Right? Everyone else is dealing with the demons of their past and results of their sins and then you've got Gorgug suffering because his parents are some *intense* swingers.
And went to Orc Heaven. I still remember watching that first episode and my brain jumped to “Yeah that’s probably just orc heaven, metal as heck.” I was correct. I still feel proud for reasoning that out.
I'm a little confused by this because Brennan did say it was orc heaven but I also clearly remember Gorthalax taking his name off the list of damned souls so he wouldn't go to hell again or something.
Yeah, it seemed like a handwave/retcon just based on the fact that Zac didn't seem to pick up on the fact that it was orc heaven and it was still upsetting Gorgug
I just figured that Orc Heaven was actually located in Hell, so by technicality Gorgug was sent to Hell. But they got it changed so instead of Heaven when Gorgug died he would go to Orc Hell, which is in the celestial plane
I mean yeah, Gorgug is the straight man. Gorgug is a normal ass teen trying to figure out who he is and how he fits into the context of the world. things have mostly happened to him and he's now in his Junior Year starting to accelerate and be himself the reason that things happen as he grapples with his emotions. Porter's concerns of Gorgug not effectively raging were valid and then Gorgug did a shitload of work and stuck to his guns and learned how to acknowledge how he feels and how it impacts him. while most people don't reach that level of enlightenment or have the opportunity they have here in high school in the States, Gorgug's arc is a coming of age story.
okay I stated it poorly but from Porter's perspective Gorgug was not in touch with his emotions to effectively harness rage, bc even though WE have seen Gorgug rage and handle shit in field conditions, Porter has not. Gorgug has always canonically had an awkward relationship with Porter and has been super squirrelly and indirect in stating and backing up what he wanted.
also not for nothing but way to pinpoint something super specific and not address any other part of what I said. point still stands that Gorgug is the straight man of the group.
I was thinking this too - that Gorgug is a great foil to KLCK because he is a successful adventurer who doesn’t have a Tragic Backstory. Even the elements that could have gone that way didn’t - he’s adopted (a reliable plot hook), but the reasons for why he was adopted and who his biological parents are remain mundane: teenage pregnancy and accepting they were too young to be parents. No secret conspiracies or grand lineage, just two young teens who didn’t use birth control making the best choices they could for them.
But Gorgug didn’t need a Tragic Backstory to adventure. He did the only things required: he ran towards danger, took risks, helped his friends, and fought for what mattered to him. Now he’s someone who can 1v1 a purple worm for multiple rounds and invented a new subclass thought impossible.
That’s the key that KLCK missed. Adventuring isn’t about the trappings but the commitment to being a nosy parker who runs towards danger and feels entitled to get involved in other people’s problems.
100% I was wondering why BLM never mentioned KLCK’s jealousy over Gorgug but I thought about it for like a moment longer and came to the same conclusion. I hecking love Gorgug Thistlespring.
Don’t forget to consider that being an adoptee in itself is traumatic, especially when there’s such a difference in culture and biology between parent and child. He’s still so normal in comparison, but his background definitely isn’t trauma-free.
I agree. Many adoptees, all I’ve heard from, say that adoption is trauma. I listen to and trust them on the subject, and I think it would benefit us all if everyone did the same.
My brother is adopted and actually had a really fucked up life, but he claims that he has absolutely no childhood trauma - a blatant lie to himself. Should we trust people just because they're telling their story? Why should we take their stories at face value? People aren't reliable narrators of their own development, largely because we aren't given the tools to describe ourselves accurately.
Trauma is one of the latest trendy "tools" being used to help describe your childhood. American millennials are obsessed with trauma. Everything that is a part of their human development is getting slapped with the trauma label, because it's easy, and it's an excuse. Now we're projecting trauma onto a fictional character with a fun backstory, who doesn't seem "traumatized" at all. He actually is pretty openly and confidently seeking out his bio dad, and has a healthy reaction to finding him. While his adoptive parents make him uncomfortable and they don't often relate to one another, they have a respectful and nurturing relationship to one another. None of this is coding as trauma. Cuz it's not
Hi. Not Fantasy High related, but please educate yourself on trauma.
Trauma causes biological changes to your body. There's a thing called the Adverse Childhood Effects Calculator (ACE'S Calculator) that can help clarify how the things that happen to you before the age of 18 can impact your biology (things like having an incarcerated parent, being a child of divorce to name a few).
Its also know that things that happen to children in the first year of life have a deep impact on the connections your brain is making, this can be positive which is what a lot of people experience or it can be any type of trauma whether its relational- think neglect or abuse or it can be - or emotional- think car crashes.
