#gortash letters

[mxmaneater]

Okay so... Not saying I agree with the decision the letters, because that first letter gave us one of the best, most unhinged lines in the game "business proceeds like a parent saving their drowning child, swimmingly".

But considering the amount of queer content in the game and the vehement allyship (and also queerness) of the Larian team, I feel that it was most likely a decision of "Oh, someone pointed out that we followed the trend of queer-coding villains, which has historically associated queerness with evil, maybe we should roll that back a little".

Again, not saying I agree, (especially because Gortash is queer-coded in so many other ways that this change doesn't mitigate that). So I say: let him be gay and evil. We, as fans, can handle that.

i'm dehydrated and sleep deprived so someone's gotta tell me that changing the franc letters isn't like.. not homophobic, but i'm looking the word up in the dictionary and glancing down at it 🤨 and glancing back up the screen 🤨

[elminster-big-naturals]

feminism is gortash being the one to sleep his way into money & power, not orin

[celemee]

They had their own code language... ;_; Make of that what you will

[anderstrevelyan]

gortash interfering with press freedom.jpg

Noteworthy to me:

it took at least a TENDAY to print all the Gort posters around the city

he hired a Banite as an official aide (obviously) (Ulova's the Black Gauntlet up in his office)

Ettvard is reeking of Banite too (I see you, "yours faithfully")

he didn't even send this protest

a Gortash signing his name just "G" is an angry Gortash (see the "inappropriate tone" Ketheric letter)

[divorcedwife]

catfish

[iedistis]

It's a shame they changed the Franc letters so much tone-wise because they gave Gortash a lot more nuance in his methods than what's going on in the patched version. Sure, those may be more banite but I always liked how in the original, the tyranny was not in the relationship between both characters but rather their acts committed together.

I enjoy Gortash as a character so much because he subverted the expectation of what a Chosen of Bane would be. His approach is deeply Machiavellian. The idea of him working his way up through the ranks of aristocracy by both cultural impact that is unignorable thanks to his machinery and a force of personality that disarms his targets emotionally and turns them favourable towards him on an interpersonal level instead of forcing them into submission via fear and threats(as one would expect) made it compelling. It made way for tyranny harder to uproot than one built on aggression because it would not just subjugate people, but change them. A person who fears you is closer to betrayal than one who loves instead. It is an alternative way of subjugation and I like to think that's what may have differentiated him from other Banites so much it made him a Chosen.

And those letters showed how that could've played out. They were deeply manipulative. Threats, if there were any, were in the beginning and faded into the background with the overpowering charm that continued on. The newer version falls flat in comparison. They start and end with thinly veiled threats and that's just not as powerful.

It sucks because I considered them a potential window into how the past relationship of Gortash/Durge could've started out too (regardless of how you interpret the nature of it). I don't think they could've gotten so close as to prompt something like the prayer of forgiveness like this simply because I can't see a Dark Urge responding to threats, fearless avatar of murder and all that. But the first version? Shallow flattery to get the foot into the door and appealing to their wants (like some good old torture racks) to ultimately foster an emotional attachment so severe it borders on heresy for at least one of them? That's awful. I like it.

In the patched letters he's just…evil. A more open and diplomatic (and perhaps more in line with bane) version of it, but also one a lot more predictive. Shame.

[anonymouscreampuff]

more shenanigans <3

[sky-kiss]

Larian, I am begging you. Stop changing things. Stop editing your finished product.

Stop.

And more importantly: stop changing it without context, without alerting the people that bought your product. It's not early access anymore. Most of these changes are watering down the characters and their personalities. Please.

[fascinationstreetmp3]

note to franc peartree from orin

i don't know if you can actually find this in game but it doesn't seem to be loaded into any of the map files and it's not in franc peartree's house or basement, so it's likely you can't? anyway. i feel like it somehow paints a hornier picture of gortash and peartree's relationship than his original unedited letters

here is its roottemplates entry, it's named "BOOK_LOW_SerialKiller_PeartreeOrinThreat", and its name in game is "choose wisely"

the note you find on peartree's body is named "BOOK_LOW_SerialKiller_OrinThreat", in game "bloodied note"

[nonbinaryeye]

Why did Gortash and the Dark Urge go to the House of Hope?

Was it to get some plans, materials or information for the more important and dangerous heist on Mephistopheles' vault?

Was is it something regarding Gortash's past, some lose end he wanted to fix from his stay in House of Hope with which the Dark Urge offered their help?

Or was the remark just theoretical in a sense "if we wanted Helsik can get us in House of Hope, that's the usual travel destination but it means she can be skilled enough to get us to Mephistar as well".

[justdurgeythings]

patch notes for patch #7

gortash no longer recognizes the dark urge

gortash's name is no longer "sickeningly familiar"

Orin will no longer comment about DU's relationship with gortash, so that it can better be "left to interpretation"

Wyll has been replaced by a slightly smaller Astarion

[loderlied]

ok here’s my actual non-shitpost take on the discussions about the franc letters change going on: i think we can or honestly should all agree that changing things after they’re already published in a story is a shitty thing to do writing-wise, but ultimately which letter fits the character better is up to the individual’s interpretation of the character alone and not a definitive answer that people are making it out to be.

[crystal-overdrive]

so that burly edit you added huh. Any chance there’s uh- more?

Dear Burly Gortash Lover Anon,

I absolutely love how speedy you were with this ask. You knew what you wanted and you came to get it. This footage was going to go in my pile of things to sort, but I've made a couple of gifs just for you. More will come in time.

(EDIT: they had a whole lot of empty footage at the end which I've corrected)

If you'd like to experience him for yourself, check out @flymmsy's mod here.

Yours In Submission to the Black Lord, Crystal

[anderstrevelyan]

I think my favourite thing about this sequence is Ketheric using fancy scroll paper, and also signing his own full name and title while refusing to use Gortash's. Power moves.

(I think he just calls himself "Ketheric" in the other notes to Gortash! But he does call himself "General Ketheric Thorm" in notes to underlings like Balthazar.)

[divorcedwife]

:/ i would like a different past please

[shaykai]

“I love any man willing to birth a little more slithering, wet malice into the world.”