologizing for betraying her or reminding her that she was your lover, only weirds her out and has her asking you to leave her alone. The Shadowheart you knew is truly gone, leaving a Shar-worshipping shell in her place, and it's all your fault.
  • All of this leads up to Shadowheart finally learning her birth name: Jenevelle Hallowleaf. However, she can't bring herself to use the name again, as she just has no memories of ever being called it. She didn't even know how to spell it. While she decides to reframe "Shadowheart" in a positive manner, its a sad reminder just how much of her identity and self was taken from her.
• In the end, Shadowheart has to just accept that her stolen memories are permanently lost, as there's no way to make Shar return them.
• Finally, after all is done, she takes you to a Selune shrine to fully convert, but also to finally let go of everything. Here, she finally breaks down in tears, the first time she can ever remember crying, as her tears were beaten out of her by all she went through previously and any time before that has been taken from her.
• Completing her romance arc after she becomes a Dark Justiciar can be deeply disturbing. Driven to despair by what she did to secure her place in the Coven (i.e. killing her parents), she begs Shar to wipe her memories again. The romance scene after this? She takes you to a shrine of Selune to pour the blood of Selune’s daughter Nightsong on it before propositioning Tav for sex. Right in front of the shrine she just desecrated. What should be a beautiful moment for Shadowheart and Tav is more of an absolute victory for Shar, having hollowed out one of Selune's chosen so thoroughly that she'd consummate three cold-blooded murders under an act of sacrilege. Convincingly written for what we'd expect of a cleric of Shar, but absolutely gut-wrenching to know that this psychopath is all that's left of the girl who loved animals and wanted to grow a colourful flower garden.
• Romancing Shadowheart then trying to romance any other origin companion, or even just accepting their come-on, makes Shadowheart break things off. With Wyll in particular, she decides that even if the player is willing to love them both, she can't imagine someone from Wyll's noble background and the circles he runs in being OK with his lover having another lover, and feels that when you eventually had to choose you wouldn't pick her. You don't even get the option of choosing her, she decides to just take her heart out of the equation before it gets shattered. It's a pretty rough turn of events, not helped by the fact that rejecting the other companion's come-on is in itself pretty tear-jerking.