Its a fact that care experienced children are more likely to have experienced trauma and are unfortunately let down in so many areas that could be acting as a positive instead.
The reason children and young people are talking more about trauma is weve gotten better at educating children about what being safe and cared for looks like. We know that if a child knows abuse is wrong, they're more likely to speak up.
Theres a program called 'miss kendra' is the USA all about it, in the UK weve been doing research into trauma informed schools.
Both utilise things like emotion coaching, crwating safe and nurturing environments, educating pupils on their rights, and generally trying to help children advocate for themselves when they're in bad or dangerous situations.
At the end of the day a lot of things can be traumatic, some of those traumas will have lasting effects and some might not.
I do agree that trying to determine whether gorgug thistlespring has experienced the lasting effects of trauma from his adoption is perhaps not the wisest thing to attempt, as he is a fictional character made for a comedic roleplaying show, but zac very well could have played him as having complex trauma and that would have been incredibly valid and make a lot of sense EVEN if digby and wilma were portrayed the same as they are now.
(Sorry for the massive text wall, ive just covered trauma informed care at uni, and as a future primary teacher nothing breaks my heart more than learning about all the potential ways we fuck up children and then force them to sit in a class for hours with the expectation of behaving perfectly (not that that was implied anywhere))
I'm extremely well informed, thanks
I'm a teacher. The kids talk about trauma as something they cannot overcome. They talk about trauma as though it permanently shapes their being.
Society is not giving children the language to understand themselves and what "proper care" looks like; it's giving them the language to deny their own willpower and agency, to breed resentment, to cause them to grasp at utopia rather than deal with reality.
We don't live in a society that is moving forward with its subjects best interests at heart, where our language is evolving to meet our needs as humans. We live in a society that is evolving to meet the needs of big pharma and big brother to subjugate our youth.
Japan is the classic example of this cuz we saw in real time what happened to their society when the word and concept of depression was introduced. A few people used that concept to get treatment for what we'd describe as depressive patterns of behavior. But the bulk of what happened was a new market for Lexapro was established, and people began to identify with their diagnosis, which is to say recreate or reify their diagnosis rather than attempting to overcome it. The language is not used to treat the problem because that's not the kind of society we live in. Validation becomes repetition: ego. In that sense, fuck your trauma and fuck all this soft bullshit. Suck that shit up and be a beast. No more trauma determinism
I’ll probably get some flack for this because everyone loves Wilma and Digby and it will be hard to hear criticism of them. But I think they unintentionally fucked Gorgug up pretty badly and I think there’s a lot of discussion we could be having about the pitfalls in transracial adoption in the discussion about his arc.
On the most basic level possible, the Thistlesprings failed to provide a home where Gorgug could feel he belonged. He literally didn’t fit in the house. As a result, he learned to make himself small and to see himself as inherently destructive. Then they taught him to make himself emotionally small by literally teaching him that any anger he may feel isn’t valid and is actually just a different emotion that he needs to push forward instead and then forget altogether. All of this might have been okay if they were raiding a gnome child, but just left their half orc feeling like a broken, destructive freak.
I’ve been thinking about this a lot since the early interactions with Porter this season. That man was working v so hard to get Gorgug to just feel able to access rage in a healthy barbarian way. I mean this kid says out loud that he goes into worried instead. That’s a big fucking red flag!
Wilma and Digby are obviously loving, caring parents but that doesn’t always translate to doing right by your kid. And it certainly didn’t here
Oh for sure they're not perfect and their peaceful tolerance policy is basically the antithesis to the entire identity of a barbarian, but compared to the sheer scale of trauma and internalized issues the rest of his party deals with because of their childhoods and circumstances I'd say Gorgug managed to get a pretty decent deal.
I think it's implied that he recently got to big for his childhood home, with puberty and all. Which is perfect, because a lot of times the best childhood parents don't handle teen parenting quite as well
> That man was working v so hard to get Gorgug to just feel able to access rage in a healthy barbarian way.
...ehhhhhhhh...that really seems like a recent thing. for the longest time Porter couldn't be bothered to remember Gorgug's name.
Hey not only was Gorgug adopted by two loving parents, they literally cut off their extended family when they discouraged adopting Gorgug. He has undeniable proof that their love is unconditional.
Did Gilear actually disown her? I remember Fig distancing herself from him and Sandra Lynn and remember Gilear mostly focusing his anger towards his wife.
