But I haven't seen "Gale Approves" type messages if he isn't in the party.
Wich is really weird, if that is true. :-/
I believe you can make it happen in your initial conversation with Zevlor. And I also believe it still happens (as of patch 9) when you stand in front of Arka's crossbow.
But it's obviously just a lingering issue from earlier patches. Back in the day, like circa patch 4, the companions would weigh in their approval/disapproval everywhere you went, whether they were in camp or not. It was discussed here on the forum a bit, and folks often pointed to the tadpole as the reason why, suggesting that even though they weren't there, they were picking up on what was happening via a tadpole mental link. Which was also how you knew they approved or didn't approve.
