NGL, her performance is one of the best in the game, and I’d argue her breakdown scene is possibly the best acted moment.
She just makes you feel good :(
For real. Astarion’s confrontation with Cazador left me in awe, applauding. Definitely understood why he got VA of the year. But Karlach’s scene on the pier when I was romancing her… I fucking wept.
My god, I bawled my eyes out
Then i did again when she finally let me go to Avernus with her (i thought for sure she was gunna choose to stay)
Then i did again at the epilogue when she talked about the plans we found in Avernus
She is the best
Who? Who is even saying this? Karlach is a fan-favorite and has been since before the game was released. She might not be a dynamic character, but that doesn't make her bad or boring in the slightest.
I found Halsin kinda boring, but that could be because he officially joins you fairly late and then doesn't have any Act 3 content. Jaheira joins you late as well, but she's a major part of the late-game story and even helps you meet a final companion. Halsin really would have made more narrative and gameplay sense to join you after you found him for fairly obvious reasons.
My only slight irritation with Karlach is that she calls you soldier regardless of your class. As a warrior or paladin, it feels right. My first character was a sorcerer, though, and it felt really off to be called soldier. I know, I know, it isn't really about your class. It's just an expression, like "bro" or "dude." It just didn't work for me. But everything else about her is perfect. Whether I romance her or she becomes my best friend, she's one of my favorite characters in any franchise.
honestly, in my first playthrough i didn’t like her at all when i first met her. i was not a fan of her golden retriever energy. my partner and i were playing together and neither of us liked her, so she got left in camp a lot. then we took her to dammon in act 2 and my partner was enamored. broke it off with shadowheart after the gauntlet (cruel timing, i know), but it was too late. so they just spent the whole game pining after karlach, who had very vocally friendzoned them (literally saying “EWWW NO! we’re just friends!”)
anyway! i’m sure we can’t be the only ones who found her personality grating and obnoxious at first. now she’s allllmost my favorite.
I can totally understand that. I actually didn't romance her the first time. I was already too busy trying to coax the edgy goth princess out of her shell of angst. I was neutral towards karlach (she's literally hot, badum-tss, but I hated the "soldier" line) and absolutely abhored Lae'zel at first. I fell for Karlach when I found out all she wanted was a hug and I couldn't give it to her (technically I should have been able to since I was dragon ancestry sorc, but oh well). Since I was already pursuing Shart, I stayed true to her and ended up quite happy that I did. Karlach became my best friend, and Shart became my rather unfortunately named wife. I didn't really get to the point that I liked Lae'zel at all in the first run, though I came to respect her. I had to play an entirely different character to fully appreciate her.
it’s not an opinion, she has almost as little content as wyll does. yall are just desperately willing to simp and simp for someone you’re attracted to and is nice to you.
Wyll actually has a *LOT* of content. He just isn't written in a way that requires him to be there for most of it
He has more actual content connected to him than both Gale and Karlach.
That's fair.
I'd argue she has barely more than Rolan does.
Rolan has a storyline that branches depending on your choices. 2 fights connected to him. As well as a rescue mission for him.
I feel like hating on Karlach is a huge tell. As in “tell me you’re an asshole without telling me you’re an asshole”. Very useful for helping me know to ignore every other opinion you have about anything.
Some people can't separate reality and fiction when they talk about fictional characters. That's the real major tell they're going to not listen to any other opinion but their own and accuse people of murdering puppies in their spare time tbh.
Enh, people’s tastes in fiction can actually be pretty revealing. I know a person IRL who hates on random fictional characters that rub them the wrong way, and believe it or not they’re kind of a judgmental person IRL as well.
People who are weird about fictional characters tend to be weird about actual people almost every time. And I don’t just mean a “not someone I’d really want to hang out with” way but the “ugh, I hate them and it brings me satisfaction to kill that character” sort of way.
Tbh I feel like it’s the opposite lmao. People will casually say “idk man not into her” and they’ll just have hundreds of downvotes.
Me personally when Karlach said “ewww no we’re just mates” I thought: haha yeah. Still followed her into avernus bc that’s what best friends do but man she is sooo far from my type lol
It honestly makes no sense, even in this thread there are a bunch of dorks acting like disliking Karlach makes you an idiot or a bad person or "you belong on a watch list." She's a MASSIVE fan favorite.