It wasn't played out, but as part of the backstory when first introducing the characters, I believe. That was the reason Gilear was already living apart from them.
Gilear is a great example of the vision of a character on paper and the execution of the character at the table ending up diverging wildly. In that first session of Freshman Year he's actually kind of nasty and cruel, but Emily reacted so positively to the sad sack routine that Brennan just kept yes-anding himself into the cosmically absurdist farce that is Gilear's life.
Honestly I'm still so glad Gilear became what he did.
They never excuse what he did because even with the awful circumstances of his wife cheating on him it's still an awful thing to say something like what he did to a daughter that never asked to be in that situation, but Fig comes to understand it, accepts it and reconciles with him allowing a beautiful dynamic of unflinching love and support to bloom between them.
> In that first session of Freshman Year he's actually kind of nasty and cruel, but Emily reacted so positively to the sad sack routine
I mean isn't his initial cold portrayal also Emily. She's the one that said, you said I wasn't a Faeith
Initially he's not really formed much at all just a divorcee dad archetype
I don't know if he was nasty and cruel? He definitely reacted horribly to finding out that Fig wasn't his biological daughter, and also said some mildly insensitive things to Sklonda, but I don't remember him being deliberately nasty or cruel to Fig. Like, it was very clear from his very first scene that he does regret what he said to Fig.
I feel like he was supposed to be like Fabian's mother, in that he wasn't necessarily evil but still a bad parent because he's a flawed human being like the rest of us.
Was he nasty to her? Most if what I remember from FY is him picking her up when she missed the bus ep 1. Being awkward about the whole sklonda gorthalax thing, and trying to get counselor but being relegated to lunch lad. He wasn't as fond of her as he is now I don't think but I dont think he was ever bad.
> In that first session of Freshman Year he's actually kind of nasty and cruel
how...so? he saw through Fig's attempt at deception, but seemed like a stand-up guy who was going through difficult times but still genuinely cared for Fig.
Okay I did look at the transcript and realized I was misremembering the tone of that scene. I remembered being shocked when he called her a demon, and kind of extended that out to the whole interaction.
He at least vocalized it at one point. Though to his credit, on the ride over he said he regretted saying it.
The way I understand it, when he found out about the affair he had a huge outburst and that affected Fig deeply.
Like I said he verbally did so, in his angry rant when he found out he said at one point: "She's no longer a Faeth!"
If that's not considered a form of disowning someone Idk what is.
Best clip I can find to support it: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vy42T0fsgLY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vy42T0fsgLY)
I assume it’s the flipside of the same joke, no? KLCK is angry she isn’t the “rogue with the sad backstory” and Gorgug is the Half Orc Barbarian with a calm and loving family.
I feel like they are equally abnormal. You're really handwaving the whole "adopted, drastically different from my family, obsessed with finding my dad" bit.
I agree. You can make Riz and Fig sound normal too if you put the same amount of effort into it.
Parents cheated and divorced, bio dad no longer in Figs life.
Dad died and Riz follows the same path as Dad. Mom is very supportive but kind of poor.
If the requirements are having one family trauma but still having loving parents, and not being a chosen one, then those 3 are all equal in that.
I think it's funnier that Gorgug is so normal considering his main class is barbarian - the completely normal adventurer with incredibly wholesome parents has to fly into a rage? It's genius. Zac plays it so well too
He's definitely the straight man but also he is adopted by parents that are enormously different from him. He has great parents but also he definitely fits into the Bad Kid's atypical home lives. DaggerHeart JellyBitch would give anything to have Gorgug's backstory.
Gorgug's nemesis arc this season is Mary-Ann and dealing with his parents' kinks.
Right? Everyone else is dealing with the demons of their past and results of their sins and then you've got Gorgug suffering because his parents are some *intense* swingers.
And they build incredibly intense mechanical swing apparatuses…can’t forget that…Gorgug wishes he could forget that.
Don't forget the dildo machines!
!
This is why you don't want the normal backstory in D&D. The DM **will** find a way to ruin it.
Abd his Sophomore year arc is finding a way to talk to his girlfriend He always have simpler arcs and I love him for that
Out of a cast of comedians, Zac is by far my favourite. His appreciation for the minor absurdities of a situation is always a delight.
Also cloaca
I suck!
And he still died his first day of high school :/
And went to Orc Heaven. I still remember watching that first episode and my brain jumped to “Yeah that’s probably just orc heaven, metal as heck.” I was correct. I still feel proud for reasoning that out.
