7 Innocent NPCs You Doomed By Doing the 'Right' Thing

[@Toofy2932]

‘60 hours in and just about to reach balders gate!’ Ok speed runner!

[@Viltris]

Took me about double that to reach Baldur's Gate.

[@darthkarl99]

@@Viltris You guys made it to Baldur's Gate without falling prey to the dreaded Altasitus?

[@SquishyOfCinder]

It took 24h for me and I took time to explore lol. I best the first playthrough in 40h.

[@micahsarm]

How tf do you guys manage to waste so much time. I nearly completed 90 percent of quest and it didn't take even 100 hours.

[@nightmarethrenody8232]

Most of that is character creation

[@jindo5]

It's worth noting with Yenna that she's like, the last person on the list of characters that Orin will kidnap, she's basically there to make sure that Orin has *someone* to nap just in case all her other options (your companions) aren't available because they're either dead or in your party. And even if Yenne does get kidnapped, you can still save her (though not her cat, sadly), assuming you don't both the skill checks to do so. Also, if Yenna doesn't get kidnapped, she will actually cook for you. You can buy soup from her in camp. Another example of characters that get screwed by you doing the right thing is Arabella's parents, who give you a locket that lets you cast Dancing Lights as a reward for saving their kid. However, the very next place you find Arabella is a place where you literally die if you don't have a light source, and her parents are dead.

[@kellynine7438]

Arabella's parents die regardless. Even with the amulet, it isn't a strong enough light source to protect you in that part of the zone,

[@kal-eldritch]

Funny thing happened to me on my most recent run, I picked up the cat's body and threw it and it popped back at full health, was standing and everything at each version of camp, but the game still treated it as dead and wouldn't let me talk to it.

[@matwang1]

Did Arabella's parents even die from the Shadow Curse? I got the impression they were killed by the night nurses.

[@kal-eldritch]

@@matwang1 It was the nurses, when you use Speak with Dead on Locke(the father), in order to do Arabella's Act 2 quest, if you ask what killed him, he confirms the nurses

[@Lavarpsu10]

You can save Yenna (or whoever is kidnapped) even if you can't pass the skill checks - just hit "attack" in the lower left corner as soon as the conversation cutscene starts, and your character will start the fight with Orin before she can kill whoever she's abducted.

[@HostileTakeover2]

Assassin's Creed Odyssey was another; that plague family that everybody on the island wanted to kill. If you spared them and go back later, you find out they went on to infect the whole island and everybody died.

[@irishbob26]

Whoops. Nonchalantly whistles as she gets back into her boat 😂

[@UpperDarbyDetailing]

Which is actually stupid. Research shows that Catholic towns had a 30% lower death rate during the black plague because they actually took care of the victims instead of killing them or leaving them to die.

[@meks3920]

I mean you were warned that this is going to happened

[@missoula2213]

And it's been mentioned ad nauseum. Even people who never played it know about it.

[@TheGuardDuck]

​@@meks3920warned by primitive priests who treat illness with prayers and sacrifices...

[@TalentlessCooking]

In red dead redemption there's a side quest where an npc asks for a bunch of feathers, and possibly some other things. They're all over the place and takes a while to get, but the payoff is great. He builds wings and jumps off the cliff and plummets to his death immediately. Worth it!

[@kennethyazelle7544]

Remember the checklist for Rdr 2? There are species that can go extinct in game by over hunting them.

[@TalentlessCooking]

@kennethyazelle7544 yeah, the Buffalo will go extinct, I think where we're less than 30 in total.

[@kingbaby8761]

​@@kennethyazelle7544 I swear the moose is extinct from the start.

[@NotALiberalSoSkipTheScript]

@@TalentlessCookingThat can happen in 2? I know it happens in 1.

[@TalentlessCooking]

@@NotALiberalSoSkipTheScript 1

[@freeflyingwolf]

The ghost of a dead woman in Witcher 3. If you didn't figure out that she was a plague bringer before giving her a wonderful reunion with her still living boyfriend, congrats! You've unleashed a plague upon the town

[@MemoryMori]

Yeah....my bad :D :D

[@soulstealer5625]

Thats why its my fav quest, i thought thats how the quest goes for 3 playthroughs until i figured out u could just suspect her and give u a different option.

[@BAMFshee]

Fallout: New Vegas lets you accidentally get an outpost full of innocent doctors (and their bodyguards) slaughtered by the Brotherhood of Steel if you try to help Veronica in her companion quest by letting her try to join the Followers of the Apocalypse (arguably the most benevolent faction in the entire Fallout series) after she becomes disillusioned with the Brotherhood's (downright suicidal) isolationism. The Brotherhood, paranoid that Veronica had shared Brotherhood secrets with them (she hadn't), kills them all, and then tries to kill her, as well as you for helping her.

[@happy_fecker]

Yes, but Elden Ring. So, no.

[@kotzpenner]

But you can burp into their face when they confront you if you have low intelligence.

[@punkdigerati]

You do have to make the choice for her to leave the brotherhood, and helping them does make them end their isolation.

[@kotzpenner]

You can burp in their faces tho

[@scuffycat]

The Ranger station near Novac too. You can check out the Rangers on your way to Novac, get asked to check in on them by the resident Ranger and they have been massacred in less than 15 minutes

[@AndrewsYoutube]

One thing that tricked me in that 'Tenpenny Tower' quest on my first playthrough is that one of Three Dog's lines is making a case to Tenpenny to let the ghouls live there, thus further leading the player to believe that letting the ghouls move in is the 'morally correct' option.

[@Kris-wo4pj]

I ruined a play through of fo3 cuz i blew up megaton and let the ghouls in the tower. No home bade for me and i gotta wear a mask everytime i use the bobblehead display.

[@irishbob26]

Morality in fallout is shades of grey. Everything's relative. One man's stealing is another man's borrowing.

[@BAMFshee]

On one hand, I kind of appreciate that the game plays with our expectations like that; after all, in a gritty post-apocalypse, *of course* some of the "right" choices would make things worse. And in all fairness, Phillips is clearly not someone to be trusted (anyone who openly advocates for "kill[ing] them all" isn't someone you can trust to peacefully co-exist with "them", not to mention that he's perfectly willing to use Ferals who attack pretty much anyone on sight so cramming them into an enclosed space with other people is just asking for a massacre) On the other hand... boy does it feel awful to side with Tenpenny and company on *anything* (I mean, Dashwood is nice enough I guess, but the rest... woof).

[@meoff7602]

​@@Kris-wo4pjWell I saved Megaton for last. LoL

[@spinal_capped]

imo the correct choice in Tenpenny Tower is to just not do it. That way Dashwood survives and nobody is gruesomely murdered…

[@redith137]

How about Witcher 3? "No im not going to let this tree devil out to cause mayhem, wait..where did the kids go?"

[@picardsolo2471]

I kept waiting for that quest to pop up!

[@andrewbyrne2173]

Commentator edition!

[@akaErma]

none of the possible decisions in that quest feels like the "right" thing

[@shawngillogly6873]

There's so many "every choice is bad" quests in W3. Help Tamara cure her patient? Oh. She goes mad and her boyfriend curses you. Help break up a fight? Well, you're a murderer..don'tchaknow. Go with Ciri to face the Lodge? Well...

[@mattyt1961]

@@akaErma of course there is a right thing... you put one decision in your right hand, one in your left and there you go :)

[@Jonathon_Hennessey]

In the Outer Worlds, there's a character on Byzantium, I don't remember her name but she wants you to help her make clothing out of monster parts. If you help her gather what she needs, at the end of the quest she's been killed by Byzantium security guards.

[@Oculas2003]

Yeah just did that quest - I was weirdly sad when she died, given its not like Id known her that long.....

[@moonlightingjam]

That's a damn good suit though. Carried me to the end of the game.

[@smashbrandiscootch719]

Yeah but the suit is easily worth her life.

[@mattd5857]

I remember getting really pissed they did that and ended up killing like 20 Byzantium guards in retaliation

[@BenMarcWilliams]

@@mattd5857 Harsh, but fair.

[@alexandersmit4256]

Roy Philips enraged me like nothing else, back in the day. I had worked very hard to get them into that tower, and when I came back, much later, I was horrified. Obviously murdered and fully dismembered Roy with a shotgun. After that, his followers turn hostile, even if you sneak-attacked him to death. Wish I could've brought the nuke over from Megaton and more definitively ended the Tenpenny Tower saga.

[@d4985]

I think the best option is to get the ghouls into the Tower, then immediately stealth-kill Roy. That prevents the massacre from happening and the ghouls still get to move in! Shame Three Dog still rags on you for it, but eh, he never actually had to *meet* Roy.

[@sabretoo]

In Windwaker, Mila and her father are wealthy snobs until she gets kidnapped and her dad pays Tetra everything to rescue her; by the time you have rescued her, they've become a poor family. On the other hand, Maggie and her father are poor until she also gets kidnapped. When you rescue her, she returns with Skull Necklaces which make her family rich instead. But she is still unhappy, because now she is in love with a Moblin.

[@MikeP828]

“I’m sure he’s doing his best!” Well, to be fair, that particular hanar was indoctrinated and was trying to disable the planetary defenses for the hanar home world so the reapers could invade it, so I think calling him a big stupid jellyfish was more than warranted 😂

[@eaglescout1984]

I don't know if I would count "hiring hot-air balloon under false pretenses so you can't scout a state prison in preparation for breaking out a felon" as the right thing (except for loyalty's sake), but I guess to each his own.

[@Chris_Sizemore]

So you're better with breaking Micha out of jail because he is a gang member, but then Micha for Micha reasons decides to faff about and gets the entire town shot up? Cuz I think 90% of the people in Valentine did not deserve what they got.

[@MrDalisclock]

​@Chris_Sizemore honestly wish it was possible to leave Micah in jail and carry along with the plot.

[@gryphonosiris2577]

Witcher 3, siding with the Crones, or releasing the spirit in the Tree. Both results in innocent people getting killed; either the children eaten by the Crones, or an entire village wiped out by the Spirit and the Baron's wife dying.

[@TwoLeftThumbs]

You used to be able to save the children and the wife if you freed the spirit before visiting them but I hear it’s been patched. The village still died though.

[@middleagedmutantninjaturtle18]

That Yenna thing escalated incredibly fast

[@MikesPortugal-zm4oy]

I don't know, still got better off than if Dob and/or 60 skeletons were involved

[@SneakymanTim]

Yenna almost got her throat slit by orin pretending to be Lae'zel for me then Lae'zel got kidnapped

[@phantommangagirl]

I never got the cat scene; I just ran into her in the sewers.

[@Romario-henry]

Yenna was sus so I handled the problem

[@orderneo]

OK I will admit it my first run through Helsin died near the end of my one on one with Orin during a Good Durge run and I just left it that way. Still feel shame but I was 80 hrs in and wanted to see an ending dang it.

[@ignesfatuis]

In Dragon Age Origins one of the Dalish in the Brecilian forest will ask you to look for his wife. If you do, she's become a werewolf and forces you to kill her after speaking with her. Worse, the forest section can end with the werewolf-curse being broken, so she would have been fine.

[@KOB923]

I've played this game to completion many times, and that's one of the side quests I tried to change by not doing it, to no avail. I purposely looked for Danyla in the cutscene after Witherfang to no avail. There's also a possible reference to her dying in DA2, so it's apparently a forgone conclusion, no matter what your choices.

[@mermidion7552]

We all know that the only "right" thing is to let the Werewolf take over the Dalish elves Forest and ally with them. Win-Win

[@tibi_lares]

Bloodborne, enough said (Alright, for me specifically the little girl in Yharnam. If you try to send her to Oedon Chapel she will get killed by a pig. Same if you are honest about her parents demise. Sending her to Iosefka gets her experimented on. I decided the right thing for me to do is to ignore her, leaving her to go mad just like the rest of Yharnam - ah, right, such a thing as a good ending is a rare occurrence in a FromSoftware game)

[@tonyb6555]

Don't forget that if you get her killed by the pig you can then go on to get her sister to commit suicide too. But hey, nice ribbon for your messengers!

