bearhalsin - Tumblr blog

[bearhalsin]

Ok now do NYT columnists

[bearhalsin]

You guys just have to trust me on this one and click here okay?

[bearhalsin]

oh fuck this is a really good hill i gotta die on this

[bearhalsin]

I have to detransition and go completely back in the closet or risk rather serious physical injury and homelessness...fun

[bearhalsin]

This mans got me in a chokehold ahahahaaa 🫠

don't tell him I said that

[bearhalsin]

do you ever say something and then think "wow this isnt even a bit. im just like this"

[bearhalsin]

[bearhalsin]

Durge: I killed Orin

Gortash: You are so precious & perfect, lethal, ferocious etc... your father must be proud of u, my dear vicious murderer 💖💖💖

Durge: Actually I refused my father and now I am free of his influence

Gortash: *Without missing a beat* Wow you are literally so powerful, good 4 u babe, we can still rule side by side, & with me you won't need to bow down to any master 💘💘💘 also kiss me on the mouth maybe?

[bearhalsin]

Did I create this whole thing because of one throw away line in a letter?

Yes, yes I did. I'm sorry and I'll show myself out.

(I just imagine it's something they constantly tell each other when proven right. Also ignore my Durge's bad outfit. I wanted to give him plain clothes because I think Durge only wears the most practical plain shit you ever saw especially compared to Gortash who dresses well..."fashionable" is a word I guess, so I tried drawing a modified sorcerers outfit but maybe it has gone a bit too boring)

[bearhalsin]

The art of seducing a Bhaalspawn.

[bearhalsin]

Gortash: You blood-obsessed knife-wielding twat!

Durge: You self-centered wannabe tyrant!

Gortash: You wouldn’t know class if it hit you over the head!

Durge: You wouldn’t know romance if it stabbed you in the chest!

Gortash: Wait… Romance?

Durge: Yeah, stabbing is how I flirt

Gortash: But you’ve stabbed me in the chest before

Durge: Uh-huh :3

Gortash: Oh :3

[bearhalsin]

Love how everything Bhaalist is so evil. The evil Tribunal, the evil chamber, the evil storefront. Durge wakes up from their evil bed and has evil breakfast prepared by their evil butler before donning their evil cloak and going out to do evil things.

[bearhalsin]

This has been in my mind since August but I couldn't figure out which character would say it. Then I started a Karlach Origin run and realized: Karlach. Karlach has a face that knows what The Grinch is.

[bearhalsin]

i love this guy and his crazy ornamental outfit

[bearhalsin]

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.

[bearhalsin]

he’s like a wet dog to me

[bearhalsin]

i don't know why they are this to me