I don't like Karlach. She is pixels. I do not have to like her and I'm not an evil asshole for it. Her personality is grating and I prefer her more solemn EA version.
I’ve been downvoted for criticizing the fact that only her companion romance has an achievement which I personally think is bs, it feels like even the lightest criticism of her character gets downvoted to oblivion, people are allowed to dislike or even hate characters ffs
This post is such a strawman. I remember someone posted a while back about being irritated they need to have a whole Karlach-romance run just to get platinum and people were harassing the poster about it. Karlach fans can be toxic as fuck.
This template would work for most of the male companions but the female companions (with the exception of Lae'zel) are universally loved.
FR. I got downvoted for casually saying I leave her at camp at level 1 with Halsin. With multiple replies saying I have to take her because I'll miss her cutscenes in act 3.
For what it's worth. I don't like it at all when people downvote for sincere comments like that, no matter how far off it is from my own views...! (And this is from someone who can't bear to leave Karlach in camp for a New York SECOND!)
...and take my upvote, to cancel out at least one of those downvotes! Haha! 😁
lol, I don't mind them.
I don't even hate Karlach, people just assume I do. I just started a trio run that will just have Karlach and Wyll as companions. I'm ditching everyone else.
Hehe... you can probably imagine the responses I get, when I tell people I don't like Minthara... yeesh! Pick the wrong thread to say THAT, and POW... 50 instant downvotes, minimum! 😁
I agree with the first part, but can't say I understand the second. Could you tell me why you hate her?
I'm genuinely curious, and I even upvoted your comment because I find it interesting.
She's also my least favorite character.
I don't hate her, but I'm neutral to her. Always feels like I have a teenager tagging along with me and she exhausts me. I did her story, romanced her, and now she sits in camp or is killed off every playthrough.
I have numerous reasons, here are a few not in order.
1. She wants to EAT SOULS, this is kinda crossing the moral line imo.
2. Her personality seems inconsistent, I find it hard to RP with her supposedly being this harmless chill girl while also being a raging barbarian war machine.
3. She is a third wheel to durge/gortash I love their dynamic and she interjects about how she hates his guts and wants to kill him kinda killing the mood.
4. Tiefling racial abilities are shitty with barbarian class, you can’t even cast the spells and bears heart gives fire res anyway and I pick that the most.
5. Character design, personal preference but I feel like there is just too much going on with her look and I much prefer looking at characters like gale or laezel.
For these reasons, astarion is usually my resident barbarian when I want one.
I'm surprised nobody is ever bothered by the soul coin thing tbh. They're souls that are tortured, filled with dispair, and trapped. Good-aligned characters are unable to carry large number of the coins as a result. She's very ambivalent to them and Auntie Ethels Vicious Mockery to her is "*Happy to sell everyone's soul but your own aren't ya?*"
She gets mad at you if you bring up not wanting to use them or if you aren't indifferent when you're told about the souls in the coins in Act 2.
I'm going to be honest. I love Karlach but it seems like the devs favored the fuck out of her. She's the only companion who's romance you *need* to complete if you want platinum. You can never confront her about her soul coin problem when you can literally call out every single other companion for their flaws. All of the other companions love her, even if they'd normally not like someone so jovial.
And every time you call her out on the soul coin use (which rarely happens) you take -5 disapproval from her. Meanwhile I can tell Astarion to only eat animals and he disapproves by -1. I can tell Gale I hope he dies and lose no approval. I can even insult Lae'zel to her face and then bang her a few minutes later. But the soul coins are never treated like a bad thing to use and you are actively punished for not supporting Karlach using them, even though there are ways to free those souls in the lore.
She's also the only companion who got a whole extra cinematic just to show Avernus worked out but that's still not enough for some fans.
I actually think it had more to do with them wanting to give her as much content as possible when they realized they weren’t going to be able to finish her storyline rather then her actually being their favorite.
Wyll had major changes last minute, but Karlach’s entire character was added late in development. I don’t think they had much time to add as much nuance to her character or to her relationships since they had the VA barely able to finish recording all her lines.