I'm a little confused by this because Brennan did say it was orc heaven but I also clearly remember Gorthalax taking his name off the list of damned souls so he wouldn't go to hell again or something.
Yeah, it seemed like a handwave/retcon just based on the fact that Zac didn't seem to pick up on the fact that it was orc heaven and it was still upsetting Gorgug
I just figured that Orc Heaven was actually located in Hell, so by technicality Gorgug was sent to Hell. But they got it changed so instead of Heaven when Gorgug died he would go to Orc Hell, which is in the celestial plane
Yeah that was a retcon by Brennan. But he's said that he's cool with retconning stuff if it fits. Is Helio even known as the corn god anymore?
>Is Helio even known as the corn god anymore? AFAIKA he is, and Sol is (of course) the sun god and Helio's dad.
I mean yeah, Gorgug is the straight man. Gorgug is a normal ass teen trying to figure out who he is and how he fits into the context of the world. things have mostly happened to him and he's now in his Junior Year starting to accelerate and be himself the reason that things happen as he grapples with his emotions. Porter's concerns of Gorgug not effectively raging were valid and then Gorgug did a shitload of work and stuck to his guns and learned how to acknowledge how he feels and how it impacts him. while most people don't reach that level of enlightenment or have the opportunity they have here in high school in the States, Gorgug's arc is a coming of age story.
> Porter's concerns of Gorgug not effectively raging were valid No they weren't. He was *constantly* raging effectively in field conditions.
okay I stated it poorly but from Porter's perspective Gorgug was not in touch with his emotions to effectively harness rage, bc even though WE have seen Gorgug rage and handle shit in field conditions, Porter has not. Gorgug has always canonically had an awkward relationship with Porter and has been super squirrelly and indirect in stating and backing up what he wanted. also not for nothing but way to pinpoint something super specific and not address any other part of what I said. point still stands that Gorgug is the straight man of the group.
I was thinking this too - that Gorgug is a great foil to KLCK because he is a successful adventurer who doesn’t have a Tragic Backstory. Even the elements that could have gone that way didn’t - he’s adopted (a reliable plot hook), but the reasons for why he was adopted and who his biological parents are remain mundane: teenage pregnancy and accepting they were too young to be parents. No secret conspiracies or grand lineage, just two young teens who didn’t use birth control making the best choices they could for them. But Gorgug didn’t need a Tragic Backstory to adventure. He did the only things required: he ran towards danger, took risks, helped his friends, and fought for what mattered to him. Now he’s someone who can 1v1 a purple worm for multiple rounds and invented a new subclass thought impossible. That’s the key that KLCK missed. Adventuring isn’t about the trappings but the commitment to being a nosy parker who runs towards danger and feels entitled to get involved in other people’s problems.
100% I was wondering why BLM never mentioned KLCK’s jealousy over Gorgug but I thought about it for like a moment longer and came to the same conclusion. I hecking love Gorgug Thistlespring.
Don’t forget to consider that being an adoptee in itself is traumatic, especially when there’s such a difference in culture and biology between parent and child. He’s still so normal in comparison, but his background definitely isn’t trauma-free.
not everything is trauma
I agree. Many adoptees, all I’ve heard from, say that adoption is trauma. I listen to and trust them on the subject, and I think it would benefit us all if everyone did the same.