Wyll

• Rejecting Wyll's advances is quite a gut punch, in part because it happens after a beautiful cutscene where you dance under the stars. The way his face falls as he backs away looks like you kicked a puppy!
• His relationship with his patron, Mizora. She lives for Wyll's anguish and gets her kicks from making Wyll as miserable as she possibly can through lies and manipulation.
  • If Karlach lives, Mizora straight up strips him of his humanity, transforming him into something that looks like a Tiefling without a tail. Unlike normal Tiefling horns, which at least look somewhat natural, Wyll's look more clearly like they've been unnaturally fused to his head.
  • Worse, if Karlach dies, Mizora reveals herself as normal, but she rewards Wyll with a unique piece of armor and tells him he did a marvelous job… before immediately talking down to him as a “good pup” and revealing that Karlach was in fact a Tiefling and not a Devil and she gleefully watches Wyll wrangle with his conscience before assuaging him that she was literally heartless and thus part of his pact. When she leaves, Wyll is disturbed by what happened and starts to wonder if Mizora’s manipulated him before, then he tries to justify it in his head. It starts to resemble an abusive relationship more than anything and Mizora’s likely been gaslighting him for years.
  • She forces him to choose between his father's life or eternal servitude. In either case, she sticks around simply to watch him suffer at the impossible choice he had to make^note You can pull off saving his father's life without her help, but Mizora just brushes it off and goes on to suggest she'll keep hassling Wyll's family anyway.
• In general, Wyll's backstory. He was a loyal son who idolized his father, Duke Ravengard, and was a proud citizen of Baldur's Gate. However, Mizora appeared to him on Zariel's orders to warn him of Tiamat's arrival, and tempted him into a bargain for the power to defeat her cultists and save the city. Wyll accepted in order to keep Baldur's Gate safe, but was barred from speaking of the pact's details, so when his father returned and found his son having became a Warlock in service to a fiend with no evidence of Wyll's heroism, and Wyll wasn't able to explain without Mizora's consent, Duke Ravenguard assumed the worst and banished Wyll. After this, Wyll dedicated himself to protecting the Sword Coast as a travelling hero, using the power he's claimed for good. He is, by far, the most selfless and noble companion in the game, and it has caused him nothing but pain.
• Over the course of the game, Wyll continues to suffer: Besides the aforementioned ordeals Mizora puts him through, but he has to watch his father be abducted,infected, and mind-controlled by the Absolute, then suffer his vitriol if/when he eventually saves him because he still doesn't know Wyll's reasons. You can help Duke Ravenguard see the truth and allow Wyll to earn a happy ending on this point, at least, but its a long journey to get there.
  • Worse, if you talk to a mind-controlled Duke Ravengard, he will address Wyll affectionately, express how happy he is that Wyll came back to him, and say he's excited for them to work together to usher in a new era of the world—and Wyll knows immediately that it's 100% the tadpole speaking because his father would never actually say those things. Ouch.
• As a direct result of him choosing the right thing to do and sparing Karlach, and thus being transformed into a half-devil, Wyll now endures a lot of abuse and discrimination for his apparent Tiefling nature. Any time he tries to invoke his name or his father's rank, he's met with disbelief because people know Duke Ravenguard never had a tiefling son, and they point this out in the cruelest fashion. Florrick is horrified by what's happened to him, and Duke Ravenguard himself can throw this in his face when berating him. Even the player can insult him over it (even if said player is playing a tiefling themselves).
• The fact that Wyll, easily the most heroic and selfless of the Origin companions, can be condemned to spend an eternity in the Hells as a lemure if you fail to save Mizora in Act 2. The mere fact that someone so noble, someone who always wants to do the right thing and help people even at the cost of his well-being, could potentially suffer an eternity in the Hells as a half-melted blob of flesh is extremely sickening and saddening. Even worse is that the player can condemn him to such a fate themselves if they willingly kill Mizora. Karlach's reaction (detailed above) hammers in how a good man is suffering inconceivably, and there is nothing that can be done to save him.

Epilogue

The Playable Epilogue included in Patch 5 is set six months after the Final Battle, and some characters' subsequent fates inspire tears.