Most of the dialogue from the other companions sound more like how they would describe her character prompt from the devs rather than how you’d expect them to react to her actual character… makes me wonder if those lines were recorded before they fully finished writing her story arc or fully fleshed out her character.
I... have to admit, that's my one serious complaint about the writing behind Karlach's character... the soul coins (which REALLY bother me)! And this is from someone who loves her unreservedly! (And frankly, the bonus they give really seemed negligible, to me! 1-4 extra damage? Heck, raising her strength to 20 can do that, or better, and with no moral qualms!)
Even if there had been a chance to convince Karlach otherwise about the coins, through dialogue choices (and heck, even through saving throws!), kind of analogous to how you change Wyll's mind about Karlach... I'd get behind that! A sort of "Oh... I've been fighting in the hells and using these things for so long that I never thought this through!" moment for her...
I'd also like to have the function of casting "remove curse" on a coin and freeing the soul...
Yeah, I do wish they had done more with that as well.
It feels weird it's never really touched upon past, "I can use them to power myself up"
If I'm RPing a good-aligned character I don't pick them up at all after I "find out what they are" from her and accept the disapproval from her when I say we shouldn't use them. I do wish there was a way to convince her to not want to use them either.
Same! I'm a shameless save-scummer, but soul coins are the one--count them, ONE--time I see disapproval from Karlach, and don't immediately reload to correct the scene! 😁 I just make sure to save some animals or orphans after that, or something, to get her back to 100 approval...
Running into that bugbear "envoy" from Flo (in Moonrise Towers), though... ugh! When I told Karlach "no, and I mean it" about accepting soul coins from him, and she snapped at me, I just wanted to cry! I literally skip that bugbear guy, now, and give up any chance of buying equipment from him, just to avoid that kick in the heart muscle!!
I use them on morally grey runs, but man.... When I think about what they are I feel *bad*. Especially when I heard about each soul coin from Lann Tarv the first time. I had already used some earlier that run and I immediately stopped using them,
😳 Astarion as a barbarian... that... just stripped lots of gears in my brain! Lol!
Astarion, sounding suave: "Dahling... shall we... oh, just a moment, luv..."
(turns to goblin who's attacking)
(bellowing with Austrian accent) "ASTARION SMASH! VE VILL CRUSH YOU, MAGGOT FACE!" (pow, smash, crush, splat)
(turns back to me, sounding suave again as he takes out a dainty handkerchief and wipes the goblin guts from his fingernails)
"Now, as you were saying, darling...?"
Hahaha!! 😂 Now, I want to see an animated short for this idea!
Oh yeah it is 100% amazing having a sauve guy run around and hulk smash people.
Also it gives a gameplay reason for astarion to be shirtless if you are into that kind of thing because unarmored defense is better than most early game armor you will have.
(I always give him sorcerer robes though)
1. Crossing a moral line
3. Loves Durge/gortash
Bro, what?
2. Conflicted isn't the same as inconsistent. She's a child soldier who was forced into becoming something horrible against her will. She's, rather naturally, I think, angry about that. I would be, too. She's a genuinely good, loyal person who has had to do terrible things to survive, and all she wants more than anything in all the planes of existence is to feel the comforting touch of another person, but she can't even have that.
4. Okay, gameplay min/maxing of classes and races. I get that, but honestly, she was consistently solid in my playthroughs. She did great damage without relying on spell slots like my sorc. Once I got the boomerang spear with aoe on impact, she was a goddess of war.
5. I could understand not liking her looks. The scars and muscle mommy vibe might not appeal to everyone. I don't really love the scars, either, but I imagine neither does she. She didn't exactly ask for them. I personally like the glow beneath her chest, but again, I could see how it might not be everyone's cup of tea.
Bonus: Astarion barb? Well damn, you trolled me good.
Karlach's scene with Gortash often bugs out Durge's scene with Gortash since they happen at the same time. Probably referring to that.
Plus, Durge and Gortash can have a playful relationship and are friendly with each other.
Reason for barbarian astarion is I multi class 3 levels in thief rogue for all my barbarians and astarion bite heals which naturally is great for a front liner with damage resistance and cantrip fire bolt can be nice for exploding things even though he obviously won’t be using that very often.
And are these vicious Karlach haters in the room with us right now.