[@andredias5284]

The thing about Yenna is that she's nice because her parents educated her so. This means they were probably kind too and its possible to imagine they did get the disease by helping sick people, as she says her mother knew some herbs to help with the symptoms.

[@stinkertonsden]

My first play through Yenna wasn't kidnapped. It was La'zel. Yenna and her cat are still safely tucked away in my camp.

[@sintanan469]

Yenna is the game's last resort to give Orin someone to kidnap for sacrifice. As long as you have, basically, any other companions available at camp she can grab (Gale, Halsin, Lae'zel, or Minthara; whomever you have lowest relationship with) then Yenna (and Grub) remain safe... in theory. The event in camp run a risk Yenna, Grub, or Scratch are killed depending on who Orin grabs. If you trigger the kidnap scene in the sewers instead, no one is collateral. The final challenge comes passing some skill checks talking with Orin at the sacrificial altar to Bhaal... or you just force combat and get the drop on Orin before the cutscene plays out.

[@ThatSoddingGamer]

Oblivion - The Gray Prince. You try to do a solid for the surprisingly agreeable and well spoken half-Orc Grand Champion of the Arena in TES IV: Oblivion by finding proof of his noble lineage only, surprise, he's actually half vampire. This shocking revelation causes him to lose the will to fight, after which you can easily obtain the title of the Grand Champion from him with no further risk. You don't have to do this quest though, and can fight him normally. I mean, 'Innocent' is slightly generous, given he's Grand Champion and all, a position that you have to kill a bunch of people to obtain, but most of them are volunteers seeking riches and glory (and the ones that aren't are criminals slated for execution). So, kind of innocent?

[@sgtGiggsy]

Yeah, but... I mean, even if you DON'T do the quest for The Gray Prince, you'll still end up killing him, as he's the last step on your way to become the champion (and get your personal enthusiastic greatest fan ever)

[@ThatSoddingGamer]

@@sgtGiggsy True enough, though in both cases it is optional to fight him, you could just choose not to be Grand Champion. At least if he doesn't find out about his parentage he can die in glorious battle (or succeed in killing you, whichever).

[@mar_speedman]

0:10 Mike clearly hasn't met that Hanar again in Mass Effect 3. Don't worry Mike, he really was just a Big Stupid Jellyfish

[@luxgen9035]

In Dragon Age Inquisition, when you go to Crestwood you can encounter an Elf being protected by two Grey Wardens. When you talk to her, she tells you something along the lines of wanting to join the order of the Grey Wardens. There's a dialogue option you can choose that encourages her to join the Grey Wardens. Further down the quest in which The Inquisition is trying to prevent Corypheus from manipulating the Grey Wardens, you'll find that the same Elf you talked to in Crestwood will become a sacrifice by Warden-Commander Clarel. One of the few small choices that caught me off guard and bit me in my ass moments.

[@merlinasmith4102]

There is a side quest in Nier Automata where you are trying to help an android figure out how their friend died. But as you do the quest you figure out the quest giver was the person who killed said friend and the quest giver is an extermination android. They are designed to get close to someone, become friends with them until given the order to kill them. When you help them remember they go a bit crazy and curse you out for restoring the memories they had deleted, and talk about how they are sick that they have had to do this process multiple times before breaking down in a mix of laughter and crying. It is probably one of the most disturbing side quests in the game and you could have left the lady be happier by not doing the quest.

[@armelior4610]

It's especially disturbing as it's hinted that 2B has the same kind of mission towards 9S whenever he learns too much...

[@jamesherb4384]

​@@armelior4610not hinted. straight up stated that 2b is actually 2e and 2b is just a cover name.

[@lmemh3737]

@@jamesherb4384 remember, the actual 2b is not even deployed, there's a file which says she's stored.

[@CrazeeAdam]

Also with Hyetta, she's not even alive. She's some spirit that has possessed that corpse of Irinia... So it gets more twisted and sad really. Weather she knows this or not at first. It's true.

[@smashbrandiscootch719]

*whether

[@gothicbutterfly013]

Hell, Shabriri in the mountains is possessing Yura's corpse, so it is heavily implied that whatever Outer God is behind the Frenzy Flame is what's puppeting both of them to guide you towards becoming it's Champion/Host to wrest control over the Lands Between from the Greater Will.

[@antifurryfoundation55]

Their physical similarities are a coincidence as she is clearly a separate person who is slowly corrupted by the “grapes” you give her.

[@gothicbutterfly013]

@antifurryfoundation55 except for the fact that her quest doesn't trigger until you complete Irina's which ends in her death.

[@AgeofJP]

I think Sellen would've been a better choice to put in this video...her case of being "doomed" is especially cruel BECAUSE she doesn't die. Even the most horrible death imaginable would be mercy compared to this eternal state of torment trapped within a graven mass. And her being in a room where you can't use your weapons means you can't even put her out of her misery. I can't spontaneously think of a more F'ed up fate for any character I've ever encountered, much less one that I ignorantly helped sealing

[@FirestreakRodimusPr]

Add Heather from Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines. Doing the 'right thing' to save her life, will lead to her death unless you take specific actions otherwise.

[@SimonBuchanNz]

Well, more like if you do the right thing by saving her life, then *repeatedly* doing the *obviously* wrong thing by keeping her around as a progressively more addicted ghoul.

[@Zero60133]

​@@SimonBuchanNz Indeed. Helping Heather the first time and telling her to leave when she comes to express her thanks, is really the only truly moral action your character can make in regards to her. Afterwards, there's many options for player to exploit the blood bond, to turn the poor woman into unrecognizible madwoman, and she can lose her life to Sabbat after Fledgeling makes too many enemies. Regardless, unless she is chased away the first time, Heather life is drastically if not irreversably changed, even if Fledgeling opts to chase her away later on to keep her safe. There's only so little room for selflessness in VTM, even if vampire wishes to use their curse to help others, they are still twisted, damned and all their gifts come with painful drawbacks, they can very well damn the ones they try to save, it's pitiful how even most cherished things turn to rot in their hands. To be a vampire in VTM is to be damned within and without.

