I don't find her appealing, but I don't hate her enough to rant about it on the internet. She's sort of... meh. Sorry, Shadowheart, my fellow "modern woman."

Also, I'm pretty sure Gale didn't intend to eat an evil piece of shadow magic, and wasn't planning to bring any empires crashing down. He just wanted a nice present for his ex-girlfriend and apparently had no concept that some things might be out of his league.