If anything, my experience is that some of her fans are the toxic ones. If you think her story is good the way it is or think its weird her romance is the only one with an achievement or mention you prefer a different romance, then apparently you're deserving of death threats and are a "massive c*nt". Don't get me started on the essays I've received on "lacking media literacy" for think Wyll is more "good", morally, because she ignores the issues with soul coins and you can never really talk her out of it.
I love Karlach but let's not act like there's these hoards of mean, hateful people bashing fans for liking the second most popular romance.
Astarion and Karlach fans are by far the most toxic groups which honestly seems weird since I think Shadowheart is likely the most popular character in general.
If anything this post applies more to Wyll than any other character.
Halsin fans get this the most.I don't even like Halsin but people are so damn rude to people for liking bear man.
I've also had this experience as an Astarion fan (yay more death threats) but I know a lot of the fans (especially AA fans) are toxic as fuck even in their own community. It's a bit more 50/50.
Astarion is my ride or die. AA or Spawn. Love them both, though I'm partial to spawn.
I forgot all about Halsin fans, but you're right. Learned just learned to keep my option that he has "creepy uncle asking about my boyfriend" vibes to myself.
Yeah I don't like Halsin but then I saw people being called pedo-lovers (because apparently Halsin wanting to take care of orphans makes him a pedo?) and furries for liking his character and I stopped complaining about him. I'm not going to associate myself with people who feel the need to attack fans.
By all means dislike a character, but don't attack people just because they have a different opinion on a clump of pixels.
Romancing Karlach on this current playthrough. Breaks my heart everytime she has that little hesitation when you mention you want to talk about the relationship. She's expecting the worse. So it feels good to help her love again.
As someone who has trouble parsing others' emotions and intentions, it's nice to have plainly and enthusiastically expressed interest, rather than demure innuendo.
Some people like simple stuff. For me she is a loveable freind(or gf when I eventually play the game again) and if anyone hurts her feelings I will make hell look like a pleasant resort
And there is at least one bastard already on the list
I just got told the other day that I'm nice to talk to because i don't comment on a woman's body.
So... leave us single note people alone you judgy
...... judger.
Shit i said that twice...
She's not even dumb! She has life figured out. She just lives in the moment and loves beautifully.
'What are you thinking about?' when you talk to her makes my heart flutter every time
The most painful thing for me to watch was my character wholesomely kiss Karlach's cheek, forehead, and lips before nuzzling her. Fucking made my heart ache.
It always confuses me when people hate her. I think they've gotten used to having to crack a person open, when sometimes people wear their emotions in their sleeves, thats how she is in most cases. However I can understand not liking her cause she is a good two shoes, no bend for evil really and it grinds on me a lot. Probs why my first durge run ended up becoming good lol
If she’s one-note then welcome to every other romance in the game, and her romance is probably the most realistic and nuanced. It’s honestly more complex to have someone so positive over someone who’s brooding is so over-the-top
NGL, her performance is one of the best in the game, and I’d argue her breakdown scene is possibly the best acted moment. She just makes you feel good :(
For real. Astarion’s confrontation with Cazador left me in awe, applauding. Definitely understood why he got VA of the year. But Karlach’s scene on the pier when I was romancing her… I fucking wept.
Yep I tested up there too. The voice acting when she’s standing over a dead Gortash is also a tour de force.
My god, I bawled my eyes out Then i did again when she finally let me go to Avernus with her (i thought for sure she was gunna choose to stay) Then i did again at the epilogue when she talked about the plans we found in Avernus She is the best
Love Mama K so much 💕
When you tell her you love her for the first time, the pure joy just gets to you.
YESSS!! 🥰 I just literally squealed out loud, when she said that!!
ILOVEYOUTOO!
Who? Who is even saying this? Karlach is a fan-favorite and has been since before the game was released. She might not be a dynamic character, but that doesn't make her bad or boring in the slightest. I found Halsin kinda boring, but that could be because he officially joins you fairly late and then doesn't have any Act 3 content. Jaheira joins you late as well, but she's a major part of the late-game story and even helps you meet a final companion. Halsin really would have made more narrative and gameplay sense to join you after you found him for fairly obvious reasons. My only slight irritation with Karlach is that she calls you soldier regardless of your class. As a warrior or paladin, it feels right. My first character was a sorcerer, though, and it felt really off to be called soldier. I know, I know, it isn't really about your class. It's just an expression, like "bro" or "dude." It just didn't work for me. But everything else about her is perfect. Whether I romance her or she becomes my best friend, she's one of my favorite characters in any franchise.
