Originally Posted by Dez
So, regarding that Gale might not just be a bit more of a douchebag, but might actually be directly sinister / evil (Major spoilers ahead, do not read if you don't want to know potentially data-mined information):

I am not able to retrieve the entire discussion, since it was so long ago that the forum seems to have put them in the archive (or trashed it completely) - so bear with me as I am trying to recall the most important parts with my extremely non-viable memory. If someone sees anything faulty in my text, please do not hesitate to correct me. I am trying my best to verify the information externally, but I am going mostly on memory here.

Basically, the discussion summed up the fact that there is definitely beyond a doubt at least something EXTREMELY fishy about Gale. Why? The most obvious reason is the fact that Gale is the only person that we do not directly link ourselves with through the tadpole. He says he has one, but unlike all other companions (and other affected parts) - we do not actually touch his memory, as we do with *ALL* other tadpole'd people. This alone is *extremely* suspicious.

Other than that we have the fact that his former lover is not just a demon (looking at you, Wyll) - but an actual *GODDESS*, and not just *A* goddess, but a *GREATER DEITY* (according to the Forgotten Realms wiki). This is absurdly huge, assuming Gale isn't straight up lying to our face. If Gale truly was Mystras lover, then he should be not just on par with her chosen (who are insanely powerful, as expected by a greater deity's chosen) - but he would actually have to be *EVEN* greater. And this begs the question - what in the Prime Material plane did Gale do to lose her favor? Mystra is Lawful neutral, according to the wiki. Her chosen holds any kind of alignment from Lawful Evil to Chaotic Good (also accorind to the FR wiki), so Mystra does not seem to be picky about the morals of her followers. What could Gale possibly have done to displease her so severely?

So, we have this absurdly powerful wizard in our party who is as weak as us "regular" heroes. We do know that we're supposed to be "zapped" of our strength due to the tadpole, but Gale would be in an entirely different league of having his power zapped, compared to the rest of us. And while it is very obvious that he actually has been stripped off a great deal of power (hence his level and available spells) - we cannot even properly confirm that he has a tadpole. We do have some ways of accessing his mind through the tadpole, which causes interactions similar to those we gain from interacting with other people with a tadpole - but this is far from definite proof, imo. All in all, everything regarding the tadpole seems to afflict Gale differently than anybody else that we know of. From the initial interaction to the power-level decrease.

And finally, regarding Gale not being in the "good" alignment spectrum, hit YouTube and check what happens if you do not feed Gale with artifacts. All that talk about not wanting to put people at risk for his own sake? Yaaaah, about that... Whatever he did was NOT very good-natured. Whenever he is a selfish prick is not up for debate, in my opinion, any longer - he is most certainly a selfish and greedy type. And that, on top of everything else, makes me believe he most certainly might be sinister or directly evil on top of that.

All this said, I think Gale is an EXTREMELY interesting character, as he is far from obvious. I will definitely bring him along for at least one playthrough just to see his character development and his story. So far, he might be the most interesting companion in our party - however, I'll say that I am more than pleasantly surprised by the work Larian has put into our current companions. Can't wait to see the final work!

The thing is, he does tell us what he did to end up where he is now:
Gale pulled a very dangerous, volatile piece of primal weave back into the Prime Material plane. If you recall Gale's retelling of Karsus' Folly, you can see the parallels. Karsus tried to usurp Mystrl, goddess of magic during the reign of the Netherese Empire. He crafted a spell that would allow him to exchange places with Mystrl and in his attempt, caused the Weave to unravel and magic along with it. Mystrl sacrificed herself in order to save the Weave, but the damage was already done. The Netherese Empire, that which remained in the Prime Material plane, came, quite literally, crashing down. It was the use of such magic that endangered not only Mystrl but the magic as a whole, bringing about destruction likely not seen in eons. When Mystrl was reborn as Mystra, she rewove the Weave so magic on that scale could never be cast ever again. Gale, struck by his infatuation with Mystra when she wouldn't visit him anymore, tried to tame a piece of the very same magic that escaped Mystra's influence by being in the Astral Plane. Gale tried to wield magic that Karsus did, which, as you could imagine, would be very alarming to the goddess of magic given what happened all those millennia ago. Mystra, by abandoning Gale, sought to nullify this loophole by taking away Gale's ability to cast magic like he once could. Gale, in my mind, is right to call his actions "Gale's Folly", recognizing the parallels between himself and Karsus (I do recommend reading about Karsus' Folly on the FR Wiki. It's a good read imho). Chosen or not, if they seek to damage the Weave or herself, Mystra will not hesitate to cut them off. I don't think Gale is evil by any stretch. In his youth, he wrongly assumed that a greater deity truly loved him and when he learned the truth, he (in his youth) could not accept that and did something immensely stupid, causing Mystra to abandon him entirely and effectively giving himself a death sentence.

And to quibble about the artifacts: you need only give him two artifacts and he will feel like the orb is satiated for now. If you think about his situation and, if your life and the lives of others were threatened by the actions (or lack thereof) of another, your back is against the wall, what would you do? You do something desperate in order to prevent something worse from happening, even if that means dealing with a devil. I would question whether or not we are the evil ones for driving Gale to such an end if that is to occur. That isn't evil, he is desperate. If you go the evil route and slaughter everyone in the Druid grove, Gale will feel sick and vile for committing such actions and will leave unless you convince him otherwise. If he were evil, then he might be upset for causing unnecessary bloodshed or sticking our noses in matters but he isn't. He is livid at himself for following you and furious at you.