#Netherbrain

[bone0921]

Finished up this sketch page that got away from me

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[cleomigadon]

Durgetash's Greatest Hits!

So did my foot. 🦶🏻

[niaranda]

I redrawn the situation with Gortash and the brain in the third act as a meme

[a2zillustration]

Croissant doesn’t like being under the sea OR too far in the air. This game has put them through the ringer.

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[truly-sincerely]

IS GORTASH ENTHRALLED?

(tl;dr: yes)

In this essay I will…

Okay, but seriously I did write an essay.

I got here after chasing a very different rabbit down its hole. I'd noticed that Gortash seems to have been throwing out a lot of his stuff (read: mostly employees).

Waldemar Prinski, a loyal banite, sold to a devil for a corn chip

Dark Breaker Antiope, sahuagin wrangler, A Negotiation

The Steel Watch Foundry, Orders to Black Gauntlet Rives

Scribe Yanthus, my beloved, sent on a wild bhaal chase

Vance Farnol, journalist, tho you could argue he had it coming

Goblin Worg handler at Flymm Cargo, plus the Worgs when they run out of Goblin to eat

And, of course, everyone at his Coronation

Was killing all of the patriars and their staff a grim necessity, Enver? Was it?

(Also, he's installed a giant portrait of Bane and a bust of Bane in the penthouse, but he doesn't have a single picture of himself, or any mirrors, for that matter. Food for thought.)

My initial diagnosis was macabre, but obviously I’ve moved away from that line of thinking. He's just way too happy to brag about how much danger he's put himself, us, and the entire world in. It freaked me out the first time I met him (as a Tav). Like I see him glancing at the ground and smiling coyly while saying, "If we're lucky, we'll become slaves," on the back of my eyelids when I go to bed at night.

For the love of all that is holy, could you please turn it down a notch?

I've been obsessed with The Ultimate State since I first read it. It's absolutely absurd nonsense. The item description says it's, "the philosophical ramblings of Enver Gortash." and I feel like it's worth noting that he doesn't write his own propaganda; he has the banites do it for him. But I mean, it really does read like he's twisting himself in knots to connect "unity" and "progress" together, but babe, those jigsaw pieces do not go together like that. Anyway, while thinking about this subject it dawned on me:

They're the same picture.

You know what other line of thinking these two have in common?

They both look so sad when they say this. I'm sorry. I'm sorry I abandoned you.

I know we all love to joke about Durge or Gortash feeding the Brain the "Handsome, Younger Man" line, but what if that was just a smokescreen and it's been the other way around this whole time?

Netherbrain: You think you know why you are here. You think you can atone for giving me my power, child of Bhaal, by destroying me with the Netherstones. You are wrong. The Emperor: It’s messing with your mind. Don’t listen to it. Use the stones. Netherbrain: By eliminating Ketheric and Orin, you have simply unbound me. Exactly as I intended. The Crown is now mine to command - mine alone. The Emperor: Don’t listen to it! Focus on the Crown! Netherbrain: You placed the Crown upon me in the depths of Moonrise Towers, and there I was born. The Crown is not my weakness - it is what made me what I am. Gortash: You are delusional - the Crown is how we controlled you! Netherbrain: I respected Bhaal’s child once, but not you, Gortash. I allowed you to control me as long as it suited my purposes. You have played your part. The next order to be given is mine and it is this - die. Gortash: (crumples like a piece of parchment) Netherbrain: When the parasite entered your ruined mind - you became a pawn in my design. Who do you think told the Chosen about the Astral Prism? Who do you think planted the knowledge of Orpheus’ power, and the fear of what it could do? When the Chosen sent my thralls to retrieve the Prism - who do you think let the ‘Emperor’ slip its leash, knowing it would be the one to bring you to me? The Emperor: We were part of its plan… Netherbrain: I only needed one Netherstone loosened from the Chosen’s grasp to guarantee my freedom. You brought all three back to me. In doing so, you have liberated me. This was your role - and it is complete. Now you will witness the Grand Design.

The face of a man who has 20 INT and 16 WIS and is definitely not the brainwashed pawn of a giant brain that's been manipulating him in his sleep.

You think his puny +7 WIS save is gonna beat the Netherbrain when it's been working on his ass every time he goes to sleep for the last nine months? I say thee nay.

Also, and this is probably oversharing, but my dad, who I used to think of as a really smart guy is now a huge Trump supporter. He's an atheist but he'll parrot conservative christian talking points that I've seen clipped from Nazi talking heads. The words that come out of his mouth and the way he smiles when he says completely insane things is haunting.