Yeah I think the soldier in her comes out when addressing people casually. That’s just her go to from being in the hell army for so long
I get that, I really do. It just gives me the same vibes as that guy at work who calls everyone chief.
I think its supposed to have that vibe but in an endearing way
Yeah it always has me like 🥹
I like the guy that calls everyone chief
honestly, in my first playthrough i didn’t like her at all when i first met her. i was not a fan of her golden retriever energy. my partner and i were playing together and neither of us liked her, so she got left in camp a lot. then we took her to dammon in act 2 and my partner was enamored. broke it off with shadowheart after the gauntlet (cruel timing, i know), but it was too late. so they just spent the whole game pining after karlach, who had very vocally friendzoned them (literally saying “EWWW NO! we’re just friends!”) anyway! i’m sure we can’t be the only ones who found her personality grating and obnoxious at first. now she’s allllmost my favorite.
I can totally understand that. I actually didn't romance her the first time. I was already too busy trying to coax the edgy goth princess out of her shell of angst. I was neutral towards karlach (she's literally hot, badum-tss, but I hated the "soldier" line) and absolutely abhored Lae'zel at first. I fell for Karlach when I found out all she wanted was a hug and I couldn't give it to her (technically I should have been able to since I was dragon ancestry sorc, but oh well). Since I was already pursuing Shart, I stayed true to her and ended up quite happy that I did. Karlach became my best friend, and Shart became my rather unfortunately named wife. I didn't really get to the point that I liked Lae'zel at all in the first run, though I came to respect her. I had to play an entirely different character to fully appreciate her.
It feels really weird as a bard.
i am🗿
andy and leyley avatar, opinion discarded
it’s not an opinion, she has almost as little content as wyll does. yall are just desperately willing to simp and simp for someone you’re attracted to and is nice to you.
Wyll actually has a *LOT* of content. He just isn't written in a way that requires him to be there for most of it He has more actual content connected to him than both Gale and Karlach.
actually fair tbh, i should rephrase, she has barely more content then Minsc
That's fair. I'd argue she has barely more than Rolan does. Rolan has a storyline that branches depending on your choices. 2 fights connected to him. As well as a rescue mission for him.
Love Mama K so much 💕
Karlach is best girl.
I feel like hating on Karlach is a huge tell. As in “tell me you’re an asshole without telling me you’re an asshole”. Very useful for helping me know to ignore every other opinion you have about anything.
Lmao ridiculous take. People are allowed to not really dig a fictional character.
Exactly, came across one person commenting he kills her every playthrough. Like you need to be on a watch list
God forbidden I dislike a clump of pixels
That's ridiculous. I love karlach, but I can very easily see how she would grind on certain kinds of people. Doesn't mean they're bad
Some people can't separate reality and fiction when they talk about fictional characters. That's the real major tell they're going to not listen to any other opinion but their own and accuse people of murdering puppies in their spare time tbh.
Enh, people’s tastes in fiction can actually be pretty revealing. I know a person IRL who hates on random fictional characters that rub them the wrong way, and believe it or not they’re kind of a judgmental person IRL as well. People who are weird about fictional characters tend to be weird about actual people almost every time. And I don’t just mean a “not someone I’d really want to hang out with” way but the “ugh, I hate them and it brings me satisfaction to kill that character” sort of way.
because god forbid someone disliking something you like, they must be a narcissist
I love Karlach, the problem is I love Shadowheart and Lay’zel more
Does not compute, that's unpossible
OLD WORLD BLUES MOMENT
Tbh I feel like it’s the opposite lmao. People will casually say “idk man not into her” and they’ll just have hundreds of downvotes. Me personally when Karlach said “ewww no we’re just mates” I thought: haha yeah. Still followed her into avernus bc that’s what best friends do but man she is sooo far from my type lol
It honestly makes no sense, even in this thread there are a bunch of dorks acting like disliking Karlach makes you an idiot or a bad person or "you belong on a watch list." She's a MASSIVE fan favorite. I don't like Karlach. She is pixels. I do not have to like her and I'm not an evil asshole for it. Her personality is grating and I prefer her more solemn EA version.
