What happens when you free Orpheus and betray The Emperor | Baldur's Gate 3

I don't get people thinking this is a better ending than siding with the Emperor.

People always talk about him manipulating you, but it's like, he's so blatantly obvious in what he's trying to achieve that it never even really registered as manipulation to me in my playthrough.

He comes to you as the guardian form after you hear about the archetypes that appeared to the True souls to manipulate them.

It's fuckin telegraphed.

My playthrough, I took no tadpole powers, told the guardian/emperor that I didn't trust them but I could trust them to work in their own self interest. Our causes obviously aligned. He was the obvious choice to give the stones to. The Githyanki prince is a complete wild card, you know nothing about him but what some earless fanatic and Liezel the annoying Klingon pastiche think they know about him. We already know she doesn't know dick because of what happens in the Crech.

Zero % chance I'm siding with some double digit IQ war race's concept of a god spawn, over something who's motivations are crystal clear.

He doesn't want to be a mind slave (which makes the events in this ending super fucking weird.) he knows we're useful, he values us as pieces in his game at the very least, this means we can rely on him to work in his own interests. And those interests are best served by helping us kill the Netherbrain. He's also no going to turn on us to eat our brains after that's over with, because why would he? He knows there's easier things to chew out there.

Anyone who turned themselves into a souless (this is a literally a series where you know 100% you have a soul and that ceramorphosis destroys it.) squid face because they couldn't calculate the odds that this self interested 2-bit manipulator could be relied upon to work in their own interests, well... You dumb as hell.

And if you let Karlach do it... eesh.

Siding with the Emperor is literally the only play that made a lick of sense.

geez just letting opheus become the mind flayer

I always found it stupid how The emperor continuously says he'll kill us all instantly but if you free him he's like I guess we gotta work together now

The Emperor joining the netherbrain is so messed up and it makes no sense. I guess he didn’t want to stop it that badly or else he wouldn’t have done that. I always knew he was fishy.

Will Orpheus actually willingly become an illithid? I want to free him for Lae’zel, but I don’t want any of my party to become an illithid

We need a rebel mind flayer. Oh dang. We just had one, like, a minute ago.

I wish there was a way to free Oprheus and have Balduran team up. I guess he did trap him in the first place so they would be at each other's throats.

if you take the larva of the emperor and are the A Lae'zel in the group she will interfere and you take the larva betrays him and then asks orpheus to transform you and uses the larva and you become Giant mind flayer

I hate him so much no matter what you do it’s always pouting, lying, and throwing a fit, never trusted him for a second

The first time I did this I thought I made a mistake. But then I thought about the number of times he deceived you, killing ansur, etc. And based on whats in one of the books, is who infected you in the first place. Screw this guy.

Aiyo the console UI is so cancer

I did this, was like "oh ok" when he left instantly then when I got to the point where Orpheus said we needed someone to become a mind flayer anyways I just reloaded. I reloaded a lot for combat positioning to not lose movement, or just to redo fights I was really close to winning, but this is the only major narrative decision I reloaded. It already felt railroady so I just went with the one that I disliked the least.

Wylls been slackin my play thru hes gettin squidified

The mental gymnastics of people in this comment section are interesting.

Guys, it was just a bit of bad writing.

Balduran was clearly a person who believed in meritocracy. This was just the inability for the writers to make a good end to a few of the stories that were somewhat incomplete by the time of development.

"I have not lied to you, not once"
Well I guess the emperor doesnt know how to count then because i can track down about 10 lies throughout the entire playthrough.

They think they need someone to sacrifice themself to become a mindflayer and everyone collectively forgets Omeluum is just chilling at the Society of Brilliance lodge 😂

What sucks is, no matter what you choose.....someone has to be a Mindflayer, which sucks. Its either you, one of your companions or Orpheus himself.......like there's no way to win. Someone has to sacrifice themselves and it sucks because I want to save everyone.....but i don't wanna become a Mindflayer myself either.

and this was the moment larian decided to make The emperor an absolutely irredeemable asshole for some reason with absolutely no way to convince him to stick around Or even to just stay out of the way.

Title is wrong. You don't betray the Emperor. You reasonably suggest to it that maybe you can defeat your enemy without being dicks to an innocent person, and then IT betrays YOU.

This was my first and most honest playthrough. ❤

Letting Karlach become a mind flayer was a terrible decision for me. After speaking with her, you realize she is NOT the same. Karlach basically dies and Mind Flayer Karlach takes over. Talking with her at the end party is really heartbreaking. I will never make that choice again.

Shame on you for fornicating that mind flare

I fucked with the emporer at its Best!

Omeluum is everything the Emperor isn’t

Orpheus is being kind of douchey in that last part. How does he expect his honor guard to freee him without the Orphic Hammer? They failed for thousands of years! If he knows about the nether brain how can he justify letting his honor guard kill the only people who can stand up to it??