What all of this means at the end of the day isn't much in the grand scheme of things, but it's kind of sad, and it definitely says something about his characterization. This man is floundering in a soup of his own making. A tragic puppet. A poor little meow meow.

There's an interesting line of demarcation between the various writings that he dictated to Scribe Yanthus, the things he wrote himself, and the things he says to us in the game.

Elder Brain Domination (from Ketheric, but about Gortash)

Suspended Ceremorphosis

The Grand Design

Studies of the Elder Brains

Accelerated Grand Design

Memoir Notes With Recent Addenda

Journal of Enver Gortash

He's so much more motivated and insightful early on, epitomized in Ketheric's entry, "Gortash fears that, energised by the dark energies of the Crown, the brain we now call the Absolute will eventually metamorphose into something new and more difficult to control." And he was right! But that guy's nowhere to be found by the time we meet him.

This one makes me particularly sad, "No weakness but the unexpected. It seems I shall need unexpected allies," because, again, he's right, and we could've saved him if the game had given us the opportunity to say, "No, there is another way. Let's not walk into this obvious trap." He wrote us a roadmap; left a trail of breadcrumbs; and we weren't given the option to follow them.

But I guess that's what fixfics are for.

THANK YOU FOR COMING TO MY TAVtalk!

[shadowoftheuncrowned]

So I just noticed there is a difference in Gortash's expression even at the Netherbrain, after the alliance 🫠

Top is my Durge, bottom is taken from Lalo's youtube video (I never tried this with my own tav)

[littlestarbigfangs]

"SWEET HELLS!"

[oogalaboogalabich]

Durge givin our boy that good netherbrain.

Off screen 'o course.

[garbachu]

REDEMPTION!DURGE AND REDEMPTION! GORTASH

like i can't believe that's not an option

there's a whole scene where ketheric almost wants to redeem himself and whatnot but there's no such thing with gortash who doesnt even want to fight you, who admires you, likes you, AND has a sad backstory and history of childhood abuse??????

how about you and him go to the brain at the end and along with you he finds out he has been manipulated this whole time by the stinky brain he thought he could control (which he has no way of finding out normally because he fucking DIES)

and his pride gets absolutely destroyed because what the fuck he was the all powerful tyrant but he was a puppet this whole time??? so like whaoah kind of devastated

so because of that and because he has special feelings for durge he 180s and instead of being fried he teams up with you and your forces and after everything's over you go live quiet lives finally free of any shitty gods and tadpoles somewhere in the countryside because you're both human wreckages who just want some peace after all the shit they've been through, and both durge and gortash finally find it in each others arms because they only feel something when theyre together

there i fixed it

[sincerelyang3l]

btw my pronouns are elder and brain

[jessiemeows]

Before climbing the Netherbrain's stem:

A/N: I was playing (still am playing) the final battle of the netherbrain, and got a thought of how gut-wrenching it must've been for everyone. That this is the final moment, the final battle. Everything everyone built together could be gone in an instant. So I decided to channel that into a gut-wrenching little drabble of what I think my OC and Astarion said before they climbed up the brainstem.

Word count: idk I think it's about 400-500

Song: The Night We Met - Lord Huron (it was what I was listening to over and over again when writing this)

"My love, Astarion, my starry night." Eris’ voice trembled as she turned to him, her eyes shimmering with unshed tears.

"Yes, my little moon?" Astarion's deep voice now rasped and pained from inhaling the many flames that surrounded them. "Something to say before the end of the world?"

Eris’ small hands fluttered picking at her nails, an old fickle habit, and then fell still against her thighs. "I want you to know... no matter what happens up there..." Her words caught in her throat. "You've been the greatest thing that has ever happened to me. Our love... it's something even the gods must envy. You see me, truly see me, and I—"

A raw sob tore from her, shaking her entire frame as she moved closer to him, her hands now clenching in his hair silver curls as she stared into his deep crimson eyes, his arms wrapping around her waist to pull her in.

“Astarion," she whispered, her voice cracking. "I've loved you so madly, so deeply, since the day we met. You've been my shield against everything: the darkness within me, the monsters, even my father, Bhaal..."

Astarion's lips crashed down on hers, a desperate attempt to stem her tears. He could taste the sweetness of her cherry lip gloss and the faint metallic tang of a shared enemy's blood. His hands tightened her into an embrace.