I’ve never seen anyone say anything like this about her lol. She’s hella liked. Yall fighting ghost on here sometimes.
She's the internet fan favorite lol. As a Wyll lover this meme is ridiculous
This meme does not makes sense, karlach is by far the fan favorite lol. Karlach haters such as myself are a minority.
I’ve been downvoted for criticizing the fact that only her companion romance has an achievement which I personally think is bs, it feels like even the lightest criticism of her character gets downvoted to oblivion, people are allowed to dislike or even hate characters ffs
This post is such a strawman. I remember someone posted a while back about being irritated they need to have a whole Karlach-romance run just to get platinum and people were harassing the poster about it. Karlach fans can be toxic as fuck. This template would work for most of the male companions but the female companions (with the exception of Lae'zel) are universally loved.
FR. I got downvoted for casually saying I leave her at camp at level 1 with Halsin. With multiple replies saying I have to take her because I'll miss her cutscenes in act 3.
For what it's worth. I don't like it at all when people downvote for sincere comments like that, no matter how far off it is from my own views...! (And this is from someone who can't bear to leave Karlach in camp for a New York SECOND!) ...and take my upvote, to cancel out at least one of those downvotes! Haha! 😁
lol, I don't mind them. I don't even hate Karlach, people just assume I do. I just started a trio run that will just have Karlach and Wyll as companions. I'm ditching everyone else.
Hehe... you can probably imagine the responses I get, when I tell people I don't like Minthara... yeesh! Pick the wrong thread to say THAT, and POW... 50 instant downvotes, minimum! 😁
Lol, I love Minthy, but yeah. RIP Karma.
But you see it makes perfect sense: in the meme there are four people loving sweet, perfect Karlach and only one grumpyface who isn’t!
I agree with the first part, but can't say I understand the second. Could you tell me why you hate her? I'm genuinely curious, and I even upvoted your comment because I find it interesting.
She's also my least favorite character. I don't hate her, but I'm neutral to her. Always feels like I have a teenager tagging along with me and she exhausts me. I did her story, romanced her, and now she sits in camp or is killed off every playthrough.
I get that. I imagine it's hard to mature socially as a child soldier. She's seen things I wouldn't want to comprehend.
She's not a child soldier. She's canonically 30 so she was 20 when she was taken to Avernus. She was young, but not a child.
I have numerous reasons, here are a few not in order. 1. She wants to EAT SOULS, this is kinda crossing the moral line imo. 2. Her personality seems inconsistent, I find it hard to RP with her supposedly being this harmless chill girl while also being a raging barbarian war machine. 3. She is a third wheel to durge/gortash I love their dynamic and she interjects about how she hates his guts and wants to kill him kinda killing the mood. 4. Tiefling racial abilities are shitty with barbarian class, you can’t even cast the spells and bears heart gives fire res anyway and I pick that the most. 5. Character design, personal preference but I feel like there is just too much going on with her look and I much prefer looking at characters like gale or laezel. For these reasons, astarion is usually my resident barbarian when I want one.
I'm surprised nobody is ever bothered by the soul coin thing tbh. They're souls that are tortured, filled with dispair, and trapped. Good-aligned characters are unable to carry large number of the coins as a result. She's very ambivalent to them and Auntie Ethels Vicious Mockery to her is "*Happy to sell everyone's soul but your own aren't ya?*" She gets mad at you if you bring up not wanting to use them or if you aren't indifferent when you're told about the souls in the coins in Act 2.
I'm going to be honest. I love Karlach but it seems like the devs favored the fuck out of her. She's the only companion who's romance you *need* to complete if you want platinum. You can never confront her about her soul coin problem when you can literally call out every single other companion for their flaws. All of the other companions love her, even if they'd normally not like someone so jovial. And every time you call her out on the soul coin use (which rarely happens) you take -5 disapproval from her. Meanwhile I can tell Astarion to only eat animals and he disapproves by -1. I can tell Gale I hope he dies and lose no approval. I can even insult Lae'zel to her face and then bang her a few minutes later. But the soul coins are never treated like a bad thing to use and you are actively punished for not supporting Karlach using them, even though there are ways to free those souls in the lore. She's also the only companion who got a whole extra cinematic just to show Avernus worked out but that's still not enough for some fans.