[@CuppaLLX]

@@Zero60133 its almost like its a world of darkness where light frears tread

[@YumLemmingKebabs]

And it's so weird and janky too, like an afterthought.

[@jennahinckley8216]

yenna won't be kidnapped if you have lae'zel, gale, halsin or minthara in your camp but outside your party. she also won't take no for an answer and will stay in your camp whether you want her to or not, so no, you did not "doom" her. she's just a failsafe

[@MaskedGEEK]

For Alien: Isolation, I would've suggested Dr Kuhlman. While he guides you in the infirmary, by helping him effect an escape plan, he is then doomed as the titular xenomorph hugs him through a darkened doorway. If you're also brave enough, you can even come back to this area with an upgrade for the access tuner to see how the xenomorph managed to get into the room behind Kuhlman and see a busted open grated floor vent.

[@jamie1602]

A lot of characters in Alien: Isolation. The moment you feel connected with them and begin to like them as you gain a new understanding for how to play the game (new mechanic or area) the game rips that security blanket away from you. Some deaths are more horrific than others and I still wish I had a little bit of brain bleach- to experience it again! They're done very well.

[@NickW855]

Herbert the stalker, innocent? The guy who keeps breaking into her room to record her sleeping? The guy who steals her hair? The guy who keeps finding new ways to contact her ECHO despite her blocking him? Innocent? Pull the other one.

[@YumLemmingKebabs]

Hm, ok, so three of these don't really meet the set criteria at all for various reasons...

[@Bioterrorist356]

Yenna’s fate is the easiest to avoid since you just have to have one of 4 possible kidnapping victims waiting at camp to be captured. As for the dice roll, as long as you kill Gortash first and become an assassin of bhaal, you won’t need to do a dice roll check. Even if you don’t do that, go into her room before confronting her and cast speak with the dead on her mother which will give you a dialogue option to distract her from the kidnapped victim without a dice roll requirement.

[@themarvelanddcmarshlands]

T.K. Baha in the first Borderlands game. Mostly keeps to himself until you go out of your way doing multiple missions to help him out, inevitably drawing attention to him by a band of Psychos, who murder him just as a message to you

[@frodobaggins7710]

Honestly, I think there'd be a shorter list of From Software NPC who don't end up meeting a tragic fate via your "help." Onion Knight and Lapp from DS3, for example

[@audreykisner3895]

Also, the entirety of Shadow of the Tomb Raider. Lara has never had so much blood on her hands

[@alaricbullard1507]

Encountering Orin was so unrealistic, especially that one with Yenna. That maniac should've been met with a haymaker the moment she was back in her original skin.

[@shadowwolf9595]

Jasper and family in Dragon's Dogma. You get a quest where you're asked to evict this family. You can choose to give them enough money to buy the property from the greedy landlord who gave you the quest in the first place. This completes the quest and the family thanks you for standing up to the little guy, like the hero you're supposed to be. Problem is... The part of the city where their house is collapses during the endgame, killing them. This is confirmed if you instead make them move (You can give them money to cover moving expenses). After the city collapses, you can find the family in the still-standing part, where they'll tell you that their old house had collapsed and they surely would have died if they were still living there.

[@boonlincoln]

In Neverwinter Nights, there is a quest in a spooky mansion within a village trapped in a hellish time bubble. Awaiting your judgement are two brothers, one which murdered a bunch of children, and the other who convinced him to do it in order to obtain a powerful artifact from a demon. You can side with either brother, which will condemn the other to punishment and release the village from the time bubble. But the "correct" option is to keep the time bubble in place, as that's the only way to punish the demon, who is the real guilty party in the whole affair. Doing so, however, condemns the brothers and the village to remain in the time bubble indefinitely, forgotten by time and unable to ever leave.

[@DistinctionDave]

I was thinking of this one. I'm not sure if it's really the "correct" option, given that you condemn the entire village to an eternal hell. Releasing the demon might not be the best thing to do, but it's hardly fair to punish the people there with basically undeath for eternity.

[@boonlincoln]

@@DistinctionDave It's a moral quandary for sure. Based on the quest rewards, the game definitely gives you more for finding the second brother guilty, but I always picked the "keep the time bubble in place" option. The demon makes it abundantly clear that he will go on to cause more damage and mayhem the moment he is released, and this is the only way to punish him, even at the expense of a village trapped in time.

[@DistinctionDave]

@@boonlincoln Yes, it's definitely not a black and white situation. I don't think there is a correct option, so it's absolutely defensible to take that choice; either choice, really. You've reminded me I really ought to play Neverwinter Nights again. One of my favourite RPGs, and unfairly underrated, in my opinion!

[@CreeperGreenMC]

Face McShooty from Borderlands 2 comes to my mind. You help him, but you also shoot him in the face, but at least he was happy about it.

[@AmeenaWordweaver]

To be fair, that is what he asks you to do. It's pretty much his entire dialogue - if you just stand nearby and listen to him talk, everything he says is describing how he wants to be shot in the face. Specifically the face. Nowhere else. Just the face. I think the caption when you complete the quest is "Well, that was easy..."

[@MysticLuxray]

He's my favourite

[@Ordolph]

Hot air balloons would have been about as new to Aurthur as airplanes are to us. The first manned hot air ballon flights were happening in the early 1780s, right around the time of the revolutionary war.

[@CountessD]

So my response to this video is to find a way to keep the cat, not the orphan, alive (orphan is just a bonus). And while finding the answer it dawned on me: I’m not alone in wanting this fictional cat to live. Thousands of people have looked this up before me. All you cat ppl gamers: I see you and I love you 😂

[@HowToTrainYourDuncan]

Grub is precious and must be protected at all costs. Orin can keep Halsin - I’ve already got a Druid, plus he tried to proposition me while standing like six feet away from my girlfriend.

