Hey, someone made me a Gale thread, so I don't have to seize other thread's to talk about Gale! =)
First of all, I don't think blowing himself up is his "real" ending, they write about that it feels like a "right" ending. And while I would never do this to Gale, I agree. Having him sacrifice himself in Act 3 is a very poetic ending. He got the orb as a failed labour of love but ultimately for selfish reasons. In Act 2 he is not prepared to sacrifice himself for his goddess - and it would have horrible consequences if he did. When he offers to blow himself up for the group/ Tav in Act 3, he does it so nobody has to loose their soul, the consequence of becoming a mindflayer. Motivated by his care for others he uses the curse of his own ambition to take out both the symbol of unbridled human ambition, the crown of Karsus, and the ultimate creature of domination, the Elderbrain. And he does it in a fairly humble manner. It is very poetic.
I also don't really like it because allowing him to blow himself up despite knowing that he still thinks the world would be better off without him, is kind of like making Astarion drink from Araj to get the potion. It allows them to play into their worst opinions of themselves.
Z'rell is not a nice character and judging from her "gift" she is very much into domination and power-play. Of course she calls Gale pathetic because Gale is sweet (and a fair bit depressed in that moment) in her eyes that is probably pathetic. If you distract her with thoughts of Astarion, she'll basically gush over what a juicy piece of elf he is and talk about him as if he was some kind of pleasure toy. I think her comments are meant to be cruel, both towards the character who gets objectified and the PC who probably cares about their romantic partner.
I think much of Gale bashing comes from this stupid concept of talking badly about the character who is the direct "competition" of one's favourite. I don't know why, but apparently that's a thing and dear Astarion has some very enthusiastic fans - to put it mildly. Personally, I like them both and think that if you romance them with each other, you get the best story out of it.
Also I get most out of Gale's story when I don't take it quite so literally. He is in love with Mystra yes, but mostly he is in love with magic, with his craft and the obsession with it brought him to ruin. Read this way, it becomes a story about work-life balance and - much as in Astarion's case - about the necessity to connect with others. But that is a reading that requires some thought, while Astarion's story is a very literal abuse story. Gale also hides much of his pain very cleverly behind humour or his very matter-of-fact attitude, which makes it maybe harder to detect it. For example all cases in which his projection appears are hilarious but if you take a step back and think about them, they are all quite tragic.
P.S. I always have to laugh when people complain about the items he eats. They clearly haven't played his Origin, otherwise they'd know what real pain looks like. My beautiful, beautiful Ring of Evasion. ^^
Last edited by Anska; 16/12/23 08:37 PM.