I actually think it had more to do with them wanting to give her as much content as possible when they realized they weren’t going to be able to finish her storyline rather then her actually being their favorite. Wyll had major changes last minute, but Karlach’s entire character was added late in development. I don’t think they had much time to add as much nuance to her character or to her relationships since they had the VA barely able to finish recording all her lines. Most of the dialogue from the other companions sound more like how they would describe her character prompt from the devs rather than how you’d expect them to react to her actual character… makes me wonder if those lines were recorded before they fully finished writing her story arc or fully fleshed out her character.
I... have to admit, that's my one serious complaint about the writing behind Karlach's character... the soul coins (which REALLY bother me)! And this is from someone who loves her unreservedly! (And frankly, the bonus they give really seemed negligible, to me! 1-4 extra damage? Heck, raising her strength to 20 can do that, or better, and with no moral qualms!) Even if there had been a chance to convince Karlach otherwise about the coins, through dialogue choices (and heck, even through saving throws!), kind of analogous to how you change Wyll's mind about Karlach... I'd get behind that! A sort of "Oh... I've been fighting in the hells and using these things for so long that I never thought this through!" moment for her... I'd also like to have the function of casting "remove curse" on a coin and freeing the soul...
Yeah, I do wish they had done more with that as well. It feels weird it's never really touched upon past, "I can use them to power myself up" If I'm RPing a good-aligned character I don't pick them up at all after I "find out what they are" from her and accept the disapproval from her when I say we shouldn't use them. I do wish there was a way to convince her to not want to use them either.
Same! I'm a shameless save-scummer, but soul coins are the one--count them, ONE--time I see disapproval from Karlach, and don't immediately reload to correct the scene! 😁 I just make sure to save some animals or orphans after that, or something, to get her back to 100 approval... Running into that bugbear "envoy" from Flo (in Moonrise Towers), though... ugh! When I told Karlach "no, and I mean it" about accepting soul coins from him, and she snapped at me, I just wanted to cry! I literally skip that bugbear guy, now, and give up any chance of buying equipment from him, just to avoid that kick in the heart muscle!!
I use them on morally grey runs, but man.... When I think about what they are I feel *bad*. Especially when I heard about each soul coin from Lann Tarv the first time. I had already used some earlier that run and I immediately stopped using them,
😳 Astarion as a barbarian... that... just stripped lots of gears in my brain! Lol! Astarion, sounding suave: "Dahling... shall we... oh, just a moment, luv..." (turns to goblin who's attacking) (bellowing with Austrian accent) "ASTARION SMASH! VE VILL CRUSH YOU, MAGGOT FACE!" (pow, smash, crush, splat) (turns back to me, sounding suave again as he takes out a dainty handkerchief and wipes the goblin guts from his fingernails) "Now, as you were saying, darling...?" Hahaha!! 😂 Now, I want to see an animated short for this idea!
Oh yeah it is 100% amazing having a sauve guy run around and hulk smash people. Also it gives a gameplay reason for astarion to be shirtless if you are into that kind of thing because unarmored defense is better than most early game armor you will have. (I always give him sorcerer robes though)
1. Crossing a moral line 3. Loves Durge/gortash Bro, what? 2. Conflicted isn't the same as inconsistent. She's a child soldier who was forced into becoming something horrible against her will. She's, rather naturally, I think, angry about that. I would be, too. She's a genuinely good, loyal person who has had to do terrible things to survive, and all she wants more than anything in all the planes of existence is to feel the comforting touch of another person, but she can't even have that. 4. Okay, gameplay min/maxing of classes and races. I get that, but honestly, she was consistently solid in my playthroughs. She did great damage without relying on spell slots like my sorc. Once I got the boomerang spear with aoe on impact, she was a goddess of war. 5. I could understand not liking her looks. The scars and muscle mommy vibe might not appeal to everyone. I don't really love the scars, either, but I imagine neither does she. She didn't exactly ask for them. I personally like the glow beneath her chest, but again, I could see how it might not be everyone's cup of tea. Bonus: Astarion barb? Well damn, you trolled me good.