[@marcusinfinity9386]

@@sirei01 animals do more "gruesome "things " what are you talking about

[@rafabuda0]

Honestly it's pretty easy to not have Yenna be kidnapped by Orin. Both Halsin and Lae'zel take priority over her.

[@arkbuble]

The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening. You do the right thing by waking up the Wind Fish... o and everyone you meet at the game stop existing. Ouch.

[@kiljoy459]

I never finished Yenna's quest because she glitched and disappeared suddenly, then returned just as suddenly so she and her cat were safe forever.

[@gabrielarkangelo]

I was expecting Assassins Creed Odyssey, where you have option to either spare or kill a family that have a desease, and includes kids as well. And, Spoiler alert: If you spare the family, their desease spreads and becomes a large plague that almost completely dooms Athenas.

[@Michael_Lindell]

"Do the right thing" he said as he Spiked Lee...

[@ReclaimedDasein]

Yep, and the proper to throw shit through a pizza shop window.

[@langleymneely]

Never go full spiked Lee!😜

[@ReclaimedDasein]

@@langleymneely God damn always go full spike Lee. :p

[@langleymneely]

@@ReclaimedDasein 🤣😂👍🏾

[@TOFWHY]

Witcher 3 in the first area, when you're convinced to give the girl a witchers concoction because there's a chance it will help her survive, but that definitely does not go well

[@sebastianwlodarczyk]

I mean, she dies if you refuse (or if you skip the side-quest)- to be fair, there's quite a few choices in the Witcher games where the possible outcomes are either bad or worse:) (It's almost like "choosing the lesser evil" was a recurring theme or something!:D)

[@erickalear7609]

The choices between suck and crap are why W3 is such a good narrative game.

[@Death2all546]

@@erickalear7609ironically, I’ve heard a ton of complaints about certain Far Cry games because those are the exact endings you choose between.

[@YumLemmingKebabs]

That's just a bad situation either way.

[@mermidion7552]

@@Death2all546 i think the difference is that witcher 3 actually does have a good ending despite having multiple quests with bad solutions (two good endings, if you are a fan of Nilfguard). Games with multiple endings where everything is crap are just bad writing especially if they have alot of endings (like Cyberpunk but at least the new DLC ending is kind of neutral)

[@MikesPortugal-zm4oy]

KOTOR2 was the first time my young self was faced with philosophical dillemas, the beggar when you arrive to Nar Shadaa... Damn you Kreia!!!

[@user-hi4sm3ig5j]

At least you did something. Apathy is death, after all!

[@MikesPortugal-zm4oy]

@@user-hi4sm3ig5j don't!! I still have nightmares about that cutscene and how it applies to my real life. That was made as a lesson, one leads to the other, as all things in star wars do, and boy did it cost me to learn it

[@KasumiRINA]

KOTOR 2 is really good for light side playthrough but dark side choices make little sense: the ones that don't matter are ones like telling robbers to jump into a bottomless pit, and Kreia berates you for that, but the MAJOR ones are... just picking "wrong" side in two planets main quests: whatever you do next, you HAVE to fight the Jedi Master that chose the other faction (which are mostly shades of gray anyway), and if you kill even one, the summit scene has the rest attack you. Oh and if you do 90% good playthrough BUT kill all Jedi masters before summit, Kreia gives you a talk on how horrible of a person you are, any attempt at gray or mixed playthrough has her sound like an idiot because game takes choices like "sided with Montague over Capulets" as you're now literally absolute monster. The droid lover choice was the best tho, even though it's a joke quest, whatever you do is amazingly written (you can return droid to the horny owner, let him escape or be destroyed, OR be actually petty evil and destroy him BUT tell her he's alive so she spends the days searching, AND you can tell that plan to him beforehand to tease).

[@michaelandreipalon359]

Perhaps checking out Kreia's Conundrums from Papito Qinn might interest you.

[@zanite8650]

​@@KasumiRINA A lot of the evil choices in the KOTOR games were 'kick the puppy' but every now and then it'd let you really fuck with people. Edit: Onderon in the second game was surprisingly good as dark side, would recommend it. And credit to Colonel Tobin who says he wants you on their side since they can't beat you.

[@DeadlestSpartanGroup]

In Guardian Tales World 4, one of the missions starts with a family who spends life savings to go to paradise. You meet up with them, but have lost the tickets that you find. You can use the tickets to go in yourself or give them to the family so they can go in. If you gave them back when you get in you show up to watch the parents get murdered.

[@TheRealCodeBlack]

You could fill a video like this with RDR characters, really. The guy you help fly a plane off a cliff, the guy you help go west where he dies of exposure, Luisa, the inventor you help make a patricidal robotic man...

[@jmsmys13ify]

Mass Effect 3. Telling Kelly to do the selfless thing and help the refugees gets her a bullet in the head.

[@Iarinthel]

Not if you tell her to get a new identity in your reunion.

[@jmsmys13ify]

@@Iarinthel I know. But that would be the "selfish" thing to do usually. Doing the "right" thing and helping the refugees gets her killed.

[@JHenry-nz7hy]

If you spare the Asari scientist on Virmire in Mass Effect 1, she lives through Mass Effect 2, then kills some Asari diplomats off-screen in Mass Effect 3, netting Shepard a loss of War Assets. Blame's on you for sparing the indoctrinated scientist, apparently

[@mars-pv4xw]

@@JHenry-nz7hy that one always bugged me like when you see her again in me2 you should be able to kill her then - sparing her in me1 makes sense bc shepard doesnt know how deep indoctrination can run and she doesnt "look" indoctrinated. but when you run into her again it feels like too much to be a coincidence and even a paragon shep would be sus

[@JHenry-nz7hy]

@@mars-pv4xw I think it's a weird choice, but it kinda makes sense. If Shep already spared her in ME1, then it stands to reason the player didn't want her dead. I don't really like it, but it's somewhat realistic: it was the right choice at the moment, but hindsight is 20-20

[@Yesterzine]

Scarlett’s voice actor is the same as Lilith. And Tannis. That’s talent.

[@ShadowOfCicero]

Chocolat in Tales of Symphonia. Our mishandling of our role as the good guys got first her grandmother, then her mother killed (and obliterated her hometown for good measure). There's even a sidequest to reflect on what you've done through not knowing better.

[@sambridgett]

Having not played Borderlands 2, I was briefly wrongfooted by the mention of a Captain Scarlet. I'm presuming that's not the one who knows the Mysterons' game, and things they plan

[@Gigawolf1]

This is how I realized Yenna is Anney backwards. She was still alive & fine at my camp by the end of my BG3 run though, whereas Orin was none of the three

[@Glimare]

Tales of Symphonia! in the first hour of playing, you save a sweet old lady named Marble from some evil guards. This leads to her being turned into a monster and you fighting her the next day, getting banished from the village, and getting the attention of the BBEG not knowing you were another character's Achilles Heel. Later you accidentally ruin the rest of Marble's family by 'doing good'. Seriously, you need to play this game!

[@rjai5003]

As a side note, even if you don’t let Yenna come to your camp, Orin will still kidnap her if none of the kidnappable companions are available.

[@Swordsman1425]

I always felt so bad about the hot air balloonist.

[@matthiasneidenberger9471]

He was literally just doing his job and he gets shot because of a crime we didn’t even know he was abetting.

[@NoMoreCrumbs]

"Goddamit, I was starting to like him!"

[@adaptabledisease]

Was the episode filmed in reverse? Or am I absolutely in love with Janes 'MOOD' T-shirt XDXDXD

[@zombieham904]

Another example: In part 4 of the first Life Is Strange game you have the option of warning Victoria she's in trouble, and if you've been nice enough to her throughout the game (despite her being a jerk) she'll believe you. But if she DOES believe you she goes straight to the bad guy and ends up kidnapped with you in part 5. And even though you don't see it, she probably ends up dead because you tried to warn her.

[@jamesherb4384]

'I'm sure he's trying his best' was absolutely unnecessarily hilarious 😂

[@KasumiRINA]

Baldur's Gate has a running gag with cat quests: in the very first game you could find a dead cat near a waterfall and OF COURSE there's a quest nearby when a little girl's ghost is searching for miss Kitty... then in Icewind Dale 2, which runs on the same engine, you have a traditional "defeat the rats" RPG staple quest, and you can find another dead cat, IIRC reusing the same graphics. If you pick it up, using videogame logic, the owner berates you for logging a dead cat around like a madman.

[@mermidion7552]

i loved when Oblivion made a mockery out of the typical "Kill the rats" quest, when an NPC hires you to investigate or Cellar cause she hears strange sounds from it and you find it full of big rats, but when you kill them the owner gets angry and berates about how you could kill her pets! (the true perpetrator i believe was a puma that a neighbor lured to the cellar cause she hated the rat pets of the questgiver woman).

[@VonBlade]

+6 intimidation, Prudence? Blimey.

[@CovidKid2019]

KOTOR II, in Nar Shaddaa you can help a bith scientist with his work. however, you get attacked by a droid, and when you return to the bith the only thing left is his arm holding a datapad that tells u what happened

[@coyoteone6197]

As a crowning irony to Tenpenny Tower, if you kill the richly deserving Roy after he massacres the residents, you lose karma. It was the one "evil" act of my good playthrough. I'm okay with that.

[@Postoronniy]

Bethesda being too lazy to properly script this again.

[@Peter_The_Great]

KOTOR: Possible one by Redeeming Yuthura Band in the first half of your playthrough of the game. Spoilers ahead for those who have not played the game before... If you help her be redeemed. You'll encounter her again on Dantooine. And since Dantooine was attacked by the Sith halfway through the game. It is assumed she was killed in the attack. Hypothetical. But still a do-gooder thing could get her killed. I assume redeeming her after the attack on Dantooine would have her seek out her former Jedi master elsewhere and possibly spared being killed by the Sith.

[@scienceandponies]

Not sure if I'm remembering right, but I don't think you get the option to redeem her if you do Korriban last (which always felt the most thematically appropriate to me). I always had to settle for the glorious double double cross where I poison both of them and then have to fight the entire Sith academy.

[@Peter_The_Great]

@@scienceandponiesI was able to do it when it was the last planet I visited.

[@dorianwiesner4477]

@@scienceandponies You can, but you have to annoy her with her life story to do so. And be compassionate to her.

[@LtBasil]

Even if she does survive the Dantooine attack in KotOR 1, most of the Jedi are wiped out by Nihlus and/or Sion in between the first and second games, so the chances are pretty good that she dies later on anyway.

[@irishbob26]

What about the times they doomed us. I once collected a debt for a friend next thing im dying of TB.

[@chriskoloski32]

To be fair. In borderlands every character you play as is basically a grave robbing sociopath who would likely have delivered the bomb anyway if we were told it was a bomb. Hell all of them in 2 were willing to help handsome jack out until he tried to kill them

[@Albatross0913]

Yenna looks exactly like a friend i had in high school so it kinda tore me up

[@bonnecherie]

I'm surprised that the Durge playthrough didn't get a mention from BG3, since there are TWO individuals that, if you don't accidentally kill one, you accidentally kill the other. All because they wanted to travel with you (Alfira) or they were robbed on the road and needed a place to stay for the night (Quill Grootslang). All because you were being nice and letting them stay in camp!

[@aliteralmoth2243]

However, inheriting the Frenzied Flame is also the only way to save Malena's life so there is that. If you want to still get the good ending you can get rid of the frenzied flame after killing the fire giant.

[@madamefluffy4788]

However, you can prevent Yenna's (or whichever companion was abducted by Orin) fate if you sneak into Orin's room and cast 'Speak to the Dead' on her mother's corpse. You find out that not only was Orin the product of incest (Saverok - her grandfather - is her father) but that Saverok, who Orin idolizes, planned to have Orin sacrificed to Bhaal (Orin just killed Helena before that happened). If you confront Orin with this revelation, she forgets entirely about her would be sacrificial lamb and focuses her attention entirely on the player and their party.