• In the extended epilogue, if you ignore Astarion's personal quest, you find out that he's spent the last six months feeding on rats and hiding from Cazador in fear - exactly the same condition he was in at the start of the game, with nobody to turn to but himself and Tav. When describing his current situation, he says the downs outweigh the ups, and you can sense the fear in his voice because he realizes that nothing has changed and Cazador still has a leash on him, and will do anything to get him back.
  • Astarion will beg Tav to help him kill Cazador, even resorting to buttering them up in hopes that they'll say yes. Any character development, whether he remains unascended or not, is completely wasted as Astarion - once again - is forced into sucking up to the leader of the party to better his odds of survival. But compared to how manipulative he was at the start of the game, his attempts at manipulating Tav here come off as far more pathetic, showing how far he's fallen on desperate times.
  • You can play dumb as Astarion explains his situation, leading to him calling you out on not even offering to help when taking on Cazador should be relatively simple given your capabilities. If you still refuse to help him, stating you're done fixing other people's problems, he'll bitterly say that now you're the saviour of a city, it's obviously beneath you to help just one person, and after centuries being alone he shouldn't have expected anything else. The exchange hits pretty hard if you had a particular conversation with him in Act 1, where he angrily points out that no heroes ever cared to help him escape centuries of torture. Now you're just one more "hero" who can't be bothered, even after all you went through together.
    • If you're feeling guilty about refusing to help him and try to speak to him afterwards, he'll just lament that the party can't end soon enough and then end the conversation. He's obviously come all this way hoping that you'll help him, and is absolutely crushed that now it's probably only a matter of time before he's recaptured by Cazador.
• A romance with Ascended Astarion continues to prove a bad idea for the player character. The player character and Astarion will come to the party together, and the player will be given an option to define how they feel about their current situation. If the player character expresses satisfaction with their lot, Astarion is superficially charming, but with a condescending, insidious edge. If they bring up any doubts about the arrangement, however, he makes it clear what his love has become. A simple quote doesn't do it justice, Newbon's voice acting is just chilling:
  Ascended Astarion: "I give you wealth, power, pleasure — every decadence that can be afforded to a person? But you'd rather — what — sleep in the dirt again? You are my consort, and I will see you living the very best life. Even if you don't appreciate it. Why don't you go and mingle? Have fun with your so-called friends. I'll be here when you're done."
• If Karlach died, it is possible to talk to Withers about her. He cannot bring her back, but he does note that her soul still exists on the Fugue Plane, and that it still burns so brightly that even the gods themselves cannot bear to look upon it.
• Gale:
  • If a romanced Gale sacrificed himself atop the Netherbrain, Star-Crossed Lovers is in full effect. His resurrection protocol activates and a magic projection appears... only to state that Gale's soul was lost and he is permanently dead. Instead the projection transmits Gale's dying message: that he focused his final thoughts on his beloved and thus died at peace, and that he fiercely wants them to go on and live a happy life. Should Tav attempt one final kiss, they only phase through the projection. There's just enough of Gale in the projection for it to remark "I can see why I loved you" before it too permanently fades away, leaving Tav collapsed alone in grief.
    • If Gale was not romanced, the player can go in for a hug, with the same result. The look on Tav's face is devastating.
  • If Gale has tried to pursue godhood by taking Mystra's place (and got swiftly destroyed for it), the magic projection appears as well, and will readily admits that Gale realized how much he had fucked up during his last moments and spent them deeply regreting everything.
  • If Gale has ascended to godhood, his loved ones mourn the loss of "human" Gale. Tara says his mother wants to reminisce about who he used to be, the exact same wording used in the above scenarios where Gale is dead. Elminster's letter laments that Gale was once such a kind and sensitive child he cried over accidentally destroying flowers with his magic, a contrast to the cold arrogance he exhibits as the god of ambition. Perhaps saddest of all is that Gale's romantic arc establishes his deep insecurity about being worthy of love as a person rather than for his magical gifts. But the reactions of his mother, Tara, and Elminster make it clear he was loved as a person all along, and that Gale has no idea what his ascension truly cost him.
• While most of Halsin's part of the epilogue is one heartwarming moment after another, if he's romanced with the player, he will admit he's worried they'll regret settling down at his commune with him, and that part of him still doesn't believe it's entirely real, worrying that he'll wake up from the dream eventually. He says the player could have had anyone, but chose him. Even if the player can reassure him and cheer him immediately, seeing him so unsure of himself is painful.
• Patch #5 gives an extended ending in the outcomes where the Dark Urge becomes Bhaal's Chosen, but destroys the Netherbrain in an act of defiance. The Dark Urge knows Bhaal is pissed and fully intends to make them pay for their defiance, which results in the following options:
  • If the Dark Urge elects to kill themselves rather than let the Urge consume them, they're greeted by Withers who congratulates them for their final act of defiance toward Bhaal. The Dark Urge notes that the Urge is gone at last, but the fact remains they are still dead. Withers tells them their story is far from over, however, implying there may be new opportunities to come even after death. What makes this ending so bittersweet is that, much as he does in the outcome where the Dark Urge defies Bhaal and refuses to become his champion and resurrects them after Bhaal kills the Dark Urge, Withers is implied to have saved the Dark Urge's soul from being wiped and returned to Bhaal after their death.
  • The Dark Urge elects to lock themselves in a jail cell before they go mad from the Urge. Withers visits them in prison, if only to see whether you still have some vestiges left of your sanity. Six months later during a party where your companions are briefly reunited, the Dark Urge stumbles onto the camp, covered in blood and twitching like mad as their mind has fully succumbed to the Urge. There is nothing left of them anymore other than a mad, broken sycophant of Bhaal, little more than a prisoner trapped within their own body as they go to slaughter their companions and potentially even their loved one in their sleep. Unlike previous instances where you could resist the Urge, you can't do a damn thing to stop yourself.
  Narrator: What is this place? It was something. Once. Bonds, warmth, strength, fear...love...

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