Bro called me a puppet and asks why I don't trust him

Ok choosing either the Emperor or Orpheus is a personal preference and question of perspective.
But dumping The Emperor after having sex with him - that’s just cruel 😂

This can't be about survival-- that makes no sense. The first thing the Netherbrain does is use the Emperor again Tav and Co, just a pawn you kill so it can protect itself. Surely the Emperor could have seen that coming. He has an uncertain level of survival in both cases, and loses all power in both cases. Jumping ship to join the brain is just as bad (to him) as freeing Orpheus. He should have run. I would have loved to find him afterwards, that would be a hell of a conversation.

I sided with Orpheus. Getting the hammer was honeslty just because I wanted to see and fight against Raphael - but once the end came I freed orpheus....and he took the mindflayer transformation for me. He's literally a selfless hero and the Emperor has lied about him to you so you'd side with him.

Explorer player?

As Gale or Laezel this is the logical outcome.

The entire Orpheus/Emperor plotline is a bunch of air-heads saying “asshole, you’ve doomed us all” at every single turn while giving us no good reasons to even trust them. Fuck the Emperor. Fuck Orpheus. If I could kill the brain on my own, I 100% would.

Throwing back all the nice things he did for us in our faces to make us join him is a huge red flag. Yikes 😬 It's giving... manipulative. Gaslighting. Controlling. Guilt tripping.

Orpheus is the biggest dissapointment in the whole game. You free him and he just whines like a little baby through this whole scene.

Waaa You fornicated with a mindflayer!
Waaa You slaughered my honor guard
Waaa You only rejected the illithid when it no longer suited your needs
Waaa I won't forgive or forget your abuse of powers
Waaa You didn't surrender to my honor guard
Waaa They could have stopped the elder brain were it not for your choices

He's by far the most whiney and annoying character in the whole game.

I trusted the Emperor, waiting for this to be my "trust ME" moment with him, and then he does that Disney villain heel turn without even giving me the chance to explain myself....

The emperor is serving the grand design. Proof if you free Orpheus he joins with the absolute unable to trust us really.

Wish there was another way. Karlach Illithid = not great. Orpheus = not my favorite but still would have liked to save him. Tav being an illithid = not great. Allying with the Emperor = not great because he doesnt have that great of attack spells 😂 and he just rubs me the wrong way. I ended up allying with him for my first playthrough but still hoping another decision comes out in the next patch

"I never lied to you, not once" - Wow. Didn't you lie about eating brain of criminals and being good friends with Selmane? Or, you know, about being another casual Baldurian adventurer? Or may be about using ORPHEUS and not your own powers to protect us?

It's so funny how he judges us for being selfish and looking for a better way while he is the embodiment of selfishness. My guy killed Ansur for the power and have enough bravery to teach us how to leave.
I absolutely love how Larian's made him sneaky and lying bastard.

What weirds me out is that if he knows Orpheus could have killed the MC, why wouldn’t the Emperor just… use his power to stop him from doing so?? Is he that powerless against the Gith??

This really makes me question the emperors motives so much more, he was willing to sacrifice everything to gain his freedom back but unwilling to work with Orpheus?? Idk seems like the game wanted to give you this or that option and no in-between but it makes the emperor a really confusing character that doesn’t really add up

It seem the Emperor's goal was just to stay alive. He killed his friend Ansur. He leaves you when he realizes you're the weaker side. He's just drive by survival instinct.

No matter what you pick after, siding with Orpheus is first step toward true good ending. In my opinion making Orpheus become mind flayer is best one. I doubt Karlach will be alright long-term, she will turn into monster sooner or later. Same applies to your character. Just look what it did to Balduran! Orpheus becoming mind flayer and k- himself is right option - we don't need neither strong Githyanki which vow for dominance, nor Illithids as shown. We doing it all for sake of Faerun - don't let your relationship with Lae'zel blind you.

I was afraid to use tadpoles until my boyfriend said it didn’t change the end of the story….I used too many tadpoles and was unable to pass the check and I was FORCED to become half illithid. I loaded an old save and will never trust the Emperor again. He’s a jerk!!

The controller looks tedious, so glad i played mouse and keyboard.

All the time I keep thinking, "Yep this sounds like the perfect manipulation plan. Betrayal doesn't come after you feed a staving man, it comes once that man survived and built something of himself."

You cannot betray something that was never on your side and was always just using you while lying about protecting you. Orpheous and the artifact protect you, not Baldur, Baldur literally just lied and manipulated you the entire time for its own benefit.

Orpheus is making me root for the Netherbrain. So unappreciative. Then again, that's a Githyanki for you.

I made Orpheus a mindflayer 😂