#goretash

Like I'd definitely be like, *nodding at dark urge* that's what you get for being a whore, and *nodding at gortash* I'm not telling you shit about your slut. Fuck you for making me third wheel. You guys thought you were so cool and smart and sexy for coming up with your dumb plan well, your stupid romance ruined everything, hope you're happy, harlots.

Enver and Virgil

Larian wouldn't have paid for Gortash to be animated two different ways in a number of his scenes if they wanted it to be ~up to interpretation~ if he and Durge were close or not.

I think that players can articulate the nature of that closeness for themselves, but make no mistake: Enver Gortash treasures the Dark Urge, and not for no reason. You were confidants. You had a cipher, just for the two of you. You knew each other for 10+ years (if the Hall of Wonders heist happens around the same time Karlach is sold).

Headcanon your Durge's sexual orientation however you wish. Headcanon their gender however you wish.

But closeness — even intimate, private closeness — takes many shapes. Whatever your preference, platonic or romantic or some third thing, Gortash and the Dark Urge were as close as two people can be.

Gortash: He hasn't texted, he hasn't called... Did I get DUMPED? Orin: I DON'T CARE. Now put your shirt back on, whoretash!! Ketheric: Please. Extra Durge snickering from the side because Gorty is being silly ♡

Suuuper normal about gortash & durge interactions- super normal.

i've only seen a few people talk about it, and it really is extremely sad to me that Gortash has no redemption path. he really is the bad ending version of all the other characters' cycle-of-abuse backstories. SO many bg3 characters can be saved from that, and a huge point of the game is how you can be more than what your abusers tried to make you be, and that doesn't happen for Gortash. no matter what decisions you make he has a bad ending, suffering eternally at the hand of his own god.

it's just so odd to me the way that was handled: ESPECIALLY in a durge run. i understand being unable to redeem him in a normal Tav route; he doesn't know you, why would you be able to give the help and support he needs. but in a Durge run, you two were clearly *so close* to the extent that when you arrive, he shows genuine joy at your arrival, calls you his "nearest and dearest" and has MANY other lines showing that he deeply trusted and respected you pre memory-loss.

they also give you as the player proof that durge felt *the same way* about him with things like the prayer of forgiveness letter they wrote about him: "Forgive me Father, for i can't help but admire the Chosen of your sworn foe..."

Gortash meant so much to durge that they were genuinely having a religious crisis over caring about someone and something that wasn't their Holy Father and his plan for you to kill everyone and end the world.

he cared about Durge when they were fully under their Father's control. he cared about Durge when they come back as an amnesiac. he keeps caring, even if you choose to reject your Father. he tells you you'll never be a servant, that he views you as his sole equal, that now that you have returned to him he wishes you two to rule together as one. and if you reject him or side with him, his fate is the same, and you barely acknowledge when he dies. it just seems so counter to the rest of the game and its messages. i know a lot of content was cut and changed in act 3 and that a lot of people, myself included, felt like the end of the game fell flat compared to the earlier parts, and Gortash's utilization is one of the biggest examples of that.