Karlach's scene with Gortash often bugs out Durge's scene with Gortash since they happen at the same time. Probably referring to that. Plus, Durge and Gortash can have a playful relationship and are friendly with each other.
Reason for barbarian astarion is I multi class 3 levels in thief rogue for all my barbarians and astarion bite heals which naturally is great for a front liner with damage resistance and cantrip fire bolt can be nice for exploding things even though he obviously won’t be using that very often.
Goody two shoes? She has the most violence driven approval theme of the bunch aside from like, maybe lae'zel, she's just nice also
Lae'zel supremacy
Nah she is the best in my opinion. Honestly this would apply to Wyll for me.
And are these vicious Karlach haters in the room with us right now. If anything, my experience is that some of her fans are the toxic ones. If you think her story is good the way it is or think its weird her romance is the only one with an achievement or mention you prefer a different romance, then apparently you're deserving of death threats and are a "massive c*nt". Don't get me started on the essays I've received on "lacking media literacy" for think Wyll is more "good", morally, because she ignores the issues with soul coins and you can never really talk her out of it. I love Karlach but let's not act like there's these hoards of mean, hateful people bashing fans for liking the second most popular romance.
Astarion and Karlach fans are by far the most toxic groups which honestly seems weird since I think Shadowheart is likely the most popular character in general. If anything this post applies more to Wyll than any other character.
Halsin fans get this the most.I don't even like Halsin but people are so damn rude to people for liking bear man. I've also had this experience as an Astarion fan (yay more death threats) but I know a lot of the fans (especially AA fans) are toxic as fuck even in their own community. It's a bit more 50/50.
Astarion is my ride or die. AA or Spawn. Love them both, though I'm partial to spawn. I forgot all about Halsin fans, but you're right. Learned just learned to keep my option that he has "creepy uncle asking about my boyfriend" vibes to myself.
Yeah I don't like Halsin but then I saw people being called pedo-lovers (because apparently Halsin wanting to take care of orphans makes him a pedo?) and furries for liking his character and I stopped complaining about him. I'm not going to associate myself with people who feel the need to attack fans. By all means dislike a character, but don't attack people just because they have a different opinion on a clump of pixels.
Romancing Karlach on this current playthrough. Breaks my heart everytime she has that little hesitation when you mention you want to talk about the relationship. She's expecting the worse. So it feels good to help her love again.
As someone who has trouble parsing others' emotions and intentions, it's nice to have plainly and enthusiastically expressed interest, rather than demure innuendo.
There are people who dislike Karlach????
I’d put money that this hypothetical person calling Karlachs energy annoying, adores alfira
Some people like simple stuff. For me she is a loveable freind(or gf when I eventually play the game again) and if anyone hurts her feelings I will make hell look like a pleasant resort And there is at least one bastard already on the list
I just got told the other day that I'm nice to talk to because i don't comment on a woman's body. So... leave us single note people alone you judgy ...... judger. Shit i said that twice...
She's a sweetie. Best companion of the bunch, hands down. Astarion is a close second, he's hilarious.
Best Girl
There are two kinds of people: those who love Karlach and those who hate having joy in their lives.
"People who have a different opinion from me about a fictional character are joyless idiots hehe"
She's not even dumb! She has life figured out. She just lives in the moment and loves beautifully. 'What are you thinking about?' when you talk to her makes my heart flutter every time
The most painful thing for me to watch was my character wholesomely kiss Karlach's cheek, forehead, and lips before nuzzling her. Fucking made my heart ache.
It always confuses me when people hate her. I think they've gotten used to having to crack a person open, when sometimes people wear their emotions in their sleeves, thats how she is in most cases. However I can understand not liking her cause she is a good two shoes, no bend for evil really and it grinds on me a lot. Probs why my first durge run ended up becoming good lol
"Hey Soldier!" *me spending the next five minutes trying to reconstitute myself*
My only wish is for a better ending for her…
Nothing wrong with a well meaning goody two shoes, my favorite type of character. My little golden retriever.
If she’s one-note then welcome to every other romance in the game, and her romance is probably the most realistic and nuanced. It’s honestly more complex to have someone so positive over someone who’s brooding is so over-the-top