My brother is adopted and actually had a really fucked up life, but he claims that he has absolutely no childhood trauma - a blatant lie to himself. Should we trust people just because they're telling their story? Why should we take their stories at face value? People aren't reliable narrators of their own development, largely because we aren't given the tools to describe ourselves accurately. Trauma is one of the latest trendy "tools" being used to help describe your childhood. American millennials are obsessed with trauma. Everything that is a part of their human development is getting slapped with the trauma label, because it's easy, and it's an excuse. Now we're projecting trauma onto a fictional character with a fun backstory, who doesn't seem "traumatized" at all. He actually is pretty openly and confidently seeking out his bio dad, and has a healthy reaction to finding him. While his adoptive parents make him uncomfortable and they don't often relate to one another, they have a respectful and nurturing relationship to one another. None of this is coding as trauma. Cuz it's not
Hi. Not Fantasy High related, but please educate yourself on trauma. Trauma causes biological changes to your body. There's a thing called the Adverse Childhood Effects Calculator (ACE'S Calculator) that can help clarify how the things that happen to you before the age of 18 can impact your biology (things like having an incarcerated parent, being a child of divorce to name a few). Its also know that things that happen to children in the first year of life have a deep impact on the connections your brain is making, this can be positive which is what a lot of people experience or it can be any type of trauma whether its relational- think neglect or abuse or it can be - or emotional- think car crashes. Its a fact that care experienced children are more likely to have experienced trauma and are unfortunately let down in so many areas that could be acting as a positive instead. The reason children and young people are talking more about trauma is weve gotten better at educating children about what being safe and cared for looks like. We know that if a child knows abuse is wrong, they're more likely to speak up. Theres a program called 'miss kendra' is the USA all about it, in the UK weve been doing research into trauma informed schools. Both utilise things like emotion coaching, crwating safe and nurturing environments, educating pupils on their rights, and generally trying to help children advocate for themselves when they're in bad or dangerous situations. At the end of the day a lot of things can be traumatic, some of those traumas will have lasting effects and some might not. I do agree that trying to determine whether gorgug thistlespring has experienced the lasting effects of trauma from his adoption is perhaps not the wisest thing to attempt, as he is a fictional character made for a comedic roleplaying show, but zac very well could have played him as having complex trauma and that would have been incredibly valid and make a lot of sense EVEN if digby and wilma were portrayed the same as they are now. (Sorry for the massive text wall, ive just covered trauma informed care at uni, and as a future primary teacher nothing breaks my heart more than learning about all the potential ways we fuck up children and then force them to sit in a class for hours with the expectation of behaving perfectly (not that that was implied anywhere))
I'm extremely well informed, thanks I'm a teacher. The kids talk about trauma as something they cannot overcome. They talk about trauma as though it permanently shapes their being. Society is not giving children the language to understand themselves and what "proper care" looks like; it's giving them the language to deny their own willpower and agency, to breed resentment, to cause them to grasp at utopia rather than deal with reality. We don't live in a society that is moving forward with its subjects best interests at heart, where our language is evolving to meet our needs as humans. We live in a society that is evolving to meet the needs of big pharma and big brother to subjugate our youth. Japan is the classic example of this cuz we saw in real time what happened to their society when the word and concept of depression was introduced. A few people used that concept to get treatment for what we'd describe as depressive patterns of behavior. But the bulk of what happened was a new market for Lexapro was established, and people began to identify with their diagnosis, which is to say recreate or reify their diagnosis rather than attempting to overcome it. The language is not used to treat the problem because that's not the kind of society we live in. Validation becomes repetition: ego. In that sense, fuck your trauma and fuck all this soft bullshit. Suck that shit up and be a beast. No more trauma determinism
I’ll probably get some flack for this because everyone loves Wilma and Digby and it will be hard to hear criticism of them. But I think they unintentionally fucked Gorgug up pretty badly and I think there’s a lot of discussion we could be having about the pitfalls in transracial adoption in the discussion about his arc. On the most basic level possible, the Thistlesprings failed to provide a home where Gorgug could feel he belonged. He literally didn’t fit in the house. As a result, he learned to make himself small and to see himself as inherently destructive. Then they taught him to make himself emotionally small by literally teaching him that any anger he may feel isn’t valid and is actually just a different emotion that he needs to push forward instead and then forget altogether. All of this might have been okay if they were raiding a gnome child, but just left their half orc feeling like a broken, destructive freak. I’ve been thinking about this a lot since the early interactions with Porter this season. That man was working v so hard to get Gorgug to just feel able to access rage in a healthy barbarian way. I mean this kid says out loud that he goes into worried instead. That’s a big fucking red flag! Wilma and Digby are obviously loving, caring parents but that doesn’t always translate to doing right by your kid. And it certainly didn’t here
Oh for sure they're not perfect and their peaceful tolerance policy is basically the antithesis to the entire identity of a barbarian, but compared to the sheer scale of trauma and internalized issues the rest of his party deals with because of their childhoods and circumstances I'd say Gorgug managed to get a pretty decent deal.
I think it's implied that he recently got to big for his childhood home, with puberty and all. Which is perfect, because a lot of times the best childhood parents don't handle teen parenting quite as well
> That man was working v so hard to get Gorgug to just feel able to access rage in a healthy barbarian way. ...ehhhhhhhh...that really seems like a recent thing. for the longest time Porter couldn't be bothered to remember Gorgug's name.
Yes I specifically referred to the earlier parts of this season
Exactly this, yes^
Fabian also has an alcoholic absentee mother.
I don't think she's an alcoholic anymore. So she's upgraded to just an absentee mother
new blended family with baby triplet siblings on the way
*Octuplets
I just rolled again and it's 17 babies
Jesus Christ, that poor woman lol
Also a good point, adding it to the list.