"Eris Aníara Othzál," he murmured against her mouth. He rarely used her full name, reserving it for moments of anger or warnings of her cutting it close to enemies. This time, it was a plea.

"You're the first person I've ever... truly cared for," he continued, his voice hoarse. "My first and only love at first sight. But you speak as if this is goodbye. It's not. I swear it. We'll endure this, we'll live, we'll know freedom. I promise you all the Tears of Selûne that the sky holds and all the moonstones in Everska."

Eris’ eyes, those that once blazed and glowed red, now gazed back at him with the deepest, most sorrowful brown. They could have thawed the iciest harshest winter of the Frozenfar. Astarion's lips moved hungrily over hers, his fingers tracing the blooded silver and gold etching on her armor.

"Believe me, little love," he whispered, his breath a plea against her mouth. "Please..."

The silence that followed was a heavy, heart-wrenching thing. Then, a whispered promise:

"Okay."

[jzargo]

I have a few criticisms for the endgame of Baldur's Gate 3, but one of my big ones is that the Netherbrain is...not a good villain.

Yes, we've been hearing about the 'Absolute' the entire game. The mysterious god who has a vast, terrifying cult under her control. The mystery builds and builds until you discover, at the end of Act 2, that the Absolute is in fact an Elder Brain being puppeteered by the Chosen Three (one of whom was the main villain of Act 2). Throughout all this time, there is also the mystery of the Dream Visitor.

We then spend the entirety of Act 3 dealing with the remaining Chosen and the revelation that the Dream Visitor is the Emperor. The Netherbrain is a looming threat, but it is abstract in comparison to the real, tangible threats that are Orin, Gortash, and the Emperor.

And none of them are the final boss.

Yes, depending on your actions, the Emperor may ally with the Netherbrain at the very end; but at that point he has become a puppet of the Netherbrain; another thrall, a stepping stone to reaching the true threat: the Netherbrain.

But it is just exhausting to go through fighting Orin and Gortash, to only then have to go against the Elder Brain and sit through a scene where no matter what you do, no matter what you roll or what choices you make, the same outcome always occurs: the Netherbrain breaks free and a bigger and even more exhausting end battle waits for you.

The game tries to spin it so that the Netherbrain was actually the secret mastermind the entire time - manipulating the Chosen Three and biding its time - but it just doesn't feel earned. They've already done a villain switcheroo on us: the Absolute isn't a god, it's an Elder Brain being controlled by the Chosen of the Dead Three. Switching it back and saying "Psych! The Netherbrain was the real final boss the entire time" feels cheap. What's more, the Netherbrain just isn't a compelling villain.

I know Dragon Age and Baldur's Gate comparisons are tired at this point, but look at Dragon Age: Origins. The Archdemon may be the final boss, but the villain most people talk and engage with is Loghain. He's compelling, he has motivations and drives, and depending on what background you picked his actions could have serious repercussions for your characters' friends and family. Loghain is the villain; the Archdemon is just a big monster. And it's the same with the Netherbrain.

Just look at how people are engaging with the characters; there's a plethora of meta being written about Thorm, Gortash, Orin, and the Emperor. I'm not seeing the Netherbrain get that same level of interaction. Though it is sentient and has its desires (the Illithid Grand Design), it's just a slightly more intelligent Big Monster that needs slaying. And for an RPG, a game that should be character focused, that is an immensely disappointing final boss.

I think instead, depending on player choice, one of the three Act 3 antagonists - Orin, Gortash, or the Emperor - ascends, takes full control of the Netherbrain, and they're who you have to fight. The final battle has more impact that way - you're fighting against a villain who has actual character, who you potentially have built an actual relationship and history with, and who you actually care about fighting. Imagine how satisfying it would be for the final battle to be against Gortash if you're playing Origin Wyll or Karlach? How much more tragic it would be if the Dark Urge's duel with Orin was the final battle instead of a mid-Act 3 moment? How earned it would feel for it to be the Emperor you're fighting against if you've spent the entire game being manipulated by him?

There are a plethora of interesting and compelling villains in Baldur's Gate 3, and for some reason none of them are the final boss. The final boss is just a big monster. And that's such a big letdown.

[merciawintersageposting]

rating this claim ✅true

[a2zillustration]

You weren't going to talk your way out of this one, Croissant.

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[cchickki]

I wish there was some kind of achievement for successfully making the dice roll to dominate the brain