[@chavamara]

Not sure if Axel belongs on this list. In all the other games here, you get the option of whether to help the NPC or not, but in Alien: Isolation, you don't get a choice. And it's not really YOUR fault Axel gets killed, that's just how Xenomorphs DO.

[@Colbio]

Hooooo boy. Speaking of Fromsoft, Gascoigne's whole family in Bloodborne. The only one you can claim innocence on is Gascoigne's wife. Gascoigne had already lost the plot and killed her by the time you got there. Then you rock up to a beast possessed Gascoigne and have to kill him. You find his wife's body nearby and take her broach back to their first daughter. First daughter is obviously heartbroken, but when she recovers, she becomes determined to survive, and asks you for a safe refuge. You tell her about the chapel you've been sending survivors to. Next time you pop into the chapel, she's not there. So you go to her house only to find the SECOND sister asking you where the first went. You retrace the path the first sister would have taken. You find that she was barely 20 feet from salvation. The first sister was caught, killed, and devoured by a giant pig. You butcher it, recovering a bloodstained, formerly white ribbon the first daughter wore in her hair. When you deliver the news and the ribbon to the second sister, she breaks completely. The next time you visit, she has jumped from her house into the pit below. The only thing on her is that same ribbon, now snow white. If you had never talked to the first daughter, the second would have arrived and they would have huddled together till morning. They would have lived.

[@sirstash]

I either don't give the broach at all and leave them sad all night. Or I do give it and just never point them to a "safe" place.

[@miciso666]

They would perish eventually from madness

[@HumanB312]

@@miciso666together

[@Pineapply_Queen]

At least with Yenna you'd have to be trying to get her kidnapped; if you have Gale, Lae'zel, and Halsin/Minthara in your party (and you didn't KO Minthara to get both her and Halsin and leave one of them behind), that's the only scenario where Yenna becomes the sacrificial lamb. I have read that the game won't pick your romance partner, so maybe it's possible to romance one of those four, leave the partner behind at camp and take the other three, and Yenna still gets kidnapped; but I have not tried that and I don't intend to.

[@armelior4610]

A bit like the Asscreed entry, in Kotor whether you do the right, the evil or no-thing your very presence dooms the entire planet you start on, Taris

[@zacharysmith4856]

Not sure if it fits because it wraps from one game to another, but the canonical ending of Prince of Persia: Warrior Within has you leaving with Kaileena, the Empress of Time... and then she gets taken out at the very beginning of Two Thrones.

[@HowToTrainYourDuncan]

Say whatever you want - I would burn Baldur’s Gate to the ground if it meant keeping Yenna’s cat safe. Also potentially doomed: Barcus Wroot. If, like me, you don’t pay attention to what lever you pull in a certain windmill, then his storyline is cut dramatically, tragically short.

[@waitwhat1029]

Yeah, I oopsed him into the atmosphere too. The found his body by the well. Pretty sure I'm a bad person because I laughed...really hard.

[@anythingfun13]

In my evil playthrough of bg3 I bullied Yenna hoping she wouldn't come to camp and when she still came to camp I kicked her to the curb thinking that I could have someone else get taken but instead she slept on the streets and still got nabbed by Orin and I think that was one of the worst moments of feeling like garbage I had while trying to achievement hunt that game T_T

[@joncrow3228]

The “more flying lead than a tornado in a pencil factory“ was bloody brilliant! I’m gonna borrow that.

[@williamthain2888]

Every Soulsborne NPC

[@MrScrubb201kt]

On a Durge playthrough I didn't let yenna come to camp and Orin still kidnapped her, since all the other origins were dead already.

[@lunaticpathos]

Ahem, a homeless orphan girl who has nothing in the world but her cat and *her own paring knife.*

[@Alexander-wx2ie]

So there is a guy in fallout 4 code name Patriot that help synts to escape. And we use him to contact a synth with the intention to make a massive rescue operation. But that quickly became a full armed revolution against the Institute , we never told him about this. After completing the nuclear option with the Railroad, rescuing the synth and blowing up the Institute. Two days when you go check Railroad Headquarters , you find his body in the center and they give you his suside note. He committed suicide because his whole family die during the attack to the Institute. That really shocked me.

[@JeffreySchusterKanzar]

Lightseeker Hyetta isn't real, though. She's a manifestation of The Three Fingers, and she requires a dead body to animate herself. Hyetta doesn't exist in the world unless you first clear Castle Mourne, causing the death of Irina.

[@insaincaldo]

Just like the first internet troll Stinkmeaner Shabriri himself.

[@donnywilliams9494]

OX making a video without an Elden Ring or Baldur's Gate 3 entry? Literally impossible.

[@rockgamiasedes677]

man!! In witcher 3 the choice between tree spirit and orphans still haunts me !

[@GlennWH26]

If you do the Hanar Diplomat quest in ME3 without Kasumi being present, taking the Paragon interrupt to save Bau with result in Kajjae falling to the Reapers. Congratulations! You just saved one salarian Spectre and doomed millions of hanar and hundreds of thousands of drell.

[@LtBasil]

Moral of the story: KEEP KASUMI ALIVE.

[@joels5150]

Bloodborne has to be on the list because most NPC’s suffer a horrible fate if you even talk to them.

[@minstrelofmoria]

A lot of the characters you help in The Suffering end up dying. For instance, if you help the conspiracy theorist who accidentally trapped himself with his own explosives, he ends up getting gassed to death by an evil ghost. He's probably better off if you just leave him there.

[@jordanfears453]

No mention of Witcher 3? That game has so many events that qualify for this list that it could be it's own episode.

[@mermidion7552]

For real, like the first Werewolf you encounter, obviously the right choice was to let him live and take revenge on the woman who was responsible for the death of the woman he loved....but then in the end you had to kill him anyway without even the option to convince him to live. i noticed that Witcher 3 really didnt like Werewolfs even thought Witcher 1 had one of the coolest who was a Crime-fighter who also fought by your side.