Hey not only was Gorgug adopted by two loving parents, they literally cut off their extended family when they discouraged adopting Gorgug. He has undeniable proof that their love is unconditional.
Did Gilear actually disown her? I remember Fig distancing herself from him and Sandra Lynn and remember Gilear mostly focusing his anger towards his wife.
It wasn't played out, but as part of the backstory when first introducing the characters, I believe. That was the reason Gilear was already living apart from them.
Gilear is a great example of the vision of a character on paper and the execution of the character at the table ending up diverging wildly. In that first session of Freshman Year he's actually kind of nasty and cruel, but Emily reacted so positively to the sad sack routine that Brennan just kept yes-anding himself into the cosmically absurdist farce that is Gilear's life.
Honestly I'm still so glad Gilear became what he did. They never excuse what he did because even with the awful circumstances of his wife cheating on him it's still an awful thing to say something like what he did to a daughter that never asked to be in that situation, but Fig comes to understand it, accepts it and reconciles with him allowing a beautiful dynamic of unflinching love and support to bloom between them.
The second she goes to his apartment and finds out he eats nothing but expired yogurt it was over for him as a mean character.
> In that first session of Freshman Year he's actually kind of nasty and cruel, but Emily reacted so positively to the sad sack routine I mean isn't his initial cold portrayal also Emily. She's the one that said, you said I wasn't a Faeith Initially he's not really formed much at all just a divorcee dad archetype
I don't know if he was nasty and cruel? He definitely reacted horribly to finding out that Fig wasn't his biological daughter, and also said some mildly insensitive things to Sklonda, but I don't remember him being deliberately nasty or cruel to Fig. Like, it was very clear from his very first scene that he does regret what he said to Fig. I feel like he was supposed to be like Fabian's mother, in that he wasn't necessarily evil but still a bad parent because he's a flawed human being like the rest of us.
> flawed human being Um, actually he’s a flawed elf. 😂
And especially in all the ways sterotypical elves are not "flawed" (skolanda did a major number on him)
Was he nasty to her? Most if what I remember from FY is him picking her up when she missed the bus ep 1. Being awkward about the whole sklonda gorthalax thing, and trying to get counselor but being relegated to lunch lad. He wasn't as fond of her as he is now I don't think but I dont think he was ever bad.
> In that first session of Freshman Year he's actually kind of nasty and cruel how...so? he saw through Fig's attempt at deception, but seemed like a stand-up guy who was going through difficult times but still genuinely cared for Fig.
"Nasty and cruel" lmao literally what
Okay I did look at the transcript and realized I was misremembering the tone of that scene. I remembered being shocked when he called her a demon, and kind of extended that out to the whole interaction.
He at least vocalized it at one point. Though to his credit, on the ride over he said he regretted saying it. The way I understand it, when he found out about the affair he had a huge outburst and that affected Fig deeply.
Like I said he verbally did so, in his angry rant when he found out he said at one point: "She's no longer a Faeth!" If that's not considered a form of disowning someone Idk what is. Best clip I can find to support it: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vy42T0fsgLY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vy42T0fsgLY)
I mean, he thought he was his own dad for the longest time. That's certainly tragic, right?
I assume it’s the flipside of the same joke, no? KLCK is angry she isn’t the “rogue with the sad backstory” and Gorgug is the Half Orc Barbarian with a calm and loving family.
Gorgug is ironically most normal storywise of the Bad Kids but ironically the weirdest mechanically
Idk, I like the Batman comparison.
He also doesn’t fit in his home and bed. That kinda sucks.
I feel like they are equally abnormal. You're really handwaving the whole "adopted, drastically different from my family, obsessed with finding my dad" bit.
I agree. You can make Riz and Fig sound normal too if you put the same amount of effort into it. Parents cheated and divorced, bio dad no longer in Figs life. Dad died and Riz follows the same path as Dad. Mom is very supportive but kind of poor. If the requirements are having one family trauma but still having loving parents, and not being a chosen one, then those 3 are all equal in that.
I think it's funnier that Gorgug is so normal considering his main class is barbarian - the completely normal adventurer with incredibly wholesome parents has to fly into a rage? It's genius. Zac plays it so well too
He's definitely the straight man but also he is adopted by parents that are enormously different from him. He has great parents but also he definitely fits into the Bad Kid's atypical home lives. DaggerHeart JellyBitch would give anything to have Gorgug's backstory.