Baldur’s Gate 3 got its eagerly anticipated Patch 7 yesterday, which added new, expanded ending sequences for evil player characters. Whether you’re a Dark Urge or a more mundane variety of villain, an origin character or a custom-made scoundrel, your big moment has finally arrived if you’re playing a bad guy. Sadly, as players have quickly discovered, ascending as an archvillain tends to have some unpleasant outcomes for the companions you might’ve romanced along the way.
There will be spoilers ahead for the new Baldur’s Gate 3 evil endings.
The new Dark Urge endings are producing some of the strongest reactions in the aftermath of the Patch 7 drop. After claiming command of the Netherbrain in Bhaal’s name at the end of Act 3, Dark Urge characters are primed to do what you’d expect from a newly-empowered champion of a murder-god: just, like, a bunch of murders. Before that, the new in-game narration tells Dark Urge players who’ve romanced a companion during their playthrough, “there is one who deserves the honour of your first death.”
What follows is some all-timer knife-twisting from Larian’s writers. Each companion character has unique dialogue where they express their horror at the Dark Urge’s decision to lay waste to the world they’d all worked so hard to save.
The player then has three options for responding. They can tell their paramour to start running so that they can have a final showdown at the end of days—very metal, very cool. They can say that “death is my reward for your service,” because nobody should see the horrors about to ensue. The last option, though, is for the real doomed romance connoisseurs: Kill with one last kiss.
While I’m not sure what exactly they expected, BG3 players have been uploading clips to share the heartbreak of watching the Dark Urge pull a knife halfway through their final smooch and deal a fatal blow to their other half. Before tumbling off the Netherbrain, the companions offer one last line, and they’ve all been precision-crafted to hit players directly in the heart.
Patch 7 really gave Gale the hardest line here. from r/BaldursGate3
This video shared on Reddit of Gale’s final moments with the Dark Urge is tough. “You made me want to live,” Gale says before succumbing to his stab wound. However you might feel about his glam rock hair and hunger for your enchanted items, it’s an extremely sad line to hear from someone who, by that point in his romance, you’ve convinced that his life is worth more than being used as a big, magic nuke. In response to the clip, redditor Ohwhoaeskimo demanded that the uploader “reload and SAY YOURE SORRY.”
“I’ll never emotionally recover from this,” said redditor BardMessenger24, who posted a video of Shadowheart’s last kiss with the Dark Urge. If you’ve turned her from Shar worship during her questline, she ends up with a pretty rough exit. “I thought we were going to save each other,” she says as she staggers back post-stabbing. Awful! You could’ve been two people who escaped their entanglements with dark gods together, but you loved putting knives in people too much!
Of course, in the video, she’s saying it to somebody wearing a suit made of literal people meat, so it doesn’t seem like the mutual redemption arc was going great. Still, the reactions are understandably heartbroken. “I’m sorry guys I just don’t think I can do an Evil Playthrough now,” said Parking_Put_1701 in the replies.
My personal favorite of the new Dark Urge romance endings is Lae’zel’s—and I’m not even a Lae’zel guy. She’s a bit too frontloaded with fascism for me, but I can’t argue that her last words in this sequence are anything but excellent: “I am glad it was you,” Lae’zel says before she dies. “No other blade would have sufficed.”
Romanced Lae’zel’s Tragic Line in Patch 7 Dark Urge Ending from r/BaldursGate3
I’m probably not going to see any of these endings for myself; going the sick and/or twisted routes always makes me feel like I’m roleplaying as Jared Leto’s Joker. Horrible stuff. But after BG3’s meager evil endings out the gate, I’m glad that everyone who’s fulfilled by the villain fantasy is finally getting the send-off they deserve. Hopefully the emotional scarring won’t be too deep.