[@kinsan89]

I saved Yenna by doing the best thing possible: not long resting for nearly 9 hours of gameplay. Because I found Orin posing as a camp teammate, Yenna and Grub were perfectly safe!

[@SolaScientia]

I was going to say that Hyetta ends up being fine with it. I'm doing a second run of Elden Ring with a new character as I wait for the DLC (going into the DLC with my first character), and I'm playing around with a faith-based build. I'm not killing NPCs (well, I did kill Gostoc this time, because eff that guy and I'll have plenty of Ancient Dragon Smithing Stones by the end anyway), but I'm basically being rather chaotic and fully going with the Frenzied Flame ending this time.

[@danhill99]

Man, I’ve never managed a full renegade playthrough of ME, and it’s entirely the fault of that one Turian gun dealer on the citadel in 2- he will never know how many lives he saved by being alternately super chill or mad aggressive, depending on if you saved the council.

[@eitherorlok]

Hyetta may very well be Shabriri taking on the guise of a woman who was killed earlier in the game, tricking you into triggering the game's Frenzied Flame ending. Trying to "do the right thing" and help Boc, however...

[@insaincaldo]

With info, you know that would also lead to no good. The little guy just needs to know how beautiful he is.

[@eitherorlok]

@@insaincaldo His whole storyline is wonderful and I hate that you can get a bad ending for him. I always make sure to collect that Prattling Pate.

[@Borderlines]

Orin's VA is so perfect. Captured that deranged absolutely messed up murderess vibe

[@thechemist3234]

My first thought when I saw the title had to be Eltrys from The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim. Poor guy just wanted some answers, but you poking around ended with him poked all around by a Markarth guard's sword.

[@insaincaldo]

Or two..

[@keithshaughnessy1730]

I'm not sure what I did with my Baldur's Gate 3 playthrough with Yenna, but I somehow ended up with Yenna disappearing and the cat stuck around, and only much later did I learn what was supposed to happen and am so glad I saved that cat. Don't know how but I'll take the credit. Also no clue what happened to Yenna. I thought she was always Orin. Halsin was who got kidnapped for me.

[@MrWesleyDP]

Fallout 3 taught me that you don't need to pursue every quest to have an enjoyable, and significantly less depressing, play through. So, in most of my FO3 play troughs I just sort of ignored the whole ghoul/Tenpenny tower thing with my characters being blissfully unaware of those issues. Had enough to worry about anyway, what with all the people with foreign accents running around and what not....

[@spinal_capped]

Yeah I just finished my first FO3 playthrough and just left that quest incomplete

[@brookeboyd7095]

I never completed it as well. I was at the end of the game when I came across that quest and by that time just wanted to finish the game.

[@moonlightingjam]

The way I go about it is I do the quest then never go back to the tower. That way I can pretend everyone (but mostly just my man Herbert "Daring" Dashwood) is still alive. Schrödinger's Tenpenny Residents, as I like to call it.

[@Argendriel]

In Dragon's Dogma 2, the merchant Isaac really wants a certain magic tome to improve the life of his family. If you actually bring it to him (and don't instead give him a useless forgery) he winds up ending the life of his family.

[@Stratelier]

There's gotta be at least five Skyrim quests that could fit this list, right? Pieces of the Past? The Forsworn Conspiracy? Unearthed?

[@insaincaldo]

Unearthed? What right thing? Coveting riches of the deadish with a sleazy dunmer, who tells you outright what kind of "reliable" workers he can pay for and why he increasingly has less protection for the pay. At best, the first batch of workers were just gullible.

[@tripplec6798]

Epic Mickey 2 A Friend In Deed sidequest: you meet Metairie and Bertrand who both lost their home. You end up getting only one deed to a house and have to decide who to give it to leaving the other homeless.

[@intrinsicallylast5246]

Saying the people of tenpenny are 'innocent' is a bit of a stretch, ngl.

[@opheliamunroe1110]

I never got that far in game but like....it does kind of sound like they probably did something to deserve getting piled up in the basement. You know. Considering their open discrimination. 😐 I don't have a lot of empathy for them as far as everyone on this list.

[@Postoronniy]

​@@opheliamunroe1110 Roy was already prepared to unleash a horde of feral ghouls on the tower, so his intentions are suspect from the start. And he murders everyone, including Herbert Dashwood, who is openly supportive of the ghouls and is a generally nice character.

[@opheliamunroe1110]

@@Postoronniy 😮 Ooooh. So probably more of a violent overtaking than anything 😬 Revolution is never pretty but you'd think they'd at least have spared the one dude who actually wanted them there. Or maybe not? I guess it's not like they would have had a meeting and been like "Everyone has to go.... except for this guy. This guy is cool."

[@Postoronniy]

@@opheliamunroe1110 I always interpreted that as Roy being bitter towards regular humans in general, and using any excuse for an opportunity to take it out on them. He tolerates the Lone Wanderer because he is helpful.

[@opheliamunroe1110]

@@Postoronniy I mean it sounds like most normal humans are pretty discriminatory towards ghouls so it makes sense that he would be bitter. After all he used to literally be just like them and their "kind" were excommunicated, shunned and highly stigmatized by a community they used to be a part of. People are going to become bitter when they are treated poorly for things well out of their control. Even non ghouls have it hard in the Fallout wasteland without literally being rejected from settlements and communities where they would be safer amongst a group. Like yeah he's bitter but can you really blame him? The ghouls who aren't like .. mindless zombies get treated like monsters akin to Deathclaws even when they display human intelligence and ethical restraint. Roy is violent but he also garnered the ghouls of the wasteland a community that couldn't be taken from them again. I don't necessarily agree with his methods but then being allowed into the city doesn't mean their treatment changed or that they were suddenly treated as equals. There would have been an uprising at some point because you can't violently oppress a group of people and expect them to just take it forever.

[@starwarslover015]

Since Yenna is a fail safe for a kidnap victim, bottom of the list of who Orin will kidnap,I think it’s actually impossible to get rid of her/not help her.