I Think A Prerequisite To Understanding Durge And Gortash Is Understanding The Movie Midsommar And Its

I think a prerequisite to understanding Durge and Gortash is understanding the movie Midsommar and its ending. Or rather, how people get lured into cults. It's probably weird to some, but people do incredibly fucked up shit as long as they're lonely enough. As long as they are starved of enough affection.

These guys were completely isolated. One murdered everyone they ever knew without meaning to, only to be snatched up by the person that would manipulate them, and the other one was rejected and discarded by everyone they loved before his brain could even develop properly. They were alone. The entire fucking world rejected them. Nobody batted an eye when they were suffering far beyond what anyone should have to go through. Everyone that mattered to them disappeared in the blink of an eye. At least Gortash certainly spent years like that, for Durge it's implied but tbf the initial event alone would've been traumatic enough.

And then, eventually, when they were at complete rock bottom, after suffering so much, so long, someone came along and offered them acceptance. Offered them affection, offered them the chance to belong somewhere. To have a place to be, a role to play. To be someone. To find people with the same mindset. To find people to admire and to be admired by. They were offered an escape from the overwhelming loneliness and grief. They were offered to be accepted for once.

People will ruin themselves to fit in or to gain the love of another. And they did just that. They blindly ran into the knife because they were promised to belong for once. Because of the simple promise they wouldn't be rejected.

It doesn't rectify what they did, but gods is it understandable that they did what they did. People have done worse for less. They are vile. They're monsters. They're horrible beings. But they were conditioned into it. They were manipulated to such a frightening degree that they willingly chose to follow masters who would torment them even after death, knowing what they were getting into, but still choosing it just to escape the fucking loneliness. They gave themselves up just to belong. They certainly are to blame, but so are the people who's sins they've inherited.

And just to be clear, that's also the major difference between Karlach and Gortash. Karlach initially grew up being somewhere, being accepted, being loved. Yes, she, too, was betrayed and sold, but she was an adult when it happened. She knew love. She knew what it was like. She could rely on that glimmer of a hope that the world didn't outright despise her. Gortash didn't. He was sold as a fucking child. He never knew. He didn't have the resources. He was just fucking desperate and already broken and crushed in ways you could never break Karlach. She had loving parents. Gortash's mother wished she would've killed him before he was even born. Karlach was loved once, Gortash has ever since been told the world would've been a better place if he simply didn't exist.

Also, congratulations, this makes durgetash so much more painful to think about. Cuz they were willing to reject whatever helped them survive for the affection of one another.

inspired by an incorrect quote :)

by @web-spinning

I love your durge x Gortash so much! I really enjoyed how Gortash reacted badly (tho valid) to Durge talking to Raphael in your comic, shadow of Durge. Not many people explore that angle regarding the ramifications of Gortash’s experience in the house of hope impacted him as a person.

hello Anon!

thanks for your kind words😊😊

I love exploring the humans interactions in BG3, and I think Gortash is one of the most interesting villan, do I decided to explore his character.

I think the fact that his family literally sold him to slavery, ending in the house of Hope as a child did traumatized Gortash a lot.

I think he didn't talk about this experience because that made him feel humiliated, and he just vaguely told Durge that he doesn't like devils, never explaining why.

(and look at his shoes, the have littles devils on it. as if Gortash want to squash them)

And that's miscommunication was the problem.

we see in the game that everyone is suspicious and untrusting about devils.

my Durge though his dislike was just the norm, so, calling at devil and see if they could help him to control the dark urges was not that big deal.

Raphael is a bitch, but a very intelligent bitch, and he had a hand in both Ketrich and Gortash past, and I think he checked on them from time to time to see if there was something interesting goin on.

so, think when he hear THE bhaalspawn head of the murder cult need some help just because he catched feelings for the little runt Raphael had as a slave in the past?

Raphael HAD to put his hands on him, but when my Durge refuse in the end to make a deal with him, Raphael took a little petty revenge, making sure Gortash knew about it, taunting him about the "deal" Durge wanted to do.

Gortash, didn't take it well, and he confronted Durge, angry as hell that Durge called a devil, THAT devil to resolve his problems, even after all the time he told him to never trust a their kind.

the strong emotions both had were so intense, that they didn't listen at each other, and that brought a crack in their relationship and the future lobotomy of Durge.

psychological damage +100 for the General Thorm. ⚔️

Hello I just started following your page because I am a sucker for Durge and Gortash XD I saw the one comic about how Durge felt bad about killing Orin, who he saw as a little sister, and it is an interesting dynamic. I am so used to them being hateful rivals, so seeing them as siblings is a nice concept.

It does make me wonder what their life would have been like if Durge had forsaken his father and took Orin away from their hellish life? I can see them not giving up murder but still having the protective and wholesome sibling relationship (with a bunch of dead bodies following their wake) >u>

hello there my friend! thanks you for the kind words😊

so, I would like to say that the idea of the two of them growing outside the cult was something interesting and something that would have been like a good ending, but, unfortunately, very unlikely.

in my opinion, that would have never happened for two things:

-the cult would never give up searching for them. they are literally the children of their god, and both Orin and Durge would never had a save place to hide because of them. and without counting the the creepy butlers that follows them no stop , and of course, Bhaal himself.... there was not chance to escape alone. (Durge barely escape Bhaal's total control thanks to the the parasite)

-most important, is that Orin would never escape the cult on her own choice. different from Durge, she was born to it, she never experienced how to be outside of it. she would have fight Durge with teeth and claws if he decided to run away and take her with him.

she would always choose Bhaal over Durge.

But those are my thoughts, let's just enjoy the idea of them growing up free (apart from the dark urges) .

I think they would grow up as mercenary or assassins. they are good at killing, and my Durge would be the leader, having a moral compass more nice than hers, and in general be more smart and understanding of how things work.

here a scene how I think would happend: